Still lying on the ground, Faust observed the great spiral above him, over fifteen meters high.
"To think this thing is actually possible... and to think there's an underground area in the desert... the trials seem to be more complex than I thought."
The healing rune was working, but its effect was quite slow. His internal bleeding had nearly stopped, but the ruptures were still there and he felt an absurd pain with every breath.
If not for the healing rune, the internal bleeding would likely have killed him... but that didn't matter to Faust.
Even if he had to walk on the edge of death hundreds, thousands of times—if that's what it took to reach his goal—he would gladly put on his boots and walk freely.
Now that he was alive, there was no reason to waste time. Being in an unknown underground area, in an unknown location, and possibly surrounded by danger, was reason enough.
Since he was using mana to "mend" his internal organs and keep them in place, and at the same time was accumulating mana, his recovery speed was terribly slow. Normally, he recovered around 25% of his mana per hour; now, it was reduced to roughly 10%. Still, his recovery speed was slightly higher than his spending rate.
At this point, his mana was at 12%. He could use one more heal rune to speed up the process, but what if something attacked him? Saving some mana was essential, something he had already learned.
As time passed, the damage to his organs began to heal, allowing him to reduce the amount of mana used to hold them in place. Eventually, he stopped using it entirely. An hour passed as he still lay on the gray sand underground.
Using another heal rune, the pain finally began to dwindle. Since advancing to the Second Circle, the efficiency of his healing runes had increased significantly. Though his nails hadn't grown back and the flesh on his hand just turned into scars, the rune helped close wounds and stop bleeding.
Looking at his hands… specifically at the lack of nails, he muttered softly to himself,
"I guess they'll grow back eventually. Now, how to leave this place is a more pressing issue."
Then he looked down at his dislocated leg. He held it with both hands and snapped it back into place. A loud sound echoed, but he remained expressionless. Pain was no longer a concern.
Standing up, he looked ahead, then around him. There were hundreds of tunnels in this gray desert underground, intersecting with the one he was in… like an ant nest.
With no clear destination, he began to explore.
The tunnel he was in stretched no more than one kilometer. Other tunnels branched and crossed off from it, splitting in multiple directions. Since he had no idea where to go, he simply wandered randomly, from tunnel to tunnel.
When exhausted, he sat down to meditate and accumulate mana, then performed basic training—both physical and using his newly acquired skills, Mana Barrier and Mend, although Mend was quite hard to maintain and use. Once done with a tunnel, he marked its walls, scrapping with the insignias to avoid backtracking and continued his exploration.
Days passed, as he had already explored hundreds of tunnels. The largest were around five kilometers long, while the smaller ones were no more than five hundred meters. Every tunnel had several branches. Some sloped up or down; others remained level.
Faust also noticed that many of the tunnels had vertical shafts like the one he had fallen through. Looking up, they also had whirlpools at the top. Some were over a hundred meters high; seeing that, he was thankful he'd fallen through a relatively short one. Although he had found some even shorter, no more than ten meters tall.
He climbed them using his newly discovered mana barriers as platforms. Once he had used them a few times, they became natural with some adjustments, unlike mend. However, when he touched the ceiling, it was as hard as stone. Even scraping it with adventurer insignias he had looted did nothing—the surface wasn't even marked.
It was stronger than metal and than the tunnels, having no way to break it, he gave up for now and kept wandering the underground.
The structure was intriguing. It apparently allowed things to enter but not to leave. It probably wasn't designed for anything to enter alive. Faust wouldn't be alive either, if not for the healing rune.
Still, he doubted he was the only one who had ever fallen down one of these shafts. Statistically, that seemed highly improbable.
Every time he walked, his mind wrestled with the idea that this place had no way out. Maybe he would have to use his chance to leave the trials… what if there were no other options down here, and it was just a gigantic complex of corridors stretching endlessly?
But only a few hours later, something changed, his focus shifted towards what was in front of him.
In one of the tunnels, he found bones… human bones. They were scattered around, but mostly complete, enough to form a full skeleton.
A broken spear lay beside them, its head so rusted it was now useless. There were no traces of clothing, no remnants of flesh—only bones. They were aged and in poor condition, Faust leaned in closer and upon closer inspection, he noticed small dents on them, as if they had been bitten.
"Maybe they were eaten by something above and then thrown down here? Or… there are monsters down here. But I've found none so far, so maybe that's not it…"
After analyzing it for a while, he concluded that the body had likely been eaten by creatures on the surface and then discarded into one of the whirlpools. This assumption was based on the simple fact that, despite all his time spent underground, he had encountered no other signs of life.
Exactly because of that, this discovery intrigued him. It meant he might finally be reaching somewhere. After walking for days aimlessly, through hundreds of different tunnels, training his body and mana along the way, he had finally encountered something.
Continuing on, he passed through more tunnels and found another skeleton, in the exact same state… no clothes, no flesh, a shattered sword besides it, and bones marked with dents.
Then another. Every few tunnels, he would find bones scattered, that were enough to form a complete skeleton, sometimes he would even reach skeletons that were mostly built, as if they were leading somewhere. The curious thing was, none of them were beneath whirlpools, meaning they must have come from elsewhere and walked into this place themselves.
Eventually, he began finding skeletons in groups, and their numbers only grew.
As he drew closer to the increasing remains of dead bodies, all in the exact same condition, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Unconsciously, beads of sweat clung to his skin as a chill ran up his spine.
Not too far ahead, he sensed a strong presence—strong and heavy. It didn't feel exactly alive, but that didn't matter. At that moment, his thoughts raced.
What is that?! Was I wrong in assuming there's nothing alive here? I could be… but now it doesn't matter.
I need to go forward. I've already explored the other tunnels; I found no other way to escape. If there's a way out, the answer is definitely there… definitely…
Faust made his decision. Gritting his teeth, he advanced toward the source of the presence. Following the tunnel, he entered another, filled with even more skeletons. But this tunnel didn't lead to another corridor, it led to an open space.
Carefully, he crept forward. When he reached the end, he saw an enormous chamber, filled with dozens of colossal sand pillars shaped like hourglasses, each one made of hardened gray sand.
The chamber was vast. The ceiling stretched over a hundred meters high, and the space extended as far as Faust could see. It was enormous, he was genuinely impressed by such a massive underground area.
However, what truly surprised him was the floor—where at least a few dozen skeletons lay scattered and unmoving. Most of them still clutched weapons: rusted swords, broken bows, shattered staves, and splintered spears were strewn across the ground.
The scene looked like a desolate, ancient battlefield.
The chamber was dark, but something even darker was emanating from behind one of the gray sand pillars… a miasma, a pitch black miasma. It moved like shadows, laced with dark blue glints that made it resemble a starry night.