Infinite Fall

"Shit. I'm stuck in a loop!"

The realization crashed through my mind like thunder, but instead of panicking, a weary sigh escaped my lips.

"Haaah..."

My body kept falling, the darkness around me swirling in an endless vortex. And yet, for some reason, I wasn't surprised. No shock, no adrenaline rush, no desperation—none of that came.

Just an overwhelming exhaustion, as if the weight of the past few weeks had finally caught up to me.

"Lucky guy, huh?" I muttered to no one in particular, my words dripping with sarcasm.

My life had been a complete mess for months, and now... this.

Dead. Revived. Maybe reincarnated? Summoned?

"Whatever..."

Was my body restored, returning to its original form in this world? Recreated from scratch?

Every time I tried to make sense of it, more questions surfaced.

And as if that wasn't enough…

"After everything was finally done. Just when I thought I'd get a moment of rest..."

I closed my eyes for a moment, recalling the day. A nice breakfast. A tense but peaceful trip.

Then… chaos.

Thrown into a forest, staring death in the face more times than I could count. Thankfully, I was taken in by a wolf pack. Fought off a group of enraged bears, probably because of the blood moon's influence—or maybe because I'd killed one of them and was now wearing its pelt.

'Honestly, I'd do the same,' I thought, sighing again.

Not to mention, I survived an attack from a level five beast. And as if that wasn't enough, I got caught up in a fight between monsters so powerful I couldn't even begin to measure their strength.

And now?

Now, I was falling endlessly, trapped in an infinite loop, lost in some void of another dimension.

"Most of that happened in a single day," I muttered, letting out a humorless chuckle.

I exhaled slowly, my chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. My heart was calm, but my mind was still spinning from sheer exhaustion.

That's when I looked down at the wolf pup in my arms.

"Hey, little guy…" I started, but then paused. He was asleep.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Seriously?"

Of all the things that could have shocked me today, a pup sleeping in the middle of an infinite fall was the last one I expected.

I studied him more closely. His tiny muscles were completely relaxed, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He shifted slightly, snuggling closer into my arms as if I were a warm, comfortable blanket.

"This little guy can sleep anywhere, huh?"

I smiled before I even realized it. Because, for some reason… at that moment, he felt like the only stable thing in all this madness.

I watched him for a few more seconds, feeling the warmth of his small body pressed against mine. He was sleeping so deeply, completely oblivious to the fact that we were falling endlessly into the unknown.

"He's got the right idea," I murmured. "No point in worrying about things I can't control."

I sighed.

The only light came from above, the place I'd fallen from. It was faint, barely there, but still… it was something.

And then, like a spark, an idea hit me.

"Light… That's it!"

My eyes widened.

If I could create light, maybe I could see more of this place. Maybe, just maybe, I'd find a way out.

I activated the ring on my finger and searched through the stored spells, looking for the one that could help me right now.

— Light.

The simplest magic of the light element. It created a small luminous orb—not powerful enough to replace a high-powered flashlight, but just enough for my current situation.

But even though it was the easiest spell in the light element, that didn't mean it was easy to learn.

I took a deep breath and focused, feeling the mana around me.

Unlike other types of magic, casting light required me to keep my eyes open.

It was a prerequisite for most spells of this element, and that made things a whole lot harder.

Filtering a specific element was already difficult, but doing it while plummeting at high speed, with the wind slashing against my skin and gravity making every movement imprecise? That was damn near impossible.

I adjusted the pup, securing him under my left arm to free up my right hand. Then, I focused on it.

Gradually, my vision blurred, and for the first time, I started to see the mana particles around me.

Red—Fire.

Green—Wind.

Bluish—Water.

Brownish—Earth.

But… no white or golden ones. No light.

"Why can't I sense it?" My brow furrowed. Maybe it was because of my low affinity with the element.

Still, I kept trying. Forcing myself to search.

Minutes passed. Ten. Twenty.

My eyes burned from the strain, and then—finally—I saw it. A single white-yellow speck.

"Finally."

I locked onto it instantly, pulling it toward my hand. The moment it moved, others began to appear, responding to the call. They were shy, hesitant… but they were there.

I waited until a decent amount of light particles had gathered around my palm. Then, without hesitation, I tried activating the spell.

— "Light." —

Nothing.

I sighed. Not surprising.

Tried again. — "Light." —

Still nothing.

I bit my lip and insisted. — "Light." —

This time… something happened. A flicker. Small, insignificant. But something.

"At least that's a start." 

I kept at it. Five tries, ten tries, fifteen, twenty. My eyes burned, my head throbbed, sweat dripped down my forehead—but I didn't stop.

Fifty attempts later…

— "Light." —

This time, it worked.

A small golden orb flickered to life in my palm, weak and trembling, like a candle's flame struggling against the wind… But still, it was light.

My light.

Its glow was pale, unsteady, wavering as if it could vanish at any moment. But I wouldn't let that happen.

I curled my fingers around the sphere, focusing on stabilizing its structure, feeding it a steady flow of mana. Slowly, it grew.

Soft crackling sounds echoed as the luminous energy gained consistency. Its glow, once faint, expanded, becoming larger than my own palm.

Beside me, the wolf pup stirred, bothered by the sudden brightness. With a small movement, he burrowed his head into the fabric of my cloak, shielding his face from the light.

I let out a small smile. "Sorry, little guy… but I need to get us out of here."

Now that my light source was stable, I had to find a way to use it without having to hold it directly.

There was a problem, though—basic-level spells required constant contact with the caster to remain active. If I let go of the orb, it would fade within seconds.

But I already had a solution in mind.

Even though light magic needed a continuous flow of mana, it still took a few seconds before disappearing completely.

And a few seconds were all I needed.

I took a deep breath and shifted my focus to another element. This time, wind.

The green particles were much easier to sense. Unlike light, which slipped through my grasp like water through my fingers, wind always answered my call.

I gathered a significant amount of particles, concentrating them at the base of the glowing sphere.

Holding the pup securely against my chest with my left arm, I made a swift motion and hurled the sphere toward the wall.

— "Breeze!" —

The wind erupted around the sphere, propelling it forward.

It cut through the air like a golden projectile, illuminating its own path as it traveled toward the stream of water trickling down the ravine wall.

Five seconds.

That was all it would last.

But it was enough.

For a brief moment, a flicker of red glowed on the stone.

Letters. Engraved into the wall, marked beside the flowing water.

"My instincts never fail me." A satisfied smile curled my lips.

Wasting no time, I repeated the process.

— "Light." — A new sphere was born in my hand.

— "Breeze." —

Once again, the sphere shot forward, tracing a golden arc through the void, momentarily illuminating the jagged contours of the ravine. My eyes locked onto the wall, fixed on those enigmatic markings.

This time, I wouldn't miss a single detail.

As the sphere drew closer, the crimson etchings on the rock became clearer. The shape of the letters, the way they were carved…

"Is this ancient Jotundrim?" I murmured, frowning.

The markings resembled the old language of the giants.

The giants… one of the ancestral races, extinct for millennia, lost to the depths of history—just like the Tritons, Onis, Vanirs, Moon Elves, and so many others that once walked the land.

Legendary beings, feared for their raw strength and colossal size.

According to the most common accounts, they were barbarians—devoid of the intelligence and refinement that other races had developed over the ages. That, the legends say, was the reason for the downfall of the giants' era.

By those same tales, deceiving a giant was supposedly easier than tricking a child. You could take their women right before their eyes and still convince them it was just a massage or some other ridiculous excuse.

'But… were the legends really true? Was it not an exaggeration to believe that an adult could be more foolish than a newborn?'

The mere fact that these inscriptions were here, in some unknown place lost to time, raised more questions than answers.

'How old is this place?' The thought sent a chill down my spine.

If the giants fell over a thousand years ago… then why the hell was their writing still here?

'Does it even matter? Thinking about it won't save me.'

I couldn't waste time questioning things now. I repeated the process.

The words appeared again, and after several more attempts, adjusting the angle of the sphere, I finally read them in full.

"Brute, brute… bye, bye.

Light, light… hi, hi.

Punch, punch… no, no.

Loose, loose… gone, gone."

I frowned. "What the…?" The reading was so absurd it almost made me laugh. "A riddle?" I muttered, narrowing my eyes.

I read the words again. Then again. And again.

Still, nothing made sense.

"Seriously… is this some kind of joke?"

I had been falling endlessly for who knows how long, trapped in a loop, and now I had stumbled upon ancient inscriptions throwing a riddle at me?

This place was testing my patience.

I ran my tongue over my dry lips, my gaze shifting between the words and the stream of water flowing beside them. What did this mean?

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm.

Maybe there was a pattern.

Maybe it was simpler than it seemed.

The real question now was… what was my next move?