Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

and all. You can access the channels through the jungle exit tunnel. I’ll update the map. But hurry!”

“Grmmmmm! Nothing’s ever easy!” Gus yelled as he alternatively ran and used Dash to get to the accessway as quickly as possible. Opening the manhole-sized entry port, he slid down the ladder, holding the sides with his feet and hands. Reaching the tunnel, Nick auto-updated his minimap to show where to go.

A nondescript side tunnel led to a dead end with a hand-scan panel. Gus slammed his hand down and waited for the agonizingly slow green light to scan up and down. He’d have to look into upgrading these, they were horrendously slow, and he always had to access them when time was scarce. After an eternity, the system recognized him and the large door buzzed and electromagnetic locks disengaged. Gus pulled hard on the door and could not budge the large slab of metal. Even with his higher strength stats, he struggled to pull with all his might. This door probably had all kinds of rust and grime locking the hinges in place.

“Umm, boss? Doors that push reduce the speed of those who pull before they read…”

Gus stopped pulling and looked to the side to see where Nick had placed a flashing yellow box on his display around a small panel that simply stated, ‘PUSH.’ Gus rolled his eyes in exasperation and pushed on the door. It easily and silently slid forward. Gus almost tripped, stepping into a groove just behind the door. Looking up, he saw a large slab of rock suspended beyond the door in an alcove.

“Dude!” Nick mentally shouted at Gus, who shook his head to focus and began running down the passageway, mad at himself for always being so easily distracted. The walls appeared to be bored straight out of the rock, being perfectly cylindrical except for the floor, which was thankfully level. The passageway beyond was long and straight, and Gus began spamming Dash. He wasn’t sure if the uncertainty of when the volcano would erupt was more or less nerve-wracking than a countdown would be.

Occasional tremors and an ominous resonating rumble would shake the tunnels, spurring him to push his limits and move even faster. The grating noise got so loud that Gus was worried something would shift and the tunnel would be filled with molten rock, but fortunately, it held.

Coming to a T-intersection, he jogged through a series of twists and turns. Gus came to the first door Nick had marked. Instead of a scanner, this door resembled a submarine door with a large handwheel.

Gus grabbed and wrenched the wheel. After a tense second where Gus wondered if he was turning it the wrong way, the wheel shifted and began to turn. The door opened and Gus was off again to the second door. The pathway to the next door was even more convoluted, and the inability to dash in the narrow curving passages made Gus all the more anxious. Stinging sweat dripped into his eyes and he swiped it away with his sleeve. Was it hotter or was it just because he was exerting himself so much?

Before he could ask, Nick responded, “It’s a little of both. Hurry, you don’t have much time, Gus.”

Gus pushed on, slamming into the second door and began yanking on the wheel to open it. A tremor knocked Gus off his feet, and he scrambled back up, pulling on the wheel. After a loud screech that sounded like nails on a chalkboard, the door relented and opened.

It was definitely getting hotter, Gus realized. Following the minimap, he headed for the last marker. Gus thanked his luck stat that this last passageway was straight. Irising the minimap out, he could see his escape path once he opened the last chamber. Three straight hallways and then he would be out. He just hoped the pressure wouldn’t be so high that he couldn’t outrun the magma once he opened the release valve.

As Gus neared the end of the hallway, it became harder and harder to breathe. The air was becoming hotter and it was quickly becoming uncomfortable to move. He was two hundred feet from the end of the hallway, and the heat became an almost physical barrier he had to push against. The super-heated air began to make him cough, lungs already burning from his extended run. Gus blinked as he began to get lightheaded.

He stumbled drunkenly and fell to his knees. The floor of the chamber was hot and singed his hand as he reached his hand forward to brace himself from falling onto his face. He yanked the hand to his chest; the pain of the burn gave him a moment of clarity. He tried to force his brain to think. He began to have a coughing fit, as if his lungs were rejecting the hot air, but his brain was trying to override them as it became more starved of oxygen.

Gus looked at his burned hand, squinting from the heat. A red welt was already starting to rise. A silvery sheen floated over it, like heat waves on a hot desert road. He stared for a bit as the shimmer played across his skin, watching the red welt shrink like a pool of water drying up in the desert, being slowly absorbed. Absorbed. His mind perked up for some reason at the word.

Blinking, he recognized the shimmer as his Nth. Nth that had the Energy Absorption skill. Holding his hands out, he tried to imagine the heat flowing into the shimmering Nth. It was so difficult to focus amid the coughing fits and his delirious state. He closed his eyes, and pulled on the heat.

Instantly, his mind clarified. Still coughing, Gus envisioned a web of Nth in front of his mouth. He gasped in air that was much easier to breathe, stripped of the suffocating heat. Gus pushed forward, absorbing energy from all around his body. It felt like he was walking into a strong wind with how