Chapter 174: Clay
"What's wrong with you?" Jane asked, seeing the different attitude Aric suddenly had.
Aric frowned. He just realized that he had been taking it easy all these times.
He should have been looking for a way to kill Maverick. Instead, he was wasting time here and playing around. He had almost forgotten this, but the feelings of hatred surfaced again.
"Leave me be. I have to get out of here," Aric said as he turned around and walked away from Jane.
Jane frowned. She did not know why Aric was acting so strange. One minute, he was relaxed and happy, the next second he was acting like this.
No matter what, Jane knew that she had to stick with Aric in this strange world that they were transported in.
The world looked desolate. There was not any sign of life anywhere, just dead trees and skulls hanging all around them.
Aric chose a direction at random and started to walk. Jane followed Aric for now as she observed the world that they were in.
"Where are we?" Jane uttered as she got a closer look at the world.
From what she could observe, for now, this strange world looked like it was as vast and as wide as the real world.
The soil in the ground felt real, the dead trees above her looked like it was rotting, and the skull beneath her was as hard as a real skull.
From what she could gather, the world did not look like it was a simulation. Was this even in the dungeon?
For now, Jane guessed that they were transported into another world. The problem was, Jane did not know where they were.
She did not know how they were going to get back. For now, she decided to stick with Aric and explore the place. They might find something in their travels.
Aric and Jane were several feet away from each other. Aric kept his distance from Jane, and Jane respected that distance.
Soon enough after walking for hours on end, they reached a place that was a town.
However, this town was desolate without any signs of life. The buildings were breaking down, the street pavement was full of holes, and there was trash all over the place.
Aric looked around the place. Then, they reached a building that seemed to be more important than the others.
This place was in the very middle of town. It was also the only building in the town that did not see any destruction.
This building looked as good as new as if the passage of time could not touch this place.
Intrigued, Jane and Aric both decided to explore this building. It may have the clues they need to get out of here.
They walked towards the door, and Aric stopped in his tracks. They both waited for the door to slide open, but it did not do anything.
"What are you doing?" Jane asked.
Aric looked towards her and ignored her.
"That's not going to open by itself, you know that, right?" Jane said with a bit of a smile on her face.
Aric's face had a hint of surprise in his expression. It turned out that he expected the door to open by itself.
Jane shook her head. She thought that Aric was smart, but it turned out that he can be a little bit of a goof.
"This is one of those old mechanical doors. You have to twist the knob for it to open," Jane said as she pushed Aric aside and twisted the knob open.
*creak*
The door opened, but it left a large creaking sound as Jane opened it.
"See? You don't even know that?" Jane said with a bit of a proud face.
Aric frowned as he watched Jane's smirking face. Then, he pushed her aside and entered the building.
The house was primarily made of wood, even the floors. As soon as Aric entered the house, the floorboards creaked.
Aric was surprised and was intrigued by the floorboards. Each time he stepped on it, it would creak.
Jane could see that Aric was annoyed by the sound, so she opened her mouth to say something, but Aric already did something.
Aric raised his fist in the air and smashed it to the floorboards. The wooden planks quickly got destroyed, and the creaking sounds disappeared.
Then, Aric faced Jane and said, "Don't come inside. This is the first trap in this place. I don't want you to set off any more traps."
Jane's face was full of incredulity. It was only a second later that she realized what Aric was talking about.
It turned out that Aric thought that the floorboards were some kind of trap. In reality, it was only something that was because of normal circumstances.
"Bfff!" Jane chuckled as she tried to hold in her laugh. "HAHAHAHAHA," she failed.
Aric frowned as he saw Jane laughing at him. It was embarrassing, and it hurt his pride. Furthermore, she was attracting unwanted attention.
"Stop laughing," Aric said as he confronted Jane. "You don't know if anyone is here."
Jane laughed, but she was able to control it to a light chuckle. After a while, she regained her sanity and got back to normal.
Wiping her tears away, Jane spoke. "Sorry. It was just really funny."
"What's so funny about it?" Aric asked. bye genuinely did not know why Jane found it funny.
"You don't know?" Jane asked. "Why do you not know anything?"
Aric stopped talking and just looked at Jane. He did not know anything because he does not have any memory.
Just as Aric was going to open his mouth, he suddenly felt something in the back of his head. His instincts kicked in and he immediately evaded the sneak attack.
Just as he dodged away, a sharp blade suddenly appeared just inched away from his neck.
Jane was also alerted of the sudden attack, so she got into a defensive mode.
As Aric dodged the first attack, Aric made sure to locate the enemy first. He looked around, and once he found the enemy, he turned to run towards it.
With his black flame in his hands, he charged towards the enemy.
From the dim light, Jane saw that the person that attacked them was an entity without a face.
This person did not have any distinguishable features, not even on his body.
He looked like a person made of clay.
Aric punched his black flame-filled fist towards the clay man. From his calculations, he could see that the clay man did not have any chances of dodging away from his attack.
Just as Aric predicted, his black flame fist hit the clay man's body.
His fist hit the clay man's body. However, there was not any kind of resistance after that.
The fist continued to travel through the clay man's body as if it was made of air.
Due to this unexpected outcome, Aric could not control his power. He could not maintain his balance as he tumbled down towards the floorboards.
However, Aric quickly tried to regain his balance. After he stopped on the floor with two feet, he turned to look at the clay man.
He was surprised to see that his physical attack could not connect. It was as if his fist just passed through the clay.
The clay man and Aric looked at each other.
Even though the clay man did not have any facial features, Aric still felt like the clay mad and had a look of superiority over him.
Then, Aric saw Jane perform an attack on the clay man while the clay man was looking at Aric.
It was the perfect sneak attack.
However, the outcome was the same as before. Jane's fist just passed through the clay man's head, rendering her attack useless.
She tumbled down the floor but regained her footing soon after.
Aric and Jane both looked up towards the clay man with concerned expressions.
It was a hard task to fight something much stronger than you, but fighting something you cannot touch was even harder.
Then, something happened to the clay man's body.
It started to shift and fold into something different from its body.
Jane and Aric watched as the clay man soon transformed into someone that they were both familiar with.
That obese stature was unique to someone in their group. This person was arguably the strongest in the group if he wanted to; it was Hugh.
The clay man looked very alike to Hugh. Every small detail was copied, down to even the wrinkles in his clothes.
If they did not see the clay man transform, they would have thought that he was the real deal.
Then, Jane and Aric watched as Hugh's smile soon turned sinister.
The curves on Hugh's face turned into an abnormal crescent moon. It made Hugh look like a demon.
Then, as Hugh took a step, the floorboards were destroyed under the pressure.
Aric blinked, and he suddenly saw Hugh disappear. The next thing he saw, Hugh's wide mouth was biting down on his neck.