Concepts [IV]

Darkness.

Pitch-black surrounded Lucian on all sides as he dug down into the nothingness. With each strike of the shovel, he felt his arms grow heavier. The difference was negligible at first, but over time, the simple shovel began to feel like it was made from lead. Still, he kept digging.

He didn't know how much time had passed, nor did he care. Hours, days, weeks, months... maybe years? Time went by at a pace that he couldn't comprehend, and the more time passed, the more his body began to change.

Lucian's muscles became firm, and his skin became resilient. He breathed long, steady breaths, and his mind became clear. When his mind cleared, he glanced at the emptiness around him before focusing on the shovel. It felt like he was carrying a truck!

He wanted to toss the shovel to the side and run, but something in the back of his mind screamed at him to ignore the strange happenings and keep digging. His shoulders were in immense pain, and his arms were screaming, but he endured. Though Lucian felt his body mending as his muscles and ligaments were torn apart, the pain and the weight only increased with every stroke.

Lucian's mind screamed for him to stop, yelling at him for destroying his body, but he kept digging. Not only was his mind pushing him to give in, but whispers also began to assault him from the darkness. Still, something was telling him that he couldn't quit and that he'd regret the decision for the rest of his life if he didn't give this everything he had.

At first, the whispers were unintelligible, sounding like nothing more than gibberish, too quiet to make out. The longer he listened, the more pronounced the voices became, and the darkness started to change. Tens of tiny red eyes materialized around him, and Lucian couldn't help but compare them to the rabbit's eyes that he'd seen before.

"Just quit!"

"You'll never succeed!"

"Give up!"

The eyes began to grow in size, and the whispers became louder as he stabbed the head of the shovel into the empty ground. He tried to ignore the voices, but they became louder and more persistent the further he delved into his work.

Endurance.

"Just relax..."

"You can stop. You've done enough."

"Why don't you take a break? You can just pick it up again later."

The memories of what he'd gone through when unlocking his first Microlink flooded his mind and steeled his resolve. His body hardened, and the pain in his arms lessened for a brief second.

Fortitude.

"Heh. Such a pathetic creature."

"Scum like you doesn't deserve to be happy!"

"Don't you want to see your family again? Keep digging your own grave, and you can forget it!"

Lucian almost hesitated upon hearing that... still, he continued forward. Something kept telling him that the voices were wrong and that quitting wasn't an option. The weight of the shovel had doubled once again, and his movements were pained and sluggish. But he persisted.

Tolerance.

"Honey, come home..." A soft voice whispered from behind him.

Lucian froze, "Sarah..? Is that really you?"

The shovel's weight increased again, and he almost let it slide from his grasp. He wanted to turn and look, but something wasn't letting him. Something inside of him told him that he needed to keep digging. He pushed the shovel into the shadows again...

"Lucian, what are you doing?!" Sarah's voice cried as he tossed away the shadows and loaded up the tool once more. "If you keep going, we'll be lost forever!"

Lucian gritted his teeth and continued digging. The weight of his heart only added to the unwieldy shovel in his hands. He tossed back another load of shadows.

"Dad!"

"Daddy! Please come back!"

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he continued digging, his arms moving mere centimeters at a time as he struggled to lift the tool. All of these voices were assaulting him at once. He couldn't take it anymore, and he needed to drown out the noise.

"Hm. Hmmmm. Hmm..."

The tune began to play on his lips. At first, it was quiet, but it quickly rolled out like a wave of thunder, tearing through the sounds and silencing the damnable voices. Ripples spread from his body, crushing the antagonistic voices that were enveloping him. Soon, the screams were gone, and he was left alone with the ominous red eyes that floated around him.

When the voices vanished, the shovel lost all of its weight, and Lucian threw it off into the distance. It disappeared into the shadows, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever see the tool again. The eyes watched his actions, and he took an unsteady breath, unsure what was going on or how to proceed. His answer came quickly.

The tens of red eyes began to circle him. Over and over, faster and faster, until they all became a single blur. The blur formed a halo around him that spun for several minutes before slowing down and creating five dark red ovals that stopped evenly spaced around him.

Lucian looked at the shapes, unsure of what was going on. At this point, he just wanted to escape this hell and get back to his Tile. Just when he thought of trying to escape, a voice boomed from the darkness.

"What is Endurance?"

He looked around, confused. He didn't know where the voice had come from, but he felt compelled to answer it. Without knowing why, Lucian turned to the five blood-red circles, studying each in turn. Each of the five paths gave off the feeling that he'd felt when learning [Endurance I], but there was something else, something more profound within each.

Stamina.

Longevity.

Tolerance.

Fortitude.

He'd experienced each of these in this dark, forever hell. Lucian was inclined to answer with Tolerance, as that was what he'd felt the most from the [Endurance I] Microlink. But something held him back. He stared at the fifth circle for many hours, and finally, his mind became clear, and Lucian whispered a single word...

"Will."

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