My heart stopped, sank, and then began pounding furiously. “Shit!” I cried, and beat my sticky wand in a furious manner, hoping to sail clear of the disgusting sticky liquid that corroded my cloak. I clutched my chest, breathing deep to calm my nerves, it was dark, hot and hard to breath here.

A shiny blue crystall poked out the top of the sticky liquid near the disgusting place, it must be the monster core. I curled my mouth, isn’t this what they called a weakness? It’s basically asking me ‘hit this place please’.

I hated worms, no matter what form they came in. Nasty little creatures they were, always moving in a creepy way, have no fists or feet, most importantly, they are disgusting, and now I’m inside the stomach of the creatures I hate the most!

Even so this creature is not your ordinary monster, I saw the monster name and title from the description of red dot in my map, and it’s no joke. No wonder it categorized as a strong creatures. It’s skin is as hard as steel from the outside and the weakness is inside the body, the core.

With a shake of my head I hurried on. I couldn’t wait to get out of this place. Destroy the core or slice this worm in half from the inside is no big deal, it’s very soft from here, like a tofu. I chuckled at the thought.

A blue bolt of power flowed down my arm, through my fingers, and out the tip of the wand. It swirled like a snake, looking for a prey. the blue bolt cut through the core and penetrated the thick skin of the worm, a moment later the worm stopped moving.

I crawl out from the cut I made from the worm ceiling, lifting my head only outside and broke free from the disgusting place. Finally a fresh air.

“Who are you?” a girl in a black armor said, not taking her eyes from me.

My face frowned, contemplating her question and whether to answer or not. Finally the effort seemed too much for me. 

“Argh,” I growled in my mind. I jump from atop the worm corpse that quite tall in height and landed with a soft thump in the dirt.

I walked to the place far from that disgusting worm, hoping to clear myself from the smell, on the way, I counted four knights bodies. There are many heinous scar and wound on their chests and some have their body parts missing. I stop walking as the female knight stand in front of me, with sword in hand.

She clenched her fist on the hilt “I can take you on myself, don’t get any funny ideas, answer me right now or I’ll cut you down. Who are you ?”

“...Lestat, from Arachnid Academy.”

“What are you doing here?”

I blinked “Er, it’s not funny really, teleported myself to the wrong place, spell gone wrong and end up here, that kind of stuuf,” I straightened the ends of my cloak in an attempt to settle myself.

“Teleport? And here of all place, do you think I’ll believe your words?” Her lips twisted as she looked toward me, eyes glowing with threat of violence.

“Um, yeah. Well, I don’t care about that, and technically I just saved your lives, you should thanks me, not pointing your sword at me. Beauty with no brains, andraste save us,” I said, then grabbing my sticky cloak and tossed it over my shoulders. splattering the remnant of sticky liquid to the ground.

“Andraste?”

“Hm? Ah, don’t mind it.”

“Thanks for saving me.” She mumbled.

“..What? did you say something?” I pressed my hand to the side of my throbbing head.

“Nothing.”

“You were lucky I was here, should be dead along with your fellow knights and join them in the afterlife.”

"I don’t need your help. in the first place, you are the one who barge to my battle, I can defeat it myself!”

I looked into her unyielding golden eyes “Oh really? Even after all of your soldiers were killed by that same monster?”

“...”

“I saw their corpses inside it’s stomach, and also many more near the rose bushes. Judging by their armor, must be a knights, elite knights.. but what the king’s elite knights doing here? Aren’t you supposed to clear the dungeon?”

“...”

“I don’t think the king has many men to spare just to sent them on a picnic deep in the greenland forest, considering the grim situation the kingdom faced now.”

“...”

“Are you a rebel?”

“Of course not! We are here on a king’s secret mission, so I can’t tell you any of it.”

“Really? Secret mission to raid the ancient tomb?”

“...!”

“Heh, there is no need to be that surprised, afterall Hell Worm is a guardian monster, and it’s guarding something that without doubt, out of ordinary, just like a dungeon, tomb, ancient tomb maybe? so there must be one nearby. I’m guessing your presence here is no accident.”

She raised her silver sword “You know too much. I can’t let you leave this place alive.”

“Well,” I said. “How very generous of you.”

“Don’t blame me for this, blame yourself for sticking your nose in a place you don’t belong.”

“A’haha you want to kill me? You need strength to do so. ”

“Tch, don’t underestimate me mage! Majestic Crescent Slash!” she rushed to me then deliver powerful attack with her silver sword, the blow tear open the ground with a shockwave.

“Violent Woman.” I sniffed. My form distorted to a semi-corporal existence, her sword hit nothing, it’s just come through my body like I was never there in the first place, there’s no blood to be seen.

“What?! it can’t be!” she screamed under her breath. My ethereal form allow me to bypass any obstacle, nullified any magical or physical attack, of course her attack won’t be able to hurt me, but I can also make it to hit me as long as I willed for it to happen, but I still won’t feel any pain, just like when I crashed into a tree on my fall before get eaten by a worm.

Facing the dramatic increase in temperature, the female knight realized that something was wrong. Suddenly, beneath her feet flowed lava. A spark so hot it scorched the earth. If she even stay there for just one more second, she would get burned to a crips, however she used her sword to propel herself away from her previous place just before that happen, sacrificing her sword in the process, which now melted slowly into hot liquid.

“Trult a good reaction, I’m impressed.”

The female knight reached for the hidden blade she kept under her armor then saw my face and changed her mind. I knew my eyes assured people that the inside doesn’t matched the outside, screaming I could killed you thousand times over and you still couldn’t find out how you died and so the female knight put back her weapon.

“What are you?” She asked me, there were no emotions on her voice or face and no fear to betray a hint of what she felt.

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

I shrugged casually “Just your ordinary first-year mage.”

“I’d be a fool to believe you." she narrow her eyes at the youth. Even though she is a knight, she could understand that the spell casted by the youth in front of her is not ordinary one.

“Er, there’s no need to praise me.”

“I’m not.”

I stopped pacing and smiled at her. “Hm, that’s it. I’ll help you to raid the tomb.”

“...hah?”

“What with that weird face?”

“What are you planning to do?”

I walked toward her, disheveled robe swishing in my wake. “Nothing, I just want to help a beautiful knight in distress.”

“...Your expression doesn’t match with your words.”

“Eh, that’s cruel.”

“What’s the catch?”

I couldn’t quite hide the smile twitching the corner of my full lower lip. “How about a kiss?” I said with an exotic inflection that would ignited every cell in women body, it was inviting.

“Don’t joke around.”

I tsked, it’s not works on her.

“I see... then, tell me what the king trying to do.”

“...No.”

“Were you hoping for me to tell you by pretending to help me?” Then she added dryly “and then kill me afterwards.”

“Why bother?” I patted the back of my robe, pointing the wand at her chest. “I could always make you spill everything, if I wish for it to happen.”

“...”

“You won’t be able to survive in the tomb alone, your fellow knights are dead now, you need me.” A grin swept across my face.

“...”

“So, you’ve made your mind? Don’t worry, the truth is I just curious about his tomb.” Curious get the better of me, the fact that there’s a tomb is really poke my interest. I wonder what will I find inside, I want to explore it. even so, I can’t seem to find the tomb on my map no matter how hard I tried. This female knight here however, may know the whereabout of the tomb entrance.

She avoided my eyes as she nodded “Fine, I’ll only take one thing from the tomb, as for the rest.. you can take whatever you want.”

“Heh, looked like you did your research well, I wonder what kind of treasure the king trying ot get his hands on.”

“There’s no need for you to know.”

She turned on her heel and walked toward the north part of the forest, taking a sword along with the scabbard from her fallen comrade.

I rubbed my bloodshot eyes and sighed. “I didn’t get any sleep at all.”

“So what’s your name lady?”

“Clara”

“Beautiful name, so Clara where is the the tomb entrance?”

Crala ignored my question, and taking out a black stone from her armor then crushed it to pieces, a moment later the oak tree blurred then vanished, revealing a big entrance. this must be the tomb, well hidden by an illusion, it can even fool my map system. no wonder I can’t locate it on my map.

Carla unsheath her sword and made an absent-minded nod “Follow me.” said Carla as she marched inside the tomb, cutting the vines that hanging in front of the entrance, blocking our path. I followed behind her.

The path is narrow, glistening wet, it becoming more narrow the more we go deeper. We proceeded cautiously. I shook my head and began listening carefully to the noises echoing from the darkness, it’s too quiet, something is not right. In front of us, there is an old stairs.

We knew where to put ours feet, there is no choice but to go down the stairs. The air smells salty and bitter, like smoke mixed with seawater. When we turn down a corner, there are many remnants of some broken pillars,  short hallway stretched before us decorated by five scluptures on the right and the left holding the unlit torch.

I paused by the first sclupture, then lit the torch with a flick of my wand, second, third, a moment later all ten torch is lit up, illuminating the dark hallway.

“We should rest here.”

“Fine, mage is really.. we barely walked ten minutes and you were close to the limit of your endurance." Carla sighed.”

I ignored her complain “So Carla, will you tell me now, the real reason why you are here?”

“Just like I said earlier, we are here on the king’s secret missi-.“

“Oh really? How could a king sent a knight... or should I say the Princess on a dangerous mission?”

“....!”

I couldn't help but laugh “Your expression is funny, this is the first time I saw it.”

“You knew?!”

“People lied, map system never did.” I said in a low voice that barely audible.

“What?”

“Ah, don’t mind it.”

Carla placed her smooth hand on the hilt “How did you..”

“No need to be wary of me, I don’t care what happen to this country, much less the internal strife within the royal family.”

Carla retracted her gaze from me and stared at the huge door at the end of the hallway, which brought the odor of something similar to what her nostrils recognized. She hurrily said “Stench of blood.” She followed this scent leading to the door in the center of hallway.

Hearing what she said, I open my map, “Be careful, there are six monster behind that door”

“Eh, you can tell?”

“More coming, eight.. no ten of them now.” I said dully.

“I can’t believe a mage beat me, a knight, in sensing the enemy presence.”

“There’s no need to be sad, at least your body is tougher than a mage.”

“... I can’t really imagine a knight with body weaker than a mage.”

“Then you have much to learn, Carla. The world is more vast than you can imagine.”

Suddenly, the door open widely on it’s own with a loud bang, then there I saw flashes of red light, blinding even my eyes.

Dammit! What the hell is this?!