Why did that happen?

The previous two clouds, ice and water, had just shown me visions directly correlating to the element. The things I had seen from them were just vague pictures and senses, not memories, so why was the blood magic different?

Why was I forced to relive that moment?

I shook my head and tried to clear my thoughts.

I wasn't going to get any answers just by asking myself these questions over and over. I would drive myself crazy trying to find the solutions. It wasn't needed. All I had to focus on was the current most important thing. That would be the only way I could survive. Even if I had to completely erase any sort of emotion in my thoughts, that was fine. That was how I survived before, and that was how I would survive here.

It would all be worth it as long as I got out alive.

After last time, after all the things I've done, I need to survive.  I know that if I don't die, I'll wish I had.  I know that.  I've already known that.  I've been going through that for so long.  

But right now, it doesn't matter.  All I need to focus on is escaping.  

First, I have to figure out how to use my magic.

....

Sitting down and closing my eyes, I tried to breathe deeply and focus on the warmth in my chest. It didn't hurt anymore, but it was still noticeably hot. I wasn't sure why it felt warm even though I didn't have fire magic, but it didn't matter at the moment.

I reached out and lightly touched the water element, hoping that it wouldn't try and fight back now that I had already beaten it. It would be troublesome to subdue them every time I needed to use magic.

Luckily, except for a slight twitch, the water barely reacted. I grabbed it more firmly and tried to move it around, succeeding. Although the movement was clumsy and slow, the element heeded my commands.

There were a few reasons why I decided to go after the water element first. Mainly, if I could figure out how to use the water element I would probably be able to create water at will. The goal I had been pursuing since I woke up was a stable supply of food and water, as well as a safe shelter. I already had this cave and a bunch of dead Cirilka, meaning all I had left to find was a water source.

Also, the water element seemed like it was the smallest in volume out of the three clouds residing in my chest. The ice cloud was slightly larger, while the blood element was nearly five times the size, if more. I still didn’t know what the size of the cloud meant, but I figured that the smaller it was, the easier it would be to move.

After pushing the water around for a short while, I still didn't get any sort of skill. It looked like I would have to try a bit harder than that.

The bead of heat that the elements were in was located in the center of my chest and felt very small. In fact, the elements inside of it seemed almost cramped.

I pulled the water magic to the edge of the bead and tried to leave, but I was met with a large amount of resistance. It felt like some invisible wall was stopping the water element from moving further and entering the rest of my body.

A feeling of dread settled over me and I instantly stopped pushing against the invisible wall.

What if making the water magic go into other parts of my body was dangerous? What would happen if it left the bead of heat? Could it create that ocean of pain a second time?

But if that was the case, how would I ever be able to use magic?

Ah. Just move the bead itself.

If I moved the bead to the edge of my skin, I could maybe shoot the magic directly out of my body.

Let's try it out.

....

With the same method I used against the elements, I tried to roughly grab the bead with the force of my will and pull it to the side, but it didn't move at all.

I couldn't move the bead of heat, no matter what I did. It seemed anchored to the center of my chest and nothing I did could shift it. In fact, pushing it was so difficult I felt strained even though all of this was happening inside of me.

What even is this bead of heat in my chest? Is it my soul, or something similar? Probably not, since it was created after I drank the magic-juice. I guess for the sake of simplicity, I'll call it my soul-space. That sounds decent and I'm too lazy to think of a better name.

My soul-space was impossible to shift, so I tried a different tactic. Pinching a single part of the outer layer, I tried to stretch the edge and change its shape.

This actually worked, for the most part. The bead went from being a tiny orb to more of a teardrop shape. Looking closer, it seemed like my soul-space wasn't just changing shape but growing in volume. That must be a good thing, right?

After pinching and prodding at the edges of my soul-space, I managed to make it grow to around three times its previous size. The heat in my chest was now spread out in a small circle with a diameter of around an inch.

I practiced moving it around and then started to slowly move the soul-space to the very front of my body.

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Hopefully, once I did that I would then be able to directly push the water element out of my body, doing.... something.

Something that could maybe give me a skill.

Damn, I really have no idea what I'm doing.

But just as I managed to shift the soul-space to the very edge of my chest, a message popped up in front of me.

The Skill Acquisition Period has officially ended.

You will now be unable to easily acquire new skills.

You will now be awarded Traits based on your accomplishments during the Skill Acquisition Period.

Wait, what? What's going on, traits? What does that mean?

Initializing...

Suddenly, a huge wave of energy flooded my body, even greater than when I leveled up. White light erupted from my skin and I fell to my knees as the shockwave passed through me.

Congratulations. You have been awarded Traits.

The energy vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, and I was left gasping on my hands and knees.

"Goddammit! At least give me a warning before doing stuff like that!"

Of course, there was no response.

....

Because of the surprise of that burst of energy, I lost my concentration and it looked like my soul-space had gone back to its original position. The size was also mostly back to normal, although it did seem slightly larger than when it first appeared.

I was pretty pissed off. I had just done all that work only for it to completely rewind because I was surprised by the system blindsiding me.

Sighing, I got back to moving around my soul-space.  I'll check out those traits later, but right now I'm in a magic mood.  I wanted to cast some spells!

As I began fumbling through the difficult process again, I realized that something had changed. My mind felt.... vast, for lack of a better term. My soul-space, as well as the elemental clouds within it, had grown denser. It hadn't increased in volume, but the insides seemed much more thick and heavy. Instead of a mist, the soul-space and clouds now felt like thick syrup.

That actually wasn't a bad thing at all. Because of the increased thickness, it was more malleable and I was able to pinch and pull the soul-space with much more ease than before.

After a short while, I managed to move my soul-space to the edge of my ribs and pushed it up against my skin. It seemed like I wasn't able to move it directly out of my body. Which was fine, I didn't want to try and do that. I was slightly worried that if I managed to push the soul-space out, I would instantly die. If the soul-space was actually my soul, that would make sense.

Instead, I tried grabbing the water element and pushing it to the border of my soul space, so that it was right up against my chest. Instead of pushing the entire soul-space out, I could just try the water element.

It seemed like this was actually working pretty well. The invisible wall around the edge of my soul-space felt weaker and more liquid.

After struggling against the wall for a few more minutes, I chipped my way to a handhold and slipped through the barrier.

As a single part of the water element escaped my body, it separated from the main whole. That small section of the water magic floated off into the air while the rest sunk back into my soul space.

The small bubble of water magic drifted through the air, but what interested me was that although I could somehow sense its presence, it was invisible to the naked eye.

I reached out with my hand and tried to lightly touch the location of the water magic with my finger, but I went through the magic as if it wasn't there at all.

The water magic started to drift away from me like a balloon caught in a breeze.

Wait, no! That's not what I wanted, sure, I got the water magic out of my body, but nothing else was happening! Stop moving away!

The water magic suddenly froze in mid-air, as if it was grabbed by something.

Ah! I must be able to manipulate it even when it's outside of my body!

I grinned at the achievement and began to make the cloud of magic dance in the air. The movements were quite rough and slow, but that didn't matter to me. Even if this was extremely simple and crude magic, it was still magic.

It was also useless.

What could I actually do with this invisible bubble of stuff, anyway? Besides making it dance around to amuse myself, of course.

After thinking for a few moments, I reached out with the force of my mind and started to compress the bubble. Squeezing down hard on the water magic, I strained myself and glared into the air.

While compressing it, I moved my real hands around the magic. I wasn't sure if the positioning of my actual body mattered at all, but it did help focus my mind on the magic.

I continued to force it into smaller and smaller shapes until all that remained was a single point in space where it resided.

And suddenly, with a loud pop, an orb of water with a diameter of around six inches appeared in the air between my hands, directly where the magic was.

Letting out a yelp in surprise, I stepped back and watched as the water orb dropped from mid-air and hit the ground with a plop, dampening the rocks and disappearing.

You Have Learned: Create Water

Staring at the wet circle of the ground at my feet, I let a huge grin creep over my face.

I watched the ground, unmoving, as I smiled. To an outsider, I probably would have looked pretty insane.

But that was alright. I would be alright. Another one of my problems had just been taken care of.

My mp had gone down by 3. That wasn't great, since it meant I could only create water like that a few times before my mana ran out. I wasn't sure how my soul-space and the elemental clouds correlated with my mana, but I didn't want to know what happened when my mp ran out.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

My only problem now was the demons.

Of course, they were the biggest problem, but I had managed to take care of everything besides them. If I kept up this great of a pace, I might get home by the end of next week!

I sighed. The thought was unrealistic, but it would be important to keep a sense of optimism.

Right now, I needed optimism.

....

Ah! I still haven't checked what the new traits are.

Opening up my menu, my eyes scrolled down to the bottom.

Main Menu: Lake Rogers

- Character Profile

- Quests (2)

- Loot Boxes

- Options

- Traits (5)

Looks like they gave me an entirely new tab! Time to see what these things actually do.

Traits:

World Traveler: Your soul has absorbed the energy of a foreign world, increasing your potential for growth. You will gain more XP than normal. 

Prodigy: You learn and improve at very fast speeds.  Skills will level up faster than normal.

Friend of Fire: You have become familiar with the hostile presence of heat and flame. Acquire level 5 Fire Absorption.

Iron Willed: No matter the danger, you never waver and lose sight of your goals. Gain passive resistance against mental detriments. Gain 10 Willpower.

Dauntless: You have successfully defeated many enemies of great strength without fail. While fighting enemies more than 10 levels above you, all stats temporarily increase