Aaron trudged through the soaking rain back towards the storage room they had unofficially made their base of operations. The journey was arduous. The constant earthquakes had cracked the ground, and the heavy rain had turned the dirt into mud. With each step, he would sink an inch or two into the ground, slowing his progress. Additionally, he was exhausted; running away from the imps had been more tiring than he had predicted. His body ached in places that he didn't even know where possible. All things considered, walking in the rain was miserable.

The only bright side of the situation was that he had gained enough skill points to complete the Minor Metamagic path. He opened his skill path screen.

Skill Paths: 5 Speed 1 (0/5): The need for speed is a basic one. Moderately increases Mana Bolt’s speed. Barrage 1 (0/5): Two is better than one. For an increased mana cost, send out multiple mana bolts at once. Minor Metamagic 1 (8/10): Even the biggest of changes start small. Allows the user to change the color, brightness and make other minor alterations to Mana Bolt for a slight mana cost. Pathless 1 (0/15): Stray from the provided path. Allows for the manual aiming of attacks. Mana bolt is no longer limited to a straight line. However, this newfound flexibility comes at a cost. Selecting this path causes a minor decrease in accuracy. Mana Bolt 1 (0/15): The first step down the path of magic. Improves all aspects of mana bolt and opens more upgrade options.

He had six skill points. Four, if he excluded the points he would use on the Minor Metamagic path. It would be stupid to not finish it after investing so heavily in it. He put two points into the path - completing it and earning an additional two points in his magic stat.

Congratulations! Minor Metamagic path completed. A world of infinite binary switches is now open to you. Try not to get lost in them; the depths of mana can consume even the strongest minds.

Knowledge flowed into his mind. He recoiled. No, it was more like a veil was lifted. The switches had always been there; he just hadn’t noticed them. He took a deep breath and stepped into the world the path had opened for him. An electric tingle ran over his skin as he found himself in a copper sphere filled with hundreds if not thousands of switches arranged in seemingly random patterns.

His physical body stayed the same, still trudging through the mud back towards the storage room, but some metaphysical part of him left. If he focused, he could see both worlds at once. However, that required his full focus; he didn’t think he could manage the feat while doing something complicated.

He ran his hands over the switches. Their design was quite simple; if the switch was facing upward, that meant that aspect of the skill was on. If it was facing down, that meant it was deactivated. Each time he touched one, knowledge flowed through him, informing him of their purpose.

In this way, he learned that the small glass switch on the top of the sphere controlled the Mana Bolt’s shape, and the switch made out of hardened blue light governed its color. At first glance, the system seemed quite counterintuitive to him. Shape and color weren’t binary concepts. How could a simple switch control them? He pondered the question for a minute, but no answer popped out to him.

Accepting that he wouldn’t find answers through inaction, he pulled down the glass switch. His chest burned as the switch fought him on the way down; it did not want to move. However, he was nothing if not persistent. He grit his teeth and pulled on the switch harder. Finally, it jerked down with a pop. All around it, an array of other switches changed position in a series of mechanical clicks. What the hell.

He floated to the side and touched a switch made out of red rose petals. This particular switch governed whether Mana Bolt would be shaped like a pyramid or not. Before he could touch it, a mental force tore into him as the crystal switch twitched upward. The skill wanted to return to its original shape. It was fighting his influence.

He ignored the skills instability and flicked up the red rose switch. This time the switch didn’t provide as much resistance; it practically glided into place. As soon as he made the change, the copper wall shifted, and series of smaller switches burst out of the wall, completely changing its overall pattern.

These new additions controlled related aspects of the pyramid. The most numerous of which were switches controlling the steepness of its angles. There was a binary switch for every possible angle of the pyramid - all but one was flipped down. He practiced changing the steepness of the pyramid. Each time he made a change it would affect seemingly unrelated switches on the opposite side of the room. In addition, each change increased the mental pressure the skill pressed down on him with. After a few consecutive changes, the skill slipped out of his control and reset itself to its default configuration.

He smiled; he could see how someone could lose their minds in here. It was a very inefficient system. It took forever to find the right switch. Even when he found the right switch; he couldn’t be sure what unintended consequences changing it would have. Whoever had designed must have had a screw loose. Most likely all their screws were loose.

Even though the system was unnecessarily complicated and maddening, a part of him enjoyed it. It was a brand-new puzzle for him to figure out. He readjusted his glasses in the real world, then focused more of his attention on the switches.

They came in clusters of related attributes and, at some points overlapped with other clusters. For example, the shape cluster and the size cluster shared a lot of common areas. He took a step back and observed the complicated pattern the switches formed. Originally it had been a series of concentric circles with spirals in between them. Now, the switches were in disarray, with few discernable patterns between them. He had a hunch that the overall pattern was just as important as whether an individual switch was turned on or off.

He played around with the switches for a couple minutes, finding his limits and cataloging where certain aspects were stored.

“What are you smiling about?” Jess asked. He flinched; he had lost sight of the real world for a moment. He had gotten too sucked into his work. It wasn’t the end of the world, there weren’t any dangerous monsters left outside the prison, but he couldn’t discount the possibility of a dangerous encounter entirely.

“I finished a path; it’s pretty cool.”

“What one?”

“Minor Metamagic.” He stuck his hand out then entered his inner world filled with switches. He searched for a moment, then flipped a few. A blood-red ball of mana blasted out of his hand and disappeared into the rain.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached level 12. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

She whistled. “Nice. How did you unlock the path; I don’t have that one.”

“I’m not sure; it was there the first time I looked at what paths I had.” They walked in silence for a moment, smoothly navigating over the cracked ground. The journey was taking longer than he remembered, which was saying something. His memory was very good even before the system enhanced it. “What path did you take?”

“Control 1 – it’s supposed to help with my aim.” They discussed the paths they had available on the way back. It turned out except for Control 1, Minor Metamagic, and Barrage 1 they had the same paths available. Of course, Tony didn’t have anything to add to the subject; he didn’t even have the Mana Bolt skill. However, he shared what skills he had been offered for the [Healer] class.

After what felt like hours of walking, they finally reached the entrance to the storage area. It was slightly cracked, but it still looked structurally sound. His heart sang with joy at the prospect of getting out of the rain. He didn’t think he would ever be able to be properly dry again.

However, before they could step inside the tunnel, Tony stopped them. “Stop. Something went into the tunnel after we left.” He pointed at the floor, which housed a set of three muddy shoe prints.

“Are you sure those aren’t our footprints?” Jess asked.

“Unless you suddenly grew size 14 feet, they probably aren’t ours.” Tony put his foot on top of each of the prints; they didn’t match. Aaron measured his foot against the prints and found that his foot size also didn’t match up. He blinked; he would never have noticed that. Tony really should have been a rouge; it’s where his talents were.

The discovery that something or someone had entered else had entered the storage room was a disturbing one. He knew the encounter would probably be violent. He wasn’t an idealist. He knew the denizens of Alcatraz weren’t the peaceful sort of people. They were probably more dangerous than the goblins. He opened his [Status Screen].

Name: Aaron Green Class: [Mage] Level 8 (0/800) HP: 102/170 MP: 96/370 SP: 80/80 Strength: 12 Endurance: 13 Recovery: 12 Defense: 12 Dexterity: 21 Agility: 12 Perception: 17 Mind: 29 Magic: 37 Spirit: 8 Skill Points: 5

He was about half health, and his MP was about a quarter full. Surprisingly, he hadn’t used any SP despite exhausting himself physically on many occasions. That led him to believe that SP was similar to MP in that it was used to fuel skills.

He sighed then leaned against the wall. “Jess, how much mana do you have left?”

“Not much – less than half.”

“Then we should wait. It wouldn’t be smart to enter a fight without any mana.”

Tony and Jess grumbled and complained, but eventually, they agreed to wait for an hour. He wanted to wait longer – till his mana was fully regened, but they wouldn’t agree to wait any longer than an hour. They took shelter in the tunnel, careful to not attract any attention to themselves.

He sat on the ground and closed his eyes. His legs were exhausted from all the running he had done today; he couldn’t bear to stand another minute. He closed his eyes and tried to let the time pass.

Less than a minute later, he stopped himself from fidgeting; waiting was boring. Especially when compared to fighting monsters. Normally, he was a patient person, but his nerves were shot. Each second he waited felt like an eternity. To keep himself occupied, he timed the rate at which he regened mana. Using the timers on the [Initialization Screen], he found that after one minute he had gained 1 mana point. He suspected his actual rate was a bit higher because it only took 48 seconds to regen the next point.

After that short diversion, he once again found himself bored. Maybe it was his increased mental stats, but his thoughts would not sit still. They raced through his head like drunk racecar drivers, crashing into the walls of calmness at every opportunity.

His eyes narrowed as a memory he would rather forget drifted to the surface of his consciousness. The sound of breaking glass, the bitter scent of smoke, and most importantly, an overwhelming feeling of loss, his improved Mind stat allowed him to relive the memory in perfect detail.

He shook his head to silence the cries of a child within the memory. There was no point in thinking about it now. It was in the past; he couldn’t change what happened. Commiserating about it would only serve to make him angry.

He glanced around the tunnel, Jess was leaning against the wall, and Tony was slumped over, fast asleep. They were oblivious to his inner turmoil. He stepped out of the tunnel into the rain and opened his mouth. Running around all day had made him thirsty. He let the water collect in his mouth but eventually gave up. For one thing, he felt like an idiot while doing it. Second: it wasn’t a very efficient method; more rain got in his eyes than his mouth.

After satiating his thirst, his next order of business was using his skill points. He had five burning a hole in his pocket. He was tempted to immediately put them all in the Speed 1 path, but he tempered that desire. Before making a decision, he checked what paths he had available for Explosive Mark. After a quick glance, he found that even though they were all powerful, they were too expensive to invest in at the moment.

He put all his points into the Speed 1 path, gaining three points in Agility and two in Magic.

Congratulations! Speed 1 path completed. The first step on a never-ending path. Now you stand among the masses, average in every way, but should you continue to climb the stairway of speed, you will find yourself alone at its summit. Victory requires sacrifice. Remember, the quest to go faster never ends; it just gets harder.

A subtle change took place in him as the skill upgraded itself. Even without using the skill, he could tell taking the path had been worth it. It felt significantly more powerful.

Without anything else to do, he returned to the world of switches and tested various combinations. Of course, he wasn’t able to test the combinations in the real world, but he was still able to get a feel for them. While experimenting, he noticed that the default pattern the switches formed for Mana Bolt had changed. He wasn’t able to pinpoint how exactly it had changed, but it was definitely different.

Exactly one hour later, Jess got up and stretched. “Let’s go; if we wait any longer, I’ll die of old age.”

Aaron glanced at his status screen one last time; he had recovered 73 mana over the hour. It wasn’t much, but it should be enough to get him through a short fight.

They snuck down the tunnel, past the dead goblins and through the flickering lights. After a minute of walking, the low murmur of conversation hit his ears.

“Do you hear that?” Tony asked, his hand cupped around his ear.

Jess nodded. “Somebody took our hideout; let’s kick them out.” He took a deep breath and prepared himself for battle.