Celestial Twins: Book One - Gemini: A LitRPG Progression Fantasy Adventure by C.J. Astrea

Author:C.J. Astrea [Astrea, C.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty Seven - Mouldwarp Mines

The tunnel stretched downward in a tight slope, wide enough for two across, but with a ceiling just low enough to make Farouk duck. Old rails lined the floor—rusted, bent in places, half-swallowed by dirt. The walls were carved stone laced with iron-veined ore and the faint glint of something crystalline.

The air was damp. Not fresh damp—trapped damp. Like it had been sitting for centuries.

Tanner sniffed once. “Smells like an old gym locker and a dead rock.”

“Dead rock?” Ireti muttered.

“You know what I mean.”

“No one knows what you mean,” Mira said quietly.

Nate, unusually quiet, walked a few steps ahead, glancing around at the walls. “Feels like it goes on forever.”

Kalen took point and said nothing. But his eyes never stopped moving.

They followed the slope in silence for several minutes, the only sound their boots against the rail-streaked stone. Eventually, the tunnel split.

Two paths.

The one to the left dipped deeper, narrower, with jagged walls that shimmered faintly with embedded crystal veins.

The right path widened and angled upward. A soft, cool breeze drifted out from the rightmost tunnel—barely noticeable, but enough to catch Nate’s attention.

He pointed. “That’s got to be the exit, right?”

The others looked to Kalen.

The system had triggered earlier, but another message flared to life now as if in response:

System Message

Tower Objectives:

Primary Objective: Reach the exit

Optional Objective: Eliminate Core Guardian

“Well,” Tanner said. “I vote for exit. Optional sounds like code for optional trauma.”

Ireti gave a crisp nod. “I’m all for the exit.”

Farouk remained silent, simply motioning toward the rightward tunnel.

Kalen weighed both routes, his gaze lingering in the gloom a moment longer. At last, he spoke. “We go right.”

They moved carefully through the wider tunnel, stepping over broken rail ties and collapsed wooden beams. The deeper they went, the more unnatural the walls became—like the earth had tried to close itself, only to be forced open again.

Mira drifted closer to Kalen. “Is this… normal?” she asked under her breath.

He didn’t answer right away.

The other towers they’d entered—every time, the portals felt clean. The pressure behind the plane was predictable, measured. Even Aethirus Prime, with its industrial glass and strange gravity, followed a kind of internal logic.

This one didn’t. Something about the setup felt off. Not broken—just…wrong.

“The tower’s different,” Kalen murmured. “Not the structure. The way it’s built around the challenge.”

“So, not normal.”

“Not for me.” He said as he raised his guard, preparing for anything that might require him to step in.

She nodded and drifted back.

The others kept walking—completely unaware. To them, this was just how towers were. This was their first. They didn’t know better.

Kalen swallowed his unease, letting silence shield his doubts. Overhead, the mine groaned a long, sullen note that seemed to press against their ribs. Beneath their feet, the floor trembled, a warning shiver running through the ground.

He raised a hand; the entire group froze.

A heartbeat passed. Then, with a sudden rending crack, the stone split wide.

Three hunched creatures burst from the walls and ground—mole-like things with thick claws, blind pale eyes, and skin like dried stone.

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