Jean opened her eyes with a start; two swords protruded from her chest. She was short of breath because her lungs were full of blood. The swords slowly slid out as he laughed derisively. Not even her new armor could withstand the sharpness of those weapons.

After a kick, she collapsed on her face. She had no strength to get up, the toxicity of corruption tried to destroy her. It was overwhelming, but she didn't fight it. It was no longer necessary. She controlled it and began to feed on it. She didn't eliminate it altogether, she took advantage of it for the healing buff.

She didn't need to check who it had been, but turned her face anyway. His laughter drifting away from her only confirmed her concerns. They didn't want her dead, but to what end?

A wave of undead appeared around a corner a few seconds later. About thirty, maybe more. All between level 18 and 22.

She scrambled to her feet, but halfway up, she almost fell again. Impossible as it seemed, the chain on her right hand was still attached to Dih's flickering soul. It wasn't until she pulled hard that both disappeared.

[Dih's soul has been stored.]

“WTF!”

There was no time to look for explanations, the undeads were less than a meter away. These were better equipped than most and she had no weapons or shield. It was time to put into practice everything she had learned on the plane of souls.

Although in reality not even half an hour had passed, her journey through the unstable plane of souls lasted almost a day. Time in which she fought incessantly against hundreds of imps in kilometers of cavern.

Fighting unarmed was no longer a problem for her, although her technique could be improved. Getting used to efficiently combining her skills allowed her to achieve devastating power. The undead discovered that too late. Of them only a trail of souls and dust remained.

Panting, she discovered that it was not so easy to fight as in the plane of souls. Mana did not regenerate as fast. It was as the whispers had said; the rules were different.

[You have defeated Undead Human. Level 18.] x12

[You have defeated Undead Human. Level 20.] x16

[You have defeated Undead Human. Level 22.] x14

[Experience bonus awarded for killing creatures corrupted by evil.]

[You have acquired +1 Dexterity, +1 Strength,+1 Endurance.]

[You have reached Level 23. +15 attribute points.]

[Purify Soul has increased to level 4.]

[Cursed Punish has increased to level 7.]

[Hunger for Evil and Pupil of Evil have increased to level 1. Rank 2.

Increases the acquisition of attributes and knowledge.]

After equally distributing the pending 20 points in Willpower and Vitality, she focused on collecting weapons and armor. She even retraced her steps to retrieve all the ones she had left behind in her first fights. With the Cursed Search skill, she easily located them on the map, while Cursed Perception helped to see them regardless of the darkness. She even had the luxury of raising her Chameleon skill, but not without problems.

Standing with it active didn't consume too much mana, but moving seemed to devour it. She didn't understand how the spawn had managed to keep it up for so long. How high was his skill level? Higher ranks had to reduce the consumption drastically.

In the end, of everything obtained, she kept a spear, a two-handed hammer, a long sword, some daggers and a shield. All in a deplorable state compared to the previous ones, but it was better than nothing.

She offered the rest to the armor. They disappeared instantly upon mere contact with the red gem placed on her abdomen.

[Cursed Search, Chameleon and Cursed Perception have increased to level 6.]

[Cursed Armor has increased to level 8.]

[Cursed Manage has increased to level 10.]

Jean thought about talking to Dih again. She didn't understand the strange connection she felt with her, but she really wanted to get to know her better. However, with him around, waiting for the slightest opportunity to attack, she wasn't going to take the risk. She had to find a safer place.

"If he’s so strong, why doesn't he kill me? It's like he's playing with me, feeding off my suffering."

The whispers remained silent, which made her indignant. Why were they so helpful for some things and not for others?

“[Rules!]”

That caught her by surprise. “Y-you play with me too?”

“[No! As we said, every world has its own.]”

The whispers fell silent again, so Jean gave up. She walked toward the end of the cavern trying to dispel her growing bad mood; they were purposely hiding information from her.

Outside the cavern, the pathway extended into a tunnel approximately 6 meters wide and 15 meters high. The ceiling was filled with the same blue luminescent crystals so far, but larger. Water condensed on its surface and accumulated to form the cold drops of the demon that fell all over the place; she had experienced it firsthand.

Both the walls and the floor were abnormally regular, but only to a certain extent. The rest of the tunnel was formed by huge hexagonal basaltic formations that gradually constricted it. Building such a wide tunnel had to have a purpose. Why else would they bother creating that passage? It must have taken a lot of manpower and decades of work.

"Slaves presumably..."

The tunnel extended in both directions with no apparent detours. To the left, the path seemed to ascend and the light seemed more intense. To the right, the path descended and the light diminished to the point where nothing could be seen.

Jean opened the map and looked for the direction in which the arrows of her missions pointed. The one to punish Gabriel pointed to the depths. The relic pointed upward.

She still held a grudge against Gabriel, but going after him was absolute madness at that moment. Being invisible, he could attack her from anywhere. The thought of him waiting for her in a hidden place, ready to stab her, made her uneasy. She could even have him nearby and not even notice it. She had to become more powerful quickly.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"I'll come back for you later, bastard!"

««◊◊◊« »◊◊◊»»

Jean tiptoed forward, avoiding stepping in the puddles of water that covered the tunnel; the numerous groans and gasps around her left her no choice. Whether lying on the floor or leaning against the walls, her surroundings were crawling with undead. They looked as if they were asleep, immersed in a trance that dulled the purple glow in their eyes.

Their decomposition was much more advanced. The insects infested their bodies and rats swarmed around them in search of a feast. Was that what they did all the time? Lying there until something killed them?

Jean looked back at the path littered with defeated undead behind her. She had ventured to check her hypothesis. Why were they ignoring her now? What was different? Now that she was the Cursed one, they didn't see her as a threat?

Jean sniffed her body. "Has my smell changed?"

She took a deep breath and lifted the sledgehammer to execute a powerful blow to the undead in front of her. His head burst like a water-filled balloon.

The nearest undead began to lazily get up. They all shared the same fate. Before they finished getting up, they fell one after another with their heads missing or split in half.

Jean concluded that if she didn't utter a word, they didn’t really wake up. The hypothesis was confirmed when suddenly all of them woke up in masse; that disgusting, derisive laughter echoed through the tunnel.

Jean grabbed the spear without the shield this time. Many surrounded her, but they all ended up carpeting the floor. Defeating them was surprisingly easy now.

Jean looked both ways. She had cleared every creature for dozens of meters around. Only the rats were left. Her ritual was about to begin when three undead approached from behind, none of them staggering in the slightest. Their outfits were also in perfect condition. They had died recently, probably part of the group Dih had told her about.

The undead readied their weapons. Jean couldn't help but feel guilty. They had come down to save her and now she would have to kill them. The whole situation was unfair. It was all that bastard's fault. The echo of his laughter was heard again, infuriating her.

"Damn you! What do you want from me?"

The frontline was a warrior in heavy armor. He wasn't the defensive type that carried a shield, but rather a massive greatsword.

»Undead Human«

Level: 26

Name: Thorell

Marks: [Traitor], [Killer], [Sacrificed]

Details: You are unaware of the evil that plagues him.

Next to him was a level 25 hooded undead. He didn't carry daggers, but a short bow. The third walked behind the other two. He wore a full-length brown robe and carried a staff. An amalgam of intertwined branches clutching a green gem at its top. His level was the lowest, level 15. He was probably a support class.

Jean left the spear on the floor and took the long sword from one of the belts. In open spaces, it was the best option.

The warrior didn't hesitate to charge with his greatsword held high, letting out an unpleasant scream. Earlier, she might have been frightened by the size of the weapon, but her mind was no longer the same as it was an hour ago. After one day fighting in the plane of souls, she was able to easily find the openings in his movements; mistakes she herself had previously made.

Jean didn't move in the slightest, there was no reason to do so. She raised her shield and waited for the right timing to deflect the attack. A simple bash with the shield on the side of the blade was enough for the attack to pass a few centimeters away and crash into the ground.

A frontal kick sent the warrior flying several meters until he crashed into the wall. Cursed Punish was devastating. The greatsword fell to the ground and the armor was almost left behind as well. The shape of her foot was embedded in his ribs.

Whispers warned her of three attacks, but Jean had gotten ahead of them. She had already heard the bow draw in advance.

She turned with the shield, dodging the arrow aimed at her head and easily blocking the remaining two, both at her legs. Intuiting the trajectories of each projectile was actually fun with Cursed Perception.

The warrior was out of play, so she focused on the archer. She charged towards him in response to his date request, however, he didn't let himself be caught so easily. He kept jumping backwards and shooting at the same time. It was as easy for him to elude her slashes as it was for her to block all the arrows.

The druid on the other hand didn't move at all. All he was doing was pointing his staff at Jean. When she finally understood what for, it was too late. A tide of magic vines emerged from a magic circle beneath her feet.

She looked down, somewhere between annoyed and excited. She had to acquire that new skill, but she couldn’t move. The vines pursued her and increased in number by the second. They even climbed up her body.

Jean threw one of the daggers from her belt before they reached her waist. The druid raised his free hand and conjured an ethereal magic barrier, drastically slowing the dagger's advance. Even so, the dagger hit him squarely in the chest. However, it did practically nothing; his skin had briefly turned like wood. At least she managed to weaken the vines. It seemed that he couldn't keep multiple spells active at the same time.

A bit of brute force and she broke free, allowing her to turn around to take care of two arrows from behind. The archer had taken the opportunity to approach the warrior and help him up. He had even brought his greatsword close to him.

Jean shuddered at the sight. It was the first time she had seen undeads helping each other. The fact that they were undead didn't mean they weren't companions. She cursed herself for what she was doing, but what choice did she have?

The time she wasted hesitating, the archer covered the retreat of the warrior with a couple more shots.

Jean remained behind the shield, unable to make up her mind until new footsteps surprised her. A fourth enemy was approaching from behind her. An enemy whose footsteps she had never forgotten.

Just a few steps behind her, he deactivated his invisibility.

»Spawn«

Level: 32

Name: Gabriel

Marks: [Thief], [Traitor], [Killer]

Details: You are unaware of the evil that plagues him.

Why was there another spawn with that name? How many were there?

Suddenly, she remembered what Dih had talked about; illusionists, fights between companions and missing people. Jean found nothing of the sort, only spawns playing with her. If they didn't want to kill her or take her relic, why did they keep torturing her?

"Motherfuckers! I'm tired of all your games!"

Laughter escalated to the point where it seemed to be coming from everywhere. Jean didn't flinch, not even when the four of them moved to surround her. If she had been able to beat him before, nothing would stop her now. Three extras weren't going to make a difference.

She conjured Cursed Binding on the spawn and waited for the ethereal chain to link them. “Let's play then! I won't lose!”