Just one more step…
Blood dripped all over him, from his splintered head all the way to his fingertips. So much of it that the crimson nearly hid the makeshift bone dagger in his grasp, but he didn't care.
'Hurry before they catch up'
'Hurry or they'll eat you.'
'Move you BASTARD!'
…
His body was failing.
He knew it, even if he long couldn't feel it. And for an instant, he almost laughed. The great 'Graybright' at death's door after crossing a single forest. No, had he even crossed it?
Trees. More trees. More goddamn trees. Stormveil was the perfect start wasn't it? Not if he couldn't even reach it. He tried laughing, but no sound came out. Only notifications…
[Warning! Severe Blood Loss Detected!]
[Warning! Hallucinations Detected!]
[Warning! Sanity Going Down!]
…
As if he needed that warning.
He knew. He had known for a while. He could see a certain Class Rep next to him, her face mangled beyond belief. Bleeding from all orifices. As if a horror story ghost.
"W-Why?! WHY DID YOU LET ME DIE?!"
"I healed you. I saved you so why—"
"You could have taken me with!"
…..
He could have.
But he had no reason to.
He wasn't good with dead weight. He wasn't good with women either. And he especially wasn't about to give a hallucination any weight. Or maybe he did, as he croaked.
"Purple. We just need some purple."
Just like that he kept going.
Going in the forest. Going to his death. Going completely bat-shit mad. But it didn't matter. Purple. He needed purple. Time passed. And some more. Until, finally purple, LOTS.
The trees gave way to a bright sky.
It was night but it didn't look like it. In the sky, there was a storm of purple waiting for him. The Dungeon City of Stormveil, one that looked like a freaking fortress.
Tall walls higher than Titans.
More boisterous than a morning fish market.
Then there was the gravitas. The whole city felt ancient with the bustle of new.
And in the middle was THE DUNGEON.
A towering structure that could be seen even from a distance, as if an obsidian needle reaching for the sky. It oozed endless magical purple energy hence the city name.
Stormveil. Dark. Purple cloud. That was it.
And right now, the walls of Stormveil were his salvation.
Gray rushed toward the entrance like a dehydrated man in the desert seeing an oasis. No, more accurately, like a man of taste seeing a goth girl.
A large arch with two guards in full glowing armor.
"HALT! What brings you here?"
"Pfft— Can't you see? Look at how young this guy is. Look at how injured he is. I swear, youngsters nowadays. They step into Blackleaf and then get destroyed. Let me guess, you fought a single newborn monster and ended up like that?"
One took his job seriously and the other was full of mockery. Mockery was good. Mockery was great. Gray didn't even bother answering them. He glanced backward in fear.
Then he fucking ran.
The run of a loser. The run of a kid scared shitless. The run of a worm at the bottom of the food chain. He barely had to act too. He was WAY too familiar with the role. But it paid off, as he sprinted through the gate, only the laughter of an easygoing guard followed him.
They didn't even ask him to pay the toll, assumed he was a local.
But if only. If only they knew what was coming.
Gray didn't even stay to watch. But he knew for sure. During the three weeks he had taken to cross the Blackleaf forest, all the monsters had been away from their lairs.
Their progeniture hadn't been.
He had spent the three weeks killing newborns for meat, fur, and had used them to make various weapons. Right now, he only had a bone knife left… but that's only because all the others had broken along the way. So much youngster killing that the world had reacted.
[Ding! Unlocked New Title.]
[Newborn Slaughterer!]
[?!????]
…
This world was shit.
It had given him an achievement for slaughtering newborns. And on the side was still the same healer ghost who was frowning at him, like a good church girl. But he knew she was fake, it was the blood loss talking. So he dragged his ass through Stormveil.
But even then he saw it all…
Guards rushing through the city. Bells soundings, the kind that signaled a beast tide. The whole city defenses coming alive as if white blood cells fighting a virus. And he could imagine countless monsters crashing against the city's purple defense barrier.
They wanted revenge for their kids slaughtered.
How many would die?
It didn't matter. They'd never trace it back to him. He was too insignificant right now. The weak just died… but at the same time no one cared about the weak. He was the weak.
His eyelids still covered in blood, he strolled through the city like he was in a nightmare. He knew he would die soon, he just didn't know when. Mortality almost felt foreign. Gone were the times when he could live without a head.
Blood. More blood. Even more blood.
That's all he saw, and yet his feet brought him exactly where he wanted to go. After all, he had spent 30 years in this city in his previous life. So before he knew it he found himself before a shop with the Stormveil crest.
| Stormveil Commodities |
The name sucked, the business didn't.
The only issue was it was already closed.
Anyone else would have just looked at the opening hours and called it quits. Gray didn't. KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. He kept knocking.
He didn't know how long ago they had closed, but he remembered strongly there was always someone on premises, company policy. This place was both decaying and crazy popular, for it was related to THE Stormveil family. And just as he thought.
"I'm coming! Stop knocking already!"
An angry voice came out.
Before long, the door of the commerce that should have been shut tightly was opened, an angry youngster appearing. But as soon as he saw who was there, his entire attitude changed, concern showing on his face.
"A-Are you alright?!"
Gray looked truly pitiful.
But pitifulness aside, he didn't have time to waste.
"I'm here to sell. You'll want this. And I need a Raging Healing pellet. Right the fuck now. I'm about to die, you see!" He stated simply, yet it was clearly true.
Nine times out of 10 he would have been dismissed.
His intensity made sure he wasn't. Before long, the clerk, a youngster with green hair and even greener eyes that spoke of innocence was letting him inside.
"Y-You should go to the temple to get healed. Why are you…"
"No time. You got that pill for me? I'll trade this!"
Gray had already taken the one thing he had that was valuable. CLOTHES. The set he had been wearing upon transmigrating. It was in bad shape, but it wasn't irrecoverable.
Early in his forest cross he had changed his modern clothes for rustic ones made of beasts' skin. And he had carefully stored his school uniform into a homemade pouch.
"I-Is that otherworldly clothing?!"
The young clerk instantly recognized it, his eyes glowing. And the way he looked at Gray changed. It went from slight annoyance to pure awe as he hurriedly took out the medicine pellet Gray asked him for.
"Don't tell me you're a Transmigrator?! H-How?! It's been ages since any have set foot in Stormveil. Wait, didn't the Empire send a priestess to get you?! Oh my god, what happened?! Please tell me, I'll keep it a secret I swear!"
The light of innocence.
The light of youth.
It fucking hurt.
…
Gray didn't hesitate.
He snatched the pellet from him. Raging healing pill. A pill that healed one while turning them into a berserker. It literally made one MAD.
It was cheaper, but at what cost?
Gray swallowed it like one swallowed candy, without so much as an afterthought. The kind of pill one gave a peaceful individual if they wanted him to commit war crimes. He swallowed it whole, and as soon as he did he felt it work its magic.
It mended the broken flesh and…
[Healing Detected! Side Effect Detected!]
[Sanity Going Down! Sanity Going-]
[Warning! Warning!—]
…
Gray closed his eyes.
The madness brought by the low quality pill?
It was nothing compared to what he had gone through in his previous life. He didn't even flinch as the impurities overwhelmed his body and his mind. Instead, his eyes snapped open as he glanced at the clerk who looked like he was about to melt from his awesomeness.
"What? First time seeing a Transmigrator up close?"
"Y-You just ate an impure pill?!"
"Sure did. No big deal!"
The youngster clerk already had thousands of questions for him, yet Gray didn't care one bit. He simply chuckled as he pointed to the school uniform.
"So, you gonna buy it or not?"
"YES!"
The youngster replied so quickly, as if he was looking at a living legend. But little did he know that Gray was already looking at him as if a dead man.
What came next would really suck…