Crouching low against the ground, Abe lowered himself into a sprinters pose.

He eyed his path up and out of the cave, noting every rock and foothold he would use for his escape.

Since he couldn’t risk wasting what little deathly energy he had recovered by attempting practice runs, he could mentally drill the route.

Tomorrow, I’m getting out of here.

Returning to the clearing where he had made his temporary accommodation, Abe sat. He had drunk from the stream earlier, and now he returned his focus to drawing the energy from the water and the atmosphere into his body. His meditation technique was still primitive, but he was starting to feel it developing into something useful.

The next day, his eyes sprung open with renewed determination. Climbing to his feet, Abe turned to the wall beneath the hole he had fallen through.

No more delays. Nia’s blood already grows thin in my veins.

Walking up to the spot he had chosen, Abe took steading breaths and surveyed his path one last time.

The idea was to run as fast as he could and use the momentum he created to carry himself up as far as possible in a single sprint. After that, hopefully, he would have enough energy to climb whatever was left.

“I’m not dying here. No, after all the bullshit I’ve been put through. No, after how far I’ve come.”

Huffing and grinding his feet through the rocky, dirt floors, Abe began to direct energy into his legs and core. A moment later, he called on the worms, and their strength was added to his.

Snorting as his chest pounded, Abe kicked off, sending his form rocketing forward. Bounding across the cavern floor, he gained speed, flinging himself into the air as he neared the wall.

His mind had been trained on the footholds, even if he hadn’t ever felt them beneath his feet, and found them as if reacting to instinct. He flew up the wall, bouncing from one side to another as he expertly found each rock and hole. As his momentum slowed, Abe grunted and pushed a burst of energy down that propelled up upwards, skipping a length of the wall and taking hold of rock with his fingertips.

He felt the rock beneath his fingertips slipping and sent energy flooding into his hands to strengthen his grip and pull himself up.

“I did it, I fucking did it!” He yelled as he took hold of the ledge and heaved himself up.

But reality hit a moment later. Energy exhaustion was already beginning to hit, and there were still several handholds between him and the surface.

Gritting his teeth, Abe began to climb, but even with his strength and meditation, the energy he had recovered in the cave had been pitiful, and it was quickly exhausted.

He could feel his grip on the rock weakening, and no amount of determination was going to brute force his way out of this. His body was getting heavy, like weights were being piled atop him as each second passed.

“Don’t give up, so close,” Abe grunted, trying to secure his grip, but he was fading fast, and the worms had no more to give without risking his internals falling apart. “No, I can’t. I can’t fucking fail so close,” he drew from his flickering energy, forcing whatever he could into his limbs, but it was barely enough to keep him from falling back down.

This isn’t it, is it? When I was so close! he had no strength left to fight. It was over. He had failed, and now only death awaited.

It seems that I have no choice but to lend you my strength. Do not let my soul regret this creature of death.

As the mushroom’s words filled his thoughts, he felt energy surge through his body as the mushroom’s essence faded.

The sensation was strange, but he had no time to linger on it and immediately sent the surging energy flooding into his arms and legs. Unsure how long it would last, Abe forced all the energy out, propelling up and out of the hole in a single leap.

Landing hard, Abe fell against the mouth of the hole at his waist and quickly began to claw at the dirt and grass as he felt himself sliding back down.

Rolling across the ground, he sighed and stared into the stars above.

Getting his hands on Miss Nia’s blood was still urgently important, but at least with the stronger waves of deathly energy flowing across him, Abe didn’t feel so suffocated.

He lay for a moment, taking in the rays of energy and enjoying the sensation before forcing himself back up.

Sniffing the air, he turned.

That way.

His attention was immediately drawn to the sky as he marched through the island’s small forests. The giant beam of white energy from the tethering rod shot up and out of the shardworld into the swirling space of the Astral Vale.

As the trees thinned, he could see the tower jutting up atop the hill at the base of the white energy.

Looks like they did it. But I can’t see or sense anyone. Then again, I was warned not to trust anybody.

The thought of lost loot and payment played on his thoughts for a moment, but there were bigger things to worry about.

Sniffing as he walked, Abe followed the scent of Miss Nia’s blood to the camp.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

As he passed out through the forest, he spotted the opening, but none of the temporary structures remained. However, he trusted his senses and continued toward the turned-up dirt clearing where the camp had been.

His boots gripped the mud as he walked toward where his shelter had been, and he sniffed again.

It’s here somewhere.

He focused on the muddy ground where he believed the scent flowed from and dropped to his knees, clawing at the dirt. Several seconds later, he felt something solid within the small hole he had dug.

Taking hold of the vial gently, Abe pulled it free of the mud and sighed comfortingly.

“Finally,” he chuckled, flicked the cork lid off, and carefully brought it to his lips.

As the blood flowed down his throat, bliss filled his veins, and his chest thumped with renewed vigor. The feeling of rejuvenation was the most pure and intoxicating he had ever felt.

Miss Nia's form danced through his thoughts as her blood healed his body. A moment he enjoyed as he let his eyes rest and lips part. Between the blood and the free-flowing energy cascading down from the Vale, Abe’s body strengthened and healed with every second that passed.

He raised a brow as he remembered the sporeling that had invaded him in the cavern. Looking down at his hands, the lighter and softer fungi fibers still covered his skin.

Hello, Mor’kel? We made it to the surface.

There was no reply.

Something had changed. Abe had felt it when the mushroom transferred his power to him.

It’s okay, you can talk now.

Still, no reply came.

Mushrooms don’t get mad, do they?

Come on, Mor’kel. I don’t need your skin any longer. You can save your energy and focus on your own recovery.

Abe sighed after another minute of silence. What had the strange mushroom done to himself to save them? And why did he care?

He turned toward the tower. It was the only remaining infrastructure, and he figured he might as well go there next.

After a short climb, he reached the top. Unsurprisingly, it was deserted. Faint signs of deathly energy lingered on the sandy piles left behind by the zombies consumed in the channeling spell. Abe’s sense told him a vague story of what had happened.

His gaze was cast across the shardworld and the remnants of the giant whale. He felt no energy of any significance coming from it and spotted sections of his huge body that had clearly been blown away.

“Of course, they looted you.”

He continued to survey the landscape, but there were no signs of any life besides himself.

“I guess we’re stuck on this rock together, Mor’kel,” Abe grunted and sat at the center of the channeling circle.

Still, he wasn’t in the cave, and for the first time since the battle, he didn’t feel like he was about to fall apart.

Closing his eyes, Abe focused on the energy again. He might as well recover his reserves before worrying too much about his escape.

Hours passed before he opened his eyes again with a satisfied grin.

He hadn’t realized it in his calm state, but he felt the hum of foreign energy cascading through the Vale.

A faint glow of energy floated across the starry sky, and Abe squinted to focus on it.

What is that?

He continued to watch the little dot with fascination.

Is that… no, it couldn’t be, could it?

Rising to his feet, Abe craned forward as he tried to make sense of the distant object.

Gradually, it was growing larger. Whatever it was, it was traveling through the Vale, and it was traveling toward him.

Minutes passed before he was certain of what he was looking at. It was a ship traveling through the Vale.

His lip curled, and his fangs lowered. He felt the energy clearer as it neared. Dreamer energy flowed freely from the vessel, propelling it through the abyssal darkness of the Vale.

His thoughts drifted back to Viara and her explanation of hitching rides off of the energy flowing from vessels traveling the Vale. It was how ferals, or lost denizens drifting through the Vale, escaped it. Unfortunately, this vessel traveled along the tethering power of dreamer energy.

To hitch a ride with a dreamer ship was inviting trouble, potentially even suicidal if it traveled to a dreamer domain or shardworld devoid of deathly energy, but something told him he would be okay.

Abe glanced down at Mor’kel’s fibrous skin that still covered him. He wished that the stupid mushroom would return to his thoughts and provide some guidance, but even without him, an instinct told him that he would be okay.

He cast his gaze out across the stars. How long would it be until another vessel traveled so close to this shardworld? He couldn’t smell or sense any more vials. They had either been taken with the rest of his things or accidentally destroyed when they packed up the camp. Waiting meant taking the risk that another would pass by before he grew thirsty again.

Furthermore, Lantern was nearby. This sector was even named after the trading hub, and whilst the undead lived there as well, Lantern clearly leaned heavier toward the dreamers.

If it’s going to Lantern, this might be my best hope of surviving this rock.

There was something else as well. Despite Mor’kel’s silence, he could feel the outer skin of fungi fibers hungering for dreamer energy, and their attention seemed to be directed at the ship as it neared. Not that he would risk himself for the dormant spore, but he did feel that he owed the mushroom.

Mor’kel, come on, answer me. Is this the dumbest idea I’ve come up with since knowing me? Is hitching a ride with that thing going to kill me?

“Ah, fuck it,” Abe grunted when he got no reply. “I can’t just sit around waiting and hoping someone else is going to drop by. Not after everything I’ve been through. Besides, if a big bloody whale couldn’t kill me, what’s this little ship going to do?”

The dreamer's energy hummed with coursing waves of energy as it sailed closer, skimming by the edge of the shardworld.

He could see the streams of energy snaking through the Vale as they rippled away from the ship and toward the shardworld. And the nonsensical concept of surfing waves of energy began to make sense.

“That’s quite the jump,” he grimaced, noting where the waves of energy faded away and where the shardworld’s edge reached. “Maybe a hundred meters,” Abe cracked his neck.

To a human, the distance might seem unfathomable, but Abe knew that physics, or whatever it was that governed this place, was a little different in the Vale. It wasn’t space, though; there was gravity or something that played the role of gravity. But his jump would carry him far further than it would on land.

He had to decide now and without another moment's hesitation. If he waited any longer, he would lose his chance.

Gritting his teeth, Abe swallowed his doubts and began charging down the hillside.

In seconds, the forest was whizzing past his face as he gained tremendous speed.

This better not be a mistake!

Energy burst through his legs as he approached the shardworld’s edge and he shot off from the ground and into the darkness of the Vale.

For a suspenseful moment, he drifted through the abyssal darkness as his momentum carried him forward.

As the dreamer energy neared, his undead cells screamed in fear but were comforted by the fungi shield that masked them.

“Here goes nothing,” he muttered as he flew into the waves of energy. As the rays of power enveloped Abe, it felt as if he were underwater. With strokes from his arms and legs, he slowed his momentum until he came to a halt within the energy and then slowly climbed.

Okay, it’s not killing me. That’s good.

He swam along the energy, closing the gap between him and the ship, and stopped once he found a good spot away from the weakening edges of the energy that faded as they drifted away from their source. There was still a good distance between him and the ship itself, and shrouded by the waves of energy flowing from the vessel, he doubted anyone would see or sense him.

So, it looks like you can protect me. Thanks, Mor’kel, assuming you’re still in there somewhere.

Glancing up, he made note of the ship in the distance. It looked like a galleon you could imagine traveling across the Atlantic filled with plundered gold.

Would you look at that? I guess it’s not any stranger than a flying submarine.