Night seemed to come a lot quicker than Mara had been expecting, but it wasn't like she wasn't watching the wobbly sun shimmer it's way from dim to dimmer all day, and so by the time it was actually properly dark, she'd already found her refuge for the night and had set about making herself at home amongst some of the largest branches of an overly engorged tree sporting a dark red bark, the same kind of tree that had saved her life nearly a month prior. It was a gamble, but short of facing her hounds from hell flat footed, it seemed to be her only option and it would at least buy her the height advantage to… try some things.

She'd spent most of her walk doing precisely what she had set out to do, or at least poked around the task itself. As simple as it was on paper to impart a will into a sigil, it was quite another thing in practice. It was like remembering a memory in crisp detail from a perspective that wasn't innately human. Like the feeling of flint being struck? How the hell does someone come up with that 'memory' of sorts? To say the answers had alluded her would be putting it mildly, over the entire course of the day, she'd practically made no headway at all. However, what she had done was practice. That much she figured she could do. And practice always pays dividends, just maybe not directly. Sure, it still took her a few minutes of prep, but she was seeing those dividends. At this point she could charge and maintain two of her little flint-lock based 'land-mines' for a good twelve minutes and forty-six seconds, at least according to her last test run. It was a feat she was rather proud of after initially realizing, much to her chagrin, that her little marks didn't 'hold a charge' in nearly the same way that the trap runes did.

It had taken her some trial and error, but at this point Mara was fairly sure that she not only had to monitor the amount of mana she was holding in each mark, but also modulate it, keeping it in suspension like soda in a straw with her thumb over one end. But lacking a better analogy, it was like she was using her toes, not her fingers. The level of magical fidelity necessary to hold more than two steady was simply beyond her, even if Mark could manage to do three. So in her book, maintaining two for over a dozen minutes was already an impressive achievement, but, if the situation called for it, Mara had tested keeping just one going for as long as possible, and her best record so far was about forty minutes– But anything more than that and the mana strain started to become a bit too much, like anaerobic exercise taken to the extreme.

So as the night grew dark, and the distant howling grew closer, Mara shifted her perch to a better vantage point and started to warm up her palms with the light of two triangular symbols, each shifting from a dull grey to a warm orange as she started the gentle ramp up of mana she'd found was necessary to help hold their charge. And by time the howling was nearly on top of her, Mara tossed the two sigils out onto the ground beneath her and stifled her breathing. Her plan was solid, it was down to her execution, and so the time for silence and patience was upon her.

Thankfully, it didn't take long before the howlings grew quiet, only to be replaced by the subtle shifting of shadows in the dark, it was a curious noise, like a backwards breeze. As the first shadow of several shadows bulged its way into the corporeal realm, Mara felt her breath catch in her throat as the strain on her mana began to grow. But unwilling to fire too early, she held back when the first stepped over one of her little surprises. And almost immediately after she was glad she did, as two more shadows emerged from the dark, trailing after the first with noses to the ground. Watching them spread out beneath her, Mara was beyond tempted, but something held her in check. Maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe it was a feeling, but something felt like it was whispering in her ear, "wait for it… wait for it…" and after what felt like an eternity, the largest shadow she'd ever seen practically -sauntered- into view.

Mara was glad she felt like she just swallowed her tongue, it helped her quell the involuntary gulp as the monolithic beast of a thing gave off an air of foreboding so strong she could practically taste it. Actually, wait, yeah I am tasting that, thanks mana horns, what is that flavor anyway? Uh… stale… formaldehyde? Maybe? Eugh– Vile if nothing else.

Finding herself a little more than distracted trying not to think about the flavor that was swimming through her head, it took Mara more than a moment to register that 'big chonga' had just strolled on in and sat down right beneath her perch as if he owned the place. Mara didn't know whether to laugh or cry, not that she could risk doing either, because for all it's blithering might, the thing could not have found a worse place to sit. Basically, curled up as it was, one sigil was under one cheek, and one was under the other. Neither were anywhere near each other, but the damned thing was just massive enough to stretch between the two sigils Mara had tried to place far enough apart to get good coverage of the area she thought they'd investigate the most. So, still unable to believe the roller coaster of luck she'd found herself in, Mara waited until the other three wolves encircled ever closer to the large-and-in-charge beast of a boss, and the slowly ticking time bombs she had waiting for their arrival.

Minute by minute, Mara counted silently in her head, barely breathing through her nose as the miniscule runts slowly encircled her tree, each confirming one by one amongst themselves that for some inexplicable reason the strongest scent they could find was somehow -beneath- the big wolf. And it was at this point, with all the little ones now quite sufficiently within the 'splash zone' of her sigils, Mara popped the lid and let go of the proverbial chains that had been holding back a tidal wave of magical fury she'd been saving up for a certain pair of assholes. But seeing the big one, easily four times the size of either of those alphas? Like hell she was letting that one off easy.

*KRA-KA-KA-KBABABOOOMOOM*

In one an instant, one glorious, stupendously bright and blinding instant, Mara saw only a fraction of what she had done to the obelisk, but it was far more than she'd tried since, and Mara knew that it was, without a doubt, one of the most beautifully satisfying things she'd ever see. A colossal blast that could easily engulf a few cars at once ripped through the clearing beneath the canopy, taking everything in it's maw with it.

First there was a big thing, and there were small thongs, and then there weren't. But it was that glorious moment in-between that was oh so worth it. A bright orange ball, thankfully far enough from the tree, just ballooning up around the shadowy horrors, and then , almost as quickly as the image burned itself into her retinas, everything went black. Mara's eyes literally burning out from the intense heat and incredibly blinding light.

Suddenly finding herself blind, Mara didn't scream, or panic, or really respond much at all, besides a small grin slowly creeping across her mug. Mara knew that she'd be fine. She had skills like Bio to rely on, and at this point there didn't even seem to be a lick of pain, that was the real kicker. The trivial nature of such a major trauma and critical disability, suddenly relegated to a status effect, was frankly disgusting, but it's also oh-so useful.

So silently thanking her ever growing repertoire of magical bullshit, Mara neither felt pain nor concern as the warm scent of a mid-summer's barbeque wafted through her senses, dispersing what little remained of the stale-formaldehyde stench that had just been so pungently present. It might have been the aftermath of her own eyes she was smelling, among other things, but it was still a damn sight better than the shadows' vile odor.

I wonder why they smelled like that though, was that their magic? And what even was that thing, did I get a kill notification DB? Mara barely had to ask before her 'phone' began it's buzzing from her back pocket, before suddenly coming to a stop. Realizing half-way through the motions to reach for Debug's little panel it had left her, Mara realized why. She couldn't actually read anything at the moment, her eyes were a little more than unavailable. Which, tangentially, left Mara at a bit of an impasse.

Figuring Debug had realized the same thing, hence the buzzing cut short, Mara shrugged. Whatever interesting tidbits Debug had to share, they'd have to wait, just like everything else at the moment, as she was unquestionably blind and a good ways out on one of the many branches far, far above the unforgiving ground. So trying to get comfortable where she was, because there was about snowball's chance in hell her blind ass was scooting itself all the way back to the trunk, Mara figured she could at least try to get some sleep.

So after patiently listening for over ten minutes, Mara eventually had to conceded that there was very little chance that there was anything left alive far beneath her, and no more wolves had shown up to investigate. So swinging her legs up onto the branch, Mara did her best to settle in on the half-meter wide branch for the night. She had a lot on her mind still, but eventually managed to find the sweet relief of sleep with the reassuring hope that Bio would have her eyes back in proper working order come morning.

∆ ∆ ∆

Mara wasn't actually sure when she had drifted off to sleep, or if she had at all, but by the time the sky started to brighten, she realized she could actually -see- the sky starting to brighten. At some point during the night Bio had fixed her eyesight, but exhaustion or not, she'd only just noticed. Well damn, I guess I was stuck up here until morning anyways but… Thanks Bio, you really are turning out to be quite handy–

"Pfft–" Mara practically blew a gasket in laughter. What a surprise, a self-healing skill is 'handy', gee wizz Mara, what's next, magic has uses? A real fountain of choice wisdom there, Chrysippus.

Rolling her freshly healed eyes as she stretched the kinks out of her spine, Mara took a moment to survey the aftermath of her pair of sigils. You know, for starting out as a simple spark, those things really do leave some massive craters.

Far below the perch she'd spent the night in, an unmistakable, if a little misshapen, oval had been gouged out of the ground, the culmination of her combination blast. There wasn't even a speck of the shadowy giant left, and neither head nor hair of it's little ones either.

Considering there isn't a lick of movement in sight or earshot, and the sun's now well and truly brightening the horizon, or hemisphere I guess, I suppose it's safe. Shrugging to herself, Mara slinked her way down the meandering branches she'd climbed up the night before, retracing her steps until her feet once again felt the comfort of solid ground. However easy she'd made it look though, spending yet another night precariously balanced on a tree trunk had illuminated another potential issue she'd have to counter. Fall damage.

Hm. Falling is an interesting problem, it's a quick killer but there's plenty of fictional fantasy solves for it…

Doing one last glance around the perimeter, and still finding nothing, Mara had to concede she wasn't likely to see much of anything left over of shadow creatures after a blast that bright. So, double checking her route from yesterday for her heading, Mara set off and let her mind wander.

…Not that I could equate anything tangible into the 'will' of a sigil, but at least thinking abstractly, I could do something that dulls sharp impacts, like a pillow shield of sorts– Though, I think since there's a quantity of mana to a sigil, there's liable to be a limit to the force one could stop. Plus, the 'will' or whatever, that memory, that's a whole other enigma. I almost feel like I'm asking a genie to cast a wish, but the genie, being a genie, demands the wish be phrased in the form of a painting made out of feelings, and god knows how that goes.

Chuckling and rolling her eyes as she walked, Mara summoned a flat circular mark about the size of coin to fidget with and set her sights back on the survival bit of this game she found herself playing. She knew she needed food, water, and shelter, and while the abundance of wild berries combined with Bio's ability to fix enough to offset eating just about anything, it still left her with an unsolved need for freshwater and a safe place to sleep.

A.k.a. find a river… or a town, or at least like a travelers inn. I mean, that crash site was super old, and they knew about a town some ways out all the way back then, maybe there's– Mara stumbled for a moment as she realized where she was.

Whoops, right– It's a dungeon, even if its not egregiously brimming with monsters, it does have a nasty night terror problem, and the lack of daytime critters is more than a little off putting, but… Mara glanced up to see the dozen or some behemoths of creatures flying far above. Maybe fantasy humans have different standards, or maybe elves might live out here?

Shrugging to herself, Mara snatched up her flip flops and set off at a jog under the comfortably shady canopy, the forest around her spreading wide and far. Every now and then she'd spot some berries and stop to pluck a few before setting out again. She had a personal goal to find some of the yellow berries again, but so far everything she'd come across was anything but.

Most of her day went by without much change in pace, she'd do a good bit of jogging, spot a berry bush, stop for a few minutes to fill her face, then she'd be back at it. It was a long day of endurance jogging, she thought for sure she'd slow down at least after a few hours, but before she knew it, the sky was already growing dim and she'd long since lost track of how far she'd gone.

Knowing she only had an hour or so before night was upon her, Mara brought herself to a walking stop and started scouting the trees for a decent branch to sleep on. However it was only now that Mara noticed the trees had been changing as she traveled.

Gone were the big trees with their meaty branches, in their place were thick meter wide columns of a burgundy bark that stretched up high, and most of their branches were thin, wide, and far out of reach. Shit.

Swirling around, Mara started to feel herself panic as she looked from burgundy to burgundy, nearly every tree around her was either a twig or a giant, there wasn't a single bit of refuge to be found.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, how many fucks could a wood fuck fuck if a wood fuck could fuck– "GOD DAMNIT." Mara bellowed, she was freezing up, like a deer in the headlights. The paralyzing fear, she hated it. Loathed it. Okay, two options, fight or flight. They're fucking fast, both are shit options. Fuck. Um, okay. Fight. Maybe? I can't outrun them, so… Right, I have to fight.

Spinning around, Mara switched to looking for a good spot to fight from, or a good ambush spot. She knew it would be tricky, at most she was going to get two good trap mines in, but if there were more of them than she could handle, or if there's alphas, Mara knew she'd be caught on the backfoot.

Sighting a cluster of trees that were at least somewhat closer together than most, Mara checked her bearings and pulled out a triangular mark in either palm, her mana already brushing up against the vessels, almost eager to fill them. Noticing the feeling, Mara had to admit there was some part of her that was looking forward to a little payback.

Sure, Mara knew she was getting into a knife fight with hand grenades, and it wasn't the smartest play from that point of view, but circumstances being what they were, something was dying tonight, and even the possibility of it being the wolves got her blood pumping. Or it was the fight or flight adrenaline high she was currently riding on, but either way she was equal parts terrified and excited, and the look in her eyes was maybe a little more deranged than it should have been.

*Ow-oww– Owoooo*

The howl rolled in from high up the hill, and so, so far away. But there was something about it, like the call of a particular board game, that almost felt rigged. Triggered. Like the dungeon had spawned them in, specifically for her. She knew they were coming, and from where.

Trying not to lose focus, Mara pushed her distracting thoughts about the dungeon itself out of her mind and set her sights on her predators and her prey.

It didn't take them long, but by the time the howling had grown near, Mara was past the point of counting seconds, she was just waiting, silently, steadily. Her palms were empty, she was ready to dodge at any moment, her eyes whipping from shadow to shadow, watching, waiting.

Mara saw the first shadow shift a dozen trees away, a small one emerging from the darkness, then two more followed it from neighboring shadows. Can they not share shadow travel? Noticing the consistent discrepancy, Mara made a mental note but kept her eyes peeled for any others, and it was only then that she noticed the big one not four trees away. An alpha. Shit.

The specter of death was harrowing, paralyzing even, it looked identical to the alpha's that had ambushed her, but it wasn't approaching. It was… standing there… menacingly. Almost taunting her by its presence alone.

Oh– Shit! Realizing what it was doing, probably a little too late, Mara spun on the spot to check her flanks when the sigil on her right self-detonated.

*K-KA-BOOOOOM*

Curling up for cover as the orange fireball to her right illuminated the surrounding woods, Mara confirmed there were only four other wolves left.

The largest one, the alpha that had played as the distraction, seemed to blink for a moment in the sudden flash of light, until it seemed to register what had just happened. The two trees next to the small crater of earth were charred and burning, a hole carved in space where there was once the other alpha. The blast had vaporized it in an instant.

It couldn't stop the gurural growl, it didn't want to, the wood chipper of a noise echoed through the forest and Mara knew without a doubt she'd done more than just piss the thing off. Beneath the chest thumping rumble, three yips sounded off in the distance, liable to be the other three scampering, leaving just Mara and a really really really ticked off high-speed garbage disposal.

The pair stood only a few trees apart, Mara's other sigil was to her left and completely useless. I'll have to burst and throw another, catch it mid-leap so it can't dodge. Mara readied herself as the alpha stared daggers into her like they were physical things, nearly as sharp as it's teeth which were all to visible by that point. God this is stupid, I'm gonna die. I'm so, so gonna die.

The gurural growling that seemed to shake the air itself roared, like a hellcat on a drag strip, and the thing practically teleported into Mara's face. It was suddenly so, so close, Mara barely had time to flinch. She just struck her arm out, sigil and all, like she was punching the thing, and just tapped her mana 'button'.

The burst was quick, the blast was bright, and the wolf never hit. All of the sudden it was dark and quiet once more, save for a half dozen fleshy splats from the surrounding trees as bits of the alpha made themselves scarce.

I… I… I did… More than a little dazed, Mara heaved a sigh of relief as she confirmed that the other three had indeed left when the alpha lost it. "Ho– Ho– Hoooly shit." The words came out between quick and heavy breaths. "I did it. I fucking did it. I survived. I'm alive." Both the elation and the relief were near immediate, she hadn't expected to survive at all, but it wasn't like dying was going to stop her any-more, but that didn't make the situation any less terrifying. But she'd done it. She'd actually fought something. And won.

Well, I'll be damned. I guess all I really need to get into the whole shonen thing is a safety net of sorts. Maybe that's just what anyone would need. Again- is this some sort of game tutorial? Like, that howl was so uncannily timed, I swear if I found out there's some sort of clockwork-esk bullshit to this dungeon I'm gonna wreck it. Glancing down as she felt her pulse lighten, Mara let her eyes adjust until they could finally make out what remained of her arm. Wait– what?

Blinking more than once to make sure she wasn't imagining it, Mara realized her arm just sort of… stopped, just above the elbow. It wasn't bleeding at all, in fact, most of the skin around the area seemed practically cauterized by the blast, but for the amount of damage, not a single bit of it hurt, hence the surprise. Um… Debug, what the hell? Why doesn't this hurt? Like, this -should- hurt, right?

Almost as soon as she asked, she felt a half familiar, half unfamiliar buzz emanating from her back pocket and Mara immediately remembered that she'd left Debug in 'phone mode' all night and all day. "Oh fuck, Debug–" Quickly fumble-fishing the dim grey panel from her back right pocket with her still-intact left hand, Mara incensintely muttered her apologies until she could finally read its messages.

<<

Debug:

● Oh, ohh, nooow she remembers– Ha-ha, joking of course, if it really mattered you would have noticed by now so no need to panic or anything. Your arm's probably fine given a few hours, Bio's already hard at work to grow the whole thing back, but to satiate your curiosity, you're not feeling it because it turns out the hidden effect of your new title 'The Ghoul In The Pit' - which claims to physically numb you to an extremity's pain once it's fully 'broken', basically blunting the extremes. You're welcome for that by the way, I switched it to your active skill just before you nuked yourself again, call it a hunch.

● And to answer your other burning question, there actually is a hidden effect to 'Heir Presumptive', but being a hidden effect, I can't figure out what it is until it actually takes effect, even if I were to switch it to your active title, hence 'hidden'. It's annoying, but usually the effects aren't far off from the name, or at least that's my rudimentary understanding of them.

● Also, since your unique Runie class is locked with a zero experience pool for the moment, still dependent on your completion of that Hexadex lore, I've just been funneling all your combat experience into Mark and Bio, which are now on their fifth and fourth tiers respectively. To note, Mark V brings you up to five sigils now, not that you seem to be able to use more than two at once. But, not to detract from your accomplishments with just two, those alphas certainly had it coming.

>>

So 'The Ghoul In The Pit' basically lets me 'zombie it up' as need be? Huh. That's not actually that bad, as long as I don't look like an actual zombie… Note to self, check reflection in the next river– But I guess that really is better as my active title instead of 'First True Demon Queen', regardless of who's asking– And yes -mom-, thank you for leveling up Mark again, I swear I'll stop just using 'auto-blast' for all my sigils. I've just gotta, you know, figure out what I'm doing first.

Tucking her little chat room back in her hoodie pocket this time for easier access by her remaining arm, Mara held up her stump of a bicep to inspect what she'd left herself with. Much to her astonishment, she could actually see scabs actively growing across nearly all the burnt skin already, and not even a lick of it hurt. I guess the skin's burns were serious enough to count that area as 'broken'... What a weird but useful effect– Does this mean I'm basically immune to things now? Like, I can't die, and I can't be hurt too much, and I'm constantly healing. I mean, that's… Am I cheating?

With a mile long gaze that spoke volumes at how disheveled Mara suddenly felt, she had to wonder what it all meant. Sure she'd woken up in a fantasy world, but it seemed real enough. And sure, there were skills, along with a system for them, but it never really stopped feeling real. But there really wasn't a rational explanation for how she'd somehow ended up with the 'buddha' cheat code. This all feels real, the trees are solid, the air is crisp, but… it can't be. Right?

Letting her stump of an arm drop to her side, Mara scrutinized what she could in the dim light. The small embers and flickering false candlelight of her initial blase nibbled away at the unending bark of both nearby trees in a completely believable and realistic manner. The canopy far above swayed in the wind in such a way that would make any GPU weep. Above them, the darkened streaks and splotches of a somewhat cloudy sky dared her to call it's fidelity false. Everything was as real as real life had ever been, but that still failed to settle the tension building within her.

Maybe there is something more rational to all this… It's a fantasy world, so- 'realistically' -gods, patrons, and full on destiny are fair game– Wait, isn't there a 'Fate' stat? Debug, I know you said you couldn't define it, but is there– She didn't even have to fully ask the question, Debug was already buzzing away in her pocket, and she knew without a doubt she'd nailed it.

<<

Debug:

● Ding ding ding! We have a winner! –Or at least you were close enough for me to register it as self-discovered and get the 'verbatim' definition.

● Fate: 16

○ The 'weight' of your influence on the events outside of your control.

>>

Oh! Well that's… That's actually a really broad definition, I suppose luck would fall under that, is sixteen high then? I guess not counting my stupidly high mana stat, it is the largest by a few points, everything else was like twelve or lower if I remember right… Huh, I guess sixteen is actually kind of high– but again, how do you correlate something like that into a number? Stats are fucking weird.

Shuffling into a neighboring clearing of trees to find a trunk further from the stench of singed fur and flesh, Mara slouched down beneath one of the monolithic burgundy tree trunks already feeling more than a bit exhausted as the adrenaline rush began to wane. Glancing down at her arm once more, she could see it was already starting to swell around the nub she'd left herself with. Ah, right, I guess that'd be Bio's mana drain sucking me dry, which is fair enough, it is a -whole- arm…

Heaving a heavy sigh, Mara let her head fall back to knock against the trunk, eyes on the wobbly eclipse of a sun high in the sky, already starting to feel the lull of blissfully unconscious after a full day of jogging capped by blowing her arm off in her first real magical fight.

Well… fuck it, there's not a single tree to climb, and if more wolves show up while I'm out, I guess I'll just die. They were quick enough last time, maybe I can just sleep through getting eaten if I have the Ghoul title active. Heh… what a thought…

Mara curled up around her slowly regrowing limb, already feeling the metaphorical plug getting pulled from the socket. I mean… the worst part would be walking back… fuck, I can do that allll day... come at me you… shadowfucks… And then Mara collapsed, slumping down against the base of the tree with a bit of light snoring as she dreamed of brutal victory over her nightmarish tormentors.