Chapter 6
Symphony of Destruction
It rained fire.
Asher moved rather slowly, staff extended upward, its head pointed at the massive ogre. With what it felt like every second, the world would shake--fire billowed left, right, and center, consuming everything. There wasn’t a blade of grass untouched, and the clear, blue sky was ashen with smoke. In its midst, the tiny human stood tall like a mountain, decimating the world.
Wizard’s firepower was no joke; every hit dealt at a very minimum of 8 damage, often more, further applying an extra dot that burned the ogre down. Every time Fire Slash flew out, it opened yet another gash on the massive body that sprayed out blood.
Here and there, the ogre retaliated, sweeping with his weapons and decimating the ground floor further, but as Asher kept his distance and used Dash whenever it seemed like he would even get scratched, not much came of it. Though the beauty of consuming flames painted a grand etch on the canvas, it was also forlorn in its depiction of futility.
Asher hung back and even lowered his staff at some point; the ogre had less than 10% of its Health remaining but, beyond that, it had fallen. Its legs were burned up to its knees, one of its heads was like the melted wax of a candle, and two of its arms were wholly gone. Rather than a monster that shook the world, it was a glum figure of a marooned warrior drawing its last breath.
Its remaining eyes stared deftly at the tiny figure in the distance, piercing in their all-consuming hate, but Asher stared right back. It dawned on him, at last, that he knew naught of the world; in fact, for all he knew, all these creatures might be wholly living, they might be sentient and capable of just as much as he was. And yet, he had to kill them. Not just kill them--he had to kill them in numbers that should leave him aghast. But if he didn’t... he would die.
There was a force within, he once again recognized, that amplified that voice that every person has in their minds, the voice whose sole job is to scream in perpetuity: I don’t want to die. Here, rather than a singular scream echoing at times of danger, it was like a persistent feeling, something akin to chains entangling his very soul. It drowned out everything else--including feeling sympathetic toward the monsters he was burning--and left him reeling in silence.
Just before five minutes were up, the ogre fell wholly, expended into ashes. The wind blew by, as though in eternal soliloquy, and drifted them through the fields that had fallen silent. Everything was ruin, within and without.
He was yanked from the precipice of self-loathing by a jolt of pain. Once again, he found himself on the plaza--and once again with the six usual suspects, nobody missing and nobody added. All six seemed to be angry or desponded in some capacity, with Mira being the first to break down.
“AAAGHH!!! I WAS SO CLOSE!!” she fell down to her knees. “Just a few more seconds, and I would have had my pillow! Ugh, fuck. I need to get drunk, like, right now!” without looking at anyone, she spun and marched toward the tavern. Did they all fail?
That was impossible.
Asher wouldn’t have been the only one to opt into raw firepower. It wasn’t surprising for Mira as she likely chose Battlemage by the time she read its description, but others wouldn’t have. They would have all chosen Wizard. So, were they just pretending?
Windows, once again, appeared in front of everyone at the same time. Rather than focusing on them, Asher focused on the expressions of others--either they were really good at acting, or none managed to complete the bonus mission. Not wanting to stand out, he, too, grimaced as he checked out the status window.
Completed: Grassy Lowlands [2]
Rewarded: 100 Souls, 2 Divine Gems, Active Spells added into the pool: 6; Passive Spells added into the pool: 3; Passive Skills added into the pool: 5
Bonus Reward: 4x Jugs of Water [will be delivered to your cabin]
Bonus Objective Completed: Deafeat Copper Ogre
Bonus Objective Reward: +80 Souls, +1 Divine Gem, 'Basic Pillow Filled With Hair', 'Simple Cloth Blanket' [will be delivered to your cabin]
Performance Rating: 12/100
Evaluation: Abysmal
Time Until Next Map: 23:59:41
Even with having completed the bonus objective, his performance was still called Abysmal, though he did gain nearly 10 extra rating compared to yesterday. He felt rather relieved that the bonus rewards would be sent straight to the cabin so as to not immediately give himself away.
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Others headed toward the tavern but he swung toward the Upgrade Shop first. Though they glanced at him for a moment, it wasn't odd--they all earned at the very least 100 Souls as well which was enough to buy a couple of upgrades. He, on the other hand, had a whopping 188 Souls.
Looking through the list of the Basic Upgrades that he had access to, he was only able to upgrade the following: Health, Damage, Armor, Movement Speed, and Luck.
Health cost 30 Souls, as did the Damage, while Armor and Movement Speed cost twice that, 60. Luck, on the other hand, cost 150 Souls. He mulled over the choices for a moment, even tempted to spec into Luck and roll the dice, but rather quickly settled on the smarter bet. First, he bought one Movement Speed upgrade, increasing his movement speed by 0.1. He frowned as the next upgrade’s cost went up to 80. Sighing, and with 128 Souls remaining, he upgraded damage once, increasing it by 1, for 30 Souls, and then once again for 40 Souls, increasing it by 2, and lowering his Soul total to 58.
For his last upgrade, he decided to go with Health, upgrading it by 5, which was effectively a 50% bonus Health for 'just' 30 Souls.
He left the Store with 28 Souls and headed to the tavern where everyone had already ordered a jug of wine, including the teenage boy.
“What’d you upgrade?” Richard asked him.
"Damage and Health, once," Asher replied as a jug appeared on his table. "Shit's expensive."
“Huh, you’re a moron, then,” Zane, the teenage boy, remarked from the other end of the tavern. He’d already distanced himself from the others as much as he could. “Movement Speed is the king. Mobility in these games is much more important than defense or damage. Tsk, I should be charging you for the free advice.”
“Boy, were you raised by Zeus or something?” Isabella, the short one, joined with a rather scathing tone. “You’re nowhere near good-lookin’ enough to be acting as the piece of subhuman garbage. So, why don’t you just shut the fuck up before I bend your spine so hard you’re gonna be eating your tiny, microscopic dick for dinner?”
“What’d you say, you midget bitch?! Wanna go at it? I don’t mind playing whack-a-mole with an ugly-ass, old-ass, short-ass, no-tits-having-ass bitch like you!”
“Hey, both of you, stop!” Mira jumped between the two of them. “We should be nice to each other! That’s the only way we can survive in this place!”
“Stay out of it, bricks for brains!” in a moment of strange serendipity, both Zane and Isabella exclaimed the exact same sentence, at the exact same time, in the exact same tone. It was akin to a rehearsed song, and if the atmosphere wasn’t one of raw gunpowder, it would have even been ever so slightly touching.
“Huh?” the giant snapped. “Bricks for brain?” she cracked her knuckles. “Alright, you two. Time to make you soups for brain!”
“...”
“You know what I mean!”
“Ho ho, we’re brawling?” even Richard stood up and slapped his belly, wiping wine from his lips.
“Yeah, we brawling,” Gerard licked his lips strangely and also stood up. Eh? The fuck’s happening? Asher was rather confused, in more ways than one. Only Qut and he remained seated. For a moment, he thought they were just posturing and playing around, but as the first fist flew from Mira at Zane, slamming directly into the boy's jaw, he was proven wrong.
All hell broke loose--fists, kicks, spits, nothing was off limit. At some point, Gerard picked up a chair and slammed it over Mira's back. As she fell down on her knees, yelping in pain, Zane appeared, still bloodied, and kicked her directly in the chin. Just as he did, though, Isabella cracked the jug of wine off his head. At the same time, Richard picked up the wooden stump of a chair and slammed it against Isabella's back. It was a chain of events too strange to process.
The two men bore strange grins on their faces as the brawl continued. Blood sprayed out in droves, and he could even hear the sounds of the bones breaking. It didn’t make any sense. Why would they be fighting when they’d need any and all strength they could muster just to survive tomorrow?
“This wine,” Qut suddenly said, drawing Asher’s attention away from the brawl. “Seems to... amplify desires.”
"..." Asher frowned. He didn't feel anything yesterday when he drank it. Neither did anybody, in all fairness. Today, however, he hadn't yet taken a sip since the brawl broke out nearly as soon as he sat down. "What about you?" Asher asked, looking at the half-empty jug.
“...” he merely smiled strangely, emptying the jug and leaving the tavern.
At some point, the brawl calmed down and everyone left, likely in a hurry to spend the Souls on upgrades. Asher remained in the tavern, staring at the jug of wine without drinking it. If it was true that it amplified desires... it was best left undrank.
Soon enough, he was back in his cabin. Though the same appearance-wise as yesterday, the four jugs of water as well as the pillow and the blanket next to it spruced up the place to the point Asher viewed it as a three-star hotel room. Kneeling down in front of the water, he wept tears of joy as he took a swig from one.
Battling the urge to spit it out, his smile turned to frown and his tears of joy turned to, well, just tears. The water from the jugs was... not good. It was lukewarm, heavy, and left a strange, iron aftertaste in his mouth. Sighing, he relented; it was better than dying of thirst.
He affixed the pillow and the blanket onto the bed and lay down. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep, tired beyond measure, both in body and spirit. It was strange, his last thought drifted, how quickly a human mind adapts to insane circumstances... strange indeed.
Name: Asher Rune
Age: 0 (Died at 23y, 8m, 22d; Atlantic Ocean)
Race: Human (Unevolved)
Cabin Name: Scallywag’s Enduring Torture Room
Titles: 0
Cabin Upgrades: 0
Blessings: 0
...
Health: 15
Health Regeneration: 0
Damage: 3
Movement Speed: 1,1
Attack Speed: 1
Strength: 0
Intelligence: 1
Agility: 0
Armor: 0
Critical Chance: 0.1%
Critical Damage: 150%
Cooldown Reduction: 0
Luck: 0
Gathering Range: 5 yards
...
Passive Abilities: 0
Completed Runs: 2
Unique Enemies Slain: 2
Bosses Slain: 0
Secrets Unlocked: 0
...
Souls: 28
Divine Gems: 3