'…Challenge?'
Zarvian had no intent to accept the challenge in a suspicion of two matters.
He's surprisingly precise even though he's got nothing to lose.
Firstly, the sudden appearance of the challenge in a place like this was unsettling.
Challenges were created by a system in an area with active wild creatures to kill, meaning that the monster was inside the church.
Secondly, there's always a reward, and base information in the description.
But, this challenge had nothing!
Zarvian had made up his mind quickly.
It was hard to care about anything else when he had a whole town to explore.
Without hesitating much, Zarvian declined the challenge and turned away, heading toward the southwestern church.
Rain hammered the ruins relentlessly.
Still, Zarvian preferred the storm to the scorching sun. He was feeling much better.
While he was walking toward the church, Zarvian felt an extreme feeling of danger.
His enhancement [Survival instinct] had activated.
This attribute allowed him to sense any dangers that could kill him.
He looked around, carefully checking his surroundings for a potential threat.
He even checked under his feet.
But, nothing seemed to threaten him.
Except he had no shoes, his armor didn't provide him with shoes.
That, however, was not the issue. Walking without shoes would not kill him.
Yet the feeling was continuously growing every second.
Finally, he started to notice something.
Turns out, it might actually be his feet!
The sand felt weird, as if it was breathing.
His feet must have lost their senses.
'You killed me last time, are you feeling guilty now?'
A thunderclap tore through the sky, loud enough to make Zarvian flinch.
Luckily, that thunder struck Zarvian back to his senses.
His feet must be in perfect shape, and the sand didn't feel like an illusion at all.
So, the ground was actually breathing,
"No…"
he murmured
"…it's shaking."
Just as he thought, the thunder struck again.
Zarvian instinctively looked back, and fear washed through his entire body.
The geo beast was approaching, really fast.
It looked even more enraged than before. The tail swings mimicked loud thunder.
"This bastard again?"
He gulped hard
"How did it even locate me?"
Zarvian turned away, and began sprinting towards the church.
Hardening his grip, getting ready to cut the door open.
The ground felt a lot more unstable with every step.
He looked back once again, the beast was already close, less than half a minute away.
However, Zarvian managed to arrive at the church much faster than the charging beast.
Without slowing down, he stabbed the handle.
Fortunately, it sank in.
His eyes widened
This church wasn't protected by magic!
Without hesitation, he bashed the door open, and rolled in.
He then continued to roll, roll, and roll. He couldn't stop,
Zarvian was currently rolling down a long staircase. Heading deep underground.
'Argh…!'
He forcefully shifted his upper body sideways, stopping the roll completely.
The pain of his head and back rippled through him. He wouldn't be surprised if he cracked a few bones
His eyes fluttered open.
Strangely, the first thing he noticed was, light?
A lantern burned on the wall.
...
That was an actual sign of life. The pain quickly disappeared.
Looking around, he noticed that he had rolled down so deep, there wasn't even a glimmer of light from where he had fallen.
He detached the lantern from the wall, and continued to explore deeper.
Zarvian had no business going back to the beast above.
His danger sense weakened noticeably as he descended.
More lanterns lined the passage, but he kept his one just in case.
The deeper he went, the labyrinth started to look much more polished, as if someone had been maintaining them regularly.
The air grew cold. A strange scent crept through his nose.
He was familiar with this smell, but couldn't pinpoint what it was.
...
After walking for a while, he memorized it.
It was a smell of rotten blood.
Zarvian had encountered that smell enough times already as a kid.
For a brief moment, it felt as if he just dived through his memories, the ability always toyed with his mind recklessly, even when he was young.
He steadied and cleared his mind before moving on.
Not long after, he came across a door. Neatly polished stone door.
The sword was no use, and his shoulder wasn't built for stone either.
So he did the most humane thing he could think of,
he simply knocked on the door.
There was only silence before a fierce sense of danger surged through him.
His eyes widened
Zarvian took a few steps back, deciding if he should run right away or not.
Before he could decide, the door opened.
Surprisingly, the danger sense disappeared as well.
Zarvian froze for a moment,
In front of him, was a man with dark hair, and brown eyes, pushing his twenties.
"Greetings, friend."
A handsome man with straight hair that could reach his eyes.
Much taller than Zarvian himself, he even had to bend down a bit to show his face entirely.
He was in good shape, extremely good even.
Zarvian didn't lower his guard, nor did he return the greeting.
"…Friend?" Zarvian replied, his voice cautious
The strange man smiled,
"Yes. A guest, at least. I do not get many visitors down here"
A thin line of blood slipped from his nose, he wiped it casually.
"Sorry about that" the man added "it happens sometimes"
"What are you?" Zarvian asked, his eyes narrow
The man froze for a heartbeat then smiled once again.
"I'm a human, of course"
Zarvian didn't believe him, not even a bit. His fingers tightened around the lantern,
"You live here?"
The man answered with a soft laugh
"Live is a big word. I stay. That is all."
"You must be exhausted," he continued,
"You look like someone who has walked a very long way."
Another drop of blood fell as he spoke
Zarvian's eyes flicked briefly to the blood, then back to the man's face.
There was silence once again. This time, it was much thicker.
"Come inside," the man said, stepping aside and gesturing past the door.
"You are safe here" he added
A lot of thoughts began to clash in Zarvian's mind.
After thinking for about a dozen seconds, Zarvian accepted the offer, and walked inside.
The house was modest for a single man. It was just one big room.
The ceiling was high enough to feel breathable, but not grand.
There was a narrow bed, two chairs and a single table with a huge map spread across it.
Zarvian didn't notice any dust in the place. It seemed the strange man was very clean.
His gaze lingered on the map.
"What do you do here?" Zarvian asked, placing the lantern on the table.
A strange man followed his gaze to the map.
"I plan to leave" he simply said.
But, that was not a simple statement for Zarvian.
"Leave? …to where?'
He frowned at the table. The map was much different than any map he had ever seen.
There was an ocean, and another land beyond the ocean.
He had been taught the borders of this land were absolute, nothing exists beyond them.
'How did you find this map?'
Zarvian thought, or at least, he thought he asked it out loud.
The man's eyes met his, it was calm and patient.
"I found it in one of the labyrinths. It was here long before either of us"
'Labyrinths? Does every church have one?'
The words repeated in his mind, he had wandered alone for too long.
Too long to even notice when he had stopped speaking.
Zarvian thought for a moment, "You're planning to cross the ocean?"
He asked slowly, unsure he understood.
The man nodded.
"Yes. Far beyond. Lands where people live differently, where beasts have not destroyed everything."