Keeping his gaze on the bright spark of pale blue light, Glenn continued forward, of course.

  As soon as he entered the dark part of the cave, he turned on his headlamp. Without it, he would have fallen many times and obviously run into some walls.

  The path was winding, turning in all directions, sometimes Glenn climbed up particularly steep slopes, or went down on his buttocks, as if he was in a slide, even worse, sometimes he had to climb some kind of well that went down into the depths of the earth. It was very complicated to move into the galleries, and from there came the necessity to have good equipment with you.

  The ground was bumpy, sometimes spikes would come out of it, cutting her ankles and almost making her fall more than once. The gray galleries were getting smaller and smaller until they reached a height of two meters, considering its width only one human being could pass.

  The decor did not change, the cave was only gray and uniform, and the striations of the different layers of stone were obviously visible, however the beige, bluish-gray colors that emerged from the fairy decor outside the caves, had disappeared, placed by tunnels dull and lifeless.

  But despite everything, Glenn still had that light, which for some reason remained in his field of vision. All the paths he had taken did not prevent him from seeing the spark, as if it were an indication that this light represented the direction in which he should go next.

  So he followed it, without stopping for a single second, going as fast as possible so that his family would not notice his absence, which should already be the case. To go even faster, he strongly resisted the powerful urge to look around him. Sometimes he could see passing new marks, frescoes, or old objects embedded in the walls, but without stopping, with deep regret, he moved on. Continued without slowing down.

  After a while, Glenn noticed that the bright light was bigger, it was no longer a spark but an ember. As he continued, the feeling of fulfillment that came from that light was greater as well, Glenn felt that if he reached that ember, he would get the thing he had always wanted to have, without really knowing what.

  With that in mind, he quickened his pace.

  The further he went, the more he wanted to go on, no, it was no longer a question of wanting to, he had to go on, the powerful sensation emanating from the light was becoming too strong to resist, in a way, Glenn knew he shouldn't weaken in the face of this attraction, but he couldn't, the seed represented the apotheosis of excitement he had been waiting for.

  Then he stopped short.

  'Wait....wait, wait...a seed? How do I know it's a seed? How the hell did that idea even cross my mind? What seed? A seed of what? Wait...what?'

  Plunged into total confusion, Glenn continued on his way, more slowly this time. But even so, he was no longer focused on his route, and obviously...

  "HAAAAAA!"

  He fell.

  The fall was long and perilous, and painful too, the only useful thing he could learn from this experience would be that the next time he went on an expedition, he would go with more protection and especially more qualitative, currently, none of his clothing could slow him down, or at least to protect him at least from the fall. He even thought that his own material was turning against him, sinking into his ribs, the headlamp that leaned heavily on his head ...

  The only positive thing to come out of it was that the hole was not straight, so Glenn was not falling totally but had more the sensation of being in a kind of slide, a little bit more violent though. After a few steep falls, he would roll over and slide down a straighter slope, then go back down for a long fall, nothing fatal at least, just extremely painful.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  About five minutes of falling later, which seemed endless to Glenn, he landed on normal ground, still with the obvious peaks and bumps, rolled a few times, then stopped. Lying on his back, his breathing was labored and the light from the lamp had either gone out or broken.

  Hoping it wasn't the latter, Glenn raised his hand and then his arm to turn on the lamp, but some kind of instinct made his body shiver, he got up with difficulty, feeling all his wounds, bruises, cuts, and broken bones or maybe even broken, tearing his body.

  As he turned around, almost with equal difficulty, his eyes widened, the pale blue light he had been following for a good ten minutes was in front of him, or at least so close that he felt it.

  A strange feeling swelled in his mind, he felt that this light was everything he had ever wanted, excitement, adventure, and happiness. But he also had the feeling that if he got any closer, he would never be able to go back and live the way he had before, a very unpleasant feeling for him.

  Still looking for the solution, he turned on the lamp, which luckily lit up and bleached the world with its light. A sigh of relief echoed through the cave.

  Glenn turned his gaze to see where he had landed, it seemed to be in some sort of small cave, unlike the winding tunnels, the cave was at least five meters high and about ten meters wide. The floor was a bit flatter, although there were still peaks, bumps, and small holes. This time not big enough to get through.

  As he looked down the walls, Glenn saw something strange, and as he got closer, he could see the 'thing' stuck to the right side of the cave.

  "A fresco? Huh?"

  His voice surprised him, it was hoarse and dry as if he had not spoken for months, the air in the cave favored this type of reaction, it was advisable to drink often during expeditions.

  Taking his bag, completely damaged by the fall, he took out an aluminum canteen, cheap obviously, and opened it then drank greedily the contents, water. While reconcentrating again, he put his glance once again at the giant fresco which was on the wall.

  The first thing he noticed was undoubtedly its details and its perfectly preserved colors. Unlike the ones at the entrance, the fresco here was huge and measured several meters in diameter.

  It represented a black and tentacular monster coming out of the depths of the ocean, in fact, no, it was not the ocean, the water if you could call it that, was red and thick, like blood. It was a literal sea of blood. Since dozens, even hundreds of corpses were floating above this red sea.

  The monster itself was terrifying and gave off a very, very unpleasant feeling. A kind of oppression and strong fear was mixed with deep disgust as if all the existing negative emotions were gathering to form a giant entity, represented by the giant tentacled monster.

  On the other hand, the uneasiness he felt earlier in front of the different frescoes and the engraving, was back, but this time on a totally different level, Glenn fell on his knees on the floor and violently closed his eyes, trying to resist the brutal urge to vomit, his head was on fire and he could not think properly anymore.

  The back of his eyes were burning too, with a searing intensity. After what seemed like an eternity, Glenn calmed down and so did his body. As he stood up, still in great pain and difficulty, he immediately avoided the mural with his eyes, he never wanted to see that abomination again, but just the thought of that black and terrifying mass, higher than a mountain, filled him with fear and disgust.

  He turned around quickly and stared at the blue light that he was chasing at first, then had wanted to avoid, but this time he had made up his mind, there was what he wanted, an exciting life full of adventure, that life was there, in that light in front of him.

  As he slowly approached, the negative feelings he had felt since his contact with the mural had disappeared as if they had never existed in the first place.

  What he had described as an ember and a bright light was a ghostly pale blue light, as if this light did not exist in the world, it gave off nothing but light, but in a darker way than he had imagined, he felt no pain in the retina when observing it so closely.

  Arriving at the ember, he bent down, staring at the pale, ghostly blue light. But this time, instead of simply observing it, he brought his hand closer and wrapped it inside. Immediately, a pleasant warmth ran through his body, he felt as if all his wounds had disappeared without a trace.

  Then after a few seconds, the light dimmed, and Glenn could see an old box, very old, that seemed to come from another time, it was made of leather but full of dust and cobwebs, which he had never seen before.

  While observing it a little more, and while turning it over, he saw on one of the sides, a sign, a logo, or rather initials.

  'W.P.? What is it?'

  After a meticulous search without being able to get anything out of it, Glenn decided without further ado to open the box, and then, without expecting it, the ghostly light exploded in one go. Not without being a little startled Glenn looked at what was inside when he saw it, his eyes widened.

  It was a seed.

  'What?! Really? It's really a seed? What the hell is this? How did I know it was a seed?'

  Without waiting for an answer, Glenn deepened his gaze on the seed, it was blue and translucent while giving off a thin layer of that same ghostly light. Some strange and elusive movement could be seen on it, but the strangest thing was that the surface of the seed was rapidly scrolling with random numbers and letters as if it were a line of code.

  After a brief moment, the seed blinked strangely, a change could be seen in the random numbers and letters, on closer inspection Glenn could see what was written on it. Despite a few incomprehensible lines, his eyes widened.

  [Glenn]

  [XXXXXXXXX]

  [Age: 17 years]

  [XXXXX]

  [XXXXXXXX]

  [Experience Y- 384,615]

  [~ Charging ~]

  [Compatible]

  Quickly after reading the few lines, the seed suddenly entered Glenn's body, and then...

  Nothing.