Chapter 40 - 40: 1 Hour Before
An hour before the 7-Head Cerberus guild met Van.
"This… can still be considered as fun, right?"
Van could not help but lightly whisper as he let out his tired breath. He then took a huge gulp as he looked at the three newly arrived spiders that were now larger than him. Van slightly stepped backward, it would seem that they haven't noticed him yet.
Should he… make a run for it?
No! Van quickly shook his head. He has made it this far, he was sure he can take it. This was the best chance to strike, while the 3 spiders were still unaware of him.
And so, he quickly activated [Time Perception] and rushed towards the three, his eyes sparkling in gold and filled with excitement. His excitement, however, was instantly washed down as soon as his weapon made contact with the spider's body. Van felt it penetrate, but only by an inch before the gaff soon bent. And then, as he couldn't stop his momentum, the gaff continued to bend until it snapped in half.
"!!!"
The part that was still attached to him lightly grazed his arm, causing a small gash, "Gah!"
Van quickly backed away as he deactivated [Time Perception]. But as soon as he did so, a spider ran towards him. He quickly moved to the side, but due to his [Time Perception] skill not being activated, he almost hit a wall as his sides lightly slammed towards it.
Van's breathing instantly became erratic as he stared at the three spiders that clearly wanted to eat him.
'Calm down, calm down', he tried to convince himself. Since his weapon was already broken, then there was no shame in running away. Maybe help was already on its way?
No… he doesn't know what will happen once he escapes the Portal. For all he knows, maybe the spiders have already accumulated, and once he goes out, they will all come gushing out like a violent river.
Fight. He must fight. Even with his arm throbbing due to the gash, he must fight.
And so, once again, he activated his [Time Perception] skill and ran towards the other half of his broken weapon. He quickly grabbed it, holding it with his right arm as he couldn't move his left anymore.
He only had one option now, their eyes. He was sure that even if their bodies were already too hard to be pierced by the gaff, their eyes would remain soft-- it was the same as a human's, after all. And with this final thought assuring him, he ran towards the nearest spider.
And to his expectations, the pointed steel easily inserted itself through the spider-human's eye. Van wanted to pull the gaff out, it was sadly, already attached too firmly through the spider's head. And so, with a sigh, he swiftly backed away and turned off his skills to see if his strike was effective.
And as soon as he deactivated his speed, a loud shrill reverberated across the cave, "This…", Van could not help but shiver as the screams pierced his ears. The small spiders didn't make a sound even as they squirm dying on the ground. So he was slightly taken aback by the spider's human-like roar.
He was about to activate his skills again to try and retrieve the gaff from the spider's eyes, however, before he could even do so, he felt a tinge of pain in his leg.
"!!!", Van quickly looked below him, only to see a spider's leg completely penetrating through his leg. Van activated his skills as soon as he saw this. The [Time Perception] skill made the pain on his leg worse, as he could feel his skin and flesh slowly being ruptured as he tried to push his leg forward.
And with a blink, he ran away while at superspeed, unfortunately, the pain on his leg was too much for him to bear as he rolled on the ground, like a ragdoll that was thrown straight to the ground.
"S...shit", he could not help but let out a breath as he felt his whole body aching. He tried going into his super-speed again, but his focus was completely overwhelmed by the pain that covered his entire body.
The chittering of the spiders grew louder as they got nearer to him. He had no choice but to activate his [Time Perception] skill, even if he was not able to completely go into his superspeed mode. He could feel the pain slowly crawling all over his body, but alas, if he turned it off, then the spider would quickly devour him into pieces.
To the spiders, he looked as if he was vibrating as his superspeed fluctuated. The spiders saw this as a moment of weakness, and so the two quickly rushed towards him. But before their legs could pierce through his body that looked like it was rippling, he vanished.
"Gah!"
The two spiders quickly turned their attention towards the sound of the voice. Van was currently coughing out blood. Van tried to crawl away as the two spiders approached him earlier, but due to his lack of control, he slammed his back onto the wall.
Van was starting to panic and his speed was going out of control. The only thing that he could control was his Active Skills. And so once again, he activated his [Time Perception] skill.
'Think… think', Van scoured his mind, which was filled with nothing but pain and chaos right now.
'I should have ran away', he thought, 'I overestimated my powers too much… no, I overestimated myself… weak'
'F*ck!', Van could not help but curse in his mind. He thought himself stupid, to think that he could survive inside the dungeon when he just unlocked his System not too long ago, what was he even thinking?
His base level was only level 2.
...Level 2.
Wait…
The crystals!
He remembered that Ms. Elton mentioned something about placing the crystals on his forehead, and doing so would let him absorb it. And so, with newfound hope, even with his superspeed currently going wild, he tried to crawl away once again.
His SP was running out, less than a third of it left. So if he must do this, he must do it now. If not, he was a goner. And so, even with the spiders still slowly approaching him, he stopped crawling away.
Van then carefully retrieved his pouch from his pocket and quickly grabbed one of the Yellow Crystals that was given to him by the man called Bellick.
This is it! He screamed in his mind as he quickly placed the crystal on his forehead, his teeth revealing themselves as he let out a chuckle.
This is it. He could feel it!
He could…
He could…
"!!!"
...Feel nothing.
Nothing was happening.
***
New Weekly Goal: 3,000 powerstones = 5 chapters