Chapter 24- W-we have 10 years of air to live on

Chapter 24: Chapter 24- W-we have 10 years of air to live on The ants attacked without care, and Eva was able to absorb more energy as she killed. The tattoo absorbed its fair share, multiplying steadily across her back. As she fought, she felt burning pains on her back, she ignored it, feeling it was her shoulders aching from using her sword for a long period. Ethan and Julian were finishing up the remaining ants; when they were done, the corpse shone with light, entering into their bodies, and a chest appeared in the middle. Eva slumped to the ground, her chest heaving and arms trembling with pain. When she saw the single chest in front, she clicked her tongue. "Tsk, so stingy." She muttered a curse, too drained to raise her voice. Despite the large number of ants and the queen, all they got was a single chest drop. The level of the dungeon stinginess amazed her. She healed herself and slowly approached them. Standing between them, they looked at the chest. Ethan and Julian’s faces held no surprise; they had fought with these monsters before and received a chest drop item. "What’s in the chest?" Eva asked curiously, as he gazed at the red chest. "Open it and find out," Julian replied carelessly, not interested in the content. They both assumed it was gems, crystals or herbs. The normal items, they’d come across. Eva rubbed her hands together, feeling like she was opening a lucky box. Squatting she opened the chest carefully, her expression froze when she saw the item inside. "What sorcery is this? No this can’t be." She muttered with disbelief and closed the chest again under Ethan and Julian’s shocked faces. Eva rubbed her hands together, muttering to herself. "Lady luck, gentleman luck or whoever gives freaking luck, shower me with blinding luck." She stopped rubbing her hands and took deep breaths again before opening the chest again. But the content remained the same, A gold key laid in the middle. "Ahhh! Where is the moolah? My coins, crystal? Nothing." Tears of frustration slid down her chin. After all her broken bones and aching arms and it’s a freaking golden key. Then she remembered Ethan and Julian’s struggle to kill the queen ant, and she turned to them. Seeing their stunned faces, she patted them gently, trying to comfort them, "Don’t be sad. We can still sell it. It’s gold." She said in a comforting tone, trying hard to keep a positive smile on her face. Her touch snapped them out of their daze. Julian and Ethan exchanged confused glances. It was unexpected, Julian squatted and picked up the key. He quickly dropped it when he felt a searing pain in his palm. "Clang!" They turned to him in surprise and saw his scorched palm. His palm was a bloody mangled mess. Eva moved back instinctively from the key, grateful that she didn’t pick it up. Ethan’s eyes were focused on the key, which seemed to stand upright on the ground. The gold light grew brighter, alerting Eva and Julian’s attention. The key’s glow intensified forcing them to shield their eyes and retreat. "Boom!" A shockwave erupted, hurling them out of the dungeon, even going as far as affecting all the underground cities. Firing all their technology, causing a blackout which plunged the cities into total darkness. Panic spread through the crowd; they had never experienced anything like this. The dungeons across the earth trembled, sand cascading from their ceilings as if they might collapse. The raiders ignored the monsters they were facing, dashing towards the warp gate, which seemed to be dimming. Even the dungeon monsters retreated to their nests in fear. The world was going through a significant change. Eva and the rest were unconscious on the ground, blood sliding down their ears. They were able to leave the dungeon but were stuck as the rest, in the city gate area with a minimum amount of breathforge. Only three days before they lost air. The people gathered were filled with fear and panic and completely unaware of what was happening. Their screams and hurried footsteps filled the streets after being thrust into pitch darkness with no warning. Meanwhile, inside the dungeon, the key opened up a doorway, which spread across the other dungeons. The gateway is shown with a green light like the warp gate. Unknown what the other side holds or what would come out. In the underground cities, the Administrations went into emergency meetings, after the trembling stopped. They tried to turn on the lights, but nothing seemed to work again; they could only brighten the artificial sky. Cars and phones had shut down completely. Even the breathforge couldn’t generate air and had to start taking from its saved air supply. They panicked, realizing the technology might never function again. "Have the dungeon raiders gotten back? We need information on what’s going on." A man who looked to be in his fifties asked the administrator in charge of overseeing dungeon-related matters. "No, they might have been stuck in between. The warp gates are down. Space power users have to open it manually." The older woman explained in detail, her eyes filled with urgency and distress. "Our main issue now is the breathforge." A male force cut in, and everyone turned to him. Seeing his sweat-dripping face and his eyes flashing with terror. They sat up fully, their hearts sinking, sensing something worse had happened. "W-we have 10 years of air to live on if the technology isn’t restored." Everyone sucked in cold air at his words. A chill ran through them, freezing their hearts. A man’s hand shook badly as he tried to grip the cup of water. "We have to start working on it." A middle-aged man stood up from his seat. He was in charge of technology in the city. He quickly sprinted out of the room, though the meeting continued, no one stopped him. "Don’t make this known to the citizens." The man overseeing them ordered, running a hand through his hair, sighing. "If the technology fails, we’ll need to restart the surface project." The man added, and everyone’s eyes widened. At the unbelievable project, but remembering the 10-year deadline, some of the protests were swallowed back in their throats. Their forefathers had worked on this project 500 years ago after humans fled underground when the world ended. The project had been passed down but they had made no progress on countering the poisonous surface air or the behemoth dungeon beasts that roamed above. They didn’t even have visuals on how it looks now, they were totally in the dark about the surface. The meetings adjourned in all the cities, each administration with their thoughts, others leaking the news to the aristocrats who, in the future, started hoarding air supplies, making the tax for air skyrocket. The Advent of Chaos.