I'm Trying To Go Broke, So Why Do I Keep Getting Richer?!-Chapter 216: A way out

"Think, Leo, think," he mumbled through gritted teeth.

His first priority was the trail he was leaving. He leaned against the glowing wall and hastily stripped off his jacket, tearing a long, sturdy strip of fabric from the reinforced inner lining.

Biting down on the leather hilt of his stolen dagger to stifle his own screams, he removed the previous dressing around his wound that was already soaked red, and wrapped the makeshift bandage tightly around his bleeding thigh, knotting it with brutal force.

The pain was still as bad as ever, and nearly made him pass out, but the steady drip of blood finally ceased.

He couldn’t fight. He had to hide.

Ignoring the main, brightly lit corridor, Leo dragged himself toward a narrow crack in the stone wall, a ventilation shaft or perhaps a natural fault line that was a natural flaw in the dungeon.

At least it was the trick that dungeon explorers often used to find their way out. It was like a cheat in a natural dungeon, but at times, it was also a trap so not many people followed this trick until it was the last resort.

He squeezed his battered frame into the crevice just as the temperature in the main hall seemed to plummet.

Unfortunately, the creature was too fast. Before he could pass through the crack, the creature was already there.

From the shadows of the corridor emerged the source of the inhuman growls.

Leo held his breath, his heart hammering against his ribs so violently he feared the creatures would hear it if he moved even a little.

Through a narrow gap in the rock, he watched them crawl into the dim light. They were nightmarish creatures, just the disgusting sight of which was enough to make a person vomit.

It had the size of large wolves. They possessed elongated, scythe-like limbs, the exact weapons that had punched through Venia’s chest with effortless ease.

They had no eyes. Instead, their heads were crowned with two ant-like antennas.

One of the creatures paused right in front of Leo’s hiding spot. It lowered its grotesque head, its antennas flaring outwards as it sniffed a dark smear of blood Leo had left on the floor just seconds prior. It let out another growl.

Leo gripped his dagger, his knuckles turning white. He knew that if the beast looked up, if it took one step into the fissure, he was dead. He squeezed his eyes shut, slowing his breathing as much as he could, suppressing the desperate urge to cough.

For an agonizing minute, the creature lingered. Then, a distant rumble from deeper within the dungeon caught its attention. It snapped its head toward the sound and rushed away down the main corridor, its pack following closely behind.

Leo didn’t move for another ten minutes. When he finally forced himself to pass through the crack, his muscles screamed in protest as the tight crack grazed his skin.

"Okay," he whispered to himself, his voice hoarse from having not even a sip of water in a long time. "No fighting. Just walking. Stay in the shadows."

Thus began a grueling, torturous descent into the labyrinth.

Leo abandoned all concepts of time. In the dungeon, there was no day or night, only the endless glow of the stone circuits and the stale air with the fear of death lurking at every wrong corner.

He moved slowly, testing every step, using the walls to bear his weight.

He quickly learned that the monsters weren’t the only threat. The dungeon itself was dangerous.

He narrowly avoided a section of the floor where the stone tiles were slightly discolored. Tossing a loose pebble onto them triggered a barrage of rusted spikes to shoot up from the ground with enough force to pierce steel.

Later, he had to crawl across a narrow bridge suspended over a bubbling, acidic sludge, the fumes burning his eyes and throat.

Survival became a game of observation. He noticed that the eyeless beasts avoided areas where a certain blue moss grew on the walls.

The moss emitted a bad odor. Desperate, Leo gathered handfuls of the moss and crushed it, smearing the foul-smelling paste over his clothes and skin.

It masked the metallic scent of his dried blood even more, allowing him to bypass two more patrols of the creatures, slipping right behind them while they gnawed on the remains of some massive, unrecognized beast.

Dehydration soon became a worse enemy than the monsters. His mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton, his lips cracked and bleeding. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

His corporate life of luxury, of tailored suits and meetings, felt like a distant hallucination. Right now, he was just a desperate animal trying to claw its way out of a hole.

Hours, perhaps even a full day, bled into a hazy, feverish blur. He was running on pure willpower.

Just as his vision began to tunnel, and the urge to simply lie down and let the darkness take him became almost overwhelming, he noticed a shift in the environment.

The ambient temperature was rising, and the oppressive, stale scent of dust was fading. He paused, lifting his head. He felt it.

A real, moving current of air brushing against his filthy cheek. And it carried a scent he hadn’t smelled since before his expedition to the frozen wasteland.

Hope, a dangerous and potent fuel, ignited in his chest. He pushed forward, dragging his ruined leg with renewed excitement.

The glowing corridors began to widen, the stone losing its artificial smoothness and becoming rough, natural rock once more.

Up ahead, the dim amber light of the dungeon was interrupted by a different kind of illumination. It was white, blindingly pure, spilling down from a massive incline.

"An exit," Leo gasped, his voice cracking.

He practically crawled up the final stretch, navigating a steep, crumbling incline of boulders and debris.

The light grew brighter, forcing him to shield his eyes. He expected the biting, sub-zero winds of the frozen wasteland to hit him. He expected to see the endless expanse of glaciers and the dark, stormy clouds of the sector where he had been ambushed.

He braced himself for the freezing cold.

But as he dragged himself over the final threshold and collapsed onto soft ground, the cold never came. Instead, a wave of heat washed over him.

Breathing heavily, Leo slowly lowered his arm and blinked against the harsh light, letting his eyes adjust.

He was lying on a bed of thick, emerald-green moss. He slowly pushed himself up on his elbows, staring in absolute bewilderment at the sight before him.

There was no snow. There was no ice. There was no frozen wasteland.

It was as if he was in an entirely different world.