Chapter 686 - Pride and Envy

Eisen found himself in a large hall filled with quite a lot of people talking amongst each other. It seemed like some sort of social-gathering of sorts. But rather quickly, the attention of those in the room was turned toward the old man that just entered. And the moment that they got a good look at him, their surprised expressions turned into smug grins.

And it made sense to an extent, really. These people were all wearing extravagant dresses or suits, and things that they were showing off simply because of their pure pride in what they had with them. And in return, they looked at Eisen, who was wearing nothing but loose wool pants and a leather apron with arrogant disgust. 

Eisen looked down at himself and realized that this maybe wasn't the best outfit to wear here, and right next to him, Satel was laughing with a similar expression on their face as all the people in here, these devil-worshippers, wore, "I don't think that's a particularly 'Proud' outfit, now is it?" They asked, "Rather, it's kind of sad, right?"

The old man looked back at Satel with his brows raised, and Eisen just crossed his arms in response, "What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Doing this is showing my Pride." He pointed out, and Satel slightly frowned.

"Oi, I know you didn't have much time to prepare, but that's not a reason to lie like that." Satel replied, but the old man next to him shook his head, "I'm not lying. I'm proud of the man that I currently am. This is my true self, and if I were to hide this somehow, that would be anything but 'proud'." Eisen pointed out as he stepped through the room confidently, while everyone was staring at him.

"Rather, I'm a bit surprised to see everyone here wearing things like this. It's obvious that none of you ever dressed up like this for fun. This isn't your 'True self', is it? Honestly, it's kind of sad to see all these supposedly proud people hide themselves behind facades that they think they should wear just to fit in." Eisen said loudly, so that his voice could be heard throughout the whole room. He approached a table that was relatively central and unoccupied in this room, and sat down on one of the chairs, lifting his legs and throwing his feet onto the table as he put on his own practiced, arrogant grin.

"Personally, I don't feel the need for any of that child-play. So go on, kids, keep on playing around like that and leave this peak of all living beings alone for a little while." Eisen said with a broad smile that showed his pearly white teeth, and the room became rather silent. It seemed like even Satel was surprised at how the old man just carried himself through this room in that manner.

But for Eisen, this sort of thing was easy. Sure, he did have have some insecurities, but they were ones that only developed after Eisen first made his way into this world. Until recently, he was incredibly proud of himself and his accomplishments, and didn't waste any time with things like worrying about what kind of person he had become. He did make quite some mistakes in his lifetime, but at the end of the day, he had resolved all those issues throughout the years.

Eisen didn't have any regrets in life anymore. He was practically ready to die and just spend a few more years doing work in the field of craftsmanship within the game... But then, all of this happened. 

Either way, since Eisen had already once experienced a 'proud' mindset, he was able to take that memory and amplify it a little to make it arrogant instead of just proud. The old man looked at the people in front of him and kept sitting there with a generally arrogant demeanor. And from then on, for the next few hours, Eisen started to speak to the others that were in here, constantly acting like he was better than them and as if there wasn't anything wrong with himself.

Of course, general 'Pride' wasn't like this. You could be proud of yourself or your accomplishments without being arrogant, but the whole point of the Seven Deadly Sins was that they were generally normal emotions that were completely pushed to the maximum. And with Pride, that usually showed itself in extreme arrogance.

At some point, though, Eisen just got out his Demonic Blade for two reasons. One, because it was a good item to show off his ability with, while he also did something completely different the whole time. What a lot of people here were doing was show off the items that they brought, treasures that they had in their lifetime probably, and they were constantly caring for them sometimes.

And so, the old man did the same thing, slowly sharpening and polishing the blade for a while, to for one show it off even more, and to also try to pull some of the ambient unholy energies into the blade with his own mana that he was infusing into the blade currently.

But soon, Eisen turned his head and saw that the quest he had received for this realm had been updated and that he accomplished one out of seven parts of the task, meaning that he properly indulged in Pride. With a relieve expression, the old man pressed his feet onto the edge of the table and pushed it out of the way so that he could properly stand up in an 'impressive' manner.

He swung his sword over his shoulder and walked outside without paying any heed to those around him. And then, he pushed open the large golden gate that was the entrance to this hall, and then left this place. Once the gate slammed shut behind him, Eisen let out a deep sigh, "How bothersome..." He groaned loudly, although Satel looked at him a bit surprised.

"Really? I thought you did a pretty good job in there, honestly. Well, anyway, where're we heading to next?" The Guide-Devil asked, and Eisen turned toward them, "I thought about it already. I think the one I want to get over with for now is Envy, and then afterward Greed. Then I'll go for the order you suggested before. Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, and then L.u.s.t."

"Sounds good to me. And yeah, Envy's a nasty one. The guys there are even worse than the ones in the Wrath area sometimes." Satel pointed out with a wry smile on their face, "At least the challenge there is gonna be more straightforward."

After Satel's brief explanation that honestly didn't give Eisen that much to work with, the old man and the Devil approached the golden gate in question. Eisen pushed the door open and walked in there, before a notification appeared in front of him. He also received one in the Pride Hall, but he mostly ignored it because it was rather straightforward anyway. He thought it would be the same here, but apparently, that was not the case, so he read it more thoroughly.

[New Sub-Quest – Challenge of Envy]

[Description] In your quest to conquer the Limbo requires you to take on the Challenge of Envy, which means you have to deeply indulge in this sin.

More specifically, you have to indulge in the feeling of following your envy by taking that which you want the most from someone else, or by punishing the one that has which you want.

[Conditions] Indulge in your Envy

[Reward] Advancement in the Quest

[Penalty] None

Eisen waved the notification to the side and looked at Satel. He immediately understood why they meant it was bothersome, and after he looked into the room, he understood why he thought that these people could be more savage than even those in the hall of Wrath.

After all, these people were currently ripping each other apart just to get what the other person had, or to make sure that that person didn't have it anymore. The old man took a deep breath and let his mind go for a moment, and then activated his Demonic Transformation to an extent. Not fully, just to the point where it affected his mind just so slightly. This space itself was already amplifying certain emotions in Eisen, so it was easy for him to figure out what it is that he wanted the most.

He prepared himself, and then with a loud voice, he asked his question, "Who here can remember everything about their past?"

The people in the room turned toward Eisen and tried to react to his question. Some of them immediately grew envious of him, though, as he should have expected. After all, Eisen was still alive, and that was most likely something that all of these people wanted.

But slowly, someone at the back of the group raised their hand, "Well, I have a perfect memory, you know? I remember every single moment of my life. What, you have Alzheimer, old man? Are you envious of those that can remember things?" He asked with a laugh. It seemed like these people not only hated it when others had something they wanted, but also loved it when they had something that others wanted. Well, for now, that was something that Eisen had to try to understand.

"That's right. That's exactly what I'm envious of." Eisen admitted, as the first few people ran toward him to kill him, so that he didn't have any life to be envious of anymore. Well, there were others that didn't seem to care that much for now, but Eisen figured he should indulge in these emotions just as much as all the others here, and make others jealous of that which he had.

"But at the same time, I have something that surely all of you want. My name is Eisen, and I'm the first person that peaked. I'm an immortal being." The old man exclaimed, and suddenly, there was nobody that didn't want what Eisen had anymore.

They knew that they wouldn't be able to take it from him, no matter what they did, which tore them apart even more. And Eisen just stood there and took these emotions in for now. 

But... He kind of had to admit something to himself. Eisen already felt it during the 'Challenge of Pride', but it actually felt rather good to act like this every once in a while. So he couldn't help but feel happy about this as well... It might have helped him with some of his complexes as well, since others wanted that which troubled him the most at the moment.

And then, with a bright smile on his face, Eisen stepped forward toward the man with perfect memory to slice him in two with his sword.