My desperate dive plunges me deep into the darkness of the burrow until I hit the ground hard and start rolling down a steep incline. I tumble tail over teakettle over and over until with a bone jarring crash I slam into a wall. For a few minutes I just lay there trying to catch my breath and waiting for my eyes to adjust.

As the darkness recedes slightly and my night vision kicks in, I get a view of a long stone tunnel leading deeper into the earth. The walls are smooth, and I can make out my reflection in the glassy surface.

What the hell is this place? At first, I thought it was just some small burrow but now it seems more like a cave. These walls also don’t seem natural. Nothing either I or my classes know about could make something like this. For the walls to be this smooth and to have no signs of any digging it couldn’t have been created by any type of beast. So, if no beast created this place then who did?

Faint flashes of light and the muffled cracking of thunder echo down the tunnel behind me. Hmmm the storm doesn’t seem to be letting up at all. It’s too dangerous to be outside right now so I guess I should explore this area while I wait for it to pass.

All my senses on high alert I start making my way deeper into the cave. The sounds of the storm slowly fade into silence as I walk further now accompanied only by my hazy reflections and the soft sounds of my breathing.

Things in the tunnel change so slowly that I almost fail to notice. I thought I had been going in a straight line, but the walls have a gentle curve to them indicating that the tunnel is actually forming a large spiral descending into the earth. Also, I had thought my night vision was getting better but at this point I should be in absolute darkness. Looking around more intently I can see that the walls have changed. Still possessing their strange glassy quality, they are no longer reflective and are emitting a faint light casting the world in shades of grey.

Curious I reach out and run a hand over one of them. It feels just like I would expect it to. There is no texture to it and the light produces no form of heat or magical energy that I am able to detect. There isn’t even a trace of some kind of bio-luminescent organism to explain why the walls are glowing. Strange. If it isn’t heat, magic, or life that makes it glow what is it.

Studying the walls closely yields no results so with a shrug I turn away and continue making my way deeper. Rather than just walking straight ahead I keep my focus on the walls this time. Due to the extra focus I am putting to the task I notice almost immediately when things change.

The walls are no longer blank. The first thing to appear on them seem to be nothing more than small dots, almost as if the wall had been chipped. Running my hand over the markings disproves this as even in the places where the dots exist the wall remains perfectly smooth. Further down the tunnel the dots become more numerous and are eventually joined by a series of wavy lines. The lines give me pause because the way that they seem to flow tingles at the back of my mind.

Why do I feel like I should know what you mean? For a long time, I just stare at the lines following their flow. At first, I thought it might be like the flowing of the wind but that isn’t quite right. Then it hits me, “Mana.” I whisper. In the silence of the cave my voice echoes coming back to me a dozen different times. No, it’s not just the flowing of mana it’s the flowing of pure mana.

Now that I am able to recognize what it is I try to trace the patterns and figure out what it is being used for. I look at it straight on, from the side, and tilt my head until it is almost upside down but still can’t see the mana actually forming anything. It seems to be just drifting. Is it just floating there in some kind of void, or is it flowing somewhere?

Needing to find answers I follow the flowing lines further on until the next images make me stop. All of the mana lines flow up to a tall figure then wrap around it. What can only be a person wearing a long robe stands with a single arm outstretched. The lines of mana crawl up its legs disappearing into the robe and reemerging along the arm before vanishing. The figure’s hood is thrown back, but its face is blank. Where there should be a face there is nothing but smooth empty space.

Who are you and why are you the first thing to appear in this depicted void apart from mana? The whole thing is starting to feel strange and only questions are coming from looking at the walls, while answers feel just out of reach.

Past the strange figure the wall changes yet again. No more than a pace past its outstretched hand the smooth glassy surface is interrupted by ripples. The wall seems to turn to almost a thick liquid that has had a stone tossed into it. Reaching out to touch the new surface I yet again find it perfectly smooth despite my mind shouting that it can’t possibly be. Just beyond this point the wall once again becomes perfectly smooth.

A little further down the empty dotted void crossed by lines of mana is interrupted by a large empty sphere. At first, I had thought it was only a circle but it had a level of depth to it that mad it something more. The lines of mana twine around it and the dots seem to have been pushed out of the way. They group up tightly along its boarder before spreading out again.

Past this strange sight is the same sphere repeated but this time it’s not empty. Inside the first sphere rests another one. The smaller sphere seems to be solid and covered in something I can’t make out whereas the first sphere was empty.

Hmmm I wonder what this all means. It seems to be something important but I cant make heads or tails of it.

I move to look at the next part of the series of images but instead find myself looking into a small circular chamber that contains something very, very strange. In the center of the chamber is a floating ball of earth. If it were just floating there it might not have been so weird but this ball is off the deep end levels of weird. As it floats the ball seems to flow like a liquid. It twists in and out of itself. It grows and shrinks in size. The thing never stops moving, but it never moves in any way that seems natural.

What the –

My thoughts are cut short by the ringing of notifications and the appearance of a large orange box.

Anomaly Detected!

When the ancients built this world, they used fantastic powers. Most of these have been either lost to history or are now nothing more than rumor. You have stumbled across an anomaly, a left-over fragment of their power. Its secrets are yours for the taking… If you manage to understand them.

Reading this almost everything I had seen in the tunnel starts to make sense. The tall figure must have been one of these ancients. If that’s the case, then the strange ripples and the spheres that came after it must have been the magic used to create this world. What kind of magic could do that though?

With some questions answered and a thousand more taking their place I cautiously enter the chamber with the strange floating ball. I don’t want to give up to opportunity to learn from this but just looking at the ball makes my skin crawl. Still moving cautiously, I approach to within one me distance of the ball before taking a seat.

Remembering how I had learned to use magic from the wind I cautiously extend a tendril of pure man towards the ball. The instant it makes contact it is sucked into the twisting unnatural flow. Trying to follow it makes my head spin and I almost throw up. Fighting the urge, I focus more and more on trying to follow the flow of mana.

Strangely my mana doesn’t change its attribute like id does when touching the elements, instead remaining in its pure form. Stranger still after following the mana for several minutes I realize that there are actually two forces acting within the ball. One of the forces is causing the strange twisting while the other is causing the expansion and contraction.

Deciding to study the latter of these first I subtly nudge my mana out of the strange twisting flow and focus it entirely on the other. It takes several tries but as soon as I get my mana entirely into just one of the forces my head clears.

Uhhg no wonder the flow was so confusing and disorienting. I was trying to map out different pieces to two separate magics. Now time to figure out what you do.

The magic is strange to say the least. It flows in a sphere around the ball never quite touching it. The effect it has seems to make everything inside its influence flow either towards or away from a single point. This is what causes the ball to seemingly expand and contract. The force with which everything is drawn towards or repelled from the point also changes. Despite having effects that I have trouble understanding the magic seems rather simple.

To use it a small field is created and then the density of that field or point is changed to determine how much force is applied. The direction things are pushed or pulled is changed by simply inverting the flow of the field. After learning as much as I can from the field and memorizing the correct flows of mana, I disconnect from it and move my entire focus into the second magic.

The effects of this magic are just as strange if not more so than the first one. The mana seems to flow into a single point and then somehow expand the area inside of that point without actually changing its size. I stare completely baffled by the sheer impossibility of the action taking place before my eyes. It should not be possible for a space to exist inside of another space without changing the initial space at all, but somehow it is.

Confused, excited and terrified by the strange power of this spell I dive into studying it. As the mana concentrates into a single point, I add my tendril in to see what happens. The mana seems to twist forming a ring around the point that holds it in place. It then flows through the ring and into the point causing it to expand while the ring on the outside keeps it from outwardly changing. Inside the newly opened space the mana quickly dispersed to form into what seem like branches of a tree. These branches for supports to hold the space open and keep it from collapsing back in on itself.

This one takes me a while to preform as it involves preforming two simultaneous actions in perfect harmony. One action to create and hold the ring, the other to enlarge and support the newly created space. The amount of mana and concentration increases exponentially with the size of the space created. After memorizing how to create the spaces and preforming the action several time I judge that I have learned all I can and disconnect from the anomaly.

As soon as I am disconnected, I am hit with several notifications all at once.

Congratulations you have learned Spatial Magic!

Space is everything and everything is space. Make something take up more of it or make something take up less. You can make two spaces the same space or create space inside of space, the possibilities are numerous! Do try not to get lost in the space between spaces!

Congratulations you have learned Gravity Magic!

Gravity is the force that brings things together. It keeps planets orbiting the sun and keeps your feet on the ground. With control over gravity you can change how its pull affects the world. You could make something heavier, or lighter. You could make gravity push or pull in different directions. The only limit is your imagination. Try not to crush yourself!

Quest Alert: Footsteps of the ancients!

You have taken the first steps along a long and forgotten road. The ancients built this world and in doing so left pieces of their power scattered throughout it. Track down these long-forgotten pieces of knowledge.

Reward: ??????

New living enchantment available!

As the notifications show up the spinning and twisting of the ball slows. It comes to a complete stop now just hanging in the air, and then it crumbles into dust leaving nothing behind.

Boy am I glad that I was able to learn these skills in a single go. I would hate to have only gotten partway through and then lost the only thing that could teach me. These powers though. The description of gravity magic is quite intriguing. The ability to make things lighter or heavier is cool but I can also make gravity flow to or from a point. I wonder if I can use that as a weapon. I will have to try it later, far away from my body, very far. Now the description of space magic on the other hand almost founds like complete nonsense! The only part of it that I was able to understand was the one about making space inside of other space. I bet I could use that to make some way of carrying things without hindering my movements. Now the part about making two spaces one space, what the hell is that supposed to mean? I guess that I will just have to do some- Wait! Did that notification say that I could get a new living enchantment? Those things are amazing! I have to see what it is.

All thoughts of space nonsense are flung to the back of my mind as I quickly pull up the menu for my living enchantments. Upon seeing what it is I eagerly accept.

I moan loudly as the familiar feeling of ecstasy flows out of my soul lock. The feeling snakes its way down my chest and stomach before wrapping around my waist. After a few minutes the feeling fades and I am left with a brand-new tattoo. A belt made of small interconnecting spirals wraps around my waist. Over my left hip the spirals break to flow around an empty disk the size of my palm.

New Living enchantment acquired – Spatial Belt!

Spatial Belt – Drawing from your understanding of Spatial Magic this belt allows you to store items in an extradimensional space. Drawing from your understanding of gravity magic the weight of items stored is reduced by 50%. Increase your understanding of Spatial and Gravity Magic to gain new or larger storage slots and increase the weight reduction.

“This. Is. Awesome!” I let out an excited squeal and start skipping back up the tunnel eager to start doing some experiments.