Blood Sacrifice
When Adam opened his eyes, he was no longer in Age of Gods. He stared at the white ceiling above his head. His mind felt like it was wading through sludge, and he needed a moment to regain a sense of clarity. It had been a long time since Adam had stressed his mind to the point where it shut down like that.
As he lay there on the bed, something on his right shifted, causing him to turn his head and stare in surprise at the beautiful and gentle face resting on the mattress not a foot from him. It was Fayte. He did not know what she was doing in his bedroom, but she was sitting on the floor with her feet tucked underneath her bottom and her head resting on the mattress. Only after he got over his shock did he feel the towel that had been placed on his forehead.
He removed the towel and stared at it. Now that he was thinking about it, while he’d been fighting against the [necromancer], he had felt something wet and cool on his face and chest. Could it be that she had been wiping the sweat off his body? Also, there had been that voice he’d heard during the battle. Had the one speaking those encouraging words to him been her?
Adam closed his eyes as a small space inside of his heart seemed to swell with powerful emotions.
Because he didn’t think Fayte would be comfortable lying with half her body on the ground like that, Adam carried the woman into the living room and laid her down on the couch. He glanced at the clock and discovered that it was well after midnight. He started playing Age of Gods early the previous morning, which meant he had been playing for at least twelve or fourteen hours straight.
That was pretty insane even for him.
His stomach rumbled and reminded him that he had not eaten anything since breakfast. He went into the kitchen and searched through the fridge. There was a plate of pasta wrapped in saran wrap. The pasta didn’t have any sauce, but he noticed the cheese and spices giving it some extra color. It looked like Fayte had cooked him dinner, but he’d never woken up, so she must have left it in the fridge.
Adam grabbed the plate and a fork, walked into the living room, and sat down on the empty side of the couch. The couch was shaped like a large L. Fayte took up one side as she lay there, soundly sleeping, while he took the other. He quietly ate his meal, occasionally glancing at Fayte. When he finished, he placed both the plate and fork in the dishwasher before heading back into the living room and looking at Fayte.
“What am I going to do with you?” he asked himself.
He’d brought her with him because he figured she’d wake up and would panic if she noticed he was missing, but now it seemed like she was deep asleep. She must have worried herself into exhaustion. After scratching the back of his head and thinking about it, Adam lifted the woman like a princess and carried her into her own bedroom.
Fayte’s bedroom was fairly barren. There were no pictures, no posters, or anything to denote the resident’s personality. That made sense. She did not have the money to spend on niceties because her father had disowned her, but even if she did have money, he thought a more spartan appearance suited this woman. Fayte was not the kind of person who frugally spent money on things she didn’t need.
Only her bed was nice. It was a king-sized bed shaped like a circle, with a canopy over head, soft curtains that were semi-translucent descending around it, and a mattress so soft it felt like sitting on a cloud. He thought the bed was made from some type of hyper-elastic polymer. The light blue sheets looked basic, but they were made from an incredible fabric that was light but absorbed heat. It would keep someone hot during the winter and cool during the summer.
Once he tucked Fayte into bed, Adam wandered into the room where Aris was currently sleeping. He glanced at the monitor showing how much of the Mortems Disease had been destroyed and was pleasantly surprised to see nearly a third of it was gone. That was much faster than he expected. This gave him hope that she would be cured sooner than later.
“Hey, Aris,” Adam said as he sat down on the chair next to her cryobed. “You seem to be doing a lot better. I have high hopes that it won’t be long before you’re completely healed. Once that happens, you can join me in Age of Gods. I’m sure you’ll have a great time. You always enjoyed it when we played console games together.”
Adam spoke with Aris about everything that happened in the game, from getting the quest to find Trader Wilkins’ missing son to fighting against a 2-star [necromancer]. He also talked about the skewed game mechanics.
“The level up system is ridiculous,” he complained. “Every time you level up, the amount of experience points you need to reach the next level is double what it was before. By the time players reach level ten, they will have to gain hundreds of thousands of experience points to reach the next level. It’s like the creator was trying his hardest to make things as difficult for us as possible.”
Adam couldn’t even begin to fathom what sort of maniac had created Age of Gods. The game was the most realistic virtual reality world he had ever seen. He even still had all five of his senses, which should have been impossible to affect with the world’s current level of technology. Sight and sound were one thing. Touch, taste, and smell were another thing entirely.
“Honestly, the only person I believe who has technology advanced enough to do something like this is Lucifer, but he disappeared years ago… and you don’t even know who that is anyway.”
As he was talking to Aris, the door to the room opened and Fayte walked in. He turned his head to look at her as she stepped forward with a gentle smile.
“When I woke up in my bed, I thought it might be because you put me there,” she said as she pulled up an extra chair and sat down beside him.
“I didn’t think you would be very comfortable sleeping on the floor like that.” He shrugged. “You might have woken up with a bad crick in your neck.”
Fayte did not say anything in response to his words. She glanced at the monitor that showed how much of Aris’s body was infected by Mortems Disease. Her eyes widened a little.
“It seems Aris is healing a lot faster than I thought she would.”
“You think so too? I remember you telling me it would take two or three months for her to heal, but it’s only been a little over one week and her Mortems Disease is a third gone.”
Fayte once again went silent, but this time, it seemed like she was thinking about something heavy. Her brows were furrowed, and there was a glimmer in her eyes as she stared at the sleeping Aris. Adam found himself loathe to interrupt her.
“I actually… have a question regarding Aris’s Mortems Disease. I hope you won’t mind answering me.”
She looked at him as though asking whether or not it was okay to ask what she wanted. Adam ran a hand through his hair, thought about it, then smiled.
“You have given me hope where before I had nothing. Ask whatever you want. So long as it isn’t something I’m uncomfortable talking about, I will do my best to answer you.”
His words seemed to make her happy. At least, that was the sense he got from her smile.
“I’ve studied a lot about Mortems Disease after finding my grandfather’s device. It is common knowledge that this disease is not only considered incurable by many, but that anyone who contracts this disease dies around six months afterward. The longest a person has ever lived while having Mortems Disease is seven months, according to the medical records I’ve read.” Fayte bit her lower lip, glanced at Aris, and spoke in a soft voice. “And yet, from what you have told me, Aris contracted Mortems Disease around three years ago. I have to ask… how did she survive for so long? Is it because of that medicine you gave her?”
Adam didn’t say anything for the longest time. This was a secret he’d possessed and never shared with anyone, so he was hesitant to tell even this woman, who had given him the light of hope when he was lost in the darkness
“I’m sorry,” she said with a smile. “Maybe that was too personal a question. You can forget I ever asked…”
“The drink I had Aris take isn’t really medi
cine,” Adam finally said with a sigh, interrupting her.
“It… it’s not?” Fayte blinked.
“Well, I suppose you could call it medicine, but it’s not your typical medicine, that’s for sure.”
“Then… what is it?”
In response to her question, Adam went over to the counter where several pieces of medical equipment rested, grabbed a scalpel, and came back. He sat down, lifted his hand, and pressed the scalpel to his palm.
Fayte shrieked as he sliced his hand open from one side of his palm to the other. Blood welled up over the cut. Droplets flowed down his hand and splashed against the tiled floor. Seeing this made the woman go pale. She shot to her feet in a panic.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“Watch,” Adam said calmly.
“How can I watch this?! You’re… you… you… what?”
Adam’s hand had a lot of blood welling up on his palm, but it wasn’t as much as Fayte would have expected it. Using a small napkin, Adam wiped the blood away, further revealing an astonishing sight to Fayte. The woman could not help but gasp in shock as she stared at the cut, which was slowly closing up.
“It… it’s healing!” Fayte realized what this meant and her eyes widened further. “You’re an esper!”
Espers were people who had psychic abilities. In the past, people used to think espers were witches and would burn them at the stake, but in the late 1700s, the United States had created the first ever Esper Corps during the war for independence against Britain. That was when espers became widely acknowledged. Of course, they didn’t gain true acceptance until recently. Now espers were not only a part of society, but powerful families like the Pleonixia Family employed them as bodyguards.
“It normally heals faster than this,” Adam admitted. “I’m slowing the process down so you can see it more clearly.” Fayte did not say anything, nor did she look away from his palm, now completely healed without even a scar to show for what happened. “I have an incredibly powerful healing factor. It’s not even healing so much as a form of high-speed regeneration. Not only am I able to heal from physical wounds like cuts, stabs, and even regenerate missing limbs, but whenever my body contracts a disease, the cells will automatically kill the diseased cells and new ones will be regenerated using my body’s internal energy. It will be as if I never got sick in the first place. I’m immune to all forms of injury and disease. Of course, this includes an immunity to Mortems Disease.”
Fayte was an intelligent woman. Adam knew she had figured out what the “medicine” Aris took was the moment he told her about his regeneration.
“So… that medicine… it’s…”
Adam nodded. “My blood is incredibly potent, so it’s impossible to inject it or give it to her as is. Her body would break down even faster than someone with Mortems Disease. I dilute a single drop of my blood several tens of thousand of times with water and have her drink it. Thanks to that, I have been able to keep her alive for these three years… though I couldn’t cure her. Perhaps if I used a stronger dose, but that would kill her more readily than the disease.”
He studied the woman with sharp eyes that were like a hawk’s. There was no way Fayte couldn’t know about what she could do if she obtained his blood. The first part of the bet she made with Levon could easily be solved if she got even a liter of his blood, diluted it hundreds of thousands of times, and sold it to a large-scale pharmaceutical company. While his blood wasn’t a cure, letting someone with Mortems Disease live for another three years was already a huge achievement.
Never mind earning 10.5 billion dollars. If Fayte sold his diluted blood, she could make several trillion dollars.
He expected her to ask if he’d be willing to part with some blood. If she asked it of him, even though it was technically not part of their agreement, he would do it.
However, contrary to his expectations, Fayte did not ask him to share his blood.
“You really do love Aris so much. She was very lucky to have met you.”
Adam was once again stunned when the woman sent him that wonderful and gentle smile. It was like the thought of using his blood for her own purpose hadn’t even occurred to her. Did she not realize what she could accomplish if she sold his blood on the market? She’d be a trillionaire!
“I think I’m going to head back to bed.” Fayte stood up. “Do you mind if I have your in-game name? I can add you to my friend’s list and call you whenever I need to.”
“My in-game name is Adam,” he said.
Fayte looked like she wasn’t sure what to make of that. “Adam? Just Adam?”
“Yes.” Adam gave Fayte an amused smile. “Is that a problem?”
“Well… no. I guess not.” Fayte blushed. “I just thought you would use a different name, an alias or something… but I guess you did use your real name back then too. A-anyway, have a good night.”
“You too. Sleep well.”
Fayte soon left the room, and Adam spent a few more minutes with Aris before he headed back to his room. He was unable to log onto Age of Gods because the system had restricted his access after forcefully logging him off. He would spend an entire twenty-four hours lounging around like a couch potato. Fayte teased him about it when she saw him in the kitchen early the next morning.
Adam did not expect to find himself lying on the ground when he logged into Age of Gods. He also didn’t expect the floor to be wet. A grimace twisted his face as he felt the wetness from the floor seeping into his pants, making it feel like he’d pissed himself. Damn it. Whoever created this game was seriously twisted! There was no need to make it this realistic!
“Ah! You’re back!” a voice suddenly shouted. “Hey! Hey! Can you get me out of here?! I would really like to go home!”
Adam sat up and looked at the cage. The young man who had been about to become that [necromancer’s] latest experiment was still inside of the cage that was dangling from the ceiling. He was grasping the bars and staring at Adam with a pleading expression.
Adam ignored him for a moment and instead looked at the items he’d acquired from the [necromancer].
Item Name: Staff of Darkness
Item Type: Magic Staff
Grade: High
Use requirements: Can be equipped by a Mage level 10 and above
Description: The Staff of Darkness is an old staff made from a weathered branch of the Life Tree that has been soaked in blood. It is very good for mages who use dark magic and necromancy.
Abilities: MP+200; Intelligence+20; has a 10% chance of casting blindness; has a 1% chance of instantly killing enemy
Innate Skill: Raise Undead - allows user to make a corpse rise from the grave with all of its previous level and skills. Can work on player and non-player characters
Item Name: Cloak of Despair
Item Type: Clothing
Grade: High
Use requirements: can be equipped by a Mage level 10 and above.
Description: A cloak worn by a powerful necromancer. Grants any Mage who wears it a powerful defense against dark magic.
Abilities: Defense+20; Magic Defense+40; 10% resistance to dark magic and the status effects poison, blindness, and silence
Item Name: Rusty Key
Item Type: Key
Grade: None
Use requirements: Anyone can use it.
Description: A rusty key you picked up from the body of the [necromancer].
Abilities: Unlocks cage
Both the [Staff of Darkness] and [Cloak of Despair] were great items, but it was too bad he couldn’t use them. He could at least save them in case Fayte or Susan were of the Mage class.
Adam stored the equipment into his item pouch, which was almost at full capacity now, and only then did he turn to look at the man who was locked in the cage.
The man who was now screaming at him.
“Hey! Are you listening?! Hey! I want to get out of here!”
“Shut up! I can hear you just fine!” Adam snarled at the man who did
n’t know how to keep his fat trap shut. What was with these NPCs? Why were they so realistically annoying?!
“Ah… sorry,” the man stammered. “You weren’t paying attention, so I thought…”
“It doesn’t matter what you thought. Are you Trader Wilkins’ son?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.” The man perked up. “Did my father send you?”
“He did ask me to find you.” Adam walked up to the cage and unlocked it with the [rusty key]. He opened the door and allowed the man to step out. “Do you think you can find your own way out? I’m going to continue exploring this dungeon, and I don’t know what sort of dangerous situations I will run into. There might be monsters even more powerful than that [necromancer].”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about me,” Trader Wilkins’ son said. Now that Adam wasn’t focused on the [necromancer], he could see that the man’s name was Josh Wilkins. His class was listed as “Trader Wilkins’ son,” which Adam thought was a dumb class name. “Anyway, thank you for rescuing me. I will be sure to let my father know about how you saved me from that [necromancer]. He’s sure to give you a great reward.”
Josh Wilkins left, not through either of the two doors, but through a secret passage that had appeared where the old bookshelf was. The bookshelf was still toppled over, and the [necromancer] corpse was still there. Adam wondered how he had missed that secret passage. Could it also take him to the surface?
It probably could, but Adam wasn’t interested in traveling up to the surface just yet.
The first thing Adam did was allocate all of his new status points and ability points into his stats and skills. He maxed out [slash] and [thrust], both of which had a max level of 5. He also upgraded his new skill [Blood Sacrifice] to level 2.
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