Vidio began to run at breakneck speed, keeping his trousers up with both hands and leaving behind a bunch of speechless mercenaries. He spotted the Dungeon entry not far away from him. Their voices though were getting nearer and nearer.
“Shit.”
With a last sudden movement, Vidio reached for the cave and rushed into it. A shroud of thick darkness swallowed him up like a monster’s jaws. Vidio’s Mana seethed violently through his Meridians. He hastily transferred it to his skin, that soon began to emit a feeble glare which was shiny enough to light up that absolute darkness. Vidio hurriedly looked about himself as he slowly slowed down to button his trousers back.
It was definitely no plain Dungeon. There were no tunnels nor hallways. It was an endless underground area whose slope seemed to lead him lower and lower as he advanced. The area ended in number of ravines and steep cliffs.
Out of the corner of his eye, the young Master saw several demons cast him bloodshot glances, causing a shiver down his spine. There seemed to be more monsters than he had thought. Given that he could survive Beritius’ hit men, then he was likely to die by hand of those monsters.
“Looks like I’m in a pretty nice barrel full of shit,” Vidio said angrily. After all, Beritius hadn’t been that foolish. He had it all mapped out; if Vidio survived death by human hands, he would need to rush into a hardly survivable Dungeon. It was basically impossible to get out of there alive. This way, none could dare denounce Beritius’ harsh move to send him there, since he would get rid of the mercenaries as well. No trace would be left behind of any of them.
As Vidio pondered on this, a bunch of bolts darted a few inches from him, like circles ripping the darkness of the Dungeon. “I already have an ass-hole! No need for one more, thank you anyway,” he cursed.
For a few seconds, Vidio inspected the bottomless gorge unravelling all the way down from those uncanny cliffs. He made up his mind. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice anyway.
He jumped off.
Without waiting for any second longer.
Which was probably the best thing to do, since a new attack had just been delivered. One more second of hesitation would have meant a chest thrusted by an arrow.
Vidio hastily ran a hand through his sweaty hair as he fell off: “You all wanna grab a bite of this wonderful ass, huh? Sorry for you guys, get in line!”
With the coolest clear thinking, Vidio brought both legs to his chest, generated an electric field under and about him, and then began to glide down as his slowed his rate of descent.
There was no way to acquire any flying capabilities before the Fifth Phase. In the Third Phase though, you could learn the Divine Sense. The Divine Sense was a fully-fledged sense the user would create by means of Mana. Its power was directly related to the user’s talent. It was an outstanding power indeed, which could easily turn the tables of a fight, if used properly. And its primary, basic function was the detector one. Despite being a pretty rough usage, the Divine Sense made for a great sensor which would fathom the very depths of a place or a person, given that the latter had a weaker Divine Sense.
“Captain! Captain!” a voice cried from the edge of the cliff.
The hit men had reached the Dungeon as well. They hadn’t lost the slightest heart! But Vidio was now flying down low and therefore impossible to reach. He must have crashed against the floor even.
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The head of the group gave the order to retreat.
The Dungeon monsters were already gathering around their group. Some attacks flew through the air. The group leader wouldn’t have much trouble in facing them, but the same couldn’t be said of his subordinates. The monsters were too many. And also, that damned gorge really caused a shiver down his spine.
That Dungeon was definitely one of the most disquieting he had ever stepped into. The whole area exuded a weird deathly Aura which made his hair stand on end. The leader checked the ravine depth that scoundrel had jumped off of. Most likely, the bottom - was there one even? - must host even more terrifying creatures than those up there. How was a common pleb yet to reach the Third Phase supposed to be able to step down on the ravine depth unharmed, and then survive the terrifyingly powerful beasts that lived there?
The head of the group felt Mana flow inside his Meridians feebly. That deathly Aura must have some sort of negative effect on Mana Reflow. He shook his head, more and more sure that leaving that place would turn out to be the best choice. They wouldn’t go too far though. They would wait for Vidio to exit just near the Dungeon entry. Given that he would ever exit, right.
Meanwhile, Vidio was gently gliding down. Like, not really gently, but sort of. The Master couldn’t take the fullest control of the fall. He had hit a bunch of rocky slopes already. While the hit men ran towards the entry at full speed, a ghastly echo resounded out through the cave as profound words were pronounced solemnly, such as: “What the fuck!”, “Shit!”, “Deeper than a bitch’s throat!”, “The only harder thing than that rock is my cock!”
As he swayed on the electromagnetic wave, which was the result of years of hard training to get to the fullest mastery of his Element, Vidio realized that the lower he reached, the rarer the demons. After he outreached a certain depth, every life form seemed to have disappeared from the Dungeon.
In a place like that, lack of monsters could only mean one thing; most likely, down there lived a creature which was so frighteningly overpowered that made the perfect deterrent for any other.
“Close a door and you’ll stumble on a big load of demon shit,” Vidio swore grumpily. His senses were going insane. Something was warning him that down that ravine was such a terrifying creature. There would appear be no reasonable option but to climb up the cliff and rush into the hit men’s hug. But still, despite his instinct suggesting otherwise, he furrowed his eyebrows. He inhaled deeply and began to slow down his descent in view of the bottom.
Once stepped on the bottom, Vidio straightened his clothes and looked about himself. It was time to explore the area and look for a way out.
All in all, Vidio had never been a warrior of the sensitive kind. Yeah, sure, chasing after women being his favorite hobby, but the truth is, the future Master was a collected calculative one.
Helial saw the young Vidio wander warily through the ravine bottom.
“Hey, Devil. You’re here, aren’t you?” Helial asked.
Laying on some strange hill inside the boy’s Soul, the kid woke up from his day-dream and smiled evilly. First time he calls me Devil instead of master. Like what, is it too hard to accept that goodwill is overrated?
Most likely, Helial was rediscovering his quiescent feelings towards Vidio’s death. It was indeed true that the Devil had saved him a number of times. After all, it was thanks to him that Helial could put his hands on Skills and information that anyone else could only dream of. However, it was just as true that the Devil was the one who hadn’t raised a finger to prevent Vidio from dying. His overly unlimited power would have let him save Vidio effortlessly. Even though this had happened a long ago, this burnt was still far from healing.
Helial had by now understood that the Devil could easily turn Caesar into dust with a snap of his fingers. Otherwise, the King of Orma would have spotted the Devil through his Divine Sense long ago. And yet the Devil remained undetected. If an Immortal’s Divine Sense couldn’t perceive him, this meant that the Devil was terribly stronger than any Immortal in Orma.
And despite this limitless power, the Devil hadn’t interposed to help Helial.
“Yep,” was the only word that boomed out through Helial’s Soul in the ghastliest echo.
Helial nodded slowly and focused on Vidio.
After several hours spent wandering, the deathly Aura grew more oppressive. Vidio seemed much closer now to the origin of that miasma.
“If this intensifies, I won’t be able to go any farther. My Meridians already show sign of corruption. My skin is burning. My vision gets blurred. I can’t survive here for more than another half an hour. If I haven’t found a way out in fifteen minutes’ time, then…”
As he pronounced these words, Vidio wound up in front of a vast area which stretched for several kilometers away. At the very center stood a terrifying sight.