'What the heck are these requirements!? It's like building a PC!!... and what is this sword?' Leon was rather taken aback by the requirements of the system—it sounded like... well, building a PC.
'Something your last predecessor used to have. It is somewhere within the great forest ruins. It had the power to unlock that thing that's in your hands—its full power. At least that's what he said.' Mister Tree answered in a nonchalant tone.
'Ok. So, how do I get to it from the forest? Do I have to walk in the forest for half an hour or something and turn back?' Leon asked, still perplexed from his last experience in the forest.
'What? No! Are you an idiot? I said it's in the forest, not out of it. You have to use the power of one of the runes with the property to cancel any space distortion. This rune you can find at the very beginning of the forest entrance.'
'Is it the place with the giant hole through the sky? But I was there, and I didn't find anything noteworthy. Well, aside from the hole in the sky.'
'Yes, that's before you got the "systim kore?" What the hell, I'll just call it gadget. Anyway, if you return there with the gadget, you will notice the gadget starts to emit light the closer you are to the rune.'
'So, a game of hot and cold then? Ok, what should I do when I find it?'
'I was getting there. Bring your gadget to it and it will do everything by itself.'
'That's it? You make it sound surprisingly easy.'
'It should be easy. Keep this in mind: the runes themselves are powerful, so the closer you are to one, the more dangerous the surrounding area will be. Though the rune this time stabilizes space, so it's one of the least hazardous ones out there—making it easy. What are you waiting for, a kiss on the cheek?! Get moving!'
'Ok, ok, I am moving. Thank you for the help.'
Leon thanked Mister Tree and returned to the forest to get the rune, though the moment he reached the forest, he realized he hadn't asked Mister Tree how to return to where he woke up.
'But if I go back now, he will call me an idiot again. Ahh damn it... let's think about this: if it took over a few minutes to reach the shack, what about that place? Could I reach it if I just exit the moment I enter the forest? I suppose it's logical. What am I doing? Why am I still talking using my thoughts?'
"Ahhh, I am already traumatized by just a few minutes of chat with that bitter and old tree. Ok, let's stop wasting time and go." Leon proceeded to enter the forest and then immediately turned around and walked out. "What do you know, I was right! Ok, let's go to the hill. Since the system core did not emit light, I would say I am far from the rune."
Reaching the top of the hill where he had woken up, Leon remembered what had happened just a couple of hours ago—that he woke up with a terrible headache and the paralyzing fear of the place and the situation he was in. He started to perspire heavily, as if he were having a heart attack. He grabbed his chest with his hands, squeezing the shirt he was wearing.
"Gasp, gasp, b-breathe Leon... just breathe. It will pass, it's just a panic attack." Leon took a few moments trying to calm himself, but he just couldn't this time, as his condition wasn't improving.
While all this was happening, there was a faint light coming from his left hand's wrist, to be precise, from the watch. When he finally noticed it, he immediately waved his hand around, trying to find the rune and get the hell out of there.
He followed the direction in which the light was getting brighter and moved toward it as fast as possible, which only worsened his condition. Pain started to accompany the shortness of breath as well as a weird sensation, that intensified the closer he got.
Nonetheless, kept going. Committed to the search for the rune. After descending the hill and arriving at the middle of a perfectly symmetrical piece of flat land, the watch on his wrist shone with such brilliance it almost blinded him. The pain became unbearable, and his breathing difficulty turned into actual suffocation.
Finally, the system core did its thing.
<
'YeS'
<
'WhAt?! nO!!'
<
'sHiT...'
<
'.....'
<
"GAAAAASP"
<
"Gasp, gasp"
<
"Shit, I thought I was about to die."
<<1- Please acquire and input the following codes (processing family {0\5}, function family {1\10}, logic family {0\20})>>
"What the...? The runes are the codes?! Well, this is a disaster. How the hell am I supposed to get all these runes if a supposedly simple stabilizing rune almost killed me? You know what? I am going to set that tree on fire!! Yeah... just you wait, you LYING BASTARD!!!" Leon was fuming with anger at the thought that he almost died because Mister Tree apparently lied about this rune posing the least amount of danger compared to the others.
"But, thinking about it... the rune—judging from its name—is only supposed to stabilize stuff, like space. I mean, this area is completely flat and symmetrical!!" Leon hugged the ground with his face to make sure of this.
He even looked up to check the mesh-mashing grid of runes in the sky but found only another completely empty sky, devoid of all the runes that were supposed to be there. "This is... I think the runes disappeared after I got the rune of stability! So, the runes I need to get are probably tied to this plane! B-but that would make the areas with the gaping holes weird! Like the missing runes are making this plane somehow... warped, and that would explain all the weird things described by the memo!"
Leon had a lot on his mind, but one thing was nagging at the forefront of his thoughts. 'How come all that happened to me when I approached the rune? could it be that Maybe the rune worked... but I'm the one who's somehow unstable? Is there something wrong with my chest or heart? If so, what could it be that just stabilizing it would do such... pain? This is not normal at all. All of this is just so... overwhelming.'
"Sigh, no time to wallow in thoughts. I have to get to that sword—after which I will have a nice little 'Talk' with that tree, hehe." And so, Leon proceeded on his way to the forest. Curious what the rune would do when he enters the forest.