Sitting on the floor, Torrin allowed his light to dissipate. His will was spread through the tunnel, ready to detect any movement.

The longer he sat in the darkness, the worse he felt. The density of the mana flowing through the air was pressing on his body, worming its way into his pathways. Without a core, he was finding it harder and harder to ward off the ambient mana.

'Great, just another reason I need to hurry and learn that final rune...' he thought, annoyed at his lack of progress.

Since he'd begun studying elements, he felt as if he could understand the rune of Change slightly better, changing the pure mana of the ring into fire or water, he almost felt like he was close to a breakthrough, but not close enough.

Mana flowed into his pathways unbidden, his body nothing more than a sponge in the darkness. Trying to alleviate the stress, he began circulating the mana throughout his entire body. He didn't use the mana to enhance his strength, or speed. He just allowed the mana to slowly seep into his muscles, his bones, his organs, his blood. Every part of his body was basking in the dense mana, slowly becoming accustomed to it.

A sigh escaped his lips as his body began to adapt to his environment, his intricate pathways able to distribute the dense mana. He conjured a bottle of pills from his pouch, taking one of the mid-tier nourishment pills to sustain himself since he knew he wouldn't be cooking anytime soon.

He hadn't meditated in a while, since he could quickly recharge his ring by using beast cores, but now he sat in that complete darkness, allowing his thoughts to flow freely until they gave way to a deep meditation.

Even though he was physically unaware of the outside world, his will kept itself pushed firmly throughout the tunnel, ready to alert him at any time. He visualized all six runes he'd been studying, the first five glowed brightly in his mind, perfectly represented in form and intent. The sixth was a blurry shape, the intricacies of its form unable to fully manifest.

As he pondered the rune, he thought of the elements he'd been studying. He imagined the different forms that mana took; fire, water, earth, and wind all flashed through his mind.

'How many elements are there?' He wondered.

The mage outside the walls of Bolin had used lightning. He pictured the scene in his mind, of the body being incinerated to ash in an instant.

'How does lightning fit into this? Is it stronger than the four base elements? Or is it just different?'

Mana coursed through his body, he viewed the process as his pathways distributed the mana to every fiber of his being. He watched his body slowly changing, slowly withstanding the torrent of mana, getting used to the stress.

'Everything changes.'

The thought bubbled from the depths of his mind and he followed the trail it blazed.

'A tree grows from a seed, changing slowly into something entirely new, before creating new life, a new seed. A new cycle of change begins. The tree affects the environment it is in, taking in water and sunlight, changing them into something new, a different form of energy.'

Torrin felt his understanding deepen, like looking through a telescope to see details in the night sky.

'From birth, I was constantly changing; training, getting stronger, gathering more and more Chi, developing my vessel... Dying... Even then, I was changing. My soul remained, finding its way to this world and into a new body. I used mana to change my body, creating new Mana Pathways. Since coming to this world, my morals have changed. My very personality has changed.'

He was so close to understanding the rune of Change. He felt himself on the cusp of enlightenment.

'Energy goes through different phases, changing itself due to certain circumstances. Matter as well, Gas to liquid to solid and back again. Can mana also be directly changed? Is that the intent of the rune? Granting understanding and power to change mana?'

A dim light sparked on the rune in his mind, it began solidifying into a form, but it was not the form that Grams had written down. As he viewed the rune solidifying, he groaned. He broke himself from his meditation, causing a change, causing the rune to dim once again.

'I'll keep thinking on this, I can't take any shortcut in my understanding of this final rune...' He thought as his stomach growled loudly.

'Eh?!'

Before entering his meditation, he had consumed a nourishment pill, so he shouldn't be hungry for at least 3 more days, causing him to feel slightly confused. 'Unless my meditation lasted far longer than I thought.'

Now that he thought about it, his body felt better than ever, during his meditation it had changed. Completely energized and no longer feeling any pressure from the mana here. Taking another pill from his pouch, he downed it.

'Change... Change... Change... Hmm...' His mind couldn't leave the idea alone.

Stretching his limbs, he decided to head deeper into the tunnel. Seconds turned into minutes as he walked down the tunnel in complete darkness, using his will to sense his surroundings. Soon enough, he came upon more of the ghoulish creatures. There were another six together, these slightly bigger than the ones before.

Torrin spread mana tendrils from his ring, taking control of the dense earth mana in the tunnel, he commanded earthen spikes to rise from the floor, impaling the creatures before they had time to react.

He held his breath as he passed by the rotten beings, continuing his way through the tunnel.

A few hours passed in a steady rhythm of traversing the tunnels and impaling ghouls. After a while, he once again felt the pressure from the mana and decided to meditate for a bit. This time, he didn't lose himself in pondering the rune, he just melded his body with the mana, allowing it to slowly upgrade his pathways and body. A full day passed as he cycled the mana throughout his body.

Continuing on his way, Torrin began to stop more and more frequently to get used to the density of the mana. A month passed in this manner; walk a while, meditate, walk a while, meditate. The farther in he went, the longer it took for him to adapt to the mana. His nourishment pills were eaten like candy.

The path had narrowed so much that he could reach both sides of the tunnel with his arms stretched out. It felt very claustrophobic and Torrin had to constantly remind himself that the tunnel was a large area, only a small portion was currently so tight. The reminder didn't provide much solace on his journey into the depths of the tunnels.

A week ago, the tunnel had begun to decline sharply, and after walking downwards for a week, Torrin was now on edge. He had no idea how to escape this place, this cramped tunnel to the depths of hell. Having no other choice, he continued his descent.

The ghouls hadn't appeared in a while, so Torrin was surprised when he sensed one ahead. It was much larger than the others he'd faced, it stood about 6 foot, towering over Torrin, its bones covered with densely packed muscle, skin pulled tight across the muscles.

It was still terrifyingly skinny, but mistaking it for weak would be a deadly mistake. As Torrin's will brushed over it, the creature turned sharply towards him. Even with Torrin's sped up perception, the thing moved fast.

Torrin unleashed a flurry of sword light, using both hands to send the energy rocketing towards the ghoul. Cuts appeared all across it, and he sensed the putrid blood flowing from the wounds, but it didn't slow the ghouls approach. There was nowhere to dodge in the tight passage, so he had to finish the ghoul quick.

To disorient the creature, he sent out a blindingly bright burst of fire mana, as he snaked tendrils of water along the floor, wrapping the ghoul's legs and freezing the cords solid. The change in momentum sent the ghoul to the ground face first with a bang.

The thing quickly got back to its feet, ruining the icy chains he'd bound its legs with. But the brief pause was all Torrin needed. He caused several earthen spikes to rise, aimed at the creature's chest as he shot another fire ball at its face.

The ghoul became a pin cushion and was promptly spit roasted. The thing continued to squirm, even with its body severely burned. He sent more spikes shooting from the walls, piercing its brain.

His mana returned to his ring as time seemed to speed up to normal. He nearly passed out from the blinding headache, he felt as if his brain had received the earthen spikes instead of the ghoul's.

He crumpled to the ground and kept his eyes firmly squeezed shut, easing mana into his pathways and up to his throbbing head, trying to ease the pain.

Time seemed to lose all meaning as he lay in a crumpled heap, mewling softly in agony. Some time later, whether minutes or hours or days, he was finally able to produce a coherent thought once again.

'Damn that hurts...'

For the first time in a long time, he summoned his backpack and skins, making a makeshift pallet and falling asleep.

As usual, he was back in the princess' room on the night of their murder, witnessing the greatest change he'd experience in both of his lives. A change from honored future hero, into disheveled vagrant caring only for vengeance. As he witnessed this change, acknowledged it for what it was, he felt another piece of the rune fall into place.

When he finally awoke, the pain in his head was now only a dull ache, a reminder to use his enhanced perception sparingly.

The days melded together in this place with no light. He continued his journey into the depths. He only had a rough idea of how long he'd been down there by the six empty pill bottles in his pouch--at least a year had passed.

Torrin's control of mana had increased, and with his completed understanding of the rune of Change, he was able to summon elements on demand. It had taken a long time, but he'd finally understood the rune. He figured his main hangup with it was that he was analyzing it as just a rune, but he found out it was so much more. It was akin to a Law of the universe...

The speed of mana flowing through his pathways was incomparable to when he started his journey.

Through studying the spells he'd purchased, he was able to gain a basic understanding of magic. Mages used words, mana, and runes to simulate a change in the mana, forming it into a spell. His understanding of Change allowed him to have far more control over his spells than a normal mage.

His body had reached a qualitative change, he no longer needed to constantly cycle mana as he went, his body eagerly drank it in, imitating a drunk at a tavern, it knew no bounds. His lack of a core was holding him back at this point, and he was eager to reach somewhere safe to begin enchanting it.

After miles upon miles of walking and an unholy trail of blood from the hundreds of ghouls he'd killed, Torrin was relieved to feel the tunnel opening into a large cavern ahead. Scanning the area with his will was now second nature, almost a sixth sense. As he stepped into the cavern, bright runes began burning his eyes with a brilliant light.

Runes lit up along the floor, the walls, even the ceiling was completely covered with them. Torrin stood with his eyes closed for a long while, a golden light burning through his closed lids, different from the silver glow he was used to. Eventually, he was able to open his eyes slightly.

The runes used in this chamber were beyond Torrin's understanding, not even able to guess at their intent. They were akin to the enchantments on Torrin's ring, something beyond the level that normal people would ever encounter, much less comprehend.

At the far end of the chamber was a large metal door, also inscribed with golden runes. Approaching the door, he marveled at its majesty. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

A depiction of two beings was displayed on the door, composed entirely of golden runes. The being on the left was clearly a human, standing tall and proud, it radiated an authoritative aura--demanding respect.

The being on the right was something else entirely... Not like the ghouls he'd been fighting--for what felt like forever-- this being had a powerful build, and radiated an oppressive aura. But unlike the human figure, this one didn't demand respect--it received respect naturally, by way of its sheer existence.

Torrin was confused as to why he had such feelings looking at the two figures on the door, but he didn't doubt what he felt. Looking at the door made him sweat, it felt like something far beyond what a core-less pauper could handle--reincarnated or not.

Torrin sat down in the middle of the room and began to meditate, thinking on everything he'd learned so far in the tunnels. He brought up his six shining runes, the first five held a steady form in his mind. The sixth rune, Change, did not hold a singular form--thinking on it now--it was unsurprising that it changed shapes depending on his intent.

He felt ready to enchant his core, but was still hesitant. He wished he could talk with Grams and make sure he was doing everything right. As he thought this, he realized that not even Grams would know if he were doing everything right. She had a traditional Mana Core...

Though she was endlessly skilled and talented with mana and runes both, even she wouldn't know if he were making a mistake.

'Eh, I've waited this long, I can hold off a bit longer...' He decided.

Standing up, he approached the door and tried pushing it open. The thing didn't budge at all. Infusing mana into his arm, he continued pushing on the door.

Nothing happened.

His will scanned the door, trying to find some hidden mechanism to open it, but nothing worked. He reached out with mana, trying to infuse it into the door; It just disappeared as it touched the door.

'Weird...' he thought as he tried blasting the door with mana, only for it to dissipate harmlessly.

Every element he had was thrown at the door, all attempts failing spectacularly. He sat with his back to the door and rested. He scanned the cavern with his eyes and will, both. This door was the only way forward.

'Well, brute force didn't work, so I'll just have to think of something else...'

A week passed as he basked in the golden light of the cavern, enjoying actual food for the first time in forever. Since he'd made it to a relatively safe area in the tunnel, he decided it was time to relax for a bit.

Between meals, he went over every book related to magic that he'd brought with him another time, but nothing seemed to help him get into the door.