Chapter Six: The Gate’s truth and Time Limit is One Day

I woke up and didn't find Gara around me.

I took my gear and ran hurriedly. Of course, I have blind faith that Gara will be fine if he kept his excellent mental state.

I see the fires from above burning, I have to get there fast.

I arrived and let my eyes concentrate on the chain, Gara was holding it to the ground and came closer to the boss to chop off his head, but due to the light we saw only half of his face. When Gara's dagger went through his neck, he stopped although he attacked with all his strength. I got closer and understood why he stopped, the second half of his face was for an ugly monster with hard skin.

I couldn't hear well but he uttered some words made Gara stiffens and not move. The monster moved his left hand so the chain came back and hit Gara's shoulder cutting off his arm. I put the shield in front of me and pushed the monster with all my strength. The light enabled us to see his whole form.

Half human, half monster. This is the least description of him. He was full armored and his right hand was huge.

He stood up and got back his posture and chain.

Gara wasn't in his full state, there was something making him forget the pain and look at the beast.

The beast spoke "lj klj kfgjkh atstyaa iryury adjhfg yui"

Once again, I can't hear anything because of the experience points.

"It is the same voice that was helping us to arrive"

I don't know why Gara got nervous. In principle, we haven't faced an intelligent monster before except at the incident that happened 15 years ago.

We have reached here fast because of the voice, this is what I'm thinking of; maybe Gara took the matter negatively.

"Never mind Gara, nothing is left but him and then we get out of this gate" then, I pointed to the far away light. There was a transparent box containing the heart of the gate.

"All we have to do is defeating him"

Gara said ignoring what I was saying "then tell me why did you make it easy for me to get here?"

The beast "if I haven't told you, maybe you will be late. I was like you in the past, I have entered here with my group. I have arrived when it was too late. One of the conditions to get out of the gate is to stay human till the end. At first, we didn't die and we took the long road, and as you can see that in this place you don't feel sleepy or even drowsy, hunger doesn't exist"

Gara concluded "you became like this because of being here for a long time"

The beast "actually, the beast here was a fiery dragon, I don't know the number of tries but we have forgotten how many times we have died. Each time my friends turned into monsters except me, because I was the only one who has hope. With my childhood friend and after so many tries, we defeated the dragon, and the price was losing everyone. I didn't transformed, because I have arrived then to the heart of the Dunjin"

Gara is summarizing for me what the beast was saying. Perhaps because of him we didn't suffer much.

I don't care what his intention, till now we owe him a favor.

The beast "at this point started the real problem. There must be no human living in the Dunjin in case you want to get out"

"So you had to go back and kill all your half-transferred friends in order to turn them into full monsters"

The beast "I really thank you, I don't want to go through details"

"And finally you became a beast without knowing and get locked in this place"

The beast "someone promised me that if I turned 1000 fighter, I will get out of here. Fortunately, I have only 1 left out of 1000. Because of my impatience, I wanted you to get to me fast"

"You have two chances right now, why did you choose me?"

The beast "what are you talking about? You are alone now"

Gara turned and looked at me and grabbed strongly.

"Do you exist?"

I didn't get what does he mean, but his eyes told me that he is about to collapse from the shock, and he needs me to answer him with all confidence "of course, we will get out of here, get back to the city and find you a wife"

"George, maybe you are not here, but I prefer to trust the version that my mind has made on trusting the beast that has been defeated by the gate"

The beast moved his chain quickly and directly.

I held up the shield to counter the strike and protect Gara.

Gara shouted "don't block it straightway, rather direct it to the ground"

I did as he said and put my entire body and my shield on it to hold it, and arched my back to Gara. Gara delayed because of the pain, then the worse happened. The beast tossed something at the same moment Gara stepped on my back, again there was the same explosion that I felt before.

I felt the pain from inside as if the hardened Slime isn't there.

I can't move, and I saw that Gara has lost a foot and a hand.

For the first time I felt Gara's feeling, then his head has been smashed in front of my eyes.

Then, I saw the chain coming.

The fourth death.

At this time, I found Gara in shock. I can't blame him as this is his first time.

I took the gear and used a lot of the hardened Slime this time to protect myself from the chain and its dangerous explosion. I came closer to Gara and helped him to stand up "there is no time to think, we must defeat him"

"I don't have a plan but for now we must stop the chain and be careful from the things he is tossing"

"But George, I have seen his neck and it was so hard"

"Don't worry, I have a guaranteed plan, but first we must stop the chain"

I don't know what we were thinking of.

We have fell exactly into the trap that cost us dearly.

The torture and shattering of hope the beast did to us was unnatural.

After my ninth death and Gara's ninth death as well, we didn't want to get out of the cottage and fight the voice any more.

The whispers became annoying and so loud because of despair.

Our only problem was the explosion. Any blow from it will explode in our bodies, and if we were able to avoid it, there were small balls that he toss swiftly with his human hand, which were so hard to avoid.

The thing that planted fear in our hearts is torture. He knows us and he made us come without being used to pain. Our last death wasn't because of him, it was my sword that I killed Gara with first then myself.

We don't have any armors left. We just have a sword and a regular dagger.

There is a small bottle of Slime left that Gara told me he doesn't want to use now so he put it in his pocket. We set off spiritless.

"I don't know what is going to happen George, but this time you must die for me. I will not defend myself and I will keep attacking"

Then I told him "never mind, the most important thing is that there is solution to this torture"

We arrived this time without any gear, except for a sword and a dagger; which means that any hit from him will be deadly for us.

Gara ran forward and his eyes were full of confidence from something that I know.

He crashes fast and comes back fast.

I don't have anything, what I will do is just putting my body as a shield for him.

There is something wrong with the beast this time, his human hand has changed and that has slower his reaction.

Gara shouted "you should make sure that I will reach his neck"

Then, he lowered his head and ran forcefully. The chain came from the left before I could block it, the whispers increased because of my fear of the pain that I would feel at this death. I moved my sword with fear and I knew that it would explode if I defended myself.

The beast "pokpoi efd fd"

I didn't know what he said but for some reason it didn't explode this time.

It was easy to block it if it didn't explode, we continued running, defending and approaching.

"As I expected, we were so stupid and that cost us so dearly"

I don't know what does he mean and I was busy defending.

"It is a very simple trick, but we fell into it easily because the benefits were huge. The secret area and excellent gear made reaching here so easy. It is something that increase defense level so we wouldn't die"

"What do you mean?"

"The hardened Slime!!! This is his trick. The chain is just a regular weapon, but when the Slime interacts with fire, it will explode. This environment is suitable for the trick since it is raining black sand, and because of the blood on the chain, the sand interacts with the blood to become light. It is considered fire but a very small one and that leads to cause the explosion"

We arrived to our previous gear and I took the shield only because it didn't has Slime on it, whereas Gara took his other dagger.

"Since nothing will explode, there is nothing now to fear. Winning is easier right now, just make sure that I will arrive"

I understood Gara's plan without him telling me.

We charged towards the beast with all our strength. No matter how many hits I get, it does nothing except making my hand numb.

We were so close. He moved his other hand and fortunately it has changed too, so the small ball that he wanted to toss as usual when we get close has fallen.

Then I screamed "NOW!!" smiling like the beast, and I told him about where he outdid us. He kicked the ball with his foot and it rolled to settle beneath me, I couldn't do anything then I felt a kick from behind forced me to fall on the ball.

He climbed my back and jumped high, then the ball exploded and I was pushed backward to see the chain tearing half of Gara's face. He took the bottle out of his pocket and put it between the beast's neck folds, then he stained his sword with blood and soil and hit the beast's neck to cause an explosion and fall before me with half face and without a hand.

I stood up quickly, I took the beast's chain while I was staggering and got closer to finish him. I took the balls out of his pocket and checked it, it was a mixture of soil, blood and Slime if you press it, it would explode after seconds.

I put them in his mouth and finished him with the chain to cause big explosion.

The tenth death.