Chapter Four - Screaming
I think I’m going to die down here…
I slowly, groggily woke up. I was sore, everywhere. My face was burned raw, not by fire, but by wind. I was laying on a solid stone bed, in a cave illuminated by mana-stones hanging from the ceiling. Looking around, I saw desk, a bookcase, and a door. Ignoring everything else, I rushed over to the door in an attempt to get away from whatever the hell this place was. Before I set a finger on the door, I slammed into an invisible wall nose first.
“Fuck!!!!”
My eyes watering, copious amounts of blood running from my nose I laid back down on the bed, trying to get the bleed to stop.
Sometime later, the bleed had stopped and my nose only throbbed a little bit. I’d felt it, it didn’t seem to be broken. Sitting up slowly, so as to not dislodge the clot in my nose, I walked towards the door with my arms outstretched. In a semi-circle surrounding the door, an invisible barrier kept me from approaching any further.
“FUCK! SHIT! BALLS! FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!”
I screamed, and screamed, and screamed.
I’m fucked. I have no food, no water, no matter how much I scream no one answers, and a fucking scary, OP, old fart kidnapped me and locked me in a dungeon to die!
Finally, I felt a warmth flow down my throat and started choking. Coughing, I spit up blood, fell to my knees, and started crying.
A few minutes later, I was amazed to realize that the bleeding had stopped and my throat no longer hurt so much. I was finally too tired to continue panicking, the adrenaline leaving my system as the mental exhaustion of screaming for hours on end took it’s toll. That was when I noticed the a persistently blinking light in the corner of my eyes. Focusing on it, a screen was pulled up.
27 Notices
The notice just pissed me off even more. My parent were supposed to spend the next couple of days teaching me about stats, skills, status effects, notices, etc… Now, I have 27 notices and I have no FUCKING clue what they mean. “ARGH!!!”
Pissed, I focused on it and it started flashing messages up from oldest to newest.
Status Effect(Fear)Bloodlust so strong causes fear so powerful that it paralyzes you
Scrolling through the messages, I found a further twenty messages about being either paralyzed, feared, or knocked out by bloodlust… twenty!!!!
+1 ToughnessFor prolonged exposure to hurricane force level winds you gain 1 toughness.
I found two of these, I have no clue how.
Status Effect (Bleed)Minus 4 health per minute until healed.
Another two, one from my nosebleed and one from my throat.
Zone NoticeYou have entered a Special Dungeon; while in this Dungeon your strength is reduced to .5
WTF AM I DOING IN A DUNGEON! To make matters worse, I read the final notice.
Disciple of Kenoth ObitusThe Immortal Seer, Kenoth Obitus has taken you as his first discipleSkills are learned 50% faster.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I nearly started crying again, the last person in the world I want as my master is the man who kidnapped me and stuck me in a god-damned dungeon!
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An entire day passed while I sulked, laying in the bed and feeling sorry for myself. It was at that point that my stomach rebelled… I was hungry. For the first time I noticed another blinking bar in the right corner of my vision. There were four bars, three of them full. Focusing on them, they came into the center of my vision just like the notice messages and writing superimposed itself over them. Red, Blue, Green, and Flashing red; Health, Mana, Stamina, and Satiety.
I’d never been awakened by a worse alarm clock in my life. I started screaming again, “If you're going to make me your disciple then don’t just leave me in here to die!!!”
That was when I noticed an envelope with a ring sitting on top of it on the desk. Sitting down, I read it. “Keselth, Welcome to the Dungeon! You’re here by yourself for now. I’m off to search for more talented disciples. This ring is a spatial ring, inside is enough food and water for a month along with some clothes. You open it by pouring your mana into it. In this room are books that will teach you what you need to know to survive this floor of the Academy; you are only required to read and learn, “The Principles of Mana Manipulation, The Basics.” to leave this room, but I advise you to read every book in this room. They are here for a reason. Good luck, I hope you make it to the second floor before I get back.”
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Kenoth Obitus
WATER!!! FOOD!!! I grabbed the ring and tried to pry it open with all my strength.
Nothing…
Rereading the letter, I realized that I had to pour my mana into it. But, I didn’t know how to do that! Reading it again, I decided to check out the bookcase. The first book in there was The Principles of Mana Manipulation, The Basics. Yes! Not only do I get water I get to read!\
Taking advantage of my 50% faster reading time from the Bookworm title, I speed read the relatively small, eighty-five pages, book. I was so excited that I didn’t even bother to read who it was written by or the publication dates… What an idiot I am.
‘According to the book, mana is just pure energy that can be manipulated consciously. Every living being has a mana pool somewhere in their body where they store it for use, and in those not knowing its usage it passively releases energy into the body to support it. In humans, the mana pool is located just above the navel and by focusing on it while meditating you can find it within yourself, which is the first step.’
Excited, I quickly sat down on my bed cross-legged and began to meditate like the pictures shown in the book.
At first, I found it extremely difficult to meditate. I’d always been easily bored, and spending time with my eyes closed sitting on a hard, uncomfortable bed is… boring.
Eventually, I lost track of time as my brain slowly shut down and my body stopped moving, stopped feeling. I began to feel my perspective slowly shifting, shifting, shifting...
Somehow, I could “see” my body from the inside. Focusing just above the navel, I found the mana pool that the book talked about. I could simultaneously feel and see the clear-blue fluid slowly move out of the pool and into my body, then back in. Excited, I woke up and jumped in joy!
I did it!
‘Now for step two. The book says that after you can clearly sense the mana in your mana pool, you can begin to move it around your body and finally outside of it by focusing on it. The fastest way to gain control is to flood your body with mana.’
“Hehe, let's do it!”
I quickly started meditating again and found it much easier to find my mana pool this time. After finding it, I focused on emptying it into my body all at once.
At first, only a trickle flowed but as a few minutes passed it turned into a stream. A few minutes later, a tsunami of mana flooded my body.
“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
I had doubled over into a fetal position, unable to twitch my body in anyway. Ever since I had managed to find my mana pool, I had gained a much greater feel of control over my body. However, that came with it’s downsides as I could literally feel the mana in my body reconstructing every single part of it. For the second time in as many days I screamed so much that my throat began bleeding; then the mana flowed upwards and started changing the very structure of my brain! There aren’t supposed to be nerve endings in the brain, so why does it hurt so goddamned much!!!!!
I think I’m going to die down here…
After recovering from the debacle with the mana, I crawled over to the mana-manipulation book and reread it. Apparently, it was written over a thousand years ago… and it included a warning at the end of the book in fine print. "Do not to attempt this unless you have over 10 toughness and mental defense. Attempting this form of mana-manipulation without the requisite stats can result in death and/or madness."
WHAT THE FUCK YOU STUPID MASTER!!!! Why leave a technique here you know is impossible for me to use, then force me to use it if I want to live?!?!?! Also, "Death and/or madness." How can you be dead and mad?!?!
The good news is that I survived, and despite some residual aftershocks of pain, my body felt amazing now that it was over. Reading the messages from the system, I was shocked…
EvolutionDetected:Evolution is usually confined to beasts and monsters who unconsciously and instinctively use their mana. However, a sentient race can evolve by overloading their body with mana purposefully.New Race:High HumanHigh-Humans are Humans that are specially adapted to handling more mana along with strengthened bodies and longer life-spans.Mana per INT and LEVEL Doubled; Strength +2
Evolved… I EVOLVED!!! I’d heard of high-humans before, they were supposedly extinct. Right then and there, I resolved to NEVER attempt anything written in these books without thought again!
Fortunately, I could now manipulate my mana to leave my body. It only took me a few minutes to figure out how to open the ring.
Water is soooooooooooo good.