Maximus didn't want to die. He wanted to grow stronger. He wanted to see what else this world had to offer from the eyes of those standing above it. And they were all Hunters, his aspiration and the inspiration that woke him each day.
He remembered promising himself he would take any cheat as long as it allowed him to grow stronger. He wondered if this was fate's cruel response.
So Maximus vanished into the shadows. They rippled like water as he moved forward and emerged in front of the fleeing figures. Then he swung his cutlass forward, precisely at one of the Hunters.
SWIISHHH!! PTUII!!
It happened too quickly for anyone to react. The cutlass appeared out of nowhere in front of the fleeing group and penetrated deep into Vanessa's chest.
"What…?" Vanessa froze, her mouth hanging open as she stared down at her upper chest where the familiar blade had pierced her.
She had been momentarily stunned, creating a brief lapse in her judgment that left her unable to protect herself.
SWISSHH!! CLANNG!!
Maximus pulled back the cutlass, causing blood to gush from Vanessa's open wound.
Her lips were also stained with blood as she lifted her head, but she couldn't spot the figure draped in a black coat and hat in the thick darkness of the dungeon.
Still, she could feel it watching her with chilling calmness.
Surprisingly, Vanessa smiled wryly. "You're a terrible Dungeon Boss… It seems that the Level One Dungeon had undergone a certain change... If only I had challenged another dungeon... I'm so unlucky," she muttered softly, before collapsing face-first onto the ground with a resounding "THUD!!" Her White Illumination stone slid from her hand and rolled across the floor before coming to a stop.
[+100FP]
[+20FP]
[+20FP]
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[230FP]
"AHHHHH!!"
"AAHHHHH!!"
The group behind Vanessa screamed in terror as they stared at her lifeless body sprawled on the ground.
They turned around and fled in the opposite direction from which they had come.
However, Maximus froze, paralysed by the act of taking a life, and didn't pursue the others as they fled in terror. At best, he had intended only to seriously injure her, hoping she might perish from her wounds, because he didn't dare to kill a fellow human.
At most, she might have deflected and escaped, running in panic, allowing him to generate even more Fear Points.
He had just discovered that he gained a certain amount of Fear Points each minute, refreshed depending on how terrified the targets were.
Accumulating significant points required careful effort, but he had underestimated the power of the weapon in his hands and his strength against ordinary Hunters.
Unlike what he had heard from others, who said it was merely a phase, Maximus didn't enjoy the feeling. It was as though something within him had changed.
He was certain that he would feel differently if he were killing monsters instead, because they weren't human.
Unfortunately, Maximus couldn't feel his heartbeat rise. He only felt a rush of excitement. This wasn't his body. Even if he had full control over it, it still belonged to a Dungeon's Final Boss.
'The fear of death is greater than that of any terror,' Maximus thought as he looked at the fallen huntress before shifting his attention to the amount of Fear Points he had gathered in a short amount of time.
If the fleeing Hunters reached the children's room, chaos would follow. Maximus realised he needed to end this quickly before they disturbed the children's peace. He sank into the surrounding shadows and pursued them.
Meanwhile,
"This is impossible! This is impossible!!" John muttered in a nearly incoherent, frantic tone as he ran down the hallway with the others.
Soon, he and Kelvin arrived at the door of one of the rooms. They hesitated to enter.
Apart from the empty rooms currently engulfed in a blazing inferno, the rest of the dungeon was filled with other denizens.
Due to the numerous dungeon guides explaining how to avoid these rooms to fully conquer the Abandoned Orphanage, no one truly knew what they might face inside, except that children were within, and it was in their best interest not to disturb them.
If they had known they would end up in this situation, they would have spent more time studying the entire dungeon. Unfortunately, there was no use crying over spilt milk.
"We're going in," John said, pulling the handle open and rushing inside, with Kelvin following closely behind.
Then they slammed the door shut behind them.
"SHIT!!" Jonathan, who was about to follow, realised that the door was now locked.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open it.
"Did they lock us out? Are we going to be okay, Mr Jonathan?" Cynthia asked, tears streaming down her face. "I have my family to take care of. I don't want to die!! I don't want to die!!"
"If you don't want to die, then do exactly as I say," Jonathan responded, holding a shield in one hand and an axe in the other as he rushed toward another room down the hallway.
"Wait for me!" Cynthia called, following closely behind him.
Jonathan pulled open the door, hesitated briefly, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Then he entered the room, with Cynthia right behind him.
They sealed the door shut.
Within moments, Maximus emerged from the shadows, realising he was too late; they had already entered the children's room.
The Final Boss of the Abandoned Orphanage can not enter any of these rooms due to the light source. But he wasn't the Final Boss. So Maximus was unsure about what to expect.
Regardless, he arrived at one of the doors and knocked.
The sound of the lock turning resounded in the air before the door slowly creaked open.
A small humanoid doll girl with red hair, a crack along the side of its skull, and worn-out bandages covering its body, except for a large, smiling face, looked up at Maximus.
She examined him from head to toe before shouting joyfully, "Caretaker, you're finally here! Come in, come in! I caught some bad guys who entered our house!" She leapt with excitement, pushing the door wider for Maximus to step inside.
Maximus nodded with a grunt.
As he entered, he immediately saw John and Kelvin pressed against the corner of the wall, their White Illumination stone lying on the ground beside them. They were facing another child-like figure resembling a toy, clutching a giant kitchen knife.
A flickering bulb hung from the corner of the room, casting a dim light that illuminated the entire space, making their positions clearly visible.
Upon seeing him, the two Hunters pressed themselves further against the wall, trembling in fear.
[+50FP]
[+50FP]
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[330FP]
"HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO STEP INTO THE LIGHT?! WHY WEREN'T YOU AFRAID OF LIGHT AND FIRE?! HOW IS ANY OF THIS POSSIBLE?!" John screamed at the Shadow Reaper.
Cornered by two dolls resembling children, like something straight out of a horror film, and a Dungeon's Final Boss whose weakness was supposed to be light, he could no longer contain his bottled-up emotions and unleashed them all.
"I don't think… he can understand you," Kelvin said.
He had numerous questions he wanted to ask, but he was certain it would be useless; there was no way a Dungeon's Final Boss would understand human words.
"GROOKK!!" John and Kelvin felt their hearts leap in fear as the groans of the Caretaker echoed in their direction.
"It understands us! Hahaha!! I knew it! Something is wrong with this dungeon! I didn't make any mistakes! My plans were flawless!! You're the one who has changed! You are the problem!!" John shouted and laughed hysterically, pointing his longsword at Maximus.
"Hey, are you guys also playing a game with the Caretaker? Did he harm you?" the doll girl holding the kitchen knife at the forefront asked, her tone curious, her expression calm yet eerie.
She cast a side glance at the Caretaker before focusing on the Hunters before her.
"Yes. We are playing a game. Why don't you let us go so we can continue playing with the Caretaker?" John said, nodding repeatedly as he looked at the doll girl.
"Hehehe! Since you're playing a game with the Caretaker, of course, you have to play with us as well. And don't point that sharp knife at the Caretaker, I don't want to repeat myself," the doll girl wielding a cutlass said.
She stretched her hands forward, then pulled them back through the air. It was only then that Maximus noticed the threads wrapped around her fingers.
He traced the threads back to the arms and legs of the two Hunters. The threads were embedded deep into their skin, as though knitted from within.
The moment the doll girl pulled her hands back, the Hunter, who had his longsword raised, dropped it to the ground.
[+50FP]
[+50FP]
–
[430FP]
John's expression twisted in pain and agony, but he didn't dare scream, having been warned not to. Instead, his terror grew.
"Heal," Kelvin said, casting one of his skills. The injuries on their bodies healed, and the pain they had been feeling eased. Though it made it appear the threads had merged with their bodies.
"Thank you," John breathed, his voice weak but grateful.
Kelvin nodded. This was the second time he had used his healing skill on two people at once, leaving him exhausted and too weary to speak.
He stared at the eerie scene as the Caretaker communicated silently with the doll girls.
"You girls should step back and let me handle this." Even though Maximus's voice still sounded like a grunt, the doll girls understood him clearly.
"No! I refuse. We hardly ever get playmates because you're always playing with them. Besides, you don't even visit us. Why don't we join you this time?" the first doll girl, the one who had opened the door, said.
"Yes, I also want to play," the second doll girl, holding a large kitchen knife, added.
"No," Maximus shook his head firmly.
He was certain because the doll girls would never refuse his commands unless under exceptional conditions.
From his memories of the dungeon's final boss, he understood it was best not to indulge the doll girls, to prevent the situation from escalating.
His emotions were swinging violently from taking a life, and he didn't want to witness the inhumane tortures that these doll girls could inflict.
"Heyeeeee…" the doll girls began to weep profusely.
They ran to each other and hugged tightly. Cracks ran across their skins, smoke rising, ash and blood slowly seeping from the fissures.
Maximus appeared beside the two hunters and severed the strings holding them, causing the hunters to crash to the ground.
[+60FP]
[+60FP]
--
[550FP]
Just as John was about to grab his weapon and launch an attack, the air whistled as the clanking of chains rang out.
SWISSSHH!! PTUII!!
The Shadow Reaper's cutlass sliced through John's stomach and emerged from the other side.
[+100FP]
[+100FP]
--
[750FP]
"The Dungeon's Final Boss... We need to warn the outside world that something is wrong with this dungeon," John muttered, slumping to the ground, lifeless.
The cutlass swiftly pulled back, as though alive, before Maximus threw it forward once more.
SWISSSHH!! PTUII!!
[+120FP]
--
[870FP]
Kelvin nodded, smiling wryly, as he looked at the hole in his chest.
"Heal," he cast his skill on himself. However, a low-level Healer like him couldn't mend such grievous injuries, especially with his depleted mana reserves.
His wounds glowed briefly with white light before dimming. He slumped forward and died.
"HAAAA!! You killed them!!" The doll girls screamed in unison.
They stared at Maximus with bloodshot, grievous eyes, the mixtures of ash and blood seeping from their cracks intensifying.
Maximus ignored them and dragged the bodies out of the room and quickly shut the door behind him. From within, he could still hear their weeping.
'That was close,' Maximus thought.
'I hope I'm not too late,' he added as he swiftly arrived at the door where the other group had entered and knocked.