Chapter 772: Chapter 773 – Forgotten Mist – Part 4.

"...Well... We finally reached what appears to be a wall.... But." – said GreyHunt as he stared at the massive brick wall that stretched towards the skies.

"We still didn’t bloody found a single motherfucker from our team." – said annoyed Lilium.

"it’s been like what since we entered this dungeon? A half of an hour?"

"I think so.... Dammit." – said GreyHunt.

"We may really had missed each other several times.... Or maybe we are in completely different parts of the map." – said GreyHunt as he shown his self-writing map to Lilium.

"!"

"Fuck me! If I’m guessing this correctly, then this freaking place maybe way bigger than we had thought." – said annoyed yet scared Lilium.

"Yeah... But still... There is something we may had confirmed."

"First."

"The doublegangers are not evolving. They can only copy our appearance and abilities, but not our character."

"The second part is that we haven’t encounter extremely massive of them."

"That means one thing."

"Each being gets their own doubleganger." – said Lilium.

"They can respawn, but there can never be more than one at the same time."

"Or, at least we had that kind of situation."

"Maybe there is really more than 1 of our doublegangers out there, but they are instead focusing on other party members?"

"There is also that question." – said GreyHunt.

"Are they alive?"

"This dungeon is restring the usage of the system, so I can’t even tell if they are in the game or not."

"We are seeing their fakes out here."

"But can it really means that they are alive?"

"True.... There maybe a chance that they had been killed..." – said Lilium.

"Dammit! We can’t even mark spots for other people!"

"We can’t use monsters that would give directions."

"Or we can’t leave massive damage on the ground that would serve as land mark."

"This dungeon is really making sure that we will have as hardest time as possible to find out allies."

"I’ve tried using these instant deployment thorn walls that Blueberry made.... But they were torn down by the doublegangers." – said annoyed GreyHunt.

(We fucking used several methods already, but all had failed.)

(The only way to fucking really FIND anybody is to split up!)

(But the moment we do, we may end being surrounded by the doublegangers.)

(We can meet at some specific spots that the map had already written down on us... But again, are each group harassed by the doubleganger of each person? Or is there just single doubleganger for a single being?)

(We can place ourselves in the crossroads and just fire long range skills in each directions, trying to get somebody’s attention.)

(But here is a problem.)

(THIS MAP IS TOO MASSIVE!)

(We may straight be shooting for 10, 20, or even more than half an hour before somebody encounters us.)

"To make matters worse, summoning monsters may straight up betray us.... So, we are on our own...." – said GreyHunt.

"..."

"Hey." – said Lilium.

"How about we give up on searching for the others and instead try to reach the end of the dungeon by ourselves?"

"..."

"As much as it annoys me to admit it, I think you are right." – said GreyHunt.

"But still... I don’t like this."

"Finding the end of this dungeon may take us an hour.... But at the same time, we also don’t know what the boss of this dungeon is?"

"Won’t it be something like those doublegangers?" – asked Lilium.

"Don’t make assumption yet. It wouldn’t be surprised if the boss isn’t related to the doublegangers one bit. I’ve been to several Forgotten Fragments already and I can tell, that the bosses don’t always share the same gimmick as the being that rules the dungeon."

<<Honestly speaking.... I’m fully against the idea of going with only us two to the end.>>

<<The doublegangers are not exact 100% copy of us in terms of power and abilities.... But still, they are strong enough to threaten us.>>

<<And that is the problem.>>

<<They have a chance at killing us.>>

<<...So yeah... Not only exploring this shitty labyrinth will take us time, but we will also would need to encounter nonstop spawning enemies that can pretend to be our allies.... Great...>>

<<...>>

<<Still, Lilium is right about aiming to beat the dungeon with just us two.... And I’m not talking about blindly searching four our teammates for hours.>>

<<No.>>

<<"Benefactor" forces may attack this place again... So, we really can’t waste too much time, or we will really have additional headache to deal with.>>

<<So yeah... With that said... I fucking hate this dungeon.>>

<<With pretty much no choice, me and Lilium started exploring the dungeon, aiming to reach the end of the dungeon where the boss monsters should be at.>>

<<We tried using the wall we had discovered as our marking point and just walked alongside it.... But then freaking houses and what not appeared, straight up forcing us into labyrinth situation again.>>

<<We tried going around them or through them several times, by just blow them up.>>

<<This dungeon can regenerate, but we can damage it enough to at least make up some paths for ourselves, pretty much cheating.>>

<<But sometimes the blockage was a bit to thick and we didn’t wanted to use our more powerful abilities to destroy it... So, we did ended up having to go around them.>>

<<As we explored the dungeon, we obviously did encountered some monsters.... But it wasn’t all.>>

<<The traces of battles.>>

<<The dungeon was already regenerating the moment we found those traces... But the fact remains.>>

<<Some of our teammates may still be out there.>>

<<We conducted a search to try and find them... But we couldn’t really find anything, even when we took the risky search.>>

<<I guess they must had left the spot in the hurry or something.... Either way, we didn’t found anybody.>>

<<...But... What if they are really wiped out?>>

<<Or what if this whole dungeon isn’t some sort of like one dungeon? What if each player got teleported to each copy of their own map?>>

<<Maybe it is impossible to find each other, since we are not even on the same maps?>>

<<But... If that is the case.... Then who is Lilium with me?>>

<<...>>

<<No! You confirmed it! She is the real Lilium! She confirmed where she is from and spoke in English! She is okay! You are just overthinking it!>>

<<...>>

<<We given up on the search and instead continued our own exploration.>>

<<And.... Wow.... We really walked for a LONG amount of time.>>

<<But still, we found something.>>

<<The curving.>>

<<If our assumption is correct, this entire place is a circle shaped map.>>

<<And with that curve we... Well...>>

"If we put our map here and use the curve to make a prediction about the whole map.... Then it should be this big." – said GreyHunt as he was using Caliburn to write something on the surface of house.

"...Are you fucking kidding me!?" – asked Lilium.

"If this really as big as you shown here, we barely even made 1/4 of exploration rate of this place! And we had been already in this dungeon more than an hour by now!"

"Yeah... This dungeon is beyond massive." – said GreyHunt.

(This is a straight up repeat of the Lich Lord’s Tomb, isn’t it?) – thought GreyHunt.

"..."

"Still, I think we should thank ourselves that we figured out the gimmick of this dungeon as soon as possible, if we didn’t, we may end up have non stop army of doublegangers after us."

"Well, you say that, but is it good enough with the monsters we have on hand?" – asked Lilium as she stared at the group of demonic and blood monsters that the two players summoned.

"Well, we can’t really risk it and summon more, until the very end where we would finally reach the end." – replied GreyHunt.

"Anyway, we should start moving. The doublegangers should be respawning again soon."

<<Even though we came to understanding that this dungeon was even bigger than we had originally assumed, like it is glamorously bullshiting huge!>>

<<...But still... We had no choice.>>

<<We neither found either the exit or the end.... So yeah.... Yippee.>>

<<...>>

<<We traversed the dungeon alongside the wall for about half of an hour... Or an hour?... Maybe more.... I’m straight up losing myself with keeping up the time. This place is really raping our minds.>>

<<I’m losing trust to my monsters and Lilium as we continue walking.... I don’t know why.... But I keep thinking of them suddenly turning on me and attacking me... But this never happened. Not even once.... Fuck me.... I don’t think I’m handling this very well if I’m starting to doubt even the slightest movement done by my allies.>>

<<Either, way, we finally researched the opposing side of the dungeon, from the spot where we first encountered the wall.>>

<<Results?>>

<<Nothing.>>

<<There was no end.>>

<<Nor any traces of our teammates.>>

<<Only more doublegangers.>>

<<Their numbers never increases or decreases, it is always the same.>>

<<Maybe they are really gone? Our teammates?>>

<<The more I wonder.... The.... FUCK!>>

(I’M REALLY GETTING MIND RAPED BY THIS DUNGEON!) – thought GreyHunt as he suddenly stopped walking.

(We now both know how this dungeon works, but why the hell my mind is still acting... THIS WAY!)

(Lilium is real! She isn’t fake!)

(But why is my mind telling me that she could be possible be a fake!?)

(I’ve already confirmed that she was real!)

(But.... What if she... What if SHE is the boss?)

(What if the reason why she was acting so well was because she was a boss?)

(...Yes.... Yes... There is good chance that is truth.) – thought GreyHunt as he got ready to fire his gun.

"!"

(NO!)

(WHAT THE FUCK DUDE?!)

(SHE IS INNOCENT!)

(I’VE CONFIRMED IT!)

(SHE SPOKE ENGLISH!)

(SHE ISN’T FAKE!)

(SHE IS REAL LILIUM!)

"..." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

(This dungeon is straight up driving me insane, isn’t it?)

(I’m starting to overthink every single thing.)

(Doubting every action I make....)

(And now I’m also seeing my own monsters and Lilium as enemies.)

(Fuck me.... I’m really not acting like myself right now.)

(It honestly feels like....)

"Like....Wait." – said GreyHunt as eyes went wide open.

"..."

"?"

"GreyHunt?" – said Lilium as she noticed GreyHunt stopping, leaving the vampire mage behind.

"Hey! Why you stopped?" – asked Lilium as she began approaching GreyHunt.

"..."

"Hey." – said GreyHunt.

"Honest question."

"Do you believe that I’m fake?"

"???"

"What is up-"

"DO YOU BELIVE THAT I’M FAKE!?" – shouted GreyHunt at Lilium.

"...."

"No.... I’m sure that you are real... Why do you... Are you loosing your mind?" – asked worried Lilium.

"..."

"Maybe I’m.... But..." – replied GreyHunt with pissed off expression.

(Something isn’t right.) – thought GreyHunt as he stared at Lilium, realizing that the mage wasn’t acting in the same way he was.... Nor was any of his monster.

Only GreyHunt was feeling this "paranoia".

(But isn’t a freaking "paranoia".) – thought GreyHunt, rejecting his own thoughts.

(No... This isn’t it.)

(Those aren’t MY thoughts!)

(This can’t be right.... NO! IT IS RIGHT!)

(THOSE ARE NOT MY THOUGHTS!)

(WHY I DIDN’T NOTICED THEM BEFORE!)

(THEY ARE USING MY VOICE! BUT I WASN’T THE ONE WHO THOUGHT ABOUT THOSE THINGS!)

(WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!)

(IT FEELS LIKE SOMEBODY PUT THEM INSIDE!) – thought GreyHunt as he looked away from his monsters and Lilium, avoiding his face which was consumed by panic and fear.

(This isn’t normal.... This isn’t normal one bit!)

(My mind is being affected by something?!)

(Something is trying to tell me something and I didn’t noticed it?!)

(...)

(Don’t fucking tell me.)

(The dungeon isn’t just messing with my mind mentally, like playing tricks on me.)

(But it is directly doing something to my mind?!)