I allowed myself to speed up the story. Don’t mind me

Edited by: KenChi死

The peaceful glade. Some butterflies were flying here and there, plant were growing lazily and birds occasionally would sing making the air around this glade very calm and relaxing, that everyone who would stop here just for few seconds, would gladly rest, just to appreciate the aura of this magical place.

But the peace could last no longer. From behind the bushes a certain white haired man jumped out running as if he was chased by the devil.

“RUN ALICE! RUN IF YOU TREASURE YOUR LIFE!... Or don’t, as you know you can’t die here, but it would still be painf…” a pixie wanted to give yet another obvious note, yet the mage had no humor to listen her speech yet again “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” “Aw, don’t be like that… couldn’t yo…”

As they ran for over 50 or so meters through the glade, the bushes behind them rumbled. They were chased by a horde of… humans? No… humanoids, bit taller than humans, yet much more muscular, having instead of human-like face some kind of twisted abomination – small, round completely black eyes, the nose was replaced by the nostrils, giving them some kind of snake-like look, and instead of lips a round hole, armored in dozens of very small, very sharp teeth placed in their whole mouth.

Cultist of Flesh [Cannibal Tribe]Level17Hp119/220Sp91/150Mp88/100SkillsPole weapon Mastery - Regular [Level 18]

Blood Magic [Level 9]

Blood Sucking [Level 8]

Trained Body [Passive] [Level 6]

Corrupted Body [Passive] [Level 3]The creatures that used to be humans - cultist of a dark religions or blood-brotherhood.

They are outcome of abusing forgotten Blood-spells or mistakes during rituals heavily influenced by forbidden powers.

They have completely lost to the desire for human's flesh and blood.

They lost a huge portion of their intelligence alongside with their humanity, but they are still capable of using magic [their blood magic was even empowered]

“Theee idoool…. Briinng theee idol baaaack...” The creature even more corrupted than those already chasing our lovely MC came from the bushes. Slower, having her/his head covered by the skull of some animal with really sizeable horns. Probably the boss of the cultist.

I can already see the question in your eyes – about what kind of idol is that creature speaking? Weeeell, my mistake, pardon me, druid that was running away was having a small bundle with him, from the side you could see that part of his “package” was visible. It was a golden figurine of some kind of creature with bared fangs.

“Why… from every possible object… that I had to steal… it had to be… the golden idol… from the cannibal tribe?” Zari said while catching breath “It is a secret… but fair enough! You deserve to know after you retrieved it… you see… the secret is… THAT IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!” “I will fucking kill you.” “Now! MAESTRO! MUSICA!”

And now, as he was running away, chased by over 50 blood lusting creatures, the theme music from Indiana Jones was being played in the background.

“You are fucking kidding me!” “Alice! For fuck sake! Shut your mouth and enjoy the moment!” “YOU ARE NOT THE ONE THAT WILL BE DEVOURED… AGAIN… IF THEY CATCH US!” “Fair point! Go, go, go, go, go!”

From time to time some kind of primitive spear would be thrown, missing his body each time by inch or two. But Zari never left this without response. He also twisted his upper body from time to time, throwing fireballs randomly into the crowd, and notifications about damages he dealt were letting him know, that he usually managed to hit someone. From time to time he was also raising some obstacles with nature magic.

Yet once again, he dropped the idea of using chaos magic. Mostly because last time he threw a chaos bolt at an enemy witch-doctor, he absorbed it in mid-air.

“THERE! TO THE CAVE!” “LIKE HELL I AM GOING THERE! CAVES RARELY HAVING MORE THAN ONE ENTRY! I WOULD SIMPLY JUMP RIGHT INTO THE DEN WITH NO PLACE TO HIDE NOR RUN! AND KNOWING MY LUCK AND THIS WORLD, SONE KIND OF MONSTERS LIVES THERE!” “ALICE! THERE IS NO TIME TO WASTE! DO YOU TRUST ME?” “NO!” “THAT’S THE SPIRIT! TO THE CAVE!”

What else could he do? Well… he could NOT listen the crazy masochistic-sadistic Pixie… but it was too late for that. In the end the endless mass of blood lusting creatures could somewhat force anyone to cooperate with the person he does not trust.

Within the cave there was a small river and one boat was tied to the pole.

The river. That simply started there. Just like that. Yes. It was a river. While looking at the surface of water you could easily see a powerful stream running inside.

“TO THE BOAT ALICE!” “B…but…” “TO THE BOAT!”

And thus he jumped inside. What a crazy little fellow he is… listening so eagerly someone who already dragged him into the ambush… twice…

“ROW, ROW, ROW THE BOAT! SNEAKING UP THE STREAM, LOCK N LOAD IN TACTIC MODE, U…” “JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!”

After releasing the boat and jumping inside Zari felt a bit of safety. Even if just a tiny one. The savages stoped following him, annoyed shouts and snarls could be heard.

“Ahahahah! That was fun! We showed them! Didn’t we?” “What thing did YOU show them? You were flying and screaming all the time revealing my position…” “Oh, come on! Adventures are twice as fun if you have someone to share them with! Be grateful that I took you with me!”

… Who exactly took who… I am not the one to judge. I am merely an author…

“But Alice! Your stamina is horrible! Do you train your body? Do you eat healthy? It would be a shame if someon…” “Be quiet…” “AGAIN! You only shush me all the time an…” “No, I heard something! Be quiet for a second! That some kind of… water dropping… no, more like… like…” “Waterfall?” “… what did you just say?” “Waterfall?” “Liz, don’t tell me that…” “USE MY FULL NAME!” “… this stream has a waterfall at its end…” “No, of course not!” The magician took a deep breath, relaxing himself a little “It is not finished with one, it is finished with a lake at some kind of clearing. The waterfall is in the middle of stream. Just at the end of this cave! Oh, by the way, you can see it from here!” “W..w…w..wha…” “Don’t be silly!~you really though, that they would just simply let it go if at the end of this cave some kind of certain death sentence was not located?”

The stream got more powerful. The sounds of splashed water grow louder and louder.

The boy started looking left and right for some kind of vines to grab in a last act of despair, unfortunately, the walls of cave were completely smooth, resembling a tunnel more than an underground pit.

“HERE IT COMES! HOOOLD TIGHT!” the pixie screamed while jumping on Zari’s head catching his hair like some kind of reins, with a sick grin of excitement plastered all over her face.

And that moment came. Part of the boat started inclining over the edge of the waterfall, hanging for a split seconds in the air, until the moment when the center of gravity itself was left hanging in the air.

The next thing that happened, was that boat leaned into a completely vertical position, and fell down.

Zari screamed in fear, The pixie made some “yahoo!” yell, the waterfall said nothing, as our protagonist fell from an over 30 meters tall cliff.

“…lice! Aaaalice! Wake up, wakeeee uuuup! Not that I mind, it’s wonderful thing to rest surrounded by nature… but you don’t have much time left, and I’m afraid, that somewhere around some beast may have a den….”

I opened my eyes. My lungs hurt, muscles were painfully stiffed, and on my chest a pixie was laying on her belly, supporting her cheeks with her palms as she was looked at me. Oh, she told me, that her name was …. Elizabeth Christine Brenda Evelyn Jeanie Patricia Ursula von Divh. I was sure she made it up within a second, but was so proud of her ability to made up names, that she forced me over and over again to repeat it. And I called her “Liz” such sweet vengeance of mine.

“Sooo, did you have a nice dream? Maybe about… me?” “Indeed, it was nightmare.”

The pixie turned on her back laughing while curling her legs up to her stomach.

“Ahhh, ok. Hihi-ies and giggle-ies ends now. We have a job to do, Alice! You have the idol, don’t ya?”

Without thinking my hand went to my belt. I exhaled with relief. The bundle with the idol was still there.

You may be wondering. Why the hell is he hunting for some kind ol’ dusty idols?

Side quest-event of course! If not for the payment I would never have decided to jump into that hellhole… or hellholes, for it was not the first artifact I retrieved.

“Yes, right here…” “Okieeee! No more time wasting! To the teleport glyph!” She jumped and flew off me leading the way yet another time. Into how many traps has she led me? I lost count after 10… Yet somehow, with time I started to accept it, it was simply bound to happen. Also with all my courses were less actual violence and more bantery… Crap, is this Stockholm syndrome? “TO THE TREE ALICE!” she yelled at full blast yet again. It was just her habit. A habit that brings dozens of dangers upon us. This time was no different. The bushes a few dozen meters away rumbled as some weird hybrid of hiss and snarl could be heard.

We stayed quiet for a second or two, then just look at each other

“Really Liz? Really? Again?” it happened so many times, that I didn’t even feel an adrenaline rush. Just your normal Friday morning. “… TO THE TREE ALICE!” she yelled again pretending the previous line wasn’t said.

I start heading into an empty, broken old tree, which insides were marked with weird symbols. The beast that was charging was some kind of unwanted child between a reptile and toad or fish… maybe all of them… Very teeth-y, very scaly, very angry, very charging-at-me-while-trampling-everything-on-its-path-y.

I stepped inside the circle. The magic started dancing around me making my body semi-transparent. The beast was coming closer and closer; it leaped at me, baring its fang. I could smell its breath, his teeth were inches from my face, and then I vanished.

This is why I was not excited. Every single time it’s the same. Beast are different, places are different, loot is different, but always, at the very moment I am vanishing right before having my head chewed off.

I stepped from the circle at the other side of the linked travel-tunel.

“Aaah! Your bring it back! Wonderful! Spectacular! I have never worked with a human as helpful as yourself, Mister Zariel!” The Dragon said.

The dragon was walking on his rear legs, clothed in a robe with glasses on his “nose”.

“Don’t mind it. I am not doing it for free, you know? You pay, I bring.” “Of course, this was the very object of our deal, but I really hope that you also enjoyed the fact, that you made worlds a better place! After this dimension shatters, all those insane tribes and beast will get back to their realms. But now, a huge portion of their power was taken away. Forever! Now let me secure the idol. It is really dangerous. After spending some time around it mortals turn a bit more blood lusting.”

He took the figurine out of my hands.

Treasure Hunting quest!Avillion Avanetus Averinchi, the kind Dragon-scientists asked you to secure a dangerous artifacts!

Help him making the worlds much safe and earned some candiesThe Amulet of Mummy KingForgotten PyramidSECUREDSpear of Ice GiantAltar of StormsSECUREDEgg of Necrotic White DragonLaboratory of ChangeSECUREDJewell of WhispersTomb of MadnessSECUREDBloody IdolJungle of LifeSuckersSECURED

“You truly did a great job! You earned it!”

You have finished [Treasure hunting] quest!Reward1000 candiesTime bonus231 candiesStealth bonus117 candiesDuels bonus42 candiesRiddles bonus82 candiesTOTAL1472 candies

And I have over 1800 candies… or so. Once again I looked at the timer

Halloween Spooky Party!Remaining time02h:48m:22s

Not even three hours and I want to get at least 200 candies more.

It can be tricky. Saying honestly. I had over 3000 already, after 4 hours of grinding. But, there was a place… gamble house that was pretty much a side event too… there was a great reward for winning 10 times in a row – a crystal that gave 25 point to luck…

Do I need to say how it ended? Don’t force me please… let’s just say that I was lucky enough that they allowed me to keep my pants… decent people.

“Avi, one question if I may…” “Of course my friend!” “Do you know where the nearest place where I can get some more candies is?” “Well, there is a gamble house…” “Avi, I will stop you right here… do you remember in what condition I visited your museum?” “O..oh, right… hmm, there is a wave arena nearby.” “…how does it works?” “Pretty same as normal arena battles. Just instead of human-like opponents they release dozens of enemies at you. Fret not, they are not so powerful, not at beginning at least. Entry fee cost 250 candies, but you can get those back after clearing 5 waves. In moment you would be dealt a fatal wound you are forced back with teleportation magic. Oh, and I can easily say, that if you came back from my quests, 10 waves will be a piece of cake to you. Are you going there?” “Probably.” “Then please, let me come with you. I will bet some candies on you. Hope you won’t mind letting a friend earn a coin the easy way.”