(Oct 21)

‘Fuck… it hurts…’

I had no idea what happened.

One moment The Grinch was in front of me, the next it was gone and I suddenly dropped to the ground with my stomach cut open.

I could actually see my own organs and intestines slowly slipping out of me.

My vision started distorting and I could hear muffled sounds around me, but I couldn’t tell what they were.

‘Am I dying…? No… not yet… I can’t die here… I can’t die… I can’t die… I can’t die… I can’t die… I can’t die… I refuse…’

Mustering up all my consciousness and determination, I moved my arm down to my lower body, grabbed my organs and shoved it back inside of me.

“ARGHHHHFFDGAUDFHHDGFDGHOIHZGGUOUHA-!”

I don’t even want to mention the pain, it was excruciating. At some point, I almost felt like it was better to just end it all.

My regeneration was faster than a normal person’s by several times, but the question was if I could heal myself before I die or if I could withstand the pain.

Even with my hand covering the gap in my stomach, I was still bleeding, and I would’ve died of blood loss eventually. Not to mention, my insides were messed up.

Because of the pain, my brain accelerated causing what seemed like hours to pass by, leaving me waiting in pain.

As time slowly ticking by with my accelerated mind, my body grew heavier and heavier, harder to move.

I couldn’t feel anything anymore, the pain dulled away and numbed leaving only my mind in an empty space.

My mind had entered a state of panic and separated my psyche from my body to avoid feeling the pain.

My mind was clear, and yet I couldn’t feel anything anymore. It was like I was in a dark void, only able to think.

And yet, I didn’t feel fear. Not even at the doorstep to death.

Instead, I suddenly felt strangely nostalgic.

‘I remember this feeling… the feeling of death. This… has happened before, hasn’t it? When the dragon attacked before, in the very beginning, I nearly died as well didn’t I?’

And yet I survived, only to gain this dragon power of mine afterwards.

I was tired, very tired.

All I needed to do was to stop thinking and it would be all over, no more pain… no need to try anymore.

But nah, I still got a wife at home. And my daughter too, I wouldn’t want Gabi to grow up fatherless right?

So I couldn’t just accept death.

Even so, I was in quite a tight situation.

‘Well, this is annoying.’

My consciousness was separated from my body, and I couldn’t feel any of the pain. It’s like if you got a small injury, but sometimes you don’t feel the pain until you notice the wound, but in my case, it was on a bigger scale.

However, the moment I snap back to reality, I would feel the pain again. And that pain was something that no one would want to feel.

Nevertheless, I was going to die if I didn’t do something.

I steeled my soul and mind, as I focused once more and allowed myself to re-enter my body again.

The pain hit instantly, but I quickly turned myself over onto my back and focused all the energy in my body towards my wound.

This slowed the bleeding, though it didn’t stop it completely.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I bought myself a little bit of extra time, but there wasn’t anything I could do to heal myself fast enough to close the wound.

Luckily though, that was when I received some help.

A cold blue liquid was poured over my stomach, which at first, burned and stung like hell, but overtime, it started to feel good as my flesh started to morph and regenerate.

“Anthony?! You okay, don’t you dare fucking die on me!”

William’s face stared down at me.

He had used an A ranked health potion to prevent me from dying.

An A ranked health potion! These things were damn expensive, most people could sell their entire fortune and still be unable to buy one of these!

Yet William had used it on me, without any hesitation.

Thanks man.

I slowly sat up and rubbed my stomach, the skin around where the cut used to be was slightly green. The Grinch’s claws and magic must’ve contained a poison which slowed my regeneration and turned my skin greenish.

My dragon essence purified most of it, so I was mostly fine though.

“Slowly! Even though the potion’s healing effects are potent, it’s not perfect, take it slow!” William shouted at me, in a weak and tired voice.

That was when I noticed that William was seriously sweating.

His face was red, slightly trembling, breathing heavily and he looked like he was out of breath.

The Grinch’s screech must’ve damaged William’s internal magic severely since he was closer and more exposed to the attack than I was. Still, I couldn’t imagine it would affect him this much.

“We don’t have time to take it slow, where’s The Grinch?”

“It jumped out of the pit, right now Alisha and an A ranked necromancer are holding back The Grinch.”

It still hurt, and I felt like vomiting my entire insides out, but I grabbed my knee and forced myself up onto my feet after grabbing my sword.

“Tsk. I don’t like this, but we’re in a dire situation. Here, take this.”

William handed me another potion, which I gulped down immediately.

“How long until reinforcement arrives? Until the other A ranks arrive?”

“We already sent the signal; they should be here in about 5 minutes.”

5 minutes…

From what I saw, The Grinch was absurdly fast. It could easily stand toe to toe with multiple A rankers at once.

However, The Grinch is being held back by Alisha and another A ranked necromancer, neither which are melee fighters. Even against me, The Grinch was overwhelming, so the soldiers won’t even qualify as a distraction.

I’m not sure how long they would’ve lasted against a monster like The Grinch.

In terms of melee close combat, out of everyone here, I was probably the strongest despite only being an B ranked.

William was a powerful A ranked wizard, but he’s very vulnerable to close ranged attacks. Alisha is an A ranked archer, but she only attacks from afar and can’t stop The Grinch if it tries to run. The A ranked necromancer can summon multiple strong undeads, but she alone isn’t strong and if she were to be defeated, all her undeads will disappear.

All of them are crazy powerful in terms of their own combat fields, but they were at a clear disadvantage against The Grinch who specializes in speed and strength, not to mention it’s insane magic roar earlier.

I needed to help them… but how? I got destroyed by The Grinch, I nearly fucking died just moments ago!

Then I remembered about the spice pills that William had given to me yesterday, which is supposed to boosts my power.

I took out the leather pouch, grabbed two pills inside and lifted them up to my face. The heat alone that was being emitted from it, slight burned the skin on my fingers.

‘Well. One pill probably won’t be that effective, so let’s take two at once…’

And I tossed both inside my mouth.

“Wait! Anthony, don’t take two at once! I increased their potency!!!”

Too late, I had already swallowed.

William was right, he really did increase the spice’s potency, because it was several times more painful and hot than before while it was still in its liquid form.

I wanted to scream. The pain was comparable to a dynamite exploding inside of me.

Seriously. Smoke was coming out of my mouth and every breath released a thick fog of burned flesh.

My entire body started to heat up, and my skin grew more and more red as steam was slowly released through all the pores in my body.

I felt like I was bathing in fire.

Every single nerve in my body was screaming.

The pain was unlike anything I felt before… and yet… for some reason… it… felt good?

For some reason, this pain was strange. It was weird. It hurt like hell, don’t get me wrong, but my brain didn’t reject it. It embraced the pain.

If you really think about it, what exactly is pain?

Pain is an unpleasant feeling created when a nerve sends a signal to the brain (my wife actually taught me this since she has a better education than I do), which is then interpreted by the brain which causes you to feel it.

In short, it’s all in the brain. The brain tells you that you are pain, the brain is telling you that pain hurts. But what if… your brain, instead of recognizing pain as a bad thing, it recognizes it as a good thing?

In the end, everything we feel is all just nerve signals, but why does certain feelings and senses feel good while other feel bad? It’s because the brain is telling you that it’s bad to warn you that you are injured.

My theory is that when I took the two spice pills, it’s magic properties must’ve overwhelmed my entire brain and somehow altered its ability to process information.

I still feel the pain, and I know it hurts… but in a way, my brain enjoys it…

I’m not sure quite how to explain this feeling.

I’m not a masochist, I hate pain. I really do. But…

It just… it… it was almost pleasurably painful…

This is embarrassing to admit, but I even got a raging boner during it as well.

All the muscles in my body tightened and compressed, as they tore apart and regenerated.

My magic roared like a blazing fire.

It surged throughout my body and the magic around me was so dense, it looked like a crimson fire.

I felt and looked like I was being burned alive by my own aura.

My aura was visible even to those who can’t see nor feel magic.

At this moment I knew:

I had temporarily achieved the strength of an A ranker.