The air inside "The Cinders' Den" was thick with an atmospheric tension resembling the smell of lightning before it strikes. The five capsules were lined up like black sarcophagi, waiting for whoever dared to surrender their soul to them. Seraphia was not present today; the shop was still in its early stages of fame, and the current audience consisted of the elite who had discovered the place first: Baros, Rakan, Elena, Myra, and Kyle, along with the silent Kayan, who watched everything with a hawk's gaze.
"You think you've seen the worst?" Leon said, wiping imaginary blood from his hand—a lingering phantom sensation from a failed attempt inside the game. "Today, I will show you that Lordran respects no one, not even the shop owner."
Leon entered the capsule, and as it sealed shut, the five screens above ignited to display the "Undead Burg."
The scene began with Leon standing on a narrow stone bridge overlooking a bottomless abyss shrouded in an eternal, thick fog. The location was a sprawling city built of gray stone, but it was not a city for the living. The buildings were shattered, and tattered curtains flapped in the wind like ghosts weeping in the dark.
Leon faced his first obstacle: An Ambush Party. From the dark corners, four Undead jumped out simultaneously. They weren't massive monsters; they were leathery, hollow husks wearing remnants of armor, but their movements were sudden and frantic.
One was throwing firebombs from an upper balcony, two rushed with broken swords, and a fourth waited in the shadows with a poisoned dagger. Leon was no "superhuman" here; his in-game Mana was extremely limited. He tried to dodge the first bomb, but the shrapnel grazed his shoulder, causing his health bar on the screen to drop visibly.
"Damn it, they've cornered him!" Rakan shouted as he watched Leon struggle to parry the two swords while trying to track the sniper above.
Leon pushed the first one with his shield, but the second drove a sword into Leon's thigh. Leon groaned audibly inside the capsule, his steps faltering. There were no magical skills to save him; he had to rely on his iron alone. With a desperate swing, he decapitated the first, then lurched backward to fall from the edge of the stairs, narrowly evading the second bomb, only to end up bleeding in a narrow alleyway.
After a bitter struggle with the city's "rabble," Leon reached a very narrow passage at the end of the district. There stood the Black Knight. This entity looked like a piece of pure night; his armor was charred black, and his Greatsword was longer than Leon's entire body.
The Knight radiated an aura of terror that made even Baros outside feel a chill.
"This opponent... his level is leagues beyond Leon's," Kayan muttered grimly.
The fight began. The Black Knight was merciless; every swing of his blade shook the ground beneath Leon's feet. Leon tried to use the Parry technique, but his timing was off by a fraction of a second.
The result was horrifying: the Knight's Greatsword pierced through Leon's shield and shattered his ribs.
[YOU DIED]
Silence fell over the shop. Leon, the "Master," had died before their eyes.
After a few seconds, Leon respawned at a distant Bonfire and had to walk the entire distance again. His face was dripping with sweat inside the capsule, and his breath was heavy. He returned to the Black Knight a second time... and died. A third time... and died.
"He's suffering..." Elena said fearfully. "Why doesn't he give up?"
Baros replied in a deep voice: "Because he is learning. Look at his movements; every time he dies, his evasion of the next strike becomes accurate by mere millimeters."
On the tenth attempt, with an exhausted body and virtual blood covering his face, Leon finally seized the moment. As the Knight raised his sword for a vertical strike, Leon slid beneath the blade—not with a magical roll, but with a strained, physical crawl—and drove his sword into the gap of the armor beneath the armpit. The Knight let out a metallic scream and vanished into black dust.
It didn't end there. Leon ascended to the roof of an old cathedral, where two Bell Gargoyles dropped on him. Massive stony creatures with leathery wings, breathing fire from their mouths and carrying giant axes.
The space was extremely cramped; the sloped stone roof made balance nearly impossible. Leon was fighting one beast from the front while the second flew behind him, spewing flames.
Leon's cloak caught fire, and his virtual hair began to singe. He was rolling on the stone tiles, his sword clashing against the monsters' stone-hard hide, sending sparks everywhere.
"This is madness! How can a human fight two in a place like this?" Kyle shouted.
Leon used his last Estus Flask, and with a suicidal move, jumped over the first beast's tail to sever it, then rolled quickly before the second axe could crush him. The fight was chaotic, bloody, and full of mistakes that nearly killed him, but in the end, he managed to bring them both down.
When the capsule lid opened, Leon emerged staggering. His body was trembling from the "neural feedback" pressure of the machine. He sat on the floor and leaned his back against the capsule, panting deeply while sweat soaked his shirt.
The five customers looked at him in awe. They didn't see him as a god today; they saw him as a true fighter—someone who suffers, falls, errs, and dies, but rises every single time.
"This is the challenge," Leon said in a hoarse voice. "Lordran will not give you power for free. It will take your nerves, your pride, and perhaps your sanity. But when you step out of that capsule after killing a demon you failed against ten times... you will know the meaning of truly being 'alive'."
The customers lunged at the capsules with unprecedented enthusiasm. They were no longer afraid of death; they had seen Leon die and realized that strength does not lie in never falling, but in repeating the attempt
As the customers fought, Leon felt a slight improvement in his stamina. The System didn't give him magical strength; it gave him "mental and muscular toughness." His Mana began to mold itself to be "resilient," absorbing shocks rather than just blocking them.
A System message appeared only before his eyes:
[Current First Arc Progress: 2%]
[Goal: 3 Customers to clear the game + Leon]
Leon looked at the customers who began to scream in pain inside the capsules and smiled bitterly. "An hour and a half won't be enough for you... you'll need entire lifetimes to end this hell."
As the shop's fame spread, the first signs of the "Great Trouble" began to appear on the horizon; guards from the "High Magic Tower" were seen watching the alley from a distance, recording everyone who entered and exited this mysterious black fortress.