Forge of a Pact IV

Marcus’s POV

“Ugh…” I moaned loudly, trying to fight the urge to throw up. The burning pain that spreads through my whole body now corroded my throat, urging me to let out all the things I have eaten. Given that I ate three portions of an unhealthy food, my barf won’t look beautiful.

Or in summary, any barf won’t look beautiful.

I guess the pain from the poisin do be taking effect on my brain. I can’t help cursing that vampire bastard for his rude behavior. I mean, he entered my lucid dream only to slowly kill me? What is he, a sadist? Moreover, he gave me a vague lead on everything that happens around me.

What does he meant by monsters anyway? Was there really a monster in here?

“Now that I think about it…” My voice croaked from the pain. The maximum amount of poison in my body—indicated by the unfaltering purple gauge that is still full—caused my health bar to deplete quite rapidly. I don’t think that collecting blood crystals now is a great idea.

GRRR…

Suddenly I heard a growl. Subsequently after that, I heard a taunting music—a mix between accordian sounds played in high speed and strange chime of bells—that sounded like a vortex in my ears. The music came closer to the me who was dragging myself to pick the crystals while I scooted against the wall of the maze. I am quite lucky that this time’s maze is a bit wider, so I can avoid picking crystals unnecessarily.

But that also mean my 20 minutes of collecting 585 crystals would go to waste if I didn’t neutralize the poison inside me.

The sound deafen inside my ears, when out of nowhere, a large, towering figure rose from the foggy surrounding, slowly revealing itself. My eyes widened in utter shock and terror when I saw it’s inhuman figure, though the next thing I remember was unconsciously blurting out a word after seeing it’s stuffed animal like body.

“G-Gleipnir?!” I remarked.

Isn’t this monster came from the anime where the main lead changed into a huge, scary looking mascot to save the people around him?

But what is it doing here?

Suddenly it opened it’s mouth wide, revealing three rows of sharp teeth.

Yep, I am definitely gonna die if that bit me. I almost feel like dying when that so called King bit me, so how can I withstand that pain.

Mustering all my strength, I evaded the monster’s charge with a roll around my back. A grunt inadvertently escaped my mouth when my body parts that were in pain touched the floor in a rapid movement, but that is the only way I can evade that monstrous charge—that is capable of destroying the wall—with this poisoned body of mine.

The monster took it’s time to separate it’s attached head on the wall due to it’s razor sharp teeth, and that’s when I see it.

On it’s zip at the back of it’s body, a small purple crystal gave off a radiant hue as if tempting me to take it. My instinct also told me to indulge in the temptation, because somehow I thought that that’s it.

That’s the antidote crystal.

Mindlessly, I dashed to it’s direction. I don’t care if the monster had managed to disattach it’s head from the broken wall and was turning it’s body from me, if my health gauge had reached half of it’s original health, I know I need that thing as much as I need my life.

I grunted a bit for my last sprint and jumped. The pain radiated from every nook and cranny of my stomach and I can’t decipher the pain I felt when it spreads even to my pelvic region, rendering each step I took to be taxing.

Despite the unsurmountable pain inside me, I managed to snatch the crystal from the monster. It scattered like dusts right in front of me with a loud ghastly scream, a scream like a banshee despite having such heavy appearance. The maddening music also disappeared following it’s death.

The moment I grabbed the purple crystal, it shattered and the poison gauge decreased by about 7/8 of it’s original size.

“What~? Just that much?” I groaned. Don’t tell me the crystals are attached to the monsters and I need to take it from them before I gathered the crystals?

If that’s it, then it’s gonna be a pain.

I closed my eyes, trying to register that fact. So if I have to hunt down monsters to get the reward, won’t this be a monster hunter game instead of escape game?

Suddenly I got reminded of my VR game which I finished with flying colors earlier. After grinding for a solid five hours, I jumped at about 20 levels to level 383. That also makes me the top ten players of the server that reached the 380s level.

“Alright, Marcus…” I reasoned to myself. “Think of this as that game instead of reality. You are a daydreamer so you’re a pro for that.”

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

Even though I am still in pain, my daydream mode slowly kicked in, masking the pain with excitement to finish this level. I then marched forward—towards a haunting music that conveniently came closer to me—with a grin on my face.

***

Rox

In a gloomy, dimly lit room, Rox was standing in front of the King who is restrained by strings of flesh. His grey eyes stared quietly at the King’s pale face.

“My King, please wake up.” He whispered, before tilting his head up to peck the King on his cold cheeks. The crown emblem on his jaw pulsated a weak golden hue.

Rox shifted his glance to look at the door behind him. It’s been about 18 minutes since he dispatched that immature, odd kid. He had doubts whether the kid would ectually survive this round, as the first round was easier than this one—given that the monsters are more active in hunting.

That kid have two ways of survival; either gaining the antidote crystals first before collecting the crystals, or collecting the blood crystals as well as the antidote crystals at the same time. However, the first option is deemed to be dangerous in his opinion, as the kid he summoned is just a usual oddball who only know how to ask strange things. He doesn’t look like he knew how to fight.

Heck, his body isn’t even suitable to be called someone who has trained in combat before. The other reason for the forst option to be ridiculous is that the monsters are extremely ruthless. They would attack with anything they got and their attacks are all heavy. Rox had his doubts that the kid would survive the first option.

As the second option, Rox had high expectation that that kid would do it. It’s easier to move and collect all the crystals while at the same time, kill the monsters along the way. Though, the consequences of that is that he won’t be able to enter this room if his health bar was not in full gauge and his poison bar is not empty.

Nothing will happen if he failed to enter the room, as the disadvantage lies only to Rox’s side. The kid—who is a proxy for the King—won’t be able to present himself which in turn worsened the condition the King is in.

“Is this… The end, my King?” Rox hushed to the slumbering King. In his eyes, fear and anxiousness began to show as his brows creased into a pitied look, pitying the King in front of him, and pitying himself.

Before Rox wanted to touch the King’s face, he suddenly heard the sound of a panting. He immediately turned his whole body around to see Marcus was catching up his breath, both his feet safely entered the room.

Rox stared at him in shock for a long time, long enough for Marcus to end his panting with a huff.

“I’m just gonna say that you are an utter jerk.” Marcus straight up blurted iit in front of Rox’s astounded face. Though, in spite of his harsh remarks, the vampire count only stared at him emptily.

“…What?” He finally responded after a solid minute and after Marcus threw him a strange look.

“What.” He tossed back the question to Rox and stepped near him.

“H-How did you…” Rox voiced his disbelief. “How did you manage enter here?”

The kid glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. Somehow, his light brown eyes glinted a soft hue of orange.

“I got all the antidote crystals and all the blood crystals of course.” He answered, stating the obvious.

Rox still looked unconvinced, that he ended up checking all of the kid’s stats by himself. In his view, the kid managed to complete the maze with under 30 seconds and with full health bar as well as an empty poison bar.

“I figured out that I have to hunt down the monsters to get the crystals. The monsters are scary indeed, but their attack pattern is all the same so it’s easy to take down them all.”

“You…” Rox stammered. “Don’t tell me you take them all down first before you collected the crystals?”

Marcus pulled the neck of his shirt to the side, revealing an ample amount of the skin around his neck area. “Come on now, I want to play a game when I woke up.”

Rox fluttered his eyes, surprised by Marcus’s sudden enthusiasm on presenting himself to the King. Suddenly he chuckled.

“W-What is it?” Marcus retorted, gradually feeling embarrassed and regretful for wearing a wide neck shirt.

“Nothing.” Rox’s laughter died down, replaced with a subtle smirk.

“What was your name again?”

“It’s Marcus Collins.”

“Marcus Collins.” Rox paused. It seems like he can’t address him as a mere kid anymore.

“Marcus,” Rox called, rendering Marcus to flinch as he never heard him call him by his name. At the same time, the King’s hand slowly moved, taking his time to break free from the flesh restrains and wrapped his arms around Marcus. Despite that, the kid is too occupied in looking at Rox who was grinning behind him.

“From this moment on, I acknowledge you.” Marcus’s gaze faltered when Rox stated that, that it caused him to stay passive even when the King’s other hand free itself and grabbed his face.

The last thing Marcus heard was the sound of his flesh being pierced by the fangs.