From the shadows, Alex watched the manor with the wine cellar. Dried lawns and crusty gardens gave it a meager berth to its neighboring buildings, but it still stuck out like a sore thumb with its proximity to the town plaza and poorer neighborhoods. It was a message, clearly. But whether that message was: “Hey, I’m one of you guys” or: “Witness my wealth, morons”, was something Alex couldn’t tell.
Regardless, it’d been close to twenty-seven minutes since the scenario had started, and the effort he’d put forth into dividing his foes’ attention showed clear results now. There were less undead patrolling this block than there otherwise would have been; which was good, because even with Stealth, his breath now pulsed and swelled with the cadence of an exerted, living creature.
Opting not to trigger the porch-light’s motion sensors this time, he climbed clumsily onto the balcony and shattered the windows, panting as he stepped into the master bedroom.
Stamina: 9%
Sheer silence.
There were no creaking floorboards, no hushed breathing, no sign that anyone had passed through here tonight but him. Still, he crept open the hallway door cautiously, remembering how his last break-and-enter had gone.
The corridor’s cob-webbed shadows blended with the darkening edges of Alex’s vision. Candle sconces decorated the walls, unlit, and the floor was lined with carpets that must’ve once been red but had since begun to brown. As expected of a place housing a personal wine cellar, the interior decor was significantly more extravagant than the other homes. The walls were mounted with various trophies—which gave him a soft jolt before he realized they were only dead.
Something about this place invoked some nostalgia, and Alex couldn’t for the life of him figure out why.
The halls led into a grand platform hovering invitingly above the manor’s foyer and a large display case—the width of a suit of armor and almost ten-feet in height—stood shattered and emptied to his left. Moonlight rained on the back wall and Alex saw a portrait of the manor’s owner. He was a giant of a man, with red, free-flowing hair, and a strong jawline embellishing his noble look. His appearance instantly reminded Alex of the Guild Master, but on closer inspection, it wasn’t him.
Sorrow. Utter sorrow and melancholy weighed heavy on his bones.
“I need you to speak to me,” he said, brushing his sword. “If I’m going crazy, then that’s something I need to know now. Before it becomes a problem.”
She didn’t respond.
“May I take your silence to mean that you’re okay with what I’m about to do?”
She answered with more silence. Alex sighed. It might just be that he really was going crazy. It wasn’t like with Lys. He’d known with Lys—had felt her—even if it took him until the very end to understand what she was saying.
He rubbed his temple, forcing calm onto his growing migraine, then let out a long, tired exhale as he walked down the grand staircase. He was here for a purpose, and in his condition, turning back wasn’t really an option anymore.
Just see this through before you grow any more delirious.
You have reached the quota for your second reward.
Please choose a weapon up to 5,000 EC in value.
Alex activated his reward, searching the shop for the very last weapon he’d have thought of using for this scenario.
Your prize has been transferred to your inventory.
Finally, he felt a slight dissatisfaction as his sword quivered by his side—quiet, and barely perceivable.
“I know,” he said. “I’m not happy about this either.”
Cozied behind the foyer’s left-clinging staircase, there was a lounge with decadent furniture and an antique rug. He began pushing the furniture out of his way when a slight shimmer caught his eye. He picked up a dusty mirror, averting his gaze.
This is lined with silver, isn’t it?
He looked around and the entire mansion glimmered in a way he hadn’t noticed before. Despite his tiredness, he spared half a minute to loot every bit of silver he could before returning to the bare carpet. It was heavier than it looked, and his muscles tensed as he hefted and rolled it. He stifled a violent cough as dust shook free and quickly vanished it to his inventory, revealing the trapdoor underneath. Beneath that trapdoor was the cellar. And beyond the cellar, hidden behind empty crates and spoiled sacks of flour, were the tunnels.
He stumbled in the dark, moving those from the cellar’s far wall. Then he kicked it. The wood crunched as he pried apart rotten planks, picking out splinters from his hands all the while. The broken wall revealed the hidden passage. He stared down its length, and as expected, only silence stared back.
“I guess it really is just you and me,” he whispered.
His sword whispered nothing back.
Or just me.
Stamina: 7%
Alex sat criss-cross-apple-sauce smack-dab in the middle of the foyer now, hunched over a cheap floral-decorated china-bowl that he’d once used solely to enjoy his ramen with. Just like every other plan he’d conceived on less than 10% stamina, this one was unhinged, and his margin for error would only grow stricter the more tired he got.
He quickly got to work, and summoned one ziplocc’s-worth portion of icy-blue powder and dumped it into the bowl.
Black Scale Powder
A powder ground from a Blackfrost Salamander’s scales. It will evaporate into flammable vapor upon contact with fire, increasing its potency and duration.
Considered safe for use up to 3 years after death.
As he’d learned the hard way, this shit was potent, but it was still a fire enhancer, not a fire starter. Whatever he added it to would quickly burn past its natural capacity, but the fire would still be confined to its source.
Next he added a black, shimmering powder to cut it with, stirring the mixture with chop-sticks.
[Crushed Charcoal]
Thirty-percent? No… Thirty-five? Damn… I should’ve compared the two in their ziploc baggies before pouring them.
He brought out a table-spoon, but deemed that it was a little too late, a little too time consuming to start precisely measuring his ingredients. He was a professional eye-baller anyway. He replaced the table-spoon with a pair of pliers from his inventory and began working on the final ingredient.
His hands shook. His heart beat as though trying to overclock itself. He tried to keep himself steady, working gingerly as he added the final ingredient in small increments—a pinch of powder every twenty seconds or so as he tossed aside the containers with a dull clink.
Stamina: 6%
About halfway through the process, Alex finally acknowledged that he was out of his depth. He knew his elements, but his knowledge skewed more towards metallurgy rather than whatever the fuck this was, so he ran through his calculations one final time.
He wanted something big, but not terrifyingly so. Fast, but not so fast that it spread to the nearby buildings. They were tightly packed this close to the plaza, and he’d witnessed enough horror stories to know where that led.
But he’d taken that all into account beforehand.
The manor was just a touch more isolated than the ones surrounding it. Plus, the river that cut through the town from the northern mountains was only a block from here. These undead weren’t stupid, they’d know what to do.
31:29
Alright, looks good.
Alex stood and spaced the powder mixture into small piles around the room, thinning it the farther it got from the door. Then he summoned a bottle to his hand.
[Whisky]
Examine.
100 Proof. 50% ABV
Nodding in satisfaction, he poured the contents out in trails from the powder mounds, all over the foyer’s main carpet. He also had bottles of gin, rum, vodka and other spirits his roommate had developed a taste for during his time as a bartender.
Cameron… I wonder how he’s doing.
No, it was probably better he didn’t know. Cameron would no doubt be angry over his heist, but he’d left the man enough alcohol to drink himself to death if it came down to that.
As the last drop of rum emptied out, Alex felt none of the remorse he would’ve actually felt in his twenties, and he tossed the bottle aside. It clinked against discarded metal casings, and he stepped back until he stood right next to the cellar’s door. Latched, to avoid suspicion.
Then, much to his sword’s annoyance, he summoned his other weapon.
32:13
In the moment of truth, a man had to face his demons. The truth was, Alex knew it was smarter to just spend the night in that cellar and wake up refreshed and to easier pickings. Undead were weaker in full sunlight, and far easier to hunt.
In truth, he was merely angry.
There was a method to the madness that made up Nightmare; a purpose behind it all. There were detailed designs underlying the Scenarios, a lesson to learn from each—should you survive them. And Nightmare’s Architects did their damnedest in bending the System to make sure you survived them their way.
The expired black scale powder, the shitty blacksmith tools, weapons that were only rewarded after fighting your way through hell. These were all a means to the end that they desired. And in no way was his current actions in line with that vision.
Yet, you bastards provided me with all the tools I needed.
Alex lifted his Glock and shot his remaining clip into the roof.
The shots popped like thunder against silent night, the impact jutting into his muscles as he kept his arm steady. More shells fell smoking to the ground besides the ones he’d pried open, and he continued shooting until it was pointless to any longer. If a single soul in this town didn’t know where he was by that point, then they’d had to have been deaf before they died.
He removed the makeshift earplugs from his ears and only had to wait a few seconds before a thud came at the door. A couple seconds more, and they were already tearing away at the poor thing. As the defense gave, Alex saw a captain at their head. He put some distance between him and them, patting off the layer of dust that caked his ass.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Dust? Oh…
He barely restrained a grimace as they filed into the living room, trying to surround him. They were cautious of him still, and he utilized the time that bought him as he waited for more to arrive.
A captain, two adventurers… a third, seven townsfolk… nine… eleven—
“Enough!” Alex shouted. He snaked his sword out in a shrill warning, and an undead that had been edging too close stumbled back in shock.
The whole wave faltered, stopping any of their momentum at the door. The three adventurers stayed where they stood, along with their captain. One of them was a mage. Alex extended his senses until he felt the fire aspect that hummed in her mana. He struggled not to laugh at what would happen if she tried anything.
“Enough?” the captain snarled. “You don’t order my—”
A bullet to the head cut his words short.
Alex pulled the trigger a few more times, but all he heard was blank clicks. Unsurprisingly, all the shot did was wedge a chunk of metal into his flesh covered forehead. That, and infuriate him further.
Guns. The undead. Bad matchup.
“You!”
“No you!” Alex shouted.
He stopped playing with his food and threw the damn torch at their feet.
The entire world went to hell in an instant. There was a brief moment where the undead looked on with shock written in their eye holes—then a flash fire raged towards Alex. Dust went airborne in a blaze and he launched himself behind the stairwell—heat scathing his back—and opened the trapdoor, sprinting thirty paces down the stone tunnels before stopping to catch his breath.
3 Undead Adventurers have been burned unalive!
+300 Essence Crystals
+9 Points
Undead Captain Lysander has been burned unalive!
+500 Essence Crystals
+10 Points
11 Undead Townsfolk have been burned unalive!
+330 Essence Crystals
+11 Points
A flurry of notifications flashed across Alex’s kill feed, but his mind’s eye was glued elsewhere, still witnessing that orange fury. The flesh had gone first. Whatever fat that had clung to their ragged bones, whatever traces of skin still patched their limbs—if the unholy creatures had any water content left on their person, that all evaporated with it.
He hadn’t stuck around to see the rest, but he imagined the tougher pieces were next. The muscle and sinew holding their forms together—the flames would slowly burn through it all, like a wick making its way through a candle. Once that happened, the undead would simply collapse into misshapen bones on the floor.
And…the fire probably wouldn’t stop there.
New Achievement:
[Hellfire]
You have burned 15 Undead Creatures to a cinder with a single flame.
+200 Essence Crystals
Alex hardly processed the achievement; he slumped against the tunnel wall, contending with his overwhelming exhaustion, existential terror, and an aching sadness. They hadn’t been cleansed, he thought, a tear streaming down his cheek.
“Yeah…I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I had no choice.”
He brushed his sword’s spine. The unexpected scale of this fire was a problem for multiple reasons, but Alex’s mind was running purely on fumes, and he was burning the last dredges of his stamina merely by existing. For the moment, he preoccupied himself with changing that.
Congratulations! You have reached the quota for your third reward!
High-grade Potion Set
3x Health Potion
3x Stamina Potion
3x Mana Potion
It was dark enough he had to use Identify to find the right bottle.
Stamina is recovering.
5%...
8%...
He sighed in relief, the empty vial clanking against the stone tile.
An indeterminable amount of time later, the first thought that came to his mind was: Shit. He’d fucked up. Unhinged had been an understatement to describe this plan. The dust wasn’t the real issue, it was his addled brain and exhaustion that was at fault for overlooking something so damn obvious. Frankly, it was a problem he was tired of having.
29%...
Ah right, I have my timer…
35:01
Over a fourth of my stamina recovered in under three minutes… High grade potions, what a luxury.
He stared blankly at the wall opposite him.
An Undead Townsfolk has been burned unalive!
+30 Essence
+1 Point
Points towards the next reward: 81/100
The thought echoed again, louder this time: Shit!
Alex heaved himself to his feet, walking further down the tunnel. If the Fallen Feather of the Phoenix Refinement-technique had been the crown jewel from all his research on Uern, then finding that text detailing the Blacksmith-Warrior Class requirement had been the complete opposite. He’d legitimately wondered if Orion had kept tabs on him, and placed it in his path just to taunt him—but that was unlikely.
“To achieve the Blacksmith-Warrior class, one must not only acquire the proper balance of Blacksmith and Warrior skills, but also craft their own weapon and acquire the majority of their Essence through its singular use.”
Two Undead Townsfolk have been burned unalive!
+60 Essence
+2 Points
An Undead Adventurer has been burned unalive!
+100 Essence
+1 Point
Alex hurried through the math as he picked up his pace, tracing the tunnel’s decoratively carved walls while waiting for his eye-sight to adjust. He’d just received a lump sum of nearly 1,600 Essence Crystals from that explosion, and prior to this night he’d earned… What was it? 5,000? 5,100? So roughly 6,700 of his Essence towards Level 15 had come from means beyond his undeath’s bane.
Whereas the amount he’d reaped through cleansing was only 1,580 Essence.
Balance: 3,040 Essence Crystals
Show me my Level costs!
Essence required to Level 11: 1,500
Essence required to Level 12: 1,750
Essence required to Level 13: 2,000
Essence required to Level 14: 2,300
Essence required to Level 15: 2,600
Alex scrolled through, quickly doing the math in his head. He’d been reserving Essence for later since he didn’t need more stat boosts in Fortitude, but he already had almost enough to reach Level 12. That left the last three levels, and about… seven-thous—
He stumbled mid-thought over something lying at his feet. Squinting through the dark, he tried to make out—oh, you idiot! You packed a flashlight!
He summoned it to his hand.
Corpse of Undead Captain
Status: Decaying
What the fuck?!
The Undead Captain stared up at Alex from between his legs and he nearly fell back on his ass. But… right, these tunnels hadn’t been empty of threats. He remembered that, but still, he’d thought no one had made it out this time… Or rather, even when they’d managed to escape in his last life, they’d made it a point to avoid conflict as much as possible…
Or no… they did but he was still overlooking something, wasn’t he? There’d been someone unaccounted for in his last life. When the scenario had ended, it’d said there were five survivors, but Alex had left these tunnels with only three of them. All these years, he’d just assumed that fat woman had made it out afterall, but…
He shone the flashlight further down the tunnel, searching for anything still moving. He only found more corpses. They were fresh kills, still in the final process of decay—albeit, at a faster rate than the Captain since they were lower level. Beyond that, it was the even rate at which they dissipated that bothered Alex the most. They’d have to have been killed within seconds of each-other and he just couldn’t imagine that poor blubbering woman to be capable of—
An Undead Townsfolk has been burned unalive!
+30 Essence
+1 Point
Seven-thousand-eighty Essence!
Alex finally finished calculating how much more Essence he needed to hit level 15. He let out a breath, moving on. Whatever happened here, he wanted no part in it. Navigating this maze without a map was already a nuisance and he had no time to waste on distractions. As it was, if he lost even 900 or so more Essence to the flames, he’d fail to meet the requirement for Blacksmith-Warrior.
No… to begin with, that text was only conjecture. ‘Majority’ could mean 60% or even 70%! Am I already too late?!
He broke into a run, wincing as another Undead passed away. He turned left, then right, then straight, trying his damndest to keep a map of the world above in his head; paying any attention to the tunnels themselves would only get himself lost. As he ran, he began to notice something… odd.
It didn’t hurt…It wasn’t murky…
That is to say… his body moved without aching; his thoughts flowed effortlessly. Until this very moment, he’d just taken that for granted. It’d stopped occurring to him that existing shouldn’t require so much effort. But now…
Alex laughed, stale air whipping past in his face as he sprinted faster. Why? Just for fun! Before, he’d have needed a reason to push himself like that! How?! How hadn’t he noticed just how much each movement, each deliberation, had taxed him? That wasn’t normal!
But now, it was as though that invisible price had been lifted; And despite himself, Alex felt a bit of joy in that little freedom. Majority meant majority, he decided. That’s what it meant in the Oxford dictionary, and the definition didn’t differ much in the Universal one. And Level fifteen… he could manage that, couldn’t he? Even without facing the boss, it should be possible. Why had he ever thought that he couldn’t?
The sound of running water brought him back to his senses. But yeah… It’ll be tight. I need to hurry.
He followed that sound straight, then right, then straight, then left again to a dead-end, reversed himself, then took a right and headed straight, away from the sound, before taking another left and coming across another tunnel—this one dug roughly and not laid with stone. Here, the sound of rushing water was strongest.
39:21
Less than five minutes?
He was briefly impressed with his timely navigation, but he knew it still wasn’t fast enough. Three more Undead had killed themselves in that time, for which the System mistakenly gave him credit.
He could tell things had to be hell up there from the shouts and yells he was already hearing. The sound of the river was still dull, separated by meters of sand and gravel, but in front of Alex lay an aquifer full of murky water. A rope dangled into it and he quickly jerked his hand back as the rope began to move.
“Dammit! Which of you fuckwits cut the well’s rope!” A shout echoed.
Oh…that was me, wasn’t it?
Alex peered up a cylindrical, stone-laid passage. He could already see shadows playing across the well’s lip from the fire raging nearby.
“It’s spreading!” Someone shrieked.
“Not in my town, it don’t! Somebody, figure out what to do!”
The nearest voice echoed again down the well’s walls. “What we need to do is put it out! But look at this! Some fuckwit—”
Alex sliced his blade through the man’s head as he heaved himself out. “Are you guys fucking stupid?! There’s a river right over there!”
He jabbed his blade in the direction of the canal just a few houses over. The fifty or so Undead gathered around the well in the plaza center just stared at him as the man's corpse fell.
“Well don’t stand around gawking!” Alex scolded. “Hurry! Do you want to see this place burn?!”
Half of the idiots hurried off in the direction his blade pointed. The other half continued standing around, gawking. All the buildings around the mansion were consumed by flames, and the wind carried the fire’s embers across streets, starting new ones. This town was a little beyond saving already.
He cringed as he spied someone charging bravely into the blazing mansion with a pale of water.
An Undead Townsfolk has been burned unalive!
+30 Essence
+1 Point
Why did I ever put my faith in these things?
The undead were as intelligent as they were in life, but Alex had forgotten something else important—most humans were idiots.
“I take it you’re the filthy arson who caused this?”
A large undead barreled his way to the front of the crowd. Those who remained raised their weapons, growing increasingly hostile and one of the other adventurers edged closer to Alex—only to be picked up and hurled into the flames by the larger undead—causing him to wince.
“Nobody touch him!” The undead shouted. “He’s mine!”
Gugani Level 10
Captain-Rank, Undead
The Captain sneered at him. Once Alex recovered from the mental damage by the poor Adventurer’s fate, he smiled. Now this is the kind of idiocy I could get behind.
He readied his blade, feeling another pang of sadness from her as that Adventurer finally died to the flames. And then, a little bit of anger, and grim determination that was his own.
Don’t worry, he reassured her, there’s still plenty left to cleanse.
3,250 Essence Crystals have been Consumed.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Alert: You have entered a Charged state.
