"I-I am here." Rue squeaked out.

Akyas began to say "WhOOOooooooo." before coughing up a green ball of gunk.

'You know that I suddenly feel less sure about this. wait who am I saying this to?'

Akyas used the intimidation skill

Fear applied

'NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO NO NO N-'

stats ineffective against Fear status effect

Using mana to resist - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dual core detected....... rerouting buff attempt

Fear resisted

'o... no? what? alrighty then, mildly concerning but there is more important things to-'

Akyas finally finished coughing up the green fluid and said "WHO, IS, THEre?"

"Um... I am here? I am Rue." Rue blurted out.

'I shouldn't have done that, Why did I do that? WHAT IS GOING ON?!' Rue's internal monologue burnt on

"Where, are you? I. can't. see. you." Akyas said his voice audibly weaker than before.

"Uhh Well I'm in the dark, cause I have an ability to see in the dark." Rue replied

internally Rue continued 'Not that I should have or needed to tell you that, what is going on?'

Diagnosis complete - Buff added - broken free

causes the removal of mental inhibitions, including but not limited to restraint, empathy, fear, ecstasy, panic, mania and any mental status effect that is present including ones which are a normal state of the user.

Effective against any and all mental conditions.

Akyas asked "Can, You, make, a, light?"

Rue held her hand over her own mouth before it ran its course.

She could technically make a light but the small part of her brain related to rational though had a better plan.

removing her hand from her mouth she let it pour out her current thoughts, held with a watery and weak but existent focus.

"I-I have a-a Tool, I Was m-making, If I c-can complete it, I could make some L-light." Stuttering out the line held in the inky tendrils of focus, lips quivering under the exertion of the lethargic focus.

"You. DO? P.l.e.a.s.e. T-t-urnn it on."

Without a word Rue began to piece together her armour and as she finished placing the shoulder guard on.

Skill proficiency reached Crafting skill awarded!

You have completed the construction of the Mana saturated barrier tool

Name: Fateforged bulwark

Type: Arcane mana shaping tool

materials: 80% mana decayed steel, 8% copper wires, 4% trace impurities, 1.8% nonmetal inclusions, .2% scrap silver

Description:

A shoddy, mana degraded metal arm protection, since the steel was never designed to resist the mana used as the base it has degraded in quality, If not for the base material being steel the armwear would slowly flake into nothingness, despite the physical vulnerability of this equipment the arcane techniques used within the item cause it to gain a fair few benefits over a normal armguard.

Firstly since the steel has been forcibly saturated with mana the armour can store twice the normal capacity of the materials

Secondly the techniques and principles of arcane tools is overwhelmingly present within the simple constructions, providing the maximum possible support for spell craft of the sculpted shield.

The shield spell itself is limited only by the mana control of the user.

Thirdly due to the assistance of the system in this item's creation the item is tooled for a very specific persons use.

Amount of mana within armour 0/500

'Ok so it is like-'

With a few rattles and clinks of straps being fastened a soft purple glow began to creep around the room as a shimmering ball of energy coalesced above both rue and akyas.

Seeing in colour Rue was not so sure that Akyas was doing so well, the brown he had when he first appeared turned into a light with touches of grey.

The beady little eyes in his head cracked open, the black orbs taking in the surroundings.

the wall glanced at Rue before being entranced by the infinitely deep pool of purple energy the sight took his breath for a moment, before he refocused on Rue who herself gazed upon the sphere of lifesaving energy before saying.

"I am here."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"So, you, are, little, one." Akyas said colour returning to him "I. wanted. to. find. a. local. to. guide. me. out. of. this. place, since. I. am. suspicious. that. I. got. cursed. at. the. moment."

"Well I can most certainly tell you that you are cursed, But I would also say that you are dying."

"No. No. just.... Slightly. Sick.... Toxic. Fumes. ya. know." he said breathing becoming laboured

he hadn't eaten or drank anything recently and was unconscious for an unknown amount of time, not a good position to be in on a good day, let alone a bad one.

"Well if you are fine could you crawl your way out of the hole I made, there doesn't seem to be enough room to let me leave and even if- wait a minute you want to leave the sumps?"

"Who. doesn't. if. able? Place. kills. everything. an. everyone. no. place. to. LIVE." saying the last line while breathing in, a churning groaning noise could be heard as the wall shifted to the side.

No light could be seen from within but unless it had been a month they should be able to escape.

Rue though to herself 'well at least if he attacks me I have the barrier to defend myself?'

Cautiously skirting around the muscular slab which blocked her way.

Only to see the darkness of the night reflected back in the smog filled skies, as she made her way from the pile Akyas pulled himself out of the pile, scraps restraining and pulling against his resistant hide, screeching in protest against the plus sized interloper.

As soon as he resurfaced akyas let out the breath he was holding before collapsing into a ball and rolling down the trashberg.

His impact with the ground made a cataclysmic sound reverberating across kilometres of sump lands.

Akyas groaned before he turned to the comparatively inconspicuous Rue.

opening with a question "So, how can you help me?" he posed

"well I don't really know where you are exactly wanting to go, but I could make a guess if you gave a direction from one of the known settlements." she replied

clearly more comfortable being able to extend himself to his full height he spoke again.

"well, I do know that I usually come from the north side of the ork camp, when I was at the camp I was trading for some goods before they cursed me."

behind akyas's eyes the gears were seen turning before he then asked "Wait how can you tell that I was cursed with such surety?"

Rue though back to it and remembered that the system was ultimately responsible for the knowledge and so unbound by any handicaps such as tactical thinking and any amount of cynicism she responded with "Well I used the system on you and it showed several status effects, including several curses."

you could almost hear the churning of the gears in Akyas's head as he processed this.

"wait, y-you mean to say that you have access to THE system, like stats and skills and all that?!" he almost shouted still illuminated by the beautify refracting purple light of the mana ball above them.

Mentally thrashing herself, Rue commanded the system to disengage the broken free status before replying "yes I do, and for that matter you in fact have two curses on you, one causes your perception to be reduced to 1 the other causes you to, uhhh, be very unlikely? sort of I think, it is weirdly written."

Akyas began to glaze over before he shook his head "alright, so, given that you have the system, you should be able to escape the sumps if you bring me to the portal."

"Portal? errrr, kinda blue around the edges with a shimmering picture of the.... location that it goes to?" Rue questioned

Akyas span around to be certain the portal wasn't within eyesight before answering "yes, that is a fairly accurate description, Why?"

"well if that is true, I do have a relatively good idea of where to go, sort of, I know where we need to go since I know where this 'Portal' is, though what do I get for taking you there?"

Akyas went silent for a moment before he answered "I can lead you to the capital and put a good word in for you. As a hunter."

Rue started to contemplate 'He is a hunter? what? I though being a hunter was a job?" beyond such simple concepts as confusion, Rue was deep in the thoughts about how to proceed before the titan, grimacing about the local so deeply thinking about his offer, In truth he didn't have much more to give, push come to shove he could probably reason a bit more but If she didn't accept he didn't know what he would do.

Given that she could see his status she had to have superior perception, his curse reduces his effective perception to the point that he cannot feel such a powerful influence to be described as "bad luck" is a fair understatement.

Time ticked slower for another minute, stretching, contorting until the decision made finally arrives.

"Ok I will take you to the portal, But you will take me to the capital and will put a good word in for me." Rue said

"u-uh, wasn't that what I just said?" Akyas said confusedly

"yes"

"alrighty then, lead the way." He agreed.

Broken free has been applied in accordance to the user

be aware about continuous use of this status effect

"yeah, but first can I take a nap, I am actually really tired from that orb up there."

Akyas arched back to stare up at the dimmed purple orb "it is a little smaller isn't it?"

"yeah that is because to manifest that I need to constantly concentrate on it, getting tired doing that just for light."

and so Rue promptly collapsed under the protection of the muscular Akyas, who is at fault for causing this exhaustion.

sleeping quietly, and soundly unconscious after operating for too long.