章 18: Swimming
Thud!
The seven did not take long before their fall abruptly halted. Fortunately, the opening was only deep enough that a fresh first stage cultivator could easily handle the fall. They realized that they were in a cavern deep underground. The opening from where they had fallen from was now closed from all the gathered rubble. They could drop their hopes of getting rescued by staying right here.
"Ah! We are buried underground! No food, no water, no light and according to my science book, there must be limited oxygen!" It was Lucy, she explained the situation pretty well.
"Don't panic. First, we need a light to see in what kind of place we are", Sajjad was surprisingly calm. "Does anybody knows fire or light based spells?" He asked.
"Cough! I'm light attribute- cough! But I only started cu-ough! cultivation a week ago..." Orbona announced. Something was wrong though, was not she sneezing earlier? How come she is coughing now?
"You should restrain from speaking more", Awiergan advised. He, too, was surprisingly calm.
Shou!
A faint light suddenly sprang up along with a little black flame. But Blake was not of much help.
The black flame seemed to be gathering the little light present in the surroundings around itself instead of providing light. It could only get enough light to illuminate the tip of Blake's finger.
Everyone: "..."
Blake extinguished the fire.
Flash!
Suddenly, another, this time bright, light appeared. A flashlight!
It was Awiergan. He was carrying a flashlight!
Not just one, he took out several more from his dimensional buckle and handed them to the five.
The sixth one was...
"Hey, Sproule! What are you doing?!" Ivory stomped on Sproule's stomach, who was lying on the ground with his both eyes shut.
"Ouch! Weren't we gonna rest in peace? That's what people do when they get buried", Sproule stood up while rubbing his stomach, he was in high spirits.
With their vision back, they saw that they were in a large cavern with two exits besides each other. A river flowed soundlessly at the right side, filling up the exit in the right. The left one, upon closer inspection, wasn't naturally made but dug out by some monster.
"Blind Mountain Worms", Blake informed them with a single name. Sajjad was quick to take out a thick book from his storage band titled [The Big Book of Monsters]. In the era of electronic books, he had the extremely rare paper-edition. He found the part telling about Blind Mountain Worms in a few seconds.
[Blind Mountain Worms
Size: 10m long and 2m in diameter
Lifespan: 25-30 years
Color: White
Lvl: 4
Edible
Special Characteristics: The yellow slime emitted from their tails has medicinal value but the white slime emitted from the rest of the body is a deathly poison if consumed, but with no major effect on skin except slight burns or itch. Keep away from eyes, may blind permanently.
Details: The Blind Mountain Worms can be found near underground rivers. They mainly eat detritus present in the soils but would not mind swallowing smaller organisms for a change of taste.
....
There were four additional pages filled with text about the creature but reading all that would require patience which seemingly only Sajjad possessed.
Sproule found an unidentifiable ugly insect and brought it to Lucy, telling her that it must need oxygen to live here so that means there is plenty of it here but Lucy only screamed and slapped Sproule hard on the face the moment her gaze landed on the ugly creature.
"The worms are only level 4 so if one comes our way, we might be able to hold it off together but one is as much as we can handle", Sajjad declared after he had read the rest of the pages.
"The tunnels might be weak from few areas due to several tunnels being present near each other. We should tie each other with ropes before going inside", Awiergan took out a five meter long rope from his dimensional buckle.
Everyone shot strange gazes at him.
"My name means cursed", he explained. "Have to stay prepared for any unexpected things happening here and there. Thankfully, it isn't as strong as my uncle's... Mine only amplifies the magnitude of danger to come and informs me when it is doing its job." The team maintained two minutes of silence for Awiergan's linage.
They tied and looped the rope around their waists to stay together. Then, Awiergan started heading towards the left tunnel along with the others but after a few steps, they realized they could not go on forward. The person in the rear, Blake, was not moving. They tried pulling but he remained motionless like a mountain.
"What's wrong?" Ivory asked.
"You wanna stay here and rest in peace? Let me accompany you!" Sproule was, for some reason, on cloud nine from the point they entered, or rather, fell into the cavern.
Blake only pointed towards the right. The silent river endlessly flowed, flooding the cavity in the right.
"You want to go through the water?" Everyone frowned. Blake nodded.
"No can do, brother. I don't know how the water is so silent, but look! The current is too fast! If you think your eyes are deceiving you, you can easily put a hand in to feel", Awiergan protested, he even did what he said. The moment the tip of his finger touched the icy cold water, it was flown away by the fast current. If not attached to his palm, the finger would have been a goner.
Everyone tried to reason with the silent Blake but little did they expect him to suddenly take off his shirt and jump into the water! The rest were not able to resist as they were pulled into the water along with him. Their eyes were full of despair.
They crashed into the water, then as if they were on a waterslide, the current took them along with it.
The path randomly curved, turned and crisscrossed but somehow, they were all in the middle of the stream, not hitting the walls. Of course, rocks were present in the path but with Blake in the lead, they were smashed into smithereens before they could harm the six behind them.
Sometimes, they would be in the water but in some places, the water would throw them out, allowing them to catch their breaths, only to let them sink again ahead.
The water was extremely cold, colder than ice. Water can sometimes remain water even after going below the freezing point and keep doing so until it reaches below about minus forty degrees. They believed they were experiencing a demo of the knowledge they learned in school since they could feel their bones freezing in the water but they could only grit their teeth and endure.
After what seemed like ages, they finally felt the current slowing down. The long tunnel had finally come to an end.
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