Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

Chapter 128 – Floor 11: Part 12

The silver wristband on his right arm began to vibrate as soon as Mathew’s feet touched gently on the rough, stone ground of the Nest. Hundreds of other Players had a similar notification come through their bangles, shining a light in the tunnel's darkness.

Objective Updated: Into the Heart of the Enemy

Find the Heart empowering the Anti-Life Nest and seize it for the gods.

Current Location: Unknown. Store and all System Services have been disabled due to corruption of Foreign Mana.

Mathew lowered his wrist and looked at his surroundings. He was at the bottom of the chasm, although the ceiling had multiple overhangs, resulting in the sky being blocked from where he stood. The descent had been treacherous, even with the spell to reduce the speed of his fall.

The bottom of the chasm was relatively flat, with dozens of connections to different tunnels. Each new path led into the darkness and was smaller than Mathew. If he wanted to explore any of the new tunnels, he would need to crouch or crawl on his knees.

The Anti-Life had carved the tunnels, and they hadn’t used any more space than necessary when excavating the passageways. With Mathew’s pack on his back, he would have a tricky time maneuvering once he entered.

“The others will set up base camp here, so make sure you mark your way back as you explore. There are thousands of branching paths, and we don’t want anyone to get lost. Our goal is to scout for the heart, but there won’t be enough of us to strike into this nest, so don’t get excited and run off.” The robed young man said as he directed them to form small groups.

Mathew was assigned a partner, and to his surprise, he recognized the young man. It was the messenger that had come to fetch him a few weeks ago. Wearing armour and with his rifle still strapped to his back, the young man had added a pistol to his hip and a long blade over a foot long placed in a sheathe around his thigh.

“Mathew.” The young man said, nodding in greeting. Before things could get awkward, as Mathew had no idea of the young man’s name, he offered it.

“Allen.” The young man said, and Mathew returned the greeting. Anyone who could survive this long on this Floor against the Anti-Life was an experienced fighter and adventurer. Mathew had no trouble working together with Allen to accomplish their goal.

“Two hours. Mark the paths and map your tunnels. Once the timer is up, we regroup back here. The reinforcements will have set up the camp and will be ready for our information.” Their leader said as he finished directing the groups.

Mathew and Allen were assigned a small tunnel not far from them. From what Mathew could see, the floor of the passage was covered in dust that hadn’t been disturbed for a while. It was low enough that Mathew had to bend nearly horizontally, his knees bent in an awkward fashion.

With his knife in hand, Mathew led the way with Allen close behind.

In only a few minutes, Mathew was huffing. The tunnels were warm, and the dust in the air made him sneeze occasionally. The air was stifled and stagnate, made worse by the pressing weight of the ground above them. The only light was the faint red glow that seemed to originate from sections of the walls themselves, creating an eery atmosphere.

Mathew hated being underground; the few experiences he had with it hadn’t been pleasant, and he doubted that an Anti-Life Nest would be any better. Allen was breathing heavily behind him, only stopping to curse quietly when his backpack snagged on a piece of rock that jutted out from the side, a leftover from the excavation that the Anti-Life hadn’t bothered to remove.

“Little bastards could have done a better job with digging.” Allen muttered as he yanked his bag free.

“Maybe they did it on purpose to piss you off. They’ve been adapting.” Mathew replied quietly as he twisted his body around another rock that protruded from the ceiling. Allen was about to respond when the pair heard noise.

Freezing in place at the sound, Mathew crouched down further and readied his knife. There was a scratching sound from the wall to their right, like a spade digging into the rock and its metal scraping against stone. Occasionally, there would be a sharp crack of falling rock, and then it would fall silent.

Looking at Allen, Mathew raised a finger to his lips to signal silence and then carefully began to move forward as quietly as possible. For hundreds of feet, the pair carefully maneuvered through the tunnel, the sound from the walls rising and falling.

But no matter how far they went, there were no branching paths nor signs of a new tunnel forming. Eventually, they came to a new path that led to their right while the main tunnel continued forward.

“Should we split up?” Allen whispered almost silently, and Mathew shook his head.

“We’ll follow the main path and make a note of the branch and the noise. I don’t want to fight the Anti-Life in this tunnel if we can help it.” Mathew remarked, and Allen nodded. Raising his knife, Mathew marked a rough arrow that pointed toward the tunnel they followed so that anyone coming behind them would know.

While Mathew worked, Allen looked at the timer on his silver wristband. They had been here for over an hour already, meaning they would need to turn around soon if they wanted to make the rendezvous in time. Tapping Mathew’s shoulder, Allen pointed at the timer.

Mathew raised his hand, showing his five fingers while mouthing ‘Five more minutes’ before moving forward once again. Looking at the side tunnel warily, Allen kept his weapon ready as he followed Mathew.

Despite the continued sound of digging and scratching that haunted them as they travelled the tunnel, the pair saw nothing. After their remaining five minutes had expired, Mathew and Allen turned around, this time with the latter leading and Mathew following closely behind.

They had barely moved for more than a few minutes when they heard the echoing sound of a distant explosion, and the tunnel shook around them. The air filled with dust, and the ground shook.

“It’s collapsing!” Mathew shouted, drawing Allen’s attention to the tunnel behind them that was rapidly filling with rocks and soil. Scrambling across the ground, practically on all fours, Mathew and Allen raced forward. The tunnel ceased its rumbling, and the ceiling around them stabilized, but they could hear shouts and more explosions in the distance.

“We need to hurry back!” Allen shouted. They had come to the branching path where Mathew had left an arrow earlier. Ignoring the side path, Allen was just about to enter the tunnel they had come from when Mathew pushed him to the side.

“Look out!” Mathew yelled as the pair fell onto the ground. The tunnel wall collapsed, revealing another passage. This one was filled with Anti-Life; dozens of the creatures were scrambling and clawing their way down the passageway while flames and magic hurled into them.

Mathew’s vision of the monsters was nearly immediately blocked as a great rush of fire shot past the Anti-Life and struck the ceiling above the monsters. The tunnel containing the Anti-Life immediately collapsed, along with the passageway that Mathew and Allen needed to take to return to the encampment.

“Come on! Get up and move if you want to live!” Mathew shouted as he hauled Allen to his feet and propelled him further down the third, unexplored passageway they had ignored earlier. Coughing and gagging at the thick dust and debris falling around them, they pushed forward until a loud roar occurred behind them, and the passage collapsed, leaving them trapped in their tunnel.

Falling onto the ground in exhaustion, Allen looked at the fallen rock, sand and billowing cloud of dust with despair. They were trapped, cut off from the camp and the others. Worse, they were likely surrounded by Anti-Life, with only an unexplored section of the tunnel ahead of them.

“We’re doomed.” Allen whispered, and Mathew let out a derisive snort.

“We’ve been doomed since we entered the Tower. Focusing on it won’t help. Let’s go; there will probably be an exit down this tunnel eventually.” Mathew said, helping Allen to his feet.

“How can you be so calm about everything? We could die down here!” Allen hissed, and Mathew looked at him strangely.

“Of course we can die down here or up on the surface. We can die anywhere, at any time. It’s best to just accept it and move on. None of us are going to see the end of the Tower, Allen. Whether it’s this Floor or the next, no one is leaving the Tower alive.” Mathew said, his voice flat and his tone mater-of-fact.

To Allen, it was the most unnerving speech he had ever heard. He couldn’t help but shiver at how inhuman it sounded. Allen had been through a lot during his time in the Tower. He had seen and done things that only someone who had also been in the Tower could ever understand.

But as bad as his experience had been, he couldn’t help but think that maybe Mathew had been through worse.

“Come on. If you want to stay alive, stick close to me and keep your weapons ready.” Mathew advised him. Adjusting his pack, Mathew hefted his knife once again and led the way forward into the darkness of the tunnel, with only the faint red light that bathed every wall, allowing them to see.

In the darkness, Mathew looked as much of a monster to Allen as any of the Anti-Life.