Civilization

The door closes behind me and the darkness creeps in. Kingston had told me that there was a pole in the middle of the room, so I wait patiently for my eyes to focus. I move towards the pole once I could make out its silhouette, pressing the red button.

[ Welcome to the Ikanda. As this is your first time here, would you like to read the rules? ]

"No." - Ian

[ Are you ready? If you are, press the red button again. ]

The moment I press the button the wooden pole descends to the ground just like Kingston had told me, however, the moment it disappeared I feel a searing pain on the side of my neck. I collapse to my knees and scream in agony, my eyes half-closed due to the pain. It was the cursed mark from Selino, the Queen of Spiders.

I place my hand over the mark only to feel a burning sensation on my hand. A red circle appears below me as the room collapse into a white space. I see my HP dropping with every second until it stabilized at 25 HP, 50%. However, I might not be losing HP, but the pain was still there. My eyes couldn't focus, and my breathing became ragged. Once the red circle became filled with a blood-red color, the pain subsided.

[ You who have been cursed by the Queen of Spiders will take a different challenge. One filled with blood and suffering. The rules have changed. Will you look at them? ]

"Y-y-yes." - Ian

[ The following are the rules;

The player or unit will not leave the Ikanda until all challenges are completed.

All equipment will be unequipped once the challenges start

There is no healing

You are permitted to use your skills

For every death, the curse will accelerate by 1 day ( 24 hours ) ]

"Are you serious!" - Ian

[ Please pick a weapon ]

[ Rusted Sword, Broken Knife, Cracked Ax, Rotten Wooden Club ]

"What are these choices?!" - Ian

[ You have 30 seconds to choose your weapon or else you will forfeit the right to choose any weapon ]

With only 30 seconds to choose a weapon, my brain went into overload. I try my best to disregard the pain in my neck and think objectively about the weapons presented in front of me. The club and the ax will break the moment I hit something, which means they are out of the picture. A broken knife just means the blade is shorter than normal, and a rusted sword might be so badly rusted that it will break due to the rust eating at the iron. Does that leave just the knife, since it is a weapon just with a short range?

The weapons float around me as the blue message box floats in front of me, dictating the countdown. I grit my teeth and grab onto the broken knife. I feel the leather handle and see a shiny, cold sheen on the finger-length blade. Luckily for me, it had been broken in a way where the tip is still sharp.

[ Broken Knife

Attack: 10

A well-made iron knife, broken to half its length. It has lost its previous glory and deadliness and is now reduced to nothing more than a sharp piece of metal. ]

[ First Challenge: Run ]

The scenery around me changes in seconds. The white walls constrict around me, turning into cold hard rocks as a tunnel forms around me. A path forward lights up with glowing blue stones on the ground, showing me an endless path, while behind me, I see darkness. I look towards the path with the lights, but even with the Eye of the Roc passive, I couldn't see the end.

Kingston had told me to instantly run forward, as danger lurking behind will catch up, and I would fall into the abyss below, dying over and over. However, the challenge has changed, my HP halved, but the rest of my stats stay the same. I take a glimpse at the buff screen, where I see the curse.

[ Live on then, Yet Hang: 3938:45:12 ]

The rules say that I will lose 24 hours for each death in the challenges, and Kingston told me he lost count of the number of times he died. I have about 164 days left before the curse activates, and I'm not exactly keen to test the limits. Suddenly, I hear a soft scurrying sound behind me in the darkness. I take no chances, activating Enhanced Agility and following the path in front of me.

I push my legs off the ground as hard as I can, but the scurrying sound draws closer. I glance over my shoulder to see spiders covering the ground, walls, and ceiling. Not a single gap could be seen as each spider was pressed against the other.

I could feel goosebumps from all over my body as the hundreds of tiny red eyes glare at me. I grit my teeth harder and push my body to the limits, rushing forward, but in the distance I see something drop onto the ground, covering some glowing blue stones. It covered most of the space in front of me and looked kind of furry, but then I realize what it was.

8 ruby red eyes open in front of me, making my heart leap in fright. Another spider, but this time big enough to fill the tunnel. I stood in my path and behind me was an army of small spiders. I didn't stop running towards it though, instead, I activate Charge speeding myself up towards the monster.

Using my superior vision, I see the monster preparing to attack me. It opens its mouth and sprays the space in front of me with purple acid. I cancel Charge and Quickstep to the side, grabbing onto the walls and pushing my body against them to dodge the attack. The spiders behind me were unfortunately attacked, melting them the instant the acid touched them. However, they were now very close.

I push off the wall and Cleave at the monster with my tiny broken knife. The knife enters the monster's body and cuts through its flesh, but the wound was shallow. I slash at the monster again in quick succession, only to find that my damage to the monster was akin to hitting a dragon with a stick.

The big spider pushes its body forward, forcing me to step back, but the smaller spiders have caught up. I kick around and slash the surrounding space to ward them off, activating Quickstep to reposition myself, but it was useless. I feel the multiple bite wounds all over my legs as the spiders assault me. They climb on each and ponce onto me. I scream and stab, but it was useless. My HP reaches 0 as the body succumbs to paralysis before being devoured by the spiders.

[ You have died. ]

[ Live on then, Yet Hang: 3914:39:49 ]

I see darkness around me. My body still tingling from the previous death, then I see the tunnel again. The same blue stones start to glow, leading me down a path. A path where a  giant spider lies waiting. Behind me, was the darkness and an army of smaller spiders.

My breathing quickens and my heart races. I gulp down my saliva and activate Enhanced Agility. I need to run. Run faster. The moment my brain could comprehend that I had restarted the level, I start to run in the direction of the light.

The same spider drops in front of me, but this time I cannot hear the spiders approaching me from behind yet, which means I have time. I don't know how much time, but I have time to attempt to kill the monster in front of me.

The monster leads off with an acid spray again, but I was prepared this time and activated Quickstep into Charge. I aim for the closest eye with my knife, piercing it before activating Cleave and destroying 2 other eyes in the process. The monster wriggles around in pain, slamming the sides of the tunnel with its body before the rest of its eyes shine blood-red.

It starts to spray acid at me at a higher rate, forcing me to retreat outside its range. I can hear the spiders catching up, but I couldn't proceed forward with the acid in front of me. The ground melts into a sticky goo as the acid lands on it. I look around searching for a way forward but couldn't see anywhere the acid hadn't touched.

Then something clicked in my brain. I smile at the idea and turn around towards the small spiders. I quickly attack the closest ones, cutting their legs and stabbing one in the chest, tossing the injured spiders towards the acidic goo on the ground. I do my best to accumulate as many spiders as I can before they start to surround me, and when I thought I couldn't handle it anymore. I turn back.

The monster had stopped spraying acid, however, most of the ground had been covered in the acid and I could smell the disgusting scent of melting spiders. I use the corpses of spiders that were mostly intact as a bridge to cross towards the monster, activating Quickstep to right next to the spider and stabbing it over and over in the already injured eyes. The monster screeches loudly, but I don't stop till the monster bursts into purple smoke.

I push past the monster just as the spiders behind me reached me. I feel them biting on my ankles, but I push myself forward at all costs.

"You're shitting me…" - Ian

However, it seems my desperate attempts were futile. In front of me, another giant spider drops, covering the path with an acid spray. All my skills were on cooldown, so I couldn't dodge it. The acid lands on my skin and I feel it burn.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" - Ian

The smell of my own flesh melting permeates my nose. My hands melt off, flopping onto the ground like a fish out of the water before the rest of my body melts, resulting in another death.

[ You have died. ]

[ Live on then, Yet Hang: 3889:30:21 ]

It's going to be a long road of suffering…