Chapter 23: A Strange Place
Chapter 23: A Strange Place
Varian looked at the incoming attacks and urged Kyle “Do it!”
Kyle grabbed Varian’s shoulder and a blue light flashed.
Varian felt himself pulled out of the world, like he was sucked into a dark space, and before he knew it, he landed on a table.
[Space Path Level 0: 10/30]
‘Was it because I directly experienced teleportation?’ Varian thought, but looking around, he realized he had no time.
His nerves tensed up, and he whispered “We’re dead.”
Kyle was a bit slow, but he too realized they were in a tavern. Upon teleportation, they landed on a table and they’re surrounded by Abyss Knights.
Varian felt the urge to curse. Kyle teleported them into the city and right in the middle of Abyss Knights.
“Humans! Die!”
In the blink of an eye, spears, swords, axes were thrown at them.
The attacks came from all directions, and they had no way of escaping. Unless…
“Kyle! Teleport again!”
“What if I teleport you into the middle of a wall! I can’t control it yet!” Kyle cried.
Varian glared at him and said, “Do it!”
Kyle nodded and held Varian.
A blue light flashed, and Varian once again felt being sucked into a dark space. Before he could even think, he found himself under a hill.
Looking at the castle on top of the hill, Varian felt his head spin.
‘What the fuck! We went from wolves to tigers.’
“Catch them!”
“Torture!”
Varian and Kyle heard the shouts from a distance. The patrolling Abyssal knights saw them under the hill and rushed at them.
Since the Abyss Lord’s castle was on the hill, the hill itself would be tightly guarded. There were at least 50 Abyssal Knights patrolling.
Varian looked at Kyle who buried his face in his neck. This was the reason he didn’t want to teleport in the first case. He couldn’t control the location and often ended up teleporting himself to dangerous places.
Varian felt his heart race. They escaped death from Narcis, only to end up in the tavern and now they’re going to face these Abyssals under the hill.
They were in the middle of the city. They’d have no chance of outrunning them.
‘Is that it?’ Varian scanned around and saw nothing but the red hill. To his plight, there were even more Abyssal Knights coming down from the path down the hill.
At that moment,
[Space Path Level 0: 20/30]
The System prompted. Varian was close to awakening in the Space Path. He would’ve been ecstatic if he wasn’t 200 meters away from 50 Abyssal Knights.
‘But there’s only one thing we can do now.’ He turned to Kyle and said, “Since we’ll die if we fight, give one last try. Teleport!”
Kyle looked at Varian and then at the Abyssals Knights, who closed the distance to 100 meters. A few Abyssals aimed their spears at them and were about to take a shot.
Demon Abyss had Abyssals specializing in Body Path. If it was in Hollow Abyss, they’d face Space Awakener Abyssals. They’d be dead by now.
‘Like Varian says, it’s not over until you quit.’ Kyle gritted his teeth and touched Varian.
He channeled his aura and …
The spears passed through empty air and the Abyssals stood stupefied for a moment.
Then the leading Abyssal Knight yelled, “Search everywhere. Also inform the Special Zone to send a knight to check, they might have teleported in.”
… … …
“Ugh”
Varian opened his eyes and found himself lying on the ground.
Kyle fainted from continuous use of teleportation. There was no one else in the darkroom.
‘He’ll wake up in a few minutes. Till then we have to stop moving.’ Varian stood up, surveyed the dark surroundings and realized they were in a room.
The walls of the room were filled with paintings of Abyssals killing humans.
“Click” He stepped on something and felt it crack. His nerves tensed up, and he put on his gauntlets in the blink of an eye. After waiting a few seconds, he focused his sight on the ground and found what cracked… a skull.
‘Human skull!’ Varian hissed.
But the more pressing issue was ‘Where are we?’
There was a huge corridor made of black tiles.
‘Adamantine…’ he recognized the metal. ‘These prodigals.’ He cursed. Adamantine was one of the top alloys for defense. It could even withstand the attacks of a Level 6 Awakener. Thus, it was very expensive.
Varian focused his hearing and heard nothing in the vicinity.
‘We’re temporarily safe.’ He heaved a sigh of relief.
At the same time, system prompted:
[Space Path Level 1: 0/100
Congratulations on awakening in your second Divine path.]
Varian held his breath and felt a significant portion of aura in his mind sucked in. He closed his eyes and felt something change deep within.
Aura entered his body and a part of it turned to “chi” and supported his Body path.
Another part, albeit little, converted into something else. Varian tapped into it and channeled the new thing in his body.
He felt a connection to the “Space” around.
‘So this is space power, huh.’ Varian recalled the name of one of the aura derivatives.
Upon entering his body, Aura turned into chi and space power. He could feel space power acting as a connection between him and space.
[Space Path Level 1: 0/100
Space Binding: Solidify space through direct contact.
Short Teleportation: Teleport to short distance.]
Varian read the description and decided to test out his new powers.
He equipped himself with his gauntlet on left hand. He channeled the space power and focused it on his right hand.
He felt something change around his right hand. It was like his hand was in a sticky liquid. He needed to exert much more effort to move.
“Swish”
He lightly punched at his right hand with his left.
“Krr..”
Varian felt an unusual resistance when his fist was about to punch his hand. It was like he was punching in the water, but the water was much viscous.
“Click”
His fist connected with his hand, and the damage was within a tolerable range. With his original strength, there should at least be a minor fracture.
‘As expected.’
Varian removed his gauntlet and touched his right hand. It felt like there was a layer of invisible metal around his arm, preventing him from moving forward.
He pushed through this invisible barrier and finally touched his hand.
‘So Space binding my own hand solidifies the space around it and gives defense. That means I can add a layer of protection to any part of the body.’
He figured out the pros of the skill. Then came the cons.
‘But I can’t move my hand freely when I space bind it. But all the Space Awakeners I’ve seen in battles move freely. So this must be a problem that will be solved if I advance.’ He concluded.
‘What if I use this on other objects?’ he channeled the “space power” to the gauntlet he wore on his left hand.
Varian tried to touch the gauntlet and had the same experience. The layer of space around the gauntlet solidified, preventing him from accessing it easily.
“What are you doing?” Kyle’s voice sounded from behind, jolting him out of his thoughts.
Varian waved his hands “Just an experiment. I’ll tell you later.”
He didn’t want Kyle to know, for his own good. Varian didn’t think kyle would leak his secret. But secrets are best kept buried.
‘Maybe if I grow strong one day.’ Varian thought.
“Where are we?”
“I don’t know. But somewhere temporarily safe. Now that you’re awake, let’s find a way out.” Varian urged.
The only reason he didn’t venture carrying kyle was if they encountered an Abyssal, an unconscious kyle would be in fatal danger.
“Good.” Kyle nodded, and they exited the room sneakily.
Varian and Kyle tip toed in the corridor. The walls were inscribed with murals. The buddies found, to their surprise and horror, that these murals were the depictions of humanity’s history since the blink.
The corridor had divergences, halls, and… labs. Despite a conservative estimate, Varian counted at least two hundred skeletons. Kyle counted another three hundred.
Connecting the dots, Varian came to one conclusion.
‘We are inside the hill. This is secret facility of sorts. Is it just for research?’
They continued to walk in deliberate silence. They passed through various empty rooms until Varian felt a slight… tremor.
Then…
“Run!” despite the fact that he might alert the Abyssals in this structure, Varian yelled.
Kyle and Varian ran down the corridor, trying to find an exit to the outside world, to the city.
“Boom!”
The ceiling started to collapse, and the duo had to dodge the debris.
“Boom!”
Varian had to focus hard on his hearing to filter the noise. He had been trying to find an exit.
“There!” he signalled and dashed to the left.
He heard the “flow” of wind. Taking left and then right, Varian saw an exit. It was a small exit, and the outside was at the bottom of the hill.
“Boom!”
They had no time. He knew it. But at least they can make it.
“Humans!” At the worst possible time, Varian saw a severely injured Abyssal Knight running at him. His speed was faster than Varian and he’d catch up before either of them could exit. That meant they’d both be trapped here.
Varian looked at kyle and yelled “Go! I’ll come soon.”
Without looking back, he continued, “If you stay, you’ll be a burden. Now get out!”
Kyle looked at Varian rushing to the Abyssal and muttered “I’ll save you one day.” He rushed to the exit and through the falling debris, he jumped out.
Varian saw kyle exit and heaved a sigh of relief.
“Boom!”
Debris completely covered the exit. Since it was made of Adamantine, Varian had no chance of clearing it without spending a tonne of time.
‘Damn it!’
‘There might be another exit.’ He glanced past the Abyssal and saw the trail of its green blood.
‘I can follow its path.’ He decided and dodged the Abyssal’s attack. He chased the green blood trail.
The Abyssal Knight chased Varian but his injuries continued to take a toll on him and in a few minutes, Varian threw him off.
“Boom!”
On the way, he passed through the falling debris and barely managed to find the end of the blood trail or, to be precise, where the Abyssal knight was injured.
He saw a large chunk of adamantine dyed with green blood.
‘Why didn’t he dodge?’ Varian passed through the large adamantine block and peeked inside.
“Hiss!”
Varian saw a huge room filled with Aura crystals. In the center of the room was an altar. Guarding it were ten Abyssal Knights.
They were desperately protecting the altar and the aura crystals.
‘What are they protecting … no, where is my exit?’ Varian tried to find a way out but he realized he was in trouble.
The Abyssals locked their eyes with him.