CRUNCH!
The spine-chilling sound of his ribs snapping back into place caused the white-haired boy to grimace, but he bore through it.
His neck was more or less healed with only a tiny scar remaining directly across his throat in the shape of the branding iron.
Each breath he took was like swallowing glass; however, with every passing minute, it improved ever so slightly, allowing him to push himself upward.
Raphael had used every last drop of mana inside his body to fuel the final attacks, which destroyed the Dormyrrs.
His core was slowly regenerating his supply; however, it would take at least half a week for it to reach a perfected state again.
One more Dormyrr wouldn't be a problem now… If there was a King, however…
The thought of a creature that was equal to hundreds of the magenta wisps appearing suddenly frightened him as he stared off into the distance.
Shrugging it off quickly, he watched as the fog receded away, revealing a strange structure on the horizon.
Isn't it supposed to be an uninhabited island?
A flicker of curiosity flashed beneath the surface of his mind as he began to walk forward, disregarding the bones of the deceased.
His soft steps crushed the moist grass beneath his feet as he walked towards the structure with a guarded expression plastered across his face.
Could it be the settlement that the missionaries of that filthy cult built?
The building in the distance slowly grew larger as he approached, with the change in perspective shocking the boy.
Just in the few minutes he had been walking, the size of the structure had nearly doubled, and while such things were common when dealing with the human eye, his enhanced vision should've picked up on the details.
Why… Why can't I see it, no matter how hard I look?
Cold, fresh fear knotted deep in his chest, making his breathing more erratic as if he was facing death itself.
His instincts urged him to turn his head downward, to avoid even looking at the building.
Such an event confused the white-haired boy, who had never encountered this emotion before.
My body is resisting…
Attempting to move his neck upward, searing pain tore through the scar freshly etched into his throat.
Crimson liquid dripped out of his mouth in response, with his legs trembling as if warning him to turn around and run.
Exerting every last fragment of strength still flowing through his limbs, Raphael forcefully pushed his head upward to face the structure in the distance.
"W-What…"
His eyes glazed over as he stared at the building that, instead of being half a kilometer away like previously witnessed, stood only meters from his face.
The white-haired boy's throat made a strange sound as bile rose instinctively in sheer disgust at the scene he was experiencing.
This single structure lay atop a hill as the centerpiece in a wide city of similar constructs that matched each other perfectly.
It was a sight that made the young nobleman, who had never been exposed to such depravity in his life, vomit.
Walls were latticed with human ribcages, vertebrae stacked like bricks high into the sky, and skulls wedged into place like horrifying grinning guardians.
Femurs had been jammed together in a crude imitation of doorframes, their clearly human shape impossible to ignore.
Blood and flesh still clung to many of the remains with a scent so foul that any creature would instantly keel over and puke.
It was a strange sweetness that stuck in the throat—the reek of fat half burned, of marrow turned rancid and rotting.
As a hard gust of wind blew through the building, shrieks resembling whistling echoed through the skulls like the final call of the dead.
With each shift, the bones clattered together, rattling like the sound of a skeleton pulled from the grave.
Raphael's head spun as he lay on the floor, trembling all over; the image of the mutilated humans who had families, friends, and loved ones was burned into his mind like another scar.
His entire body reacted to the scene, twitching and contracting in ways impossible to a normal being.
This wasn't simply a shelter made for survival, but a mockery of humanity itself, designed by those parasitic creatures, thriving at the expense of the world..
Not a place meant to give protection and tranquility to the residents, but a nest of despair and hollow agony.
The boy's face was pale and lacking any emotion as he silently rocked back and forth, contemplating the information he had received from the guild.
Voices of his mentor, Marven Matthews, reverberated through his head, quietly pushing him further and further into a pit of his own self-loathing.
"Don't worry, Raph. The mission you'll be given is the easiest of the set group, and the cost of life is fairly small. Only one obstacle stands in your path to the top, and he is a nobody from Strava. You will succeed and bring honor back to your family. I promise you this."
Each word etched into his memory stung like a million razor blades as he digested the sight in front of him.
His victory over the other challengers had been assured from the start, yet after encountering eight Dormyrrs immediately, he had begun to doubt himself.
And now, at the culmination of the mission, his mind had shut down as the echoes of his mentor's jests dug into his skull.
He lied. This is no ordinary island. This is no ordinary mission.
Breathing steadily, the boy pushed himself up and pulled out a handkerchief stored safely inside his hunting attire, wiping his dirtied mouth.
"The graveyard of humanity."
Stepping forward, he felt the smell of the building intensify with the rot clinging to his tongue like dirt on the bottom of his boots.
Reaching towards the empty doorframe, he touched the edge respectfully, blessing the souls of those who had passed on.
The bones themselves sweated like seawater slick beneath the hand as if still alive.
"May you find peace in the Great Beyond."
His whisper resounded through the building, met only with the sound of clinking bones and whistles.
As he made his way inside the grave, he noticed tables, chairs, instruments, and weapons all forged from human remains.
Some were porous, honeycombed, even with holes covering each edge, while others were fleshy as if skin had been sewn together to form couches.
Fighting back another violent gag, Raphael took another step inward, feeling the normal wood floor creak beneath his feet.
Disregarding the bizarre construction materials, the interior was normal without any trace of the sea terrors who had done it.
Were those eight responsible for all of this?
He thought about it for a moment while scouring the building, searching for anything useful.
Creakkkkkk…
Wood bent under the boy's foot, and with a loud crackling noise, it split apart, sending him hurdling down into the ground.
His head nearly slammed against rock; however, with a tight spin, he barely avoided a direct strike, leaving him with a thin gash against his shoulder blade.
The white-haired boy's body ached like hell; however, as he stood up, his hair touched something wet, soft even.
That was close… My head nearly collided with that rock…
Pitch-black darkness consumed the underground space, causing the boy to muster up the tiniest bit of mana he could use and illuminate the chamber.
「Divine Light」
A small ball of golden light popped into existence, brightening the cavern he had fallen into.
While his eyes adjusted quickly, it did not stop the immediate repulsion that surged into his body once again as he gazed upon another sight beyond his comprehension.
Thick, long human entrails hung from white stalactites with crimson liquid dripping into a spongelike material that coated the floors.
Stringy fibers were plastered around the reddish-hued cavern with the sound of heavy breathing echoing from deeper within.
Extreme heat blasted across the boy's face each time the breath shot through the cavern, making sweat drip from his forehead.
I will kill whoever did this.
The thought lingered in his mind as he walked forward, ignoring the human skulls, still fresh with hair and eyes that gazed back at him.
Each step across the floor was squishy and wet with the spongelike material, causing his feet to sink downward like quicksand.
With quick footwork, he was able to continue forward until he reached a split in the cavern.
One direction led straight down into a pit that seemingly had no bottom and smelled like rotten flesh and rust.
The other was a thin tube that would barely even fit the boy's body, yet this one led upward, a possible escape route.
Up or down… Escape or take revenge…
He knew that if he went deeper into the cave, there might not be a chance to leave until a rescue team arrived.
Such an option made the boy laugh aloud as he thought of the likelihood of him surviving with no food, no water, and perhaps even no air for weeks after the test ended.
Events in which the Guild attempted to save challengers were rare; however, with his family's prestigious nature, it would happen eventually.
Whether he would be alive to see that day was dubious, yet still possible.
If I escape, though, I could alert the Guild of the false information… I would fail the exam, but this island would be raised to the ground with a Marshal's assault…
Images of the legendary Camilla Buckley eviscerating the city of death from the face of the planet worried him deeply, but what other choice did he have if he truly valued his life?
Unfortunately for the boy and his battered body, after all he had seen, for the first time in his life, he had actually developed empathy.
"I'm a disgrace…"
Sighing heavily and tightening the straps of his armor carefully, he stared downward into the pit calmly.
Then, he jumped.