Wade collapsed on his knees the moment he saw the monster's health bar reach zero. Two dodge rolls had left him outright winded now, and the only reason he wasn't dead on his feet and still able to tunnel into this thing's brain had been the brief window of time it had dragged him all the way here after he'd done his first dodge roll, and the Water Mastery Boon keeping his stamina recovery moving fast.

  Despite this being another insane monster out to eat him, Wade felt oddly unpaniked. More focused even.

  And more importantly, there were items to handle right away. "Stats."

  He'd gotten a level up, so he navigated directly to his character sheet. And, without hesitation, smashed the plus button next to luck on his stat screen. There was a goddamn gold chest spawn somewhere around here, and he was determined to get the best possible roll out of it.

  Luck affected that outcome, and Wade knew he could respec his stats later on, but he couldn't re-roll gold chests later on.

  With the level up handled, he turned to his next feeling. Specifically the lack of one: Pain.

  He opened his stats, and went down to his old debuffs.

  Chronic Sciatica - Semi-Pinched nerve within the hip flexors. Causes mild pain on movement. Decreases vitality.

  The text had changed from fully pinched to semi pinched after Eri's attempt to heal him up, there was still a little bit more to go. But the vitality point drain was still in effect.

  And now having a full point back into vitality meant it was being effectively neutralized.

  He lifted his foot, and then bounced back and forth on his boots, testing. Uncertain if the adrenaline in general was currently masking just about everything, or if it really was the System's point in vitality helping.

  Either way, he felt great. A vitality increase felt like a strength one - in that his entire body had a reaction. Strength made every muscle stronger, even ones that he didn't typically think of when thinking strength.

  Vitality was the same way, only it affected everything else. He didn't quite feel stronger, but he felt better.

  Healthier, more clear-sighted and focused. It was like a brain fog had been expunged. If there was such a thing as a soul, vitality was probably cleaning even that up.

  Then Wade realized there was a spirit realm in this world, and that meant there were souls, so he truly did have a soul. That and Eri was a thing.

  All of these thoughts flashed through his head in leaps of quick thinking. Which made Wade consider another aspect of Vitality: Did it affect his actual focus?

  On his debuffs was an older one:

  Chronic Malnutrition - General lack of nutrients. Causes fatigue and slow thinking. Decreases stamina and vitality.

  Fatigue and slow thinking. Stamina and vitality being decreased, and Wade noticed the order placement. Fatigue for stamina, and slow thinking for vitality.

  Could Vitality increase how quickly his brain thought of things?

  That would be difficult to test, and Wade had an inkling that it was mostly a side effect of having a more healthy body in general, including a well fueled brain.

  Unlike the dead chameleon monster in front of him, with a case of cranial dentistry courtesy of Wade having absolutely no mercy.

  "To be fair, it wanted to eat me first." Wade muttered at the dead thing. He wasn't going to feel sorry for lasering it through the weak parts of the skull specifically to scramble its brain.

  This was a game of life or death, he was going to use the most efficient tactics available to him at all times.

  And speaking of efficient tactics, "Identify."

  Gold Lootbox Compass (System Quality)

  There it was. Wade circled around the dead monster, and yanked the compass off the ground where it had clattered earlier.

  He turned to take a step back and found himself folded over his knees, vomiting, hands on the ground in front of his face to keep him up.

  Black veins were spread out over the back of his hands.

  He lifted them up closer to his eyes to examine, but nausea flowed through him, and he hurled a second time.

  Wade tried to get back on his feet next, sleeve wiping his mouth as he stood up. Dizziness was overcoming him quickly now, so he stumbled off to the bone side of the alcove and sat down as safely as he could, hoping the dizzy spell would pass him by.

  He had no idea what had just come across him, but he knew something that would: The System.

  And on the debuffs, he saw the culprit.

  Mana Necrosis VIII. (Time until Death: 2 hours, twenty two minutes.)

  "What the fuck?" Last time he'd checked, he'd had a good chunk of more time than this before death. With somewhat steady fingers, he pulled out his phone, then stared down at it. "Play, what the fuck?"

  What, you think using mana non-stop is a free action all of a sudden just cause you're way over the limit?

  "I… yeah, I kinda did think exactly that. Fuck."

  The more spells he used, the faster he'd be at death's door. And now he was already at the part where nausea and dizziness were affecting him.

  Also you got dragged over a lot of liquid mana again and again. Not great for your skincare, or general health fyi

  He felt oddly cold all of a sudden, a rapid spasm coursing through his body. The phone slipped from his grasp and clattered against the bone floor when the shaking reached his arms. He slapped his hand semi-blindly after it, dragging the device back.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Whatever that spasm was, it was gone now, and Wade checked to see if there were any other tremors in his hand or body. But after a few seconds of holding the phone still, he didn't notice any other signs of danger.

  The cold feeling was still there in the background though. And so were the black veins spreading across his hands. And probably his arms too.

  The phone buzzed in his hand as he checked over the damage.

  I can't believe i'm advising this, but you need to find the mining base first and extract instead of staying around here looking for the gold chest.

  "Because I won't have the time for both the gold chest and getting to the base?" Wade asked, leaning back against the bone wall for a bit more support. "I could get Bael to carry me once I get too sick though, he's strong enough for it. Or Eri when he catches back up. There's options. With Eri and Bael back with us, we could both carry me and the chest back home too."

  The idea of leaving the chest behind out here was insane to Wade. That's a lot of gold to leave behind. Not even considering the goodies inside the lootbox.

  Normally I'd give you big thumbs up at dragging back a chest to earth, imo that'd be hilarious. It realllllly kills me to say this, but we need to leave the chest behind.

  Uh oh. "I'm really fucked, aren't I?"

  Yeh. You got three options here: make it to the base, get to the gold lootbox, or escape the assassin alive. Pick two, because you can't get all three atm

  "Ah. Well, that narrows the plans down. Will it stay here for next round? The chest I mean."

  Nothing can touch, open or carry it besides you right? I don't see a timer. Unfortunate we gotta test this ruleset out live on a gold lootchest out of any other type of chest, but better the loot in your hand than the two in the bush, right?

  "Pretty sure the saying uses birds for that."

  Po-tato, pot-a-to. Or however you spell that lol. Anyhow, gtfo out of here. (??ヮ?)?*:???

  If the Assassin has any kind of monitoring ability on your status, he's coming after your butt right now.

  Which he was pretty certain Not-Leon would. If Wade were hunting down a target to get a killing blow, he'd come equipped with the means to secure that killing blow.

  That meant knowledge and intel.

  He had to assume the assassin was stepping into the arcane realm right this moment and now running after him from where the group started at minimum.

  No time to hang out here doing nothing. He took a breath and slowly stood back up.

  Despite having a full point in vitality, that only increased his health pool by twenty five according to the health bar. Which wasn't enough to buy him that much more living time. If the mana bar was to be believed, he'd need at least fifty or so vitality to move around this area safely.

  The bar was near 1300, and if each vitality point increased his health by twenty five, and mana limit by the same amount, then oddly enough his earlier random guess at fifty was actually far more on point than he thought.

  Shit. That's a lot of vitality he'd need to explore this zone. No wonder Play wasn't asking him to go big-game hunting around here despite the insane loot potential with those challenge gauntlets and lootbox gotchas.

  He heard footsteps further off the side, and when he checked, he saw Bael and Medy sprinting after, looking wild eyed.

  When they saw Wade standing up to wave at them, still a little dizzy and stomach mostly purged, those eyes went from wild eyed to… still wild eyed, but for way different reasons now.

  "Oh my good hells Wade! How'd you pull this off?" Medy started, staring at the dead creature and the mortal next to it. "Those things are basically an instant-death if I'm caught by one."

  Bael came to a stop, head looking over the dead thing. Nose sniffing the air for burned flesh. "It came out of hiding to catch us. Extremely unusual behavior for its kind, they're ambush predators. Was it sick? Or weakened already from a prior encounter?"

  "No, we've just got that lure trap issue where enemies are getting drawn to us." Wade said, currently occupied scrambling down the bone side alcove back down on solid ground with the other two. "Also, I'm way sicker now, and we've only got two hours or so to make it to safety."

  Medy gave him the kind of look that asked questions.

  "I already threw up earlier, and I'm feeling dizzy." Wade clarified, voice sounding far too chirpy and upbeat for this kind of shitfuckery given what had just happened.

  Adrenaline was a hell of a drug.

  Bael grunted, "First signs of death by mana necrosis. Medy, distance?"

  She was busy staring at the monster ahead, "Can we just grab a few pieces off that before we go? Or wait, nevermind, getting to Earth is way more important, sorry."

  Wade hit solid ground, then did a quick inventory check. The gold compass was stuffed deep inside his pant pocket now, along with the chitin shell fragment from the current questline.

  He could see the Glock hadn't been picked up by Bael or Medy on their scramble here, so it was probably a lost cause along with the entire magazine inside.

  But given Wade was now on a full path to get extraction out of here in a safe zone, there wasn't much point in worrying about losing the bullets.

  She tapped her horns, then looked down at her own compass, then pointed a finger in one direction, "This way, and it looks like we're closer."

  Wade looked over to the instrument, "How can you tell distance?"

  "Later." Bael said, reaching a hand out to scoop Wade up off his feet, then turned and started a full mana empowered sprint forward.

  Medy chased behind, shooting occasional marks off into the bone, where they glowed, marking the path they were going down.

  Hopefully those marks would remain when he was back here. There was a gold lootbox to go after before he could rejoin his old group. It was goddamn bittersweet to be leaving that behind for the next round, but Wade knew there was more than loot riding on him getting out of here.

  The gold compass would at least point the way back if the marks vanished overnight.

  Despite the lure trap debuff being fully active, the next ten minutes of frantic mana-empowered sprinting was oddly peaceful now with Medy and Bael helping Wade out. They both knew the terrain here, or rather what signs to watch out for and where to dip and duck. Along with what areas shouldn't be explored, or would most likely have greater danger.

  All the while, Wade had more time to observe this strange ecosystem.

  They truly were within the dried-out dead bones of something massive. Even the ceiling was constructed of bone, and Wade was certain there were levels above and below them composed of the same material. He'd seen plenty of pockets thus far leading downward or upward.

  They'd even taken one of those paths, climbing into a slightly elevated region before the rest of the sprint forwards.

  More and more mana rivers started appearing, and many were growing bigger in size to the point it took a large leap to jump over them. Although they were all quite shallow. Wade suspected liquid mana didn't have the same properties as water when it came to erosion.

  That or the fleshy mass of meat that was growing everywhere near the liquid mana streams was doing something to repair and keep the streams from eroding the bone. Each river did have most of the bottom filled with a slimy layer of that grey meat.

  Problem was that his condition rapidly deteriorated within those ten minutes.

  The dizziness was getting to him, and when he brought his hand up, he still saw those black veins all over. It almost looked to be pulsing even.

  Was his skin also more clammy white than he remembered or was it the dim blue lighting in this world?

  Probably the former, given his current predicament.

  He could run faster using his mana empowered technique, and pair that with the water mastery boon, but frankly, the dizziness would probably have him crash into a wall or stumble on his feet.

  Better to be carried by Bael.

  "We're almost there!" Medy shouted behind, "The needle's basically dead flat now!"

  Wade grunted, looking around. He didn't see any base or anything. Just more pockets of bone.

  But Medy pointed at a larger than normal mana river that was bubbling softly down around a corner. The group dove down, following the winding stair-case like part, until Wade saw what was just under their feet the whole time:

  A small chasm. However, unlike the one with shells all around, this one was far different: It was filled with liquid mana. The glow was far more intense there, like the shallow lake they'd appeared next to at the start of all this.

  And here, he saw signs of people.

  There were metal plates, along with a wheel and some gears at the edge of the mana hole. On the other side, Wade saw what looked to be a pier, with a box of metal scaffolding with thick glass everywhere over it, suspended up by chains.

  And beyond the tiny dock here, he saw something else.

  "There, that's the coffin!" Medy said, hopping on her hooves a few times, pointing frantically at what was deeper within the alcove beyond the docks.

  A large tube-like metal structure, with a metal railing of stairs leading up. It looked more like the kind of research base Wade would see out in the arctic.

  "Identify." He croaked.

  Multiple name tags came up, but he was looking dead ahead at that structure.

  Arcane Diving Bell. (High Quality)

  They'd made it.