Eater Blade: Grinding in Apocalypse-Chapter 61: DEEP DOWN: THE HELLHOLE QUEST — PART 3.

Everything went quiet. The last three Abnormals were down, twitching in pools of dark blood.

Dancer stood still, wiping gore from her mouth with the back of her hand. Johnquis rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck.

Savier looked between them. "Okay... we all good?"

Johnquis gave a short nod. "For now."

Without a word, Dancer turned and started walking deeper into the tunnel.

Savier watched her go. "She really never talks, huh?"

Johnquis didn’t look at him. "She doesn’t waste words on background noise."

Savier scoffed. "Harsh." Then he grinned. "But fair."

They moved out—three shadows slipping into the dark. Savier walked with a bit more bounce, counting in his head.

"Just 700 more feed points. That’s like... seven low-levels, or one Abnormal and a couple more, or maybe one Level 2 High Eater. So..." He glanced ahead. "What do you think this hellhole’s throwing at us next?"

For a moment, no one answered. The tunnel stretched on, steep and claustrophobic, the wet air pressing in. Their boots barely made a sound.

Then Johnquis spoke. "This nest feels different from anything I’ve seen. I mean, nests in Sectors One through Five—they were all built inside something. Schools. Skyscrapers. Malls. But this... this was carved. Made. By something."

Savier nodded slowly. "That digger was a damn engineer. Look at this place—it didn’t just tunnel. It designed this sickening hole."

Johnquis’s voice stayed even, but low. "I keep wondering how far down this goes. My last D-tier quest before this one was an Anomaly Quest. That was intense, but honestly... I’d take that over walking blind into this kind of dark."

Savier blinked. "Wait, that really happened? You actually completed an Anomaly Quest?"

"Yeah. Still trying to believe it myself."

"Man... that’s insane. Anomaly Quests are literal suicide. They’re the hardest triggers in the system—super rare, and even rarer to survive. Everyone who pulls one usually ends up in a body bag."

"You’re right," Johnquis said. "But things went differently. I had Dancer with me."

Dancer glanced over her shoulder at him, just a flicker of golden eyes in the gloom. It was clear what she meant. It was because of you, not me.

Savier saw the look and grinned. "Ooh, you two are sweet. Why don’t you just fu—"

Johnquis snapped. "OKAY, back to the quest."

As if on cue, Dancer came to a sudden stop.

Johnquis stopped behind her, tightening his grip on his blade. "What is it, Dancer?"

Savier stepped up beside them. "What’s going on?"

In front of them, another hole opened up—this one leading even deeper underground.

Savier peered into the hole. "You’ve gotta be kidding me. Another drop?"

Johnquis leaned slightly forward. It wasn’t like the last one. This one breathed.

Air flowed up from the pit—moist, stale, carrying something foul and... warm.

He muttered, "We’re close."

Dancer crouched, eyes fixed on the edge. Her nose twitched once. A low growl built in her throat but didn’t break loose.

Savier glanced between them, then pointed at the darkness below. "Alright, real question—how many more of these before we hit the Queen, the King, or God himself?"

No one answered.

Johnquis knelt down, studying the edges. "Dug by claws. Not reinforced. Means the thing digging wasn’t worried about collapse."

Savier muttered. "Cocky bastard, I respect that."

Then his grin grew wider. "Okay. Okay. So hear me out. I’m at 9,300 feed points right now. You know what happens when I hit 10k?"

"No one cares," Johnquis said flatly.

"I unlock my first skill!"

Savier announced like he was unveiling a prize on a game show. "First. Real. Power. I’ve been stuck as a normie all year."

"You’ve been bragging for six months like you already had one."

"Fake it till you make it."

Dancer stood and walked back a few paces, judging the hole.

Savier adjusted his straps. "Look, if there’s a Level 2 High Eater down there, I call first blood. No arguments. If I kill it clean, I’ll be at 10,300."

Johnquis didn’t respond. He just started checking his gear again.

Savier sighed, raised his arms. "Come on, man. Aren’t you even a little curious what my skill’s gonna be?"

"Nope."

"Could be healing. Could be shadow clone. Could be temporary invincibility."

"Could be ’useless bragging aura,’"

Dancer snorted.

Savier gasped. "Was that a laugh?"

Johnquis looked over. "Might’ve been."

Savier placed a hand on his chest. "I’ve broken the silence barrier. A new achievement unlocked."

Dancer said nothing. But her eyes flicked toward him again, unreadable. Then back to the pit.

Johnquis rose to his feet, blade still humming low in his grip. "Alright. We go down. No stopping once we jump. Get to the bottom, assess, eliminate."

"Or die trying," Savier added.

"Or that."

"Hell yeah."

Savier backed up, rolled his shoulders, then broke into a run.

He shouted and dove. "See you losers in hell!" frёewebηovel.cѳm

He vanished.

No scream. No crash. Just a quiet echo that faded too fast.

Johnquis and Dancer exchanged a glance. She moved first and Johnquis followed.

They dropped into the pit.

No wind, no sound—just the rush of freefall and the thud of boots hitting stone. But when they landed, it wasn’t pitch-black.

The cavern glowed.

All around them, the walls shimmered with patches of glowing rock—blues, greens, soft oranges. Crystals jutted out like teeth from the ceiling, pulsing faintly with life. Strange minerals coated the ground in rippling lines, like veins running through flesh. The deeper they looked, the more it felt alive.

Savier’s voice was low, almost reverent. "Whoa... This place is... beautiful."

Even Dancer paused. Her shoulders eased, head tilting slightly, golden eyes soaking in the glow.

Johnquis turned slowly. "This wasn’t dug. It was grown."

"It’s like we’re standing inside a geode."

Savier knelt beside a violet stone, holding his hand near the glow. "No heat. But it’s humming. Like it’s alive."

Dancer took a step forward, reaching out. One of the taller stones flickered gently under her touch.

Savier looked up at the walls, mouth open. "If I die here, bury me in this hole. Seriously. This is way better than any grave up top."

Johnquis crouched, dragging his fingers across the floor. "The ground’s soft in some places... like fresh mud. But look there—solid crystal."

Savier muttered, walking further in. "Looks like someone melted glass and froze it mid-drip...Is this even natural?"

Dancer stopped moving. Her gaze had shifted.

A beat of silence.

Then something flickered. A soft flash. Not from the stone.

Savier noticed it first. "Wait... that one blinked."

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