In the decades before, visual media had developed at a frightening pace, and it had also become disturbingly easy to encounter scenes of death. Yet, even as monsters increasingly poured out of its gates, the human casualties became almost an accepted fact.
Even so, seeing a person die, right before your eyes was a different matter altogether.
"Ahhh! Rusee, Rusee is dead! My partner is dead!"
"Over here! Someone's dead! Please help! S-save me…! You monsters, don't come any closer!
"I… messed up… am I really… dying like this…?"
The trainees stared blankly ahead in what they assumed would be their final moments. Those that fell first splattered their blood on the bodies of other trainees. There were a handful of strugglers who were still sane, crawling along the ground as they tried to flee, but their legs would give out and they would collapse, having broken down completely as a result.
He however, remained.
Get a grip.
His legs hadn't given out. His body hadn't frozen in fear.
Because he had seen this before.
He had already seen people torn apart by monsters.
Survive first.
And those people hadn't been strangers.
They had been his parents.
But nothing could compare to that moment when I saw with my own eyes my comrades dying.
"Grrrrr!"
Even worse, the monsters seemed even stronger now. They could burst forth from a standstill and move almost too fast to be seen, grabbing the fleeing trainees and rending them to shreds.
Crunch. Crack.
Within the dungeon, they could hear the sound of flesh being ripped and bone breaking.
In the middle of this hellish chaos he struggled.
He pulled the body of a nearby fallen trainee toward him, jumped underneath it, and pulled it over him like a blanket when it suddenly jerked away violently.
Whiiish, crunch!
The trainee was eaten by a monster, the same body that had included him moments ago.
"Grrrr!"
Their eyes met.
He would die if he hesitated, and he rolled the moment their eyes lit on each.
Boom!
The monster dropped down in the exact place where he had stood only a heartbeat before. It was a blur of speed.
"Grrr…?"
The creature appeared to look at him in a puzzled way, as though it had not expected its meal to escape.
Running won't work.
But his body lay in pools of blood. He rolled again, deliberately smearing his body with blood, remembering that these are what monsters prefer: new blood.
The gamble worked.
"Grrrr!"
The monster attacked a different recruit instead.
This was only a temporary solution, he needed to find a way out if he wanted to stay alive. But in truth, the hunters of Raw had already begun to withdraw in waves, leaving the dying trainees behind, not even glancing back at their corpses.
We're being used as bait, including me.
The thought was absurd.
Back then, they said trainees were the future of the guild, but when the going got tough, they threw the trainees to the wolves.
"Aaah! Help me! My leg! My leg's been torn off!
"I don't want to die… I don't want to die…!"
The screams never stopped. It was the second, third, tenth person.
He ran to the gate, and then stopped.
Damn it…
The monsters had already begun to form around it, but going there now would be to run into death.
He kept his eyes open, maneuvering into areas with fewer monsters in sight.
Then,
Boom!
Within a few paces a monster of a creature had reared before him; its bulk made him feel that defeat was inevitable.
No. Not yet.
He wouldn't die here, even if he couldn't kill these men, even if they were his parents' murderers.
That much was unacceptable.
That was followed by a desperate struggle for survival.
Screams echoed everywhere.
Less than 10 of the dozens who entered were still alive. Blood sprayed and pooled, making this a living hell from which the dead can never escape.
Even so, he desperately attempted to hold on.
"You useless bastard! You block them! I'm the guild's future, !"
The trainee tried to push him forward to save himself, but he pushed the man back.
Splash.
At times, he would hide among the piles of corpses to avoid the monsters' gaze.
Although, eventually, it became apparent.
…This is the end.
There was simply no way to survive.
He was the only living human left in the dungeon.
"Grrrrr…"
Dozens of monsters were surrounding him. They didn't rush. It was like savoring the last mouthful when the belly is full and not craving.
He lifted his head and looked.
The sky was also stained red, with cracks in it like a broken window.
"So this is… how I die?"
He wanted to deny it, to laugh it off, but it was hard to do so, with blood smeared all over his body and the iron burning raw in his nose, and bitter metallic air all around.
The monsters drew closer.
If they attacked now, he wouldn't even have time to react.
Then something strange happened.
Why… aren't they attacking?
The monsters stopped as well, retreating one by one, conscious of something terrible happening.
"…Grr…"
"…Grrr."
This was cleared up later.
Text appeared in front of him.
[You have met a hidden condition.]
[One has activated the preparation left behind by Nasus.]
Hidden condition... Nasus's preparation? Don't tell me...
The word awakening was on his tongue.
Before the enormity hit him.
Ruuuumble.
But the earth had opened beneath.
"AAAAH!"
His body fell into blackness.
Consciousness returned slowly.
Something cold was brushing his face. With strained ears, he thought he could hear a slow trickle of water.
Opening his weighted eyelids, he was met with stalactites dropping moisture from their tips onto his skin from the ceiling.
He sat up, groaning to himself, but his body was fine. He must have fallen without harming himself, but he had fallen.
There was no time to dwell on it.
He scanned his surroundings carefully.
Nothing.
No monsters in sight.
Only then did he take stock of his surroundings and realize that he appeared to be in a very odd cave that kept widening.
It felt artificial.
He was about to draw back again, but he could not help going on. The advice of common sense might have told him better, but the words danced before his eyes.
[You have fulfilled a hidden condition.]
[The preparation left behind by Nasus has been activated.]
The hunters had a term for this phenomenon: messages. Messages, they said.
Awakening was close.
He padded slowly down further in the cave, which only seemed to get deeper and deeper.
I was soon gasping for air from the cave and from the dried blood in my throat, but I trudged on.
We waited here for a while, and something appeared.
It was so enormous that its identity was obvious as soon as you saw it.
"…A castle?"
It was, he found, a castle of sorts but not of the ostentatious sort, built out of fine stone. It seemed to grow in greatness as he approached.
Once there, he placed his palm on the gate; he didn't need to push.
The huge doors opened by themselves.
But he could only gasp at the beauty of the interior.
However, once he entered, he found the inside of the castle was as large as the outside.
All of this would take ages to explore.
Then he saw it.
A lavish throne.
And seated upon it,
A skeleton.
Ordinary, except for the magnificent crown clamped on its skull.
Crown… skeleton…
Hammer explained it was most like an undead monster he had seen: a skeleton.
Which meant it wasn't a living monster.
Then could this crowned skeleton be Nasus?
This was common knowledge until then.
Those who can find relics in dungeons tend to have a higher chance of awakening traits.
If this was Nasus's legacy,
If the being seated on that throne truly was Nasus,
I have to take it.
As he approached, goosebumps formed all over his body, as whispers echoed in his ears.
, Come closer…
But his desire to wake up, get stronger, and avenge his parents was far greater than his fear of death.
Clenching his teeth, he moved his trembling legs forward.
Finally he reached within arm's distance of the figure and he extended his hand.
Then,
Its eyes glowed bright red.
A bright light burned into his eyes. He tried to turn away but a bony hand gripped his wrist.
He struggled against the grip without success.
Panic! Had it always been a monster?
Just as he was about to lift his leg to deliver the kick, an advisory appeared.
He froze.
He lowered his leg and stared.
The red glow faded.
He rubbed his eyes and read again.
[You have obtained the legacy of Nasus, the 13-Star Black Mage.]
[You are awakening the trait Nasus's Black Magic (SSS).]
[Awakening in progress... 1%... 2%...]