Health elixirs were a great asset for anyone to have due to their healing effects. However, the healing they provided was not instantaneous. Depending on the severity of the injury, it could usually take anywhere from several minutes to even a full day to reach full health. And so, though I could feel the gaping wound in my side slowly beginning to knit itself, I could still feel pain so severe that my consciousness threatened to tear away completely, dragging me into the blackness.
Fortunately, right at that moment, a series of notifications popped up before me:
[The exclusive attribute Gamer Privileges has detected a distraction from immersion in the Gamer.]
[Cause of distraction: Pain]
[Gamer Privileges has activated a Non-diegetic barrier.]
[Due to the effects of the Non-diegetic barrier, the Gamer has been granted Pain mitigation for the duration of combat.]
Suddenly, the blinding pain in my side began to dull until it felt like a distant, manageable ache, finally allowing my focus to slowly return to the present.
The first thing I did upon regaining control was to quickly send more mana into the dense flames surrounding us, as that slowly began to falter due to me almost losing consciousness.
Then right at that moment, something heavy and sharp shot into the dense flames again. This time, it almost pierced through Aika's forehead. She had barely just managed to duck, and the bone shard sliced through her cheek before whistling past.
"Eek!"
Aika groaned in pain and bent over clutching her torn cheek.
I turned to the side to see what had flown into the protected space, and that was when I saw that those damn creatures outside the wall of flames had begun shooting crude, bone arrows as they realized they couldn't approach the flames.
'This is bad, this is really bad.'
I needed to do something immediately, or we would be dead even while hiding in here.
'Think, think, think, what do I do?'
I could just let them kill me, after all, Chrysalis would bring me back to life at midnight.
However, this was just the first day, and using one of my four lives so early sounded like the dumbest thing to do. Gaining karma points was not easy, and it would be especially harder to gain more while in this cursed world.
So I wasn't going to waste my lives.
But what do I do?
While I was still trapped in thought, another arrow whistled past, followed immediately by a second, and then a third, all missing us by a hair's breadth.
I decided to rise and continue fighting. If, in the end, I died, then so be it, because I saw no alternative no matter how hard I thought.
With a massive effort, I pushed myself off the floor and staggered to my feet. Even with the Pain Mitigation in effect, I could still feel a punishing ache when I tried to move.
Without looking, I raised my hand toward Aika to call her back to katana form. "Come, Aika."
But instead of the familiar weight of the sword, I heard a sickening thud on the ground. Turning to look at Aika, I saw her lying unconscious on the swampy ground, the slice across her cheek weeping blood.
"W-what?!"
Panicked, I bent over to her then shook her. "Aika! …Aika!"
But she wouldn't respond no matter how much I tried to get her to. Of course, she was injured, but that was just a cut, and not enough to bring someone like Aika down.
So why was she suddenly unconscious?
On closer look, it was then that I saw her lips were turning a faint, sickly blue, and her skin was cold and clammy. I raised my fingers to her nose to check her breathing, and then I instantly had an idea of what was wrong with her.
"Damn it!"
The wakizashi in my hand slowly began to dissolve into smoke, and before long, Aika too began to dissolve into smoke that slowly made its way toward my arm until the raven tattoo reformed on my hand again.
Oh, shit!
This… was bad.
Now I was defenseless.
The good thing was that she was not dead. If she died, the tattoo on my right arm would vanish.
And so, even though she was unconscious, I could still use magic.
But…
I immediately turned around, and then I saw that the dense wall of flames around me had begun to slowly diminish and flicker, due to my mana reserves being nearly exhausted.
Damn it.
I sighed.
I was out of options.
And so…
I was going to die after all.
I stood up and turned around, and that was when I could see all the goat-headed ghouls in the numbers beyond the diminishing wall of black flames.
They were all laughing in their horrific, high-pitched female voices, their red eyes gleaming with savage anticipation.
Seeing this scene before me, and knowing I was going to die on my first day here, I couldn't help but join them in their laughter.
And so, like a mad man with tears in my eyes, I burst into a hollow, hysterical laughter.
By now, my flames had already diminished to nothing, and I was now open and defenseless, standing in the middle of twenty-five ugly goat-headed ghouls.
Most of them, seeing me laugh, stopped to look at me with their hideous expressions. Then one of them raised its bow and pulled its bone arrow taut.
I could hear it mutter something in a foreign language before it finally released the arrow.
The arrow flew through the air, then buried itself deep in my chest.
"Ugh!"
My laughter seized instantly as I dropped to the ground on both knees.
Pain…
I was in a world of pain.
I looked up and, through my fading vision, saw the creatures already begin to carefully approach me.
Then a last desperate thought formed in my mind.
'What happens if they eat and consume my body? How am I going to come back with Chrysalis? Where exactly am I going to come back?'
Though before I could ponder on that, my vision faded, and the entire world turned to absolute black.