Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

"Mister Kaizen, take the keys and feel free to explore the residence. I'll be waiting for you out here." said Verzano as he held out forward the bunch of keys that was just now dangling from his belt.

Kaizen frowned, confused: "You won't accompany us? I thought this was the duty of a broker."

"You are right, but I will not enter this house even during my workday, much less while it is getting dark. People say that everyone who has entered this house has gone crazy within a month..."

"Puft! Don't talk nonsense. Give me the keys because we will go in alone then." Psyker held out his right hand and the realtor handed him the keys. He then looked at Jayaa and inquired, "You're coming with me, aren't you?"

"C-close. Fearless is my motto."

Although Jayaa was scared to death, he was not so cowardly as to let his friend enter a haunted house alone.

"However, you go ahead." Jayaa continued and hid further behind Kaizen.

"Sigh! All right." Kaizen sighed and started walking toward the front door of the house.

The sun was already setting, so there was still some light on the mountain, but the rest of the Royal City already had its lights on because of the colossal shadows of the twin towers that darkened most districts a few minutes earlier than elsewhere. So, even with a little lighting left, it wasn't hard to think that the inside of the house was a complete gloom.

When Jayaa and Kaizen came upon the massive architecturally ancient double door, they stopped.

There was an antique beater made of iron on each of the two doors, both ornamented as classic lion heads. Moreover, the doors did not seem to be so worn down by the passage of time, and probably the reason for this was that they were made from a very good wood.

Kaizen looked at the bunch of keys and identified that one of them had a lion's head and was the largest, so he took a chance to use that to open one of the doors.

'Oh! That one really fit.'

*Cleck*

The pop after the turning of the key was the signal the pair had been waiting for to try to open the door.

Kaizen pushed the left door forward and had no trouble opening it, despite the loud creaking as the door opened.

After this, he and his companion faced an overwhelming darkness, the little light that invaded the first room was enough to illuminate only sixty centimeters past the entrance, which was nothing compared to the vast gloom.

As they gradually opened the door, the wind also entered, lifting into the air residue from many years ago.

The smell that abhorred the pair's nostrils resembled the odor of moldy bread with pinches of dust. Suddenly, a warning appeared for both players.

[Beware! You are about to enter an environment infected by fungi. The condition 'Heavy Breathing' will apply and may develop into the condition 'Polluted Lungs'].

Kaizen and Jayaa exchanged glances at that moment and while Kaizen's reaction was to smile with animation, Jayaa's reaction was one of complete dismay.

"Shall we continue?" Inquired the bard with great fear.

Upon being asked, the black haired man's response was to step forward into the house.

"There is nothing to worry about. It's just a passing debuff." Kaizen could see that the duration of the heavy breathing was ten minutes right next to his HP bar.

If a single debuff was enough to scare Kaizen, he would never achieve great things.

Although Kaizen took a step into the building, he noticed that his colleague was still afraid to face the darkness. To try to solve this, he opened his inventory, took out his lantern and lit it. The greenish light from the crystals inside the lantern completely illuminated the room they were in, marveling Jayaa.

"You had a lantern all this time and didn't say anything?" With a happy smile on his face, the bard inquired.

Kaizen turned to Jayaa and placed his right index finger in front of his lips, asking for his silence. Immediately, Jayaa covered his mouth with both hands.

'Something's wrong.' Psyker thought as he stared at the room he was in.

The first room of this old residence appeared to be a living room. There were two couches with wooden arms that were partially covered by yellowish sheets, and behind both were several larger wooden pieces of furniture, such as an apothecary table, dressers, large cabinets, and nightstands. Between the two sofas there was a space that was practically empty, upholstered only by a thin old carpet that had a grayish tint.

The architecture of the room was somewhat boring, because the ceiling of the second floor was very high and showed a little of the second floor, indicating that thanks to this the second floor was a little smaller than the first. When Kaizen lifted the lantern a little higher, it was possible to notice that there was a ledge where one could see the living room from above, and also that there was a large chandelier with several crystals above the living room.

For Jayaa as well as Kaizen, the feeling of being watched was constant now that they were silent and more focused.

In addition, it was impossible not to notice that there was a creeping mist lining the floor of the entire room, which shouldn't be possible because they had just opened the door and it wasn't even that cold outside the residence.

Scanning the darkness with his eyes, Kaizen tried to use <Analyzing Eye>, but the ability revealed nothing. However, just as he was about to convince himself that this constant feeling of being watched was just a bit of fear, he heard a whisper in his right ear.

"Go away or I will make you go."

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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