Chapter 18
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When the noise from the fighting overhead cuts out, I wait another hour until digging myself out. It's more difficult than I'd expected, and it takes me many minutes of desperate struggling. I burst out to find myself behind the enemy infantry.
They were currently besieging the city itself, and the various siege weapons were another 100 meters away. I decide to rush the weapons. I run up towards them, and I hear various people yelling. A few people step out from behind the weapons and rush me. I quickly stop and unleash a wide flamethrower, burning them all. They collapse and I run over them, quickly reaching the weapons. The people actually manning the weapons dismount them and run away towards the 2 generals of the armies, who are currently running at me themselves. I start to burn the weapons as quickly as possible until both of the generals reach me.
Wielding swords, they stop a few meters away, wary of my flames. They stop for a moment until one of them throws his sword at me. It connects and I lose my balance. They both use the opportunity to rush me. I draw my sword as I regain my balance and meet them head-on. Just one of them completely overwhelms me, and by the time the other regains his sword I'm beaten into the ground.
"You're Rigel, right? We've heard a bit about you, and we have the perfect solution." The general who spoke starts kicking me, forcing me to lose concentration and disallowing any magic formation.
"I'll kill you!" I cry out in rage and desperation. I've really fucked up this time. Great. I wonder what they have in store for me.
I'm kicked around for a while- far longer than I can remember. When the beating stops, I look around in confusion and then receive a huge kick, throwing me into a pit.
What? A pit?
I hit the ground and have the wind knocked out of me. It doesn't bother me at all, but I'm shocked by how far I just fell. Just as I get up onto my feet and prepare to shoot fire up at the opening, a huge mound of dirt crushes me, forcing me down on my stomach.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I try to get up to no avail, and a few seconds later another huge amount of pressure crushes me. I desperately try everything I can think of in a blind panic. I try to melt the earth, move it using earth magic and physically squirm out of the position. Every new round of dirt was like another nail in the coffin. The dirt finally stops coming down from above, and I'm stuck deep underground with no hope for escape.
I swear to God I'll kill every single citizen of Empyrea! I'll kill them all!
I silently seethe rage and an unknown amount of time passes. I have no hope for survival, and only placidly await the end of days.
Time flows in uncertain proportions relative to me. I have no clue what a 'day' feels like deep underground nor what an 'hour' is. The very units of time lose all meaning. The only things that seemingly exist are the 3 new universal constants- the smell of dirt, the uncomfortableness of dirt and rocks, and the fact that I am trapped by dirt. It's all dirt. Everything that matters is dirt.
Dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt.
As more time passes, it seems as if I myself am a form of dirt.
My boredom is all-encompassing, and takes root deep in my psyche. It eventually merges into my personality, and I become one with the feeling of boredom. I am bored, painfully so, and yet it doesn't bother me. It is part of who I am. I am someone who will always be bored.
I suspect it's been millennia, possibly eons. The dirt around me hasn't changed in feel, however. I wonder how long it's been. I wonder if everyone else has successfully united the world above me. I wonder if in reality it's only been mere months.
God damn it! I can't keep pitying myself like a fucking loser. I gotta do something about it. I need to develop a method to get outta here.
I wrack my brain until I have an epiphany.
What if I reinforce my own body using the mana in my surroundings? I will then have more affinity towards mana, right? So how to do this…
I absorb mana into my body and keep it in my chest. I let it sit for a counted 10 minutes, then expel it in the form of fire.
No, no, that wasn't it.
After a few trial and errors, I try to circulate the mana by imbuing it into my bloodstream. I start rapidly pulling mana from my surroundings and concentrating it into my heart. The mana builds up concentration until the heart's capacity hits its limits. The excess mana pointlessly seeps into the surroundings. I stop absorbing new mana and dispel the excess. I then focus on the full-to-the-brim heart. Using my limited knowledge of anatomy, I pull the mana out of the meat and push it all into the valves. The mana filled blood circulates through my body, but the mana doesn't get absorbed by my tissues. I don't lose hope and continue the process until every blood cell has mana imbued into it.
Most of my concentration is focused on keeping the mana inside my body, as it wants to escape.
At this point, my body is exceedingly hot. I can tell that if I was normal then I might have been properly cooked by now, and if there was oxygen my fibrous clothes would have caught aflame. I use my intent to try and force the capillaries to distribute the mana to my tissues, as to give it a natural feel, but the mana just sits there- imbued by the individual cells just like what happens when I do it manually.
Feeling frustrated, I'm at a loss as to what to do. I suspect that due to my immortal body, it simply won't have any change from the mana's influence. The mana simply acts like electricity does in water. It's there. It's in the water, but it's not changing the water itself.
I don't wish to give up at this stage, but I've run out of ideas. Possibly, mana doesn't work like this. Possibly, my body doesn't get changed by the mana.
Resorting to an unreliable method reluctantly, I continue to absorb more mana until my body heats up to the point of melting the rocks directly touching me. My clothes wither and decompose since the lack of oxygen not letting them burn. I continue to absorb more and more mana until my willpower finally runs out and I cannot keep any more inside my body. The excess leaks out into the molten rocks, further heating them up.
Using the last scrap of willpower I possess, I let all the mana inside me erupt into an incredible explosion. The force produced is great enough to create an overwhelming shockwave pushing my surroundings away from me, and enough heat to melt the entirety of the walls in my new cavern.
Judging from the light produced by the magma, the cavern is closest to a hemisphere in shape, albeit slightly irregular. It seems to have a radius of about 4 feet, giving me a sitting area of about 50 square feet. The height is similarly only 4 feet, not allowing me to stand. However, I can comfortably sit, which is a plus. I stretch out and lie down because I'm actually sore.
My body feels miraculously sore. For the first time since coming here- admittedly, that time only defines about 2 weeks before I fell in here- my body feels something relating to pain.
Soreness wasn't pain directly, but it is a start. I conjecture that 'God' was not lying then what he said that our bodies cannot handle unlimited stress.
Piecing together all the evidence presented, I have 2 theories as to what we are. One, we all are the same as we were back on Earth, but every cell in our body is 'frozen', as in never changing. This would be unfortunate, especially to me right now because that would conclude that we also don't heal. I don't wish to be sore for the rest of my eternal life, so I certainly wish for a different conclusion to be the answer.
The second, and arguably more grim and morbid, is that we were transmigrated here for unknown reasons- possibly that Earth is too far away to transport physical objects here- and our current bodies are golems of sorts, ones which were specifically designed by 'God' to suit either its needs or our own.
'God' itself stated the former to be most true… but he could be deceiving me alone or all of us. There's no way to know if we all received the same letter upon awakening here. I am about to further theorize about the possibilities of my own fate when I am rudely interrupted by the nauseating stench of the cooling magma. I hadn't noticed it earlier, but as the massive amounts of adrenaline receded, I suddenly realized how awful my surroundings smell.
Infuriated, I attempt to think of a solution. Out of ideas, sadly, I just plug my nose and hope that the smell seeps down into the earth, far, far away from me.
I wait for a while until the fierce stench subsides. I then get to business. My new plan is to develop a magic spell that can get me out of here. I don't know how deep down I am, but I suspect it's a depth of at least 20 feet- taking into account the production of the hemisphere. That depth is at a point where my 'explosion' magic shouldn't be enough to get me out, and if it does, prior to blowing a hole out of here the cavern should just collapse in on itself, leaving me back at square one. I feel as if I have little to no talent manipulating the earth. The only reason why I've seemed to have any success is due to the fact that I just force massive amounts of mana- relative to normal people- through my body and do what I can with that. However, until I can think of something better, it's my only option.
I use magic to pull a chunk of rock and dirt through the shell surrounding my cavern and plop it down in the center. I try various exercises to further increase my compatibility with earth magic. I try to sculpt, but it's really rather hard when I can't see a thing in front of me. I also try to just move the mound around inside the cavern with fluent intent. My dexterity controlling the mound increase substantially, but as soon as I increase the load my dexterity decreases exponentially with how much I add on.
Enraged, I clench my jaw and bite down hard enough to shatter my teeth twice over. I continue to begrudgingly practice my exercises until far more time passes than even the period of time in between my arrival here and the creation of this cavern, and yet, I have made such insignificant progress that I feel the urge to melt all the earth on the planet.
After continuing the vicious cycle of slowly piling on more and more earth, I have a moment of enlightenment.
I was wrong earlier. I can never truly become one with the earth in this situation because I am being hindered by the earth. We can't communicate in harmony, and currently, are 2 sides of the same coin. The earth is the cell, I am the inmate. I am a fish, and the earth is my aquarium, forever limiting me. In what situation does the inmate truly become harmonious with his cell, and in what situation does the fish truly feel like it belongs in its aquarium?
I now know that I can't use the earth to escape the earth. I have to find a different method to get out of here. I do hope that this doesn't impact my future development as a magician, as in the future I do hope that the earth and I can reconcile. The earth is the earth, everywhere and all-knowing. The laws of 'earth' can be taken down a long, winding path with much potential... but, for now, I can't worry about that. I need to get out of here.
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When the noise from the fighting overhead cuts out, I wait another hour until digging myself out. It's more difficult than I'd expected, and it takes me many minutes of desperate struggling. I burst out to find myself behind the enemy infantry.
They were currently besieging the city itself, and the various siege weapons were another 100 meters away. I decide to rush the weapons. I run up towards them, and I hear various people yelling. A few people step out from behind the weapons and rush me. I quickly stop and unleash a wide flamethrower, burning them all. They collapse and I run over them, quickly reaching the weapons. The people actually manning the weapons dismount them and run away towards the 2 generals of the armies, who are currently running at me themselves. I start to burn the weapons as quickly as possible until both of the generals reach me.
Wielding swords, they stop a few meters away, wary of my flames. They stop for a moment until one of them throws his sword at me. It connects and I lose my balance. They both use the opportunity to rush me. I draw my sword as I regain my balance and meet them head-on. Just one of them completely overwhelms me, and by the time the other regains his sword I'm beaten into the ground.
"You're Rigel, right? We've heard a bit about you, and we have the perfect solution." The general who spoke starts kicking me, forcing me to lose concentration and disallowing any magic formation.
"I'll kill you!" I cry out in rage and desperation. I've really fucked up this time. Great. I wonder what they have in store for me.
I'm kicked around for a while- far longer than I can remember. When the beating stops, I look around in confusion and then receive a huge kick, throwing me into a pit.
What? A pit?
I hit the ground and have the wind knocked out of me. It doesn't bother me at all, but I'm shocked by how far I just fell. Just as I get up onto my feet and prepare to shoot fire up at the opening, a huge mound of dirt crushes me, forcing me down on my stomach.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I try to get up to no avail, and a few seconds later another huge amount of pressure crushes me. I desperately try everything I can think of in a blind panic. I try to melt the earth, move it using earth magic and physically squirm out of the position. Every new round of dirt was like another nail in the coffin. The dirt finally stops coming down from above, and I'm stuck deep underground with no hope for escape.
I swear to God I'll kill every single citizen of Empyrea! I'll kill them all!
I silently seethe rage and an unknown amount of time passes. I have no hope for survival, and only placidly await the end of days.
Time flows in uncertain proportions relative to me. I have no clue what a 'day' feels like deep underground nor what an 'hour' is. The very units of time lose all meaning. The only things that seemingly exist are the 3 new universal constants- the smell of dirt, the uncomfortableness of dirt and rocks, and the fact that I am trapped by dirt. It's all dirt. Everything that matters is dirt.
Dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt.
As more time passes, it seems as if I myself am a form of dirt.
My boredom is all-encompassing, and takes root deep in my psyche. It eventually merges into my personality, and I become one with the feeling of boredom. I am bored, painfully so, and yet it doesn't bother me. It is part of who I am. I am someone who will always be bored.
I suspect it's been millennia, possibly eons. The dirt around me hasn't changed in feel, however. I wonder how long it's been. I wonder if everyone else has successfully united the world above me. I wonder if in reality it's only been mere months.
God damn it! I can't keep pitying myself like a fucking loser. I gotta do something about it. I need to develop a method to get outta here.
I wrack my brain until I have an epiphany.
What if I reinforce my own body using the mana in my surroundings? I will then have more affinity towards mana, right? So how to do this…
I absorb mana into my body and keep it in my chest. I let it sit for a counted 10 minutes, then expel it in the form of fire.
No, no, that wasn't it.
After a few trial and errors, I try to circulate the mana by imbuing it into my bloodstream. I start rapidly pulling mana from my surroundings and concentrating it into my heart. The mana builds up concentration until the heart's capacity hits its limits. The excess mana pointlessly seeps into the surroundings. I stop absorbing new mana and dispel the excess. I then focus on the full-to-the-brim heart. Using my limited knowledge of anatomy, I pull the mana out of the meat and push it all into the valves. The mana filled blood circulates through my body, but the mana doesn't get absorbed by my tissues. I don't lose hope and continue the process until every blood cell has mana imbued into it.
Most of my concentration is focused on keeping the mana inside my body, as it wants to escape.
At this point, my body is exceedingly hot. I can tell that if I was normal then I might have been properly cooked by now, and if there was oxygen my fibrous clothes would have caught aflame. I use my intent to try and force the capillaries to distribute the mana to my tissues, as to give it a natural feel, but the mana just sits there- imbued by the individual cells just like what happens when I do it manually.
Feeling frustrated, I'm at a loss as to what to do. I suspect that due to my immortal body, it simply won't have any change from the mana's influence. The mana simply acts like electricity does in water. It's there. It's in the water, but it's not changing the water itself.
I don't wish to give up at this stage, but I've run out of ideas. Possibly, mana doesn't work like this. Possibly, my body doesn't get changed by the mana.
Resorting to an unreliable method reluctantly, I continue to absorb more mana until my body heats up to the point of melting the rocks directly touching me. My clothes wither and decompose since the lack of oxygen not letting them burn. I continue to absorb more and more mana until my willpower finally runs out and I cannot keep any more inside my body. The excess leaks out into the molten rocks, further heating them up.
Using the last scrap of willpower I possess, I let all the mana inside me erupt into an incredible explosion. The force produced is great enough to create an overwhelming shockwave pushing my surroundings away from me, and enough heat to melt the entirety of the walls in my new cavern.
Judging from the light produced by the magma, the cavern is closest to a hemisphere in shape, albeit slightly irregular. It seems to have a radius of about 4 feet, giving me a sitting area of about 50 square feet. The height is similarly only 4 feet, not allowing me to stand. However, I can comfortably sit, which is a plus. I stretch out and lie down because I'm actually sore.
My body feels miraculously sore. For the first time since coming here- admittedly, that time only defines about 2 weeks before I fell in here- my body feels something relating to pain.
Soreness wasn't pain directly, but it is a start. I conjecture that 'God' was not lying then what he said that our bodies cannot handle unlimited stress.
Piecing together all the evidence presented, I have 2 theories as to what we are. One, we all are the same as we were back on Earth, but every cell in our body is 'frozen', as in never changing. This would be unfortunate, especially to me right now because that would conclude that we also don't heal. I don't wish to be sore for the rest of my eternal life, so I certainly wish for a different conclusion to be the answer.
The second, and arguably more grim and morbid, is that we were transmigrated here for unknown reasons- possibly that Earth is too far away to transport physical objects here- and our current bodies are golems of sorts, ones which were specifically designed by 'God' to suit either its needs or our own.
'God' itself stated the former to be most true… but he could be deceiving me alone or all of us. There's no way to know if we all received the same letter upon awakening here. I am about to further theorize about the possibilities of my own fate when I am rudely interrupted by the nauseating stench of the cooling magma. I hadn't noticed it earlier, but as the massive amounts of adrenaline receded, I suddenly realized how awful my surroundings smell.
Infuriated, I attempt to think of a solution. Out of ideas, sadly, I just plug my nose and hope that the smell seeps down into the earth, far, far away from me.
I wait for a while until the fierce stench subsides. I then get to business. My new plan is to develop a magic spell that can get me out of here. I don't know how deep down I am, but I suspect it's a depth of at least 20 feet- taking into account the production of the hemisphere. That depth is at a point where my 'explosion' magic shouldn't be enough to get me out, and if it does, prior to blowing a hole out of here the cavern should just collapse in on itself, leaving me back at square one. I feel as if I have little to no talent manipulating the earth. The only reason why I've seemed to have any success is due to the fact that I just force massive amounts of mana- relative to normal people- through my body and do what I can with that. However, until I can think of something better, it's my only option.
I use magic to pull a chunk of rock and dirt through the shell surrounding my cavern and plop it down in the center. I try various exercises to further increase my compatibility with earth magic. I try to sculpt, but it's really rather hard when I can't see a thing in front of me. I also try to just move the mound around inside the cavern with fluent intent. My dexterity controlling the mound increase substantially, but as soon as I increase the load my dexterity decreases exponentially with how much I add on.
Enraged, I clench my jaw and bite down hard enough to shatter my teeth twice over. I continue to begrudgingly practice my exercises until far more time passes than even the period of time in between my arrival here and the creation of this cavern, and yet, I have made such insignificant progress that I feel the urge to melt all the earth on the planet.
After continuing the vicious cycle of slowly piling on more and more earth, I have a moment of enlightenment.
I was wrong earlier. I can never truly become one with the earth in this situation because I am being hindered by the earth. We can't communicate in harmony, and currently, are 2 sides of the same coin. The earth is the cell, I am the inmate. I am a fish, and the earth is my aquarium, forever limiting me. In what situation does the inmate truly become harmonious with his cell, and in what situation does the fish truly feel like it belongs in its aquarium?
I now know that I can't use the earth to escape the earth. I have to find a different method to get out of here. I do hope that this doesn't impact my future development as a magician, as in the future I do hope that the earth and I can reconcile. The earth is the earth, everywhere and all-knowing. The laws of 'earth' can be taken down a long, winding path with much potential... but, for now, I can't worry about that. I need to get out of here.
When the noise from the fighting overhead cuts out, I wait another hour until digging myself out. It's more difficult than I'd expected, and it takes me many minutes of desperate struggling. I burst out to find myself behind the enemy infantry.They were currently besieging the city itself, and the various siege weapons were another 100 meters away. I decide to rush the weapons. I run up towards them, and I hear various people yelling. A few people step out from behind the weapons and rush me. I quickly stop and unleash a wide flamethrower, burning them all. They collapse and I run over them, quickly reaching the weapons. The people actually manning the weapons dismount them and run away towards the 2 generals of the armies, who are currently running at me themselves. I start to burn the weapons as quickly as possible until both of the generals reach me.Wielding swords, they stop a few meters away, wary of my flames. They stop for a moment until one of them throws his sword at me. It connects and I lose my balance. They both use the opportunity to rush me. I draw my sword as I regain my balance and meet them head-on. Just one of them completely overwhelms me, and by the time the other regains his sword I'm beaten into the ground."You're Rigel, right? We've heard a bit about you, and we have the perfect solution." The general who spoke starts kicking me, forcing me to lose concentration and disallowing any magic formation."I'll kill you!" I cry out in rage and desperation. I've really fucked up this time. Great. I wonder what they have in store for me.I'm kicked around for a while- far longer than I can remember. When the beating stops, I look around in confusion and then receive a huge kick, throwing me into a pit.What? A pit?I hit the ground and have the wind knocked out of me. It doesn't bother me at all, but I'm shocked by how far I just fell. Just as I get up onto my feet and prepare to shoot fire up at the opening, a huge mound of dirt crushes me, forcing me down on my stomach.Fuck fuck fuck.I try to get up to no avail, and a few seconds later another huge amount of pressure crushes me. I desperately try everything I can think of in a blind panic. I try to melt the earth, move it using earth magic and physically squirm out of the position. Every new round of dirt was like another nail in the coffin. The dirt finally stops coming down from above, and I'm stuck deep underground with no hope for escape.I swear to God I'll kill every single citizen of Empyrea! I'll kill them all!I silently seethe rage and an unknown amount of time passes. I have no hope for survival, and only placidly await the end of days.Time flows in uncertain proportions relative to me. I have no clue what a 'day' feels like deep underground nor what an 'hour' is. The very units of time lose all meaning. The only things that seemingly exist are the 3 new universal constants- the smell of dirt, the uncomfortableness of dirt and rocks, and the fact that I am trapped by dirt. It's all dirt. Everything that matters is dirt.Dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt.As more time passes, it seems as if I myself am a form of dirt.My boredom is all-encompassing, and takes root deep in my psyche. It eventually merges into my personality, and I become one with the feeling of boredom. I am bored, painfully so, and yet it doesn't bother me. It is part of who I am. I am someone who will always be bored.I suspect it's been millennia, possibly eons. The dirt around me hasn't changed in feel, however. I wonder how long it's been. I wonder if everyone else has successfully united the world above me. I wonder if in reality it's only been mere months.God damn it! I can't keep pitying myself like a fucking loser. I gotta do something about it. I need to develop a method to get outta here.I wrack my brain until I have an epiphany.What if I reinforce my own body using the mana in my surroundings? I will then have more affinity towards mana, right? So how to do thisI absorb mana into my body and keep it in my chest. I let it sit for a counted 10 minutes, then expel it in the form of fire.No, no, that wasn't it.After a few trial and errors, I try to circulate the mana by imbuing it into my bloodstream. I start rapidly pulling mana from my surroundings and concentrating it into my heart. The mana builds up concentration until the heart's capacity hits its limits. The excess mana pointlessly seeps into the surroundings. I stop absorbing new mana and dispel the excess. I then focus on the full-to-the-brim heart. Using my limited knowledge of anatomy, I pull the mana out of the meat and push it all into the valves. The mana filled blood circulates through my body, but the mana doesn't get absorbed by my tissues. I don't lose hope and continue the process until every blood cell has mana imbued into it.Most of my concentration is focused on keeping the mana inside my body, as it wants to escape.At this point, my body is exceedingly hot. I can tell that if I was normal then I might have been properly cooked by now, and if there was oxygen my fibrous clothes would have caught aflame. I use my intent to try and force the capillaries to distribute the mana to my tissues, as to give it a natural feel, but the mana just sits there- imbued by the individual cells just like what happens when I do it manually.Feeling frustrated, I'm at a loss as to what to do. I suspect that due to my immortal body, it simply won't have any change from the mana's influence. The mana simply acts like electricity does in water. It's there. It's in the water, but it's not changing the water itself.I don't wish to give up at this stage, but I've run out of ideas. Possibly, mana doesn't work like this. Possibly, my body doesn't get changed by the mana.Resorting to an unreliable method reluctantly, I continue to absorb more mana until my body heats up to the point of melting the rocks directly touching me. My clothes wither and decompose since the lack of oxygen not letting them burn. I continue to absorb more and more mana until my willpower finally runs out and I cannot keep any more inside my body. The excess leaks out into the molten rocks, further heating them up.Using the last scrap of willpower I possess, I let all the mana inside me erupt into an incredible explosion. The force produced is great enough to create an overwhelming shockwave pushing my surroundings away from me, and enough heat to melt the entirety of the walls in my new cavern.Judging from the light produced by the magma, the cavern is closest to a hemisphere in shape, albeit slightly irregular. It seems to have a radius of about 4 feet, giving me a sitting area of about 50 square feet. The height is similarly only 4 feet, not allowing me to stand. However, I can comfortably sit, which is a plus. I stretch out and lie down because I'm actually sore.My body feels miraculously sore. For the first time since coming here- admittedly, that time only defines about 2 weeks before I fell in here- my body feels something relating to pain.Soreness wasn't pain directly, but it is a start. I conjecture that 'God' was not lying then what he said that our bodies cannot handle unlimited stress.Piecing together all the evidence presented, I have 2 theories as to what we are. One, we all are the same as we were back on Earth, but every cell in our body is 'frozen', as in never changing. This would be unfortunate, especially to me right now because that would conclude that we also don't heal. I don't wish to be sore for the rest of my eternal life, so I certainly wish for a different conclusion to be the answer.The second, and arguably more grim and morbid, is that we were transmigrated here for unknown reasons- possibly that Earth is too far away to transport physical objects here- and our current bodies are golems of sorts, ones which were specifically designed by 'God' to suit either its needs or our own.'God' itself stated the former to be most true but he could be deceiving me alone or all of us. There's no way to know if we all received the same letter upon awakening here. I am about to further theorize about the possibilities of my own fate when I am rudely interrupted by the nauseating stench of the cooling magma. I hadn't noticed it earlier, but as the massive amounts of adrenaline receded, I suddenly realized how awful my surroundings smell.Infuriated, I attempt to think of a solution. Out of ideas, sadly, I just plug my nose and hope that the smell seeps down into the earth, far, far away from me.I wait for a while until the fierce stench subsides. I then get to business. My new plan is to develop a magic spell that can get me out of here. I don't know how deep down I am, but I suspect it's a depth of at least 20 feet- taking into account the production of the hemisphere. That depth is at a point where my 'explosion' magic shouldn't be enough to get me out, and if it does, prior to blowing a hole out of here the cavern should just collapse in on itself, leaving me back at square one. I feel as if I have little to no talent manipulating the earth. The only reason why I've seemed to have any success is due to the fact that I just force massive amounts of mana- relative to normal people- through my body and do what I can with that. However, until I can think of something better, it's my only option.I use magic to pull a chunk of rock and dirt through the shell surrounding my cavern and plop it down in the center. I try various exercises to further increase my compatibility with earth magic. I try to sculpt, but it's really rather hard when I can't see a thing in front of me. I also try to just move the mound around inside the cavern with fluent intent. My dexterity controlling the mound increase substantially, but as soon as I increase the load my dexterity decreases exponentially with how much I add on.Enraged, I clench my jaw and bite down hard enough to shatter my teeth twice over. I continue to begrudgingly practice my exercises until far more time passes than even the period of time in between my arrival here and the creation of this cavern, and yet, I have made such insignificant progress that I feel the urge to melt all the earth on the planet.After continuing the vicious cycle of slowly piling on more and more earth, I have a moment of enlightenment.I was wrong earlier. I can never truly become one with the earth in this situation because I am being hindered by the earth. We can't communicate in harmony, and currently, are 2 sides of the same coin. The earth is the cell, I am the inmate. I am a fish, and the earth is my aquarium, forever limiting me. In what situation does the inmate truly become harmonious with his cell, and in what situation does the fish truly feel like it belongs in its aquarium?I now know that I can't use the earth to escape the earth. I have to find a different method to get out of here. I do hope that this doesn't impact my future development as a magician, as in the future I do hope that the earth and I can reconcile. The earth is the earth, everywhere and all-knowing. The laws of 'earth' can be taken down a long, winding path with much potential... but, for now, I can't worry about that. I need to get out of here.
