'No...there's no way I'll die with a damned roach...I refuse!! Fallen's Wings! Fallen's Wings!'
Realizing that he was falling into the howling abyss, Shye gnashed his teeth and clenched his left fist in defiance; meanwhile, his mind raced, striving to devise a solution.
The first thing he thought of was his trusty wings that were about to go off cooldown, and although he failed to cast it the first two times, it successfully activated on the third.
'Fallen's Wings!'
Burdened with the crystalline roach's weight, Shye's rotten mana wings flapped mightily, defying gravity as it brought him closer to the ceiling once more.
Regrettably...one flap wasn't enough, and he would have to wait for one second before he could flap it again.
The roach tried its best to pull him down while he tried his best to fly towards the ceiling.
Sadly for Shye, their efforts simply canceled each other out, and while the distance between him and the crystalline ceiling wasn't increasing, it wasn't decreasing either.
Sure, he could keep this up for as long as the wings would last, however, after that, he would surely be devoured by the dark chasm.
He had to think of another solution.
"YOU F*CKING COCKROACH! JUST ACCEPT THAT YOU LOST TO ME AND DIE ALONE!" Shye glanced downward and cursed, immediately regretting his decision to look at the spine-chilling chasm.
With a cold smile, Shye attempted to cut the persistent roach's antennae using Adamance.
'Power Slash!'
He was so sure that he had already won.
Unfortunately, he underestimated a cockroach's innate toughness and persistence. Just when the blades of his adamantite-tier greatsword almost made contact with its target, the antennae suddenly turned silver in color.
*CLANG!*
An ear-rending metallic noise echoed across the vast chasm as Shye's greatsword finally clashed with the silver antennae, only to find out that his mighty strike proved ineffective against the defenses of the roach's feelers.
"WHAT THE F*CK IS THIS NOW?!" He couldn't help but curse.
Time was running out, after all.
'Appraisal!'
Checking the Abyssal Roach's status once more, Shye focused on its skills this time. He then noticed one particular skill that might've been the dastardly silver armor on the roach's feelers.
Shortly after, the creature turned into mana particles, confirming its death.
'Phew...that's one problem gone...'
Indeed...the roach was only one problem, and falling deeper into the abyssal chasm was another.
Strangely though, Shye didn't panic as he fell deeper and deeper into the abyss. In fact, his heart only grew calmer, appearing as though the chasm was his home.
[Congratulations on completing the quest: Hunt: Abyssal Roach! You've earned 2,500 points as a reward!]
[Congratulations! You've learned the skill: [Levitate Lv.1(Uncommon)] for 1000 points!]
Given the depth of the chasm, Shye had plenty of time to search the system for a skill that would let him defy gravity at the last moment, even if just for a few seconds to survive the fall.
Then, after landing at the bottom of the chasm, he would immediately draw a long-distance teleportation magic circle and leave the goddamned dungeon.
Temporarily, at least.
Once he made it out, he planned to return and leisurely search for treasures and benefits within, with the aim of clearing the dungeon in the process.
This...was his plan. Experience tales at empire
'Phew... Without the permanent night vision pill the guild master rewarded me, there's no way this plan would work...' Shye inwardly thought, feeling lucky and thankful that he got a gift that would help him survive in absolute darkness.
Still, plummeting at such horrifying speeds was unnerving.
Shye was definitely not as calm as he appeared on the surface.
His eyes were solely focused on one direction: downwards.
After all, he had to survive the fall first before worrying about anything else.
'Mana Pulse!'
Since his night vision was still limited by how far a human could actually see, Shye used mana pulses as an additional security measure.
This allowed him to detect any creatures in the chasm, giving him time to prepare for combat before he even landed.
Hopefully, there was none he couldn't handle.
However, as soon as the first pulse returned with information, his hair stood on end and his blood ran cold.
There were...hundreds, if not thousands, of creatures of various sizes and shapes—all staring at him from different nooks and crannies in the dark abyss.