"Gasp!" Glenn flashed his eyes open, the sight of the glowing red jewel imprinted in his eyes. His heart was racing uncontrollably as if he had just witnessed the most horrible thing in existence. He was trembling slightly and felt unnaturally cold. The damp smell of the cave permeated his nose, replacing the scent of burned wood and ashes.

"What...What was that dream?" The young man coughed, before summoning a warm flame beside him. He needed to get rid of this torpor, and the sooner the better.

The lush forest, the cascade, Lina, the deer... And the ash plain, with this thing in the center... Why would he have such a dream? Diamanes manifested his presence with a cough, startling Glenn.

"Well, I might have the answer to what happened to you," The entity slowly began, inciting a frown from his host.

"How?" Glenn asked, curious.

"When you fell asleep...It wasn't out of tiredness, since your body should be able to endure much more exhaustion," Diamanes explained while Glenn listened with his arms crossed over his knees.

"I think...Something made you fall asleep, giving you that vivid dream. Your sister is adorable, by the way. I could have never guessed she was of the same blood as you," The hand sneered, making Glenn fall into his thoughts. If Diamanes could see that, it meant it was something else, something other than a dream...

"...A message?" He mustered, wondering what he was supposed to understand from these scenes. There was that root and the shrine beside it as well...

Wait. A shrine beside a root? The scene of him tripping over a root and living a little longer thanks to that flashed in his mind, and his eyes lit up with realization.

"Damn, I built that cairn! That's the root that saved me!" Glenn fell back into confusion a second later, "...But why the hell would she point at the root as if that was what her...?"

"Haha, maybe you met a forest god or something!" Diamanes laughed, mocking his host, but stopped when he saw Glenn consider the possibility. After all, Lina seemed to care very much about the forest they were in, seemingly happy to be in it, and sad at the sight of the deprecated deer.

"Perhaps...Perhaps it wasn't a god, but maybe the spirit of the forest, or something like that?" The young man theorized, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. The question now was why would the tree spirit pull him in a dream to show such things?

"Wait, wait, wait. I think that might make sense," Diamanes tried as he moistened his lips.

"You killed something super weird in this forest, right? A few moments after being saved by a...the root." Diamanes carefully began, unraveling his thoughts slowly. Glenn nodded without saying a word, staring at the mouth in his left palm.

"Maybe...Maybe when you killed Father Whatever-his-name, you killed something that was hurting the forest. And since you even built a small cairn to thank the forest for its help, perhaps..." Diamanes hesitated, before continuing, "...Perhaps the forest itself considers you an ally?"

Glenn bit down on his lips, before passing his tongue over his teeth. That was only positive for him then, if the forest–as stupid as it sounded–was on his side, but then what did it tried to show him?

"The red jewel?" He asked aloud, before remembering the painful headache stopping him from doing anything productive back at the camp, a pain that became more intense when he found the corpse of this poor woman... Lina had pointed a trembling finger at the scarlet rock, as if scared of it. Glenn sighed, before rubbing his temples tiredly.

"So what, my enemy now is a cursed stone? Seriously?" A loud sigh echoed in the cave the young man sheltered himself in, before remaining silent for a few minutes. Glenn gathered his thoughts, before peeking an eye outside the cave. The rain was falling as heavily as it did before he fell asleep, but now there were many more puddles of water everywhere. He'll have to be careful not to fall into some hidden holes or something, or risk breaking his ankle for a slight bonus in speed.

"What should I do, then?" He whispered, his eyes trying to find any shapes behind the violent rain curtain, but failing to do so. Diamanes chuckled, before smacking his lips together.

"If your theory is right, there's only one thing you can do!" The mouth in his left palm shaped into a wicked grin, "...Break that thing down to pieces!"

Glenn nodded, before picking his blanket up and pushing it inside his dimensional bag. He took out a bundle of wrapped paper he prepared just in case beforehand. He opened it, revealing a large amount of pemmican, a mixture of dried and pounded beef, fat, as well as some dried fruits. He learned of the recipe from Mary, since it was pretty easy to make, and could last around a month without spoiling. It wasn't the best taste, but it was better than simply dried meat or tasteless bread.

After eating his fill and washing the taste away with a bit of water, Glenn prepared himself to face whatever was going to be there. He firstly looked at the rain outside, then at his dried clothes, and wondered if there was a way to protect himself from the water—something like a thin membrane that would simply stop the water from touching his body.

"Hmm...Something like a weak version of a Magic Shield, but way thinner and protecting the entire body..." He fell into silence, before moving his Mana to shape the spell he wanted to create. A thin layer of Mana appeared around his body, trembling slightly with instability, before calming down and stabilizing down.

'It's so easy to create spells now that I'm a Third Circle... Why did I lose so much time trying to create things back when I was an Advanced Initiate?' Glenn thought dejectedly, before testing his new spell. He placed his hand under the water, but the liquid simply slid off without ever touching his skin, exactly like he wanted.

"I love magic, I swear..." He muttered with a content smile. He checked his stuff one last time, throwing a look in his dimensional bag to see whether he forgot anything when he realized there was indeed something!

Exan's runes! The way the fellow Earthling presented them was like some kind of hidden weapon, and Glenn was about to fight another strange and abnormal thing. He needed any power-ups! Without a second of hesitation, he summoned a small ball of light, just enough to illuminate his hands, and took out the paper he wrote the runes on.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

There were three runes, all three with meanings he had no understanding of.

"What should I do with that, now...?" Glenn wondered, looking at the runes with wonder. He couldn't say them aloud, since he couldn't read them, and couldn't simulate their effects using the Dragon School of Thought, since he had no idea of what they could do. Without much hope, he infused Mana into the paper on which the runes were transcribed. The runes lit up with an otherworldly light, startling him and making him drop the paper.

"Shit!" The sheet disappeared in a cloud of dust, leaving only emptiness and dismay behind. Glenn cursed and looked at the ground with a regretful expression.

"Why...Why would I do that?" He guiltily swept his feet over the pile of dust, scattering its remains to the wind. His sad face suddenly lit back up when he realized that he could still just rewrite the runes! A simple solution, after all, he had just seen them, he couldn't have forgotten them. He hurriedly took a sheet of paper and pen out of his dimensional bag and readily placed the tip of the pen on the paper. A second passed, then another, but he couldn't write or draw anything.

"The fuck...?" He pictured the image of the runes in his mind and tried to draw them, but his pen couldn't move, missing guidance.

He had entirely forgotten the runes. No matter how well he could imagine them, the moment he needed to write them he couldn't.

"What an interesting trick...Maybe you should just give up for a few seconds..." Diamanes suggested, making Glenn reel back in disapproval.

"Giving up? Are you crazy? That's Exan's secret weapon or something! I need that shi–" The young man's words were drowned under the thunderous noise of space being ruptured, reality itself bending as Glenn's Mana was consumed like crazy, fueling the Rift that was getting invocated. Glenn tried to forcefully stop the flow of Mana, but it was entirely out of his control. The crack widened slightly larger when something suddenly came out of it before the rupture closed back like nothing ever happened.

Glenn gasped, feeling drained of all energy.

"What was...What was that!" He barely managed to say, exhausted. Diamanes whistled in awe, before licking his lips.

"That's very impressive. It seemed like the runes you used combined created a crack through both space and time, to deliver something to you," The entity explained with a very interested tone. Glenn frowned, before looking around in confusion. A delivery? Did Exan think he could replicate Amazon's exploits with magic? He then noticed, sitting on his lap, a small paper scroll tied up with a golden knot.

He carefully picked it up, before opening it. A slip of paper fell, which he glanced over before looking at the content of the scroll. It was...chaotic, to say the least. There was a complicated drawing that he could barely manage to look at without feeling a headache. He quickly gave up on the matter, deciding to check the small paper slip for explanations.

Inside it was written a small message from Exan. Written both in English and in the Common Tongue, surprisingly.

"Well, well, well. It seems like you managed to somehow see through what is hidden here. Congratulations, Winner N°4. I hope you'll do better than your predecessors since I still haven't met any of them. The Scroll is your reward. You should know how to use it, by now. It should unlock all of your potential, breaking you free from this world's restrictions. If you want to go higher now, you can only depend on yourself. And money. Always count on money. Anyway, I'll be waiting for you in the Court. Good luck getting there, though.

P.S.: I know you can't answer me, but please don't die. I desperately need to know the end of Game of Thrones. If you don't know what that is, shame on you.

Exan,

The One Who Knows."

Glenn rubbed his temples, scowling deeply. Winner N°4? So three people before him successfully solved Exan's riddles? That meant at least three other Earthlings obtained the same hidden skill as he just did. This news filled him with hope for what came next. He couldn't help but feel like any Earthling would be his ally in this treacherous world. Diamanes hummed in puzzlement.

"The hell is Game of Thrones?" Glenn somersaulted, before shaking his head.

"There are some things you shouldn't talk of, and only experience yourself," The young man said with a grave tone, before focusing back on the Scroll, hesitating to use it. If he understood well, he just needed to infuse his Mana into it, and it should work the way it's supposed to. Diamanes hummed in curiosity, before delving into his host's memories and leaving him to his struggles.

"...Just to be safe, I'll fill my Mana up again," Glenn decided, before plunging into Meditation. He didn't struggle whatsoever to do so and felt his Mana Heart fill back up with its powerful fuel. A moment later, he opened his eyes back up and drew a deep breath. He held the scroll, and with determined eyes, infused his Mana inside it. The scroll went up in dust like the three runes previously, disappearing without a trace.

Glenn felt his heart racing in his chest in wonder and excitement. 'It's a risky move, but I need all the strength I can muster. Not only to fight whatever that red jewel is but also to beat that Baron's bastard up, as well as the entirety of the Thorns Church, alongside all the bastards who will put themselves in my path back to my world!'. A black rift opened once again, drawing his Mana in an even faster way than the previous one did. It consumed it greedily like a forest fire, not stopping until there was nothing left.

The black rift widened, letting Glenn gaze upon a single, infinitely wise black eye, filled with wisdom and knowledge, but also curiosity, greed, hunger, lust, and bloodlust. It was sane, but mad, monstrous, but holy, a paradox that shouldn't be allowed to exist and yet, seemed to prove any laws wrong. The young man's brain froze, and he felt his consciousness slip away as blood flowed down from his eyes and nose. He suddenly felt a distinct sound in his body, no, inside his soul, the sound of something being unlocked, or broken open, somehow.

With his last drop of Mana, the Rift suddenly closed down again, leaving Glenn without any strength, the impression deeply imprinted in his soul. The Rift scattered in a cloud of stars under his eyes, before a magic circle suddenly appeared and swallowed the leftover Mana, processing it into a drop of pure, golden, holiness. Glenn stared without making a move, when the drop suddenly shot to his chest, passing through his clothes and skin, striking right in his heart.

Time seemed to stop, and Glenn felt all the air in his lungs disappear. His blood stopped running, his heart stopped beating, and he couldn't see, hear, or even feel anything anymore. It was like he was hanging into a deep, infinite void, where nothing but him existed.

But did he exist? Was he real? How could he know?

'I think, therefore I am. But am I thinking? And so, am I?' Glenn's mind was scrambled entirely as the drop seemed to do something to him stranger than anything he ever experienced. His reality twisted in a maddening unending circle, the sight of his Mana Heart suddenly appearing in front of his eyes, the sea of stars from the Magellanic Clouds lighting his mind up. The three circles of runes powering it suddenly accelerated, enhancing the Mana, compressing it, and transforming it into something...better.

The distillation process went without a problem, transforming the Clouds into something akin to...a hole? No, a black hole. A black hole that threatened to swallow Glenn's whole, his soul and mind at risk of disappearing forever. The young man felt the last shred of his consciousness slip away when two elements seemed to pull him back from the attraction. The golden circle he created back when fighting the Dark Heart in the Blessed Grove, and a...purple hand? Diamanes?

The world twisted itself back, and the black hole reversed itself back to its initial state, only in a heavier and stronger version, enhanced.

A drop of water fell on Glenn's face, making him shoot his eyes open. The rain fell on him, pouring down heavily. The cave he was in was gone. There was nothing but wet dirt around him, the nearest tree a dozen meters away.

"What...What the hell happened?" He muttered, feeling his Mana and realizing that it was more...fluid. If before it was like water, then now it was like air. He couldn't process his thoughts any further when he realized that three pairs of eyes were staring at him. At the edge of the forest, staring at him, was Javier and... was his name Josh? The two formed a strange contrast in the forest with their deathly pale skin.

The other pair of eyes was owned by a deer. A deer that, sadly for him, Glenn could recognize.

Maybe it was more correct to say that there were two pairs of eyes staring at him, and a dead one that wanted to kill him.

Or eat him.

How could he know what the half-dead half-living deer wanted?