Hell Difficulty Tutorial

Deathtrap is old, rusty, smells, and lets out constant annoying noises, and I can feel the heat from it as we approach. Even so, I can't take my eyes off it.

It's beautiful.

A giant transportation vehicle floating just a bit in the air, with an intricate set of crystals at its bottom and rough inscriptions.

Deathtrap is also tilted slightly to the side, and the damage is obvious. You can feel the history of that thing.

The defenses it has are mainly the metal plates that frame it. A defense against monsters that live there, defenses against sand itself that is extremely sharp and pierces through the bodies of even high-level people and mana barriers.

So the seemingly only somewhat safe way to cross Mana Desert is in this beautiful rusty thing that seems like it's about to fall apart.

There are barely any windows, just thin visors on the sides, and then there is an upper deck with some railings. At the top of it, there are things needed to fly this thing, some weird pillar, and even more inscriptions protecting the deck. Otherwise, all of the living quarters are inside that iron thing.

How crazy it is that I'm about to enter it and head to the godforsaken place where mana can't regenerate. Moments like this always make me thankful for the abilities I got and awaken that sense like I'm heading on an adventure.

It's something I thought of more after I met with my assholish wannabe handler.

I believe 'adventure' is the correct word.

So as we head onto the platform and then inside, I enjoy those feelings.

A few hundred people head in as well, all moving in groups big and small. Unlike in Beyond, there aren't that many races. Mostly human, the tiny ones with scaly legs, and the ones with bluish skin and four arms.

We find ourselves a big room near the top of the Deathtrap. It requires just a bit of fighting against a few other groups that try to push us away. Neither side uses too much mana or damages the place, but the clash is short and violent.

The insides of the transport are even hotter than the outside. Its thick metal walls absorb the heat and radiate it inside. It combines with a thick smell of something like hot oil, rust, and old house. That and a constant hum of what I guess are engines or devices keeping us afloat.

There seem to be ways they tried to mitigate it: a cooling system, dampening, and some other stuff. But it's all either damaged or pieces of it are gone.

I let Isabella take care of the heat for now and observe as she absorbs that heat into her blue flame orb that floats near her.

That part of her ability is similar to mine, just in her case she can do it with "natural" heat, and if she wants to do it with skills, it requires much more effort and mana than when I do it. But for natural sources, she might be even more mana-efficient than me.

It might be her connection with Noodle causing it, her trait Burning Blood, maybe her skill is good at that? Maybe her other trait? Or maybe I'm only better at manipulating flames and heat that came into existence from mana, unlike her natural source?

I could ask her, and I think she would tell me, but I find it interesting to think about it instead of having the answer handed to me.

Tess and Lily come back to our "room," opening the rusty door and then closing it, letting Sophie reactivate the defenses we put there.

The room is circular without any furniture, just our baggage thrown in the corner and some hides used to sit on the floor. On the side of the room, there are metal plates, one of them with a three-finger-thick gap I use instead of my usual windows for a view.

I sit in a simple chair made of mana. To amuse myself, I even made the design exactly like a monobloc plastic chair. The only difference is that mine is made of transparent pale blue mana. The amount I'm using is as little as possible to save it.

Tess seems to be taken aback for a moment and keeps glancing between me and my monobloc mana chair. She then shakes her head and looks away.

(We will head out soon, apparently. As they said before, there is no payment, and when I tried to dig in, it looks like it's all organized by powerful groups from the central region. Ottis might be from one of them,) Tess says through our link.

It's the best way to avoid curious listeners.

(I would ask why they do that, but they most likely wouldn't tell you,)

 Sophie mentions.

(No mention, but no matter what it is, it's survivable. The system wouldn't give us a quest just for us to die there. Plus, we are stronger than average Hell attendees, with a few of us in Beyond, so that's something to consider.)

(Maybe they will send us to the mines. Maybe they will use us for target practice. Or maybe they pick stronger people out of the ones coming for their groups,) Dennis tries to guess.

(Maybe they are nice and will offer us a big house near the sea,) Aaron nods.

(Food!)

(And food, of course,) Aaron adds.

(Whatever it is, don't forget that everyone we meet got thrown here for a reason. There are people who murdered entire cities of "civilians," there are ones who were experimenting on people, some traitors during their Pairing,) Tess interjects. (But a good part of them are ones who gained powers quickly and abused them, killing dozens of weaker humans in their wake.)

It's easy to imagine what Tess says. Just imagine a level 50 Hell difficulty person entering a city with normal civilians on Earth. If such a person decided to do so, the damage would be immense.

(Are you sure they are all criminals? Not people the powers that be wanted to get rid of? A competition to some rich dude or someone pissing off a noble?) I ask.

(We did check what we could with Izzy and Sophie, and it doesn't seem to be the case. As far as we could find, from all the attempts to kill us, a brutal majority of the people are just that, criminals. There might be some system they have in place to not get innocent people inside. Sure, some people here could be tens or hundreds of years old and could change, regret their past actions. But none of us should hesitate when it comes to it.)

(That much is obvious. I will go out to check out the place,) I say as I stand up.

I do so slowly as my body hurts and burns. RTE activated. I continue using the emblem for training, even now that I can't regenerate my mana. I simply draw the necessary mana from my crown, where a vast reserve is stored, and reduce the training time to an hour or two per day.

Even I wouldn't be so foolish as to spend all my mana on training while heading into this Mana Desert. Yup.

Activating my emblem, I could swear I feel the inscriptions burning through my body like a red-hot wire.

A truly evil thing.

"I will join!" Lily jumps on her feet nimbly. "You walk like a grandpa, so you might need some healing."

"Don't you have anything else to do?" I answer out loud, "Maybe growing wings or bigger muscles."

"The only thing she is growing bigger is her ass," Aaron shamelessly adds with a wide smirk.

That seems to shock even his brother, but quickly Dennis starts laughing out loud. Gradually he laughs even louder and louder.

So brave, yet so foolish.

Min-Jae, smarter because of previous experience, laughs quietly and only after making sure Lily doesn't see him.

Lily, changing aggro to the twins, turns to them with a dark expression, and I use the opportunity to escape on my own.

The hallway of Deathtrap is as hot as the rest of the rooms, and without Izzy here, I start absorbing some of that heat on my own to keep the air around me cool.

I catch one interesting inscription and follow it along the wall where it coils over the doors into rooms where other passengers are.

That inscription seems to be of sets that spread power from the core through the Deathtrap and power the inscriptions. So I examine it a bit more, I still have something to learn about moving mana for inscriptions in massive creations like that.

At some point, I'm in front of one of the doors and then it opens energetically, nearly slamming against my head. I barely grab it with my hand.

Annoyed because of the interruption, I kick it, adding kinetic energy into the mix and slamming it against whoever opened it.

Someone screams in pain, and I hear a body crash against the wall inside of the room as I return to what I was doing.

The door, held by my [Redistribution], tries to open, but I keep it at bay until I'm done and disrupt the mana that tries to perceive what's happening.

I let it feel a part of my mana pool that I release just for a moment, and all the attempts stop.

Kudos to Lissandra. If it wasn't for her, I would probably be using [Focus] and dealing with it more peacefully.

Or maybe not. I was always a bit of an asshole. Just the right amount.

Continuing my walk, I head upstairs, walking onto a set of rusty stairs made of metal that creak under me, bits of dust falling off.

Even more than on the outside, there are holes all over the place, damages as well. The vibrations can be felt gradually increasing as the engines "heat up” and we are slowly lifting.

By the time I reach the deck, we are floating higher in the air. Not too high, probably just a few stories high. Just the process of that is somewhat impressive, considering what we stand on.

I really want to examine the core and power source, control room, and other interesting rooms of this place, but through sheer will, I hold myself back.

Proud of my progress, I look around. Even though we are not that high in the air, the view is quite nice.

On one side, rocky plains full of hills with the Last Rest nearby.

On the other side, white sand dunes stretching on forever, the air shimmering over them because of the heat.

I might risk a bit, but I need some samples of that sand, even though like 20 times the guides told us to never do that or we will all die.

Lastly, I still feel that presence from the Last Rest. The man who makes sure things run smoothly and people reach the central region. I'm sure that man has sensed me examining him multiple times, yet he humors me, perhaps out of some sort of cold amusement.

Maybe I should really send a few tricolored orbs through the anchor I left in the Last Rest.

Reaching the railing, I rest against it and watch people moving all around. There are a few groups present at all times. A schedule was decided, and Group 4 is part of it as well.

At all times, there are multiple groups defending the Deathtrap in case of an attack. To not use all the mana, a frequent change of guard is set.

When we finally start moving, the inscriptions on the metal plates covering Deathtrap activate. A strange, very specialized field surrounds us. It just seems to be tailored for Mana Desert and it's white sand and useless for anything else.

Then, the moment we pass that line separating the desert from the plains, my mana stops regenerating.

It happens immediately as if someone turned off the switch. My heart keeps beating, and it even feels like nothing changed. The only difference is that the mana is gone.

I examine it, trying to identify the part of the process where it gets cut off. The moment it leaves my heart? The moment it enters the rest of the body? Maybe it is still here but I can't use it? Is something taking it away? Is it some kind of specialized disruption?

I try and try, but I fail to locate the source. Even so, I delegate part of my mind through [Focus] to continue inspecting while I lean against the railing, studying the white dunes.