Hell was… hauntingly beautiful? It was fucked up, in all honesty. There was a ceiling, so there was no sun anywhere in sight, which completely shattered her earlier assumption about where the hell the light was coming from. The sky wasn’t a sky at all. It was made of stone, of endless sheets of brown and grey rock.

  It looked razor-sharp in places, jagged like a row of reversed mountains pointed straight down, some of them hanging low enough that, at first glance, she almost believed she could reach up and touch if she found a good enough trampoline.

  But even the closest ones were impossibly far, just close enough to tease her. And throughout the hollow sections of that ceiling, she could see strange tubes and labyrinth-like formations carved into the stone, shallow tunnels and protruding structures that looked less like geology and more like the ruins of some ancient dungeon threading through the upper layers of Hell itself.

  And from so many of those jutting stone masses… lava fell.

  Not dripped, not even oozed, but fell, in long, continuous rivers that spilled downward like molten curtains. Lava waterfalls, dozens of them, maybe hundreds, cutting bright red streaks across the cavernous sky. They were the only source of light here, painting everything in a hellish glow.

  The floor didn’t improve the view either. It stretched in every direction, a brutal expanse of dark stone, ashen textures, and cracked plates of earth with mountains far, far away from the church. It really did look like an apocalyptic hellscape, complete with lakes of lava randomly scattered around. The ground itself was black and grey, scorched and dead, with no plant life anywhere to be seen.

  Well… that was a lie. There were some trees here and there. But they weren’t alive. They weren’t even wood. They were made entirely of coal. It was made of black trunks, black branches, black everything!

  Coming from the direction of the church, Enochia trudged across the wasteland, hands held stiffly out at her sides in a T-pose as she walked step by step, muttering “step” every time her foot hit the ground. It wasn’t for comedy nor was it for sanity either. It was just something to do. So she continued forward, step after step, posture dumb as hell, voice flat, boots crunching softly on the stone as she whispered the same useless word under her breath.

  “Step.”

  “Step.”

  “Step.”

  Enochia slowed, one foot hovering mid-air as her brain finally caught up to the stupidity of what she was doing. “…Wait. What step am I on?”

  She stared down at her boot. “Half a mile is like… ten thousand steps? Or something close?.”

  She squinted ahead and in a close distance, saw quite a lot of them around a single location. They weren’t close enough to be threatening, but they were close enough to be interesting, or at least, a break from the endless black stone desert she’d been trudging across.

  She flicked her minimap open again. Nothing nearby. No blips, no monsters, no points of interest except that vague location. Probably that shitty water source the diary hinted about. Or maybe it was something useful, or a demon waiting to bite her face off. Honestly, she’d take any of the three at this point. At least it would be something.

  “Step.” she resumed, dropping her foot.

  This time she didn’t bother counting or pretending she had a reason for doing it, it was just rhythm, just a thing to keep her moving so her brain wouldn’t wander somewhere else.

  The heat pressed against her cheeks, and she noticed the sweat gathering along her hairline. She scowled instantly, wiping at her forehead with the back of her hand but never once breaking her little chant.

  “Step. Step.”

  The sweat annoyed her more than anything else. She wasn’t supposed to sweat. She was a demon now. Weren’t demons supposed to be fireproof or something? Flame-retardant? At least heat-tolerant?

  ‘Why the hell am I sweating like a normal person?’ she thought, grimacing.

  Then she remembered… Oh. Right. She was a low-level demon. She probably didn’t get total heat immunity until, like, her next evolution? Or maybe never. Who even knew? She sure as hell didn’t.

  Also, wasn’t lava supposed to, like… instantly turn humans into exploding fireballs? That was definitely something she’d heard somewhere. She was pretty damn sure proximity to lava meant death.

  Her gaze drifted left.

  Far across the hellscape. Maybe a hundred feet away, maybe a little less she saw a short, thick river of lava winding its way along a shallow crevice, glowing bright enough that she could feel the heat pulse even from this distance.

  “…Huh,” she muttered, blinking at it. “Okay, yeah, maybe that’s why I’m sweating.”

  The heat rolled out in soft, steady waves, brushing against her armor, seeping into her skin, warming her bones.

  “Step.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Step.”

  “Step.”

  A weird brown mark had appeared on her map, along with a large blue dot right beside it. Her brow lifted. Finally, she thought she had miscounted, or that that guy had lied about it. The sudden spark of curiosity jolted through her like caffeine, and she quickened her pace.

  The land dipped suddenly. Not enough to be called anything like a cliff, but a wide, shallow drop as if something massive had slammed into the ground ages ago and the earth never recovered from the impact. The stone here curved inward like a crater, and at its center…

  “…Oh. That’s disgusting.”

  It was a pond, technically speaking, but it looked like someone had tried to recreate water from the memory of someone who’d never actually seen it. The liquid was a muddy brown, thick enough that she couldn’t tell if it was viscous or just really dirty. The smell hit her a second later, a violent punch of sulfur and rot that made her recoil so fast her boots skidded on the slope.

  “UGH—WHY?!” she gagged, pinching her nose hard enough her eyes watered. “HOW DID I NOT SMELL THIS EARLIER?!”

  The stench was unreal, rotten eggs blended with something chemical and warm, like a sewer and a volcano had merged and then died. She breathed through her mouth in quick, shallow inhales, though that didn’t make things much better; now she could taste how awful it was.

  She slid down the slope anyway, boots scraping through loose gravel until she reached the warped shoreline.

  That was when she saw four skeletons. Not monster bones, not demon bones, but human skeletons.

  Her lips curled instantly, something hot and sour tightening in her gut… anger. A dull, irritated sort of fury.

  “Oh, great,” she muttered through her pinched nose. “Very scenic.”

  The skeletons weren’t laid out in neat positions or peacefully resting.

  One was half-slumped over a coal-tree stump, spine twisted unnaturally, arms sprawled like it had died mid-crawl. Another had collapsed face-first toward the lake, fingers outstretched as if reaching for the foul water even as it killed them. The third lay curled into itself, knees drawn tight to its chest, like it had died hiding from something. And the fourth…

  The fourth was kneeling.

  Just kneeling there upright, leaning forward, arms dangling limply, as if it had been praying.

  Enochia stared at them, jaw tightening even as the sulfur smell made her eyes sting.

  “What the hell happened to you idiots?” she muttered.

  But something about the positions made her chest feel tight. Not painfully, just… wrong. She clicked her tongue, spit onto the ground next to her boot, and marched closer.

  That was when she noticed the brown pouch lying beside the kneeling skeleton.

  It was small, roughly stitched, and somehow still intact despite however long these bones had been decaying here. She crouched, and poked it with a finger.

  Nothing happened.

  “Okay… not a mimic,” she muttered.

  She picked it up and shook it.

  Something inside shifted with a soft clack, like pebbles or coins. She wrinkled her nose, opened the flap, and leaned in to look.

  “…Alright, what fresh nonsense did you weirdos die for?” she murmured, lifting the pouch to the light.

  She turned the pouch upside down and its contents tumbled out in a messy little cascade. Four weird green shapes hit the stone with a sharp clink clink clink. Up close they looked hexagonal, almost jewel-like, and they definitely sounded like glass.

  But the other things that fell out…

  “What the—HEY, NO, WHAT IS THAT?!”

  Three thin, bright red centipede-looking bugs spilled out after the crystals, wriggling weakly before curling up and going still. Enochia jumped back on instinct.

  “How the hell are there bugs down here?” she demanded, staring in betrayal at the little corpses. “Why are there bugs in Hell?! Who allowed this?!”

  She paused and after a moment of thought, slowly nodded.

  “…Nevermind. Good job, God. Excellent decision. All bugs deserve to end up in Hell.”

  Satisfied with that theological conclusion, she crouched again and picked up the four green hexagons, brushing off dust and residual bug juice. The moment they touched her palm, her annoyance vanished, replaced by a grin so bright it could’ve lit the crater on its own.

  ─────────────────────────────

  [UNCOMMON ITEM ? GRADE 4 EXP POTION]

  A crystallized essence of a leftover of a soul.

  Effect: Grants +10,000 XP.

  [Added to Category: Special]

  ─────────────────────────────

  “Hehehe… nice!” She clutched the crystals to her chest like they were lottery tickets. “Totally worth it. I think I can even get my first skill with this!”

  Without hesitation, she closed her fist around all four and tried to crush them with sheer enthusiasm… Nothing happened.

  Nothing cracked. Nothing glow-y. Nothing absorbed. They didn’t even budge. It felt like trying to crush diamonds with a stress ball grip. 'Wait... How come this is the first time I see such an item? This should have been all over the place back on earth.'

  Then, as if mocking her previous attempts, another screen politely appeared in front of her:

  ─────────────────────────────

  Would you like to use these items?

  [YES]

  [NO]

  ─────────────────────────────

  Enochia glared at the floating prompt. She didn’t say anything out loud, not because she lacked commentary, oh, she had PLENTY, but because Roo, for all itself, had at least delivered. Annoying? Yes. Teasing? Absolutely. But also just handed her 40k XP in a bag guarded by four dead guys and three demon-centipedes.

  Fine. He earned a pass. She would also ask him about this later, but for now... She had more exciting things to do!

  She jabbed YES with more force than necessary.

  The crystals burst instantly, shattering into a spray of green light. It wasn’t liquid or mist or anything normal, it flowed into her like grains of glowing sand, each speck slipping through her skin with a warm, tingling rush that made her legs buckle. A shockwave of energy rolled up her spine and rattled behind her eyes like someone had just turned her soul into a glowstick and cracked it open.

  Notifications exploded across her vision:

  [LEVEL UP!]

  +2 Stat Points

  +10 Souls

  [LEVEL UP!]

  +2 Stat Points

  +10 Souls

  [LEVEL UP!]

  +2 Stat Points

  +10 Souls

  [LEVEL UP!]

  +2 Stat Points

  +10 Souls

  ─────────────────────────────

  STATUS:

  Name: Enochia Adams

  Title: N/A

  Level: 11

  EXP: 8,000 / 11,000

  HP: 1,250 / 1,250

  MANA: 3,300 / 3,300

  STR: 5

  AGI: 8

  VIT: 25

  FAI: 110

  LCK: 13

  DEF: 0

  Free Points: 20

  [ EXP ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓?????? ] 73 %

  ─────────────────────────────

  And as if the moment wasn’t already full enough, Roo quietly slipped in two more notifications.

  [New Skill obtained]

  [New Skill obtained]