VIRGIN DESTROYER 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A week had passed since that first nightmare about Valen. My daily routine had become simple. Wake up. Suffer.

During the day, I swung a pickaxe until my arms felt like they’d fall off. At night, I ran—from what, I still didn’t know. A nightmare? A ghost? Alric told me he’d dealt with something similar for the first two months, but then… something inside him just died.

I had nothing inside me that could die. After all, I was just a fat nerd.

Well. Not as fat anymore. But still fat.

Our little squad of NPCs kept digging deeper and deeper into the endless tunnels. It was getting colder. Darker.

At some point, Alric and I started working side by side. The guards didn’t bother us as much anymore. Probably because of my… efficiency with the pickaxe.

Yeah. My strength was growing by the day, just as I’d expected.

Honestly, I doubted this was something the game intended. A glitch? A bug? I was trapped in a goddamn mine—I’d take all the glitches I could get.

I pulled up my status screen to check my stats. Not bad. Every three days, another point of Vitality kicked in.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name: GigaChad420

Class: Virgin Destroyer (Epic)

Level: 1

EXP: 7%

[ATTRIBUTES]

STR: 13

DEX: 4

INT: 4

CHA: 4

VIT: 6

LCK: 4

[SKILLS]

Pickaxe Proficiency (Uncommon)

I barely had time to process it before Alric hissed my name in a hushed, urgent whisper.

I glanced at him, and he moved closer to the wall, then suddenly slammed his fist against it. Would’ve been weird, except…

The sound it made wasn’t normal.

It wasn’t the dull thud of stone meeting flesh. It was… hollow. Like something was behind it.

“I hit it with my pick by accident…” Alric muttered, eyes narrowing. “There’s something behind this wall.”

Alric and I locked eyes. A second passed. Then another.

Then, he slammed his fist into the wall again.

THUD. That same hollow sound.

I grabbed his wrist, hard. “Are you insane?”

He didn’t look at me. His breathing was uneven, too fast, too ragged.

“If there’s a way out,” he whispered, “I’m taking it.”

There was no hesitation. No second-guessing. His body was coiled like a spring, ready to lunge.

“Alric, wait—”

“My daughters are out there.” His voice cracked, just for a second. Just enough for me to hear the desperation behind it. “I’ve wasted enough time in this fucking hole. I am not dying here.”

I swallowed.

I got it. I really did.

But we had to be carefull.

I turned my head, just slightly, just enough to hear the crunch of boots on gravel. The guards were close. Not close enough to see us in the dim light, but close enough that if we fucked this up, it was over. I had to calm him down.

“If we rush this, we don’t get out. We get caught. You get caught.”

Alric’s fists clenched. His whole body trembled, like he was physically holding himself back from throwing himself at the wall and ripping it open with his bare hands.

I squeezed his wrist tighter. “We do this right, or we don’t do it at all.”

He stared at me, breath still uneven.

A long second passed. Then—a sharp inhale through his nose. His fingers uncurled. His jaw tightened. He was still ready to bolt, but he was listening.

“Fine,” he muttered.

I let go of his wrist, stepping back. My hands were shaking.

We went back to work, but my mind wasn’t on mining anymore. It was on the guards.

For the past few week, I’d been watching them—learning how they moved, when they talked, when they got lazy.

And right now? They were on the far side of the cavern.

I glanced at Alric. He was already looking at me.

Now.

I adjusted my grip on the pickaxe, took a half-step forward, and swung. Hard.

CRACK.

The impact rattled up my arms, but more importantly—the sound wasn’t as loud as I expected.

All around us, prisoners kept swinging their own pickaxes, the steady rhythm of mining masking the noise. A few heads turned, but no one gave a shit. Nobody wanted extra attention.

I exhaled slowly. It worked.

Alric gave me the smallest nod.

I shifted position, waited a few more minutes until the guards were busy again, then swung again.

CRACK.

Another fracture.

Bit by bit. We would get through this.

A few days passed.

We kept working at the wall, chipping away whenever the guards were far enough. Bit by bit, the cracks spread.

Another day. Another few swings. Another inch closer to freedom.

And then—of course, this fucker had to show up.

Joren.

I don’t think I’d ever seen Joren work. Maybe he did when he first got here—I had no clue. But by the time I arrived he was already in the guards pocket.

No heavy lifting. No backbreaking labor. Just that smug fucking grin and a cushy spot next to the people holding the whips.

See, Joren was that type of guy.

The ones in corporate jobs who never actually do shit but somehow end up getting promoted. The ones who spend more time maneuvering between office politics than actually working.

Except instead of sucking up to middle management, he was licking the boots of the guards.

And somehow? It worked.

Even here.

Even in this hellhole, this death trap where life meant nothing—Joren managed to set himself up in a nice little cushy position.

Joren, you absolute fucking weasel.

“Oi!”

I didn’t turn my head. Maybe if I ignored him, he’d fuck off.

Joren, as always, didn’t give a shit. He kept talking anyway, rambling about nothing, his voice lazily stretching through the tunnel.

Didn’t care if anyone was listening.

And then—

“….the guards will have plenty to say once they find out what you two are up to.”

I froze.

I turned my head and finally looked at him.

Red cheeks. Blonde hair. The perfect face to punch.

For a moment, Joren actually looked surprised.

Like he hadn’t expected me to acknowledge him at all.

Then, just as fast, he tilted his head, slipping right back into that smug, lazy confidence.

“Are you two scheming something?” he asked, his voice dripping with fake sweetness as he glanced around the cavern, casually, curiously—like he wasn’t really accusing us of anything.

Shit.

This was the last thing I needed.

The attention of this idiot—who, at the first hint that I might be planning something, would run straight to the nearest guard.

And that’s how my entire gameplay would end? Executed because of this dumbass?

Joren. Level fourteen. Who somehow decided that his personal endgame was sucking up to NPC guards instead of actually playing the game.

Think, Lucas. Think.

Before I could come up with anything, Alric stepped forward, a sly smile on his face.

He placed a firm hand on Joren’s shoulder.

“Come on, boss. You know us. We’re not up to anything—we’re just working hard, same as every day. Look at us, we’re sweating our asses off.”

Alric, you genius.

Joren didn’t pull away. He just raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

“A few more hours and we get that delicious meal, right?” Alric continued smoothly. “I saw you yesterday, got a piece of that meat they give the guards. Damn, you’ve got it good.”

Joren’s expression shifted. He still had that smug look, but now? Now he was enjoying himself.

He ran a hand through his messy blond hair and sighed, playing it cool.

“Yeah, well,” he said, stretching his arms, “not everyone’s got what it takes to earn a little extra, you know?”

Alric nodded, his smile never fading. “Of course. Not just anyone can get in good with the guards.”

Joren smirked. That was exactly what he wanted to hear.

“You know how it is,” he said, shrugging. “Some of us just got a talent for… connections.”

“Absolutely,” Alric agreed, as if Joren had just said the wisest thing in the world. “That’s why I respect you, Joren. You know how to survive.”

Joren exhaled through his nose, pleased.

He waved a lazy hand. “Alright, alright. Just making sure you two aren’t up to anything stupid.”

Alric gave a small chuckle. “Of course not. You’d be the first to know if we were.”

Joren laughed at that, then clapped Alric on the shoulder.

“Keep working hard,” he said, then turned and strolled off, his ego thoroughly stroked.

I let out a slow breath.

Alric didn’t look at me, just picked up his pickaxe and kept working.

“We’re gonna have to kill him someday.”

“Yeah, I know.” I replied.

For now we kept our heads down.

The next few days were tense.

We wanted to escape as soon as possible. But the moment had to be perfect.

And then, finally, our moment came.

Funnily enough, Valen was the one who made it happen.

This time, he wasn’t dealing with the prisoners—he was furious at the guards.

Gesturing. Yelling.

I had never seen him like this before.

I gave a small nod toward Alric.

We had everything planned down to the last detail.

At this exact time every day, the guards always gathered in that little room in the corner, the one with the brown doors. It was the calmest moment of the day.

And we were going to use it.

Ready, Alric and I swung with all our strength against the thin wall.

It cracked.

Shattered.

And then, something I had almost forgotten—

Fresh air.

I was in shock. Euphoric.

But the moment, just as quickly as it came—was gone.

“HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

A scream.

Joren.

I took a step toward the opening, peering down.

Darkness. I couldn’t see a damn thing. Shit.

Then, I heard it.

The sound of rushing water.

Alric stepped up beside me. We locked eyes.

Joren was already running toward us.

“WAIT! I’M COMING WITH YOU! I HAVE A DAUGHTER!”

I looked at him again. And that mistake cost me dearly. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement— Guards, bursting into the cavern.

And at the front— Valen. Sword already drawn. And glowing.

Funny how, after all this time, I was finally seeing first skill in this game.

Valen’s blade pulsed with energy, a blinding glow running down its length like molten silver.

His voice rang through the cavern.

“Moonlit Severance!”

A crescent of pure light erupted from his sword, a sweeping arc of energy that tore through the air, carving a glowing path straight toward us.

The sheer force of it split the ground apart, sending shockwaves through the cavern walls. A deep, resonating hum filled the space, vibrating in my chest, drowning out every other sound.

I had never seen anything like it.

Power.

Raw, overwhelming power.

But I didn’t see what happened next.

Because this fucking idiot—Joren tripped on a rock.

Slammed into me.

Then Alric.

And all three of us tumbled out of the hole into the abyss.