Chapter 4:
T.A./H.A. Paranoia Hero
That affliction felt just like before: a stinging reminder of fate. The marking flashed orange under his hand, but he kept it there as a cover to not alarm Dinorah any further.
“Ugh…ah…I-It’s…nothing.” He tried to pick himself up from the ground; she watched in concern, trying to reach out her hand to help. Just as she did, Agon looked up, and his eyes twinkled. In a flash, he found himself back in a void. Before him no longer stood Dinorah, but the heart-shaped skill tree. A gritty chuckle rang through.
“Glad to see you didn’t die when I threw you out into the water, red fish.” Olagna, the deity of life, laughed as his voice echoed throughout the atmosphere.
“Y-You…the ram!” Agon frantically searched for Olagna’s face, a drop of blood, anything, but found no sign. Just hoarse laughter echoing all around him.
“Not a ram, stupid. Marrowta, remember? And don’t bother, I’m just giving you a little call from my pier to see how you’re adjusting! So, how’d you sleep? Enjoying the magical world of Velicima?” He said in a falsely sweet timbre.
“G-get out…of my mind…” Agon snarled.
“Ough, sounds like someone didn’t get the recommended six to eight hours.” Olagna mocked.
“GET OUT-” Right when Agon shouted into the nothingness, he felt a deeper burn gnaw at his chest. He fell to his knees, screaming.
“KNOW YOUR PLACE!!!” Olagna’s voice dropped to a more commanding tone. His words bellowed through Agon’s very soul, and he felt every moment of it. The indescribable pressure mixed with the heat of the deity’s mark plastered his entire body; it was as if the sun grew claws and picked away at his flesh from the inside. After several seconds had passed, Olagna returned to his facetious nature.
“Whoo, feels good to get THAT out of my system! No more outbursts like that, okay? Alrighty! Oh, looks like I accidentally triggered your little tattoo there in the process. Whoopsies!” Olagna giggled to himself, satisfied with his work. Speaking of which, do you like it? Stylish AND functional; and now we’re twins! Besides, I can’t leave you just yet. I‘m also calling because there are more rules to our little game that I didn’t get to explain to you. For starters, that mark on your chest will change with each minute that passes.”
“Y-you mean…every minute that goes by-Agh!” Agon looked down at his chest. The marking glowed again, and the numbers morphed, now showing “9:00”. He tried to keep his balance and push through the pain.
“You get to feel my divine power gnawing at your very core.”
“Half the power…you mean-AHH!” Agon whimpered as he banged his fist into the floor of the void, trying to take his mind off the feeling.
“Shush. Now, as each minute passes, the pain will intensify. There’s a chance that marking could burn a hole right through you! Now wouldn’t THAT be something…”
Agon gritted his teeth.
“Anyways, let’s talk about your ‘T.A./H.A.’ skill. Do you remember our last chat? I told you I would explain how you can survive in this world. Here’s how it works. Every day, you’ll have quests to complete. It’s up to you which ones you accept. Think about it like that RPG you played before you got too scared of all the bad guys. The hero would receive a mission that would grant a certain reward. Your ‘T.A./H.A.’ skill works in a similar way. The difference is, your rewards won’t be experience or coin…but time, itself.”
A prompt box appeared in front of Agon. It read “BT” and “ET”.
“These are the two main forms of rewards you will receive: “BT,” which stands for “Borrowed Time”, and “ET,” meaning "Earned Time”. Borrowed Time is temporary time that you gain instantly after completing a quest, and is not permanently added to your timer; therefore, it will not roll over into the next day. Earned Time, however, is permanently added to your timer and resets every day. So if you complete a mission that offers one minute of Earned Time as a reward…”
“I’ll start the next day with eleven minutes to live.”
“Very good! Every quest I give you will offer a certain amount of either ‘BT’ or ‘ET’, but never both. And before you think ‘Oh, I'll just do all the ‘ET’ quests then!’, keep in mind that the ‘ET’ quests are much more demanding than the ‘BT’ quests, so don’t get too ambitious.”
“Of course…”
“Now now, don’t pout.” A prompt appeared, reading MISSION: MAKE A FRIEND. REWARD: 5:00 BT. “Consider this another act of my divine goodwill.”
“If you're talking about that girl, she's not my friend…she’s some random forest girl who tried to kill me.”
“And yet you struck up a conversation with her after the fact. You had multiple chances to run away; I was actually certain that you would, given your…uh…well, YOU. But you actually talked to another human being all on your own! Good job, widdle Agon! Way to get chummy!” Olagna started to speak in a patronizing baby voice, which irked Agon to no end.
“Tch…” He watched as the marking on his chest glowed again. There was no scalding heat, just a calm blue light. The numbers shifted to “14:00” now. “If you’re expecting me to get on my knees and say thank you-”
“Oh, ooooooh! So scary! What’re you gonna do? Cry? Throw up? Yeah, okay then.” He mocked.
“...How does this skill tree…heart…work, exactly? Is it just meant to hurt me?”
“Ah, yes! Great question! As fun as it WOULD be if it just did that, I'm afraid that would make things too easy. So, in order to make your ‘T.A./H.A.’ skill actually FEEL like a skill, I’ve blessed you with a plethora of upgrades and techniques that you can unlock to give you a leg up in this world! Even the playing field a little.
“...That’s almost too generous. How do I unlock these upgrades?”
“That’s the fun part. These upgrades can only be unlocked by spending your time. Your time is LITERALLY money!”
“There’s the twist.”
“If you want to improve your chances of surviving, you’ll need all the boosts you can get.”
Agon looked closer at the skill heart and all its different abilities. Some were accessible, but had little to no effect on his current situation. Others seemed powerful, but there was no guarantee that he could afford them with the time he currently had.
“What does ‘AT’ mean?”
“Ah! That stands for ‘Any Time’. Some abilities can be unlocked with any form of time; BT or ET, it makes no difference. The stronger abilities are more strict, though. They’ll only take either BT or ET to unlock.”
“All this information…”
“I know, I’m really spoiling you at this point.”
“No, you’re stalling. Why not get it over with and kill me right now?” Just as he called out, Agon’s chest slightly flared as the numbers changed to “13:00”.
“You forgot that quickly? I WANT to watch you SUFFER. Making you choose between becoming stronger or collecting more time just to see the light of the next day; that’s much more exciting to me than killing you off at the snap of my fingers. Because I know you. And although I’m not sure WHO you've been feeling like these past few days, I know this burst of bravery within you won’t last. Be it the people you meet, or the monsters you face, this world will bend you before I get my turn to break you, and my turn WILL come. So why not give you a few toys to play with? A power-up or two won’t be enough to get you through this life, but at least you can feel like you actually did something with yourself this time. So go play hero! And once you’re dead, you'll be right back at my feet, reduced to the same sniffling boy wallowing in his own puke.
Agon’s death replayed in his own mind. His body shivered, and his eyes were tightly shut.
“Now then, I believe you need to get back to your friend. Don’t want to keep her worried for too long, do you? I’ll see you again soon, red fish. Use your time wisely.” Agon felt someone touch his shoulder, and he was instantly brought out of the void of his mind and back to reality. He looked up from the ground to see Dinorah shaking his body violently.
“AGON! Say something! Are you alright?!?”
Just as he looked into her eyes, he heard Olagna’s voice once more in his head. “Twelve minutes left.” Agon’s body was basically out of commission, but there was no time to rest. He breathed sharply.
“Dinorah…I…I need your help.”
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