As much as the mysterious building attracted me, I went to the place with the water birds instead. The house would not have been reached before nightfall. I also did not know if it was inhabited and if so, by whom. Orthok had not warned me about the people in the desolation for nothing. Besides, I had to find food and check on the hunter.

I followed the river until I reached the place where it formed the lake. The tall reeds provided excellent cover, so I was able to get within a few feet of the birds, which, up close, turned out to be ducks. The group closest to me consisted of three ducks and a drake. They kept dipping their heads into the water in search of food, not noticing as I took aim at them through a gap in the reeds.

I took an arrow out of the quiver and placed it on the palm of my right hand so that the tip pointed at the ducks. Then I imagined the arrow hitting the drake and piercing it, and it happened. The projectile hit the target almost silently, so the rest of the group was not startled. The ducks looked only briefly at the drake, which floated motionless in the water, paddled a little farther away for safety’s sake, and went back to their business.

When the next arrow hit a bird, a sound escaped it before death. Whether this was a cry of pain or a warning, I had no way of knowing. In any case, it alerted the other two ducks and they flew away. Fortunately, only four mana were used per shot. Oh well, I guess it was time to go for a swim. I stripped down to my underpants and waded into the lake. It wasn’t deep, the water was only up to my waist, so I was able to collect my prey without any problems.

After depositing the ducks on the shore, I took the opportunity to wash in the lake. It didn’t come close to a hot shower, but it felt good to get rid of the sweat and dust of the last few days. Refreshed, I went back to the shore and let the sun dry me. Then I got dressed again, took the birds with me, and headed for the first group of trees.

Nothing special happened on the way, I dutifully checked the surroundings with the Magic Eye and watched where I stepped. Slowly this developed into a routine, this is how we pay attention to traffic signs and other vehicles when driving, without really having to think about it. Arriving in the grove, I went to the place where I had seen the tracks of the wolf. My suspicions were confirmed, the ground here was clay and I needed that right now.

I gutted the two ducks, cut out the arrows, then removed the necks, including heads, and smeared the bodies with a thick layer of clay, committing the next sacrilege by using the sword to dig. After that, I gathered a pile of dry branches and lit it with the fire spell. While the fire burned, I thought about how I could use the magic source in the cave, especially the charged stones and bones I had seen there. I gathered a few approaches that I planned to test experimentally as soon as I had the chance.

The fire had burned down, I pushed the glowing coals aside with a stick and placed the clay-covered ducks on the hot earth. Then I covered them with the embers and put a few thin branches on top so that they would not cool down so quickly. Now it was back to waiting, and I used the time to meditate, which replenished my mana supply and brought the magic core up to 19. After meditating, I looked at the library tab and noticed that the symbols for fire and arrow were now displayed as clearly as the flight symbol. Only the symbol for light was still grayed out.

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I opened my eyes again and checked on the food. The fire remains were barely glowing, but still spreading warmth. I rolled the ducks out of it and carefully broke open a crust of clay. A heavenly aroma wafted toward me, making my mouth water. Cursing and blowing on my fingers, I removed the clay layer along with the feathers baked into it and broke out a leg of off the duck. The meat was nice and tender and juicy, the only thing missing was salt, so I had to deduct two stars.

As soon as the dish had cooled down a bit, I ate one duck completely, leaving only the bare bones, which I threw into the bushes. The other clay ball I took with me unopened, so the meat should keep better. It already began to grow dark when I spotted the boulder next to the cave and set course for it.

Shortly before nightfall, I was again standing next to the cave entrance. The inside of the cave was sinking into darkness, it was time to try the light spell. I remembered Nigel’s explanation of how simple the spell was and imagined the ball of light floating in front of me. It actually worked as simply as if I flipped a light switch and turned on a lamp. I immediately felt much better and even the strong animal smell in the cave didn’t bother me much, after a short time I just got used to it.

The first thing I did was to check on Orthok. The hunter was still lying there as I had left him. His face looked haggard, his lips were crusty, but his breathing was steady. I dripped some water into his mouth and placed the clay-wrapped duck on the ground next to him. I guess that was all I could do for him at the moment.

After the eventful day, I was already feeling pretty tired, but I really wanted to do some more magic experiments. I activated the Magic Gaze and picked out one of the stones that glowed the strongest. Thoughtfully, I weighed the stone on my hand. My theory was that the magic-laden items could somehow be used to strengthen my magic core. I just had to figure out exactly how. Since mana was undoubtedly a type of energy, an analogy to electricity was obvious.

Suppose the magic core was a consumer of electricity and the stone something like a battery. In that case, I had to put a wire between them. I took off my shirt and put the stone to my solar plexus, because that’s where I assumed the magic core would be, and imagined the magical energy flowing from the stone into the magic core.

I called up the image of my mana vessel and found that nothing happened. The mana in it glittered gold, and the gauge read 19/19. If creating the ball of light had used up mana, it had already regenerated. Was that perhaps the problem? A full glass couldn’t get any fuller. But I wasn’t interested in filling the jar, I wanted to make it bigger! The little sparks that lit up in the jar kept attracting my attention. This pale gold really had a magical attraction for me. Wait a minute... the different colors of magic... the magic source in the cave and the charged stones emitted brown light... Out of an epiphany, I changed the color of my mana in the jar to brown. A slight warmth spread through the area of my stomach, and at the same time, the stone in my hand seemed to warm up as well.

I again imagined the energy flowing through a conduit from the stone to my magic core. A wave of heat suddenly shot through my body, making me cry out in pain. I could still feel stone dust trickling between my fingers as I sank to the ground, then everything went black around me.