After walking for a while, Jean finally glimpsed what looked like the end of the cavern in the distance; a smooth stone wall that didn't match the surroundings. It appeared to have been carved by hand, nothing like the bumpy cavern she was walking through.

New groans revealed that she was no longer alone.

“HEY, BASTARDS!”

Pleased to hear so many, she retreated a few steps and searched a narrow area again. The first to appear was another hooded one.

Jean awaited him with shield and spear in hand, but he didn’t approach. He patiently waited for the others. She had expected that. However, when he leaned against the wall and hit it several times, a shiver ran through her body. His eyes had turned a shade of red that revealed clothes and weapons in perfect condition.

A total of 12 infected approached disoriented. He hit the wall once more, directing them towards her. Finally realizing her presence, they charged at her frantically.

She easily stopped the first three infected with one or two spear thrusts, leaving them unable to stand again. This time, she had no intention of immediately finishing them off. She left them writhing to hinder the advance of the rest.

Her strategy worked to perfection. As they approached in waves, they bumped into each other and became an easy target. New holes in their foreheads connected them to their chakras, or maybe it was just the final dose of calm they needed.

She glanced up briefly to see what Red Eyes was doing, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Whispers screamed, warning her of an attack heading inexorably for the back of her neck.

She hastily turned around and raised the shield, miraculously blocking the attack. Red Eyes had jumped over her and all the infected with a spiral leap.

Jean froze in place, staring at his two daggers. "OMG! I was saved by a whisker!"

Red Eyes made a perfect landing on his hands. After a backflip, he was back on his feet again.

Jean didn't stand around waiting for his autograph. She performed a side kick hoping he was still disoriented, but he easily dodged it with another backflip. Not even the red-tinted shock wave reached him.

Red Eyes did a couple more backflips and stood watching her from a distance. That creature was a far better fighter than she was. He was analyzing her in search of another opening.

Creature: »Construct (Minion)«
Level ???
Details: Be careful! His body may be withered, but this opponent's attributes make him a difficult opponent.

“WTF?! Construct?!”

“[He's an artificially created being. A soul deprived of his will bound to a body that simply follows his master's orders.]”

Pointing her spear at him. “Don't underestimate me! You will fall too!”

"[We remind you that »Difficult« means that the sum of his attributes is significantly greater than yours.]"

"I know, I was just trying to... Never mind!"

She charged with the shield and spear imbued in red, ready to attack at the slightest opportunity. However, Red Eyes wanted to play tag. He started running the way she had come, most likely to hide in one of the many nooks of the cavern, waiting to ambush her.

“Fucking bastard! I bet he knows I'm infected!”

Jean turned to take care of the remaining infected; they had managed to crawl all the way to her feet. They didn't move again after smashing their heads with the shield. The red glow illuminated the cavern again and stained her face black with that disgusting blood.

She briskly wiped her face and turned around. Despite not hearing anyone approaching from behind, Jean knew that scum wouldn't forget about her.

And there he was, running directly towards her. “I missed you too!”

This time she was ready. She wasn't going to let him make the same move as before. Once again, the whispers warned her, but before she could react, Red Eyes was already too damn close. Using his speed and aided by the water from the puddles, he slid along the ground, passing between her legs.

Jean fell to her knees, unable to stop him from slashing the inner side of both her thighs. The cuts went so deep that blood spurted out.

Whispers urged her to heal herself. If she didn't stop the bleeding, she would inevitably die.

“Buy me potions, now!”

Trembling, she opened the inventory hoping for the potions, however, the whispers let her know that at best they would only counteract the bleeding. It was imperative to heal first.

“H-how do I activate the healing skill?!”

“[Calm down! It works just like the rest.]”

Jean activated Restorative Healing with the Wisdom effect to accelerate the process, but the whispers warned her that she had no time to spare. A new attack headed straight for the back of her head again; Red Eyes had used the corpses to propel himself back toward her.

She put the shield on her back, however everything changed when the white aura began to envelope her. Red Eyes hurried back to the bottom of the cavern, dodging all the corpses without tripping over any of them. Had it been for fear of an unexpected powerful magical attack?

When more infected appeared behind him, Red Eyes waited for them to be his shield.

After realizing her luck, Jean hurriedly focused on the healing skill. A balsamic warmth blossomed from her chest and spread through her like roots of healing energy that quickly descended until they reached the wounds.

“Wow! So this is a healing skill!”

The sensation was so pleasant that she could easily become addicted. In just 5 seconds of sustained conjuration, the mana dropped dramatically, causing her vision to blur.

Potions finally appeared in her inventory; 4 HP and MP potions. Their appearance bore little resemblance to a typical potion. They were small liquid spheres. Some of them were red and others blue, but all of them were enveloped in a transparent and crystalline membrane that, when consumed, hatched to merge with her.

After exhausting her reserves, she hastily rose to her feet. However, as soon as she turned around, she fell to her knees again. An intense pain made her lose her balance. The wound was superficially closed, but it was still there. If she didn't heal it completely, moving would be a nightmare.

Jean raised her shield, doing her best to protect herself from the new avalanche of infected. She aimed at their legs without lowering the shield. Some of them lost their balance for a moment after their legs were broken, but even so, they kept attacking.

If Red Eyes took advantage of the situation…“Shit! This is going from bad to worse!”

She couldn't give him the opportunity, so she paid the price and charged against the infected.

Getting up was an agony that not even her screams could alleviate. Running over them was even worse, but she endured it thanks to a brown aura that hardened her body. The red aura of her shield ensured that they never got up again.

Jean searched restlessly for Red Eyes, but he was nowhere to be found. The whispers didn't warn her of any unexpected attacks either.

She quickly made three bodies disappear without ceasing to examine her surroundings. She transmuted two and devoured one. Within seconds, not only did it eliminate the hunger and alleviate the corruption, it also considerably healed the wounds and recovered a lot of the mana.

“Why was devouring so effective this time?”

“[Its effectiveness increases in critical situations.]”

Jean repeated the process one more time. She needed to buy as many potions as she could. If he injured her again, she would be doomed; the fight was far from over.

A barely audible sound caught her attention. Although it came from water, it had nothing to do with the occasional sound of drops falling from the ceiling.

Jean rose hastily, and readied her spear and shield. “Buy me all the potions you can.”

She searched for the source of the sound, but he was still nowhere to be seen. How was that possible? The disturbances on the water left no room for doubt. Someone was slowly approaching.

"No way! He can become invisible too?! That's fucking OP!"

Jean didn't waste more time complaining; she strategically kicked a couple of infected to be surrounded by corpses.

Noticing a barely visible silhouette in the water nearby, she pointed the spear in that direction. "Goodbye to the sliding trick, asshole!"

Spotted, Red Eyes charged at full speed while maintaining invisibility. He even jumped over some corpses to conceal his position.

Jean gripped the spear tightly, unable to discern his exact position. She had to act fast. She was protected on both sides by the rock and below by the corpses. That left him with only one remaining option.

She crouched down so that she was fully protected by the shield and readied the spear, aiming for the ceiling. “As soon as the whispers warn me…”

An unexpected sound of loud, continuous splashing surprised her. It felt as if he had tried to slow down, but a slippery surface had forced him to abruptly stop about 4 meters away from her.

"Ah, no, no! You won't escape!"

She aimed a meter and a half above the ripples and threw the bronze spear. More splashes indicated an effortless dodge, but also his exact position. Jean threw the bone spear imbued in red.

With such a short distance, Red Eyes couldn't avoid being hit. She wasn't sure where it had been, but the sparks and the change of trajectory in mid-flight ruled out a vital point. It had probably hit him in the shoulder or arm.

The only thing she could clearly distinguish was how the force of the impact made him slip on a nearby corpse as he tried to keep his balance. Despite the invisibility, the silhouette of his backside and legs were clearly outlined in the water.

Jean lunged at him, sledgehammer in hand. She couldn't let him get up. Being on the ground limited his movements; there was no better time to attack with all her might.

Red Eyes easily avoided the first and the second strike by rolling on the ground. The next three didn't hit him either, but they were close; keeping the invisibility was making him slow. The sixth blow hit him slightly in the ankle, but thanks to the red aura enveloping the sledgehammer, the impact shattered his foot.

Jean smiled widely until the whispers warned her of a direct attack at her heart. Three small kunai appeared in his now visible hands before flying straight towards her.

Jean didn't have time to switch to the shield or to harden her body with mana. The attack was so fast that it left a yellow trail in the air.

The three kunai hit Jean directly in the torso. Two hit her in the ribs, but the third pierced between them and punctured one of her lungs.

Spitting blood, she stepped back while cringing in pain. She desperately opened the inventory, but unfortunately, the potions hadn't arrived yet.

Whispers screamed for her to protect her neck. She switched to the shield, but before it appeared, another kunai had already pierced her left arm. “Damn motherfucker!”

5 HP potions appeared at last. She barely avoided bleeding to death after tearing off the kunai and healing her punctured lung with mana.

Meanwhile, Red Eyes stood up and put quite a distance between them. However, his limping retreat didn't mean he was defeated.

Jean raised the shield with great difficulty and charged, letting out a cry of pain. She had no mana for even a simple effect, a strong dizziness let her know halfway through.

When she was close enough, she equipped one of the kunai trying to surprise him. However, it was she who got the surprise gift instead. A stab wound in the groin that the bastard aggravated, twisting the dagger before she pushed him with the shield.

She had to heal herself or die, but she had no potions or mana.

Dragging her leg, Jean backtracked to the corpses of the infected without taking her eyes off him. She transmuted and devoured until all her wounds closed, but by the time she was able to move normally again, he was already leaving the cavern.

Jean inferred that he couldn’t heal himself or he would have done so by now. If that was the case, she wouldn't have to fear for now. With the leg in that state, she would hear him. However, if she was wrong, she would be in serious trouble.

She opened her inventory and checked her money; she only had enough for a few potions.

“[If you don't want to have to open the inventory all the time, you should upgrade the skill. The advanced ranks allow items to be equipped with a single thought. Consumed in the case of potions.]”

“Really?! Not having to open it in the middle of combat would be incredibly helpful!"

She was eager to find out what other upgrades she could unlock, but first she had to recover. After getting a few more coins, devouring brought her good news.

“[You are ready to »Level Up« twice.]”

“What?! Already?! Does devouring at the limit give more XP?”

“[No, the quality of the infected were a little better this time.]”

Jean sighed. There were some reserve corpses around she needed after leveling up, but with that bastard around she couldn't afford it. She would have to postpone it and raise them all at once in a safe place.

She made great use of them and moved on. She had to hurry, corruption was too impatient.

Outside the cavern, the pathway extended into a tunnel approximately 6 meters wide and 15 meters high. The ceiling was filled with the same blue luminescent crystals so far, but larger. Water condensed on its surface and accumulated to form the cold drops of the demon that fell all over the place; she had experienced it firsthand.

Both the walls and the floor were abnormally regular, but only to a certain extent. The rest of the tunnel was formed by huge hexagonal basaltic formations that gradually constricted it.

“Awesome! I've never seen anything like this before except in video games.”

What was that place and why were so many players infected? It didn't seem to be a simple coincidence. Had they fled to the depths? From what? Building such a wide tunnel had to have a purpose. Why else would they bother creating that passage? It must have taken a lot of manpower and decades of work.

"Slaves presumably..."

The tunnel extended in both directions with no apparent detours. To the left, the path seemed to ascend and the light seemed more intense. To the right, the path descended and the light diminished to the point where nothing could be seen.

She was sure that Red Eyes had turned right, into the depths. Being invisible, he could attack her from anywhere. The thought of him waiting for her in a hidden place, ready to stab her, made her uneasy. She could even have him nearby and not even notice it.

Jean opened the map and looked for the direction in which the arrow of her mission was pointing. It pointed to the left, upwards.

"I'll come back for you later!"

**************

Jean tiptoed forward, avoiding stepping in the puddles of water that covered the tunnel; the numerous groans and gasps around her left her no choice. Whether lying on the floor or leaning against the walls, her surroundings were crawling with infected. They looked as if they were asleep, immersed in a trance that dulled the purple glow in their eyes.

None of them were dead, but some of them looked very close. Insects infested their bodies, and rats swarmed around them in search of a feast. Was that what they did all the time? Lying there until they died or until something killed them? What had infected them? Something from outside or from the depths?

Jean looked back at the path littered with dead infected behind her. She had ventured to check her hypothesis, but why were they ignoring her? What was different? Now that she was infected, they didn't see her as a threat?

Jean sniffed her body. "Has my smell changed?"

She took a deep breath and lifted the sledgehammer to execute a powerful blow to the infected in front of her. His head burst like a water-filled balloon.

The nearest infected began to lazily get up. They all shared the same fate. Before they finished getting up, they fell one after another with their heads missing or split in half.

Jean concluded that if she didn't utter a word, they didn’t really wake up. However, that hypothesis lost its foundation when suddenly all the infected woke up en masse.

Jean stepped back and switched to the bone spear, without a shield this time. She held it in both hands and imbued it in red.

Many chased after her, but they all ended up carpeting the floor with their deformed corpses. Defeating them was surprisingly easy, although not without consequences. Exhaustion due to lack of mana and stamina appeared to punish her.

Her ritual began. After increasing her hunger, she devoured some corpses and regained her strength. She repeated the whole process several times with a total of 37 corpses. She got enough coins to buy a bone greatsword and a leather mercenary outfit. She also bought 30 HP potions and 20 MP potions.

“[You are ready to »Level Up« three times.]”

“Give me a second!”

Jean looked both ways. She had cleared every creature for dozens of meters around. Only the rats were left. Now she could level up without being disturbed.

To do so, she surrounded herself with all the corpses she hadn't transmuted; more than 15 infected piled up, some on top of her. It was disgusting and unpleasant, but that way no one would find her while resting. Furthermore, she would have close material to palliate the corruption once she woke up.

“Let's raise those 3 levels in one go!”