The instant my feet left the bark and struck the ground, I flowed forward like a shadow torn loose from the tree, sprinting toward the inner side of the dungeon—deliberately opposite the direction where the patrol guards slumped in their half-dead sleep—because while their eyelids drooped in careless ignorance.
They never realized that three pairs of dark red eyes had paused to stare at them for the briefest heartbeat before slipping away, leaving behind nothing but a crawling chill that they hastily blad on the night air, convinced no sane soul would dare approach this place unless they were actively courting doom.
Monts later, I stood just outside the dungeon’s gateway, still as stone, scanning everything one last ti with obsessive precision, refusing to miss even a fly out of place, because it was already deep into midnight and I knew Gustav would almost certainly still be asleep, vulnerable, unaware, dreaming whatever shallow dreams a creature like him was capable of.
I activated the X-ray Vision of my Cursed Eyes, my sight boring through the walls of the dungeon cell up to nearly a ter deep, and though the range was limited, the rough outlines revealed by structural mory were more than enough, because all I had to do was step farther into the already-opened gateway to expand my vision and descend into the underground tunnel beneath it.
I briefly considered using Dash, but abandoned the thought the mont my foot touched the damaged staircase, realizing that the deeper I went the tighter the space beca, the narrowness closing in like a throat ready to swallow whole.
What unfolded before my eyes looked like a half-abandoned construction site frozen mid-work, with insects crawling lazily over raw, unfinished walls and thick, layered cobwebs hanging everywhere, dense enough to blind an ordinary person just a few steps in, yet useless against my gaze as I moved carefully forward, scrutinizing every corner for traps.
There were none.
Luck, or perhaps inevitability, favored tonight, and with no traps to worry about and no alarms to disarm, I continued unhindered until a massive door lood before .
It stood taller than seventy-nine inches, crafted from tightly woven bamboo shoots packed so densely together that barely a sliver of the interior could be seen through the gaps, and after confirming there was no lock, I pushed lightly, just enough to slip inside without sound.
The sight beyond greeted with a suffocating stillness—six tall, unfinished cells clustered close together, each sealed with sharply edged bamboo doors, crude yet sturdy, large enough to cage children not yet grown, and the air inside was thick with humidity, the ground sared with mud, rot, and the unmistakable stench of feces that clung to the lungs with every breath.
As I walked toward the farthest cell, my eyes caught a familiar silhouette sprawled close to the doorpost, and upon closer inspection, relief washed over when I saw that everyone imprisoned alongside Tim were his so-called minions.
I exhaled quietly.
Earlier, I had worried that killing Gustav might provoke screams, chaos, guards rushing in before I could fully activate Cursed Charm, but now those fears dissolved, because minions were tools—and tools could be silenced.
Just as I stepped closer to Gustav’s cell, my body froze.
He stirred.
Gustav shifted on the ground, montarily waking, likely assuming it was just another guard making rounds before leaving again, and when his groggy eyes cracked open and landed on my figure, whatever he saw in that hazy, half-dreaming state must have resembled so grotesque illusion of six-eyed maggots, because he rely glared in annoyance before closing his eyes and sinking back into sleep.
’So he didn’t recognize , I realized with a faint smile. Or rather, he convinced himself it was nothing more than a dream.’
That alone told everything I needed to know—despite being exposed, despite being disowned, Gustav felt no remorse whatsoever, and that realization stripped away the final thread of guilt I might have felt, making what I was about to do feel lighter, easier, almost rciful in its certainty.
As I stared down at him, I swore silently to give him a death drenched in pain, torture layered upon torture, a perfect mirror to what he had once inflicted on , because last ti I had been the one broken and bleeding on the brink of death, and this ti I would return the favor in full.
’Even if the guards are still asleep, I reminded myself, I can’t afford to be careless.’
Standing before the cell, temptation surged through —to end it imdiately, to kill him where he lay—but reason pulled back, because sudden death would only invite noise, attention, complications I didn’t need.
So instead, I chose to test my new skill.
I squatted down and tapped Gustav’s shoulder lightly, once, twice, until he stirred awake with an irritated groan—and the instant his eyes fully opened and locked onto , shock exploded across his face.
He never got the chance to scream.
I had already activated Cursed Charm before the sound could escape his throat.
[Cursed Charm has been Activated]
His mouth twitched, managing only a broken sound—"...T—"
Then silence swallowed him whole.
A faint blue glow blood within his pupils, spreading outward as his body stiffened, every muscle locking in place as consciousness drained away.
’Since I can’t kill you personally, I thought coldly, I’ll grant you the honor of doing it yourself.’
Leaning closer, I whispered my command—three simple words.
"Kill yourself, brother."
For a fleeting second, sothing inside him resisted; his lifeless expression twitched, his body shuddered as the blue light in his eyes shrank into pinpoints, and then he rose to his feet, no longer truly alive.
The dungeon echoed with muffled screams that dragged on for hours, trapped behind bamboo and earth, until even the god of death finally ca to claim his prize.
[Hidden Quest has been Completed]
From the darkness outside, three pairs of dark red eyes stared back at the dungeon as it slowly disappeared from view, and the mont I was gone, five other pairs of eyes fixed themselves on Gustav’s ruined corpse before glancing around in silence, eventually understanding that their master had already taken what he ca for.
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