๐๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ล
It screamed death and uncertainty, but it was full of mystery and rewards waiting to be obtained. That was what I observe as I stare at the hole, it beckons me to come inside but for what reason? A sense of responsibility or a deprived mind that craves thrill?
I didn't know the answer but I know I needed to enter even if my death sensitivity is screaming at me.
"If this is a way to their home, then I could possibly get Alice's gift there." I gulped as I entered the hole. It was steep almost making me slip and slide down but I grabbed onto the walls.
I pulled out my silver sword and tried my hardest not to slide down to the point where I was laying down. When I raised my sword, it reached the ceiling even while laying down so I immediately sheathed it and grabbed my dagger.
I stabbed the dirt locking me in place as I stared long and hard. Thankfully, the sun was still covered by the clouds so not a lot of lights didn't reach the hole which made it easier for me to look for something.
At the very bottom of this slowly expanding hole was a lighter shade of black meaning there is a light source somewhere in there meaning there is activity there meaning that someone or something was or is currently there.
I gulped again as I carefully slid down while my head was being filled with alerts of imminent death. Soon my suspicions were answered as I could slightly make out my surroundings thanks to a light source somewhere. But before I could go anywhere, I cleared my mind and breathed slowly trying to slow my heartbeat down.
The possibility of encountering one of the sentient demonic beasts of emotions was far too high but I continued to ignore it and moved as calmly as I could.
I lowered my body so that I could blend in with the shadows as I approached the light source.
The steep sliding hole was now a vast cave so I put my dagger back in my pack and drew my longsword as I can use it comfortably here.
I identified the light source to be a steel torch placed in the rocky walls of the cave which I found quite out of place.
Ahead of me were more torches leading into a more vast cave system with many paths to take. As I walked, my silent footsteps were the only thing I could hear but soon I stopped to see two paths leading somewhere.
'Might as well go to the right since I have no clue where to go besides, this one is brighter meaning there are more torches here.' I thought to myself as I scrape my dagger onto the wall, leaving a mark so that I could go back here.
The atmosphere here was very ominous as there is barely any noise which made my heart slightly faster which was bad as it may reveal my location to them.
I look at my map to see myself being practically out of the maze and slowly approaching the town. My footsteps stop and I look ahead of me.
It was a bleak, cold, and dirty hallway so I knew that I was deep inside the cave now. "This is where they will be," I said as I lowered myself and slowed my breathing even further.
I walked so silently that I could barely make any noise and soon I saw my first door.
I looked inside the dim room by looking under the door, there were no feet nor any noise that I could hear so I entered the room.
The room was filthy and filled with an uncountable amount of bodies from both genders ranging from children to adults. I only looked at them coldly as I stared at a child's cold and dead eyes.
My stomach was starting to hurt so I looked around but found no one moving, only their cold bodies and a single dimly lit torch to brighten the room.
I left the room and continued further before finding myself in three hallways with an equal amount of torches. The one in front of me was a hallway leading to death since whenever I stared at it, my death sensitivity got stronger meaning they would be there.
To my left was a silent hallway which also goes for the right one as well. I scrape my dagger against the wall again before going to the left, the more quiet hallway.
Several doors led to more bodies but soon I encountered a particular door at the very end of the hallway.
The door was more secure as it is made of metal yet strangely it was unlocked and entering inside, gigantic test tubes filled with humans and gigantic scorpions, another test tube filled with spider-like monsters, and many more.
Periodically, the test tube will be emptied and whatever abomination is created is thrown out to another room slightly below this small room.
I look beyond the glass to see multiple different monsters be thrown into a magical circle before they would disappear. "That's how they put them on the surface then..." I said before looking back at the empty test tube which has now been filled with a green liquid and then a dead child was accompanied by another large scorpion.
The child's and scorpion's body was slowly broken apart at a molecular level before forcefully joining together but as a result, it rejects each other however they have no choice but to join together, and thus another abomination was created.
I looked at the table in the middle of the room and took a particular note before going inside a closet.
I heard a sweet yet sickening voice which made my crotch excited however I focused my mind on this note.
"Ver.1.2.0.0.3.2 - AlTriya Verneder
This monstrous being is created to kill and absorb creatures at a high volume as its urge to take its skin and use it as armor.
Its actual body is weak as it is an early yet successful abomination that has been created. This also proves that molecular fusion is feasible but requires further investigation."
Below the note was a one-to-one image of "Folon's Demise". Something crashes in the door of the closet and the same sweet yet sickening voice moans loudly as the banging on the door continues.
"Currently, it resides in the grass maze, acting as a final boss for the maze as the previous boss was killed by it, further testing and experimentation are discontinued as more pressing matters must be dealt with due to the i..."
The rest of the note was unreadable as blood dropped from my head and then to the note as the same voice speaks breathing heavily. "Such disappointment, you have great vigor but you do not release enough of your "seeds" and lust so wasting my energy on you is just not worth it." She speaks before leaving the room and shutting the door with such force that it broke the hinges and fell to the ground.
After a few minutes, I left the closet and saw a being whose head had been eaten. I couldn't identify his race other than the fact that he was shorter than me and had a gigantic member.
I looked at mine and it was still excited and was also releasing a tiny amount of clear liquid. "Just from her voice...damn, that must be lust then," I said as I looked at the hallway.
She was nowhere to be seen so breathe a sigh. 'Thank god, I managed to distract myself with that note, or else she would have found me by using the lust that I let out.' I thought with a relieved tone.
There was nothing here to see other than the closet so I entered again to see multiple shelves I randomly took one and inspected it.
"Black dragon scales," I said out loud, it was wrapped around in a cloth so I wrapped it back again and looked at the shelves.
There was nothing but useless and broken items in there so I left the room and put the scale on my pack.
"I have no clue if this is Alice's gift but I need something for her. She's a summoner so she could definitely use this." I said as I go straight to the right hallway from earlier since my death sensitivity still hasn't alerted me.
I put my ear in the door and heard multiple people breathing but I was cautious so I tightened my grip on my longsword and waited for something to go out but nothing did.
So I entered the room only to see countless naked bodies and people chained up against a wall. I look around and they looked back but ultimately said nothing.
They looked at me with eyes of utter despair and lifelessness. I sheathed my longsword as I walk forward, returning their gaze with my cold eyes.
I was mad, not because of what they have been through but because of those eyes, so many similarities yet so different.
The floor was filled with lifeless people so I made sure not to step on it before I finally reached the end of the room. It was still the same with people chained to the wall however a man spoke to me weakly.
His eyes were as lifeless as everybody else but he was still able to speak in a worn-out voice as if he was tired of shouting. "You...leave already." He said silently.
I stare at him as he stares at me and after a few seconds, I respond. "Don't you want to leave?" The moment I asked that a tiny bit of strength returned and he tries to get closer but his chain stop him so he shouts instead.
"LEAVE?! WHAT IS THE POINT OF IT ALL, I HAVE LOST EVERYTHING TO THOSE FUCKERS, THEY VIOLATED MY WIFE AND EVEN MY YOUNG DAUGHTER, MY FUCKING DAUGHTER JUST FOR THEIR AMUSEMENT. WHAT IS THE POINT OF EVERYTHING, I ASK YOU HUH? WHAT IS THE FUCKING POOOINT?!"
He shouts loudly before coughing violently as he stares in the direction of the ground.
"Must be the work of sadness and anger," I said as I look in the direction of where he was looking to see a naked girl and woman similar to his age, both battered and used. I returned my gaze to the man and he looked at me angrily so I spoke.
"Nothing, your lives are worth nothing more than a speck of dirt. No matter how much suffering you people suffer, it doesn't matter for your lives are so utterly worthless that comparing you to dirt is an insult to dirt." I said coldly.
The man looks at me angrily but he couldn't say anything. He stares at my eyes, so cold, so utterly devoid of hope or happiness, and filled with self-loathing. A man so deprived that taking a life is as easy as breathing the moment he knew that murder is legal when outside the city walls.
Yet those eyes had something in them, something so very kind. "However, living beings always have a choice so I will give you the most primitive choice, live or die?" I said as I drew my longsword. I asked so coldly that everyone shuddered in fear but before even a second could pass, they all try to get close but were stopped by their chains.
The looks at my longsword and his face were reflected on the blade, he looked at his battered self before looking down, not even meeting my cold gaze. "Please kill me, I want to see my family..." He spoke full of despair but also hope.
"I see, then allow you to make one selfish request, pour your mana into this longsword, if you cannot then I will kill you if you wish," I said coldly and immediately, he grabbed the blade and started to pour his mana into blade though I couldn't feel or see it.
He stops grabbing it and I lift his chin and looked at his face. "May you have a good afterlife," I said, kindly as I stab his throat with my longsword, he forms a small smile.
I look at the woman next to him and she immediately grabbed the blade and formed all of her mana. I lifted her chin as well and remembered her face, after all, I was about to kill a lot of innocent people.
If I will bear this sin till the day I die.
Hours passed and many men, women, and children's throats were stabbed by the end of it, I felt lifeless but this was my only way to give them the peace they deserve.
I looked at my activity log and saw that my swordsmanship level was increased by one.
My pack had a new item in it called "Paper bomb". It was a gift from one of the scouts that had a battered face and a scar on their left eye.
A paper bomb was a paper charm that if detonated will cast a powerful explosion spell and I had fifty of them. To detonate them all, I would need another special paper charm that was given to me by him.
I already knew what he wanted me to do with it so he didn't speak anything. All that was left was to sabotage their base so I left the lifeless room.
"Enough mana for you yet?" I asked someone and after a few seconds, a disembodied voice spoke back, full of sadness. "...Yeah..."