A Jaded Life

With the Shrine done, there wasn’t all that much we could do in this area. Sure, the Charland hadn’t given up all its mysteries but I doubted we’d be able to probe them, simply because of their complexity. It was a piece of bloody complicated magic, far beyond my current level, and what little I could understand from the readings Luna had put into the library, that wasn’t about to change. The Charland and its genesis felt as if it was just below the Astral River and the way it had burrowed into the foundations of our reality, meaning it would likely be a lot easier to understand a complete subset of magic compared to the Charland. Hel, it might be easier to understand how a Dungeon was generated and sustained, which was an equally elusive topic. Furthermore, it was only thanks to the Divine Magic wielded by Luna that we had access to the information in the library, not that I could understand the data scribed into the magical crystal. Not only was it written in a dense, almost mathematical notation composed of runes, numbers and unknown symbols that I had no reference for, but even if I had an idea what the different symbols stood for, I doubted I could make anything of them.

When I asked Luna about it, she explained to me that she knew some of these symbols. According to her, they were referencing ways magical elements interacted with each other, while other symbols stood for ways her sight perceived magic, somewhat similar to the way I could see magic as colours. In this case, a specific rune stood for a specific hue of colour, allowing for a clearer demarcation of different elements and effects. Where I might consider a magical effect a combination of Poison, Fire and Earth or something along those lines, Luna was slowly learning to describe that combination with a formula, allowing her to get a better idea of what the effect would actually do. Given the almost infinite number of potential combinations and the ways they could interact depending on the exact starting conditions, the need for a specific and somewhat complex notation made sense. Sadly, I had a feeling it was akin to something like calculus and I was only now starting to realise that I could do more than count on my fingers. Learning what the different symbols meant would only be the first step, afterwards I’d likely have to find ways to transpose what my senses told me onto the symbols before learning how to actually use the notation to any sort of effect.

Or, in other words, I had a lot of learning to do and, sadly, I didn’t have a real teacher who knew what they were doing. Luna herself only could manage what she had done thanks to it being divine Magic, in other words, she was only providing a beacon while Lady Hecate did the heavy lifting. If anything, I was a little amazed that Luna had been able to add the raw data to the library, as I doubted the average deity would give their faithful access to that kind of information. Granted, I also doubted that most deities had any interest in that kind of data unless they were trying to unravel the way the system and Astral River interacted with reality instead of simply accepting it. But even if they did, it would be something they kept to themself, not shared with their servants.

There was a part of me, likely the voice of my ego, that wanted to create my own notation, my own system, so I didn’t have to rely on something borrowed from the Gods but, realistically, it would be a stupid idea. While it was possible to derive all of calculus from first principles, it was the work of a lifetime, unless one was an extreme prodigy, and calculus was something humans had been able to come up with. Sure, it took a long time and successive iterations as different brilliant people added their own small nuggets of genius to the tower that was human knowledge but it had been done. I had no idea if any mortal race could come up with a system to classify magic in the way Lady Hecate had done or if that was a purely divine claim to fame. Furthermore, even if I managed to create my own notation and system, I’d also have to come up with a way to transfer information from one system into the other, meaning I’d have to learn Lady Hecate’s notation either way.

With that in mind, I made a mental note to have Luna explain to me as much as possible as we continued to travel. Or maybe I could ask Lady Hecate to get a primer for Her system as a reward the next time we did an important quest for Her. It certainly would make things easier.

But before we could consider that, I wanted to make one last round through the Charland. There were other nodes I wanted to at least take a look at, I wanted to spread some Fireleaf seeds in the area and I wanted to deal with as many of the greater monsters as we could find in a few days. Maybe I’d even have Luna whip up some generic magical seeds, simply grass seeds imbued with Life Magic, hoping they would germinate into something interesting when exposed to the fascinating mix of powers within the Charland. There might even be something in the air responsible for stretching reality and if that somehow became a grass, it would be quite interesting. Magic Space Grass, it almost sounded like some sort of drug, akin to magic mushrooms.

Given our limited supplies, I wasn’t planning to explore too much more of the Charland, but just a little bit more. There was a part of me that was irked about leaving the task unfinished, even if I intellectually knew that the task might be endless, as the Charland was likely generating the monsters inhabiting it, like an actual computer game.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I had out-levelled almost every enemy within the Charland, I would have pushed to keep hunting within, and I might even do so, simply to help Luna and Alex catch up some more. Silva and I remained some twenty levels above them, while Lia was slowly catching up to us, as they received more EXP per enemy, being closer to the enemies’ level, or even below the levels of most enemies we were fighting. Additionally, we needed more EXP per level, so even if we would all get the same EXP, which we didn’t, the gap in pure levels would shrink.

After one more check of our supplies, the five of us set out once again. The outer area remained the same and as we travelled through the areas we had already seen, nothing interesting jumped out at us. We gathered a wide variety of strange substances for Alex and Lia, they planned to turn them into their usual brand of insanity before we started to check out the different nodes on the second day.

Sadly, it turned out that the Fire Node we came across initially was the only node we could easily approach. There was one Poison Node deep underground from the way the Astral River was distorted. Sadly, the poison seeping out of it wasn’t staying underground, turning the area above the node into a death trap, at least death to everything not completely anorganic or immune to poison. There were a few strange crystalline creatures in the area and I thought I saw some sort of slime in the distance, but when we tried to move into it, we quickly turned around, all of us worse for wear and Luna coughing up drops of bright, red blood.

Other nodes turned out in similar ways, they were all inaccessible, either due to their location, environmental effects or both. Luckily, there were a few large monsters we could hunt as compensation, the EXP we made over a week of hunting was enough to push me to yet another level-up and level eighty-five. That, in turn, meant that Dragon-Touched boosted my Courage to thirty-five, bringing a new trait with it. Not an amazing trait, but a neat one. The Tenacious Courage trait increased the effect of my courage while under the effect of negative environmental effects, or so it said. To me, that meant I wouldn’t panic as easily while in the dark, or while being exposed to things like the poisoned atmosphere above the Poison Node and similar effects. In other words, it would help me to remain calm when the danger didn’t come from enemies, or at least if the danger didn’t just come from enemies.

Magically, I had mostly used Ice and Water Magic during the trip into the Charland, the combat enough to push both Magic Skills and Rune Masteries up by on point each, though that only reduced the points I needed for the next milestones.

Once everything was done, we said our goodbye to the Charland and set out, travelling further North-West.