New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 983: A Dark Turn

If this harpy queen was anything like the rat queen at that time, it would take an enormous amount of effort to take down, and time and resources they could barely spare.

Landing near the group, who had reached the entrance to the volcano tunnels, Alex looked at David, who had a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked him.

David looked at him and clicked his tongue.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"I have been trying to raise harpies for a while now, and they wouldn't respond. I had a bad feeling this was the cause, but I had no proof. Guess I have my proof now..." he said, looking into the tunnels where the screech had come from.

It was surprising for him since harpies usually preferred nesting out in the open. He had never heard of them nesting in caves, much less caves that were starting to super-heat.

Alex sent a wave of mana down the tunnel, trying to get a better grasp on the situation, but his mana suddenly reflected back at him from a few meters in front of them.

This reflection slammed into his mind with force, giving him an instant headache, as he clutched his head with his hands.

"Argh!" Alex howled, closing his eyes in pain.

"What the fuck was that?" David asked.

He felt the wave of mana pass through him twice in quick succession, and his mind filled with questions.

He walked forward into the tunnels while Alex was focusing on regulating the mana that pushed into his mind and stopped a couple of feet before where the mana wave had stopped. He winced in the low light, as something was slightly shimmering.

"What the..." he murmured, as he pushed mana slowly forward, and it echoed directly at him. He wracked his mind, trying to figure out what this phenomenon could be since he doubted the harpy queen had erected a barrier to protect herself.

He was about to touch the shimmering translucent wall when Alex barked at him.

"Don't touch it!"

Pulling his hand back, David turned to Alex.

"Why?"

Alex straightened back up, the rest of the party now looking at him.

"Because it'll take you away to god knows where," Alex replied, shaking his head one last time, the headache slowly receding.

That's when David's mind clicked as to what the shimmering wall was, and his face went livid.

"No... That can't be. It's way too early," he mumbled, looking at the invisible wall with horror.

"I assume by your face this isn't something that happened this early in the timeline last time. But I can assure you, that is what you think it is. I've had this same reaction before when inspecting the door to one..." Alex said, his tone grave.

"But it makes no sense... With our worlds separated right now, this shouldn't even be possible..." David said, his voice quivering.

Kary landed back inside the tunnel entrance, the harpies outside finally all dealt with, and heard the last interaction. When she looked forward, she shot a ball of flames at the shimmering wall she could see in the glimmer of her flaming form.

*Woosh!*

The fireball flew past David, crashing into the invisible wall and flattening out. The confirmation came from what happened after it flattened, when it disappeared before going

out.

"That's a dungeon entrance," she declared, extinguishing herself.

This came as a shock for everyone present, aside from David and Alex, who had already come to the same conclusion.

"Excuse me, a what?" Liu Yan asked, looking at them like they had lost their mind.

"Yeah, I'm not sure I follow either," Killian added, looking equally confused.

"You heard me," Kary said, her face suddenly stern.

She turned to look at Alex, her eyes wavering a bit.

"Alex. We aren't equipped to face a dungeon. I don't think we should go in there..." she said, realizing they were ill-prepared to face this level of danger.

"I know that, love. But what happens if we leave this here untouched?" Alex asked, turning to David.

David was livid.

"We can't..." he answered, heavy sweat starting to roll off his forehead.

"Tell us why," Alex insisted.

"Remember, we talked about a possible seed of mana reviving the volcano, and how it would affect thousands?" David asked, looking at him.

Alex nodded.

"That times a thousand..." David spat, looking at the shimmering wall again.

"If we let the dungeon fester too long, unlike inside New Eden, where the mana pushed against the entrance, keeping it locked. Out here, it will dungeon break. The wall keeping all the monsters inside will shatter, and they will be free to exit the dungeon," he said, fear evident in his eyes.

"How bad are we talking about?" Alex asked, knowing he would most likely not like the

answer.

David looked at him with his gaze suddenly hardening. He couldn't let this happen.

"In my timeline, there was a dungeon break in Hawaii, a year before the demons broke across the veil. The island was lost, and all the countries around the Pacific had to form a coastal

patrol.

"The island kept spitting increasingly powerful monsters out for six months until the guilds formed a raiding party and cleared the dungeon. Thousands of players were lost to those monsters. And we are far from being at the same power level yet. It would be catastrophic..." Alex could understand why he feared leaving the dungeon alone. He doubted there were enough awakened players in Korea to deal with a dungeon break at this point in time.

They would lose Jeju in a handful of days, and who knew how far the monsters would spread then? With Korea only sixty miles north, Japan two hundred miles east, and China three hundred miles west, the repercussions would be felt fast.

Leaving this dungeon alone was just not an option.

Looking at his party, Alex sighed.

"I know this is a big ask, and I won't force anyone to proceed further. But if we don't deal with this dungeon, millions could die in the span of a single month..." Alex said, looking at everyone in turn, his gaze lingering on Killian, Liu Yan, and Aapo.

"If we go inside, the risk to your lives becomes a thousandfold what it already is. Some of you

could never make it back..." he added.

Killian stepped forward, putting his hand on Alex's shoulder.

"Stop. I know you are trying to look out for us, but I think I can speak for everyone here when I

say this. If that many lives are at stake, how could we walk away?"

Alex looked at him, a renewed respect forming for the man, and saw that everyone was

nodding in response to his statement.

"Thank you, guys," Alex said, smiling.

"Well then, that settles it. Let's head into our first dungeon," Kary said, clenching both her

fists to pump herself up.

And with this, she stepped through the wall first, disappearing instantly.