Chapter 8: Struggle and Growth

Chapter 7

Struggle and Growth

 

As June stared at Bullin uncertainly, the dwarf rubbed his huge mitts together. His excitement for yet another lesson in chaos was plain on his face. Bullin reached back into his apron, pulling out that same volume from before. “Here, read this while I get the next thing ready.” He said this as he tossed the book to June.

She caught it in bumbling hands, turning it over to give it a curious look. The faded red cover was peeling, with gilded lettering across its surface. The Weaver: A Journey Into The World of Mana was emblazoned on the cover. No author was listed.

June sauntered over to a nearby wall before sliding down it to sit on the floor. June looked through the book, thumbing through a few pages. The writing was archaic, reminding June of old English in tone and word choices. Instead of trying to read in-depth, she thumbed through the pages. The yellowed paper contained within chronicled many bizarre ideas and events. Mentions of magic were cloaked in all manner of flowery language, and the entire first section seemed to be a confusing mix of nonsensical ramblings and insane delusions. “Was magic always this confusing here?” she thought.

Once she got past the windbag-style introduction, she found something of use. The chapter on Runes was up first. The Rune section emphasized how important combinations were, more so than anything else.

June thumbed through a few more pages, skimming the details. Many of the names for Runes used in the text made no sense. One page fortunately had a roughly translated list of Runes. On that page, she saw diagrams for different Runes she didn’t recognize, although a few she did jumped out.

Each Rune had a symbol listed next to it. For Water, she saw the upside-down triangle with a circle around it, and the name listed next to it was Apiral. There were runes for Acid, Fire, Alkaline, and so many more. She recognized the Sun Rune she had used, called Matahan. This part kept confusing her. Duneria Online had no such names for any Runes. Thinking over what she had seen so far, June determined that the combination was more important than the exact Rune shape or name. Perusing the list, she compared it to the earlier pages. Various phrases made sense, illustrating how specific combinations turned toxic if done improperly.

One phrase jumped out at June when she thought this over in her head: “Let the fires of the mother burn away the stench of decay, as the father Mataharia decreed,” read the bizarre section, contained within a page about the Sun rune. June drew the conclusion in her mind that it would have been nice to have this kind of direction from Bullin before she nearly lost an arm to Holy damage.

A frown crawled across her bony features before she silently looked over at the dwarf. Bullin was dragging out a handful of different implements from nearby crates, before placing them on the enchantment table.

“So just what am I supposed to get from this?” she spoke out loud, trying to seek Bullin’s advice.

Without looking up, he said, “you’ll find some interesting stuff in there, but focus on that later. Come over here, I want to show you something new.” He said this as he waved her over.

A rather intense sense of hatred started to bloom in June’s chest. “Just answer a question, you cryptic fuck,” she thought. “Why is everyone here some mystery-obsessed weirdo?” It was probably the best course of action to just go along with the madness, she figured. With that, she gave up trying to question this guy’s methods for now.

She laid the book down on a nearby crate, and slowly rose off of the floor. Begrudging the insistent dwarf, June wandered over to the enchanting table once again. A new material was on the table. A metal bar that looked similar to aluminum was sitting on the table. Beneath the metal bar was a sheet of parchment. A web of unfamiliar Runes was etched into the parchment, with the bar of unknown metal sat in the center.

The dwarf was carefully setting final Runes in place before setting down a stick of charcoal and picking up a new tool. Bullin raised a small syringe filled with a viscous oil, which June recognized to be Infusion Oil. Carefully, Bullin dripped a small amount of the oil around the Runes in a lazy circle.

“So, to learn how to go up in levels, you need to learn how to actually refine your essence. Mana works in two forms. You can use the basic stuff for spells, but advanced magic is a bit different.”

Listening intently, June nodded along, as Bullin continued talking.

“You need to learn the feeling first, then you can move on to the process,“ instructed the dwarf.

“The process you’re about to use is key to understanding how to work your core. Each material you use is important,” indicating the completed runework with a point, Bullin continued, “even the parchment. Every aspect of it can be planned, or unplanned,” Bullin said with a smirk. The jape didn’t escape June’s notice, but she ignored him.

“I want you to infuse this stuff with Death Mana. Since that’s what you’ve absorbed so far, it will be the easiest to work with.”

A question leaped into her head, “what about other types of Mana? Do I need to find a source to absorb them from?”

“Not necessarily. If you want to use a certain type of Mana, you just need to get a compatible source. Do some reading later and you might learn more.” He teased.

Annoyed at the intentional obfuscation, June wished she could roll her eyes, instead, she settled for dropping her jaw and staring at the dwarf. It was clear to June that the dwarf was likely trying to instruct her to seek out more informed sources. A smith was a great person to ask about forging, not so much about magical theory.

“But you won’t have to go far to find them, thankfully, once you’re ready,” stated the dwarf with a restrained bit of excitement.

“Is there a way I can get to those sources now?” asked the curious skeleton. Bullin shook his head, letting her know that the issue wasn’t worth addressing, at least to him. June decided to let the matter lie for now. Oh well, looks like she would have to stick to the harder path for now.

Bullin continued the lesson by grabbing the stick of charcoal again, drawing a Rune she recognized, he began work anew. The dwarf drew a small ‘8’ on the parchment below the extremely intricate runes. June had seen this figure in the book she’d been given. It meant to digest something. Putting a few other symbols around it June didn’t recognize, Bullin sat the stick back down. Two symbols resembled an upside-down rainbow, and they flanked the Digest Rune. A third rune above the other three appeared to be a simple pyramid shape with the bottom removed, completed the image.

“Do you recognize these?” Bullin directed at June.

“That’s to digest,” she said, pointing to the one Rune she knew from the book.

The smith regarded June with a quick look of contentment before continuing his spiel. “This is a basic conversion setup. That symbol means Magnetic,” he said, pointing to the pyramid shape. “This will convert Death Mana into Lightning Mana.” He then pointed to the other unknown Rune, designating it as a Purification Rune.

“So I just push Mana into this and we make a lightning ingot?” June asked.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but sure, give it a shot and let’s see what happens. You need to use your core and, sort of, force the new mana to work with it. It’s kind of hard to explain.”

June got the feeling that a lot of this was based in theory and Bullin didn’t have the understanding to fully grasp. He stuck to what he knew, it seemed, and June could respect that. The skeleton thought that his tone was a bit too cavalier for her liking, but she really couldn’t say no, could she?

Bullin explained to June that she needed to return to the “arena” that she had seen inside her core to fully progress in level, but that part of that process involved converting mana as well. “You need to learn Mana conversion to actually move forward,” he said before settling in on the finer details.

“Channel Mana into that Rune to convert yours, and then we’ll work on the next step. Fair warning, this is going to be tough stuff to figure out on your own.”

“What do you mean on my own?” questioned the now concerned skeleton. That burning hatred grew just a bit stronger in her chest.

“The process of converting Mana is unique to each person. Undead often have a terrible time of it too. I can say this, respect your core, it's powerful and holds some interesting secrets.”

Bullin then explained that the process of converting Mana was mostly internal, but that actually putting it to use was key to leveling up. June turned the thought over, realizing that it sort of made sense. You had to earn XP in most RPGs to level up, so this world likely had some kind of mystical limit that prevented cheesing the system. June resolved herself to find a faster path. With that part of the discussion over, June began her work.

With purpose, June placed her fingers on top of the conversion Runes, then she channeled Mana into the formation. The Death Mana traced down her digits, and was sucked into the Runes. Etched symbols glowed with a sinister energy. Two Runes on the flanks glowed with yellow fiery energy as the other Runes fired.

“Whatever form your core is usually in, picture that, then you'll know what to do,” said Bullin, trying to guide the undead through the process.

 

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June pictured the void dominated by her Core, as she usually did. Something new inhabited the space this time. In addition to the ball of fire that usually commanded the nothingness, a new sphere burned beside it. This invading cerulean ball crackled with energy that tried its best to escape the confines of its current form. Before June could swim through the blackness to reach the new orb, it succeeded. The lightning orb cracked outward, racing a bolt towards her.

June felt panic, but clamped down on it, determined to break through and finish this off. June commanded the lightning to obey her, despite that, she was ignored. Thinking quickly, she conjured her Mana, willing it to work for her. June formed her Mana into a ring and forced it to close around the rogue electricity.

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As June tried to force the bolts back into a controllable shape, it fought back. The tips of her fingers singed at contact with the lightning, but she pushed on. Like thorns biting into flesh, the lightning hung onto her bones. As she struggled, she was almost overwhelmed by the heat. Mana traced its way up her arms, slowly pushing its way up and down the rest of her body. A burning panic began to spread, too. “I can’t do this,” repeated in her head over and over.

Something unexpected happened at that moment. The core had sat silently, an observant but neutral force in the struggle until now. Her core blazed with an ominous silvery light, more intense than June had seen previously, then it flashed, sending out a shock wave of energy against the invasion.

Shadow rolled through the void like a river flooding its banks. As the steady advance of shadow waged war against the lightning, an ebb and flow became apparent. Every strand decimated by one type of Mana was replaced in an instant, but it was clear that there was about to be a victor. Arcs danced across the void, charging the inky clouds around June's suspended form with a myriad of lights. Like a million tiny candles floating in the wind, the void was alive with light. But like a hungry predator, the vacuum stalked down and snuffed each vibrant glow. As the last bits of Lightning Mana were snuffed by her core, June felt the wave envelop her too. That familiar pulling sensation followed with it. With a hellish dread, the feeling of the unknown crept into her mind amid the grip of the penumbral force.

Abruptly, June landed on that familiar stone precipice after what felt like an eternity of falling. Though the thud rang out like thunder, she didn’t feel pain, strangely. She stood up and was shocked by what dominated the space. A pillar of lightning was screaming towards the sky of the arena. The tumultuous war of the elements raged, but many of the other forces seemed to have been consumed by the time June landed on the hard stone. The sound of rushing electricity sounded more like a torrent of water than anything else.

“What am I supposed to do now?” thought the skeleton, feeling hapless.

June could swear she saw the pillar move, like it had a life of its own. June thought it was some trick played on her by her uncertainty. No, it truly did, as the pillar bent a twisted and mutated head of lightning toward June. Like a wyvern of pure light, the force of its power threatened to consume her. In a flash of true terror, the elemental beast opened its mouth and roared, arcs dancing from its barbaric maw.

“You can actually do this, just trust the process,” she commanded her shaking form. Deciding in that moment to keep fighting, June tried to will the same shadow that had aided her in the void to materialize. Despite the fear blossoming in the recesses of her mind, she continued on the path.

From beneath her feet, a tendril snaked its way across the stone. The shade cloaked her form like armor, wrapping her in a velvet embrace. As clumps of corporeal umbra pooled in her hands, they elongated. Coming to a razor-sharp point, the shadow had given her a weapon to fight back with. The dripping shade formed a greatspear in her hand, and without a moment’s hesitation, she hurled it at the roaring mouth of the wyvern. The skewer of darkness left a burning streak in its wake, scorching reality with terrible power. As it impacted the open cavity of the lightning creature, a deafening boom filled the space. A wave of spent energy rolled over the arena, stilling the primordial combat for an instant. Even the stone June stood on, rumbled in fear.

Tendrils of black ate away at their target, feasting on its elemental flesh. As the roar from its maw turned to pained screams, the Death Mana burned further, cracking chunks from the surface of the beast. Large hunks of electric blue flesh fell into the arena below before being consumed by other elements. Every bit of energy devoured released blue specks of power, like ash floating on the breeze. In a matter of seconds, the entire wyrm of thunderlight had been digested by shadow and flame.

The speckles continued to dance on an unseen wind before swirling into a vortex around June. Focusing on the importance of her task, she remembered the structure of the Runes she had seen, she understood. The battle she had just witnessed represented part of the process, now she had to complete it.

June crouched down inside the vortex of glittering embers and allowed them to wash over her. Each ember that settled on naked bones was pleasant, almost like the peaceful warmth of a fireplace during winter. In the following minutes, June felt sensations she hadn’t known since awakening in this new life, contentment. Each ember flittered down landing on her bones, and was consumed. When the process finished, June was both refreshed and anxious. Now, she burned with a fire of passionate curiosity.

Thinking back to previous experiences within the spaces of her core, June envisioned the forge workshop and willed herself to return there. When she did, Bullin was open-mouthed, staring at the enchanting table.

A boundary of glittering yellow energy had materialized around the piece of iron. And peering through the web of arcane lines, June was mystified. Where before was a plain lump of metal, she saw a lustrous beauty. Thuderlight crackled across the surface of the ingot, visibly angry at being contained. Every time an arc jumped to the table, the parchment beneath singed, but the glowing runes stayed, and the glimmering wall absorbed the arc.

“Holy hells,” breathed Bullin, noticing that June had returned to this reality. “That’s Wyvern’s Tear, a pretty unique metal around these parts.”

The smugness that June carried at the impressed look on the dwarf’s face was all that June needed to see.

Not even waiting to hear another word from the skeleton, Bullin quickly snatched the ingot and placed it into a prepared crucible. He quickly channeled Mana into a gem set into the stone face of the furnace, charging it with power. Once the forge began heating, he pulled on a pair of heavy leather gloves.

June watched eagerly, trying to commit the process to memory. Quickly glancing around, June tried to intuit the steps, but a question bubbled up. “We’re not casting it?” June asked, thinking of sword forging scenes she had seen in various fantasy movies. Bullin laughed heartily.

“No...N...we’re not doing that.” It seemed the dwarf could barely breathe between giggling at her question. “Casting like that makes for iron that’s too brittle,” he said, having recovered from the laughing fit.

 

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Surprisingly, forging the ingot took a lot longer than June expected, but at least she wasn’t swinging the tool. Although some part of her curious nature did want to get some hands-on experience. She watched Bullin hammer away at the molten metal. Sparks danced across the pockmarked surface of the anvil, burning out on the stone floor. Forcing the metal to submit, Bullin used a surprising amount of finesse as he beat the molten form into shape. June triggered her Mana Sense, seeing Bullin beat multiple colors of Mana into the blade. The process looked like liquid rainbows settling over the metallic sheen of the sword.

“OK...” he muttered, as he regarded his work. Without another word, he continued hammering and reheating in silence. Only the pings of the hammer filled the room for a few more minutes. After a bit more work, Bullin appeared content in his efforts.

Bullin moved over to a waiting barrel, dunking the weapon inside. June looked after him to see a thick brown liquid boiling away. When Bullin pulled the blade from the oil, he placed it onto the anvil. The dwarf picked up a wooden handle he had previously laid down, handing it to June.

“Channel Mana into that, then when I tell you, push it onto the hilt—be careful,” cautioned the blue-skinned smith master. When he pressed the metal tang into the fires, he once again heated the forge. As the hardware glowed red hot, he pulled the tang from the flames. While it heated, June pushed Lightning Mana into the wooden handle, seeing a rune flash on the surface.

When Bullin signaled June to push the handle on, he turned the sword’s end toward her. The heat against her hands was overwhelming, but she powered through, knowing that this would be worth the temporary pain. As the handle slid over the tang, sounds of singed wood filled the chamber. As the shaft slid fully on, June sighed in relief as she retreated from the heat.

The dwarf ripped the wooden shaft back off with a grunt. He then tapped a crossguard into place, followed by forcing the wooden handle back on with brute strength.

“Good, good,” appraised the dwarf. He then handed a small metal ball to June, as well as a small ball peen hammer. “You’re going to do something called peening. Slide the ball on first. Then once it’s on, just hammer the metal bit that sticks out until it’s flat.”

June rushed over to the anvil, almost shaking with energy. Bullin placed the weapon in a notch in a nearby working bench, holding the short sword in place. The undead quickly hammered the metal ball onto the exposed tang, per Bullin’s instructions. At one final hammer blow, a new status window appeared amid a shower of sparks.

 

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