The path was silent. However, Grisla’s decision wasn’t taken alone. He had Ji Nan—sitting at the sixth level, and the three behind him at the fifth, halfway to the sixth from what he sensed. Ji Nan, was, surprisingly, calm. A different person from the enraged cultivator from weeks ago. The other three however didn’t drop their attention from Grisla’s back for a second. In fact, from what he surmised, if and when Ji Nan drops his smile, it’ll be the cue to murder him.

Ji Nan spoke, “Brother Grisla, might I inquire as to why, you picked this path?”

Grisla kept walking, for a time. When Ji Nan’s aura was about to flare up—

“No reason. I just felt like it,” he answered.

Ji Nan tilted his head. “’No reason’ Hmm? You’re quite a strange character.”

“More like an idiot unrivaled,” One of his cronies said.

Ji Nan didn’t offer a comment.

“Brother Grisla,” Ji Nan stretched. “Did you know? Mu Yin’s my fiancée.”

He shot him a look. “Really?”

Ji Nan nodded, “Most people have that same expression,” he gave a half-laugh.

“She’s talented, beautiful and most of all—she has potential. Obviously, I do as well, but I can admit, not as much as her.”

Grisla could tell he was being serious.

“It matters little to me in the end. Why should I care?” He grinned. “She descends from a family of minor accomplishment, she’s the best blessing her people could ever amount to, probably ever. And—her everything will be all mine.”

Ji Nan’s mind was stuck between this world and his fantasies.

“I’m just glad I found her before the inner disciples did.”

“Good for you."

“Right. But there’s… a little problem, a problem that came recently. You know where I’m going with this.”

Grisla stopped. Ji Nan and his cronies stopped. They were all still shrouded in darkness.

“I was going to take that little excursion into the Wilderness to get a taste of what’s to come,” Ji Nan giggled suggestively. “Was close too, I just needed to get her a piece of Liferoot, help out some disciples and the garden would be open to me.”

Well, I doubt that, but whatever he says.

“Then you had to appear, the savage in the wilderness.” He talked as if they were old friends. “I must admit that day really put a shock into me. You’re talented in trickery and blessed with good fortune for Elder Jadestone’s benevolence.”

“My fiancée, the woman who’s supposed to support me in everything—contradicted me that day. For what, for who? A random cricket who can’t even tell the immensity between heaven and earth!” Ji Nan’s aura flared up. The mask was dropped, it seems.

“So, you’re a Grittus, so what!” He sneered, “If you die here, that means your fortune has just ran dry!”

Without a word, instantly he was surrounded on both sides by Ji Nan’s crew. Boxed in, with nowhere to go. Even if he ran, where would he go? Grisla’s aura was stepped over by the combined oppressiveness of the group.

Grisla raised his chin, “Why not just let your flunkies here deal with me? Why take the wrong path and diminish your chances for good loot?”

“Huh? What a stupid question,” Ji Nan said while his warhammer was forming in his hands.

“It’s my own dash of luck. I get to kill you while also taking the correct path myself. But, being the idiot as you are, only managed to speed up the path to your own destruction rather than delaying by staying with the herd.”

“I see,” Grisla nodded, as if agreement with his executioner. “That is unfortunate.”

His line of vision drifted, suddenly— “But what is that!” Grisla pointed.

The idiots followed, “Huh?”

“Are you all soft in the head?!” Ji Nan screamed. “Kill him!”

With a brief period of distraction, their target skimmed up the side of a wall, kicking off to land outside of the encirclement. Grisla didn’t look back as he powered forward into the darkness awaiting them.

The hallway seemed endless. Grisla’s hair flew defiant of gravity, legs pushing with limitless strength. Yet, despite all this, the distance mattered little in a linear chase. If the previous two seconds of hallway extend out into two minutes or more, running at top speed will have him be powerless to defend himself when they eventually catch up. In fact, if Ji Nan has an accurate map of the Well of Wonders, it’s a guarantee he’s not hurried.

His estimation did not come true. Ahead, a mouth of light greeted him. Stopping in the middle of a star-shaped intersection, he had 5 hallways to choose from, with no indication or notice of what they might be, the purpose, or what would lie ahead. Actually—there is, probably, if one translated the jargon written in the stone signs overhead.

His eyes worked fast. Surprisingly, instead of a pause in deliberation, he picked a direction—and sprinted down it without hesitation.

Grisla’s medallion blinked.

“You’re in a bit of a rush, aren’t you?” Seri said.

He hurriedly said, “Not a good time.”

He stopped. To be clear, the hallway did first, leaving a break in the path as if whomever constructed it had forgotten a section. The drop was as dark as the way forward. He looked down, and then back.

“Actually, it’s crucial.”

“I’m not that educated on the Ancient stuff, but I can pick up some words here and there.”

“Something, something ‘Road of… Trials? Danger?’ The meaning flips depending on the direction the last symbol is facing, or it could be something else, if they’re speaking—”

“I know.”

Seri paused. “Huh?”

Grisla rolled his shoulders, then jumped and let his body be taken by the black.

“I can read it just fine Seri. It means, ‘Road of Peril.’”

“And, you know I’m going to say…”

“Because,” The fall was short, and he landed on all fours. “Mother taught me. She used to read stories in that to me all the time. I’m not a fluent speaker, but reading? Simple.”

“The mystery deepens,” She said, sighing.

Grisla ignored that.

He managed two steps before he felt a fluid tickle his ankles. The smell of mold, and the sudden feel of moisture in the air gave a hint before his eyes did. The place he landed wasn’t occupied with an architect’s hallway or some decorative pieces. No, it was like the Well of Wonders, the castle, was built over some cave formation. Luminescent light, familiar and the same as the one that filled the first place they met, took on a different level of brilliance compared to above. Like fireflies trapped inside rock, the way before him was tingling with soft warmth.

Curiosity capturing him, he put a finger to the water, and with a fingertip-sized droplet, he tasted it. “This is…” he said in shock. He had to confirm.

Both hands dove in and took out his sample. He swallowed again.

“This is it! My heart was bleeding at missing the chance at the pond in the Wilderness, but here it is again! Even double the concentration of the stuff before!”

“With this, you might be able to push to the fifth cycle—no, maybe halfway to the sixth! Grisla, if you want a chance to win, drink now!”

Grisla didn’t need to be told twice, as he dropped his belongings to dive in headfirst; ravenously he drank. Spiritual water of this level would sate both hunger and thirst, a mortal could subside on this and go without for a week, or more. But—

A hole was opened in his shoulder. His blood, now desecrating the once spotless water.

Where?!

Spiritual Sense screaming, he rolled with the thing still embedded in his shoulder; and where he once kneeled, a splash of water. When he glanced to the wound, the blood staining the water also of course stained whatever it was. And, from what he could tell from the figure—it was some sort of limb, not human. Not mammalian either.

“Damn you!” Grisla flung his hand, and, off it the blood on it splattered across the figure.

An invisible… crab?

The impaled boy was flung to a wall.

“Seri!” Grisla screamed, holding his wound. “Why didn’t I detect it!”

“Well, it’s not a Shade Beast per se, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t felt its presence immediately when coming here.”

He snorted, “Ain’t that perfect!”

There was no sense of how big the creature might be, for everything but its claw and parts of its face were traced by his blood. The rest? As invisible as air.

If I think about the result on its first attack, I must assume that both claws have a sharpness to them. How am I supposed to avoid a claw barely revealed, and another or more who’ve yet to be seen?

Hearing the creature, he retreated for distance, only to meet a wall partway. The body of water exploded, and his panic rose. Every moment Grisla evaded something that his Spiritual Sense informed him of coming, the claw that was dunked in his blood is slowly taking baths from the lake. If it keeps up at this rate…

An invisible claw demolished stone above him, the other stabbed for him. He made a choice. Swinging himself on top of the bloody claw, Grisla raced for its main body. His Spiritual Sense cannot outline the creature’s body fully, as it was not a Shade Beast nor did it emit a notable amount of Juva for registry. It was just a beast evolved for his environment, an apex predator in these caves. He walked by it just as he would a stone, and that was the idea.

It was his modest luck that the creature didn’t run through his heart—there would be no consideration for what might’ve happened if so. And that enraged him even more.

He landed an axe kick—somewhere. The crab jerked.

Did I get him?

It seized his leg, and to his surprise, did not sever it immediately upon grasping, rather, it catapulted him to the unyielding ceiling; his breath stolen. Spiritual Sense woke him from a brief stunning, had it not said anything, he wouldn’t have avoided the next attack. Landing pathetically in the water, he scrambled for the exit.

His expression dropped—he’d forgotten. The hallway he dropped from was done to escape death, not run towards it; it would be a gamble to assume that Ji Nan and his boys weren’t waiting for him, or coincidentally walking in the same hallway as he. Even worse, Ji Nan did take the same path as he did before—does that mean he can translate in some way like him? Or have a guide of his own? The elders, possibly?

While pondering he caught sight of his bag.

Grisla frowned. It’ll be better than nothing, I suppose.

Something approached his back. When he whipped around in time, a slew of talismans was held—two stamped on either side of the wall. He saw it, a bloody claw stabbing for him.

He did a sign, “Bind!”

The claw approached.

Switching with speed, “And—conceal!” he finished the other.

His cheek bled. The claw was draped in his blood once again and stole more flesh from him as it retracted. A squeal resounded out. Harsh, buzzing, in every sense an alert for any in the area to leave right away. He knew it was near—still there. His sense swept over its figure multiple times, while he was aware of its presence; yet it was wholly blind to his.

For a rushed formation, it's not too shabby. The invisibility's a nice touch. I should've thought of that back in the Northern Wilderness.

Though, after Grisla was able to catch his breath, wipe a brow of sweat, did he come to realize—he was trapped.

Thankfully, the creature is too far down on the rope to think about me. Object permeance, is it called?

Even with that assumed, the crab… didn’t leave. Instead, on inspections with Grisla’s Spiritual Sense, it just lingered.

The formation won’t last long.