By the time he’d reached Swansea Neo was grumbling about how he hadn’t had any spare change for the bus and had to walk all the way.

He hadn’t eaten anything since lunch; no money for a hotel and he couldn’t open a bank account until he’d found a place of residence ‘Man, dying sure sucks.’

There was no way that he was going to be able to find a place to stay tonight and the realisation that he might have to sleep on the street actually scared him.

The streets were quiet in the evening as Neo wandered his way to the shopping centre, not sure how to find the portal that Death spoke about but once there he couldn’t see anything different, he’d been here many times before, he went to all the entrances to check if he could see anything different, but couldn’t see anything, as he looked through the closed glass doors but could only see darkness.

Neo was deflated at this lack of success.

As he wandered his way through the streets lost in thought he returned to earlier in the day and he remembered what Death had said about true sight ability, Neo realised that he might need the true sight ability in order to see this gateway

His thoughts went back to Death and wondered how best he could use the hundred souls he had been given.

Neo sat down in some alley that was out of sight and spoke aloud“Soul shop” with his 100 souls showing in the top right corner of the scroll he searched the enhancements section to find the true sight ability, it cost 20 souls.

He kept searching through the lists and found Immortality at 10 million souls, how on Earth would he get that many souls!

He then looked at some of the weapons and found a basic sword cost 50 souls while a scythe cost 100 and the flute cost 5 souls.

Abilities that he could afford surprised him like telekinesis and telepathy each 25 souls while Mana and magic abilities cost 200 souls plus.

In the metal & minerals he could buy a 5gram gold bar for 5 souls and then sell it off. He had nothing worth selling on him, stealing crossed his mind but soon left as he knew that he would get caught.

The thought made him feel a bit dirty and wrong; he would also have to find the gold sellers in Swansea.

He then went on to look for cash which didn’t appear in the any of the categories.

Neo took some time to think about what he should do, selecting the weapons category Neo was a bit split on what weapon he should get, he could use most of them proficiently, but only one called out to him which no matter how he looked at it there was no reason to put it in the weapons category but it was.

The flute was definitely the right choice he really was a passionate flautist, he bought it and the world brightened as a ball of molten metal appeared in front of him.The ball slowly morphed into a long thin tube of silver with gold inlays weaving throughout forming keys and tubes.

Neo looked around hoping no one saw what happened as the flute gently landed in his hands thankfully their was no at the end of the alley.

Neo examined the flute finding it magnificent as the gold filaments seemed alive as they moved and pulsed throughout it.

Neo continued back to the abilities the true sight was a no brainer if he wanted to find souls and see past the illusion of the supernatural then he had to get it. Neo then decided to get telekinesis as it was the most practical and useful.

He selected the true sight and telekinesis abilities buying them, he then waited for the changes to come expecting a lot of pain but nothing, nothing happened,it was a fluke as a few moments later pain ripped through his head, his eyes smouldered as his brain baked.

Almost immediately darkness consumed his sights Neo writhed in pain on the cold streets of Swansea earning himself some rest as unconscious took him.

Neo awoke to the blinding light of the sun as it rose from the east finding the warmth of the sun, pleasant to his cold skin the feeling invigorated his body and mind.

Once warmed Neo finally took notice of his surroundings finding more people at the end of the alley walking back and forth heading to work or home.

With a slight headache he made his way further into the alley where nobody could see him as he bought 5 grams of gold which he marvelled at, before hiding it in his hoody and walked back out onto the street.

He did feel dirty after buying the gold but he told himself that he needed something to eat before going off somewhere he had no knowledge of the lay of the land and the cultures or creatures he might meet.

Waiting outside of the market he watched people go back and forth from their tasks.

Neo did his best to straighten out his clothes so that it didn’t look like he’d slept on the street the night before.

Thankfully the door opened not long after he arrived and the small crowd that had formed outside made their way in.

Without a pause to look at the food Neo headed towards the gold seller, straightening his hair and pulling his hoodie down to hide his face so no one could recognise him.

Going up to the gold seller who in good grace didn’t seem to be that bothered with his attire as he took the small gold bar from his hand mumbling an amount that Neo accepted.

The gold seller grabbed a rolls of 20’s and counted out the amount which disappear into Neo’s hoody who walked off quickly making his way towards a supermarket where he could get food, a bag and water.

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After his short shopping spree he headed towards the shopping centre and noticed this time that the abandoned building next to the shopping centre had disappeared and there in its place was a second set of doors right next to the shopping centre.

There were people entering it not nearly as many as the main doors but what caught his sight was that, every one that entered the seconded set of door all looked normal, too normal and boring there were just so many in the same place that it felt unnatural and it gave a Neo the chills.

Neo observed them for a while, what he couldn’t see was himself as his eye started glowing a dull golden colour and the truth of what he was seeing unfolded in front of him.

The people in front of him transform into a mixture of things. Neo didn’t know how a 8 foot tall, hairy and strong looking creature could fit inside a human image.

They were orc looking characters, short gnome like beings and scaly beings all entering the second entrance Neo took a seat in front of the entrance with mouth a gape.

He observed the different creatures that entered, not quite what he expected from Death’s work he was more expecting ghosts, demons exorcisms not Orcs, Trolls and Dwarfs.

As he got used to the sight of creatures from his fantasies, he started looking down the streets where he saw these creatures mixing with normal people, walk side by side without anyone of them ripping the head off of the surrounding humans.

This did comfort Neo, surprisingly as he hadn’t just started meeting these creatures today he may of been talking to them for years even the gold seller he was just talking to could of been one he’d never of known.

With his mind calmed at the thought that they probably weren’t monsters that slaughtered people on a daily basis, he decided to explore the second set of doors.

Neo stood in front of the shopping centre looking at it up and down, tentatively putting his hands on it… nothing.

After a few moments he pushed on the door stepping through, as he did so a feeling of static past over him.

Looking around at what he assumed was a shopping centre was instead a street lined with shops, cafes and bars.

Neo took a step back surprised but pushed up against a surface, looking behind him he found a white pulsing wall looking around Neo saw creatures walking through the wall causing it to ripple like a pebble dropped into water.

Neo put his hand on the white wall finding it firm, looking back down the street ‘I don’t think I am in Swansea anymore, otherwise this shopping centre it much bigger on the inside.’

He saw a sign with the words written ‘Welcome to Beacon City’ well Neo didn’t expect that.

He took in the surrounding view of the Victorian likestreets, there were bikes, creatures lot of them all different sizes walking past, it was busy, there were no cars on the road which he was grateful for as he was standing in the middle of the road having just come through the gateway.

Creatures barged pass him as they too appeared behind him cursing at him.

Neo took a few steps forward to avoid them as he did he saw the whole structure was an archway, everyone seemed to be casually walking out of like it was your everyday commute.

Neo moved off towards a quieter corner of the road clutching his chest in panic, just watching the mass of creatures walking past some looked human, other where easily not then you had the in-betweens trying to calm himself down as he felt lost.

Breathing deeply he took in more of the street, he saw that there were more gateways which had queues in front of and whenever someone touched a panel with what looked like a card the doorway would flash and they’d walk through without hesitation,‘looks like I am not getting out that way.’ Neo thought

Neo looked behind the archway and found more shops, he checked if he could get through the other side but it was just as solid and Neo decided he needed to have a better view and needed to get away from the overwelming creatures.

Neo looked around him, and saw a hill in the distance that seemed untouched and headed towards it ignoring every creature.

Neo distracted himself by looking at the infrastructure as he walked toward the hill finding that the roads became wider, cleaner and less busy, the houses became bigger and bigger and some started to have walls around them, then Neo came across the lush green field that was the start of the hill with a worn path leading to a castle within a few hundred metres of the city.

Neo checked around just encase he wasn’t allowed any further, not seeing any signs not allowing him on to the land he continued his exploration and escape.

As Neo walked forwards without fear he admired the Castle with its towering presence and elegance yet there wasn’t a single window on it.

Neo couldn’t tell if the lower levels had windows as there was a huge wall in the way a little while after passing the castle the climb really started to increase.

It was a little afternoon when Neo reached the rise of the hill as he walked around it Neo saw that the city didn’t stop at the one castle but continued around, he found that the large hill was surrounded by 13 castles each as unique as the next one.

The one he passed really had no windows at all, with its Gothic designs it was an amazingly majestic building.

You then had the mansions, nice houses, shops and commercial area and then the low class residential area which stretches on in every direction.

The only question that popped into his head was ‘why are they surrounding the hill and why is no one building on it?’

‘Maybe I should leave before someone sees me standing here.’

“Halt stranger, don’t move!” A deep grinding voice spoke behind him Neo froze where he was waiting for more instructions ‘ow damn’ Neo thought.

“I want you to put your hands in the air and get on to your knees!” the gruff voice commanded

Doing as he was told, he was then forced to floor with his face eating dirt, the hands that had forced him into the ground were sharp, cold and unyielding.

Neo felt the sharp cold clasp of handcuffs on his wrists and another on his ankles Neo thought that this was a bit extreme but he guessed if you had to deal with monsters that could tear you limb from limb you might over react, so Neo just relaxed and let it feel in control so that it wouldn’t tear his limbs off by accident.

After a few minutes of eating grass and being manhandled the voice spoke again “Ok, get up!”

Having his hands and legs chained together made this request quite hilarious and Neo pushed his arms against the grass and jumped up on to his feet.

Once he was comfortable he turned around to face his arrestee all he could see was a mass of stone in leather trouser with utility belt attached to them it took Neo a few second to adjust to the fact that a rock was talking.

Its face was merely a few rocks representing the nose, mouth and eyes which Neo felt he probably didn’t use to see or breathe through.

“Hello,” Neo thought a pleasant conversation might get him out of this predicament he was wrong as the thing in front of him shouted at him

“Shut up, move!”

The thing said pointing down the other side of the hill.

On his way, Neo tried to communicate with the beast but was just told to shut and keep moving as he was shepherded toward another castle.

This castle at least had a practical feel to it, at least one that spoke of the defences over everything else without embellishment, with two thick walls, two double portcullis gates and plenty of kill holes.

There were also a large number of guards patrolling they were not the same as the thing that had captured him.

It seemed that the guards of the castle were a diverse army but it was a bit hard to tell with all the armour but he did notice some had tails.

As they went past the second set of portcullis they found themselves in the castle courtyard where there were two towers towering over them that shadowed the courtyard and the large iron door that led into the castle interior.

As they strode through the irondoor inside was a short corridor that led to a triangular room with raised defences that archers could hide behind so that they could shoot down into the entrance.

Neo was guided up a set of stairs which had another iron door that even the rock had to put his whole body behind to move it slowly open.