Arlo found himself staring at the prompt:
[Exit the dungeon or not]
[ 1. Yes 2. No]
A wave of relief washed over him, a sense of joy bubbling up within him at the prospect of finally escaping this infernal place.
As his cursor hovered over 'Yes'.
'Don't leave me alone.'
The same soothing voice that had comforted him after his battle with the stone lions echoed through the cavern.
Initially, Arlo dismissed it as another hallucination, but he soon felt a strange presence in the volcanic cave.
Could it be the side quest with the question mark?
Arlo leaped from one piece of ground to another, scouring the walls for a hidden passage. Finding nothing, he slumped onto the chest.
'Are you giving up?'
The voice echoed again, this time closer, and a realization dawned on him.
Arlo sprang to his feet and flung open the chest; it was barren. But a hollow echo resonated when he knocked on the chest's bottom.
Breaking through the false bottom, Arlo discovered a ring and a transparent crystal orb. He reached for both; the ring came into his grasp, but it seemed stuck in the chest.
Deciding to take only the ring, Arlo slipped it onto his finger. The crystal began to levitate, a sight that left him bewildered.
"WHOOSH!"
The orb disappeared into Arlo's stomach.
"Holy shit! Something went inside me." Arlo was taken aback by the sudden turn of events.
"AHHH...AHHH... OH MY GOD!"
Arlo panicked, but after a few minutes, everything returned to normal. He left the chest, utterly confused.
No prompt appeared, and the experience rewards and side quest remained unresolved.
Eventually, he stopped worrying and decided to leave the dungeon.
He navigated to the Exit option and clicked 'Yes'.
Arlo started to retch, a heaviness settling in his body. Suddenly, a red window popped up:
[Slayer of Yedlin clan]
[Inscription: This sword slaughtered the Yedlin clan and devoured its soul. Whenever it is released, it brings an end to its wielder, and only the true Devourer can lift its curse.]
[Penalty: Curse Activated]
Arlo could feel his body being torn apart from the inside.
"Ahhh... Ahhh..."
Visions of the sword's victims swam before his eyes. He could feel his life force ebbing away as he bled internally.
A notification flashed:
[Player Died: Lives: I II III]
[Lives remaining: 1]
As his remaining lives dwindled to one, a prompt appeared:
[Player Arlo Templeton – You are…
Beep...
Suddenly, a black window popped up:
[Crystal Egg devours the curse placed upon player 1]
A dark shadow enveloped Arlo's body, compressing it from all sides. It settled in his stomach, and then the shadow was absorbed into Arlo's body.
A black prompt displayed:
[Crystal Egg devoured Slayer of Yedlin clan's curse]
[Crystal Egg unsatisfied with its appetite]
A notification flashed:
[Player Died: Lives: I II III]
[Lives remaining: 2]
After a few minutes, his lives returned to two.
Arlo woke up after some time, feeling drained and suffering from a severe stomach ache.
Suddenly, he remembered the curse activation and wondered why he was still alive.
'Even if I died, I should have been revived under the Sherman tree. Why am I still here?' Arlo mused.
Something was irritating his hand; it was the ring. The platinum-grade ring bore a strange inscription.
Touching the ring, Arlo was flooded with memories of everything that had happened after the curse was activated. He watched the events unfold as if he were an outsider.
After witnessing the visions, Arlo was left dumbstruck. One thought kept echoing in his mind.
Without thinking, he blurted out, "Crystal egg inside my stomach! Does that make me pregnant?"
[
[Yes, Mama]
A black prompt materialized before him.
"You… Goddammit!" Arlo jumped at the Crystal egg's sudden revelation.
After regaining his composure, Arlo asked in a calm tone, "Who are you? Why did you choose me?"
A black prompt displayed:
[
[I don't know either, Mama]
"Stop calling me mama," Arlo snapped.
"I've had enough of this nonsense. It's too overwhelming right now. I'm leaving this place," Arlo declared.
He navigated to the Exit option and clicked 'Yes' again, but the prompt redirected him to the Difficulty mode option.
Confused, he thought it was a system glitch. He tried again, navigating to the option menu, clicking the exit option, and clicking 'Yes', but was redirected to the difficulty mode option again.
Frustrated, Arlo kept trying, only to be redirected to the difficulty option each time.
Thoughts swirled in his mind, 'What if I can never leave this dungeon? Is this how I die, with no one knowing where I am?'
Arlo was more puzzled than angry. After a few minutes, he decided to try one last time and made peace with his fate.
Arlo clicked 'Yes', and again it redirected to the Difficulty option, but suddenly, the window began to glitch. Suddenly, it stopped.
A small black dot appeared on the screen. Out of curiosity, he touched the black dot, which grew larger until it engulfed the entire blue screen window.
A black window popped up:
[System Ascent Updated]
Another black window popped up:
[Crystal Egg unsatisfied with its previous appetite]
[New Quest updated:]
[Complete other difficulty modes until it is satisfied with its palate]
"Hey! Crystal bastard, what is this? You want to satisfy your palate? Answer me, bastard," Arlo raged.
A black window prompted:
[Crystal Egg going into hibernation]
[Complete the Quest:
No time limits]
[Reward: Nothing]
Finally, one last time, a black window prompted:
[
[Bye, Mama]
[End of Chapter]