The capsule had forcibly removed L from the capsule, and had informed him that he was locked out for the next 12 hours, which translated to 72 in-game hours. Three long days. Time passed six times faster in the game, faster than any other system allowed. 

L returned to the capsule, hoping his in-game body would have already recovered by then. As usual, he began humming as the wires connected to his spine. He connected to the game, and after a short glimpse of the loading screen, his murky eyes opened to see a confusing jumble of letters.

You have gained a Rank D Title

Limit Tester

You have not broken the limit, for such a thing is beyond you, but you have reached the very pinnacle of your physical capacities for a few short seconds. Take pride, for this is an achievement very few are willing to pursue.

Why did you? What drives you? What could possibly be worthy of such effort?

The world will occasionally challenge you. There will be no rewards other than increased growth. You will not be necessarily informed of what the Trials entail.

Your Title has provided you with Rank C skill:

Flow 

You have felt the sensation of utilizing your mind and body to a sole task.

You will now receive a +5% Total Overall increase in Stats and Skills when a high value of immersion in an activity is achieved.

Further possible evolution and advancements for Tireless Blacksmith are Rank D Difficulty Level. No penalties will be issued for the altering of this profession. The choice to pursue Tireless Blacksmith will be retained as long as you are practicing the Blacksmith skill every three days.

L twitched, his senses returning. Though when the smell of horse, wet horse, and shitting horse whipped L’s nostrils, he wished he hadn’t. Sore muscles and bruised bones groaned with each movement. A major headache kept him down. He would put further study into the notifications later, as soon as he could find where his limbs were.

He puffed out a few dry straws, those of which had served as his bed for the past four days. Kullburd no doubt just tossed him into one of the empty dark stalls, which was good, otherwise, L wasn’t sure if his body would have recovered as well. Even with the effects of Darkness Embrace increasing everything, Null’s injury system was not player friendly. His body should not have put back itself after the ludicrous amount of injuries he was slapped with. He guessed that Fortitude’s injury recovery had an effect he did not fully understand, for even with the increased 50% Injury recovery rate, it should not have been possible for his bones to mend that quickly, as such injuries generally lasted a week to months. Losing a limb was usually permanent, depending on your race, but its regeneration rate was instant if you did not mind the death debuff.

L pushed opened both the gate and the window and exited the stall. There was no horse to his front, or for most of the first half of the stable in fact, as far as L could tell. He limped through the barren stalls, glancing at the few horses that were there. His body didn’t seem to be of too much of a bad condition, but he was dehydrated and the insides of his stomach fiercely contracted in indignation. He needed to put something in his mouth, otherwise, he would never hear the end of Null’s smug voice over him dying from starvation.

The moment L had left the cover of the stable though, he collapsed. He dropped to the floor, panting and in a major daze. The obnoxiously burning sun had knocked the breath out of L.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

You have recently been in Stygian Cocoon. Because your body is currently consisting of 80% of Dark Mana, the penalty for being in light has increased from 25% to 80% until mana levels return to normal.

He felt his body sizzle. Unprepared for the unexpected agony of having his flesh melting off, L mind momentarily shut down in an overdose of shock. It took a few moments for his awareness to return, and through the mindless pain and soundless screams, he crawled back into the shade.

The pain had left as quickly as it had arrived. L panted painfully, his cheeks laying flat against the humid dirt. He swallowed a mouthful of stale, humid air, and willed his brain to start working. He clenched his teeth and opened his notification history box, and looked for any skill or debuff he might have gained while his body was in a coma. Surely enough, it was there, in all of its vexatious glory.

You have broken and reduced your body to near nothingness. Lady Death had nearly embraced you. In the hollow shell of your peeling skin, however, the darkness found home. It festered well, filling in the parts that the Lady had taken.

You have made progress into unlocking a Unique Racial Evolution. You have gained Rank B Racial Skill, Stygian Cocoon.

Stygian Cocoon

Activated only when your Fatigue is lower than 50%, have received a fatal injury, or have received many cumulative injuries. Increase recovery rate and recovery power by up to 300% of the initial value. The lower your Fatigue level, and the higher your injuries are, the more potent Stygian Cocoon’s recovery rate boost will be.

L would have spit to the side if his body allowed him to, but had instead wisely settled to crawling deeper into the stable, back towards his beloved stall.

What am I, a fucking vampire?

As he crawled, he felt his limbs frail and bones brittle. A quick check confirmed that all of the Major injuries he previously received had returned, though most of them were reduced to slight and minor. He sunk back further into the stable, an enormous smile slowly making its way onto his crumbling face.

The rewards were not too rare, but they were decent. They almost made the past three days of suffering worth it for L. The quickest and most profitable way to attain power in the Null world were Titles. After that, simply mastering martial arts or magic was the way. Because there were no levels, stats one started with would not grow unless specific training was put in place. 

For now, though, because L recently had his skin burned off, he simply wanted to return to his favored hay spot. He stood up with a groan once some of his strength returned and passed a few snorting horses, whom though L wanted to pet, had teeth slightly too sharp for his comfort. He entered his comforting abode and closed both the gate and the window cover. Even though his stall was the last one in a row of approximately 10, he still did not want someone to accidentally walk in on him. Best case scenario the guards would just string him up and not burn his body, otherwise, a major penalty would be given for having the body disfigured. For his Darkling race, he was sure that penalty was even worse.

He laid his body upon the hay, dazed and numb--mostly likely an after effect of Stygian Cocoon. He sensed the mana within his body pulse in an answer. Looking at his body, he noticed that he no longer wore clothes, but was instead covered by a light shade of what L assumed was a higher concentration of Dark Mana. A few tendrils fell into each other like lava. He felt it sinking into his body, bit by bit, filling in for the broken parts of his body. L would have loved to experiment with all the Dark Mana around him, but an insistent headache prevented him from doing so.

Having nothing better to do, L stretched his limbs and bid himself to sleep. Most of the time, Null did not reveal all of the information and limitations of the game mechanics, allowing the player to explore the many possibilities. The explanation behind how Stygian Cocoon worked was no doubt the same, but since this was probably a similar penalty to Mana Overdose, it would probably leave with time, or if he mediated, which he was in no mind to do. Instead, he swallowed and prepared himself for the worse.

Everything has been going too well, relatively speaking, and because things were going quite well, something very bad must happen. Tragedies are only possible when there is something to be taken away. And now, he had something to be taken away. 

In reality, there was no such thing system in Null Online, but L knew better. Though he was covered in nagging fears, sleep found him easily and did not leave for a couple pleasant hours.

A slight sound attempted to disturb his sleep, but L whiffed it away, his body and mind far too tired for any nonsense.

The cranking of the stall gate would have sprung him open if his body was capable, but even then his limbs were still drowned in Mana and were only able to release a slight twitch, fortunately, unnoticed by the stranger who now stalked L. The wooden gates closed slowly, and L felt himself being watched.

That was something that Kullburd would not have done. From the closed lids of his eyes, L could feel the person move towards him. He felt the presence of fire, more with his body reacting unfavorably than the sound of the flame.

L tried his best not to grin. At the very least he saw that one coming. Maybe he would receive a skill if he could do it often enough.

But then again, having something bad to occur right now would be the obvious thing, wouldn’t it Null? If you wanted to surprise me, something that would be unexpected and dramatic would be...Oh, I don’t know, what if maybe a pretty maiden had come to care for my bod-

Two hands reached for his throat, making L quickly kiss the thought goodbye.