Third Person: Transmigrating into a Transmigrator's Story

'Finally!'

My heart skipped as I took in the sight.

The floor was submerged in knee-high water which was reflecting the dim light that seemed to spill through a crack in the rock overhead. The reflective surface cast everything in a pale, eerie glow.

I stepped into the water with a quiet splash. The cold shock of it biting into my skin as I waded deeper into the cave. Even with my ring on being in the water still irked me, but it was still manageable. Coming to this ravine was the bed I made.

The walls were slick, glistening with moisture and the soft sound of water dripping echoed in the space. There was something serene about it, but at the same time, it felt as if this place had been waiting for centuries to reveal itself.

'I just need to find the riddle and solve it then get the relic.'

Varek had found this cave, figured out the riddle and gotten the relic. The only problem was that he already had a better relic than the one he got here, so it ended up being discarded. So taking this wouldn't really affect the future. It wouldn't mess with Varek's life but it would certainly change mine!

"Actually isn't he getting that relic right now?"

Yeah, he also got a relic the week before classes started. Come to think of it, we really are in similar position.

He's out there in a cave in some mountain while here I am in a cave in some ravine.

"I really lack originality, don't I?"

I took another step as I consoled myself that this was for the greater good, my greater good.

"Welcome!"

It did not echo or come from either behind or in front of me, but I heard it. A raspy voice stating the welcome.

I could not tell if it was spoken or slipped in my thoughts but it caught me off guard.

'No one was supposed to be here.'

I turned sharply.

"Who's there?"

Nothing moved. The cave remained still, water lapping softly around my legs.

I drew and reached to my side realizing that I did not carry any weapons, not even my prized spear.

I cursed myself but was soon distracted as the cave seemed to change.

It was not a gradual thing, it suddenly happened. Like how I suddenly heard the voice.

The slick, glistening walls around me groaned and stretched forming the narrow corridor stretching before my eyes. It was as though time had skipped and the world had shifted.

It then opened into a much larger chamber which was wide and dome-like, illuminated by a faint, unnatural glow from above.

And then came the bones.

Scattered across the floor in heaps. Skulls and spines still locked in twisted gestures. At first, I thought they were human, but as I stepped closer, I saw hints that said otherwise. Some had elongated jaws, too many fingers, or none at all. My stomach turned.

Then I saw him.

At the far end of the chamber sat a man on a throne of carved stone, as if the mountain itself had shaped a seat for him. He was tall, with the kind of posture that spoke of command. His robes shimmered like silk, deep purple, untouched by dust or decay.

His skin was pale, his features noble, almost as noble as mine. The symmetry of his face was unnerving, sculpted to perfection in a way no ordinary man could be.

But it was his horns that stopped me cold.

They arched up and around his head like a crown, curved like a ram's but polished like obsidian. They even glinted in the dim light.

'Demon'

I thought immediately. But no. Demons were monstrous. Twisted. This man… this being… looked human. Almost too human and too precise.

'A Maltheran?'

I wondered.

No, they bore runes of their own, burned into their skin by old pacts. He bore none.

He smiled.

"I've been waiting a long time," he said.

But before I could move, before I could even think of moving, he vanished. And reappeared directly in front of me.

No movement. He was there, seated and then, he was here, standing just inches away.

I gasped and stumbled backwards, but he raised one finger, his middle one, slowly and deliberately pushing it to the centre of my forehead.

Just a tap.

Then the world folded in on itself.

Darkness.

When I came to, I was lying in shallow water. The Knee-high one from before. The cave was quiet with the same light trickling down, but something was wrong.

I sat up, blinking the dizziness away and turned to look behind me.

The path I'd entered from the ravine was gone. Like it was never there.

There was no slit in the wall or any narrow opening. Just a smooth, seamless curve of rock behind me.

I scrambled to my feet, breathing hard.

I pressed my hands to the wall. It was real and solid. Not an illusion.

'Is this the point where I start panicking?'

I wondered as genuine panic started to rise.

"Ding!"

It was not my NexBand, I was sure it could not even get the connection down here, it was something else.

My runes, they appeared unprompted. That was never a good sign.

They appeared in front of me, but instead of my usual information there was only one message, hovering in the air:

[My first is found in Flame and also in Fire.My second's in Sand but never in Stone.My third is buried in Earth, but never in Air.My whole is what all fear, yet all must bear.]

I frowned.

It was a riddle.

A riddle written in the runes themselves—like the cave, or the being in it, was testing me. Waiting to see if I can solve it. If I deserved to get the relic. Or maybe… if I deserved to leave.

'This was not supposed to go like this.'

The cave changing, the strange figure, and this, it wasn't supposed to happen.

It wasn't how Varek got the relic.