Leveling up the World

Chapter 719: Prison Physics

It wont work, you know, Nil said.

At the other side of the room, Dallion kept on hacking at the wall with his Nox dagger. Each strike would leave an unmistakable mark on the transparent surface. Unfortunately, no matter the number of cracks, the wall refused to give in. Not even the smallest piece would chip off, making the otherwise devastating weapon as efficient as a crayon.

Dallion stopped, then slid his hand over the damaged area. The cracks seemed strangely smooth, as if they had been made centuries ago. It was almost as if the room was repairing itself despite the lack of magic symbols.

Its supposed to be like that, the old echo continued from his side of the room. Only a person from outside can let you out. Well, mostly someone from outside.

Why are you here? Dall asked, still refusing to look the echo in the eye. I still have my blocker on.

Because I created this place, dear boy. You can say its linked to me, which allows me to come and go as I choose. If youre asking why Im here now specifically, its for your benefit entirely.Alll latest novels at wuxiahere.com

Dallion didnt say a word.

I suspect something must have happened for you to have put it on, so I thought Id come help. Judging by your reaction, it might have been the wrong call.

It almost seemed that the echo was clueless regarding Dallions suspicions. It would take much to come up with a plausible story and continue to work together as before. However, that was a temporary measure, and besides that, Dallion knew the echo far too well to fall for such an obvious trick. Nil probably knew everything and what he didnt, he could guess. Phoil had been the real problem, though, completely blindsiding Dallion. The boy had always seemed suspicious, but all the time Dallion had been convinced he could take him on should it come to a confrontation. Apparently, that wasnt the case.

Whats this place?

Its a prison realm. The dwarves called it an oubliette. Of course, theirs were in real life. Thanks to their natural magic, they could build a cage of iron without doors or windows; dwarves could come and go as they please, while the other races would find themselves in an inescapable cell. One fine day someone decided to copy the principle and make an item out of it.

A realm to be imprisoned in for eternity without the option of dying. Dhermas former village chief had mentioned that during their fight. Dallion had found the concept slightly disturbing at the time. Hed never imagined hed experience it. Even now, his mind was refusing to accept the fate that awaited him.

You created this?

I created many things here. Even back when I was an apprentice, I had a knack for modifying realms. My expertise only grew from there.

Imprisoning people for infinity? Nice hobby.

I wasnt the one who invented them. I just rediscovered the process. There are a handful of mages capable of making them. The youngsters lack patience, the ambitious set their sights on something more important, which left me to create most of the prison items in the Academy and a few noble houses. Nil leaned against the wall. This is one of my early crude attempts. I suppose the boy found it in some closet somewhere. Its purpose was to help teach apprentices to create prison items of their own.

Insult was added to injury. The item that had imprisoned Dallion was a training prop?

For the really intricate ones, I was inspired by the principle of the Vermillion ring. Not only was the awakeneds mind captured in the realm, but his body as well. The echo attempted a smile. Now that youre in here, I guess I can tell you how this whole thing works.

How about challenging the guardian? he asked. Wont that get me out?

It would. Thats why I made sure that the prison items had no guardians. In order to make a prison item, one must use an artifact. And when I saw use, I mean use. The realm of the original sphere item is completely erased and something different emerges in its place. The more impressive the artifact, the stronger the prison.

Good thing you didnt get your hands on a world item, Dallion thought.

One more thing, dear boy. I know I usually accuse you of charging before thinking. In this case, you have to do just that. Theres one other thing that separates a prison item from a normal one: the passage of time. The echo drew a pattern in the air with the wave of the hand. The entire room lit up. Im not sure about the time ratio of this prison, but for every week here, a second might well pass in the real world. It might be a month or even a year, but a few seconds is all the boy out there needs to kill you. If you dont find a way to escape before then well, theres no point in discussing what would happen.

From that moment, the search began. While Nil couldnt remember the specifics of the prison realm he had built, he shared a few of the basics. Unlike what one might imagine, escaping from the realm didnt involve solving a puzzle or completing a challenge. The closest one could compare it to was safecracking. In order to return to the real world, Dallion had to shatter part of the realm, and the item with it. Brute force was as good a method as any, although prison realms were usually protected against such approaches. Magic also didnt seem to work. At one point, Dallion even tried a series of point attacks in the hopes he could drill a hole through a spot on the wall. Sadly, nothing worked.

You didnt leave any weak-spots. Dallion sat on the floor to rest a bit. Combat splitting had saved him the time to try to attack each individual spot in the room. Sadly, it hadnt done much to preserve his strength. How did you hide the magic threads?

Behind the walls, Nil explained. No illusions, from what I could remember. I just took advantage of the material. Its actually a wall of sand.

Doesnt look like sand. Dallion slid the tip of his Nox dagger along the floor.

Thats because youre thinking of the grain, not the wall. Have you tried writing on sand? Everything is quickly filled in as soon as you remove your finger. This is the same. Its not that the wall repairs itself, it just moves about to fill the space youve created.

That was rather interesting. If true, it also meant that Dallion wasnt causing any damage with his attacks, but rather displacing the material to other parts of the room.

Drawing a spell in the air, he tried to open a portal to the realm of water, as Harp had shown him. Yet no sooner had the portal formed that it flickered away without having any effect.

Portal spells dont work, Nil said. And neither would a vermillion rind. Not here, in any event.

Youve thought of everything.

Dear boy, its not difficult to consider the obvious ways out. Youll have to use some of your out of the box thinking if you want to get ahead.

Dallion did just that.

Without wasting a moment, he drew the heat symbol on one of the walls and stepped back. This time, the symbol flashed in a magnificent purple, instantly heating up the wall like a furnace.

You wont be able to melt it, Nil sounded slightly disappointed.

Thats not what I had in mind. Dallion drew another heat symbol, not too far away. This one, though, was made in such a way so as to extract heat, effectively freezing the part of the wall. I just need to harden part of it.