He began his testing to see how difficult it was lifting each rock. He figured some of the rocks he collected weighed anywhere from around 20 pounds up to 80 pounds. With his normal strength, lifting the rock that was around 50 pounds was fairly difficult for him. It was awkward and nothing to grab on, but he could manage. When he went any higher, it was nearly impossible for him to get it off the ground more than a few inches.
After some testing, he was right. It did matter how long he was around each creature, how many were around, and the quality of each target he stole from. The Salamander was fairly secluded, so he could test how his abilities worked on it since he figured it was one of the strongest ones around besides the Tyrant. He had got the feeling it was something like an Awakened monster or demon, even this hurt. Not only that but the Salamander was at the very top of Demons, closing on becoming a Devil. It had been able to contend with the Golem in battle.
When Will tested the increase in strength he got from the stolen essence, it was pretty substantial. From the essence stolen from smoke spiders his new max was lifting the 60 pound rock. When he had essence from the Salamander, his max was 70. But curiously, when he surrounded himself with many Nightmare creatures, the boost he gained allowed him to lift the 70 pound rock as well. So the collective could give him a comparable boost as a singular stronger creature.
Overall his abilities gave him about a 20% to 40% increase to his strength depending on the number of targets and their strength. He discovered the boost the Golem gave him was higher and lasted longer. That part must've been because of its Awakened Tyrant status. Any stolen essence would be used faster if he was active, especially since he was unable to control the output he was using. The essence from Nightmare creatures like the Golem lasted the longest in his system. Unlike the essence that he got from, what he figured, were dormant creatures instead, which drained much faster.
Putting some distance from him and the cages, sufficiently hidden away, Will takes out what would be his ration of lunch meat. Savoring its taste, he traces copies of the runes he had seen on the bowl, laying them out in the order he had seen them. From what he could recall, there were ways to make the set of runes to absorb ambient essences. Otherwise, he would have to power it with something that had essence already. An awakened's blood or crushed up soul shards were probably his only ways of doing that here. Gram's answer would determine if he had to figure out which one of these was the rune that absorbed ambient essence or if he could just find the one that was the key.
One thing struck him as weird about the array. One rune was the key to the cage. One was how it powered the array with essence. One had to be what activated the array that stole the ichor from who it touched. But what was the last rune? Was it part of one of the other three runes? Or was he over thinking it and somehow the 4 runes together made a larger piece that did all those functions together instead of separately. That's not even beginning to mention the ring of runes that slowly lit up before the siphoning process. As much as this was all exciting, it was all giving him a headache.
Looking in the distance at the looming furnace, he thinks about his time here so far.
He truly was in a new world. When he had woken up this morning, he half expected to wake up in a hospital bed, being told he was an idiot for shocking himself nearly to death. He had some friends, but he kept most people at arms reach. Turned out for the better since he would have to leave family or friends that would cry over him.
It was sad in a way. It took him dying and reincarnating into another, much more deadly world, to realize that he never allowed himself to get close to people, always fearful of what it meant to be close to someone. He had no family, he had grown up in the adoption system. He had lucked out though.Having stayed most of his time with a very kind group of nuns. Funny, they believed in a totally different god compared to the dead ones here. He was wrong. He would miss those people. They cared for him despite how much of a prick he could be as a young man.
He had friends, girlfriends, but even those and the people at the church; he would never let them get closer than arms length. He didn't know now whether that made him happy or sad to realize that. Holding the Tattered Sash up to the light from above, one could only tell it was about noon because the light behind the clouds of ash would move slowly across the sky like it was obscured by heavy rain clouds.
Had the man he killed to get the Tattered Sash had people who would mourn his loss?
People who he did let close that cared for him, and he them?
Or was he like Will? Keeping everyone at arms length fearful they could hurt him somehow.
Will couldn't get that look he had, even till the end, out of his head. He had given up his humanity to keep living on. He had never stopped struggling to live. So there was almost no doubt a man like that wouldn't let fear stop him from living his life how he wanted.
"I guess I'll have to strive to be as fearless as him one day." Will mutters to himself. Rising up and dusting himself off once more. His last project for the day involved the runes. He wanted to survive this nightmare, but he wanted to learn more about the runes. If he managed to do something incredible here with them, maybe the spell would grant him an affinity to them. As embarrassing as it is to say, he's always been a min-maxer in video games. The incredible things he's seen Sunny create and alter always was one of the most impressive things he felt about him. Sure, he was a different level of fighter. He could go toe to toe with beings much stronger than himself and had an indomitable will to survive. These were all things that others awakened of his level all needed to merely qualify for the power they attained. Something uniquely to him was his affinity with the weave. Able to modify and craft things awakened could only dream of. Not only that, but it allowed him to peek and learn the ins and outs of each enchantment, really knowing his tools rather than figuring it out through trial and error.
So Will's goal was to at least begin the arduous journey surviving the spell, was to learn the basics of runes or gaining something from the spell. Either way, he wanted to start early.
Walking away from his alcove, Will aims to find Grandma. His only source of information. Anything she knew of this mysterious language would be a gift to him.
Unbeknownst to him, a few moments after he left, the runes he had drawn on the floor flickered to life weakly. One by one before they began to pulse slowly in unison. No more than a dozen minutes later, 5 of the Golem's Fairies arrive and they find the pulsing runes. Looking at each other and pointing fingers. They chatter to each other, almost… Almost like arguing?
One of the biggest of the fairies arguing with another bites into the neck of its smaller brother, killing it. Seemingly putting an end to whatever feud they were having. The now 4 fairies wipe away the runes before flying back to wherever they came from.