1 Elder's Tablet

Back drenched with sweat and heart pounding like a blacksmith's hammer. In a faraway place, inside a dark passage painted with the smell of blood and feces, a 16-year-old paled-skin youth dragged himself forward with a flashlight in his hand. With each breath, he was one step closer to impending death.

Chills danced across his spine, but he could not back off. The walls of the tunnel-like passage were releasing dry fumes. His skin was itchy and his mind being dosed with nausea. A realization loomed over, reminding him that the situation has turned more deadly.

His throat dried like a desert while his skin felt a biting sensation. He dug out a little more than a half-filled water bottle from the sling bag on his back, pulled the cap out, took a sip. After quenching his thirst and realizing the corrosive nature of the fumes, he picked up his pace.

After walking for half-an-hour, he halted and began mulling over his next course of action. He glanced around to check for any incoming threats. Then he came closer to the corrosive wall of the passage and started touching them, which felt tender, like the insides of a body.

Wasting no more time, he took out a small palm-size carbon-fiber handle from his bag with strange initials of 'ᆖॐᆖ' on it. When he dabbed it, the handle seemed to recognize its owner. Subsequently, a sharp blade jumped out. The blade was forged from some shiny metal.

He held the dagger backward and slashed the walls of the tunnel.

He was trying to cut the wall as clean as possible. After making a vertical tear of his own size in the wall. He cleaned the blade and put his blade back in his bag. Later, he carefully placed his leg inside the cleavage he created and made his way through the hole carefully.

...

Someplace outside this mess, four adolescent boys were chatting amongst themselves. All four of them were resting in a place that looked like an isolated graveyard. Also, they were sitting beside a huge stone tablet with words carved on it; they could not discern.

Amongst them, one was playfully looking at an object in his hand, which looked like a metal ring. Apparently, it was a ring made with the same metal as the dagger carried by paled-skin youth previously. Another fellow from the group saw him looking playfully at the ring, and couldn't hold back anymore.

"Brother Wolf, Can Creed bring the amulet from the tablet?"

"Little Bran, he has no choice!" Wolf smirked as he finally turned at his brother. "If he expects me to return his cheap ring."

"Is that worthless ring really that good?" Brandon inquired. "Why do you want it if it's worthless?"

"My bad! Wrong choice of words!" Wolf shook his head, "By 'cheap', I did not mean 'worthless'."

He added. "In fact, this ring is not shabby at all. I can't put a tag on it, but my rough estimate is that this ring is more valuable than 200 grams of pure gold. But that idiot holding onto it is making its value plummet to the ground, that's why I said it's cheap."

"200 grams of pure gold!" All three guys' jaws dropped, they uttered. "Are you fucking kidding me!"

"You know I never joke around money fellas," Wolf's eyes again stuck on the ring. "If I am not wrong, this ring is forged from the CZ-alloy, which is a by-product of nuclear refineries, similar to Plutonium 238."

"What are you talking about?" Another youth with a gloomy face and curious eyes said with surprise. "CZ-alloy was available a century ago! I didn't know they were still creating that rare thing."

Wolf explained. "Nope, they don't create it anymore. It was a breakthrough as the only usable metallurgic by-product of nuclear energy. But now, we have better and stronger organic silk fibers these days,"

Wolf frowned. "Anyway, it's still a hidden treasure. I really am curious about where did that freak found this? And how come there are no initials on such a thing."

"I guess we can confirm from Creed when he comes out. Maybe his father stole it from somewhere before he died. And in case if he doesn't come back, it's fine too," the fourth guy named Chuck finally spoke with an evil smile. "Since there are no initials, we can't be tracked when we sell it."

"Yeah, we will wait for another 30 minutes then we leave. There is no point in staying and waiting outside an elder's tablet for over four hours. It's been over three hours already," Wolf laughed menacingly as he looked at the tablet again. " If he doesn't come out within 20 minutes, then he's probably turned to a paste."

While the four chatted amongst themselves, suddenly the words and scripts on the stone tablet started producing a faint crimson glow.

"Nice! Although he is a moron, he is fast... considering his puny strength," Wolf said as he maintained his distance from the tablet. "And here I thought the tablet would have killed him... persistent!"

A figure materialized, sprouting out of the tablet, whole-body steaming like a sauna, smelling like rotten carcasses and wastes. Blood was pouring out from his eyes, nostrils, and blisters. His pale skin looked like it was about to fall off with just a peel.

Several claw marks were evident on his body. The moment he came out, he vomited everything in his stomach and fell on the ground while clutching an emerald amulet in his bloodied fist. He lost consciousness while the blood kept gushing out from every orifice of his body uncontrollably.

"Wow! This mission was a grand success," Wolf said with an evil grin. "You didn't die and found an amulet too, you are such an angel!"

He came close to him and snatched the amulet forcefully without a second thought.

"I wanted to ask about your ring, but I guess the core has put a heavy toll on you. I wanted to extend our acquaintance, but I guess it's game over for you."

Wolf then added. "And I guess you won't mind giving this to us as a present before dying, right Creed?"

Wolf then put his ears close to the seemingly unconscious body, then mumbled. "I guess not saying anything is also agreeing with me, right, boys?"

Wolf turned his head towards other guys standing away from the smelling body.

"Ah, yes! Definitely," Covering their noses, one of them said. "Creed would never want his things to go to waste. He is not that heartless!"

"Okay then Creed, I love you, bro... see you in the next life." They ripped him off with everything except for a water bottle and his personal dagger, removing any probable traces of themselves, and left him drenched in his own blood and vomit. It was a sad sight.

The moment they left, his eyes opened wide. He couldn't help but look at the departing blurry figures. He tried to shout, but the blood gushed out instead of actual words. Later, his mouth opened and closed, perhaps yelling curses.

"I'll get back at you, fuckers! Just wait."

He pulled himself from the ground, stumbling a little before regaining balance. He stood up feebly, and he picked up his water bottle from the ground. Furthermore, he pulled the cap off the water bottle and emptied it on his head with whatever was left inside, to soothe himself a little.

Then he sat down with blood still draining out from multiple lesions in his body. Even with multiple broken bones and paralyzing pain, his eyes were stern and determined. He knew that this expedition in the Elder's tablet was not as wasteful as one might think.

Drenched in acute pain, he mumbled gibberish. He held his knife, ejected the blade with a slight push. A split second later, he stabbed himself in the calf and reopened a deep thumb-size wound. Blood gushed out like a fountain while several blisters burst open.

The amount of pain that had stacked over the broken body of a 16-years-old, was just too much. He cried until fluids burst out of his mouth and nose. He was cutting his calf, almost as if he was possessed.

After a minute of self-torture, the whole wound that appeared to be sealed, re-opened. He put his finger inside and pulled something out. Apparently, it looked like a golden egg.

"That was a close call!!" Creed sighed, "No way I'm going to let those bastards get their hands on this."

He put the egg aside for the time being. Along with the egg, he also pulled out a black-colored pill. He stared at the pill for a bit with a grim expression. Later, he put it inside his mouth and started chewing.

"Fuck! It's my last beta-pill," Creed mumbled with a gloomy look. "But I have lost too much blood..."

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»»

Notifications such as the above popped up inside his head one by one until his mind went blurry. He succumbed to a deep slumber.