Shadow Slave novel Chapter 200

Chapter 200 Descent

After a while, Sunny regained enough of his senses to warily look around.

The tunnel they were currently in was somewhat different from those they had traversed while fighting the horde of undead monsters. It looked more weathered and decrepit, with its walls and floor smoothed and uneven, as though eroded by something over the course of countless years.

What's worse, it was… wet. With a cold shiver, Sunny realized that they were surrounded by puddles of black water.

The smell of sea salt permeated the air.

Looking up, he found the tall figure of the boisterous huntress and asked in a raspy voice:

"Where are we?"

Effie glanced at him and gestured up.

"A hundred meters or so below the surface, pretty much exactly under the city wall."

He stared at her blankly, slowly comprehending the meaning of these words. The huntress gave him a nod.

"Yeah, you guessed correctly. Come night, this place is going to be full of seawater. That chasm behind us is what prevents the catacombs from being flooded by the dark sea."

She sighed tiredly.

"So, unless we want to drown or be eaten by some depth dweller, we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

Sunny closed his eyes, imagining a roaring torrent of black water erupting from the mouths of countless tunnels and falling into the abyssal chasm like waterfalls made of pure darkness.

Yeah, if they were still underground when that happened, sea monsters would be the least of their problems. The sea itself would kill them.

Luckily, the day was still young.

Effie's words served as a signal. A few moments later, Nephis rose to her feet and glanced at the members of the cohort. Her pale face was calm and composed.

"Time to go. Gather your strength."

With sighs and groans of pain, everyone stood up. Sunny was the last one to follow suit.

'Ouch, that hurts. I'm really starting to wonder if fighting Harus was a better choice.'

But no, it wasn't. Terrible as it might have been, the battle with the skeletons was at least predictable. The damned hunchback, on the other hand, was a complete unknown.

There was nothing worse than facing an enemy that you knew nothing about.

As the cohort headed deeper into the tunnel, Sunny caught up with Effie and asked with a hint of idle curiosity in his voice:

"By the way, how do you even know your way around the catacombs?"

It wasn't like she could have leisurely explored these deadly tunnels alone.

The huntress gave him a dubious look and shrugged.

"This knowledge is sort of passed down between the outer settlement hunters. I've been here a couple of times before, trying to escape from especially terrible Nightmare Creatures. Although, to be honest, I only descended this deep into the catacombs once."

Effie shivered.

"I was new in the Dark City at that time. Back then, the strongest hunter in the outer settlement sort of took me under her wing. We went down here with an entire party."