Chapter 5: Runes
Ding!
[Planet: Stella caeruleaasean]
[Setting: Apocalyptic]
[Reason: Catacombs]
[Discription: Stella caeruleaasean, the world that was invaded by catacombs.
Catacombs... They first appeared in the world in the year, 2025, 7th February. They were just like those dungeons and so-called gates written in fantasy novels, showcased in animes, in shows, etc. Some people were excited, some were scared, some were just frustrated, some just killed to their heart's content, and some... Were simply confused.
We expected, just like that good old fantasy there would be people called players, or people who awakened special abilities. Or the ones who could kill the monsters... Sigh!
That day, that was the day when we were given a reality check. Nothing goes as expected in this god-forsaken world. If there really is a god, then he's just a puppet master, using the world as a stage to entertain himself with his wicked ideas, taking pleasure in our miseries.
Fortunately, we weren't completely dammed. There is something called balance. This universe really loves balancing things out. As the wise old man said, nothing is perfect, everything strives to be perfect~ By the way that good old man was me *Cough! Cough!*
The first person to enter the main room of the catacomb, William Wordsworth, gained inheritance! Because of him, the knowledge of catacombs to humanity was broadened. Williams Wordsworth was one of the greatest benefactors of humanity.
Inheritance. The catacombs had something called inheritance. When a person enters its main room, he gains the so-called inheritance! These inheritances gave people abilities, which could be strengthened by fulfilling certain conditions. These people who possessed inheritance were called the wielders.
Sadly there are only 170 wielders in the current world, At the year 2715. I hope that the future generation reads this and feels all the misery and pain of humanity.
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Writer: Rao Bei]
[Player's current location: Sanguis Monarchal's Catacomb.
An extremely large catacomb. And Extremely dangerous catacomb. The catacomb, in which beasts are created in the sky and launched to the ground every four hours. People present on the ground are alerted by the crackling of thunder. A level two hundred beasts is born every 24 hours.]
[Survive for 4 months 15 days, player Tai Xin- May the calamity be with you]
As Tai Xin read the last few words his eyelids couldn't help but twitch. "May the calamity be with you, are you cursing be to die quickly?"
He used to think that this line was very funny whenever he heard it in the game, but now when his life was on the line, Tai Xin didn't think so anymore.
"4 months! How the hell will I survive in this dammed place for, four months?!" Tai Xin almost pulled out his hair in frustration as he kept on seeing the time again and again.
But soon his eyes became serious, with excitement flashing through them.
In the end, he helplessly sighed with a wry smile, "I swear, my love for challenges, will be the end of me. 4 months is it, let's try to become strong in these very four months! I need to train harder!" Tai Xin exclaimed, but when he looked around his excitement once again died down. In this limited place, it was extremely hard to practice his martial arts. Though he could practice his spells, martial arts were one of the strongest weapons in his arsenal.
They were practically one of his hidden cards, which helped him survive many battles.
"Let's make the best out of what I have." Said Tai Xin as he sat on the pillar in a meditative position. However, he couldn't concentrate for much longer due to the chilling cold present around him.
He forcefully once again closed his eyes trying to remember the spells he had learnt in games. Learning spells was extremely difficult. When he was just a newbie, it took him three months of practice just to learn a single basic spell.
Once again gaining his focus he tried his best to enter the infamous sea of consciousness.
Seconds became minutes and those minutes soon turned into thirty minutes.
Suddenly mana particles around Tai Xin became a little active indicating that Tai Xin had successfully entered his sea of consciousness.
When Tai Xin opened his eyes what he saw was... Extremely chaotic.
He was present in a small field, half of which was covered by a lake, composed of blood. The other half where grass and flowers should've been present was entirely engulfed by flames.
There were only a few areas, left in touch by these raging flames. These flames seemed extremely weird being pale white, with a hint of faint bluish colour. This indicated the mixture of two elements.
On top was a pure light orb, magnificently hovering over the place.
This scene looked extremely chaotic yet, weirdly peaceful.
Tai Xin was slowly engulfed in the flames. However they didn't hurt him, and weirdly were welcoming him.
Slowly walking within the flames he tried to find a suitable place. After walking fit a long time he found a suitable place.
Immediately after finding the place he squatted and then willed mana to the tip of his fingers. He drew a few weird symbols. These were runes, the magic codex!
Magic codex! This was the language of the magic! With this language, the forces of nature could be messed with. It was the codex, that every mage or wizard had to learn, to use spells.
Even though this codex was extremely difficult Tai Xin had learned this language. He was fluent in this language Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3.
Since this was an extremely complicated language, and hence it was divided into nine levels. Upon learning the first Tier one could perform basic spells. Upon learning the second tier, one could perform intermediate spells or tier two spells.
Upon learning the third tier of the language one can perform advance level spells. Well... What about higher spells? There wasn't a single human he had met with who was able to perform a Tier 4 spell. Tier 3 spells were already so horrifying, able to destroy an entire house within a blink of an eye. He didn't dare to imagine what a Tier 4 or higher level spell could do.
Back to the topic currently Tai Xin was drawing basic runes. He planned to learn a few basic spells since he didn't possess enough mana capacity to perform a higher-level spell. In fact, it was bearly enough to use basic spells.
...I'm once again poor-! Tai Xin lampooned inwardly as he continued to draw the runes mid-air. To just draw a single letter, would take a lot of mana.
This was the reason why, after drawing for a few minutes Tai Xin took a small break recovering the mana he had spent.
Ten minutes after successfully recovering the mana, he once again got busy drawing the runes. And so this cycle continued.
2 hours later...
"Huff! Huff!"
Tai Xin had exited his sea of consciousness completely drenched in sweat. Though he didn't complete the rune, he was already halfway done.
"Ahh!"
As he exited the sea of consciousness, Tai Xin exclaimed in pain that originated from those horrifying burn marks present on his body.
Through some of the wounds puss could already be seen. They along with those burns made the perfect combo of disgustingness.
"Let's just focus on it.'
Though there were some healing spells Tai Xin knew however most of them were advanced-level spells. That was because he didn't possess water affinity.
Tai Xin slowly once again closed his eyes. His body was slowly getting tired. Though he knew, he wouldn't be able to protect himself if he slept.
Though he could make some preparations before sleeping. He once again applied mana to the tip of his finger and then engraved it on the floor. He engraved a red circle around himself with a lot of effort.
It was an extremely simple engraving that would help him detect any brain wave or magic wave, immediately waking him up and fighting with the danger.
He then once again visited his sea of consciousness continuing the engraving. Though it still wasn't complete and most probably would take another day he completed one of the complex parts.
After completion of the complex, it was finally time to sleep. Closing his eyes Tai Xin embraced sweet dreams.
Just as Tai Xin had expected this place couldn't be peaceful. His heart started to palpitate as his eyes wide opened.
'What is happening!'
Tai Xin looked around him finding that the mana circle that he had engraved, was nowhere to be found. This meant that something trespassed!
But why wasn't he able to sense anything? Just as he was looking around the area his eyes paused on the platform. There was a large crater along with many cracks.
His eyes instinctively looked at the sky. Beasts were raining from it!
Dashing toward the edge of the platform Tai Xin looked down, only to see a wolf!