Chương 11: Chapter 10: The Broken Door

James spent nearly an hour stripping useful material from the Level Six minotaur and the Mist-Touched Wolf. The minotaur provided heavier stone plates, horn fragments, tendons, and thick hide, while the wolf gave him another pair of toxic-aspect eyes and several teeth worth keeping. His collection of monster parts had reached the point where carrying everything was becoming a problem, so James wrapped the best pieces into bundles and hid anything too heavy beneath roots near a tree he marked with three cuts.

Julie and Kevin watched him work for the first fifteen minutes before growing restless. James could feel it clearly through both familiar bonds, because neither of them considered standing around while he butchered corpses a productive use of the afternoon.

"You two want to hunt without me?" James asked as he pried another plate from the minotaur's shoulder. Julie's answer arrived immediately as excitement, while Kevin responded with the quieter confidence James had learned to recognize. James stopped cutting and looked at both of them seriously. Julie was fast enough to escape most creatures near their level, while Kevin could detect movement through his threads and control terrain better than James could.

They had also worked together enough that Julie understood when Kevin was creating an opening, and Kevin knew exactly how aggressively Julie would exploit one.

"Stay reasonably close, don't pick a fight with anything that can flatten both of you in one hit, and if either of you gets hurt, you come straight back," James said as he pointed his knife at them. Julie gave him a distinctly impatient response, and Kevin tapped two legs against the minotaur plate beside him.

"Yes, I know you're capable," James said as he returned the knife to the corpse. The lecture probably sounded ridiculous when directed at a poisonous snake and a giant spider, but both were becoming intelligent enough that he refused to treat them as pets or equipment.

"Being capable doesn't mean you need to prove it by doing something fucking stupid." Julie slid into the undergrowth, and Kevin followed by climbing a tree before disappearing across several strands of silk. Their presences remained inside James's awareness as they moved away, faint but steady. He returned to harvesting, though he checked the bonds more often than necessary during the first few minutes. The work became easier once he stopped worrying about every sound in the forest.

James removed the remaining usable plates, separated several strong tendons, and examined the damaged head of his Minotaur Warhammer. The weapon had survived the Level Six fight, but repeated impacts were beginning to crack the stone core beneath the outer plates.

"Definitely going to need another rebuild soon," James said as he tested the hammerhead with his thumb. The tool had started as a crude solution to an immediate problem, and now stronger monsters were exposing every weakness in its construction. He liked that, in a strange way, because a visible failure told him exactly what needed improvement. Nearly forty minutes later, something moved at the edge of his awareness. Julie's presence approached first, filled with satisfaction, while Kevin followed close behind.

James finished cutting a tendon free before finally looking toward the trees. Julie emerged dragging the front leg of another dead Mist-Touched Wolf. Kevin sat on top of the corpse's head while several silver threads helped pull the body across the ground. James stared at the pair for several seconds before placing his knife beside him.

"You brought me another fucking wolf," James said as Julie stopped beside the first corpse. She raised her head proudly, and Kevin remained seated where he was.

"I'm starting to think I'm the least necessary member of this team." Two blue System windows appeared. [Julie and Kevin have defeated a Mist-Touched Wolf.] [Shared familiar growth applied.] [Julie has leveled up!] [Julie is now Level 6.] [3 Attribute Points are available.] [Kevin has leveled up!] [Kevin is now Level 6.] [3 Attribute Points are available.] James smiled and wiped his hands against a strip of ruined hide.

The two familiars had earned their growth without him controlling the fight, and the fact mattered more to James than the levels themselves.

"Good job," he said as Julie moved closer and Kevin climbed from the wolf onto James's breastplate. Warm satisfaction passed through both bonds. Julie once again favored Intelligence, though the desire came with a growing interest in physical strength. James assigned two points to Intelligence and one to Strength after confirming the choice through their connection.

Kevin also wanted Intelligence, but his recent fights had made mobility increasingly important, so two points went into Intelligence and one into Agility with his approval. The change sharpened both bonds. Julie's emotional impressions had begun approaching simple concepts rather than vague feelings, and James could almost distinguish danger, hunt, and food without needing context.

Kevin's awareness became more precise in a different way, allowing James to feel when the spider focused on vibrations from a specific direction rather than the general movement surrounding them.

"We are becoming a very strange team," James said while watching Kevin inspect a crack in his breastplate. Julie sent immediate agreement, and Kevin's response contained enough amusement that James looked at him suspiciously.

"You're not supposed to agree that fast." James harvested the second wolf before they resumed moving north. The forest continued changing as the afternoon passed, with thicker roots, larger trees, and fewer signs of weak monsters. They encountered two Level Five creatures over the next several hours, but neither fight required anything new enough to concern James. Julie and Kevin were becoming dangerous together.

Julie attacked through speed and aggression, forcing enemies to react to her, while Kevin preferred to wait until that reaction created a mistake and then punish it with silk or venom. James increasingly found himself acting as the heavy point of the group, taking attention when necessary and ending fights once his familiars created openings. The arrangement worked well enough that James stopped thinking of them as support.

They were partners with different jobs, and none of the three could easily replace what the others contributed. His warhammer provided force, Julie provided mobility and poison, while Kevin turned the terrain itself into something enemies had to respect. By late afternoon, James's arms were sore and the bundles across his back had become uncomfortable. He considered finding a place to camp before darkness arrived, but something ahead caught his attention through the trees.

It was too straight and too deliberately placed to be natural. James stopped so suddenly that Julie raised her head.

"What the hell is that?" he asked as he shifted the warhammer into both hands. Kevin moved higher on his shoulder while they approached carefully. A broken frame stood between the trees. Dark stone blocks formed a doorway nearly ten feet tall, although no wall surrounded it and nothing filled the opening. Several blocks had fallen around the base and become partially buried beneath moss, roots, and old leaves. The entire structure leaned heavily to the left. James looked at it and immediately disliked what he saw.

One vertical support was almost completely missing. The remaining side carried the weight of the upper lintel alone, and the top had shifted far enough that another small movement might bring the entire structure down. Whatever magical purpose the thing once possessed, its current problem looked depressingly familiar. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Julie tasted the air while Kevin stretched a thin thread toward the nearest stone.

Nothing moved nearby, and neither familiar sensed an obvious creature waiting to attack. James stepped closer and activated Appraisal. [Broken Warp Totem] [Warp Totems are used to communicate with Powers from outside the Realm.] James read the description again. The words outside the Realm carried considerably more weight now that he understood the scale of Integration.

Earth was one world among billions in a Realm containing more inhabited planets than James could properly imagine, and apparently something existed beyond even that.

"Powers from outside the Realm," James said as he examined the empty doorway. Julie's curiosity entered the bond, while Kevin focused on the dark stone.

"That sounds either extremely useful or extremely fucking dangerous." James should have walked away. He knew that. Instead, he looked at the missing support again. The upper block was carrying weight badly. The remaining post leaned inward, several joints had begun separating, and one more collapse would probably destroy whatever pattern had originally connected the pieces. Magic did not change the basic fact that the structure was failing because a support was missing.

James rested the warhammer against the ground.

"That is bothering the hell out of me," he said while walking around the frame. Julie followed his movement, and Kevin dropped from his shoulder onto one of the fallen blocks.

"I don't even know what it does yet, and I already want to fix it." He crouched near the missing side and studied the dimensions. The fallen original support was nowhere nearby, which meant replacing it with matching material was impossible. James needed something strong enough to hold the lintel and large enough to distribute its weight without shifting. A boulder twenty yards away looked promising. James pointed toward it.

"We substitute," he said as he began planning how to move several hundred pounds of stone without destroying his back. Kevin followed his attention and immediately started laying silver lines around nearby trees.

"Exactly," James said as he saw what Kevin intended. The spider anchored multiple strands around the boulder while James created leverage points with smaller logs and exposed roots. Julie remained on watch, turning her head whenever movement passed farther through the forest. Moving the boulder required far more effort than James wanted to admit. He used a thick branch as a lever, shifted the stone a few inches at a time, and relied on Kevin's silk to keep it from rolling backward whenever he reset.

The process was slow but controlled, which mattered more than speed when a single mistake could crush a leg. Once the boulder reached the totem, James started shaping it. He used the framing hammer against an Iron Fox tail section to create a crude chisel. Each strike removed small pieces, and the work quickly became repetitive enough that he settled into the familiar rhythm of construction. The stone was harder than anything he would have chosen willingly, but his increased Strength made the task possible.

"This would be significantly easier with an actual masonry saw," James said while inspecting another rough edge. Julie remained nearby watching the forest, while Kevin reinforced the partially shaped slab with temporary silk so broken sections did not fall unexpectedly.

"Or a jackhammer. Or electricity. I miss civilization." Hours passed. The sun moved lower while the boulder gradually became a rectangular support. The edges remained uneven, but James cared far more about the contact surfaces at the top and bottom than about appearance. He repeatedly measured against the opening, chipped away high points, and adjusted the angle until he was satisfied the slab could carry the load. Raising it into place became another project entirely.

James built a simple lifting system from Ironwood poles, roots, and Kevin's strongest silk. He wedged one end upward, secured it, shifted the next section, and repeated the process until the heavy support stood almost vertical. Twice, the slab slipped far enough that James had to jump away before it crushed his foot.

"Okay, that was too fucking close," James said after the second slip. Kevin immediately added another set of anchor strands before James tried again, and Julie's concern pressed sharply through the bond.

"I know. More support." The third attempt worked. The slab settled beneath the upper lintel with a heavy grinding sound. James adjusted the bottom with several smaller stones, tightened the temporary braces, and slowly removed pressure from the lifting system until the new support carried the weight on its own. The Warp Totem stood straight. James stepped back and waited. Nothing happened. He waited another ten seconds, then looked at Julie. She looked back at him, while Kevin tapped one leg against the new stone.

"Well, that was underwhelming," James said as he wiped sweat from his forehead. The structure was repaired physically, but whatever magic once powered it remained completely inactive.

"Apparently magical construction has inspection standards." James walked around the totem again. This time he examined the surface rather than the structure, and shallow carvings became obvious once he knew to look for them. Precise geometric patterns crossed every original block and continued from stone to stone without interruption. Triangles connected into hooked lines. Spirals intersected with angular symbols, while repeated shapes appeared at consistent intervals along both sides of the frame.

James could not read any of it, but the placement was too deliberate to be decorative. Then he looked at his replacement support. Blank stone.

"Shit," James said as the problem became obvious. Julie slid down his arm and moved toward one of the original blocks.

"Yeah, I see it." Julie touched her tail against one symbol near the bottom, then indicated the same shape higher along the frame. She moved to another repeated marking and did the same thing. James followed her pattern and finally understood what she was showing him.

"The lines continue through every piece," James said as he crouched beside the replacement slab. Julie raised her head proudly, and James rubbed one finger lightly across the scales behind it.

"Good catch, Jules." James removed his makeshift chisel. Copying the markings felt very different from shaping the support. He understood load, leverage, joints, and stone well enough to trust his construction instincts, but he understood absolutely nothing about runes. One incorrect mark might simply fail, or it might cause something much worse. He studied each surrounding symbol before making the first cut. The work took nearly another hour.

James copied the lines slowly, checking their position repeatedly before extending the pattern across his replacement stone. Julie stayed close enough to point out repeated symbols, while Kevin used fine silk to mark straight connections before James carved them permanently. Whenever James became uncertain, he stopped rather than guessing. By the time the last section remained, darkness had begun settling between the trees.

"This is either going to work or teach me why untrained people shouldn't fuck with magical architecture," James said as he placed the chisel against the final line. Kevin retreated several feet without being asked, while Julie remained close to James's boot.

"Your confidence is inspiring." He struck the chisel. The final connection formed. Purple light ignited throughout the original carvings. James stepped back quickly as energy moved across the frame and reached his replacement support. The light flickered along the rougher symbols he had carved, paused for several seconds, then stabilized. A blue System window appeared. [Action recorded.] [Rune pattern replicated through observation.] [Rune crafting incorporated.] [Class Seed integrating magical construction.] James stared at the words.

"Rune crafting," he said as the damaged totem began humming. The class seed had reacted to combat, building, crafting, medicine, familiars, and now magic itself.

"You're becoming one complicated bastard." The empty space inside the stone frame changed. Purple material appeared at the bottom of the doorway and moved upward. It had no obvious source and did not fall with gravity, instead filling the opening until the entire frame contained a moving purple surface. The movement gradually slowed until the center became smooth. James used Appraisal. [Functioning Warp Totem] [Can be used to communicate with forces outside the Realm.] The forest had become completely quiet.

Julie tightened around James's forearm. Kevin moved closer to his neck and attached a small anchor strand to the breastplate. Neither familiar liked what waited inside the doorway, and James could not blame them.

"Communicate," James said while reading the description again. He stepped closer but kept the warhammer ready in his other hand.

"Not travel. That distinction seems pretty fucking important." James touched the purple surface with one finger. Cold spread through his hand and up his forearm. A blue System prompt appeared. [Do you want to enter the Warp Totem?] [Y/N] James stared at the wording.

"Enter," he said as he slowly pulled his hand back. Julie hissed at the portal, and Kevin's silk tightened against his armor.

"That sounds a hell of a lot more like travel than communication." The surface moved. Something beyond it noticed him. James could not see a face or body, but the sensation was unmistakable enough that his grip tightened around the warhammer. Attention had turned in his direction from somewhere the System described only as outside the Realm. The prompt remained. [Do you want to enter the Warp Totem?] [Y/N] James looked at Julie.

She was nervous but unwilling to leave him, and Kevin felt much the same through their bond. He looked back at the structure he had spent hours rebuilding simply because he could not stand seeing it broken. Walking away now would probably be the intelligent decision. James had never claimed that curiosity made him intelligent.

"This is either the best opportunity in the tutorial or the dumbest way I've found to die so far," James said as he rested the warhammer against one shoulder. Julie tightened around his torso, and Kevin secured himself against the breastplate.

"But we didn't spend half the damn evening rebuilding it just to stare at the door." James selected yes.