Darkness.
Utter Darkness.
He was floating in the see of nothingness that once gave him so much contentment. The once chaotic world now stood silent and he couldn't get out, making his once beautiful home into his prison.
His loyal subjects all but gone, no power being left to sustain them and no matter to corrupt so he could create more of them.
Yet he wasn't angry. Not for the last few weeks at least.
The anger he felt for the last few thousands years disappeared as soon as a spark of black light shined in the darkness. Normal person would not be able to spot it, but for him it was as clear as a flash of lightning.
If he had to wait for the world to do its thing naturally, then he might get back out in the next fifty thousand years. But that flash...he might not have to wait for so long after all.
-----------
She was running through the mist sobbing, with tears trailing down her smith cheeks.
She couldn't remember how long she was here but it couldn't be less than a few years, yet she didn't feel hunger nor thirst.
But even without those needs, she couldn't contain her emotions.
She was alone.
Her whole life she learned and trained under the greatest Sages and Warriors of her nation but when she finally faced the Darkness she was still only fourteen! Very strong and powerful but still fourteen!
But her enemy wouldn't wait for her to get stronger.
She managed to seal him, but had to pay a great price for it.
She remembered the poison in her veins, burning the life out of her as her subjects prepared the Ritual. The pain and then...she was here.
All alone.
in the mist.
And then she cried once again.
-----------
Konrad watched with anticipation as the blood in the tank started to slowly decrease until the entire 10 litters of blood disappeared to wherever it goes.
It was different than usually.
Instead of every liter of blood being sucked separately the tank sucked all of them as if it accepted the promotion 11 for 10. And then with a clicking sound, a prize rolled out of the prize hole.
He picked it up only for another to take it's place a second after.
"Huh...neat." Konrad muttered, after understanding the mechanism. There's a queue of balls, waiting for him to take them out. He wondered why was there no indicator of how much of them waited in that queue. 'Looking at how magical this machine is and all, it shouldn't be hard for there to be a display with prizes and the amount of balls in queue. I'd also add a precise measurement of how much blood is in the tank...But ehh... I'm not the one who created it so I'm not gonna complain.'
He decided to focus on the most important thing.
The prize!
It was once again a black ball but he didn't let that discourage him.
His eyes fell on the words that appeared on the surface of the ball and he became surprised but soon his expression turned into a grown.
"And how am I supposed to use it?" He muttered.
[} Orichalcum ore (10kg) {]
It was a magical ore! But it was a magical "ORE"! How was Konrad supposed to use it if he didn't really know how to process a normal ore, not even mentioning a magical one?!
He put the prize orb into his storage space deciding to leave it for later.
Then his eyes fell onto the second reward that this time turned out to be a golden ball.
"A Rare reward! let's see what we go-...are you making fun of me?"
[} Processed Orichalcum Ingot (5kg) {]
"..."
"Well at least now I don't need to think about processing that ore for the time being..." He shrugged, not being really upset. It was a magical metal after all! How awesome is that?!
next prize was once again a golden ball but to his great delight it was a striped one, meaning that it should contain a skill! Konrad couldn't contain his excitement. He read the description and his mouth fell open.
[} Space Storage +5 {]
It was another space storage prize! but this one was actually +5 and not +1! He was wholeheartedly hoping that he could actually merge the two prizes together. He didn't care that he already had one because as he learned from multiple RPG's he played - There's never to much storage space!
His hand instantly moved to his head and the prize disintegrated into light that entered his forehead. He instantly checked if his storage worked alright and confirmed that what was left inside was still where it should be. There didn't appear to be any changes, but he would have to go out and see if he can put more than one cubic meter of stuff inside of it.
Content with the prize Konrad took out another prize from the machine and his eyes shined because it was another striped ball, this time colored black, just as the first one he ever opened. But his mind almost exploded when he read the description because in his current situation, It was practically a godsend.
[} Low health regeneration (x2) {]
That was it! The one orb he really needed, and the one he hoped to get more of in the future! 'An actual increase in the healing factor! This is crazy!' He thought while jumping like a little kid who just received his Christmas present.
In excitement, Konrad disregarded the small voice in the back of his head, that told him to wait and prepare, and shoved the prize into his mouth as soon as it transformed into a glowing spherical pill.
And then came the pain...