Chapter 186 – Ancient Tunnels

Aki

‘Ninety per cent of gamblers quit just before hitting it big, you know,’ Lilyth laughed.

‘Go fuck yourself, furball,’ Sav retorted.

I was with Lilyth on this one. Despite the exploration of the tunnels proving to be a massive waste of time and resources, Sav insisted we keep going, something we started to call “just one more tunnel” syndrome. She probably didn't want to disappoint Nyx. Lilyth has suggested it could have also been Sav’s special forces background.

By the point of me deciding to call it quits at the end of the third day, we had absolutely no idea which way we should be going anyway, as we had lost all sense of direction.

So, all in all, after a total of seven days in those tunnels, I couldn't wait to be able to feel the sun on my face again.

That's when Sav decided to throw a wrench into things.

‘How about we try to explore the elevator shaft again?’

I decided to humour her, which, given her latest crazy idea, proved to be a mistake.

She wanted Ren and Persephone to go down the shaft, and not in the fun way either.

Both women immediately refused, and Lilyth called Sav out for her bullshit.

‘But Ren can walk on walls, and Persephone can fly!’ Sav insisted.

Caei, seemingly having had enough of the medic’s bullshit, pounced on her and, in a flash of green light, knocked her out.

We helped her put the medic on a [Flying Disk] and began our way back.

‘She is going to be mad about this,’ Phosi pointed out.

‘She can be mad about it outside, where she can no longer try to push a woman I love down an elevator shaft.’

‘Huh,’ Lilyth suddenly said. ‘That gives me an idea.’

Everyone, except the very confused Persephone and Phosi, shuddered.

‘Just a suggestion, don’t worry,’ my foxy cuddlebug said in a defensive tone. ‘You see, when I almost fell to my death, I had a choice of two routes. I went with the one that ended up heading towards Y-Ram because it didn't require me to walk on an upward slope. I was too “almost dead” for it. But… Now that I am mostly okay and there are eight of us, we could try to see where that path leads. Maybe it will take us here.’

‘That makes… an actually shocking amount of sense,’ I agreed. ‘One problem, though - Tooth Horrors.’

Lilyth pointed at Persephone.

‘Oh, yeah,’ the sorceress agreed. ‘I can take all of us down to the cemetery, no problem. Back too in case of trouble.’

I thought it over and nodded.

‘Let’s do this then.’

Phosi was right. Sav was mighty hacked off. We thought that exploring an actually feasible course of action would placate her. No such luck.

Luckily, we didn't mention that Caei collapsed the entrance to the cave in the Murdergrove with [Rock Burst]. She did it unprompted, but it was understandable. Sav’s “one more tunnel syndrome” aside, she was the tallest of us and so had a really bad time the entire trip. I bumped my head on the rock ceiling more times than I would have liked myself, something my horns didn't help, so I could empathise. Hard.

Lilyth

‘And so we continue the grand romantic tour of places I almost died at,’ I muttered to Rennie, as Sav unloaded on Caei and, for some reason, poor Aki.

We were both standing there leaning our backs against a mausoleum, waiting for the medic to calm down.

The rest of our little group also decided to make themselves scarce.

‘Your choice of places for our dates could improve,’ Rennie laughed and gave me a peck on the cheek. ‘How did it happen here?’

‘It was a twofer, actually. First, it was more of resigning myself to dying. You will soon see why. I basically sat against that mausoleum…’

I pointed it out.

‘... And went to sleep, not expecting to wake up. Then Varyag appeared on THAT mausoleum…’

Once again, I pointed towards it.

‘... And offered me a way back home. Which would have killed me. When that didn't work, he wanted to try more direct means, but Aki and Caeileera scared him off.’

‘I’m surprised he didn't show his beaked face yet,’ Ren wondered.

‘I’m not. I don’t think Varyag is stupid. He might not be one for physical confrontation, and our group would probably make short work of him.’

‘I wouldn't discount the Guardian of the Cycle quite yet, Lilyth of Terra,’ Persephone suddenly said, walking over to us.

‘You know the stupid birb?’ I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

‘Heard about him. Remember - he is a caretaker of the Great Game. Perhaps THE caretaker. So he cannot be weak. Likely just… limited by the rules just like his masters.’

‘Didn’t stop him from trying to kill me,’ I pointed out.

‘Perhaps he wanted to prevent a repeat of what my family did,’ she said with a sad expression. ‘Ultimately, my grandmother was also a Terran, and it ended how it ended.’

‘You know…’ I sighed. ‘When I ended up here, one of the first quests I got, once I discovered some inconsistencies, was to join your family. If I didn't meet Ereshkigal first, I likely would have been a prime target for recruitment.’

Persephone shook her head in disbelief.

‘It is nice to know that Aunt Nephthys is as shit at tempting people as I am. Makes me feel better.’

Another name acquired… Nephthys.

‘And this is where I almost died after falling down from the top of Y-Ram,’ I told the group when we reached the spot.

They all looked up.

‘How the fuck did you survive that?’ Sav asked.

‘Nyx,’ I sighed. ‘Used Air Arcana to slow my fall and then she gave me a power boost to finish the process.’

‘This is what gave you the idea about how to get over to this “Mantopter”?’ Phosi asked.

‘In a way,’ I sighed and pointed up the incline. ‘Anyway, shall we?’

Aki

We came across what Sav and Lilyth assumed to be a service tunnel an hour later. The entrance was a cuboid indentation in the wall leading to a partly flooded, cramped passage in the ground.

‘I don’t like the look of it,’ Sav said, crouching by the entrance.

‘C’mon, Sav, just one more tunnel!’ Lilyth joked.

The medic looked at her as if she had been a worm, flipped her off and returned to examining the tunnel.

‘Phosi,’ Sav finally said, turning towards the Sconryoll. ‘Could you scout it out?’

The Sconryoll nodded and dove into the passage. She returned a few minutes later and rasped:

‘It is passable, morsels. It leads to what looks to have been an underground railway at some point.’

After they explained to us what railways were, which caused my eyes to light up in excitement, we had to decide what to do.

I looked at Lilyth and Sav for suggestions.

‘If there is a route to the other facility, this is likely it,’ the medic said with a frown.

‘Assuming it didn't cave in,’ Lilyth added. ‘In general, the idea of exploring millennia-old man-made tunnels fills me with dread.’

That was enough for me. If Lilyth considered something too dangerous, then it likely was. Still… I had to consider all the angles.

‘What’s our supply situation?’ I asked, and after a quick inventory, the general consensus was that we had about four days of food left.

We packed what we thought would be two weeks' worth of rations. However, the sheer level of physical exertion tied to going through the tunnels caused us to consume them at a faster rate.

We have to assume at least two-three days for travel. I think ‘Phone could teleport us out, but I need to consider a “just-in-case”.

Which leaves us with maybe a day's worth for exploration. And that's assuming the route is easily passable.

I looked at my party members and could easily see they were all exhausted. We were also running out of time. Our group would need a few days to recover after this trip, and then we had a few weeks of further travelling to get to the harpies and back. And we had maybe a month at best until snow began to fall.

Still… gods only knew if we ever got a chance to go there…

‘Let’s go check this “reiluej” out,’ I said, hoping I didn't just sign our death warrants.

Ren

‘I see you picked performative dancing up, eh, furball?’ Sav asked Lilyth with an innocent smile.

It does look kinda funny.

The gummy fox was trying to visualise where, in relation to the Ror River, we were located. She was using both her hands to help herself with the process, though she briefly managed to use one of them to show Sav what she was thinking about her comment.

Truth be told, I was kinda jealous of the medic. As weird as it can sound, bickering with Lilyth was my thing and not hers.

I looked around the corridor to see where all of my friends were currently trying to get our bearings. We all looked like a bunch of wet rats after passing through the service tunnel, and water was dripping from us onto the marble floor.

I would be lying if I said that I didn't hate how the cold and wet clothes felt on my body. Or how cold and wet my body was.

I hate this place.

Out of boredom and desperation, I began going through the available purchasable abilities and in the [Divine] menu, I found one that I immediately bought. [Warm Self]. It was a basic fire ability that didn't have anything to do with my nascent godhood. I think that it just lets me “cheat” by getting easier access to some stuff.

‘Welcome to being one of us,’ I heard Ere chuckle. ‘Have fun with this one. Nyxie and I get a lot of mileage with this one.’

I immediately activated it and by the gods… it was better than sex at that moment. My body and clothes dried nearly instantly, but I kept it on for a few more heartbeats. It made the experience so much more bearable.

My head clearer, I walked over to Aki, who looked wracked with indecision. I took her hand in mine and squeezed it.

‘Gonna be all right,’ I said. ‘No matter what you choose… I’ll still love you.’

I activated [Warm Body] again and hugged her.

‘So… warm…’ Aki moaned softly.

Caei threw me a look filled with affection and mouthed ‘thank you’.

Unfortunately, Lilyth had to bring us back to the sad reality.’

‘If my guess is right, that thing runs parallel to Ror. Meaning it is that way.’

She pointed in the direction left looking from the direction we entered.

Deirdee and Sav nodded their agreement with the guess. We had all three of them try to figure out the way, as they had the best spatial orientation skills.

‘I think we call it quits for now, then,’ Aki said after I released her, making me want to hug her again. ‘Now that I see what we are dealing with… we are not prepared for this. We need actual lights, more way markers, and maybe a compass. Things that will help us navigate.’

Sav nodded.

‘I agree, Akster. We don't even have an idea what we are looking for. A train station? Another service tunnel?’

‘We can easily miss the latter,’ Deirdee chimed in. ‘Easy to stop paying attention once you have spent hours walking through featureless corridors.’

‘Let’s go home then,’ Aki smiled.

‘I thought you would never say that,’ Persephone said.

And so our second expedition into Y-Ramite ruins came to an end. We didn't achieve much, but we had our next target.