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Progress, a cautionary march. Halting at every sharp corner, examining thoroughly every opened room. A lingering quiet was a dwelling constant across the multitude of chambers we've stumbled upon.
All chests had already been looted, all hidden rooms already uncovered, paths seemingly uncharted bearing signs of discovery, with weapon drops and miscellaneous items strewn about the dungeon floor. Retreading steps of the many still confined within these suffocating walls.
Our little posses consisted of Arishia in the front, Me reluctantly strung along with her every whim, and much to a surprise, Ayako and her two bodyguards bringing up the rear.
When questioned, Ayako claimed herself bolstered enough to trudge on forth solely by the fact that I even came along to help in the first place. So untrue, by hey, I ain't correcting her if it's keeping me in her good books.
She also stated it didn't hurt that Arishia was a Level 15. Apparently a rarity even among the higher levels.
"Oh, but you'll contribute just fine too!" So she says while also glancing dubiously at the empty slot where my player level should be.
Didn't really do much to raise my spirits but I'll take it.
A continuous silence festered throughout our journey where the trudging of feet were the only things audible, that, and the tense breathing of trepidation.
Not even any screams anymore, as if all cries had been stifled by the infinite dark chasms of the dungeon. I expected the thunder and clammer of combat to begin assailing the dead air at any time, but even as we turned our twentieth corner to another dimly-lit hallway, nothing came to greet us.
"Hey, now this is something," spoke Ayako, head craning about for a closer assessment. "Had an NPC with me before that died somewhere around here, that I remember. We're heading the right way."
Hope was a glimmer in her smile, something so pure, to be snuffed out so quickly by Arishia's words.
"Right or wrong way is not really the concern here, princess. Should really be more worried about the lack of mobs ambushing us, that's the issue now."
Ayako inched closer, a blank slate on her face, "I really don't see how not being ambushed is a bad thing. Most people would be glad about being not killed. Or is it just me, am I the weird one here?"
Walking us about in an aimless wander, not even relenting a simple answer - that's Arishia.
Guess the task of exposition has been delegated onto yours truly. Am I even the main character here anymore? Has someone else taken my limelight?
"Areas have a set spawn limit. Basically it ensures that we don't get ganked 24/7 while in here. When enough enemies fill an area, the game stops spawning them in," I explained, echoing back to the many articles and trivia I read online. "If an enemy dies, they just spawn again somewhere else in the area. Now look around, see anything that wants to kill you?"
"And that's a bad thing because…?"
Arishia spun around. "It's a bad thing because whatever your fan club is trying to kill around here isn't exactly dying. Either the mobs here attacking them are that tough or they're unkillable, or maybe both."
Nice… I wanted to ease the truth as smoothly as I could, and here comes she, charging forth with a damn bulldozer.
The shock settled on Ayako's face, and she looked at me for confirmation.
I just merely shrugged towards Arishia's ambling figure and followed in her pace. "So says the leader."
We resumed our venture, no more chit-chatter after our last one. Twisting and turning. Inclining and declining. Still, no aggression plowed towards us nor was there any signs of players fighting about.
There was no other way to put it. We were lost. And none of us even had a map to aid us with navigation.
Thirty minutes turned to an hour. An hour turned to two hours. Sure enough, fatigue came barging on through and usurped us of our vigor. Not even a drop of energy was left in my system by the time we trudged up our twenty-sixth staircase.
"A pussy. You're a pussy," said Arishia, as I collapsed by a stone column that pillared the room we entered.
"Ah shaddup and go die in a fire," I heaved, panting like a dog in heat, "It's called being human, alright? Something you're clearly not familiar with."
"Sora's got a point," wheezed Ayako, swooning away toward another pillar alongside her lackeys. "How're you still standing all fine like that?"
"None of you played tennis?" Arishia asked, hands on her hips, "You should. Might do you guys some good."
Ayako shook her head, wiping the droplets that had formed on her face, "Wrong once, can't be wrong twice - you're a hacker, just admit it. That's a red flag right there."
Seeing as we're practically clinging to literal support beams for dear life, from the heavens descended gracefully a miracle with no equal, conveyed in the form of five short words.
"Fine, we'll take a break."
Our reliefs were shared in a collected sigh that eased all of our soreness as we practically melted to the floor like ice cream.
Most of me were put to submission, a portion relegated to keeping a close eye on the wandering figure of Arishia.
The room we entered, while expansive in size, was merely another dead-end detour. Any and all goodies had already been pillaged and ransacked, chests already looted cluttering the empty space, absent of the glowing indicator hinting drops.
Except for one, sitting at the far flung end of the room, a grey dullness that obscured it from proper view if you only spared a single glance at everything.
Not me though, and apparently not Arishia too, catching her eye and baiting her curious steps slowly towards it.
A bit of perspective trickery having it blend with the wall. The lucky one to stumble upon it would probably be treated to a good find. Quite unfortunate it had to go to someone so blatantly undeserving of it.
Any chances she'd share what's inside? Hahahahaha no.
There existed another reason for why the chest remained untouched, a reason drastically more sinister than just simple blindness, but the implications of it took long to register in my sluggishness. It wasn't until Arishia was within arm's reach of it before it finally dawned on me.
Oh boy, this could be bad.
"STOP!" I shouted, my arm impulsively reaching towards her.
Even then - too little, too late. The chest flung open, empty. Booby-trapped.
In a flash, deep metallic clunking erupted from the very ground beneath our feet. A violent shuddering of mass, throwing everything and everyone to an unsteady scramble for balance.
Potency was a maximum in my vicinity and I knew then what would happen next. I only had time to glimpse lastly at the state of things before I was plunged to a free-fall as the floor beneath me inevitably gave away.
In that one single glance so fleeting, so brief, I saw many, many things. There was struggle, there was panic, but none stood out to me more than the calmness painted on her face.
A playful grin as she met my eyes, as she watched me be swallowed by the gaping hole into the darkness below, all so that she could let me know the one simple fact of it all.
She did it on purpose.
My own yell as I plummeted like a meteor couldn't overpower the piercing whistling of the wind exacerbated further by a free-fall that just kept on picking up speed.
Five more seconds of desperately flailing about before I finally saw solid surface.
And no, didn't have time to react accordingly.
The left side of my body met the coarseness of paved stone with a resounding slam that echoed far and wide throughout whatever location of the dungeon I was currently residing in.
With a sickly groan that told very little of how painful that was, I looked to the upper corner and saw a full bar devolve to a half bar, from a half bar to a quarter bar.
Well, the fall didn't kill me, unfortunately. The health potion I drank afterward made sure of that. But you wanna know who's dead, though?
That piece of goblin shit.
She's a walking stinking corpse. I'm gonna kill her. I will see her deader than dead even if it's the last thing I do.
Rip and tear until it is done.
I swear it.
Then from out of the blue, prying me away from cleansing thoughts, another loud bang of a body slammed the ground a couple of meters away from me.
I stood up at once, aching and throbbing, cautiously approaching the eagle-spread body which let out a painful moan none too dissimilar to my own just now.
Flaming orange hair, freckles enough for an entire population, metal plates clasping every inch of his body and also level 9.
It was that one guy Ayako was with. Seemed I wasn't the only victim of that devil's wrath.
"Oi… you alive?" I asked, prodding his side with a kick.
A weak whimper answered my call, "Urrrghh."
"I know. It hurts doesn't it?"
"Urgh."
"Wanna know who did that to you? Do you wanna know who caused all that? Cause believe me, that up there wasn't an accident."
"Urrr?"
"Yeah, that was on purpose. That damn bitch in the red dress did it! She's the reason you and I are down here in this room right now."
"Eeugh, ugh?"
I shook my head with vigor. "No, no, no - can't convince me that was an accident! She opened that stupid chest with intent, damn it, I saw it! But it's okay, we're alive, that means we can find her again - I can find her again."
I crouched down until we were directly eye to eye. "And do you know what I'm gonna do to her once I get my hands on her? Hey, background character B, do you have any idea what's gonna happen to that pretty little face of hers once I'm done with it?"
He looked rather frightened, which was strange, I don't even think I'm that intimidating of a person.
"Errrmmm."
"Oh, you don't want to know? That's fine," I tug at his arm, drawing him up to his feet. "It's all good, I'll just show it to you instead."
I flashed a smile, "Now come, let's go and rejoin our party, shall we?" and picked a random path to venture into.
Not even four steps in before another's footsteps that were neither mine nor his joined our own.
It was loud, it was fast approaching, and it was coming from the passage I chose.
"Oh for fu- what now?!" I grumbled.
Shouldn't have asked.
A glint of silver grazed the skin of my neck as I instinctively jumped to the side, the wielder bursting forth from the pathway emitting a loud inhumane growl.
I looked at my would-be killer. Braided hair, falling to her right. A kitchen apron blanketing the casualness of her attire, donning an expression seething with revulsion and anger.
Upwards, revealed no name, no level.
Player Level you could hide. Usernames you can't. So who was this?!
Another ear-splitting screech filled the air as she charged directly at me, the shortsword she held in one hand, slashing the air wildly with no pattern.
I blocked the first, dodged the second, the third, however, ripped the leather plating of my armor, etching a thin crevice along its length.
An intent to kill lined her every swing, a non-stop barrage of sporadic attacks that left no opportunity for retaliation.
"Do something!" I yelled at background character B, who continued standing there, frozen, like… well - a background character.
Another potentially lethal slash for my heart that nearly found its target, told me that I'm on my own for this one.
A growl baring teeth, an arm pulling back for another swing - I saw my chance.
I charged, she swung. Everything seemed to happen in a flash. I felt my muscles tense, as my arm grappled for her own, grasping it tightly. A struggle ensued to break free from my clutch, I responded in kind by apprehending her other arm.
She did not like that one bit. The absolute chaos she asserted in her attempts to escape was honestly terrifying. Like a frenzied beast.
There was one reassurance that held my composure afloat.
She may be wild, but she wasn't strong.
Despite my level, she could not be free of my clutch. That fact alone, impelled me forward, pinning her against the stone wall with a cry of effort, and kept her there, still furiously contending for control.
"Keep still, don't fight it," I warned, fastening both my grips securely. "What's your problem, huh? Why are you trying to play killer?"
A hoarse snarling surfaced out the depths of her throat then she snapped her jaw repeatedly in my direction.
"Or… zombie for that matter."
It didn't make sense. I knew of no status ailments that instigated such manic aggression. It's not like there's a "Crazy Psychopath" status effect programmed in, Arishia being the exception, of course. So just what was this behavior?
I highly doubt anything in this game can affect a player mentally. The game can't control player action, after all. Unless, of course…
No name, no level, attire not befitting a dungeon raid.
"You're an NPC…" I muttered, eyeing the madness brimming her pupils full. "You shouldn't be attacking me then… are you bugged?"
As if to answer me, a notification popped up in my display, it was a message, the sender of it, was one of utter surprise.
"Tayuma?"
After shifting my hold on the NPC to one hand, I used the other to open the message.
What greeted my eyes then, was a short scribble of spelling errors that indicated it was written in a rush. Absent characters and poor spacing also made it a challenge to decipher what he was trying to convey.
But once the blanks were filled in, the spacing adjusted. I almost wished I hadn't done so.
All it accomplished was proving just how dire everything in here was.
And just how much danger we were all in right then at that moment.
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