Adon found himself in a field of darkness that was qualitatively different than it had ever been before.

On previous visits, he had found himself in a black infinity that seemed simultaneously empty and inaccessible. A void that had the property of being closed off to him. The black space was not a place he could move around in, except for in the sense that he could reach out to the orange orb glowing at the center of his field of view.

Now the orange orb floated above him like a magic lantern. Now the space was accessible. Adon stepped forward in the universe of shadow, and he felt things in what he had supposed was emptiness. One thing in particular. Power.

He could not tell if the energies he sensed lurking in the darkness were sentient life forms cloaked in shadow that simply exuded immense power. Objects of power? Embodiments of magical knowledge? Or perhaps this place was complex in a way that he could not yet understand.

Whatever its nature, some form of magical power called out to him.

Shapes in the void that pulsed with energy. He could feel life-changing amounts of power in every direction.

Adon turned his head to one side and then the other, uncertain of where to move first.

He gazed up at the orb of orange light above him. It looked as large as ever, and as he watched, it floated down closer to where he was, to illuminate the area around him.

A path emerged. The sight only fed his unease, though. Everything the light touched remained black as if it was still in thick shadow. The path was a sprawling, chaotic zigzag formed of non-linear shapes, undistinguished by different shades of color or even varying levels of darkness. It was all black, with void separated from vaguely distinguishable solidity only by depth perception that could easily be an illusion.

Confusing geometries unfolded themselves before his eyes. It felt like they were taunting him. Like the space itself was mocking him for his limited understanding.

Poor caterpillar, no one to teach you magic. Follow me, I’ll instruct you. You’ll learn the hard way, though…

Adon shook his head. I’m psyching myself out. This place isn’t sentient… probably.

He gave the path a fresh look. It seemed for a moment there might be an infinite number of routes he could take. Then his eyes moved to stare down one of them as far as he could, and suddenly there was only one path he could see, the rest having disappeared even from his peripheral vision. He turned his head again and the walkway changed its direction and shape.

Then the same thing happened again, and a third, as yet completely new, path appeared.

The changing images began to give Adon a headache.

He allowed the darkness to dissolve into the light of day once more. Took a few deep breaths in the normal world with its comprehensible geometry. Went over in his mind what the System’s brain downloads on Mana Manipulation had told him.

That place really is dangerous. He knew that much. But it was also where the real power and potential of magic lay. In that shapeless void, where magic could be found that might be harnessed to suit any function. Or that might unravel Adon’s body and mind.

Focus on a goal, he told himself. No aimless exploration. Just think about what you want right now. What you need magic for. And don’t worry about it mocking you. It’s a place, not a person. Places don’t taunt people.

There were so many things that came to mind. So many things he wanted to learn. He could really make use of some offensive magic. Maybe something that allowed him to fly? Okay, that probably wouldn’t be useful for very long. Maybe healing? Good old fashioned fireballs?

Just pick one. Something basic but practical. How about illusions? I’ve already been learning a lot about how light moves and how vision works as my eyes developed and as I’ve practiced with Color Change. That might make it easier to learn.

He plunged back down into the endless darkness.

Illusions, he told himself. Illusions.

He controlled his breathing and focused his mind on that single thing. Slowly but surely, a walkway became visible.

After only a moment of hesitation, Adon followed it. The orb of orange light thankfully came along with him to light his way. He had barely moved at all on his last trip here, but as he walked through the darkness, he could feel things off the path’s edge that wanted him to touch them. And perhaps more concerning, things that wanted to reach out and touch him.

Come over here, some places in the darkness seemed to say, and we can show you what magic really is. Flashes of possible death sometimes appeared in Adon’s mind’s eye as he passed these spaces. His body, dissolving into a puddle of Biomass. His exoskeleton, petrified like an ancient tree. His brain bursting out of his body.

These were wild, uncontrolled magical structures, Adon was fairly certain. His brain download mentioned them.

An archmage might try to tame such structures and coax them into the shape of a teachable magical discipline. But just as likely, the untamed energies would overwhelm the user and either kill them or drive them to insanity.

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Adon was no archmage. He simply wanted some basic, simple magic that he could actually learn and use. Some part of this vast place that some brave person had already experimented with and organized into a user-friendly form.

He stuck to the path like it was a safety blanket, though he had no way of being certain that it was safe. Better than the open wild of the void, though. The vast emptiness could tear his soul apart—and end his cycle of reincarnation prematurely and permanently.

Adon drew near what seemed to be a possible endpoint to the path—this walkway seemed to have more than one choice of endings—and found himself before a great black statue with a crooked form and thousands of limbs.

Illusions, it seemed to whisper. Vast illusion power, readily available.

Adon was almost ready to reach out to it. And he felt the statue reaching back. Then something tightened in his chest.

No, this feels wrong, he thought. This image is too imposing—and scary. Illusion magic shouldn’t be some vast, mysterious figure standing in front of me. More like a stage magician with a wink and a silly costume.

Adon pulled away, stepped back. He felt his foot step off the path, but it didn’t matter, the path was only a mental construct of his own creation, he wouldn’t fall anyway—and then he thought he heard the statue’s voice in his head.

Why do you run from power? Endless desperation inside you. We could give it shape, focus, purpose! Come back. Come back…

Adon distanced himself quickly, and as he did, he heard the figure screaming behind him. Why do you run?! Come back, insect! Come and take your destiny in your hands. The power is here!

He found himself running blindly and forced himself to slow down. So this is the world of magic. He understood why other bugs didn’t seem to mess around with it. Whatever force that was, it probably would have destroyed him, consumed him, and then complained into the void that his life wasn’t much of a meal.

He forced himself to calm down. Tried to control his feelings. It’s fine. You have good instincts, he told himself. Whatever that magic was, it was far too aggressive for you. And you just proved you can discern danger from opportunity pretty well in here. It’s fine. Everything is just fine.

He resisted the urge to leave the darkness behind and come up for air and light. Not until he had something to show for his efforts. If he left now, he wasn’t sure if or when he would have the courage to return.

Adon slowed his run to a walk but kept going in the same direction he had been when he was running from the strange statue. Whatever the statue was, he wanted to be as far away from it as possible. Hopefully something in the opposite direction would be closer to what he wanted.

He passed several shapes that gave him uncertain or negative feelings. He didn’t want to try experimenting with anything that felt like the statue just now. He tried not to even get close.

With the orb of magical power lighting his way, Adon managed to keep his distance from the ominous figures that loomed out of the void.

He walked until he did not know how long he had been walking. Until his mind was almost numb.

Finally he felt himself drawing closer to something in the darkness. Something with its own shape and identity, much like the statue. But smaller. And it emanated a gentle warmth.

He took another step closer, and suddenly it hovered in front of him. A vaguely wispy shape, like cloth. An outline that was completely dark—hidden from a clear view by dense shadow even as he stood right in front of it.

But Adon felt safe in this area. He tried to analyze the sensation, and he thought he might be in a well traveled part of the void now. The shape across from him gave off a sense of light and warmth, even though it was cloaked in shadow.

Okay, he thought. Here goes nothing.

He reached out tentatively to touch the warmth of the shape, and he felt warmth flow through his body. His actual physical body, not just the astral form he projected into the void. The warmth made him a little nervous for a second. Was he about to light himself on fire?

Then he felt it seeking out the spider bite wounds. The places that were still sore on his body began to feel better. The deep hurts became shallower. The shallow pains began to recede completely.

I found healing! Adon realized excitedly. It was not the illusion magic he’d been looking for, but in many ways, this was something more useful and important.

Even as he allowed the power to flood his body, he devoted a part of his mind to memorizing this feeling, this use of Mana. He knew he would need this again and again, perhaps hundreds or thousands of times, if he managed to make this life a long one as he intended.

Perhaps it was fortunate that he had come here with injuries that would ordinarily have taken days of healing for him to recover.

The magic took its time to remove every trace of the spider venom from his body. It was both accelerating his natural healing speed and actually purifying his body of the hostile foreign substances injected by the enemy spiders.

That meant that as he clung to the shape in the darkness, Adon got a very strong impression of how the magic worked. It was something relatively intuitive in the first place. Not so different from how he had simply and easily gained the ability to enhance his physical attributes with Mana.

This might be the most basic kind of magic besides just moving pure Mana around, actually. But he felt a sense of accomplishment anyway. As the last of the venom was purged from his body, Adon knew the method for healing had carved itself into his mind.

He would not need to return to the void again for this.

I know healing now, he thought. He would need to practice to develop the ability properly, of course, but he had taken his first real step into the magical world.

Then the space around Adon shook. He refocused on his immediate surroundings within the void and realized that the light from the orb had almost completely faded. He was swathed in near complete darkness.

What the—

Adon found himself standing in Goldie’s web again. His head was starting to hurt, and Goldie herself was staring down at him with her head tilted slightly to the side.

It took him a moment to get his bearings. He jerked his head from side to side and tried to shake off the headache, but it was weirdly persistent. After he thought about what had happened for a moment, he understood what had happened.

He checked his Status to confirm what he already knew.

Of course. My first time using healing magic. I don’t have that much in reserve in the first place, and I needed to recover from that spider toxin… I used up just about all my Mana.