As Ryan walked down the long corridor, avoiding traps and slowly advancing in search of his next target, an orb of light floating in front of him illuminated his path.
The walls and floor were perfectly lit, allowing him to examine the ruins more closely.
The floor seemed to have patterns like trees moving between four types of lights, the same ones from before.
The walls had hieroglyphic patterns and writings on them, narrating historical events.
'Ancient language, right?' he thought, touching the walls a little and trying to read. 'What era is this from? I don't remember if there was anything like this in the second era.'
If he remembers correctly, the novel did not specify how old this rune was, but in his previous life, he was a Divine Hunter who sought to prepare for the future when the Kazaks would pass through the Divine Portal in case he could not stop the Divine of Chaos in time.
That is why he learned more than 15 languages in his life, especially languages from the Second Era, the Age of the Gods, to study the ruins.
But he couldn't understand the writings on these walls.
'Could it be a Ruin from the First Era?' he thought. 'Come to think of it, I never understood the formation of Living Ruins like these, since I didn't get to read the novel's end.'
These ruins seemed to have an impressive background, as all the living ruins described in the novel had amazing stories. But their formation was buried in the annals of history or in the author's thoughts.
After failing to translate the text, Ryan continued on his way. He avoided traps and jumped over some holes in the ground.
But he did not find his opponent.
He was perplexed. There were not even any traces. He tried to let his guard down for a while to see if the beast was hiding like the first one, but no.
Nothing attacked him. It seemed as if the world had fallen silent. It was as if the ruin itself was giving him a free pass to the end.
'It shouldn't be like this, right? I remember that first came an ape and then a grizzly bear. But I see no trace of...' He stopped dead in his tracks, and his thoughts froze.
In front of him was an activated trap that could kill him if he fell into it.
But that wasn't the problem.
At this point, the corridor was considerably wider. Furthermore, thanks to the few traps (2), it looked very spacious.
The trap directly in front of him was the largest. A huge hole with sharp iron stakes; they were stained with blood. The head of a huge bear hung from one of those stakes, while the rest of the beast's body was dismembered on the other stakes.
His body trembled, and he took a step back.
'How is this possible? What killed it?' he thought.
But the situation didn't give him time to process or try to make guesses. He didn't need them.
On the other side of the trap, a terrifying figure emerged from the darkness of the hallway, barely lit by the light from the orb.
He took three steps back in fear.
"Kazak!" he exclaimed, his voice trembling.
It was wolf-like, similar to the ones he had seen before, about 2.5 meters tall and 3 or 4 meters long. Its hooves and mouth were covered in blood, as if it were still savoring its prey. The menacing yet playful look in those beastly eyes made him tremble.
'W-what is a Kazak doing inside such an ancient ruin? That should be impossible!'
Alarmed, a new shield and a vial of poison appeared in his hand.
These kinds of beasts shouldn't be here. They had arrived recently, within the last 50 years.
How could they be inside such an ancient ruin? It probably belonged to the second era; in a more extreme case, it could belong to the First Era.
'No way, does Brandon have something to do with this?' he thought. The question is how he managed to infiltrate Kazaks into this place and...
'Why me? Did he know I was going to take this route?' He frowned, slowly moving backward.
'No.' He quickly noticed a flaw in his thinking. "He doesn't need to know which path I'll take. Maybe there isn't just one Kazak here, but several. In that case, is he looking for a massacre? To what end?' Although his mind quickly wandered among probabilities that seemed increasingly dark, it soon cleared.
There was no time to think about nonsense.
Just then, the Kazak leaped over the trap with terrifying agility and easily landed in front of Ryan.
He swallowed hard and looked up. There was a number inscribed on its head: 991.
'Luckily, it's a 3-digit child Kazak. I can do this.' He immediately plucked up his courage and felt the danger brushing his face, forcing him to jump aside and defend himself with his shield.
NOC*
The blow sent him flying backward, causing his arms to ache, but he ignored his pain before running quickly around the beast.
It's strong. Stronger than a level 1 beast, but it wasn't invincible.
At full speed, he positioned himself behind it and stabbed it with one of his weapons poisoned with paralysis venom. Although the kazak was already approaching to attack him with one of its front legs, he managed to take advantage of the moment he had gained with the poison to raise his shield above his head and activate the Yellow Orb on his dagger.
Electrocute!
The electricity transmitted from his fingers to his weapon and made the Kazak tremble. At the same time, it slowed his movement even more, allowing Ryan to throw himself to the ground in time, thus avoiding the blow.
'It has a lot of resistance. I didn't expect the poison to be so ineffective on it." He looked up, searching for his weakness: his head and neck.
'I have to get there somehow.' He rolled across the ground, dodging several attacks, until he could no longer do so.
"ROARRR!" The beast's green eyes glowed intensely.
"Shit." Ryan tried to run to the side, but it was too late.
The beast's roar created a magic pattern, and the spirituality in its body formed into a simple but direct attack that struck Ryan's shield.
He was suddenly sent flying backward. And his body remained slowly levitating in the air.
Alarmed, he looked down below him, feeling no longer any ground to stand on.
Then he saw a huge iron stake waiting for him there. His body was about to begin its inevitable fall and would land on it, which was becoming more pointed at the tip, silently and calmly planning his death.