Monsters and legends, p.81
Monsters and Legends, page 81
part #1 of Infinite Realm Series
He felt himself falling, going through the tiny opening leading somewhere deep within himself. It was agonizing, even more so than the pain.
After an eternity, the pain ended, and Ryun found himself before a familiar wall. It was a wall that had always been there, always keeping a part of himself at bay. But now it felt weak, it was filled with cracks, and holes, falling apart. Beyond it, he could hear a roar, a pounding—the other part of him wanted out and the wall was crumbling. Ryun was afraid of what was behind it, but it could no longer hold the memories at bay.
He reached out and struck it, shattering the wall. Another part of himself roared in pain and suffering. He saw a monster standing before him, a black wolf with a mask on its head. Ryun felt memories surge from the monster and into him.
And then he remembered.
CHAPTER 100 – PAST – Ryun
All of His Pain
Ryun woke up screaming, the boiling water being poured down onto his back making him recoil and jump to the side. He tripped on the body in the corner and hit the wall of his cell. Laughter came from above him, and he glared at his jailers. They emptied their buckets and then walked away, getting out of his line of sight.
They were keeping him in a hole, something that looked like an old well. It was deep, but he could climb it—he had climbed it up, only to get clobbered on the head by a hammer. He hadn’t expected anyone up there the first time. After, they had brought Miss Reva to the pit and cut her throat, telling him that for every time he tried to escape they would kill one of his people. He hadn’t tried escaping again.
He spoke with Melody, using their unique perks to speak mind to mind. She was being held somewhere else, along with other women and Cultivators. She was too strong for them to keep imprisoned forever, but like with Ryun, they kept her a prisoner with their threats. Any attempt to leave would see their people, and Ryun, dead.
He had been in the hole for…he didn’t know for how long. Several days at least. And they’d been torturing him daily: never letting him sleep for long, throwing stones down on him, pouring boiling water on him. He was healing faster than an ordinary human would, but his skin was still covered in blisters.
He woke up the night after their attack to find himself in the hole, and his jailers standing high above asking him questions. They wanted to know where he and Mel kept their treasures, the loot that they’d gained from finishing the event. Ryun hadn’t been as cooperative as he could’ve been. That’s when they had brought Jonas to the pit, and cut his teacher's throat before throwing him in. They told him that for every time he refused to tell them the truth, they would kill another of his people.
So he couldn’t escape, and he couldn’t lie.
He told them everything then, it was not like Ryun and Mel had much. Once they found everything, they still didn’t believe him. That’s when the torture started. He hadn’t been able to talk with Mel in days. His mind was in a state of half sleep all the time. And when he managed to reach out to her he would quickly find himself exhausted.
Now, he looked around his cell, seeing the bodies of Jonas and Reva still down here with him, pushed against a corner, rotting. There was a bucket in one corner filled with waste that they dropped a rope down for once every few days. At least they were feeding him daily.
He knew why they were keeping him separated from the others: he was their insurance that Mel wouldn’t try anything and that they couldn’t cooperate and organize an escape. If she tried to escape, they would kill him first, and then start with the others of their people.
But they didn’t know about their perks.
Ryun glared at the edge of his hole, wishing for someone to come close to the edge and topple inside so that he could smash their head in. But quickly his body’s tiredness caught up with him again, and he slipped into sleep without getting a chance to try and talk with Melody.
The cycle continued. His rest was interrupted every time that he fell asleep, so long that he had lost track of time. His entire world was boiling water and pain, the two bodies in the corner mocking him for his failure, whispering horrible things to him. He was going mad, and at the same time he couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate on anything. He had never realized how much a body relied on sleep. Even with his greater stats and his ability to stay awake for longer, he still needed it, and it was being denied to him.
Finally, he found himself waking up one day without the boiling water being poured down on him—instead, it was as cold as ice. The intense cold made him shiver, but quickly he realized that he felt rested. He could hear a murmur in the background, but he tried to focus and tune it out. Finally, he had had a good night’s sleep. He looked around warily, trying very hard not to look at the bodies.
And then someone spoke.
“Rise and shine!” a voice said from up above him. Ryun raised his head and saw a bald man standing there looking down on him. “I hope that you had a good rest—you are going to need it!”
Ryun immediately felt his heartbeat quicken as his mind tried to imagine what new horror they were going to throw at him.
“You see, the boss man has decided that letting you use our pit for free isn’t going to fly no more. So! Since you are a Cultivator, from now on you will contribute like the rest of your people. We will expect you to draw in Essence and create crystals daily. And don’t even think about keeping some for yourself! We know how much Cultivators can produce per day, and you will be giving us the full amount. If we even suspect that you’ve been skimming and trying to gather enough to buy some weapon or something from the shop, we will kill another of your people! Understood?”
Ryun didn’t respond, but he was thinking furiously. The man didn’t mention the Essence that Ryun already had gathered; but then, only Melody knew about that, and he doubted that she would betray him, if they even knew to ask. Most people used their Essence as soon as they got it. And they mentioned that they knew how much Cultivators could produce per day. That hadn’t been true for him for a long time. His cycling had improved the rate at which he could draw in, and he had pushed himself further. He could take in much more than any other Cultivator, but they didn’t know that either.
“Well, I guess you are not in a talking mood, but I will be expecting the first delivery of crystals from you by tonight,” the baldy said and then moved out of sight.
Ryun immediately started thinking about what he could do to get an edge, to find a way to escape. He had Essence that he could use; perhaps there was something useful to be found from the Dealmaker that they wouldn’t be able to see from up high.
A voice interrupted his thoughts. “Ryun? Are you awake?” For the first time in a long while, he heard Melody’s voice clearly.
“Mel!” he said as he felt her reaching for him.
A wave of emotion followed his words. “Oh, thank god! I’ve been trying to get through you for days!”
Ryun didn’t remember that, but he hadn’t been fully aware for a while as far as he could tell. “Yes, they let me rest. They want me to make Essence Crystals for them.”
“That’s what they have been having the other Cultivators do for weeks now. I feared about what they had been doing to you when I couldn’t reach you. They assured me that you were safe, but I couldn’t reveal that we can talk with our minds. And at times when you managed to talk to me…you didn’t sound so good.”
He blinked. He didn’t remember talking with her. He hadn’t known how much time had passed, but…then the previous days flashed through his mind and he started to shake, his stomach churned and he heaved without being able to throw anything up. He remembered his skin boiling, then peeling away as it healed itself. The rocks breaking his bones, the confused state that he had been in. It had been weeks, but his mind was trying to protect him.
He glanced at the two bodies in the corner, still sitting there and rotting. He was covered in filth and dried blood. He started hyperventilating, his mind going blank. But then he heard a voice yelling in his head, and he snapped back.
“…okay?”
“I…I’m fine,” Ryun managed to send to her as he tried to get himself under control. He couldn’t think about the past again, not now.
“Ryun… How are you? Really?”
Ryun looked down at himself, seeing the blistered skin, the bones mended poorly. He looked thinner, and he realized that even though they let him rest, he was far weaker now compared to how he used to be before. “I’m not good.”
“I feared that was the case. We are planning an escape, I hoped that you could join in, but… I’ll have to come and rescue you.”
Ryun smiled—he didn’t have a problem with that. But he did want to contribute. “I’ll try to speak with the Dealmaker. Perhaps I can find something to help me escape.”
“Don’t take any unnecessary risk. These people are all too willing to kill. As long as we are useful to them, they will keep us alive.”
“Mel, did they torture you, too?” Ryun asked as he tightened his fists.
“I… They keep me with the women… They put me in charge so that I could keep the others in control.”
That was not an answer. Ryun felt her emotions for a split second, coming and going in a blink of an eye. He felt fear, shame, and anger. He wanted to ask her more, but he felt himself tired from the effort of speaking with his mind, and he knew that this was not the time.
“I’ll let you know if I come up with something,” Ryun finally told her, and she let him know that they had planned their escape for the next week, when the guards cleaned their quarters again, which they did once per week.
Ryun felt himself falling asleep, and waking up what seemed to be immediately after. He felt sore all over, and he saw a bucket laying next to him filled with food. He had slept for longer than he’d thought. He tried very hard not to look at the bodies of his friends as he ate, and then he put his hands together, placing Essence in his path and then pushing it out. He used only a small amount, what he thought an ordinary Cultivator could’ve possibly gathered in a short time. And with that, he glanced up. He could hear chatter up there from his jailers, but he couldn’t make up much. They did seem to be having fun.
He needed to act, to find a way out.
Ryun turned inward and entered the world of the Dealmaker. One moment he was in the hole, and the next he was sitting in front of the Dealmaker. The being looked the same as always, shrouded in a large robe with a hood drawn up that was filled with darkness. Ryun opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted.
“Before you even ask, I do not directly interfere in mortal matters,” the Dealmaker said.
Ryun’s fists tightened and he felt his nails bite into his palms. He had planned on asking the Dealmaker to help, but he knew better. This being wasn’t a benevolent god—it was an overseer and nothing more. The Framework had brought so much pain and suffering, so much death, and the Dealmaker didn’t seem to care.
But Ryun knew better than to antagonize the Dealmaker, so he kept his thoughts to himself.
“I’d like to make a deal,” Ryun said.
“Of course,” the Dealmaker said. “What do you seek and what do you offer?”
Ryun knew that he needed one thing if he was going to help Mel in their escape. He needed power and health. “I need something that can heal my body, make me as fit as I was before I was imprisoned,” Ryun said. “I have Essence saved up.”
He had been saving in order to cycle. His next advancement required 900,000 Essence, and he had managed to gather almost 150,000. He was hesitant on spending it all, but he knew that it would be better for him to spend it and be free than to save it and die.
The Dealmaker shook his head. “You do not have enough Essence for what you are asking. I could sell you a health potion, but even one of those costs at least one hundred thousand Essence. And a health potion would not help you now—your body needs to be restored, not just healed.”
Ryun blinked. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. He had hoped that he would be able to find something, but he should’ve known better. His body was ruined, and it seemed like wounds already healed couldn’t be healed again, even though they had healed wrong.
“But there is something that can restore me?” Ryun asked.
“A Restoration Potion, yes, but it costs more than you can pay.”
Ryun grimaced. This was his only chance of helping with the escape. “And what about a deal?”
“Perhaps… I could give you the potion, in return for your unique perk,” the Dealmaker said.
Ryun blinked. He hadn’t expected that. He knew that the perk was powerful, but… “Is it really worth that much?”
The Dealmaker didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he let the silence stretch until it was uncomfortable. Finally, he answered. “The creature that gave it to you was never intended to be here. It tricked the Framework, tricked me and came here to escape its end. But this was not a place meant for it, and it and its partner could not survive. And yet…they had found a way to keep a part of themselves alive. Their power was not meant for this Framework. The system managed to constrain that power, but it is not stable. You are better off without it.”
Ryun was taken aback by that; he had already suspected that something was different about it. “Why didn’t you remove it once we got them?”
“It was already a part of you then, and I do not interfere with mortal affairs. It didn’t belong, but by becoming a part of you it managed to fit into the Framework. Removing it with your consent is another matter entirely.”
Ryun was tempted, but still, the perk was a powerful addition to his power set. He didn’t want to part with it, not even for this.
“I’m sorry, but no thank you. I don’t want to have it removed,” Ryun said. “Isn’t there anything else? Something that I can do for you, in the future maybe?”
“You speak as if you are going to survive for long enough to pay me back,” the Dealmaker said.
Ryun frowned. He was thinking that they were going to get out, yes, but he could see from where the Dealmaker was coming from. “You gambled with me once before,” Ryun pointed out.
“Yes…and you have managed to do much in your time within the Framework… Perhaps another gamble isn’t out of the question.”
“I don’t have the Essence now, but I might be able to pay it back in the future?” Ryun asked.
“I don’t usually make such deals with mortals, mostly because few even attempt to ask such things of me. They would rather buy things through my shops than come here in person. You have returned to see me, and that alone is more than what most ever do.” The Dealmaker nodded. “Very well. Another gamble. I shall give you the restoration potion, and in return twenty percent of all the Essence you gain in the next two years will be going to me. And…you will make sure that all Monster Spawning Portals on this planet are closed by the time it comes to an end. If you do not, then even if you become strong enough to be among this world’s Rankers, you will die along with it.”
Ryun kept his eyes fixed on the darkness of the Dealmaker’s cowl. What he was asking was impossible—he would never be able to achieve something like that. He would need an army just to search for them, and to be able to close them all down. He didn’t know exactly how many there were, but when he and Zach spoke with the government, they had estimated hundreds of thousands if not more.
But that was still better than losing his perk, at least in his eyes. Perhaps he would be able to do it. Ryun nodded his head and spoke. “I agree.”
A moment later a vial filled with pink liquid appeared in front of him on the table. Ryun reached out and took it in his hand, reading the screen that popped up.
Elixir of Greater Restoration
Drinking this elixir will restore the user's body to its optimal condition: refilling a Cultivator’s core, regenerating stamina, regrow missing body parts, curing any illness, and purging any poisons. The restorative effects are instant.
Ryun closed his eyes in relief. With the potion, he wouldn’t be useless.
He turned his eyes back to the Dealmaker. Mel and he had lost against these opponents once before—he needed to be stronger. He knew that he couldn’t advance his path; he didn’t have enough Essence, but there was another way. A way that would give him power quickly.
“I’d like something else as well,” Ryun said.
“If you can pay or make a separate deal for it,” the Dealmaker told him.
Ryun nodded. He didn’t want to make another deal, considering the one he’d already made was going to be hard enough to accomplish. “I want to purchase a Class,” Ryun said.
The Dealmaker waved his hand and orbs came out of the darkness behind him. A countless number of them just floating in the nothingness. “What kind of a Class do you want?”
Ryun remembered his first conversation with the Dealmaker. He had been offered three paths that had been incredibly costly, and he had won one of them. He knew that he would get only a short description of the Class, and not what it could do. He would need to have the Dealmaker narrow down the choices for him.
“A rare Class,” Ryun said, and orbs started disappearing and rearranging themselves. There were still too many there for him to look through them all. He thought about what he wanted; firstly, he didn’t want a Class that cost too much. He planned on leveling up with what he had left, and he wanted to benefit from the stats as soon as possible. He knew that this wasn’t what he wanted to do, that he didn’t want to follow the path of classes, but his Cultivation was too expensive to help him now. Ryun needed something that would let him get stronger quickly, something that would be immediately useful, and perhaps something that could benefit his Cultivation in the long run.
