CRACK!!!
The floor was already thoroughly damaged that all eyes failed to detect a particular set of cracks running along with the ruin. It was incomparably deep and had devastating effects while maintaining inconspicuousness. Even the Dungeon Heart didn't sense such an abrupt turn of events until the floor caved in.
Boom!
A portion of the floor disappeared into the darkness and the adventurers saw Adam's figure among the vanishing rubbles. A second after he ceased to be visible, a loud and powerful gust of wind emerged from the depth of the unending darkness and collided with the walls of the room.
Bang!
The sealed doors were shattered and the air current escaped with great ferocity. The beasts found their balance destabilising with exposure to the pressure. The Iron Tusker and two more beasts receded from view as the collapse expanded.
"We need to escape. Or else we'll be eaten by the crumbling." Walter screamed.
But Theo retorted. "What about Adam? Are we supposed to leave him be?"
"If he was here, he'll only ask us to escape." A solemn voice came from Gary.
Tara heard their exchanges and could only grit her teeth as she darted at the door. The other three followed suit just seconds before the entire chamber crumbled inwards.
"AHHH...BASTARDS!!!" The dominating tone of the semi-sentient entity was replaced by an agonising scream brimming with hostility. The voice soon disappeared into oblivion as the entire dungeon began to shake fiercely.
Charging ahead at their full speed, the party barely made it in time as the entrance of the cave collapsed.
Through the cloud of dust, four figures were flung into the outside world. They didn't have a fixed footing and was covered in dirt. Due to their sheer momentum, they ended up rolling on the ground for almost a dozen metres, coughing and breathing roughly.
The sudden turn of events and the abrupt decision had spiked their energy consumption to new peaks that they almost thought they'll not die under the rubbles but from the exhaustion.
The quaking of the ground only intensified and its area of effect spread beyond the village. Grandma Mera and Durian were dumbstruck by the sudden episode of an earthquake.
Roar!
Every beast within almost ten kilometres had a ripple of a threat going up against their spine. No organism couldn't contain their perplexion and annoyance and a loud bellow reinforced by a myriad of yelling and shrieking rose into the air.
***
Meanwhile, the entire dungeon had crumbled like a giant sandcastle!
"..."
Sometime after, the earthling who disappeared into the void beneath the guardian chamber woke up.
With a lack of visibility and illumination, Adam attempted to move his limbs. But somehow, his entire torso was being pinned down to the ground by something heavy.
'Hmm?' Finding himself suddenly unable to move or even feel his entire body, a wave of apprehension rippled across his body.
'Detect.' That was the only glyph he could use at the moment to assess his situation.
The remaining feeble amount of Mana was depleted to sense his current environment.
The next moment, lines of information were compiled in his mind. Going through the data, his brows shot up.
Adam was currently lying in a chamber naturally formed due to soil erosion. The lady luck was pleased with him and not too many rocks have punctured his torso. Apart from the impact of kinetic energy and the aftermath of sedimentation, he can sense a faint breeze skimming in the stagnant air.
"No wonder." Adam let out a peal of laughter as he realised that he is under a gigantic pile of rock and stone and soil. But what actually made him happy was the presence of four beast corpses in the vicinity.
'So they didn't survive.' After depleting all of his mana to create that one glyph, Adam concluded after thoroughly pondering over the information. But his delight demeanour was soon replaced by helplessness.
But there was always a way for one who mastered the Arcane Glyphs.
The finger fidgeted and confirmed the presence of the storage ring. With a thought, a beast core appeared inside his palm. Positioning his palm according to the data, Adam prayed, "Hope this works."
The crystal rolled to his forefinger and it flicked the stone airborne. The calculations that appeared in his heart like an instinct was accurate as the stone vanished inside his mouth.
Without dwelling on the sweet sensation of mana coursing through the body, a train of beast cores were launched into the air. The mesmerising arc drawn by the multiple small stones restored the reserve and automatically healed the wounds.
Huff.
A mouthful of breath escaped his lips as Adam summoned the status. The matching MP values divided by a slash crept up a smile on his face.
'Gravity Inversion.' The glyph wasn't made with condensed mana but it consumed every last bit of his reserve. As soon as he deduced that the effect of the gravity inversion would only last for a few ten seconds, the pile of stone pressing on him began to rise.
'Ha!'
With a thrust, Adam propelled his body from beneath the rubbles, before the effect of the glyph wore away.
DHUM!
The gravity inversion was cut off instantly and Adam escaped the immense pressure by a hair's breadth.
With a swift flick of his wrist, a dozen beast cores were thrown into his mouth. The sound of stones being ground by a pair of jaws resonated in the empty natural formation.
"Repair. Detect. Illuminate." Three glyphs materialised in the air one after the other and their mana depletion wasn't anything to scoff at. A steady stream of cores faded into Adam's piehole as the energy bestowed by the previous dozen of beasts cores was sapped dry.
With a dull thud, Adam's rear was placed on the ground as a bunch of information were composed in his mind.
"To think that such a place exists beneath a dungeon!"
Exclamation left his lips as Adam realised the existence of a vertical pitfall below the sturdy floor of the Guardian Chamber. His initial demeanour was confusing. But as he considered several factors, he derived that this is possibly a fail-safe protocol created by the Dungeon Heart. The theory remained unendorsed as he couldn't substantiate it without proof.
Sitting cross-legged with his back against the wall, Adam summoned his interface, again.
/◄▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫►\
▹ Name: Adam (26/M)
▹ Race: Zoomorph
▹ Level: 16 [377/5,440]
▹ Class: Berserker
▹ Innate Skill: Auto-Healing
▹ HP: 204/204
▹ MP: 65/65
▹ STR: 39
▹ AGI: 40
▹ INT: 12
▹ A.P: 2
▹ Martial Arts: Unarmed Mastery (E), Spear Mastery (E), Axe Mastery (F).
▹ Magical Arts: ---
\◄▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫►/
Depositing the two points into MP, he turned his sight to the level integer.
The vitality of beasts and monsters were unusually higher than their normal counterparts. With each rise in grade, the beasts will experience an increase in their overall physical qualities. This enabled swift levelling.
Staring at the corpses of the Iron Tusker, Giant Arid Scorpion, Hellfire Tiger and the Hypnotic Rattlesnake, Adam distinguished the reason for the sudden boost in XP. The beasts which were battling the other four were unintentionally dragged into the growing collapsing floor.
Fortunately, the Acid-Talon Falcon escaped this plight with its ability to fly.
"Time to receive the rewards." Walking leisurely to the corpses after double-checking that they're dead, Adam used his spear to shred the flesh and scales of the beasts.
Within five minutes, he acquired four giant crystals. With colours ranging from sky blue to forest green, it was as if they had a peculiar attribute hiding in them.
"The body of a beast is precious." Recalling Gary's words, Adam stashed the corpses in the storage ring.
After that, several large mana stones appeared in his palm.
"Time to increase my MP limit." Determination reflected in those words as Adam sat on the ground. The surge of pure energy began to course through his being and his consciousness guided this energy to saturate his entire body. Slowly yet steadily, Adam proceeded, heeding to the sage's advice.
***
While the earthling was raising his MP, the adventurers had returned to the village with grim faces.
From a distance itself, the guards saw the silhouettes of the adventurers. Their dirtied clothes were easily recognised and Durian was immediately alerted.
But his initial delighted smile vanished when he came to know that there are only four of them and that they're covered in wounds and dust.
Notifying grandma Mera, he rushed to the gate and saw the gloomy faces of the adventurers.
"What happened?" Durian couldn't help but ask.
The party walked past the village head and paced towards a patch of green grass. Plopping down, Gary began to explain what had happened.
...
"This..." the village head was wonderstruck. His eyes shot up like there's no tomorrow.
He and his granny have been wondering clueless about Adam's peculiar and mystifying identity and they were a little restless to quench their curiosity. But who would have thought that the person-in-question would have left the village, never to return.