Will was stunned. He never saw such raw violence and chaos in his life. He wasn't a sheltered person. He had seen plenty of videos online of gruesome deaths and loss of human life. But, being in the middle of it… Experiencing the visceral nature of humans brought to their lowest. He's knocked out of his stupor by one of the slaves. Literally. A bony fist whips across his face and knocks him down to the ground. Feeling his lips, the slaves' knuckles had cut them. Blood was bright red on his dirty skin.
Will pushed himself to his feet slightly disoriented. His vision was slowly clearing. Will stumbled forward for a second, holding the side of his head.
"Shit. This is so pathetic. Some bum just rocked me. How the hell am I gonna fight The Smith?" He says to himself. Wiping away the blood with his arm. Solemnly, he walks into the chaos.
Will had a plan. Instead of running to one of the several chunks of flesh, he ran to the wolf head. It had already been stripped. Some pieces of its fur were hanging off like a wet towel, still soaked in blood. It had been stripped of anything edible so there were no more slaves surrounding it like piranhas. He ran up, getting a look into its mouth and found his target. The teeth. Reaching out and giving one a tug it doesn't budge.
"Shit." He mutters as he gets up. Planting his foot and kicking the tooth with all his might. The tooth was still stuck but the giant wolf's head slid back an inch. "Shitty wolf and its strong teeth. Just come out!" He kicks it again with all his might pissed off. The tooth didn't come out, but now it was at an odd angle pointing into its empty mouth. Reaching in again, he's able to wrench it out after using all his strength. "Ha, not so big and bad now huh?" He's able to kick out a few more teeth and uses one of them to cut out pieces of the wolf coat. Fashioning himself a bloody sack and securing his bounty of teeth inside he turns back towards the pack.
Walking away from the crowd, he could see Coal and his hitchhiker walking away from the feeding frenzy, a chunk of meat about the size of a basketball in his hand well above the heads of the crowd. One starving slave tries to jump up for it. In response, Coal plants his foot on his face and sends the poor guy flipping over himself, landing in a crumpled heap. He might be dead, who knows. Coal was also scary strong. Grandma spots him from the distance and looks at him with a grin and a thumbs up, saying some words. Wishing him good luck? Or, a warning to not to get his boulder knocked around again. Probably the second one.
Will found his target. It was a smaller piece of meat so less of the crowd flocked to it. There were still 2 or 3 gaunt figures surrounding it. Just far enough away from each other that they didn't care to fight each other. He would have to piss one of them off to get access to meat. Of the three of them, one of them was a thinner man. There was a woman, but he couldn't force himself to attack a girl just yet. It was stupid, but he was the man with a boulder on his shoulders.
He cut a few strips of the wolf cloth, strapping the sack tightly to himself and tying one tooth to his hand gripping it as hard. The tooth was sharp enough to draw blood just from that but he couldn't risk somehow losing it whenever it got hectic. Taking a deep breath, whincing, he forgot the air was acrid and disgusting. Regardless, he needed to focus. Positioning himself in the smaller man's blindspot as best as he can, raising his makeshift weapon high above his head, ready to strike down.
Both his hands gripping the tooth with all his might, fully focused on ending this man.Will knew that if he wasn't ready to fight and kill to live, something else would do it to him. The man stiffens the same instant, sensing his unhidden intent to kill. Reacting surprisingly quickly for someone so malnourished. Raising his own hand to block the fang, it tears straight through his hand, splitting it right down the middle of his middle and ring finger, down to his wrist bone. The shriek that escaped the man's lips sends shivers down to Will's very core. He was really attacking and aiming to kill a human. The man plants his foot to his gut with almost no force, the man didn't have any muscle to use to force him back. Compared to Will, who still had some borrowed essence from an Awakened Tyrant, he stood no chance. Ripping the makeshift knife back, severing two fingers that flew off to dusty ground. Focused trying to block out anything he didn't need. Even with the difference in strength, he couldn't afford to falter.
The man is desperate. He tackles Will down, able to get the stronger man off his feet, and they roll on the ground, both trying to wrestle the fang from his hand. Luckily, that's exactly why he tied it to his hand. Just because he was stronger didn't mean he held all the advantages. In the short seconds they've been rolling on the ground, each making desperate attempts to grab the fang to end the other person, Will notices something. This man had greater experience in fights. The most Will knew about fighting was how to not break his thumb. Even with Will's superior strength, he was struggling to overpower the man who held the advantage in experience and technique.
What broke their stalemate in the end was one thing. Stamina. If there was one thing Will did in his previous life was bike, it was his only form of transportation to anywhere. When Will entered the nightmare, the spell gave him a similar body that he had in the real world. At least, that's what he thought was right for the first Nightmare. His body seemed to be of a slave, who was newly captured, still full of vitality. But the Gaunt man wasn't so lucky. Had he already been here for weeks, months, years? Who knows. But Will wouldn't squander his opening. Flipping them both, Will pins the man's arms under his knees, using his full weight. In response, the man bucks his hips instantly to throw him off, but he has no strength left. Despite the futility of the moment, he refused to give up. He continues bucking and straining under Will, who raises his hands together once more.
In a swift and brutal motion, he slams the fang down deep into the man's chest. Will feels the fight leaving the man, but he doesn't let up. Growing weak, the man managed to free his hands and shoves his skeletal hands in Will's face. He scratched Will's face, clawing lines in his face trying to claw at Will's eyes. The man's eyes still held no fear. He wasn't shaken to the very end fighting against his assailant . Will yanks the fang free, feeling the bits of sinew rip from his chest. Blood droplets fling into Will's face, feeling cool in this god awful heat. He raises both of his arms again, looking to put the man out of his misery. Will slams the fang down the gaunt man's feeble hands and strength unable to stop the attack and buries the fang into his throat.
The man gurgles and with a final wet breath, the man stops moving. Finally no longer a slave.
[You have slain a dormant human, name unknown.]
Sucking in a breath, he realizes his hands were shaking, covered in blood. He pushes himself off of and away from the dead body. It really happened. He had hoped that these beings just looked human but… His first ever kill was a human. With that he really was living behind his life as a mundane human. The worst problems in his life being bills and taxes. He was a murder now even if it was out of necessity.
Will would've vomited again, if he had anything left from earlier.
[You have received a memory…]
The sound of the Spell whispering in his ear to give him something, it didn't feel as great as he thought it would, it felt heavy tied down from the life he had taken. He had taken a human life who was desperate to survive to gain this gift. Was it really worth it?
[You have received a memory: Tattered Sash]
Will raised his eyebrow. As much as he wanted to check it out, part of him still held some excitement about getting his first ever memory, a gift from the spell that granted power. He still had a job to do. Food.
Turning to the open spot on the piece of meat, he notices the other two haven't stopped eating despite how long they were fighting. Looking around and seeing how little changed from how quickly the slaves were eating the meat in front of them. He realized something. That whole scuffle and ending a human's life took less than a few dozen seconds. The two of them started, finished and one of them lost their lives in just a handful of seconds. It could all really be that quick.
Shaking his head and getting those thoughts out of his head, Will runs up to the empty section, finally beginning to cut away some of the precious strips of meat. After filling most of his sack with meat, he covers it up. Tucking it under his arm, he begins running away from the rest of the chaos. He heads in the last direction he saw Coal and Grandma heading to. Jogging away the last bits of adrenaline and essence leaving his body, Will realizes that his whole body was on fire. Not just tired but in pain. Unable to find the pair he was looking for, he heads to one of the many streams of lava nearby. The furnace is still in view, maybe about 20 or 30 feet out from his current spot. The slaves nearby are still just stuffing their faces with raw wolf meat, completely oblivious to the murder that happened just a few feet away. Or maybe they didn't care about it as much as they wanted the meat.
Will slides his back down against a conveniently placed rock, blocking his view of the madness behind him. Shaken, he lets out a sigh. Seeing his hands haven't stopped trembling from the adrenaline still in his body, he adjusts himself with a groan as he assesses his hull.
In the fur sack, he has about 7 pounds of meat. Roughly a week's worth if he eats a lot to keep his body from deteriorating from malnourishment. He couldn't fit any more in the sack, and if he was seen running away with a bunch of food, there's no doubt he would've been attacked. Alongside the food he got was about a dozen of the wolf's teeth, to include 3 of its canines. The last one seems to have been shattered by something incredibly hard or a powerful hit. Each one of the teeth seemed to give off a fearful aura but the 3 canines he managed to extract radiated a different level of malice and strength.
Setting his sack and its contents aside, Will brought up the runes of his first ever memory.
Memory: [Tattered Sash]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory type: Garment
Will's eyes widened in surprise. He had barely seen any of this particular type of memory in the novel, not only that but it was of the Awakened tier despite being from a dormant human. Or was the man an Awakened and was just extremely weak from his time here? He continued reading.
Memory description: [A Warrior who stood firm in battle and in siege was defeated and captured by a terrifying beast. Despite that he painfully clung to life, his will never faltering despite starvation and desperation, until his body could no longer keep up. His will clings like a frayed cloth around his waist, buying precious moments of endurance.]
It seemed like it had some ability to strengthen him or help him hold out if he got desperate like the Man had when they fought. Never giving up. Even after his physical form couldn't keep up anymore.
Will was silent. Moments pass in the quiet to pay his respects to the man whose life gifted him this great boon.
Summoning the Sash in a burst of sparks. In a few moments, he's holding a rust colored sash almost like a scarf. Its ends frayed with the smell of smoke and ash lingering on it. He tied it around his waist. He had no idea how to begin using it. The essence he had before from his Aspect was something Will didn't know if he could even control. It just soaked into his body freely and left just as easily. So, even though the Tattered Sash was a great boon and could be very useful to him later on, it was practically useless right now because he doesn't know how to control any essence. Feeling depressed, he rests his head on the rock sighing to himself.
"So this is where you're hiding. Being among your kind makes you feel safe, huh?" He can hear a voice cackle from above him. Looking farther up, he can see both the head of Coal and Grandma sitting atop her mighty steed looking down at him. "You survived the Feeding, and secured quite a lot of it for yourself. I am very surprised you even managed to live." She scratches her chin.
"Yeah no thanks to you. He could've gotten food for us both if he wanted" Pointing at the dark-skinned man.
"Oh yeah. He could've gotten more than enough for all of us, but not only would that put me and him in danger. Having so much food would make the others target us for it. However, I also needed to see if you had the grit to survive." She looks at him, raising an eyebrow and a sinister smile stretching across her face. "Plus, if you failed, then you would have to rely on us and be in our debt. It was a win/win if we let you struggle." What an evil Nightmare Creature she was. She lets that hang in the air before letting out another witch laugh again. "I'm just pulling your leg. Come on, let's go. Bring your stuff, your boulder and let's get somewhere more private so we can eat in peace. At that moment, one of the slaves who did not seem to be lucky in getting their own food wandered past Will's alcove.
"Yeah, I think I've seen enough of those guys for now." Securing his fur sack around his chest and ensuring all the teeth were safely hidden away under the food. The exception being the makeshift dagger, one of the teeth that served and tied to his hand. Following the elder horror and her giant steed, they find another spot to hide away. This one seems to be where they sleep and eat. It was a little cave that looked like it was dug out from the side of the mountain where the earth was softer. Or maybe they used an excavator. The entrance was just an opening with a giant boulder placed next to it. A door? Inside, two cots made of strips of cloth and pelts laid on the ground in the circular chamber. One was comically small and further away from the entrance to the left, the other stupidly big and placed near the right of the opening. Funnily enough, he noticed a third one was placed in between the two making a sort of triangle with the giant one the point next to the entrance.
"Make yourself at home, we have a guest bed despite not having visitors very often. You're more than welcome to sleep and eat here." Coal had placed her down on the ground approaching a small 2x2 rock in the center of the chamber. Pushing it over, he revealed a small hole about the size of a catcher's mitt. You could feel the heat emanating from it along with the light of the magma from within.
Silently, Coal moves over to the boulder positioned outside the entrance and sits near its standing watch. "He'll watch out for anyone coming over while we cook." Gesturing to the hunk of meat by the hole. "Since these weak bones can't lift it, I hope you're a good cook" She smiles at him innocently. As innocent as a deadly creature like her could at least.
"Yeah, it's the least I could do with all the help you're giving me. Plus, we're partners now aren't we?" Grandma's smile twitches slightly, unnoticed by Will.
"Yeah… Exactly. I'm glad even your boulder could connect those dots together" She cackles settling into her cot. "Well? Chop chop. The food isn't gonna cook itself now is it?"
"Yeah Yeah Yeah… You're lucky you've got the giant backing you up, you little creten" He mumbles under his breath.
"What was that?" She yells her back towards him.
"Oh, nothing. Just how unfortunate it is we don't have any spices here"
"Oh you are right. The last time I saw salt it was growing from the back of a rock creature. I don't know if it would be happy about you taking it." She laughs. Will shutters. If she knew it was salt, that meant she had collected it at some point. If that was so, what would the salt that grew off a monster be called? Would the salt be basically dandruff or something? Seasoning the monster meat with the dandruff of another monster… This really was a different reality he was in.
"You and the big guy seem to get along well? Did you know each other for long?" Will asks as he gets work cutting up the meat Coal had secured into smaller more manageable pieces. He wasn't looking her way but could hear her sigh and shuffle behind him.
"No. We met each other here. The big lug got into a scuffle his first day here, back when any of those bastards actually cared. Since he was new and big, they tried to bully him into their circles. But little did they know he had a terrible temper. Despite all that strength, they hurt him pretty badly, but they learned their lesson. It wasn't worth pissing him off when simple injuries could fester and get much worse. I was much too weak on my own to meet the quota's and…. I had a partner who I did come here with. But he's gone now…" Grandma's voice goes quiet behind him. He couldn't see but her arms traced a scar that ran along her right shoulder and down to chest underneath the cloth. Only the sounds of Will sawing the meat could be heard. Grandma sighs behind him, continuing her voice unsteady.
"Without him, the next time that abomination declared a quota, I would die. So I approached him. Offering my abilities for his help. Surprisingly, since he had just let off a lot of steam, he was kind and agreed to help me. That was about a month ago. The last time the Smith left to gather more slaves. This time he only brought you. So, I assume you are the last person it could find on the mountain." The silence permeates the room until Will finishes cutting the meat into manageable chunks.
"Help me cook these. Your old bones can handle that, right?" He jokes, but immediately finds a pebble bouncing off his forehead.
"How dare you talk to a maiden like that? Rude!" She acts offended, but walks over to help nonetheless. Sitting around the magma hole, they begin cooking the meat, both parties had gathered. Grandma cooking for her and Coal. Will cooked the meat he had gathered.
"So... You said my blessing was exactly what you thought you needed to defeat that monster out there. Honesty, I don't see how. It is so much stronger than any of us, and that's not to mention that swarm of creatures living inside of it. How am I supposed to be of any use to you against it?" Will didn't want to talk so negatively, but he had to be realistic. That monster was in another realm compared to them. The only reason Sunny survived as long as he did was because of luck and he happened to have a strong person that could hold it off at crucial moments. Nothing against his two companions, but he didn't see a way any of the three could be useful in a fight against it. The gap was just too insane to bridge.
"You're burning that one…" She points out. Will curses up a storm, putting away the burnt meat. Despite it being very very well done, he couldn't afford to just throw it away. He didn't know when he would get food again.
"Well, the plan might be as insane as straight up fighting The Smith himself…." She pauses. Seemingly shaken by the thought of the plan she made. "There is a legend about how this mountain was created. Some say it was a comet. Some say it was just an ordinary volcano. But there is a reason why that Abomination planted its Furnace here." She holds up a finger, signalling him to wait a moment. Shoveling over to the man patiently standing watch, she hands him the first piece of cooked meat, telling him a few things he couldn't make out from this distance before taking her seat again.
"You remember that moody lizard from before?" Will just nods at her chewing in content on the second wolf meat steak he cooked. It had a gamey taste but was wonderfully juicy. It would've been amazing with some spice and some alcohol but good nonetheless. Not bad for a first meal in this world.
"Well, I believe that thing is descended from a dragon. They're said to have been extinct for hundreds of years, but legend says one was born here. That was what caused the eruption of a volcano. Not nature. But the birth of something otherworldly." She looks at him seriously. The small amount of time he had known her she never stopped having some sort of mischievous air to her but that was gone now. "I believe that the furnace acts like those chains. Weakening the newborn beast and using it as the ultimate flame to craft weapons beyond imagination. Like that blade it carries now"
Will gulps. There's no way right? A real dragon was in his first nightmare? Who was he, some version of Kai?? "Okay… I don't know what I can do about that? My blessing is way too weak to work on something that strong? It only lets me take part of its energy, I bet it doesn't even notice how little I'm able to take from it?"
"I've only seen the furnace react to anything but the Golem once before. It was when the golem brought that lizard in. Both of them were hurt. The Golem was missing an arm and half melted, but the lizard was utterly beaten. When it passed by the furnace, it rumbled, and the runes strained to harness. Whatever energy that wanted to help its descent was sealed. I think THAT might be the key. The key to defeating it. If the little descendant had given the Golem that much pain, imagine what it could do if it could harness that power?" As she finishes, she smiles and it sends a small shiver down his spine. It wasn't the mischievous and joking smile. She looked like a maniac. He realized that no person could stay of sound mind in their current predicament. She was just exceptionally good at hiding the cracks.
"Yeah, that would be scary. Do we want to let that thing go, what if we have to deal with it after?" Will asks, shuffling away from her just a bit.
Grandma blinks. "Huh? Isn't it obvious? You're gonna make friends with the lizard? So it at least doesn't eat us first?"