Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System
Chapter 135: What Lays Below

The stone benches were mostly turned to chunks and dust, littering the worn floor of marble. Not much was to be found, except for statues of an unknown figure.

He looked up at the monument at the back of the church, which presented the likeness of a knight with a wolf by his side.

"I'm guessing he's the hero of these people–the ones who used to live here," Jasper presumed.

Finn looked at the statue for a moment more before turning his focus away, glancing around, "Gurmo said we'd replace a challenge here. It doesn't seem like there's much of anything."

"Maybe the old fart's memory is a bit skewed, mate," Jasper reasoned with a shrug.

"Maybe," Finn didn't deny, stepping out from the fractured church.

Onto the lifeless soil of the cratered ruins, he looked around for where the others had wandered off to. He picked up on the sounds of distant chatter a block down, at what looked to be a crumbled mansion.

"Hey, Charlotte, Nova, what'd you replace–" He began to ask as he approached the front of the manor that was missing its walls, seeing the spellblade and bard touching what looked to be an old armor set.

It was beneath his right foot that he felt a chunk of the dried soil give in with a sense of weakness felt through the very foundation of the ground.

"Ah–"

He froze for a moment, but it was too late–the entirety of the ground gave out from beneath him, splitting and cracking. It rapidly extended from the spot he stood to the span of the crater. The entirety of the old city seemed to break apart as soil gave away, leading to the structures falling with them.

"Waaaaah!" Nova squealed.

"Finn!?" Charlotte shouted out, holding the bard close to herself while falling.

"What the hell is happening–!?" Jasper yelled. Read further on m_vl em,pyr

Finn could see the others amidst the descent, though they were all some distance separated from one another as they plummeted through the newly-formed crater that delved deeper under the surface.

"Hang on!--" Finn yelled out, watching as the fractured buildings crumbled away amidst their descent, falling alongside them.

Through the vast pit that had opened, it only became visible now beneath that they were quickly descending upon a body of water sat beneath the surface.

"I don't wanna dieeeeee–!" Nova shouted.

"You won't! Just hold your breath!" Finn yelled, allowing himself to freefall. "There's water below us!"

Sucking a lofty sum of oxygen into his lungs, he braced himself as the subterranean lake quickly approached before–SPLASH. It felt like he was hit in the face by a flyswatter as he crashed into the water. It was lukewarm, though felt unpleasant to be submerged into as he quickly moved his limbs to swim.

There wasn't a struggle for air, thanks to the assimilated ability from the fish-man: ["Minor Water Breathing"]. It was hard to see in the underground lake, leaving the constant rainfall of stone chunks from the collapsed structures that plopped into the water an unnerving experience.

'Please tell me none of them got hurt–please,' he urged while swimming, kicking his legs and pushing his arms to move himself.

He could make out the church submerged ahead of him, bringing him to swim through its entrance as he found himself in its lopsided interior.

Maybe it was following his own gut, or a passing miracle, but he discovered Charlotte trapped beneath the fallen statue, struggling to push it off and for air.

"Mmgh…!" Charlotte strained with puffed cheeks.

He hurriedly swam over, pushing his hands against the collapsed statue, though it was nudged into a particular spot with its foot lodged into a crack.

'Shit…I can't move it!' He thought, struggling.

The water felt more thick than normal, like an oil that restrained his movements.

There was no time to waste as his eyes briefly met with hers, bringing himself to push the word from his lips even without a breath, "Rrrrgl!—"

Somehow, the invocation manifested itself nonetheless as his shadow-born doppelgänger emerged beside him.

["Orcish Boost"] [4:59]

Together, he and his copy lifted the dense monument with every ounce of strength. Until it felt like the vessel in his forehead was going to pop, he pushed his body until—the statue was unlodged.

Just as it was moved, he grabbed Charlotte, pulling her into his arms as he quickly swam upwards. She already lost consciousness, bringing him to hurry as he swam as fast as he could to the surface.

["Greater Gale Blessing"] [4:59]

Using the wind to kick his feet with momentum like propellers, he forced his way to the top before breaking through the surface.

"Pyuuuh!—" He gasped out.

With the woman in his arms still struggling with water in her lungs, he didn't waste a moment approaching the land he found near the subterranean lake.

The struggling coughs of the unconscious girl prompted him to move faster before climbing onto the underground shore.

"Charlotte…! Shit—" Finn called her name as he laid her on her back, quickly giving her cheek a light tap.

Against the damp stone flooring, he knelt down, not wasting a moment to perform chest compressions.

"Come on!—" He anxiously urged, not replaceing it to get the water out of her lungs.

Desperation brought him to the next step, pinching Charlotte's nose as he leaned in and brought his mouth to hers. Creating that seal for a moment, he pulled away—

"Ghhf—!"

A burst of coughs came from the young woman, spitting out water from her lungs.

"Charlotte!" Finn said in relief, helping her sit up.

The silken-haired girl looked confused for a moment as she blinked a few times, clutching her chest, "What happened…? Where are we?"

"The ground gave out and we fell down here. You almost drowned—are you okay?" He worriedly asked, moving her hair out of her face.

Charlotte nodded, picking herself up as Finn helped her stand to her feet.

"I'm fine…The others, where are they?—" Charlotte asked, looking around.

Finn looked back just as the thought occurred to him as well, though an answer was found by the distinct "splashing" sound by the water.

"Hff—dammit, I'm not your boat!" The voice of the strained Aussie called out.

Jasper was seen swimming up to the shore with the timid bard on his back, who looked frightened at the water.

"What if there's sharks? I can't deal with sharks!" Nova protested, clutching his helmet.

"I'll send you to meet them!" Jasper threatened jokingly.

Finn rushed over to help pull the knight and board onto the platform of old stone, "—C'mon. I've got you."

"Thanks, mate," Jasper said, standing up as water exited the inside of his armor. "Looks like we fell right where we were looking for."

"Yeah, seems like it," Finn agreed.

The platform stretched to what looked like a temple of ancient stone built into the dirt below the surface; a place that Finn knew by common sense alone was unwelcoming to outsiders.

Nova huffed, looking up at the massive hole a hundred meters above the underground landscape, "How're we supposed to get out of here? My bird can carry me, but some of you might be too heavy." She remarked, giving a side-eye to the man in armor.

"Hey, I wouldn't trust your bird to carry me ten feet anyway," Jasper remarked.

Finn pointed to the temple infused into the deepground, "A good place to start would be through there, I'd wager. If it's connected to the city above–or what used to be a city now."

Even though it seemed like the obvious route, he could see the hesitance written on the faces of Charlotte and Nova, not that he didn't understand it himself. There were two, massive statues of lion-headed men positioned in front of the ominous temple, hardly making it welcoming.

"I mean, this is what we came here for, right?" Charlotte said, sounding as though she was trying to convince herself. "If we replace the Prime Treasure, we'll have a real shot at the Storm King."

"If it gets to look too dangerous in there, we'll replace another way," Finn assured them, looking at the spellblade. "Sounds good?"

"Mm," Charlotte nodded with partial acceptance.

The stone walkway led right up to the lion-faced statues, which looked heavily eroded by water and general age, as the stone was cracked and mossy. A vegetal, sulfurous smell lingered around the front of the eroded temple.

He ascended the set of steps leading to the entrance, though quickly hearing the sound of stone breaking off as he looked back.

Nearly falling backwards, Jasper caught himself after a chunk of the steps shattered beneath his boot, "--That was close."

"Careful. I don't know how old this place is," Finn warned, looking ahead at the cracked and mossy pillars that held up the front.

"Super-duper old, I can tell you that," Nova said with a tiny breath as she watched her steps.

There were no doors at the front of the temple, only a lightless hallway that eerily sat ahead.

Finn snapped his fingers to bring forth a light:

["Lesser Wisp"]

The orange flow pushed the shadows back, bringing him to enter the old temple. Each footstep of his companions that followed closely echoed through the interior. A gust of wind passed through the hall, pushed right past the group of outsiders like a brisk whisper.

"Feel that?" Charlotte quietly asked with a shudder.

"Y-yeah," Nova nervously answered, rubbing her own arms coldly.