Chereads / Reborn as a fox in a game like world / Chapter 28 - Secret of the lake.

Chapter 28 - Secret of the lake.

I walked round the lake, trying to see if there was any obvious way to get to the island in the centre. Unsurprisingly there wasn't. There were a few boulders on the outskirt of the lake, but that was it.

Maybe the only way to get to the island was actually just to swim, but I had a nagging feeling that wasn't the case. For starters how did the treasure get on the island in the first place? I doubt someone swam all the way to the island, placed it there and then swam all the way back. it just seemed stupid.

It felt way too special for it to be so simple!

If anime taught me anything then there's either some kind of monster protecting it, or some kind of trap. If it's a monster protecting it then I might as well give up now. I'm not even strong enough to face that damn giant spider, let alone fight a monster that is specifically there to protect something.

But if it's a trap then I might stand a chance. There's nearly always a way to bypass a trap safely, I would just need to figure out how.

I'm more inclined to believe that is protected by a trap anyways, when I fell into the water earlier nothing attacked me so I doubt anything is actually in the water. But I can't see anything that resembles a trap either, honestly the whole thing is kind of frustrating.

I decide to try and find a stone and just throw it at the island. I'm hoping that if there is a monster, it will react when there's movement near the island and if there's a trap I hoping to maybe set it off so I at least know what I'm dealing with.

Finally finding a stone, I use my tail to fling it as hard as I can towards the island. It soared threw the air before suddenly vanishing about ten meters from the island. I rubbed my eyes as I stared at the spot it vanished with a dumbstruck expression on my face, not really understanding what I just saw.

The stone literally vanished! It didn't hit some magical barrier or get slapped away by some powerful monster, it simply just disappeared! 

I picked up another stone and threw it again, this time I was watching closely at the spot where the last one vanished. I wanted to see if I could see what made it disappear but I didn't see anything at all. It really did just vanish into thin air!

I'm kind of glad that I can't swim otherwise I would have been the one who disappeared!

At least I know that it's a trap that's protecting it, I don't know what kind of trap makes things just disappear, but at least there should be a way to deactivate it or bypass it.

Now all I need to do id figure out how. I take another quick look around the cavern to make sure I haven't missed anything but I guess there really is nothing other than these boulders around.

I decide to take a closer look at these boulders, i'm hoping they might be the key to this or at least hold some kind of clue. But looking at them I don't see anything.

I try attacking one with scratch, but my claws just bounce right off!

I know i'm not strong but I should at least be able to scratch the thing, right?

I managed to cut into the rock of the rock hermit so I know my scratch attack isn't that weak.

There's either something strange about these boulders or they're just incredible strong. I end up walking around the lake again, attacking each boulder. They all seem to be made out of the same type of rock and I can't damage any of them. o matter how many times I try.

I climb up onto one of them and try to look at the positions of the boulders around the lake. There are 5 of them and the seem to be evenly spaced out. They all look like they are the exact same distance from each other.

There's no way this is just a mere coincidence! If it was just one or two, then yeah maybe I would have believed it but not all 5 of them. It has to have something to do with whatever is making that river glow, I just can't figure out what.

I jump down from the boulder that I'm currently on and walk round again to inspect each one. They're all slightly different sizes and shape but I don't think that has anything to do with it because unlike there positions, the six and shape seem natural. 

the one thing I did notice though is that the water doesn't touch any of the boulders apart from one. It doesn't seem unnatural or anything, just that the lake is shaped that way.

With nothing better to do, I decide to try and do the same to the others, just to see if it does anything. 

I run round to each of the boulders and dig a small channel from the lake up to the boulders. Once I've done the last one, I stop and wait for a minute to see if anything happens but nothing does.

Now i'm at a total loss of what to do. That was the only thing I could think of and I know that I can't stay here to figure this out for too long. I still have my quest to do and if I fail, I die. 

I don't want to give up on getting this treasure but the way things are looking, I might not have a choice. I sit there for another hour trying to figure out what I could possible do before finally deciding to give up for now.

I need to finish my quest first, I can always come back and try again. It's not like its going anywhere and I don't want to risk running out of time for my quest..

I get up ready to leave when I suddenly realise something. I haven't seen any passageway, tunnel or hole leading out of this place. I frantically run around the walls of the cavern trying to find a way out but fail to find anything.

Im stuck here!

The only way out seems to be the hole I fell through and that's 20 meters up in the air! 

I start to panic.

If I can't get out then I can't finish my quest, and if I can't finish my quest I die!

After everything I've been there is this really the way I'm going to die?

I check the timer on my west and see I only have 157 hours left. That's 6 and a half day and no doubt I will be sleeping for some of that.

Fear starts to seep in as I stare at the timer.

what was once a timer for my quest has now become a timer for my death...