Leaning down over the water, he cleaned the slightly scabbed over slash marks on his arm. Nate wasn’t keen to get into the water, even if the bottom looked sandy and inviting. Gently scrubbing the wound with his hands, he figured the water wouldn’t be bad for the wound, and he knew you were supposed to clean wounds so they didn’t get infected. He even considered opening the scabs up a little to let the water get inside but was wary of bleeding into the water more than he already was. Plenty of sea creatures could smell blood in the water, and Nate wasn’t in a hurry to find out if anything lurked in the depths of the lake.
The cuts burned a little at first as the water brushed up against them, but it slowly faded to the familiar tingle of mana on his skin. Nate took that as a positive sign and drank a little more before retreating from the edge of the shallows. He kept his focus on the deeper waters of the lake as he backed up to the trees again. It was a beautiful sight. One that he was going to try and remember so he could draw it in the future.
Nate’s reverie was broken by a soft, snuffling noise behind him. He looked around, trying to think if he could make a run for it, but doing so would only take him further away from the Dungeons entrance and the hallway. Making a snap decision, he moved forward and began wading out into the water, still fully clothed. Hunching down till only his head was above the water, he swivelled in place so that he was parallel to the shore. He wanted to be able to see whatever was making that noise but was unwilling to put his back to the deeper water. It had been pleasant and quiet so far, but he was not going to drop his guard just because he’d had a moment of peace.
The water itself, at least, was a lovely tepid temperature. He could feel the tingling on his skin grow noticeably stronger wherever the water touched him. He figured that was because there was probably more mana in the water than in the air of the dungeon. A question of density? he wondered.
Basic physics told him that the number of water molecules in a glass would be significantly higher than the number of gaseous molecules in the same glass were it empty. Did mana then require some sort of medium? Or was it more conceptual? Nate’s curiosity was piqued, but he didn’t have time to dwell on those questions or devise ways to test his hypothesis. Now was the time for survival, and so far, he had to admit he wasn’t doing a great job of it.
The sound of something sniffing grew louder until a shadow trotted out from beneath the boughs of the trees. The beast looked like a wild boar crossed with a bull, and standing, Nate thought its back might be as high as his shoulders. The creature sported tusks both exiting its mouth and another two forward facing on the top of its head. Only two eyes this time, Nate thought tiredly. He’d wondered if everything on this planet had extra eyes.
The creature kept sniffing at the grass and the air as it wandered closer to his hoodie, still hanging in the tree. Clearly, the thing had his scent, and if it was anything like pigs from Earth, Nate knew it would be an omnivore, as happy to eat some grass as to eat him. Staying low in the water, he hoped the boar, as he had decided to think of it, had poor eyesight. Trotting closer to the tree branch where his hoodie hung, the boar sniffed a few more times before snorting loudly and started to veer towards the water, nose close to the ground. It didn’t bother to raise its head as it started to wade into the water, still sniffing for him.
In response, Nate ducked below the surface of the water and drifted off to the side, careful not to disturb the water too much with his passage. Holding his breath and keeping his eyes closed, he continued to float in the half-metre gap between the sand and the water's surface. When his lungs started to scream for oxygen, he slowly broke the surface to see if his repositioning had helped.
The boar had continued to stomp past where he had been, heading deeper into the water. Its head still easily broke the surface, and the single-mindedness of the beast seemed to be driving the creature farther into the lake to find the source of the smell that had captured its interest. Nate watched as it got close to the edge of the shallows, the darkness of the deeper water now only a metre or so from the boar.
Ripples disturbed the deeper water, and Nate and the boar seemed to notice it at the same time. Nate took that moment to push for the shore as the boar squealed in fear and tried to turn towards the shore, its bulk working against it as the water resisted the motion. Before it could fully make its turn, a claw almost as big as the boar came out of the darkness and snapped shut over its abdomen, cutting it almost completely in half, before dragging the beast back toward the bottom of the lake. Get faster updates on NovelPing.
Nate goggled at the size of the claw as it slipped into the darkness of the lake, never pausing in his mad dash for the shoreline. A few bubbles reached the surface, and he thought perhaps he could see some of what might be intestines floating where the creature had snatched the boar. He swallowed rising bile and whispered a quiet, “What the fuck?” tinged with fear. Pulling himself onto the shore, he focused on what little he’d managed to notice of the creature’s appearance to distract himself from the shock and suddenness of the attack. It had been quick, but it looked like a crab claw, dark blue in colour, much like the depths of the lake it hid within. Nate just hoped that there was only one of the giant bastards in the lake. He knew he’d most likely need to make more trips back here to drink and wash. There wasn’t an alternative unless he found another source of water.
Standing on the grass at the edge of the lake, he noticed his clothes had been destroyed. In his haste to escape the boar, he’d gone into the water fully clothed, and the mana in the water had done a number on everything he wore. He could visibly see the materials slowly deteriorate before his eyes, and he had no way to dry them before the mana finished destroying them. Taking a few steps, the soles of his shoes fell off. His shirt and pants were on their way to being considered threadbare. With a defeated sigh, he slowly stripped off the remains of his clothes, some tearing away under his ministrations, before dumping them in a pile. All that remained was the ring on his finger when he was done and his hoodie hanging from the tree branch. At least he wouldn’t be completely naked. With a sigh and one last glance back at the lake, he grabbed his hoodie in one hand and began his trek back to the temple.
He hadn’t lost his wariness. If anything, he was more scared and wary than ever, but that feeling was tempered by his desire to put some distance between himself and the lake. He continued walking slowly beneath the trees, glancing up often to check for snakes or other ambush predators. He increased his pace once he’d reached the path back up the hill to the temple entrance. Less worried about traps on the road and more worried about another boar or something similar noticing his passing. His soft feet complained the entire way about the rocks, but he pushed on as quickly as he dared.
As he reached the temple entrance, Nate glanced back out over the valley. This time, he could see some specks moving on the far side of the lake. He was uncertain, but they looked like they might be boars. That made this valley a little ecosystem, he thought. The boars survived on the plants and fed the crab or whatever the monster lurked in the lake. He could likely work with that and remain safe if that was all that was here. He would need food soon, and those boars seemed like they were probably edible, assuming he could catch and somehow kill one of the gigantic beasts.
Inching down the hallway, Nate started looking for a good place to rest. He really needed to sleep soon. But he’d prefer not to do it where a boar could just wander in. He hadn’t seen any sign of them in this corridor, but that didn’t mean they never came here, and given his luck over the past day, it seemed an unnecessary risk to go to sleep somewhere the beasts could so easily get to.
Halfway down the hallway, Nate found what he was looking for in one of the alcoves that housed the statues. Behind the statue and up high was an indented recess. It was probably only two metres across, with only a metre or so between the floor of the recess and the stone roof, but it would be enough for him to nestle into. Climbing the wall, Nate surveyed the inside of the little nook, and while finding it to be a little dusty, there didn’t seem to be any spiders or the like inside.
Curling up, Nate reached into the pocket of his hoodie to take out the pocket knife and set it down beside him before rolling up the hoodie and tucking it beneath his head to use as a pillow. He was exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally, but sleep would not come to him. He considered doing something asinine, like counting sheep, but doubted that would help. Between the tingling from the mana and feeling unsafe,, he knew fear was keeping him awake. He’d been afraid for a long time. It was what made him so careful, both in action and words. Fear of his aunt as he’d grown up. Fear of bullies at school. Fear of losing what little he had. A tear started to roll down his cheek, but he brushed it away.
Nate had been afraid for a long time, and it had only improved over the last couple of years. His friend Michael had been a big help, but what had helped the most was Nate’s art. Through his art, he could release all his fear and pain. That outlet had changed him dramatically, and lying there in the recess above the statue, unable to sleep. He resorted to his art to find solace.
All the runes on Arikanvil’s research station had been beautiful, interesting, and geometrically complex. But one had stood out to Nate. The one he’d first interpreted. The rune had contained multiple hieroglyphs or pictographs or whatever they were called, but the first one Nate had noticed was barrier. Grabbing his pocket knife, he looked for something to carve the rune into. Even if the rune itself did nothing, he hoped the act of carving would help control his fear. A barrier to protect him.
He spotted a vine that was curling around the corner of the alcove from his perch. The vine wasn’t the perfect material for carving a flat image into, but it’d do. Leaving his hoodie in the recess, Nate climbed down and moved over to the vine. It started by the floor, and following the grooves in the stone, it climbed about halfway up the wall. Taking deep breaths to calm and centre himself, Nate began to carefully cut into the dried bark of the vine. It was far from the perfect canvas but better than nothing.
Nate had always had an excellent visual memory and that served him well now as he recreated the rune that had stood out to him the most. Taking his time, making sure his cuts were straight and maintaining the geometric positioning of the shapes, Nate slowly rebuilt the rune.
The rune carving took him a little while to get right, and by the time it was done, it was roughly the size of his hand. Nate thought it was a pretty close facsimile of the one at Arikanvil’s research station, and it evoked a feeling of safety within Nate. The lines probably weren’t perfectly straight, but he didn’t have any tools to assist him and was forced to rely on the steadiness of his hands. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Like the rune Nate had accidentally drawn back on Earth, this one was a kaleidoscope of overlapping shapes. Circles, hexagons, crescent moons, and triangles abounded. Interspersed within the shapes were the same three symbols he had seen on the research station. In the centre of the rune, he had placed the image of a round shield with a slice of pie in its centre. Nate didn’t know why, but he was sure it meant barrier. The layered pyramid with a circle on the tip of the pyramid was placed four times, each at a point of the compass. That meant Strongest. Finally, the four-way arrow connected by lines meant All-Directions was placed just below the symbol for barrier.
Why did he know what the symbols meant? They were just little pictures. His thoughts immediately went back to his Status sheet and the Status Effects. The spell that Arikanvil had cast on him. A Divine Translation Spell. What was it Arikanvil had said? It would likely only work on this planet because it was based on Arikanvil’s own understanding of language. Nate suspected that extended to sigils. Or at least sigils that Arikanvil knew. Could that be why he was so sure he knew what each symbol meant. It seemed the most likely reason.
Smiling slightly to himself, he looked over the completed rune one last time. Creating art had calmed his emotions, and the wave of tiredness he felt told him he was ready for sleep. Folding up his pocket knife, he climbed back up into the recess, and the moment his head touched his hoodie, he was fast asleep.
Nate woke to the sound of a bomb going off. Rather than sitting up in shock, he curled quickly into a little ball, covering his ears as they rang from the explosion. Something flashed in his vision, but he ignored it to roll over and peer down from his little nook. Below him, a small chunk of yellow stone was missing from the wall, and fragments of vine were scattered all around the statue and out into the corridor.
He could tell that the explosion originated from where he had carved the rune into the vine. The only thought running through his mind was, why would the rune he had carved cause an explosion? If it was going to do anything, it should have created a barrier. Not exploded. He had figured that something about the geometric shapes involved seemed to interact with or call to mana. Arikanvil had said everything had mana, so maybe guiding it into a shape caused it to behave in a certain way? That still didn’t explain why it had exploded, though.
Focusing on the flashing in the corner of his vision, Nate brought up the messages from The System.
Congratulations on creating a Barrier Rune (Master Quality).Your achievement has been recorded.
Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.
Nate paused to think about it as he jumped down from his little nook. Even if he’d just copied the rune from memory, he must’ve gotten pretty close to the rune on the research station for it to be considered Master Quality, assuming that was a good quality. It sounded like it should be. He was pretty impressed with himself, if he was being honest. All he’d had to work with was a pocketknife and some shitty vine. That just made him wonder how powerful the perfected version was. It had been fairly complex regarding the number of geometric shapes and sigils. That was a question he wouldn’t mind answering. And what did The System mean that his achievement was recorded? Did achievements serve a purpose? So many questions.
Of course, The System signed off with what Nate already recognised was its standard message. The last one seemed particularly true right now, as Nate could tell the mana density was higher around the explosion area. Picking up one of the broken bits of vine, Nate could feel the tingle on his skin increase where he touched the wood. He focused on that feeling. It was like the mana was trying to push against his skin and get inside. Why did it want to get inside of him? Was it because he was denser than the wood or the air? Following that thought, Nate had an idea for how to move the mana around in himself. It was time to do some experimenting.