Chapter 26

Max exhaled heavily and clenched his fists.

He stood in place, eyes closed.

Thinking.

'Look at this place. It's a bloodbath. Am I not just another pathetic monster?'

"Max."

It was Eliyah who called him.

Max turned to the side.

The purple-haired mage looked at Max coldly.

"You're too immersed, Max."

"What?"

"This isn't real, none of it is."

"What we did is real."

"It is, but that kid would've probably got the whole island on our heads with his screaming after we get out. The other slaves would've been caught and the island would know that something was wrong. If the whole island goes on our asses, we're dead."

Max was silent.

"You can't regret this Max. You fucking can't. You chose this, I chose this. We did. Think of the real world you wanna come back to."

"...You're right. I'm losing my focus."

An image of his wife came to mind.

His heart beat faster. His breath got heavier.

His kids, his brother, his friends.

Images popped up in Max's mind. Images that will enable to him to do monstrous acts like this one.

"And they can't even escape this island. NPCs said that the waters here are deadly for swimmers. You need a decent sized boat."

"Sorry. I'm being foolish."

"We're all retards sometimes. We have each other to correct when we go off course."

"Thanks. You could've used a better word though."

"I'm glad we reunited. I thought I'd never see you again."

"How long was it, two months?"

"Something like that."

It was a massive cave expanse beneath the sea itself.

Many gemstones were visible high up on the walls and ceilings, unreachable and illuminating.

Mining tunnels were made in the expanse to look for more resources.

They were in one tunnel when they killed the slaves and guards.

"Manuel, is it pointing anywhere?"

"No. We'll just have to search for it."

Max clicked his tongue.

'Why am I always in caves these days?' He thought.

They had limited time. Perhaps more than they could imagine. The squad had to be as quick as possible.

"What the fuck are we even supposed to look for?" Eliyah said angrily.

"Calm down, look for something that stands out." Max replied.

The players rushed through the cave system and looked around worriedly.

"We've got to look in unconventional places, since the miners would've found the damn thing long ago." Eliyah said.

Max stopped for a couple seconds.

"What?" Manuel asked.

"These tunnels, are they naturally formed or artificial?"

"Why is it...Oh." Eliyah said.

"Yeah. Whatever's here is connected to the necklace. The old owner of the item would've definitely looked for it, but didn't, since the item was in the vault."

"So this is intended?" Manuel asked.

"Yes, meaning the person left or found something here and left it. Probably."

"But no one from the mining team found it." The spear knight added.

"It has to be somewhere where the mining team would have no reason to be. Yet not being impossible to find, like somewhere a hundred meters below this ground we stand on."

Max had an intuitive hunch that the game wouldn't deal something that absurd to a player.

"Let's get faster." Thomas said after Max concluded his deduction.

The players deducted that the artifical tunnels are definitely not the place they should be in and have narrowed their search to the natural parts of the cave expanse. Thereby avoiding mining groups and guards.

***

Half an hour later.

Drenched in sweat, the players stopped running around.

"Manuel, I'm sorry but we might have to abort this one."

"Tch. Who knows what we're missing out on, Max."

"I understand, but if the whole island goes on our ass, we're as good as dead. It's only a matter of minutes when they realize something is wrong."

The players ran through several other small groups of miners and guards. They were getting tired and spent.

Even if they were at full power, they had no chance.

Max conserves his energy well but he's still not in a great spot.

"Let's go back." Thomas said.

"Uh...guys?"

The players turned to look at Eliyah.

"Don't you think it could be in that water?"

"What...huh." Max held his mouth open.

In the distance, where light was weak, was a dark body of water.

"Let's see." Said Max.

The squad approached the pool.

Max threw a light gem into the water.

The gem lit up the water, but something worrying happened.

It kept going down.

Down and down, until the water became dark again.

"Shit. It's deep." The Awakened said worriedly.

"No more searching after this. We're sprinting back." Said Thomas.

"Yeah. Uh, Thomas, you wanna stay back?"

"Why?"

"Your arrows will be pretty useless in water."

"Alright. If you don't come back in ten minutes, I'm running back."

"Sure, Eliyah and Manuel, you guys wanna come with me?"

They both accepted Max's request.

"Stick close. We might have to fight underwater for the first time ever."

"The fucking thing is definitely here. Has to be." The knight said.

"Yeah." Eliyah agreed.

"Let's be quick boys. Oh and Thomas? Turn on the light of your gem, so we can orient ourselves properly when swimming back. "

The archer nodded and took out his light stone and infused it with aura.

Deep breaths were taken.

Then they dove head first into the dark water, light gems attached to their waists for illumination.

Thomas stood in place, alone and anxious.

"What the fuck did I get myself into?"

***

In the dark water, they could see themselves clearly, but that was it. Everything else was darkness.

Were it not for Thomas shining a light above them, they would probably get lost in the water and drown.

They descended down and down.

Max and Manuel had their weapons drawn just in case.

The water was cold, very cold. Even for Max.

Aura helped them bear it but it was getting tough.

They couldn't hold their breath for much longer.

Two minutes passed.

Manuel tapped Max on the shoulder.

Max looked at him and shook his head while raising his hand up.

Not yet.

Just a little more.

The darkness continued hopelessly.

Quickly, Max turned toward Manuel and nodded his head.

They starting bolting back up but Eliyah sent out an aura blast towards them.

It wasn't strong in water, it only hurt them a bit.

But he got the player's attention.

Pointing to his right, there was a square entrance that was barely visible. Inside it, was a source of light. Blue light.

Quickly the players swam towards it, and upon entering it, they were no longer swimming, but falling.

They were in a waterfall.

"Wings!" Max yelled while reaching to grab Eliyah.

The players activated their flight before an abyss swallowed them below.

Max looked around at the illuminated expanse of blue crystals high on walls and the ceiling and quickly saw a massive rock outcropping with a large platform on top.

The players flew up there and landed on the hard ground.

They took strong breaths.

[You have discovered a secret of this world!]

[You have leveled up!]