Langa dashed forward into the red curtain so that he could see what was behind there. He expected to find the defiled altar, but instead, behind that curtain was a giant hole on the floor, leading down. He frowned, peering down there, and it seemed as if there were rooms below the temple. So, he needed to get down there, but no matter how he looked, there was no ramp or stairs. He guessed that Karisha did not need stairs since she was a werewolf. The black strands of karma seemed to be coming from down there, which meant that the altar was also down there.

Damn it! Langa gripped Tonare, the blade facing downwards, and jumped down. Tonare hit the ground first, and Langa tried to balance on the spear but the force of the fall sent him tumbling down, and he rolled on the ground to find his balance. At least he only lost 12HP. He stood up, and discovered that the hole was not deep at all, maybe 7 to 8 metres below the temple. Looking around him, he saw that he was in a dimly lit passageway with only one visible door to the left.

Black strands sifted leisurely from inside that door, moving along the hallway, and going up into the temple. This must be where Karisha was getting her karma. The ground was made of stone, and Langa walked quietly on top of it towards the door. He held Tonare ready in his hands. There was no way for him to be subtle about this, so he kicked the door open.

When Langa saw what was inside that room, his jaw dropped. He was sure that he had walked into some kind of crazy Satanic ritual. Wait, now that he thought about it, was Satanic the correct word to use in this world? Was Satan even real? He shook his head, now was not the time for religious contemplation. He focused on the room. The room was dark, but in the centre, surrounded by a number of silver candles, was an altar with a small statue of the FireFox Queen with her hands open. In the statue's hands lay a small fox, that was alive, twitching and whimpering in pain.

Large black strands of karma flowed freely from the twitching fox's body, and into a small black star-shaped crystal that was hanging on the neck of a creature that was kneeling, praying below the altar. The creature was kneeling inside a white circle with odd red symbols carved along the circle. As the creature prayed, the strands of karma from the little fox that had been absorbed by the crystal were released from the crystal, becoming karma for the maestril boss Karisha.

The creature turned around when the door opened, spotting Langa. She stood up on her two legs, unnaturally so. She was a hideous hybrid of a fox and a wolf, like Calpu, and she roared when she saw Langa.

 

Babio (Shadow Maestril Mini-boss)

Level 5

HP: 1000/1000

Karma: 1100

 

“Mortal! How dare you intrude on the sacred ceremony of karma sacrifice to The Onslaught of The Dark Void!” The maestril said in a loud, screeching and high-pitched voice.

This maestril was level 5. She was three levels below Langa. If she was a normal monster, it would be an easy fight for him, but she was a maestril and a mini-boss at that. According to his teammates, when fighting maestrils, a party of 5 was recommended, of at least the same level as the maestril, at minimum all party members had to be one level lower than the maestril. Could he do it alone? That did not matter, because no one was coming to help him. His team was busy fighting the boss monster, so he had to kill this one and destroy that star crystal so that she would not send karma to Karisha. That ought to raise his contribution to this quest a bit.

Langa took on his fighting stance.

Babio jumped into the air, landing with a heavy kick aimed at Langa. He dodged to the side, but Babio backhanded him right in the face with her clawed hand, and he lost 20HP all at once. Shit, those claws left a deep gash on his face and Langa cursed, deciding to bait the maestril with a feint and catch her by surprise. He started running towards the right, before using Flash Step to double back, and then striking Babio with his spear on the side. Thankfully, she was not wearing armour, but robes, so he was able to hurt her in one hit and take away 75HP. He took a step back, intending to thrust the spear in again before fleeing with Flash Step. However, when he tried to stab the maestril, his spear passed straight through her body.

She had turned her whole body into a mass of shadow.

"Go on, try your tricks again, human. You cannot cut through my magnificent body of shadows," the maestril laughed. "Perhaps I shall copy you." She extended her hand and pulled at the shadows surrounding her, creating a spear made out of nothing but shadow.

No matter how much Langa tried to hit her with his spear, she was barely injured. Losing only less than 10HP at a time. Her body was impenetrable, yet her spear was solid, and he had to block it multiple times. It was frustrating. If Liv was here, then he could break through her shadow armour with his aura. Langa was sure that Thunderbird's Stunning Strike would be able to break through her shadow and give her a critical injury, but he could not use it just yet. If he did use it, it had to be when she was below 600HP, otherwise, he would be left helpless and injured from the backlash and she would be able to both counterattack and heal herself with the infinite amount of karma she sucked into the black crystal on her neck.

Babio drew more of the black mist karma from the crystal into herself, and it stopped going up towards Karisha. Large tendrils of shadow erupted from her hands and grabbed Langa as he was trying to get away from her. The shadow tendrils were like hands holding him still, and she ran forward, now corporeal, and stabbed at his chest repeatedly with her shadow spear until his leather breastplate was torn to pieces and the shadow spear pierced his flesh. She shrieked in glee and bared her teeth, intending to bite his shoulder.

The pain was unbearable, and it made Langa's heart start to race uncontrollably.

Luckily, at that moment, Flash Step was off cool-down, so Langa used the skill to teleport behind her, stabbing her in the back with Tonare before she could turn herself into a shadow again. She cried out in pain, and more black strands coated her back, healing her. This was not going to end anytime soon, not while she had an endless supply of karma.

Langa stepped back, towards the altar. He knew what needed to be done. In the end, he needed to destroy that crystal or... kill that little fox that was providing the crystal with karma. It was clearly in pain, and by killing it, he would be setting it free. But Langa had no time to think or make a decision because, at the very next moment, the shadows around him began to coalesce into a large circle of shadow around the entire room.

"Yhoo! Nkosi yami!" Langa cursed, realising that this was the same skill used by Calpu. Back then, they had been able to beat him because the three of them, him, Liv and Kindaro had worked together. He waited for her to use the shadows to teleport towards him as Calpu did, but she did not do that. No, her skill was different, Langa realised as he started feeling weak, and turned on his health notifications. Just standing inside her shadow circle was draining his HP at 5HP/second. He was not going to last long at this rate. With his injuries, he was already down to 120HP. He was also starting to feel lethargic, as he tried to run towards her, to end it with Thunderbird's Stunning Strike, hoping for an instant kill, but her shadow tendrils chased him. He kept running up to her, but she would cover herself with the shadows while using the tendrils to keep him at bay.

He did manage to stab her one more time, taking a chunk of her HP away, but not enough that he could kill her in one strike with Thunderbird's Stunning Strike. She had no more karma left to heal herself, and she was using the karma from the crystal around her neck to heal herself ever so slightly. At least this meant that Karisha was also not going to be healing herself anytime soon.

 

Babio (Shadow Maestril Miniboss)

Level 5

HP: 779/1000

Karma: 39

 

Babio appeared behind him in a mass of shadow and bit into Langa's neck. He let out a loud yelp, and Flash Stepped away from her. Thankfully, she had not bitten too deeply into him. He was still bleeding from her earlier strike on his chest, and his neck was in pain as well now. When he did this last Flash Step, he felt his head starting to ring. Shit, he was running out of stamina. He had honestly underestimated this maestril, she was not very intelligent, but she was strong. He had thought since he was a few levels higher, he could take her, but it was proving to be an uphill battle.

Babio’s dark shadow spear pierced the ground that Langa had been standing on a moment ago. He’d dived down just in time. He ran to the side, trying to stall, and allow his stamina to regenerate a little more.

“Coward! Face me!” she screamed, and a dark shadow circle covered the entire floor. Langa felt her tendrils get a hold of him as he could feel his health slowly draining second by second.

 

[-5HP

-5HP

-5HP

-5HP]

 

He shook the tendrils off, tired of running away. He had to end it now before he passed out. Conserving his strength for the last few minutes had paid off, his stamina had gone up to 90. He stood up, breathing heavily, and this time, he ran towards her, noting even in the darkness, that her body was corporeal again. If he moved now he could kill her. That was what his rapid heartbeat told him.

The pain kept him on his toes, blood dripping down his chest. His heart was beating very fast. He could hear it clearly, more clearly than anything else in that room. The shadow tendrils flew out at him, and he had to dodge them over and over again. He was thankful that he could use his base speed to dodge the attacks quickly, thanks to the movement steps that Liv had taught him.

The heat of the battle engulfed his body like a flame, and he struggled to breathe. For a moment, he was not anywhere near the altar. He was running on the track, as fast as his legs could carry him, breathing through his mouth, listening to his thundering heartbeat.

When was the last time that running had been so taxing for him? He genuinely couldn’t remember. In the past couple of years, he had not enjoyed running. He was reminded of something he had forgotten, something so simple. The reason that he started running in the first place was because it was fun. There had been a point when his brother-in-law had treated him badly, and he would always run along the forest, listening to the trees and the various animals in the forest. Back then, he had been happy just to run.

There was a time in his life before he became drowned in the burden of genius before he had to run so that he could get paid and save his sister’s family from poverty, when he just ran because he loved it. At first, the competition was fun too, but as he got better and better, faster and faster, none of his peers could keep up with him. Nationally, no one could keep up with him, so he slowed down. He threw his races because he was bored, and he no longer had to run for anyone else. He was fine being number 2.

But, he had to dodge a shadow tendril a moment later, and it reminded him that he was in a fight, not a race. Still, in the Tower, there would be faster people, right? Faster mortals that he could race against. This world was dangerous, but he had formed more tangible non-blood-related bonds in seven days than he had in twenty-seven years. He had a child that he wanted to protect, a friend that helped him out and trained with him whenever he asked, a colleague that he could fight next to at an equal level and other teammates who protected, healed and fought alongside him. This world was not so bad.

He could feel his heart in his throat, and it was still picking up speed. Not stopping, he ran towards the maestril. He was running, but it felt as if time was standing still at this moment. Everything happened in slow motion for him. Every muscle in his legs screamed, as his heart raced to supply his entire body with blood.

In that moment of slow time, he asked himself a question. Why was he doing this, giving his all in this fight? Was it to save an abandoned world? No. Was he fighting to save The FireFox Queen's soul shard? No. Was he doing it to save his teammates because he cared about them? No. The reason why he was fighting was simple. There was something that he was trying to reach. He had to push his limits and push his heart even harder to reach that point.

He wanted the world to stop.

He wanted to feel that power once more, the power that enabled him to defeat Calpu. His lungs were on fire, and he could see the finish line. A shining black crystal in the middle of the maestril's neck. The faster he tried to run, the slower everything else looked. And then, at that moment, a wave of electricity coursed throughout his entire body, causing his heartbeat to intensify, and something clicked, settling into place.

 

[Congratulations! You have unlocked your attribute!]

 

[Attribute: Impulse Pulse

You can move according to the limits of your pulse. The faster your heart rate, the slower you perceive the world around you. The speed of your nerve impulses sending an electrical pulse through your heart muscle determines your heart rate. To activate your attribute, 50% of your total stamina is consumed, and STA =VEL per second is also consumed for every second that the attribute is active.

The perception of time differentiation is dependent on heart rate, nerve impulse speed, velocity and acceleration.

If you have any full affinity, all skills using your affinity discipline will be 50% more potent.

Cool-down: Mortals may only use their attribute a maximum of three times a day.

Be warned: As a mortal, there is a limit to how much strain and stimulation your heart can handle before you enter a state of heart failure, and die.]

 

[Congratulations! You have unlocked a special stat: Velocity.

Velocity (VEL): This refers to your speed in a specific direction. Base VEL is calculated as (AGI + MND). Velocity builds up as you accelerate in a specific direction, allowing you to move faster. Base movement speed will be calculated at AGI = VEL. The more charges of velocity built up, the faster your movement speed. If you change direction, your acceleration and velocity reset.]

 

There it was. He had finally reached it, his attribute. It did not state exactly by how much time perception would slow down for him, so he would have to test that later. He was not sure what the attribute truly was or what it meant, but he had finally reached it. If his heart beat too fast, he might die, but that power was in his fingertips.

Time was still slowed down, and it felt like his heart would burst out of his chest. All he had to do was to free that charged up velocity and run. Run towards the finish line, and make his way into the Tower.

”Bow down before the power of The Dark Void, and die!” Babio screamed, raising her shadow spear, and thrusting it towards Langa. She seemed to be both moving, and speaking slowly.

So he activated his attribute and felt the stamina drain rapidly. This was the fastest he had ever moved, and he raised Tonare in his hands and activated Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike. The glaive obeyed his wishes and struck the maestril true in the abdomen. It was strange because she had attacked first, but Tonare struck her before her shadow spear could even get near Langa.

Time was still moving extremely slowly, and he got the messages before the maestril even reacted to the large hole that tore through her abdomen.

 

[Critical hit! Impulse Pulse activated!

(Babio) -1422 HP.

Instant kill achieved.

Backlash (Langa Zulu) -265HP]

 

[You have killed a level 5 maestril mini-boss.

Rewards will be issued by contribution.

Please wait.]

 

Time righted itself. Langa’s head spun as all his stamina and nearly all of his health were taken away thanks to that attack. He knew that he had fallen to the ground, that he should be in excruciating pain, but the burning lightning in his body numbed him of everything at this moment as he lay weakly on the floor, dying. If only he could lift his hand, and contact Sigurd to come and heal him, through the comcer. However, right now, he could not move, breathing itself was a chore.

 

[You are critically injured! (1) Basic Health Potion in your inventory has been automatically consumed to heal you]

 

Even as he felt himself starting to heal up, the lightning still sizzling around his arms also continued to damage him, rendering the health potion redundant, and the system could not consume another health potion as it was now on cool-down.

 

[Your health has fallen below 5% of its maximum. Please wait while the system permanently converts stamina to health.]

 

[Error! Stamina is below 10% of its maximum. Stamina below 10% of the maximum cannot be converted into health. Please wait while the system permanently converts mana into health.]

 

[Error! Mana is below 130. Mana below 130 cannot be converted into health.]

 

Damn it. He could not level up because killing this maestril was considered part of the final tutorial quest, and the quest description had been very clear that no rewards would be tallied until after the entire quest was done. Was he going to die here? The system seemed to realise that technically he should have levelled up, and completely healed, but because the entire quest was not done, the experience would not reach him. The system seemed to be trying to find ways to heal him because of this, but his stats were a mess. Was he going to die after all? He did not dare look at his hands, he knew that they were completely burned, and his stamina was also quite low, and he could not move.

Just when everything felt hopeless, Langa felt something soft brushing against his neck, and he opened his eyes. The tiny little fox that had been whimpering on the altar was nuzzling his neck. Strangely, it was standing on two feet, and with its paws, it tied the necklace with the star-shaped black crystal that Babio had been wearing around Langa’s neck as he lay on the floor. He looked into its startlingly red eyes, and it gazed back at him. Was this little creature, not a fox, but a foxkin? He was very confused.

<<The Unrivalled One won’t like it, but that is my reward to you for saving my soul shard. Do not die just yet, human.>>

The voice spoke inside Langa’s mind as he looked into the fox’s eyes. He had no idea what was going on, but the karma from the black crystal flowed into him, and his health started going up until it was just past 10% of his maximum health. Then it felt like something powerful blocked the crystal from continuing to heal him. After that, a new prompt appeared in front of him.

 

[You have completed the hidden objective of Final Tutorial Quest: Free the Star-Eating FireFox Queen’s soul shard.

+1 Void Star]

 

[The Unrivalled Tower Master has forced the soul shard of The Star-Eating FireFox Queen to Ascend, for disrupting order in the tutorial.]

 

Did The Unrivalled stop the crystal from healing him? But she only stopped it once his health was above 10%, and he was out of danger. He was still lying down on the floor, unable to move, and in dire pain, but he was no longer going to die. Langa had no idea what any of this meant, as his head was a mess, the lack of stamina making it hard to think. He looked down at the black crystal, trying to scan it.

 

[Void Star

Artefact Rank: Divine (Chaos: The Onslaught of The Dark Void)

Sacrifice: ?

Effects: ?

Total karma: ????????????

Charges: 4/???]

 

He had no idea what this thing was or what the hell was going on. All Langa needed right now, was for someone to heal him, and to make sure that the rest of his team was okay. Just as he wallowed in pain and misery, he heard something outside.

*

Back inside the temple, Karisha, the maestril boss was on her last legs, Kindaro’s skill was still draining 50HP per second from her, and she had used up all her karma, and none of it was getting replaced. Makoto knew that this meant that Langa had done something, he’d made this battle easier for all of them.

His eyes darted over to the flashing bar on the party menu for Langa's health. At this rate, he was going to die before they completed the quest. He fired an arrow at Karisha's ankle absentmindedly as Sigurd healed Liv and Eniche took over the tanking. How could he let the man who had looked after him throughout this entire tutorial die just like that? They were so close, as he saw that Liv was almost done.

"I need to save Langa," he whispered.

"Then let's go," a voice said, and he turned to find Kindaro standing behind him, mask glowing, and staff raised. Makoto was startled. When had Kindaro gotten so close to him? He was watching him closely like he always did, and Makoto found it a bit creepy. He had never done anything bad to him, and they worked pretty well together in the back-line. He was still careful around him, though, because Langa had told him to be wary of Kindaro after all.

Kindaro lowered his staff thoughtfully and looked over at Liv who was almost done being healed by Sigurd. “Yes, I’ll come with you to check on Langa. The others can finish up here. It would be easier that way.”

Makoto smiled in relief. Kindaro was strong, so if there was still a threat down there, then it would be better if he was with him.

He sent his knives into Karisha's torso, making her scream as she knelt down in pain. “Call you refill my mana first?” Kindaro asked, and Makoto nodded. He refilled Kindaro’s mana, leaving himself with virtually no mana, but it was okay, because he could still use his regular arrows, and Kindaro would protect him.

They both jumped down to the passage below the temple and saw an open door in a room full of destruction. Kindaro helped Makoto to land gracefully. As soon as they got to the bottom, Makoto ran into the room, and Kindaro raised his staff, closing the door behind him.

*

Langa crawled desperately across the floor, his burned hands both numb and unbearably painful every time he moved. He tried to reach out and pick up Tonare, but he felt like his head was swimming in water, and he could not think straight. The more he tried, the more tired he became.

 

[Debuff: Stamina below 5%. Reduced movement speed. You are paralysed until stamina regenerates to 10%. Time remaining: 2 minutes 52 seconds]

 

There was a noise outside the door that sounded like someone landing, causing Langa to tense up as he had no way to defend himself against any new threats. Two people burst into the room and looked around.

"Langa!” A voice shouted, and he looked up to see Makoto running towards him, a worried look on his face. What a good kid. "It looked like you were dying! Let me contact Sigurd to come and heal you." Instead of completing the quest, he had come down here to check on him. He had probably seen how bad Langa's HP was from the party menu.

Langa was about to smile, and thank the gods that the kid was safe, but then he looked behind Makoto, and something was wrong. For one thing, Kindaro was standing behind him, his skull mask glowing, and his staff raised, and for another thing, Langa could see a shimmer, a distortion right behind Makoto. Someone was there behind him, hidden in stealth.

“Look out!” he screamed with his dry, parched throat, but it was too late. Ghol released her stealth, appeared behind Makoto and stabbed him in the neck from the back. Blood oozed out of Makoto’s neck staining his coat. He swayed unsteadily and fell to the ground, shock on his face, clutching the wound. The wound was so bad that he was unable to scream.

“NO!” Langa shouted in horror. What the hell was going on? Why would Ghol be attacking Makoto?

 

[You have killed a level 10 maestril boss.

Rewards will be issued by contribution.

Please wait.]

 

[You have completed the Final Tutorial Quest. You must Ascend to the Deiwos Tower to receive your rewards.

Would you like to Ascend? Yes/No.]

 

Liv and the others must have managed to finish off Karisha. Langa tried to select yes, but he found that no matter how hard he tried, he could not do it. His mind kept still, disobeying him.

"Finally," Kindaro muttered, making eye contact with Langa.

Ghol closed her eyes and muttered something, and a wide black dome appeared inside the altar room, covering all four of them on the inside. "Start the ritual, my liege, my cursed sound barrier will only last for a minute," she said. So, was this one of her skills? Had she been pretending to be weak this entire tutorial?

Langa could not worry about Ghol, though, as he tried to crawl towards Makoto as quickly as he could. He was still alive, just bleeding out. Langa tried to move his hands to reach for Tonare. If he could just feed him a health potion, then he would be fine. He just needed to reach him, he would crawl all the way to the door if he had to, to hell with this stupid stamina debuff. “Makoto run! Ascend now!”

Makoto’s eyes were unfocused on the ground as his hands desperately tried to stop his bleeding. Shit, was he also under Kindaro's mind-control skill? Ghol had moved using her high agility, and she was standing behind Langa now, her daggers in hand. She stepped on his lower back, pressing him down with her boot. They were basically threatening Langa’s life if Makoto tried to get away.

Makoto looked Langa straight in the eye and tried to speak. “Sorry...please Ascend," he choked out.

Kindaro muttered something and Makoto’s blood gathered up from his bleeding neck, his coat and the floor where it had fallen, and drew itself in a circle around him. “He’s such a good kid, isn’t he, Langa?”

“What are you doing? Please just stop!” Langa screamed at Kindaro again. His stamina debuff was coming to an end. In less than a minute, he could move again. He would Flash Step away from Ghol, grab Makoto and Ascend.

“Stop trying to move. You’ll hurt yourself even more. I need mana, and he is a gift that keeps on giving. Unlike the kid, I need you alive. I need someone on my level to contend with inside the Tower, so I can grow stronger. Once you reach Tier 5, then I can add you to my collection,” Kindaro said, looking Langa in the eye.

His already foggy mind came to a standstill. He tried to resist the control, tried as hard as he could to go against Kindaro’s mental command, but his mind was a mess and the only thing that was clear to him was Kindaro’s command. There was no shred of resistance in his mind, he was just as susceptible to the skill as he had been before. Damnit. Since when could Kindaro control two people at once?

Langa thrashed around hopelessly, but Ghol's boot was filled with strength, and he was still under the stamina debuff. How was he supposed to watch this happen without being able to do anything? The life was slowly slipping out of Makoto’s eyes. “Don’t bother trying to resist, Langa, even with that headband, your mind is still defenceless against my magic,” Kindaro told him.

“Why are you doing this? He’s just a child!” Langa cried out. His entire body failed him, and his legs could not move. He was trapped with nowhere to go, but to watch this horrible scene. He hated his lousy resistances. Because of his low lightning resistance, the backlash left him injured and in pain, and because of his terrible mental resistance, he was nothing but prey to Kindaro. He was weak, and that was why his mind was being controlled by Kindaro.

“I told you. I have to be a king. Just being in the top ten is not enough to compete with my siblings. Already one of them has become the Chosen One of The Thousand Undead. To become his Visage, I need a trump card. What’s better than my own personal mana battery that is completely in my control, always at my beck and call?” Kindaro asked, stepping towards Makoto.

“Brother Langa… please save...” Makoto whispered, closing his eyes.

Langa's heart ached, he had done it again. After keeping himself closed off from people, he had allowed himself to care about this boy. Because he cared for him, Langa's curse was taking away the boy's luck, and his future. He had promised to protect him, but Langa should have known that the weak were not afforded the luxury of making promises of life and death.

A black beam shot straight from Kindaro’s staff into Makoto’s chest, and it pierced his bleeding body. Eyes wide open in fear, the boy met his untimely end.

 

[Party member Sato Makoto has died.]

 

[Player Sato Makoto is dead. Your karma contract is fulfilled. You have received +692 karma.]