You entered the 8th circle of Hell, because you are the first undead in the last 100 years that advanced, you're rewarded +3 stat points in every main stat

Leaving the boundary of the 9th layer behind me, what greeted me was a plain much similar to the one on the other side... the only difference is that in this one is that you can see undead animal wandering about, but my question is: do they count as zombies? Or are they some other kind of undead? Let's call them experience for now.

Though they're not strong (probably the weakest of the weak or they wouldn't be at the border), they still give me some experience; but maybe it's only my impression, in the end even though I fought the strongest undead in the previous circle, it was at most on par with the dead last weakling in the 8th layer.

Leaving behind me a trail of blood of many differents kinds of the new race I decided to call anidead (that would be the combined form of animal and undead, though for some reason it sounds kind of bad *probably only Italian readers, if there are some, will get the joke*), and gaining some levels in the meanwhile, I arrived at the foot of the mountain... more like at the foot of a mountain range.

The strange thing was that on this mountain I couldn't see any vegetation all the way to the top; not even anideads are around, there is even this kind of feeling like .

It seems that when I was wandering for twelve years, it was this kind of feeling that saved me from going in the wrong direction... or maybe I was just lazy and the idea of hiking a mountain never got considered in the situation I was in (even because if I had really tried, I would probably have stumbled and rolled back to the plain).

It seems that in order to reach the next layer I'll have to hike this mountain; and when I say hike I mean running at the top at half my usual speed, just to be sure that there aren't any bad surprises while I reach the top; from now on the price for failure is my future.

I arrived to the top of the mountain without a single problem, but the feeling that is warding me off from this place only gets stronger, I should probably be able to tell what is giving me this feeling now that I'm here.

And I was right, this mountain together with other three, one in each cardinal direction, create a large valley. I can see from here that in this valley vegetation is present, just that... every single plant is petrified; it's not like the plants here are not growing, rather they seems to grow at quite the accellerate rate, because every time a anidead break a part of the plant, it starts regrowing (and if I'm not wrong, the undead lion got pretty damaged).

What I'm seeing now more than a forest seems a petrified jungle, the strange thing is that it doesn't grow past a certain range, there are even plants that have some kind of fruits (not petrified, they seem more pieces of meat than fruits), but looking at the petrified statues, something is yelling at me to not casually try to ingest this fruit.

Well, it seems I found my new hunting ground, I only need to be careful, the plants will probably be my worst enemy, if something as tricky as that is in the outer region of the valley, I should expect some very nasty traps, though... can't I use them? I mean, if I get my hands on those fruits and then throw them in the mouth of an enemy, shouldn't that be pretty effective?

Ah, I forgot, I'm a ghoul, I do not have a place or a way for carrying them, and if I make some kind on clothing, in this kind of jungle, it would simply be torn apart from the plants, not even equipment will help me, my claws are stronger than steel and swinging a weapon inside there would be very difficult... unless you can bulldoze trough everything.

The moment I entered in the jungle, I felt as if a barrier was placed behind me, giving me no way to return.

Congratulation, you're the 9.999 undead that entered in this arena, you'll not be able to exit from here until the right number of challengers is reached

It was at this moment that I felt a stupid undead squirrel enter in the jungle at fifty nine meters from me.

All 10.000 challengers are present in the arena, from now on, undeads will be able to locate you by smell, and you will be able to locate them by sight (this is a priviledge given to intelligent beings).

From now on will begin a battle royal of everyone against everyone (undead who don't possess enough intelligence will be affected by the status ).

From now on untill only one remains, no one will be revived inside the arena.

If someone don't kill at least 10 undeads every twenty minutes, that someone will die (the timer will reset after 10 undeads are killed)

The last one standing will be given a prize and 24 hours of protection.

After the battle, the barrier surrounding the arena will be removed for 5 days.

And now... LET THE SLAUGHTER BEGIN

The only thing I could think in that moment was: "FUCK"

And then, hell broke loose all around me.