Chapter 11: This Needs to Stop Happening

Chapter 11: This Needs to Stop Happening

Jack made his way through the cave system. He was looking for any path that would lead upward, and hopefully, outside, but every path he found led deeper underground. He wasn’t sure how long he walked, hours at least. It was long enough for him to burn through his Mana several times while using his Flame spell. Every time this happened, Jack took the opportunity to take a break and go over his System Messages while his Mana regenerated.

*Quest completed: Escape!*

You have managed to escape your capturers through skill or dumb luck.

Probably more luck than Skill.

+2 Luck

Title gained: Opportunist

Quick thoughts and action can turn a chaotic situation into an advantage.

+5 Luck

*You have lost the status: Enslaved*

Stat, Skill, and Experience gained returned to normal

+1 Con.

The message was a welcome relief to Jack. It was proof that he had escaped immediate capture. The thought of being captured by a bunch of strange alien creatures filled Jack with a level of fear that he hadn’t been able to acknowledge until now. Jack wasn’t sure what they were capturing him for instead of killing him outright, but he was certain he didn’t want to find out. The boost to his Luck stat was also a surprise, but one he was happy to accept. Who didn’t welcome more luck?

It took another three iterations of waiting for his Mana to regenerate then slowly burning through it again as he made his way further into the cavern before he came across something unusual. It was a structure of some kind, lying in the middle of a large cavern that Jack walked into. It almost looked like it was built through the cavern as opposed to in the cavern. Jack was able to move around part of the building, but there was only one entrance that Jack could see.

It was a door, but not like what Jack was used to. It was twice as tall as Jack, made entirely of stone with no obvious way to open it, and every now and then strange purple symbols would flicker on the door before disappearing again.

Not sure what else to do, Jack placed a hand on the door attempting to try and just push it open. He knew it was unlikely he would be able to move such a massive stone door, but there was little else to try. The moment his hand touched the door he could feel something emanating from it. Concentrating on it, he could almost feel something flowing through it. It was almost like static electricity but coming through in a small almost unnoticeable pulse. It wasn’t stable though. Like there was an inconsistency in the flow. Sometimes it would come through stronger and longer but then disappear or so weak it was almost imperceptible… almost. At the same time, the symbols on the door appeared along with the pulses made Jack more certain of his assessment.

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It reminded Jack of an unstable energy flow like flickering lights, but in this case a Mana flow that was being interrupted. Jack looked at his Mana Manipulation skill. Perhaps it could help him in this situation.

A thought occurred to Jack, and he placed both hands on the door. Focusing on the pulse of energy, Jack attempted to match the power and infuse his own Mana into the door to fill in the gaps in the energy. Infusing his Mana in a non-stop flow did nothing except cause some angry flickering when the natural pulse of energy joined Jack’s Mana flow. He had to time the infusion to only fill the lapse in the flow. It needed a balance in the power, any more or less than the needed amount wouldn’t work.

Hours passed as Jack stood there trying to get the rhythm correct. It was slow, tedious, inconsistent, and boring but it was also the only thing Jack could think of to get the door opened. Slowly, the symbols lit up and stayed lit more and more consistently, until all lit up and stayed lit with no fluctuations. Still nothing happened.

“Come on,” Jack pleaded. “Just open up, will you?” As if in response, or because of it, Jack saw a couple of the symbols begin to glow brighter and the door slid open. He didn’t enter right away. Instead, he waited as his Mana came back to make sure the door wouldn’t close when the supply of Mana disappeared. But the door stayed open. The only change was that it returned to the inconsistent flicker again.

Jack went inside now confident it wasn’t going to close again. Inside the structure was a large marble and stone room. It was empty except for a spiraling staircase leading up and down and another door leading further inside. The doors looked more typical size doors but still ornate and again had no handle to open with, but Jack didn’t want to test them right now. He had enough of doors for the time being and up might mean out. He didn’t want to go down and further into the ground.

Starting up the stairs, Jack went up several floors. Each floor showed more rooms and hallways leading deeper into the compound. He ignored this and continued to follow the stairs. The whole structure made Jack think of a castle or maybe a tower. Why would there be a tower buried deep underground in the middle of a jungle? He had no idea, but it was there and so far, it has continued to prove abandoned. Jack hoped it would continue to be so.

When he reached the top of the staircase, Jack was unfortunately not greeted with sunlight and fresh air. He knew it was unlikely, but he still couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. Instead, there was another large door. Like the first one he went through to get into this place, this too had no noticeable way of opening it. Unlike the other door though, this one had soft blue and white symbols appearing on it, but they weren’t flickering like the other one.

“Er, open?” Jack said hoping that was all it would take, but nothing happened. “Will you open please?” He tried again, but still nothing happened. With a sigh, Jack placed both his hands on the door like before. Again, Jack felt the flow of the magic energy coursing through the door, but instead of it flowing through the door like the first one, Jack felt it start to flow from the door and into his hands.

Jack tried to let go, but some power held him firm. Jack watched helplessly as the glowing symbols from the door started to move. Slowly, they crawled their way down the door and onto Jack’s hands burning as the energy from the symbols traveled across his flesh. All Jack could do was watch as the symbols creep along and up his arms making their way to his head. No amount of struggle made a difference. The moment the symbols made it to his head, Jack felt each one sink into his skin and flow into his head. He vaguely remembered screaming from the pain before he blacked out as fire and information overwhelmed his brain.

*~*

*Language Proficiency gain: Runic (10%)*

Jack came to with another System Message hovering before him and a now open door in front of him. His head was pounding, but a quick glance at this Health indicated that it was otherwise alright, physically. Mentally was a different story.

“This needs to stop happening,” Jack muttered waving away the message. “What is that? Three times in less than a day? That can’t be healthy. I should probably try to be more careful. And what is Runic?”

+1 Wis.

Jack glared at the pop-up message. “I’m starting to think that this System doesn’t like me.” Pushing himself up, Jack made his way into the new room.