“A satanic summoning circle? What’s going on here?”
Having made it to the small room at the end of the narrow hallway, Somnu was met with a bizarre sight.
The room was small, perhaps around the size of his modest kitchen. The emptiness made it seem bigger than it was, with only a lit torch and a stone slab at the opposite wall to the door.
The stone slab almost looked like it was supposed to be a sacrificial altar. On it, was a bucket filled with water, or at least what seemed like water.
And just in the middle of the room, there was a bloody circled hexagram on the floor, with each pointy edge ending at a dimly lit yellow-ish candle.
Instinctively, Somnu took a step backwards, the sound of his increasing heart rate only muffled by his hard swallowing.
What did I just stumble into? Who would be doing something like this here?
Ever since stepping into the ominous crypt, Somnu had been trying to stay vigilant for any potential traps.
Now, instead of that, he was starting to see a pattern forming the more he explored and the more eerie secrets he found out.
For instance, the crypt had two rooms, each positioned on one side of the entrance.
One room had a Hopping Turtle and the other a Slowing Bunny.
Anyone would have been able to see the connection there, Somnu hadn't believed that it was a coincidence either. He just thought it was likely some kind of a twisted bad joke.
However, now that he was facing the actual second room and seeing what was in it, another pattern was now forming.
The first room had an actual altar that seemed dedicated to a nameless and faceless deity, or perhaps the Hopping Turtle after all. Either way, it was supposed to represent the way to a pious and dedicated afterlife, a Heaven, with as easy a path as simply bowing down and asking for forgiveness.
While the second room seemed to be depicting the way to an agonizing and painful afterlife, a Hell, all the while constantly being chased down a narrow path by your sins.
When thinking about them like that, the choices of the two Nightmare Creatures had been fitting in their own way, while still contrasting each other.
“Caaw!”
“?!”
BUZZZ!
Being lost in deep thought, and distracted by the initial shock, Somnu hadn't even noticed the loud buzzing sound invading his ears. It was as if he was only hearing the sound of his own body.
Thankfully, the dependable crow companion had snapped him out of it.
“!”
However, looking at the crow, Somnu couldn't help but make a disgusted expression.
“Caaw!”
The crow was chomping down on insects crawling around the rocky walls.
On the bright side…
[You have slain a Nightmare Creature!]
[Nightmare Creature Rank: Lurker.]
[Lurker: Horned Cockroach.]
[Horned Cockroach: a cockroach based on the fear of narrow spaces, Claustrophobia. They are typically around a colony of the same type, crawling and hiding within rocks. Together, they lead their prey into narrow places and feed on their fear.]
[You have obtained 1 Terror Core.]
[Congratulations!]
[You have successfully overcome the fear of narrow spaces, Claustrophobia.]
“...”
Watching his crow companion hunt down and chop down another Horned Cockroach, Somnu was still a little stunned by the revelation.
“This whole time… it was these insects that caused the Claustrophobia?!”
At the very least, learning that the kills his crow accumulated were also counting as his own was another useful piece of information that he could use in the future.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
However, there was still one mystery he had noticed earlier about the crow and Grudgekeeper that he couldn’t figure out.
[You have accumulated more grudge.]
[Grudgekeeper is growing stronger.]
“The Dream Catcher is growing from both Ego Particles and Nightmare Creature corpses… that doesn’t seem normal…” He wondered, trying to guess what the reason could be.
After a while, he gave up. Perhaps it was simply the inherent nature of the Dream Catcher and the crow companion. He wasn’t going to complain about it though, the new pop-up messages made that clear.
[Your Dream Catcher has leveled up!]
[Dream Catcher Level: Lvl 13.]
[You have accumulated more grudge.]
[Grudgekeeper is growing stronger.]
In the span of a few seconds, the crow had already consumed 2 Lurkers, the previous number of Ego Particles it had needed to reach the next level.
With his outfit coming alive for a slight second, Somnu felt the added strength to it ever so slightly.
Seems like the corpses of Lurkers are being counted as 1 Ego Particle, while Specters are worth 10, the same equivalent of Terror Cores they give… Interesting.
With every new tidbit, Somnu’s interest in the System was growing. He was becoming curious to learn more, to find out the secrets of how it all functioned.
For example, he had noticed that when the crow had consumed the Hopping Turtle’s corpse which should have counted as 1 core, Grudgekeeper hadn’t ranked or leveled up. So, just like he had ranked up automatically with one Terror Core when he got his personal System initiation, he guessed his Dream Catcher was perhaps already at the second rank too or it didn’t have a previous rank.
Either way, he had received [Crow’s Call] immediately with his other skills. It was something that fit his Aspiration Class, but was also directly connected to his Dream Catcher.
“It’s all making sense now…” He muttered, then realized something else. “Crow-shit! I got distracted! I’m still in some kind of satanic ritual room!”
With his crow companion continuing its feast, Somnu turned back to the summoning circle on the ground.
“Alright, some ground rules. First, do not step into the circle under any circumstances!” He paused while narrowing his eyes at the blood splatter around the hexagram. “Second, go back to rule one, that’s the only one you need!”
Reminding himself of his one rule, Somnu stepped closer and walked around the hexagram to the stone slab.
He had been parched since earlier, he was dying to drink some water.
The only available option was the transparent liquid inside the bucket that seemed oh-so very close to water, tempting Somnu with every little ripple his movements caused on its surface.
“I can drink this, right…? Can the System answer, please?” He asked, hoping for an answer.
However, ever since the personal System initiation, Somnu had noticed a lack of direct communication with the System, unlike when he first got here.
Perhaps the more direct communication was a feature to make up for the lack or delay of the initiation, but now that he had received one, the System expected him to find his own answers.
“Caaw! Caaw!”
Instead of the System, the one who answered was the crow instead, taking a break from its Horned Cockroaches hunt.
“Two caaws, are you saying I shouldn’t drink it?” He asked to confirm if his companion still remembered the instructions of answering him.
“Caaw!”
“Dammit! I guess you only confirmed there was water before, not if it was drinkable or not…”
“Caaw!”
“!”
Perhaps because it noticed its master’s narrow brows, the crow flew up to the bucket and dipped its beak into the water.
“What are you doing?! Stop that!” Somnu quickly grabbed it off the bucket. “Spit it out! We don’t know what’s in it!”
“Caaw!” However, the crow seemed fine. Fine enough to raise its head with a proud expression as if to boast about courageously testing the waters for him.
“You little…! Don’t do that unless I tell you to, you hear?!”
Receiving no answer, Somnu felt a little bad for his outburst. While he might have seemed harsh on his companion, he had genuinely felt a sense of panic when the possibility of losing the crow forever crossed his mind.
What if the water was poisoned and killed it? What if he couldn’t summon it anymore?
Sure, it was annoying at times, but it was his companion. The only living friendly entity around him… it was growing on him, and he would rather not lose it. Especially not to some shady water in a satanic ritual room filled with insects.
With the crow showing no weird symptoms, Somnu put it back down to resume its activities.
Turning back to the water, Somnu had an idea.
“I could at least boil them first before I drink, right? I read something about it getting purified… I think.” He tried to remember, but seemed fairly confident about the matter.
Thankfully, he had the lit torch to put underneath the stone slab, he just needed to hope that the fire was going to be strong enough, and the stone slab conductive enough to heat up the metal bucket standing on it.
While waiting for that, Somnu remembered something else.
The crow companion had also confirmed the presence of food.
“Wait…” He did not like what that entailed. “You didn’t mean… cockroaches?!”
“Caaw!”
“Hell no! I’d rather starve, damn you!”
However, the growling of his stomach was saying otherwise.
Somnu couldn’t help but hunch his back and curse his bad luck.
“It couldn’t be any worse…” He muttered, then immediately regretted it.
The summoning circle suddenly lit up, alerting them both.
“?!”
Dammit! Is it summoning another Nightmare Creature?! Please don’t be a big scary monster, give me a break for once!
He hoped with a tense stance as the glowing lights began to dim, quickly revealing the summoned creature.
Yeah! Wait… Crowshit!!!
It was a little mosquito.
And it was terrifying.
30+ chapters:
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