Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

Dust floated in lazy spirals with every step the trio took through the 23rd sublevel hub. The only sounds that echoed now were the soft crunch of boots on loose gravel, the steady flap of Tim's wings, the crackle of fire casting light across the wreckage – and the occasional clinking of Archie rummaging through tipped-over minecarts and shattered storage containers, slipping silicon chunks and other ores into his second Spatial Ring whenever he thought the camcorder wasn't pointed his way.

He wasn't subtle at all. Not even a little.

Tim, hovering a few meters behind Aoife, let out a low chuckle and a huff of flame from his nostrils – both a little amused and a little exasperated at Archie's actions.

"You're gonna sink into the floor under, even with Aoife's reinforcement of the sublevel with all that stuff you're taking away, you hoarder," Tim called out toward Archie without even trying to hide his grin.

Archie only had a soft smile begin to grow on his face, not looking back. Another crack echoed through the tunnel as he tore a chunk of coal from the ceiling and slipped it into his second Spatial Ring's storage.

His first ring, the one on his right hand, was reserved for "emergency supplies" and as a cover-up storage to justify him using a spatial storage in public, while the Livingwood Propagator was kept separate from the ores. It was a small system he set up to remind himself to refine the materials before tossing them into the bottomless pit that was the Propagator's storage.

'Spatial Storage prevents the weight of the items within from having an effect on the weight of the item,' Archie wrote cheekily as the message appeared in front of Tim.

Tim shook his head and zipped up to Aoife, who knelt beside one of the dead, corrupted miners. She was carefully prying a small, cracked pickaxe pendant from the corpse's rotten and shard-covered neck, brushing off the grime atop it gently before slipping it into her Pouch of Holding.

"Hey," Tim said, wings fluttering to keep pace with her as she moved to the next body. "I've been meaning to ask – why are you collecting those pendants? You've been collecting them from every miner ever since we arrived at the ruined camp above."

"You're not like him," he jerked his clawed thumb toward Archie, who at this point was half-buried inside a minecart, with only his Plated Minotaur Hide Leggings of Resilience and Reinforced Deepiron Thornback Boots sticking out. "You don't seem like the type to snatch everything that isn't nailed down."

Aoife reached into the collar of her shirt and pulled out a similar-looking pendant, but unlike the Deepiron pendants that belonged to the Savoris Mining Team, hers looked to be made out of copper.

"They aren't just trinkets," she said quietly. "Every miner wears one just in case we end up in a cave-in and our bodies need to be identified, so that their families could be informed and receive their death compensation."

"While I don't know what it's like to have a family," she said softly as she pulled out the pendant that belonged to the dead corrupted miner beside her and unlinked her own necklace from her cybernetic neck socket, and linked the pendant of the dead miner and activated it.

Upon Aoife's injection of mana into the handle of the pickaxe, a screen appeared before them.

Miner's Pendant (Common):
Jim Kjth'l, Savoris Miner for 147 years. Delves Completed: 53655. Total Earned for Compensation: 2 WG, 4 G, 34 S, 12 C. Current Status: Dead.
Return to the nearest Savoris Mining Branch for completion of service.

"I am happy to say that I have friends, and I would hope that in my death, I would still be of help to them," she said softly, her eyes lingering on the miner's name before she unlinked the pendant from her cybernetic neck socket and linked hers back on.

Tim was silent for a moment, the weight of her words settling between them. His small claws fidgeted against each other as he hovered beside her. "I –"

In the background, there was a CRASH followed by a muffled yelp as Archie wrestled free a large slab of coal twice the size of his torso from between a set of rusted-over steel beams and began to stuff it into his spatial storage.

Aoife glanced over, lips twitching upward into a rare, small smile.

Tim and Aoife exchanged a look, both rolling their eyes, but neither could completely hide their small, fond grins.

"What did you do now?" Tim chuckled, moving towards Archie, who stood in front of one of the closed-off tunnels, barricaded with rusted-over steel beams.

'Well, I was grabbing some coal for later, cause I want to see if I can make stuff with it, since as fuel it's basically useless for me at least,' Archie signed, wiping the coal dust from off his face, and unintentionally smearing it even more.

'But when I pulled it out, I accidentally yanked one of the beams attached to it,' Archie signed, stepping over the fallen steel and approaching the now-gaping crack in the barricade.

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As he neared the opening, his steps slowed.

The hell is that? he thought, narrowing his eyes toward a faint, blinking neon green light at the far end of the tunnel. Is that a...? His heart skipped. No fucking way.

Without hesitation, Archie grabbed the two nearest steel beams framing the fallen section. His fingers dug into the rusted steel, muscles slightly tensing under his armor as he bent them apart with ease.

Another clang echoed through the sublevel as the beams crashed to the ground, sending up a fresh cloud of dust and loose pebbles.

Aoife, a short distance behind, only sighed at the commotion, the dust ghosting around her Scutum shield as she braced herself.

With a final wrenching pull, Archie tore away the last bent bars, revealing the full extent of the closed-off tunnel.

He let out a loud whoop of excitement and sprinted down the newly revealed path, his Perception stat high enough to pierce the pitch-blackness without even slowing.

"How does he have a higher Perception than me?" Tim grumbled, conjuring a small tuft of flame between his claws. He flicked it forward, the ball of fire floating ahead to light his path. "I'm the mage here."

As Tim trailed after him, he caught sight of the wreckage strewn along the tunnel: overturned minecarts spilling with ore, torn-up rails, broken and empty oil lanterns dangling from the ceiling.

By the time he caught up, hovering a few meters behind, Archie had already heaved one of the heavier-built minecarts upright from where it had lain against the tunnel wall and slammed it down onto the intact section of the tracks with a heavy clang.

"What's this?" Tim asked, flicking a glance between Archie and the battered minecart.

'Go a bit further down the tunnel and you'll see,' Archie signed with a wide grin, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. His eyes alight with excitement.

Frowning, Tim zipped forward cautiously, looking over his shoulder. "You ain't gonna try and push me, are ya?"

'Just go and look,' Archie signed, rolling his eyes as he began to dust off the minecart.

As he reached the end of the tunnel and his flames lit up his surroundings, his jaw dropped.

Stretching out into the darkness was a winding, spiraling network of rails just above a large gaping chasm – a rollercoaster-like mana transit system, with steep drops, twisting turns, and massive stone arches reinforcing the track. At the far end, a single blinking neon green pulsing sign atop one of the overhanging pillars just before a tunnel section – barely readable, but clear enough:

[Destination: Head Miner's Quarters – 42nd Sublevel Hub – Thirteen Kilometers below the surface]

Tim gawked, wings pausing mid-flap.

"That… this is insane," he breathed. "It's like... like a rollercoaster to hell."

Behind him, Archie just chuckled, dusting his hands off as he inspected the half-upright minecart he had set on the track.

Tim zipped forward in a flash of orange-gold light, flaring his wings dramatically before planting himself firmly atop the front seat.

"Driver's seat's mine!" Tim chirped, planting his clawed feet on the edges like a proud king surveying his new throne. "And Aoife gets shotgun!"

Archie blinked, straightening slowly. '...Bro,' he signed flatly, 'You have wings. You don't even need a seat. Besides, neither of us knows how to operate this; Aoife is driving.'

Also, is dibs just a multiversal thing? Archie asked himself.

Tim only grinned wider, draping himself theatrically over the steering mechanism. "Missed the dibs call. Thems the rules."

Aoife arched a brow at both of them, watching the exchange with thinly veiled amusement – and a little pity for Archie, who looked two seconds away from kicking the cart over.

'You're literally made for flying,' Archie signed, his eyes shining with disbelief. 'The cart only fits two people, at most.'

"Too bad," Tim sang out, tapping the front lever of the minecart with the tip of his tail, a smug grin plastered across his snout. "You snooze; you lose. You wouldn't dare break the most sacred laws of the Multiverse, would you?"

Archie let out a long, dramatic groan of pure annoyance, scrubbing a hand down his face, smearing the coal dust even more, before turning away from the smug little dragon.

Why was I slow to call dibs… he thought to himself, shoulders slumping in exaggerated defeat. I am a failure.

Tim giggled mischievously and leaned back lazily, kicking his legs over the edge.

Archie stalked toward the other toppled minecarts littered along the wrecked tunnel. Some were bent almost in half, others were missing wheels or were half-buried in collapsed dirt and rock.

Aoife, who had been quietly inspecting the rails a little ways back, threw a glance over her shoulder at Archie's sulking form, her mouth forming into a small grin. "He's going to lord this over you the entire ride down."

Archie just grunted, already eyeing a mostly intact cart wedged halfway into a wall. 'I lost dibs,' he signed stubbornly. 'Worse case, I just run on the rails after you two.'

With a grunt, Archie wedged his fingers under the edge of the half-buried minecart. The metal groaned in protest, but little by little, he forced it upright, shaking loose chunks of dirt, stone, and ore.

"A little more elbow grease, champ!" Tim teased from his throne, lounging dramatically in his chosen cart as if he were royalty awaiting his subjects.

Archie, ignoring him with the grace of a man accustomed to tolerating tiny dragons, finally wrenched the minecart free with a metallic shriek. It slammed onto the cracked rails with a shudder that vibrated the rails.

He gave the cart a quick once-over. Bent? Yeah. Missing a few bolts? He could weld them together. But it looked like it could hold his weight for at least a short trip – and if not, well... he could hold it together if needed.

Meanwhile, Aoife had moved toward the control pedestal at the head of the track, brushing aside clumps of fallen dirt to reveal a set of buttons, each labeled with different sublevel destinations and their locked states.

Flicking up the switches labeled sublevels 25, 26, and 29-42, Aoife deactivated the gates, so they wouldn't have to keep hopping off every sublevel to open the next gate.

But just as he was about to tease Archie once more, Aoife tapped him on the shoulder to move away from the lever so she could get situated. "Push the lever forward to release the brakes, and backward to brake," she informed Archie as he sealed up the last loose panel of the minecart with Forgesmith's Flame.

Archie nodded, shoving his fixed minecart a few feet forward. It let out a wheezing screech as it now properly settled on the tracks. 'I'm ready,' he signed.

Then, much to Aoife's surprise, Tim zipped over to her and immediately yanked the lever in his cart. "Let's Go!"