"Damn, I never knew that digging was such a hard work," Tom whined after swinging his pickaxe for yet another time. The wall he was working at was relatively soft, making his work way easier than it could be in a less lucky scenario.

But that didn't mean his toil was easy in the first place!

"Still, without all that infrastructure," Tom muttered, looking at the rail tracks disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel. The ability to move the excavated stones and earth by rail rather than by hand was already an insane game changer. "I wonder how many years did he waste to set this entire thing," Tom said to himself as he took a break.

It was unhealthy to push one's body to the limits. Nearing them was undoubtedly an excellent method to grow stronger, but it didn't come without the costs. But breaking through one's physical limitations would only lead to injuries and restraints on one's future growth.

'And I no longer can ignore the fitness of my real body,' Tom thought, placing his hand against the side of the tunnel. For some reason, rather than being insanely uneven, just like the part Tom did on his own, the wall was perfectly smooth.

"Oh, right, he could do it before they built that dome," Tom suddenly noticed, raising his head in the direction of his thoughts.

But his sight couldn't penetrate several meters worth of stone, concrete, and earth. Stuck staring at the ceiling of the tunnel, Tom took a breath before raising to work again.

Yet, just as the young man raised his pick to start deepening the underground path, his pocket suddenly vibrated.

'It catches the signal even so far below the ground?' More surprised than startled, Tom pulled his cellphone and brought it to his ear.

"Yeah?" Tom threw the word, unsure who was calling as he forgot to take a look.

"Tom? Is that you?" The voice on the other end of the line asked.

"Huh? Claudia?" Tom would have to be an idiot not to recognize this feminine voice of the girl. Mainly when his female contacts were limited to just two different girls.

One of which swung the wrong way for Tom to expect her to call him outside the matters related to the business!

"Yeah! It's me!" The girl shouted to through the phone, clearly agitated by the call connecting. "You wouldn't even imagine how hard I had to try to get your number!" she added, audibly overjoyed by the situation.

"I don't think I even want to ask how did you get it," Tom sighed along with his response. 'As fun as it was to spend time with her, I shouldn't pull her into my matters anymore,' he thought, tightening his grip over his phone.

"Either way, would you mind telling me where you are? I just finished a huge raid with my guild, and I have some free time, so I figured..." Claudia started, only to be interrupted by Tom.

"No." He strictly denied the request. "Ah, sorry, but I don't think it's a good time right now," he added in the form of explanation, hoping that he could salvage their early friendship without letting the girl get close.

"I understand," Cleo said, surprising Tom. 'Knowing her, shouldn't she argue a bit more?' he asked himself, trying to stop the disappointment from taking over his mood.

'Wait, why am I even disappointed? It's not like I expected her to fight harder so that she could visit me,' Tom thought only for a wry smile to appear on his face right after. "Who the fuck am I trying to deceive?" he whispered to his thoughts.

"Huh? Deceive? Who are you trying to deceive?" Claudia instantly asked, reminding Tom that he was still on the phone.

"Sorry for that. I was speaking to myself," Tom replied in an attempt to salvage the situation. "Either way, now it's not a good time. To be frank, I don't really have the time to talk right now," he added in hopes of ending this awkward call as soon as possible.

"I see," Claudia replied in a disappointed voice. Tom could picture the girl shaking her head from the slight rustling sound that came from his phone. "I won't bother you then. Just remember to give me a call when you are free!" she ordered before hanging the call.

"That was pretty stressful," Tom said before releasing a heavy sigh. His eyes moved towards the end of the tunnel, reminding him of the work he came here to do.

'I guess I can't really bother thinking about girls, huh?' he thought as his shoulders sank in disappointment.

Tom didn't allow those sad thoughts to linger in his soul. Before his sadness could turn into either depression or horniness, his hand grasped the handle of the pick again.

"Back to work, I guess," he muttered as he made three steps and started working again. With each hit of Tom's tool, a piece of the stone would fall out of the wall. Bit by bit, he continued to deepen the tunnel.

"Fuck," Tom muttered after just a few more minutes of work. He changed his pickaxe to a shovel before loading all the chipped bits onto a small cart. By the time the tunnel's floor was even, almost half of the cart was filled with rubble.

'Any more than that, and I won't be able to push it, huh?' Tom noticed before leaving the pickaxe on the floor and loading the shovel atop the railcar.

But he didn't push the cart far. Barely a few meters prior to the current ending of the tunnel, Tom noticed a small hatch embedded into the side-wall. Given how he rushed all the way to the deepest part of the passage, it was no wonder he missed it previously.

"This guy..." he muttered once he pushed the hatch open. And there was nothing on the other side. Literally, it was a small dug-out with no furniture, treasure, or anything at all.

It was simply a hole in the side of the tunnel, perfect for Tom to ditch all the excavated material into!

"I never knew he could think so far into the future!"