BLACK SOULS RELEASES ON STEAM WITHIN 24 HOURS RAHHHHHH!!!
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'Leaf is a fairy, so she might have trouble making connections like humans and understanding them. Since the world is about to end, her suggestion might have been from her misunderstanding of the degeneracy of the other people she might have met, who were not good people.', Grimm reasoned to herself, trying to make sense of Leaf's disturbing words.
As she returned along the forest path she had taken before and approached the split road, Grimm spotted a figure on the ground ahead.
-Gasp!
A man lay bleeding, his body trembling with each labored breath. She rushed to his side, kneeling beside him. "Hold on, I'll try to help you," she said, reaching for her remaining herbs.
"Damn them," the man gasped, his eyes unfocused. "I couldn't escape... Impossible..."
"[Black Trial]..."
Before Grimm could give him the herbs, the man's body suddenly began to crumble, dissolving into fine powder that scattered on the gentle forest breeze.
"...", Grimm watched in stunned silence as the last traces of him vanished. 'What was that...? Black Trial? Is that a name of an organization or an individual?' Her thoughts got jumbled up. Because of the huge amount of information that she got just the last few minutes; she felt muddled in head.
Ignoring all her thoughts, she closed her eyes and offered a silent prayer for his salvation, though she wasn't sure if any gods remained to hear it. Maybe he might have been a good guy, maybe not, but she decided to pray for his salvation.
With the prayer done, she looked around the place to see anything important and found a statue. The statue was that of a woman holding both her hands in front of her chest, looking like she was praying.
'Why does she look similar...?'
As Grimm walked over to the statue, she noticed a red marking beside a small statue. Approaching it, she read the inscription: "This is the statue of a God, Mary Sue. Praying for good luck will give you luck to avoid strong beasts."
Grimm knelt before the statue, hands clasped. She didn't know which god this represented or if they would hear an undead, but she offered her prayer nonetheless before heading back to find Prayer Master.
The black rabbit was waiting for her near the clearing where she had first awakened. His ears perked up at her approach.
"How did meeting with Leaf go?" Prayer Master asked, his nose twitching.
Grimm remained silent, her thoughts still disturbed by the fairy's "joke."
Prayer Master shook his head. "Let's move to another topic. Calth told me to send you over to him before we start trading. He wishes to provide you with some gifts. You can decide what you wish to purchase and sell after that."
Grimm nodded back at Prayer Master and approached Calth. He was sitting at the same place where they had left after the last conversation, on the same wooden bench.
As he watched her walk closer, he smirked and asked back, "How was the conversation? She is very carefree, so I hope she didn't say anything inappropriate."
Without waiting for her reply, he smiled, reaching into his robes and pulling out a small wooden box with the dimensionality of 6 inches X 4 inches X 2 inches. "Please accept this. This is a bag that has been blessed by the Gods. It has infinite space! You can put almost everything in the box, given that it's non-living."
"Whenever a thing is pushed close to it, the item will shrink enough to fit into the box no matter what, so you don't need to worry about the box."
"This is too much," Grimm said, astonished by such a valuable gift. Her mind went blank. 'Here I was thinking about how I might carry all the stuff that I might trade with Prayer Master.'
Grimm glanced back thankfully at Calth. 'He had helped me so much already... Maybe later I should help him back or do something for him...'
"It's fine," Calth replied, pushing the box toward her. "Since the beasts appeared, I decided to stop doing dangerous things. I don't need it now. Better to give it to someone who needs it the most."
"Thank you," Grimm said softly, accepting the box.
"There are two more gifts, my dear~" Calth added with a playful tone.
Grimm felt her heart miss a beat at his "my dear." Something about the man's manner gave off a 'bad guy' vibe, and this feeling gave her a different kind of 'excitement'. She calmed herself in the next instant and nodded back.
'Damn it. Is this guy flirting or just saying it normally? His vibe just makes it hard to know what he is really trying with it... Or maybe it's just my mind.', Inside her mind she cursed back. Grimm felt that she was overthinking too much. Just those words meant nothing.
Calth, who ignored her expression that could have looked comical if not for her metal helmet covering her face, took out a small necklace with a silver string and a blue stone pendant. "This is a summoning stone. You can place a drop of blood from your companions to summon them in battle. It has another function that you will understand soon."
Grimm tilted her head in confusion but nodded while taking it.
"Well, there is a lake at the south of the Holy Forest where you can take a bath. You can wear it over there," Calth joked as he pointed at the south of the Holy Forest. It was just across the other side of the broken building they were sitting in front of.
Grimm narrowed her eyes at him, making Calth put his hands up in a gesture of surrender as he chuckled back. He clearly hasn't moved on from the embarrassment that the fairy caused her.
"For the final gift," he said more seriously, "You might need to open your scarf and helmet."
Grimm hesitated; she didn't know what her face looked like, but from her almost pale white skin that was also greyish in some places, she knew that it was anything but beautiful.
Calth noticed her reluctance. "Don't worry. This world is already in ruins. Beautiful things can be deadly, while ugly things can be golden. Besides, this final gift will be the most important one."
After a moment's hesitation, Grimm lifted her helmet. Her dark grey hair flowed down as she stared at Calth intensely, trying to detect any reaction. Her eyes stayed calm. When Jean saw her, he frowned back at her, not because she was a girl, that Grimm knew.
Grimm knew from that expression that her face was anything but good-looking. She expected scorn when Calth looked at her face, but to her astonishment, Calth just smiled kindly at her.
"Well, I will have to place my hand over your eyes to cast a blessing. It might feel uncomfortable, but it can be useful."
Grimm nodded and closed her eyes as she saw his hands approaching her face. For the first time, she felt vulnerable and tense.
This was the first time she had put her trust completely into someone.
-Thump -Thump -Thump
The soft touch made her heart feel flushed, but her face remained impassive. A warm current flowed into her eyes, causing an ache that she endured without moving. After a few seconds of discomfort, she felt the hand withdraw.
When Grimm opened her eyes, she was astonished. Her vision had become clear. Previously, it seemed as if there was a grey filter over everything, but now the world felt more colorful.
"Because your body was at its weakest point," Calth explained. "The more you level up, the more your body will return to its original state. Your damaged skin will restore itself, and the greyness or decays on them will recover to the original, normal, healthy skin."
Grimm nodded; maybe her face was not as ugly as she had imagined it to be. Even though she had no memories of who she was before everything went downhill, she was still self-conscious.
When the fairy called her ugly and stinky, she felt at a loss. No one wishes to be called that and be treated with scorn.
As she lowered her helmet back into place, Calth added, "Your face will be beautiful after your 'level' reaches a big number. Don't worry."
Grimm nodded and thanked him silently. As she turned to leave, she heard him call after her, "Those eyes will now be able to see information about things and even help you find treasure. You will understand its use soon. Just a hint: Whenever you see a shiny glint anywhere, it means there might be a treasure. Take it as training and gifts for what's to come."
Grimm waved her hand without looking back and walked toward the south.
On her way, she noticed glowing white auras and understood that those were treasures. Ignoring them for now, she hurried to the river. Her body was indeed smelling bad, just like the fairy had said, so she decided to take a bath and wear the blue ornament before going back to the Prayer Master.
-Swosh~
At the water's edge, she looked around to ensure she was alone before removing her armor. But eyes went wide as she felt shocked to see half of her body rotting.
Walking into the river half-heartedly, she finally saw her reflection in the water...
Half of her face was almost decomposing, with grey hair and dull, lifeless grey eyes.
Grimm stood there, basking in the sunshine, and continued staring at her face, unknown thoughts racing through her mind. 'Just who am I...? Why am I here...? Why do I look like this...?'