Chapter 16: Death Run. (Part 1)

The moment the last awakened finally made it to the top of the cliff, the race began. Mason and Blaise sprinted off, charging headlong into the passageway that tunneled deep into the cave.

Along the way, they shot a competitive glance back at Aella, who, along with the other awakeneds, had started jogging. Naturally, she ignored the it.

"It's an endurance test; what's the point in going all out at the start…" Freya mused, sighing. "Well, on the bright side, if anything bad happens, it'll happen to them and not us."

"Freya!" Ayleth rebuked her.

"Argh… I was just joking," Freya retorted, rolling her eyes. "You're too kind for your own good…" She whispered under her breath.

Most of them ran as a group, with Mason and Blaise leading the way at the head of the passageway. However, a few of the forcibly awakened and naturally awakened began to separate from the pack, accelerating and increasing their pace at the start.

'Did the promise of a reward motivate them…?' Dawn wondered, observing their actions. 'That's not a great idea, there's no way they'll make it anything easy for us...' He added, casting a wary look down the passageway.

The backs of Mason and Blaise were slowly getting further and further away. Nothing seemed to happen to them so far, but this was an endurance test—there was no telling how long they would be running or what could happen along the way.

A sense of unease lodged itself inside Dawn's chest.

'Should I try to stop them before something bad happens? Sticking with the group is the safest bet right now...' Dawn shook his head. 'No, prioritizing my own safety is what's most important... besides, I doubt they would listen to me.'

Keeping his pace steady, Dawn continued jogging along with the others, lost in his thoughts. He planned on maintaining this strategy until the end of the run.

Just as he solidified this plan, however, a system notification appeared in his view.

[New Quest Unlocked] 

[Quest Title: Death Run.] 

[Objective: Survive the 'Death Run' by reaching the end of the path.]

Dawn's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the unexpected notification.

"Huh…?" He muttered to himself, an edge of surprise in his voice.

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"Haha, they must be having a blast right now, thinking it's just a simple endurance run," one of the guards chuckled as they wandered down a separate passageway.

"I wish I could see the look on their faces when they find out just how scary it is," another guard mused.

"Yeah, the feeling of despair... that the 'death run' brings out..." A third guard added, laughing.

Meanwhile, Rek, who had been silently listening to their conversation, continued to walk without saying a word.

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Ten minutes passed since the run started, and in that time, nothing notable occurred. Many of the awakened had vanished from sight, charging far ahead into the distance. Mason and Blaise were nowhere to be found. Only Freya and Ayleth, along with a group of other awakeneds, were still visible.

Approximately thirty of them were in the group. Initially, there had been sixty of them, but if you subtract the two who died, that meant twenty-eight were significantly ahead.

'What's with that notification… It frightened the hell out of me, but nothing's happened so far… It's keeping me on edge.'

Dawn's attention was drawn to a girl running beside him at the back of the group. She was a bit shorter than the others and seemed to be the smallest of them all. The girl had messy, curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

'That's Penelope… she's been quiet but seems to be holding up pretty well,' Dawn noted. 'You'd think someone her size wouldn't have lasted this long.'

Then he glanced at the boy trailing just behind him–it was Karol. Despite his fatigue from the climb, he was keeping up remarkably well.

'Well, I'm sure it would be embarrassing if he couldn't even keep up with her—'

"Gaaah!"

Dawn's thoughts halted as a loud scream echoed from up ahead. At this sound, Ayleth and Freya both quickened their pace to investigate. The others also sped up to avoid being separated from the group.

Upon reaching the source, they were greeted by a gruesome sight. A forcibly awakened girl who had run ahead of the group earlier stood there, but it wasn't her that captivated their attention. It was the corpses in front of her.

The corpses had been gruesomely hacked apart, so brutally disfigured that even Dawn felt chills running down his spine as he observed the large, blood-stained axes swinging above them. 

They appeared to have dropped from the ceiling, slicing through three of the awakened, all but the young girl who was lucky enough to be a few steps behind.

Beneath the girl's foot, Dawn noticed what seemed to be a pressure plate.

'A trap…' He muttered.

Down the passageway, he could smell the strong scent of blood wafting up from further ahead.

'So, that's what's going on… Death Run. This isn't just a simple endurance run; it's a trap-infested nightmare,' Dawn realized. 'We've been lucky not to encounter any traps until now, but from here on out… we'll constantly have to be on guard.'

"Come on, get up… everything will be okay but you can't stop now… If you stop now, you'll die…" Ayleth quietly encouraged the girl, aiding her to her feet. 

Covered in blood and too shocked to speak, the girl obediently stood up.

"In an instant… they were killed in an instant..."

"L-Let's go back… We'll all die at this rate..."

Ayleth, however, quickly squashed such ideas.

"Go back where? If we don't do as he says, he'll kill us. And if we stay here, immobile, we'll either get killed or starve to death. We have to keep moving… As long as we stick together and avoid setting off any more traps, we'll be okay."

The others appeared hesitant, but they knew she was right. They had no choice but to press forward. Everyone seemed in agreement with her plan, except for Dawn. He began to move, walking past the group.

"No, that's incorrect. If we all stick together, we're more likely to die," Dawn countered, offering an uneasy smile as he strode ahead. "In a larger group, you cover more ground, making it easier for someone to accidentally trigger a trap. If that happens, the entire group could be affected."

Everyone's attention shifted to Dawn as he walked away.

"Ask that girl who stepped on the pressure plate and activated the trap. It should've killed her, but it ended up taking the lives of the three who were just running ahead of her."

Dawn continued walking away from the group, his back turned to them. Despite his dislike for being the center of attention, he had nonetheless spoken up, shocking even himself.

"That's the only advice I can give. Consider it my thanks for helping me get this far… Good luck," he added before accelerating into a run.

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"I may look out for myself first, but I'm not so heartless as to idly watch others walk towards their deaths if my advice can help," Dawn voiced under his breath, casting a quick look back as he ran. "Will they take my advice to heart, I wonder?" 

As he spoke, his gaze returned to the sight before him. "Well, not like I have any time to worry about them…"

What unfurled before him was a grotesque spectacle—a succession of corpses littered the path, featuring both naturally and forcibly awakened individuals. 

Some bodies were charred, others showed grotesquely melted skin. The smell of blood hung heavy in the air, growing exponentially stronger the further he traversed the path.

"There are all kinds of traps… for someone like me, this type of challenge isn't much of a hurdle. But to the untrained eye, this could be a living nightmare," Dawn mused to himself. "To put children through this and label it as 'training'... these people truly aren't human."