"How did I get myself into this mess?"
Rune clutched his wounded arm, fingers tightening as his grip threatened to slip around the handle of his axe.
"All I had to do was tell that god no," he muttered. "Just say no when she asked me to come save an entire world."
His breath came uneven.
"How am I supposed to save anything if I can't even handle three measly crystal spiders?"
The cavern around him glittered with jagged growths, crystal veins thrusting out from every surface. Each shard pulsed with swirling light, casting fractured reflections across the stone.
Three spiders stood before him.
Their bodies were formed from the same crystal, limbs clicking softly as light moved beneath their shells.
"I've been coming to this dungeon for a week now," Rune continued under his breath. "No memories. No breakthroughs."
Only exhaustion.
"The best I've managed is scraping together enough to restock healing potions and pay for a bed."
One of the spiders suddenly lunged.
Rune reacted on instinct. He stepped aside as it charged past, its movement familiar now. He brought his axe down hard onto its body as it passed, crystal splintering under the impact and fragments scattering across the floor.
He didn't retreat.
Not this time.
"Today…" Rune said quietly. "Today I'm not running after killing just one."
He lifted his axe, squaring his stance as the other two spiders shifted.
"I'm taking all three."
The two larger spiders rushed him at the same time.
Rune leapt over one, twisting midair to land behind it. He swung without restraint, axe flashing as he hacked into its body, chunks of crystal breaking away with each blow.
One strike slipped cleanly into a crack left behind by his reckless barrage.
The blade drove straight to the spider's core.
Light flared violently from within, a final pulse bursting outward before the creature collapsed, its body crumbling as it hit the ground.
"Yes," Rune breathed. "I took out a bigger one this time."
The moment of victory was short lived.
The smaller spider lunged back in and sank its fangs into his leg.
Pain tore through him as blood spilled freely. Rune staggered and swung blindly, hacking at the creature in pure desperation.
Crystal fragments sprayed in every direction.
By the time he stopped moving, there was nothing left that even resembled a spider.
Rune fumbled for the pouch strapped to his leg. He pulled out a red vial and poured its contents over the wound, the liquid hissing faintly as it soaked into torn flesh.
"Ok, lesson learned. Never lose focus when there are enemies still around. Come on, Rune, you should know that's like rule number one."
The red liquid made a sound like fire crackling around a burning pot as the bite in his leg stitched together.
Rune bit his lip. "Ugh, I hate these cheap healing potions. They say the higher quality ones don't feel like you are putting hot oil on your skin."
Rune forced himself upright and limped toward the last spider.
His injured arm hung uselessly at his side, fingers barely responding. The creature waiting for him was far larger than the others. Nearly twice their size. As large as a small horse.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's put everything I have into this."
He broke into a charge.
A crystal leg stabbed down toward him, aimed to skewer him where he stood. Rune dropped low, sliding beneath it as shards scraped past his shoulder. He hacked upward at the spider's underbelly as he slid across the cavern floor.
As he cleared the other side, the blade caught.
The axe lodged fast inside the creature's body, refusing to come free.
"Damnit," Rune hissed. "That was my last weapon."
For a fleeting moment, the thought surfaced.
'Should I run?'
Light seeped from the cracks he had carved into the spider's body as it turned to face him. It moved far faster than he expected.
Before Rune could react, crystal legs thrust forward.
Two speared straight through his shoulders.
The impact ripped the air from his lungs as the spider lifted him off the ground, his feet leaving the cavern floor as pain exploded through his body.
"Come on, Rune. You are supposed to be something, someone. Do... anything!"
As the words left his mouth, a pressure formed around Rune's heart.
Something stirred.
It was not pain. Not fear. Something alive.
The sensation swelled outward, spreading through his chest and down his arms, taking hold with quiet certainty.
His hands tightened around the spider's legs.
Light ignited in one. Like the heart of the sun.
The other with pure shadow, dense and absolute, swallowing all reflection.
The energies surged.
They poured from Rune into the spider's body, flooding its crystalline frame. Light and shadow collided within it, slamming into each other again and again, crushing against the creature's own inner glow.
The spider shuddered.
Then it exploded.
Crystal chunks blasted outward in every direction, fragments clattering and shattering against the cavern walls.
The pressure vanished.
Rune dropped from the air and crashed down onto his knees, breath tearing from his chest as the echoes of the blast faded into silence.
"I need… I need to hurry before I lose too much blood."
Rune reached into his pouch, fingers fumbling until he found his last two red vials.
He bit the stoppers free and poured them down over the wounds where the spider's legs had pierced him.
The liquid hissed softly as it worked. Flesh seared together, the burning pain fading into a dull ache.
Rune let out a shaky breath, relief seeping into his voice.
"The struggle was worth it," he said quietly. "I can do this on my own."
He laughed once, breathless and disbelieving.
"Without the handouts everyone else gets."
His chest rose and fell as the reality settled in.
"It only took a week of nearly dying," he muttered. "But I unlocked my element."
Then his smile widened, something fierce flickering behind it.
"And I got two of them."
In this world, every other human was granted their element the moment they arrived, bestowed directly by the Unnamed One. Power given freely, without effort or cost.
Rune was outside that system.
To gain his element, he had been forced to carve it out himself.
Such a thing was considered impossible. Only those born in this world, the native races, could awaken their element through struggle and growth.
No human ever had.
Until now.
Rune had done something no human before him had ever accomplished.
He forced himself back to his feet and began gathering the crystal ore scattered across the cavern floor, piece by piece, slipping each shard into the rune etched pouch at his side.
"I'm really glad that blacksmith lent me this," he muttered. "Having a pouch with a pocket of space inside makes hauling all of this a lot easier."
When he finished, he paused and looked around the chamber.
Nothing moved.
For the first time, he had cleared the room on his own. No intervention. No last second rescue. No borrowed strength.
Just him.
He straightened slowly, the weight of what he had accomplished settling in.
He had walked away with the crystal ore.
And with his element unlocked.
"I need to get back," Rune muttered. "Sell all of this. And make it to the healer before she closes."
He exhaled through clenched teeth.
"If not, I'll be sleeping in this pain again. And I really hate that."
The walk back to town was slow.
Rune limped along the path, shoulders stiff, arms barely responding when he tried to move them. The healing potions had done their job, sealing wounds and stopping the bleeding, but muscle damage lingered. Every step sent dull reminders through his body.
The city lights eventually came into view.
As he passed down a quieter street, hushed voices drifted from nearby.
"Psst… Rob. Isn't that the weird guy who doesn't die?"
"Shh. He'll hear you." A pause. "He's staying with that strange old man at the inn. You know, the one in the dead part of the city."
"They say no matter how hurt he gets, he always comes back. And he never revives at the temple."
"But why? He could just die and be fully healed. No scars either. Healers always leave scars."
"I don't know." A hushed pause. "People are starting to call him the Crazy Immortal. Since he never dies."
Rune heard every word. He couldn't help it.
A short laugh slipped out of him, echoing faintly down the street, only feeding the rumors further.
'Immortal, huh.'
His smile faded as the thought settled.
'If only they knew.'
'I'm probably the furthest thing from immortal in this entire world.'