The darkness enveloped Devi like a cold blanket as she sat huddled back in her crevice, trying not to focus on the pain she was in. Which was difficult, since her mangled arm sent out a wave of pain in tandem with her heartbeat. Each time flooding her with agony. She had no idea how the pain hadn’t overwhelmed her during the fight. The walk back to her hideaway had taken every ounce of determination left in her, but she had made it. All without screaming out in pain too.

Now that she was resting, it was manageable, if barely. Her leather arm guard was completely unsalvageable, torn to shreds by merciless teeth. She shuddered at the thought of what state her arm would be in if not for the armor.

The scraps of leather were carefully unwrapped from her forearm as Devi winced in pain each time she nudged her open wounds. With each strip of torn leather that fell away, the reality of her injuries became starkly apparent. Her whole forearm was a bloody mess and she had to look away more than once. She had never once felt the urge to become a doctor, and she soon found out that not exploring medicine had been the correct one.

Over the years, Devi had acquired the usual number of cuts and scrapes, but the only major injury she had ever experienced was when she had fallen off the monkey bars at school, and landed directly on her arm. It hadn’t even been a bad break, as clean of a fracture as you could have, and yet the pain she was currently enduring made that childhood mishap seem like a distant memory.

With her arm now exposed and the makeshift bandage removed, Devi stared at her wounds. They were deep and jagged, with bits of torn flesh and muscle protruding from the gashes. She knew she needed to clean them to prevent infection, but she had no medical supplies or even water to do so. Desperation gnawed at her as she contemplated her limited options. Checking her mana, she saw there was just enough to try and create some water, so she could hopefully clean her wounds a little bit.

Devi closed her eyes, reaching deep inside herself, searching for the bubbling mass of energy that sat in her chest. The energy leaped quickly at her command and traveled down her hand. She had to focus so it wouldn’t surge through her mangled hand. That seemed like a recipe for pain.

The mana flowed out of her body, and she tightened her mental grip on it as it tried to escape into the air. She didn’t have much to spare. Thankfully, the rune that created water wasn’t too difficult to shape, though that didn’t mean she could let her focus waver. Each moment she was controlling her mana was a struggle, and the pain covering her whole body didn’t help in the slightest.

Devi concentrated her efforts, shaping the mana into the form of water. She visualized the rune in her mind, its elegant curves and intricate details. With painstaking precision, she traced the pattern in the air, using her mana to bring it to life.

A gentle mist began to form, coalescing into droplets that shimmered with a faint blue glow. The water condensed, gathering into a deformed ball, before slashing into the waiting pot below. It was a small amount, but it would have to do. She didn’t have enough mana for a second round.

Carefully, she brought the water close to her wounded arm, letting the cool water cascade over the torn flesh. The liquid trickled down, carrying away dirt and debris as it washed over her arm. Devi winced at the sting. Even though the wound itself hurt far worse, the sharp pain still cut through the noise. Devi ripped one of the cleaner sections of her outfit, and wrapped it around the wound, finishing it off by winding the twine over the whole thing to keep it in place.

It wasn’t the prettiest of dressings, but it would have to do. She didn’t have anything better. One of these days she was going to figure out how to cast healing magic. Hopefully, before infection set in. That would be a way to go. Escaping a horde of cursed beasts, only to die of an improperly cared for bandage.

Now that the urgent issue of her wound was taken care of, Devi could feel her body shutting down. She had been pushing it hard recently, harder than she had even physically pushed it before. It was one thing to forgo sleep for a few days to finish a project, but a completely different matter to push a battered body past the point of breaking.

She scooted further back into the crevice, wedging herself between the rocks. The salvaged satchel was placed over her, to serve as a makeshift blanket and hopefully provide a bit of camouflage. Becoming monster chow in the middle of the night was fairly low on her to-do list.

There was no point in trying to fight off sleep, so Devi allowed her eyes to close, the darkness claiming her.

~ᵥ----ᵥ~

Devi awoke to the stiffest muscles she had ever experienced in her life. Random rocks stabbed into her at uncomfortable angles, while her body was contorted to match the shape of the crevice. Mixed in with the aches were twinges of pain, the bruising covering her body making itself known, in addition to the scrapes and cuts.

None of that compared to the intermittent shocks of pain that jolted through her whenever she moved her arm. Gentle prodding at the bandages covering her arm revealed the tenderness and inflammation underneath. Though it wasn’t quite as bad as she was expecting. Not that it didn’t hurt, but a lot less than before she had fallen asleep.

Curious, she started to open her Status screen to check what her Health was at, but instead, she noticed the few notifications that had been sitting quietly in the corner of her vision.

Those really need a snooze button, so they pop back up later.

She quickly scanned through the notifications saying she had defeated the monsters, only stopping at the level-up notice for her class. The surge of energy that washed over her took the edge off the pain a bit, distracting her momentarily from the soreness of her body. The sensation soon faded, and the pain returned in full force. She had also gained a level in [Attribute Enhancment], pushing it up to level 3.

A quick test later confirmed the Skill could increase an Attribute by four points, but cost 12 Mana to use. It was quickly becoming quite strong. A four-point increase was nothing to sneeze at, she was able to actually start feeling the effects instead of having a vague impression of growth now. At least with Strength. She hadn’t tested the other Attributes, not wanting to waste mana.

There were better uses for her mana, like making some water to drink. She didn’t know where she would be if she hadn’t figured out how to summon water out of thin air. It still took a considerable amount of mana, but it was worth it. The cool liquid soothed her cracked and dry throat, and she felt her headache begin to recede a tiny bit.

Two more casts filled up a couple of pots with water, one to drink, and one to clean her bandages. She vaguely recalled that you were supposed to change bandages out occasionally, and since she didn’t have any spare cloth, cleaning them would have to do.

Unwrapping her arm was challenging, as blood had dried and caked on, almost fusing it to her skin. As gently as she could, Devi pried the cloth away, revealing the wound below. It looked marginally better than before, but Devi couldn’t really tell. It still hurt, and that’s all that really mattered.

Working quickly, Devi did her best to clean the strips of cloth that made up her makeshift bandages, before wrapping her arm once again. The whole time trying not to look at her arm for longer than necessary. That was one good thing about her lighting situation. The array disks didn’t give off the most light, leaving her arm shrouded in shadows. If she was able to clearly see her wound, Devi didn’t think she would be able to work on it. Or at least, not without frequent breaks.

The bandage was rewrapped around her arm, and she let out a sigh of relief. With that dealt with, Devi could start planning what to do. Leaving was still an option, but it was a last resort for her. She had gotten this far, and she didn’t want to give up. Which ment she needed to fight through the monsters past the door, and then still be able to defeat the cursed beast. She still couldn’t tell why she felt like that was the purpose of the dungeon, but it just seemed right.

All she had to accomplish that were her crossbow, the array disks, and the broken blade she had salvaged. The blade was actually holding up quite well, and if it was a bit sharper, would do quite nicely as an actual weapon. So Devi put that first on the list.

She also needed food soon as well, her stomach making itself known, but it was manageable. The mutilated bat lay on the stone ground, taunting her, but she couldn’t even envision herself eating it again, let alone actually trying to chew it. She would rather die. There had to be something else she could eat in the caves, but finding that would require her to leave her sanctuary. Something she didn’t want to do until she was armed again.

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Devi pulled out the blade and inspected it. Blood was caked along the edges, while the fighting as flaked off a few areas of rust. It still didn’t amount to much, but it was all she had. Taking a bit of her mana, she slowly formed the rune that had cleaned her whole arm, postulating that it would probably do something to the rust. And if not, it was still a good test of what the rune actually did.

A few moments later, the symbol snapped into place, and a burst of white light washed over the blade. When it faded, the blade was in much better shape than before. The majority of the rust had flaked off and disappeared into the light leaving behind metal that dully gleaned in the faint light. The only edge the sword had to speak of was the jagged bits along the top where it had been broken.

Got my work cut out for me.

All she had to work on the blade was a single file, but that should be enough to get the blade an actual edge again. For once, Devi was thankful the blade had been broken. Trying to sharpen the entire thing with her tiny file seemed impossible.

As she worked, Devi started pushing her mana into the blade on a hunch. Couldn’t hurt right? Her mana flowed into the blade, and she felt around, seeing how the internal mana was structured. It was like exploring a puzzle, but she could only use her hands to feel around the edges.

The mana in the sword was jumbled, but she could sense a strength to it. The entirety of the blade seemed to be made up of smaller individual sections. Each region the mana was tightly bound, going in a particular direction, but no two sections seemed to be aligned.

Focusing on a single section, she tried to reorient it so it the mana flowed through it from the section next to it. The mana fought her, not wanting to change, being quite content in where it was, but Devi wasn’t going to give up. She slowly began to nudge the section around, bit by bit, never moving faster than the material would let her, until it was property aligned.

She carefully releashed her grip on the mana, and waited for the piece to snap back into its original position, only for it to say put. Devi blinked in surprise, having not expected that, but she would take it. Having her work not snap back to what it was before would make rearranging the entire blade a lot easier.

As the blade’s edges were slowly being honed down, its mana was also being refined. It was slow work, but not incredibly difficult. Though it did still require her to focus on it, not allowing her mind to wander to other things.

Gradually, the dull blade began to sharpen, forming a nice edge. The places where she had aligned the mana seemed come to a shaprper point,. the material itself holding together stronger, enabling her hone the edge further than she could in other places. She had also found that while she was filing a section, the mana inside seemed to be easier to move, not quite as stubborn.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally set aside the file, the iridescent coat dissipating in a puff of energy, her hand trembling with exhaustion. The blade, though still far from perfect, had been transformed. Gone were the spots of rust adorning its length as the metal shined in the dim light. Its edges now considerably sharper, but by no means a razor.

Probably not good enough to shave with, but still, far better than what it was.

Now that she had a better weapon, Devi looked over the chard remains of her trusty firestarter. It had been the first item she had ever made with magic, and seeing it lay in pieces hurt. She had no illusions that it was just a prototype, but it had gotten her through alot.

She slowly pierced the firestarter back together, trying to see why it had failed. If she was going to make another one, which she most definitely was going to, knowing the point of failure would be paramount. The blackened chard pieces were not easy to reassbmelbe, but eventutally she got them in some sort of order.

Looking over them, Devi tried to piece together what happened. The carving where her mana infused blod had been painted over seemed to be the most burnt, and where the majority of the fractures were. Other parts seemed to be more chard than broken, but the carved symbols bore the brunt of the destruction.

It seemed like the runes themselves couldn’t contain the mount of energy she had passed through them, and had cracked. The energy didn’t have anywhere else to go, and so had escaped anyway it could, no longer bound by the symbols she had carved. The real problem was that Devi didn’t know if the runes coudln’t handle all the mana all at once, or if repeated use over time had weakened it.

The firestarter was obvirouly not ment to be used as a flamethrower, like she had been using it as, which may have caused some damage to the item. The next one she made would have be designed a bit more robustly, and fabricated with stronger materials.

Her eyes landed on her newly sharpened balde, and a grin split her face.

Now that would make a great flamethrower.

She quickly got to work, the new project giving her renewed vigor. Devi scratched out a few of the runes she would need, discarding a lot of the limitors the original firestarter had, seeing no need for them. She kept the runes that gathered mana, as those were pretty important, and connected them to a series of fire runes along were the edge of the blade would be.

Thinking on it, she split the whole thing into to parts, one for the very tip of the blade, and one for the edges. Hopefully, that would let her still shoot out flames, but also set her sword of fire. Because who didn’t want to do that.

Devi began to carve the patterns into the rocky ground, wanting to test her theories before putting them onto her only weapon. she infused a bit of her blood with mana to act as a mediumf or her magic. She was too caught up in the creative process to notice the slight stinging of the blade as she cut into her thigh, catching the blood in a pot.

With the carving painted over, she sent a pulse of mana through the runes, scowling as fire refused to erupt from the ground. Her mana was being accepted, but wouldn’t turn into fire. She frowned over her carving, tracing out the pathways the mana would flow in, before noticing one of the branches accidentally looped back in on itself. The mana seemed to want to flow in that direction, and ignored the fire runes in favor of looping around and around.

She quickly fixed that mistake, and carved a new set of runes. This time, when she stent her mana through them, fire blosmoed around the edges, just like she had expected it to. When she sifted to supling mana to the central runes, a small tongue of flames spung into existence. With just a bit more mental efort, she split her mana into two parts, and powered both sets of runes.

The flames bathed her grinning face as she looked over the carvings. A few of the jets of flame seemed to be dimmer than the others, notably the ones further away from where she was supplying the mana from. But her idea worked, which was enough for her. Working out all the kinks would have to come later, when she had more time and materials.

Now it was time to start carving the pattern into the blade. The only thing she had that could potentially do the job was the small carving knife. If the metal was softer, it woudln’t be so much of a problem...

A few quick carvings later, three fire runes stood in a circle, all powered from a central location, the intake symbol a ways off. When she supplied the makeshift stovetop with her mana, the runes glowed as flames flickered to light, creating an even flame she could use to heat the blade.

She slowly got to work, alternating between holding the blade in the fire, and carefully carving the runes into the metal. As she worked, she began to infuse the whole blade with her mana, and tried to mimic the runic pattern she was carving internally. That added a whole new layer of complexity, since she also had to keep the fire going with her mana, while also manipulating the material.

If she hadn’t gotten as much practice during her time making the array disks, she never would have been able to even attempt what she was doing. The metal was far tougher to move than the stone, requrieing much more mental energy to shift into the patterns she wanted. It didn’t help that her focus was split between supplying the fire with mana, and carving the runes, but she poured everything she had into making sure everything was perfect.

There were no breaks, just as with the array disk, the mana structures threatening to collapse in on themselves if she did. To make matters worse, there was no instructions for her to follow, just her own carving, and the mana itself. She had to feel out each section, trying different combinations until one snapped into place, before she could move on to the next one.

The concept of time disappeared, only the blade filled her mind, every part of her being bent to making this thing work. Even if she had more materials, or time, she would still have put everything into making it. Making something subpar was just not something she was capable of doing.

Finally, the last rune click into place as she carved the final symbol. Everything seemed stable, and not prone to crumbling the second she took her mana away, but she still kept it there. Carefully holding everything in place. She still hadn’t gotten a notification for creating a magic tool, so she was being cautious.The only thing left to do was paint the carved runes with the mana conducting paint. She still had a bit left over from the array, and it should be enough to cover the small blade.

Carefully, she began to brush the mixture over the runes, turning them a reddish hue. The still relatively warm blade made waiting for it to dry a quick process, so she didn’t have to wait long to flip it over and pain the other side. She was starting to worry that the pain would run out before she could finish all the runes, so she added a bit more of her own blood to the mix to finsh off the last few parts.

The moment she finished painting over everything, a flash of energy rushed through the blade, sending steam into the air as the water evaporated. Startled, she almost dropped the blade, but managed to catch it in time. In its places was left a hardened dark red substance that traced the runes over the whole blade. The contrast between the gleeming blade and the dark runes made them stand out even more.

Cautiously, Devi sent a tendral of mana into the blade. In response, she felt a sudden connection to the blade as glowed red, small flames appearing along the edge. It was far easier to control than with her firestarter, no longer having to push quite as hard to get the flames to grow or shrink.

The flames of her broken blade illuminated her grinning face as she played with them, until they sluttered out, a headache replacing them.

Devi stood mutely, staring at the now inerte blade.

What now?