[ 3 HOURS LATER ]
"How are you, Zeph?" Blanche asked, peeking at Zephyr who's burying her face on her arms that are on top of her bended knees. I don't know how many hours has it been since we rest here, but it looks like Zephyr fell asleep while trying to get used of the smell.
"Zeph?" Blanche called, placing her hand on top of Zephyr's head.
"Ahh...yes?" Zephyr asked, slowly lifting her head.
"*hachoo* Ahh...goodness gracious," Zephyr said, rubbing her nose. Then she sniffle and yawned.
Oh, looks like she's fine now.
"How are you? Still want to puke?" Ethan asked, on his shoulder is the sleeping Ai, and behind Ai is Damon, leaning on her back, also sleeping, and to support each other's head as well.
"Hmm.. what---no...wait, I'm fine!" Zephyr said with a cheerful and happy expression. I smiled and nod at her when she turned to me, feeling proud.
"Finally?" I asked, and she nod her head repeatedly.
"Then, we can go now?" I added, the lady nod her head and stood up, stretching her body. She looks happy.
"Ai, Damon, wake up, we're going," Ethan spoke, and the two immediately woke up. I'm sure they can't sleep properly and only had a light sleep in the span of 3 or 4 hours.
"How are you, Zephyr? Are you alright now?" Damon asked as he stood up. Zephyr nod her head, and she looks proud of herself.
"That's good to hear," Ai said, smiling at her. The lady just giggled like a kid and walk passed by us.
"Let's gooo!" It looks like she's so happy, she became childish.
We all started walking together towards the path that we chose, and as we enter it the smell of the blood became even more stronger. All of us ended up covering our nose even though we can bear the bloody smell earlier.
"Dang, I just got used to the smell but it became even more powerful..." Zephyr said, roaming her eyes around the place.
"The path becomes wider as we go deeper..." Ethan spoke. All of us have our guard up, otherwise we might get attacked by something. This smell is too strong, it's strange. Were the ones who got here before us died?
The path is getting darker, but there are still torches attached to the wall that lead us where to go. The lights are dim, so we have to be careful and focus on the path we're taking.
"Uhh—it stinks of freaking blood," Zephyr spoke. She's someone who can't stand silence, I can guess.
"I-I feel nervous..." Ai said, grabbing the arm of her brother while roaming her eyes around this path. I always check on the ceiling as well, because something might just fall or attack us from above.
"Luck!" I turn my head in front when Blanche grabbed my shirt to stop me from walking, and just a few distance away from us is a strange river.
A red river, and this red river gives off the smell of rusty and rotten blood scent. So, this is the one we've been smelling since a while ago. And why is there suddenly a river here? And on the other side, there's a forest. What's even more horrifying is that there are human bones scattered around the forest, numerous skulls of unknown victims of whatever monster is in there.
"W-we have to cross this river and...defeat the monster on the other side?" Ai asked.
"That seems to be the case," Ethan answered. I stayed quiet and look at the forest across the river. There are many human bones, and they are scattered around the area.
"It's strange," I mumbled.
"What's strange?" Damon asked. I can feel their gazes towards me, but I decided not to respond.
If you look at the forest, it's clean. The only thing that's making it terrifying are the humans bones that are scattered around the place. What's weird is that the bones are far from each other, as if they were thrown there. While most of it are near to river.
I stared at the river and follow the flow of the water. That's why the narrow path gets wider as we delve inside, it's because there's an actual forest at the end of the path.
The flow of the water goes on the right, and if you look at the end of it—there's only fog. Even on the left side, where the water comes from.
"What are you thinking, Luck?" Blanche asked, peeking at my face. I looked at her and prevented myself from sighing.
"It's strange. The bones are in the forest, but except that there's nothing else. There's not even dried blood, and most of the bones are close by the river," I spoke as I step backward, grabbing her wrist and dragging her away from the river. I also raised my left arm and gently pushed my teammates away from the water, so they had to step back as well.
"What? Are you saying that the monster's in the river—"
"KUAARRHHH!"
"AHHH!"
Ai screamed as something comes out from the water and tried to attack us, all of us were able to dodge by jumping backwards, and even so, the monster is still close to us.
I grabbed Ethan's wrist as well as we all run a few steps back.
The monster looks like a mermaid, it has the body of a human and a fish tail, however, it's hands are similar to that of a lizard, it's short. Also, its face is blank—but it has a mouth and an ear, a strange ear. It has three points. And it's also blue...
I placed my index finger in front of my lips, and all of my teammates nodded.
It has no eyes and nose, it can only sense us by hearing. This is a disadvantage.
I reached for the sword behind me but I couldn't get it at all, what the heck? I can hold it, but why is it hard to pull?
I took a deep breath and stopped pulling the sword, but right after I put down my hand, the sword appeared on my hand as if it teleported there.
"The heck?"
"RAAAUURR!" I covered my mouth as my teammates shush me silently.
'Sorry' I mouthed.
"Shit—Luck!" Damon whispered.
"Scatter," I command, and they all jumped to different places. I stayed still as the monster starts crawling towards me, I took a few steps away silently as I wait for the monster, and since it has no nose nor eyes, it won't know if its already reached me or not.
And just when it was about to get close to me, I run towards it and then stab it's head.
"KEEEEKKK!"
It screamed loudly that I ended up releasing my sword and running backwards while covering my ears. It's dark blue blood splattered all over the ground and all of us are covering our ears because of its screech.
A few seconds later, it became silent again. And when I saw the monster, it's already...deflated? It has become deflated and died.
"Is it dead?" Zephyr asked.
"Well...obviously," Damon replied. All of us stared at the deflated monster in front of us. The hell is this? It's a mermaid but its arms are like a lizard. It has no face as well.
"Is it really dead?" Ai asked. The sword that I stabbed on its head slowly disappeared into golden dust, and I can feel something on my back again. It looks like the sword comes back to us after it finished its job.
"Yeah. Lupin said it's dead," Blanche replied. I wonder who this Lupin is but everything it said has been true so far.
"And Lupin also said that there are more of this monster in that river," I avoided to sigh in disbelief. How can mermaid even live in a freaking river?
"Who's Lupin?" Zephyr asked. Oh, right...she hasn't been introduced to this Lupin yet.
"My friend!" Blanche said, raising her right arm with spreaded palm, introducing her friend.
"Huh? But, there's noth—"
"Thank you, Lupin," I spoke as I crouch down to check th deflated body of the strange mermaid monster. If it was this easy to kill, should we just kill them all?
I poke it's deflated head and all of a sudden, it started to crumble like a burnt paper and disappeared to thin air. What the heck is happening?
We waited for a few seconds until it has fully crumbled and strangely, there are materials that appeared, and I received another notification window.
[ You defeated a Faceless Merman!
- Lurker's Grasp (2)
- Drowned Coil (1)
- Trident Lobe (2)
- Veilshard Scales (10)
Defeat more monsters to get more materials! ]
What?
I received materials after defeating a monster?
"What does it says, Luck?" Ethan asked.
"Hmm, it said I received some materials. Lurker's Grasp—which is an arm, a Drowned Coil, is a tail. Veilshard Scales, and Trident Lobe, it's ears," I spoke. I stood up.
"Window," I spoke. My profile window appeared in front of me, and I tapped my backpack.
What? It's not here. There's no space for the materials at all?
"Luck, here. Tap this," Damon pointed at something, wait there's an arrow after the potion icon? I didn't notice this, what the heck.
I tapped it, and more icons appeared.
There's a rose, gem? Huh? It's a rose, but in the middle is a gem. Is this the materials? Next to it is a flower icon, just a normal icon of flowers. Next is a book icon. What's the purpose of that? Are we going to read some books? And next to it is a strange round shape with spikes, and then the last one is a shirt?
The heck are these?
I tapped the rose with gem, and there I saw the materials I got.
"Lurker's Grasp...it's source is from defeating a faceless merman. It said it can be used to craft potions. The Drowned Coil and Trident Lobe can be used to create potions too, but it can be crafted into a higher level. The Veilshard Scales can be used for forging a weapon, it said," I explained after tapping to all of the materials I got.
I tapped the flower icon and it has something written in the middle.
'You have not acquired any herbs yet'
'You have not acquired any books yet'
'You have not acquired any boss drops yet'
And the last is, 'You have not acquired any outfits yet'
Hmm...wow. Just wow. There's a lot of things here.
"Anyway, how are we supposed to cross this river then?" Blanche asked, pointing at the river. And right after she asked that, we sensed something coming out from the river. All of us were surprised and speechless when we saw massive amount of Faceless Mermen, climbing out from the river.
"Shit..."
***