Chapter 19: The Traveler Who Strayed Into Hell

Once there was a traveler who loved wandering and exploring everywhere. One time, he stepped into an unknown realm. The surroundings were gloomy and melancholy, giving one a deeply oppressive feeling. The traveler was already extremely exhausted at this point, but had to rally his spirits to search for a way out. He raised his torch, made a mark where he stood, and began searching for an exit toward the left first.

The traveler walked steadily to the left, but as he went on he discovered that the road ahead was covered by an enormous spider web. Above the web, a huge spider crouched on the wall, seemingly waiting for prey to fall into the trap it had woven. The traveler hesitated over whether to use his torch to set the spider web alight, but feared the giant spider might suddenly attack him, and in the end gave up on that choice, returning once more to the marked starting point, and turned instead to searching for a way out toward the right.

This time the traveler kept walking to the right, but as he went on he saw many dried human bones scattered on the ground. Some of those bones still bore tooth marks left by unknown animals; it seemed there might be some man-eating beast here. The traveler had no choice but to become cautious once more, and began considering whether to keep going forward. When his eyes once again caught sight of the eerie skulls on the ground, he ultimately abandoned the idea of pressing on, and returned once more to the marked starting point.

This time he turned to searching for a way out upward. As he walked on, he saw that ahead there was only a bottomless pool of water left. The traveler peered carefully at the water's surface by the light of his torch, and saw that there was actually a giant octopus in the pool. It was truly incomprehensible—how could a creature that normally lived in the sea suddenly appear here? With a body that enormous, if it wrapped around him, the outcome was obvious to imagine. He decisively gave up on the idea of diving into the water to search for a way out, and returned once more to the starting point.

Only one path remained—searching for a way out downward. The traveler held up his torch and kept exploring downward, but as he walked on he discovered that he had actually returned once again to that marked starting point.

"How is this possible?"

The traveler cried out in disbelief, and once again followed the downward path forward without stopping. But just like last time, he returned to the starting point. The traveler calmed himself down to think, and once again walked toward the path on the left from the starting point—sure enough, he saw the giant spider web and the spider waiting quietly for prey to arrive.

"I really have returned to the same place."

The traveler muttered to himself, and reassessed the trap the spider had set. It seemed that to get out, he would have to choose one of three things: the spider's web, the unknown man-eating beast, or the octopus's pool. The traveler sat on the ground, took out some stored food from his backpack, enjoyed a good meal, recovered a little stamina, drew out the sharp dagger he carried, gripped it in his hand, and slowly walked toward the spider web.

The traveler arrived before the spider web, slowly raised the torch in his hand, and set the web alight. The firelight instantly scattered outward, burning along the veins of the web and illuminating the surroundings brightly. The spider crouching on the wall was indeed awakened by the brightness and heat of the flames, and in an instant it left the wall and leapt to the ground, landing right in front of the traveler.

The traveler hunched his body, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and stared fixedly at the creature before him, gripping the dagger in his hand even tighter. The spider had also now spotted its prey, and turned around to spew out many strands of silk from its abdomen, aiming straight for the traveler's position. The traveler keenly seized the moment when the spider turned, sprinted toward it, dodged the sticky strands by sidestepping, and in the blink of an eye had reached the spider's side. Without the slightest hesitation, he drove the sharp dagger down from above into the spider's head. The spider's body swayed like an uncontrolled puppet, then collapsed limply to the ground, motionless.

The traveler waited a moment, confirmed the spider was completely lifeless, then stepped forward and retrieved his dagger. After wiping off the sticky spider blood dripping from the dagger with a cloth, he resolutely pressed forward.

Carrying the joy of having defeated the spider, the traveler's steps grew lighter, and before long he had covered a long stretch of road. But when the traveler held up his torch and looked around, he began to feel something was more and more wrong. He looked down at his feet again…

"Ah! How can this be?"

The traveler cried out in shock once more—the mark he had made earlier had actually appeared beneath his feet again.

"Could it be that…?"

The traveler muttered to himself once again, lowering his head, but no matter how hard he tried he could not figure it out. He ran at full speed toward the path on the right, and the scene before his eyes left him standing there in stunned silence…

Those dried bones, and the skulls bearing tooth marks left by unknown creatures, appeared suddenly right before him.

The traveler furiously kicked over a pile of bones in front of him, and shouted into the empty air: "What thing is playing tricks here? Come out!"

The surroundings were utterly silent, with no response at all.

The traveler ran forward recklessly in his fury, until he spotted two beasts still gnawing on the corpses of other travelers. What kind of creatures were they? It was truly hard to describe their appearance with any words that exist in this world. One could only see that they possessed extremely long, slender tongues, which they were extending into the bones of the corpses to suck out the marrow. These things seemed never to waste a single bit of nutrition from their prey—should one call them extremely greedy creatures? Or extremely frugal ones? The two beasts were clearly very displeased at being disturbed during their meal, and turned their heads at the same time to stare at the traveler, green light flashing in their eyes, letting out low, guttural roars. The traveler once again gripped his dagger and assumed a fighting stance, watching the every move of the two beasts intently.

In no time, the two beasts lunged at the traveler together, one from the left and one from the right, simultaneously shooting out those long tongues straight at the traveler's neck. The traveler leaned slightly to one side, grabbed the tongue the left beast had shot out with one hand, and with the other hand holding the dagger, gave a swift slash that sliced that one beast's tongue clean off. The beast whose tongue had been cut fell to the ground struggling, letting out shriek after shriek of agony, with a dark black liquid continuously flowing from its mouth. The other beast, however, took advantage of that moment to reach the traveler's side, and its sharp claws raked a deep gash across the traveler's thigh. The traveler raised his other leg and kicked this ferocious long-tongued beast far away in one strike, then immediately hurled the dagger in his hand, which pierced straight through its body.

Before long, both long-tongued beasts had stopped moving. The traveler opened his backpack, carefully bandaged his wound, and once again sheathed his dagger and headed forward.

This time, the traveler's face did not show the smile of a victor; instead, his brows were tightly furrowed as he surveyed his surroundings.

"It's this place again! I know! I know! It must be that octopus playing tricks! As long as I deal with that octopus, I'll definitely be able to get out of here!"

After returning once more to his marked starting point, the traveler finally seemed to have found the key to the problem, and without the slightest hesitation, he laughed wildly and headed up toward the upper path.

"You ugly freak, I know it's you playing tricks! You're the only one left here, aren't you? It must be you—let me show you how I'll deal with you!"

The traveler cursed wildly at the octopus in the pool from the pool's edge, then plunged into the water with a splash, stabbing at the octopus's body over and over with his dagger. The octopus, however, did not move at all, letting the traveler's dagger leave cut after cut across its body…

The traveler did not know how many times he had stabbed the octopus before he finally stopped, gasping for breath, and looked at the octopus, which was now covered in wounds. It turned out the octopus had long been dead. Thinking about it, that made sense—how could a creature that lived in the deep sea possibly survive in this pool? The traveler sheathed his dagger and said to himself with a smile: "The last one is dealt with too; the exit must be just beyond this path." The traveler put his dagger away, slowly sliding it back to his waist. But the smile on his lips suddenly came to an abrupt halt at that very moment…

"No, this octopus was already dead long ago. In that case, it's not it! It's not it! But then, who on earth is it? That thing that keeps sending me back to the starting point every time? Where exactly is it?"

The traveler held his breath, dove deep into the pool, and kept swimming forward along the only small path at the bottom, trying to find the exit of this road. But when he emerged from the water's surface and hurriedly climbed ashore to look around…

The previous starting point had once again appeared before him! "Impossible!"

The traveler shouted in unwillingness, and ran toward each path again and again—up, down, left, right. However, the result was still exactly the same as before, with not the slightest change.

Ugh… the traveler finally stopped from exhaustion, clutching his heart, as if enduring an immense agony! What kind of agony was this?

Unlike the pain of a physical wound, this agony could not heal; once it began to be felt, it stayed with one forever.

Unlike ordinary pain of the heart, this agony would not gradually fade with changes in one's emotions, but seemed to be rooted deep within the heart, impossible to erase.

This seemed to be an agony that could not be destroyed or forgotten. This agony came from the weariness of one's surroundings and the bewilderment of being unable to find a way out. For a traveler, perhaps the greatest agony is nothing more than this! A brave man like him feared neither the spider that laid traps to lure people in, nor those marrow-sucking man-eating monsters, nor the incomparably huge octopus. The only thing he feared was the fact that, after bravely trying every path, he still could not change his own situation.

"There is no way out here! There is no way out here! No matter how much effort I put in, I cannot walk out of here! Cannot walk out of this place that fills me with utter weariness! This place is… this place is hell!"

The traveler knelt helplessly on the ground, clutching his head with both hands, screaming wildly, as if talking to himself, and as if speaking for someone to hear…

(End of Chapter)