BOOOOOM!
The wall of the crevice exploded, throwing debris everywhere.
The eye immediately opened and looked at the source of the explosion.
The debris fell onto the eye, but this time, it didn’t close.
Sure, it didn’t want to get hit by debris, but it also wouldn’t be injured by it.
A bunch of ore and stone fell onto the eye, and it kept looking around.
It couldn’t find any food.
After around 20 seconds, the eye closed again.
Then, it started to vibrate.
All the debris on top of the eyelid rolled down, gathering at the border between the eyelid and the walls.
This was its method of keeping its eye free from obstructions.
Silence.
A moment later, a hole appeared on top of a huge pile of iron ore, and Kyle stretched his upper body out.
Now, it looked like his lower body was encased in some kind of big iron cauldron.
If the eye opened again, it would only see the big chunk of iron.
Kyle’s actual body would not enter its vision.
He quickly looked around and found his hammer right beside him.
Kyle stretched his hand to the hammer’s handle and sucked it into his hand.
’Got it!’
At that moment, the eye shook again and opened.
Kyle retreated back into his cauldron, his hammer sticking out of it.
The beam washed over Kyle’s cauldron.
Then, it closed again.
A mix of relief and terror assaulted Kyle.
’To think that this fucking game actually saved my life,’ Kyle thought. ’Why did I even buy that shit? Just because all of the streamers played it?’
A moment later, Kyle’s upper body came out of the cauldron again.
He held his huge hammer in his hand and looked at the wall.
’Now, I just have to get over it,’ he thought, finding his own thoughts amusing.
Kyle put the pick of his hammer to the wall and used his Soul.
The pick stuck to the wall, and Kyle pushed down.
The cauldron and his body left the eye.
As the hammer’s head rotated on the wall, Kyle started to sweat.
’I fucking hate the lever principle! The guy in the game made it look so easy!’
At that moment, the eye opened again.
It felt some Ether.
Something was going on.
The beam of the eye reached the floating chunk of iron ore that seemed to be connected to the wall by a long stick.
Inside the cauldron, Kyle’s Ether was rapidly being consumed.
Holding himself from this position was insanely draining.
The eye kept looking at the chunk of iron ore.
It felt Ether coming from there.
But it was just stone.
This was strange.
Inside the cauldron, Kyle slurped up some of the liquid Spirit Spring Ore to refill his stamina and Ether.
The Abyss Eye kept looking at the weird piece of iron.
It wasn’t moving.
Was this food or not?
Ten seconds passed.
Then, the Abyss Eye closed again.
Kyle released a deep breath before he pushed further.
The hammer head rotated, pushing Kyle further up.
By now, he was two meters away from the Abyss Eye.
That was when it opened again.
It looked at the chunk of ore again.
This thing was really weird.
But this time, it closed pretty quickly again.
Kyle pushed one last time and threw himself upward.
He hit the wall and stuck to it.
The Abyss Eye opened again.
Huh?
The ore was gone.
Luckily, the Abyss Eye was not a very intelligent beast.
It didn’t find anything and just closed again.
As soon as it closed, Kyle put the hammer into his cauldron and used his arms to crawl upward.
Some stones fell off the wall, but the eye didn’t open.
As Kyle reached a height of 20 meters, he used his Soul to reshape the big chunk of iron into a wall.
He attached the wall to his back and crawled upward on all fours.
’Hah! Even if you wake up again, you will just see a wall of iron here!’ Kyle thought.
No more incidents happened, and Kyle reached the upper edge of the crevice again.
“Not what I had planned, but you succeeded,” Theodor commented.
“That was pretty smart, right?” Kyle asked with an elated smile.
He had survived!
“No,” Theodor said. “You could’ve reshaped the iron into a long rod and retrieved your mining weapon by using it as a medium for your Soul. The mining weapon would stick to the rod, and you would just need to pull it out.”
“And then what?” Kyle asked. “What if it woke up?”
“It probably wouldn’t have woken up,” Theodor said.
“Probably,” Kyle answered. “You said probably. What if you’re wrong?”
Kyle could feel Theodor’s annoyance.
“You like sneaking around,” Kyle said. “I don’t. I’m not good at sneaking around.”
“I expected the eye to open, and instead of betting on my stealth, I accepted the risk and dealt with it.”
“Your method might have been more elegant, but mine was safer.”
Theodor snorted. “I would have been able to retrieve the mining weapon without alarming the Abyss Eye.”
“Yeah, but I’m not you, am I?” Kyle asked. “I’m me. You could do it. I can’t.”
Theodor looked at Kyle with annoyance.
Yet, he didn’t say anything.
“You got your mining weapon, and that’s all that matters,” Theodor said. “Continue the journey.”
Kyle just smiled victoriously.
’Yeah, I can also be smart!’ he thought.
Kyle continued walking on the wall, and this time, he made sure that he didn’t lose any focus.
Losing his hammer and almost dying drilled that lesson deep into his mind.
“By the way, how powerful is that Abyss Eye?” Kyle asked as he casually walked on the wall.
“I would guess Mid or Late Ferocious Beast,” Theodor said.
“Ferocious Beast?” Kyle thought. “I thought it would be in the Third Realm. Speaking of, how are those beasts called?”
“Monsters,” Theodor answered.
“Just Monsters?” Kyle asked.
“Yes.”
“Are there Transcendent Beasts?” he asked.
“Nature Gods, yes,” Theodor answered.
“Oh, cool,” Kyle commented.
Kyle asked a couple of questions while walking through the crevice.
After a couple of minutes, he reached the end.
The eye hadn’t opened again during that time.