Tlou felt fear that threatened to consume him. He quickly snapped back snapped back to look for the source of the voice. Nothing, the corridor had no one besides him. "Who is it? stop hiding and show yourself!" Tlou demanded. No one replied. 'Am I having auditory hallucinations? Is Heydar that ill? No wonder my HP is below the maximum capacity', he thought to himself. He was still rather shaken so he kept his gaze at the corridor and kept looking around rapidly. "AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH" voices suddenly began laughing without warning. "Look at this madman!", "I ought to say he was struck in the head! ", " No I bet he ran to the lighting!", " If he keeps this up he'll die!!". The voices mocked and jeered. 'Ambush!? Have the residents finally appeared?'. Tlou's whole body was only able to manifest one action. RUN. He ran as quickly as he could but his old body couldn't get him far. He felt a sudden spike of pain in his abdomen, "Ahhhhh!!". He fell and clutched his chest aggressively before coughing. His throat felt full of flem. *Cough cough!!* his throat finally managed to spit out a lump of black pus. It inflated then deflated, releasing black gas. Tlou's eyes shrunk at the sight. 'No!' he quickly concentrated and summoned the system.
Vessels( 1)
Heydar (Active)
He focused on the only vessel there
ID: Heydar Pour Roya, male, ###,###
Skills: Skills demolished, data lost
Strength: 5.2
Agility: 2/3.3
Dexterity:1.0
Health:4/10 (vital condition*)
MP: 14.3
Defense: 2.3
Affinity: Poison, Venom, Lifeforce
"Dammit!!", his hp had dropped by 1 and his stamina fell by more than 2. 'Have the residents already hit me with some sort of poison? This is back, I barely moved from my original position and already my agility has fallen by a lot. Does too much exertion kill Heydar? Then what will I do?' Tlou rolled to the wall with the maiden and leaned against it. He took out the ceiling orbs he collected from the collapsed room and threw them wildly at the side of the corridor with the stairs. They shattered upon contact with the floor and walls, the fire inside being released and spreading. They weren't fast but still did the job. "This imbecile!!", "Bloody dunce *hiss* !". The voices were no longer laughing but cursing with fear in their voices.
Tlou could still not find the sources of the voices. They felt as if they were everywhere. He stood up and walked to the door at the end of the corridor, he hoped the fire would buy him time. But something odd happened next. The portraits that caught on fire fell from the walls onto the low fire. As soon as they fell a screech resounded as the fire was attracted to them. They burned the portraits and paintings but strangely didn't advance further. Only burning the paintings. Eventually, most of the paintings were consumed and the fire died. 'What the heck!?' Tlou observed all of this and was baffled! His only hope was quickly extinguished! He only had 2 orbs left. He was about to throw them before feeling a buzz at the side of his head. He looked to his side, towards the giant painting of the maiden. *Gasp!* , his heart froze. The Maiden no longer had a benign expression. Her lips were pursed and her eyebrows furrowed to the extreme. Her eyes staring Tlou dead in the eye. Containing intense furry. They locked eyes for a moment. Tlou was so scared he froze." STOP" The maiden demanded, her voice grim and reverberating off the walls. Tlou slowly put down his hands, but he was still frightened.
"Did the fool lose even more of his mind? "Oh may the gods have mercy on me, this fool is a lost cause, we're doomed", "He should have died, and to thank his luck he decides to kill rather than appreciate life", the voices remarked. Tlou forcefully calmed his nerves and took a look around 'These portraits, don't tell me... Impossible, no way'. Tlou looked at the maiden again, her expression was back to how it originally was and everything seemed normal. Tlou went closer to another one of the portraits and put his ear against it. " Piss off you devil!", the portrait cursed. "You speak!?" Tlou was unsettled. The voices were the portraits! This was hard to believe, if not for the maiden's eery display Tlou would have still thought Heydar was schizophrenic or something. Tlou then realised that the portraits that fell on the fire had sacrificed themselves to stop it. 'They haven't done anything to me so far other than laugh and jeer, but what about my HP?' Tlou assessed. " Did you poison me?" Tlou asked. "Poison? How could mere paint on canvas poison you? You first kill and now you slander, do you have no shame?". "Then why did I spit out that..thing?" Tlou pointed at the black puss. "These are the consequences of your own vile experiments, why blame me? Old fool have you forgotten yourself again? Oh gods why did you bring this old croack instead of a savior?". The voices would often come from different portraits and paintings yet they did not derail from Tlou's questions. He thought deeply about their words and realised that they made sense. 'Heydar has a poison affinity, it is reasonable to assume that he would occasionally get injured from experimenting, it is unlikely that they are lying to me', Tlou chose to be trusting, the portraits seemed pretty powerless to him, they would have done more than put out the fire if they could.
"Ah you're right, but I seem to have forgotten. How do I heal myself from these injuries?" Tlou decided it would be best to use these portraits to get information about his condition and Heydar's background. "You've forgotten even this? Old fool I warn you to stop these experiments without exercising caution, you will one day forget how to breathe". "Go to the room you woke up in and find the pills you made in case of emergencies". " I do not know these pills, I am afraid of taking the wrong ones". "That's no big issue, most poisons are beneficial for you, whether you consume the correct pills or poison you should be fine". Tlou became a bit skeptical about this, although he had poison affinity, that does not assume immunity. 'Is this a plot to kill me?' He summoned to the system again and saw that his hp fell by another 1! "Do you finally realise how reckless you are?*sigh* go quickly take the medicine or poison for all I care". The portraits were peculiar, their tones changed very quickly and not smoothly in any way. From mocking to anger, from fear and panic to worry and concern. Tlou kept silent and made his way to the room he woke up in. He woke up in. The door seemed immovable, no matter how much he pushed it would not open. "This again?" Tlou was really fed up with these doors. " Adjust your strength a bit old fool. Last time it took 20 years to relearn your augmentations and it seemed you forgot them again. What a waste", one of the portraits sighed. "Adjust?", a collective groan resounded amongst them. "Close your eyes and concentrate on your arms, try to feel the augmentations, you've already inscribed them just in case". Tlou did just that, while concentrating, he was able to sense something on his arms. In the darkness of his eyelids, he suddenly saw many strange glowing lines and structures. He opened his eyes in shock. "Strange you saw them really quickly, whatever, concentrate on symbols. You will realise they are in certain lines. Pick the shortest line and concentrate on it". Tlou closed his eyes again and saw the structures again. They were indeed in lines. They seemed like sentences. He picked the shortest one and felt himself suddenly grow tired then opened his eyes again. His right arm was way bigger than before. Heydar was old, his arms were originally thin with sagging skin and muscles. But now his right arm looked like a young athletes with convulsing veins that bulged with glowing green blood. He held his palm to the door and pushed! The door slowly opened till it glowed with green radiance then disappeared.
Tlou was in awe at himself. He stood rooted with his mouth agape, then he stared at his arm. It looked really eery but powerful, even more than it should be, considering its size. He kept staring at it till he felt a bit nauseous. He waddled into the room and slumped himself on the bed. The magic door opened from the middle of one of the walls lined with books. It looked at if the shelf was parted. Tlou felt tired, as if he could faint any moment. "Dis..l the in.. before you're..d..y" Tlou heard a voice that he was too tired to make out or even decipher. Tlou looked at his arm again and felt anxious. He concentrated on the arm with his eyes closed. This time he very quickly saw the magic structure, albeit this time alone without the other structures near it. It looked a bit thicker than before, he tried his best to dispel it. He remembered the feeling of latching onto it so he tried feeling the opposite of that. Release, release, release. The structure disappeared. The feeling of sinking into sleep left Tlou. He still felt tired though. He saw the pills next to the bed and quickly ate some. He then opened the system
Vessels( 1)
Heydar (Active)
He focused on the only vessel there
ID: Heydar Pour Roya, male, ###,###
Skills: Skills demolished, data lost
Strength: 5.2
Agility: 3.3
Dexterity:1.0
Health:8/10 (vital condition*)
MP: 7/14.3
Defense: 2.3
Affinity: Poison, Venom, Lifeforce
*Phew*, he let out a breath of relief then quickly fell asleep.