A white circle edged by mist floating slowly outwards, formed on the skin above my heart. Fire roared out of the hole. A small red bird exited the hole and without me having to say anything, its talons grabbed me and it slowly flew away from the spot.

A few seconds after a large squid landed on the spot, releasing a loud squishy noise. Its head twisted round, and the eight black eyes lining its head stared at me. I knew what was next. Three tentacles shot out towards me.

Before I had the chance to scream, I felt myself drop a bit. The bird shifted courses just enough to dodge the tentacles. It had never looked back, keeping its sharp eyes pointed forward.

A strange sensation swept over me which made me reflect over my scenario. I was a head with strange skin, two spikes hanging off wires, and only one eye, which hung downwards desperately pointing at the squid, carried by a small burning red that’s flight was jagged and erratic, dodging the occasional purple tentacles which shot through the air.

I couldn’t believe it. But why? I deserved this, I was destined for this. I knew it all along. A part of me that would never be silent. This was my path to greatness, and at that moment the realization struck all over me.

The tentacle hit the bird. The flames on the spot it had been hit dimmed, and I saw a bit of ooze drip spread to other spots. The bird dropped down quickly, and my eyes jumped up a bit higher, shaking my vision.

Maybe that’s why we got hit again. The tentacle came from above, slamming us down into the ground, but there was no use anymore. It was only me, and I laid down on the ground with my head spinning.

Goodbye sweet world. I knew it all along. I wasn’t destined for anything larger. I was just a mere imp, and I’d die now. Thinking anything else was simply silliness. A well of emotions flooded over me.

Ever since my childhood, I’ve never cried. But, I couldn’t stop my eyes from watering up, and tears from running down my cheeks. I was happy nobody else was here to see this. I’m so pathetic, a voice in my head said.

The tentacle never came. At one point I was almost urging it to come. My life was completely frozen, awaiting that last breath, but the breaths just continued to come. Eventually two windows popped up which shocked me, and made me jerk my eyes up to look.

_____

Quest completed.

Reward: 5000 experience.

_____

_____

Quest completed.

Reward: 6000 experience.

_____

I don’t know how I’d missed it, but the place screamed of every different type of noise. A huge fight broke out between many different types of creatures. I stared in amazement. Of course. How had I not thought of this?

The sounds, the smells, the sights, everything about the fight attracted more predators. Currently a large bird wrestled with the father squid. The bird must be really stupid to opt for such a strategy. The mother squid laid dead, a large panther biting into it, and staring fiercely at the two large toads wanting to get a piece.

Many more windows popped up, all of them detailing my leveling up, but one of them was red unlike the many blue ones. My sight jerked to it, and my will to survive which had been slowly whittled away during the fight, sprung back.

_____

Urgent Quest

Blood lust aimed at you has been detected. Escape or kill its source.

Failure will lead to death.

Success will lead to 10 000 XP.

_____

10 000 xp. That was the largest number yet, and it definitely meant trouble. The father squid was only six thousand experience and this was almost double that. This was a real danger, and I didn’t know where it was. Before I had a chance to look upwards, a voice pierced through the havoc.

“H-hhh-e-llhhoo,” it said slowly with a voice screaming deciet. It had a dark tone and a slow way of speaking, and my sight immediately jerked to the source to find whatever it was. I found two slitted eyes about two meters away, and a black small “Y” shaped tongue exiting and entering its mouth.

I floated up into the air. “Sss-o it can f-hh-lly”

Its eyes didn’t leave me for a moment. The slitted pupils followed me at precisely the same speed. I knew this creature had no good intentions for me but I was afraid to make any sudden movements. Maybe doing so would trigger it to attack.

Instead I floated backwards slowly, and somehow, I knew it had noticed that movement. It stood completely still so it wasn’t its body movement. I guess there was something about its eyes that told me it knew, yet it stood completely still.

“There’s a lot of food to the side,” I said, without looking at the location I spoke of. The other creatures I’d attacked, but doing so with this one would result in death for me. I was certain of it. The difference between us was huge.

“Sss-o it is, but I’m intere-ssted in you,” it slowly crawled forward. We both knew where this was coming. I slowly floated up towards the sky, to get more distance from the ground. It would strike, and I’d fly to the sky where it couldn’t reach me.

“Why?” I said, and it rang truer than it should have.

It smiled. I’ve never seen a snake smile before, and I never want to see that again. Its jaw opened up as wide as possible, where only two teeth showed, and they were both longer then my entire head. “Becau-sss-e you look ta-sss-ty.”

It lunged.

My body reacted on its own, flying upwards, but I remembered to bring my eyes up alongside my head. The snake’s mouth shut right in front of the eyes, as I pulled them up and away. I floated up higher, and I was about to take a sigh of relief when I saw the snake slithering into the air towards me.

It could fly.

The feeling of anxiety, fear, and shock splashed around inside my body. My eyes looked away, fidgeted, widened at the same moment. The snake slithered closer, about one meter away. I pushed on my psychic energy harder to increase the speed. The snake chased me like that across many different trees, and only after about a whole minute of mental screaming did I relax.

It seemed like the snake was slithering at its quickest pace. I was certainly floating away as quickly as I could. My consciousness began to blur. I needed a plan before everything went to shit.

In three seconds at least fifty different strands of thoughts had been worked through and discarded. Intuitively of course. The plan was simple. I’d drop down to the ground with the help of gravity, surprising the snake with my speed, and then when I passed through leaves, I’d activate the physic powers again and jerk away.

I let the snake get closer to the point where it could bite, and as I floated forward, my eye had turned a full 180 degrees to keep a sharp eye on the snake. The second it began to stretch its mouth, I’d drop down to the ground.

My consciousness began to bend, and I knew I was approaching the danger zone. If I kept pushing I’d pass out and in a scenario like this it almost certainly meant me getting killed. I slowed down even further.

The snake took the bait. its jaw opened wide, and with a spring in, it jerked forward, shutting down its mouth but finding nothing but air. I can imagine it’s confusion in that moment, I’d already crashed through the leaves.

I’d hoped to catch myself before I hit the ground but that failed. My head bounced against the ground. It had been bouncing quite a lot lately, I hope my brain wasn’t getting impacted by such collisions.

The world spun around in front of me. I wondered if this was what creatures saw when the devil made their head explode, or was it more like a silent death with no forewarning. Just one second they are there, and the next their brain matter is splattered in many small pieces over a large distance.

I didn’t have time to waste. My head rose up into the air as I used my psychic powers to swerve slightly up. A plant’s brown stem almost collided with me, instead I slammed through a bush which is a much more favorable fate.

I hadn’t thought of a few things. In my mind, I fell down, sped away behind a bush, and that was that simple. But there wasn’t a bush big enough to safely hide me, and I also didn’t want to stay in this location.

Two gigantic monsters were slugging it out almost five meters away to the right of me, and a simple misstep would crush me. I heard the slithering behind me, above the leaves and to my left there was simply a large boulder, so I had to go forward.

I pushed myself. It was the last chance I had, and I found a cave opening there. I entered the cave, hoping desperately that it was empty, and it seemed so.

I almost started laughing but I didn’t want to make any noise in case the snake was on my trail. My vision bended. My head screamed and ached, and I stopped using my physic then and there .

I tried summoning the magic firebird as defense, but it didn’t come. I wondered if I'd only had one life and I’d already used that up. That wouldn’t be fun at all for me. A whole skill wasted like that.

As I looked around the cave I realized that it was rather unstable. Cracks covered the walls and the ceiling and a slight push would be more than enough to make the entire thing come vaulting down.

But that wasn’t a problem, because the few hours would be silent. Nothing but silence. I hope so. I guess it really is a silly hope. Nothing in this world goes as planned. In a few moments I’ll realize that the cave wasn’t empty, or that the snake found me, or both.

None of those cases ran true. Instead an even worse scenario presented itself. Jeffrey, the goddamn chimp, came strolling through the entrance, and stared at me in complete and utter rage, when he saw me.

“I’m killing you,” he said. He didn’t put any energy into it, and he walked towards me so casually I could have thought he was joking. But a window popped up, that told me otherwise. I swallowed.

_____

Urgent Quest

Blood lust aimed at you has been detected. Escape or kill its source.

Failure will lead to death.

In case of killing, success will lead to 50 000 XP.

In case of escaping, success will lead to 8 000 XP.

_____

50 000 experience. That was an insane number. No wonder my psychic powers had no effect on Jeffrey. He was a real beast. I had to escape, but I knew for a fact that I couldn’t run through him.

I could use my psychic powers for about one minute before passing out but I’d get crushed in an extended fight. Fighting him at all was a loss for me. I had an idea though. If I used my psychic powers at once, really pushed myself, directly at the ceiling, I think I might make the cave fall down. It won’t be enough to kill Jeffrey or me due to my high toughness but it would give me an escape.

It was my only hope. “Jeffrey,” I said. “I said I’d kill you and I meant it. Just not today.”

I wasted the rest of my physic power on the ceiling. Blood poured out of my eyeball, and out of the one which had exploded. I even spat out some blood. I felt my consciousness fall into blackness, but I kept myself to see the ceiling fall down.

Jeffrey snicked, and turned around. “I’m not getting dirty today.”

The ceiling fell down when he exited the roof. I heard the rocks rumbling loudly next to me, and around me, one even landing on me. The sudden mayhem was all I saw as the world light slowly disappeared from sight, and I was left in darkness.

I passed out.

***

“You made the cave collapse on yourself. You’re 90% brain yet somehow you manage to be stupid,” the primal devil sat behind a table sipping on a cup of wine. I was quite sure that a glass was used for wine but I wouldn’t correct him.

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“You could kill him.”

“Can I really?”

“You’re barely scratching the surface with what you can use your telekinesis for. If it were a sword you’d be using the blunt side. Actually. I don’t have anything better to do here. The wine’s garbage and the entertainment is dull,” as he said it the table and the cup of wine disappeared. Was he talking about the table as entertainment?

I nodded approvingly without understanding or getting or agreeing with what he said. If the primal devil said it then it must be true. The next thing I knew we were standing on a field of small green blades sticking out of the dirt, with the dot of pain in the sky. It didn’t hurt this time.

“Look at this tree,” he pointed at the plant standing tall, the tree. “I want you to cut it in half with your psychic ability.”

A stone materialized and he sat down on it. It creeped me out a bit how much control he had. We were quite literally inside of me. I should also be able to control something. Matter of fact let me try.

I strained my hands, trying to make a succubus appear, but nothing came out of it. Maybe one day.

“Go on, then try to cut the tree in half.”

I used the psychic ability, but unlike before, there was absolutely no strain on my head. I tried going full force just to see how it would be like having an unlimited supply, but it stopped after a while. There wasn’t a strain, but a limit to the amount of psychic energy I could output. I pushed it up against the tree, but nothing happened.

“What should I do?”

“Keep pushing it up against the tree until something happens.”

That’s what I did. I brought the psychic energy back to my body before shooting it back into the tree. I’d make the tree shake, and drop a few leaves, but nothing more than that. I knew I was doing something wrong. I felt it both from the primal devil’s stare, but also his gut.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“How strong were you at your peak?”

“At my peak… That was some time ago. Maybe I could kill a god or two, nothing special. I have a question for you too. From one to ten, how strong are you?”

One, the void in my head said. Truthfully, I wasn’t anywhere near as strong as I wanted to be. I needed to get stronger. One day I’d stand side to side with the devil himself. Then everyone would know my name, and people would scoff when they heard I started off as an imp. Imagine that. Just the thought alone fills my head with satisfaction.

“One,” I sighed, and promptly after, I heard the tree make a noise. It was a loud, deep noise, and then I saw it topple over, and heard many branches break. I’d cut through it as I said the word.

“That’s what I mean.”

“How did I do that?”

“I can’t tell you because then you’d simply know and that’s not enough. You need to be enlightened and you are the only person who can achieve that.”

“I didn’t take you for such a smartass.”

I bit my tongue as I said the last word. I immediately regretted it. If I could take it back I would, but words didn’t work that way. Once something was impossible to take back. And if that thing was an insult to one of the most powerful creatures to ever have lived, it isn’t a very smart thing to do.

His head leaned back and I fully expected it to come down spraying fire, but instead he broke into laughter. Sweet, care-free laughter, and I joined in after a while, happy to still have an intact head. The first devil would have killed my entire ancestry line for that.

I wanted to continue the conversation, but I also didn’t want to risk saying something stupid so I focused on training. Before I knew it, he’d made a new tree. I sent out another burst of psychic energy, but I found that nothing happened. The result I was looking for wasn’t there.

I sent out another wave, one thick enough to be seen, but except for shaking the tree nothing happened. What was so special about the last one? I sent out at least twenty other bursts, all resulting in the same thing. The primal devil began whistling to pass the time.

By the thirty first attempt I’d had enough. I grunted in frustration, and I sent another attack. This one chopped through the tree so cleanly, I thought I was chopping a human leg.

“Finally!” I said and the devil snickered. “Can you make another tree?”

I realized then that it had worked both times when I was angry. So I tried that, each time I was casting a spell, I grunted really loudly, or screamed. After the seventh attempt I realized that wasn’t it either.

I entered a state of focus, one that created a headache even in this magical world. I wondered what it would do to me in real life. The headache was subtle, but grew stronger as I focused in on the psychic attack.

I did it again, and the attack barely made the tree vibrate. Maybe I was doing it wrong, All the times when the psychic power worked exceptionally well, I’d been under heavy duress. I was looking at it wrong all the time. I had to focus as little as possible.

I sent out the attack again, this time I simply pictured the result as a back thought, and left it at that. A part of my brain beyond my control began working, and I saw the tree cut in half in my sight.

I understand it now. I had to use my subconscious in the fights too.

Clap, clap, clap. “That took you some time. I’m sending you back into reality now, you have two hours to get out of your situation.”

Everything went black.

***

I don’t know when I woke up. Everything was black. It took a while to realize it was coldness that I felt against my cheek. I was waiting for everything to start. I wasn’t prepared for it to start like this.

I was blind. The falling ceiling must have crushed the other eye. It was a strange sensation to be blind. I still had the distinct feeling that my eyeballs scratched even though I knew they weren’t there. I couldn’t blink or move my pupils, despite this I still saw the little health bar in the corner.

I focused on it until my stats rose up. I had leveled up quite a few times due too my encounters. 15 times to be precise, and I had fifteen stat points to spend, and an evolution to pick.

Something about my talk with the primal devil had refreshed me. It felt as if my heart had run out of will, but now it was full again. I felt a motivation in myself to become great again. I would do it, and nobody would stand in my way. I was sure of it.

A window suddenly flashed that sent me into a world of panic.

_____

Urgent Quest

Blood lust aimed at you has been detected. Escape or kill its source.

Failure will lead to death.

Success will lead to 2 000 XP.

_____