Ch 6 – Black Cave

'Where am I?'

What greeted Kaleido's vision can only be considered as strange and otherworldly, a scenery that destroyed his preconceived notion of what is possible and not. In essence, what he saw can indeed be considered a cave, a cave clad in pitch darkness. Strangely, even if he saw pitch darkness, he still considered it a cave, so why?

It's because strange white lines were scattered all around the area. It was akin to what you would see when an artist draws a 2d rendition of a cave, with the color of the lines being white and everything else black, kind of like an inverse colorless 2d drawing of a cave. But to Kaleido, he was currently inside that drawing, and that drawing was three-dimensional.

He stared at his hand. It was also pitch black, meaning the place was indeed lacking any form of visible light. Fortunately, he can still see the white markings on his body that emitted a dim glow. But other than that, his vision was clad entirely in darkness, though that wasn't a problem for him as he has an ace up his sleeve in this area.

'My spatial awareness!' at this moment, even if the blue lines didn't exist, he can still confidently wander in the darkness unhindered.

As he got over the unusuality of this cave, he instead noticed another thing. 'Hmm? What is this feeling?'

He moved his head in confusion, grabbing his body from all kinds of places as if he was trying to find the source of that strange sensation. But even after doing the best he can, looking all around and feeling himself all over, he still can't find the origin of that strange feeling.

What was that strange feeling?

'It feels like I'm a fish back in the water, but that's not the end. It feels like something from my body is reacting to being inside here, and what's this? My spatial awareness has gotten wider and more vivid compared to before!' Question after question arose inside his mind as he couldn't help but notice more and more strange things happening to him.

'It feels so good to be in here!' Kaleido couldn't help it and smile. At the moment, he felt unhindered, free, boundless; the cave felt so in tune with him that it was like an environment he was supposed to be in, like an arrangement of fate. 'It's like I'm in resonance with this cave!'

Of course, just like reality, all fun things must come to an end. As if Kaleido noticed something, his eyes widened and he turned his head at lightning-fast speeds towards the distance. Like raging flames that came from nowhere, auras incomparably vast and mighty exploded from the darkness, shocking him. His eyes bulged from the sheer pressure those auras exerted on his mortal body, it was as if he was facing countless beings beyond the mortal realm, and he was just an ant compared to them.

'Crap! I got enamored by the comfortable feeling of being in this cave that I didn't notice so many of these… things are already so close to me!'

Time seemed to have slowed down for Kaleido and his thoughts moved at blazing speeds. Just from their aura alone, he can confidently say that he would die in less than a second if they were to attack him. Running away won't do anything because he was sure that if their aura was already that strong, then it wouldn't be a problem for them to chase after him.

'The only way out of this is to get out of this cave! Fuck, I knew that I shouldn't have let my emotions get the better of me. I should have instantly tried to find a way to get out so this situation wouldn't happen!' Kaleido cursed himself before sighing inwardly. There was no use in complaining, he was already in this situation and he shouldn't waste his mental energy on useless tasks.

Calming himself, he focused on the strange feeling he experienced before entering this cave once more. This time, he added another step in this process and envisioned the area inside Jie Clan Village inside his mind vividly. As if by pure innate talent, strange coordinates started to appear inside his mind, and…

Pop.

He opened his eyes once more. This time, Kaleido found himself inside a drastically different area compared to before. All around him, he saw destroyed wooden and stone buildings, rubble, and raging fire, along with dead corpses lying around. Seeing those dead bodies almost cause him to puke, but he accelerated his thinking speed once more and held in the shock. Using his breathing technique, he calmed himself and inspected more of the area around him.

All around the area, he saw people running all around the place. From the distance, he heard loud explosions that rang through the area, Gu Masters wearing gray robes rushed forward into the far away distance, and by the way their eyes look and their body moved, it was as if they were fighting something.

"Team 7! Go to the left side of the wall! Rockmen are already attacking the wall and are almost about to break it!"

"Help! Help! A Rank 3 rockmen is here!"

"I'm on it!"

Cries and shouts rang through the area as Kaleido hid within the shadows. Looking at the Jie Clan village that seems to have been attacked by "beastmen," Kaleido was intrigued to see what they looked like. And just like what he wished for, he saw a human corpse fly through the area before a large figure appeared.

A humanoid body with two arms and two legs constructed entirely from gleaming iron and rough rocks. From his body, the dead bodies and raging flames were reflected, giving him an ominous presence to the surrounding humans. He exerted a strong pressure rivaling that of the old man from before, and human Gu Masters quickly surrounded the rockmen.

"Hold him! Hold him as long as you can! Once our elder comes, he'll be done in no time!"

"He's just a rockmen, we humans are superior!"

"Hmph," the rockmen laughed in disdain. "Fools, rockmen are the most superior race in the world!"

From his right hand, gray light gathered and a ginormous stone hammer formed. He swung it high into the air, and it rapidly expanded multiple times in size, shocking the humans near the vicinity.

"Crap! It's a killer move, avoid it!"

'Killer moves? Rockmen? Interesting, it seems like humans aren't at the top of the food chain in this world. While it would be useful to watch them, I have more pressing matters to attend to.' Kaleido moved his glance away, knowing deeply that he did this to avoid the gory sight that would happen. Even if he was an above-average guy, in the end, he was still just a normal 15 years old boy. It's already a miracle that he kept his calm in these situations and didn't puke his guts out upon seeing the corpses littering the village.

He moved swiftly between the rubble and shadows, avoiding the gazes and attention of anyone else in the area. He approached a building, a building that was still standing and seemed to be quite extravagant in appearance.

He entered it swiftly through the broken door, and just like the outside, the interior was also nice. Now inside a building hidden from everyone's eyes, he lets out a breath of relief before a thing in the corner of what he assumes to be the living room catches his eye.

'Nice! It's a black cloak! It would help me in blending in with the shadows!'

The cloak was the first thing he looted. He was a man who was on the brink of death as hunger and wild beast surrounded him. With the chance to acquire food and more, why wouldn't he take that chance? From food, books, and whatever he could find useful, he grabbed them all and stored them not just inside his bag, but also inside a sack of rice he found.

Room after room, building after building, he ransacked them all while hiding in the shadows. Of course, if he was just a normal boy, he wouldn't be able to do this. The reason he was able to achieve this much was due to his spatial awareness which is nearing the level of supernatural already. Using that along with his temporal awareness, he can predict where and when would the peoples' visions would land on him, and avoid them.

From the shadows, a cloaked figure dragged a sack of objects behind him. Kaleido at this point found that the sack was getting heavy already, and his loot has already been more than enough. He not only has books, clothes, and food, but also pots, knives, and even swords! He has so much stuff already that it would last him a long while, especially the food. If he rations his food well, then his food problem would be dealt with for the time being.

'Do I leave now?' Kaleido had that question popped into his mind, but he shook his head and a determined light shone from his eyes. 'No, there's still one thing I need to acquire in this situation while it's still possible.'

His gaze turned towards a certain area in particular. There, rubbles and dead corpses can be found, while the fire blazed around it, but it was a special area for him. Why? It was not only relatively hidden, but very few people were there! He can even quickly sneak towards there.

But why does he want to go there? It's because of the corpses wearing gray robes. From what he found, those who wore gray robes were the Jie Clan Gu Masters, meaning they would have Gu on them! Of course, Kaleido's knowledge of Gu was very shallow due to his unique situation, and he doesn't know if he can even acquire the Gu of a dead Gu Master, but it was still worth a shot. What was better than doing nothing is doing something.

Discarding his hesitation, he dragged his heavy sack and sneaked his way through the chaos. From rubble to rubble, he hid in the shadows and used his spatial awareness to avoid any danger that approached him, until finally.

'Mission success!' Kaleido clenched his fist as he arrived at the graveyard of Gu Master corpses. Blood pooled over their bodies as a horrifying stench entered Kaleido's nose, but he held in his discomfort and swiftly inspected their bodies.

Slowly, a bad feeling arose within him as body after body of Gu Masters seemed to have no Gu. 'Does this mean that after a Gu Master dies, their Gu dies along with them? Or are their Gu still inside their aperture? Shit, shit! How would I acquire Gu worms then?'

With his plan seemingly failing, he shakes his head and continued to inspect. Another, then another, and there were still no Gu worms. But he persevered, continuing to inspect all of the bodies in the area.

'Nothing! Absolutely nothing!' Kaleido felt distressed, but as if a flash of inspiration appeared from within him, he hastily grabs the abdomen of a corpse and as if by pure instinct, he saw their aperture!

'Still nothing! But there's now reignited hope!' He swiftly moved as if he was on fire, inspecting the apertures of the Gu Masters one by one. But the same still happened as last time, no Gu Worms!

But he still continued even if all hope seemed lost until eventually, he found a Gu Master with intact Gu Worms!

'Green primeval essence, this means that they are Rank 1 like me! Does Rank 1 Gu Masters allow their Gu Worms to live even if they die or something like that?' Kaleido felt confused about the situation, but discarded his thoughts and instead took out the Gu Worms hastily and stared at them with curious eyes.

Gu Worms! Mysterious creatures that allow a Gu Master to wield supernatural abilities!

'Wait, how do I refine a Gu Worm again?' Kaleido now felt puzzled by this new question. But he was from another world and using his wisdom and creativity, he quickly realized how to refine Gu Worms!

He dragged his primeval essence and let it enter the Gu Worm, and with it, he carried his will into the GU Worm. The Gu Worm was already weak as it was just recently used to the extreme, and the will of its previous owner was already gone, so Kaleido was easily able to refine it!

'Success! My first Gu! Wait, fuck!' He was still accidentally inputting primeval essence into the Gu Worm after refining it, and as his emotions were too chaotic, he accidentally activated the Gu Worm!

Before he can even respond, the Gu Worm in his hand shone with fiery-red light, and…

'Huh? That's it?'

From the Gu Worm, he saw a tiny little wisp of fiery-red qi shoot out and it couldn't even reach more than a meter before dissipating. He was dumbfounded by this underwhelming effect, but that effect seemed similar to the Gu used by the other Gu Masters of Jie Clan. But their fiery-red qi shot was much more powerful compared to his, if he were to compare it, his 'attack' was like a dying old man while they were a vigorous young Olympic-level athlete, that was how vast the difference was.

He felt confused and shocked by this, so he activated it again. The same happened, and this time, it even felt weaker!

'Don't tell me…' His eyes moved to the other Gu, and he quickly sent his primeval essence into them, refining them quickly with his absurd rate of primeval essence production due to his beyond A Grade aptitude.

The same happened over and over. Whatever Gu he used, the effects were drastically weaker when compared to others, and the feeling of despair slowly crept into Kaleido's mind.

If all of the Gu he uses is drastically weaker when compared to normal, then wouldn't he essentially be useless even as a Rank 5 Gu Master wielding Rank 5 Gu? No, no! He can't believe that, so he continued to relentlessly refine the remaining Gu Worms.

Sadly, the same still happened, leaving only one Gu left in the four Gu he found.

It was already a miracle that this Rank 1 Gu Master had four Gu in hand because a normal Rank 1 Gu Master would only have one or two Gu Worms refined, but Kaleido didn't know that, nor would he care about how lucky he was. The only thing he cared about was if the remaining Gu Worm would be weak as fuck like the others or if a miracle might occur.

Swoosh, his primeval essence quickly attacked the Gu Worm and occupied its will, replacing it with Kaleido's. Pouring more primeval essence into it, Kaleido's breath stopped as a strange power soon overwhelmed him from all over his body. A shocking sight unfolded in front of him as space itself seemed to coalesce around his right hand, and shockingly, a void black knife appeared in his grip!

'This… SUCCESS! I KNOW THIS AIN'T WEAKER THAN THE NORMAL WHATEVER THE FUCK THIS GU IS! AHAHAHAHA!' Kaleido smiled madly as tears of joy welled around his eyes. He wasn't useless, he was actually useful! But it seems like only for space path Gu Worms, as all of the other Gu Worms he used were qi path, and he knows what happened when he used qi path Gu Worms.

"Who's there?!"

Time seemed to stop for Kaleido as from his peripheral vision, he saw a Rank 2 Gu Master appear out of nowhere. At that moment, Kaleido's mind came to a halt, and his body moved all on its own by pure instinct. The black markings on his body shone brightly behind the black cloak, while the void black knife in his hand shone brightly as well.

As it moved, space itself seemed to tear in its path, and with one swift swing…

BOOM!

A catastrophic outcome happened as space warped and exploded outwards like a tsunami. Kaleido stared at the area in front of him with dumbstruck eyes; blood rained from the sky as flesh and innards scattered all around the area. Humans and rockmen died, while buildings were destroyed. The force of the explosion continued outwards, bringing untold destruction to the surrounding area. From his vision, he saw the destruction brought by a god unfold through his very action, and chaotic emotions overwhelmed him.

He felt something gushing out from his stomach onto his throat, his pupils dilated while his muscles tensed up, and a sour taste slowly gathered around his tongue as liquids burst out.

He puked. He puked as he has done a thing no normal boy his age would have done. He killed. And he killed a lot.

AN: This chapter has 2836 words.

Boohoo, I killed hundreds of people and now I'm crying like a little bitch, can you please cuddle with me so that I don't have to cry?

And, can you please smash that power stones button? And smash-

Anywho, to those who have seen the information sent to the shadow realm, congratulations! You have now acquired what I personally like to call, Sword of Damocles: Info Hazard.

Boom, you're fucking welcome that I decided to drop once again another big fucking clue to now what I call Redacted Information. I won't explain anything, but you can acquired everything you need to fill the puzzle here.

(December 20, 2022 – 390th day of writing)