The Old Man

Anne had woken up from fainting, and had remembered that he was stabbed. He frantically touched the area that he was stabbed and only felt wet from the blood. There was no wound, and he had realized he had gained a regeneration ability from one of the demons. It wasn't powerful in the hands of the demon, but in his arsenal of abilities it was more effective.

He looked at his stats, and was fairly pleased by them. He thought that with his stats and his lance that he'd be able to kill at least one of the Demon Lords. He looked at his map, and realized he had fully mapped out the cave. Unfortunately he didn't find an exit, and was panicking at this point thinking he would be stuck in the cave.

He got a sudden urge to go back to the space he had woken up the first time, and so he started to head towards it. Before the cramped space was a bigger space that he could walk around in. What he noticed was something that wasn't there before, and he knew it wasn't there before because of how big it was. It was a door that had weird symbols on it.

Anne couldn't make out the symbols, and wanted to know more. He then tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He noticed there was a spot that had some sort of hand print on it. Anne touched it, and the symbols on the door started to turn a bright red. He realized the door started to open up.

Anne started to walk through the entrance of the door, and didn't see anything. He had reached the middle of the room, and started to see chains on the wall in front of him. He moved closer, and what he saw was frightening. An old man was chained up to a wall. His face was sunken in, his body was wrinkled, most of his bones were showing, and what was worse was that horrific smell he had.

Anne was surprised to see the old man lift his head up to look at the stranger that was in front of him. The old man had only looked part of the way, and then smiled. Anne had looked at the man in confusion, and said "Why are you chained up, Old Man?" The old man replied with a little chuckle, and then said "I have been banished here, Young Man." The old man laughed from saying young man.

"May you free me from my banishment? Will you release me from the hell that I am in? I have nothing else to serve in this world," the old man had said. Anne had told the old man that he would release him. He walked toward the old man, and was about to cut the chains down. Anne had stopped his sword because he had a weird sensation, and he had stepped back. The sensation had went away as soon as Anne had moved back. The old man asked Anne what he was doing.

Anne had asked the old man if he had done something unforgivable to end up down here. The old man said "I betrayed my king, and he banished me here for it. The reason for the betrayal was that it was suppose to save a lot of humans, but it failed." Anne felt bad, and wanted to unbind him from the chains.

Anne started to swing his sword, but stopped right before it had cut the chains. He then stepped back, and looked at the old man with a concerned face. The old man kinda got annoyed by all of this, and said "I thought you were going to release me." Anne had told the old man that he couldn't trust him after all.

The old man was now angry at what the man had said, but the he let out a big laugh. "You are right to not trust me. I am not who I seem to be, but I haven't lied to you about being here. I am banished."

For some reason Anne had felt a heavy weight on his head, and had fallen down asleep. The old man witnessed this, and told himself now all I have to do is wait. The old man started to laugh very demonically, and said "Now that foolish king might die once and for all."

Anne had woken up, and instantly stood up. He looked right at the old man, and asked "What did you do to me?" The old man chuckled a little, and had told Anne that he had put him to sleep. Anne asked why, but the old man only said "To kill the king." Anne didn't know what to think of this, but wanted to know more.

Anne decided to talk to the old man some more, but the old man wasn't wanting to talk. The old man simply told him no, and looked away. The old man didn't want to talk right away since he didn't want Anne to leave just yet. So the old man stalled for time, and wasn't rushed. Anne knew this because he knows how it feels to be alone and lonely.

The old man finally said "Do not answer me or you will die. Do not utter a single word or you will die. Do you wanna know why I put you to sleep, why I talked with you, and why I stalled for time? I was testing you to see which god reincarnated you."

Anne had widened his eyes, and thought to himself if the old man was the only one who knows about heros. He started to panic is to why the old man was testing him, but Anne had a thought come to mind. The old man knew exactly what Anne was thinking.

The old man had told Anne to check his stats, but Anne hesitated. He didn't know if the old man could see his menu let alone how he knew about them. The old man had told Anne to trust him, and he did this time. He turned his bracelet, and the first thing he saw was that nothing was wrong with the map or his gear. He looked at his stats, and what he saw left his jaw open.

The old man looked pleased, and Anne had looked very scared because he didn't know what to think. Anne was about to asks the old man what was happening, but the old man instantly shut him down before he could say something. "Do not utter a word," the old man said with a stern face. "I don't want you to die."

Hearing what the old man say had out Anne in a trance since he was getting used to his new life. He had sat down in front of the old man, and wanted to know more about his stats. The old man knew what Anne was thinking. "It's the side effect from the gods."

"Every god has two side effects, and some of them have more then two. When the god gives you an ability and item he also has to give you a side effect of their choosing. Since in your case you accepted allegiance to the Speech God. As he has told you he is the embodiment of silence and sound," the old man said.

The old man continued "It seems like the god gave you the side effect of silence. This effect makes it that you can not talk, or your stats will start to drop. If the god would've given you the side effect of sound then you would need to talk most of the time that your awake. There are other gods, but I won't get into that."

The old man had started to laugh after his explanation of what was happening. Anne listened, and the more he heard the more scars he got. He had only said about a hundred words, and it had brought all of his stats down to zero except one that had a single point. Anne was on the verge of dying in this world.