The creaking of the door added to the overall ambiance, as dust came off of the hinges. As he pushed his side of the double door entrance way open, there was only a slight amount of light that filled the darkness. Just a few areas were visible, where the light came through the stained windows along either side of the cathedral. In front of him were rows of pews, with a central path leading to an ornate podium. Death seemed to permeate all throughout the place, making the location no longer a home of light but instead a haven for dark.

Han waved his hand in front of his face, trying to clear away the dust that hung in the air. Next, to him, Jade's helmet came together making him think that the idea was a good one. As the helmet closed around his face, the dust was quickly filtered out.

"Man, someone needs to give Star and Moon an award for this creepy environment. I'm starting to think there's something real here and not just as a game event." Han muttered to Jade.

Jade laughed. "I know the feeling, every time I walk in here I feel shivers going down my spine. What's worse is knowing what's down there. Even though I know I can't actually die, the thought of facing those things sometimes freaks me out."

"I'm looking forward to seeing what you keep teasing me with," Han said. He saw Jade turn her head towards him, making him imagine her smiling grimly at him.

Without addressing his comment, she continued into the foreboding former sanctum. Reaching behind her with both arms, she grabbed her weapons and armed herself. Her movements were fluid as she tried to reduce any sounds from her actions.

Utilizing the suit's capabilities, the room was brightened through some augmentation. It didn't completely get rid of the shadows but allowed him to view the area better. Grabbing his weapon, he held the weapon at his side to prevent it from obscuring his vision.

A creaking noise was heard, sounding louder in the silence of the dark and causing Jade to turn to the sound with both weapons raised quickly.

"Sorry about that," he said to her, raising his free hand apologetically. Moving around as effortlessly as Jade did was something he was still terrible at. This entire place seemed to be designed to make unintended noises as you walk through it, which further emphasized Jade's abilities as a pro.

"We might get swarmed even before we hit the second level," Jade made fun of him. "Remember not to be so stiff when you're moving around. Don't fight the suit as it tries to smooth out your movements." She tried to teach him.

Han simply nodded his head in understanding. As he passed by one of the pews, he noticed a journal laying on top of the seat. Reaching down, he picked up the leather journal that looked as if it had been here for a long time.

As he unwound the leather strap, he opened up the journal to look at the pages inside. Conveniently, the writing was in his native tongue helping him to read it.

"Month of the 3rd Moon," Han read out loud. "I woke up to find my wife missing in the morning. I tried looking throughout the village to see if anyone had seen her. Elesia has become the fifth person to be taken away during the night. What is more frightening is how she was sleeping right next to me and I didn't even wake from such an event. I have come to the Temple to talk with the Head Priest about my wife's disappearance. He has informed me that I must pray for guidance during such dark times.

Han flipped several pages near the end of the journal reading, "Month of the 8th Moon. I've been coming to the Temple to pray for guidance, but instead of finding hope I instead feel despair rising from within. The forest has begun to change on my way towards the Temple. I can no longer hear the sound of birds or wild animals traveling in search of food. Though the leaves fall in preparation for the cold season, they don't stay on the ground to leave a carpet of them. Instead, the leaves quickly rot away and disappear. At night, I hear the scampering of creatures that are unknown to me. Their eyes glow in the dark."

Going to the last page, Han read, "Month of the 1st Moon. Where is the cold? Where is the sun? I sit here wondering what is happening. Even the priests are behaving strangely. They talk about the need for blood to be spilled in order to raise the Ancient Ones. Only blasphemy spew forth from their mouths. The villagers tell me that I shouldn't come to the temple, but the village lacks the protection from those things that come out of the forest. As I'm writing this, they have taken another woman and dragged her towards the altar behind the podium. I fear that her screams will haunt me for eternity and that my soul is damned. Even though I pray to the Light, I doubt that they even care for any of us. This place is cursed and has been abandoned by all that is good and gentle. Inside of my mind, I hear whispers telling me what will befall me and what is being done to my wife. How did this happen?"

Han finished reading the page and checked to see if there were anything else the man had written. "Though this place may be imaginary, I could feel his growing fears and feelings of being cast aside." He let the journal fall from his hand and land back on the pew.

"Don't let it get into your mind too much," Jade warned. "Though you may not actually get killed in this environment, the pain isn't simulated. You're actually feeling your body being devoured or torn apart. I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy that feeling."

Continuing to walk down the center aisle, he made his way towards Jade. "What keeps you from losing your mind?" He asked her.

"I honestly don't know. Maybe I've already lost it, considering I'm back here." She answered in a low voice. "Just thinking about being turned into those things out in the real world helps keep me focused, I think."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

When they reached the podium, likely where the Head Priest preached his sermons, Han saw blood stains flowing down the steps. Feeling like this was about to get serious, he made sure to keep his head on a swivel.

As he was looking around, he didn't notice anyplace apparent that would lead to a dungeon. There was an altar, likely the same one mentioned in the journal. Instead of a woman, there was a body of a man that was strapped down. His chest was forcibly opened up, exposing his inner body. When he looked closer, Han saw that the man's organs were removed. Seeing such a gruesome sight was disturbing for some reason, likely due to his thoughts on whether this man was the same as the one that wrote the journal.

"You okay?" Jade asked.

Han merely nodded his head, not trusting his voice. It was interesting to see his reactions, considering his familiarity with violence but the connection to the journal made it seem more personal to him. Ridding his mind of further thoughts, Han focused on discovering the dungeon. Looking around the altar, he tried to use the same logic as when he played video games trying to find hidden missions or items.

"What do we have here?" He said out loud. On the ground was a lot of dried blood, but one area seemed to have drag marks as if something heavy had passed over the area. "This is a wild guess, but I think the entrance is under the altar," Han said to Jade.

"Seems like you're pretty smart," Jade replied to him.

That was when he realized that Jade had purposefully positioned herself near the opposite side of where he was at. With one hand, she pushed the altar and made it move towards him. As he walked over to where she was, Han saw a secret entrance being revealed. There was a stairway leading to a lower level.

"You thought this place was creepy, you haven't seen shit," Jade told him as she walked down the stairway.

Taking one last look at everything around him, he stepped onto the stairway and proceeded to head down into the inky dark. The stone stairway made grinding noises from the dirt being ground by his footsteps.

"Activating night vision mode," Julia said to him.

Instead of the typical green light, he had seen in movies and TV shows, the area in front of him was cast in a somewhat black and white world, though there was some coloring. "How is the suit able to do this?" He asked her.

"Surrounding the suit, there are bulbs that release infrared light that acts like a flashlight. In addition, the suit is generating soundwaves that are even beyond what any known animal can hear. The sound acts like a type of echolocation, where the sound bouncing back is received and translated into the surrounding video you see. There are also small lasers that are sent out to detect objects, in case anything coming at you are able to be invisible to the IR light and sound waves." Julia explained in detail.

"So anything that's in my line of sight will be seen, but I still won't be able to look through walls. It's still a nice edge compared to someone without this suit." Han said.

The stairway was long, now and then making him turn left as it spiraled into the earth. Ahead of him, Han could see Jade making her way down. There would be a couple of seconds where he would lose sight of her as she made the left turn, but then he would see her again. Considering this was not her first time here, he figured that she knew what she was doing.

"This is where things get harder," Jade said to him, her voice slightly cutting out from when she made the turn.

Han saw her waiting near an open doorway. When he reached her side, she walked through the doorway. Going through the entrance, he saw a sight that made him think of a dungeon. The area around the door was more open, though he could see several hallways that seemed to lead to someplace else.

In the corner, there were barrels bunched together. A part of him wanted to try destroying them to see what was inside. Just like players would do in a game.

"Don't you dare do what you're thinking," Jade's voice had an edge to it. "One of the players thought it would be fun to destroy those barrels and one of them exploded. It killed several players in an instant, leaving those behind to fight off the monsters that were attracted by the noise and screams. Everyone was wiped out and it was only the first level."

Hearing what had happened, Han rethought his idea and backed away from them. "So this floor has a lot of monsters? Why did you only bring me along?" He asked her.

"The monsters in this area may be many, but they are thinly spread out. This means that if you're careful, you can kill them without attracting the others." She explained. "Remember, if you see one of those creatures you need to kill them quickly."

Just looking at his surroundings, he got the feeling that they needed to explore this area in order to find the entrance to the next level. As he walked next to Jade, he kept getting distracted by the various chains that were hanging from the ceiling. Some type of draft inside of the dungeon kept causing them to rattle occasionally.

Going into one of the many hallways, he saw a giant rodent that was walking around on its hind legs. It appeared to be hunting for food, as it looked behind barrels and dark corners.

There was a pat on his shoulder, with Jade indicating for him to attack the creature.

Nodding his head, he made sure to look to see if there were more of its kind before crouching closer to the ground. Feeling like a compressed spring, Han launched himself towards the rodent. Lightly tapping the ground, he saw the walls fly by as he rushed towards his target. Positioning his weapon, he thrust it forward and made it impale the rat creature. Remembering Jade's words, he quickly used a free hand to clamp the creature's mouth shut.

Copious amounts of blood came spilling out of the creature, as his hand gripped the monster's snout tightly as it struggled. He went to one knee as he followed the critters movements until it was being propped up by his weapon. In mere moments, its struggles became dull and sluggish before stopping.

Yanking his weapon free from the monster, he quickly looked around to see if his actions caused other creatures to become curious. He sighed in relief, seeing no monsters heading towards him.

"You did good," Jade complimented him. "Grabbing that things snout was a smart move since those critters tend to call for reinforcements."

"Don't you think that's something you should have told me?" Han said to her.

She placed a fist on her hip, saying, "This whole thing is for you to develop your fighting skills and gain survival instincts. If you can't handle these things, you're going to get chewed up at some point." Her tone softened as she said, "Though I'm glad that you're able to do as well as you did. I would have beheaded the creature, but your way works well too."

Getting up, Han watched as the creature disappeared, leaving behind various objects. He noticed some bronze coins, a tooth, and some hide.

"I would just pick up the coins and leave everything else behind. Surprisingly that's actual bronze, which is why we can take it out of this simulation." Jade informed him.

Feeling like this wasn't the appropriate place to ask questions, Han went and bent over to pick up the coins. Just like Jade, Han had empty cartridges that were likely meant for supplies or random things. Moving his hand towards one of them, he clicked it open and deposited the coins into it.

"Let's keep going. You'll need to go through this entire floor and clear it out before we continue to the lower floors." Jade said. When he looked at her, she said, "Even though you did a good job with this thing, your movements were still sloppy. If you don't get the fundamentals down, then you'll be hurting in the lower levels."

With that in mind, Han led the way as he continued down the path. After defeating one of the monsters, he had an inkling of what to watch out for, so he made sure to listen for specific noises.

The area was very intricate. They passed by an area that looked like prison cells, with iron bars appearing like a large window. Inside of the cells were piles of straw, likely where people would lay down to sleep. On the walls were chains that were attached to shackles. Occasionally, there would be a body hanging from the walls.

"We don't know if this is just for the visual or if they actually used these cells. Some of the players think this place is just randomly structured, while others think that everything has a purpose." Jade commented after she noticed his curiosity.

Just as he was about to turn a corner, he heard chittering noises. Hugging against the wall, he noticed a small group of those rodent creatures. Looking back at Jade, she didn't make any indications of what she thought about it. Sighing, Han thought about what action he should take. The method he used earlier wouldn't work with there being multiple targets.

"Julia, I'm going to need you to map out the most efficient path for handling those things. I need to kill them as fast as possible, not to give them an opportunity to call their friends." Han asked.

"Just a moment, Creator," she answered and was silent as she likely went through various simulations.

In front of him on the screen, Han saw a realistic video of the monsters.

"I believe the best bet would be to target the creatures in this order," Julia suggested as numbers appeared on top of the critters.

Once again, Han looked around the corner to make sure that none of his targets moved. The video of the simulation and the monsters in his way were slightly out of sync for a moment, but soon their movements matched up. Even better, there was a path laid out on the ground to assist him on how he should go at them.

Getting himself ready, Han pushed off the ground and dashed towards the first target. Instead of impaling the thing, Han swept his blade and sliced off the head of the monster. Ignoring the spray of blood, he moved towards the one marked with the number two over it.

Just like the first one, he twirled his body and used the rotational force to lop off the next one's head. Seeing where the third one was, he used his foot to push off of the wall of the hallway and rocketed towards his target. Raising the blade in front of him, he used his momentum to cut off the head.

When he turned his head to the final one, he realized the creature was about to yell out for help. Using his blade like a spear, he quickly aimed and threw it at the monster. Cutting through the air, the point of the edge pierced the monsters head and split it into two parts.