Chapter 233

233rd Chapter: The Abyss of the Deep Valley, Erebore

Having reached the very bottom, we stayed a while inside the gondola, carefully observing the situation.

In this darkness, where we couldn’t perceive much beyond the faint glow of our own burning torches beneath our feet, uncertainty loomed.

I felt as if I were trapped inside a telephone booth, submerged in a flood of black water.

If this torch goes out, I might be engulfed and tossed around by an overwhelming dark current from all sides.

Though no one expressed it out loud, I could sense that we all shared similar feelings. Both Hippolyte and Antiope were meticulously ensuring that the flames in their hands stayed lit, ever attentive with their eyes and ears.

A flicker.

Even the slightest unusual soot or tremor from their torches would cause them to instinctively brandish their weapons towards the surrounding area.

“Sis, how long has it been since we fell here? An hour?”

“It could’ve been more, or maybe less than even ten minutes. The darkness of Erebore has an effect of distorting our senses.”

“What should we do?”

“I’m considering our options too.”

Unplanned descent to the bottom of this valley—another group might have screamed and panicked, yet Hippolyte and Antiope remained unusually calm, giving me the good fortune to maintain my own composure. This is what makes a high-level adventurer.

Of course, not everyone remained so level-headed.

“…Haa. Ha…”

The state of Elpride since we descended into this underground realm was worsening rapidly. Breathing heavily and wheezing as if she were an asthma patient who’d lost her inhaler, her condition was evidently precarious. While this state might naturally occur in trying situations, Elpride’s distress seemed triggered less by the fall into darkness, and more by the mysterious black marks that had appeared on her wrist.

It was a seal of sacrifice. According to Hippolyte, the high-level adventurer, the black bands resembling amusement park tickets that had appeared on our wrists were some kind of mark indicating that we’d been chosen as sacrifices.

“Long live chaos—”

[‘Name: Hassan Level 24

Strength: 12

Agility: 4

Stamina: 8

Achievement: 260

Blessing: Blessing of Chaos]’

I cast my eyes on the glowing characters briefly, but nothing seemed different. Even Antiope, who had gently touched her wrist, showed no signs of any curse or abnormal state.

Meanwhile, deep breaths echoed through the space.

It was Elpride.

“Huh, huuu…”

Watching Elpride struggle this way was something I’d never witnessed in the two years I’d known her. The fairy mage, who always seemed fearless, was now trembling like a frightened young girl.

It was a sight that stirred up mixed emotions.

“Elf, let us know if your condition improves. We’ll leave the gondola and search for a way to climb out.”

Hippolyte, too, appeared concerned about Elpride’s highly sensitive state. She instructed Antiope to keep watch, as the panicked fairy could vanish into the darkness at any moment.

I looked upward into the pitch-black void that extended endlessly overhead, a void we might need to charge toward.

It was hard to comprehend running toward that darkness with a sound mind, even if occasionally, individuals affected by these depths would impulsively leap into such darkness.

I didn’t quite understand the erosion caused by the abyss that Hippolyte had mentioned, but I inferred it might be similar to what people often referred to as SAN levels—the stress or madness gauge—and how, when it reaches its peak, even rational individuals might blindly rush into that darkness.

Hippolyte said,

“Each year, a few high-level adventurers in the Silver Tier of the Kingdom vanish into this kind of darkness.”

“What happens to them then?”

“I don’t know.”

Hippolyte’s admission shook me even more, as if a chill was creeping up my spine. At that moment, Antiope, who had just relit the torch by sprinkling resin and oil on it, piped up:

“I have seen it. A person who had been dragged into Erebore.”

“Erebore?”

“The frightening darkness we’re experiencing now. Erebore exists not just at the bottom of this valley but in other places too.”

Fwoosh.

With the flame relit, Antiope’s action slightly improved our mood. Yet the more the flame blazed, the faster we expended the supply of resin we had prepared beforehand, an alarming fact.

‘This fire won’t last forever either.’

If we keep staying here, there will come a time when we’ll be submerged in total darkness without any fire lit.

It seemed that everyone was aware of this but chose not to openly discuss it.

Hippolyte, perhaps as a way to chase away the looming unease, asked while brandishing her sword into the darkness:

“You said you have seen people get dragged into the darkness. You encountered them during your knight duties, I presume?”

“That’s correct. As I travel across the kingdom, I encounter many different victims. The case I remember involved a person being dragged under their bed.”

Recalling Antiope’s description, I tried to imagine a person being dragged under a bed. The image was vivid in some ways but also puzzling.

Personally, I prefer sleeping on the floor with blankets, not needing a bed, but those accustomed to beds might fear the unseen space beneath them. One might imagine a grotesque creature lurking beneath, ready to catch one’s foot the moment it stretches out.

However, that’s simply the fear concocted by the childish imagination. So I couldn’t help but question:

“Being dragged under the bed? Can something like that really happen?”

“Erebore’s rift can be anywhere—under a child’s bed, a lonely alley in the early morning, or even in the deep, dark eyes of someone like you. People whose hearts are weak tend to get drawn into it.”

“No, not exactly drawn in but more like jumping into it themselves. Have you ever seen water-skippers jumping into the water?”

“Water-skippers jumping into the water—never seen it, but I’ve heard about them.”

Indeed, I’d learned about water-skippers during the ‘Giant Flea’ craze in South Korea. Their ecology was quite fascinating—a host organism lured towards water to lay eggs.

As I imagined the disturbing wriggling of those insects, Antiope added more thoughts:

“Sometimes, insects, like bugs under a spell, inexplicably dive into water even knowing it might mean d*ath. Victims enchanted by the abyss are similar—they leap in on their own.”

“Antiope, stop deviating and get to the main point. You said you’ve seen someone swallowed by darkness, right?”

Silently listening to their conversation, Hippolyte’s intervention made Antiope mutter, “Ah, yes.”

“About two years ago, when I was one of the nine ranks in the Knight’s Order, I heard about a man who returned to an inn after disappearing into the darkness.”

“Man?”

“He might have been a participant in the Giant Wars about fifty years ago, someone who went missing back then. When he returned, however, he showed no signs of the time he had spent away. But whether he could still be considered human was questionable.”

“Why?”

With a small hum in response to Hippolyte’s question, Antiope explained:

“Because, well, he was reduced to nothing more than a dimwitted creature capable of making only ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhs.’ He sometimes contorted his body in rather grotesque ways. Recalling it now sends shivers down my spine.”

“Indeed.”

With Hippolyte’s matter-of-fact response, the conversation came to a close.

A thick silence blanketed us. It felt as though the darkness had infiltrated our discourse, wrapping us tightly in black silence and stillness.

“So, Samaritan, anything you’d like to talk about? Anything, just start chatting.”

Maybe because of the unsettling silence, Antiope turned to me, urging me to speak on anything. Though words weren’t said aloud, I think we all shared the thought: if this silence endured, something unfavorable might happen.

So we indulged in seemingly meaningless chatter to avoid it, responding to each other for the sake of breaking the silence.

But now with this situation, I couldn’t think of an appropriate topic, nor did anything immediately come to mind.

While we all felt a vague apprehension, as if something or someone was following us from behind, Hippolyte, munching on another glowing nut, declared:

“This won’t do. It’s problematic to wait here for Elpride’s condition to improve. Let’s relocate. Everyone, prepare for movement.”

Relocate?

Step into that unknown darkness ahead?

I recalled the water-skippers and the ‘Giant Fleas’ controlling them. Walking into this darkness felt eerily similar to how those insects jump into water.

Yet, no one contradicted Hippolyte.

Any movement seemed better than remaining still in silence.

*

Hippolyte started:

“Imagination.”

Antiope echoed:

“Backbone.”

Then it was my turn:

“Muscle.”

And back to Hippolyte:

“Energy.”

“History.”

“Manager.”

“Tension.”

“Hey, Sis, you’ve been ending words with ‘strength’ all this time! What’s this, a word chain game?”

Eventually, Antiope exploded, unable to tolerate Hippolyte’s deliberate use of ‘strength’-ending words.

“Cheating. I’m done.”

Thus, the word chain game ended.

We had played it merely to avoid slipping into silence but now that even the game had ended, the sticky, oppressive silence once again enveloped us.

“Hot-sun, how many glowing nuts remain?”

“I’d say about a dozen or so.”

“Hmm, a dozen. If we four each eat one every hour, it’ll last two hours… whether we’ll find Elpride’s ally and exit in that time is questionable.”

d*mn, cursed with a profanity, Hippolyte was showing increasing signs of nerves.

Wandering in this pitch-black darkness, we could see the dwindling supplies like torches and glowing nuts while our progress seemed negligible. The frustration was palpable.

“Huff.”

The saving grace was that Elpride’s breathing seemed much calmer now.

Elpride tapped her fingers, intensifying her torch’s blaze.

“Elf, it seems your senses are returning?”

“Yes, I’m better. Sorry about that. That was embarrassing. How long was I out of it?”

“An hour, maybe two, or perhaps less than thirty minutes.”

“Is that so—oh, wasn’t that some noise?”

At Elpride’s comment, we all perked our ears. Apart from our footsteps and breathing, no other sound intruded.

“Elf, are you still delirious? What do you hear?”

As Antiope was about to reprimand her,

We all suddenly froze.

Sure enough, there was a peculiar sound in the air, highlighted by the clap that Hippolyte made sharply.

“Keep your ears from it. Beware, it’s alluring. Everyone, be careful. Samaritan, by any chance do you have any ropes or cords in your gear? Preferably long ones?”

“Yes, I have some.”

“Use that to tie our waists together.”

Following Hippolyte’s command, I tied us all securely to each other with the rope. Though it was uncomfortable, it also somehow offered a strange sense of security.

At that very moment,

What difference could this rope make?

A familiar voice, unmistakably Antiope’s, emanated from the air.

Turning around to face Antiope, who was supposed to be behind me, she too appeared confused.

“That wasn’t me!”

What are we even doing here suffering with these fools? Today was my day off, and I didn’t have to make any money. d*mn it, if it weren’t for Sister, I could’ve stayed home…

“That wasn’t me, really! I didn’t think that!”

Sounding like a condemned criminal pleading for mercy, Antiope shouted. Hearing her voice echo from thin air was undeniably bizarre and unsettling.

“Antiope, we know you wouldn’t think that way. It’s the sprites. They read the dark thoughts in our hearts and twist them, whispering to us.”

My younger sister, thinking she’s so high and mighty just because she was born a few years earlier, acting as the representative of all Amazons…I don’t like it. She’s not better than me in anything.

“No, Sister, I truly didn’t think that…”

“Antiope, I believe you. This is just their way of sowing discord. Binding ourselves together like this, they aim to break our bonds.”

And right then,

With three women around. d*mn, I’d like to rip off their underwear and…

I could feel everyone’s stares falling on me.

Pulling out a handkerchief, I wiped my forehead, calmly stating,

“False accusation.”

Back…

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