The Genesis Game

Chapter 13 - 29: The Pier

As Seraph pushed through to the gate, brushing aside the undead that were trying to swarm him as he went, he reached out with both of his hands to pry open the gate and step through it. Though the gate appeared to be a simple doorway, it was much more. A film that looked into true darkness was spread across the opening and nothing could be seen inside of it, and nothing could be seen from the other side.

"I can't control what's on the other side of this doorway, and if I stay here, I will die, I've no tricks or cards left to play." Reasoned Seraph as he pressed his hands into the film pushed through through it into the space between, leaving the pursuing undead behind him to cl.u.s.ter around the gate.

As Seraph passed into the endless dark, he felt tension throughout his entire body as the pressure around him threatened to crush him with raw force and he had no options but to push forward, as even his Fallen eyesight could not help him much in a perfect dark. The sensation of pressure quickly passed, but his vision did not improve, and his body was only just starting to heal from the various wounds across his body that he hadn't seen before during his rush to get to the gate when his body had been freely pumping him full of adrenaline.

Even though he had managed to largely unscatched and would quickly heal, he was still exhausted and alone. Heading through the gate was the right decision, the fatigue that was starting to set into his body from all his recent exertions worried him. There was no telling what he would find on the other side and he was already in a weakened state. The olive green jumpsuit that he had been wearing was ripped in multiple places and would no longer afford him the protections it had previously.

With a grunt, he continued to move forward, until his hands touched a liquid like texture similar to the film he had touched before on the other side of the gate.

"This is it." Seraph thought and as he braced himself and stepped through.

He had arrived and behind him, a door shut. The first thing he noticed was the feeling of ocean mist on his face, though the sensation wasn't quite right, and the faint smell of decay found in places that stay damp was in the air.

Notification: You have entered "The Hungry City" Dungeon Floor 2

Clear Conditions: Defeat or Banish the Demon Lord Beezelbub

A look of surprise could be seen on Seraph's face as he looked at the prompt. In his other life, no Demon Lord had been below the 7th floor of the Dungeon. The implications were dire, this was going to be much more difficult then had ever considered. He stared at the notification for a few seconds, hoping to see the information before finally dismissing it. To defeat a Demon Lord was no easy task, one that he had not attempted until he had been in the dungeon for years, not days, and required a balanced team, it was not something he could do alone.

Though Seraph had already guessed and seen first hand that things had changed, he thought he had been mentally prepared for it. It was another thing entirely to see that even the floors of the dungeon had changed. Seraph had hoped foreknowledge of the previous dungeon, the Phoenix's Refuge would have given him an edge in both its completion, and in the hidden artifacts hidden throughout. But it was not to be, if Phoenix's Refuge still existed, he no longer had access.

"The Hungry City." Seraph thought musing as he looked around. He had arrived in front of a small wooden doorway, green paint heavily peeling revealing heavily weathered grey wood beneath that had become swollen from moisture. The doorway sat on the end of a long pier out in the ocean, the shore a distant visage that Seraph estimated to be somewhere between a half a mile and a mile away. Out of habit he looked around for his companions before being reminded that he had left them behind when he had saved Sadie and Jack.

Seraph looked down at his hands and clenched his fists as if in doubt that he was in charge of his own body, "Why would I save her?" He wondered. "Why would I put myself at risk?" But no answers came to him, try as he might, he could not justify what happened.

Interrupting his thoughts, a spray of foul smelling oily black water washed up on to the pier, and something about the way it looked set him on edge. In his gut Seraph knew that the corrupted water should never touch him, and being surrounded on all sides by the water was a risk he couldn't ignore. He considered waiting in place in hopes that the monster's of Hometown would clear out due to loss of interest or day break. But when Seraph looked back at the doorway, he saw that it was wrapped in rusted chains and locked. The message was simple, he would not be allowed to go backwards, the dungeon wouldn't let him.

That left only one option for him, if he couldn't stay in place due to the danger the water posed to him, and if turning back wouldn't be an option allowed to him, he would need to move on and get to shore. With a goal in his mind, he started to walk.

The pier was heavily stained by the water, and Seraph kept having to step over pieces of rotting kelp and avoid the other debris that had washed up and clung to the sides of the tattered railing. Everywhere that Seraph looked he saw waterlogged boxes and broken wooden crates.

Warily, Seraph walked by and glanced into the first few of the crates that were opened and overturned. Inside he saw what appeared to be human remains and bones clumped together. Seraph chose to ignore it, though he kept a wary eye on them, fully expecting that at any moment they would reanimate.

Seraph avoided getting too close to the edge of the pier and couldn't get a good view of the water, but something about it kept bothering him and he needed to get a better look. He walked over to the side of the pier, making sure that he was free of any spray or oncoming waves and looked down. As he looked over the railing at the waters below Seraph thought "This isn't just any ocean." As he recoiled from the ledge as he recognized what was beneath him.

The entire ocean was corrupted with abyssal energies, something beyond nature's laws. It's waters dark as night and churning in a way that waves did not move, and beneath the surface of that dark liquid Seraph thought he saw things stirring though he was unable to make out what they were.

"Careful." He cautioned himself thinking back to the spray that he had nearly avoided. Abyssal water burned and consumed on touch anything that came in contact, but worse still were the abominations that often lived hidden within it. In his almost 30 years within the dungeon, he rarely had to deal with the phenonium, and when he did, it had been within small pond within a higher dungeon, not an ocean in a lower floor.

From behind him, Seraph could hear movement of the bones within the crates he had passed as they began to shake as they resembled themselves. The bones covered in a dark green hue as they began to fuse together in animation. Seraph shook his head in irritation, he wasn't surprised by the turn of events, but had hoped to avoid the obvious encounter. He gripped his Cat Claw on his wrist and prepared himself, at least they would be weaker than the undead of Hometown and he could use the chance to progress.

Quickly Seraph scanned his sheet, and saw that he had finally hit level ten and gained two stat points instead of one. He would get an extra stat point each time he leveled up, but that also came at a cost. The first ten levels were basically near free, upon reaching level ten the experience requirement to advance was raised to a flat 1000 per level. The number wouldn't change till his level was much higher than it currently was, but even 1000 experience was difficult to come by when most monsters in the dungeon gave little experience. These skeletons wouldn't give much either, but he had years to grind to build his power, nothing in the dungeon was to be quick or easy. The difficulty of gaining experience had been one of the chief driving reasons for the escalation of player killing, and a partial driver of the conflict with the elves.

He went ahead and put the two points into strength and prepared to fight, he hoped the increase in his raw power would be enough for him to server through enchanted bone. The Cat's Claw was not an ideal weapon for fighting skeletons, and the mace he had started with had long since been discarded.

He shrugged it off as the last of the skeletons pulled themselves together, nine in total and became to shamble over towards him, rusted swords and axes dragging on the ground from skeletal hands. It would be over shortly.

Name

Luca Fernandez - Alias Seraph

Race

Fallen

(+50% Melee Damage Output)

(-50% Healing Debuff)

Level

10 of 999

Current Experience

91 of 1100

STR

WIS