My Guardian System: The Trader

<Host, can you specify how the entrance looked like when you entered this place?>

The trader suddenly asked him.

"Okay."

Jem revealed a frown as he tried to remember what happened at that time.

After a few seconds of remembering, his mouth finally twitched as he slowly opened it.

Hah~

A sigh departed from his mouth.

"Sorry, my focus was all about escaping and hiding at that time. So, I can't remember about it. But, I did notice one thing."

His voice was like a mutter as he was speaking.

"It was when I entered a large hole, which I believed at that time was the entrance of a cave."

"When I entered, I happened to notice a slight distortion in the space, exactly at the entrance. But I'm so scared to mind it at that time. Countless beasts were chasing after me at that moment. Their stomping noises gave off an unpleasant feeling that they were just a few steps behind me. In my mind, if I make a brief stop, I'm afraid they will reach me and become their hapless meal."

<I see. But, a distortion?>

"Mhm!" He nodded.

<Hm, this sounds terrible than I expected.>

There was a noticeable change in the trader's voice as it said it.

"Is there a problem with it?"

<There's a high chance that the host had entered an active labyrinth.>

"A-a labyrinth?!"

<It is a more dangerous place, more dangerous than any high-grade dungeon.>

Jem felt something bitter at the tip of his tongue upon hearing it.

"More dangerous? No way," he muttered in a downcast face. "That entrance is not a cave entrance? But an entrance to a labyrinth? A more dangerous place?" Jem wanted to shout to reject such a claim. But it was unreasonable, so he shook the thought.

<Since there is a distortion, that is likely the case.>

The trader explained to Jem all that it knows. He realized how bad of a situation he currently has.

If it was as the trader said, then his plan to leave here is nigh impossible.

"Bad news indeed."

Jem muttered with a shadow cast over his face. His knowledge about high-grade dungeons was just to the extent of understanding how dangerous it was. If it was about the labyrinth, he only knew as far as the trader's explanation to him.

That's why Jem wasn't entirely convinced. But he was so worried. Worried to the point that it made him want to go crazy, though he disregarded such thoughts and went to calm his clamoring mind and emotions. These two parts of him were contradicting each other.

Being alone in this place made his mind go crazy. Perhaps he was already since he was talking to himself. Is the trader even real? Or his mind just tricking him.

Isn't this one of the symptoms of a person with a mental problem? That they heard a strange voice talking to them.

There was a possibility that the trader was only his hallucination.

Perhaps he was already crazy. Then again, how to explain the appearance of the knives and daggers. The unusual increase in his Ascendance Points, and there are many other things.

He wondered if those things were also his hallucinations. But soon, his eyes were shut open.

If those things were only his hallucinations, then how about the wounds and the black arm?

Right.

There's no way all of these were just his hallucinations. No doubt that the trader was real. Though he could not explain what it was. It suddenly appeared before him when he was dying.

<So, host, are you willing to listen for the good news?>

While Jem was in deep self-counseling, he suddenly heard the trader's inquiry.

Right. There was still that, his reliever.