New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1011: Tension Rising

"She hasn\'t been moving in a while. Is she still alive?" David asked, his face showing nothing but boredom.

"Hey, have a little respect," Ri-Chū snapped at him, his tone venomous.

"Woah. Calm down, love bird. I\'m just trying to see if she\'s okay," David replied, raising his hands in surrender.

Rì-Chū clicked his tongue at the blatant lie but elected to stay quiet.

There was no point in arguing with the necromancer. He\'d been nothing but an annoyance ever since Jin-Sil collapsed, insisting they carry her forward, as time was a resource they seldom had.

But Kary and Alexander had forced him to shut his mouth on that subject, refusing to budge from here as long as it was safe.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Seriously, this is taking too long. With every second wasted here, the enemy might be getting stronger. Or that freaking dragon egg might hatch. Do you have any idea what kind of damage a dragon does when it breaks out of its dungeon?" David complained.

"At least let me turn that corpse into an undead. That way, we\'ll be ready to leave as soon as sleeping beauty wakes up," he added, pointing at the dead harpy queen.

The urgency in his voice all but hid his true feelings about their situation, and Alexander could understand him, which is why he hadn\'t already chewed him up for it.

"Stop asking. A surge in mana that strong would almost certainly paint a target on our location. Until Jin-Sil wakes up, we wait."

"Of course. All you think about is her safety. What about the safety of the ones outside?" David grumbled in a low voice.

"What was that?" Alex asked, having understood every word perfectly.

"Nothing. Let\'s just hope she isn\'t unconscious for days. We didn\'t bring rations to be stuck in a dungeon for a week. Neither did we bring camping equipment, and I\'d hate to sleep on a slab of stone," he grumbled audibly this time.

"Have some faith in her strength, you freaking morale drain," Alex replied to him, his voice dripping with annoyance.

"Both of you shut up," Kary said, raising her hand.

"A group of kobolds is passing by," she added, her face filled with worry.

The arguing abruptly stopped, and everyone suddenly went deathly quiet as faint footsteps echoed around them.

They had quickly noticed that the room, although hidden from view, was ill-equipped to dampen the noise inside. They could hear every time a group of kobolds came marching by, and that occurrence had been steadily increasing.

By the sound of it, the kobolds were marching up and down the corridor, seemingly searching for them, and with every pass, the time between them shortened.

Evidently, their search was leading them closer to the party with every patrol.

Once the noise had disappeared entirely, and Kary was confident the kobold group was gone, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"How much longer do you think we can go on like this?" David asked, his face weary. Kary looked at him, annoyed he was asking again, but understanding that he was right. "Maybe half an hour, maybe less. But we can\'t take the risk of fighting while we have to protect Jin-Sil. It\'s just asking fate to take one of us away..." she replied, her tone quivering. Alex nodded in agreement.

"I know the tension is building up in here. But we must stay strong and wait for Jin-Sil to pull through. Have faith in her, and wait. She\'ll make it. She always does, right Rì-Chū?"

The teenager looked at Alex, his eyes thankful.

"Yes. She is probably the strongest here, at least mentally. She would never let us down," he replied with confidence.

David rolled his eyes, the statement oozing with bias.

"Whatever you say, kid. Don\'t say I didn\'t warn you guys. Multiple times," David said, sitting next to the harpy queen\'s corpse.

He wanted to be ready to act if the need arose, and he knew it would. It wasn\'t a matter of if, anymore.

It was a matter of when.

And he would be ready.

***

As the tension kept rising inside the dungeon, Jin-Sil ran after the darned deer through an ever-changing hunting ground, and she was just about done with this game.

Every time she lost her cool, the hunting ground changed to something more challenging. Until now, she had seen a plain, a forest, a swamp, even a mountainside.

She had found out that calming down reverted the hunting grounds to something easier, but she couldn\'t seem to stay calm long, as the damned target of her hunt was just... untouchable.

Every arrow she had released made it to inches from her target, only for the deer to veer away or vanish.

It was aggravating and made Jin-Sil lose her cool increasingly often.

To make things worse, it was like her query was hopping and skipping joyfully through any terrain she had to chase it, almost like it was on flat ground at all times.

Jin-Sil could feel her body getting heavier and heavier as more time passed. At this rate, she would exhaust herself before ever catching the damned thing, and her chances would hit rock

bottom.

\'Are you ready to give up, foolish child?\' the voice nagged in her mind for the umpteenth

time.

"You wish!" Jin-Sil replied in a seething tone.

\'Your tenacity is nothing, if not commendable. But you do not have the patience of a hunter, child. Your drive, if only fueled by your anger, is wasted in here. What is it that you truly want,

child?\'

"You can see inside my head, can\'t you?" Jin-Sil replied, trying to force out the voice, to no avail.

\'Unfortunately,\' the voice mocked.

"Then you know damned well what is driving me. And you can rest assured. Once I catch that damned deer, you\'ll be my next target. And when, not if, when I find you, you are in for one hell of an ass-kicking," Jin-Sil growled, closing her eyes to focus on shutting her mind to the

voice.

It worked when she put all her concentration into it. But the price of it was that the deer she was hunting stopped and mocked, bleating or happily hopping in her peripheral vision,

taunting her.

"Calm down, Jin-Sil. You\'ve hunted more elusive beasts than this before, and dangerous monsters. Don\'t let a gloating deer get the best of you," she whispered to herself for the

umpteenth time.

With a deep breath, she focused on pushing back the rage in her heart, and she felt it around

her.

The hunting grounds had changed again.

Opening her eyes, a grin appeared on her lips. She was back in the forest.

"I\'ll get to you, you obnoxious ruminant."