92 Dimensional Cipher (2/2)

Harbinger of Cataclysm 21.28 Billion/56.6 Billion 74.3/per min(conduit) Plasma Res - 98%

Oppression Damage- 15,000 + 80%hp/min Rad Res - 98%

Phys Dam Bonus - 14,639% | Total Damage Bonus 20% Mental Res - 98%

My regeneration stats and health skyrocketed as usual. Since I hit 4000 endurance, my regeneration stats scaled better. That meant my health regen was even higher now. Eager to test it out, I flared my runes.

After ramping them up for a few seconds, they overcharged in a few seconds. Before I realized it, the runes covering my body cracked. No longer able to hold the flow of mana, they shattered. The flood of ascendant mana ebbed from me, lightning arcing in every direction. A deep, dark fury filled my blood and bones in an instant.

I wanted to kill and crush. I wanted to maim and murder. I wanted to rip out guts and drink blood. The roaring voices of my own mana filled my mind, echoing like a storm in my head. The rush of strength that came from channeling the runes dissipated though, leaving me weakened. With a burst of willpower, I silenced the fervor as I died down my mana.

Hod jumped backwards while raising his hands, “Hod wonder why Harbinger so angry? Did Hod walk too funny for Harbinger?”

I shook my head, shaking out the injection of anger, “No Hod, you’re fine. My runes broke I guess. I honestly don’t know.”

I lifted an arm, inspecting a rune. The edges of the runes were marred, the runes caving in. Whenever I tried pouring mana into them, the mana just ebbed outwards. I frowned, wondering if it was my armor. I regenerated my armor, healing the runes into nothing. With a blank slate before me, I carved a basic rune for power into my arm.

A second later, I flared mana into it. The outer lining of the glyphs cracked. The mana flared out. This time I was ready for the anger, so I smashed it with my will while sighing. I opened my spatial ring, pulling out my grimoire. Hod paced up behind me, looking over my shoulder,

“What Harbinger doing?”

I molded my left hand into a pen of sorts, “I’m going to write some more runes. I wouldn’t normally mind, but doing it in the middle of a rift isn’t very convenient.” I glanced around at the other floating islands, “Especially when we’re pressed for time.”

Hod grabbed his beak, “Hod wonder, Hod wonder...Harbinger read Dry Man’s message? Dry Man promise three days. Dry Man reassess assault and use Lady Friend for gathering information.”

I frowned, looking Hod over. With shadows covering his enlarged body and the red sheen on his eyes, he was an intimidating figure. Those were superficial differences though. I took a long, hard look at him. More meaningful differences cropped up.His posture was different, along with how he spoke and how aware he was.

This version of Hod was cunning by comparison, and he stood up straighter. I assumed that was from being stronger, but after hearing him for a bit more, I doubted it. He remembered things a bit too clearly, especially for the normal Hod. I narrowed my eyes,

“I don’t think you’re Hod...Not when that mana’s coursing through you at least.”

Hod didn’t react at first. I kept looking at him, my gaze piercing. His left arm twitched before I stepped up to him. I was half a head taller than him now. Hod stumbled back,

“Hod not know what Harbinger mean. Hod still Hod. Hod promise.”

His breathing was ragged now, like I was pressing on a nerve. I shook my head glancing off at a floating island, “Yeah, alright. Maybe I’m pressing too hard. I can get paranoid sometimes, especially with how ridiculous everything is.”

I looked at him, “It can just be hard to choose who to trust is all.”

Hod nodded, staying quiet. His head lowered with his shoulders. It was like a child being caught stealing. I stepped away from him, letting him breath like normal. The eldritch side of him hadn’t betrayed me yet, and I didn’t want to give him a reason too. I did want to make it very clear that I knew he wasn’t Hod.

If he knew that, he would be less likely to act out any nefarious plots he was planning. Perhaps I was being a bit too cautious, but I didn’t want him turning on me at random. With that handled, I went back to carving as we walked.

We walked along the vines of several islands, finding quite a few islands now empty. Our fight attracted many of the denizens on nearby islands. The smaller, less violent life remained after. Several of the flowers had piercing colors. So piercing that they didn’t even look real. It’s hard to even describe.

It was like my brain was trying to perceive a new color, but it couldn’t. Nearby plants and fruits moved towards us as we walked by. A purple monkey with red skin on its face swung from a tree before swallowing one of the fruits coming near us. Blood poured from the monkey’s mouth before it fell down. The roots from nearby trees dug into the eyes and mouth of the monkey.

It drained into a dry husk. I sighed before opening up oppression. The aura killed the plant life and weakened creatures on contact. I didn’t want normal people near any of this. Hod murmured under his breath,

“And the Harbinger leaves death in his wake.”

I rolled my eyes. I preferred the ridiculous, fun Hod rather than the melodramatic, edgelord Hod. This version was the better fighter though, so I dealt with it. After reaching about ten islands deeper into the dungeon, Hod spoke,

“Hod is tired. Hod need rest.”

I bit my lip before turning to him, “Can it wait till after the dungeon?”

He shook his head, “No. Hod can barely stand.”

I tapped my teeth together before sighing. I nodded, “Yeah, yeah, sorry. Go ahead and sleep. I’ll keep guard while you rest.”

Hod nodded before breathing out a plume of black smoke. He fell sideways, sprawled out on the ground. As he snored, I kept oppression on around us. I didn’t want beetles digging into his insides while I was carving my runes.

The red sky dimmed, turning a deeper red before becoming night. With insects chirping around me, I flared the ascendant mana into my helmet. My eye slit bathed the book in a deep red, letting me see in the dark. With some free time on my hands, I would be putting my first real dent into the eldritch runes tonight.

I kept studying them all this time. Of course I devoted most of my time to fighting and other pursuits, but this was a black eye for me. Every other facet I tried at, I excelled. The eldritch runes kicked my ass at least five times now though and for months on end. I wouldn’t let that continue.

Spurring me even further was the limits of my current runes. Torix must have never ran into the limits of the runic language for magic. That’s why he never needed to learn the eldritch runes. I needed them though. They were the next step in my progress.

Unfortunately for me, progressing with normal methods wasn’t working. If I was going to get anywhere, I needed to take some risks and experiment. If that meant I would need to take a limb off or the like, then so be it.

With that resolve planted into my head, I opened a few screens from my obelisk. I ran a few comparisons between the runes found in BloodHollow and the Sandworm desert. After brushing up on the basics, I carved out a huge rune in the book. The detail required for these runes was infinitely greater than normal runes. Etching large letters gave me the breathing room I needed.

So I carved. On the first letter, I spent nearly an hour of time. My hand cramped from how subtle my movements needed to be. Once I finished with the edges, I focused on filling in the inner lining of the rune. That was an advantage of the grimoire. The book’s flat page offered depth in my carving somehow, like the page was six inches deep.

With the ease of carving, the detail of my markings improved. As I etched into the sides of the carving, I concentrated on giving the rune meaning. The carving I was attempting was supposed to be about solidity and strength. I needed the same traits if I wanted to finish this text. I breathed out a deep breath, like I was trying to breath out my own weakness.

I eliminated everything else from my mind as I outlined the details into the rune. This rune was all that mattered. Everything else, the sights, sounds, and sensations fell away. All that mattered was this letter taking up a fourth of a page on this book. Making it perfect was everything at that moment.

Months of failure amounted to this. Months of trying, months of struggle, and months of frustration culminated in a single mark on a single page. It was like the stars were aligning as I continued. The rune took shape, becoming whole. Within it, something shifted around me. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, but where I was changed.

It was like there was an electricity in the air. A moment later, the rune clicked in my head. It came to me like a rush of comprehension. What the rune was, what it meant, I understood what I was trying to write.

With the obsession of a madman, I marked into the page with flowing streaks of my hand. As I did, a tug at my mana began. This tug turned into a violent pull as my mana streamed into the grimoire. The single letter feasted on my flesh, gorging itself, satiating its hunger. I wrote through the process, my writing growing in speed and confidence.

Another hour passed before I finalized the lettering. As I did, the space around me shifted. The pull on my mana was even greater than my own generation of it. It wasn’t enough to threaten me now, however. My health pool stopped draining downwards at the halfway mark. I pulled up the page, into the red light of my slit. There was an eldritch letter.

Unknown skill unlocked! Dimensional Cipher(lvl 1) - Knowledge of this skill is prohibited by Schema. Using this skill is forbidden, and knowing this skill is forbidden. &$%ERROR

You have broken one of the primary tenants of Schema’s system. Sentient rights have been revoked. Leveling and further data uploads are hereby locked. You have been exiled.