Chapter 48: Water Transferred by Lip

If all the undead were awakened and then died one by one or a few at a time, the master of the undead could roughly estimate the number and strength of the enemies they were facing based on the number of undead whose connections were severed simultaneously.

However, if it were like now, with the undead being awakened one by one and then destroyed one by one, Elmer Diaz could only conclude that the opponent was actually provoking him.

The opponent was displaying their strength, demonstrating that they could rouse a single undead while preventing it from awakening its companions nearby.

And this was something Elmer could not do.

Therefore, he naturally assumed this was a formidable enemy he could not handle.

"Since you are foolish enough to run down underground yourself, don't blame me for using this!"

"Rip!"

As the spell scroll was torn apart, the 8th-circle Evocation spell, Earthquake, unleashed its might before Elmer Diaz.

"Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble..."

"What's happening?!"

Paul, Galon, and Brook were standing in the main mine tunnel, waiting as before for Li Rui and Millie, who had gone to lure the undead, to return.

However, the sudden vibration of the surrounding environment made their hearts sink to rock bottom.

"Not good!" Paul staggered, shouting at the top of his lungs so his voice could barely reach the ears of the other two: "They haven't come up yet!"

"Clutch!" Galon suddenly grabbed his arm: "Focus on surviving first!"

………………

Down below in the undead cavern.

Millie loosed an arrow, and the hook-arrow flew over and landed beside a skeleton.

She grabbed the fine cord attached to the arrow's tail and gave it a gentle tug.

The undead was thus awakened. Taking advantage of the moment before the undead could rise, Millie quickly retreated a dozen meters and then stood ready with her bow.

Before her eyes, Li Rui slowly backed away, luring the newly awakened undead forward, just as he had done dozens of times before.

This time, however, before the undead even left the cavern, the ground all around suddenly began to shake violently.

"Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble..."

Subjected to such a sudden assault, Li Rui, who was backing away while luring the undead, instantly lost his footing and tumbled to the ground.

Millie, who possessed the highest agility attribute in the whole team, barely managed to steady herself amidst the earthquake.

When she realized what was happening, she instantly lunged forward, grabbed Li Rui with one hand, and continued charging toward the undead cavern.

The mine tunnel behind them had been haphazardly excavated by miners; not only was it narrow and cramped, but there were also very few supports overhead. If they ran toward the tunnel, they would likely be buried alive in the mine before even laying eyes on their other three teammates!

*Enemy!*

*Ambush!*

The earthquake shocked all the remaining undead in the cavern into full awareness. Struggling to their feet amidst the violent tremors, they caught sight of their food and enemy—a living creature currently gripping one of their peers.

After rushing into the cavern, Millie cast a quick glance around her surroundings, then strode forward once more, carrying Li Rui through the violently shaking environment toward a roughly triangular corner.

The undead also found it difficult to move during the earthquake and kept tumbling to the ground.

Yet, lacking internal organs, they did not experience dizziness, nausea, or vomiting caused by the frantic churning of their bodily systems.

Upon falling, they simply maintained their crawling posture and slowly dragged themselves toward the corner where Li Rui and Millie were located.

"Swish! Swish, swish..."

Millie struggled to maintain her balance and steady her bow, loosing arrows toward the pairs of green soul-fires flickering like eyes in the darkness. Yet, under such violent swaying conditions, every arrow she fired drifted off wildly to unknown destinations.

Left with no other choice, she drew the long dagger at her waist and braced herself for the approaching undead.

Beside her, Li Rui also struggled, using one hand to grip a stalactite pillar protruding upward from the ground, while pointing the head of his halberd directly at the oncoming undead.

Yet, before they could even exchange blows with the undead, an even more terrifying event occurred.

"Crack!"

The earth emitted a painful sound of fracture, and the stalactite pillars within the cavern rained down in a downpour, instantly crushing two unlucky undead into a mess of fragments on the ground.

Immediately afterward, Li Rui noticed four or five massive fissures splitting the ground before them.

Before the two of them could react, the ground partitioned by these jagged cracks either rose or sank, and the patch of ground where they stood... was plummeting!

"Ahhhhhhh—!"

"Ahhhhhhh—!"

As a terrifying sense of weightlessness suddenly washed over him, Li Rui instinctively activated the two innate traits he possessed.

Both of these traits had been looted from slimes: one was [Colloidal Bodily Fluid], and the other was [Control Bodily Fluid].

In truth, he had rarely used these two traits, and the moment he remembered them most vividly was on Nova's bed.

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that such traits would one day save his life!

As [Colloidal Bodily Fluid] and [Control Bodily Fluid] activated simultaneously, every pore across his entire body began to exude a jelly-like liquid. Barely a second later, a three-centimeter-thick layer of gelatinous defense had formed over his skin.

"Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud..."

Amidst the relentless shocks and collisions, this layer of gelatinous protection successfully shielded Li Rui, preventing his skull from being battered to pieces by the protruding stones on the ground and walls during this elevator-like plummet through terror.

Behind him, Millie—who had battered her limbs black and blue against the ground and walls before finally regaining her balance—stretched out her arms with all her might, grabbed the clothing on his body, and hauled him close to her side.

"Li Rui! Are you alright... What is happening!?"

There was no light around them now, and Millie could not see the layer of gel that had suddenly appeared on Li Rui's exposed face, neck, and hands.

She could only feel that the clothes of Li Rui's she touched were soaked, and the area beneath his leather armor felt abnormally soft, not resembling a human body at all, but rather like... soft internal organs?!

At that moment, the momentum of their descent abruptly slowed, hovering in mid-air like dust swept up by the wind—though they were still falling, the terrifying force threatening to shatter the earth had vanished, making them feel instead like fine sand trickling bit by bit through an hourglass.

The sound of shattering and grinding earth around them suddenly quieted significantly, and Millie abruptly heard Li Rui's voice.

Speaking in a hoarse, deep, and drawn-out tone that sounded as though he were on the verge of death, he murmured slowly: "Water..."

A wave of sorrow pierced Millie's heart.

She had never expected that on her very first adventure out into the world, she would encounter such a terrifying disaster as an earthquake.

Amidst this terrifying calamity, she had failed to protect the target of her commission, allowing him to be disemboweled by stone stalagmites.

And the only thing the dying man craved was such an insignificant sip of fresh water.

Millie reached behind her, her palm brushing against her backpack just as she had before the earthquake, bringing her a measure of comfort.

This had been Captain Paul's arrangement; he required every member of the team to carry their backpacks at all times (except for Li Rui, who had the lowest attribute scores), precisely to eliminate the despair of having nothing left when plunged into peril.

Thus, she reached back, unstrapped her water skin, took a mouthful into her mouth, and groped through the darkness to cup Li Rui's head, leaning down to pass the water over with her soft lips.