15 15

"Puh."

Blood gushed out of Vice's mouth as a spider leg broke through the barrier cast by Anne and his shield. The leg was pierced into Vice's stomach, who was slowly lifted up into the air until he reached the Jorogumos face.

"Isabelle?" Vice mumbled as he was able to get a closer look at the face of his attacker. The blue eyes of Isabelle stared back at him menacingly, as if she didn't recognize him. Saliva dripped from her mouth as she opened it wide enough to be able to fit Vice into it whole.

Vice struggled with all of his strength to push himself off the leg, however his strength was sapped away by the second, until he simply stared at the gaping mouth that was about to end him.

'So I'll die with such a rotten stench as my last memory? What did I ever do to deserve such treatment,' Vice thought. Soon after he finished thinking this, his vision blurred until everything was dark. No sounds. No feeling in his body. Nothing.

A calm feeling washed over Vice, and he felt himself swimming underwater. His mind was eased from all of the painful memories and bad thoughts he held within himself. He didn't think anymore, he just went with the water and waves, moving his hands instinctively.

"Hate to break your beauty sleep, but can you wake up already?" Favian shouted. For the first time Vice was able to see what his teacher looked like. The first striking feature he noticed was that the man was tall. Very tall, almost twice his own size. His eyes glinted like purple gems, and his silky hair was similarly purple and fell all the way to his lower back.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Vice asked as he looked around. All that his eye could see was the dark blue ocean he was submerged in, however he was able to breath like normal despite being underwater.

"We're deep inside your unconscious mind right now. You should come visit me here more often, it's a pretty interesting place," Favian said as he gave a warm smile, displaying all of his pearly teeth.

"I can… Come here? How?" Vice asked as he rubbed his horns in confusion.

"Actually let me rephrase, I can let you in here whenever I want to. Time works a little bit differently here as well, but we'll get to that in the future Vice. Now give me your hand, we need to get you out of here already, you've been sleeping for far too long," Favian replied.

"Sleeping? Wasn't I just fighting the widowmaker?" Vice asked. Before his question could be answered Favian grabbed his hand and pressed down hard onto it. Vice shot up out of the water, and was propelled high up into the sky.

"WOAH," Vice screamed as his body lurched forward, waking him up from his slumber.

"Steady there, you're fine Vice," Paul said. He rested his hand on Vice's shoulder briefly, before saying, "The danger is gone."

"What happened?" Vice questioned in a low voice as he tried to move his body up. The words came out with difficulty and he immediately clutched his stomach as there was a stinging sensation there.

"Just stay down and rest a bit Vice. You're so lucky that you called me when you did. If you'd been even a couple of seconds later then we wouldn't have been able to save you from that… monstrosity. Anyways, long story short we killed it," Paul said as he tapped his shirt. Vice noticed that Paul wasn't wearing his formal police uniform right now. Only a t-shirt and boxers.

"Where's Anne? Is she okay?"

"She's fine, you should be worrying more about yourself since you took all of the damage my friend. Anyways, just stay here for a couple of hours until you're healed up completely. We could definitely use your help, the worst of it isn't over yet…" Paul said before walking out of the room.

The room Vice was in was relatively small, however he knew that he was currently in one of Restok's many hospitals due to the high concentration of light arcana particles in the air around him. These particles were slowly but steadily healing him, and he could feel the vitality come back to him.

As he looked around the room, Vice noticed a sweet lavender smell from a teacup on a table only arms reach away from him. 'Thank the gods that you aren't further away,' he thought to himself. As he took a sip from the beverage, he moaned in pleasure. The tea was exquisite, and went down smoothly with its fruity flavor. The liquid was imbued with healing properties, which Vice was instantly able to notice and the stinging sensation from his stomach was lessening in intensity.

…

Vice spent the next few days recuperating by his hospital bed. He felt like he was ready to leave after the first day, however both Anne and Paul were adamant that he rests for longer. As such, he didn't fight against the only two people he could truly call his friends.

"Mom it's fine, I'll be back home in a couple of days. Just stay safe okay and keep taking your pills," Vice said into his golden card. He could see the worry in his mother's eyes as he cut the call.

"Phew, I think I'm more than ready to leave now," he said as he gave a long sigh. Vice stretched out his arms and legs before getting off the bed for the first time in what felt like years.

'Ahh that feels good. I'm finally more than just a sitting duck,' he thought to himself.

'Duck… What a fitting name for my beyond stupid student. Not only did you almost die because of your blunder, but you haven't even bother to use the system hidden inside that bracelet of yours. Why did I ever do to deserve this student. This is the greatest punishment of my life,' Favian said.

'Oh right, I completely forgot about that,' Vice thought and rubbed his head sheepishly. 'Virtue, what's my status?'

[DING! The host has completed the quest 'Widow Maker'. An experience reward of 1000 has been given to Vice, along with a random reward. Please choose from letter's A, B, or C for this random reward] Virtue buzzed in his mind.

'Uhh, let's go with option B.'

[DING! The host has received the reward 'Second Sense'. This will allow the host's intuition to reach above and beyond the limits capable for a human… For a demi-human such as yourself]

'Demi-human? I'm not surprised I mean look at these horns,' Vice thought as he rubbed them slowly. 'Virtue can you give me all of the possible ways to spend these experience points?' he asked.

[DING! The host can increase their stats, however the amount of experience required to increase a stat increases with each point put into it. The host can also choose from a variety of quality of life improvements]

Vice stared blankly out of the window of his hospital room as he conversed with Virtue. 'What are these quality of life improvements you speak of?' he asked.

[DING! With 1000 experience the host can buy one quality of life change. Due to the low experience amount the host has, you will only be able to gain a random quality of life change, such as a permanent virtual minimap that will display any and all hostiles in a radius around the host]

'Damn, just that alone is tempting me to gamble here. What should I do?' he asked himself. Vice deliberated for a couple of minutes as he paced about the hospital, until finally reaching an answer. 'Increase all of my stats by one point.'

[DING! All stats have been increased by one point. Health points and Mana points have increased as a result of this. Vice's stats currently read as follows:

Health points: 1500, Mana points: 7000, Intelligence: 4, Strength: 3.5, Agility: 4, Constitution: 6.

The host has no experience left as each Strength, Agility and Constitution stat increases required 100 experience whilst a 200 experience cost came for the previously upgraded intelligence stat, and a 250 experience cost came for increasing the host's Health Points and Mana Points]

Vice's body shook viciously as a large amount of arcana was released from the bracelet on his wrist. The energy enveloped him completely, and an uncomfortable pricking sensation went throughout his body, from his toes to his brain. He could feel his muscles being forced to expand and grow whilst the same thing happened to his brain. Every fiber of his being wanted to clutch onto his head to ease the throbbing pain, however his limbs weren't responsive as they themselves were also being put through an excruciating time.

"AHH," he screamed off the top of his lungs. After a couple of seconds the pain finally subsided for Vice.