Chapter 349:A search.

Chapter 349: 349:A search.

By the time he finally asked the system for the elapsed time, the answer confirmed that he had entered the fifth day since the original collapse.

[Elapsed Time Since Initial Cave Collapse: 4 Days, 3 Hours, 51 Minutes.]

Silver stared at the notification while sitting beneath a cluster of thick roots.

"Day five."

It felt strange saying it aloud.

Five days ago, he’d entered Death Row Valley with Ravenna, Antony and eight Rank Four Contractors believing the greatest danger would be whatever Larry’s group had secretly come looking for.

Now Larry was somewhere outside, Ravenna and Antony were hopefully safe in Alpha Three, and Silver was several kilometers into a subterranean system playing hide-and-seek with a colony of parasitic worms.

He ate quickly. There would be no long rest, especially not here. He had discovered that remaining in one place for too long was becoming dangerous.

He slept in pieces instead; twenty minutes, thirty, and once, almost an hour.

Every time, he selected a narrow defensible location, checked it thoroughly with Spatial Sense and positioned himself so that a worm couldn’t reach him without making enough noise to wake him.

It wasn’t proper sleep, his body hated it, but it kept him moving.

The fifth day became a strange war fought almost entirely without fighting. Silver began treating Spatial Sense as his most valuable ability.

He would walk for fifteen or twenty minutes, stop, scan, then continue. Whenever the skill detected movement, he changed direction.

Sometimes he climbed, sometimes he waited, and sometimes he crawled through passages he normally wouldn’t have considered.

At one intersection, Spatial Sense detected eleven worms moving through the route ahead. He immediately retreated.

The alternate path required climbing a cracked wall nearly twelve meters high, but Primal Strength made the climb considerably easier than it would have been several days earlier.

His fingers dug into narrow holds, his legs pushed while his muscles burned.

The system rewarded the effort.

[Primal Strength Lv2 proficiency increased.]

Silver glanced at the notification while hanging several meters above the floor.

"Still ninety-six?"

[Primal Strength Lv2 Proficiency: 97%.]

He smiled.

"Progress."

He climbed faster. The route above connected to another passage. There were more roots and airflow. The air was unquestionably fresher now.

He occasionally smelled vegetation. It wasn’t the usual underground fungi but something faint and familiar, probably surface soil.

He didn’t allow himself to become too excited. The mountain had disappointed him too many times, still, he was getting closer.

The network module eventually agreed. Late in the fifth day, it suddenly beeped.

Silver stopped and pulled it out.

[External Network Fragment Detected.]

His heart jumped.

[Signal Strength: 1%.]

Then it vanished. He stared in disbelief.

"No."

He lifted the module, moved left, and even climbed onto a rock but nothing. The connection had existed for perhaps two seconds.

Silver smiled anyway.

One percent was enough to prove he was higher. Several hours later, he caught two percent. It lasted four seconds, then disappeared.

He continued.

The worms increased with each climb. He couldn’t pretend otherwise anymore. They weren’t simply concentrated in the upper tunnels, they were searching.

He confirmed it when he found himself trapped between two groups. Spatial Sense detected six worms approaching from ahead.

He turned to leave but four more had entered the passage behind him.

His eyes narrowed.

The side walls contained no usable openings. Above him, however, thick roots crossed beneath a narrow ledge.

Silver holstered his handgun.

"Fine."

He jumped, primal Strength carrying him high enough to grab the lowest root. His shoulder protested but he pulled himself upwards anyway.

He climbed onto the ledge and flattened his body against the stone. The passage beneath him remained visible through Spatial Sense.

The first six worms arrived and the four from behind joined them. Ten worms gathered almost directly beneath him.

He stopped breathing as deeply as one worm crawled beneath his position, and another followed. He could have reached down and touched it.

His sword remained strapped against his back because drawing it might scrape stone.

The worms clicked and several answered.

Silver listened carefully although he couldn’t understand anything he still sort of understood.

This wasn’t random, they were communicating. One worm moved toward the direction he had come from, another continued forward, two entered a side passage, and the others separated. They were clearly searching.

His expression became grim.

"They’re hunting me."

The words remained inside his head.

A worm stopped directly beneath him, then its upper body rose. Silver’s right hand slowly moved toward the handgun.

The creature’s sensory appendages shifted but he remained motionless. It raised itself higher. If it looked upward... The worm clicked.

Silver’s finger settled against the trigger. Another worm answered from farther away. The creature lowered itself and crawled onward.

He waited almost ten minutes without moving until Spatial Sense confirmed nothing remained nearby. Only then did he lower himself from the ledge. His arms were aching.

He looked in the direction the worms had gone. The situation had changed. Avoiding unnecessary combat was no longer simply about conserving strength. If he killed one, there was a chance the colony would know exactly where he was.

Silver needed to become invisible. He began altering how he moved; no unnecessary gunfire or Space Slash unless trapped, and short-Step only when necessary.

He stopped leaving food containers behind. Used dressings returned to storage instead of being discarded. He even began cleaning small blood traces whenever an old wound reopened.

He wasn’t sure how the worms tracked him, so he treated every possible sign as dangerous. It worked for a while.

He continued upward.

The passages became easier. Several sections resembled natural caves rather than worm tunnels. One even contained a crack overhead where he could feel a steady stream of cool air.

He stood beneath it for nearly a minute. He was certain now it was outside air. He checked the network module only for it to skip from two to three then nothing.

"Getting there."

He continued.

The fifth day ended without Silver really noticing. He only got a system notification when he eventually asked.

[Elapsed Time Since Initial Cave Collapse: 5 Days, 1 Hour, 17 Minutes.]

He leaned against the wall.

"Day six."