Back drenched with sweat and heart pounding like a blacksmith’s hammer. In a faraway place, deep inside a dark passage painted with the smell of blood and feces, a 16-year-old paled-skin youth dragged himself forward with a flashlight in his hand. 

His arms trembled in terror, but a stiff grip over his torch kept scaring the nocturnal reptiles away from the path when beamed with luminance. With each breath, he was stepping towards impending doom.

Chills danced across his spine. His feet screamed 'run away', but an irrational strand of hope kept him going.

Furthermore, the walls of the tunnel release a wisp of vapors. His skin was itchy and his mind being dosed with nausea. A realization loomed over, reminding him that the situation has turned even more toxic.

His throat dried like a desert while his skin felt up a biting sensation. He dug out a little more than a half-filled water bottle from the sling bag on his back. Pulled the cap out and took a sip.  ~gulp~

After quenching his thirst and realizing the corrosive nature of the fumes, he picked up his pace.

After strolling for half an hour, the youth halted abruptly and began mulling over his next course of action. He glanced around to check for any incoming threats. 

A quick observation through his peripheral vision assured him that he was still not dead. He soon came closer to the corrosive wall of the passage and began touching them, as if he was caressing. Warm as a quilt and tender like the insides of a body.

Wasting no more time, he took out a small palm-size carbon-fiber handle from his bag with strange initials of 'ᆖॐᆖ' on it. As soon as he dabbed it, the handle seemed to recognize its owner. Subsequently, a sharp blade jumped out. The blade was forged from a lustrous metal.

He held the dagger backward and with a quick motion; he made a deep slash in the wall.

Apparently, his intention was to cut the wall as clean as possible. He kept slicing; the tear in the wall kept growing until it became as huge as his own size. 

He cleaned his blade and put it back inside his bag. Eventually, he carefully placed his leg inside the cleavage he created and made his way through the hole with restrengthened caution.

---

Somewhere outside this grim rabbit hole, four teenagers chatted amongst themselves. All four of them seemed to be resting in a place that looked like a deserted graveyard. Also, they were sitting beside a huge stone tablet with words carved on it; they could not discern. 

Amongst them, one was playfully looking at an object in his hand, which looked like a metal ring. Apparently, it was a ring made with the same metal as the dagger carried by paled-skin youth previously. Another fellow from the group saw him looking playfully at the ring, and couldn’t hold back anymore.

"Brother Wolf, can he bring the amulet from the tablet?"

"Little Bran, he has no choice!" Wolf smirked as he finally turned to his brother. "That is… If he expects me to return his cheap ring."

"Is that worthless ring really that good?" Brandon inquired. "Why do you want it if it's worthless?"

"Umm… My bad! Wrong choice of words!" Wolf shook his head, "By 'cheap', I did not mean 'worthless'."

He added. "In fact, this ring is far from worthless. I can't put a tag on it, but my rough estimate says that this ring is more valuable than 100 grams of pure gold. But that idiot holding onto this... is what makes its value plummet to the ground!"

"100 grams of pure gold!" All three guys' jaws dropped, they uttered. "Are you fucking kidding me!"

"You know I never joke around money, fellas." Wolf's eyes again stuck on the ring. "This ring is forged from the CZ-alloy, a by-product of nuclear refineries... similar to Plutonium 238."

Another youth with a gloomy face and curious eyes rolled his eyes at him. His expression told that he was scrolling through his memories to validate his last statement. He blurted. "What are you talking about? CZ-alloy was available over a century ago! They were still creating that rare thing??"

Wolf explained. "Nope!! they don't create it anymore. It was a breakthrough as the only usable metallurgic by-product of nuclear energy. But now, we have stronger 'Tensile Silk Fibers' these days!"

"Anyway!! it's still a hidden treasure." Wolf continued, "Though, I'm really curious about where did that freak found this? And how come there are no initials on such a thing."

"We have to confirm from Creed when he comes out. Maybe his father stole it from somewhere before he died. In case he doesn't come back, it's fine too," the fourth guy named Chuck finally spoke with an evil smile. "Since there are no initials, we can't be tracked when we sell it, right?"

"Yeah, lets for another 30 minutes, then we leave. There is no point in waiting outside an elder's tablet for this long. It's been over three hours already," Wolf laughed menacingly as he looked at the tablet again. "If he doesn't come out within 20 minutes, then he's probably turned to a paste."

While the four chatted amongst themselves, on the spur of the moment, the words and scriptures on the stone tablet started producing a faint crimson glow. Their focus immediately shifted in unison.  

"He is coming b-back..." Brandon's eyes had trouble believing.

"Nice! He is a moron, but he is fast...," Wolf said as he maintained his distance from the tablet, also gesturing the other to get back, "And here I thought the tablet would have killed him... persistent freak!"

Soon, a figure materialized, sprouting out of the tablet wall. Whole-body steaming like a sauna, also smelling like rotten carcasses. 

Blood was pouring down out from his eyes, nostrils, and blisters. His mouth exhaled a pungent vapor that burned his lips dry with moisture. His pale skin looked like it was about to fall off with just a peel. His clothes were nothing but rags, through which several claw marks were evident on his body. 

The moment he exited the tablet; he vomited everything in his stomach. His knees lost their strength as he fell to the ground while clutching an emerald amulet in his bloodied fist. Blood kept gushing out from every orifice of his body uncontrollably.

"Holy crap! This mission is a grand success," Wolf said with an evil grin. "You didn't die and found an amulet too...you are such an angel!"  

He came close to him and snatched the amulet forcefully, without a second thought.

"I wanted to ask about your ring, but the core has put a heavy toll on you. I wanted to extend our acquaintance but I guess it's game over for you."

Wolf added. "And I suppose, you won't mind giving this to us as a present before dying, right Creed?"

"ring…. Plea….se… my ring…" Creed flapped his mouth, but words stuck inside his throat, "give it ba...ck!"

"Eh, what was that?" Wolf then put his ears close to his body, then mumbled. "Did he just said he wants to give me the ring as a present?"

Wolf turned his head towards other bozos standing away from the body while pinching their noses shut.

"Ah, yes! Of course, he wants to give it to us!"  Covering their noses, one of them said. "Creed would never want his belongings to go to waste. He is not that heartless!"

"Alright then, Creed, I love you..." Wolf muttered as he got up, "Pass my regards to your father when you see him! You are so generous!"  

They ripped him off with everything except for a water bottle and his personal dagger while removing every probable trace of themselves.

They all soon vanished from the vicinity while his battered body slowly decomposed there for another hour, soaked in his own blood and vomit. 

All of a sudden, his eyes opened wide. He couldn’t help but look at the departing blurry figures. He tried to shout louder, but instead of actual words, blood gushed. Later, his mouth opened and closed, perhaps yelling curses.

"I'll get back at you, fuckers! Just wait."

He pulled himself from the ground, stumbling a little before regaining balance. He picked up his water bottle with his bloody hands and pulled the cap off the water bottle.  

He emptied the entire bottle on his head with whatever was left inside, to soothe himself a little. Though blood still draining out from multiple lesions in his body. 

Even with multiple broken bones and paralyzing pain, his eyes were stern and determined. He knew that this expedition in the Elder's tablet was not as wasteful as one might think.

Drenched in acute pain, he mumbled gibberish. He held his knife, ejected the blade with a slight push. A split second later, he stabbed himself in the calf and reopened a deep thumb-size wound. Blood gushed out like a fountain while several blisters burst open.

The amount of pain that had stacked over the broken body of a 16-years-old, was just too much. He cried until fluids burst out of his mouth and nose. He was cutting his calf, almost as if he was possessed.

After a minute of self-torture, the whole wound that appeared to be sealed re-opened. He put his finger inside and pulled something out. Apparently, it looked like a golden egg.

"That was a close call!!" Creed sighed, "No way I'm going to let those bastards get their hands on this."

He put the egg aside for the time being. Along with the egg, he also pulled out a black-colored pill. He stared at the pill for a bit with a grim expression. Later, he put it inside his mouth and started chewing.

"Fuck! It's my last beta-pill," Creed mumbled with a gloomy look. "But I have lost too much blood" 

»»

Stamina boost [76%]

Lysosomes secretion boost [89%]

Metabolism boost [88%]

Free Radicals Enhancement [60%]

Temporally restructuring the DNA to mimic the state of homeostasis.

Recovery Time 10-hours

»»

Notifications such as the above popped up inside his head one by one until his mind went blurry. He succumbed to a deep slumber.