Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 217, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 16 –

After the altar’s spatial transfer, Terry found himself alone in a small cavern.

“Welcome, challenger of the trials.” An androgynous voice echoed from the walls.

“Huh?” Terry whipped his head around to find a translucent projection of a person in martialist robes. Terry wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a woman or a man, but the lip movements matched the words from the voice.

“You have successfully cleared the first stage of this trial. You have earned the right to choose between wealth, power, and knowledge. Your time here is limited. Choose quickly or miss the chance.”

“Okay…” Terry muttered skeptically. His eyes were darting all over the cavern while he spread his mana to scout with mana touch.

“Your time here is limited, choose quickly or miss the chance.” The voice repeated.

The walls are obstructing mana sight, but there are some… Terry focused on the prickling sensation from his mana touch. …gaps.

“Your time here is limited, choose quickly or miss the chance.” The voice insisted.

“FIne,” exclaimed Terry with slight annoyance at the repeated pestering. “Knowledge, I guess.”

“You have chosen knowledge, we will now impart the most fitting cultivation technique from our master to you…” After a pause, the translucent figure flickered suddenly. “Your acupoints are unable to accept what we have to offer.”

Well, no shit. Terry snorted. I’m not a mana martialist. I don’t have any of your acupoints.

“It seems we do not possess a compatible cultivation technique to impart,” continued the translucent projection. “As an alternative, you may choose one of the techniques available in the Hall of Knowledge yourself, so that you can learn it whenever you are ready. Even though this will be less effective than our master’s direct impartation, you are now able to choose among more techniques.”

One of the walls where Terry had detected gaps with his mana touch was sliding upwards. It revealed a room full of palm-sized pieces of jade.

“Uhh…” Terry walked closer.

“Choose one and you will proceed to the next stage of the trial. Your time here is limited. Choose quickly or miss the chance,” stressed the voice.

“I don’t know.” Terry’s gaze wandered over the many different jade tokens. “What am I even supposed to do with these?”

I should have chosen wealth. Terry grumbled in his mind. He subconsciously turned to the projection. “How do I…?” Why am I even turning around, that thing won’t care if I make eye contact or not. He cleared his throat. “How do I know what is inside?” He pointed at a jade token. “I don’t know these symbols covering them.”

“Your time here is limited. Choose quickly or miss the chance.” The voice repeated.

“Thanks for the help,” muttered Terry with sarcasm. He tentatively injected some of his mana into the first jade token.

[Shifting Shadow Steps.] A voice rang in Terry’s mind and then a sequence of images flashed one by one, displaying different circulations of mana accompanied by body movements.

Terry hastily removed his mana to get the strange feeling out of his mind.

I guess the mana martialists have discovered their own way to communicate things like that. Runic inscriptions suggest their own use. The martialists have found something else.

“Okay, while it does seem pointless, I might as well play along.” Terry shrugged. He knew he would not be able to use any of these, but perhaps he could give one of them to his aunt Brynn as a souvenir or something. The mana-crafting enthusiast might find these jade tokens a curiosity.

Terry dumped some of his mana into the room. He was eager to test if he could use these jade tokens without touching them. He had been forced to learn how to use magic items from a distance to escape from his cell in Thanatos, and now he was curious if this was also possible with martialist items.

I guess so… Terry thought to himself while more names and images flooded into his mind from a jade token he had pushed his naturalized mana into remotely.

“Then this shouldn’t take long.” Terry spread his mana and then sank his consciousness into the jade tokens one by one, only for as long as required to hear the technique’s name.

They sure like to give grandiose sounding names. Mighty this, dragon that, what the Wastes.

How is anyone supposed to know what kind of level these techniques really are?

“Ugh…” Terry involuntarily rolled his eyes.

Worse is that the names often don’t even hint at what they’re for.

‘Ethereal Phantom Steps’? Great, I’m just going to assume that the focus is invisibility? Or speed? Or an ethereal state? Or what?

I’m glad they don’t call spells like that.

“‘Steps’ at least indicates movement,” muttered Terry. “‘Slash’ implies attack, so that’s something.”

Terry fell into a rhythm of quickly examining each of the jade tokens until one caused his expression to cramp. He reversed his direction until he had reached the reason for his pause.

[Heavenly Wolf Slash of the Heavenly Beast Scriptures, complete sequence and accompanying movement technique.]

Is this what Rafael is looking for? Terry puckered his lips. Well, pettiness is as good a reason for me to choose as any other, I guess. He picked up the jade token with the heavenly wolf slash moveset.

“Very well.” The androgynous voice echoed in the area.

Terry could sense the beginnings of a mana distortion. He turned around to leave the Hall of Knowledge.

When his eyes fell on the back of the sliding wall at the top, Terry’s eyes opened wide. “Another mark?” He blurted out involuntarily. He felt the pull from an unachored spatial transfer on himself. “No, wait.” He reflexively burst his mana to resist the pull.

As soon as Terry had broken the spatial transfer, he regretted it. “Oh crap.” The sliding wall was coming down and he rushed through it into the original cavern without caring about the purple mark on the wall anymore. “Crap crap crap.”

Back in the cavern, Terry looked around with panic. There was no translucent figure anymore, which only increased his growing anxiety.

“Please,” begged Terry. “Please tell me I didn’t just get myself trapped in here.” He looked around frenziedly. “This can’t be happening.”

You could engrave one of the walls as your gravestone before you starve.

Here lies Terry.

An idiot.

“Shut up,” hissed Terry.

“Welcome, challenger of the trials.”

Just when Terry was getting started with really berating himself for his stupidity, the androgynous voice echoed from the walls again.

“Uhh…” Terry scratched his cheek. “Hi? I’m so glad to see you again, believe me.”

“You have successfully cleared the first stage of this trial. You have earned the right to choose between wealth, power, and knowledge. Your time here is limited, choose quickly or miss the chance.”

“What…” Terry’s face stiffened.

Could it be?

Really?

Terry began laughing incredulously. “Okay, let’s do this. Knowledge! Ah crap, no, I wanted to pick—” Wealth.

Terry inwardly lamented while the translucent projection rambled once more through the problem with directly imparting a technique to him. Soon after, he stepped into the room with jade tokens for the second time. He immediately searched for the mark and moved his fingers over the strange symbol.

If this isn’t a dungeon mark, then what is it?

“Your time here is limited. Choose quickly or miss the chance.”

“Yeah, yeah,” grumbled Terry. He was about to pick up the first of the jade tokens – he didn’t really care about them anyway. Before touching the jade, his eyes were drawn to the sliding wall instead.

“Heavy,” muttered Terry. Together with the mechanism that moves it, this will probably create a lot of force.

There was little doubt that any of the challengers in this secret realm would be squished into paste if they tried to hold off the wall.

“Hmm…” Terry bit his upper lip. Could it be?

Terry placed a tertium slab right underneath the wall and transfixed the slab. Afterwards, he picked up the second jade token.

“Very well.” While the voice echoed, Terry could also hear the sound of the wall impacting on the tertium slab. “Hmm…” He walked back into the original cavern. As the seconds ticked by, Terry was getting anxious again.

Here lies Terry.

He died while trying to collect jade tokens he didn't even have a use for.

A true idiot.

“Welcome, challenger of the trials.”

“Thank mana.” Terry blurted out. He stored the second jade in his dimensional bag together with the first.

“You have successfully cleared the first stage of this trial. You have earned the right to choose between wealth, power, and knowledge. Your time here is limited. Choose quickly or miss the chance.”

Terry tentatively picked up another one of the jade tokens. He was half-waiting for the familiar ‘very well’ but nothing came this time.

“Alright then, don’t mind if I do.” Terry swiped all of the jade tokens into his dimensional storage.

Seriously though, I’m not sure Aunt Brynn would have a use for all of these. They would just collect dust and take up valuable space that could be used for constructs or something.

“Perhaps I’ll meet Vicente again.” Terry replied absentmindedly to his intrusive thoughts. He did not know many martialists and at this point, his sparring partner from the Libra Outpost in Tiv was the only one he was on friendly terms with.

I think your hoarding habits are growing a bit out of control.

“As long as there is still space in my storage for more rope, it should be fine, right?” retorted Terry while seeing up the next iteration with the projection.

“Your time here is limited, choose quickly or miss the chance,” interjected the androgynous voice.

“Is it though?” quipped Terry cheekily. He could practically feel the reprimanding glares from his family and he reminded himself. “I shouldn’t get cocky.”

When the voice asked Terry for his choice again, he replied in high spirits: “Wealth, please.”

Another wall slid up and to reveal a long hall with all kinds of weird plants, crystals, and other materials.

“Nice,” exclaimed Terry with wide eyes only to narrow them in a skeptical frown a moment later. The only problem is I barely know any of these. While he believed to recognize some of the items from the reference book he had received from the Icy Dew Mountain’s people, most of the collection was a mystery to Terry.

I guess they’re valuable, so I can probably sell them at least.

“Oh wow.” Terry’s eyes were glued to a pill that radiated an intense life-aspected mana signature. He moved closer to examine it. “Most likely a healing item.”

“Your time here is limited. Choose quickly or miss the chance.” The voice reminded.

“Good point, first things first.” Terry transfixed another tertium slab to block the second wall from sliding down again. He was still keeping the first wall blocked as well.

“Now…” Terry was searching through the hall without picking up any of the items. Eventually, he found what he had been looking for: another mark. He traced the mark pensively. “I wonder.”

“Your indecisiveness has cost you your chance,” rebuked the voice sternly.

“Huh? Oh I guess I’ve been taking too long.” Terry burst his mana to resist the pull from the unanchored spatial transfer. A trace of nervousness remained in Terry, gnawing at his calm until he could finally hear the translucent projection speak again.

Terry picked up the life-aspected pill and was glad to find that the translucent projection didn’t react. Not long afterwards, the second hall had been picked clean by Terry as well.

“Power,” announced Terry loudly and the last wall where he had sensed a gap with his mana touch slid up to reveal another hallway full of items.

“Weapons, jewelry, some armor…” Terry walked through the hallway while examining the items. “Huh, these look familiar.” He stopped in front of a piece of paper that carried a strange mana-infused symbol. “Like that thing the Third Scion from the Blazing Sun Sect used. Different symbol, but probably a similar single-use talisman.

“And this…” Terry moved to another familiar object. It was a carved sphere that surrounded a weird mana signature. “That seems similar to the thing that Rafael used to create the barrier. A protective artifact?” Terry shrugged and instead of taking any of the items, he was looking for another of the purple marks.

He discovered one close to the wall at the far end. “Okay, what now?” Terry looked around and clicked his tongue.

The only question is if I can afford to take all of the items, or if I need to leave one to make sure I can trigger the spatial transfer after making a choice. What would happen if I’m stuck here without any items? Would it just send me away? Would the countdown trigger?

“Let’s stick to what I know.” Terry retrieved all of the items except for one of the paper talismans. Afterwards, he allowed the translucent projection to run through the usual procedure.

Finally, Terry picked up the paper talisman.

“Very well,” echoed the androgynous voice.

Terry felt both relief as well as a mischievous sense of glee when he sensed the unachored spatial transfer targeting him.

***

“What are you all waiting for?” A martialist engaged in a fight was pleading with some bystanders.

“The doors won’t open until we have reduced our numbers!” added another fighting martialist.

“You don’t know that!”

“Why else would we be stuck here?”

“Who cares?! Can’t you see that abominable cultivation?!”

“Right, the attacks she threw out before should not carry these aspects. Heretic!”

“You mean…?”

In a group of eight martialists, the majority stood to confront a woman in simple black combat robes whose hair was bound in a tight ponytail.

“Come here, or are you suddenly scared?!” Apex glared at the martialists in defiance. She had already beaten back four of them at once and she was determined to fight to her last breath. Her prideful gaze didn’t change even when she coughed out a clot of darkened blood. She had been severely injured, but not by these people. No, her wounds originated from an earlier ambush before the altar’s trial.

“The energy on her, isn’t that the same energy that we found when our junior disappeared?”

“If she did anything, I’ll kill her…”

“Don’t be a tease! Come then!” goaded Apex. She held up her fists. “If you think I will succumb to the likes of you just because I’m a little injured, you can consider your mistakes in the next life!”

“I know who you are!” exclaimed one of the bystanders.

“Who gives a shit?” spat Apex. “Talk with your fists or don’t talk at all!”

Fighting broke out once more, now with even more martialists joining the fight against Apex. Powerful mana was building when several martialists coordinated their attacks. It was right before their powers were unleashed that Terry appeared out of thin air.

“What the—?!” Terry was flabbergasted to find himself besieged by an intense assault the instant he arrived. He instinctively retrieved a septimum shield to transfix and block.

I hate unanchored transfers!

The spiraling mana impacted on the Immovable Object and perished. Terry emitted a low growl and he could not keep the irritation from his face. He glared at the people that had attacked him. To his surprise, he recognized a few of them.

A man in white-golden robes that had introduced himself as Shen as well as one of his companions.

The sister from the pair of martialists from the Blazing Sun Sect that had not immediately attacked Terry. They had not introduced themselves to Terry by name.

Even two of the people from the Icy Dew Mountain – their princess Sheila and the strongest martialist from the princess’s entourage that went by the name of Zhang, a man with sunken eyes.

Terry’s expression darkened and he growled: “Is this supposed to be an ambush or something?”

“Eeek.” Sheila yelped when she saw Terry glaring at her.

“Oh no.” Zhang, who was standing next to the Icy Dew Princess, cursed.

“Who are you supposed to be?!”

“Why did you interfere? Are you with that—?”

“Shut up!” Shen cut the man off. “Look at—”

“Oy! Who asked you to butt into my fight?!” A furious shout arrived from Terry’s back.

Terry was already preparing to block any potential attack when he spotted the black-clothed woman. “Apex?” He blurted out. “Wow, you look like—” Shit. Terry finally regained enough sense and bit his tongue in time to not finish his thoughts out loud.

Apex involuntarily stopped when being addressed by name. “And who are you?”

“I’m confused,” muttered one of the martialists that had attacked Apex. “Do they know each other or not?”

“Who is ‘Apex’?” asked another.

Terry turned to face the other martialists again. “Okay, what is going on here? What’s this about?”

“What makes you think you are in a position to ask questions?!”

“Step aside or you’ll be next!”

“Let’s collaborate again!”

“No,” said Zhang hastily. He moved an arm in front of his charge and made sure Sheila also stepped back from the battle. Afterwards, he nodded towards Terry. “We will not raise a hand against this man.” He looked at some of the others. “I would advise you to not do so either.”

“Is that a threat?!”

“Do as you wish,” replied Zhang indifferently. “It’s your life to throw away.”

“Terry, we meet again.” Shen spoke up with a friendly smile. Many of the martialists were immediately paying attention to the man in white-golden robes. “If you are still looking to settle scores with Rafael, I might be able to—”

“No need,” said Terry grumpily. As far as he was concerned, his situation with Rafael was settled. He had already vented and he did not want to pay the felan any further thought. He needed to focus on getting back to Arcana. Everything else was a distraction.

“It seems you have a strange group of friends.” Shen raised his chin towards Apex. “This one is even more hated than the last one.”

“Who is friends with him?” spat Apex. “I don’t know any Terry.”

Terry shrugged. “Apex is right, we’re not friends.” Who would want to be friends with a lunatic battle junkie? I haven’t forgotten how she rampaged in Syn City. How she pestered Cousin Matteo. Still… She did fight on our side in the battle against Willow and Anand. Terry resolved himself. “I have something to repay Apex for though… kind of.”

“You keep calling her ‘Apex’,” remarked Shen. “That’s not her name.”

Terry blinked and he blurted: “Appy then?”

“OY!” Apex shouted angrily and then her brow furrowed as if she was on the verge of remembering something.

“That’s Aparicia, a daughter of heretics and a heretic herself,” explained Shen amusedly. “By all accounts, she is supposed to be dead. Her cultivation lineage was the reason for a purge in the Martial Tower. Siding with someone like that will not earn you any friends.”

“Like hell it will,” growled another martialist. The man glared at Terry. “Step aside or I’ll show you your grave.”

“Don’t sing it, bring it,” retorted Terry defiantly.

“That…!” Apex pointed at Terry with a flash of recognition in her eyes. “You were with the old hag!”

Shen held back the martialist in front of Terry. “We don’t know how this trial works, but there was a slight rumble just then. There might have been movement in the passages. Perhaps now is not the right time for this.”

“We don’t need to fight,” agreed Terry.

“What if I still want to fight, huh?!” demanded Apex angrily.

Terry looked at her incredulously. “You don’t seem to be in any condition to fight properly. What is this…?” Terry examined the mana aspects in his mana sight. A version of fire and lightning, but also… Darkwater? Something else in it as well.

“That’s precisely why!” spat Apex. “Thanks to the little shitstain, I had to choose a recovery item as a reward.” She pointed at the other martialists. “I need something else and they might have it. The fact that they attacked me first is just another reason to crush them.”

Terry felt a headache coming. Perhaps I should just forget what happened at the Libra Outpost.

Lunatic.

Terry was not sure how to deal with such an unreasonable person. He was getting used to killing people like this, as frustrating as it might be. Wanting to repay this kind of battle maniac was turning out to be even more frustrating. Terry vaguely remembered that his aunt Sigille had teased Matteo about his troubles when dealing with Apex in the past. He was seriously considering getting out of the way to let all the crazies duke it out.

“Impudent beast,” sneered one of the martialists that had attacked Apex earlier. “Do you really think someone like you would be able to stand against all of us? Do you even realize what kind of cultivation I have achieved?”

“You have reached major accomplishment in idiocy and pointless talks,” sneered Apex. “I can help you take the last step towards reaching eternal peacefulness too, if you want.”

Terry could not help but snicker when he saw the martialist’s facial expression.

“Stop squirming and fight, you little coward!” challenged Apex.

“Wait.” Terry stepped back to block the fight between the two. He had realized something that might resolve the situation. He looked at Apex. “What exactly do you need?”

“I want an aged Cleansing Firestalk Bamboo.” Apex pointed at the others again. “If they hand it over—”

“Insolent!”

“Kill her!”

“We don’t have such a thing.” In contrast to some others, the duo from the Icy Dew Mountain Sect replied calmly.

“Why would I trust your words?!” Apex scoffed. “Hand over your storage items if you want to leave.”

“Do you seriously think you are in a position to make demands?!”

“Are you talking about this?” Terry held out an orange-colored bamboo. He had quickly searched through the items he had taken from the Hall of Wealth to look for something with the appearance of the plant.

“You—” Apex stared at the bamboo that Terry had taken out casually.

“You actually have it?” Shen’s mouth stood agape.

Terry threw the bamboo towards Apex. “Can we stop the quarrels and act like adults now?”

“What else do you have?!” one of the martialists stepped forward. “Hand it over!”

“I guess not.” Terry rolled his eyes.

“Hold it.” Shen spoke up. He looked around with suspicion. “One person is missing. Where did the core disciple from the Blazing Sun Sect go?”

“She went this way.” Terry pointed towards one of the ostensibly blocked entrances. “Shortly after I arrived.”

“Do you think we’re idiots?”

“You wouldn’t like an honest answer,” quipped Terry honestly. He ignored the angry martialists and looked at Shen. “The other passages aren’t blocked anymore. It’s just an illusion. A well-cloaked illusion, but an illusion nonetheless.” Terry was certain because he had been scouting with his mana touch as soon as he had arrived in this cavern.

“Nobody moves,” growled Shen in a tone that did not allow being contradicted.

“Screw you,” roared Apex and chose one of the passages.

As soon as she was through, Terry could feel that the illusion turned into reality, presumably through the movement or transfer of walls. Only a single person could enter each passage. Immediately, fights broke out and the martialists were competing for which entrance to take.

Merely three people didn’t join the fight and eventually, only these three were left in the cavern. Terry looked at the two martialists from the Icy Dew Mountain. “Why are you still here?”

“We didn’t want to offend you again, Senior,” said Zhang. “Without knowing which entrance you wish to take, we chose it more wisely to wait.”

Okay?

That’s new.

Terry suppressed the desire to snort. He did not like how the continued interaction with these martialists rubbed off on himself. “That’s very considerate. Do you know anything about the passages?”

“We suspect they lead to dao chambers,” replied Zhang. He glanced at the princess he was protecting.

“Dao chambers?” asked Terry with a furrowed brow.

“You don’t know?” blurted the princess from Icy Dew Mountain in surprise.

Zhang shot his charge a reprimanding look and then explained for Terry: “Dao chambers allow for a diluted experience of time. Invaluable help for any cultivator looking to advance in their mastery of techniques.”

Terry narrowed his eyes. He did not have a good understanding of martialist techniques, but he had a good theoretical background in spellwork and with this knowledge in mind, there had to be a catch. “Real time dilation is an impossibility. Time can’t be created out of nothing. It cannot vanish into nothingness either.”

“It’s…” Zhang searched for words.

“It’s a mental experience,” interjected Sheila. “Your body is in a state of meditation.”

‘Meditation’? Terry furrowed his brow even further.

Less of a time manipulation and more a realistic illusion? Mind magic?

Terry knew that there were spells that forced the target into a simulated experience, but he wasn’t sure if a different speed of experienced time was possible in these spells.

Perhaps I should just take a look?

Terry examined the passages. “If all of these lead to dao chambers, then what’s the point in fighting over which passage to take?”

“Dao chambers can have different qualities, different dilutions of time, different duration limits,” explained Sheila. “It’s impossible to tell from the outside though.”

So they were just fighting based on their own hunches? Terry shook his head. “You pick whatever passage you want. I’ll take the last.”

The duo from the Icy Dew Mountain couldn’t believe their ears, but they did not dare decline.

***