Chapter 243: Hidden Dungeon
Immediately, Akira’s hand shot out again, her fingers digging hard into the stone of the ceiling.
Luckily, she was able to hold on just before she could fall.
She hung there for a moment, dangling above the lake, her arm twinging from the strain.
She didn’t have time to recover before another shadow slammed into the opening above her, sending a fresh spray of water bursting in every direction.
It was Erik.
The short man let out a hearty laugh, his beard soaked and plastered to his chest. "Thanks for the opening, boss! Knew you had it in you!"
Before Akira could even respond, he threw himself forward, vanishing into the torrent of water rushing through the breach.
Akira gritted her teeth.
There was no time to feel annoyed. No time to think about how two people had cut in front of her on her own escape route.
She threw herself into the opening.
The torrent hit her like a wall, freezing and merciless, slamming into her chest and threatening to rip her straight back down into the lake below.
She dug her hands into the stone walls surrounding the breach, fingers clawing for any grip she could find, holding on for dear life as the current roared around her.
She slowly began to climb, feeling the pain.
The water bashed against her with force. If not for her armor, Akira wasn’t sure if she’d be able to even withstand it without injuries.
The force pulled at her limbs, trying to tear her from the wall and send her tumbling back into the darkness she’d fought so hard to escape.
But she held on, climbing inch by inch, refusing to let go.
Her lungs burned as she held her breath, unable to draw in air with water crashing over her face and filling every gap around her.
She could see as her vision began to blur, and her muscles were screaming in pain, but she kept moving, with all her focus on finding one handhold after another.
Just when she thought her lungs might give out, the pressure around her began to ease.
The water thinned and the roar dulled.
And then, finally, she broke through, emerging from the flow entirely, the torrent falling away beneath her.
Akira gasped, dragging in a deep, ragged breath of air, her chest heaving.
Then she opened her eyes to see smoke everywhere. The world looked thick and gray, with the fumes choking the air around her.
Below, water churned in a smaller lake, spinning inwards towards the center in a tight, violent vortex that kept pulling debris and broken stone along with it.
She kicked hard, swimming for the edge before the current could drag her back in.
Her fingers eventually found a grip on solid stone, and she hauled herself up, dragging her body out of the water and onto the cracked ground.
Looking around, it was clear the explosion had somehow reached all the way up here, but something was off.
The damage didn’t match what she’d caused below. It was too much and too widespread, as if the spatial distortion itself had taken her blast and multiplied it tenfold.
The stone around had been torn apart in every direction, and the haze of smoke obscured the view, so one couldn’t see more than a few feet in all directions.
Akira collapsed onto her back, chest heaving as she fought to catch her breath.
A few seconds later, someone dropped down beside her with a heavy thud.
She lifted her head just enough to see who it was.
It was Holly.
Their eyes met for a few seconds, both of them too winded and exhausted to say anything to each other.
Akira let her head fall back against the stone, and beside her, Holly did the same.
Then something strange happened.
The smoke, which had filled everywhere only moments ago, began to thin.
Akira blinked, watching in confusion as it seemed to pull together, drawing inwards like it was being sucked out of the air itself.
She lifted her head again, following the smoke’s path, and saw it converging at a single point, which was right where Bull was standing.
This had to be his doing.
The four of them stood scattered across the rubble, with Akira and Holly laying near each other.
Erik stood a short distance away still catching his breath, while Bull stood tall amidst the wreckage. He was the reason why they could even see. His body glowed softly, serving as a replacement for the street lamps that had been destroyed in the explosion.
None of them spoke, as there wasn’t much to say.
Then, a message appeared before each of them, with everyone only seeing his own screen.
Ding!
[Hidden Dungeon, The Underneath, successfully cleared!]
[Calculating Contributions...]
[Rankings:]
[1. Akira (MVP)]
[2. Erik]
[3. Holly]
[4. Bull]
[Distributing rewards...]
Akira sat up immediately, her eyes widening.
The Underneath had been a hidden dungeon!
The entire time, every miserable month people had spent trapped down there, it had been a dungeon all along, one that had simply never let on what it truly was.
Her screen flickered, shifting to display her rewards.
[Congratulations, you have received: the [Tinker] class, +230 Constitution, +148 Agility, and 10 ingots of platinum.]
Akira’s breath caught in her throat.
A new class.
She stared at the words, reading them over twice just to be sure she hadn’t misread them.
She’d never once heard of anyone receiving a new class as a dungeon reward, not in all her years with the Sisterhood, or anything she’d heard in this new world.
Classes were supposed to be fixed, locked in from the moment of awakening.
Apart from Lukas, she’d never once heard of someone awakening new classes months or years after their Awakening ceremony.
But this was a secret dungeon. And that meant this method of getting a new class could also be a secret.
Her eyes flicked towards the others.
Holly and Erik were both still absorbed in their own screens, unaware of what was going on in her mind.
Then her gaze slid to Bull, and found him already looking back at her.
Their gaze held for a few long seconds, neither of them breaking away first.
There was something indescribable in his expression. It wasn’t threatening, and neither was it peaceful, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
Then the man’s lips curled into a polite smile, and he gave her a small, knowing nod.
In that moment, Akira understood.
Bull already knew. He knew she’d gotten a new class.
