He found the next crystal and charged it with his mana before storing Selena away and continuing toward the next chamber.
...
The boy walked.
And walked.
And walked.
Chamber after chamber, he continued forward until he had completely lost track of how long he had been moving.
With every chamber he entered, the temperature dropped lower, and the pressure the summon placed on his soul became heavier.
"I guess... for this spirit to fight against the rules of this place, it needs its user to be strong too."
Qasim took another exhausted step.
"I can feel my power slowly draining..."
How much time had already passed?
He couldn’t tell anymore.
His legs were becoming numb. His lungs struggled to push air in and out. His vision had become blurry, and even walking properly was becoming difficult.
At some point, Qasim began to wonder if he was truly going to be stuck here forever.
Maybe he should just stop.
Maybe he could rest.
Could he even consider himself dead already?
He wasn’t hungry.
He wasn’t thirsty.
It was as if this place had slowly taken away every sense of himself.
"Is... Is this what the old man felt?"
Qasim lowered his head.
"All that time he spent in here... Did he have to endure this horrible feeling?"
The feeling of being separated from the rest of the world.
The indescribable loneliness.
The anger Qasim once felt toward the old man had disappeared a long time ago.
There was only an empty space left now.
And that space was slowly being filled with something else.
Sadness.
Qasim felt sorry for the old man.
He wanted to stop.
But he couldn’t.
Too many people’s lives depended on him.
Suddenly, Qasim stopped.
Something was different.
For the first time since entering this place, there was nothing ahead of him.
No matter how far he looked, there was no chamber.
"Is this..."
He took a heavy breath before turning around and looking back toward the tunnel he had come from.
His eyes widened.
It was different.
The same coldness remained, but the structure was no longer the same.
There was a new chamber behind him.
Qasim slowly increased his pace.
His exhausted steps became faster.
He passed through another chamber.
Then another.
And another.
His pace continued to increase until he was no longer walking.
He was running.
"I reached the turning point!"
His eyes lit up.
His heart skipped a beat as he finally understood what was happening.
He was going back in time.
And strangely enough, it was almost fun.
For the first time in what felt like forever, he could simply run without stopping.
He didn’t need to worry about finding mana crystals.
The chambers were becoming warmer too.
Soon, he would be able to return to his friends.
Soon, he would be able to get everyone to safety.
But then Qasim suddenly stopped.
He recognized the chamber he was passing through.
"This... This makes sense, right?"
He looked around.
"After all, I’m going back in time."
While he was lost in thought, he heard something nearby.
Qasim immediately hid himself and watched carefully.
A few silhouettes approached.
His eyes widened.
A young boy with white hair was walking beside an old elf, both wearing the same clothes he remembered.
Qasim’s expression froze.
"That’s me..."
His eyes moved toward the elf.
"...and Selena."
The two passed by without noticing him.
Qasim slowly emerged from his hiding spot.
He didn’t say anything.
There was no doubt in his mind anymore.
That was his past self and Selena.
He took a deep breath and continued walking.
From that point onward, every chamber he passed through showed him more of his past.
At first, Qasim wanted to stop and help.
But then he remembered something.
When he had been the one moving forward through the dungeon, there had never been a future version of himself helping him.
If he started interfering now, he might change something.
He didn’t know how the time paradox worked, and he wasn’t willing to risk messing everything up.
So he continued walking.
Eventually, he reached the chamber where they had first discovered the strange baby-like creature inside its cocoon.
Qasim immediately went over to check.
It was still there.
He slowly approached it.
"What a weird thing..."
Suddenly—
The cocoon began shaking violently.
Qasim froze.
He didn’t understand what was happening.
His instincts told him to leave, so he quickly moved toward the next chamber.
But just before entering, he noticed something unexpected.
The monsters they had fought earlier were emerging into the chamber.
They were crawling directly out of the walls.
Qasim immediately hid himself and remained completely still.
One by one, the monsters emerged from the walls and entered the chamber.
Then Qasim realized something.
The monsters didn’t have mana.
And they clearly didn’t know how to control it.
So how were they able to move through this place?
"Maybe they have another way..."
He narrowed his eyes.
"A way Broxi doesn’t know about."
The monsters were creating their own path through the walls of the chambers, allowing them to move from one chamber to another without needing mana.
"Interesting..."
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