After they left the palace, they were undecided on what to do next. It was still only the afternoon and night-time wouldn't come for another couple of hours.
Since Ran had nothing to do, he decided to go to the Wild Catz Emporium as it was relatively nearby.
He wanted to continue training his resistance against mental attacks since he would be going on a new adventure soon and he was uncertain what might come next.
It was never bad to be careful right?
Since Ran wanted to go there, naturally, the others didn't object.
When they got there, they found that Elana was busy completing someone's order. They waited for about ten minutes before she finished and walked up to them.
"What are you guys doing here?" She looked at the three in confusion; considering the last time they met was a while ago, she assumed they just left somewhere.
"Max, I'm back!" Without letting her finish her thought, Ran jumped up to give her a hug, but Max was just too strong compared to him.
She immediately sensed his approach and left her position, appearing a meter behind where she was earlier.
"Ugh." Rans hug missed and he ended up face planting on the hard, stone, floor.
Max squatted and poked his body with her finger, "are you okay?" Her finger prodded his body, making sure he had a reaction, otherwise it meant he had fainted.
Luckily, that didn't happen.
"I'm here to acquire your services." This time, Max didn't have any weird thoughts since he had already acquired her services before.
She put a closed sign on her door before leading the group into the basement. Along the way, Ran told her about how he would be going to the mid-layer tomorrow and would no longer be able to acquire her services.
"The mid-layer?" Upon the mention of this place, Max sank into contemplation.
Once they entered the basement, she got a chair and told Ran to sit on it.
"Are you sure you want to do this? Considering the last time we did this, I'm going to be a lot harder on you." She didn't mention what happened when she had made Ran stay in the void, but her face told Ran everything.
"Don't worry, I ranked up recently." He had a relaxed smile as he spoke, he was evidently comfortable with what might happen. After all, there was no sense in worrying about something that doesn't even exist. He will deal with it if he comes across it.
Max thought for a while before she smiled:
"Perfect."
Immediately, a boundless aura exploded from Elana as everyone felt a wave of pressure overwhelm them.
Rank-5! She was a rank-5 illusionist! Luckily she was trying to hurt anyone otherwise some people might've gotten badly hurt.
However, I don't care about everyone else, I care about Ran.
In his eyes, the whole world started warping as it folded on itself like a swirl - the colors started mixing until only blackness was left.
In the darkness, Ran looked around until he found a light blinking in the far distance. It was small, about the size of a peanut, but as he walked closer to it, it grew bigger and bigger until it consumed his whole world.
He closed his eyes from the blinding light it emitted, but ears can't be blinded by light.
He heard wind blowing as his eyes adjusted themselves and he was able to see around him.
He was at the top of a grassy cliff. There were no trees nearby and no land either; he was alone at the top of the world, with barely enough foothold to keep him from falling.
He looked down and found that clouds covered the air below him. That's how high he was; looking up, the suns appeared much bigger and were blazing, like two eyes staring at him from above.
Above there was nothing and below was nothing. Ran scratched his head as he was confused on what to do. Of course, he's not the one making choices here.
Suddenly, the cliff started crumbling apart like a cookie that was being munched on.
He slipped and fell.
Falling, he felt the air whip around him as he gained speed, it felt exhilarating. Soon, he hit the clouds and left a human-shaped hole in one as he fell through it.
Honestly, he quite enjoyed this experience so far and didn't know what was supposed to happen.
However, after he fell all the way through the cloud, he found that what awaited him was the ground!
How unexpected!
"S**t!" He cursed loudly as he saw his coming death. He tried moving his soul, but neither his juice nor his sigil moved an inch - he was completely cut off from them.
Boom! He hit the ground loudly as dust and dirt sprouted up from the ground like a mushroom. He died.
GASP!
Ran woke up from his laying position as he greedily gasped for air. When he finally calmed down, he realized that he had just died.
He did not like the sensation of dying. Pain wasn't a problem, but the pressure of dying was still there.
One minute he was like a spark of consciousness in the dark, burning brightly and enthusiastically. The next minute, it puffed out of existence, its proof of living all but believable. It was as if it was never there to begin with; the darkness was all that there ever was.
He hated that extremely. He had never hated something so strongly before! If death was a person, he would beat the s**t out of death!
Dying was one thing, but to snuff one's entire existence into nothingness!? That was unacceptable! everyone should be allowed a voice to be heard, even if they're no longer living!
Okay, we get it, you're going through an existential crisis, but I really have a chapter to write here. Right where was I?
his face twisted in hatred as his sigil flickered into existence for an instant before disappearing - as if in response to Rans emotional turbulence.
Before Ran could calm down again, the light appeared in the distance. Before Ran could even decide whether to approach it or not, the light approached him!
It enveloped him and when he recovered from the light, he found himself on top of a volcano! He tried to back away, but the rock he was standing on broke and he slipped in. He melted to death. He didn't even have enough time to do a thumbs up before his body was turned into a flaming goop.
Once again, he woke up, gasping for air. Sweat began forming on his body as the pressure was climbing.
But he wasn't able to recover before he was dropped into a pool full of piranhas. He was eaten to death.
He was cycled through many different scenarios as he kept dying in gruesome ways over and over.
He very quickly died over a dozen times. A pit full of vipers, freezing to death in the middle of a blizzard, starving to death, death by dehydration, asphyxiation; you name it, he experienced it.
Now, anyone going through this would either experience a mental breakdown or would slowly grow numb to dying over and over.
The latter was much rarer than the former and not many people can grow accustomed to death… Ran included.
Rans situation was much more interesting though. The more he died, The angrier he got. Of course, death wasn't a person… or was he?
Nah, I'm just playing, but that did leave one question. Where does all the anger go? Death wasn't a person, so it would be useless to get angry at it - there was only himself.
He got angry at himself. He was frustrated with his own faults - he couldn't even save himself, how was he supposed to accomplish anything if he cant even do something so simple?
He started to hate himself, he started to frustrate himself. Why couldn't he just do it? Was it so hard? Would he just stand there and watch as he was snuffed over and over again? Never to be remembered?
His anger eventually got the better of him as it quite literally consumed him. He clenched his fists so hard that blood seeped from the wounds his nails had created. The blood leaked onto his hands and the smell only activated his bloodlust even further.
He began ripping into his flesh as he no longer wanted it; he dug into his chest and perforated his intestines, he disfigured his face and poked his eyes out. He mutilated himself before he clenched his hand around his neck. He ripped out his own windpipe, unable to breathe, he wheezed briefly before he collapsed.
This… was a mental breakdown. A god damn mental catastrophe!
He recovered and his body was placed in the darkness again, but he didn't wake up this time.
Outside, seeing him unconscious, Max was gonna call it her win this time. However, she didn't have enough time to do so when something new happened within the illusion she had created.
Inside, although Ran was unconscious, his sigil began stuttering into existence on its own before it stabilized.
It seemed to come alive as the runes moved on their own. His aura started rising as his juice moved on it's own, powering the sigil; in the middle of the sigil, a circle was laid bare with no runes. But that doesn't mean nothing's there.
Suddenly, chains sprouted from the hole like tentacles as it shot into the endless darkness! Soon, it reached what appeared to be an invisible wall. It moved around as if it was sniffing it before hundreds of chains shot into one specific spot.
One chain alone wouldn't be able to break through the defenses, especially since Max was a rank-5 and he wasn't. But hundreds of them were a different story.
They broke through the invisible wall as they shot out of the darkness!
Outside, Max's face suddenly turned red as uncontrollable anger started welling up inside her! She felt through the connection of the illusion that he was transferring his anger over to her via these chains!
However, when she came out of her thoughts, she found out that her hands were already near her face, ready to dig out her eyes!
F**k! How long was I thinking for, a second!? That's way too dangerous!
She tried to wipe away the anger along with his juice from her body, but she found that whenever one left, another popped up! They were leaving marks all over, staining her as she tried to get rid of them.
Quickly enough though, she figured out to cut off their connection by getting rid of the chains instead of the marks and stains.
However, once she got rid of the chains and cancelled the illusion, the marks were still there! Moreover, they began fostering and growing slowly!
Max and the rest gawked as reddish-pink and blue lines that tapered on each end appeared all over Max's body. The soul juice that was circulating in her body was infected and it was showing on her body.
Whenever she got rid of one with her juice, another would appear - a silent battle was happening as it went back and forth. In the end, it became a battle of attrition as neither could get rid of the other.
Eventually, after about half-an-hour, Rans unconscious face became pale as he was running out of energy. But Max was completely stunned! Going by the timing, he seemed to have at least twice as much juice as others of the same rank!? Max was astonished; having higher than average capacity isn't that rare, but having twice as much is a huge advantage!
Of course, Max was still fine and only felt a little tired.
After another five minutes, the colored lines on her skin began wiggling like they were alive. They all started moving at the same time as they coalesced to the spot where her heart would be. They all mixed together as they formed a writhing circle of lines; they swayed before they were suddenly set on fire! Like embers released from a flame, they shone quietly before disappearing entirely.
Once all the lines disappeared, and Rans sigil deactivated, Rans suddenly woke up, gasping for air. He wiped the sweat that had covered his face as he blinked harshly at his surroundings.
The whole place was silent. Everyone had seen everything from the illusion to now thanks to Max and they had one thing to say:
Wow!
I never knew one could kill themselves in such a way! When I have the time, I'll be sure to try it out! Not!
While everyone was dazed, Fluffy walked up to Ran. She raised her big paw to his face before smacking it gently. Snap out of it man!
The slap worked as Ran suddenly laughed, breaking the strange atmosphere.
"Well… that was invigorating!" Ran smiled.
If nothing else, he was at least learning more about himself. Today, he found out that he really hates death!
And since he was also his own best friend, he just learned more about his best friend! How fun was that?!
Seeing Ran in such a state, everyone sighed in relief - he's fine everyone, no need to panic! The main character is (probably not) completely fine!
As they prepared to leave, Max said, "you're all going to the mid-layer right?"
They all nodded.
"That's good. Here, take this." She handed them a seemingly already prepared letter.
"This is?" Ran took the letter but didn't open it. He was curious how she had prepared such a thing when they had just told her about leaving a while ago.
"This is my letter of recommendation. If you ever visit a city by the name Frostborne, and are in need of some help, you can visit my father there. His name is Michael Maxwell."
"And you're giving this to me because…" he was confused.
"Because of money, silly! You've given me so much money that I can finally improve!" She exclaimed at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Indeed, it was. She was rank-5 and he had given her a bunch of rank-5 cores. And now, she can use them to improve and maybe even use them to rank up!
"This can be said to be a mutual exchange this time, and now, we're friends!" She pumped up her fist.
"We're friends?!" Ran was touched, he went to hug her but he denied once again.
And curiously, she left out a portion of her words.
We're friends… with benefits!
…
After saying farewell, they left towards the market to acquire food for a get-together before they left.
"You know, apparently, they got some real fat red-tailed rabbit in stock right now." Ann licked her lips as she imagined digging in on a succulent rabbit leg.
"Hmm…" he contemplated for a second before informing his stomach about Ann's suggestion.
He poked his belly to get its attention and it replayed with a ferocious rumble!
"It says it wants fish." Ran related his stomach's demand to Ann.
"Fish?" She thought before she glanced at the "elephant" in the "room".
Once fluffy heard the word "fish", her eyes shined and sparkled brightly as she pounced at Ran. She tackled him to the ground and began sniffing his body for the so-called "fish".
Pssh, what fish!? I don't smell any here, the next time you try to trick me, I'll show you.
"Hmm, the fisherman did, indeed, catch some salmon the last time I went. We should go check."
As they left and bought tons of fish, Rans belly wouldn't stop growling. It was like it was a live animal, hungry and craving fish. He didn't know why or even when he started craving fish so heavily, but maybe it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Plus, Fluffy really likes fish, so they can get along better than ever before!
Then again, the Kesh didn't even bother to feed him while he was there for a week, so his stomach was on the verge of eating itself from the inside out.
By the time, they got the food, cooked the food, and ate the food, night time had come. Bob had left and everyone had decided to call it in early so that they could make sure not to miss the soldiers leaving.
Yet, as the Ran slept soundly on top of Fluffys body, a wind seemed to come out of nowhere as the curtains covering the window moved.
The cover that Ran wrapped himself with began shifting like something was moving underneath….