Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 10 | Day 19

Immediately after I notice it, I casually turn my gaze back to the skeleton as he continues his explanation of different methods to attack symmetric key encryption, “Another possible method of attack would be to use a brute force method, which would try all possible keys until you end up getting an intelligible translation from the encrypted file in plaintext.”

I nod my head while continuing the notes I’ve been writing in my terminal, still not showing any indications of having noticed the change in the cage as I do so.

If I’m right about the cage’s life mana decreasing, then the death magician must be doing something to break out of the cage. But if that’s the case, then why didn’t he do it before I got here? Because at the rate it’s decreasing, it would’ve had to… wait a second…

My eyes widen slightly as I come to a realization.

The star diagram. It should have an energy source somewhere in the tower, but I’ve just been using it without paying attention to what source that might be.

How would it be drawing from the cage though? Or more accurately, why would it be drawing from the cage? I highly doubt the people who designed this place had the cage in mind as a power source for when they designed… oh.

The skeleton was the one who owned this tower, so it’s possible he designed it. Which also means it’s possible for him to change it and other things in this tower. And considering how he used that miasma blast on me the first time I came here, he might just be able to do that even from within the cage.

“That’s enough for today,” I’m interrupted from my thoughts by the skeleton who I quickly find lowering to the ground again before waving his bony hand at me in a shooing motion.

Seriously? That’s rude.

I get up from the floor while closing out my notes before walking out of the room, in the direction of the star diagram.

Time to see if I can’t change the source of power for it.

After staring at the dial for several minutes, I find that I have no idea how to mess with it at all. No way to change its source, no way to even find out how to mess with its script.

It’s rather annoying.

I narrow my eyes on the machine before glancing back in the direction of the lab.

Despite having lost a lot of life mana, the cage should still have around 70% of the capacity it had when I first arrived. Which was over a month ago, so I should be able to continue safely using it for a while without even getting close to freeing him.

But am I willing to risk it to get stronger faster?

I alternate my gaze between the lab and the diagram for several seconds before nodding my head.

Yes, I am.

Once the cage reaches about 30% capacity, I’ll go ahead and take the diagram with me to leave this cursed forest. Assuming I can find the way out.

With that thought in mind, I begin heading back to my room, just to realize something.

He said he would help me with my Tier 2 spells after the lecture, but didn’t say anything about it when the time came…

A hint of fear radiates at the back of my mind before I turn around to head back to the training room again, just for a large wave of miasma to spread throughout the hallway towards me, shaking the building in the process. Then a very familiar voice echoes in my ear, “You thought I wouldn’t notice?”

Oh shit.

I break into a sprint, entering the training room and closing the door again right before the wave reaches me. A loud slamming noise echoes from the door after that, likely from the miasma, and I quickly rush over to the diagram.

I’m taking this with me. Even if I can’t use it without figuring out how to change its power source, I’ll at least be able to study it.

“A door won’t help you, child,” the skeleton’s voice resonates throughout the room despite the lack of miasma in here as I stuff the star-shaped dial into my spatial storage. But right before I manage to close the storage, a bolt of miasma shoots straight through the door, past me, and into it where it engulfs the mutagen and yanks it back into the fog of miasma.

Seriously?!

I bolt for the other side of the room where the other door is located before slamming it open and rushing down the hall towards the main entrance area, and more importantly, the stairs. Just seconds later though, I hear the door exploding behind my back as the wave of miasma follows me.

Well, this isn’t good.

Imagine making it out of Arcadia to train on my own without being captured and experimented on just to be captured and experimented on by a long-thought-dead bag of bones.

Not a pleasant idea.

I continue running while occasionally putting up a fire barrier behind me, only for the barrier to be shattered without much resistance. But I very nearly run out of mana thanks to my mana arcs all being in development right now from the training device.

Which in hindsight might have been what the skeleton was waiting for.

“Keep running, little one,” the voice continues with a cackling laugh as I make it into the main room, just to find it filled to the brim with a thick fog of miasma. “See where it gets you.”

That guy is getting on my last nerves.

I use the last of my mana reserves to coat myself in a barrier of fire before jumping off of the balcony down towards the entrance, uncaring of the damage the fall and the miasma could bring me. And apparently this surprises the old skeleton, as the miasma freezes in place for a moment as I push through, feeling the pain of it devouring my flesh in the process. But the pause doesn’t last long as the wave of miasma spills into the room as I’m falling.

I grit my teeth at the pain of my flesh constantly being devoured and remade as I continue to fall until I faintly feel an impact on the ground. One that I can only barely tell happened thanks to the pain from the miasma.

Why didn’t I see this earlier! The bastard kept dropping hints that he would be trying something, but I never expected him to be able to actually do something so soon.

In my thoughts, I expected him to wait months before trying something.

I let out a grunt as I feel the miasma growing thicker, and before long, I find myself pushed up against the wall, so I navigate around towards the entrance from where I am at the wall until I find the door. But the moment I open it, I hear a shattering sound, followed by a sudden searing pain on my shoulder as I fall through the door onto the ground.

The pain is much worse than anything I’ve ever felt before. Even having my arms cut off hurt less than this!

What the fucking hell is this pain?!

I scramble to my feet as soon as my body finishes repairing itself from the damages and rush to close the door while sending a glance at my shoulder, only to find a familiar green liquid eating through the armor that’s still there on my shoulder, with only a small amount of the stuff actually touching my shoulder and turning it starch white in the process with veins of glowing green running through the pale skin.

Well, that’s not good.

I quickly grab a large stick from the ground and begin pushing the mutagen off of my shoulder, but the parts that had managed to touch my skin are already somehow inside of my shoulder, causing the searing pain in it to grow stronger and stronger. And after a few seconds of this, I find myself falling to the ground, just to hear the sound of a door creaking open. The one I had just barely managed to close.

Then the sound of a very familiar voice.

“That was a bit of a waste, but some of it seems to have taken hold. If you’re still sane by the end of this, I’ll even let you go free. After I sample your blood a li-”

Everything goes dark before I can hear the rest of his statement.