Devon didn't hesitate before popping a healing pill into his mouth. He wasn't sure if new wounds accrued during the pill's use time would also heal, but the most pressing issue was his current physical situation.
The strong ape had done a huge deal of damage to him. His head felt like it could be cracked open if a feather landed on top of it, and he intrinsically felt that several of his ribs were cracked or fractured from the brute's initial bodyslam.
Though even if the healing pill did heal wounds he got as it did its magic, he still wasn't sure it would help his situation that much.
Almost half of the apes he could see converging on his location were the same as the one that had completely wrecked him. A small number of them looked yet stronger still.
I need a way out. Now.
But he had no idea which way to go. There were apes on all sides, and a glance back up at the way he'd come from revealed a hole in the wall of the adjacent structure at least five meters above him. He couldn't jump that even if he was in full condition.
The healing item cleared his befuddled mind, and he realized with a start that he felt something calling to him from across the ruins. It was a strange feeling, and he immediately distrusted it. But still, no matter which way he chose to go the apes would either engulf him like an endless tide or run him down through the corridors of the endless hallways that linked to this space.
He pushed his axe into his inventory before dashing forward. He leaped off the ruined third story room, nearly passing out from the pain of his still broken ribs. He landed on a sort of suspended platform above what would have been roadways. He couldn't guess its original purpose, but it reminded him of a New York City train line.
He ran along the winding platform, heading straight as he could towards whatever was calling out to him. It was a strange feeling, but he had no time to ponder on it.
The apes climbed up onto the platform around him, but Devon just pushed himself harder, faster. The pain relieving effects couldn't keep up with how hard he was pushing his damaged body. His lungs burned with the exertion and the pain from his ribs turned the edges of his vision dark, but he didn't dare stop running.
A hulking figure leaped down from one of the buildings he ran past. It landed in front of him at the very end of the path, sending cracks along the platform from the force of the impact. Its bulging muscles flexed as it bellowed a deafening roar at him.
[Mountain Ape Elite - Level 36]
[Discovery Bonus]
Just a little further! Activate skill; Adrenaline!
The sound of his own heart beating blared in his ears as it felt like time slowed. The monster before him swung a quarterstaff, and Devon had to push every muscle fiber in his body to duck below the attack.
Even amid the feeling of slowed time, the staff seemed to pass over him in a blur. Devon slid past the ape's right side, then desperately leaped off the platform. He was close, he could feel it. It was like it was touching on the borders of his consciousness with its proximity.
There!
On the remains of the street beyond the platform, directly in front of Devon's trajectory, was a rift in space. It shared an uncanny resemblance to a terminal, but the light that shone through was dark and gray, and Devon thought he could see flashes of orange in it.
There was also an ape that trumped any he'd seen so far standing directly behind it, preparing to catch him and rip him to shreds.
[Mountain Ape Leader - Level 43]
[Discovery Bonus]
In the slowed time he perceived he reached out, desperately trying to touch that crack of darkness. As he came within inches of it a system notification popped up.
[Notice]
The curse within you has awakened the memories of one who remembers another cursed being.
Memory Dungeon - [Knight of the Cursed King]
Dungeon rated Class E, Level 26.
Do you wish to delve into the world of spirits?
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Devon didn't even have time to give an answer before the rift opened wide and swallowed him whole.
----------------------------------------
Devon had to close his eyes to block out the intense midday sunlight as he found himself somewhere entirely different. When he had adjusted enough to open them and see again he found himself in the middle of a bustling town square. Tall buildings rose all around him into the sky, each built beautifully by craftsmen more skilled than he could imagine.
Citizens walked past him, a strange race that looked almost human, but had wiry limbs and hair that flowed in the breeze like fire. Devon caught a good look at one of their faces and saw their eyes were like gemstones.
Is this… the past?
The buildings around him were the same as those he had been surrounded by in the ape den, and the system had called that crack in reality a memory dungeon. He opened and closed his fists, and confirmed that this place at least felt real. The sounds he heard, the breeze he felt, and the people he saw, he was certain that all of these things existed.
If this is meant to be a memory has the system actually brought me back in time or has it created this space based on a memory?
Devon took a step forward, intending to ask the nearest citizen where he was. But when his foot took that step forward every face among the crowd stopped as one and looked blankly in front of them.
A system notification?
Then each and every face turned towards him. Every hand reached for a tile, and a hundred weapons were suddenly drawn in the plaza.
[Objective: Survive Until the Fifth Day]
Devon had to leap out of the way as the woman he'd been about to ask a question suddenly stabbed at him with a shortsword. Every person in the square all converged on him with weapons in hand.
[Townsperson - Level 4]
[Townsperson - Level 2]
[Townsperson - Level 2]
[Townsperson - Level 3]
[Townsperson - Level 4]
[Townsperson - Level 4]
[Townsperson - Level 3]
[Townsperson - Level 1]
[Townsperson - Level 2]
[Townsperson - Level 3]
[Townsperson - Level 4]
[Townsperson - Level 1]
There were so many of them that identifying them all filled up his display with junk and almost got him stabbed. He pulled out his sword and started blocking and avoiding every attack that came his way.
He found an opportunity to strike back at one of the members of the crowd, but when he looked into their face he saw a look of terror and despair, even as they tried to skewer him with a spear.
The sight shook Devon to the core, and he leaped away without delivering the killing blow.
Dammit, why? I could kill all of these people with barely any effort at all. They have to know that, so why are they attacking me?
He leaped up onto one of the platforms that stood over the city square and realized that it was actually a kind of magical track. As soon as he stepped foot on it a small cargo trolley rammed into him, sending him sprawling. He barely managed to roll off the track before it would have run him over.
He felt the pain in his ribs as he rolled off the tracks and realized that his physical condition was still the exact same as it was before he entered this place. His injuries were slowly healing, but that meant that he was on cooldown for the healing pill. If he got injured in the middle of this hostile city and had to take another pill before the cooldown expired there would be no saving him. He'd be pounced upon and slaughtered while he was helpless.
Even so…
He looked at the desperate crowd again, and saw clearer now that they all looked completely terrified. Still, they pressed on in their attempts to kill him. He had to keep himself moving, as he constantly had to dodge offensive magics and weave around people as he ran around the square.
He stayed that way for about ten minutes before realizing that the situation was spiraling even further out of control. More and more townsfolk were streaming into the plaza, all terrified, all with weapons.
He dashed away towards a side alley, intending to disappear among the shadows of the building. However, a system message popped up right before he could leave the plaza.
[Notice]
If you leave the Dungeon area you will be forcibly returned to the entrance location.
Probability of Memory dissipation upon abandonment: 99%
Shit!
He slid to a stop right before he entered the alley. If the system spat him back out in the middle of all those apes he was a dead man.
And yet he was equally certain that if he did nothing then these people would collapse upon him like a swarm and kill him, even if they didn't want to. He wasn't sure about much in this place, but the fact that he still felt the injuries he received from the apes made him absolutely certain his body was real in this place.
He scowled. The system wasn't giving him any choice in the matter at all. He could either become a butcher and murder all of the poor townspeople that came his way, or he could accept death.
A spark of rage lit itself in his mind.
This damn system… It just keeps pushing and pushing and pushing… Fine. If you want me to be a villain so damn bad I'll be one. Don't complain when I one day break you down and make you regret ever choosing to bring earth into your fucked-up realms.
Devon forced himself to turn around and face the closest person. It looked like someone who had just been dragged away from the kitchen, as they had a chef's knife in hand and still wore an apron. He ran at Devon with unbridled fear upon his face.
Devon grabbed the hand that held the knife and stabbed his sword into the eye of the man. Screams, cries of fear, and weeping erupted around him, yet the people kept coming. And so Devon started cutting them down.
One by one they fell, and as their blood pooled beneath his feet Devon felt something within him die. Something that felt important, like he wouldn't be himself anymore without this one thing…
And yet it was gone. Buried continually deeper within his subconscious as the bodies piled up and the cobblestones ran red.