After taking stock of his status, Ren cautiously moved towards the building he assumed was some form of bank. He had finally cleared the litany of alerts he had received during his fight and flight session with the Spider. Most of the information in his logs were redundant now that the battle was over. The only thing of note was that his nanites had finally managed to form a thin patch of skin over the puncture wounds he had received in his torso. The other important notification gave him the current status of his damaged core.

Time Left till Meltdown = 7 days >

Ren stared at the message in rapturous glee. ‘Would you look at that! Kill Energy really is amazing,’ he thought to himself. Prior to coming to the Trial Realm, his countdown till nuclear meltdown had been three days. With just one kill in this Realm, the countdown to his demise had been pushed to seven days. For a brief moment, Ren entertained the thought of staying behind even after the Trial was over. Shaking his head, he continued his slow approach to the front doors of the bank. After his vicious fight with the spider, he needed a safe place to meditate while his nanites repaired his damaged system, prefabricating the lost blood and muscles. The bank building with the foreign signage was as good a place as any.

Opting for caution, Ren ignored the pristine path leading from the main street to the front doors. He knew an obvious trap when he saw one. Instead he carefully tread through the overgrown garden in front of the building, observing the gaping maw that was the front entrance. He had picked up a fallen branch and some loose stones from the street and he used them to test the path on his way to the front entrance. The grass stopped a few steps away from the front doors and after much contemplation, he tossed the branch onto the path that led right up to the door. No explosions.

That was a good sign. He then tossed some stones onto the path with no visible reaction. Still hesitant to step onto the path, he dug his fingers into his still healing abdomen, and tossed the blood onto the walkway. The blood landed on the path without incident, but moments later a gentle flash passed over the droplets, erasing them and leaving the path in its pristine condition. It looked like there were no traps on the walkway, just a self cleaning enchantment. Ren carefully took a step onto the path, and took the last few steps towards the main entrance of the Bank building.

The door was ajar, though somehow still miraculously attached by its one surviving hinge. It creaked hauntingly in the stale silence as a gust of wind blew across the empty streets while an enchanted barrier flickered ominously in front of the door. It seemed to be on its last legs, but it still incinerated the stone he threw to test its functionality. Ren was observing the flickering barrier, trying to time a jump across the threshold when a snout filled with jagged teeth clamped over his right leg.

Ren cursed as the monster wrung its head, tossing him towards the door. He landed just before the flickering barrier, but the tips of his hair met with the protective enchantment and was instantly incinerated. Glancing downwards, Ren was met with the most revolting rodent he had ever seen. It was overgrown like the Spider had been, but this ‘rat’ looked grotesque in ways the spider had not. Its skin was without the usual fur that rats generally had, and its muscles bulged like it had undergone faulty gene therapy. Ren was tempted to call it a mole rat but the glint of intelligence in its eyes as it tried to push his head through the barrier brought another litany of curses.

Ren sent essence to his hands and slammed his fingers into the packed stone. His fingers barely dug into the stone but it gave him enough leverage to stop his forward momentum, only losing some more hair in the process. Raising his left leg, he stomped at the ugly face of the Rat, with its mouth still gnawing on his right leg. The monster was persistent, wringing its head as it tried to move forward and have the barrier decapitate its lunch for it. Ren quickly scanned his core and determined that it had only just begun to refill with pure essence. Since the Rat had thrown him onto the floor in its surprise attack, he was lying prone, with his fingers stuck into the stone floor. They were the only things keeping him from going through the dangerous barrier. As such he couldn’t reach any of his daggers or his golden knife. Worse still, he only had enough essence for one attack so he had to make it count.

Ren’s left leg kept hammering away at the Mutated Rat, trying to lull it into complacency to get a clear hit on its head. Seeing an opening, Ren filled his leg with the pure essence and slammed it with all his strength as the Rat loosened its teeth for a better bite. The surprised Rat was tossed a meter away from the impact. Ren jumped up, sending a regretful glance at the free Energy that was the rodent, before turning towards the flickering barrier. He only had a few seconds before the hungry Rat caught up with him, and his dry core had no more Essence he could use to kill the rodent. Taking a gamble, he dove through the barrier just as it flickered off, into the darkened foyer of the Bank. He felt the teeth of the giant Rat snap shut right behind him as he crossed the barrier and then the barrier flickered back on. For the first time in the fight, the Rat squeaked in complaint at losing its meal. Its long whiskers twitched in annoyance as it hissed at the resting Ren, thick slobber dripping down its giant snout.

Ren lay motionless, his body wracked with pain from the countless cuts, slashes, punctures, and bites he had sustained in the last hour. Additionally, he felt a corrosive energy coursing through him, originating from the bite of the Mutated Rat. It seemed to have infected him with some kind of spiritual disease that felt like a form of rabies. Ren's synthetic body was immune to physical diseases, but the infection was affecting him nonetheless, causing excruciating spikes of pain.

His nanites, which were previously busy repairing his wounds, were now focused on containing the infection below his right knee. Ren attempted to expel the infection from his body, but it quickly became apparent that he needed to use his own essence to aid the nanites in their work. Ren folded his legs beneath him and entered into a state of deep meditation, drawing energy from the surrounding air to replenish his depleted core. As strands of energy flowed into his being, Ren directed some of it to the nanites, which began to work on purging the spiritual rabies from his system.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Three hours later, Ren’s eyes opened and he sighed in relief. He had finally refilled his core to about a quarter but the rest of the energy he had pulled from the ether had gone into fixing his body and completely purging the infection from the Rat’s bite. Thinking about the rodent, he looked through the flickering barrier to see that the Rat was no longer loitering. Sometime during his meditation, it must have given up on pursuing Ren through the barrier and gone in search of easier prey.

“What a shame. I could really use some Kill Energy right now,” Ren said aloud in the stale air of the Bank lobby.

[ Bah! Power is given to those who stare death in the eyes and smile. Your cowardice disgusts me! ]

“Why are you even still here?” Ren responded as he observed the room around him. “My spark for life has finally been reignited after years of boredom. I will not give it up so easily”

[ But the gods reward recklessness!!! How else will they reward us with the blood chalice of our enemies? ]

“I thought you were above the gods?” Ren asked, continuing his observation.

With his head on a swivel, he slowly stood not daring to step casually in the foyer.

The room had a grand domed ceiling filled with paintings of strange humanoids with big floppy ears and a long trunk for their nose. Beside the main doors, Ren spied comfortable couches covered in rich leather from an unknown animal. The tables, lamps and other furniture all seemed perfectly preserved. Even the teller counters on the far side of the room looked in pristine condition. The only evidence that the place had not been used for a while was a thick covering of dust on parts of the floors and furniture. It seemed like some self-cleaning enchantments were still dutifully working within the empty Bank.

[ Of course! What are gods in front of PRIMORDIALS? ]

Ren paused as the very air reverberated. “What was that?”

[ HeHeHeHe ] the voice cackled with genuine glee. [ The universe itself quakes at the mention of our names!!!! ]

“What?”

[ HeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHe — ]

Ren tried to tune out the cackling voice that continued to scream incoherently, reserving a portion of his processing power to focus on examining the room. It was strange - when the voice mentioned that particular ‘word’, Ren felt as though an ancient presence had descended for a brief moment. He didn't dare speak the word out loud, fearing that he might be erased from existence. Instead, he made a mental note to ask the voice for more information when it was ready to have a meaningful conversation.

For now, Ren focused on avoiding triggering any hidden security features in the Bank. After circling the room, he had a good idea of its contents. Most of the items present were miscellaneous and held no interest for him, except for the decomposing remains of a Mutated Rat in one corner and clumps of thickened goop behind the teller counters. He planned to examine those shortly but decided to start with the priceless couch closest to him. He pulled out his favorite knife and began wiping it clean while whispering his sincere apologies.

"Oh, my precious Sunslicer," he cooed, as he smeared the couch with the crusted blood and gore adorning the knife's blade. "I’m so sorry. But isn't this just the best? You looked absolutely divine today. I'll make sure to get you more beautiful hair for your hilt as a reward."

After getting the blade as clean as he could without any water, he moved on to a separate section of the couch and cut out a wide strip. He then used the strip to gently clean the hilt of the Knife, carefully avoiding breaking the dozens of hair wrapped around the hilt. A few strands had frayed too much after such extensive use and Ren had to set them free, deep with regret. Minutes later, he examined his work and nodded in satisfaction. Ren whistled happily, skillfully rotating the Knife between his fingers as he moved towards the collapsed corpse of a giant Rat.

Squatting on his haunches, Ren tilted his head as he examined the skeleton which had a thin film of dehydrated skin stretched across it. The skeleton’s tail ended in a cut so clean that Ren doubted it was caused by anything natural. He glanced from the crumpled corpse to the flickering doorway several steps away. By the state of the corpse, Ren estimated it had died fairly recently. Maybe only a few months to a year prior. The poor thing must have gotten stuck within this Foyer after barely passing through the protective barrier. With no food or water, it either died of blood loss, hunger or thirst. Good thing Ren didn’t need food for sustenance. It was more a guilty pleasure than a necessity for him.

Shrugging, Ren stood up whistling a new tune to himself as he strolled towards the marble counters that the original workers of this establishment must have used when dealing with customers. The surface of the counters held potted plants, long dead from neglect. Some miscellaneous forms lay in bundles and Ren picked a few up, skimming through the foreign language hoping to find some meaning. Without any luck, he looked at the four condensed black heaps spaced out on the other side of the teller counters.

The black heaps had a tar-like consistency when he poked it with the leg of a chair. Ren had a suspicion that these heaps were the remnants of the original occupants of this Realm. Maybe the actual Bank or Guild Tellers at the time of the Cataclysm. But that brought another question.

If these were the remnants of the original people from this Realm, how come these were the first remnants he had seen since he got here? Did the enchantments of this building somehow preserve them?

Curiosity coursed through him as he digested the implications of a being capable of causing such widespread destruction. A wishful sigh echoed through the desolate walls as he imagined the exciting journey he had ahead of him to reach such heights. “One day…,” he mumbled to himself.