(Temporary 1 week) Passive Gained: Hope’s Cost
For using Hope’s Last Chance and going beyond what you should be capable of for your level. You are feeling the extreme side effects for 1 week. All stats are 1, except intelligence and wisdom, but HP and MP are 10/10. There is no removal/cure for this, you have to wait it out. Was the thing you protected worth this penalty?
Blackness held me snug for what felt like months, just an empty Abyss. I didn’t hate it though, there was no flashbacks, or painful memories, just empty. In fact I kinda enjoyed the silence, the lonely feeling. I was used to being lonely as Ryu, my days spent socializing to people in a traditional MMO and that was it. Hell, even then I only talked when I had to or couldn’t do something alone. In this complete state of blackness that almost felt like floating, I could think and pretty calmly too.
Who I really am, what I’ve done to this point, where I want to go. I lost myself before this blackness, my last memories are of seeing the goblin horde incoming and jumping onto a roof to get a better look. Down on the streets I saw a woman exit her house, looking down towards the horde, but a dark dagger I couldn’t follow with my eyes was already in her skull.
Then her sweet child came out and just held her hand. Something primal broke inside me, something just snapped, these goblin’s are an existence that don’t belong and I’ll be the one to fucking eradicate them. Donned in my new armor, I let out the loudest most atmosphere breaking noise I could possibly imagine, it was my Misdirection except I had no idea I could scream that loud. I almost went deaf and I guess that little girl did too. She couldn’t pinpoint the sound and instead was going to run inside, but then looked at the goblins.
Not knowing what she was thinking, I ran from rooftop to rooftop to try to get them as far away as possible. This village is precious to Elzare, let alone the fact I want to be a defender, so I just kept moving hoping that scream was loud enough to get every goblins attention and whatever those dark blade throwers are. I actually managed to see a few daggers come for me with my new agility, some missed me, some actually landed.
Before I knew it I found myself in the middle of a huge clearing, thousands of goblins upon me in a seconds breath. Worried about the dagger throwers more than the goblins that laid before me, I looked up only to see almost fireworks, flashes of something hitting metal in the thousands, my eyes couldn’t keep up at all, but I knew in my heart. Elzare.
With the dark daggers not the imminent threat, I laid my eyes upon the thousands of undead that are before me, for some reason, I didn’t fear them, I didn’t lose hope, and instead with my new armor, stats and determination in this new world, instead of being scared, I wanted to kill them, every last fucking one of them. For that childs mother, for attacking this village, for pissing me off at just the wrong fucking time of walking home.
It was easy at first, I felt faster, stronger, and had more health than before, I even already had enough defence that only the spear throwers did serious damage, but they were numerous, and even enough arrows could still hurt me. Hundreds littered my body, I had to push them out a few times using Foreign Object a few times, at the cost of more health, because there was literally enough arrows sticking to me to impair my movement.
I thought I could win, I really did, but I was cut down not of one single cut, not of one arrow, instead I was cut down by the thousands and finished off with the biggest spear yet, thrown by the biggest fuck of the group. I saw critical messages about low health, my vision went black, yet I was still alive somehow. I can’t properly explain this, but imagine feeling a warm steel spear stuck inside your head, while still retaining memories, coherent thoughts, and intelligence. Fucking bizarre. I managed to slump over with my arms dangling, and was about to give up. Then I saw a chance. Literally, a chance, Hope's Last Chance I thought for a few moments about it and without thinking activated it.
Every second from then on out, I felt power, no, not the power of a strong avatar on monitor, I felt real fucking power, every second slowed the world down, every second my wounds healed. I soon found myself pulling away from the spear and standing up like some crazy savage that just lost their head. The goblins speed made me laugh, their spears were almost as slow as when Wise Being was active.
Looking into the air, I could finally make out maybe 10 Elzare, moving, disappearing all over the village, blocking daggers with all his speed. Stopping them from landing on villagers a few feet off, and this time, to my surprise, he has been helping me this entire time. I could see one of the Elzare occasionally come down to kill hundreds of Goblins, but there was just so many, and many people were running about to get attacked, he had his hands full. In the back of my mind, I realized he lied earlier for some reason, he could’ve easily killed those goblins in my gruesome battle with the spear thrower before.
Only now, was he sincerely being pushed back. I’m also guessing that my Misdirection wasn’t working on whatever was throwing the dark daggers, I could see hundreds headed for me. They were valiantly blocked by Elzare, but I could also see them moving towards the village too.
It must really suck to have to defend so many as priority.
Looking up at one of them for a small second, his eyes met mine, and he looked confused, almost asking himself how I could see him with such speed, then quickly focused back on defending. I could see sweat running down his face, I could see horror in his eyes, not of me, but I think rather for the state of the village. I also saw blood, slowly spilling from his mouth, dark daggers littered his body.
Why would those hurt him though? Was the blood from the daggers, or something else? I don’t think those daggers could do that to him, based on what I felt when some landed on me. I was starting to snap more, starting to even worry about Elzare. I soon found myself being cast in a world of red vision and a red light surrounding me getting bigger and bigger. I could see fear in their eyes, and I planned to show the world why.
I cut, stabbed and pulled out the organs of goblins around me, ripped off arms, punched with my fist, impaled with my bone gauntlets, I used goblins as shields for a bit, but then just started punching others with the goblin stuck to my hand. Loud qualches of blood could be heard through the night, as I slammed the goblin into his friends, over and over again.
I don’t know how long it was, or how long it took, but each second I felt my hope drain from me, not just in a stat sense. I felt the world was losing color, becoming more grey, I felt less needed as Elzare was cleaning up, I felt like I didn’t belong, I felt like I had to kill myself. Without even thinking, the battle was already over, and I soon found myself looking for a cliff to jump off.
To my surprise, Death was already sitting there expectantly. He actually managed to comfort me, I’m not sure why since he’s suppose to be after my soul, but I soon heard his heart wrenching existence. A thing, a person, an existence of living through people’s life till they died. It made me sad, I think he wanted to help me understand, but instead I just felt sorrow for him, sorrow for myself. I was falling through the air now, soaring like a bird, feeling weightless. It’s time.
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These were my last memories, now I stand in this Abyss thinking and slowly walking. Nothing changed, nothing ever changed, blackness as far as the eyes could see. Walking gently holding my side because my entire body hurt, I soon found a difference. A giant red pulsating heart stood in front of me. Something bad was happening to it though, an icy feeling, something black was consuming it, covering it like blotches of cloth, eating away at it. I felt a pain in my chest, falling to the ground. It hurts.. It hurts so.. So bad.. Make it stop.. MAKE IT STOP.
Looking down at the blackness of the Abyss. I saw something. A familiar face, it was like a perspective, as if I was laying down, looking up. I could see his hand was holding mine, he looked tired, grumpy, disgruntled, his grey facial hair a mess, some blood sticking to the corner of his mouth, his long elven ears slightly lowered, his eyes were the definition of sadness, he wasn’t looking at me, no, he was looking far beyond me, he had the thousand yard stare.
“I know.. I know we haven’t known each other long, but please don’t die girl. I’ve seen enough death for my lifetime, far too much..” He looked even further into the distance.
“I had a wife, a child, a family I could finally call my own after getting independence from my Player. I loved them.. God did I love them” Tears were streaming down his face, he was losing himself fast
“I babied them both, always promised to protect them, always wanted to be with them.. I lived in this village with them” He was no longer talking to me, in fact I don’t think he ever was, he needed to let this out.
“I promised them the fucking world.. And.. I.” A long pause as he swallowed with an itch in his throat he may never be able to scratch.
A small weep could be heard over and over again as he rocked.
“I failed.. I failed.. I.”
“My wife was beaten and killed, my child so disfigured I’m still not even sure if it was her.. What did I do to deserve this? Why did my Player give me control? Why did he abandon me? What am I supposed to do!? I just spend my days protecting this village in honor of my wife, but even that I failed, 6 people died.. 6… innocent people, and there would’ve been more if not for you… Please.. Please don’t be the 7th Rosie.”
Looking back up from the water like reflection of Elzare, I could see the black blotches on the giant heart start to shrink a little. I could feel a strong pressure on my hand. The same hand he was holding. There was a small glow all around me, the blackness was starting to turn golden, before I knew it, almost like a blink, the same Elzare from the Abyss was right in front of me. I’m lying in my bed in the second floor of the cabin. His hand tightly wrapped around mine, his eyes looking down.
“I’m sorry” I managed to speak, as my hand fell weakly on his grey haired head.
He looked back up, completely shocked looking into my eyes. I can see why that hug the other day made him cry. The poor guy is so lonely, such a sad story. He didn’t say anything, or really move, just let it happen, I didn’t want to ruin his pride either or something like that, so I just kept patting, and he let it all out. After what felt like forever, I finally managed to speak.
“How long was I out?”
Clearing his face, wiping away tears on some extremely expensive armor, he said.
“Roughly 2 days” He managed to reply, not of tears or sadness, but back to his usual disgruntled self.
“I’m glad you are alright girl, and thanks for that. I know you just woke, I’ll go bring you some food, and then I have to go do some things. I’ll let Bronzebeard know you are alright too, might come visit, was asking about you a lot, said something like”
Elzare attempted a strong dwarven accent, that sounded pretty funny actually.
“That fucking lass! I knew she said she felt like a bad ass, but for Eldril’s sake!? Thousands of goblins? I knew I was a fine craftsman! Let me know when she wakes, I want to hear this first hand! Though, I saw.. the er.. mess she left. How much did you have a play in that?”
“And I honestly told him that I only killed maybe 10% and was mostly blocking those misty fucking daggers. Those are the only thing I still don’t get, it’s like there’s something connected to the undead now, that only goes away when the host dies. Like some type of parasite creature, I still don’t know.”
“I’ll be back, you just rest up, I inspected you and saw your sorry ass, for now just relax”
He soon came back with some Erkin meat, steamed to perfection, the aroma was amazing, I guess maybe I haven’t eaten since I’ve been unconscious. I bet even my least favored meals would look like golden pizza with enough sparkle to blind an angel. I started chowing down very unlady like, and Elzare disappeared. After finishing the meal, a few moments of silence to myself I heard something.
Lass!
Lass!
Lass!
Lass!
LASS!
Like fucking thunder in the wind, my door was bolted open, and I saw a sweaty dwarf who clearly ran way too fast. It honestly warmed my heart that he came over so quick, doesn’t he have important swords to make and shit?
“I was so worried lass! I should’ve offered my escort services.. Before I even knew what was going on I heard a loud beasty scream, and found the goblin fuck’n graveyard that waited outside the village. Elzare put me up to speed though. You okay lass?”
He hobbled along, and was sitting in a chair that Elzare was just using that was close to my bed. He grabbed my hand without even asking, and spoke.
“I’m sorry, I really should've come with you, it’s a strong proud dwarfs duty to protect a lady walking home.”
“Bronzb-”
“Nay lass, let me have this at least.”
He looked focused, and then let go of my hand. He seemed to have piped up a little already from the somber mood that was about to appear.
“Have you seen my handiwork in that corner there?” He pointed to a corner of the room my eyes neglected to fall upon.
There was a wooden mannequin wearing the armor him and I just made before all the shit went down, instead of cut up, with broken bones, it had even more leather layers, what felt like more bones that looked sturdier, and a goblin's skull on both sides of the shoulders.
“You said somethin, bout you having to kill the materials right? So what's wrong with bringing a mostly dead Erkin here, and holding you hand as a dagger went through em? Plus we had the dwarven treasure of all those goblins bodies laying out there. Figured I’d patch up the armor, and make some improvements for protecting the village.”
“Bronzbeard.. Man, you are just too smooth sometimes.”
He let out a heartfelt laugh.
“Aye lass, I’ll remember that! You should see how smooth my.. Uh. Forget it”
I laughed a little. This perverted dwarf really did cheer me up, I’m glad I met him. In fact, I’m glad I’ve met everyone I have so far, Elzare, Bronzebeard, and Joseph. They were all kind souls that I desperately needed.
“Beardo, come help me up please, I wanna just walk around for a bit, stretch the legs” I tried to get up, but the sound of stitches breaking could be heard, and blood dripping down. I almost forgot.. I almost forgot just how many arrows were inside me during those final moments. I almost forgot the cuts that lay upon my skin in the thousands.
“Lass! Hurry, drink a potion!”
Bronzebeard stumbled in one his many satchels he seemed to always carry around. He managed to grab a slender vial, of the brightest red liquid I’ve ever saw, It actually casted light, I couldn’t question it though, my health was already 5/10 from bleeding, I really was about to die. Gulping the potion greedily, I was instantly cured.. No.. even better, I felt like instead of just facing death, that the angels above were about to embrace me. What kind of fucking potion is that? Who is this dwarf really? A gift from Eldril? How expensive.
“How much did that poti-”
“Ahh lass, shhh don’t worry about it, let's get you that walk though” He was holding me, much to my surprise, with an iron like force, an unmoving mountain, his body gave no way to my gentle touch around him, I managed to stand up firmly. It was a funny sight to see, he must be about 4 feet, and I’m fucking seven, my arms barely managed to dangle to his height. Yet I leaned forward and held on not wanting to insult his pride if he had to reach up.
“Let’s go for a walk lass, enjoy the summer this time of year, plus you need to tell me! How was the armor? Was it flexible in battle? How many hits did a bone take? What was th..” The sound drowned out as we walked, what a lovely dwarf.
Hope, total is 52