Neil 

 

Staring at the running water for several minutes, I tried to reconcile what I was seeing with what I knew of reality. 

 

Walking around the edge of the pool and getting a good look at the rushing water I was looking for a pipe, or something that my rational mind could accept. As I got a good look at it from behind I was forced to admit that it was just what I had initially thought.  Twenty feet in the air there was a two-foot by two-foot geyser of water spraying outward. By standing directly behind it I could watch the water simply appear and rush forwards through the air arcing upwards before landing in the small stone pool that was probably quite beautiful once, but was now crumbling and overgrown with vines. 

 

The DING that sounded caused me to jump in the air and start cursing. 

 

 

By finding a WATER dimensional rift you have unlocked the water affinity and gained a basic understanding of Water Magic! You may now learn and practice water magic without a teacher! 

 

 

Already feeling overwhelmed by the tear in the universe, I stared at the message in front of me for a few minutes. From the description of the Air Jack I knew that magic existed here, but I hadn’t considered the possibility that I could actually learn magic.  

 

I’m not sure how long I stared at the message but eventually my thirst brought me back. Swiping at the box to dismiss it I pulled out both of my canteens and drank the last of the water. Considering the pool for a few minutes I wondered what kind of bacteria or parasites would be in magic geyser water, then with no other choice I walked over to it and sat on the edge of the pool.  

 

Scooping out some of the water in my hands I gasped at how cold it was before holding it to my face and looking at it. Seeing that it looked clean and free of any obvious debris I let it fall through my fingers and land back in the pool. Taking off my boots and socks I rolled up my jeans and waded into the pool. The water was absolutely glacial, wherever the water was coming from it must have been cold.  

 

Reaching the stream, I held my canteens underneath it and filled them both to the brim. Walking back to the edge of the pool I placed an iodine pill into each, closed them, gave them a shake and put them down waiting for the pills to clean the water.  

 

Stripping off my clothes I placed them on the edge of the pool and waded in deeper. Normally I wouldn’t bath in my only water source, but so long as the rift kept spouting water, and I drank from the incoming water stream and the water in the pool should be fine for other uses. 

 

Kneeling down into the water I started swearing loudly as the freezing water crept up my body. Diving under the water I scrubbed at my scalp with my hands trying to get my head to feel at least a little bit cleaner. That done I repeated the process with the rest of my body, cleaning as much sweat and grime away as I could. 

 

Feeling as clean as I could get without bothering with soap, I sat in the shallow pool legs out trying, the water going up to my chest trying to relax and think. 

 

So according to the flying boxes I knew water magic now, I didn’t feel like I knew magic, but maybe it took some practice. Looking at my hands underwater I tried to get a feeling for it, reaching out with both my fingers and my mind I tried to sense anything. Unfortunately, all I got for my trouble was fingers and toes I could no longer feel and a serious case of shrinkage. 

 

“WATER MAGIC ACTIVATE!” I called out in a deep voice before remembering I really hadn’t checked my surroundings for other people. 

 

Standing I walked over to the rift and looked up at the water rushing out of it. The rift was a spatial distortion, a window into a pocket dimension. This one led to a pocket dimension filled with an unlimited source of both water and magic. Although this rift was fairly small major rifts properly harnessed could power…. 

 

A DING and a new window snapped me out of my thoughts. 

 

 

By studying a rift you have improved your understanding of water magic and spatial magic! 

You have learned as much as you can from a basic inspection of this rift. Study different rifts or gain the ARCANE MAGICS skill to learn more from this rift. 

 

 

Where the hell had all that come from? Was this the magic knowledge I gained from it? Cause I’m pretty sure I knew none of that earlier today. 

 

My teeth chattering and still not having any idea how to actually perform magic I climbed out of the pool. Wiping away as much of the water as I could from my body I stood on the edge of the pool and I allowed the sun to warm and dry me. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long for that to happen. I did have a towel in my pack, but it had been a bit soggy this morning from drying myself off from last night.  

 

After a few minutes of air drying I slipped my hiking boots on and I walked back to my pack and I opened it laying everything out on the ground. Most of it was still dry but a few things would need to be dried and there was no time like the present. Magic I might have a problem with but camping I was good at. 

 

Getting a short rope out of my bag I set up a small clothes line by tying the rope to two vines that were attached to two walls. Hanging up my still wet clothes that I was wearing yesterday and my slightly sodden towel I placed clothes pegs on them to keep them from blowing away. 

 

Putting my clothes back on I looked around the ruins from the top of the stairs. I should have looked around a little more when I first arrived but if there were any people here, they would have heard me when I first arrived, or during my attempt at water magic. I should be more concerned about any animals that called this place home. For all I knew I was just prancing about like a naked hors d'oeuvres with my knives out of easy reach. 

 

Giving one of my canteens a shake I drank most of the water in a single gulp. Making a face at the taste of the iodine I nonetheless refilled the bottle and put another pill in it. The water was probably as pure as I could find but I really didn’t want to risk magical beaver fever here. 

 

Standing at the top of the stairs mostly dry and the feeling having returned to my toes I decided to get a better idea of the mountain top. It was a plateau, and it had been carved into a series of terraces by some extremely diligent people a long time ago. Or perhaps they magicked it into terraces? 

 

It seemed to be made up of three mostly distinct levels, I was in the middle level. In front of me was a large flat area. Perhaps once it had been a courtyard or even a place to grow crops but now it was overgrown with small trees, bushes and grass that would probably reach up to my waist. There were some old stone paths along the outside of the courtyard that looked to be walkable at least still. On the far side of the overgrowth I could see the tops of a few taller and still partially intact buildings.  One looked to be three stories tall and two others that flanked it looked to be two stories tall. They were squat boxy things devoid of any ornamentation and didn’t look to be very long or wide, they did however have large windows to let the light in. Still given how tall this place was I couldn’t imagine where they got the stone to build any multi-storey buildings. Behind the buildings I saw the edge of the mountaintop and behind that was a vast jungle that continued for as far as I could see. 

 

On my left I saw a several terraces leading below me. They were devoid of any ruins and simply had what looked to be stone retaining walls. Although it was hard to see too much given how overgrown they were with large trees. Several of the retaining walls had broken in a few spots and small landslides had shifted things in spots but it was still a small garden carved into the side of the mountain. 

 

On my right I didn’t have a very good view because most of it was above me. Bordering the overgrown courtyard was a few terraces that I could see into and they looked to have small square rooms in them. Above that I could only see vine covered stone walls and a few small trees poking over them in a few spots. 

 

Getting the rest of my clothes on and making sure I had my hunting knife securely attached to my hip, my other folding knife in my pocket, and my flashlight in my hand I put any of my possessions that weren’t drying back in my pack and decided to take at least a little look around. Maybe I could find some fruits or vegetables to eat? Although, I thought. My tent was pretty heavy, and the sleeping bag was bulky. It made sense to not leave everything there, but I didn’t have to carry everything I owned. That decided I put my tent and sleeping bag down near the pool and I put the pack back on. It wasn’t too heavy and if something was in this area I would rather have most of my things on me rather than here unattended. 

 

Walking down the staircase I walked along a path between two stone walls I looked into a few of the small square rooms. They were unfortunately empty of anything useful; I only saw some shards of pottery, none of the pieces larger than one of my hands. 

 

As I walked, I ran my hands across a smooth section of the wall and admired a large yellow flower on one of the many vines that covered almost every surface. Stopping I moved my face closer to the stone wall and moved a few of the vines out of the way. The stones were different colours and different types of rock but I couldn’t find any edges to any of the rocks, and I didn’t mean this was a super well-made wall with little to no mortar. I mean these stones were for all intents and purposes one stone now. Whoever made this place definitely used magic to do it. 

 

I wondered if I could somehow learn earth magic? Of course, I should probably figure out water magic before I started looking for other types of magic. 

 

Continuing my walk, I found myself heading around the edge of the plateau avoiding the quagmire in the center of the mountain and walking towards the large buildings. If there were animals on the plateau this would be the likely place for them to be. 

 

Walking up to the building I kept an eye out for any droppings, animal bones, tracks or anything else that could indicate animals had made this place home. Seeing nothing I walked up to the outside of the building pushed some hanging vines with more of those yellow flowers on them out of the way and looked in the small doorway. 

 

Looking and listening I couldn’t see or hear anything in the building so I decided to take a closer look. Walking in it was obvious that the building was in far worse condition than I had thought, the second floor had caved in at some point as well as part of the roof. Fortunately, this let in lots of light and I took stock of the empty room. It was empty of anything but debris, and small bits of metal that may have been tools or weapons at one point but were just rusted pieces of junk now. It also made picking my way through the building a little hazardous as the rocks and masonry were natural tripping hazards. 

 

Walking through the building there were a few more pots and jars that had been broken probably a few hundred years ago and a doorway leading further into the building. The door led to a room that was roughly the same size as the one I was in, about 15 feet by 15 feet but this room was dominated by a large hole in the middle of the room. It was about 10 feet across and moving closer to it I saw that its edges were smooth, turning on my flashlight I took a closer look. This hole was definitely made here, there were even stairs spiraling down the side of the hole. Why would someone build a village on top of a remote mountain and make a tunnel into the top of the mountain? 

 

I was just about to stand up when there was a sound that could only be described as a wet “splork” sound. Before I could try to identify where it was even coming from, I felt something collide with my pack and splash on my neck.  

 

Whatever it was it was heavy and it was burning my neck from where it splashed me.