by John Gold
Physical damage: 2.51% (damage ignored: up to 874/second)
Poison: 1.27% (damage ignored: up to 211/second)
Mental damage: 0.65% (damage ignored: up to 125/second)
Skills
Cooking: 25
Trap setting and disarming: 19
Archery: 2
Swimming: 4
Breath-holding: 5
Stealth: 25
Life Magic: 74
Mind Magic: 25
Space Magic: 8
Earth Magic: 25
Water Magic: 1
Fire Magic: 25
Air Magic: 25
Light Magic: 6
Dark Magic: 25
Meditation: 34
Hand-to-hand combat: 25
Perception: 45
Professions
Herbalist: 2
Fisherman: 16
Tailor: 23
Blacksmith: 1
Carpenter: 16
Look at me! I should be a doctor! My 74 Life Magic is impressive, to say the least. On the other hand, the fact that I’m weak and can’t run is bad. I’ll use the overload mechanics for now, and take care of that later. I need a map. These are the circles of Hell, so you must be able to run along the Fields of Ash in either direction and end up back where you started. Like Galboa said before getting started with a big job, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It’s going to be a little step for the new me, but a big step for the old me.
An hour later, I’m just about able to run. A day later, I’m running without a problem. The map shows that I’ve only covered a small part of the circle, and keeping straight ahead is starting to get boring. I turn to walk along the shroud and notice all the different forms it takes. Sometimes, shapes flit across, and one time I get the feeling someone’s looking at me. I decide to see what’s on the other side.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 800 (ignored: 125)
45/720
Resistance to mental damage: +0.02%
Mental damage ignored up to 131/second
Nothing but mental damage! That was…awful. I saw the suffering souls, heard their cries, felt their pain and anguish, looked into their empty eye sockets. I was bathed in terror, although, it was less a feeling, and more, a creature living in the haze. In that second, I didn’t see it, though I understood perfectly well that it was there as a creation of that crazy world. I only survive because I trip and fall, only too happy to do so.
Wait a second. If I’m in the Fields of Ash, where everything is destroyed, what did I trip over? It turns out to be a bone, the thigh bone of an adult human, whittled down on one end to a point. I’m afraid to pick it up, but father teaches me what I can do with it. I need weight, too.
Throwing bone
???
Damage: ???
???
???
∞ ∞ ∞
I look, but there’s nothing besides the bone, so I stop to think. The fields of ash are bereft of life, with nobody here but me, and I really need protection from mental damage. It’s the border, the perfect spot to work on my resistance.
I don’t make the same mistake twice, however. Instead, I dig up the ash right next to the shroud, leaving just my right hand for me to lean on. I stick my left hand against my body to heal myself. With that done, I get to work.
It’s brutal, but I quickly get used to it. With the huge amounts of damage I’m taking, my resistance grows by leaps and bounds: one second of damage, five seconds of healing. Rinse and repeat.
As my resistance grows, the landscape changes. New things start to appear. I see crying children, hanged men, talking heads. I watch as people die in their beds. I see them burned alive. The picture becomes worse and worse, and it starts to get into my head.
Just about forgot to pull my hand back.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 800 (ignored: 256)
20/780
Death…
I see it in the shroud: a black robe blown in the breeze, a scythe on its right shoulder. There’s no face, just two green flames where the eyes should be. A couple of seconds later, there comes a howl like a thousand voices talking in a whisper to fill the air. Death radiates waves of monstrous power. When they break over me, they sweep away the ash, leaving me simply sitting in my meditation pose.
All I feel is the power coming from death.
Its eye’s flare, the blade of the scythe blood-red and glowing. Death sits down right across from me and holds out a hand to where I’ve been touching the shroud.
I stare into the empty eye sockets and think to myself. There it is, my chance at a normal life. I could die here and go back to my parents. Although, I wouldn’t be their child… No.
“Not yet” is all I can say.
Death straightens up and walks off along the shroud. Two creatures made completely of darkness follow it, and I’m surprised to see that one is the terror I’ve been feeling. I can tell from the sensation in my soul. The second is despair, though I only find that out when I check out my active effects.
Debuff: Aura of Lord Terror
Effect: You feel the terror of inevitable death.
Duration: 10 minutes, 59 seconds… 58… 57…
Debuff: Aura of Lord Despair
Effect: You feel the despair of inevitable death.
Duration: 10 minutes, 59 seconds… 58… 57…
∞ ∞ ∞
Death takes five steps, stops, looks back at me, and continues walking. I glance up at the dark, quivering haze above me. There are two ashen sparks staring at me - it’s alive.
You got a debuff: Aura of Lord Fear
Effect: You feel the fear of inevitable death.
Duration: 10 minute, 59 seconds… 58… 57…
∞ ∞ ∞
The haze rolls up, taking the form of a clump of darkness with ashen eyes, and follows its master. This is terrifying! Death, with its gloomy companions, moves in the shroud as an ethereal creature ruling the earth.
∞ ∞ ∞
Resistance to mental damage: +1.02%
Mental damage ignored up to 455/seconds
Gift received: Meeting deferred
You personally saw Death and its three companions, Terror, Fear, and Despair, and stayed this side of the grave. When you die permanently, Death will take your soul to the Land of the Dead.
∞ ∞ ∞
What? Crazy! I jump up and run away from the shroud, needing no second warning. I’m never going back there! At least, not right now. It’s a good thing I ran off without thinking, too, since ten minutes later I see that. I dig myself a hiding place as fast as I can.
Camouflage: +200
An entire armada of demons is flying, running, and crawling toward the spot where I met Death. Three minutes later, they’re all there. Damn it, I left tracks!
I jump up and keep running. What’s the point of hiding? They would just follow my tracks and find me. Two minutes later, they’ve almost caught up. Monsters like that love people, and, as I hear their shouts to stop and the threats they’re hurling at me, I duck into where none of them will follow: the shroud.
Yes, it’s a risk, but it’s my only chance at survival.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 800 (ignored: 455)
335/780
Weak healing!
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 800 (ignored: 455)
334/780
Weak healing
Damage taken: 800 (ignored: 455)
333/780
Weak healing!
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 800 (ignored: 455)
334/780
Got it! I can live in the shroud. Still, there’s fear and horror all around, along with earth under my feet. I run along the border of the shroud and see everything that’s happening in the Fields of Ash. The demons are circling, but I don’t run out. My meeting with Death did a lot to boost my mental resistance, so I can stay in the shroud so long as I continuous
ly heal myself. It’s just a shame that my survivability isn’t high enough yet. Really, I could have come here earlier. It was just that I didn’t know what was here, and so I stayed over in those lifeless lands. I could last here a whole two seconds!
I continue running, a hand on my chest to heal away. Continuous healing is looking to become a habit, and I pick everything up as I run. I need an overload to boost my strength. Visibility is down to a meter.
Ten minutes later, a wave of fear rolls over me, and I run out of the shroud. There it is again.
∞ ∞ ∞
Companion of Death, Absolute Fear, ???
∞ ∞ ∞
It’s the amorphous haze with the ashen eyes, and it glances at me before flying away.
∞ ∞ ∞
Resistance to mental damage: +0.22%
Mental damage ignored up to 603/second
His aura alone is enough for me to change my mind about staying in the shroud forever. It’s a good thing Death didn’t use its aura. I run on, trying to get as far away from the demons as I can. The whole time, I’m running through the Fields of Ash, but then I duck into the shroud until Terror sniffs me out an hour later. I notice him much later than he spots me, and it’s a miracle I escape. When I leap out of the shroud, he’s an arm’s-length away.
The shroud isn’t doing any more damage to me, though I have no desire to go deeper into it. I can just tell that I’m not ready. For some reason, I can tell that things are so bad that I’ll die if I head in. An unpleasant premonition hits me when I think about running in that direction.
Two weeks later, I’ve covered a quarter of the first circle of Hell. That’s even taking into consideration the fact that I’m running faster and faster.
“Attribute window!”
Name: Sagie
Level: 0
Experience: 0/100 (100 left until the next level)
Race: Human
Class: None selected
Basic attributes
Strength: 200
Agility: 177
Stamina: 92
Intellect: 102
Wisdom: 99
Available attribute points: 0
…
It looks like I’ve found out what the limiter is. My strength won’t go past 200 even though I was running with an enormous rock in my arms to hit 90% overload. It turns out that you can’t put overly large items in your inventory.
From the logs:
∞ ∞ ∞
New world structure: 5th level
Demonification: 0.01%
Your soul is tied to this world, and your flesh is restructuring to match the new world order.
Fifth Sequence Limiter activated
Moving between structures multiplies or divides what you can do by ten. After the ritual, my limiter was replaced with the fifth sequence, which tells me that the Project Chrysalis world is 4th level, while Hell is 5th level. The limiter means that I can get my main and additional attributes up to 200, and my skills up to 250. But what is demonification? It hasn’t grown at all. I can’t tell what it does for me.
I can boost my healing and resistance to fire. There aren’t any other options right now. I need controlled damage to work on my stamina and Life Magic. Logically speaking, the farther down I go, the worse the continuous damage will be. What’s down there in the ninth circle? The exit, I hope. If that’s true, I need to make sure I don’t die the second I step into the aggressive environment. I need resistance to fire, cold, and lightning. I’m not sure what I’ll do with disease, parasites, or stench, but I’ll see when the time comes. They all impact the body, so I need to max out my physical resistance. The auras of Death, Fear, Terror, and Despair work on the mental body, so I’ll be able to resist them.
As I think about all that, I’m reminded of space cockroaches who can survive even in a reactor room. I can just imagine the face of the engineer when one of those little buggers crawls out of the nuclear core. The radiation is enough to melt your skin, though that thought is just my tendency to go looking for problems kicking in.
∞ ∞ ∞
Eliza was relaxing in her chair. She’d just finished a meeting of all the psychologists at the station working with the younger generation, her group of kids in the high-risk category. Even in that group, Anji… Well, he stood out. He was mature, but he was a child. He was working, but he lived in the orphanage. He could talk, but he didn’t. And people are built to develop by talking.
Anji’s thirst for pain and self-torture more than made sense, though the last two weeks of recordings from Project Chrysalis were enough to make even Eliza feel queasy. The monotonous landscape, the dark scenes, the wall of haze…
Then, Eliza saw something she hadn’t noticed before. Anji didn’t show the entire spectrum of emotions, just your basic negative ones like rage, fear, and annoyance. She’d never seen him express happiness, love, or sympathy. If she was right, the boy was pathological, though that didn’t explain his choice not to talk. There was, however, a complex test she could use to confirm her guess. At his young age, they hand children off to be treated. She just didn’t want him to grow up a psychopath.
∞ ∞ ∞
Today, I got to see my two least favorite people. A meeting with one meant problems with the other. Vaalsie is standing next to Eliza alongside my capsule.
“Miss Eliza is going to take you to the medical center for some tests. Your punishment will be lifted during that time, though any attempt to disobey her will only result in me making it worse. All right, go with Miss Eliza.”
Eliza takes me to the parking area in front of the orphanage, where there’s already an aerocar waiting. None of the kids at the orphanage have ever seen anything like that, something driven by a human. That made sense, though as the few drivers around here are just pilots. The car itself is great, too. I’ve never seen anything like it, not even on the station’s sixth level.
“Hobs Hospital, third level. Child diagnostics.”
“Got it, Miss Donovan.”
I’ve never flown in an aerocar, so I enjoy the trip, though Miss Eliza is on edge. You can’t tell by how she looks, but I’m starting to notice when people are going through internal turmoil.
The hospital is beautiful. We arrive at a level where it’s normal for there to be a lot of people, and some doctors meet us at the entrance to usher us into a room. Then, they put me in a chair and make me put something with sensors on my head. It looks like a crown. But seeing it reminds me of the crown Rachel was wearing that fateful night, and I wouldn’t touch it if I had my druthers. Sadly, nobody asks me.
After that, nobody needs me to do anything except look at pictures.
“Miss Donovan, it’ll take thirty minutes to create a baseline, and another three hours for a full analysis.”
“All right. I’ll go sit in the waiting room.”
She leaves me with the men in the room, and it gets boring quickly. They don’t show anything interesting, and I already know what they’re going to do. I went through a similar test last year when my psychologists wanted to see how angry and happy I get. That was when I learned about deviations from the psychological norm, too. So, Eliza thinks I’m psycho? Screw her. I don’t think I am, and I don’t care what she thinks.
Some moments do turn out to be interesting. There are pictures of Rachel, Galboa, Finx, Vaalsie, and Eliza herself. The scenes with blood are disgusting, but it’s hard to be afraid of things like that when you’ve seen what’s in the shroud like I have.
∞ ∞ ∞
The doctors said the boy was consciously limiting the emotions he displays. He wasn’t a psychopath, meaning that he was looking for pain as compensation for something. They finished the test, and Anji just gave Eliza a grunt and an arrogant look when she met him in the hallway. It was like he knew all along and was shocked by how ridiculous the whole thing was.
For all the fighting, Anji got more hours of studies, and he used them to sleep or learn. A normal boy might have had a problem
losing his free time and friends, chatting with a psychologist, and fighting all the time, but Anji just slept peacefully during study time and went back to the game for some more pain and suffering. That was the path he had chosen.
∞ ∞ ∞
I leave the Fields of Ash and head toward the rivers of lava. Even from a good hundred meters away, I’m engulfed in their heat. Perfect! Another ten steps, and…
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 50 (ignored: 0)
870/920
Another couple of steps.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 150 (ignored: 0)
736/920
Resistance to fire: +0.02%
Thermal damage ignored up to 12/second
There it is. Lava is melted rock, with a temperature between 500 and 1200 degrees. The heat can project a long way, and the closer I get, the more thermal damage I take. Even the 10% of the pain I get is excruciating! It’s like my skin is on fire, and the feeling only intensifies as I step closer. I feel it all over my body and take two more steps forward.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 250 (ignored: 12)
508/920
My survivability restores 17 health per second. I can go farther.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 325 (ignored: 12)
217/920
Weak healing! And another couple steps.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 405 (ignored: 12)
515/920
Resistance to fire: +0.02%
Thermal damage ignored up to 36/second
My Life Magic is all the way up to 112, meaning that healing spells are 112% more effective. Weak healing starts at 1030, so each time I cast it now, I get 2183 health. I don’t even have that much to begin with! It’s even become so second nature that I just think, and my left hand starts doing its job. I can feel the magic power concentrating in my palm.
I forgot one important thing: monsters spawn right out of the ground in this world.
An imp crawls up out of the lava and stares at me. Like an idiot, I’m staring at my effect panel.
