Rewarded?

𝗛𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝘁ō

The sky was still cracked but it was hidden by the peaceful atmosphere that I have created. As the leaves of the cherry blossoms landed on the lake, I took a deep breath and smelled the air.

I lay on the grass as the small amount of sunlight that got through the clouds shone on me.

"If I'm having this dream, then that must mean that I'm still alive," I said in a relieved tone.

Rolling around the grass, I stretched my body and stood up. "I need to wake up soon," I said as I looked at my body. My feet moved on their own and I lay down on the hammock.

I closed my eyes, ending my dream and soon I will wake up in a cruel and brutal world but all I can do is fight so that I can live to see another day, I will not waste this life.

I opened my eyes and only saw a silent maze, the journey to the very core was over, and now my questions are waiting to be answered.

What was the point of this maze?

Is this maze worth it?

And will this place help me see another day?

I tried to stand up but my body was stiff and painful, looking at my body, it seems the damages that I incurred in the battle were now healed with only the scars of where I was pierced and clawed.

The scars weren't painful which I was thankful for as there are far too many circular-shaped scars all over my body that weren't near a vital organ.

The sky was still covered by countless clouds but by just looking up, I know that it was not even afternoon yet meaning that I also didn't sleep for a long time understandably since I was laying down on the hard ground.

I stretched my tired body as I walked to the entrance of the arena, where both my packs were.

I looked inside my adventurer pack and found bandages, a knife, and a dagger. My hands grabbed the dagger and I recall the short memories of my time in Kliyer.

Then I looked deeper at my pack and saw a single well-hidden bottle of a berserker potion.

I grabbed it tightly. "This battle isn't over yet, Folon's Demise is just the start of the obstacles that I need to kill before getting out," I said to myself as I hid the potion again.

I tightened the pack around my waist and made my way to the very core, passing the grass gate that has been burned off by something circular, and made a turn to the right before my eyes lay upon an old tree with leaves barely hanging on but strangely, it was peaceful.

Looking around, I saw a sad skeleton holding on to something behind it.

Approaching it, there was no skull anywhere, and behind it where it should be was a burned hole as if a laser disintegrated the skull.

I respectfully took the skeletal remains and put them on the side before taking two written notes, one was alerting since it was intended for me to read while the other was messy and had drops of blood on its side.

I sat next to the skeleton and read the note meant for me, the writing was clean and uniform and had no mess, unlike the second note. The note goes as follows:

"If you are reading this then that must mean the time has come for war against them. Look we know your uncompassionate man so I will tell you the things that you need to know.

First of all, you have five enemies: The demonic beast of Sadness, Anger, Fear, Regret, and surprisingly Lust. Now do not get confused but these beings have somehow gained sentience and are the reason for the barrier.

They are far stronger than any demonic beast of emotion, if you wish to leave this land then you must kill them.

The second is that they are the demonic beast of emotion meaning that they will need our negative emotions to survive and become stronger, right now you have one week left before a powerful spell takes effect on you. This spell causes a part of your brain that produces certain emotions to be produced faster, aging that part of the brain which may lead to people dying far younger than you think.

I believe you have witnessed this as well with Jade the tabaxi.

By the time you are reading this, it will still be winter, and yet she is on heat almost all the time, I believe you can connect the connection between these, yes? That is why you must hurry up since as each day passes, they get stronger.

Third of all, there is a traitor inside our town, do not trust anyone but yourself, all we know is that only one traitor exists.

Lastly, take my artifact known as the snake rod, this will help you survive this and future battles. Now you might be asking yourself, why are we putting our trust in you instead of people like Shin Klaudian or Hux Centur?

The answer is simple, as I said earlier you are an uncompassionate man which means you do not care about the fate of our town as long as you get out, that would be true if you hadn't met Shin Klaudian and became a scout yourself.

You never once hated anyone other than yourself and although I disagree with such a mindset since some things are not just your fault. As much as you tried to distance yourself from our town, you know well that you are one of us now, and although you do not care about the fates of the people from another country yet when the same people are next to you, just like with your companions, you will fight to protect them all even if you say that you don't care.

That is the only reason we give this unreasonable task is for that very reason.

We hope you succeed in saving them all and most of all, we hope that you live another day, we believe in you."

I stopped reading the note and felt my heart. "We believe in you." Such a simple word and also cruel since I was given such a task and yet. "What is this feeling?" I asked myself and yet no answers were produced.

I cleared my head and looked up, I have way too many questions but the man was dead so stopped caring about it as I tore the note apart and grabbed the second note.

"Well my leg is fucked, that damn gigantic beam managed to hit me an...'m even coughing up blood now. Ah Folon what would say if I greeted you in the afterlife, would you be sad or angry?

This is my fina...ill before I die so let me expl... some shit before I die. First of all, the reason we knew that you were coming was because of our ast....., Flanner, he saw that the stars of our world do not shine on you meaning you are foreign. You are not some ma...tic hero sent here but an un...tunate man but in the end, you are our last hope as we will all die before an...dy else could come so ple... save us all.

One more th..., Alice's gift has been taken by the traitor, it does not know of our plan yet the trai... managed to defy the stars and took the gift for himself.

I do not know where or what it is but this will lower the chances of you surviving so find it.

Ah I co... already here the swe...yet sick...ng song of the demonic beast of lust, I do not want to die yet I cannot do anything about it, fate is sure a cruel mistress eh, Himura?"

I stopped reading and simply stared at the remains of this unnamed man who suffered a cruel death so I look at the sky again with my cold gaze which no one responds to.

There is nothing much, just another chore to do so that I could live another day. I looked at the ground to see a rod with a snake head on both ends, it had two snake patterns going in opposite directions in a spiral. The first snake had circular-shaped scales while the other had hexagonal-shaped scales and the artifact had a green overall color.

I picked it up and looked at it in my inventory.

Snake Rod - Artifact - [Reward #5/16]

An artifact was created by Megu, The God Of Entertainment as another reward for completing the maze. It can attach to anything, an item or a surface, and cost no mana.

To use, you must offer a single drop of your blood then you can use it at its full capability.

Twist clockwise to shorten the length and twist counter-clockwise to extend its length.

I took my dagger and without hesitation offered a single drop of blood at the end of the rod and the eyes of the snakes glowed briefly then the green color of the rod became more solid as seconds passed.

I tapped the tree using the snake rod and by my will, the snake's head moved and bit the tree then I ordered to stop attaching to it before I aimed at the tree again and used the snake rod a few centimeters away and immediately it extended itself and bit the tree again.

I tried to pull it but it did not budge so I sat on the rod and there was no movement. I jumped out and pulled it away again but now the rod is slightly extended. "So it can extend somewhat but it will need to be twisted if it wants to attach itself on longer distances," I said as I aimed my snake rod at my silver sword.

I pulled out a silver sword that was attached to the end of the snake rod then using my will, I made it easier to twist it counter-clockwise before locking it again. It looked like I was wielding a spear so I did a couple of practice thrusts and slashes to get a feel of it.

"Is this what he meant by helping me? Because I can't use a spear effectively with only one arm." I asked him as I shortened the length of the rod due to its weight of it.

I sheathed my sword and put the rod on a more secure pack where I keep my art supplies. There was a more pressing matter to deal with currently.

When I first entered, my death sensitivity was slightly going off and it became stronger as I got closer to the tree.

I took a deep breath and went around the tree, I looked below the tree where its roots were supposed to be but there was only a hole, a cave maybe that was going in the direction of the underground town.