Soon enough, we're finally close enough to see what's happening. The Orb-Piercer looms in front of a white haired man wearing basic delving attire and a black whistle. The man gazed at the Orb-Piercer fearlessly while also looking for an opening to flee.
"It's Jiruo... Haios, it's Jiruo-san!" Marulk whispered in slight panic. "We have to save him!"
I smirked a little and brandished my knife. "You don't have to tell me twice!" I exclaimed before jumping towards the Goblet.
"Haios, can you hear me?" Marulk's voice came from my earpiece.
"Yeah, loud and..." I took a step back when the Orb-Piercer suddenly glanced at me. "Okay, it notices me."
"All right listen, it's going to read your movement based on your conscious readings. So you can't think about what you wanted to do because it will know."
"Not thinking about doing something sounds impossible, but I'll try."
"And stop thinking about my general direction, focus on the earpiece. You don't want it to notice my presence."
I nodded and focus all my attention solely to my earpiece. "Now what?"
"Imagine yourself attacking the beast."
I imagine myself charging towards the beast and it suddenly moved aside an turn around. "Wow, can't believe it worked..." the beast slowly walked towards me and the spikes around its head started to elongate. "Okay, now what?"
"Get ready for a left attack!" I looked to my left and raised my knife. "Now strike the orb from the right!"
The beast moved to the left at the exact moment I ran towards it from the right. "Now grab Jiruo and get out of there!" I changed my direction again and ran straight towards Jiruo who seems to be wounded at the edge of the goblet.
"A kid?" Jiruo muttered in disbelief.
"I am older than you!" I exclaimed before hauling up his body and jumped towards the next goblet. "The name's Haios by the way."
"Jiruo," he replied simply.
"The Orb-Piercer is on your tail, get ready..."
I quickened my pace and jumped as far as I can, skipping a goblet in the process and landed on the next one. "Are you a robot?" Jiruo asked suddenly.
"No, thousand men pins, five of them." I explained while glancing back only to see that the beast is extremely persistent. "By the way, any idea on how to shake this guy off?"
"Not that I know of..."
"Look up!" I looked up and the beast behind me suddenly jumped up. I stopped in my tracks and watched as the beast fell down to the goblet below us. "All right, you should be safe for now."
I sighed in relief and dropped down Jiruo on to the warm water. "Okay, whoa... that was a bit exhausting," I crouched down and looked at Jiruo more closely. More specifically, the gaping wound on his left hand and right shoulder. "That looks painful, you okay?"
Jiruo nodded and took out a vial full of purple liquid from his pouch. "Don't worry, I have an antidote," he gulped down the liquid in one go. "I came here a few days ago to investigate the truth behind Riko's Balloon Message. Since then, we're building a functioning base and research station in the Fourth Layer."
So there is a Black Whistle exclusive bar at the bottom of the Abyss. "Where is it?"
He stood up despite his wound. "Come on, I'll show you," he shook my hand in a firm handshake. "Also, thanks for saving me back there, I owe you one."
"Just a moment, I didn't come here alone." I pressed a button on my earpiece. "Where are you?"
"Just a moment!"
I stood there in an awkward silence, waiting for Marulk to arrive. "So uhh, you're here often?" I asked Jiruo.
"I'm scouting the area to help delvers find the base since it's in a pretty scheduled spot." Jiruo explained. "Especially since the terrain here is always changing, it's hard to give a good a landmark around these area."
"I see... That's pretty neat." Marulk please hurry up...
My prayers were answered when Marulk came rushing from a goblet a level above us. He climbed down with a rope and landed at the other edge of this goblet. "Haios-san! Jiruo-san!" Marulk exclaimed.
"Marulk? What are you doing all the way down here?" Jiruo asked in surprise. "I never thought you'll ever leave the seeker camp."
"Well, I didn't expect this either," he replied. Then he walked towards me and held my hand. "But I can't let her venture this deep without someone keeping her in check."
Jiruo looked at both of us for a moment before shaking his head. "Well, it's not like age really matters around here," he turned around and took out his pick axe with a rope tied on the handle. "Follow me."
To be honest, watching Jiruo navigating through the fourth layer feels very fascinating in some way. The man is truly skilled, with just a pickaxe tied on a rope, he can swing his way through the Goblets of Giants like the freaking spiderman.
I've also seen Marulk pull off the same stunt before, but he prefers having me carry him through the abyss instead of doing some cool stunt.
Soon, we found ourselves in front of a small cave opening of some sort. Jiruo led us deeper and deeper into the cave until Marulk confirmed that the curse along with the force field doesn't exist down here.
"So, this Riko kid, I've been hearing about her a lot. Just who the heck is she?" I asked Jiruo.
"She's the daughter of a white whistle, Lyza the Annihilator," Jiruo replied calmly. "She ran away one day from the orphanage and start traversing the abyss with her companion Reg. Almost everyone in the orphanage thought she was dead, save for two people. But then, we found a balloon message coming from this place."
"You think she's still alive down there?"
Jiruo shrugged in response. "I don't know, but there is a chance that she is somewhere down there. Maybe I can catch up to her someday."
Soon enough, we made it towards a spherical building suspended in the middle of a huge cavern. I can see a familiar person sitting in front of the building. "Habo-san!" I exclaimed.
The man stood up and gave me a wide grin. "Welcome to the Fourth Layer Haios!" He rubbed my head with his gigantic hand before looking at Marulk in slight curiosity. "Marulk, I did not expect you to go down here," then he noticed the black whistle around his neck. "Hey, congrats for being the youngest black whistle ever!"
Marulk bowed a little in front of him. "Thank you Habo-dono..." he spoke in a soft tone from his old days of being a maid.
"Marulk, you're not a maid anymore. Stop acting like one." I muttered in slight embarrassment. I mean, how can I not? The guy is my boyfriend, his reputation is my reputation.
"Sorry Haios-san, force of habit," Marulk replied with a sheepish smile on his face.
With that, the four of us walked into the base. The first thing we see is a big chamber resembling a living room complete with sofa and table. At the side of the chamber is flap leading to a bedroom that seem to serve as a medical chamber. At the other side of the room is a flap leading to a kitchen.
"Nice place they got here huh?" Habo asked while sitting down on one of the sofa. "Lord of the Dawn helped with the furnishing and repurposing for the base."
"Lord of the Dawn? That's Bondrewd the Novel right? The science guy?"
"The science guy?" Habo chuckled a little. "You can call him that, he is pretty good on science stuff," then he pointed at the door that led to the back entrance. "Better yet, why don't you talk to him? He's in the garden outside."
"There's a garden?" Marulk and I asked in sync.