Digging Deep in the Basement Tunnel Sparks a Monster Frenzy! (3)

The real question was whether I could actually climb out of this damn pit.

I checked the floor.

It was the same rock-hard material that had laughed off the electric drill earlier.

Just in case, I pulled out my pickaxe and gave it a swing.

Clang—

Sparks flew, but the surface didn’t even scratch.

I moved the safety zone around, hoping to find a patch of actual dirt or gravel.

After wandering for a while, it was clear the entire cavern was made of that same unbreakable stuff. No diggable ground anywhere.

That was when the floor began to tremble.

Rumble. Rumble.

Earthquake?

No.

It felt like something massive was coming.

Then a sound unlike anything I’d heard before echoed through the space.

Chzzz. Chiiiiii— Chiiiiii—

I whipped my head toward the noise.

And froze solid where I stood.

A colossal orange centipede had shoved its head down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through a hole in the ceiling.

Each segment was as thick as a forty-kilogram rice sack.

And its length…

Ten meters… fifteen… twenty… twenty-five…

It just kept coming.

More segments kept emerging.

I’d seen plenty of centipedes during my military service on the front lines.

Those tough little bastards were famous for their insane vitality—hard to kill even when you stomped them with combat boots.

Now one had shown up hundreds of times larger.

And the only weapon I had was the titanium spade I’d just picked up.

I wasn’t sure it could even wound the thing, let alone kill it.

Chzzz— Chzzz—

It spotted me in the middle of its entrance.

I aimed the flashlight straight at the queen’s face.

It flinched, jerking its head away, then immediately counterattacked in fury.

Chyahak—

Its jaws spread wide and venom sprayed from its legs.

I dropped low instantly, but the acid’s accuracy was terrible. It slammed into the ground three meters to my side and two meters ahead.

The wall and floor melted on contact.

Now I understood.

This tunnel that had punched all the way down to the tower’s basement level.

The centipede had carved it with its own venom.

It probably couldn’t go above the zero floor, though.

Centipedes hated light, after all.

That was when the queen began spraying venom wildly.

Chyahak— Chihak— Chihak—

The acid was lethally powerful, but its accuracy was poor and it flew surprisingly slowly.

If I kept my head straight, I could dodge it.

I kept my eyes locked on the queen’s jaws while using the flashlight to drive back the smaller ones, sidestepping as I moved.

I opened my inventory.

There had to be something useful.

After descending two hundred and sixty-seven meters, it should have been packed with random lucky items from all the rewards I’d earned.

But it wasn’t overflowing at all.

What the hell was even in there?

Was this for real?

Seriously?

I had quit smoking the day I was discharged and hadn’t touched a cigarette since. But this was no time to keep that vow.

I watched the queen centipede happily bombarding the area with venom and tore open several packs of tobacco extract.

I smeared it all over my face, hands, and work clothes.

Then I pulled out five Marlboro Reds at once, stuck them in my mouth, and lit them with the lighter.

Back in the army, we used to catch centipedes and shove them into cigarette packs to kill them.

Centipedes have incredibly strong life force and are aggressive as hell, but they’re ridiculously weak to nicotine. Old folktales are full of scenes where heroes defeat centipede monsters with cigarettes.

But would it work on these tower centipedes?

The effect showed immediately.

The smaller specimens—though even they were well over a meter long—had been skulking around me. Now they began twisting their entire bodies in agony.

Soon the queen reacted too.

This cavern had terrible ventilation.

And cigarette smoke is nasty stuff. It only took seconds to fill a space dozens of meters wide with thick, choking haze.

Pssssss—

She tucked her tail and fled straight back into the hole she had come from.

With no more worry about incoming venom, I started dishing out titanium-spade hell to the now sluggish centipedes.

Thwack— crunch— thwack— smack—

Centipedes give the impression that both halves could survive being cut, but they aren’t planarians. Once split in two, they’re finished.

I had no idea when the flashlight would die, so I needed to thin their numbers fast.

Whack— whack— smack— smack—

I bit down on the cigarettes and dug like a madman.

The Passion for Shoveling skill doubled my speed. Pure insane digging.

Then I realized there was a much faster, more effective method.

I decided to spend the one skill point I’d received from my latest achievement on activating a skill.

My rune stones didn’t have any usable skills yet, but I’d caught a glimpse of one attached to the spade I’d just picked up.

Pile and Slam!

The moment I invested the point, I began moving as if I had practiced the technique for ten thousand hours.

I laid the spade flat and used scooping motions to hurl the weakened giant bugs into the corner.

Attacking was at double speed, but the digging combined Passion for Shoveling with the titanium spade’s double-speed option for a total of quadruple speed.

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—

My insane shoveling piled the bugs into a writhing heap in the corner.

I leaped on top, put my full weight behind the spade, and began chopping them to pieces with all my strength.

Black ichor splattered across my face and work clothes, but I didn’t care.

I knew centipede venom was only in the first segment.

Thuuud—

Crunch—

Thud— thud—

Crack—

Die, you disgusting bastards.

Hundreds of giant centipedes were being slaughtered under my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hands.

When the five cigarettes burned down to the filter, I hurled the butts into every corner of the cavern. The moment they landed, the nearby centipedes began convulsing and showing signs of frenzy.

I elegantly lit a fresh cigarette.

The first smoke in years made my head pleasantly dizzy and strangely excited at the same time.

I finished the cigarette at leisure, then picked up the spade again.

Quadruple-speed shoveling to scoop and pile.

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—

Then double-speed chopping to split them in two.

Thuuud— thud—

Crunch— crunch—

Crack—

Nice!

Slaughtering hundreds of centipedes leveled me up right away.

A title and an extra skill point on top of it all.

*   *   *

A little later I sat in a corner of the cavern, drinking bottled water.

Nothing tasted sweeter than water after a fierce slaughter.

I had wiped out every last centipede that hadn’t managed to escape the cavern.

I still didn’t have any active traits, so I couldn’t use skills other than the one attached to my weapon.

Even so, skill points were incredibly valuable.

High-ranking hunters risked their lives on achievements and titles just to get a single point.

Stockpiling them now would become a huge asset later.

But my worries were heavy as lead.

Even if the spider-web section had only been about twenty-five meters, I had fallen another two hundred and sixty-seven meters after that.

Roughly three hundred meters with almost no proper handholds to climb.

What the hell was I supposed to do?

Time was also a problem.

Food and water were manageable, but the flashlight battery was critical. If it died, climbing in the dark while fending off centipede ambushes would be impossible.

I went through the dead hunter’s items one by one—things I hadn’t checked earlier.

Unfortunately his batteries were already drained of mana too, so aside from one old bottle of water they weren’t much help.

That was when I noticed a few centipedes slithering out of the darkness, probably because the cigarette smoke had thinned a little.

An idea struck me.

If I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could capture some alive…

Capturing them was easy.

I had plenty of Marlboros left.

I lit several cigarettes and turned the cavern back into centipede hell, then climbed onto the back of one of the giant centipedes that was writhing on the floor in agony.

I pinned its disgusting jaws down with my knee to completely subdue it, then carefully grabbed its first leg and aimed it at the ground.

Its venom stinger.

If I got stung by that, I would probably die.

But right now it was also my best chance.

I pressed the stinger against the floor.

Chiiiiii—

Smoke rose along with the smell of something burning. The stinger melted into the rock like a branding iron.

Whoa!

Even the smaller centipedes’ venom could melt this incredibly tough bedrock a little.

I was saved.

After waiting a moment, I stuck a cigarette into the fresh hole.

It didn’t light and showed no signs of oxidation.

Gathering my courage, I carefully slipped a gloved finger into the small hole.

It was cold and solid.

That meant if I climbed while carrying live specimens, I could create the handholds I needed.

I immediately took out rope and wrapped the captured centipede tightly in front of me.

I especially secured its head and venom stinger so it couldn’t try anything.

Just in case, I captured three more live ones and stored them in my inventory as insurance. Their venom could run out.

I filled the rest of the empty inventory slots with centipede corpses.

Since I had taken out the light items like cigarettes and put them in my pockets, emptied two belts, and lightened my backpack as much as possible, I could fit five corpses.

And then…

I distributed my newly acquired ability points into strength and stamina, then began climbing the hole I had fallen down.

In ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠climbing, securing your position is the most important thing. If you secure yourself properly, you won’t die unless you smash your head on the rock face during a fall.

But climbing without any anchors is extremely dangerous. Even the world’s best climbers often lose their lives to a single mistake.

Chiiii—

Now, however, I could create anchors. I could melt holes in the wall with centipede venom, drive in bolts or pitons, and connect them to my harness.

The centipedes proved useful in other ways too.

The reason I had fallen all the way down here in the first place was that the shaft I needed to climb was too smooth and offered almost no handholds.

Chiiii— Chiiii—

Now I could easily create grips and footholds with their venom. Climbing had become far easier.

“Hooo, hoo—”

After climbing about twenty meters, I hung from the wall and rested.

Gurgle—

I had used so much strength that I was getting hungry. Normally I would have been home by now, slurping down some ramen.

Keep climbing.

Stop thinking about being hungry.

I started climbing again. But by the forty-meter mark I was completely exhausted.

Strength 20 and stamina 20 might be rookie numbers, but they were incredible compared to a normal person. Think pro athlete levels of power and endurance.

Still, even a pro athlete would have been turned into mush after everything I’d been through today.

I couldn’t keep going without eating something.

Luckily, at that point there were several branching tunnels like an ant nest. I sat comfortably with my back against one of them.

I pulled out a centipede corpse and tore off one of its legs. The leg was as thick as a snow-crab leg.

I heated it with the lighter. A smell similar to grilling shrimp rose, stimulating my appetite.

Fuck, people eat centipedes as medicine anyway, right?

I’d even heard rumors that they taste exactly like shrimp.

When you think about it, aren’t shrimp and crayfish basically water-dwelling centipedes?

When it looked about done, I first took out Beodori and gave him a small piece of the meat.

Using a dog as a test subject felt a bit wrong, but given the situation I had no choice.

Beodori ate the meat happily, then started acting cute and begging for more.

Screw it. Eat and die, I guess!

I broke both ends of the leg and sucked out the meat like crab roe.

The flesh slid into my mouth along with the juices.

“……!”