New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1032: Finally Outside Again

Dust kicked up from stone shattering, mixing in with the vapours the magma was constantly unleashing inside this room, and the air became opaque.

With no more visual contact on the dragon, everyone became nervous. Had their attacks struck true?

Was the dragon dead, or was it biding its time, ready to strike?

Kary scanned the room with her mana senses, trying to find an echo of the dragon's mana from earlier. She hoped she wouldn't find anything, of course, but preferred to keep the optimism for once they were out of there.

She wasn't alone in this endeavour, as Alex, regardless of his ragged breath and tired body, stepped forward, scanning the room with his eyes and mana senses, hoping they had downed the beast.

It took him the entirety of ten seconds to find the dragon's slumped corpse, but something was strange about it.

On the ground, ripped to pieces by the force of the different spells that hit him, as well as an arrow sticking out from an eye by a few inches, the corpse was writhing.

There were traces of mana remaining inside its head, and it seemed like it was sucking in the ambient mana, trying to regenerate.

Alex quickly stomped on its head, the skull cracking grotesquely, brain splattering on the ground and his shoes.

"I'm not washing that," Kary said, disgustedly, bringing the back of her hand to her mouth.

It seemed as if everything was done, this time for real, as a portal ripped up in the middle of the room.

It wavered for a few seconds before becoming stable, and on the other side of it, Alex could see the end of a tunnel with light shining in.

"We don't have much time," Alex called out, turning to his friends.

"Everyone out, now!" Kary barked, pressing the urgency a bit more.

There was no hesitation on anyone's face when she barked her order, and everyone bolted out of the dungeon through the portal.

Alex gave it one last glance, feeling sad they hadn't had more time to grab precious material from it. He was almost sure that whatever formed inside the dungeon was saturated with enough mana to make excellent crafting materials.

But their time inside was counted unless they wanted to stay stuck there forever, so he walked into the portal with a disappointed face.

Reappearing inside a tunnel that led outside, Alex turned around, saw the portal close behind him, and sighed.

"Such a waste..." he mumbled.

David tapped him on the shoulder, giving him a knowing expression.

"We already got much more than we should have, thanks to your teleportation ability. Let's count our blessings for now," he said, looking at the others.

Alexander raised an eyebrow while looking at David.

"Optimism? From you? Who are you, and where is the real David?" he asked, jokingly raising his hands defensively.

"Oh, fuck you!" David growled, punching him on the shoulder before walking away.

The coast was only a few meters away from them, and already, a few of their friends were taking in the sight, as well as the saline smell of the sea and the sound of crashing waves below them.

It wasn't the first time seeing the ocean, for any of them, but it felt like forever ago since they had been outside, and the fresh air brought in by the ocean winds was invigorating.

But one person wasn't enjoying the view, her brows scrunched together, her face showing a confused expression.

Alex walked up to Kary, grabbing her from behind for a hug.

"Everything alright?" he asked, setting his chin on her shoulder.

"Hm? Ah, yes. But I think my neuro-phone might be broken," she replied, pulling the device from her ear.

It looked fine on the outside, albeit a little dirty from all their underground travelling.

"Why do you think it's broken?" Alex asked, looking at the gadget.

"It's showing me the wrong date," Kary replied, turning her face to look at Alex.

Alex instinctively looked at the date on his, pulling the phone interface over his vision with a thought.

A frown quickly appeared on his face as well, as he saw the day on the interface.

"Second of October? Aren't we the twenty-ninth of September, still?" he asked.

Kary turned around in her embrace, her face serious.

"Yours too?"

"I don't know. It might be the mana that overloaded them, and they advanced the date on their own," Alex said, trying to find a reason for the date suddenly being days later than they entered the dungeon.

He knew that they hadn't spent that long in there.

Indeed, they had spent hours, close to half a day, inside the darned sub-space. But not days.

This made little sense to him.

As he tried reasoning about this, a caller ID flashed over his vision, as the ring of his neurophone echoed inside his mind.

*Jack Boudreau*

Alex looked at Kary, pulling back his arms.

"Jack is calling me. He must be waiting for a report of the situation."

Kary nodded, still trying to understand why both their phones showed the wrong date.

Alex pulled back into the tunnels that now seemed much more restrictive than before and answered his call.

"Hey, Jack! I knew you would want a report as soon as we were done, but you seem impatient to get one after the first day, huh?" Alex joked, trying to ease the old man's mood. "Alex! About goddamn time you answered! Where have you been for the last four days!?!" Jack shouted in his ear.

"Ahh. No need to yell, old man. And what do you mean, four days? We arrived in Jeju just this morning," Alex said, squinting his eyes from the pain of his eardrums wringing.

"Stop joking around, young man!" Jack growled.

Alex heard him take a deep breath before his voice came back, sounding slightly calmer.

"Is everyone alright? How is my grandson? Is Jonathan in one piece? Why did it take so long for you to answer your freaking phone? Why have one if you suddenly decide to go MIA on everyone who has your number?" he asked, the pace leaving no room for Alex to reply. Alex frowned again, looking back at the date his phone's interface showed.

"Jack. What day is it at home?" he asked, his tone wavering.

"It's almost midnight on the first, over here. I've been trying to get news from you for four days. Where the hell did you go? Did you guys drop off the face of the Earth or something?"

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