Chapter 61: The cave

“O’rmon, come out, I want to talk,” Safo said after knocking at O’rmon’s bedroom door. No answer came from the other side but Safo sat in his wheelchair and waited for ten minutes. “I won’t go away from here, you know right? Eventually, you will have to come out, so please save us both time and do it now.”

The door started to move. From behind a green tigress' face popped out. Her eyes were red and wet, short fur on her face was also wet around her eyes and nose. She wasn’t wearing her usual tight army clothing, she was in baggy, a bit dirty ones.

O’rmon was always a manifestation of a cold beauty, which seemed untouchable, inaccessible. As if one should sacrifice one's life before even earning a chance to talk to her. Now though, she looked like a cute, heartbroken teenager that needed warmth, protection, and ice cream.

Safo smiled at her look, which made her feel embarrassed a hundredfold. But she was quiet, looking down, she stood waiting for words of disdain from Safo.

“I just wanted to say that, I don’t care...” Safo paused to construct the next sentence in his mind but saw a drop falling on the floor near O’rmon’s feet.

“Yes, I don’t care how many times you or anyone will betray me…” The motionless figure kept standing indifferent to the falling of the next drop of a tear.

“Given that you will do it for the people you love. I don't care and I don’t mind. Any of you can choose other people over me any time as long as you love them.” At that moment Safo turned his gaze to Yon Ace, who sat on the sofa in the living room. His speech was about him too.

“For now your mission is my succession, you are attached to me. As long as you do your job I don’t mind you spying on me. Do not take things too personal, O’rmon.” Safo rolled the wheels to bring himself closer to O’rmon and whispered. “I’m ready to do even worse to be with my family and I will do it if it is necessary.”

He rolled back and continued. “In two or so days we will leave for a hunt. Be ready. I have a special task for you in mind that only you can do.” Safo turned his wheelchair and left O'rmon, confused.

Yon stood up when Safo entered the room, he hesitated for a moment before saying the words that were pressed to him from inside. “I’m not here to spy on you. I’m not here to betray. I want you to know. I… I agree with Kardon’s opinion that the King of psiora should be a psiora. While I was raised among Imperial people. I think you are the second-best choice after Kardon.”

“Hmm, thank you for being honest. But as I said before I don’t care. As long as you help me to achieve my goals and I will be useful for you, I’m glad to have you here. If you mess up with my plans we will have to talk in a different tone. It is late now, which means… It is game time.” Achraf, Kutch, and Safo grinned in anticipation.

They were harshly disappointed when they found out that Yon was against games. Kutch once more voiced his suspicions about Yon. How could a good person don’t like games?

“Live him alone, he probably has his own quirks. We will find out soon enough. Maybe he likes killing people while they sleep playing VD games. Haha.” Safo brought more tension to the room with his failed joke.

Wishing each other good nights they went to their beds or as Achraf, Safo, and Yon to their mattresses on the floor. Right before entering the game, Safo received a reply from Miloud Ennmar that he had things to do and had no time to play. He also sent two attached files for Safo.

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The first one was the spot on the Cube 1 map. Near Cilla Village was the place with high-level monsters to hunt for Agility orb and some EXP. The next file was the step-by-step video of a new martial art technique called “Bait”.

“Of course it is step-by-step,” Safo smirked at Milouds obsession with dividing the complex things into small understandable phases.

Safo decided to leave the technique video for a better time which was when his legs were able to walk. Safo daily took his portion of the first course of the Immortality Path so his bones and muscles were going better and better by each day.

With the prospect of a new orb, he entered the game. He lacked only Agility orb due to getting a Mental orb from Needle worms. Luna on the other hand had a full set of orbs and needed only an EXP to reach level 9. Achraf was a different story, He wasn’t good at fighting so he still was at level 5 with Tier 2 weapon. He asked Safo to join the party, of Safo and Luna, to go hunting at the spot which Miloud sent.

In the game, a couple of minutes for the preparations for Achraf and Luna were supposed to buy healing potions. They did not have a fancy perk like Safo to heal themselves just by standing still.

While busy on the market, out of the corner of his eyes Safo saw a shadow moving behind the stall. When he looked there, it was nothing. Out of nowhere, the vendor started alarming guards, he had been robbed.

Luna and Achraf had to move to another stall because village guards closed the shop for investigation. Safo already knew what caused the fuss or who, to be precise.

“Come out BlackSly, please do not rob our vendors, we are in a hurry today,” Safo said for nobody in particular.

“How did you know that it was me? I was cautious.” BlackSly appeared from behind, his appearance was as usual - ghoulish pieces of meat and bones glued with blood. He had a friendly smile, alas it didn’t change his abomination character appearance. Luna stepped a couple of meters away.

“Ahaha. There is only one thief,” Safo whispered the “T” word, “in the Cilla Village.”

After polite greetings BlackSly asked them about the plans, he considered joining. Safo told about the place on the map that Miloud sent by VDtalk.

“Haha. No, thank you. Check out that place by yourself folks.” BlackSly laughed as if he saw some prank. He wished the confused trio, very good luck and returned to his dark deeds.

“That is strange. I think maybe there are stronger monsters there. That is not a problem, right?” Safo couldn’t apprehend the reaction that BlackSly showed. Without any doubt, the team of Achraf, Luna, and Safo started their journey.

On the way, they managed to kill some level 4 and 5 frenzied squirrels bringing Safo’s long-awaited level 6. When they finally arrived at the destined spot they found only a cave leading downward. With no hesitation, they entered and moved forward.

After a minute or so Safo stopped, something fell on his head from the low ceiling of the cave tunnel. “Sorry, it was a rock, I guess.”

A couple of steps forward and another object Luna him from the back, but when she turned to examine if they encountered an enemy, there was nothing.

As soon as they resumed their journey a rain of small but incredibly hard objects sprang from the walls and flew towards them. The trio was under attack by some unknown rocks that were hitting them from every angle and then bouncing off to the walls only to come back for another hit.

In that manner, they stood helplessly getting beaten by the rubbery rocks of the cave. With nothing else to do they ran away, back to the outside free from odd rocks.

“What was that?” Panting and huffing they cried.

“I couldn’t even take a proper aim to shoot them from a bow.” Luna was most helpless there, the narrow zone didn’t benefit her weapon, ripping her off of her advantage to mark a target and fire from distance.

Achraf was the least injured, he managed to hide and then block Luna with himself and with his small round shield - Metal Buckler. Tier 1 shield allowed one to wield a one-handed weapon, Achraf had a short sword.

Safo was the one who suffered the most. Miloud told him to use only a pocket knife that he copied from BlackSly. A tiny blade never touched the miniature, bouncing enemy.

“It is just unreal to kill those things, whatever they are. That Miloud... and his training methods.” Safo made a mental note to send an appreciation letter to Miloud first thing in the morning.

“If he thinks that we can do this, we can. we will drink our potions, you heal yourself there and we are going in.” Luna felt motivated and tried to pass it through. Meanwhile, Safo sat on the ground receiving its blessing. He lost one-third of his health.

After some rest, they went in again. This time with a plan. Luna was at the rear, sending her arrow barrage, while Achraf and Safo would try to land a hit on baseball-size rubber stones.