Chapter 34: You have changed, my son
Aric was doing well, but as he reached the 21st curve inside the second circle, he made a small mistake, and everything instantly went to waste. This left Aric incredibly frustrated; he just wanted to shout into the void.
But he didn’t give up just yet. He went to work again, this time more determined than before. He wasn’t ready to give up. He started the process again, and it took him another hour to reach the 21st curve.
He pushed through and reached the 22nd without making any mistakes. This brought him great joy but also made him more determined to struggle through and reach the endpoint. He poured all his sweat and tears into the cause.
Finally, after almost two nights of struggle, he was able to complete the first runic circle. But the moment he finished drawing it, he felt exhausted, and before he could say a word, his upper body fell forward onto the pillow, and he couldn’t stop it from happening.
Soon, he closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.
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11:48 AM
Aric opened his eyes with a huge amount of effort. At first, he didn’t even know where he was, who he was, or what he was. But slowly everything came back to him. He had a splitting headache, but the joy of his success overwhelmed it.
He turned to his consciousness to check the new runic circle, which he was excited about, and the one he had built, but then he saw that his consciousness didn’t have the runic circle. There was nothing! Zilch! Nada!