Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

didn’t outweigh the [Minos Horn] he lost to rescue her, the time she just saved them both more than made up for it.

Together, they jogged toward the Asylum of the Silent Sorrows.

13

The Asylum of Silent Sorrows was just as creepy as Jacob could have imagined. Inside the looming dark structure was a spell of silence that afflicted most floors of the building. Even though Alec warned him about the area effect, it still shocked Jacob to suddenly be rendered deaf and mute.

Camilla was just as stunned, trying to speak but finding no sound coming out, she pointed to her hands and wriggled them about. After a few false starts, she managed to mime that she was incapable of casting any spells while silenced.

Sound was such a key part of listening for the wheezing, rasping breath of a panting beast, or the shuffling sound of a Vacant that he felt a wave of panic assault him as they stepped inside.

Without a map of any kind, Jacob relied on the memories of rough sketches Alec drew for him. The asylum was filled with creatures that preyed on fear, using hallucination and poison to cripple and render their targets vulnerable.

Luckily, the monsters were relatively weak and would fall with one or two well-placed attacks. Especially now that he had a sword.

While his [Mace] was fine, with his increased skill his [Longsword] was capable of more than double the former’s damage. Not to mention that the Sword Forms were more efficient on Stamina than simply swinging a weapon about.

If he took the time to venture to the top floor of the bell tower and ring the bell, it would disable the magical enchantment. Without the silencing effect, they would be free to cast spells and most importantly hear the creatures.

The Patients and Staff as they were called, were quite loud according to Alec. They laughed and chuckled to themselves, making them easy to avoid or sneak up on.

It was, as Alec told him, a great place to farm Souls if he was short. A quick glance at his current reserves made Jacob smile.

He didn’t need to waste his time here. His goal was to get through the asylum as fast as possible through the basements, ignite the Pyre there and press on.

The main hall was frigid. Flurries of snow drifted in from the broken, crumbling gaps in the walls. Ice gathered on the exposed surfaces, creating false reflections and shimmers of light that distracted Jacob as they tried to press deeper into the asylum.

Following what he could remember of Alec’s directions, Jacob took a series of decrepit tunnels off to the left. Instead of using the stairs, Camilla found a series of rooms so badly damaged by the frost that the outer walls caved in. The damage from the cave-in created broken gaps in the stone flooring. A direct path down several levels of the asylum.

So far they had only seen a few creatures, patients in various medieval torture devices like straitjackets, cages placed on their heads, shock collars, and more than a few with large sections of their skull missing.

The crumbling walls of the asylum grew tighter, the rooms they ventured within, claustrophobic. The deeper they went, the more the asylum seemed to bend in on itself in unnatural ways.

Doing their best to avoid any sort of conflict, the pair tried to stay in visual range whenever possible. But due to the tight turns and narrow halls, it was often impossible.

The number of things that required speech was surprising. Even something as simple as warning Camilla about a bug-like creature skittering up from one of the pits in one of the outer walls required Jacob to physically touch the woman and point out the threat.

They were both so wound up that any touch likely brought up a reactionary attack. Camilla nearly lost a finger when she tugged on Jacob’s belt, pulling him back into a room just as a lumbering creature emerged into the hall looking about suspiciously.

That silencing enchantment worked both ways. While they were undeniably stealthier, so was everything else. But it meant that if a creature did not directly see Jacob or Camilla, they were in the clear.

It was slow going for a while, skulking from one ruined chamber to the next, peering out using gaps in the walls or looking both ways and praying something wasn’t perched just outside the door.

Jacob sported more than a few bruises from Camilla’s surprisingly strong right-cross. Her go-to whenever she was startled. Was it his imagination, or was she growing stronger?

Her first few surprised attacks were weak and feeble but the longer they were together, the stronger Camilla seemed to get. She still looked like death warmed over but she no longer acted like it.

Camilla ventured out into the narrow hall. The hairs on the back of Jacob’s neck stood on end, something wasn’t right but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

The hallway looked different from the others. For one, it led to a clearly visible staircase that would let them go deeper into the asylum.

The last fifteen minutes had them venturing all over the labyrinth of crossing narrow hallways in an attempt to find more holes in the floor to go down deeper. The sudden appearance of what they so desperately needed filled Jacob with more concern than relief.

Pyresouls didn’t work that way. If starvation was a mechanic, then the first thing any player would see after feeling the pit of despair in their stomach grow would be a tasty looking apple.

Sure enough, that apple would be poisoned and kill the player. That is how Pyresouls worked and so spying a staircase when they saw no other path deeper was more than a little worrying.

Since they were now well into the sub-levels of the asylum, there wasn’t much damage to the surrounding structure. Just as Camilla was about to step forward, seeing no immediate danger, Jacob spotted it.

A glint of polished metal that sent his internal alarm bells ringing like