Chapter 53: Breaking the Boundary

HA...! HA...!

I took short breathes as I clenched the Glass Bottle.

Alright...alright...so...

I placed it horizontally on the ground and raised my right hand.

Open.

Following my command, a weave of sparks connected along an outline before manifesting a strange hatchet into my grasp.

[Equipped Item: Maladroit Ax]

The instant I grasped it, my vision faltered and a sudden pressure bore down on me.

"NGH!"

I let out a pained grunt before the system spoke.

[Skill: Resistance is active.]

The activation of Resistance gave me some breathing space but couldn't completely erase the discomfort.

Even while I breathed the World Energy continually, the Maladroit Ax still proved to be a thorn in my side; the rate at which it absorbed my World Energy was just too voracious.

But then again, I was being affected by hypoxia which furthered worsened my condition.

Focus!

I steeled myself and gripped the Maladroit Ax before bringing it down to the Glass Bottle.

SHINK!

Under the influence of it's Effect, the Maladroit Ax effortlessly cut through the Glass Bottle, severing the upper conical part from the lower cylindrical part.

Y-yes!

Immediately, I dismissed the Ax.

Store!

[Unequipped Item: Maladroit Ax]

The moment the Ax scattered into several shards, the pressure on my being lessened and I breathed out a relieved sigh.

"Ha..."

I turned to the Bottle and narrowed my eyes.

Am not out of the woods yet...

I put away the upper part of the Bottle and pulled the lower part towards me before inverting it so that the bottom was facing upwards and the top downwards.

I opened my palm and summoned another item.

Open!

[Equipped Item: Hunting Knife]

The Hunting Knife spawned atop my palm before falling into it.

I immediately grasped it and with a slight sleight of hand, the Knife was in a forward position.

Ok...so now I have to carve it in... perfectly...

Unlike Galter's items where the crystal was at the bottom of the item, I had to carve in the teleportation circle on the bottom and put the crystal inside the bottle, simply because it would be much harder to carve the circle inside the bottle.

HA...! HA...!

I breathed heavily as I willed my mind not to falter; this was a task where I couldn't afford to make any mistake.

SCRITCH! SCRITCH!

The sharp tip of the Hunting Knife skated along the bottom of the Glass Bottle, chipping out tiny shards of glass as I drew the teleportation circle onto it.

I strained my eyes and forcefully controlled my breathing, while taking quick glances from the larger teleportation circle in front of me.

SCREEECH...!

A low ear-scratching sound could be heard when I drew a circle with the Knife. I moved my hands with careful precision as my memories of meticulously cutting up the Profane Cockatrice's carcass slowly took essence in my mind.

My gaze slowly began to dilate as they remained fixated on the Bottle, absorbing tons of information at once.

[Skill: Panoramic Vision has been activated.]

The system spoke, announcing the activation of the skill, but I didn't flinch; the new information was simply processed along with several others at high speeds due to the gift of clarity.

Time seemed to come to a standstill as my concentration and focus peaked, my being fully immersed in the present action.

I was in the flow state.

SCRITCH...! SCRITCH...!

My hands moved across the glass at a measured pace, not too slow nor too fast. It moved with delicate attention and intention, never applying too much force or too low force.

I drew the shapes first, illustrating them with the utmost precision before moving on to the text.

On the teleportation circle, the texts were inscribed at the edges and center of the circle.

At the edges were 'Tide', 'Flux', 'Negate' and 'Positive'; the auxiliary texts, what they individually meant was ambiguous to me but I did know that together they controlled the flow of the World Energy.

At the center was 'Position'; the main text, the actual spell itself.

How these text were able to harness the power of teleportation was unknown to me, and at the moment I didn't care to ponder.

My mind was fixated on only one task; finishing the item.

CHINK!

A shard of glass chipped off when I completed the last character of the 'Position' text.

"Ha..."

At last, I had finished it. I had completed the teleportation circle without making any mistakes.

With shaky hands, I placed the halved-Bottle on the ground and wanted to let out a sigh but stopped myself.

I can't relax yet...not until I finish it!

Without wasting another breath, I proceeded to the 'passage' text.

Open.

I summoned the Worthless Bowl and dropped it at my front; it was going to serve as my point of reference.

CLINK!

I put the halved-Bottle in a horizontal position and began carving.

Just like before, I entered a state of flow, inscribing the 'passage' text character by character with meticulous action.

Unlike the teleportation circle where I had to draw shapes and write characters, the 'passage' text only required writing characters.

HA.... HA...

As I inscribed the characters onto the Glass Bottle, my breathing became slow and shallow. My heart rate was fast and loud, my skin was turning slightly blue and my chest was tightening. The effects of hypoxia were slowly setting in, and Resistance was faltering in holding them back.

I could feel myself slowly becoming agitated, only being kept stable by the combined efforts of Resistance and clarity.

TINK!

I finished the passage text and moved on the to the final step, the crystal.

This step was the easiest of the rest, all I had to do was embed the crystal close to the magic circle and the item is complete.

HA... HA...

Almost done...

I breathed in slowly as my shaky hands put away the Hunting Knife. I picked up the dull crystal but my hand quivered, causing it to drop.

Breathe...breathe...

I calmed myself and reached for the crystal again but suddenly I saw something from my periphery. Immediately, my head snapped to the object and my eyes caught sight of it.

The fire had diminished severely, now barely the size of a fingertip. It was proof that the oxygen in the room was critically low!

My mouth opened slightly and a whisper came out, "I've...gotta...get out of here..."

I could feel my chest becoming even tighter; it was getting even harder to breathe.

Nah... I'm not dying here...

I picked up the crystal and grabbed the halved-Bottle with my other hand.

Let's do this!

Immediately, I moved my hand and jammed the crystal right into the Bottle, placing it beneath the center of the magic circle without damaging the circle itself.

HA...!

I took a forceful sharp breathe as I clenched my chest, my vision wavering.

HA...! HA...!

I breathed heavily before wrapping my hands around the 'passage' text of the halved-Bottle and stared at it with anticipation.

Yet...

Nothing happened.

My face fell.

"What? Why aren't you working? Work damnit!", I screamed in fury.

I grabbed the Bottle with both of my hands and clenched it tightly around the 'passage' text, yet nothing happened.

Subconsciously, I took a step back as fear and panic was beginning to claw at my heart, threatening to throw me into the spirals of despair.

But right at that moment something happened...

The crystal in the bottle lit up with a white light and suddenly an immense pressure bore down on me, causing me to cough up blood.

HAK!

The World Energy in my body was being devoured at an unholy rate.

I dropped to my knee and my head bobbed down, catching the view of another white light glowing at my feet. It was the teleportation circle of the large monster hide! I had inadvertently stepped on it.

My eyes widened in bewilderment, marveled by the spectacle.

"Whoa!"

This was magic!

My eyes shone as the light of the teleportation circle grew brighter and brighter, engulfing me.

"HAHAHAHAHA! It's working! It's working!", I exclaimed in excitement, like a child who had obtained a piece of candy.

The light grew even brighter before suddenly flickering.

Huh?

I felt my hand twitch and looked up at the Glass Bottle.

"What the?"

The surface of the glass bottle, excluding the 'passage' text and teleportation circle, was covered with cracks.

The Effect 'Teleportation' was too powerful and the Glass Bottle was too weak a vessel to contain it!

Sh-shit!

My eyes turned back to the teleportation circle; the light was diminishing.

No! No! No! I need to do something!

I thought, desperately trying to come up with a solution.

As I racked my brain from answer, my intuition suddenly dinged.

The gift of clarity immediately processed the information and suddenly, something happened.

[Skill: Oversaturation has been activated.]

Instantly, a massive portion of the World Energy in my core was expended and the Glass Bottle suddenly exploded.

BOOM!

The shards of glass shot out in all directions and a white light engulfed the entire room before disappearing abruptly.

...

The bright white light was gone in a flash leaving behind a scattering of stray glass shards, a burnt monster hide, the cracked upper part of a glass bottle, dusty bones and a flickering flame.

Alex was gone.

Gone with the light.

Leaving the flickering flame to contend with the darkness all alone.

The lonely flame struggled in the empty chasm for a short second before the malfeasant darkness rose and devoured it.