Chapter 9 - "Kurumi?!"

Act 1 - Ren's Dilemma

"Ugh..."

"Hey what's wrong? You feeling sick or something?"

It was a fine sunny morning in the small seaside town of Warspite. Ren was taking a solo day off at the Cozy Cabin where Drake served him with his usual drink although he didn't seem to be the least bit enthusiastic about it as his posture, and complexion just screams lethargy.

"Oh man," he groaned.

"Hey seriously, what's wrong with you? You've been like this ever since you got here. You're making the drinks taste dull with with your aura," Drake asked while he was busy wiping the counter.

"I just got wrung dry yesterday, it's not even funny. Demons are scary."

"That's your problem? You do know that you can say 'no' right?"

"Huh? Why would I? We both wanted it so why would I say no?" Ren asked as he lifelessly mixed his drink.

"Then what the hell are you complaining about? I don't get you," Drake snapped back.

"Why are humans so weak?"

"Coming from you? Ohh... I see. You can't match your wife's thirstiness, well you tried to but you ended up drowning. Is that right?"

"Spot on," Ren replied before taking a few sips of his drink.

"Shit, I can't even taste anything."

"I told you, your aura is making it bland."

It had been a week since Karis, and Ren finished their nine-day long journey to Sahnper. It was quite the grueling journey as they accompanied King Galen to Sahnper's capital and send him back home quickly. The nine-day travel forced the two to held back on their 'nightly sessions' and so, needless to say, after they got home, Ren got overwhelmed by Karis' pent-up desires.

"For this whole week, I thought I was going to die every single night."

"Sheesh you had it rough do ya'?"

"Damn right," Ren said before finally chugging his drink empty. He couldn't taste anything anyway so savoring it was not an option.

"So basically, you're saying that you want to improve your stamina?" Drake asked as he somehow thought of an idea after pondering about Ren's little dilemma.

"Yeah, I don't want to stop my wife from doing what she wants, it's against my moral compass, although I really need to improve myself so that I won't be like a dried tree every damn morning."

"Then, what if I were to tell you that there is a solution to that?" Drake said in a quiet voice only Ren could hear.

"What you're going to give me tips? No thanks, I don't think I can make use of some advice from an old man," Ren retorted.

"Wha-! Hey, I'm only in my mid 50s! Anyway, no it's not some vague advice, I have an actual solution for you. Come here," Drake beckoned him to come over.

After the two were in whispering range, Drake pulled out a bottle of transparent liquid from his pocket.

"I got this from a merchant three days ago," he said while showing the bottle to Ren.

"This is... water?"

"No no no, according to the merchant, this is a special type of liquid native to Sahnper. I think it's called... wait what is it? Oh yeah, 'Goddess Nectar.'"

"Goddess Nectar? How uncreative," Ren remarked as he picked the bottle from Drake's grasp. He inspected the contents of the bottle, though by sight only as he still couldn't trust it enough to make use of his more sensitive senses.

"Looks like plain old water to me. What does it do?"

"Well apparently, there are two types of Goddess Nectar. There is the Red-dyed one that is said to heal any types of injuries. Yep, any type! It can even grow severed limbs in the blink of an eye."

"Then this transparent one is said to improve one's performance in bed. You can ingest it or apply it to your thing, doesn't matter which but if you do so, they said even a succubus will surrender to your endurance, and that's one bottle. According to the merchant, taking in as many bottles of this does not do you any harm so you technically can do it how ever many times you want to!" Drake explained.

"A wonder potion? No matter how you look at it, this is overly suspicious. Then again, this is a fantasy world so I guess anything is possible..."

"Yeah that's right."

"This bottle is still quite full. Have you used it already?" Ren asked.

"Ahh, well, I didn't really buy that stuff. The merchant gave it to me as a gift since I've known him for quite some time, however I really don't have a use for it. Me and my missus are already done with our sexual life, plus these hips are no longer strong enough for some pounding."

"Is that so?"

"How about it? Willing to try it out?" Drake courteously offered.

"Well... it won't hurt to try it I guess. Also how is this different from the usual aphrodisiac from the capital?"

"An aphrodisiac FORCES your body to be active even though you should be resting. This Goddess Nectar apparently RESETS your body to its peak, and by reset, I mean it completely restores everything. Your stamina, your sensitivity, and the contents of your nutsack. All back to full."

"Interesting. Alright, I'll give this a little spin tonight," Ren replied as he shoved the bottle in his pocket. He then paid Drake the amount he owe for the drink plus a little bonus for the bottle, and left for the door.

2 days later...

"Alright everyone, time to get to work, come on now start cleaning."

"Yes, owner."

The Cozy Cabin employees all went to their stations to begin another day at work. Some started cleaning the tables, and setting them up, while there are others who went to the kitchen to help with the breakfast preparations for their tenants. It was going all nice and quiet until--

"IT WORKED!"

Ren came busting through the inn, slamming the door open, almost breaking it. He was breathing heavily as he ran towards the counter where Drake is.

"Hey! Stop breaking my property!" Drake screamed.

"Drake! Where did you get that bottle! Tell me! I need more of those!"

"Alright! Alright! I'll talk, but please, next time would you come in here like a normal human being? Well of course you're not normal, but please, you'll end up demolishing this inn next time you went like that," Drake pleaded as he looked towards the inn door that made a dent in the wall that received the impact.

"Ok, I apologize, so tell me now."

"Sheesh, so energetic at this time of the day. Fine fine, but before I tell you, tell me what happened first. Why are you so excited? Did it work that well?" Drake pressed for some answers.

"I did it! I beat her in an endurance contest! I even got to pay her back by still going at it even when she can barely stay awake! Hah! Serves her right!" Ren bragged.

"You're being overly competitive about your sex life. Aren't you overdoing it a bit?"

"No, no, don't worry about her, she said I can keep going. So I did, I took the nectar the night that you gave it to me, and oh boy did it felt amazing. She got exhausted until early morning yesterday, but I kept going till late noon," Ren said out loud, not minding the presence of the other workers in the room who were literally blushing as Ren narrates his experience.

"Oh wow. I think it worked too well. Aren't you going to get addicted to this stuff if you kept taking it?"

"Oh no, you don't have to worry about that. I made an agreement with Karis that if she ever wrung me dry again, that's only when I'll use it. Now tell me, where can I get more of those?!"

"Somehow, I regret giving you that potion, but well, nothing I can do now. Well, here's some additional information, come closer, and listen carefully as it is a trade secret. I'm only telling you cause I trust you, but you should keep it to yourself, are we clear?"

"Loud and clear," Ren responded.

"Ok, so from what the merchant told me, apparently there's a cave somewhere in Sahnper where this stuff is produced. How? I do not know. Where exactly? I also do not know. However, it is there, and the source is said to be renewable since the one selling it to him gave it at quite an affordable price, despite the quantity, and quality of the nectar," Drake said in a low voice as they sat on the bar stool.

"Sahnper. Cave. I see..." Ren muttered.

"Are you planning to get it from the source, or would you buy from our humble merchant? If it's the latter, I suggest you return in 2 weeks since that's when he said he'll drop by here next."

"No, I think I'll get it from the source itself. I'm also quite curious about that cave, maybe I'll find some rare minerals."

"Ok, but do be careful. You don't have an inkling of an idea where this cave is, and the Sahnper desert is an unforgiving place. If you're not careful, the desert will swallow you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyway, thank you for the info. I'll set out for Sahnper later. Thanks!" Ren said as he hurriedly created a portal to the inn wall and went back home on it. The other workers were quite baffled at what just happened and stood there with confused faces.

"Alright, show's over, back to work everyone!" Drake shouted as he clapped his hands to gain the attention of his workers. Apart from the chaotic morning, the rest of the Cozy Cabin's day went just fine.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Act 2 - Even a Hero can Fall

After his quick little visit to Warspite, Ren had returned back to his Transportation Nexus wherein Karis was lounging around in the gazebo, sipping a nice warm drink to combat the morning winter.

"Oh, you're awake."

"Where did you run off to? I woke up and suddenly you're not on the bed." Karis asked.

"I made a quick trip to Warspite, also I'm heading to Sahnper shortly, there's something I wanted to check," Ren replied as he began fiddling with the map to set up the new destination.

"Sahnper? That's too sudden. What do you plan to do over there?"

"Oh uh... just going to check on something, you won't understand anyway so I won't bother explaining," Ren answered, quickly dismissing the topic. It would hurt his pride if he admitted that he would go out there to grab some miracle aphrodisiac that he just discovered.

"Is that so? Mind if I tag along?"

"No, no need. It would be faster if I were to go alone, else my mobility would be hindered."

"I see. Don't forget to bring some water alright?"

"Yeah, I'll set up the portal first then grab some supplies."

"Take care then, also... I can't wait for tonight," Karis said as she sensually licked her lips in front of Ren.

"Ahh, y-yeah, look forward to it alright," Ren replied. A few moments later, he hastily went to their mountain home to stock on some supplies. He filled several canteens full with water, grabbed his multi-purpose umbrella, and his yoyos as well, just in case. Ren had been quite attached to his weapons that he would always bring them with him whenever he went on a long journey, disregarding the fact that he can cast magic.

He then returned to the nexus, carrying a light bag, no bigger than his head, plus his umbrella and the yoyos on his side pouches.

"Ok, then, I'm off," Ren said to Karis, giving her a quick kiss before departing.

After stepping into the portal, Ren found himself standing near the frontier village that they came through before. He set up a monolith a few days after their Sahnper trip to serve as their terminal to the country. He thought about placing one in the capital, but was afraid that he would attract too much attention appearing in the capital every now and then despite being an Ironblade resident. His identity was quite well-known thanks to the show he put up on the arena back then.

"Now then, where do I begin..." he pondered, taking a quick look around. As mentioned by Drake, the location of the cave where the miracle fluid was produced from wasn't exactly known, only the country it was in. Not only is Ren not familiar with the land, he doesn't even have an idea in what general direction he should head to.

"Hmm...we came from the west, but also went a few distance through north, merchants most likely wouldn't risk heading somewhere far from any inhabited places so..." Ren said as he began deducing in his head on which way he should go.

"Guess I'll head East," he decided.

Upon making his mind, Ren set off into the direction of the rising sun. He has a long, unknown journey ahead of him, and he certainly can't waste the entire day searching.

He travelled east for quite some time on foot. The sand was still shallow enough to walk through but soon he will reach the area of deep desert where the bedrock is way out of his reach and Serpions infested the deep sands like sharks in an ocean.

"Damn, it's so hot. My body was so used to the cold climate back home," he complained as he used his umbrella to shade himself from the sun's fury.

He walked a few hundred meters, taking some water breaks occasionally. Finally, he reached the territory of the deep desert as he noticed that his advancing foot sunk quite aggressively the moment he applied pressure to it.

"Alright, guess this is the part where I use this..."

He stabbed his umbrella into the ground and spread it open. He then hopped inside the interior of the umbrella, perfectly fitting in it. Despite his added weight, the umbrella did not sink into the desert, instead, floated like a raft in the middle of the sea.

He then pressed a button on the umbrella's handle, causing it to lean forward a bit, and then a pressure from underneath propelled the umbrella through the sand. He had successfully travelled on the deep desert without the help of a ground dragon. As the umbrella breezed through the sands, Ren stood on its interior canopy, holding onto the handle as he alertly surveyed the area. Compared to his carriage travel before, the umbrella transport seemed to be a lot faster so he had no worries on any Serpion attacks, but still, better safe than sorry.

"Shit, I didn't think this through..." Ren said, covering his face with his arms. Since the umbrella he was using to cover himself was already being used as his mode of transportation, his head was completely exposed to the wrath of the desert sun. Sweat began to flow down every part of his body, not to mention, his canteen doesn't have any cooling properties so pretty soon, his water supply will lose its coolness.

"I have to think of something fast, otherwise I'll just end up wandering here forever... let's see, if it's a cave, then surely there are some high rock formations nearby. Caves can't form on flat surfaces after all, the entrance should be covered in some small hill, or mountain...but where?"

The search lasted for quite a lot of hours, Ren actively searched for any high-rising rock formation to at least take a break and serve as his shade, but there's nothing but flat desert nearby.

"Crap... I'm getting dizzy..." he said, clutching his head. The water he had been drinking were all lukewarm now so it's doing nothing but hydrate him now rather than cool him. The heat was literally frying his body as he continued, plus the metal build of the umbrella was absorbing the heat as well, making it difficult to continue standing on it. Anytime soon and he might collapse which would be quite dangerous given how far he's in the deep desert.

"Maybe it's time I head ba-- OH SHIT!" a sudden realization came to him. Going back was a smart decision, however, he currently does not meet any of the prerequisites to creating a portal, that is, a standing surface where he can place one down parallel to his standing position.

"What was I thinking going out here unprepared!? Was I that desperate for that wonder nectar?!"

Suddenly, a stray rock bumped into the way of Ren's umbrella, sending him flying off his ride.

"Fuck!"

He landed on top of the burning sands. He quickly tried to get up from it, but the pressure he applied to his hand instead made him sink further into the sand. He tried it with his legs as well, but the same thing happened.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" he cursed over and over again as he found himself in quite a difficult situation. The heat also wasn't helping as it was distracting his brain too much so his thinking wasn't working efficiently.

A few moments later, he felt a familiar quaking sensation. At first it was weak, but sooner it grew stronger, as if approaching him. In the meantime, he continued sinking into the sand. He tried to reach out for his umbrella which was still stuck on the rock but he could only barely touch the tip of the canopy.

"What's a rock doing here?!"

What answered him were numerous Serpions rising from the sands, surrounding him in a huge circle.

"Fucking damn it!" Ren screamed as the Serpions all dived back into the sand, wriggling their way closer to Ren as he still continued to struggle in the clutches of the desert's grasp.

In the meantime, Ren's vision is beginning to blur, any time soon and he might lose his consciousness. In a last ditch effort, he reached for the umbrella's tip, which he successfully grabbed, and he dragged it over to his position. He then grabbed onto the umbrella's handle. Ren gritted his teeth as the umbrella's metal handle stung his hand due to the heat.

Ren used every remaining strength he had to resist the burning sensation, and aimed his umbrella into the ground. Meanwhile, the quaking caused by the Serpions were getting stronger, and soon enough, it was about to reach him.

"Damn it all!" he screamed as he pulled the trigger on the umbrella, shooting out whatever ammo it had to the ground below. The desperation move drained everything from Ren as he started to fall unconscious.

As his vision grew dark, he felt the ground below him shaking violently, and then the sensation of falling down.

"I'm sorry... Karis..." he whispered before his sight went blank.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Act 3 - Crystal Cavern

"..."

"..."

"Khaa!"

Ren bolted straight up from a lying position as his consciousness finally returned to him. He found himself sitting atop of a pile of sand, inside what looks like a huge cavern. The cavern's walls are filled with magenta crystals either hanging from the ceiling, rising from the floor, or protruding from the walls. Meanwhile, above him, he could see the huge hole that he must have fallen through to get here. Sunlight poured from that gapping whole which was quite high from his current altitude.

"How the hell did I survive that fall," he asked as he massaged his head which was stinging a bit from the impact of the drop. The sand pile beneath him must've cushioned his fall, causing him to suffer a slight headache, and nothing much more.

"Well, whatever, for the meantime I did managed to find a cave so that's nice."

Ren carefully made his way down the sand pile towards the rocky surface below. He surveyed his surroundings for any potential threat as he had just recently encountered a pack of Serpion before losing consciousness.

"What is this place..."

He touched one of the nearby crystals to inspect it.

"Warm...also, it's pulsing?" he remarked as he felt the crystal twitching from his touch. It was as if it was a living creature.

He tore a small chunk of the crystal from its source, and gave it a closer inspection. However, as he did so, a red liquid poured out of the crystal's main body where he broke it. The liquid was thick, flowing slowly down the crystal's exterior before forming a puddle at the ground. As the puddle settled and got larger, it suddenly solidified to form a crystal body, similar from its source.

"It reproduced?!" Ren said, surprised that a non-living organism was able to create an offspring of itself, or was it. He then curiously inspected the red liquid still flowing out of the broken portion. He used his finger to lightly tap it.

"It's like...blood? Wait, it's not forming crystals on me..."

He then took the liquid near his nose and caught a whiff of its aroma.

"It also smells like blood. What the hell?"

As a last confirmation of his comparisons, Ren put his tainted finger in front of his mouth, and licked it with his tongue.

"Yeah, no doubt about it. Huh?"

As he confirmed the identity of the mysterious fluid, Ren felt a strange sensation from within his body. The aching of his head from the fall, and the slight pain he can feel in his bones, and muscles were all beginning to fade away, as if being healed. Even his thirst was being quenched along with the sudden healing in his body.

Ren took a look once more at the mysterious fluid from the crystal. Suddenly, Drake's words quickly flashed into his mind.

'Well apparently, there are two types of Goddess Nectar. There is the Red-dyed one that is said to heal any types of injuries. Yep, any type! It can even grow severed limbs in the blink of an eye.'

"Red-dyed. Heal injuries. Goddess Nectar," he repeated.

"I see! So this is the cave! Talk about lucky, although it seemed like I made quite an unconventional entry," Ren said while looking up at the hole in the ceiling that he had created.

"Still, can it really heal any type of injury as he said..."

"Well, only one way to test. If this doesn't work, I swear Drake, you'll lose one as well!"

Upon making his decision of testing the miraculous effects of the red fluid, Ren aimed his right palm towards his left elbow. After concentrating for a few seconds, gusts of wind began gathering in his right palm, twisting and turning in a small sphere confined within his grasp. He then gritted his teeth and fired the wind sphere towards his left elbow, severing his lower arm from his upper arm.

"FUCK! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" he howled in pain as his lower arm came flying off. Blood violently flowed out of the open wound on his left arm. So far in his life in this new world, Ren hadn't received any fatal injuries from any of his opponents yet and so he still wasn't used to the sensation of pain. Not to mention, the first one he felt was straight up him severing his arm.

"AGH FUCK! I SWEAR IF THIS DOESN'T WORK!"

He then tore off another chunk of crystal from the main body, and proceeded to get a handful of the red liquid. He shoved the liquid into his mouth and straight up swallowed it.

"..."

After a brief pause, Ren felt the same sensation he felt earlier when his internal damages were healed. He felt his body heat up, and a weird tingle on his severed arm. A few seconds later, he sensed his severed arm pulsate violently. It was as if every beat of his heart was syncing with the pulse waves of his left arm. Finally, an arm violently sprouted from the wound, like a plant sprouting from the soil it was buried on for days.

Ren then moved his restored arm in different ways, and angles to test if it's working properly.

"Back to normal... phew. I'm never doing that again," he said in relief after confirming that the effects of the Red Nectar was indeed true.

"Still though, this wasn't what I'm looking for... I need the transparent one."

Ren looked around for any possible signs of the Transparent Nectar. Based on his deductions, if the Red Nectar created these magenta crystals, then mostly likely, the Transparent Nectar must come from a transparent crystal, kind of like a glass crystal, or even diamond. He searched around for any transparent crystals, but the whole place was just littered with the magenta ones.

"Damn, this is going to be difficult but at least I have an area to search now."

As he was turning his head, surveying the area, he spotted an opening tunnel leading away from the crystal cavern.

"Oh, found a lead."

As he made his way over to the tunnel entrance, he felt a sudden earthquake as his foothold began shaking mildly.

"What is it now?!"

As if on cue, the sand pile that he was just on earlier began moving. A huge, serpentine body emerged out of the sands. A familiar scorpion-like abdomen rose from the ground.

"Oh it's you bastard huh? Guess you fell down with me," Ren said.

The giant Serpion swayed around unsteadily, as if weakly standing around on its serpentine tail. The impact of the fall still must've done some lingering damage to the creature. After a moment, the Serpion began to fall face-first forward towards Ren who was just standing alertly in his position.

"Gwarghhh..." the monster let out a weak cry before finally falling down atop the pile of crystal bodies. Ren carefully nudged the fallen body to check and see if it would react, but the monster gave out no response. It was already dead. Ren checked around on the monster's carapace to see what kind of damage it suffered from that killed it.

"I see..."

Near the monster's chest area, he saw a hole that left its internal organs exposed. Grains of sand flowed out of the wound along with its blood.

"So it suffocated with the sand in its body huh?"

He nudged the body once more for one final check, and breath a sigh of relief after the monster did not respond.

"If it had that kind of injury, then it means it was directly underneath me when I fired that shot. Talk about super lucky."

"Wait a second... then where the hell is my umbrella?!"

As he realized that he was missing one of his valuables, Ren ran around the cavern searching for his umbrella. It has a strong black color which should be easy to find in the mostly-red dyed cave, not to mention the sunlight lighting up the area from overhead.

"Ah there it is!" he exclaimed as he saw the black lacquer color of the canopy, shining from the light above. He reclaimed his umbrella and placed it on his back before proceeding to the tunnel entrance he spotted earlier.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Act End - Skirmish in the Cave

"Man it's dark here. I need some light."

Ren had made his way over to the only available pathway that he can find inside the crystal cavern. As he proceeded, the tunnel grew darker, and darker since he was getting farther away from the sunlight leaking from outside. Now that he's in a bit too deep, it was almost pitch black.

He then picked up one of his yoyos in his pocket and activated what seemed like an innate light source. The yoyo had four light sources, distributed evenly on its surface but he spun it quickly, which made the light sources combine, and formed a circular light. The light wasn't as strong as a regular flashlight, but he could at least see where he was going.

"There are less of those crystals in here. And still no sign of the transparent ones."

"Hmm?"

While observing the layout of the tunnel walls, Ren heard the sound of what seemed like footsteps scurrying around. He raised his yoyo on his eye level to catch a glimpse of whatever was ahead. Soon enough, he could hear voices along with the continuing sound of footsteps approaching him.

"Who's there! I can see you!" a voice echoed from the direction where Ren was headed.

"How the hell did you sneak in here? Where did you come from?" another voice asked.

Ren did not give any sort of reply as he couldn't see anyone yet. The voice was coming from ahead of him but in his head, he still thought that the questions aren't directed at him.

"Stop! Don't take another step or we'll shoot!"

Sounds of bowstrings being held back were heard after the mysterious voice gave its warning.

"You're making yourself a clear target! Cease moving now or we really will shoot!"

As demanded, Ren stopped in his tracks. It was already clear that the voice was referring to him as he himself admit that the light from his yoyo really was making himself an easy target.

"Alright, alright. I'm stopping," he replied to the people in the dark. He raised his hands in the air with the yoyo's head in his palms, still lighting but no longer spinning.

"Answer us, how did you get in here?"

"I fell from above, was being chased by a bunch of Serpions and I somehow cracked open the roof of that humungous cave."

"From above? I see, so that was where that quake from earlier came from."

"By the way, is this the place where the stuff called Goddess Nectar came from? Those crystals were bleeding like crazy when I broke them, and I got to experience first-hand the said effects," Ren asked casually.

"Seems like you've gone and knew too much boy. This is a trade secret. Nothing personal but we ain't letting you out of here," one of the hidden men threatened.

A loud whoosh echoed from the darkness. Ren instinctively brought out his umbrella and spread it open in front of him. He felt the impact of arrows hitting the umbrella's canopy passed on to him. However, his umbrella's build was tough enough to withstood the projectiles, smashing them to pieces upon impact.

"What!"

"Now you've done it. Here I was, hoping for a peaceful negotiation."

"Ha! What do you think you can do? You can't even see us!" one of the men bluffed.

"True... although I did want to try something out so I guess this situation is just right for the test," Ren replied as he aimed his palm towards the direction of his attackers.

"Now then, can Creation magic help me here?"

Ren then flexed his arms and concentrated his energy onto his palms. Mana started gathering in front of him, emanating a faint glow, but the clustering was combining their lights, and creating a brighter illumination. The ball of mana kept gathering more light particles but wasn't getting any bigger nor brighter past a certain point.

"[Helios Flash]!"

At his command, the concentrated light ball burst forth, spreading its light everywhere in a blinding explosion. The entire tunnel became visible, and so was the attackers.

"Ah shit! That got me too!" Ren exclaimed as he faltered backwards and forced himself to close his eyes. He got to open them a few seconds later, and what met his view were three men who looked to be in their middle ages, wearing nothing but messy shorts, and wielding crossbow on their arms.

"You damn kid!" they screamed while their eyes are still closed.

"Hmm, gotta work on that one in my free time."

The three attackers didn't take long to recover their sights as well. As soon as they did, they realized that the entire tunnel was well lit up, and they were exposed to Ren. Nevertheless, they readied their crossbows, and aimed for him.

"Now we really can't let you out alive!" the one in the lead exclaimed.

"Man, I just want to get some Clear Goddess Nectar. Why did I have to go through so much trouble," Ren complained as he prepared his yoyo as well.

"Fire!"

At the leader's command, the two other men released their crossbow strings, firing a pair of arrows towards Ren. They did not waste anytime and prepared another round the moment their ammunition left their arms.

Ren however, skillfully weaved his way through the arrows. There were only two projectiles so dodging was no sweat to him. The attackers were relentless though as they fired waves upon waves of arrows. While effortlessly ducking, and side-stepping, Ren began spinning his yoyo at a rapid rate. Soon enough, he launched the yoyo towards the ceiling near the attacker's position, which created an explosion that let some debris fall upon them.

"Crap!"

The men tried to run but it was futile. The ceiling collapsed over them, trapping their bodies underneath although the debris wasn't that much that it would crush their bodies.

"You bastard! Do you know who you're dealing with here?"

"Oh please do enlighten me. I would love that," Ren replied in a sarcastic tone as he proceeded to head deeper into the tunnel, walking past the trapped men.

"Hey! You! Don't go any further! That place is..."

"You really think I will listen to you? Fuck off, you lost your chance for a peaceful negotiation."

"Wait! I said wait dammit!" the leader screamed but Ren paid him no mind as he went further into the tunnel.

After walking a few minutes towards the illuminated pathway, Ren saw an exit on the far side of the tunnel. He began to hasten his pace to get to the other side, but as he approached the exit, he noticed a strong stench in the air invading his nose.

"Why does this smell familiar?" he remarked. The smell bothered him a bit, but he did his best to ignore it and continue onward. Soon enough, he found himself in a small cave room.

He took a look around the room, observing the objects lying around. He saw a pile of empty bottles, a bunch of rusty axes, and bloodied swords. He head deeper into the room, picking up some of the objects and inspecting them. On the far end, he noticed a door standing, and a dimly lit tunnel on the other side.

He walked towards the door, and opened it. What met him on the other side was a dimly lit tunnel with torches hanging on the walls, and some on the ceiling.

"Hmm... this looks like the real entrance to this place..." Ren inferred.

He closed the door and took one more look at the cave room. The stench was making him irritated but he stayed strong and continued to ignore it.

"Perhaps this is a mine? No, I don't see any pickaxe anywhere. Still though, it looks like they're trying really hard to hide this place--"

"*sniff* *hic*"

As Ren was inspecting the place one last time, he heard the sound of someone crying from within the room. He turned his head towards the source of the noise and found a smaller room, separated by an iron gate from the main room.

He walked towards the smaller room, almost falling back immediately as the stench got really strong as he approached it.

"Shit! Is this where the smell is coming from?!"

"-elp"

"...?!"

"H-e-l-p m-e"

Surely enough, the crying sound came from inside the closed off dungeon. Ren melted the iron bars and slowly made his way towards the source of the voice. He found a naked girl, huddled on the far back of the dungeon walls, sniffling as her voice sounded like she had been through so much, breaking her spirit.

"I see what's going on here..."

Ren inspected the girl's condition. Surprisingly enough, despite the state of the room, and the evidence of violence from the objects outside, the girl's skin was in good condition. No sign of scratches, bruises, or any form of injury. Definitely was not what he was expecting.

"Hey, are you ok?" Ren asked.

The girl, whose head was buried in her knees, slowly raised her head to look at the person talking to her. The moment their eyes made contact with each other, both of them grew wide in surprise. They looked at each other without speaking for a few moments.

"R-e-n?" the girl said in a weak voice as her eyes slowly collapsed, and before long, she lost consciousness.

Ren stood in front of her, his eyes still wide in shock. He inspected the girl's lying body, and then he looked at her face intensely, hoping that what he was thinking was wrong, but the girl earlier stating his name was clearly enough to remove all doubts.

Ren slowly reached out and caressed the girl's forehead before he finally gained the strength to utter her name.

"Kurumi?!"