Chapter 2 Okay Death Hurts…
Cold and darkness. That’s all the man felt and saw. His feet touched the ground and he lost balance collapsing onto cold hard rock with a clank of metal on stone. He barely got his hand in front of him before his face hit stone. “Well. I guess I’m here. He turned and sat cross legged on the ground. Hearing metal scrape on stone and feeling something on his hip dragging across the ground causing his sitting position to be even less comfortable.
“Huh. I didn’t think about it at the time but hindsight being twenty-twenty and all that I’m surprised I still know language.” He put his hand on his chin in contemplation. “What’s twenty-twenty mean anyway? Like I know the saying means that you don’t realize mistakes until you look back on them but like… why?”
A flash of light snapped him out of his contemplation and nearly made him fall backwards. As the light dimmed and he lowered his hand from in front of his face he noticed a small lantern and a wooden box with an obvious lid on it. The box was about one foot deep, one foot tall, and two feet wide. It was made of a wood that seemed to change which tree it came from by the grain. Definitely unnatural.
“Thanks?” He said looking up towards where he figured the sky would be. “A final gift box and a lamp. I’ll take it.” He stood up but before he moved to open the box he got a good look at himself and the gear he was now equipped with. Leather armor. Shaped to a perfect fit and sturdy but light. Looking for weapons he saw he had three. He had a dagger on his right hip, a longsword on his left, and a shortsword strapped to the small of his back with the hilt pointing to his left side. Two weapons for his right hand and one for his left.
“Good some protection. I just hope that whatever is out there is less armed than me…” His voice trailing off as his eyes scanned the endless dark. He was lost in the total blackness of it for a moment. Drawn in as if it was trying to communicate with him. “Okay time for the box.” He said while shaking his head to clear it.
Crouching down he pulled off the lid. Inside he saw three things. A small brown leather bag of coins, an ornate compass, and a letter without a seal. “Let’s see what their last message to me is.” He quietly commented to himself as he pulled the letter out and opened it. Inside there was a simple piece of paper with crisp perfect text stamped on it:
There was a dramatic exit to be made so we skipped some of things you should know. Firstly: The compass will always point toward the nearest large group of mortals. It can be temperamental sometimes so who knows what large actually means but it will serve its purpose for you now. Secondly: you have an Inventory skill. Think Inventory and you will see a screen appear in front of you and towards the right. You can change its orientation as you like. Note that anything nonliving that you can pick up can be pushed inside of it. Once inside it will be safe from all external forces however the weight of the object will be dispersed across your body so keep that in mind. Other than that there are no limits to the Inventory, just don’t crush yourself okay. Thirdly: Your magic. Focus on your core, dive deep into your soul and you will feel your connection to the dark mana that resides there. Focus on the shadow aspect and guide it towards your eyes. The death aspect should only be used on your hands for now. Anyway good luck and thanks for the entertainment young mortal.
-Zei loser of bets
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Damn. That’s a lot to unpack.” His eyes skimmed the page again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “Okay first Inventory.” He focused on the word and a window appeared exactly as the note had said. The first thing he noticed was a set of climbing gear. A rope, a set of hand and foot spikes, a dozen pitons, and a small hammer. Next was a filled water skin. It looked like it could hold about a quart of water.
He reached in and pulled out the water skin. It felt like once his hand was touching the screen the object simply materialized in his hand. He opened it and took a sip. “Wow, it’s cold. I wonder if things age in there?” He then sealed and pressed the water skin back into the screen and it vanished. “Huh. Convenient.” He withdrew the compass from the box next. Opening it the hand spun a few times before settling on a direction. “I hope it’s pointing towards the path and not the general direction towards more people.” He pondered while staring at it intently.
Placing the compass in his Inventory he grabbed the bag of coins. Inside was ten copper coins, ten silver coins, and a singular gold coin. “I wonder how much this actually is?” he questioned while putting the bag in his Inventory. Right as he was about to press it into the screen he stopped. “Actually…” He said to himself as he poured the coins out of the bag into his Inventory directly. The screen reacted to his intent and rotated itself so it would be under the coins to catch them.
“Sweet it sorted them for me. Two stacks of ten and the singular gold coin.” He sat back and crossed his legs again. “Now for the fun part. Magic.” He did as he was told. Focusing on his core he could feel the mana circulating inside him. He knew instinctively that the dark mana was two sides of the same coin. Shadow and death.
Focusing on the shadow mana he found it wanting to follow his direction. “Okay to my eyes then.” He brought some of the mana up through his spine and then forwards to his eyes. Once there the mana seemed to know what to do and coated his pupils in a fine layer of almost tangible shadow stuff. Probably shadow mana he figured.
“Woah I can see!” He exclaimed and jumped to his feet. Looking around he could now barely see the walls of the cavern he found himself in. It was about thirty feet across with him in the center.
The dim lantern light had actually reached most of the way across the cavern. It was just dim enough that prior to his new ability the cavern could have been miles across for all he knew. He let out a breath feeling a weight leave his shoulders. With sight came at least the illusion of safety.
“Okay now that I can see, what’s this about death mana and only my hands?” He looked down at his hands as he held them in front of him. Closing his eyes he once again felt for his inner mana. Once he touched the death mana he willed it towards his hands. Immediately he was met with pain from the inside as the mana seemed to burn its way through his mana pathways.
“Ugh, okay death hurts…” He had abruptly cut off the mana flow as soon as he was met with pain but the pain still lingered. “Okay think. How do I limit it only to my hands?” He stopped and thought for a minute.
“No. It’s not that easy is it?” He focused on his mana again but this time he guided the dark mana the whole way to his hands before trying to pull just the death mana out. Sure enough it worked without pain and the death mana simply collected on the surface of his hands.
Opening his eyes he was met by his hands dripping black flames and a faint scent of decay. “Yikes, I hope that pain in my chest goes away soon and I didn’t just burn my insides too badly. Ouch it still hurts.” He stopped focusing the mana and unlike with the shadow mana and his eyes the death mana fizzled out and returned to just dark mana.
“Alright. Some abilities will just stay active until I turn them off and others need my constant attention. Got it.” He stated while looking around.
“Guess I don’t need this right now. Could be useful later though.” He told the cavern, the only thing that he thought could hear him, as he reached down and put the lantern and then the box in his Inventory.
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Very far away in her own domain a goddess looked into a pool of dark water. To her this pool was a window to the material world. As she gazed into it watching the newest addition to her world she performed a divination.
“Ah now this is interesting. Yes, yes, and I know just who to send…”
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