Chapter 51: Nothing is real.

Roland was standing in the middle of the corridor with his hand holding the blade that he previously made. He had looked at it many times before but this was a first. Thanks to his debugging skill he was able to always see the runic structures of any item that he came across. If he focused on it the skill would show him various colored lines; red, blue, and green. He had already seen how his blade should look while under his skill and something was very off. The traces were wrong, they didn’t fit the sword that he made and this wasn’t even the oddest thing here. Roland moved his eyes up and glanced at the walls. He looked at the doors and even the ceiling. He could see them, traces were everywhere it was as if everything in here had runes inscribed into them. He had come to this place many times and even used his skill before to glance at some items but nothing like this ever happened. Something was really wrong here, even the potted plant that was in the corner had runic components on it. He quickly ran downstairs, he wanted to ask Zilyana if she noticed something. The moment he got downstairs he saw the elf just standing there, her body consumed by runic traces. Roland backed away, the elf covered in runic symbols just looked at him and smiled. “Oh? What’s the rush? Are you sure that you don’t want some tea?” She giggled and gave him the brightest smile that she could. This only made Roland shake his head, he decided to leave the store for now. On the outside it was all the same, magical pathways were littering the streets and the buildings. Even the sky was full of them. He deactivated his skill and shook his head side to side while trying to gather his thoughts. The moment the skill wasn’t active he saw the world as he normally did. Nothing looked out of place. He squatted down and touched the soil, he even picked some up and let it fall through his fingers. This was strange indeed. Even without using his debugging skill, he should be able to somehow feel the runes in items. Without his debugging active he couldn’t feel the characteristic mana signature that an active runic structure would give out. ‘Illusion?’ His mind wandered in a certain direction as he reactivated his skill again. He now looked at the runic components that were around him. The structures were more advanced than anything he had ever seen. ‘Grand…no...greater rune?’If it was a grand rune then it would be something on a tier 4 level. These structures were more advanced than common ones but not by that much, this had to be a greater runic structure. He had diagrams on various runes, lesser and common. Depending on the type of spell the runes belonged to some of the components would repeat themselves. An ice arrow rune would share some components that an ice blast rune had. The same was in this situation as he recognized some of those structures. Some of the runic formations looked similar to runes that had to do with illusions. There were also some that were from runes that affected the target's state of mind. He could see something similar to a sleep rune component just more intricate. From his observations, he deduced that he had fallen victim to some kind of illusion spell. This world that he was seeing was not real, when it happened was a mystery though. He activated his skill when he was back at his workshop so it had to have happened after he left. Was he attacked in the street or when he arrived at the company store? Also why someone would even do this evaded him, did he get caught up in another mess of the gnome manager? It had been one and a half years since the home invasion incident, he had almost forgotten about it till this moment. No item he had could protect him from a mental attack of this magnitude. ‘Am I trapped in here?” He looked around, his heart pounding fast. He had no idea what the person that put him in this illusion was doing outside. Was he holding a dagger to his throat while he was here unable to do anything? With the skill activated he started looking around. Even though these runic structures were more advanced, they were still just runes. He had spent years studying them and he knew how to tell the pathways apart from each other. There was always one prime rune, through which everything connected. Without that rune the whole spell would instantly collapse, maybe if he found it he could destroy or alter it. If he could damage these runic structures was still unclear but he didn’t have much time for a test. He could see some people walking around, looking at him. In this world he was alone and he didn’t know if it had some kind of defensive mechanism. It would be unwise to alert his enemy to his knowledge, it was better to find the prime rune first and destroy it. Roland could even see in what direction it was. There were many runic pathways going in one direction, in the direction of his workshop. This world of illusions was probably made from his memories and his workshop had most of them. He would probably find what he was looking for there. He strapped his sword to his side. Even though it wasn’t real it probably would work against the denizens of this world. He walked while slightly rushing, he could feel strange gazes on his back that were giving him the chills. Was there even anything behind him, or was it just the figment of his imagination? The walk back to his workshop felt really long but he managed to arrive without anything out of the ordinary happening. He quickly opened up the entrance and ducked inside, closing the reinforced door right behind him and locking it. He gave out a sigh and quickly quieted down. It was really silent in here, he couldn’t hear anything outside either. He still wasn’t sure what this illusion world was or how it operated. A runic item that could produce something like this must have been made with some high quality materials. But where there was a runic artifact that was active, the caster was probably not far behind. Some items could be activated remotely and could even run on their own depending on the manufacturing process. There had to be someone to activate it unless he walked into some kind of trap that set it off instead. Roland activated his debugging skill. The pathways converged into one spot, into his forge. The one he was using was made from bricks but now looked like a Christmas tree. There were various magical pathways some were quite red. Apparently, this greater rune wasn’t quite perfect. The pathways connected to a larger rune that was in the middle, this was the prime rune. It consisted of many other runic components that were inside a magic circle. This prime rune was on the inside of the circle right in the middle, the other runes and runic components were around it in another outer circle. Roland moved towards the forge that was part of this illusion of a workshop. It was really convincing as he couldn’t really notice a difference between this world and the real one, at all. He placed his digit on one of the runic pathways and tried rubbing on it, this didn’t achieve anything at all. Even when he grabbed a metal tool to scratch the brick material the magical pathway remained in place. It remained floating in the air instead of sinking back into the brick, it was as if the forge wasn’t even there to begin with. ‘I guess it won’t be that easy…’ He moved his finger towards that magical pathway that he tried to rub off his forge. He injected some of his mana into his fingertip before moving towards the runic structure. As a runesmith he was someone that was able to affect runic structures with his own mana. With the help of runecrafting he was able to repair runes but also destroy them. It was part of the process, you just removed the faulty components and replaced them with the good ones. The moment he touched the trace and activated his skill he saw it crumbling apart. This was only one of the many that he had to remove before the whole structure became unstable. The moment he did this he could feel the earth trembling a bit, it was as if a small earthquake was taking place. The magical pathway that he severed with his finger started to slowly mend itself back into shape. It seemed that this rune had some sort of self-repairing property but it was slow enough for him to continue his work. The more pathways he destroyed the more the world shook. It was as if this illusion was reacting to his interference. ‘I should probably hurry up…’ He thought to himself while getting a bad feeling. The pathways were slowly regenerating but he was able to severe them faster. After getting one of the larger components fully he could feel the whole workshop shake. The walls started cracking and the wooden beams strained themselves to hold the warehouse together. He wasn’t quite done yet as this prime rune was a lot more intricate than what he was used to. While he was going for another part he suddenly heard a knock on the door. It started off quiet, like a normal everyday knock but soon turned to loud pounding. He didn’t even look back to his door, he was convinced that this was some sort of defensive mechanism of this world. It had probably noticed that he was messing with the prime rune structure and it was now here to stop him. He had no idea if there were some kind of rules in this illusion world. Though from the fact that the thing that was outside wasn’t rushing in to stop him, there had to be something. The loud thumping sound stopped after a while and he continued with the rune destruction, that was until he heard a voice behind the door. “Roland let me in, it’s me!” He jerked slightly after hearing the voice, he clearly recognized the owner of it. “Helci?” “Yes I’ve come back, please open the door, it’s cold out here…” He could clearly hear her, this world was somehow reaching into his memory and pulling out people that he would probably be willing to let inside his workshop. The moment of pause didn’t stop him, he just grabbed the hammer that he was using for runesmithing. Roland injected his mana into the tool and delivered a blow to his forge, the runic pathways and components quickly became distorted after the strong blow. The ‘Helci’ outside started shouting frantically and the pounding on the door continued. He started sweating and continued with the destruction of this runic structure. It was a lot harder than he expected probably due to his skill being low compared to this intricate rune. “Why won’t you let us in!” Another voice was heard by him, this time not at the door but a floor above by the window. He gazed at it momentarily and could see a female hand reaching through it. This was the window that his half gnome assistant had once sneaked in. He had long since put an iron grate there, all of his windows were now barred as he really didn’t want anyone climbing through them. This hand and voice was different, it was very muscular and the voice sounded deeper but he still recognized it. “Sahildr?” It was the voice of his old party member and she wasn’t alone. All the other windows in this warehouse were now occupied by some people that he previously knew. He could even hear the voice of his maid Martha. Anyone that had treated him nicely was apparently here. This illusion world was trying to lower the defenses of the afflicted person with their loved ones. Most people were more willing to let their guard down around their friends. In this situation, though it looked like a bunch of zombies were trying to get inside and tear him apart. Roland delivered another blow to the forge and saw the runes crack. All of the destruction was starting to affect this world. The shaking didn’t stop and he could hear lightning bolts and loud wind outside. The wooden workshop began to also crack, this event caused the door to finally break. He had destroyed most of the prime rune but time was running out. The Helci that was outside of the door started pushing herself in. The door was barely holding itself shut on the top hinge. What he saw wasn’t the assistant that he remembered though. Her body was contorting in odd ways and she looked like some kind of creature from a horror movie. Even though there wasn’t much space to crawl through the monster Helci didn’t care. It forced itself inside, its flesh coming undone and the outer layer of the skin remained outside the door while the monstrosity squeezed itself in. Roland finally delivered another strike to the runic structure that caused the whole world to become unstable. The whole workshop tilted to the side and all of the blacksmithing tools flew off the shelves and tables. The other monsters started bursting through the windows while the Helci one jumped forward. The part that would be its chest opened up to show a massive set of shark-like teeth. In the middle was what looked to be a giant tongue, the tongue split into many smaller tendrils and shot forward towards Roland. Luckily for Roland this world still had rules in it, the tentacles rebounded off a semi-transparent red shield that caused those tendrils to burn. He wasn’t far behind, he grabbed a magic paddle weapon that he had on his side and pointed it at the confused monster. A large burst of flames in the form of an arrow shot out. The flame arrow flew at a high speed hitting the monster in the middle. The monstrosity exploded, chunks of guts and meat followed suit and covered the whole workshop in it. The other monsters weren’t far behind, they flung their tentacles at the shield of flames and continued to smack it until it broke. Roland could feel something grabbing his legs, it didn’t feel like anything human. He had no time as the monsters were upon him, he had to destroy this prime rune. He swung his hammer down while a sharp tendril pierced his chest at about the same moment. He coughed up red and felt a metallic taste and the whole world began to distort even more. His eyes started getting blurry and everything went white as he passed out. “…….” “…….” “.....You should praise me, if it wasn’t for me you’d never get through all these traps~” Roland heard a voice, he gasped out for air but remained silent for the most part. He could feel that he was back in the store. He was sprawled out on the floor with his head towards an open door to the gnome manager’s office. There were voices coming from there one was female and the other was male. “Stop…” “Wasting time?” The woman finished the man’s sentence and Roland could hear footsteps coming towards him. He wasn’t sure what was happening at all, who were those two and how did they get in here. For now, he played dead, the people here probably thought that he was still affected by the illusion. Next to him he could feel someone else, it was Zilyana and she had collapsed a bit further into the office. “It’s not even that late, we have enough time to play around with these two.” The woman proclaimed while grabbing Zilyana by her hair and lifting her up with one hand. The elf's legs and arms were dangling around as if she was a ragdoll. She was clearly out cold, probably affected by the same mind-affecting spell. He could hear Zilyana’s body getting dragged inside the gnome manager’s office. If the gnome was still alive or not he had no idea. He also noticed something, the man placed an item on a table before walking towards the woman who was dragging Zilyana along. He could feel the strange mana signature of the thing on the table, it had to be the magical device responsible for this whole thing. He would probably only have one shot at this and he had to make it count. He had made a better version of the magical paddle with his staple fire arrow spell. After getting the skill that helped him condense the runes he was able to achieve that. He had used it in the world of the illusion and he had it strapped to his belt as he always carried it as a backup weapon. The easiest way to get the elf and the gnome to wake up would be to destroy that magical device. The explosion might also alert the guards. He could also try to run but he felt like the two people in this room were far stronger than him. He might not reach the end of the corridor before getting a dagger or something else stuck in his back. He slowly moved his hand towards his belt and the magic weapon that was strapped to it. He just needed to be quiet and get a good shot in but if he failed, he would be a dead man...