'Too unlucky! I'm too unlucky!'
Rera cursed inside her mind. Thinking back to that moment, her body couldn't help but shudder and her breath quicken.
Soon after Irwiz had finally found that cursed book, he had suddenly become frantic, even ignoring her requests. At the time, she just thought he had been acting like a jerk, but then things changed.
Not only did the frantic flipping not stop, he was even laughing! Then soon after, he stopped.
At that moment, she had gone to a corner to put distance between herself and Irwiz.
But that wasn't all.
Unfortunately, Irwiz seemed mad as he started biting his hand, even dropping the blood onto the book...
It was after that, that Irwiz started crying. In pain? In laughter? It seemed like he was suffering. So probably in pain.
At that point, she DID try to help him... but just as she was carefully getting close, that boy went mad and bit off a piece of himself!
Feeling incredibly creeped out by the sudden turn of events, she had instantly decided to escape and preserve her life.
Although she really didn't want to leave him behind, she was scared for her life by these events.
She really had no choice.
So, off she went into the tunnel.
She crawled and crawled and crawled...
She knew it would be a long journey, but still she wanted to quickly get away from that place. What if she also catches the same curse?
"Eh?"
However, something caught Rera by surprise.
The tunnel that had previously taken hours to crawl through, she had now reached the end of it.
Was this a joke? Hadn't it been barely 10 minutes?
Yes, she was crawling as fast as she can, but that didn't make much of a difference.
How?
Rera was stupefied, staring at the corridor made of stone walls and illuminated by oil lanterns.
She didn't dare get too close in case someone catches him, even though she knew this tunnel was hidden beneath the darkness.
As she saw robed figures going all around, shouting "Where are they?!", she panicked.
She obviously can't go through this tunnel to escape now. She also can't go back to where the mad Irwiz was.
What should she do now?
Rera didn't know. She stayed just where she was, trying to calm herself.
But then, a voice rang out from the darkness behind her.
"Rera"
...
After awakening from his stupor, Irwiz couldn't find Rera anywhere.
'Is she hiding?' Irwiz thought.
After all, Rera, being her, a girl who grew up in the slums, would know the dangers of a cult.
No matter how safe this place may be, it was still under the influence of the cult. The source of all evil, and an incredibly malicious and sinister place.
Anyone who could be associated to such place would in one way or another, get affected by the madness.
The moment she had seen the strange blood mist, and his painful cries, she probably was scared shitless.
Sigh
Irwiz then looked around once again. Nothing, he shouldn't get his hopes up.
She wasn't in the hole either, or behind some old blanket that had been sitting on the ground for who knows how long.
'If so, the only way is the tunnel' Irwiz realized.
He had to chase after her.
After all, she probably didn't have the courage to go out straight into the wolf's den.
But, she may have been lucky and able to slip past the cultists.
Anyways, he eventually had to get out of here too.
Tucking the book inside his clothe near his chest, Irwiz crawled into the tunnel. There was almost no visibility in this place.
'Now, it would be an arduous journey.'
Irwiz crawled for a bit. It was only then that he realized that his body was incredibly exhausted - both mentally and physically.
Even so, Irwiz had tried recalling that complex drawing of runes; however, he stopped after it gave him several jolts of sharp pain ringing through his head.
So he numbed his mind and focused on crawling.
After some time, he was finally able to hear something.
The ragged breathing of someone. The sound was faint.
But it was getting louder as he crawled more.
Soon, he was finally able to hear someone nearby.
Rera!
...
The two's meeting, the least to describe, was tumultuous. Fortunately, Rera was smart enough not to make loud noises in her surprise.
Using that external threat as a leverage, Irwiz was quickly able to convince Rera and go back to that place.
"So you're saying this book can give you magical powers?" Rera's voice was full of doubt as she asked.
"Yes" but Irwiz's answer was firm.
"But that is only for those 'not destined' for the book. So tell me, you said you saw nothing here right?"
Just like him, Rera was 'not destined'.
"So do you want it?" Irwiz wasn't keen on withholding this opportunity from her.
The more knowledge they had, the more their chance of survival when escaping from here increased too.
However, he was met with an adamant refusal.
"No way, I don't want to suffer. YOU also said you didn't get any magical abilities for now right?"
Rera firmly shook her head. She was very avoidant in even touching this book.
"Fine. Then let's just plan our escape from here" Irwiz was a bit disappointed, but didn't pay much mind to it.
She could do it after getting out anyways.
"Okay" Rera didn't refuse.
However, along her words, also came another sound.
Ding
Ding
[New Mission: Escape from the Madness Cult's base.
Escape the cult's base that has once prisoned you. Failure to do so may result in fate worse than death.
Time Limit: 1 day
Reward: 40 Fate Points]
[New Mission: Eat the paper of Records of Mysticism and Journey Into the Abyss
Eat a piece of paper of the book 'Records of Mysticism and Journey Into the Abyss'. As the creator of the book has traversed the abyss before and has written knowledge pertaining to it, the energy of the abyss has been infused into the paper which it was written onto. Due to the special nature of the material the paper had been made of, it corresponds closely with your alignment. Consuming a part of it will result in your awakening.
Warning:
Time Limit: None
Reward: Unlocking the Abyss pathway]