Chương 106: Inside the Mountain

Joe tore through a zigzagging tunnel that plunged deep into the mountain. He didn't know if anyone had followed, but he assumed they had, so he ran flat out. The massive blades in his hands dragged furrows through the earth as he sprinted, throwing up dirt and shards of stone. He still wished he could drop the cursed things, but they clung stubbornly to his grip, so he did his best to ignore them and pressed on. After a minute, the tunnel spat him out into a vast cavern smothered in darkness.

For the thousandth time, he thanked his glasses; without them, he'd have been blind. He bolted across the chamber, heading straight for a massive metal door at the far end. The cavern itself was bare save for clusters of jagged stone pillars. To his left, another tunnel yawned open, but his focus stayed on the towering door ahead. He skidded to a halt before it, chest heaving. The surface was covered in patterned runes, intricate and foreign.

His translation skill remained silent, so they were either a language barred by the system or symbols without direct meaning. He pressed his fingertips against the cold metal, the knives clanging against it. The door felt unyielding, almost eternal. He pulled back and swung the blades, sparks flaring with each strike, but not a mark was left behind. His jaw tightened. Shouts echoed from the tunnel behind him. They were closing in.

He planted a slew of seeds into the rocky ground, activating his skill; they bloomed into a wall of twisting vines, buying him more precious time. He felt a strange pull, drawing his focus toward the door that practically gnawed at him, as if something vital lay beyond. He activated Mana Stream. A purple current burst forth, coiling around the knives until the air around them rippled. He swung again, the blows detonating like thunderclaps, winds howling through the cavern with each strike.

Thirty seconds later, he stopped, panting. Sweat ran down his face, his hands sloppy with weapons he wasn't trained for. The doors stood untouched, mocking him with its pristine surface. Then the vines behind him burst apart in a spray of green and purple, and four figures strode into the cavern. __ Zed Mortof the Third dashed left as he entered the cavern, eyes locking on the massive wooden beast looming at the far side. It stood before a rune-etched door, its hulking frame silhouetted by the faint glow of mana.

Was it trying to break through? The thought unsettled him. Why lead them here, into a kill box with only two exits? He knew the answer. The monster wanted close combat. Those curved fangs still dripped with gore, trophies of the fallen. Only eight hunters remained. It didn't matter. Zed was ranked fourth on the integration leaderboard. He would kill this Harbinger and claim the prize. An explosion to his left drew his attention.

The beast barreled into the duo that had entered with him, ripping them apart with terrifying ease. Zed used the chaos, circling wide, scattering trap arrays like breadcrumbs. Somewhere in the cavern, that spider-woman lurked, but she could wait. His focus was on the kill. Fifty traps laid. One more hunter was skewered against a stone pillar. The beast fought with frightening speed, but its swings were crude, blunt arcs without finesse. It was powerful, but unskilled. Zed smirked. That would be its undoing.

He cloaked and crept closer. The last of his allies screamed under the beast's assault. Death was seconds away. Zed waited. When the fangs tore the second one apart, Zed struck, two bolts slamming into the monster's back. The explosion hurled it forward, straight toward his trap field. Perfect. He surged after it, ready to finish the job. And then, impossibly, the beast rolled. Instead of crashing into his traps, it spun, countering with a savage sweep of its fangs.

Zed barely ducked as the blades shrieked overhead. He tried to dash aside, but a wooden foot hammered into his chest. Bones shattered. Air fled his lungs. He slammed into the cavern wall, coughing blood, his vision swimming. The monster was on him a moment later. Fangs gleamed in the dark, dripping red, carving down in merciless arcs. Zed Mortof, Rank 4 on the integration leaderboard, died. Click! __ Joe kicked the corpse of Rank 4 aside and veered right.

Two more figures slipped silently into the cavern, but his Dao Sight caught them instantly. He charged. One crouched low under a cloak, but to its credit, it swayed just enough to avoid his downward swing. His knife smashed into stone, carving deep. Mana Stream pulsed, and the rocks binding his blade exploded apart as he tore it free. A blast slammed into his barding. Joe rolled his body with the impact as gouts of flame roared past, scorching the wall. His Mana Stream bubbled outward, dousing the fire.

He spun and slashed, unleashing twin arcs of mana at the flamecaster, but the figure slid behind a pillar, vanishing from sight. Another attacker struck from behind. Webbing snapped tight around him, pinning his blades to the ground. He snarled and wrenched against it, but before he could tear free, something leapt onto his back. Pain lanced through his shoulders as burning blades pierced his barding and sank into flesh. Poison seared through his veins.

'Pfft. Poison. Kakakakakaka,' Uriel laughed. Her light flared inside him, burning the venom away as if it were nothing. Joe's lip curled. He hated poison users. He slammed an elbow back, connecting with something soft. A feminine scream cut through the violence, and the figure was hurled away. No time to finish her yet. The ground beneath him erupted, and he was hurled upward, smashing into the cavern roof before gravity pulled him down. He crashed hard, barding, splitting with a sharp crack.

A grunt tore from his throat as he forced himself upright. Hours of battle weighed on him. He was starting to run out of steam. He stood still, chest heaving, waiting for the next attack. Nothing came. He scanned the cavern, Dao Sight probing the shadows, but the two figures had melted away. Did they run? Or are they cloaked? He couldn't tell. At least it bought him a moment. He limped back toward the massive metal door, scanning carefully, but saw nothing stir.

They were likely regrouping, waiting for others to close in. A glance at the Monster Mash screen showed only five competitors remained. Joe lowered himself before the rune-etched door as his barding pulsed, sealing the cracks and reinforcing his armour. He gazed up at the inscrutable surface. His knives scraped faintly against the stone as he rested them on the ground.

"Hmmmm," he mused, mind grinding for a way through. __ Lola Veil crouched behind a pillar, watching the fanged beast sit motionless before the massive door. She pressed a hand to her side, feeling tender skin knitting back together. It was so strong, impossibly strong. There was no way to kill it. All she could do was wait, praying the others would come. But even as she thought it, she knew the truth: she was going to die here. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and focused on healing.

Time slipped away until a message blinked across her vision. Stolen story; please report. [Where is the beast?] [It is in the cave with me. It is trying to open a door] she replied. [Why?] [I don't know. Where are the others? Are you coming in?] [No. We have set up traps outside the entrance. Do not leave if you value your life. You will die.] Her heart sank. They were leaving her as bait, either to lure the beast out or wait until it finished her. Great. So much for hope.

She cursed under her breath, fully healed now, and shifted quietly to steal another glance. The beast was still before the door, its curved fangs carving lines into the stone floor. Her eyes narrowed. What was it doing? It wasn't just strong, it was clever. But why this door? What could possibly be its goal? She nearly screamed when the monster suddenly threw its head back and roared, "Yes! I figured it out!" Her breath caught. That voice… impossible. She knew that voice. Feormere. The beast was Feormere!

Lola froze as he turned toward her, blades flashing in the dark. Panic tore through her, and she screamed, "Wait!" bracing for death. Silence. She opened her eyes. She was still alive. The wooden giant loomed above her, fangs halted mid-swing, hollow eyes fixed on her.

"Lola?"

"Yes. It's me," she whispered, collapsing to her knees as her heart thundered in her chest. Tears stung her eyes. She had almost died. Relief and terror shook her in equal measure. __ Joe stared down at the spiderwoman he had once met at his very first Empire Meeting. His thoughts tangled. Why did it have to be her? One of the competitors, here of all places? He knew the obvious truth echoing inside his mind. Only one could walk away from this competition alive.

He drew a steadying breath and turned back to the door.

"Why? How?" Lola stammered.

"I don't understand."

"The system is a ruthless, impassioned force," Joe said as he pressed his hand to one of the runes. It flared, spinning in place. He moved to a second, identical rune, and it too lit up. The rest of the carvings vanished. The massive door groaned, stone grinding on stone, and a blast of stale air rushed out as it slowly pushed outward. Joe turned toward Lola, who sat slumped against the wall, her face streaked with wet mud.

"Where are the others? Are they coming in?" he asked. She hesitated, then shook her head.

"They've set traps. They're waiting for you to come out." Joe gave a short nod. The door shuddered, then slammed open, the whole cavern trembling as rocks tumbled from above. He stepped forward, knives raised, sensing the pulse of something vast and dangerous within.

"Wait," Lola called after him." Where are you going?" He pointed one curved blade toward the black maw of the tunnel ahead.

"Something's inside. I intend to find out what." Without another word, he strode into the dark. As he walked, he heard her footsteps trailing behind, light but persistent. Joe didn't stop her. He didn't know what to do about her presence yet, and thinking too much about it now would only distract him. So he let her follow. The tunnel soon ended at a smaller metal door, this one marked with a simple handle. Heat shimmered from it, and steam hissed at the edges as though fire burned just beyond.

Joe reached forward, but the fused blades at his hands made the attempt useless.

"Damn it. Lola, can you open it?" She darted past him, then paused as the scalding air licked against her skin. Instead of touching it directly, she spun a thick cord of webbing, looped it around the handle, and pulled. The door creaked open, and a wave of steam burst out, flooding the tunnel. Lola jumped back, coughing, while Joe simply let his Mana Stream surge around him, absorbing the heat until the air cleared. He stepped through first. The chamber beyond glowed with a deep, molten red.

Pockets of lava bubbled in scattered pools, small fires crackling along the ground. The heat hit him like a wall, his wooden barding shimmering under the strain. Sweat trickled down his back, but he kept the armour up. He didn't want anyone to see his true body. Even Lola. Not today. The room opened into a maze of jagged stone cabinets and shelves carved into the walls.

Each one bristled with figurines and statues: krakens coiling upward, falcons with wings spread wide, unicorns with horns gleaming, gators striding upright, lions crowned with snake-tails. All rendered in eerie, lifelike detail. Joe moved slowly, scanning the rows, heat rolling off every surface. Behind him, Lola stumbled in his shadow, drenched in sweat, struggling to breathe in the oppressive air. He had nothing to give her, nothing that would make this place easier.

After a long walk through the sweltering chamber, Joe reached the far side and stopped before another metal door etched with runes. This one was different. At its centre, just above his head, rested a book with a stone cover. A single word stretched across it, unreadable even to his translation skill.

'Sin go, for sata di trin,' Uriel mumbled. Joe tilted his head.

"Do you recognize the script?"

'Yes,' Uriel replied.

"No," Lola rasped from beside him. Joe studied the runes. There were just as many as the last door, but this puzzle was smaller in scale. Having solved one already, he felt confident… but the problem was Lola. She was practically melting, her skin slick with sweat, her breathing ragged.

"You should go back," he said without looking at her.

"There is nothing back for me. I can make it," she whispered, then slumped to the floor and closed her eyes. He didn't understand why she stayed. Fear of him, or fear of the others lying in wait? Either way, she wasn't leaving. Joe shrugged and crouched before the door, eyes narrowing as he began deciphering the runes. The trick was the layers. Each rune carried a shifting, hidden pattern.

At first glance, it seemed impossible to solve, but he'd learned that they were built in four layers: sixty-four shared the first, sixteen the second, four the third, and only two in the final layer. As long as he found the outer layer quickly, he could narrow down the rest. It was a game of speed and precision, catching the pattern before it shifted again. His eyes darted from rune to rune. Minutes ticked by. Ten minutes in, Lola collapsed completely, unconscious beside him. Her chest rose and fell, but barely.

Joe clenched his jaw, not daring to break focus; he was close. Instead, he warped his barding, pulling her inside against his back. The cooler air trapped within gave her something to breathe. He felt her pulse steady, her breath strengthening, and returned his full attention to the puzzle. Fifteen minutes later, he spotted it, the final layer. He lunged forward and tapped two runes before they shifted. They spun, glowing bright blue as the door cracked open.

Steam hissed out in a rush, and Joe shoved one knife into the gap, prying it wider until the metal groaned. The stone-bound book tumbled free from its perch, and a sliver of his barding curled out to catch it. With the book secured, he dashed through the widening door into whatever waited beyond. Joe sprinted through another long tunnel as the ground rumbled behind him. Something was happening back in the first cavern, whether it was the other competitors, the system, or something else entirely, he couldn't say.

All he knew was that he needed to move faster. Something was coming. A door loomed ahead, but he didn't slow. He lowered his shoulder and smashed straight through, bursting into a chamber of ice. Frigid air slammed into him, stealing his breath, and his feet slipped from under him. He skidded hard into an ice-slick wall, grunting as he felt Lola shift inside his barding. A quick probe with his mana told him she was still breathing, still alive, but unconscious.

He hauled himself upright, using the grafted knives like climbing spikes to drag his weight across the treacherous floor. The chamber mirrored the last, lined with shelves and cabinets, but here every surface was frozen solid, statues, carvings, even entire displays of beasts and strange species entombed in ice. He clawed his way forward, slipping and sliding, progress slow. It took nearly five minutes before he reached the far side, where another ice-sealed door waited. He frowned.

Sitting on the frozen ground wasn't a good option. Instead, he leapt into the air, unleashing a torrent of mana in all directions. Waves of power erupted outward, detonating the frozen room. Shards of ice exploded, splintering into dust as the storm of mana raged. He kept the assault going until no ice remained around him, only jagged walls and empty space. When he landed, the air steamed from the lingering force of his attack.

The door now stood clear, not a fleck of ice upon it, and, like before, not a single scratch despite the destruction around it. At its center was another book with a rocky cover, just like the last. Joe exhaled heavily and lowered himself to the ground, careful to brace Lola against his back. Then, with cold biting at his skin even through his barding, he set his attention on the next puzzle of runes.