Fake Regressor Apocalypse

Ruins (1)

I soon came around the stone gates.

These structures that were supposed to serve as the city gates, turned out to be large structures made of giant stones stacked together.

Standing below the structures of stones gave me the feeling, that it would collapse even with a slight touch, and the giant stones would fall above my head.

A single stone weighed in tonnes and was more than enough to crush a D- ranked Slayer like me.

Although I knew that these stones would not fall even if I punch them hard, but it was still not a good feeling when something that could crush you to a pulp, hangs above your head.

Shifting my sight around the pyramid, I could see that there were no entry points or instructions to enter the main building.

However, according to the story told by the group of Slayers, that came here in the Regressors' memory. The mechanism to enter is located in these giant stone gates.

The slayers came to know about it in a lucky encounter. They searched around for hours around this area, and after getting tired when one of them tried to take rest under these stones, he accidentally activated the mechanism.

" System! scan the stone structure and find any abnormal stone that could be connected to a mechanism. "

[ Ding! Scanning initiated. Scanning the structure in progress .. .]

[ Scanning Completed.]

[ The highlighted stone has gaps, making it easily pushable ]

As soon as the scanning was completed a stone was highlighted with red colour in my vision.

Stepping forward and getting closer to the structure I pressed the stone inside.

~Click!

A cluster of lights appeared in the middle of the stone structure and a shadow suddenly sprang out, swirling around to form a door.

It was the gateway to the Main building.

Stepping through the door without any hesitation, my eyes were colder than ever and the only thought going through my mind was to get [ Dáinsleif ]

Entering inside, my body vanished from the place, and the gates closed behind me.

.

.

.

.

~Swoosh! 

Teleporting in, A bright light pierced my eyes, making them tingle. My vision shook violently, and I felt dizzy, as though I was on a high-altitude flight.

"This teleportation is even worst than the last one"

Maintaining my composure, and steadying the spinning world around me, I looked around the area I was in.

I found myself in a passage that ran straight ahead. The walls were made of rock, and the ceiling was studded with stones that glowed with light at regular intervals.

However, the light was dim, and I could only see two meters ahead of me, and the rest of the way was dark. 

This was the same as the Slayers described in their stories, but I know that blindly trusting someone's words was an absolutely foolish behaviour and was an invitation to my own death.

" System, activate night vision " I commanded in mind.

[ Night Vision Activated! ]

Suddenly, my vision became much clearer than before and I could see upto 5-10 ahead meters now, but any farther than that was still impossible for me.

I assumed that there were some restrictions placed here that were hindering my vision.

Focusing my eyes forward, I saw a straight passage ahead, and felt like the darkness was beckoning me to come inside.

Maintaining my vigilance and keeping my senses alert, I carefully took a step forward.

.

.

However, nothing happened even after a considerable amount of time passed, as though there was nothing there at all. An ordinary person would have relaxed, but the farther I went, the warier my mind became.

Like right now.

~Swish! 

An arrow shot across the darkness, and I instinctively turned my body aside. The arrow brushed past my left forearm, leaving behind a scorching pain. My clothes were torn, and blood splashed.

~Twang!

"A steel arrow!"

I regained my senses and scowled at the metal-shafted arrow that was deeply embedded in the wall. If it had managed to hit me, it would have severed my arm, and if it had struck my head or abdomen, I would already be dead.

" System! Analyse the Surroundings, the speed of the arrow, its Trajectory and path, to predict the next attack and suggest the best strategy to safely pass through the passage. "

I hurriedly called the system in my mind.

[ Task Established, Recording and Analysing the trajectory of the arrows ]

[ Insufficient Data! Host needs to experience more arrow attacks to get a correct prediction ]

" So you're saying for me to suffer from more attacks, Sh*t system." I cursed in my mind.

~~Swish! Swish!

More steel arrows flew towards me one after the other, all from different directions, making it impossible to track them.

I crouched low, rolled forward and took out a shield from my storage ring.

~Puck! Puck! Puck!

Three steel arrows struck my shield with such strong impact that it felt as though my arm would come off each time an arrow hit.

Two managed to fully pierce through the shield, their tips poking out as if they were showing their faces shyly. 

The arrows was much stronger and faster than what the Slayers described. Each arrow was akin to an attack from an E or E+ rank Slayer.

I knew not to trust someone blindly but this was still too much.

I managed to straighten myself up and stuck closely to a wall.

Since I didn't know where the attacks were coming from, I had to decrease my exposure as much as possible—something that I'd learned while working as a porter for years.

However, some traps had also been set up behind and below me. 

~Snikt! 

Before I even realized what was happening, an arrow had pierced deep into my left thigh.

"Ugh!"

I felt as though fireworks were exploding right in front of my eyes. I gritted my teeth and tried turning around despite the terrible pain.

Puck! Puck! Puck!

Once again, arrows ripped through my shield. This time, they penetrated my left shoulder, forearm, and ribs.

I felt as if my arm had been torn off, and I couldn't breathe.

But because I was too accustomed to this feeling, I grit my teeth and clung tenaciously to my awareness. In my life, I had experienced this kind of pain numerous times. This pain was nothing in comparison to the numerous times my life had been in danger and I had been shot.

I quickly checked my condition.

'My left shoulder and forearm have gotten direct hits, but the arrow only grazed my ribs. The wounds look bad, but I can still move.' 

I made a decision and lifted my ragged shield, stepping back as quickly as I could.

'It looks like the traps were activated at the same time when I passed through a certain point.' 

That meant that the traps were concentrated in one area and I had to run, until I passed it. Even as I retreated, the steel arrows kept flying towards me.

At first, there were only three or four arrows, but after a certain point, seven or eight started to fly out at the same time. I tried to avoid exposing myself as much as possible as I moved.

A trail of blood spread from my wounds and stained the wall. Two more steel arrows struck my calf.   

Soon, I reached a certain zone and the steel arrows no longer rained down on me. Leaning against the wall, I threw the shield bristling with steel arrows on the floor.

I barely managed to hold onto my footing as my legs trembled. It was almost by instinct that I managed to reach the safe zone, but I knew that if I lost my composure here, I would die instantly.

Fortunately, I hadn't given every storage ring to Sylvia and Kept some for himself. Quickly taking out a healing potion and directly applying it over the injury with a cotton, the pain subsided a little and the injuries started to heal at a speed visible to my naked eyes.

As soon as I finished applying it on one part, I put my hand on the steel arrow stuck in my left shoulder and pulled it out.

"Ugh!"

As expected, I felt a fierce pain as though my arm were about to fall off.   

My hand holding the steel arrow trembled, and blood gushed out from my wound.

The wound healed quickly, and soon, it was only a scar left. I repeated the process with the arrow in my leg too.

Thankfully, none of my bones were broken thanks to my quick reflexes. However, I could barely catch my breath even after treating all of my wounds.

"Ha...ha...ha!"  

Resting around a bit and eating some food as my injuries got healed completely and the drained strength came back, I felt a lot more clear-headed.

'This is nuts.'

I was so dumbfounded that I wanted to curse myself. I knew it would be dangerous, but I hadn't thought it would be this bad. There was such a big difference between knowing a fact and experiencing it for real. 

The slayers warned about this but the reality was different than stories and people tend to exaggerate more.

The Slayers came here in a team of atleast 5 members that included a healer, a tanker, a magician, a scout and a damage dealer.

A perfect party for such a setup, they could have erected a barrier around them. The tanker and scout cleared the way forward, the damage dealer deflected any attack, with a healer healing any injuries as they move on.

However, I was all alone and the difficulty was much higher for me.

I couldn't allow anyone to come with me. Not only were there the risk of backstabbing but also my other plans would have been delayed because of it and that was something I would never allow.  

When I was again ready to move forward, The System finally prompted, making me smile brightly.

[ Collected enough Data variations and samples]

[ Beginning analysis ]

[ Analysis Completed ]

[ Please confirm on whether to turn on the vision aid? ]

"Finally, Turn it on! " Upon commanding in my mind, countless of blue lines appeared before my eyes, as if turning the area into some sort of virtual world.

[ According to the arrow's pattern of attacks, there is a 99.98% probability that the first attack will be the Host's right arm! Most Effective method of dodging this: Sidestep, leftward jump ]

Following the command of the System, I could see the blue rays of light in my retina had already formed an image of arrow coming straight towards my right arm.

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