*Shlink*
I look down and see a black leathery arm thrust into my abdomen.
"Kyak!"
I cough out blood and look back up. Dammit! I'd forgotten that higher level monsters had access to magic!
Looking back up at the monster, It looks to be in a humanoid form, with black leather instead of skin, with the exception of its face, which is largely covered by a large maw filled with dangerously sharp teeth. I try to identify it.
[Name: Bat-Rock Elemental Assassin
Level: ???
Description: ???]
The only thing I had learned from that was its name, and that it is more than 100 levels higher than me, hence the question marks obscuring its level and its name had ‘assassin’ in it, so it must have used stealth magic to sneak in here.
I look at what I assume to be the monster's face and fix it with a loathing glare. Why? What did I do to deserve this?
The monster pulls its arm out of my mid section and positions it's other arm in front of my face. I can't even move to dodge, the pain seems to have paralyzed me, either that or the knife-like arm had poison on it.
*shth*
The monster starts to slowly inch its dagger-arm towards my left eye.
What is it doing? I thought monsters had no intelligence? Why does it look like it's trying to torture me?
The questions slipped in and out of my mind faster than I could even think. Time slowed.
I shove the pain from my stomach wound to the side, I have to think.
The watch's ability? No, It'll just stab me again and again. Health potion? Same problem. I tilt my head in horror.
"Is there... nothing I can do?"
I look back at the monster's face and see a malicious grin stretch over its oversized mouth.
Its enjoying this, I realize. My pain and suffering, all my goals, my LIFE, are all just a game to this creature! Worst of all, I can't deny it.
Its arm finally reaches my eye and slowly pierces through, A disgusting and pitiful scream rips out from somewhere, I stare at the creature, confused. But then I notice my jaw hanging open and realize that the scream came from my own mouth.
The monster's grin widens further in my suffering, and the visual input from my left eye goes black.
Just before I think that the monster is going to pierce its arm through my brain and spell my death, a vicious roar rings out from what seems to be pretty close.
The creature's arm stops moving and it looks up at the exit, It painfully removes it's arm from my eye and runs out of the alcove.
"I'm... saved?"
Well, not quite, if I leave my wounds like this, I'll bleed out in less than a few minutes, so I quickly tear apart my shirt and tie it around my abdomen, whilst looking downwards, something white and red falls from my face.
Inspecting it closely, I notice that it is in fact an eyeball. My eyeball.
I let out a despairing wail.
This will be troublesome, but for now I have to focus on making it out alive. My shirt isn't a particularly effective bandage, so I drink the entirety of the Health Potion in my canteen and try to make the trip to the starter room with the Health Potion pool.
I slowly drag myself over, it hurts so much...
Eventually making it to the room, I rip off the makeshift bandage and submerge myself into the pool and let it soak into my wounds.
I look down at my abdomen wound with confusion, a wound like this should be visibly healing in front of my eyes. Yet the most it's doing is completely stopping the bleeding. Great. Looks like there was another type of poison that stops me from healing.
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The only thing I can do now is wait for the watch's ability cooldown to reset, I open up its information panel and look at the cooldown.
[Cooldown timer not yet started, Click to begin cooldown]
I click it...
[3:23:59:57]
...The four day cooldown only begins after you manually start it.
What!? I've never heard of such a thing!
More importantly though... Because the Health Potion pool only stopped the bleeding, all the pain is still there.
I have to resist this pain for ninety-six entire hours, and as seeing as being unconscious lessens the effectiveness of potions, I will almost certainly die if I faint or fall asleep.
To bide my time, and lessen the chances of me falling asleep, I think about how my old 'hero friends' were doing.
"Eating in lavish feasts, while I manage to swallow down charred meat. Sleeping in comfortable beds, while I can't sleep at all. Protected by many guards, and helped to grow stronger by the king. What do I have? A rusted sword and an old watch."
My fury grows.
"Why do they get to grow and live rich, while I, falsely accused of being a demon, am thrown into the most difficult Labyrinth to ever be known to man? Why..."
I let out a small sob.
"Why!?"
The pain, not subsiding, seems to be burning hotter than ever, in turn growing my anger.
"I just wanted to be a hero... I wanted to help!" I shout the last word with vehemence.
I cough out more blood. "What right do they have to leave me here for dead?" I seethe out.
The fury, the anger, the wrath is embedded deep in my bones. I laugh hysterically. "For this... for this... I'll make them feel what I felt, I'll wipe out the other half of the kingdom that my predecessor swordsman didn't!"
"I'll make them feel regret! The women, the children, the old, everyone!" I start breathing heavily "Nobody is innocent in that wretched kingdom... that's right.. I'll show them what it means to make an enemy of me."
I let go of my childish dreams of being a hero. Why protect anyone, when everyone is rotten to the bone. None of them deserve their lives.
My thoughts turn to the person who started all this. The King. "He deserves worse. He wants to live? Fine then. I'll let him live, but I will bring him to his dying breath every day, healing him only at the last moment to prolong his suffering. suffering, that's right... they all need to suffer, suffer like I do and did, repent with your lives!" I pour my killing intent into the last word.
---
The monsters in the second part of the Labyrinth look around uneasily. It looks like a new predator is awakening.
-Almost 4 days later-
I stare at the countdown timer.
[0:00:00:05]
It slowly ticks down, seconds slowing to what feels like an eternity.
*Ding*
[Cooldown over.]
"Timekeeper's Last Resort"
Vitality floods my body, much like the time I first fell into the Labyrinth, the wound that pierced my abdomen rapidly closes shut, but interestingly still leaves a scar in the shape of a malformed star.
I sigh in relief that my death isn't inches away anymore.
I reach towards the side of the pool and lift myself out, I reach for my canteen as well but I... miss? My eyes seem... Oh. My left eye didn't regenerate.
Turning around I stare back into the pool, searching for my reflection.
I don't recognize what I see. My formerly black hair only had wisps of white trailing throughout, but now it was a complete, solid white. I had heard about this in one of the books I had read back on earth. Something about stress and pain causing melanin in your hair to run dry and turn white.
Next off, my face was filled with many new creases, making my face look like that of an old, troubled man. And finally last off, In place of my left eye, there is only a dark socket. You can clearly see my flesh showing if any light is shone on it, but because of the Infection Resistance skill, It shouldn't become too much of a problem.
"Looks like I'm alone again"
I pull up my status page and notice I have many pending notifications, so I go through them one by one.
[Skill Gained: Pain Resistance
Description: Reduce input from pain receptors]
[Class Leveled Up!]
[Class Skill Gained: Series Creation
Description: By practicing and refining predetermined motions, you gain the ability to transform perfected physical movements into instant-use skills, when a certain number of similar theme skills add up, a {Series} is formed, further improving the ability of the created skills and categorizing them into a group]
Wow. Not even including the pain resistance skill, the class skill should be extremely useful with enough practice.
I look through the rest.
[Skill Gained: Intuition
Description: Gain an innate sense for hidden secrets]
Not bad, not bad at all. This could be extremely useful for searching for loot and secret entrances within the Labyrinth.
[Profession Determined: Sinner of Wrath
Warning: You have become one of the seven deadly sins, with this profession comes great power, but beware. Wrath be a sharp blade with no handle.]
[Class Changed, New Class: Swordsman of Wrath]
Seven deadly sins, huh? I recall reading about them in some religious text I had chanced upon, if I recall correctly they were: Envy, Lust, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, and Wrath.
I recall my thoughts while I was simmering in pain inside the pool.
If wrath brings me power, then wrathful I will be.