(MMM 9) I Don't Like Sand

I instantly paled as I was dragged through the ink, I could feel the wetness dousing my skin and forcefully let out a cough as I was smashed, slammed, and dragged against a pale green grass, and set spiraling. Then the arm grabbed me again and I felt myself pulled from the forest, to a desert and slammed into the sand as I entered another painting. 

This thing is fast! This also did not bring me enjoyment! This was awful! What the- I started rolling and I was not a fan.

Alright then. Fuck off! I felt the arm flying towards my face in order to continue its assault, but this time I was prepared.

Offensive spells? Who needed that when you could just detonate an unstable spell circle? A massive explosion of air shredded outwards, and even nicked my cheek causing blood to be drawn. However I finally got a good look at this annoying bastard as it recovered from the blow. 

It was a massive see-through jar of ink, with long and rotted grey limbs pooled inside of it and reaching outwards in all directions as though to grab onto a pen that wasn’t there.

“Alright, you’re gross. Please get obliterated.” 

Sending off a blast of wind mana towards the creature it dived deep into the inky world around us and scampered away. Leaving me stranded in the desert.

That’s annoying.

I slightly bent down to steady myself in the sand as wind blew against me, the world around me wasn’t illusory, I could feel it through my Planetary Heartbeat. The place I found myself in was some kind of pocket dimension then? Or maybe a portal to another one entirely?

The sand beneath me shifted, and I blasted myself into the sky to avoid the seven gray limbs from pulling me deeper. They didn’t stop with their failed grapple though, instead slamming into the ground to fly up after me with the massive ink bottle in tow.

I entered my own mind for a moment, just before it impacted me. This amount of physical force it needed to get from the ground to about 50 meters up that fast was insane. This creature was strong, a lot stronger than I’d first thought too.

The spell circles under my shoes glimmered faintly in the desert heat, as an idea crashed into me. Pivoting the spell circle from below me, to in between myself and the creature, a Mana Boost coagulated in my arms and legs to try and shield me from the incoming blow as it cracked right through the spell circles.

Wind mana shot in all directions as we both began to fall back to the ground below. Its arms were ripped apart by the force, and my own weren’t doing so well either. Blood, both blue and red flung through the air as we both struggled to grab onto something. 

Desperately trying to formulate Wind Walk again I shuddered as it formed and was broken by the rapidly swinging arms of the monster in front of me. The creature began to fall faster than myself, but my heart slammed in my chest as it reached for my leg as it cratered downwards.

If it grabbed me, I was most likely going to die in the fall.

I needed to do something. Anything.

I reached into my inventory, and pulled out the Mop of Cleaning. Effectively handing it off to the creature in exchange for my leg. It felt the length of the object, and grabbed on tight, its opportunity missed as wood splintered into its hand, and the blood upon its body began to be absorbed by the mop that seemed to still stick to its task, even in death.

I’m sorry Mop of Cleaning, you will be missed! Reactivating Windwalk under my form and shrinking the spell circles to go beneath my feet and two more behind my hands I stabilize myself as I track my own mana reserves.

I have almost all of my null mana, but the elemental mana I’ve gained from Gaia is down to about 80% of its total.

I slowly float down to the ground, the creature- it’s still alive!? Its arms are weakly flailing around as the head of the Mop of Cleaning hungrily devours the ink inside of the jar, the creature seemingly drained of both its will and vitality as time went on.

Aiming a hand outwards I shot a spike of earth mana forwards, the substance rapidly coalesced into a spike of rock and cracked the glass shell of the monster. With one final whimper it fully flopped on its side with a cracking noise as more of its glass broke from its own weight and weakened form.

[Secret Objective Completed: Defeat the Painter’s Ink Well]

So that’s what you were. I took a seat as I stared at the corpse, a frown making its way onto my face as the desert wind blew against me.

How do I get out of here?

Briefly connecting to the dimension I was in, I searched for an exit. The lack of response from the world was a bit unsettling, as all that was returned to my own Heartbeat was silence.

Either this world was dead, or it was never alive in the first place. Turning my gaze upwards I frowned, there was no sun in the sky. The light of this world appeared to come from nothing, simply existing as though it was a fact of reality.

Reactivating Wind Walk and Atmosphere I flew up at a casual speed, I have to get a better view of the area. Just sitting here won’t do anything.

I kept moving upwards, but only desert spiraled out around me. There was nothing else in the area around me but burning sands. 

I kept going higher, the cost of the atmosphere not increasing at all as I went higher despite the elevation, this place did not obey normal physics.

This place is so- ow. 

Something bumped into my head as I moved up, quickly snapping upwards I spotted nothing but empty sky. 

“What?”

Reaching my hand out it once again connected with the invisible barrier that prevented me from continuing my ascent.

Moving along the skyline I slowly ran a hand across the ‘ceiling’ finding out that it extended a lot farther than I’d first thought.

Sending forth a spout of wind mana into the distance though still aligned to hit the ‘ceiling’  it collided with the barrier and fluttered out harmlessly. The wind picked up briefly around me from the blast, and the realization that I was stuck inside of a painting really started to kick in.

Though if vertical won’t work, how about horizontal?

About a minute of testing found that it was a bust as well. 

Alright Emile. We need to think of a plan.

I’m trapped in a painting with no food, and a limited supply of mana. Acting now is my best course of action before I start to get hit with waves of exhaustion. Conjuring some water mana in my palm and drinking it out of my hand the relief is near instant. 

Letting out a small sigh I flew back down the Ink Bottle monster’s corpse. This thing could travel freely through the paintings, so it's entirely possible it holds the key to getting out of here. The real question is if this method of travel is at all stable and safe for my personal use.

Gently moving one of the arms I cringed lightly in disgust at the grey appendage in my grasp before powering through it. 

This is probably what touching a zombie feels like . . . 

Moving the arm towards the sand I forced it to pick up some of the grains, but no distortion of ink occurred. Dropping the arm turned shovel I frowned at the ink stained sands. If the power isn’t in the arms, then does the ink hold the key?

Reaching my hand down the black sands I could feel the magic within it, moving more of my Null Mana into my eyes and brain I got a closer look, there had to be something here I could use.

The mana had an element I hadn’t seen before, but could vaguely understand the composition because of its similarity to the gravity mana Walking With Birds had told me about. This had to be spacial magic.

Spacial magic. One of the most volatile, but useful forms of magic spread out in the area I had found myself in. This was an accident waiting to happen. 

An accident I couldn’t squander just yet. I needed to get out of here, and while I didn’t know the first thing about spacial magic, I was sure I could figure something out.

My eyes gleaned over the wet head of the mop sitting softly on the sands, its once white fibers stained black with ink and reeking of spacial mana. 

I have a well of spacial mana waiting to be used, the question is, how? Quickly scanning through my inventory I pulled out one of the two books in my possession. 

Magic and How Not to Accidentally Kill Yourself. 

Skimming through the pages, I searched for anything useful for my situation. I was going to have to work either on a spell, or something that could get me out of here.

Formulization, stirred in my brain as I read through the book. Making a spell from scratch was a lot harder than modifying one that already existed. Conjuring faint light I let out a small smile. The author of this book had left me a gift.

A spell circle that was stupidly stable, nearly to the point of redundancy. Something that was perfect for volatile spacial magic.

Now that I have a base to work with, I need to strip away the part of the spell I don’t need. Yet as I looked over the spell my eyes widened. If I modified this spell, linking another one to it, all the excess mana that could cause an accident would instead merely produce light.

Another safety net already existed in this weave, and I couldn’t help but smile. 

Moving over to the magical theory section of the book, I refreshed my memory on some of the information I’d already gleaned previously. 

Spells are like coding mixed with chemistry, Mana being the Elements used in order to facilitate the process. Effectively, you need Mana to cast spells, but you don’t need spells to use Mana. 

However, when using both in conjunction, the effect can not only be far more powerful, it can also be tailored to your specific needs.

I had lots of raw spacial mana on hand, but as it stood at the moment it wasn’t being directed in any way. All it would do if I pushed it was warp the space around itself before fizzling out, or perhaps something else unpredictable I couldn’t control.

What I needed to do was leave this dimension. Running a hand through my hair I let out a sigh. That’s a lot easier said than done. 

Conjuring the spell circle for faint light, I moved past the preexisting spell, and began to link my own spell formations to it. I needed the mana to not rip me apart as I passed through it, so I tried my best to contain the volatility of the spell to the minimum. 

Enough spacial mana being directed a single way should hopefully be enough to break past the barrier keeping me trapped in here and let me get out . . . right into another fight. 

That shadow book, I’d nearly forgotten about it. I need to be on guard the moment I break free from this desert, another fight will be coming my way.

Channeling in some of the mana from the ink and conjuring the spell, which I hadn’t named yet, I hesitated before I stepped through. Instead I grabbed one of the wooden fragments of the mop and tossed it through.

The sickening crunch let me know I’d made the right choice to do so. While the spell had enough mana, and seemed to be stable, something had still gone wrong.

Investigating the spell circle, my teeth grit. It was the distance. When connecting the spell to its other half, I hadn’t accounted for the fact that I was mixing them, treating them as a greater whole instead of as individual parts of one. 

I’d accidently multiplied the direction the spacial magic was supposed to send me in.

A small sigh left my mouth, and I got back to casting after fixing the error and making some minor modifications to keep it from collapsing in on itself.

Again I conjured the spell, but it struggled to fully manifest. So I pumped in more mana, only for it to glow brightly after wobbling a bit, and turning into a middle finger and fizzling out.

Taking a seat on the ground I stared up the vanishing middle finger. The spell didn’t have enough power to manifest, so why did it do so the first time? Was the distance between the magical equations the answer? 

But if I put too much distance, I’ll get crushed into paste!

Spell mana capacity is linked to many factors, one of them being the amount of spell formations used. Those little lines inside of a spell circle that run mana through themselves like wires. I needed more, but I needed less distance. I could make them thicker, but making any of them thicker required making all of them thicker.

That was way too much mana.

Turning back to the spell Faint Light in my head, I contemplated how that spell handled excess mana. It bended and weaved its own spell circle in order to accommodate it, before breaking apart. 

The problem was that it broke apart. If spacial magic broke apart while you were using it, there was a non zero chance you got ripped apart. I don’t think I would enjoy that . . .

Nonetheless the thought experiment got some ideas brewing. What if I use more spell formations in the form of a loop through the circle, acting as a kind of battery for the spell so it has enough mana to function, while still doing its intended purpose.

After a few minutes I once again conjured the spell, the mana drain was a bit more intense than the second time, but nowhere near the first. The mop head had nearly run dry of ink, but held strong for the moment.

The spell flickered into existence, slowly beginning to glow, but still holding strong.

Snagging another fragment of wood I tossed it in, the fragment vanishing into the glowing area causing me to smile.

Now the moment of truth. 

Surrounding my body in a veil of Mana Boost I dived through, only to spiral onto the floor of the Library again as I flopped out of the painting. My body was protected, and I quickly rolled up off the ground and brushed myself off in a single fluid motion.

Immediately channeling more Mana into my eyes I scanned the area for the book I’d fought earlier, before my eyes flicked downwards and I bolted forwards to avoid the tendril coming from the shadow beneath me.

Can’t I catch a break? I was sweating at this point, not just from the exertion, but being the heat while having to think really hard sucked!

I took a moment to catch my breath as the book floated from the darkness below, I’d almost beaten this thing before we were rudely interrupted. Though at the same time, it had almost killed me.

This thing loved darkness though, so I had a plan. Sending out earth mana I allowed it to rapidly coalesce, creating a wall of earth between myself and the book. Then, just past both sides of the wall I conjured faint light and overcharged it with the new battery-like formations I’d added on. It was a bit unstable as I’d jury rigged it, but the spell held for the moment, and the light it emitted was blinding.

My mana reinforced eyes straining as I heard sounded almost like a scream of agony come from past the wall. I moved closer to the wall, blocking the light from my view as I began to supplement it with mana, while also sending mana somewhere else in my body so my plan could take effect.

Then I smiled as I scaled the thing, the book appearing right in front of my eyes as it desperately flew up and away from the light coming beneath it. We were face to face, and I aimed a single finger straight at the angry piece of literature. 

Mana was already there, ready to be fired off, and fire it did. Gaia’s elemental mana had a bit of flame mixed into it, and the book learned that the hard way as a crackling sound broke from my hand and lit the thing on fire. 

It struggled and strained for about four seconds before letting out one final gasp, and collapsing the ground. Dead.

[Status]

Name: Emile Shemmer

Class: Wizard 4

STR: 13

DEX: 11

CON: 11

INT: 21

WIS: 15

CHR: 17

Skills:

• Mana Flux II

• Planetary Heartbeat III

• Mana Boost II

• Formulization II

Perks:

• Thought Castle

Equipment:

• Pure Jewel of Lead

• Walking With Birds

• Magic and How Not to Accidently Kill Yourself

• Mop of Cleaning

• Hermes Ichor

[Clear Enchanted Books 1/3] 

[Secret Objective Completed: Defeat the Painter’s Ink Well]

I had to do that two more times? I could do that, but it would be fairly annoying. My null mana was steadily decreasing, but I still had quite a bit of Gaia’s to spare. 

I could make this work, I just needed to find opponents who wouldn’t fold me in half like a paper back book.

Dammit, this place is such an amazing library. The vibes are perfect to sit down and read . . . it's a shame it's trying to kill me.

AN: It’s back courtesy of one very determined voter! Big thank you to Lucas White (if that even is your real name . . . ) on Patreon. Anyways, we will be getting back to the real world fairly soon as the plot slowly progresses along.

Feel free to drop comments and questions down below, I love to read them!

Thanks for reading and see you next time!