The old man had a thin build, wrinkled, spotted skin, and a twirly white mustache. Without much difficulty, he picked up Jules and put him on his shoulders.

Christopher couldn’t help but be amazed. Despite the man’s small stature and his flimsy build, he lifted Jules up as if he were weightless. It must have been the effect of the man’s stats. He probably dumped most of his points into Might.

“Thanks,” Christopher said.

“Don’t worry; he is almost as light as a feather to me,” Brune said before lowering down and grabbing a big five-fingered terror–its fingers broken after Christopher had crushed it to the ground.

Christopher watched with surprise as the old man pulled on a dark skin patch, which rapidly became loose. He easily peeled back the skin, revealing dark, foul flesh beneath.

“Here, have this,” Brune said, handing Christopher the wrinkled piece of skin. “It will be a small memento of your mishap.”

Christopher accepted the wrinkled skin. As he did, bright runes appeared in his vision.

[Name]: Five-Nailed Spawn Skin (Common)

[Type]: Consumable (1 use remaining)

[Description]: The grotesque remains of an otherworldly abomination. Upon use, it burrows into the flesh, consuming the user’s hand and leaving behind an unnatural appendage.

The Five-Nailed spawn feels neither pain nor temperature but won’t tire easily.

Binds the Five-Nailed Spawn page to your Tale.

+3 Might, +2 Grace, -1 Blood, -2 Integrity, -1 Slot.

What kind of creepy item is this? Christopher wondered. But he didn’t dare to ask any questions and, after a quick smile, stuck the skin in his pocket.

“Here, have these too,” Brune continued, letting a bunch of bloody molars fall into his open palm.

Christopher’s eyes opened wide, his heart pained with guilt.

“I know they are disgusting,” Brune said, rapidly opening the ghouls' corpses. “But these can be worth quite a bit on this floor, especially during flood season. Young Fabled like you use these to farm Sand Marlins. I guess you still don’t have that resistance page?”

Christopher shook his head. He had no idea what the man was talking about but didn’t dare to show ignorance. With no other option, he stuffed the three molars into his pocket.

“That’s a nice sword you have,” Salvio interrupted snarkily, pointing at the sword Christopher was holding.

He replied with a shy smile before securing it to Jules's waist. Something in his guts told him there was something wrong with that guy.

Christopher watched his hand and saw the burned, blistered skin. It would hurt for a few days unless he could find the time to treat it with Crimson Proof.

“Let’s get moving,” Brune encouraged again. “Do you still have any light on that light crystal of yours?”

Christopher looked at his crystal. Indeed, it now appeared dimmer than before.

“It should last for another ten minutes,” Brune said. “Good, you can turn off our Radiant Lantern. Feels like a waste to use it on this floor.”

Salvio flickered his right hand, causing the lantern he was carrying to disappear. Meanwhile, Christopher ran to one of the walls and recovered his spear.

They started moving, but before they even made it to the end of the chamber, more clattering approached from the darkness.

“Need me to swap to my armor?” Brune asked. Salvio shook his head and stepped forward, a wooden javelin appearing in his massive hand.

“Only two of them,” he said.

Salvio’s back muscles appeared to brim with power as he shot the javelin with such speed that Christopher’s eyes couldn’t keep up with it.

From the distant tunnel, he clearly heard a ghoul wailing in pain.

Two more javelins quickly followed, the first putting down the wounded terror and the second killing it in one blow.

Christopher wasn’t sure how Salvio was confirming the kills, but the man appeared sure he had terminated the threat.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

They resumed their march, finally exiting the chamber, but not long after, the clamor of four more ghouls attracted their attention.

Once again, Salvio took care of them, and despite looking exhausted, he didn’t complain.

“Care to put out that crystal?” Brune finally requested. “We are a bit spent already, and I don’t want to keep having a bunch of enraged ghouls attack us. Salvio spent a great deal of stamina back there. It would be good not to exceed ourselves, even if this is just the third.”

Christopher hesitated momentarily before sticking it into his pants, completely snuffing out the light. He realized Brune believed they were being targeted because of the light when, instead, it was because of the Morman Molar he had fed Jules.

He hoped they didn’t realize what he had done.

“Aren’t the hands gonna come after us?” He whispered. Now that no light was around him, his dark vision activated, and he could see Brune and Salvio, brimming with dim blue light.

“Don’t worry, they usually don’t leave the nursery,” Brune replied. “But let’s hurry. I don’t like staying so close to it.”

“Can you see in the dark?” Christopher questioned.

“No, but we have this,” Brune said, pulling what appeared like a thin, white rope out of thin air and looping it around his arm. He counted a good twenty meters of rope before looping it again, this time around Salvio.

“Sorry, I forgot you can’t see,” Brune apologized. “We only have enough for the two of us. It’s a Lumenless Beast umbilical cord,” he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Very useful, especially on these beginner floors, where the terrors are slow, and we don’t have to worry about our movement so much.”

“How do others usually transverse it?” Christopher asked with curiosity.

“How do you do it?” Salvio lashed out, and Christopher realized he might have revealed too much.

“We go through it blindly,” he said, hoping not to incur suspicions.

Salvio laughed his ass off.

“You can’t be serious,” Salvio replied. “If you don’t have a better way, just light up a crystal and power through. No wonder you two got lost.”

Christopher nodded but didn’t answer.

“Grab my shirt and follow us,” Brune said.

He did as requested and grabbed Brune’s shirt, following them through the web of tunnels.

“Do you know the way out?” Christopher asked after a while.

“Not really,” Brune replied. “We have the path between the Crossroad and the Apex mostly figured out–as most Authors who are not newbies do. However, we’ve come too far this time. Don’t worry, though. We will find the way out eventually.”

“Yeah,” Salvio smirked from the side. “We still have hopes of finding the missing guy.”

Their progress was slow and grueling. Every couple of minutes, ghouls would appear, rushing from one of the tunnels. Every time, Salvio took them out before they could approach, but Christopher could tell the man was growing increasingly tired.

At some point, he also noticed the duo was avoiding the tunnels with the luminescent liquid and couldn’t help but ask why.

“What was that glowing liquid?” He asked, curious.

“Water,” Salvio replied abruptly.

“But it glows,” Christopher said with a frown.

Salvio didn’t reply right away, and instead, Christopher could see his face contorting into a disgusting smile.

“Did you know humans can smell fresh water better than sharks can smell blood in the water?” he whispered.

Why is he telling me this?

“Knock it off,” Brune ordered, and Brune broke off into a creepy laugh. “Don’t worry about him. He’s just an idiot.”

Christopher didn’t relax the grip on his spear. The two men had saved him, and Brune definitely appeared to be a nice guy. Salvio, however… Christopher started to think there was something wrong with that guy’s head.

“It really is water,” Brune replied. “Rumors say it's from the Styx river.”

“Styx river?” Christopher questioned. He was afraid of showing how much he didn’t know, but curiosity got the better of him.

“How have you not heard about it yet?” Salvio snickered.

“It’s normal,” Brune whispered. “Most Fabled don’t hear about it until they reach the 15th.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a river said to flow from the depths of the Labyrinth,” Brune replied.

“It flows against gravity?”

“Exactly,” Brune replied with satisfaction.

The old geezer seemed to take pleasure in teaching Christopher. “However, it only picks up that color on the 5th floor. There are some mushrooms there that release the glowing spores.”

“Is there a reason for you to be avoiding it?” He asked.

“Superstition,” Brune laughed while awkwardly scratching his head. “Walk around the Labyrinth for long enough, and you too will become superstitious.”

Christopher glanced at Salvio and noticed a suspicious light in his eyes. Not wanting to cause conflict, he averted his gaze. He didn’t want to risk the man realizing he could see in the dark.

He grabbed tightly onto Brune’s shirt, closed his eyes, and focused on the sound of water dripping in the distance.

If humans can smell fresh water so well, shouldn’t I, with my enhanced smell sense, be able to smell it even better?

Nothing more than a light, acrid scent reached his nose, barely enough to wake an itch on his right hand. Maybe he just didn’t know what water smelled like.

“How long have you been an Author?” Salvio probed, breaking the silence. He didn’t seem too worried about attracting more terrors.

“Two years,” Christopher lied. He looked beside him and noticed Brune lifting an eyebrow.

Salvio let out a dry laugh.

“Oh, your Prelude was on the 5th?” Salvio said snarkily. “It’s my first time meeting a survivor of the bloodbath. I never imagined you to be so helpless.”