Chapter(8)

Episode(8): No choice but to flee!

SOVEREIGN OF DEATH~ (8)

[Skill 'Perception' has been automatically activated as the individual has been judged to be in a 'dire' situation]

A mysterious mechanical female voice echoed in Nagisa's mind like a light piercing his darkest moment.

Question marks immediately filled his mind and Nagisa frowned. He didn't know what it was but the thought of having something invade his mind didn't make him happy in the slightest.

But hearing that some sort of skill had activated he figured it was just the voice of the system and decided to let it rest for now.

'But…activating perception?'

He wondered what it meant. Hadn't he been using his perception all this while?

He thought that was the case but the next moment however as if to answer his words, his vision went completely dark.

Nagisa was startled and nearly fell over his feet but managed to keep his balance in time. It was definitely a shock for his vision to suddenly go black but something was strange. Although everything was black, it was as though he could see even clearer now than ever before.

He felt like he could sense, feel and smell everything within a certain radius of himself. It was like having the whole world in his grasp, a completely different feeling than he had ever had before.

Nagisa didn't even need to glance back. He had a full view of everything around himself be it behind him or before him, it didn't really matter at all.

When he thought about seeing the wolves, he didn't need to pry his eyes away and could easily see the faint outline of wolves. With his perception now they looked like energy bodies and he could pry right though them, everything from bones to their organs and even a flame representing the core of their soul could be seen.

[this is my…perception?]

Nagisa felt almost omnipotent with this power! To be able to see every part of your opponent and to have everything in your surroundings within your knowledge, what warrior wouldn't feel ecstatic to receive such a powerful ability?

Also, thanks to this new ability Nagisa could think twice as fast as he used to and everything was slowed down in his sight. Immediately, the despair that tried to take over control of his heart was destroyed and no longer held any power over his thoughts.

With this ability Nagisa was no longer worried. Of course he wasn't foolish enough to think that just because he gained this skill he could fight the wave of monsters chasing him for a meal. However this skill made escaping all the more easier.

He was always worried about suddenly running off a cliff, but now his perception was like an all seeing eye that prevailed over even darkness. It was easy to recognize where he was going now.

'Not only that..'

Nagisa grinned.

All of a sudden a phantom figure with his appearance ran forward and using the wall it leapt.

As soon as it jumped, a pillar shot out of the wall slamming to the other side of the passage. The phantom imitation then slid against the floor instead of jumping and Nagisa could soon see why.

Several spears shot out all of a sudden aiming towards the air. If the phantom had jumped then it would have been impaled by those spears and died a dog's death.

Nagisa grinned and followed the phantom without a shred of hesitation.

This was why Nagisa had regained his confidence. His perception wasn't particularly useful to fight but it was enough to help him escape safely.

Following the path the phantom laid out, Nagisa easily avoided the traps with his parkour skills and continued running away. The same couldn't be said for the wolves however.

Most of them were killed by the sudden activation of traps. Those that weren't crushed to mush were pierced by spears. They only managed to make it through after the traps went on cooldown. But this was enough for Nagisa to gain time and distance between them.

Hurriedly, Nagisa continued while his perception was still in effect. Although it took mana to activate perception, the cost was too low to even take into account.

Maybe it was because of the high level? Either way, the cost was about (-1) mana per 30 seconds. So long as he wouldn't run out Nagisa saw no need to deactivate the skill.

The real problem was up ahead.

Nagisa saw his phantom shadow split into three and enter three different passages. The first went in the passage on the left while the second went into the right and the third hesitated before going into the middle passage.

Nagisa stopped running and looked back in case the wolves were coming.

When he sensed that they weren't too close behind him he sighed in relief before furrowing his brows and peering forward.

Although the phantoms had just entered a cave each the results were already out. The cave on the left where the first phantom entered glowed red.

Nagisa couldn't see what happened but he knew that most likely the phantom died and red meant dead end. He shivered as his actual first thought was to enter the left cave.

Brush* Brush*

He patted his chest while his body trembled thinking he had almost gone to meet the grim reaper. That was a close one and he sighed in relief.

He waited patiently for the remaining two results but nothing happened. 

Nagisa wanted to wait more and make sure he took the right path, but when he looked back he could sense the wolves coming at a fast speed. He hesitated much like the phantom in the middle and then gritted his teeth before heading towards the middle cave.

He didn't know why but he felt like this was the right path for him to take so he took it. Either way it wasn't like it glowed red like the first cave so it couldn't possibly be a wrong choice.

Not long after he had ran into the middle cave, the wolves arrived just a minute after. They hesitated but thanks to their keen noses tracking Nagisa wasn't too hard and they all shot into the middle cave.

Nagisa kept running as he knew that his life was literally on the line. 

His stamina was running out but thanks to his perception he never managed to make a mistake and always avoided the traps. It was thanks to his smooth sailing voyage that he thought the entire ride would be without bumps.

But Nagisa had completely forgotten his terrible luck. Just because both paths glowed blue didn't mean the safety of both were at the same level.

No, there were always two options. One was a completely safe route and one was a route that the perception thought that there was a possibility that Nagisa had the chance of passing with his level of skill.

With his luck, he obviously chose the route with the most difficulty.

'F*ck!'

Nagisa cursed as soon as he saw the sight before him.

There was no floor. Only a few pillars that looked like they would collapse if you placed too much weight on them.

Of course the path continued after this empty floor region. But judging the distance from where he was Nagisa could see that it was at least a hundred meters wide.

Looking down he couldn't even see the bottom so he knew that if he fell he would die without a doubt.

'I thought I chose the right route but what is this'

Nagisa almost cried tears of frustration. But as he could feel the presence of the wolves getting closer he could only grit his teeth.

Now he had a choice. Number one, fight. Thanks to the traps so far the number of wolves had dwindled. On the other hand he could just continue forward.

However if he did that there was a high risk of falling.

Nagisa looked to the sky, closed his eyes and released a breath. He then focused his gaze on the path ahead and started to map a safe path ahead with his phantom and his own deduction.

The reason was because he didn't want to believe solely on the phantom. From earlier he could tell that just because the skill judged it to be safe didn't actually mean he could do it.

For example, the skill could judge that he could make a jump based on his information when he was in his peak form. But now that he was tired and out of energy, some of those movements weren't in the book for him at all.

Rather, he would easily fall to his death if he dared to follow the phantom.

So, he decided to also come up with his own deductions of the correct path.

As to why he decided not to fight?

The traps might have taken care of most of the wolves but there were a lot of them to begin with. Even if you gave him the courage of a lion he'd still choose to run away.

After a while, the sound of wolves howling and growling came closer and closer. Soon even their shadows could be seen down the passage.

Having already made a path his mind, Nagisa didn't hesitate and jumped on the first pillar.

His leap was high but his landing was soft and calculated. He made sure not to land too roughly or he might just go beg the pillar to collapse. 

Tap*

Nagisa landed as lightly as his currently ability allowed him to.

The pillar wobbled a bit, but it wasn't enough to collapse it. Nagisa sighed in relief then looked at the pillar holding him up.

He waited patiently until the pillar stopped shaking and made another leapt to another pillar. After landing he moved again before coming to a stop.

He then looked forward, there were dozens of pillars he could take but his eyes firmly locked on to three of them. That was because these were the only three that lead to the better and stronger pillars that had a lower possibility of collapsing.

If he took another path, the pillars ahead would break the moment he landed on them. That was what he saw from his phantom shadow. Although he didn't completely trust his phantom shadow now he didn't want to test what would happen if it was true.

But, the only problem was that these pillars were wobbly and easy to break. Not to mention they were so far apart as well.

But Nagisa didn't have time to pick and choose as the wolves had finally shown up. They moved without hesitation and jumped. Some fell but others were lucky enough and one enough caught up and launched itself at him.

Nagisa leaned back before spinning a kick. The wolf was hit squarely and sent flying away.

He landed on the pillar again as it threatened to collapse. Cursing in his mind, he gritted his teeth. The pillar at his feet seemed about to topple over at any second and the longer he waited the more the danger increased.

Nagisa didn't hesitate anymore.

With a leap he hurriedly jumped to another pillar. As soon as he landed, the pillar began to collapse and he had no choice but to take a backup route and quickly at that.

This was what he had come up with because he knew he couldn't make such huge jumps one after the other in his current form.

Hurriedly, Nagisa bent his knees and pushed off.

As soon as he did the pillar behind him collapsed. However he managed to make it to the next supporting pillar and as soon as he landed he leapt again.

There wasn't even a hint of hesitation in his actions as he zigzagged across the pillars leaving the wolves behind struggling to catch up.

Soon, Nagisa had already reached his second target. Just when he landed however a spear shot right towards his head. Nagisa saw the spear coming at a speed comparable to a bullet.

Yet he was unfazed.

Having already seen this scene from the eyes of his phantom, Nagisa grabbed the spear out of the air before twirling it and throwing it to a pillar far off in the distance.

The force of this throw caused the pillar below his feet to crumble, but Nagisa had already prepared and leapt away.

His body flew through the air freely as he moved from collapsing pillars to stable pillars while still avoiding traps.

Soon enough, Nagisa had even come to the end of the path. But a problem occurred this very moment.

There was a huge path of nothingness.

No pillars to support a final jump or anything. This last distance was at least ten meters. No, correction it was Twenty meters.

Hardly a distance one could make in a single go.

But Nagisa didn't stop.

He'd long prepared for this and this was why he threw every spear that flew at him ahead.

This time he didn't use the pillars. Instead he jumped down and landed on the spear lodged into the pillars side and bent his knees.

The spear creaked under his weight as though it was about to break and in the next second it sent him flying.

Shu!

Nagisa flew through the air like a rocket.

He flew by several meters in a single go before reaching his hands towards another spear and grabbing it with both hands.

Using the weight of his body, he swung around then threw his body high towards the last spear.

Nagisa's body flew high before making an arc and falling down. He came down with as much force as possible but not enough to break the spear.

When he landed, the spear bent violently as if just a bit more force would instantly break it. But he had properly calculated how much weight and force to use so Nagisa didn't worry in the slightest and believed in his own skills and jumped.

Shu!

The next moment Nagisa easily made it passed the huge pit and flew towards the path on the other side. Fortunately there was no other traps and he landed safely while rolling on his sides.

[Saaffee!]

Nagisa stood up with clenched fists raised high.

He had gotten out of the worst and was panting so hard that his lungs seemed to beg him to breathe harder.

His legs wobbled like he would fall at any moment but the victory made him too overjoyed to care.

'I-I'm alive!'

Nagisa might have seemed way too confident but he was terrified to be honest.

Anyone would be when they had to cross such a death trap. If he wasn't at the very least trembling at the end of such an experience he'd have to wonder if he was a monster.

This situation made it all the more apparent that his training as a kid paid off.

If he didn't start training and get to learn to use perception then by now he'd be sleeping in the belly of a beast. And even if he got away he would have ended up as Christmas decorations for the dungeon.

He might have yearned for a more fun life as a kid but now he was all too glad that he was forced to train like his life depended on it.

Phew*

He brushed back his light blue hair showing a face filled with both beauty and handsome masculinity.

Nagisa didn't realize it till now but somewhere along the confusion both his wig and glasses had fallen off. 

Thinking about it he shrugged.

It was likely for the best since they got in the way. He also took out his contacts displaying his radiating golden pupils that shone even in the darkness.

As he recalled the feeling of perception just moments ago he couldn't help but feel that it resembled meta-vision or something.

There was no way simple perception would give a person future sight. Or maybe if it was high enough then others could experience the same thing?

His perception was as high as (B) so it wasn't too far-fetched to be honest.

Then again it could just be that his perception was strange. Either way he didn't know nor did he care. For now all he cared about was surviving.

[And the only way is forward!-]

*Growl*

Geh?!

Hearing the growl of a hungry predator behind him Nagisa made a dumb expression and turned slightly.

F*ck!

One actually made it across!!

Nagisa's mind was filled with question marks and puzzles that couldn't be fit no matter what. After all, no matter how you spun it none of this made sense in the slightest!

He began to wonder if the world just wanted him to get a game over and reincarnate. It'd make sense if the world was against him at this point because he didn't see how those wolves half his size could possibly make it pass that death zone.

Geez!

Even that egg never had such atrocious luck when he fell off a wall. All sorts of conspiracies for his death began to race in his mind and he couldn't calm down at all.

Also, there was something else that made his heart palpitate irregularly.

The size and ferocity surrounding this wolf was like that of a king of beast that didn't even shy away from feasting on its own kind.

Nagisa swallowed his saliva and his face ran cold just feeling the killing intent it was emitting.

He began to hope in his heart that this big fellow was just passing by and he slowly made way while smiling like a lobby attendant.

But of course, his luck was as bad as they came.

*Raaah!!*

Nagisa had no choice but to flee for his life.