Starting from Zero

Book 3, Chapter 5

Quest of the Cave

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After some hopping around we're not far from the doors.

"Which one do we choose?"

"Can I see your face?"

Well that surprised me. Still, I put down my hood.

Red Moon smiled. "Go right then!"

...Strange woman.

I didn't put my hood back on. There are only the two of us anyway.

"So let's jump to the ones more to the right if we have to choose."

"Yeah I know. But sis, you look good! Why did you hide your face?" (*) Red Moon asked while poking at the next platform.

Now that made me want to just jump and kill myself. It's not a problem if girls don't notice you, but it IS a problem if they don't even consider you a man!

"I'm not--"

"Hey sis, you don't have to tell me, I understand!" She turned and looked at me. "Every beauty got their own problem right? Guys are annoying like flies! And even worse in a game! Where did you get your cape, sis? I don't see any shops selling them."

My face is getting black!

"Ok now, I'll tell you something: First! I'm not a 'sis'! Call me Ziri. If you don't like that name you can call be bro or something, whatever you call me do, not, use, sis! And second, my cape isn't used to hide face and even I hid mine just now it wasn't because what you are thinking, cause I'm male! I don't need to worry about getting harassed by other guys!"

"Huh?!" Red Moon is surprised by what I just said so she stepped backwards, and almost fell over the edge.

Of course I shouldn't let that happen. I hopped forward and pulled her back. But I used too much force, and dragged her into my arms. Our lips were only few centimeters away.

After several seconds I did something which I regretted for days. Red Moon struggled to get away. I forgot where we were standing, and pushed her away in order to clear the misunderstanding, but...

System: "Player Ziri killed player Red Moon, Evilness increased by 100."

I pushed her into the pit! It took some time for me to get my name clean but now it's red again!

I quickly sent a chat to her. "Sorry! I'm sorry! That's wasn't on purpose!"

"I don't blame you. You're on your own now, just take care. Share whatever you find with me to make it even!"

Then she cut the chat.

I looked at the now completely empty hall.

I'm alone again! Am I born to be with myself?? No, that sounds foolish.

I calmed myself and went forward. I don't have any staff on me so I have to use my sword to try the ground. I didn't use my weapon because I wanted to hide my identity, but now I realized my sword is shorter than the other tools and I can only estimate the next distance.

There was no problem for the next five or six platforms. But as I touched another one, the platform below me suddenly sank. My heart skipped a beat. Looks like this is it for me.

But in the end the platform didn't keep sinking. The one I'm standing on only went down for several centimeters and it just stopped. Then the mist around the hall began to sink too. After a while the room is sucked clean, revealing an array of stone pillars. Those "platforms" were just the tip of these pillars. I looked down, only to see an endless darkness. At least I can't see the bottom.

The mist is gone, but instead I'm feeling a bit too scared to keep jumping. Look at the height, my legs are trembling!

As I'm fighting over my own mind, I heard a loud bang behind me. I turned around to check, then instantly regretted my decision.

The stone pillars began to collapse, and each one would lean on the next and bring it down too, creating a freaking domino effect, towards where I'm standing.

Alright, now I just HAVE to jump. I'm dead for sure if I don't move. I checked the next distance using mere visualization, and jumped, eyes closed.

After some Mario-style jumps, I made it through! I looked back, crap! The collapsing is near, and the stone gate is just ahead of me. But there is nothing to land on under the door, besides I'm about 1.5 meter from it. If I jump and the door is still shut, I'm done for!

Right, my sword!

I ran at my full speed, and jumped just before the pillar below me went down. I stabbed my sword into the wall, it worked! The whole blade went in, leaving the hilt outside for me to hold myself.

My position is a bit above the door. I started to kick at the door, but what I was worrying about still happened. The door won't budge an inch!

I kicked it several times more. There is not a tiny movement, instead, a red bar appeared above it. Oh shit, the door got an HP bar! And there's 100k HP! It would take years for me to get it open!

And misfortune always come in doubles. I see another bad news: my sword is losing its Durability fast, only 3 points left now. Yet the door got really hard defense, every kick will only cause like 10 damage to it. I kicked harder, to no avail.

With a snap, my sword broke in half. I fell with only the sword hilt in my hand. I'm really out of luck today.

Wait. Out of luck??

"Lucky! Help!!"

With a black flash, Lucky dived down and caught me.

"I'm so glad you can fly!!"

"Rawr."

We ascended to the door again and I began to spam all kinds of spells at the door. Every hit can only deal 30 or so damage, faster than kicking but still won't do it.

Finally Lucky helped again. He locked himself onto the wall using his claws and started to smash at the door with his tail. There's an arrow-shaped structure at the tip of his tail, and it's like a god damn door ram! The hard stone gate went down after several hits. I gotta find out what else Lucky can do in the future.

We entered the stone gate and came to another hallway. But this time the ceiling is low, just a little above my head. So Lucky had to return to my pet space. I walked for about half a mile and the way got wider. Then I entered another giant hall.

When I saw what's in the hall I just collapsed on the ground. And I bet anyone would do the same.

The hall is round, which radius must exceeds a hundred meters. The wall is made out of natural stone, there is no trace of artificial work. But the wall is filled with doors. It took me about 10 minutes to count. Not including the one I just went through, there are three, hundred, and thirty two, DOORS, in here!

Forget it! I should just go back and keep my grinding up, instead of wasting my time in this crazy cave!

I activated my Ring of Teleportation. After a blue flash, nothing happened.

What the hell?

I used it again. Nope! I chose another destination, still not working! Then I took out a portal scroll of the Lost City and spread it open.

*Ding*

"Teleport related items are prohibited in this location."

Prohibi--what?? You've got to be kidding me!

I opened the chat and contacted Wayne, but it can't get through! I tried Red Moon, same result. I can't chat with anyone.

Defeated, I contacted Customer Service instead. The answer is I'm in the middle of a special quest. I could still use my scrolls if I didn't enter this hall. But once I'm in, even if I die here I'll be immediately revived at this hall, until I went back to level 20. The only way to get out is to finish the quest.

Oh you'd better not tell me what kind of idiot designed this quest OR I WILL (content censored) (TL note: No, the author wrote "this is censored" here. I didn't do it.)

I looked back. My entrance door is now blocked by a giant rock. They said I can't get out that way so the rock must be invulnerable to any attacks.

As I'm complaining, the center of the hall went black. It feels like something just absorbed the surrounding light, the spot is completely dark now. I walked over carefully to check, but as I went near, someone suddenly bounced out of the darkness and fell into me.

"Ouch! What the??" I kicked whoever just fell on me flying backwards.

"How dare ya kick an NPC!" The figure suddenly stopped. "Brother, is that you?"

"Huh?" I stood up, he is...!

The NPC I just kicked away is the Dark Sanctuary Knight Captain of Dark Valley, Domergor, my sworn brother!

"Why are you here, brother??" I asked. (**)

"Oh! I actually shouldn't be here, but that old geezer who is responsible went out hunting for treasures and agreed to share with me if I can look after this place for a while. This hall is meant for people above level 500 anyway, who knows you came so fast!"

"So...You're the NPC responsible for this quest now?" I think I see hope!

"Only temporary. This quest is one-time only, if someone gets it done it will disappear. So...yeah, I am."

"Uh, please don't tell me my quest is to defeat you." I made a sad face. "You're level 750! You'd crush me like a bug!"

"Calm down. Your quest is not fighting me. If it's that hard I wouldn't have told you all these nonsense."

"Then tell me what it is! I can't level up in here, I need to get out!"

"The quest is...pretty long. First you need to find the correct path among these doors. And the paths behind these doors are not one-way, there can be forks too. Lots of them. I'll be waiting for you at the end of the correct route. If you make it I'll tell you the next step."

"Wait seriously? 300 doors! With forks! It would take years! Brother! Give me some hints will you?"

Domergor put his hand on my shoulder, solemnly.

"Look, I want to help you. But frankly, I don't even remember which is the correct one myself. They all look the same! No one can remember it. Apart from that crazy old pervert! But take it easy, I can tell you some advices to help you get it over with."

"Advices?" Now that's what I'm talking about!

He ran towards a door, marked it, and to another one and made another mark. "You see, including these two, and all the doors in between, there are a total of 27 of them. That's the best I can remember--the correct one is among these ones. So you can forget all the rest. How about it? A lot easier now right?"

"But that's still a lot! And don't forget about the forks!"

"Patience! I got more!" He took out several crystals. "Look closely. There are three crystals here, with different shapes. Take them. At each fork there will be crystals used as lanterns. If they're the same shape as these, that means the path is fake!

"What about the rest?"

"The rest? You have to try them yourself!"

Looks like that's all the help Domergor can give me.

"You be careful! The monsters here are pretty strong, don't get killed!"

"Wait there are monsters in here??"

"Duh! Of course a quest will need monsters!"

"Uh, there's something else. Brother! Can you find me a weapon?"

"What for?"

"My only sword is broken when I got in here. I don't have anything to use now!"

He looked at me for a moment, and finally said: "Wait here. Geez you're a handful!"

He ran back after a while, and dropped two objects on the ground. "This is part of the quest reward, I'll lend it to you for now. If you finish the quest I'll give you the rest. If you can't, you'll have to give it back!"

Then he disappeared before I can say anything else.

I quickly picked them up. It's...a pair of gauntlets. The shape is like two dragon heads. My hand goes in from the back, and reaches out from the mouth. There is a triangular spike at the elbow part, pointing backwards. The outer is sharp blade.

When I put them on, three long blades stretched out. The middle one is a bit longer than the other two. The blades look like three stabbers lined together, their tips are super sharp, and there are reversed barbs on the back of the blade. They would work better if they are a bit longer though.

As I thought about the idea in my mind, the blades suddenly stretched another foot. I tried several times and found out there are three modes for the blades: Withdrawn, Short Blade, and Long Blade. The top of the gauntlet is the dragon's forehead. It stretches outwards, forming a tiny shield.

I looked at the attributes:

[Laceration of the Dark Dragon Lord], triple bladed claws, growth equipment,

Durability 1000/1000,

*Attack 150-150,

Attack Speed-Very Fast,

*Defense 500,

Block Rate 75%,

50% Life Steal,

*Additional Lightning damage 100,

*Additional Ice damage 100,

25% chance to freeze the target for 3 seconds,

Piercing (ignores defense),

50% chance to cause Laceration,

Attack Speed +50%,

15% chance of dealing super critical damage (triple damage).

(Attributes with "*" will grow with wearer's level)

Oh my god oh my god oh my god---

The Attack is not that high but a Very Fast speed totally amended that. And 50% life steal!! If I attack fast enough my HP won't drop at all! Besides, it's not a weapon, but gauntlets! Which means I can still hold other weapons!

Hahahaha!!

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(*) Sis: Chinese youths sometimes call their fellow friends 哥哥 (brother) or 姐姐 (sister). In this case these words got nothing to do with family or bloodline, just a friendly way of addressing each other.

I believe this doesn't only happen in China, though.

(**) There are more ways in Chinese to call a sworn brother and sworn little brother, but I don't know how to do that in English...