Banks descended into the cold dark waters of the river scanning the river and wiping his eyes to see that they were not mistaken. No wonder Pragnosis didn't require a fishing quota. Far away schools of silverfin swam together, on the banks a couple of rock turtles lay half buried into the sand, and a kreal with a head larger than his body turned it's eyeless body towards him, as if contemplating turning him into fish food for a moment, before it slunk back into the darkness of the depths, after deciding that his delicious juices weren't worth the squeeze. The mana in the water was surprisingly abundant, and as he descended kicking his legs like a seal, the concentration of mana increased by every meter he went deeper. Down a dozen meters all signs of civilization ceased, the bricks being replaced by a mix of stone and sand, and a large amount of algae and river plant life which clung to the sides and which many of the local fish seemed quite enamored with. He had to forcibly pull himself away as he spotted a group Eyeball Mushrooms that gazed at him as he passed, the cute little voyeurs bold as brass.
He descended further and further until the vegetation dwindled along with the natural sunlight. He must be at least a hundred meters deep, approaching the twilight zone. It was an absurd depth for a river, although not the deepest. He stopped swimming downwards and activated the spell 'Agua's Fish Finder'. A four part spell that allowed it's user to convert mana into oxygen, defended them from the pressure of water, allowed them to propel themselves through water and improved vision in water. It was an absurdly difficult spell to learn, but he had been taught patiently by it's creator and so with only a little difficulty he activated it and found the world transformed.
"Is that a Two Faced Tree Fish," he said, his words coming out as unintelligible bubbles. It looked like it was doing a mating dance, shaking the many colorful flowers that sprouted from it's body. Next to it dozens of other Tree Fish were observing. No doubt at the conclusion a few more would choose to be female. "Isn't nature beautiful," he said to himself, wiping an imaginary teat from his eye, before he froze as a shock of pain came from his bottom half and he looked down to see his legs sinking away. Slowly turning his head, he glimpsed the angry visage of a Silent Squid seconds before his head was also taken off his shoulders.
-5 seconds
He reached down and grabbed the stinger tentacle shaped like a scorpions stinger, before he twisted it off at the segment. At the same time another pair of tentacles lashed out and he blocked one with his arm before catch__ his left arm was severed at the elbow. Let's try that again.
-0.5 seconds
Two more segments burst open and drifted to the floor and the Silent Squid seemed to take that as it's opportunity to retreat. Clever creatures, they know when to give up and call it a day. Some people could learn a lot from such wise creatures. Of course there was the possibility that it was a baby Silent Squid and now it was going to run off and get it's parents and if that was the case then he should really get going. Focusing on his form he kicked down at redoubled speed as his eyes finally locked onto the floor, before he frowned. Plumes of smoke emerged from spires at the bottom of the river, an indicator of hydrothermal vents, not something that he would ever expect to see at the bottom of a river. An ominous shadow fell over him and he turned to see a mass of tentacles, every single one slicing silently through the water, each one capable of severing a man who was not paying attention in half. Man he would hate to be the one that it was searching for.
He dropped down to the remaining distance, aiming towards the hydrothermal vents, the concentration of mana increasing as he did so. The smoke from the vents blotted out his eyes but Agua's Fish Finder worked just as well keeping smoke out as it did water, the absurdly overdeveloped spell that it was. The entrance to the vents was a lot larger than he expected and he poked his head into the edges, trying to see through the smoke. There was something in there and he reached his hand into the vent before it stopped as he felt a familiar feeling of concentrated mana. Crawling through the vent, holding his breath and enduring the heat from the smoke, he groped blindly through the shaft until he immediately withdrew his hand grimacing in pain. His fingertips were seared, hot metal had carved grooves into them and he frowned.
-0.5 seconds
Yes he could tolerate the pain from the burn. That didn't mean he was going to enjoy it. They suck so unbelievably much, he hated them. He pulled off his shirt, wincing at the impact of hot smoke on his skin, before wrapping the clothes around his arm and slamming it into the metal grate. The metal groaned under the force of his punch and so he repeated the motion feeling it buckle beneath his blows as he pounded down again and again as it screeched and groaned before something tore and suddenly the entire metal grate collapsed and he had a brief moment of weightlessness before he crashed downwards liked a particularly large turd flushed down a modern toilet.
xxx
In a room constructed of metal sat a series of glass tubes that stretched from the floor to the ceiling about a meter in diameter. Small bubbles rose in the tube buoyed to unknown locations and despite their ostensibly being a walkway that led from one side of the room to the other, the place was essentially unwalked and the tube unwatched. A minor break in the eerie stillness of the room as one of the tubes acquired an new occupant that descended uncontrollably down the tube from places above to places below, although this visitor seemed unwilling to take the route so helpfully provided to it's final destination. The man in the tube stretched out legs and arms bringing himself forcibly to a stop before he gathered a hand wrapped in fabric and slammed it into the glass, causing cracks to spring from the point of impact. After a seeming age of this violence, the glass acquiesced and shattered vomiting the man, fluid and copious amounts of glass onto the nearby walkway.
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"I didn't think they made glass that tough nowadays," Banks remarked as he unwrapped the shirt from his hand and put it on, frowning a bit as he saw the condition. The item of fabric had suffered numerous tears in the process of his little ingress and it seemed that now he had returned to his homeless look. He breathed out harshly expelling water from his mouth, waiting a minute before he took a tentative breath, before bursting into a coughing fit. Agua's Fish Finder always extracted a slight toll if one didn't deactivate it perfectly, switching from the water breathing to air breathing always resulted in him coughing up the life giving liquid. He idly ran a hand against the nearby rail of the walkway, before his eyes widened and he checked the ceiling, floor, and every bit of the room.
"Imperial Gold," he remarked. "Somebody here knows how to make Imperial Gold." It was one of the best kept secrets of the Golden Empire. The creation of the miraculous substance that was used in the creation of the Golden Guards, the Golden Fleet, the Golden Collars and a dozen other inventions. However it was also a substance whose method of creation was lost to time. When the Golden Emperor died at year zero the number of people able to create the stuff dwindled and soon all remaining constructs of Imperial Gold were regarded as relics. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his money counting it to make sure it was all there, before picking a direction and walking forward. Exiting the room with the tubes he was surprised to find himself in a large chamber containing many closed doors, still constructed out of Imperial Gold.
Opening the first door, he scanned the room before his eyes widened as he saw a massive four meter tall white furred creature lazing on the far end of the room and he slammed the door shut. Inside the room was a Furred, a creature from the far off north where it is cold all the year long. They were an offshoot of a human ancestor that split off at the same time as the Stunted and probably possessed similar levels of power. A single one would prove a disaster for Pragnosis. Still from what he knew about the race, they were brutish, aggressive creatures, the kind that would attack and then ask questions never and his impression of the creature wasn't that at all.
He opened the door a crack and gave the creature a closer once over before he paused, it wasn't moving. A single white string seemed to extend from the top of it's head and the creature had it's eyes closed despite standing ramrod straight. Slowly, he inched the door open, before stepping into the room and examining the creature. Pieces of golden metal were inserted methodically into the beast and a quick examination told him that this was Imperial Gold. There was a lot of it about. The purpose of the substance was generally to conduct mana and prevent the leakage of mana, keeping a spell going in perpetuity, but could and has been modified for other purposes. Thin pieces of string seemed to sprout from the body entwining with the gold parts.
Suddenly, the eyes of the creature slammed open and Banks leapt back like a cat on the stove before he froze. Inside each of the orbs was a different Primordial Rune that glowed with golden menace, although not one that he was in any way familiar with. It was mesmerizing in their complexity, a piece of the universe cut off and represented visually in two dimensions, reduced but still potent. The creature lowered it's head looking towards him and the room dropped ten degrees in a second just from the gaze and then continued getting colder. Frost formed on the floor, wall and ceiling and Banks stepped back through the doorway before trying to slam shut the door, only for it not to move, frozen shut by the ice.
The creature peered towards him as it's cheeks expanded and it's throat distended before it let out something that may have been a roar, a yell or a cry, but nevertheless sent a shiver down his spine. Banks immediately turned on his heel and sprinted away down the corridor. Behind him the wall shattered at the sheer force behind the Furred. An ancient relative that exceeded all but the strongest of humans tearing through the Imperial Gold like it was tinfoil. Still he saw none of that as he was already out of the room, stepping into a corridor with dozens of doors that were slowly opening as he dashed by, containing creatures and other horrors that he only had a brief glimpse of before passing them. He nearly reached the end of the corridor before the door slammed open and he saw a familiar creature. A stunted nearly three meters tall, naked besides it's golden jewelry and bearing a different set of primordial runes within it's eyeballs.
Dashing through the side door, he paused again at the sight before him. He was on a catwalk standing above a massive golden vat. Inscribed on the vat poorly, but with great enthusiasm was the Primordial Rune of Time again and again and again. Each elaborate carving was precise to the millimeter but sloppy in it's understanding. To him this elaborate decoration was nothing but a series of groveling prayers attempting to isolate the contents from the ravages of time. Like a soup can sealed in the middle of the river. Inside the soup can was a rich iron smelling blood red soup that he was all too familiar with. At least thousands must have been drained inside the to fill up that much blood.
The vat was also quite dangerous to him specifically, and he instinctively turned around wanting to be as far away from the timeless space as possible. However he got to experience the novel feeling of it being too late for him, as a bone white hand grabbed his neck in the next instant and his feet left the ground, before he plunged towards the bloody vat below.
