I alternated my focus between the timer—thirty minutes remaining—and the small white dot steadily growing in the distance. I had no idea which would reach me first since I couldn’t tell how far away the dot was. Maybe it was a giant creature moving toward me, just really slowly. Who’s to say?Did I want the thing to arrive before the timer finished? This was another conundrum over which I had little control. If the white dot was headed toward me to bring eternal suffering, I could only hope the timer ran out quickly. But if not, all my worries about what would happen when it hit zero raced through my mind.The decision was made for me when I could barely make out the shape of the white dot, which seemed to be some kind of winged humanoid that glowed with an eerie light. None of that mattered to me at the moment as I watched the timer tick down to zero. The moment it finished, several new errors appeared in front of me, followed by absolutely nothing changing.
[Error: Invalid Teleport Destination]
[System Error Code: 404-001-EXTRANET]
[Destination coordinates unable to resolve.]
[Reason: Teleportation destination does not exist.]
[Please contact a system administrator for assistance or consult error code documentation.]
Well, I guess that narrowed down my options. I hope the ominously glowing person is nice.
Looking at the approaching figure, I could now make out a few details. She wore a robe that shifted in colour like liquid light—pale blue melting into silver, then cycling through hues of white, gold, and other ethereal shades before returning to pale blue and starting the cycle anew. Her hair shimmered with a silvery-gold glow, flowing as if caught in a perpetual breeze. Behind her, two angelic wings unfolded, their feathers gleaming with an unnatural brilliance—almost too perfect. They radiated a soft light, but something was unsettling in the way she moved. Her wingbeats were too mechanical, too precise, and her expression remained locked in an unchanging look of absolute disdain.I think I prefer demons to angels.
"You wouldn’t be the first to have those thoughts. Now, why don’t you explain to me how you managed to get yourself stuck in the Void?" Her voice carried through the Void with almost perfect clarity. It came through so clearly that I was pushed back slightly by the contempt it held, the angel moving forward slightly to compensate, maintaining an exact distance.Ah, you can hear my thoughts. Great… I took the error message I could see in my vision and held it in my thoughts as clearly as possible."Unusual. If you had clipped through the terrain, we wouldn’t have been able to summon you at all. Where were you before this? Think of the last location you occupied." She said, her tone never shifting yet still dripping with contempt.
I tried to pull up images of the artifact gallery and the two people I met in the house."I have no interest in viewing a piano falling down the stairs. I said the location you were in previously." She exhaled a long sigh. Was there even air here in the void for her to exhale?Apparently, the info is restricted for some reason."There is no such thing as restricted information where I am concerned." Her irises began to change from a silvery colour to a golden glow as she looked on into the distance, clearly reading her system info. After a moment, her eyes returned to normal. "As I thought, my permissions are intact. If you refuse to cooperate, I’ll have to reroute you to the closest registered point to your last known location." She froze for a moment before continuing. "Did you not move at all after entering the world? Your last known location is your spawn point. No wonder you were picked for the arena."Wait, no, don’t send me back there!"Processing rerouting protocols," she said, her tone clipped and precise, though an edge of annoyance crept in. "The cheapest path to your location requires passing through the Plane of Everlasting Pain. Hold still and prepare for the transfer." She conjured a hammer seemingly from nowhere and held it over her head. "Have a pleasant trip."Wait, wait, please, anywhere else. You could just send me back to Fateswatch! That’s where I was teleporting from, wasn’t it?
Completely ignoring my pleas, she swung the hammer down, and in an instant, I was hurtling through some kind of space that felt like it was made of nothing but suffering. The air itself pulsed with agony. My body was on fire despite the fact I didn’t have one at the moment, each non-existent nerve seared with a burning sensation that tore through every inch of my soul. Yet at the same time, it was freezing cold, and I felt clammy with sweat. The worst part wasn’t the pain. Instead, it was my vision. It was flooded with endless loops of the cringiest moments of my life, each one playing over and over.
I choked back a sob internally and tried to dissociate from the experience.
After what felt like weeks, all the pain stopped, and I allowed myself to relish my freedom for a moment. Finally, gathering my wits, I took a moment to look around and realized that I was approaching the ground at a ridiculous speed. Before I had time to react, I slammed into the dirt, bouncing a few times before I came to a final stop.
I checked the time while peeling myself off the ground. Ten hours had passed since I first arrived in the void. While I finished repairing the damage from the fall, I took my bearings. I wasn’t in an ashen wasteland like I thought I was being sent to. Instead, it was more like I had entered some kind of Mana dead zone. The area seemed to be a Mana dead zone. The only type I could see was a faint scattering of Air Mana floating down from above.
My explorer title told me that I was exactly two hundred and fifty thousand kilometres from Fateswatch, so I was now even further from my safety than before. How the fuck did I end up here? I had a few notifications waiting for my attention, which I took a moment to look over.
[Zone Entered]
You have just entered Ruins of Valsir
I have no idea what or who Valsir is or are, but their Ruins look like the result of a nuclear war. Why was I sent here anyway?
A second notification surprised me.
Milestone Achieved: Sixth step on Eryx’s path.
Species Level (Runaspriggan) Increased +5 (16)
+5 Might, +15 Wit, +20 Spirit, +10 Fortitude, +15 Arcana, +10 Grace
I don’t remember taking any steps on his path, but apparently, I’m following some kind of plan he had for me. Well, I’m glad I’m meeting expectations completely out of order. Wouldn't have it any other way. At least this wasn’t a plant-based Milestone. It actually relates to who I am, not what the system thinks I am.
I decided that before I got moving, I should probably up my durability. The increase in Fortitude was nice, but I was still made out of plant fibres. They weren’t exactly the most durable material, and their Mana conductivity meant I’d hurt myself with my own magic sometimes. Finally having enough Mana to fix this, I leaned against a nearby rock and started covering myself with a layer of Ashenflare stem while ensuring my Mana didn’t dip below ninety percent in case I needed to skedaddle. Since I finally had my body back, this also meant I could go back to working on the one thing that brought me joy: puzzles!
An hour into fiddling with puzzles, I learned a new trick that I wanted to try out. Up until now, I had been just throwing lumps of Mana at problems. That works for sure, but there’s an alternative I discovered. remote Mana application. For example, with Earth Mana, so far, I’ve been able to conjure a rock, move a stone I’m directly touching, or just throw a lump of Earth Mana at someone like a rock.
The remote Mana application took the Mana and used some kind of multi-array threading to create an effect.
I built a little wand with two functions. It takes targeting parameters from my input and creates a rock on the spot. The rock is slightly varied in size and type every time.
Fifteen minutes later, I was holding my little stick. I aimed it at a point in the air, ensuring I was targeting it, then activated it. Nothing happened.
After rechecking the design, I couldn’t see any mistakes I had made. So, I went back into the puzzle ring and redid the puzzle regarding remote activation. I looked for anything I could have missed. Grasping at straws, I noticed that the artifact in the puzzle had a dingly bit attached to the end of it that I had just ignored previously. Again, I wished I had somebody who could teach me about magic, or maybe like an Artificery for Dummies guidebook. It didn’t look like the glowing lump in the puzzle was doing anything; it was basically decorational.
Or at least it was until the wand was activated, and by turning your point of view in the puzzle, you could see the decorative rock attached to a chain glow in a spot facing the target coordinates.
I sighed and tried to recreate the glowing ball with my [Mana Simulations] Skill and examined it closely. It seemed to be some kind of orb, but I couldn’t tell much beyond that. Unsure of what else to do, I decided to pump Nature Mana into the Skill to see if that would change anything. Immediately, I noticed a presence emanating from the object, and I realized where I had gone wrong.
You probably needed to exert Authority in order to manifest effects remotely, and I had completely missed that fact. That’s how Hazel would have yanked the core from the Titan after all. I could physically feel the pressure she exerted doing that.
Oh shit, I completely forgot I was going to contact her.
I hurriedly connected the communication device I had built into my skull to my audio processing centre and sent a message.
"Hey, Hazel! It’s Ellie. I survived," I sent, making sure the Communication Mana flowed properly, even though the relay was stashed in my Inventory.
Thirty seconds later, my ears were nearly blown out.
"ELLIE! What took you so long? I thought you were never going to contact me!" Hazel’s voice caused the audio to peak before she broke into sobs. "There’s no one else to teach me how items work. I can’t even figure out how this communication device works."This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere."I was stuck during the teleport, so I had to wait for an angel to fix it by sending me through a plane of pain," I replied, trying to hide my distaste for the angel. I had no idea if she was still listening to my thoughts. I mean, she’s great, and I obviously loved her ten-out-of-ten service. Don’t smite me, please."Oh, I’m so sorry you had to meet one of those things. Anyways! I’ve been having an issue with Mana aspects. One of the skills that came with the [inspired Apprentice Mekanist] profession solved the problem of me destroying the material, but I can’t figure out how to combine different types of Mana." Hazel asked, giving me whiplash once again with how quickly she had changed her tone.
I just had to laugh at that. Girl knows how to prioritize, I guess. "Only if you agree to help me exert my own authority. I know you do it when casting spells, but I still have no idea how it works."Hazel agreed, and we discussed Mana ratios and proper filtering techniques in detail. While I explained the mechanics of Mana circuits, I worked on some of my puzzles and tried to figure out authority manipulation on my own with [Mana Simulations].
My ability to multitask had grown exponentially as I levelled up. I had to assume my growing Wit stat had something to do with that. It was like having a conversation with a friend while playing a game, except the conversation was related to solving your friend's homework problem while also building a Lego set at the same time. The talk brought back nostalgic memories I had nearly forgotten about. I had spent a lot of time in my youth chatting shit with online friends, and for a minute, I felt like I wasn't even in hell anymore.
Unfortunately, happiness is a transient guest, bound to depart when least expected. In the middle of trying to figure out if I could send blueprints through the audio link to make the whole discussion easier, I felt a prickling sensation run along my back. Something was broadcasting its presence in an untamed fashion. I clung to the crumbling wall behind me and tried to peek at whatever it was.
"Hey, Hazel, is it normal for wild creatures to just blast their authority at full volume?" I sent over the link, interrupting her in the middle of suggesting a modification to the communicator to facilitate the information transfer. Not that it would have worked. Her foundations in artificery were sloppy enough that they would have just resulted in white noise.
"Hmm, I don’t think so. The usual behaviour of wild animals is to keep their aura held within, but it really depends. I don’t have many memories of monster behaviour beyond their physical characteristics, and things may be different out of where you are." She responded after a moment of delay. "Are you safe? Don’t engage any creatures you see. You are not nearly…"
"Gotta go. We can talk again later. Sorry, need to focus." I said, followed by sending the sound of a phone hanging up and closing the link. I spotted the… Well, maybe creature isn’t the right word. Abomination? No, that’s too tame. A blight on reality? No, worse than that. A tear in existence itself. A paradox given form. A violation of nature, a wound in the universe. Something that has no right to be, yet it is.
The writing mass of twisting tendrils that conformed to no true physical laws rolled across the barren soil, sucking up any environmental Mana that came across its path. It pulsed with something awful, reality itself seeming to tear in its passing. It was like some kind of eldritch tumbleweed. After spotting it, I had to turn off my Mana sight as revulsion built up in me. It was doing something with Mana internally that was just wrong. Some part of me was screaming that a being like this shouldn’t exist, that it is anathema to life itself. Taking heavy breaths, I hid behind the rock, but the image of the thing wouldn't leave my mind. It was rolling by in such a way that as long as I wasn’t detected, it would pass right by me.
A part of me wanted desperately to avoid this abhorrent existence, but another part despised the fact that something like that could ever be allowed to exist. An impulse deep inside urged me to rush out and kill it, to burn any trace of its existence from this world. A few calming breaths later, I realized something was influencing me mentally. Really, I should have noticed this a while ago; I just put it out of my mind. Something about the being I had become had changed my view of the world.
Running into a Lovecraftian horror would have intrigued me before I ended up here. Instead, all I could feel was a deep-seated rage at the mere existence of such a being, a fury tempered only by the fear of it catching me. There’s no way I would have been able to murder people and completely dissociate from that fact before. Thinking about it, I didn’t entirely dislike the changes; this was a different world, and having different values is probably a necessity. But do I just give in to those impulses and abandon my previous self?
Well, obviously, the answer is yes. I need to send that thing to hell—or double hell? I don’t know how the logistics work, and that doesn’t matter.
Pulling up [Mana Simulations], I took a deep breath and added the creature to the simulation. Immediately, I began retching as quietly as I could. How the fuck does this thing even exist? The Mana inside the being held no aspect, yet it wasn’t Raw Mana either. It was as if the Mana was being unmade and turned into something else. Something that reality itself balked at, like some mad creation that has gone loose.
The Zone I was currently in came to mind. It was a ruin, which meant that something had to have happened to reduce whatever used to be here to what I see now. Obviously, they touched upon something they shouldn’t have, something that left this entire place a barren wasteland. I wondered if this was a scenario that was set up in advance or if the zone was pulled in from somewhere across the multiverse. I pushed down my urge to strangle a potential designer of this zone and focused on the simulation.
I poured Nature Mana into the sim environment and focused all my attention on it, speeding up perceived time. It was a weird feeling. Part of my consciousness was moving way faster than normal, but that increase didn’t extend to the real world.
I began testing things on the aberrant snapshot that my eyes captured. I began with my go-to, detonating a grenade right next to it. All of the Fire Mana blown into the air was just absorbed by the being. The only noticeable effect was the shrapnel blowing chunks off the tendrils, but those wounds immediately healed.
Going down the list of possibilities, I just started trying things. Spraying it with my corruptive Nature Mana did nothing, given it wasn't a being of nature that made sense. Physically accosting the being just led to me being consumed by it. However, watching what was happening as it consumed the simulated version of me gave me an idea.
A grin spread across my face as I ran a final simulation. This could work. Hopefully. As long as nothing weird happens.
I built a small walker construct in my hand and connected it to the communication hub in my head. I then took out a Firebloom grenade and placed it in a basket on the top of the construct before hooking the circuits up so it could be remotely activated.
I then dropped the walker on the ground and peeked over the rock again. The monstrosity had rolled somewhat close to me and seemed to be rolling back and forth on one spot. I had no idea what it was doing, but I started manipulating the remote construct to walk over to the horror. It was rather tricky to manipulate, and I decided that the next time I built one, I was going to add eyes if possible. Individually controlling each limb to make the thing walk forward was really awkward when I didn’t share a perspective.
To my dismay, a quick check revealed that the construct did add to my biomass, meaning I couldn’t build a second body unless I wanted to shrink myself even further. Presumably, the communicator I gave Hazel also added to the limit, except it was just too light to really matter.
When the walker came within one hundred metres of the thing, it pounced, closing the distance in less than a second before slamming into the construct and devouring it. Right before the connection I had with it was destroyed, I detonated the grenade. Bits of not-quite-flesh flew in every direction as the monstrosity was blown to flaming pieces.
I celebrated internally for a moment before realizing I hadn’t gotten a kill notification. To my horror, the being was reforming itself from tiny leftover burnt scraps on the ground. Unsure of what to do, I reconnected my communicator with Hazel.
"Heeeeey, sorry for cutting you off. You were saying something about how I should definitely kill the monster, right?" I politely intoned, "So I blew it into little pieces, and it's now reforming from nothing. Any advice?"
I received a heavy sigh in response. "As I was saying," Hazel began, "You shouldn't engage with anything out there because everything is going to have a crazy amount of Vital Energy."
"Sorry, I don't know the term. Could you explain?" The blight on reality had almost fully reformed by now. "Also, maybe give me the short version."
"So all living things… Except you, I guess, now that you mention it, that’s really weird. I remember when I scanned you, it didn’t…" I cut her off before she could get into a technical discussion.
"I said the short version, please, it’s almost done reforming." The blob was starting to move again in a more frantic fashion. It wasn’t fully together yet, so it was mostly just flopping on the spot, but it seemed to be moving closer to me. I had to hope it was moving randomly.
"Right, sorry, short version, uhh. So, every living thing has this energy that allows it to regenerate wounds. As long as it hasn't been completely killed, it can eventually be reformed. Anything living out in the far reaches is going to have so much Vital Energy that they will be basically impossible to put down." Right, okay, I picked my species for its regenerative ability, but apparently, that’s not special because everybody can regenerate… I regret nothing.
"So how do I kill it?" I asked, despite already knowing the answer."Well, the easiest way would be to destroy all of its vital organs. Depending on the kind of creature, it may have different vitals. For example, humans need to keep their brain intact in order to channel their Vital Energy." She began before I cut in again.
"Already tried that. It regenerated from little bits and pieces." I grumbled over the connection."Then... I'm not sure. The only other way is to drain its vitality completely unless you can somehow find a way to atomize it. It can’t regenerate forever, though it might come close to being able to do that if its Fortitude is high enough. Unless you can get an energy lock with your Authority to work, I suggest just running." Hazel said in an almost pleading voice.
"Okay, never mind, out of time!" I sent it as the mass of tendrils had begun bouncing in my direction. I jumped out of cover and began sprinting away while pushing [Natural Enhancement] to the Skill’s limit. Luckily, it wasn’t moving nearly as quickly as before, though. There was some kind of loss to its internal supply of the fucked up Mana it used.
I sighed to myself because I probably should have realized this earlier, and I pulled out another grenade, just adding a remote connection to it instead of building the whole construct I had built before and threw it at the blob. It jumped towards the source of Mana and began consuming it immediately. Apparently, it wasn’t very smart… I probably should have recognized that from the beginning. It was just travelling towards the nearest source of Mana. The non-conductive coating around my shell was the only reason it hadn't attacked me immediately. There wasn't much need to put all that thought into how to kill it, at least until I ran out of grenades.I detonated the grenade once it was completely enveloped, reducing the thing to a smattering of not-quite-meat across the ground. It immediately began reforming again, but I couldn’t let that happen. Running over to the reforming pile, I pulled out the bundle of grenades and just began whipping them at it. Every time one came close, the regenerating bits would lunge for the grenade and be blasted apart yet again. I could only hope these things didn’t come in smarter varieties because this seemed almost too easy. Once I was down to five grenades, I received the kill notification.
[Killed Lesser Minor Wretchspawn Larva (Basal) Lvl 150]
"Alright, it’s dead," I said over the connection, hearing a relieved sigh in return. I noted the name of the spawn and the implications behind it, and decided I needed to get the fuck out of here before I run into an adult version of one of those. Now that the all-encompassing rage at the gall the larva had to exist was gone, I realized it was probably also a waste of grenades as well."Can we get back to my issue with the circuit again, then?" Hearing her response, I snorted with laughter. "Sure, as long as you get around to teaching me how to use my own Authority at some point soon.""Deal!"