Re:The Worst System Leveling Turned Me Into A Zombie

Chapter 37: Kidnapped Pt.3

"You might as well tell them." He replies, his face turning dark. Sierra hesitates and he sighs, "Alright, I'll do it. Rita, Hei, Nigel is only Lvl. 25. He's not a high enough level to take on this many mutants alone. If I'm not mistaken...no one in Snowfall is."

"T-That...is it true?" Rita's lips quiver, the usually spunky little girl loses all of her fire in that moment. Still covered in foul goblin blood, she turns to her older sister for reassurance. Unfortunately, Sierra doesn't have anything to offer but the grimmest of smiles.

"I'm afraid Tepis is right. However, all hope is not lost. Bern's party should notify the guilds, and they'll call over a high level from the city. It may take a while before they can begin excavation, but if we hold out and stay away from the horde, I think we can make it!"

"Maybe..." Tepis mutters, but I catch the despair in his eyes as he looks away. "How much water and food do you guys have?"

"Couple water bottles each, some jerky, biscuits...should be good for a few days, at least." Sierra takes inventory. I myself, filled my water bottles in town, and borrowed some food from the girls. Tepis turns out his pockets and reveals he has much the same, though his food consists mostly of dried fish. "With the System helping, we won't die quickly."

"No...we won't." The solo Hunter frowns. "But neither will they be able to get us quickly. It could be weeks before a high level arrives. We need to plan for the worst case. There's a chance they may not be able to get us out in time."

"What other choice do we have then to wait?"

"I don't know, but I've been in some bad situations before. We can't just sit around and hope that things will work out."

While they're arguing, I take some time to examine the System Map. My eyes flicker rapidly as the invisible overlay shows me roughly where we are on the 2nd Floor and what we've discovered. It seems we've wandered deep into goblin territory at this point. Our crazy escape actually caused us to criss-cross between side tunnels and main tunnels until we ended up traversing a large portion of the dungeon. Thinking over similar dungeons I once cleared in my past life, I scribble on the notepad.

"We cannot stay here. The goblins are stupid, but they'll eventually find us if we stay still. Our best bet is to travel deeper into the nest. If we can reach the lower levels, there will be escape tunnels outside."

Only Rita notices me holding up the message.

"I think Hei's trying to say something."

"Look, I just think if we sit tight...I mean come on, you saw how many of those things there were-"

"Sorry, what was that, Rita? Oh, Hei, what's up?" Tepis finally catches on and lets out a little more-light from the Solar Gem. "Oh...oh! That's right, the goblin from earlier went down an escape tunnel! Most of them will be pretty small, but if we can find one big enough, we could get out!"

"I don't know. It's pretty risky." Sierra shakes her head dubiously. "Why did Bern have the dungeon entrance collapsed if there are escape tunnels then? He must have been trying to seal in the goblins, but that's not really going to stop them."

"Not necessarily. The mutant variants are a lot bigger. And most goblins use the main entrance. Since it's blocked off, the goblins will be distracted for a while clearing it out. That'll give the guilds more time to get a high-level over. Still...that was a quick decision call. He must have only had seconds after encountering the horde. To think Bern was that ready to lay down his life after seeing the danger. His sacrifice deserves respect." Tepis bows his head. "Now the question is, do we stay...or go? My vote is with Hei, as a solo Hunter sitting still has never worked well for me."