The beginning of the path

If you are offered to go to the unknown and most dangerous place on the continent, what will be your answer?

Of course, if you have even a little common sense, then you will refuse. Who knows what dangers will be exposed on your way?

The unknown is what all people are afraid of, without exception, you don't know what can happen to you, that's why you're scared.

Nevertheless, there are people who go on such expeditions despite all the dangers of the unknown. Such people are usually driven by a thirst for profit, or simply madness.

Of course, my point of view may differ from yours, after all, not all people who have the courage to go to such a dangerous place are greedy or crazy… Right?

And at this moment, such a word as "Duty" appears, the duty to complete the task despite the danger, the duty to return alive to their relatives – all this is experienced by a person who has been entrusted with a heavy burden of responsibility.

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A terrible event unfolded before my eyes, multiple screams filled my mind. Strange humanoid sculptures carved from an unknown black stone suddenly began to move and kill all the people who got in their way.

One of the statues with a crossbow aimed at me and shot a shining purple arrow.

"RON, DON'T STAND THERE!"

Coming to my senses from the cry of a comrade, I tried to jump away from the radius of the arrow flying at me. But unfortunately, even though I was on the orange mana core, my speed was still not enough

Suddenly, a tall, muscular man appeared in front of me and covered me with his shield. The arrow hit his shield, leaving deep cracks on it.

"Thank you, Balmond"

Balmond looked at me furiously and shouted – "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER AND FI..."

But before he could finish, a purple arrow pierced the back of his head.

Balmond's lifeless body fell to the ground.

I looked at Balmond's corpse with trembling eyes and grabbed sword.

Me need to remain calm, it's not the best idea to show emotions at such moments. Although I knew Balmond, I was not close to him.

The humanoid sculpture aimed at me again, wasting no time, I started running towards it, the distance between us gradually decreased.

Seeing that the arrow had formed again in the sculpture's crossbow, I directed most of my mana at the legs.

"vshuh"

Jumping to the left, I barely dodged the arrow. Recovering quickly, I rushed to the sculpture.

This time our distance was noticeably reduced, had only three meters left to hit the strange monster with my sword.

The sculpture, realizing that the crossbow would no longer help her, formed a purple blade in her hand and rushed to me.

[All violators must be killed]

Swinging the flaming sword at the sculpture, the sword and blade met. From the force of the blow, I staggered back, the sculpture in turn remained in its original place.

"Shit"

I was noticeably inferior in agility and strength to this sculpture, even an attack with elemental magic could not break through the defense. Rather, on the contrary, I showed a gap in the defense.

The sculpture instantly appeared next to me and swung the blade into the area of my neck.

There was nothing left for me to do.

From the very beginning, the outcome of this match was predetermined.

But even though there was a big difference in strength, I didn't want to give up.

Covering his neck with his hand, the purple blade deprived me of my left arm. The pain was unbearable, but I found the strength to counterattack.

Overexerting my mana core, I poured all the mana into the sword, blue flames surrounded my sword, piercing the chest of the sculpture.

The sculpture fell to its knees and released the dagger from its hands.

Victory…

It was so fast that our fight didn't last even 15 seconds.

Sighing, I looked at my severed hand, the wound was bleeding heavily, I needed to bandage the wound, but there was no time for first aid, many sculptures were killing my comrades.

If they die, I will have no chance of survival.

There was nowhere to run.

"BOOOM!!"

Suddenly a loud explosion pierced my ears, turning my head towards the explosion I was petrified. The strongest people from our group fought... with each other?

A tall black-haired man with a spear in his hands was fighting with a white-haired woman, their dense mana collided with each other.

Due to the force of the collision, I was thrown back.

"AMANDA!! HOW DARE YOU BETRAY US!" The black-haired man shouted, gathering mana into a spear.

"Nothing personal, it's just the will of the lord, by the way, can you tell me where the artifact is?" said Amanda coldly.

Throwing out the corpse of a brown-haired girl, Amanda began to create a spell, the temperature in the room dropped noticeably behind Amanda's back, ice fragments formed.

"DIE!!!!!"

The black-haired man rushed towards her, the ground exploded under his feet.

"Fuck, what's going on here"

Dumbfounded, watching them, I tried to analyze the situation. Judging by their conversations, Amanda decided to betray us.

But why?

Even if she was going to betray us, why now, wouldn't it be more logical to kill all of us when all the sculptures are dead, there is no way out of this dungeon, there were too many sculptures, she could not cope with them alone.

Maybe she was looking for something?

Something that can help her get out of here.

And most likely she found it.

Trying to find something unusual in my field of vision, my gaze was attracted by a wall with unknown eroglyphs, this wall was behind Amanda's back.

Found…

I do not know what it is and where it will lead me, but I am sure for sure, this strange wall is the only chance to escape.

Judging by the situation in the battle, the black-haired man has no chance of winning. His entire chest was covered in wounds, his forearm was frozen. Amanda, in turn, felt great, the yellow tattoo on her neck shone with a bright light.

If the black-haired man is killed, then I will have no chance to survive, all of Amanda's attention will be drawn to us.

First, she will kill the remaining strongest people, those who are at the orange mana core stage.

This means that all of Amanda's attention will be focused on me.

I have no choice.

Having absorbed all the mana from my body back into the mana core, I hid my presence. Slowly making my way to the strange wall, I noticed people fighting with sculptures.

The closer I got to Amanda, the more the icy aura pressed on me.

The man is almost dead, me need to get to the wall faster.

After analyzing Amanda's movements a little, I realized that she hadn't moved a step during the entire battle.

She was definitely protecting this wall.

When I got close to the wall, I noticed a round cutout in it, it seems that in order to activate something, you need to insert a certain object.

...

A feeling of despair filled my mind, I didn't want to believe what was happening.

Am I just going to die here?

Hitting my cheek with my left hand, I tried to collect my thoughts.

If there is such an item, then Amanda definitely has it.

No.

She was looking for some kind of artifact, maybe it was the key.

Who can have it?

Suddenly remembering one thing, I looked at the floor, right where the corpse of the brown-haired girl was lying. Precisely! I remember Kathleen hiding something in her spatial ring.

When I was patrolling the area, I noticed Kathleen hiding something in her spatial ring.

Immediately, I removed the spatial ring from Kathleen's finger.

"I'm sorry, but I'll need it more than you."

With difficulty putting the ring on my index finger, I activated it.

And that was my mistake.

Amanda was looking right at me.

(P.S. – I know that the first chapter is incomprehensible, but in the following chapters I will fully reveal RON)