Chapter 115: Lost in the Caverns

Although Jane wanted to panic, but now wasn't the time.

"It's okay, there's no point in panicking. I'm an explorer, We're trained for situations just as this." Jane said to herself as she tried to forcefully calm herself down.

Panicking in this situation would only lead her to making bad decisions. To avoid that, keeping a calm mind was of utmost importance.

She didn't waste anymore time as she opened up the map of the caves on her comm.

The suit she wore had scanners that would map out her surrounding areas. And as she was mapping the cavern anyway, it was really useful.

As she opened up the mapped layout, She became even more alarmed.

According to the map, she was currently standing at the same place where she and her colleague had parted ways!

"That doesn't make any sense! If I'm at the same place then where's Ojin?" She scanned her surroundings, searching for any signs indicating her prior presence.

She couldn't see any footsteps on the pristine dust-covered floor of the cavern. There were only her own footsteps, echoing in the eerie silence. The dim light from her flickering torch cast elongated shadows on the ancient walls, adding to the sense of mystery that surrounded her. That could only mean one thing—she hadn't been here before.

Jane racked her brain to make sense of the situation. It wasn't making much sense to her. So she checked the map again. This time she noticed something peculiar.

Although the projection showed the whole cavern where she'd been in a long continuous line, There was slight difference.

Around halfway through the line, the cave walls was overlaid with a slight red projection that showed another sets of texture.

What did it mean?

The walls and ceiling of the cavern didn't perfectly match the previous ones. So while the place she stood seemed like the starting point of the engravings, it actually wasn't.

Somewhere along the way, the path had switched up and the destinations changed.

"It.... It can't be!" Jane was in disbelief. How could the paths of the cavern be switched without her noticing?

This time, Jane couldn't control her emotions. She truly felt lost. This was way above her paygrade. She couldn't help but feel that she would be stuck here forever.

These alien caverns were messing with her.

But as she started to have a panic attack, her training as an explorer kicked in.

Panicking in such a situation was the worst thing she could do. So she forced herself to be calm about everything and push the bad thoughts to the back of her mind.

She forced herself to think about the situation as calmly as possible.

She started from the beginning.

She and Ojin had been assigned the Cavern No. 0012 to explore. Last she checked both of them had traveled about 4 KM when the reached the engravings. After that, she had followed the engravings for about another KM or so before they ended. When she got back, the place wasn't the same.

So whatever happened, had happened in the last KM along the engravings.

Now, how could've the paths be changed?

Jane thought for a while.

"There could only one possibility. There's a teleportation portal of some sort along the way." Only this theory made sense as she hadn't felt the earth moving or heard any loud noise that would come with the internal structure of the cavern moving.

So teleportation was the only option.

"If that was the case, maybe going through the portal again should bring me to the original location!" Her theory was formed. And it was backed by the analysis.

So she didn't waste anymore time and started walking back the way she had came. But this time, she made sure to keep a hand on the engraved wall as she walked.

She made sure to count the amount of steps she took, it would help her retrace her steps if need be.

"345"

"346"

"347"

"348"

"349"

"350"

She looked forward while walking and focused on figuring out if there was a portal in front of her.

With her full focus on path in front of her, She continued to walk.

"412"

"413"

"414"

"415"

"416"

As she was about to take the 417th step, she felt a slight zap on the hand that was touching the wall.

She quickly turned to look at what that was when she saw the engraving under her hand glowing in a slight white light.

"Huh?" She seemed to have activated something.

She moved her hand away from the wall to see what it was.

There was an engraving depicting a mountain that was glowing with a white outline.

"Huh?!?!" Jane was taken aback.

Before she could analyze the thing however, the other engravings surrounding the mountain began to glow as well!

"What no no..." She knew that this could be a really bad development.

But before she could understand anything,

The light quickly spread along the way she had just came. Lighting up all the engravings along the cavern wall.

The light was so bright that Jane was blinded for a moment. But as she saw the light spread towards the direction she had come from, she instinctively took a few steps back.

Due to the sudden fear, she lost her footing and fell backwards.

That was when she felt it. A weird felling passed over her as she fell to the ground.

When she fell on the ground she saw the dark celling of the cavern replaced with a starry sky.

She knew that sky, it was the same as she saw after she had landed on the planet.

She had been transported out of the cavern!

She quickly pushed herself up as she looked around, she found herself in a huge barren and rocky field that was devoid of anything.

That was when she felt the ground start to shake suddenly.

Over the span of a few seconds, the vibrations increased rapidly. It was as if something huge was waking up.

She looked around, to see if anything was going on. There was nothing close for miles and miles.

But when she turn to look behind her, she saw the mountain range near the horizon. She couldn't tell if that was the same mountains where she had been, but what she saw horrified her.

She watched with her eyes agape as the Mountains began to vibrate rapidly as they they developed a crack at their peak.

"What is happening?" Jane asked herself as she looked on with disbelief.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
HalfPint

Hello again! Here's today's chapter. Thanks for reading my work. As always, let me know your thoughts and comments down in the paragraph or chapter comments. I'll read em all! And if you have any spare power stones, do send them this way, it helps the book reach more people. Thanks <3

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