Inspired by the passionate speech of Moros, every new student spoke about their most important things and bled their hearts out. Everyone shared their bitter experiences, their struggles and their fears.
And the man that caused all of this slept like a log. His dreams were all about the things he would do with the money that was waiting for him so seductively at home.
Ugh, he could not wait to use that slutty money.
As the hours passed and the youth continued to do unspeakable acts with said monster stones, the ringing of the bell woke him up.
Ignoring the people talking around him, Malissa and his teacher he shot straight up and ran out of the room.
Money was the only thing on his mind, he had to get to his money. He had been walking through this desert of poverty for years on end and now there was finally an oasis of cash in the far distance.
He ran and ran, even faster than before. His speed grew with every step taken.
Onlookers were left behind, but he did not care. His legs pushed him forwards, the direction and path were clear. Moros wanted his MONEY and he wanted it NOW.
Rumours would spread of a salivating madman darting through town. They would claim a psycho was running around in just his underwear, screaming at the top of his lungs to "inject that juicy monster cores directly into his veins".
Voices grew louder that Moros Terra must have lost a bet or was actively trying to ruin the newly gained renown because he was jealous of his younger brother.
To most people, these rumours would be seen as absolute nonsense. The famous wastrel of the Terra family was not someone who could run in the first place.
People simply took this rumour as an attempt to ruin the reputation of the Terra family by someone envious of their recent success. The truth did sound too much like a fairy tale and to many it would always sound like that.
Not that the underwear model in question was aware of the rumours, not after he had arrived at his home in an unprecedented, record time.
Standing before the cheap, broken gate of the Terra family. Moros stopped for a bit and took a few deep breaths. These were his last breaths as a poor youth with no money to his name.
After he would step through these gates, march right to the dungeon, pass all these useless ballas, and swim in the pile of monster cores that were left behind.
Of course he was widely aware that he was exaggerating the amount of money that awaited him, but these little things were the highlight of his rather boring existence.
Acting like a weirdo from time to time, to Moros everyone did that. After all, everyone on the planet Elysium was a little bit crazy…it was a mad, mad world they were living in.
Entering the dungeon a strange gut feeling made Moros suspect that something was off.
His skin tingled and his senses seemed to flair up for no valid reason. No Balla was in sight nor was there any suspicious noise. Still, there was that underlying tension that kept his body on edge…a danger was present.
Moros dismissed the feeling, blaming it on not going to the toilet prior. Nothing ever happened in this dungeon. How could any Balla make him feel such a severe sense of unease?
The youth laughed at his own stupidity and foolishly walked on, right around the corner to pick up the pile of monster cores.
But there was nothing there. All his monster cores had been stolen!
A guttural scream escaped his mouth, he looked around to look for potential thieves still lurking in the dungeon.
Nobody was there, nothing was there. No monster cores, no earwigs, no Ballas. The whole dungeon was empty.
Merely wet droplets fell from the ceiling, falling onto his shirtless body…and the flesh started to sizzle.
His head shot up, he looked towards the ceiling, there was no ceiling.
He looked into a dark void, a dark empty mass of black that hung over him. The magic visor reacted, its classification of whatever was atop of him.
[???]
Moros let out a harrowing scream, but the mass, devouring all light, came homing in on him, falling violently atop of him, its weight crushing his body onto the floor of the dungeon.
The impact, a thunderous grating sound of flesh hitting the floor. A web of cracks spread across the surface of the stone floor. Everything shook, the floor of the dungeon uttered a terrible, animalistic, primal scream. As if it was alive.
It broke.
The mass of black and Moros fell into an abysmal nothing below, their bodies swallowed whole.
Long was the fall, the sudden landing cut short.
Moros' body bounced off the new ground, a scream of pure pain escaped his lips.
Thoughts ran in his mind, trying to make sense out of what was happening. There was no explanation, just terrible pain that spread all over his body. Blood poured out of his mouth.
Fear, confusion, all sorts of emotions announced themselves.
Around was just a terrible all-consuming void. No light, no sound, no single thing...
Heavy breaths escaped Moros' mouth. Blood trickled down his throat, the taste of iron lingered in his lungs.
There was that monster nearby, it had to spectate him, eying his every moment.
Silence.
Silence.
Merely a trickling sound echoed through the vicinity…it was here, it was there, the monster lurked somewhere in the darkness.
Unbeknownst to Moros, an uncanny smile formed upon his face.
The foggy mind of his slowly started to clear up. The mystery surrounding his creature tickled the neurons in his brain, flooding his body with dopamine and adrenaline.
Gathering the blood in his mouth, he spat out the little gathering of the red liquid as far as he could.
The little plink sound in the distance was followed by a thunderous cracking sound where the droplet landed.
"So, it was a Balla. The nasty little thing, must have gobbled up all the other Ballas and my monster cores," the young man thought to himself.
Moros' smile grew wider.
There was an easy way to solve this whole thing. Still, that option would be rather painful, but a 'hero' has to bleed for his people, right?
With much confidence, he grabbed his left middle finger with his dominant arm, and forcefully twisted it into the opposite direction.
An ear-piercing snapping sound destroyed the silence.
Skin had broken, a bone was broken, a bone was showing.
No thought was spent, the other fingers retracted and the hand thrown forward. Soft monster tissue met sharp, pointy broken bone─the strange creature caught off-guard, its membrane pierced.
Its terrible scream of agony bounced around the nothingness Moros was surrounded by.
Moros, not bothered by the sight, retracted his hand and punched forward again…and again…and again.
The squelching sound continued, his middle finger sizzling with the acidic blood of the super-sized abomination in front of him.
"Would you not kindly die for me?" the question echoed throughout, no answer came.
He answered again, in the language that every creature knew, the language of violence.
He stabbed again, twisting his fingers in the wound…this time a reply came. An anguished cry directly in front of his face.
"Such heart-to-heart conversations, I have really missed them."
Moros still continued to stab the creature without any pause. Soft squelches continued, more and more. The sounds of the creature fading away into the night.
"It breaks my heart, man. You will disappoint me. You too, will leave me behind."
"WHY DO YOU LEAVE ME BEHIND??WHY????"
The creature was now without noise, Moros still launched his middle finger forward.
"WHY!!! WHY!!!! WHY!!!"
[Balla-Balla (Evolution) has been slain. 15 XP awarded and 1 low monster core has been awarded]
The soft sound of tears falling to the floor echoed through the darkness of the night before the body of the Balla-Balla exploded into millions of little pieces, causing his entire body to burn and dissolve partly.
"I am all alone."