Chapter 529: Chapter 3.2

“Hiiiiiiii!” I had never felt that much disgust in my whole life before, especially as the black octopus like creature crawled from my neck towards my back into my uniform. It’s slimy touch sent shivers down my spine and I already imagined the worst. “Heeeelp!”

“Sofie? What’s wrong?” Alex turned around swiftly and ran towards me, weapons ready to be used. His raven black hair fluttered in the wind dramatically until he came to a stop right in front of it.

“Relax, it’s just an abyss octopus.” That was Xavier. I hated him. Even though his name sounded like a dog-name, he certainly wasn’t cute. Or pretty. But he was hairy. Half his face was always covered by hair which made him look quite badly as no inch of his body was taken care of properly. But at least he was kind enough to reach underneath my uniform from behind, grab that small slimy thing and throw it away before it could smear its filth everywhere.

“Sofie, how often did I tell you that you need to observe every bit of our surroundings, including the ceiling? And don’t scream when a peaceful creature touches you. That will only endanger us more.” Alex grumbled unhappily and let go of my shoulders. “We will never reach the bottom of the abyss if you don’t learn.”

Yep. That’s right. We, a group of two idiots and a half were attempting to reach the bottom of a nearly bottomless pit like so many others before us, and undoubtedly after us as well. It was formed a long time ago in a rather desolate place, which is why nobody really knows why it’s here, nor why it’s such an hostile environment. For all we knew it could be a pit appearing out of nowhere to murder people because that was what it is. And my employer wanted to reach the bottom of it … I was so lucky.

“I’m sorry, okay?” I held my hands in front of me defensively to calm Alex down a little which seemed to do the trick. The person I had worked with for over a month already sighed quietly and turned around.

“As long as you mean it … and pick up that mana stone there.” Expeditions into the abyss were a costly endeavour and mostly paid for by the explorers themselves but also by the state so that a dangerous spillover of monsters wouldn’t happen again. But sadly, that meant someone had to carry the haul while others needed to fight … and guess who got which role? Well, a thirty-year-old who never held a weapon in her hand wouldn’t be much use in a fight … so I wasn’t complaining. The pay was good … better than playing housewife for a man I abhorred.

Everyone of us had some kind of motivation to go abyss diving, some more noble than others. Xavier here for example wanted to earn enough so that his daughter can go to university in the capital and live a better life than he had. Alex wanted … money. Which was why I bend down to pick up the blue mana stone which was like money on Alex’s eyes. Everything was money in his eyes.

Tired from all the weight on my back, I stood up again and walked behind Alex who already proceeded a bit into the dark tunnel. Even our lamps couldn’t bring much light into the darkness as the walls of this crude tunnel were nearly completely black.

As such, most of the creatures down here didn’t have the best vision, but rather better heating than us. But thankfully, these were the ones which were easier to deal with. The harder ones were those who sought out the light. Blood bats, dark gnolls, speeding spiders … you name it.

But there was one creature on these depths that frightened most adventurers. The clawing worm. You can hear him from miles away.

Tak. Tak.

The sound of razor sharp claws sticking to the sides of the tunnels was always a gruesome thing to witness. The only viable action you could take during these times was to stand still and calm your breathing. That creature had horrible hearing and even worse sight which made most encounters with it rather tense, but in the end nothing happens as both parties usually go their ways without even seeing each other in the first place.

Tak. Tak. Tak.

Sometimes though, luck isn’t on your side and it’s path intersects with your position by chance. And that’s when you are usually done for.

Tak. Tak. Tak. Tak.

It was getting louder and louder over the next minutes while we just stood there, sweating from every pore of our bodies. We knew what was coming for us. And yet running would be the worst decision of our lives. Once that thing senses the vibrations you make while walking, you are done for.

Tak. Tak. Tak. Tak. Tak.

Finally, we could see it’s face in the shine of our lamps. It was basically only a mouth with razor sharp teeth in more than one row. There was no sight of eyes in this whole face, just these teeth everywhere.

Slowly, Xavier began drawing his gun from the holster, even though Alex shook his head slowly.

Unlike my expectations of being eaten alive by this thing, the creature just stopped though. It was as if it was trying to make fun of us with its sharp teeth clicking against the wall until it slowly stopped that and silence reigned supreme again.

After a few seconds, it backed away from us, turned to the side and dug itself into the ground, creating a new tunnel like the one we were walking through. Never in my life had I thought these worms could dig this quickly, but the hundred meter long worm certainly managed to put even the elven runners to shame.

“Let’s go back, shall we?” Xavier asked once the last legs of this creature vanished in the new tunnel while the rest of us breathed out quietly.

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“Yeah … it’s enough for today.” And with Alex’ approval, we all turned around slowly and walked back to the tunnel entrance a kilometre further back. Luckily we already explored three other smaller tunnel systems that day, so we already made enough money be considered a quite successfully explorer group … and one that was alive that is.

And yet, as soon as we were back at the entry point, we couldn’t help but furrow our brows at the massive airship hovering near the middle of the central shaft of the abyss.

It’s mechanical rudders and fins, as well as the four anchors embedded into the stone wall kept it stable in the endless upwind of the abyss.

Usually, the ones who had airships were filthy rich enough as it was. To have one capable of diving into the abyss meant one was even richer than filthy rich. But to bring it down here and put it in danger must mean one really didn’t care about the price tag on these things.

With mouth agape, we only stared at it for a few seconds until we realised we weren’t alone on the walkway leading downwards. A mysterious man and an exotically clothed woman stood beside the entrance, both looking at us with interest.

“So you did make it out alive. I was wondering if that worm already ate you or not …” The woman explained and picked up a rather heavy looking machine with both hands, only to discard us completely and stroll over the wooden plank back onto the airship.

“Don’t mind her. She is a bit grumpy sometimes. My name is Moth. Nice to meet you.” He didn’t give us his hand, but rather indicated us to follow the woman right away.

“Nice to meet you too.” Alex pondered about something which was quite easy to see as he was an incredibly bad actor. “Why did you come down here?”

“You know this man?” Xavier asked astonished. If Alex knew a man rich enough for an airship, why didn’t we take on missions by him?

“He gave me a few missions before we met …” Alex looked away from us as if he didn’t want us to know what really happened in between them. My intuition certainly told me there was more to the story than Alex liked to admit.

“Easy there. I have no ulterior motives. Why don’t you hop onto the airship first and we’ll talk about business later?” The man indicated us to go onto the airship once more which made me kind of uncomfortable.

Well, it seemed acceptable for Alex as he rolled his eyes and walked across the plank as well. With no other choice, Xavier and I soon followed suit and the crew of the ship began their preparations to undock right away.

Shortly afterwards we were strolling after the man clad in a black suit down into the ship and stopped in a working room of some kind containing a desk and curiously a long sofa the woman laid on. She was smiling at Xavier who smiled back awkwardly but otherwise didn’t do much.

For my preferences, this whole thing went a bit too smooth for them so I did what I could to throw the other party at least a bit off guard.

“Why are you wearing sunglasses?” I asked the Moth as soon as he sat down which did surprise him somewhat.

“Excuse me, Sofie, that’s an old habit of mine.” He explained while taking off his sunglasses and placed them onto the desk in front of him to show his sparkling green eyes.

“I don’t think we have met?” The airship began ascending rather abruptly which made the three of us sway a little.

“No we didn’t. But I like to be informed about those working for me.” Moth explained while sliding a contract towards us.

“I’m not working for you.” Alex told him right away, but still peeked at the contents of the contract.

“Not yet. But I will make an offer you won’t be able to decline.” Moth smiled brightly, but his eyes told a different story. They were hard to read, but I had a feeling this contract would be much more beneficial than to us.

“And what is that?” Xavier spoke up for the first time in a while, his eyes still darting towards the beautiful woman from time to time.

“All the riches at the bottom of the abyss … how does that sound?” She said, surprising me and everyone else of our group.

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