Chapter 61: Tunneling to Freedom 2
Rezar shook his head dislodging a bit of dirt hanging off his luscious white locks, he furrowed his eyebrow as he sat on ant and nibbled slowly on a loaf of bread. Its been a day, and quite honestly he was getting a bit frantic and feeling all sort6s of claustrophobic being in this tunnel. They were already mining upwards at an incline, so it was only a matter of time before they got to the top and burst out into the open world above, into freedom, but the dungeon core would ty last that long, so Rezar was going to try and do something he wasn't sure would work, but he had to try.
"Priest! Can you open the case i need to see the town spire, Brutus comes over here, I need the dungeon core?"
The town spire wouldn't be activated until it was planted at a location, but Rezar was hoping it would bond to the dungeon core, and the dungeon core would become inactive until they finally get a place to call home. The ants at the front kept on tunneling, and while there has hardly been any sort of debris with the ants eating the rocks and turning it into a biological cement that they used in keeping the tunnel smooth and clear.
Normally when building a tunnel like this, you would need to set beams to support the ceiling from falling down, however the biological agent the ants secreted when digging, which acted like acid to break down the rocks, but had its effects fade quickly leaving behind a severely hardened patch of rock that held the tunnel together. Rezar shook his head as he faces the situation in front of him.
Even if they got out of the tunnels on time, they would still have a wide stretch of land to cross before finally reaching their destination, not to mention there was no guaranteed that there wouldn't be any sort of encounter on the way. Rezar had be downloaded into Elysium as a slave, almost had his face chewed off the first day he got here, got framed, and then subsequently got stuck in a dungeon for eight months. he wholeheartedly expected something to go horribly wrong, that way he could make contingencies and not be caught off guard.
The metal box was easily two meters tall and had three segments, from what Rezar could remember and understand about Elysium, there was no such thing like an inventory. There's a virtual coin pouch or something similar that keeps all your money bonded to your status page, you could use from there, and transfer it. However, there were quite a few people who like the feeling of real gold coins so they could go get a withdrawal from a bank.
One of the segments slid down as everyone turned to see what Rezar was doing, the ants kept on working, with the main force being at least two kilometers ahead. The spire beneath the metal case was unlike any Rezar had ever seen before, instead of the normal floating stone spire with glowing symbols and runic scripts, there was a blue 1.7-meter crystal with golden runes all over it, and it pulsed with a rhythmic light that seemed to sooth and strengthen everyone here, Rezar heard Lenore and Gynaika gasp in shock, Priest had a sheepish look on his face.
Rezar ignored them for now, whatever the case may be, Priest would give him an answer once he was done, this town spire didn't seem like something that was normal, in fact it sorts of felt 'familiar' in a way that he couldn't fathom. He was about to touch it when he heard Lenore berating Priest.
"You! lazy old man! Couldn't you have just gotten him a simple basic spire, we could have leveled that up, but you went ahead and got him a Legacy Spire. You know unless he has a class, or title, or a bloodline connected to the previous owner, that spire would not activate for him. This would have all just been for nothing, we'll be sitting ducks out there without a settlement to shelter us." But all Priest did was motion with his head at Rezar for him to continue.
Rezar shrugged his shoulder and placed a hand on the spire, at first there was no reaction, then the golden runes on the spire began to flash and glow, subsequently followed by the crystal itself as a cold feeling rushed into Rezar's body. It was a feeling he was familiar with, one that he has had to deal with ever since he woke up here, and that was the feeling of death. Cold and unforgiving and impartial, going by what Lenore just said, it can only mean one thing… this spire once belonged to a death class holder.
[This is a legacy spire for the hidden city Roma's Boneyard. You have met the requirements to become the new owner of the spire, begin bonding procedure?]
[Spire bonded]
[You have a dungeon core. Attach crystal to spire for auxiliary effects/ or use as a catalyst to level up spire]
[Dungeon core attached, your town spire can now spawn monsters]
[You have a giant fire ant spawn key, should dungeon core absorb key?]
[Key absorbed, your dungeon core can now spawn giant fire ants]
[The town spire has two available skill slots and the dungeon core has one. Each skill slot will devour a skill, Title or class from you and give the core or spire skills or effects that would determine their orientation and progression. You can gain a new skill slot when the spire or core gets to a higher level. Please input skill to be devoured]
"err maybe later."
• Item: Town Spire(Un-seeded) || Name: Roma's Boneyard (Changeable)
• Grade: Legacy|| Owner: Rezar Deathwind || Level: 0(0%)
• Attachments: Dungeon Core Level 1(10%)
For a town spire, it seemed pretty basic, but Rezar could infer that it was probably because it was still 'un-seeded'. So until they get to a place where they can fully place this spire on the ground, it's going to remain like this. But it wasn't bad, at least now he didn't have to worry about the dungeon core becoming useless. But more than that was the discovery that said dungeon core could be used to level up a town spire.
It was a good idea, but it didn't seem cost effective, dungeons were a hot spot for resources, and almost every place where people gathered to live, needed a dungeon to survive, so there's hardly anyone who would be willing to destroy a dungeon to level up a spire when it could do that on its own with time and proper management. But it was something Rezar was willing to take under advisement, for future purposes of course.
*BOOOM! *
"What the hell was that?" Priest shouted as the tunnel shook a bit and they all looked and ran towards the front of their extremely long procession. Rezar was extremely worried as he quickly got to the head of the line and discovered that a part of the tunnel had collapsed, crushing quite a few ants. He looked around and quickly located Neema and Brutus, thankfully they were okay. Screet walked up to Rezar and said.
"Congratulations master, we've reached the surface. But since when did Elysium have four moons?" Screet asked in confusion, but Rezar all too willing to answer him.
"Those aren't moons Screet…. They're eyes!"