Dante's Immortality: Beginnings

by Antonio Terzini

  His eyebrow quirked up. “Oh?”

  Kayla held up one hand in mock surrender, while the other was still behind her back. “Don’t misunderstand. It’s something that we both want, but only you can do.” She pulled her other hand from behind her back. “This is a wraith key, it’s exceedingly rare and expensive. Created by artificers as a one-time use item to remove wraith collars.”

  The orb was bright blue, similar to the color world essence, but was etched with layers of runes.

  His eyes lit up, now taking Kayla far more seriously.

  Seeing her desired reaction, Kayla’s smile broadened. “Since we are such great friends, I would give it to you for free if it were anything else. But to get this wraith key I had to steal it from Jack Daynard, then I had to sneak in here.” She gestured to the room around them. “Which was far more challenging than you think.”

  “What do you want?” He wasn’t in much of a position to bargain, but wanted to be free of the wraith collar by any means possible.

  Kayla’s smile hardened. “What I want is for every member of House Calman to be tortured slowly in front of me.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “But I’ll settle for their deaths instead.”

  Dante snorted. “I’m not sure if I can help you with that, I couldn’t even touch one of their knights.” He pointed to his wraith collar.

  Kayla rolled her eyes. “Obviously, I didn’t mean now. I’m taking a bet on your potential.” She pointed at his combatant’s glove.

  His eyes narrowed, that answered one question.

  She saw his glare and held her hands out in surrender. “I’m sorry I drugged you.”

  Dante’s eye twitched, he had been mentally beating himself for getting drunk at the party, but Kayla had drugged him… and now he was supposed to make a deal with her?

  Kayla cleared her throat. “I won’t ask you to sign a mana contract, I just want a promise. Promise me that you will wipe out House Calman when you have the strength, and I’ll set you free.” She held the key up.

  Dante hesitated, trying to think of how he was being tricked. It was possible that this was an elaborate setup by the Calmans to test him, but what else could they do to him after they enslaved him? Maybe hurt him with the collar, but there would be plenty of that in his future.

  Kayla’s expression hardened. “They deserve to die. Think about what they did to Mia, they did the same thing to my family.”

  Hearing Mia’s name sent a spike of raw emotions through him, but as soon as he felt them, the feelings quickly diffused until they were gone.

  She was right though, the Calmans deserved to die. “If you set me free, I’ll kill the Calmans… when I’m stronger.”

  Kayla’s smile came back. “That’s great! I’ll leave this key with you then.” She tossed the orb to him, and he inspected it. He was ready to use it, but she cut him off. “Don’t use it yet. Your emotions are going to be a bit… strong after being bottled up for a few days.”

  Kayla walked to the door. “I’ll leave you to yourself. Two specialized Warriors are watching the other end of the tunnel, so be careful.” Without another word, Kayla disappeared from his sight, replaced by a shadow that walked through the door and closed it by activating the enchantment.

  I should have asked her how to use this key.

  Dante stared at the orb, then after contemplating it, he pressed it against his wraith collar.

  * * *

  Kayla Stavins

  Kayla lazily walked through the tunnel, bypassing the two guards with her Stealth skill.

  That went better than I thought it would.

  Her months of effort had finally paid off, and all it had taken was two hidden shots with a bow. It was hard not to take the chance while Mia’s restraint was activated. She was easy pickings for an arrow led by mana manipulation.

  She did feel bad about killing Mia, but it was worth it.

  Just the thought of Dante tearing apart the Calmans because of her brought a smile to her face.

  She may not have the power to crush House Calman herself, but they would still fall by her hand.

  Chapter 39

  Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 39

  As soon as the key touched his wraith collar, all of the emotions that had been repressed slammed back into him. Kayla had warned him it would happen, but nothing could have prepared him for the raw emotions that seemed to penetrate his soul.

  First came the sadness. It smashed into his chest like a sledgehammer, forcing him to take massive gulping breaths. Uncontrollable tears welled up in his eyes, almost instantly spilling to the floor with a constant patter.

  He fell to his knees, bracing himself against the floor with his hands as he wept.

  Then came the regret. It was painful, stabbing directly through his self-worth. The feeling of doing everything wrong, of being incompetent, of hurting the first person he cared about. The feeling of killing Mia.

  After that came the loneliness. Being alone had never bothered him, but he didn’t know what it was like to have someone care about him, to care about someone else. Losing that felt like a part of himself that he didn’t know he had was suddenly ripped away from him.

  He collapsed to the floor, unable or unwilling to hold himself up any longer.

  Then came the disgust. Disgust in himself. Disgust in his actions. Disgust in the way he allowed others to walk all over him. Disgust in the way he allowed Mia to be killed.

  His jaw clenched, and his fist tightened.

  And finally came the anger. Anger at himself. Anger for not being better. Anger for being used by everyone. Anger for his Naivety.

  His anger changed. Refocusing itself on others, blaming them for killing Mia. The archers, Sir Andres, the Calmans. His blood boiled, filling him with the uncontrollable desire to kill…

  This feeling… is wrong…

  His desire to spill blood became overwhelming, seizing control of his other emotions, consuming them and fueling itself. No longer did he just want to kill, he desired to conquer. To prove that he was supreme and indomitable.

  What is this…

  He could feel himself losing control. Even his anger was beginning to be consumed by the bloodlust. He felt… pride. Unwilling to surrender to anyone, and satisfaction at the thought of losing himself to the perverse bloodlust.

  It felt… foreign.

  Without hesitating, he began to purge it from his body. Forcing it back, then expelling it from his other emotions.

  As the bloodlust was expelled, the raw emotions came back in full force. Completely wreaking havoc on his mentality, but at the same time he was gaining back control. He lost the pride, the will to do battle, and the desire to kill. Replacing it was weakness, but it was his weakness, not something that was being forced upon him.

  Dante could see the bloodlust being channeled out, secreting from every pore on his body, and coalescing around him. It was a barely visible red mist, but he could feel the baleful aura coming from within it.

  It swirled around him for a moment, then drifted towards his combatant’s glove and was absorbed by it.

  His mind felt so… clear. He was still overwhelmed by his emotions, but his anger no longer burned hot. It was far colder, and more calculating.

  It took him a full hour to regain focus after that. His emotions were still ravaging him, but as more time passed, those feelings slowly dulled.

  He let out a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

  I will never go through that again.

  He needed to change. He had been naïve to allow others to manipulate him, he had thought that there would be mutual gain, but that was flawed logic. He had been far too trusting. Allowing others to completely take advantage of him… like Kayla. She had drugged him but now expected him to fully comply with her wishes.

  That was something that he needed to think over carefully. On one hand, he didn’t trust Kayla at all. On the other… she had helped him remove the wraith collar.

  Dante
glanced down at the wraith key. The once a blue orb was now completely black, as if it had just absorbed the wraith collar from his body and integrated it into itself.

  He looked toward his glove. It had always just seemed like an item to be used, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It had invaded his mind, twisting his thoughts, controlled him.

  How many of my decisions did the glove influence?

  He thought back to all of his actions that were done through anger. Killing the guards after Mia died for one, then with Bridget in the arena, it was possible that it even impacted his fight with the wolves.

  Did it help me kill Greggory too?

  Killing Greggory felt good, but there was no bloodlust, no anger.

  But was it even anger that fueled the bloodlust?

  His anger always seemed to trigger it, but it didn’t make sense that his anger would be consumed like his other emotions if it was the cause of the bloodlust.

  Was it truly my anger, or something else entirely…?

  Even more importantly was the question of whether or not the glove was safe to wear. Losing his mind to bloodlust was an excellent way of getting himself killed.

  But could he really afford not to use a magical artifact? He still was unsure of its uses, but it was an invaluable item… For the time being, it would be best to find a replacement glove until he could control it.

  Dante took a deep breath, calming himself. He could reconsider his glove later. Before that, he needed to escape the academy.

  He opened the Classification tab in his Status.

  World Essence waiting to be assigned: 7,296

  Chronomancer lvl 3/10 (0/300 world essence)

  Blademancer lvl 4/10 (0/400 world essence)

  Blader lvl 5/10 (0/500 world essence)

  Revenant lvl 5/10 (0/500 world essence)

  Recent World Essence gain:

  3,322 World Essence for killing: Warrior x 23

  3,235 World Essence for killing: Ranger x 7

  246 World Essence for killing: Mage x 2

  148 World Essence for killing: Pyromancer

  128 World Essence gained for killing: Hedge Wizard

  125 World Essence gained for killing: Gladiator

  The amount of world essence was completely staggering… and unexpected.

  The four Rangers and two Warriors that had carried Mia must have been specialized. Otherwise, the numbers didn’t add up. He was unsure if he killed the last Warrior, but knew he killed the other five.

  The other Rangers and Warriors he had killed were likely the regular guards that he attacked before Sir Andres captured him.

  The rest of them were far more interesting though. Bridget and the other magic Classification noble both gave him world essence for each Classification. The new revelation made killing nobles far more rewarding…

  It was something that he didn’t notice when he killed Greggory and only got a measly 49 world essence from his Warrior Classification, likely because the Hunter Classification was a non-combat Classification.

  He wasted no time leveling his Chronomancer Classification, his Blink skill would be the difference between life and death when escaping the academy; so the increased Intelligence, Wisdom, and Blink range would all be beneficial.

  Chronomancer has reached level 10

  Attributes have been added:

  +7 Intelligence

  +7 Wisdom

  Skill description for Blink has been updated

  He reexamined his Classifications tab, eager to try and specialize his Classification now that it had reached its max level.

  World Essence waiting to be assigned: 3,096

  Chronomancer lvl 10/10 (0/10,000 world essence)

  Blademancer lvl 4/10 (0/400 world essence)

  Blader lvl 5/10 (0/500 world essence)

  Revenant lvl 5/10 (0/500 world essence)

  It was hard to hold back his groan, but he managed. 10,000 world essence to specialize seemed… excessive. It made sense though, if it were just 1,000 like he predicted, there would be far more specialized combatants.

  He was tempted to hold off on assigning the remaining world essence and save it to specialize his Chronomancer Classification, but the world essence wouldn’t do him any good if he were dead.

  Blademancer has reached level 7

  Attributes have been added:

  +3 Dexterity

  +3 Wisdom

  Skill description for Create Blade has been updated

  Blader has reached level 7

  Attributes have been added:

  +2 Dexterity

  +2 Agility

  Skill description for Blade Dancer has been updated

  Revenant has reached level 6

  Attributes have been added:

  +1 Strength

  +1 Constitution

  Skill description for Rebirth of the Revenant has been updated

  Finally done, he checked his Classifications tab one more time.

  World Essence waiting to be assigned: 96

  Chronomancer lvl 10/10 (0/10,000 world essence)

  Blademancer lvl 7/10 (0/700 world essence)

  Blader lvl 7/10 (0/700 world essence)

  Revenant lvl 6/10 (0/600 world essence)

  All in all, not bad. He needed to make specializing Chronomancer a priority in the future. Dante pulled up his skills tab, checking to see Blinks new range.

  Blink: Manipulate the power of space to teleport yourself or an object a short distance away.

  Cost: 30 Mana

  Range: up to 15 Feet

  Create Blade: Create permanent bladed weapon of choice with an average quality.

  Cost: up to 55 Mana

  Blade Dancer (Passive):

  Increase Dexterity by 13%

  Increase Agility by 13%

  Increase ability with bladed weapons +3

  Rebirth of the Revenant (Passive): Heal up to 13% of max HP every time you kill.

  15 feet wasn’t a massive jump from the original 10, but it should still make a large difference. Dante opened his Attribute tab to check his Mana regeneration rate.

  Name: Dante

  HP: 160/160

  Mana: 240/240 (+2.9/sec)

  Strength: 16

  Constitution: 16

  Dexterity: 25 (+3.25)

  Agility: 16 (+2.08)

  Intelligence: 24

  Wisdom: 29

  Charisma: 9

  So, his limit at the moment was one Blink in a little over ten seconds, not bad at all. His Strength had finally caught up to his Constitution, which he was happy with. It was also nice to see that Instructor Misa’s lessons had paid off, the Charisma boost was sorely needed.

  Dante stood and walked to the stone door. After four days of captivity, he was finally ready to make his escape.

  * * *

  Sam Everard

  Sam tapped his foot on the floor, more than irritated at Varik’s orders. He and his men had been forced to stay hidden since they arrived at the academy. Now a war was taking place, and they didn’t even know why.

  There was a knock at the door, and one of his men opened it.

  “Sir Sam, I have brought news.”

  Sam turned toward Varik’s agent. “New orders?” He was more than ready to finally leave the confines of the small manor they were staying at within the academy.

  The agent shook his head. “No, my lord, I have just come to report that Dante is still safe within Housing District 1, and has been unaffected by any fighting thus far.”

  Sam didn’t hide his groan. Since they had arrived at the academy, the agents seemed to have left them in the dark. “Very well, keep me updated if anything changes.”

  Chapter 40

  Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 40

  Dante fed world essence into the enchanted door. Thankfully, no hidden mechanism or enchantment needed to be activated first. They clearly didn’t think that it was possible for him to remove the wraith collar.

  The enchanted door slid open, and he wa
lked out into the dark tunnel, closing it behind him. They only checked in on him once per day, which should be more than enough time to escape so long as he didn’t grab their attention. Which left him with one significant problem.

  Kayla had said that two specialized guards were watching the end of the tunnel. Even if he could kill both of them, and he had serious doubts in his ability to do so, it would only alert the guards that would replace them at the end of their watch.

  Dante began to walk slowly down the dark tunnel. He had plenty of experience when it came to sneaking past others, but despite his effort, every footstep seemed to send a small echo through the narrow passageway.

  He took a deep breath. It was likely that his future depended on whether or not he was successful in sneaking past the guards, and his nerves were still on edge from the lingering emotions.

  The tunnel itself was far longer than he thought it would be. He walked for almost twenty minutes before he saw a flickering light and heard voices. He had to stop himself from breathing out in relief, talkative and relaxed guards were far better than alert guards.

  Dante moved forward warily, waiting for the guards to start speaking before taking a step, using their voices to cover over the sound of his footsteps.

  The first voice Dante heard was gruff, but to his joy, it sounded bored. “What’s Marisa going to do now that the inns burnt down?”

  There was a sigh. “Who knows? We may need to transfer back to the Outer region. There have already been too many casualties since the fighting broke out. Even if the inn were rebuilt, the academy would still be a ghost town.”

  There was a grunt of agreement. “Trent and a few of the others are thinking of going to Kenguard and forming a dungeon party. With our ability, we can each have a small territory and title within the year.”

  “As if the Calmans will let us go under contract.” The voice was filled with doubt.

  The gruff voice became much quieter. “Trent got approval, we just need to keep a steady shipment of combatants coming in.”