Purgatory: The Devil's Game

by M. A. Carlson

  “You try,” the boy instructed. “Hopefully, you’ll get to a passable state before your time is up. If not, you will just need to work on it in live combat with whatever demons await you in Purgatory.”

  Before I could ask a question, Asher interrupted, “No time for questions, get to work. You can ask questions when you’re done. Don’t waste valuable training time.”

  I frowned unhappily. I didn’t appreciate him stopping me from trying to learn more. Though he wasn’t wrong. It would be foolish to waste time.

  I focused mostly on my foot work, trying to imitate what the boy showed me. Thankfully, the boy corrected me regularly. I quickly learned the trick was to always return to my starting stance. With just a few minutes left on my timer, I took my first attempts at stepping and swinging.

  “And that’s time,” the boy said. “If you want more training, it will cost you twenty tiny crystals per one-hundred minutes.”

  “We’ll be back,” Asher promised before I could reply.

  Twenty tiny crystals didn’t sound that bad to me considering Billy was demanding a hundred.

  “Thanks for your time,” I said but the boy was already walking away, blatantly ignoring me. “He’s a bit rude, isn’t he?”

  “He’s been doing this job for thousands of years, let’s see you do the same job that long and not grow weary of doing the same thing, day in and day out,” Asher replied. “More importantly, let’s see your proficiency with the mace now. I’ll be curious to see if it has grown at all.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows. “Did I get experience for that training session?”

  Asher stared at me blankly. “Just . . . look at your scroll.”

  I did as my guide ordered, though I didn’t appreciate his attitude.

  Blunt Weapon: Mace - Beginner

  Level: 3

  Experience to Next Level: 37

  Damage: 3-6 Blunt

  Hit Rate: +0.30%

  Proficiency to use a mace in combat.

  I had indeed gained a level from the training. It was only slightly improved, which made me wonder if it was worth it. I supposed I wouldn’t really know until I fought something else.

  Asher didn’t seem nearly as pleased. “That stupid recovery rate,” he growled. “I get you two hundred minutes of training and you only got one level. One!”

  I chose not to reply. There was no point. I did the best I could.

  “You need to gain at least four levels in Body today. We need to get your Recovery up,” Asher growled. “Let’s go kill some demons.”

  Part of me didn’t feel ready for this. Unfortunately, time was up. I needed to enter Purgatory and start earning crystals and experience if I ever wanted to get out of this place.

  I nodded and followed Asher out of the compound. The streets were full once more with other people. People like me. People that were trying their hardest to get past Purgatory. As I walked, I saw every kind of medieval weapon and armor imaginable. Swords, spears, hammers, bows, and crossbows. And even those had variations, long sword, broad sword, and bastard sword. Long spears, short spears, throwing spears, and even poleaxes. Then there were the varieties of armor. Very few wore cloth robes or street clothes. It seemed most wore leather armor. Very few wore chainmail or plate. I made a mental note to ask Asher about it later.

  When we reached the bottom of the stairway, I came down the previous day, Asher floated right past it, following a crowd of other people.

  “Don’t we go in this way?” I asked, pointing at the stairs, and getting a few laughs from the other people around.

  “Exit only,” someone said helpfully before Asher could answer my question.

  I followed the pack to the base of the tower where an open door stood, nothing beyond it was visible. And yet, people walked in, one after another. It almost looked casual. No one looked afraid or nervous. A few held their weapons in hand as they entered but that was about all the preparation they seemed to need.

  “Hurry up already,” Asher complained, hovering next to the open door.

  I swallowed nervously and took a step inside.

  I thought there would be a portal effect of some kind, maybe like traveling through a wormhole or a lightspeed effect like in the movies, but it felt just like stepping through a door. One moment, I was outside, the next, I was inside. It took me a second to realize I was now in Purgatory. I immediately started looking around for any sign of danger, but there was nothing to be seen. I was in an empty room, something that looked like a vestibule or waiting room . . . just without furniture.

  “Good, you have a small safe area,” Asher said. “That will be good to know for the future. Now, it’s not actually safe, so don’t go thinking that for a second. If you try to run in here after a monster starts attacking you, it will follow you in. What it won’t do, is follow you out,” he finished, nodding toward the open door behind me.

  “Okay, so what’s the theme? You mentioned before that the tower is different for everyone. What’s mine?” I asked.

  “Don’t know yet,” Asher answered. “We might not know until after the first floor or two. As it is, there are no markings or instructions here that might give you a clue.”

  I nodded. The vestibule was rather plain. A simple eight by eight stone room with a pair of torches on either side of the doorways.

  Asher continued, “Go ahead and peek into the next room. Tell me what you see.”

  “Can’t you float ahead and scout for me?” I asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” Asher replied. “Inside Purgatory, I can only see what you can see.”

  That was annoying. I assumed there was probably a limitation on Asher’s ability to give me information. Apparently, that was one of them. I approached the door, trying to be quiet and not draw the attention of anything due to carelessness. Thankfully, the floor under my feet was clear and there was nothing to trip on.

  I took up a spot under one of the torches and nudged the door open slightly. Of course, it creaked loudly. I held my breath, waiting for anything to come. But it never did. Feeling safe-ish, I pushed the door open a little further.

  The next room looked like something of a sitting room. There were opulent couches and armchairs. A silver tea set sat on the coffee table in front of them. But there was nothing there. Not a sign of demons or anything dangerous.

  Asher’s voice stopped me before I could push the door a little further open. “Keep a careful eye out. Might be something that likes to hide in shadows. Also, always check above doors. There are some demons that like to ambush you.”

  I pulled back from the door and tried to see if there was anything waiting to drop down on me. I was about to say as much when Asher cut me off. “And don’t say anything. I can talk because nothing can hear me. If you talk, everything will hear you. We had a deal anyway, you do what I say, when I say while we’re inside. Now, open that door a little more and see if anything comes running.”

  I nodded and pushed the creaky door open a little further, but again, nothing moved.

  Asher frowned, “I don’t like the look of this. Might be a spawn trap . . . uh, if you step into the room, it will suddenly fill with demons.”

  I wanted to ask him what I should do, but once again, Asher kept talking. “The only thing you can do is spring the trap. Here’s what you’re going to do. Step into the room and set off the trap. Once that’s done, step back into the vestibule. Take a ready stance to the side of the door. If anything comes through, you smack it as hard as you can. Got it?” He asked, looking to me. “Nod or shake your head, don’t say anything.”

  I glared at him for treating me like an idiot but nodded my understanding anyway. I did have some basic tactical knowledge from gaming in my former life. The concept of ‘first person shooters’ was not foreign to me.

  “Good,” Asher replied. “Then step through whenever you’re ready.”

  I took a deep steadying breath. I stepped into the room only for the door to swing suddenly, knocking me clear of the d
oor then slamming shut with a resounding bang.

  “On your guard,” Asher warned urgently.

  I slid into the stance I was taught and surveyed the room. I had at least expected to see a monster of some kind charging at me after hitting me with the door, but there was nothing there. In fact, nothing was moving.

  Asher growled, “I don’t like this.”

  I glared at him. Hopefully, I was able to convey that I didn’t like it either and his original plan was ruined. I hoped it also conveyed, ‘Now what?’ loudly and clearly.

  “Put your back to a wall, make sure nothing can sneak up on you,” Asher ordered.

  The only problem with that was, if I put my back to a wall, I would be out of position to attack. Still, I complied . . . reluctantly.

  It gave me a chance to look around the room. There was the obvious sitting area. I now saw a few end tables at either end of the couch. There was artwork on the walls, watercolors I thought. There was a buffet table on one side of the room covered in decanters filled with liquid. There was also a stairway at the back of the room that led up to a balcony where I could see several bookshelves.

  Asher growled in frustration as he looked around the room. “This doesn’t make any sense. This room should be teeming with demons.”

  I looked around again and my eyes settled on one of the armchairs. It looked . . . comfortable. Like it just . . . needed to be sat down on. I took a step toward it unthinkingly.

  “What are you doing!” Asher screamed at me. Snapping me back to attention. How had I moved several steps from the wall? Why was I right next to the extremely comfortable looking armchair? Why wasn’t I sitting in that armchair? I was sure I could rest, just for a little while.

  I sat up suddenly, breathing heavily, trying to figure out what happened and where I was. A look around and I realized I was back in the room I first woke up in. How did I get there? I looked around and saw Asher glaring at me. He looked furious.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Asher blew his top immediately, he yelled, “You got eaten by a freaking armchair! How did you end up dead on your very first monster? What is wrong with you?”

  “I got eaten?” I asked. I had no memory of it happening.

  Asher seemed to calm at my question. “You don’t remember?”

  I shook my head. “I just remember, looking at that armchair and thinking it looked really comfortable.”

  Asher worked his jaw side to side. “Did you feel like it was pulling you in? Telling you it was okay to rest, just for a little while?”

  I nodded. That was exactly right. “What was that?”

  The little ball of flame drooped. “A sloth demon,” he said. “It was a sloth demon. You got sloth demons on your first floor. Oh, this is going to be rough.”

  I blinked in surprised. I asked, “Sloth? As in-”

  Asher cut me off. “Don’t even say it. It’s a fluke. It’s just the first floor so their influence should be easier to break free of now that you know they are there.”

  “So, what are they?” I asked, still unsure as to exactly what got me.

  Asher groaned but was good enough to explain, “A sloth demon likes to hide in plain sight. We call them the lazy eater. It takes on the form and shape of something it thinks you will find comfortable. Maybe something relaxing . . . like an armchair, a couch, or a bottle of alcohol. They could be anything really. Worse, they emit a kind of demonic enticement. They tempt you. If you fail to resist . . . well, you already got eaten once.”

  It was my turn to groan. These things sounded horrible to fight against, especially with my weak resistance to demonic influence. “Okay, so how do we fight them?”

  Asher answered easily, though he sounded despondent, “We smash everything. Tables, chairs, couches, bookshelves . . . everything.”

  “That doesn’t sound so horrible,” I said.

  Asher sighed. “It’s much worse than you think. If we smash everything, and I mean everything, you can’t loot anything but the crystals they drop when they die. No chance of finding a scroll hiding in those bookshelves or a potion mixed in with the alcohol bottles. You need to smash everything or risk getting eaten once again.”

  I cursed, letting loose a string of expletives, mostly cursing purgatory to the deepest levels of hell, which I now knew was a real place.

  When I finished, Asher nodded appreciatively, “Yeah, that about sums it up. So, back to it?”

  I sighed and followed him back out of the resurrection chamber. I swear I heard him mumble something about wishing he could curse like that sometimes. It made me smile.

  Chapter 6 – Smashing Things

  “Now, see that chair?” Asher asked, then quickly added, “Don’t stare! Just . . . glance at it, then look at the ground.”

  I looked and . . . the chair did look comfortable, and- ‘No!’ I shouted mentally and looked to the ground.

  “Measure the distance, line up your attack,” Asher instructed.

  I took a half step forward and glanced up ever so briefly then looked down again. Another half step forward and another glance. I was in range. I just needed to make sure I hit. I took a breath and stepped into the swing of the mace, swinging slightly upward, catching the bottom of the armchair, and shattering it in the single blow.

  Wood and black goo arced through the air followed by a meaty impact with the ground.

  “Yes!” Asher cheered. “You got one . . . finally.”

  I chanced looking up at the . . . sloth demon. Its skin looked like a hodgepodge of wood and felt cloth. There was a large indent in its chest that matched the shape of my mace. Where I hit, bones protruded through the skin, covered in the black goo. It was then I was able to identify the goo as its blood. I didn’t see any eyes on the creature, just a mouth that went vertically from the top of its head to just above where I struck it, like a twisted demon Venus Flytrap.

  It was thankfully unmoving. A few seconds later, the skin started to bubble and turn into a liquid. The bubbling effect grew until it dissolved the rest of the body. The resulting liquid was quickly absorbed by the floor as if it had never been. In its place was a tiny glass crystal with a pure white glow to it and a tooth.

  “Loot on your first kill, good, you’ll need it,” Asher said. “Pick it up, put it in your inventory and pick your next target. Maybe that end table, it looks like it could be a demon in disguise.”

  I did as Asher instructed, not happy to have spent my entire SE pool just to put away a tiny crystal and a barely larger tooth, especially since it would be ten minutes before I could do it again. I would need to ask him later what the tooth was for. I would also need to ask him about something easier to use for storage than opening and closing my inventory all the time.

  “We’ll see about getting a cheap belt pouch when we’re back in Sin City,” Asher commented, making me wonder if he was lying about being able to read my mind.

  Rather than worry about my strange and obnoxious flaming guide, I glanced at my next target. An ornate end table with a drawer. The drawer almost drew me in. I mean, there could have been anything in that drawer. I shot my eyes to ground as I realized what was happening, and just in time. I had moved subconsciously until I was almost in range to reach out an open it. Instead, I swung my mace overhead and brought it down on the table. Wood smashed and an ungodly howl erupted from the table, which was suddenly not a table. Instead, a four limbed doglike creature with a mouth for a head was leaping at me.

  I fell on my back as the beast landed on me, its sharp talon-tipped legs tore into my flesh while the head kept trying to bite me. I couldn’t use the mace again because I was using it to hold back the creature by its neck. Instead, I tried to get one of my legs between it and me. When I finally did, I pushed hard, kicking it into the air and away from me. I rolled to my stomach to see where it landed. It crashed into another armchair . . . that tried to eat the former table. That was so weird. Either way, I no longer felt any kind of pull toward the two sloth demon
s.

  I clambered quickly back to my feet and charged forward, swinging my mace with reckless abandon. I didn’t have time to get back into the stance I was taught. I swung downward hard, smashing into both demons. I reared back and swung again. I lost count of how many times I swung. It wasn’t until Asher broke my line of sight with the monsters, that I realized they were both dead.

  My breathing was ragged. I wasted a ton of EP beating on the dead things. It was only after I stopped that the two corpses melted, leaving behind three of the tiny white crystals.

  Asher sounded worried when he finally spoke. “Take a minute, catch your breath. You did it.”

  I nodded and slumped back on my haunches. Staring at where the demons had lay just moments ago.

  Seeing I was finally calming down, Asher decided to throw a little snark at me. “A little overkill, but . . . meh, I’ll take it.”

  I snorted a laugh then quickly clamped down on it.

  “Don’t worry about it, they can’t hear anyway,” Asher said, with his own chuckle.

  “You could have told me that sooner,” I complained.

  Asher grinned. “Yeah, but then I would be forced to answer all your questions. Besides, wasn’t the quiet kind of nice?”

  “Are you sure I can’t unsummon you?” I asked, glaring at the little ball of flame.

  Asher nodded . . . bobbed up and down, “I’m sure. Now, collect your crystals and let’s line up your next target.”

  My EP hadn’t recovered much but my SE was full again. I put the crystals into my inventory then glanced around for my next target. Another end table, only this time, I made sure not to look at the drawer. I swung and was greeted by the sound of wood smashing . . . just wood.

  “And that was an actual end table,” Asher said, sounding as disappointed as I felt. It was in splinters and in the wreckage, I could see broken glass, a bauble of some sort, I thought, hoping it wasn’t something better. Either way, it was lost revenue as I couldn’t sell something shattered to pieces. “Moving on.”