“Now, how does it feel… to be inside one of your abominations?” Asterisk asked.

Callan quickly covered his ears and crouched down to the ground. Asterisk saw Callan’s mouth opening and so he flicked his fingers. “-urn off the screams!”

“Oh… you can’t hear me can’t you.” Screams filled the entire place at the sound that could break one’s eardrum. It wasn’t pleasant and that’s just about the noise and has nothing to do with the point that those sounds are screams of pain.

“Oh well.” Asterisk pointed up above a platform elevated from the ground behind a wall of green glass doors and drew a cross.

The noise immediately disappeared. “Finally. Like God! Why the fuck are we here?”

“I told you, it’s training.”

“Training? For what?”

“It’s mental training… I mean, you can’t even look up, let alone stand up.”

“I’m… I just feel like crouching you know. Asian sit. I mean, I can do it now, it doesn’t hurt, just you know, feels good.”

“Who are you trying to fool? Look up.”

“No. Hell no.”

“Why? Are you disgusted?”

“Of course I am! This is a dungeon! Actually, it’s more like a museum of every torture to ever be made.”

“Why? So?”

“What do you mean so!”

“You created.”

“Yeah… but…”

“But, what? You now can’t even bear to look at the thing your emo phase created?”

Callan stayed dead silent.

“What a hypocrite. I know you can handle it, but the sight of looking at it is a different matter. I know you don’t care about the people dying. I mean… if you do you're a hy- no, wait, you’re human. Never mind you are a hypocrite.”

“Why the hell are you bringing humanity into this? Hey, I ain’t protecting them, just saying there is absolutely no relevancy.”

Asterisk sighed. “Imagine killing an ant. You do it a lot of the time, everyone does it, whether it’s a child or an adult. Then do you care about the ant’s life? It already has a short life span and you're not even letting it live to its fullest. And don’t even say it’s just working without a soul, humans have no freedom, you’re also working forever till you die.”

Callan stood up. “Just shut up man. Didn’t even have anything to do with anything.”

“Well, open your eyes then.”

“Fuck.”

“You fainted looking at your organs spill on the first floor, and even if you didn’t afterward. At the same time, you even killed someone while your head was gone, that is some strong willpower and mental strength, however, you’re far too lazy.”

“I’ve changed if you didn’t know.”

“You didn’t. You had 48 hours last time and what did you do? Make a spear. You didn’t even use it on the third floor. So tell me, was it a waste of time… or not.”

Callan inhaled deeply and burst out, “Fuck!”.

“So… now can you go and open your eyes?”

Callan sighed and looked straight ahead. Everything was back to black, but as soon as he turned to his back, in the black void stood one glass cage with a man getting skinned with a thin sharp knife. “Oh… God.” He immediately turned back around to the black void.

“Well, before we get started, I should probably first tell you how this is even possible, though this is just a guess.”

“Oh, finally! I even forgot about that!”

“Look at your hands.”

“Ugh… okay…” Callan spun his hands side by side.

“I think you know what type of dream this is.”

“A lucid dream.”

“Well, do you remember how to know if you are in a lucid dream or not?”

Then came a realization to Callan. “There’s no blur. Everything is so clear.”

“Exactly, you know, for someone so obsessed with magic before, you’ve never tried or paid any attention to the magic stat.”

“Well, based on just looking at it. I don’t know magic and I am stuck in a tower, so where will I learn it?”

“I don’t know, but this is definitely caused by magic.”

“What! Oh my God! I can use magic! So this is illusion magic or the type that succubus uses?”

“No, Callan, this is not that type of magic.”

“Oh… are you saying…”

“Yes, I am saying. It is the actual definition of magic-”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“-the power to make the impossible, possible!”

“This is it, I don’t know how, but you willed everything in here into existence. So… let’s just see,

how everything will go. Now train your ass off!”

“Magic…” Callan lost himself in thought.”

Asterisk lifted Callan’s body and turned it 180 degrees and turned on the screams.

“Ahhh!”

Asterisk immediately turned it off and said. “Are you not going to?”

“Fuck, fine… I’ll do it.” Callan slowly tried to look in front of him, but every time he looked, he immediately looked down. He repeated this until Asterisk slapped him in the face.

“This is just skinning. Can you not see I already turned everything back to the black void just to hide the other things from you.”

“Okay! Okay! I can look! See.” Callan stared with no expression on his face. A few seconds later. He jabbed his chin forward. Then again.

Asterisk looked disgusted at Callan. “You created this. Yet you can’t even face it with a straight face.”

“I don’t know man! What am I supposed to do!” Callan turned his head to the bottom right. “I was 12 then, I guess I just grew up. I was a monster.”

“You still are… and you have the exact example to show that you are.”

Callan growled with his mouth closed. “If you’re gonna keep bringing that up, fine! Fine! Can’t I just run away from that now?! I’m not even on Earth anymore!”

“Problems are not something you can run away from. Even if you kill the problem or go to a different dimension. ‘Cause it will always be in your head.” Asterisk poked Callan’s head with his finger.

“Ughh!!” Callan scratched his face with his nails and left a long mark.

“Just get on it for fuck sake! We’ve been here for **** knows how long.”

“Okay… really? Your narcissism did it for me.” Callan closed his eyes and inhaled. After a full minute of meditation, he opened his eyes. “Turn the scream of this guy on.”

“Gladly.”

The man in the glass cube sat on a wooden chair that hardly resembles the color of its wood anymore. Tainted with blood, a man fully exposed to his skin sat, with both his arms placed on the armchair.

Other than a long robotic stick with a knife at the end of it, you would think the man can just stand up and run. Though, hidden by his body are sharp spikes all placed between his body and the chair, keeping him in place.

The man’s head was down, only his head was not stabbed into anything. Even his feet are nailed to the floor.

Asterisk waved his hand and the man instantly regained all his skin. Then, the knife began again. Slowly peeling the skin precisely, minimizing the damage to the muscle. The man’s head bounced up and he screamed.

“This is… wow… just… this is not even rated R anymore. This is just… like porn, it should not be commercialized.

“Hahaha! Always remember you made it.” Asterisk smiled. “Wanna go to the next one? It seems you’re quite okay with this anymore.”

“Wait, I am curious about one thing, of course, the blood is from the veins inside the skin, but just peeling isn’t enough pain for this dungeon isn’t it?”

“I did not expect you to care… well, just look up.” A gray half-circle was placed right above the glass cube and a long tube went to the sky till it disappeared.

“Oh… so alcohol.”

“Exactly.”

“How do you light it?”

“By rubbing the knife on his body so fast it makes a fire. Can’t waste precious space for a lighter.”

“You’re the devil.”

“You created it, so you’re the devil.”

“God, whatever fans I’ll have, really won’t like me anymore.”

“Hey, they might still… but always remember, you don’t care… right?”

“Yeah.”

The two explored for the next hour and the next hour, till time felt like it didn’t pass anymore. Asterisk showcased as many horrifying and disgusting things as he could to Callan, even making him throw up multiple times.

Callan, a man not fit to be a protagonist… is a protagonist. Though he is just human, everyone has imagined killing someone, even torturing them to an extent. Just not everyone is comfortable enough to continue with it. Even him… cause humans are not evil creatures, with a little love, anyone can warm up.

So, give him a chance, his journey has just begun.

Back in the endless white void.

“Hah!” Callan’s eyes instantly opened. He looked to his left and right, and there it was, Mirai.

[Welcome]

Next to him were his campfire and his spear. “I’m… back…” Callan stayed at the ground for a few seconds and immediately stood up.

“Thank you, Mirai. Time please, and… I have to make a language for you now…”

[Yes!]

Even though that didn’t match, the intent was clear, Mirai was just happy.

[82:52:17]