Chapter 66: Creeping Insanity

He sat up after a few hours.

Fortunately, the heavy amount of Gremlin blood covering him hid the smell of his blood.

"I feel like shit."

He looked around.

There were hundreds of corpses left for him to devour.

"I shouldn't do that. I'll go insane if I try to devour anything else."

His eyes wandered to the body of Great Gremlin.

Even if he couldn't devour others, he should devour it.

He trudged to the corpse and called upon the Darkness.

TheyareComingWhoAMIIIIIIAMALivEWeArEoNETheskYWIllFALLLFallLfaLLLFAlllYouWillDieIWIllDieEVeryonewILLdiE

His blood vessels burned and he felt they would burst.

[Constitution +1]

[Spell Casting Speed +1]

[Right Hand Magic Circuit +4]

Neo gasped.

He took a mouthful of air and stood with the support of his sword.

Suddenly, a Gremlin appeared before him.

He slashed.

The attack passed through the monster without any resistance and it disappeared like a mirage.

"…?"

Terrible pain surged in his left hand.

He looked down and saw his fingers crushed.

"These injuries were healed. Why do I have them again?"

A huge shadow fell over Neo.

The giant hand came down from the sky and grabbed him.

It picked him up and—

Wake… up….! Don't… let yourself… be consumed!

Obitus' voice woke him up.

His eyes snapped open.

"Hallucinations?"

After he devoured the Great Goblin, everything was a hallucination.

There was no Gremlin left alive, his hand was not wounded, and the giant monster did not return.

All of them were illusions, his mind, on the brink of insanity, showed him.

[Time limit reached. You will be forcibly revived.]

Neo woke up in his dorm.

"Twelve hours passed already?"

He felt tired.

The clock struck twelve and he regained the fourth stack of Immortal.

[Alert! You've left the Quest Area!]

[Please return within 5 days, or the Quest will be terminated.]

Unlike last time, where he got 10 days of time limit, it halved to 5 days.

A sigh escaped Neo's lips.

Barbatos' training was far more brutal than he predicted.

He gained a huge boost in stats, both primary and secondary, but it wasn't without risks.

A smile appeared on his face.

"I did it…

"I won."

Neo didn't face a shameful defeat like last time.

He emerged victorious and returned with his head held high.

His blood burned with excitement.

He won against hundreds of enemies!

"Hahaha, I can do it if I try, huh?"

He was no longer the same Neo as the one in the past.

Neo could say with confidence he wasn't mediocre anymore.

He felt his eyes burn as he tried to hold back tears.

His efforts weren't useless.

As long as he worked hard, he was rewarded.

The rush of adrenaline and dopamine erased his sleep.

He used Essence Breath to recover his Divine Energy before returning to Underworld.

"Urghh."

Neo groaned.

His Divine Energy was rapidly reduced to heal his broken body.

"It feels like shit," he said with a smile.

The Gremlin Camp looked like it experienced a war.

Half of the wooden walls and monsters were burned, remaining half were chewed out by their kin, and the rest had their bones and heads bashed in by Neo.

"This reminds me. Why is Obitus here?"

He looked down.

The sword was at his waist.

Obitus was a Spirit technically.

Spirits consumed a portion of their master's soul to grow.

They replaced the missing portion of the soul and became the better-half of their master.

"Since Obitus is my Spirit, does that mean it can visit and leave Underworld along with me?"

It was good news.

Neo roamed the destroyed camp of Gremlins.

The area, filled with blood and corpses, would soon attract monsters.

"I need to leave."

It was regrettable he couldn't devour them, but he knew better than to get greedy, and risk losing himself to the Darkness.

"Right, I almost forgot about the Flag."

The first flag he put inside the flag post was still present.

It was encapsulated in a transparent white dome.

The dome was sturdy and it withstood Neo's attacks.

"Thankfully, it looks like my job is done after I insert the flag into the flag posts."

He stared at the four remaining flags in his pocket.

The first checkpoint nearly killed him.

Neo had a feeling the next flag posts were going to be worse.

He left the Gremlin Camp.

Strangely enough, he did not encounter any monster on the way.

"It's too quiet."

He did not find the next flag post after six hours search.

"Where the hell is it?"

Neo, parched, created water and drank it to quench his thirst.

"I should look for a high vantage point and see if I can find flag posts from there."

He found a small hill after searching a bit.

Just as he was about to climb, one of the flags buzzed.

It flew out and pointed at the top of the hill.

"The second flag post is there?"

Neo squinted.

He could see something similar to a flag post on the top.

There was just one problem.

"Isn't this too easy?

"There are no monsters and I don't sense any traps."

Worrying about it wouldn't solve anything.

Neo took a step and climbed the hill.

It took half day to reach halfway. Sёarᴄh the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"This place is weird. It feels like it's sapping my strength."

One fourth of the distance was still left after last six hours.

His time in Underworld was up.

Neo waited for him to be teleported back to the world of living.

He was going to return as soon as he arrived.

But.

"Huh?"

Nothing happened.

He was not revived.

A sense of unease appeared in Neo's heart.

He opened his mouth.

"Status."

The blue screen did not pop up.

He repeated different words.

The result was the same.

He tried to use his Spells, Affinities, and Divine Energy.

He couldn't do anything.

"What is happening?"

The mountain was weird.

Neo had to get off.

He turned around and looked at the path he walked only to realize a horrible truth.