Soulforge Legacy Series

Respawn protocol interrupted…

Determining source…

Source located: Death.

Resuming respawn protocol.

Payment transfer connection initialized.

Respawn location determined.

Location: Proxima – Church Bell Tower.

Finalizing Respawn.

Good Luck!

A notification screen forced its way in front of me just as the world around me lost the blurry edges. The lack of a sun overhead made my surroundings a bit hard to see, but I didn’t have to see much to know where I was.

While it was no longer snowing and the weather was quite a bit warmer, I recognized the town below me. I mean, how could I not? After all, it had been the first thing I had seen upon coming to this world.

Warm air tickled my ears as it ruffled my hair. The feeling was different, and I couldn’t say I hated it. Especially as I stepped closer to the ledge to peer over the city.

It looked how I remembered it. Well, mostly. There were some obvious gaps where buildings had once stood. Likely scars from some fight or another. Hell, it may have even been one of the fights that took place on the day of our great escape.

The most surprising damage was along the nearest wall. Judging by the repairs, it had been badly damaged. So much so that deep gouges were left alone as those working on it prioritized a few sites.

Even as I continued to scan over the city, flashes of what happened that day flashed through my head. And knowing what I knew now, knowing just how weak I had been compared to that demon, I had been lucky.

Even with all my current knowledge, I doubted I could pull off anything similar. Though, if I had my current power as well as my knowledge? Well, at that point I would give myself a 50 50 shot at pulling off the escape.

Still, other than that demon and his daughter, I wasn’t all that worried about anyone here. Not after all that training and the army of spiders. Still, that didn’t mean I was going to look for a fight. If anything, I could treat this as a vacation before returning to Gravepoint.

Actually, should I even return to that city? It wasn’t like they were all that welcoming. If anything, they had made it clear that I wasn’t welcome. Not that any of them had said why.

But if I didn’t return, it would be a bit harder to see Xander or his sister. It would also be impossible to visit the shifters. To run wild with them.

Yeah, I didn’t really have much choice but to return to the city. Not that I had to return immediately. This time I would take the time to see the sights. To relax and enjoy myself.

I don’t know how long I stood there, just enjoying the sight of the sky as it slowly brightened. All I know is that I had been relaxed enough for my mind to wander. Not just over everything that had happened, or even the things that I had to do. It also wandered over the still open window. Each time it did, something felt odd about it.

I don’t know how to explain it. The closest thing I can compare it to would be how it felt to run your hand over a flat surface. One where the majority of it was nearly perfect. All except for one tiny bump. Only, instead of feeling it with my fingers, I was feeling the bump with my mind.

Hey, I am not crazy. Well, not that crazy. Honestly, that is the closest thing I could compare it to given that I have never felt something with my mind before.

Still, something about it felt odd. Like the bumps were pockets of information. And from what I could tell, quite a few of the phrases had one. As I focused on one, I found a second screen overlayed upon the first.

Respawn protocol:

Initiator: Death

Release Stage: Beta

Release Group: Humans – Earth

Times Used:

User: 1

System: 2.461e10

Options:

• • • Respawn
    • Soul Release
    • Recycle

All of that was packed in the word Respawn Protocol. And as I gave it a once over, I could feel that there was yet more information buried in it. Especially Death’s name. Curious, I focused on it only to be nearly flattened by the sheer weight of the information contained within.

It felt like an ocean had been suddenly dropped onto me. Currents pushed and pulled at me. They tore at my mind. To it, I was little more than a piece of plastic to be ground down and dispersed.

In a rush, I pulled back. An action that caused both the feeling and the overlay to vanish from my view.

Thankfully it didn’t close the first window as I did have one question I needed an answer to. Specifically how I ended up on that mountain with the goddess. Sure, Death brought me there, but there had to be a reason for such an event. Something that told it where to bring me.

Interrupt Detected!

Initiator: Inari

Initiator Authorization:

User’s Assigned Deity

Current Progenitor

Request: Initial Meeting

Wait, that window made no sense. It practically said that the goddess had initiated that meeting, yet she had acted surprised that I had been there. What the? Was that on purpose? Scratch that, it had been on purpose.

My head shook as I shifted focus to this payment I had given in return for my coming back.

Payment:

10% of the user’s experience.

Experience bar locked to previous amount until paid back.

If the debuff The Reaper’s Due is already active, double all debuff timers.

Debuffs Gained:

The Reaper’s Due – 32 Hours

Untethered Soul – 16 Hours

Broken Body – 16 Hours

Mana Sieve – 16 Hours

Holy hell that was a lot. Not just the amount of experience, but the debuffs. Especially as The Reaper’s Due made the pain even worse. Not only did I have to pay him back for the trip, but this little debuff also ate 50% of my experience and a chunk of the materials I managed to harvest. How it did that, I had no clue.

Then there were the other three. Not only was my health cut in half, so was my mana pool. Oh, and let’s not forget that I would be unable to hit for shit with that Broken Body debuff. So much for being untouchable in this place. I was almost as weak as I had been when I left this city.

Which meant I needed to find a place to hole up and fast.