Monster Integration

Chapter 4357  Web of Tunnels

I entered the gate after Kanxin.

In a few seconds, I will be in a Taurus, where I will be busy for months. My clones have already planned what I need to do on a week-by-week basis.

For the next three months, I might not be able to get out of my house.

Hun!

I was in my thoughts when I felt the tunnel shaking, and my eyes widened.

A moment later, the shaking got so intense that I unsealed my sealed power and formed the strongest defensive layer around me.

Not that it would help if I got flung into a spatial sea.

The spatial travel still scares me; it still gives me nightmares.

Whenever I travel, I remain most cautious because, in any danger I face, the space sea remains the only place where my every card is obsolete.

If I got flung into it, I could forget surviving. I will die in an instant.

This time, I didn't have a protective charm to save me last time till someone like the professor found me, luckily. In the vast space sea, the chances of someone finding me is more than a billionth in one.

Sometimes, I wonder whether it was truly a coincidence.

The shaking of the spatial tunnel got intense by the seconds. It terrified me, and my armor lit up brightly to protect me against anything dangerous that might come.

I have prepared, despite knowing. How futile the attempts are.

I am strong, but not that strong. I need to be Silver Prime at least to have a 1% chance of survival. I am not; despite all my strength, it isn't close to Silver Prime.

Still, I need to be prepared. I can not simply give up surviving.

The shaking was getting intense by the second, but I didn't notice any cracks appearing in the tunnel, which made me somewhat relieved.

However, I understand very well that cracks could form at any second.

It is a matter of pressure. If it reaches beyond what the tunnel can handle, cracks will start forming on it.

I don't know why it is happening; there are hundreds of reasons for it—malfunctions in the gate, disturbance in the spatial sea, a spatial storm, and many other things.

Hun!

I thought that when I sensed something, that made my expressions worse.

"Shit!" I cursed.

The connection of the tunnel with the gate had been broken. This means there is no anchor to the tunnel and no power to power it constantly.

Now, the tunnel is like a leaf in a storm. Going where it is pushed. Once I reach the end of the tunnel, it will push me into the spatial sea.

It also didn't have a constant energy source powering it, so it could not protect itself against the spatial sea's pressure like before.

Crack!

It took only a second before I heard the crack. It is not far from away from it.

It is small, not longer than my finger, but this is just a starting. Soon, thousands of them will appear in the tunnel before they shatter it apart.

The only thing that is protecting me against the horror of the spatial sea.

Crack Crack Crack!

A moment later, more cracks begin to appear, and by the time ten seconds pass, hundreds of them are appearing, and more appear every second faster.

I wanted to do something and not just watch myself getting close to death every second, but I could not do anything.

I am completely and utterly powerless to do anything.

Still, I tried using my space-tinted energy and forbidden power to deal with the cracks. I was able to heal only one; by the time I healed, a hundred more appeared.

'Can you help me?' I asked in core, but as usual, there was no reply.

It filled me with even greater dread, but I could do nothing against it. Still, I didn't stop what I was doing. My runes moved, trying to heal as many as possible, but a hundred more appeared in that time.

While I was doing that, I couldn't help but think about Kanxin.

She went inside a moment before me into the tunnel. I could not see her, but I am sure she is feeling the same horror I have.

I took a sharp breath as some of it reached me. It is weak, but it tore through my defenses and entered me.

A second of lead isn't enough to get to the other side.

Soon, over a thousand cracks appeared and these are cracks, I could see. There are a lot more in this long tunnel.

A few more seconds passed, and things, I fear, began to happen. Raw spatial power begins to leak inside the tunnel through the cracks.

Seee!

I took a sharp breath as some of it reached me. It is weak, but it tore through my defenses and entered me.

Puch!

I vomited a few seconds later as the spatial energy began to ravage me. Not only the physical body but also the soul. It is tearing my soul apart.

"Ahhhhhh….!"

I screamed in pain, but nobody helped me. Instead, I had more spatial energy inside me, making things worse and worse till they reached a critical level.

It has reached so high that I don't know whether I will be able to deal with it.

More is coming inside me. I am doing everything I can. Even when many of my clones are turned off, they are connected to the soul if it is damaged heavily. They will stop working.

Of all my clones, only four are working, and not for long. I had just thought that when another one turned off.

My injuries are turning graver by the second, and there is immense pain. My body wants to turn off to deal with damage, but I am holding back through the sheer will.

I cannot afford to get unconscious. If I did, I would die.

Though I really want to, the pain is too much, and it is getting worse. If I kept going on like this, I wouldn't be able to survive for long.

Not even a minute.

More cracks appeared, and the tunnel had reached edge of shattering when something happened.

I noticed the change immediately, and the cracks stopped spreading a moment later. Instead, they have started healing.

It is getting stabilized.

For a moment, I thought the gate had reconnected with the tunnel, but my clone didn't think so. If it had been the gate reconnecting with the tunnel, the power would have been uniform; it is not.

I sensed around for more data.

Seconds passed, and I reached the end of the tunnel, where I got my answer.

The end of the tunnel isn't the gate but the tunnel. Hundreds, thousands of them, interconnected with each other.

"The web of tunnels," I breathed out through my bloody mouth.

These natural tunnels are connected to each other in a spatial sea, forming a complex network. It is a dangerous network as some lead you somewhere while others throw you into the spatial sea.

I entered the network and moved through it.

Yes, I could move here. I usually do not when I am traveling through the spatial tunnel; I don't want to disturb it, but here, I don't have a choice.

I need to choose the tunnel. If I let the flow take me, it might throw me into the spatial sea.

So, I moved and used the tunnel; I felt the strongest. I don't care where the tunnel throws me. All I care about is getting out of the spatial sea safely; I will deal with the rest later.

I reached the end of the tunnel with three more connecting to it.

Once more, I choose the strongest.

It is hard to move around with the chaos in my body and soul. Staying awake is a challenge every second, but I am doing it for the sake of my survival.

I moved through tunnel after tunnel, choosing the strongest.

Within a minute, I had crossed over ten tunnels and was still moving through them.

I need to reach the end quickly, or I will not be able to see it. The unconsciousness will take me soon. I have twenty seconds at most before I reach the obvious unconscious.

I changed to another tunnel, and I could see the end. There are a few more connected to it, but they are weaker than it.

So, I chose it, reaching closer and closer to the light before finally reaching it just when unconsciousness was about to take me.

I entered inside, and the oblivion took me.

I hope I get thrown into a safe place. I have only one clone active, and it could protect me, but I rather prefer a safe place where my clone didn't have to struggle to keep me alive.