The Last Circle-Chapter 7: Of the Dark

[You have slain a Sinner Hellbound Beast!]

Nameless stared at these words with dead eyes and an ajar mouth, ignoring the other messages below. A grimace flickered across his face as he shook his head, rubbing his temples.

'Well, at least it's dead,' so he thought, staring at the dissipating corpse, tainting the air in its dark smoke. Wasting no more time, he searched through the fading remains for the Seed of Corruption.

His lips pursed and he wore a light frown. Since his first seconds in Hell, this was the first time that he'd ever truly felt annoyed or remotely close to angry.

Why? Well, the tutorial taught him a bit about the creatures of Hell and their variances, albeit, it was practically nothing life-altering. The problem, however, was that out of all variants, Nameless had merely slain the weakest.

The "Sinner" prefix was what indicated to him that hellbound beast was the weakest. According to the tutorial, the rank system for the creature of Hell was reversed. Where being ranked as Sinner was the best for Hell-dwellers, Sinner was, subsequently, the worst for creatures of Hell.

By worst, that meant they were the weakest, not just among their own race, but among all other creatures. Essentially, a Sinner Hellbound Beast could not compete with a Transgressor Hellbound Beast. However, a Sinner variant could compete with a Transgressor variant of any other creature, though it would still be incredibly difficult. There was just that much of a difference of power, even if the Sinner was a hulking beast and the Transgressor was as small as a bug.

'And to think,' he hacked away at the smoky flesh using some rocks, 'this thing is only going to get me one seed, when I could've had three, or if I was lucky, maybe five.'

Indeed. The yield did change with each rank as well. The ranks went from Sinner, Transgressor, Heretic, Profane, and Accursed, with their yields being one, three, five, seven, and nine, respectively.

In the grand scheme of things, Nameless thought that he was undoubtedly and unequivocally done for. He chuckled to himself as he thought:

'One-hundred trillion sins...'

He facepalmed, rubbing his eyes as he dug through with the other hand, finally ripping out the Seed of Corruption.

'And no artifact...' He sighed as he dismissed the panel, standing up and studying the dark surroundings, wondering which way to go. 'It just had to be a Sinner.'

That was one of the other issues as well. With lower ranking creatures, the chances of finding artifacts dropped significantly. And beyond all, there was one more issue:

'So what is the Transgressor variant like?'

That was a question that raced through his mind often as he retreated into the shadows, hiding from the frenzied sky where the same creature that preyed on the hellbound beasts soared.

Seeing that heading straight ahead was his best bet at getting out fast and with minimal conflict, he dashed through the debris in the centre of the roundabout, feeling safe once underneath the jagged rock formations looming above.

'Maybe I can learn something through the bestiary?' he asked himself, touching his thumb and his middle finger together.

In an instant, the panel displayed the bestiary, with a single data entry that read:

[Hellbound Beast (Sinner)]

He willed the system to expand the database on the hellbound beast, watching as the top quadrant of the screen displayed a rotating image of it, and beneath it, various other pieces of information that he wasn't all too interested in.

Creature: [Hellbound Beast]

Creature Rank: [Sinner]

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Creature Description: [The hellbound beasts, one of the first among the many creatures of Hell. The hellbound beasts were created in light of darkness, and it was from the darkness of the jinn that their brood spread like an infection on wounded flesh, further amplified by humanity's darkness. Their dark nature a clear reminder for those who ended up in Hell: "Your treachery during your life on Earth shall be met with treachery in the afterlife."]

Nameless felt goosebumps run down his body as he continued in a straight line. 'If they were created out of the darkness of the jinn, and humanity amplified their numbers, then just how much have Satan and I contributed?'

His thoughts came to a halt immediately, sliced right through by a cacophony of shrills and bellows deep within. Heavy footsteps sent tremors through the ground. Tiny rocks above plunged to the ground, though the rumbling mixed with the pitter-patter of other creatures masking their sounds.

Nameless looked down the long corridor, watching as hideous red sprites, no larger than half his size, rapidly flapped their tiny wings, rushing off to the right.

'What the Hell are those things?' he wondered, nearly hopping up out of fear as his heart dropped, struggling to keep his balance while the tremors came with a growing magnitude.

Fearful that whatever was running around might see him, he pressed himself against the left wall and watched, occasionally grunting in pain whenever a rock would slam onto him.

'Damn rock,' he said, rubbing his head as he sneered. He was more annoyed to hear the ring of the bell again, but even so, what dwelled on his mind most was the fact that the rumbling had suddenly stopped.

Goosebumps sprawled all over his body, as did an icy feeling when the rumbling promptly resumed. Again, he was in a similar situation like the first time, where he waited in silence while the periodic rumbling grew louder with each step.

'O God, forgive me!' he cried out internally as an act of regretting what the system deemed as profanity, ready to be on the run again.

The bell rung again, and just as it did, the rumbling stopped for a brief moment. Nameless looked to his left. There it was, another hellbound beast, staring right at him. Nameless's eyes widened his breaths trembled again, though he tried his best to stand still, hoping that staying motionless would hide him.

'No, no, no! Go chase the red flying things!' he begged as he closed his eyes, not wanting to anger it with the pain.

Sure, he may have been able to take one down, but that was by luck. He was also quite exhausted from the previous run, so now would've been the worst time to deal with another hellbound beast, even if it was just another Sinner variant.

The beast simply stared at Nameless, huffing and puffing with its guttural breaths, letting its fetid drool plop on the ground, before simply picking up and hiking off, as if it saw nothing.

Noticing that the rumbling had continued, but was growing softer in intensity, he slowly opened his eyes, taking a look to see that the hellbound beast had indeed left.

Once again, the bell rung, and Nameless, feeling his sanity deteriorate bit by bit with each ring, decided to check on what the ruckus was about.

He sighed, shaking his head with pursed lips as he stared at the panel full of notifications from before. 'Close this, that, that, and this, and...'

He paused as he stared at the panel, mouth ajar, brows flying, a slight curl up on the corners of his lips as he read:

[Secret uncovered. You have acquired an artifact!]