World of Karik: A Game of Villains 52 The Underground Labyrinth

I was falling for a long time, and I would have fallen to my death if I hadn't landed onto someone's hot and wet back. The animal grunted in surprise, and I thought that I had come across another Boar.

Rolling off the mighty body, I landed into water. Fortunately, it wasn't deep, but it stank of algae and years of stagnation. My eyes hadn't gotten accustomed to the darkness yet, so I was frantically looking at the shadow in front of me, trying to figure out what the unknown creature was.

The animal grunted again. It sounded as if someone stepped into rotten fruit. Immediately after that, I felt someone's gaze on me. I was still unable to see a damn thing, but I felt like someone was carefully examining me.

Putting forward the scythe, I braced myself for a fight. Oh, the irony — I had escaped the Boar, but ended up facing something that I couldn't even see. Not to mention that I had almost no health left. Maybe this creature wasn't dangerous? It was unlikely, but I was hopeful. Nevertheless, I struck blindly. I had to take the initiative since I wouldn't stand a chance otherwise.

Whatever was in front of me clearly wasn't expecting an attack. It made a sound similar to a Boar grunting, which confused me. A system message shone brightly in the darkness, pulling me back into reality.

Damage dealt: 35 (weapon: 25; strength: 60).

Blocked: 50

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Even though my opponent had a good defense, I wanted to believe that I was strong enough to handle it. I hit it a couple of more times. Top, bottom, backhand...

My cervical vertebrae crunched menacingly when something akin to a hose hit me in the face and threw me back.

"Oh, you're fighting, too?" It was a dumb remark, I know. I attacked the invisible enemy once more.

The clouds parted at that moment, allowing the moonlight to seep through the hole I had left when I fell down, and enabling me to have a peek at my opponent. Its leathery skin was a dead grey-blue and covered with bumpy growths. It had no eyes, no mouth, nor any similar facial features. The creature screamed in pain and outrage.

It hit me with its palpable tentacles a couple of times, making me lose my balance. I stumbled onto the floor, but immediately jumped back up and continued our strange duel. Despite its size and amount of health, its attacks were not powerful. I managed to tip the scale in my favor with the help of curses and healing. The strange thing was that the system wasn't showing me my opponent's name. Hitting its body at random, I realized that it was already dead and that I was fighting some sort of a slug or a heap of gelatinous mass.

I almost jumped up in surprise when I heard a cough behind me.

"Who's there?" I shouted, pointing my scythe menacingly in the direction of the sound. At the same time, I activated Stone Skin. The spell lingered; whoever was there, was either not human or hadn't seen anything superfluous.

"A friend!" an elderly voice croaked back. "Don't swing your scythe here! Follow me, I'll show you where there's more light."

An ordinary old man? My mind immediately started to assess the situation. The Russian. He, too, got into this dungeon somehow. He could have taken me out with his bare hands while I was fighting the slug. I was low on health, after all. Why hadn't he done that? Did he not want to do that or had he simply arrived too late? How long had he been here? In any case, staying alone in this place made no sense. I followed, listening to the sounds of his steps as he shuffled through the water. We walked for quite some time until I spotted light shining ahead of us. It was weak and dull, but it was still better than nothing. There was no more water on the floor.

"Be careful!" the old man warned. "Watch your step!"

My left foot failed to find solid ground and I fell. I somehow managed to throw myself to the side, fall down and hit the stone floor. Hissing in pain, I stood up, dusted myself off for some reason, as if it that was important here, and looked at where I thought the old man ought to have been. He actually was there; well, his silhouette was, to be precise. Noticing that I was looking in his direction, my unknown companion waved, showing me that I had to go further.

"Come on, kid, it's not that far. Just follow the wall."

Luckily, I hadn't broken any limbs or dislocated anything. It was going to leave a mark, but it wasn't life threatening. I put my right hand onto the rough wall, which the old man had warned me about, and went on leaning against it. Soon enough, the light became very bright and I was able to distinguish the details. The old man, who was stomping confidently in front of me, was wearing a faded shirt and a pair of pants held up by suspenders. He had heavy, ugly shoes on his feet. He was short and stocky.

However, that wasn't important. Looking down first, then to my left, I turned cold, and my knees quaked. We were walking on a narrow ledge along the wall, and below us was a huge chasm, the bottom of which was lost in the darkness. The old man must have felt me stop as he turned around.

Looking closely, I saw his name and surname floating above his head. They seemed familiar. What I saw next caused me to think that I was hallucinating.

Dmitry Syomin

Age: 21,952 days

Almost twenty-two thousand days! That's... That's...fifty years! Even more! What the hell is going on here?!

Chapter end