Chapter Twenty One - 021"Haah, haah."
His heavy breathing filled the small cave. Felix collapsed on his knees in the center of the chamber, as far from any wall as he could manage. The Wurmlings liked to tunnel out of whatever wall he leaned against, so restricting them to the floor beneath him was the best he could do.
He was exhausted. He'd been fighting the Wurmlings for what felt like hours. They had gotten stronger too. They started at level 14, but the last batch he had killed were level 19. Felix considered his torn knuckles, his Manasight showing him a rich gold aura shot through with flows of blue-white lightning. His aura, apparently?. Manasight had grown by leaps and bounds during the past few hours, as Felix had to rely on it almost exclusively to fight. Now he could make out the space around him, and even something of the textures on the stone.
Well, not the stone itself. What he figured he was seeing was brown earth Mana formed into regulated bits of matter. He was seeing the aura of everything around him, echoed into the physical world. It was a far cry from the cloudy smoke he perceived only that morning.
Yesterday morning? Felix couldn't be sure how long he'd been trapped here. He was getting thirsty though. All the heat put off by the Wurmling's bite attack had made the small cavern into a sauna. Felix wiped sweat from his face, his arms burning and heavy. He scanned the area around him for enemies, but the slight orange specks of the Wurmlings' fire Mana was nowhere to be found. Maybe he'd earned a break.
He laughed. It hurt.
Felix watched his Health, Stamina, and Mana all tick up steadily, healing his wounds and burning the fatigue from his body. It was amazing, frankly. The closer to full he was, the steadier his mind and body became, which almost went without saying; but in practice it was a miracle.
He shook his head. His mind was still muddled after using too much Mana. He had a brief respite, and he had to make use of it.
He checked his notifications.
God damn, there are a lot of these.
Normally, growth like this would have had him agog, but he was entirely too tired for all this bullshit. A few experiments later and he condensed all of it.
New Title Gained!
Blind Pugilist (Rare)!
Even without your sight, you fight till the end. +4 PER, +3 DEX, +3 AGL
New Skill Learned!
Blind Fighting (Rare), level 1!
Youve learned to hone your senses and battle without sight. Chances to hit while impaired increases moderately with Skill Level, chances of critical hits increases moderately with Skill Level.
Fire Resistance is level 11!
Influence of the Wisp is level 18!
Blind Fighting is level 17!
Unarmed Mastery is level 22!
Dodge is level 24!
Acrobatics is level 21!
Manasight is level 25!
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Manasight!
You Gain The Following:
+10% Perception
+25% Toward Identifying Mana
+5 REI
+1 RES
+2 STR
+1 AGL
+2 DEX
+4 PER
You Have Gained A Level!
You are now Level 17!
+3 to WIL! +2 to INT! +4 to DEX! +1 to END! +2 to PER! +2 to VIT! +4 to AGL!
You Have 5 Unused Stat Points!
Felix grunted in surprise as he heard the almost-there crescendo of music. The rush of stats burned through him, cutting through most of his exhaustion in moments. His bones shifted, creaking as his muscles grew denser and heavier, even as his aching joints suddenly loosened and strengthened. His Manasight clarified immensely, the world becoming a clearer patchwork of ambient Mana, something he could even vaguely feel on his skin. Earth Mana felt like soft, ghostly sand and shadow Mana felt like the cool damp shade beneath a stone.
Taking a deep breath, Felix exhaled sharply. His mind felt clear and his body felt whole. He clenched his fists and stood back up. The Wurmling has been coming at regular intervals, but the last few had been much more spread out. Felix figured they were running out of monsters.
Or maybe they were afraid of him, now.
He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, the action all but meaningless in the dark. It helped center him, though. Thankfully, he was running out of distractions; while fighting the Wurmlings had netted him some excellent advantages, he was still trapped in a hole in the ground. He had to get out, and soon. He settled in to focus on his Meditation again.
After fighting the Wurmlings for so long, Felix had watched them burrow into and out of the stone like water. His Manasight had been too simple to determine how they did it, though it was surely a Skill of some kind. He had even tried to eat their blood and learn the Skill, but that had been a bust. Their blood was corrosive and burned a hole right through his tongue.
Acid Resistance is level 14!
That would have been horrifying if not for his regeneration.
He stood there, letting the cool sensations of earth and shadow Mana wash over him, mitigating some of the rising heat. Felix breathed, steady and slow, letting his mind fall into that strange sense of calm he found deep in the Meditation Skill. He drifted, and let his mind flow. Tunneling through stone. The idea floated along his thoughts, aimless. It felt so familiar, though.
That's it!
He had seen a Skill like it before: the Irontooth Ape had done it. He revisited Balfur's Memory, examining it from every angle he could. His sense of his tiny cavern disappeared as he focused entirely on the Memory. He watched the Ape run from the monsters in the fog, then escape into the tunnels above. It sealed the exit and....
Yes. The Mother's Gift, he called it. That's what I need.
Felix honed in on that moment, no more than a second, where Balfur thought and the stone acted. Was there a twinge? A flow of power? He couldn't tell. It felt like...like breathing to Balfur, an extension of himself.