Chapter 31: Capture The Flag, Hell Edition
Neo scanned the surroundings.
There were three locations he could go to.
The beach, the sea, and the mist.
He was already on the beach.
The sea…
As soon as he thought about escaping into the sea, his body shuddered uncontrollably.
Don't go there, his senses screamed at him.
'The mist is the only way,' he thought and dashed inland where the mist was.
Just when he was about to enter the mist, his death affinity warned him.
He crouched instantly.
Something flew over him.
And….
"Huh?
The Gulwaks behind him were cleaved in half.
All of them.
Dead.
"The thing that flew over… it was an attack?"
He looked at the mist.
"What's in there?"
Neo knew he shouldn't go into the mist, but more Gulwaks were crawling out of the beach.
If he remained there, the previous situation would repeat.
Staying on the beach was useless.
"Seems that you've warmed up, O Great Child of Monarch," the Grim Reaper's voice came out of thin air.
"Is this… your doing?"
"Do you mean the Gulwaks becoming frenzied? It was done by you, not by us."
"What do you mean?"
When Barbatos spoke, the Gulwaks stopped moving.
Neo used the opportunity to take a breather.
He asked questions to keep Barbatos talking.
"Your blood is a nectar. The Gulwaks, after smelling it last time, became like this."
Neo felt incredulous.
It seemed, from the next time, he had to make sure he didn't spill too much blood, or else, the monsters would gain a berserk boost?
He really wanted to cry.
"Since you've warmed up, we will reveal the content of the training."
Five flags appeared before Neo.
"In the land beyond the mist, we've prepared five flag bases. You have to insert the flags into them."
"…"
Neo grabbed the flags.
The training sounded simple.
But it was of nightmare difficulty.
Neo could barely survive the monsters on the beach.
He almost died when he tried to enter the mist.
The Grim Reaper wanted him to go into the land beyond the mist?
'Why doesn't he tell me to die?'
'…Oh, I'm already dead.'
Watching Neo's serious expression, the Grim Reaper added,
"We know, the training does seem simple. So, to increase the difficulty, we've decided to do this…."
Neo heard a snap.
He suddenly felt the pressure of Underworld increase by a thousandfold.
He couldn't breathe.
His eyes watered and he felt he was under twice the gravity.
The Death affinity, which always warned him of the incoming danger, went out of control.
It started to claw at his throat.
He tried to breathe but, like a fish out of water, he could barely do anything.
"We have sealed your blessing of the Underworld. With this, you will feel as if you are in your body in the living world. The increased difficulty will increase the training's effectiveness."
Neo's Divine Energy was reduced to a quarter and he became nauseous.
It wasn't training anymore.
He would die if he faced an opponent in this condition.
Without the blessing, he was as weak as his real self in the world of living.
Neo was on his knees, desperately trying to stabilize his breathing.
He felt like an asthma patient.
The Grim Reaper continued talking,
"We know what you might be thinking, but this is training, not a punishment."
Neo heard another snap.
Information appeared inside his head.
It wasn't a Spell.
"This should help you survive and grow stronger if you use it wisely."
"We hope you succeed, O Great Child of Monarch."
Barbatos' presence disappeared.
The Gulwaks began to move.
They rushed at Neo, who was writhing on the ground, like a tsunami.
'Dammit…'
The Grim Reaper gave him an incredibly precious gift.
It was something more useful and powerful than the Tremor-ranked Spell.
However, Neo was in no position to make use of it right now.
He activated the Ocean's Embrace clumsily and struck an uppercut.
The attack pushed back the Gulwak but not before another Gulwak bit his shoulder.
There was no serious injury.
The Ocean's Embrace saved him.
He could, however, feel the Gulwak's teeth slightly sinking into his skin.
Neo's mastery over the Spell was not enough to make him impervious to attacks.
He bashed the Gulwak's head against his fist and killed it.
Dozens of Gulwaks pounced on Neo.
He used the dead Gulwak as a battering ram and broke through the encirclement.
The number of Gulwaks was only increasing.
Neo had no other choice but to escape from the beach.
He held the dead Gulwak before him and ran into the mist.
His body movements were not perfect after he lost the blessing.
Neo couldn't dodge when he sensed an incoming attack.
He raised the Gulwak's corpse and placed all of his chips into his Spell.
A blade of invisible air split the corpse before it hit Neo in the chest.
The Ocean's Embrace deactivated.
He was left with a bleeding gash on his torso.
But.
"Cough… Cough…"
He was alive.
His senses suddenly flared.
Another attack was coming.
Without thinking straight, Neo dashed towards the place that gave off the scent of danger and punched.
His attack connected.
The sound of glass shattering rang and the enemy's invisibility disappeared.
A large mantis with the lower half of a snake stood before him.
Neo was holding onto its tail.
The mantis made a shrill cry.
It launched an invisible blade from its scythe.
Neo instinctively used the mantis' tail as cover.
The attack couldn't cut its body and left a huge gash.
While the mantis went berserk from pain, Neo dashed and grabbed its head with Necrotic Touch.
Its skin started to rot.
The monster tried to get Neo off its head.
It thrashed around, but Neo protected himself from being squashed with Ocean's Embrace.
How much time passed?
Neo, after applying five stacks, diverted his full focus towards maintaining Ocean's Embrace.
Maybe because the mantis was a creature of Underworld, the Spell, powered by Death affinity, took time to kill it.
Finally, the monster stopped moving.
Neo lay over its corpse as black pus flowed out of its rotting head.
"I... feel like shit."
Neo raised his head.
He didn't know where he was.
The mist hindered the visibility.
It was hard to see anything more than a few meters away.
"We must've come a long way from the beach. I can't hear those Gulwaks."
As he focused on his hearing, he suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone