I woke up, my body was stiff and I had a headache. Standing up, I noticed my fire mana was beginning to get low, so I replenished it with the particles in the air. There was one other thing I noticed, I no longer had any Ice mana in my pool. Trying to use it, No ice formed, leaving me trapped in the walls of ice I had created earlier.

“Why can’t I use it now? Is there a limit on how much I can copy?” I wondered, pouring my mana into my arms. Punching the wall, My knuckles popped and cracked, but the walls came crashing down. The area outside looked the same, which made me feel relieved. Beginning my journey, I picked a random tunnel, and began walking down it. After taking dive steps an ice wall blocked my path. “Growl!” Upon turning around, I saw two blue wolves, they each had a single ice horn poking out of their forehead, but the one closest to me had a bigger horn. “Wind Scythe.”

Both of their heads came cleanly off, and I felt a chilling sensation go down my back. “That was easier than I thought it’d be.” I said, kicking one of their heads. *Rumble* I looked back at their bodys.

“Want me to show you how to cook it?” Akai asked, seeing me drool over their corpses. “Yes please.” After a few hours, I cooked the bodies, separated the organs, and took the fur off. However, the black blood that got everywhere made the whole ordeal less as appetizing as it once was. Taking a bit of one of their legs, I nearly threw up. The meat seemed to sting the insides of my mouth, and the taste was just horrible. As my stomach began to twist, I laid down, as I was beginning to feel nauseous and sweat.

“It’s not that bad. Is it?” Akai asked, looking at my condition.

All I could do was give her a glare and a grunt. I passed out. There was no dream this time, just darkness until I eventually woke up. My body was light, and I felt as if I had all the energy in the world trapped inside me. I looked at my core and noticed a difference. The speck of purple was now the size of a baseball, while the entire core was the size of a basketball. One more thing I noticed in my core, there was ice mana in it again.

“Did it happen after I killed the wolves?” I wondered, thinking back to the cold sensation I felt earlier. While I was thinking about them, I walked over to whatever remained of the wolves and sat down. There was still some meat left, there was quite a bit of fur and skin, then there were the organs, which I decided to leave.

“Why not make a water skin with the stomach?” Akai asked.

“Why? I can control water.” I said, taking some water out of the atmosphere. “Right.” Akai said, looking away in embarrassment. Looking at the other items laid out on the ground, I picked up the skin and fur. “I wonder if I can…” I said, using the string magic to sew the fur and pelt together, creating a small cloak to wear.

“This should keep me warm.” I said, proud of what I created. Disabling my heat magic, I began to feel my hands start losing heat. “Hey, use the leftover pelt to wrap your hands.” Akai said, motioning what she wanted me to do. “Thanks.” I responded, doing as she said. Getting up, I picked up as much of the meat I was able to carry. “Let's go.” I said, picking a random direction to begin walking in.

While I was walking, I tried creating more ice daggers. I had to visualize every detail or else It wouldn’t form correctly. The thickness, the length, the sharpness and density. Everything had to be taken into account. I had run out of ice mana, so I decided to stop.

Growl*

“Ah, nice to see you again.” I said, hearing the yetis growl. I ran up to it, attempting to stab it with the dagger. “Whatever happened to the one the girl gave me?” I wondered as the knife shattered. “You never took it out of the spider's body.” Akai answered. The yeti grabbed me by the shoulders, halting my movement. “This is good, I wanted to try this out.” I said, channeling mana into my eyes. They began to sting and my vision turned orange, but I continued pouring more mana into the eyes, until it couldn’t hold anymore. Fire shot out of my eyes, burning one massive hole into the yetis head. “Argh!” The yeti dropped me, and I grabbed at my eyes, I was beginning to feel the effects of doing that.

“It stings so much!” I yelled, rolling on the ground. “What did you expect?” Akai asked. “Your eyes aren’t made to handle that type of strain. Don't do that again.”

“Did it look cool?” I asked, my vision slowly returning. “It looked awesome.”

“Good.” I said, picking myself up off the ground. Rubbing my eyes, the sting eventually faded, leaving me to wipe some tears. “It felt like someone squeezed an onion into my eyes.” I said as I looked at the yetis body. With there being nothing valuable, I decided to just leave and look for the stairs, which didn’t take long, aside from the occasional wolf attack. Skipping over the first step, I ventured up into the unknown.

“This is the fourth zone?” I said, looking at the pitch black in front of me, taking out my last torch and lighting it. It was exactly like the first zone. There was just stone everywhere I looked. “Wait, I don't need a torch anymore.” I said, creating a small ball of flame, lighting up as much as the torch did. I put out the torch and returned it to my bag. As soon as I looked up, the face of a spider monster appeared before me. Out of panic, I created a large spike of ice, impaling the beast before it could react. Before it could die, It let out a shrill. Once it did, I heard the scurrying in the distance. More spiders were coming.

“Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck FUCK!” I yelled, running from the swarm behind me. I skidded to a stop and placed my hands on the floor behind me. Looking up for a brief second allowed me to see the swarm of fifty plus spiders, along with a giant one in the back. The dread caused me to release half of my mana into creating a wall separating us. Without wasting a moment, I continued dashing through the tunnel. Only once I thought I was safe, did I begin to relax. Which was a horrible mistake.

*Boom*

I could hear the pieces of Ice fall to the floor as the makeshift wall I created was destroyed. Once again fueled by adrenaline, I picked myself up and made another wall, resulting in an empty core, aside from the purple mana. Taking out the torch, I snapped it in half, allowing me to have at least one weapon. “Dammit.” I yelled, readying myself for the impending fight. “Why would you waste all of your mana on the walls?!” Akai asked, frantically pacing around the small area we were in.

“Why are you so scared? You're not the one who’s going to die.” I asked, a slight shake in my voice. “We don’t know that.” She said, running her hands through her hair. “I could disappear once you die.” Before I could try to calm her down, the wall in front of me shook, cracks appeared all over it in an instant. And then it broke. Ten spiders immediately filled the area. I tried my best, but I was eventually cornered. “Come at me you overgrown bugs!” I yelled, holding up my bloody fists.

Then there was static. I couldn’t see, hear, or feel anything other than static. It was like I disconnected from reality. Almost as fast as it came, I was back, surrounded by the corpses of the spiders.

“Huh?” I said into the air, looking at the death surrounding me. “Akai… what happened…” I said, beginning to lose a fight with gravity. “You are ‘You’, right?” Akai asked, confusing me. “Of course I’m me..” I said, trailing off at the end as I saw a light approaching down one of the tunnels. “Is it those monkeys?” I wondered, as I collapsed to the ground.

“Hurry! Check on him!” I heard a somewhat familiar voice yell before a darkness took over my vision, and my hearing, thrusting me into the depths of my mind.

~End Of Act 1~