Danger, Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Chapter 33
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[Giant Octopus (Lvl 9): Danger Threat: Black]
Every single one of them was at the maximum level of their already high-tier race!
Astaroth wanted absolutely nothing to do with them!
The final bosses of the area decided to come for him while he was still growing!? What sort of shitty luck was that!?
"Must hide," Astaroth said with urgency.
Running was not an option in the face of those behemoths, as there was no way in hell he could possibly hope to outrun them!
Hiding was the only option!
Astaroth was no coward, but certain death was certain death.
He was no protagonist with a ludicrous level of plot armor. If he faced those monsters head on, death was all that awaited him…
With this in mind, he swung toward the same chasm the Lvl 3 Water Wolf Spider was camping in earlier.
He just hoped that he wasn't their target…
Two minutes later.
Assuming that the Giant Octopuses had passed over him, Astaroth went to stick his head out of the chasm crack. However, the moment his head reached the outside world, it was slashed off in an instant!
"!!!"
Immediately putting his head back into the chasm, Astaroth analyzed the damage done to him. Luckily, the Giant Octopus tentacle had only taken off a very small piece of his head, enough so that |Speedy Regeneration| could heal the damage within a few seconds.
"Seems like those sneaky bastards know that I'm in here, and they plan to camp me," Astaroth clicked his tongue in annoyance.
However, being annoyed over the matter would get him nowhere; therefore, he looked away from the chasm crack and surveyed the area for alternate exits.
After a couple of seconds of getting nowhere in his searching, Astaroth was just about to think of something else, but that was when a rock clacked off another rock from one of the deeper parts of the chasm.
"???"
Curious about what had caused this disturbance, Astaroth swam toward it and saw something that could potentially change his predicament.
"Is that a tunnel?" He asked with bewilderment. "...It seems like the Giant Octopuses camping the area up above have applied immense amounts of pressure to this chasm. As a result of this pressure, a secret tunnel has appeared…"
After moving a few more rocks out of the way, Astaroth confirmed his suspicions. It was most definitely a secret tunnel, and it seemed to go on for a very long distance.
Where it would end up leading him was unknown, but adventure was half the fun of evolution!
Plus, he had five krakens literally waiting for him to slip up and leave the chasm crack…
That was more than enough motivation to push him through the newly discovered tunnel!
Traveling through the tight tunnel corridors, Astaroth had to bend his eight legs very far in. And even then, it was very hard to maintain any modicum of traveling speed.
RUMBLE!
"???"
Taking Astaroth out of his thoughts was an extremely loud rumbling that violently shook the walls of the tunnel.
RUMBLE!!
The rumbling came once more, but this time, it was even louder than before!
"...I think I better hurry up," Astaroth muttered. "If I'm not wrong, then the Giant Octopuses have sensed my presence leaving their vicinity, and they are definitely not happy about it…"
RUMBLE!!!
The rumbling only became progressively louder, urging Astaroth to move through the underground tunnels even faster than before.
He had no idea where he was going, but anywhere was better than here…
It was only after a few minutes of inching through the chasm tunnels that Astaroth finally stopped hearing the boisterous rumbling from all around him.
"I think I'm now in the clear," Astaroth said with a bit of relief. "But if I go back the way I came, I'm sure the area bosses will get mad again and start ramming against the floor bed in an attempt to eat me, the little guy…"
The only path forward was ahead, and he needed to find the light at the end of the tunnel!
Fortunately, after another minute and a half of traversing the tunnels, Astaroth saw a glimmer of blue and yellow from the corner of his dozens of eyes.
Following this glimmer like a hound to a pungent scent, he eventually found himself in the outside world!
Popping out of a small hole in the seabed, Astaroth's spicky legs latched onto a medium-sized rock. He then observed his immediate surroundings, and though he hated to admit it, he likely would have obtained some form of claustrophobia if he stayed in those tunnels any longer than he had.
"It's good to be in a wide world once again," Astaroth said with a relieved sigh.
After taking in the atmosphere for a few seconds, he paid more attention to the location he found himself in.
And it wasn't until now that he realized that he was in the middle of a large group of slumbering Water Snakes…
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