Eternal_Winter
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Chapter 13
🕑 Added 2025-05-02 12:51:05 +0000 UTCPale trees covered in dark brown or even black leaves. The bark covered in moss and riddled with holes, a low hanging fog covered the ground and made every step treacherous. The light of the sun seems almost absent compared to the normal forest. The center was bleak but the swamp felt like a death trap to an unprepared wanderer. Forming the first ring after the center it covered a large territory and who knows what kind of creatures awaited Ethan here.
Besides that one time he used the swamp to hide he hasn’t visited again, during the situation at that time he didn't really have time to look around as he was focused on surviving. Now he took his time, learning from past mistakes and trying to spot creatures, natural or unnatural traps or anything else that could kill him.
Ethan stood on an ice pillar that was as tall and thick as an old oak tree and used it as a vantage point. The pillar stood in the swamp itself, the crystal clear ice lodged deep into the muddy ground. During his start in the tutorial he used magic multiple times without skills or much thought.
He noticed how abstract his constructs could be and while he was walking towards the forest he experimented. In the end it was so simple it was embarrassing. Ethan just visualizes the object he wants to create and forms it from magic, then it’s as simple as filling the magical blueprint with his ice mana and he creates it. What sounds complex when explained was really just acting on instinct to create the objects he needed.
While he stood there, his arms crossed while he watched with his eyes and Nora with her ability to sense heat. Have you seen anything so far? I can’t even look through the fog. Ethan looked at his snake companion and saw her shake her head. Nothing, it’s like the fog conceals everything, I think that’s part of the challenge…
“No point in waiting here forever.” The pillar started to shrink under him until it was just above the muddy water. He started to walk and the pillar changed, expanding into a floating path that Ethan used to walk instead of fighting his way through the swamp. I wanna see a fire mage do this. He sent it to Nora and grinned, making way deeper into the fog.
In the goblin camp…
James lifted his head, slowly at first so that he wouldn’t be hit again, his slender body was covered in wounds, hanging on the wall like some trophy he could barely move. His wrists were covered in a thick scab from all the time he tried to fight only to rip his skin open again. His arms red from all the blood he lost during his endless struggles.
He was shaking, the dirty water the goblins used to force into him made him gag each time but he still drank it, after days of imprisonment he stopped struggling, the loss of blood making each pointless attempt even harder.
After the first day he stopped looking at Marie, at first he stared daggers at her for the betrayal, then he watched in shock until he couldn’t take it anymore. The girl he once had a crush on was no more. The moment those monsters noticed she was a female they celebrated the whole way back to the camp. Once inside the cave they started.
Her clothes got ripped apart in seconds and then they touched her…not to lock her up like they did with him but to use her. The screams coming from her were something primal, something so deeply ingrained into humanity it felt like their ancestors screamed through her in defiance. But even while fighting, kicking and biting them. She scratched their eyes out and ripped ears from their heads. They still used her.
Again and again she suffered, but her fight ended from pure exhaustion and she laid there, her eyes open but unfocused like her soul left her body. This continued, multiple times a day did goblins force themselves on Marie, everytime she fought, but in the end, she lost again.
After the first day James noticed the growth of her belly, but he didn’t dare to even say one word. At the end of the second day she looked already nine months pregnant and gave birth to two goblin children, the creatures didn’t look surprised and it seems their reproduction cycle was extremely fast.
They left her only since that day but not because they wanted to respect her, the goblins looked terrified, they looked over their shoulders and their movements were just a bit too quick to look natural. Sometimes they brought dead goblins inside to inspect them, looking over tiny wounds left in their skin.
It continued for two days until James heard heavy steps shake the whole cave and he saw three hulking beasts make their way out of the cave, they barely managed to fit through the narrow entrance and it got quiet again.
When James woke up he heard screaming, the same heavy steps then before but this time they grew weaker, it seems something caught the ire of the beasts.
The next time James managed a clear thought he spotted a goblin walking into the cave, clutching his throat and clawing on his own skin until blood dripped down his chest, then he fell over and just…died. The same happened with almost all of them, some tried to flee into the cave, others just dropped dead without a chance to struggle. Then, silence…nothing moved. No breathing, screams, grunts, laughs or anything it was just silent.
He looked over to the dead body that was Marie at some point, it seems she couldn’t struggle anymore and died during one of the goblins…sessions, not that it stopped them. James cried, he cried in silence and without tears, dehydration had set in a day ago and now he would die, just like that. He cursed everything, the tutorial, the goblins, the whole situation, the stupid prisoners and his stupidity to not do something.
A silent scream of curses left his mouth and he was filled with hatred, the defiance he showed at first coming back to the surface. He grunted and fought the shackles around his wrist, pulled and twisted his arms, he even tried to pull his hand through the shackles, his skin ripping open on the rusty metal.
While he wanted to give up again he noticed a message from the stupid system.
Update Unique class unlocked. Would you like to switch classes? Y/N?
Why should he care, yes or no it didn’t matter right? Near death he couldn’t really argue right? He thought about his decision and nodded. Pain ravaged his body and changed through the system, he felt like his nerves burned all at once while his heart stopped beating for a solid minute only to restart itself.
James coughed, blood and saliva dripping from his chin, then the next message forced itself into his vision.
Update Secret requirements unlocked
- Near death
- Defiant and hopeless
- Witness death of a loved one
- Crave life at all costs
- Be willing to suffer
You unlocked the [cursed necromancer (advanced)]!
Gained the following skills:
[Cursed undead minion (Advanced)]
[Cursed weapon enchantment (Basic)]
Update [Mana] -> [Death Energy]
Replenishes near wild death energy or can be absorbed from corpses
The system wishes you luck, necromancer!
James still struggled without care, looking at a goblin he used his abilities and raised the goblin, some of its skin burned away in black flames, two flames filled his eye sockets and a third one acted as his new heart. The goblin moved like a marionette towards him and opened his shackles after a few tries.
He fell on hands and knees and raised more goblins. He hated them, everything about them but he would use them to survive. Crawling on hands and knees he left the cave, not even flinching when he saw all the dead goblins. “I will destroy everything…I want revenge, system!” he screamed, his voice breaking but he just continued. Screaming in defiance.
