Chapter-23 A Nightmare in Reality [Part-1]

Without any waiting, Karna walked away from the cave through the same tunnel he had come.

Reaching the original tunnel, he kept walking without looking back, but this time a little faster. Of course, Karna couldn't walk like that for too long, and in the end, his speed reverted to slow and sluggish.

While walking, he gazed at the fruit in his hand. Desire to eat the fruit visible on on his face.

"Hmm, I probably shouldn't eat this right now."

[Yes, Host, the Gift of Darkness is not something that Host can consume right now; your physical condition is not good right now.]

"Hmm, you are right." agreeing with the system, Karna checked his physical condition.

<Physical condition of the host:< p>

Strength: 10 (13)

Agility: 10 (13)

Vitality: 12 (14).

Sense: 10

Intelligence: 10(11)>

'Except for my sense stat, all of my other attribute stats had decreased by a lot.

It's a good thing that it was not a permanent decrease.' According to the system he would gain them all back once he properly ate and rested.

As for eating the fruit, Karna could only put the fruit in the system's storage with a regretful face and continue his fight against hunger.

'I need to distract myself,' Karna thought, before he commanded, "System, tell me all the things you can about the strength system of this world, the thing called awakening any other stuff you think I should know about.'

At Karna command, the system started to tell me things related to the first two topics one by one.

In the endless, dark tunnel, Karna kept on walking while listening to the emotionless voice of the system in his head.

*****

After an unknown amount of time had passed, Karna was still walking while holding a mana crystal like a torch. He was hurting all over. But it was his feet that hurt the most.

Each step caused him to moan, his ragged breath barely escaping through gritted teeth. He was feeling weak from not having energy all over. But most of all, he was hungry and thirsty.

So, hungry and thirsty

Karna just wanted to lie down and fall asleep. But instead, he continued walking. Because he believed that this nightmare of his would end sooner the more he walked, and the faster he reached the end of this long tunnel,

Step. Step. Another step.

As he kept walking like that for a while, he suddenly stopped upon hearing the system notification in his head.

In front of him was a dark hole in the ground. It was a vertical tunnel that he needed to go down through to get to a lower tunnel that would take him straight out of this mountain.

After reaching the edge of the vertical tunnel, he stopped and looked downward, but other than unfathomable darkness, there was nothing. Even with the light coming from the Mana crystal, he was only able to see a little.

Karna then threw an unwrapped Mana crystal into the dark hole. He already knew how deep it was from the system, which had told him that the vertical tunnel was only 10 feet deep, and with the lower horizontal tunnel also being nearly 10 feet in daimeter, it was 20 feet deep in total.

He was doing this all just to light up the dark vertical tunnel.

Because Karna knew that climbing downward while holding a Mana crystal would be impossible for him. And he needed to be able to see, to climb downward, or he might just fall, and the 20-foot fall could hurt him a lot in his current condition.

Karan after throwing another Mana crystal didn't straight went on to climb downward. He carefully perceived the walls of the vertical tunnel to know and remember the areas where he could get a good hold while descending.

Luckily, the tunnel walls had many cracks to use as holds. Seeing this, he sighed and then laid down on the ground to rest.

As he was resting with his upper body naked, he looked towards his feet, which currently had a dirty-looking and tattered cloth wrapped around them.

The cloth was a part of his T-shirt that he had ripped a while ago and wrapped around his feet to stop his feet from getting any more hurt than they already were.

Lying still on the ground, Karna was about to ask the system something when he heard a sound coming from the vertical tunnel beside him.

He looked downward and heard the sound getting closer.

Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!

Looking downward Karan could hear the heavy sound of footsteps getting closer. He was still near the vertical tunnel, with only a small part of his left side of his head peeking downward.

And slowly, the creator of the sound became visible to him. From above, Karna was able to see most of the creature's body except his abdomen.

The creature was at least 3 metres tall. It had two stumpy legs and a thick, hunched torso. Its back was completely covered with long, sharp spikes except for the shoulder blade area, from where two disproportionately long, thin, multijointed hands—were sprouting out, each ending with a set of sharp scythe-like blades—and another two pairs of hands from the shoulder area—these ones were shorter but thicker and ending with a horrifying claw—that were currently touching the two mana crystals on the ground.

The most horrifying thing was its head. It had no visible eyes, but only two wide holes covered half of its head. Under it was a maw filled with razor-sharp teeth. The lower part of its maw was splitting in half, releasing a viscous liquid that was falling to the ground.

The monster kept his head facing towards the glowing mana crystals, but then suddenly it faced upward towards the dark hole above it.

Karna, who had already moved away from the edge of the vertical tunnel, was sitting on the ground without moving an inch; he had his mouth covered with both of his hands, and he was even holding his breath.

With his mouth covered by his hands, Karna suppressed any unintentional sounds that could give away his presence. He dared not move, not even an inch, for fear of alerting the monster to his presence. 

Karna was doing this because the system had just warned him that the creature seemed to be relaying on sounds to hunt its prey. If he made anymore sound then it might just perceive him completely and come for him.

Sitting in the dark of the tunnel, Karna prayed that the monster would not notice him and just walk away. Unfortunately, his wish didn't come true because the next moment he heard the screeching sound of its horrifying scythe-like blades trying to stick them into the wall of the vertical tunnel.

As Karna heard the chilling screeching sound of the monster's blades, his heart pounded in his chest. The creature's actions sent a shiver down his spine, realizing that it was actively searching for something, possibly him. He knew he had to remain absolutely still, not even the slightest movement or sound.

With each scrape of the scythe-like blades against the tunnel wall, Karna's anxiety intensified. The echoes seemed to reverberate through the narrow space, making it feel as if the creature's presence was closing in on him. He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white, as he fought the urge to flee.

In the darkness, Karna's mind raced, contemplating his next move. He had to wait for the opportune moment to either escape or defend himself, but he couldn't afford to make a hasty decision and reveal his position.

Every second felt like an eternity as he endured the tension and fear, hoping that the monster would eventually give up and move on, unaware of his presence.