Luck spread his hand and a weapon materialized on his palm. He gestured to his teammates to stay quiet and silently walk backwards. They did as he told them and silently take a step back. The faceless mermen, lacking senses, couldn't guess where their opponents are.
'It will be difficult to converse with each other...' Luck thought. All of them stayed quiet, not talking and silently stepping backwards. The monsters had no way to know their locations, and are moving their heads everywhere. Luck dematerialized his sword.
"What should we do?" Blanche asked, whispering silently that only Amethyst heard. Amethyst and Blanche exchanged looks before they turned their head to Luck, who noticed their gazes.
He shook his head once and gestured everyone to go back.
However—
"H-humans...help!" Their attentions were caught by a voice from the other side, specifically from the forest. There was a man full of blood, his left arm is injured, while his right arm is already nowhere to be seen. He is also walking like a cripple who tried to walk.
The monsters all turned to him, and that surprised the man. And all the merman immediately run back to the water, and then climb to the forest's land.
The man on the other side was terrified, his eyes widened and his face gives off a hopeless expression.
"N-no—"
Ethan covered Amethyst's mouth as he close his eyes. All of them were stunned on their places, some of them closed their eyes while some stares at the man being eaten by the monsters.
"Open your eyes, we're crossing the river..." Luck spoke. Everyone were shocked by his decision.
"Right now, while they are focused on their meal!" Luck declared, making sure that his voice can only be heard by his teammates.
"B-but.."
"Let's go," Luck grabbed the one nearest to him, and started walking. Blanche, who is being grabbed by Luck gulped as she tried not to breathe at all.
The others exchanged looks as they follow Luck. The man went to the side of the river where the water is flowing from, and carefully sat on the edge of the land, he checked how deep the water is, and luckily it only reached his diaphragm. He went to the bloody water of the river and helped Blanche to get down while keeping the faceless merman in check.
They all followed him as well, carefully and silently walking towards the other side of the river. When they reached it, he once again helped Blanche to climb up first, and then reached for Amethyst and Zephyr. He also asked Ethan and Damon to leave the bloody water before the two helped him to get on the land of the forest.
They keep glancing at the faceless merman to check, but suddenly one faceless merman turned its head to their direction. All six of them were stunned and frozen in place, they can hardly breath. And after that, all the faceless merman, with bloods on their mouths and faces turned to their direction as well.
Luck stood up, and he gestured to his friends to stand up, and so they did. Luck materialized his sword, and the others did the same. Amethyst watches them before turning her head to the monsters. She gulped and took a deep breath as she starts walking towards Ethan, she grabbed the sword from his hand which surprised all of them. Ethan who was in a battle position slowly stood straight, he placed his left hand on his hips and smirked.
Amethyst continued to walk, her steps light and silent. Luck looked at Ethan, and saw his face full of confidence. This makes Luck confused, and not just him but all of them. Then they watched Amethyst as she walks towards the faceless mermen. And just when the faceless mermen was about to attack her, she raised her right arm, and then moves her arm in circle as if she was drawing a perfect circle in the air, smoothly slicing the merman's neck. When the other monsters heard its screech they all started attacking Amethyst.
Luck was about to run towards her, but Ethan stopped him.
"Just watch,"
He said, pointing at his cousin.
His cousin waited for the attacks of the mermen, and when they did, she started moving, slicing and cutting the enemies with the swords on her hand. She moves swiftly, as if she was dancing. Her expression was blank, and her eyes are closed. Despite that, she can still tell where the mermen are going to attack her, and she killed them swiftly, slicing their heads one by one.
Her five friends watches her with their eyes widened. No matter where the attacks came from, she can sense it and avoided taking damage.
One by one, the monsters were killed. And she received a notification from the game system.
[ Incredible! You defeated 19 Faceless Mermen! You received:
- Lurker's Grasp (38)
- Drowned Coil (19)
- Trident Lobe (38)
- Veilshard Scales (190)
Defeat more monsters to get more materials! ]
Amethyst still had her eyes closed as she walks back towards her teammates. She only opened it when she sensed that they are near. She took a deep as she let go of the swords on her hand, however it goes back to their respective owners, hers was placed back behind her and so as Ethan's.
"Wow, you farmed more materials than Luck," Damon spoke, staring at Amethyst as he claps his hands. Amethyst's clothes is now full of dark blue blood of the monsters, and she couldn't even look at it.
"You looked cool..." Zephyr mumbled while covering her mouth in surprised.
"I didn't know you're strong! Why didn't you do that during the first quest?! Hahaha! Let's fight next time!" Blanche said as she placed both her hands on Amethyst's shoulder.
"Well done," Ethan said, giving her a thumbs up. Amethyst smiled at everyone's compliment, but one of them haven't said anything yet. She turned her head to him, and he is smiling as well.
"That was amazing, you saved us, Ai," Luck spoke, walking towards her and ruffling her hair. The girl giggled silently as she smile widely.
"Let's find a clean pond in this forest and wash ourselves," Luck spoke, looking at their bodies covered with blood after crossing the bloody river.
"I'm not really sure if this is the right way..." Zephyr spoke with a minimal volume of voice.
"Well, I am sure this is the right way," Damon replied as he scoff. Zephyr sighed in disbelief and just nod her head to agree.
•
This forest is dark. There's no light coming from any places at all and we had to rely on our eyes—we don't have a night vision, you know? What the heck is Asmodeus thinking when he made this maze? Or wasn't he the one who made this?
"It's so dark..." Zephyr spoke. Right. Even though our senses were enhanced, that doesn't mean we suddenly got a night vision.
"Thankfully my eyes are starting to get used to the darkness," Damon spoke. Yes, me too.
"Hmmhmm ~" All of us looked at the place where we heard the voice. It was as if someone was calling to us. But she's humming?
"Hmmm ~ nanana ~" A voice of a female. Humming. That's strange.
"All of you, cover your ears," An unfamiliar voice of a guy said. We immediately did as he said and covered our ears even though it didn't help because of our enhanced auditory.
"Useless. We can still hear her—"
"Kyaaaaaa!"
That...what was that? It's from the direction where we heard the voice earlier.
"Let's go see—"
"Stay right there!" That man again, who was it?
"Who are you?!" Ethan yelled.
"This is a siren!" A siren...? Earlier were merman, now there are sirens as well? And in the forest isn't it?
"Stop," I spoke and all five of them halt.
Another scream can be heard, and as the time pass by, the voice was started to change from a human voice to a strange and deep voice. It was screeching. No—there are many of them.
Was that guy fighting on his own?
"S-should we help him?" Amethyst asked.
"No! Stay right there!" Seriously...who's that? Did he really decided to fight all the sirens by himself? And how can he hear us too?
"Or are you just trying to steal loots from us?" Damon asked. Yes, possible.
"Sirens don't give loots! They're not recorded in the game's enemies!" What? How does he know about that? And why are there sirens here if they're not recorded? This is...confusing.
"How would you know?" I asked.
"Even if I tell you, you will not believe it," The screams of the sirens started to fade away, like a song that slowly paused.
"Who are you?" I asked again.
His voice is enough for me to guess his age. He's probably around 18 to 25 years old. He's speaking calmly as well despite the fact that he's battling with the sirens right now. That guy must've been stuck in this place for a few days or what. Is he one of the previous people that the Eden Law Firm has sent?
"You did not need to know..." what?
"Then, how are we suppose to trust what you said?" this time, it was Ethan who spoke. That guy, he hasn't revealed himself to us yet. I'm pretty sure he's done dealing with the sirens, so where is he?
"That too. I don't need to gain your trust. After all, I won't be staying here for a long time...I only need to send you a message," message?
And based on his words, it looks like he's not planning to show himself to us. Is he one of the demons? Is he with Asmodeus? But, why would he help us?
"W-what message?" Ai asked. All of us here are confused about this guy, but if he's not planning to harm any of us then we shall hear his words.
"Our team leader has sent me down here to give you a message. Every tenth stages...floors rather, there are bosses. Bosses that you have to defeat in order to ascend to the next floors. Those bosses are not like the other monsters here that attacks aimlessly. They have intellect and can communicate with our language. Be careful of them. And...don't trust any of the demons inside this tower. Never trust any of them...even yourselves" Bosses...every tenth floor? That means on the Floor 10, 20, 30 and so on? How would he know about that? Who's this man?
"Is he actually helping us?" Zephyr asked. As of now, it looks like everyone has gotten used to the darkness of the surroundings. Because we are now looking at each other, confused about whether to believe that man or not.
"My only goal here is to help. Luck Aster," what the...
"You know my name?"
"Blanche, Zephyr, Ai, Ethan, Damon..." What? How does he knew our names? And more importantly, he even called Ai by her nickname? Just who is that man?
"You will meet amazing friends up there. Choose them well, and never fall to anyone's lies," He's not showing himself to us, is he invisible?
"My time is up. I'll now be sent back to my own timeline," Timeline?
That makes it even more confusing. Is he from the future? Is that why he said he won't be long? Did he time traveled just to send us that message?
"Remember everything I just said,"
All of us stayed quiet, waiting for him to speak more but nothing came. The whole forest became silent, with nothing but our breathing. We all exchanged looks, couldn't say anything at all.
He didn't even say his name. He just left?
That guy told us not to trust anyone, even ourselves. Then how are we suppose to trust him?
I took a deep breath and crossed my arms.
"Let's continue, be careful on your way. We have no idea what lies within this forest," I spoke as I started walking. All of them just followed me without saying anything. I'm sure they are confused as well.
Someone, who definitely came from the future just gave us hints about the bosses and told us not to trust any of the demons in this tower. And he also made sure to tell us not to trust even ourselves, which is really confusing. I don't understand.
But I don't want to think about it for now. There's a far more problematic situation at hand. We need to focus on how to get out of this forest.
Tsk, if he was here to give us a message, he could've told us how to get out of this place.
Dang it. I forgot to ask him as well.
Doesn't mean I trust him, it's just...him, knowing our names...
Nevermind, I don't know anymore.
***