You would think that the introduction of mana and the stress of being at the bottom of the food chain would lead to some intense situations, but the truth has not been so exciting. We’ve established ourselves fairly well and life is good. As proof, let me tell you a bit about myself.

I spent the day today gathering herbs and chatting with the workers. I tuned out all thoughts and just experienced things while working. 

At first I wondered what I could say to the workers to spark a conversation because I was bored. I’d thought the plants were pretty against the black soil. The breeze felt nice. Those are the most notable of my recent feelings. I’d watch some of my more pleasant coworkers out of the corner of my eye to pass time. I almost feel guilty with how mundane it all was. I’m not emaciated and huddled behind a rock, waiting to starve, too afraid to move. Nope, just a peaceful day. Life is weird that way. Nothing pans out how you’d expect it to. 

I expected something like that in my first day’s panic. And while it’s true that there have been a few mishaps with stress and breakdowns, we’re all more or less the same people we were before the world changed. Shocking, isn’t it?

It’s just that now we live in a massive pit full of titanic carnivorous predators... So just a setting change. It’s weird how life plays out sometimes, but the world suddenly ending doesn’t mean that our morality will end just as abruptly, does it? Anyways, I’ve said this before, but most of our days are revoltingly normal and that we’ve adapted quite well.

You are now immortal. Kill the Demon Lord Balseph to escape your prison. Any individual under 5,000 contribution points at the time of freedom will be annihilated.

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That’s the message that swept across humanity roughly a year ago. 

And, coincidentally around a year ago, we were teleported to, well, I wouldn’t call it a prison, but I guess that’s what it was. It looked more like an ancient looking obsidian cavern scaled up times 1000 with gigantic walls and maze like sections spread out. There was a hole at the top like a volcano that let in light during the day. If it was a prison, someone must have hollowed out a mountain the size of a continent, because no way this was a volcano. There's no lava, and all sorts of wildlife here too. Edible plants, massive beasts. Hardly a conventional prison. 

And then we have our warden. Balseph was odd. He was threatening, but not a threat. It sounds weird, but...well. Balseph is mostly human shaped, except he’s the size of a mountain and lean. So, it’s no surprise that he is absolutely horrifying. Honestly, truly, horrifying. More than anything I could have imagined, even with an immortal life I probably couldn’t have dreamed him up. He’s just too real. His skin was dark with crimson veins and every part of him was deathly still. He had short, curving horns and a thin tail that split into two at the end.

The odd part was this, he didn’t move. At all. He was like a statue. Like a game character who got stuck trying to move past a wall. He would just stand there at the edge of our dome. Or maybe we’re so weak that we’re like dirt particles to him. Either way, every day we would go out as a group and empty our mana at him in a beautiful display of fireworks. 

Again, common sense in an apocalyptic world would have you think that I got used to this fear, even just a little, but I never did. Every time made me just as queasy and afraid for my life as the first. He was so clear looking. Like he was from a different plane of existence. Even from this far away, I could clearly see the deep cracks in his skin and the massive slope of bone. The way that we can’t even scrape him. I shake just thinking about the power he must have. At least a half our people pass out every time we go out there. 

A younger blonde haired boy approached me and pointed to a crumpled figure off to the side.

“Hey, can you drag him back?” 

“Sure!” 

I put on my kind face and smiled at him, like everyone does to children. It never hurts to be kind, and the exercise isn't too hard after a year of farming every day.