World Gate: Hysterium - Bluffs of Agony

Hex gazed up at the moon on an endless backdrop of twinkling stars. It was like someone had thrown a million tiny diamonds into the sky.

There aren’t even close to this many stars in Pentory. And he didn’t recall seeing any stars in Minecube.

The moon and stars provided the only light as far as Hex could see, though the light appeared tinted slightly red. He figured that must just be how the colors were in this world. Each one was different like that. The dirt and rock were supposedly rust colored here—not that he could tell in the dark—so a ruddy sky would make some sense.

He was in an unpopulated area of Hysterium. Luckily, he’d found a signpost near a worn dirt path that helped him identify where he was on his map.

Unluckily, he’d been spawned in a location that was halfway across the world from the Embershard Mine. He didn’t expect to pop up right where he wanted to, but he thought maybe he’d at least be within a reasonable distance.

May as well start hopping…

He probably shouldn’t have trusted the moonlight to be sufficient for his travels, because he nearly hopped off the edge of a cliff moments later.

A winding ravine cut through the land. Moonlight twinkled on a flowing river far below. That wouldn’t have been an enjoyable fall.

Hex pulled a torch from his inventory and lit it. Somehow that made it even harder to see anything.

He waved the stupid flaming stick around. What a useless item. Maybe someone made these wrong. Or maybe because it’s from Minecube it doesn’t work here?

He was about to toss the torch down the ravine, but for a brief second he could see better. He moved the torch around slower now, and eventually discovered that if he held the flame slightly behind his line of sight it actually illuminated the world better than if he held it out front toward the things he was trying to see.

That seemed counterintuitive to him, but the results spoke for themselves.

He pulled out his map with his other appendage as he continued along the edge of the cliff. There was supposed to be a bridge somewhere here. The cartographer for Hysterium had been less precise than Hex would’ve liked. Some of the maps he’d seen in Endemeter’s Emporium before being kicked out were intricately detailed, with numbered lines checkering the map vertically and horizontally to help discern distance and location.

This map had none of that. Some parts were just a blur of lines that made no sense.

He walked for quite a while, becoming more and more frustrated that this bridge seemed to be no where close to where it claimed to be on the map.

A creature snorted somewhere to Hex’s right.

He instinctively glanced at his minimal first to see the color of the dot he’d be dealing with. Thankfully, it was white.

The creature appeared to be some sort of ram, with a long-haired wool coat and large curled horns on either side of its head. There was a whole herd of them.

A crazy idea ran through his mind.

It’s gonna be a really long walk… what if…

He approached the closest creature slowly. It was turned away, munching on a weed of sorts.

Hex grabbed onto a horn and pulled himself onto the ram’s back.

The beast squealed in shock and began violently bucking around, sending Hex flying off its back and its the dirt.

Well, that didn’t work.

The white dot turned red.

Several of the other surrounding rams’ dots blinked to red as well.

Definitely didn’t work!

He bounced as fast as he could away, but didn’t make it far before a skull and pair of horns slammed into his back. His health bar dropped to almost 25% as he tumbled to the edge of the cliff and peered over the edge.

It really was a long fall.

A second ram charged at him. The horns hit him square in the stomach and he launched over the cliff, his healthy nearly at zero now.

Hex fell through the air, wind rushing past him as he picked up speed. The river grew bigger.

You know… this is probably for the best. Maybe I’ll respawn even closer. That’d be faster than riding some stupid ram anyway.

Then he splatted against a rock along the riverbank, goo particulates spraying in all directions until there was nothing left of him but a stain.

[Death - You have been killed by a Resident Creature.]

[No Reward.]

[You are being transported to the Hysterium Respawn Hub.]

[Please wait.]

Hex’s body reaggregated in the Respawn Hub.

His breathing was quick and heavy. In a minor panic, he patted his goo all over. No pieces of his seemed to be missing.

He knew he was going to die from the fall, he just hadn’t expected it to be so… messy.

[Welcome to the Hysterium Respawn Hub.]

[You have gained a total of 0 Heroic Energy since your last spawn.]

[Your Health and Stamina have been regenerated.]

[Enjoy your stay.]

The Respawn Hub for Hysterium was much larger than Minecube’s. It was a short corridor, lined with several shops on either side. Rather than a simple counter with an overhead awning, these shops appeared much more substantial with wooden facades and fancy signs.

There was only one problem.

Where is everyone?

No one was there. Not a single soul sitting at the scattered tables or manning the shops.

"Hello?"

Hex wandered along the shop fronts. Half finished drinks and food rested on several tables. There were even a few coins left behind on the counter of a weapon shop.

But no Monsters. No Humanoids.

Supposedly Hysterium wasn’t the most popular Gate destination, but this level of emptiness was eerie.

As if everyone who had been here left in a hurry.

He was tempted to snag some of the items left unattended, but his conscience prevented him from thievery.

Stupid conscience.

Though… he bounced closer to the nearest shop. Ten vials of Antidote Draught had been left there. If someone was buying that many they had to be important, especially since the items could’t return back to Pentory with whoever was buying them.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Hex grabbed the vials and aded them to his inventory, leaving an appropriate number of coins on the counter to soothe his conscience.

The respawn and return home portals were at the far end of the corridor. He considered going back to Pentory, but he’d done so much to get to this point. He had to give it at least one more attempt.

His dad was counting on him.

So, instead, he waited for the counter hover over the respawn portal to reach zero. Then he stepped through.

Hex materialized at the edge of a canyon, conveniently beside a signpost. A steep slope descended into the dark canyon, though it looked like it had been carved for easier travel.

According to the sign, the path away from the canyon would lead to a town called L’Titos.

Down the slope was the Canyon of Despair.

Not a foreboding name at all. Though, perhaps apt considering the reason he was here.

He quickly found his location on the map.

The Embershard Mine was just north of the Canyon of Despair.

More like Canyon of Celebration! He hadn’t ridden the ram like he’d planned, but it still helped him cut days of travel off his journey thanks to the respawn.

The only downside was he’d have to traverse the canyon to get there.

He descended without hesitation.

Hex decided that the Creator had messed up when designing this place.

From the moment he took the first turn, he understood why it had been named Despair. He was already losing hope.

The canyon was more like a labyrinth.

And the crude picture on the map was useless, showing the canyon as a mess of squiggly lines. His map in the System interface wasn’t any better. The one in his minimap gave the highest level of detail, but that only showed a short distance—not enough to help him made decisions. There were probably skills or consumable items that expanded that distance, but he didn’t have them.

He’d already had to backtrack three times after choosing the incorrect direction at a divide in the maze that led to a dead end.

A hissing sound came from the darkness ahead. For a second Hex thought it might be a naga. It’d be good to see another Monster here.

But then a fast-paced rattling followed.

Not a naga, just a snake. Most likely another resident creature.

When he’d been far enough away from the ram it’d been a white dot, it wasn’t until he aggravated the beast, that it became aggressive and attacked him.

Will the snake be the same?

There was a white dot on his map around a corner ahead. But the paths were so narrow in this section, he’d have no choice but to go right up to the creature.

Hex searched his inventory for one of the swords he took from Minecube and drew it. The weapon wouldn’t do any extra damage due to his nonexistent Proficiency with one-handed weapons, but at least it would extend his reach more than his bounce attack.

It was annoying to have to hold the torch in one hand and the sword in the other. He felt off-balance and his brain was a little muddied trying to control both correctly at the same time.

He took a practice swing with the sword. It’ll have to do.

The snake lay coiled in the center of the path, its head no where to be seen from this angle. Torchlight glistened on its red scaly skin, patterned with zigzagging lines and dots.

Hex kept his sword pointed at the creature as he approached. The dot remained white on his minimap.

He tiptoed as he got closer—as much as a slime could tiptoe at least—continuously aiming his blade at the snake.

Once he was about halfway past, the snake stirred.

It lifted its head from within the mess of coils. Black eyes stared at Hex. A mouse was in its mouth, still alive, gripping two tiny hands on the snake’s fangs like prison bars.

The snake swallowed.

A bulge that used to be the mouse travelled down its neck and disappeared in to its body.

Then the dot turned red.

Hex sliced his sword down like an executioners axe.

And again.

He swung furiously, not thinking, maybe screaming.

He only stopped when is appendages were too tired to lift again. His stamina bar was close to zero.

The snake lay in a dozen pieces.

That might have been overkill…

But he was alive.

A piece of the snake moved.

Hex pointed the sword at it again.

You’ve gotta be kidding me! There’s no way—

The mouse squeezed out from the hole in the snake. It was covered in a sticky pink liquid that matted its fur. The critter tried to run away but stumbled. It got up and bumped face-first into a rock, then stood for a moment and fell back down. Its breathing was rapid.

Then slower.

Then gone.

Hex stared down at his appendages. The pink stuff was all over them, and his sword, and the ground.

A purple debuff icon appeared next to his health bar. A skull and cross bones. There was a teal countdown circle around it, that began winding down slowly.

Too slowly.

His vision began to swim. He staggered backwards and leaned against the canyon wall. The sword slid from his hand and clattered on the rocky ground.

Poisoned and with no stamina, Hex slunk down. He let the torch fall and closed his eyes, hoping it would stop the world from spinning.

It didn’t.

Then, Hex fell asleep.

* * *

Rowan made his way blindly through the Canyon of Despair. And stubbed his toe on a rock for the fourth time.

Really could use a torch right now.

He had one, of course, in his inventory, which he still couldn’t access.

He hadn’t run into any more Corrupt Beings, but he’d had to deal with several packs of scorpions and a few snakes.

As he wandered the labyrinth, he’d noticed a strange debuff on his interface. It was a symbol he’d never seen before—close to a normal letter, but broken.

The debuff had stacked 4X. And there was no cool down ring around it.

He was so caught up in the battle with the Corrupt orcs and byzen that he hadn’t noticed when the debuff first appeared.

He was fairly certain he hadn’t been hit by any of the Corrupt Being’s attacks.

Most likely has something to do with that black orb.

And it was also most likely the source of interference with his interface and the System.

With his inventory inaccessible, he was stuck with just his sword, shield, and the items in his rapid use slots—Lesser Healing Potions and Decay Bombs.

There were no waypoints to guide or direct him. No Transportation Stone to rescue him from this place.

He didn’t even know where he was going. He was just… going.

The thought of letting a scorpion kill him crossed his mind more than once. In theory, that would send him right to the Respawn Hub, then he could go home. But with this strange debuff and frozen System, he wasn’t sure what effect death might have.

Am I Corrupted? Will I become one of them if I die now? Will I just die instead of respawning because there’s no System interaction? Or is it just the interface broken and everything else in the System is working fine?

So many questions he couldn’t answer.

He wasn’t sure even Professor Xavus could answer them. No one had ever mentioned the black orb with red lightning around it when talking about Corruption. That was something new.

Or no one had ever survived who’d seen one…

It was a chilling thought.

He could only pray to the Creator that he survived and changed that trend.

His eyes strayed back to that debuff that wouldn’t go away.

It’s not looking promising…

Every time he came upon a fork in the canyon he chose to go left until he hit a dead end, then he’d backtrack and go the other direction. Then back to going left. And repeat again. And again.

He couldn’t see enough of the sky from so deep in the narrow trenches to use the moon or any unique star arrangements as a directional guide. The travel was aimless and hopeless.

Even once I find an exit from the canyon, what can I do? Just wait and hope the debuff goes away?

Hope the Corruption didn’t find him again first…

There was nothing else he could do.

A sharp curve in the canyon revealed a narrow passage.

And something else…

He moved closer, tentatively, unsure exactly what he was seeing in the dark.

A dead snake lay in the center of the path—at least, he thought it was a snake. It had been chopped into about a dozen pieces, pink poison splattered all over the place.

Beside the mutilated creature, a sword and a torch burnt down to embers had been tossed to the ground.

Rowan assessed the surroundings for any sign of whoever the items belonged to. He picked up the torch.

[Item acquired: Torch.]

Thank you random stranger. Hope you’re okay without this.

He re-lit the torch and the flame illuminated the passage. Still no sign of anyone.

Most likely whoever killed the snake had also been killed or wandered around dizzy from the effects of the poison.

It gave him small glimmer of hope though. If I can find another Humanoid here who has Transportation Stones in the rapid use slot they could give one to me…

He sidestepped around the pink bloody massacre on the ground, making sure to avoid getting any poison on his boots.

Then his foot landed on something squishy.

It yelped and jumped up.

Rowan slipped, off-balance from the unexpected movement, and landed on his back right atop the snake guts. He rolled over, the sticky pink substance coating his hands.

[Poison negated by Basic Immunity.]

Righting himself to a knee, he drew his sword with slick fingers and pointed it at whatever it was he’d stepped on.

A green slime stood there, rubbing his stomach with a pained expression.

The Monster hadn’t been there seconds ago. He’d checked the area twice. How in the Creator’s name—

The slime looked up at him, eyes widening.

"Rowan?"

Rowan squinted. This Monster knows my name? I mean, I am a prince, but—

The realization struck him.

This wasn’t just a slime.

It was the slime.

The one he and Osiris and Garo had strung up in the woods.

The one who’d told Shaman Ravine about what they’d done. He was the entire reason Rowan was here in this terrible place, Corruption baring down on him.

Trapped.

"You!" Rowan sneered.

He lifted his sword high.

The green ball of goo squeaked and fumbled with something in his hands.

It wouldn’t matter.

Rowan sliced the slime in two.