Chapter 8 - Survival Skills Lacking

For Nate, the first step to planning was knowing what he was working with. Thinking Status brought up his updated sheet.

He was pleased with the results, and as he sat with his back to the statue, he could feel the mana from the environment slowly flowing into his chest and the little ball he felt there that represented his Class. It was hard to describe how it all made him feel. Up until now he’d been running from one problem to the next. He’d been sucked out of his own universe from the only home he’d ever known. Sure, that home had problems, but it had also had his friends, some good memories, and the promise of a better future.

Then after being kidnapped, he had to deal with an alien God who had shown him kindness while making feel as small as an ant. It had been both wonderful and humbling. That had led to him running for his life through a strange forest from a cat creature the size of a small car. To top it all off, he’d found himself unwillingly trapped in a Dungeon that seemed to have creatures in it that were more than willing to eat him, culminating in a life and death battle with a giant boar.

All of these thoughts were to say that up until now, he had been leaning towards returning home as being his goal. To return to Earth. But levelling up had made him feel more powerful, more in control of himself and his emotions. The knowledge it had given him was amazing. Sure, he was only at the start of his path, but he could create runes. He could merge his art and his intellect in a way that would’ve been difficult to achieve back on Earth. Not impossible, but certainly challenging. It was difficult to stand out in a sea of billions, especially with the disadvantages that came with straddling the poverty line. But here, in this world, whatever it was called, he was sure a Legendary Class had value. Which meant he had value.

Nate wiped away a tear. He knew he had some self-esteem issues, but he’d never tackled them so directly before. He wondered if the enhanced Intellect or Creativity was what was making him be more candid with himself than he normally was. Introspection had always been a hallmark of his personality, but even so, who wanted to admit that they thought less of themselves?

People saw therapists to work through such realisations, and a poor kid from the suburbs didn’t have the money for that. Nate straightened his back. He wasn’t a poor kid from the suburbs right now though. Now, he was a Wandering Runecaster, and that made a world of difference. A grin bloomed on his face, and Nate wondered if that was the first time he had truly smiled since being sucked into the portal.

Nate glanced down at the silver ring on his finger. He had to keep reminding himself he wasn’t poor anymore. All he had to do was survive this Dungeon and then find civilisation where he could spend some of his riches. But first, food!

Extending some of his mana into the ring was still challenging, and he suspected that would continue until he raised his Magic Control Stat. He’d have to do that next time he levelled, he decided. That was something else he had to consider. So much to think about. Break it down, work through one problem at a time, he thought to himself. Food was the priority. He had water. He had shelter. Now, if he could feed himself, he’d have everything he needed to survive in this Dungeon. Then he could deal with the other problems of levelling and escaping.

The remaining half of a boar he’d blown up sat in his dimensional storage right where he had left it. But he knew enough to know that eating raw meat was taking a huge risk. If he remembered correctly, pigs were especially prone to parasites. Maybe that wasn’t the case in this world, but being as cautious as Nate was, there was no way he was going to take that chance. That meant cooking the meat, which meant fire. Fire he didn’t have. Exploding runes weren’t going to help. Sure, there was a noticeable build-up of heat right before they exploded, but that heat had never translated to flames. Just shrapnel in the form of chunks of wood flying everywhere. That meant he needed to tackle the problem in another way.

He considered trying to build a fire by rubbing sticks together. He’d seen a video once about how to build a firestick and use kindling to create a fire. But, if he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure he could recreate it. At least not easily. Taking a second he activated Runic Knowledge, focusing on the concept of ‘Fire.’ After a few minutes of nothing happening he gave up on that line of thinking. If he was going to try and make a fire rune, he was going to have to do it the hard way.

Pulling out a yellow mana gem from his dimensional storage, he looked over the runes and sigils. Staring at the sigils, he read them again. Rebuff, Mana, and Both Directions. Why did he know what they meant? They were just little pictures. His thoughts immediately went back to his Status sheet and the Status Effects. The spell that Arikanvil had cast on him. A Divine Translation Spell. What was it Arikanvil had said? It would likely only work on this planet because it was based on Arikanvil’s own understanding of language. Nate suspected that extended to sigils. Or at least sigils that Arikanvil knew. Could he tap into that? Fire seemed a fairly straightforward concept to create a sigil for. What if he just kept drawing till the Divine Translation Spell recognised the sigil as fire? The more Nate thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Maybe he’d even get another achievement for it?

Tucking the mana gem into his pocket, he scavenged in the corridor till he had a couple of pieces of vine big enough for him to carve sigils into. Getting to work, he started with what he figured the most basic representation of fire could be. Such images had been all over the place back on Earth, warning people that something was combustible. Flames with a hollow at the base of the flame. It couldn’t be that simple, could it?

Finishing his first carving, he stared at the sigil. Nothing happened and Nate snorted. Maybe it was too much to hope he’d get it on his first try. Setting the piece of wood aside, he moved onto the next one. Time flowed on, and by the time he’d gone through seven iterations, he was starting to wonder if maybe he should’ve just tried creating a firestick.

Taking a second, he leaned back against the statue and thought about the sigils he did know. Was there any commonality between them? The answer was no. But there was something worth noting. Thinking back to the rune for Strongest, it had been a layered pyramid with a circle on top. What if the fire symbols he was drawing just needed something extra?

Sighing, he got up to fetch more wood. He was running low on fragments from the explosion and knew he might need to start carving off some wood from the vines himself soon. That might pose a problem to his little Swiss army knife, which he doubted would last if he started using it to cut wood. Another problem he would have to deal with. With another dozen or so pieces of wood lying in a pile beside him Nate got to work.

The approach had to be scientific, so Nate took his first attempt, a similar flame symbol to the ones back on Earth that warned against combustible materials. Carving a circle around it that connected to the bottom, he checked if the translation spell recognised it. When nothing happened, he picked up a new piece of wood and carved the same symbol into it before trying a different modification.

Nate wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he continued making modifications until he had only one piece of wood remaining. He glanced down at his last attempt and something about it stood out to him. It was like hearing a word pronounced wrong. The symbol was a two-pronged fire with curved flames overlayed by a three-pronged fire. He’d done it that way to give the sense of the heat being stronger at different layers. But it was still wrong. Carefully, he added a diamond inside the middle of the fire. Fire, he thought with a smile as the word sung through his mind. He’d done it.

He should’ve remembered that many of the sigils he had seen had incorporated geometric shapes into their design. He wasn’t sure why he had associated the diamond with fire, but focusing on it, he traced it back to his chest and the spot where his Class lay. Had Runic Knowledge given him a hint because he was so close? What was it Arikanvil had told him? The System helps those who help themselves. Or maybe it was just a function of the Skill itself. Maybe it wouldn’t grant him any advanced knowledge like runic sigils, but it would assist him if he was close to discovering them on his own. He wasn’t sure, but either way he had the sigil. Now, it was time to create the rune.

Nate understood the basic idea. The geometric shapes he drew would both attract mana, then guide and disperse the mana around them. That meant if he overlaid a number of shapes in a small area, the mana would be more concentrated in that area. By that logic he figured if he drew a perfect circle in a piece of wood, it should disperse the mana in a perfect sphere around it, with it being more concentrated closer to the wood and growing weaker away from it.

Carefully, Nate carved a circle around the outside of his Fire sigil. As he completed it, The System flashed in the corner of his vision.

Congratulations on creating a Fire Rune (Initiate Quality).
Your achievement has been recorded.

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

Nate laughed at himself. That was a big step down from Master Quality. But it didn’t matter. He’d done it. He’d created a rune from scratch and, better yet, one that could feed him, and potentially help him escape this Dungeon. He would’ve lain back to rest on his laurels, but, at that moment his stomach grumbled in protest.

Nate picked up his Fire rune. He knew it would start gathering mana over time, but he hoped the fact that it was just a circle would mean it would do so even more slowly than the Barrier rune he’d drawn. He quickly walked out into the temple corridor and headed for the valley. There was no way he was going to try and cook the boar close to where he was sleeping. He figured that if he went a little down the path into the valley, he could hopefully dig a small fire pit in the grass. Then, he could collect some wood and tinder from the forest below and drag them up to create his fire. Probably a stick to roast some meat on too.

Stepping out of the temple, he had a quick look around. When he couldn’t see anything nearby, he began making his way down the path into the valley. About halfway to the trees he found a good spot at a slight bend in the road. Kneeling down, he began digging in the softer soil with his fingers until he had created a small divot about a metre wide. Standing and stretching his arms, he could feel his muscles ache, but he knew he wasn’t done.

Wandering down into the forest, Nate remained careful, checking the trees above as well as listening out for any boars. It was hard to keep track of time, but Nate guessed that it had taken him about an hour to grab enough wood and kindling and drag them up the path to his little fire pit. Setting up the pile of wood and tinder in his firepit, he placed his Fire rune at the bottom of the pile, nestled in the tinder. Extracting the mana gem from his pocket, Nate focused on the Mana Exclusion rune, denying it mana so that the mana in the gem could start to leak out. As it did so, Nate knelt next to his firepit and tried to forcefully guide the mana into his Fire rune.

To his delight it took only moments for the rune to start releasing flame, and shortly afterwards, catch fire itself. He’d destroyed his rune, but it had served its purpose, and the tinder quickly burst into flame, the dry wood following not long after. Putting the mana gem back into his dimensional storage, Nate extracted the boar. It landed with a thump next to him, and Nate pulled out his pocket knife, painstakingly carving out three hunks of meat from its flank and sliding them onto a stick. Once he was satisfied that there was enough meat for a meal, he put the boar back into his dimensional storage and sat down to roast the pig over the fire. The meat sizzled and popped as it cooked, and even though Nate lamented the drips of fat that fell into the fire, the smell wafting to his nose left him salivating.

The only thing holding him back from eating the meat medium rare was the concern about parasites, and so he kept it over the fire until the outside had started to blacken. Taking the meat out of the fire, he waited until it had cooled down enough to eat. He was so hungry that the first bite was absolute bliss, and he didn’t stop till he had devoured all three pieces of meat, his face covered in grease and charcoal.

Throwing the remains of the stick into the fire, he let it burn away the last of the grease before Nate threw some dirt onto the fire to put it out. He’d be using this firepit everyday, so he didn’t want to completely bury it. All that was left to do was wash his face and get a drink of water. Then he’d hunker down and rest. Tomorrow, he would begin exploring the other corridor, and in his heart, he knew he was hoping it might lead to a way out of the Dungeon for him. This survival shit really wasn’t for him, he thought. With a final snort he started wandering down to the lake.