Chapter 48: Chapter 45 – Arcana Magnum

Despite talking big about not resting until we escape from these depths, I could tell how exhausted Iris was. I convinced her to take a break in a safe location near the entrance of the spire, a natural cubbyhole formed by the coral-like growths and flora. It took some extra convincing to get her to fall asleep, but when she did, she was out like a light. Which gave me some time to theorize about our stats, skills, and how to use them.

As mentioned before, Magic is cast using the mana stored in the body, and processed with the mind. Powerful magics require more complex processes, straining the mind and even the body. Then, how does one strengthen their magical capabilities? The intelligence stat. The higher it is, the higher the processing power of the human mind. Speaking of stats, they seem to be allocated every level according to our style, but how does the system determine that?

Based on the evidence, I can assume our stats are allocated according to how we use our skills and body. Our strength is comparatively low because we don't rely on brute strength primarily, and our agility is high because we tend to focus on dodging and moving quickly. Intelligence is also rising because of how much we incorporate magic into our fighting style. And so on.

Tangent aside, our ability to use magic is steadily growing, and as such, I can develop new techniques to use our raw mana offensively, especially with this new bionic arm. Even in the mental space I reside in to experiment with magic, the arm has stayed attached to me. It's a shame to lose my original, but I had always favored prosthetic limbs to organic. The flesh is weak, after all.

And so, I've been trying to experiment with the barrel residing within the arm. The limb can transform into a weapon, forming a mana condenser into the barrel within, and firing a beam of supercondensed mana. This trick however consumes an utterly unreal amount of mana from not only our body but the surroundings, which can be fatal if we miss our shot. Which is why I've been considering how to upgrade this weapon form, and have thought of a way.

I had wondered for a long time about the applications of skills and how they affect us. Are they merely benchmarks of progress tallied onto our status window, or something more? In this case, I decided to try and consciously apply the "gunsmithing" skill and "Mana Control", with success. I was able to manipulate the form of the limb transforming into weapon mode, as well as attaining understanding of it's parts. Well, a limited understanding at least. Something like, "this is what that does" understanding.

And now, in this mental space, I could transform the arm into something resembling a small-scale cannon, improving it's efficiency by dropping the output abd increasing the charge speed of an individual shot. During simulation testing, each magic shot fired from the barrel only consumed about 40 mana. How many shots we could fire was still quite limited, but at least the condenser barrel was usable in this form. That said, while expensive, each shot from the barrel was quite devastating. It may not be a trump card, but it is strong.

As for a name... I'll call it the Arcana Magnum. An expensive, powerful gun using arcane power. With achieving success on the Arcana Magnum, I decided to put my experiments with it on hold to practice other forms of magic. And so, hours passed as Iris slept, washing away some of her fatigue with rest.

~~×~~×~~

As I dreamt, I recalled faint memories of my past. Memories I should be able to recall more clearly than I did. Memories of my family, before the orphanage. I recalled warmth, happiness, safety, and tragedy. I remember loss, and fear, and the dimly lit doors of the orphanage. I saw them open into darkness, and then all the light had its heat sapped away. I remember a cold, piercing sensation, then nothing. I thought I could at least recall my mother's face, but nothing but a distorted, melting shape could come to mind...

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I awoke to the cold, dark hole I balled myself up in. I stared out at the entrance of the hole, and a stinging sensation spread throughout my chest like a slow poison, and a tear fell from my right eye only. I took a deep, slow breath and crawled out of my hole. No words were shared between me and Licht, so I gathered my thoughts and faced the entrance of the spire, readying myself to go in. 

I entered the spire at long last, my next step to getting out of this abyss. And not long after I did, traversing through wide open, ascending coral tunnels, I encountered my first creature. It was a very alien looking creature, that looked like a pair of sea anemones stuck together by their bottom halves. Safe to say that there were more tentacles than I could keep track of, as it slowly... Slithered? Clambered? Towards me, the top opening up into a circular hole of rotating teeth.

I assumed my stance, taking the handle of my newly acquired blade, and before it could lunge at me, slashed through it. The katana cleanly severed its life from it's body, and sliced its body into separate parts. I shook off the sticky, multi-colored goo and sheathed my blade. After all the things I've fought down here... That was surprisingly easy. The hardest thing about this spire is going to be the fact that I'll be constantly walking uphill, as there have been no level areas so far.

And just like that, for quite a while, I ascended the spire. Cutting down alien creatures whenever I would encounter, some different but not so memorable to describe them. The up side was that these creatures held quite a bit of magic power inside them. After who knows how long, I finally came across something new. Rough coral "stairs" leading up to a large set of double doors.

Iris: "Think this is the 'last boss' of the dungeon we're doing in reverse?" I asked Licht, touching my hand to the door.

Licht: "If you can really call these spires 'dungeons'. Just remember to use the Arcana Magnum if we're in trouble. It's one of our power cards." He said. I hadn't tested out this "magnum" that he told me about yet, as it wasn't needed, but I trusted in Licht's ability to craft magic.

No more delays. Lets move forward. I pushed open the double doors and stepped into a large open room, with a puddle of water in the center. The walls were ridged and cylindrical, extending up and curving inwards to form a shallow dome in the ceiling. I looked around at the quiet, ominous room expectantly.

Nothing? I thought, keeping my guard up a bit longer. Then I caught some movement. Something slithering up from the puddle. It looked somewhat like a snake, and as I stepped closer, multiple snakes began to slither up from the puddle, so many that I wondered if there was actually a flooded hole in the center of the room. Then, they began to merge... And entwine with eachother. Faster than I could have expected, these slithering things formed a hulking, humanoid abomination of writhing creatures, and It released an unholy hissing noise, full of malice and hate.

I slowly drew my blade as it stumbled towards me, its mass comprised of wriggling creatures. And in a moment, one of the "arms" shot out at me like a tendril. I deflected the attack, but only barely, and tried to counter attack, slicing into the arm. I managed to cut through several snake-like creatures, but others simply writhed out of the way, avoiding the blade as the arm collapsed back towards the abomination, and I put some distance between us. What a pain...