VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 145: Punishment

A few minutes later, the grandiose doors to the Matriarchs chambers creaked open, and the man from before stepped out of the darkness behind them. He was missing his left arm, as well as a chunk of the left side of his torso, yet not much blood dripped from the twisted and life threatening wounds. Alongside this, he had three deep gashes slashed across his face seemingly made by some kind of claws, which completely mangled one of his eyes and twisted his lips into a constant snarl.

This was his punishment for failing his mission and coming back without the locket. But in all honesty, it was a light punishment considering. Usually such a disastrous failure would have resulted in a long, painful death.

So it was because of this that it was understandable why, despite his mangled face, shredded body and most importantly his ruined outfit, this man still managed to have a cocky smirk on his face.

The fact his wounds would have been incredibly fatal for most people seemed inconsequential to him. The tattered flesh where half his torso used to be was already starting to wriggle like worms as it started to regenerate.

However even if these wounds healed, since they were given by the Matriarch, he would never heal back the way he was. He would always be reminded of his failure.

The Grotesques seemed surprised to see him so soon, and with such minimal injuries, as they stared at him in stunned and confused silence.

Straightening what remained of his outfit with his remaining arm, the man cast them a condescending look.

"The Matriarch has forgiven my previous transgressions thanks to my discovery," He explained to them.

He didn’t have to, but then how else would he get to feel better than them? No, this was definitely right.

"Not only that, she has tasked me with a new mission. I am to find and retrieve the Bloodling for the Matriarch. You know, you could always come along with me, make yourselves useful for once.

Oh wait no... That’s right. You are to stand guard, always. Forever. That’s a shame... Perhaps I will bring her by to say Hello once she is in my charge."

The man let out a haughty, condescending laugh as his voice overflowed with so much sarcasm that it practically dripped from his mouth like drool.

While it was true he could not physically attack these Grotesques for their position as the Matriarchs personal creations. But status was not guaranteed. It was to be earned, and eagerly flaunted so that others were always reminded of their place.

He let out another laugh and began to saunter away, revelling in the pride that even when he failed a mission, he still got promoted to an even more important mission.

"If the Bloodling has the power of Dominion, how do you plan to capture them?" One of the Grotesques said, pouring ice water all of the man’s jovial mood. He screeched to a halt, his eyes filling with panic as the smile was stuck on his face.

His eyes darted back and forth as his mind worked at overtime, desperately trying to think of a great solution to throw back in their face. However, the more he thought the more he was faced with nothing but issues.

Beads of sweat trickled down his face as his posture slowly collapsed and he gradually hunched over, the panic setting in for real, until finally one idea settled in his mind. One truly insane idea.

Spinning around to face the Grotesques, the man gave them a wicked, sharp toothed smile as he said,

"Well, I guess I’ll just have to use the Hound, won’t I?"

The two Grotesques frowned deeply and shared a look of worrying concern, but the man was already sauntering off again, laughing to himself about the genius of his idea.

This was the best idea he had ever had in his life.

***

"This is the stupidest idea you’ve had in your life." Valerie said with a huff.

It was the second day of their training retreat, and once more she had convinced Percy to get in the sticky, mana filled bubble bath. However this time it came with a very strange condition.

It sounded good at first, but now that she was in the situation, she was reminded just how terrible it was.

They sat in the bath together, both stripped down to their underwear, as they had their backs pressed together, facing opposite directions.

"Hey, you were the one that was eager to jump in with me. I thought you would have known by now that the wording counts. Isn’t that what your little gremlin friend is supposed to teach you?

I said that if i do the bath, you have to join. I never said what way you’d be facing."

"I’ll have you know that Sebbie is a Brownie, not a gremlin. I can feed him any time I want, I don’t have to worry about feeding him after midnight, which by the way is a totally stupid rule because it never says when you can start feeding them again. So like, how is he supposed to know how long after midnight to wait?"

Percy couldn’t help but chuckle at Valerie’s rant, letting her ramble about her old movies as she filled the bath with more mana. He kept his back pressed against hers, as he slowly drank down the D-fuel.

His head was throbbing worse and worse every second, as it currently felt like someone was trying to wring the juice out of it like a wet sponge.

With one last drink, he let out a cry of pain as something began to force its way into his skull. Pushing his existing brain matter to the side to make room for itself, as his mana lobe finally developed.

Sitting so close to him, Valerie could feel the subtle shifts in the ambient mana, like a tiny pebble being dropped in a pond, and a gentle smile formed across her face.

She nudged him with her elbow, whispering gently.

"Welcome to the world of magic, Young Padawan."

"Haha, Thanks Ray. But unlike you, Ms. Wizard. I still have one step left before I can do my thing."