Chapter 10: Bump in the Night.

Much of what Nero could do for Gunther was cleaning. There were shards of glass, overturned tables and liquids wetting the floor. The night was spent meticulously salvaging what could still be salvaged, and appropriately disposing of what couldn’t.

A lot of the materials were toxic in their current form, Gunther had said, As he’d put it; ‘We can’t risk them ending up somewhere where they might hurt someone.’ So he disposed of them, either neutralising them with new potions where possible or, where it was not, having Nero pour them all into a rather deep hole behind the building which, of course, he’d dug himself.

The man’s eyes were a torrent of churning emotions while they worked, and yet there was a controlled discipline to him. It was clear that he placed the tasks ahead of him above whatever state his mind was in.

There wasn’t much talking between the two, occasionally Nero would hear the man mutter something but he was usually talking to himself, about how many would die either due to infection or trauma while he tried to get his shop back into working conditions.

Nero didn’t know what to say to that, so he was often quiet while he did so.

It was morning when they were done.

He’d offered to pay Nero for his work and perhaps a good man might not have even entertained the idea, but Nero was hungry, shivering and most importantly Nero, so it was only with great regret and anguish that he rejected the offer and left the shop as quickly as possible before he could change his mind.

He needs it more than me, he needs it more than me, he needs it more than me.

That didn’t change the fact that his stomach was growling again, and he had to find some way of fixing that.

A combination of Nero’s experiences in the forest, his night in the town and whatever other, fractional learning moments he’d had without noticing bred an idea in him.

It wasn’t one he liked, but Nero was quickly getting used to that being the trend in Hell.

“So you’re interested in monster hunting are you?” The man asked from across the counter. The tavern smelled like whiskey, meat and, bread, all things that made Nero’s throat burn with jealousy.

“Ideally, yes.” He replied from his stool. He’d assumed, and not incorrectly so, that a population this close to woodlands filled with all kinds of horrible things would very much have an economy of ‘population controllers.’ After asking around, it turned out he was right.

“Alright then.” The barkeep said, reaching into a shelf and grabbing a fist full of papers. He began reading the contents out loud for him. It seemed he’d assumed Nero couldn’t do so himself, which meant illiteracy was fairly commonplace in this world. Nero only listened and didn’t correct him, it was always better to keep one’s cards close to their chest, even the potentially insignificant ones.

Humans reading here could also be a crime.

No matter how much information I gain, it always feels like I’m walking blind in here.

That was the problem with trying to keep his identity a secret in a foreign world after all. If the Demons knew he was here…. Well that would be a quick way to be left hanging from a rope. And it just so happened that all the most convenient questions were the most likely ones to expose him.

The man continued listing beasts that needed killing. Apparently Face Eaters were a real problem lately, swooping down and plucking an unsuspecting citizen into the sky, never to be seen again. It was all very sad and heartbreaking but Nero had no business crossing paths with those devils ever again.

Sin Spinners were worth a considerable number of red rubies, and when the man mentioned that there was a need for a culling of them due to their habit of creeping into the farms and killing the livestock, Nero couldn’t help but grin.

That elicited a disapproving look from the barkeep who did not know he was simply happy to hear of a monster he already had experience killing on this list, and perhaps thought he got a hard on from hearing news of Farmers losing their livelihoods.

Nero winced upon realisation “Ah, sorry, I-”

“The Sin Spinners pay twelve red rubies each.” The man said, cutting him off with a slight edge to his voice now. “You get payment for every head you bring and a huge bonus if it’s a mother sinner.”

It wasn’t much, not much at all, but Nero could certainly kill a lot of Sin Spinners, it wasn’t strength they had on their side, it was speed.

I’ve killed a couple before haven’t I?

But that was when he didn’t have a gash across his belly. It was also just after nearly having died from the cold.

Was he in better condition now? Yes, but he was worse in certain ways too. It didn’t matter however, Nero didn’t have much of a choice.

“Alright then,” He said. “I'll take it.”

Nero had chosen to set off during the day, not because of any particular tactical reason but because the sooner he set off, the sooner he could get something to eat and the sooner he could get paid.

His body still felt like shit, at this point he’d long since forgotten what peak condition even meant. There was just always this lingering fatigue that clung to him.

The journey through the forest on his way to Stradale had given him some time to heal, but quite a lot of that was undone by the giant fucking spider that ambushed him after it.

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There were a few good things to gain from being in the woods again, however, in particular it was the fact that he could once again tinker with his magic.

“What are you doing?” Ember asked.

“Focusing.” Nero replied. He was sat cross legged, in the middle of the forest while staring at his left hand. “On whether or not I can switch the hands in which my glowy thing appears in.”

“You mean Light Breathing.” Ember corrected.

Nero shrugged then grinned as his left came alight. “Ha!” It took more focus and time, but it worked. “Now to see how quickly I can switch.” If he could do it in a second or even better yet in between seconds that would be a killer advantage in fights. Nero focused on his right, that switch came, the light in his left died in roughly five seconds and leapt to his right. He did the same for his left and that took up to twenty three seconds to switch to.

“Inconvenient.” He muttered. He was better at using his right than his left then, it probably had something to do with which was his dominant hand. Perhaps if he were ambidextrous it would be easier. Well, there was no way to actually test that out, and like always there were more pressing issues to deal with.

Nero continued to switch hands, trying to see if training could actually help him wield this magic better. If it could, then it was a good thing, that opened the door to all sorts of things he could do with Light Breathing save from just punching really hard. If it couldn’t then he was just stuck like this, powerful but forever cursed to be prey to the real powers of the world. Powers like Mercury.

To his relief he could actually make progress, several minutes of training allowed him to cut the time it took to Light Breathe in his left hand from twenty three to twenty seconds, while not being able to make any progress in his right at all. That was still an eternity in a fight however.

It left a lingering question.

Should he resolve to always start with his left hand glowing whenever he could, that way if he ever needed to switch it would be able to be done as quickly as possible? Or should he stick to his right for the pure simplicity of it being the hand he can fight better with?

God, he’d wished he’d learned more about combat back on earth.

Nero was tired now, which was odd because he actually hadn’t engaged in all that much activity today.

He chalked it up to simple fatigue and got to his feet. The barkeep had said the spiders tended to use cave systems as their major means of travel and as such the largest population of them would be within said caves.

Nero wasn’t an idiot, so he would not be heading directly into the caves filled with deadly, venomous spiders. But he did head in their direction either way. There was a good chance that there would be a few lone spiders around, either on their way home or leaving it. The hope was that he could get the jump on and clobber them to death before they even knew what was happening.

When he explained his plan to Ember, her response was typical. “That’s not very honourable.” She chastised.

“Being honourable hasn’t gotten us super far lately I think.” He remembered refusing Gunther’s payment, not once, not twice but five times and could barely refuse the urge to headbutt a boulder on being confronted with his own raw stupidity.

Ember frowned. “How are you going to save Hell with that attitude?”

Ah, yes, saving Hell. He’d been so busy seeing to such basic tasks as clothing, shelter, food and not being mauled to death by monsters that he’d long since forgotten he’d been assigned the grand goal of saving fucking Hell. “Well Hell can go fuck itself.” Nero laughed bitterly.

Ember frowned at that and it was one of sadness. “But you saw all those people?”

“Yes, yes I did, and I’m just a guy who can punch really hard, and the only person I’ve used that grand ability on so far has been an addict.” He explained. “If you ask me I’d say I’m severely underqualified for the job I’m being assigned here and incredibly irresponsible with the already limited power I’ve been granted to do it.”

Ember’s face dropped. “But who’s going to save them then? You’re the Light Breather, the God of Hell?”

God of Hell?

“I…” Nero hesitated. “Look, let's just focus on things like food and fitting in for now, I can’t save the world if I don’t even know how it works, yes?”

“And then we’ll save the world?” Ember asked.

“And then we’ll talk about it.” He told her.

It was not the answer Ember had wanted, but it had the effects of lifting her mood ever so slightly. “Okay.” She nodded.

Nero sighed, that was at least a conversation pushed into the future.

Nero made his way north to where he knew one of the caves were. He wasn’t actually that deep into the forest which was where he’d heard most of the terrible things were, so he felt quite relaxed as he made his travels.

He was beginning to even recognise some structures now and used that to navigate towards a river where he was able to get something to drink. Last time he’d made his way here, Ember had warned him that there was something called Drowners that lurked at the depths and that he should be careful.

Today he actually saw one grab a Crimson Centipede and drag it into the bottom. Well, he didn’t see one as much as he saw its tentacles wrap around the creature and then nothing. Lucky for him Ember could scope out the waters and tell him there was anything to be weary of before he approached.

It felt like the middle of the day when he finally saw the cave. Nero secured a spot high above it and not too far away, so he could see the comings and goings of the Sin Spinners.

It wasn’t long before he saw some movement, Sin Spinners bringing webbed up prey back to their den and others leaving in search of food. One annoying trend Nero noticed was that they travelled in groups of five most times and four at the very least. That meant he wasn’t going to be able to grab one alone.

Nero decided to wait, that he knew he was capable of taking on four at once didn’t mean he wanted to do so, so he let the hours pass him by while he was perched up high above. He had almost resolved to face them with the numerical disadvantage when he saw a lone Spinner make its way out of the cave.

Silently, He followed the Sin Spinner as they made their way into the forest. It travelled in a straight line, which made his course of attack easy enough to decide.

Once he felt confident enough, he set his hand alight and leapt down onto the thing’s back. He could kill it with one good strike.

Nero landed. His fist struck the target’s back and he heard the thing squeal. He didn’t feel that satisfying crunch that he knew should have come with the attack. His blood chilled when he realised why.

Neros’ hand wasn’t glowing anymore.

The creature jerked its body to the side and sent Nero to the ground. He met it rolling.

Nero stopped, focused on his hand and tried to call on his Light Breathing. The magic flickered in his palm and died. Shit.

The Spinner was coming for him, sharp claws intent on cutting him into a dozen pieces.

He felt around for a rock, picked one, rolled onto his feet and threw it at the creature. It struck, sending it stumbling back and halting its advance for a moment.

Nero capitalised on that moment by running over and slamming his foot into its knee. Something gave this time. That forced a roar out of the creature and it nearly lost its balance. It seemed that was enough of an assault to make it rethink turning its fangs on him.

The Sin Spinner hissed, turned around and sprinted away.

Nero waited until he couldn’t hear its footsteps anymore to collapse onto his knees panting. “What the fuck just happened?” He rubbed his face with trembling hands.

“I’m not… sure.” Ember breathed. He could see her expression tighten the way it always did when she was trying to remember something. It looked like she was half-way to agony.

Nero ran his mind through the events of the day. “Training.” He whispered. “It must have been when I was training, I must have exhausted my Light Breathing.” That explained the fatigue.

Ember nodded. “Y-yes, I think that sounds right.”

“Alright, so it’s a depletable resource.” Nero nodded. It would have been good to know that before he leapt onto the back of a Sin Spinner. “But hopefully renewable too.”

Ember nodded unsurely.

“Okay, alright.” He sighed.

“I’m sorry Nero.” Ember murmured with pleading eyes.

Nero shook his head and forced a smile. “It’s okay, I mean all things considered, it’s not that bad, lucky for us, I wasn’t actually going up against something I couldn’t take while like this.”

And just as he said that, Nero heard something rustling in the bushes behind him.