"Cough! Cough! Garth?! Jarred?! Where the heck are y-! Cough!"

Gahan called, covering his mouth and nose with the inside of his elbow, struggling to breathe with all the dust.

Sonar's effect had ceases due to the surprise and he felt completely at loss.

He could feel a presence near him somewhere, but he couldn't ensure who was it.

More importantly, he could only feel one presence.

 

"Cough! Cough! I'm! Cough! Here!"

 

The two mercenaries slowly managed to meet each other again, waiting for the dust to settle.

 

"Jarred!"

"Jarred?!"

 

They called for their last companion, the one with a Glaive... But no answer was heard.

 

As the dust slowly settled, they were finally able to see each other’s figure, covered in a thick layer of stone dust.

The already dim cave had become noticeably darker even for them who yielded Dark Vision I, a quite uncommon skill, far rarer than the essential Night Vision.

 

As Garth looked behind towards where he came, what just happened became clear.

The ceiling was now much higher than it used to be, and the corridor they were in became wider...

The cave had collapsed.

 

"How's that even possible..." Jarred thought in a soft voice before turning around and speaking to Gahan.

"Hadn't you said this was a fucking dungeon!? How the fucking hell did it collapse!?"

 

"How the fuck do I know! It IS a dungeon... More importantly... Wasn't Jarred right behind you?"

 

"Yea-..." Garth's eyes widened at the realization. Jarred had been right behind him...

Right behind him...

That's the place where the cave collapsed...

 

"Where..."

 

His eyes wondered around. trying to grasp his colleague's whereabouts. Until he spotted something.

 

The tip of his inseparable glaive.

 

"JER!" He yelled as he darted to where he found it, quickly throwing stones behind, desperately trying to free his precious friend from the stones.

 

He made slight progress with each move. He’d already freed most of the glaive and had just started seeing a finger when he felt Gahan's hand on his shoulder and looked above, only to see Gahan shaking his head from side to side, and point ahead...

 

Garth's eyes watered a bit as he understood the meaning behind these gestures... Just a few feet ahead of him, only slightly obscured by the smaller stones around, was a gigantic boulder, larger than himself...

Jarred was dead.

Irremediably so.

 

"I'm sorry for your loss... I know he meant a lot to you..."

 

*PAF*

 

"Stop your condescending sympathy Gahan! You don't love anyone but yourself, you can't possibly know how this feels." Jarred yelled as he slapped Gahan's hand from his shoulder.

Gahan's sympathetic gaze vanish like it had been a mirage.

 

*PAF*

 

Garth was thrown to the ground spewing blood from a single slap to the face.

 

"Pull you fucking shit together you imbecile! Look around for fuck's sake. I tried being understanding but do you even understand the situation we are in?!"

 

A switch clicked in Garth's mind, reminding him of who he was and what situation they were in. This was not only his childhood friend Gahan. This was his commander, his leader, and his most second most trusted friend... Now his most trusted one... Since the closest person to him was now dead. And above all... They were in a Dungeon.

 

A glance around the now clear dungeon made another situation clear.

 

They were stuck inside. There was no way out. They'd been just after a split in the cave before, where the main path divided in three ones. But they had slightly moved towards one of the paths right before Gahan used his Sonar skill...

 

Now they were bound to that path. There was no way back.

 

"Sorry boss..." He muttered while spitting the remaining blood from his mouth. "I guess we better get going... We need to find a way out of here..."

 

"Yeah... We only have food on us for about a day..."

 

------------------------------

 

At the same time elsewhere.

 

"GHHUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH"

 

I contorted in pain on the floor of the control-room.

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

*CRAAAACK *

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

*SQUISH *

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

"UGH-- AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

*CRACK*

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! GLORIAAAAAAAAAA!"

 

*CRACK*

 

<LEVEL UP>

<LEVEL UP>

 

<< I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY! I DON'T KNOW! >>

 

"FUCK YOU GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

I honestly didn't know what was worse! The excruciating pain, or the everlasting and repeating messages from the system inside my head. What the fuck just happened!

 

All I did was collapse the ceiling of the area where the mercenaries were... What's going on?!

 

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

 

The pain slowly subsidized as soon as the <Level Up.> messages stopped popping up.

What the fuck was that.

GOD THAT HURT.

 

Every single fiber of my body hurt. It was almost as if every single strand of muscle and nerve was torn only to be rebuilt again.

I could hear my bones breaking as it happened.

What the heck could even cause something like that!

 

<An Enemy was slain.>

 

Huh!?

 

How?

 

Did the rocks from the ceiling kill one of them?

 

What the heck is happening, Gloria!?

 

<< I don't fucking know! My whole system froze! >>

 

Huuuuh!? The pain's gone now...

I slowly raised back to my feet breathing harshly as I saw one of the mercenaries desperately trying to dig through the debris with his bare hands.

 

<System Reboot in Progress.>

<Too many inputs.>

 

I bet ya!

 

<<Oh! My system's back! >>

 

"GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

*CRACK*

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

<LEVEL UP>

 

"WERE YOU NOT DONE YET!??????????"