Chapter 323:Explorer.

Chapter 323: 323:Explorer.

A bubble rose from the spring. Silver watched it pop.

"Actually, furious would be good, it means she still cares."

If Ravenna was angry, she was alive. He could handle angry and even take being punched, probably.

Silver rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.

"Maybe not punched, it would hurt."

He smiled, then shook his head. He was talking to himself too much. That was probably what happened when someone spent more than a day trapped underground.

Silver stayed in the water a little longer. Eventually, his skin began wrinkling and that was his cue. Water ran down his body as he climbed from the spring.

He immediately checked the tunnel and found nothing. He picked up his handgun,checked the cavern but still nothing. Only then did he relax again.

"That was suspiciously peaceful."

Silver retrieved the clothing he’d purchased from the system.

[Standard Contractor Clothing Set retrieved.]

The package appeared and he opened it. There was a shirt, reinforced trousers, undergarments, socks and boots; everything promised.

Silver examined the shirt.

"Still wasn’t worth that much AP. That was daytime robbery, it’s more expensive than medicine."

He dried himself as fast as possible with one of the cloths included in the set, taking extra care around his injuries before getting dressed.

The clean clothing felt almost unnatural. After spending so long covered in blood and dirt, simply putting on a fresh shirt made him feel considerably better.

Silver pulled on the boots, stood and adjusted the trousers, then secured his weapons.

He refilled one of his empty bottles using the spring but marked it separately from the purified water. He could treat it later if necessary.

He checked his phone again, still no signal. Although he hadn’t expected one, the disappointment still came. He tried an emergency connection.

’No Service.’

Silver stared at the screen.

"Ravenna."

No message could leave and no call could connect. He put the phone away, then he opened the system. His AP balance remained miserable.

The sight almost offended him. Food reserves weren’t great but he had ammunition. His body had recovered significantly but his spatial reserves were usable.

His mental capacity was stable enough for short bursts of Spatial Sense. Overall, his situation was better than it had been five hours earlier.

Unfortunately, one problem remained unchanged, Silver had absolutely no idea where he was going. He sat beside the spring staring into space for a few moments.

He opened Spatial Sense again.

[Spatial Sense Lv2 Activated.]

His awareness spread through the surrounding stone. The tunnel he’d entered through, several narrow fractures, a small cavity beyond one wall that went nowhere, and solid rock beneath another section.

He pushed upward but only found more stone. He searched around the spring.

The basin descended into a narrow channel beneath the ground, but it wasn’t large enough for him to follow. Water was being pushed upward through cracks somewhere below, which explained the bubbling.

He deactivated the skill. He stared at the spring.

"So that’s it."

He had followed the water and found a dead end, a useful dead end, but still a dead end. He leaned back against the cavern wall.

Returning the way he’d come meant going back into the tunnel network and trying another route. Continuing from here wasn’t possible unless he wanted to start cutting through solid rock.

Following the queen’s path remained an option somewhere far behind him, but Silver considered that the final option after every other terrible idea had failed.

He looked upward but the cavern ceiling offered nothing.

He sighed.

"Think."

He needed something better than randomly choosing tunnels. Spatial Sense could tell him where passages existed but it couldn’t tell him which passage led outside.

He could prioritize tunnels moving upward, but underground systems twisted. A passage could climb for a hundred meters and end against solid rock, while one descending farther into the mountain might eventually connect to a route leading toward the surface.

He needed information. Anything that could indicate proximity to the surface. Silver looked toward the pale vegetation growing near one side of the spring.

He frowned.

The plants weren’t unusual enough to answer anything. He leaned forward. Maybe he could use the small beasts. If they lived down here, they needed food and if they travelled between sections of the mountain...

He stopped.

That wasn’t reliable either. Some underground beasts never saw the surface their entire lives.

He rubbed his forehead.

"Great."

His options weren’t particularly inspiring.

Silver looked at the water again. A cluster of bubbles rose as though mocking him.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

He watched them disappear, his mind returning to Ravenna. That was enough to settle one thing; he wasn’t staying here.

The spring was safe. There was water and it would make an excellent place to rest if he needed to return but sitting beside it wouldn’t get him closer to Ravenna.

Silver stood, checked his gun, then his sword. He looked toward the tunnel. He had a decision to make; return to the last major intersection and choose another route. Search for signs of airflow. Try to move upward whenever possible.

Or take the dangerous option and begin working back toward the tunnels connected to the queen’s nest, where the passages were almost guaranteed to connect to the wider Death Row Valley system.

He didn’t like any of them.

He looked around the peaceful cavern one last time. Five minutes ago, a bath had been his biggest concern. Now he was back to figuring out how to escape from beneath a mountain.

"Well." Silver adjusted the sword at his side. "At least I smell better."

He stepped toward the tunnel, then stopped at its entrance. Darkness stretched ahead and somewhere beyond it was a path out.

There had to be.

Silver rested one hand against the cavern wall and stared into that darkness, his expression slowly becoming serious again.

He could survive down here for a while but surviving wasn’t enough. Ravenna was waiting for him.

He tightened his grip around the handgun. He just needed to figure out which direction would take him back to her.