"Calm your heart and do not move," I whisper to Shayna, both of us are in a hole deep underground where I teleported us.
"It's not that easy."
No matter how hard she tries, I can sense it, and if I sense it, there is a chance that presence will sense it as well.
"Shayna, you either calm that heart down, or I will give you back your shards and send you back to the surface."
I haven't seen that presence so far, but I felt it. Even from a big distance, it sensed my kinetic energy and was even able to touch on it. A feeling as if it would be able to take over.
It must be one of the named ones and probably a powerful one.
With clenched teeth, the feylith woman forces her body under her control using some skill, and her heartbeat slows. It's to the point where it beats only once every few seconds, matching the rhythm of my own.
And so we are hiding. Not moving to not send vibrations through the place, not talking, and with our mana suppressed. Slowly like that, we also breathe all the air trapped here, and soon there won't be any. I wonder, could we suffocate? How long can I hold my breath now after body upgrades?
Time passes like that, neither of us moving or talking.
Only hours later do we leave, reappearing on the surface where I take a deep breath, my heart starting to beat in its normal calm rhythm.
Nice, another asshole to be added to my "to beat later" list. Well, only if we survive until the end of my stay token. I have a feeling that presence is not that far away.
We don't exchange any words and start running towards where the traitorous group is. The idea is simple. If that presence finds us, we will use the group to slow it down while we run.
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POV Shayna
Noname is terrifying.
It's not just his skill that is obvious, an amazing versatility of his abilities even though with clear weak spots.
No, it's his bearing.
I have met plenty of people with concentration-type skills, and even though Noname might have one, I know he is not using it.
No, even deep underground, hiding from the enemy that could end us anytime, he forced himself to become calm. That much is fine, I can do that even without a concentration type skill. The worst part was that a side of him seemed to hope for us to be found out.
And now, running by my side, his face bears a simple neutral expression as his eyes tick all over the place. Not like he was looking for danger to avoid it, but like he is the hunter.
He is very careful as well and doesn't trust me at all. His guard is up and strong. But I think I have seen it. An opportunity and a bit of his real self.
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POV Nathaniel
A group of five lurkers pops out on the edge of our detection, and this time it's Shayna who finds them through her mental abilities.
I'm more than sure she isn't at the level of Sophie, but her ability seems to be similar to Isabella's [Empathy], just sensing minds and being able to stun them. She might be able to sense emotions just a little bit but I'm not sure of that.
Well, there could be more, and she is just hiding it, so I keep my guard up in case she tries some bullshit.
Thankfully, it seems there is no lurker in that group able to sense her gentle mind probing, so we avoid them quite easily as they pass by. We don't even see them, the group of five being a few stadium lengths away from us. A thought comes to me, at a higher level, you might be able to sense people on the other side of the country or even continent. I don't know why and for what but I want to know how to do that.
While we wait, I look around the cathedral-like building where we are.
As with every building on this floor, it's very old and made mostly of stone. Even in the state it is in now, it's still very grand. It's easy to imagine how beautiful the cities and buildings used to be.
Did locals build them long ago? Is it some setting of the system? Beyond is a combination of the real world and tutorial, so I wouldn't say it's part of the tutorial and instead something more real?
Taking a few steps, I touch the stone wall, and it still feels smooth and powerful. There is that sad melancholy to it. A feeling akin to a dying world. It's sad but also a beautiful feeling.
Am I weird?
Maybe, but I can't be weirder than past Nathaniel or the future one.
I was always fascinated by this kind of stuff. As much as I prefer to spend time alone, it's fun to think of all the people passing by and using this place in times long ago.
There is a scratch on the wall. I like to think it was maybe caused by some young, careless man who was shouted at by the administrator of this place. Both of them used to be main characters in their own stories, going about their lives in a similar way to how I am now.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Are you really that calm, or are you using a concentration skill?" Shayna asks me out of nowhere in a whisper. The question sounds like it's something she thought of for a while.
"I don't use it for emotions anymore," I decide to answer honestly.
Looking at her, I also wonder why I helped her back then and why there are two of us. Sure, she helps, but it's not something I usually do. At least I'm sure she is not manipulating my emotions; it's something I'm very careful about and constantly check.
The most likely reason seems to be that moment when Roculus and Eugan disappeared, Rat ran, and she decided to stay and attack one of the lurkers. Just that short moment made me have a better opinion of her and turned into all of this.
It could be just pragmatic thinking from her side, it could be her real personality, it could be a shortsighted dumb decision or pure desperation on her part.
Even so, here we are.
"What are you thinking of?" she whispers again.
"Emotions are dumb," I declare.
"Fucking tell me about it," she laughs shortly and points at her hair, which constantly changes color along with her eyes.
"Do you regret coming to Beyond?" I ask her.
She answers right away without hesitation, "No, not even once." At that moment, her eyes are light blue, and so is her hair. She has a nice expression on her face too.
"I see."
"And you?" Shayna asks.
"No regrets here so far, just a few complaints."
"Only a few?" another smile, and then her attention moves somewhere else only for her to turn back to me again. "They are out of my range, we can go."
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POV Eugan
"So?" Misk turns to me.
"We can't be that far away, it should be near here."
"Eugan, if you fail to lead us to the place, this is all for nothing. You realize that?" Misk looms over me. His armor, which permanently looks damaged, is covered in blood that seems to seep into cracks in it and sticks to the surface even though it should fall down.
Out of all the damaged arcane items, I saw, that armor sure is the creepiest.
"I told you already, we saw that place while running away, and plenty of us died. I remember it only in flashes!"
"I know, Eugan, you have told me already. But try harder." Saying that he turns to the man on his left. "Waul, how are… our new friends?"
Waul has no emotion on his face, and I don't think I’ve ever seen him showing any. It's a clear sign of the concentration-type skill he has constantly running.
"We have two more we can use to take attention off us if we activate the marks. I also think Somir is going to die, he got wounded really bad at the start when Eugan and Roculus screwed up their job." Even his voice bears no emotion and is flat.
"It's okay, Waul," Misk says calmly. "We couldn't have known there would be that many so soon. Roculus paid for that, and we didn't have to kill any lurker."
"Understood," Waul nods. "Should I prepare the sacrifice? We will get to the zone where more lurkers move around soon."
Misk nods, "Eugan, help him, and just in case, place one more mark. We don't want the situation from before to repeat, and while you do so, please try harder to remember."
There is no "or" in his words, but the look I get from him is obvious.
We must find that place.
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POV Nathaniel
"What is this place?" Shayna says what I have on my mind.
Even from as far as we are, I can sense lingering bits of mana in the air. It doesn't even feel new, just remains of a fight that happened days, weeks, hell, maybe even months ago.
From the top of the hill where we are standing and looking down, I can say that it's the most damaged area I've seen so far.
A crack in the ground spanning over a large distance, extremely smooth-edged holes the size of houses made all over. Signs of a skill that left a smooth surface over a big patch of the area, reminding of polished stone.
There are also spikes piercing through the ground, all of them made of the same material they are piercing through, but at the same time, they are much tougher as if compressed. And much more. A clear sign of a fight that happened here and the usage of powerful skills.
I risk it and send my senses into the area, but nothing comes back. At least for now, no lurker is moving around. Shayna also confirmed it just a few seconds before we walked here.
"We should avoid it," the scaredy-cat of a feylith says.
I ignore her and what she says after that, and instead continue to scan the area. There is something I have sensed down there. Something familiar.
"How far do you think we are from the group?" I ask, interrupting Shayna's monologue.
"At this point, I have no idea. We tried to follow their direction and even found their steps, but this isn't even in the direction of the safe zone, so I have no idea where they are heading."
"We might have found that place," I note and, jumping from the hill, head down towards the battlefield.
On our way here, we found a few more members of the group, all of them very dead and with signs of that frequency that seems to attract lurkers.
Following them gave us a bit of an advantage, as the large group seems to attract more lurkers, even though we killed some. They are now only throwing sacrifices. It all smells of desperation and hurry.
They are not heading towards the safe zone where they would be able to find a portal out of the 1st floor to the entrance floor.
So what would make a group of 12-15 people hurry so much? What would make them try to get 5-8 more members to be used as sacrifices so they can delve deep into the area where plenty of lurkers are?
Walking through the battlefield, I touch the smooth edges of the house-sized holes, the impressively tough spikes, and I squat and tap with the tip of my finger the smooth area left behind by another attack.
There, a bit further, a first corpse lies. From the looks of it, it's a Beyonder killed by a lurker, as the corpse of a lynthari isn't shriveled nor has that deadly pale color. And a bit further, another one, a corpse of a demon with half of his chest missing, dead eyes staring towards the ceiling. Another lynthari with limbs torn off. A demon with his chest exploded from a powerful attack. A feylith with wings pulled off and head as well, missing somewhere.
Two dozen corpses as far as I can see and probably even more out of my sight.
It doesn't even look like they died fighting each other. It more feels as if they were killed one by one by a single powerful opponent. An expedition of Beyonders meeting a very powerful lurker.
The reason why I think it's by a lurker is simple.
They still have all of their equipment.
The reason why I think it's by a very powerful lurker is also very simple.
Some of these people have damaged arcane items that are still here.