12 Mysterious Man, Trial Complete!
He felt that his dagger went through something soft thus he was quite elated and waited for the kill notification but received nothing.
He thought that maybe it wasn't entirely killed off and managed to escape with grievous wounds thus he searched for it using his senses to feel any movements around him only to hear nothing.
He frowned in doubt but still continued to walk deeper down the cave regardless of his suspicions.
...
He had already walked for god knows how long and far as he only knew that he had not even managed to see the shadows of the exit.
It was like while he was inside the cave he was trapped inside an endless loop that made him unable to get out.
He was shaken at the thought of getting trapped inside the cave but still thought that there should be an exit somewhere, just that he had yet to find it.
***
Meanwhile, at the entrance of the Water Spirit Cave laid a tall and handsome man in black on the ground.
It was precisely the man who was chased into a pit by the purple lion and his body was coincidentally brought here by the river as well.
Despite the raging river that he had plunged on, one could see that the man was breathing just fine and this was certainly strange as his lungs should be filled with water yet here he was still able to breathe normally.
Then the man's eyelids suddenly twitched then it abruptly went open that revealed a pair of cold black eyes.
The man frowned for a moment before coughing the water out of his lungs incessantly, and at this moment the yellow paper that he held in his hand suddenly burned to a crisp as if it had already fulfilled its duty to keep its owner's life.
It took him a whole five minutes before he slowly stopped his violent coughing as he had successfully ejected all of the water in his lungs.
To say the least, the capacity of his lungs was extremely terrifying as it was able to contain so much water.
The black-clad man slowly stood up and patted the dirt on his clothes before he examined the surroundings of the place he was in.
There were tall and big gloomy trees that surrounded him from three sides, they exuded an extremely dangerous feeling as if warning him to not approach them, this made him feel cold all over his body thus he marked the forest as a dead zone.
To his north was a dark cave that blew cold winds while at the south was the river that bought him to where he was, he frowned as he wouldn't be able to swim that extremely steep slope of the river.
So the only option he has now was to enter the dark cave in front of him.
But he did not like that his options were limited thus he stubbornly tried to swim upwards only to get pushed back by a strange force every time.
He stopped his useless struggles as he was speechless and confused at the strangeness of the mysterious and calm river.
It seemed to him that the river itself was asking for him to enter the dark cave and wouldn't let him leave as long as he hadn't entered the cave.
He looked towards the direction of the cave and the first impression that it gave to him was that it looked certainly creepy.
The river water from above was strangely sucked under its entrance and it seemed to be the reason why he could not see any pool of water considering that the river should've accumulated for a long time to form a pond or lake at least.
To be honest, he did not want to go inside but he had no choice but to go as he wouldn't be able to exit anywhere anyways thus he finally entered the cave albeit unwillingly.
His tall silhouette was being slowly devoured by the eerily quiet darkness of the cave.
***
Inside the Water Spirit Cave.
Mirage had no idea that someone had already entered the cave after his entry as he was still feeling the dilemma of being lost in this seemingly unending darkness.
He had already explored and walked for hours and yet he still could not find the clue on how to complete this shabby trial.
The only thing he could find in the cave was the seemingly endless amount of those unknown slithering creatures to the point that he had already forgotten how much of those creatures he encountered and killed already.
Travel Distance: 9km+
Unknown Creatures Killed: ???
Occasionally one could hear a heavy and tired gasping echoing inside the long and dark passage, this signified that Mirage was already approaching his bodily limit.
He walked for an additional 500 meters more before he couldn't take the tiredness he felt anymore and he was forced to use and allocate the single attribute point he had to his stamina.
Why not take a rest you say? It was because earlier when he tried to catch his breath after killing one creature, he had not even rested for a whole minute before he was attacked by another slithering creature and they continuously appeared and attacked him to the point that he couldn't find the time to sit and rest.
The addition of another point to his stamina stats did its magic as his situation finally alleviated for a bit, but this did not completely eliminate his lethargy though.
Mirage had no idea on how the game measured the individual stats of the players as he noticed earlier when he was busy fighting the various creatures for hours, his stamina wasn't consumed much considering the strenuous activities he did for the past few hours.
But as one says, there's always a limit to things that you have, the same could be said true to his finite amount of stamina, thus he couldn't avoid feeling exhausted.
The added point to his stamina alleviated his situation but the stamina that it gave to him was quite negligible as he knew that this wouldn't be able to give much help to his current situation.
Mirage did not know the exact reason behind the game's computation of the various stats but he thought that the base stat that the game had given to him represented his real stats in real life, while the attribute points it gave should be based on the unknown algorithms of the game.
He was speechless by this thought as it was quite unfair to those who had weak real bodies like him, thus he grumbled and complained to his head.
'What does the game intend to do by implementing this kind of nonsense? Does that mean that the healthier and stronger you are in real life means a stronger base stat in the game?'
He didn't stop complaining as he still had much more to say.
'I can't even log out of this shabby game much less exercise in the real world which was already weakening for years!'
He bitterly sighed and set this matter to the back of his head for he already has his problem to urgently deal with right now.
Another slithering noise could be heard on the cave ceilings just a few meters above him, he managed to detect its precise location with his honed senses that he gained by staying in this dangerous environment for an extended amount of time.
The game surprisingly given him a passive skill related to tracking sounds around him, he received this with the merit of having his ears always perked up because of the subtle sounds echoing inside the cave.
< Skill Information >
[ Sonar Tracker ]
[ Star Rating: 0 ]
[ Skill Level: 0 ] [ Skill Type: Passive ]
[ Description: This allows the user to enhance their sensitivity to sounds. It lets them detect movements around them with much ease through the use of sound. ]
>> SKILL EFFECTS <<
— [ Sonar Detection (Passive): 3% chance to detect concealed movements through hearing within the 5m radius of the user. ]
>> SKILL UPGRADES <<
[ Skill Level Upgrade ]
— [ 1 Skill Point ]
[ Random Effect Upgrade ]
— [ None ]
At this moment, he took the initiative to attack first as he made a swift stab towards the creature, his dagger made a sharp sound as it tore through the air.
The dagger hit the creature with no suspense at all as after he had stabbed it, he unhesitatingly slid the dagger down that sliced the creature in half.
The unknown creature did not even manage to let out a sound as it was instantly killed by his skillful attacks.
He had already killed countless of these creatures so he naturally knew how to deal with them at a fast and efficient rate.
Although he had killed all of those creatures he met on the way but he had not received even a single kill notification from these creatures thus he assumed that he wouldn't receive one this time as well but then he was given a surprise for he received one.
[ The "Water Spirit Trial's" clear requirements has been met. Congratulations! ]
[ Water Snakes Killed: 100/100 ]
[ Distance Traveled: 10km/10km ]
He did not know whether he would be glad or angry by this as it was indeed quite late but even then he still felt relief wash over him as he knew that he would finally be able to relax.
Then he received another reward from the game system.
[ HP, Energy, and Stamina have been restored. ]
