~~~Lee~~~

They found Bradley hugging his knees and sobbing in a pit. Alejandro reached him first and hauled the other man into the air by his armor while screaming, "You never abandon the healer!"

Lee pulled on his arm, and Alejandro's gaze leapt to him. "Dude, chill."

Alejandro was breathing heavily. More than the fight should have prompted. He had a wild look in his eyes and Lee saw them jump momentarily to Saira before snapping back. "He..."

"He knows."

"I..." Alejandro's haunted expression cleared up slightly as he set the crying Bradley gently onto the ground. "Yes... I'm sorry."

Lee sat next to Bradley while Alejandro retreated. "You picked a real shitshow of a first lair, Bradley. Guess that's my fault, since you only signed up for the earth golem one. Sorry you got dragged along."

"I... it's not... your... fault," Bradley got out between sobs. "I'm... just... a... coward!"

"You're scared," Lee said. "Not a coward. A coward wouldn't have come out here in the first place."

"Thought... I... wasn't... didn't want to be... but I'm just a coward after all!"

"Remember when we first met, and you were too scared to go outside?"

Bradley nodded without looking up and opened his mouth...

Lee spoke before he could say anything. "A coward would still be hiding in there. But you didn't stay inside. You helped me repair the building, built a damn wall around the entire complex, and then joined us today."

"I was stupid... new magic... thought I could be strong..."

"You know that saying about how courage isn't the lack of fear? Everyone knows that one."

Bradley nodded without enthusiasm.

"Everyone here is scared, just like you. No one will blame you if you want to call it quits for today. Especially after that horrifying place."

"Lee is right," Saira said while sitting on the man's other side and sending her healing magic into him. "You have already done more than many who only wish to hide away. So don't quit now! Hold your head up high!"

Bradley ducked his head further down, ears turning pink, and Lee smiled. Praise always had a way of motivating, especially when delivered by a beautiful woman. Bradley wasn't immune to the effect Saira could have, and Lee let her take over with a final parting statement. "Let's try again at the next lair. I bet your power will make it a breeze."

Then he climbed to his feet and left Saira there, speaking softly to the young man.

Alejandro looked abashed after his earlier outburst. "I'm sorry, Lee. I just..."

"I think we all might be a little traumatized after that lair." Lee looked over the others in the group, or at least Lucas and Penelope. Mar was invisible as usual. The rest looked... okay. Maybe a bit sweaty... "Mar? You okay?"

The girl didn't appear, but turned away from them with a small huff and snapped, "I'm... fine." Her blustering tone failed halfway when her voice cracked, and Lee resisted the urge to laugh. She would get more comfortable eventually.

Lee waited until a furiously blushing Bradley stood up, and without quite looking at anyone directly, said, "Sorry. I won't let you down again..."

"Great!" Lee said. "Let's find a less horrible lair to plunder."

They walked, and Lee tried not to stare at the border fence while remembering what he'd just told Bradley...

It took a bit of travel before the mana stopped flowing toward the lair they'd left behind, and Lee picked a flow leading away from the fence as the one to follow. Not because he was scared... it was just the stronger one.

The right one, too. Because he found a lair that literally looked like a pit in the ground. The wide mouth of the place sat against a small hill, at somewhere close to a forty-five degree angle. Luckily, the tunnel leading into the dark was a much gentler slope.

Lee could feel Bradley trembling in his Mana Mind as they entered, but the man kept putting one foot ahead of the other.

The main downside of the last lair—aside from those horror show freaks—was that the tanks couldn't effectively block the monsters from reaching the casters. Hopefully, it would work out better this time, and Bradley would see how easy it was with someone protecting him.

He felt better about that eventuality when the first monster loomed out of the darkness ahead. It looked not exactly like he'd pictured when Jake mentioned golems, but close enough. Bigger too.

A ten foot tall creature that looked like it was solid stone. Yet it still moved fluidly... and slowly, as it plodded closer. Its footfalls made no sound when they left dents on the dirt floor, but the vibrations more than made up for it. Alejandro stepped to meet it, raising his shield as a stony limb swung toward him. "Let me test..."

Bradley screamed and thrust his hands at the monster, mana roaring out of him...

The solid stone body of the golem crumbled into dirt and blasted away down the tunnel until only a pair of legs remained.

Everyone froze, gazes alternating between the unmoving stone legs, and the gasping Bradley with arms still outstretched. Lee wasn't sure who looked more surprised...

There was a small chunk of something sticking up from atop the legs that glittered faintly in the light of their runes. Alejandro was the one who finally stepped forward and grabbed it. The moment he pulled it away, the remaining stone crumbled to dirt.

He tossed it to the still stunned Bradley, and the man barely caught it. "Very nice, Bradley. Let me take the next one. I want to test how hard they hit for when our other people come here. That alright?"

"I... sure..." Bradley blushed and wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. "I, um... used up most of my mana..." Then he scrambled to pick up his spear from where he'd dropped it.

"It was still impressive," Saira said, patting his arm when he stood up.

"Very," Lee said as they started walking again. "Try hitting a small area next time. Maybe aim for where the metal core was." He could see that it was indeed metal, though the odd part was how much earth mana still infused the chunk... "Can you control that thing with your skill? It has a lot of earth mana... but I think it's also metal."

Bradley held his hand out and Lee could see the trickle of mana flowing from him, but only around, not into the metal. "I can't control metal..."

Weird.

Alejandro found the next one, and its blow sent him flying when he tried to block. Bradley put a hole through it, but the core wasn't in the same place... then he used the last of his mana to take off a leg.

Lee didn't stand back despite the obvious strength of the golem. He was literally the best one to potentially tank a blunt attack with his unbreakable skeleton...

Fortunately, the golem's movements never sped up, and he carved it into pieces before it could hit him. At some point in the dismemberment process, the entire thing stopped squirming and crumbled to dirt like the previous one had. Once that happened, Mana Mind easily spotted the metal core, and he scooped it up. "Two down. You okay?"

"Hah! Just a love tap," Alejandro grunted while Saira killed another bush to heal him.

"I can take the lead..."

Alejandro triggered his skill and appeared ahead of Lee. "No need for that! I'm fine."

Lee sighed half-heartedly and rapped knuckles on his helmet. "Unbreakable skeleton, remember?"

"You got it to work!?" Saira and Alejandro both asked simultaneously.

"Did I forget to mention that? It was part of how I survived the..." Lee cupped his hands and then threw them apart while making the sound of an explosion.

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"Can you put it on me!?" Alejandro didn't even hesitate before asking. "On Maria!?"

"I..." Lee hesitated. "I'm not actually sure how I... changed it. I've been... avoiding thinking about it."

Alejandro tamed his sudden enthusiasm and rested a hand on Lee's shoulder. Gently. One benefit of them all worrying about him and treating him like a delicate flower was the new reduction of aggressive affection... "Of course. Take your time. You will figure it out when you are ready. And I will be first in line when you do!"

"So you'll let me take..."

Alejandro spun away, marching quickly down the tunnel. "Stay behind me and let's see what waits at the bottom of this pit."

Lee didn't push the issue, and instead looked at his skeleton with Mana Mind. It had a single rune... that somehow covered the entirety, while also infused into each individual bone... It was confusing but standard for how all his runes worked.

It was also similar to the rune he'd first put on his bones, but not identical. Not only was it a much more complex symbol, but it also felt more complex...

Lee could read the strengthening rune. It stood out plainly enough amidst the additional... stuff. But that stuff meant nothing to him either in whole or in part. None of the symbols were specific to any rune he knew... which should be... all of them.

He knew the runic... alphabet. That was the closest analogy to the knowledge in his head. Each symbol was akin to a single letter, but also more. What he called his strengthening rune was a single letter. Sharp was another. But knowing the alphabet didn't teach him how to spell. Or even what constituted a word...

Combining sharp and strengthen onto a weapon was doable. Both symbols connected cleanly to each other. He could even adjust those connections depending on what type of weapon he wanted and where he wanted the sharpening to focus.

Lee suspected the symbol on his skeleton had taken fragments from more than one separate rune. Fragments that he didn't recognize. He could read it, but like before... it was complex. Not a word. Or even a sentence. It felt like a paragraph. One written with large compound words that Lee had never learned.

He got the gist. Unbreakable. Protection. Permanence. Stuff like that.

It would be simple enough to draw the rune onto someone else if he wanted. It might take some practice to get it right, but he could do it.

The issue was, he didn't know if that was enough. The mentions of his soul in regards to imbuing runes felt much more real this time. He'd definitely done... something more when creating this one.

While he considered runes and how to make them, they found more golems. Each one was alone, no groups, and all regularly spaced out. It felt nothing like the lairs they were used to. Aside from the monsters trying to kill them, of course.

Wilson said this place was a reward for their victory... and the ease with which they went through the lair sure made it feel that way. But it also felt like the system couldn't just give them something without making them fight at least a little.

It was also possible that the rune weapons made it too easy. The golems were slow and easy to chop down, but they hit hard if you didn't get out of the way. Bradley's presence in the lair was even more broken, and the only thing slowing him down was mana.

There was a boss golem at the end. Because of course there was. It was bigger and slightly faster, but still fell to their swords.

Watching Bradley drain his mana in the fight gave Lee an idea, and he went into his Rune Storage while the others mopped up. The world vanished as he appeared in that dark place, but his Mana Mind let him watch the fight while he worked.

It wasn't a new idea, but his recent experiences and observations had set him onto something that might work where it hadn't before.

Everyone needed mana. Well, most everyone for now, and even that would probably change in time as people picked up more skills. So more mana should always equal more good.

He'd created that machete enchant in the Tick lair, one to feed extra mana to the runes so he could extend the blade. What if he created that, but let the wielder get the extra mana?

The only issue with the plan was that no one else could use Liquid Mana, and that was all the runes held. So he needed it to either convert mana, or pull in mana from outside and recharge that way.

Mana Mind let him study his own mana as well as all the rest of it around him, aside from what was inside other people. That, plus seeing Three funnel normal mana to everyone, had eventually knocked some understanding through his thick skull.

It was all the same thing.

Basically. At a fundamental level.

Liquid mana was just a highly concentrated version of the normal stuff. It was likely that the explosive nature of his mana was simply because it behaved akin to the way a compressed gas would when abruptly freed to expand. He just needed to decompress his mana in a way that wasn't so... violent. Or pull in ambient mana and not compress it.

His going away present to Jake had included almost exactly that. Sort of. It would recharge its own liquid mana, but only if Jake didn't use it often. Sucking in enough ambient mana to recharge the liquid mana runes was a slow process...

But what if he didn't need to compress it? What if he could use a rune to contain but not convert the mana?

Lee's soul storage was a fantastic resource, and he loved it more every day. Nevermind that it helped him with mass-enchanting; it was even more perfect for trying to learn a new rune as he was now. He could draw all the different runes he wanted to combine with only a thought, then he could move and combine them just as easily while he tried to find the perfect combo.

Of course, he wouldn't actually know if it worked until he tried to put it on something... but that was a minor issue.

He figured out the rune that he thought would work, which included the strengthening symbol. While it wasn't absolutely necessary, and each additional 'letter' he added upped the complexity immensely, Lee didn't think he could afford to leave that one out for this.

Not only did he want the weapon to survive the occasional hit, but just like a compressed gas tank, he really didn't want it exploding in someone's hand...

Resource Lair Defeated. Respawn(07:59:59)

The fight was long over by the time he finished, but no one complained when Lee finally opened his eyes.

"Bradley, can you make a stronger staff? Like really go all out... and use that dirt." Lee pointed at the mound that used to be the boss. The dirt wasn't that special—most of the mana went into the metal core—but it was slightly more mana-rich than normal.

He made Bradley work on it while they walked back up the long climb to the outside world, and the irony of using compressed dirt to hold compressed mana was... amusing.

Bradley was more than willing once Lee told him what he was doing it for, and he really went all out.

Then Lee had everyone move away from him down the tunnel and used his storage to stick the rune onto the stone.

Mana flowed... and he pulled it back an instant before it exploded. Oops. A tweak later, and he tried again. A few tweaks later... and it stuck!

Lee stared at his glorious creation for long, nervous seconds... but it didn't explode. It was stable, if barely, and he could see mana flowing into the stone staff! Of course, that left the final test. "Bradley, try it out."

It turned out the hardest part for him was figuring out how to pull the mana back out. Then he got it, and everyone else wanted one.

"I'll have to change it for each item," Lee said. "I could put it on a sword... though it might be better to use the shields or armor..."

Or a tree. Lee realized he'd never tried putting runes on anything wooden... would that work?

~~~Mar~~~

Mar was bored. Which was fine. Much better than the alternative.

Lee looked bored as well since he was taking a nap... or maybe he was just old.

She also wanted a bath more than anything after those horrible, disgusting... mouths. Ugh! Her whole body shivered involuntarily just thinking about them.

The big, strong men finished the fight and were all joking and laughing about how big and strong they were. Boys. They chop up a few rocks and think they're so cool...

Stupid Bradley kept ogling her mom. She's twice your age!

Then Lee finally woke up and did some magic while they headed out. That was kind of cool. Especially if what he claimed was true. Extra mana would help everyone, a fact that all loudly expressed to Lee. Mar said nothing, but she wanted it too. She could talk to him later... which was fine since Lee said he couldn't make them yet.

Mar went ahead as they all chattered stupidly at each other. She could scout. Yea, scout the single empty tunnel.

Whatever. It was better than watching Bradley mooning over her mother.

She had done nothing in this lair, and not much more in the last one. She needed to get a longer sword...

A faint noise was growing in her ears as she approached the outside. Is it raining?

It looked dry enough, though there was a dark cloud to the west when she stepped out... It seemed low for a cloud and she squinted at the darkness below it. Could be rain... It almost looked like there was something moving up and down from the cloud to the ground, but she couldn't see more than tiny specks.

She took a few more steps, trying to get a better look... and a buzzing sound from overhead sent her gaze straight up where she saw... Flies?

The sight of the tiny bugs wasn't particularly worrying until Mar realized she hadn't seen a single insect since the world ended... Then they got bigger and Mar froze, her gaze snapping back to the dark... cloud. Oh shit.

Something dripped on her arm while she was jogging back to the cave, and her invisibility flickered. The metal bracer had a wet spot on it and the symbol was glowing brightly. It is raining?

She touched the wet spot and immediately regretted it when the tip of her finger melted down to the bone.

Mar screamed and tripped at the sudden agony. She was still scrambling to her feet when a fly the size of a basketball landed a few feet away. Something dripped from its face, and the dirt underneath it started smoking. No, no, no!

Then she was screaming and racing for the shelter of the cave... She never made it. The roaring wall of rain that wasn't rain got there first. It swept over the entrance, blotting it out behind the torrent, and then raced toward her with the speed of a runaway train.

In that last instant, before the cave was lost to sight, Mar saw her mother's terrified face as the woman sprinted towards her.

Mom... help me!

She closed her eyes just before the rain hit and didn't even have time to scream at the terrible agony before something heavy crashed into her, and she fell down, down, down into the dark, and everything went wonderfully away.