Cyrus woke up from his sleep in the dead of night as his body felt like it was on fire. The shackle started to heat up and purple flames seemed to come from cracks forming on his body as he was then transported out of the hospital. In a cloud of ash, he vanished from the bed and reappeared in a burning hellscape. There was no sky, just a world of fire and destruction. Creatures all over had appeared to be fighting one another. He could hear their cries of agony and pain as they fought one another.
The shackle on his right wrist had began to vibrate and shake. A new message had appeared:
[Welcome to the Penalty Zone!]
[Your task is to survive and find the exit crystal in 4 hours. Your shackle will tell you if you are getting close.]
[If you survive the full 4 hours, you get one Chaos Point, if you locate the exit crystal and use it within the first hour, you gain 3 points, a loot chest, and/or a possible skill crystal.]
With the clock ticking he looked at the city and saw terrible beasts tearing each other apart. He could feel the heat getting to him. Not sure as to how to find the exit crystal or if he should leave this spot. For the beasts down below looked very intimidating. That is when he remembered his fight with the Aberrant, his clenched his fist and went into his inventory.
[Equipped: Fenrir armor (Damaged), Custom Berretta, and Short Blade.]
"If this is the punishment for failing the daily training," Cyrus paused then started his trek down the crumbled building he was standing on. "Then I should find this crystal and get stronger... no rest even in death." He knew he was weak, even among Standards, but his skill came in his instincts. He relied on them to help keep him alive. Even with his stats reduced, he could use the training he received from his mentor. For his brief time training before becoming touched by Chaos Energy by accident.
He saw a monstrous beast that towered above him tackle down another creature roughly its size. Noting that it would roughly seem that avoiding them in the early stage was important. For he was nowhere strong enough to take one on. He traveled down a crumbling staircase. Leaping from one section to the next, the structure was holding him for now. It was only a matter of time before a section might break out from under him. To his gut instinct, as Cyrus leapt to a section in the corner it began to rumble and shake as it was breaking apart. Reacting to the stone crumbling under his feet, he activated his Enhance skill which seemed to immediately take effect.
The extra point he put into DEX had doubled and allowed him to have a base increase of 3 points, which got reduced to 3 points. But those points were enough for him do kick off the wall and throw himself forward to lower level. The crumbling staircase had broken and caused other parts of the staircase to also breakaway under it. He was lucky to make it to this floor, the lost right sleeve though had caused him to scrape himself on the rocks. This is when he got a notification:
[HP: 9/10]
[CEP: 8/10]
Just from scraping his unguarded shoulder caused him damage. That was a problem that needed to be fixed. But at the moment he still needed to get further into the flaming city. He could hear the sounds of a creature outside the floor he was on walking by the him and the building across from him. He felt the power of his enhance running out as he saw the Chaos Beast that was walking out the window.
It was a massive monstrous creature that didn't look natural. It had multiple eyes and six limbs that that appeared to be that of a horse or a goat. However it did have a flat back which gave Cyrus a crazy idea. He had moments before the effects of Enhance would wear off. He quickly dashed towards the window and leapt through it, the doubling effect allowed his body to have the strength to leap far enough to reach the flat part of the creature's back. As he landed on it, he rolled and continued to run and leapt to the next building. However, it was just a little too far so he aimed to crash through another window a floor below.
Taking out his pistol he shot out the glass and busted through it. The shattered pieces flew everywhere and he rolled in a way to avoid rolling on his right arm. It was unprotected like his face, so he had to be careful. But he then heard the sound of footsteps coming from the rooms next to him. He drew his short blade and was ready for combat. A creature had stumbled out from the broken doorway and he saw it was some kind of humanoid. However it was shriveled, like skin and bones and charred to a dark brown crisp.
It looked at him and he noticed a burning core in its chest. It opened its mouth and screeched loud and slightly stunned him. His Enhance had run out and he was back to being weak again. When it finished its loud scream, others seemed to be moving towards his position. He went forward and stabbed the creature in the head and twisted its head off. It continued to walk forward but fell down the stairs dying as it rolled down the concrete stairs. Cyrus turned around to find 4 more in his path, which he had proceeded to cut them all down.
They were all slow, he would soon see the notification had popped up as he had killed them all, as to not interrupt his fight for survival.
[Killed 5 Burning Husks, low tier beasts offer only 10 points to your Chaos Meter.]
[While in Penalty Zone, all Chaos Crystals will be cut in half as punishment.}
[Would you like to Devour?]
The same options of yes or no had popped up and he looked at the meter. He needed to kill 10 of them to gain a level. But in the the penalty zone, it would take him double that. He selected yes and his right arm began to burn as chains covered in purple flames sprouted from his hand. They stabbed through the creature's chest and pulled out the Chaos Crystals from inside their bodies. The one that had fallen down the stairs also had a chain go out to it, pull its crystal as well. It dragged it back to his hand, which to his surprise, had not been causing him any pain.
As the crystals were then dragged into his hand he could feel a sudden boost in energy. The 5 crystals had been converted into his Chaos Meter and restored his CEP.
[Chaos Meter: 25/100]
[CEP: 10/10]
This was a good way for him to grow, even in the penalty zone, he could gain experience but at half the speed. He smiled as his hand returned to normal, "I am going to survive this hell and get out of here with a couple levels under my belt. Lets go hunting..." He went through the floors and began killing more Burning Husks. He even went along and used his Enhance skill more often to kill them faster. For each Crystal seemed to bring up his CEP by a single point for low tier Gamma beasts. It was time for the new wolf to begin his first hunts.