I grow stronger by making my wife happy.

Chapter 348: 348:Everyone knows I might be here.

The first thing Silver noticed after sending the message to Ravenna was that climbing was finally becoming easier, and the second was that the mountain seemed determined to compensate for that small mercy by filling every available tunnel with worms.

He remained in the same section for several minutes after the signal disappeared, staring at the message marked as sent while the Portable Network Restoration Module repeatedly searched for the connection it had lost.

Four percent had been pathetic by any reasonable standard, yet Silver had never been happier to see such a miserable number in his life.

Somewhere outside this mountain, assuming the transmission had properly reached the network before the connection died, Ravenna now knew he was alive.

She would know the most important thing which was the whole point of all the struggles he had been going through.

He tried the module one more time before storing it away, but the display returned to the familiar message he had grown increasingly tired of seeing.

[Searching for External Networks...]

[No External Signal Detected.]

He wasn’t particularly disappointed this time. He slipped the device back into storage, adjusted the strap across his shoulder and looked along the broad passage ahead.

”You already did your job once, so I’ll complain about you again when I actually need you.”

The queen’s gouges continued along the walls and occasionally across the floor, but the route itself had changed considerably compared to the deeper tunnels.

The slope remained upward without constantly throwing him into sheer vertical shafts, and the ceiling had risen enough that Silver could walk normally instead of crouching or crawling.

Even the air felt different. It remained cold and damp, but every now and then a faint current brushed against his face, subtle enough that he might have imagined it if he hadn’t stopped several times to confirm the sensation.

Airflow meant openings, and openings meant connections to the surface.

For the first time since he’d fallen beneath the mountain, Silver felt that escape was no longer some distant possibility he was stubbornly chasing without proof but now, he was getting closer to something.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t alone anymore. He had walked for less than twenty minutes when Spatial Sense caught movement ahead.

He stopped instantly.

[Spatial Sense Lv2 Activated.]

The passage unfolded inside his perception. Stone extended around him, roots pushed through cracks overhead, and approximately forty meters farther along the route, three elongated bodies crawled through an intersecting tunnel.

His hand moved toward his handgun, then stopped. There were three worms; he could kill them but that wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that he didn’t know what else was nearby. He expanded Spatial Sense slightly, the pressure behind his eyes increasing.

Another two worms moved through a passage farther away, then one more in a different direction.

Silver frowned.

He deactivated the skill and slowly stepped backward. Fighting was unnecessary unless they attacked or noticed him first. There was a narrow crack in the wall several meters behind him, not large enough to lead anywhere useful but deep enough for a person to squeeze inside.

He entered sideways.

The stone pressed against his back and chest as he squeezed through the gap. He turned off the headlamp and darkness swallowed everything.

Then he waited for them. The worms eventually arrived. Silver heard them before he saw anything. There was scratching, wet movement against stone and occasional clicks.

He remained completely still. One worm passed the opening, then another, and then the third.

He kept one hand around his handgun just incase. The suppressor would reduce the sound of a shot, but not enough if the creatures were standing only meters apart.

He waited another few minutes, watching the worms continue away before stepping out.

”Three days of fighting things stronger than me, and now I’m hiding in cracks from oversized parasites.”

He paused.

”Actually, that’s probably the smartest thing I’ve done down here...uurgh... I should stop talking to myself.”

Silver continued climbing.

The next encounter happened less than an hour later, this time with five worms in a different tunnel.

He skillfully avoided them.

Then four more appeared, then a solitary worm crawling downward along the queen’s route. That one nearly walked directly into him.

Silver Short-Stepped into a side passage before it rounded the corner.

[Short-Step Lv2 Activated.]

He appeared behind a rock formation and immediately suppressed his spatial presence as much as possible.

The worm passed completely oblivious while he watched it through Spatial Sense.

But then, it stopped as though sensing. His grip tightened around the sword. The creature lifted the front portion of its body and remained motionless.

Silver wondered whether it could smell him.

The queen’s eyesight had been terrible, and most of the worms he’d fought seemed to depend heavily on vibration and close-range sensory organs. He’d assumed remaining still would be enough.

Apparently this one wasn’t convinced; it moved toward his hiding place. He slowly drew the suppressed handgun.

The worm came closer and closer until around ten meters from him. He aimed toward the corner. If it crossed, he would kill it before it could make noise.

Seven meters, it stopped.

Silver didn’t move and neither did the worm. Several uncomfortable seconds passed, then something clicked farther along the main passage.

The worm turned, answering to the click before crawling away.

He waited until Spatial Sense placed it far enough away before releasing the breath he’d been holding.

”That was too close.”

Something bothered him about this encounters though. He remained behind the rocks and thought about them. They were all within a relatively short distance.

The deeper tunnels hadn’t been like this. He had encountered worms, certainly, but they had usually been concentrated around nests or specific sections of the colony.

Entire stretches of tunnel had been empty but now they were everywhere. Silver looked back the way he’d come.

The queen knew he was alive. He didn’t have proof yet, but the possibility settled heavily in his mind.

He remembered the Cave Stalker and the blood he’d left behind. Even if the worms hadn’t directly seen him, he’d left enough of himself across half the mountain for something to eventually find.

”Please tell me you’re all just unusually active today.”

The mountain provided no reassurance.

He moved.