The Unrecorded Extra

"How long are we here already?" Albus asked, already feeling bored from climbing down the stairs.

The man walking in front of him glanced at him over his shoulder, his face covered by the mask. Due to the lack of light, Albus could not see the man's eyes through the eye socket. It was dark. An endless void of darkness.

"Three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and eleven seconds," Newcomer replied.

Pulling his gaze away from the 'void', Albus looked into another void in the center of the spiral stairways.

"And strangely, I don't feel tired."

"It's fifteen seconds now."

Albus glanced at Newcomer, his eyes frowned.

"Not needed. But, thanks, I guess."

Shrugging his shoulder, followed by a smirk, Newcomer stared down at the void for a moment before looking at Albus again and said:

"Remember when I said you could just jump to reach the bottom?"

Albus raised his eyebrow, his mouth tightly closed.

"By this height, I think you can do that now," Newcomer continued, with a grin plastered on his face.

Upon hearing what Newcomer had said, Albus mirrored his grin as he peeked at the void with great interest.

"Just remember that if I die from this. I'll haunt you eternally!"

Newcomer chuckled. "Be my guest."

Boss and Scientist stopped in their tracks, noticing Newcomer and Albus were not following behind.

Looking up, Scientist shouted, but not too loud.

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"Who knows?" Newcomer responded flatly.

Soon after, Albus took a deep breath. Without wasting more time, he jumped into the void confidently.

Swoosh—!

Boss and Scientist could hear a voice of his drop trailing in the air.

After what felt like ten seconds, a loud thud sound accompanied by a slight tremor took place. The next second was silent. Everyone on the stairways was waiting for Albus to make a noise.

Then, curse words of 'fvck' and 'sh!t' resounded in the damped place.

A few seconds after hearing Albus' cursing, the three of them followed after him. In almost synchronized motion, they jumped into the void.

They landed smoothly as the wind currents beneath the ground helped their fall.

"You should have used them on my fall too, Boss." Albus sighed dejectedly.

Ignoring his remark, they continued to explore the underground tunnel. There was nothing much to see there. No eye-catching details, or more like, nothing could catch the group's attention along the wall. The carving, though intricate, had no value.

It was just random lines, as though claw marks. If it was something special, Newcomer would have stopped to examine them, but he did not.

Although, if there was something in the tunnel that made the group feel gratitude and grab attention was the fact the tunnel only had a straight path. No branch path. Which was good.

Their long journey in the tunnel was not in silence. The banters between Albus and Newcomer made the journey feel alive. The occasional frustrated grunt from Scientist. And the neverending sphere light spell from Boss illuminated the tunnel.

Despite walking for another three hours, they didn't feel exhausted nor their limbs screamed, begging to stop. The lack of signal and communication with the twin who was on the surface as they walked further deep into the tunnel, made them feel trapped in another dimension.

Eventually, the sound of running water resounded faintly ahead of the road.

They hastened their paces as soon as their ears received a signal — a contact with the voice. The sign of life. The water. The exit of this long tunnel!

The closer they were to the source, the more audible the voice sounded to their ears.

They could see a flash of light ahead of the road. It gradually expanded until their visions succumbed to the white light.

"Finally!"

Finally, they escaped the endless tunnel.

Finally, they managed to save their sanity.

Finally, they could save the world. Just a few steps closer.

A few…

"Fo… od…"

Sadly, it was not a pool of water that greeted them, nor it was a waterfall, a fountain, or even a tiny puddle of liquid.

What greeted them was something they did not expect.

Boss, Scientist, and Albus glanced at Newcomer simultaneously. He was supposed to be the reckoner of the group. He was supposed to know about this. But, why didn't he tell them?

Newcomer shrugged and shook his head. He, too, did not expect there would be the 'thing' standing tall before them.

Standing before them was a 'thing', a grotesque and unsettling sight — an abhorrent creature composed entirely of liquid. It took the form of a massive blob of water, towering over the group at a staggering four meters in height, resembling a giant in size.

The creature's liquid body had a humanoid shape, resembling that of a human skeleton or, more specifically, a giant's skeletal structure. Besides that, it also had six hands. While the hands were fairly thinner than those of a giant, the palms and soles were gigantic.

However, its unsettling form didn't end just there.

This type of elemental creature should have no face, but this one was different. This one had a face, but it was not exactly a face. It was just… a flesh skull — an amalgamation of flesh forming a skull-like structure, reminiscent of human flesh contorted into a macabre semblance of a face.

The details of this fleshy skull only added to the eerie and disturbing aura surrounding the creature.

"Fle…ssh…"

"It can talk?!"

Boss frowned. "Telepathy."

The creature had used telepathy to speak directly into their heads because it had neither a mouth nor vocal cords. If it had one, imagine how disturbing it would be to see organs drowned inside its liquid body.

"Unknown creature. I never thought that there was still a creature like this one in this dark age," Scientist remarked.

Wordlessly, Boss pulled the dagger from its sheath, releasing a large amount of mana into his weapon.

It was after his weapon was imbued with mana, creating an artificial and temporary magic weapon, that he spoke.

"This one doesn't seem friendly to us."

Following him, the other three also drew their weapons simultaneously.

Albus drew his greatsword from its sheath slung around his back. "Hah, finally, some action!"

"I don't think weapons can work..." said Scientist as she observed the creature.

"Then use your alchemy things, Jade!"

"I will."

Scientist swung her hand in the air, motioning a sweeping gesture over the empty space. Suddenly, flasks filled with various liquid colors appeared out of thin air.

"My wind alone is enough to blow that lump of water away."

A burst of wind suddenly emanated from Newcomer's body, swirling around him violently. After a while, the vortex dissipated and reappeared into fiercer black winds.

The creature's roaring noise rang inside their heads, making them flinch and thus distracted for a moment.

The blob water monster shot a jet of water from its body. 

Dozens of water bullets burst out from its liquid body at a speed ordinary humans could not keep up with. Fortunately, each of the group members was not just your-ordinary human. 

With their inhuman speeds, they dodged the water bullets effortlessly. Unharmed.

Holding the sword with both hands in front of him, Albus emitted a cold air around him, making the lower part of the creature's liquid form freeze because of the direct contact with the negative temperature spread across beneath their feet.

Using that opportunity, Newcomer cast a ferocious swirling black wind at the creature, shattering the frozen part.

Crash—!

Three of the creature's frozen left hands were shattered into pieces. Ice pebbles scattered throughout the damp floor.

"Easy!" 

Albus declared proudly, while Newcomer only let out a sigh.

"It's not done yet!" Scientist yelled behind them, her own weapon — alchemical concoctions — ready at hand.

Jade tossed the flasks filled with green liquid at the creature's flesh skull face.

The flask smashed as soon as it hit the fleshy skull of the creature. The content inside the flash splattered over the disturbing fleshy skull face.

Nothing happened for at least three seconds. But in the next second, the concoction proved its effectiveness by melting its disgusting face. White-hot steam began to shroud its flesh skull.

Lastly, Boss walked toward the creature, sticking his dagger into its liquid body.

At that moment, the creature's liquid form moved erratically as though it was about to erupt. Sure enough, as soon as it stopped moving, its entire liquid body erupted like a volcano, a fountain, or whatever it was, leaving a mid-sized puddle on the floor.

The creature was dead.

They pulled empty jugs out of thin air and filled them with the water from the puddle. 

The remnant of the creature's liquid body looked clear and clean enough as a puddle, so they thought it was safe to drink from it. 

To ensure safety, Boss used his power to sterilize the water, making it possible to be drunk without worrying about getting poisoned.

Just as they were about to take a gulp. Hundreds or more of those same creatures, but smaller in size, suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Great! We could make this place be drowned in their corpse!"