As per the instructions in the letter he received, he brought all his clothes and necessities to his room. Johandas was already prepared for the night to arrive. He is dressed in a fair black coat with a low-quality white-line shirt and black trousers. He awaited any mysterious thing to happen by which he would enter the upper sphere.
The clock ticked.
The hour hand reached the 12 as the minute hand reached 12. There was a sudden change in the atmosphere. The air is heavy. Black sticky fluid from the top corners of the room. Johandas's expression turned horrified. He got up from the bed and turned towards the room's door side. The door didn't open when he turned the knob.
It's like the door had separated from the reality itself! He tried harder and began to punch the door as the dark liquid flowed at exponential speed. The dark liquid surged out in immense amounts, filling the room up to Johandas' hip level. He started knocking on the door harder and harder, then decided to turn towards the bed.
"I don't think this is normal. I would just stand on the bed and prolong the time; I would avoid sinking by doing like this in this sticky liquid."
He moved his legs with his full strength.
The dark liquid filled the room.
Johan, unable to float in the dense liquid, sank into it. He was not able to see anything in the darkness. It was silent until a bright flash came. The whole atmosphere condensed, turning into a small void of creation, and swallowing Johan and his things, leaving the room normally.
Johan fell into the intradimensional void of creation. His poses are like someone who is falling from the sky; he made paratrooper-like poses. Unable to grasp the situation, Johan looked at the tunnel-like void that extended its depth like it was leading to the abyss.
But in an instant something, an unknown power, pushed Johan to his left side. Johan was not able to react in time.
...
In front of a large black pyramid,
Johan was dressed in a dark green shirt and black pants with a number of pockets in them. Johan had a belt with one essential bag. He clearly resembled a 15-year-old kid. Johan was a little shorter than 'others' around him.
With him, there was one knight dressed in full-body black armor, and a blonde-haired young girl in a white linen shirt; her boobs were not that big, and she clearly gave the sense of a beautiful woman. A saint-like man with blonde hair and in a priest's dress.
The priest-like dressed man was sitting at the subtle corner of the black pyramid and chanting something from a book he was holding.
The knight removed his helm and showed his handsome face to everyone.
"Are we all waiting for only this young guy to come here?" He asked.
"I think yes, he is the reason we can't enter the tomb," the young girl said.
"What?" Johan blurted out.
"We are about to explore this tomb."
"Am I in an alternate dimension NPC world? What's wrong with the transmission? According to the letter, I should be at the upper sphere by now. Is it like a test before going to the academy? Are they screening for a second time? It's a tomb; maybe there is, like, a boss monster in it, and I need to defeat it? How can I accomplish such a thing? I do not even understand the basic power system of this world! Reincarnation! Yeah, that must be it. That's the reason for all this; if not for that...
I think I should act like an NPC then; it's just a fake conjured world in my perspective.
"Sorry, I had a problem during the summoning."
"No problem, kid." We were planning for the exploration during that time. So no need to worry.
Suddenly the surface of the black pyramid, which had a huge door, shrunk and became the wall of the pyramid itself. Then an illusory black portal opened, from which the malice aura was surging out.
The four-membered crew without hesitation entered the illusory portal. Except Johan, who was trembling inside.
"I need to survive. Yes, all I need to do is survive. The other three members seem to be stronger than me. That priest is looking odd. Hmm..."
The black armored knight didn't show any sign of fear, and he held his helm in his left hand while his right hand was on the sword sheath.
"I wonder what kind of sword that is; that sheath is looking legendary." Johan started to notice others as he wanted to grasp the current situation. And make use of the environment to get out of this alternate dimension.
The narrow path they are walking is brightened by torches that are fixed above on the side of the ruin wall. The atmosphere gave them a creepy feeling. Along the sideways, they often saw knight statues and archer statues.
They walked to find a huge golden door that was shining among the old rusty ruin.
The black knight touched the door; the air flowed out of the door as it opened. The knight's hair was ruffling through the air.
The huge golden door opened. They walked inside a huge hall with only dirt on the ground. It was dirt and...and…corpses! The after-war corpses!
The place was filled with monster corpses and human soldier corpses, rotten and with pus gushing out. Fungi and algae lived like brothers there. It was a nasty place.
But the striking feature of that ruined hall was that a giant serpent's skeleton was lying there. It had fangs still glowing in blue color. The fangs are made of blue crystals that give off a sense of it still being alive.
As soon as Arthur, the black knight, stepped inside. A dark power stirred from the center of that ruined hall. The center looked like a huge altar with four broken pillars surrounding the sacrificial altar.
"Oh no! I am the weakest one here, just by the looks of it. They're going to kill me at that sacrificial altar like a cootie." Johan cried inside as he immediately understood what was going to happen next. It was obvious.
Shadow soldiers spawned at random places from the rotting corpses of the soldiers. They emanated a dark aura. They had red glowing eyes and were wearing a black robe and a grey inner shirt. Few of the soldiers were in good armor, while most of them were in broken armor. Some are equipped with dark metallic but still shadowy swords, some have mage scepters, and some are equipped with crossbows. They rose from the corpses that lay in the great hall.
The holy priest rushed to the vanguard and chanted, and with a loud shout, "Holy Spirit, Light!"
Light pillars rushed from above, falling on the two shadows. They started breaking into fragments, but they are still alive. They ran over to the crew.
Arthur unsheathed his sword.
The shadow mages immediately cast plasma balls on them.
The plasma balls, which were blazing in blue color, started hitting beside them. One ran for their life; the others were the priest and Arthur, who
Was slaying the shadow soldiers one by one, dodging and killing them.
Though Johan lacked the relationship understanding of his crew, he witnessed their guts—they were bold enough to face the anomaly during this exploration! This isn't an exploration; it's now a raid. A raid into a dark tomb!
***
In the great dining hall of the Utopia
kingdom,
Utopia kingdom's Royal Palace.
"King Julias, Mr. Heisenberg is here."
"Let him enter."
A middle-aged man wearing a black coat and carrying a brown suitcase with a metal border on it. He had no wrinkles on his face. He looked more like a young man, though his age is quite high. He opened the suitcase after placing it on the long table before King Julius and took out three glass bottles filled with red liquid. The jar bottles had a sticker made of goatskin with an imprint of the word "Project E."
"A new spell item has been created, your majesty. This potion enhances the overall stats of the consumer, but the items, the ingredients required to make it, are hard to find. We need to improve our defenses and our army to raid more tombs and defeat more monsters the tombs spawn."
"Issue a notice on the country's border and throughout our country that we are recruiting men specializing in fighting and weapon mastery; the salary would be 5 pounds a week. Post an advertisement in Fique's newspaper; it could help us to gather more soldiers from our neighboring countries.
"As you wish, Majesty, the new enhanced version of this 'World' potion will be submitted after the raid by the non-governmental guilds. I had placed a nice bounty for the ingredients.
"I hope you show me the results. We can't let other kingdoms override us; it's only a matter of time before things go out of my control." King Julius, with his blonde hair and white-skinned face, replied in a somber manner.
He looks younger than Heisenberg; his pupils are pitch black. He did not wear the crown as he was eating in the dining hall.
"Next week then, Majesty; I shall take my leave for now."
Heisenberg bowed with his hand placed on his chest; after packing his things, he left without turning back. He didn't leave the jar bottles back at the table.
He murmured, "I need an accomplice, tch, for everything I have to come here for, though I am a minister and helped many innovators..."
Heisenberg sighed as he climbed into the horse carriage.
***