I see a mirror, in a white void, I approach it on feet blazing with a dull pain, the floor I'm walking on isn't real, but neither is any of this.
It's at an angle to me, so I can't see myself until I am right up next to it.
The mirror itself isn't anything really special, a dark grey rectangle frame enveloping a standing mirror.
I am infront of it now. I turn to face it, to see myself.
But there is nothing. Not even. A Shadow…
Nothing in that mirror. But a white void.
It is then that I realize.
This isn't a mirror.
But a door.
I grasp around, and find it's knob, I twist it
The door opens, there is a face peering back at me, it has deathly pale skin, sleek pitch black hair, two horns curling around its long, sharp ears, it's radiant, slitted yellow eyes squint at me sleepily
It blinks, then yawns and shakes it's head and says, "ethralneh klonec nix boltaknrval alverun, Nuin eltzontor berackno pelner…"
After it (she??) says that, it (she?) closes the door and I wake up.
- - - -
My first thought isn't about the surprise that I'm still alive.
No for some reason I'm vaguely insulted..?
As the dream, maybe nightmare slips from my fingers at my solidifying consciousness. I peel back my eyes only to be met with not a ceiling of flesh, but my face pressed into a stone wall…
It then all comes back, again, I glance up, trying to parse the rune I made, but the darkness is so impossible to penetrate with my eyes, my other hand stumbles around the wall, looking for the carving.
When my hand meets the jagged stone, the mana already flowing through it connects with my form, and I can suddenly feel it's entirety. But as I 'see' it's full form, I quickly jerk my hand back to my chest as quickly as I can.
I must have been so, so, so out of it when I made this…
It is a simple array. Too simple honestly…
A triangle that holds a circle in it, being connected at all three sides, it has three simple commands in all three of the parts outside of the circle.
Absorb Mana.
Convert to Heat.
Repeat.
There isn't a failsafe, not a cap on the heat level, until there is not a single thing of mana coming in contact with it, it will not stop…
And since the ambient mana in the area is practically unlimited… there isn't much of a possibility of a natural stopping point.
This is a slightly weaker, but completely unleashed version of that rune I made to originally deal with that dire bear.
Only with the place of expulsion and the stablizing shape being in opposite places.
Though for something like this, with the intention of the heat radiating outward instead of being pushed through to a smaller point in the center, it's a way I had never actually tried before, well, without the thing exploding instantly…
'I would say it's ingenious , but I know who made it. And I know that eventually this will end up becoming the magical equivalent of thermite, and the only thing that could theoretically stop it naturally would be the when the wall it's on melts to slag…' the thought both reassured and sent shivers down my spine.
'As long as I'm not here when it gets to that point, it should be fine.' The idea of being anywhere but here was a necessary comfort at this point.
'But the growth of the heat is directly proportional to the amount of mana it absorbs and it defaulted to the highest setting because of course I enscribed the command with the intent for as much heat as possible to be emitted.' My analysis left my mind with only one dreadful understanding.
'this is the runic equivalent of thermite…' noticing that the rune had heated up enough that not only was my hand unstuck to the wall, but that my bones stopped feeling like glass…
I tried to take a step, but the pain in my feet was real, and at this rate, their going to get infected.
So I sit down near the now warm wall and take out the rags that used to be my pants, and rip them up into bandages. I wring out as much of the blood as I can and set them below the rune in strips so as to dry as much as they can while the heat is still being held in check by the eternal chill that sticks to this place.
I sit crisscrossed with my feet not touching the slightly heated floor.
It was still ungodly cold, but not weld-my-skin-to-any-surface-I-touch cold.
I lay there, trying to keep my mind off the pain with breathing exercises, for an untrackable amount of minutes, but by the time I open my eyes again, I am hungry, and the thirst I feel becomes too much to bare.
The hunger isn't debilitating yet, but I haven't had anything to drink except blood in two gods forsaken days!
With that in mind, I begin to devise another rune, one more restrained, hopefully…
Issue.
I dropped the knife, and it isn't near the wall.
And I can't light up the area to see where it was even if I want to,
First, this place is shrouded in what I'm fairly certain is magical darkness. Second, the tiny amount of mana I had in my system got absorbed by the rune above me without remorse.
Third, and most prevalent is that the pain from my feet would be constantly impacting my concentration. Which would lead me to losing control again…
So I'm in a bit of a pickle here…
Though, there is one source of enscribing material I have in bounds…
Seems like today will be one for breaking the bounds of reason, ey?
- - - -
Here is the lie, blood runes are forbidden magic that will have you throw away your humanity for more power.
Here is the truth, although I make runes all the time, I'm not very good at writing in details while in an almost mind boggling amount of sensory information entering my mind at the moment.
Here is the reality of the situation, I can't see, I can't feel out it's grooves because it's blood and would get destroyed if I tried to trace the lines I made, so I am basically going off a mental map and the assumption that the blood is in a small sheen on the ground and not in a puddle, and on top of all of that, I am using the negative space of the blood being separated to form the rune, and not the blood itself.
This means that any number of things could go wrong here, and that anything too detailed and small will most certainly just congeal back into one heap…
Meaning, I can't make a water gathering rune from it, as they are very, very detailed…
This is what happened only a moment after I finished that array.
- - - -
The dread that had it's hold on my heart keels over and dies as I feel that ambient mana absorb into the blood my hand is still touching.
I feel the runes affects filling my mana form.
But it feels, different.? As if the aspect of darkness that floods the mana of this place held on and into my steadily refilling form.
But the feeling of exaustion, and hunger, and thirst is abated, and itself shrouded in that same darkness.
And for now, I know exactly what those that have an attribute feel like.
It's an alien feeling, like some one is staring into my soul, examining it, judging it.
What ever it decided, it would seem it did not like what it saw, and just as it came it left…
Leaving me seemingly even more cold and alone then I ever thought I was.
At that point I had deactivated the rune. And no matter how much I try to get it to work again, it just, doesn't…
- - - -
My head tilts back in hits the wall, despair filling my heart at the disregard of the mana.
'How fucking dare that shitstain!' Red shouts.
"To be… abandoned by even the darkness of such a place… what are we..?" Purple says, enraptured by the despair…
'Oh come on! Give a girl a break would ya!' Green tries to yell, but it comes out more as a groan.
'What else is there to try?' Cyan mumbles, the facade of perfection they had finally shattering.
'There might be one other thing we can do in this situation…' yellow speaks up, analyzing
'What? what!?' Green shouts with frantic hope.
'We could try to bridge with the soul like the book said, it's a long shot, but it's the only thing I can think of… I'm sorry'
'Don't say that. If there is any way we can get out of this, we have to take it!' Green empassionately remarks
And with that I tune out of the conversation and think about the idea brought to my attention…
I sigh at the thought, thinking for a moment it would be nothing but hopeless.
But then an image, one buried deep in the shattered memories of who I used to be, a lifetime ago comes to mind, a person, sitting crisscross apple sause, breathing to a stable beat and saying 'this too shall pass,' to themselves, gets shoved to the forefront of my mind.
Slumping a bit, but deciding to humor the little hope remaining inside me, I sit up straighter and try to relax as much as I can. And start breathing in the pattern that memory supposedly was breathing in.
It is difficult. With all the sensations.
But I keep in mind that saying 'this too shall pass' and try to distract myself by recalling the book's words on the fourth chapter.
I know practically by heart where the author said the 108 points I need to focus on are located.
He said first to find the physical energy, then press it on those points all at once, until the pressure gets almost to the point of bursting, and then, once you feel something that should not be there, you use the physical energy to grasp at that feeling, if done correctly, the gap between your body and soul will be completely bridged.
I have already grasped the feeling of my soul, but I lost concentration in my excitement last time.
I call my physical energy to me, and it comes with not a sluggish lilt, but a speed that shocked be so much I almost lost concentration of it, but to even more of my surprise, the energy stayed under my control, despite my lapse in focus.
'It's like it wants to do what I want…' a part of my mind mumbles in that same shock
For context, my physical energy has up until this point been almost completely uncontrollable, it would, no matter what kind of ways I prodded at it, always be sluggish and act like a non-newtonian fluid…
And now, it's acting like more like how I initially thought it would, like a muscle… completely under my will.
It feels more releaving than most of the things I've experienced lately, to feel it be so cooperative.
With a renewed hope, I try to manipulate the energy to where I need it, but, used to needing way more force to get it to go where I want, the ki overshoots and fills my limbs, I call it back in a panic, and conclude that this needs a more delicate touch than I'm used to.
Instead of forcing it, I point out where I need it, it doesn't seem to understand, only barely moving. more control is needed then…
I take to my namesake and guide the ki to the points I need it at, and it complies with what I would like to think is relief.
It is almost instantaneous, the movement of my ki, it knows where to go.
And once it is all where I need it, I push on it
And in seconds where before it took hours of pain and frustration. I can feel it, that odd feeling of what I can only ascribe as my soul…
The feeling is, just like the author described, like me, like my mana form, but more, real? But more thin? Like the bones of the situation?
It certainly doesn't feel like the stark flow of my mana… and the feeling of all one hundred and eight bridges being connected was euphoric.
But with the at euphoria came a question.
'Why hasn't this worked up until now?' A part of me (Magenta I think) asked, it gets a response almost immediately.
'Our mana form, have we ever actually produced any mana? We learnt to regain mana by absorbing it from the ambient stuff all around us, but as the darkness infused mana proved, that mana is still the mana of other people, it's the stuff that sticks to others, and they absorb and convert into mana of their own, but we don't have the capacity to convert what is absorbed into something that we can use right? Because we don't have an attribute of our own…' the theory made a rather uncomfortable kind of sense…
'But, what did we do this for again? Like why did we just solidify our connection with our soul when we should have, I don't know tried looking for the knife?' Green asks, confused,
'The outside mana was acting as a wall between our body and our soul connecting fully, it's like we have been in an egg for years and the mana holding us back was the membrane keeping it that way!'
'So your saying that the fact that we never converted the mana to our side caused it to act against us or something?' Orange suggests.
'More or less yeah, and now that it's gone, the function it was suppressing becomes free to act as we need it to, leading to a far easier time in the completion of the task we needed to complete.' Yellow confirms.
'So what, you're saying that you used our hope of survival to, complete an arbitrary task!?' Red exclaimed.
'hey, if we're going to die anyway, might as well complete one of the things we neede to, you know?' Yellow responded in a blasé tone…
I tune out of the conversation again to try and salvage the situation.
Only for purple to whisper one thing directly to me
'If magic can be produced… how do you think they do that…? …mayhaps see what happens when… these two energies fuse…'
With nothing else to loose, I just bite the bullet and try to combine the newly bridged energies together.
At first I can't, one in my mind is muscle, and the other is bone. But I reframe my perspective of them, representing them in my mind as different colored energies.
For some reason, these two energies show themselves as magenta for ki and yellow for soul…
As I used my ki to explore and feel out my soul, I found that my soul's, contrary to what I thought, did not appear as whole as the mana form I had been using up until now , instead it remained within, almost entirely, slightly under my bones. It wasn't a stretch to imagine my soul as bones,
But then I had a thought, that if the bridges that connect my body and soul are like tendons, then, What is stopping me from connecting more? After realizing this, I began the process of molding my Ki and soul to connect like my physical body does, each tendon, each a tiny bridge. It is like, I was locked, stagnant. But then began to move…
It's a bit painful, but I know that was pain I need, it means I'm alive
But, the more I connect, the closer I come to making my body from these energies, the further away I feel from understanding, the more I get a creeping dread that I've missed something.
'A person is not only muscles and bone… it is also blood, and organs, and senses…' I nod at purple's assessment.
But that's a lot, to make, and all this fusion has the hunger I have been ignoring come screaming in, and the thirst all the more apparent.
Thrown off by the sudden pain from my stomach. I loose concentration, and the euphoria fades… but the connections to my soul doesn't, and the two energies start to fuse passively.
And suddenly, within this new version of myself, where my organs should be, fills a cool liquid in their shape. A liquid I know all too well, but have never learnt how to move in such a position. I'm used to it coming from the outside and resting in my skin, and veins.
But as I think that, the liquid starts to funnel through my ki in paths I didn't even realize I made, it moves through my body, through my veins, but in the opposite way to the ambient mana of before, it feels, far less finicky. I only really use strings because anything thicker tends to warp out of my control at the slightest drop in concentration…
I outstretch my hand, and from my finger Tips come strings.
And as clear as I understand that this is my mana it is mine… I also understand that this has become a by far more limited resource, something I cannot waste with frivolous flavor.
The mana that I was usinh before was diluted, but prevalent. But this new mana no longer rests in my body as a form, but as a part, the organs and blood of a body that doesn't technically exist.
And it would seem that just like how I have little physical energy due to my state, i so too have a lesser amount of mana, until I can replenish myself.
But how? This place is… just…
Even with these revelations, I remain here, playing with string, and dying even quicker due to my expenditure of energy…
I stand once again, in a now sweltering hallway. And take the now completely dried rags and wrap them around my feet. I then begin to limp down the hall again. My foot bumps against something.
I crouch and feel around, a bit of happiness blooms in me that I had not lost it. It's the knife!
I tuck it into my pouch and move on forward. Realizing that the wall is getting cold again, I extend a mana string from my palm and have it act as a feeler while my hand keeps just off the wall.
It feels different… there isn't a constant slow drain of mana leaving me as I cast. Simply the extension of myself in a way I can't really describe. But it doesn't leave, it doesn't slip through my fingers and run at the first chance it gets…
'And feels far more reassuring Than the constant, slight drain…'
As I think this, I walk head first into a wall, I manage to not fall over in the once again deadly cold. And start to use the string to feel around for anything notable.
I accidentally bump the string on a… lump? On the wall and it compresses the thing, and then in the wall, for the first time since I came to this place a noise outside of me can be heard.
It is a groaning and clicking in the wall. The wall slowly slides to the side, and even more shockingly, I see something in the darkness of the other side.
It is a room. With, what could have been candles burning in the wall, but I had to quickly shut my eyes at the sheer and sudden light attacking them.
It's only after blinking for a while that, I begin to be able to see them for what they are, and they are wall lanterns.
And it is with the light of these lanterns that I realize that right in front of my eyes, practically covering my whole view, is a silently panicking system
[DING]
[Quest board activated: URGENT QUEST: GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE. NOW.
QUEST OBJECTIVE: get out of that dungeon!
REWARD: (I don't know, anything will do…) a random D- rank reward!
SECRET REWARD: blah blah blah don't get fucking eaten!
SECRET REWARD: fuckin I don't know! Uhh clothe yourself! Or something…
SECRET REWARD: uhh uhh uhh fuck shit, ummm get out of here with no physical injuries? Whatever-
Find. The. Book.: ???]
[QUEST FAILURE CONDITIONS: pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplea-
FAILURE PUNISHMENT: YOU DIE.]
As my eyes got bombarded by the very panicked visage of the tarnish system, I read through it, the relief of the system not being gone, and the sudden thought of a system exhibiting such, human reactions as panic gets me giggling like I'm mad.
the gravity of the situation is the only thing that keeps me from falling into a fit of guffaws.
I look at it, only to find it has stopped moving so erratically and only says on it's surface
[what's so funny…]
Realizing how insensitive I was being, my giggles petter out as I say "n-no I-I'm just *ahem*, I'm just happy to see you."
"I add on hopefully, and you wouldn't happen to know where the exit is would you…?" I say with a bit of a forced smile
[…]
[I think this is the first time you've ever been… happy to see us..?]
[but anyway, yes! The map… uhhh, no dice on that one I'm afraid, though maybe try looking around, this room might have something…]
I look around the stone chamber I now stand in, there is still shadows here, but the darkness itself is hesitant to come invade this space, remaining by the door like an impenetrable mist.
Oddly enough I felt less safe in the light of these candles… that darkness had already passed its judgement upon me, and deemed me not even a threat to be destroyed.
But that being said, it is definitely nice to be able to actually see things…
Such as the desk with a drawer in it to the farthest wall, or the rugged chest to my left or the worn lever to my right.
There isn't anything other than these three things and the lanterns in view.
Well, that and the dust on the floor, and we'll, every thing else…
My eyes shifted to the the chest, but I moved towards the desk, thinking it would be less likely for a trap to be present in a drawer then a chest.
I need to get on my tippy toes to see over the desk but from my view point, I wasn't able to see anything on the table top…
'It's times like this that I hope my body gets a clue and initiates with the growth spurt… aren't girls supposed to grow early?' I grumble to myself.
I then go ahead and open the drawer, it's at a more manageable angle, so I am able to peer into it more, and I see with in it's depths a rolled up piece of parchment.
I grab it and unfurl it, revealing that it's actually two pieces of parchment, a letter in a language I don't know and a map! That is notated in that same different language…
Closing it back up I tuck it in my pouch and look through the rest of the drawer to see if there's anything else there.
And there is a black iron key, tucked at the very back, trying to hide, but easily taken.
On a hunch I try to open the chest, and it doesn't budge. I try it with the key and it fits, but I don't turn the key, thinking about the possibility of it being trapped, I first put my palm to the key hole and prod around for a while, finding that the chest can be unlocked by turning it left or right, and there is some kind of latch that would be flipped if you turn it right.
Knowing this, I insert the key and twist it to the left.
I am met with the click of the chest unlocking, I open it fully, only to realize that I can't actually see into it, my eye, twitching at this point and fed up with all the tall person architecture, I grab the back of the chest and flip it onto it's side, sending its contents sliding out!
Most of what comes out is just, more parchment, looks like, documents or something? But there is nothing else, the bottom isn't just to make it look more impressive, the bottom of the chest doesn't have legs or a hollow bit…
That means there is most likely a false bottom.
I get into position and kick the bottom with all my might, which is enough might for the floor to slant inward and with a few tugs and tilts, the old floor is gone, revealing a grey linen lined interior with three things inside.
A compass, a vile of a dark green… goop? labeled in another language, and a barely glowing purple orb in the very center.
I take the compass, because that is the least suspicious of the items…
And it turns out to be kinda broken… the arrow that should be pointing north seems to be completely split in to one side keeping on what might be north and the other shakily pointing somewhere to the south…
As I turn it, I notice that the point that should be looking at north is actually looking at the orb… I tilt and turn it, but for all that compass knows, 'north' is that orb…
So I just sigh and decide to take it.
I put the compass in the pouch, but I've run out of space to fit the orb as well, so I just keep it in my hands.
Luckily, it isn't whispering evil things into my mind, but who knows how long that's gunna last…
And lastly, with all the loot I'm willing to take with me, and before I can second guess myself, I turn to the lever, and decide to pull it.
And then the floor and wall surrounding the lever and therefore also me, gets turned 180 degrees, And I am once again plunged into the darkness.
And my only thought as this happens?
'What did the system mean by 'eaten'?'
- - - -
Kinda wanted to end this chapter on an Odd number, I think I did a good job, remember to comment if you have any questions!
Thanks for reading!
Any criticism is welcome I'm getting a bit desperate at this point!
See ya next time in chapter sixteen!