After walking through the portal, Jake leaned over and gagged. Crossing dimensions had a strange nauseating effect to it, or so Mike had told him a few minutes ago; He’d get used to it eventually.

They were standing on a floating platform made of rock inside a dark starless void, instead of the closed space where Ishbula-na’ resided.

“This is just outside the seventh ring, these platforms we are standing on form a path connecting the different rings in the abyss”

Mike walked towards the edge of the platform while signaling for Jake to follow him with his hand. They leaned over and looked below, and a desert-like environment could be seen. Strange reddish black scaled life forms could be seen roaming here and there, each one about the size of a regular SUV.

“Those are Vermilion, they are a plague down there, chomping on everything around them and destroying complete ecosystems. Alright, use your eyes to look at them”

Jake closed his eyes and once they opened, they’d taken an orange hue to them. He looked down below at the different Vermilions that roamed around, they had varying degrees of numbers ranging from 40 to 150. He looked over to the horizon, and because of the orange border to the bodies, he could spot a few Vermilion he’d missed before.

He chose one of the Vermilion with a 56 above his head and pointed towards him. “Do you think that one will be fine to fight against?”

Mike scratched his chin, before jumping down from the platform, followed by Jake. Silently casting a skill dubbed feather fall by Jake, they both glided down in a controlled speed until they touched the ground.

They were both wearing light training clothes, a pair of shorts and a tee, while Jake wore a backpack in addition. They walked side by side until they were 20 meters behind the Vermilion, where Mike stopped and Jake continued to walk.

Raising his fist that held onto the black gem he blinked once, and once his eyes opened a red hue had appeared. He moved his lips without saying a word out loud, and three fireballs the size of a tennis ball each formed, surrounding his fist. They all shot towards the Vermilion, two of them missing to the left of the Vermilion and the last one exploding on its back, lunging it away and crashing against the sand, drifting a few meters after.

The gem on Jake’s hand had a few fractures show up on its surface, but he held it tight and began to move his lips again, ready to shoot again. The Vermilion shook his head from side to side to get rid of the dizziness, then turned around to face its attacker.

The fireballs flew through the air, but the Vermilion jumped from one side to the other, dodging with ease the attack. Jake grunted, then slammed the fractured gem against the desert soil, his lips moving once more. Meanwhile, the Vermilion began to run towards Jake fast on his feet, its mouth ready to chomp his head off. 9 meters. 7 meters. 5 meters. At the 3 meter mark, Jake’s mouth stopped moving, and the sand began to vibrate, before five spikes grew from the soil, four of them impaling the Vermilion, the last one growing in a strange direction and completely missing.

The Vermilion stopped struggling after a few more seconds, its eyes losing their shine. Jake raised his fist, a frown formed on his face. He looked at the black gem on his gems, which had now countless fractures on it, a few seconds later turning to dust, the countless shards flying away with the wind.

Jake looked back towards Mike, who was now approaching him. He didn’t look happy at all; he had to use a very taxing skill to get rid of the Vermilion, and now he would have to use a different gem to continue.

Mike walked past Jake and approached the Vermilion while producing a small letter knife from his pocket. He put his hand to the head of the beast, and with the other, he pierced it between both eyes. He slit in a circular shape with a practiced motion, and a hole was revealed, with a red gem behind. He used the tip of the knife to produce torque, causing the gem to fall from the Vermilion’s head.

Jake crouched and grabbed the gem, which was a similar size to the one he’d just lost. Mike shrugged, then opened his mouth to speak. “Don’t worry about it too much, at least you didn’t go negative, so just do it better next time”.

He was supposed to use the single black gem to take down two beasts, and in that way they would farm them up, using one out of each five surpluses they produced to strengthen Jake’s soul.

“Yeah, you were right. The fireball looked cool, but I should have used a piercing strike as you told me to”

Mike smiled faintly, before pointing with his head towards somewhere else that had a similar leveled Vermilion on it.

They walked slowly, with Jake having his mind somewhere else. He’d flunked his exam, as he was too preoccupied with the things that had happened the day before, so his mood was very off now. He was using the hunt to vent off some steam, but now he had failed, to his eyes.

Fifty meters away a second Vermilion standing sideways could be seen, and by using the skill Jake looked at its number, a 61, a bit stronger than the previous one. It seemed to have caught a glimpse of them on its peripheral vision, and it turned around towards the pair, growling loudly at them while revealing its teeth.

It began to run at them while zig-zagging along the way, a strategy it had learned from fighting with other lifeforms. At the fifteen meter mark, Jake raised the red gem on his hand, silently moving his lips. The gem began to slowly turn purple, and at the eight-meter mark, a blue bolt of lightning flew towards the Vermilion. It was zapped, and by the act of its own momentum, it crashed and slid through the sand, stopping a few meters away from Jake.

A grin popped on Jake’s face, before he kissed the gem between his hands, at which point he immediately remembered where it had been a while ago and he began spitting at the ground with a disgusted look on his face. Mike looked with a smile on his face, followed by an approving nod to his friend. The gem on Jake’s hand had a few small cracks on its surface, but at least it hadn’t turned to dust like the previous one.

Mike went and collected the gem from the Vermilion, which he then threw towards Jake, who had to jump high to catch it. He glared at Mike but then shook his head, a tiny smile still on his face.

A few hours later, they were back in Mike’s room. Jake opened up the backpack and let the gems fall onto the bed, revealing 14 gems of different sizes. He grabbed the two biggest ones, to which Mike shrugged his shoulders. Mike put the other twelve gems into his desk and once he turned around to face Jake, whose eyes were shining with anticipation, like a dog looking at a squeaky toy.

Mike burst out laughing at his face, only stopping once Jake slapped him on the shoulder. Mike shook his head and sat down at his desk.

“Alright, the process is super simple, touch the gem you want to absorb into your temple, then think of the word ‘Absorb’”

Jake blinked twice, he was a bit taken aback by how simple the process was. He put one of the two gems to his temple, then thought of the magic word. His view was filled with countless spots of light, and he felt a bit lightheaded. His ears were ringing, and he felt as if he was inside an empty room, where every sound produced a small echo. He put pressure on both eyes, as he thought he might pass out, but soon after the feeling went away. The gem on his hand had disappeared, having turned liquid that was then absorbed by Jake similar to solar sunscreen. Mike handed him a small hand-held mirror, and Jake used it to look at his number.

“I’ve got a 65 now, I won 15 points from that one gem!”

Mike nodded, before receiving the mirror back. Jake held the second gem to his temple and took a deep breath, ready to be tortured once more. Half a minute later, he received the mirror once more. He now had a 75 floating over his head, the second gem had only given him 10 points.

Jake jumped up once, making a fighting posture as he did so. He flexed his non-existent muscles and then laughed loudly. He thought to himself he’d catch up to Mike in no time at that pace. His mood had completely recovered, while Mike just shook his head at his antics.

He looked at the drawer filled with gems with drool on his lips, but Mike put his leg over it, blocking it from view. Jake faked a frown, and he said, “cheapskate”, in a low voice.

They prepped dinner, and once the dust settled, they waved goodbye and headed to their own rooms, where Jake fell down like a log, falling asleep in a matter of seconds.