Chapter 99: The Fourth Day Of The Ordeal

Today was my fourth day in Carcosa, and it shall also become my fourth time dealing with the Ordeal.

Thinking it numerically, only a few days had passed since my arrival to this world, but that didn't account for the fact that a single day in Carcosa was essentially two-days equivalent in the real world.

This meant that I had one week less before Fallen Carcosa Online was published into the public server.

Just thinking about it made me wonder about the demographic of the people that would be interested in roaming in this crude and dangerous world.

[The Ordeal of the Dusk will be approaching in 5 minutes_]

[However, due to the absence of the Storytellers in this world, the Random Events will be regulated to spawning a regular amount of Calamity Objects]

[This message will appear invisible to every instances of entities in this world, if you received this sequence of notification, please notify any of the Arbiters to prevent further complications in your immersive playing experience]

Now that it has come to my mind, what does Random Event entail?

The info dumping session told me what a Calamity Object was, intensively—but it barely gave me any hint about what Random Event was.

Regardless, it was unnecessary of me to be concerned about it this early. As of right now, I'm much more worried about my new flock of sheep.

The recruits, regardless of their ages, experience, and background, were nothing but a bunch of nervous sheep in my eyes.

This train of thoughts compelled me to look after them, like a new-time shepherd with two vicious yet mature shepherd dogs, looking after the sheep we personally picked after they were messing with our garden for absolutely no reason—oh, silly sheeps.

I noticed that the more I indulge in these kinds of silly feelings, the faster my Sanity recovers in comparison when I suppress these thoughts. So, just like how I was able to just mentally erase the annoying notification from my mind, I also had enough mental strength to utilize this opportunity to its fullest.

"I hope that tonight will also be a carefree night like two days ago," Verina uttered right in front of everyone, including in front of the steeled and prepared recruits.

She was definitely referring to the fact that we played Dungeon and Devil for more than 12 hours straight.

"You can always make your everyday life a carefree time, you know?" I sneered out of amusement. "Just be like Kuzunoha."

"Should I take that as a complement or an insult, my darling~?"

I patted Kuzunoha's shoulder with a wide smile on my face. "Feel free to make your own judgment on that."

The recruits in front of us looked nervous as ever. I noticed that some of them had already dabbled on their Scripts, while some had not.

Those Scripts weren't a mere guide that told them a thing or two about their current role and potential career, they were also filled with otherworldly knowledge of the so-called modern-world fueled by the embrace of my one and only reliable friend, Sir Aethernet.

I put medical knowledge for Erika's Script, since her former job was some sort of a doctor. I put war knowledge and battlefield tactics on Amelia's Script, since she was the only one with a military background—and so on.

Not only that, I also made sure to put some topics that might interest them, prompting them to branch out their field into a much wider arsenal. If they ever glean a sign of interest, I'll rewrite their script through the arcane enhancement, and push that topic further without ignoring the one they have right now.

Of course, I only put things that would only benefit me. Unlike Verina and Kuzunoha, these former bandits work for me instead of with me.

To put it in the game's term, my favorability of them was still in its bare minimum, and I held no other intention than utilizing their manpower and talents for my survival.

[Pēdīcābō ego vōs et irrumābō!!@&%]

And thus it started, my fourth ordeal in this world.

[A special type Calamity Object have been manifesting within the vicinity of your bastion_]

[Attempting to analyze its property and identity_]

Ah right, there was always this kind of special Calamity Object that manifested at the start of the Ordeal.

The air grew heavy, like the world itself was holding its breath. I stared up into the sky, watching the few remaining stars flicker in the twilight

The recruits, standing in a tight cluster a few meters away, were visibly shaken even before the event began. Their gazes darted between the darkening horizon and my calm demeanor, likely trying to gauge how serious the situation was. I could feel the tension radiating off them—each one gripping something.

Were they willingly becoming a bastioneer to face this kind of fear everyday? Then again, the Ordeal in concept was terrifying, since it was basically a russian roulette on whether you would die today or on the next day.

And then it started.

The sky shifted. What had been a soft canvas of dusky stars and twilight suddenly felt wrong. I could see it—no, I could feel it. A presence, distant but approaching. The air grew colder, and the stars above us began to flicker intensively, as if something was reaching out to snuff them out one by one.

From the deepening gloom of the galaxy emerged a figure—galactical, skeletal, its fur rippling like an oil slick reflecting distant galaxies. Antlers, shimmering with fractured starlight, crowned its head, casting eerie, shifting shadows on the continent.

—

[The Star-Eater Stag]

[Description: A towering, skeletal deer with antlers that shimmer like fractured starlight. Its eyes are hollow voids, and its fur ripples like an oil spill, reflecting distant galaxies. The Star-Eater Stag roams silently, devouring stars from the sky with each breath.

When it consumes a star, the night temporarily darkens unnaturally, plunging areas into total blackness, where sound distorts and distances twist. Anyone who is unprepared to witness the Stag are paralyzed by a profound existential dread, feeling their own sense of time, space, and importance unravel as if they were the next to be swallowed.

Despite its celestial form, the Stag leaves behind the faint smell of rotting wood]

[Hint: The Stag fears fire, not because it can harm it, but because it reminds the Stag of the primordial fire that once scorched the sky, something it cannot devour. When the concept of light is temporarily devoured, replace it with something that works similarly to weave the path]

— S~eaʀᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Yeah, this world never fails to make me surprised on how ridiculous some of the Calamity Objects could be. Even as of now, both Verina and Kuzunoha were stricken with awe.

And hopefully, not existential dread.

A cold chill washed over the bastion as the Stag inhaled. A star blinked out—swallowed by the creature's breath—and the world plunged into total darkness.

The bastion was enveloped in an oppressive blackness. It wasn't just the absence of light; it was the absence of everything. Sound warped, and the distance between objects seemed to stretch and twist unnaturally. For a moment, there was nothing.

As soon as the world was repaired, there was a scream.

Erika was the first. Her pike was on the ground, flat. And she let out a terrified sob, her talons scraping the ground as she collapsed to her knees, her entire body trembling uncontrollably. Yora, despite her experience as a scout, froze entirely—her eyes wide with terror as the darkness swallowed her senses. Experience tales at m v|l e'-NovelFire.net

Even Kara, who had faced countless battles, cursed under her breath as she gripped her weapon tighter, her bravado cracking under the sheer weight of the Stag's presence.

"I told you~" Kuzunoha smirked to Verina. "They are nothing but a liability~ lest you want to throw them into a time chamber that allows them to meditate indefinitely before joining our ranks."

Verina sighed as she hurriedly helped the rest of the recruits to stabilize themselves. But before lunging forward, she firstly whispered to her foxy friend, "As much as I agree, I'm burdened by something called 'sympathy'."

"Pfft~" Kuzunoha darted her mischievous eyes to me. "You're not worried in the slightest, does this mean that you're also devoid of this thing called 'sympathy'?"

"I still have my sympathy, though, not to a great extent." I chuckled to myself. "I will only interfere if their lives are in great danger or risk of getting incapacitated. Otherwise, I would leave this problem for their own to solve and persevere.

"Verina understood this and helped them in my stead. This is why I found her adorable~"

Verina heard those words and was completely staggered for a whole solid five seconds.

She immediately continued helping the recruits in distraught as if nothing ever happened.

It was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience seeing groups of people trying to disperse a panic that involved existential dread out of multiple of their own people. It was alarming at first, and could be dangerous if left ignored, but their condition managed to stabilize in less than ten minutes as expected.

I could see their Sanity took a great hit, but they were nowhere near incapacitated.

"Good job, Verina," I said as I caressed my lovely ohrtender on the head.

The idea of Verina being this one lovely puppy had become instilled into my conscience for a while. It was definitely thanks to that one mental gymnastics, the one that made me accept any kind of positive train of thoughts instead of suppressing it for the sake of my Sanity.

"This is not fair…" Verina would have pouted in this moment if she was able to. However, instead of letting herself teased amicably, she retaliated by grabbing my hand and placing it on her cheek, pushing her soft skin to it and kissing my fingers with a rather adorable display of affection. Her yearning eyes never stopped latching onto mine, not even a moment. "Don't blame me for doing this."

A part of me wanted to resist this like the usual, but a big part of me just want to accept it. After all, I doubted that staying in the same level of flirting would be healthy for her.

I could see Kuzunoha's amused smirk on the background, alongside the 8 recruits that were wondering what kind of relationship that I have with their kind and deadpan-faced superior.

"I know that I sound like I'm being intoxicated right now, but bare with me until I'm satisfied acting like one, okay?"

"I always know," Verina leaned even closer to my face as she whispered. "That's why I'm taking advantage of it."

My shenanigans with Verina aside.

Just by looking at the start of the Ordeal alone, I could see that defending the bastion will become much more challenging than usual for the first few couples of days.