Unbound

Chapter Eleven - 011

Felix hit the ground and tumbled backwards onto the hard stone floor. Head swimming and aching from that full body push, he stumbled to his feet with his new sword in an awkward grip.

"Bring it--" His half-snarl caught in his throat. A wall of blue-white light stretched before him, completely filling the small cavern with a near blinding radiance. Felix's heart hammered and sweat swiftly beaded on his forehead and back as he regarded his certain doom.

But nothing happened.

The Wisps milled about, swirling and eddying like currents of phosphorous waves, but didn't advance on him. Nor did they use their strange magic either. They just...floated aimlessly.

"'What's going on?' he asks himself for the thousandth time today," Felix grumbled. Then his eyes snagged on a piece of dimly glowing script, nearly impossible to see in the flood of blue-white light. A series of symbols was carved into the floor just inches in front of him. In fact, the carving extended in a line separating him from the mass of Wisps. Felix's eyes tracked the impossibly straight row of symbols across the room, up the walls and even across the ceiling. They framed an opening the size and shape of a set of large double doors. Each of the symbols shimmered with a faint yellow light, like a weak light bulb.

"Is this protecting me?" As he muttered, he saw the script light up. "Why--" The symbols directly in front of him lit up again, flaring as he spoke.

It's preventing sound from escaping the area. Probably light too, since the Wisps obviously can't see me. He smiled wide, genuine joy flaring in his chest. This is amazing!

Felix felt his heartbeat quicken, excited at the idea of real magic. This was the kind of stuff he had been expecting when he found himself in a magical fantasy world. Then his smile froze. If there was a magic seal here, how did he get through? And what was it protecting? Slowly, Felix turned around.

Behind him was a massive room carved into the rock. It was a cave, certainly, but Felix couldn't make himself call it that; the floor was covered in hexagonal tiles, and the walls and ceiling were at near perfect angles. The room was around forty feet wide and maybe twice that in length. Most of the space was open, filled with those hexagonal tiles and nothing else. Toward the far end there was a raised platform, probably a foot tall and quite large. It was hard to tell from his vantage. More importantly, there were five doors: two on the left, two on the right, and a large set of double doors on the far wall.

Exploration is level 2!

It's like a dwarven temple or something. Or wait, is that racist? There's probably loads of underground builders in a place like this.

The room was empty, though no dust covered the ground near his feet and everything looked to be in good shape. Carved pillars lined the walls, creating shallow alcoves between them that held what looked like mosaics. Strangely, there were no shadows, and ambient light proliferated though Felix couldn't tell its source. It was a warm buttery light, unlike the beautiful if harsh wisplight.

Reminded of their presence, Felix turned back toward the swarm. If the magic rune seal kept him hidden and safe, then he had a huge advantage he felt he had to exploit. Not to mention, he had a decidedly different view toward the little creeps than he did just a few minutes ago. He quickly sheathed his sword in the backpack and raised both of his hands, summoning twin orbs of green liquid into his palms with a small burst of effort.

"Bite me, jerks."

Then he unleashed his acid streams.

The magic poured out of him, across the barrier and directly into the milling horde. Handfuls of Wisps died every few seconds, even as they panicked and began to pull up and away from the acid. Packed as they were, it was nearly impossible for Felix to miss. He focused on shaping the stream, trying to flatten it out to cover more area. With a brief burst of his Willpower and a flare of pain, he felt the spell change. The streams fanned outward, spreading horizontally until they covered nearly ten feet altogether. That's when the Wisps began to fall en masse.

Acid Stream is level 3!

Acid Stream is level 4!

...

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Acid Stream is level 10!

You Have Learned A New Skill!

Dual Casting (Uncommon), Level 1!

Deal more damage for a higher Mana cost! Damage increases greatly with Skill Level, Mana cost decreases slightly with Skill Level, speed increases moderately with Skill Level.

Meditation is level 12!

Meditation is level 13!

Congratulations! You Have Earned New Titles!

Butcher I (Uncommon)! Kill 100 creatures in a single battle! +1 STR, +1 WIL, +1 DEX

Butcher II (Uncommon)! Kill 500 creatures in a single battle! +3 STR, +2 WIL, +2 DEX

Butcher III (Rare)! Kill 1000 creatures in a single battle! +4 STR, +3 WIL, +3 DEX

You Have Gained A Level!

You Have Gained A Level!

You are now Level 9!

+6 to WIL! +4 to INT! +2 to DEX! +2 to END! +2 to PER!

You Have 10 Unused Stat Points!

By the time the last Wisp was gone, Felix was panting and had a splitting headache. He had meditated the entire time he had attacked, attempting to shore up his regeneration and keep pace with his spell. It had worked, more or less, though he had to pause a couple times to avoid bottoming out. He leaned heavily against the wall, careful not to touch the still glowing inscriptions.

"Holy hell, that took a lot out of me," Felix tried to swallow but coughed instead. His throat was dry and dusty. A symptom of too much Mana use? Or just thirst?

He glanced at his notifications and his jaw dropped. 9 Skill levels, three Titles, a new Skill, and two level ups? And to think, he wasn't going to kill the little bastards at first. Shaking his head, he carefully crept back into the waterfall cavern. The humidity hit him like a slap in the face; he hadn't realized how dry it was in the hidden room. The Wisps were gone. Even their corpses had faded away, somehow. Perhaps an aspect of being an elemental? Either way, the path forward was clear.

Creeping forward, Felix reached out and tried to scoop a handful of water from the thundering waterfall...and almost got thrown off the cliff for his efforts. Windmilling his arms, Felix just barely kept his footing. He felt like an idiot. Of course he couldn't just reach out into a huge waterfall.

Spotting a pool of water on the cave floor, he pushed aside his pride and laid down next to it, drinking from the pool with big slurping gulps. Instantly he felt better, the headache retreating somewhat and his throat clearing up. With a sigh, Felix pushed back up to a sitting position. Then he saw something.

Perception keeps paying dividends, I have to remember that. Felix spotted a single Wisp fluttering nearby. It moved haphazardly, obviously injured. The light it cast was fitful and weak. Felix raised his hand up, ready to use the small bit of Mana he had regenerated to melt the magic mosquito, but paused. His memory, ever active as it was, pinged on a dumb idea. Dumb that is, if it hadn't worked already.

"I'll probably regret this," Felix grimaced as he reached out and snatched the weakened Wisp, cupping it in his palms. Then, before he could think about it anymore, he tossed it into his mouth and bit down.

Light exploded from his mouth, crackling along his teeth and gums with a jolt of incandescent pain.

Pain Resistance is level 13!

Felix felt a sharp crackling sensation soak into his tongue and throat, like he had swallowed a battery made of pins. His head snapped to the side as the muscles in his neck spasmed. His chest felt tight and empty, and he couldn't draw a breath at all, as if a wall blocked all air from entering his lungs. Damage notifications sparked across his vision, and Felix could see his Health bar drop visibly. Attempting to Meditate, he tried to focus his thoughts on absorbing the Wisp's riotous power. He mentally pulled it toward his center, where he thought his Fire resided, nestled just below his ribcage. It fought, pushing back against his efforts even as his high Willpower nudged it ever closer.

Sweat beaded on Felix's forehead and a vein pulsed at his temple. He brought everything he could to bear on the Wisp's Mana, pushing it the final distance into his core. Suddenly, Felix could feel his inner fire eating up the Mana, burning it for fuel. In moments, it was gone.

"Huh," he breathed, slightly disappointed. "I guess that didn't--"

A pulse of energy thrummed through his veins, and a flare of blue-white light discharged around him, scattering a number of tiny pebbles.

Congratulations!

Your Title Gourmand Has Garnered You Insight!

You Have Fully Digested Your Opponent's Mana!

You Have Learned A New Skill From A Wisp!

Tides of Vellus (R), Level 1!

Born of the Moon of Eternal Storms, the Wisps have a sliver of its power, and now so do you! Strength increases greatly with Skill Level, accuracy increases moderately with Skill Level, distance increases slightly with Skill Level.

You Have Learned A New Skill From A Wisp!

Influence of the Wisp (R), Level 1!

Just as Vellus once enthralled with its majestic light, so now do you. Duration increases slightly with Skill Level, Strength increases moderately with Skill Level.

"Two Skills?" Felix was shocked and delighted. And what Skills they were! Rare, the both of them. Both obviously magical in nature, though they had less than useful descriptions. Whatever. He'd figure them out.

Standing with a groan and stretch, Felix happily walked back to the false wall at the back of the cavern. Despite his headache and how this night started, he was in a remarkably better mood.

He couldn't tell where the opening was by sight, partly due to whatever illusion was going on, and partly because without the Wisps this cave was extremely dark. Pulling out his hooked sword, he poked around until he saw a flash of golden light, nearly blinding him as it came from...the sword itself.

"Huh." He held it up before him, watching a line of symbols appear along the entire length of the blade. As he moved it closer to the wall, an opening he hadn't noticed was suddenly there. The strange temple was beyond the open archway. Felix stepped through with a shiver, feeling the humidity vanish to be replaced by a steady, drier warmth. The moment he was through the archway, his sword stopped glowing.

"It's a key. That's why I could get through," Felix grinned. "This is so cool."

Felix walked across the room. This was the first evidence of civilization he had found since arriving here, a genuine alien species. Why had they built this place? The room was an absolutely massive space that someone (or something) had built for unknown reasons.

No chance this is just someone's house. Seems like a lot of effort for something so simple, Felix thought.

The floor wasn't tiled so much as carved segments in the rock floor, but they appeared to be perfectly made and polished. The buttery yellow light that came from nowhere painted almost everything in that color, but he could tell the floor was a darker stone than the walls. He glanced up, noting the ceiling was probably four or five of him high, making it around thirty feet tall. The effort in excavating this on Earth with medieval technology would have taken years, decades maybe. But, Felix reminded himself, he didn't know if this world had a medieval technology equivalent and more importantly that didn't take into consideration magic. Who knew what was possible with magic?

Pillars, hexagonal like the tiles beneath his feet and made of the same darker stone, extended from the ground all the way to the thirty foot ceiling. They were unadorned except for vertical fluting, much like Greek and Roman columns back home. He stepped toward a space between two columns (there were six on either end of the room), one of the small alcoves he had noticed before. In the alcoves, large five foot tall murals stretched, made from different bits of colorful stone. The mosaics depicted a figure in elaborate robes and armor, holding a three pointed star made of a brightly colored stone. Disappointingly, the figure looked like a normal human with dark skin and dark curly hair, with two arms, two legs, and all the normal features.

"Man, I was hoping for some weird magic race or something," Felix sighed.

The mosaic depicted the human figure surrounded by nature: trees, mountains, various creatures that he assumed were analogous to squirrels, rabbits, and deer. He even saw a small depiction of a turquoise lizard with four wings. As he moved to the next mosaic, he saw much of the same. Another human figure in robes and armor, holding a bright star and surrounded by scenes of nature. He made his way toward the other end of the room, glancing at these alcoves and holding his sword in a tight grip. Felix had been through too much to expect this all to go smoothly.

He approached the central platform, a dais raised up about a foot from the tiled floor. It was made of a lighter stone than the floor and pillars, and shaped like a star. Well, a nine pointed star anyway. It was maybe twenty feet across, tip to tip, and absolutely filled with carved lines that criss-crossed the entire surface. They appeared to be random to Felix, making straight lines and curved ones that had none of the glow the script near the entrance did. Felix assumed they were decorative.

Felix reached down and ran his hand across one of the arcing lines, tracing it with his fingers. It was a flawless cut, something a machine would have had to do on Earth. Following the line, his eyes landed on the huge double doors at the far end of the chamber. Stepping around the platform, he slowly approached the massive portal. It was made of some sort of green metal with a dull finish, and even from a distance, he could tell it was absolutely covered in carvings. Etchings? Or were they cast into the metal? He stepped closer.

On each door, facing toward the center, was a figure. The figure was the same human type being as he'd seen in the various mosaics, wearing elaborate robes and holding stars in their hands. These stars had nine points, however, much like the raised platform. How many points did the mosaic stars have? Thinking for a moment, Felix pulled the memory of the few he'd inspected. The stars varied, starting with a three pointed star and moving up to a six pointed star. A quick glance to the side confirmed it; the nearest mosaics had eight pointed stars. The points increased as they approached the door. Why? Did that mean anything?

Shaking his head, Felix kept inspecting the doors. At the center where they would open up, there was a raised relief of jagged tree-like objects. Lightning, maybe. But there were many, all bursting from one point and surrounded by a much more elaborate 18 point star. Script surrounded these figures, covering every available space on the metal doors. Finally rounding the platform, Felix started to walk closer to the doors but stopped when the inscriptions suddenly flared with a powerful green light. Shielding his eyes and stumbling back, he tried to blink the afterimages that burned into his eyes.

"What the hell was that for?" He growled, rubbing at his eyes. When he could see again, he noticed the script was still lightly glowing, brightening every time he tried to move closer. Now that they were glowing, he noticed that a secondary set of symbols lined the floor in front of the doors, inscribed in an arc and leading up the walls and around the frame. At the very top was a single character that looked like a precise 'V' cut with flowing lines and hash-marks.

Felix stepped away and the light disappeared.

"Ok. Do not touch the creepy metal door. Got it."

Felix turned instead toward one of the side rooms. These doors were made with thick wooden planks bound in what he assumed was bronze; the latch was made of the same metal. The door was also in a strange shape, formed like a regular door except the top which had three points like a star. "They really ran with the theme, huh?" He depressed the latch and the door opened without a creak.