Lost in watter
The smashed tent shook violently, as two meters tall bandit leaped out.
"You are dead!!!!!!" yelled the bandit and charged at Josh while picking a big two-hand Axe from the ground.
-Level: 12 (Elite)
'Another Elite rank? The previous one took several arrows and guards to take it down!' Ikky recalled his fight against Werewolf and got worried as he didn't have enough MP and the level difference was also a great disadvantage.
'I need to slow him down.'
The bandit leader spun his two-hand Axe and deflected the arrow as (Parry) appeared above his head.
"W-What?!" Ikky couldn't believe his eyes, this has been the first time he saw an enemy dodge or reflect his bow attack.
The bandit continued with his charge, but deflecting the arrow changed the direction of his weapon to the side.
"Dodge!" yelled Ikky to his friend, but it was already too late, as the bandit leader already reached him.
Josh was unable to dodge in the time, and he was blown several meters away by an enemy shoulder attack. Ikky was worried that his friend would die as he saw his HP bar depleting rapidly. Fortunately, it stopped just before it hit a critical point.
Previous five bandits which were hiding behind trees on the other side of the river were now cheering. Their boss was able to deal with the enemy alone! With a new encouraging spirit, they were prepared to ran around the river and join the battle.
When Ikky noticed it, his face turned ugly. 'We do not stand a chance..' in the instant he decided what to do next.
"Run toward the river and jump in!" yelled Ikky at Josh, while shooting the arrow.
When Bandit's leader saw where the arrow went he started to laugh.
"Ha, Ha, Ha...Where are you aiming? You missed by more than ten meters! Now let me show you the power of my Axe, but first," he turned at Josh.
"First, I will finish you, the one who threw that boulder on my tent." killing intent filled his eyes as he stepped forward. At that moment he was hit by the arrow.
Yes, Ikky previously used his Guided arrow skill and missed on purpose, he knew that initial power would force the arrow to go straight, but the skill would then correct the arrow's path to the enemy, even if the damage was reduced by 50% Ikky didn't care, because all he needed was to buy some time.
"NOW! Run!!" yelled Ikky and charged at the enemy.
Josh got up and ran toward the river, hoping that he won't lose his remaining HP once he jump into the river stream.
In the meantime, Ikky arrived at the already recovered bandit. The bandit leader was about to smash this little guy's head with his Axe when he noticed a weird footstep done by his enemy.
Before the Axe could reach the enemy head, he jumped several meters back right under the waterfall. The leader was angry, not only because the enemy got away, but mainly because before the little guy disappeared under the waterfall he saw two gestures, a big smile, and a middle finger.
***
Josh was thrown out by a stream approximately two kilometers away from the fight.
"Holy shit! How did I survive? What kind of luck is this, I should log off and go make a bet on the lottery." he couldn't believe that he survived, as his HP bar was left only with a single-digit number.
"Where is Ikky?" Josh asked himself while checking the party interface, then he got stunned.
"Why is his name grayed out? Don't tell me he died?!" he got worried since even Josh himself did not yet know what the penalty for death is, yet.
The voice chat was ringing but nobody picked it up, which caused him to be worried even more.
*Hey, I can not see you at the party, are you okay?* Josh sent a private message through the friend list, but this also did not help as a window showed up.
[User is currently unreachable, please try it later.]
"Damn.., just what happened?! What do I do now? What about the quest?" their plan did look great at the beginning as they dealt with half of the bandits without a problem, but the Leader was just way too strong.
Josh was afraid. With a single-digit HP and in the middle of the forest, thoughts full of concerns, not knowing what happened to his friend, were dragging him insane.
'What do I do...'
***
Ikky woke up, his face had grants of sand imprinted on it as he was lying face down on the ground.
'Where the hell am I? Why is it so dark here...' Ikky clearly remembered that he jumped under the waterfall, but there was no way that river would lead into a cave.
As he got up on his legs his mind started to clear from the previous confused state. He could hear water running, but everything was too dark to see anything.
After several minutes his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, at least partially, but enough so he could recognize where he is.
Ikky confirmed that he was indeed in some big cave, with a lake behind him. What surprised him were several waterfalls and water tunnels coming from the walls, constantly feeding the lake. He could see at least ten different streams coming to the lake.
'Did I got sucked in by this underwater stream tunnel into some underwater cave?' Ikky thought and checked system windows if he didn't receive some notification and indeed he did.
[You have discovered the Underwater labyrinth.]
[Achieve unlocked
-Discover one of the secret places forgotten by living beings (effect, +10 Fame, Quest-The Truth 1/5)
[New Quest - The Truth (1/5)]
-Discover the truth left behind by the gods, a user must discover secret places around the world to begin the quest.
-Currently discovered places: 1/5
Ikky shook his head. 'I keep receiving a lot of hidden quests.., but how do I get out of here?' as he was looking around, he finally noticed a wall full of darkness.
'That must be a tunnel going out of this cave' he thought as he stepped toward the tunnel.
If this was real life, Ikky would not see a hand in front of his face, since there was no light at all. But since this was a game, there was at least some visibility, but even so, Ikky could just see about 5 meters in front of him, everything else was pitch black.
As he continued to walk through a tunnel, nothing significant happened, until he reached the end of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, he could finally see some light, but what the light revealed to him, made him despair.
'Do I need to go through this?!' Ikky was watching a very big labyrinth in the cave big as his own city in real life. It was somehow visible due to crystals on the rooftop which were somehow emitting slight light.
He spend several minutes trying to figure the way through the labyrinth, but in the end, he had to give up because the labyrinth was simply too big, and not all of the parts were clearly visible.
As he continued to observe, Ikky finally noticed that there were small steps of rocks, which could probably work as stairs, so he followed them and arrived at the bottom where the entrance to the labyrinth was.
Ikky sighed and checked his inventory, he still had around eighty arrows.
'If this is the only way out, then I have to go through, or die trying.' he encouraged himself.
As he stepped forward to the entrance, chill crawled up his back. Ikky instinctively dodged to the side, just in time as a big bat drove to the spot he just stood on a second ago.
-Level: 7
'At least it's not high level.' thought Ikky as he draws the bow.
The cave bat was confused it's surprise attack didn't land and simply stood on the spot. Ikky used this opportune and shot a normal attack from a two-meter distance.
~Shoot~
(-81 critical hit dealt)
[Experience gained 390]
[Gained 1x Bat wing]
'At least its HP is low, probably 70 or 80 HP' thought Ikky and picked up his arrow as he will probably need every single one of them to leave this damned place.
***************
A/Note: I'm not sure if I will be able to release a chapter every day. My previous plan was to release on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, but I somehow managed to write more chapters and wanted to share them earlier rather than letting them rot in drafts, so I've ended up releasing 5 chapters from Friday to Monday, which was originally planned only two.
I'll try my best, but my apologies if there would be a day without release, as I currently have no backup and need to write every chapter after work.