Chapter 38 - Rage

Alex jolted awake. He didn't appear to be in danger.

What woke me up?

He had his back to the stone wall and was facing the metal bars of the cell, his knees pulled up in front of him. His eyes naturally drifted to Val’s cage. Alarmed, he froze.

Val?

The cage was open, and Val wasn’t within. Alex reached out through his bond, only to find that Val was very close.

Alex looked down and saw the small wyrm curled up in his own lap.

How did you get out?

The small blue head lifted, and the fish-like eyes closed, and Val opened his mouth. It reminded Alex of a dog panting happily.

“Me, Mana. Open small bag.”

It took him a minute to realize what the proud companion was saying.

You ate the mana from the cage, and it opened?

Alex stifled a laugh as Valtherion didn’t know what a crate or cage was but compared the container to a bag, which he’d only learned because the spatial bag was where the Mana Stones were kept.

I guess they did say it was a mana cage. Little do they know that they basically just gave you a free meal.

The small act of defiance made Alex smile and pat Val on the head.

Alex took some of their time in quiet to observe the stone cell. Now that his eye was uncovered, he was able to look around and inspect the cell with the Heavenly Eye. There were carefully cut square stone tiles that lined the floor, walls, and ceiling of the cell. The tiles around the outer edge of each surface had inscriptions on them that glowed with the faint blue.

He debated crawling to the closest wall to inspect them, but even as he shifted his weight, he knew that it would be painful and he wasn’t likely to glean anything from them.

I wonder if those are runes that people can use for enchanting. They seem to be charged with mana.

He looked around the room and saw that there was an empty cell across from his own. There were two sets of manacles in his own and the opposing cell, though he was the only one there.

The area was relatively clean, and other than the small wooden puck that had fallen from his mask, there wasn’t anything else in the room.

Within a few minutes, Alex heard someone descending the wooden stairs into the holding area.

Val, someone is coming. Wrap around my arm and use [Create Lesser Illusion] to blend in. If I don't move much, they shouldn't notice you're here.

Val used his skill just as the person came into view and Alex reached over to pick up the small piece of wood that he’d used to cover his eye before.

As the man stepped into view, Alex used the active function of his Heavenly Eye to inspect them. He felt a pulse from behind his eyes before the information appeared in the air over the younger mans head.

***

Lin Xue - Level 19

Class: Lotus Disciple

Primary Stat: Strength

Secondary Stat: Constitution

Most Used Ability: (Passive) Qi Cultivation

<Non-Hostile Humanoid>

***

He got a lot more information than he was expecting to. The mana that Alex could see from the man was the same yellow-gold of Eura’s skin.

“Hello. This one apologizes for any inconvenience my brothers have caused to you.” The young man bowed deeply before opening the metal door.

Inconvenience?

Alex watched as the disciple walked into the cell and smoothly moved to place a set of clothes in front of Alex before unlocking the manacles that kept him chained to the wall.

The disciple looked at the now open mana cage. "Was there not a beast companion of yours in there?"

Hesitantly, Alex nodded. "He was hungry." He decided to give no further context and let the silence hang in the air.

The disciple uncomfortably cleared his throat. “My name is Lin Xue. I am but a lowly disciple, but I’ve been sent with instructions to prepare you for a meeting with the Sect Head.”

To Alex, he looked to be a child. His face was slightly round and his eyes were wide. He had short-cut black hair, and his cream-colored robes lacked the yellow-gold stitching of the others Alex had seen so far.

Alex sighed and got to his feet. He knew that this wasn’t the person he needed to get angry at or lash out at.

What a dirty move to send this innocent kid. None of those bastards even came back, probably too guilty to look me in the eye after they found out my story was true.

“Where are my clothes?” Alex asked. He bent to pick up the set of clothes on the ground. There was a set of dark brown pants, a white shirt with a loose neck, and a robe. The robe was cream-colored like the disciples with the edition of a large lotus on the chest that became whole when the robe was tied. Alex found them to be softer and more loose-fitting than the clothes he’d taken from the Shadow Serpent Sect member.

Alex dressed, and the man retrieved his spatial bag. He held the bag out in two hands while bowing again.

“The weapons within were removed. Otherwise, you will find everything as you left it.” Xue said.

“That’s fine, they weren’t mine anyway.” Alex stepped out from the cell and reached down to access his Core. The mana answered his will without issues, and he was relieved. He used [Mana Thread] just to feel the sensation of his mana being used.

Alex took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His face was swollen, and his lips cracked from being hit multiple times the day before. After taking a few deep breaths and making sure that he remembered the pulsing sensation of pain in his cheeks and brow, he reached into the pouch for a health potion and drank it down.

Xue just watched him quietly while fidgeting with the belt that tied his robes.

It was clear to Alex that they should be moving somewhere, but he didn’t mind making these assholes wait a bit. Even if it was Eura. Alex knew Eura was significantly stronger than anything he could handle, but Eura’s people had done this to him.

“Alright, what are you supposed to do to prepare me for meeting with your Sect Head?”

“If you’ll follow me this way, Honored Guest. I’ve been instructed to give you access to one of our private residences and time to bathe. Afterward, we will take a walk to the Grand Pagoda, where the Sect Head is working.”

“Alright, lead the way,” Alex said.

The two walked through the village, which turned out to be more of a city than he’d originally realized. The streets are wide and paved, with cherry trees lining both sides. Pedestrians walked calmly down the street and he was surprised to note that most did not wear the sect’s robes.

Maybe the sect is just a smaller part of the city?

“What is the name of this city?” Alex asked.

“Tianluo, which means Heaven’s Fall,” Xue answered calmly while continuing to walk.

Alex noted how different the culture was in this city compared to the city he lived in. While the people here were mostly quiet and disciplined, the people of New Jersey were naturally loud and crass. He loved the chaos and movement that came with the city. It was a large part of the reason he had stayed after college.

Many of the buildings that they passed were made from white-washed stone. The architecture was full of sweeping, curved rooftops with gold or jade accents. It was odd how both sides of the street shared a certain amount of symmetry with each other. If one side had a building with an addition, so did the one mirroring it.

They walked for some time and over the tops of all the buildings, there was one multileveled structure toward the center of the city that rose above all others. They walked toward it for a time, before turning and heading to the outer edge of a nice area. Just before they arrived at his accommodations, Alex noted a large field and staging area.

“What is that?”

“Those are the training yards, Honored Guest. The Sect trains there each morning and for certain classes during the day.”

Alex just nodded and kept following after Xue.

When they arrived at the house, Alex was impressed. It was a small building, but it was completely enclosed in a fence with a small grassy front yard. A path lead up to the house and he could see a small garden around the side of the house.

Xue opened the wooden sliding door and guided him inside. There were polished bamboo floors and two other rooms to the house. One was clearly a bedroom, which he could see a low wooden bed with some sheets on it. The other had an eating area with a wall that opened to the small garden. To the back of the house, Xue showed him where they could exit.

Though there wasn’t much room between the back exit and the fence, what was in between made Alex’s eyebrows rise. There was a large stone setting and an indent filled with steaming hot water.

“Any water placed within the bath will heat up on its own and they have an enchantment worked into the base of the stone that will increase your recovery while you soak in the waters.”

Alex whistled.

Xue left Alex alone and told him to inject Qi into a stone that was left on the bed when he was ready. A finer version of his clothes was in the wooden cabinet opposite the bed, which the younger man instructed him to wear after bathing.

While the bath was certainly a luxury, Alex noted the lack of particular accommodations he wouldn’t want to live without. There didn’t appear to be any plumbing or technology in the house, though with what he knew about Rifts, that made sense.

A short time later, Alex let himself sink into the hot water.

Man, it would be awesome to have my phone. I hope Mark and Sarah aren’t too worried… I’ve been here for just over three weeks. That means it’s almost been four whole days out there. They’d definitely notice something is wrong by now.

He sighed and tried not to think about it too much. Alex reached out to his bond with Val and felt that the mana wyrm had found an interest in the plants that were growing in the garden.

Please don’t eat anything, buddy. I’ll give you Mana later, okay?

“Mana?”

Alex felt Val fly over and stop an inch from his face. Alex's eyes were closed, but he could picture the creature's large eyes staring at him with the intensity that only came with the possibility of food.

Later.

“Mana, now?”

Alex cracked open his right eye and stared at the wyrm. He couldn’t help but remember the sheer terror that had been projected through their bond as they’d shoved Val into the mana cage.

Fine. Mana now. Go bring me the bag.

Valtherion left quickly, eager to receive his treat.

I always wanted a dog. Now I’ve got a talking and flying snake? Close enough.

Alex allowed himself to soak a bit longer and decided that he needed to check all of his notifications from the last ambush. Everything had been so hectic since his encounter with Hong Xui, he hadn’t had a moment to himself to read all of the blue windows.

He laid his head back on the stone siding of the bath and mentally called forth the notifications in the order he’d received them. There were a sickening number of kill notifications for humans. He also gained two levels and a new title.

Level 23, huh. I’ve almost gained twenty levels since coming here.

Since he didn’t get any variety with his Free Points, he threw all six of the points into Willpower before pulling up the description for the new title.

***

Title: One Against Many

Fight against ten or more opponents by yourself and win.

+5 to all stats

Title: Mana Weaver

An Awakened with a high talent for manipulating raw mana.

All unstructured magic will receive a potency increase.

***

Alex shrugged, welcoming the new blanket increase to his stats. He was intrigued by the second title, as it was the first one that he’d seen that didn’t give some sort of bonus to stats.

Unstructured Magic? What’s that? Mana Weaver sounds cool as hell, though.

With a quick thought he changed his active display title to show Mana Weaver.

Even including the two levels, Alex couldn’t help but feel that his greatest achievement so far was evolving his [Mana Shaping] skill to [Mana Thread]. He decided to practice with it as he got dressed and waited for Xue to return.

As he got out of the bath, he stretched and noted that he felt better than he had in weeks.

Maybe even better than before I entered the Rift.

He flexed his muscles and stretched his back. When he entered the bedroom to get dressed, he scanned the area. He found the clothes similar to those he’d put on before. The new ones seemed to be made of better materials, though.

After putting on the trousers, he turned to the polished metal in the corner of the room that created the hazier effect of a mirror.

Good god.

The image of the person in the mirror was not what Alex expected to see. While he was still the same height, almost everything else about him had undergone changes. His muscles were more defined, and there was barely any fat left on his body. For the first time in his life, he had six-pack abs. His shoulder and face were scarred. His hair was longer on his head than it had been for some time and he even had the makings of a beard growing on his face.

If I saw a picture of this person a few weeks ago, I would have said that there was no way it was me.

The changes weren’t just physical, either. Alex could tell, just by the way he was standing in front of the mirror, that he was more confident and self-assured than he ever had been.

Is that from the stats? Or because I’ve actually fought for my life and come out on the other side?

He stopped admiring himself and continued getting dressed. Alex debated pulling out the recovered mask and putting it on his face before the meeting but figured that this was going to be a time when he could not care about his appearance.

I’m sure I’ll be wearing a mask a lot when I get home.

Instead, he opted to tie a small ribbon of the mana silk around his head to hold the wooden puck in place. While the walk to the house hadn’t been too bad, he did close his eyes several times in the livelier areas, worried about getting a sensory headache again. With his improvised eye patch, he would be able to avoid that in his meeting with Eura.

Oooh- I wonder what he looks like in the mana sight from the Heavenly Eye now that I actually understand what I’m seeing. Wait, or I wonder if I could see his level now?

He remembered his panicked and accidental attempt to scan Eura just after he was released. At the time, Alex had been so overwhelmed with running for his life and the searing pain in his left eye that he hadn’t even realized what he’d done.

He sighed before pulsing his mana through the stone to send the signal to Xue.

It’s only a few minutes before Xue arrived and guided him from the fenced yard. Once back on the streets, the younger man was willing to answer some questions for Alex as they walked.

He said that the behavior of the senior brothers was indeed out of line. Xue told Alex that much had changed in terms of discipline and values in the last decade.

Alex remembered that Eura said he’d been imprisoned for that long, and he asked if the Sect Head’s absence was part of the reason for the change in culture.

The disciple nodded in agreement. It was clear that he felt uncomfortable talking about anything that could be construed as negative toward his sect members, so Alex decided to drop the topic until he could speak with Eura about it.

I guess I shouldn’t judge the whole group based on the actions of a few, right? I just need to calm down. Eura is probably my best shot to get out of here.

The pair walked on, and they came to a busier section of town. The quiet discipline was replaced with excited merchants selling their wares. Many people lined the streets and stopped at stalls along the way. The main street that they were on traveled in a straight path to the Grand Pagoda, which he could see so clearly above the other buildings.

Several branching side streets held more stalls and vendors. To his left, there was a street that had a growing crowd and raised voices.

Despite Xue’s insistence on continuing to the Pagoda, Alex let himself wander to the crowd.

“Let’s just see what’s going on,” Alex said, craning his neck to see.

Alex hoped to see some feat of magic or celestial artifacts. Ever since he’d met Eura and felt the six-armed man’s presence, he realized that there was just still so much more out there that he had yet to experience.

While Alex hadn’t been able to relax in weeks, the bath had worked wonders for him, and he desperately wanted to take a moment to unwind and hopefully see something amazing.

His hopes were dashed as he politely made his way through the crowd.

There, on a blanket next to a stall, was a young boy on the ground. There was blood streaming down his forehead, and he covered his head with one arm weakly. A portly yet muscular man stood over him with a small cudgel.

Alex took an instinctive step forward to intervene, but Xue grabbed his arm firmly.

“Please, do not step in. This is not a matter that concerns you. You are an Honored Guest but still an outsider.”

Hesitantly, Alex stopped. He looked back in concern at the boy, wondering what could be the cause of a grown man’s need to beat a young teen.

Something didn’t sit right with Alex as he looked closer at the boy. His own skin was the lightest of those native to Tianluo. While the boy was more tan than Alex’s, his base complexion was still too light to be a native. The largest difference was his hair color. While almost everyone around had black hair grown out to a length, the boy was sandy blonde and messily cut above his shoulders.

On impulse, Alex reached up and lifted the cloth covering his eye to use his Eye.

***

Samuel Grant - Level 29

Class: Verdant Healer

Primary Stat: Wisdom

Secondary Stat: Vitality

Most Used Ability: Minor Heal

***

Alex stared at the words above his head for several long heartbeats. The name didn’t make sense. That was an American name.

Is he from Earth? How the hell is he here?

He read the Status readout again and noted the lack of a “Hostile” or “Non-Hostile” tag. His brain continued to lag and the urgent whispers from Xue were drowned. Alex watched the boy sit up and lower his guard, then the portly man grinned viciously and raised the wooden stick for another strike.

Alex didn’t think or hesitate any further. Before the cudgel could fall, he activated [Empowered Step] and crossed the distance in a single movement.