44. Escape from Despair

Survived.

Savor the feeling of survival.

Alive. What a remarkable thing.

At the same time, despair seeps in slowly, steadily.

What now?

The nest is destroyed.

Completely.

A flicker of glance at the site of what appears to be a breath-based attack.

There, a massive crater has formed in the wall.

Haha.

Funny, isn’t it?

Why would a crater form in a wall?

Craters are made by meteorites striking the ground.

How could one form on a vertical wall?

Moreover, this passed through a large rock.

Strange.

The bees do not attack, even though I stand defenseless, frozen.

Perhaps they fear the Earth Dragon as well.

After all, it is that kind of being.

Fear is understandable.

I am afraid too.

What am I supposed to do now, really.

I can return to the original passage after breaking through the swarm.

Provided I ignore the Earth Dragon entirely.

I was fortunate to survive this time.

But if something like this happens again, I won’t survive.

The Earth Dragon’s movements clearly regarded the nest as an annoyance.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have launched such an attack.

Thus, building a nest from now on carries a high probability of drawing its attention.

That means nests cannot be made.

Or rather, I’m too afraid to attempt it.

My mind is already shattered.

I don’t want to provoke the Earth Dragon’s wrath.

Even if it was a misunderstanding, even if the Dragon saw it as meaningless, merely destroying my nest.

Given its scale, such a response is not impossible.

But from my frail perspective, the outcome is the same either way.

Encounter a subterranean dragon—death.

That is all.

I have avoided it twice.

Twice I have been granted fortune.

Yet I do not believe fortune alone was responsible.

The subterranean dragon was overwhelming—yet it did not notice me hiding.

That is what I believe.

That is what I wish to believe.

Otherwise, I would have nothing left to cling to.

My sole path to survival.

Hide without fail, escape the dragon’s territory by any means.

There is no other option.

My only reliance is the stealth skill.

I thought it useless when I acquired it—now it is my lifeline.

Skill level: five.

Honestly, it feels precarious.

But there is nothing else to do.

I have made my decision.

First, I must determine which direction the dragon moved.

Observe the ground.

There, the dragon’s footprints remain boldly marked.

Observe the direction the earth dragon's footprints lead.

There is a single, large passage ahead.

The earth dragon is beyond that point.

Just that knowledge induces tension.

I proceed in the opposite direction to the passage the earth dragon entered.

Naturally.

Who would willingly move in the same direction as an earth dragon?

The passage's destination remains unknown.

Honestly, I consider abandoning this path entirely and ascending the vertical shaft instead.

But no—impossible.

Not a matter of logic. The heart rejects it.

Move slowly. Cautiously. Conceal myself.

I wish for the ultimate stealth tool: cardboard.

Phew.

Slight improvement in mental state?

Incidentally, my HP decreased significantly during the fall, but it has fully recovered now.

Thanks to HP auto-regeneration.

I should have allocated skill points to detection instead of this.

Well, it’s fortunate I managed to recover on my own like this.

Just now, I didn’t have the mental capacity to check, but how fast is the recovery happening?

Skill level is low, so it’s not regenerating rapidly, but minor injuries can probably be left untreated.

Ah, also noticed—SP, the red total stamina, hasn’t decreased.

Why is that?

It’s never happened before. There must be some condition preventing the drain, but I don’t know what it is.

Could it be… that it’s actually decreasing, but the display is bugged and just shows no change?

No, I can’t have that—suddenly running out of stamina and being unable to act.

No, I do trust the鉴定 (assessment) system.

I believe she can do it.

I believe in her, but considering her past failure rate…

I really do believe in her.

The assessment system may be approaching its next skill level upgrade.

It has been a considerable time since the last increase, and the assessment has been maintained consistently.

Considering the significant advancement after reaching level six, there is reason to expect progress at the next level.

It would be greatly helpful if the skill display were to update soon.

The inability to determine skill effects is becoming increasingly inconvenient.

Moreover, among the skills with unknown effects, there may be one capable of reversing the current situation.

That may be overly optimistic, but it could still provide some improvement to the present circumstances.

To escape this desperate state, even minor positive factors are needed now.

Is there no skill that reveals enemy positions?

If so, movement could proceed with constant awareness of the Earth Dragon’s location.

Detection would have been useful, but it serves no purpose.

A map would also be desirable.

It is uncertain whether this path leads to a truly safe location.

It might connect directly to a more dangerous area.

In that case, death may be inevitable.

For now, only one option remains: trust in one’s own ill fortune.

Please, let this path lead to a safer place than the one we are in now.