Chapter 262: Mysterious Observer
The subtle silver rays of the luna dimly illuminated the world, except for a certain marsh, where its light struggled to penetrate.
In that very marsh, a silver-haired young man in his late twenties hummed a jolly tune.
It was as if the eerie shadows watching him in the distance were but insignificant insects.
Quite literally, they are...
"Hmm...it should be around here somewhere...come on..."
The young man looked around, sighing a few moments later.
"Have I been fooled by those online articles again? I swear if that BamboozleBug guy’s post about a Midnight Pixie being here is fake, I’ll complain straight to the em–"
It was then that the silver-haired young man’s foot sank a bit deeper than his usual steps.
The moment he looked down, his mood brightened.
"Ohh! There it is. Alright, BamboozleBug, consider yourself lucky this time..."
The man then proceeded to enter the damp den-cave.
Meanwhile, deeper inside...
"Just a bit more...just a bit more".
Hal’s instincts were screaming at him, "Leave now," they urged. He knew he was being willful by staying, but there were only five more cocoons.
He could leave without worries after!
And so, he ripped another cocoon open, revealing yet another rotten body, but this time of a monster, and then another, then another...
Just when he was about to open the last one, Hal involuntarily stiffened for a moment as he felt a gaze lock onto him from above.
He gulped, slowly looking up.
What he saw made all the hairs in his body stand up.
Above him, and peering through a small tunnel that he hadn’t noticed all this time, was the head of a creature only slightly larger than that of humans. Its pitch-black eyes reflected the dim light emitted by the black and purple crystals, piercing straight through his soul.
He instantly knew what the thing was.
A brief staredown later, Hal activated [Tailwind] and fled without hesitation, utilizing every bit of muscle he had developed in his lower body to sprint the hell out of there.
’F*ck!! F*ck that thing!!’
He had already prepared himself for its appearance, but encountering the Midnight Pixie face to face seemed to be an entirely different matter.
Its sinister eyes, its silent, unsettling aura...
’How dare they call that thing a pixie?! I say that’s a damned banshee!’
He ran as fast as he could, hoping to gain a bit more distance before his wind-elemental spell timed out.
The right path was quite long and narrow, but it was spacious enough for a human to sprint all out.
He should arrive at the cave fork soon...
There, he could play a few tricks that could hopefully allow him to escape. Hal couldn’t sense that the monster was chasing him.
However, he didn’t dare relax for even a second, rushing straight at the cave fork while his mind formulated a plan.
He switched one time to the vision of his [Spirit Sparrow], and there didn’t seem to be any problems there.
But then, it turned out that the path he took to the food storage room was longer than he expected.
Far longer.
In fact, it never ended.
The moment Hal’s [Tailwind] ran out, he immediately used all his gap-closer skills.
He [Blink]ed, [Licht Step]ped, [Zephyr Step]ped, used [Knockback] on himself, yet he still hadn’t arrived at the fork.
Hal’s heart sank, a grim realization settling in:
"No...there’s no way, damn it! When?!"
Was it when he locked eyes with the creature? Was that the moment he fell into an illusion spell?
"Right...black butterfly...there should be a black butterfly here somewhere..."
And there was, but this time, it was hiding right behind a crystal growth, staying absolutely still.
Unbeknownst to Hal, he had never left the room in the first place.
He was still staring straight into the Midnight Pixie’s ghostly face.
The creature crept out of the tunnel shortcut, this time utilizing its wings to descend, appreciating its new victim.
It was evidently delighted after seeing Hal’s handsome appearance closer, as the Midnight Pixie preferred beautiful specimens, believing in its subconscious that they tasted better, even though humans more or less tasted the same.
In the next moment, silk escaped its mouth, dancing like a snake as it began twirling around Hal, starting from his feet.
A minute passed.
Hal was now being held by the Midnight Pixie, half-cocooned when, suddenly, his eyes cleared, and he erupted into a [Flaming Outburst], though considerably weaker than Ennya’s.
He somehow managed to find the black butterfly in that long stretch on time!
Hal broke out into a cold sweat at the realization that he was almost turned into a packed meal.
Had he not laid ruin upon the entire stretch of the path leading to the storage room, he would’ve woken up helpless, unable to perform a single gesture.
Unfortunately, this only meant that he was free of the illusion.
Hal was still in the storage room with an S-ranked monster.
There was no notification that he killed the Midnight Pixie, so he was certain it was still alive.
Soon, the smoke cleared, revealing the figure of the nightmarish creature hovering five feet high in the air, its head tilting in a mix of confusion and curiosity.
Its prey escaped the illusion?
No matter...the human was right in front of it.
The Midnight Pixie just had to put its victim in another illusion, hide the butterfly farther and more carefully, and attempt to cocoon him.
The ghostly monster already had a specific scenario in mind and just had to catch the human again.
But then, before it could execute its simple but effective plan, a muffled, nasal voice sounded from above:
"Oh, so that’s how you’re doing it, huh? You might be a bit ugly, but your species is quite the talented bunch, I must admit..."
Hal and the Midnight Pixie inevitably looked up, spotting a silver-haired young man sitting in a relaxed manner at the tunnel shortcut, and he was watching them with a hint of amusement while pinching his nose.