Nightmare System

Teaming Up With Enemies

"Welcome!" The shop owner said. "How may I help you?"

The shop looked a lot nicer than Hell thought it would be. There were hundreds of items of various sizes everywhere.

"We are here to sell an item," Ada said as Hell took a step forward, putting the glaive on the counter, describing it.

"This glaive was made of the most durable stone in the Lyre Universe. It took 15 years to forge it."

"I see." The man said, pointed to the glaive and murmured the word "Identify." He was surprised and exclaimed after but a few seconds, confirming his claims: "Amazing! It is certainly as you say. Did you get this from a boss?"

"Found it on the floor," Hell said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Ada said. "You don't find these things lying on the ground. You don't have to lie either, he was probably just wondering."

"No, I am not joking, I sure as hell am not named Hans the Undying. It should mention his name, too." Hell said and wore a smile: "Pun intended."

"Very funny," Ada said.

"No, he is right. I was just skimming through the text. After focusing on appraisal, you really just get a bunch of unnecessary text with each identified item. For example, at this point, I can point at one of you and just say ‘Identify," the man said as he was pointing to Hell, horrified after reading for a moment or two.

He saw Hell signalling him to shush behind Ada as Vaun was also urging him to not do anything that may irritate Hell, noticing a change in the shop owner's face.

That innocent young man suddenly seemed so much more different to his eyes. It seemed as if the world had suddenly dimmed and the only thing he could see, when he saw the man called Hell, was a demon. This was a dangerous man.

"Ada." The shop owner said. "Can I have a word with you later?"

"Yeah, sure Samuel," Ada said.

"So, how much do you think this glaive is worth?" Hell said.

"100 Nightmare Coins should cover it. Both its attack and defence are quite decent, it'll be better than shields to defend in some specific hands." Samuel said and put a coin pouch on the counter, wanting this man out immediately.

"100 NC?! Ada yelled in surprise. Is this item that good?!"

Satisfied by her response to the amount. Hell signalled Vaun to take the coin pouch immediately and left the shop after saying "I'll wait for you in front of the shop then, Ada."

"Alright."

Ada came out after a minute or two, looking at Hell again, this time seemingly scrutinizing him.

"Are you alright?" Hell asked with a beaming smile, showing his bag of coins.

"Oh, yeah. Samuel is a bit weird sometimes."

"Well, he did seem to be too focused on the glaive."

"I don't know about that," Ada said as he pointed at the tents in the distance. "But I do know we can definitely get your arm fixed there."

"Let's go then."

They entered another shop, welcomed by an old man, there were potions with various things in them. Some seemed to have some bugs in them while some seemed to have a generic red liquid in them. Hell pointed at the potions and said: "I want to buy some of those."

"You want orc blood?" The man was highly surprised as it was just an ingredient for making potions, useless for anyone other than potion makers such as himself.

"Uh… orc blood?" Hell asked as Ada cut in: "Sorry, he is new around here. We will buy some healing potions."

"Alright." Said the old man. "It'll be 15 coins."

Ada looked at Hell, it was the time to pay.

"Will it heal my broken wrist?" Hell asked, before handing the money over. He didn't like doing transactions when he didn't know much about these things, he liked to be in control.

"Yeah, it can pretty much do anything other than regrowing a limb. Drink it here, it should recover in moments. Money-back guarantee if it doesn't work."

Hell gave the man his money and looked at the potion the old man gave him. It seemed to have a jelly texture. He broke the cast on his arm first and downed the potion soon after without looking. The taste was uncharacteristically minty. His wrist did immediately recover. This potion was incredible, he needed more. "I'll take 4 more," Hell said.

"Oh. Of course! Of course!" The old man was elated as he went to get the potions.

"What are you doing?" Ada said, horrified that this man would spend so much in so little time.

"Isn't buying potions good?"

"You will have to spend what's remained of your money on a permit for the next safe zone! You will have nothing left. Also, if someone heard you had 4 potions on you, they'd wanna steal them!"

"Oh, that's nice," Hell said. "Any would-be robbers may also have them if it's that important. Let's have them try and kill us!"

"You are out of your mind."

"Hey," Hell said, looking puzzled. "You said something about some people being here for weeks before leaving. How do they preserve their bodies outside? Aren't they asleep there?"

"Oh, right, you don't know," Ada said. "Turns out, you were transported with your real body this time, and can actually die. It was a dream-game before, that's why you could revive after you died and only paid one level as the cost of revival."

"Huh?" Hell was stupefied. "You don't have to spin the punishment wheel when you fail?"

"What is the punishment wheel?" Ada was equally surprised.

"Nope, it's my bad. I think that was just a dream." Hell cursed at the system. It was a life and death situation for him while others could just recover before? The system had even said that the only reason his body was recovered was that he had defeated the boss right before he also blew himself up completely. It was obvious the system was playing favourites with him here, was he that fun to torture?

"You are weird. But let's get your permit, it'll be 25 Nightmare Coins."

"Who is selling the permits here?"

"No one. You have to offer it to the shrine in the middle of the region."

"Oh, there is a shrine, then. But, no worries. I can take care of myself from here. Thanks."

Ada expected Hell to join her party, along with Vaun as 4 would be enough to complete their party and they could finally proceed.

"I thought you would join my party." She said.

"Well, I wish to look around a bit, I'll look for you if I need a party afterwards."

"Asshole. I'll find someone else!" she said and stormed off. She couldn't believe he would act like he had her in his pockets even after she helped him! She would just find some of the newer people if there need be.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me, Vaun."

"Yes, Hell," Vaun said, still acting stiff.

"Come on, pull that stick out of that rear of yours, yeah?"

"Of course," Vaun said, again, with such stiffness.

"I liked your fervour better when you were begging for your life, mate," Hell said, with a bored face.

"Yes! I'll try to act with more fervour!" Vaun raised his voice, exploding with energy all a sudden.

"f*****g forget it." Seeing that Vaun had garnered some attention with his yelling. "I have a job for you."

"I am afraid I am the weakest out of this bunch, I must say-"

"Not something like that," Hell said, grinning. "Go and spread the word about my potions and plot with people to steal them." He lowered his volume and said.

"I think I couldn't quite catch that, could you repeat it?"

"Find some scum around and plot with them to steal my potions," Hell said again, with a clearer tone now.

"I don't know how-"

"You have two days at most to find some people. Also, gather information about this place. Or I'll cut one of your eyes out." He said while pointing Vaun's right eye. "I'll be somewhere quiet, so they can conduct their theft in peace." Hell showed a place with worn-down tents ahead.

"Yes, sir. I'll do that now, sir!" Vaun said and left with a hail of confusion raining on his mind.

"Let's hope the rat can bring in some proper prey." Hell thought to himself, finding one of the abandoned tents to crash in.

The tents all were quite large, able to accommodate multiple people easily. Hell was suddenly reminded of the tents the commanders stayed in the movies and games. This tent was dirty but at least there were no bugs around in this place. He carried his potions out in the open as he headed there, hoping someone would bite the bait.

Vaun tried to find a place with people drinking to make some buddies. He was a good drinker, so he usually made friends easily in bars. He found a tent eventually serving beer.

He didn't know how they had ale here as the whole place seemed rather barren. But even then, would they just be able to grow the necessary materials just for ale? What's worse was that he didn't have any money on himself. Hell hadn't given him any either.

"Such a bastard." He thought.

He would pay him back in full if he ever could, but he also knew in his he couldn't match up to him. The only thing he could do would probably be imagining his time of revenge before facing the reality. Perhaps he really could get him if he managed to rally a decent amount of people.

"Hello, friends." Vaun got up to a few tough-looking men and sat down. "Any of you would like to get a brother in need some ale?"

A scrawny looking man with a huge beard gave him a mean look, but before he could reject him, Vaun spoke again.

"Ah, some men are just too rich! I saw a kid buy 5 potions who drank one and went around walking with 4 of them, too. He even had a bag of coins with him!"

Scrawny man, instead of shooing him, wore a sly smile. "Of course we'll get some ale to a friend in need, won't we fellas?" He said, grinning along with his friends. They started chatting, acting like friends.

Hell had made himself comfortable in the meantime, just laying down his back after taking a stroll displaying his potions. If they were so very valuable, it would be the perfect time to get him while he stayed in this secular place, the few people here would be more criminal types.

And sure enough, it had only been slightly more than 2 hours but there were some movements outside the tent. Hell was wondering if they would attack immediately or try to threaten him, he stood ready for both scenarios.

As no one attacked for a few minutes, he got impatient and left the tent, seeing Vaun with an apologetic smile and around 20 men and women around him.

Vaun said nothing, he wanted to seem like this was not what he planned. He figured if he could have them kill this man, he would be free. His own death would only be a matter of time otherwise.

"That's him," Vaun whispered to the man in front who looked like the leader of this group.

"What's his level?" Boss asked.

"13."

"s**t. Alright, fellas, we will gang up on him. The one who deals the killing blow gets to keep one of the potions!" Boss said.

Hell, flashing a grin, went back into the tent slowly. A woman, trusting her abilities, followed him into the tent. She yelled a battle cry but moments after she went in, there was nothing else to be heard, only silence.

"Kill him!" Boss yelled.

She was just a level 8 warlock, if the man was any level 13 fighting class, it would be only expected she would have a quick death, especially rushing into a dark place without knowing where she would get hit.

"Take down the tent!" Boss yelled, watching for an opportune moment to strike himself.

*A player has been defeated*

*+50 mana has been acquired*

"Good!" Hell yelled.

It would probably the best for him to kill the other players here. Shame he didn't get any other abilities, but a large mana pool would also help him immensely. Hearing their leader yell to destroy the tent, he waited inside still, waiting for someone to try to tear the tent apart.

A sword cutting into the rear of the tent was the first one to attack and Hell immediately threw Imp Needle like a missile homing toward the unfortunate thug. The man screamed as the weapon stood stuck in his chest. He didn't die however, it seemed it wasn't fatal enough of an attack.

Hell thought he would go out and see if there were any of these people who could be a threat to him. 12-15 levels were considered really high among these people, and with his agility score, he should be fine as long as they didn't manage to tire him out with numbers.

He went outside before the tent collapsed on him and as much as he could count, there were exactly 20 people left along with the man who was impaled on the chest, excluding Vaun.

There were soon arrows, swords, spears and axes attacking him from all sides, they circled him and began poking him with their weapons from every which way. Hell dodged the first few strikes but then had to use Short Distance Warping to get out of the encirclement as it would be impossible to keep dodging in such a limited space. These people knew how to gang up on someone using their numbers.

He was behind another grunt attacking him after teleporting away and he pierced his throat from behind his neck, not wasting the opportunity to also take out the woman next to him with the newly materialized Imp Needle. He awaited the beautiful sound of the system to ring in his ears.

*A player has been defeated*

*A player has been defeated*

*+80 mana has been acquired*

Hell wasn't sure if it was because not everyone had mana or that both of theirs were awarded at the same time when he heard the system again:

*A player has been defeated*

Sure enough, that must have been the man he impaled before. He probably had invested his points in vitality, allowing him to survive longer. A fatal wound was a fatal wound at the end no matter what if one couldn't treat it.

If he didn't have any materials with him to heal up, it just meant being able to take another hit before going down. It didn't matter, which meant he hadn’t invested any point in mana. He opened some distance between them with his speed before checking his current stats.

"Open Menu."

Player: Man of Cursed Spirit

Mana : 301/350

It seemed the mana he gained could be used immediately after. This was great news to him. He was suddenly held by something out of nowhere however, saw a man looking to be causing a phenomenon far behind in the distance.

This must have been telekinesis he could have gotten. The telekinesis seemed to have a range of 50 or so meters if that was the actual distance, better than what Hell would have hoped for.

Suddenly a petite woman with dark hair, wrapped in rags similar to a ninja appeared out of nowhere and went for his heart with her dagger, striking with a rapid attack. It seems she was also very much specialized in speed.

Hell teleported again toward the man, it seemed the power should have been focused on himself as he was free every time he teleported. He teleported 2 more times one after another and closed the distance between the man and himself.

Crowd control focused characters were the worst if they were left alone. Hell threw the weapon at him but the man seemed to have just slapped it away in the air.

Using his agility to close the gap and attack the man, Hell uttered the words "Imp Needle" again. Using Imp Needle while it was being summoned was his best move as it would be hard to recognize its tip with its sudden flickering into being.

The man's arm was grazed only, as he caused Hell's attack to be diverted into the ground. The others were cursing around, only running after this man, unable to catch him. The man using telekinesis was wearing a hood as a blonde-haired and dark-brown eyed face was finally revealed. He seemed to be in his late 20s and Hell could see his smile turning into a frown.

"Let's not fight, eh?" The man said. He had to focus his power to the exact place in space to hold something, he would only manage to do it so many times without slipping up. "I'll take the ninja off your tail, too." He added and yelled: "Leila, stop!"

The ninja from earlier seemed to have been closing in as she stopped a few meters away.

"We are also looking for a strong party, join us and we'll help you kill them all."

Hell was sceptical. It was a no-brainer that one would have to steer away from such shady deals. He liked the idea, however. It was established when the man showed him 2 potions he had. "We don't need your potions, he said. We were just looking for a good fight."

His scepticism slowly melted away with a feeling of trust filled his heart, unrelated to the words of the girl and the man. He knew these people wouldn't die for him, but he understood their mentality. It was still better than those 2-bit gangsters.

"Alright," Hell said. "If you let me deal the killing blow to them."