---James---
James awoke trapped.
He felt confined and trapped and he wanted out.
Straining against his restraints even before he was even fully awake, James pulled – [haste] – his movements sped up slightly and he heard a creak from behind him. He twisted and began to push off against the wall, planting both feet on either side of the blasted rope digging into the stone. James lifted himself up off the floor as he tugged, pausing only when he took in more of the room and realized he wasn’t alone.
Beside him there was a woman…incredibly pretty but in a plain and ‘normal’ way – a different sort of attractiveness to the alure of a perfect model. More grounded and real…and somehow more attractive because of it.
She wore a strange dirty looking dress – like nothing more than a loose and roughly wrapped blanket. Clean but ragged. Her dark hair was long and dirty. A dribble of dried blood ran down from the side of her mouth and her eyes shone with an inner fire…
This was the chick who ambushed him with that bastard doppelganger! They were working together!
James had stepped into the pool finding himself dropping slowly through a thin liquid that made him feel as if he were spinning – after a few seconds he couldn’t tell up from down – and then…he had flown out of a well in a town full of anime people. Nearly immediately he had been ambushed. The doppleganger had toyed with him while she watched – he had been faster than James, stronger. When James had tried to gain some distance the doppleganger had slowed James down so his limbs were moving through molasses and then beat the shit out of him.
All James remembered was being grabbed and thrown into a building repeatedly – why was she here? Did the doppleganger turn on her as well?
He stared across at her in suspicion.
“You’re finally awake.” The woman spoke her voice lisping – strange and wet. She stared across at him in an equal amount of suspicion. If anything her suspicion helped remove some of James’s. her mouth…her mouth looked like someone had done a number on it…that too helped James remove some distrust.
“Who are you and what do you know about what happened to us? Are you a traveler or a native? Do you know why you also got duped by the dungeon? I’ll tell you what. I’ll go first if you’ll promise to help me break out of here.” She asked – if James were to believe her, she also had a doppelganger. Every few words she had to pause and…it was hard to understand her words.
Despite that…or perhaps because of it there was something about her seemed honest. Trustworthy in that she seemed equally as pained and trapped as he was. James immediately wanted to believe her.
James continued being suspicious for a single reason. He didn’t want to think with his dick and was rocking back to the other extreme to try and compensate. She was suspicious because she wasn’t suspicious!
James paused pulling himself around into a more comfortable position and then nodded feeling stupid for his earlier struggles. “Sure, hit me.”
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---Maddy---
Maddy finished describing the scenario to her cell mate.
James had listened intently as if trying to catch her in a lie but very quickly settled into believing her story and wanting more details about the dungeon and surroundings.
He was strange – his stats were high…his raw strength had nearly ripped down the wall and there had been a moment he blurred faster… and yet he hadn’t seemed to be using mana actively. Prodding him slightly, she found he hadn’t broken open a single skill yet.
…strange indeed. The sooner he claimed a skill, the sooner he could start modifying the random system skills into more personal abilities – the sooner he could start growing his magical strength.
To try and make up for how creepy her tongue and speech must have been, Maddy reverted to many old habits subconsciously. She focused on gazing directly into his eyes to appear trustworthy, made sure to play up her wounds slightly without addressing them to give him the exact view of her she wanted.
She felt guilty but kept doing it – she couldn’t’ stop. She couldn’t afford to not in this position.
Talking had been hard – Maddy had been pushing nearly all her life mana into her mouth and removed tongue for over a day by this point. She kept imagining it growing back – kept imagining it restructuring and filling out. Kept imagining her mana moving towards it till she was delirious – her concentration wavering.
Despite that, it hadn’t been enough. She…as far as she knew should have been able to heal this – and she could slightly. Slightly being the key word – for some reason it was an uphill battle in a way no wound had been up till now. Why? Wasn’t it just some flesh? Just a slab of muscle? Could she have healed it instantly if she had a way to write down the spell? Could she have healed it instantly if she could reattach the severed tongue instead of regrown it?
For some reason all Maddy could focus on was creation magic…she should just be healing a small wound – the trouble was definitely that it had to create flesh from nothing not that tongues were particularly hard body parts to heal. Its not like it was regrowing an arm or anything complicated – If she had creation magic this probably would have worked out better for her.
…another push for gaining that affinity.
While Maddy talked her tongue healed better than it had over hours of not talking. A strange quirk of her tongue being used allowing it to heal in a way it hadn’t while sitting. As if her talking activated the intent to use her tongue to speak? Any slurred words were a wound and her mana attempted to heal the words?
Was her tongue not actually healing and it was actually her words that were being healed by the life mana? Some sort of conceptual healing of the idea of words?
Maddy paused and did a few vocal tests. Shouldn't she be getting an achievement? Something for healing her tongue? Maybe for being trapped?
...dungeon. A lot of actions inside of dungeons seem to result in rewards at the end. Maybe it's just deferred?
Maddy returned to James.
“So that’s as much of a general idea on how magic works as I can remember. You’ll have to ask one of my friends when we get out if you want to know how it feels for an internal path. You should also keep in mind, magic is a personal thing and works a bit based on how you think it should work – I think that part has something to do with domains. Don’t try too hard to copy others and learn your own path from the beginning and you should be fine.”
James nodded slowly. He had actually come to learn about magic so her explanation had been a way of making him feel indebted to her and willing to help. It cost her nothing after all – in fact teaching someone helped sort her own thoughts out. Sometimes the best way of learning was to teach.
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“Now, there’s a good chance our dupes will come back in a few hours – mine has come back three times now and she's due for a fourth. Do you want to wait till they leave to maximize the time they think we are still trapped? I think I have an idea for getting out but I need time to prepare afterwards between then and our fight.”
James strained slightly. “I want to get out as soon as possible. What if they come back and immediately kill us?”
“We are linked somewhat to the magic that says they are our future selves. Killing us should kill them as well – although my copy seems to be working to break that link.” Maddy weighed her options then sighed. She’d have preferred maximizing her time by escaping right after they came and left but…there was nothing saying her idea would even work.
“Okay, can you shift as far towards me as I can and not be weird about this?” Maddy asked.
James looked confused and deliberated before complying.
“Okay, when I’m done weakening the rope you’ll have to break the rest of the way. This is going to be embarrassing if it doesn’t work.” Maddy laughed.
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---James---
James…didn’t know what to make of his current position. What life choices had led to this?
Maddison – or Maddy as she preferred being called had called him over without explaining herself. She then reached out with her foot and began rubbing her toes across his bloodied chest – opening a few wounds just to do so.
Not my fetish.
James tried to focus on how jealous some people might be having a pretty girl stick her feet on them to ignore how gross he found it. His blood defense seemed to be making it hard for her to coat her toes properly…at least it had prevented him from bleeding out?
She still gathered a bit of his blood then spun around and kicked herself back so her legs were up against the wall. Slowly she smeared his blood about – Wild smearing scribbles that looked like nothing more than nonsense.
Flipping back around she gathered more blood kicking off his chest as she flipped back to her writing.
Under her scribble she wrote another scribble – this one slightly legible like a toddler's writing.
‘Kill ropes’
…James assumed she knew what she was doing. You couldn’t kill rope after all.
Pulling her foot back Maddy began to bang her sketch widly causing James to scooch back slightly.
He was beginning to doubt the sanity of his fellow captive.
After a few minutes of banging, Maddy stopped and turned to him. “Alright, try and break us out, I think I weakened them.”
Staring at her then the ropes – had she even done anything? She had seemingly attacked beside them...James tugged. They still had some give…
Straining once more James jerked back as he flung away from the wall. With a silent smack he slammed into the ground behind him opening a wound on his back but otherwise being nothing more than an annoyance.
Standing up he actively worked to make sure not a single hint of pain leaked into his actions.
"I'm out!" James cheered quietly then walked over to Maddy and stood to the side trying to rip her rope. It was much harder to snap her line than his own but after a moment he managed it – she had been thrown onto the ground as well causing him to wince.
She looked fragile – that must have hurt much more than it had him.
Standing up carefully, Maddy looked about the room seemingly disappointed. “Can’t see here either, ahhH! I need to find something to write with and on. Let’s go upstairs and look about.”
James followed her up the stairs – making sure not to look like a creep despite how little she looked like she cared and then began helping her raid the home above.
It was relatively empty – the home looked abandoned, the shelves bare. A bag of salt made James wince and feel about – his bag! His copy had stolen his spices! Oh that bastard was going to pay, something about him just pissed James off.
“Come here and I’ll heal your chest” Maddy called from the other end of the room.
Wandering over he watched as she scraped a spell into the ground – she was clutching a giant shard of what looked like a mirror tightly enough to cut her hand a faint dribble of blood flowing into the scraped words she wrote on the floor.
...her fingers. James had just realized her fingers were little more than stumps. she was struggling to hold the shard. as he watched the mirror snapped and she gasped in disappointment.
I want to help her.
Maddy reached for a second shard and continued writing her stubby hands barely able to hold the shard in front of her.
Does magic require blood? There definitely seems to be a lot of it so far…that made sense to James.
This time James saw the flash of light and felt the warmth pass across his body. Unlike whatever she had done on the wall James could feel this. He reached out...and just barely felt his body grab onto the healing energy directing it better towards his worst wounds.
Countless scrapes and bruises faded and knit together. Maddy’s wounds were also closing and she looked…she looked exhausted. The brave face she seemed to be putting on fell for a second as she winced and watched the magic pass across her body.
Her fingers were still stumps. The spell...
James would have to pay her back. She was doing so much for him.
They were going to fight their own clones they had decided. Or he had decided more like – Maddy had explained their clones were supposedly created from the dungeon to pretend to be from the future and hers had gained quite a few achievements and even a new affinity. His had probably grown as well – She had brought up the idea of swapping…with some preparation she would be better able to kill James’s clone from afar and supposedly one on one, warriors had a better shot at being able to kill a mage than vise versa.
James had nodded along and then said he was going to kill his clone putting a stop to things. That was the bastard he wanted to kill. Boss of the dungeon? Mini boss? A future him? That didn’t matter. He wanted revenge.
His clone had humiliated him.
Of course if they could team up against them separately – draw them away and face them one at a time that would be the best but neither of them really believed that was going to happen.
James stretched – he felt great. Whatever Maddy had done with her healing magic had returned him to tip top shape. He was a bit thirsty but beyond that he was ready and willing to go.
Beside him, Maddy was carving runes into her leg…James looked away. he felt restless. Picking up a sack of flour James began to do squats in the corner. the exercise helped - but barely felt like anything. Nothing in the room looked strong enough...James dropped to the floor and began performing one-handed pushups, the second hand holding his bad awkwardly above his back.
If Maddy was going through physical pain the least he could do was work up a bit of a sweat in solidarity.
Soon the counterattack would begin and they had a plan.
James’s plan was simple. Run up and punch the bastard using his face.
He wouldn’t know what hit him.
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---Maddy---
Maddy carved runes into her flesh carefully – the shard of mirror reflecting light strangely as she directed dark death through it. A light continuous application of healing life mana on her leg helped remove most of the pain...even if it did make the lines she drew stubbornly want to close.
Her dark death was stronger – and by holding back the spread of death with life her self-mutilation was relatively painless. Entirely different from her clone’s ministrations.
It still hurt slightly but the sting was nothing more than an annoyance.
Darkness was ethereal causing the mana to sink deep – her flesh barely occluding its passage. Maddy wondered if her mana reached all the way to her bones.
This rapid tapestry of runes and shaped desires spread as Maddy filled her leg with as many plans as she had. She was pulling half a dozen ideas she had thought of while trapped into focus – placing each idea in a separate spot despite it being untested. She really shouldn’t be experimenting on her body like this. If she had time she would be testing and refining spells – optimizing their form before putting them in a more permanent position on her flesh. Tattoo the absolute best options.
This…this wasn’t optimal.
She didn’t have time for optimal – she didn’t even know when her clone would be back and part of her attention held her light-dark pool in easy reach. If she were ambushed, she could try and blind her attackers before running.
Besides it not being 'optimal' Maddy was annoyed with herself. A few choice words from her clone had been all it took to shred her clock. Sure, the witch probably had more complicated spells written down somewhere to help direct it – but her mind focused on the words and the relative ease it had took. A few simple words had been all it took to strip her spells from her.
Maddy needed a more permanent source of strength. She needed…she needed her runes to be protected and she found it hard to believe her tattoos could be disabled so easily.
Sure her skin could be cut – sure damaging her leg would break some or all of her new spells…but it felt quite a bit safer than her previous options. Not perfect – far from as perfect as Maddy would have wished…but better. She needed a better solution in the future but...for now.
For now, it simply would have to be enough.