“Break it from there,”

  “Here?”

  “A little higher up.”

  —CRASH!

  The resounding boom every time Estella punched the walls sent shivers down my spine. What the hell was with that kind of raw strength? It was hard to digest. If a punch like that landed on me, then even God wouldn’t send me to hell; it would be suffering enough for the sins of a lifetime and then some.

  Of course, since she was listening to my every word, there was a sense of power in it. Is this what it would feel like to plow through early-stage gyms with an Elite Four level Pokémon? Perhaps.

  “Estella-chu, break off that last panel over there.”

  “What did you just call me?”

  “Nothing, ma’am.”

  Close call.

  Estella broke off the last of the panels, and now it was my turn to move. I quickly swapped places with her. Alone, just breaking this off would have taken weeks. But with her, that was reduced to a matter of minutes.

  “So, what do you think?” Estella asked as I propped myself on my toes and observed all the panels around the invisible cage, the magic engravings all around it clearly visible.

  “It is complex. I think I would manage in a day or two.”

  “That long!?”

  “It takes some time to understand the nuances of a language, alright? Especially one that is so entwined with magic. I might know the ‘words,’ but choosing them and stringing them along is still a conscious action.”

  Estella sighed at my statement. Now then, there was no time to help this alien feel better. I could spend that time getting us out of here one second sooner! I quickly placed a palm over the engravings and narrowed my eyes.

  —[Lock Picking (Lv 1) Activated]

  “Huh?”

  The engravings of the spell in front of me morphed in real-time. This was not intuitive, but rather quite real. An overlay of words appeared on top of the spells, showing me a fragment of how to shape them.

  If I had to explain this in terms of a sentence, it was like the word choice was handed out, and I simply had to fix the grammar. Of course, the grammar was complex, but…

  “Can you see this thing?”

  “The spell? Yes.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “No, this, this glowing text on top of it?”

  Estella sighed at my words. She leaned against the walls of the cell as she spoke in an almost resigned tone. “You just absorbed a piece of the Akashic Records. The faster strange things become the norm for you, the better.”

  Those were a lot of words for a no.

  But with this, it made things much easier.

  “Now, personally, if I were in your position, I would have—”

  Estella started babbling, and I ignored her completely. Now then, to focus on the spell…

  I arranged the ‘words’ I was seeing into different structures, playing with the syntax over and over as the words started to make more sense. The language of magic, the way the world interacted with the energies present everywhere—it was all unfolding in my head.

  How long had passed? Perhaps three hours, maybe even more. I could see the end in sight.

  Without wasting any breaths on sighing or wiping my forehead, I quickly matched the spell as I wanted it to. And finally, the function this wall served broke apart.

  “It’s done,” I muttered. For a quick test, I put my hand outside the invisible wall.

  Dozens of “oohs” rang out as the people in the cells across from us and even the ones above and next to us all turned to our cell.

  My hand was going out. It was properly working. I put my hand back in and looked at the spell once more.

  “Oh!” Estella, from behind, jumped to her feet. I could tell from her voice that she was probably smiling like a child who had just received some candy for free. She quickly kicked off the ground and rushed toward the wall.

  —THWACK!

  A loud bang resounded. Instead of going out, Estella flattened against the wall and slowly fell backward. The oohs outside resounded once more, though this time in admiration of that epic face slam straight into the wall.

  “What the fuck…?” Estella asked, looking at me. “You said it was open.”

  “It was,” I answered, not bothering to take my eyes off the spell. “I locked it up again.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Well, it took too long the first time, so to train myself better.”

  And of course, because…

  [Ding! Lock Picking has grown to Lvl 2]

  A strange chill ran down my spine. Even I couldn’t remain steadfast in the face of the primal fear that made me scared for my life. Estella, looking like a demon from hell, grabbed me by the collar and lifted me off the ground.

  “Bitch. Why would you do that? Open it up right now.”

  “I-I wouldn’t lock it the same way, that is stupid, right? I did it differently… I can’t open it, I promise!”

  She pulled her fist back. I gulped. Shaking my head frantically, I tried to reason with her.

  “Please, please! Hear me out here! If you beat me up, there’s no chance it will open again! And well, who knows, it might be more useful if I can level this thing up!”

  Estella, violent as she was, realized that a single punch of hers could snap me like a twig and let go. She gestured with her chin at the engravings. Hey, disrespect be damned, this woman could punch me to my creator.

  I quickly nodded and got to work again, letting out a sigh of relief.

  Then, I placed my hand on the engravings and started tinkering with them again. Estella observed for a few minutes and left to the back of the cell again.

  It was thirty minutes later that I got another notification.

  [Ding! Lock Picking has reached Lvl 3]

  The wall was invisible. I gulped, looking back at Estella once.

  Right…

  There was no way she was going to let this slide twice.

  ***

  About as much time had passed as the first time I had managed to unlock the door.

  “It’s open!” I said, and Estella stepped ahead.

  “Finally,” she said, taking a step out.

  Just as expected, both of us were out of the cell.

  [Lock Picking (Lvl 6)]

  “Alright!” Estella harrumphed with pride, her eyes bright at her freedom. “Let’s leave here quickly! I can’t wait to get in a ship and get lost.”

  She was about to head out when I held her wrist and stopped her.

  “Wait, we still have something to do.”

  “What?”

  I looked around. All around us were cells—cells that we had just broken out of. And guess what? They originally opened from the outside.

  “We can’t leave our brothers and sisters here, can we?”