2 The castle

Rhys was somewhat comforted as he stepped out of the portal into a forest. He had half expected to walk straight into a fiery pit since it was a black portal, so to see a normal forest was a relief.

However, as he turned to look at Barrow's men, he realised that they did not have the same looks of relief on their faces. In fact, they were on high alert and looked frightened. They each had their weapons out and were crouched low as if ready for an assault.

Rhys frantically turned around. He did not have the power of a core so he did not have any kind of superhuman ability, nor could he sense power or aura like the people who had absorbed cores. All he could do was try to stick as close to Barrow's group as possible and squint through the darkness hoping to see whatever was out there before it attacked him.

Barrow had been planning this raid for a while. For years he had been stuck with raiding green portals where he could only hunt common monsters and trade in cheap gems. It had been his dream to raid an orange or red portal, where he could get his hands on some valuable monster hides and untouched gems. He had been searching on the dark web for any poached portals that he could take his team to when he suddenly struck gold. Someone was selling a stolen black portal.

Although the price was expensive, Barrow knew he could not turn an opportunity like this down. Besides he was sure that the treasure trove he would find inside a black portal would be enough to cover its cost. It was an untouched, unraided world after all, so there were definitely things inside that could make him wealthier than his wildest dreams. Since he spent all of his savings to buy the portal, he didn't have enough money to buy a gem evaluator so he got hold of the next best thing. In district twenty, many gem traders knew about Rhys since he was good at identifying gems, and he was much cheaper than an evaluator, so Barrow decided to bring the kid along with him. Since he had limited time in the portal, Barrow didn't want to waste time picking up common gems, he needed the kid to direct him and tell him which were the good ones so his team didn't waste valuable time on the cheap stuff.

Barrow had been thrilled when he had stepped through the gate, however, his mood instantly dropped once he breathed in the air of the dark forest he found himself in. This place, the world beyond the portal reeked of bone-chilling darkness. The aura about this place was menacing, and for the first time since Barrow thought up this scheme, he began to doubt himself.

The core Barrow had absorbed when he was young was a common core that enhanced his physical traits as well as his senses. In short, he was stronger and could hear and see much better than the average person. In the distance, at the very edge of the forest, he could hear them. Their spindly legs beating against the floor of the forest. Their steps getting closer by the second, a whole legion of what seemed like monsters coming towards them.

"Men we have to move!" He shouted to his troops. Immediately they all began to run wildly through the forest in the opposite direction of the footsteps.

Rhys was the weakest member of the group since he didn't have an infused core, and yet they had decided to give all the bags and extra weaponry to Rhys for him to carry. As the group all ran off ahead of him, Rhys struggled to keep up with them. Before long he was panting and getting dizzy. Having spent most of his time in a quiet script store and doing minimal physical activity, the run was excruciating.

Rhys was pretty much powerless and couldn't hear the hundreds of footsteps at the back of the forest making their way towards him. But out of instinct he followed the group.

Finally, Barrow came to a stop. The forest that they had run through came to an end at the mouth of a massive black lake. Looking across the lake, Barrow's worries slipped away and his eyes lit up greedily. In the middle of the lake was a giant stone castle. It looked like a castle that could be found in old horror movies or some of the countries that used to make up Europe. There was no doubt in Barrow's mind that he would find his treasure there. The only problem was the lake, he had no way to tell if there were monsters swimming around in there ready to eat them if they tried to get to the castle.

Barrow kicked the ground in irritation as he tried to think of a solution. Suddenly the sound of heavy breathing caught his attention. He turned around to see the brat huffing and puffing on all fours, exhausted from the run. Barrow's face lit up as he eyed the boy, the perfect test subject. Even if he died and wouldn't be around to identify the valuable gems, Barrow would just load the backpacks until they were full and surely they would still get some great gems.

Before Rhys could react, Barrow had grabbed him by the collar and was dragging him to the black lake. Rhys immediately knew what Barrow was trying to do and Rhys was having none of it. He kicked, punched and fought as hard as he could against Barrow. But ultimately it felt like he was hitting a tire. Barrow was not in the least affected by Rhys's assault.

"There you go!" Barrow laughed as he flung Rhys into the black lake.

"Swim to the castle doors there and try to open them for us," Barrow commanded nonchalantly.

Rhys angrily snarled at Barrow. "Are you insane, I'll die!" He shouted back. Barrow hadn't thrown Rhys very far into the lake. From where he was, he was only knee length into the black waters.

"Well, you'll definitely die if you try to come back to the shore." Barrow and his group began to unsheathe their weapons. Arrows, swords, axes and daggers shone dangerously in the starlight, making Rhys even angrier. An unspoken threat that he didn't need any clarification on.

He could swim the distance to castle and still have a small chance of not getting eaten by whatever monsters were lurking in the water, or he could go back to the group where they would definitely kill him.

Rhys gritted his teeth as he turned away from the men and slowly walked deeper into the quiet lake. He was furious, but in such a situation there was no better choice. Honestly, he would rather be torn to shreds by monsters than give Barrow the satisfaction of killing him.

With each step that Rhys took the water got deeper and colder, before long he was up to his chest in pitch-black icy water. What made it even more unnerving was that he could not see through the water at all. There could be a giant crocodile right next to him but he wouldn't know about it until it was too late.

Rhys's heart was pounding in his chest, as he slowly swam to the castle. He could have swum faster but he felt like any loud thrashing would wake up whatever was in the water. Rhys tried to stay calm but sweat kept rolling down his forehead and his heartbeat was out of control. Every swish of the water gave him a small heart attack.

The giant stone castle was getting closer, just a few more meters and he would be at the giant doors. Suddenly a loud shriek echoed across the water. Rhys immediately shouted out in fear and spun around frantically splashing in the water, expecting a monster to be right behind him. However, he saw nothing. Puzzled, he looked up to see Barrow's men killing themselves laughing on the shore. It was clear that one of them had made the noise to scar him on purpose.

"Idiots..." Rhys cursed at them under his breath.

He did not find their prank amusing in the slightest. While they were guffawing on the shore, Rhys turned back around and swam the short distance to the castle and touched the algae-covered stone wall. The metallic doors in front of him were huge. On closer inspection, it looked more like a draw bridge that would lower onto the water than doors that would open out.

Rhys swam along the side of the wall, hoping there would be some kind of magic button that would open the doors. To his surprise, right next to the edge of the door was a lever. He reached up and grasped hold of the lever. His legs were getting tired of keeping him upright in the water so he was thankful that he was able to rest them for a bit.

Rhys relaxed in the water and allowed his full weight to rest on the lever. As soon as he did so he hard a crack from within the door, and following that the sounds of old mechanisms beginning to churn within the walls. He watched in relief as the huge door began to lower, exactly as he imagined it would, just like a drawbridge.

Barrow and his men on the shore jumped for joy as they saw the castle bridge lowering.

Rhys swam over to the bridge and manoeuvred his tired wet body onto the flat platform and pulled himself up. He was completely soaked in the black water and shivering from the bitter cold, he could already feel his fingers and toes going numb. Rhys panted for a bit on the edge of the platform as he watched a few of the men on the faraway shore cautiously get into the water and began to swim towards the bridge. After he had caught his breath, Rhys angrily turned away from them and stepped inside the castle. If he had any doubts before, he knew now that he could not trust those guys. If they ever needed someone to sacrifice, he knew that he was first on the chopping block.

Seeing as Rhys had no physical advantage over them since he was coreless, he needed to find a way to get an edge on them. He didn't know what yet, but he knew he had to find a way, otherwise, he could see them using him more fatally next time.

Rhys wiped his wet black hair out of his eyes and slowly walked inside the castle, he was completely blown away by the interior. While the outside of the castle looked dilapidated and slimly with years of algae layered to the stone castle walls, the inside was luxurious. Polished marble-like floors, magnificent patterned carpets, silver and crystal ornaments decorating the large hall. It was like something out of a fantasy novel. However, at a second glance, Rhys noticed the layer of dust covering everything in this castle. Although it was beautiful, he could tell that nobody had been there for a while. Whatever species had created this place seems to have vacated the residence a long time ago.

As he stepped further into the castle something caught his attention and he turned to his left to see two levers poking out from the wall. He curiously stepped closer to them and saw that they looked similar to the lever he had seen outside. Except above these levers were two symbols. Rhys frowned as he stepped closer to get a better look at the symbols on the wall. The symbol above the first lever was a series of small circles touching each other. Rhys frowned as he tried to understand what the symbol meant.

He took a few steps back so that he could see where the other members of the group were. He was glad to see that they were all still near the shore. Half of them had not even gotten into the water yet. Although they had seen Rhys get across safely, the fear was still written all over their faces.

Rhys walked back to the lever and pulled it down. Waiting expectantly to see what would happen, he walked back to the open door to see if anything had changed. To Rhys's dismay, he watched as large stone cylinders slowly rose out of the water and stopped just above the surface of the water, making a convenient line of circular stepping stones for the group members to cross the lake.

He groaned in irritation as he realised he had just made it much easier for those bastards to cross over the lake. The men all happily cheered as those who had been swimming pulled themselves up onto the stone path, and those on the shore eagerly stepped onto the stepping stone steps.

Rhys returned to the second lever and looked at the carved symbol above it. It was a strange little drawing, a thin ovular shape with lots of little triangles at one end. Rhys tilted his head to one side to try and get a different perspective on it. However, no matter how he looked at it, he mused that it kind of looked like a worm with teeth.

"A worm with teeth..." He whispered as a dark thought flooded his mind.

He squinted back at the drawing and then collected his thoughts. Could it be possible that pulling this lever would release some kind of worm monster into the water?

No...

"That can't be right..."

Rhys took a few steps back to see where the group was on the path. From where he stood, the members were about halfway across the circle stone path, too far away to see what he was doing with the levers. Rhys walked back to the second lever and put his hand on it. He wasn't a cruel person, and he wasn't one to hold a grudge, but they had done something unforgivable to him. They had forced him to come on a suicide mission, threatened his life, twice, pretty much made sure to ridicule him at every opportunity, and more importantly, they had threatened Gramps.

Rhys absentmindedly touched the throbbing burn mark on his forehead. The sting he felt when he touched it calmed him down strangely. The pain became a kind of resolution for him.

The only thought that remained in the back of his mind was a question of morality. Would he be able to live with himself if he was right about this lever, and monsters jumped out of the water and ate all the members...?

"I can live with it."

Rhys pulled down on the lever with all his strength and calmly looked on as it snapped into place.