After that brief drinking session, he continued walking, eager to see what came next on this mysterious path.
To his surprise, as he wandered forward, he was met by a massive, fat worm. It seemed rather gluttonous and was the size of a small train. It blocked the path entirely, cutting off William's means of travel.
He decided to kick the worm in his annoyance, only to be rebounded back from the sheer mass of the worm.
When he looked back to see how far the fantasy land was, so he could go back and ask for help, he was dumbfounded to see that the land had magically disappeared, without a trace.
It was truly a weird day for William.
'What kind of place am I even in?' He pondered silently. Seemingly oblivious to what was occurring.
Sighing, he raised his bident with no other choice and decided to cut through the big worm.
However, the worm's mucus-lathered body was too slippery to be stabbed by the bident, and its skin was far too thick to be pierced.
"What the heck, this bident can pierce through souls! How is it failing against a big worm?" He lampooned internally.
The next move he thought of was to lure the big worm away with food.
'What do worms even eat...Eh, whatever they normally eat, this thing probably eats that and everything else in this world.'
He decided to take a brief detour to see if he could find any animals to hunt.
He searched for what felt like days, but was probably around an hour, to no avail. This forest seemed rather empty, not a living being in sight except for William, and even that was debatable.
In failure, he opened up the Leaderboard, wanting to check out the rankings.
[1. Paintress of a Forgotten World: 11546 VP]
[2.The Stargazer: 9999 VP]
[3. Shadow Ruler of Darkness: 8238 VP]
[4. Azure Blue Dragon: 8205 VP]
[5. Red Phoenix of Lava: 8155 VP]
[6. Spirit of Freedom: 7994 VP]
[7. Earth Golem: 7667 VP]
[8. Echoic Slate of Emptiness: 6769 VP]
[9. Warden of Delight: 6554 VP]
[10. Rächer Lied: 5432 VP]
'It seems I've fallen behind once more..The Paintress is as dominant as ever, the usual second place is down to eighth...This is most unusual, and someone jumped directly to second place? The tides are changing for sure. If I want any hope of winning this, or even staying alive, I need to ascend to scholar as soon as possible.' William thought to himself worryingly, whilst sitting down on a patch of soft moss in god knows where.
He continued thinking to himself, suddenly realizing something important.
'You know, this place is pretty strange. The way back is completely gone now. How am I even supposed to leave here? Maybe it's some sort of prison or trap to contain people who try to attack the cathedral? In that case, perhaps it would work if I utilized Bane to break through the walls of this place, after all, I somehow made rifts before.'
So he raised a blade made out of Ingenuity and slashed the air while imbuing it with Bane of Existence.
Like before, a rift appeared, but instead of an endless void like usual, he saw something completely different.
It was somewhere near the watchtower, around the garden area.
Seeing this, he immediately hoped it was a portal of some kind and tried to hop through it, just for it to be pried shut at the last second and stitched back to normal.
So he tried again and again, but even with perfect timing, the portal was solid, like some kind of window to the outside world.
'Dammit!' He groaned in annoyance. He wasn't sure what to do anymore, so he just lay down in boredom.
William then felt something hard and round hit the back of his head, an object that was seemingly pelted at him from behind. When he turned around to see what it was, he found that it was a potato, an ordinary potato.
However, this piqued his interest as he looked behind him and saw a small mountain of potatoes and a small letter that seemed to have been modified by something.
The part he was able to read was:
"Helloo, if you're reading this, I brought these potatoes over, since it seems that you need them more than me. I hope they're of help to you.
Sincerely, a Reader of Blood, Michael."
William didn't know who this person was, but it was likely the same one he had seen earlier planting in the fields.
'Thank you, kind stranger, I'll remember this.'
He brought the potatoes over to the big worm, and by placing them off to the side and cooking them with some basic fire manipulation, he created a very nice-smelling scent.
Soon, the big worm started to roll over in the direction of the potatoes, clearing the path in front and allowing William to see what was ahead.
Upon seeing what lay in front of him, he began to laugh; he laughed so hard that tears started to come out of his eyes.
'I'm such an idiot, I should have realized this sooner.' He facepalmed himself with his right hand while laughing.
He walked forward, a new type of confidence enveloping his body. Towards the large structure ahead.
Suddenly, a group of thirty warriors appeared in front of him, as if trying to stop him. All clad in medieval-type armor and long swords.
At the same time, the ravings inside William's mind grew stronger, as if trying to stop him from thinking altogether.
"Sorry, but I have people outside I need to protect." William pointed his bident in front of him, smiling emptily.
He charged towards the warriors, piercing and slashing through them with ease due to his enhanced constitution. They were all defeated without even breaking a sweat.
However, as soon as they all fell, they started to get back up. It seemed they could return from death.
'Hmm, this is no good.'
"Begone," William stated.
The next moment, all the warriors suddenly disappeared, as if they had never existed in the first place.
He thought he heard a young woman's voice cursing in annoyance from a far distance ahead.
The corners of his lips curled up.
"Well, I must apologize for this, Miss. You've got to meet the real me here, a shame the same won't apply outside."
William raised his bident, getting into a javelin-throwing position. He threw it with all his might at the place where he heard the disembodied voice.
A pained groan sounded out, signaling that the spear had reached its mark.
An ethereal figure would appear out of thin air. She had emerald green hair, jade-coloured eyes, and pale, milky skin. Her expression was smug and condescending, as if staring at an ant. She laughed maniacally.
"Oh man! This is fun! Now that my cover's blown, I guess we'll do this instead!" Her smile widened to an inhuman amount.
In the next moment, several steel nails the size of shoes would pierce all four of William's limbs and pin him to the ground, causing William immense pain.
His abilities felt like they were sealed, unable to be used whatsoever.
He winced slightly and gritted his teeth. Trying his best to smile.
"Do your worst." He taunted.
The woman obliged, sending several more shoe-sized nails into his body, causing him to feel pain beyond recognition. Injuries this extreme would have killed him usually, thankfully, he had the Healing Coat with him, so he managed to stay alive, and because of his large ingenuity reserves, he managed to keep repairing it from damage. Or was it really the coat's doing?
William coughed up blood; he was no stranger to pain, but it still hurt an indescribable amount.
"Okay, maybe not your wo-
More nails were driven into his abdomen, causing it to tear apart, just to be mended together once more. Putting him in an endless cycle of torment.
As his intestines broke apart, blood pooled around in his stomach cavity like some kind of horrific, grotesque type of soup. The bloody scene was more vile than witnessing his friends die.
Crimson liquid painted the area around his body, creating a patch of shining, blood-red grass, what a disgusting yet beautiful sight.
'Huh...' William was barely able to form a thought.
He screamed out in pain over and over again, tears beginning to stream down his face involuntarily. How pathetic.
The madwoman didn't stop firing the nails at William's mutilated body, finding some kind of sick joy out of watching him scream and writhe in pain, even blushing and smiling with a beautiful face.
"Hehehe..." She giggled to herself.
'I wonder if the boss'll reward me for this?'
"Hey, boy! What's your name! We're gonna be here for a looong looong time, so we might as well get to know each other!"
William stayed silent. Likely due to the fact that there were about ten shoe-sized nails in his throat.
The Woman would simply smile calmly.
"Speak." She ordered with devilish eyes.
All of a sudden, William felt so compelled to speak that words fell out of his bloody mouth, disregarding the fact that he barely had a throat left to use.
"W..i..l..l.i...a....m." He stammered out through mouthfuls of blood.
At this point, he had bled the amount of around ten people, an absurd amount of blood.
The woman in the air clasped her hands together whilst smiling.
"Aww, what an adorable little name you have!"
She then created hundreds of small needles out of thin air and assaulted William's already mauled body with them, sending wave after wave after wave of pain straight into his brain, temporarily overloading it and causing him to foam blood at the mouth.
"Hehehe, cute!"
William couldn't move or think; all he could do was stay still and suffer for as long as she wanted him to, oh, and listen to yours truly, of course. I suppose I'm the only thing keeping him remotely sane right now.
--------------------------------------------------------------
A long time later.
Hey buddy, you can do this.
Remember, Aspirations, Desires, Hopes....what else was there....Dreams?
William's body began to twitch, his brain still short-circuiting from the pain. Not being able to process the Narrator's voice.
Oh for the love of god...Fine, only this time.
As the needles and nails in his body fought against his healing factor, he suddenly started to feel lighter. Like he had achieved enlightenment, or was just nearing medical comatose from pain.
The pool of blood around William's blood began to convulse and rise, as if being controlled. The blood inside of his body ripped all of the nails and needles out of it. Bringing William some much needed solace.
Finally able to think, William began to hyperventilate, not because of lack of air, but out of sheer terror. His body shook so hard it looked like he was vibrating. He stared at his own bloody body with horror, before vomiting over to the side.
He continued vomiting, before a wave of calmness washed over him.
[Attribute: Monster, steps in.]
[Humanity: 4.23%]
His breathing returned to normal, and he stopped shaking.
"Are you alright?" A mysterious voice spoke from his left.
William spun around to see the same potato farmer he had seen earlier. The Reader of Blood, Michael.
"Michael?"
"You got my letter then, good, I was worried you wouldn't be able to read it at all, this woman tried to tamper with it." He gestured to the emerald-haired woman in the sky.
William's body had nearly fully repaired itself by now, a shame his non magical clothes were all destroyed, or were they?
The woman glared angrily at them.
"You little vermin!" She pointed at them and formed a storm of blades around them.
However, this time, William simply snapped and the blades dissipated once they got close enough to the two of them.
"How..." She growled.
William smiled monstrously, "Cope. Mald. Seethe. Isn't that what the kids used to say? Have you never heard of lucid dreaming before?"
'Michael' formed a torrent of blood around them, forming a large suit of armor around them to protect them.
"Focus, she's a fearsome opponent." 'Michael' drew his blade, preparing for a real fight now that the tides had been equalized.