VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 18: Performing Miracles

Pain. That was the first thing Belladonna felt when she awoke. A dull, throbbing pain in the front of her brain. It was nothing compared to the searing daggers, and definitely not compared to the absolute agony of drinking that god damned hell water.

However she had only had her eyes open for a few seconds before trails of strange colours started to dance in her vision, and with it the dull migraine she was currently experiencing started to grow in intensity.

Just as she was considering stabbing herself in the head to get the pain out, or just kill herself and hope respawing worked, a soft voice spoke from the side.

"Press your fingers to your temple, either is fine. Massage it in a circular fashion until the pain starts to leave."

Belladonna wanted to give a snide remark that she knew the most basic method of helping with migraines, but she was in too much pain to bother. Instead she just obeyed, pressing both hands to her temples and starting to massage them.

At first nothing seemed to happen, then slowly but surely the pain started to subside and the strange dazzling colours started to retreat and give way to the colours of reality.

"I’m going to find who programmed this pain system, and I am going to rip off their dick. I’ll do it. I swear I’ll do it. Just wheel myself up to them, grab that dick and twist it off. I’m the perfect height for it too."

The Wizard chuckled softly at Belladonna’s nonsensical muttering, "You are a strange child. But consider this, how do you forge a sword?"

"What?! What does that have to do with..." Belladonna sat up quickly, giving the wizard a baffled look only to wince in pain as she had stopped her massaging. She quickly resumed, letting out a sigh as the pain started to subside again.

Sitting up straight, she faced herself towards the wizard properly and sighed.

"I don’t know... You get it real hot and then whack the hell out of it, I guess."

He chuckled again, once more standing in the centre of the lake.

"That is certainly one way of describing it. So think of yourself as the blade being forged. Only by having the imperfections pounded out of you, only through pain, can you become a true masterpiece.

It is only through pain that true power can be found."

Belladonna frowned softly, considering his words. It would be easy to dismiss, to toss it to the side as some crazy pain game for crazy people. But he had a point.

Her mind drifted back to her youth, before her condition started to affect her. Sparring practice against her brother, working out with him. She remembered the pain of her muscles as they were broken down and repaired themselves stronger.

She hated that pain at first, but now she would give anything to feel it again. Instead the only pain she got in her muscles now was just the feeling of them breaking down and cannibalizing themselves, for no purpose other than destruction.

But as much as she hated that workout pain at first, when she started to see the results of it, she had learned to love it. She learned that pain only meant progress, it felt good to feel her muscles burning after getting her butt kicked in a sparring match, because she knew the next day she would be coming back stronger.

Belladonna considered the words for a few moments more before reaching over to her bag and pulling out her journal. She glanced at the neatly folded clothes curiously, taking a few minutes to fix the scattered jerky and failed to notice the missing bits, before she opened the journal.

Words wrote themselves onto the page, ink dancing across the white field, as she jotted down her thoughts. She made sure to tell these insane devs that they should fix the pain settings but not by removing them.

She asked them to give players warnings before doing things like drinking hell water, or the option to turn their pain sensitivity down for ordinary things like fights. Most wouldn’t want this pain, but others could leave it on and learn from it.

It had to be able to be left on at the very least, but only for the crazies. The one’s like her.

Snapping the book closed, Belladonna tossed it on top of her bag and clambered to her feet. Dusting herself off, she narrowed her eyes at the lake in front of her and let out a deep sigh as she muttered to herself.

"Alright Val, let’s see what kind of sword you are."

Keeping her eyes on the lake, Belladonna focused her mind on her newly acquired [Mana Sense] skill. It was strange, trying to get used to a completely new sense and even figure out what it was. But she realised what she had been seeing had to be mana, and it was everywhere in this clearing. She just had to find what felt different.

She kept circling her temple with her finger, keeping the headaches away, as she focused on her body. She remained utterly still for a few moments, before she finally felt it. The slight tingling sensation brushing against her skin.

It was the same tingling the lake water had given her, just much more faint and difficult to feel. But once she did feel it, she started to feel it all over. The warmth spread across her body, caressing her skin and dancing across it.

She could feel it against her lips and tickling her nose, as she started to take deep and deliberate breaths. Filling her lungs with each breath before slowly exhaling, focusing on the warmth filling her lungs with every breath.

Once she knew what it felt like inside of her, she focused on what it felt outside. Starting with the sensation on her skin, she pushed her senses just a centimetre off of the surface. It was strange, like feeling a breeze and then trying to follow it back to its source through the air itself, rather than just how it felt on your arm.

It took some time, and it was a meticulous study of pushing it centimetre by centimetre until it was a few inches off of her skin. By the time she got to that stage, beads of sweat were rolling down her forehead and the fingers circling her temples became slick and damp. Yet she didn’t stop.

Once she got to this stage, Belladonna inhaled another lungful of the warm, mana filled air before starting to stir it to her will. It was like trying to grasp a scent lingering in the air, but with her mind.

It made no sense, yet the more she focused the deeper she fell into her concentration until it became as natural as breathing. With one more deep breathe, she started to walk.. Step after step, she focused on the warmth in the air.

She stirred it under her will, bringing it together and trying to compress it into something solid underneath her feet.

Her steps were painfully slow and deliberate, her feet trembling with each small progress forwards as she concentrated with every ounce of focus, not daring to open her eyes for a second.

The ground began soft under her feet as she walked, giving way underneath her as if she was stepping on a foam mattress. Not quite solid, but not enough to let her fall.

Step by step, metre by metre, Belladonna performed the grewling task. Even when her lungs burned and her mind was screaming despite her massaging, she continued. Only stopping when she finally bumped against something solid.

Her eyes snapped open and her already frayed and strained concentration snapped along with it. The spongy platform beneath her feet vanished, yet not even a second later the mana pulled itself back together into a platform that was as solid as steel.

Belladonna barely had enough time to stumble before she righted herself on the new platform, her eyes trailing up to the face of the Wizard who now stood directly in front of her. No, it was more accurate to say she stood in front of him, in the middle of the water.

"I... I did it? Aha! I did it! I DID IT!"

Belladonna thrust her hands into the air, forcing her exhausted body to perform a dance of delight, before she was interrupted by the chuckling wizard.

"Yes, You did Indeed. Congratulations. Now, Shall we get on with the next part of your lesson?"

"Next part?" Belladonna frowned in confusion for a few seconds before the realization dawned on her. Oh right... She came here as a part of a quest, one to ’Awaken her Potential’ whatever that meant.

Well, it seemed she was going to find out.

Hopefully in the future, not every secret quest was going to be like this. Or... maybe it would be good if they were. They might have been irritating and difficult, but that usually meant better rewards, right?

Besides, she couldn’t help but wonder how the other players were doing and if any of them were starting to dabble with magic and how different their lessons would be. There had to be other ways to do it than this, right?

For other players sake, she truly hoped there was.