I awaken, chilly and coughing. For some reason this surprises me. Oh, right, shouldn’t it be bright around here? I equip my wrist-mounted crossbow to light up the dead end I’m currently resting in. There’s absolutely no sign of a fire elemental spirit or any such thing. Well. Crap. I hope I didn’t just unleash some undefeatable burning monstrosity upon the world. Eh, people have buckets of water and booze, it should be alright. Heck, how embarrassing for a monster would it be to be defeated by the contents of a chamber pot? I snort a laugh as I chuckle.
Right, anyway. I think I understand a bit more about the spell actually. I take out the staff and let its knowledge flow into me again. Hm, okay. So, it seems like it requires spell-concentration to maintain some sort of tether to the material plane? Is that a thing? Essentially the spirit can’t maintain a manifestation in our realm. So its stay in our realm is determined by only the caster’s will, and a certain duration determined by the ambient mana first consumed by the spirit on entry to build its form. Huh, neato. Me being me, having spells be concentrated on in a nearly automatic subroutine in my brain is an almost passive thing to do. I’ve been doing that ever since the grr. For a long time, let’s just say that. My eyes cloud with rage as I recall just how I got so good at maintaining spells even while sleeping. F^&*ing tunnel complexes.
Okay, okay, breathe air, breathe. I huff a heavy sigh, and gasp a deep, shuddered breath in response. I’m feeling much better again, but I’m not falling for it this time. I’m going to actually check my bones before running off like an idiot. My breathing is labored, heavy, angry as I pant with frustration. I was right. Sleep is finally starting to leave me feeling rested, even good on Rayileklia, so much so that I don’t notice the pain and injuries for a short while after waking. Fricklefrack. Grr. If I had some sort of telekinesis, I’d just fly myself around. Wait. The staff. As soon as I thought the word telekinesis, it glowed.
Oof, new knowledge, okay, spell manifestations, runes, mana conversion, ow, my freaking brain. Okay, so, based on the amount of mana expended from the staff, and a chunk of the ambient mana around, I can cast a spell that grants me temporary telekinesis. It’s going to take about a minute to cast if I want it to last for any significant duration. I could cast while slowly walking over the course of several minutes, to get a much longer duration, but I’m not exactly in walking shape right now. Huff. We’d better do it though. Like most spells in the staff, for those with durations, if I have one of those being casted, or already out in the world, enduring, I can’t cast any other spells from the staff. It leaves me somewhat vulnerable, since I’m denied three of my elements, or more, and it eats a significant chunk of the staff’s daily purified power.
Still, it’s not like I just cast this particular spell at an object causing that object to float around for a while. No, as long as I maintain a mental subroutine on this one, I grant myself a power that I’d always aspired to on Can’Z’aas. I gulp. It feels like a risk, but like a good one. Alright Reggie, haul yourself up and get it together. We’ve got some walking to do, an awful lot of walking to do. Shuddering a sigh, I begin cautiously trudging onward once more. I focus carefully on allowing the staff to dig into, bite apart, and consume the ambient mana in the area as I pass, as I shape and generate the spell that grants telekinesis. I’m careful not to slide my hands along any sharp edges of the rough-hewn rock. I don’t know what happens to an interrupted spell, and the pain of a sudden cut would likely cause me to lose the intense focus I’m using for this particular spell. I want to be able to maintain it for a solid duration.
It feels like I’m actually casting a real spell for the first time. Everything else was sort of instantaneous effects, even if they had prolonged durations. For quite likely the first time in my life, I have to actually work at a magic ability with a significant fraction of my brain to continue building the spell. I am quite spoiled by automatable inventory shenanigans, ranged spacial manipulation of objects, the instant effect spells within the staff, even quick transformations. I suppose my transformations are the closest I’d come to this. Having to focus on a form, begin building the tether, and drop it part way while focusing on minor changes to a form, when creating it for the first time. I probably should focus inward, and engage a transformation to set all my bones properly.
My eyelids sag heavily as I imagine the effort involved in transforming on Rayileklia. Ugh, I feel tired even just thinking about it. Finally, the staff tries to warn me that the spell basically contains as much mana as it possibly can without unleashing a wild magic surge. I carefully apply the spell to myself, and I suddenly understand a ticking clock. No numbers, but there’s an odd sensation that will notify me as the spell is close to ending. A warm, tingling sensation coats my body, and more heavily wraps around my brain itself.
I also understand more about the nature of my universe within a local radius centered on myself. My mind can reach out, and move things within it. Ugh, it’s nowhere near as powerful or fast as my space skill. Still, I can levitate myself around with it at approximately walking speed. I could certainly give myself a good squeeze though, or try to compress or restrain anything, even liquids and gasses. This will come in handy if I face any more slime monsters. Just squeeze them til they pop, or compress them and stuff them in a jar or vial.
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Phew, okay, floating around takes a heck of a load off of my bones. They should heal faster now that I’m not constantly putting weight on them. I’d really like to be able to sprint, but these are the limitations of the spell, oh well. Bluh, hours of floating already, down this endless tunnel complex, always keeping along this right wall perimeter. My innate sense of direction tells me I’ve gone deeper, and spiraled back and forth several times until I’m facing west at the moment. Another hundred meters or so, and I think I’d be directly under the kobolds’ warren. Hm, no, I’d be a ways north of it. Couldn’t tell you how many turns the path took, but I can tell you approximately where I am as if on a sonographic map.
On and on and on we go. Where we’ll stop, who friggin’ knows. I draw another shuddered breath, and find myself yawning. Oh, the air is fairly thin down here. Stuffy. I wonder if I should drop the telekinesis in favor of conjuring an air or wind elemental spirit? No. My bones are mending faster while levitating than they did even while sleeping against the wall. It’s as if Teuila were here turning my gravity off, taking all pressure off of them.
Speaking of Teuila, I hear the clash of combat somewhere ahead in the tunnel structure. I desperately want to sprint right now. If that’s Te, or Dippy, or Zippy, or all three, I want to be at their side immediately. I gulp back mucus, realizing I was on the verge of tears for some reason. Drawing a heavy shuddered breath, I continue my walking-speed float towards the sounds of battle.
Rubbing my itchy, wet eyes on my forearm, I realize I probably haven’t eaten or gotten many fluids in the last two or three days. Crap. I should have snagged some food and drink from Teuila’s giant backpack before coming down here. Ugh I’m a friggin’ idiot sometimes. Hey, cool it buddy, breathe air, breathe. You’re used to living on a world where you can instantly access food and water, at any time, all the time. Cut yourself some slack. Grr, but any more slack and I might accidentally die of dehydration! Getting upset over it isn’t going to help anything though, is it? Do better next time. Grr, if there is a next time. Hey, come on now, we’re Reggie Shellcracker, there’s always a next time. Millions of them. Hah. We’ll pull through buddy, and then no more solo adventures. What’s Lu always tell you? You’ve got this, always have, always will.
The tunnel dips heavily, which causes my telekinetic float to bob sickeningly, since I’m keeping it at a height in relation to the floor. On the other side of the dip, the tunnel turns sharply, and rises steeply towards a bright light. Great. Heading towards a light at the end of a tunnel. Just the metaphor you need right now, right Reggie? Hah! Suddenly, an object comes bounding and hurtling down the steep slope towards me.
I casually float aside, pressing myself in a corner between the ceiling and the wall. The object is massive, and familiar. Ah, it’s the head of a mite-hulk. Well, one of the Rayileklian variants. That uh, is probably good news, right? Keep floating buddy, almost there. Whoops, more dismembered bits being flung this way. The sound of combat feels like it’s in an unending crescendo, the peak point of cacophony that never ends.
Somehow, over the din, I hear a wonderful, beloved, familiar, though tired and angry, voice, “I’ve been fighting these things for three days! And I have been retreating, for thirty minutes!”
Another familiar, though much more nervous, stuttery voice calls in response, “The, the, the fight, fight hurts, tough fight, been a long, long, long fight, battle. Gotta, gotta, going to, will save home and family. We, we, Zippy agrees, Dippy and Zippy, we’ll join you, fight or run, fight to the end. Scary, scary end.”
Oh hell no, there’s going to be no scary end for my friends. F&*I( this. I release myself from my telekinesis and sprint the remainder of the distance, bursting into a hellish chamber. Nightmarish creatures whose radiant carapaces cast illusions and hallucinations about them stream in from all sides save my rear. The, the confusion, for some reason, I spin and walk into a wall, repeatedly. What the hell.
Teuila screams, “Reggie!? Cover your eyes!”
She sensed me with the silent sonar of her danger spear. If that’s all it takes to stop this horendous effect, then yeah, fine. Reggie Shellcracker, blind again. I pull my hood tightly down over my eyes as I shut them, squeezing tightly. The silent sonar of my danger wrap senses tell me where Teuila, Dippy, and Zippy are. It also tells me a very tasty detail about this particular cavern.
Grinning, I shout, “Get behind me, I have a stupid idea!”
I can feel Teuila’s eyebrow raise as she dashes towards me, colliding with Dippy on the way through, carrying him and Zippy along with her as she bolts past me into the empty hallway. I sneer a wicked grin as my telekinesis senses drift upwards and upwards, beyond my danger wrap senses. I grip the stalactites at the top of this cavern, and hammer side to side with all my telekinetic might. In moments, the entire world seems to begin shaking as the stalactites come tumbling down, rumbling and crumbling down. As I cautiously step back into the tunnel, they form walls as they tumble down, blocking it off as they continue rumbling, and crumbling.
Teuila shouts, “Dink! Am I glad to see you!”
She leaps at me, but I have to telekinetically hold her in place, unable to fight off the pain in my bones for much longer. I don’t want her to think she knocked me out. She struggles in midair as she confusedly asks, “What?”
I cough, and gurgle up dust as I slowly crumple against the wall. I’m pretty sure I just spat up bonemeal or bone dust. I shouldn’t have sprinted. I knew I was still recovering. I smile at Teuila and say, “Like my new spell? Sorry, couldn’t, couldn’t really, survive a hit.”
I slump against the wall, and slide unintentionally down the floor, all of my muscles, even my telekinetic ones go limp as I begin bouncing and rolling down the steep stone slope.