42 Chase

Now that the deed was done, Stanis opened the door and walked through the tunnel that followed. Despite the ravings his mind kept rambling, the only emotion he could feel was loss as he remembered the Malitsa coat: he wasn't dumb enough to imagine it still being around somewhere but nor was he ready to let go of his past life yet. Perhaps this was the Gods' sick way of telling him to completely accept this new reality, by destroying his last memorabilia and viciously torturing him for however long it had been.

A grim smile blossomed across his face as he thought of the torture, but his body betrayed his mind as it began twitching and spasming. His mind might have numbed but his body remembered…

The tunnel he was in seemed to have not been used much in recent as he could tell from the signs. He hoped this meant that wherever it led to was just as barren, hopefully having a tunnel upwards so that he could leave this cursed underground. That wasn't to say that Stanis craved freedom, in fact he wasn't very sure what he desired.

He knew he didn't want to see or face the slicer; he had fought the guard while his mind had still been completely broken but he doubted he would have been able to beat him otherwise. It wasn't that he was not strong enough but rather the fact that his body remembered; the seeds of submission had already been deeply planted within his flesh. Nor did he have a large desire to wipe out the Zelt from the face of Earth, rather all he wanted was to get out of here.

Just like he had ran away from the Camp when it had done him shit, he now wanted to run away from this place which had given him an unimaginable amount of injuries, whether it be physical or mental. The very thought of the tunnels and the Zelts made his hands shake…

Soon the tunnel ended and Stanis walked out into another dark, dug-out room. He was as happy as he could be as he realised there were no Zelts here. Leading out of the room were three more tunnels, from which Stanis chose the largest tunnel as he guessed that would be a hub of even more tunnels, hopefully one which led him out. His body slightly wavered at the decision as it brought up dreaded ideas of a crowd of Zelts being there, but his mind eventually cut through.

Close to an hour had passed as Stanis saw a light at the end of the tunnel. He had been walking with a worry-stricken mind but it had soon passed as he realised there were no Zelts here… He had even used Scout and sense a few times to make sure they weren't just digging towards him, only to be shocked as he couldn't sense any signs of life. This had transformed his worry into joy as he ambled down the tunnel, towards the bright exit. If it had been Stanis prior to the torture, he would have still been on edge as he walked around in monster territory but the present Stanis's mind was now broken, his worries, desires and aspirations a shell of what they were before.

He stepped out of the tunnel, surprised at the sudden drop as he fell onto his face. He was even more shocked as he opened his eyes, the cavern he was now in the largest and brightest he had ever seen. There was a proper lake bisecting the cavern, the water azure and pure. Stalactites dominated the ceiling, some large enough to kill Stanis with a drop. Stalagmites created walls in the cavern, although they didn't manage to hide the most shocking thing Stanis had seen all his life.

Near the centre of the cavern was a large crystal, its walls so dark that they seemed to null and devour light. It spun at a constant rate, amplifying its brilliance by a large extent as Stanis realised every single face was flawless, every edge perfect and the whole crystal without blemish. His gaunt, exhausted eyes were the size of saucers when he walked closer, the mana density in the air rising rapidly each step he took.

It was as he stepped up to touch the crystal that he saw a small chest next to it. Curious, Stanis opened the chest, only to see a Storage stone inside. But this wasn't the normal run of the mill type, rather the ridge that ran across the middle was coloured velvet red. Stanis didn't know what it was but this was actually a gift that Ryr had prepared for the higher-ups coming down to Earth.

He picked it up anyway and crushed it in his hand.

[You have gained a skill upgrade. Choose the skill you want to upgrade.]

Stanis said his answer a second after the message came up.

"Scout and sense"

His voice was still incredibly raspy and without emotion. The only thing he wanted to do was leave this place alive and the only skill that could actively help him with that was Scout and sense.

[Skill Scout and sense upgraded.

Scout and Sense

A skill which uses mana to instantly scout out your surrounding area. Using more mana will increase scouted area.

Upgraded: The scout information will now be deeper than just visual. Any living creatures caught within the scan will have their simple data presented to you.]

Admittedly, this wasn't the upgrade he had been hoping for. But it would do nevertheless, at least it would be useful if he escaped the Zelt's base.

He then looked at the crystal, his mind sucked in by it as he stood there staring at it. It was a few seconds later when he broke the spell that he also broke out in cold sweat. He didn't know what it was but the fact that it was in such a large cavern, next to what he presumed to be such a rare Storage stone made him believe that this crystal was just as or more important. Well, the fact that this was the most out of the world thing he had seen ever since the apocalypse also helped sway his judgement.

Stanis waved his hands below the crystal, checking if there was an off switch or something, only to realise he was being an idiot. This was followed by a manic, but spluttering laughter. The only thing he knew was that this was definitely precious to the Zelts, and although he didn't want to hunt them out of hatred for what they had done, he also didn't mind forcing them to pay back their debt.

He had no clothes on him, needless to say any weapons and so Stanis punched the crystal, only to realise how hard it was. Nevertheless, he had his warped version of patience within him and he carried on clobbering the crystal, his left hand actually doing some damage as he saw cracks emerge many blows later. This further motivated him as his blows got faster, both fists now bloody as the skin had been torn off by this unusual crystal.

His persistence began to pay off as the cracks spread, morphing into critical cracks. It was in the last seconds of the battering that a thought came up, how he remembered being surprised at being rewarded for the destruction of the Goblins' teleporter after a light nap. He had later asked the group about it and it turned out the "teleporter" was actually a crystal.

Despite the pain he was in, his lips spread to grin as he realised the full effect of what he was about to do. This was worth maybe a quarter of the debt they had towards to him.

*THHHHHHRT*

The crystal shattered, shards flying everywhere as crystal grains filled the air.

[You have destroyed the teleporter of the Invader Species: Zelts. Kill remaining spawned Zelts to increase your contribution and be alive in an hour to receive your reward, which will be determined by your contribution.

Contribution can be stolen. A dead Contributor's points will be passed over to the killer.]

Stanis rigidly grimaced. He wanted to smile at being right and getting one back at the Zelts, but the shards of crystals embedded in his flesh disabled from doing so. Bah, not like he was unused to the sensation anyway. He picked all the shards out, before lightly healing the wounds so they closed.

After a quick search around the massive cavern, Stanis decided there was nothing left and used close to half his remaining mana in a Scout and sense. It was to his joy that there was a tunnel going up just on the other side of this cavern.

Soon he was off on his way, his emotions strong but mixed about all that had happened here.

****

Rak's heart was pounding tears as he heard the notification. Ryr had set up multiple boundaries around the camp, all of which would release a different signal when triggered. Rak had been beyond confused when he had heard the inner-most boundary trigger, after all the outer ones were still fine. Was it a malfunction or…?

Despite being sceptical, he had still decided to rush back to the main cavern. It was as he was bolting down the multiple short-cuts put in place that he remembered about the Human who had ties to the dark race, Zelaro. But then he had put off that thought, he remembered seeing the Human: hopeless and weak. Besides the torture Ryr had committed on him should have broken his mind, how could that Human now go against any Zelts?

But the more he thought about it, the worse his worries became. It was just a tier-one after all, they might not have any tier-twos to spare but he shouldn't have trusted that fucking guard when he said he wanted to leave the defence front-line. He should have at least sent another or even a group of tier-ones with that guard, but he had been blinded by his euphoric thoughts of the future.

Rak hoped, but his hopes weren't enough as the System declared the teleporter destroyed, all of them now stranded on this wretched planet. The worst fact wasn't even that the teleporter had been destroyed, but rather the fact that it was by some FUCKING WEAKLING HUMAN.

His feet moved faster than light, his body burning blood, zipping through the tunnels within seconds. He would be on that Human within minutes, and he would fucking tear. him. up…