New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

When Silent Light entered the cave where Astaroth had told him to go, he was expecting a natural cave, with tunnels and the such. He hadn’t expected ruins of what used to be a village.

As he walked further into the cave, he rapidly noticed the gaping maw of a chasm, where a destroyed house lay to the side. He could sense the evil coming from in the pit and knew that was his query.

But just as he reached the edge of the hole, a growling noise came from his left. Soon enough, a second one came from his right, as well.

Turning his head slowly to each side, he saw two dog-looking monsters, fur-less, with wrinkled red skin dripping with blood. Silent was unsure if it was theirs, or the blood of a fresh kill.

Their small bodies oozed of red mist, as they stepped closer, slowly, in a menacing way. Silent Light could hardly move in any direction without either falling into the pit or heading right toward them.

The dogs were already closing in on him.

Looking over his shoulder, Silent wondered if it was a better outcome to jump into the bit gorged with miasma. But the fall would be a steep one.

Unfortunately for Silent Light, the dogs before him decided for him.

Lunging at him, while growling and snarling, Silent had no choice other than to fight or fall.

Pulling out his mace, Silent decided he wouldn’t go down easily. He reached into his priestly vestments and pulled out a recent addition to his gear.

Just before the game had gone offline, Silent had completed a class quest in the capital he had come from, Themiscus. The church he was under was located there and revered a god of the sun.

This class quest had upgraded his class from Priest to Bishop, and it came with a panoply of new spells and a few pieces of equipment. This new piece in question was a holy symbol, in the shape of a burning sun.

It boosted his holy power spells by fifty percent, but also had an added benefit. With it, he could cast a new spell that would save his life in this situation.

“Holy Grounds!”

A golden shining aura radiated from Silent Light, slamming into the two dogs, pushing them back for a few feet, as they sizzled in contact with the aura. Once the circle around Silent Light reached a ten-foot radius, it stopped expanding, as the ground under it started glowing.

Silent snickered as the red dogs on the outside snarled at him from outside its radius.

“Not so impressive now, are you?” he taunted.

But he had to work fast, as this spell had only a fifteen-second timer. Scanning the monsters, to see what he was up against, Silent clicked his tongue.

*Hell Hound* .𝒐𝙧𝒈

Level: 40

Grade: Elite

HP: 39,840/41,250

MP: 2,190

*Hell Hound*

Level: 40

Grade: Elite

HP: 38,430/41,250

MP: 2,190

Holy Grounds was a spell that did many things. One of them was to heal for a hundred percent of his healing power per second, for the full duration.

And given the damage these Hell Hounds had taken, with how little they were hit, he assumed that they not only took damage from his holy healing but also doubled it. This made him grin.

He was half tempted to run after them for the fifteen-second duration, cremating them with holy damage. But the Hell hounds had other plans.

Their throat started glowing red as they opened their maws, revealing a flicker of flames at the back of their throats.

“Fuck!”

Shielding his face with his arms, Silent Light took the brunt of their attacks with his body. He doubted he could dodge it, anyway, given the creatures looked smart enough to follow him with the attack.

*-781*

*-781*

…

Silent Light felt like he had been thrown into a kiln for five seconds, taking the fire damage constantly. Ten ticks of damage burned him, taking away a massive chunk of his HP.

Luckily for him, the passive healing of Holy Grounds kept him alive.

Looking at his health pool, he gulped.

*Silent Light*

HP: 1,065/5,350

He opened his interface, reaching for the messaging tab, but stopped before opening it.

‘No. He’s already taking four much stronger enemies outside. I can’t bother him for two adds.’

Silent looked at the two Hell Hounds, who were now snickering like hyenas, probably laughing at how pitiful he was. Anger rose within him.

‘I’m not letting two mutts get the better of me. I’m an officer in the strongest guild, for crying out loud!’

Silent Light screamed in rage before lunging forward, his mace pulled backward, ready to strike at the Hell Hounds. But he could not catch them.

The little bastards kept getting just out of his reach, almost like they were taunting him. His Holy Grounds spell was following him, but it was quickly nearing its end.

He was already back to full health, thanks to its healing, but he couldn’t use the most important function of it. The blessing.

Holy Grounds blessed the friendlies inside it, giving their attacks a hundred percent boost to damage. It was an incredible boost, even if it was only in a small radius.

But he was wasting all of it because he couldn’t get into range. He wanted to try casting a healing spell on the Hounds, to see if it would hurt them, but even then, his range was very limited.

The fifteen feet radius of Holy Grounds was larger than his ten feet range on healing. This made him wholly useless.

Silent Light wasted the mana in a rage and tried, anyway. He still hadn’t learned any mastery spells. Even though his imagination was wild, it was inherently aimed toward useless scenario thinking.

His powerlessness was grating on him, and he no longer cared how stupid he looked. He fired healing spell after healing spell toward the Hell Hounds, hoping one of them would hit.

He almost emptied his mana bar, even with the regen he had gained, and was getting desperate. His Holy Grounds was about to end, and he needed results.

“Come on! Reach! God dammit!”

A bright ray of golden energy launched from his hand, hitting one of the Hell Hounds squarely in the head, sending it yelping as its face started searing off.

*Spell Learned*

‘… I… I did it…’