63 Ripple effects 1 . (1/2)
In the meantime, a certain someone was busy running straight forward as if his life depends on it. He kept on running forward until his path was blocked by a solid layer of Earth but not even that was enough to stop him as he just plunged straight into it digging his way forward. During his escape, his brain had not stopped once and kept on thinking about his way forward.
It can't go on this way my nails are still recuperating after the last fight, they are nearly unusable to dig. With a speed like that It is only a question of time till I am caught.
I am just lucky that due to my short body, the path I am creating is quite narrow and would force them to use magic to widen it first before being able to follow me. But with a group of their size, it would be easy to follow my path and catch up with me. Especially if the Earth still does not regenerate.
Right now the mob would most likely escape the tunnel system to find my location, so the only logical conclusion would do something they would not expect me to do. If they are going down the rabbit hole, I will just have to dig straight up and see the sunlight once more.
But before I go into hiding I will have to find a solution to extinguish the bonfire on my head. As any disguise or any hideout would not fare well if combined with something like it. I will have to be prepared to engage in combat at any given moment in time and my means of escape are very limited as of now.
So my best bet would be to slowly dig upwards and scout the closer perimeter to see what kind of situation awaits me. Even though I am under pressure I still have not been spotted. So any decisions done should not be done in pure haste.
Knowing that I was about to see the sunlight again I felt quite strange. Despite the dull and bland appearance of the soil, it felt like a home to me. I got used to all this peace and serenity, without any monsters or players out to kill you. No Gods or other supernatural forces that might or might not exist. There was just me, my ants and many other small creatures, that I did not see much before they got consumed under the frenzy of my ant army.
But even if I literally disappear from the face of the earth they still find a way, to come back into my life. Do I have to make a castle in the sky before they let me be in peace? I swear that they would still find a way to even reach that kind of place.
After digging my way to the surface, I started to peep at the surrounding space. To my surprise, I did not see any humans.Looking around I saw a wide space full of flowers. Each and every one of those was blooming in different colours. This flowerbed was stretching as far as my eyes could see. I waited for a bit but did not notice any movement all around me.
I was not blinded by the sunlight as I had expected, rather it felt like I was soaking in every kind of ray that came into my sight.The air was full of different smells that created a wonderful calming atmosphere.
It was a beautiful place, something I would never want to leave, just stay here for eternity and savour every second of it. But something like this does not fit into this world. This world is supposed to be grim, a place full of hidden dangers and fierce monsters lusting after your flesh.
So a place like this is either a very questionable choice of design or an even worse method to try and hypnotize me.
The first thing I did was to rip out my nails and let them regroup to see whether I still can feel pain and what kind of result will happen.
The pain while faint was still noticeable and I clearly saw some ants delivering nutrients to me. I had a slight feeling, that this bed of flowers would not last long if it came into contact with my ants. As the time passed my nails began to regrow and the sharpness returned after it had recuperated fully.
So this means that it is most likely not the result of an Illusion because the illusion I was caught in had logical inconsistencies, that can be pointed back to the knowledge of the user. That means that this landscape must have been designed on purpose and must have a special reason attached with a clear intention or message attached to it.
I walked forwards and wandered forwards without any special direction in mind, but while I was wandering around I never saw an end to it. I must be mistaken, but it felt like the landscape itself had a repeating pattern. I took a look at this strange golden flower, that I had walked by 4 times now. The flower itself was not taller than the other flowers but its colour was a lot more vibrant.
Let me guess something special happens if I touch this very out of place flower? Turns out that this was a trap to lure very gullible people into their demise. How very obvious, what do they take me for? Or better how idiotic does a player base has to be if a developer thinks, that this right here is an efficient way to bait players.
There must be a way to get out of this dilemma maybe I would have to use magic on this special flower, but as I can not wield magic any possible solution appears impossible. So I am just going to use a method as old as times itself. Just burn this whole place down.
All I had to do was simply lower my head to the nearest flower and watch as she started to catch on fire.I am sure the fire would have had the times of its life if it had been sentient. Flower after flower began to light up and the fire was spreading faster and faster. Maybe I should have considered where to hide when this world is currently plunged in a fiery hell, but I still can hide underground if the flames begin to hurt too much.
The one thing I did forget was that even though my body was somewhat resistant to the flames and the residue heat, my clothing was not.While I was watching the spectacle currently unfolding in front of my eyes, I thought about possible terms of negotiation with the ant queen to get my beloved clothes back.
As my skin began to blister, I was left wondering, what would come out of it, if I regenerated afterwards. Would any change come out of it? Or would my skin still be the same as usual? The question why my cells were not afraid of this fire compared to the previous fires, was pushed aside, as the answer was without a doubt the presence of mana that was involved.
After a long time the fire in my close proximity had died down and I was left standing in the ashes of the former beautiful world. Bleakness had replaced the cheerfulness. Now that is finally a fitting design in this world. Looking proudly at my creating I was caught by surprise that nothing had changed yet and I still was trapped in this place.
Furthermore, there was no sign of life anywhere in this flower field and not even a single person was attracted by this gigantic fire that I just had produced.
I was glad that no one was attracted because right now I was offending public decency. No one wants to see a naked human child smiling wickedly while his whole body is burning.
Right now I was all alone, as not even a single form of life was near me. Even my ants had retreated back underground.
The next cliche would be the appearance of a character that is either totally mysterious or someone who acts like a guide to help me out of this place?
As I waited nobody appeared in front of my eyes but a certain voice appeared in my head.
”And here I thought you would go insane”
How the hell are you communicating with me directly, I thought you were stuck deep inside my body. You were that thing that wanted to surpass magic at all cost, are you responsible for the current situation I am in.
”I have a name you know”.
That you did not tell me
” Of course you have to earn that, but as much as it pains to say it, no I am not the who caused the current situation you are facing.”
How did you even manage to talk to me directly now? Last time we talked it was apparent that you had tried to take over my brain and failed. But right now it seems that you somehow managed to be able to connect to it and how are you able to speak my language in the first place?
” Calm down, now that no time limit is pressuring us we can talk about without missing any details. To answer your first question, do you remember the icicle that pierced into your brain. I was able to enter that area, after I fixed it, by modifying it just a tiny bit.”
” At first I really did try to take over your brain, but as you might have noticed your existence is something that defies any kind of logic of this world or to be specific it acts contrary to it. Even If I had managed to take over your brain by force the resulting backlash would have wiped out both of us, so I abandoned that plan without a second thought.”
”I am not talking in your language, rather I am deducting your intention and the meaning behind your words, by analyzing your body language, breathing, heartbeat and several other indicators to deduce what the meaning of your sentence might be. In return, all I have to do is to translate my intention into a signal that your brain is able to analyze and replay. And that is the way we are currently talking to another.”