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TOSDAG Chapter 27: A Trap for a Monkey
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 21:37:41 +0000 UTCThird Person P.O.V
As he descended using his flight technique to slow his fall, everything around Leek trembled slightly from the minor cave-in he'd caused.
The Saiyan had to admit that perhaps his idea may have been a little hasty, or even extreme, but considering all the variables, the response time, the overall situation, the fact that he wouldn't have survived that fight, and that perhaps those beasts might have tried to follow him through the tunnel if he simply ran away, he believed his decision wasn't completely wrong either, or at least I have hoped so.
It took him no more than 25 seconds to reach the bottom of the shaft, and although he had been in situations that had been more annoying and/or dangerous before, squeezing through such a narrow space hadn't been particularly comfortable, so when his feet finally touched solid ground, he let out a brief sigh of relief.
At least that was until he realized he couldn't see anything at all, a complete darkness surrounded him, there were no light sources or those strange glowing stones that illuminated the rest of the ruins, so he raised his hand and, with a quick application of his ki, created a small sphere of energy that illuminated the place.
"Whoa." The Saiyan gave a low whistle and a short exclamation as he finally saw his surroundings clearly.
This place wasn't excessively large or ornately decorated, but two things immediately caught his attention:
First, the five skeletons that were scattered on the ground.
And second, the fact that this chamber, unlike all the other places he had seen, had a specific design, because while the tunnels or chambers he passed through with Huyan Xiong and Ye Shuo when they entered were simply uneven stone paths, this one had carved patterns and drawings in the stone, along with a kind of stone throne where one of the five skeletons he saw was located.
"This doesn't look like a throne room; it's very small, perhaps a chamber for secret meetings?" He said as he looked at both the drawings and what remained of what had once been people.
It was strange for him not to feel fear, anguish, or pity when he saw the skeletons.
That was what a normal person would feel when seeing something like this, right?
He'd seen creatures die before his eyes before, even at his own hands, like that pack of giant gorillas that attacked him when he arrived in this world, or that pair of something behemoths something he'd annihilated on his way to these ruins earlier.
But those were demonic beasts that had attacked him, it made sense that he wouldn't feel anything watching them die or finishing them off himself.
But the skeletons he saw in front of him before were living people, so why didn't he feel anything when he saw what was left of them?
Walking until he stood in front of the first skeleton, he stared at it for a few seconds while trying to find an answer.
He didn't believe this was because he was an insensitive person; after all, he'd experienced different emotions since waking up in this world: joy, pity, anger, excitement, worry, etc.
"It must be because I don't know them at all." He said finally.
Although it could also be because he was a Saiyan now; as individuals and as a warrior race, Saiyans lived with death constantly, and although they weren't emotionless beings, as Bardock had shown by constantly saving the life of the woman who would later transform into his wife, or when he risked his life to protect Monite, Muesli, and Granolah, they would hardly be moved by the death of strangers, even worse if it had happened so long ago that all that remained of the victims were only bones.
After all, even pure-blooded Saiyans, who could be considered those with "the purest of hearts," like Goku or Broly, would hardly shed tears at the sight of the remains of some stranger on some planet.
In the end, the Saiyan shook his head from side to side, deciding to put the matter aside and focus on something more important, he had noticed that these skeletons wore rings on their fingers that emitted a sensation similar to that of the two interspatial rings he himself wore on his fingers, so he bent down and removed the ring from the body before inspecting it.
"Very well, let's see what we have here." He said, injecting his energy into the ring to examine its interior.
He found it curious how these artifacts worked, given that his own energy wasn't exactly the same as that possessed by those who normally used these rings. At first, he thought he wouldn't be able to use them.
However, it seemed that what most influenced their functioning was willpower, while his ki served more as a means of communicating it.
It was curious, although, in his opinion, they would be even more convenient if they had a little more space.
"So… plants?" He wondered as he "looked" at the ring's contents, the space inside was a little larger than the ones he was carrying, but not too much, and most of what it contained were different types of plants and flowers.
But the problem was that from what he could sense, all these plants had already withered for a considerable amount of time.
He knew that time passed more slowly inside rings, so they could preserve things like food and perishable materials much better, but even that had its limits, and from the looks of it, these people had been here much longer than that amount of time.
So, after deciding to go to a corner and discard all these plants that no longer had any value, he finally found something that could actually be useful to him.
A silver short sword, a half-worn spear, a small dark green crystal that emitted energy similar to the spirit of the Behemoth he defeated, and a silver bracer that had inscriptions similar to the one on the sword.
Leek wasn't entirely sure of the quality of these weapons or their level. After all, he still had a bit of difficulty sensing the ki of inanimate objects like weapons and armor, but considering that skeletons still emitted energy in some form, that meant they must have been strong in life, right?
And if they were, then surely the weapons they had, even if they were secondary ones, must have been at least passable.
Leek wasn't really sure about this, but he decided to at least equip himself with the weapons and armor, because even if he didn't use them, they wouldn't be in his way and could provide him with some extra protection, something he wouldn't refuse.
So, after placing the rest of his items inside the ring and placing it on his finger, he put the bracer on his right arm and the sword on his waist.
"I feel like an RPG character." He said a little excited, though, after a few seconds of embarrassing poses, he finally managed to control his excitement and continue the search.
And after 30 more minutes of looting, he finally moved on to the last skeleton, the one sitting on the small stone throne.
"Well, since this is the most conspicuous, it must have better stuff than the others, right?"
Leek could say that the loot collected so far was… good, maybe? He wasn't really sure, considering the fact that he couldn't tell the level of the weapons and items collected, but so far, in addition to the weapons from the first ring, he had a suit of armor he'd put under his clothes, along with some weapons all stored in his new rings: axes, crossbows, hammers, more swords, spears, and so on, as well as some shiny ores similar to the green one he found earlier and some rolled-up scrolls he couldn't read.
"Excuse me." He said after removing the skeleton's armor, and taking the ring to repeat the same process he used with the others.
"Wow." A flash of surprise flashed in Leek's eyes when the first thing he noticed was the size of the inside of this ring.
This was by far the largest of all, being a little over three times larger than the previous largest ring he had found on these skeletons, and since that previous ring was almost twice the size of the two rings he'd been lent when he left Glory City, that meant this ring had at least six times more space than those two rings, which was very good news.
The problem was that all his enthusiasm was extinguished when he realized this ring only contained one object.
Leek raised his hand, and a navy blue orb appeared in his palm, with some inscriptions the Saiyan couldn't understand.
"Is there really only this much?" The young man wondered, looking at the sphere and inspecting it with his ki sense, but besides a faint trace of energy, he couldn't identify anything else.
If he was honest with himself, then Leek had to admit it was a bit disappointing, though he supposed that this ring itself was already a good enough loot.
"No, let's not assume the worst, I don't know anything about the items in this world, who knows, maybe this thing could be a legendary item or something like that, it can't be stored in the ring of the guy who seemed to be the most important person here and be something useless. Yes, I'll ask the city lord and his family to study this thing before jumping to conclusions." The Saiyan shook his head a couple of times before storing the object once more in the ring where it had been.
"Very well, then, so now where shou-!!" Leek was contemplating which path he would take next between the two exits he saw when several of the patterns inscribed on the chamber walls began to glow.
'This can't be good.' He thought as he sped toward one of the exits of this stone room, but whatever was happening was faster than him, and when he was a couple of steps from the exit, the chamber was flooded with a blinding brightness that forced Leek to cover his eyes.
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Third Person P.O.V
████████ felt the inscription pattern on one of the ritual chambers that had been marked activate and mentally nodded, satisfied that this time his plan had worked as he had hoped.
Leading the boy through the corridors by controlling the demonic beasts to cut off certain paths was simple, but sending such a large number of beasts in his direction to force him into the tunnel and end up in the room with the inscription pattern took a little more effort than he initially thought, although with his goal now accomplished, he could say it had been worth it.
The boy was quick in both thought and action, and that had allowed him to escape the dark chameleon before falling into the black lake, but this specific pattern was one of the best in these ruins in terms of activation time and range, ensuring that a miraculous escape, as had happened before, wouldn't happen again.
And coupled with the fact that the boy now had several materials, weapons, and tools that would be useful to him, he could say this was the best possible outcome.
There was only a little more left, just a little more, and he would be free from this prison to begin his journey again to save the world from the Sage Emperor.
He felt regret for what he was about to do, but it was necessary; only he could defeat an enemy of this caliber, so he strengthened his will, ready to do what had to be done.
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Third Person P.O.V
The glow lasted only a few seconds, and when Leek was finally able to see his surroundings again, he realized he was in a completely different place than he had been before.
The place had gone from a relatively large and spacious stone chamber to an even larger one with a faintly glowing lake and a small island in the center.
"Teleportation? The inscription patterns can do that too?" The Saiyan wondered as he took in his new surroundings and extended his ki sense as far as he could again to get an idea of how far his position had shifted, mentally scolding himself for being so careless.
He had relaxed and let his guard down after obtaining some treasures, besides that, he also had to admit that the inscription patterns had proven to be much more versatile, useful, and dangerous than he thought at first.
In a way, it reminded him a bit of the Fūinjutsu from the Naruto series, and since he had no idea how much reach an expert in this field could have, it would be best to be careful with this branch of the study of the spiritualists, at least until he was fully able to detect them with his ki sense and knew the basics about them or he might regret it in the future.
After all, the last thing he wanted was to end up sealed, weakened, or something similar after falling into a trap because he hadn't been able to defend himself or identify an inscription pattern.
When he returned to Glory City, he would have to ask if there was anything similar to the Uzumaki clan, because if there was, he would need to take classes with them.
But all those future plans fell by the wayside when his ki sense showed him that he was now less than 100 meters from the energy signature of who he believed was Hong Yue Mu.
"Really?" Leek could hardly believe it, as he looked in the direction where the man should be.
At one of the exits, there were what looked like stairs, and the direction they were going seemed to be the same as where the energy signature was.
Had those inscriptions really sent him so close to his objective? Were they marked with coordinates to connect to this place? Or had they responded to his desire to fulfill his goal?
Leek didn't know the reason, but at this point, there was no point in thinking about it, he could still feel Huyan Xiong and Ye Shuo's energies, and although they were moving at a good speed, the Saiyan estimated it would take them at least 30 more minutes to reach the Hong Yue family elder.
But if he caught up with him and followed the path of broken jades he had left, then that time would be reduced, and they could immediately return to Hong Yue Zhou's camp and then to Glory City.
"Okay, let's do this!" He said excitedly before trotting toward the stairs.
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Third Person P.O.V
7 seconds
That's how long it took Leek to reach the entrance of the room where the unconscious Hong Yue Mu was, but when he was about to enter, something stopped him.
You could say it was instinct.
Something inside Leek told him things weren't right, he didn't know what it was, perhaps it was because the person he was supposedly looking for was lying motionless in front of what looked like an altar, or perhaps it was the inscriptions he saw on the walls before entering; he didn't know.
1 second
That was how long it took Leek to realize he was in incredible danger, and after that second, his body moved even before his mind decided he should move away.
Similar to when a hand touches something incredibly hot and recoils before the person themselves can think of doing so, Leek's body took an unconscious step back, ready to get as far away as possible.
But he was too late, his reaction took too long, and he was too close to the room for him to move in time.
In the center of the altar, directly opposite the entrance, a sphere with a crack emitted a brief, faint glow before a beam of light shot out at extreme speeds, striking Leek in the forehead.
His whole body tensed, his back stiffened, his limbs stretched as if he'd suffered some kind of cramp, and his teeth clenched as he tried to speak.
"Ah... ah... ah." But all he could manage was to make unintelligible sounds.
His vision was blurring at the edges, and he heard someone's voice speaking in his ear.
"Sleep." The unfamiliar voice said, and instantly, Leek felt his body rapidly losing strength, the world began to spin, and his vision became even more distorted.
His fists clenched tightly enough that blood trickled from his palm, and a frown was proof of his refusal to obey the order.
"AH!!!" A strangled, distorted scream tore from his throat just before a furious layer of ki covered him, returning only a sliver of clarity to his eyes.
His body moved very slowly, slower even than when Ye Zong unleashed his soul force in front of him; the pressure he felt on his body was unmatched by anything he'd ever felt before.
And yet, his body and mind refused to simply give in, his fist tightened, and the amount of blood dripping increased.
The pain drove the Saiyan's mind away from the mist that tried to envelop him, but at that moment, the sphere shone again, and another beam of light shot out, striking Leek's forehead once more.
This time, his eyes went blank before his mind sank into darkness as the voice spoke to him again, this time in a tone that seemed almost sad.
"Sleep"
X-X-X-X-X
Well, here's a new chapter. We're reaching the end of this little arc. I'd say there are about 4 or 5 more chapters left. Also, I'll start taking Chinese classes next month, I don't know anything about that language, so I hope to learn.
