Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 919

Capítulo 919: Nightmare Mimics

The snowfields were sparse of enemies. Not only was this land struck by famine but the dangers are more natural dangers than those that come from being killed by beasts.

Even in the nightmare, this didn’t change.

Monika spent this time talking about tea parties and several tales she’s witnessed through the Nightmare.

Of course, all tales that she could speak about without giving away information.

“You weren’t here before but oh jeez there was a period where the Nightmare had chests. But not just any chest, they were mimics. The moment someone approached to open it, it would swallow them whole and spit corrosive acid all over their body.” Monika laughed.

“But it wasn’t the same every time. They changed the way the chest was trapped. Sometimes mimics, sometimes there were holes in the ground right before the chest. Sometimes an assassin was waiting just behind the door in stealth so the moment you drop your guard, they’ll strike.

“I’m pretty sure it racked up quite a lot of kills during that period. But once people started to ignore the chests, the strategy wasn’t quite effective and served as a waste of energy. So the Nightmare stopped using them.” She shrugged.

“Ah, there was one girl though. An elf from the capital. Said something about each chest having infinite potential despite knowing it was a mimic. She died A LOT. And I mean, A LOT even for my standards.”

“Even after the Nightmare stopped adding mimics?” Alice’s smile twitched.

“Yep, her’s is the only area that still has chest mimics in large quantities. Practically around every corner.

“She’s used most of her points into defence in order to open as many chests as she can between rests. A strange girl but can’t deny that it’s rather amusing to some degree.” Monika twirled some snow using her finger.

She created a rough visage of what the elf girl looked like but Alice didn’t have much interest.

She was more focused on staying alive and getting rid of the boss in this area.

“Speaking of which, why are there visages of the past here? Am I supposed to learn about history or what?” Alice asked curiously.

She hadn’t expected to meet ghosts of the past who suffered from famine.

Monika froze.

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah ghosts of the past. I saw a few survivors who lived during the time of the great famine. They interacted with me just fine and I even managed to bring them some food. I even found a record of someone who went insane.

“But from your reaction, I don’t think this is supposed to be the case.” Alice asked as Monika frowned before shaking her head.

“Nope. Having visages of the past here means that the owner is especially in tune with what happened in the past.

“The depths of their trauma. These visages can either represent themselves, the people around them or even the choices they wished they could’ve made. Regrets to put it simply.

“However, visages usually appear when… the trauma is especially deep. And that becomes their Nightmare, not yours. So the fact that you saw visages… You’re sharing a space with someone else.

“Which in itself is strange since I didn’t find anyone else in this zone aside from you.” Monika hopped off her staff.

Tapping the pommel against the ground, snow was blown away from her as golden threads sunk into the ground.

After a moment, Monika sighed.

“Yep, there should be no one who can manifest visages near you. Unless this is your memory, something is wrong.”

This was an issue. If the Nightmare was manifesting visages, it’s clear the system was faulty.

Either that… or something/someone has infiltrated this area.

No good, she had to investigate this situation.

Not as a guide but as someone who doesn’t want the cogs to be misaligned.

“Unfortunately I have to take my leave here. Don’t worry, I’ll still help you anchor down the bosses so they don’t change.” Monika winked.

“Goodbye, hope you trip.” Alice parried a spear stabbing up from below and fired several spells towards the snow woman hiding behind a tree.

“I suppose they do say some people show affection through violence. See you soon~” Monika waved, transforming into a streak of butterflies.

With Monika finally gone, Alice could finally let out a sigh of relief.

Having someone who can read and even affect the cogs was stressful.

Especially when she didn’t know what Monika’s goal was.

Why was she asking these questions? Why was she talking about this specific story?

And knowledge… Knowledge was a dangerous thing.

Sometimes just knowing about it could bring about great changes, even if she didn’t plan on using that information.

Take for example, between two people, one knows the other’s absolute weakness. One that will make it so that they can’t fight back.

Even if the person doesn’t intend to abuse that weakness, just knowing about it has already shifted the dynamic between them.

It has already created the hierarchy where one could never rebel against the other.

Freedom stripped.

Perhaps it’s the same with the black chains of fate.

Knowing too much and trying to act against it, only forces the hierarchy to change.

‘What if they want to change fate but not be tied down by the black chains? How will they achieve that?’ Alice couldn’t help but wonder.

A part of her was beginning to formulate theories ones more. Countless ideas that passed through her mind. Yvael’s influence.

This inquisitive nature of hers was a double edged blade.

Curiosity was good. But too much would backfire.

She had to make sure she didn’t let this desire spiral out of control or else she’ll become a prisoner of the black chains.

Killing the snow woman, Alice made her way to the next camp.

Injecting the embryos, she upgraded her stats one more, prioritising her main stats for the moment.

Thanks to Monika’s stories, she had a rough idea on how the Nightmare wanted to kill people. To force them to drop their guard.

Therefore, she had to treat everything as a potential danger, even the ground or air.

Shaking her head, Alice exited the strange space and proceeded towards the boss arena.

Since entering this zone, the arena had always been obvious. There was only one path that she could travel down.

The closer she got to what she presumed to be the arena, the more crowded it become. More beasts were roaming around, more traps.

But it was all things she had already seen thus didn’t pose much of a danger when it comes to potential deaths.

If the ground collapses, she’ll climb back up.

Strong gusts of wind threatening to knock her into a chasm? She’ll stab her sword into the ground and anchor down.

An influx of beasts? She could deal with it easily.

The Nightmare even attempted to have one seemed to be a chest. Alice fired a few spells from afar to make sure it wasn’t a mimic before scouting the area around the chest.

As expected, an assassin hiding in one of the trees.

Inside the chest was a small pile of Embryo’s an a strange silver nugget.

An item she’ll keep for now and ask Rolo about it later.

As she approached the arena, another branch appeared right before the entrance.

‘Must be a difficult fight if a checkpoint is here by the door. Is the Nightmare truly that kind though?’ Alice was a little doubtful.

What could possibly be up with the next fight that a branch was required to be stationed so close? Was it to keep things fair?

Shaking her head, Alice carefully made her way to the camp.

Seeing that there were no monsters, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Hm?” Blinking her eyes, Alice frowned.

She couldn’t resonate with the branch?

Why?

Unable to find an answer, Alice tried to sync up with the branch once more.

*CRRRR!

The sound of roots snapping could be heard as a giant wooden arm burst out from the ground.

“!!!”

Alice wasn’t able to jump back in time and was caught by the grip.

“You’ve got to be f*cking with me!” She tried out as she tried to kick the arm but the grip was firm.

The branch was a mimic!

With her body restrained, Alice tried to gather energy to fire a spell.

*BANG!!!

“GAH!!!”

She was slammed into the ground without hesitation.

Roots dug into her flesh as wood scraped against her bones.

The monster’s grip tightened and Alice watched as the ‘branch’ crawled out from the ground before splitting its torso in half.

It was going to eat her.

“F*cker…” Alice cursed as the beast tossed her into the mouth.

*CRUNCH!!!

Waking up from the darkness, Alice panted as she could still feel the pain of wood crushing her bones.

Looking around her, she noticed that she was at the previous camp and let out a sigh before anger boiled in her veins.

The only safe spot in the Nightmare… And it dare turn it into a mimic!?

Another death.

Even if she was careful, she had to make sure she was hesitant about everything around the. Even the campsites now apparently.

However, that was also her own blunder. She had just reminded herself that mimics might appear yet she still tried to rest without care.

Dismissing the negative thoughts for now, Alice made her way back to where she had died in order to get revenge against the branch beast.

###

Monika shifted through the layers of the Nightmare. She checked the overall structure, making sure that nothing was wrong.

Yet despite the overall structure of the Nightmare being unharmed, hell, practically untouched, something felt off.

There was a thin trace of energy.

Abyssal? No.

Rather…

“Divinity.” Monika mumbled.