Chapter 43: The Fourteenth Night - Part 2 - City of Misfortune

"Although it is a surprise, it isn't a good surprise.", Sceke shook his head and crossing his arms under his chest while sighing.

Just thinking about the City of Misfortune made every one of the Pentafive had a headache. Even little Ye had pouted cheeks, never wanting to go back there even though it was safe.

Sceke didn't let Renir ask again and continued to explain, "The world of Gantlet has three stages, Gantlet Woodland, Gantlet Desert, and Gantlet Celestial. Nobody knows what is in the Gantlet Celestial since nobody ever had come back from there yet...", Sceke spoke as if it was something he wouldn't reach in his lifetime, just a sight for him. He then continued without making it obvious, a fear expressed on his face;

"This is the Gantlet Woodland with six stages divided five days each."

"Mm-hm", Renir nodded and butted in, "The six bosses which are the Giganslik and the five Sentinels."

Sceke was surprised, "So you already knew that?"

Renir nodded again then asked, "Are you the one who carved the advice inside the cave?"

He meant the other cave down which Sceke understood immediately.

"Yes, although it looked like this mountain is indestructible, strangely, it is only made to be indestructible towards everything in Gantlet except human energy."

Hanzee and the rest just nodded and agreed with Sceke as they listened.

"And...", Sceke's face turned slightly red, "What I meant by the words 'Don't trust the rune' is that don't be misled by its information. The rune tells many things but you only have to pick the information you should think about relative to your survival."

Sceke closed his eyes and raised both his eyebrows, "But now, instead, you should continue what you are doing."

"Why?", Renir was curious about the sudden change of tone.

"Hahaha,", Sceke laughed heartily, "Because you are doing fine, no, greater than anyone had ever done. If you changed something now, you may miss the right things you are doing."

"Oh...", Renir immediately understood and somewhat bashful even though he was proud of it. But something caught his attention, "Then what about this human energy? How is it possible as if it is programmed?"

Sceke slightly lost his smile and that was when Veronia, leaning on one of the shadowed walls, interrupted, "Nobody actually knows unless we managed to visit the famous Moon Bridge in the Gantlet Desert."

Sceke glanced at her and turned to Renir, "You might know more about the Gantlet Woodland than us so we'll skip that."

He continued;

"The Gantlet Desert have no beast or monsters like in the woodland."

The edges of Renir's mouth were about to lift but immediately dropped when he heard the next sentence.

"But they have spirits and otherwordly beings more dangerous than the monsters here."

Renir scratched his head in perplexion while he had an indifferent expression

'So the slimes and water creatures are not otherworldly?', he thought but soon ignored it.

"Instead of attacking you physically, it's more of mentally or physiologically.", Sceke was then interrupted.

"For example, the Alfisu, also known as the Rest Stealer.", Hanzee added when he saw Renir's confused face, he wanted to see more of it as he laughed in his mind, "The Alfisu wanders in search of dolls of children, especially the prized dolls used to comfort children into a sleep so to dwell into it.", he told in an enigmatic tone.

There are many mysteries from that lore but what caught Renir more was about, "Children's dolls?", he baffled.

At first, he was shocked to know that children are specifically targeted so meaning, there should be many of them in the Gantlet Desert. He couldn't believe many children survived the woodland but he realized there was a little girl there and thought the same could be applied to every child that got there, they must've someone that protected them.

So he changed his questions into the dolls of the children instead.

Where do these dolls come from? Do they manufacture it in the Gantlet Desert? Or was it brought in this world like Renir's school uniform?

But, the most important question was: why specifically? Even after considering so much, the dolls should be rare but there is a spirit that decided to target it?

Renir's mind was instinctively running, but all made sense when Hanzee finished his words;

"But they were still legends so we have no idea if the book about it was accurate or not. The general idea was that the alfisus does not let anyone sleeps within a radius of a kilometer once they successfully possessed a doll. Even if the doll is found and obliterated, its curse will still affect all the people within than radius."

He then frowned, "It is said, it is almost impossible to get rid of it unless it was brought to the Purifier, another unknown being in the legends of Gantlet. So until there is no Purifier, there is no sleep.";

Even without context, Renir realized how dangerous it was.

If the said Purifier, the curse lifter was rarer than the alfisu itself, then the cursed people are bound to be restless.

"Won't they turn crazy?", Renir didn't know all the factors of him being fatigue through all the nights but he was sure being sleepless was enough to turn a decent person into insanity.

"Yes, that's their goal.", Sceke sadly agreed, "But near the City of Misfortune, there are almost none of these spirits and otherworldly beings. The only dangerous about the city is the people within."

"Huh?", Renir was shocked to hear that there would be infighting. In this place, people should be helping one another was what he thought then it turned a whole 180.

"You are already Rank 7 so you must know about the EXP or experience.", Sceke's tone turned low while his face became of scorn, "In the City of Misfortune, or in the Gantlet Desert, you have to accept a Stigma. It is literally a mark on your forehead. Once you have this, you can kill others who are stigmatized and gain their stack OF EXP."

"That's horrible... is there anyone who accepted this stigma?", Renir's heart sank that there is such a thing. If he reached that stage, will he succumb to the greed and accept this Stigma?

Sceke fell silent, so Veronia with a tight expression scornfully answered, "It's not that there are a few who accepted this stigma but there are a few who REFUSED to the stigma."

A greater impact hit hard on Renir's naive head, "They would kill others for power?"

"Hmn, now that you put it that way. Even in my original world that's kind of normal...", a strange tone emitted from Sceke's words. It was as if he had experienced it firsthand.

Nobody took it in mind...

So Sceke felt relieved when he noticed his slip of the tongue and to divert their attention, he continued, "But don't worry, as long as you don't accept the stigma, you won't be targeted-"

"Tsk!", Veronia clicked her tongue, "But be mocked."

"At least, we don't kill.", Hanzee calmly said with his chin up.

Renir looked and knew he was right when he saw their foreheads clear of marks. He sighed of relief, he decided to trust them for that.

Unknowingly, mutual trust between Renir and the Pentafive formed.

"And one more thing about the Sinners or Feluxers, the one who accepted the stigma, even if you are one, nobody can kill you in public. They needed to challenge you first. It is kind of tricky that causes headaches in the City of Misfortune. Everyone got eyes on you and you need to keep an eye to everyone. Then you should have as many hidden tricks as possible. Once you killed one and showed your last tricks, you will be targeted by many to stop you from growing. Because stacking EXP is one way to being overpowered."

It was long and simple but Sceke had a headache himself just from explaining. He oversimplified the chaos that was happening in the City of Misfortune.

"Oh...", Renir, from the bottom of his heart, hated to ever go there. It would devastate him if this plan to the Door of Salvation failed.

Because it will also literally cost him a life.

"I understood calling them Sinners but why Feluxers?", this bugged Renir.

"We don't know much but we at least knew the Hell God of Souls, Felux is the one who gave the system of accepting the Stigma and allow them to pluck EXP and, at the same time, other's life."

"A god...", this is the first time he heard about a god even from the rune.

Since no one knew more about this god, Sceke continued, "After the City of Misfortune is the Moon Bridge. According to legends like almost everything in Gantlet Desert, the Moon Bridge is also a city yet smaller. Just like the door to Gantlet Desert here in the Gantlet Woodland, the door to the Gantlet's third stage is in the Moon Bridge. And from then on, we know nothing."

Renir frowned and asked, "Why is almost everything according to legends?"

"Good question", Hanzee answered, "Because we only heard it from the others' talks and whispers. Sometimes, they nonchalantly talk to us about it. Because there is nothing much transpires in the City of Misfortune so chaos easily rules over it."

Renir nodded, getting the general idea about this world and where he was brought into.

His impression about it didn't change if not worsened.

'Actually making people kill each other for personal gain?!', Renir hated it. If everything Sceke and the others said were true then this Felux is such a cruel god.

If he could, he wanted to stop that kind of madness, but could he? He isn't some kind of novel hero, after all. Renir got stronger out of fear of death at first not some courage and might.

If only he could, he will, but he has his own life. Why would he risk it for the literal Sinners who accepted that kind of mark?

Renir, himself, got a goal now if he was successful in going back to his original world. He only wished in the back of his head that the chaos would resolve itself.

But truly, wishful thinking.

"I will wait.", Renir came back to the original topic, "I am not some sort of savior but at least...", he bashfully blushed, "I have to bring home some friends."

Like a child meeting his first friends, Renir awkwardly expressed himself.