Luke rolled on the ground a couple of metres, before coming to a stop. He opened his eyes and looked around. He had no idea where he was, but some of the landmarks looked oddly familiar.
He grimaced as the sunlight assaulted his eyes, making him dizzy and sway for a few seconds. He closed his eyes and tried to adjust them to the new environment. He opened them again and looked around, a slight frown appearing on his face.
All around him, beautiful green, soft grass surrounded him, and he could see towering mountains from the small distance. The mountains were very tall, with jagged and pointy tops. They stretched endlessly into the distance.
The sun and the sky looked weird, weirder than usual that is. The sky in the Sacred Sanctuary was said to be dark and starless, which is why a large dome covered the lands. The Sacred Sanctuary was a strange place, but only if you are not used to it.
And Luke has seen so many things in his short, miserable life, but he had never been in that place – or seen it for that matter. There were a lot of landmarks that he recognized though, just could not remember where he had seen them.
Some areas he had heard about before, from descriptions and exaggerated rumors, like a infinite chain of sharp jagged mountains that stretched endlessly into the distance. He did not like how seeing that in real life made him feel though. There was another landmark he had heard before, but could not remember what.
He turned around and gulped. His mouth was wide open, and his face was even paler than before. There, a few meters away from him, vast stretches of water flowed uphill, almost – no, exactly like a reverse waterfall. These waters flowed endlessly, disappearing into the vast sky above.
'No way..'
From that specific landmark, he knew instantly exactly where he was. He recognized land every awakened dreaded in the Sacred Sanctuary. The lands populated by hundreds of thousands of Chaos Creatures, if not millions. He was standing in one of the most dangerous regions of the Sacred Sanctuary.
The Skysea Island.
The Sacred Sanctuary was made up of dozens of floating islands, suspended in the vast chasm of darkness by ancient Sorcery and Magic invented by the gods. Each island was incredibly huge, capable of habiting more than a million humans, but not all islands were safe to live in.
The Skysea Island is one of them.
These islands are referred to as Danger Zones, regions of the Sacred Sanctuary that were succumbed to Desolation. There were currently four danger zones know to humanity; The Land of the Primordial Mist, the Skysea Island, the Clockwork Forest and the Mosaic Desert. The last one being the most harrowing of them all.
Only the highest ranking Gentries, and even higher ranks have survived the lands and lived to tell the tale. According to them, the experience was unforgettable, to say the least.
And now Luke, a mere Commonality had somehow found himself on one of those lands. To make matters worse, he had no weapons or armor to fight against Chaos Creatures. If he wanted to survive, he would have to learn how to effectively wield his Ability and make use of his innate Attribute.
Chaos Creatures were drawn to the Noise after all, so the [Noiseless] Attribute should really come in handy in the situation he was in. He just needed to be smart about how he proceeded, and find shelter soon before nightfall, otherwise he will be in deep trouble.
He scouted the whole place before sprinting towards the mountains. He did not wish to be loud, so as to avoid the creatures that dwell on these lands, but he had no other choice either. He had to move as fast as possible, furthest away from the Skysea.
From the mother of all horrors.
After a not so stealthy approach, he finally drew closer to the mountains. They were actually much taller than he had thought, but that was not his problem. His objective was not to climb the mountains, but find a shelter to rest for the night as he figured out what to do.
The slope got steeper and steeper, and the grass was even more weirder as he moved closer. The towering mountains loomed above him like an omen of dread, emanating a sense of profound terror. Perhaps the mountains were not such a good idea after all, but it was too late to turn back.
And Luke had no other option.
He was looking for at least a small cave – in fact the smaller the better – on the outskirts of the mountains, where there were the least hordes of Chaos Creatures roaming around. Or at least some of the lower rank he could at least escape alive.
He proceeded stealthily this time, not wishing to make a single noise. The area region was quiet, too quiet for Luke's liking. It was eerie and intense, because he did not know if a creature would suddenly lunged at him.
He would certainly be done for.
He also did not like how there was not a single tree in sight, and he was just exposed to every creature that passed by. Thanks to his innate attribute, a creature would not notice him even if he passed by. Except tracing his scent of course.
Soon, he saw a vast chasm of the base of one of the mountains. It was so large that a small truck would be able to pass through. Of course, Luke had never seen a truck live before except in pictures, but he had somewhat of an idea how large it must have had been. And the chasm was just as huge.
He knew that entering the chasm was a dangerous idea, but he had very little choice. Who knew what kind of creatures escaped the Skysea once the sun went beyong? Probably thousands of monsters capable of killing him just by gazing at him.
Even though the giant cave seemed just as dangerous and horrific, but finding shelter was the best course of action in the situation Luke had found himself in.
He picked up a giant rock, holding it with two hands, and entered.
#
After a long time of transversing the vast cave, he finally found an isolated spot he can use to rest. The few past minutes and been nothing but eventful, he actually almost died in an encounter with an especially fearsome creature.
It was huge, towering over 3 meters in height, and had a large gaping maw. It had two crimson flames where it eyes were supposed to be, glistening brightly in the nebulous darkness.
The creature leaned in, sniffed him for a few moments and snarled. Luke had already come to terms with his death, but he could not help shiver. It was a completely involuntary response. The creature opened its large maw and before it could close in on Luke, something else happened.
Another creature lunged towards the towering one, and they were entangled in a fierce battle for a few moments, granting him time to collect his thoughts. He knew that running away was not going to work, and staying to fight was out of the question.
So he gambled.
When he remembered correctly, his Essence count was [6/2000], which is barely enough to use an Ability, but he had to give it a try. Even if it have him a few seconds of advantage. He still had no idea what the [Ontokinesis] Ability is supposed do, which is why he was gambling.
Somehow he found the name ominous, and so he reasoned that the ability must be powerful. Big mistake. He reached deeper into his soul, until he found something that resembled trings of multiple runes and tried pulling on them all.
He still had no idea how to access his Abiliy, but he knew one thing. Potentials, Attributes and Affinities were unmoving and unchanging, so one could not pull on their strings at will. The only easily accessible string was that on his Ability, and so he used trial and error to pull forth his ability.
And it worked.
After a few moments of pulling dozens of unmoving strings, he finally found the one that weave his ability and pulled it. And in the nick of time too. One of the creatures was already defeated, and the victor was lunging at him at a startling speed.
He used the little Essence he had to activate his Ability, and he felt something around him change. It was not inside his soul this time, but the whole cave shifted and twisted, making him fell nauseous.
He opened his eyes and realized that the monster was gone – not dead, just gone. He had been holding a burning torch on his hand and he saw that the fire was extinguished. There was something else wrong too. The cave felt different...
Ever since he entered the cave, he had been able sense anything and everything beyond the oppressive darkness. He thought maybe it was perhaps because of his Affinity, though he did not want to think about that. Not so soon at least.
Upon entering the cave, and the encounter with the Chaos Creatures, the space around him felt large and spacious. The walls felt far away and unreachable. But now, he was even able to touch them. He leaned on the nearest wall when he felt profound exhaustion overwhelm him.
He pulled on the Trace Rune and looked at the runes with a frown.
Essence: 0/2000
'Arg, dammit!'
That was the downside of using his Ability. Awakened like Commonalities and the like, were not supposed to use up all the essence they had. The consequences were dire. It was especially worse for Luke considering that was alone on danger zone, so his death was eminent.
He fell on his knees and coughed up a small pool of blood that disappeared into the darkness. He felt dizzy and weak. His eyes felt heavy and achy, his body now incapable of healing the bruises on his knees.
He was suffering from severe Essence deprivation.
And there was no one around to help him.
If he wanted to survive, he would have to hunt and kill Chaos Creatures, but that was too impossible. He barely had any strength left to raise a finger, how was he supposed to kill a creature?
That felt like too much.
It felt like the heavens were asking too much from him. He did not wish to do anything, he just wanted to rest.
He closed his eyes and collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
He dreamt of a beautiful dream, his mother baking him his favorite banana bread on a Saturday morning.