The Rune Thief [Mana Cultivation, Progression Fantasy]

We huddle around the chest in silence, waiting for Kenae to finish fiddling with the lock. The air buzzes with a strange tension, a mix of greed, exhaustion, and wariness, as if expecting another hit, a sudden ambush, something still lurking in the shadows, waiting for us to be distracted.

I glance at the butchery and shiver. There is nothing there, only giant mushrooms and dead bodies.

The latch gives with a soft, metallic click. Han Ke leans forward, his reflection glinting in the brass hinge. He opens the lid, almost in a rush, and peeks inside. The rest of us do the same, a bit more.

Inside, there is just a flask filled with a silvery bubbling liquid and a handful of gold coins.

I share a look with Enea, while Han Ke takes out the flask and holds it against the light, squinting.

"What is that?" I ask.

"Some elixir for gold ranks, maybe something to aid you in condensing your mana," he says without looking at me. He sighs. "Nothing any of us can use, bummer. We should take it to an alchemist when we get back to the city to see what it's worth."

"Why would there be something for a gold-rank in this dungeon?" asks Enea, frowning.

"Boss room rewards get tailored according to how much every party member contributed to clear it," explains Han Ke. He nods toward the body of the man who took ages to die. "It probably judged that gold-rank to be the one who did most of the work, that's why there is a reward suited for him. I hoped for it to be something some of us could use too, but it seems we aren't lucky." He shakes the flask a last time, watching the swirling bubbles dance in the dim light of the cavern, then he stores it. "We will have to sell it and split the spoils. It won't be anything too expensive either. That man was too overpowered for this dungeon."

"I see," mutters the girl.

"We should check around the cavern, the shaman, and his guards," interjects Kenae. "There could be something else of worth to take with us."

"Okay."

I watch them darting around like busy ants, digging for hidden treasures, feeling detached.

They laugh and talk whenever they find something. Yet their words are muffled, like voices underwater, distorted into meaningless rhythm. I feel as if the excitement isn't real. Those smiles are rehearsed; they must be. I watch the gestures, the synchronized nods, and feel as if I'm trapped behind a pane of glass, watching a theater play out before me.

I tilt my head, lift the corners of my mouth, trying to mimic them, to belong, to share the excitement, to be part of the performance. But it feels as if I'm operating machinery I don't understand.

There isn't a physical distance between us, but their world feels far away. I can see it, but it always slips through my fingers whenever I try to grasp it.

I shake my head and pinch my arm until it hurts, letting the pain center me in the here and now.

"I'll take a look at some of the caverns we passed," I say, wading through the shallow waters of the lake, to avoid stepping on lizardman corpses.

Enea looks up at me, briefly, "Okay."

Water presses against my boots. At first, there is resistance, but with each step I take, it seeps further into my socks, slipping through seams, turning warmth into a damp, squelching chill. The leather softens, the fabric clings. Every step feels heavier, louder.

The cold is recomforting, a quiet reminder that even in this strange place that gives you a reward chest for killing the creatures it conjures, the world still operates according to laws I understand. There is still some normalcy to cling to.

I watch the ripples fade into the distance over the water, then I realize that I have stopped walking. I glance over my shoulder and take another step before anybody can realize my distraction.

I wander through cavern after cavern for what feels like ages, not even sure what I'm looking for. Kylo strolls beside me, sniffing at shadows, peeking at holes, jumping at shy fireflies we find in our way, without ever catching any.

I take a step around another corner and freeze in surprise.

There is a series of ponds in the cavern before me. Steam coils along the ceiling, swirling between glowing moss, seeking a way up through hidden cracks. The air is thick, heavy with the scent of minerals, as if the earth exhaled after centuries of undisturbed silence.

We must be close to the first environment we encountered when we entered this place. Here, at the edge, where the sectors meet, this dungeon has given birth to thermal springs, a place to relax, a natural hot tub.

I sigh, remembering another time, another hot spring in a small town, where I met Yuileen and Kamoe, two noble girls whose faces I can barely remember. I wonder what happened to them. Are they involved in that nonsense succession war? I shake my head. Who cares? Not my problem.

"Shall we take a bath, Kylo?" I ask.

He looks up at me, then lets himself fall into one pond with a soft splash, too lazy to answer. I smile before dropping my clothes and following him into the faintly glowing spring, a pool of molten glass that breathes warmth into the cavern's damp lungs, hiding our silhouettes between the mist, where hot water meets cold air.

I lean back and close my eyes. The hot water dissolves the knots of tension in my shoulders that I wasn't even aware of. For a while, I just lay there, floating.

"Kylo think hot water bad, but not bad. Hot water good," he purrs into my mind.

I snicker, glancing at him. "You like it?"

"Kylo like hot water in cave. This good place to stay, better than city."

"Well, we can stay for a while, but now that the dungeon is clear, we will get kicked out sooner or later," I explain.

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Kylo snorts, glaring at the ceiling, as if the walls had betrayed him.

I laugh and lean back again, letting the pond swallow my hair.

Droplets coalesce on the moss above us, flowing down the stalactites. They grow on the tip like shimmering pearls until gravity wins the battle against surface tension and they fall into the pond in a slow, hypnotic rhythm, breaking the surface with soft sighs.

Yeah, I could stay in a place like this, too; outside in the real world, or in another dungeon where time isn't slipping through my fingers.

I feel as if I've been in a rush ever since I left my hometown, always reacting to the whims of others, never acting. I feel like a log floating down a river, kicked around by the stream, battering myself against the stones in my way, hoping for the raging currents to calm themselves, for there to be something worthwhile at the end of my journey, not a raging waterfall into the abyss.

What am I even doing here in this city? What do I care about whatever Heart of Fire that Master Wen wants? Have I exchanged The Crow for just another taskmaster?

But I do know what I'm doing here. I may not care about whatever Heart of Fire, but I do care about the promise of power. Power is freedom in this mad world, a chance to dictate your own terms. As long as you lack it, you'll always dance to the whims of others.

So, since the wards on the Han compound are beyond me, I need another way in. I need friends. But do I have the right ones? According to what The Crow taught us, friends are tools; leverage to achieve our goals in society. I'm not sure if I agree, but still. Han Ke seems to cause me more problems than he solves. Did I get scared about the assassination attempt on him?

Not really, but what will be next? I have enough problems without getting dragged into those of others. What is waiting for us outside? I sit up and rinse my damp hair, feeling the water drip down my back, my arms, my unblemished arms.

I need my runes. I need to prepare for whatever we may face. It's better to risk getting exposed than being unable to flee.

I take a flask of mana-ink and a brush out of my ring. Then I start to draw: air-step, a few barriers, silence, invisibility. I should be able to hide almost anything under my clothes as long as I don't activate them. The only problem is the runes around my eyes that allow me to peek through the effect of my own invisibility runes when I activate them. They are too visible when not in use. Can I use invisibility without them? My eyes wander towards Kylo's broad shoulders, dozing on the hot boulders along the shore in his full size.

"Hey, Kylo," I say, stroking his wet fur. He glances up at me, opening a single eye, without stopping to purr. "Once we get out, there could be trouble."

"Trouble? Kylo kill trouble!"

I smile. "Yeah, but if it's too much, we go invisible and bolt, okay? But I may need your help."

"What help?"

"Well, I may be invisible, but I'll be left blind while I am. I need you to be my eyes. Do you think you could guide me?"

"Kylo can guide, Kylo best guide!" he declares, puffing out his chest. Then he tilts his head. "What do with others?"

I sigh. Yeah, what should we do about our companions if that happens?

I don't care much about what happens to Kenae or Han Ke. According to The Crow, friends are tools. Tools that cause you more problems than they solve get discarded.

Do I care about Enea? I can see her smile before my mind's eye, a girl, laughing. Somehow, thinking of leaving her behind feels like betrayal. Why? I don't know. She isn't part of my former gang. We didn't grow up together. Not that I would have cared much about any of the other gang members, except maybe Dante.

Somehow, the thought of leaving her sits in my chest like a shard of glass, tampering with every laughter shared. I can see her doe-like eyes staring at me, accusing me in silence, making me feel more alone than ever.

Maybe The Crow has no idea about friendship. Maybe friends are something else. But my life is worth more. I'm still not strong enough to have friends that aren't just tools.

"I don't care about what happens to any of them," I say. A lie, or at least a half-lie, but I squash the feeling and bury it deep. "If it gets too dangerous, we bolt."

"Okay!" He purrs.

It would expose us, probably. We would have to leave the city, leaving everything behind. But at least I would still have Kylo. A wave of warmth seeps into my chest, starting to dissolve the festering ice-shards that have lodged themselves there.

"Let's try out how well it works for you to guide me," I say.

Kylo shrinks, before hopping into my arms, and peeks up at me.

"Okay," I mutter, steadying myself. I take a deep breath, then I channel some mana into the invisibility rune.

The world disappears from my sight.

I stagger, then find my balance again. It's not like I'm completely senseless. The dark isn't just absence, it's a presence, thick and breathing, pressing against my skin like a damp cloth. Each sound seems louder than ever. I can hear the drops falling into the pool behind me, the soft crunch of loose gravel underneath each tentative step I take. The whisper of my breath ricochets off the walls. Faint echoes bounce between columns, between halls, making the caverns around me feel vast, bigger than I remember. I can feel something else too, something I wasn't as aware of before, when I was able to see. I tilt my head. There are notable differences in the mana-density around me, differences in its flavor. I can make out Kylo as a bubble of refreshing cold, pulsing winter. Though his outline is hazy, blurred under the waves drifting up from the pools that wash us under a deluge of steam-mana. Then there are the walls, pulsing with earth. I try to grasp them, but my hand falls short. They are further back than I expected them to be. Their presence in the mana-spectrum reaches beyond physical. Is this what they call an aura? I glance at the bubble of lazy coldness hanging in my arms. If so, I need a way to improve my invisibility runes. If I can sense through, others will be able to do the same. They are at best a camouflage to this sense. But it will have to be enough for now. I don't have enough time for more, apart from a lack of knowledge and ideas.

I sigh, reaching further until my hand brushes against the wall. I trail my fingers along the slick and uneven surface, finding tiny veins of something harder, the sharp edge of a fracture, bright in the mana-spectrum. Quartz? I don't know.

"Go left," says Kylo. "No, other left, no other, other left."

I crash into something hard without warning.

"Ouch!" I complain, rubbing my forehead, before reaching with my fingers for whatever I walked into, a stalactite.

"This not work," says Kylo, wriggling out of my arms to climb onto my shoulder. "Wait."

Without warning, images assault my brain. Rows of columns and stalactites, brighter than I remember but washed in a strange color, as if watched through a colored lens. Hair flows down the shoulder I grasp onto, my hair, my shoulder.

I frown. What is happening?

"Kylo, are you sharing your vision?

I feel him puff his chest, more than seeing him.

"Kylo smart! Sister no eyes, but Kylo eyes. Sister eyes, Kylo eyes," he explains, sounding very proud of himself. Every one of his words makes the image wobble.

Huh? Since when could he do that? I stroke his back, distracted.

"This is awesome!"

"Kylo knows, Kylo smartest!"

We wander back, practicing, retracing our steps toward the cavern of the boss fight until I see Enea sitting on a ledge, curled up like a hedgehog hiding from the world.

I step behind a corner, dropping my invisibility before stepping out again.

"Hi!"

"Oh, hi Minae!" says the girl. Before I can step past here, she grabs my arm to hold me back. "Wait! Wait! You can't go in there!" Why is she so panicked?

"Why?" I ask, tilting my head toward her.

"Err, nothing! Don't you think there could be something useful left somewhere!" she blurts out, sounding flustered for some reason, casting wary glances over her shoulder.

I frown. A suspicious grunt echoes through the cavern, then another, higher-pitched.

I freeze, then look at Enea, whose face is getting increasingly red.

"Are they fucking?"

"Minae!" she scolds me. "Don't say it like that. They could hear us!"

"Figures," I say, rolling my eyes. "Come, Kylo and I found some nice hot springs to wash ourselves. Let's give those idiots in heat some space for themselves."

"Okay!" she answers, almost too fast, as if eager to have an excuse to get away.

I smile in amusement. Another soak sounds nice. Then, I remember my freshly painted runes and groan. Well, I can soak without taking off my robes, or deeper in the shadows, where the steam and the darkness hide everything.