Matthew groaned as he began to recollect the events of the previous night. A friend of a friend invited him to an outing and he went along. It was a pretty standard get together, but an extremely attractive man accompanied by similarly beautiful men and women invited him back to an “after-party” of sorts.

From there, things went… far different than he expected. As in, vaguely ritualistic, masked orgy, different.

“What was I thinking?” He gingerly rubbed his head before a sharp realization brought him clarity.

‘What do you know about the Hell Stone?’ A question echoed his mind as snippets of coercion rose to the forefront of his mind.

He suddenly felt a searing pain on the back of his neck and touched the spot only to discover blood. When he moved to check the mirror, he discovered a fiery seal carved onto the base of his neck.

“What the fuck?!” he cursed, only then did he see the reflection of a man sitting in a chair behind him.

“You! What did you do?!” Matthew growled at the man he only knew as ‘Damien.’

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… So hostile,” Damien spoke, mocking recoiling back as if hurt. “Are you telling me you didn’t enjoy last night? You seemed quite accepting during our little gathering.”

“Did you fucking drug me?!”

“I did no such thing, Matthew. You were eager, thusly, no such things were necessary. Well, I admit that I did have to put your mind into a lull in order to get the information I needed, but other than that, those desires were very much your own. Normally, I would have either wiped your memories or killed you, but you had so much frustration and resentment that you were qualified to be a servant of Hades.”

“A what…” Matthew narrowed his eyes piercingly.

“Why so aggressive? You’re going to be more powerful than you have ever been and if you perform well, you’ll only get stronger.” Damien rose to his feet. “You wouldn’t realize it on your own, but you held quite a lot of negative feelings toward this ‘Casper Clay.’ While it wasn’t irreconcilable hatred, it was just enough to allow our ritual to enhance those violent subconscious thoughts and brand you as one of our own. Ah, you know I looked him up? That Casper Clay, I mean. Quite an interesting person with his relation to death and all. That being so, I communed with some very powerful beings from below and you know what I discovered? He’s very hated and killing him would earn you an enormous reward. While it wouldn’t do much for me, the other servants are extremely interested in the power that comes with pleasing the interested parties. I only gave them vague details, but he’s very popular so, while you have the advantage, if they find him before you, well, count yourself unlucky.”

“I’m not your fucking puppet!” Matthew threw a punch at Damien as soon as he stepped within an arm's distance, but a paralytic rigidity overtook him while the brand on his neck felt as if it were set alight.

With a pained cry, he was forced to fall to his knees. Any control he felt he had was wrenched away as the cost of defiance was ingrained into his mind. A scalding warning touched his nerves and forced him to abandon any thoughts of fighting Damien.

“Believe or not, you still have some free will in all of this. Whether you go after him or not is up to you, for example. The brand, however, is permanent and the longer you go without demonstrating your worth, the more you’ll feel your thoughts stray and that free will becomes a little less. It happens gradually…” Damien whispered with a wicked smile, opting to go into more detail.

“You won’t even notice as it happens. The ones like you, who put up a resistance, they never notice the increasing aggression, irrational thoughts, and undeniable urges, incredibly dark urges. Ones that tell you to do things you could hardly dream of. By the time you realize you’ve become a puppet, you’ll be standing over the mutilated corpse of some poor bastard carrying out a ritual for some lesser demon,” Damien finished, moving to leave the hotel room right after. “See you soon, Matthew.”

Damien’s arrogant laughter rang in Matthew’s ears even after the devilish man was gone.

‘Alexandra is going to kill me,’ Matthew panicked, on the verge of a breakdown.

Just speaking about the Hell Gate wasn’t a crucial secret, but he diverged the structure of his guild as well as the strength of his fellow guildmates, worst of all, he mentioned the various illegal assassinations they performed as part of a deal with the Emerian Government.

The severity of his actions would earn him nothing short of a covert and carefully planned death if he were a part of one of the top 5 guilds. While illegal, betraying the guild with important secrets was enough that even the leaders would break the law and arrange to kill the supposed traitor as discreetly as possible. That being said, if Alexandra discovered that Matthew leaked the details of their work as, more or less, hired killers, she would kill him.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Matthew pulled at his hair as his mind raced.

He contemplated running or outright confessing, but in the end, there was a better solution. If he could get stronger, then he wouldn’t have to worry.

“R-Right, after all, it’s no secret that class-seven’s are above the law in some regard. Even being a class-six would grant me protection,” he convinced himself.

All the while, the seal on his neck began to glow even brighter as he became more convinced that gaining strength was the answer. And, as Damien said, there was one obvious way to do so. Casper Clay.

…

The final day of the training exercise approached. With the first one being a complete waste due to Oliver’s demonstration, the following runs were taking far more seriously.

What Casper learned is that the top individuals of Alexandra’s guilds all fought hand to hand. There were guilds who recruited on a gift-specific basis, whether it be the ability to heal or wield enchanted swords, those sorts of guilds were often small, but always sought after whether it be from freelancers or established guilds. In this case, there was a noticeable lack of healing potential where the Iron Wyvern guild members were concerned.

Casper could assist in that area, but only so-so. Anything other than a flesh wound was beyond his grasp, hell, he even wondered if putting too much of his blood into someone would poison them. The miasma was infused into him, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that there was potentially a small amount that could be transferred into someone should he try to heal them.

Thankfully, it wasn’t Casper’s forte nor was inclined to take up the practice. It was on Alexandra to secure healing and with the artifacts, she purchased from him, it wasn’t a necessity. In addition, they would be going in with enough regeneration potions to save a few lives should it come down to it.

“Going low!” Someone shouted, to which Casper nodded.

“Got it,” Casper replied, leaping into the air as a man rushed toward a golem’s leg.

He let out a powerful shout as he sent a weighty punch toward the golem’s legs, the impact left web-like cracks traveling upward and diverted the stone creature’s attention.

Casper arrived in front of the golem’s head, thrusting his blood spear forward without hesitation. The fight ended just like that, but off in the distance, a group was struggling. Andreas and Alexandra held back in observation, while the small group of four contested the golem’s advance.

Casper drew the Spectral Bow and knocked an arrow before firing three consecutive shots toward the golem. While the ghostly projectiles dissipated upon impact, they carried immense force, knocking the golem off its balance. The opening was seized and a series of strikes battered away at the stone, the monster toppled backward, crashing into the ground. It wasn’t yet dead, but its attackers moved quickly to pry out its core, securing a nice payment in the process.

“That’s it?” The young man who Casper paired up with to fight the golem’s asked.

Vincent was his name and he was a pretty jovial person. He was rather fresh-faced, only a year or two younger than Casper who was going on twenty-four. Apparently, Vincent dropped out of college to join the Iron Wyvern Guild.

‘Easy to get along with’ was Casper’s general appraisal of him. He was a class-4 gifted and his gifted allowed him to drastically increase the impact of his punches. It took some concentration, but the result allowed him to produce an impact that could carry up to several tons of force if he was given enough time. The weakness lay in the fact he had to really focus or else his strikes would be weakened.

“I guess so,” Casper replied, removing his mask.

His mostly grey hair and pale skin tone was something the men and women of the guild grew accustomed too. A few even joked he was a ghost after seeing him enter an ethereal state. Well, the only one who managed to notice him was Alexandra and strangely enough, Andreas. To be clear, Andreas couldn’t actually see Casper, but rather, felt he was near, even if it was a vague notion, it was more than enough to pull Casper out of his form. The weakness with the Breathless Form was that discovery pulled him back to a physical state which he was often unprepared for.

“Hey, Ghosty, wanna split it? You helped after all?” Kaylen approached.

She wore her hair short and had a tattoo sleeve as well as one on her neck. Her eyes were bright and full of attentiveness which made sense given how much Alexandra relied on her. Most notable were the two small earrings she wore, which seemed to be artifacts of some kind.

She was a class-5 gifted who literally threw explosive punches but the drawback was she couldn’t throw them out endlessly or else she’d injure herself. The way she put it when explaining to Casper was that she could throw around 10 strikes before needing to ‘recharge’ in her own words. It often took anywhere from half a minute to ten minutes depending on how controlled she was.

“No, I’m fine,” Casper replied, ignoring the nickname the Iron Wyvern members tried to make stick.

“You sure?” Wilson double checked, but it was more of a formality, the man was already looking to pocket the core and the fewer people that had to split, the more it meant for him.

While Casper didn’t know much about him, he seemed to be romantically involved with Kaylen. It made sense as his neatly trimmed beard and a very expensive haircut made it seem as if he could’ve been a model in the time before gifted appeared. He even stood shoulder to shoulder with Casper, a bit taller even, and that was saying something considering Casper had grown during his first bone restructuring. Though with Andreas present, everyone was dwarfed in size and stature.

Wilson was another class-4 who could honestly pass a class-5. His gift was simple, he could gain a large burst of strength and protection for a set period of time. While it was cut and dry, Casper saw it as something great seeing as the man could create openings and tie-down opponents. To demonstrate his ability, he allowed a golem to stomp him in front of everyone. Rather than get crushed, he caught the foot intending to squash him and managed to lift it for a few seconds.

He caught the eye of Andreas, but the difference between them was that the older man’s gift seemed to be more complex or at least, more potent given that he could deal with a golem with a few swings of his ax. Even then, he seemed to be restraining himself.

“I hope all of you are ready. The real thing is tomorrow and there is zero room for mistakes. If we encounter a ruin anomaly then we really can’t afford a single accident. I don’t want to needlessly worry anyone, but it has been known for a while that this ruin has the potential to reach class-six if that happens. I want you to be prepared for anything, double-check your equipment and get some rest.”

Alexandra dismissed the group and they made their exit, stepping out of the ruin without appearing to be shaken.

Casper recalled the plan going forward, he made sure to remember it clearly.

The Hell Gate had two different areas that needed to be destroyed, the task would be divided between two teams of five, led by Alexandra and Andreas respectively. To reach the aforementioned areas, there were dozens of creatures that had to be dealt with. The Magma Guardians were the most problematic if approached carelessly due to their size and regeneration. However, what followed were Gargoyles, Hell Knights, and Lesser Demons, all of which had some semblance of intelligence which made them bigger threats.

The latter two were the supposed titles of the creatures. Hell Knights were apparently fiery skeletons who, while not very difficult to face alone, often moved in large numbers. There were only two lesser demons and they guarded the areas needed to get the Hell Stone. After that, well…

It was hard to say. Even the strongest guilds suffered losses in some cases, but worst of all, the effects of taking the Hell Stone varied greatly. Some accounts mentioned an entire army, full of thousands appearing, and others said a single demon appeared, killing almost everyone without much effort. The fact that most people avoided the ruin in favor of ones with greater profit with less risk, there wasn’t enough data to pin down the probability of a certain result occurring.

In some ways, the Hell Gate was a glorified dice roll.