After an indeterminate amount of time, Alex finally felt something.
When a sudden blade of wind formed right before him, Alex felt something just... pop up in the air.
He didn't understand what it was, but he knew that it was something his mana sense had picked up, so it was probably magical in nature. It had disappeared almost as soon as it appeared, though.
Alex dove down to avoid the blade of wind and observed it even as it passed by him, but he felt nothing.
Then he felt the very same sensation below him, just a split second before the ground cracked apart, revealing the molten lava underneath.
Once more, Alex felt something appear for the briefest fraction of a second before disappearing again, without giving him enough time to identify it.
Fortunately, Alex had already jumped away the moment he felt it appear, allowing him to avoid taking a bath in molten lava.
'Is this it?' he wondered as he once more felt something appear nearby. The next moment, a massive chunk of rock came hurtling toward him.
A grin appeared on Alex's face.
He had it!
He knew that he was right!
'It's not perfect, but it's a start,' he thought as he dodged to the side, once again feeling that same sensation appear a fraction of a second before disappearing.
The following moment, however, he had to quickly dodge to the side as a lightning bolt nearly struck him.
That one he had not felt coming!
'I still don't have the hang of it,' Alex realized, forcing himself to maintain his focus. At the same time, he ignored all the input from his other senses, relying solely on his mana sense.
He didn't care about what his eyes saw, what his ears heard, or what his body felt.
For the moment, there was only mana.
And somewhere within that sea of mana, there was something he needed to find.
He still kept his domain active, though. He wanted to get a better understanding of what was happening around him, not get himself killed in the process.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, he didn't have to wait long before he sensed something pop up above him, except this time, it didn't disappear the instant it appeared.
Knowing that something was coming from above, Alex immediately dove forward, narrowly dodging a massive spear of ice that crashed into the ground where he had been standing.
Time slowly passed, and before long, Alex had gained a much better grasp of what was happening.
He could now sense the strange phenomenon that appeared before each attack with far greater clarity. More importantly, he realized that these things didn't actually disappear when the attacks were launched. They remained in place for the entire duration of the attack, only vanishing once the attack itself disappeared.
It was as though they were somehow connected to the attacks, existing alongside them rather than merely appearing beforehand.
He also came to understand something else.
These things that appeared before each attack weren't exactly the same.
At first glance, they seemed identical. They all appeared suddenly, existed for a short period of time, and were somehow connected to the attacks that followed. Yet, the more Alex focused on them, the more he could feel subtle differences between each one.
They had something in common, but they weren't the same.
And by now, Alex trusted his instincts to an almost uncanny degree.
'It's hard to grasp their nature, but if I had to guess, they're like... words?' Alex wondered, puzzled.
The strange thing was that this conclusion didn't really feel like something he had come up with himself. Rather, it felt as though the things themselves were somehow conveying their nature to him.
As if they were telling him what they were.
That only made things more confusing.
How could 'words' be responsible for what was happening here? How did he even know they were words in the first place? And what kind of words were they supposed to be? Cursed words? Words of power? Some kind of magical language?
'Let's say they really are words, and I can actually feel them now. How does that help me?' he wondered.
By now, he had only around a tenth of his initial mana reserves left. He had already dispelled the domain around him now that he could perceive these strange words of power, as he had decided to call the apparitions that seemed intent on bringing about his death.
Even so, his mana reserves continued to drain.
Being able to sense an attack before it came didn't mean he could always avoid it. Sometimes, his body simply wasn't fast enough to react, forcing him to reinforce it with mana just to escape certain death.
And with every such reinforcement, another portion of his already pitiful mana reserves disappeared.
Alex knew he couldn't keep this up for much longer.
If he wanted to survive, he needed to figure out what these 'words' were and, more importantly, how he could use his newfound ability to his advantage before he ran out of mana.
Just as he was wondering about this situation, he suddenly jumped to the side as he felt another word of power appear nearby.
However, nothing came at him.
There was no attack.
The following moment, another word of power appeared, and something that looked like a massive sledgehammer, surrounded by a layer of crackling energy, came swinging toward his head. Alex barely managed to move his head in time, the attack passing so close that he could feel the pressure against his skin.
'Hm?' Alex raised a brow as he felt that the first word of power had yet to form anything or disappear. It simply "stood" suspended in the air.
A couple of seconds passed. Alex continued dodging one near-death assault after another, yet the first word of power remained there, completely stationary.
It intrigued him.
It was the only one that hadn't taken a form or attempted to attack him like all the others.
Meanwhile, Alex's own mana reserves were now nearly depleted. He could feel that he had only a few seconds left before he became completely dry.
'Should I?' he wondered as he cautiously circled the stationary word of power.
After a brief moment of hesitation, he made up his mind and dove toward it.
He suspected that once his mana reserves were completely depleted, he wouldn't survive for much longer anyway. He might as well risk everything now.
He ran straight toward the place where he could feel the word of power and reached out his hand, intending to grab it.
He didn't know what would happen if he did so, but what Alex hadn't expected was to simply phase through it as though it wasn't there in the first place.
He spun around and tried to grasp it with his hand, but once again, his hand only parted the air, accomplishing nothing.
'Can't touch it, gotcha,' Alex nodded.
Without missing a beat, he sent a pulse of mana toward the location of the word of power.
The instant they made contact, Alex felt a strange resonance form between him and the word of power.
It was so clear that, for the first time, he could actually perceive the word in its entirety.
And somehow, Alex felt that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life.
Unfortunately, the sensation lasted for only a split second.
The moment the resonance formed, the word of power suddenly rushed toward him and dissolved into his body.
The next instant, Alex felt his mana reserves tick upward.
Not by much, but it was still better than nothing.
He wasn't surprised by the fact that his mana had increased though.
The moment the resonance formed between him and the word of power, he had instinctively understood what it did.
What surprised him was the fact that something like this existed in the first place.
From the moment he had set foot in this place, this entire dimension had been nothing but antagonistic and hostile toward him. Every single thing seemed designed to make his survival as difficult as possible.
So finding something that had actually helped him was unexpected.
What was even more surprising, however, was the timing.
Why had this beneficial word of power appeared just as his mana reserves were about to run dry?
It was far too convenient.
'Either the one or the thing that created this place is an even bigger sick bastard than I thought and wants to prolong my suffering,' he thought, his expression becoming solemn, 'or I've been wrong about the intentions of this dimension this whole time.'
Since the very instant he had stepped foot into this dimension, it had been nothing but hostile. It had constantly suppressed him to the point that he couldn't even use his system.
At first, he had thought that it was because this dimension was meant to imprison him. Then, when he stepped into these chaotic plains, he had assumed that it was actually trying to kill him.
But what if he had been wrong all along?
If it wasn't, then why would there be words of power that actively helped him replenish his mana or heal his wounds? Unless, as he had previously thought, whoever or whatever had created this dimension simply wanted to torture him before killing him.
'There's no point in pondering over it when I can verify it myself,' Alex thought as he retraced his steps.
He hadn't paid much attention to the direction he had been taking, especially since he had deliberately restricted his vision to thirty meters. However, with all the destruction he had left in his wake, it hadn't taken him long to figure out which direction he had come from.
And it took even less time for him to stumble upon his first clue.
'Another one,' Alex thought as he sensed a word of power floating in front of him, just like the first one.
And just like before, he didn't hesitate to form a resonance with it.
Alex's eyes widened as he felt a rush of energy surge through his body.
But instead of replenishing his mana, the energy spread throughout his body, and the wounds that had accumulated on him began to heal.
'I guess that confirms it,' Alex thought, his brows furrowing into a frown. 'This place's objective isn't to kill me.'
Remembering the message that had appeared before him earlier about traversing the plains, Alex became even more certain that his deductions were correct.
Whether this dimension was actually a prison or not, he didn't know. But it clearly wasn't trying to kill him. Why would it place things that actively helped him survive otherwise?
For now, though, Alex pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
If there truly was a way for him to survive this place, then he wasn't going to waste time wondering why it existed, especially when he was still in such a terrible state.
As he made his way back to where he had started, Alex continued avoiding the various hazards around him with increasing ease. The more he sensed the words of power, the more familiar their presence became, and the easier it was for him to detect them before the attacks they produced.
Along the way, he absorbed every beneficial word of power he came across, allowing their effects to gradually restore his battered body and dwindling mana reserves.
Around half an hour later, he stood before the invisible wall he had walked through once more.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and exited the chaotic zone, returning to the peaceful green fields.
He walked around for a while, searching for other words of power, but no matter where he went, he couldn't sense anything.
In the end, he gave up and plopped down on the grass. Closing his eyes, he entered a meditative state and slowly began replenishing his mana reserves.
He couldn't have done that in the chaotic zone. Before he had learned how to sense the words of power, attempting to return there with his mana reserves so low would have been nothing short of suicide. Even if he had somehow managed to make it back, he had no way of surviving the journey through the chaos and returning alive.
Of course, most of this reasoning was utter bullshit.
The real reason he had chosen to do things this way, whether he was consciously aware of it or not, was because some deep part of him instinctively knew that this was the kind of environment in which he thrived.
An environment where death was always one mistake away.
An hour later, Alex's eyes snapped open.
He took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and stood up, his back as straight and his posture as steady as they had always been.
He walked back toward the invisible barrier that led to the danger zone and stood there for a moment, gazing ahead.
Then a wild grin spread across his face.
"Time for round two."