Alex's fingers brushed against the book, its texture rough and ancient under his touch. Clutching it tightly, he turned and retraced his steps through the corridor, moving cautiously but urgently.
'Maybe this book will have some clues regarding this assessment.'
The memory of the shadowy figure propelled him forward, each step taking him farther from the terror he had just experienced.
After what felt like an eternity of navigating the narrow, winding passage, he finally saw a faint glimmer of light ahead.
'Thank god!'
Relief surged through him as he quickened his pace, practically stumbling out into the clearing. The sunlight was blinding, and he had to squint as he emerged from the temple's oppressive darkness.
He took a moment to savour the warmth of the sun on his skin, his heart still racing from the encounter. But he couldn't stay near the entrance for long. He needed to get to a safe distance, away from the temple and The Whisperer.
'If I encounter that thing out here where it's bright, I'm done for...'
Alex moved swiftly, making his way into the periphery of the forest nearby. Once he found a secluded spot, he pulled the book out from under his shirt.
'Please be something useful!'
Sitting down, he opened it and saw the same indecipherable symbols as those on the altar. For a moment, he was disappointed, but then the words began to shift and change, morphing into the universal language he could understand.
'Well that was interesting... anyway.'
Alex didn't question the transformation; he chalked it up to the examiners' peculiar methods and began to read.
The book detailed The Whisperer, the shadowy figure he had encountered, and the very target he had to assassinate. It explained its power to send whispers directly into a person's mind, coercing them into actions against their will.
'From how desperate it was to get me to open my eyes, it must not be able to attack someone who can't see it.'
Alex's hunch had been correct: The Whisperer couldn't directly attack someone who wasn't looking at it. The book confirmed this, stating that anyone who looked at The Whisperer would immediately feel their soul being sucked out and devoured.
'I might be onto something!'
Alex continued to flip through the pages of the book, but didn't spot anything else that would be of use to him.
It was all just some ramblings of other people's experiences with The Whisperer, but none of their documented experiences were as unsettling and scarily close to death as Alex's own.
They were all just stuff like, 'Oh, I heard some whispers in my sleep one night, and couldn't get another wink of sleep for a week straight after that!' or stuff like, 'I faced The Whisperer head on and I wasn't even injured!'.
Half of these accounts were very obviously fake.
'I need to remove any obstacle that could spell failure for me — all of those torches in the temple need to be put out, I can't risk being able to see anything at all.'
The less light there was, the lower the risk of seeing The Whisperer in the case that his blindfold fell off or something.
Although it would take some extra steps and time, which was steadily ticking down against Alex's favour, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Speaking of time, Alex looked at the countdown in his peripheral vision.
6 days 2 hours 17 minutes.
It had been nearly a full day since he had entered this simulation, and Alex thought he had actually made some decent progress so far.
Though this could be attributed largely to luck, as if The Whisperer hadn't basically given away its location, it would have taken Alex much longer to find this place.
'It's time to get started then. I have at most 5 days to prepare before I'll have no choice but to enter inside again.'
Alex stood up and started searching the forest for any useful materials.
He had formulated a somewhat decent plan in his mind to get around The Whisperer's pesky ability to kill anyone who sees it.
But he still didn't have any clue how he would go about killing it.