The Devil Of Probability-Chapter 56: Gathering Information

The stone slab behind Simon slowly closed with loud, tense friction. This was his third time in the Earth Scale Eel Cave. Of course, he didn’t have any plans; he would have to follow the rules of this cave anyway.

Simon’s plan for this exploration was simple — information. Without information, he was like a baby holding an axe. He knew where this cave was, but not its purpose, nor its full contents.

So, his first plan was to explore the paths he had skipped over before. However, in doing so, he found out most of them were uneventful. Simon found nothing that was useful, besides golden strands of fur.

(Could it be that the monkey in the next section created this passage?)

He shook off this thought, that wouldn’t be possible. Hollow Beasts could become entities, but the monkey did not show the ability to carve the path in their battle.

Additionally, he couldn’t find any reason for the monkey’s decision to create this cave after its words. The golden-furred monkey had instinctively put his intentions out for Simon to see.

This intention was that he was there for Elliot.

(Maybe whoever created this cave used this as a backup to kill Elliot just in case I failed.)

This was the most logical answer to Simon. After all, Project Icarus had no reason to believe in him yet. They had seen his smarts firsthand, but there was a difference between observing and taking action.

For all they knew, Simon was all bark and no bite. By now, he had explored deeper into the cave. At this point, the Earth Scale Eels were visible. Simon knew that he would be met with another branch soon.

He planned to take the opposite route from the one he did last time, hoping to find something useful. When he reached the skull marker, he noticed that there was now golden fur wrapped around its beak.

As Simon tugged on the fur, he noticed it had almost become like a rope. After testing it, he made sure it stayed in the same position before moving on.

As Simon had planned, he followed the opposite path from before. To his surprise, there was fur scattered across the floor and through the dust. The path was not as beautifully carved as the previous one.

Seeing how unattended the path was, he instantly turned away. He didn’t need to guess; he had already seen the proof of its neglect.

(There’s no reason for me to explore this if there’s nothing at the end. It could just be a trap.)

Even still, Simon couldn’t help but commit the cave to memory. No matter how subtle, he would need to know the differences in these paths and where they would lead him.

He continued this process for about twenty minutes; most of the paths he found led to dead ends or to the same state of neglect from before. In the end, he was face-to-face with the same passage that had led him to the monkey in the first place.

Simon rubbed his chin in thought, staring into the river-lit path. It would be better for him to leave short-term, as he didn’t have any information about the cave to gather so far.

Although uneventful, it was better for him to know there weren’t any other threats. However, that meant that the information he could gather would come from this monkey.

If this were the only obstacle in his path, he wanted to know how the monkey worked before dealing with it. So, the best option was to not fight it directly, but rather lure it in.

(There could be more of these monkeys. I can never truly know how dangerous Project Icarus is until they allow me to join.)

With that, Simon walked into the path.

The waves reflected onto his skin, met with the odd, bold grey. The more he went on, the more he noticed that the walls around this path had changed again.

Just as the stone in the entrance was originally dirt, this had turned into sandstone. This gave the glow of the river a more majestic, heavenly look. While they were tan the first time he visited, they weren’t as smooth, and their color was dull.

Along with the sandstone, there were yellow opals now within the river that reflected onto Simon. It only served to give his good looks a bolder, more presentable look than they already were.

After a while, he was met with a monkey once more. This time, it had stayed in what Simon presumed to be its original form. The monkey had its staff in hand, glancing into Simon’s very soul.

Simon didn’t dare to approach the platform just yet, seeing how the monkey would react. It didn’t move; instead, it sat down, waiting for Simon to approach.

He raised an eyebrow at this, taking a closer look at the golden monkey. There was nothing out of the ordinary — aside from the fact that he was as large as a grown man. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

What seemed to throw Simon off was the fact that the monkey was not fighting him. He could only stare in confusion, pulling out his daggers. He created the illusion of himself walking onto the platform.

However, the monkey did not budge. It stood its ground, and Simon created another spatial illusion. He switched his presence to behind the monkey, and the monkey swiftly reacted.

(Ah, that must be it. That would make sense why he turned around last time.)

With this simple test, Simon had concluded that visual illusions did not work on the monkey. This was why, when the monkey sensed rocks flying towards him in Simon’s escape, it turned to block.

The question now was — why didn’t the monkey leave this platform? There were many reasons for this, but Simon bet on the most dangerous option almost immediately.

He didn’t need to defeat the monkey, just disarm it to inspect its staff. There was a possibility that a ritual could render it unable to leave this circle. Simon stepped forward, an exhale coming out.

He still had until the end of today to wrap things up here, but he decided to give himself a limit. Not only to cover up the time he spent here, but also for his own health.

Simon knew from last time that he could not win against the monkey either way because of its generation factors.

(Five minutes should do.)