Chapter 18 Marbles

Adrian’s sleep was light. He woke up many times, hoping that the sun had come to push through the cracks of his door. There was nothing.

He couldn’t distinguish the sounds of his own movements in the bed with those of monsters scratching at the wooden entrance. Barricaded of course, just in case. He would know if they came, would wake up if they really tried to bite or claw their way through. The existence of the nightly terrors changed the whole prospect of sleep. He felt trapped in a way, in his own room, unwilling to light a lamp or make too much noise. With Yrenor he at least knew someone else was there.

Eyes focused on the top part of his bed as he stretched out his arm. Images of the undead he had killed that day flashed through his mind. Had they really all been people? Did Yrenor know them? Did some kind of zombie virus turn them all? Why did he unlock something called Shaping Glass Magic?

He turned to the other side, pushing away the blanket as he noticed himself getting too warm. A moment later he felt too cold. His hair itched and he could’ve used a bath. He questioned if coming back to life next to his tree cleaned him at all. He supposed it had to, considering the lack of blood on him. Light scars remained, marks of the experiences he had gone through.

Will I ever get used to this?

The question bothered him. Hadn’t he told himself he wouldn’t die? Just a few days ago? And yet it had happened again. He knew deep down that it hadn’t been the last time, not by a long shot. Dying over and over. Was he really still the same man? He found it hardly mattered. He was here now, thinking, fighting, learning. Everything of importance was carried over, except for his equipment, but he could just go back and gather it all up again.

I did get cut by glass a few times, he thought, thinking back on the early fights against the undead. He did also jump through a few windows, and he did kill an undead with a shard of glass coated in his own blood. Blood usually did things when it came to magic, in fiction that was. He wondered why he hadn’t unlocked fire magic, with all those times he had gotten burnt. That would’ve been useful, to set undead alight with the snap of his fingers.

He grinned a little, thinking of the priest or mage that had caused his current state of undress. The creature had conjured up an exploding ball of fire, just like that. What if he could do something similar? Not a ball of fire now, but a ball of glass instead, sent flying with only the power of his mind. The idea was certainly appealing. Something not reliant on blunt force or the use of steel. He could just hide behind his shield and throw around his magic.

Right now the skill only said shaping, but he had seen enough to know that there was more. There had to be. Just maybe not yet. With shaping, he could perhaps learn how to form and throw glass daggers, it really wasn’t like he had much else on his schedule but learning more about his circumstances and training his various abilities. And somehow it seemed more productive to him to master whatever magic was at his disposal than to train spear forms for the next ten years.

Yrenor would make him go out and fight undead of course, but he didn’t mind much. His death annoyed him more than anything. The experience was harrowing, but in a way, less so. Less than before. The same panic that had gripped him the first time wasn’t present. This time he just felt tired, defeated, one more step towards the end.

The undead had looked the same from behind, but at least he knew now that jewelry wasn’t the only thing to look out for. Out in an alley he could’ve at least ran away but of course the creature immediately trapped him. It was even more annoying that the incident had likely been an accident. A fireball aimed at him, so powerful it would block the exit.

And of course the window had been located that high up. Of course there were plenty of undead on the stairs below, let alone the fact that there had been stairs in the first place. An unfortunate course of events, made worse by his mistakes. But in the end, did it even matter? He came out on top, didn’t he? Magic, finally within his grasp, though he hadn’t even tested it yet. Maybe he would have to coat his hands in blood to make it work, or speak an arcane tongue he didn’t know.

The pain felt dull now, the memory mixing with all the times he had been bitten, stabbed, and burnt. He knew rationally how horrible it had been, lying there on the stairs, bleeding out as undead monsters tried to rip through his skin, his nerves screaming while many had been burned away entirely. But the only thing he could really focus on was the carnage. The dagger that had stabbed into the dog’s head, the wet sound when he had slammed the undead’s head into the stairs, the blood and guts flying around when the fireball had exploded.

Any normal human would’ve died long before, or at the very least passed out. He didn’t need a medical degree to understand that much. Vitality was a curse and blessing, truly. And yet he couldn’t find it in himself to regret it. At least he managed to take a few of the bastards down with him. And he hoped to whatever deity watched him struggle in this unknown land that they didn’t get to come back to life like he did.

Now that he potentially had magic at his disposal however, he could think about spending his level ups in other ways. More Intelligence or Wisdom, those usually being the magic related attributes in the games he had played. Luckily he wouldn’t have to sacrifice a level to test his ideas, having plenty of equipment to go through for testing.

He sat up in his bed finally, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to sleep. His questions kept his mind occupied but if he forced them away, he would find only monsters and death in their stead. Adrian glanced at the door and listened carefully.

He heard nothing. Either the creatures didn’t come to this section of the castle or perhaps they simply didn’t care about a place that had no light shining through the cracks. He certainly wasn’t about to go out onto the terrace.

The royal bedroom remained dark, fully so. Even with eyes adjusted to the night, he found it difficult to spot even the large furniture in the room. Luckily he had spent plenty of time sorting through gear and he had stored it all away to make sure he knew exactly where everything was. In an emergency, he would have to be equipped quickly after all.

He stood up and slowly made his way to the familiar chest of drawers, putting on underwear, pants, and a shirt. For now that would do, he wasn’t particularly cold after all.

Maybe that’s a part of Vitality too? Another question to add to the non existent list.

The piece he was most interested in stood on his small desk. An oil lamp. He wouldn’t risk setting it alight but what he was interested in wasn’t the lamp itself but the cover made of glass.

He grabbed the item and sat back down on his bed. “Please work,” he whispered, touching the glass top. Adrian tried to invoke some kind of effect with the power of his mind, much like he had sometimes tried to telekinetically move an object towards him when he was a kid, or a young adult, or an adult.

To his surprise, it actually worked. He could instantly feel some kind of connection form between his hands and the glass cover. The question was what he could actually do with that.

Last time he had managed to form a dagger of sorts, though his senses had been somewhat limited. Without the magic skill showing up in his inner sight, he might’ve deemed it a delirious delusion.

He decided that the broad and round shape of the cover wasn’t particularly useful and instead tried to somehow pool the glass into a sphere like shape within his hand. He felt something within himself pull and knew the glass responded. Not verbally or within his mind but in shape instead.

Adrian willed all the glass away from the lamp and into his right palm, forming a sphere with all the material he had gathered. The process had been taxing, on both his mind and body, but he sat in his bed with a stupid smile on his face regardless. The sphere remained a sphere, feeling smooth in his hands as he rolled it around.

He dropped it onto the mattress expecting it to suddenly spring back into its previous shape. The ball however remained, as if it had been shaped by a glass blower in the first place.

Adrian tried to move the ball towards himself without touching it but found the effort useless. He instead grabbed it again and laid down on his back, feeling the smooth surface as he forced the material to split. It slowly flowed into two, as if it was liquid, the glass sticking to his hands even when gravity should’ve pulled it down.

Ten seconds later he had two smaller spheres, one in each hand. Each stuck to his palms, his fingers stretched out. He felt himself tire more, a weird pressure forming in his mind as he felt the balls waver. Adrian grabbed them and stopped his magic, a part of the pressure remaining. He wasn’t breathing hard, nor did he have a headache, but something had happened.

He assumed it had to do with some form of resource that governed his ability to use this new soul skill of his. Fiction usually used either a certain number of spell slots or mana itself. To him it felt like the latter applied more. Either that or he had a few chances to use his ability in a deciding way before his slots ran out.

Trying to change the glass again only led to the pressure intensifying, a very real fatigue coming over him as he blinked his eyes a few times to try and focus. He felt sluggish and laid back with a confused smile. With this he could drain himself and sleep.

The fuzzy thought of when he could use his magic again floated at the back of his mind as he drifted off to sleep, two balls of glass clutched in his hands.

Adrian’s sleep was deep for the rest of the night, the man waking up with a cramp in his leg.

He winced and stretched it, something hard falling to the floor with a dull sound. One of the glass marbles he realized, the hazy memories of the previous night slowly coming back to him. He glanced to the door and found light finally pushing through the cracks.

Adrian sat up when the cramp subsided, rubbing his face as a dozen questions cropped up in his mind. The first thing he did was grab the marble, he felt the connection again and forced it into two smaller marbles once more. The glass did exactly as he demanded.

Magic is still there. And a night’s rest allows me to use it again at the very least, he thought and stood up. He had a few choices to make. Would he go back to Yrenor? Or would he stay here and focus on this newfound power?

Adrian was pretty sure the magic remained even if he died and came back. It wasn’t something he would willingly test but he would surely know soon enough. Yrenor however was a real human being. He wouldn’t necessarily take kindly to a continued absence after he had invited Adrian into his home. Or he wouldn’t teach him anymore.

As much as it annoyed him to admit it, the language was more important right now than most magic. Even if he could become a literal master of the elements, it wouldn’t answer the question of where he was and why he was here, let alone how he could go back.

He stood up and grabbed another pack, putting some more of the limited food he had gathered into it, adding the same supplies he had packed the last time.

Adrian grabbed the best gear he had available and got ready, closing the various straps with practiced ease. He noted that his fingers barely ached anymore, his body slowly getting used to the experience of wearing the rough leather armor and using medieval weaponry. One thing he was glad about was that these kinds of changes in addition to his workouts transitioned through to his next life. Otherwise he would always start painfully out of shape. Now he just started at an adequate level of being out of shape.

He quickly inspected the gear and looked into the mirror, another one of his oil lamps now lighting the room, the flame lazily moving within the protective glass shape.

Equipment:

Helmet – Faenhold Soldier Helmet [Adequate]

Vitality +2

Chest – Faenhold Soldier Leather Armor [High]

Vitality +2

Warrior Soul Skill Damage +1

Arms – Faenhold Soldier Bracers [Adequate]

Skill +2

Hands – Faenhold Soldier Gloves [Adequate]

Strength +1

Belt – Faenhold Soldier Belt [Adequate]

Vitality +2

Legs – Faenhold Soldier Pants [Adequate]

Strength +1

Boots – Faenhold Soldier Boots [Adequate]

Strength +1

1h Weapon – Faenhold Spear [Adequate]

Skill +2

Off hand – Wooden Shield [Adequate]

Vitality +1

Soulbound:

Essence – 98

Level – 6

Vitality – 16 [23]

Endurance – 10

Strength – 9 [12]

Skill – 8 [12]

Intelligence – 12

Wisdom – 11

Soul skill – Shaping Glass Magic – level 1

His attributes were nowhere near as good as they had been before, which made his first goal of finding his corpse even more important. He still trusted his ability to kill undead servants and soldiers but he would have to be more careful. Neither did he take another steel spear, knowing that Yrenor would just take it again anyway.

How much of that stuff is broken… shit.

He wasn’t sure if it would even be worth it, rushing through the town and finding the exact spot of his death but in the end he still deemed it important, if only to make sure the gear really wasn’t usable anymore. It had been the best he had found from all the soldiers he had killed. It would be a shame if it went to waste.

Adrian grabbed his pack and spear before he removed the barricade, checking one more if there were any monsters waiting behind the door. He moved on to do a few warm up exercises out on the terrace, taking in the marvelous view that had surely belonged to some powerful king or queen, perhaps even an empress.

Now it was his view, one he wanted to leave behind as fast as possible. He grinned at the thought, an easy way back to his apartment and bed turning more into wishful thinking with every passing day in this undead infested castle.

He reminded himself that he didn’t even speak the language yet. Answers could potentially be found in the very books he had found already, sitting uselessly in the office next to his room. Or they could be shared by none other than the one creature he had met so far that didn’t try to kill him. Yet.

And so he left, spear and shield at the ready as he navigated through the city streets. Adrian found that the undead had moved around, alleys he had cleared before now occupied once more. The corpses were still there however, and wherever he had killed a group, no other had taken their place. Just stragglers here and there, easily taken out with decisive thrusts.

This time he managed to reach the lower levels of the town much faster, with no fire magic incidents. A blessing really. What took him another hour afterwards was retracting his steps to find his corpse. Especially reaching the alley next to the chapel proved difficult, more so because he tried very hard not to alert the magic priest within.

When Adrian finally found the stairs, he simply stood there for a while. His thoughts blanketed out for a moment before he cursed to himself. Everything was gone.

The undead were gone. Even the dog. But more importantly, his body was gone too.

He questioned if he had come to the wrong spot but the broken window visible up in the chapel and the dried blood on the stairs painted an unquestionable picture. Adrian could think of only one being that would take away both his body and those of the undead.

Shouldn’t have screamed.

Soulbound:

Essence – 138

Level – 6

Vitality – 16 [23]

Endurance – 10

Strength – 9 [12]

Skill – 8 [12]

Intelligence – 12

Wisdom – 11

Soul skill – Shaping Glass Magic – level 1

Equipment:

Helmet – Faenhold Soldier Helmet [Adequate]

Vitality +2

Chest – Faenhold Soldier Leather Armor [High]

Vitality +2

Warrior Soul Skill Damage +1

Arms – Faenhold Soldier Bracers [Adequate]

Skill +2

Hands – Faenhold Soldier Gloves [Adequate]

Strength +1

Belt – Faenhold Soldier Belt [Adequate]

Vitality +2

Legs – Faenhold Soldier Pants [Adequate]

Strength +1

Boots – Faenhold Soldier Boots [Adequate]

Strength +1

1h Weapon – Faenhold Spear [Adequate]

Skill +2

Off hand – Wooden Shield [Adequate]

Vitality +1