When Lily opened her eyes, everything was black around her, but she could still see a bit because of her night vision and was relieved. She was afraid of the dark and being completely alone. She saw Kenta lying on the ground looking at her and suddenly his body lit up, illuminating the place.
"Thank you very much." she said, meaning her words.
"I'm not a moon dog for nothing." he said, looking proud.
Lily looked at her body and noticed she had quite a few wounds in various places and had no boots on. Her feet had deep wounds and the left foot had a long thick flint which had stuck just before they touched the toes. She turned her foot over and saw that it had gone straight through. If she pulled it out, she would bleed to death and couldn't heal herself with goddess skills, so it didn't matter to try.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"Ground Zero." replied the system.
That meant she couldn't use skills at all, and she couldn't commit suicide either because she couldn't get back to that obelisk.
To make sure, she asked, “Can I use the obelisk?”
"Unfortunately, no. You are stripped of your skills and are a normal person now.” replied the system.
So stripped for Lily meant she had no classes and could seriously die if things went wrong. She couldn't walk with a splinter stuck in her foot and suddenly felt helpless.
"I cannot walk." she lamented, sighing.
Kenta flew to her and said, "You can support yourself on me but unfortunately I can't carry you as I'm not a battle companion or mount."
Lily nodded and took out some bandages and tied them around her wounds in various places and wrapped a bunch around her foot. She took a black sock on the outside and it hurt terribly when she hit the flint. She put a shoe on her right foot. She leaned on Kenta and stood up, noticing that Azrael's cloak had not got holes in some places. She had an idea if it had taken some of the fall. She looked up and could only see black and gave up.
She had no sense of time and asked, "How long was I passed out?"
"For 5 days." Kenta replied.”
Lily nodded, putting on her hood and started walking while leaning on Kenta. Fortunately, he was soft, and it went well and she limped forward. Luckily, he knew where they were going and as they walked, he told her that there was a hot spring nearby which was known to cure anything that could heal her foot. When they had been walking for an hour Lily suddenly saw some light ahead and knew they had come out of the canyon.
When they got in there, she saw that it was a dim light coming from a large cave. She saw houses in there with lights and saw people walking around in dark hooded cloaks, so it was hard to see their faces. Farther on she saw another opening to a place with brighter light and they went there immediately. She noticed no one was looking at Kenta and thought he had used an illusion so he couldn't be seen. They passed through the next area of light and on the other side they stood in a large bright area that looked something like a battlefield. There were human beings all over the place in heaps and there were weapons and other things floating all over the place. It was a bit like a landfill because there were crows and other scavengers circling all over it and it stank of rot and death.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"What happened here?" she asked.
Kenta shook his head and didn't answer. They walked on and saw there were more piles of corpses and Lily thought there had been a big war here.
Many minutes later they saw people in hooded cloaks walking around picking things up from the bodies, so it was a bit like a dump as Lily had guessed.
They passed a lady who looked at them and asked, "Have you become useless to them too?"
Lily knew it was aimed at her and stopped and looked at the woman. She was wearing a black dress and a black scarf over her head and was old.
"I ended up here by accident." she answered.
" Huh. Nobody ends up here by accident.” the woman said, grinning.
"What happened here?" Lily asked.
"When the soul lords have used you up, you end up here." replied the woman, pointing to the pile of corpses.
Curious and wanting to know more, Lily asked, "What do you mean?" for it sounded like the woman came from another world and certainly had ulterior motives.
"When no more of your souls can be harvested, you become useless and end up here" replied the woman.
Lily understood the meaning behind the words because she had talked to the others about it before. She still wanted to know why them and not other beasts or people from King Arthur's world.
"Why us?" she asked.
"People from your world have a richer soul than everyone else because you are greedy and smug." the woman replied, licking her mouth, and wearing a sinister smile.
When Lily heard her words, she was startled and rushed away because she was afraid of being eaten by her.
They walked for a long time for several hours and piles of corpses kept appearing and Lily thought it was endless. 5 hours later she suddenly saw a big black lake and all around there was a green swamp. She could see it was the only way out but was afraid of swampy areas because of reptiles, which she was terrified of.
"Is there only that way?" she asked.
"On the other hand, there is a hot spring that can cure your wounds unless you want to go back to the corpses." replied the system.
Lily sighed and had no skills but to make sure she asked, "Is it still Zero Ground?"
"Yes unfortunately." replied the system.
Since she was stripped of everything that meant she couldn't take things out of the system, or could she?
“Can I take things from the system to protect myself?” she asked.
"Unfortunately, no. You are a normal person.” replied the system.
Luckily Lily had her space ring and took out Excalibur and held it in her right hand. She used it to lean on as she hobbled with Kenta supporting her left foot. She could use that Crystal Lake right now since it could heal everything. They walked closer to the lake which was pitch black and it looked like tar mixed with mud and she got chills just looking at it.
"Let's go on the green." she suggested.
If they crossed the lake, they could reach the other side in a short time, but she was a normal human now and could not kill whatever lived in that lake. She was not stupid and there was definitely a beast such as the Loch Ness monster in Scotland that she wanted to avoid.
She looked at Excalibur and said, "Don't let me down."
She chose to go left, and they started walking in the green swamp. Her right foot became wet and damp even though she was wearing shoes and the water was cold. It was the end of September, so the weather had also started to get cold. Only the sun's rays warmed the sky and she thought only of jumping in a nice warm hot jump and used it as a goal to keep her going.
When they had walked for half an hour, they had reached halfway to the other side and suddenly Kenta stopped and said, "There are fire lizards living here but they are harmless."
Lily didn't know what kind of animal it was but only that lizards were tiny, so she nodded and said, “Okay. We're just going to be careful.”