The Gamer's POV-Chapter 184: Journey to the Home of the Hollow Ones

Three weeks later, a very long line of cadets could be seen trudging through a misty marshland. The environment had this gloomy, greenish tint to it, and the ground was a treacherous, unstable mess of thick, black sludge beneath the green grass.

The long line of cadets looked like exhausted ghosts. Almost everyone was covered in dried blood, and the expression on their faces were just like the environment itself.

Well, it was expected, as the past three weeks had been an endless bloody nightmare, with lots of horrors and battles leaving their marks on them. The constant fighting had stripped away their youthful energy, leaving behind only a grim, thousand-yard stare that matched the murky fog around them.

Of course, they were no longer fighting the grade one beings that they had been used to in the past months, but rather, grade two horrors. And as they had quickly learned, grade two creatures were a different league of danger. While grade ones were mostly mindless and easy to predict, these grade two horrors were faster, smarter, stronger, and many of them even had strange abilities that turned a simple march into a desperate fight for survival.

Sadly, some cadets lost their lives along the journey while many were injured, and had to walk with makeshift bandages wrapped over festering wounds.

The good news was that they were now in a territory where they wouldn’t encounter any creatures until they got to the home of the hollow ones. So, from time to time, and more than usual, the entire line stopped to rest and tend to their wounds without the immediate fear of an ambush.

Looking back, Aurora’s routes and strategies really did help them survive the journey up to this point. By following her lead, they bypassed the deep nesting grounds of the more aggressive grade two horrors, sticking instead to the borderlands. There was even a time when they had to go around an entire territory, and another time when they had to sneak quietly around entire clusters of sleeping monsters.

They only fought when there was absolutely no other way forward.

The territory right before this one they were in was the Stone-Crag Wastes, and it had the most unforgiving terrain and aggressive predators they had faced yet. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The creatures there looked like something straight out of a horror movie and were so bone-chilling that even just the sight of them made the cadets’ blood run cold. They all had humanoid torsos but, instead of legs, they had numerous pale, elongated hands that served as their means of movement.

Their heads were the worst part about them. Each of the creatures had a head with three faces. One resembled that of a child, the second was that of a middle-aged person, while the last looked like an old person, and all the faces had deformities.

It was almost as if this territory was the playground of some sick, twisted god.

When the cadets got to the territory, the plan was to use the borderlands of the Wastes to avoid the central nesting grounds, but unfortunately, a massive landslide had blocked the outer paths entirely. This forced the exhausted line of cadets to cut directly through a section of the main territory. What was supposed to be a quiet detour turned into a desperate, days-long scramble against grade two horrors that hunted them through the rocks. By the time they finally broke through to the other side and reached the relative safety of the current marshland, they were barely holding on.

Sigh.

What a miserable experience that had been.

That aside, it seemed that creatures didn’t venture into this misty marshland because every creature around feared the region of the hollow ones.

So, the cadets didn’t rush to push deeper into the mist and took their sweet time to recover instead. They knew this was likely the last bit of peace they would get.

***

While many of the cadets looked for large elevated rocks that they could sit on due to the sludge on the ground, Cedric simply took out crates from his inventory for his party to use as stools.

Although it was relatively safe here, many of the cadets didn’t talk to each other at all. The heavy silence among them was broken only by the sound of wet bandages being tightened, cadets eating, or cadets walking around in the sludge.

Everyone was just too drained, and nobody had the energy for small talk.

Cedric, too, didn’t speak at first and sat alone with Aika, staring at his status screen.

~~~~~~~~ Character Profile ~~~~~~~~

Character Name: [Cedric Anele Martini]

Age: [18]

Level: [19]

Grade: [2]

Element: [Darkness]

Exclusive Class: [Gamer]

Exclusive Class Attribute: [Gamer Privileges]

Bond Name: [Aika Soryu]

Bonded Ability: [Chrysalis]

Exclusive Skill: [Flames of decay - Lv9], [One with the Ravens - Lv6]

EXP: [6,740 / 10,000]

Karma points: [N2,180 / P310]

~~~~~~ ============== ~~~~~~

’It’s looking good,’ he thought, flexing his fingers to shake off the stiffness.

Although he didn’t get to kill a lot during the past three weeks, due to the discreetness of the cadets and their numbers, he still managed to level up to level 19. He also managed to level up Flames of Decay by one level. From what he could tell, the cost to use the flames had reduced and its destructive power had increased significantly.

That was great.

As for Karma points, he had gained a hundred positive points from saving Dion from death one time, while the negative points came from being a chronic liar ever since leaving the grove behind.

Cedric sighed, and then suddenly, a dissatisfied expression crossed his face.

Aika, who was sitting beside him on one of the crates, noticed the change.

"What is it?" she asked.

Cedric turned to her and grumbled, "I’m just annoyed that we didn’t get to kill those two sisters who killed Audrey. They ended up dying during the war before we could get to them."

Aika smiled and shook her head. "Wow. You sure have grown."

She then reached out and flicked his forehead hard with her finger. "Look at you, talking about killing people so casually now. You’re becoming a real handful."

Cedric rolled his eyes. "What’s the point of transmigrating without character development, eh?"

Aika blinked. "Careful now. Rather than a good character, I think you’re heading towards third rate villain."

She then added with a straight face, "If your development means becoming a bloodthirsty pest, then I think I liked the old version better."

[You have acquired 5 Karma points.]

[Available Karma points: N2,185 / P310]

Cedric clicked his tongue. "Tsk. Look who’s talking. You killed a person in front of me on my first night after transmigrating."

Aika tilted her head with a blank expression. "Did I?"

At that moment, the whisperscript Cedric was holding in his hand suddenly glowed, and Aurora’s voice sounded, interrupting their conversation.

"Okay everyone. Get ready, it’s time we got moving."