Those thoughts kept echoing in his mind as he carefully opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings, which felt very unfamiliar to him. Strange, where was it? Where was Persea? Those thoughts kept echoing in his mind as he slowly walked down the dark hallway lit only by a small torch.
As he walked, his foot suddenly stepped on something soft. Surprisingly, he didn't know what it was due to the lack of light. With no hesitation, he quickly picked up one of the nearby torches, and then carefully pointed it at the bottom of his foot.
"Wait a moment. What is this?" Asher furrowed his brows, trying to get a better look at what it was." Holy shit, it's an animal carcass!" His face tightened, fear evident on his face.
His lips kept trembling incessantly as he looked at the organs of the dead animal lying outside. Shit. The sight that was so disgusting to remember, instantly made Asher's appetite vanish for a moment.
"Oh my God, I have to get out of here, I have to!" His face tightened, and his mind began to wander.
Without dragging his feet, he ran as fast as he could, leaving the animal carcass behind him until he arrived at a large room that was as dark as the hallway he had passed through. Surprisingly, there was no one here. He shouted Persea's name several times, but the blue fairy's voice remained unheard.
"Persea, where are you?" Asher shouted quite loudly for the umpteenth time, filling the entire room. 'Persea where are ...."
Asher's face instantly paled like a living corpse as he caught a glimpse of several pairs of eyes watching him from within the darkness. His heartbeat immediately skipped a beat, and he realized there was another figure in this room who was the same as him.
It turned out Asher's guess was right, it didn't take long for an unfamiliar figure to appear in the darkness. Its shape was similar to a dog, but there was something strange about this creature. This creature had three heads with horrible facial expressions, exactly like the model of the statue he was looking at. One of the creature's mouths seemed to be dripping fresh red liquid. It looked like it had eaten something, which made Asher pause.
"What... Is that a Cer... Cerberion?" Asher stammered. He couldn't control his body which kept shaking.
Its yellow cat-like eyeballs continuously stared at Asher, showing a desire to finish Asher off. Suddenly one of the creature's heads moved, formed a fireball from its mouth, and shot the fireball straight at him.
"Oh, no! I have to avoid it. Now!" Asher patted his face, trying to control his fear.
Asher quickly jumped up, fighting the fear within him. It was lucky that he moved faster because just a second late, the fireball would have devoured his body and killed him in an instant.
"Oh my, that was close." Relief was evident on Asher's face. "Wait, how can I defeat this thing." The frown on Asher's forehead was visible as he tried to search for the skill 'Ritual' in his skill column. "Argh, I can't find it at all," he grumbled, frustration evident on his face.
However, it seemed that the creature didn't give Asher any pause at all. Less than a minute after he rested, Cerberion suddenly dashed towards him at full speed. Noticing that Asher must have run again, trying to avoid Cerberion's attack.
"I... I have to do something." Asher panted, his face looking tired.
He kept running as fast as he could, however, one of the Cerberion heads shot another fireball at Asher and this time, it hit Asher's leg. A burning sensation spread throughout Asher's legs, causing him to instantly fall to the cold ground.
"Argh, shit!" Asher groaned in pain, his face tightening.
He initially intended to cast a healing spell, but it seemed difficult to cast any spell since the distance between him and Cerberion was quite close and it would take quite a long time to cast this spell. Hence, he decided to go back to running, but it seemed like the heat sensation was getting more and more pronounced, making him suffer even more while walking or running.
"Damn, I can't run anymore." Asher tried to pull his body slowly away from Cerberion. "Argh, damn, it's no use!" His eyeballs widened as he realized Cerberion was getting closer to him.
Realizing his body could not move any further, Asher sighed. A feeling of resignation flashed through his mind, knowing that he would be consumed right away with Cerberion.
"At least I've gotten this far." Asher slowly closed his eyes, trying not to see anything that would happen in front of him.
The seconds of death were approaching him. His heartbeat was racing as the pace of the invasion grew louder. He hoped to skip this annoying part. Die miserably.
"Uh, wait, why don't I feel anything yet? Am I already dead?" Asher slowly touched a part of his body. "Wait, I can feel my body is still intact. What happened?" He slowly opened his eyes, seeing Cerberion unable to move any further. "Strange, what exactly happened to Cerberion?" He knitted his brows, a curious look on his face.
His eyes slowly looked at Cerberion who seemed to be wrestling with an object. Wait, but what is it? Asher narrowed his eyes, trying to see more clearly. It turned out to be a long chain that looked very strong, chaining each Cerberion's head so that it could not move further.
"Good, it looks like the chain around Cerberion's neck is making it difficult for the creature to move and go further." Asher nodded his head. "This is my chance. I...I have to kill this thing, now!."
With all the energy he had left, Asher started to pick up his staff and quickly cast a laser beam spell, firing directly at Cerberion's face repeatedly until it groaned in pain and instantly fell limp. A few minutes later the Ritual skill finally appeared on Asher's screen.
"Now...now time to end this." Asher tried to cast his magic spell, trying to endure the pain that was still radiating in his body. "Argh, Ritual!"
Asher immediately pointed his staff at the weakly lying Cerberion, and then slowly a bright blue light appeared from the tip of his staff, absorbing Cerberion's power. As he felt the tremendous energy flowing into his body, the figure of Cerberion slowly disappeared in front of him.
'Congratulations, you have successfully tamed Cerberion: Guardian of the underworld'
[Cerberion: One of the guardians of lights who comes from the underworld and can breathe fire into his opponent].
'Exp gained 1000'
'Level up to lv.9'
'+5 status points'
'Unlock skill: Pray'
[Pray:] Healing technique that uses no MP, and restores a tiny amount of health to all active party members.
The relief on his face was obvious. It seemed like he still didn't expect to be able to defeat Cerberion so easily considering he was already in a bad situation. It was a stroke of luck that impressed him while playing this game.
"Thank God, if that chain hadn't been there, I might have died." Asher sighed, his face looking calmer now. "Now, I must heal these wounds now."
However, a few minutes later the same portal appeared on Asher's back. He realized that this portal would take him out of this horrible place, so he stepped into the portal without hesitation and soon the portal closed.
Not long after, Asher finally returned to the previous place and suddenly saw someone in front of him. "Persea, is that you?" Asher furrowed his brows, the wrinkles on his forehead becoming more and more obvious.