SWNOVELXO Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Stepping out into the rain-soaked streets, I pulled my hood up and kept my head low, trying to avoid drawing too much attention. Gotham's weather was as unforgiving as its people, and the rain didn't make anything easier. My shoes splashed in the puddles as I walked toward the nearest store, the glow of neon signs reflecting in the wet asphalt. I needed something to give me an advantage and allow me to observe East Gotham without getting involved in whatever chaos was brewing there.
As I stepped inside the store, the bell above the door jingled softly. I scanned the shelves until I found what I was looking for—binoculars. I grabbed a pair, checked the quality, and walked up to the counter to pay.
"Anything else?" the cashier asked, glancing up from his phone.
"No, just these," I replied, handing over my card. The transaction was quick, and I made my way back out into the downpour, the binoculars safely tucked into my jacket.
I called for a taxi, provided the address, and settled into the backseat. The rain made the streets slower, and the traffic was a nightmare. It took a full 20 minutes to get to East Gotham, but I finally arrived.
I stepped out of the taxi and glanced around. The area had an eerie stillness to it, broken only by the occasional rumbling of thunder in the distance. The building I had been told to go to looked like a forgotten structure, tucked away in an alley where the city's grime had built up over the years. It wasn't much to look at, but I wasn't here for the architecture. I needed to see what was going on in East Gotham, and I had to do it from a vantage point where I could remain unnoticed.
I approached the building and found a back entrance. The door was locked, but that wasn't an issue for me. Scaling the side of the building, I found a sturdy pipe running up from the ground to the roof. It wasn't an easy climb, but I had no choice.
With a grunt, I gripped the pipe tightly and began my ascent. The rain made the surface slippery, but I pushed through, using every ounce of strength to pull myself up. My hands and feet ached as I climbed higher, but I finally reached the top, my heart pounding in my chest.
{Skill Gained: Climbing}
+1 to Dexterity and Strength for the action
+2 to Wisdom for your forethought
I wiped the rain from my brow and tapped away the notification that appeared on my screen. Now that I was on the roof, I made my way to the driest patch I could find, settling down in a corner where the rain couldn't reach me. From here, I could see the entire street below and part of the surrounding area.
I pulled out the binoculars and began scanning the scene. The city was alive with movement—shadows darted between alleyways, and figures were lurking in the dark corners. This part of Gotham was always dangerous, but tonight it felt worse. There was an air of tension as if something was about to happen.
{For your constant state of searching, you have gained the skills of Longsight and Observe}
As I focused my attention on the far-off corners of the city, I realized I had gained more than just physical skills. My mind was sharpening, becoming more focused as I studied the area, looking for any signs of trouble. The ability to notice the small details, to pick out patterns and shifts in movement, was something I hadn't had before.
I sat there, watching, waiting. The rain continued to pour, but I didn't mind. This was the life now. Silence. Observation. Patience. In Gotham, survival didn't come from rushing in—it came from understanding the chaos around you and knowing when to act.
Deciding to check the skills I had gained before anything else could happen, I spoke aloud, "Skill list." A translucent screen appeared before me, dotted with small icons representing the skills I had acquired. Curious, I tapped on one of the icons, and a description popped up.
Observe (Active)
"Through continuous observation, a skill to observe objects, situations, and persons was generated, allowing the user to quickly gather information. The higher the skill, the greater the data obtained."
Longsight (Passive)
"Through your continuous search, you gained the skill to see far. It increases sight by 2% at Level 1."
Climb (Passive)
"Because of your action of climbing a pole, you gained the skill to climb and scale things. You might become Spider-Man one day if you keep it up. Increases climbing speed and balance by 2%."
I couldn't help but smirk. "Nice," I muttered. "After I'm done here, I'll try to level these up more. Spider-Man, huh? I'll take it."
Closing the skill screen, I adjusted my binoculars and focused back on the street below. The rain continued to pour, and the dim lights of Gotham barely illuminated the scene. Movement caught my eye—a blur of activity in the distance. I brought the binoculars up to my eyes to get a better view.
Through the lens, I saw a man running for his life. He had brown hair streaked with white, a striking feature that stood out even in the gloom. His face was twisted with fear as he darted through the wet streets, slipping and stumbling as he went.
But it wasn't just him. Something was chasing him.
My heart skipped a beat as I adjusted the focus. The creature pursuing him was straight out of a nightmare. It had four muscular arms that moved with inhuman speed, and its large, whip-like tail lashed out behind it with each step. The thing was humanoid but grotesque, its bright pink skin glistening in the rain. What made it even more unsettling was its attire—it wore a well-fitted suit and dark sunglasses, giving it an almost comedic contrast to its monstrous form.
"What the hell…?" I muttered under my breath.
The man glanced over his shoulder, his expression one of sheer panic. He stumbled again, barely managing to keep his footing as the creature closed the distance. I could see the desperation in his movements, his hands fumbling as if searching for something in his jacket.
The creature, undeterred by the rain or the chase, moved with a chilling precision. Its tail snapped forward, narrowly missing the man but striking the ground with enough force to leave a small crater. This wasn't just any Gotham thug—it was something else entirely.
I lowered the binoculars for a moment, my mind racing. What was I even looking at? A metahuman? An alien? Something magical? In Gotham, all those options were on the table.
The man's pursuer was getting closer, and if I didn't do something soon, this wouldn't end well for him. But what could I do? I wasn't exactly equipped to fight monsters. Still, I couldn't just sit here and watch someone get killed.
Taking a deep breath, I whispered, "Time to see if this whole 'Gamer's Legacy' thing makes a difference."
Getting down from the building as fast as I could, I leaped halfway down, landing hard on the wet pavement.
{-10 HP}
{Climb: Lv. 1 → Lv. 2}
"Great, self-inflicted damage already," I muttered, shaking off the pain and pushing myself into a sprint toward the man being chased.
{Sprint acquired}
As the notification popped up in front of my face, I felt a sudden burst of speed course through my legs. For a brief moment, I was faster than I had ever been, but just as quickly, the effect faded. Concentrating on the skill, I managed to activate it again, my speed surging once more.
Reaching the creature in record time, I didn't even think twice. I shoulder-checked it with all my strength, knocking it to the ground. Without pausing, I grabbed the man with the streaked hair by the arm and pulled him forward as we both started running.
"WHAT IS THAT?!" I yelled over the sound of the rain and our pounding footsteps.
The man, clearly shaken, looked at me with wide eyes and shouted, "A DEMON!"
My brain barely had time to process that when a loud crash shook the ground in front of us, forcing us to stop. Debris from a nearby wall scattered in all directions, and from the dust emerged a figure. Its voice was low and guttural, dripping with malice.
"Jason Blood, jailer of Etrigan, I shall kill you to remove Etrigan from this world and Hell forever."
I turned to the man beside me, realizing with a sinking feeling that this "Jason Blood" was the one being targeted. "What's the deal with this guy?" I asked, trying to make sense of the situation.
Jason, catching his breath, grimaced and replied quickly. "That's Rectomm. He was the gang leader of the South Hell Crips, rivals of the North Hell Bloods... back when Etrigan was still running rampant."
I blinked, the absurdity of what I was hearing momentarily throwing me off. "Wait, Etrigan was in a gang?"
Jason gave me an exasperated look. "It's Hell! Everything's a gang down there!"
Rectomm, meanwhile, had taken a menacing step forward, his voice booming. "Etrigan slaughtered my gang, ate my brother, fed my mother to the Hell-gerbils of Acheron, and stole my girl!"
"Hell-gerbils?" I muttered, but the absurdity of the situation didn't reduce the danger. The demon's fury was palpable, and I had no idea how we were supposed to deal with it.
The demon's fiery glare never left us, its hellfire threatening to burn through everything in its path. I could hear the crackle of the flames and feel the heat even with the barrier Jason had summoned between us. It was intense, but Jason wasn't worried, and somehow, I found myself trusting him despite the bizarre situation.
"Who are you?" Jason asked, his voice still calm despite the chaos.
"Oh, I'm sorry," I answered, glancing at the demon. "My name is David."
The demon snarled, clearly annoyed. "Is this the time to introduce yourself when I am about to kill you guys?"
I shrugged, "Guess so."
With a swift movement, the demon pointed his hand toward us, and hellfire erupted, a torrent of flame aimed directly at us.
Jason's voice cut through the moment. "Forpyndan al," he chanted, and a barrier of mystic energy formed around us, stopping the flames in their tracks. The heat still radiated off the barrier, but we were safe for now.
"Are you baptized?" Jason suddenly asked, his eyes still locked on the demon.
"Uh, yeah. Why?" I replied, still trying to figure out what was going on.
Jason's eyes darkened slightly. "I have a demon inside me, so I can't use the power of the divine without harming or even killing myself. Listen to me carefully. I need you to gather every drop of faith you have and start praying. Tell me when you're ready, and I'll guide you."
"Are you serious?" I asked, incredulity rising in my voice.
"YES! NOW DO IT!" Jason snapped.
I hesitated for a moment, then sighed. "Fine." I locked my hands together, closed my eyes, and tried to focus. My thoughts scattered at first, but then I found a sense of calm and spoke a small prayer, hoping whatever Jason was asking would help.
"I'm ready," I said after a moment, opening my eyes to look at Jason.
He nodded. "Okay, repeat after me," he said solemnly, before speaking the words in a language I didn't recognize:
"אני בא למקלטך בשמחה כי אתה מחסה אותי מפני התקפת השטן. הגן עלי ה' מפני ערמומיות האויב, והושיעני מעלילותיו הרעות"
I struggled to pronounce the words but did my best, speaking them aloud as he instructed.
{-50 MP}
As I finished the prayer, I felt a strange sensation wash over me, a sense of power and connection to something much larger than myself. The air around us seemed to shift, a faint glow radiating from my body. Whatever the prayer had done, it was far from over.
Jason didn't waste a second. "Get ready. This is where the real fight begins."
The demon's anger only grew as he charged at the golden barrier, fists pounding against it with an intensity that shook the ground beneath us. His skin began to sizzle, burning from the contact with the divine protection Jason had shielded us with. I could see the painful marks form on the demon's skin, but he was regenerating, slowly and steadily.
"You are a child of Him!" the demon roared in fury, its voice laced with venom. The words sent a chill down my spine, but I didn't have time to process them. Jason's urgent voice cut through the chaos.
"We need to weaken him more! Say the words I'm going to tell you again."
I nodded quickly, the urgency in his voice urging me to act. I steeled myself, focused on the prayer, and repeated the words Jason had said:
"אל יכול לחיות לעולם, אשר רצה שבאמצעות המים, מעיין החיים ומקור הטיהור, כל נשמה תתנקה ותקבל את מתנת חיי הנצח."
{-30 MP}
As the final words left my lips, I watched in awe as the effect took hold. The air around us seemed to shimmer, and the water in the vicinity began to glow with a faint, holy light. The demon let out an agonized scream, his body writhing as the divine magic took hold. Every inch of his skin seemed to burn from the inside out, sizzling and crackling as if it were being purified. His form contorted in pain as the blessed water began to seep through every crack in the ground, transforming everything it touched into an instrument of purification.
Jason stood there, watching with a mix of pride and awe. "What was that?" I asked, still trying to understand the magnitude of what had just happened.
Jason's voice was filled with a hint of admiration as he explained, "You just turned every drop of water around here into blessed water. You've got a great amount of faith, huh?" He sounded impressed, more than I expected.
I blinked, still processing what I had just done. "I... I didn't know I could do that."
The demon, now severely burned and struggling to regenerate, snarled in agony. His movements were slower and more sluggish, and his body was visibly weakening. Jason turned to me with a grim look.
"We've got him on the ropes. But we need to finish this. I'll keep him distracted. Stay focused, David."
I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest. We were close. So close to ending this fight.
Jason Blood's explanation hit me like a ton of bricks. Demons are immortal. They return to Hell if killed in the mortal realm. So, no matter how much we hurt it, it would just come back. That didn't mean we were out of options, though. We had stalled long enough for Etrigan to get involved, and Jason was about to show me some real magic.
"Ready to see some magic, kid?" Jason asked, his tone shifting from tension to something almost playful.
I nodded, eager to see how he planned to handle the situation.
Suddenly, Jason's voice shifted. He began chanting in an ancient tongue, his words heavy with power:
"Change, change, o' form of man.
Release the might from fleshy mire!
Boil the blood in the heart of fire!
Gone, gone, the form of man!
Rise the Demon, Etrigan!"
Flames erupted around Jason as his body seemed to shift, his form distorting into something monstrous. A fiery sword materialized in his hand, and with a roar, Etrigan the Demon emerged, the heat from his fiery presence scorching the air around us.
Etrigan charged forward with blazing speed, his sword cleaving through the demon's neck. The demon's head was severed in a single, clean strike, and its body collapsed to the ground with a final, echoing scream.
I could hardly process what had just happened. The demon was dead—dead this time. Etrigan stood over the body, his fiery sword still crackling with energy.
He turned to me, his glowing, otherworldly eyes locking onto mine. For a moment, I thought he was staring right through me, a look of dazed recognition in his expression. "Good job, believer of the father of my king."
Before I could respond, Jason, now fully transformed back into his human form, stood up from the pillar of fire that had erupted around him. His face was calm, but there was a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
"Gone, gone O Etrigan! Rise again the form of man!" Jason chanted, and the fire subsided, leaving him standing there, once again human.
I could only stare, slack-jawed, at the magic I had just witnessed. It was like nothing I had ever seen.
"Okay, that was cool." I managed to say, still trying to wrap my head around everything.
Jason smiled, the corners of his lips twitching upward. "Thank you, David, for your help."
"Of course, anytime," I replied, still a little in awe. "I'm just happy I could help somebody in this godforsaken city. I swear this city is cursed."
Well, you're not wrong.
Am not!
You're not, he said with a smile that did not seem all that happy.
I watched as Jason Blood stepped back, the faintest shimmer of a portal opening up behind him. He gave me one last glance, his smile still lingering, though it wasn't the most comforting. There was a weight to it—something that felt both reassuring and unsettling all at once.
"Here, I'll give you my number. Call me if you ever find yourself with questions about what you just saw," he said, pulling a small slip of paper from his pocket and handing it to me.
"Okay, thank you."
"No, thank you," Jason replied, giving me a nod before stepping backward into the portal. The last thing I saw was him disappearing into the swirling vortex, leaving no trace behind.
I stood there for a moment, the aftermath of the battle still hanging in the air. The demon was gone, but the weight of what had just happened was still pressing down on me.
I had faced something supernatural. It wasn't just a myth anymore. Demons, magic—real. And now, I had a direct link to someone who knew it all too well. The city was indeed cursed, but I had a strange feeling that it was my curse to bear now.
I looked down at the slip of paper with Jason's number written on it. A small part of me felt like I was in over my head, but then again, when had I ever been in control of my own life? The way things had gone lately, this was just the beginning.
With a sigh, I pocketed the paper and walked back into the rain. Something told me the city had a lot more to reveal to me.
Calling for a taxi I was dropped home. I leaned back in the chair, staring at the notification that had just appeared before me. My mind was still racing, processing the events of the day, but now I had rewards to go through. A part of me couldn't believe this was happening. A quest log? Supernatural skills? This was something straight out of a story, yet here I was, in the thick of it.
I started reading through the details one by one, trying to take it all in.
Quest completed: Investigate the Disturbance
Objective: Investigate the disturbance at East Gotham, 3rd and Lexington.
Sub-objectives:
Survive the encounter with Etrigan the Demon.Assist in subduing Rectomm, the gang leader of the South Hell Crips, rivals of the North Hell Bloods, once led by Etrigan in his youth (optional).
Rewards:
Experience Points: 1500 EXP to complete the quest.
+500 EXP to assist in subduing Rectomm (optional).Skills:Arcane Awareness (Passive, Lv. 1): Grants the ability to sense traces of magic and supernatural phenomena within a 5-meter radius.Demon's Resilience (Passive, Lv. 1): Increases resistance to fear and intimidation effects, as well as minor resistance to demonic attacks and curses.Items:Mystic Fragment: A small shard imbued with raw magic. Can be used as a crafting material for magical enhancements or consumed to recover 50% of your mana.Permanent Attribute Bonus:+2 Wisdom for surviving a supernatural encounter and learning to adapt under pressure.
Optional Reward (if optional objectives are completed):
Basic Demonology (Passive, Lv. 1): Grants foundational knowledge of demonic weaknesses, enabling you to identify vulnerabilities and repel demonic entities through improvised rituals or crafted tools.
I blinked, a slight grin tugging at my lips. The Arcane Awareness skill was going to come in handy. Being able to sense magic and supernatural phenomena? That was a game-changer. The Demon's Resilience skill was also crucial—dealing with demons wasn't going to be a one-time thing, I could tell. And the permanent +2 Wisdom would help me make better decisions in the future.
But the Mystic Fragment caught my attention. A shard imbued with raw magic. It sounded like something I could use, either to enhance my abilities or to regain mana when I needed it most. The Basic Demonology skill would be useful too, but I hadn't completed the optional objectives. Still, it was something to aim for next time.
I tapped the screen to accept the rewards, feeling a rush of energy flood through me. It wasn't just from the EXP or the skills, but a deeper sense of being more connected to the world I'd just been thrust into.
I leaned back in the chair, glancing out the window at the city beyond. East Gotham, 3rd and Lexington… I couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the beginning. The supernatural world was now part of my reality. And I had a feeling I wasn't done learning about it.
As the notifications flooded in, I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. +2 for Agility—that was a nice boost. Sprint was now a skill I could use, making my movement faster, especially in combat situations. But then the real surprises hit.
Achievement Unlocked: Demon Hunter
Skill Gained: Banish (Active, Lv. 1)
This skill was a game-changer. The ability to temporarily banish a demon or supernatural creature back to its original plane of existence could be incredibly useful, especially considering how dangerous these creatures were. The 50% base success rate was low, but with more mana, I could increase that chance. And the 10 MP cost wasn't too bad, though the cooldown of 30 minutes meant I'd have to time it carefully in battle.
Achievement Unlocked: Borrow Power from the Name of God
Skill Gained: Divine Borrowing (Christian God) (Active, Lv. 1)
This was something straight out of a divine playbook. I could temporarily borrow divine energy by invoking the name of God. Protection, Healing, Blessing, and Purification were all incredibly useful abilities. The mana cost of 50 MP was steep, but with the right circumstances, it could turn the tide of a battle. The 1-hour cooldown meant I couldn't rely on it constantly, but the potential of temporary invulnerability or healing was something worth considering in any future encounters.Achievement: UnbreakableRequirement: Reach 20 in Vitality (VIT).Description: You have forged a body that stands resilient against the toughest of trials. Your physical prowess and fortitude have reached new heights, allowing you to endure hardships without faltering.Reward: Durable (Passive)Effect: Increases HP by 10% and decreases damage taken by 5%.
The sudden level-ups made me pause. Six levels? All at once? That was some serious progress. I quickly checked my stats and distributed the points accordingly.
Allocated Points:
STR: +5 (More strength for combat situations.)VIT: +10 (Increased vitality to survive tougher encounters.)DEX: +5 (Better dexterity for agility and reflexes.)INT: +5 (More intelligence for better spellcasting and decision-making.)WIS: +5 (Improved wisdom, enhancing my overall understanding and effectiveness in critical moments.)
That was a solid upgrade across the board. I could already feel the difference in my body—more agile, stronger, and with better stamina. The added points in INT and WIS were going to make a big impact on my spellcasting and decision-making.
I sat back in my chair, thinking about the journey ahead. Six levels in one go was impressive, but I knew it wouldn't be the last challenge I'd face. The supernatural world had its claws deep in Gotham, and it was only a matter of time before something bigger came along.
For now, though, I could rest and prepare.