Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 217, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 5 –

Terry was standing in the oasis water on transfixed boots. He involuntarily burped. “Oof… I feel so full.”

Terry had not left the oasis area. He had looked around meticulously and gathered information. He had learned and confirmed many things. Most important of all, he was alone in the area ever since the female martial cultivator had left.

Terry had a good idea, why no one else had arrived. As if to prove the point, Terry sensed a mana distortion. Before he could feel the all-to familiar tug on himself, Terry gave his mana a quick burst.

“Annoying but predictably on time,” scoffed Terry.

Evidently, the will left behind in the secret realm was judging Terry to be a contestant here for his reward. To Terry’s annoyance, the will wanted to enforce the time limit by using an unanchored spatial transfer to throw Terry out.

Naturally, Terry felt disinclined to have either his peace or his training disturbed.

Whatever is guiding the actions here, does not seem too smart. It does not distinguish me from the woman that had been sent here after a challenge.

Whatever it is, it does not seem to have proper intelligence at the level of folks. That seems very different from a dungeon. More like a set of individual simple decision makers instead of an integrated whole.

“Not that I’m complaining,” muttered Terry while trying to assimilate the last bits of mana from the oasis. He enjoyed the peace and retreat from all the battle lunatics in this secret realm. Even though Terry had to resist the periodic spatial transfers, this was the most peace and quiet he had experienced in what felt like forever.

Terry had used the time to order his thoughts and to examine every inch of the area. He had discovered a few mana-infused fruits, beans, and strange plants. From Terry’s initial tests, they were all edible.

Even better, the berries seemed to have mana channel strengthening and mana flow smoothening effects. The beans even helped with curing wounds.

Terry had not discovered the magic effect of all the strange plants, but he was already happy with what he had found.

Terry took a bite from one of the lizan rations and enjoyed the feeling of warmth that came with it. He did not understand how these rations worked, but he could feel that they had a beneficial effect on his physique.

Perhaps these rations could explain why the lizans appeared so strong even without any mana…

Initially, Terry had been very concerned about the food situation, but as it turned out, with the mana from the oasis, he did not have to eat much. The mana could substitute for food if Terry wanted.

Nevertheless, the additional effect from the lizan rations had piqued his interest. Terry had often felt betrayed by the weakness of his physical body in the Thanatos Proving Grounds. Even though Terry knew that his physique would change drastically under the influence of his mana with time, it had always felt as if it wasn’t enough.

“Time…” Terry allowed his eyes to wander over the area once more and sighed. He sighed because of the diminishing effects from the oasis water.

“If only I knew how this worked…” Terry spread out his mana in the oasis. The amount of oasis mana he was able to assimilate had slowed down with time, as if the source of compatible mana had dried up.

“No, not dried up,” muttered Terry with a wrinkled forehead. “A constant trickle remains.” If Terry had to compare it, he would use the analogy of a mana pool. The mana pool had bottomed out, but the mana regeneration was still providing a constant supply of new mana to absorb.

“Still, this was a nice surprise.” Terry took a deep breath. His mana pool had improved significantly with the help of the oasis training. With his regular mana foundational training, Terry would have needed at least twice the time for half the benefit.

“I have to go though…” Terry spoke quietly with no one around to hear him. If he had learned one thing about himself the past two years, it was that he could not stomach waiting around, not like this.

Not alone.

Too much time with his own thoughts.

Too much time to worry about his family and friends. Too much time to remember that he didn’t know where they were or how they were doing.

Good job, Terry. If your whaka are in danger right now, you are really making a difference. Big help you are.

Too much time to become painfully aware that he had been transported by a dungeon not once but twice already.

Looking forward to a lifetime full of dungeon shenanigans. Perhaps Devon and I should create a support group or something…

Too much time to remember that he was soulless, apparently. Too much time to worry what this meant.

Perhaps my soul, at least, is roaming outside somewhere. Admittedly, it’s probably together with some creepy looney feeding it bugs and broccoli or some shit.

Not like I’m able to do anything about it. I'm pretty useless, am I not?

Too much time to remember that, in all likelihood, he was trapped. Trapped for another year.

Or dead before then. I'm trapped with a bunch of personified anger issues and walking pest beetles ready to explode. Trapped because of my own naivety, one might emphasize.

“Yeah yeah yeah.” Terry mocked his own intrusive thoughts. He glanced down at the water. “One last thing to check one last time.”

Terry inhaled deeply and then dove into the water and rapidly descended until he could see the bottom of the oasis lake. He had done so before, but he wanted to see it again before he left.

Terry let his fingers wander over the hard rock that was underneath the lake.

Tiny inscriptions. Barely perceptible.

Terry sensed different activation levels from different layers of inscriptions. He did not know what it meant, but he knew what it reminded him of.

Dungeon.

Terry furrowed his brow. He found it hard to reconcile what he was sensing with what he had discovered before.

He had trouble believing that a mana martialist would be able to create such inscriptions, no matter how distinguished a senior it might have been. This kind of inscription system was something else.

However, Terry also had difficulties to see this whole secret realm as anything but man-made. There were many reasons. First among them was that a dungeon wouldn’t be stupid enough to allow Terry to cheat the reward system. Also…

This symbol…

Terry’s fingers traced a washed out symbol on the rock. It looked like a dark purple circle with a circular gap inside. The symbol reminded Terry of something that his brother Jorg had once mentioned.

Enough.

Terry placed his feet on the rock and pushed himself upwards. He continued dashing up with the help of his boot mechanism and his Immovable Object spell.

Back on the surface, Terry walked onto shore and sat in the light of the strange sun to dry. He retrieved several books from his storage items. These were the books that his uncle Samuel had sent him to Tiv. Books about dungeons, which Terry had never quite gotten around to reading.

Terry flipped through the indices of the books to find the page number for what he was looking for.

“Historical dungeon diving…” Terry read out loud and then flipped to the page indicated in the index. He skimmed the page until he found a relevant passage.

When dungeons first appeared, the items that are now able to support a pioneering dungeon dive weren’t commonly available yet.

The primary dungeon problem is not a question of power but of logistics. The modern solutions to this problem are, of course, dimensional storage devices and transport magic. However…

“Yadda yadda yadda…” Terry continued to skim the text.

A secondary problem is one of navigation. We call it secondary, because while important, it merely serves to accentuate the primary problem. A dungeon of unknown depths and layout requires a solution to the supply problem. Getting lost and losing time on one floor is just a different version of the problem faced by an uncertain number of additional floors.

“One of the earliest forms of improving pioneering efficiency by optimizing navigation were the dungeon marks…” Terry read out loud. “Magical marks that could be sensed even through the dungeon interference and allowed potential backtracking as well as loop detection.”

“Hmmm…” Terry pondered. He had never seen a dungeon mark in person before, which meant that he couldn’t be sure. Even so, the strange mark at the bottom of the oasis added to the feeling of contradiction that Terry felt in this strange secret realm.

No matter. The other inmates in this asylum are probably going to kill each other sooner rather than later and then I’ll see if the bodies disappear like they would in a dungeon.

Terry closed the books and returned them to his dimensional storage once more.

“I should have a few more minutes before the periodic transfer arrives again.” Terry looked around. He was certain that there was no other exit.

Even though it seemed as if he was in an open area, Terry had already confirmed that he could not leave it. He had stepped into the sky and wandered off, only to realize that he had never gotten very far. Either the space was somehow stretched after a certain distance from the oasis or there was some kind of rubber bounce effect that had Terry move backwards a step for every step he made.

Terry did not have any clue how that worked. He only knew two things. First, he could run for an hour, turn around, and the view did not look much different as if he had never taken a single step. Second, his bursts with oscillating mana did not prevent whatever was happening. Or maybe Terry wasn’t able to maintain his bursts long enough to break though. Terry had no way to falsify that hypothesis.

***

Lots of mana martialists were mingling in a large area.

“Did you hear? More people have disappeared without a trace.”

“How do you know that they’re not simply taking part in the trials?”

“I heard someone say they heard screaming and then when they checked out the area, there was nothing there. Creepy.”

“Some people were desperately looking for their sect members earlier. I don’t believe they would do that if—”

“Nonsense of the weak-minded. Perhaps they just overestimated their abilities.”

“Right, my thoughts exactly. However, did you hear the rumors about some of the people here? It seems like some real black horses have arrived.”

“Do you mean the Outcast from the Ironbark Fist Sect?”

“I’ve heard that even someone with heretical cultivation has been spotted. Some people were whispering that it could be the daughter of the famous Heretic from the Lands of Four Towers.”

“Horseshit. The Heretic from the Martial Tower was killed. All of his family and his direct disciples were put to death.”

“Perhaps one escaped! You don’t know!”

“Shh, I don’t think we are supposed to talk about the heretics.”

“What about— Ahh? Who dares?!” Some of the martialists retreated from a spot in their middle.

A moment later, Terry appeared out of thin air. He had been transported there directly from the oasis.

“You have a lot of nerve!” grumbled a tall-grown man.

Terry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was already missing the peace and quiet of the oasis.

“Hey, I’m speaking to you, numbnuts.”

‘Numbnuts’? Ugh… Terry immediately walked away towards the direction where he was sensing the least amount of lunatics.

“Oi!”

“Ease up, he probably wasn’t eavesdropping and just arrived here from the trials.”

“Idiot, of course he did, but so what? If he earned some rewards, he might as well hand them over. If he appeared here alone, that’s his own fault. He can only blame his own bad luck.”

“How do you know he’s here alone?”

“Are you kidding? He isn’t even wearing a proper sect uniform.”

“Seriously, what is this outfit?”

“He must be blind to run around with stuff like that.”

“Is he wearing a helmet? What a wuss.”

When they were all indignant that Terry was still not paying attention to them, one of the impatient mana martialists decided to finally make a move. The martialist used a fist-technique to strike Terry in the back.

Unfortunately for the reckless martialist, Terry had transfixed the protective septimum plate on his back.

The martialist howled in pain and fury. Terry on the other hand was simply relieved that he could rely on his equipment again. This felt so much better than the battles in the Proving Grounds. He counted his blessings that he had recovered his equipment back from Thanatos.

Some of it at least…

Terry subconsciously smiled while turning and slashing his keen dagger to retaliate against the mana martialist.

Terry sensed a stronger mana resonance of another martialist who was trying to save his comrade. Terry swiftly released a mana disruption pulse to interfere with the resonance and accelerated with a burst technique.

An instant later, Terry held the injured mana martialist in a stranglehold with his keen dagger pressed against the man’s neck. He was staring sternly at the second mana martialist that had tried to protect the first.

“Friend, I admit that my brother has done wrong to offend you, but no harm has been done, right? You still have your possessions and your health. I ask you to let him go.”

Terry almost choked on his own spit. “No harm done, huh?”

Mana damned lunatics.

Terry glared at the martialist. “You make it sound as if trying and failing to inflict harm was the same as never having tried in the first place.” Terry was already feeling his barely recovered supply of patience running out. “What kind of bullshit logic is that supposed to be?”

“You…”

“Insolent bastard.”

“Who does he think he is?”

“Friend, please—”

“I’m not your friend,” interrupted Terry irritatedly. “I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. I want nothing from you. Go away.”

“Now listen,” the mana martialist was speaking with anger. “You hold my martial brother in your arms. If you think that I will overlook—”

Terry rapidly moved his keen dagger and the blade sunk into the body of the man he held hostage – a non-vital but painful spot. Immediately after, Terry returned the blade to the neck of his hostage who was screaming in pain. Terry glared at the mana martialists in defiance. “You were saying?”

“You—”

“I don’t remember asking you to overlook anything,” interjected Terry coldly.

“If you leave now, I can forget your insolence.”

“Shut your damned face hole already,” snapped Terry. “I never asked you to forget anything. In fact, I would be annoyed if you did, because then I’ll have to do it all again.”

“You’re dead,” hissed one of the martialists.

“Uh-huh,” replied Terry dismissively.

“We’ll kill you for what you’ve done,” emphasized the leader of the group. “Now unhand my junior.”

“Or what?” challenged Terry. “You already said that you’d kill me. I don’t see much room for further escalation.”

“That’s because you’re lacking imagination,” retorted the leader of the martialist group. “If you hand him over, only you will have to die. If you don’t hand him over, then you’ll suffer nine familial exterminations. We’ll eradicate nine of your generations!”

Terry furrowed his brow without letting go of his hostage. “What does this crap even mean?”

“Idiot.”

“Bumpkin.”

“It means,” began the leader in a frigid tone. “That we’ll look for nine generations of your blood relations. Your parents, your—”

“Blood relations?” Terry couldn’t help but erupt in loud laughter. “Good luck with that. I barely know who my blood-related parents are, but at least one of them is in Arcana’s Council of government. Are you going to travel to Arcana and assassinate a Council member? That’s funny.”

The leader of the martialists could not suppress a twitch in his facial expression and was at a momentary loss for words.

Terry had to admit that he enjoyed berating the martialists. After having to mull over every word in Thanatos, it felt liberating. It felt good to vent his frustrations. He hated being trapped in a place with nothing but lunatics. The least he could allow himself was to show his hatred honestly.

Venting aside, however, the longer Terry held onto his hostage, the more awkward he felt. It made him feel like a villain again.

Would a great person do this? I don’t know…

“Leave me the hell alone,” barked Terry. He removed the blade from the man’s neck and was about to push him forward.

“I’ll kill you,” were the first words that escaped from the hostage’s mouth.

Terry pulled the hostage back and sunk his keen dagger into another non-lethal but painful area.

Perhaps I could be a good person?

“Bastard,” coughed the hostage together with a mouthful of blood.

Terry stabbed the man once more, still avoiding lethal areas.

Well, I’m alright I guess.

“Piss the fuck off,” growled Terry and pushed the hostage into the group of mana martialists.

“You…”

Terry could sense some of the mana martialists flaring up, but by now he had taken a rough measure of their mana signatures. He did not feel particularly threatened. While these people weren’t exactly weak, they did not measure up to some of the older martialists with whom Terry had to deal with in Thanatos.

Terry had some degree of confidence that he would be able to escape at least.

“Hold it,” ordered the leader and then glared at Terry. “Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

Terry thought back to the outward posturing he knew from Rafael and how often it had been contradicted by the thoughts transmitted quietly. “Indeed, but I admit that I may be overestimating your intelligence.”

Even Terry was surprised at the insult that had involuntarily escaped from his lips. At some point, I need to really get back to regular breathing exercises. In here more than ever. Anyway…

“You little—” The leader was furious.

“Hold it right there!” rang the commanding tone from another location. “This one is ours to deal with.”

“Ugh…” Terry groaned and he rolled his eyes in annoyance. He recognized one of the mana signatures from the new group.

“Is he the one that disturbed you, Princess Sheila?” asked a giant boulder of a man.

“Yes, Senior,” replied the exhibitionist woman whom Terry had met in the oasis. A gleeful glint entered her eyes as she looked down on Terry.

“Haha, seems like we don’t even have to make a move,” jeered the leader from the previous group.

“You better leave now, I don’t like you breathing away our precious air,” threatened a tall-grown woman from the princess's group.

“You…” The first group was outraged but they held their tongues. Surprisingly, they did as they had been asked and left.

I guess they recognize the group with the lunatic nudist. Terry shrugged inwardly.

Terry could sense that this new batch of martialists was stronger, but on the flip side, there were fewer people to deal with. More importantly, Terry already knew that their young princess or whatever wasn’t that strong.

If the woman in question knew what Terry was thinking, she would spit blood in anger. Her sect did not allow anyone under twenty-five to take up a spot for the secret realm. She was among the youngest that had been permitted the chance to enter. She was heralded as a genius in her own sect.

“You have angered the Young Princess of the Icy Dew Mountain.” The tall-grown woman announced in a voice that resembled a death sentence.

“That should make us even,” retorted Terry drily. “Your exhibitionist princess has angered me too.”

“Don’t speak of that!” shrieked Sheila.

“‘Exhibitionist’?” The face on the boulder of a man darkened. “It seems your sins are even graver than I thought.” He made a step forward and pointed a large warhammer towards Terry. “Our young princess has stated that you have shown her disrespect. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“That your young princess was ignorant of my thoughts, else she would feel worse than disrespected.” Terry spoke snarkily.

Terry had to admit he felt a pang of pleasure when he saw the words sink into the heads of the martialists. Before they got a chance to fully digest and react with the outrage that was inevitable, Terry added: “Cut the bullshit. If you want to make a move, do it. That’s what I have to say. And you…”

Terry glowered at the princess from Icy Dew Mountain that went by the name of Sheila. “Are you turning into a stalker now? I don’t like you. Go away.”

“Insolent.” The boulder of a man was quivering from indignant anger. He circulated his mana through his acupoints and charged at Terry. He lunged out with his two-handed warhammer while a mana resonance of a white furry monkey’s paw appeared to be stomping down.

The mana in the hammer. I wonder…

Terry decided to not directly cast the Immovable Object spell. Instead, he swiftly drew the septimum throwing needle from his left leg strap with the sheath inscription. Terry angled the throwing needle so that the tip would impact on a certain spot of mana and then transfixed it.

All of Terry’s thoughts and actions happened in a single breath and to others it looked as if he was casually using a simple manaless stiletto dagger to block the large war hammer. Terry’s own hand was shielding the Immovable Object spell structure from the view of everyone else.

*Bang* The warhammer violently smashed against the immovable object and unleashed an unbelievable recoil onto the mana martialist who suffered injuries both from the force as well as from the backlash from his forcefully interrupted technique.

“You…” The mountain of a man was now a lot paler. His arms were numb and his mana circulation was disturbed. “...managed to block a high earth tier artifact?!”

Interesting, I guess there are advantages to this way of blocking as well. Both the recoil and…

While the martialist was still unaware of what was going to happen, Terry was already grinning with satisfaction at the change in mana inside the war hammer.

“I’ll…” The man was still dazed from what had happened. Even if his attack could be blocked, surely, it would have to take more effort than a casual lift of the hand with a tiny dagger. “Impossible.” He channeled his mana into the hammer once more, eager to prove his own suspicions wrong.

To the man’s horror, the head of his cherished hammer was suddenly falling apart.

“Whoever crafted that hammer, did a shoddy job of it,” said Terry matter-of-factly. Even though Terry was no expert in the crafting techniques of the martialists, he understood enough about mana crafting to sense a weak spot in a magic formation. The essentials were not that different from trying to spot a weak link in a magic shielding and Terry had plenty of experience in that.

Naturally, Terry’s thoughts were biased by the current outcome. The weakness that seemed easy to spot and exploit to him, was nothing like that for others. The vulnerability required a tremendous force focused on a single spot right at the peak of the mana flowing through the hammer. Both of the conditions were provided by the attack itself while Terry only had to choose the location of impact.

“I’ll kill you,” the tall-grown woman drew a transparent sword and charged towards Terry. She did not use a martial technique for her charge.

Weird. Magic glass? Space aspect? Interesting.

Terry prepared a backup measure in the form of his Shape Metal imprint and a block of metal while trying to transfix the sword directly with the Immovable Object spell. To Terry’s relief, the spell successfully activated an arm’s length in front of him. Terry unwittingly grabbed forward to touch the glass sword and examine it more closely.

To the observers, it looked like Terry had caught the sword between two fingers and this had brought the tall-grown woman to an abrupt stop.

“Impossible!” The woman tried to pull back her sword with all her might and was immensely distraught by the fact that it did not move so much as an inch.

“I thought the spatial thorns were unblockable?!” Sheila exclaimed with shock.

“I see…” Terry muttered to himself, oblivious to the woman trying her all to pull the sword out of his grasp. He was focused on recalling the information from the crafter’s reference that his aunt Brynn had gifted to him in Arcana.

Not quite normal glass, but a version that is very compatible with space-based inscriptions or enchantments. Isn’t this supposed to be quite fragile? Is it only the weird mana layer coating it that prevents it from breaking? If so…

While still keeping his left hand on the blade, Terry reared back his right arm and punched against the blade’s side while unleashing a disruption discharge into the transfixed object.

Normally, his unstoppable shift combination was practically useless in a normal battle. The mana expenditure and required time made it impractical. A single shift did not cause much of a dent, but if the space magic on this glass sword was anything like spatial barriers, then a single shifted part should be…

Terry tentatively stopped his Immovable Object spell after a single unstoppable shift.

*Klirr* The entire glass blade broke apart into countless pieces.

“Wh-what?” The tall-grown woman stammered while her eyes moved incredulously over the bladeless sword handle that remained in her hand.

Like a spatial barrier. A single breach causes the whole thing to shatter.

Terry smiled at having his theory pan out. His smile seemed like a predator’s to the group of martialists.

“Monster,” exclaimed Sheila with horror-filled eyes.

“Quiet,” shushed the last companion of the Icy Dew Mountain's princess, the strongest among them all, who had not made a move yet. The man with sunken eyes stepped forward. “Everyone come back here.” He turned to Terry. “My name is Zhang. These three are my juniors. Senior, I can only apologize for their lack of respect.” He addressed his sect members. “You three, apologize right now!”

“Junior Chun apologizes to Senior for her insolence.” The tall grown woman stepped forth and lowered her head. Her eyes still seemed empty from shock.

“Junior Barnes apologizes to Senior for his insolence.” The boulder of a man apologized next.

“Eh?” Sheila was called in daze and woke up only when she felt the scolding gaze of Zhang on her. She spoke weakly. “J-junior Sheila apologizes for her insolence.”

Zhang added. “Respectable Senior, please don’t take their offenses to heart.”

‘Senior’? What the…

Terry tried to hide his bewilderment from his face. Naturally, he failed spectacularly and his facial expression clearly displayed that he thought the man’s statements ridiculous.

Zhang was scared that Terry would not let it go and hurriedly added: “Of course, we are willing to recompense you.”

Terry raised an eyebrow. “Recompense how?”

“Give me your storage rings.” Zhang ordered his sect members.

Terry remembered one particular point of his current predicament. “Do you have an entrance ticket?”

Zhang’s expression fell. “Senior, please take mercy on us. We already don’t have enough tickets for everyone in our group to return home. Giving up a ticket means giving up a life. Please Senior, anything but that.”

Terry frowned, which caused the man to panic.

Zhang hurriedly put together a storage ring with plenty of items and some to spare with the hopes that this would appease Terry. “Please, have a look.”

Terry cautiously accepted the ring and sunk his consciousness into it without letting down his guard.

Mighty mana, look at all this…

While Terry was still taken aback by surprise, the group of mana martialists fled as quickly as their feet would take them.

***