Sharp pottery pieces are overrated, Joe thought. A whole day and half the night to cut a rope not thicker than his finger? Nothing impressive. At least he got his hands free. Bleeding and kind of numb but free at last.

  “Heal, heal, heal, heal.”

  He intoned. He’s been doing that while cutting the rope, casting recovery whenever his mana bar refilled. As slow as it was, each time the spell washed over him, his legs looked a little bit more like legs and little bit less like angry pudding.

  *DING*

  “You got to be shitting me…”

  Joe stared at the screen.

  Fame based penalty? Ninety five percent? Why even bother? At least that explained the terribly low efficiency of healing compared to what he was used to in games. Speaking of efficiency, it would greatly improve his mood and his thinking efficiency to get out of this dump. The stench was so strong he could even taste it and hear it. And it says something when you can hear cabbage rotting under a pile of fermented, half-digested meat.

  Crawling on his elbows, inch by inch, Joe climbed the sloping wall of the pit trying not to think about all the germs and bacteria living in there…

  “Thash him mastah! Thash him! Thash the guy! Me cansh shmell him!”

  A sudden noise followed by an apparanec of an iron boot in Joe’s field of vision broke his train of thoughts. Seconds later the iron boot hit him like the said train and send him flying like a sack of potatoes.

  *DING*

  All it took was one kick. Joe rolled over and puked blood. This was no longer painful, he was dying.

  “NOT YET. YOU STILL HAVE ABOUT TEN HEALTH LEFT.”

  A familiar black robed figure appeared above him, pointing at his blinking health bar.

  ”Speak! Where did you hide the jewels! “

  Armor clad mountain of muscles screamed at him. A very short tempered mountain of muscles. Without waiting for any kind of response, an iron fist ventured towards Joe’s face.

  *DING*

  The knight stopped.

  “You stupid, useless bitch! You’ll pay for that! You tricked me!”

  ”N-no! Mastah n-no! Thish bitch is tellingsh Truthsh! He smelsh…”

  Fulled with anger, time and time again the iron fists fell upon the screaming woman. Soon even her screams ebbed away, giving place to sickening sound of metal slapping against raw meat.

  ”Useless…”

  Something sticky, wet and heavy fell upon Joe shaving away four of his remaining ten health points. Cursing, the knight left.

  “…heal”

  Joe uttered, still spitting blood. Almost instantly his health bar stopped blinking and the pain in his chest eased.

  ”I’LL BE AROUND. DON’T TAKE TOO LONG.“

  She pat his cheek and left.

  *DING*

  *DING*

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  *DING*

  The lump of broken bones and beaten meat that fell atop him, made a gurgling noise full of pain and despair.

  *DING*

  *DING*

  *DING*

  *DING*

  *DING*

  *DING*

  *DING*

  No... Not now. No! Fear crept upon him. He grabbed the motionless body resting atop him.

  ”Heal!”

  Joe called but nothing happened.

  “Heal! Heal, Dammit!”

  But nothing happened. All he could do was stare into the open eyes of the dying slave.

  ”For fucks sake Heal!”

  *DING*

  ”Yes!”

  *DING*

  ”Heal!”

  Joe screamed as the woman’s health reached 1 HP. For a moment nothing happened but then, one by one her health points begun to recover while her wounds closed and faded away.

  And then everything went white.

  ”WELL, THAT WAS FASTER THAN I THOUGHT.”

  Joe sat on a white chair in a white room in front of a white desk and a woman in a speckles black robe with a frown on her face.

  ”Did I die?”

  ”YES. AGAIN.”

  ”AND AGAIN YOU ARE LEAVING ME IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION.”

  ”YOU HAVE ACCUMULATED QUITE A BIT OF NEGATIVE FAME WHICH WOULD MAKE MY WORK A BREEZY BUT IN YOUR LAST MOMENT, YOU HAVE SACRIFICED YOUR OWN LIFE TO SAVE THE LIFE OF A STRANGER. UNFORTUNATELY FOR ME THAT QUALIFIES AS SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND YET AGAIN WE ARE BACK TO WHERE WE STARTED JOE.”

  ”I did?”

  ”YES. THE TRUE HEAL IS A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD. IT CAN HEAL EVEN THE MOST GRAVE INJURIES IN A BREEZE BUT AT THE COST OF YOUR OWN LIFE FORCE. PLAYING AROUND WITH THAT SKILL IS NOT ADVISED WHILE YOU ALONE ARE AT MY DOORSTEP.”

  ”NOW BE GONE AND CHOOSE YOUR PATH CAREFULLY FOR THERE ARE NO THIRD CHANCES.”

  She flicked her fingers and the soul was gone, back into the body it once occupied. So far everything went according to plan. A little bit more and…

  She smiled.

  Inside a black book that contained black pages tightly packed with tiny black letters a golden name appeared. Alongside the name as in case of every other soul, a date appeared.

  Not yet. But soon. There were so many complains…