Everyone was surprised, but they had already resigned themselves to the fact that what the player was attempting was simply impossible by any standard.
Besides, they were already in a rough enough position as it was — having to fight elental creatures one on one while they were nowhere near awakening yet.
"Yeah, let’s go kill so more creatures. We can’t afford to let these little distractions throw us off.
There’s no event happening anyti soon, and while we’re standing here, Levon, Draven, and the rest are still leading with their system stones — so unless you want to get killed soon, co on, let’s get back to work." Soone shouted at his friends, who were still staring hard at the system ssages.
His friends casually closed their system interface and followed him back into the forest. After all, he was right.
The rest of the crowd gradually began to disperse. What the boy had said was the truth — they had to focus on what really mattered.
Most went to explore the vast starter’s village, while others headed straight into the forest.
*******
Levon staggered into the third chamber, and almost imdiately his knees nearly buckled.
Standing inside the village he grew up in was his mother.
Levon didn’t know what to say. Everything looked real. He turned around but couldn’t find the exit anymore — it was only the endless stretch of the village continuing in every direction.
Levon stared hard at the figure before him.
"Co on, your al is getting cold," the voice rang out from the woman’s mouth as she gestured for him to co inside the cottage.
Levon was lost in the illusion. This woman moved exactly like his mother — every gesture, every little word, even the way she swayed. Everything was the sa.
He knew she wasn’t real, but the grief that hit him was worse now that he could see her.
His mother had died in his arms, and there had been nothing he could do about it.
Tears left his eyes as her last words ca back to him.
*"Co on, my boy, stop crying. I know you will make proud whether I am here or not."* Those words kept resurfacing.
The smile on her face as she spoke.
Her warm hands on his face.
The blood that ca out of her mouth as she struggled to say those last words.
But Levon couldn’t give in. He knew deep down this woman was not his mother. It was an illusion, and he knew it.
After a mont, Levon made up his mind and bit down on the sa spot he always had to bring himself back to his senses.
But to his surprise, nothing happened. The world around him didn’t change.
"Co on, Sunny, don’t hurt yourself like that. What’s wrong?" The woman ca rushing toward Levon, her deep blue eyes full of worry.
Levon was still in a daze, but he pushed the grief aside. The sense of running out of ti was still very real, and he could feel it pressing down on him.
Not to ntion how much he had already unraveled since arriving in this cursed place.
An idea ca to Levon. He looked at the woman before him one last ti before finally making up his mind.
He imdiately took his venomous sword and drove it into his wounded skin, and instantly an intense pain tore through his entire body.
The poison had begun to take effect imdiately.
The image of his mother and the village vanished from his sight.
"Noooo — no — what the hell — no." Levon couldn’t help but cry out. He knew she was fake, but he still didn’t want to accept it.
The pain was excruciating, but Levon pushed forward anyway. The adrenaline was still surging through his body.
He knew that if he wasn’t fast enough, the poison was going to kill him before he could even finish the quest.
With that thought, he imdiately lunged toward the stone lying on the floor.
But just before he could reach it, a massive creature ca out of nowhere. It looked like a gorilla, only far bigger.
Before Levon could even react, its foot ca crashing down on the crystal and shattered it.
Levon froze, watching in pure shock. He had been too far away when the creature appeared and couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
The look on Levon’s face was pure rage. Before the creature could even turn to attack, Levon had already bolted toward it and severed its head clean from its body.
The poison in his body seed to hold off in that mont, but the instant the creature dropped dead, he crouched down beside the shattered crystal.
He held the pieces in his hands as though there was still so way he could put them back together.
The pain in his body kept rising, his nerves burning from the inside out — yet he couldn’t let go.
"There has to be a way. This can’t be the end," Levon thought as he stared at the broken pieces in his palms.
Almost imdiately, Levon took his sword and cut through his flesh again. A fresh jolt of pain tore through him and he fell flat on the floor, recoiling — but when he looked up, the shattered crystal still lay there, untouched.
The dead body of the creature lay beside it, equally undisturbed.
Levon couldn’t believe it. He had been convinced he was still hallucinating, but even after cutting himself a second ti, he was still seeing the sa thing.
Did that an this was real? Did that an he had already reached his end before he had even truly begun?
Just as he was trying to make sense of the situation, sothing finally clicked. When he entered the third chamber, the pain in his hands had no longer been enough to pull him out of the hallucination — so he had needed his sword to force a deeper pain.
So maybe he just needed to feel even more than that. Maybe after pushing further, the entire hallucination would finally break.
Levon was ready to take that risk — after all, if he didn’t, he was going to die either way. He imdiately raised his sword...
To be continued.
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