//------------------------------// // 6 - The Abyss Stares Back // Story: The Royal Gamer // by SleepyBear //------------------------------// Blueblood P.O.V My head felt light after an unimaginable pain, I felt good, did the amulet corrupt me? I didn't feel any different; in fact, I felt a little better than before, the fear I had disappeared, and I felt better. The creature that had struck me deeper into the forest began to approach at great speed, without hesitation, I started to advance in its direction, when we were face to face, the creature tried to hit me, but its movements looked slower than before, I bent down to dodge the attack, and I took the chance to hit his jaw with all my strength, the strength of my blow made the monster's head to fly off. LEVEL UP! ▲ Killing that monster made me level up, my mana had recovered thanks to that entirely, my victory was assured, 'these pathetic creatures messed with the wrong guy.' CORRUPTION BUFF, ALL STATS HAVE INCREASED BY 25% This was great! The curse was making me stronger and more powerful, there was no loss in this deal. I jumped into the pack of monsters, I had nine left to kill, and time to spare. Running at full speed, I approached one of the creatures, the beast tried to attack, but it was useless, my speed and strength were superior, with a kick in the ribs, I sent the monster flying, killing him in a single blow. HP: -200/4000 ▼(-4200) LEVEL UP! ▲ LEVEL UP! ▲ LEVEL UP! ▲ LEVEL UP! ▲ I continued to kill the creatures with ease, leveling up a total of five times, the beasts stopped giving me so much experience, but in the end, I got five levels and almost half of an exp bar for the next one, not too shabby. CORRUPTION BUFF, ALL STATS HAVE INCREASED BY 30% CORRUPTION PROGRESS 10% Who cares about that? I felt good, it's just me with more power, nothing has changed, with this power I could do a lot of things, this amulet would ensure my leveling is smooth and easy, I'll be able to defend myself if someone tries to kill me again and rip Shining Armor's throat for beating me to the ground so many times in our training, who the hell does that fool think he is?! I am a prince now, and he should BOW TO ME! 'Where the hell did that come from?!' I thought worriedly, I'm not an aggressive person or someone who holds grudges, 'The amulet!' 'The amulet is affecting my way of thinking and acting, little by little, I have to take it off, I don't want to turn into a psychopath, but I've noticed that as I move my hand to take it off, something stops me.' 'Without the amulet, you will die,' a voice inside my head with a dark and sinister tone said, 'You need it, to get out of this place alive, you need it, to never feel powerless again.' Was the voice right? Of course the voice was right, without the amulet, I couldn't survive in this dungeon, the monsters were stronger and faster than me... what am I thinking! I can escape! I did it before; I can't let this power lure me into the darkness. “ID: Escap-” I tried to escape, but the voice whispered to me again, 'You have all the power in the world in your hands, and you're going to let it go?! For insignificant reasons! You died in your past life because you were powerless to do anything about it, and now you'll die again for the same reasons, don't you get tired of being pathetic and weak?!' CORRUPTION BUFF, ALL STATS HAVE INCREASED BY 60% CORRUPTION PROGRESS 20% It was true, I couldn't do anything to prevent my first death, but now I have a chance to control my destiny, the world revolves around power, and I need this power to dominate it. 'No! There's a lot of powerful people in this world who don't need this; I don't need it!' I thought, bringing my hand closer to the amulet. CORRUPTION BUFF, ALL STATS HAVE INCREASED BY 120% CORRUPTION PROGRESS 40% 'The world can be ours! Just accept it, accept the power to control everything,' the voice said, 'No more fear, no more running!' I'm a thief, with a gift for manipulation, a womanizer but I've never been a fighter, I ran all my life until I got caught and killed, the amulet is right, without the amulet, I wasn't a fighter. 'You're right, without this power, I am weak,' I thought, as I looked up at the sky, touching the amulet with my right hand. 'Of course I'm right, just let the power consume you, and everything in the world will be yours.' the voice inside my head said. "But if there's one thing I've learned from my years on the street stealing, it's that if something is too good to be true, it's a scam," I said, ripping the amulet off of my neck, once the amulet was off my neck the voices stopped, like a mist fading, I immediately put the amulet inside my inventory, to decide what to do with it later. Gamer Mind Inactive - 25 minutes Corruption Curse - 25 minutes (corruption buff only works with the amulet equipped.) My mana was back to the normal amount for my level, and I felt like I was breathing for the first time in hours, at least I was able to kill all the monsters with enough time to escape corruption, or at least that's what I thought before I started to hear some weird sounds behind me. TIGBAUNA'S NIGHTMARE IS USING TO INVOKE AN ANCIENT NIGHTMARE. I turned around to see one of the nightmares standing up with its hp bar still on zero, it started to open its mouth to the point it’s jaw touched the ground, and from the depths of its stomach multiple tongue looking tentacles came out, at first I thought they were aiming at me, but I soon realized that the monster had a much creepier plan in mind, each tentacle went to one of his peers and started to pull all the dead nightmares inside its mouth, the creature was growing and it looked grotesque, like a ball of fat, eventually the creature began to morph into something even worse than the form it had before, after transforming the beast was at least forty feet tall, its head was full of holes and its mouth was dripping saliva that was melting the floor and anything it hit. Information: The Ancient Nightmares/Demons that once existed in the real world were different from the currently existing Demons, this Nightmare had a real body that once belonged to them. According to legends, these Nightmares had an immortal body, able to regrow their limbs at will. In terms of recovery ability, they had no match. However, regenerating wounds required them to stay still, thus making them vulnerable. Weakness: ??????????. With a simple roar, the roar managed to throw me at great speed deeper into the forest, I managed to activate my shield, but even defending myself the monster almost killed me with a simple roar that wasn't meant to attack or kill, my hp and mp were almost gone, I had to escape, without the amulet things like that could kill me in a second, and even with the amulet I wouldn't like my chances. "ID: ESCAPE!" I shouted with all my might, a simple command that would bring me back to the safety I longed for, and yet nothing happened, I saw the giant creature approaching, and I started to panic a bit, "ID: ESCAPE! ID: ESCAPE! ID: ESCAPE! ID: ESCAPE! ID: ESCAPE! ID: ESCAPE! ID: ESCAPE!" The creature continued to advance at a slow but steady rate, it's not like it had to run, five or six steps was all the creature needed to shorten the gap between us, I was scared beyond control, so out of fear, the most basic instincts kicked in, fight or flight, flight was clearly the only reasonable option. "Light Impact!" activating my strongest spell I started to flee as fast and far away as possible, I knew I couldn't win, so I had to survive and find a way to evade certain death, the creature seemed to notice that I was running out of its grasp, and with a loud growl started to chase me destroying everything in its way, but with a head start I managed to leave the creature behind, and then it hit me in the worst way possible, my mana was low, and I used all I had left in those five seconds of panic. "DAMN IT!!!" I whispered furiously, I could still hear the giant trying to find me, and I had no mana to do anything about it, so I started to run while thinking, 'There must be another door or secret passage around here, I need to find a place to hide!' While I ran in a frenzy of fear through the forest without seeing or caring where I was going, I still heard the giant coming closer and closer, at this point I didn't know if it was my imagination or if the monster was really getting closer, but I wasn't going to stay to find out, I needed a miracle, where were my so-called aunts when I needed them the most, the only option I had was running, I couldn't fight, running for my life was my only option, the deeper I got into the forest, the more I noticed my surroundings began to change, the forest gradually started to become darker, the trees had no leaves and the ground seemed to be burned with no life in it. I was in another area or part of the dungeon, but I didn't have the time nor the luxury of being able to appreciate it in detail, without stopping I kept running, without looking back I could still hear the giant approaching, the sound of the giant mingled with the sound of the branches breaking under my feet, my sweat falling on the floor and the beating of my heart, my body was on alert, paying attention to everything and anything that could be dangerous. In my life, I had experienced many near death situations, but I had never felt like prey, like a sheep being hunted by the big bad wolf, It's funny, under normal circumstances I would never run so fast, but at this moment I felt as if my feet were taking off from the ground, maybe it was just my imagination. As I was running, I heard a branch break above me, without stopping I turned to see what had made the noise and for a second the world stopped. Information: Araths are an amalgamation of two creatures, misshapen spiders, with a body the size of an elephant and legs stretching to fourteen feet. They are tough, possessing an exoskeleton which protects their two-ton body, Their front legs look like hands, their fangs have a powerful poison that affects the brain in seconds, these creatures like to eat their prey alive. Weakness: Holy magic is highly effective, but if you don't have access to it, try to attack the back of the head, which is the part with the least protection on their body. The spider began to advance in my direction, with great speed and agility using the trees as a movement support jumping from one to another, without any time to react the spider threw me into a tree with great force and with little to no effort, lowering my hp to the low digits, I couldn't move, I didn't know if it was out of fear, or if the spider had poisoned me, but my body just didn't respond, my eyes began to close slowly, as I watched the beast open its mouth full of sharp teeth ready to devour me. POISONED Mana regeneration has been blocked, Health regeneration has been lowered by 150% 'It was a good journey, at least this death was more original than the previous one,' I thought as I watched the spider wrap me up in spider web as part of its ritual to eat me, 'I don't want to die, not like this...' The realm of dreams and nightmares is a maze that only Princess Luna has the map to navigate freely, dreams are a delicate matter, in a world full of magic, nightmares can come to life, that is why Princess Luna must keep the dream realm in check, in the ancient era nightmares came to life-destroying thousands of innocent lives, this was before Luna took control of the dream world, becoming the protector of it, not only does she have to stop the nightmares, but she also has to protect the dreams. The door to each creature's dream differs in colour and appearance, but the way to identify their meaning is the same, each door has a crystal that by its colour shows what is going on. Blue, means that the dreamer is having a mild nightmare, usually related to depression and the pain of losing a loved one or the ending of a relationship. Red, means that the dreamer is having a nightmare reliving a traumatic event or it can also mean that the dreamer is having a normal nightmare usually related to the dreamers worst fear. Green, means that the dreamer is having a pleasant dream, remembering and living things that make him or her feel happy, whatever makes the dreamer happy, this colour is quite common in the dream realm Pink, this colour is very common for teens, it starts in the adolescence of all creatures and stays with them, related to sexual arousal, these dreams are commonly known as wet dreams. These are the colours Princess Luna sees night by night, but there are some colours that Princess Luna hasn't seen for thousands of years, colours that mean danger, for the dreamer and the real world. Purple, means that the dreamer is dreaming of the death of any creatures, may they be innocent or not, and is getting pleasure from their deaths, common dreams for psychopaths and sociopaths. Black, the worst of them all, Luna has only seen this particular colour a couple of times, they mean death, to the dreamer in both realms, what is the event that triggers them? No one knows, absolute fear to the point of killing, the fear is so potent that even Princess Luna has trouble getting inside this specific type of dream. Luna P.O.V I was having a normal night, destroying nightmares, giving living beings pleasant dreams, I kept going door to door in the dream world, making sure everything was fine, when without looking I found Blueblood's door, the crystal colour was green, I couldn't help but have a smile knowing that he was dreaming and having pleasant experience, I was about to continue with my work, but something stopped me, his crystal suddenly changed colours in the blink of an eye, and now was red. “He must be having nightmares about what happened that day,” I put my hand on the handle of his dream realm and tried to open the door but something wouldn't let me get in, looking at the crystal above his dream door with fear, I saw that the colour of his dream had changed again, the crystal was slowly cracking, a broken crystal meant certain death. “Black… It can’t be…” I mumbled in fear and disbelief, my Blue was having a dream of death, “IT CANNOT BE!” With desperation using all my power to break his dream door down, I knew the consequences of doing what I was doing, it could bring lifelong repercussions for Blue, I could put him in a vegetable state, getting into someone's mind in that state could leave irreparable scars, but by my moon, I will not let him die! Blueblood P.O.V My head felt strange, I didn't know if it was fear, or the fact that my death was assured, the creature enveloped me like the rest of its prey and hung me from a tree, I could see the spider moving back and forth, maybe the monster was saving me for later, I could barely see, my life was almost in the single digits, a single blow would be enough to end my life, my mana regeneration was blocked, thanks to the spider's poison, maybe as a failsafe in case someone had the means to escape. The spider began to approach the other prey that it had already caught, and opened its mouth in a way that shouldn't be physically possible, and the monster started eating the prey it had saved with two or three mouthfuls, I don't know who or what kind of creatures the monster was devouring, but the screams were clear as day, fear is a universal language, I could feel the fear of the poor prey before dying, in my spine, like a cold chill. The creature continued to eat everyone, one by one, the cries of pain of the victims tormented me, the creature didn't kill them immediately, the monster started to eat them feet first, I couldn't help but think that the creature wanted to see its prey suffer before devouring them. After a couple of minutes, it was my turn, apparently the creature saved me for the dessert, the creature grabbed me with its hands, and opened its mouth full of teeth dripping a viscous substance, maybe it was poison. Just as the monster was about to eat me, I heard a cry that started to break the sky, as if it were made of glass, the creature stopped and looked at the sky, its expressions were difficult to read, but I could see a little fear in its eyes. “DIE!” Someone shouted with anger, the next thing I heard was a cry of pain from the creature that was holding me, whatever it was, it killed the creature with a single blow, the creature not being able to hold me in the air anymore, dropped me onto the ground, I started to wonder, who was the one that just saved me, was it a friend or a foe? Someone started to rip the spider web that I was wrapped in, like a child at christmas, maybe it wanted to eat me without the wrap, slowly I managed to see the face of the one that saved me, it was Luna, she was crying a bit, and on her face I could see anger, sadness and other emotions I couldn't make out. “Please be fine, please,” Luna said in a low tone, with sad and desperate expression. “Thanks…” I managed to said in a tone barely audible. Luna shots her eyes wide open in surprise and gave me a look of relief, and with a powerful burst of magic she broke the nightmare realm, or in this case my instance of it, the world around us changed, and I found myself and Luna in a room with a fireplace, there was something about this place that made me feel safe, I slowly started to fade into a deep slumber, with my head on Luna’s lap while she sang a lullaby. She really is the best, she barely knows me and yet, she's doing everything in her power to make me feel ok, to protect me, but there is a part inside of me that wonders, what if is this is just another nightmare, what if I’m already dead.