Karma ran toward Rita as she fell, barely managing to jump under her to soften the landing.
"Damn it.."
He quickly and gently laid her on the ground, then tried to wake her up.
"Rita..! Rita, wake up..!"
He shook her for a good while before giving up. He checked her pulse, expecting the worst.
She was still breathing.
He sighed in relief.
"Where the hell even are we?"
Karma looked around. The room was empty, with nothing in it but two doors: one big and menacing, made of wood, the other smaller and far less intimidating. He made his way to the smaller door and, after some hesitation, tried to open it… to no avail.
"What the-"
Despite his best efforts, it wouldn't budge. He finally gave up and went back to Rita. She looked troubled. He sat down and rested her head on his thighs.
"I should wait until she wakes up before doing anything.." Karma said to himself, eyeing the ominous wooden door.
Hours passed. Rita was still sound asleep, and so was Karma, until a powerful, unbearably loud noise shook the whole room. Suddenly, Ren and Eric flew out of the small door. Something big was hitting the wall from the other side, though he couldn't see it. Then it stopped.
"Holy shit.." The words escaped him.
————
The group was finally back together. Ren, Eric and Karma explained what each of them had gone through and how they had ended up here.
They sat in silence, each thinking about what they could learn from it all. Before anyone could speak, Rita woke up.
It was sudden. She didn't say a word and quietly looked around.
"R-Rita!" Karma shouted. "Are you okay? What the hell was that?! Why did you just go and touch that thing?!"
Rita didn't answer. She just stood up and said:
"We should keep going."
Ren froze. Something was off. Her tone, her expression, and her sudden reckless decision right after waking up were all out of character, as far as he could tell.
Carefully, he asked:
"Is there something wrong..?"
Rita glanced at him, then turned toward the wooden door.
"I just want to get out of here as fast as possible."
Karma objected right away.
"No way! You just woke up." he shouted. "Plus, that door gives me the creeps.."
Eric nodded.
"He's right, Rita. Besides, Ren and I just got here. We need a break too… We're exhausted."
Slowly, Rita sat back down. She sighed and apologized.
".. Sorry, I just really want to get out of here.."
The group sat in a circle. Eric was tired and went to sleep. Karma was somehow the liveliest, trying to talk to Rita, asking her questions and making jokes, perhaps just to annoy her.
Ren was scared.
He kept stealing glances at Rita, who answered Karma's questions rather vaguely and stared at her tablet. He tried to look at it, only to see a clean, wordless piece of stone.
'Huh.'
He wondered whether that was normal or something to worry about. Then he decided to check his own, remembering the light that had come from his hands as he unlocked the small door.
[Name: Ren Gray]
[Title:]
[Skill: Instinct Lv 2, Primitive Stab Lv 2, Awkward Lockpicking Lv 1]
[Level of growth: 0]
[Achievements: 1]
[Awkward Lockpicking: The ability to cheat locks by skillfully using miscellaneous tools to compensate a lack of key. This is a crude and clumsy version of this skill
Rarity: Common]
'So I did get a new skill… and the other two leveled up? Is it like in those games where you earn EXP by using skills?'
He spun a few plausible theories before his mind drifted back to Rita. After thinking it over for a while, he decided the best thing he could do was sleep and recover some strength.
——
When they woke, Ren and Eric met up with Karma and Rita in front of the wooden door. They examined it. It was just a wooden door, carved with beautiful, meaningless patterns: circles inside circles inside circles…
Despite how ordinary it looked, the group couldn't shake a sense of dread.
"Are you sure we can't just.. go through the other door again..? Maybe you guys missed an exit in that room.." Karma suggested, quietly taking a step back.
"To fight those giants? No, thank you," Ren refused at once. "And we didn't miss anything. It wasn't a very big or decorated room." That shut Karma up.
"Are you scared..?" Eric asked innocently.
"M-me? Scared?! I would never be scared of a door! I'm not scared of anything..!" Karma said with an awkward laugh, then fell silent as he realized his haughty mask was no longer convincing, if it ever had been.
Rita let out a quiet laugh, then said calmly:
"There isn't any other way out. The exit is here."
"How do you know th-" Ren began, but he was cut off as Rita pushed the door open.
They walked inside. The room was dark. They took a few steps forward, and the moment they were all fully inside, multiple torches lit up around them.
"Well… that's usually not a good sign.." Ren said.
"Why? Does it mean something?"
Ren looked at Eric, not expecting anyone to actually ask.
"Oh, um, well, usually in video games-"
Before Ren could finish, Rita jumped back and screamed as loud as she could:
"WATCH OUT!"
Ren looked at her, confused.
"What-"
Just as Rita got clear, the ground began to shake. The wooden door had vanished, leaving nothing but a wall in its place. Eric quickly grabbed Ren and threw him aside.
"Gah-!"
Ren gasped as his back hit the wall. He looked up as something crawled out of the breaking ground.
It looked like a snake, but far bigger than any of them, probably longer than a big apartment building. Its body was covered in obsidian-black scales, except for its head, where they were somewhat silver. Its teeth were so big that its mouth couldn't hold them, it had horns on its chin, sharp metallic thorns covered its body, and saliva dripped from its mouth.
It screamed, and the force of its breath sent bones flying past them.
And just like that, the fight began.
Rita called out to Eric and ran to the front, circling the monstrosity to confuse it. Karma summoned his tablet and used it as a shield as he ran toward the snake. Luckily for him, it was too focused on Rita and Eric to pay him any attention.
Ren stared at Rita for a moment before acting.
'How did she know..?'
He turned the question over and over before finally making his move. He took his screwdriver out of his pocket, ran toward the beast and jumped onto Karma's back to gain some height.
"Hey-"
Karma tried to say something, but Ren was too focused on holding on for dear life to the beast's spikes, and on not getting skewered by them, to listen. Carefully, he climbed step after step, sometimes getting stabbed in the legs or feet, though not deeply enough to stop him.
Eventually, he reached the snake's back. There were fewer spikes there, but still a considerable number of them. He walked slowly and carefully toward the head and started climbing again. When he reached the top, he plunged his screwdriver straight into the snake's head while it was still chasing Rita and Eric.
Or at least, he thought he did.
The moment the metal met the creature's scales, it bounced right back.
The snake paused.
It stopped chasing Rita and Eric and whipped its head around with all its force, hurling Ren at the nearest wall.
"SHI-"
Ren's body crashed into the wall. A loud crack echoed through the room for everyone to hear. He dropped to the ground as the snake rushed to finish him.
He tried to move, but no matter how hard he tried, his body stayed limp.
Ren managed to look up just as the snake's tail came down to crush him.