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Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 15

Author: Blue_Rat

ch15

Kazuki found a new way up the trench. For the past few days, he would loop one end of a spike and climb up until he was directly underneath a spike. Once underneath it, he would find the crack or split in the spike and he would then very carefully pour in a few drops of acid.

*t..s..sss*

Tiny amounts of rock would melt away from the surface leaving a small dull spot where Kazuki could touch without being cut. Kazuki would repour the acid a few times until the spot that was melted away was big enough for him to place a few toes on. Kazuki would then grab hold of that spot and throw himself upward into the air and then land on said spot with part of his foot and he’d balance himself there in a pistol squat stance.

Extending his senses outward, Kazuki would then find another spike within 10 feet of him that had a crack or two in it. Once he found the nearest damaged spike, Kazuki would then unhook his rope from beneath him and throw it over the new spike. This process would repeat itself again and again until Kazuki ran out of acid. Once empty he would pull out a small stone tablet and make a mark on it.

This small stone tablet was a map. Kazuki had made this tablet using his broken black ruler. Filling it with ki, it became sharper than a sword. He would then carve out the path he was climbing. This way when he climbed back down, he wouldn’t have to try and figure out which spikes he’d already dulled and he could save time. So far he had managed to make it about 200 feet up. He’d have gone a lot further but the further he goes, the more acid he uses, add to the fact that it takes more and more time to climb further up and then descend, he was making slow progress.

Descending to the ground though was a lot quicker than climbing up.

After Kazuki marked his path on this little stone tablet, he put it in the pocket at his waist, untied the rope from the spike, and then jumped down.

*Fwhoosh*

Every 50 feet or so, Kazuki would catch one of his dull spikes with either his rubber rope or a hand to slow his momentum. A fall from a few hundred feet wouldn’t do much harm if any to Kazuki but down here the dangers were more than just falling. After catching himself, his ears would twitch slightly as he listened to his surroundings. With no threats detected, he once more fall. This process would continue until he found himself on the ground. After touchdown, Kazuki would make a mad dash back to his cave and seal it shut as quickly as possible.

Walking into his cave, Kazuki stretched in pleasure. Using his broken black ruler, Kazuki carved out large chunks of the cave and escorted all of the rocks out, and dumped them nearby. Now his underground base was much bigger. At first, it was only around 6 feet or so wide and 7 feet deep with a height ranging from 3 feet all the way to 4 1/2 feet depending on which part of the cave you were lying in. Now though things were completely different. After carving up his cave, Kazuki expanded it many times over. Now it was almost 25 feet long and over 7 feet high, with a width of 15 feet.

He had smoothed out much of the floor and had made a rubber-rock bed. It was still hard as fuck but it was a hell of a lot better than the craggy pointy ground. Further back, Kazuki had a few shelves made from rock. On top of which had a few dead clackers. some were dissected into many parts, while others were mere shells of whatever was leftover.

Kazuki had dissected them to try and figure out if they could be used for anything. Like the acid and some of the rocks down here, Kazuki was trying everything he could to gain an advantage in this shit hole. Doing this, research Kazuki had discovered a few things. One of the main things he found is that the clackers not only had an incredible sense of hearing but they also had a terrifying sense of smell as well. After trying a few different experiments Kazuki found that they were more attracted to blood than noise and they simply used noise for locating prey.

Their teeth were incredibly sharp and could break regular stones and their strange legs were of course used to hear. Kazuki also discovered the clackers made certain noises with their legs when they were hunting and other sounds when they were afraid of something or even when they wanted to run away. The weariest sound though was the one they used to call for backup. When they made that sound with their legs, many more groups of clackers would always show up within a few minutes if not seconds.

Kazuki had removed a few of the legs from the corpses of these clackers and had practiced rubbing the legs together. He now could mimic the sounds the clackers made with their legs as well as recognize those four signals. Now that his cave was bigger and was sealed more appropriately, the noise he made in here was nonexistent to the outside. Kazuki on the other hand could feel the vibrations coming from the ceiling, whenever something moved on the surface above.

On the ground beneath the shelves, Kazuki had hollowed out a normal boulder with acid. He then made a rubber rock and used it as a cork and now had something similar to a gourd. He used it specifically for water. Kazuki would gather acidic water from the small puddle using his black water bottle. he would then dilute the acid and purify it with his ki until it was drinkable. Afterward, he would store it in the large gourd.

The pure dark magic in his body along with the dark magical energy in the air was suppressing him too much and caused him to expend far too much energy and sweat. Kazuki could deal with the hunger but losing all of that water every day was wearing him thin and so he removed the acid and drank the water. One thing he still had yet to achieve though was removing the trash and rotten like smell from the water as well as the foul aftertaste. The water clearly did its job rehydrating him but it was a struggle every time just to swallow such nasty liquid down without vomiting.

Kazuki would have to cut off his sense of smell and taste with his ki but no matter how long he cut off these senses when he unblocked them, there was still a strong after taste for a while.

Kazuki shuddered from head to toe before corking the gourd once more and putting it aside. Changing the shape of his bottle back to its original black ruler, Kazuki sharpened its edge using ki and carved a single stroke into the wall. Using his ki to sense the wall, there were almost 70 of these carved lines indicating the days or at least he thought they equaled days. Being down in total darkness, it was impractical to try and tell time as well as nearly impossible. Kazuki simply guessed and estimated using the time he awoke to the time he meditated or slept but that was in no way an accurate way of doing things.

Kazuki changed the shape of his black ruler once more and it wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet.

Walking over to his bed, Kazuki sat with legs crossed. Picking up a nearby stone tablet, Kazuki bit the tip of his finger and began to write using the ancient language of magic with his blood. Kazuki wrote many inscriptions and finished by connecting them and created a talisman from the rock. As soon as he was done, he commanded with his mind.

(Activate Light!)

A few sparks of light came to life on the surface of the tablet for barely a second. Kazuki caught a glimpse of his hand from the light but right after the light faded and black filled his vision once more. A second after that, the tablet trembled in his hands before it cracked down the middle and fell apart in his hand.

*Haaa*

(Another failure. Just what is this place?)

Kazuki couldn’t help but sigh. The trench was too odd and mysterious. On the surface, Kazuki could use both magic and ki to activate a talisman. Down here something was interfering with his magic. Kazuki understood this and accepted it as fact and reality but his ki was different. Not only could he use ki inside his body, healing it rapidly, enhancing his senses and physicality in every way but he could also extend his ki outside of his body.

He used it almost like an eye or a hand. He could stretch it around 10 feet outside of his body and feel his surroundings even better than were he to personally touch or hold something. Using had already saved him a multitude of times down in this abyssal trench. It was clear it worked outside of his body. Not only that but it also worked with his broken black ruler, a magic tool. So it definitely can work with a magic tool and it works outside his body, yet when he uses it with a talisman, it seems as if it’s about to start and then crap out.

(What am I missing? What is the difference between this magic tool and a talisman?)

Kazuki had also attempted to use his ki to try and access one of his storage rings but to no avail. For some reason, only the treasure, Glacious had given him, the black ruler even in its broken state could still work and nothing else could.

Kazuki could only sigh and move on. Making use of his time, Kazuki changed gears. Concentrating on the aura seeping out of his compass and from within his mage core, Kazuki started to train again.