Chapter 7 - The Void Essence

He sat there looking at the gargoyle for another few seconds, wallowing in the euphoria of victory, before turning on his status screen. The increasingly familiar green-teal 2x2 foot box appeared moments later.

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Name: Trey Bon

HP 200/200

MP 100/100

SP 100/100

DP 1/1

Race: Human

Guild: None

Class: None

Level 4

Status Alerts:

Remaining Skill Points: 3 Remaining Stat Points: 15 Current Permanence cycle: ON Current Bound Point: Drahst Pillar You have earned enough XP to Level up by 3 levels! Be sure to assign your stat and skill points.

(Click spoiler for the rest of Trey's status page)

Buffs:

+3% resistance to all damage (Resilience) +10% resistance to all damage (Dreadlord Vorshok’s Bane)

Debuffs:

None

Stat Amplifications:

0 Strength

0 Vitality

0 Endurance

0 Dexterity

0 Speed

1 Intelligence

0 Wisdom

0 Faith

0 Luck

0 Willpower

Magics

None

Miracles

None

Physical Combat

Polearms - Level 1

Hand to Hand Combat - Level 1

Miscellaneous

Sneak - Level 2

Identification - Level 1

Traits:

Vatosis Inferna - *TRAIT IS LOCKED AND UNAVAILABLE.*

Earthborn - You are earthborn and experience ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ permanence cycles. You also gain a 20% increase to any type of XP acquired when compared to your fellow NPCs, and your mana regeneration rate is increased by 30%.

Languages Learned - Ancient Demon

Resilience - +100 HP, +3% resistance to all damage. Mental fortitude increased.

Dreadlord Voshok’s Bane (Heroic) - +10% resistance to all damage. Autoregenerate 1% HP per minute when out of combat. Autoregenerate lost body parts over time.

Physical Attributes:

None

Magical Attributes:

None

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trey was elated, and rather happy, with the new improvements. Smirking to himself, he brought his hand up to his chin and pondered a moment.

“Let’s go see what else is in that room before I decide where to put these points…” muttered Trey as he turned and walked back to the hallway. Roughly pushing his hair about as he scratched the back of his head, he stepped back through the hole in the rotted door. Then he dusted himself off and looked around.

The room was lit with a skull lantern similar to the one he’d seen at the front of the hall leading here. It was hanging from the center of the large domed ceiling and its faint light illuminated an ancient underground church. Skeletons of human men lined the benches and walls, still wearing strange gothic-styled robes and armor that bore a circular stylized symbol Trey did not recognize. Some of these skeletons were even hung from the ceilings by their necks, with large iron collars around their necks.

The wardrobe that’d propped up the spear he’d used to kill the gargoyle was shut. At the back of the room stood a large iron door a little wider than Trey’s arm span, and it definitely looked like it’d seen better days considering all the rust around the hinges. A nearby pulpit, adorned with jewels and runes, was placed a couple feet in front of the door.

Trey’s eyes focused on the skeleton propped against the pulpit. It stood out from the other skeletons in a big way due to the fancy clothes it wore, specifically wearing embellished red and gold attire with jewels set into the padded shoulders, and in the hands of the dead man was an ancient book.

“Alright! You’ve got my attention.”

Trey walked over to the skeleton holding the book, paused, and bent down to take it. Upon prying the book out of the skeleton’s hands, Trey dusted off the old tome and flipped through it. The book was very thick and contained many markings that Trey had no clue how to decipher, and all looking at the old text did was give him a serious case of the sneezes due to the dust flying straight into his face.

Whatever language this was, it wasn’t English or Ancient Demon. Trey frowned and irreverently tossed the book onto one of the nearby benches, sending another cloud of dust into the air before settling again. Then he continued to rummage through the room.

“Ugh… There has to be something useful here…”

There were a lot of weapons and numerous pieces of armor, but almost all of it was rusted and looked very old. The stale cloth around many of the men was so fragile that it broke upon touching it if Trey wasn’t careful. Eventually, after failing to find much of anything he’d consider valuable to him, Trey came back to the wardrobe.

The wardrobe was about as tall as Trey was, but many times wider. It stood against a wall and looked like something his great, great grandmother would have used to keep her old dresses in. With minimal effort he was able to open it by the metal handles, making a loud creaking sound as the door swung open to reveal a strange combination of items.

Another large book, colored in black and grey with padlocks across its opening, lay upon a large wooden chest. Next, a dark-tan canvas cloak that was still in good condition had been thrown into the bottom left corner of the wardrobe. Then there was a glass orb sitting on the cloak, it was the size of a bowling ball with a small golden statue of an angel inside it. Lastly, a thick longsword with rubies decorating the base of the blade and hilt leaned into the wood in the back right corner.

Trey looked around the room at the remnants of the dead before clearing his throat and moving the glass orb to the floor beside him, while picking up the cloak. Looking back at one of the skeletons, he eyed a pair of boots and then another’s pants and tunic. They may have been old and worn, but they looked wearable. They were also some of the few articles of clothing that hadn’t absolutely crumbled into dust or broken after being handled during his search for valuables, so they were prime game here in this old crypt.

Within the next twenty minutes - after having pulled them off the dead - he succeeded in putting on the clothes. The brown, dusty tunic fit well… but the stiff baggy pants and thick steel-toe boots were much too big. The pants he tucked into the boots and he tried to tighten the pants around his waist by folding them over twice at the edge, and he was happy to see that it worked. Lacing the boots as best as he could with scraps of ragged cloth he scavenged from about the room, he only mildly succeeded in fitting the shoewear properly. Nevertheless, it was better than going barefoot. After putting on the canvas cloak and adjusting the clothes one last time, he turned about and reached for the sword.

Ruby Longsword of the Crusader

Item Tier: ???

Damage: ???

On Hit Effect: ???

Bonuses: ???

Requirements: 60 Strength, 8 Dexterity, Holy Attribute

Durability: 387/2297

Special: ???

Trey tried lifting the sword and nearly broke his back in the process.

“Ooooh boy!”

It was incredibly heavy. Seconds later he’d managed to drag it out of the wardrobe, but he began to feel a stinging sensation that got more and more painful as he held on. Then a notification box appeared.

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“You do not meet the requirements to wield this weapon. You will receive stacking pain and damage the longer you try to use this weapon.”

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The stinging sensation became even more painful as he held on, and he then saw his HP bar tick down by 1. He let it slide out of his hands with a scowl across his face in frustration. The sword made a loud thud as it kicked up dust and dirt from the stone floor, causing Trey to cough and wave his hand about in an effort to disperse the dirty air.

“Ridiculous!” Trey snorted. Even if he spent all 15 stat points on strength he still wouldn’t have enough to wield the sword, and not only that, but he would need 8 dexterity and the ‘Holy Attribute’ as well. Whoever these people were - they had been able to wield these weapons and obviously had the stats to use them. They must have been some tough sons of bitches! He grimaced and turned back yet again to take a look at the book. The large book was mostly a deep grey color, but had black trimming around its edges with various artistic designs strewn across the spine. It was about the size of Trey’s old chemistry books from back in college and the exterior was in perfect condition. A symbol that looked very much like a sun being eclipsed by a dark sphere decorated the front of the book. Beneath the symbol Trey was able to read, in the language of Ancient Demon, “Noc’Tul Grimoire.” Trey wasn’t sure what or who “Noc’Tul” was, but the word “Grimoire” caught his attention.

“This should be good.” Smiling for finally having some good fortune, Trey picked up the book and tried to open it. Unfortunately, the padlocks attached to the book kept it shut tight. Upon further inspection of the book, Trey was pretty sure that the padlocks had been placed there sometime after the book was made and didn’t even seem to be an original feature!

Noc’Tul Grimoire

Item Tier: ???

Bonuses: ???

Requirements: None

Durability: ???

Special: ???

“No requirements? Seems legit. Now open damn you!” Trey had a fit of frustrated laughter while trying to open the padlocks. He was unable to do so regardless of how hard he pulled at them. He calmed after a while and then hopelessly sighed, resting his head against the cover. He was mentally exhausted. “Guess I’ll just hold on to this for now.”

There was a decently sized pocket on either inside-flap of his cloak, and Trey dropped the large book into one of them. Looking up at the glass orb with the angel figurine inside of it, he picked it up and concentrated hard on the item.

Orb of divinity

Item Tier: ???

Requirements: Holy Attribute, Celestial Attribute

Durability: 500/500

Special: ???

Trey tossed it aside and the orb slowly rolled away after bouncing once on the stone floor. Picking himself up off the ground, he put his hands on the lid of the chest inside the wardrobe and heaved. There was a loud cracking sound as the lid broke from its rusted hinges. Trey flung the lid behind him and looked down into the chest. Paper scrolls were stacked neatly in rows. There must have been well over a hundred of them, maybe even two hundred. Upon unravelling a couple of them, Trey was unable to make out what they said. Then Trey used his identification skill, just like he had with the other couple items over the last few minutes.

Spell Scroll: ???

Item Tier: ???

Requirements: ??? Intelligence, Holy Attribute

Durability: 10/10

Special: ???

Any other scrolls Trey inspected were exactly the same. He looked back at the lid and then again to the scrolls. The scrolls had only 10 durability, and it looked like they hadn’t lost any durability points in the ages that seemed to have passed here. This place was a tomb... but these papers were in pristine condition. It was very likely that the chest had somehow preserved them.

“I should probably put the lid back on just in case I come back. ‘Spell Scroll’ is definitely a name that indicates some kind of worth, especially if I ever get this ‘Holy Attribute’ that I keep seeing. Whatever that is.”

Trey placed the scrolls back in the chest. He picked the heavy lid up and carefully placed it on the top, fitting it snuggly as best he could. He made a mental note to remember that these were here in case he decided to return. Trey would definitely be exploring the surrounding area now that the damnable gargoyle was dead.

He arched his back, stretched and yawned loudly before kicking up dust and headed over to the large and heavy-looking iron door behind the pulpit. Reaching out, he yanked at the handle. The door responded with a grating sound, but barely moved. It was quite heavy and the many years of neglect had rusted the door even more than he’d imagined, causing it to almost fuse to the wall.

“God damn it!” Trey yelled with another heave and a grunt. He put one foot against the wall and yanked again with all of his might.

The door creaked and grated while he continued to heave. Then it slowly began to shed layers of grime, dust, and rust as it moved. Without warning the door gave way and Trey stumbled back with the momentum. He fell flat on his ass and the door slid to a stop at halfway open. He was a little bruised but smiled anyways, patted off the dust, and looked up triumphantly.

In front of him and through the door was an entrance into… darkness. Well, mostly darkness. There were actually flickers of light that he couldn’t really make out, but he’d find out what they were soon enough. Trey also had a nagging feeling that he should hurry inside.. A feeling he couldn’t quite place, but one that felt right. So he didn’t hesitate to get up and walk in, as foolhardy as that may have been.

He quickly found out where the flickers of light were coming from, though even looking at them now he didn’t know what they really were. Floating yellow and white balls of energy slowly moved about the gigantic room before him - only minimally illuminating his surroundings due to the room’s size. The room was vast, hundreds of yards across and just about as tall as it was round. Skeletons of soldiers from another age littered the ground within, still wearing their armor and gripping their weapons in death’s embrace just as they had in the previous room. On the far end of the cave, straight across from the door where Trey stood peering in, was yet another iron door… a replica of the one he’d just entered through. Then on Trey’s left stood another more sinister altar about twenty yards away, much different and far larger than the one in the previous room.

This new altar was larger than his bedroom back home and was a deep black that absorbed the light from above with no reflections. Crude, sinister runes with blood-red light glowed about the base of the altar and dripped thick liquid onto the floor beneath. The markings gave off a very sinister vibe to them, and the liquid that was dripping to the ground below would dissolve upon contact with a slight hissing noise each time.

The steps leading up to the top of this altar called out to him as he stared. Three figurines of male angels, each easily thrice the size of Trey, hovered high in the air forming a semicircle above the altar as they looked down onto its main platform. The angel figurines were beautifully crafted, and all three of them carried swords larger than Trey was.

Glancing over the ominous altar he thought he also saw an odd shimmer when examining the highest, furthest point. Trey didn’t have a good view from where he stood, but he was excited to find out what this place was... so he carefully began walking further into the cave.

He looked around more than once, making sure there wasn’t going to be a repeat of what had happened over the past couple of days with the gargoyle. His senses weren’t catching anything that seemed to be a threat... and soon he stood at the altar’s base.

He examined the black stairway. Carefully he reached out with his foot and took his first step onto the stairs in front of him. His heartbeat picked up, but otherwise nothing happened. There were no ominous sounds, no large demonoid hands coming out of the dark to grab him… just peace and serenity.

Trey sighed loudly in relief. He’d been holding his breath in anticipation, half expecting something to strangle him from behind. He let out a soft chuckle and put his hands on his hips briefly before casually striding up to the top. Upon reaching the top he took another quick look at the floating figurines of angels. They were pretty intimidating, wings outstretched with weapons held in different threatening positions. They all were staring downward, to the end of the altar, where a floating ethereal mass of shimmering-black morphed in and out of sight about a center point in the air. Below this black shimmering cloud, the altar formed a small ornamental pillar... as if to hold up the floating mass.

Walking forward curiously to inspect the floating, shimmering cloud at a better vantage point, Trey cocked his head to one side and stood about a foot away. Looking down he let out a “humph” and took another look at the pillar. It had amazing artwork carved into the metal. He wasn’t sure what it was made out of, but it definitely wasn’t anything that could be found on Earth. Perhaps this really was a game after all - a painfully real and fucked up game at that, if it was.

The pillar was quite strange though… Just like the totem outside that served as Trey’s respawn point, many faces of what looked to be humans and demons decorated it. They wore a myriad of expressions, and Trey laughed when he found one of the uglier ones sticking out its tongue near the bottom. Things had seemed a lot funnier ever since killing his most recent oppressor. It relaxed him quite a bit and he was glad to be done with it. Right now, he couldn’t care less that he was in some fantasy world exploring the landscape, or that he had died multiple times over, or that he hadn’t eaten anything except leftover carcass in days. Hell, the adrenaline he’d had pumping through his body even temporarily took his mind off his shitty existence back home. He was just happy to be free of that bastard monster.

Speaking of having not eaten anything… Trey perked up at the thought of eating real food. He wondered when he would find some. His stomach growled loudly at the triggering thought and he cursed his surroundings for not having anything immediately available. There definitely wasn’t anything to eat here... so he’d have to just bear it. He stood up again and watched the thin film of dark matter before him swirl about. It didn’t... seem... dangerous. But then again... it was the centerpiece of everything in this room.

He shrugged and quietly held up his right hand, inching forward until it touched the black mass. Why the fuck not? He didn’t have much to lose. He knew he was being reckless, but given his current situation he was left in a state of being borderline crazed. That, and he didn’t really have much to live for anyways… Even if he didn’t come back to life, would that really bother him? At least he wouldn’t be stuck wallowing in his own self-misery for hours every day over the woman he loved… the woman who’d tossed him away like rotten garbage after stealing his heart.

Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, but then the shimmering black mass began to weave about him. It glided up his arm, over his shoulder and gently wrapped about his body until he was completely covered. The black mist was very warm, and Trey immediately relaxed as he looked up and down at himself. He wasn’t sure what exactly was happening, but was pretty certain it wasn’t anything that would harm him. Not that he knew for sure, but that was definitely his gut feeling. He eventually tried to focus on the cloud enveloping him, figuring it couldn’t hurt to try, and an item screen appeared.

Void Essence:

Item Tier: ???

Requirements: Essence must accept you as a worthy vessel to use.

Durability: Indestructible

Special: One time use. Void Essence will bestow innate infernal powers

upon the chosen vessel. Those with already chosen magical attributes differing

from the affinities bound to this essence may try to bind themselves but will have

their attributes re-written if they are accepted by the essence. Void Essence is

an evolutionary catalyst.

How he was able to mostly-identify this essence and not the other items of likely lower quality was a mystery to him. That was, of course, assuming it was a high tier item based on how it was the centerpiece of this room. Trey’s eyebrows raised and he turned in a circle, then he slowly walked about the top platform of the altar with his arms spread out. With every movement he made, the essence followed. It clung to his skin.

Curiously, he tested with a couple of different fast-paced movements. He waved his arms about, jumped up and down, and even rolled around, but the essence stuck to him like glue. Trey tapped his foot a couple of times, thinking, and then sat down to pull out the grimoire. Again he tried to open the locks with brute force and utterly failed. The padlocks were thick and rigid, with little to no rust accumulation. Irritated and huffing he gave up after a couple of minutes, sprawling with arms and legs stretched far out in different directions atop the altar. He stared up at the ceiling and watched as tiny lights above and about him floated pleasantly around the cavern. He smiled. This wasn’t so bad! It was good to finally have some time to relax. He closed his eyes and comfortably crossed his hands behind his head to give himself a cushion. An hour later, he had fallen asleep on the top of the altar with the black mist still encircling his person, entering a dreamless sleep more comfortable than any nap he’d ever taken prior to it.