Chapter 6 - Down is the new up -

The mountains in front of us shine a gold color as the sun showers them with its sunset light. The sky above is full of amber clouds, truly a beautiful view after so much stress.

Looking at the valley, I can see some smoke rising from the village far away. I can only hope everyone there is okay.

The cave entrance is not very so big and is quite discreet. Most people wouldn't think there could be a huge cave system down there. Oh my, I will miss living above ground like a normal person.

As we take our break at the entrance, I check the notifications I got from the fight.

◇Fighting is now level 3◇ +1 to STR, REF, END (+3 each total) ◇Staff Mastery is now level 2◇ +1% staff damage (+2% total)

Fighting skills really do increase easier than knowledge skills. One fight and I got one level, while several days of studying were needed for a few levels in History, for example.

The sun is going down and so are we. Time to go deeper underground... Again...

Skelones is awfully quiet but I understand, giving the situation we just experienced. He told me the story of how he got there.

Many years ago, there was a settlement where his store is, a settlement of droids. Little by little, however, each one of them had gone somewhere else, the few who stayed got attacked by some droid haters, the only one who survived was Skelones, he said he couldn't leave the place after that.

I light up my light-crystal as we enter the cave. Skelones eyes turned green, something about dark vision mode or whatever.

He leads the way, saying he knows a place we could stay and organize ourselves.

The cave was dusty, probably no one gone there for a while. The air was cold but not unbearable cold.

As we get deeper into the cave, we start hearing a few clicks. Bugs appearing out of small holes on the wall. Not normal bugs, but 1-meter big nightmare bugs, the kind that makes you scared of being eaten alive by its larvae.

I ready my staff and Skelones assumes a fighting position as the bugs surround us.

One of the bugs jumps on me. I try to control my anxiety and wait for it to be at my range. Then, I swing my staff at the bug, shocking and sending the thing flying into a wall. The smell of burnt bug is heavy in the hair. More of them shows up and Skelones keeps smashing each bug with his fist, while I strike them with my staff.

The bugs seemed to be attracted by the smell of their fluids. Skelones was full of it on his hands, attracting most of the bugs to himself.

A sense of dread is on the air. I immediately look at the holes to see if something is coming when a 4 meters bug appeared from the bigger hole close to the cave ceiling. Six insect legs that seemed more like spears pierce the stones the giant bug stepped on. One horn on top of its head and two fangs the size of a short sword. Skelones was busy fighting the swarms... So I have to deal with this one by myself

SCANNING ENTITY Name: Bug mother Description: high levels of aggression estimated from the creature. No toxins found, but the horns, fangs, and legs are a source of danger. Danger level: Hard

So this will be a difficult fight. Still, nowhere to run now. As the mother bug comes, I thrust the staff into one of its eyes to electrify it. No sparks come from my strike, however, and the bug used my distraction to attack me with its horn. I evade, but now I realize how much of a dire situation I am in, with no charges left on the staff. I do have a dagger I got from the store but I would lose my range if I were to use it instead. For now, the staff is better to defend myself.

I look to Skelones and he is still swarmed by the bugs, probably while punching them, the fluids on his fist attracted more. He can handle himself, I need to focus on my fight.

The mother bug is slow, I have to find a way to use that. She is not very smart either, despite being a lot bigger than the others.

She tries to attack me with the horn and her bites but I evade those easily. The problem is my staff attacks are not getting much damage out of her either. If the situation keeps like this, we will fight forever.

Another horn attack and accidentally hit my back to a cave wall while evading it. The mother bug seems to have done this on purpose... perhaps I underestimated its intelligence. She used the opportunity to charge and use her mandibula to grab me. I grab the dagger on my belt and start stabbing the bug-like there is no tomorrow. The carapace of the bug is too strong for it to pierce, but the eyes don't give any resistance, and they are an easy target, being so big. She screams in pain as I stab the eyes, releasing me. I use the chance to stab her mouth as she opens it, letting go of the knife before she closes it with the knife still stuck there, the bug stunned in pain emitting an agonizing cry while I grab the staff and slam it in her eyes, again and again, blobs of dark ooze coming out of its mouth and eyes.

A bright light fills the cave, loads of electricity coming from where Skelones was with the swarms, frying up tons of bugs with it. He comes to the mother bug and finishes her with a punch to her head, killing it.

"Shit we need a shower" Skelones said "you ok there kid?"

"I am fine, just a few cuts on my torso" I respond.

"I thought those caves were safe?" I ask Skelones

"They used to be, those bugs shouldn't be here…" he answers

After the bugs, we walk for an hour or more when I notice some light in one of the pathways ahead. "Hey, I think there is light over there" I say quietly

"Indeed, we are close." He says

We walk a little bit more, the light getting brighter until we enter an open space.

Bright crystals stood on the ceiling and walls, purple, blue, and green lights coming from them.

A small river flowed from one wall, making a curve before entering a hole on the other end, shaped like a crescent moon. This, together with the fact plants grew here, gave the place a natural sanctuary look.

"This is the place. Let's make ourselves at home, shall we?" Skelones say

"This is amazing…" I say in awe.

---

After we finish organizing our camp, I check the notifications from the fight

◇Fighting is now level 4◇ ◇Staff Mastery is now level 3◇

Again? Guess there were lots of bugs after all.

"Hey Boss, how these gemstones works?" I ask

"They gather ambient energy. What actually glows is a fungus that grows on them, absorbing the energy and emitting the excess as light, which fuels the ecosystem around here." He says while preparing a tea and giving me a cup, which I drink.

"Wait… could it be the reason you brought me here was for those gems? The idea I had to make an artifact to store mana, you think we could do it with those??" I ask, enthusiastically

"Yes. Well, maybe. In theory" he says while walking next to a purple gem and grabbing it out of the wall. He then shatters it to pieces with a punch, grabbing the small gems and going to me.

"Here, this one should be small enough. Try to bind with it, understand it. Feel how it works and try to charge the staff using it. I will work on something too" he says, taking out the fungus of the gem, revealing the gem is black "I will have to leave, kid. I can't let the villagers become slaves, they are my friends and accepted me as one of their own, despite my appearance."

"What? But you would be in danger! What are you planning to do? I can go with you or we can wait longer so it's safer." I protest

"No, they will be taking the slaves back to their camps soon, then they will try to make one castle around the valley in the upcoming months, it's how they work. I must intercept them to free the slaves. And sorry kid, but if you come, your safety would get in my way… wait here, get stronger… you have a bright future ahead..." his words were fading, as was his face. Was there something in the tea he gave me? The world turns dark as I fall into a slumber...

I woke up alone, on my own again. I was so used to always having a company that I forgot what feels like to be alone. In a fucking cave as well. Skelones left some items and notes. He brought in his backpack lots of cooking materials and a few items as well. His notes were instructions about how to survive here, like what plants are edible. He also left ideas for artifacts and some things for me to study.

I don't know how to feel about all that. I am angry at him for leaving yet I am grateful for all the things he gave me. A shelter, a job, and knowledge.

The following days were spent by reading the books about artifacts and runes. I found out that many artifacts are actually a combination of runes, instead of a single one. There is a rune for fire, for example, and an artifact with only a rune for fire would only be able to control flames already existing, not create them. A combination of runes would be able to ignite flammable materials or even creating flames from nothing. This creation rune caught my attention, a rare rune able to temporarily making objects depending on what it is combined with.

The rune of change also was a cool one and one that I had access to.

Skelones brought with him the gloves of alteration, which was capable of changing the form of some materials, such as copper, dust, dirt, and sand. This one wasn't for sale, but a personal artifact of Skelones. He left one of the gloves for me while taking the other with him.

Trying to make the black gem to absorb ambient mana was hard. The ones connected to the walls could do it fine but just as I remove them, they stop working.

Took me many tries to get some success, a small purple vortex, almost invisible around the gem, drawing mana. Scanning it showed me the result.

SCANNING OBJECT Name: Myhrite Gem Description: A naturally occurring gem capable of absorbing and storing mana from the ambient. Charge: 4%

It works. "IT WORKS YEAHH" I yell, then I place my hands on my mouth remembering I should be careful not to attract more bugs.

So much power on my hands… Right, I should try to charge it more before transferring it to the staff.

A few hours of gemstone meditation later and the charge got up to 20%. The staff charge is 0% now so it's a good opportunity to test it.

I place the gem on top of the artifact and imagine the mana flowing from the gem to the staff. Took a few tries but it worked out in the end.

SCANNING ARTIFACT Name: Staff of Electricity Description: A staff capable of delivering electric shocks on contact. Symbols are carved on it. Charge: 5/50

It worksss!! The charge now is showing different, a number instead of a percentage like before. I wonder why?

Oh, notifications, yes…

◇Arcane Knowledge is now level 7◇ ◇New skill: Mana Manipulation Description: you can use the mana collected by something to draw it for yourself or charge an artifact. Effects: you know how much mana is charged on an object. +1 INT +1 WIL ◇Mana gathering rune affinity 2%◇

So that is it. Awesome. It's still slow as hell but maybe I can increase the rate with more study.

So, let's see if I can get it to give me mana…

Nope. No mana came to me, but I felt it passing through my body and dispersing around in the air. The hud also shows 0/0 as the mana capacity. I wonder if I can get my health to show in exact numbers like that instead of a percentage? Hmm maybe another time…

Read books, charge gem, charge staff with gem, read books, charge gem, charge staff with gem, charge books, read gem, charge reading with staff… I am tired

I don't know how many days passed as there is no sun here, but I would guess a lot. Still no signs of Skelones. I am thinking about leaving the cave but I am sure I would be easy prey to soldiers or anything else really. If the thugs without artifacts were hard, imagine what a fully equipped and trained soldier could do?

The days spent on studying and training were productive, the results showing up.

◇Arcane Knowledge is now level 8◇ ◇Mana Manipulation is now level 2◇ ◇Mana Manipulation is now level 3◇ ◇Mana Manipulation is now level 4◇ ◇Mana gathering rune affinity 4%◇

Time for something new. I have been studying the process of artifact making for a while now and while someone should need to know a rune to imbue it to an object, it's easier if you have two Artifacts with runes already inscribed and combine them. There are two things I wanna try now...

One is making a ring with a gem on it

The other is transferring a rune from an artifact to another object.

First one first.

Gloves of alteration on, a piece of bronze from the store, and a gem with 25/25 capacity. I take the bronze a try to divide it into smaller pieces with the glove, after that, I make one of them soft and moldable through its magic. Molding into a ring with the gem on top, partly covered by the metal to make it on place.

The whole process took quite some minutes, the gloves almost out of charge at the end of it. I take the final product and scan

SCANNING ARTIFACT Name: Ring of myhrite (bronze) Description: Description: capable of gathering ambient mana and storing it. Charge: 05/25 Lore: Your first Artifact

"My first Artifact huh?" I think part of the charge was consumed to complete the process. Good thing I filled it up first.

I look at my bedroll, my eyes are heavy and I should get some rest... How long was I awake anyway? Hours? Days? I need some sleep...