Rev smiled as he cultivated. Rune-crafting turned out to be simultaneously a simple, and complex form of magic. The complex part happened up front. He would have to pay one hundred mana to form a concept into a rune, then go through a long process as the mana slowly wove together into the appropriate weave, much like how the two essence spells he had learned worked. The fact that he only had a maximum mana of ten didn’t help this process either, as it meant he had to rely entirely on his mana regeneration to fuel it. Naturally, each rune created increased the cost of the next rune as well, meaning it would become increasingly harder to form them in a timely manner. The simple part came once the rune was formed. He merely inscribed the rune onto an object, and then fueled the rune with mana. Naturally, he had chosen fire as his first rune; fireballs being iconic as a magic spell. The symbol he used was a cliché; a rounded bottom with a jagged top.
Unfortunately, ten mana had only been enough to form a single fireball the size of his fist from a random piece of paper he had scrawled the rune onto; which had propelled forward lazily until it splashed harmlessly against the wall of a cell he had chosen as his testing grounds. The fact that the piece of paper had also caught on fire didn’t help matters. Despite the relatively unimpressive showing, Rev couldn’t be more excited. With his quick mana regeneration rate, it was only a matter of boosting his intelligence stat to provide himself with a greater mana cap; an easy feat when his essence generation had been increased so dramatically. He had considered fully purifying Chun as promised, but came to a simple realization. If he wanted to survive, he needed to increase his personal power first.
While he certainly saw the benefits in having her as an ally, the reality was that whatever manifested to hunt him would have the powers of a tier one cultivator, so spending all his mana and essence reviving a tier zero person who had been training for the law of cleanliness seemed like a poor investment for now. He needed the power to defend himself first; hence the need to cultivate his intelligence stat.
Despite the massive increase to his essence generation, it still took him most of a day to reach an intelligence of two. While he didn’t have a clock, a convenient timer had appeared to announce how long he had left before he faced his first invading enemy. It told him he didn’t have time to gain another stat point, so he focused on inventing more runes instead. He had created “trap” and “aura” runes when a new notification appeared.
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A reaper has been dispatched.
Survival timer:
15:59:59
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Grimacing, he released the threads of what would have been a “stealth” rune, and raced out to the front lobby. There, he had prepared piles of pen and paper; a lucky find from the supply room. Grabbing a piece of paper, he wrote the “trap” rune on it; a shape with a flat bottom, and jagged top similar to the design of a crown. He tried channeling mana into it, but the mana refused to flow. Intuitively sensing that the rune was incomplete, he tried writing a fire rune next to it. This still didn’t produce any effect. It took several minutes of frustrated experimentation to discover that linking the two runes simply required drawing a straight line between them that touched both.
With that problem resolved, he channeled his full twenty mana into the runes. They lit up with a slight rainbow hue that slowly shifted color, and he was able to pull up a system window for it.
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Artifact: Fire Trap Talisman
Grade: Inconsequential
Effect: When activated, produces a fireball that causes ten points of damage upon impact. The trigger is configurable.
Charges: 1/1
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Setting the trigger proved to be a matter of simply feeding his intent into the runes, and he was able to set it to react to any entity within a two foot proximity. The entire system was actually extremely malleable in this way, with him able to adjust the specifics of the runes on the fly to some extent. Gingerly he set the talisman on the ground just in front of the guard post’s main door before quickly backing away. He wasn’t sure whether there was any risk of friendly fire, so he gave the door a wide berth. With a mana regeneration rate of approximately seventy-five per hour, he averaged three talismans per hour for the next several hours as he hastily assembled a maze of traps in the central office area.
Hoping for a kind of grand finale to his home-alone style defenses, Rev inscribed all three runes onto a piece of paper, then invested a full hour and a half into channeling his mana regeneration into the paper; making it an even one hundred mana investment due to a pathological need for whole numbers. When he examined the paper, he was rewarded with a satisfying prompt.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
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Artifact: Fire Aura Trap Talisman
Grade: Inconsequential
Effect: When activated, produces a flaming aura around a target. Anything which touches the target will take 20 damage per second. This aura lasts for one minute, or until the target is sufficiently damaged to disrupt the effect. The target itself will be unharmed by the heat and flame of the aura.
Charges: 1/1
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Rev had just begun the process of affixing the talisman to the door leading into the facilities hallway, when he heard an angry buzzing noise in the distance. Hurriedly finishing the process, he closed the door, and ran into the training room. There, he manifested a training sword for ten essence. While the weapon was technically an illusion, so long as he remained in the room it would have the solidity of real matter. In this case, it was a slightly curved short sword. Chun had assured him this would be a good beginner’s sword; especially in the tight corridors of the prison. Rev had been taking breaks from his cultivation over the last three months to engage in the holographic sword tutorials provided by the training room, and was now up to a very basic level of proficiency.
Rev gripped the pommel of the sword in tight anxiety as he heard the first explosion go off. Whatever had disturbed his trap was apparently undeterred, as he heard another, then another. It took a full thirty seconds before the explosions stopped; followed by an echoing thud. Peeking into the hallway, Rev saw the brilliant red flame crackle around the door as cracks formed in the thick wood. Another thud resounded, and one of the hinges came loose. Letting out an undignified meep, Rev ducked back into the training room, and girded himself for what was to come. He didn’t have long to wait.
The moment the door crashed inward, he heard a strange clicking-buzzing sound followed by a terrible, alien screech. Risking another peek out, Rev had to clench himself to hold back terrified vomit as he watched a strange creature like a cross between a beetle and a scorpion scuttling over the still burning door. It had a head with six cold insect eyes and a mouth with numerous sharp tearing pincers that he thought were designed for tearing the flesh from its prey; the body consisted of a thickly armored abdomen with two wings poking out of retractable compartments within the shell, and six legs that ended in jagged nubs like the bottom of soccer shoes. One of the wings was mostly burnt off, though the creature still tried to flutter it in vain. It’s other body part, a thorax attached by a relatively narrow joint, ended in a cruelly tipped stinger. He watched in fascinated horror as one of its six legs, the middle left leg, detached halfway up its length; one of the joints simply becoming too brittle from the heat to continue sustaining the creature’s weight. It continued scuttling toward him despite the agony the creature was in as it screeched its fury.
Rev scrambled back into the training room and entered a simple guard stance in the center of the room as his limbs shook. Suddenly craving a drink, Rev didn’t have to wait long as the creature scuttled into the room. With no ceremony or time for Rev to come to grips with the horror that faced him, the creature charged forward blindly. Rev nearly broke and ran in that moment, but as he stared, transfixed, his body began moving almost of its own volition. Instead of fleeing, he screamed his terror as he ran toward the creature; swinging his sword wildly like a baseball bat. The creature clicked and hissed at him as the weapon deflected off the thick chitin of its head, but the second swing cut an oozing line through one of its eyes.
That was all he accomplished before it was on him. With a screech, it jabbed one of its legs into his abdomen. This would have caused a mortal wound for a normal man, and even most cultivators; but his significantly enhanced natural defenses succeeded in mitigating most of the damage. That’s not to say no damage was done though, as the wound left a burning gash in his abdomen.
Grunting in pain, Rev sheared off the offending leg with his blade; the limb making a brittle crunch as it snapped more from blunt force than being actually cut by the impact. It chittered in pain, and snapped its stinger at him for the first time. Lightning quick, the stinger slammed into his left shoulder, and he gasped as the attached arm went entirely numb. Grateful to be right-handed, left arm hung suddenly limp as he held the sword one-handed; his control over the limb lost. Anxious, Rev backed off to reassess, and strangely the creature let him. It was only when he was puzzling over the sudden interlude that he realized the numb sensation was spreading.
Realizing he had less than a minute before he lost control of his left leg as well, Rev charged forward. The insect didn’t react in time as desperation lent strength to his next swing; shearing through the front leg on the left side. Now missing two legs on that side of its body, the creature toppled with an alien shriek; desperately attempting to turn itself to face him. Rev didn’t give it time. Stumbling slightly as the creeping numbness attacked his hip muscles, Rev slammed his sword through the creature’s tail; shattering one of the connecting joints that supported the stinger. The limb hadn’t been fully removed, but it was clear that the weapon was no longer a threat to him.
Rev fell to one knee as the supporting muscles in his hips finally gave out. With an awkward swing, he shattered the remaining leg on that side of the creature’s body; rendering it as non-functional as the stinger. By this point the horrific being was clearly panicking; thrashing wildly as it struggled to retaliate against the man who was quickly rendering it impotent. Unfortunately, Rev was struggling too now. His mind swirled psychedelically as the poison traveled not only down into his limbs, but up into his brain. Holding onto his fear like a life raft to focus himself, he pulled himself forward with his one functioning arm.
With a low moan of some emotion he no longer had the faculties to identify, he slammed the blade of his sword into the thin connection point between the creature’s thorax and abdomen. The first blow elicited a crunching sound, but little else. The second blow drove an inch into the reinforced chitin, and the third finally shattered a significant portion of the vulnerable joint in the creature’s body. Unbeknownst to Rev, one of the resulting chitin chunks pierced into the creature’s thorax; rupturing its poison sack.
Leaking ichor in numerous places, almost entirely de-limbed, heavily scorched, and now a victim of its own paralytic poison, the creature’s frantic struggles began to slow. Meanwhile, Rev finally succumbed to the poison; collapsing into a catatonic paralysis while his mental processes exploded into a drugged fugue state.
“Lovecraft take notes!” He cried out, giggling manically before the creeping numbness silenced his vocal cords. Finally, he was left to stare, wordlessly, helplessly; as the pretty colors swirled maddeningly on the blank white ceiling of the training ground.