Carefully, Foster took some steps forward with Georg’s head in his hands, trying to stare through the darkness to find out if there was anything around him. But in the end, all that Foster could see were the few veins of some sort of weird rock or metal that was glowing in a light blue color.

They all seemed to be focusing on a particular tunnel ahead of him, though. The area behind Foster was entirely illuminated by the underwater pond, which had an intense glow coming from its floor. Foster really wasn’t sure what created that glow, but it was quite beautiful. He would have stayed here for a while to take pictures and listen to some music if he could have, but for that, his batteries were too precious...

That, and his life might possibly be in danger, that of course also played a significant role in getting Foster to keep moving forward instead. “You understood everything, right kid?” The head of Georg asked, and Foster just slowly mumbled in response, “Yeah, yeah, I got it... I really just need to follow that tunnel there, and that should bring me to the Lich?”

“Yes, and what do you do once you find the lich?”

“Hide you in my backpack so that it doesn’t eat you?”

“Good.” Georg replied, and Foster just quietly started walking forward and stepped into the tunnel. It really was just brightly illuminated by all those glowing veins. Further in, Foster had to hold his hand in front of his eyes for a little while because it just blinded him.

But once they reached the other side of the tunnel, Foster saw something rather unexpected. The room itself was still just a cave, and the same veins were running across the walls as the only real source of light. And in front of those veins stood many bookshelves nearly entirely covered by old, dusty, leatherbound books.

They may be in a rather bad condition for the most part, but Foster was still impressed by such a vast collection, even if he didn’t like the fact that a lot of books were just stacked up on the ground. You basically couldn’t walk in a straight line here without running into some books.

Right on the other side of the room, Foster could see something else, which he immediately figured to be the Lich. It was sitting on a throne of rock, staring down onto a book that it held open with its bony hand, as its head rested on its other hand.

Immediately, Foster pulled his backpack in front of his body and pushed Georg’s head inside of it, and then slowly stepped forward. “H-Hello? I think you called me here?” Foster asked, just like Georg told him to, and slowly the Lich raised its head and closed the book it was reading.

Slowly, the Lich raised its head up a bit, causing audible cracking of its bones, as it slowly ripped parts of its dried up skin apart, making parts of its skin snap as it opened his mouth. It placed the book down onto the throne’s armrest and then placed both of its arms onto either rest, starting to slowly tap the leather-cover of the book it was reading.

“Yes, it seems you truly are the one I was hoping for.” The Lich said, “Although I found your reaction out there rather rude, you see?” It pointed out, and Foster just stared back at it with a wry smile, “Really? Sorry, I was a little annoyed after that monster of yours dragged an unconscious me down here.”

“Hmm... Point to you, young man. But now, let us begin. The trial that your friend must have told you about.” The Lich said as it slowly dragged its body off the stone throne, “Or is that not one of the undead I created in that bag?”

With his eyes ripped open, Foster looked at the Lich confusedly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

“Oho, there is no need to try and fool me, young man. But nevertheless, it is not of importance. The trial is to start now.” The Lich pointed out, “You have passed the first half already, which is to not be in possession of a class. Now, if you pass the second half, you will be allowed to inherit my resolve.”

“Inherit... your resolve?” Foster asked confusedly, and immediately, he could hear something from his backpack, “Wait, did he really just say resolve? That you can inherit his resolve?” Georg asked, “Take me out immediately!” He screamed out, and Foster swiftly obliged, pulling his skull back out of his backpack.

And without having to wait for too long for something to happen, Georg started yelling out his thoughts, “You’re doing all this to pass your class on to someone?! Is this a joke?!” He screamed out, and slowly, the Lich simply nodded his head.

“Yes. Is this not the norm anymore? Giving trials to the young ones? In my era, that is how we handled such manners.” The Lich explained slowly, scratching its chin as it did so, but in the end, simply shook its head.

“This does not matter. I have slumbered in this prison for long, and my life can not be extended much longer, even if I were to feast upon that skeletal head. Let us begin, young man.” The Lich explained, and slowly took a step forward. That single step in itself made the ground quiver as cracks formed underneath the Lich’s foot.

“He stood up? For us, he just stayed seated!” Georg exclaimed, “You have to be careful!”

With a slight chuckle, the Lich just stared back at Georg with its glowing red eyes, “Of course, as you failed the first half, the second was simply a trial to see if you were worthy of leaving with your life intact. I think what I told you was to steal the ring from my finger, correct?” The Lich asked, “This was just symbolic, of course. If you had even been able to touch that ring, I would have let you leave this forest above. But as you failed, instead, you were supposed to become fuel for me to feast on and extend my life to wait for new arrivals.”

“The fuck is with that..?” Georg asked with an angry tone in his voice that sounded like he really wanted to mess this Lich up, so Foster chose to take over that task.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pass whatever trial this guy has, and I’ll bring you out of here!” Foster exclaimed, and just set Georg’s head down on a spot on one of the shelves, so the Lich just started to laugh loudly, “Magnificent! Then go on, try and pass this trial! It is a simple one as well, really.” The figure of this undead creature pointed out, “Survive this one attack of mine.”

The moment that the Lich said this, it pushed its palm forward quicker than Foster could even follow. And just a moment later, as the air was audibly cracking and folding onto itself, Foster felt something hit his chest. But instead of the severe pain that he expected just now, Foster just felt a slight touch. As if someone lightly placed their hand on his chest.

Exactly when Foster thought that it wasn’t really that bad, a surging pain started spreading throughout his body. A kind that Foster wasn’t sure he ever felt before. It was as if something was slowly heating up inside of him but at the same time. It was just like something froze him and turned his whole body lethargic as if his entire body was just shutting down all at once.

And before he knew it, Foster was on the ground, flailing all his limbs around as he tried to rip at his chest to stop the feeling of something twisting and stabbing inside of him.

“Hm. Disappointing. After all, another failure, I see.” The Lich said, and slowly returned back to its throne, but soon stopped moving when Foster violently punched the ground with all the strength he could muster.

He could feel his hand going numb in some places afterward, but that didn’t matter right now. It slightly distracted him from the rest of the pain he was feeling. So, Foster hit the ground again. And again. And again. All until his hand was basically just a mass of ripped-up-flesh.

With the little bit of thinking that Foster could still do right now, he tried to fight off the urges that he was feeling right now to bury his fingers in his own chest and just rip his heart out, and started turning on his phone.

For maybe half an hour after that, Foster just kept screaming and kicking at everything around him mindlessly. He tried to get rid of that mass amount of energy in his body that was ripping him apart as bloody tears covered his face.

And soon, Foster could remember what he wanted to do again and started pressing the button on his headphones for a while until a light ringing sounded out, and then tried to speak.

“Si... re-... re-lax... tunes...” He tried to mutter out, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t form a whole sentence. But luckily, there was someone that had already heard a weird spell like that right here.

“Siren! Play the ‘Relax Tunes’ playlist!” Georg exclaimed, and just slightly, Foster moved his eyes toward Georg’s head lying on the bookshelf and tried to form his lips into a smile as music started playing through his headphones that Foster could focus on.

He usually listened to this kind of music when he had a lot on his mind and had to get to sleep quickly, or he used to listen to it while studying or generally trying to just tune everything else around him out. And at the same time, Foster slowly started twisting the dial at the side of his headphones to actually shut out all sound around him, even if it took him a few minutes to do so, and then pressed his eyes shut as tightly as he could manage.

Foster’s body was being taken over by horrid pain that he never felt before. With every passing second, he thought he was about to die, although each and every one of those seconds felt like an hour to him.

With the help of his music, Foster could at least try his best to dissociate from what was happening with his body, as if he was just watching someone else going through this. That made it at least a little less painful for him.

Foster started utterly losing track of time after that. He wasn’t sure if it took hours, days, weeks, or just a few seconds. He just knew that at some point, the music stopped playing, and all he was left with was a deafening silence as the light from the glowing veins was still bright enough to mess with his eyes.

But then, even that light disappeared, and everything went black.