Chapter 181 - Time for Lumi
Outside the cloud, Lumi watched Lena’s health bar through the party interface. He’d been tracking it carefully, noting the rate of decline and estimating how long she’d survive. He had hoped she would, but half way through, he realized she’d die.
He pursed his lips together. Should he have warned her about the pain? It was obvious, wasn’t it? Plus, she didn’t really mind it...
Damn, now he felt like an asshole.
When it hit zero, her body was lost in the storm. The swirling magical energies consumed the corpse, and it disappeared as the system reclaimed it for respawning.
Lumi sighed.
It wasn’t exactly optimal for them to die to this.
The whole point of the baptism was to upgrade their weapons, and dying meant losing time. Two hours wasn’t catastrophic, but it was still two hours they could have been doing something productive. Not that there was much else to do right now, but still.
But looking around at the sky, searching the clouds, there were no other choices.
Finding a new thundercloud would take time. They were rare, scattered randomly across high altitude regions. He’d have to fly the airship around, scanning the horizon, hoping to spot another one. That could take a few minutes if lucky, or the rest of his time, if unlucky.
And there was no guarantee the next cloud would be any safer.
These things varied wildly in power. Some were weak enough that even a level ten could survive the baptism. Others were so intense they’d kill a second rank magician instantly. There was no way to predict which was which from external observation.
At least this cloud had already been partially depleted.
Lena had absorbed some of its energy during her baptism. That meant there was less power remaining, which theoretically improved his chances of survival.
Not guaranteed, of course. The cloud might still kill him. But the odds were better than they would have been if he’d jumped in first.
Plus, he was at a higher level anyway.
Level forty one versus Lena’s thirty three. That gap translated to significantly more health, better stats, and higher resistances. He could tank more damage before dying.
Though if he died, the higher level one was, the longer they needed to respawn.
At Lena’s level, she’d need about two hours. At his level, it would be closer to two and a half. That was fine. Not ideal, but acceptable.
The real problem was that he’d have to do this without her watching.
If he died in the cloud, the airship would be left drifting. Lena would respawn in Elenora, but the airship would just float wherever the wind took it. They might lose it entirely.
He couldn’t let that happen.
Lumi walked over to the control interface on the airship, examining its autopilot. It was basic, designed for simple point to point travel, but it would work.
He programmed the destination as Merath’s great library. If he died, the airship would automatically fly back there and land right outside. Hopefully, it wouldn’t piss the old man off too much.
Everything was set.
Lumi took his wand out of his inventory, holding it firmly in his hand, since the baptism required the weapon to be with him during the process. Lena had done the same, too.
He walked to the edge of the airship and looked down at the cloud below.
He’d already resigned himself to dying here. The result... no longer mattered. Not when he’d already set the airship to leave soon. Either way, live or die, the weapon got upgraded.
Lumi jumped.
The moment he entered the cloud, pain exploded through his body, just as it did to Lena. He’d known it would hurt. He’d prepared himself mentally for the pain.
It barely mattered.
He closed his eyes and did his best to just endure.
One way or another, the baptism would end. All he had to do was exist through it until that moment arrived.
The lightning tore through him again and again. His health dropped steadily.
[HP: 712/834]
[HP: 679/834]
[HP: 641/834]
The process continued.
Time became meaningless. Seconds and minutes blurred together into an endless stream of suffering. He existed in the now of the baptism, with no past and no future, only the present moment of being electrocuted by concentrated magical power.
His health kept dropping.
[HP: 487/834]
[HP: 361/834]
He was going to die. That much was certain now. The baptism showed no signs of completing, and his health was falling too quickly.
He’d lasted longer than Lena. That was something, at least. His higher stats had bought him extra time in the baptism. It really didn’t matter.
[HP: 298/834]
[HP: 189/834]
[HP: 87/834]
[HP: 41/834]
Almost there.
[HP: 12/834]
[HP: 0/834]
[You have died.]
The pain stopped.
Everything stopped.
His consciousness separated from his body, from the physical world, from sensation entirely.
He existed as pure awareness in a void of nothing.
Eventually, the world went black. His mind and thoughts were brought to an ethereal realm, a white endless expanse. He had no body, had nothing but his mind. His soul was alone here.
A screen appeared in front of him.
[Respawning in 2 hours 23 minutes.]
Oh.
Well.
That was that.
He immediately opened up the menu. There was literally no point in sitting here and waiting it out. Sure, the soul was safe, the system would take good care of it. But... why? Why would you stay here?
As he moved to log out, it asked him if he wanted to keep the respawn ticking. it felt like a strange question, but what it was really asking him was if he was alright with his playtime being used while he was gone to countdown the respawn.
He clicked yes.
Obviously. There was NOTHING to do while dead. It wasn’t even a question.
As he opened his eyes, coming back to reality, he sighed. He had things to do now, didn’t he? To endlessly fight against evil.
The Dark One...
Curse his name.