14 Cichol's Curse!

Upon fainting in the room of the dungeon, Axel's consciousness shifted to a blank white screen in his head. Moments later, he saw himself appear in the large lecture hall of 7th Union University. There were more than 100 rows of seats, and it could easily house about 1000 students in total. The world population had reached an astounding number of 30 billion people by 2177. The Union's population was about 2.2 billion, while the other federations made up of at least the remaining numbers. Indeed, the Union had a significantly smaller population when compared to the rest of the world, but it had the strongest military and the most diversified population as well. Almost every race and ethnic group could be found here, and it was vastly different from the old United States of America where the majority of the population was Caucasian.

In that seemingly large swarm of people, Axel went to the one of the best colleges in the Union, the 7th Union University. The oldest name for this college was called Stanford University, which was one of the best Ivy League Colleges in the 21st century. Axel who had always been somewhat of a nerd and shut in, excelling at studies regarding textbook work and examinations. Axel was a tall, medium-built young adult of Chinese and Irish descent. His hair was slightly dark magenta with hints of black, which was a rare gene trait among even his family members. This along with his light green eyes seemed to make him stand out whenever in a large crowd. This look also carried over inside the Mabinogi game. He was often called an alien by many of his classmates during high school, which made him feel very insecure and depressed. After entering college, he had desired a quiet life in his apartment in order to avoid interactions with people. Although he was the only child, his parents had very high expectations of him, and wished for him to become a space engineer in the future.

Becoming a space engineer was one of the most renown fields of work in 22nd century in society. It involved going up in space to aid in the research of constructing the solar orbital elevator that was built above the atmosphere of planet Earth. By 2177, most of the fossil fuels had been depleted by the human race, and federations had implemented more widespread use of other energy sources such as nuclear and solar energy.

Nuclear energy had always been an explosive source of energy but it often caused environmental damage and was often unstable if not maintained in a proper fashion. The newest type of nuclear energy was called Vizt, which was synthesized by combining a newly discovered element in the periodic table of elements with uranium. The energy output of Vitz was 10 times more than the 21st century nuclear technology, and by 2100, about 80% of the world were relying on Vitz for their livelihood. However, humanity had made some recent breakthroughs in space technology and managed to cultivate a new technology using a solar orbital elevator, which was slowly being constructed in space above the Earth.

It would take another century before the solar orbital elevator was finished constructing and fully operational, as new research was constantly being conducted by space engineers as well. The class that Axel was currently taking was a theory class about the basic structures to how the solar orbital elevator worked in space. Despite his parent's forceful nudging for Axel to be enrolled in space engineering studies, he rarely paid attention to the lectures, as whether or not he could partake in the research of a new solar energy system in space did not matter to him at all. In his mind, his only existential reason for living was being the god-like existence he was in the MMORPG, Mabinogi.

While the bald professor was writing many chemical formulas on the board, Axel was thinking of how to teach some Guild Masters in the game a lesson about not monopolizing certain items in the Auction House. He would challenge each of them to a staked duel, where they would bet large amounts of gold in order to show one another who was the boss in this game.

Once the lecture ended, Axel walked home quickly and turned on his PC to play Mabinogi. As he was about to duel a few Guild Masters to give them a piece of his mind, his entire character froze suddenly. In the next moment, his entire body, which had been controlling the keyboard and mouse warped into the game, and the next thing he knew, he was chained together in the depths of a dungeon room. When Axel looked carefully at his surroundings, he realized that this was not a normal room. It looked similar to a boss room, which had a much higher ceiling and overall space. Next to him, was a dark robed, White Winged existence hovering in the air.

"Cichol?" Axel asked.

Cichol was the God of Fomors, which was confusing to Axel that he had captured him to this dungeon boss room.

"I don't know how you figured out I was posing as Morrighan, but since you didn't accept when I asked nicely, be prepared to face the consequences!" Cichol yelled.

The God of Fomors pulled out a dark axe formed from black particles and slashed at Axel's chest.

"AAAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Axel bellowed in response.

While it was painful, he felt like something crucial had been taken from him from deep inside his soul. He slowly lost consciousness, and when he opened his eyes again, a familiar scene of a dungeon appeared in front of him.

"Hey, did you have a bad dream or something?" Max asked.

When Axel confirmed his surroundings again, he realized he was still in the dungeon room he had finished before collapsing before. He was currently lying down with a simple large rag over his body.

"Thanks Master for this blanket!" Axel whispered as he got up. A campfire had been lit and its warmth radiated across the dungeon room.

"No sweat, here have some bread and jerky!" Max said as he threw a loaf of bread and piece of bacon jerky to Axel.

Axel immediately consumed the food in front of him in a flash. He had been famished from the fight and realized that he was ill prepared for even the easiest dungeon in the previous game of Mabinogi. The dungeons in this world had been much more cruel and taxing on a newbie like him.

As he went back to lie down, the fire flickering from the campfire seemed to ease his worries from the awful dream that he had seen. He had known from playing the Mabinogi game that Cichol was impersonating Goddess Morrighan in the calling for help, and this was also why he had ignored the dream various times he had seen it. Now the situation had greatly changed. Was that dream where Cichol slashed him spiritually with a black axe going to affect any of his abilities in this world? He had no way to find out unless he experimented after completing the dungeon with Master Max. He was scared that Cichol had placed a horrid curse on him, and his days in this world would become dreadful as he progressed in his journey. At least, the path he was on now deviated far from the normal storyline of Generation 1 in the Mabinogi game. As he continued to stress these feelings of uncertainty, Max noticed his gloomy expression and said,

"Look, I don't know what kind of dream you had, but rest up for now. You've got to recover as much stamina as possible before we head out to the next room. Any small mistake can lead to death in a place like this." Max said sternly.

Axel nodded accordingly and closed his eyes, trying his best to move on from the ordeal he had experienced.