Chapter 24: Inscriptions; The tale of the silver apes and the dragons

Xander used his system to activate his magic fire. At that moment he felt a shock in his brain and new information coming to him.

"It works with imagination, and Mana." Xander mumbled as he imagined a flame above his palm as he stretched it forth.

He felt something moving inside him towards his palm but he chose to ignore it.

In that moment a bright blue flame lit up on his palm, illuminating the surroundings. It was very beautiful but Xander had no time to admire it's beauty as he braced himself and began walking into the tunnel.

[You have activated magic flames. 1 mana point will be consumed per minute.]

Xander read through the screen as he continued walking.

After a few minutes of walking Xander looked back and saw that he has walked hundreds of metres away from the entrance of the tunnel.

Even with the flame in his hand he still couldn't see the end of the tunnel. It was like the tunnel had no end and went on for kilometers.

Xander let out a sigh as he continued down the path.

*Crack!*

A cracking sound came from beneath Xander and he looked down to see that he has reached a sandy area, the rocky floor was no more and he was now at area where sand spread out.

He moved backwards and looked down at what he stepped on.

Xander's brows furrowed immediately he saw what looked like a broken human skull.

'The fuck?' He thought in confusion.

He actually broke a human skull with his leg. That was enough for Xander to be less scared as he was now sure that his strength has improved by leaps and bounds.

'But how did a human get here?' He questioned and raised his magic flame up.

He increased the amount of Mana he used and the light brightend and raged more as it got bigger and still floated a few centimeters over Xander's palm.

Xander's eyes went wide and his body shuddered as he looked forward and saw an ocean of skeletons buried in the sand.

Just from the periphery of his view Xander could make out more than a hundred skeletons on or in the sand. There were human skeletons but some stood out like the skeleton of a giant wolf.

Xander could see the long, sharp fangs and the teeth of the now dead beast looked extremely sharp that it would be able to even bite through a thick tree.

"I must survive." Xander said as his expression changed to a fearless one. Although he was quite scared for his life, he was determined to get through... wherever he was.

With a heavy breath Xander began walking forward cautiously. He was sure that a monster was here but what if there were others.

Xander couldn't possibly believe that he was just playing a VR game to relieve himself of almost being kidnapped and now he was, theoretically speaking, in another world, trying to survive.

It would've felt like a wild dream if what he has experienced in the last few days weren't so terrifying.

As he walked into the tunnel deeper he began seeing inscriptions on the walls of the tunnel, looking like a language from afar.

Xander then walked to get a closer look at them.

Then he saw that the inscriptions were not in any human language and he gave up on even reading them and turned to continue his possible suicide journey.

"Sigh." He let out a sigh and turned.

*Ding*

[Translating dimensional language...]

Hearing the system Xander looked back to see a screen floating in front of the inscriptions on the walls and he went to take a look.

[The dragons and the silver apes has always been at war. The apes wanting the mountain for themselves and the dragon fighting so that they could stay.]

"Is that it?" Xander mumbled as he looked at where the system stopped Translating and saw more inscriptions going forward on the walls and he moved with them. The system beeped as it started Translating again.

[Beasts are known for their ferocity and urge to kill. Dragon's were more than that, they had intelligence that surpassed any other creature's. The dragon king, Serebus, didn't like the apes as all they knew was battle and dominance.]

[The halo mountain was not always shared between the dragon's and apes. The apes lived around the mountain but not on it.

One day, they decided to climb and that day was the day that the dragons and the silver apes had their war.]

[Ultimately, the dragons were defeated and the apes forced them to submit like they did every other creature on the island of dreams.

The dragons being prideful creatures didn't submit and was all killed one by one by the silver apes until...]

[...Serebus. He fought many of them but alas they were too much and they brought him down. At that time he had laid an egg and to protect it, he sealed the egg inside his cave where he had a creature to protect him, a creature feared by the silver apes themselves.]

[The manticore didn't harm the egg and just used it to lure more silver apes to kill and devour.

The silver apes stayed away but they feared that the manticore would one day come out if starved and started hunting more creatures for it to eat. Till today, the manticore hasn't stepped out of the cave and the silver apes brought terror to the creature's on the island, especially the humans.

The once known island of dreams now became the island of lost hope; no human that comes, go back.]

When Xander read the last few words he felt a shock in his spine.

"For some reason the last few words scared me a bit." Xander said and looked up to see that he had been engrossed in the story that he has been reading and walking for miles.

He looked around him and saw even more skeletons. Not just that, there were different weapons and armour left behind by the skeleton owners.

'Seems like an army passed through here' He thought.

Xander didn't waste any time and grabbed any weapon he could find in case he had to fight something in this place.

He picked up a sword, a dagger and he took a few long bones, wrapped the tips with cloth and lit them on fire.

"At least I wouldn't waste too much Mana." He said as he began walking forward with his new makeshift torch.

He had wrapped over a dozen and tied them together, before he tied them on his waist horizontally.

As Xander walked forward a little he saw one single inscription on the wall; it was bigger and more complex than the previous ones. It was the same dimensional language that he saw before.

Before Xander could even reach it a screen appeared in front of the inscription.

[Those that enter the cave of Serebus never make it out. Only a being who can defeat the manticore will survive.

Beware: The manticore is a deadly creature and it eats scared prey.

There are thousands of other creature's trapped in the caves, goodluck.]

*Rooaaahhh!*

Xander flinched as he heard a roar coming from inside the tunnel coming towards him with the sound of something running.

'That sounded close!' Xander thought as he took out the sword he picked earlier and readied himself in a fighting position.

He stabbed the torch in the sand too.

The sound was not the same as the one that echoed earlier, it was different, which meant a different monster.

He was ready for whatever was going to come out of the darkness in front of him, he was ready to face whatever it was, he was ready to do anything, to survive.