Gradually, the rumbling sounds started to get louder and louder.
"Hmmm…" Liam subconsciously reached his hand out to touch the wall, hoping that it was not the tunnel that was about to crumble and crash down.
He would then be buried in this mess and die a miserable death. Though it was a shameful way to die, it was probably worth the risk.
Liam chuckled wryly and looked around as the sound started to amplify exponentially.
"What the hell?"
It sounded as if several buffaloes were galloping towards Liam.
However, he didn't have to wonder for too long. The next second, loud cackling and roaring noises echoed and a horde of skeletons appeared in front of him.
They were only around Level 30 to 40 but their sheer numbers were alarming.
"That's more like it." Liam grinned and dashed forward.
Weirdly enough, this actually made him feel a little more at ease. Instead of some convoluted twisted mechanisms, he would rather take these guys and fight them head-on.
He lobbed the ball of fire onto the incoming skeletons and directly jumped into the middle of the fray. He swung his sword around, the sharp metal clanging with the dense bones.
Huge damage numbers started floating up, but weirdly the fireball he had thrown earlier did not do much damage.
"Hmmm… So you guys have some mana resistance… I see… but that's fine by me."
Liam grinned and continued swinging his sword around, blocking and parrying the attacks but also sending some attacks in when he had the chance.
He did not look overwhelmed at all, rather he looked like he was having a lot of fun. With every move he made, dust and pieces of bones flew scattered, falling out left and right.
The dead and decaying skeletons were no match for the sharp sturdy metal of the semi-epic ranked weapon.
Liam did not even have to use its special effect. He was completely overpowered. In addition to this, another level-up notification promptly appeared pushing him all the way to Level 46.
"Were the undeads always this weak?" He grinned and continued cutting down everything around him.
As the last wisp of the fireball died down, a blanket of darkness enshrouded him and more and more skeletons rushed forward, roaring energetically.
These were visibly different from the skeletons Liam had seen near the entrance of the tunnel.
They had more fighting power and energy within them as if they were still alive. Some of them also had weapons.
Their levels, as well, were not that low and consequently, their stats were higher.
So it was a considerable task for Liam to evade their attacks. Though he had a powerful weapon for offense, he still lacked good techniques for defense.
But this only helped him hone his movement skill and dodging skill even further.
In between the fight, he also had to cast a fast fireball to light up the place ever so often.
While the skeletons were completely fine with fighting in the dark, he was unable to see anything in the dark.
Trying to fight in complete darkness would only prolong things so Liam still cast fireballs and barraged fire bullets everywhere to see clearly.
In this way, Liam continuously dealt with the onslaught of skeletons for the next few minutes when finally the last of the skeleton was smashed into bits and pieces.
"Was that the last one?" Liam shook his head, white bone dust flying everywhere. The tunnel no longer had the moist earthy smell. Instead, it now smelled like chalk powder.
Even the air was suffocating. Liam dusted himself and his clothes and then started walking further into the tunnel, heading deeper into the ground.
The tunnel was quite narrow and Liam thought about the number of skeletons that had poured out. "Tsk. Tsk. This is going to take too long."
He increased his pace to cover the long tunnel faster. He once again materialized a ball of flame to light up the dark ramshackle place covered with cobwebs and nests of small critters.
The next several twists and turns of the tunnel did not contain anything specifically and he continued moving downwards.
The only difference he noticed was that the air here was strangely thicker and heavier as if he was inhaling something else along with it.
He also had a small prickling sensation here and there that appeared fleetingly and disappeared the next second.
Other than that, nothing else seemed to be out of place and Liam continued walking in the never-ending underground tunnel that ran zig-zag down the ground.
"Am I going to the center of the world or what?"
After a few minutes, he was still walking endlessly, so Liam sighed and bumped up his speed further, now running.
He then churned his mana, moving the energy to his feet, and gave himself an additional speed boost to cover more distance.
However, as he tried to do this… the mana that he used wasn't getting replenished all that well. Liam quickly stopped conserving whatever mana he had left.
Only then did he notice that the mana in the air right now was actually very thin. It was almost not present.
But Liam did not stop. With a subtle smile on his face, he gripped his sword tighter and continued walking downwards.
Meanwhile… at the exact same time… several feet directly above him… a group of four players landed on the ground.
Unlike Liam, they had come here on a flying mount so it hadn't taken them that long to find the place.
"This should be your quest spot?" Madan walked around taking a look, only to come to an abrupt halt when he saw the huge gaping hole on the ground.
"DON'T TELL ME! Someone is already FUCKING here!"
He turned around, gasping, completely and utterly shocked. His big tummy jiggled as he stared at Kouske, wanting to see his reaction.
However, that guy was still rather calm.. He did not panic and simply walked over to take a look at the hole.