Chapter 117 117 : Creepy Tree
"Fuck you, you possessed dead shits! Where the hell did you hide the book?" Ethan's voice cut through the forest as he looked around the dark trees.
His patience was running out.
"I'm not spending a month stuck in this year," he continued, glaring into the woods like the demons might answer him out of annoyance. "I want my internet. I want my games. There's a new version dropping soon!"
The forest gave him nothing back.
Only the wind moved through the branches while fog drifted between the trees. Ethan stood there for a moment, hands on his hips, scanning the darkness.
It seemed he needed another method to find it. Ethan closed his eyes briefly and opened the system interface in his mind.
Thirty thousand Blood Points.
That was more than enough to buy something useful.
A list of items scrolled past his vision as he searched through the darker sections of the system shop. Most were weapons, rituals, summoning tools, things designed for combat or domination.
Then something caught his attention.
A small, shady item.
[Bloodhound Compass — 200 BP]
Ethan read the description.
An unstable artifact created through blood divination. When activated, the compass needle will point toward the object you are searching for.
Limitations:
• Only works once.
• Disintegrates after use.
• Accuracy depends on the clarity of the user's intent.
• May attract unwanted attention.
Ethan tilted his head slightly.
"Shady," he muttered.
But it was cheap.
And it would work.
He purchased it.
A small rusted compass appeared in his hand, the glass cracked and the needle trembling slightly like it was already uneasy about existing.
Ethan flipped the lid open.
"Alright then," he said quietly.
"Let's go find that stupid book."
Ethan glanced once more at the compass needle, still trembling slightly in his hand. The description mentioned something about unwanted attraction, but he didn't dwell on it.
Whatever came, he could deal with it.
The needle shifted and locked toward a single direction.
Ethan followed.
He moved through the fog between the trees while the compass guided him deeper into the woods. The forest grew quieter the farther he went, the branches twisting tighter overhead until the path opened into a small clearing.
At the center stood a massive tree.
Ethan stopped.
The trunk was huge and warped, its bark split and twisted into shapes that looked disturbingly deliberate. Knots in the wood formed hollow eyes, and a deep crack in the trunk curved into something that resembled a wide smiling mouth.
The tree looked like it was welcoming someone to jump inside it.
Ethan looked down at the compass.
The needle pointed straight at the "mouth."
He slowly looked back up at the tree.
"This is one of the nastiest trees I've ever seen," Ethan said while staring at the twisted trunk.
The compass needle didn't move. It still pointed directly at the hollow mouth carved into the bark.
He sighed.
"Well… no better options."
Ethan stepped closer and climbed into the opening.
The moment his foot touched the inner wood, the world shifted.
The darkness inside the trunk stretched unnaturally, swallowing the forest behind him. The air changed. The smell of damp leaves disappeared, replaced by the cold scent of soil and old stone.
When Ethan stepped out the other side, the scene was completely different.
He stood in the middle of a cemetery.
Gravestones stretched in every direction as far as he could see, crooked markers rising from the ground while dead trees leaned over the graves like silent watchers. Thick fog crawled across the ground, swallowing the lower halves of the tombstones.
Ethan looked around slowly.
"…Is this some kind of Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole?" he muttered.
He glanced back at the tree he had stepped through, now just another dead trunk standing among the graves.
"Did I arrive in a cemetery dimension or something?"
The ground answered him.
A deep rumble rolled beneath the soil, followed by a violent tremor that ran through the entire graveyard. The earth cracked open in jagged lines as if something below was pushing upward with force.
Graves burst apart.
Wood splintered. Dirt shot into the air as coffins broke through the surface one after another, rising halfway out of the ground before collapsing open.
An arm punched through the soil.
Then another.
Hands clawed upward, fingers tearing through wet dirt as bodies forced their way out of their graves. Rotting corpses dragged themselves free, bones cracking as they stood upright.
More graves erupted.
Dozens of dead bodies rose through the fog, hollow eyes turning toward the only living presence in the cemetery.
Ethan stood in the middle of it all with his hands in his pockets, the tremors shaking the ground beneath his boots.
"Oh… this again."
Another grave exploded beside him as a corpse climbed out.
The dead began closing in from every direction.
"Don't you guys ever get tired of this routine?" Ethan said, completely unimpressed.
More hands burst from the soil behind him as the cemetery filled with movement. Hundreds of corpses clawed their way out of the earth, their broken limbs dragging through the fog as they slowly surrounded him.
Ethan glanced around at the growing crowd.
"You really don't need all this dramatic entrance nonsense," he said calmly. "You're weak as hell."
The corpses continued advancing.
"Just give me the book," Ethan added, brushing dirt off his sleeve, "and I'll be on my way."
*****
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