Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 17

Note: I'm not sure if y'all are ready for this... but here you go:

Chapter 17

Startled screams echoed through the tunnel as the shaking increased in intensity, to the point where Thaden had to spread his legs apart and balance himself to avoid falling down.  He watched as a number of other Contenders nearby tried to do the same, including Meghan and Peter from the party he was supposed to heal in the dungeon, only for them to fall flat on their backs after a few seconds of shaking. 

“What is going on—?” his contract buyer shouted, but she was quickly drowned out by a reverberating roar that seemed to emerge from the depths of the mountain, causing the tunnel to shake even further, creating cracks in the perfectly shaped exterior passageway.  It was at that point that Thaden fell to the floor, which bounced underneath him so much that it felt like it was punching him in the rear, and a chunk of the ceiling fell right next to him, shattering into a hundred pieces, pelting him with shrapnel.

Screw this; I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not dying here.  The Lifewarden channeled both of his Fields into existence.  It was just in time as another chunk the size of his head landed on his leg, only to bounce off once it encountered his Major Repulsion Field. 

As if things couldn’t get any crazier, a sudden notification consumed his vision.

WORLD ALERT!  The Anchor dungeon underneath Forgestone in Region #1 has been activated!

A short 24 hours ago, a single, courageous Contender entered and completed an Anchor dungeon deep below the city of Forgestone by themselves, which has activated the next stage of development in the Region!  No longer content to delve through the weaker dungeons that have proved to be only a steppingstone to incredible power, the Contenders of Region #1 will now face additional challenges to ramp up their development even further! 

As a result of being the first Region to reach this stage, every Contender in Region #1 will receive a special achievement, greatly accelerating their PICK accumulation for the next 30 days to help them face the challenges ahead.

Again, congratulations are in order for all Contenders in Region #1!

Which Region will be next?

REGION ALERT!  Developmental Stage 2 is now commencing!

Due to the activation of one of the three Anchor dungeons in the Region, the Contenders in Region #1 are now ready to face the next stage in their development!  From this point forward, all dungeon monsters under Level 40 will grow stronger by 1 Level every 24 hours, accumulating until reaching the Level 40 threshold.  In addition, all monsters above Level 40 will grow stronger by 1 Level every 9 days until all Anchor dungeons in the Region have been discovered, explored, and completed on Minimal difficulty.

Anchor Dungeons Explored and Completed:

Magma Dungeon

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Good luck and fight well, Contenders!  Your world is counting on you to prevail!

CITY ALERT!  Prepare to defend yourselves!

The Magma Worms buried deep underneath the city of Forgestone have awoken due to the complete exploration of the Magma Dungeon… and are attacking now!  Put aside any petty squabbles you may have and work together to defend the city against their emergence, or there may not be a city left once they are finished venting their wrath upon the upper world!

SPECIAL Quest incoming to all Contenders belonging to the Adventurer Coalition located in Forgestone…

[Quest Type: SPECIAL

Rank Requirement: Any

Quest Time Limit: Immediately

Quest Difficulty: Low-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 40

Minimum Recommended Party Size: Any

Quest Description: Magma Worms are ascending to the upper world from the depths below Forgestone, and it is up to every single Adventurer nearby to defend the city or it may fall to their wrath; band together with your fellow Adventurers in large Raid Parties of up to 200 individuals to fell these dangerous invaders

Completion Requirements: Eliminate all 30 Magma Worms as they emerge from below

Bonus Quest Rewards: 150 gold, 50,000 PICK, 150 Rank Progress up to Gold, and 1 Additional spell/ability selection

Quest Failure Penalties: Destruction of the city of Forgestone

Current available nearby Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: 43,578/43,578]

Well, fu—

Thaden barely had a chance to finish reading the barrage of notifications and close it when a massive shape broke through the nearby wall, crashing through the stone as if it were paper.  He watched in horror as a tooth-filled maw dripping glowing magma that stretched wide enough to drive a double-decker bus through it bite through shocked-looking figure of Camille, killing her instantly as her body was rent into multiple pieces. 

Magma Worm – Medial

Level 55

The Lifewarden didn’t even have a chance to comprehend what was going on before the Worm turned and dove straight at the other people in the wrecked tunnel, which included Meghan and her party from the Harvest – as well as Thaden, who was following behind them.  As the four party members were scooped up into its mouth, screaming as their limbs were bitten off before being burned by the molten stone that looked to be its saliva, he panicked and activated his two Fields at the last moment.

As the horrendous monster attempted to add him to its meal, one of its teeth impacted him and bounced off just enough that he was spared the indignity of being eaten alive, and he stumbled out of its path as it turned toward more-delicious-looking morsels nearby.  As he fetched himself up against the intact far wall of the tunnel away from where the Magma Worm was rampaging through the panicking Contenders that had been moving in and out Goblin Mine dungeon offshoot tunnel, and he watched as dozens of them were scooped up into its mouth to meet the same fate as the others he’d already witnessed dying to the dangerous monster.

Even as panicked as he felt, a part of his mind spurred him into action, and he finally got a chance to cast Major Negation Zone toward where the Worm was devouring more screaming Contenders.  Suddenly, the 200-foot diameter area he targeted was filled with a sparkly glimmer, as if a million tiny prisms were shining at the same time.  As all damage and afflictions were suspended for 60 seconds, Thaden finally got a chance to look at the Magma Worm as it attempted to bite down and swallow more victims, only for it to bounce off them ineffectually, as if they were made of rubber.

It was huge – but not as large as he feared.  At about 60 feet in length, it was actually smaller than the Magma Colossus Boss he had killed in the Magma Dungeon, but it was also faster and more maneuverable.  Large bands of glowing Magma ringed the length of its dark stone body, which tapered off into a short, stubby tail that ended with a spiky ball of stone – which he saw it try to smack a party of Contenders located behind it a second later, only for the spiked tail ball to bounce off with no damage.

Seeing that some of the Contenders near the confused Worm were hurt, he took a step forward to help heal them, but something large abruptly cut him off.  He bounced off the hot stone exterior of another Worm that had apparently come up from further down the tunnel.  He took a step back and tripped over a piece of tunnel debris, sending him crashing down on his back.  Before he could recover, the Worm shifted its path until it was on top of him, essentially running him over.  He wasn’t squished, of course, because both his Fields kept it from doing any damage, and he could see that it was repulsed away from him repeatedly, but it didn’t do any harm because the Negation Zone was still in effect.  He attempted to push his way out from underneath, but his efforts were in vain as all he essentially did was punch a multi-ton monster in its rocky exterior, which did absolutely nothing. 

By the time it finished running him over, another Worm was right on its tail, giving Thaden only a moment to scramble to his feet and back away, pressing himself up against the wall.  His view and access to the other Contenders he had been on the way to saving was blocked by the large worm passing in front of him, but he could at least look to his sides – and immediately wished that he hadn’t. 

Further down the large tunnel, he could see even more Worms making their way up toward the city, leaving behind demolished walls and bloody smears all over the floor where they had visited absolute carnage upon the Contenders who had been moving toward the other dungeon turnoffs.  He could see a random person using their swift speed to avoid the worms and run toward the entrance, of which he could hear the faint screams of the citizens of the city discovering that their home was being invaded by giant Magma Worms.

Thad closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands, as overwhelming guilt slammed into him.

I did this.  I killed all these people.  If I hadn’t completed the Magma Dungeon, none of this would’ve happened.  

He wasn’t exactly sure what an Anchor dungeon was, or how he was supposed to know that the Magma Dungeon was one, but he could guess as to their purpose.  Just like all the other messed-up things in the world of Tarth, this whole scenario was likely designed to push the development of all the Contenders in the Region to new heights by giving them a challenge with incentivized rewards. 

Unfortunately, it probably wasn’t supposed to happen until the majority of the Contenders were a much stronger with at least an average Level of 40 – or even higher.  Based on his own spells and development, at that point there would be thousands of individuals with evolved Classes and powerful spells; if they banded together and formed these “Raid Parties” he saw mentioned in the SPECIAL Quest notification, they could easily handle the Worms – even if they were 10 or 15 Levels higher than their average Level.

But being that no one but Thaden had an evolved Class and the average Level of the Contenders in the city was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 Levels lower than these Worms… they had no chance.  They were all going to die.

He consoled himself with the thought that the City Guards should easily be able to handle them once they emerged from the tunnel, so it wasn’t going to be that bad.  Based on the high Levels he saw from the people in the Adventurer Coalition, such as the Vice-Leader Veronia’s Level 100, it probably wasn’t going to be more than a minor breakout of monsters into the city before they were handled.

That did nothing to assuage his guilt at all those who’d already died, including Camille and the others within the dungeon tunnel.  Even a single life being lost because of something he had done was bad enough, and it had already been many more than that.

The Worm blocking his way toward the hurt Contenders finally passed and he immediately strode forward, only to see no one left in his Negation Zone – even the Worm that had eaten Camille and the party he was contracted to was gone, having left behind the immune snacks as it sped toward the large tunnel opening.  He saw a few trailing figures running into the offshoot that led to the Goblin Mine dungeon, carrying someone between them, so he could only assume that they had taken their wounded and escaped—

The sound of cracking stone preceded another Magma Worm emerging from the offshoot tunnel, and Thaden couldn’t help but recognize the clothing of one of the running figures being shredded apart as the poor Contenders were swept up into its mouth.  They were too far away still for him to cast a spell and outside of his Negation Zone, and even if he was closer, he could tell immediately that it was already too late.  Unless some of them managed to escape the hungry maw of the Worm further inside the offshoot, all those that he had attempted to protect with his Negation Zone were dead.

Looking further down the large tunnel, he could vaguely make out the same thing happening from the other dungeon offshoots, and he realized that it was almost a forgone conclusion that nearly all of the Contenders below the surface were dead. 

There’s got to be something I can do!

Knowing that he would probably be of more use to the Contenders and Charee in the city with his healing and protective spells, he quickly raced after the Worm that had recently blocked him, hoping to get up there before any more people could die unnecessarily. 

Within a minute, he was nearly at the top of the tunnel and he strained to see past the bulk of the Worms in front of him into the city beyond.  As he ran to work his way in between them, a sudden rumbling under his feet had him stopping abruptly, which was when yet another Magma Worm erupted from under where he would’ve been if he had kept running.  It arced up into the air like some sort of jumping whale before slamming back down on the now-cracked stone floor, joining the others as they passed into the open air above. 

The Lifewarden started to pick himself up as even more screams from the people of the city joined in the cacophony of death and destruction occurring just beyond his reach, but the sound of stone cracking under his body had him instead scrambling backward on his butt.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough as the stone underneath him cracked completely, causing him to plummet downwards into semi-darkness.  Even as he fell with large stone chunks descending all around him, he was able to make out what appeared to be the relatively smooth, circular passageway that the Worm had bored out of the mountain to emerge into the above tunnel.

As he slammed into the bottom of the Worm-bored tunnel that angled upwards sharply at the end, his Major Repulsion Field prevented any damage being done to him, which he was glad of because while he didn’t fall far, he nearly fell on his head.  He supposed that it was because the tunnel collapsing was technically caused by the Worm, so it was considered an attack; whatever it was that helped him survive the fall, he wasn’t going to complain.

He also wasn’t going to complain when the large stone chunks that had descended with and after him were also repulsed by his Field, lightly bouncing off of his prone figure and moving off to the left or right before coming to a stop.  Sadly, that also meant that it piled up around him, only leaving a chimney of open space above him that stretched for about a dozen feet.  Thaden laid there on the bottom of the pile of stones for nearly a minute as his panicked breathing slowed, and he finally had the sense of urgency fill him enough to get up. 

Extricating himself up and out of the stone coffin was a delicate balance of stretching his meager climbing skills to the limit while doing his best not to let the precariously stacked stones collapse under his weight, but after a few minutes he managed to pull himself out.  As soon as he reached the top and flung himself over the lip, the pile finally collapsed, and he was unlucky enough for his foot to get caught and drag him down with it. 

The pain of his foot getting crushed and nearly ripped off his body frightened him, so much that he used all of his strength to pull himself free of the settling pile, and he manage to escape being crushed even further.  He quickly healed himself to stop the agony, using all of his instant-cast healing spells one after another to speed up the process.  As the broken bones clicked back into place after being repaired, he breathed a sigh of relief as the pain receded, and he looked up to see how he could get out of the Worm-bored tunnel.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be as easy as simply walking out.  Having fallen where the passageway was relatively flat, walking along the circular tunnel wasn’t that bad; it reminded him of pictures of large sewer pipes he’d seen on TV, in fact.  The problem came with the sheer smoothness of the walls, because as he walked closer to the exit, the slope changed to the point where it was nearly 60 degrees, turning it into a smooth slide that was almost impossible to walk up.  After attempting it for about a minute and sliding back down every single time, he looked back down the dark Worm tunnel looking for an alternate exit; the light coming from above showed that there was a collapse about 150 further in, blocking him from going any further down.

But perhaps I can get up somewhere there.

Thankfully, the light from his active Fields gave him enough light to see where he was going, allowing to arrive at the blockage and look around for another means of escape.  All it took was looking up above the massive pile of broken stones to see light far above him, meaning that there was a way up and out.

Thaden was relatively strong due to his 31 points in Physicality, which was boosted by an extra seven when he changed out of the white robes he was wearing and put on some gear that gave bonuses to his stats, but his lack of experience in climbing led to the process taking much longer than he expected.  The massive hill of stone that had collapsed into the tunnel was sheer in many parts, causing him to find ways around it, which ate up valuable time – time which he could’ve been helping the people outside.  After what felt like days, but was more like three hours, he finally pulled himself up and over the top of the pile to find himself in the large dungeon tunnel again, though it was slightly further down where he had started, of course.

Carefully making his way around the collapsed section of the floor where he emerged, before giving the area where the Worm had actually emerged a wide berth, he finally had the available focus to see how the city was doing against the Worms.  The first thing he noticed, before he was able to actually see outside the large tunnel, was that it was nearly silent.  The screams that had beaten at his eardrums had stopped, which he supposed was a good thing, but there also wasn’t any of the normal murmuring that normally accompanied large numbers of people. 

It wasn’t until he finally walked up to the edge of the large dungeon tunnel and observed the city – or what was left of it – that the reason why it was so quiet was made abundantly clear.

There was no one left to scream even if they wanted to.