"Eli ... Eli ..."
A voice called to me from the darkness. I opened my eyes.
My mouth was thick with the metallic taste of blood. My head throbbed.
I was still lying in the cellar. Beatrice was gone. The door was closed and locked. But something was different. A figure was floating in the air. She had wings and a pointed tail. Her tits were golden.
"Selena?" I said.
"Yes it’s me. Who else?" she said.
I turned away.
"Must be a hallucination ..."
"Eli!"
"What?!" I groaned, head pounding from the demon’s ear-splitting shout. "Lower the volume. Please."
"I’m not a hallucination. I’m a projection."
"That’s the same thing."
"It’s not. I’m not in this room. But I’m not a figment of your imagination either. What you see is only a representation. I’m speaking to you from my throne, more than a thousands of leagues away."
Now that she mentioned it, there was some sort of golden throne pattern shimmering behind her. It did kind of look like the space where we had first met. Maybe she wasn’t a hallucination after all.
"I kind of fucked up."
"Tell me about it," she said. "You got yourself in the worst possible mess. I can’t let you die. You know how much magical energy it takes to carry a man across worlds?"
"Uhh ... no?"
"It’s a lot. So I’m not going to let some minor aristocrat kill you. Not because I like you but because I need to protect my investment."
I rolled my eyes.
"I’m just an investment? And here I thought we were friends."
She laughed.
"A human and goddess friends? Impossible. I will use you for as long as you are useful to me, and then I will discard you. Luckily for you, I still believe you are useful."
"Um ..." I said. "In case you can’t see me, I’m about in the most useless state a man can be in. I’m tied up with a rope. I’m bruised. I failed to seduce Beatrice. Soon they’re going to execute me."
"I know. I was watching."
"Wait? You can watch what I do?"
"Sure. It’s part of the Mark."
"Isn’t that an invasion of privacy?"
"Do you want me to help you? Or would you prefer to continue asking idiotic questions until your head flies off your neck?"
"Good point," I said. "Ok. Set me free."
"Can’t do that."
"What?"
"Weren’t you listening? I’m just a projection. Did you think I projection would be able to reach down and undo your bounds?"
"If you can’t free me, why are you here at all?"
Selena’s image seemed to grow bigger. Then she grew smaller. Her image began to pulse, shrinking and growing to the beat of some hidden rhythm.
"I came here," she murmured. "To give you this."
She blew a kiss. Sparkling particles fly from her mouth toward me. My nose grew itchy. My body tingled.
"ACHOO!"
When I opened my eyes next, Selena was gone. I was alone in the dark, moldy, damp cellar.
"That’s what you came to give me?" I shouted. "A kiss?"
The only reply that came from the void was the echoing of my voice.
Selena’s projection disappeared. I was alone again in the dark cellar. I wondered what new power she had given me. I didn’t feel any different from before. I didn’t feel taller, or more handsome, or more hung between the legs.
Was it all my imagination?
No, the projection had been all too realistic. And Selena wasn’t the type to lie to me for fun. So she must have helped me somehow. But how?
Some kind of magic item?
Some kind of new ability?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with an answer. Then the cold took over my body, and I was too busy shivering to think of anything at all.
Time passed.
Gradually, I noticed the room was beginning to light up. At first, I thought someone was coming down the stairs with a lantern to feed me—or torture me.
But then I realized, like before, that the light was coming from inside the cellar. Something shapeless hovered in the air above me.
"Selena? Did you come back?"
But as the thing’s contours thickened, I realized it wasn’t her. It was ... It was ...
"A text box?"
The box was bubblegum pink and slightly see-through. Slowly, words appeared in the center:
Congratulations!
"Congratulations?" I said. "For what? I’m trapped in a cellar and I’m going to get executed."
The message went on:
You have seduced enough women to reach Level 2. Your basic attributes have increased. Your ability to seduce women has increased. As a reward, please choose a Seduction Skill.
A level-up message!
It wasn’t a very good on though. I wasn’t sure what "basic attributes" meant. Was I taller? More handsome? Had my cock grown longer? And, most of all ...
"A Seduction Skill?" I said into the dark. "What’s that?"
The box flashed bright white, blinding me. When I opened my eyes again, the box was gone, replaced this time by two smaller panels.
The panels sparkled. In one panel were the words: RED THREAD
And the other panel said: EAR FRIEND
I thought about what those might mean. They sounded like abilities of some kind, like in an RPG. I needed to choose the best one to help me complete my quest. Which, right now, involved (a) not getting killed and (b) making Beatrice fall in love with me.
But how could I choose when I had no idea what the abilities did?
"Hello?" I called out. "Can you give me more info?"
There was no response.
"Game master, explain these skills!"
Still no response.
"Fuck you!"
Nothing.