The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

Meteor fist Level 3!

  Send enemies and foes into the air with a punch worthy of a meteor crash. Attack and/or speed may increase by a random amount for every five kills made with the move.

  Mana Cost

  60

  Casting Time

  0.1 Seconds

  Cooldown Time

  30 Seconds

  Range

  N/A

  Effect 1

  At least +6% Attack for every 5 kills

  I closed the screens. I was too preoccupied with the current situation to express my usual excitement over such level ups. I looked ahead of me, past the wall that had crumbled.

  Darkness stirred on the other side of the stone, but my night vision skill let me catch glimpses of what lay within. Another tunnel, I frowned. This one larger than the one I was currently in. I stepped over the remains of the wall I shattered and walked into this new tunnel.

  Am I even getting anywhere? I asked.

  “I’d give you an answer if I had one,” Nyx said.

  What does the field map say? I asked.

  “Nothing. The Ga’em doesn’t give us any info on a place unless we find it first, remember?”

  Yeah. I shuffled ahead.

  Suddenly, I picked out a form lying on the floor ahead of me. I quickly ran up to it and knelt to the ground, taking a closer look.

  I couldn’t see much even with my night vision, but I could clearly make out robes of white and strands of curled hair falling down onto it.

  The Eternal. My eyes widened. I wasn’t the only one who came here then.

  “So, the others might be here too,” Nyx said.

  Exactly, I said.

  “What do we do about this lady?” Acnologia asked. “I suggest it is best we take her with us.”

  Yeah. I bent down and put my arms under her body, quickly picking her off the floor. Her soft skin pressed into my arms as I steadied my hold on her and moved forwards. In a few seconds, the corridor we were in opened into a circular chamber, and I could see that multiple corridors led away from this place. I looked around, wondering which one I should take.

  A spark of light glowed from one of them. A small shape, but not of light that I was afraid of, but light that I was longing for. I quickly made my way into the corridor, my footsteps faster, my heart beating loud.

  Light emerged ahead of us, first a dot, and then a multitude of rays as we got closer. This was definitely the way out. I could almost smell the open air.

  In a few steps, we’d exited the corridor and were in a large cave. About two hundred yards ahead of me was the cave mouth, with light pouring into it like river water into the ocean. I held the Eternal in my hands and moved to the entrance, turning off my Night Vision skill as I did.

  I shook my head, flicking the sweat off my locks, and looked ahead of me. A plethora of trees and plants stood a few yards from the cave entrance, with the green swaying in the gentle wind. It appeared we were in some kind of forest, only the vegetation here seemed larger than I’d expected.

  Then again, I hadn’t seen that many forests.

  Or at least, remembered seeing them.

  “The Field map hasn’t given me a name for this place yet,” Nyx said. “That’s odd.”

  “Something weird must be going down,” I sighed. “That’s usually when the Ga’em decides to mess up.”

  A hiss came from behind me, and I turned around, just in time to see a shadow shoot at my face. I dived to the side, shielding the Eternal as I hit the ground.

  “Oh dear.” Nyx’s voice shivered.

  I lay the lady on the floor and turned around, my hand already hovering above my sword hilt. A snake of deep brown slithered across the cave floor, with patterns of black glistening on its back. I used my Analyze skill on it immediately.

  DING!

  Race

  Enchanted Sand Snake

  Level

  498

  WHAT THE HECK? My eyes widened. Those were not stat numbers that should be on a creature like this. It didn’t even look that special to begin with.

  “Oh gods.” Nyx’s voice was trembling now.

  “What?” I asked.

  The snake however cut us off, hissing as it lashed into the air, right at me. I quickly pulled my blade out and slashed hard, but the creature retreated back almost immediately. I blinked, a little taken aback at its speed.

  I hadn’t dealt with a snake that was at this level before. This was going to be weird. I held Dawnbreaker in front of me, with the sword’s purple jewel glowing brightly in the light. The snake rose, and swayed from side to side, with its eyes trained only on me.

  I stepped back from the creature. I put my hands up in the air and focused on my inner energy, willing for it to collect into my palms.

  “Oskis!” I yelled, and sent a blast of incinerating flames right at the creature. It dived into a patch of sand next to it, but when my flames cut off, it was gone, sand and everything.

  “I guess that takes care of—”

  A hiss came from the sand patch to my right and before I could even turn, a sharp pain sank into my shoulder. I yelled out in pain, and my hand shot my side, grabbing a snake’s slithering body as it hung to me with just its fangs. I quickly jerked it out of my skin and hurled it away, smashing it against the wall. The creature went limp and dropped to the floor.

  However, I could see from its health bar that it still had a sliver of health left. I put my hand up once again and summoned the incineration beam, using the flames to completely burn the creature to a cider.

  DING!

  Congratulations! You have defeated:

  Enchanted Sand Snake (Lv 498)!

  That thing was unexpectedly…strong. Were snakes always that deadly? Reward: Enchanted Fangs of the Sand Snake. Reward: Hide of the Sand Snake. Reward: Poison of the Sand Snake. Reward: 45000 XP.

  I went to close the screen but my hand went limp and I stumbled the floor. An acidic burn spread within my shoulder, and I grit my teeth in frustration, realizing what had just happened.

  DING!

  Warning!

  You have been poisoned! Health will now be depleted at a constant rate. Health depletion rate depends on the strength of the poison. Stamina and Health regeneration will be temporarily paused. Mana regeneration rates will be temporarily lowered.

  Dammit, I cursed, wobbling a bit as I picked myself up. I need to find an antidote. And fast.

  I looked at the patch of sand the snake had come from. It had dived into a patch that was nearly twenty feet away from that. And yet it had sprung at me from this one.

  Were there two of them? I asked.

  “Enchanted Sand Snakes have a special ability,” Nyx said. “They can teleport between certain kinds of sand patches.”

  What? I blinked. Such a creature exists?

  “Existed,” Acnologia said.

  I stared at the forest. “What?” I blinked.

  “Look around you, Eternal,” the dragon said.

  I glanced at the forest once more, trying to see if there was anything of worth noting. But I could see nothing, other than for the fact that the vegetation was quite large.

  Nyx sighed. “As expected, you don’t have a single clue.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “I had my doubts when I saw this forest,” the spirit said. “But I figured the feeling was a falsification. However, the fact that we saw an Enchanted Sand Snake changes everything.”

  I blinked. “What are you talking about?”

  “Those creatures went extinct a long time ago,” Nyx said. “They went extinct when you and I were still roaming the ancient world. And yet now, these creatures are slithering across the ground before us. There is only one explanation for such a thing.”

  My eyes widened. “No way,” I whispered.

  “Diablo, we’ve come back to the past,” Acnologia said. “Back to when the Eternals ruled the lands.”

  ***

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Fear struck my mind.r />
  Excitement struck my heart.

  I was stuck between running into this world and running away from it.

  Questions plagued me. Why were we here? Who had brought us? Was there a way to get back?

  “So…this is the world of the past.” My voice was nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

  “Yeah,” Nyx said.

  “Whatever that bright light was, it has brought us here,” Acnologia said. “I haven't the faintest clue how or why. The mechanics of such an event are far beyond my comprehension.”

  “I have no clue either. I didn’t know something of this sort was even possible in the first place.”

  I looked out at the forest, at the dense canopy of leaves above me. Sunlight filtered through, lacing heat onto my pale skin. I heard the faint buzz of insects deep within the vegetation.

  And yet all of this was of a world many millennia back from where I’d been just minutes ago.

  All of this was a world in the past.

  How was one supposed to even deal with something of the sort?

  You’re heartless, Ga’em, I mumbled. Your world is just messed up.

  And just as I said that, a new development came into play.

  “Holy hell,” Nyx mumbled.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Look.”

  DING!

  Nyx summoned one of my screens, and I could tell immediately that this was a map. Specifically, a map of the cave I was in. A blue dot lay close to the mouth of the cave, next to the flurry of trees. However, the interesting part was that a green dot was moving around a region much deeper within the place.

  My eyes widened at the shade. “Freya,” I whispered.

  “Exactly,” Nyx said. “There must have been a delay in the teleportation. Her dot became visible to me only a few seconds ago.”

  “But if she was teleported…”

  “Then it’s possible everyone else was as well.”

  I wanted to feel happy, but the concern in my mind pulled me back. Is it really a good thing that Freya was also caught by whatever is going on here?

  I put aside my troublesome thoughts for later and turned around, facing the deeper end of the cave. I glanced at the map in front of me, and tried to make a connection between what it was showing me and the landscape I was in.

  “Diablo, you have been poisoned,” Acnologia said. “We need to find an antidote first.”

  “I need to be here when Freya comes up,” I said. “She can’t come up here and see an empty cave.”

  “Well, it won’t be completely empty. I imagine the Eternal will still be here even if you go search for a cure.”

  “I’m staying.” My voice was firm. “Does the field map have different floors or anything?”

  “None, this is the only floor in the cave,” Nyx said.

  “Then according to this map Freya should be a few yards ahead of us.”

  “I have no explanation for that. The Ga’em is broken?”

  “Great, the Ga’em is messing with my maps now as well.”

  “To be fair, we ARE quite a way back in time. Maybe the Ga’em used to be buggy at this point in the past.”

  “It is possible,” Acnologia said. “Though I have no specific recollection of this ‘buggyness’.”

  I glanced at the sleeping form of the Eternal next to me. She was completely knocked out, with her body limp against the floor. The wind fluttered strands of her hair, but other than that movement, there was no difference between her and a doll. I was beginning to doubt whether she was ever going to wake up.

  Rumbling echoed from the deeper end of the cave, with the sound waves travelling through the walls. A large boulder shot out of the darkness, as though it were sent out of a canon. My hands instantly brought out Dawnbreaker and I swung at the hunk of flying stone. The boulder shattered to bits from my strike, and the debris rained on me and the Eternal as it fell back to the ground.

  When I looked ahead of me again, Freya’s form greeted my vision. The elven assassin walked out from the end of the cave, with her longsword at her side. I saw two more shadows emerge behind her, and I stood confused for a second.

  Who else made their way here? I wondered

  “Beats me,” Nyx said.

  “Zoran!” Freya ran to me, a large smile on her face. “Thank god, you’re okay.”

  I nodded. “Likewise,” I said and glanced behind her, still curious as to who else had shown up.

  The two other companions emerged into the light, and my eyes immediately widened. One was Raffyr, the old priest. The other however, was a large eyed lady of brown hair and green pupils.

  “Viola,” I whispered.

  The young woman kept behind Raffyr, hiding from my line of sight.

  “Well that’s awkward,” Nyx said.

  …yeah, I sighed quietly.

  “Meeting a fallen friend is never easy, Diablo,” Acnologia said. “Give it time.”

  “Say, how is it you always have a piece of advice for situations like this?” Nyx asked.

  “One learns many things after centuries of living.”

  Freya and the others noticed the unconscious Eternal on the ground beside me, and I could tell there was curiosity bubbling within their minds.

  “She hasn’t stirred,” I said.

  “That aside,” Raffyr said. “Where exactly are we?”

  They glanced around the outside of the cave, taking in the trees and the vegetation. I knew they were smart enough to figure out something was weird here.

  “It’s…complicated,” I said.

  “What?” Freya looked at me and then she sighed. “Don’t tell me we’ve been teleported to some far of location.”

  “Even better.”

  “Eh?”

  “We’re in a pretty far off location,” I said. “But the distance is not physical. It’s temporal.”

  “I KNEW IT!” Raffyr yelled. However, where I’d usually heard him exclaim with excitement, this exclamation was one of fear, an exclamation of uncertainty.

  “What’s going on Zoran?” Freya asked. “What do you mean it’s a temporal distance? Surely, you’re not suggesting we traveled through time, are you?”

  I nodded. “This place is a couple of millennia in the past. Back when the Eternals were all still alive.”

  Their eyes all widened. “You’re pulling my leg,” Freya said. “Are you serious?”

  “Nyx and Acnologia have confirmed it,” I said. “Whatever that light from the Eternal was, it’s brought us all back to the past.”

  “So, everyone that the light touched was brought here.”

  “It seems to be so,” I said. Ijyela and Krof got lucky, I realized.

  “I can’t believe this,” Raffyr mumbled. “We’re back in the time of the Eternals.”

  “I can’t tell whether he’s excited or afraid,” Nyx said.

  “It is both,” Acnologia said and I agreed.

  This is a tough situation to accept, I thought. He’s going to need some time to process it. They’re all going to need—

  Pain struck my body again, this time piercing my heart. I gasped out, and stumbled to the floor as my legs gave out underneath me.

  DING!

  Warning!

  Your ‘poisoned’ status has aggravated! Health depletion rates have been doubled. Stamina regeneration has been disabled.

  “Zoran!” Freya was down at my side in an instant. She slung my arm over her shoulder and lifted me up, helping me back onto my feet.

  I swiped at the screen before me with my free hand and closed it. I tried my best to ignore the pain in my heart, but it wasn’t easy. It felt like I was choking with every heartbeat that sounded. I looked at the corner of my vision and saw my health bar start inching down, at a very miniscule amount, but still significant. At the rate it was going I had about an hour or so before my health completely gave out.

  And this was assuming nothing else attacked me.

  “I told you before,” Nyx said. “Finding yo
u an antidote should be your priority.”

  “I understand your reasoning for staying here to welcome miss Freya,” Acnologia said. “But I believe it is time for you to take care of yourself.”

  It’s not like I disagree, I said, breathing hard.

  “What’s going on?” Freya asked, holding almost all of my body weight now.

  “I was poisoned,” I mumbled. “Had to fight off an Enchanted Sand Snake before you three got here.”

  Raffyr’s eyes widened. “Isn’t the poison of the Enchanted Sand Snake a very potent poison.”

  “That would actually explain a lot.” My voice went a little weak.

  “Eternal,” Acnologia said. “The only way you can heal this poison yourself is by coming up with an antidote using your Herb Lore skill.”

  I know, I said, slowly easing my weight off Freya. I took my arm back from her and stood myself up, flexing my muscles just to make sure I was okay.

  The Elf looked at me, and concern writhed in her eyes. “You need help.

  “I’ll take care of it,” I said. “I just need to procure some herbs.”

  “Wait,” she frowned. “You’re not saying you’re going into the forest, are you? Not in this condition of all things?”

  “Since I’m the only one with a Herb Lore skill, I think I’m the only one who can even try to make an antidote.”

  “I will accompany you,” Raffyr said. “It is better to travel together than to travel alone.”

  I hesitated for a second, wondering if the old man would actually be of any help. I wondered if I should take Freya with me instead, but I realized it was probably beneficial to leave another strong warrior with Viola. Raffyr was in the high Lv. 150s so it was probably not a good idea to leave him and Viola to themselves.

  “Fine,” I said. “You can come with me.”