Alchemist In The Apocalypse: Rise Of A Legend!

A/n: A few grammar errors ahead as the chapter is slightly unedited. Perhaps I should really get an editor now.[Third Person POV],

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'The Dragonheart.......', Ace thought just after the rat queen had stopped releasing its loud squeaks.

'All these changes happening must surely be because of the dragon heart, Ace thought as he figured that there could be only one thing and perhaps two things that could make the rat queen react violently.

The first was the Dragonheart itself as it should be a valuable treasure to the rat queen and the second should be any form of sound that could lead the rat queen to us, the ones who took its treasure.

In addition to the rat queen who should be making its way to their location at the moment, there was also the part of the changes that were happening to Andrew Dawn that needed to be addressed in a way.

For one, it was a little obvious at this point that what was causing the change to Andrew Dawn's body was the dragon heart but the question now was if this change was a good one or not.

There was no way for Ace and the earth mage to know this because apart from the physical changes that they could see from Andrew Dawn's present appearance, they had no idea what was going on inside him.

They also could not interfere with whatever was going on because if the change that was happening just happen to be good, their actions toward Andrew Dawn who was experiencing the change no matter how small it was could turn the situation in the opposite direction,

It also worked the other way because if the change that was happening just happened to be bad, their actions could possibly make it worse.

They could not even get close to him in the first place.

These were things nobody wanted to happen but it was because of this said inability to do anything in their current situation that brought another issue.

If they could not touch Andrew Dawn and do anything to him then how were they going to transport him?

After all, it wasn't like they could just leave him here especially when his heart had turned to a radar for the rat queen to locate.

Putting aside Ace having the thought of leaving him here, the earth mage will certainly not leave Andrew Dawn here and would rather face the rat queen even with his fears.

And although Ace was indeed having thoughts of if he should abandon Andrew Dawn or not, he found out that he couldn't really do it in the end for reasons that he couldn't explain.

It momentarily puzzled him but Ace did not have the time to think about these things in the situation he was in as he turned to carefully look at Andrew Dawn who was still unconscious in the lave pool that was created by the man himself.

Apart from being a little troubled by his sudden uncertain thoughts, Ace was also a little unwilling to just abandon everything like this despite all that he had been through because if he was right in his thoughts that Andrew Dawn was indeed related to the quest getting completed then if something happens to him, all his actions in the pit would become wasted.

He had already achieved his initial goal of entering the den which was to complete his job requirement so Ace was still satisfied with the risk he took in the pit when he decided to also fight the mutant rat but that doesn't mean he was contented with just one reward when it was supposed to be much more.

It wasn't that he was greedy but it was natural for everyone to want to receive rewards for their effort.

Just this pit battle with the mutated rats and the dragon phantom had already exhausted a lot of Ace resources and it would even be a bigger waste if he was not compensated for this.

Fortunately for Ace, just when he was thinking of ways on how to transport Andrew Dawn and if he really had to wait to confront the rat queen, the lava that was coming out of Andrew Dawn's body stopped as the physical appearance that gave both Ace and the earth mage a feeling of deja vu slowly returned back to normal as Andrew Dawn returned to looking like any ordinary human would look if one was to ignore the part that he was naked.

The transformation of Andrew Dawn demon looking appearance to his normal appearance looked rather magical but neither Ace nor the earth mage had the time to ponder about it as Ace immediately dragged his tired body to carry Andrew Dawn again and began moving.

Thankfully the loud beating heart that resounded before in the den had stopped and the red dim light that Andrew Dawn's body was emitting also stopped as the originally dark tunnel returned to the dark.

They were no longer in the tunnel path that led to the pit so there was no glowing crystal to light the surroundings but things weren't that hard for the duo who were carrying others at their back as Ace brought out a relatively big glowing crystal from his storage ring to provide light to the area.

He did not forget to take some of the glowing crystal he saw on the tunnel walls when he first saw them which was why he was able to bring one heart now as they continued their escape from both the den and the rat queen.

In any way, everything was going smooth if the sound of the squeaks that were getting louder and closer behind Ace and the earth mage was ignored.

"I don't even know how far we have from the surface currently", The earth mage said with a pale expression on his face as he continued to move forward as fast as his body could handle.

From his actions, one could tell that if anything, the earth mage really did not want to encounter the rat queen and contrary to the earth mage's thought that they were still deep in the den and nowhere close to the surface, reality said otherwise and Ace was aware of this as he had taken his time to observe his surrounding occasionally for any signs that could be useful.

Something he managed to notice a while ago was that the more they continued to walk forward in the tunnel they were currently passing through, the more airly it became because the deeper one was in the earth, the more air pressure they'll meet down there but due to their physiques, the air pressure didn't really affect anyone so it was no surprise why the earth mage would have failed to realise the change in airflow due to not even being affected in the first place.

Although Ace could have told the earth mage his thoughts to calm the latter, he found it stressful so he decided to keep it to himself as it was still a question of whether they can make it out of the den or not.

Fortunately for Ace, he was thinking too much as they finally saw a trace of light slip through the tunnel he was in from another light source that wasn't from the glowing crystal in his hand.

"Hey! We're almost close to the surface!" The earth mage exclaimed and as he was about to turn to Ace beside him to share his excitement, a sudden sound resounded in the tunnel they were in that immediately killed the earth mage's excitement with cold water.

SQUEAK!!!!

"Hey hurry!" The earth mage shouted to Ace beside him as he immediately picked up his speed after saying what he had to say when he saw Ace had already sped to his front.

Ace never needed the reminder of the earth mage to know what he had to do as both of them immediately started speeding through the tunnels with the last bit of energy they had.

It was already amazing that they were able to make it to this level alive so when they saw that they were already close to the surface that will get them out of this maze-like den, they gathered every last bit of energy they never knew they still had in them to get to the surface and leave this problematic den.

Ace ran not because he was scared like the earth mage but because that was the most logical thing to do at the moment.

The den was about to collapse and the rat queen appeared to be catching up to them so he'll be foolish to even think of slowly down now that he had a direction to reach the surface.

It didn't take long for the two to reach the surface and after dashing out of the hole that led to the den in the first place, the two did not stop as they continued to run forward before switching directions when they saw a few familiar figures ahead.

Before they could even reach the said figures, Ace and the earth mage could already hear sounds.

"Look! They're back!"