Azuma was surprised to see how easily he outran the demonic beasts when they have surrounded him from all sides. His body felt lighter, and he was now even more confident in himself than ever.
Those seemingly annoying training really paid off.
A dozen of huge rats chased him, their clawed feet hissing and thudding over the stone ground. He could hear the bone shuddering hungry cries and as Azuma gave his all into running, there was only one thing he knew.
He could not let himself be caught.
「 Your actions are unreadable. Why would you not carry a weapon in the Abyss, Azuma? 」
A rat suddenly jumped in front of Azuma and he nearly stumbled while stepping over it and jumping to avoid another abrupt visitor.
"They are expensive!" he exclaimed as the cries deafened him.
Azuma only carried the basic set of tools and he had already lost the one axe he owned in his last descent. There was no way he was going to pay half a million for a seeker's kit.
He didn't have half a million but that was another matter.
「 You don't need to buy a weapon. 」
"Don't think of stealing something again!"
「 Take a left turn. 」
"What??"
There was no left.
「 My radars have picked up another N.A.B,\. close by. It is corrupted but functioning. You may find help, Azuma. 」
He was about to ask something but then Azuma heard a human cry. Someone was close, and they hardly seemed to be in a better condition than him.
But two were always better than one.
Or so he had heard.
The orb soon revealed a left, and Azuma rushed in without second thoughts.
This led to a tunnel which was most likely a remnant of some mine. There were iron tracks and some broken mining robots.
But what took Azuma's attention was the web of vines that sprawled everywhere.
「 After twenty steps, you will find an opening in the ceiling. Climb it. 」
His face paled as his eyes travelled up towards the ceiling. It has to be ten feet high.
Azuma nearly tripped while running, one of the rats just happened to lung at him and the wild claws grazed the side of his face.
He winced but didn't stop, "You are forgetting I am a human, Zero!"
「 Five steps. There is a dead-end ahead, Azuma. You should not delay. 」
"You make no sense," he gritted his teeth and Azuma only did what he could.
He lightly tapped his feet against the ground, jumped at the wall and grabbed one of the vines. It quickly became clear that the vines could not be relied upon.
Azuma had little faith in his actions and jumped just as his hold faltered.
『 Skillset activated! Achilles' Heels! 』
His feet sprung high.
A rough gasp escaped him as Azuma grabbed onto the edge of the hole. His eyes were wide, hands slightly shaking from the abrupt impact.
「 You have done well, congratulations. 」
There was some happiness in her voice, Azuma didn't accept that but he smiled nevertheless as he climbed over the hole.
"I thought I removed that skillset," he panted and dusted his clothes.
He had nearly cracked his skull because of some beta bug in that set.
「 I recovered it. 」
"Can you del–"
The light orb followed him a moment later, its glow spread over to reveal the ruins of an old underground faculty. It was hard to see anything clearly, but Azuma saw a girl staring at him with an odd look.
She was mostly shrouded in shadows.
"Hey…Woah," her familiar voice mumbled, "You actually survived. NO–don't move!"
The floor beneath his feet trembled as Azuma shifted. He looked down and found large cracks spread beneath him and Haru.
Azuma ran a hand over his now messy hair, "Uh… yeah, um, what are you doing here?"
She mumbled in a low voice, "Thanks for saving my life, Haru-san. "
"Oh! Yeah, thanks a lot!"
"Hmm, thanks to you too," Haru smiled a little, she cautiously stepped towards Azuma, "Every seeker applicant is monitored closely through their regulatory fleet as well as a few droids. But those robots got attacked and I have to be closer."
"I know."
She raised a brow, halting, her eyes glanced at the darkness behind her.
"Then why did you ask?"
"It's just a strange coincidence," Azuma was not sure how to describe what he was feeling and so he dismissively added, "Nevermind."
Perhaps the recent hours made him somewhat paranoid but wasn't it weird how often they have met randomly? And in all the unlikely places.
Haru chuckled but the humour was lacking in her voice, "I wanted to…er, see you. And since we have already descended once, our commander let me have your monitoring duties."
Azuma frowned, "Why?"
She bit her lips and didn't say anything for a while, but there was an uneasiness in her expression.
"Azuma-san, do you remember what happened back then?"
The ground beneath them slightly trembled, the stone weathered before a complete silence settled.
Azuma was not sure where to begin. He hardly remembered anything, besides the fire that overwhelmed him and seeped into his blood.
"You are classified as an omega," Haru said, "But, that night, what you did was… well, very un-omega."
"What do you mean?"
Suddenly he heard a deep distant rumble, they had barely registered the strange sound when it came again but this time, it was frighteningly close.
'Something's coming...'
Haru's eyes widened, she immediately took out a spare gun and tossed it over at Azuma.
「 I have detected an unusual spike in Abyssal Energy, you need to leave, Azuma. 」
"Haru!" he called out while trying to find a safer way out, "We need to hurry, there might be a dangerous monster—"
"Aaack!!"
The beast hidden beneath their feet was faster, a blur of shadow erupted from the ground and grabbed Haru by her legs. The abrupt force made her shotgun fall down and she was dragged into the dark pit.
Azuma barely avoided the fragile ground and tossed a rope toward her.
But her hands only had the time to touch it before the shadows claimed her.
The newly formed hole did not open into the tunnels below. It emitted an eerie aura and signs of infernal heat waves that promised nothing good.
It gave off a gloomy feeling.
"What is this…?"
「 The Devil's Chasms are the nest of Void Serpents. They are scattered near the edge of level three and are reported to go down to one of the hottest parts of the Earth. 」
It was something Azuma roughly remembered, and it made his fingers go numb.
「 You do not have the proper equipment to descend inside the Chasm, Azuma. 」
She knew something.
"What did Haru mean, Zero? What exactly happened?"
A moment passed and there was no reply, no nothing besides the harrowing hisses of the chasm.
"We will go down there."