While Nick was in midair, he cast Blink and teleported to the ground, returning to his previous position. Nick didn't want to waste anymore time since was already sure of the benefits that he had received. He quickly made his way to the tunnel that seemed to extend into the ground. The tunnel had about the same width as a cargo barrel and so Nick was able to slide into it on his back with his machete in hand without too much trouble.
He kept his special space spread out to add a layer of safety if anything suddenly tried to attack him.
(Now that I think about it, I've kept Space active for a long time, it should be days by now. Would that have been possible before I became a warlock.)
Nick wasn't sure but knew that the answer to that question probably had many implications for how he should cultivate. Nick slowly moved along the length of the tunnel while being on his back for close to three hours before finally approaching the exit.
Nick quickly crawled out of the tunnel and entered a small room with pebble sized glowing crystals lining the wall that had three other passage ways carved into the wall in front of him. Each passage way had words written in Valteese carved over it. Nick muttered them one by one:
"Easy"
"Challenging"
"About Impossible"
Nick smiled bitterly at reading those words.
"Is this some kind of test? Am I supposed to pick a passage way to walk down in order to meet with some kind of adversity like in those RPG games?"
Nick did not like the uncertainty of the situation but he had no other options but to make a choice since he was not planning to go back to where he came from.
"Based on the hints above the passage ways, I really only have one real choice."
Nick turned towards the passage way marked as, 'About Impossible', and walked into it, holding his machete firmly in hand in case anything jumped out at him; the same small glowing stones as before lined sections of the wall which allowed him to see his environment clearly. Nick walked through the passage way that was large enough to fit four people that walked in tandem comfortably for about two hours before he found the exit.
As soon as Nick exited the passage way, he was greeted with the edge of a cliff which caused Nick to immediately stop walking. He looked into the distance and saw that a huge rock wall with a passage way carved into it was opposite the position where he stood but that wall was at least one hundred meters away. Nick walked closer to the edge of the cliff to see what was below but all he saw was a trench filled with abject darkness.
"Well...getting to the other side shouldn't be too difficult since I can use my special space to teleport there."
Nick willed and his body erupted with magic power and his special space began to spread out towards the wall on the other side of the trench but as soon as it reached half way there, a threatening roar sounded from within the trench and the space directly above the trench vibrated violently as an extreme force erupted upward.
RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWKKKKRRRRRRRRRR!
Nick's special space shattered apart like glass and he instantly coughed out three mouthfuls of blood and a few moments later, quiet returned and the explosive force dissipated.
(Something in that trench forcefully broke my spell, causing me a backlash.)
Nick quickly looked over the edge of the cliff again but saw nothing except impenetrable darkness but the memory of that harrowing sound left a deep impression on him. He quickly wiped away the blood on his lips with his left hand and got to thinking.
(So that's why the passage way had 'About Impossible' over it. Whatever is down there is definitely stronger than rank 2. Hmmm...should I go back?)
Nick looked towards the passage way on the other side of the cliff and shook his head in refusal.
(There has to be a way. I can't use the effects of Space in this situation because the trench monster can somehow sense it and disrupt my magic and the effect of Blink isn't good enough to get me over this chasm.)
Nick was starting to develop a headache from thinking abut this situation but continued pondering until he ended up at his eventual conclusion.
(I need to improve Blink or at least create a new spell with a better effect since the inheritance that I received from Andre does not have a method to help me here either.)
Space path was one of the best paths for movement across distances so Nick knew that if he wanted to overcome this hurdle, he would have to rely on his space path master attainment but the more he thought about the possibility of creating a suitable spell, the more troubled he felt.
(Creating a space path spell that allows me to move across such a distance without spreading my magic out is not easy. Such a thing is fine at short distance like when I use Blink but at longer distances, additional factors needed to be considered like accumulated resistance to my magic by the laws in the surroundings. If my spell doesn't work right and that resistance forces it to break halfway, I would fall into that trench and have to face the magic beast at its bottom.)
Nick also thought about going down into the trench and trying to deal with the magic beast but he quickly denied the possibility.
(Rank 3 can instant kill anything below it and that's the standard between a rank 3 human and someone of a lower rank. When a rank 3 magic beast is involved, the risk of death shoots up even more. My only option is to get across the trench without falling into it.)
When thinking of a solution, Nick remembered the visions he had when he ate the baby void dragon bones and when he encountered the deep seeker dragon. Both times, the dragons used their power to tear through space like it was nothing. Nick's thoughts started spinning madly:
(That's it, space is only relative to one's position in reality. What if I somehow leave this space, enter a connected one and re-enter this space when I've crossed a certain distance.)
Nick's intuition was telling him that what he was thinking was entirely possible. Ideas started saturating Nick's mind as if he was already intimately familiar with the concept. Nick sat near the edge of the cliff cross legged and simply focused on his thoughts.
Minutes went by, then hours, then days and before Nick realized it, one month had gone by.
Nick sat up from his lying position on the ground and rubbed his heavy eyelids.
(From the flow of magic energy, I can tell that it has probably been about a month since I've been down here and I haven't felt hungry or thirsty once. Does that have do something with the strength path laws that I gained a month ago? I don't know but it's worth researching later.)
Nick got up shakily and flexed his muscles then picked up his machete which he had stuck into the ground.
(I haven't needed to eat or drink but my body feels worn despite that so I should leave this area and find some food as soon as possible.)
Nick had already completely designed a new spell recently and was satisfied that he could now safely cast it.
(I had to develop the concept of entering an adjacent connecting space from scratch since I didn't even have any books to help me but I did it. All I have to do now is make an attempt at casting the spell.)
Nick stood with his back straight and closed his eyes to focus inwards on his mindscape. His consciousness quickly appeared above the frozen tundra made from his magic energy and began forming the laws for his new spell with the ambient magic energy. Rows of symbols made of glowing blue magic power slowly appeared in front of Nick's consciousness, all drawn in Valteese. Nick spent one and a half hours forming the complex arrangement of laws that consisted of the over eighty thousand symbols representing close to fifty thousand words.
(Casting advanced grade spells is always difficult but this one has me feeling exhausted and if I had made one mistake, I would have had to start over again with forming the laws. Luckily my master attainment in space path helps me to more adeptly cast space path spells.)
Nick took in a deep breath and spoke the name of the spell as it activated:
"Grey Room."
The space around Nick started to warp and within a few moments, Nick became surrounded by the broad expanse of a grey colored vacuum. Nick observed his body but instead of his solid figure, his being seemed like the outline of a human shaped mass of smoke. Nick looked around and could barely see the color in the images of the area that he was previously standing in but the feeling was as if he was watching a television screen that spread endlessly around him as in he could see the cliff, the trench and the wall on the other side but he could no longer physically interact with or sense them, they seemed to be like feint animated paintings on a wall.
Nick rid his mind of excessive thoughts and focused on moving towards the end of the supposed paintings which was the wall on the other side of the trench where an open passage way was situated. Nick floated towards the other side of the trench like he had no weight whatsoever. Nick traveled for what seemed to amount to a long time until he finally made his way to the other side of the trench as he appeared floating above the ground of the edge of the passage way carved into the wall.
Nick, however, at this time started to feel an intense pain which he knew by intuition probably meant that his magic energy reserves were near empty. He quickly cancelled Grey Room and returned to his original reality and space, becoming able to feel his flesh and blood body again. Nick looked below into the trench once again and whispered:
"Good by, big fella."
Nick then turned around and walked through the seemingly long, stone walled passage way that was lined with the same glowing crystals as he had seen a month ago.
An hour later Nick finally reached the end of the passage way which was apparently situated near the ceiling of a large cavernous room. Nick suddenly heard the feint sound of fighting and looked below to see a group of about twenty five people fighting against an army of German shepherd sized black ants. One ant stood out from the rest and was positioned at the back of the army; it was four times the size of the others and had a visible bee like stinger at its rear-end. Nick was feeling impatient after his month of near isolation and decided to dive into the situation, literally; he cast Space and leapt off the edge of the passage way. His soul capturing cloak fluttered at the same rate as before, not being affected by the wind pressure as Nick quickly descended to the ground which was about sixty meters from the stone ceiling.
Nick's body erupted with magic power as he pointed his left index and middle finger at the center of the group of ant like magic beasts. Nick cast a spell with imposing might:
(Rumbling Pillar.)
The space within an eight meter radius circle, beginning at the center of the ant army began to warp and twist violently until within a few seconds the area seemed to become akin to a meat grinder that tore the affected ants to pieces. Smelly, green blood flew all over the area and quickly filled the cavern with an incredible stench.
The people fighting the ants were shocked at the development and looked up at their supposed helper, trying to to ascertain Nick's identity. The large ant at the back of the swarm, however, clicked its two pairs of mandibles furiously and opened its mouth to spew out a pitch black fog towards Nick's general vicinity. Nick didn't hesitate to expand his special space to cover a twenty by twenty by twenty meter cubed area, enveloping the giant ant.
Nick snorted and and made a slapping motion towards the furious magic beast; the space within that area quaked and the black fog that the magic beast had projected was completely displaced into the surroundings, giving Nick a clear line of sight to the offending magic beast as a heavy spacial pressure pressed on towards it then down on it, splattering its seemingly frail body in mere moments and leaving a gruesome stain of greenish blood on the cavern floor.
The people at the front of the ant army stopped casting their spells as the ants attacking them suddenly scattered and burrowed their way into the stone ground. Nick quickly used his special space to teleport himself to the side of the large magic beast's splattered carcass where he stood for a few moments looking at it indifferently before using his special space to tear away its carapace. Nick then swiftly used his machete to cut at the tender flesh beneath and he proceeded to eat the resulting strips of bloody flesh.
The people that were now running over to Nick's position saw this and frowned almost simultaneously, one of them asking:
"Is this guy really a human?"
After eating a few large strips of the magic beasts tender flesh, Nick wiped his mouth of the green blood with his left hand and cast his spell:
(Growth.)
Nick felt a burst of magic energy fill his entire being but knew that now was not the time to immerse himself in the pleasure. He quickly turned around to face the people that were now near his position and who had stopped running, choosing to walk over instead. One man emerged from within the group to take the lead and Nick immediately recognized him, saying:
"Greg North, it's been a long time."
Greg gave a genial smile in greeting with his bright blue eyes opened fully. He spoke to Nick warmly, as if the unpleasantness of the last time they had been in close proximity had all been washed away:
"Nick Capitol, I've heard many things about you during my time at the undergrounds. Even Marsha is surprised and jealous of your progress."
The moment Greg mentioned Marsha, Nick visibly frowned and so Greg changed the subject with practised skill.
"We were fighting our way through those ants as a final hurdle to get to the fourth floor but you helped us tremendously. Do you want to join our group? You would no doubt get to the lower floors easier that way."
Nick silently shook his head and asked:
"Does your group have a space band?"
Greg felt weird that Nick asked that question but to keep the conversation in good spirits, he decided to answer; the power that Nick had shown was just too formidable and intimidating:
"Yes, we have quite a few among us. Would you like us to help you store something, we wouldn't mind?"
Nick indifferently replied:
"No, I would like you to empty one of those space bands, hand it over then leave before I send you all back to Shelter Town."
The smile on Greg's face collapsed into a frown the next moment and he made a hand signal behind his back to indicate that the rest of his group should get ready for battle. He then spoke to Nick awkwardly:
"Nick, what are you saying? We don't have to be hostile to one another, we are from the same academy after all."
Nick snorted and thought:
(I don't care if we were born out of the same cunt, the moment that Marsha became my enemy, everyone associated with her began to live on borrowed time.)
"You'll have to forgive my stance but since you are associated with Marsha Cassidy, you will have to pay for that association."
Greg's frown deepened when he heard that and internally cursed:
(That bitch Marsha is starting to become a poor investment, angering a strong Magician is never worth mere money but she stupidly did exactly that and has even dragged me into the mix. If she were here right now, I'd rip her to pieces.)
Greg opened his mouth to speak again but before any words came out, Nick had already acted by enveloping Greg's group within his special space, using its power to hold each person firmly in place, then cast one of his spells:
(Petrifying Souls.)
Three ghostly figures of magic beasts immediately emerged from his soul capturing cloak and flew towards the group with quickness. Greg tried to cast one of his own spells but Nick had already suddenly appeared in front of him. Nick grabbed the top of Greg's head with his left hand and forced Greg's body into the ground, face first; the ghostly figures passed through several students and even after one student blew out a flurry of green flames from his mouth, harming the ghostly figures, the ghostly figures dissipated after being hit but the damage they were supposed to do had already been done.
Several students started turning into stone, their organs hardening; the affected students screamed out in pain while the rest tried desperately to free themselves from Nick's pernicious power. Nick then cast Still Space as an area of effect spell using his special space and everyone including Greg felt most of the flow of magic energy around them change direction as if to avoid them.
(Still Space isn't perfect but most magic spells at rank 2 require some degree of interaction between the magic energy within the Magician and the magic energy around them. Although my spell can't totally isolate these people from the magic energy around them, it can make casting and maintaining their spells three times as difficult.)
Nick then turned his attention to Greg North which he had pressed against the ground and slowly raised Greg's head to meet his own as Nick maintained his half stooping position. Nick asked with his usual indifferent expression:
"So, will you hand over the space band. I shouldn't have to tell you how long it will take for you to return here if I kill you all."
Greg felt so humiliated that he could hardly breath; never in his life had he ever been treated with so much disrespect and contempt. Through gritted teeth, Greg uttered:
"Go fuck yourself."
Nick nodded his head in understanding and replied:
"Oh well."
Nick put a fair amount of strength into his left hand and Greg's head became as deformed as a crushed aluminum can until it burst, splattering blood and brain fluid all over Nick's face; Greg's corpse turned into white specks of light and disappeared . Some students screamed at witnessing the murder, even forgetting to attempt to escape their predicament. Nick then stood up straight and swung his machete multiple times without restraint, casting Sever each time.
Every time Nick swung the machete a student would be cut in two and if that student was unlucky enough to be hit twice, they would begin to look like a collection of mannequin parts. Nick showed them no mercy as he slaughtered them with indifference. Within moments a large number of white specks of light appeared and disappeared suddenly.
When all of the students had disappeared, Nick cancelled Still Space and retracted his special space, only having it surround a few inches beyond his body. Nick thought about the events of the past few minutes:
(I probably could have negotiated better in order to get a space band but I'm not in the business of negotiating with my enemies and besides, killing Marsha's companion and his team just felt too god damn satisfying. What's that saying that I read years ago? With murder weapon in hand, killing intent rises. Ha, ha, it's actually true.)
Nick didn't consider himself a cruel man and he wasn't out for revenge but he didn't mind exacting some justice when the opportunity presented itself. Oh, what's that? You say that Greg and his teammates were only on-lookers in terms of the conflict between Marsha and himself.
(That's a naive notion. Rarely is anyone just an on-looker and if they actually were, I would have spared them but Greg was intimately associated with an enemy of mine and his team's association with him practically buried them, so to speak. I don't have patience for my enemies or their cronies, at least not when I can easily destroy them.)
Nick felt a weight lift off his shoulders as he had those thoughts; years of unease and resentment washed away in seconds. Nick turned around and looked at the open tunnel that was a few meters away from him, carved into the raised ground.
(He said that this was the way to the fourth floor, right?)
Nick didn't waste any more time and cast Blink to instantly teleport to the tunnel, then entered with confident strides.
Nick walked through the tunnel that was somehow well lit and thought:
(If I'm remembering correctly, the Ministry of Magic reached the seventh floor before their teams left the undergrounds unable to find their way lower. I've been in the undergrounds for months now, when I am I going to get to the seventh floor?)
Nick continued walking through the tunnel for hours; he had tried to use his special space to see if he could expedite the process but he was unable to extend it beyond the tunnel's walls and he was wary of doing so towards his front because he might unknowingly attract the attention of magic beasts.
(Remembering that magic beast in the trench, I'd rather be cautious at this point.)
During the time that Nick had been in the tunnel, he had felt the tremors of three earthquakes but although they dislodged some dirt from the tunnel walls, they did not do any real damage to the surroundings.
Through the flow of magic around him, Nick guessed that he had been walking for about two days and he began to feel a bit fatigued by this time.
(Strength path laws are very useful in regards to endurance, its too bad I can't actually use strength path magic outright, that might've been interesting.)
Nick had been basically alone and training for about seven years now and during that time he had become more of a magic fanatic than ever. He couldn't wait to make his next breakthrough in magic. Eventually Nick decided to get a few hours of rest by sitting along the dirt path before staring his journey again.
(These few days have been peaceful but I'm starting to feel like I'm wasting my time. Hmmm...I suppose it's possible that I could try to work on more spells while I travel. I do have some ideas as a result of my last few battles.)
Nick's most important skill was spell making and he had used it to find his way out of many adverse circumstances and progress so he was now intent on honing it.
(When I killed that big ant magic beast, I did so by using my special space to create a force that overwhelmed it. I basically used the force of my own slap to vibrate the space in front of me to end up creating a greater force. Now, that's probably a bit simplified but that was the gist of it. What if I could do that without the effects of Space. It would almost be like the effect of Rumbling Pillar but more convenient and versatile.)
Rumbling Pillar was an excellent advanced grade spell, so excellent that it did not even belong to a specific rank, meaning that Nick could use its power comfortably at higher ranks but the spell was relatively slow to activate and once activated, its area of effect could not be moved, not to mention that it did require an enormous amount of magic energy to create a devastating effect. Nick wanted something more convenient to use in case he was up against fast moving opponents.
(Now that I don't have a decent sword anymore, my blade path methods are basically worthless and that leaves me with rule, space and soul path. My soul path methods are definitely deadly but are not as effective against magic beasts as they are against people, probably because of the magical laws that can be found on magic beasts' bodies, providing some resistance to my methods. Not to mention that some magic beasts naturally have strong souls or souls that are impervious to being manipulated by soul magic.)
Nick remembered Tanner's soulless snake transformation and knew that his soul path methods would mostly be useless against such a magic beast.
(Rumbling Pillar uses spacial principles to create violent tremors in space that rips its targets apart. I should be able to use those same principles to create a more versatile spell.)
Nick split his attention between walking through the tunnel and working on a brand knew spell. This went on for about four more days before Nick started to feel uncomfortable from hunger; Nick sighed.
"Am I going to die from hunger before I get out of this tunnel?"
Nick, however, soon reached a fork where the tunnel diverged into two more tunnels. Nick momentarily lost control and cursed:
"What the fuck? This is bullshit!"
It was a shame that there was no one else there to validate his curses so Nick decided to choose a path.
(I'll walk down the right tunnel since I always use my sword with my right hand.)
That rationale made complete sense to Nick as he made his way through the right tunnel. A few hours later, Nick came upon a dead end that weirdly enough, had a mirror in place instead of a stone wall; the mirror was almost a perfect circle and extended from the floor to the ceiling, having about a three meter radius. Nick touched the smooth, crystalline mirror and its surface strangely rippled as Nick's finger tips came into contact with it.
Nick retracted his hand and looked at his reflection that he saw in the mirror. Nick's soul capturing cloak fluttered beautifully but that was in clear contrast to Nick himself who had dirt and tried blood all over his clothes. his face looked oily and he was in bad need of a hair cut and shave.
"I look like shit."
Nick chuckled since that was the least of his concerns, he still had to find food before he starved to death. Nick shook his head and turned away from the mirror so that he could go back to the forked path but as soon as he walked a few steps away from the mirror, Nick heard a voice ask him:
"Where do you fear being the most?"
Nick heard the question and turned around, eyeing the mirror since the voice came from behind him. The mirror suddenly rippled from its center and Nick heard the voice again:
"Where do you fear being the most?"
Nick became dazed and he answered the question almost absentmindedly:
"Oh, I guess being back at that dark trench with that scary magic beast would really suck."
The image in the mirror rippled and a scene of the dark trench on the third floor that Nick had passed was reflected in it. Nick frowned as his mind sobered again, saying:
"What is this mirror?"
Nick moved towards the mirror again and touched its surface once more with his left hand. The mirror's surface rippled but this time, Nick could not remove his left hand; he also found that Space and Soul Capturing Cloak were forcefully cancelled but he received no backlash. Nick made a futile struggle to free his hand and when that didn't work, he gripped his machete tightly and was about to slice at it with Sever but before he could do so, his left hand was swiftly drawn into the mirror amidst the ripples along with the rest of his body.
Within less than a second, Nick's entire body was dragged into the mirror. When Nick felt himself free from the influence of the mirror, he realized that he was falling in front of a rock wall. Nick looked down and saw a trench shrouded with impenetrable darkness. Nick's eyes opened wide in shock.
(Is this the same trench?)
Nick didn't have time to think of the answer since he was currently falling to his demise. Nick quickly cast Space and expanded his special space, trying to find somewhere that he could teleport to in order to save himself but his hopes were destroyed when a loud roar sounded from the darkness below.
RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWRRRRRKKKKKKKKKK!
The magical wind force brought along with the sound quickly shattered Nick's special space, causing him to cough out three mouthfuls of blood as well as be thrown around by the wind. Nick became greatly disoriented and when the roar quietened and the wind stopped, Nick found himself free falling once more.
He looked up towards the stone ceiling, blood flowing from his mouth and nose which was being raised in droplets into the air by the ambient air pressure. Nick's eyelids felt heavy and they began to close as his entire world was becoming dark.