As the demon stalked over to where Pavel was lying, he continued to speak. Pavel noticed that as he heard more and more of what the demon said, he was beginning to understand the general gist of his words. Ding
Skill advanced!
Language: Low Abyssal - Level 1—>2
Experience gained!
However, understanding what the demon was saying did not help Pavel in the least. The first word that he was able to understand had given him exactly what the demon was currently saying, albeit with more detail now. Pavel shuddered. It was clear that Lenus had not given the gift of Immortality out of some sort of misguided sense of honor. No, it was to keep him there to torture for as long as he wanted. This was compounded by the fact that the curse on the power made him feel more pain than he usually would, though Pavel did not know the degree to which he would suffer, but it was sure to be extreme.
Suddenly he heard the demon, in its terrible language, say “Begin.” The last thing he heard before the world went white was the demon’s laughter, though almost drowned out by his own screams.
Skill unlocked!
Pain Resistance - Level 1
Your ability to resist pain has increased. At higher levels, pain might be unfeelable.
Experience gained!
. . .
When he woke up again, the demon was gone. He shuddered, remembering the pain that had just overtaken his senses not long before. Glancing down at the rest of his body, he noticed new scars that were not there before. It seemed, though his immortality trait gave him advanced regeneration, that it would not prevent the formation of scars. Pavel didn’t mind that. Scars told a story. Each scar was a memory of a mistake that he made or a reason to improve. He attempted to touch the one next to his right eye, forgetting that his hands were bound. That scar was one of those lessons imparted. He could never forget the night he earned that scar, the night his father died.
It had been a quiet day for Pavel, nothing of note had happened until the night. He had woken to the sound of someone rummaging around in his family’s home. At first, he had thought it was his mother, searching for something to eat after experiencing one of her many restless nights. But as the sounds grew louder, Pavel made the decision to go out and check on the situation. He stepped through his doorway to find a hooded figure rummaging through drawers and cabinets, probably searching for money. Pavel remembered calling for his father, telling him that someone strange was in the house. The robber had whirled around to face the new noise, drawing a knife. Hearing Pavel, his father had come out of his room to see the man lunging towards Pavel in an attempt to silence him. Pavel’s father was only fast enough to get himself between the robber and Pavel, taking the strike that would have slit Pavel’s throat, though the blade still caught Pavel in the face. The robber had fled but had done enough damage so that Pavel’s father bled out on the kitchen floor, held by his son for the final time.
Pavel shook himself out of his memories. They were not the place to be, especially in a place like this. There would be nothing constructive to come of reliving those memories. Only madness lies in dwelling in pain.
Again, Pavel heard someone at the door. He braced, expecting to see the demon again. He steeled himself, “This time,” he thought, “This time I can fight the pain. I have to fight, else what am I but a failure.”
However, Pavel was mistaken in thinking that his visitor was the demon. As the entity entered the room, it was clear to him that this was his real captor, Lenus. Pavel tried to spit at the god, but due to his restraints, missed him by a generous margin. The god just laughed. “Look at you, brought to this state. How defiant you still are. Well, we can fix that.”
“Why,” Pavel asked, “Why?”
“Why?” the god responded, “Because I could.”
And with those words, he turned around and walked out the door he came in. As he was exiting, he motioned for someone to come into the room after him. The god paused in the doorway. “Enjoy yourself,” Lenus mocked, “It’s only eternity.” With that, the god passed out of Pavel's line of sight and was replaced by the same demon as before.
The demon came up to the table, this time with a cart of instruments being pulled behind him by a grotesque amalgamation of flesh. Pavel, though his predicament couldn’t have been much better than that of the thrall, felt sorry for it. Whether it was sympathy or just him feeling a connection due to shared circumstances, he did not know, but he felt it nonetheless.
The demon pulled a pair of pliers off of the cart. “You know what I’m going to do with these?” it said. Pavel was surprised about how much he was able to understand of what the demon was saying. It seemed that he had missed some notification as to his language improving. He looked at his notifications and sure enough, it had increased somewhat drastically.
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Skill advanced!
Language: Low Abyssal - Level 2—>5
You now understand the spoken language perfectly and can speak it yourself, but reading and writing are still foreign to you. Read a book and this skill might advance.
Experience gained!
Level advanced!
Level 1—>2
5 Free Points gained!
The advancements shocked Pavel, it seemed that gaining a level here was easier than he thought. However, his thoughts were again interrupted by the demon, “What, all mum now? Heard you talking with my boss, you fucked up alright.”
“Fuck you,” Pavel responded, spitting at the demon, the only act of defiance that he could manage from his position.
“Big mistake, human,” the demon growled, all humor gone from his eyes, “You’ve just earned yourself a nastier time than I was planning.” Suddenly, the demon attached the pliers to one of Pavel’s fingers. The demon gave him a smirk and pulled hard. The finger separated from Pavel's body, not with a pop, but with the worst tearing sensation he had ever felt. The pain hadn’t registered to its full extent yet, Pavel’s adrenaline numbing it slightly, but it was still one of the worst things he had ever felt. Still recovering from the shock of losing a finger, Pavel didn’t notice the demon moving on to another finger until it was no longer attached to his body. Pavel fought the pain and his body’s natural response to go into shock. Attempting a grin to spite the demon he muttered, “Is that all?”
“Oh no,” the demon replied, “We’re just getting started.” Again, after Pavel resisted for a bit, it all eventually faded into darkness to the cacophony of Pavel’s screams and the demon’s laughter.
. . .
When Pavel opened his eyes, it was much the same as before. Still in the room, still strapped in, unable to move, and again with new scars littering his body. The only change was the notifications that were pulsing at the edge of his consciousness. Not wasting any time, he opened them and was hit with a veritable barrage of popups.
Skill advanced!
Pain Resistance - Level 1—>4
Experience gained!
For reaching Level 2, you have unlocked Identify!
Identify - Level Max
Simply focus on an object or entity, and gain basic information about it like level, species, and other surface-level information.
WARNING
Use your Free Points within 48 hours of gaining them or they will be assigned randomly to your attributes.
Heeding the warning, Pavel quickly pulled up his status. He mulled over where to allocate his points. He almost went for the easy way out, constitution, which might have let him resist the pain for longer. However, he realized the futility of dumping points into constitution. Even if he was able to increase his constitution enough to make a meaningful difference, the god likely had someone stronger who could do the torture just as well even with the increase.
After thinking for a bit, he narrowed it down to a few useful stats. Well, at least useful for his goal of escaping from his current situation. Endurance and charisma were out off the bat, as he did not need extra energy, nor did he think that social skills would help him escape. The demon probably couldn’t be negotiated with. He felt like he could take intelligence and wisdom off the list as well. There wasn’t much about his current situation that he felt he would be able to rectify by being smarter or having the ability to apply his knowledge. Brute force or force of will were the most attractive solutions. Perception, however, intrigued Pavel. He might be able to find something that he otherwise wouldn’t; catch a slipup from the demon, find a way out of his bonds that he wouldn’t have otherwise. Strength and agility were also both under consideration for similar reasons: they would straight up increase his physical capabilities. If he was strong enough, he might be able to break the bindings that were holding him, as they were likely meant for a normal human, not a system-enhanced one. However, the most intriguing to Pavel was his willpower stat. The increased mental toughness would help him with resisting the torture, but it would also slow down any attempted escape, as it didn’t directly help him with that goal.
Pavel carefully considered his options. He could take the physical route or the mental route. The physical route seemed like it had the highest possibility of encountering unforeseen circumstances, like the bindings being stronger than expected. The mental route might let him sit and wait longer, gathering information before making his escape. However, it put him at risk of succumbing to the torture and failing to make an escape attempt at all.
Pavel had faith in his mental fortitude. It had taken him far in life and he wasn’t about to discount it now. He bit the bullet and allocated 3 points to willpower, bringing his total up to 20, and 2 points to perception, bringing that total to 13. The changes to his willpower weren’t immediately noticeable, though he expected that. He figured that he would see the difference the next time the demon returned. However, the change in perception was a bit of a shock to Pavel. He was instantly able to see more clearly. He even started to notice some cracks in the room that he had missed before. He felt that he had made the correct decision to invest in perception. It would make his eventual escape all that much easier.
All he could do now was wait for the demon to return. In the meantime, he decided to attempt to use the Analyze skill that he had gained with his level up. Focusing on one of the bricks in the wall, he thought Analyze. And it worked, he gained information. Though it wasn’t at all useful, just telling him that it was a stone brick of low quality. However, the extra information that he could gather now that he understood the ability might come in handy with dealing with his demonic torturer.
Again he heard the door of his cell swing open. The demon entered as it had the last two times. “Are you ready for another round?” the creature asked with a manic expression on its face, “Because I sure am.”
Pavel used analysis.
Lesser Demon (Wrath) - Level 19
The demon was a lower level than Pavel had expected. He had thought that it would be below someone like Lenus to work with someone that much weaker than them. This was good news for Pavel as a lower level would make his escape attempt easier. This time, he ignored the demon as it continued to goad him into retaliation. Eventually, annoyed by the lack of response it was getting from its human toy, it began its torture. Through its glee of being back doing the thing it loved, it didn’t notice that Pavel had been able to hold on for longer this time.