Ascender's Path: ORDEAL OF THE GODS

Chapter 9.

When I opened my eyes, the sun was shining brightly. I squinted due to the brilliant sunlight, then looked around my surroundings.

It seemed I was floating on the surface of pure blue water. I found out that my body hadn't sunk into the fountain. Thus, I forced my languid self to move to the shore lake while recalling the unpleasant sensation I had before I passed out.

Strange, my head feels so heavy! In the first place, why did I pass out in the middle of the fountain?

Without knowing anything about what happened, I tried recalling my memories.

"—— !!!!"

A series of nightmarish flashbacks assaulted me at once. The more I recalled the situation, the more blood I felt draining out of my body.

Yes! That's right! I ran into this place to escape from those beast monsters, entered the dungeon, and then a knight-like humanoid monster sliced off my right a— My right arm?

"Wh-what? My right arm is… still there?"

When I saw that my right arm was still attached to my shoulder, I heaved a deep sigh and plopped on the ground.

Maybe, it was just a nightmare. I mean, if that was a reality, I should be missing my right arm. Yeah, that must've been a dream or hallucinating.

Finally, my train of thought was back to normal again.

"Eh, my clothes is…"

Yes, there was indeed not a single scratch on my skin. However, the right arm part of my clothes was torn until the baseline.

Upon a closer look, I found a blood clot around the base of the right arm of my clothes. Don't tell me-—

"Elixir!"

Out of the blue, I unconsciously muttered a word that was left in my head. That's right. If that is the case, everything makes sense now.

After that blackish knight-like humanoid monsters whose holding a sword tore off my right arm, I had run like my life depended on it, no, it was really a life-threatening and before I lost my consciousness I've made here and fall into this fountain of endless elixir, and passed out.

In short, the reason there was not a single scratch on my right arm was none other than the "elixir" that constantly gushing out in this fountain.

If that's the case, everything that happened in the basement of that sanctuary is not a pipe hallucinating or dream. Then, I have no choice but to go to that hellish place again in order to get out of this space, right?

"Dammit! No! Like hell I would go to that place again! I have enough of that hell!"

I couldn't even see the movements of that knight-like humanoid monster, if it's not the case I would have been able to react and hurriedly use the second form of my secret technique 'flash' and immediately get away but that thing didn't happened at all.

Furthermore, If what the humanoid monster tore off was my head instead of my right arm, I would've died for sure. The only silver lining of that situation was that I had survived. I absolutely wouldn't enter that place.

"Or not! I have to enter that place sooner or later forcibly anyway to escape from this place. Well, my right arm is safe and sound thanks to that elixir―"

After I cheered myself up, I turned around and headed toward the sanctuary again. On the ground leading to the sanctuary, I saw an enormous patches of blood spread everywhere. It was definitely the blood that had been spurting from my right arm that was ripped off by that fucking knight-like humanoid monsters.

"Hehe...."

I see! So that's the case, huh. It's always the same every time. The thing I want the most is always robbed from me in the worst possible way like they did to my parents and me.

I unconsciously let out a dry laugh upon realizing the extraordinarily high and thick dark wall that separated me from my future. However, that laugh soon turned into bitter cries.

Unable to withstand the extremely cruel fate that I had never asked for, I finally broke into tears for the first time in a few years ever since I wore that ring.

After crying my heart out, I calmed down a bit.

Anyhow, I knew that the current me couldn't win against that knight-like humanoid monster. If I forced my way into the dungeon, I would only become its plaything. However, the only way to get out of this place was by clearing this mysterious dungeon.

Will the military school teacher's would dispatch of some sort of search group of ascender's party and save me in this place if I continue waiting here? I better not hope for that. There is no way they will do that for someone as talentless and trash like me.

Moreover, the time outside of this world is suspended right now. Morning would never come in the outside world unless I clear this dungeon.

"Fuck! What should I do in this situation, then?"

Right now, I was leaning back against the wall. Anyhow, I refused to die in this kind of hidden place. Therefore, the situation might change for the better as long as I persevered.

For example, someone else might come to challenge this dungeon while I waited.

Since that was the case, the first thing I had to do was securing food and water. For water, I had the fountain, which endlessly pumped out elixir. The main problem was food.

"As expected, there's no food, huh…"

I tried to walk around the space, but forget about a nut, I couldn't even find a small animal or grass in this place.

Fortunately, I spotted a frog-like animal beneath the shadow of stone or rock, but it was inedible since it contained of some kind of deadly poison, though I did not want to eat those frogs either.

However, it was too early to give up.

I mean, since the passage of time outside this place and my age progression was suspended, there was a chance that I might not feel hungry. Or else, I might be able to alleviate my hunger with elixir. I had no choice but to bet on those possibilities.

For the time being, let's not do anything that would exhaust my stamina.

Thus, I lay down on the ground and closed my eyes to sleep.

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It turned out that this place also had a circle of night and day. As per my calculations, seven days had passed since I got trapped in this place. These seven days had smashed my expectations to pieces.

Hunger did exist, and elixir alone was far from enough to fill my stomach. I had already have an extreme stomachache every night because of this desperate situation.

I was starving right now. It felt like the skin of my abdomen was sticking to my stomach consuming itself.

Even after searching the area many times over, I couldn't even find a pieces of grass to eat. The only thing I saw was those frogs.

However, it was still too early to give up. Those frogs were deadly poisonous. Since I couldn't find anything on the surface, I decided to try underground. There, I might be able to find a food that might edible for me to eat. I could still move, I just needed to hold out for a bit more.

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Author's POV: I'm begging you please don't be shy and press that vote button well, I won't force you. Anyway, thanks for reading. 🙂