The Path of the Strongest Mortal, page 2
“Hey… Is it really you?” a vaguely familiar voice came from somewhere nearby.
In front of Kai was a door with a small window, behind which were a corridor and the entrance to another cell. Kai peered into the darkness with his energy vision and saw a man in the opposite room, hanging by his arms, just like him. Apparently, he was severely beaten.
The figure seemed familiar...
“It’s definitely you!” Kai heard the muffled voice again, and this time he recognized it. “I’m so glad to see you, buddy!” Shacks exclaimed.
Chapter 2
THE ABYSS
“How did you get here?” Kai immediately asked.
“Why, hello to you, too! Aren’t you glad to see your best friend?” Shacks said in his usual joking manner. “Long story short, I was tossed into a desert where I came across some very hostile elves. I had to run. I ended up in some swamp, where they caught me. And you? What’s your story?”
“Very similar to yours,” Kai replied shortly, not wanting to go into details.
“Those assholes! They took all my money! Do you know how hard my folks worked to get it? They gave it to me so that I could buy myself a good weapon! And now... Now, it’s all gone! Just, poof! Gone!”
Shacks’ whining made Kai grimace. But he realized that this was probably all an act and that Shacks, just like him, had managed to hide all his valuable items before he was caught. The archer was many things, but one thing he was not — an idiot.
Shacks continued howling, even pretended to cry, until Kai finally snapped.
“Oh, shut up already!”
After that, silence finally fell, allowing the two to make sure that somewhere nearby, someone was definitely spying on them.
***
Six hours passed. During this time, silence reigned in the dungeons. The two cultivators no longer spoke or even moved. They plunged into meditation, distancing themselves from the real world. But eventually, their peace was disturbed.
The shackles on their hands suddenly opened with a loud clack and a rattle. They almost fell, but their quick reflexes allowed them to stay on their feet. The doors of their cells swung open. But before Kai had time to realize what was happening, the collar’s energy pierced his mind.
He could’ve easily suppressed it, but he didn’t. The same thing happened to Shacks, who had no choice but to obey.
Both of them headed for the door, moving like puppets. On the way, they picked up and put on old and tattered clothes, which had clearly been worn before.
Having gotten out into the corridor, both of them turned and, drawn by someone else’s will, headed forward. Within ten minutes, they reached a long staircase leading upward. The climb took another three minutes, after which the two found themselves in front of a large open gate. After leaving the building, they walked a few hundred feet until they saw a long line of elves and one giant. They joined them and froze.
Everyone stood there for a couple of minutes, until a fat elf of average height, dressed in expensive snow-white Gold-rank clothes, approached the lined-up slaves. It was his will that controlled their bodies.
“I’m Zirx,” he introduced himself without hiding his contempt. “I’m the guardian and overseer of Abyss No. 6., and you’re my new toys. Here you’re nothing and no one. Your lives can end at any time, so be obedient if you want to live longer.”
Having said that, he snapped his fingers. The collars lost their power and ceased to control the slaves.
“Now I’ll explain what you need to do. There are twenty of you here, and you’ll all be lowered into Abyss No. 6. in an hour. There, you’ll find yourself next to a special well, near which there’ll be a special bowl.” He showed them an artifact. “Emerald Water will flow from the well. It’ll flow for exactly twenty hours, during which you’ll have to protect the bowl from whatever may come and attack you. After that, the elevator will descend again to pick up the survivors along with the bowl filled with Emerald Water. If something happens to it, or if there is even one drop of Emerald Water missing — and we know exactly how much of it fits in the bowl — then your entire group will be executed. And now, you’ll introduce yourselves. From left to right. And don’t make me wait...”
Although they were no longer being controlled, no one seemed willing to try their luck against an Elementalist. The first elf introduced himself and fell silent. Everyone followed his example.
Ten elves quickly and begrudgingly introduced themselves, after which the chain suddenly broke. Silence fell.
Annoyed, Zirx walked over to the rebel.
“Name?” His powerful voice made most of the slaves almost fall to the ground.
The young, broad-shouldered giant stared back at him. He seemed to have absolutely no intention of responding. He stood in silence, haughtily looking at the overseer.
“Silent, huh?” Zirx chuckled. “Giants are too proud a race, am I right? Especially the aristocrats... But you’re no longer one. You’re just a pitiful slave. You know what happens to disobedient slaves, don’t you?” He grinned.
In an instant, the giant found himself on his knees, making a small hole in the ground.
“I see you’re a tough guy. But your family sold you. They sold you to us, wishing you would die slowly and painfully, like a dog.”
For a moment, anger flashed across the giant’s face. However, it was immediately hidden behind arrogance. Only Zirx noticed this, which made him smile even wider.
“I won’t get my hands dirty, the Abyss will do the work... But since you don’t want to talk to me, I’ll call you Dog… Shall we continue?”
The slaves continued saying their names until the turn came for the last two — Kai and Shacks. And although they obeyed, for some reason, they still attracted Zirx’s attention.
“Humans…” The elf grinned contemptuously. “If you weren’t Lord Starks’ property, I’d certainly dissect you...” Noticing the stare of violet eyes, he got in Kai’s face. “How dare you stare at me so insolently?!”
On the continent, different races had long hated each other, but they all agreed on one thing — humans were a plague upon this earth. They were sneered at. And some didn’t even consider them as intelligent beings. Zirx was one of those people.
“Put your head down, you animal!” he spat.
The fact that some wretched human dared to look at him so impudently angered Zirx even more than the giant’s disobedience.
Kai stared at the elf for a second, and then dropped his gaze. He didn’t want to make a scene right now. But even his obedience didn’t help him much.
“You dare to delay the execution of my order?! Bastard?!” Zirx hissed.
Instantly appearing next to Kai, Zirx grabbed him by the hair, and with one sharp movement pressed his face to the ground. Kai’s forehead was bleeding. All the power of his regeneration had been focused on his chest wound, so the new one couldn’t instantly heal.
“Filthy creature! I forbid you to even think! If I say bow your head, you do it immediately! If I say eat dirt, then you immediately follow the order! Got it?!” He stepped on the back of Kai’s head. “Now eat dirt, worm!”
But the worm didn’t move.
“You stupid creature, are you deaf?!” Using the energy of Fire, Zirx burned most of Kai’s hair. “You’re the weakest one here. You miserable Soul Stage trash. You’re unlikely to survive today. Wounded or not, you stand no chance in the Abyss.”
Zirx removed his foot from Kai’s head, walked around him, and stepped on his right shin. With a nasty smile, he pressed down on it. A sharp and unpleasant crack rang out. Kai’s body shuddered.
“No screaming? Who brought you here anyway? Or were you dropped off here for free? Filth...” Zirx grimaced, and then spat on Kai’s back.
Turning abruptly, he looked at the other human. His head down and shoulders bowed, Shacks stood motionless, slightly shuddering, emanating a sense of fear and submission. This picture made the elf smile. Had he known that the archer was pulling his leg, he’d be foaming at the mouth.
“You!” Zirx pointed at him. “You’ll carry this freak to the elevator.”
Shacks nodded slightly but clearly. Zirx snorted contemptuously, then turned around and left.
“You, humans, can only be slaves...” he added before he disappeared out of sight.
Grabbing onto Shacks’ hand, Kai slowly rose.
His gaze was cold. The name and face of their warden would be forever imprinted in his mind. Sooner or later, he’d certainly return the favor.
As for his leg, it wasn’t Zirx who broke it. He did it himself, using his ki and strength. He decided to do this because he immediately realized that his bones were very strong and that there was no chance that the elf could break them easily on his own. Failing to punish him would’ve probably made Zirx angry and suspicious of Kai and he didn’t want that kind of attention right now. So he decided to play along. He broke his bone very neatly so that even a tiny bit of his healing power would be enough to fix it.
In the meantime, Zirx returned to his original spot and looked at the group. He poured ki into the bracelet on his right wrist and then snapped his fingers. The slaves were once again at the mercy of their collars.
“Follow me,” he said mockingly as he led them to their new “workplace.”
Walking in pairs in a row, the slaves left the underground dungeon and found themselves among their new brothers and sisters. People around them looked horrible and sad. The older slaves, pale as chalk, barely resembled the living. They practically didn’t move, only lay in the shade of the barracks, looking at the world around them with empty eyes. The huge dark spots that covered their bodies were slowly killing them, feeding on their life force.
The newcomers were quick to realize that death and dangerous creatures weren’t the worst things that could happen to them in the Abyss as the elf led them to a small stone structure marked Abyss No. 6. The entrance to it was guarded by four peak Exorcists.
“Lord Zirx!”
The guards bowed.
“Open it. We’ll start forty minutes earlier, hehe...”
The guards exchanged glances. One of them poured ki into an artifact at the entrance, after which the door opened. An Elementalist, one Exorcist, and twenty slaves entered the gaping maw of the Abyss.
“Start the preparations,” Zirx ordered, and then turned to the slaves.
Without another word, he forced them to step onto a large circular platform in the center of the room.
“Listen here, scum. When you go down, you’ll find yourself in a special zone where the collars will no longer control you. Only so that you could somehow protect the bowl and fight the Abyss. Once you return, they’ll start working again. Whoever’s collar has so much as a scratch on it upon their return will be killed on the spot. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to protect them, too...” He looked at the guard. “Is everything ready?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Turn on the elevator.”
At that moment, the platform shuddered and began to smoothly descend into a vertical tunnel. The journey underground took about ten minutes, during which the platform passed through a Royal-rank barrier. The collars glowed, letting them pass through the shimmering veil. It was clear that the Quarry authorities feared whatever dwelled in the Abyss.
The platform stopped about two feet from the floor.
One by one, the slaves jumped off. Eighteen of them were surprised to see the human with the injured leg do so without an issue. Once they were all out and the bowl was activated, the platform began to rise back up. No one dared to risk returning to the surface.
No sooner had the platform started ascending when Kai suddenly collapsed. The wound on his chest burned with a pain he hadn’t felt before. Only after that did he pay attention to the fog surrounding them. A very dark and very destructive force filled the cave. He didn’t need his energy vision to understand that this fog was the cause of those dark spots they had seen on the rest of the slaves.
Fortunately, this wild energy didn’t have a master so he managed to tame it and isolate himself from it. However, the rest of the slaves couldn’t do what he could, so they were forced to stand in the poisonous fog and breathe it in, absorbing it together with prana.
“Bastards! I hate you!” a tall, dark-haired elf, whose face was crossed by a long scar, suddenly exclaimed. “This is all because of you, scum!” He pointed his finger at Kai, Shacks, and the silent giant. “Because of you, we’ll spend more time than necessary here and get corrupted even faster!”
“Menlian has a point!”
“Filth!”
“Scum!”
“We’ll cut you!” the rest of the elves immediately began to shout.
“I heard about this place! Heard about the Abyss!” Menlian continued. “This is a network of underground caves where Emerald Water is drawn from. But it’s also a place where a force that kills everyone who touches it dwells! That’s why they send slaves down here instead of going themselves. I have no intention of dying here! I’m not some weakling who’ll die of poison! I don’t plan to stay long in the Quarries either! Join me, and let’s leave this place together!”
The rest of the elves, realizing that it was better to be in a group than alone, were quick to join and support him.
“I’m glad you agree, brothers! The first step toward freedom is teaching these bastards a lesson.” He pointed at the three outcasts. “They could put us in even more danger.”
“Yes!”
“Let’s finish them!”
Kai and the giant prepared for battle. Shacks, on the other hand, seemed uninterested. Even bored. For a split moment, at least.
“Come on, show me what you got!” he suddenly shouted, drawing everyone’s attention. “But be warned that I’ll destroy the bowl if you so much as breathe in our direction!”
As if to prove that he wasn’t kidding, he nodded at the bowl, around which his ki was already curling.
The elves froze. No one wanted to be executed the moment they left this place.
“You sly fucker! You disgusting little man!”
“Disgusting? Disgusting is when seventeen Exorcists want to attack three people... Well, to be fair, the big guy counts like two people,” Shacks replied with a snicker.
“Don’t worry, brothers,” Menlian said calmly. “These weaklings will die soon anyway. They can’t withstand the dark power of this place, nor the fangs and the claws of the beasts that dwell here!” He turned back to the trio. “Get lost! We’ll handle this ourselves!”
Kai and Shacks exchanged glances, nodded, and looked at the giant.
Noticing the look in the eyes of the two humans, the giant didn’t answer. Not that he needed to. Having made a silent agreement, the three of them slowly walked away from the well.
Shacks resisted the urge to break the bowl as that’d expose both him and Kai. The elves resisted the urge to teach the three a lesson. They believed Menlian, but they weren’t sure that they could defeat the trio and protect the bowl at the same time. And now wasn’t the time to test that out.
Forty minutes passed quickly. The well activated and when the first bright drop appeared, everyone turned their heads to it.
The Emerald Water shone. It shone so brightly that, for a moment, they even thought that they had returned to the surface, illuminated by the midday sun. But that wasn’t all. In addition to light, the liquid also radiated heat, which gently enveloped even the trio who stood some hundred feet away from the well.
Looking at the Emerald Water with his energy vision, Kai saw immense power. He saw an ocean of energy in every drop. Not only that. Inside the green liquid, there was an incredible amount of unfamiliar Forces. It was no wonder that it was so expensive. It possessed wonderful properties. The mere fact that its rank was even higher than Royal was enough for Kai to start imagining all sorts of potions and pills that could be made from it.
However, they weren’t destined to enjoy this beautiful view for a long time. As soon as the first drop appeared, the dark fog suddenly began to stir and to gather in many different places.
“I’ll cover us with invisibility,” Shacks said, glancing at Kai and the giant, and activated the technique.
Reacting to the appearance of the Emerald Water, the dark fog quickly formed figures that resembled wolves, completely covered with sharp thorn-like growths. And although they weren’t real monsters, each was equal in strength to a Titan Stage beast.
There were about twenty-five of them, and they all immediately rushed to the well, attacking the elves who stood in their way.
They dealt with monsters, but, as it turned out, it was impossible to kill them. As soon as the elves broke their armor, the creatures turned back into the dark fog that then again formed into wolves. They kept attacking non-stop.
They wanted only one thing — to absorb the Emerald Water.
Kai, Shacks, and the silent giant had been watching the battle for the second hour. The elves fought, trying to use as little effort as possible, but at the same time, they tried to be as efficient as possible. They needed to protect the bowl for another eighteen hours.
An hour later, they witnessed something that scared the hell out of all of them. One of the creatures managed to hurt one of them for the first time, leaving a shallow wound on the elf’s shoulder. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but...
A shadowy snake slithered into the wound, and a black and purple spot appeared on the pale skin. It looked exactly the same as the marks on the slaves they had seen on the surface. This made them all realize that even the slightest injury caused by these creatures could have serious consequences.
“I think we should help them. If the bowl gets damaged, it’ll be the end of us all,” Kai said.
“I agree. Without it, we’ve much less chance of a happy future...” Shacks nodded. “Big guy, are you with us?”
The giant didn’t answer.
“As you wish.” Shacks shrugged and removed the barrier. “Don’t use too much power on them. There’s no point in wasting energy if they’re gonna regenerate anyway.”
