Vague flashes of light battling darkness flickered through Dante's mind, a brief recollection of the opposing forces vying for his attention. He chose neither, a door of opportunity presented itself. He stepped through without a thought.

The memories of what happened in the trial were quickly fading away in his mind, something seemed to be actively erasing them. No matter how hard he struggled to recollect what happened, he came up with nothing.

[Failed Trial 0]

A gasping retching sound could be heard in the darkness. On his hands and knees, he coughed and heaved. He was back in control of his mind and found himself in a weakened body that he could barely move around in.

The shock of finding himself in complete darkness in a pathetic and weakened state was too much, it caused his mind to grasp at anything to explain his new situation. 'What happened? Where am I? Wasn't I supposed to experience a trial? is this it?... Can something please make sense for once?'

Dante felt like a newborn. He was weak, exhausted and totally helpless. All he could discern was his cold dark surroundings. He was laying on the ground, he could feel his body heat escaping into stone the floor. He shivered before coughing up some more of the unknown fluid.

He took a moment to try and compose himself, then tried to recall what had happened. 'The wall of light? is that how I got here?'

A burst of cackling hoarse laughter brought him out of his worried thoughts, the laughter could be heard from somewhere nearby.

“Hey kid, did they send you here too?!” A deep wretched voice could be heard coming from the same person who was a moment before laughing.

Not quite in control of his body, he tried to respond “Huuu, hooo.” His words slurred as he could barely bring voice to his confused thoughts.

The strange voice seemed to understand what he was trying to ask, “Who? I’m me, or ‘F’ according to the system.” He burst out in laughter again, he seemed to be consumed with madness. Dante was lost with how to respond to this person.

“Whaa?” His tongue failed to comply with his desire to speak. The words caused Dante to sound like he was talking slowly. Failing to ask a coherent question, he stopped until he could regain control of his body. ‘Why am I so weak?! what’s going on! Who is this guy? Eff?'

“Uhh eff?” Dante spoke again, this time trying to draw the words out of his mouth. Feeling was returning to his body, slowly he was regaining control over his limbs.

F didn't immediately reply, Dante tried looking around in the darkness. He scanned his vicinity with no success, not a spec of light made its way to his eyes. He felt like he was being consumed by the darkness that surrounded him.

The enigmatic person spoke up again with his hoarse voice “Yes, that's me. What can I do for you kid?"

Dante grunted, with some difficulty as he managed to pull himself up to a sitting position. A cold draft could be felt across his body, it drew his attention to the fact that he was naked.

He felt around his body, when his fingers made contact with his chest he pulled away. 'What the fuck is going on?!' He could feel each of his ribs jutting out, the unusual sensation of having a body without an ounce of fat startled him.

Exploring the state of his body, he reached for his head. He was greeted with a smooth dome, not a single hair. He continued to slide his hands down his face, feeling his gaunt features. Moving his hands over his face he had no facial hair or hair of any kind on his body.

The unusual circumstances were starting to cause Dante’s adrenaline to start pumping, his heart pounding in his chest. The room whirled and span with nothing to focus on to regain his bearings.

The stimulation of his rapidly circulating blood gradually gave new life to his wiry muscles. After a few moments, he felt capable of standing up. He moved his tongue around his dry mouth before feeling confident enough to speak up. “F, you wouldn’t happen to have a light? I can’t see for shit. Besides, where are we? How did I get here?”

"Scared of the dark Kid?"

"Not exactly, I'm just confused. I don't know how I got here, I can't see you."

"Probably for the best. It's good that you can speak now." F replied in his obnoxiously hoarse voice, a small cackle escaping his lips. It seemed almost involuntary or reflexive. 'How long has he been here? is this my fate?'

The deep voice spoke up again "To answer your question, you're in a prison of sorts. Welcome to my humble abode."

"Prison? I didn't do anything!"

"You needn't worry, you won't be here for long. Anyway, seems things are in motion. You're in a different universe now kid, you should have access to the system. It can answer all your questions."

“Here? System?” Dante couldn't make sense of what this person was saying. This mysterious figure seemed to be playing games with him.

“Yes, system. Here let me help, Say or think Status... but you have to mean it” F replied.

“Status?” Dante spoke questioningly into the darkness, F didn't reply and nothing happened.

'What's he talking about? Status seriously? like a video game or something? Maybe I should give it another try, he did say I had to mean it'.

"Status!" Dante spoke again more confidently, his voice echoed back to him but again nothing happened. He heard deep chuckling in the distance.

'Is he fucking with me?' Dante thought, his frustrated thoughts were interrupted by F who seemed equally frustrated by Dante's inability to interact with the system, "Try it again, you have to mean it, kid!"

'What does that even mean? Well, I'll give it one more go I guess.' Starting again, he envisioned something presenting itself to him, a window of text, information in whatever form it took. His thoughts began to slip to the user interfaces of games he recalled playing.

He felt a connection with something beyond his grasp of perception, something greater than he could comprehend. Then Dante spoke out once again "Status!" This time he projected his intentions of being presented with a UI, he felt something click in his brain and the vivid mental projection of information popped into his mind's eye.

[ Name: Dante]

[Species: Human]

[ System Level: 0]

[Title: Reject of Earth]

[???: ? / ? (max)]

[Strength: < 1]

[Agility: < 1]

[Intelligence: 2]

[Perception: 1]

[Vitality: < 1]

[Constitution: 1]

Dante, looking through his attributes, he was befuddled and horrified. Seeing the abysmally low numbers, it dawned on him how fucked he was. He had played a game or two in his time, read a couple of books. This wasn't some fantasy where he awoke in a world with incredible power, he had next to nothing. Naked and weak. 'Oh shit!'

He looked again at his title and thought about what ‘Reject of Earth’ could mean. Startled to notice the system responding to him. Additional information was projected to his mind.

[Reject of Earth: Grants nothing, you failed trial 0 and have been ejected from the candidate grooming process. Good luck!]

“Failed trial 0? F what is this title thing about, do you have it too ‘Reject of Earth’?”

F cackled out loud, his eerie laughter seemed to echo in the dark space. “Reject of Earth?!” F laughed even harder, a gasping hoarse laughter boomed in the darkness.

“Hey F, this isn’t funny. I don’t know how I got here, I’m tired, exhausted and feel like shit. Please explain what’s going on.” Dante cried out, a sense of shame burned inside him, being assigned the title of 'Reject' by the system. It made him feel like he was the last person to be picked to join a team, a loner that no one wanted. He thought to himself ‘Surely I can't be the only one right?’.

Once F finally stopped laughing, he composed himself before he began to speak again “Your title Reject of Earth, that's hilarious. System sure knows how to make a joke.” F’s voice boomed, this time Dante slapped his hands to his ears feeling like an explosion went off in his head.

The floor rumbled and rocks broke away from the ceiling, clattering to the floor. The sound had rattled his bones, instilling a sudden sense of fear and respect for this enigmatic being named F. “I… I’m sorry,” Dante cried out. “I just need answers...please F, help me out here”.

Standing in the void, he patiently waited for a response, straining his ears for whatever information would be imparted to him. F began to make a humming noise, he ruminated on how to best reply.

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Dante picked up snippets mumbling sounds, “Failed trial 0...that’s a new one, I didn’t realise you could fail that. Hmmm”

There was an awkward silence before F spoke up again. “I thought you were like me, but clearly not...you were sent here with me...interesting, I can do something with this. How about this kid, pass my trial and I'll help you out.”

Without waiting for a response, F clicked his fingers, the click echoed in the darkness like thousands of people all helping to make clicking noises until the noise subsided.

“You want me to complete your trial?” Dante asked the darkness, but received no response. He barely had a moment to grasp some understanding of F's words when a notification popped up.

[ F’s trial started - Fight my pet.]

Dante tried to look around for whatever he was supposed to fight, he was greeted with more darkness. 'Fight his pet? I can't see shit!'

His ears picked up a pattering noise that could be heard in the distance, the sound of claws on stone was gradually making its way closer. Dante held his breath and tried to remain still. The sound of movement from whatever was in the darkness stopped.

Sniffing sounds filled the darkness, then more silence. 'What the fuck is that?'. His heart was pounding, he released his breath. Unable to avoid giving away where he was, the sound of his breathing and the blood rushing past his ears were the only noises he picked up.

He started to frantically feel around himself, everything he touched only returned the constant reminder that he was surrounded by cold harsh stone. It was an unforgiving stone that sapped his energy and heat from his body, a stone that blocked any light that would allow him to see.

“F this isn’t funny, what’s going on? I'm not ready for this!”

There was no response. The pattering noise started moving again, this time combined with the enthusiastic sniffing. A creature in the dark was moving towards him.

Dante felt hairs rise on his neck, he was feeling terribly weak barely managing to hold himself up. 'Fuck this!' Dante thought, he picked a direction and stumbled towards it with as much speed as he could muster. Mere moments later he felt a sudden pain explode across his face, stars burst into his vision.

The buzzing flecks of white were the first thing he had seen other than darkness or system UI since waking up. He had run face-first into a wall, the rest of his body followed. Air was knocked out of his lungs causing him to gasp and wheeze. He tried to catch his breath, feeling winded he crouched down to the floor. 'I'm Dead, I'm dead!'

“Grrrrr...rrrr.”

A guttural growl could be heard from the direction of the pattering noises. Then a fast tapping sound of claws as the creature picked up speed, homing in on Dante's position.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck...what the fuck?!’ Dante’s mind went into a state of panic, he struggled to think of what to do. Whatever was out, it certainly wasn't friendly.

'A weapon, I need something!' He felt around himself, trying to find anything to defend himself. Nothing. Dante had his back to the wall he had run into. He reached his arms out defensively, trying to think his way out of the situation. ‘What is it? What’s coming, it sounds like claws, a dog? How do I fight a dog in the darkness?’

He put one arm out further, an ‘offering’ he thought. He seemed to recall that when defending yourself from wild animals they would usually go for vulnerable areas like your neck or fleshy bits, so it was best to present a target.

If the creature took the bait he might have a chance at controlling the situation. He figured he was fucked either way so tried whatever came to his mind. With his arm extended, the other continued to feel around for something to use.

The noise of the creature rapidly made its way towards Dante, the beast fell for his initial bait, accepting the offered arm.

A sickening pain burst into Dante's forearm, as the creature sunk its teeth into him. Then the beast began to shake its head, tugging and dragging Dante with it. He was pulled forward onto his stomach. The searing pain in his arm made Dante scream out.

“Arghhhh! F help! Arghh!”. Still no response, just his screaming and the grinding noise of teeth on his bones. He could then hear the wet chewing of teeth tearing through his muscles.

The battle, if it could be called that, continued in the pitch darkness. Dante’s delirious mind tried to think his way out of the situation. His arm was dripping warm blood and feeling like it was being torn to shreds, his body was being dragged across the floor.

His free hand clawed at the ground, he tried to grasp onto anything. He desperately tried to slow himself down, his naked body was full of scrapes and cuts. The creature continued to pull him around, it remained in control of the battle.

Small stones raked at his body, his hand struck something large and heavy. 'This is it!' A small possibility presented itself. He found something jagged and loose, a heavy sharp rock the size of his fist. He gripped it tightly, the edges cut into his fingers. The stone felt like a piece of shattered obsidian, it would have to do.

Dante was enraged, he no longer feared for his life. The humiliation of having his skin shredded and the indignity of having his manhood scraped across the floor. Roaring he brought the stone down towards his arm where the creature’s maw still had hold of him. A solid thump could be heard and his arm shook, whatever was attacking him was struck successfully.

The creature cried out with a high pitched whine. He felt the pressure of its teeth release from his arm. He pulled back for another strike, the slick blood dripping from his hand caused him to release the stone out of grasp.

‘Damn it all, keep attacking’ Dante thought. ‘Fight or flight, I've got nowhere to run in this fucking darkness, if I don’t keep attacking now, I'm dead!’.

Dante screamed out in fear and anger, he jumped towards the startled and injured creature in an attempt to take control of the situation. He reached out into the darkness with his hands, they clamped onto the creature. Unusual sensations were fed back to him. Whatever he was fighting had no fur, just a grotesque lumpy and rugged skin. The shape of the creature felt like a dog. He held onto the creature with the little strength he had left, attempting to wrestle it into submission. He felt around the creature for any weakness.

His hands touched what he thought was the wet nose of the creature, it was sticky with blood. His or the creatures, it didn't matter at this point.

Clamping his undamaged arm around its muzzle, the creature realising it was in trouble recovered from the strike. It began fighting back, trying to shake Dante off of its body. Dante's weakened hand reached towards the creature's face. ‘The eyes’ Dante thought.

He spread his fingers into a clawed shape, his hand then raked at the creature's face feeling for its eyes. The creature cried out louder and shook more violently as it suddenly lost vision in one of its eyes. Dante drew upon untapped reserves of his strength that he never realised he had, he held tightly onto the creature's mouth and continued to rake his hands at the monster's face with his shredded arm.

[ Acquired: Hand to hand combat ]

[Hand to hand combat: Tier 1]

The panting creature blew its heated fetid breath at him, drool spraying onto Dante's face as he wrestled the unknown creature. They rolled around on the ground, each briefly gaining the advantage. He could feel that he and the creature were both losing the will to fight.

Dante's lungs were burning and pain racked his body, he made one last push for survival. His clawed hand felt for the damaged eye socket, finding the wound he had made earlier, he pushed his thumb in with all the strength he had left in his arm.

The attack worked better than expected. He felt the creature’s muscles stiffen at the sudden vicious attack, it started scrambling with all its limbs. Its clawed feet were dragging across his body, leaving long gashes along Dante's ribs. The desperate fight for his life continued.

The creature gradually was weakening and slowing down. Seizing his advantage, he forced his finger deeper into the cavity of the creature's eye socket, pushing with all his might towards its brain.

The constant whimpering of the creature almost made Dante feel sorry for it, but this was his life on the line. He finally managed to get the upper hand and pinned the creature down. Pressing the advantage he mounted on top of it and grabbed its head with both hands.

He cried out “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you for making me kill you, fuck you for attacking me. RAAaarghh”. The whole time he was rhythmically smashing its head into the ground. At last, he heard a crunch as the skull of the creature caved in from Dante's repeated slamming of its head.

A sudden announcement popped into Dante’s head, he felt a positive reinforcement of his success from the system.

[Weakened rabid ----hound killed]

[Title gained: First Kill]

[Title gained: Natural born killer]

[Gained 1042 Combat experience]

[ 200 experience converted to 2 Ascension points]

[ 2 ascension points automatically spent for the preservation of life - only used outside of combat]

Dante continued screaming and swearing, ignoring the announcements as thousands of threads of white light began to rise from the corpse of the creature. The threads were thinner than a spider's web but bright in the darkness. They threaded their way towards Dante, it was as if allured by his ability to overcome the odds and defeat the enemy, the strong prevailed and got stronger.

He saw for the first time since he woke up, the light emanating from the threads allowed him to see where he was and the state he was in. It was a small cave, a disgusting hairless dog with cancerous looking lumps all over its body was under him.

He saw his skinny, dirty, naked body seemingly absorb the threads of white light. His naked shredded body was covered in wounds and ripped skin. Then something totally unexpected started to happen. His injuries began to repair themselves. He felt the pain and itchiness as his arm, the injuries he had gained from using his arm for defence gradually began to pull together. Torn muscles and skin began to heal before his eyes.

Finally, he felt relieved as the pain subsided, the adrenaline was slowly dissipating. His breathing slowed down, sweat dripped from his face. The threads of light gradually vanished and Dante was plunged back into darkness again.

Dante slowly stood up, climbing off of the hound. Kicking it one last time for good measure while shouting “Fuck you!”.

“Yes, yes. That’s enough, you’ve proven yourself but don’t desecrate the dead Kid. Please don’t swear anymore, it is my pet after all.” F’s laughter rang out again from the darkness.

'Fuck F' He was about to ignore F's protestation at the way he treated his pet. Readying himself to kick it again.

“If you strike it again, I'll crush your bones to dust!” Suddenly serious, the transition in F’s temperament was so fast it gave Dante social whiplash.

Dante was startled at F’s vicious threat. He audibly gulped, feeling indignant and yet afraid of this being, F, whatever it was, whoever he was. He didn’t seem to be someone he could mess with at the moment.

“Did I pass?” Dante asked, presenting a meek façade. He didn't want to stir the ire of F and be forced to endure another trial, he really would prefer not to have to fight another one of those things anytime soon.

[ F’s trial passed - Fight my pet]