Feeling the coolness of the seawater covering his entire body, Liam glanced around the water, searching for a place where he could stop. Above him, he noticed a faint light appearing in the distance. He quickly kicked his legs and stretched his arms to swim toward it. When he surfaced, what lay before him was a large cave with stalactites hanging down from the ceiling, and small paths formed by rocks scattered around.
"Is this their lair?" Liam opened his eyes wide in surprise, looking around. He quickly swam toward the nearby shore. After reaching the shore, he quickly glanced around, scanning for any small details that might reveal clues.
"A strange energy..." Liam quickly found some large rocks nearby and hid behind them. Peeking out, he saw some monstrous fish creatures dragging a few men, around 20 years old, to an unknown location.
"Hmmm... What do they plan to do with those people?" Liam furrowed his brows, deep in thought. Then, he quickly followed them. After a rather long distance, they finally stopped.
"Is this it?" Liam curiously hid behind a rock. He saw them throw the bodies into a nearby pit before quickly diving into the water and disappearing. Seeing that no energy remained in the area, Liam immediately walked over to the pit where the bodies had been thrown.
Looking down into the pit, Liam hesitated. "Should I jump in? There's a high chance James is down there..."
At that moment, an unusual energy rushed toward him at high speed. Liam turned around, startled, and saw the creatures rising from the water, glaring at him with vicious eyes. He gritted his teeth.
"Damn it," he cursed, realizing that he had been careless. His ability to sense energy had a limited range, so those creatures had been able to see him before he noticed them.
"I shouldn't rely too much on my energy-sensing ability next time…" As he spoke, a silver sword materialized in his hand, ready to face the charging monsters. However, something strange happened: the creatures merely stood there, glaring at him angrily, growling in threat, but they didn't dare attack. Seeing this, Liam gave a slight smile.
"So, these creatures finally know their place." He added with a scornful tone.
"After all, these monsters haven't even reached the necessary level."
But their expressions soon changed. They began trembling, then quickly swam away in fear.
"Something's wrong…" Liam frowned at the sudden turn of events. Even the most foolish person could tell that the creatures were afraid of something. And that something was definitely not him. He turned back to look at the large pit.
"There must be something incredibly dangerous in there..." He took a moment to assess the situation, and then a decisive expression appeared on his face.
"Hopefully, this pit will lead me to James." Without another word, Liam jumped into the pit.
Inside, it was pitch dark. He carefully clung to the rocky walls around him to avoid slipping as he descended. Although the path led quite deep down, after some time, he finally saw light at the end of the tunnel.
"Finally made it..." Liam sighed in relief, but the closer he got to the exit, the more tense he became. He crouched down and quietly peeked through the opening leading outside. He swallowed nervously.
"This is definitely the scariest monster I've ever seen."
He shuddered as he looked at it—a massive C+ level creature, with a head resembling a killer whale and sharp teeth. Its tail was wrapped in tentacles that spanned almost half of the cave.
"Luckily, it's sleeping…" Liam sighed, wiping the sweat off his forehead. He cautiously stepped out and scanned the cave, as if searching for something.
Liam felt a sense of dread as he gazed at the dry corpses scattered around in the distance.
"Damn... Just how many people has it eaten?" His eyes then focused on a spot near the dry bones.
"Is that... treasure?" He looked at the creature with a puzzled expression. "Does it have a hobby of collecting these things?" He then glanced at the far-off lake. "That must be where the creature escapes from the cave."
A few seconds later, the creature began to move. This startled Liam, making his heart race as if it were about to leap out of his chest. But his fear subsided when he saw that the creature's tentacles were moving toward the unconscious prey lying on the stone floor nearby, still asleep. However, its next move made Liam grab his head in horror. The person lying closest was James.
"What now?.." At that moment, Liam could only stand helplessly and watch. He clasped his hands together, praying that the tentacle would choose someone else.
Liam's prayer was answered when the tentacle wrapped around the man next to James instead. Relieved, Liam let out a deep breath and wiped away the sweat pouring down his body.
"I don't know if that was lucky or unlucky."
The creature quickly retracted its tentacle and stuffed the man, whose condition remained unclear, into its mouth. A moment later, while still asleep, it spat out a dry skeleton into the pile of treasure Liam had seen earlier.
"This is my last chance." Liam quietly tiptoed toward James without making a sound. At the same time, he began waking up the other people.
"Hey... Hey..." Liam whispered softly, gently tapping a blond-haired young man. After several attempts, the man finally opened his eyes, looking around in panic and about to speak. But Liam quickly covered his mouth, raising a finger to his lips, signaling him to be quiet, and pointed toward the creature. Only then did the blond-haired man begin to calm down. He nodded shakily, agreeing to Liam's request in fear.
Liam whispered just loud enough for the man to hear: "Help me wake the others."
The blond-haired man quickly nodded and went over to wake the other unconscious people.
Having settled that, Liam immediately headed over to James. He was still okay, though his eyes were swollen from crying too much. Seeing this, Liam could only shake his head slightly. Then he quickly tapped James on the cheek.
"Hey… Wake up…"
After several attempts to wake him, James finally opened his eyes. His eyes were now red, and in a weak voice, he mumbled, "grandfather…"
But before he could continue, Liam swiftly covered James's mouth and signaled for silence. Then, he pointed toward the creature.
Liam frowned at James and quietly said, "Where's your courage from before? Don't cry anymore."
James, hearing Liam's words, snapped out of his daze. Seeing the situation around him, he felt a pang of guilt toward Liam. It seemed that everything had turned out this way because of him. His actions now contradicted the words he had spoken before, during the blazing fire that consumed his family's home. He silently vowed to himself that this would be the last time he would show weakness. With eyes burning with determination, James looked at Liam and nodded.