Chapter 698 - Endurance of Greed

Eisen woke back up within this relatively hidden part of the City Dis, the most central part of the Circle of Wrath of the Underworld. The old man pushed himself off the ground and stepped toward where he figured Satel would be waiting for him so that they could keep on going.

"Took you long enough. Come on, let's finally head over to Greed now." The Guide-Devil said as they scratched the back of their head. Eisen slowly nodded his head as he looked at their pale face. Somehow, Eisen wasn't able to concentrate on anything in particular after what he had just done in the other world.

Having that sort of physical strength was truthfully quite overwhelming, in more ways than just one. Mentally and physically, actually. While Eisen's muscles seemed to have changed and transformed to be able to exert that sort of force all of a sudden, it seemed like the old man should have taken a little bit of time to try his new musculature out, since he immediately felt incredible pain that was akin to sore muscles, just much, much more intense.

At the very least it was a good excuse for him to not show his strength off any further to the others. When he started out, Eisen was rather excited, probably due to the adrenaline that came with the immense pain he felt within the capsule. But after his adrenaline-powered mind slowly settled down, he was overcome with the thought of what kind of being he now was. He wasn't human anymore, that was for sure.

Eisen cancelled all of his doctor appointments that would happen from then on out. It wasn't like he really needed them anymore, and he didn't want to suddenly reveal his new body to anyone that didn't particularly need to know about it. And then after that, Jyuuk picked up a few sterile needles from an apothecary and had a colleague ship some quick test-equipment to Eisen's house so that he could test everyone's blood and see at what kind of level their bodies were changing over time.

On top of that, it seemed like Jyuuk and Xenia were trying to develop similar test-equipment using enchantments and magic-inscriptions here in this world, so that Jyuuk had something to compare the information he got from the other world to.

If their actual genetic race was actually changing, that would have an impact in different ways on anyone but Evalia, although no one could say that the 'Human' in this world was the same sort of 'Human' as in the other world, at least genetically.

Such things were going through Eisen's mind as he tried to figure out what all of these things really meant for the future. It was practically impossible for Eisen to really focus on anything in particular at this point. So much so that Satel became rather annoyed, "Oi, f.u.c.kface, listen to me." They said and snapped their fingers in front of Eisen's face to get his attention, "Let's. Go."

"Ah... Yeah, sure." Eisen replied, and Satel only rolled their eyes annoyedly, "I don't know what the f.u.c.k happened to ya while you were sleeping, but stop being such a bitch about it."

Eisen didn't really react to Satel's words as the two of them started making their way toward the Gate that Wrath had prepared for the old man so that he could head to the circle of Greed. Surprisingly, Wrath was standing right next to the Gate, waiting for the old man and the Guide-Devil. The old man looked at the God with a light smile, just trying not to be rude, "Thanks for having us for the night." Eisen said, and Wrath slowly crossed his arms with a slight laugh.

"Was it a night? Haven't been outside of this realm for a few centuries. Time is kinda weird here, isn't it?" Wrath pointed out.

"You should change that sometime. The gate to the underworld isn't that far away from Prototype, after all."

"...Prototype... That was that Capital City of yours, wasn't it?" Wrath asked curiously, and Eisen quickly nodded his head, "Yes, exactly. I don't think it currently holds up to its former glory, but its getting there again. The whole place was destroyed a while ago, by some sort of Warforged. Well, I'm pretty sure I know who it really was, actually." The old man said with a slight glare directed at the ground.

The Warforged were a bit of a special existence, they were an artificially created race. The first Warforged were literally created by hand by Eisen, and it wasn't all that far-fetched to think that there were a few bodies leftover at some point that didn't have a proper soul placed into them. If Samuel somehow got his hands on one of those bodies, which Eisen assumed to be quite powerful as they were 'Items' created by the former Eisen himself, it was reasonable to assume that such a Warforged-body could be used by Samuel to dive into this world if he didn't choose to randomly take over the bodies of other people in this world, as Eisen realized he was capable of the last time he was in Melroe.

"Eisen... I don't know what's going on in this world anymore, and I don't care too much about what is happening with all those regular mortal f.u.c.kers either. But I know that you do. If anything happens there that you need my help with... I'm gonna be there for you." The God said with a serious expression. Eisen looked back at him and slowly nodded his head, "Thank you. That means a lot, Wrath."

"Of course. We've known each other for a couple millenia, no way am I gonna leave you be if you need my help."

"I appreciate it. I'll try to come here if it ever comes up." Eisen smiled as he properly said goodbye to the God in front of him before stepping through the gate that had been prepared right there.

The old man looked around him once he was here, and to his surprsie, what he was looking at was nothing but an infinitely flat realm with muddy dirt underneath his feet where it was hard to find proper grip even by just standing there.

Right next to himself, Eisen saw a round boulder that was roughly large enough to reach up to his chest. He already had a rough idea of what he had to do, considering what Dante's Inferno said about this realm. And then, the notification appeared in front of him.

[New Quest – Endurance of Greed]

[Description] In order to be acknowledged by the Gods of Hell, you have started to make your way through the nine circles of hell. On your first stop, you reached Limbo. On your second, you reached L.u.s.t. On your third, you reached Gluttony. On your fourth, you reached Wrath. On your fifth, you reached Greed - Your task in this realm is to push the boulder beside you for 10 Kilometers, proportionate to your current size, without stopping for a break. If you stop for longer than 10 seconds without actively trying to push the boulder forward, you will have to restart.

[Conditions] Push the boulder 10 Kilometers forward (0/10)

[Rewards] Greed's Acknowledgement

[Penalty] None

Eisen let out a deep sigh as he looked at the boulder. He increased his size a bit and watched as the boulder grew with him. And it seemed like the distance he would have to push this had increased as well to make up for the size-difference, so the old man returned to his normal height.

"I guess this is going to take a while." Eisen muttered quietly as he stood in front of the boulder, already nearly slipping as he walked because of the muddy ground. But when he tried to push against the boulder, all that happened was that he pushed himself away because of the immensely slippery ground.

"Really now..?" The old man groaned loudly. He opened his item storage and quickly got out a few of the boots that he made with this sort of purpose. The old man jumped onto the boulder and then quickly cleaned his feet and dried them before putting on the boots in question. He jumped back onto the ground, which immediately dried up, giving him some proper grip.

"Isn't this kinda cheating?"

"It's not my fault that this wasn't included in the rules." Eisen pointed out, and Satel really couldn't fight against that. Either way, with these boots on his feet, Eisen was able to push the boulder forward properly, and actually surprisingly easily due to the slippery ground underneath the boulder. At the very least, it was a lot easier than it would be on regular dirt, because it wouldn't part ways as easily.

Of course, it was still incredibly hard, and Eisen was only able to proceed at about half the speed of normal walking, meaning that this would really take quite a while. At least, that was the case until the ground started to change and suddenly sloped upward. Eisen really had to push this boulder up on this uneven ground. Honestly, this task seemed to be impossible without the boots that Eisen made for this sort of thing. And even then it was incredibly hard because the boulder kept slipping down the slope.

Luckily, though, Eisen was able to keep proper grip on the boulder by turning his hands into rock to increase the grip he had on the boulder in front of him.

More and more, the old man pushed the boulder up a slope that became steeper and steeper as Eisen kept going. At some point, it was practically like he was just supposed to carry the boulder, or at least there was little to no difference to it. With the help of his element, Eisen was able to create something like steps to help him out with this, since due to the steep nature of this literal slippery slope, Eisen would be slipping despite the fact that he dried up the ground he was walking on.

"I think... Greed is trying to make me fail..." Eisen grumbled to himself quietly, while Satel just walked next to him as if nothing was wrong, "Eh, probably." 

To Satel, it seemed like this slope was actually even, as if the direction of only Eisen's gravity gradually changed.

And soon, it became rather hard for Eisen to hold on even with the steps that he was creating underneath him, so he pulled out his sword and pushed it into the ground for some extra grip. He was strong enough to hold the boulder up with just one arm, since most of the lifting happened in his legs anyway.

Just like that, Eisen continued to push this boulder for another three kilometers.