NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: Melissa
Zero was inspecting his pickaxe that he had sacrificed during their escape. He felt saddened, he didn't want to infuse the pickaxes special ability into the scythe.
Yes it becomes more powerful, but it doesn't work as a special ability anymore, but as a spell. And spells require mana.
That means he couldn't dig infinitely with it anymore. His mana reserve was decent thanks to his stats, but it still wasn't refilling quickly enough.
Coal shook his head and decided not to think about the powerful being anymore. He had to get stronger, he wouldn't have to endure inferiority if he was stronger!
These encounters only strengthened his resolve. But it was still scared, it had felt rage overtaking his mind when the queen died. Was this the result of zombification?
He didn't want to harm Zero, or lose himself!
Zeros wound became even worse, they couldn't continue to the fifth layer in this state.
Neither was Zero confident facing the skeleton in the fourth checkpoint, he was wounded. Remembering the last skeleton that left him this wound... Zero decided they would exit through the hole the ant made when coming down here.
Coal was wounded too but not as severely, his health was still above 50%.
That had surprised Zero, considering how much damage Coal had taken while escaping the octopus.
He mounted Coal and they jumped up the hole. Coal was way smaller than the ant, so he had no issue fitting his body through the hole.
The hole lead them to the 3rd layers checkpoint. They could've followed that hole further but decided to use the portal to the surface... Coal couldn't fit in it.
Zero rolled his eyes and pointed at the hole. "See you up there." he was annoyed at the dogs size. He jumped into the portal without giving Coal the time to protest against that.
Coal felt betrayed but still followed the order, he didn't want to stay in this scary place. He swiftly climbed up the hole and banged his head on the ceiling. He was on the second layer.
Coal was wondering how the ant even ended up here, he didn't have to wonder for long, he saw a huge tunnel without an end.
Is this the way the ant came from? It dug all the way here? Coal couldn't escape the second layer because he was too big for portals, and the ceiling was too high to dig.
He didn't see any other option but to head the way the ant came from. This tunnel had to have an exit to the surface at some point, right?
He ran as fast as he could, he thought this heartless human would abandon him if he didn't hurry up.
Zero was standing there waiting for Coal to come up finally. Why was he taking so long? Is he lost or something, or was he too stubborn to come up by himself?
Suddenly someone approached him, it was another human. He glanced at the human without any particular emotion or care. He was getting impatient because Coal took so long.
"H-hey you are a hero too right?" the girl asked, she had an axe in her hand. She had already jumped down once but became scared after seeing that someone had angered the gods already, and used the portal to escape.
Zero was ignoring her, why was she bothering him? If she wants to go clear the cave she should do it quietly.
The girl smiled awkwardly. He was ignoring her, how shameless! "M-my name is Melissa, how abo-" she was cut off by a scythes blade infront of her face. "Stop bothering me." Zeros tone was cold and his eyes were emotionless. He didn't want to talk to her.
Only then did Melissa notice that this guy was severely wounded, was he on guard because of that? She decided not to push him further and just sat down not far away from him, maybe he would start the conversation himself... about half a hour passed as they just sat in silence.
Suddenly Zero stood up, this startled Melissa. Zero went into the cave, this stupid dog still wasn't here, he would punish it for making him wait so long.
He jumped down the pit and disappeared into the darkness. Melissa was shocked that he would go down there in such condition.
She had figured it was him who had cleared the first floor and angered the gods by destroying the goddesses statue, who knows how many more layers he cleared.
If she went to the second layer and he didn't clear it already, she would be stuck there until she defeated the skeleton, and she doubted that she could do it.
She heaved a sigh and sat there waiting until the young man came back, she had nothing else to do anyway...
Zero landed on the first layer. He looked around and didn't see a pit straight to hell anywhere, so the ant didn't come down there from the first layer?
That would explain why Coal couldn't go up this way, he was probably stuck at the second layer.
What made him think that the hole the ant made had gone all the way up to the first layer in the first place?
He facepalmed, did his brain go into eco mode after loosing so much blood?
He should've just stayed with the dog instead of being so stubborn and going through the portal...
He quickly went to the checkpoint and entered the second layer. He saw the giant pit almost instantly, but he didn't see Coal. Where would this fellow go?
He looked around and noticed real quick where Coal might have went. This seems to be the tunnel the ant came from.
Zero couldn't even imagine where this tunnel was leading... worst case scenario it lead to the ant nest that ant came from, and there were a bunch of ants as big as that one.
He was pondering whether he should go into the tunnel or trust Coal to find his way to him on his own?
He sighed, he couldn't catch up to Coal even if he wanted to real badly. He chose to believe in Coal, he would find his way to Zero on his own.
Zero went to the checkpoint and appeared in front of Melissa. Why the hell is she still here?