Lee awoke slowly. All around him was hard gray stone. A gray sky above.

A woman knelt at his side.

His breath caught when he looked upon her. She was beautiful—ice blue eyes, a perfect face. “Who are you?”

“Welcome back, Chosen One,” she said.

Chosen one?

Before he could say anything further, she thrust something in his hand. “Here, you told me to make sure you used this as soon as possible.”

As she did so, Lee’s memories came flooding back.

He remembered sacrificing all of his Essence to return to the Keeper. He’d found himself in the center of the archway structure then, standing before the black door, his memories completely intact. The Keeper had been surprised to see him return that way, but he quickly rushed to perform the next part of his plan. Wielding his club he slew the lizard, regaining 30% Essence and then used half of that, saved a memory next to the Keeper.

That was all he remembered.

But he knew the next part of his plan.

He would then travel back through the gate and kill as many of the Woodsmen as he could before he was slain. And then he would resurrect next to the Keeper with all his memories gone but his essence intact. The crystal he had saved would then restore his memories and prompt him what to do with its message.

“If you are reading this, it means you were successful. Check your status. -Lee”

He checked his status.

Name: Lee

Level: 6

Essence: 637%

Strength: 2

Dexterity: 1

Agility: 1

Vigor: 5

Constitution: 1

Will: 1

Insanity: 13%

“Haha!” he yelled out loud, startling the Keeper. “It worked! I’m a damn genius!”

“Did it?” the Keeper smiled back sheepishly. “Well…I’m glad! Whatever it was.”

“Hells be damned!” He grinned incessantly. “I must have killed four or five of those freakish things. Wish I could remember, but then, that’s the price of advancement. Full price! Haha!”

“What did you do?”

Lee explained what he’d done and the Keeper smiled. “Well that was quite clever.”

“And now I need your help, dear Keeper.” He opened his inventory to equip the Hatchet and was surprised to see four of them there now. It seemed there was no limit to what he could hold in Inventory, only a limit with what was equipped. He picked one and equipped it, getting the same message that his Abilities were too low.

“I need to raise my Strength and Dexterity high enough to wield this,” he said.

“Very well.” The Keeper took his hand and bowed her head slightly. “Go on.”

Lee increased his Strength to three and his Dexterity to two, spending 200% of his Essence and raising his Level to 8. With his remaining 400% Essence he increased his Agility to 5. He must have gotten fairly proficient at killing the Woodcutters. Or perhaps he’d simply killed the same one over and over again. But either way, he wanted more Agility to avoid their attacks in the future.

He tried cutting the air with his new Hatchet and was thrilled with how much lighter it felt in his grasp. He dashed to the side, avoiding a phantom blow, and without thinking tucked into a quick roll as he hit the ground, increasing his distance.

He rose to his feet slowly, perplexed. When had he learned to do that? He tried it again and was able to dive into a roll as if he’d been doing it his entire life.

“What are you doing?” the Keeper asked.

Lee laughed. “I don’t know! But I like it.”

Must be the Agility, he realized. He couldn’t perform many rolls before his Stamina was spent, but he felt far more equipped to deal with the woodcutters now. Lee checked his remaining Essence.

Essence: 37%

Lee pondered a moment. So long as he saved his last memory here. He could do this again. He laughed out loud.

“I’m a genius!” he declared again as he saved his memories. “Keeper!”

“Yes, Chosen One?”

“Send me back to the forest…”

* * *

Lee remerged in the dark forest with a new sense of strength and confidence filling him. He trekked forward to find the first woodcutter, homing in on sound of its hatchet chopping the tree. But as he saw the headless corpse, the same sense of aversion hit him again, despite his new abilities.

You gain 1% insanity

Curse this, he thought.

His heart was filled with unnatural fear, but he used it as fuel to charge at the creature instead of running from it. He swung at the headless corpse just as it turned to him and caught it squarely in the chest. The thing staggered, losing nearly half of its health and Lee used the time to dislodge his new weapon from its ribcage, spilling black blood on the grass. It raised it’s hatched to chop down at him from above and Lee dove to the side with a roll avoiding the attack by a great measure. He laughed aloud at how much more proficient he’d become. There was no way the corpse could hit him now. That 5 Agility had made all the difference. He rose to his feet with new confidence and avoided another attack before striking the corpse with another solid blow.

You killed the Woodcutter!

You regain 180% Essence!

Axe Skill increased by 1!

You learned the Weapon skill “Double Strike”

Double Strike? He liked the sound of that.

Lee practiced with the air and burned 7 points of Stamina to strike twice in the space of one hit. Very nice. But a risky maneuver as well if he didn’t have enough stamina. It appeared he would need to increase his Vigor more as well. At this rate it wouldn’t be a problem. He could kill the woodsmen with ease, although this one gave far less Essence than before.

He wondered if perhaps his own increase in strength played a role.

It would make sense.

Just like with the lizard, the stronger he became the stronger the foe he needed to defeat to gain more strength.

Lee ventured deeper into the forest and finding the other two woodcutter, slew them with ease. As there appeared to be no more, he rested by a tree and waited for them to respawn. In the silence he heard a new sound. A rhythmic creak and moan, like a bar door swinging open and closed. He headed towards the sound and arrived at the edge of a tall cliff. Below him was several acres of cleared land. In the center was several large wooden buildings, exuding soft lantern light. One of them also had a large windmill attached, its canvas covered blades slowly turning in the soft breeze. They were big enough that they stretched from the buildings and to nearly where he was stood upon the cliff.

A lumber mill…

Outside the buildings, huge stacks of logs were stockpiled as well as piles of cut and trimmed wood. All about them Lee spotted more headless corpses. Some were moving about while other stood as still as the corpses they were. He counted at least ten of them and all within close proximity. He looked for a way down into the mill and following the curvature of the cliff saw that it slowly spiraled towards a fenced entrance far below.

A great source of Essence, but with so many so densely packed together, he would be easily overwhelmed. He would need a lot more Stamina to take on so many. Thankfully he had a much easier source of Essence to strengthen him to that point.

Lee waited for the thock! of the woodcutters to reappear and then wielding his hatched, went back to work in the woods. He skirted around them and saved his memories at the entrance of the woods, before killed all three once more. When he finally did return, he’d need to remember that lumber mill.

He waited and repeated the process again, storing over 500% Essence and gaining 5% more insanity before eventually allowing the last woodcutter to kill him painfully. Lee endured it as a smile crept across his lips.

He’d solved the puzzle of this world.

He was a genius.

And then he died.

* * *

Lee stirred and immediately gasped as he took in his surroundings.

The sky above him was a brilliant blue and the smell of sweet grass wafted through the air. To his left stood a marvelous temple, made of ornate white stone pillars and arches. Above it was a domed roof made of copper that had weathered to an emerald green. Trees with white flower petals for leaves creaked gently in the breeze and created a mock snow as they dropped their litter upon the soft grass.

What was this? He wondered. Am I in a dream?

“Chosen one?”

Lee looked towards the voice and saw a maiden dressed in a brilliant white robe. Her face was exquisitely beautiful and her golden locks were adorned with a small glowing crown. There was an aura about her as she waked towards him and she frowned as she knelt by his side.

“Are you well, Chosen One?” she asked.

“Who are you?”

She pushed something into his hand and it snapped with a pop.

“You must stop this at once! Do not go back to the forest to hunt the woodcutters. It was a mistake! You must find a way to rid of us of this madness! –Lee”

As the words appeared so too did his memories.

Lee recalled himself reawaking several times from killing the woodcutters in the forest. And each time he would have more essence to grow stronger. He could not remember what he did when he went back to the forest, but it was clear he was able to kill those woodcutters with increasing ease.

He’d returned with about 500% Essence each time.

But then there were times when he returned with nothing at all.

Over and over.

And the messages he’d received was the same as he was reading now.

Don’t do it. Don’t hunt them.

“What have I done wrong?”

He checked his status.

Name: Lee

Level: 28

Essence: 228%

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 2

Agility: 5

Vigor: 8

Constitution: 5

Will: 11

Insanity: 57%

What? Level 28?

How long had he been doing this? But then he saw the figure that chilled him the most.

57% insanity.

He looked again to the maiden, the beautiful trees and the wonderfully restored temple.

This wasn’t how it was before.

This wasn’t real. Couldn’t be real.

Was it?

He laughed. “Who the hell cares? I love it! It’s much better than before!”

The Keeper flinched away from him, her eyes wide.

Her reaction pulled him back to himself. What am I saying?

He looked again to his Attributes. 11 Will? He must have tried to counter the madness at some point. But it obviously wasn’t working. He was stronger now, but at what cost?

He checked his inventory next and saw over a score of hatchets there and a few other items as well. How long had he been trapped in this loop? It was frightening. Even simply having an ideal like this could doom him to an eternity of hell.

Even one as pretty as this, he thought as he took in the surroundings again.

He suddenly thought of the door.

Had it changed as well?

Lee stood and approached the stone archway in the center of the temple. The door had indeed changed. Where it was once pitted and crudely etched before, it now gleamed smooth like a black mirror.

As he drew closer the symbols engraved themselves before his eyes, flashing into existence with a white glow. The indentation of the sun shaped medallion also glowed as it came into being and words floated into his vision.

Door of the First Eldritch Seal [Sealed]

You do not possess the key to open this door. It is fabled that Chiron, the Guardian of the Smoldering Vale was entrusted with the means to break this seal.

Lee blinked. These words definitely hadn’t existed before.

But it was confirmation of both the vision he had seen through the purple gem and what the Keeper had told him. This Bull demon, Chiron, was the means to unlocking the seal.

But what exactly did First Eldritch Seal mean?

“Well, well…”

Lee glanced upward, startled by the unfamiliar voice.

His heart jumped as he saw a tiny blue skinned woman perched atop the archway of the door, no bigger than a crow.

“It’s about time you woke the hell up,” the miniature woman said. “Lee…”