Starting from Zero

Chapter 135: The Hidden Cavern

Translator: Wolfy Editor: Wolfy

I stupidly stood still and looked at the source of the water sound. It feels like a waterfall now.

I finally remembered to run when the water appeared around the nearest corner. And of course, I failed.

I didn’t get very far before the water swallowed me and pushed me forward with great speed. My body crashed into the next corner, and continued down the tunnel helplessly.

I no longer know which way is down or up now. I'm only alive thanks to the air provided by my helmet. I tried fixing myself onto the wall with claw blades, but the force of the water is just too great. My claws did nothing more than leaving three deep gashes along the wall.

I rolled, bumped and tumbled in the water for about ten minutes when I finally see some light. Is it the exit?

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Inside a deep mountain area of Japan, there’s a clear river running through the field. A surge of water rushed out from an opening on the riverbank, putting an end to the peaceful scenery. With a loud "Splash!", a black object fell into the river. Yes that’s me.

The river is not as strong as the torrent inside the tunnel, but it still carried me downstream. I heard more water noise ahead, so I turned around to look at--nothing! The river came to a sudden halt when it reached a giant waterfall with 30-meter drop.

I never managed to gain control to my body again before I drifted down the waterfall, screaming to the top of my lungs, until I crashed into the water pool down beneath. The great speed of my drop caused me to bump really hard on the water surface.

I tried reaching towards the shore with all the dizziness and stars inside my head. I successfully got out of the water and quickly found a tree to rest under. All that ordeal felt even more dreadful than my first bungee jump. My head is spinning to no end!

Sssssss

A weird noise drew my attention. I looked back to see one--no, two snake heads moving towards me from a tree nearby. That unnatural size of them gave me all the more reason to run!

I hit the ground to avoid the biting attack from the snake on the left. The other one followed up with a second attack, leaving me no chance to dodge again. Snake fangs sunk into my waist, draining away about 200 HP from me. Huh, this is not really life-threatening.

I pierced the snake's maw using my claw blades, but the beast won't let me go. I hastily pulled out my master sword, but the snake behind me whipped it away before I can use it.

"Lucky! Get it off me!"

The dragon appeared and sunk his own teeth into the snake on my waist, tearing it in half. I quickly shook the remaining body away.

The second snake realized it shouldn't mess with this sudden intruder and turned tail. Oh you can't just attack me and run without paying for it.

The snake is really fast on the grass. It quickly disappeared into a bush nearby.

"Ahhhh---"

I jumped into the bush after the snake, but didn't land on anything. There's a hole hiding in the grass here and I fell into it!

The hole is almost vertical to the ground. Again. I tried using my claws to slow down, but the soft dirt around me cannot stall my falling at all. My action only brought down more dirt from the walls. The wall crumbled and somehow sealed itself up. Now I definitely can't get out from there.

I kept falling for another half minute when the area below became brighter. The dirt wall around me also became rocks. The bottom seems near, and I probably shouldn’t free-fall onto it.

I transformed and pressed both claws and both feet against the rocky wall, slowing myself to a stop. The end of the wall is only a meter away under me.

Some rocks broke off around me and dropped down. I heard the splashing sound of them going into water after almost ten seconds, which means...it's damn deep here!

I fixed my dragon cord onto a rock and began to descend slowly. It's a pretty wide area down here, maybe an underground river. The walls further away are giving off a faint light. But they aren't bright enough to illuminate anything, the area is still dark. I’m now hanging down from the ceiling of this area, above the water of the river. The river is wide, about 300 meters across. The water flow is...slow. Actually I'm not hearing any flowing sound, save the noise of some occasional water drops and...squeaks. Bats maybe?

I continued going down by using my dragon cord like a windlass. Another water drop suddenly landed on my mask, blurring my view. I wiped my face to clean the water. The movement made myself swaying a bit, and the rock supporting my dragon cord cracked a little. A small shard fell off and dropped into the water, causing a small water bloom.

A portion of the water surface rose, followed by an extremely ugly head of a monster. The monster rushed out with lightening speed and swept the fallen rock into its mouth.

I immediately began retracting my dragon cord to get back to the ceiling. Luckily for me, whatever just showed up saw the rock as food instead of me.

I don’t think anything’s going to see things in this darkness. So whether the monster has something like my Star Gaze to improve its vision, or it senses objects by other means. Judging from how it didn’t come for the obvious target (me) but swallowed the rock instead, I believe it finds prey by catching their vibration.

However it finds stuff won't change one point though--I'm not going down there again. I approached the ceiling again and attached my boots onto it. The boots can let me cling onto walls and now I can use them to walk on the ceiling. The only problem is that using this ability drains my MP. Well maybe two problems...the other being that my head isn’t feeling very well with all that extra blood in it.

I walked towards a random direction (since I don’t know which way is "forward" now) for a while when I noticed a light source ahead. I also hear someone speaking. The light is dim orange, and not very stable. They must be a using a torch. Judging from the shadows cast by these people on the wall, they’re moving closer to me. I can clearly hear their speech too. It’s the Japanese.

I quickly found a stalactite stone and hid behind it. Next, a ship slowly moved into my view. It's a really small ship, about only ten meters or so in length. There are eight paddles and no masts. It's moving pretty fast thanks to its small size.

Three figures are standing in the front. All the torches in the middle of the ship caused their multiplied shadows to move and dance on the cave wall. Creepy.

"Are you sure it's here?" One of them asked. I still have my translation service on so I can understand them.

"Very likely. That guy who took the quest told us the Mythril Vial is hidden deep in this cave."

"Good. We Black Dragon Force spent so much time trying to find this thing...we can’t mess it up again. The son of a bitch took away our door. If we don’t find another treasure soon we will lose our leadership on this land."

They are close enough for me to see their faces now. And the one who’s been talking... Matsumoto Masayoshi! I don’t recognize the man who answered him, probably his minion. The third man who remained silent, no surprises here, is the Onmyoji I killed, Tanaka Shota.

I caused a big fuss in their city not long ago, this guy should be back there cleaning everything up. Why did he come here? What's that thing they were talking about?

I waited for the ship to move away to a safe distance before I silently followed behind them. Their torchlight made this an easy job in this dark cave.

I never saw that monster again. It should have no problem flipping this small ship over but...it didn’t. Don't tell me that thing can tell foreigners from natives? Nah. Maybe it's the torch. Something living in this darkness can be sensitive to lights, so it's just scared away.

Matsumoto's ship sailed past the point where I fell in, and reached the end of the underground river. The river is cut off by the wall, but the flowing water indicates that there's entrance under the surface.

Matsumoto looked behind. "So it's hidden under the water?"

"No." The minion answered. "We only need to swim for about 20 meters, then there's land again."

"Alright, let's go. Casters, use your [Underwater Breathing] on us."

People inside the cabin all came out. There are... 35 people, including the three I mentioned. That makes 12 Ninjas (with Matsumoto and his sideman), 1 Onmyouji, 8 Warriors, 7 Mages, a Priest, and 6 Archers. 4 out of the 7 mages are wearing blue robes with the image of water printed on them. Guess they brought more water-aspected mages for this situation.

After they all jumped down, I landed on their ship and considered if I should follow them. I'm hesitating because I don't know when that monster behind us is going to strike again.

I soon noticed a water trail not far from the ship. So the monster is lurking nearby, it already noticed the swimming players but couldn't come because the torches are still here.

Aha. Time for more troublemaking.

I took away all the torches, put two of them into my bracelet for later use and threw all the rest into the river. The monster immediately approached when the light is out. I quickly jumped to the wall and ran up to the ceiling. The monster torn the ship to pieces with ease and dived under.

I counted for several seconds before I went into the water as well. I also summoned Aldeina and asked her to help us locate the monster using her "sonar", in case the monster suddenly decide to turn back and bite our heads off.

It never did though. The thing kept moving forward, towards the other players. Aldeina shared her skill with me so I can also sense the whereabouts of everyone. The monster is already inside the Japanese swimming team, now I don’t need the help of Aldeina to hear their screaming.

Taking the chance, I found another route and reached air again. It’s a narrow waterway, with the river flowing in the middle and dry land covered in stalagmites on both sides.

The monster only killed three players, the remaining ones escaped here and are now moving ahead. I carefully followed them by hiding behind the stalagmites.

A minute later, they reached a fork and stopped to discuss which way to go. I tip-toed behind a giant rock to observe. But another rock ahead blocked my view, so I tried moving around the rock to gain a better sight. When cutting the corner, I bumped into something and almost cried in surprise. Thankfully I swallowed it back.

I looked carefully and realized it's not something but someone. A player moved a finger in front of his lips to signal me to keep silent, and then pointed towards the Japan players.

I nodded in agreement. Now I can have a good look of this stranger...he's pretty big, I mean, fat, and...he looks familiar.

"You!!" I actually said that out.

I then covered my mouth and looked towards the Japanese. Phew, they didn’t hear me.

I connected him into a private chat. "Why the heck are YOU here?"

"Do I know you??" He looks surprised.

"You forgot? There were two girls with me, with a big wagon pulled by 16 horses. You led a bunch of men to rob us! And you broke my weapon!"

This is the fat warrior who attacked us when we were transporting the magic shields back to Bi-Lin. I remember his weapon too, the God's Bane.

"You--" He almost stared his eyes out. "YOU TRAITOR!"

He took out his weapon and slashed at me! I somehow managed to dodge his blades and used my fingers to catch them.

"Are you trying to get us exposed??"

He stopped his attack. "Weren't you helping the Japanese? Why are you hiding now?"

He sheathed his blade behind his back but never lifted his gaze on me.

"Who the fuk told you that? And what did I do to help them anyway? "

"Stop lying. Do you know Big Blade?"

"Yeah. What's about him?"

"Don’t you dare play dumb on me!"

"Play dumb my ass! So I know him, who does that make me a traitor? Is he a Japanese spy or something?"

"How dare you-- He's our hero!"

"Pfft. You call that bastard a hero? Man I don’t know if I should feel sorry or angry."

"Hey watch your tongue!" He's reaching for his weapon again.

"Hey hey hey, chill! Okay, I'll stop. Just...tell me, what kind of heroism did he do?"

Don't tell me that guy is actually a good fellow?

"Humph. Have you heard about the battleship, Bi-Lin?"

"Yep." Of course. That's MY ship. Looks like we gained quite a name for ourselves.

"Then you know how Bi-Lin charged into Japanese fleet and chased them away, saving our own people?"

"Yeah of course." I love this kind of story with me in it.

"You know what, I personally know the captain of Bi-Lin."

"You...what?"

But I don’t know you!!

The fat guy looks really proud now. "Big Blade More Killz. He's the captain!"

I tried hard to keep my jaw in its right place. "Um, excuse me. Who told you that?"

"Big Blade himself, duh." He actually said that with the look of innocence.

"But--But--Ugh! So you just, believed it? If I say I'm the chairman of China will you believe that too?"

"He proved it to me!" It seems he's really serious. "I saw Bi-Lin the other day. Big Blade is standing near it telling his sailors to load goods to it!"

"Crap. Okay, now listen. Bi-Lin is MY ship, the captain, is ME." I took out a badge from my inventory. "Now this, is the Captain Badge. You need this to command the crew on your ship. And look here, the name of the ship is printed in the back. What you saw are MY sailors re-supplying Bi-Lin according to MY order, not Big Blade's. The sailors won’t listen to him. Besides, do you know the Goddess Alliance and the Righteous League?"

"Yeah. They're the biggest guilds in our country. They play the main role in our wars against Japan."

"The guild masters of these two guilds, Red Moon and Shadow Gale, are my friends. We fought together before. Ask them if you don't believe me. Oh and, Goddess Alliance teamed up with me a while ago to wipe out Big Blade's city. Say, if he's really the hero you talked about, why would they do that?"

"Say what?? Big Blade's own city was wiped?"

"You...didn’t hear about it?"

That's the only player city in China for the moment. I thought it was big news!

"After I ran away last time, I met Big Blade and he told me that you belong to some kind of Japanese infiltration force. He also asked me to come to Japan so you don’t hunt me down easily."

"What the fu-- That’s a likely story is it? Tell me, how did you come here anyway?"

"Big Blade told me about the location of some Japanese pirate ships, I came back with them by hiding in the cargo."

"You--God."

I don’t know if this guy is smart or plain stupid.

"Did you ever think about how did Big Blade know where the pirates are?? The bastard was connected to them!"

"Huh? Now you mentioned it..."

"Now I wonder why he asked you to come in the first place. He could have just told the Japanese to kill you."

"Uh, I boarded the wrong ship, because the one I planned to go in was on fire for some reason, so--"

He stopped and widened his eyes. Looks like he finally realized what Big Blade tried to do--kill him and offer his God's Bane to the enemies.

"So you tried to rob our wagon because--"

"...Because Big Blade said you were carrying items you took from his guild. They're originally used to fight Japan." His voice went lower and lower since he already know this is all bullshit, and he played along in it. "Sorry man. I was stupid."

"Sigh... Don’t worry now. You meant good."

He caused a lot of trouble to me but I know he's not an enemy now.

"You haven’t told me your name yet."

"I'm Ou-yang Felix."

"Can I call you Felix then?"

"Of course, Mr. Ziri. As long as you forgive me, call me anything you want."

"You know my name all along right?"

"Yeah. Big Blade told me to check the Evilness ranking board to prove that you’re a villain. You're on the top!"

...Guess I’d never wipe that away.

"By the way, what are you doing here?"

This is not really a place suitable for a random player to show up.

"Well, since I came here I’ve been causing all kinds of troubles to Japan players. I heard rumor that a team will come here for treasure hunting, so I followed them. Maybe I can mess them up. What about you?"

"I fell in here by accident. There is an entrance hiding under the grass. Hey they're leaving, let's go."

The Japan players continued into the left fork. It’s becoming dark here since the enemy casters are the only light sources. We stalked them under the darkness.

Felix is, as I said, fat and round. But the guy can move faster than me! I feel more confident now with this extra hand. He's carrying the God's Bane, a freaking monster weapon which is solely used to break other weapons! I wonder if we can break one or two of their Nation Treasures. My master sword is imbued with the same power too but the trigger rate is too low, unlike Felix's real deal.

With the plan set in mind, I approached the unwary enemies with a wicked smile.

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