I don't know what animal my soul identifies with, but it's surely a very silly one.

It’s quite obvious that if it weren’t for the mysterious protection offered by these ruined walls, I'd be part of history by now. I mean, even with protection and food, I've been on the brink of death several times. Basically, since I'm not in imminent danger, I seek out danger myself. Of course, it could also be said that I'm reckless and brave, but I would undoubtedly say that it's foolish.

That said, I did it; I managed to recreate the tattoo. Although, to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. I mean, considering the mystical dream I was involved in and the result of it, I thought that at least the tattoo would get an improvement, but the reality was different. Nevertheless, this disappointment does not alter my plan, which remains to replicate the Voronoi pattern I saw in my dream. Besides, I now have more confidence in being able to replicate what curiously has not yet faded from my mind.

While looking at myself through the mental map, I was thinking about how to draw that pattern on my hand. Of course, the logical approach would be to recreate the needle and use the energy from the environment as ink, just as I did before. However, I don't think that’s the correct answer. But since I can't think of anything else at the moment, that will be my starting point.

The thread of energy was flowing through the tattoo, which isn’t flickering, which reassures me. I don't want to have to go through the reconstruction process again, though I don't think that will happen; I mean, I’m not forcing it or pushing it to the limit. The process occurring right now is the natural flow, as my concentration is focused on trying to create the needle, isolating a bit of the energy I can manipulate and shaping it as I wish.

Although I said my previous experience would be my starting point, it doesn't mean that I will replicate the same thing; I'm not that stupid. I'm doing the same thing but away from my body, so it's safer, but at the same time, it makes this task more difficult than before since I'm trying something outside my knowledge.

Every time I managed to separate a hair-thin strand of energy from the rest, it immediately joined the thread connected to my chest, and the process had to start all over again. While doing this, I was trying to see, to figure out something that would allow me to take a different approach. I mean, I know I won’t be able to create the Voronoi pattern with a needle, which I’m manipulating telepathically, and I don’t think the needle will draw on its own.

I repeated the same process without rest until nightfall. The day ended, and I was exhausted, hungry, and yet I hadn’t made any progress or discoveries. Every time I managed to separate a small strand, it was immediately attracted by the flow of energy as if it were a magnet, which made it impossible for me to shape it.

Either way, it was an exhausting day and I needed a break.

I was heading to sleep with some fruits in my hands while trying to search my memories for something I had overlooked and indeed, there was something I had been ignoring. I had completely forgotten that after the Voronoi pattern was created on my hand, the aura of the environment was completely consumed, which is worrisome. I mean, if all the energy in the environment dries up, what will happen next?

Of course, the energy source is in the castle, so maybe after a while the density will recover. But how long will it take for that to happen?

What if this causes the fruit trees to die?

Or even worse, what if this removes the protection that this city has?

Basically, by creating the tattoo I would be committing suicide, since I don’t think this simple pattern on my hand could save me. Also, if I need that amount just to tattoo one hand, does that mean I will need the energy of the entire world to tattoo my whole body?

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I think my dream is the wish of my subconscious, so I don’t believe I’m trying to harm myself. Upon reflection, it’s most likely a warning about the absurd amount of aura I would need to create this pattern and how dangerous it would be for my environment. But at the same time, it was also showing me that despite needing so much energy, there is a way to do it.

Now it's my job to figure out what that way is. I mean, I could try it in the vault, but I think that would be the same or worse than doing it outside. Nothing good can happen if the place where the river is born dries up.

The fatigue weighing on my shoulders increased a couple of notches; I still hadn't figured out how to create the pattern and was already having trouble. I don't think using everyone's magic is the right thing to do. I mean, if this energy is some kind of blood for the world, then if it disappears, the world could die. Well, that's my guess, but if my guess is correct, then it wouldn't make sense to learn magic only to be unable to enjoy its benefits.

*Haaaaa*

I had refreshed myself to be able to sleep peacefully, but now my mind seemed to insist that I find the answer. And despite my obvious exhaustion, I was unable to fall asleep.

I've regained a bit of my hearing, but the vault walls help to isolate external sounds, and fortunately, Danamus doesn’t snore, so the place was in complete silence, allowing me to settle and search through my knowledge for the answer to this dilemma. It was then that I saw it; in that moment of reflection, and despite the darkness, I saw the solution.

The answer was right in front of my eyes; it had always been right in front of me, and I ignored it. Well, to be more precise, it was next to the sleeping Danamus.

Red and irregularly shaped, a small mountain that now surpassed the young dragon in size, lay there, inert, waiting to be used by me, for my purpose. That was the answer, the solution I was looking for, that I needed to be able to move forward.

In my defense, even though I knew that rocks are a kind of accumulation of aura, I had ignored it, since up to this point, the only thing these rocks have been used for is to season a meat that I haven’t been able to eat for quite some time.

In any case, it’s late, and I’m tired, but I need to find out if my hypothesis is correct and if these rocks are truly the solution to my problem. So, without delay, I decided to select the largest rocks I could find in the darkness. I know I will need a lot of energy to achieve my goal, and I’m not sure how much energy these stones have, so I tried to take as many as I could.

The place is completely dark, so I can barely make out silhouettes, and I couldn’t take many stones because there was a risk of causing a collapse if I removed any. Of course, this risk would certainly decrease if I did it tomorrow, but I wanted to confirm my suspicions now, despite how reckless that might be.

Outside the castle, the night was equally dark, so I decided to meditate just outside. I didn’t want to trip over any roots and lose the stones. Besides, I'm naked, so a fall with so many obstacles on the ground could be fatal.

That said, the test will be on my right arm, I would have liked it to be the left in case any complications arose, but unfortunately as I recall, the pattern was drawn on the right hand and despite my reluctance to experiment with my most useful arm, one cannot question an oracle.

I put one of the rocks in my hand, concentrated, summoned the mental map and nothing happened; I could see myself and I could see the rock, but nothing out of the ordinary happened, I tried to make the rock in my hand activate, but it didn’t work. Sure, I'm probably doing it wrong, since not all I was doing was trying to replicate how I attract the aura of the air, but if that rock is condensed magic, then obviously it will work differently.

I repeated this process several times and tried everything I could think of at the time, but nothing seemed to work. At this point I was beginning to think that my previous assumption was wrong, but the problem is that it could also be the case that my idea is correct but the execution is wrong. It’s the curse of not knowing what I’m doing, and no matter how hard I try or how many ideas I have, I’m not sure if they are right or not.

As I kept trying random things and admiring those pioneers who paved the way for people like me, who hate to make an effort, to have it easy, I felt it. It was minimal, almost imperceptible, but I managed to catch it. There was a slight tug between the stone and the tattoo; like someone was pressing a needle against my skin without applying much force, and thanks to the mental map, I could see that the stone seemed to want to flicker.

It was minimal, but this meant that my hypothesis was correct. It meant that I could keep moving forward without hitting a dead end, but above all, it meant that one more day, I could go to sleep with the joy of being one step closer to my goal and that those days when I couldn’t take a step without first retreating three steps were becoming a thing of the past. In fact, now they seemed so distant that it was almost nostalgic, almost.