The Last Circle-Chapter 17: Gluttonous Rock

Within seconds, Nameless smacked against the black platform. He groaned in pain, rubbing the back of his head as he squinted. At least it was bearable—though he thought it'd be nice if he didn't have to suffer anymore. What he could say for certain was that at least the aching pain was unlike whatever nightmare he'd gone through to get here.

He sat up, continuing to rub his head as he looked around. The triangular platform was rough, weathered, jagged, and strange one-inch deep trenches ran throughout it, accentuating the grooves, never making contact with one another.

"What is going on now?" he groaned, slowly standing up, stretching his aching bones. "Thank God I'm still well."

The bell rung, but he was relieved, knowing that it could only mean his Sin decreased, so he didn't bother checking it.

It was comforting to know that he was truly living in the moment and not dreaming... or, on second thought, perhaps he wanted to be dreaming instead. For all he knew, whatever actions he performed here affected his Sin, so that must've meant that he was living in the moment... right?

"Whatever," he waved a hand, shaking his head as he looked back up, seeing the rays of white light shine down on him. "Now the question is how do I get out of here?"

He was so caught up with trying to understand the Sinner's Dream before, that he only just realized that he didn't really know how to escape it, nor had he known where to start.

Nameless walked over to a ledge, peering down into the maw of the abyss, which he feared only spelt death... which brought about a new question:

"And if I die in here? Then what? Where do I go?"

The answer was obvious if he was in Hell, but the Sinner's Dream was supposedly its own location, according to the system...

... Right?

"Right?" he asked himself, his voice travelling up a couple notes as he raised a brow. "It didn't mention any Circle of Hell, so the Sinner's Dream must be its own place."

He turned back, scratching the back of his head as he studied the many miniature trenches that ran along the platform. Even they seemed familiar, but he just couldn't bring himself to remember. Everything was so arcane. Nothing made sense—not that things in Hell made sense either.

He sighed, before chuckling to himself at the though of sighing a lot recently. Perhaps he was growing too anxious and tense with each passing second. Maybe he just needed to take a break for a bit and immerse himself in the peace of this darkness, lit by the dim light.

And so that's exactly what he did. He took a seat along the uncomfortable ground, spending several minutes just staring at the leaderboard, though there was something about it that just didn't feel right.

"That's... strange," he said, staring at the frozen leaderboard as he held his chin and furrowed his bros, taken aback by the lack of fluctuation in who was currently rank one. "Have they taken a break from collecting the Fragments of Divinity?"

That didn't make sense. Why would anyone stop? There was only one seat offered to the countless souls in Hell, so shouldn't everyone be rushing?

"Well, guess we won't figure it out until we're out of here," he said, putting an abrupt end to his thoughts as he decided to check out the notifications he ignored.

He wished he had checked earlier, however, for he read:

[You have passed the first trial of the Sinner's Dream!]

[As a result, you have acquired one-thousand Seeds of Corruption!]

[One of your attributes is ready to evolve.]

[The Shard of Sin acknowledges you as its master.]

Nameless bore an expressionless gaze fixed on the display. A few moments would pass until he'd draw a deep breath and massage his temples, before yelling and shaking his fists:

"Only one-thousand!? That bullshit trial of yours did a thing or two to my mind and tried to take over my body!"

The bell rung twice, and he rolled his fiery eyes in response.

"Oh, great. Let's take a look at these now."

[For your profanity, your Sin has increased by one.]

[In accordance to your [Lightless Creature] attribute, your accrued sins have been doubled. You have gained two sins.]

[For your greed, your Sin has increased by ten.]

[In accordance to your [Lightless Creature] attribute, your accrued sins have been doubled. You have gained twenty sins.]

Nameless dropped to his knees, sinking to the ground as he laid on all fours, smacking the rough and eroded platform as he wanted nothing more than to cry.

"One-hundred-trillion-and-fourty-four sins," he mumbled in a soft and tremulous voice, repeatedly smacking the ground with a fist, making sure not to hit it too hard, lest it be counted as self-harm.

"Curses upon you... you harsh system."

He looked up with wide eyes, worried that he was going to accrue more sins. Instead, he raised a brow as the panel displayed information on the Shard of Sin, along with new lines of text below the item description that caught his eye:

[You have successfully bent the Shard of Sin's will to your authority. The Shard of Sin acknowledges you as its master.]

Seeds of Corruption: 0/1,000,000

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With wide eyes, angled brows drawn together, and lips curling down, he looked back down at the stone platform, finally understanding what the platform was and what the undulating black waves were.

He returned his gaze to the display, reading the last line of the item description to confirm his suspicions.

"Within the shard, faint whispers of an undulating sea of sins can be heard, a testament to its accursed and unholy birth... So that black water was the sea of sins!" He looked down at the magnified Shard of Sin and added:

"And now that I'm your master, you want me to feed you Seeds of Corruption!? And a million of them!? I need that many just to get to the Eighth Circle of Hell, you gluttonous piece of... of... rock!"

He stood back up, crossing his arms as he clenched his jaw. One-million Seeds of Corruption was simply unfair, especially considering he never knew what purpose feeding it the seeds served.

As per the usual, the system was not very helpful when it came to explaining things. To him, all it seemed like was a good-for-nothing flavour-text spitter. He let out a guttural groan, making small shakes of his head as he shifted his clenched jaw.

And yet, he was still interested in the potential effect of feeding the Shard of Sin, for the system telling him that the artifact accepting him as its master had to be more than just flavour text.

At least, he could only hope.

He shook his head once more, aggressively this time, navigating to his inventory and seeing that the tile filled with the Seeds of Corruption was marked at the bottom right with "1014x". Just for testing, he took out one seed, holding the dark, shadowy orb in his hand.

It felt cold to the touch and much like marble, just as light as well. He winced, slowly tilting his his open hand and letting the Seed of Corruption crash to the ground. A harmless rippling effect travelled to the ends of the giant shard, watching as the seed promptly vanished from sight as it sunk into the ground.

The bell rung twice, and Nameless's gaze darted back to the panel, where he read:

[The Shard of Sin has consumed one Seed of Corruption.]

Seeds of Corruption: 1/1,000,000

[You have acquired a Fragment of Divinity!]