APOCALYPSE MERCHANT: I TRADE DOOMS FOR POWER!

So, after barely escaping the Rotting Cartel's ambush, I thought I might take a break, maybe lick my wounds. But nah, that's not how this apocalypse game works. It had other plans concerning the ledger.

**Accidentally Making the Worst Disaster Ever

I was flipping through the ledger, trying to figure out what to trade next. Then I saw this crazy option called "Doom Fusion."

Basically, you could combine two dooms and make a new, way nastier one. Sounds like a bad idea, right? Well, I thought it was worth a shot.

I picked the "Blood Rain Doom" and the "Solar Eclipse Doom," just messing around. The ledger buzzed and glowed like crazy.

A crazy noice puped out of nowhere, bam!!! A new doom I never expected came out: The Bleeding Eclipse.

**What the Bleeding Eclipse Does

It wasn't your average disaster. When the Bleeding Eclipse hits, the sun goes dark, but the sky leaks blood-red rain. People lose their minds, animals turn feral, and the whole land turns into a nightmare.

I knew I couldn't just let this loose anywhere close, too dangerous. But the ledger had an offer: sell it to a cult deep in the wasteland who worshipped apocalyptic gods.

**Meeting Syphine

So, I rode out to find this cult, some freaky bunch called "The Crimson Veil." When I got there, I met Syphine.

She was… something else. Sharp eyes, a smile that didn't reach them, and a vibe like she knew every secret this broken world had. She wasn't like the usual wasteland folk who wanted to kill me or rob me. She wanted to play.

**Syphine's Sabotage

We talked, and I figured she might be an ally, or at least someone I could use. But turns out, Syphine had her own game going on.

She sabotaged some of my trades, like sending me cursed dooms instead of normal ones. One time, she tricked me into selling the "Doom of Laughter," it turned entire villages into giggling stone statues. Creepy, right?

Why Did She Do It?

Syphine said she was trying to teach me a lesson. That every doom comes with unexpected consequences, and that power like the ledger's wasn't meant for just anyone.

I didn't like her much then. But honestly, she made me sharper, forced me to think twice before every trade.

**Unlocking Eclipse-Step Movement

Selling the Bleeding Eclipse to the cult wasn't easy, lots of double-crossing, nearly got me killed. But the payoff? The ledger granted me something called "Eclipse-Step Movement."

Basically, I could move in shadow, disappear and reappear like a flicker. Pretty damn useful when you're hunted by a cartel and weird cults alike.

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this, Syphine dropped a bomb:

"There's a Hollow Auctioneer coming for you, Dren. Someone who plays with the end of worlds."

I laughed it off at first. Then the sky cracked open and the ground trembled.

That's when I realized, this was just the beginning of the real nightmare.

So yeah, just when I thought I was getting a grip on this chaos, another bam!!!! Here comes Karys.

**The Hollow Auctioneer Shows Up

One night, when the blood rain had just stopped pouring, and the wasteland was quiet enough to hear your own heartbeat, the sky tore open like a jagged wound.

From the darkness stepped a figure, tall, draped in a cloak that swallowed the light around him. No face. Just a smooth black void where a face should be.

This was Karys, the Final Bidder. The first of the Hollow Auctioneers, the legendary doom traders who dealt in final, deadly bargains.

**The Unwinnable Trade

He didn't waste time. "Dren Vorsk," his voice was like a whisper from the grave. "I offer you a trade, a god-tier weapon for your hometown."

I blinked. My hometown, the place I barely escaped years ago, the only place with memories worth a damn.

"No way. That's impossible."

Karys smiled in that faceless way. "Impossible is just another word for 'not yet done.' You either trade or lose it all."

**Dren's Dilemma

I was stuck. The weapon he offered could make me untouchable, like a god myself. But at what cost?

I walked the ruins of my old town that night, thinking about the people, the dust, the memories.

The ledger throbbed in my hands, reminding me that every trade had its price.

**Cheating Death with a Doom

Karys gave me a deadline, sunrise. If I didn't decide, my town would burn anyway.

I flipped through the ledger frantically. Then I found it, "Doom of Forgetting." A forbidden trade, erased from most records.

I could trade that doom and wipe the auction from history, basically cheating the system. But messing with the ledger like that? Dangerous.

I made the trade. The ledger burned with a searing light. The auction disappeared. My hometown was safe… for now.

But something in the ledger shifted. Darker. Hungrier. Meanwhile Karys wasn't gone.

So, I thought cheating Karys would buy me some peace. Spoiler: it didn't.

**The Ledger's New Hunger

After trading the Doom of Forgetting, the ledger didn't just settle. It growled, like it was alive and pissed off. Pages flipped on their own, symbols glowing red and black.

I felt something inside me change, darker, heavier. Like I wasn't just holding a book anymore, but a beast feeding off my soul.

**Rotting Cartel's Revenge

While I was wrestling with the ledger's curse, the Rotting Cartel struck again.

They hit my camp at dawn, not with swords this time, but with plague clouds thick enough to choke the sun.

Vorrek showed up, grinning wide. "Thought you could hide, merchant?"

I barely escaped, coughing up black bile, the ledger burning my side like a hot coal.

**Syphine's Return - Friend or Foe?

Just when I was ready to give up, Syphine appeared from the shadows. She saved me, but not for free.

"I told you, Dren," she said, her eyes cold but not cruel. "Power like this always comes with a price. But you're not ready for the ledger's true power."

She pulled me out of the plague, but her words felt like a warning and a threat.

**The Truth About Syphine

I confronted her. Why sabotage me? Why help me?

She sighed, eyes flickering with something I couldn't name. "Because I am part of this world's doom, just like you. I'm not just some girl. I'm a Doomborn, a living disaster given shape."

That shook me.

She was the Doom of Betrayal made flesh, trapped between wanting to destroy me and save me.

**New Stakes

Now it wasn't just about survival. It was about control.

The ledger wasn't just a tool, it was a chain binding us both. And with the Rotting Cartel hunting me and Syphine's true nature revealed, the game was about to get a whole lot darker.

After everything, I knew one thing for sure: I had to get stronger. The ledger was evolving, and so was the fight.

**Mastering Doom Fusion

I spent nights locked away, practicing the ledger's most dangerous skill: Doom Fusion.

The idea? Combine two disasters and create a nightmare so bad it'd break kingdoms.

I started small, mixed a drought with a locust plague. The fields died in days, crops shriveled, and the skies turned a sick yellow. The ledger rewarded me with a power called "Dust Veil", I could blend into the dust storms, vanish like smoke.

**Creating The Walking Famine

So, I pushed it further, way too far. I fused famine and plague, but something went sideways. Instead of just disasters, the fusion spawned a creature — a kid made of hunger and sickness, eyes empty but begging.

I named it The Walking Famine.

At first, I thought it was a curse. But it followed me, like a shadow, and somehow, it was alive because of my trades.

**The Calamity Vanguard

It hit me, I wasn't alone in this. People who survived my dooms, twisted and scarred, were out there.

I found a few, a fire-witch with burns that never healed, a thief who escaped a plague by crawling through sewers, and a mute warrior who fought a flood with bare hands.

We formed the Calamity Vanguard.

We weren't heroes. Not yet. But we were survivors bound by disaster.

**Syphine's Warning

Syphine watched me closely.

"You're playing with fire, Dren," she said one night. "The ledger doesn't just want trades. It wants you. And soon, the God of Calamity will wake."

I asked her what she meant. She only smiled, half-sad, half-knowing.

"Some debts can't be escaped, and some dooms are worse than death."

**The Rotting Cartel Strikes Again

Before I could figure out what that meant, the Cartel hit hard.

They kidnapped one of the Vanguard. I was outnumbered, outgunned, but I had the ledger.

With my new powers, Dust Veil and Flame Lash, I tore through their ranks, saving my friend but knowing it was just a battle in a war I couldn't yet see.

As we fled, the ledger pulsed, a new trade was appearing, one I never dared to touch: "The Chain-Reaction Doom."

The page glowed like a warning.

I hesitated. But deep down, I knew one thing: I had no choice.