Weeks

Sitting amidst fallen pillars, piles of rubble and cracked stone and seeing the ocean horizon in the distance, Rethys felt the sea breeze hit his face. It tasted salty, and, unlike the air coursing through the rest of the catacombs, smelled fresh. It smelled of freedom.

Looking over the rolling blue waves from the height of the cliffs the catacombs were perched into, he beheld the sea in all its glory.

Before, he had expected his first time seeing the sea to be through Ulifeth, a port city situated on the western coast of the Voldren Kingdom and famous for the beautiful gigantic crystal pillars jutting from the waters of its shores. He remembered Fulgrith wanting to take them there to both study and sightsee.

He contemplated simply escaping through here. He could do it, after all, he had the strength necessary to climb up somewhat safely, even if the height of the cliffs was terrifying, and then reach the surface. He could even decide to climb down and then swim eastwards along the shore until he could get back on land, and though it would be hard, he was a decent swimmer.

Either case would see him continuing further eastwards until he was out of Yvtar's borders and then entering the great northern wildlands of Inverra. From there he'd continue southwards until he reached Voldren's northern borders again, probably through Northwood outpost.

It seemed so easy, yet Sevi's voice reverberated in his mind, saying that the waters were probably infested with powerful sea monsters and that the surface was hell itself.

The worst part is that he didn't have to trust her words, his own power also gave him some idea of what waited for him in the waters below. He could occasionally glimpse through his senses some unfathomably large lights moving through them, circling around the shore.

As for the surface, well let's just say that he could feel the surface creatures' auras all the way from where he sat, and that alone gave him all the convincing he needed to not bother.

He was in the westernmost point of the catacombs, an area so out of the way that it had no passages upwards or downwards, and that seemed only a far-reaching extension of this level of the catacombs. A part of this region seemed to have collapsed ages ago along with the cliffs containing it, and now provided a cliffside view into the outside world.

Rethys wondered about the logic of building this close to dangerous terrain, but quickly shrugged away those thoughts, remembering Sevi's words about this whole place being built with magic.

There wasn't much to this place though, aside from the view and the fact that a few catacomb dwellers occasionally fall down through here.

'Maybe that's why they come here.' Rethys pondered, looking directly at the very bright light of a powerful soul that was moving around the sunken ruins in the waters below.

Still, regardless of how pointless it was to keep pondering this particular spot, he found that his trips to it were the highlight of his days here in Yvtar. The vast view of the ocean, the sounds of waves rolling gently over the fallen stone below, the warm sunlight as well as the fresh air, all of them did wonders to Rethys' psyche. He felt rejuvenated whenever he took the time off exploring to relax here a bit.

Raising his right arm, caked in blood and gore up to the elbow, he summoned his ether and had it take the shape of a ball. The swirling globule of ether remained anchored in his hand, unperturbed by the all-encompassing flows of ether around it.

He then tried his hardest to will the ball to transform into a second shape, a cube. The mass of ether almost took the six-sided shape of a cube, but lost its cohesion midway, its ether flowing out of Rethys' hand and out towards the distant blue horizon.

Looking at his latest failed attempt, Rethys gazed at the trail of blue vapor lazily floating out into the distance with a blank stare.

'About time I headed back.' He concluded, turning to pack his things before heading back inside the cool darkness of the stone halls.

The walk back to Sevi's room was a long one, but his senses had since sharpened enough to allow him to walk unimpeded while still being aware of his surroundings. He even felt confident enough in taking an unfamiliar path, if only to explore more of the catacombs and broaden his knowledge of them. And as he began the trip back, his mind took it as a great opportunity to torment him over his condition.

It had been two whole weeks since he started exploring in earnest, and through them all, nothing changed for Rethys. He continued to spend every waking moment he had either exploring the catacombs or improving his magic.

He didn't find anything even remotely indicative of a way out, rather quite the opposite, as the more he discovered, the more he was convinced that this damned place was going to be his grave.

He went through every point of interest his map pointed towards, and found in them nothing worth mentioning.

All of the workshops he had discovered after the first turned out to only contain more of the same things. More useless materials, more unhelpful notes, more unusable magic tools. The caches that Sevi pointed him towards weren't much better, as it seemed that Rethys had struck gold with the first one and depleted all of his luck, for the rest contained the most miscellaneous of items, the most useful among them being an uncomfortable sleeping bag made from coarse, but enchanted leather.

His attempts at finding a way to escape were also completely fruitless, as he ran into dead end after dead end, often featuring access not to freedom, but to more terrifying monsters.

He had glimpses into paths upwards, only to immediately turn tail and run, the ether there having him feel as if he were dunked into a tub of ice the moment he so much as peeked through the door.

The same applied with the center of the catacombs, where he managed to take a momentary look with his senses that showed him monsters massive enough to stomp him like an ant.

He had no luck with the cave systems around the farthest fringes either, as his senses were somehow blinded the moment he stepped into them, which made it clear to never ever consider going into them, ever.

It was honestly quite depressing for him, seeing that the area he hovered around was actually an island of safety amidst the unbelievably dangerous rest of Yvtar.

But still, there was one thing that happened that wasn't completely demoralizing, and that was his rapid improvement

His magic had improved quickly, and recently he could perform a rudimentary form of what Sevi called "Channeling", where he took charge of where his ether went and did, to an extent. But though he understood now how to infuse Intent into his ether, he still lacked the degree of control that Sevi claimed was necessary to move on to the next phase, and that would allow him to cast true spells.

His improvements however, carried with them a cost. The more he mastered his element, the more the Entity could communicate with him. It wasn't capable of controlling him again, but could still ruin his day by constantly trying to influence his actions, not leaving him any space to relax as it tried to steer him back to the mission it imposed on him.

Despite that, he also managed to improve drastically in a surprising field, infusion magic.

After a particularly difficult fight where he had to drink one of the four infusion potions he had, an unexpected effect emerged, where Rethys discovered that he could use his senses to study the effect the potions instilled into him.

This prompted him to simply use all of the potions he had, one after the other, and then focus on deciphering how to properly perform infusion magic. Using that method, he managed to understand the technique enough to reliably use it by himself.

This technique saw his physical strength increase without the extreme pain that his faulty first attempts caused, which saw his combat capabilities increase exponentially. It did however spread more numbness and loss of feeling throughout his body, but at this point, that was the least of his worries.

Combined with the talisman of strength he had acquired, he managed to expand the range of his exploration drastically. After all, he could now reliably defeat creatures he could never dream of approaching previously.

Snapping out of his thoughts for a moment, he noticed another path upwards to yet another workshop. This wouldn't be anything unusual, yet he had already gone through all the laboratories Sevi had pointed to with the help of the map. Perhaps this one bore something interesting.

'Or... probably has the same useless stuff.' He sighed hopelessly.

The workshops weren't always the most useful finds, as the bulk of what they contained was only ever more magical materials. Still, they were always worth it, if only for the occasional useful tool Sevi pointed out, the usual etherstone coffer, or the simple virtue of exploration.

Forcing himself to climb up the same identical stairway that led to every workshop, Rethys was met with the familiar enchanted sliding stone door.

Placing his hand on the correct circle, he opened the door and was greeted with the same view he had seen almost a dozen times at this point.

The usual tables chaotically dotted with random assortments of ingredients, tools and notes, shelves filled to the brim with all sorts of materials, and boxes and coffers containing even more ingredients and materials. All of them perfectly preserved for use and absolutely useless to Rethys.

'I don't even know what I'm expecting at this point.' He sighed as he looked at the workshop's unimpressive interior.

Shrugging away his disappointment, he moved instantly towards the things he knew he wanted to bring with him. It was routine at this point, grabbing etherstones of Restoration and Life, searching for the Linker tool that Sevi asked for, and keeping an eye out for anything else interesting.

Eventually he had all he wanted and was tempted to simply move on and save himself the waste of time that would be exploring the rest of the workshop. After all, all of these places were near identical.

'I'm already here so I might as well' He sighed inwardly.

Moving towards the back of the workshop however, he noticed that all of the other workbenches in the back were not there, along with the summoning circle that would usually be on the ground. The large cleared area instead featured a much larger magic circle that glowed a different color than the usual dark green of the Corruption element, instead being purple.

The color of the Space element, the element of portals and teleportation.

"Could this be..." He murmured unknowingly.

He remembered seeing the teleportation platform at Northwood outpost, and noted that it looked somewhat similar, having three concentric circles instead of the four that composed this one.

Remembering Sevi's words about the element of Space, he recalled her saying that it could only ever be used in magic circles for the purpose of teleportation. That meant that regardless of this magic circle being different, it should still be a teleportation platform of some sorts. A way out.

"I found it..." He muttered.

This was it; he had finally found his way out.

It took him a while to get over the initial surprise and realize that he did not know a thing about neither teleportation nor the Space element. The only thing he did know from what his master had taught him, was that this circle should have an identical copy somewhere else that it would lead towards.

And of course, the other end of the platform was basically guaranteed to be somewhere else in Yvtar.

This led him to the logical conclusion that, since he was currently in what he guessed to be the safest part of this damnable place, the teleportation circle would probably lead him to his death, were he to activate it as it was now. Not that he knew how to activate it to begin with.

'No, it's fine, It's still something.' He reasoned to himself.

It was indeed his first truly promising find from his list of potential exits, and there was always the slight chance that his might lead far enough out of this place and deliver him to safety. And even if not, he had someone very knowledgeable about this place he could consult.

Stepping away from the magic circles, careful not to so much as breathe on it lest it disappears, Rethys exited the workshop before making his way back to Sevi's room as fast as he could.