Chapter 5 - Explosive Dreams

The water itself was a lovely, tepid temperature and Nate knew if he wasn’t being so careful he could easily have drifted off to sleep laying in the shallows. Standing up the water barely reached his knees which made it perfect for him to sit down in, with his knees pulled up to his chest. Nate could feel the tingling on his skin grow noticeably stronger wherever the water was touching him. He figured that was because there was probably more mana in the water than in the air of the dungeon. A question of density? he wondered.

Basic physics told him that the number of water atoms in a glass would be significantly higher than the number of gaseous atoms in the same glass were it empty. Did mana then require some sort of medium? Or was it more conceptual? Nate’s curiosity was piqued but he didn’t have time right now to dwell on those questions or devise ways to test his hypothesis. Now was the time for cleaning his wounded arm.

Lacking anything to properly clean the scabbed over slash marks on his arm, Nate settled for kneeling down in the sand till the wound was fully submerged and gently scrubbing at it with his hands. He figured the mana in the water wouldn’t be bad for the wound, at the very least, and perhaps it might help. He even considered opening the scabs up to let the water get inside but was wary of bleeding into the water. Plenty of sea creatures could smell blood in the water and Nate wasn’t in a hurry to find out if anything lurked in the depths of the lake.

The cuts burned a little at first as the water brushed up against them, but it slowly faded to the familiar tingle of mana on his skin. Nate took that to be a positive sign and drank a little more of the water, soaking in the shallows, as he kept his eyes outward towards the deeper water. It was a beautiful sight. One that he was going to try and remember so he could draw it in the future.

Nate preferred his art in three forms. For him, art needed to be thought provoking, beautifully difficult, or personal. Sometimes, when he could, Nate would merge more than one form into the same artwork, like the time he’d included his parents in one of his pieces that he had considered thought provoking. It was the first time he had used stencils. He’d done his research online first. Banksy used stencils, but he hadn’t been the pioneer artist who had come up with the idea. That title went to Blek le Rat, a Frenchman and considered the father of stencil graffiti.

In his artwork, Nate had wanted to capture the idea that no matter how powerful someone was, we all ended up in the same place in the end. He’d based it on a quote, “After the game, the King and the Pawn go into the same box.”  The artwork had been a chessboard with the box next to it and some of the pieces already in the box, with tombstones above each slot for the chess piece. He’d put his parents in the box and put on their tombstones, “Gone but not forgotten.” Preparing the stencils had taken him weeks of work but it had been worth it. Shame the only remaining picture of the artwork was likely up on Arikanvil’s research station, on Nate's phone. Maybe one day he would be able to reclaim it.

Nate’s reverie was broken by a soft snuffling noise. Hunching forward till only his head was above the water he swivelled in place so that he was parallel to the shore. He wanted to be able to see whatever was making that noise but was unwilling to put his back to the deeper water. It had been pleasant and quiet so far, but Nate was not going to drop his guard just because he’d had a moment of peace.

The sound of something sniffing grew louder until a shadow trotted out from beneath the boughs of the trees. The beast looked like a wild boar crossed with a bull, and standing, Nate thought its back might be as high as his shoulders. The creature sported tusks both exiting its mouth and another two forward facing on the top of its head. Only two eyes this time Nate thought tiredly. He’d begun to wonder if everything on this planet had extra eyes.

The creature kept sniffing at the grass and the air as it wandered closer to his clothes hanging in the tree. Clearly the thing had his scent and if it was anything like pigs from Earth Nate knew it would be an omnivore, as happy to eat some grass as to eat him. Staying low in the water he hoped the boar, as he had decided to think of it, had poor eyesight. Trotting closer to his clothes hanging from the tree branch the boar snorted loudly and started to veer towards the water, nose close to the ground. It didn’t bother to raise its head as it started to wade into the water, still looking for him, sniffing the top of the water.

In response Nate ducked below the surface of the water and drifted off to the side, being careful not to disturb the water much with his passage. Holding his breath and keeping his eyes closed he continued to float in the half metre gap between the sand and the surface of the water. When his lungs started to scream for oxygen he slowly broke the surface to see if his repositioning had helped.

The boar had continued to stomp past where he had been, heading deeper into the water. Its head still easily broke the surface and the single mindedness of the beast seemed to be driving the creature farther into the lake to find the source of the smell that had captured its interest. Nate watched as it got close to the edge of the shallows, the darkness of the deeper water now only a metre or so from the boar.

Ripples disturbed the deeper water and Nate and the boar seemed to notice at the same time. The boar squealed in fear and tried to turn towards the shore, its bulk working against it as the water resisted the motion. Before it could fully make its turn a claw almost as big as the boar came out of the darkness and snapped shut over its abdomen, cutting it almost completely in half, before dragging the beast back towards the bottom of the lake.

Nate goggled at the size of the claw as it slipped into the darkness of the lake. A few bubbles reached the surface and Nate thought perhaps he could see some of what might be intestines floating where the creature had snatched the boar. He swallowed rising bile and whispered a quiet, “What the fuck?” tinged with fear. Carefully and slowly inching back towards the shore Nate focused on what little he’d managed to notice of the creature’s appearance to distract himself from the shock and suddenness of the attack. It had been quick, but it had looked similar to a crab claw, dark blue in colour, much like the depths of the lake it hid within. Nate just hoped that there was only one of the giant bastards in the lake. He knew he’d most likely need to make more trips back here, both to drink and wash. There wasn’t an alternative unless he found another source of water.

Reaching the water’s edge, he took another quick drink before quickly moving back to his clothes and dressing as quickly as he could. With one last glance back at the lake he began his trek back to the temple. Nate hadn’t lost his wariness, tempered now by his desire to put some distance between himself and the lake, and continued to take it slowly beneath the trees, making sure to glance up to check for snakes or other ambush predators. Once he’d reached the path back up the hill to the temple entrance, Nate increased his pace. Less worried about traps on the road and more worried about another boar or something similar noticing his passing.

As he reached the temple entrance, Nate glanced back out over the valley. This time, on the far side of the lake he could see some specks moving. He was uncertain but they looked like they might be boars. That made this valley a little ecosystem, he thought. The boars survived on the plants and in turn fed the crab or whatever the monster was that lurked in the lake. If that was all that was here he could likely work with that and remain safe. He would need food soon and those boars seemed like they were probably edible, assuming he could catch and somehow kill one of the gigantic beasts.

Inching down the hallway, Nate started looking for a good place to rest. He really needed to sleep soon. But he’d prefer not to do it where a boar could just wander in. He hadn’t seen any sign of them in this corridor but that didn’t mean they never came here and given his luck over the past day, it seemed an unnecessary risk to go to sleep somewhere the beasts could so easily get to.

Halfway down the hallway, Nate found what he was looking for in one of the alcoves that housed the statues. Behind the statue and up high was an indented recess. It was probably only two metres across with only a metre or so between the floor of the recess and the stone roof, but it would be enough for him to nestle into. Climbing the wall, Nate surveyed the inside of the little nook and while finding it to be a little dusty there didn’t seem to be any spiders or the like inside.

Curling up, Nate tucked his hoodie beneath his head as a pillow and tried to go to sleep. He was exhausted, mentally, physically, and emotionally, but sleep would not come to him. He considered doing something asinine like counting sheep but doubted it would help. Between the tingling from the mana and feeling unsafe he knew it was fear keeping him awake. He’d been afraid for a long time. It was what made him so careful, both in action and words. Fear of his aunt as he’d grown up. Fear of bullies at school. Fear of losing what little he had. A tear started to roll down his cheek, but he brushed it away.

Nate had been afraid for a long time, and it had only started getting better over the last couple of years. His friend Michael had been a big help, but what had helped the most was Nate’s art. Through his art he could let out all his fear and pain. That outlet had changed him dramatically, and lying there in the recess above the statue, unable to sleep, he resorted to his art to find solace.

All the runes on Arikanvil’s research station had been beautiful, interesting, and geometrically complex. But one had stood out to Nate. The one he’d first interpreted. The rune had contained multiple hieroglyphs or pictographs or whatever they were called, but the first one that Nate had noticed had been Barrier. Reaching into one of the pockets of his hoodie, Nate pulled out the pocketknife he’d stashed in there back on Earth. With his tool in hand, he looked for something to carve the rune into. A vine curled around the corner creeping into the statue’s alcove from the hallway. It was perfect.

Leaving his hoodie in the recess, Nate climbed down and moved over to the vine. It started out by the floor and following the grooves in the stone climbed about halfway up the wall. Taking deep breaths to calm and centre himself, Nate began to carefully cut into the dried bark of the vine. It was far from the perfect canvas, but it was better than nothing.

Nate had always had an excellent visual memory and that served him well now as he recreated the rune that had stood out to him the most. Taking his time, making sure his cuts were straight and that he maintained the geometric positioning of the shapes, Nate slowly rebuilt the rune.

The rune carving took him a little while to get right and by the time it was done, it was roughly the size of his hand. Nate thought it was a pretty close facsimile of the one on Arikanvil’s research station and it evoked a feeling of safety within Nate. The lines probably weren’t perfectly straight, but he didn’t have any tools to assist him and was forced to rely on the steadiness of his hands.

Like the rune Nate had accidentally drawn back on Earth, this one was a kaleidoscope of overlapping shapes. Circles, hexagons, crescent-moons, and triangles abounded. Interspersed within the shapes were the same three symbols he had seen on the research station. In the centre of the rune, he had placed the image of a round shield with a slice of pie in its centre. Nate didn’t know why but he was sure it meant Barrier. The layered pyramid with a circle on the tip of the pyramid was placed four times, each at a point of the compass. That meant Strongest. Finally, the four-way arrow connected by lines meant All-Directions was placed just below the symbol for Barrier.

Nate didn’t know why he was so sure, yet that he knew what each of the symbols meant and his tired mind while digging at the question, had calmed enough for Nate to ignore the thought. The act of creating art had calmed his emotions and the wave of tiredness he felt told him he was ready for sleep. Folding up his pocket knife, he climbed back up into the recess and the moment his head touched his hoodie he was fast asleep.

Nate woke to the sound of a bomb going off. Rather than sitting up in shock, he curled quickly into a little ball, covering his ears as they rang from the explosion. Something flashed in his vision, but he ignored it to roll over and peer down from his little nook. Below him a small chunk of yellow stone was missing from the wall and fragments of vine were scattered all around the statue and out into the corridor.

From what Nate could tell the explosion originated from where he had carved the rune into the vine. The only thought running through his mind was why would the rune he had carved cause an explosion? It shouldn’t have done anything as far as Nate was concerned. It was just art, right? But thinking it through, he knew that wasn’t true. Creating the rune back on Earth had been enough to trigger the portal that had effectively kidnapped him. Something about the geometric shapes seemed to interact with or call to mana. That was only a guess, but it was the best he had for now.

Focusing on the flashing in the corner of his vision Nate brought up the messages from The System.

Congratulations on creating a Barrier Rune (Master Quality).
Your achievement has been recorded.

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

Nate took a moment to think about it as he jumped down from his little nook. Even if he’d just copied the rune from memory he must’ve gotten pretty close to the rune on the research station for it to be considered Master Quality, and all he’d had to work with was a pocketknife and a vine. That just made him wonder how powerful the perfected version was. It had been fairly complex in terms of the number of geometric shapes and number of sigils. That was a question he wouldn’t mind answering. And what did The System mean that his achievement was recorded? Did achievements serve a purpose? So many questions.

Of course, The System signed off with what Nate already recognised was its standard message. The last one seemed particularly true right now as Nate could tell the mana density was higher around the explosion area. Picking up one of the broken bits of vine, Nate could feel the tingle on his skin increase where he touched the wood. He focused on that feeling. It was like the mana was trying to push against his skin, trying to get inside.

Nate had learned about a concept called tonicity in biology. The basic idea was that when there was a concentration differential between two mediums, usually in water, that the water would move from the high concentration solution to the lower concentration solution until the concentrations were equal, or isotonic as they called it. He couldn’t help but wonder if mana was like that. Trying to move from the higher density medium to the lower density one, until they were equal. Following that thought, Nate had an idea for how to move the mana around in himself. It was time to do some experimenting.