Argh my back, damn everything is so stiff. Am I ever going to wake up in this world and not be in pain or face imminent death? With a bit of mental effort I summon a small light and take a look around, yep still a dark damp cave. Wait damp? It was dry before. I guess it rained while I was asleep. “ahh” I grunt in pain as I stretch as much as I can in the cramped space. Damn damp pants as well, I’ve got all the luck.
At least I’m only a bit wet; I could have woken up in a flooded cave. Got to be a glass half full kind of guy in this world. I just sit there for a while until my joints recovers from the unnatural position my body was in last night. Dismissing the light to save my mana, I start massaging my legs to try and get some life back into them. With a sight I start planning my day, I suppose I could just sit here and practice my new found magical abilities but sitting in a cramped dark cave for an entire day doesn’t really appeal to me.
First things first, I need my breakfast, got to get your brain food. With a few blind grasps I find my crate and order up my breakfast. Summoning another light I take a look inside the crate. Inside the crate I find a bottle of water, a half sized bottle of orange juice, bacon, two eggs, a sausage and a piece of hard crusty bread. Heaven on earth, I mean heaven on Xegliea? Quick as a fly I start stuffing my face with food to get as much in me as possible before my mana runs out. “Burrrp, oh pardon me” hitting my chest a few times I clear my lungs.
I only managed to get half the food down so while I wait for my mana to recover a bit I decide to look through the store some more. Well considering my current mana problem what about a larger mana pool?
Store page
[Physical Modifications (Core)]
Item name
Cost
20% Increase to Mana capacity
50,000
Increased Mana growth
500,000
Increased Mana regen
100,000
Increased Mana density
100,000
Increased Radiation processing(level 2)
1,000,000
Mana tracker
5,000
LOCKED
LOCKED
Holy cow so I can buy more than just items from the shop, but actually modify my own body! Also what does it mean by locked? Do I have to do something to unlock more options? There’s no way for me to find out at the moment so let’s try looking at something else. I wonder if body modifications are any cheaper.
Store page
[Physical Modifications (General body)]
Item name
Cost
General increase to muscle density
100,000
Increased muscle elasticity
1,000,000
Increased bone density
300,000
Improved Bone marrow efficiency
5,000,000
...
Ok wow there’s no way I can afford any of these and the list just goes on and on. Well I can afford some of the more cosmetic ones like tattoos for as little as 200 points each. None of the options that would help me survive are offered for less than 50,000 points so I guess that’s out. Taking a break from my window shopping for a moment I take a quick meal break. I’ve recovered enough mana to create a light for about 30 seconds. Ready, set, gooooooooo! Off to the races I go shoving as much food into my mouth as quickly as I can.
Ok so modifying my body is expensive but what about some more items like my crate of rations. Let’s take a look at what firearms are available.
Name: Tommie dolph Gore
Points: 205
Sorry the firearm section is not available on this world. Please see below for the reason.
If you guys want to use your old earth tech on my world you’re going to have to make it yourself. I’m not giving you guys any cheat weapons, I expect you to fight with tooth and nail to survive here, no softies.
Well that sucks, I have no idea how to make a gun and even if I do I’ve got no materials or tools to make them. I guess I could buy it from the shop but there’s no way I’ve got enough points for that right now, maybe later when I find some people. Ok so I won’t be shooting the badies any time soon, I suppose there’s always a melee weapon? Not that I’m exactly the best physical specimen, I mean c’mon who has time to go to the gym when you’ve got so many late night dungeon raids planned. Disregarding my lack of willpower for a moment I open up the shop menu and think about melee weapons.
Store page
[Melee weapons]
Item name
Cost
Rock
1
Big rock
2
Really big rock
3
Table lamp
10
Stuffed animal
20
Paper sword
100
…
I think someone is having a laugh at my expensive here. Ok that’s my bad I guess melee weapons isn’t very specific. I’m not exactly a big weapons nut so I don’t know what to think about swords I guess?
Store page
[Swords I Guess]
Item name
Cost
Gladius (iron)
2000
Gladius (copper)
2500
Gladius (plastic)
220
Butterfly sword (Steel)
1200
…
Ok that’s enough window shopping for me I think. With a sigh I summon another light and finish the remainder of my meal. It doesn’t look like I can afford any half way decent weapon from the store so I guess I’m back to my original problem, deciding what to do. I guess I should try and find some more people. I mean from the sounds of things everyone on earth is now located on this planet, actually no he said world that’s a bit vague. He could have meant world as in the entire universe or the planet. Assuming for the time being that there’s at least some other people on this planet I think I should try and find them.
With a bit of shuffling around I get myself in a position where I can both carry my ration box and climb out of the cave. With a few grunts as I scrape my elbows against the rocky walls I find myself back in the spot where Mr Little tried to eat me. Taking a quick peek around using one of my lights I spot the monster victim still stuck in his silk cage. He’s not wriggling around anymore so I might as well see what it is, I mean why would I pass up on free information. Setting my crate down I grab a rock and tear open the silk sac enough to see the face of the creature.
It’s a goblin. Yep Mr Little Fucker caught a goblin, at least what looks like a goblin. It’s got green skin, long pointed ears, a humanoid facial structure and looks to be about the right height for a stereotypical goblin. Are goblins hostile like in the stories or are they just this world’s version of intelligent inhabitants? I can’t make assumptions here and if they’re friendly they might know some magic. I check his neck for a pulse but there isn’t one, I feel pretty bad about letting him die now. I thought it was a bug or something because of the green colouration, I didn’t realise it was an intelligent creature.
Nothing I can do for him now though, so I grab my crate and prepare to continue on my way out of this dirty hole. Actually wait really? I didn’t feel anything when I found the remains of those poor people yesterday and yet again here I am walking away from the remains of some poor soul as if it’s nothing. Is this normal to just not care about others’ lives? I mean I pretty much caused this guy’s death by refusing to help him escape his bonds when I freed myself. I never really cared much when I heard about all those people dying on the news, I mean it’s not like I knew them and here I am seeing people die and I still don’t care. Admittedly I don’t actually know them either but it should be different, I’ve actually seen them. I suppose this is an advantage anyways, emotions only slow you down.
Once I get out of the cave and take a proper stretch, I take a look around. It’s more or less the same as yesterday except muddier not that it wasn’t muddy before. If I remember correctly I saw the trees first start collapsing in that direction, pointing in a particular direction that looks the same as any other. So I probably want to go the other way, hmm seems like as good a plan as any.
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While traveling, I practice summoning and controlling my magical lights and with a bit of experimentation I find I can actually power a spell directly from my core rather than pulling out each strand of mana individually. Now I’m able to create one of my trademark lights in a snap, I think while snapping my fingers and summoning a miniature ball of light above my finger. I’m still only able to keep one normal size ball around for roughly 2 minutes before my core starts heating up. My mana must insulate me from the radiation somehow.
Hmm, I wonder if I could purposely create this radiation and focus it somehow as a weapon. Before I could continue that thought any further I hear a shout to my right. “Argh, you idiot it saw you! Now what are we going to eat”. An aggravated feminine voice echoes through out the forest.
Quickly dropping to the ground the moment I stay perfectly still, just listening. Picking the direction I think the voices came from I start creeping forward through the underbrush, until I see a group of three adolescents arguing with each other. A girl and two males all of them look to be around 16. “If I’m such an idiot why don’t you try and catch some food then, you spoilt bitch”! “Screw you! Mr my dad’s the mayor of don’t fucking exist anymore vile”.
This seems to set him off and he grabs the girl “Don’t even think about bad mouthing my dad”, “I will give you the black eyes to match your black soul”. Whelp I think I’m going to pass on this particular group. Slowly creeping backwards, while the sounds of the groups argument grow louder, echoing throughout the forest. “You guys need to stop this” interrupts the third person in the group who had been watching the other two argue until now.
“We killed people, you hear me warm blooded, REAL people! Just so we could get some so called points that we can’t do anything with until we find one of these so called stores! Look around, do you think you can survive here alone. If you continue arguing over stupid things like this you’ll just end up stabbing each other in the back and throw away any hope of surviving this madness.”
Shit did he just say they murdered the members of their group. That’s intense, thinking about it though it makes sense. The whole ‘Points’ for items system must be designed to encourage fighting; normally you get nothing but regrets and pain after a fight. In this world however you get rewarded for killing things, sort of like an RPG except instead of experience points you get plain old ‘Points’. In other words it’s a monetary reward for killing anything and everything.
I definitely don’t want to introduce myself to these people. After I’ve put enough distance between myself and the murderous trio I get back up and continue my search for people. Preferably one’s who won’t stab me in the back.
----------------------------------------
About an hour after my encounter with the fearsome threesome I spot some wildlife, the type that doesn’t (hopefully) eat people. Rabbits. There’s quite a few of them in the middle of a small clearing, it’s a bit hard to count exactly how many there are because they constantly hop between patches of grass. I’m a bit surprised I got this close to them without alerting them all but I’ll take what I can get.
Carefully placing my crate on the ground so I can pick up a thick stick lying on the ground I start moving around the edge of the clearing. Moving with as much stealth as I can muster. Every stick I step on makes me want to jump out of my skin but the rabbits don’t seem to so much as bat an eye. Are these things deaf? Making my way to my destination with no fewer than 8 broken twigs, 12 crunchy leaves and almost tripping over an exposed root, I find myself standing behind my prey. A rabbit sitting by the edge of the clearing with his back turned to the trees. Readying my weapon of choice I jump forward and bring down my makeshift weapon on the Rabbits face. Splat.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
For killing one Fluffed Rabbit 1 point awarded.
“DIRECT HIT! OH YEAH, who’s the master of stealth?” I yell into the air, celebrating my brutal killing. Then I notice something strange, the rest of the rabbits haven’t run off like I expected but they’re just sitting there staring at me. It’s as if they’re unable to process the idea that someone would actually attack them. Then as if a secret signal just went off they all scatter into the background.
That was weird. Why do I think like something really bad is about to happen. I should really get out of here. Picking up my kill I rush back to my crate and dump the body inside and run like my life depends on it. It almost certainly does.
Five minutes later and one out of breathe Tommie; I finally slow to a walk and hope that I managed to evade whatever danger was lurking back there. Assuming I was even in danger, for all I know there are just no animals that hunt cute, defenceless, oblivious rabbits. Yeahhhhhhhh fat chance of that one, there must be a reason they were so shocked I would dare attack them.
So what am I going to do with my kill? I did watch a few instructional videos on youtube about how to gut animals, (I was curious don’t judge) but seeing and doing are two completely different things. Oh well while I catch my breath I decide to take a proper look at my catch but I don’t stop instead just peek inside the crate while I keep walking. I’m no marathon runner, I probably only cleared a kilometre or two when I made my mad dash out of there. It looks like a fat Rabbit, it has really soft fur but other than that just seems like a normal rabbit. I guess this world has a lot more similarities with earth than you would think, considering it’s a completely alien world. Of course Earth never had magic or a magical store where you could spend points you earned by doing certain things
Well I haven’t heard anything chasing me yet so I’m going to assume I’m safe and just continue walking around this forest. I had kind of hoped I would have found someone by now, well someone who wouldn’t kill me.
----------------------------------------
“ Ahhhh… why… does … this … always … happen … to … me” I breathlessly say in between each desperate drag of air. There’s something hunting me that much is certain, I was just setting down in preparation to start a fire and cook the rabbit I caught when a blood curdling scream alerted me to my hunter. I was already paranoid after those rabbits weird reaction to me killing their friend but when I heard that noise I didn’t even think. I threw everything back into my crate and legged it. I didn’t think, I didn’t look, I just ran.
Hidding behind one of the trees in the forest I grasp the crate to my chest and just keep pulling in breath after breath. I need a weapon. Opening the shop I think of the only thing I might be able to afford. KNIFES, I project mentally.
Store page
[Knifes]
Item name
Cost
Set of plastic knifes
10
Steel butter knife
80
Stainless steel butter knife
100
Steel Hunting knife
160
…
STEEL HUNTING KNIFE! A Knife appears in the dirt in front of me, one side is blunt while the other is wicked sharp coming to a point just above the blunted side of the knife. Dropping my crate I desperately scramble in the dirt to grab the weapon and put my back to the tree again. Taking a moment to calm my breathing I listen to my surroundings again.
Whatever is hunting me is making a wailing noise as if it’s distressed the direction the sound is coming from is constantly changing as the thing circles me at a distance. Stepping away from my crate I move towards another tree and peek around the edge. All I see is more trees and bushes, then movement in the distance as something large disturbs an overgrown bush, I quickly jump back behind my cover. Slowly I back away keeping the tree between me and where I saw bushes moving. Quickly I put myself behind another tree further away from the thing and wait.
I don’t have to wait long; I soon hear the cracking sound of low hanging branches being ripped from their supporting trees. Then it stops. Why did it stop? “EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH” A distressed sound comes from the monsters direction. Taking a deep breath I force myself to take a peek around the tree.
Standing there is a giant rabbit. No a giant Fluffed Rabbit. The creature has the same characteristics of the rabbit I killed earlier and it’s standing over the body of said rabbit right now. My crate is lying on its side with the lid knocked off; my empty water bottles are lying in the dirt a short distance away while the monster mourns for its dead. It seems to be distracted at the moment but soon it’s going to start looking for its kin’s murderer. Problem is I’m the one who killed it. I have to take advantage of its moment of weakness now! Creeping forward while its back is turned to me I hold my knife out in my right hand. The thing has at least two feet on me in terms of height so when I’m close enough that I can reach out and touch it; I bend my knees and jump. Wrapping my left arm around its neck as I reach the apex of my jump. Quickly and with all the force I can bring to bear I slam my knife down and plunge it into the creature’s chest just below its left shoulder until the knife stops as it strikes bone with a dull thud.
With an ear splitting scream of agony the creature starts thrashing about in an effort to remove me from its back. Using the knife as leverage I hold on for dear life as it jumps backwards and forwards on the spot before it quickly changes direction and charges at the nearest tree. Not good with the way this things jump it’s going to end up crushing me between it and the tree. Tightening my grip on its neck I pull on the knife until it comes lose. The creature lets out a scream but continues its charge towards the tree. Just as it’s about to begin its jump I push myself off just in time to see the creature head butting the tree. Pieces of bark go flying in every direction as the tree cracks under the force of the impact and the giant Rabbit monster is left stunned.
Before the creature can recover I jump, onto its back again and bring my knife down on it. This time I aim for something that’s going to give this thing something to scream about alright, its eye. I wouldn’t have been able to hit it before while it was moving all over the place but now that it’s stunned I have no trouble hitting my target. With a sickening squelch sound my knife barrel right through the monsters eye until the hilt gets stuck in narrowing eye socket. The creature’s makes no noise this time and simple collapses to the ground taking me with it.
For killing one Fluffed Rabbit Guardian 100 point awarded.
For your first monster kill, bonus 500 points.
Dropping down to the ground I just take a moment to breathe. “God damn that was intense.” I almost got eaten by a Rabbit of all things. Also what did that blue box mean by my first monster kill? How did Mr Little not count as my first kill! Is this glowing blue box trying to say that a giant spider-scorpion hybrid isn’t considered a monster? Look Mr mysterious God like entity I don’t know where you get your information from but I have to insist that you’re wrong in this instance.
Oh what does it matter how the thing is classified, all I need to know is it wants to kill me and that’s more than enough reason to put it on my big bad list. What am I even going to do with the body of this oversized rabbit? While it’s tempting to try and cut it up I don’t think it’s the best idea. The smell of blood is probably going to attract all sorts of predators and there’s no way I can carry that thing around with me.
Collecting the bottles and the normal sized rabbit that fell out of the crate in the guardian’s rampage I dump them back in the crate and seal it. Quickly and without taking a moment to think about it, I start heading off through the forest again.
----------------------------------------
The sun has almost set and there’s no obvious path to follow. So with nothing else to do and nowhere to hide, I start gathering sticks and dead wood in preparation for making a fire. After a few minutes of gathering I’ve collected enough wood to make a decent fire. I start cutting fine strips off one of the sticks using my hunting knife, in a vain attempt to make tinder. I’m met with limited success. Turns out it’s a lot harder to make decent tinder then you would think.
After 30 minutes of fruitless effort using two sticks to make a fire, I finally make the connection I should have made right away. What’s a common way for kids to starts fires? Magnifying glass. I don’t need a magnifying glass to focus light I’m a glorified light wizard. Summoning a ball of light I try and focus the light onto a single point on my pile of wood and instantly realise the problem. How do I focus the light? All I’ve done so far is move some mana around in a predefined shape to create a ball of light. Once the mana reaches the end of the swirly mess of a spell it just vanishes and become light, there’s no control over the actual light.
Okay so a preset pattern of swirls creates a ball of light so maybe if I change the pattern ever so slightly I can change what form the light takes. Where though, there are at least 28 bends in the thing and it doesn’t appear to contain any repeating segments. Well I guess I can just try experimenting a little bit. I try removing a bend and just feel my mana swirl around in a meaningless shape, ok what about an extra shape let’s try putting a square at the end.
As the mana reaches the end instead of a ball of light, a square plane barely 5cm by 5cm appears in front of me. Ok this is something the first original pattern must determine the type of spell I’m casting and anything extra changes its function. This time I create the normal light ball pattern but surround it with a cone coming to a point away from the centre of the spell. With the formation complete the mana vanishes almost instantly as a rainbow of colours pour out from my new spell.
Not quite what I was looking for, let’s try reversing it; nope that just reverses the pattern of the rainbow. Ok maybe I gave up on removing parts of the spell too early, why does the light come out as a point of light rather than a beam in the first place. I summon a ball of light and this time I study the formation while it’s working. Focusing on it and moving some excess mana around the formation, trying to see if I can feel anything from it.
Oh I wasn’t even close with my ideas on how magic works, there are more layers! I can see my mana reaching the end of the spell formation I’ve come to know as my light spell and dropping through to another layer. At least that’s the closest I can come to describing what happens, almost like there’s more space there then there should be. In the secondary layer the mana is pulled along by random strings of mana? No it’s not mana I’m not sure what it is but it’s different. The strings pull the light in random direction creating what appears to be a point of light radiating in all directions equally. It’s not really equal just random enough that it appears to be.
So the question is can I change these lines? With a mental effort I try picturing the lines moving but nothing happens. Didn’t expect that to work next I try creating a thread of mana and pushing it into this layer. It resists like it doesn’t want to pass over but eventually I have a thread of mana in this new found layer. Taking my thread I wrap it around the lines, let’s call them ‘Vortel’ lines for now and create a clear area where only one ‘Vortel’ lines passes through. Making sure the Vortel line heads in the direction of my prepared firewood, I create my light spell so it ends on the vortel line I want and no others.
I wait maintaining the spell for as long as I can, my chest starts tingling but I hold it for longer and then a piece of my tinder starts glowing. FIRE! Yes took a lot longer for it to start then I expected but I created fire using magic! This is progress soon I’ll be shooting laser beams out my eyes like superman. Ok maybe not but it’s something. Taking a look around I realise one of the trees behind me has a glowing piece of bark. Wait no of course! The Vortel line travels in two directions only half the light was traveling towards my fire wood. I’m glad I wasn’t standing in the path of the beam, I could have set my clothes on fire.
Now time to try and make my own food. I don’t really have a clue how I’m going to gut this rabbit, I know that I want to avoid cutting open the guts and remove them from the body whole. The question is how am I going to do that.
----------------------------------------
My god that was horrible after cutting the skin and removing the insides I’m left with a rabbit carcass roasting over the fire. I managed to keep most of the fur intact and I understand now why it was called a Fluffed Vleog, its almost all fur. I probably did a lot of things wrong and wasted a decent amount of usable meat but it’s something. Only enough meat for a few bites but it means I can get food without resorting to using my points. Assuming I’m even going to be able to force myself to eat meat after that experience.
I tried to find a book on how to butcher animals in the system shop but all I was met with was this annoying message.
Name: Tommie dolph Gore
Points: 645
Sorry the book section is not available on this world. Please see below for the reason.
No can do buddy I can’t be giving out books containing valuable information. I know all you book worms believe in sharing information and all that nonsense but if you want to share my knowledge you’re going to have to do it in your own time.
After I finished butchering the thing I was hoping I would get an achievement but I guess skinning and gutting an animal isn’t worthy of notice. It may even become a daily chore; I hope I can find a clean source of water before that happens though. At the moment I’m just hoping if I cook the meat enough I won’t have to worry about it being dirty because I didn’t have anything to wash the carcass with.
Half an hour later, after forcing myself to eat the rabbit meat I’m left tired and sore after a long day’s journey. Carefully I start removing my shoes from my blister filled feet and toss them to the side. I guess I’m going to need to buy new shoes in the morning with some points I got from killing the big fluff ball. Now how am I going to survive night fall without dying in my sleep? Can I buy some magical protection from the store? I got nothing else to try.
Store page
[Area protection]
Item name
Cost
Minor circle of protection
2500
Minor circle of repulsion
500
Minor circle of mending
10,000
Minor circle of strength
10,000
…
Minor circle of repulsion
A magical circle of repulsion that makes living creatures less likely to notice occupants and feel repulsed by the idea of stepping into the circle. The ring comes pre-charged with 12 hours’ worth of use and its location and size is determined by the user’s projection at the time of purchase.
Restrictions: minimum size 3 metre radius, Maximum size 5 metre radius.
Warning: Carvings in dirt are unlikely to be effective and will likely be damaged, recommended source material, wood, stone or hard metal.
Damn it more work to do, I just want to go to sleep. With an effort I start collecting large branches and cutting them down the middle using my hunting knife to create flat pieces of wood. It takes almost two hours and I have to add some more wood to my fire at the end of it, but I’m left with a 3 metre circle of wood made up of several individual pieces of wood.
Purchasing the circle of repulsion I focus on my makeshift circle and watch as the wood starts to merge together and glowing symbols appear in the wood. Taking a closer looks at the symbols, I notice they look a bit like hieroglyphics of some sort but with lines connecting each individual symbol. I’m going to have to copy this all down somehow when I wake up.
Finally at last I lay down by my fire and quickly drift off to a deep sleep.
----------------------------------------
“Turn the light off I’m trying to sleep!” I yell into the clearing before realising where I am and the light I want turned off is the sun. I’m not quite that good at magic… Yet. At least I’m not in pain this time.
With a light stretch I open my magical crate and have my breakfast. It’s the same as last time but still just as amazing. So what have I got left in my box of wonders, six dinners, seven lunches and five breakfasts. If I continue only having two meals a day I can spread this out enough to last 10 days.
I’m tempted to continue playing around with magic after my latest success but I don’t think that’s such a great idea until I can find somewhere safe or a group of people; preferably both. I can add the ability to create a camp fire to my short list of magical abilities but I’m still clueless as to how to make a spell that would be useful in battle. It takes all my energies just to create a simple ball of light for 2 minutes, although I think I can last a little longer now but it’s hard to tell without a more precise method of timing than, one thousand, two thousand…
I guess I should start copying down that circle, first I need something to write on. I can’t buy books but what about paper?
Store page
[Paper]
Item name
Cost
A0 pack of paper
10
A1 pack of paper
8
A2 pack of paper
5
A3 pack of paper
3
A4 pack of paper
2
…
Ok that seems strange I can purchase paper but not books themselves? Wait no I can’t purchase books with writing in them! Making another quick request from the store I’m presented with some more enticing options for a wannabe wizard.
Store page
[Blank books]
Item name
Cost
A4 notebook 200 pages (leather binding)
10
A4 gridded notebook 200 pages (leather binding)
10
A4 notebook 300 pages (leather binding)
12
A4 gridded notebook 300 pages (leather binding)
12
A4 notebook 200 pages (cardboard binding)
8
A4 gridded notebook 200 pages (cardboard binding)
8
A4 notebook 300 pages (cardboard binding)
10
A4 gridded notebook 300 pages (cardboard binding)
10
Purchasing a 300 page notebook with leather binding (I can afford the luxury) I start copying down the runes in my circle of hiding. It’s difficult and slow going and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to recreate this circle using just my notes but it’s better than nothing. The thing did cost me a whopping 500 points, so I’m going to get as much out of it as I can.
Now with that taken of care let’s think about how to find people. If I made a campfire then other people probably did the same so if I can find some high ground I can probably locate a camp by following the smoke. Quickly purchasing a pair of boots for 50 points, I take a look around and start heading west which appears to have a slight incline to it.
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30 minutes later I’m standing in a clearing overlooking a forest that seems to go on forever. I count at least 5 campfires that are still smoking. So progress I don’t know why I didn’t try this first, it seems obvious in retrospect. Maybe I wouldn’t have had to fight a giant rabbit if I wasn’t so oblivious. The negative of this little trip is the forest; I really do mean it seems to go on forever. My view doesn’t end with mountains like you always see in those nature photos, but the horizon as the distance is so great the curvature of the planet is blocking my view. I’ve seen forests before but never one this large then again I didn’t travel that much when I was on earth. Either way I guess it’s time to pick one of those smoke trails, first though I’m going to stop off at a creek I can see between me and the camp and refill my empty water bottles. I’ve been keeping my empty bottles from my ration crate meals because I doubt I’m going to find something as handy as a water bottle for carrying around liquids.
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The creek is barely deep enough to come up my waist but taking advantage of the chance to finally take a bath I quickly strip and jump in. The water is surprisingly warm, not enough to avoid shivering but warmer than you would expect for the early hours of the morning.
As I splash around trying to get all the caked dirt and mud off my skin I realise my chest is red, not a light sun burn red. No it looks like I’ve been stranded in a desert for a month, when did this happen. Was this cause by that incident in the cave, when I ran out of mana? I can’t verify it for sure but I don’t remember any other occurrences that could cause this. I thought it was some sort of spiritual or mental burn, I didn’t realise it was actually burning me. Running out of mana may be more dangerous then I realised, I’m not a cancer expert but being exposed to high energy radiation seems like a great way to get cancer. I may need that healing magic more than I realised.