'…So silent'
In the total darkness, only the sound of his body breaking the wind echoed as he fell in the void.
Barely 30 seconds had passed since Kalen began to fall and he had already been in free fall for at least 200 metres.
Second by second, Kalen began to think that maybe there was no bottom, maybe he would fall forever into the void, unable to see anything, not even his own body due to the lack of light.
Nothing changed until a disgusting smell reached his nostrils.
'Ugh… disgusting'
Even though he was falling to his death, Kalen didn't want to smell something so foul, so he held his nose and continued to fall.
But a short time later, he suddenly felt his body sink into a liquid, as if he'd jumped off an Olympic diving board and fallen into a pool… only it wasn't made of water.
His whole body sank metres into a viscous liquid that cushioned his fall so that only his legs hurt, but apparently he had been saved.
If only he could swim up.
Kalen tried to move his arms to get out of the liquid and had to use all his strength not to sink and pull his head up to the surface.
"Ahhh… ahhh"
Kalen inhaled, not caring that the air smelled like he was in a landfill, and he floated in the viscous liquid.
Even without light, everything around him was still completely dark.
But in addition to his ragged breathing, Kalen could hear something moving in the viscous liquid near him.
Swimming with some difficulty, Kalen reached the source of the sound and tried to reach whatever was sinking.
Seconds after searching the viscous liquid, he suddenly felt something and grabbed it before pulling it up.
Adding the weight of what he was trying to pull and the liquid making everything more difficult, Kalen had to use all his strength again to lift Talika, who as soon as her head came to the surface gasped for air.
'Just as well…'
Kalen had risked grabbing something unknown, but there was also the possibility that it was one of those who had fallen with him.
To his luck, it was Talika he had saved.
The moment Talika took a breath, someone heard her and spoke softly.
"Is anyone there?"
Kalen recognised
Oliver's voice and introduced himself.
"It's me… and Talika"
Oliver sighed with relief.
"…Thank goodness."
Kalen looked around trying to hear something.
"Elisabeth. Are you still alive?"
For a few seconds no one spoke until a tired voice answered him.
"Barely…"
Apparently all four of them had survived the fall… since the others had made it into the tunnel successfully.
'Now what?'
Although he didn't know the exact depth, Kalen guessed they had fallen nearly half a kilometer. He looked up with the possibility of seeing something but the light from the sky was not reaching them.
He sighed as he saw that there was no chance of coming back up and looked at Talika who had caught her breath.
"Are you okay?"
Though she couldn't see anything, she looked in the direction she had heard Kalen's voice and tightened her grip on his arm.
"B-better… thank you"
Kalen sighed internally.
"You're welcome…"
Then he look up and try to face Oliver and Elisabeth's direction.
"Let's get out of here first… there should be a tunnel nearby"
Remembering the hundreds of tunnels in the walls of the pit, Kalen prayed that it was the same way down there and they had an escape route.
If there were tunnels, then with any luck they would make it back up…somehow.
Elisabeth and Oliver moved closer to Kalen to be near each other and began to move forward towards the wall.
The viscous liquid was like a pool of mud, thick enough not to sink if they kept moving.
It was even more difficult than walking underwater, it took minutes to go a few meters and I didn't even know which direction they were going.
They may have been approaching the nearest wall or moving away from it. The fall had completely disoriented them so they had no idea where north or south was.
However, at some point Kalen was stopped by the words of Talika who was behind him.
"I-I see something to the left"
Talika pointed to the left and Kalen looked in that direction.
Nearly 20 metres away, a light shone at the bottom of a nearby tunnel. Kalen was relieved to know that there was a tunnel, but worried about the source of the light.
Who knew what kind of creature they were about to encounter, he just hoped it wasn't anything like the monster above.
"Stand still" Kalen gave his order and everyone stopped, trying to hide their breathing.
Soon more lights appeared, illuminating other tunnel entrances around the group.
As above, there were dozens of tunnels all around them, lighting up one after the other, all with the same light.
Now they were facing not just one thing they didn't know what it was... but dozens.
Kalen tried to peer as far into the tunnel ahead of him as he could to see what was coming, and soon he could see what looked like a giant slug approaching.
'..Not again'
Unlike the monster that had been chasing them for a week, the creature in front of him was identical to the slugs of his world... only gigantic.
The slug took up all the space in the tunnel, and on its forehead was a pearl that glowed similarly to the light crystals that littered the cave.
Everyone froze at the sight of more than a dozen giant slugs approaching, hiding their breathing even more.
Kalen could only hope that the slugs were not as aggressive as their evil counterparts.
Suddenly, Kalen felt Talika tugging at his shirt.
"What's wrong?" he asked seriously.
Talika looked at the slug that was getting closer and closer to them.
"They're not aggressive... in fact, they don't even care that we're here"
Not only Kalen, but also Elisabeth and Oliver frowned at Talika's statement.
"How do you know that?" asked Oliver.
Talika tightened her grip on Kalen's shirt.
"Because I can feel it... it's my ability"
Everyone was surprised by Talika's sudden revelation, especially Kalen.
'!¿Her too?!'
Now it seemed that everyone had an ability but him.
'What kind of joke is this?'
Kalen put his jealousy aside and looked seriously at Talika.
"Can you explain your ability a little better?"
Talika nodded and pointed at the giant snail.
"My ability allows me to sense the most superficial thoughts of creatures that are not hostile to me"
Talika's ability may have been useless until now, but at this moment it proved extremely useful to her.
"I couldn't detect the thoughts of that monster... but I can detect those of the slugs"
By this logic, the slugs were actually not hostile to them, as Talika had said.
They all sighed visibly when they realised that they were in no danger.
"If that's the case, let's wait for it to come out and enter the cave"
No one disagreed with Kalen's words and they waited for the slug to come out of the tunnel so they could enter.
Once out of the pool of slimy liquid, they all sat on the floor of the tunnel, enjoying the solid surface.
They were all covered in the liquid from head to toe and the smell was simply unbearable.
As they recovered, Kalen watched as all the slugs gathered in the pool of black liquid and began to sink into it.
He had no idea what the liquid was or what the slugs were doing, but Kalen couldn't have cared less.
They had survived one big fall, but now they faced another big problem.
"How do we get out of here?" Kalen whispered to himself, trying not to attract the attention of the others.
But first of all, not only Kalen, but also Elisabeth, Oliver and Talika wanted nothing more than to get rid of the slimy liquid and get as far away from the disgusting smell as possible.
As most of the slugs began to sink into the black liquid and their only source of light began to fade, the group decided to go deeper into the tunnel before they were completely plunged into darkness again.
***
Hundreds of metres above them, a group of six men walked silently through the tunnels.
Ahead of them all and leading them was Zayne, a serious and indifferent look on his face. At the back, Jaume Che had several wounds on his face and limped with every step, but he dared not stop.
Suddenly a scream echoed through the tunnels, waking them all.
"Again" whispered Jordan Miller, one of the men in the group.
"But somehow it's different from the previous ones" Kristopher Mcley added.
Zayne said nothing, but shared Kristopher's thoughts.
'That cry wasn't one of pain or agony like the previous ones... it was one of rage'