The First Victim

Damn, indiscriminate attack.

Lynch's heart hammered wildly.

Good thing I had the foresight to hide behind the rocks, otherwise I would have been killed or exposed. Now let's see... Wait, no.

Lynch's muscles tensed instantly, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. In the blink of an eye, he noticed several pale, ghostly spikes piercing directly through the heavy rock on the shore.

I can't block this.

In a flash, over a dozen spikes passed through the rock and appeared right in front of Lynch, covering his entire body.

He did not know the consequences of being pierced, nor did he want to find out. The spikes were so fast that before he could even react, his body had already made an instinctive response.

Ssh.

All the spikes plunged into Lynch's body without resistance. Lynch felt as if he could already sense the cold and eerie nature of the spikes.

A twisted and terrifying pressure radiated incessantly from the spikes, weighing heavily on Lynch's heart and making it almost impossible to breathe.

However, no blood flowed from any of the wounds. The spikes passed through his body as easily as they had pierced the stone, as if they were just piercing through a phantom.

【Nolan's Phase Fortress】, activated at the last second.

The spikes that missed their mark paused for a moment inside Lynch before quickly retracting. Only then did Lynch recover from the shock and have the presence of mind to notice the changes around him.

The poor mouse was hit by a spike and hung from it, twitching constantly. However, the spike did not pierce through its body, but rather buried its tip inside, while the spike itself expanded and contracted, as if absorbing something or injecting something into the mouse.

And Salin... Salin was gone.

At the last second, his body had suddenly exploded into a large swarm of fireflies that scattered in all directions.

【Authority, Dead Water, Ability, Pool Fireflies.】

However, the fireflies could not fly away.

The spikes in other directions had already retracted, leaving only the one that hit the mouse and the dozens aimed at Salin remaining by the lake.

Especially those around Salin; the spikes that had originally moved in straight lines suddenly sprouted countless finer branches from their tips, like tree limbs, forming a three-dimensional net that caught all the fireflies and stuck them fast.

Snap.

The twitching mouse suddenly went rigid, then its small body exploded into a mass of flesh. The spike that had pierced it lost its target and retracted into the center of the lake.

But Salin's situation was different. The fireflies filling the sky quickly returned to human form, and Salin was left hanging on the spike-net in a distorted posture. His torso was unharmed, but his limbs had been grazed by a few spikes; it was only a scrape, not a deep piercing.

After a moment of stalemate, a blackened dagger slid from Salin's sleeve, and he slashed fiercely at one of the main spikes.

The sound of the collision was like metal clashing. Despite his full strength, the spike remained undamaged. However, as if irritated, the spikes quickly retreated into the monster in the center of the lake, causing Salin, who was caught in the net... to fall directly toward the monster in the water.

"Ah--"

Caught off guard and with nowhere to push off, Salin let out a suppressed cry as he flailed and fell toward the lake.

Yet just as Salin was about to hit the water, he suddenly kicked his leg, his toes stepping onto the surface as if it were solid ground.

【Authority, Water, Ability, Wave-Walking.】

Using the lake surface to propel himself, he rose back up, quickly distancing himself from the monster in the lake. But he had barely risen when a black shadow suddenly shot over from the shore.

It was a long vine, moving with lightning speed like an arrow. Before Salin could react, the vine struck him head-on, and with another low cry, he fell back into the lake.

No, he didn't.

In the middle of his fall, the sound of metal striking metal suddenly rang out from the shore.

A multi-jointed whip resembling metal suddenly extended from the darkness, reaching Salin's hand like a last straw before drowning.

The vine twisted, preparing to change direction, but Salin had already grabbed the whip and used it to swing toward the shore. The whip then retracted into the darkness as abruptly as it had appeared.

Footsteps sounded. Salin landed successfully and quickly retreated into the darkness by the lake, while the vine, which had seemed alive, went rigid in the air before snapping and falling into the water.

For a moment, a gentle breeze blew, the grass swayed, and the lakeside returned to silence, with only an increasingly heavy atmosphere slowly brewing in the darkness.

Gurgle, gurgle.

As the sound of bubbling came from the center of the lake, the oppressive pressure suddenly ceased, and the spike-covered monster, which had emerged, dragged its bloated and eerie body back into the lake.

Peace returned to the darkness, the moonlight was like water, and the ripples were stilled. The camp remained as quiet as before, as if no one knew that in just a few seconds, at least four people had engaged in a lightning-fast clash by the lake, and although no winner was decided, it had almost cost them their lives.

No, at least Lynch knew.

His intervention just now was not out of misplaced kindness, but a decision made after careful consideration.

Although Salin was a double agent and not suitable for cooperation, upon careful analysis, his two known employers posed little threat to Lynch. Trinlais had not asked Salin to kill Selene, and Walker was relatively friendly.

Therefore, this person was the least threatening to Lynch, and keeping him alive was far more beneficial than not.

So Lynch had acted decisively, saving the man and running off without looking back.

He must not be discovered by anyone else, let alone the monster in the lake. As for whether Salin could survive, that would depend on his own skills.

Barely touching the ground, Lynch quickly retreated into the camp.

The lake was at least several hundred meters away from the camp. Salin's two cries had not disturbed the people in the camp; the workers were still patrolling normally, and the sound of snoring already filled the barracks.

Phew, this place is reassuring. Although it is fraught with crisis, at least it is more normal than the lakeside, which was comparable to a horror movie.

Lynch did not immediately return to the barracks but lay on the roof, watching with bated breath. He watched as a few fireflies crawled through a gap in a window, listened to a rustling sound like small animals crawling, and watched the surrounding shadows sway before everything returned to calm.

After waiting for a long time, confirming there was no abnormality, Lynch snuck back to the door. After a brief hesitation, he opened it and went inside.

There was no movement in the room. Lynch looked toward Judy's bed and could see her lying there in the moonlight.

Lynch breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed this girl hadn't been implicated by him. Lynch finally set his mind at ease; at least he didn't have to feel guilty.

However, just as Lynch walked up to Judy and leaned over to wake her, his ankle was suddenly gripped, and a great force flipped him over, dragging him directly under the bed.

What the hell.

I was just thinking about horror movies, and it happens immediately.

The speed was too fast; Lynch's brain didn't have time to react before he was pulled under the bed, and his mouth was covered by a hand.

However, Lynch did not struggle immediately, letting the soft body behind him cover his mouth and hold him. Seeing he didn't react, the person behind him loosened their arms and curled up under the bed with him.

The only person who could make Lynch's soul burn upon contact was Judy, the apostle of the Blazing Lady.

"It's safer here. I feel something extremely dangerous outside. Being here at least gives us one more chance," Judy whispered in his ear. "What happened over there?"

Lynch did not hide anything and recounted everything that happened by the lake: "In short, it was a four-way melee triggered by a monster."

"No, at least five," Judy whispered. "No matter how big the fireflies are, the light couldn't have reached here for me to see."

"So the light source at the beginning was artificial?" Lynch immediately understood Judy's meaning. "So someone discovered Salin's movements and used the light source to facilitate this encounter? Heh, it really was lively. Fortunately, it stopped in time and we weren't killed by the monster. By the way, do you know what that monster is? Will it chase us?"

"No. Based on your description, that is Glaaki, a very powerful mysterious creature. It cannot leave the lake, so don't worry."

Judy sighed softly and explained:

"Glaaki has a very long lifespan, at least several thousand years. It lives in the lake year-round, luring victims to the shore through the transmission of mysterious filth, then piercing them with spikes and injecting its own will into the victim. The injected victim gains the same lifespan as Glaaki but loses their own will, controlled entirely by Glaaki. They are also known as Servants of Glaaki. It's a bit strange; this thing is very rare, so how did one appear here? No one noticed it this afternoon."

"Could it have been created by the six people who died this afternoon?" Lynch recalled the information he had overheard. "Is this thing part of the ritual? What exactly is the ritual?"

"I don't know. The employer keeps it strictly confidential. It can only be announced when we reach the destination, which is the main tomb. Before that, only Jenna and Karl, the team leaders, know the details."

Karl Jones... The image of that vine in the darkness surfaced, and Lynch nodded.

"I understand. Then let's observe for a while longer. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the agreement with the Blazing Lady. I will do my best to sabotage the Swelling Daughter's conspiracy."

"Mm, the Lady does not doubt her own people," Judy smiled gently. "I'm reaching my limit, so I'll go back now. Thank you for chatting with me. After tonight's surprise, those people shouldn't take any action for a while. You should also hurry and get some rest."

Unfortunately, Lynch didn't rest well. He had a nightmare, dreaming incessantly of that pitch-black lake and the pale, ghostly shadows in the water, as if a voice was constantly whispering in his ear: "Come, come, merge into the lake."

When he opened his eyes again from under the bed, it was gray outside, as if covered in mist. A burst of chaotic shouting was coming from the courtyard outside the barracks.

Six workers had suddenly gone missing, and also meeting with misfortune last night was Salin, who had been saved.

His corpse, for some unknown reason, lay by the lake.