How To Survive A Calamity

Chapter 135 Dark Castle [2]

The Sand Walker...

I had already slaughter enough of these monsters to be sufficiently experienced with them.

I side stepped calmly and summoned a dagger as the ugly monster lunged straight at me without doubt. Then with fluent motion, i stabbed the blade through its head and skull, piercing through its brain in a sickening squelch.

The sensation of bypassing hard scales, rough skin, muscles and bones was never pleasant, but the monster had already succumbed to the ruthlessness of my blade.

And then...

•[Ding! You have slain a D rank monster, Sand Walker...]

I heard a familiar set of words resound inside my head

•[You have grown stronger...]

A blue interface flashed before my eyes which i casually dismissed. I felt a small trickle of essence course through my veins, so small and slow like it was almost nonexistent.

-Thump!

The humanoid corpse of the Sand Walker fell to the ground lifelessly with a thud and i withdrew my dagger during that instance.

A wet, sickly dark green blood was splattered all across the dented silver blade. The dagger wasn't particularly special or powerful, and usually something like this wouldn't even be able to dent the scale of a Sand Walker.

I was only able to cut through the Sand Walker's defenses by using my Aura.

But this unextraordinary dagger could barely withstand the pressure and weight of my Aura. That was why it was basically almost useless after using it just this once.

But not that it matters.

I glanced at the dagger dismissively and looked at the corpse at my feet.

I'll be honest...

I wasn't expecting one of these guys suddenly lunging at me from nowhere.

Even despite me already being on guard since the beginning, i would have probably been skewered by now if it wasn't for Danger Sense being a passive skill.

"Where did this guy even come from?"

I could almost swear there was no other life next to me just a second earlier when i spread my awareness.

"It's like it suddenly appeared from nowhere."

Just at that moment, the black bracelet wrapped around my left wrist vibrated.

-Ding!

A few digits suddenly flashed across a minuscule screen with a high pitched chime that resounded.

•[80 --> 85]•

It was the bracelet tracking the points of the first year's for each monster they killed.

I had completely almost forgotten about it because i thought the bracelet had heen damaged somehow, but i guess i was wrong.

"So, it's not damaged then?" I glanced at the bracelet and rubbed the back of my neck strangely.

Then i proceeded to tweak with it for a few seconds, but eventually...

"Still no."

Nothing happened.

I lowered ny raised wrist, and then i sighed.

"The Withdrawal function still doesn't work." Since i saw the bracelet suddenly activate now, i thought maybe whatever it was that caused the glitch from before had been resolved. Read latest stories on empire

But i was wrong.

The withdraw function installed in the bracelet for the first year's to forfeit still wasn't working.

That meant...

"I could still die."

I looked around again and smiled wryly.

"That's if I'm not already dead though."

But strangely, the thought of death was no longer seeming as distant and terrifying.

"Huh. I guess you really can get used to all sorts of things if you do it enough."

But that was just me trying to be optimistic.

In reality, my situation was no less different than being fucked.

"Meta, analysis?" I brought my thoughts back to the reality of the current matter.

And in a few seconds, i heard Meta's synthetic words resound fluently inside my head.

I lowered my body over the bleeding corpse of the Sand Walker and decided to start retrieving its core fragment.

[The internal structure of Dark Castle appears to be a controlled space or circuit existing both within the confines of the Dungeon, and beyond it at the same time.]

"Meaning?" Meta's unclear words made my brows furrow.

[It would be better for you to think of this place as a Dungeon inside another Dungeon. Expect anything, and the most unexpected. There's someone, or something in control of Dark Castle, and until their true motives can be uncovered, there are no possibilities that shouldn't be expected.] Meta said.

I paused and my gaze lingered on the Sand Walker's corpse.

A Dungeon inside another Dungeon, that was the most likely situation of Dark Castle.

And there's some power in control of this place. And untill their true motives can be uncovered, anything could happen from now on.

For a moment, the image of the black haired, inky eyed Nicodemus flashed through my mind.

"Clearly, there has to be a motif for them doing this, right?"

I'm still of the belief that i wasn't the only one brought here.

While i had that thought...

-Vrrrm -Vrrmm

-Ding!

The bracelet on my wrist vibrated and a high pitched chim resounded from it.

And at the same time...

•[85 --> 95]•

The number of accumulated points rose drastically in an instant.

I stopped whatever i was doing and stared closely at the numbers that just increased.

"This is..."

If the number of points rose like this, that means a monster had been killed by one of my groups members.

I widened my eyes only slightly.

Didn't this mean they were alive then?

That was probably it, but I couldn't be certain.

Regardless, watching the number of points rise up and increase like this brought a small wave of relief through my kungs. A very small one.

I wasn't sure wether to feel glad or bad actually.

For the points to increase, we had to kill monsters right? And killing monsters in a dungeon usually implied fighting for ones life at the hands of one...

"..."

I paused then gulped.

"Yeah, i should probably try to find those kids quickly."

It still wasn't assured if all four of them were alive and well. Especially that Don bastard.

I also wondered if they were separated like i was. Getting split up in unfamiliar territory like this one, especially when we have absolutely no knowledge about what is happening, is more than dangerous.