章 6: Fatal Encounter
Atlas reeled himself out of the sphere and back into his normal body. The revelation that he could access his abilities by diving into his sphere changed everything. Now he could test out what this {Warp} technique was.
He didn't know how to level it up, but it was still something he could connect to mentally.
Atlas wanted to test out the abilities right away, but he still had one more mystery to uncover, and that was the feminine voice that rang out after he killed that rabbit.
Atlas could only assume it was like a gamemaster of this maze who gave him abilities, but that didn't seem quite right. It felt as if it came from inside of him. Of course, his next thought was that the sphere itself had talked to him, announcing his kill as some type of system to help him recognize what had just happened.
But he didn't have any points collected from the kill, nor did he have any system to call upon to see his stat line. Instead, it was just him and a spinning sphere standing next to a dead bunny and a flower in the middle of a snowfield that was in the middle of a maze.
Atlas needed to unravel that mystery, but the world didn't suddenly turn into a game he could quickly beat, So for now, he could turn his attention to testing {Warp}.
He made the mental connection with his sphere again and brought out the spinning energy in it. He made it flow through his right shoulder and down into his arm, but instead of trying to shoot out the energy, he made it flow across his whole body.
The process was slow at first but quickly he picked up the pace. He could feel his whole body covered in this energy, and his mental state stabilized. A calmness from this energy let him connect to the sphere more as if it were a new extension of his body.
Finally, once he felt his whole body was covered, he activated {Warp} by sending a mental command.
Atlas never knew a feeling like this existed. The second he activated his ability, he flew forward—or rather, he flew up, and space itself folded. He went from being in the middle of the lake to suddenly appearing 2 meters in front of where he just was.
Instantly, Atlas recognized what had just happened.
He teleported!
Once again, a billion thoughts ran through his mind, thinking of the possibilities. "Can I teleport through walls? How many times can I teleport in a row without stopping, or is this infinite? What if, when I'm in a fight, I can teleport and appear with my hand through their heart?"
He calmed down his emotions once again and tested out each theory. Walking to the walls, he tried to teleport through them, but he couldn't phase through the walls of the maze. However, he did try building a snow wall and was able to {Warp} successfully, so maybe the maze walls made it impossible for him.
For the endurance test, he realized that teleporting 2 meters at a time zapped his energy from the sphere fast. But if he just did it a foot at a time, he was able to keep it up for over 40 warps.
After he finished, it was hours later, and he decided to set out in the maze once again. He planned on cooking the rabbit, but he didn't have anything to light a fire with or materials other than his clothes to burn.
The left-hand strategy didn't work out since this maze was ever-changing, so he instead walked aimlessly, hoping to find something that could either help him escape or become his tool.
Of course, he was met with dozens of dead ends, each one still having that prominent eye symbol.
As it started to get dark, he finally heard a noise coming from around the corner. It sounded muffled, but it was undeniable. It was the sound of humans talking!
Atlas was surprised that humans could be here in the Door Trial with him. He still didn't know if others could participate in a trial or what could cause it. He had to prepare in case they were foes or even monsters in disguise.
He got to the corner and peeked around it quickly.
Atlas was surprised to see something he never thought he would see: two females were sitting beside a… portable stove?
* * *
Mia was starved. After hunting down a snake, she took out her portable stove and started to set it up.
"Hey, Nira, can you start preparing the food?" she called out.
Nira shouted back from around the corner, "Yes, your majesty! This lowly servant shall obey your every command."
Mia shook her head, knowing that not only was she not of noble descent, but Nira was also older than her.
Minutes later, they were cooking fresh snake.
"Nira, how much longer do you think we can survive at this rate?"
Nira was silent for a moment before smiling widely and saying, "Your humble servant thinks we can keep this up for another week. After that, it's probably safe to say we are dead."
Mia was about to respond, but she got a chill that ran up her whole spine. She felt like something was watching her—a predator that had been watching them for a while and had a huge killing intent. She turned and stared at the corner she felt it from. Expecting to fully see a large monster, instead, she was met with two glistening green eyes shining from the darkness.
She took out a sword that was clearly damaged and held it straight, looking like a proper warrior. "Who are you…? Come out now and state your business here."
Nira got up, grabbed a bow, cocked an arrow, and pointed it right at the eyes peering around the corner shrouded in darkness.
A man slowly walked out of the darkness. With a tall, slender build, he had to be well over six feet tall. With his Brown hair slicked back as if he were a 1990s movie star. His face looked gentle but masculine, and his skin was perfect as if nothing had ever touched it before. He was wearing a collared white shirt, black dress pants with a belt, and… dress shoes.
"Stop there," Mia commanded.
The young man stopped in his tracks. Finally able to see him in the light surrounding their makeshift camp, she saw that he had a dead bunny in his hands.
Nira also noticed this and shared a glance with Mia, knowing it would be much more filling to eat another meal, considering how rare they were.
"Who are you? Say it now, or I will shoot," Nira said.
The man was now about 2 meters away and still had not said a word. Twenty seconds of silence passed before Nira finally had enough.
"Last chance," she said.
Finally, she let go of the arrow, letting it fly toward the mysterious man. A perfect shot aimed toward his shoulder holding the rabbit.
She already knew the outcome of this battle. She had won with only one shot. The man would be too injured to fight back, and they could take the rabbit, loot him, and either kill him or, in the worst situation, eat him.
Nira saw the arrow release and fly, but instead of hitting the intended target, it flew past him. Well, it would have flown past him, but there was no longer a "him" standing in the same spot. Instead, it was just a normal hallway as if the man never existed in the first place.
She felt something grab her neck and pull her into the sky with strength that felt inhuman.
"How…?" she spat out.
* * *
Mia saw Nira knock the arrow and warn the man. The second she let go, relief came over her whole body because she trusted in Nira's aim. But instead of the man being hit, he disappeared from view, and the arrow slammed into the slab wall behind him.
The next thing she knew, she saw this man towering over Nira, holding her up by the neck.
Mia was completely shocked, but her instinct was to use her Adept sword skills she picked up after over a year of training. She swung her sword toward the man's back while he was holding Nira in front of him. Right as the sword was going to completely cut through his back, he simply stopped existing—or at least, from Mia's perspective, that's what happened.
The power behind her swing was strong, intending to kill the man in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, that meant her momentum was large. The sword kept going and sunk into the fleshy stomach of Nira.
"No!" Mia screamed out, but her words barely came out before she felt a cold grip wrap around her own neck.
Dropping her sword, she was instantly raised into the air, making eye contact with the man who had just turned this friendly meal into a battlefield. She felt compelled to look away, for what she saw weren't normal eyes looking back at her, but instead the eyes of someone who didn't care about what they were doing. The eyes of a psychopath!
She saw the man use his legs to kick the sword off the ground, grab it, and raise it towards her body. Terrified, Mia felt like she was going to pass out. She had just killed her own friend accidentally, and now she was going to die.
The man said without blinking, "You're going to answer some questions. I'll take your supplies, and you can live, got it? Nod if you understand."
Mia quickly nodded.
* * *
Atlas saw the two girls and decided to watch them for a bit before he was noticed. He didn't know if the two were friendly or if they were foes, so instead, he wanted to test the waters. Once one of them commanded him to come out of the shadows, he complied.
But he quickly saw their attraction towards the rabbit he had and noticed them share a glance. He knew from that moment it was kill or be killed.
The lady shot an arrow at him, and he warped past it, closing the distance in an instant. With the gravity being at least half of what it was back home, once he grabbed the neck of the female, he could lift her as if he were a superhuman. The other female had a sword he had to be wary of, but how could they compete with someone like him?
The sword was swung at his back, and instead of trying to dodge normally, he simply warped behind the person swinging the sword. At the same time, he unintentionally made her slice open her own friend. He grabbed her by the neck and picked her up again.
Looking at her face. The lady could have been "attractive" by conventional means, but under the eyes of Atlas in this state, he only saw weak prey.
After asking his question and seeing Mia nod, he took the sword and fully stabbed the other lady through the heart to make sure she was really dead.
The voice rang through his head from earlier:
"You have slain Veiled Nira."
No technique was obtained, but instead, he felt as if the sphere in his body was filled with the spent energy he had used earlier and even grew faster in its spin.
She really wasn't dead, Atlas thought. A tricky girl—after being hit, she decided to overreact her injury. Nira was hurt badly but not dead, probably waiting for her opportunity to strike at me when I wasn't looking. Good thing I took the extra precaution to finish her off.
The girl he picked up was now choking and crying, either from the lack of oxygen due to his grip or from seeing her friend die. Atlas let her drop to the ground after giving her a pat-down for any more weapons. Mia caught her breath, wiped away the tears that filled her eyes, and started to mentally prepare for what this psychotic man had in store for her.
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