Chapter 317: Malice - Markets and Multiverses

Our group spent several minutes backtracking, before we met up with my clone. During that time, I had my clone cycle between soul sight and regular vision. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t find any enemies or traps in the area. Based on what I knew about the Market, there was no way the inner district didn't have a defender or ten. Since I couldn’t find the danger, that meant it had yet to reveal itself.

Once we got there, I scanned the area with my real body’s vision as well. It didn’t help. No matter which body I used, I couldn't find the threat in the area.

I sighed, and then sent the clone back into the distorted area. Once again, I saw a bunch of skyscrapers and massive buildings appear in front of me. I ignored them. They were too far away to matter right now. Instead, I focused on what was right in front of my clone.

Our group set ourselves up right at the edge of the spatial fair, giving us an easy retreat. It also let us observe my clone as it moved, so that we would at least know what killed it if it died.

As my clone moved further into the spatial fair, I started to notice that the area was very... quiet. In the Market, there wasn’t much sound, but there was usually still a little bit of noise, and it had become more obvious as my [Perception] grew higher. The shuffling of skeletons in the distance and the distant hum of electronics were the norm.

And yet, in the spatial fair, these sounds had disappeared. It was as if someone had hit a giant mute button in the middle of the area. I frowned. What was the reason for this silence? Were things destroyed if they made sound? If that was the case, the monsters here might hunt by sound. That was valuable information.

I said.

said Sallia, followed by Anise and Felix a moment later.

My clone continued forward, and the odd silence continued to settle around my clone like a heavy, suffocating blanket. After another minute, I started to feel like the silence was growing... suffocating. Something was starting to feel wrong.

I said. As a group, we retreated a few steps, putting ourselves outside of the range of the spatial fair. We lost sight of my clone... but we also moved away from any hostile monsters. We might get less data from my clone dying, but that was much better than one of my friends dying.

My clone froze, while I frowned. The feeling of creeping anxiety continued to get worse, but after a few seconds, I realized it was targeting my clone. My real body didn't feel safe, but I didn't have the same suffocating feeling of dread.

asked Felix, after a few more moments.

I focused on my clone again, and used a portal to teleport a loose piece of rubble a few inches upwards. The chunk of rubble fell soundlessly upon the road. I realized that I was wrong.

It wasn't that 'anything making noise is killed.' Instead, it was as if there was some sort of spell, dampening or outright silencing the spatial fair.

I said.

asked Felix.

I scanned my clone’s surroundings with essence, before I shook my head.

said Felix.

I said. I started scanning the area with my clone's eyes, to see if I could get a better grasp on how the world was bent in this area. Then, I froze.

Something was watching my clone. I couldn't see it, but I could feel cold, ancient eyes, staring at my clone like a snake watching a mouse. My clone whirled around, using its soul sight to scan its surroundings… but there was nothing. Not a single soul or speck of essence was present in its surroundings. And yet, I was sure that my clone was being watched. It felt like my clone had crossed some sort of invisible threshold. Like a fly setting foot in a spider’s web.

The feeling of creeping dread started to grow more suffocating. At the same time, my clone's vision of its surroundings started to fade into nothing. It was as if it was being dragged into endless darkness. A moment later, it felt as if the silence itself was reaching towards my clone, like a grasping pair of hands.

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Then, like a candle in the wind, my clone was snuffed out. I felt a horrible sense of loss, as my clone died… and more than that, I felt a deep terror.

Before my clone died, I had swapped to my soul sight. However, I still hadn’t seen a thing. My clone hadn’t run out of essence and soul energy - there was still a minute or so left before that happened. Instead, it died for no reason at all. No sign of another nearby soul, no sign of an attack. Somehow, it had just died, without any rhyme or reason behind it.

I said. < I have no idea how. There was nothing nearby, and no sign of a magical attack.>

Felix frowned.

I frowned.

Anise glanced warily at the spatial fair street, before she grabbed my hand and pulled me a little further back.

I nodded, and our group moved a few streets away. After we walked, I shared all of the memories I had of my clone moving around. The others ran through my memories, before we spent a few minutes in silence, digesting the events that led to my clone’s death.

said Sallia, after a few minutes.

Felix’s eyes lit up.

asked Felix. Felix shrugged, and grinned. Then, Felix frowned.

I thought about Felix’s words for several seconds, before I finally nodded. Perhaps there was some sort of creature that hunted down things that were 'silent?' It had felt kind of like my clone was being dragged to another layer of reality before it died... so maybe being silent caused one to fall into that layer of reality. There, the hunter would instantly kill the new prey... or something like that.

said Sallia.

I said. The entire purpose of grabbing the clone skill was to have disposable scouts and test subjects.

My clones didn’t have vocal chords, so they couldn’t speak. Thus, we decided to go find some sort of instrument. If that didn't work, I would try using shaping to 'force' sounds to exist, and see if that helped. We moved away from the inner district, and spent a few hours searching our surroundings. It didn't take long before we found an instrument shop. There weren't any monsters inside, so we didn't have a problem stealing some instruments. I didn't recognize any of them, but that didn't matter. I grabbed something that looked kind of like a 20-stringed banjo with twelve flower petals attached to it and gave it a strum. It sounded awful, but it was loud. It was perfect for our purposes.

After acquiring our instruments, we also made sure to check the store for Acheivement. We found 42 Achievement in the cash register, before dividing it 4 ways, giving us 10.5 each. This brought me to 12,703.85 total. After that, we returned to the spatial fair and worked on our magic systems until my soul finished recovering. Then, it was time to send the next clone in.

This time, my clone brought along the stringed instrument, while our group backed away from the area again. My clone started moving into the inner district again, this time playing its instrument as it walked. I grinned.

The sound of the instrument was very, very faint. Through my clone's ears, I could only hear it if I focused. But even though sound was dampened in the spatial fair, I could still make sound. It was possible to test whether silence itself was lethal here.

My clone kept moving forward. Soon, it reached the point where my previous clone had died. I hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded to myself. I didn't feel the same creeping dread I had felt last time. My clone hadn't died, either. It seemed fine.

It seemed like our first guess was correct. Anything that wasn’t wrapped in noise would die while within the spatial festival. We could work with that.

Though I had to say, whatever had destroyed the Market and made it very difficult for new Market survivors to crop up. I suspected that most groups would try to be quiet when they saw an area like the spatial fair. After all, monsters hunting by sound instead of sight wasn't a very novel idea. In this case, any group that tried that would be walking into a deathtrap. If a group didn't have a cloning ability, such as {Eldritch Soul}, trying to figure this out would be nearly impossible.

And then, my smile faded. I saw a bright soul zip towards my clone at speeds that I could barely process. Before I could even finish taking a look at it, something beheaded my clone. I caught a brief glimpse of blind, sightless eyes, attached to a glowing silver spider. It glared at my clone's head as it sailed through the air, before my clone turned back into ordinary water. I lost sight of the area.

I finally realized what the trap of this area was.

If you were silent, then the strange creature in another layer of reality would drag you into its turf and kill you. If you made noise, a blind silver spider would hunt you down and kill you. There was no 'correct' way to move through this area. It was designed to lure in new transmigrators and kill them. Whoever had designed this trap didn't intend for anyone to survive an attempt at exploring it. The outer districts of the Market were dangerous, but at least most monsters had weaknesses we could exploit. Here, I could fully sense the malice of whoever had destroyed the Market. They didn't want anyone to get the resources from the inner districts. They wanted us dead, and they had set up this area to make it happen.