Magic Breaker Ch 199 - 201 (Patreon)

Chapter 199: Fulfilled Dreams

As I stare at the monster in the dark, many things happen. The first is that it screams. The girl who is a monster that is made from teeth and ice and rustling leaves and darkness and the cold of death screams in agony as I see it. I feel my eyes bubble and boil at the sight, but I remain calm.

[Annexation 9 > 10]

“See, it’s not nice when people disrespect your boundaries,” I say. “That’s why I asked you not to touch me.”

Then, half a second later, as the little girl who I feel neutral about lunges at me, I let myself fall backwards. The cold of the portal envelops me. My eyes remain open, even as darkness creeps in along the edges and my sight becomes blurry.

My entire vessel’s worth of mana burns through me, all into [Suppression]. I feel my insides burn, just to slow her down.

The girl reaches me, her arms stretched out, trying to hold on. “Please don’t leave me,” she whispers.

“Sleep well,” I reply.

My vision goes black as my eyes are destroyed. Just witnessing the girl’s true form completely incinerated them. With a dull thud, I land on soft sand. There’s warm sunlight on my face, and reflexively, I shade my eyes. 

Then, I chuckle. “No point to that, now, I guess.”

[Annexation 10 > 11]

“You look like shit, Snow,” Opal says, and I feel them casting a shadow over me. 

[Uldeney the Librarian expresses her respect for your dedication. She reports regret that you may struggle to read for a while.]

Mana pulses out of me. My insides heal a bit from the way I just incinerated them. Everything hurts. The rot is still tearing through me. My eyes feel like someone poured magma into them, and still, I laugh. “Worth it.”

“So, do you want us to help you get to the tree?” Sylves asks. There’s a soft noise of wind, and I pulse my mana again, spending it on [Observation] this time. A little bit like echolocation, I feel the outlines of my friends hovering around me. For their sake, I shut my eyes, they probably don’t look amazing.

“I was about to gag,” Thatch says. “Thanks.”

Politely, I nod. “No problem. It’s be super cool if someone could drag me to the tree, though.”

“Gotcha,” Inu says. Her hands pass underneath me, and she easily picks me up. There’s a tentative line of [Empathy] reaching out to me, and I gently accept.

Inu flinches for a moment, before we regulate the amount of pain I send through. I smile at her careful efforts, and then reduce her load, and instead send her my happiness. It arrives right as she gently leans my back against the coconut tree, and the fruit falls into my hand.

“You’re seriously happy right now?!” Inu asks. Her tone is annoyed, but more in a way of

A smile spreads on my lips, even as blood trickles onto them from my closed eyelids, dying them a dark red. “Yeah,” I say. “I always wanted to stare at an incomprehensible horror.”

“You looked?” Inu asks.

“That’s how I lost my eyes,” I nod.

“Why?” Inu asks.

I tilt my head, softly. “I was curious,” I reply simply. “And she stretched my patience. I deserved to be a little rude.”

At that, there’s a long silence. I bite into the coconut, eating it, and feel the healing pour into me. The dark rot finally flows out of my veins, the monolith rewarding me for how I survived. I can feel power pouring into me, and call up my status.

[Your stats have been reinforced!]

Name: Snow Okiyama - Ion

Floor: 5 (Downpour) - 6

Six. Six floors of the monolith cleared. Just four more to go. There’s that tiny reinforcement again - my mana grows. I think it must be… about one percent of my base stat per monolith floor. The healing helps alleviate the pain, too. My vision doesn’t return. My leg doesn’t either. And still, there’s a smile on my lips.

Thatch stands next to me, and I feel a bit of wetness touch my cheek. He’s… crying? I’m confused. “You know, Snow,” he says. “I am really mad at you. I’m so happy you survived. And yet, I’m so sad. You’re so hurt.”

“I do feel pretty bad,” I deadpan, tilting my head. 

Then he frowns. I can hear how unhappy he is. Another wet droplet falls on my face. “It’s okay to cry, damn it,” he says to me. “It’s okay to cry!”

And I smile, raise up a hand, grasping into the air for a moment. Eventually, he gracefully reached out and places it on his cheek. It’s hot and wet, and I smile at him. “I love this, Thatch. I’ve never felt so alive.”

He stutters for a moment. “I’m afraid."

“Me too,” I reply. “Me too. But you know how I am, right?”

There’s a long pause. He swallows heavily. Then, he nods up against my hand, squeezing it with both of his. “I know.”

“It’s okay to cry,” I tell him. “Your care for me means the world. Thank you for crying for me. But truly, I’m happy. I got to find a cursed tome. I stared at an eldritch horror. I even found a shadow orb to find my shadow-cloak. That’s… awesome, isn’t it.”

Thatch snorts in a mix of disbelief and horror. Another tear streaks over my hand, landing on my face. “It’s pretty fucking awesome, yeah,” he says quietly.

“Thank you, Thatch,” I say. Then, before anyone protests, I continue. “Thank you as well, Inu. Thanks, Opal. Thanks, Sylves. Thanks, Kuro, too. For caring for me.”

Inu lightly punches my shoulder, and my injured body protests. “We have to, idiot. Not like you’re gonna care for yourself.”

At that, I laugh. Even though it hurts, even though I can barely breathe, even though every single muscle in my body aches and my eyes are destroyed and I can feel myself ready to come apart, I laugh. And the others join in.

For just a moment, we forget how fucked up I am, and we laugh about what silly people we are.

- - - 

We spend two days on the safe floor. Usually, people get thrown out of them faster, but we needed the time, so the monolith lets it go. During the entire time, I heal myself. More runes under my skin, to knit the pathways my mana tore up back together. More runes to contain and pick apart the last bits of the rot. More healing for all the parts of me that are broken.

Sylves weaves me a nice blindfold. I’m excited to meet Delfine now, almost. I want to see what she thinks of our partner-look. Surely she’ll be happy. Or at least find it funny. It’d be pretty awkward if I went through all this effort to fuck up my eyes and don’t even get to tease someone with it.

My tome makes just one escape attempt which I foil. Now that I’m blind, I actually have to let it feed me the information, which is mildly annoying. Luckily for me, the tome is well-made and can transmit info slowly. So, really, it feels like an audiobook, more or less, with some diagrams projecting themselves right into my skull.

Frankly, I’m still happy with and surprised about how many accessibility features the tower has. Ramps, audiobooks, and I’m pretty sure the status sheet even has a font setting to make it easier on people with dyslexia, I guess. Of course, it’s not perfect. The people in the tower are still freely allowed to suck. But magic does kind of act as an equalizer, just a little.

While we rest, Kuro devours the treasure-shadow we found, like the glutton they are. There’s a short moment where the orb phases into them, where a ripple passes through their form. A long, creepy shiver that rolls over Kuro, making my hair stand on end for a moment. Then, that feeling settles.

And then, my cloak feels a little bit darker, a little bit deeper. I tilt my head, curiously, and stash my tome in it. It vanishes into an inner pocket, and its weight disappears. 

Huh.

- - -

After a little more testing, I eventually leave Kuro alone as they get annoyed with my poking and prodding. But I do have some pocket sand stored now, which is nice. And I can count that as another wish fulfilled, I guess. A dimensional storage pocket. Heccing awesome.

When the time comes to leave the safe zone, I rise to my… foot, I guess. Mana swarms and gathers around my other leg, around the stump where there’s still a bit of rot that clings to me. I let it stay, so I can keep deconstructing it, pushing away the poison, and learning. That’s the greatest treasure I’ve found on that floor, at least.

The things I’ve seen still creep in the back of my mind, the kind of information that I should not be able to know, and that still sticks to my mind because of [Annexation]. The skill is working hard to preserve unknowable knowledge - whenever I try to remember it actively, I can feel the way it warps and twists my mind.

But the tower has removed my limits, too. Every time I try to remember it, the thoughts slip away. They’re hard to hold on, impossible to think, and yet, I keep trying. And, bit by bit, they stick around a little longer, even as my brain burns slightly at the ideas.

With my thoughts swarming slightly, I form a mana-prosthesis for my missing leg. It’s crude and unrefined, more of a pegleg than anything proper, but it does let me stand on my own. I also make myself a walking cane, though. A crutch would have been more efficient, but this looks way cooler. I always wanted a cane.

Using my two mana-formed aids, I walk over to the portals that lead to the seventh floor of the monolith. Right now, it’s impossible to know where Delfine is. Maybe they already progressed further than us, or maybe they’re still stuck on that floor? I don’t know. And I can’t know. All I can do is look at the portals.

“Yep,” I say, nodding sagely. “I don’t see anything.”

Inu gives a tiny snort. “Use your perception-skill, you dork.”

“Ah, indeed, an incredible solution, doctor,” I nod. Then, I do as the girl asked me, and pulse my mana. It spreads outwards from me, cascading over the portals to the next floor, and let the impression sweep over me. There are three exits, and this time, I go right to left, just for fun.

On the right, there is a moonlit forest. It whispers of solitary but strong hunters. A low, cold fog hangs over this land where the moon never rests, and where stalkers seek meals.

In the middle, there sits a plain of white salt, under a cloudless blue sky. There are no cracks or crevices in this one, and I can’t spot any creatures there. It’s just vast and empty, with the biggest threat being starvation. I look over at Richard, and find I’d rather not have her regurgitate a meal for me.

So, I turn to the left portal. This one is framed in blocks of sleek stone. It feels… winding, like there could be endless corridors and endless halls, some of them filled with steaming water. There’s a warm humidity in it, and I can’t feel anything distinctly dangerous, but there is a hair of alarm hanging in the air. Traps, maybe?

Tilting my head, I hum. What a troublesome decision.

Chapter 200: Indoor Pool

After our most recent excursion into a dark place where we’re hunted, no one particularly wants to go to the moonlight forest. Except, of course, for Sylves. Because she says the moon is pretty. I’m sure that this decision is not at all driven by the essence she’s taken from the moonlit pond. Surely.

Tragically, she gets outvoted. Opal wants to pick the winding tunnels of steaming water because, in their words, it looks like a bathhouse and seems pleasant. Thatch just wants to not fight to his death for a little while, which, like, fair to be honest. And so, it is decided that we’ll go into the liminal bathhouse tunnel.

I step through, and instantly, the air changes. I feel warmth against my skin, and humidity. The air smells of steam, and I hum quietly as I step further in. The others follow soon, and Inu is ahead of me. I pulse my mana again, doing my best to hide the stream of magical energy. Seeing like this is a constant drain on my resources and focus, and it’s also a bit awkward, but it’s the best I got. 

Warm, inviting, if a bit sterile tile is laid out in a long row in front of us. And we walk down the tunnel. There’s a dull hum in the air as we walk along, accompanied only by the slight sound of water lapping at a pool’s edges. The kind of faint splashing that comes from things too small to be waves.

And, indeed, the tunnel brings us to a pool. It’s a strange thing to see, because it’s almost Earth-like. Tile lines the inside of it, a pale blue intended to make the water more appealing. Meanwhile, all around it, there is medieval looking stone, forming an edge. Like an amalgam of different times. The water pours into the pool with a soft splattering noise from a fountain. 

It’s carved in a beautiful, swerving design, made to resemble a waterfall, carved from stone. It also has a handle, to determine the temperature of the pool. I tilt my head. Without hesitation, Opal approaches the handle, and I tilt my head further. The enby reaches for it.

“That’s so trapped,” Thatch says politely, and Opal stops dead in their tracks, their hand hovering midair. 

“I want to take a hot bath, though,” they pout.

Slowly, I blink. Were they always this dumb? Is this what I look like to the others? “Are you sure about this, Opal?” I ask.

They give me their best puppy-eyes and then, slowly, shake their head. “I guess not,” they sigh. “It might not be worth it. What’s the trap.”

“No clue,” I shrug, and Thatch gives an equally unsure response. Opal sighs, painfully, and withdraws their hand from the handle, looking at it wistfully.

“A shame,” they say. “A shame.” Then, they take a step back, and the stone below their foot sinks into the ground with a click. I look at them. They look at us.

The fountain opens up, and a torrent of water slams into their chest, sending them flying into the wall with a crash. Their pained yelp quickly turns into a gurgle when the water flows over them, soaking them to the bone. A heartbeat passes, and they crash to the floor with a resounding thud, landing on their ass, the water flowing off them, and gliding along the tiles, back into the pool. 

Another moment later, they’re laughing heartily. I sigh slightly and walk over, then channel some mana to heal their bruises. They look at me with a wide grin, and I hold up a finger just as they breathe in to say something stupid.

“If you say you wanna go again, I fear Thatch might strangle you to death,” I whisper quietly. Opal swallows, then nods. Louder, for the rest of the group, I say, “so. What did we learn from this?”

I see their face twist just a little as their dislocated shoulder pops back into place. “Do I… have to learn something?” 

“Yes,” Inu says, rolling her eyes. 

Opal smiles and nods, scratching the back of their head. “Right, right. I get it. Trust our scouts, I guess. And to let them go first.”

“Good,” Inu nods. “Also, get yourself some kind of sight or instinct. Thatch has a danger sense, and I bet you didn’t even realize.”

I didn’t either. Whoops. But I am absolutely not telling anyone that. A pulse of mana passes outwards from me as I try my best not to look at Thatch. But he’s staring at me. He knows I didn’t know. How scary.

“We should let him go first, then,” I say quietly. When I pulse my mana again, there is a smile on Thatch’s lips, and he nods. 

“We sure should,” he says easily, then heads ahead of us, picking a tunnel at random. They’re all the same tile, with lights that flicker faintly, and words that echo off the clean halls. Simple and expansive. I follow him carefully, making sure not to step on any tile he doesn’t step on, while Sylves floats in the air next to me.

I can almost hear her smug expression, but I don’t pulse my mana to see it.

- - -

It’s getting warmer. The steam is getting denser, and it feels a little harder to breathe. I’m the first to notice as much, because even with Jean, I’m the most fragile. Also, I still have a hole in my lung, so like. Yeah.

But yes, it’s definitely getting warmer. The rooms are heating up, the tile feeling almost hot, even through my shoes. It’s a strange sensation. I also think the tunnels are all sloping downwards, just a little. There are no windows - even if they were, I doubt they’d be changing. 

With nothing else to do, we keep walking, the soft click-clack of the stones as our only companion.

Until Thatch steps on a trap.

There’s a clicking as the pressure plate descends, the tile soon springing back up, perfectly into place. A soft hissing noise fills the surroundings. It’s not dangerous - hence why his skill didn’t pick it up - but instead, it just raises the surrounding temperature a little. The steam thickens again, and my skin feels wet. My clothes stick to me, and I wrap Kuro around me more to hide my silhouette.

Thatch looks at us as if expecting admonition, but all he gets is a few shrugs. Opal even smiles. “I always wanted to go to a sauna! Glad to finally get the chance.”

The silly comment breaks the tension. Thatch manages a small smile, and nods quietly. Then, mana travels to his eyes, and I imagine they glint emerald - my [Observation] is not sophisticated enough yet to show me colours, so I have to rely on my fantasy. With renewed confidence, he walks forward. Deeper and deeper into the labyrinthine indoor pool.

- - -

After a few hours, I have to wipe my skin. The water is condensing on it with the heat all around us. The air feels hot and cloying in my lungs, and thick mist covers the tunnels. It’s so dense, it even disperses my scans when I deploy them. 

The humming has gotten louder and louder, bit by bit, and with the steam, the mana pressure around us is rising a little, too. Jean looks almost sickly, and I can barely breathe anymore, but still we keep walking. My skin is covered in a mix of condensation and sweat, my body trying desperately to shed heat, even though it works poorly. 

Once again, I wish Jess were here, so she could use [Freeze] on me. Walking got boring a little while ago, even though I sometimes still stumble, mainly because of the prosthetic. So, I’ve been flipping through the book, bit by bit, letting it push the pages into my mind word by word.

The heat in the air continues to rise. And I continue to get more annoyed at the hum and loudening drip-drop of the water. Despite that, though, we walk. And walk, and walk, and walk.

A drop of water falls from the ceiling, searing my skin.

“Is this what being a frog in a well is like?” I ask, my own voice sounding strained. The air is so hot it would already be boiling an unenhanced human alive. Inu is still relatively unbothered, but Opal and Sylves are already showing signs of suffering. Jean is, too, of course, and then there’s me.

I’m beginning to hit my limit here, you know?

Chapter 201: Elegance

Inu is a cheater, and I’m very upset. Her [Resistance] combined with high heart score and her Void authority makes her almost untouched by this environment. Meanwhile, I’m literally melting. Kuro is doing their best to cloak me in cool shadows, but it’s just not enough.

My body systems are beginning to fail, you know? I’m having to heal myself just to keep moving. I’m dehydrated and yet, breathing in water. And we’re still just walking. It’s been hours.

Not days like the desert might’ve taken, but still, hours. I’m beginning to think I might have to figure out cooling runes right here, right now, using my skin to experiment. Before I know it, there’s a carving tool in my hand, my four remaining fingers clasped around it - but just before I stab it into my skin, Inu stops.

I don’t realize, my mind beginning to cook from the inside out. So, I stumble into her, rebounding off her solid form and not even shaking her. Dizzily, I look ahead. Which is pointless, because I don’t have eyes, anymore.

Right. This heat is messing with my mind. It pisses me off. Using my righteous anger, I cast [Suppression], and target the heat.

[Suppression 34 > 35]

[Class up! Vesselsmith 11 > 12]

More mana, which I use on healing myself. The skill use kind of works, which is nice. Once again, [Suppression] reigns supreme. It doesn’t strictly reduce things, but heat is just motion of particles and [Suppression] does work on motion, so… I coat my skin in it, and some of the heat fades away.

It also makes it harder to breathe, and keeping such a narrow, dense field takes a considerable amount of effort. But now, Jean looks worse for wear than me, and I feel relieved. Not being the weakest link is my passion.

“Why did you stop?” Opal asks Inu. 

The girl gives a long, deep breath, then points forward. Her finger extends past where my mana-based sight usually hovers, and I push [Observation] further out, a wave of power echoing down the tunnel. Still, I just see a hallway, not what she wants to show me.

Thatch sees it, though. “There’s a room,” he says, then coughs for a moment. “It’s big. A pool so big it looks like the ocean. And it’s boiling.”

Opal hums in thought for a long moment, and I can almost feel the smile spreading on their face. “You know-” they start.

“Please don’t swim in the boiling pool,” Sylves says politely. “It’ll bleach the colour out of your clothes.”

At that, I see their mouth hang open, then slowly close as a frown weaves itself onto their face. “Damn it, you’re right,” they say with a sad sigh. “Shame. I really wanted to, you know?”

“You can always go naked,” Thatch supplies.

“No thank you,” Opal says, giving him fingerguns and a bright smile. “I’d rather fucking die.” 

With a small sigh, Inu slinks forward. We need another minute or two before reaching the enormous room, but it goes to highlight the limits of my [Observation]. It may be universal, around me, but it goes a lot less far than sight usually does. Once again, I cast a strong pulse, scanning the room.

My mana passes into the water, and I can feel it fizzling away. The boiling heat even pulls at my magic, making it unwind a little. Still, I see down into the pool. A metre, then five, then a dozen, then my sight gets too blurry. But I don’t see the bottom. A small shiver runs up my back, and I turn to Thatch.

“There’s nothing,” he whispers. “Nothing at all. No bottom.”

I decide to move on as if that’s not unsettling at all. My scan feels around the rest of the room, and at the very back, there’s a door. It’s rusty, and made of metal, set deep into the tile in a hidden little alcove. A rusty and thick iron door, the kind one might find on a submarine.

Very carefully, I take a step forward - and stumble.

The pool pulls me towards it. Almost like gravity, I can feel the room tilting slightly. For a moment, I almost slip, but Inu catches me, grabbing me by my shoulder and putting me upright again. The world tilts back into place. I let out a shallow breath, pushing against the barrier of [Suppression] still wrapped around me. 

“How troublesome,” I say quietly.

Except, of course, Inu just smiles. Then, she takes a step forward, and her armor appears around her in a single blink. Metal coats her form, and her foot lands securely on the ground. She looks back at me with a small smile, then nods. “I got this,” she says.

And then, her authority spills outward. There is a brief clash, and steam rises to fly at her skin like some attempt to turn her into a human lobster. Except, of course, Inu is unmoved. She just stands there, and then casually takes another step like she’s on a monday stroll.

I see the air twist around her, but she doesn’t even look. Instead, her armoured helmet remains fixed on the door that leads out of here. She takes another step, then reaches the edge of the pool. The door’s on the other side, and the room stretches on forever.

She jumps.

Somehow, terrifyingly, she jumps. And I can feel gravity pull her towards the bottomless waters. Mana pulses out of me, updating the scene in a slideshow of images, one after another until I grit my teeth and send out a proper domain. 

It’s awkward, and clashes against my attunement loop, but it still works. I see Inu soar, then begin to fall - and then, gravity just stops touching her. Somehow, she [Resists] it, too. For a moment, she just glides forwards. As if she weren’t in mid air, and instead sliding across an ice-rink. 

And then, a heartbeat later, gravity kicks back in. Inu falls downward, doing a single elegant flip, and landing on her feet. Then, she turns, gives us a smile and a thumbs up, and walks to the door. Dang. What a reliable girl.

As soon as the iron door opens, I feel pressure inverse. It’s like it leads to a vacuum. The steam screams, and yet, all of it is sucked through the portal on the other side within seconds. Violent gales of wind tousle my hair, but I just watch as Inu stands amidst them, untouched and unmoved. 

And then, the winds pick Jean up, too. Then Sylves and me. Richard next, then Opal and Thatch. One by one, all of us are torn through the air, tossed through the door, and smack into warm sand. I tumble once, twice, then a third time before my fall finally stops, with my face in the sand.

But we did make it.

- - - 

“Chill floor,” Opal announces, eating their coconut. “Wish I could’ve gone swimming.”

“You’re incorrigible,” Sylves says with a chiming laugh, messing up their hair. I’m still busy picking grains of sand out of mine while eating. But, for once, things feel a bit peaceful again. There’s still no sign of Delfine. 

My eyes still don’t heal. Neither does my lung function properly again. It’s still all damaged. It’s only a matter of time before one of them calls me the Snow of Theseus or something, probably. Well, it’d be funny, though, so I’d allow it. 

I take another bite of the coconut. Seven floors done. Three to go. 

[Your stats have been reinforced!]

A deep breath of fresh air. The steam leaves my lungs, and the sweat evaporates from my skin. My clothes, bit by bit, dry off. Even though they could be smelling better, by now. Something to work on for future enchantments.

Taking out the rag Harry gave me, I wipe myself clean. The magic on it still kills all bacteria, and is very effective against strong scents, so soon, my clothes smell like nothing again. Which is nice. For the future, I need to pack soap for these monolith climbs. But for now, I just wait. I let myself breathe, as shitty as my lungs are. And I practice. Because I will heal.

[Biological Restoration 28 > 29]

Just a little more to learn. 

- - -

When it comes time to pick our portal to the next floor, I put down my tome, letting it dangle from my side on a handful of mana-chains. I decided to make chain links because they’re more stylish. Also, it’s good practice.

[Solidification 27 > 28]

There’s so many little projects now, but I keep track of all of them. My mind is strained at the amount of things I do in parallel, but without strain, it can’t grow. There’s no limit, after all, so I make sure to learn as much as I can, all the time.

And so, with all those thoughts swirling in my head, I move to the exits from the safe zone. The calm waves on the beach calm my head as I look at the portals. On the left, there is a coral forest, beautiful and haunting. It’s above water, spiraling growths of crystal going high. Most of the things living there are small, but smell of rot. Poison, I guess?

In the middle, there’s another underwater level. A deep dive down a ravine, inhabited by squid-like things. I decide I would still rather not drown.

And finally, on the right, there’s an old, rotting cabin in the middle of a foggy tundra, with only shrubs as companions. For now, I think I’ve had enough of the “walking endlessly” type levels.

“Coral forest?” I ask.

“Yes!” Sylves cheers instantly. “It’s so gorgeous! I can’t wait.”

At her enthusiasm, a small smile spreads on my lips as well, and I nod. Once everyone else agrees, I step through the portal to the eight floor.