There was a party of 6, Striga and Jimmy included. Donis didn't recognise the other 4, but their stats weren't high so he assumed that they were just the officials from the RI, their occupations gave nothing away sadly. All of them specifying "Ruins Expert of Bonn".
They've all been walking for about 3 hours now through the swamp water and yet there was no ruins in sight. Donis had been taking care with his [Trackless] being used to its full potential. He could keep track of them using his [Void Sense] from a formidable distance, and his [Shadow In The Dark] allowing him to cross distances virtually without sound.
It was a messy job tracking them. He knew he wasn't allowed here and if he was caught he'd be screwed royally. Though he knew he couldn't give up the chance at this, the all too familiar sensation was tugging at his mind. Another memory was waiting patiently for Donis to trigger it.
There was a deeper fear running through Donis's spine every time the tug became stronger, but he couldn't address it. He had many variables in his mind, and yet he wasn't allowed to even acknowledge any of them, for fear of the [System] catching on to one of the memories.
They trudged on, so he trudged on. Wet mulch splattering with every step of the groups boot. The humid air making the already unbearable heat exacerbate the stench of the swamp. The crowing, the screeching and the howling of the beasts and monsters filled every other sound around them.
The echo chamber disallowed them of any talking. They'd give away their positions, whether to monsters or to other humans searching for the ruins. Strigas crew didn't seem to be walking in a random direction, Donis noticed.
Every now and again one of them would refer to a map, and the group would suddenly take a sharp turn, or would continue through patches of trees that didn't seem to have even monsters walk through them.
He wasn't able to lay his eyes on the actual map from his standpoint, but he was able to decipher that it must be something of the sort, since the man who held it, would point at different locations when orientating themselves. His [Void Sense] would allow him to "see", but it wouldn't give him details such as images on paper, an unfortunate downside of the ability.
After another gruesome hour, the group had come to a clearing. The man holding the map seemed to be cheering but the rest of the crew didn't seem as elated. It was nearing the evening, and Donis wasn't sure if they'd set up camp after a long day of marching through the swamp, or if they'd find the ruin.
The man holding the map walked around with the map in hand, seemingly talking out loud. The rest of the crew stood still, observing the man.
In one moment, the man in question was talking and walking around, the next he was gone. No flash, no loud sound, nothing. Just gone. Erased from existence.
Or so Donis thought. The rest of the crew didn't even flinch when it happened, Striga clearly sighing, walked after him. She too then disappeared. Seeing this, the rest of the crew followed suit, leaving only Donis behind with a million questions pouring through his mind.
He quickly rushed after them, crossing the distance in a mere dozen seconds. He stood a few steps before where they disappeared. He wasn't certain what was going to happen if he stood there this quickly after they went "in". He looked around, and it was just a normal clearing, just like any other.
He wasn't sure how they could tell that this was supposed to be some "ruin". The ground here was just as soft as the rest of the swamp, the trees weren't displaced in any odd way, nor was it any less humid, so how?
Donis activated [True Inspect] and saw the immense amount of mana in the area converging into a single spot right before him.
'Huh, this is new,' he thought to himself.
Prior to this moment, he had almost forgotten about one of the functions of this ability. He was able to see the mana pathways, and many other types of signatures. He could even see that there was actually a colourless pathway which linked up to something far deeper underground.
It was akin to one of the portals Donis saw in Arral or Shur, but much smaller, and quite invisible. The incredible sound that those portals produced was also not present, so in reality, they were nothing alike.
The pull Donis felt earlier only got stronger here, right before this portal. He knew once he passed over he'd be able to access this new memory. He could feel the pull just fall short of accessing it. Though now there was also a second pull. His affinity to the Void Magic and Ethereal Magic was tingling here.
'The portal must be using Void Magic and Ethereal Magic as a base, or there's something else at play. Not sure what's going on here, but I really want to try and to interact with the portal. But how?' he thought to himself.
'Fuck it no, what if that's the only way out? I don't want to either get them stuck, or myself stuck down there for eternity with my stupid meddling.'
Deciding against such a thing, all he could do now was wait a while. He didn't really know how long he'd have to wait to be safe, but he gave it 10 minutes to err on the side of caution. Not wanting to get caught by Striga or be made fun of by Jimmy were two of his greatest motivators.
He busied himself exploring the new sensations of [True Inspect] by looking around. He could now see that it was actually quite easy to spot these ruins if you always had it active. The amount of mana, and other unknown energy signatures that converged here into this one spot was monstrous.
He figured that the reason most people even find these ruins are because of ancient maps like the guy held, but because Donis has [True Inspect], no energy signature can escape from him. Marking this spot like a giant neon sign telling him "Come here we've got free loot!".
He was able to figure out that he could further [Inspect] some of the energy signatures, and they gave him really weird readings. He'd never tried anything like this before so he had no real references to pull from.
[Void Mana Tether], [Ethereal Mana Tether], [Light Mana Tether], [Lightning Mana Tether], [???].
[Void Mana Tether]: Used to link two points in space.
[Ethereal Mana Tether]: Used to stabilize other tethers.
[Light Mana Tether]: Used to increase or decrease the visual output of the tethers, and objects.
[Lightning Mana Tether]: Used to power objects. Must link to another source of power.
[???]: ???
'Hmm... these make sense, but what are those question marks doing there? Is it something that no longer exists? Is it something to do with what the system has no clue about? Fuck I wish I could study these more in depth, but I HAVE to go!' he thought to himself, right before he threw himself into the portal.
There was a lack of sensation, though. It was akin to blinking for a little too long. He didn't even notice the change in the atmosphere, nor did he notice any breeze or sound going through it. It was as if space ceased to exist in front of him and he never stopped walking.
Even if the portal itself gave no sensations, that didn't mean his mind didn't get pulled in two separate directions. One was his corrupted memory trying to reel it's way back in, the other was the intense sensation that something was wrong. He was terrified of opening his eyes, and when he heard something move ahead of him, a shiver ran down his back.
"Oh hello there Donis, you didn't keep us waiting for too long now did ya?" said Striga, sitting on what seemed to be a barrel of some sort.
"Aaah, haha, hello! I seem to have fallen into a mysterious and a totally unknown portal!" mocked Jimmy.
"Oh god, how fucked am I?" said Donis, clutching at his family jewels unconsciously.