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Deep Valley Abyss, Erebor233 ? Deep Valley Abyss, Erebor #3
Having reached the bottom, we stayed in the gondola for a while to assess the situation.
In the darkness where you don’t know what’s there, you can only vaguely see the area beneath your feet where the torch is burning.
I had to feel like I was trapped in a phone booth in a flood of black water.
When this torch goes out, a pitch-black torrent will surge in from all directions, shaking me to and burying me.
Although we didn’t say anything, it seemed like we all felt similar emotions.
Both Hippolyte and Antiope seem to be keeping their eyes and ears alert to their surroundings, careful not to let the torches in their hands go out.
Hwaruk.
If his torch showed even the slightest hint of soot and shimmering in a strange way, he would aim his weapon at the surroundings more than necessary.
“Sister, how long has it been since we got here? An hour?”
“Maybe it was longer than that, maybe it wasn’t even ten minutes. The darkness of Erebor has a way of warping the senses.”
“What should I do?”
“I’m thinking about it too.”
The bottom of an unexpected valley.
It would not have been strange for anyone else to have screamed and panicked, but Hippolyte and Antiope appeared quite calm.
Thanks to that, I was able to maintain my composure, which was fortunate. It turns out that high-level adventurers aren’t just high leveled.
Of course, there are some who aren’t like that.
“… Haa. Ha… .”
After falling into this underground, Elfriede’s condition couldn’t have been worse.
You can tell at a glance that he’s in a pretty dangerous state, as he’s wheezing and breathing heavily, like an asthmatic who’s lost his inhaler.
If something like this happens, it would be normal.
In Elfriede’s case, she fell into this panic not because she had fallen into darkness, but because she saw something like a black band engraved on her wrist.
The brand of sacrifice.
According to the high-ranking adventurer Hippolyte, the bands that appear on our wrists like amusement park passes are some kind of symbol indicating that we are sacrifices.
“Long live chaos-.”
『Name: Hassan Lv. 24
Strength: 12
Agility: 4
Stamina: 8
Task: 260
Grace: Blessing of Chaos》 Shining Hands》 Night Armor》 Dark Eyes》
I tried to space out the letters just in case, but nothing seemed to have changed. The same goes for Antiope, who touched her wrist briefly.
It doesn’t seem to be some kind of curse or condition.
In the midst of all this, a deep breathing sound is heard.
It’s Elfriede.
“Phew, phew… .”
I couldn’t help but be quite surprised, since this was the first time in two years that I had seen Elfriede in such a difficult situation.
The fairy wizard, who seemed to be fearless, was trembling with such a country girl-like reaction.
The emotions become very subtle.
“Elf, tell me when you feel better. We’ll find a way out of the gondola and up.”
Hippolyte also seemed concerned about Elfriede’s overreacting condition.
Antiope is also instructed to keep an eye out for the nymph causing the panic, lest she leap into the darkness and disappear.
I raised my head and stared into the pitch-black darkness, unable to see anything.
You can run towards it?
It was a story that I couldn’t understand at all, but it is said that those who have been eroded to the very tip of their heads by this abyss can often jump into the darkness like that.
I actually didn’t quite get what the abyssal erosion that Hippolyte was talking about was. To give a general idea, I thought it might be what people commonly call SANchi.
Stress levels.
If someone had reached the extreme level of mental breakdown and gone mad, it wouldn’t have been strange for them to just run into that darkness.
Hippolyte said.
“Even among the high-ranking adventurers of the Kingdom’s Silver Tier, three or four go missing in the darkness each year.”
“Then what happens?”
“I don’t know.”
Hippolyta says she doesn’t know. Is there a more eerie story than that?
As she felt goosebumps running down her back, Antiope, who was sprinkling sap on the torch and relighting it, spoke.
“I have seen it. The one who was dragged into Erebor.”
“Erebor?”
“This creepy darkness, Erebor. Erebor is not only at the bottom of this valley.”
Hwaruk-.
When Antiope lit the torch, the surroundings became a little brighter and I felt better. Of course, it was terrible that the amount of sap we had prepared in advance was decreasing.
Even a torch doesn’t last forever.
If we continue like this, one day we will be plunged into darkness without a single light on.
Everyone seemed to be aware of it, but no one seemed to say it out loud.
Hippolyta, who had been pointing her sword in all directions as if to chase away such anxiety, asked as if it was a passing sound.
“Have you ever seen someone being dragged into the darkness? You must have seen him in the Knights Templar, right?”
“Yes. As I travel around the kingdom, I meet many victims of all kinds. The one I saw was the one who was dragged under his own bed.”
The story of Antiope made me think of someone being dragged under a bed. There are parts of the imagination that are easy to imagine and parts that are not.
I don’t use a bed because I like to just sleep on the floor with a blanket, but people who have slept in a bed since childhood might have a vague fear of the space floating between the matrix and the floor.
For example, you might have the delusion that there’s a horribly ugly monster crouching underneath you, ready to grab your ankle the moment you stretch out your leg.
But that is nothing more than a fear caused by a child’s fear.
So I had no choice but to ask back.
“Getting dragged under the bed? Is that really possible?”
“The cracks of Erebor are everywhere. They can be under a child’s bed, or in a dark alleyway at dawn when you are walking alone. They can be inside deep, dark eyes like yours, Samaritan. Those who are weak-hearted will be dragged in.”
No, no-.
Antiope corrects her words.
“It’s not like they’re being dragged in, it’s more like they’re throwing themselves at you. Have you ever seen a grasshopper jump into water?”
“A grasshopper jumping into water. I’ve never seen one before.”
I had never seen it, but I knew about it. There was a time when there was a craze for the croaker in Korea. I was familiar with the ecology of the croaker. It was said that it lays eggs in the water and leads the host to the water’s edge.
Antiope adds a few more words as she imagines the disgusting insects writhing in her mind.
“Sometimes, there are grasshoppers or insects that jump into the water as if their heads have gone crazy. They jump in even though they know they will die. Those who are obsessed with the abyss are like them. They jump in of their own accord.”
“Antiope, don’t change the subject and get to the point. Didn’t you say you saw the guy who fell into the darkness?”
Antiope mutters to herself, “Oh, that’s right,” as if she realized the truth, in response to Hippolyte’s point, who had been quietly listening to the story from the side.
“It was about two years ago. When I was still the ninth of the Knights. I heard that a man who had disappeared into the darkness returned to the inn.”
“man?”
“He was probably a participant in the Titan War. He was someone who went missing more than 50 years ago. However, the man who returned showed no signs of having spent all that time there. However, I don’t know if you can call him human.”
“Why?”
Antiope mumbles softly in response to Hippolyte’s question.
“Well, I was an idiot who could only say things like, ‘Oh, oh, oh, oh.’ I don’t know what he was saying, but he twisted his body in a pretty horrible way. Thinking back on it now, it gives me goosebumps.”
“I see.”
The conversation ended with Hippolyte’s appropriate reply.
It is immersed in complete silence.
It also felt as if the darkness surrounding us had intruded upon our conversation, sweeping it away into pitch-black silence and stillness.
“So, Samaritan. You don’t have anything to say? Say something quickly.”
Maybe that’s why Antiope asked me to tell her anything. We didn’t say anything, but I think we all thought the same thing.
If this silence continues, something bad will happen.
So, I guess that’s why they chatted and responded by talking at length about things that didn’t interest them.
But when this situation actually arose, I didn’t know what to talk about and nothing really came to mind.
When I felt anxious as if someone was following me from behind, Hippolyta said, “Crackle!” while biting another lightning bolt.
“It won’t work. Waiting until the elf’s condition improves will be problematic. Let’s move. Everyone, get ready to move.”
Moving.
Are you going to walk into that darkness where you don’t know what will happen?
I thought of a love poem and a locust dominated by a love poem.
If we walk into that darkness, it would be no different than a locust jumping into water.
But no one contradicted Hippolyta’s words.
Because I felt like it would be better to at least take a step rather than just stay still in silence.
*
*
*
Hippolyte says.
“imagination.”
Antiope is the successor.
“Reverse horse killing.”
And it’s my turn to take over.
“Lean meat.”
Hippolyte is the next to inherit it.
“energy.”
“history.”
“Boss.”
“tension.”
“No, sis, haven’t you been saying words that end in a consonant since earlier? Are you saying you’re going to play a word game or something, right now?”
Antiope burst out in rage, unable to bear it any longer. In fact, Hippolyta insisted on using only words that ended in “force,” to the point of being perverted.
“It’s lethal so I won’t do it.”
In the end, the word chain game comes to an end.
In order to avoid being immersed in silence, we played a word game to talk about something, but when that ended, a sticky silence enveloped our empty space once again.
“Hassan, how many Lightning Gae-ams are left?”
“There are still about a dozen left.”
“Whew, twelve? If four people bite one every hour, that’ll be two hours… I wonder if I can find the elf’s companions and escape in that time.”
It was Hippolyta who cursed and said, “Damn it!”
It was obvious that both Hippolyte and Antiope were becoming increasingly nervous.
As you walk through the darkness, unable to see ahead, you feel anxious as you run out of supplies, including torches and lightning bolts, and it seems like you are not making any progress.
“after-.”
If there was one thing that was a relief, it was that Elfriede’s breathing, which had been in a state of panic, had stabilized a lot.
Elfriede snapped her fingers, causing her torch to burn brighter.
“Elf, are you coming to your senses now?”
“Yeah, I feel better. I’m sorry. I looked so ugly. How out of my mind was I?”
“An hour, no, two hours. No, maybe even less than thirty minutes.”
“I see-. Can’t you hear anything else?”
We all listened to Elfriede’s words with our ears wide open. The only sounds we could hear were the sound of our footsteps and our breathing.
“Elf guy, you still don’t seem to have come to your senses? What can you hear-”
.
When Antiope tried to scold him.
We all stopped walking at the same time.
As Elfriede said, it was indeed a strange sound.
However, it was Hippolyta who woke him up by clapping her hands loudly.
“Don’t listen. You’ll be fooled. Everyone, be careful. And Samaritan. Do you have any rope or string in your luggage? If possible, something long.”
“Yes, there is one.”
“Tie our waists together with that.”
As instructed by Hippolyte, I tied everyone’s waists tightly together with a rope. It was extremely uncomfortable, but on the other hand, it gave me a sense of security.
At that very moment-.
What difference would it make if I tied my waist with something like this?
A rather familiar voice was heard from the air. It was none other than Antiope’s voice.
When I turned my head to look at Antiope, who was in charge of the rear, she frowned as if she too was surprised.
“That’s not what I just said.”
What kind of trouble am I having here with these idiots? It’s my day off today. I don’t need to earn any money. Damn, if it weren’t for my sister, I could be resting at home-.
“That’s not what I said! Seriously! And, and I didn’t think of that!”
It was Antiope, who was making excuses loudly like a prisoner awaiting her final judgment. It was so strange and eerie to hear Antiope’s voice coming from the air.
“Antiope, I know you don’t think that way. It must be the work of sleepwalkers. They read the darkness in people’s hearts and twist it into whispers in their ears.”
I don’t like the way you act like the representative of the Amazons, even though you were born only a few years before me. You’re not better than me in anything.
“No, sis, I really didn’t think like that….”
“I know. This is a ploy. We tied each other’s waists together, preventing our bodies from leaving each other, so I guess they’re trying to break the bond.”
It was that very moment.
There are three women. I want to roughly fuck them all, pulling their underwear aside.
I felt everyone’s eyes on me.
I took out a handkerchief, wiped my forehead, and spoke calmly.
“It’s a mother ship.”
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Hioooong!!
