chapter 40

The cauldron of mysterious green liquid was still bubbling away in the middle of the camp. Curiosity piqued, QiLeren leaned over for a look and was immediately hit by an overwhelming odour; this was not mere food poisoning level but straight up murder. The giants truly lived a hard life if this was their main cuisine…

QiLeren carefully surveyed his surroundings again. The corpses around him were ravaged to the point where he would be hard-pressed to identify them as human remains. Aside from what little bone and flesh were left after the wolves’ feeding, the remaining scraps had been thrown into the pot. He heaved a heavy sigh – he didn’t even know if they were NPCs or players, though it was far too late for such questions to be pondered anymore. Toeing hesitantly at the edge of the cave, QiLeren tried to peek into the darkness and could just make out the vague reflection of light on water, likely rainwater gathering on the concave cave floor.

Something was watching him.

QiLeren’s eyes flickered to the system messages, keen senses sharpened by equipping “Rain-Day Laundry”; there were two out of three uses left for the skill, with the missing use having been deducted when the wolves approached. Seeing as the number hasn’t gone down, perhaps he wasn’t in danger after all?

Could it be LuYouxin? No, her presence felt slightly different…

Given the darkness inside, waiting out the cooldown for S/L at the entrance was probably better option compared to entering the cave immediately, which could potentially leave him vulnerable to unforeseen attacks. It wasn’t until nightfall that he set foot into the cave, having filled his stomach and regained his strength.

The interior, finally illuminated with a lantern he had bought from Eventide, was larger than he had thought. Light glancing off the ankle-deep water brought an eerie air to the cave.

Something could easily rush out of the darkness in the next second, QiLeren thought, something dangerous. Faced with lurking unknown danger, some degree of fear and apprehension was to be expected – though the fact that his goddess might also be in there brought peace to his heart.

No, hold on, was he doomed to rely on pretty girls to save him from danger forever?! And it’s already happened multiple times! Where was his value as a person?

The underground cave was immensely large. Now past the shallow water, QiLeren found himself once again standing on dry land. Stalactites dripped from the stone walls around him, blending into the murky darkness beyond his lantern. The dim lighting made navigation difficult as he continued his venture deeper into the cave, which seemed to almost stretch endlessly downwards.

Just how deep was this cave? And where was the tower?

The deeper QiLeren ventured, the more on edge he felt. The crushing void threatened to swallow him up with each echoing step he took, silent and oppressing around his single light source. Beyond the faint light were shadowy gazes that whispered soundlessly amongst themselves.

Something snapped with a sharp sound, and QiLeren looked to his feet. He had stepped on a blanched bone, brittle from the passage of time and easily broken with gentle pressure. Perhaps it was once an animal, or perhaps…

QiLeren lifted the lantern and strained to project the light further. He squinted into the murky distance with the help of its feeble rays, eyes suddenly widening –

Before him, in the boundless void, he could make out a sea of ashy white bone – layers upon layers, piled upon one another to form a vast ocean below the ground with no end in sight. Phantom ghost fires danced through the air like jellyfish underwater, glowing an unearthly, fluorescent green. The soft rays did nothing to illuminate the darkness, rather adding a touch of psychedelic eeriness.

QiLeren felt ice crawling up his spine; this was a graveyard of bones. Just how many living creatures were buried here?

A gust of cold wind blew from underground, bringing with it a rancid, rotten odour. QiLeren tugged the gifted coat tighter around himself as a full-body shiver washed over him, the other hand subconsciously reaching for the dagger SuHe had given him before remembering that he had run out of card slots. Instead, the dagger equipped was an ordinary one.

The amount of bone only increased with QiLeren’s venture deeper into the cave. Some looked to be the remains of wild animals, while others were more difficult to identify; QiLeren was fairly sure he had seen a fang as long and thick as his arm. He couldn’t begin to guess at what kind of animal that might have belonged to, or even if it was a creature that existed on earth at all. Perhaps it was native to this world, like the giant outside the cave.

Despite having prepared himself, QiLeren was nevertheless taken aback when he reached a skeleton at least ten metres long with a skull that was bigger than his entire body and two massive, jagged wings, likely to have belonged to a colossal dragon. It must have cut an impressive figure before its death. Now, however, reduced to crumbling bone half-buried under the earth, just one in the sea of others just like it, it was hard to envision its past majesty.

The needling prick of an unwelcome gaze drew QiLeren out of his stupor. Pretending to not have noticed, he made a show of being drawn to the skeleton and observed the entrance out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, a pale shadow flashed past behind the stalactite – a person who had followed him, now hidden quietly there.

QiLeren could feel his heart pound in his chest at this mysterious stranger of unknown intentions who had tailed him the entire way. There was no way to tell if she was a friend or enemy, and he wasn’t about to wait for her to reveal herself.

Caution, and pre-emption. QiLeren considered his options, then calmly walked on as if nothing had happened.

There were several forks in the road before him, each winding to their own destination. He picked one to enter, then turned off the lantern as he turned a corner and pressed himself against the wall to await his shadow.

Darkness enveloped his surroundings save for the faint glow of moss on the rock walls, without which he would be entirely blind. In the silence, QiLeren could hear only the sound of his own quietened breathing and the pitter patter of water, dripping from the ceiling onto the ground with faint echoing plops.

Dampened footsteps drew closer and closer to his hiding spot; the person was approaching with caution and lingering delay. The dim lighting brought her some difficulty, he concluded when he heard the tell-tale sound of her tripping on a rock, and she likely had no real way of seeing in the dark.

If that was the case… QiLeren reconsidered his options and came up with a better course of action. Dagger gripped in one hand, he placed a hand on the switch of the lantern. As soon as the footsteps reached him, he turned the lantern on and tossed it into the corner towards her–

In the blinding light, his shadow let out a low cry as QiLeren pinned her to the ground, icy blade of the dagger resting against her throat and just shy of drawing blood. It was only then that he finally opened his eyes fully, identifying the girl beneath him with astonishment, “Anna?!”

It was Anna, the NPC on the carriage with him.

Now recovered from the makeshift flash bomb QiLeren had thrown at her, Anna started sobbing in horror. “Are you going to kill me too?” she asked tearfully. “I don’t want to die… I just want to go home! Please, please, I’m begging you, please don’t kill me!”

“Why were you tailing me?” QiLeren asked, frowning.

“I…I’m scared…someone wants to kill me, I’m scared you want to kill me too, but I don’t want to die…” Frightened tears welled up in her emerald eyes and streamed down her cheeks. “I don’t know where to run…”

“Where’s Elle?”

“I don’t know… We got separated while we were running away.” Anna tried to curl into herself, eyeing the dagger against her neck with panic.

Finally at ease, QiLeren withdrew his dagger. “You should go outside, it’s not safe in here. The forest is very big and it’s easy to hide from people there.”

“Okay, I’ll go right away,” Anna said, still quivering as she walked towards the entrance.

Watching her retreating figure, QiLeren suddenly felt as if something was not quite right, and that something was going to happen if he let the girl go off alone like this. “Wait,” he called, picking up his lantern and jogging to catch up with her, “I’ll walk with you. It’s too dark in here.”

Anna’s pallid face gave way to a grateful smile. “That’s very kind of you, thank you…”

The two walked through the winding tunnels of the cave side by side, returning once again to the graveyard of bones. To combat the oppressive silence around them, QiLeren grasped for a topic of conversation. “How did you get chosen for the ritual?” he asked.

Tears started welling up in Anna’s eyes again. “I don’t know…” she mumbled. “The emblem just appeared on my hand one day, then I got taken away and locked up. Some girls ran away, but I was too scared and…and got taken here…”

Elle did mention that six girls had run away. Two of them must have been where the emblems on his and his goddess’ hands came from. “One ritual every three years… Are there that many young girls in the few villages around here?”

Anna blinked. “Some girls get kidnapped from other places. Aren’t you one of them?”

If he were to consider the setting of the quest, then the six players were probably the sacrifices who got kidnapped from other places indeed. He hummed vaguely in lieu of answering, and asked–

[Rain-Day Laundry] Remaining uses: 1/3.

Shit!

QiLeren reacted on instinct, dropping the lantern and diving to the side in a flash, uncaring of the broken bones they had been wading through. A sharp wind glanced past his body but failed to cleave him in two.

Blood flowed freely from a cut on his forehead as QiLeren struggled to push himself up, sharp pains wracking his body and vision dyed a bloody crimson. “Damn,” Anna sighed delicately, tone frosty as the sabre-staff in her hand, “you’re a lot more on guard than I thought.”

Taking in the sabre-staff that had appeared out of thin air, QiLeren finally knew why something had always seemed off about Anna. This person was never an NPC – from the very beginning, she was just a player pretending to be one!