Chương 55: Surface (1)

Despite his enhanced stats, Rowan had to squint his eyes against the blinding light of the sun. He'd had his chains to illuminate his path since the very beginning, but while they seemed bright enough in the caves, it seemed that he'd overestimated the strength of light. Or perhaps the sun here was just extra bright? He didn't know. Still, seeing the light shining in from the distance, he couldn't help but break into a run; he was too excited about the prospect of seeing the surface to hold back.

Despite his rotting injury on the side of his body, Rowan sprinted with everything he had, pumping his muscles. He'd thought that he would be there in just a few seconds, but he'd greatly underestimated the distance. It'd been almost half a minute now, and the light in the distance was still getting bigger. And as he moved, it only got brighter. With a curse, Rowan found himself forced to shield his eyes from the blinding light. There was no way it could be the sun.

After a few more seconds of running, he let himself slow down as he stepped out from beneath the tunnel. He tried to look around, but the light was too bright, turning his vision spotty even with his fingers shielding his eyes. Rowan tried to take a few steps, but he stumbled, unable to properly see the ground before him. Regaining his balance, he turned around and stopped moving. Now that he was looking away from the blinding light, his vision slowly began to come back.

Rather than seeing pure white, he was beginning to see the darkness of his eyelids. But as time ticked on and the light didn't dim, he began to grow worried. What was happening? Perhaps the light was the sun, and somehow, his time spent in the caves had permanently damaged his vision? But then, finally, Rowan noticed that the light was beginning to fade, and relief washed over him. It wasn't dimming quickly, though, and he found himself waiting another few minutes as it continued to shine.

As he stood, he couldn't help but wonder if the him from before the System would even have been able to survive this. His toughness had increased tenfold since he'd been brought to the Tutorial, and even now, it was enough to blind him. Then, with a curse, he felt panic worm its way inside of him. Would Cynthia and Henry and everyone else be alright? They were nowhere near as strong as he was. He'd seen that with how they'd struggled against the bloodspawn.

He drove the worry from his mind; there was nothing he could do now, and once the light faded, he would have to figure out where he was before going to look for them. A few more seconds passed, and while the light still shone, it was at a low enough level that Rowan felt comfortable with exposing his eyes to it. Turning around, he cracked his eyes open, looking towards the light. To his surprise, everything was clear, and nothing looked too bright.

It seemed that the sheer brightness of whatever had just happened had bypassed the process of his eyes adjusting to the light by simply blinding him and making everything else look fine in comparison. Shaking his head, he glanced around. To his surprise, everything looked perfectly normal. Perfectly beautiful. He felt a surge of pure joy inside him as he looked about. It was as if he were back on earth.

He nearly fell to his knees and cried at that very moment, but he stopped himself; he didn't know enough about the area to let his guard down. He needed to make sure he wasn't about to be attacked by some beast. The cave he'd emerged from had left him standing in the middle of an open field, knee-high grass swaying in the wind, extending for miles. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

To his right was a forest, not the strange-looking one that he'd seen when he'd first arrived in the Tutorial. No, it was just a normal forest. Like one from earth. To his left, the field extended seemingly indefinitely, and even as Rowan strained his eyes, he couldn't see an end. But, finally, he brought his eyes to where the still shining light was coming from. Far in the distance, there stood an obsidian-black tower. It loomed over the world, hundreds of meters tall.

Despite being miles away, it was so large that it looked like it was just before him. And, at the top, there was an orb of brilliant light. Looking closer, Rowan pushed his stat-enhanced eyes to the very limit. And, in the orb, he saw it. A tiny, humanoid silhouette. But despite how much it had faded, looking directly into the light hurt his eyes, so he hurriedly looked away, focusing on the tower instead.

It was strange, different from anything he'd seen back on earth, a stark reminder that, despite how familiar everything looked, he was not at home. In fact, he had no idea where he truly was. The black structure was layered, almost like a giant, angular wedding cake. While it was unfathomably tall, its base was actually below him, the ground sloping downward the farther out it reached. Each tier of the tower was hundreds of feet high, slightly smaller than the one before.

Perhaps an angular wedding cake wasn't the best description. A many, many faceted crystal spire? Rowan nodded. That felt better. There were so many thousands of intricate shapes formed by the shining black stone that he didn't even know where to start. So he didn't. Instead, he looked away from the tower, continuing to take in the beauty of the world around him. The trees of the forest beside him stretched high into the air, the canopy causing sunlight to filter down in golden rays—Rowan paused. Sunlight?

Glancing up, he found that there indeed was a sun, but its brilliance had been drowned out by the sheer brilliance of whatever had been going on atop the tower. Looking back at the forest, he just watched the rays piercing through the leaves high above. It was something straight out of a painting. There was no clear line dividing the forest from the seemingly endless field; they just merged together, the grass becoming less and less prominent as it moved deeper into the woods.

The same thing was happening for the trees. The further they moved into the field, the sparser they became, until there were hundreds of feet between each tree. In fact, he had just realized that he was actually in between the two biomes. While he'd thought he was solely in the field, there was actually a smattering of trees scattered about. All of them looked relatively young, as if their seeds had been blown there by the wind just a few years before.

It'd didn't seem like there were any threats in the area at all, unless some of the plants were actually monsters like the vine stranglers back in the tunnels. Shaking his head, he looked further into the distance, past the tower. Rowan's eyes widened, his jaw dropping. Earlier, the light still emanating from the massive crystalline structure had been enough to make it impossible to see past, but now that it was gone, he could see the shining blue ocean stretching far into the distance.

It glimmered as rays of sunlight caught on the waves, almost like a sea of diamonds. Then, Rowan couldn't help it. He cried. At first, it was just a single tear, but before he knew it, his body was shaking as he let out sob after sob. He wanted to put his face in his hands, but he couldn't; the view was just too beautiful. So he stayed standing as tears ran their way down his face, falling to the grass beneath him as he continued to watch the ocean, unable to tear his eyes from it.

He hadn't realized how much he'd missed Earth, even something just resembling Earth. Hell, even if the Tutorial had looked nothing like his home planet, he would probably have still been crying just because of the sunlight. He had forced himself not to think about it while he'd been stuck deep below the ground, fighting for his life for days on end, not knowing if he would ever see the surface again. But now that he was here, he knew one thing: he never wanted to go back there ever again.

He'd suppressed his fear and loneliness for… he didn't even know how long. He'd had a few breakdowns where he couldn't hold it in any longer, but for the most part, he hadn't let himself have those feelings. After all, they had been—and still were—dangerous. But right now, he thought it was all right if he let a little bit of danger into his life. And then, as he continued to weep, his face streaked in tears, he heard something in the distance.

At first, it was too far for him to tell what or who it was, but soon, he realized. It was the voices of Henry and Cynthia, both of the calling out his name. And so, Rowan smiled.