Knives & Levels - Chapter 107

After putting as much distance as he could manage between himself and the Yeti, the first thing that Colt did was find a place to rest. It was a deep cave further down on the slope, just miles from the inky black fortress of the Academy. The inside of which, like every cave in this godforsaken landscape, was positively infested with ice, snow, and gray rock.

Down here, the way the chill crept in and leeched his power was a little more reduced than further up the slope. Yet it hadn’t gone away. It was ever-present, a constant drain on the soul and energy that made recuperation difficult. 

Even in the cave's depths, he found that the environment constantly leeched energy. He felt no more rested than he had right after the fight with the Yeti, and it made him progressively weaker.

Such was the challenge of this place as he lay there, trying against the cold to get himself together. The way its smothering presence drained and functioned as a constant siphon away from his full power and strength made it dangerous. As exhausted as he was from the fight with the Yeti, there wasn’t real relief right now, even though he got away and found a safe place to take refuge.

The thought was like a punch to the gut. Though it should have, this rest did not lead to recovery.

Almost as if he were a battery. Each fight had drained him further and further, and without Julia's ability to shield them from the leeching effects of this place, the battery could never recharge.

Colt shivered deep in the cave, feeling hopeless—not fearful—but acknowledging that with his limited resources, his plan to grind out levels in the Academy would be fruitless. Weak as he was, that was a death sentence. But going back above and scrambling around for his allies in the cold was equally dangerous.

There has to be a way.

Moving from his resting position on the ground to a cross-seated position, Colt centered himself. There was never a dead end in this new world, not like the world before. Where there was will and effort, this System seemed ready to reward. So, he had to push and find his way to recover what he lost.

Instead, Colt honed in on his meditation, visualizing within himself that shifting balance of Momentum, Movement, and Cut.

…That last one, his most trustworthy Edict, resonated in the cave. Colt frowned and fell deeper into the meditation, tracing the way the golden threads of his Edict correlated with the environment around him. And then, felt it.

It connected to the two objects he had on him: his knife and the Yeti claw, which was just as good as a knife though a little bit more primal. He'd wrapped a piece of cloth around the base of the claw, giving it a grip. It reminded him of something from those old survival movies or some prehistoric weapon.

Slowly, his eyes opened as he took in the weapons, pulling the Yeti knife and dagger from his belt.

Sure enough, now that he focused, he felt the golden threads of the Edict coming off them both in thin strands of metaphysical energy, flowing outward into the world like small streams. Their sheer existence conjured the Edict.

Curious, Colt mentally reached out towards those threads, gathering them and condensing them…

It took him back to New Nashville and to how Nate worked in his forge. His Edict had felt thick down there as it dominated the room with its fiery grasp, resonating with him as he pounded his hammer while in meditation, wrapped in the domain's energy, infusing his Edicts into the very air.

This was similar.

As Colt focused on his meditation, on the weapons before him, he grasped at the Edict of cut, letting it flow outward. He began to suffuse the area around him, becoming an almost barrier in itself as he pushed back against the contesting wintery Edicts.

It wasn’t a contest as he let Cut grow and expand. The Edicts in this place were at most Greater quality. Compared to Cut, an Edict with a Superior grade... they fell short. Fed with his soul and allowed to expand, it took control of the environment, shredding apart the other Edicts’ influences and making them pull back, scared.

Colt let it flow, feeling small nicks appear on his arms as Cut’s sharp energy began to slice around everywhere near him, controlled and resonating like a bell ringing from the two daggers he had before him.

Suddenly, with the Edict allowed to run rampant and take control of the area, he felt the cave come under his domain. This Cut, through his wielding of the law and the Edict's response to him, became a place of destruction.

Within that peace, his Meditation dove to a deeper state. He was embraced by the environment, as rocks and ice around him slowly accumulated small nicks as the rampant energy of Cut tore away at everything around him, immersing him in the depths of Cut.

His muscles sagged; the tension in his face melted away. The fatigue and accumulated effects that had been slowly sapping his strength pulled back and retreated. He felt a notification a couple of times, yet he ignored it in favor of maintaining his state of meditation. He simply let himself bask in the superior energy of his Edict as it ran rampant and cleared out any infiltrators that tried to make this domain hostile to him.

Cut was a powerful Edict, he felt. His grasp of it was enough to do this, resonating with objects and giving him ideas for the future. Perhaps a meditation room dedicated solely to a bunch of weapons hung up, with sharp edges gleaming, allowing him to amplify the Edict more. He knew, too, that perhaps quality had to do with it, as both his dagger and the new knife stolen from the Yeti had rather sharp qualities to them in general. He felt that that leaked more of these cutting threads than, for example, the kitchen knife that he had first grasped in the Endless Alley.

Colt took a deep breath, his mind razor-edged. His body, now free from the effects of the chill, was beginning to recover. All he had to do was maintain this state for a bit longer. Let his body restore. Now that he had his solution to combat this hostile environment, he could charge his battery again.

He didn't pretend it would be a foolproof process, knowing that eventually, once he left this place, his battery would drain just as quickly as before. But the ability to sit and meditate independently of Julia, thanks to his superior edict, had given him the lifeblood he needed to see out the rest of his mission. There was a belief in him that this was possible now.

And as his meditation pursued further, and his body recovered, the hours seemed to slip by. 

Caves had a certain tranquility to them. Deep within the earth, tucked away in a nook, layers of rock and ice separated you from the troubles above—a divine peace. This tranquility was deepened by his immersion in his Edict's natural law, despite the effort needed to maintain it.

As time ticked by, he felt a wear on his soul… But this was a small cost compared to the feeling of his physical power being leeched and drained. Soul would reaccumulate later.

Four hours later, Colt ceased the influence of his Cut on the environment, feeling the weak invisible blades swirling around like tornadoes inside of here fading away to nothing. He let out a deep breath, calmness spreading through his mind as he finally acknowledged the notifications that he'd gotten.

———

Meditate (Intermediate)  has gained a level!

Meditate (Intermediate)  has gained a level!

Meditate (Intermediate) has reached level 20! This skill has advanced to Meditate (Advanced)! As this is now at the (Advanced) level, your understanding of Meditate and its ability to interact with your Edicts have been enhanced, allowing you to manifest and immerse yourself in your natural laws. The ability to use this in conjunction with meditation depends on the environment and its relationship to the Edict you’re concentrating on.

———

Colt let out a breath and stood up, feeling refreshed. He exited the cave and trudged back into the wasteland beyond. It was still dark red out here, crimson cast from the light above. He'd thought it had been four hours, but in the grip of his meditation, it was hard to tell how much time had passed.

The blazing blizzard that had existed when he had retreated underneath the earth far above him on the slope was now absent, meaning that the Yeti causing it had switched tactics. It either slipped into stealth or it retreated to lick its wounds after Colt had chopped half of its hand off. Either way was fine with him because that wasn't the direction he was headed in, and it meant that maybe his friends would have some reprieve.

He tried not to think about what might have happened if the Yeti had managed to track them down, trusting that even if it had, there was nothing he could have done about it anyway.

Colt had defended them as much as he could, but even together, he doubted they'd be able to really defeat this beast as they were. As much as it brought pain to acknowledge that, Colt had to trust in his allies and their survival ability as much as his own. He'd given them the lead.

They had the skills that they had. They would be able to cover their tracks and retreat, and now with Nate—who was the best at stealth—they would likely be able to withdraw safely from the Yeti.

He wished he could tell them the plans had changed—that they should head down to the Academy itself—but that wasn't an option. They didn't have cell phones. He couldn't call them, and there was no way to communicate a message like that over a vast distance like this when he didn't even know where they were. There were numerous caves they could be hiding in.

And that, more than anything, made it an impossible task, and if it was impossible, he had to accept it.

Promising himself that they were safe, Colt resumed his trek, closing in on the distance to the dark, brooding Academy below.

He walked quickly, not wanting to be exposed out on the slope for much longer than necessary, knowing that any prey out here wasn’t something he was seeking. He rapidly descended.

The blot of black on the landscape that had seemed so ever-present and domineering, despite being far above it, had now taken on a new cast. Eventually, he was no longer above the Academy. Now, it towered over him, only miles away. The structure and walls stretched multiple stories tall. As he got closer, he thought it was less like an Academy and more like an entire castle.

Whoever studied in this God-forsaken place was sure to learn things that any reasonable person wouldn't dare pursue. If people were learning here at all, Colt thought, coming closer. As far as he knew, the only things encountered inside these dungeons were monsters."

So, the reasonable extension of that was to assume that this Academy was a house of monsters. Right? A place where beings without business in their world studied cursed things. Or so, his imagination played with him as he approached the domineering black stain on the landscape.

He couldn't imagine anything else being studied here aside from that—something cursed, something ancient, something forbidden. It was like reading through a Lovecraftian book, seeing the geometry and stark black, sharp architecture. 

As he got closer, that sensation of dread only increased in him. Dread that otherwise would have led to fear was now more a confirmation that something bad had happened here. Something bad was still happening here if that quest was to be believed.

Colt had a knife in either hand. On his right side was the weapon that Nate had made for him. His trusty sky-steel dagger, which gave a beat of reassurance as he got closer. 

In his left hand was the chilling Yeti claw, still frosty to the touch despite his cloth wrap on its surface.

Colt stared up at the black sculpture of a building towering far above him.

He did so with the familiar and warm reassurance of his two daggers at his side. Whatever lurked in there waiting for him, he would face down as he had faced many things in this apocalypse. With these two weapons, he could cut through anything.

With one last deep inhale, Colt strode forward, making quick pace to breach his way into this Academy.