“One ingredient. Twenty-nine more to go.” I didn’t get the ingredient I started this journey for, but I got one nonetheless. It was an organ of a beast accustomed to spirit energy or many organs of beasts accustomed to mana.

I stored it in my cloak and continued onward. Same as before, I walked. Not on the path, but instead away from it. Specifically, to the left of the path.

***

Grass turned into grassless soil and even that turned into sand and weeds. After a while, specifically after a few weeks of rationing the food, the sand turned into another wall of trees. I chopped one to make sure. It didn’t grow back but the other trees moved to cover the damaged tree. I walked in. It was there.

I saw a forest stretched around me and covering every possible indicator that I walked here.

It was here. The scent and sense of abundant mana were intoxicating to a passing person. I kept my bearings and focused on the source; I found it a while away and corrected my direction.

The green became gray and then went into a dimmed and opaque aquamarine. The brown became white and turned into a purplish-blue. A patch of dirt that showed me signs of a proper burial. There wasn’t a tombstone or anything to tell me its name. Some herbs and plants in the area glowed in many different colors. I saw two I needed; I plucked one and carefully cut off a piece of the other.

Soon, I felt a burn in my heart and pain in my stomach and chest. The pain was nothing much compared to the past events. I dismissed it and pushed through.

I used a [Great Force] spell with the Greyserf symbol to push the pile of dirt. There wasn’t a body in the grave. It was a veil akin to Zothozeft. A different color though.

I had no use for it right now but still stored the corpse in a seal within an extra canister that I prepared for cases like this.

With unusually colored plants and herbs as well as a small canister that somehow has a corpse sealed in it, I decided on continuing onward to reach the other continent.

***

Almost all of my food was done. The water finished a day ago. I was alone in some unknown part of the strip maybe I could reach the other continent if I could survive a few more weeks.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

My chest still hurt. It felt like clawing ants trying to explore more of my body to turn it into a colony.

A day and a half later, I felt something in my chest pop as my thirst reached its highest point. A couple of seconds later, I dropped to my knees but didn’t feel it that much since they were slightly numb. I looked at my hands and my skin started to become a bit pale.

I knew what this was. I couldn’t stop it. I was already on my last leg when my water ran out along with the low amount of food.

It was the offspring of a Jixle. They shouldn’t be here. They only come from the corpses of great spirits. There wasn’t any recorded mention of a great spirit dying here. Could the records be outdated? Well, that wouldn’t be the straw that broke the camel’s back I guess.

This loop is done for.

Loop: 34

I was back. With my progress gone and a new type of death to note down, I focused and went back to work.

I did the same things in the same form. Everything until I reached the altar. An extra ritual to do and extra ingredients. Thankfully, these ingredients were at hand. A corpse of a spirit which I had three… Well, two if we exclude Zothozeft for reasons that I’d not like to mention.

There was also that corpse over at the irregular strip. Anyway, not to get sidetracked, the only thing I needed was to purify the mana I had into spirit energy. I couldn’t keep it of course, since I was still human, but I could use it immediately during the ritual.

I started the ritual. I used a set of symbols and touched the corpse of Solteq in the interval between making each symbol.

-Sol, Ma’, Lun- Those were the symbols I used. Lun was first and I made a hand with all the fingers, except the pinkie finger, touching my thumb. Second came the Ma’ symbol, I curved my hand in an orb shape with all my fingers sticking together with my thumb almost touching my index finger. Lastly, the Sol symbol, with my index finger pointed outwards and the rest of my finger arched at the same angle, leaving my thumb to arch and almost touch my ring finger.

The corpse glowed as if it was lit aflame. I quickly started purifying the mana into spirit energy. After messing up two times and needing to start the whole process again, I was able to turn enough of my mana into a handful of spirit energy. I sent it out to the corpse quickly so that I wouldn’t suffer the consequences.

The corpse disintegrated and I felt something etch something on my skin. It was on my abdomen. It was a bit painful.

It felt like a burning metal finger, heated enough for it to glow bright red, pushing against my abdomen in a certain pattern.

I looked at my abdomen and saw a circular pattern with a triangle inside of it and rings surrounding that circle.

‘I should be safe from infestations as long as they’re weaker than a great spirit.’ I thought and continued to prepare for the same journey I made in the last loop except this time I’ll get a whole lot more food and two more jugs of water.

I started my walk once again and reached the same town and once again reached the wall of trees.

‘I bet I can do it in less time than before…’ I challenged myself before deciding to do it the next day.