The crowd broke into a frenzy. Gilgamesh was quick to run with them, but his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed to his hands and knees. Gilgamesh looked back with a grimace as pain shot through his body and found a worrying sight.
The lower half of his legs had mostly crumbled to mush within the confines of his cloth bandages. Even his hands and knees had softened from the impact of his fall. There was no pain from the crumbled nature of his limbs itself, but the constant agony of Leprosy flared up as his clay body pressed itself back together.
"...I still have Leprosy? As a golem? How? No, that isn't important right now. Why is my body breaking down...?" The question coursed through Gilgamesh's mind. Nothing in his Status suggested that his golem body would be faulty.
Fear started to seep into him from the uncertainty surrounding the cause of his fragile state and from the urgency of the Nightmares which swarmed closer in even larger numbers with every passing moment. But Fear did not consume him. Instead, he wielded it to sharpen his mind towards a way to survive. And in doing so, he recalled a crucial part of his Status.
Vitality - Toughness and Resilience of the body.
Of all the Attributes, this one seemed the most likely path to overcome his plight, so Gilgamesh took a calculated chance.
[ Vitality: 3 -> 4 ]
Gilgamesh tried to run, but his legs crumbled beneath him again.
[ Vitality: 4 -> 6 ]
He tried again. He legs held on the first step this time, just barely, but broke apart on the next.
[ Vitality: 6 -> 7 ]
His body was solid enough now to stumble along, but it still crumbled too often to maintain a steady stride.
[ Vitality: 7 -> 8 ]
[ Vitality: 8 -> 9 ]
[ Vitality: 9 -> 10 ]
Gilgamesh enhanced his Vitality one precious Attribute Point at a time, until finally he achieved a form that endured at 10. At last, Gilgamesh found his solid stride. But in the relief of success, he realized something else. He realized that he felt less full.
Mana Capacity: 6/10
"It decreased?" Gilgamesh's eyes sharpened. "Was mana used to repair my body or is this the cost of moving? The former is more likely, but there is a chance that both are true. What happens when it reaches 0? Will I be unable to move? In that case, I would have to place my last two points into Spirit. But..."
Gilgamesh glanced back at the growing infestation of Nightmares. They were faster than him, and he was average at best compared to the speed of the people around him. He needed to improve his own but the threat of running out of mana loomed heavily.
"...If my mana decreases further, I will raise Spirit. If not, then I will improve Agility." Gilgamesh decided as he maneuvered himself deeper into the horde of Heroes as best he could, where he could observe his surroundings safely.
Nightmares did not spawn from just anywhere at random. They came from the alleys that seemed to connect the various streets, through which Gilgamesh could see other crowds fleeing just as frantically as his side was.
The creatures themselves were less of an immediate threat than the crucible monsters, at least. Faster than the average man, but only just so. They did not fly nor even leap. They simply ran and caught whoever they could.
“Noooo!”
Gilgamesh looked left to see a man hold out his hands and cast a blade of wind at a Nightmare that was devouring someone else.
[ Hero - Iron Rank ]
[ Hero - Iron Rank ]
“Move!”
Gilgamesh inspected several people around him to the same result, before a restless man with brown skin and black hair pushed his way to the edge of the crowd with a shout. He held out a strong hand as his eyes shone white, and a war axe appeared from thin air.
[ Hero - Iron Rank ]
As he gripped the handle, a deep frost permeated through the blade. The man lunged forward without hesitation and cleaved straight through the Nightmare and into the ground. Frostbite spread through the cobblestone in an instant, freezing both the ground and the half-devoured corpse solid.
But the Nightmare grabbed hold and began to devour the axe-wielder as though nothing had happened. His screams of terror soon fell silent, and two more nightmares arose.
“They’re unkillable…” Gilgamesh deduced.
The axe-wielder was a scion of the Pandava, a clan with the ability to conjure powerful magical weapons. If their Astras could not damage the Nightmares, then it was likely nothing could. Nothing besides perhaps a Yazata.
"This Trial cannot just expect us to run the whole night..." Gilgamesh reasoned.
He found that his body no longer felt the fatigue of exertion, a feature of his golem body, certainly. But he was just as slow as he was before. The Nightmares could not reach him right this moment, but the rate at which they multiplied was exponential. Soon, they would vastly outnumber the heroes, and there would be nowhere left to run.
Gilgamesh watched as some desperate people sought refuge within the abandoned buildings, but the Nightmares broke in with ease and devoured them.
Just as Gilgamesh delved deep into his imagination to think of a plan, he saw someone flee into a house that held the warm light of a fire within and slam the door shut. Unlike the others before, the Nightmare that was pursuing them came to a stop outside the door, and then just moved on.
Gilgamesh’s eyes sharpened. He searched for another such fire-lit house and ran towards it immediately. But it seemed others already had the same idea. Gilgamesh watched as seven people beat him to the house, and the door slammed shut on its own.
“A capacity limit…” Gilgamesh did not linger.
He took off again in search of another safe haven, but the number of such houses was far too few for the people around, and the number of Nightmares was steadily growing. Time was running out.
“Over here!” A young man with light skin and thin eyes like a fox called out to those nearby as he held open the door to a lit house.
Gilgamesh sprinted for it at once. He had steep competition, but unlike himself, most were already slowed by fatigue. He just barely made it inside to claim the last spot, and the door slammed shut behind him on its own.
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“Open the door, please!”
"Let us in!"
The ones left outside bashed on the door as they begged for help, but the Nightmares soon devoured them. Moments of stillness came after, then several Nightmares rose and left in search of more victims.
Gilgamesh turned his focus first to the source of light, a hearth fire at the back of the room, and then to the other six inside. All of them wore strange clothing that bore a resemblance to the clothes Mephisto wore, and all of them kept silent with varying degrees of wariness.
An orange-haired man in his twenties with an aggressive look about him. An average-looking woman of around the same age in heavy makeup and gaudy clothes. A portly man with glasses who seemed a bit older. A stern-faced middle-aged man with dark skin, a thick mustache, and a solid build. An elderly eastern woman. And the black-haired, pale-skinned, fox-eyed man who had held the door open.
None of them struck him as particularly noteworthy, but looks could be deceiving. Gilgamesh held his silence and waited.
“...Is everyone alright?” The fox-eyed man broke the silence.
"No, I'm not fucking alright!" The gaudy woman snapped back. "What the fuck is happening? This is just a nightmare, right…?"
“W-well, yeah... Didn’t you read the notification?” The portly man stuttered out an insecure joke.
“Shut the fuck up!” She screamed back.
“...I can understand them.” Gilgamesh noted. "Is this the work of the Tower?"
“That’s enough.” The stern-faced middle-aged man with dark skin spoke up with a tone of practiced authority, just loud enough to control the room. “It’s clear none of us knows what’s going on, but we won’t get anywhere standing around arguing. Now, it looks like we’re safe in here. Let’s use this time to figure out what we can.”
“Who put you in charge?” The hotheaded man challenged.
"In case you haven't noticed, we're knee deep in a whole lot of shit." The middle-aged man shot back with a militant air. "Now, maybe we're safe here. Maybe not. So if the only thing you have to add is conflict in a time of disaster, then keep it to yourself."
“You call this a disaster?” The orange-haired man scoffed. “I got through worse, this shit is nothing compared to the real hell.”
Gilgamesh took note of the man’s words. "He likely made it out of that land of monsters as well..."
"The message said to 'Survive the Night'." The fox-eyed man spoke up to capture their attention. "I doubt it'll be as easy as just staying inside here until it's over. We should take this time to share what abilities we have. That will make it easier to plan how to approach our situation."
The silence that followed was not one of disagreement, so he continued. "My name is Bryn. I can turn into a mouse."
“Hahahahahahaha!” The orange-haired hothead broke into laughter at Bryn’s expense, but Gilgamesh had a very different reaction.
Animal transformation was the bloodline of the Rhun, another of the Seven Magus Clans, and he had a traditional name of theirs to match. Wargers and druids, they called themselves. The quality of beast varied greatly and even the most powerful were not the equal of the Zoraster’s Yazatas, but it was a threat to him.
“What do you have, since you’re acting so fucking special?” The gaudy woman asked.
He smirked as he waved his hand to cast a ball of fire at the hearth. It detonated into a sizable blaze, then quickly settled back down. Gilgamesh noted that the size and intensity of the hearth fire returned to exactly as it was before.
“Fireball. Bronze tier. You can just call me Daz.” He said.
“Don’t do that again.” Bryn warned him. “We don’t know how any of this works.
“Lighten up.” Daz brushed off his concerns, his focus squarely on the woman. “So? How about you?”
“Kayla… It says my Talent is Grease… Makes a spot of the ground slippery.” She admitted with a deal of embarrassment.
“Hahaha! Bet you had that even before this.” Daz laughed.
“Shut up…”
“That’s actually very useful.” The portly man said to her. “Don’t lose heart right at the starting line. I’m Holger, by the way.”
“Can you seriously stop talking to me…” Kayla’s annoyed tone and curt words visibly shot down his confidence.
“What’s your power?” Bryn quickly asked through the awkwardness.
“Oh, uh… Lightfoot. Makes my footsteps quieter.” Holger mustered up a response.
"Watchpoint." The military man spoke up. "I can set my line of sight anywhere in a 30-yard radius, but I lose my own. Mutombo is fine."
Attention turned to the elder woman, but she didn’t respond.
“Oi, granny. It’s your turn.” Daz snapped.
“Hm? Hah?” She muttered.
“What talent do you have?” He stressed the words slowly with a fair bit of annoyance. But the senior merely mumbled out something indecipherable and smacked her lips.
“She’s fucking senile!” Daz exclaimed. “Why did you let her in?!”
“What, you want to leave her out there to get eaten? Don’t be a dickhead.” Kayla admonished.
“She’s gonna get eaten anyway…”
As the clamor died down, their sights drifted over to Gilgamesh as the last one left, but he remained silent with an arrogant air about him.
"Oi… Are you senile, too?" Daz asked with a threatening tone, but Gilgamesh didn't react.
"The fuck are you looking at?" Mutombo had to step in to stop Daz from storming over. "What's up with the bandages, huh? You not feeling too good?"
“...cosplay?” Holger tentatively asked.
“Gross, another freak…” Kayla bemoaned.
Gilgamesh's arrogance deepened. "You will cease profaning my ears with your impure tongues."
“The fuck is your problem?!” Daz fought harder to get around Mutombo, but nothing he did could move him.
“Stop it.” Bryn spoke up. “This isn’t helping anything.”
Daz shoved Mutombo's arms away as he walked back over to the other side, glaring right at Gilgamesh.
"...why can't you just kill those things?" Kayla asked. "Then we wouldn't need to run."
Daz was slow to answer. "...doesn't work."
"We should assume they are invincible." Bryn spoke up. "Here's how we'll move when we head out. Mutombo will scout ahead with Watchpoint to make sure a Nightmare isn't lurking around a corner. Daz, you will handle any other groups we might come into conflict with. Competition over the hearth houses will be fierce."
“And you just gonna sit back, take it easy, yeah?” Daz asked.
"...I have good senses. I'll make sure we're not caught off guard, and be Mutombo's guide when he doesn't have his sight."
“Why are you so sure we’ll have to go back outside?” Kayla asked. “All that stuff about it not being this easy is just a guess, right?”
"It's gotten smaller since that door closed." Bryn pointed at the hearth fire behind them. A quiet pervaded the room at the realization. "I advise everyone to save your energy while you can. We might be running around a lot tonight."
Gilgamesh watched them all settle into their ways, and quietly observed. He was undeniably weak at this moment. Below average physical attributes and his sole magical Trait was useless without a golem to control. Survival would require him to be calculating, as it often did.
He had been formulating ideas of how to conceal the truth of his limited abilities the moment he entered this Hearth House, but the presence of another Magi gave him a simpler path.
Gilgamesh’s jaw clenched as his thoughts turned to that. It disgusted him that he had to pretend to hold the bloodline he once futilely sought and rely on the reputation of the clan that rejected him, but it was necessary to survive.
The weak are abused and exploited. This rule was true his entire life, and it would be even more so in this so-called Trial. He would need to feign strength, at least until he had truly obtained it.
Gilgamesh had already scanned the house for anything he could use as a weapon, but there was nothing. No fire poker. No knives. Not even a broken piece of wood. So instead, he sat against the wall and waited just like the others. But he did not rest.
[ Gilgamesh - Hero (Iron Rank) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 2
Agility - 4
Vitality - 10
Perception - 7
Force - 3
Spirit - 1
Control - 8
Willpower - 14
Traits:
Incomplete Stigmata (???), Master Golem Core lvl. 1 (silver),
Material: Clay (inferior)
Mana Capacity: 6/10
Unalloted Attribute Points: 2
"It hasn't decreased..." Gilgamesh stared at his Mana Capacity, and made his choice.
[ Agility: 4 -> 6 ]
With his last two remaining points, Gilgamesh increased his speed to a point that would exceed the average of those in this Trial. But Gilgamesh still did not rest. He had not yet done all that he could to ensure his success.
Gilgamesh quietly watched the others and assessed what he could see. He looked for even the slightest implication of anything he could use to his advantage. Their personalities, their intentions, their habits. He watched it all and he planned for his survival.
