Chapter 69; Trails of the Abyss - The Left Path

It was obvious where I had to go, but… Was I able to? Did I really want to?

The feelings just wouldn't go away… The feelings of dread and blood lust. Deciding to face my fears and suspicions I inched closer to the path in the middle. Carefully I approached what felt like a wall of pressure. Just to be sure, I looked to my left and then to my right, confirming that the other paths didn't have the same hostile blood lust oozing from them. I thought it best to take one of the paths on the side first. The path to the right had given off huge chaos with all the low leveled creatures residing within the path.

Knowing I had to come back to the three way road split where I was now, the most quiet path on the left had to be the best option for now. The window which had asked me which path I wanted to be taking first had the option blinking a royal golden glow. I focused on the path to the left.

The window confirmed this choice and closed right after leaving a small encouraging message.

[Good luck "Mira" in the Trails to come. Let the Trail of the three paths commence.]

As the window dissipated into nothingness, I knew the mission had officially started.

Slowly I entered the path to the left, not knowing what was out there waiting for me I continued to venture deeper into the path. The path like some I had encountered before was long without any intersections. Small green flames lighted up the sides of the path, showing that it could be quite a while before finding something eventful at all. Having made up my mind I keep moving forward thinking about what there could be at the end of the path.

Nothing seemed to chance as I kept moving forward, thinking I could summarize my skills I began thinking up a plan to defeat any unfortunate souls who could be crossing my path. As I ventured deeper into the left path after a while it felt like the path had become a bit broader than before…

Even some odd things felt like they were happening. The strange things I mentioned were small tremors which I could feel through the ground, but I couldn't really tell why I was feeling them or where they came from for that matter.

I ventured deeper and deeper, finally entering a rather large room as I felt the tremors intensify ever so slightly. When I reached the center of the room the tremors came to an abrupt stop.

Something which seemed odd to me… Why would that happen? Unless…

Before I could finish my thought creatures jumped out of the ground cornering me who was still trying to make sense of the tremors. As our eyes met the conclusion was simple, the first trail must have been a trap of which most usually wouldn't be able to come out.

But one wouldn't know for sure unless they tried!

Once all the creatures which eyes glowed like rubies in the darkness all had surfaced and made sure there was no way out of here for me anymore, suddenly the path which I had come from sealed itself off. Now, there was no way out… or so I thought…

[The First of Trails – The Trap of Attrition; "The Player; Mira" Has stumbled onto a trap and got himself cornered, survive the onslaught of attrition and clear the left path; The Trail of Attrition.

Objective; Survive the onslaught of the Crimson Shadow Crawlers for a total of five waves.

Reward; passage back to the Abyss of Darkness, Key fragment.

Failure in succeeding the objective will result in certain death.]

With the system signaling the start of the mission, suddenly the room lighted flames on the walls one by one, revealing just how many of these shadow crawlers where there waiting for me.

It looked like they outnumbered me fifteen to one.

"Observe".

[Crimson Shadow Crawler;

Crawlers of the night, living in the shadows of darkness these are said to be a variant of the most common creatures within the Abyss. Known for their mischievous behavior and group mentality once can be sure to find several more as they encounter one. They are known to be weak on their own, yet extremely cunning in groups.

Species; Shadow

Name; Crimson Shadow Crawler

Title:

Rank: III

Level: 8

Attributes;

HP: 200

MP: 360

SP: 200 (Recovery rate 10 sp per second)

Physical ATK: 20 – 30

Physical DEF: 25

Magical ATK: 60

Magical DEF: 70

STR: 20

DEX: 80 (+15)

VIT: 20

INT: 45

WIS: 50

LUK: 1]

Looking at their individual stats, their HP was lower than the wurm I had encountered before, not to mention that their physical attack and defense wasn't all that high, instead it had a rather high magical ATK and DEF. One which rivaled my own. To think this one only one of them and even though the status and attributes varied from one to the other, getting them to attack in groups would proof to be problematic for me… I thought I was done for, when the system announced this to be a trap… I braced myself to the unstoppable onslaught which was about to commence.

[Wave 01: Start]

With the system signaling the system announcing the beginning of the trail of attrition, nothing other than bracing myself for combat could be done. Quickly I summoned several fireballs in the hopes of take out one or two before they would start to move. With the three fireballs I had instantly hurled towards the group only one seemed to have hit its target…

The others for that matter had missed their initial target as the shadow crawlers shockingly dodged the impact with blinding speed. This could proof to be one of my hardest trials yet… With the flames spreading on the floor three of the shadow crawlers started to rush towards me.

It was now or never!