18 – RUSCKAN VILLAGE – A NECESSARY DEATH

He stored the magical rope that was binging his wrists and legs inside his inventory. Just like that, without effort, it disappeared from the real world and appeared inside his storage space. And he was almost free.

David got up, and stretched his arms and back. It felt good, to finally be free again, even though he had not been in the cell for very long. He looked at the thick metal bars that were keeping him imprisoned and sighed.

That dwarf was going to pay. That much was sure.

Without magic, opening the bars was going to be quite tricky. Unlike the bindings, he could not store the whole wall in his inventory, at least not with his current level of training. He had to find another way before it was too late, because the fate of the whole village was at stake.

Just then, a loud screech filled the air, coming from the little light and it holes of the cell. A monster was approaching from the plains, and a strong one at that. There was no more time.

David knew that there was an easy way to get out of here, one that would only cost him a great deal of pain and nothing else. He wanted it to be the last trump card, but the situation was forcing his hand. He had no magic power whatsoever, and he tried many times to use fire to melt the metal before coming to this conclusion, and the clock was ticking. Time was out.

He stared at the knife, and jabbed it towards his eye. The blade stopped just shy of his closed lid, just barely there. He found that he had no strength to do what needed to be done, that it was too much even despite all the stuff that happened to him lately.

Suicide simply went against his most basic instincts.

The ground shook.

“Fuck this!” This was no time for stalling. He had to do it, and he had to do it now.

And yet, his arm seemed to just lack the strength to do it. It didn’t want to move. Not even the yells and the sounds coming from afar were enough. Not even knowing that he was immortal while the people of the village were not, was enough to kill himself.

He had to do something, though. He had to act.

If his body didn’t want to do it, then he had to trick it. He had to find a way.

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He put the knife against his heart, and then threw himself on the ground, trying to stick as close as possible to the bars.

He landed, and a wet sound reverberated through the cell as his body moved around in a growing pool of blood. Then, darkness and coldness overcame him, and he was back in the white room.

Reincarnating in 3, 2, 1…

25° Reincarnation.

>Rebirth bonus: Ability: summon knife upgraded.

>Choose target location. Current mission; Silverscale forest.

He looked at the new text, a bit different than before for some reason. “Cool,” he said, looking at the bonus. It was nice, and he was really curious to try it out as soon as possible.

But not before he got out of the cell, and managed to deal with the monster, somehow.

He also smacked his head. It occurred to him, that he could have committed suicide by dropping a boulder on his head from his inventory. Instead, had had to go the stupid route and enact a weird sort of middle ages ritual, falling onto his knife. He shrugged. What’s done is done.

“Current mission.”

>Confirmed.

>Mission is respawn type. Complete objective to unlock new area.

Process complete. Namaste, and good luck!

The pain came, as usual. He writhed and squirmed on the floor, barely managing to keep himself awake and completely unable to even remember where he was.

By the time he had his mind back, it was too late. He looked, and the bars were still there. His respawn protection shield did not evaporate them like it did the stone back at the mage’s mountain.

But he had his magic now. It was only a matter of melting them with enough fire and heat. A large ball of fire appeared in his hand, and he stretched it out towards the bars until they were enveloped in fire. He waited, watching the metal get red, then orange, then white and eventually just melt away in large smoldering drops. They hissed when they came in contact with the hard floor, and a thick plume of smoke rose from where the metal was burning still.

David was long gone, though. He almost reached the city gate, but before he could get there, he was stopped by a large war axe dropping from the sky and almost slicing him in two.

“You freed yourself, eh? It’s too late now, though. The village is doomed, and there’s nothing you can do about it!” Griglir laughed, but it was bitter and almost sad to the ear.

“Why? Why did you do all this. Just to destroy a village?”

“Silence. Do not speak of what you do not know. You don’t know my story, or my reasons. And I have no intention of telling them, not to you, not to anybody. They’re my reasons, private and all that.” He seemed downcast, saying this. “Yeah, private. Mine, and mine only. You would not understand.” He yelled.

“So, that mage? He was just a pawn?”

Laughter. “You’ve got some smart in you after all, then.” The mocking tone almost made David strike out in anger. He was right, though, the dwarf was right. “He was only herding monsters towards here, accelerating the inevitable. But enough talking now, let me just kill you.”

He leapt.

David looked at him, and wondered what his plan was. The dwarf obviously knew by now that he could respawn as many times as he wanted, then why? Of course, he realized, to buy himself and the monster enough time to completely destroy the village. That was unacceptable.