System Discord
Chapter 13: SysDi 13: Thirty Minutes

Chapter 13: SysDi 13: Thirty Minutes

One foot in front of another.

Evan slowly made his way down the stairs. The entrance slowly disappeared from view, and the sun could only light up the way near the top so everything is in dim darkness.

Still, Evan pressed on, putting a hand on the stone wall so he could make sure that he won’t fall over. It’s not like the stairs will stretch on forever. It’ll stop eventually. He just hoped that it’s not too far down that it’ll him longer to get back up for later.

"Do you have a means so I can see in the dark?" Evan asked, taking his time.

’Not really. I can’t see anything either, if that helps make you feel better.’ Iva replies.

The plan was to try and see what is down the stairs and then have Iva tell him when it is every thirty minutes. Since it was maybe midday, he figured he could try to walk down and to look around until the three-hour mark. He still had his routine to finish before his parents return.

If he’s able to return at the time he set, Evan still had the time to accomplish what he set out to do even after his little exploration. Since they just began and Iva isn’t saying anything about the time at the moment, it’s not even thirty minutes yet since they got down, even if it feels like it was already a really long time of going downstairs.

Evan really had no choice but to continue.

When the light at the top finally disappeared from view, there is a loud sound of something like air out no nowhere from both the left and right simultaneously, almost making Evan jump. But with the sound came the illuminating light.

Lanterns.

They were really more like torches against the wall with their flames covered.

It doesn’t matter what they are, they look high up the wall that Evan couldn’t reach even if he tried to, and they do their intended purpose.

With each sounds of air, every five steps down has a similar lantern lighting up the way. It continues down, until it stops at least fifteen steps below.

’They could’ve added these lights a little higher so no one’s stumbling around.’ Iva comments.

"I can’t complain. At least we can see." Evan replied.

It didn’t take him long before reached the final step of the stairs. The walls were still stone, but there’s some growth in it. Upon closer look, Evan thinks they were some moss.

The walls here has no lantern, but it has torches, which were all lined up and spaced evenly both going to the left and right. They were all lit too, so Evan has no issues seeing where he’s walking to.

He seems to be in a hallway, stretching down corridors in both sides with both ending out with a corner turn.

"Iva, you still there?" Evan asked, looking at the hallway towards his right.

’Yeah, still here.’ Iva replies.

Evan nods his head. "I hope you didn’t forget the reminder." He tells it.

Iva hums. ’I didn’t. You still have ten minutes left. What are you planning to do?’

Evan points at the hallway. "I’ll check this out and then move back to the stairs once you remind me of that twice. Just so I still have a rough estimate of how long we have been here."

After pointing, Evan made his way towards the hallway, looking around for anything different that he hasn’t seen before.

The walls were roughly the same, made of rough stone and still covered with moss-like thing. Evan could guess that his first thought of what it is was right because of how moist the air was down here. He’s not even sure if this is the only level that the cave has, but he can’t exactly tell unless he goes around to explore.

He is hearing very soft... Plops. There’s a lot of the plopping sound and it is getting louder and louder the closer Evan gets to the corner.

Evan furrowed his eyebrows as he continues to walk, finally rounding the corner to reveal what he had been hearing.

Bouncing, blue, water balloons, was what Evan first thought it was. However, they all had little eyes and turn to look at him the moment his step echoed throughout the corridor.

’Careful, there are slimes.’ Iva added, almost too late.

At least Iva told him what they were even if the warning was too late for comfort.

Evan’s eyes widened as one of the slimes started bouncing towards him. He has no idea how to fight these things, they should’ve been extinct years ago!

"S-Simulation Zone!" Evan yelled in sheer panic, just before the slime gets close enough to hit him.

The familiar whoosh passed his ear is welcome, but the darker view for his eyes wasn’t. The torches were enough to see. But now, it feels like he is wearing something that slightly covers what little light the torches could provide.

"Iva, how do you escape these... Slimes?" Evan asked, poking at the closest one to him.

The fact that he can touch them now means that what he had been thinking during his panic activation was to try and kill the slimes, not evade them. So, he knew that he had to figure out how to kill them now.

But he didn’t have any weapons, so, the next best thing was to try and escape them, if he can.

"You’re on your own, Evan." Iva says, its voice seemingly coming from his left. "Best way is to kill them. I don’t think you can escape... 132 slimes in this room. I can’t help you, not anymore."

What- 132 slimes!?

Evan sighs frustrated. "That many!? And I panicked with saying the Simulation Zone, now how am I going to defeat all of this and then think of a way to escape after the Zone disappears?"

He didn’t get a response from Iva anymore.

Evan ruffles his own hair a little. There is way too many slimes in the room. How is he going to survive? He closed his eyes for a brief moment. Looks like it is time for more trial and error.