Blackhole32 (Translator) : My utmost apologize for the late release! I have no excuse!
[ 5 ] Something more terrifying than death
Translator : Blackhole32 | Editor : whosays25
Gewalin and Janeyuu stood in front of a Red Sandworm"s cage. The cage was made to attract the visitors through the Red Sandworm. It was a box made out of stone, twenty meters in width and ten meters in height. One side of this giant stone box has no wall but has iron bars the size of an arm which allows the visitors to see the native monster more clearly.
The Red Sandworm"s appearance was similar to that of a giant earthworm. The outer skin was slimy blood red. Just seeing this could make anyone imagine the scent of blood and slime mixing together.
Gewalin stared at the fat worm which has an estimated diameter of two meters. The sight made her felt sick and wanted to vomit. Normally, she wouldn"t feel like this from seeing this kind of disgusting thing, but with its size, she could clearly see the waves after waves of moving meat. She couldn"t help but feel her stomach twitching.
Janeyuu seemed to have more tolerance than Gewalin as she didn"t changed her expression much. After learning that Gewalin didn"t know what Red Sandworm looked like, she led her to this place to see a real Red Sandworm before encountering another. She fished out her golden apple and waved it in front of the cage to attract the unmoving Red Sandworm.
Not so long after, it reacted to its favorite food. The worm busily moved its body around and showed its head that was hidden before. The head, resembling an earthworm, slowly slithered closer from inside the cage.
It was already terrifying for Gewalin, but for her, its movement raised the horror to another level. Her legs wobbled and lost strength because of this.
The worm stopped for a moment as if it was hesitating, then it slided the muscle around its head up, revealing four black beaks inside. The beaks were as if from that of a bird and was firmly shut together. The worm opened its mouth and then swung the whip-like tongue around itself like it was trying to feel the fragrance of the golden apple in the air.
Janeyuu threw her apple inside the cage. Then the worm rushed in to prop the apple to its mouth, quickly swallowing the fruit in no time before stopping its movement. A moment after that, its body shuddered and violently shook around until it was completely still on the ground.
"What"s wrong with it?" asked Gewalin.
"The Red Sandworm like sour things. When they eat anything sour, they will always react like this."
Gewalin was about to ask what else it likes, but she suddenly lost all strength. She fell on the ground when the Red Sandworm inside the cage suddenly used its long tongue to lick her, leaving a film of slimy liquid on her face.
She had never felt so weak like this ever since she was born. It was like all her strength was sucked out to the ground in an instant. With her legs being so wobbly like that, she struggled for life using her weakened arms to crawl away from the cage.
At first, Janeyuu was about to laugh, but when she saw her friend struggling and with face being covered with tears, she felt pity and was unable to laugh anymore. She supported her new friend"s shoulder then brought her away from the cage before sitting on the nearby bench. After that, Janeyuu used a piece of cloth to clean the slimy liquid on Gewalin"s face.
Gewalin cried uncontrollably and was unable to help herself. She had thought that even if it was the him from three hundred years ago, he would still end up in that situation too. Well, except the image of a young man having his tears flowing out from his eyes is more unpleasant. People usually thought to themselves that they are already brave enough to handle anything which rushes to them. Until they experienced that themselves, that"s when they will bitterly understand that they"re not as courageous as they thought.
"Are you alright now?" Janeyuu asked after she saw her friend feeling better.
Gewalin tried to sneak a glance at the source of horror in the cage not far away. However, she was frightened once again when she saw the eyeless head staring at her direction.
"Let"s get out of here." Gewalin half-ran, half-walked while pulling Janeyuu away till they reached the stone-tiled area next to the desert outside the town.
"I don"t want to do this anymore. If I have to hunt these creatures, I"d rather die and resp.a.w.n at Gawglai city." Gewalin spoke in a serious manner.
Janeyuu blinked repeatedly and responded in an even serious tone. "Are you sure? A lot of monsters in this game looked like that. Someday, you will have to fight these nasty slimy creatures for sure. Or are you going to change your playstyle to profession and find jobs instead? … But I think you"re more suited to fighting. Also, I know you like it more too."
Gewalin was dumbfounded when she heard that. If what her friend told was true, then she still has to fight these horrifying monsters someday. She better prepare for that now.
"Gewalin, you go to the town now. Don"t look back no matter what." Janeyuu suddenly spoke in a low tone and intensely stared towards the empty wide desert behind them.
If there"s a best phrase to make someone turn their head back, that would be "Don"t look back". If it was when Gewalin was running from dangers, then she would still uphold her motto of not looking back while sprinting away. But in times like this, right after Janeyuu finished her sentence, her curiosity was enough to make her turn her head.
What she saw almost made her faint. She was greeted by the sight of Red Sandworms which varies from the size of utility pole to that of a water tunnel. They showed their head up out of the sand with every single one of them heading to her direction.
"Don"t move, stay still" Janeyuu warned Gewalin as she got her metal helmet out of her inventory to equip it.
"Strange, why did they show up? Haven"t we used up all the golden apple?" Gewalin asked while shivering and at the same time, trying to maintain her consciousness.
Janeyuu spoke through her helmet and readied her sword. "I just realized this when you said that… a very strong golden apple"s fragrance is coming from you. I think it is the smell emitted from my apple before."
"Don"t tell me you know this all along and you planned to use me as bait?" Gewalin would be very angry if what she said is true.
"No, people don"t normally emit that kind of smell after eating it." Janeyuu answered seriously. Examining her situation, she has no chance of surviving a fight against this number of Red Sandworms head-on.
As she saw her friend actually being serious, Gewalin started to believe in Janeyuu"s innocence, after that she realized something.
"I ate some herbal beef stew yesterday as my dinner. Could that be the cause?"
Janeyuu went silent for a moment, but her eyes are still fixed at the Red Sandworms. They aren"t yet attacking because the girls are standing on the thick stone tiles. If those things attacked, they will be immediately powerless when out of the sand where they used to submerge themselves at will.
"It"s possible. Maybe, the apple you ate mixed with the herbs on your body to let out this delicious fragrance which in turn had lured the worms out of their hiding to the surface."
"d.a.m.n it!" Gewalin started to curse as if she was in her old era. Right now, her disgust has been completely replaced by her sense of survival. She was also feeling some anger.
The sand in front of them suddenly swirled up, shaking the ground, trembling in a way that everyone in Foon Daeng Town could feel. Gewalin and Janeyuu widen their eyes in shock as the mountain of sand became higher and higher.
A Red Sandworm with a diameter comparable to an eight lane road emerged from the sand while violently whisking its head around. It shook off the sand on its head which clouded the area. It extended its head high in the air, exceeding a fifty meters height. Perhaps, even the person standing on the other side of the town would clearly see the towering monster far away. Aside from its unusually gigantic size which couldn"t be found to the other Red Sandworms, its mouth is also shining and silvery serrated. (TL: is that thing Shai Hulud?)
"It seems you"ve become ultimately delicious to summon even that thing out there." Janeyuu teased.
The gigantic worm didn"t waste time and immediately arched down with the full intent of eating Gewalin.
Through sheer survival instinct, Gewalin and Janeyuu used all their strength to swiftly run away . The weight and hardness of its head was surprisingly superior than any other Red Sandworms. It broke through the two-meters thick stone floor and completely rendered it rubbish. Even the buildings nearby were destroyed by this one hit.
"Let"s meet again at Gawglai city!" Gewalin had barely evaded the mouth of the gigantic worm. She shouted to Janeyuu while changing direction. Now, she"s running with full speed and also luring the gigantic worm away from her friend.
The gigantic Red Sandworm pulled its head out of the destroyed floor and initiated an attack once again. Now this is becoming the true doom of this town, because the direction Gewalin is running to is coincidentally the heart of the town. The meter-thick stone tiles can"t withstand the attack even once, the surrounding structures collapsed after the trail of Gewalin.
On the wreckages of the town, smaller Red Sandworms quickly popped out of the sand to attack people with their sharp mouth. The players who has some combat ability could help themselves to some extend. Some evaded the attacks but the other people who can"t fighting well quickly decreased in numbers.
Dead people piled up as time pa.s.ses. Because Gewalin is running around the town, the destruction of the stone floor spread which enable more Red Sandworms to come out of the cracks.
But it"s not like no one can do anything about them. Fortunately, there are still a few groups of people who had experienced something like this before. Many players rushed into the fray and fought the Red Sandworms with high mobility. One characteristic of the Red Sandworms is that whenever they receive wounds they will release high glutinous liquid, making the weapons dull and decreasing the ability to cut. Good thing that the experienced players have their own strategy of handling this.
Some used spear-like weapons with heads having arrow-like tips which are similar to harpoons to attack the worms by piercing pulling them onto the stone floor. Some used arrows or harpoons with rope tied into the weapons to pierce the monsters into the pillars.. There"s also a group with magical abilities. They cleverly made a pit out of ice around the worms and trapped them inside. Some groups also use la.s.so with iron barbs and tethered the worms with big anchors to prevent them from returning into the sand.
However, there more than a hundred Red Sandworms which are several times the number of the fighters" hands which made it improbable to finish them all. The gigantic Red Sandworm is still chasing after Gewalin who tried to hide in the corner of the buildings in Foon Daeng Town. Unfortunately, it seems like the smell of the golden apple coming from her is too great. Wherever she ran to, the giant worm is able to precisely follow her with no delay.
Clouds of dirts and sands from the destruction were forming a thick screen around her which made her unable to see anything. She has no choice but to blindly run and evade as best as she can. Maybe, it"s because the Red Sandworms do not belong to the group of intellectual monsters, so far, she managed to survive from the giant worm"s attacks.
When she realized this, she had already reached a big well on the natural oasis found at the center of the town. Of course, the worm is still following her and so Gewalin decided to jump into the well without much thinking.
She fell and dive into the bottomless well. It was after many minutes when she finished dangling in the air and struck the water surface, momentarily shocking her and making her unable to breath. Swimming with a metal arm made loud noises which echoed throughout the well. The light from the top was gone, replaced by the shadow of the giant worm that is trying to squeeze its way down the fitting hole. It has to wiggle its body to the well"s wall to slowly push itself deeper.
Gewalin strugglingly swam towards the crack in the wall she has seen before hitting the water. The rough and sharp stone wall scratched her clothes that was exposed from the gap of her armor. Her skin was cut by the rocks and blood was coming out, but regardless, she still tried to push herself in and finally succeeded.
The gigantic worm that followed Gewalin"s scent had arrived at the water surface near to where Gewalin had slide through and found that the fragrance of the apple was gone. It tried to go deeper with the understanding that its delicious food had dove further into the water. Unfortunately, there"s no way for the worm to know that the reason why the smell of the apple disappeared was because the slimy liquid on its body had completely blocked the crack on the wall and no longer had any hole for the smell to leak through.
Gewalin was panting while hearing her heart throbbing rapidly like the sound of drum. Meanwhile, the gigantic Red Sandworm continued squeezing its body deeper into the well. The worm pushed forward until its body was almost out of the sea of sand. After a while it reached the bottom of the well.
While Gewalin was concerning herself on how to get out, she felt the tremor once again as the red giant worm used its mouth to penetrate the hard stone in the bottom.
Time flew slowly in the crack on the well"s wall and long after, the digging has stopped because the worm had reached the subterranean water source which was filled with enormous amount of natural gas. Even though the gigantic Red Sandworm has high strength and stamina, it couldn"t hold itself to the well. The high pressure water stream pushed the worm back to the entrance violently.
Gewalin was also pushed back by the water, slipping inside the crack further and further until she was pushed into a more s.p.a.cious area on the crack. From a little crack, it became a tunnel as the stream push her.
The surrounding was very dark. She"s unable to describe how the tunnel looks . All she knew was the feeling that she was pushed higher. She could only endure the impact from the rocks and hoped to survive.
After trying to force herself out of the water and breathe for a few times, the water current finally slowed down. The reason was because she finally reached the s.p.a.cious underground lake where the water for the well in Foon Daeng town was coming from. This lessen the pressure of the stream.
Gewalin dragged herself out of the lake with tiredness, her shoulder bag and axe had been separated from her without her knowing. Due to fatigue, she fell asleep on that lake.
No one knew how much time had pa.s.sed, Gewalin woke up with energetic feeling but her stomach is empty. It was at this moment when she finally had observed her vicinity. Now, she"s sitting alongside a big underground lake. The ceiling of the big cave was like a dome covering the entire lake. Normally, she wouldn"t be able to see anything under the ground blocking the sunlight, but the glowing blue mushrooms growing everywhere and the many lichens glowing with orange light was brightening up the place, allowing Gewalin to clearly see the surrounding.
Gewalin explored around the lake which was probably bigger than six combined football fields and found herself in a closed cave with no exit. There"s nothing here other than the glowing lichens and mushrooms. Because of hunger, Gewalin decided to taste the dim glowing blue light mushroom.
At first, it tasted bland, but when she chew longer, the smooth taste was gradually felt. Its taste was like that of a termitomyces but softer with the taste staying the longer Gewalin was chewing. She enjoyed it for a moment then accidentally swallowed it.
Aside from the taste being very delicious, it unexplainably moistened her throat. Then, her personal mushroom eating festival had started. She slowly enjoyed the glowing mushrooms and then tried to sc.r.a.pe the glowing lichens to put them later in her mouth. The taste was also beyond her expectation because it was hot and spicy like lemon gra.s.s mixed with capsic.u.m and lesser galanga. The most notable thing was the strong fragrance that ran through her nose which was similar to peppermint mixed with basil, making her mouth so fresh. When eating these two together, the feeling was even more brilliant as the taste of the mushroom and lichen a.s.sists each other to make the experience even greater. (TL: These are ingredient native for seasoning in asia, especially southeast asia and Thailand, as they like spicy food) (ED: Hehe, the only spicy food I like is siomai…)
Gewalin regretted that her bag was now gone or else, she would collect everything till her bag is full. After thinking for a moment, she realized that her belt could store potions. Maybe, she could store the mushroom and lichens in the belt like those potions.
When she summoned the belt"s inventory window, she found out that the ten health potions she got from the Moonwitch are empty. Gewalin realized that these potions must have been automatically used when she crashed into the stone wall of the cave. She got the emptied bottles out and tried to put the glowing mushrooms in but was met with failure. She then stared at the bottles again and tried to put the smaller lichens inside this time to store in her inventory. The result was that she could store it in but couldn"t automatically use it. While understanding that, she then sc.r.a.ped the lichens and put them inside the bottles as much as she can, until there"s only a bottle left. That"s when she thought about the glowing mushroom.
Gewalin picked some of the glowing mushrooms and looked around for a rock. She chose a rock with concave shape and used her mechanical arm to crush the mushrooms against it. After that, thick blue glowing liquid gushed out. She used a piece of cloth from her shirt and absorbed the liquid, then slowly twisted it to let the liquid into the gla.s.s bottle. She filled it full by patiently doing this step many times. She then ate the remaining mushroom from the extraction and made her stomach full.
After dealing with the glowing mushrooms and lichens, Gewalin explored the cave once again with the hope of finding the exit, but after wandering for a long time, she still did not find any path that could lead her outside other than the route that brought her here. But that"s also the path leading to the depth of the lake and she"s positive that she couldn"t swim her way up through it.
She still found nothing even after a long time. Finally, she decided to do the thing she won"t do except if left with no choice.
Gewalin picked the easiest side to climb and climbed up without the slightest intention of committing suicide by jumping from high place. Sad to say when she reached about three meters, her hand slipped and then she fell to the ground.
The result after free-falling from a three meters height was the sensation of having a severe colic, unable to let out a sound. After experiencing that once, no one would want to taste it for a second time, Gewalin included. When she had rested for a while, just right for the colic to fade, she changed suicidal mind and decided to find another exit.
She didn"t realize that the pain from before was enough for the other players to suffocate until death.
That time an idea came to her. She tried to use her mechanical arm to knock around the cave"s wall till she found a spot which let out an echo from the other side. Gewalin backed away and put all her strength into swinging her arm to blast away that part of the wall.
Through the sheer impact, plus the strength and the weight of her mechanical arm, the hollow and fragile wall cracked, revealing the hidden path. Gewalin smiled with happiness. Even though she doesn"t know where this path lead to, it"s still better than being stranded in a large cave.
Gewalin knocked around the walls and wracked them like before for so many times until she met a dead end. She found it fortunate that she can still continue this way without walking around in circle. After advancing for a bit, she realized she could still see in the dark without any light source and then wondered why. It was at this moment that she found herself glowing with mixed blue and orange light. She didn"t have to think much , obviously the causes were the mushrooms and lichens she had eaten. Because of this that she promised to herself not to eat anything strange without knowing what it is.
Many hour pa.s.sed by while she was paving her way out of the cave. Just when she was being disheartened by the fact that she doesn"t know the real way out, she heard the echoing sounds of a waterfall. Gewalin increased her pace and destroyed every wall in front of her. The sound of the waterfall grew louder an louder. With the last wall destroyed, the bright light came into the cave which almost blinded her. This time Gewalin realized and felt that she was falling down a cliff. (ED: Heyya, queen of bad luck.)
After a loud splash, Gewalin began to wonder how many times she had fallen from high places. The stream of water pushed her through a somewhat familiar jungle. Afterwards, she fell into yet another waterfall but this time, higher than anything she experienced before.
While she was falling in the air, she noticed a familiar pathway beside the river and realized this is the fall behind her home at Gawgali city. The stream from the well in Foon Daeng Town drove her to an unexpected distance.
Another loud splash once again blew up but with the additional sound of Gewalin"s agony from the pain gained from the impact of the fall as the the water level was lower from other parts of the falls, making her hit the smooth stone ground below. If there"s no water to absorb the force then she would have surely become a pile of meat by now.
On the other handm the shallow water was quite helpful such tht she didn"t get washed away by the waves. Gewalin tried to crawl out of the water and unsteadily walked her way to her small house. When she arrived there, she found Janeyuu was waiting in front of the house.
"How… did you get here?" Gewalin asked before she fell down unconscious.
Gewalin regained her senses and found herself lying and glowing on her wooden bed in the house while Janeyuu was taking care of her.
"How did you know this place?" Gewalin asked in confusion.
Actually, Janeyuu was more concerned on why her friend was glowing like a dis...o...b..ll, but she decided to answer anyway. "When you lured away the Red Sandworm King, I followed you too… Oh! I also picked up your bag and axe that you dropped."
Gewalin"s eyes followed Janeyuu"s finger and found her leather bag and axe.
"When I saw you jumped in the well and with that worm following you inside, I thought you wouldn"t survive for sure. That was why I called a carriage and escaped there. But when I was about to enter the carriage, a man told me that you used to live here and that I should wait for you here."
When Gewalin heard that, she only pondered for a moment. Then she could already guess who that man is, and so she asked,
"Was a small, grey falcon with him?"
Janeyuu searched through her memories for a while and then shook her head, "No, I didn"t see any bird around him, but he told me that he"s the one who gave you this house. He coincidentally found you at Foon Daeng Town and stalked you. Then he saw everything. When he saw that I was about to return to the town, he approache me and said where to find you."
Gewalin nodded. "Did he mention his name?"
"Hawk, he said his name is Hawk … He also told me that he might meet me again. By the way, how did you get to know him?"
Gewalin sighed and said, "I"ve yet to meet him face-to-face."
"Huh? … well, that aside. Now I really want to know how you became a walking rainbow."
"Eh… it"s a long story."