Chapter One Hundred Twelve

Joe marched into the seventh floor with quite a bit more relief. The fight against the oversized hawk, while exciting, happened all in a quick second and Joe found himself still rather hyped up on adrenaline so marched straight to the next floor.

When the door opened, he found a rather interesting setup, with a beautiful beach looking out onto the ocean. A careful glance to the left and right found revealed massive barriers of tumbled boulders, blocking any further access to the beach further on. He couldn’t be sure, considering the doorway into the room face away from the island, but was rather certain that the trees walled the beach in front of them. Besides, he could see shadows of palm branches overhead waving across the sand in front of him. Huh… a beach mob… or an ocean monster?

He considered for a bit, but was uncertain what he could use for a fight. Could use fire. I did unlock fire mage, so… Joe pondered then nodded. Well… gonna have to go in. Joe took a step in, holding spear and shield carefully, but like before, he stabbed the spear into the ground and rested his shield next to it before prepping his bow and arrow for a strike. Wonder what’s gonna happen.

He turned his focus from the spear and shield and his martial preparations to take in the surroundings and found it rather idyllic, even anemic. What waves there were proved to be nothing more than small splashes on the shore and there were no major tidal lines of detritus from previous high tides or storms leaving what they’d drug up in seasons past. The beautiful sand of the shore was almost pristine, and much narrower than he was used to or expecting. It gave the whole affair a rather claustrophobic crushed feeling when looking at the thin line of sand between the trees and the ocean. But the waves barely moved up the beach, sloughing as all waves do, but it felt more like a poor representation of the powerful waves he was used to back on Earth. Still, it was beautiful and he enjoyed the time in the warmth of the sun, if still rather tense since he was still expecting an attack.

Still, the soft breeze and relaxing waves played across the scene and no change occurred. Joe stared out across everything and grew tenser. He began turning slowly in place, taking in the general surroundings as well, turning his gaze away from the ocean. That’s… gotta be where things come from, right? Maybe? He looked around, staring at the boulders framing the beach and then back at the trees. Both, he quickly dismissed, something about them just making him feel that they had the artificial purpose of hiding their true purpose: to be a barrier or a wall in constraining ‘players’ to the correct location. He turned his gaze back to the beach.

The others, having entered as well, remained congregated around where the entrance once was, and also grew anxious under the tension that grew ever more. When Joe began turning slowly to take in their surroundings, they joined him, and conversation quickly shifted from cautious relaxed chatting to quite terse statements ratcheting up tension and fear. Soon, none were speaking and everyone was simply turning in place before slowing coming together back to back, looking out at the environment around them. Silence reigned until someone interjected.

“See anything?”

“Nope.”

“Nothing.”

“Empty here.”

“Clear skies.”

Mana welled and Joe jumped, the others quickly jumping in reaction to his own agitation until Joe cursed quietly under his breath. All the others quickly shifted in his direction and looked around wildly with cries of concern and questions of where the attack was coming from. Joe huffed in annoyance, even as the mana swelled out and his message was translated for the others.

“Sorry. Just freaked out about the mana formations and swelling. All’s good here.”

* * *

Kalia ground her teeth as she pressed her back firmly against those behind her, frustration swelling with increasing anger. To be so concerned with basic monsters! Truly! Even Great monsters? Bah! Even King and Emperor creatures bowed before me! True King and Emperor, not these petty fools’ understanding. Kalia growled as she flickered a gaze towards a shifting shadow then grimaced. That scorplion would be nothing before me, such a simple Basic scorplion with only two nodules of growth! Not even Great scorplion, let alone a Master. Her disgust at her weakness shifted to some awe as her gaze, unwilling but compelled, glanced down to the perfect dual nodule core of the sorplion. A perfect core, no… so many perfect cores, so easily attained… and the eccentric thinks nothing of it.

Her thoughts were interrupted when people began to call out their quarters, all still clear even as tension intensified. She called out without thought, quickly turning her focus back to the horizon, cutting the thoughts off. However, when the eccentric called out, then shortly later cursed, she grew deeply concerned and turned quickly to look towards the eccentric’s field of view. Something … where is the mons…

“Cloudless sunny skies.”

Kalia frowned. What does that mean? Is there…

“My apologies. I grew deeply concerned about the mana formation and development. However, there is no need for concern.”

“What happened,” Gwenvair asked without concern of instigating the eccentric.

“No thing of importance. The translation magic cause the mana to swell and form around us. I grew concerned that there was an attack, but it was simply translating my latest strange words.”

“Your ‘cloudless sunny skies?’” Gwenvair asked, now much more relaxed as she returned to looking at her quarter.

Kalia heard Joe reply, but found her thoughts abuzz with ramifications that bordered on the insane. She turned to Xylarnae, to see here staring at her with just as wide eyes, both understanding what the eccentric had revealed.

Xylarnae whispered, bordering more on simply mouthing the words, but their meaning could not be anything but, “He can sense mana!?”

Kalia nodded while gazing at her, fearful wonder sweeping through her before turning away. Who is this mana!? Mana is beyond senses!

* * *

Almost thirty minutes passed like this, silence sweeping over them as tension overwhelmed their ability to speak easily with each staring at their field of view before someone would break under the tension and call out that all was clear, eliciting a similar reply. This would sometimes bring others into a short conversation of two or three replies before all fell silent, or it would end with a short series of snapping angry comments, quick, biting, and unpleasant, as they questioned each other for surety of safety.

As always, constant vigil is almost impossible, and at about the thirty minute mark, they began to relax whether they wanted to or not. The sudden reappearance of the door shot everyone to tension for another ten or so minutes until finally, they began to relax and grow bored. The tense caution of back to back vigilance gave way to some sitting and a few remaining on watch for the next thirty or so minutes until everyone was essentially lounging on the beach with only one set to slowly pace back and forth in a short circuit around the center to be their eyes. The others still made sure to sit facing in different directions to have some kind of vigil, but after another hour, most were soon basking and relaxing in the sun in boredom while only one was remaining on guard. The guard was changed very ten minutes or so, then shifted to a thirty minute watch.

During that time, once they were a bit more relaxed, Joe had begun searching the beach, heading to the rocks and then searching along the trees. But, as he feared, the rocks and trees offered a strange magnetic like repulsion to any further exploration, making it obvious to Joe that this was the extent of the ‘room.’ Guess boundaries in ‘game’ are just as much a problem for dungeons as well. Heh! Joe’s exploration grew more relaxed as his boredom increased and he finally returned to the others.

They’d been in the room almost an hour and a half by now, and Joe was growing frustrated.

“Any ideas?”

Most shrugged, but when he asked Stephliquen, she seemed to nod, “Seems almost game like.”

“You saw that, too?”

Stephliquen nodded, “Yeah. We … have lost much of our gaming industry… for obvious reasons, but some of our oldest games… yeah. Kinda feels like that.”

“Yeah. Invisible walls made to look like the forest or boulders?” Joe asked while waving his hand at the trees and boulders.

Stephliquen laughed, nodding, “Yeah. Pegged that as soon as I came in. Kind of worries me.”

Joe frowned at that, “What do you mean?”

Stephliquen furrowed her brows in reply, “What do you mean ‘what do you mean?’ Shouldn’t it be obvious? We can do this in code; in a digital world, moving miniscule amounts of energy across computer cores to display a fake world. They’re doing this in the real world… with our real bodies. This isn’t even deep dive! This is beyond deep dive! What kind of power do these dungeon cores have to create entire worlds like this!”

Joe huffed at that, nodding, “Yeah. Yeah… there is that. But, at this point, it’s so far beyond what I can think or do anything about, that there isn’t much of a point. I use it as best as I can. Maybe later I’ll be able to take advantage of this… insanity, but right now?”

Stephliquen chuckled, “You’re pretty relaxed about this whole thing.”

Joe shrugged, “If it wanted to kill us, we would long be dead. There is some kind of quid pro quo here that is going on, so we’re both winning, as it were.”

Stephliquen began to nod, “Maybe, but still terrifying.”

Joe shrugged again, “Live with what you can. Do what you must.”

“Very practical.”

“Nah. Just don’t want to be paralyzed by the insanity of it all. I already got too much go…” Joe trailed of and closed his eyes, grimacing and fighting against the rage, huffing softly.

“You ok?” Stephliquen asked.

Joe nodded, “A little,” he replied as he quickly calmed, feeling her hand on his arm before looking down and realizing that Gwenvair was standing on his side once more with a soft smile and a hand on his arm.

Joe smiled and nodded, “Thanks.”

Gwenvair said nothing, only increasing her smile before turning away and settling back down with the others, chatting with Xylarnae with ease while Kalia was lost in her thoughts. Joe turned back to Stephliquen.

“So, ideas?”

“Well, if we think of it as a game. It’s gotta be a trigger of some kind, right?”

“Oh. Huh. Action or environmental?”

Stephliquen cocked her head, “Hmm. An action would be insane, since we basically can do anything, right? If it is an action, we might as well quit and go home.”

“So you think it has to be environmental because the other would be presumably impossible to discover? Never considered bad game design.”

She grimaced at that then chuckled, “At least the door out is back.”

Joe huffed a laugh then took a look around, “OK. Assuming it is an environmental trigger, I don’t think it can be the boulders or the trees. We can’t even really interact with them.”

“Agreed.”

“So sand or water.”

Stephliquen nodded, “Sand… or water.”

She stared at the water for a time and Joe glanced over at her, eyes narrowing, “You’ve got something. What?”

She nodded slowly, “You touched both sets of boulders and the trees.”

“Yeah,” Joe replied with slow agreement if not understanding.

“And you’ve been all over the sand.”

“Ooh. Yeah,” Joe began nodding, understanding quickly swelling in, “Water.”

“Yeah.”

Stephliquen huffed, then laughed, “Only one way to find out.”

Joe laughed, “I’ll head in an…”

“No. No. I couldn’t handle your bow very well at all. I’ll hit the water. You keep me safe. Besides, the crazy rules of this place likely wouldn’t even let me hold it.”

Joe frowned and nodded, “True. Then… maybe my shield?”

Stephliquen shook her head, “No. It seems even shields are not something easily used.”

“Yeah. I noticed.”

Stephliquen grimaced herself at this and nodded. The two fell silent, staring out over the waters for a bit before Joe finally turned to look at Stephliquen with solemn concern.

Joe’s eyes danced across her face, measuring her, “You sure?”

Stephliquen smiled, “I’ve seen you fight with that thing. I’m more than sure.”

Joe nodded, “Alright. I’ll at least head closer to the water to give you a place to fall back.”

“Thanks.”

Joe then retrieved his spear and shield and called to the others, “Right! We’ve got an idea.”

The other three quickly jumped up, questioning him and he explained the plan with a quick overview. The others quickly joined in while Kalia began nodding with seeming understanding before grinning.

“You are likely correct,” she offered.

Joe smiled, “Thank Stephliquen. She figured it out.”

Kalia turned her gaze to Stephliquen, measuring her, but Stephliquen had her gaze focused on the water, searching the waves and into the depths while being very cautious about stepping into the water.

“You sure you don’t want to take off your shoes?” Joe asked.

Stephliquen frowned, then grimaced, “Probably a good idea, but… I don’t want sand in my shoes after!”

Joe frowned at that before nodding slowly in agreement, “Yeah, bad combination all around. Alright. I’ll help you with that. Uh… maybe we can wash you feet off in the water and then I’ll carry you to the stairs.”

Stephliquen listened, considering before smiling gratefully, “That sounds perfect. We’ll do that.”

Joe nodded then stepped forward, coming closer to give him a better chance at hitting then pulled out a few more arrows, burying them into the sand in front of him. He glanced back, noticing his spear and shield and turned to run back up the beach, passing by Stephliquen who’d sat down and was busy pulling off her shoes and socks. He made sure to run wide around her, not wanting to kick up any sand into her footwear. Grabbing his spear and shield, he ran back down and buried the spear into the sand, making sure they didn’t go into wet sand.

He ran down and grabbed his arrows and stepped back a couple feet as well, wanting to be near the spear and shield. While he finalized setting up, Stephliquen stepped to his side, barefoot and ready to face the waves. Joe played with his bow string for a bit while Stephliquen stood by his side, both staring out over the waters until she finally sighed and looked over at him.

“Ready?”

“Stupid moronic game crap.”

Stephliquen grinned then huffed out a laugh, “At least it seems you can real power.”

Joe nodded, “Which has its own massive problems and issues. Say goodbye to any real checks and balances for positions of power.”

Stephliquen’s smiled slipped at that, a frown sliding in place, “Yeah. But when there is enough tech, there isn’t much difference.”

Joe frowned, “Really? Can’t bribe a guard or something with a sniper rifle?”

Stephliquen’s smile returned but rather sardonic, “Shields. And loyalty screening. Pretty powerful stuff.”

“OK. Shields, I could get, but again, bribe a guard to drop the shields, or sabotage, or just toss a nuke from space.”

Stephliquen’s face blanked at that before she began nodding, “I guess you’re right. Blow up the planet and you can kill the Queen of Qaenar. But you think you could get powerful enough to survive that with this … magic idiocy?”

Joe frowned at that, “I’m not sure, but from what I remember, it can make you functionally immortal, or live a lot longer, I think. If I get desperate and am willing to accept the casualties, I could take out anyone. But here… the only people who can take out the strong is another a bit stronger. All it would take is one rather evil jerk to make sure no one else ever got stronger than him or her.”

“In this whole galaxy?”

Joe’s frown settled, “Wonder how … all-encompassing magic can be, then.”

“You’re thinking it can cover the galaxy?”

“I don’t know. But…”

The two fell silent at that before Joe continued with a grimace, “They already have the collar for that. That…”

Stephliquen’s frown turned pained and she nodded, “Yeah. It was even worse for me sense I didn’t understand what was going on until you explained it to me. It… wasn’t good.”

Joe’s stern gaze turned piteous and he turned to Stephliquen, “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to bother you.”

Stephliquen shook her head, “No. I’m grateful, so no need to be apologetic.”

Joe nodded, “May I ask some questions?”

Stephliquen flinched at that, remaining silent for a time before looking over at Joe, “Could you give me a bit more time?”

Joe immediately nodded his head and shifted his face to a pleasant blankness, “No problem at all. Thanks for being willing to, though.”

Stephliquen returned a tremulous smile, “Thanks for the patience.”

“Of course.”

A comfortable silence settled over them for a time, the other three coming up to stand behind them while chatting with each other until Stephliquen nodded and stepped forward.

“Right. Let’s do this.”

Joe grinned, “Right. I’m ready.”

Stephliquen marched down to the water before pausing right at the edge once again. She took a deep breath and glanced back, grim resolve warring with trepidation dancing across her face in random displays. Joe took a deep breath himself, nodding firmly in reply, but also feeling a sense of concern worm its way through his guts like lightening, worry twisting its way through him until he finally nodded once more in acknowledgment. Not a game. Not a game… She can get hurt! Realization that someone was dependent on him and was putting themselves in danger with the expectation that she would need him to protect her made the tension that much more real. He had no idea what would come out of the water, but the certainty something would tightened up his anxiety and he quickly began panning his gaze up and down the beach. Stephliquen took her first step into the water cautiously, then another, then another. Joe’s eyes darted rapidly back and forth, searching for anything that might reveal itself, but nothing changed.

Stephliquen remained in the water, the lapping waves just barely covering her ankles, but nothing else occurred. They remained tense and cautious while Kalia joined in their vigil. Gwenvair also searched with concern while Xylarnae stood to the side, uncertain what to do but behind and ready to assist them. Joe looked on.

* * *

Xylarnae dithered in distraction behind the others, exactly where she needed to be but utterly uncertain of what she should do. The Elemental fire, when it had burned brilliantly at Joe’s arm, had almost forced her to act, but still, concern and worry for the future of her people burned through her despite the brilliant burnished gold that glowed brilliantly within the man, his lack of chains making his fate burn even brighter. Xylarnae felt her uncertainty continue to wash through her, even as she considered. Unchained… completely unchained! She glanced up into the sky, staring at the massive orb above, chains enwrapped and twisted around it without a constriction that, to her sight, left deep unpleasant constraints throbbing throughout it’s being.

Glancing back down, she stared at Stephliquen, Gwenvair, and Kalia, seeing similar, if smaller and more delicate changes, twisted in unpleasant conscription against them. Glancing down, she sighed, finding the same before turning to look at Joe’s unfettered fate. She sighed deeply, fear, more than anything else, staying her hand. It even stayed her hand with the Elemental fire. Please. Let no harm come to them. I need more time. More time!

* * *

Joe and Stephliquen played with this floor almost like it was an MMO dungeon event, struggling to find the trigger but extremely cautious. After a few moments, Joe almost called for Stephliquen to continue forward, but Stephliquen proved courageous enough and took a deep stuttering breath before stepping forward. It was a small step, but nothing occurred, and Stephliquen continued again. Soon, the water was almost shin deep, and she paused again, caution twisting anxiety higher.

Over the next ten minutes of cautious stepping forward, she made it to around upper shin height into the water when she suddenly called out, a soft cry barely heard over the susurrus of the waves.

“Got something!”

Joe replied, “What?”

“Some kind of fish or something, in the water. Out a ways. Nothing really coming close, yet.”

“Fish? Eel? Snake like thing? Or something else?”

“Definitely seems fish like, although a bit weird, titled on its side.”

“But still fins and a long thin body?”

“More… a tall thin body. Kinda weird. It swims on its side.”

Joe frowned, “On its side?”

“Yeah. Vertical to the ground. Perpendicular? It doesn’t swim normally.”

Joe decided it wasn’t too important, accepting it before continuing, “OK. But it’s still leaving you alone?”

“Yes.”

“Probably our target, though.”

“Yeah. Only living thing I’ve found.”

“How big?”

“Not too big. Maybe the size of my arm, but wider than the width of my arm.”

Joe nodded, “Not too bad then. But you aren’t going to want to be in the water if it comes for you.”

“Queen’s folly, Joe. Of course not!”

Joe’s eyebrows furrowed at that, confused by her statement but let it go, certain of the meaning if not how it came to be, “Sorry. Shouldn’t state the obvious.”

Stephliquen ignored Joe’s apology and continued, “I’m going to try to get its attention.”

“Sure.”

Stephliquen then frowned, realizing she had nothing to really throw at it, so decided to begin splashing the water rather hard, then stomping in the water. The stomping seemed to have an effect as Stephliquen quickly froze before beginning again. But, after a while, it became obvious that it wasn’t effective as she began stamping harder and wilder without success. After a bit more effort, she took a few steps forward and repeated the efforts. Nothing seemed to work.

By now, she was out to her knees, luckily the wind here seemed rather tame, and the waves likewise offered little meaningful change to the environment. Even her simple steps caused more change in the waves than the wind. Joe watched on as she took another step and his concern quickly flipped to fear.

“You’re getting… pretty far out there, Stephliquen.”

She growled in anger, “I know, but the thing isn’t comin…”

Joe shouted out, fear spiking as he saw a massive jet of water erupt directly away from Stephliquen, “Run!”

Stephliquen made the mistake of looking towards the fish and her eyes shot upwards in fear as she immediately turned and sprinted towards shore, taking massive high stepping leaps, pulling her knees up to her chest as she took each step and leaped through the water. Her great leaping strides gained her quite some distance, but the fish was in its natural domain, and sped towards her in an explosion of movement so swift that the surface of the water actually flared with a surprisingly massive wake that even frothed a bit as it charged towards her.

How! That’s… how could a fish mov… she’s not going to make it! Arrow? No… too small… need… He flipped his bow down and aimed the arrow he currently had strung into the sand right next to the other arrows. He reduced the tension on the string significantly until only a small amount of tension was left and released it into the sand. He didn’t even check if it hit hard to stick into the sand and immediately reached out to the spear with his right hand, his bow still held in his left awkwardly. He yanked it from the sand and hefted it up over his shoulder before bouncing the spear into the air once to settle it perfectly center of mass on his right hand. Mana surged, he felt it flowing from his center, and with it, time slowed and everything became clear. It swelled through him and flowed out into his whole body, including into his arms but there was a subtle change to what went into his right arm, and soon, Joe noticed it also flowed up into his neck and down his right side before swamping over and including his core and going down both his legs. He wasn’t sure what it was but didn’t have the time to explore it, only noting it subconsciously while keeping his entire focus on the fish.

As soon as the spear settled into his hand, he took a single step forward while as his back bowed impossibly even while allowing his right arm to twist back to maximum extension before ripping his arm forward, body curling into an almost fetal position, erupting with explosive power as the spear leapt from his hand heading straight towards Stephliquen, timed to pass just behind her.

His entire body remained bowed forward but his head remained glued on his spear even as Stephliquen leapt into the sky, running as quickly as she could through the waters. Please. Please… She took another two steps, making it to shallower waters reaching just beneath her knees when the fish caught up to her, and the spear slammed into the water directly in front of it. The spear flashed into the water and vanished, buried into the sand so deeply Joe couldn’t see any part of the shaft sticking up out of the water. Joe cursed, knowing he’d missed, but grateful that it had been in front, as the fish swerved wildly when the spear pierced into the waters and it gave Stephliquen another few moments as its swerve took it into shallower waters. Obviously didn’t like that!

The fish braked wildly and turned away, desperate to retreat from the shore and uncaring of Stephliquen anymore. By the time it made it to comfortably deeper waters and turned its attention back to Stephliquen, she’d already made it back to shin deep waters and was now easily sprinting out of the waves.

Joe noticed and breathed in relief, turning his gaze back to the fish which he was now able sort of pinpoint as a subtly darker shade of teal in the beautiful waters. When it moved, however, it was very easy to notice, appearing to have been agitated. Its movements were now rapid and erratic, disturbing the surface of the water with wakes and sometimes even frothy eruptions for especially rapid accelerations. Joe watched on, but the fish did little else until Stephliquen made it to shore and the fish seemed to rage, suddenly racing directly towards Stephliquen. How does it know where she is? How are its senses penetrating into the air? This…

Joe quelled his thoughts and called out but without too much urgency, “Watch out, Stephliquen’

Stephliquen jerked around, watching as the fish charged her within a massive wave of water that welled up around it, bulging above the surface a good foot or two as it raced towards her until it reached waters much too shallow for it. Despite that, it found its movements unhindered as the volume of water it extruded above the plane of the ocean was enough to allow it to move, making some kind of reverse wave, water swelling up to allow it to move. It plunged into the shallows without concern until it was almost at their feet and Stephliquen bounced back further up the beach. The fish swam onto the shore, the bubble of water swelling up around it like a fishman’s version of scuba gear, yet it was full bodied, covering the entire fish.

There was a cost, however, with the fish loosing significant amounts of speed and water slowly being wicked away. Huh… gotta move the whole mass of water now… and a lot of it is being sucked in by the sand? This is… Joe’s worry over danger was swamped by his fascination of seeing a fish swim on shore bringing its own water with it. The fish didn’t stay long, immediately turning back to the sea, but doing so in an alarming way. It leapt from its own bubble of water, leaving a small strand connecting to the water, while pulling up a small snow globe sized ball of water with it laid against its body right above where the first front side fin of a fish usually sat, just behind the eyes and gills.

With it leaping into the air, Joe was able to see it clearly for the first time. It had the same of a typical tropical fish, if a bit longer and thinner than normal, shaped to be vertical to the ground rather than flat an parallel to it like stingrays and flatfish. It was a beautiful teal at the jaw then shifted slowly to darker and darker blue until it was an almost deep black purple over the rear back, culminating in a sharp spine located in a similar location to the trigger fish’s rear set dorsal fins, although still closer to the rear, almost at the tail. It still had a dorsal fin in the normal location most tropical fish had, more forward set than a trigger fish’s, but the fin melding back into the fish’s body before the spike erupted out, also swept back. Joe wasn’t certain, but he really didn’t want to be poked with it.

Its leap into the air had it come up head first before it twisted in air to fall back into its little globe of water below head first as well. When it twisted, the ball remained right above the side fin, directly behind it’s eye, until the tail was skyward, then the fish arched its body away from Stephliquen, the small ball of water suddenly sliding down the side of the fish. It then flipped in the opposite directly, curling in towards Stephliquen in a rapid jerk, the ball of water suddenly rolling up towards the tail before it was flung from the tail and directly at Stephliquen. Joe’s eyes widened in panic.

“Stephliquen!”

Stephliquen, luckily, was watching and immediately leapt to the side, but it wasn’t enough, the globe of water flung so quickly that it had already hit her before she even dodged. With the hit, Stephliquen stumbled and kind of stopped her dodge, turning it into a sort of side stumble as she looked down with some surprise to see that the water had plastered into her right shoulder, but did little else. Then she groaned, pain setting in and Joe felt his eyebrows rise to see her shoulder and upper arm take on a deep purple bruise. That hit… hard!

Joe glanced back at the fish then cursed himself for being distracted, the fish already falling back into its water. The fish slipped down with ease and as soon as the globule of water surrounding the fish hit the wave come up, the water globe suddenly sped off, slowly merging back into the ocean without so much as splash.

* * *

Stephliquen moaned. She’d at first been unimpressed, but a massive bruise and pain suffused her and she found herself crumbling under the pain of the hit. That…hurt! As she panted, feeling the pain of the hit, she felt her shoulders growing wet, first the one that was hit, then the other side, before the wetness climbed up her body, soon coming to her neck. As it began climbing her neck, she began to grow concerned, and when it swelled up over the back of her neck to her skull and up the sides to her ears, her panic swelled. She looked down in fear, and saw a swell of water welling up and unnaturally climbing up her face. Her eyes widened as the horror of the situation came to her, and she began panting, hard. At first, she sought to calm herself, then realized that was the wrong choice, and threw herself into hyperventilation, breathing harder and faster as the water swelled up and covered the back of her skull, ears, and mouth. Her mouth clamped shut as she breathed hard and fast, then took a final breath as it swelled up and past her nose. When the water started entering her nose, her panic spiked and she shoved her hand in to close her nose forcefully, pinching it between finger and thumb. No… no …. No!

* * *

Joe watched on as the fish flashed through the waters in wild erratic movements, swooping through the bay left and right. He had an arrow strung, and swept his bow left and right as the fish moved. It swept back and forth rapidly before leaping into the air. Joe’s eyes narrowed and he quickly set himself. He quickly evaluated the movement of the fish, its arc, and the direction it was taking before quickly drawing a bead on the fish and releasing his arrow. The arrow slipped his bow and zipped into the distance, missing the fish by just a hair. Joe cursed and immediately began moving, call the mana points he’d attached to it back to himself. Glad I didn’t use one of my good arrows.

“Move!” Joe yelled, remembering how fast the last small ball attack was that the fish had launched.

Everyone around him scattered and he immediately stilled his movement when he recognized the direction of the attack. He sprinted back to his arrows and pulled another up, glancing over to see the water ball miss Kalia by an arm’s length. Good. That’s not bad! His arrow was strung and bow was back up, panning with the jittering fish. A few moments later, the fish leaped again, and this time, Joe had it in his sights almost immediately. He felt time slow, even as certainty of the strike settled upon him, and he released the arrow with a soft sigh of satisfaction. Hit! The arrow flew through the air almost lazily and Joe smiled, watching it slam into the fish. The mana point on the arrow’s head was pushed into the arrow, even as he commanded the other mana points into the shaft. And the fish spastically twisted through the air to slam onto the surface of the water in a bad belly flop before its twitches slowly ended, floating upon the surface of the sea. Joe grinned. Good! He felt the swell of experience wash through him and knew it was dead, and out of the corner of his eye, near one of the walls of boulders, a dark pit appeared in the sand with stairs leading down. Awesome!

Joe cried out as he turned around, “Nice.”

He looked at the others then froze with some worry, seeing Stephliquen up the beach staring at him through a ball of water, a bit of panic in her eyes as she held her nose close carefully. That’s… not good!

Joe ran up to her and got close, “You OK? How’s your breath, do you…”

Joe trailed off with a quite curse, realizing she’d not likely be able to hear him at all, and she proved it quickly by shaking her head and pointing at an ear. Joe growled then grimaced. Don’t even know what hand signals or body language her people use? How…

Desperation drove him and he quickly pointed to his mouth, breathing exaggeratedly before pointing to his chest as well. Then he took a deep breath and held a thumbs up, that slowly shifted to parallel to the ground before coming to thumbs down and he once again exaggerated, expelling his breath and panting as if he was out of breath. He looked at her and she quickly nodded before giving a thumbs mostly down but still OK. He nodded then looked at the water. Didn’t work last time,, but…

He reached up and slapped the water around her head. It bowed out and away from her before it wobbled back around her head, refusing to break from her head. Tube? Do I have a tube? Can I use… or… he quickly turned to his inventory and an idea sparked as he pulled out a cloak, shoving it into the water. He began to grin, seeing the cloak soak up water, but when ripped it from the pool of water around her head, it didn’t come out at all, the water somehow almost immediately pulling from the soaked cloak. He looked at the cloak with a grimace and saw that it was a bit damp, but it wasn’t going to be enough.

He turned to look at the other three, but they simply looked at him with sad concern, and Joe grimaced. Given up… is there nothing I can do? He turned back to his inventory, searching through it with desperation even as the others looked on. While he was going through his inventory, he felt a tap on his shoulders and saw the panic in Stephliquen’s face about to break through. She was giving him a hard thumbs down, emphasizing it with shaking and aiming down. Right… but… what can I do. I can’t get rid of the water. It’s stuck... no, not the problem. What’s the act… she needs air. Now. That… ok, no problem!

The realization hit him and he quickly pointed at his own, breathing deeply several times to hyperventilate before pointing at her and his nose. He took in a breath and exaggerated breathing out while rapidly stabbing at his nose before pointing at her, then began hard heavy breaths. She calmed down quickly at that, nodding, but then quickly stabbed downwards with her thumbs down and Joe knew he was out of time.

He continued breathing hard and heavy then reached in and slid his hand over her nose, taking over pinching it and when she realized what he was doing, she released her own grip. Nose is much easier to line up and seal… He then pushed forward, pinching his own nose as well. If she needs to do it… must be a reason!

Even as he did so, he heard a commotion amongst the others, shouts and calls out to him but Joe was already in and preparing. He pushed his mouth in and sealed it over her nostrils, easily done while still pinching her nose shut, then realized he needed another hand and frowned. He then let go of his own nose with some trepidation, but nothing happened really, the air pressure he held in his nose enough to keep the floating water out. That’s… weird, right? That’s gotta be… He cut off his line of thought and turned back to what he was doing. Slipping the hand he’d let go around her head, he pressed her face to his to make sure his mouth stayed sealed with his mouth before releasing the seal on her nose. He then slipped that hand down rapidly to her stomach and pushed insistently against it a few times, and then her mouth opened and are began to blow out of her mouth. Joe breathed with some relief, grateful she understood and he waited for her to close her mouth.

He didn’t need to wonder when to begin as he quickly felt the suction begin in his mouth and he released a stream of air into her nose. She sucked it all in with greed, taking everything he had before slipping a hand in and closing her nose again. Joe pulled out, grateful that the water didn’t attack him or follow after him. Gotta be targeted then… huh… that’s annoying. He stepped back and looked at Gwenvair. The panic was gone and Joe offered a thumbs up and she nodded, replying with her own. He grinned and emulated a relieving swipe of his brow, but her confused look made him realize she didn’t understand. He huffed and let it go but then nodded and simply copied his thumbs up.

This time, she seemed to smile, a soft grin and replied with a thumbs up, then shifted it to a wavering sideways thumb before pointing to her nose with her free hand then wafting it in front of her nose with what looked like a universal sign for stinky. Joe laughed, a great grin breaking out on his face even as he pretended to be angry and with a fake grimace and a shaking finger. She grinned back, seeming happy to pull on over on him and Joe stepped back before shaking head, then grew serious. He pondered for a bit, then nodded. Right… communication.

He pointed at her, then showed a thumbs down. After, he grabbed her free hand and had it tap him on the shoulder and then he pantomimed breathing deeply and giving her another breath. She nodded at that, and Joe turned back to his inventory deep in thought. But, no matter what, nothing came to mind, the contents useless. Right… add straw to adventuring kit! Joe growled with frustration and looked up at the other three. And anything else for something like this. Do I need to add a hammer and chisel, too? Ooh! Stoning… that would… suck. Is there…

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Joe turned to the others, “How long will this last?”

Gwenvair stepped up to him, interrupting and ignoring his question with a sense of urgency that Joe was confused about, “Please don’t do that again, Joe. That was incredibly dangerous.”

Joe frowned, but allowed the change in conversation, “What do you mean?”

Kalia snorted and spoke up, answering for Gwenvair, “You fool mortal. You could have been next.”

Gwenvair sighed and explained when Kalia didn’t continue, “The spell could have attacked you, englobing your head as well.”

Joe stepped back with that, a huff of surprised acknowledgement escaping his lips, “Alright. Yeah. I could see that. But… this. What is going on? How can we deal with it.”

Gwenvair continued, “You need some form of resistance, or a spell breaker to break a spell like this… or wait for the infused mana to dry out.”

Joe nodded at that, “Well, good thing it’s not attacking me then. Stephliquen will be safe at least.”

Gwenvair sighed, “You were lucky. This spell seems targeted to her. You were very lucky.”

Joe nodded with a grimace, “I was.”

He huffed a sigh, nodding before continuing, “Then I need to understand. How do you counter things like this? I thought it would end like in the beginner dungeon if you kill the caster.”

Gwenvair huffed a sad smile, “It’s a beginner dungeon for a reason. The combat is simple and the consequences easily resolved. But when you come to more intelligent combatants, it’s not so easy.”

“OK. Then…”

Joe was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Stephliquen tabbing a thumbs down, but not too urgently. He nodded and huffed a half dozen times to oxygenate his blood before preparing to shove his face back into the bubble. Gwenvair brought a hand up, crying out softly, but Joe ignored her and shoved his face in. Not going to let someone die without trying. His lips sealed around her nose and when he released her nose, she quickly breathed out, bubbles streaming up past his face with slow languid grace. When she was done, she squeezed his shoulder, Joe not even realizing she’d place a hand there, and sucked in through her nostrils. He breathed out and filled her lungs, emptying his as completely as possible before pulling his head out with a rapid whip back. As he pulled away, he noticed that a small bubble of water had pulled away with him which then destabilized much like regular water before it splashed to the ground. He stared at it for a bit but then looked up at Stephliquen and pantomimed curious concern for her before holding up a thumbs up and wavering it between that and thumbs down. She grinned and waved him away, and he nodded then turned back to Gwenvair quickly.

“OK, you said wait or something?”

“Spellbreaker. It’s a person who can do that.”

“Break spells?”

“Yes.”

“How do you do that?”

Gwenvair huffed with despairing annoyance, “I’m not a spellbreaker. I don’t know how to do it.”

Kalia snorted, a disdainful grimace on her face, “You need to disrupt the mana within the structure.”

Joe nodded, turning to Kalia, “Do you know more details?”

Kalia frowned, “The easy way and the hard way. Blast it with so much foreign mana able to disrupt the current mana being used or delicately target its mechanisms to cause change. But, sense that requires intimate knowledge of mana constructs and the runes involved… there’s a reason spellbreakers are notorious, boy! And rare.”

Joe narrowed his eyes at that and turned to look at the globe. He focused on it and stared into its depths, searching across the globe wherever he could.

Kalia sighed and huffed while shaking her head, “You can’t see anything, Joe. It’s not such … there is nothing to do but wait, or blast it with all your mana, if you have enough.”

Joe glanced at her then nodded before returning his gaze to the globe. He gazed at it for a few moments, searching for something. He narrowed his eyes, but all he saw was a globe of water, wobbling in place almost like gravity had no affect on it, disturbed by the minute movements and adjustments of Stephliquen underneath. Joe blinked. The globe was ablaze with light, a steady structure of mana circling around and enclosing the structure of the water with some form of morphing membrane that flowed with the water naturally, somehow stuck to it, almost as if the water was surrounded by a perfectly sized perfectly elastic plastic sheet designed to exactly match the water’s movement and place while also containing it where it needed to be. Deep within the center of the globe of water, somehow made of the same structure and objects of the globe was a strange morphing symbol that had no constrained structure or meaning. It shifted between shape, position, size, and orientation without any real meaning or purpose Joe could understand, yet always was a natural progression from one to the next. To Joe, it reminded him of a Mandelbrot fractal married to a Rorshach inkblot shoved into a video loop. Except… not sure I’ve seen it loop even once… it’s… The thing shifted, morphed, zoomed in, zoomed out, twisted, turned, flipped, and changed but always somehow intimately connected to its previous position, shape, or size. A random twisting of something that was always different yet always intimately singular. It was it, without ever not being it, yet was never the same, always shifting and changing, being something new and different.

Joe stared into it, and all else around him vanished. The sounds and conversations of the others faded into nothingness. Light vanished and all that was, the only thing that existed was the totality of this singular infinite object. The environment around him faded, the beach, the sand, the trees, the light breeze, the sun shining down upon him, the conversation of the others, his own body, the knowledge of his body, its place and position, his breath ended, the tip of his nose evaporated from view, the soft pounding rhythm of rushing water onto the beach sounded loud then was gone, it’s soft bu-bum, bu-bum, bu-bum faded into the distance as if leaping away from him and light speeds, instantly gone, yet somehow fading slowly. Soon, all that was before him was the morphing figure that had end and no beginning. It was everything, yet singular in nature, only one, and yet all. The knowledge of what it was rushed through him with a certainty that pounded through his being. It was a declaration of perfection, yet simultaneously incomplete. A declaration of being, yet simultaneously nonexistent. A declaration of existence, yet simultaneously, itself, not. And through it all, was the sound of rushing water, the feeling of cool movement of liquid across his being, the taste of water, and the sight of thunderous, powerful, never ending waves. Liquid! And suddenly, it was the sound of rushing water, the feeling of cool evaporative alcohol, the odd feel of slime, the hardness of mercury, the burning heat of flowing magma, the weight of overwhelming oozing liquid iron. He caught a glimpse to something, somewhere, where all he saw, felt, knew, tasted, existed, was, heard, and conceived was liquid. Roiling, moving, shifting, rocking, sloshing, liquid. Layers upon layers upon layers of liquid, some rising, some falling, then suddenly all simply intertwining without concern, then each globule floating and bumping amongst each other within a vast sea. He was…

Joe blinked, and all things rushed back into him. The waves and rushing sound of his own blood came first, then the tearing sight of his eyes, then finally the sand, wind, trees, and the faces of all the others urgently circling his view and tapping at his chest, the sound of a strange call rolling into his ears with a muffled incoherence even as the faces twisted in a spiral around him, none staying where they should. Then he breathed, a deep gulping desperation for air as everything came into clarity and suddenly all his senses returned to what they were. Gwenvair looked on with fearful worry. Xylarnae showed concern but seemed so utterly certain of his safety, she only stood beside Gwenvair and comforted her while she waited for his obvious recovery. Kalia stared at him with narrowed eyes and a knowledge that she kept hidden, an undertone of envy and awe barely concealed beneath her avid gaze into his eyes. And Stephliquen was looking rather blue.

Joe blinked and sat up with shock and surprise, sand dusting off his back to the ground. He stared at Stephliquen with urgency and quickly made a thumbs up or down. Her reply was a quick thumbs down with a rapid jabbing of her thumb towards the sand. He already had begun pumping his breathing, huffing deep breaths before expelling them before lurching forward. This time, he didn’t take it slow, rushing forward to place his lips upon her nose but she didn’t even wait, guiding him instead to her lips even as she began blowing the air out of her nose, holding her hand near it to be ready to pinch it closed again. Their lips connected, pursed hard to keep the water out before she opened hers and began sucking greedily for air. His mouth opened immediately, struggling to maintain the seal upon her lips and cursed softy as it proved frustratingly difficult compared to using her nose. Still, he slid open his mouth and breathed, hard, letting the air out and into her lungs. She sucked it in hard, almost leaving him gasping as she ripped the air from his lungs.

When she was no longer getting anything else, she snapped her lips shut and he followed shortly after before he pulled his head back and breathing deeply once he escaped the depths of the bubble. He staggered back a step or two before breathing deeply and finding his equilibrium. He wiped his face, removing the water from his face while he staggered slightly. After he was done, he noticed the other three looking at him with concern, Stephliquen as well standing back to the side but looking at him with concern writ large as well, a pink tinge cast across her whole countenance. Joe smiled and waved a hand.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

Gwenvair’s eyebrows danced a bit, concern not leaving her face, but she stepped forward and laid a hand on his arm before pulling it back from him in surprise. Joe noticed the surprise, and looked at her with confusion before Kalia interrupted and he turned to Kalia instead. As he turned, some more water slipped down each of his cheeks and he brushed it away.

“What did you see?”

Joe looked at Kalia and cocked his head, “You noticed.”

Kalia nodded her head once, cautiously. Joe sighed, then frowned, feeling some liquid slipping down his upper lip. Man… can’t get dry. Joe wiped it away and took a deep breath before looking back up at Kalia once he was done drying his face.

“What was that?”

Kalia frowned, then grimaced, then struggled to hide the envy and awe from her face, “If I were to guess, you had a dao enlightment.”

Joe ground his teeth at that and flipped open his status page, looking at the list of magical resistances. Nothing had changed in his status, at all, but his gaze turned to his resistance for water and stared at it. Somehow, he was drawn to it, and Joe soon found himself staring with some wonder. Somehow, the more he stared, the word and number representing his resistance became the least important part of that display for behind it, within the area that Joe would consider a cell holding the word ‘water’ and the number ‘263.13,’ Joe sensed the vastness of liquidity once again. A soft susurrus of sloshing movement echoed from it, and the light blue that highlighted the wording in front took on an unfathomably deep significance. He stared into it, and the very essence of what he’d once said seemed to echo from it, but was a pale reflection of what it once was. He tore his eyes away from it and stared back at the globe that was surrounding Stephliquen, but no longer saw her. He stared, but it was only a globe, nothing more.

He blinked, wiping away a dribble of water slipping down his right cheek, but saw nothing but a wobbling globe of water. He heard the others speaking around him, but didn’t really notice their words, lost in the background as if spoken through a deep and watery distance. He blinked, and it was back. He leapt forward with excited wonder and found his gaze captured by the twisting morphing strange object before him. His eyes widened in wonder and he swore that he was glimpsing into the very bowels of the universe, seeing depths that could not be explained, promises of secrets held only just out of reach, if only he could plumb their depths. He refused to blink, seeing the massive movement of liquid existence throughout existence. He blinked and almost cursed at having lost such a vision, then cursed when he’d realized that he’d almost lost himself. He took in a shuddering breath then looked back at the globe with trepidation and saw it still there. When the depths called to him, pulled at him and promised him secrets greater than even than the gods, he shuddered and his eyelids drooped before he finally grit his teeth and calmed. Nope. Nope… nope nope nope… nope to the abyss here… sheesh… but…

He firmed his will and looked again, and this time explored it with a caution that was born out of the realization that this was dangerous. Not in any way that was malicious or sought harm, but in its very nature, alien to such a degree that its very existence would cause him harm. Even the concept twisted his mind in painful ways almost as if it was physically taking his very brain, unlooping it into a long string, before tying it all back together in a way that was utterly alien and incompatible with his existence. He shuddered, and peered deeper.

Almost without thought or realization of what he was doing, his mana points drifted up into his gaze and began to fall into the depths of this thing. And when he saw it, he realized that he was the one doing it, and he paused, blinking in shock at what he’d almost done. He paused all movement of his mana points, holding them all at an equal distance from the morphing object and grit his teeth. Then he frowned and turned his focus to the mana points. Something…

A tap on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts and he saw Stephliquen staring at him with a thumbs down, just a bit urgent. He nodded and began to hyperventilate again but she quickly shook her head and brushed her face before pointing at him. He frowned, wondering what she was saying then quickly realized he had water still spilling down his cheeks. He grimaced and wiped away, then felt a dribble on his upper lip and wiped it away as well. He turned to press in on Stephliquen and she held him back, shaking her head as she grabbed the hand that wiped his face and held up before his gaze.

Joe blinked then stared in shock. His hand was red, covered in blood. Another streak of liquid slithered down a cheek and he captured it with a finger carefully, finding fresh blood on his hand. What the…

Stephliquen tapped his shoulder urgently and he looked up to see her stabbing downwards with her thumb with some panic and Joe quickly nodded. He looked to the ocean then grimaced, deciding against choosing getting his feet wet, and pulled out a canteen of water before bending over and cleaning the blood off his face quickly. He kept hyperventilating through it all, even getting a bit dizzy by the end from over oxygenation. He stood and took one last deep breath before stepping to her. Again, she simply pulled his lips to hers and sucked in the breath greedily before pulling away. She nodded in grateful relief and Joe nodded back before turning his gaze back to the strange symbol deep within the globe.

He couldn’t see it and frowned, staring hard and focusing but saw nothing. He blinked, and it all came back. He blinked another few times, that first vision overwhelming in power and he struggled to keep from falling back into the depths again. His breath stuttered and then he gained control of himself again. When he looked back, his mana points were all still locked at the position he’d first halted them from diving into the strange fluctuating anomaly. He stared for a moment before grimacing and pushing in with his points, then frowned. Several of his points followed his order with ease, diving inwards. A few seemed insistent against going in, fighting his every effort to come closer to the twisting symbol. And one took a literal swan dive into it, eagerly reach for the symbol and burying itself directly into it. Joe frowned, halting all his other mana points and stared at the one as it glued itself to the symbol like a child returning to his or her mother.

It melded with it in a way that Joe found baffling, then simply came to a rest. Then it began to shift and move with the symbol’s morphing shape, twisting and moving around before it came to the edge of the symbol then disappeared. Joe panicked, yanking the point back to him and the mana point came back to him swiftly and easily, if with a feeling of reluctance and Joe calmed his rapid breathing before cautiously releasing the point once again. It did the exact same thing, diving into the symbol and attaching itself somehow. Melding? Becomes a part of it… or something… like it’s a … man… it just wants to be… there… but… it’s not the same place as before, so… kinda happy just to be in it?

Joe pulled it out and dropped it in another half a dozen times and each time it simply zipped to the closest location and glommed on. After doing that, he grimaced and took a deep breath, sighing before allowing the thing to do what it wanted. Science… not always easy… Worry gnawed at him as the mana point slid across the thing, moving with its position and place, almost as if it were a piece of the symbol itself before it reached the edge and faded from existence, no longer visible to him. Joe blinked, worry spiking but he still felt the point easily, and it moved, twisted, flowed, and shifted, all out of Joe’s sight and out of his ability to comprehend. Joe couldn’t grasp, in the slightest, of where his point was or how it was moving, but it did, shifting and flowing throughout. Joe watched on with growing awe and amazement as it continued to move, but never seemed to ever reach the same place or position. It’s movement was never ending and just flowed. A rapid tap on his shoulder brought him back to the present and he saw Stephliquen stabbing downwards with her thumbs down and Joe immediately began hyperventilating again.

She pointed to his face and pantomimed cleaning, and Joe grimaced again, reaching up to find fresh blood leaking from his eyes and nostrils. He sighed as he washed his face clear again, but found himself distracted by the movement of his mana point, feeling it ebbing and flowing in its position, moving closer and further and twisting around, somehow. He took another couple breaths then dove into the water globe and offered another breath to Stephliquen. She took it quickly and easily before stepping back and standing before him.

His focus shifted for a bit from the globe to Stephliquen’s face and he quickly noticed her worry gnawing at the edges of her eyes. He smiled quickly and waved away her concern, giving a thumbs up of his own. Relief settled in and she nodded and Joe turned his gaze back to the globe.

Once again, the symbol had faded to somewhere out of Joe’s comprehension, and he sought it out. As before, he was unable to bring it into focus until he blinked and it slammed back into his vision like a veritable train hitting him head on. He took a shuddering breath and disengaged, somehow, for a bit, until he could look once again. When it came into view, he watched on again with some awe. Just… so beautiful! It drew at him, amazing in a way Joe wasn’t quite sure he could understand, but still incredibly beautiful. After a few moments, he realized he felt his mana point coming back, and with that, came the realization of just how far it was away. For reasons Joe couldn’t understand, it felt like it was hundreds, if not thousands, of meters away, and he was shocked by just how far away it had gone. How?! But his thoughts returned to the mana point, more interested in experiencing the journey, if possible, and its twists and turns. It came back and back, swung wide around to his left, then seemed to immediately move from a massive distance to now, directly in front of him. His eyes widened when he saw his mana point come into view, still stuck to the morphing odd symbol, following a completely different and strange path, but brought back into view of his vision. It swam across the symbol, following its morphing while also following some kind of current within the symbol itself, swirling in odd eddy like patterns before swooping off in a rapid twist then slowing to a meandering drifting current back to the edge of the symbol.

Almost, Joe allowed it to go, curious, but retreating from the experience when the urgency of Stephliquen’s situation pressed back upon him. Man… kind of a jerk leaving her like this… but… I’m not to something… I know I am… just… He pulled the happy mana point back to his side and considered his other points, especially the ones that were resistant. He found a half a dozen or so that seemed unhappy about the strange symbol, and pushed them close, but the closer they got to the symbol, the more they fought back. Some came closer than others, but all took on almost a magnetic repulsion like action, becoming stronger in their rejection the closer they got. Joe grinned a bit at that, then pushed harder. If you don’t like it… His grin grew when he saw the symbol waver in a way that wasn’t quite the norm, almost seeming like it was destabilizing, but once he got this far, the points would go no further, and Joe found himself grimacing in effort without any return. I can’t… is there nothing?

Joe began panting slightly as pushed, his face becoming wetter without his noticing. But his efforts proved in vain. His thoughts struggled to seek another option, even as his mind began to throb, pounding with a regular thudding headache that grew and grew. His feral grin took on a more grimacing form and he pushed on. What else… He froze, then laughed. Of course! He immediately had all of the points that he was struggling to push closer shoot mana at the symbol. There was no purpose, no construction, no cautious or careful planning, just a wild explosion of mana at the symbol.

At first, he attempted to aim all of the mana points at a singular location, but while the symbol really seemed to not like that, it did nothing more than twist itself around such that now the mana seemed to simply be missing it, no matter how he tried to aim. Confusion reigned and he stared in wonder, mana streams falling of and disappearing. What? How… that was… A tap on his shoulder interrupted him and he looked up to see Stephliquen offering a slow thumbs down and Joe nodded, grimacing before turning back to the symbol. One more try.

This time he had each of the mana points aim to spray the entire symbol with mana; a shotgun like blast of mana from each mana point that really resisted this symbol, making sure to cover the entirety of the symbol. Almost immediately Joe noticed a change, and his feral grin turned to triumph. The symbol began to wildly shift, seeming to be a wild beast seeking escape, and then suddenly, it was gone! Joe huffed, laughing wildly before looking up at the others and then back to Stephliquen before frowning again. Wait…

Even as concern began to grow, Joe noticed the web surrounding the water globe rapidly dimming then fading altogether. In the locations, most of them at the bottom, that faded, water began dripping out, then dribbling, then full on leaking out, each hole widening rapidly until a tear formed and almost all the water rushed out. The tear widened more and more, still wobbling around Stephliquen’s head despite all the water not being gone. When the tear had spread across almost half of the sphere, almost every little light at the juncture of each string making up the web seemed to die at once, dimming to nothing then winking out. And with that, the entire web was gone, and the water splashed down upon Stephliquen’s shoulders and feet. Joe huffed as he stood up and walked backwards.

Stephliquen looked around with relief and took a deep stuttering breath before looking at Joe, “Thank you!”

Joe laughed and shook his head, “I really don’t know what I did, but… you’re welcome.”

She nodded but fell silent and Kalia stepped forward, insistent.

“You can see when you want?” she stated with a hint of a question.

Joe stared at her and nodded, “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s gone now.”

Kalia raised an eyebrow, “You banished it?”

“Is that what it’s called?”

Kalia stared at him, “You saw it.”

Joe nodded.

“More than once.”

Joe nodded, “I thought you can’t see it?”

Kalia frowned, “You… had an epiphany, an enlightenment. You cannot see the runes. What you saw was a gift from the heavens, the bare minimum to comprehend.”

Joe frowned at that in reply, “I… didn’t see it?”

Kalia sighed, “You cannot see the runes or magic. None can.”

Joe opened his mouth, then closed it, then pondered before beginning again after a time, “But I saw something.”

“A representation of it, but not a rune itself.”

“And what is a rune?”

“A representation of the dao, manifest and unique to each individual, understood only by one in that moment and for that time, then, once comprehended, by that person. Others… lack the insight of the original insight.”

Joe cocked his head in confusion, “Then… can you give me an example?”

Kalia stared for a time, thoughtful and considering before sighing, “Mine is useless, but…”

She knelt into the sand and drew an odd symbol in the sand. Of course, it was static and unchanging, and a ragged jagged thing that looked a bit like a pictograph. She finished drawing the strange random shape and line before standing.

“I saw this for shadow.”

Joe frowned and looked down at it, “Was it moving?”

She frowned back, “No. Runes do not move?

Joe’s frown deepened, “I thought you said you cannot see runes?”

“You cannot. This…” she sighed and shook her head, “This is not the rune, but a representation of it. It is also not what was seen, but what was shown.”

Joe stared at her, expecting more, but when she didn’t offer more, his grimaced, “It’s not seen but shown? But if it is shown, then it was seen.”

Kalia sighed, rolling her eyes, “The actual rune is not seen. One falls into a trance, a vision. Within the vision, a gifting is imparted, and the rune becomes visible, but it is not the rune. It’s… it has no power of the run. It simply is a poor painting… a poor copy of the rune itself. Within its form, it traps a small portion of its dao. It is weak, limited. It shows a poor vision, like a painting seen through a mirage, or a heat wave.”

“So it morphs and shifts.”

Kalia frowned even more, “The rune does not. It never changes or shifts. It is what it is.”

Joe paused at that, pursing his lips, “I don’t think… that’s what I saw.”

Kalia cocked her head, “No?”

Joe nodded, a deep frown upon his face, but his gaze lost in his thoughts and not upon anyone, “It was a symbol, morphing and deep. It revealed the depths of… water… or liquid. If I stared to deeply, I feel into it, lost into… wherever it was opening to. It shifted, morphed and changed. Its representation as I saw it was held within a single position in… three ‘D’ space, if that makes sense, but it … was not static, it shifted and changed, always a twisting turning changing symbol.”

Kalia froze, her eyebrows leaping up in down in surprise and consternation with no little bit of uncontainable excitement, “You saw into… water?!”

Joe frowned, then began to nod, “Yeah. Something like that. It was … weird.”

Kalia took three steps back from Joe and stared at him with horrified fascination, then turned away and walked to the other side of the field. She stayed there, lost in her thoughts, except when she found her gaze locked on him.

Joe didn’t notice. He found his thoughts returning to and arrested by the wonderfully terrifying vision of the strange symbol that somehow evoked all things liquid. He closed his eyes and lost himself in thoughts of it, enjoying it even as the symbol was burned into his memory. He found he was easily able to recount it, bringing it back to his thoughts as an almost perfect image. He stared at it, shuddering in its beauty, and ignored the fact that he’d never had eidetic memory.

He stayed there for a time, reveling in the memory until he felt someone sit down by his side and another in front of him. Joe opened his eyes to see Gwenvair kneeling before him and staring into his face, searching it carefully.

“Are you OK?”

Joe frowned and nodded, “Yeah?”

“Just… so much blood.”

Joe grimaced and wiped a hand across his face again, finding more fading wet streaks. He pulled a cloak out of his inventory and dumped some water on it to wipe his face but Gwenvair took both from him and leaned forward.

“Here. Let me. You can’t see your own face.”

Joe sighed with some relief and nodded, “Thank you.”

Gwenvair said nothing but began to dab at his face, sometimes scrubbing, with the edge of a wet cloak. While she did so, Joe simply sat there and enjoyed her care, reveling in it as a deep sigh released from him. He felt on his arm and glanced down without moving his face as much as possible to see it appeared to be Stephliquen’s.

“Thank you… that was rather terrifying.”

Joe heard her voice and nodded, “Hey. We help each other.”

Stephliquen grew silent at that and all of them fell into a silent camaraderie. They remained like that for some time until Gwenvair as finished and she settled in on his other side with some excitement.

“Can we try some more of your… letters?”

Joe grinned and looked towards the stairwell, “Don’t want to practice at the table downstairs?”

“And miss a beautiful day in the sun!”

Joe huffed before nodding, “Right. We can do that.”

He opened up his notebook and began going over the symbols and offering the matching sounde. Xylarnae immediately came over as well, sidling in between him and Gwenvair, but behind so she could look over both their shoulders before settling in the sand with them. Soon, all were crowded around, Stephliquen a bit reluctantly and Kalia with some annoyance, looking over his notebook that Gwenvair ended up taking from his hands half way through and slowly had Joe taking less and less part.

After about twenty minutes, Joe was pretty much was nothing more than an answer key or a dictionary as the others struggled to learn. Gwenvair dragged the others along with her excitement while Stephliquen reiterated the importance of reading regularly although she struggled the most, learning both a new alphabet and a new language: common.

Joe lost himself in relaxing after, finding his thoughts driven to the strange symbol with avid interest until the memory of it slowly seemed to fade and become lost. He didn’t notice it at first, but after a bit, when he was losing bits and pieces of what he’d seen, he became a bit frantic, turning to drawing what he could remember on a page in his notebook which he stole back from Gwenvair. Gwenvair offered it up easily enough, turning their reading practice towards writing in the sands of the beach.

Soon, his memory proved inadequate and he lost all memory of the symbol and found himself angry but also feeling a deep sense of loss. Soon, staring at the poor symbol on the page only gave him a deep sense of inadequacy and failure while simultaneously seeming to be profound. It was a rather strange feeling, and Joe stared at it for a time before growing frustrated with the negative feelings he felt for his failure and passed it back to Gwenvair and her reading lessons. He found himself at a loss for what to do before finally deciding to turn to something else.

He searched his status for a time before coming to see his elemental mage jobs and skills and deciding to focus on them. Huh… water, fire, and ice mage. Let’s see… Staff & wand… makes sense, point… huh… check later… mana control, point speed + and point power +… kind of make sense… if I know what point is… and last one is water, fire, or ice friend… for the respective mage lines. OK… weird? But… Well… let’s take a look then. Help. What is the mages point skill and uh… water friend, fire friend, and ice friend skill?

Point: Activate a singular point of matching elemental mana where the user wills. Move or interact with it as the user wills.

Water Friend: Gain a connection with the element of water.

Fire Friend: Gain a connection with the element of fire.

Ice Friend: Gain a connection with the element of ice.

Point was interesting, and had him itching to play with it, but the friend skills seemed overly vague. No matter how he wrestled with the system, it gave him no real information on what it actually meant. Clarifying questions only returning essentially the same thing, except for one interesting tidbit of information: it offered some kind of increase in ability with that element. When that was revealed, Joe cursed for quite some time, remembering why he was so angry with the system in the first place for offering obvious answers.

He sighed and equipped the water mage before casting. Guess I’ll just… do the water point thing… then. He focused on the skill and enacted it, focusing on a point above the palm of his right hand which he’d held out to give himself a place in space to focus on. Above his palm, a singular point of something distinctly ‘water’ came into existence taking up exactly zero volume. Everything within Joe railed against what he was seeing. Something about it was distinctly impossible, and unnatural. He felt a violent rejection of what he was seeing welling up within his thoughts and he ended it with as shuddering breath. He swapped his job to fire and ice, and the exact same thing happened, although the points were fire or ice and distinctly gave the impression of exactly that.

And like with the water, his mind rejected what he was seeing, and was deeply uncomfortable with it. He watched as a non-volume point of ice formed above his hand and he stared at it for a time before growing almost nauseous and he turned away. When he did, he noticed the mana streaming up from the center of the palm of his hands and his eyebrows quirked up. Huh. His eyes traced the mana to his palm then he turned to internal senses and traced the mana traveling up his arm and into his chest to his heart. At around where his heart was, he felt a rather complicated mess occurring that his senses were not keen enough to differentiate, only notice. Man… how am I gonna use this skill… manually? That’s… Welp… holographic help, here I come.

A display appeared, focusing on his heart again, and showed a symbol. As before, it showed one, then another, then another, with each one ending with a small point of fire forming above the palm of the person. Huh… copying what I did? Or… is that the norm? Wonder if… His thoughts were distracted when the next form occurred and Joe grimaced. Just show me the first one, please… please…

With that, the image looped through one, and Joe grinned, focusing on the first example for fire point. Oh… might as well ‘char:’ it, then… He did so and then went back to looking at the example. But as he tried, he quickly found himself in the same quandary as he did when trying the healing spells. He just couldn’t see what was happening in his chest. Man… can’t you just give me… ooh… Show me my efforts side by side!

With that, a second holographic display showed and Joe grinned, happy. He zoomed in on both till the example display showed only the current symbol he was practicing as well as a small portion where the mana streamed off to the arm and the palm. He grinned, and began with joy. I can do this! He sent out a mana stream then boggled to see just a cloud of chaos erupt from his heart and he grimaced. Serious?! Even as it did so, some of the formations that represented what he was attempting to do appeared, filling in the proper ‘shape,’ if odd unclosed lines and crisscrosses could be considered a shape, similar to the example shape on the right. He felt a mild pressure form, almost as if something were about to happen then it dissipated and Joe frowned.

Can’t be that easy, right? That… He started again, and this time just flooded mana out into his heart and felt his eyebrows rise in shock when the symbol formed, poorly constructed but marginally done to almost match the example on the right before mana streamed out then clogged and Joe grimaced, feeling a heat burning in his chest. He noticed the mana stream that had come from the construct was simply resting in his chest and he grimaced with some pain before willing it to go to his arm and down to his palm. This, it answered immediately, and did so perfectly, swarming down his hand and above his palm easily. And, above his palm, a very weak and unstable fire point appeared before it vanished almost as fast as it formed. Joe frowned.

I hope that’s not all it takes to be a mage… just shove mana at it until the magic run fills up… that’s like … even cheaper than paint by numbers! It’s a water drawing but the painter just throws the water on the ground and does nothing cause all the ditches and cuts are premade and the water simply fills in the holes and ditches… this…

Joe frowned and then spent the next ten minutes or so until he could finally send out a relatively decent line of mana. He’d thought he’d been doing lines quite well, but from the display he was seeing, even his most constrained lines of mana came out more like a mostly directional spray. There was little control. After the ten minutes, though, his line improved by quite a bit, although it still wasn’t very good at any distance beyond his body as the zoomed out display revealed. Still, within the vicinity of his heart, it wasn’t too bad. For the next twenty minutes or so, he spent spearing out line after line and attempted to fill in the display that was show on his right. He practiced quite hard and with significant difficulty, until by the end of the twenty minutes, he was getting closer and closer.

A profound feeling of accomplishment washed over him when he continued until he finally did it. A perfect match to the example appeared before him, and he compared it carefully for a few moments before Joe whooped in joy. The others looked at him, but he waved them off and turned back to his practice. Nice! He chuckled and held up his palm, but as he watched, the display remained unchanged with no single line of mana traveling up his arms. Not even a small burst forming to the side then waiting to be directed out to form a point. Joe waited and waited, but nothing was happening, and Joe grew agitated, cursing and wonder what was happening until an epiphany struck, and he grimaced. Wait… display side view and top view.

Two new views appeared next to his efforts, pushing the example further off to the right with two other displays showed on the example view as well a few moments later and Joe immediately recognized the problem. The side and top displays showed significant discrepancies against the example side and top displays. I hate… drawing in three D! Joe returned his efforts of completing the fire point, but now had to look at and compare three displays against three examples. He sighed and fell into the efforts.

This time, it took quite a bit longer, and the others quickly finished there exercises so Joe decided to end his own, only taking another couple minutes to try to complete the example fire point rune. That last one proved to offer a minor success, the spell actually completing, if very poorly, before traveling up and forming above his palm. Joe grinned. Well… that’s a nice one to end on!

He was exhausted by then, and sighed, unwilling to put too much more effort into it nor willing to wait until his mana refilled. Should probably head on. He did glance over and saw the others were about done with their practice, having chosen a couple letters to practice. Well… maybe… He looked at things, checked his mana and found it basically empty but still a couple hundred mana points left and then looked back at the examples. Can you show me the simplest form?

The display changed and Joe grinned, seeing a rather simple display of a single line. Joe grinned, comparing the three screens before grinning with a nod. OK… yeah… I think I can do this one… shouldn’t be too hard! Joe turned his efforts to trying one more cast and began his line. He grimaced when he realized he’d started in the wrong place, much like the struggle with using a pen pointer on a drawing display but without a screen display. For the most part, when you put the pen down, you were stabbing a random place on the screen. Wish there was some kind of way to know where I’m fo… wait… just… start where I’m looking. That should be…

Immediately, a line of poorly place mana began to appear exactly where he was looking and he grinned, a smile lighting up his face. He traced the line up with a grin then flicked his eyes over to check out the side views and the top down view. A massive scribble of poorly placed mana ripped across the screen and scribbled around wildly and Joe grimaced, cursing quietly. Right… OK… one more time… clean all that mana up. A massive wash swept away his efforts and Joe grimaced, glancing at his status display to see a couple dozen mana wasted and lost. I can always use the mana in my mana points… I guess… but what a waste.

The area clear of stray mana, Joe focused and began again. Start where I’m looking for now… and follow… follow…follow… now stop following my eyes… but don’t pick the pin up… stay right there… yeah… yeah… Joe flicked a glance across all three side by side example displays and then compared it to what he’d done then turned back to his. Wish I had a tracing highlighted di… ooh! A glowing illusory example overlaid his current display and he immediately dismissed the example displays, the illusory example now overlaid over his current display of what was actually happening inside his own body. He returned his focus to following the line up, grinning as he linked the display ‘cursor’ to his eyesight and unlinking it as needed as he swept his gaze from view to view. You know… rotating would be… the view immediately rotated as he willed it, and he grinned, a huge smile coming to his face before he immediately went back to his efforts, keeping his eyes pinned to the location of his current efforts while rotating and moving the display so that he could place the mana as he needed. Gotta be a lot better way than this, but… good so far!

Joe grins and continues, placing his mana down carefully as he spun the display around as necessary. This time, he finished in a matter of a minute or so, without wasting almost any mana, and his grin grew even more when he completed it and the line of mana leapt out from his heart, speeding to his arm with a rapidity that Joe found exciting. That was a bit better done! Joe quickly flipped his palm over and then another point of fire appeared over his palm before Joe’s eyebrows furrowed and he frowned. Wait… that’s not… very … The feeling of ‘fire’ that he got was utterly underwhelming. That one from before was so… … that was FIRE… if I were to say fire… this is… Joe reached a tentative hand forward and poked it, and found himself quite depressed, even annoyed. If there was anything there, it was about as anemic as Joe had ever seen of a fire. Joe ground his teeth and sighed. Well… we know the different examples are better and worse… this one must be a very very bad example then… of fire…

He sighed and ended the flow of mana to his palm and the point of fire evaporated to nothing, sputtering away with a disappointing poof. He sighed and then decided to stand up, wiping the sand off his body as best he could.

“Ready to go?”

The others all agreed, some more vehemently than others. They all stood and brushed the sand off. Stephliquen groaned, fighting with the sand on her feet and all over, but able to brush most of it off. Joe, however, wasn’t too bothered, having remained in his rather snug boots which had done well to keep the sand from getting into his shoes. But he froze when he stared out at the lapping waves and remembered his spear. He cursed, grimacing and caught the attention of some of the others.

Stephliquen looked over, “What?”

Joe glanced up at her and shook his head, “Just complaining. Never mind.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, “Why?”

Joe stuck his chin out towards the water, his hands still brushing the sand of his rear, “My spear is still stuck out there. Heh.”

“Oh. Right. Want me to go grab it? Already have damp wet sand on my feet.”

“It didn’t drive off yet?”

She shook her head, “Nope… not when the edges of my pants got a bit soaked by the ocean, too.”

Joe huffed and weak laugh and smiled, “I’m so sorry. I can do it.”

Stephliquen immediately shook her head, “Nope. You’re our main fighter here. Would rather your feet stayed dry and healthy.”

“Your’s, too,” Joe replied with a frown.

Stephliquen nodded, “Yup. Completely understood.”

Joe nodded back then blinked in surprise before shaking his head, “Although… with healing and magic… that kind of doesn’t really apply anymore, does it.”

Stephliquen paused at that, considered, before continued and stepping into the water, “Yeah… you might be right, but I guess decades of concern for healthy feet in your marines and a well-stocked larder… yeah. I’m still a bit picky about that.”

Joe grinned sardonically as he nodded, “I know what you mean. It’s hard to undo millennia of knowledge and training with something that breaks the laws of physics.”

“Amongst other things!” Stephliquen snarked back as she high stepped into the waves, her pants carefully rolled up to well above her knees. Keeping them there was frustrating her, but she was doing well enough as she reached where the spear was and began searching.

“Is this where you threw it?”

“Pretty sure it’s about there…. Yeah.”

“Hmm,” Stephliquen fell silent a bit more as she searched and all waited for her.

After a bit of time, she stood back up and looked at him, “You sure? I don’t really see anything here.”

Joe nodded, “Yeah. It should be.”

Stephliquen peered into the waters, but seemed to be unable to notice the spear, so began walking in a sweeping pattern, her hands pulling up the hems of her pants, keeping them above her knees. All fells silent for a time until Stephliquen suddenly stumbled, crying out a soft curse as she began hobbling in place.

“What’s wrong?” Gwenvair quickly called out, which Stephliquen ignored, but Joe took over.

“Everything all right?” Joe asked.

“Found your Queen’s cursed spear! Kicked it with my thumb toe.”

“Thumb toe? Guess… that makes sense. We call it our big toe.”

“Heh. That makes sense, too. Sound strange though.”

Stephliquen continued to speak, but Joe grew distracted since as soon as Stephliquen acknowledged her name for a big toe, mana swirled and condensed, surrounding him before bursting out, an obvious reaction of his polyglot skill translating. Joe felt his eyebrows narrow at that, finding this instance a bit odd. Usually pops off right when the word’s said… why did it wait?

Joe turned his attention back to Stephliquen, “…ing thing is buried almost the entire length into the sand. What you fire this thing with, a cannon? Didn’t think,” she interrupted her tirade to grunt, wiggling the spear back and forth to dislodge some of the sand entrapping it before continuing, “anyone could throw that har… finally! Get out here, you …”

Her mumbles faded below the volume of the waves, Joe no longer able to catch what she was saying as she finally began to make some progress, the shaft now above the water but still obviously buried into the sand. Joe found his consternation growing, realizing that the spear had traveled faster than he’d ever been able to throw a spear. Did my…strength activate? That seems… or maybe never noticed before? But… Joe pondered this, his thoughts going over the oddities he’d been noticing ever since the monster tide. It’s like… only in extreme danger… but at least this time I was able to do it for someone else, so… good, I guess. But…

Stephliquen stepped before him and his thoughts returned to her. He smiled and nodded, taking the spear form her.

“Thanks. Means a lot!”

“Good. Now get me over to that staircase so I don’t have to step on any sand.”

Joe nodded with a grin, “Can do. But let’s go over there closer.”

She nodded, pulling up her shoes before heading over. The others followed after her while Joe spent the time to sheath his spear into the pack. He heaved it up on his back, but didn’t put his arms in the straps, just holding it with a small handle at the apex of the backpack. He grabbed the spear at the same time, letting it dangle at his side before following after.

When Stephliquen arrived, she stepped into the water, washing all sand off while slamming her boots to dislodge any sand as well. She then flung them down into the stairwell, uncaring of how far they went down and Joe cocked an eyebrow at that, but said nothing. He came to the edge and almost began walking down the stairs and froze, looking down to see sand piled up around his feet and on the first step. Joe grimaced.

“Right. Should let you go down first.”

Stephliquen looked up that then grinned, “Would appreciate it.”

Joe nodded and then looked back at her while setting his back and shield down on the first step against the wall of the stairwell. He looked at her a bit then considered the distance; about two meters.

“You might be able to jump that, but if you slip hitting the stairwell…”

Stephilquen grimaced, “Yeah. Don’t want to jump. Dumb idea. Could you carry me just to the edge?”

Joe looked back and forth, nodding before turning his back to her, “Sure. Hop on and I’ll drop you down there.”

Stephliquen took her time, considering Joe’s place and then nodded, “That’ll work. Can you come a bit closer?”

Joe nodded and stepped back another couple steps until the waves were lapping against his shoes, but not above the soles. At least the waves are very calm… not having to worry about them swamping my feet is nice.

She stepped up, climbed on, and a step or two had her hopping down the stairs after her shoes with ease. Joe turned back around and grabbed his backs, the other three watching on before following down the stairs after Stephliquen. When they made it to the rest area, they all stopped for another twenty or thirty minutes to allow Stephliquens feet to dry completely. During that time, Joe put more effort into teaching reading and writing as well as practicing some more mana constructs of water, ice, and fire.

Finally, Stephliquen gave her OK to continue on, and they wrapped up their last lesson before Joe led them on to the next door. He didn’t even pause or wait, raising a hand as he walked forward, and the door seemed to respond immediately, even with Joe still a half dozen strides away from the door. He walked up and only had to wait a moment for the handprint to slide into place before pressing upon it and finding the door opening. His excited trepidation for the next floor soured quickly to deep disappointment. Joe grimaced. Seriously? That’s it?

It the middle of a boxed off room without any meaningful decoration or design, a slime wobbled. If there was anything odd about it, it was that it was a dirt brown slime, but Joe still found himself disappointed.

“Well, this is going to be boring.”

Gwenvair stared up at him with a look of amazement and some trepidation. Joe frowned and looked at her.

“What?”

“It’s a Master earth slime.”

Joe’s disappointment shifted to worry, “Earth? It cannot manipulate earth? Create it?”

“Both.”

“So massive rocks are going to fly at us ripped off from the walls around us?”

Gwenvair’s excitement turned to worry, “I… maybe?”

Joe sighed and brought out a spear and shield, “Well, if it’s like a regular slime, it also likes to jump at you, so make sure to leap out of the way.”

The others nodded at that, acknowledging with soft affirmations and Joe stepped into the room before immediately walking to the left.

“Maybe head to the right. I think its focus is on me… yup, definitely on me!” Joe ended with a yell when a small chunk of the floor directly beside it lifted into the air before accelerating immediately to maximum velocity directly for his chest. He leapt to the side but did not roll, simply flying moving enough to escape the range of the stone fired. The rock hit the wall and shattered, shrapnel flying everywhere with some few pinging into his back. It wasn’t too painful, but he easily noticed it.

He immediately squared off with the slime again, settling into a high baseball catcher’s stance with shield in front of him and spear loosely held at his side. Another rock rose from the ground, another hole left behind, before it leapt straight for him. Joe leapt to the side again, this time with much greater ease, although grimacing this time when shards shattered against the wall behind him and then blasted into his back, a couple hitting his bare neck and arm. OK. Not too good to stand here, but… don’t want to get closer. Hard to dodge!

Another rock came as he was considering his options and this time he took it on his shield, wondering what it would feel like. Ow! Well… that didn’t feel good! It wasn’t really anything too painful, but there would definitely be a bruise and he could easily see how the pain would only increase with any further shrapnel peppering his back.

As he considered his options, still another rock came blasting across the room and Joe grimaced, leaping to his right since his shield was in his left. If he was too slow and the rock clipped him, hopefully he could easily intercept with his shield. Joe slithered around, leaping back and forth awaiting for the slime to act like a slime, and he grew more and more frustrated when it didn’t act very slime-like at all. It simply sat in the middle of the room continuously targeting and peppering him with small thumb sized rocks up to some even the size of his fist.

Finally, he grit his teeth and prepared to engage, knowing he had little other option. He glanced over at the others then frowned. He spent a couple glances between dodging rocks to make certain of what he saw, and grew concerned. In front, Stephliquen dithered with closing with the slime, glancing at him and then looking back at the other two. She seemed about ready to push forward but each glance back at the other three had her concerned. She was frowning by now, a grimace twisting her lips.

Behind her, Kalia proved to be the most fearful, which greatly concerned Joe, considering her certainty in other situations. Gwenvair also remained tense, staring avidly at the slime while Xylarnae crouched with some fear behind all the others, although she seemed used to being in such a position, hidden behind others. Joe made note of it, but turned his gaze back to Gwenvair and Kalia, finding their rather extreme fear disconcerting. Gwenvair saw me take down a five… sxi? Core slime! Much bigger than this… what am I missing?

Joe’s planned rush took a back seat and he became much more concerned, staring at the slime cautiously while continuously dodging all thrown at him. He was only glad that the thing seemed as dumb as the box of rocks it was using for ammo, only targeting him and leaving the others alone. Joe struggled to find anything that proved this thing was any more dangerous than a normal slime, but for its ranged rock throw.

“Stephliquen. Can you hold back a bit? Kalia and Gwenvair seem a bit worried about this. And I can keep up dodging these stones pretty well, don’t worry about me. Let me ask them some questions on what is happening.”

Stephliquen nodded at that with a soft cry, “OK.”

Joe, cursing as he leapt around another rock, then grimacing when a small piece of shrapnel hit the back of his calf, turned to speaking with the others, “So… why the overwhelming concern with this slime?”

Gwenvair huffed, grinding her teeth, “It’s a master earth slime, Joe. Very dangerous.”

Joe nodded, “Yeah, I know, but why…”

Kalia cursed and interjected, eyes stubbornly pinned to the slime, “Because we are mortals trying to fight a Master monster! Even a basic one would kill a mortal, Joe! Deal with this beast.”

Joe frowned at that and then began to advance. Just cause it’s a two core? Need… should I ask her about the mortal thing? Seems like she would know… but don… oh! Could I claim it as some kind of this cradle unknown thing? But she knows I’m not from here… could ask Garn… Joe’s thoughts skittered, broken from his train of thought, then he cursed as a rock blasted across and took him in the right shoulder. Focus! Focus!

Joe growled in pain, almost dropping his spear as his right shoulder was pulverized under the blast of the rock and he glanced down with some shock to see the shattered bone of his shoulder joint and even his upper arm ball joint with a crack running through it before it vanished in the blink of an eye and all was healed to full again. Joe huffed, blinking hard against the sudden pain while pushing back the tears. He immediately whipped his gaze back to the monster, grimacing. No time… focus!

His status flipped up, only showing his pools in the corner of his screen as he willed it, then whistled with some fear to find a massive chunk of his HP gone. Around half was empty and Joe could only grimace with some worry. That’s… not good. He dodged another rock and reevaluated just how dangerous they were. Then wondered how he was dodging them so easily. They don’t seem to be going that fast… not even close to baseball pitcher speeds… that’s… so then…

Another throw came and Joe leapt to the side with relative ease and then began closing with the earth elemental once again. One step… jump to the left… another step… a jump to the right… ok… I got this… two quick steps… jump… another step… ok… getting harder… jump… focus…

* * *

Stephliquen watched as Joe advanced upon the gelatin creature with startling ease, and she found herself reconsidering her Empires evaluation of the Earth branch of the human species. Joe moved with lightening but controlled speed, blurring as he leapt left and right, reacting with incredibly alacrity that she was almost certain he appeared precognitive. None of her people were. It was a common trope in human literature across almost all branches of humans across multiple planets, but none were ever found to be precog. Yet, Joe moved with incredible speed and each strike, except for the one, missed him. Did we not evaluate his species correctly? Nothing I remember from the records revealed this level of physical capability. He’s… too fast!

* * *