Isaac recalled the game's exaggerated description:
"With each step, the gusts of the wind gather beneath your feet, cupping your soles like loyal hands. They push you forward, ensuring your stride is swifter than a river's rush. It wraps its coat around you, parting before your body like a courtier bowing to a king. What once was resistance becomes a whispered plea for you to hurry. Therefore. Run."
Poetic nonsense.
Isaac knew better. Logically, 'Wind Walker' was no miracle; it was a composite of two spells merged into one:
'Burst' is woven into the soles as 'Veil' enfolding the body.
To master it was to sustain dual casting.
Forcing simultaneity upon incantations never meant to converge.
And yet, he understood the pattern.
First, intent, the blueprint.
In his mind, he mapped the design:
Compressed wind in each step, currents coiling to my soles; a sheath of air wrapping around me, streamlining my passage.
Two distinct images collapsed into one coherent plan: an anatomy of acceleration.
Second, incantation, my plea made command.
Two words only: 'Wind Walker'. They would not be whispered but hurled into reality as an edict demanding the Noësis to work.
Third, invocation, the catalyst.
He thrust his foot into the earth. With his muscles fired, his body snapped taut as a bow loosed, arms flaring outward to open the air before him.
2. 1. GO
"Wind Walker!"
And the world itself seemed to yield.
With the triad made whole. The world convulsed into a road to be run.
Holy Shit. TOO FAST. TOO FAST!!!
But the wind subsumed Isaac into the greater currents of the air.
His heart reverberated in cadence like a storm. Every stride was less a step upon the earth than a rejection of it. With approximately 5 seconds of air time each step. His body propelled, not as a man in flight, but as a projectile, a bullet.
Remaining MP: 240/300 |
However, to Isaac..
Hell yeah! It's all science, approximately 60km/h based on the warping of my perception and the amount of ground covered per step.
Usain Bolt only managed an impressive 44 km/h for 9 seconds.
Me?
Well, I'll see how long my mana lasts before exhausting.
His veins burned with blood, sinews unravelling like rope.
Remaining MP: 120/300 |
Yet there was euphoria in the madness, a happiness that tore itself loose from his chest.
"Hahaha!"
Isaac's exultation contrasted with the wind's own laughter as he vaulted a canyon.
This is fun! It genuinely is fun!
He twisted midair, and for that fleeting heartbeat, the wasteland of the Stormbreak Spiral transfigured into an amber sea.
Weightlessness lingered but briefly. Then gravity. And again. And again.
The game that once brought me so much grief. It really was quite fun…
His vision flickered.
Oh. 120 MP remaining.
He calculated with precision:
Hmmm. I need 40 MP to conjure a single 2-Star spell, should I encounter adversaries.
The Stormbreak Spiral loomed near, its hunting grounds with creatures ranked from Apprentice to Advance, 3-Star to 6-Star in terms of the game. Encounters here were certain death.
Thus, he resolved.
I'll stop the cast for 'Veil' and rely on 'Burst' alone.
The sacrifice was clear: stripped of 'Veil', his body would meet the drag of open air, his speed diminished. Yet even slowed, it was farther than mere sprinting could ever reach.
The ground rose upward to meet him, but Isaac only laughed, raw and unrestrained. He bared his teeth and cried the incantation.
"Burst!"
The collision never arrived.
Only momentum.
Only the unending road, as Isaac is hurled into the horizon.
.
.
.
Remaining MP: 30/300 |
The wind dies.
A little less than expected, but that's fine.
Isaac tumbles into a roll, his skin accumulating minor scratches.
Yet he smiles. He had pushed farther than anticipated.
Mana for stamina. Stamina for mana. Repeat.
A reckless method of transport, but effective. His mana reservoirs may be depleted, but his stamina had returned enough to move and endure the upcoming cardio.
"Temporal Anchor, stats."
Name:ERROR
Class: Anomalous Entity
Tittle: "Eulogist of Every Truth", "Audience? of the Acts", "Adept of the Howling Void"
Age: 17 (Biological Age). 19 (Mental Age)
Stats:
- Strength: 1-Star
- Vitality: 3-Star
- Agility: 3-Star
- Intellect: 5-Star
- Stamina: 46%
Attributes:
Temporal Anchor (Passive?): A reminder that you're an outsider, you have been granted the authority to 'perceive' into the inhabitants of this world—With sufficient usage, you may see more…
Hollow Frame (Curable Debuff): While the mind is expansive, the body is a hollow joke—merely a shell incapable of expressing full potential in the material plane.
Element Affinity:
Wind (Main Element): 2-Star
Mana Remaining: 30/300 MP
Fascinating. I noticed my mana cap increased throughout my sprint.
The odd thing is, in EAA, Mana Capacity scales with vitality, but my vitality stat only went up by 1-Star.
That wasn't the case in EAA, where a star up only gave a 25 increase in Mana Capacity. So a jump from 250 to 300 should have been impossible.
Logically, this could suggest that even more has diverged from the main story, to the point where the fundamental magic system itself may be altered.
Nevertheless.
What a worthwhile trade-off. My stamina can recharge as I use spells.
Now, I can seamlessly alternate between 'Wind Walker' and jogging.
And not to mention…
He started fanning himself.
It's like an AC was turned on while using 'Wind Walker'. You're telling me I gotta run in this heat???
Hahhhh…
Isaac forced himself upright and pressed onward. His gaze flicked up.
Feints of screams and screeches woven into a discordant coherence that set every nerve on edge.
Before him loomed the Spiral itself: a colossal helix of blackened iron, just as the game had rendered it, spiralling into the heavens like a God's discarded spear.
It's cooler in person. Sixty floors that pierced the clouds, with the summit swallowed by the storm.
Below stretched a wasteland of constant lightning.
A no-mans-land where the sky raged without reprieve.
And at the pinnacle, waiting on the sixtieth floor? Not merely a dungeon guardian, but a Pinnacle-Class Fire Spirit.
EAA had marked it with fifteen stars because it was the pinnacle of its element.
Calamity incarnate, the kind of existence that could scour nations from the map.
Its name?
The First Clap and Flash.
One of the 4 Primordial Spirits.
Keraunos
The Lightning Roc.
A creature that didn't just summon storms but was born from the eye of the storm at the dawn of the world.
If I do enrol in the Institute, I would have to learn about the history of the 4 Primordial Spirits all over again.
Ain't hard to forget though.
Hmmmm… I wonder what happens if I stick my hand in the radius.
He raised his arm. Before quickly retreating from it. As expected.
A really bad idea…
Stamina: 50% |
Isaac cast one last glance toward the Spiral and dismissed the thought outright. There was no chance in hell he would cut through the lightning-scarred badlands; to attempt it would be suicide. He would instead skirt the perimeter. Infinitely less reckless.
Unlike the Keraunos, the dawn of the day had arisen.
Hmmm. It should be seven in the morning, assuming the physics of this world is the same as Earth.
And I've been travelling for quite a fair bit. The duration of me using 'Wind Walker' was 47 minutes if I didn't fuck up the counting.
That should put me…
0.7833 hours multiplied by 60 = 47 Kilometers rounded up.
I started casting 'Wind Walker' 137 kilometres away from the Institute. That means I'm 90 kilometres away.
A brutal distance, but not impossible.
Easy then. I'll walk at 7 km/h for an hour, then switch to 'Wind Walker' for 60km/h for 30 minutes.
His math was clear.
E.T.A: five hours, seventeen minutes. If my mana held up. So be it…
Isaac set his boots against the dirt and forced himself forward.
Time to burn some calories.