Limitless Undead System! I can Copy all Undead attributes.-Chapter 74: The Calm.

Steven and Silva continued through the tunnel for a long while. The narrow stone passage stretched endlessly ahead of them, twisting and bending like the intestines of some ancient buried beast. From the scuffed ground, broken stone, and faint traces of blood smeared along the walls, it was obvious the escaping cohort had made sure to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the monstrous Eldritch King.

Steven couldn’t blame them.

Fear did certain things to the human mind. Things that stripped logic bare and replaced it with raw instinct. The instinct to flee. To survive. To abandon dignity and order for one more heartbeat of life.

Their footsteps echoed softly, swallowed almost immediately by the suffocating depth of the tunnel. The air was stale, tinged with ash and something metallic that clung to the throat. Every so often, the stone above creaked faintly, as if reminding them that the realm itself was watching... waiting.

As they continued down the tunnel, the first sign of the cohort wasn’t sight, but sound.

Murmurs.

Low voices cracked with exhaustion and fear drifted through the air, overlapping one another in broken conversations. Some sounded angry, others hollow. A few trembled with the unmistakable tone of people barely holding themselves together.

Then, after rounding a jagged bend in the tunnel, Steven and Silva finally saw them.

A cluster of Awakened sat slumped along the cave walls, backs pressed against cold stone, heads bowed low. Their earlier confidence, loud laughter, arrogant boasts, careless bravado, was gone. In its place sat something pitifully human.

At the center of the cave, Nott knelt, carefully stacking chunks of grey, faintly glowing stone into a loose circle. The rocks pulsed softly, emanating a dull light that barely pushed back the surrounding darkness. Heat rolled gently off them as well, just enough to keep the biting chill of the underground realm at bay.

Steven stared.

He felt... blank.

Not shocked. Not angry. Just hollow.

They looked ridiculous compared to how they had been earlier—swaggering through the realm as if it were some kind of adventure park rather than a slaughterhouse dressed as a world. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Now they were scared.

No, terrified.

Each of them sat wrapped in their own thoughts, replaying the moment death had nearly closed its jaws around them. The memory of the Eldritch King lingered in their minds like a curse, vivid and inescapable.

This was the inevitable result of their constant excitement in the realm. The thrill-seeking. The arrogance. The belief that power alone was enough.

Steven sighed.

Breaking away from Silva, he headed toward a quieter section of the tunnel, his boots crunching softly against gravel and fractured stone.

Silva remained where she was.

She cleared her throat.

The sound cut sharply through the silence, drawing every gaze in the cave toward her, even those who had been staring blankly at the floor moments earlier.

Including the leader of the cohort... or, more accurately, the former leader.

Brian.

He sat hunched against the wall, one arm wrapped tightly around his torso. His armor was cracked, his face pale, his eyes sunken. By all accounts, he was lucky to be alive.

"There are only about ten of us now!" Silva began, her voice loud, steady, and authoritative. "We need to stay close, stay strong, and iron out our fears. No matter how we are feeling, we must keep a clear mind and focus on what truly matters. We are not yet out of the first realm—"

"Bullshit!"

Brian exploded to his feet, his voice cracking as he shouted, cutting her off mid-sentence.

"This place is a fucking harbor for disaster-ranked Shadow Eaters! And what the hell is an Eldritch doing here?!" he continued, his breathing uneven, eyes wild. "Is there really any hope left? We don’t have the numbers. We don’t have the strength. If we run into another one of those monsters, we’re dead!"

The words hung heavy in the air.

Silva said nothing.

Her eyes moved slowly, scanning the faces of everyone present. Fear stared back at her from every angle, raw, unfiltered, and overwhelming. Some avoided her gaze. Others met it desperately, as if begging for reassurance she could not give.

They were all disheartened.

Broken.

Through her Fate Sight, she could already see it, thin threads snapping one by one. Several of them were doomed regardless of what she said or did.

So what was the point of empty motivation?

She nodded softly to herself.

And then—

"What a load of idiots..."

The cold, calm voice sliced through the cave like a blade.

Everyone turned.

Steven sat apart from the group, his back against the wall, one leg bent, arms relaxed. His expression was unreadable, but the faint curl of his lips carried something sharp beneath it.

He sighed.

"You’ve all been so blinded by power that you’ve lost your brains."

"Pardon—?" Brian snarled, veins bulging at his temple as he turned toward Steven, rage threatening to boil over.

Steven remained calm.

His gaze locked onto Brian, a faint grin spreading across his face. "Think about it. The moment we Awakened start believing that everything can be achieved just because of the power we possess, when we rely on flashy skills, whether it’s flying or wiping out a room with a snap of our fingers, that’s when we truly become stupid."

The cave was silent.

Steven continued, his voice steady and unhurried.

"Take you rich bastards, for example. Born into comfort. Great backgrounds. Never knowing what hunger really feels like. Then one day, you lose everything, and reality crashes down on you." He chuckled softly. "You end up feeling exactly like this, sorry for yourselves. That’s when you realize how stupid you were to believe things last forever."

His eyes swept over the group.

"I watched you all treat this realm like some kind of party. Laughing. Showing off. Now look at you, shaking, whining, wondering how you’re supposed to get past an Eldritch with the pathetic level of power you have."

Steven leaned his head back against the stone.

"Real humans, the ones who grew up on the streets, the ones who’ve known hardship! this is just life to us. If you’re too weak, you get stronger." His grin sharpened. "And you stop yapping like nursery students."

Silence swallowed the cave.

Steven closed his eyes.

The weight of his words settled heavily in everyone’s chest, twisting uncomfortably. No one argued. No one refuted him.

Because he wasn’t lying.

They were pathetic.

Silva exhaled quietly.

"Everyone rest for a few hours," she said at last. "We’ll continue moving tomorrow."

Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked to another section of the tunnel, far from the group.

---

Steven didn’t sleep.

He made sure of it.

After the speech he’d given and the stunt he’d pulled earlier with the door falling asleep would’ve been suicide.

’I know anyone could come up and slit my throat...’

His lips curled faintly, excitement flickering in his chest.

’After what I pulled, I deserve it.’

At that moment, Nott tilted his head slightly, his mechanical gaze lingering on Steven.

"You won’t get it," Steven muttered. "It’s honorable stuff."

Bott said nothing.

Nearby, Nott shook his head and continued scribbling furiously on his stone tablets, his fingers moving with practiced ease.

Steven leaned over, trying to peek at the new illustration the Grey Knight was working on.

Nott immediately pulled the tablet back, turning away and shielding it like a child guarding a secret.

"You hiding things from your master?" Steven joked. "How disobedient."

Reclining against the wall, Steven watched Nott work his magic, faint scratches echoing softly in the stillness.

After a while, footsteps approached.

Shawn took a seat beside him.

They sat in silence for a moment.

Then—

"Thank you, Steven."

Steven sighed. "Yeah. I had to save the first member of my group." He smirked. "I’m scum, but not that kind of scum."

It was a lie.

Shawn smiled anyway. "No one ever comes back for me... Thank you. I owe my life to you."

The words stirred something unpleasant in Steven’s chest.

They reminded him of Favour.

He wondered how the realm was treating her. What twisted situation she might be tangled in right now.

’Probably some weird shit I’d laugh at later...’

’She might be here in this forsaken land... or somewhere else entirely.’

Steven bit his lip slightly before turning to Shawn.

"What’s the scariest thing on your mind right now?"

Shawn raised both hands.

One was normal.

The other, paler, shriveled, shaped unnaturally by his weave ability—trembled faintly.

"My biggest fear," Shawn said quietly, "is not knowing if we’ll live another day... or die tomorrow. Not knowing if we’ll ever escape this hell alive."

Steven nodded.

"The fear of fate," he finished, glancing toward where Silva sat in the distance.

Shawn nodded slowly. "But in the end... we live or we die. Tomorrow’s just another day to do our best."

Steven rubbed his face and looked at his system notification.

{You have successfully escaped a battle with an Eldritch. Rewards will be given}

His grin returned.