Quota 0/270 - Last Day

The depths were not very enticing, but the promised loot was a little too tempting to pass up. Victor, Olivia, and the man set off again to retrieve Shirley and all the treasure she seemed to have found.

They walked quickly, taking care to thoroughly check each room from floor to ceiling before moving forward. Their extreme caution slowed them down, but at least it reduced their risk.

The only concern for the small group now was that the longer they stayed in the labyrinth, the more creatures might notice them. For the moment, they couldn’t hear any signs of one, except for the sound of doors being opened at regular intervals with a sinister creak.

The group had learned to close the doors behind them to keep track of where the creature might be, but that wouldn’t help if several creatures converged on them.

Shirley’s voice suggested she was close, yet it took the trio several dozen minutes to finally reach her. In fact, the staircase leading to her was hidden deep within the labyrinth. It also seemed to be the only way to access the next section of the maze.

Once they had descended, it only took a few minutes to find Shirley. She was standing in a room with white tiles interrupted by black patterns.

'This looks like a kitchen,' thought Victor, glancing at the layout of the space.

There were several cabinets against one wall, an oven, and even a fridge. Beside all that stood a round table, several wooden chairs, and some sort of counter.

Victor wasn’t sure if something had ever come here to eat, but he definitely didn’t want to find out.

'Let’s grab the items and get out of here,' he thought, searching the room for the objects they were supposed to retrieve.

The reflection of light off the pristine tiles irritated his eyes, which had grown accustomed to the omnipresent darkness of the labyrinth.

When he entered the room, the smell of cleaning products made him take a step back. But it was quickly masked by a much more pleasant and welcoming scent.

'Ahh, the sweet smell of money,' sighed Victor in pleasure.

There had to be six or seven objects in the kitchen. Victor could have stayed in that room for hours, breathing in that sweet scent.

"But we don’t have all day," he grumbled as he heard a door creak open a few rooms away.

The creature was getting closer and faster. They still didn’t know what it looked like or how to defend themselves against it.

All that mattered now was collecting the loot and leaving as quickly as possible.

In the kitchen, there were three lamps, a tube of toothpaste, some kind of golden cup, and a pocket mirror. Victor didn’t even bother evaluating them using the system. He grabbed a lamp while the others took the rest and began to back out of the room.

He had only taken a few steps and reached the kitchen entrance. Behind him, the rest of the group was still gathering their objects so they could leave.

They didn’t see the creature crouching in the adjacent room.

But Victor did.

"Mamma mia, what the hell is that thing?!" exclaimed Victor upon seeing the creature.

It was black from head to toe, with white eyes that seemed to see through walls.

As Victor felt every hair on his body stand on end, the creature stood up. It was even more terrifying now that Victor could see it fully. The creature was humanoid, with two jet-black arms that could probably crush a human in just a few seconds.

Yet Victor doubted that was how it killed its victims. The creature had no mouth but rather some disturbing petal-like structures.

They protruded from either side of its back like the wings of a demon.

Once upright, the creature towered over Victor, standing several heads taller than him.

Yet, it was trying to retreat and leave.

Victor wouldn’t have tried to stop it even if he could. The creature was backing out of the room, its eyes never leaving Victor for a single second. The silent confrontation lasted only a moment, but to Victor, it felt like an eternity.

The staring contest could have gone on longer, but Victor could hear his heart beating faster and faster.

'Something’s wrong!' he screamed internally as he watched the creature stop just before exiting the room.

It stared at him with those white eyes that gave him chills.

He turned around, trembling, to look for his companions. Several drops of sweat beaded on his forehead, and his voice trembled.

"We have a problem."

He hadn’t spoken very loudly, but his statement had the effect of a bomb on the other team members.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Even Shirley and the man, who couldn’t understand what he meant, knew from his pale face that they had just encountered a problem.

Olivia was the first to rush to Victor’s side. She cast a cautious glance into the adjacent room, expecting to see a monster, but there was nothing.

The creature had left the room the moment Victor had turned around. Shirley and the mysterious man joined them.

Seeing the empty adjacent room, the man frowned.

"What did you see, Victor?"

But Victor didn’t answer, too busy talking to a voice in his head.

'How do we defend ourselves from that one, oh wise and magnificient system?'

You just have to look at it, host, but not for too long!

'So I followed the right steps just now?'

You were mere milliseconds away from having a problem, but you survived! Isn’t that what matters most? Good luck in your next encounter, host!

'So I need to look at it and then stop looking at it. The timing clues are vague enough to be typical system behavior,' he grumbled as he snapped out of his thoughts.

It was only then that he noticed Olivia and the others’ worried expressions.

"Something wrong?" he asked, puzzled.

"We’ve been calling your name for several seconds with no response. We thought you were having a mental breakdown."

'I guess it must look weird from the outside.'

He placed a reassuring hand on Olivia’s shoulder.

"I was just replaying the confrontation I had with the creature, little Olivia, and I think I’ve figured out a solution!"

She brushed his hand off and rolled her eyes.

"Calling me ‘little Olivia’? Do you think you’re Felix Maxwell?" she grumbled almost inaudibly.

Victor didn’t hear her and carried on as if nothing had happened.

"If you see a black creature, look at it for a second and then look away."

"How do you know that after just one interaction with it?" Olivia asked, a note of skepticism in her voice.

"I just survived by using that method. Unless we find a better one in the future, there’s no reason to change tactics."

The mysterious man nodded after Olivia translated for him. As for Shirley, she didn’t seem to be paying attention. With a lamp in her hand, she had pressed her ear against a wall, trying to better hear the sounds coming from the labyrinth.

"It seems there’s nothing around us for now, but we should hurry. I have a feeling we’ll have company if we don’t get out of here quickly."

None of the group had any objections. Without making a sound and paying close attention to their surroundings, they began to retrace their steps.

They lined up in single file. Shirley led the way, and Olivia covered the rear. Victor had given his shovel to Shirley so she could defend them in case of trouble.

scritch

scritch - scritch

They stood before the staircase they had come down. The creature waiting for them above was making unsettling noises, but at least they could hear it.

The black silhouette, however, was probably lurking somewhere in silence, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

"At least it’s not a Jester. I still wonder what we’re dealing with," thought Victor, continuing to survey his surroundings.

The noise didn’t sound like a footstep but rather the movement of a paw.

They began to ascend the stairs. If a creature attacked them now, they would have a hard time defending themselves due to the lack of space. But it was their only way out. They climbed together, keeping an eye on their rear.

"Stop!" Shirley whispered urgently.

It was only then that Victor realized what their new visitor must look like. In front of them was a huge spiderweb, more than a meter wide and nearly fifty centimeters tall.

"Let’s hope the spider that wove this isn’t as big as its web," he murmured softly.

Victor wasn’t arachnophobic, but the idea of encountering a spider the size of a wolf didn’t thrill him.

"The little critter isn’t going to eat the big one, right?" he grumbled under his breath.

The web was right in the middle of the staircase. To avoid any risk, each member of the group climbed one by one over the stair railing to step around it.

Once at the top, they saw their adversary. It was massive, its hairy legs each reaching a meter in length.

It clung to a wall facing them, its two black, bulbous eyes fixed on the newcomers.

plop

plop

The two grotesque fangs in front of the spider’s mouth secreted a black, viscous liquid that splattered on the floor. It was above the only exit, flanked by several webs as if marking its territory.

Shirley was the first to speak:

"We’re going to have to get rid of it."

She placed her lamp on the ground, holding only the shovel now. A dark smile crept across her lips as she imagined the fight ahead.

But before she could begin to fight, a voice interrupted her. It wasn’t the valiant knight Victor with his heart of a lion, but Olivia’s voice.

"Give me that shovel, Shirley."

There was a sharpness in her gaze that sent a chill down Victor’s spine.

He watched in shock as Olivia took the shovel from Shirley’s hands and charged at the spider.

The creature let out a high-pitched scream as it saw a human daring to challenge its territory. With surprising agility for its size, the spider lunged at Olivia in a fraction of a second.

But she was even faster. Olivia dodged the attack with startling ease and struck the first blow. The flat of the shovel slammed into one of the creature’s legs with incredible force.

CLANG

Olivia stepped back, frowning. The blow didn’t seem to have done any damage to the creature, but it had made it furious. As Olivia dodged another brutal assault from the spider, she counterattacked, aiming for its head.

THWACK

This was no longer the sound of metal hitting something hard but the sound of metal striking an unprotected area. Once Olivia knew where to hit, the spider’s death was only a matter of time. It didn’t even try to flee; its eyes, blinded by rage, only wanted to tear apart the little human who defied it.

THWACK

THWACK

THWACK

THWACK

It took five strikes for Olivia to finish off the creature. The now-dead spider curled up into a ball.

"Maybe it’s worth some money..." thought Victor as he approached the corpse.

No value

'It wouldn’t have fit in the car anyway,' he thought, reassuring himself.

As he looked away from the spider to congratulate Olivia, he saw a shadow in the corner of his vision.

It wasn’t really a shadow but rather a sinister black figure creeping silently toward Shirley.

It had taken advantage of the moment of distraction after the spider’s death to crawl behind Shirley.

"It’s here, don’t look at it!" Victor shouted as the figure rose to its full height.

The rest of the group didn’t ask any questions and quickly shut their eyes. Victor, however, looked down at the ground, counting the seconds.

Only after waiting five seconds did he dare look around. He let out a deep sigh of relief upon seeing that the creature was gone.

'Let’s just hope we don’t run into it again anytime soon,' Victor thought, cursing himself.