From Player To Npc

Chapter 195: The price of failure

Shingi knew he could make it to another chest, but he didn't have enough time to unlock it. So he had made a poor decision, took a risk, and he had paid the price.

Although the price, in this case, was his life.

For the first time, after a long time, he felt regret for a decision of his. He had come near death many times, as both Ameanum and Shingi, but there was always a way out, but he could do nothing this time. This time, unlike the past, he had things to lose, people that would miss him and would be truly sad for his death.

Time passed slower because he was still under the effect of HASTE, but the remaining time passed quickly.

Spiked chains appeared and moved faster than even he couldn't react to and started surrounding him. The spikes pierced even his bones, bringing an unthinkable amount of pain. Screams could be heard through the whole maze as the chains were getting tighter and tighter.

His END was higher than a normal individual but far from handling this amount of pain. But the chains had a certain enchantment on them that healed him enough not to pass out. They were designed to torture their targets and keep the torture for a long time before taking his life.

The torture time would last for as long as the first round of the maze, one hour.

Players could reduce the amount of pain they could feel, making the torture be just a waste of time, but Shingi didn't have that option. He lost his focus on HASTE, which made things worse since his body would be in a weakened state for some time.

He tried to use some Spirit Element to help maybe handle the pain, but he couldn't focus enough to manipulate any amount of mana.

Seconds, felled minutes, minutes felt hours, and the entire hour would feel like days to him. Then at the end of the torture, all would end as the spikes would pierce his heart. Many people had tried the same thing as Shingi and failed, but since they were Players, the price to pay wasn't the same.

Still, some succeeded, meaning it wasn't impossible.

Shingi focused all his will to pass the pain and try to find a way out. Just because he hadn't heard of others finding a way, it didn't mean there wasn't. The System could kill him right on the spot and not toying with him, so there had to be a way out.

But the pain was like nothing he had ever felt, as even he was reducing the pain sensitivity when he was a Player, but never brought it to feel no pain. Even so, he continued trying and trying as it wasn't the first time he was in an impossible situation and found a way out.

He couldn't focus enough to cast a spell or manipulate any amount of mana, but he had an option. Just to release all his mana.

No manipulation, no arcane words, no nothing, just getting it out and letting it explode. This could cause an explosion, that with the amount of mana in his Mana Pool, would be close to an atomic bomb level.

But the chains were enchanted to absorb this kind of damage, but there had to be a limit they could handle.

There were four scenarios that this plan could get him.

The first scenario would be the explosion wouldn't be enough, and his torture will continue. The second scenario was the explosion to be just enough to set him free and possibly damage him a bit but not enough to kill him. The third scenario would be the chain breaking, but the explosion would also kill him by being too powerful. Finally, the explosion would have no effect on the chains and just kill himself or waste his time.

There was only one situation of keeping his life, but this was all he needed.

So he left everything out, as a sphere of light of three colors, red, yellow, and white, started extending from his chest until it covered him completely but didn't stop and continued growing.

It kept growing until it was as big as more than half the maze, and then it vanished in a split second.

Shingi stood at the same place he was, still having the chains on him, but he wasn't screaming anymore. It was like time froze, and no sound was heard until a single crack sounded.

More and more cracks sounded, and soon the cracks started appearing on the chain. Then, finally, the chain seemed to have lost its 'life', which made it move to keep its target still, and so it fell to the ground like a corpse of its old self.

Shingi was still standing, and his body was full of holes, some still having a spike in them.

His pupils were harder to see than normal, a sign that he lost consciousness or he was dead. His body was locked to stay standing up, but soon enough, after the chain was away from his body, his body relaxed, and he started falling forwards.

Before his body hit the ground, a purple mist appeared and surrounded his body, making it disappear.

___________________________

Dark Shadow had spent all his current life with those weird, fleshly creatures. He liked a few of them, mostly those who seemed to have those small mountains on their upper body.

He also enjoyed the company of them, sometimes Red Eyes person, and also his talking sword.

He had learned a lot from them, including flying using what they called a Spell. He enjoyed flying, although he couldn't do it for as long as he wanted, which was all the time.

He liked the 'snacks' he got from the other creatures they fought or those special ones that he let him have from time to time. They were hard to crack, but they were so tasty. He wanted to eat them all the time, but the others were stingy with letting him have them.

He knew little about the world, as the sword voice had told him a few stories. But he knew nothing but what they had encountered in the Tower, meaning a lot was left in the imagination.

He wanted one day to see how it was in the outside world and see those towns and other places that the voice told him about.

He was currently not with the man who had helped him grow in power, and he enjoyed his company, which made him a bit nervous. But it wasn't something that the pats of the other people he liked would fix.

The one with the big stick or staff and the one with the weird swords seemed to get 'persuaded' easier on his 'plead' for these special touches.

A long time passed before he started feeling something unknown to him.

He started feeling pain, but no pain in his body, but mental pain.

It was like mental pins were piercing his brain repeatedly. Then screams followed but not ones heard by his ears, but it was the same as when he spoke with the sword voice. They were on his head right away.

The pain increased, and so the screams, and soon he recognized to whom the screams belonged.

He wanted to do something, but he didn't know where the screams came from, and they were in a closed room with no exit and just the stairs going up the next floor.

He started hitting one of the walls to open a way outside, but he didn't even make a single slash to it.

The others noticed that behavior, and it didn't take them long to get why this happened. Actually, the transparent lady was the one who first understood that something happened to the 'boy.'

Something inside him told Dark Shadow that he had to do something, that he had to be with him and help him, but no matter what he used, no matter what he tried, he could open a way.

There wasn't even a single opening for him to use his SHADOW FORM, which he had perfected, unlike the LIGHT FORM, and go outside. It seemed that this room was designed not to let them get back to the maze but just forward.

Soon the other individuals focused their attacks to a single point, and soon cracks started appearing, although they were getting healed almost as fast as they got created.

Seeing that their attacks had some actual effect, everyone started going all out, not letting anything that would increase their damage output.

Soon the cracks started spreading like the web of a spider, and in a matter of a few minutes, they had opened a hole outside. But then everyone froze as they saw how the outside looked.

The exit actually existed over the maze, on the ceiling, but it was perfectly camouflaged. Looking down, the maze was different, with most of it to be just ground, and even adding what was left was smaller than what Dark Shadow remembered it to be.

Dark Shadow flew down, searching for signs of that person, but there was nothing, not even a glimpse of his light.

It was like he vanished into thin air.

1. This means is put to show that we are changing perspecive