Vol 5 Chapter 47

"Do you two have to keep fighting when we're already struggling even with all of us working together?"

However, when Rob bellowed and tensed his stomach, a faint, dying voice leaked out from beneath him.

"Ex...cuse me... I think I'm really going to die now... the status effect..."

"Waaah, hey, Evan! Pull yourself together!"

It was the voice of the dying Evan. Surprised by Evan's truly near-death state, the rest of the group forgot about their fight and desperately struggled to successfully rescue Evan, who was trapped at the very bottom. Evan, who had fallen into the 'suffocation' status effect, only managed to regain consciousness groggily after a long while.

After causing all sorts of commotion, Rob and his companions were finally able to continue on their way. Soon, they discovered that the dark path in front of them disappeared, revealing a slightly wider cavern and a path on the other side.

Inside, there was already one person who had taken a seat.

"That person...! Hup!"

"Shh!"

As Chow cried out tactlessly, Rob quickly covered his mouth, and the rest of the group lifted his body and plastered themselves against a corner of the wall. Chow struggled, but no one paid him any attention.

"Is that him?" Blue Lady asked in a low voice, looking tense.

They could see the back of a man sitting down, seemingly lost in thought, with his black robe's hood lowered. In front of him, there were faint, indecipherable characters engraved on the wall. Although they could only see the back of his head, it was that man. There was no doubt about it.

"It seems so. Let's watch from here for now."

After Rob finished speaking, they continued to observe the man.

The man, who hadn't moved for a long time, finally sighed and scratched his head, then suddenly jumped up like a dog with its tail on fire and ran to the characters engraved on the wall. At the same time, what he pulled out from his waist was a strange wooden stick emitting a red light. Rob and everyone clearly remembered seeing this man slaughter monsters with that oddly shaped stick, suddenly emitting something like a blade.

How many minutes did they glare, hearing someone gulp nervously? The man's fingertips, which had been muttering something to the constantly flickering stick, suddenly burst with light and pressure. It was from the right arm holding the stick.

"Ugh!"

When Rob, who had groaned and squeezed his eyes shut from the blinding light, opened them again, he saw a vortex of air enveloping the man's right arm within the red light.

'What... is that?'

While he was wondering, the exposed skin slowly turned red, and after some time, it began to subside gradually. The wind that seemed about to burst out and sweep them back settled first, and then the light that had dyed the man's right arm red slowly faded.

"What just happened?"

Chow, who had finally managed to free his mouth and regain his senses, grumbled, but no one could answer.

But the next moment...

"...Gasp!"

Blue Lady sharply inhaled in disbelief. Rob was the same, and Chow, who had just gotten up only to witness this strange scene, just blinked his eyes stupidly, showing a reaction of disbelief at what he was seeing.

The man's right arm in the distance was moving very strangely. Like a puppet controlled by strings, the man's arm floated in the air awkwardly and oddly caressed his own face.

"What... is that?"

Evan muttered, but none of them heard his words. That's how strangely the man's right arm was moving. The elbow part floating higher in the air than the wrist part, moving around and touching his own face, reminded them of a scene from an old horror movie they had seen before, where a possessed hand strangled its own owner.

"It's like... a ghost..."

It seemed Rob wasn't the only one who had that thought, as they heard Blue Lady whisper in a horrified tone.

After moving like that for a while, the man suddenly slapped his right arm with his left hand. It was as merciless and violent as swatting an annoying mosquito or fly flying in the air. The right arm flinched and came down, and when the man raised his arm again after muttering inaudibly for a long time, he was holding the strange red-glowing stick as if he was about to write.

A moment later, the man began to engrave over the characters on the wall with unbelievable ease using the stick. As Rob's group watched breathlessly for it to end, the man who had paused briefly glanced back.

"Eek!"

Evan, who was particularly afraid of that man even though their eyes hadn't met, quickly scooted backwards on his bottom. The others flinched too, but their curiosity to see up close was greater.

The man slowly detaching his right arm from the wall seemed to move in slow motion. Rob was startled to feel himself unable to control his breathing, so tense that the hair all over his body stood on end.

And finally, the moment the stick in the man's hand detached from the wall.

"Blink!"

Boom!

"Waaah...!"

"Kyaa!"

"Hup!"

The group let out small screams of surprise as they saw the man disappear like lightning and reappear about 3 meters in front of them. As if it had been waiting for this moment, the cave began to wail, shaking ominously, causing an earthquake as if there was a tectonic shift. Even in their near-fainting state of shock, the group was aware that they shouldn't let the man discover their identities, so they tried their best to retreat as far back as possible while covering their heads.

Only when they had retreated to the dark, cornered area with the stairs did the earthquake finally subside. Now they couldn't see the inside from where they were.

"Wh-what should we do?"

Evan cried out, having fallen into a state of panic.

"Didn't he notice us?"

"If he had noticed us, he would have come right over here! Would we have had time for this? More importantly, we've retreated this far, but what are we going to do now? Are we going back out?"