‘???’

Confusion. The surface beneath him was solid. No longer was he surrounded by that unbearable cold, that suffocating pressure. The Qi threads spread through the space relaying back what they encountered. It further increased his bewilderment.

He was up on the surface, ‘but how…,’ just a moment he had been at an unknown depth in the cold sea in the Under Dark. He had been fighting for his life but now, suddenly, he was outside.

‘Was it all a dream?’ He tried to get up but his body would not move. He had to carve out frozen joints within the ice and break the rigid joints of the armor, only then did he become capable of the moment.

The surprise faded away though the confusion persisted. The tiredness came back now that the surprise had diminished but there was a mountain of things requiring his attention. Many of these had been automated, his armor performing them automatically. Now, it was again up to him to get it done and quickly if he wanted to live.

‘Thankfully at least the oxygen purification module is still working.’ It would not be able to produce too much oxygen with all the pellets consumed, but he would survive.

His body was currently encased within a thick layer of ice but he could already see it melting back to liquid. With the pressure of the depths gone and having insufficient Qi, he could not maintain it.

Manipulating the surrounding ice, he encashed himself within a new barrier. The work was exhausting as he needed to carve out joints and gears that would give him mobility. He persisted through the exhaustive work, ‘...all it takes to keep the promise…’.

His qi kept circulating through his brain trying to keep the bone-deep fatigue at bay all the while he tried to get all the critical things done before he inevitably fell asleep.

***

He woke up. It had been a light nap but it had made the exhaustion just a bit more bearable. He stretched, checking the joints that he had made, and then restarted the work.

‘How did I suddenly get back here?’, like a fly, it kept annoying him while he simultaneously analyzed the sensory information relayed back by the Qi threads.

‘Teleportation should be impossible,’ but there was nothing else that came to his mind. He had never been to the teleportation station but had heard about them. They were all massive facilities, consuming massive amounts of qi and requiring enormous processing power. There were, apparently, thousands of artificial spirits that ensured everything worked smoothly.

It was absurd to even think about teleportation. ‘How can one entity have that much power?’. Then he remembered the first time he had been faced with similarly absurd circumstances and decided to stop. No matter how much he brooded over it, he would get no results. He settled on pursuing something that would increase his chance of making it back alive.

Just because he decided to ignore the inner turmoil, it did not mean it had subsided. Still, he restarted examining the sensory data when the qi threads sent back a crucial discovery. ‘So I was sent back to the same place,’ he found the place from which he had fallen into the Under Dark. It was not too far away.

It was a significant find. Now that he knew where he was, he could map out a way back instead of just wandering blindly, hoping he would somehow be able to return.

The settlements were massively distanced from each other. It was such a great distance that despite having been wandering for decades, never had he come across any signs of another settlement.

If he had been randomly dropped, considering his condition his chance of surviving would be slim.

It took a while but he had dealt with the most pressing matters. Now he would not just suddenly die just because there was no oxygen to breathe or because he could not maintain his body temperature among many other things.

He decided to take a deep nap so he manipulated the ice around him, creating around him multiple shells of ice. ‘Hopefully, this would hide the life force’, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

***

He woke up, feeling a bit more relaxed. It was as though a heaviness, a weight that he had been unaware of had been cast off. The feeling was so comfortable that he just wanted to melt into it even though it would be same as committing suicide.

He created an opening through the layers of ice shells surrounding him. Even before he got out, his qi threads had already spread around. Nothing. There was nothing picked up by his senses be it smell, hearing, or even the qi threads.

The wind suddenly picked up and with it, the small frozen shards, sharp as knives, sped up colliding against his ice armor.

There was nothing left to do here so he took his first step, falling. He got up, giving it another try. He failed, repeatedly but he learned from each mistake, correcting them until he could start walking.

As he raised his foot, ice heels was attached underneath. It messed up his sense of balance which resulted in pain blooming throughout his body as the frozen muscles were suddenly and carelessly pushed into motion.

It was a constant and unbreakable cycle of torment and he was trapped inside it. The most he had been able to do was reduce the pain but that too was suddenly back. The frozen muscles broke, the sharp ends stabbing into his healthy tissues beneath them.

He endured. He needed to endure. He had no choice but to endure.

Thus his journey back started. Each path he took was the most difficult one he could find in his memories. The terrain was difficult to traverse but it made sure there were the least amount of monsters and specters in them, reducing his chances of encountering them.

In his current condition, he was unable to survive even a single encounter.

Suddenly, panic overcame him, ‘Core!’, his qi threads covered his body while he surveyed the situation inside. Thankfully the storm of chaotic qi was still as dense as before.

‘But what was that?’. The qi threads inspected his body and when they swept across the chest he found something alarming. There were marks on his chest right where his heart was. One big and the other smaller.

The bigger one covered his whole heart and the smaller one was situated in the center of his heart, right where his core was.

He remembered the voice that had echoed inside his mind. He spoke out loud for the first time in years, it was crude with his facial muscles and the tongue having frozen. “I will have died long before”. He had no desire to live that long.

***

Tak! Tak! Tak!

Tak! Tak! Tak!

Tak! Tak! Tak!

It had cost him a lot to have his armor made and it had been well worth its cost. The amount of ease due to the automation of many essential but critical operations could not be ignored. It was an undeniably good piece of equipment. Now, all that was left of it was the helmet that barely protected the brain and provided him with enough oxygen to walk around.

One step and another, his steps small and his speed slow. He was slow but persistent and that allowed him to cover a surprisingly large distance. Currently, he was passing through a gorge and dearly missing his armor.

Backed by the wind, the small frozen thorns gained ferocity. The only saving grace was that these thorns were each small and almost weightless. Their number more than made up for it though.

Similar to raindrops, the thorns were everywhere. This left him with nowhere to dodge and no place to hide. He had survived till then because of the ice armor protecting his body but it was unknown how much longer it could bear.

***

He tumbled, falling. ‘Hmmm… where is the problem?’, he checked the modification once again but he could not find the problem. He tried getting up again but his body would not follow through. ‘Is it truly because of the body?’.

His body had taken too much damage. The outer layers of muscles were all useless and the remaining were constantly being cannibalized to keep the body alive. Inside, his qi was still out of control. Rather than there being a fault with his modification, it was more correct to say that his body had become too weak.

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He reverted the changes, continuing solely through willpower.

Throughout the travel, he kept modifying the frozen shell acting as his armor. It was an iterative process, he tried something. If it worked then good, if not then he removed the changes.

It exhausted his mind but he continued doing it as it put him in a state of flow. It allowed him to forget the hunger, pain, and many worries floating in the back of his mind. They would all fade away.

***

It took a while to fall back into the rhythm. One step then the next. Right foot, then the left. He suddenly stomped down with what feeble strength he could muster.

The qi-sucking grass was still alive. It would take a lot more than that to kill it. He had not thought this death field would be this widespread when he decided to travel through it.

“aaaagggG”

He could eat anything, even the ice. Anything as long as it meant this terrible feeling would go away. The hunger truly was maddening and every time it came, he felt his sanity slip away from his grip. A little each time.

‘Grass… grass…grass?!!’

‘Yes!’

‘It can surely get rid of this pain…’

Only the last bits of sanity pulled the leash. He could not eat it, not even a single bite under any circumstances.

It was a whole lot of pain to gather supplies and prepare for new expeditions every time. But he still did it. He still packed the food, water, and oxygen pellets. Eating anything raw outside was no different from committing suicide.

Any unprocessed material was a hive filled with microbes, viruses, and all kinds of things that would kill a human, slowly and cruelly.

He endure, that was the thing he was best at.

The pangs of hunger were persistent but did not use his vital qi. He just curled up, waiting, hoping for the pain to go away.

It did not.

***

One step, then the next. Inero-ie traversed through the death field. There were only a handful of qi threads flying through the air. The remaining were tucked inside, tightly coiling around his body. They isolated his body from the outside, reducing the heat loss around the vital areas of the body.

Grass tendrils curled around his legs, trying to touch his body. They could produce an intense amount of suction force, being capable of even sucking the chaotic qi within his body. He let them but even the grass did not produce any desirable results. The qi, though chaotic was highly condensed. This time he had pumped his core with the highest amount of crystals ever and it showed.

Everything, from terrain to winds, to all other things. Each and everything was out to kill him. This world was so cruel towards humans that he often found himself thinking, ‘How did the humans even come here?’. After all, if there were no Grand Formations, there would be no humans.

***

‘Since when?’. He was being followed, most likely by the specters. It should not have been possible. He refused to believe that. He had ingrained those habits within his body, making them almost automatic. It had taken a long time but it reduce the amount of trackable marking he left while traveling. Still, he could not continue berating himself.

Considering all that he had been through, it was already a miracle that he had noticed them.

The specters had already picked up on him.

Inero-ie sped up, as much as his body could endure. Climbing the mountain, passing through frozen valleys. Each inch was frozen in rock-solid ice. Despite the pain and the difficulty, never once had he stopped the qi circulation.

Each time he got just a droplet worth of qi back in his control but currently, even that droplet was precious.

***

ShHaAaaaAAa!!!

The winds were aggressive. A single slip-up was all it would take to die though it was why he had even bothered coming through this path. It was difficult and dangerous, no doubt, but there were almost no monsters or specters in here. It was due to this that despite being chased, he was still carefree.

‘Finally some good news.’ He headed towards the cave.

Even before his first step was placed inside, he had gotten a rough understanding of its structure. He went inside, settling himself in the farthest corner.

‘!!’

He hurriedly absorbed the small qi particle, changing it and firing it back. More of those particles came and he continued treating them as such.

Time passed and he felt the exhaustion creeping up.

It should not have exhausted him as much as it did. He could not remember ever being tired from doing something this basic. It further highlighted his weakened state.

He readied himself. Thousands of qi threads rushed in like a wave. The residual qi that was emitted from them was intense enough that it alerted him before they could even come inside.

Hundreds against thousands. He would have to give it his all.

He hid the storm brewing within, forcefully stabilizing the qi. As soon as he did that, his body suddenly melded with the surrounding.

He needed to conclude this whole matter naturally. If even a little bit of doubt remained within the specters, it would only create an unending cycle as they chased after him until either he died or they did.

With their bodies of ice, the specters entered the cave. This time too, their bodies were all strange.

There were two primary ways through which the specters observed the world. The first one was through qi threads. It had been the first thing he had copied from them.

Calmness. Patience. They were essential in his current situation. The few hundred of his Qi threads were coiling around him, ready to combat the incoming waves.

From the entrance to the center, from the center to all corners of the cave. Thousands upon thousands of qi threads spread throughout the cave, inspecting everything.

Inero-ie's head throbbed. The focus required as he simultaneously hijacked hundreds of qi threads, making them believe he too was just a frozen slab of ice. His head hurt but it was only the start.

The threads suddenly rushed back and this time they jumbled together, going through each area as though a tsunami. He could not face that.

He dissolved his Qi threads, spreading the Qi throughout the body. It was the most he could do at the moment.

It was coming.

His senses sharpened and he waited. He needed to get the timing exactly right.

'Now!'

Just before the tidal wave hit, his body merged with the surrounding ice, gaining its properties and attributes. For the Qi threads, it appeared as though there was only ice there.

The wave receded and he let go of the technique. He needed to save as much Qi as possible.

Just like the sea waves, they came and went, repeatedly.

Suddenly, the space was bombarded with minute Qi particles. They constantly bombarded every inch of space within the cave and though not as accurate as the Qi threads, this bombardment provided the specters with long ranged sensory abilities.

'If I was just in my normal condition.' Unfortunately, he was not and the many afflictions inflicting him became especially severe. Normally he never cared about anything, he desired only death so why would he care if he was starving or if his Qi was on the verge of going berserk, or if his core would explode? 'Damned promise…'

He had to survive.

‘Haaa…ha…haaaaa…’

He could not think straight. The pain was overwhelming. The multiple afflictions ravaged his body, some attacking his mind, others his body.

He persisted, just like he always did.

Persistence.

Endurance.

They forced him to keep going. They forced him to keep the promise. They forced him to live.

His sanity was slipping away, slowly, steadily, quietly. It changed the way he thought. Brought forth the things he kept suppressed. His emotions were unstable, he tried to suppress them. He tried meditation hoping to gain back some semblance of control. Anything just to keep them suppressed–

He hated everything. How he had to fulfill his promise. How he had to live.

He just had to let go, even now he had the opportunity. Just let go and he would be killed swiftly. He just needed to let his presence be known. He was in no condition to fight, he would die.

'Just what I desire…'

For years on end, he had been suppressing the madness and now it was on the verge of exploding. Just like a pressure cooker that had been left unattended for too long.

He held on. That memory jumped forth. It was blurry now. The passing of years had changed it. He could not remember how they looked, nor what they exactly said but the feelings, he still guarded what he had felt back then. He had fiercely guarded the emotions he had felt back then, unwilling to let them be tainted.

They allowed him to persist. They allowed him to endure until the specters left.

***

He was lost in the flow of qi. It made him forget everything. It allowed him to empty his mind. As time passed his emotions settled down and the apathetic mask slid back on.

His emotions were locked and he made sure they could not spill out again.

Despite the specters having left long ago he remained within the cave. Instead, he was manipulating the ice around the entrance, slowly, little by little, closing it.

It was only the start of his journey. The path ahead would be even more arduous. It would be filled with danger even though there would be fewer monsters.

The frozen terrain, the furious winds with ice blades within. Just these made traversing through these mountain ranges, not just difficult but a nightmarish undertaking. This same difficulty also made sure that few, if any, monsters and specters lived within them

His physical body was useless for the journey ahead. It was too damaged, too starved. The only thing he could currently think of was puppeteering his body and that required a constant supply of qi. Another thing that was short in supply.

He was stuck in a vicious cycle. His body was damaged making it nearly useless. His Qi was still wild and chaotic. His equipment only remained in name. To do anything he needed to break out of this cycle.

The entrance was finally sealed. Then he started creating barriers around him, isolating his body until not even a single speck of life energy could escape.

He slipped into meditation, his goal clear: regaining enough Qi to carry him through this journey.