Chapter 16 A New Day

June thought through her options as she pondered her status menu. Strength was clearly a goal now, but she had a lot of work to do. She realized she had to be more careful in how her choices for new skills and attributes would be made. All the feelings of accomplishment with completing this scroll were a bit muted even now, especially against the prospect of all the unknown things to come. Curious, June inspected the illusion over her body. “Do you have a mirror?” June asked as she inspected her new illusory form.

“Never figured you for a woman,” Bullin grumbled as he trundled across the small workshop. He rummaged through a nearby pile of junk before handing over a shiny piece of metal. The reflective metal worked well enough.

As she inspected the illusion, June held a lot of mixed emotions. “This is so weird...” She thought. And when she caught on to what Bullin said, her mood turned sour. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She pointedly asked.

“Oh, nuthin’ it’s just most undead don’t take so quickly to these glamours,” he said, waving his hands in a disarming motion. “We just didn’t expect things to move this fast...” Quickly, Bullin returned to his work with some mysterious piece of metal, trying to abandon the conversation.

“Who is we,” June wondered, immediately picturing the jangling metals and the visage of Varren smiling back at her—a grin filled with sharpened yellow teeth. With a wash of bitter resolve, June let simmering thoughts towards that particular undead go. She returned to inspecting the magic enveloping her form. June had to carefully poke and prod at her new form as she inspected it, as her fingers kept passing through the magic.

A light chuckle issued from Bullin, “yeah, that’s the weakness of these illusions. Can’t let people get too close, or they’ll pass right through.”

Kotor snuck up behind June in that moment, and stared at her, goggle-eyed. “Is that really you, boney?” he whimpered.

“Of course, it is,” as she said this, June tried to force the illusion to break. Twisting the mana flow from the gems on her armor mentally, June couldn’t quite make the magic do as bidden. She tried a new way of visualizing the issue. She instead pictured the mana flow as a series of threads along her body and imagined them being cut. That did the trick. The magic slowly bled out, with the illusion falling away in chunks of glittery blackish ash.

The return of her undead form pushed a wave of disappointment over June. Kotor’s face was all smiles, in direct contrast to June’s gloom.

Letting the displeasure creep into her tone, June spoke, “Now, is there something else your boss would like me to do?” June asked Bullin with a bit of snark.

After a short pause, Bullin sat down the implements he was working with, picking up the scroll June had just brought him. “I’m going to turn this in. I want you to go relax for a bit.

As the skeleton and their minion sauntered off, Bullin let his shoulders drop. “By Jergal, I thought they’d never leave,” he whispered under his breath. Turning on his heel with the scroll in hand, Bullin nearly sprinted down the passage. After a few minutes of power walking past several other undead, he arrived outside the large wooden doors leading to his Lord’s private quarters. Rapping smartly on the wood, the door gave way to his entry a few seconds later. She must have been expecting him.

Bullin charged into the room, and the doors shut with a resounding thud behind him. After a second, Varren motioned for him to speak. “I have the latest results of the scroll test. It would seem that our little prodigy has been quite the success.”

Urgently, he placed the finished scroll June had created on her desk. Varren picked up the scroll off of the desk, and unfurled it, studying it intently. As Bullin watched, her violet sockets blazed with magical energy. Neatly, she furled the parchment back up and placed it onto a shelf behind her.

“It would seem that they’ve become quite accomplished with your...tutelage,” Varren said in an exasperated tone. “I suppose it’s time to move on to the next task. I want to teach them to form a true Nexus, but they must learn to work with more mana types before I can do that.”

Bullin remained silent at Varren’s obvious prodding, but did nod his affirmation.

The skeleton nodded gently, then spoke. “Send them out into our glorious world. Let them learn of its horrors with their own eyes. Your task is simple, dwarf, hissed the spell caster. You are to keep them safe. If this new Summoner has as much potential as I’ve seen possible in them, this scroll is only a mere glimpse of their creative talent. Let’s see how they do with a deadline. They have one week to learn how to work with two new Mana types.”

“Great, I get to babysit for an entire week,” Bullin thought bitterly.

“You have free rein of our supplies to get this done, prepare our new prodigal spawn well.” With those simple instructions, Bullin understood much more, he had done this before over the last few years, although it wasn’t too common. He knew what Varren wanted and had a good idea how to get it done. Dismissed from her presence, he made his way back to his private forge, working on the weapon commission he’d spent the last few weeks on. With a sour mood forming, he simply worked while waiting for June to return.

June plopped down on the bed after grabbing the thin black tome that was her current spell book, as well as the manuals on Runes that she had in her room. After all the nonsense and strife of the last few weeks, or however long she’d been here, it was nice to actually have some time truly to herself.

Since she had just succeeded in creating a scroll, she figured now was a good time to see if she could experiment further. Though her ignorance of the history of magic in this world unnerved her, she figured something basic experimentation couldn’t hurt.

As June settled on the floor, she focused on improving her mana cultivation first. When she recalled the feeling of cutting mana threads for the glamour illusion, the visual resonated with her curious mind. The tiny wisps of living shadow flowed around her room in globules of eager Death Mana. June attempted to pull the mana threads into a coalesced form, picturing a layered series of threads wrapped around each other like a cord. As she tried to force more threads into the single flow, the mana complied. In a twist, those noxious whispers had returned, but they felt much different. Instead of a horrifying mass of pain, the voices came across as happy, eager. “What the fuck...” June thought.

June stacked more threads of mana into the bundle, which was more like a rope than a cord of magical energy. But after several minutes of combining more black threads, eventually, she couldn’t force any more energy into the flow. Satisfied with her progress, she moved to the next phase of what she’d been doing for weeks now.

Pulling the combined threads into her core, a tremendous wave of relaxation slammed into June. A feeling of tightness welled up from within her bones, wrapping around her whole body like a warm hug. The rope of magical forces wove itself at her command. It seemed the process was getting much easier for her. As her core greedily consumed the chunks of mana, she felt the energy fit neatly into place. The walls of her core began to flex beneath her notice, expanding outward. When one chunk dropped into place and filled a hole, another was busily forming behind it. As she followed the threads of mana into place, June let her mind wander.

Descriptions of magical forces took root in her mind, gripping to the forefront of her thoughts. If magic really was alive, did it have a will of its own? Many descriptions from sci-fi and fantasy flashed up. The Force, Bending, Nen and so many other permutations of magic systems came to mind. June couldn’t help but wonder if she could put that kind of meta-knowledge to use. But the problem was, she only had access to her memories, and those weren’t always the most reliable. She hadn’t had the best memory in her past life, and it wouldn’t be a straightforward thing to take advantage of. There was no easy way to gather information about fiction in her world within this now-living game world.

There had to be more to this process. She clearly was building toward something more complex, she just couldn't figure out what. And without direction, she was going to continually be trapped at the mercy of her undead overlords. Dejected, June pondered how to proceed. Raising her hand to stare into the Class Gem embedded there, June hit upon a realization—players existed here. Although her encounter with that random Thief had shown that communicating with them would be much harder than she expected. There had to be some way around that issue, she wondered. And to her, it seemed like learning more about magic was definitely the way forward. And if the tasks Bullin had given her were any indication, June would likely be forced down this path, anyway.

Grimly, she began thumbing through the books for more information. As she flipped through her spell book, she noted nothing had fundamentally changed with the runes and other information. Although in one bright spot, her ability to comprehend certain Runes had improved. Complex Runic matrices for higher Tier spells had been impossible to comprehend before, but that was seemingly no longer the case. Perusing the new book Bullin had given her, June figured out that skills were much more intricate than she had expected.

Listed in the pages of the skills manual were all manner of disciplines for magic schools and crafting pursuits that hadn’t been present in the game she was now stuck in. It seemed the MMO mechanics were almost tacked on to a much more robust magic system.

Reading further into the topic, June discovered a few minor tidbits about the magic system of this world. One thing she noticed that was a commonly lacking detail was an explanation of the interaction between the existing magic and this MMO-like skills system. This seemed incredibly strange to June, as she figured such a foundational element would be a common point of discussion. But it just wasn’t. As she dug deeper across the various books, only the barest mentions of the skill system could be seen. Was it that this element was just common knowledge? Could they be hiding something? Could she use this to her advantage?

June pulled herself off of the bed, and sauntered into Bullin’s forge to enquire about it, figuring he was an easily accessible source of information.

As Bullin rapidly hammered at his latest hunk of metal, June entered the forge and stood off to the side with crossed arms. She waited for a break in his work. After a few minutes, Bullin had finished hammering and was examining his work. June posed her question, “I have a question, when did this skill system become a thing?”

“What do you mean?” He asked between hammer blows.

“I mean, magic seems to have taken on different forms,” she inquired, thinking of the passages she’d read referring to the Weave and ages of the world. “And it appears people have a lot of different explanations for its origins. What’s your take on it and the Class Gems?”

Setting his work down, Bullin responded. “Ah, well...we talked about it a bit before, but it can’t hurt to clue you in.”

Bullin had stopped hammering, and was taking quick glances over at the waiting skeleton. The contrast between his stilled posture and June’s crossed arms was stark, putting June on edge. “Magic has always been weird, hard to control. I’ll admit I’m not the best to ask, since ya’ already know most of what I can teach you.” His gaze held hers before continuing. “These Shard Carriers are pretty new, and their skills are all over the place. But people far smarter than ole me would know how to tell you what you want to know.”

June considered his words, staring at the floor. “He must mean that I’ve figured out what he wants me to know,” she thought.

Bullin interrupted her internal struggle with a new inquiry that surprised June. “My meeting with Varren went well, and that means you’re moving on to the next phase, survival.” He intercepted her quizzical glances at his phrasing with a simple statement, “that means you’re getting to leave the tombs.”

She had figured that she would be stuck in these dusty halls for much longer, but that didn’t appear to be the case. June had to resist the urge to jump and down excitedly. Kotor was hopping along behind her, less capable of hiding his emotion. “Hooray!” came a tiny shout from the living ember.

“Since you seem so excited, let’s just get you ready. We can send you out now if you want.” Bullin said.

“Now hold on, what am I actually doing?” June asked, bracing for some new irritating task.

“Simple,” he said, pulling his Teleportation Key from a pocket, before motioning June to follow out of the forge. “You’re going to have to spend a few days learning to use Earth and Water mana. Varren seems to think you’re ready.”

“Why do I get the feeling this will be anything but simple?” June asked, as Kotor clambered their way onto her shoulder. Begrudgingly, June followed the rapidly advancing dwarf to the teleporter room.

After a quick trip through the path June had now walked dozens of times, Bullin didn’t speak any more until they reached the teleporter room. The glittering purple runes etched into the stone dais responded to the pair entering the chamber. Bullin placed his hand on June’s shoulder, raising his Teleportation Key. Bullin called out “Storage Entrance!” and that same purple flash filled their sight.

In the next instant, June stood somewhere entirely new. The surrounding hallway was lined with torches mounted around alcoves. One curiosity among many was that June saw no teleportation runes around them. She also noted that despite all the light sources, most of the area remained bathed in deep shadow. The ceilings of the chamber were much higher than other areas she’d been to, with polished and carved stone dominating the space. The entire space held a much more refined and clean look than anywhere else in the Tombs that June had seen.

It appeared as if June and Bullin were physically alone here, but June couldn’t help but feel uneasy, like she was being watched. Kotor gripped to the bones of her shoulder tighter.

Considering that someone had again dragged her along to somewhere she didn’t know with no warning, June was rather annoyed, and she let her displeasure be known with a new question in a snarky tone. “You know, it would be great if you told me the phrases you keep using. I can’t get to places if I don’t know the name I need to use.”

The dwarf didn’t respond, instead charging through the stone arch ahead of them. “I need to send you to the surface for the next week. We’re here to prepare you for the things you might face while you’re out there.”

Bullin motioned for June to follow through a side door. The plain wood hid who knows what beyond in a darkened chamber. Weakly, June followed behind the dwarf as he strode through the door. As the pair entered, magical torches on the wall came to life.

Around June was a mess of shelves and wooden boxes containing many items. Potion bottles and piles of scrolls dominated most of the shelves.

On a rack to one side of the door stood a range of adventuring gear. Dark leather backpacks and bedrolls were neatly arranged on the rack, waiting to be used. Purposefully, the dwarf yanked one of the hanging packs down, and began stuffing items into it. Bullin spent the next few minutes darting between shelves in the chamber, grabbing bottles and scrolls, shoving them into the backpack.

With a thought, June tried to silently communicate with Kotor, “I never asked, but do you eat or sleep?"She was genuinely curious if there would need to be any prep for the little guy.

“No, I use mana, just like you, boney.” communicated the imp.

Knocked from her internal dialogue, June had a backpack shoved into her hands by Bullin. Sorting through the items, June was inundated with status windows for each new thing she had been given.

Items Obtained

2x Potion of Invisibility

5x Mana Distillation

5x Scrolls of Lesser Dark Pact

“Your job is to make it through the next week without getting mutilated. That stuff will help you make it through this mess.” Something about Bullin’s tone was uneasy. “You’re gonna be on your own out there, so you’ll have to be careful.”

“I’m hoping the other undead around here won’t attack me again,” June said, thinking back to her last guided tour of the crypts that ended in combat.

“No, that shouldn’t happen as long as your carryin’ that Key. Think of this as a practical test of your abilities with magic. You’re gonna have to learn how to convert mana on your own, though you can choose your own path to get to that point.”

She didn’t think she could escape the Tombs; she did not know what was actually out there. June hit a sudden bit of realization at Bullin’s words. “So that means I can abuse this freedom, this is going to be fun.” She figured if she had a chance to get ahead of the players in the world, figuring out more of the magic system was the best way forward.

Though this wouldn’t be easy. Even as much as her mounting distrust of Varren and the rest of these undead weirdos was taking over, a much more mysterious threat loomed in the dark unknowns of her future. Try as she might, June couldn’t place where that lump of horrifying rot fit into all this, and she couldn’t shake it from her thoughts. And with these fresh revelations that players were likely going to be a much bigger problem in the future adding to the burden, June knew things would only remain this relatively calm for as long as she stayed cooped up in these dusty tombs.

Following Bullin out of the room as he rushed deeper into this level, June prepared to face the unknown.