Ch. 008 - Ready, Set. Go!

Beginning to experience the glyph activate another stage of its growth, I sensed a whole new level of depth perception to navigate. I could now begin to comprehend the structures of the walls separating the tunnel systems within the glyph.

New problem. Now that the mana is activating more intensely, the aftertaste of this glyph curse is officially worthy of making me cringe.

Confirming my earlier feeling of grossness, I could now further sense that the ‘plaque’ was actually preventing the whole glyph from effectively ‘breathing’ properly, by clogging up it’s original porous yet delightfully smooth design. As more mana accumulated, I felt like suddenly I was gasping a new deep breath of wholesome fresh air for just one instance, while feeling immersed among a filthy crowd wading through a musty swamp.

I now realized that if I switched my approach to unlocking the secrets of this glyph, I could be getting extra experience to become more proficient with sensing the differences within the various barrages of mana that make up this world. Up to now I had only cleaned a single entranceway and buffed out simple funneling grooves creeping along the inside floor space. However, once I felt the pathways from within the walls and charged up some of the structure itself, I recognized that the entire outer shell is technically pasted over and sealed and closed shut as well! *Shudders*

Somehow I have to charge and purify from both within and following along at the entire outside of the surface of the glyph, using my mana control. That way I could essentially carve clean and navigate a fluid pathway for the future to enable a naturally vibrant mana flow, once I get there. Then I could see what else we can find and unlock!

‘I’ll keep test cleansing and feeling out pressure points of sporadic spots to see if I can notice any deeper patterns to the mana flow.’

As I watch hoove dust accumulate closer in the background, I’m listening to Holtz tell me horror stories of fallen brethren during battle, of various enemies during their personal adventures out on the fields by themselves, and of moments where they found monster burrows, spirit crystals and gear ranging from modern apprentices to lost ancient heroes. I heard that ‘out there hides even a few different friendly and hostile breakaway civilizations in these wilds, away from the major cities or out here in Indossus. Again of how so many folk have just disappeared or never returned.’

As I sensed more and more of these bugs and mana stones beneath me, I considered various active processing methods to remove or somehow siphon up these ground jewels like fishing with a net, and clear out so many objects within this ground space all at once!

No weapons. No extra tools. At least now, I am certain as to how near these all are to us.

I'm also imagining by this point that I could power kick these bugs like overstuffed balls, right up and out of the sand if they get too close to me…… Some of the jugglers at the festivals performed incredible tricks with their hands and feet, out in the streets before I di….…Ahem...…

I refocused to what was around me and so activating my mana control, I had latched onto the mana glyph and started charging my mana into the core of the mana glyph to charge up a marking manablast that would detonate outward like the ripple of circle or bubble of mana, as far out in all directions from me, in similar fashion to how I had just reached only downward so far…... However, thinking of options to test out, I have something else I can also do now that I can actually charge power into this glyph...…...

I began to extend my mana deeper into my glyph as I hyper concentrated to charge more and more mana into the inner glyph pathway system. With the intention to flush out and sense more flow zones, I could begin to sense additional areas that felt stuck or jammed from the cursed plaque.

I was using various rotational and scrubbing patterns to utilize my mana as a means to dig into the mana or scrape it off…. Then I remembered to calm down when focusing on the Spirit, and began listening ‘through’ the mana as I also started to lightly speak in the celestial language I learned from before during my old prayers. I tried keeping it quiet like I was just mumbling thoughts to myself for a few moments.

[ +1 spirit ]

Many of those accumulation icons began sprouting up as I got more intent with this refocusing of my mind and spirit mana. I simply stopped putting effort into thought and I let my mana relax. Much like getting still while underwater, to sense what direction an undercurrent is flowing along while navigating a stream- Densu allowed his body to speak as he listened to the mana with great clarity of mind. It was subtle but I could now sense where certain pressures within the glyphs porous inner pathways would ‘want’ mana to flow but had been clogging up. I was able to match these clogged pathways with the few various pressure releases I could feel briefly while ‘exiting’ the glyph. I traced my mana in reverse as if slowly breathing backwards and I was soon able to secure a pathway of connection with my mana flow as if solving a maze puzzle.

The intensity of the detail of mana I sensed suddenly amplified. The world buzzed sharply for an instance and suddenly dissipated just as smoothly as it arrived. Everywhere, my mana tingled with far more clarity like it was just waking up from being asleep.

I started to smile to myself again, while the passageway pressure that the mana built by flowing within the glyph would cause a vibration throughout the glyphs’ pathways, which enabled a harmonic resonance and refinement reaction that strengthened the mana at a whole new level. It reminded him of how he could whistle, and it made Densu think of music and singing with mana on a whole different level of comprehension.

Distracted by my curiosity of learning about what else my mana could perform that very moment, I suddenly had something else to accomplish, and I was strangely compelled to find out what ‘Mana Whistling’ can do…. Holtz at first thought I was getting excited about what I was finding, and was increasingly impressed at my range of mana touch. Then suddenly he felt a qualitative change and difference take place within my mana essence, and too abruptly I had taken a deep breath, caused my mana glyph amplifier to switch on and I ‘whistled’ as hard as I could to test the new abilities, and my limits, to focus the mana concentration path to burn through the crud buildup on and in these glyph passages.

I had charged hard for the mana to compress within the glyph, and released it to then start streaming through the newly cleared pathways I had carved into the pathway as though I opened the floodgates of heaven. Holtz powerfully leaped well up into the air, and kept going, escaping the blast radius as I released a burst of mana that would coat almost a kilometer of spherical space above and below the surface in Deep Purple Mana residue. The mental map in my mindspace exploded with a flurry of new information and insights and colors and flavors and motion and most importantly, a collective consciousness of every Pill bug, Boar, and Bird intently alert and abruptly shocked by my blatant territorial claim to everything within that space.

It was in unison, the ‘voices’ called out all at once. I had every single one of their utmost attention. ‘Excuse- me?!’

It became eerily quiet as the sound of thousands of hoof beats and wing flaps simultaneously ended at once within such an expanse of space. As if everything was beginning to coordinate itself into motion, I was the epicenter. The source of this glorious detonation of dark purple mana, that painted my mind and the entire literal atmosphere and creatures and manastones within the blast, all in the color of my dark purple contaminated breaker glyph …….

It was beautiful, as everything sparkled and glistened within my 2nd sight. Many of the creatures turned towards my direction to single my presence out as the origin of this territorial ‘challenge’. It was a curious experience to simultaneously sense the presence of all of these beings responding to my challenge as one collective force. Somewhere within me grasped at a calculated guess to the potential value of everything my mana had touched, in comparison to the quantity of the objects held in Arady’s office box, and a deep instinctual fervor welled up inside of my soul, igniting a fire in my eyes and thus my spirit bellowed out in return with all the fervor of claiming territory for Father again. ‘YES, MINE!’, as I strongly stood up and piercingly focused all around me, preparing myself to start the hunt! I readied my stance, in excitement, when I noticed that Holtz was nowhere to be felt anywhere near me.

Holtz had leapt into the sky, “No…. How did he know to….. Why woul….. Heh……. Heh heh…….. Oh man this is gonna be gooooooooooooooolllllldddddd….“. Flustered while being forced to fly up now, he reaches into his pockets and pulls out two crystalline orbs of some kind while staying out of range of the expanding mana blast. It’d be embarrassing to explain his way out of how he allowed a new recruit to mark him, especially if the crew found out that the new breaker fresh from the summoning circle was the one to do it. “It’d be better for them to see this walking disaster first hand…. I’m glad I brought my own crystal today too… I have a feeling this is gonna be a good show…. He’s definitely gonna want to see this…. Heh…”

Holtz activated the mana signature devices which captured a recording of all of the mana within visual display of the orb, and held the orbs towards Densu to record as the purple blast finished expanding into the atmosphere. Densu had suddenly stood up and looked ready to pounce, when collectively all of the pill bugs surfaced all at the same time, all of the roaming boars and birds all turned inwards and suddenly everything hissed & screeched at Densu in unison! Holtz's smile faded and his pupils shrank. “.....Did….. he?”

Crackles of electricity sparked in the air, as a thick heavy fog encompassed the surrounding area and surrounded Densu as the atmosphere began to glow a slight purple color as the eyes of all of the creatures turned a glowing red with a deep purple flame at the center. The atmosphere became heavy like a storm had rolled in and encompassed the entirety of the blast zone in that purple myst that seemed to convey a completely different feeling than the previous atmosphere. This feeling seemed like the mana was alive and under the control of something that was ‘making’ that space feel and act the way it was. I could still see with clarity, but somehow the mood was different. Sharp.

Holtz gave some personal narration to the different recording stones, then bellowed out to Densu from above. “Congratulations, You just activated your first Wild Raid Zone! Contract says No Help from me on this, so this next part is gonna SUCK!” *muffled giggle*

“Remember how I’m here to ‘train’ you? Well Good news, We’re practicing our kicks today! You have to kick ALL OF THEM, in order to pass, okay?!!! *stifled chuckle* I’ll be saving this memory with these so I’ll totally be able to know if you accidentally touch one of them with your hands!!! Oh and Densu!..... Good luck at the end!” *Voice almost cracking by the end of it, tears almost form in the well of his eyes*

*Muttering to himself* “..... Hmmmhhmhmhmhmmm, show us what you’ve got kid...….” He was amused and waiting to see how Densu was going to approach this upscale of events. Whatever turn of events happens, was going to be used as evidence with these memory crystals one way or another, he felt lucky to capture most of the initial dark purple mana burst that painted the scene before them. Like an itching thought that would start to bother him later, he began to wonder ‘when was the last time one of us considered any part of a solo raid as ‘practice’.

Densu heard the commands given to him and his eyes squinted to pay attention to a wider focus area feeling it more important to spread awareness to the important parts now, and adjust his movement calculations a bit if the kick practice is the way to start this ‘training’. And what to do about these birds.

*Densu takes a deep breath and lets his hands and fingers relax but stays ready to catch the ground in case he stumbles around. He draws his mana awareness from his scalp to his toes and focuses a concentration of mana power to flow through his core and into his legs in order to compliment the kick visuals and body shapes he remembered implementing from earlier.

Before the near implosion of raging creatures would collapse into his personal space any further, imprints on the ground are formed as his body lurches towards a suddenly spooked boar, who doesn’t get to react before being launched into the air in a violent arc pattern taking out a few birds in the process. A pill bug was next to shoot through a crowd of boars and wipe out a straight line of creatures who failed to dodge in time. [+1 Kick Arts] began to erupt all around Densu, who was trying to time a set of bug kicks into the flocks dive bombing him from above.

It took a couple of kicks to get the hang of dodging and setting up the stepping footwork for lining up the kicks to punt the birds out of the sky, but success started to get easier, the more the Kick Art essence began to make more sense to the movements of fending for his life in a rabid crowd with only ‘kicks’. In fact, these steps were coming surprisingly easier than he was anticipating, and he felt like he was almost dancing around this stampede more fluidly as he started keeping pace with the turn of events.

Every now and then the ground would tremble or small growls of frustration in Densu's voice would be heard over the multitudes of incessant caws, squeals, chitinous clicks, deep bass filled thuds, and chained together versions of them all in bursts mixed together when a domino effect took place.

Holtz floated in place more and more in awe as he continued recording. The kid wasn't just flailing around wildly for his life. Moreover It looked like he was intentionally practicing these kicks. With every beast that flew away he was kicking better and better- each kick a slight bit more proficient than the last. ‘The crew...... Arady... Rudra..... oh hell yes even Curtio is gonna LOVE watching this... Holtz floated patiently as the mob movement steadily dwindled down and the corresponding carcasses, feathers and plate shells piled up.

At some point Densu started jumping into the air at a fair height and started kicking birds out of the sky manually. This became a pattern because he didn't really stop. It was like he found a new toy and was getting better at playing with it!

Holtz was having a blast when he noticed a secondary stampede rush had started swarming and spiraling in on Densu at ground level, and even the sky filled up with new winged beasts that manifested a new bodily form as if mana spirits had rushed into the edges of the heavy atmosphere and where given new fully formed life on the spot!

A genuine acknowledgment took place upon recognizing that this kid was determined. It was like Densu was welcoming the intensity of the assault. Look at those feet, go! Hahahahahaha XD......

Boars were hitting birds out of the sky. Densu was combining jumping and kicking birds down to start sticking beaks into boars to pin them down. Pill bugs were ejecting out from Densus personal space like cannonballs and he kicked them with rotation as to be arching in various directions and taking out droves of everything in the way for the meantime. The chain combos actually increased the points accumulated per kick. Turns out I can manaburst at the foot to empower these kicks now too!

*Bursts of dark purple sparkles erupt like an overloaded blast furnace outpouring sparks, and a radius of everything not Densu collapses around him. Lifting a boar with his leg, he pivoted hard and catapulted the boar covered in a faint dark aura towards the new intense wave of incoming enemies. The boar slams into the incoming wall and the dark aura that tinted the boar suddenly exploded boar chunks, carapace shrapnel, and feathers which all spontaneously coalesced and crystalized into spirit stone fragments*

Holts mutters again “He's gonna make a small fortune selling these things off. Seriously. Looking at all of that I'm almost jealous. I'm so glad I got this, on crystal.........”

"Hhhmmm..... Now that it’s gotten this deep, I wonder how he will handle the wave boss......." Holtz stayed quiet at that point but could not shake the smile off his face from this wild entertainment.

--------------------

“...... I'm getting a better hang of all of these kicks, and I'm super glad that I can combine this leaping and kicking together. This has made it so much easier. A tad exhausting... But totally worth this learning process.”

‘But what was up with that second assault out of nowhere?!?!!. I thought I was okay, then THAT all happened. Stay calm ‘Densu’... What am I thinking? Take whatever I can get right now. I gotta make sure I'm ready for these battles in that big place’....

I kept dwindling down the numbers in the sky and from ‘paving’ the ground beneath me with furr and carapace, till there were only just a handful of crazed boars left.

I finally punted the last bacon away from me and heaved a sigh of relief as I was now dripping with sweat and breathing rhythmically while collecting my senses from the overwhelming rush of the mana maelstrom I'm swimming in right now. It's gonna feel good collecting all of this~

I was almost calm and collected from the dizzying amount of pressure all around me when I felt the atmosphere suddenly condense a step further and all of the various spiritstone fragments collectively begin to rattle and convert to mana that flowed towards and began to gather into a large dark purple iridescent spirit stone accumulating it all. The same purple mana atmosphere that showed up causing these stampede waves, now gathered around that crystal and further took shape and manifested a massive Golden Boar with jet black & silver streaks along its back. It's eyes glowed dark purple and it swiftly locked eyes and sneered at me in disdain.

The mana fluctuations were on a far different scale than any one of those boars from before. This must be the ‘Strongman that needs to be bound, before I can ransack his house’.

We sized each other up briefly, when it suddenly screeched out a vicious wail and charged terribly faster at my vitals than these smaller Bronze Boar counterparts.

By this point my Kick Art had broken over a thousand points and my jumping has climbed above a couple hundred, so I needed to make use of that ability. With a burst charge I swiftly stepped and power leaped towards the giants pet of a Golden Boar, skimmed my body over its massive tusks, and intentionally collided with a spinning round kick directly into its forehead.

There was a distinct crunch in the Golden boar's neck as I had planted my heel firmly and intensely stomped, and felt its head and my body both stop in place. There was an audible recoil of spinal compression as its body jerked inward and momentum pressure drove its hind legs up lifting above the skull. As if to spite me, the boar dug it's front hooves into the ground and tilted its snout, thrusting its tusk into my space.

I just barely got my palm between my abdomen and caught the tusk and successfully resisted being gored. I quickly adjusted my body to wrap around the tusk from the impact and then twisted around to push behind me with my hands pivoting around the tusk.

By catching the tusk, the impact caused one of the front hooves to loosen the soil, so I took advantage of the boar slipping on the sand in that split moment. What was seen displayed was the golden boar get slammed in the face and somehow it got a save step with a bad grip on the ground, which made it slip and allow for Densu to push himself up over its head in that split second.

He fiercely knew that he had to end this exchange as quickly as possible because of the pressure of great danger before him. ‘My shin stings greatly from that first impact.’ He retracted his toes and heel stomped 3 times downward on the back of its cranium. He was trying to hit between its vertebrae to either crush its skull or snap its neck. I felt a solid impact with each kick but it didn't stop, but instead the boar pivoted on the one hoove that planted and used the anchor point to see-saw its bodyweight around and then thrust its head and shoulders up and backwards with me still attached. I just barely caught its movement in a deep squat shape with my feet, before power stomping downwards against the gore attempt and wound up performing a backflip with a floaty lay out, to land on my feet and directly charge the beast without pause! I was able to duck low to suddenly side kick one of its front legs inward at the knee joint, to try to immobilize that leg a bit.

I connected with the side kick and the bore's right front knee popped free from the whole socket and buckled inward from all of the pressure collapse between the boar, ground, and my kicking force pinpointing in the direction that destabilized its impressive counter mobility. It looked like it would topple over but it kept stable enough to spin a half circle in a tight space and straight back kick into my chest like Damina did but with it's hoof. This was much sharper, and almost pierced into my chest and drew some blood from the edge of the hoof print, as my body now propelled sideways rapidly over a glistening field of spirit stones and torn up soil.