Chapter 10: A Little Thirsty

"Are these your clothes?"

"Yes… Thank you."

"...Why were you naked?"

"..." What was Rhys even supposed to reply to that? That he took off his clothes because it was liberating that his life was about to end? Or that he was deliberately trying to kill himself? Which one would be the more sane response?

"It's—" And when Rhys finally opened his mouth, the rescuer who handed him his clothes back was already gone. Rhys was already back on the Surface; right outside the dorm and being assessed for any injuries.

While everyone around him was running around, he was just asked to sit on the side and wait for instructions.

They gave him a pair of pants and a jacket, but they were too small so he wasn't even able to zip the jacket up. Thankfully for Rhys, they were at least able to give him a warm, damp towel to cover his head, which was throbbing like crazy earlier from the gravity shift upon returning to the Surface.

Now that he was looking at the Hole he fell into, he realized how small it actually was—just the width of a car. For it to open at that exact same position… were the gods finally at his side? Or did they want to kill him more painfully?

"Oi, handle that with care! We haven't checked it for Adamantine yet!"

"Who cares, this is a monster from a Level 1 Hole. Do you think it'll have some good stuff?"

"..." Rhys then turned to look at the Cleaners that were running around. And as their name suggests, they were responsible for the clean-up of whatever aftermath the Hole brings.

And right now, they were busy gathering all the arachne corpses that were scattered everywhere—and there were probably more than a dozen of them. Perhaps the reason why there was only one inside the Hole was that they were all here already.

But for them to say that it was a Level 1 Hole—that means an area of the Underworld that possesses the least threat, carrying the weakest of monsters.

If the beautiful arachne he met was not that much of a threat… then how strong are the monsters from the higher levels?

"..." Rhys then watched as another arachne corpse was dragged in front of him, and they looked… weird. They were much smaller than Arachnea… and their human parts barely looked similar to a human at all. They had gray dry skin, and their saw-like teeth were more pronounced.

Could it be… Arachnea was some sort of—

"Hey!"

"!!!"

And all of a sudden, Rhys's eyes turned wide; a sort of pulse, reverberating throughout his body as the world around him seemed to have slowed down. The cleaners that were previously frantically moving about, now as if snails as their limbs sluggishly waved in the air.

"..." Before Rhys could process any of this, however, he felt the strands of hair at the back of his neck stood up. And like a feather that was lightly being blown by the wind, Rhys suddenly felt the urge to lean to the side.

And he did. And when he did so, he saw a hand swinging past to where his shoulder should have been just moments ago.

"..." Rhys then looked back to see who the hand belonged to, only to see one of the women that rescued him from the Underworld. And as soon as their eyes met, Rhys's world which seemed to have slowed down returned to normal.

"..."

"..."

The two of them then looked awkwardly at each other, before the woman raised her eyebrows and let out an awed breath.

"No wonder you survived down there, you have the reflexes of a spider," the woman said as she chuckled, "Can't say the same about your classmate."

…Reflex? Was it really that? The woman was completely behind him and he couldn't even see her hand, that wasn't just a simple reflex.

"..." Rhys started to look around again as thoughts drowned his mind. Although no one was moving sluggishly anymore, Rhys still felt… sensitive to everything that is going on around him.

Is this because of his Awakening? But no… this feeling started when he successfully managed to turn Arachnea's 5 gray hearts into red.

"Hey, you okay? You need a medic or something?"

"Hm?" Rhys turned to look at the woman.

"You just spaced out on me," the woman then casually sat beside Rhys, crossing her legs and slightly revealing her thighs from the skirt she was wearing. Weird, Rhys was sure she was wearing pants back in the cave.

"Yeah, I'm… fine," Rhys then slowly whispered as he looked at the woman's face; she was obviously wearing makeup; her short brown hair, stylishly messy. Rhys then strayed his eyes even further up…

…looking at the 5 Gray Hearts floating above her head.

"..." The man that handed him the clothes earlier didn't have hearts floating above his head—and it wasn't only him, all the men that walked in front of Rhys didn't have hearts—only women.

"Anyway…" the woman then subtly bumped her shoulder arm on Rhys as she adjusted her legs again,

"...It's crazy, for a Hole to open up inside a campus, and right beside the walls of the dorm at that. They say the engineer or whatever forgot to put holeproofing on the ground. Guess someone's gonna get sued," the woman sucked in her breath as she continued talking,

"A lot could have died. Lucky that only one died…well, unlucky for him—Wait, sorry. Was he your friend?"

"Not… exactly," Rhys answered, wondering why this woman wouldn't stop talking.

"Hm. Anyway, have this. I'm sure you're thirsty," the woman then handed a bottle to Rhys, "It will help with the gravity shift, first-timers usually faint a couple of times. Not you, you… seem sturdy."

"Thank you," Rhys nodded. Not even thinking twice as he immediately took a large sip.

'Show your face. I know you're hiding something there, I saw it earlier.'

"..." Rhys quickly removed the bottle from his face as he heard a voice inside his mind, "Sorry… what was that?"

"Hm?" The woman immediately smiled as Rhys looked at her, "I didn't say anything."

'Your face…

…I want to see your beautiful face.'