Chapter 340:Hope.

Chapter 340: 340:Hope.

He almost fell from the sudden pain but he was already too close. Silver drove the sword into the creature’s neck.

The blade entered. The Stalker thrashed wildly but he held on. Its remaining functional legs kicked against the stone and one claw caught his arm.

He gritted his teeth.

"Stay down."

The animal twisted. He almost lost the sword but he pushed deeper.

[Primal Strength Lv2 Activated.]

The blade drove farther into the neck. The Cave Stalker’s movements weakened but it didn’t stop.

He looked toward the handgun lying several meters away but it was too far. He pulled the sword free.

The creature tried to bite but Silver stepped aside. Its body couldn’t follow properly with the ruined hind leg.

He raised the sword.

Insight’s weak point flashed in his memory was the neck. Silver struck again, the blade entering beneath the jaw.

The Stalker jerked but he forced it downward. Blood spread across the stone. The animal’s claws scraped once, twice, then stopped.

Silver didn’t move. His hands remained locked around the sword, his breathing coming in rough bursts.

He waited for more than ten seconds but it didn’t move again. He slowly released the weapon. The Cave Stalker remained still.

The system updated.

[Cave Stalker ~ Deceased.]

Silver immediately sat down, then changed his mind and lay flat on his back. The ceiling blurred above him.

"That’s two." He breathed painfully. "Two Tier Fours."

His ribs protested every breath.

Silver closed his eyes. He stayed there for perhaps a minute before forcing himself to sit again. He couldn’t remain exposed, not after all that noise and blood.

He dragged himself toward the original alcove. The abandoned meal was somehow still there. He stared at it, then at the Cave Stalker’s corpse.

"You interrupted dinner."

Silver picked up the meal to find that one side had dirt on it. He threw it away since he wasn’t that desperate.

He retrieved the medical kit, then stopped. His hands were shaking from exhaustion.

He opened his status.

[Current Physical Assessment]

[Physical Condition: Heavily Injured ~ Stable.]

[New Injuries Detected.]

[Upper back lacerations: Moderate.]

[Shoulder laceration: Moderate ~ Reopened.]

[Chest laceration: Moderate.]

[Thigh laceration: Moderate.]

[Abdominal laceration: Minor.]

[Rib trauma: Moderate.]

[No major arterial damage detected.]

[No new skeletal fractures detected.]

[Mental Capacity: 51%.]

[Spatial Reserves: 43%.]

Silver stared at the last two values.

’This isn’t good’

He thought about the Mental Restoration Capsule. His hand almost moved toward storage, then he stopped.

Fifty-one percent mental capacity wasn’t critical. Forty-three percent spatial reserves were low, but the capsule primarily helped his mental state, not his spatial energy directly.

He could recover naturally.

The capsule remained an emergency. Silver took out one of the stronger recovery medicines. He read the label, then used it. Warmth spread through his body.

He cleaned the wounds carefully but the back was difficult. He used his phone camera to see what he was doing.

"Wonderful."

The cuts weren’t as deep as they’d felt. They bled badly because of their size, but nothing seemed catastrophic. He applied wound sealant and bandages.

The shoulder required another dressing. The thigh took longer. That one concerned him because continued climbing would stress it.

Silver tightened the bandage, then checked his abdomen. It was a shallow wound. He treated it anyway.

He drank nearly half a bottle of water, then retrieved another emergency meal.

Silver stared at it.

"I really hate you."

He ate everything, since he needed the calories. Only after treating himself did he return to the Cave Stalker.

He used Insight.

[Insight Activated.]

[Cave Stalker ~ Deceased.]

[Tier Four Beast Core detected.]

[Core Attribute: Agility / Sensory.]

Silver cut the core free.

The smooth object rested in his palm.

Tier Four; another valuable core.

He stored it.

Two Tier Four cores from one climb. Under normal circumstances, that would’ve made the trip incredibly profitable but Silver would gladly trade both to be standing beside Ravenna instead.

He looked toward the darkness.

"Keep moving."

He didn’t mean immediately. He sat in the alcove for another forty minutes,maybe longer. He allowed the medicine to work.

His spatial reserves recovered slowly and his mental capacity improved. He didn’t sleep.

After being ambushed while eating, he suspected getting meaningful sleep underground would be difficult for a while.

When his body finally stopped trembling from exhaustion, he stood. His thigh hurt but he could walk, that was enough.

Silver replaced the ruined shirt using another cheap clothing set from the system shop. He stared at it, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at the black shirt.

"Please last longer than the other ones."

He packed everything and switched on the headlamp. The Cave Stalker’s corpse remained where it had fallen. Silver stepped around it, then continued upward.

The journey became slower; his injuries forced that. Every climb took longer and every ledge required more care.

Silver used Spatial Sense less frequently because his reserves needed to recover. He tested the network module once.

[Searching for External Networks...]

He watched hopefully.

[No External Signal Detected.]

Silver’s expression flattened.

"Of course."

He stored it. Another hour passed, maybe two. The queen’s route continued twisting. At one point, Silver had to descend again.

He didn’t even complain anymore. He had accepted that the mountain hated him. He followed the gouges through a narrow passage, then another chamber, then up a sloped section filled with loose stone.

His injured leg slipped once but Silver caught himself. He rested, then continued. The silence gradually returned but he didn’t trust it. Every few minutes, he looked behind himself hoping nothing was tracking him.

Nothing followed, at least not that he could detect. He reached another intersection where the queen’s marks continued left.

Silver followed.

Twenty minutes later, he stopped. He heard a sound, at first, he thought it was movement.

He raised his handgun while listening. A few seconds later, he noticed it was a steady noise. Silver lowered the gun slightly, his expression changing.

Water.

He remained still. The sound continued, constantly. This was not the occasional dripping he’d heard through countless tunnels, this was louder and flowing.

Silver slowly smiled.

The last time he’d followed water, he’d found an underground spring and a dead end.

He remembered standing there dirty and half-dead, staring at the pool after spending hours hoping it would lead outside.

He wasn’t getting excited yet. Silver activated Spatial Sense.

[Spatial Sense Lv2 Activated.]

His awareness spread forward. There was a tunnel and stones, then... a large open space. It was much larger than the spring chamber.

He concentrated.

The water sound came from there. He couldn’t determine exactly what it was from this distance, but something was definitely moving through the chamber.

A current.

Silver deactivated the skill before the headache worsened. He looked toward the darkness.

"If this is another bathtub, I’m going to lose my mind."

Despite the exhaustion, despite the blood, despite the two Tier Four fights and the hours spent climbing through a tunnel system designed by a giant parasitic worm, Silver felt something he hadn’t allowed himself to feel for several hours.

Hope.

He adjusted the strap around his injured shoulder, checked the handgun, then started walking toward the sound of water.