Apaurushya

Sweat soaked back, heart beating like a blacksmith's hammer. In a faraway place, deep inside a dark passage painted with the smell of blood and feces, a 16-year-old paled-skin youth dragged himself forward with a flashlight in his hand. 

His arms shivered in dread.  A firm grasp on his flashlight  with luminance drove the nocturnal reptiles away from his feet. His vision was covered by his own foggy breath. With each passing breath, he was stepping towards impending doom.

Chills ran down his spine. His feet cried 'run away,' but an irrational hope pushed him forward.

Meanwhile, the tunnel walls secrete a wisp of fumes. His skin felt scratchy, and his mind being dosed with nausea. A realization crept over him, telling him that the situation had worsened even further.

His throat dried up like a desert while his skin felt a biting sensation. He dug out a half-filled water bottle from the sling bag on his back and took a sip.

~gulp~

He picked up his pace after quenching his thirst and recognising the corrosive nature of the fumes. After a half-hour stroll, the young man came to a standstill and began to think about his next move. He looked around for any potential threats.

He inched closer to the passage's corrosive walls and began stroking them as if caressing the curves of a girlfriend he never had. Warm as a quilt and tender like the insides of a body.

Without further ado, he pulled a little palm-sized carbon-fiber handle from his bag, which bore the unusual letters . The handle seemed to recognise him as soon as he dabbed it with his thumb. Shortly after, a sharp metallic blade leapt out from the handle. The blade was forged from a lustrous metal.

He drew the dagger back and hacked a deep cut in the wall with a rapid stroke. His objective, it seemed, was to cut the wall as cleanly as possible. He kept stabbing, until the tear in the wall grew to become the same size as him.

He cleaned his blade and put it back inside. He eventually placed his leg inside the cleavage he created and made his way through the hole with restrengthened caution.

---

Somewhere outside this grim rabbit hole, four teenagers chatted amongst themselves. All four of them seemed to be resting in a place that looked like a deserted graveyard. Also, they were sitting beside a huge stone tablet with words carved on it; they could not discern. 

Amongst them, one was playfully looking at an object in his hand, which looked like a metal ring. Apparently, it was a ring made with the same metal as the dagger carried by paled-skin youth previously. Another fellow from the group saw him looking playfully at the ring, and couldn’t hold back anymore.

"Brother Wolf, can he bring the amulet from the tablet?"

"Little Bran, he has no choice!" Wolf smirked as he finally turned to his brother. "That is… If he expects me to return his cheap ring."

"Is that worthless ring really that good?" Brandon inquired. "Why do you want it if it's worthless?"

"Umm… My bad! Wrong choice of words!" Wolf shook his head, "By 'cheap', I did not mean 'worthless'."

He added. "In fact, this ring is far from worthless. I can't put a tag on it, but my rough estimate says that this ring is more valuable than 100 grams of pure gold. But that idiot holding onto this... is what makes its value plummet to the ground!"

"100 grams of pure gold!" All three guys' jaws dropped, they uttered. "Are you fucking kidding me!"

"You know I never joke around money, fellas." Wolf's eyes again stuck on the ring. "This ring is forged from the CZ-alloy, a by-product of nuclear refineries... similar to Plutonium 238."

Another youth with a gloomy face and curious eyes rolled his eyes at him. His expression hinted that he was scrolling through his memories to validate his last statement. He blurted. "What are you talking about? CZ-alloy was available over a century ago! They were still creating that rare thing??"

Wolf explained. "Nope!! they don't create it anymore. It was a breakthrough as the only usable metallurgic by-product of nuclear energy. But now, we have stronger 'Tensile Silk Fibers' these days!"

"Anyway!! it's still a hidden treasure." Wolf continued, "Though, I'm really curious about where did that freak found this? And how come there are no initials on such a thing."

"We have to confirm from Creed when he comes out. Maybe his father stole it from somewhere before he died. In case he doesn't come back, it's fine too," the fourth guy named Chuck finally spoke with an evil smile. "Since there are no initials, we can't be tracked when we sell it, right?"

"Yeah, let's wait for another 30 minutes, then we leave. There is no point in waiting outside an elder's tablet for this long. It's been over three hours already," Wolf laughed menacingly as he looked at the tablet again. "If he doesn't come out within 20 minutes, then he's probably turned to a paste."

While the four chatted amongst themselves, on the spur of the moment, the words and scriptures on the stone tablet started producing a faint crimson glow. Their focus immediately shifted in unison.  

"He is coming b-back..." Brandon's eyes had trouble believing.

"Nice! He is a moron, but he is fast...," Wolf said as he maintained his distance from the tablet, also gesturing to the other guys to get back, "And here I thought the tablet would have killed him... persistent freak!"

Soon after, a humanoid appeared, springing from the tablet wall. Whole-body steaming like a sauna, with an odor of rotten carcasses. He was the same pale skinned youth that was walking in the dark tunnel earlier.

Blood was pouring from his eyes, nose, and blisters. His mouth released a foul mist that scorched his dry lips bloody. With merely a peel, his delicate skin looked about to come off. His garments were little more than rags, revealing numerous claw and bite marks on his body.

~BRRAAFF

He vomited everything in his stomach the instant he stepped out of the tablet. His knees lost their strength as he fell to the ground while clutching an emerald amulet in his bloodied fist. Blood kept gushing out from every orifice of his body uncontrollably.

"Holy crap! This mission is a grand success," Wolf said with an evil grin. "You didn't die and found an amulet too...you are such an angel!"  

He came close to him and snatched the amulet forcefully, without a second thought.

"I wanted to ask about your ring, but the core has put a heavy toll on you. I wanted to extend our acquaintance but I guess it's game over for you."

Wolf added. "And I suppose, you won't mind giving this to us as a present before dying, right Creed?"

"ring…. Plea….se… my ring…" Creed flapped his mouth, but words stuck inside his throat, "give it ba...ck!"

"Eh, what was that?" Wolf then put his ears close to his body, then mumbled. "Did he just say he wants to give me the ring as a present?"

Wolf turned his head towards other bozos standing away from the body while pinching their noses shut.

"Ah, yes! Of course, he wants to give it to us!"  Covering their noses, one of them said. "Creed would never want his belongings to go to waste. He is not that heartless!"

"Alright then, Creed, I love you..." Wolf muttered as he got up, "Pass my regards to your father when you see him! You are so generous!"  

They ripped him off with everything except for a water bottle and his personal dagger while removing every probable trace of themselves.

They all soon vanished from the vicinity while his battered body slowly decomposed there for another hour, soaked in his own blood and vomit. 

All of a sudden, his eyes opened wide. He couldn’t help but look at the departing blurry figures. He tried to shout louder, but instead of actual words, blood gushed. Later, his mouth opened and closed, perhaps yelling curses.

"I'll get back at you, fuckers!... Just… wait."

He dragged himself off the ground, wobbling briefly before finding his footing. With bloodied hands, he grabbed up his water bottle and pulled the cap off of it.

To soothe himself, he dumped the entire bottle on his head with whatever remained inside. 

Even with multiple broken bones and paralyzing pain, his eyes were stern and determined. He knew that—Regardless of the fact that blood is still seeping from many wounds throughout his body— this expedition in the Elder's tablet was not as wasteful as one might think.

Drenched in acute pain, he mumbled gibberish. With a small push, he ejected the blade from his knife again and  stabbed himself in the leg a split second later. Soon the slash cut open a deep thumb-size wound. Blood poured like a torrent, and numerous blisters burst with blood and pus.

The amount of pain that had stacked over the broken body of a 16-years-old, was just too much. He cried until fluids burst out of his mouth and nose. Yet, He didn't stop cutting his calf, almost as if he was possessed.

After a minute of self-torture, the whole wound that appeared to be sealed re-opened. He put his finger inside and pulled something out. Apparently, it looked like a golden egg.

"Fuck! That was a close call!!" Creed sighed , "No way I'm going to let those bastards get their hands on this."

He put the egg aside for the time being. Along with the egg, he also pulled out a black-colored pill. He stared at the pill for a bit with a grim expression. Later, he put it inside his mouth and started chewing.

"Fuck! It's my last beta-pill," Creed mumbled with a gloomy look. "But I have lost too much blood" 

»

Stamina boost [76%]

Lysosomes secretion boost [89%]

Metabolism boost [88%]

Free Radicals Enhancement [60%]

Temporally restructuring the DNA to mimic the state of homeostasis.

Recovery Time 10-hours

»»

Notifications such as the above popped up inside his head one by one until his mind went blurry. He succumbed to a deep slumber.