Ryo made his way out of the hole in the wall, his body still light with the energy he had obtained from that Lightning spell. "That's certainly something new." Ryo commented, knowing that he had never cast a spell like that before.
His three magic types were Fire, Nature and Water. Always had been, and he thought that's all he'd ever have. However, with the knowledge that Inquisax gave him, he realised that he'd be able to learn more magic than any other Human. He splayed his hands, watching as electricity crackled along, jumping along his arm and over his gloves, avoiding the black fabric like it was the plague as it rampaged around his fingers.
Ryo turned his head to face left, looking down the hallway where the first Goblin had come from. He got his new dagger ready, holding it in his right hand, as it was his dominant hand. Ryo watched the gemstone embedded inside the dagger pulse, similar to Inquisax's tattoos. 'Can this conduct mana?' Ryo asked himself in his head, beginning his walk to the end of the hallway.
The sound of rumbling fell upon his ears, the floor beneath him quivering and the walls around him trembling. He heard another gurgly scream, similar to the one the Goblin earlier made, however this one was a lot more terrified. Ryo watched a Goblin at the end of the hallway run from left to right, arms in the air, scream held steady as it rushed.
The rumbling got even more present, causing Ryo's legs to stumble slightly in order to keep his balance. He watched a large, fleshy, pink worm-like Monster tunnel its way towards the direction of the Goblin, destroying bits of the wall. Its body filled up the whole junction, taking about five seconds to go from one end of the visible section to the other.
Ryo had no clue what it was, but he didn't want anything to do with it. "I have to research that later, but for the moment, I better stay away." Ryo told himself.
He kept moving, getting closer and closer to the end of the hallway, finally reaching the t-junction that he had witnessed the worm thing move down. He looked to his left and to his right, noting that both sides looked almost identical. Ryo decided to head down the path to the left, keeping his dagger in his right hand for easier usage if needed.
He walked, feeling the vibrations weaken as he made his way down. His eyes flickered to the wall, watching an eyeball open up on the wall. It was eerily human, mimicking one of his own eyes. It was his right eye, a jade green colour with a brown arc underneath, almost glistening under the light provided by the candles on the wall. He walked up to it, looking at his own reflection staring him back. A second one opened up beside the first, taking on the colour of his other eye, which was a pure green without the brown arc. He diverted his attention from the first eye to the second, and cracks started ringing.
The air turned from stale to active in an instant. The wall beside him exploded outwards, the eyeball floating into the air, the debris from the wall forming itself into a body in the exact form as Ryo's, with one key difference. In the place of a head, the clone of his eyeball was placed, almost as if the clone of his body was but a vessel.
Ryo took his attention off the second eye to watch the first, and the same thing happened. Explosion, debris, clone, eyeball. You'd think he'd learn after the first one, but no, he just HAD to make the second. Ryo flicked his head from side to side, watching the two eyeball Monsters stare him down, not moving. Each of them had a rocky copy of the same dagger he had, sharp as his own. "Time to put this to the test." Ryo told himself.
He made his way towards the purely jade-eyed Monster, his dagger flying in with both precision and speed, something he was not used to doing. 'Does this weapon have magical properties? Is that why it has a gemstone?' Ryo contemplated, quickly losing his train of thought as the Monster clashing its rocky blade with his own, sparks flicking back onto Ryo's rocky skin.
Ryo felt something crash into the rocks covering his left shoulder, turning his head to notice the other eye Monster had attempted to stab him in the shoulder, but its sword shattered, the blade made from the wall unable to contend with his body, as Ryo's left shoulder was just as rocky as his right hand. Ryo sent electricity down through his fingers, jabbing it into the first Monster, shocking it while stabbing his dagger into the neck of the second. He kicked it away, the dagger flying with it, embedded in the wall it had used to form itself.
The first Monster pushed its own dagger towards Ryo's face, so Ryo ducked his head below it before pushing his head forward, flicking his head back to knock the knife out of its hand, using his rocky complexion to them headbutt the large green eyeball, tearing the sclera open with his face. Ryo's face got covered with purple blood, the eyeball deflating as it lost the only thing keeping it up, veins wrapping around the outside of the hole that Ryo tore into it. The floor became littered with the debris it had collected, allowing Ryo to turn his attention towards the other one, the Monster that mimicked his unique eye.
Ryo rushed over to it, allowing it to get up as wooden tentacles wrapped around his arms. "You can't use magic, can you?" Ryo asked, realising it could only copy his physical abilities, or at least his appearance. Roots shot out from his hands, gripping the Monster tight. He lifted it into the air, tightening his grip on the creature, watching its sclera turn from white to an almost sickening purple, deep amethyst veins that attempted to imitate those of a human spreading from the edges.
Ryo kept the spell going in a static position, something he never really did, as he didn't see the point, but he wanted to make use of his dagger. The roots, now implanted into the ground, kept the Monster lifted into the air. He walked towards it, grabbing the dagger from its neck, noticing it had been tainted with purple blood. He wiped it off on one of the branch roots, watching drops hit the floor.
He made the roots drop the Monster, hitting the floor with a resounding thud. He stood over it, pointing the dagger at a mimicry of his own eyeball. He pushed mana into the dagger, watching it light up with a beautiful golden colour. He sent lightning from the tip straight into the pupil of the eye, watching it bubble up, as if it were a boiling pot of water.
Bang.
The eyeball exploded outwards, coating everything in the vicinity in the same disgusting shade of purple as its counterpart did. The smell of burnt flesh, similar to that of the Goblin from before, yet almost more acidic-smelling, filled the air, an almost deafening silence following.
The debris from the walls began vibrating, ascending into the air. They floated their way back over to the original explosion site, reclaiming their rightful position as mere bricks on a wall. The now-destroyed fleshy carcasses of the Monsters did something similar, except instead of returning to the wall, they folded in on themselves, turning their whole bodies into two small, yet highly refractive crystals. They looked almost like purple stained glass.
Ryo wiped his face with his gloves, which never seemed to get stained. "These are probably magic too, right?" Ryo asked himself, trying to figure out what sort of magic would've been placed on these. It's all new territory for someone who believed he could only use three magic types up until a few hours ago.
Ryo made his way down the hallway once more, not having moved more than one hundred metres since turning left. He spotted another eyeball on the wall, and, knowing what he did now, decided to try something. He stared at the eyeball, matching its gaze. However, instead of looking away, he stabbed it in the eyeball directly.
Blood sprayed everywhere, coating his face in the now-familiar shade of purple. This time, the eyeball didn't jump off the wall, and instead retreated into it, leaving nothing behind, not even a gemstone like the others. "Guess I have to actually fight them if I want those." Ryo observed, feeling the three crystals in his pocket. One small, and two even smaller, yet he had a feeling that the smallest ones would be worth more.
Ryo made his way further along, his eyes laying upon another Goblin. This one was strangely different. Its skin, a unique bronze colour, had a glitter to it, reflecting the light from the candles on the walls back to them. It had a wooden club in hand, about half the size of its own body. Ryo slowly walked towards it, wary. It's not like it'd be this different to a green goblin without a reason.
Ryo would quickly realise why this was a great idea.
The Goblin ran away from Ryo, not out of fear, but because it had spotted its prey. One of the large worm-like creatures had broken through one of the dungeon walls and was making its way towards the Hoblin. It let out a screech similar to the others, but this time, it sprinted at a speed not even Ryo could comprehend.
One second, the worm was speeding towards his direction, and the next, it was flattened on the floor, a strange purple liquid unlike blood pouring out of thousands of cuts, which confused Ryo, as the Goblin was wielding a wooden club. Then, the realisation hit him. The Goblin had moved at a speed so fast that a blunt object was able to leave sharp gashes on such a large creature.
"I'm staying well away from that," Ryo whispered, accentuating the 'well'. He turned around, and began sprinting the other way. He wanted to get out of this dungeon as soon as he could, so he high-tailed it for the exit, using lightning magic to make his legs faster. However, this singular action caught the attention of the bronze-coloured Goblin, its ears perking up and its nose sniffing rapidly.
In the span of not even three seconds, the Goblin had caught up with Ryo, slamming its club into Ryo's left leg, snapping the bone in two separate places. Ryo toppled over, letting out an agonised scream as the Goblin began wailing on him. He felt his ribs shatter or break, his sternum split down the middle, and his lungs rupture, all within the span of five seconds. The Goblin hit his chest, and the two ribs that weren't already shattered to pieces burst out from his chest, piercing the skin that wasn't covered with rocks.
The Goblin lifted the club above its head, swinging it down to crash it into Ryo's skull, planning to flatten him like an unsatisfactory spider or insect. He tried to lift his hands up to stop it, but nothing was getting in the way of the Goblin's club. It swung down, and Ryo felt his eyes flicker, showing him a vision of the library, a book deep below the surface, wrapped in chains.
His mind flashed again, showcasing him the book of magic, "A Comprehensive Guide To All Things Magical: Spells, Techniques, And Downright Devious Destruction", and the memory of him slightly lifting a book off a shelf. The book mentioned a watery feeling in the mind, and, without any warning, his mind became as blurred as it did back in the library. He saw everything in almost slow-motion.
The club made its way closer and closer to his head, inching its way along at an almost snail's pace. Ryo focused on the Goblin behind it, thinking about flinging it into the wall next to him. He poured mana into his brain, his last ditch effort at survival. His vision cleared suddenly, his mind clearing, and the Goblin?
It was embedded into the wall.