After about an hour of travel, I heard the sound of running water. I followed it, and before long I noticed a stream flowing through rounded stones. It was fascinating how mere water could shape stones to its will.

I was quite thirsty from all the walking I've done, but I stopped myself before I could taste the water.

Water away from its source, even if not stagnant, could carry diseases. I couldn't afford to quench my thirst, only to die a week later.

I had to follow the stream until I found its source below the bedrock, where it is pure. I still washed my hands and feet to give myself a little refresher before I took off.

I followed the stream uphill for several hours until night fell upon this car. I seated myself under a hefty tree and tried to find a comfortable posture but failed miserably.

I was tired, of course, but since I took breaks every hour or so, I wasn't very sweaty.

I did that in order to avoid getting wet, since during the night the temperature would fall, and if I was wet, I could easily get sick. In this situation, even a simple flu could lead to my death.

Luckily, the coat was thick enough, and I didn’t feel the cold of the night at all.

Surprisingly, I wasn't very hungry yet, but my throat was getting rather dry. I had to find a water source by tomorrow, or I wouldn't be able to restrain myself from drinking the unclean water.

I was surrounded by perfect darkness; not even moonlight pierced the tree crowns. I couldn't hear anything but the streaming water; not even leaves were moving. Something was off.

The leaves made no sound, although I clearly felt some wind. Wait, how could I feel such a faint wind through my thick cloak?

I didn't notice it earlier since it was warm and quite pleasant. I then remembered the special effect of my cloak. 'Allow the user to feel the unknown winds'. I wondered what they could be.

On those thoughts, I fell asleep.

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The morning was still very young and the sun was not yet high enough to travel safely, so I decided to rest a little bit more in my little cottony cocoon.

Weirdly, I wasn't woken up earlier by some random squirrel noises.

When I went camping in the old world, the night was full of weird sounds, and it was almost impossible to sleep that undisturbed.

It felt odd; this forest did not feel as alive as it should be. Was it intentional by design? But how was I supposed to feed myself then? I haven't stumbled across any berries either...

I went through a full night sleeping on twigs and rocks without getting my back hurt or getting cold. I was very happy that I bought that cloak.

But something was keeping me pretty uneasy—uncanny even. What was the truth behind this cloak? It was somehow related to my way of magic; my gut was telling me so. But how? I sighed.

My main theory about those winds was that they are none other than magic turbulences. They ignored most physical constraints such as collision and heat. When they collided against me, they felt warm since ambient magic levels were higher than my own.

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As a normal human, I guessed that had next to no magic inside me by default, so when the ambient current of magic contacted me, it transferred a bit of its energy to me. This is what I thought at least.

I understood now why there were no animals around.

The meaning of this level was not to test our survival skills, no, the real meaning was to make us feel ambient magic.

Thirty days were not quite enough to kill from starvation, but more than enough to push people into a trance-like state where their energy would be even lower than a normal humans.

In such a condition, they would be able to feel the ambient magic even without such an artifact as my cloak.

As for right now, my thirst was a greater force than the desire for magic enlightenment.

As such, I begun my quest to find the source of this stream anew. I was quite hopeful; the more I walked, the harder it was to continue. The slope of the ground seemed to increase with every step.

After a while, even brushes disappeared, and only moss and small grass remained.

Now that I wasn't protected from the real wind by the forest, something weird happened. I felt one real cold wind from one side and another magical warm one from the other. I felt like a rope in a tug-of-war game.

But seriously, the temperature was dropping, and my ears were already numb. For the first time, I decided to put on the cloak's hood. I didn't earlier as it limited my front view; it honestly looked more like an assassin's cloak than a mage one.

After walking a bit more, I finally reached the top of the hill. Here it was: an opening in the bedrock with clear water spurting out of it. Even before I drank from it, I felt great relief. I've done it, I got water.

I sat down and looked downhill. It was quite high; the initial forest looked more like a grassy plot now. I could see other mountains far away on the horizon. Smaller, bigger—some even had snowy caps.

I kneeled beside the source, sipping the water directly with my mouth. It was very cold; my teeth screamed for help, but the divine, and I weighed my words, taste of this water was worth it.

It was the most clean, fresh, watery water I ever drank in my whole life. Unlike the bottled waters from the old world, this had this very faint salty flavour, which made me want to drink more after each sip.

No matter how thirsty I was, there was a limit to how much I could drink in one sitting. I rolled to the side and blindly watched the sky. It was clear here—no clouds, nothing but a blueish canvas.

I wondered, how was Kim Jinhyung doing? I was confident he could pass this challenge without even bothering to sense magic; he would find water and simply wait 30 days, or even more absurdly, he would be training. Or maybe he would try to eat leaves? I actually didn't know if they had any nutrients.

I got angry at myself. Why was I thinking about him? He tried to follow me, and maybe if we went into the same instance, he would have murdered me.

Or would he? Until now, I assumed he lied and used a fake friendly persona in order to get close and exploit me, but I never sensed murderous intent, and anyway what would he gain from killing me? I remembered the market; if he really just wanted a friend, for once.

My heart suddenly ached. I abandoned him just because I assumed his intentions were evil, without even thinking I could've been wrong.

I tried to rationalize myself by being cautious, but really, I was simply a bad person. Now he definitely wanted to kill me for leaving him alone again.

A tear dropped into the stream. It was too late to regret anything; I had to act accordingly to the present.

And if I didn't want to get killed; I had to become stronger. I had to find a way to magic. I couldn't afford to care about my emotions right now.

I ignored how to start, but in the rare fictions I watched in the old world, mages were always a bit similar to monks. Mediation would be a great start.

I sat down, crossed my feet, put my hands on my laps, and closed my eyes.

At first, darkness took me in her arms, but then sudden memories of my past regurgitated. I could easily chase them away as they held no value anymore.

But then Jinhyung appeared; his eyes flashed before my eyes, a black shine of loneliness. I tried to empty my mind again, but his image was stuck before my eyes.

"Jinhyung... sorry. Let me another chance ok?"

I understood that I couldn't just ignore my errors; I accepted to deal with them.

I had right my wrongs. As if he was calmed by my oath, he smiled, turned back, and faded away. Since his departure, my mind has regained emptiness.