"I can take you out, but I don't help others for free."
Caleb swept a glance at Rick Jones's outstretched hand and responded coolly, "We're all Explorers here. You can't expect me to return empty-handed."
"You... you scoundrel! I can promise to pay you a very substantial reward after you take me out of here."
"Tsk, do you take me for a three-year-old? Words mean nothing. How do I know you won't go back on your word afterward?"
"But I'm penniless right now," Rick Jones said anxiously.
"Then there's nothing I can do. I'm afraid you'll just have to stay in this wretched place and wait to die."
"…"
The thin, blind man seemed quite enraged by these words. Below his pale skin, dark green veins began to surface, his face became somewhat distorted, and his teeth were clenched, as if he was forcibly suppressing his rage.
Caleb saw all of this and sneered, "It's still not too late to change your mind. Since you arrived early, you can't possibly have gained nothing, can you?"
"Hehehe…" Rick Jones laughed in anger. After what seemed like some internal deliberation, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a square stone emitting a soft blue light.
He held up the stone and said, "You despicable fellow! I truly regret warning you when you touched the mechanism. Take it, and quickly fulfill your promise!"
Caleb took the stone, and an introduction immediately appeared next to it:
[Brilliantly Shining Gemstone]
[Category: Very Rare Item]
[Effect: Unknown, requires appraisal.]
[Weight: 3][Can be taken out of the scene: Yes]
[Description: From its unique shape, this item should have another use. But from its lustrous glow, this is clearly a valuable gemstone. Giving it to an auction house might fetch a large sum of money in dollars.]
"That's more like it." Putting the stone into his pocket, Caleb suggested, "To make things easier, I've decided to carry you out of here on my back."
"That would be for the best, of course," Rick Jones was overjoyed at this.
"So you'll have to help hold this torch." As he spoke, Caleb handed the torch towards Rick Jones.
But just as the torch neared him, he suddenly trembled, and the flame perfectly singed his arm.
—You attacked 'Rick Jones', target's Health -5%.
"Oh no, what did you do?!" Rick Jones immediately shrieked and jumped up, retreating several steps dramatically, covering his burned arm and yelling loudly.
"Get it away, get this damned torch away!"
"I apologize, I didn't mean to burn your skin, Your Majesty the Gnome King. I wonder if that's the correct way to address you?"
As Caleb spoke, he also pulled out the kitchen knife he carried with him, pointing it at the other party, a cold sneer still on his lips. "Although I'm not entirely sure of your true identity, I can be 100% certain that you are not the Explorer Rick Jones."
"You… what are you saying? I don't understand at all," 'Rick Jones' was a little unsettled, but still managed to put up a front. He then changed the subject, saying, "I say, you wouldn't be trying to go back on your word, would you? You shameless wretch, going back on your promise, quickly return the gemstone to me."
"Hey, hey, stop acting. Your acting is really terrible," Caleb was unmoved.
"Damn it!" The 'fake' Rick Jones's expression seemed to struggle. Seeing that Caleb wasn't falling for his act, he simply gave up. His face began to contort, his voice grew thick, and he spoke as if forcing words through clenched teeth.
"When did you find out?" His tone sounded very unwilling. He removed his hand from the burned area, and the wound looked like a piece of cloth had been burned through, with dense, black tendrils wriggling within the opening.
"From the moment I first saw you," Caleb shook his head, a contemptuous arc forming on his lips. "Your words and actions seemed cunning, but the flaws you revealed were simply too many. It would have been difficult not to notice. If my deduction is correct, the real Explorer Rick Jones should be left-handed. This can be easily determined by simply checking the items in his backpack. The compass and the iron water bottle for drinking only showed severe discoloration on the left side and were polished smoother, indicating that their owner habitually held them with his left hand. And the handwriting in the notebook had traces of being smudged by a palm, which is caused by accidentally touching wet ink when writing from left to right with the left hand."
Caleb paused here, then changed the subject.
"And you, you very readily took the backpack I handed you with your right hand. When you wanted me to take you away, you naturally extended your right hand towards me. More importantly, on your left wrist, there was a clear mark—left by wearing a watch for many years."
Caleb pulled out the old-fashioned watch, dangled it in front of the other party, and continued: "Wearing a watch on your dominant hand, Mr. Rick Jones, don't you find it inconvenient normally? You impersonated Rick Jones, but you did it unprofessionally, not even knowing the name of the person you were impersonating beforehand. I was the one who voluntarily told you the name, and then you eagerly agreed, not realizing you had fallen into a small trap I set."
Listening to Caleb's analysis, the fake Rick Jones's forehead was sweating, and his face was clouded with gloom.
"Of course, these clues only prove that you are an impostor. The reason I thought you were the Gnome King—to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about that either, and now it seems…" Caleb paused here, glancing at the burned opening on the other's arm. "You could also be some other creature? All of this is actually based on one of my hypotheses, and the Gnome King just happens to be the one that makes the most sense in this hypothesis."
—Your accurate deciphering increased Concentration Stance proficiency by 50.
"Enough! I don't want to hear any more of your self-important analysis," 'Rick Jones' flew into a rage, impatiently interrupting Caleb, and said sinisterly, "Since you're unwilling to take me away, I'll just have to keep you here to accompany me!"
With that, his face twisted into a grotesque grin, and he slowly opened his blood-red, blurry eyes. His eyes were dark and hollow, without eyeballs, and some short black tendrils, like hair, began to emerge from his black eye sockets. Immediately after, dense black short tendrils also began to sprout on his face, growing continuously until they covered his entire face.
When those black tendrils had grown to a certain length, they intertwined and twisted together, forming four thicker and longer tendrils. These four stout tendrils hung to the ground, supporting the human body suspended in the air.
Then the monster let out a sharp shriek, and like a strange 'spider,' it quickly crawled towards Caleb.
"This cry… sounds a bit familiar." This was clearly the cry of the unknown beast he had heard earlier in the forest. It seemed this monster had been targeting Caleb since they were outside, following him all the way into the tomb.
Fortunately, Caleb had seen through the other party's identity early on and was prepared. He quickly retreated as the monster began to transform.
The monster chased for a short distance, then roared and swung its thick tendrils at Caleb. Caleb lunged outwards, rolling on the ground to dodge the attack. The tendrils struck the ground with a thud, cracking the thick stone slabs. If he had been hit by that, his bones would probably have been shattered.
Moreover, the opponent's long tendrils had the advantage of long-range attack. Caleb, with just a kitchen knife, clearly couldn't defeat this monster. Without hesitation, he turned and ran back the way he came.
Seeing this, the tendril monster immediately dragged its suspended human body in pursuit. Its four tendrils wriggled rapidly on the ground, crawling at a considerable speed.
His heart began to pound faster. Adrenaline was secreted again, and the body's potential transformed into strength, continuously pouring into Caleb's body.
—Unknown factors importing… Data error… Multiple attribute bonuses descended again.
As he fled, he dodged the monster's tendril attacks. With his dynamic vision enhanced, he could perceive the speed of the tendril strikes with his naked eye, allowing him to react and dodge early before the attacks arrived.
During this time, he also seized the openings revealed after the tendril attacks, retaliating several times with his kitchen knife.
—You attacked target '???', target's Health -0%.
However, whether cutting or stabbing, when the blade of the kitchen knife touched the tendrils, the feedback was a slippery, tough sensation. The kitchen knife was completely unable to break through the opponent's defense.
The monster '???' hissed and raised two more tendrils, striking at Caleb one after another. Caleb dodged hastily, taking a moment to check his stamina bar. After a period of fleeing and fighting, his stamina bar was already half depleted.
'I can only run.'
He no longer harbored any thoughts of killing the monster and fled at full speed in the direction he came from. Soon, the stairs at the edge of the 'Corpse Pit' appeared not far ahead.
He scrambled up the stairs using both hands and feet, but just as Caleb poked his head over the top of the stairs, he found a dark double-barreled shotgun pointed directly at his forehead.
He quickly shouted to the person holding the gun, "Mr. Rick Jones, don't shoot! It's me!"