"Hoo..."
Clutching my legs, the cramps which had just assaulted them just moments before slowly disappeared into the darkness like the tide during sunrise
And with it, came the knowledge on how to instinctively use this rune that I had just gained.
Feeling the tattoos on my legs mirror that of a rams, one small circulation of mana caused gravity to gather at my legs causing a small gunshot of air to fly out.
And seeing as it kicked up a large crater in the wall, it seemed that the strength behind this newfound power wasn't small in the lightest.
Tapping my thighs that now were sturdier than they were before, I got up from the ground and turned to look around.
This was the Ossuary
A wing of the Prison that after something called the Night of the Bloody Riots the place was designated as a refuse dump for all the corpses and set them all ablaze.
It was a place filled with ash and fire, bones and bodies, steel and blood and more than a bit of refuse.
With scorched black chains hanging from the ceiling bearing the signs of their previous inhabitants, as expected of the undead inhabiting this place, they were all covered in a layer of thick ash that clung stickily to their bodies.
But they weren't any different otherwise.
Testing my legs, with one smooth kick, the Ram rune on my legs blasted the head of the skeleton into nothing more than fragments of bone dust and ash.
Seeing the body crumple even more lifelessly against the ground, more than before like a puppet that had its strings cut, the giant skeleton near identical to those guarding those fancy noble zombies on the edge of the Fragmented Shrines let its grip on the sword loosen.
It was a rather dark place, but the still burning flames sustained by that of corpses more than made up for it.
'THey could use some air conditioning though.'
Pulling at my shirt to free the hot air trapped within, my skin was reddened with heat and glistened with sweat.
If there was a silver lining to all of this, it was that I was going to be leaving extremely soon.
Pulling out condensed blocks of stone crafted from whatever stone fragments I could bother to gather during my extended walks, I began to place them along the walls.
Appearing out of thin air, the one cubic meter block of stone stuck to the place where I placed it as if stuck together by magic.
But since every thing else here was also relatively unbelievable and magical I was willing to ignore the physics defying block that stuck to the wall without support.
Besides.
If it meant that I didn't need to care where they were place, that was a plus in my book.
Throwing it up and sticking the block of stone against the wall, I jumped upwards and kicked against a solid platform made of air and grabbed against the edge of the block before pulling myself up.
It had been quite a while since I had used the powers granted to me by God, but I was glad to see that they haven't rusted as of yet.
'Can God's power even get rusty? Well more questions for me I guess.'
Letting out a long heavy breath, I placed my legs over the edge of the block and fully pulled myself up.
Repeating this series of actions a couple more times, eventually a path created solely by and for me appeared circling the hole heading straight into the Ossuary.
They really spared no expense when cutting off access to this place.
'Actually, that might be because they had elevators down to this place.'
Glancing up at the large broken series of chains that had their missing links located atop the shattered elevator cage I nodded my head.
'Yeah that's most probably the case.'
But that little tidbit of information aside, eventually I climbed out of the giant hole straight to the den of flames and ash.
I knew that I finally escaped the den of flames because outside of the obvious loss of heat covering my eye sight, a white fog that seemed omnipresent swallowed me up.
And eventually I couldn't build up anymore.
Pulling out a spear and gingerly stepping forwards while using it like one of those canes for blind people, once I stepped out of the white fog, I was unsurprised to find a familiar duo
"Hello Collector, Hello Guillian" Sending a greeting their way, the Collector politely nodded his head while Guillian cheerfully waved his hand.
"Hello there Slade."
"Hi!"
Politely nodding, I curiously glanced at the pile of note papers piled high atop a table of wood.
After bringing in so many organs and cells, they had both taken to talking to each other while discussing something unknown while increasing the pile on the table.
From what I can tell they were working towards a way to maintain the body in a perfect state if the many human, undead and animal diagrams were any indicator.
But outside of that, I couldn't tell anything else.
The surgical techniques that Guillian taught me didn't cover theory after all.
"Anyways, here are the usual."
Shaking my head, Guillian happily clapped his hands while the Collector expectantly raised his blue skinned hand.
Handing the Collector his vial of cells and Guillian his numerous pile of organs, since I had no bag, I didn't even bother to hide my ability to manifest organs from my inventory.
And although the Collector noticed this fact, he didn't seem intent on prying despite finding it strange if my knowledge on body language hadn't rusted over.
Guillian was still the hyperactive little gremlin lizard that probably wouldn't give a flying damn if the sun suddenly imploded.
Actually he might when people start dying.
Food for thought.
Finishing those chores, Guillian cheerfully handed me the usual mutation slates that he had on his body while the Collector handed me one of the many weapons in his arsenal.
Ever since his research had accelerated with the newfound bodies for testing, Guillian had created more than a few new mutations
But since I could only take three, I only took the usual three including the new ones he had created in recent times.
Those being [Adrenaline], [Necromancy] and [Kill rhythm]
[Adrenaline] being something that restored a bit of health after dodging at the last second, [Necromancy] Being something that restored health after a brutal kill and [Kill rhythm] Being something that increases my speed every time I switched weapons.
Very useful weapons.
The Collector on the other hand had taken to handing me time broken materials from his body that I paid for with cells since I already had a decent supply of weapons every time I talked to the Blacksmith.
Strangely enough, he also wanted cells as payment, and for the life of me I couldn't understand what was so appealing to the squishy little balls of light.
They filled mana sure, but it took to long to be effective.
But having finished that chore and received my dues, I received the now empty vial and only lingered to refill my empty potion flask before walking out.
Extra ways to heal myself were always welcome.
Once I walked out however, I was slightly surprised to find myself in somewhere unrecognizable.
Opening up the mini map, much of oldcastle and a bit of newcastle island had been drawn on this magical mini map of mine.
With the Prisoner's Quarters, Toxic Sewers, Promenade of the Condemned and a few other notable structures being mapped out, there wasn't much that I couldn't find on this map of mine.
A very convenient and intuitive design that wouldn't make me hate the God of Fun any less...
Well I admit that hate had been going down slightly from consistent non exposure.
But hate of the God of Fun aside, the Exit I had taken from the Ossuary had me placed in one of the few places I hadn't mapped in the slightest.
It was kind of hard to map out places when you were only able to move through weird fog spaces
Anyways.
Looking at the map, I was still on Oldcastle island, but instead of somewhere near the bridge I was somewhere... In the middle of the islands?
'Well this is a weird development.'
Thanking... not the God of Fun for the convenient function of knowing my location like a GPS locator at all times, I looked around to assess my surroundings since this map had fulfilled its function so far.
My first impressions of this pace was that it was green.
Not plant green or sea green but just greeb
Sick green to be exact
Not exactly the most flattering color but it was probably the most fitting one for my surroundings.
It was an abandoned graveyard.
'Or a skeleton dump site, one of the two.'
Noticing that skeletons were basically everywhere coming in all shapes and sizes, they rested in between large christian styled headstones.
But unlike their very much still living counterparts, there was no ominous orange light in their eyes powering their undead life as they lay against the ground in neglected piles.
'Although it might not be entirely abandoned.'
Noticing that it was slightly cold I rubbed the sides of my arms while still observing the surrounding area
When I rubbed the top of the gravestone, no dust clung to my finger.
The sign of this place not being as abandoned as I thought.
And upon closer inspection, the cross sections on the bones showed that they had been cut by something very sharp.
Something very sharp that was now flying straight towards me.
+++
Tree that finally finished his exams