After what felt like hours, but couldn’t be more than a couple of minutes, Max finally came face to face with the light source, more specifically what was blocking the light. There was some kind of shadow-like barrier. He could see that the actual light was coming from the other side of it. The entire barrier wasn’t that big, it was roughly the size of a person.

From where he was standing Max could see that the barrier was speckled with golden dots across the entire barrier, they were about 6-8 inches apart from each other. There were also four areas ranging from the size of a finger to the size of a fist where the light was shining through. The dots around these locations were faded compared to the rest.

Leaning in closer, Max inspected one of the dots, they were actually very small characters. He was certain that the characters were from an unfamiliar language. However, they did remind him of Chinese, which his paternal grandparents had taught him when he was younger. But since then, it had been several years and even his increased intelligence couldn’t help him. He would be lucky if he could even remember how to write his own name.

The reason why the characters remind Max of Chinese was that they seem to be a pictogram-based writing system, instead of English which was phonetical, sound-based.

Straightening back up, Max used “Analyze” on the whole barrier.

Analyzing…

An Array Formation

Function: ???

Max wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t get more information out of Analyze, but he wanted to know why he was able to Analyze the Chi dust and rock, but not this. An interesting mystery he’ll have to sit on for now.

Leaning forward for another look, Max tried analyzing it again. But this time he focused on the individual characters instead of the entire Formation. He kept track of the ones he already used Analyze on and the total number of times he used Analyze. There were a total of 95 characters, including the fading ones. He got the same message each time.

Analyzing…

Rune Of ???

???

Max was hoping that this is where he would “level up” his skills. But it was either impossible to level up or just analyzing the same thing didn’t net him anything.

While Analyze didn’t tell him much, he did pick up a few interesting tidbits. First, there were actually only three unique runes that were just repeating. Max didn't keep track of how many duplicates of each rune there were, but he was sure that some appeared more than others. More than that, there was a distinct feeling each time he focused on a rune. Each of the unique runes gave him a different feeling. The feeling was hard to describe, but after a while, Max connected each feeling with a vague mental idea.

Closing his eyes, Max pictured the rune that showed up most often and held it within his mind. Even though it was a fairly complex and completely new style of writing to him, his higher intelligence and the fact he spent so much time trying to Analyze it made it a simple task.

As he mentally traced each line of the rune, the image became clearer and clearer. He was in a forest, looking at a tree. At first glance there was nothing special about the tree, it seemingly looked like a normal young oak tree. Max could tell that something was off. There were small, almost unperceivable movements, or in someplace a lack of movements didn’t quite fit the scene. It felt out of place on the tree. After studying it for a while, he still couldn’t figure it out.

Just as Max was about to turn his attention to another tree, a gust of wind blew through the tree. One of the dead brown leaves slowly drifted towards the ground. But before it touches the ground, it sprouted wings. He realized this was no leaf at all, it was a moth that had its wings shaped like a dead leaf. With that clue, instead of examining the tree as a whole, he sectioned off each part of the tree to really hone into the details. Before long, he found a branch that was actually a stick insect and a chameleon just sitting on the bark. There were several creatures just hiding in plain sight.

Opening his eyes, Max let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. For something he just made up, that scene was very vivid, much more than he would have thought possible. If he didn’t know better, he would have believed it was plucked right out of his memories.

Picturing the next rune, Max used the same method and traced the curves and edges of the rune in his mind. This time Instead of a single image or scene, there were multiple images that came to mind.

The first scene was a glass of ice melting and turning into water then the water started to boil and finally evaporate. The next was a burning candle in a dark room. Max could feel the heat of the candle and see the light illuminating the room. The candle wax got smaller as time went on. In the last scene, time seems to have sped up. It started with a caterpillar eating the leaves around it. It quickly makes a cocoon and shortly emerges as a butterfly.

The last and final rune which there was also the fewest of, only produced one scene and was the simplest to decipher. Max was standing on the surface of a lake. His feet did not touch the water. In front of him, there was a sinkhole that continuously sucked in the water from around him. Peering over it, there didn’t seem to be a bottom. The sinkhole just kept consuming the water.

Remembering the description of his Analyze skill, Max wondered if his Analyze would provide some more information now that he had some idea of each of the runes.

Analyze - The skill to identify objects. The depth of the description is based on your level, cultivation, and your basic understanding of the object.

Max easily located the first rune with the most copies and started using Analyze.

Analyzing…

Rune Of Camouflage

Runes are intents given form. They are the building blocks of Formation Arrays. The Rune Of Camouflage intends to hide objects in plain sight.

Finding the second rune Analyze was used again.

Analyzing…

Rune Of Energy Conversion

Runes are intents given form. They are the building blocks of Formation Arrays. The Rune Of Energy Conversion intends to change energy into usable forms for the Formations Arrays.

The last rune took a bit longer to find, Max used Analyze a third time.

Analyzing…

Rune Of Energy Gathering

Runes are intents given form. They are the building blocks of Formation Arrays. The Rune Of Energy Gathering intends to collect energy from the surroundings.

Armed with the knowledge of the three different runes, Max Analyzed the entire Formation.

Analyzing…

Camouflaging Formation

Formations are a compilation of runes, they serve a specific function based on the runes they are composed of. The Camouflaging Formation conceals an area by blending into its surroundings.

Even now knowing what the Formation did, he was still cautious not to touch it. Max had just arrived in this world and even if his Analyze skill didn’t mention anything about the Formation’s offense capabilities, Max didn’t want to take the risk.

Max decided to poke it with one of the two Chi-infused rocks that he was still holding on to. Again using the larger of the two rocks, Max made sure that the sharp end was pointing towards the Formation. Slowly he pushed the rock into one of the areas where the light was streaming in.

There was a small ripple, like dropping a pebble into a pond. Other than that there was nothing else. After sinking most of the rock in he pulled it back. Examining the rock he didn’t see anything different with it. Using Analyze Max got the same notification.

Max was now fairly certain that formation won’t hurt him and also ran out of ideas to test. He put down the rock in his left hand, his non-dominant hand, and stuck out his pinky finger. Holding his breath and touching the formation with his pinky finger, Max only allowed it to briefly make contact with the surface before he pulled it out. He didn’t feel anything, there was no resistance or texture at all.

On his second try, Max dipped his entire pinky through. He could still feel his pinky and move it. This time, he felt a small breeze from the other side. Not giving himself time to think over it again, Max closed his eyes and walked right into the formation.