We took nearly three hours in killing monsters till the rest of the team returned. Once they reached us, Grendy said with rapid breaths:
“It’s better to move now, the whole village is boiling up against you.”
I expected the players to be mad at me, but from his tone I felt that I underestimated this danger. Shin asked first:
“What happened there?”
“There are some players who claim to be from other novice villages. They are instigating everyone against Agatha, as she invited them here and made them lose a lot of time in vain.
They are trying to gather a lot of players and search for Agatha,” Mony explained while she was trying to catch her breath. Shin looked to me in concern as he said:
“I expected them to act, but not this fast.”
“Me too, it seems they were ready for this.”
Goda interrupted our talk as he asked:
“Who are you referring to?”
I looked to him while replying:
“Who else? The aristocratic players, they are the ones behind all this chaos.”
Goda said again:
“It doesn’t matter now, when we left the village this group of players were ready to move out. Someone had told them a tip about your leveling places, so they are heading straight to here.”
I felt this kind of strange, no one had ever seen me before while I was leveling. I doubted Respon, but if he was dumb then he would do that immediately after my talk to him. I suspected the presence of an assassin around us. That was more logic, a hidden assassin could monitor us silently and deliver our info to everyone.
“There might be an assassin nearby, so we better hurry,” I looked to Shin as I said this. Shin’s eyes shone while he took out his key as he said:
“Gather up beside me, I believe this key would deliver us directly to the dungeon.”
We all gathered up at the same time we heard a noise coming from far. I didn’t need to turn and see behind my back, as I guessed the cause of this noise.
They were the players who came to kill me. I didn’t feel panic, though, as I used to deal with people trying to kill me in wars. I checked my mates’ expressions, all were nervous except for Shin, who wasn’t concerned with these players like me.
Before they could reach us, the key shone brightly as its light engulfed us and then vanished. We vanished with the light, leaving this place with its threats.
When I opened my eyes, I found a wide rocky corridor with some torches lighting it up. We were underground, as most places were in the dark. Without these torches, I couldn’t see anything. Shin moved slowly while he wrote in the team chat:
‘Don’t make a sound, this place looked dangerous. I will scout up ahead, you keep moving behind me from a distance. Be ready to support me at any time.’
Shin moved slowly with great caution up ahead. I looked at his back; this damn swordsman sometimes could act cool. After he moved for tens of meters, we started to follow. The more we walked in that corridor, the more I felt it was like a huge tunnel underground.
For nearly half an hour, we didn’t meet any monsters, which was weird. As far as I recall, Shin explained dungeons before to me.
We should have met some monsters a long time back, but I didn’t express my thoughts and doubts. Everyone was already very tense like they were walking directly into an ambush.
‘Get ready, I hear some noise from the front.’
Shin suddenly sent this in the team chat. I looked up ahead, but I couldn’t hear anything. Shin was nearly 100 meters away from us, so he might hear something we didn’t hear.
We just moved for a few more meters, when everything around us changed at once. Huge blue eyes appeared from the two sides of us. The eyes were as huge as a sun in the sky, but it was more brutal. Once they appeared, I felt a shiver deep in my spine.
I had never felt this fear in my life. The creature that owned the eyes moved to let his body be visible to us under a sudden light that emerged from the place. We were still in the tunnel, but its roof had been removed.
That creature’s body was like a huge mountain, with three huge heads, each with giant jaws that could chew the rocky tunnel we came from easily like a soft jelly.
“Oh, some weak humans dare to intrude my water kingdom? You are really courageous.”
I swallowed my dry throat slowly as I said in the team chat:
‘Shin, move back slowly. We need to retreat immediately; this monster is way above our league.’
Everyone’s body jolted awake from the shock they felt. Shin moved slowly retreating while the others began to retreat without pause.
“Oh, you want to escape? Interesting, I never let anyone see my mighty self and live to tell the story.”
Suddenly, I felt like death had trapped me in its clutches. Few encounters in my life had given me such a feeling, so I screamed at the chat:
‘Run, Run for your lives.’
I didn’t stop for a second as I moved with my utmost speed back inside the visible end of the tunnel. I glanced over my shoulder, that hideous monster had raised over 10 huge octopus-like arms as it was prepared to kill us.
Shin, who was the farthest one, was already nearing the team. We only needed five seconds to reach the tunnel, but I doubted we could reach that tunnel safely. I gritted my teeth as my war experience helped me to think rationally.
I glanced at Shin; he seemed in panic like others and couldn’t help me here. He was the one with the longest absolute defense skill, but he wasn’t in shape right now. That left me as the second best option and the only practical one.
I slowed my speed a little as I fixed my eyes over these long huge pillars that were about to descend like apocalypse over our heads. Snad passed by me as my actions caught his attention. He wasn’t the only one who noticed my deceleration, as all did.
After Snad, Mony passed then Heda, and then Goda. Who remained back there were our tank, Grendy, and Shin. They only needed two seconds to reach the tunnel opening which I already reached, but I didn’t enter.
I stood there motionless, raising my spear in a challenge towards that indomitable monster. The two only needed two seconds, but that monster didn’t wait. Its 15 huge arms descended like whips of death towards our heads. My heart beats accelerated, but my head was clear like a calm lake.
“Gravity skill.”
