After an entire week, a full 168 hours of exhausting struggle, Avery managed to control his hands well enough to be faster than his initial goal of three hours, and even surpass it, engraving two runes every three hours. .

  Progress had been slow but measurable, and he had persevered, every second gained a testament of his efforts and concentration. He hadn’t taken a single break, afraid of running out of time, or getting demoralised and being unable to get back to work.

  While the insane rhythm of non-stop work for so long was crippling mentally, it did wonders to his skills, especially when coupled with the motivating deterrence of imminent death.

  He had already passed the original deadline of 10 days, but his practice had already earned him a few points, enough for 2 more days of survival.

  The problem was he was stuck at a bottleneck. At first he expected that when he became familiar with the process, he could finish a symbol in a few breaths, but despite his best efforts, his record was one and a half hours.

  He was capable of writing faster, the rune pattern itself was not that complicated, and could probably be drawn in less than a minute if he knew it by heart perfectly and he wasn’t so awkward with his hands he needed to move them excruciatingly slowly.

  What he couldn't quicken, no matter what he tried, was the graceful flow of energy powering the rune. When he had started drawing runes in less than 90 minutes, he realised his pen was moving too quickly, and that the mysterious ink did not have time to settle on the metal. Whatever the stylus was channeling could not be rushed, otherwise the glyph would not light up properly and become useless.

  He had had a fit at that time, breaking down and crying, knowing that it was impossible to find a way to quicken the energy flow and get good at it in the two days he had left. He had no clue of where to start to improve, and was fast running out of time.

  His sobs were the only sound in the somber gorge, until even that quieted down to heavy breathing. Slowly, Avery temporarily pushed his depression away, his will to live stronger than his will to wallow in despair.

  He gave up practicing, and instead browsed the system menu in search of a previously unseen miracle that could give him hope. He was a survivalist, and was ready to fight for his survival, but he needed hope. He needed to know he had a chance, that his efforts had a purpose beyond making his last days miserable.

  If he needed to climb the cliff, he would climb it, risking falling and dying, but he needed to know there was food and water at the top of the cliff, and not an equally barren plain.

  He found no miracle in the system’s shop, but a spark of hope was lit when rereading the blacksmithing manual.

  While his speed was capped, the manual mentioned rune quality. Indeed, he realised all of the system’s announcements mentioned he was crafting inferior runes. Presumably, since inferior quality gave one point, he must be able to earn more points by making a better product.

  Immediately, he turned his attention to quality, striving to make each stroke perfectly, while maintaining roughly the same speed, focusing on the accuracy of his movements, pushing himself to the absolute limit, knowing these were the last few hours that would determine his survival.

  Avery soon ran out of points, but he barley noticed, inscribing runes in an almost demented way. He still had three days until he died of thirst, minus about a day where he would be too weak to do anything.

  Finally, after two more days, a heavily sleep deprived and thirsty Avery smiled as he heard the system ring.

Ding, Congratulations, you have completed a common rune. +2 Points

  It had taken two weeks of non stop forging, but he was finally making a profit. He was still in hell, he still had no way out, but at least he could survive. He wanted nothing more than to fall into a blissful sleep and recuperate, but he knew it was impossible.

  It had been an incredible 350 hour race from death, and he had prevailed. He had given his all, he was so exhausted he couldn't stand and had to engrave laying down with the spearhead an inch from his head. Nevertheless, he was not finished. He was now going faster than death, and growing the distance, but he couldn't yet afford to take a break. Rather, he needed to continue doing his best, as they were so close a single failure would be enough to send him back in the arms of death.

  Avery had never anticipated it would be so hard to motivate himself and continue working once victory was at hand. His sprint to the goal was done, and instead he was faced with an endless marathon.

  He could accumulate enough points to earn to afford a rest period, but sooner or later, he would need to get back to work, forever running from starvation.

  The next week, when Avery was able to gain points and gradually rewind the two days he had spent without food, water or sleep, was the hardest week of his life.

  Finally, in peak condition except for his crumbling mind, he felt safe enough to take stock of the situation.

  His new achievements meant that he now got an extra point every three hours. It would still take ages to save up enough to buy anything useful, so he decided it would be better to use this time to rest his mind. Although his body was kept in peak condition, the high concentration he had to maintain to carefully carve the complex patterns was mentally exhausting.

  Since his body was full of energy and he couldn’t sleep, he started to walk ahead mindlessly. On the off chance there was an end to this gorge with an easy exit, he didn’t want to miss it. After each common rune, he would gain 30 minutes of free time, and he would walk around for approximately 15 minutes, trying to think of nothing and rest his mind.

  As his craftsmanship improved and he began to produce common ranked runes regularly, he settled in a cycle of crafting and walking.