Chapter 27

Alex traveled through the dark for in a straight line, he checked his bag pulling out the book of runes.

'How are you supposed to navigate this, all of the runes look like they are just thrown in.' He put it back away planning on trying again when he found what he was looking for.

He then pulled out the food from the bag, and began eating as much as he could while walking.

He had managed to eat a quarter of it before he was stuffed. As he walked he took notice of how his before tired muscles, had regained some strength.

Alex was well out of the hunters patrol area, he could just dig a hole and call it quits, but he had a better plan.

He had been searching not with his eyes but with his spacial energy. Why you might ask? That is because he was looking for a cave, a natural open area that is devoid of light. He would reinforce it as time comes and goes, but for now it would just serve mainly as a place to train and store stuff.

Alex fished around his bags looking for something to do while searching. He soon pulled out the colored cube. Alex let go of it as his energy took hold of it.

The cube which he had long since etched a few corresponding shapes on each color, began turning. The cube shifted randomly for a while before stopping. Then began shifting, back into the solved form.

'That is fun to watch.'

He continued on the cube shuttering quietly as he walked.

Alex sudden looked over to the ground. "Finally."

He had found a cave. he followed the upward slope of the cave. For a minute before he found the opening, it was small, very small.

He used his spacial energy to cut out an opening, and climbed down into it.

Alex took note of the many insects around him. One of which looked familiar. He pulled out the note Lockhorn had given him. 'A rocky cricket huh.'

"I'll be back for you." He said before continuing on.

Alex was now walking in complete darkness, but he never stumbled or fell. As he could see every crack and crevice.

Alex frowned he had made it to the end of the cave, but what upset him the most was the fact that there was a large cavity below him and he couldn't see the bottom of it.

'Well I suppose, um, nothing ventured nothing gained?'

He smiled. 'This is also the perfect opportunity to test out spacial flight.'

Alex once again used his energy to cut out the ground. It was much harder this time as the layers of rock were more dense.

He lifted the cut out debris, leaving it above so it wouldn't fall all the way down.

Alex then wrapped himself in a thin layer of spacial energy and walked over the hole. He didn't fall, he was able to hold himself perfectly. He slowly lowered himself down.

'It is getting really cold. I should pack a coat in any future visits.'

'The cave is almost perfectly cylindrical, almost as if it were a…'

He paused as he finally was able to sense something different. He felt a structure that looked to be man made as its shape wasn't natural.

Alex lowered himself closer to the bottom. Until he could see all of the room.

'Is that a car?' Alex pulled his phone out turning the light on.

He saw a red car, unlike most cars it was fancy indicating that it's owner was wealthy.

'It's not powered by a lightning crystal?' Alex looked at the complicated mechanism within it, getting a headache from just trying to understand it.

He turned around flashing his light. To see a corpse he had located with his spacial element. 'Poor guy, he died in such a isolated place.'

Alex flashed the light at the rest of the room. 'It's a road? In the middle of a forest?'he saw a common concrete road the was cracked as if it was dropped. He shined the light up, and sure enough part of the wall had roads imbedded in the walls.

A circular section of it had been cut out, and dropped. 'I was right this is a sinkhole!' Alex thought as he looked around curiously.

The hole was never covered up, and over countless years the hole was eventually buried and locked away from the rest of the world.

The roads original height was just ten feet above him. Alex walked up to the corpse.

'Scratch that not a corpse, only the skeleton is left.' He thought as he lifted the hat from its head.

Alex checked to see if it had any possessions on it with his spacial element. A phone, wallet, and a set of keys were all he could see. He took the phone pressing the power button.

'It won't turn on, did the mana absorber malfunction?' He checked the inside of it with his energy, well he tried but it was packed there were barely any openings within.

'It doesn't even have one.'

He looked back at the skeleton, flipping it over with his spacial energy. 'Is this even a human? nothing makes sense here.'

Alex flipped open the wallet. A surprised look filled his face. 'That's definitely a human in this picture.' He saw what looked like an identification card, but he couldn't understand the words written on the back of it. He saw something that he could understand. It was a year 2054.

'That can't be right, that is thirty three years from now. Is he a time traveler? Will technology really go backwards?'

Alex thought for a while before it all fell into place. The road far underneath the surface, the strange vehicle that didn't use crystals, and the phone that didn't use mana.

'This man is from the ancient times! He… he is from the time before mana existed!'

'Did the calendar reset?'

Alex quickly looked back at the words on the back of the photo. "Is this 'English'?"

He then took the keys into his hands. Ready to see if it would work. He stuck the keys into the keyhole in the door turning them to unlock the door. A quiet "Shunk" was heard as the door unlocked.

'It's not too different.' He thought while flashing the light around the interior of the car. A light layer of dust covered the inside of the car. With a wave of his hand it was all carried off out of the vehicle.

Alex sat down in the drivers seat. 'Now, where is the power button?' He thought, his phone now floating over his shoulder to provide optimal visibility.

"There are way too many buttons." Alex muttered while pressing them all. "And they do nothing." He said after he pressing the last one.

He sighed scanning the entire front area. Alex paused scanning the door keyhole once again. "Haha, I've got you now, it's gotta be somewhere behind the steering wheel." He said after spotting a familiar looking keyhole on the side of the steering wheel.

He put the key in and turned it. "GRRRrrreee."

Alex let go and jumped back in the seat. As he heard a rumble and sputter from the front of the car. "Well I gotta say I was expecting there to be a power button behind the steering wheel, not something this crude."

'something is preventing the vehicle from starting.' Alex pondered before focusing his energy underneath the hood of the vehicle, and turning the key.

Alex was amazed at what he had seen. His spacial energy was assaulted by a small spark, from a box with wires running from it, when he turned the key. Alex got out and went to the front.

He was surprised to see that the hood was already slightly open. 'Did one of the buttons do this?'

Alex shrugged as he lifted the hood. He heard a light click as he lifted it. Whenever he let go it didn't fall. "Wow, how does this work? I don't see any runes holding it up."

He smacked his face trying to get himself to focus on the task at hand.

With the light shining on the inner mechanisms of the car he turned the key with his spacial energy. He saw the spark from the black box in the corner of the compartment, and he also saw an elastic band try to rotate before stopping.

He sent his energy into the black box, but whenever he tried to sense what was in it, his energy was assaulted by electricity again. He was just barely able to make out a liquid and a strange structure built within it.

"Well I only have one idea of how to get this thing running." He said while turning the key once more. Whenever the elastic band tried to spin he used his spacial energy to help it rotate. The short sputter that it originally had, grew longer before it become a steady roar.

The spark disappeared but now Alex could feel his spacial energy being attacked by every wire it touched. He hurried back into the vehicle. And started pressing buttons again.

He watched as the window cleaners moved back and forth, he pressed the button again to stop them. The windows moved, a digital display showed up with a certain time displayed. 5:00

Alex pressed another button, this time a compartment opened, it would perfectly fit the phone Alex had found.

Alex placed the phone into the area. He was amazed as the phone began powering up, the screen showing a logo. For a little while before powering on completely.

It displayed a different time then the vehicle.

7:27

"Hello?" Alex said to the device. It didn't speak back to him.

He continued trying to fiddle with the phone. Alex eventually gave up as a countdown appeared on the screen and a picture of a lock appeared.

'Well I don't know what I should have expected. It looks like it may just not work.' Alex thought.

"I've just locked the thing for twenty four hours." He said putting it back into the the compartment.

He continued to press buttons. After a while a click was heard from the back of the car. "Oh? Did I finally open the trunk?"

Alex stepped out of the vehicle and walked towards the back. The trunk was slightly open. He lifted it and his eyes were able to see many different artifacts. He saw a box with latches and a handle, metal tools for repair, a red can filled with a weird smelling liquid, and a few books.

Alex opened the latches on the box and opened it. He saw a bunch of papers, some pens, and a bunch of words.

Alex looked around he saw a what looked like a bag. He opened the bag, noting how brittle it was. Alex was surprised, he saw a toy doll.

"This poor man's situation keeps getting worse, he must have bought this as a gift" Alex said while looking at a receipt that was also in the bag.

His train of thought was cut off as he heard a crackling noise.

Alex looked up and saw that an orb of electricity was gathering above the car. He just watched as it continued to grow.

'It looks like the contraption that runs this thing is acting like a magnet to lightning mana. I didn't realize the earth had so much lightning mana so deep underground.'

He watched as it continued to grow, before realizing that he needed to stop it from getting bigger or the vehicle would be wrecked by the lightning.

His energy quickly twisted the key turning off the vehicle. The orb stopped growing, the sparks started getting shorter before it stopped sparking and the orb fell to the ground. I large marble like sphere which had an eerie glow was left behind.

Alex slowly walked over to the orb, slowly reaching out.

When his hand came in contact with it, he was assaulted by a large amount of electricity.

'It's a lightning catalyst!' Alex's last thoughts had said before the lightning spread throughout his body.

He spasmed on the floor as his muscles, lungs, and even heart were forcefully contracting agains his will. It filled every part of him, frying him inside an out. Alex soon lost his sense of touch as his nerves were fried. He felt like he was lying in an empty place completely cut off from the world. He opened his eyes, only to see that his body was still spasming. He was almost forced to be knocked unconscious several times, whether it be when his heart went out of sync, or when he was force to inhale too much air. His thoughts were a mess as the lighting was also attacking his brain.

After a while he felt something once again. As his thoughts were returning to him, he felt his strength return to him. The excess lightning mana had made its way into his light affinity. The light affinity swallowed it, and a steady flow of light seeped through Alex's body.

His body was being repaired. Alex slowly and painfully got up, coughing out a mouthful of blood. The senses in his body slowly returned as he was once again able to feel how cold it was, but now it felt more vibrant.

His light affinity was bright, very bright, but it was still just as small. Judging by how big his dark element was, it would take a while before it would awaken.

He looked around. His phone had long since fallen to the ground. Alex was surprised when he saw more than just the phone, new particles were present in the air.

'Is this lightning mana?' He thought while seeing it.

He gathered spacial energy and used it to probe the strange particles. His energy could now interact with the previously invisible mana. He then tried gathering it into an area. A small spark was soon visible in the air as the mana was concentrated.

'It really is!' Alex thought seeing the mana.

'Does this mean I can now awaken a lightning element.' Alex focused and tried drawing the lightning mana towards himself.

After a while he sighed. 'Well at least I can see a lot more around me, it's kind of useful.'

Alex then tried a different approach. He spread his spacial mana to the limit and began funneling the lightning mana towards himself. Soon a large concentration of mana was present within him, but rather than wreck havoc, it was drawn straight into his light affinity.

Alex felt himself grow stronger as his light affinity grew even brighter. 'Is it strengthening me?'

Alex had never heard of lightning catalysts healing, and strengthening someone. In fact the bare minimum needed to use one is that you must have a lightning affinity, or else the chance of death is almost certain. He shuddered realizing how bad his situation was.

'I'm lucky that my light affinity somehow transferred the destructive power of lightning into healing.

He closed the vehicle after putting all the artifacts that he had found back in it.

Alex looked at his phone, he had one hour left before midnight. He had been gone for nearly three hours.

Alex had planned on returning before midnight, so he would have to hurry and set up the base. His spacial element got to work moving large chunks of rubble, so he could have some flat ground for training later on. He pulled out the rune book scanning it for a specific rune. After he found it, he imprinted it into a translucent crystal that Paul had given him. The crystal shined as it began absorbing mana from the air, transforming it into light.

The the room was soon dimly lit. He carved a small pocket into the side of the cave and he inserted the crystal into it. It would continue to glow until the rune became unstable needing to be replaced which looked like it wouldn't be for a while seeing how Alex had imprinted it perfectly.

'Good.' Alex thought as he finished cleaning up the place.

'I've still got a little time.' Alex thought as he began gathering darkness. A few minutes later he could be seen meditating next to a spherical dark mass. The darkness spreading out from it over powering the dim light source.

Alex's affinity gradually got darker as it absorbed the higher purity of dark mana. Alex took note that he was not absorbing the solid dark mass of energy, but rather the liquid like mass that was being spread around the room. His dark mana became more concentrated as he just sat in its presence. He was also actively drawing it in which sped up the process significantly.

Alex felt like he had hit a barrier suddenly. 'This must be the limit of the beginner class for dark mages.' He was about to continue, but unfortunately his phones alarm went off. He had set it so that he would be able to go back and get some decent sleep.

'I don't feel tired anymore, but I should still go. I heard what Michael told me, I should take better care of myself.'

He dispelled his magic. The light slowly filled the bottom of the sinkhole once more.

Alex took the box Drak had given him and left it behind. Whenever he reached the top he made some quick adjustments to the slab of rock he had removed, and put it back into place not being connected but being held in place by friction. His secret base now had a door that weighed several hundreds of pounds.

He sprinted to the entrance of the cave. 'Wow the strength boost from the lightning catalyst was huge compared to when I had at first strengthened his light affinity!' Alex thought realizing he could leap several yards, with ease.

He closed the entrance to the first cave. While hurrying back to bed, Alex followed the compass, agilely leaping back home.