Martial Online.

Ambrose looked around at the molten rock walls, which had magma veins running across the walls and ceilings, giving the place quite an exotic feel. He was surprised that there would be any crows living in such a place.

After walking for nearly three minutes, he saw the end of the hallway.

The end of the hallway had a large room with dozens of entrances. All entrances were arc-shaped with different kinds of rock carvings on the walls. The ceiling had tiny enough holes to let natural crimson light inside.

As Ambrose stepped out of the hallway, he came across a stone platform raised high. It looked like an ancient fighting ring where warriors dueled with their fists.

Currently, it seemed to have been unused for thousands of years. It appeared like the hallways and caves were naturally created by the molten rock. In the end, hiding the ancient civilization.

'Where are those crows?' He thought as he looked around. The burning torch couldn't light up the whole cavern.

At that moment, his figure froze like he'd been dipped in a frozen lake. He carefully looked to the right and didn't dare to move.

There was a black-feathered crow perched on top of a small boulder. It was within arms' length of Ambrose, and he couldn't see it at all because the crow blended into the darkness perfectly.

The black-feather crow looked at Ambrose with its dead-looking black eyes. It then started spreading its wings without revealing anything about its intentions.

Ambrose tightened his grip on the wooden sword and waited for his moment to strike. He felt cold sweatdrops form on his forehead.

The crow leaned slightly forward as if it were about to start flying.

"CAAW!" It suddenly let out a cawing scream.

Ambrose swung the sword and smashed it into the crow. The blunt force of the attack sent the crow flying into the molten rock wall. That single attack was enough to kill it.

[You killed Disease Crow!]

[1 XP Earned!]

'Disease Crow, so that is its name. Quite fitting if the description of the trial is correct. Can they also make players sick with the disease?'

Ambrose turned around to look at the darkness-filled cavern.

'Was that all? It talked about crows, as in multiple, but they are nowhere to be seen.'

Flap, flap... at that moment, he heard the sound of flapping. It wasn't just a few. It felt like there was a never-ending echo of flapping.

Ambrose gulped and hesitantly turned around. He saw nothing but darkness. However, then he stepped slightly forward, with the torch leading the way.

The closer he got, the paler his face got. There were close to a hundred black-eyed crows, all staring at him with the intention to kill.

Ambrose slowly backed off, taking the light with him. Once he was a few meters away from the black-feathered crows, the torch's light couldn't reach them, and they were hidden in darkness again.

At that moment, his back crashed into another boulder, almost making him jump in fright. However, after realizing that it was only a boulder, he relaxed significantly.

Flap, flap...

Ambrose's face turned paler than ever before. He already had a pale and sickly-looking face, but now it looked like his face was iced over. He turned hesitantly over and saw a dozen crows perched on the boulder, all looking at him.

He then saw a distant light coming from the hallway where he came from and wanted to head in that direction. But then the torch lit up the area close to the hallway, and there were a dozen crows on the ground, blocking his path.

'They are everywhere...' He backed off towards the platform and slowly walked up the stairs until he arrived on top of the platform. There was a sea of darkness around the platform.

Ambrose stopped in the middle of the platform and looked at the darkness that surrounded him. He could hear the sound of flapping and knew that those crows were looking at him.

'Fuck, this is creepy; just attack me!' He shouted inwardly and dropped the torch. The torch still lit up the area around him while he grabbed the wooden sword with both hands and challenged the black-feathered crows.

"Caaaaaw..." A creepy sound resounded from the darkness.

Flap, flap!

Ambrose spun around and slashed his sword at the darkness. A black-feathered crow appeared out of nowhere, but then the wooden sword slammed right into it, sending it flying away with broken wings.

[You killed Disease Crow!]

[1 XP Earned!]

At the same time, a black-feathered crow appeared from the darkness and flew past Ambrose's face. It made a U-turn in the air and swooped down with great speed.

Ambrose blocked the crow's attack with the blunt side of the sword but had no time to relax as another crow appeared from the right. He quickly backstepped, dodging the crows, and then slammed his sword at another crow.

[You killed Disease Crow!]

[1 XP Earned!]

Another black-feathered crow flew low and attacked Ambrose's legs with its claws, leaving behind shallow scratch marks.

"Argh." Ambrose felt a slight numbness, but he didn't even lose a single HP. However, he didn't relax because of that. If a hundred crows attacked him with claws simultaneously, he would be scratched to death.

He couldn't even hear his own breathing anymore. It was like all the sounds existing in the world were the crow's flapping and cawing sounds.

Ambrose desperately fended off the flying crows, but more and more scratches appeared on his thighs and body. He occasionally managed to slam his wooden sword into the crows, killing them with one swift strike.

But it felt like the number of crows never lessened.

'I will die at this rate!' He concluded and barely avoided another claw strike by the crow. However, another crow appeared from his blind spot and made a bloody scratch on his cheek.

Ambrose tumbled forward and almost dropped to his knees. A cold drop of blood dripped from his cheek.

'Eh, I can bleed?' He hesitantly touched his "blood" with the tip of his finger and saw that his "blood" was actually just sticky pixels. However, it resembled blood's texture a lot, just not the color.

'This can't go on...' Ambrose thought as he finally started losing his HP. He looked across the platform and saw black feathers falling from the ceiling as if crows were announcing that they were surrounding him and he couldn't do anything about it.

"Inventory."

A holographic screen appeared in front of him.

Ambrose pulled out another weapon from the inventory. It was a wooden sword.

With two wooden swords in hand, he lunged forward and left the safety of the light. He entered the darkness and started swinging both swords crazily.

The scarlet-red light coming from the torch barely showed a distant shadow dancing around with two swords in hands. The sound of crows screaming reverberated across the cavern, and then a young man's shouting followed.

It was unclear which side was winning.

...

The night sky above the city of Amaterasu started slowly vanishing. The sun peeked from the horizon, with white clouds slowly drifting across the sky. The crimson moon had already vanished.

The streets of Amaterasu showed signs of life after the morning arrived. The NPCs opened their stores with smiles on their faces and chatted with their fellow Amaterasu residents.

Flashes of light constantly appeared as players logged back in with giant smiles on their faces. Most of them could barely sleep while thinking about returning to Martial Online.

In Crow Cave, a young man sat on top of a platform with his head hanging low. There was no sign of any black-feathered crows, and the cavern wasn't as dark anymore as the sun's brilliant natural light came from the holes in the ceiling.

Ambrose continued panting as he looked at the screen in front of him.

[HP: 6/40]

However, a smile returned to his lips as he looked at the experience bar.

[Level: 3]

[XP: 3/150]