BXBX NOVEL Chapter 115 Preview To His Awakening 3 (Shakir's Tale I)
"old man Shakir, how is the Dungeon connected to all this".
Just like how he had an intuition that a terrestrial being is beyond what is happening to their city, Ricus was very quick to believe the intuition of Shakir despite him being retired.
Shakir\'s body had trouble keeping up with his thoughts, he wanted to spill out everything to Ricus as fast as he could, but the pressure of thinking that something might have happened to Dana kept his mind shaking uncontrollably.
Despite the speech challenges Shakir was facing, he still forced himself to speak to Ricus, telling him everything he knows that could lead to the tribulations they currently are facing. He had to, as long as Dana isn\'t back yet, he had to push himself to the limits.
"Ri... Ricus. This feeling I am having, this tingling feeling crawling on my skin, I have felt it all before. Fear that has you paralyzed, heat that has you sweating without moving. I have felt everything before".
"where did you experience it?....., tell me, which of the dungeon is it?....."
Edevin is surrounded by all kinds of dungeon, especially the ones that keep on producing monsters no matter how much it is cleared. As time went on, they began to give the Dungeons names to identify them by.
"is it the sufmerf dungeon, the weybal dungeon, the cursed dungeon, or the..."
"no, it is none of those".
"which is it then, I need you to tell me which dungeon you are talking about".
"it...., it is the....., the sutgeo dungeon".
"the sutgeo dungeon?..... Old man Shakir, are you sure about this".
Ricus asked sounding surprised at the Dungeon Shakir had made mention of.
The Dungeons he had called were all dungeons with high rank, dating back to the time the city had just been founded.
The one Shakir said, was also a very old dungeon with its origin made known by the first adventurers who were sent to the land.
It was old, but there was nothing special about it like the other dungeons.
The only monsters that ever sprouted out of the dungeons, were Orcs and goblins measuring E, and the highest level of monster found in it is a D rank monster.
The Dungeon\'s rank itself is meant only for beginner level adventurers below F to E rank. Any higher than that, would be them wasting their time.
The only reason why it was named is because it was one of the oldest dungeon surrounding the city, its rank however is nowhere near its counterparts with the same lifespan.
"old man Shakir, are you certain you are calling the right dungeon".
"yes..., that is the Dungeon, it is where I saw it".
Ricus was starting to wonder if Shakir is becoming delusional due to his old age. Because if he wasn\'t, why would he mention a Dungeon meant for beginners.
How can the crisis covering a whole city have its source spawning from a low rank dungeon?. It made no sense to Ricus, that is why he had to once again confirm that Shakir was calling the Dungeon he wanted to, and did not mismatch his words.
There is also the statement of, where I saw it. Ricus has to put aside his doubts and further pester Shakir for plausible answers.
"old man Shakir, tell me, what did you see in the Dungeon, what".
"before I answer that, tell me, which Dungeon did Dana and her classmates go into".
Ricus knew what dungeon the kids were in because he had personally attended to them, due to them having the presence of three A ranked adventurers around.
He remained silent and still. What is he supposed to tell him?...., that the Dungeon Shakir fears is the same Dungeon his granddaughter went into?.
Telling him that would only further heighten Shakir\'s worries, making it nearly impossible for Shakir to cooperate with him on the information he has.
Ricus was right on what state of mind Shakir would be put in if he finds out, what he did not do right however was not saying anything to Shakir. At the very least, he could have lied to him to put his mind at ease.
"why are you not responding Ricus?...., why is your face like that?...., do not tell me....."
"old man Shakir, it is not what you think alright, the kids are in safe hands no matter what dungeon they are in. As long as they are with the Dire Hammer members, no harm will come to them".
"no, no, no they are not. In the face of what is about to befall on us all, no one is in safe hands, no one".
"you have to tell me for me to know. If you don\'t say anything, how am I supposed to know what and who it is you are talking about. Panicking will not save the children nor will it help us in any way".
"calm yourself down old man Shakir and tell me what i need to know".
Tired of Shakir throwing his tantrum around and overreacting without releasing any information, Ricus yelled at him to get him to calm down and explain the situation in an understandable way".
"okay, okay".
Shakir now calming down, began to tell Ricus his story.
"it happened back when I was only ten, I went into the Dungeon with a party of five. back then, I was an F rank and only served as their resource carrier".
"the Dungeon you are talking about, is it the sutgeo dungeon".
"it is. The party consisted of F to D rank members, and were only allowed to go into a low rank dungeon. The party successfully cleared the upper floor dungeon, moving themselves down to the lower floor. It was then that I saw it".
"what...., what exactly did you see".
"we saw, A red cocoon".
"a cocoon?...., are you sure".
"i can never forget the events of the day that turned my entire life around. We had climbed down the stairs to venture down into the lower floor, we went as deep in as we could. The stairs we were climbing down on was unstable, leading to its eventual collapse and dumping all five of us deeper into the Dungeon".
"and it was there..., it was there that we saw the red cocoon".
"is the cocoon the only thing you saw in there, or was there anything else"
"no, the cocoon was the only thing there. What we fell into, was a deep dark tunnel with no light to shine the way for us. Luckily, we had with us a mage who casted a light type spell to allow us to see in the darkness".
"when we layed our eyes on the cocoon, we were enshrouded in dreadfulness and our minds clouded in despair".
Ricus noticed the change in Shakir\'s facial expression the further in he went with the story. His already pale face now lacking in sufficient vitality, fear and anguish was all that remained in his drained out eyes.
It almost felt like Ricus could feel the life draining itself out of Shakir\'s body, leaving him in an almost death state.
Still, Ricus had no thoughts of stopping old man Shakir, not when there are thousands of lives at risk. He had to continue going even at the expense of Shakir\'s death.
"old man Shakir, did you see what was inside the cocoon, did you get a good glimpse of it".
"it was a monster in the form of a boy, with its body folded together".
A monster in the form of a boy?..., Ricus thought. Shakir\'s description does not really narrow down what sort of being they are dealing with here.
Granted, they now know what race it belongs to, but what specie of monster exactly. All monsters were once small before they end up growing tall, towering above most humans.
"old man Shakir, do you have any other form of description that can narrow it down?..., like does it have wings?, horns, or the color of its skin?..., anything at all other than what you just gave".
"It..., it had a small horn protruding from the center of its head, and it\'s skin was red. I couldn\'t see its eyes because it was closed".
"what about wings?...., does it have any of that".
"no...., no it doesn\'t".
Ricus was adamant on knowing if it had wings, because if it does, then that would classify it as a winged type monster.
The only type of winged monster capable of causing a crisis like this, are the dragons or a behemoth. Legendary type monsters with knowledge of them only seen in books, and the Dire Hammer coming across a lesser ranked dragon.
There are those who do not believe in the existence of dragons beyond lesser ranked as they have not been seen, but not Ricus. He has seen all sorts of shit during his days of adventuring.
Not believing in something simply because it hasn\'t been seen, is like saying we have no view at the back of our heads when all we needed to do was turn our body around to see what is at the back of it.
The same thing can be said for monsters written down in books. They cannot be seen, yet records of them exists. It was clear that all that is needed to see them, is search in the right direction.
Now that Ricus knows that it\'s a monster without wings, that rules out the possibilities of it being a dragon.
"old man Shakir, how did you and your party survive an encounter with this monster".
Old man Shakir is here with him now telling him the story of what happened, that means they had to have somehow survived an encounter with the monster.
"not all of us managed to survive the encounter".
"then how many did".
"just one, and that was me".
"how, how did you survive".
Ricus for sure knew Shakir was strong, but back then he was just a kid with an E rank badge. It does not make sense for only Shakir to have survived when the others present there were stronger than him, his next words however puzzled Ricus even more.
"by not attacking it".