He didn’t know what to expect. Since he could feel something he wasn’t even sure if the room on the other side was the same. Going in blindly was not exactly comfortable but he at least didn’t have to feel that uncomfortability. The room was dark and there was only a single candle in the room. Strangely enough this small candle with a lit wick the size of a tiny fragment of a single finger bone. With even that little of a flame the rest of the room was surprisingly well lit. It was by no means easy to see the entirety of the room but it wasn’t exactly hard to make out generally all but the four corners.
The room was square without much of a size. At best he reckoned it was probably only slightly bigger than their own. In the middle was an old but young gentleman. It was strange, he was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed on a cushion. He was in a standard set of pants and shirt. There wasn't anything outstanding about it and he could see a normal looking robe to the side that people loved to wear. In fact it looked extremely similar to what everyone else had been wearing when he first saw them. They were slightly different from what he was used to on Earth but by this time it was more the Earth clothes were no longer the norm for him.
Biggest issue about the man was that it was hard to tell his age. For all intents and purposes he seemed to be a young man maybe slightly older than himself. And yet at the same time something about him felt ancient. It was also the second time he was feeling this aura. It was a unique type of feeling that felt like being in a pool of water. Once he had awakened mana it was a feeling he felt rather often. When one used it, with enough sensitivity they could feel it like a strong wind that would ram into you. You couldn’t tell by looking as with normal wind there were physical effects where this wind could only be felt.
But like the overseer in the first trial just existing created a type of aura that made one feel like the mana in the surroundings had solidified and unlike normally when it was similar to a wind this was a constant feeling like standing in a pool. Any time you tried to move there was resistance. The horrifying part about this was knowing that this resistance was simply from the other party existing. Even worse was that this resistance wasn’t just detrimental, it was their awareness. The second you felt the resistance was the second your every move and action was being felt by the opposite party.
Slowly the man opened his eyes and they were a gold that shined so brightly it was hard to to even see his pupils as it appeared his eyes were simply gold with no pupils. Yet with an exhale he returned to normal and while there was some flickering in the eye that made him feel exasperated, he returned to a normal appearance. This feeling seemed to be mutual as the man tilted his head and frowned the more he looked at him. There was clear irritation on his face but he wasn’t releasing any signs of attacking so he was able to stand there in this silent confrontation.
As the man opened his mouth he felt intense danger and his body moved instinctually. Before he realized it he was standing in front of the cushion as his arm was outstretched as he had tried to punch the individual. He could feel a chill down his spine as this was the first time he had ever been so nerve wracked his body actually moved before his mind could respond. The man hadn’t moved much as he was meeting the punch with a finger. He felt stuffy as he couldn’t breathe. It was a strange feeling.
As the finger tapped lightly on his fist he felt the mana get disrupted as it pulled back as he could feel himself moving forward. The issue was it was extremely slow. He felt like he was moving in slow motion. The finger wasn’t limited by such features and came to the side and redirected the fist to the side as he regained normal motion. He watched in shock as that slight push caused him to not just redirect his punch but the fist kept going to the side until he had to take a step to the side as his body had turned a complete ninety degrees as his punch reached the end.
There was a loud explosion in the air as the unstable mana that had been disrupted in his arm exploded out as he lost control of it. He could feel dread well up inside him. This was the first of many. Not only did he react before his brain could respond he even lost control as time seemed to nearly completely stop. That feeling combined into his arm and he was pushed aside as if he intended to attack like that to begin with. Without being able to identify any response from his opponent outside of sight filled him with feelings. He estimated he still had about a few more days before he would start to feel slight physical sensations and at best a week until he would start to regain any semblance of feeling.
“Don’t give me that look. You already know who I am, or at least what I am. So stop giving me that stupid doe-eyed look.” The voice wasn’t very harsh and it was deep but not terribly hard to listen to. There was a bit of emotion in the voice but there was no clear distinction of the current emotions they were feeling.
“You are an overseer? A demigod?” Unlike the way he was feeling his voice remained the same and spoken with utterly no emotion. That gave it a coldness that was uncomfortable to listen to.
“Yes.” The reply was quick but before he said anything else he let out an angry growl. Bringing his hands up to his head he started to scratch at his head and turn from side to side. “You know how much fucking shit I had to go through because of you?”
His anger could be felt as the pool-like sensation had turned into a whirlpool as the waves started to crash into him forcing him to almost kneel. If the question was not meant to be rhetorical it wasn’t possible for him to reply. He could barely hear what the other was saying as he tried to resist the crashing waves being sent his way as the man was simply releasing his frustrations without even targeting him directly as the whirlpool was causing the waves to fly out in all directions with the eye being the cushion he was sitting on.
“Demigod’s are powerful when considering this fact from the perspective of a participant. Fatally so, but from the perspective of the strong in peak worlds this is not so. Emotions aren’t unique to you humans and all alive can feel them. Because of this, peak worlds are in fact not very suitable for most demigods. At any time the weaker ones can find themselves in hot water with some jackass prodigy and be forced to flee for their lives. This is why there are so many demigods that are overseers. While there are weak demigods there are also strong demigods. The problem is as a demigod we are in desperate need of isolation.”
By this point in his monologue he had been shoved against the wall by the waves. The whirlpool had lightened slightly as it appeared he wasn’t trying to kill him but release his frustrations. It was questionable what the outcome would be once he was done releasing his frustrations. “This is because as a demigod you need to focus on stabilizing your foundation. You have no idea how difficult this is. Therefore when the opportunity appears nearly no demigod will turn it down. But the system doesn’t just give out the opportunity to become an overseer so easily.”
With a deep sigh the whirlpool stabilized as his back was covered in sweat as he felt the bones in his body creaking as he was forced out of his apathy state. Either this or the danger had disrupted it to the point he could feel the soreness brought about by the pressure that was just forcing him against the wall as he was being squeezed as he slowly got forced into the wall as he could feel the wall give out a bit as he fell as there was a slight indentation in the wall. He could feel his chest pounding as his heart was causing his emotions to accelerate erratically as he found it hard to catch his breath.
As the quagmire of hopelessness and panic started to pull him in, the man continued with a far more stable voice that was just riddled with annoyance instead of anger. He focused back on him as he spoke, “I finally got this opportunity, it wasn’t a very good one. Eight Room requires a lot of attention to the details. The creatures used in the trials need to be found and brought back. While the system handles the restrictions this also means that the strength at the end is somewhat random. It won’t perfectly seal a creature to a level that it is useful. Therefore the creatures I need to find might not even be useful. This requires a large amount of time. And each time one dies I need a replacement.”
As if not happy that he had stood back up he felt another wave of pressure force him to the ground as his voice grew angry once more, “I had found a light at the end of this endless struggle that finally allowed me to stabilize my trial. A child of Fenrir. Most of his children are too prideful so when I got the chance to take in one to use in the trial to teach it a lesson I jumped at the chance. I cashed in all my favors and finally I had a creature that made my trial perfect. I could use mass produced throw away creatures and once they made it to the fifth stage I didn't need to worry. Because of this I could stabilize my numbers.
At that point all I had to do was make backroom deals for seeds like you. With resources being given I would take away the child of Fenrir and just let them pass. This even helped me stabilize my numbers so that I didn’t get in trouble with the system. It worked so well that the last few groups I had to allow them the easy route to pass as my numbers were a bit too low. And yet the third group comes alone and not only do I not get a backroom deal because of you everything went to shit.”
At this point he couldn’t help but speak out a bit of his own grievances, “What does any of this have to do with me?”
“You… you were never supposed to come to my trial. Some crazy bitch shoved you into my trial by force. Karma is not something a little thing like you can even begin to comprehend. Because of you the other participants that should have come in the next attempt were all changed. As a hell survivor your karma is completely fucked, because of that a bunch of fucking monsters came and destroyed my trial. All my hard work on stabilizing it so I could concentrate on my foundation is now gone…”
It was unknown when he had gotten up but he appeared in front of him and flicked his finger as he was shoved back into the wall as there was no random whirlpool of energy but the entire pool being shoved at him as he could feel himself being dug into the wall as he could feel his bones and flesh about to come apart. Finally the man stopped before a nasty smile appeared on his face, “Usually the eighth room is simply a death sentence. From the beginning you are forced to work together while never being allies. Usually there are two outcomes. The first is someone understands an inkling of what is going on and plays it off as the last room is a treasure room to get someone else to enter or they force the weakest into the eighth room.”
With a bit of hesitation the man continued, “Well there are other options but those are the two most common. Very few times there will be puzzles, usually the last room is just a death trap that kills the last contestant to eliminate waste and add to their numbers. Because of this I am being given a perfect opportunity to vent all my frustrations before I kill you.”
He wasn’t able to notice it as he was deep into the wall and was having trouble breathing but there was a slight pause in the man’s words as he seemed to look behind him with a bit of frustration but he didn’t do anything. As he watched him crawl out of the hole he didn’t do anything as he just watched with relish as he struggled. He could only hear a ringing in his ear and had long stopped listening to the man's words as he had to focus on handling the pressure. He was confused and not sure exactly what was going on other than he knew he was likely going to die.
As he struggled to his feet after falling from the hole he felt a familiar presence, “Why are you hesitating, you felt it… stop hesitating and listen to it. From the beginning you have felt it, heard its whispers as it tried to communicate with you, you should stop hesitating. If you want to survive you should let go of your fear.” It was a gentle voice. The last time he had heard it was in hell. He didn’t want to hear it but as he listened it was impossible to ignore it.
He wasn’t exactly sure what the voice was talking about but he started to feel something inside him was reaching out but he felt hesitation and a bit of repulsion from it. As if a hand came out of the ground and was asking for help it filled the viewer with great amounts of hesitation and repulsion. And at the same time a tiny bit of hope as he was currently in free fall and quickly filling with fear. The voice spoke again but he couldn’t hear it as he focused on the calling. He didn’t immediately reach out. It was only when he started to get pulled back to reality by the man’s pressure that he gave up on hesitation and reached out to take the hand of the unknown being that was attempting to reach out to him.
Once again the next thing he realized he was being touched by that finger as time seemed to slow as a second finger came and shifted him to the side as the mana that was in his body was being dug out. A similar explosion happened as he completely lost control of the mana. He didn’t stop, his body seemed to be moving on its own as there was no useless movements as he kept trying to reach the man as time would slow as he neared and a single touch would uproot and a second would turn him as the uprooted mana would be lost as it exploded out at the end of the swing.
After a few attempts he was starting to wheeze as he was sweating profusely. For a normal person they likely would have been on the floor by this point. In the same way that when you push against an immovable object the force you generate would be returned in equal to you. Each attack he released didn’t just contain mana to strengthen the attack. There was mana constantly flowing through the body to reinforce it to not injure yourself by your own attacks. This was where most of the mana in a fight was lost. Very minute bits of it would be lost here and there as it canceled out the force generated by yourself and your opponents.
The man was able to remove that mana from circulation. And once the attack reached the end the mana would not be able to hold on and be released out of the body. In a sense he was having bits of pieces of his mana scraped out as if he was having pieces of himself dug out. It wasn’t painful but it was hard to cope with the sudden loss of mana in such a short period of time. Because of the way he utilized mana it made this move less effective so he was still able to stand. Instead of circulating all of his mana, most of his mana was in every fiber of his being with only bits of reinforcement being added. Therefore the amount of mana that could be extracted was vastly smaller, but he was still losing mana at an alarming rate.
