Ren had spent midday looking over the surrounding area. Seeing a giant crocodile eat a dinosaur, he worried about his chances of successfully crossing. He figured a giant apex predator such as that wouldn’t be able to thrive in a group, likely even killing and eating its own kind.

  Carefully watching for the great behemoth croc, he hoped to see it crawl up onto land where he would have a chance to cross. Then, the realization struck him. If a croc could grow to such a giant size in these waters, what’s to say a giant fish or serpent could not have also grown to such a size in this water.

  Sure, it wasn’t likely that several crocs that size lived here, or at least they likely lived further away upstream or downstream. Ren didn’t want to find out if a water snake the size of a wall around a castle lived here too.

  Any sort of raft or boat would be useless when the threats to him were of such great size. Just them popping their head above the surface to look at what was floating would be enough to cause a wave to knock him off. It wasn’t likely that he could find a way to make himself fly, but maybe launch himself?

  Brainstorming he went through his options of propulsion. He could jump very high, but not across a half mile of water. He could swing himself across something, but he’d only make it maybe a few hundred feet. Using his fire magic, sure he could create an explosion, but not the sort that could carry him across such a distance.

  The only option he could rationalize was ritualism. Finding a small area, more or less free of debris, he cleared it entirely.

  With an open space above him, he sat down. This would delay his amber from coming back, but was it with it? The biome beyond this river was surely filled with powerful foes, beasts beyond him in power by several times. The only ones he’d seen so far were quite strong. If he were to do this, he would be trapping himself there until his amber again could glow.

  Ren felt himself hesitate, what if mastering the power of the amber was worth far more than he could understand? Delaying it further by using magic may only harm him. Could he risk the time it would take to get around this river? Could he even do so safely?

  There were too many ifs and buts. Opportunity was before him, and now was not the time to hesitate.

  His will became manifest as the innate knowledge of his ritualism came alive in this work. The craftsmanship that took a decade to perfect was given unto him by his patron, and he would use it.

  Runes and symbols came alive across the large circle he crafted on the open earth. What he was doing consumed a great deal of his mana, and he questioned if he could even finish in one day at this rate. Over two hours, the ritual circle began to come together, yet he found himself running dry in terms of mana.

  Breathing in and out steadily, he tried to work efficiently. Regardless of his efficiency, it became increasingly obvious that he wouldn’t be able to complete this complicated ritual in one day. Blessed with the knowledge of rituals, he already had known this but stubbornly drained himself of mana anyway.

  Finding a place in the treetops above his three-quarters completed ritual, he rested as his mana began to slowly regenerate.

  Ritualism was an extremely taxing form of mana manipulation. While making a fireball, he only had to gather the energy and intent of the conjuring. While gathering a large quantity of energy rapidly was also taxing, it became far easier as he had done it over and over again, as well as his mana pool became far larger.

  Ritualism was a rigid and taxing process as it was like writing code for a program. A million little pieces all trying to come toward a smooth conclusion. Many had to study it for a lifetime, but Ren’s innate knowledge gave him a cheat.

  Night came, and Ren’s mana had refilled steadily. It was high enough to complete the ritual, but not entirely full. Instead, he spent some time studying the amber within him.

  Looking deeply within himself, his mind’s eye saw the weakness within the amber. Not just a weakness in that it lacked energy, but that it physically was weak. His mana sang a song like that of an opera singer as if he sang too high a note, it was going to shatter.

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  A dread filled him as he saw how weak the amber had grown as he had formed the ritual. He wondered if it was better to stop now, or to finish the ritual now and allow the amber to regenerate as soon as possible.

  The danger of destroying the precious amber filled him with deep anxiety. Without it, he would be missing a great power that he had yet to fully understand.

  Hardening his will, he began manifesting his will. With a delicate and precise touch, he moved through the ritual formation and began again on it. Scrawling the formula needed, he was at a constant state of tension as he only used the minimum amount of mana needed to protect the gem.

  He was delaying the completion of the ritual with his slow deliberation, but it worked. Over the course of an hour, the ritual was completed and relief flooded into him.

  Turning his inward eye onto the amber, he felt it. A hairline crack ever so small was on the face of its surface. Ren’s spine shivered, but there was still life yet in the amber. The smallest spark, but still alive. He sighed, knowing how close it truly was. This had set him back further, using his mana in any way now would likely bring the amber shattering.

  The chance before him to become far stronger, and to fight terrible foes was the only hope he had. To gain power through conquering the unknown mountains across the river. A half mile of deadly water from which there was no return. To cross the river again would be impossible until the amber had healed.

  The ritual activated and Ren felt a rush as he became stronger.

  Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lv 19

  +5 Dexterity +2 Willpower +2 Vitality +2 Intelligence +7 Free points

  Ren smiled as he knew the power would be vital for him to survive what was to come. He split his free points into vitality and endurance, the greater portion in the latter.

  Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment:C/N

  Class: Rouge level 19, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism

  Marks: Gate-Walker

  HP:255/255 SP:280/280 MP:265/265

  Attributes:

  Str: 24

  Vit: 51

  End: 56

  Dex: 88

  Wil: 53

  Int: 42

  Free Points: 0

  As the ritual activated, Ren felt his weight change. The experience was extremely odd, as he felt like with a single jump he could pass over the treetops. He almost went to test out the odd sensation as the ritual began to change. The lightness he felt shifted as the sense of his body weight was completely erased. He felt himself moving as the ritual began to suddenly fling him.

  Passing over the water, he hurtled across it with no control over his own motor functions. The ritual had ceased him like a doll and thrown him across the water. He had made it nearly halfway across the river before a disturbance on the other side of the water caught his attention.

  Glowing eyes within the darkness of night showed themselves. With his eldritch eyes he could see it far more clearly though. It was a reptilian head, though an order of magnitude smaller than that of the croc.

  As he neared it in mere moments, it peaked back under the surface. As he passed over where the head had gazed out, it leapt from the water grasping onto him. Ren looked down at the aquatic beast latched onto his leg.

  It was small, the size of a house cat. It had razor claws that dug deeply into his leg and powerful back legs. Ren could not move to kick off the beast as it gored his leg wide open.

  The ritual continued to fling him across the water and he soon met the edge of the river on the opposite bank. To his surprise, neither did the ritual slow down, nor did the little bastard let go.

  As he slammed powerfully into a large tree, Ren felt both himself and the small creature be crushed by the force of the impact. Blackness overtook his sight for long moments, just as pain writhed throughout his whole body.

  He no longer felt the clawing and ripping from his little companion, instead, he felt a large number of broken bones throughout his body. The pain from them tortured him, though he had felt worse. With the great amount of willpower he possessed, ignoring the pain wasn’t easy, but he was able to get up regardless of his terrible state.

  His vision returned, though blurred, he could see the crushed body of the little lizard that clung to his leg. He scoffed at it, glad to see the little guy dead. Looking around he saw no immediate threats but knew there was certainly more to come. With the weakness in his body from the damage he just sustained, he knew it would be a painful plan. He pulled free his knife and began using it as assistance in climbing into the tree he had just crashed into.

  Finding a high-up point to lean back and rest, he quickly found himself asleep regardless of the pain he was in.