n

n

nFoster looked at Thiodrus, seeing something come out of the small crack inside of his skull. It was something like a metal chain, that was slithering out of the skull like a small snake. It moved onto Foster's fingers, and wrapped itself around his arm to form a bracelet tightly wrapped around him, but not in an uncomfortable way.

n

"I... don't know what this is, but... thank you.

" Foster muttered, before he looked at the crack he had to aim for. He took a deep breath as he swung his arm forward and let go of the skull. The bugs scattered away as the skull hit against the crack, soon finding its way into the tree.

nNow that this was done... Foster could turn his attention to the other stuff that started happening. The huge eyes that were laying there on the ground were starting to change. The whites of the eyes turned into a dark red that bordered black, while their surface started to split up. Spider-like legs were slowly being pushed out of those split areas, as the eyes started to crawl around.

n

"What the actual **...?

" Foster asked with a wry smile. That was certainly one of the creepiest things that he's ever seen. Most of the eyes were here on this side of the river, so he had to get away from here as quickly as he could.

nHe started running toward the river again, and when he did, he once more took notice of that black-haired guy. The rotting that started in his leg didn't stop there. It was growing up the rest of his body, his veins visibly bulging and turning deep black in color.

nIt was good that Foster didn't slip while running toward the river earlier... And hopefully, he would have the same luck this time.

nThe black haired man was crying in pain, snot that mixed with blood pouring out of his nose while foam gathered in his mouth. Him and Foster locked eyes for a moment. It was clear that this man was pleading with Foster to get help.

nBut why should he? Foster wasn't a saint. He wasn't the good guy in this story. He wasn't even a good person in general. In the past, he did a lot of horrible things. He hospitalized people much weaker than him simply because they annoyed him. Sold drugs to people who only ended up dying of an overdose a few hours later. Foster ruined lives, families, companies... All for his own gain.

nFoster was a villain.

nSo why did his feet do what they were doing? Why did they turn his body away from the river, and toward a place that would only bring him into more and more danger?

n

"Aaargh, **ing bull**!

" He yelled out angrily. He wasn't angry at that man or even whatever that tree was, but rather himself. Why would he ever put himself in that kind of danger for someone he didn't even know?

nOne of those eye-spiders was in his way, but it was one whose legs didn't fully sprout yet. That way, Foster was able to kick this creature away like a soccer ball, and it soon landed in the water, rotting away with acidic bubbles rising from the black sludge running through the river.

n

"Give me your gauntlets.

" Foster told the black-haired man, whose body had completely gone into shock at this point. He was trying to do as he was told, but being too impatient due to the situation he was in, Foster instead pulled the gauntlets off the guy's hand as soon as they were even slightly loosened up.

nAfter pushing his own hands into the gauntlets, them fitting over that weird bracelet surprisingly easily, Foster looked around himself. The regular bugs didn't seem to be too much of an issue, although they were still kind of annoying.

nThe only real issue were the eye-spiders. The first one that he saw immediately jumped at Foster. Swinging his fist to the side with proper timing, Foster hit the hardened surface of that eye-spider. A loud cracking sound could be heard as a bile-like liquid spurted from the cracks on the eye's surface. It gave off an acidic scent, but at least it didn't seem to be the same kind of liquid as the one running through the river.

n

"What the ** are you two doing?! Find something we can use to get over there already!

" Foster yelled out, noticing that the archer and the swordswoman were just standing there as if stunned. Hearing this young man's voice, the swordswoman immediately turned around and tried to find something to create a makeshift bridge.

nIn the meantime, Foster kept on fighting off those weird creatures. Somehow, it didn't seem like their numbers were dwindling. Rather, more and more were coming along. And the worst part was that they still kept on changing after growing their legs.

nSoon, their body split horizontally, creating a disgustingly horrific maw with sharp teeth. Luckily, the gauntlets this guy had with him were rather thick and stable, so the teeth weren't able to penetrate them. It was still a weird feeling to have one of these creatures try and bite Foster's hand off, though.

nLuckily, it only took a few minutes until the archer and swordswoman found a solution. With ridiculous, brutish strength, the swordswoman was dragging a literal tree behind her toward the river. Foster was in so much disbelief over what she was doing that he was stunned and nearly had his head bitten off for a second there.

nWith that same incredible strength, the swordswoman was able to push the log over the river. Immediately, Foster pushed the creatures right beside him away and ran over to the dying man by his side, before pulling him off the ground. He wasn't able to walk on his own anymore, after all.

nPractically carrying him, Foster stepped onto the log. It was then that something else started changing in the tree. The cracks that had formed on it earlier started to grow and spread out, large chunks of its bark simply dropping off of it. This spread out to the top, with the branches cracking under their own weight.

nOne of them fell down, and hit the ground just a few moments later. It was so heavy that the ground at the edge of this thin river started cracking and sliding down into the water, together with one end of the log. At the same time, more of the black water splattered onto the man Foster was holding up, making him scream in pain once more.

nAnd then, the man dragged Foster down into the river together with him.

nHe could feel the water touching his skin. It was hot, painful. Truly horrifying. The man's flesh disintegrated nearly instantly and his bones dug into Foster's skin.

nBut... that was it. Foster felt some sort of irritation all over his body, but it was at the level of water that was a bit too hot. The black water wasn't affecting him otherwise. It felt heavy on his body, dragging him down. However, all that did was make it tougher for him to stand back up. And even that was relatively easy in the end.

n

"What the actual **...

" Foster muttered confused, standing in the black sludge. The eye-creatures weren't bothering him anymore, since even they would die on contact with him. Slowly, he climbed out of the sludge, and although most of his clothes had also been disintegrated, they were repairing themselves rather quickly again. Meanwhile, a message box appeared in front of Foster's eyes.

n---

nThe effect of the Unique Title {He who is one with Death} has been discovered: Necromantic Invincibility

n---

n

"Necromantic Invinci- what the ** is this supposed to be?!

" Foster looked away from the message and instead turned toward the archer and the swordswoman, both of which were looking into the river where their comrade had just disappeared.

n

"H-How did you... But he....

" The swordswoman muttered in utter disbelief, and Foster looked back at her with a bitter frown,

"I don't know, but... For now, stand back... I think something is happening to that tree.

" He pointed out, looking at the huge tree that was still falling apart piece by piece.

nFoster really hoped that it was dying because of Thiodrus' influence, and not because it was going to release some new monstrosity.

n