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Chapter 15: Time For A Stroll

"That\'s right, there\'s nothing that can be done"

This guy..

I stood up and started walking towards the corpse lying on the ground.

"Then why don\'t you bite off your tongue and die already?"

If you truly believe death is the only thing left then die. Oh wait, let me kill you.

Wouldn\'t wanna waste that EXP.

"For someone who talks about dying, you sure are doing everything you can to live?"

I said as I looked towards the corpse.

The man averted his eyes unable to speak.

Proven guilty. What? What am I talking about?

You see, these corpses have bite marks on them, not one from some beasts but small ones.

Basically, these guys ate these corpses to keep themselves alive.

That\'s right, this is their food, these corpses. That\'s what they are given to eat.

What? How could they?

Man, death by starvation isn\'t nice. If you are locked in a room with no food, you will eat anything to keep yourself alive, even the dust on the wall, your excretion.

This was the biggest reason Elf was wary of them and sat beside me and also why her brother left her in a place like this to make her change her mind.

Back on point, I need to leave. I am done staying here.

This place is making me feel sick.

I already knew I was gonna be here because of the novel but being in a cage really makes me feel sick.

"..What are you doing?"

The elf asked as my hand approached the corpse.

Ignoring her, I pulled out the femur from its corpse. It\'s one of the strongest bones. The feeling of digging into cold flesh felt disgusting.

\'It would work as a good weapon..\'

Yup, even dead has its uses.

Thinking to myself I took out another piece of bone. A small piece of bone, in order to open the gate of the cage. I knew a bit about lock-picking.

However, I can\'t remove the chain handcuffs that are binding my hands and legs. There\'s is no keyhole in them.

Weird handcuffs, honestly.

I looked back at everyone.

"You wanna rot here, rot. If you wanna escape from here, follow me. Your choice."

The Elf is gonna follow me, that much I was sure of. She wanted to leave this place, unlike others who acted as if the world\'s ending.

What should I say? If I were to believe in the novel then Elf wouldn\'t follow me but... now that I have seen her in person I know it better, she might be kind but not the dumb level type of kind.

I know better than anyone about people who will do what needs to be done to survive and she is one of those.

And honestly, that\'s all that matters.

Unlike the protagonist, I had no intention of trying to sway the hearts of others in this cage. It\'s true they played important roles in the novel later down the line but honestly, those roles can be given to anyone.

Even without them, I can make things work out for me, I can simply use someone else.

Everyone is replaceable, after all.

That\'s just how the world works.

I don\'t have much time to waste, only 3 months. 3 months to achieve all the things I came to from this hidden dungeon.

I don\'t want to waste even a single day.

After that, I started walking towards the gate and entered the bone inside the keyhole trying to open it.

clink~

The metallic sound of the gate opening entered my ears.

"Anyone coming?" I asked one last time as a formality.

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(Elf\'s Pov)

"Ugh!"

Falling face flat on the cold floor because of the push that came from my own brother, I let out a pained voice.

"I hope staying here will cure your stupidity" My brother spat those words out as he locked the gate and left.

I gritted my teeth.

Slowly propping myself up, I looked around.

..It took a few seconds for my brain to process and I understood what my brother meant.

Corpses are lying in the room, corpses with bite marks on them, not of the beasts but of ..a person.

The moment I saw the 5 individuals who were sitting in their own feces and urine, their frail and weak bodies, I knew what had transpired.

I felt my stomach churn as if I could vomit anytime.

Then I looked at a lone kid who was sitting in the corner, in a cleaner place than those 5.

Looking at his condition it was clear that he has been caught only recently.

But..

His eyes looked even more dead than those 5 who had already given up on being a person by eating their kin.

I closed my eyes and opened them again to look at him.

...

!

...What the hell is this?

\'You are so annoying\' the voice of a certain girl rang into my ears. I felt nauseated but I did my best to not show it.

Remain calm, I need to remain calm.

After taking deep breaths, I slowly walked towards him and sat beside him.

After a few minutes, I started to converse with him, and soon after he asked

"So, when are you getting out? or are you here to check up on us? Is there a spy who has slipped in? Are you here to weed them out? Must be nice, joining the team with demons."

Those words dug into me. For a second, I forgot how to breathe.

My body quivered as I remembered the events that transpired in my life until this moment.

And afterward, I started telling the boy everything about me with my wavering voice.

There was no need to tell him everything but ...after what I saw it was simply the best to remain transparent with him.

Besides, escaping from here alone would be impossible, I needed help and for that, I first needed his trust.

So, I told him everything about me.

Afterward, I asked him to tell me about himself.

"My name\'s Noah and that\'s all you need to know"

His monotonous voice reached my ears.

\'As expected\'

I thought to myself. He really is going to be hard to deal with.

Well, let\'s try to ask him once more before giving up but before I could say anything, a raspy voice reached my ears.

It belonged to a human.

"You can\'t escape. Outside the cage is filled with lots of traps that activate for anyone who is wearing these chains, and there are beasts around here too, escaping along with these chains is impossible. These corpses that are lying here ...all tried to escape too. As far as I know, I have never heard of anyone escaping this place."

...

He isn\'t wrong, if there are beasts roaming around then facing them would be hard. These chain handcuffs block mana and aura, reducing a lot of our strength.

..Is it impossible to escape from here?

I couldn\'t help but question myself.

clank~

The metallic voice entered my ears as I looked at the human named Noah. He started walking towards one of the corpses.

And the next instant his hands dug inside the corpse as he pulled one of the bones from it.

A chill ran up my spine as I watched him do so.

His face remained apathetic, his eyes unconcerned as he started to walk towards the gate. I bit my lip.

He reminded me of her, so much of her that it made me feel nauseating.

In less than a minute the gate opened.

"Anyone coming?"

..How did he unlock it using a bone?

Without waiting for our answer he started walking away.

I also stood up in a hurry to follow him.

Going with him without a plan or knowing much about him sounded reckless but for some reason, the confidence he exuded was enough for me to make my decision.

Not only that but ...I didn\'t like the idea of leaving him alone.

Also, there was a strong feeling inside me that told me if I didn\'t follow him right now, I wouldn\'t be able to escape from there ever.

But before leaving.

"Are you all not coming?" I asked

"And die in the process? No."

I know I should stop but I still decided to speak

"So, you are going keep eating ..these corpses?"

I asked

".."

The man didn\'t reply.

I wanted to convince them to come with us but Noah wasn\'t waiting, he had already left and I needed to follow before I lost sight of him.

Biting my lips, I started walking in his direction.

If I had time I would have tried to convince them but right now my priority is Noah.

I don\'t want to let it happen again.

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"What in the ..."

I stood watching the sun at its zenith. I followed Noah and now we are standing outside.

After 4 hours of walking, we are now out of the demon\'s region.

"So, do you have any place in mind?"

"H-how?"

I asked unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"Hm"

Noah tilted his head with his usual expression.

"How did we get out of there!?"

I still couldn\'t understand.

"..By walking?"

No, that\'s not what I am asking!

"Traps, beasts, guards, how did we not encounter even one of them!?"

It was unnatural!

If not for the chain handcuffs binding me I wouldn\'t have doubted that we were simply taking a stroll rather than escaping!

"..Because I knew the whole map of the prison and simply chose the best route?"

..What? How? How did he acquire the map? No, more than that...

"T-then why didn\'t you tell them! If you told them about this they all would have followed us! It would have been easier to convince them!"

I shouted, unreasonably.

I already had guessed it.

No, I was certain of the type of person he was already.

I knew shouting at him wasn\'t the right thing.

But I still did.

My emotions felt conflicting.

"Hey, I gave them the option to rot or to follow. They made the choice. Don\'t blame it on me. Also, I asked you if you have a place in mind we can go to, when will you give the answer? The sun is gonna go to sleep, I need a destination." He paused before continuing

"If you want to save them, go do it yourself. Other people\'s lives aren\'t my responsibility"

His emotionless, monotonic voice made me feel angry but also helpless.

"...I know of a place," I said in a resigned tone.

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(Noah\'s pov)

Oh, man!

That was a good stroll!

Yes, a stroll.

With the help of the system, it was a breeze. Of course, the system doesn\'t make any real-time map, so there was always the chance of encountering beasts or a guard.

But fortunately, we didn\'t.

Now, it was time for the elf to be useful.

You see, there\'s a place for all the people who are hiding, gathering forces and stuff.

I do know where the place is but introducing myself to them compared to an acquaintance of theirs introducing me to them. Doesn\'t take a genius to know which one\'s easier, now does it?

crackle crackle~

The voice of fire reached my ears, near it were fishes being cooked by the elf.

You see it was already night, so we decided to call it a day and found this cave in the forest to take some rest.

With these chain handcuffs, it was hard to move fast and comfortably. So, it was kinda tiring.

"It\'s done"

The elf said with a grumpy tone.

She has been like this for a while now. Well, I knew the reason.

It\'s gonna be a pain.

I was intending to keep ignoring them but I guess I got no choice.

"You do understand you suck at hiding? How about helping out instead? You kineaters"

"..What are you on about?"

The elf asked with a frown on her face unable to understand my words but I didn\'t reply to her.

A few seconds later, a man and a women appeared. One of them is a human and the other a beastfolk.

"H-Huh.." The elf muttered completely taken aback by the appearance of two of her ex-cagemates.

The man scratched his head as he opened his mouth.

"How long have you known?"

Piss off.

Why do I gotta explain myself?

As I ignored him I took a bite of the fish ...

Man, it tastes shit.

Guess, raw cooked food isn\'t really that great.