And so, I started wandering the forest. At first, I just went straight ahead, trying to follow the feeling to the source. It was not that hard - thanks to my body I could easily tell when the mana was getting denser or not. It took me a couple of tries, but I managed to figure out that whatever that was, it was not that far away from the coast, on the opposite side of the island and the pier where I landed.

I also realized that while following this trail, I was going in a similar direction to when I first was here and decided to go on a sightseeing tour around the island. I did not find anything back then, which I found strange.

I continued like this for a good while, until I finally decided that something was indeed weird. Up till now, the only unusual thing was the mana density, but the longer I walked, the stronger the feeling of oppression got, to the point where my crystal even started glowing.

But that was not the weirdest part. Strange thing was that the environment around me has not changed at all. By now I expected that, since there was definitely something wrong with this place, I would’ve seen the source. Or at least some kind of sign of it.

That was of course only when I was looking at everything from the regular perspective.

I already got used to the flames representing mana that were constantly flickering in and out in my vision and sort of learned to mostly ignore them. The “magic sight” that I started having since the event back in the cave was as useful as it was annoying.

When I focused on the other layer of my vision, I could definitely tell that whatever was making me glow was getting nearby. After a minute, the glow got brighter, I can’t really tell if that was just because I started focusing more on the magical aspect of my vision or did I really was just absorbing mana from whatever that thing was, but if I was to guess it was probably both.

Didn’t matter in the long run, because even though I was glowing, the area in front of me started to as well, to the point where I almost was walking in blindly. I couldn’t really pinpoint the source though.

As if to rub it in, after a few more steps the light started disappearing again and my sight returned to normal. The oppression did die down as well, not completely, but still.

Did I miss the source? Or was it hidden? I turned around just to feel the pressure again.

Frowning, I started backing up, but again, after being blinded for a while, the same thing happened and I did not find anything.

Maybe underground? Or was I going in circles?

I started retracing my steps once more, this time not even trying to look forward, instead focusing on the ground, checking if that’s going to blind me as well.

It did, but it was not as bad, so I could retrace my steps at least. And that is also when I noticed that something was strange.

I tried forcing myself to look mostly using just regular senses, because apparently the mana sight was now less than helpful, which proved hard - whatever was emitting this power was strong enough to annoy me even if I tried to ignore it. But, at least when I was looking directly at the ground in front of me, I could somewhat walk in a straight line and follow my trail, but…

That was the thing. The trail disappeared midway.

It made me freeze for a second. The hell was that? Did I lose my own trail? Or walked too far? Nah, couldn’t be it, the aura was as strong as always, if I was to pass by it I’d have noticed.

I took another step and got confused even more.

As soon as I did, a footprint appeared right in front of me, in the exact place that I just stepped, and was continuing further. And not just some footprint - it was definitely mine.

Not a singular one even. There were a bunch of them, telling me that I’ve been here before. Following the trail, the presence again started disappearing, telling me that I passed the source yet again.

Another attempt. This time I did not even try turning back, I instead decided to walk backwards. Presence started being stronger once more, and again - about a minute later, after I took a step I realized that there were no footprints.

-Okay… that’s interesting.

I stopped and focused on what was around me, trying as hard as I could to ignore the obvious magical pressure.

Walking a few times back and forward I managed to somewhat understand the obstacle I found myself in front of. It was some kind of barrier melded together with, strangely, a warping spell - the missing footprints were a dead giveaway.

The aura I could see was the barrier itself, and as soon as I got close enough to it, I was getting transported to somewhere else - supposedly to the other side of whatever that was that it was hiding.

The transporting part of the spell was flawless. I did try to walk on the border of the barrier, trying to test its limits and to see how exactly it worked, and besides the pressure that I could feel and my crystal glowing, it had no side effects - if I was just a regular person, the only clue that something’s wrong would be the footprints themselves.

I honestly was amazed at the spell. While definitely not perfect and somewhat noticeable if you knew what you were looking for, it was still an amazing feat of magic. To make it even better, you’d probably have to add another layer of magic on top of all that - some illusion to hide the missing footprints, or just to warp the sight of the victims.

But why should I care? Not like I was going to try and upgrade it. Quite the opposite in fact, I wanted to find a way to break it. Or at least to get past it.

So, I started walking on the edge of the barrier, every once in a while stepping onto the other side accidentally, wanting to see its size.

It was absolutely massive. Judging by the time I was walking the edge I wanted to say that it was blocking the way to about a quarter of the island.

That also made me remember - when I first landed here and went ahead scouting the place, I did notice that it took me a lot less time to circle the whole place than I would expect. Back then I must have already stumbled onto this barrier without even realizing it, which reaffirmed me in the quality of this spell and intrigued me even more. It also made me wonder why I didn't notice it sooner? Shouldn’t back then my crystal react somehow? I mean, sure, I was still not used to it nor I wasn’t very sure about how it was actually working, but still, it HAD to at least..

Wait. It actually did react. Thinking back, I finally remembered. At one time, walking through here, I suddenly had a strange reaction from the crystal. I had no idea what that meant at the time, but now… it actually made sense.

The feeling I had had to be me getting transported through the barrier, further away.

All that made me even more curious. What the hell was hidden here?

Sure, it was supposed to be a lawless island and all that, so no surprise that someone would like to hide something here, but that’s a lot of effort. Even if the spell runs just on the natural mana that is in the air, or maybe it’s connected directly to a leyline, like the first Origin Crystal was, you’d still need to maintain it. The incantation itself had to be written somewhere - which meant I would be able to bypass it.

For the spell like this to work, the incantation had to be present both inside and outside the place - usually on the border of the barrier. Depending on the size, it could be in one or more places that would have to be scattered in regular intervals on the edge of it - meaning it was only the matter of time until I was able to find it.

I say the matter of time, but trying to stay on the border of the spell was a feat in itself. Probably harder for me than any other person - being constantly blinded and feeling the pressure of mana all around you was not helping. Nor was me absorbing the loose mana either. While at first it was somewhat invigorating, soon it got more annoying than anything.

About an hour later, I found it. It was a large rock, taller than me and definitely wider. Looked natural, yet still out of place, right in the middle of the forest.

And, as predicted, the formula of the spell was indeed written on it. Or at least I assumed so, because the rock was so overgrown in moss and other random plantlife that it was hard to even read a single word. Hell, it was so bad I was even surprised that the spell was working at all. Nevertheless, I was sure that it was indeed the thing I was searching for.

Now, how to start?

If I was patient and diligent, I probably would be able to rewrite the spell so I would be able to pass through the barrier without issue - after scraping the greenery off the rock, the formula was clearly visible and I could tell that I was right. It was indeed a barrier teleporting anyone that wanted to pass through it away and further from here. From the side I was looking I couldn’t see the part that would say anything about any way to bypass it, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t possible.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

But I did not care - after all, I had an easier way to deal with it

In hindsight, it might have been a bad idea, but I did it anyway.

Being annoyed at the obstacle, I unwrapped my hand and placed it on the rock, right in the middle of the formula.

The effect was exactly as expected. My hand lit up, soon followed by the rest of my crystal body and I felt the surge of power go through me. At the same time, the rest of the moss covering the rock started dying out and turning to ash.

After a couple of seconds, it was done. The oppressive aura I was feeling and the light in front of me was gone, replaced by my own glow.

I slowly stepped forward and indeed, the spell had been broken - I could normally walk through, without any issue. But, I decided that I should not move in just yet. First I wanted for the mana that I just absorbed to “digest”, so to speak - I did not want yet another spell to go haywire on me in the most inopportune moment.

So, I sat next to the rock, now completely blank I noticed - apparently, after I absorbed the mana from the spell, the formula itself disappeared as well, and tried calming down a bit.

During my “meditation” I also noticed that after absorbing the spell, my crystal, or rather I should say I, changed color.

Until now, my crystal body was of somewhat green hue - most likely from all the plants and overall green, nature mana I have been running on. I did not expect the change, so after seeing that my hand was almost see-through, I got startled a bit.

Thanks to the spell I absorbed, my body turned almost like glass. Strange, but not exactly problematic, so I didn’t care much.

What was problematic though was me glowing like a lightbulb after absorbing too much mana.

What I was trying to do was to connect to the earth around me and dump the overflow mana back into the living matter that was surrounding me.

In any regular circumstances that should not be a problem, but mine were anything but regular. First off, the area was already richer in mana than it should be, making me trying to get rid of mana considerably harder. Second off, the crystal body was not helping - after all it had the exact opposite property than what I was trying to do.

I did make some progress though, although the process was lengthy. Very lengthy. I had nothing but time on my hands, but still, my patience was limited, so I started thinking of another way of getting rid of mana.

The best way was probably just wasting some on random spells. But that was also the problem - what spell? I mean, I could always try flying again, I probably would run out in a blink of an eye, but as soon as I thought of that I could remember the headache that the spell gave me and changed my mind.

Besides, there was also the problem of the spell itself being overcharged. I already was sure that whatever spell I was going to try should be as safe as possible. That meant that most elemental spells were out of the picture. If I were to compare to the time when I tried summoning a small fire orb and blasted a whole cave with a small sun, the wind spell would most likely summon a hurricane, or something like that. Lightning? Hah, nope. Earth? What, do I want to cause an earthquake or something? Water could work, but on the other hand, there were also non-elemental spells. Although, those were very… ambiguous. I mean, sure, I could try using light. Then what? Another flashbang?

Probably not the worst idea. But what was the point? I was already glowing brightly, and to create even more light just to get rid of a light was pointless.

The opposite then? A darkness? I guess why not. I have not used dark magic in a very long while so it would be a refreshing experience, I suppose…

I mean, what could go wrong?

-Usc fi uncsu.

My intent was to first start small and I went with just a classic orb of darkness, thinking that it shouldn’t be the worst if it went wild on me.

And I was right. The spell did go a bit… ham, so to speak. Instead of a small orb, I created a sphere that surrounded me from all sides - and it was growing.

It was a bit of an unusual feeling - getting covered with darkness. The one thing worked out though - the light that I was emitting disappeared. True, at first it was just because the darkness straight up consumed it and suppressed all light in the area over all, but soon I could feel the rush of mana subside and get back to normal, meaning I probably was not glowing any more.

What caught my attention though was the other effect. While covered in darkness, I should’ve lost my sight completely, but that actually was not the case. I only lost my regular vision - the other layer that I gained thanks to the crystal was completely untouched. I could clearly see every single source of mana in the area.

That was not all though - after a couple of seconds and after I somewhat acclimated myself to this strange vision, the flames that usually represented the mana present in things around me started changing shape. Instead of small or big sparks flickering everywhere, I started recognizing shapes.

At first I just thought that the darkness spell was already giving out - after all, I did cut the mana supply as soon as I felt that I got rid of the excess mana - but that was not the case. The zone of blackness was still present and did not betray any signs of disappearing.

Yet, the shapes were slowly but steadily taking better and better form, to the point where I could clearly see everything again - although this time in a very different spectrum of color.

Every plant that was around was completely green - and not just a regular mix of brown branches, or the tree trunk, plus the leaves of different random colors, no. When I was looking at the trees, the shape was the only thing that looked natural. The color was oversaturated and uniform - the whole thing in this bright shade of green, closer to a traffic light than to a plant.

Same with bushes and grass. Those two had a slightly different shade of green while both being a bit dimmer than the trees.

Out of curiosity I looked at my own hands, just to see a bright white light - similar to the one I was emitting just now, although I was sure that the one visible with the naked eye was gone already.

I attempted to dispel the darkness once more, but for naught - the spell was already cut off from me, yet it remained.

I probably shouldn’t be surprised - after all, I was just next to where a magical barrier was, meaning there had to be a source of raw mana nearby. It was just logical that after I basically “set the spell free”, it found the nearest source that would give it a way to sustain itself and bound itself to it.

I mean it was not the worst spell to do it, right? It’s not like it could harm anyone, well maybe besides blocking sunlight from some plants but that would be it. No gimmicks, no special effects. That’s also why I didn’t like that kind of magic very much. It couldn't really hurt your opponent. Sure, you can blind your adversary and confuse them, but that was it.

But that was also why I picked it for this in the first place. Even if it was to stay like this for, I don't know, a month, there would be no victims.

If someone who was not just a random animal were to find it, they would think twice before entering its radius. After all, it was perfect magic for an ambush.

Nevertheless I was glad to confirm that I was right. The darkness indeed affixed itself to the ground, or maybe rather to the stone that I have just dispelled. That, and the fact that I was no longer a shining beacon made me want to move out again and continue exploring.

But, before that, I still had to deal with the stain that I just left behind me. It was just plain rude to dirty the forest like this - be it magic or not, it was just a piece of junk that I was leaving behind. I was not going to act like some tourist, so I figured I should clean up my mess.

Easier said than done. After all, the spell was no longer bound to me, instead sucking on the mana it easily was getting from the environment. No wonder this was the place that someone set up this barrier at - with this kind of source you could create some amazing things.

I did attempt to dispel the cloud with a couple of basic spells - although none of them worked. The cloud of darkness was supposed to work and act sort of like a smokescreen - and I mean also in properties - meaning wind should’ve easily just been able to scatter it, like a cloud. Of course, it didn’t work. Same with any other attempts, like using any other element I could think of.

That was annoying. Scratching my head, I was pondering what exactly I should do with this thing and that’s when I noticed that, probably thanks to absorbing the magic from the barrier, my ear had grown back. Strangely, not exactly the same as it used to be - it was now pointy. Perplexed, I checked the other one and realized that the other one was also like this.

-What, am I an elf now or what…? - I muttered to myself, irritated that I didn’t notice it sooner.

Fighting a sudden urge to break off the tips of my ears to get them back into a regular shape, I started thinking. If I cannot remove this thing, then I should at least hide it. But how exactly could I even do that?

As soon as I thought of that question, I suddenly had an idea. Or rather like a full epiphany.

What I had in front of me was a large cloud of darkness. What is dark magic used for? Well, besides other things, to create illusions.

Right. To make an illusion, you’d usually want to use both light and dark magic, melding them both together to create an image of your choice. The more complicated image, the more advanced the incantation - that’s why at first I thought that might prove problematic.

But I was no quitter, so I decided to try it out anyway. Not like if I was to fail and create something strange any other illusion would’ve been more conspicuous than a literal hanging zone of blackness. Even if I was just to change its color to green it would’ve been better.

It can’t be that hard, right?

And that’s the problem. It actually should be hard.

In hindsight I probably should’ve noticed sooner, but recently my memory and overall ability to understand magic was somehow better than usual. Better than ever, in fact.

That was especially obvious when I went and attempted to modify the black cloud that I had hanging right in front of me.

I intended to do as I just mentioned, to just turn it green. And I succeeded in a heartbeat. I didn’t even have to think, the words came to me and the spell replied obediently and without any issue. Maybe that’s why I figured I should try a bit more.

Another attempt was to… I honestly can’t tell you. I do not remember, really. What matters though was the effect at the end - I managed to turn the blob of darkness completely see through.

Or at least it appeared so. In reality it was just mimicking the image of the forest that was in front of it - if I was to stand next to it, or try to hide behind it, I would promptly disappear inside it. Effectively, I just painted an image of the forest in the air.

I think finally being able to tamper with spellcrafting awakened my forgotten itch, because I did not feel like finishing on just that.

I can’t tell you what got into me, but I figured that since I created a camouflaged field, it’d be a pain in the ass if someone was to use it against me and ambush me using it. So, I decided to trap it.

Or at least I intended to, before I regained my sanity and stopped myself. As I was placing the trigger for a trap, I did a double take, realizing that I am stupid, and instead of placing a, I dunno, some offensive spell, I just left it with a blank trigger, essentially creating an invisible alarm.

After all, even if this forest was not very dense in fauna, it was a good possibility that some runaway deer would step into the trap and get zapped - this way I would still feel the trap triggering without immediately notifying the perpetrator. Or without murdering the poor animal that wandered in.