《Death's Quartet》 Chapter 1 It all started with waking up.... I would say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, except that there was no bed. No bedroom, for that matter, either. To say I was confused would be an understatement. As my mind started to wake up and process facts beyond the lack of bed and bedroom, the "room'' I was in started to come into focus. It definitely was not the couch I likely dozed off on or the bed I sometimes didn''t remember getting into. It was a dim but pleasant gray haze like a brighter fog. I couldn''t be confident if, where, or how many walls there were or the existence of a ceiling. It didn''t feel like a dream. There was only one thing to do, and that was ask. "Am I dreaming?" My voice didn''t even echo, simply disappearing into the haze. "Not in the slightest," a voice replied. It sounded feminine, but I wasn''t confident in that, as hazy as this place was. I looked around and saw a slight darkening in the fog. "Dead then?" I asked in the direction of the shape. "Not likely. But I am Death, so that''s not impossible." The voice was definitely female, lower, with a sultry tone that immediately sent shivers down my spine. "Death?" I asked at the vague image in the haze, somewhat wary of what might have been a threat. "Well, the Goddess of Death. And this is not my domain, so you aren''t dead, I think!" With each word, she stepped closer and came into better view. By her last word, I was able to see her fully. She was petite, with ivory, pale skin, and short dark hair just down to her mid-neckline. She wore a short black cocktail dress that fit perfectly and had her finger to her lip, accentuating her thought. Her eyes, though, were deep voids of black that somehow still sparkled with a mischievous glint as she studied me. It was as if she could see right through me, into the depths of my soul. The realization that I was standing face to face with Death herself sent a jolt of fear and curiosity coursing through my veins. "Then where are we?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. A faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she extended her hand toward me. With uncertainty, I reached out and clasped her delicate fingers in mine. A surge of warmth spread through me, calming my racing heart. "You are not here by accident," she said, her voice carrying an air of ancient wisdom. "There is a purpose for your presence in this realm." She continued. I couldn''t help but feel a mixture of awe and trepidation at her words. What could be so important that Death herself would intervene? "And that is?" I''m not going to lie. I made a quick glance down just to make sure I was wearing clothes. I sighed with relief--yep, I was not naked. I was in shorts and a nondescript T-shirt. "I am confident we are in your soul. At least partially. And I do mean ''we''. I am here, not a projection or some avatar." She took a moment to run her hands across her body and through her hair. I couldn''t help but watch. To say she was beautiful was an understatement. I looked at her with that same sense of amazement as when I first met my wife. "wait...soul?....avatar?.....death?...goddess? I''m so fucking confused right now." "Hrmn.....let me get a good look at you." As she stared at me, I got a better look at her eyes. I might have been staring elsewhere for a bit. Hot girl running, caressing her body, can you blame me? Her eyes were dark voids, not the glossy orbs of a shark, but still very predatory. As she looked at me, they flashed. I am not quite sure how to describe it. The flash was equal parts darker black and a black light. I could swear I also saw a slight flash of bright blue somewhere in the depths. "ahh...you''re an Outworlder! That explains it," she exclaimed. Her joy soured quickly as confusion and concern flashed across her face. She started to pace. "But... but....that means. But it''s too soon....I just...how? It''s not fair!" She started pacing and may have stamped her foot a little on that last part. It was adorable. I walked over and grabbed her arms, gently stopping her pace. "It''s going to be OK. Explain." "OK...." As she collapsed onto a heap on the pale ground. "It''s like this. I just became a god a little bit ago. So recently, I haven''t even manifested a form yet. Now, an outworlder is here clueless, which means another game is starting, and I haven''t even been able to build forces or make deals. I have no chosen, no champions, and most importantly, a paragon. I''m a prime target with no paragon I''m gonna lose. I can''t lose. I need a Par.....agon." She looked up at me expectantly with her pause. "umm.....I don''t know what any of that means." She jumped to her feet, a sly smile on her face. "I think it means you''re supposed to be my paragon. I mean, how else could I have intercepted a transition? More importantly, how else are you, not a quivering corpse foaming at the mouth? Only a paragon can withstand their god''s direct presence." "I guess that makes sense." It didn''t "thank you, by the way," she said with what I swear was a blush (could gods blush?). "for what?" "This!" she twirled up on one foot, causing her dress to sway and shift slightly. I couldn''t help but chuckle at her playful enthusiasm. Being the paragon of Death was undoubtedly not what I had expected when I woke up this morning or wherever and whenever this was. There was something about her, something captivating and intriguing, that made me willing to go along with whatever adventure awaited me in this mysterious realm. "I can feel every part of this body, and it''s amazing. I mean, I was pretty before, but I''m now HOT...and, yet, somehow innocent and cute simultaneously." I will say she was, without question, all that and more. Each word accentuated and deepened the look. The look on her face when she said ''cute'' was irresistible, so naturally, I froze. "Awe. You''re blushing. You made me your version of perfect; you know that, right? Well, almost perfect." she lifted her leg and wiggled her toes at me. "How about some shoes?" I knew just the shoes to go with that dress. My wife wore them and a similar dress on our first date. The big problem was how in the fuck do I make shoes. "Um, yeah...about that. I know the perfect shoes for you, buuuuuutttt.....yeah, have no idea how to create them." "Silly boy... it''s your soul; make it do what you want." That sounded like a good enough answer, so I thought about the shoes. She was a Goddess, so only the best would do. I concentrated on every detail. I started with the sole pattern and started working through each piece. I hadn''t even gotten through the sole, having gotten stuck on the chemical composition of the rubber before I began mumbling aloud. "It''s not a butyl rubber, but" "Could be natural latex." This continued for several minutes while the goddess patiently waited, hands clasped behind her back. I continued to mutter and started to pace.... "Laces should be five feet and stretch eight inches, giving them a modus off...." As I started to regret not having a calculator and consequently building one in my head, I noticed a cat who killed the canary smirk on her face. It was that smirk a teenager gets when they have something to tell you that they think will blow your mind. She even did the little sway back and forth.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. "Umm...Goddess?....do you have something to say?" I chastised myself immediately for sounding like a school teacher. She bounded over to me, and I immediately noticed her feet. Shod in black and white Chucky Ts, that''s precisely how I pictured them in my head. "How long?" I sighed "The start... it''s within your soul, dear... It understands." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. She bounced back after the kiss. Her sheepish look suggested that it might have been inappropriate. I gave her my best smile. "I''m glad you like them." I stood back and admired her petite form. Some part of me had added a pair of black thigh-high fishnets to complete the goth look, the black standing out against her cream-white skin. It was perfect. Even the room shuddered as if the non-existent walls rippled. Everything felt closer, as if the unfathomable room just got smaller. "Awe...It looks like we are running out of time. Best if we get started." "Started with what exactly?" I asked, suddenly worried. "Your Awakening, silly boy. If you are going to be my paragon, you will be awakened by me and only me." Her voice was booming and clearly possessive, and her eyes flashed once again. "Come kneel before your Goddess...." "Pssst... what''s your name?" She whispered, looking slightly embarrassed. "John," I replied. "Kneel before me, John." "Pssst... what''s yours?" I whispered back as I took a kneeling position before her. "Vex. Why are we whispering?" She whispered. "You started it." "Shush you and kneel." She smiled down at me. "Already am Vexy." In typical Schoolgirl style, she let out a little giggle. "John, I''m serious." We laughed at that for a good ten seconds, which here seemed like an eternity. There was another bout of giggles as she saw me hold back the mandatory ''Hi, serious, I''m John'' retort. I''m not a dad, but I''m old enough to have dad jokes. After we calmed down, she rolled her shoulders and touched my forehead. Her touch was still electric. I could feel warmth through it and, at the very edge of it, an abyss. We stood like that for long enough for me to get uncomfortable. As I started to fidget, I chanced to look up at Vex''s face. Her eyes were closed, her nose and forehead scrunched in concentration, and her lips were drawn into a tight line. Finally, she broke. "I don''t know why it''s not working. I keep getting a ''not optimum'' prompt, and the awakening fails to initialize." She took a seat on the ground in front of me, legs crossed under her, and hung her head in her hands. "It should be easy. I''ve awakened dozens of people over the years. I''ve never had one fail." I have experience in helping people overcome struggles. "You said you were a newish God. How many have you awakened as a God?" I used my most calming voice, like dealing with a straight-A student failing the first time. "Honestly? You would be the first. But I''m an actual God this time, not a Demi or a basic Awakener." "It sounds like an ability. And you mentioned ''prompts.'' Do you still have the ability?" Again, the consoling voice was used, but the tone was shifted to identify the problem. "Yeah," she was almost sobbing now. "Is it any different?" "It says ''Divine Awakening'' now." "And are you doing the same thing as before?" "No." Vex turned such a bright shade of pink that it looked like an instant sunburn. "What did you do to Awaken before?" She actually turned away and hid her face. "Vex?" I asked again, and all I got was a shake of the head. So, I did what I thought was best. I wrapped her in a light hug. As I embraced her, she started to shake with soft sobs. I held her tightly, my arms a comforting shield around her trembling form. Vex''s sobs gradually subsided, and she sniffled, pushing herself away from me to wipe away her tears. Her eyes, now puffy and red-edged, met mine with a mixture of relief and vulnerability. "I''m sorry," she murmured, her voice still shaky. "I didn''t mean to break down like this. It''s just... I thought I was prepared for this moment, but it turns out I''m not." I reached out to cup her face gently, my thumb brushing against the soft skin of her cheek. "Shhh...Vex, it''s alright. We''ll figure this out together. You don''t have to shoulder all the burdens yourself. You didn''t do anything wrong." "But. But you''ll hate me or worse, think I''m a...." She choked on the last word, but I heard it clear enough ''Whore''. I reached out and took her face in my hands, turning her head towards mine. I looked deep into the void that was her eyes, searching for the blue I had seen earlier. "Shush you...I''d never think that of you. You are a Goddess. In EVERY sense of the word." I could feel the tension draining from her, replaced with confidence. "I wasn''t always tied to death. I mean, I had the aspect from the beginning. As an adventurer, it helped." Her confidence grew with each word. I didn''t dare turn away; I knew how critical these moments were. "One word got out that I could awaken through...*ahem*...intimate encounters, the requests for me from the wealthy and connected went through the roof. Thankfully, the guild turned most away or shunted to other awakeners. My guild mistress always kept an eye out for me. She was a priestess of Lust, so she understood. Still, there were a few that she couldn''t refuse. Some of them were nice men, boys, really. They were sweet, and I gladly awakened them even if most would never Ascend. As for the rest that we couldn''t refuse? Well, I technically was an assassin, and Kings would go to war before letting anyone kill an Ascended Awakener. It was a delicate balance, but ''he died during the awakening'' was sometimes a passable excuse. Enough for others to not look too closely." She paused for a second, trying to judge my reaction. I just smiled back. My heart broke a little for her, but she had strength from all that somewhere. "I won''t go into all the details, but eventually, I took my shot and made it. Death took me under his wing. He had a perfect spot for me. I helped those who weren''t willing to let go of the mortal plane because of lost or unrequited love finally let go. I was a Demi at that point. Umm, ''Demi'' is short for Demi-god or A tier." She tacked on like she thought I might have been lost. "Makes sense. Sounds like you helped a lot of people." "I did." she smiled. "Well, eventually, Death was ready to ''retire,'' and in the last game, I took his place. It''s much more complicated, but we are running short of time." The room shuddered again as if to punctuate her statement. "Ready to try again? I think I know how it needs to work." She stared at me with a predatory gleam. I knew what she wanted. I could feel it; It was so palpable I could taste it. I started to think of what to say, a cheezy line. I was frozen. I could barely move. I tried to move closer to her. I budged an inch, still trying to think of what to say. An inch was all it took for the tension to break. For the first time, I saw her irises. They were so blue that they burned. She put her hands on my shoulders and pushed me to the ground. I started to speak. She places a slender finger against my lips. "Shhhhh.........Don''t fuck this up by talking," she whispered, breathing in my ear. The rest was lost in a sea of electric blue. I woke up a short time later, and a glance out of the corner of my eye showed the same gray room. I felt like I had run a marathon, been run over by a truck, and then had a massage. I felt Vex''s weight on my hips. I opened my eyes and was greeted by her familiar face, her eyes still electric. Her hair was damp with sweat, but her face showed deep concern and worry instead of bliss. She was bordering on panic. "No...No..No.. Come back, come back." She gripped my face with her hands. "I''m here," I croaked. My voice, for some reason, was hoarse and cracked. The relief on her face was instantaneous, and she collapsed on top of me. "I''m so sorry...I..I..I didn''t realize. It was too much. You are just a mortal. I thought....I...I thought I had lost you." She cried into my chest. She got up and started to pace. "It...''s...o...k.....Still here." I reached up and tried to rub my face. My entire body reacted as if it was asleep. Eventually, I tried to stand. It took a lot of effort, but I made it. I took a deep breath and looked around. The room was still unfathomable as ever, but I could feel it was much smaller now, the size of my and my wife''s first apartment. At the thought of her, something inside me broke. What had I done? From the first moment in the room, I played the situation back in my head. For some reason, my thoughts were super clear. Everything was. Even the pain. It was only there if I thought about it. I focused on the internal turmoil, the betrayal. My eyes caught on Vex''s, back to their normal blueless black. She was staring at me, watching for something. Her look mirrored the guilt I felt. There was something else--a connection. A thin thread that felt as strong as a steel cable. I felt the cable in my mind and thought back to my wife and all our time together: a thousand deep conversations and so many light ones. I snorted a little as I remembered us always joking about situations like this. She would have probably slept with Vex, too. She always had a thing for Emo girls, way more than I did. Speaking of Emo girls, a very distraught one was pacing in the smallish room. "Vex" "VEX" I felt an unusual power in my voice. She reacted immediately, just not how I expected. It only lasted a second, but I saw it plain on her face....Fear. "Are you sure you are okay?" She paused a little on that last word. I was not ''OK''. The roadkill feeling was still there. The headache, too, was getting worse. The post-massage, post-sexy time feelings? Yeah, they were long gone. My vision burned with bright hazes of color at the edges. My body still felt like it was asleep. Coordination was shot. It was taking all my concentration to stay upright. I wobbled a little and lied. "I feel great!" It was the right answer. Her smile lit up the room--literally. For the first time, I could see stone walls. A little pout crossed her face as she glimpsed them. "No...not now. I have so much to tell you; it will be ages before I can see you again. I need to explain everything." "I will manage." I tried to put on my most confident and charming face. I could feel the muscles not working. I managed creepy. Vex found it funny. Her laugh was as intoxicating as ever. "I have faith in you...my paragon." The last part came out sultry. "Now go, oh, by the way, I had to change your name a little." "Huh? Change? To what?" "I picked one I found in your head, silly." "Oh dear god....which one." "Awe, you called me dear." She smiled. "I went with your best one!" She defiantly clasped her hands together and twisted her body, reacting to something cute and romantic. "Just tell me." I could feel the fog dissipating. I knew it would signal the end of this encounter. "I named you...Aris" She was right about all my gamer tags and email aliases, not to mention characters and other ''names''; she chose the one I liked the most. The room shuddered like it wanted us to hurry up and have our moment so it could finally leave. Her voice took on a power that belied her petite frame. "Now, Aris, feel free to have fun and enjoy yourself while you are out there, but remember one thing." "You..." "are...." "MINE". The room gave a final shudder, and I crashed into darkness. Chapter 3 I walked through the door to my first non-gray, non-square room. I was making progress. It was an octagon. If the previous room was spartan, this was opulent. My bare feet, because fuck me, I forgot to make myself shoes, sank into the bright crimson carpet. I could see warm fireplaces to my right and left, a small podium in the center, three doors in the back, and a small man standing at the previously empty lectern. I slowly returned my gaze to the man who had appeared from nowhere. He was dressed in scholarly robes of a crimson similar to the carpet and trimmed in gold. His gray-white hair was cut close to his head, except where it was bald on top. He had half-rim glasses perched on the tip of his slightly bent nose. His lightly wrinkled face was kind and inviting. When he spoke, it was with the same voice you would expect. ¡°Congratulations, adventurer, on completing the Dungeon of Mord. I hope the room of recovery was to your liking.¡± He pointed out the way I had come before going on and gestured behind me. ¡°I am your helpful companion¡­.Mord.¡± He seemed shocked by that last part. ¡°For completing the dungeon and slaying the¡­¡­¡­ you shall receive a custom reward from Mord.¡± He froze and appeared to glitch when mentioning the slaying of something.¡± ¡°In addition to any Obols you have recovered, I shall reward you for your feats in the dungeon.¡± ¡°You slayed zErO monsters; I award you ¡­¡­ Obols¡± ¡°You completed zErO optional rooms, I award¡­.Obols¡± The list went on for a good minute, with him twitching and screeching on the number zero and completely blanking on the awards. This saddened me a little as I would have liked to know what the price of violence was in this place. ¡°In total, an additional¡­.Obols. Please take them from the bowl,¡± he motioned to the empty bowl on a pedestal to his right. It wasn¡¯t there before, and seeing how it was empty, it disappeared promptly. ¡°The three rooms behind me contain your custom reward. You will choose in Obol order. To the left is the ¡®Reliquary of Knowledge,¡¯¡± he said as an engraving of a book appeared on the door. ¡°In the center is the ¡®Armory of Eternity¡¯¡­.and to the right the ¡®Vault of Avarice.¡¯¡± A sword and a stack of coins appeared on the doors, respectively. ¡°Whence all of your party have chosen and entered your rooms, you will be allowed to exit into ¡®Mord¡¯s Shop¡¯ to spend your hard-earned Obols on wondrous items.¡± ¡°You¡­¡­.¡± Mord pointed at me ¡°With¡­..Obols, you have the most; please choose a room.¡± And cue my first dilemma. I knew nothing of this game, or world, or sim, or whatever. So what did I pick? I needed answers to everything. The Reliquary probably had tons of answers. However, judging by how long Mord droned on about Obol''s achievements, this was probably a high-level dungeon. It wouldn''t have the answers that I needed right away, to an adventurer or whatever; it would be common knowledge. That didn''t make it any less appealing; in games, choices like this always had great rewards, and some obscure knowledge or maybe¡­.magic lay behind that door. I was wearing shorts, no shoes, and a T-shirt. Weapons and armor were a must. Some overpowered weapon would be awesome starting out. Could I use it, though? What if it had a level or stat requirement? Were there even stats or levels here? It sucked not having anyone to ask. I tried praying to Vex. She was a goddess, right? I did hold off envisioning her in my mind, though. This was neither the time nor the place to pass out or even the slightly more masculine reaction. I received no reply. Maybe gods didn''t work that way in this place, or she was tapped like I was. I ruled the Vault out right away. Money would be nice, but it would make me a target, even if I figured out how to put it in my dimensional space. I didn''t feel like getting robbed. In the end, it was simple. I wasn¡¯t a scholar or a merchant. I was a fighter. As I placed my hand on the door handle, it didn¡¯t move, and my heart sank. I hadn¡¯t defeated the dungeon. No kill kill, no reward. Bummer. I let go of the handle in defeat. Or at least I tried to. My hand was stuck. I pulled as hard as I could, and nothing. With a ¡®Grrrr,¡¯ I closed my eyes to brace even harder and felt the oddest sensation. It was like walking through a thin sheet of cool water yet staying perfectly dry. I completed my ¡®grrrr¡¯ before opening my eyes, but that was a mistake. I threw my ass to the floor as whatever was holding my hand let go. I opened my eyes to an empty room. Well, almost empty. In the center of the lightly cream-colored room was a chest. A one hundred percent, as you would fucking expect it, treasure chest. Wood, Iron bands, brass hardware, the works. I was instantly suspicious. ¡°You¡¯re a fucking Mimic.¡± I wasn''t about to mince words with the thing that wanted me for lunch, so I did the natural thing: I threw my shirt at it. It was ineffective. So I put my hands on my hips, blew out a big breath, and went and did the dumb thing. I touched it. And cue menu. I yanked my hand away like it was on fire. I may have screamed. ¡°Mimic,¡± I said as I scooted all the way back to the door and jiggled the handle to no avail. I even slammed my eyes closed, figuring that was what had triggered the water teleport before. Nope! Nothing! Nada¡­. I went back to the chest¡ªnot immediately, mind you, but after a good hour or so, most of which was spent trying to get the mimic to attack. After trying the door a few more times, I gave up and placed my hand back on the Mimic. Okay, that was a pretty straightforward message for a Mimic. I read through it three times to get the idea. The last part was disappointing, but there is no such thing as a free lunch. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.I placed my hands on either side of the lid and lifted it. A gold and white light briefly blinded me. When my vision returned, I was greeted by a pair of odd weapons on a blue velvet cushion. The weapons were neither sword nor spear but a combination of both. They looked about 3 feet long with double-sided blades just short of half that length. The blades were an off-pink-colored metal like a mix of platinum and rose gold. The handles had a dull luster between titanium and silver and a respective gray color. The blades were about 4 inches wide, where they joined the handle and tapered gently to a point at the end. The chest said they were mine. I reached in and picked one up. I was just marveling at how light it was when I felt a sharp stab and shock. It felt like I grabbed the business end of a tazer; the sensation went straight to my core. It wasn''t overly painful, just shocking. I instantly felt a connection to both blades. I could feel the perfect balance of the one in my hand, and even though I could see the one in front of me, I could feel it there as well. I picked the other one up, as fair as possible. And gave them both a twirl and a few swishes. I probably looked pretty stupid. I didn¡¯t care. The chest was right; these, whatever they were, were made for me. I probably played around for another ten minutes before I noticed something else in the chest. The blue velvet had disappeared, revealing a pile of leather straps. I could feel them in the box; they were not as strong as the blades but similar. I reached down to grab them, expecting a similar sting. The tingle I felt was different. It was like an itch at the back of my brain. I started playing with the straps and buckles. It had buckles. After a second or two, it was like I knew where every part went. Within a minute, I had the straps on and adjusted. It was a belt and thigh straps holding a pair of ¡¯ U''-shaped sheaths in an excellent position for the blades. I twirled the blades in my hands and jammed them home. To say, ¡°like a hot knife through butter,¡± would not do justice to how well the blades went in. I felt a slight click at the end, and I swear I could feel the leather tighten. The hafts, pommels, or whatever, the back side of the handles stuck forward oddly far¡ªtoo far for my taste at the moment. I looked for adjustment holes for the cant or snaps but found nothing. I gripped the hafts and pulled back; they moved effortlessly. When I let go or tried to pull them without wanting them to move, they were solid. I can imagine my smile. If the sheathes were so good as to adapt at will, how badass could the blades be? I played around for a good while, slashing, drawing, sheathing, moving on to draw-slash and slash-sheath. After a robust routine, I caught sight of the green bar at the top of my vision and saw it had dropped slightly. ¡°Stamina¡­right¡± It was time to go. I walked calmly over to the door, grabbed the handle, closed my eyes¡­and¡­nothing. I was still stuck. I tried for what must have been two hours with no avail. It was after the first hour that I tried stabbing, slashing, and beating on the door with the blades. Not even a scratch. I got my face really close to the door, drawing the tip of one of the blades right in front of my eye and pressing. I could barely see it, but it was like an impenetrable barrier over the door. Keeping my head in place, I sheathed the blade. I then slumped against the door and slid to the floor. It was in mid-slide, right before ass contact, that I looked across the room and saw the chest. The still very open chest. I felt dumb. I cursed myself and walked over to shut the chest. When the lid slammed down, I felt two things. The chest went; the only way I can explain it is that it was lifeless. At the same time, the energy I felt, only in noticing its absence, transferred to the door. I placed my hand on the chest and concentrated for a second. I guess I could sense the magic. I walked across to the door. Its energy was much less, but at least there. I gripped the handle lightly, closed my eyes, and waited for the falling of water. I internally confirmed that the cool water feeling is a teleport. I hoped all teleportation was like that. There are too many stories of teleportation-induced vomiting in my pop culture library. The room I found myself in was the opposite of every room so far. It was a long, narrow room of machines. I was so confused. My jaw was hanging as I looked forward. I will admit the machines had an old-timey feel to them like they were mechanical and not electrical, but unmistakably, they were vending machines, a solid dozen of them. As I padded into the room, I could see that most were, in fact, a type of vending machine. They ran along both walls, ending with another ornate door. I sauntered up to the first one and perused its wares. Behind what looked like glass was a series of four shelves with four very nice stands on each. On each was an amulet. They all looked lovely and powerful. It might have been in my head, but I thought I felt my amulet heat up. It didn''t like competition. I quickly moved on. The next machine had a series of rings in a similar manner¡ªjust more. Below each were what looked like numbers. After staring at them for a minute, I looked lower on the machine and found a series of pull handles with their own numbers. It looked like they were in some sort of order. My first lesson in this new language was reading the numbers on a magical vending machine. Each item also had a different number that I couldn¡¯t discern apart too. I felt bad once it hit me. It was a vending machine. They were prices. After some extrapolation, I reasoned that the rings ran from 2 to 16 Obols, I assume. After marveling at the prices and figuring out my glaring oversight regarding prices, I also found the coin slot. It looked like it would take a coin roughly the size of a half-dollar but at least twice as thick. Having no Obols, I moved on. About halfway down, I found a different machine, one I recognized. The wheels of a Slot Machine are hard to miss. I inspected the machine for clues. I was looking for a ¡®free play¡¯ but only found the Obol slot. On the opposite wall was a machine I couldn''t fathom. It looked like a blackjack table having an affair with a coin dispenser. It had a tiny half-moon top of red velvet and a honking coin tray at the bottom. There were twelve machines in total selling everything from jewelry to what I assume were potions. The last one looked like it was selling rocks. Yep, even in this world, I was broke, and it sucked even more here. With a sigh, I grabbed the other door. Deaths Quartet Chapter 4 I woke up in a gray room. Again. Technically, I did teleport this time; I wasn¡¯t quite fast enough to see the guy who punched me in the face. How did I know I got punched in the face? Have you ever been punched in the face? If you know, you know. I slowly rolled over and rubbed my face while looking for the tag number of the bus that hit me when I saw him. Across the room was what looked like a younger version of Mord. By younger, I mean in his fifties. If I could be as fit as young Mord in my fifties, I would be happy. He wasn''t wearing a shirt or shoes, just a comfortable-looking pair of loose yoga pants¡ªor maybe martial arts pants, given that he hit me like a 747. ¡°What the fuck, man?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s awake, and it speaks.¡± ¡°Why did you punch me in the face?¡± ¡°So you would learn.¡± ¡°Learn what?¡± ¡°Learn¡± He came at me again. I lasted longer, a whole two seconds. I woke up in a gray room. Young Mord advanced on me as soon as my eyes opened. I snapped to my feet and put my hands up in a peaceful gesture. ¡°Wait¡­..wait¡­ wait,¡± I said, backing away. ¡°Wait? Why wait? Must learn¡± ¡°What do I need to learn?¡± ¡°Learn.¡± I saw the fist coming this time. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. ¡°Wait¡± I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. I woke up in a gray room. Gray room, me pleading, gray room; the cycle continued for. For a while. And then it happened. I ducked. He looked shocked. He looked more shocked as one of the blades entered his stomach. What can I say? I¡¯m no saint. Ok, fine, I¡¯m an asshole. I wanted to kill him from the first punch. I finally got fast enough. Young Mord collapsed on the floor, his red blood pooling on the gray floor. I stepped past him to return to the entry door and teleport out. I was just about to grab the handle when I heard it. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.¡°Good. Learn¡± I spun quicker than I expected, pulling both blades from their sheathes, which did not help stop the over-spin. I was way out of position to deal with the perfectly healthy Young Mord. There was no evidence of me stabbing him, nor any of the blood on the floor. I thought back to all the face punches. Despite all of them hitting me in the same space, they were never worse than getting hit once. ¡°This is a training room, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yes, Learn¡­.now go.¡± he made a shooing motion with his hand. This time, the port-o-fall emptied me into a dark cave. Dark is not the best word. As my eyes adjusted, it became dim, and then I smelt it. It wasn¡¯t a horrible smell. It smelled exactly like a cave, like a standard semi-damp hole in the earth. What hit me was that it smelled at all. I didn''t realize that, in going through Mord¡¯s rooms, there were no odors. Hell, I had been here for at least a day, and I never even smelled myself. I wasn¡¯t always knocked out by Young Mord right away. Sometimes, I lasted long enough to break a sweat. Not from fighting; that was a lost cause. No, from trying to run back to the door before he KO¡¯d me. I ducked my head a little to sniff. There is a little body odor, but not bad. My eyes adjusted enough for me to see that, in true magical world fashion, the walls had both lightly glowing rocks and equally glowing mushrooms. At least things were familiarly unfamiliar. The narrow passageway appeared to be a natural formation but a dungeon. At the far side of a flat entryway with the door was what, in the gloom, looked like a staircase. After the first thousand steps, I fucking hated it. After the second and the third? Whew, buddy¡­.hate. I finally saw the light in the proverbial tunnel somewhere around four to five thousand steps. It was a door. A glorious door. It was a door that was locked. It was a door with no handle. It was a door that wouldn¡¯t move. After hours of searching and trying anything and everything, it was a door that I just sat down and gave up at the base of. I was tired, sweaty, and hungry. My stamina bar was empty. Even my vitality had dropped a little. I sat on the little landing and rested my head against the door. I was out in seconds. Deaths Quartet Chapter 5 I woke up in a Gray room. I wasn''t surprised at all, and I met this room with equal parts happiness and dread, for I knew this room. I knew the giant doors behind me were locked eternally. I knew that behind the door across from me would be a man in a robe. I was back in the first room. This time, I wasn''t alone. Well, nobody else was here, but I could feel both my blades at my sides. I was trapped. Being the eternal optimist, I did note, before I dove head first into a stream of expletives, that it was at least not a Groundhog Day. And also that I still smelled¡­.bad. At least I wasn''t hungry. My stamina, mana, and vitality were all full again. I took a second to check my menu, but nothing had changed. I felt like meditation was appropriate but didn''t want to. Mostly, I think this was to spite the fact that I was trapped, so I wasn''t going to do what they wanted me to do¡­whomever they were. I progressed to the next room. Mord started into his speel. I listened until he started glitching about the zero-obols thing. I got bored, and the glitch sound was annoying, so I went back to the armory. This time, this door was locked. I panicked for a moment. The panic made the screeching even worse. I ran for it and grabbed the first door handle. The port-o-fall felt so nice. I didn''t care where I was; I just cared that I wasn''t in that room. I took a moment to look around what can only be described as a library. The small private library of an obscenely rich dude, with which to impress his equally rich friends while never reading a single page library, but a library nonetheless. There were thousands of books, tomes really, all leather-bound and old-looking. They were all in various stages of repair. Most looked readable. At least if I was stuck here, I would have something to keep me occupied besides getting punched in the face. I reached for one of the volumes closest to the door when I froze in my tracks, fingertips inches from the binding. Thinking of the door reminded me of where I was. I was in the Reliquary of Knowledge. The locked door of the Armory was why I was here. I nodded my head. It was too good to be that easy. I kicked myself for not seeing it earlier. Each of the three rooms was a once-in-a-lifetime treasure. I gripped the handles of my blades. Most people would only make it through here once. I somehow glitched in and got a second go, but the once-in-a-lifetime thing remained. I would get one book. But which one? I started to look at titles, but they all were in a script I couldn''t understand. The numbers in the vending room looked similar but a little more complex and much more ornate. I was wary of pulling one off the shelf to see if a cover could be of any use in the decision-making process. I would probably have to test it at some point, but I wasn''t about to try that without scanning the room first. The one good thing about a Groundhog Day scenario is that you have time. So I started looking. I was a fast shopper, much to my wife¡¯s complaint. She wasn¡¯t here, though, so I started scanning. This was not a new thing for me. After dropping out of college for the first time, I traveled a bit. I went to places where English was an afterthought. This is what it felt like, but worse. There, I had pictures, or smells, or something to go off of. Here I had book and variations of book. Is this fancy polished leather one a grimore or a cookbook? The tattered one on the third shelf from the door, fifth row up, eighth book from the left? Same question. It had a stain on it, so it probably was a cookbook. I looked back at it. The stain was a vastly different color from this angle, blue instead of orange. Alchemy? Maybe? I reminded myself I failed chemistry and kept looking. After three courses around the room, I started to get tired and started to look for a place to nap. There was a nice cozy spot with my name in it between the ninth and tenth bookcases. I wedged myself back into it and got comfortable. Just as I started to feel my head drift back, a stray thought hit me with a shot of adrenaline. I woke up back in the gray room after I purposefully went to sleep on the stairs. I wasn''t certain I''d be locked out of this room if I left it, but for grimoires and alchemy books, I wasn''t about to risk it. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. With renewed energy and full stamina, I went back at it. Looking was getting nowhere, so it was decision time. I knew I was probably fine pulling a book and looking at its cover, but if I wasn''t, I wanted to pull a winner. I skipped alchemy and grimoire and walked to the center of the room. Meditation had helped when I first got here, and there was also this subtle draw to it. It just felt better than before. I let my body relax, and my eyes unfocus. I let the books become a mass of leather-colored blobs, just shades in the distance, and slowly turned. It took a minute or so, but finally, certain blobs stood out. I took a few extra rotations to be sure the blobs remained the same. In the end, three really stood out. I still couldn''t make sense of the words in the titles, but I got a sense of them. One had one long word, a symbol, and a short word. Another had four short words. The last was just one word. I liked to think of myself as a simple person. One word is as simple as it gets. The one word was in the unknown script in yellow ink on an almost black cloth. It was in pretty good condition and looked like an encyclopedia or textbook. I reached out and touched it with my finger. When nothing happened, I grabbed the binding and pulled it out. I took it over to one of the side tables and then reached for four short words because it was closest. I met no resistance in pulling it out, so I set it next to one. This left symbol. A short moment and all three lay side by side. Ironically, Symbol was the only book without a symbol on its cover. The brown leather tome I was calling Four Words had what looked like two ¡°J¡±s on the cover in dark black ink. Symbol was a green book with a cloth binding and a series of three gold triangles, like a disconnected triforce. I could feel it. I knew what I had to do. All I had to do was open the book, and my choice would be made. I could feel the Triforce book calling to me. I picked it up in my right hand. As I turned so I could open it easier; my blade tapped the table. It was a disaster in an instant. The Four Words book fell off the edge, and I tried to grab it. I caught just the edge of the cover¡­.and it opened. Two things happened simultaneously. One word and symbol flew back to their places on the shelves, and I fell back with a blinding headache. I almost wanted to count this as waking up in a non-gray room, but I was sure that I had never passed out. My headache started to fade, and I looked at the book in my hand. It was already turning to ash. I caught a glimpse of the script on the binding, but this time, a word popped into my head¡­.¡±Void¡± The little gray menu bar flashed at me as I watched the void book finally crumble to dust. Without a book in hand, I went to the menu. I had a good idea of what was about to happen. You have absorbed the tome: Way of the Void Because this tome was written in a language, you do not know that language has been provided to you. This will cause a delay in the full absorption of the knowledge.> Magic books were a thing here. I had just absorbed one, and as a bonus, I learned the language¡ªwell, a language, hopefully, useful. I felt a little tension in my shoulders, so I gave them a slight roll as I walked over to where One Word had flown back to its slot. As I got closer, I noticed that there appeared to be a thin film or barrier in front of the books. It didn''t obscure the books themselves, but as I went to look at a title, it was blocked. I tried to think of the titles and could see them in my mind, but they were the same, and no new meaning came from them. The change was when I thought of four short words or Way of the Void. The symbols were there for a split second and were then replaced by English. I thought wistfully that I may one day know what the other books were, but it was probably for the best. I had no idea about the Way of the Void. It sounded like a monk fighting style, which sounded cool, but I stopped myself. I knew how other systems were from the books I read, but that didn''t mean this system was the same. If it was a fighting style, I now knew it, or at least would learn it over time. Despite my self-warnings, I still hoped it was a fighting style and that it was compatible with my half-spear. I was halfway to the door to port myself when I realized I¡¯d called them ¡®half-spears¡¯ and not just ¡®blades.¡¯ I took a second to run my head through all the various weapons that they looked like. A few that stuck out were a cold steel survival spear from Walmart, a fancy (expensive) handmade one from some post-apoc webstore, and an ethnic African weapon belonging to a tribe I couldn''t remember the name of. They all had a similar blade profile and blade-to-haft ratio. I also realized that I had shifted their position, and they, for some reason, were now in an optimum position. However, I felt I could also rig the sheathes for a behind-the-back draw with just a few adjustments. It felt like I was right in thinking the Way of the Void was a fighting style, and it was compatible with my Blades. Yes, that was their temporary proper name. One way or another, as I reached for the teleport handle with a savage grin, lil¡¯ Mord was about to help me find out. Deaths Quartet- Chapter 6 I ducked as I felt the cool water and was rewarded with a nut shot for my efforts. I didn''t blackout, and I believe my body betrayed me in that manner as I was forced to endure the pain for a not insignificant amount of time. My ground time gave me time to think about my predicament. As I watched Young Mord walk back to the center of the circular room, a new nut-bashing stick in hand, I noticed far more than I did last time. First was that despite the pain, I was far more clear-headed. Not to undersell it, the nut shot was at least a full magnitude worse than the jab to the face. I could just see more. And notice more. I was able to see the perfection in his steps. His weight smoothly transitioned across each barefoot and from leg to leg. He kept the five to six-foot wooden rod perfectly vertical. As he turned, I was willing to bet a pen attached to the bottom would have drawn a perfect line and circle on the floor. I begrudgingly got up; thankfully, he remained still. A few deep breaths and a shoulder roll later, and I was ready¡ªas ready as I could be, having no clue how to escape this place. I hoped I didn''t go full Bill Murray before I got out. I steeled into a fighting stance, or what I felt could be one, fists up and ready to go against the stick. Young Mord was not impressed, or if he was, he kept it to himself. I caught his eyes darting down to my Blades. Well, if he wanted to get stabbed again¡­. The stick caught me twice before I had both blades up. Once in the shoulder, the other upside the ear. Once again, it was pain, and my traitorous body refused to black out and reset the room. ¡°Mother fucker¡± I said as I rubbed my left ear, hoping that my hand wouldn''t come away with blood or, worse, part of the said ear. ¡°I do not understand¡­.insult.¡± ¡°Yes, but not directed more of an expletive. That fucking hurt.¡± ¡°Ahh fucking hurt¡­like pure girls first time. Ok, we start easy.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Did you really?¡± he called me a virgin, whining about popping her cherry. It was on. And I told him so. ¡°Oh brother, it¡¯s on,¡± and charged. The floor was nice and cool against my sore ear, but Mord¡¯s knee in my neck and the stick somewhere violating my leg were not. ¡°We are not kin¡­..but also does not sparring form a brotherhood, again.¡± He clearly didn¡¯t get slang. Probably my fault. I ended up on my back. My side. My face. And surprisingly on my head in a weird position that made me glad Mord didn''t want to explore the legion¡¯s version of brotherly love. Through it all, I did not pass out. I took the opportunity in one of the frequent breaks he gave me, you know, after he beat my ass, to ask. ¡°Mord, what is this place?¡± ¡°A place of learning¡­you gain knowledge¡­you leave. Until then, you make friends with floor.¡± ¡°I read a book; why isn¡¯t it helping?¡± ¡°Is helping. You are faster and much harder to hit. Again!¡± After what seemed like hours, I had a breakthrough. Mord started with a simple series of strikes; I found the pattern a few ass-kickings ago. Despite that, I still ended up in a pile of pain. As he came down with an overhead strike, I knew it would hit my shoulder hard again. Pretty sure it would dislocate this time. In the brief moment of clarity, I knew he would miss if I was a few inches to the side and that a quick twist of my elbow and wrist with the blade just right and he would drive the blade into his side. I felt myself move. It was more fluid, like a slide. My whole body adjusted, and I thought my arm trapped the ball buster. My blade was driving towards his hip when he stopped. And I do mean stopped. All the momentum was frozen. His muscles flexed, and the tip of the blade stopped, just touching his hip. We broke apart gently. We both knew what the outcome would have been. ¡°How did it feel?¡± ¡°It felt good.¡± ¡°I assume so, but how did it feel? He mimicked part of my motion. ¡°It felt like I was in the wrong place, and then I moved into the right place.¡± ¡°Not in the right place¡­.in between two wrong places.¡± he nodded and disappeared with a pop and flash of light. I thought about what he said. Words came to my mouth unbidden. ¡°The Void isn¡¯t a place. It exists in between all places.¡± I swear I heard a ¡®click,¡¯ but it could have been the door behind me. I walked to it. I had beaten Mord without blacking out. As I grabbed the handle, I was pretty sure he had let me. Deaths Quartet Chapter 7 I was so enamored with my success that I rushed through the vending room at a sprint. My hand hit the door at the end less than a minute after the encounter with Young Mord. I was greeted by the cave of endless stairs with a smile as I felt the knowledge seep across my mind. I was so elated I started the stairs at a run. That was a bad idea¡­.. I actually almost tested the ¡®what happens if I sleep on the stairs theory.¡¯ I did well on the first thirty or so stairs. My little green bar lasted until about three hundred. I pushed on to five and promptly collapsed. Hitting my face on the stairs wasn¡¯t so bad, like a light Mord jab. The continual taps to the chin once I started to slide were annoying, but in an effort to try not to break my teeth or bite my tongue, I tried to stop. I always remember being good at theoretical and applied physics, but not so much as I demonstrated by trying to use my feet to stop. And stop, they did. They stopped so well that I found myself upright¡­with a bit too much momentum. Over I went. I think I knocked myself out around my third backflip right after the second cartwheel. I woke up in a cave, lying on the stairs. I hadn¡¯t made it all the way to the bottom, but I could see the door, even upside down. I hurt. I was hurt bad. Apparently, the get knocked-the-fuck-out and feel better function was out of order in this room. I got up. It was pure agony to do so, but I did it. I knew the only way out was up. Either the door was unlocked, or I would sleep and wake up in the first room. Every step was a new world of pain. I could hear bones grinding together. I¡¯m sure at least one arm and leg were broken. I could barely breathe; the exertion was made worse by what I am sure were several broken ribs. Eventually, I just became numb to it all. At about the halfway point, I became numb to it all. I took a nap after wedging myself in place with my blades against an outcropping. I woke where I collapsed. It took two more ¡®days¡¯ or at least pain, climb, and sleep cycles. I was thirsty beyond measure and so hungry even a Vegan place sounded good. Finally, as the delirium began to set in, I saw the door. I started to scramble for it. In my eagerness, I started to slip. New instincts started to kick in. I straight kicked and pushed off a piece of wall I didn¡¯t even see and pushed myself prone on the stairs. I stopped before I lost even a single stair. I did a half push-up on my good arm and leg and, shakily, got to my feet. Slow, deliberate steps edged me close to the door¡­and safety. After what felt like hours, I made it. With zero hesitation, I reached and grabbed the handle. Still locked. I curled into a ball at the foot of the door and waited for the pain to take me. I woke up in the gray room. Still in pain. Pain that was rapidly receding. I watched my black vitality bar, which I had forgotten about on the climb, rise from what had been very close to the bottom. My stamina had been full when I woke up. I flopped on the ground and tried to ignore the pain of my bones mending together. Feeling your bones heal is not a fun experience. I tried not to let it distract me as I lay there thinking about all that had happened. My first thoughts were of Vex, her smiling face, and how she danced around after I gave her the shoes and fishnets. It was the exact vision of a perfect scene: girl, with the right shake in all the right places, super soft skin, tiny¡­.. I cut my thoughts before I knocked myself out with a flashback. I focused back on this room and how it cut away the pain. It cut hunger and thirst, too. I had not eaten or drunk anything since I came here. I hadn¡¯t even taken a piss. I thought back to what Mord called this place. It was a recovery room. The big doors probably lead to a boss room. So, this was the treasure at the end of the dungeon. It made sense that you had to make a choice. You could probably run the dungeon multiple times, but you would only get each type of reward once. If you only ran it once, well, what kind of adventurer were you? Recovery in this place made sense. After a big fight, you would be out of mana, potions, and whatnot. This room would let you rest and recover before you made your choices. The room with Mord Jr was a lesson. An improvement that you had to keep trying until you got it. Once my vitality was topped off, I felt pretty good and prepared myself to meet Mord senior one last time. I wondered what the bank was like. I casually strolled into the Mord Sr. room and nonchalantly walked past him as he droned on. I was so caught up in what could be in the vault that I almost grabbed the handle without noticing he had stopped his speech. I turned back to look at him, and he was looking at me for what felt like the first time. I couldn''t place what emotion was behind his gaze. Rage, annoyance, amusement, maybe? I started to ask, as the first time, he seemed not to be a program. He casually raised his arm and flicked his fingers at me in the most epic dismissal I have ever seen. It was kind, yet broached no argument. In fact, I blinked, and he was gone. More than that, I was gone as I was in a different room. This was a treasure room, and I mean a Treasure room. Piles of gold rimmed the room, containing coins and bars of varying sizes and shapes. It wasn''t just gold, either. I saw copper, silver, and¡­ and I''m not quite sure what the other metals were. Some were a whiter silver, almost titanium in color. Others were so dark like iron. Scattered within the piles were hundreds, maybe thousands, of jewels. I was so taken in by the piles of treasure that I missed two key things about this room. First, the table in the center with three leather sacks about the size of my head. Second, I wasn¡¯t alone. I didn''t notice Mord behind me until he spoke, and he promptly gave me my first heart attack of this new reality. ¡°Do you like the room? I wanted a certain appeal.¡± ¡°Um¡­yeah, it looks like I might be rich if I ever get out of here.¡± ¡°About that¡­..¡± He kind of trailed off guiltily ¡°What?¡± ¡°Two things, really. Let¡¯s get the disappointment out of the way first. Grab that coin.¡± He pointed to a stray coin that looked like it had fallen off one of the piles. I took a few steps over and bent down to get it. My head and hand hit an invisible wall at the same time. It hurt. What hurt more was Mord¡¯s laughter. I felt at the wall and realized that it wasn''t a barrier but the room¡¯s rear wall. All the riches were fake. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°An illusion?¡± ¡°Quite! And on your first go, too! Good for you. I thought it would be easier for you to find out for yourself rather than me telling you.¡± He came off like a grandfather with a patronizing yet loving tone. ¡°I take it the second is about me getting out of here?¡± ¡°Again, on the first try! I can see why she chose you as a paragon.¡± ¡°I''m a man of many talents.¡± I raised an eyebrow with that one. ¡°As you are well aware, you are trapped here. It was an unintentional side effect of your goddess¡¯s interference. My patrons have decided to take mercy on you. Well, mostly on the nouveau Death. She probably didn''t realize you would be trapped. The God of Dungeons added the sleep reset at the landing of the exit only because he didn¡¯t want you to die. A Paragon dying in the first few days would be bad business for the¡­¡­well things. As for getting out, you can exit when someone completes the dungeon. Knowledge has allowed me to tell you certain things. I can only tell you the basics and maybe give you a few pointers. There are ru¡­¡± he kinda froze up a little at the end. ¡°Restrictions?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡¯ Restrictions¡¯. That¡¯s a good term. I''m also limited in how often I can help you, and I can only inform you but not advise you. For example, I can inform you that the sustainment and regeneration field that exists in the Room of Recovery only exists in that room. I cannot advise you to spend much of your time outside that room, or you will die.¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t that last part advice?¡± ¡°No, because you already made the connection that there is no food or water here, as you almost starved to death on the stairs. Twice!¡± The twice part concerned me, but I was willing to bet it was the first time and that I was kept asleep by something as they decided my fate, so I let it pass. His brows furrowed in a purely human gesture that made me think he truly was human, at least at some point. ¡°There is so much to tell you and so little time.¡± ¡°So start with the beginning and a crash course on the basics?¡± I asked. ¡°Keen choice, maybe not the best, but it should work.¡± He made a grand gesture as he began. ¡°In the beginning, there was Void.¡± ¡°Ahem¡­in the beginning there was Void,¡± a little louder this time and with a little more finger flourish. I wasn¡¯t certain what he was getting at, so I began to repeat.¡± ¡°In the begin¡­.¡± ¡°No, no, no, don''t repeat me. Gods, we would be here all day. This isn''t some silly mantra. I was trying to create a visual. You are just going to have to use your imagination!¡± I closed my eyes and repeated in a low breath as I tried to imagine. ¡°STOP¡­¡± his voice broached, nothing but adherence. ¡°No repeating. Also, don''t try to imagine the Void. You probably could, and that''s something neither of us can deal with right now. All that existential dread and you wouldn''t hear a word I said.¡± I took a deep breath and sat down cross-legged in an apt pupil pose. He stared at me for a second and, after a thought, mimicked me. ¡°After the Voi¡­.after the beginning, reality became a thing. It probably wasn''t a good idea, but there wasn''t anyone around to complain, so it just was.¡± ¡°Skipping over that,¡± he took on a whimsical tone. ¡°And that¡± ¡°And definitely that.¡± ¡°And so we had the Titans, the founding pillars of our universe. There were fewer in the beginning, but with the Titan of Order, we ended up with twelve. The twelve primal forces of existence. I name them, but in the interest of time, we will focus on the last. That is the Titan of Order. Some have he or she was a god or goddess¡­, you get it. Some say that he was a god who finally figured out how to ascend above the S tier and become a titan. With him came what is generally called the system. He organized us into tiers based on power and formalized the universe into discrete concepts we call¡­.concepts or aspects depending on how you look at them.¡± ¡°How should I look at them?¡± I felt this was a poignant question and also one that showed I was listening. ¡°As both depending. When it comes to internal things, think of them as Aspects or parts of a greater concept. As for external things, think of them as concepts or parts of a concept made real. Note I said ¡®real¡¯, not ¡®physical.¡¯ Think of an apple. Actually, think of it this time. Come to think of it¡­.do you know what an apple is? Do you have them in your world?¡± ¡°Apples?¡­ Do you mean the red or green fruit that grows on a tree and is good to eat? Then yeah, we have apples.¡± He clapped his hands together with a giddy grin. ¡°Excellent, and I see you already described it as part of greater concepts like ¡®green¡¯ and ¡®fruit¡¯ and even ¡®food¡¯ in general. Those are all concepts, and combined little pieces of those truths make up the reality of an apple. Define it and give it substance from the energy of the universe. Even concepts like ¡®life¡¯ and ¡®growth¡¯ play into it. Though ¡®growth¡¯ is partly a ¡®sub-concept¡¯ of ¡®Life¡¯ and¡­. I dunno¡­.¡¯ Change?¡¯ maybe? What matters is things are an amalgam of concepts, little bitty pieces of bigger things coming together to make a whole. Lower concepts can be part of bigger concepts, and eventually, you get into the one thousand and one, rumored, mind you, true high concepts. From these, you get the twelve primal concepts. Coincidentally, it believed there are 1,001 gods. Makes sense?¡±. I thought it over, and honestly, it seemed upside down. I figured I¡¯d tell Mord that way. ¡°I think I get part of it, but it makes more sense to me the other way around.¡± ¡°Explain¡­.¡± ¡°A dozen primal forces that combine in parts and pieces in an infinitely complex way to form universe in a billion different ways. Everything is a tiny puzzle of all these pieces coming together in a perfect combination to form an apple. Or a person, or a rock, or a planet?¡± I may have mentioned that last bit just to get confirmation. Mord''s face showed a slight shock, which eventually morphed into a sigh and a head shake. I felt as if I''d missed the mark. ¡°We are most definitely teaching it wrong. It took me almost a hundred years to see it as you, who has been exposed to it for five minutes, does. Or you are a prodigy. Given the paragon status you carry, both are actually possible.¡± Apparently, it hit a bullseye. ¡°You have mentioned paragon status a few times. What is it?¡± ¡°Good question, jumping a bit, but we can go back. A paragon is the one, amongst their champions, a god thinks will embody their will the best. They are almost always powerful and at the center of great events.¡± ¡°So Vex painted a target on me, didn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that¡­¡± ¡°What would you say?¡± ¡°At the center of great¡­.¡± I glared ¡°Okay, you''re somewhat of a target but a powerful one. You will be the leader of her champions, exerting her will in the game. Nope, I can''t tell you that,¡± he clammed up. ¡°Vex already mentioned a game¡­..¡± I tilted my head a little and gave him a pleading look, but it did not work. ¡°Moving on. Tiers. You are now an E-tier outworlder. That is someone who has been awakened and¡­.. Basically, Vex unlocked your soul and gave you access to your version of the System. Do you want to go over tiers or cultivation first?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s hit up tiers; it sounds shorter.¡± ¡°Ok, below you is F Tier, often called ¡®Mortals.¡¯ They are basically everyone you know. They will live and die knowing the system exists but never directly benefiting from it. Of the one in every thousand or so that can even be awakened, only one in a hundred of those have the natural talent or bankroll to fully unlock and aspect all six loci in their bodies. Yes, I will get back to that in cultivation. Those that unlock and aspect all six are called ¡®Ascended¡¯ or D tier. While many awakened will gain an aspect or two and some of the powers with them in their hundred or so cycles of life, they pale in comparison to Ascended, even ascended, who do fully unlock all their powers even in the three hundred-ish years they have to try. Those rare prodigies that do are the ¡®Willful¡¯ or those that have formed an Aspect Core. A great source of power. I was once one of those. I created a great many things; a few still even stand today¡­.I hope,¡± He added with both pride and regret. ¡°So if you were Transcendent, C tier, I''m guessing? Does that mean you are a B tier as a dungeon and are working to an A tier?¡± As I mentioned it, I saw an infinite sadness across his face. ¡°You are partially correct. I am a B-tier. We are the ¡®Fallen,¡¯ the failures. You see, the step from C Tier is directly to A. But those who fail. And no, I won¡¯t go into it. Become B tiers and are doomed to an eternity as something else. I ended up as a dungeon. I guess it could be worse. But I was there, and I could taste it. I almost made it to A tier. I tasted divinity, and it was snatched away. A tiers are demi-gods. They all embody a concept, or aspect as you will, and serve one of the thousand and one god, rumored that is.¡± ¡°That sucks.¡± I reached over and grasped his hand, which I hoped was a genuine gesture. He looked up at me with a sort of pride and compassion. The look was over in a moment as his resolve returned. ¡°Anyway¡­.moving on to the important part. Cultivation!¡± Deaths Quartet- Chapter 8 ¡°Cultivation is the process of turning Potential, big ¡®P¡¯, into potential, little ¡®p¡¯.¡± Mord started in on his explanation. ¡°As you go out and do things, you will slowly gain External Potential. You will hear it called EXP, XP, or even experience. All living beings naturally accumulate it; most, however, cannot use it. Awakened, such as yourself, can circulate this potential through open nodes to enhance those nodes and make themselves better. All sentient beings have six locations through which they can cycle potential. These locations, or Loci, are called the six S¡¯s. Strength, speed, smarts, senses, stout, and spirit. I think those should all be self-explanatory, yes?¡± Mord looked to me with that question hanging. ¡°Makes sense to me, at least the stats do. Not sure about potential or how to circulate that. But the stats yeah they make sense.¡± It wasn¡¯t directly the stats I was used to from any of the game systems I knew but all S¡¯s sounded ok by some twist of logic. I was more interested in the cycling and expressed that to Mord. ¡°Ah, yes, but before we get to how to cultivate, that is, cycling XP through the loci, we need to talk about certain aspects. You grasped the concept of aspects creating reality quickly. Now, let''s talk about how the awakened can break that reality. Every individual is born with a maximum potential for cultivation. For most, unfortunately, as I said kind of before, it is below the threshold for awakening. For those, their threshold would be zero loci. With the potential to unlock at least one loci is the potential to be awakened. Now there is more about that but if you really want to know to ask an awakener. Just know that that potential for an unlock doesn¡¯t always happen. Back to loci and aspects.¡± He paused like he needed a breath or maybe just to give me an opportunity to ask a question. I knew from the first time I checked my menu that I had all six loci unlocked. Knowing that there were six stats attached to those loci probably meant something. I decided to play it cool and see what he knew about me and what was all academic. ¡°Moving on. As an awakened, I can tell you have at least one loci unlocked. Can you access the system?¡± So much for academics. I rechecked my menu; it was still there as a gray haze in the bottom of my vision. ¡°Does the system not appear the same to everyone?¡± I felt it was a fair question and would probably shore up at least one of the huge fucking gaps in my knowledge of my new home. ¡°Great question! Yes, the system does not always appear the same to each individual. It personalizes somewhat. Judging by your inquiry, I¡¯m assuming you have access, which is also not surprising as a paragon. I''m also assuming you have all six loci unlocked because that would otherwise be a waste of a paragon. I will tell you this, do not reveal how many loci you have unlocked, which ones they are, how they are aspected, or the true nature of your powers to anyone you do not fully trust. Your powers are your greatest secret; they are yours and yours alone.¡± Dire warning aside he said the word I was waiting for. ¡°Powers?¡± ¡°Yes, powers, you didn''t think a paragon would run around like a mortal, did you? This all plays into the Loci. Right now, your loci should be unaspected.¡± He paused. It sounded like a statement but could have been a question. I took it as a test and stayed quiet. After a second, he piped back up. ¡°Good. You were listening. But everything here is confidential. First, I¡¯m a dungeon, so I¡¯m not only stuck here, but you also can''t bribe me. Or coerce me. Those that could force me into divulging that information have other much easier ways of finding out. I won¡¯t ask too much, I promise, but I also want you to succeed. We will go on the assumption you have all six loci unlocked and unaspected. To get the full benefits and gain power, you not only have to channel Potential through the loci, making them stronger, but you will have to aspect them. There are two ways to aspect them. But, let¡¯s talk about potential first; I promise it makes more sense this way. Like your loci, there exists aspected and unaspected mana, but whereas aspected loci are stronger, unaspected potential is more powerful. It¡¯s also rarer to find in the world. Aspected potential is tied to the concepts in which it was used or how it existed in the world. Remember how I said all living things naturally accumulate potential? They also slowly change it. They¡­.flavor¡­.yes, flavor it with concept, and it gains that aspect. Depending on the concept that flavors aspected potential is how it will be absorbed. Now, if you cycle aspected potential through a Loci of that exact aspect, it will be very efficient and absorb rapidly. Like concepts, most aspected potential is more an amalgamation than a pure substance. Depending on the the Concept that aspects your loci and how you circulate it you will pull only so much from the potential. The waste potential accumulates in your body. It itself is harmless, but the more you have, the more attractive you will become to those looking for EXP.¡± I was not pleased by that last revelation. It made sense, but it also made me feel like cattle being fattened up for slaughter. Mord continued on despite my discomfort. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Unaspected Potential is the opposite. It is pure potential. The potential to be anything. It absorbs at a slower rate, but it will be absorbed by any loci. I have one last concept, pardon the pun, to add. That is what we commonly call affinity. Affinity only really matters in aspecting your unlocked loci, but it is important enough that it makes aspected and unaspected potential important. Affinity is your natural predisposition to certain concepts. If you circulate unaspected potential through an unaspected loci and have a high enough affinity with a concept, your loci will become aspected to that concept. It is possible to have multiple affinities. Generally, affinities are tied to specific loci, but your highest affinity will aspect to the loci you focus on first. This brings up the idea of forcing. Forcing is changing your natural ideal to something else. While you will be less powerful than your ideal self, you can be more effective at what you want to do. You can also do the reverse: cycle aspected potential through a loci to force it to gain that aspect regardless of affinity. You will probably have to do this anyway, as nobody has six affinities high enough. Clear as mud?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­mud¡­umm.¡± I kind of paused there, as I wasn''t certain what to do with all this knowledge. ¡°Oh yes¡­.powers. It''s really not an issue until you can get potential and then aspects, but since we are on the subject, I will explain. You have six loci, and each can give you six powers. You will often get two when you first aspect to the loci, and the others come as you cycle potential through the loci and make it stronger. The last power comes as you ¡®close out¡¯ the loci, and it becomes¡­.er¡­..solid. Now, a word to the wise is not to rush your powers.¡± ¡°Why is that?¡± my brain was in full salvation mode. I hadn¡¯t told Mord about completing part of a quest. Once he started explaining all of the rules I started to feel it. I could feel the loci in my body. It reminded me of a chakra poster on the wall of the yoga place a girl I was into worked at. I used to stare at it, waiting for her to get off, so we could both go and get off. I could even feel the unaspected EXP, like the waters of a warm hot tub sitting in the center of myself. Warm and comforting yet full of energy demanding release. I must have spaced out a little as Mord¡¯s cough brought me back to what was quickly becoming the best lecture I had ever sat in. Ahem ¡°Yes yes¡­.welcome back. It¡¯s a lot to take in, I know, but you will have time. And I¡¯ll say it again: take your time. Your actions will dictate your powers as they form. If you force them too early, you will get either weak powers or powers that don''t mesh well. If you progress slowly, your powers will develop properly. Think of them as fine spirits; they get better if you wait. And just because you don''t have power doesn''t mean you can''t use your aspects in a certain way. Powers are nice, easy patterns for your aspects, but they are tied to concepts more than you would believe. It¡¯s quite common for a power to develop after you have used an aspect in a novel way, especially if it is in reaction to a dire need.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a whole lot to take in. Even more so on top of the whole stuck-in-a-dungeon thing. Speaking of that. How long has it been since someone came through?¡± I asked gingerly. Mord took a few moments to ponder my question. He even did the "I''m thinking really hard" finger-tapping on the lip thing. He finally came to an answer. ¡°Oh, about fifty cycles.¡± Deaths Quartet- Chapter 9 ¡°Umm whats a cycle?¡± ¡°That is a good question for an Outworlder. We would need a frame of reference and then a lot of math I suppose¡± ¡°Ok¡­and do we have any of that?¡± I queried. ¡°I suspect not. ¡° The smug bastard had the audacity to be amused by that. He continued on. ¡° I think ill give you the basics. Are your peoples familiar with the motions of the heavenly spheres?¡± Oh god, I¡¯m stuck in a geocentric era. I thought to myself. If so, I''d has to watch what I said lest I get burned at the stake as a heretic. I wasn''t worried about Mord, though; if he wanted me dead young, Mord would have done it in the training room. ¡°If by ¡®heavenly spheres¡¯ you mean the planets and the stars, then yes. We are very aware. We also figured out that not only is our planet not the center of the universe, but neither is our sun.¡± I was maybe pushing it a little. Mord¡¯s smile and what appeared to be satisfaction put me at ease. ¡°Good¡­.good. Here I was worried that your people were burning heretics at the stake for saying the plane revolved around the sun¡± ¡°That common?¡± ¡°It was a good deal of time ago¡­¡­oh? Your people did it, too?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Such stupidity.¡± ¡°Double yep yep.¡± ¡°Ok, then this should be simple enough. I will keep it academic. If your people understand planetary motion, then¡­here we go. Andalisa, that is, the planet, has a steady rotational period broken into twenty-five ¡®hours.¡¯ I won''t break it down further as I don''t think we have a good frame of reference for that. Groupings of five days are called a ¡®week¡¯, and five of these weeks make a ¡®month¡¯. Andalisa has an elliptic orbit around our star, called ¡®Helio¡¯. Our months are grouped into five blocks of five called ¡®Seasons¡¯, and five seasons make a full ¡®Cycle.¡¯ Questions?¡± ¡°I think I got it. We use similar notation for our time periods.¡± This got Mord thinking for a second, after which, he piped up. ¡°You read one of the skill books in the gift of knowledge. These books can translate the language of unfamiliar words and phrases. Though we seem to be conversing fine, it''s likely already affecting how you think and speak. This is good. It will help you thro¡­¡­¡± About halfway through his explanation of language, the details hit me. Even if a local ¡®hour¡¯ was much shorter than Earth¡¯s, which I doubted due to planetary dynamics, their ¡®Cycles¡¯ were almost two years, and nobody had visited this place in fifty of them. A whole century had gone by since Mord had a guest before I showed up. I felt my stomach start to turn. ¡®Turn¡¯ was not the right word. I think it stayed put, and everything else started to spin. In the spinning, I reached for the only real and solid object I knew was in the room: the table. Thankfully, it was not an illusion. A hand on the solid wood surface kept me upright as my head hung below. I tried desperately not to hurl. I failed. As I stood back up, I wiped my hand across my mouth, wishing for something to wash the taste out of my mouth. My hands slid across the table and bumped into something. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Ah¡­.an interesting choice. And alas, that ends our lesson¡­.goodbye.¡± I barely heard Mord¡¯s words and turned just in time to see him wink out of existence. ¡°What choice?¡± I muttered to the room. I turned around and saw it. On the table, one of the three leather sacks remained. And just my luck, it was the smallest of the three. It was all too much. I collapsed to the ground. I almost landed in my own vomit, but some new instinct veered me off course at the last second. I was grateful for that. I don¡¯t know how long I sat there waiting for the world to make sense again. I broke down a few times. Mostly when I thought about how long I might be stuck in this dungeon. A hundred years since anyone visited; how many more before they found my corpse? Even if the recovery room could keep me going, I wasn¡¯t going to live forever. On the bright side, I¡¯d likely go insane before I died. Even If I could get Mord to talk more often, I wasn¡¯t a starship engineer, and there were no buxom babes to wake from hypersleep. I was royally fucked. It still took me a few more hours before I got over myself and stopped worrying. I couldn''t change what was only how I reacted to what was. I took a deep breath and ran my hands across the hafts of the blades at my sides. ¡°A century or not, this place has good loot. People will always seek out good loot.¡± Speaking of loot reminded me that I had some. I walked back over to the table and picked up the bag. Even though it was the smaller of the three, it still had some heft to it. It was enough that I severely regretted not giving myself a belt when I was back with Vex. Truthfully, I was more focused on easy removal than adventuring utility at the time. Nope, I still didn¡¯t regret it. I could still see her face smiling at me. I was tempted to try and remember more of our dalliance but figured I didn''t need any more sleepy time. Back to the bag at hand, I untied the drawstring and opened it. To no one''s surprise, it was filled with coins¡ªlots of coins, lots of different coins. I started sorting them. It was a fun little distraction. These coins were of vastly different shapes, sizes, and even colors. There were several that were more uniformly round and gold in color but still had different designs on them. I started to stack and sort them on the table. I figured I had a few hours before I had to hit the stairs and trigger a reset, and after everything, I needed a distraction. Treasure is always a nice distraction. All the coins had that nice solid feel of currency, and there was a certain appeal in holding a stack of gold coins. It was like ten heavy poker chips, and they made a satisfying ¡®click¡¯ as I riffled my finger across them. I quickly realize a pattern. I had ten of every coin. Nine even stacks of ten. Ninety coins. I couldn¡¯t help but grin. I was confident that the majority of stacks were gold. If I were home, I would call this a small windfall. Here though? I had no idea. Looking at the coins closer, they were not the same outside of general size and being made of precious metals. The designs and weights all differed. If I were looking at this back on earth, I would say the coins all came from different countries. I played with the coins for a good hour and committed their basic designs to memory. There were no markings to make out words or even denominations. I went to put them back in the sack when I noticed that a coin had slipped to the side when I dumped them all out. I only caught it by chance out of the side of my vision and only because it didn''t quite perfectly blend in with the wood table. It was trying very hard, though. Once I got a closer look, it was almost like it knew the gig was up, and it slowly turned back to a dull purple in color, with a flat, oval egg shape and a perfect hole bored in the middle. Honestly, it looked more like a rock than a coin. As I held it there in my hand, I noticed it started to shift in color if I held it very still for more than a few moments. This coin felt special. It felt like it had power. I started looking fervently for the others. This place had an odd symmetry about it, and I wanted my stack of ten magic rock coins. Despite what Mord had said about time, or perhaps in spite of it, I searched until I was so hungry I could almost not stand. I found nine of the rock coins fast enough, but the last one evaded me for what felt like days. I forced myself not to sleep and to keep going. I searched the table up, down, and sideways. I ran my fingers along every inch of the floor. I tore the bag apart, looking for it, with it both flat on the table and again on the floor. I even used it as a broom to try and sweep up the missing coin. I would pause every hour or so to recount my coins to make sure none had disappeared, or coin one hundred was hiding in the stack. I eventually gave up despite knowing that I would be locked out of this room forever. I needed to go. Mostly, I needed to not die. Malnutrition and dehydration are a bitch. I placed the coins back into the sack, tied it to one of my belt loops, and proceeded to the door handle. Deaths Quartet- Chapter 10 I entered the cave with the stairs with my shorts around my ankles. It honestly took me a second to realize that my pants were around my ankles because I was in the cave. I was supposed to be getting my ass kicked by Mord¡¯s younger self. But I was in the cave. Did I hit my head so hard that I forgot the training room? I hoped that two sessions weren¡¯t all I got. I knew the treasure room, like the rest, was a one-shot deal, but if I didn''t get to fight Mord, it would be a dull existence until my rescue. I was still delirious that I also missed that I missed the vending room. That was less of a loss. I can only window shop so much. While I did initially realize my pants were around my ankles, my revelation of missing two rooms distracted me. I was sharply reminded as I attempted to take a step. You guessed it. I woke up in a cave. After my impromptu nap, which was probably only a few seconds, I started up the stairs. I guess I lost a little weight since I made my shorts, so they were a little loose even after removing the two pounds of coinage. I eventually just carried the bag with one hand and my shorts in the other. I was alone in the cave, so there was nobody there to judge me on the state of my undies. It was after much trial and tribulation that I made it to the top. And much bitching. I was exhausted. You would think that a few pounds extra wouldn¡¯t hurt that much. It was a really long staircase. I lost track of how many times I switched hands with the coins. Both shoulders were on fire as I gained the last step. I collapsed at the top against the still-sealed door. I woke up in a gray room. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was no longer hungry, thirsty, or delirious. I wasn¡¯t sore, either. I was, however, still pantsed. My shorts were not with me. This was beyond mildly upsetting. I started to rant and rave about the injustice of it all. That lasted only a few minutes. I had lost my shorts, but my blades were still intact in their sheathes. I had shifted them to my shoulders at some point and failed to realize that they would have made a perfect belt. I put them back on my hips in a lament to my shorts. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. At least I was somewhat clean. While I felt like I could really use a shower and didn''t know when I had last put on deodorant, I didn''t smell too bad. I guess this room did everything. I was full. I was clean. I was rested. I was healed. I also wanted out of this fucking room. I didn¡¯t lunge for the door, though. The coin debacle almost made me forget Mord¡¯s lesson and the fact I had a burning ball of what I expected to be Potential and probably unaspected potential sitting right around my stomach. I went to pat it is a congratulatory manner when I felt something weird under my shirt. When did I get abs? I lifted my shirt, and sure enough, there was the starting of a six-pack. Did I always have these and now just burnt enough fat to set them free or was a getting stronger? Sexier? Curse this place and its lack of mirrors. I did a rough once over, getting very handsy with myself. Probably not as sexy as when Vex did it, but I think I finally got some of her joy. Thinking back to Vex gave me confidence. If I was her Paragon and that was as important as Mord made it out to be, I wouldn''t be stuck here forever. Hells, Mord even said gods had already intervened to keep me alive. I was here for a purpose. It all started to click. Mord taught me the basics of cultivating potential, even if he never explained how. He talked about circulating it through the ¡®loci¡¯, as he called them, and that they would get stronger. I glanced back at the menu and saw that I was still six of six unlocked. I had to try to circulate. However, one did that. Deaths Quartet- Chapter 11 I quickly owned up to the fact that I was not secretly a Buddhist monk gifted with the path of enlightenment. Hell, I was the kind of guy to take a yoga class to stare at asses and play ¡®panty or no panty?¡¯ for all the girls in the class. I was always kind and respectful, though. That counts, right? Regardless of previous failings, I was stuck with my current one. How precisely in the fuck do you cultivate? Mord told me it was cycling my gained potential through my loci, and I kinda had the dharmic vision when he talked about it. So I had a starting point and a destination but now how to move A to B? What felt like four hours later, I was still stumped. I sat there for that long, and I couldn¡¯t even get the weird vision to come back. I would like to think I had patience, but not that much. I thought about going for another bout with young Mord, but I was not certain I wouldn''t just end up back in the cave and, you know, fuck those stairs right now and forever. Regardless, I needed to get up and move. The room wasn¡¯t huge by any means, but I paced around it for a bit. The pacing became a light jog. The jog? It became a door to fuck off door sprint. I had boundless energy in this room. It must have been providing it directly. After twenty straight minutes of running, sprinting really, I was barely winded. I rolled my shoulders and started doing pushups. It was somewhere around pushup two hundred that I had my epiphany. As I got into the rhythm of the up and down, I closed my eyes and focused just on the motion and my breathing. Just the simple mechanics of it. I felt the warmth of my muscles moving and even started to get a feel for my blood flowing. I could feel it hit my lungs and even feel the relief as the air exchanged before each exhale. That¡¯s when I started to feel another warmth. I started to fall back into the chakra vision I had had with Mord. I could feel one of those points glowing and growing stronger. It started pulsing in time with my push-ups. The more I focused on it, the more I felt it. I could feel it; the best I could describe is pulling, pulling on something. After another ten or so reps, I could feel it start to hurt. It was like trying to breathe with a hand over your mouth. It needed air, but the problem was that I had none. Or did I? I pushed harder and faster, making it want more. The harder I pushed, the harder it pulled. It pulled and I pushed until something broke. That warm hot tub feeling that I had before felt like a zip popping, and all that warmth rushed out and hit the loci like a freight train. The sense of relief was intense; it washed over me like a hot shower after a walk in frozen tundra. I felt every part of my body come alive, every muscle rippled with strength, and I felt like I could bench press a house. As I finally got control of the hot tub source and cut it off, I collapsed to the ground, muscles spent. It was fucking nap time. I woke sometime later, but I felt way different. I went to get up and was caught by a strange dis-symmetry. I felt like I stood in an instant but also like it took a very long time. It was like my motions were fast, but my ability to see and think was even faster. It was experiment time. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I walked back over to the coin bag and fished out a fancy gold coin. I gave it a good flip and was amazed that it flipped normally. Did I say amazed? I meant unimpressed. That was until I went to catch it. As soon as I had the desire to catch it, it was in my hand, but I had watched it as time basically slowed down for me to catch it. Several tries later, I realized that I was much faster, but I could still function in normal time. This gave me a sense of slowed time, where I moved at the same speed but everything else slowed down. I took the opportunity to gently toss the coin across the room and catch it. I may have gone and had a little fun running and playing catch with myself. I even tried to juggle. I could catch the coins all right, but it all felt out of synch as I couldn''t follow them as fast as I could move my hand to them. I was pretty certain I had just aspected one of my stats. Given that I couldn''t actually bench a house but could stop time, I was betting it was my speed loci. If I was right, I had unlocked my ability to cultivate. I could feel the point that everything had flowed through. It was glowing brighter than the rest. I could see them all now. I could feel them all now. The one I had just used being Speed, just felt right. I was certain that if I focused on any of them, I could identify which they were. I felt down into the hot tub, and it was noticeably lower but far from empty. At this point, I felt I could just pull the water up and through any of the loci as I pleased. Before I would do that, I had to be certain. Time to see if my interface power worked as I hoped. I focused on the gray haze at the bottom of my vision and, this time, kept the ideas of aspects and loci in my mind. I was greeted by a message First Loci aspected. The loci of Speed has gained the Rune aspect. You have gained two powers. Focus more potential through this loci to enhance your speed attributes, strengthen your powers, and gain new ones. Ability gained! Rune Magic- Allows for the use of Runes. Runes can be used to create individual or linked spells and spell-like effects. Ability gained! Inscribe Rune- allows for the inscribing of Runes on objects. I was a fucking spell caster. I wanted to do a backflip but quickly tempered myself with some horrifying knowledge. It was a horror of three parts. First was Mord¡¯s concept of forcing. I could not be certain that the hot tub wasn''t full of Runic EXP and that in doing the push-up and sprint method, I hadn''t focused on primary stat loci, and if speed was my primary stat, how were runes my greatest affinity? Second, I had no idea how to highlight some of the obscure stats like spirit. And finally, third, what the fuck were runes? I mean, I kinda knew of runes like the tribal tats that some white guys used to pass themselves off as some sort of alpha-male Vikings or some shit but beyond random symbols and archaic language, I had no ideas. Was the At symbol a rune? I giggled as I envisioned myself writing in emojis and leet speek on a rock and it is becoming a super weapon or something. I resigned breath, brought me back to reality and not knowing what I didn''t know. I rolled my neck and shoulders and decided I needed to see if I could get another round with either of the Mords before I tried anything else. As I walked towards the door to exit the recovery room, I smiled. For the first time, reality hit me. I had superpowers. Fuck yeah. Deaths Quartet- Chapter 12 After the, quickly becoming familiar, teleport I found myself in the training room. Mord Jr was in his customary place in the middle of the room. He had his favorite fuck-me-up stick at the ready. I sent my bag of coins down and grabbed the hafts of my blades, only for him to gesture for me to stop. Hand outstretched, he snapped his staff into a comfortable carry pose. What should have been an instant action was long enough for me to see his muscles working. He nonchalantly walked up to me and looked me dead in the eyes. His gaze grew tighter as he squinted just a little. His hand shot up and grabbed my chin, and I felt the time stop trigger, but his hand was faster still. This shocked me a lot, and I¡¯m pretty sure it registered on my face as he dropped my chin and took a step back. ¡°Speed is good. Good for a first. Try to keep up.¡± I did not keep up. Any success I had before was quickly shown as him having pity on me. Even the stab, I¡¯m sure he could have dodged as quickly as he was moving. I tried dozens of different attacks, some guided by the knowledge stuck in my head and others out of desperation. I¡¯m pretty sure that I tried an illegal crane kick at some point that ended up with Mord laughing down at me after unceremoniously dumping me on my ass. ¡°Is good. Need to focus more on Way. Need to know it here but feel it here.¡± He punctuated his ¡®here¡¯s with taps to my head and chest. ¡°It''s so much different talking to you here than in the other room, " I said. His laughter was quite loud. ¡°Is because is not the same. We have ability. Allows for two people of one. One scholar. One warrior,¡± he thumped his chest, obviously referring to himself as the latter. ¡°I thought you weren¡¯t supposed to tell people about your abilities?¡± ¡°Is different here. We..we trust. You no able harm me.¡± He gestured around the room. ¡°And who I tell? No one ever come. If so I keep secret. But you still no tell. Is good practice. And I¡­I no tell what I learn from making you nap. Now you go. Come back when you no gain more. I think you might Ascend. If so¡­.maybe you beat me¡­..no even then you nap¡± He gestured to the door. It may have been a short sparring session, but I felt so confident grabbing the handle to teleport that I was ready to sprint the stairs. Alas, there were no stairs. I was back in the vending room, which, after the post-combat high and wanting to sprint the stairs, was almost a letdown. After a second, the relief kicked in. Maybe I could get something new from studying the machines and their contents even if I didn''t have money. Or did I? The Vending room remained unchanged. After I took additional time to examine everything, the numbers started to make more sense, and I got more distinct feelings about the meanings of the words on the other items. I took a good bit of time in front of some of the potions. One of the machines had a variety of different colors and bottle shapes. The labels still didn¡¯t make too much sense to me. The prices, if my grasp of numbers was accurate, were astronomical. My RPG brain kicked in, and I instantly thought of single-use power-up potions. This kinda made sense, given that the other machine had potions of an expected color variety¡ªthe typical red, blue, and green. The ones in this machine were all in fancier bottles and had a variety of symbols on their fronts. There were no twisty tops here; they were all corks with fancy wax and impressed seals. Given that the numbers under these bottles, still unintelligible, were in the three and four digits, they were out of my price range. I had precisely zero digits. I was walking past the last vending machine when a small rock caught my eye. It had a symbol of the front. It was glowing. This was new. Not in it was a new item but the glowing symbol. I remember seeing the rock before and thought it was some sort of crafting resource, but now the symbol on the front was glowing in my sight. The longer I looked, the less it was glowing and the more it looked like it was highlighted. The front glass still made it a little fuzzy, but I could tell this was something important. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! I was surprised at how long it took me to realize what the symbol was. I had just gained a power called Runic Magic, and now a symbol I had never seen before or even noticed was glowing. Yeah, I could do that math. This was a rune. I had to have it. Breaking in was out of the question, mostly because I¡¯d tried that already. I looked at the price, and surprisingly, it was a single digit. The digit was simple, too¡ªjust a lineup and down with another across the top like an inverted L. I stared at it for a good while, trying to will the number to pop into my head. I wasn''t going to give up easily. After failing on the number, I decided on the ¡®let''s try something crazy¡¯ method. I put my coin bag on the ground and started to fish out coins. I was surprised when the first one I tried slipped gently into the slot on the machine. Still, nothing happened. I tried tapping on the mechanism but heard nothing. I tried pulling the handle under the stone, and it was still locked in place. I would have tried shaking the machine, but previous experience had already taught me that it didn''t budge. I was left with one recourse: I pushed the button near the coin slot. Finally, something happened. It was my fear, though. A coin rattled through the machine, making a dull thud in the tray near the bottom. I had found the coin return. I tried all the others with the same result. Then I remembered the sneaky coins. It took a good half-minute to find one of the bastards hanging out in a stack of gold coins. I wasn¡¯t going to try the rock coins because they were the wrong size for the slots. Of course, that means it went into the machine perfectly. Unlike the previous nine coins I had tried that sounded like they went in and just stuck in place, the rock coin was like dropping in a battery. The machine came alive and lit up. A little light projected on each of the items like a fancy fashion store window display. More than this, the handles also lit up. All of them were red, except one, the one I wanted. I figured out that the little rock coins were the Obols Mord was talking about and that the L symbol was a ¡®one¡¯. I grabbed the now-green handle and pulled it out. Just like the old-time vending machines, these looked like the pull of the handle bumped the rock off the shelf and into the tray below. I greedily grabbed my new rock and held it close to my chest like it was my precious. I could feel it in my hand more than just the rough stone. I could feel the power contained in it. I also felt as if I knew exactly how to use it. If I squeezed it hard, pushed on it with my thoughts, and threw it, wherever it landed would be engulfed in flames. It was like I could see the purpose and design behind it. It was an incendiary grenade, but magic style. I was exceptionally happy with my purchase and was tempted to buy more. Oh, so very tempted. I even chased down the eight remaining coins and started to look at prices. Looking over the prices I started to notice some differences in the ones with multiple digits. The digits were different colors. Some of the digits were very simple; I even saw a few more ones, and some were very complex. I knew I had seen it before. We had it back on earth. Some monks had created a notation of up to ten thousand with a single character. The numbers didn¡¯t make sense anymore now that I guessed that, but the concept did. They required multiple types of currencies for what might have been the best items. I didn''t know what those currencies were or exactly what numbers were represented, but I wasn¡¯t going to find out sitting here. I wanted to experiment with other coins on the machines that had them when I returned to the machine that gave me the grenade rock. It place was still empty. What made matters worse was that the number underneath it was gone, also. I didn''t have a frame of reference, except that maybe I could use the shift coins for the last digit and only if that digit was the now unknown color. The majority of the items in the rock¡¯s case had either a single purple digit or a purple digit to the right. Looking across the other machines, I noticed that it was common for a purple digit to appear in that last place. So it looked like I needed a lot more shifty coins. I had eight left, and I found several items that I could probably get with just those coins. I held off on buying them, though. Mord had said I could aspect Loci with EXP, and I could still feel the hot tub had water in it, so I didn''t want to try and spend my coins until I was out of other things to do. I was hoping that I would get at least one new power that could be the key. The rune stuck out after I got my runic magic skill, so who knew what was next? I could still feel that pathway, and I just knew I could cycle all that potential through my Speed Loci and probably fill it halfway if I tried. I added my rock to my bag of coins and headed to the door. The cool wash of teleportation was a welcome familiar sensation. After that, I was greeted by the cave. I was hoping my shorts were at the top. They were not. Deaths Quartet- Chapter 13 I was miffed about my shorts, but upon returning to the first room and waking up, I was determined to focus on circulating my EXP through my other loci and seeing how many I could aspect. If I was in a fantasy game world, I wanted some fantasy game powers. I tried to focus on the feeling that I had doing the push-ups and letting the hot tub flow. It was easier said than done. It took me a good deal of time to get the image of loci into my head. Every time I started to get the image, I would lose it, like a soap bubble popping in my mind. It was like I''d just get started, and I would start to anticipate the powers I would get, and it would all fall apart. I needed to calm down. I tried to do the lotus pose that the yoga instructor (no panties) started us with. It did not work very well. Mainly because every time I sat in that position, I would remember the class and start doing math on the ratio of panty vs. no panties and the correlation of hotness to panty wear. While that was very distracting, what came next tipped me over the edge. I must have started to drift into sleep because slowly, one by one, the girls in the memory of the class disappeared. I mean, I''m pretty sure there were guys in the class, too, but I don''t think they made it into my spank¡­I mean memory bank. One by one, they disappeared, and then it was just the instructor and me. She was in a downward pose, the dog, I think, with her ass up in the air. I was trying to replicate the position while not breaking eye-to-ass contact. I had to check if my feet were in the right position and make sure my shorts were adequate coverage. As I tilted my head back up, my eyes traced her leg line up. From the black Converse, up the fishnet on pale skin to just where the thigh-high stopped and the dress began. I was trying to redetermine panty or not when she giggled a familiar giggle, and suddenly, the scene shifted. I was quickly very small, or Vex was very large. So large that I was in my ridiculous pose in her hand as she lifted me up to her face. I could still see the electric blue in her eyes. It was faint, but it was there. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°Hello, blue eyes.¡± I tried nonchalantly. And failed. I did at least shift back to Lotus. I even think I did it correctly. No-panties the instructor would be proud. Vex even had the presence to blush. Blush and giggle. Mind you, a giggle from a hundred-plus-foot-tall full-on god is something to behold. ¡°You are one of a very few to see even the hint of blue. Of those, you are the only one still alive. And the full blue is yours alone.¡± To emphasize this, her eyes flashed the full blue I knew before settling just to the hint of it. ¡°So you can talk to me?¡± ¡°Alas, only after certain thresholds have been met. If you want another face-to-face or face-to-¡­, you will need to get stronger.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± I even saluted her, and her innuendo was not lost on me. ¡°You have done well, my paragon, but I''m only allowed a moment to congratulate you on your first Aspect. Runes, eh? I am excited to see what you do with them. Make me proud!¡± She punctuated her pride by bringing me to her face and giving me a kiss¡ªa kiss that was somehow both one hundred feet tall and five at the same time. Needless to say¡­.I woke up in a gray room.