Jude spent two days trying to resist the prison effect that kept skills and spells from being used. During this time a few things happened.

The Shinswan leader would visit them a few times a day in an attempt to communicate. Jude found it rather awkward that the leader would use hand signs with a circle in one hand and with the other put his finger in and out of that circle. The meaning was clear, and to Jude’s surprise, it ended with him learning Rank I.

Not that Rank I in a language was all that impressive. Rank I would be the equivalent to a toddler’s understanding of a language. Rank II would be an intermediate understanding, and Rank III is a fluent understanding. Rank IV-VI is the same with respect to the written part of the language, but Jude wondered if this language even had a written equivalent. But after some though, he figured that it must have. After all, the notifications that everyone received were written.

Jude also found out that Ellie, Krinn, and Nellie were captured right after they entered this underground world. Apparently, the were waiting near the entrance just in case more arrived.

The worst thing to happen, besides people being eaten, was the food. They had a terrible choice of two different kinds of grubs. There were the small grubs, about half the size of a pinky. And there were the large grubs the size of a watermelon. The small grubs were served in a large bowl still alive. The large grub was cooked and sliced in half, but also had the smelled like rotten eggs. If Jude didn’t find a way out of here, he was going to die of starvation. The funny thing was, the others seemed to acclimate quite quickly to the strange food. Only Jude seemed to hold out from eating it.

The most important thing that Jude had done these last two days was to give up on resisting the effects that locked the skills. Jude remembered back in his world, where heroes in stories would easily overcome all odds with willpower alone. But apparently, willpower was not enough to resist this prison effect. He had to find another way.

This was when he started writing into the dirt with his finger.

“What are you doing?” Ellie asked when she saw what he was doing. “You know that won’t work without the brushes and ink that we specially created.”

“Let me ask you a question first. The as we know it controls all things, but what is it exactly? Is it a god or is a fundamental law of the universe?” Jude replied. This was a question Jude had been pondering for a while now. He finally felt that he had an answer.

“A god or a law? I don’t understand what you are getting at.” Ellie wasn’t sure how this was related to her question.

Jude explained, “Well, if the is a god, then it would have a consciousness and personality. It would make choices and enforce them. But if it is a law, it would always work in a predictable pattern. There would be no choice in its actions, merely reactions.”

“I don’t know, I never thought about it. I can see it being kind of like a god with all the notifications and how dungeons and spawning areas work. But it doesn’t seem to do those things like a living being would. Perhaps it is more like the law that you mentioned. But what does this have to do with the script that you are writing on the ground?” She knew Jude had not figured out a new way to do scripts. After all, she had been there the whole time he was figuring out the process and helped him build the required tools.

Jude continued his explanation, and it was as much for himself as it was for Ellie, “If the is a god then there is no way to resist the skill lock of prisons without its approval or overpowering it. But if it is a law then there is absolutely no way to resist it directly. However, if it is a law, then there are also ways to use other laws to gain the same effect as resisting it. That is how flight works, the law of gravity wants to push everything down, but the laws of aerodynamics can keep birds in the air.

"But if the is a law, then it is not just a single one. It is far too complex to be a single law. It’s more like a book of laws that work as a harmonious whole. So what I’m trying to do is find a way to use one of the laws against the law that keeps skills from being used now.”

“Okay, that is confusing. However, it does make a little sense. But you still haven’t told me what this has to do with the script you are trying to write.” Ellie wasn’t sure what aerodynamics were but derived that it was something birds used to fly. Later she would have to ask in more detail.

“The prison skill lock is a type of law. Wen recently said that no one could resist the skill lock because it is set in place by the . So I’m attempting to figure out a way to bypass this law using another law, the law that governs runes and scripts.”

“Oh, okay, why didn’t you just tell me that from the beginning?”

“Ugh.”

***

In his life back on earth, Jude had done a lot of programming. From his experience, a hundred people could program the same application but have completely different styles of coding. Some were efficient, some were creative, and others would be a complete mess.

In college and the workplace, Jude found that the majority of people’s code were the complete mess type. Those who were efficient or creative often advanced beyond the crowd to a higher pay or a better place. Jude had forsaken such advantages to work with Murl, and even now he did not regret it.

was relatively straightforward and much like programming. Runes used in were much more complex as their meanings could change based on their order and combinations. For the most part, runes were like a very large alphabet. But each rune also had its own meaning; this made the definition of each word very deep. Not that relied on a lot of words, but variables created for the purpose of programming a script could change depending on the runes selected.

Some runes were better at holding different kinds of variables than other runes. For example, runes related towards life held positive variables better than runes related towards death and vice versa. So if a variable were meant to go back and forth from positive to negative, you would need to find runes that did not relate to either life or death.

The purpose of Jude writing the script on the ground wasn’t because he wanted to activate the script there, but because he needed a place to write out his thoughts and see them.

To activate a script without his tools and during a skill lock, he was going to need something a little more extreme. That is why he needed to find the most efficient way to do his script before he tried it out.

The third-day hit and Jude was still working on his script and had yet to eat. His hunger rose to the point where he was almost willing to eat the grubs but kept himself back as he found that his mind was sharper than before. Fasting from food had created a strange effect where his understanding of the runes became crisper than ever.

Finally, he distilled the script down to only three lines by the evening of the third day.

“Krinn, do you have that thing I asked you for?” Jude asked his friend.

“Yeah, one of the fat grubs that they cook still had one,” Krinn replied.

“Good, I’ll need it tonight.”

***

It was late that night, the gigantic that hung on the ceiling so high it seemed like it was in the sky. The stones glow dimmed so much that they were almost completely. The night was dark, but not so much that one not move.

There never was wind in this underground world, but the temperature always remained constant and remarkably comfortable. At least it was for Jude, but he still wore his wizard robe, and it was built similarly to a trench coat, leaving him with two layers of clothes. He guessed that summer clothes might be a little cold in here.

Everyone knew what Jude was planning, so they all pretended to be asleep. There was a small tower in the village that a always kept a guard at. Only Jude sat upright and him being the only one would not draw much attention.

Jude took the claw from the giant grub into his hands. It was surprisingly large, nearly the size of his palm and hooked. He opened up his robe fully revealing the pants and shirt he had underneath. Then with his hand and the claw he reached up under his shirt, ready to start working. He was not looking forward to the next part. It would be painful.

He took a few breaths and then relaxed as much as he could. Finally, he dug the claw into his skin. Blood started to flow.

He could not shake the feeling that this was an evil way of doing magic. It was all too similar to doing Blood Magic if that was even a thing in this world. But he kept reminding himself that what he was doing wasn’t blood magic, but . He wasn’t going to use blood as ink but something else.

It was half an hour later by the time he finally finished. His shirt was soaked in blood, and he was feeling a little light headed. The lack of food and the loss of blood was a bad combination. But he gritted his teeth and pulled through the best he could.

After laying down, it was the start of the second phase.

Ellie crawled over and mounted herself on top of him. If there had been enough light, Jude would have seen her cheeks blush a dark red.

She whispered, “Are you sure this is going to work?”

“Of course this is going to work,” he replied in a pained tone.

“There’s a lot of ‘if’s’ in your plan. What if it doesn’t work?” She asked.

They had discussed this many times already during the day. He had finally won her over after much convincing. It wasn’t easy to get a girl to do something like this after all.

“So what if it doesn’t work. It’s at least worth a try right?” he said.

That was the wrong answer, Ellie was now hesitating. She sat there, trying to come up with another thing to say. Jude could only wait; in this situation, she would have to be the one to start.

“But this is embarrassing…” She finally said.

“We’ve already discussed this, just do it!” he was starting to get annoyed.

“But won’t it… hurt?”

“I already cut the runes, how much worse can it get?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“If things go on this way, it will only hurt worse.”

“Fine fine, I’ll do it!”

She shifted her bottom, and the sensation felt quite nice. But then she raised her fist and slammed it down on his chest. The chest he carved up with runes. Pain burst out, and it was all he could do to not scream out in pain. But Ellie was unrelenting; she continued to pound and began to hit harder.

Jude’s eyes turned bloodshot as he ferociously looked up at Ellie, but she could not see his eyes. The darkness was too thick.

He continued to let her hit him without any resistance. All he could do was to grit his teeth and bear the pain.

Then Ellie whispered, “Aren’t you going to start? This pain will all be for nothing if you don’t activate it soon.”

The words brought Jude back to reality. The pain was intense, but Ellie’s Fleshsmith was turning those wounds into scars. Fleshsmith was a Title and not a skill. Hence it could work in this prison environment. Healing by Fleshsmithing was much more painful than any other healing. Ellie manipulated the Fleshsmith only to heal Jude slightly, just enough to form the scars where he cut in the runes. If she worked it too much, the scars would go away, if she worked it to little they would not form properly. It was a very delicate balance, but only Jude would know when the time was right.

Jude waited for that perfect moment, and when he found it, he stopped Ellie. He then placed his hand on his chest and activated the script. Creating a script was technically a skill, but it was also a practical skill when done without mana. When done without the use of the skill, it was simply a piece of paper with words written on it, nothing special. The only way to do it without mana and skill activation was to inscribe it into something that was already infused with mana. Hence the reason why Jude used his own body, that and he didn’t have anything else available to him.

A hot burning sensation flashed through his chest and across all of the runes. Jude let out a small grunt and arched his back in pain, but somehow managed to keep most of it in. The activation of a script didn’t require any skill, just the application of mana and intention. The script burned through him consuming the scar tissue along the way, much like when he used a scroll, and the ink dimmed. That dimming process was actually the ink burning away.

The script completed successfully and Jude had just moments of freedom. He quickly accessed his and pulled out all the things necessary for their escape. As the stuff was brought out, it was immediately handed to the other members of the party to stuff inside their clothing and or into prepared hidden places.

The last thing to be pulled out was a large piece of pork. Jude's mouth watered has he stuffed it down as fast as he could. After that, he fainted from the blood loss.

Ellie sighed still sitting on top of him. She checked his wounds and made sure they weren’t too bad before getting off of him.

***

The next morning the Shinswan leader was back giving Jude two thumbs up, “You did good last night, yes? Babies come, yes? Babies guuthok eat.”

Apparently, the moves that Jude and Ellie pulled last night had not gone unnoticed. Jude had hoped they would only see this as something indecent and not what it truly was, the beginning of their escape.

His rank in wasn't high enough for him to directly understand the word guuthok, but he was pretty sure he knew what it meant. Guuthok probably meant ‘delicous.’

Shinswanie Language now Rank II!

Sometimes, the wasn’t good. He really didn’t want that word confirmed.