Despite the acceleration, the pressure, and the wind stinging his eyes, Martin reacted instantly to the blue strip at the end of the tunnel. Still gripping the rim, he hauled himself out of the cart and threw himself sideways.
He hit the wall. The impact rocked his vision for a few seconds. He landed on a narrow maintenance ledge beside the track, fingers clawing for balance.
[-71 HP]
He didn’t feel pain, but the HP drop told him enough. Thankfully, he wasn’t stunned or under any other crowd control.
anwhile, his teammates braced for what was coming. With the cart’s cramped space and brutal speed, none of them could even think about bailing out the way Martin had. Not only had he anchored himself at the front, but he could also balance his weight more easily with the others behind him.
Pinned to the cart, Chaosgraphy grinned. NukEncore covered her eyes and looked down. Kill Clause stared ahead with a stone-cold expression, though the corners of her lips twitched under the pressure.
Behind them, Martin didn’t get dragged along. He stayed put and waited for the cart to reach the end of the ramp. He raised his shield, dropped into his immovable guard, and planted his boots.
A mont later, the tether he’d clipped at the start snapped taut. The line bit into his arm like a steel leash. His boots scraped for purchase as the force tried to drag him forward. Just as the cart was about to be launched off the ramp for another bungee, Martin’s Control Devil’s Shield shuddered, and its tether turned crimson red.
The mont the cart tried to pull away, Martin’s tether enforced its rule. Anything it latched onto had to co back.
"Thirty ters to Martin! Brace!" Kill Clause shouted. She was the only one who could read distance that precisely.
BANG!
The tether yanked hard, and the cart lurched backward. Martin dove aside, shield up, as the wheels shrieked on the rails. The cart jerked up the incline, throwing sparks, then lost montum and rolled back down, stopping just short of the ramp.
The cart shuddered like a living thing, wood creaking, wheels ticking as they cooled. The air slled burnt, like hot tal and scraped stone.
A second later, a shout burst from inside the cart.
"Nuh-uh! I don’t like it at all! How can you even find joy in sothing so extre?" NukEncore shouted as she rose to her feet, still trembling. "I didn’t cry or scream! Lend a hand, Martin! That’s my reward!"
"How about you complint him? He nailed the plan," Chaosgraphy jabbed from below.
But NukEncore didn’t care. She flailed her hands like a kid begging to be picked up until she spotted Martin. Then she awkwardly climbed onto the rim and jumped straight into his arms.
"I’ve decided!" NukEncore said.
"On what?" Martin asked.
"I’ll learn long-distance magic so I can nuke everyone and everything from afar without going through those extre chanics!" she replied.
Naive as it was, the idea was cool enough for Martin to go all-in to support her. "If that fits your fire mage dream, go for it. I support you."
"It does!" NukEncore smiled from the bottom of her heart at the ntion of her dream. "Keep supporting , and you’ll learn about it later!"
"Got it," Martin chuckled.
After he set her down, Martin helped the other two party mbers out of the cart. No monsters ca at them. The dungeon stayed quiet, and the blue light from farther in lit the area, making their current spot much easier to manage.
It gave them room to breathe after that cart ride.
"I’ll check in. I’m already ward up," Martin said, peeling away from the team.
That said, the others didn’t let him go alone. They quickly followed, matching his drive to explore. Even NukEncore, despite all her complaints, stuck close behind him. The small mont bonded Martin with them even more.
Martin smiled to himself and kept walking. The tunnel opened into a chamber so vast it swallowed their footsteps.
Blue crystals erupted from the walls in clustered blooms, so thin as needles, others thick as spears. Their light wasn’t steady. It shimred faintly, like moonlight caught in moving water, turning the dust in the air into glittering motes.
Above them, crystal stalactites hung like chandeliers in a ruined palace, casting cold radiance over a yawning shaft. The glow painted the rim in sharp blues and black shadows, then fell away into a depth that looked bottomless. If Martin dropped a pebble, he doubted he’d hear it land.
Off to the side, a cart lift clung to the rock face, its fra bright where crystals had grown through it and dim where rust had won. Narrow pathways traced the rim and descended in broken switchbacks, vanishing and reappearing wherever the crystal-light happened to touch.
Martin exhaled. "Even if this place was wrecked by ti or sothing else, the crystals alone make it feel magical."
"The real fantasy would be monsters," NukEncore muttered.
"You’re a masochist for sure," Chaosgraphy shot back.
"Those crystals are definitely worth sothing—" Kill Clause started.
Kill Clause reached for the nearest protruding crystal. The instant her fingertips brushed it, a blue patch crystallized on her skin, spreading as she stared.
[You have discovered a new debuff: Crystallization.]
[Crystallization (Debuff): Mana within you will slowly leak through your pores and crystallize on your skin. Consus 1% of your mana every 5 seconds, fueling the growth of the crystal.]
"Look at your hands," Kill Clause said. "Crystal’s spreading. Pull up the debuff description. Now."
"What?" Martin asked, raising his hands without thinking.
On his right hand, he found a speck of blue crystal, the sa grade as the ones on the walls. It slowly spread, threatening to spread further. It didn’t hurt. It just felt cold—like ice growing under his skin.
But what effects? Martin didn’t know.
This didn’t work like a PC ga. In those, they would’ve gotten full debuff info the instant it applied. Here, Kill Clause had to discover it herself.
"This is terrible! I’m totally useless without mana!" NukEncore exclaid.
Chaosgraphy jabbed at her. "Aren’t you already useless?"
"Watch your words! In those tunnels, I can’t miss at all!" NukEncore harrumphed, lifting her chin.
Martin let them bicker and walked over to Kill Clause.
"We should assu this will follow us down the mine. If so, it’s best to learn more about it," Martin said.
Kill Clause nodded. She clawed at the crystallized patch, trying to peel it off, but it wouldn’t budge. It was stuck, still draining her mana.
"NukEncore’s the only one truly vulnerable to this," Kill Clause said. "The rest of us can still fight without mana. What’s your plan?"
"I think it’s best we leave NukEncore alone—"
"Excuse ?!" NukEncore snapped, whirling on him. "How could it even cross your mind to leave alone?!"
Uh, she’s really mad for so reason. Is it because she’s scared to be alone?
Martin couldn’t have been more wrong. Only a small part of NukEncore worried about being alone in the buried mine.
The rest of her couldn’t process the idea of being left behind at all—especially by a man. It didn’t make any sense to her.
Chaosgraphy coughed from the side.
The cough hit NukEncore like a wake-up call. She slipped back into the version of herself Martin had first t. Quiet, insecure about her voice, insecure about people staring at her, she lowered her head and apologized in a whisper.
"Sorry," she murmured. If he learns about my real self, he’ll treat like other n do. And I don’t want that. I can’t believe I needed Alexandra to bail out again. I owe her now.
Martin tilted his head. "Hey. Don’t shrink back. Your voice is fine. You’ve been doing great with us."
NukEncore’s eyes glead like stars.
Martin continued, "I wasn’t calling you useless. You burn mana faster than we do. Use that. Watch how the crystallization changes as your mana drops. We’ll head down and scout. Call us the mont you notice anything. We need you."
NukEncore lifted her face and bead at him, catching Martin off guard. A smile like that could ss with soone’s head. She was too dangerous when she looked like that.
"Mhm. I can do that all on my own. You three go down and wait for the good news from ! I’m not scared of the dark at all!"
You are.
Everyone thought it.
Then Martin received a sudden system notification.
[Ao Tenshin has absorbed enough crystallization and obtained a new skill: Blue Crystal Shell.]
At the sa ti, a roar surged up from the depths of the shaft.
"A NEW SNACK! I SNIFF A NEW SNACK! BRING IT TO !" The rough, gruff voice echoed through the chamber.
They an Angel? Should I pull her back into the Pocket Dinsion? What the hell was that voice?
And what’s with this earthquake? What’s coming for us?
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