Chương 87: The Fear of Consequences

Cold stone pressed in from all sides. Underneath bare footsteps, the floor was uneven, while thin water trails covered the stone walls. The passage was narrow; only two people could walk side by side. There was no light on the stone wall. The tunnel stood still, to the point where not even a small speck of dust flowed in the air. Only a low, hesitant sound of footstep traveled through the passage. Every time, the sound echoed throughout the tunnel before fading away.

Through bare eyes, the tunnel ceiling couldn't be seen, neither could the tunnel's start and end. The faint footstep echoed for a very long time before a light far ahead could be seen. A faint red glow flickered. As a hand brushed against the wall, the faint and hesitant footstep stopped. Unable to see his own hand in the dark, narrow tunnel, the young man stared toward the distant glow. After staying for a while, the glow swayed and flickered again.

The young man's eyes moved all over the tunnel, yet he could see nothing but the red glow. With a step forward, the hesitation towards the decision to walk increased manyfold. However, he couldn't stand in that dark, narrow tunnel forever. Whatever that red glow was, he may have to walk and find out to exit the tunnel. Thus, there was no other option than the path ahead. However, the closer he walked toward the glow, the more he felt something was wrong. As he neared closer, the light started to grow big.

Automatically, his breathing started to increase as his heart drummed aloud. He suddenly started to breathe through his mouth, as if breathing through his nose felt suffocating. With great effort, he took another two steps and stopped, staring at the spot where the red light glowed. However, he couldn't see the red light now, seeing only darkness instead. Where did the red light go? Such a question arose in his heart. Was the red light an illusion in his mind?

He looked behind, expecting to see something, but nothing was there except darkness. In that darkness, the only thing he heard was his own breathing and his heartbeat. However, once his eyes started to settle in the darkness again, he saw something at the spot where the red light had existed. He could clearly distinguish this object; the darkness failed to conceal it. He flinched backward, his feet itching to run.

The reason for this feeling came from the object itself—a big black door standing tall and attached to the stone tunnel. The more his eyes moved around the door to find any hint of what it was, the more dread permeated his heart. There was no handle on the door, nor was there a lock. Suddenly, he felt: was it even a door? Though reluctant and with dread in his heart, he took a step forward instead of going back to where he came, which was nowhere. A step! A step!

With every step he took, some kind of suffocating pain assaulted his chest. It felt like he was under deep water where his chest was pushed together. After God knows how much time he spent on those few steps, he stood in front of the door. He moved his right hand slowly. He wanted to push open the door, hoping to exit this unknown tunnel. However, before his finger could touch the door, it opened automatically. His body froze. Instinctively, he moved into a position to sprint.

However, once the door fully opened, the thought of sprinting away became nonexistent in his mind. His whole body stiffened. His whole body started to shiver as soon as his eyes landed on the thing that existed behind the door. Two dreadful eyes directly pierced through his eyes and stared at his soul. The two eyes didn't move. However, the disposition of the eyes made his legs wobble. The eyes directly suspended in mid-air up near the ceiling. He couldn't see any shape of a body that belonged to the two eyes.

But, guessing by the position of the eyes in the space, it was two adult humans tall. The eyes moved down without taking their gaze off the young man. However, the movement felt strange, as if it was swinging without any solid way to control its position. The young man's heart beat faster, and tears rolled down his cheeks, as he couldn't move his body anywhere. The stiffness of his body didn't allow him to run. It was as if his soul would rip out of his body if he were to take his eyes off the eyes behind the door.

The swinging eyes slowly moved towards the young man. The closer the eyes came, the more he struggled to breathe. Saliva stuck in his throat, and he started to suffocate. As the eyes neared closer and closer, the young man tried to close his eyes. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't do it. When the eyes were a meter away from his face, something clutched his wrist. Startled, the young man's face turned from the eyes to his right wrist automatically. A loud scream echoed in the tunnel. Arthur jolted awake.

As his eyes landed on his right wrist, he found a figure crouching down near him and grabbing him with its hand. Arthur sucked in a sharp breath. Pushing his legs against the ground, he scrambled backward after his eyes landed on a skeletal figure. His back hit the stone wall of the Dead-end cave. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Arthur's whole body was drenched in sweat. His breathing was heavy as he tried to calm himself down after seeing where he was.

Maan simply stood up, showing no emotion or thought to console its Master since he had a bad Nightmare. Arthur took a few minutes to come back to himself. As his eyes landed outside, a pale morning light started to appear. Thinking calmly through what had transpired, Arthur heaved a sigh of relief. He shook his head as the memory of the terrifying nightmare still lingered in his mind.

"What kind of dream was that?" He had never had a nightmare like that in his life. Looking at Maan, he realized he was the one who had put Maan in charge of waking him at a certain time as an alarm clock. After leaving the Wetlands, the party moved through the forest, hunting every monster that their eyes landed upon. After more than five hours of relentless hunting, Arthur and his party reached the Dead-end cave they had left that morning.

When 80% of the contract payment was gathered, Arthur felt he could take a quick nap here to remove the fatigue and relax his eyes. He ordered Maan to guard him and wake him up after one hour. However, that one-hour sleep plan went awry when he fell into a weird dream. The sudden, heavy work he had done in such a short amount of time definitely put a lot of stress on his mind and body, making his sleep worthless. Exiting the cave, Arthur looked at the sky.

The countdown was still going on, and the time now showed a total of one and a half hours remaining. Arthur stretched his body, feeling that it would be enough time to reach the Safe spot.

"Let's go, Maan," Arthur commanded the skeleton. As for the other party that Coburn led to hunt, Arthur had already given a command for them to reach the Crater and collect the remaining two thousand monster corpses along the way. He summoned Brog and ordered him to lead a short route to the Crater. Arthur and the two skeletons walked through the forest. The route was mostly clear and devoid of monsters. Only a few were spotted here and there, which were quickly cleared by Arthur.

Often, Arthur would look up at the countdown timer. He didn't know why, but it had simply become a habit since last evening. His mind was never clear after entering into this trial. However, since last evening, the clamor on his mind was heavy. That only increased after his uncomfortable sleep, as that strange dream brought him uneasiness. With a lot of thought, he summoned Rouka and healed himself. As usual, he felt peace during cloud therapy.

After healing, he felt fresh, without any tiredness or fatigue in his body. His mind also cleared somewhat. They walked for almost 20 minutes to finally exit the forest, taking another 30 minutes to reach the Crater. The party was still hunting in the Crater, scattered widely. He had commanded them to continue hunting even after the Contract Payment for the Assassin was met, but not to wander outside of the Crater's range.

Without wasting any time, he dismissed every skeleton and resummoned them so he could quickly make the contract. In the next second, a mountain of monster corpses lay before him. At the staggering amount, even Arthur was astonished by how many monsters they had killed. Just to hire one Master Skeleton. But it was worth it. With a single intent, the mountain of monster corpses vanished in a second, and he received the message. Plick!

[Contract Payment Successful] [Worker Status] Name: Hall Designation: Assassin Specialist: Infiltration Professional Status: Master Monthly Maintenance Cost (MMC): 35, 000 Credits [More Details…] Arthur summoned the Assassin's Skeleton. What came out of the magic circle made Arthur's eyes widen. It was a skeleton, of course. However, it didn't look like a traditional skeleton with white bones. The Hall Skeleton came out as a black skeleton with Black Bones.

In the dim morning light, it almost looked like a bush, not a skeleton figure. The skeleton's posture also looked very different. Its height was short, but not petty short. It gave off the vibe of a Master Status skeleton, except for the bony structure. It had several abilities, and every one looked very capable, specifically designed for one purpose: [Perfect Stealth, Phantom Step, Shadow Crawl, Shadow Retreat, Trap Disarmament, Eavesdrop, Night Vision]. It was a perfect skeleton to collect data and infiltrate.

Looking at the sky, the timer showed 00: 38: 12. Only 38 minutes were remaining. It was perfect timing to send the skeleton. To reach the Safe Spot, it would take at least 5 minutes for a Master Skeleton. It needed 5 minutes to gather the data. Once he knew the situation at the Safe Spot, he would have enough time to make a decision based on it. All he needed was 5 minutes to subdue Victor and his party. Once that was done, he would then have to deal with the timer.

With that thought, he gave a proper command to the Hall Skeleton about what it needed to do, like the direction of the Safe Spot and what it needed to do once it reached there. Once the command was received, the Black skeleton sprinted towards the underground Safe Spot. Arthur himself started to walk towards the spot. Once the skeleton gathered the information, he wanted to reach it as soon as possible. His Agility had increased by 3. 61.

This came after assigning all the free Attribute points he got by consuming the Norm Evolution Core and the ordinary Night core. Now, his Agility sat at 28. 61. It usually took half an hour to reach the Safe Spot through normal walking; if he were to run, he only needed 10 minutes or so. It was a perfect plan, and he was happy he had thought of using the Assassin to know the real situation at the Underground Safe Spot. However, that happiness started to wane as he walked closer towards the Safe Spot.

He didn't know why, but the stress and confusion, which had gone away after Rouka's healing, started to come back to his mind. Some unexplainable thing started to permeate his heart. Though he could perfectly discern that this thing was dread, his mind tried to deny that fact. Actually, this was a good plan. If it succeeded, he would achieve both his revenge and free the people. But this perfect plan seemed to not give enough courage for Arthur to walk forward anymore. His breathing started to grow heavy.

His legs gave off a strange feeling, as his palms started to sweat.

"Why is this happening?" Arthur asked himself aloud. He was not the same guy from two days before. He had become strong and even grown so much with the [Faunite Core Elixir]. But why did he still feel fear? He was very confident a few minutes before. Suddenly, his steps stopped. Looking around, his eyes landed on the sun, which started to come out over the horizon. His mind raced. Should he call back the skeleton, wait for the timer to finish, and deal with what comes after?

With that thought, Arthur stood still and waited. However, even after waiting for a minute, the idea of calling back the Assassin Skeleton didn't give him relief.

"God damn it." Why was this happening to him? What caused him to fall into this despair? Was it that dream he had previously? Arthur was angry at himself. He spat, seeing his own patheticness. Did death scare him? Arthur gritted his teeth until they ground and almost snapped. However, before his teeth were going to break, he relaxed. He took a few long breaths and stood there with his body limp. He was a very insignificant guy in this grand world.

He couldn't think like taking revenge on someone, even though that person literally slit his throat. Even if he were to storm in there and kill all his enemies, what then? Should he also kill the other people who were witnesses to the killing? Those who were potentially exiting the Trial and telling the truth to the victims' families? Where the powerful Pleasence family would target him and his family? Arthur shook his head after thinking about the plan to kill Victor and his party.

He couldn't bear the consequences of the outcome. With that thought, he simply turned around and walked back to the Crater. He would simply wait here until the timer ended and decide what happens later. Even if he were to die once the timer ended, he was willing to accept it. But if he killed others, their families might eventually target his own. Arthur would rather die here than put his family in danger. Soon, his brother would awaken, and their lives would get better even without him.

Thinking this, Arthur simply abandoned his plan to attack Victor and his lackeys. From now on, he would focus on finding a way to escape this place rather than wandering around with animosity weighing on him. He sat at the edge of the crater as the timer continued to count down. He simply opened the Marketplace and searched for a skeleton with the status of [Great Grand Master] that could accept Contract Payment as a Faunite Crystal.