Chapter 36: New Spell

  Despite both of their strength stats being the same -at a base of five- Alex knew he was stronger than Garret currently, due to the Refined Body ability he just gained. So he had to at least attempt to break out of the cage himself.

  Alex grabbed a bar with both of his hands and pulled. His muscles strained, bulging against his skin under the armor he wore. He felt the power in his arms, far more than he ever thought he could achieve back home on earth. Alex really was at the peak of humanity. He'd outdo any strongman or power-lifter of his previous world despite still having a slim -albeit impressively chiseled- body build.

  Despite this, Alex couldn't budge the bars. They held firm in their stone recesses regardless of the grunts and huffs Alex made during his attempts to bend them. After a grueling thirty seconds, he gave up and stepped back.

  "Told ya," Garret said.

  "I know, I know," Alex leaned forward and took the time to examine the bars for once. At first glance, they seemed like rather typical wrought iron metal. Dark grey, not even a bit of shine to them. The surface was rough, but not from the pot-marks of a forging process, something else gave the metal a textured look.

  What are those? Alex's eyes strained in the dim light to focus on the metal texture. There were lines on the metal, etched on the surface in an intricate pattern. He traced the lines along the bar in vision, watching it curve and intersect to make various tiny designs.

  It's covered in glyphs. He realized.

  The bars were indeed a basic metal after all. They were enhanced with some sort of [Glyphcraft], no doubt giving them a massive increase in their sturdiness. Alex only knew a few basic glyphs and lines in the enchanting method thanks to Celeste's elemental circle he had learned. A lot of what he saw he didn't recognize, but some of it he did.

  Earth glyphs, and they're all connected through other symbols up and down the surface. Makes sense, the earth element would provide strength and stability.

  Alex's observations were rewarded with a popup.

  He improved his skill by studying the glyphs in front of him. That was interesting to know. If Alex came across other instances of this type of enchanting, he could potentially study it to increase his skill's rank without having to buy expensive tomes or pay someone to teach him. All more stuff to worry about later.

  For now, he understood that no one on his team would be able to just break through these cages. Not at their current level of power anyway. So they needed to figure out something else. His attention went to the lock that kept the cage closed. It was of the same metal as the bars and also covered in glyph lines. So breaking it wouldn't be an option. The same went for the thing's hinges.

  "Anyone know how to pick locks?" Alex asked.

  "We tried that. No luck." Eric replied.

  "Damn," Alex sat down cross-legged to think. What else could they do to get out of this? Allie's spell didn't help in this situation. It didn't damage anything, just created light.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  Wait, spells! Come on, Alex! He nearly facepalmed. His notification said he had earned a new spell from completing the badger quest. He quickly pulled up his menus and found the description of his first ever magic spell.

  It was an impressive spell. Alex didn't know what the Transmitter type meant, but he knew the spell's rank of beginner was the lowest. They increased in rank or tier the same as a mage's core did. A beginner spell was at the bottom. That didn't matter too much though, apparently even a beginner spell cast by a Sage tier mage was still very powerful.

  Unfortunately, this spell didn't help them either. Alex didn't think his current power would give the spell enough juice to damage the cage, besides heating it up. If it was strong enough to break apart the cage or even heat the metal enough to bend it, then it would certainly be enough to hurt or even kill his friends who would be caught up in its five-meter range. It was a cool spell, and he couldn't wait to try it, but only once they were out of this situation and safe.

  "I don't have any ideas guys. I'm sorry," Alex said.

  "We've been sitting here for a couple hours trying to come up with something and we got nothing. Don't be sorry." Eric said.

  It didn't help Alex feeling like this was his fault and he had to fix it. They were out doing his quest. They got injured and captured because he had them off playing adventurers. If they were all at the camp when the Kobolds arrived, maybe they could have fought them off together. Maybe they wouldn't be in this mess.

  "Don't," Allie said.

  "What?"

  "I can see what you're thinking. It's all over your face." Allie leaned against the bars of her cage. "Don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. We couldn't have fought thirty lizard men. Fifteen, maybe twenty, but not thirty. That's just crazy. So no, it's not your fault."

  "We were weak and injured as a team because of my quest that I made you guys do with me. And they came for us because Garret and I killed some of their kind on the way to the village. I didn't know they were sapient, but I have the ring, I should have tried talking to them before we killed them." Alex was still sitting down and he let himself fall back on the floor of his cage. He lay there for a few seconds. "At each step of this whole situation, I was the one who made the wrong decision. This is on me."

  "Nah man," Garret called out. "I attacked them first. And I was there, you didn't hear them talk until it was too late. Defending yourself isn't a mistake. Not knowing something isn't a mistake either."

  "And none of us thought these things would track you down, not just you. Any one of us could have realized the potential threat, and no one did." Devon said.

  "But-"

  "And you didn't force us to do anything," Eric cut Alex off before he could protest. "We decided to help you on the quest. We decided to fight. That was us making the choice as a team."

  "...Thanks everyone," Alex said.

  He heard Kate scoff in the distance. There was a shuffle and a thud followed by Kate making a pained groan. Alex assumed Holly threw a rock at her given the noises he had heard. He smiled.

  "Okay, let's all think some more. What can we do? We can't just give up," Alex called out.

  Murmurs of agreement reached his ears. He stood up and approached the bars once more. It was time to study them some more and see what else he could find out.

  If they were enchanted, maybe he could un-enchant them.

  ?