Chương 17: Waking Up

Oscar and Dan retreated away from the fight. It took a moment, but at some point, the girl that was with Gita recognized Dan and called out to him. They both ran and embraced one another in a warm hug.

"That's Emily. She's absolutely insane," Gita whispered.

"How's the brother?" Oscar was conflicted because Dan was a good guy, but he'd be lying if he were to say he wanted to spend more time with him.

"He's a coward, but he's fine. I can't really pretend that I was much manlier back on… you know."

"You've changed a lot since we met. I don't know if it's that evil class you got or what, but your confidence now is noticeably more improved. I'm glad to see it as that'll make knocking you down a peg all the more satisfying." Embarrassment filled him at what he was taking as a compliment.

"I still feel like the same loser that I've always been, but…" he stopped and looked over to where Bruno was toying with the weakened chimera.

"I know there's some truth to it because here we are having a candid talk in a room filled with all this chaos." Gita let out a short chuckle at that.

"I got a class now, you know? I'm officially a level 1 [Martial Artist]," she said and then threw out a stray air jab.

"When we get out of here, let's have a real sparring match now that we're both on equal footing." Oscar raised an eye at her.

"You think being a level 1 [Martial Artist] is enough for us to be on equal footing? You're so stupid if that's what you think is all you'll need to knock me down a peg."" Huh?" Gita said.

"Oh, please, you know I'm much more physically gifted than… shit, uh… look out."

"What? Look out from what? Bruno is beating that things ass, we're—""[Wind Punch!]" a high-pitched voice shouted. Oscar felt a small fist of air smash into the side of his face. The force behind the punch was immense, and coupled with the fact that it had been a sucker punch… he was knocked out almost instantly upon hitting the floor. Level Increase! [Abyssal Acolyte - Level 5] New Skill Obtained! Passive Skill [Quick Creation] Obtained! When Oscar woke up, he found himself being shielded by Bruno.

The chimera was on its side, blood pooling out from around its head. Both Dan and Emily were shouting, but it wasn't until the deafening ringing in his ears died down that he was able to hear.

"He lied to me! He said someone else killed Dorian! Why would he have lied about that if Dorian had been as evil as he'd said?" Dan said.

"Perhaps because he's just a kid like you who was put in a situation where it was either him or Dorian, and that's not an easy thing to explain to someone who wasn't there," Bruno said.

"If Dorian wasn't put down, then he'd still be alive subjecting more innocents to the same terror he put the people of Ascot through."

"My Dorian would never harm anyone!" Emily hissed.

"It wasn't Dorian that you met! That must've been someone else!" On shaky feet, Oscar stood up and rubbed at his head.

"I'm sorry for lying to you Dan, but what else was I to say? If I told you the truth then you'd have surely shot me."

"How can you prove that what you say about Dorian is true?" Dan asked. If only he could make Calus appear in front of everyone and have him explain it. Then again, that'd probably cause even more problems. He could sympathize with what they were feeling. But he wouldn't let himself be punished anymore for doing what he had to.

"At the end of this dungeon there is this… thing. Its name is Peeper, and I believe that it to be the cause for corrupting Dorian," Oscar said.

"If you and Emily could give us the chance to prove it, I think you'll see the truth." Bruno narrowed his eyes at Oscar and tentatively approached him.

"How do you know this?"

"This dungeon is his creation," Oscar replied. It took a second but Bruno caught on to who he was referring to.

"He helped create this dungeon, and as a result, it's seeping in corruption. I found a… journal from him, and within it there was what I believe to be a hint about how to escape."

"Is it similar to how you brought us here?" Gita asked.

"I'm assuming that was you at least." Oscar nodded his head.

"Dan and I figured out that this place responds to our fears. When I was looming over that hole, I was afraid of the ground collapsing. Dan was afraid of these strange fiery spiders, and so, they appeared. The goblins and the chimera, were the results of us confirming our theory." Bruno let out a dramatic whine.

"I wish you two didn't injure it so badly. I hardly got to fight the damned thing. And those goblins were so weak, too…"

"Yeah, well, if I had thought about how to bring you over sooner, I wouldn't have fought that stupid monster at all."

"How did you even do that?" Dan asked. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Wasn't that hard, really. I just envisioned Bruno was in the room with us and he was coming to execute me." Both Gita and Bruno found that reasoning logical. Dan and Emily however, looked confused, but Oscar wasn't about to explain that to them. He was thankful to see that Emily had dropped her utterly pissed expression, though, he wasn't dumb enough to think she was cool with him either.

"Okay, so how do we get out of here?" Gita asked.

"I think we've all been plunged into a deep sleep. This place is very dreamlike—or I suppose it's more nightmarish. Still, I think the reason why we are able to shape this place is because we are all stuck inside a dream. Perhaps it's Peeper's dream," Oscar said.

"I was told that I wouldn't be able to see the way out until I've gone blind." Just as he expected, no one seemed to understand it either. Which to be fair, it did suck as a hint. And it was highly possible that he wasn't even going to be correct… but he felt like he knew what to do.

"From how I'm interpreting our situation and that message, I believe that if we close our eyes and explore the void between our eyes, then we should be able to find our… real selves," Oscar said.

"It sounds dumb, I know, but what do we have to lose?"

"I knocked both you and Gita out not that long ago. If your idea was true, wouldn't you have woken up already?" Emily asked.

"I don't think so," Oscar said, with a shake of his head.

"Because we believed ourselves to already have been awake before, and as a result, the illusion didn't shatter. Or something… I don't know! Why not—" Bruno clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Well, what better spot to stop and meditate than this very room? In the midst of carnage and destruction, let us achieve inner peace," he said, and then he plopped his ass down and shut his eyes. One-by-one everyone did the same. Other than Oscar, Emily was the last to do so. She kept a stern gaze locked on him, no doubt calculating if she should slit his throat or not when his eyes were closed. But she relented and did the same as everyone else.

Oscar sat down and shut his eyes, allowing himself to be swallowed up by the void that lay behind his eyelids. His weariness had already made itself known, but now with his eyes closed, it was hard to resist not falling asleep. He resisted the temptation though, and told himself he already was asleep. In his head, he tried to picture seeing himself from outside his body. It took a minute, but something was changing within the void. A tiny light appeared from afar, which gave him hope.

Within the confines of nothingness, Oscar swam towards the light. Progress felt slow, but he was making ground. What had started as a small speck of light was blossoming into something radiant and all-consuming. When he found himself on the verge of being consumed by the light, he thrust forward his spectral hands and pulled the light apart, which revealed…

Oscar's eyes opened wide and he gasped for air. A dull throbbing could be felt behind his eyes, but after a moment it had mostly faded. As he sat up from the hard surface he found himself laid down upon, he saw he was in a cell. Thankfully, the same light system was present and was turned on. The room looked pretty similar to the yellow gemstone room. Actually… now that he was really taking it all in, this was that very same room. Maybe it was a little dirtier, but that could also just be him making that up.

The sounds of rats skittering around in the darkness could be heard. That alone made this feel like the real world. The dungeon before had been damn near completely sterile aside from the combat rooms. A groan to his left made Oscar remember the others. The sound came from Emily, who was in a cell as well. Next to Emily was Gita, and to his right was Dan and Bruno. Slowly, everyone came back to reality.

"Is everyone okay?" Oscar asked. Dan replied with a loud groan.

"My head is throbbing. It's making my eyes feel like they're going to explode from the pressure."

"If this stupid oaf wasn't in between us, I could cast [Light Remedy]," Emily huffed. A sharp laugh came from Oscar's right.

"How stupid are you, girl? What sort of [Mage] can't detect magara metal? Good luck getting any spells off with this shit dampening you," Bruno said.

"Does it affect skills?" Oscar asked.

"Yes and no. Its main use is to be anti-magic. However, it's a highly durable metal, so it's going to require some strong skills to destroy it. Most people in the world would find their skills nullified by it, but technically skills could be used to destroy it," Bruno replied.

"As a result, it's an expensive fuckin' metal to get your hands on. To create cells with it and not just shackles… well, I'd be worried; that's all I can say." The sound of a fist against metal rung out through the room, causing everyone to turn and look. It was, of course, Gita. She threw out another punch, which was followed up by a curse stemming no doubt from the pain.

"Gita, calm down. Brute force isn't going to break us out," Oscar said.

"Bruno, do you think [Erasure] would—" a door that was out of their sight slammed open and banged against the wall, shutting off the lights in the process. Before Oscar could see who had entered, he first smelt them. The smell was rancid, completely unlike anything he'd ever had the misfortune of smelling before. It was like a body that had been decomposing out in the Arizona heat for centuries. The lights flashed back on revealing their visitor. Oscar recoiled in both disgust and surprise.

Falling back against the wall of his cell, he watched in horror as the creature paced by. Composed of almost exclusively eyes, there was no doubt that this was Peeper. Peeper was a hulking mass with eyes littering its body. There were so many eyes that they often overlapped one another. Each eye was a different color, almost all having sickly coloration in the sclera. Pus was dripping out for the outer eyes as well as the ones that were buried. Not all eyes seemed to be human either.

Long, skinny arms stretched out for Peeper's torso, but each arm wasn't parallel with the other. It had disgusting untrimmed nails that looked sharp. The legs were warped as if its legs had been broken but never repaired. Oscar couldn't see a mouth, but to his horror, Peeper spoke.

"Wake? Awake? How awake? Not right… not ready… not ripe," it muttered in a warbled voice that sounded congested with phlegm. Peeper's eyes flicked around wildly for a few moments, before they all looked towards Dan's cell.

"Close, almost ready. Ready enough? Ripe enough… have to try. Try one? Try one." Nothing that Peeper was saying was making any sense. Although that wasn't too surprising giving how grotesque it looked. Dan was cowering at the back of his cell, his voice becoming increasingly frantic. As Peeper coiled its hand around the bars of Dan's cell, Emily let out a shriek, followed by a spell." Get away from him! [Wind Repulse!]," she screamed… but nothing happened. Peeper placed all of its eyes on Emily.

"Silly! Silly, silly, silly!" it cackled.

"No work! Watch, Emi, watch!"

"E-Emi… only few people call me that… how do you…" she trailed off. However Peeper knew that name, it didn't seem too interested in sharing. Instead it slotted in one of its nails into the key hole and opened Dan's cell. With a burst of speed, it lunged forward, throwing its large body into the cell alongside Dan. Pus dripped and fell on the poor man's face. Oscar had to do something.

"[Erasure]," he said and aimed it at the cell's bars. Unlike Emily's spell, he was erasing the bars. But just as Bruno had said, the magara metal was dense and refused to be completely wiped away. It was slow progress, but he had to keep going. All he needed was a hole big enough to climb out of." Stop! Leave me alone!" Dan screamed as he poked one of Peeper's many eyes. Peeper was seemingly unaffected by the futile attack and continued.

"Which one? Left more potent… Right not as ripe. Yes, yes, left, left. Little appetizer! I've earned it!" Peeper said in a giddy tone. Then it backhanded Dan to shut him up and gripped his whole head with one hand. Peeper, using its free hand, brought those jagged and long nails closer and closer to Dan's left eye. All watched in horror as Peeper sunk its index and thumb nail underneath Dan's eye… and plucked the eye out. Dan let out a cry of pure anguish, which contrasted against Peeper's happy mutterings.

Oscar tried to push his skill even further, but still, his progress was so minuscule. He was simply too weak to save Dan. Peeper brought Dan's stolen eye to its palm, and Oscar saw that there was a hole that looked to be perfectly eye shaped. Placing the eye inside the hole, after a second it got sucked down deep within to wherever it led to.

"Still good! Wish was better, but still good! So much fear you've experienced! Come with me! Me help other eye reach full potential! Then you see better! New eyes, new realities!" Peeper said and dragged an unconscious Dan out by his leg.

"Others wake up too soon… Me come back later after consulted with Father… Yes, Father knows answer! Bye bye!" it said, like it was child as it pulled Dan towards the door it had came in from. Silence enveloped everyone. No one able to understand what had just happened. Or… almost everyone.

"That's a freaky little fucker," Bruno said.

"Oscar, why didn't you just use your skill on the floor and dig your way out? Weird choice to use it on the magara bars, but oh well, you live and you learn, I suppose," he said with a yawn.

"Get serious now and break us out of here already, we got a thousand-eyed freak to kill in order to escape, it seems."