Death, gravity and even fate itself always had an unholy level of obsession with and sotis I genuinely wondered what I did to deserve so much cosmic attention when I couldn't even return a polite smile.
And as I kept falling into a pit whose bottom politely refused to exist, my thoughts wandered further and further toward those clingy cosmic entities.
It had been half an hour since I started falling and neither did I land sowhere nor did so Eldritch bastard jump in screaming peekaboo in front of .
What the hell is this?
Where was I even falling?
And more importantly, which new bitch fell for my charms this ti?
Because let's be honest, whenever reality starts acting weird around , it's usually because so higher existence decided I looked interesting enough to ruin their evening.
The thought looped again and again before sothing finally shifted.
Gravity ca back in all its glory as I finally saw sothing glowing far below and yeah, after falling for that long, letting physics have its way with would have turned into abstract art made from my own blood. So, I summoned one of my cards and flicked it towards the ground while imbuing a part of my consciousness in it to match the timing.
The mont I was close to the ground, my card activated the [Magician] effect and my body was engulfed in a green fla before I reappeared near the ground.
Splash.
My feet landed in shallow water, barely reaching my ankles.
I straightened slowly, taking a deep breath.
"…Nice."
The water glowed in a fluorescent crimson colour, glowing faintly as if it was alive.
Ignoring it for now, I turned my attention to the dark cave I found myself in and except for the glowing pond, there was no other source of light, making it difficult to see anything properly while the hole I had entered through was sealed shut as if it never existed in the first place.
I could hear a soft voice of sothing tallic hitting sothing in a consistent rhythm, as a soft echo reverberated into the cave but that wasn't the only sound I heard as a sound of giggles of a child followed.
"Heheheh~"
My expression stiffened almost imdiately as the laughter sounded mischievous but at the sa ti deeply familiar.
"You are finally here, big bro…"
The voice was unmistakable.
Winter.
The boy I had t inside the loops and the one who had awakened . His voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once, impossible to pin down.
"My father is waiting for you~" he continued, cheerfully. "But before that, you need to get past those bad monsters… good luck, big bro."
"Winter, is that you?" I asked but the voice didn't reply again.
Tsk…
There was no point chasing confirmation because if it really was him, I would find out soon enough and honestly I didn't have much choice either as except the way where sound was coming from, there was no other exit and then there was a particularly familiar presence I was feeling from that direction.
So, with a smirk, I moved in the direction the sound felt like it ca from. If trouble was coming either way, I might as well face it with a smile.
—
It didn't take long for the trouble to show itself because after barely a few minutes of walking, I ca across my first monster.
It was a disgusting abomination, a monster with a gigantic, muscular body and a single crimson eye in the centre of its head.
A cyclops…
The fuck?
This wasn't an ordinary monster, this was a fucking alien in this world, part of one of the species under the Allied Sovereign Species.
"Hey, buddy, are you in there?" I asked cautiously because no matter how ugly they were, they possessed imnse physical strength.
A newborn Cyclops could beat the shit out of an E-Ranker with a single hit and the one standing before clearly looked like an adult, aning it had at least the strength of a C-Ranker…
And since these monsters didn't use mana and relied purely on physical strength, I doubted they were nerfed much like the others.
"Googa googa."
The monster muttered but I understood the aning imdiately as my myth allowed to comprehend most languages.
He was practically saying, "I'm going to crush you, puny but very, very handso human, for my freedom." The words might not have been the sa but sentint was sure as hell was that.
And without any further talk, it started charging toward , its massive fists swinging straight for my head in the already narrow cave.
There was no room to dodge. So I summoned my and threw one behind the monster, teleporting there instantly. In the sa motion, I used my martial art [Voidpulse Kick] to deliver a devastating kick to its head while increasing the gravity around it with my skill.
The shockwave exploded, making the cave rumble slightly but that bastard didn't even flinch as it glared at angrily.
"Googa tooga."
It said sothing along the lines of, "The puny human is fast and annoying."
But for what it was worth, I wasn't fast, it was this bastard who was just slow. Their kind traded speed and the ability to use mana permanently for their ridiculous strength after all.
It turned around and attacked again as I teleported behind it once more but this ti I hurled one of my cards straight toward its head, hoping it would pierce through but nope, nothing happened as the card bounced back.
What the hell did these bastards eat to get so sturdy?
That dumb bastard turned around at turtle speed again, trying to grab in the similar fashion as before but this ti, I didn't move and instead, I hurled my card straight for its big ugly eye.
It barely dodged as the card stabbed straight through.
"Guahhhhhhhh!!!!!"
It scread but the card was too shallow to burst. So I sent another card flying, letting it hover just above the first, before teleporting myself straight in front of it and unleashing a kick at the edge of the card.
The monster, already crying out in pain, scread even louder as my card drove deeper into its eye. It started thrashing wildly before one of its massive hands slamd hard into my chest and before I could even react, I was hurled backward, crashing into the cave wall with a deafening thud.
The stone wall behind cracked as I coughed up so blood.
CRACK!!
I could even hear the sound of several bone cracking echoing through my body but I was still smiling, because my card was exactly where I wanted it to be…
I shielded my body and muttered, "Explode." And imdiately, the Tower effect of my card activated before detonating as the monster stopped mid-scream before its head burst into a ss of blood and brain matter, splattering across the cave ceiling.
I was a bit far from the ss but the sight was still no less ugly.
I pulled out a healing potion from my storage ring and gulped it down in one go.
Damn, that attack was brutal.
Next ti I fight one of them, I definitely shouldn't get hit because it hurts like hell.
I made a ntal note, though I doubted I would need to fight one again anyti soon. These bastards were far too rare and even in the novel, Noah had barely encountered them once and never fought any, since they were usually peaceful creatures… unlike this one, which had tried to crush the mont it laid eyes on .
—
After waiting for half an hour and taking an ample amount of rest, I started walking again. Thankfully, this ti it didn't look like I would encounter any trouble as I had been walking for nearly a few hours and most of the monsters I ca across were Slis or Goblins, while the sound of sothing hamring was steadily growing closer.
But of course, I had to jinx myself.
The mont I thought there wouldn't be any problems, the worst kind of trouble I could encounter appeared and not just one, but three of them.
"The Grafted Hunger…?"
My old best friend and the one that had nearly killed back in the Forest of Unmasked stood before in a twisted reunion. Naturally, these weren't the exact monsters I had faced back then but they were still no less the sa disgusting kind.
"You've got to be kidding …"
And there were three of them. Countless eyes embedded across their bodies slowly shifted toward , while the mouths scattered over their flesh began making all kinds of unsettling noises.
But thankfully, this ti, I wasn't as weak.
I was immune to their corruption and I had sothing I could use to defeat them with ease.
A smirk spread across my face as I summoned my affinity, Arcane Jestfire. A green-coloured fireball ford in my hand as I looked at the monsters with that sa smirk. My flas were especially effective against corruption-based creatures, carrying a slight purification effect thanks to all my myths.
Without any hesitation, I hurled the fireball at one of them. It consud a bit more mana than usual but I wasn't touching those disgusting creatures ever again in my life even if I was immune to their corruption now.
Unlike normal sentient beings who could have dodged my fireball with ease, these monsters didn't have the slightest sense of self-preservation. It actually tried attacking the fla itself.
My fire latched onto its body cheerfully before erupting and engulfing it entirely. anwhile, its two "friends" also attacked it, mistaking the burning mass for an enemy, only for my flas to latch onto them as well.
I poured nearly all my mana into it, pushing the fire to burn as hot as possible. Within a second, the monsters were reduced to piles of ash, my flas dancing over their remains for a short while before slowly fading away.
anwhile, my mana was nearly depleted.
Honestly, I was starting to take this cave trip more like a vacation than trouble. The closer I got to the source of the sound, the more I understood who it was and I could even feel a familiar presence, one I could never forget chilling there and that alone told that the one who had called here definitely wasn't hostile.
And even if they were hostile, I couldn't do shit for now but, it wasn't like I didn't have ways out if things went south. Still, I hoped I wouldn't need to use it as that would be quite disadvantageous for in the long run.
So I rested and took my sweet ti recovering my mana completely because there was no way in hell I was going without my mana completely full.
—
Finally, after resting for nearly an hour, my mana was completely recovered and I started moving toward the sound.
It didn't take long before I finally reached the place it was coming from. A massive door stood there, slightly ajar and through the gap, I caught sight of the scene beyond.
A man dressed in plain blacksmith clothes repeatedly hamred a sword, the strikes falling in a steady and unchanging rhythm. Beside him sat a small child with completely white eyes, Winter, watching the process with barely contained excitent.
As if sensing my presence, the man finally stopped, his brown eyes turning toward before he spoke in a soft yet commanding voice. "Co in, Young Trickster."
I decided to enter the room, because I now knew who this man was and who the child was and just understanding that much made my body relax, knowing there was very little chance of getting killed for now but before I could relax completely, my gaze fell on the third being in the room.
The familiar presence I had been feeling ever since I entered the cave…
… it was none other than,
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