After cultivating for several hours, Lian had finally absorbed all twenty orbs. The sun showed no sign of setting, and he desperately needed shelter. Cultivation could substitute for sleep, but not indefinitely, a fleeting reprieve in a relentless world.
Stretching, he began walking in a random direction, his steps heavy with exhaustion. An unknown amount of ti passed—Lian could no longer gauge its flow. It could have been hours or re minutes. He was too tired to focus on anything but moving quickly.
"I wonder if I will ever get out of this Gate..." he murmured, his tattered boots striking the sandy ground. "It does not seem too tough—the strongest monster I have faced is an Iron 5..."
"...Sure, an Iron 5 could destroy , but these monsters only jump and bite. They are easy to handle—" His confidence a fragile shield against the unknown.
His thoughts were cut short by a sudden wave of heat rising from beneath the sand.
"Damn it, I need to shut up! Why do I keep jinxing myself?!" he exclaid, imdiately backpedaling. The sand’s heat beca unbearable, scorching his feet, a fiery warning from the desert itself.
"Damn, run, fast!" he urged himself, fleeing backward.
He did not understand what was happening. "Could sothing be hidden under the sand? A monster or a treasure?" he wondered, now dozens of ters away.
The heat had subsided, but just as he began to think it might be a treasure, sothing erupted from the sand.
"Here we go! Damn worms—" Lian froze mid-sentence.
"Crooked-teeth worm? Is that you? Why is your body so reddish?!"
The worm, freshly erged, fixed Lian with a challenging stare—no small feat for a creature without eyes. Its body was no longer just yellowish; red streaks marred its form, a nacing evolution painted in crimson.
"What are you staring at?" Lian asked, a touch of arrogance in his voice. He’d faced this monster once; he could do it again.
Suddenly, the worm’s mouth gaped wide.
"What, you wanna jump ? You could not even if you were a ter away, let alone from that distance—"
A red light began emanating from the monster’s mouth.
"Okay, seriously—" Lian shouted, turning to flee. "I need to stop talking!!" His voice a mix of panic and self-reproach.
It was not just light—it was a—
"What kind of worm shoots fireballs?!" Lian yelled, rolling to narrowly dodge the explosion from the worm’s fireball, a blast that shook the sands like a thunderclap.
The explosion sent him tumbling, his mouth filled with sand mixed with... sothing worse.
Despite the blast’s size, the damage was minimal. "Crooked-teeth worm, how can you shoot fireballs? Were not you just a normal worm a few hours ago? Do not tell ..."
Lian’s thoughts paused as an absurd idea struck him.
"Do not tell ... you can absorb my spells and evolve? That makes no sense! What kind of worm are you? Are you the only one, or are all of you like this?"
Questions flooded his head, but the worm would not answer. The first worm he’d faced had also swallowed his fireball, but that one was cast without a chant, making it much weaker.
"No ti to think!" he said, dodging another fireball, this ti avoiding being thrown around.
The monster had completely changed since its Iron 3 days. Now it was a walking turret, firing fireballs. Its body radiated intense heat, making it hard for Lian to get close.
"I could create a Hypercube to reach its position instantly and blast a fireball at its head..." he thought, half-joking. He had not even tried, but he already knew drawing a four-dinsional shape was utterly insane. He could barely manage a two-dinsional circle.
"Alright, then," he muttered, dodging another fireball. "Guess I will play your ga!"
After evading yet another attack, Lian began circling the monster. Its fixed position made it easy to keep his eyes closed and focus on forming the Circle, a dance of survival and precision.
"Geotric Spell, Circle."
The shape appeared in his mind, but this ti, sothing felt different—a sensation, like he could manipulate the transparent Circle in new ways.
"Huh? Aweso!" Lian hissed, his eyes gleaming with excitent.
"Can I make the Circle bigger or smaller? What? Add more Circles nearby and try drawing multiple in one spell? What could that do?!" His curiosity a spark in the heat of battle.
The more he toyed with the Circle, the more he discovered.
But the monster would not give him ti.
Feeling heat beside him, Lian snapped his eyes open, only to see a fireball ters away.
"Damn, damn, damn!" he hissed, leaping aside. The fireball exploded nearby, sending him rolling again.
"It burns!"
His hand frantically patted out the flas licking his clothes, a desperate scramble to stay intact.
"Do not you ever run out of mana? How can you fire five fireballs and still stand? Just fall over and let kill you!"
Though everything Lian said seed to backfire, this ti his reasoning made sense... The worm’s mana could not be infinite. It was only a Bronze 1, like him.
But was logic valid in a world where the sun never set? Absolutely not, a cruel twist of this alien reality.
As if answering his taunt, the reddish, crooked-teeth worm fired another fireball.
"What a shitty world!" Lian shouted in frustration, dodging yet another hit and spitting sand from his mouth. "Puh, literally..." His disgust as palpable as the sand in his teeth.
"Alright, fine... no more ssing around!" he said, rising from the ground. "Ti to get serious."
"Geotric Spell, Circle!"
Lian’s mind was clear. His goal was unwavering, enchanted by his own power.
Unlike him, the worm did not seem to have any mana issues. Furthermore, due to its flaming aura, it was impossible to approach it without getting crispy.
---
Author’s Note!
What do you think of Lian? I swear, before unlocking the System, he was not so... sharp as a marble. He was more normal.
Could the System have loosened a few screws in his head?
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