Completely disoriented, I came to again. I was lying on my back on the stony floor of the cave, which was already illuminated by the sunlight of the next day. My nose was blocked by something, so I breathed through my mouth, which made it dry out completely. Groaning, I sat up and ran my hand over my face. Crusted blood stuck under my nose and clogged my airways. The mana short-circuit I had caused must have caused the nosebleed.

I awkwardly reached for my water bag, greedily drank half of it, then moistened my hand and wiped the dry blood from my face in a makeshift manner. After that, I felt a little better and found the strength to stand up. I glanced over at Orthok. He was still asleep, but had apparently moved, because now he was lying on his side with one hand under his head. Obviously, he was on the mend.

I put my shirt back on and walked to the cave exit while thinking about what had happened the night before. I guess it was pretty reckless of me to immediately use the most charged stone for the experiment. The image of a pressure bottle to which a balloon was connected came to my mind. If you turned the faucet on too much, the balloon would explode with a bang. I only hoped that it had not come to the destruction of my magic core after I had overstretched it with the large amount of energy. I dared to take a look at it and was amazed when I saw the numbers: Mana 47/47. My mana supply had more than doubled, no wonder the reaction was so violent! Meanwhile, the color of the mana had changed back into the familiar golden hue on its own.

I felt that the colors were important, but I would have to think about that later. Now it was time to deal with the questions of survival again, because the hunger announced itself again and my water bag was also almost empty. I stepped outside and took a look at the surroundings, everything seemed to be unchanged. The sun was still quite low, fortunately I had not wasted much of the day’s time.

My plan for the day was to go back to the river and from there head for the house I had seen from the tree. On the way, I was going to try to hunt any animals. I had classified the ducks as an emergency reserve, in case I couldn’t find anything else. They just didn’t give enough food, but were quite easy to catch. I made sure I had the short sword and quiver with me, and found that two more arrows had been added to the five from the day before.

This time I took the direct path to the river, without the nearby grove as an intermediate stop. The routine examination of the surroundings for magical threats and stumbling blocks that I had acquired the day before had resumed after an initial stutter, so I discovered the next magic-laden area just in time.

The area 10-12 paces ahead of me was completely bare and dotted with regular small bumps. In magic vision, the tops of these mounds glowed an intense orange hue, as if there were a half-buried orange on each of them. The strip thus formed was only about four meters wide, but stretched at least 30 meters in both directions. After the unpleasant experience with the rotating stones, I preferred not to get closer to the anomaly. I stopped and concentrated on my senses. Was there a low hum coming from there or was I mistaken?

I backed up a bit and found a stone on the ground, which I threw into the anomaly with pure muscle power. Nothing happened as I crossed the boundary, but as the stone approached one of the luminous knolls in a descent, lightning suddenly struck from it, jumping to neighboring elevations until the chain lightning covered the entire field in a few seconds and then disappeared just as abruptly. A strong smell of ozone spread around.

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The glow from the mounds had been barely noticeable immediately after the flash, but quickly increased in intensity until it was just as bright as before. Perhaps with good timing, it would be possible to cross the field immediately after the discharge, but I definitely did not want to do that experiment and passed the anomaly in a wide arc.

Once again, the Magic Gaze proved to be an invaluable asset in the Devastation, so I activated it all the more frequently. I didn’t encounter any more magic apparitions on the way to the river, though, and I didn’t notice anything in the river itself. The faintly glowing fish from the day before was no longer visible, so I quenched my thirst, filled the water bag, and continued on my way to the mysterious house.

I walked along the bank for a while in the direction opposite to the current, then the course of the river turned to the right, but I continued to follow my path. About an hour later, I climbed a hill and from there I could see the building, it was still perhaps a kilometer away in front of me. It was not a simple house, I would have rather called it an estate or country house. The two-story main house seemed somehow southern, with many arches, balconies and galleries. At one corner of the house rose a round tower that towered over the building a good bit. Around the main house there were some one-story high outbuildings. The whole was surrounded by a wall, at the corners of which there were also small round towers. On the north side there was a gate, which I approached.

As I approached, I continued to observe the property. The main house seemed to be in good shape, but the outbuildings were neglected and partly crumbling. The wall was overgrown by plants in some places. I had the impression that no one lived here, at least I could not make out any movement.

Arriving in front of the gate, I noticed that it was not a proper gate, but a section of the wall delimited by two pillars. There was no bell or bell with which I could attract the attention of the inhabitants. Was I even in the right place? In any case, it was the place that still looked most like an entrance. Somewhat perplexed, I activated Magic Gaze and was not disappointed.

Six magic symbols appeared on the surface of the demarcated wall section, two of which I knew: the first symbol was Fire and the fifth stood for Light. Although the symbols were transparent as usual, they seemed somehow different here. After a closer look, I recognized another layer of symbols hidden behind them. Which ones they were exactly, I could not determine.

I thought. Was it some kind of magic combination lock? How could I open it if I didn’t even know all the symbols? Should I rather try to climb over the wall? It was only a little higher than me and in some places, trees grew right next to it. But someone who secured his gate with a magic lock wouldn’t make it so easy for the possible intruders, would he? I chose a tree that stood a little further away from the wall and climbed it enough to look into the courtyard.

From above, I saw some spots on top of the wall that glowed magically. This confirmed my suspicions about an existing alarm or even defense system. I was not eager to find out what it did to me if I tried to climb over the wall. The courtyard itself did not provide me with any new information. It was laid out with stone slabs, and in some places, there were flower beds and lawns, but they were currently unkempt and covered with wild growth. This also spoke for the fact that nobody lived here.

I went back to the gate and sat down on the ground in front of it. There was a magic puzzle. I was a mage and had a lot of experience in solving puzzles, so the challenge was quite manageable. I had to use my brain first and then my magic.