As I stepped through the shimmering portal, a disorienting rush engulfed me. My vision warped, collapsing into a kaleidoscope of lights and colors. My body tingled with an electric charge, yet I was weightless. At first, the sensation was both exhilarating and unsettling, but soon it felt like I was being stretched and compressed simultaneously..

Pain hit me in waves as I was pulled and pushed, hurtling through an otherworldly tunnel. It felt wrong somehow, like I couldn't reach any destination, so I was stuck in a sort of limbo.

Tumbling through the iridescent void of the magical tunnel, its shimmering walls pulsating with vibrant hues that shifted and flowed like liquid light. The sensation of falling was perpetual, neither accelerating nor decelerating, leaving me in a disorienting state of weightlessness.

I was out of it the first time I stepped through a portal, yet for the others it had seemed like an instantaneous journey. Obviously I did not expect it to be that easy, but this was way to weird.

My initial panic had given way to a numbing acceptance, though the novelty of the surreal environment never faded. At times, the tunnel seemed to whisper, ethereal voices mingling with the hum of unseen energies. I strained to understand, but the words remained elusive, fragments of forgotten languages.

That feeling of being pushed and pulled slowly turned into a low level pain, it was like a damaged tooth that just wouldn't leave you alone.

By now, I assumed the extra power had destabilized the exit point. I focused and focused, nonetheless, any destination just brought up static in my mind's eye.

For a moment I felt hunger then thirst, but they faded as quickly as they appeared. After a few more of the same occurrences, it had to mean time was flowing differently.

Soon hunger and thirst again gnawed at me, yet they remained at bay, as if the tunnel itself sustained me. Sleep was intermittent, brought on by sheer exhaustion, but the strange luminescence of the tunnel never dimmed, making the passage of time nearly impossible to gauge if it meant anything at all. Even the pain became a background feature.

Memories of the world left behind began to blur, replaced by the colors and sensations surrounding me.

Occasionally, I caught glimpses of shadowy figures in the periphery of my vision, fleeting and insubstantial. Were they fellow travelers, gods, or mere illusions conjured by the tunnel's magic?

Hope flickered like a distant star, faint but persistent. The tunnel's end remained a mystery, a destination unseen, yet I clung to the belief that this couldn't be it. Since escape was eluding me I switched my plan, instead of avoiding the new sensations my focus turned to them.

Turns out it was very easy to surrender to the flow, to become one with the enchantment that ensnared me, a solitary soul adrift in an endless fall. It didn't give me any benefit of escaping, but the pain melted away at least.

I truly lost the meaning of time in that state until something in the tunnel shifted, I felt a nudge, something barely noticeable unless for my relaxed state.

Sensing an opportunity I focussed again on the same exit point as when I started, the haze that was there before had lifted somewhat and as if through thick mist I could see it.

Suddenly, the mist faded, and I emerged on the other side, stumbling onto hard soil.

For a moment, I breathed a sigh of relief, but pain flooded every nerve in my body.

I must have screamed for a while because when I came around my neck felt numb on the inside. Fortunately, the pain had subsided somewhat and I could at least think clearly.

Still, I felt wrong somehow, like a core part of me was broken or wounded.

Trying to stand up, besides a new flare up of pain all I managed to do was get an intense sense of vertigo and me face-planting into the ground a second later. I realized the Mana Shield wasn't on, as besides the giant headache now my face had been hurt.

Panic began to engulf me as no matter how I tried, the Shield wouldn't activate. By now, after months in this world, the Mana Shield felt like a part of me that I could turn on with a simple thought.

Something had clearly happened, yet it's not like I could go see a doctor about this. The only extra information I had was just the damn stats screen with the bare-bones stat info.

"What are my stats?" I asked anyway.

The screen popped into my view:

Strength: 7 -

Agility: 5 -

Stamina: 7(+1)

Perception: 2 -

Intelligence: ERROR

Charisma: 8 -

Spirit: 2 -

Faith: 0 -

'Fuuuuck' this was very, very bad.

Pain echoed through every fiber of my body as I tried to rise, each movement sending waves of agony through that somehow seemed to reach my insides in a metaphorical sense. My body, frail and weakened, struggled to respond, limbs trembling and muscles protesting. The air was thick with a strange, shimmering dust, casting an eerie glow over the surrounding vegetation.

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With great effort, I pushed myself onto my knees, breathing heavily as if every breath was a battle. The ground felt uneven beneath me, adding to my instability. A forest lay just ahead, a dense wall of green and shadows, the dust creating a surreal, almost mystical atmosphere.

Wherever I was, the forest was a good choice to lie low until I recovered somewhat.

With renewed determination, I focused on one step at a time. I reached out, grasping at the earth and pulling forward, inch by painful inch. The strange dust clung to my skin, irritating and strange, but I ignored it. The forest was my only hope for now, a refuge I needed to reach. My movements were slow and labored, every step a monumental effort, yet I pressed on, driven by a desperate need for sanctuary amidst the strange and unfamiliar landscape.

Exhausted beyond measure, I finally reached the edge of the forest. Every step had been a struggle, my legs heavy and uncooperative, but the sight of the dense canopy ahead gave me a flicker of hope. The strange dust still hung in the air, shimmering around the vegetation like a veil of magic. I stumbled forward, my body screaming for rest. The ground beneath the trees was softer, cushioned by fallen leaves and moss.

I collapsed against the base of a large oak, the rough bark pressing into my back. My eyelids felt like lead, and I could barely keep them open. The last of my strength ebbed away, leaving me utterly drained. As I sank into the ground, the sounds of the forest enveloped me—a gentle rustling of leaves, the distant call of a nightbird, the whisper of the wind.

Sleep took me quickly, pulling me into a deep, dreamless void.

When I awoke, the sun was rising, casting golden light through the branches. I felt a strange sense of renewal, the exhaustion had lifted slightly with the pain almost gone, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, I felt a glimmer of hope.

It honestly felt like my first day on this planet, at least I hoped I was on the same planet. Let's see I had a headache, my clothes were in tatters, with no idea where I was, and yeah no more magic. Well, there goes the glimmer of hope.

Finding a rock to sit on, I focused on my first spell learned, Lightning Bolt. I tried saying it, casting it, gesturing it, nothing worked. All it did is make my headache worse.

Despair was starting to overcome me, without access to magic in this world I would be nothing. Well, religion couldn't be that bad, at least now I knew the so-called gods weren't responsible for the magic part it was a part of the fabric of reality. I could believe in that, maybe.

Who was I kidding, it took years to be anything above average. Still I had to be positive, the quest was definitely over, I had some money saved. It wasn't much, but surely it could buy me a pot of land.

I almost laughed at my own attempts to cheer me up, really a farmer? If that was the best I had to look forward to, it was going to be challenging to say the least.

"OK" I basically said aloud, let's stop with the self-pity, it's been what half a day, things could still improve. The error message could be temporary while whatever went wrong fixes itself. I had to believe that, otherwise this forest would be my graveyard.

Things were actually dangerous around these parts, again, assuming I was still on new Earth or was it just Earth by now.

No, maybe after a few more years I could see it as a home, and new Earth sounded off, Earth 2 maybe?

Since it was like my first day, I fell into that routine water then food, or was it shelter first? Without Mana Shield I had to actually think about stuff like that, earlier my ankles were itching like crazy, and I found some kind of insect crawling inside my shoe that had probably bitten my ankle in multiple places. Red sores were decorating my foot, and it took all my will not to scratch at it.

It was like I had offended some god, and he now took revenge by throwing minor inconveniences my way.

Well...technically I had, although the disrupt magical tracking part had to still be on as it was part of me, not something that could be canceled by an error.

It took some walking around the forest edge to find a stream. On the way, I started to notice the vegetation had fewer dust particles on it. Guess there was a source for it and it was behind me.

Without the dust, the forest was starting to look like the ursine one. I mean, sure forests look alike most of the time, but when forests are so prevalent here you start to notice different tree species and how they change with new locations.

The forest here had some type of trees I had never seen anywhere else except the ursine forest. They looked like giants ferns with wooden branches, so technically they weren't trees I guess but whatever.

My smile came back to me with that realization, I was not lost on some other world or who knows what continent on Earth2, but I must have emerged at my desired destination. It would have been near the forest.

Still, the dust was still giving me pause. It covered the whole field where I arrived, same with the forest canopy. Honestly, it looked like a volcano had erupted months ago.

Well, confusion would have to wait.

If where I arrived was accurate and taking into consideration the direction I walked to find water, it wasn't hard to get a general direction of the ursine village.

I admit, it was the first time I actually felt fear when entering a forest. I tried to remember the lessons Alira was always saying about silence and awareness. Even my breaths were shallower to make as little noise as possible to not interfere with my hearing.

Slowly but surely I advanced into the forest. Noises permeated the forest, which was a good sign I guess. Or was that just the movies.

The hardest part was watching my step to not make unwanted noises and keeping an eye out at the same time, but soon I had a rhythm going of switching between them.

I kept waiting for my luck to run out, but instead I found a track in the forest that made walking much easier as there were no branches lying on the ground to make noises.

The direction of the track gave me pause; however, after a few steps, I figured out which way led deeper into the forest.

It didn't take long and noises could be heard in the distance. It sounded like voices, so taking a small leap of faith I yelled

"Hello."

After a few seconds, two ursine appeared, but a few more could be seen behind them. To say I was relieved would be an understatement. Still there was movement behind them and because of their size I couldn't really tell what was happening, though soon it became apparent they were moving aside to let someone else get in front.

"Tiberius?" A voice I knew all too well finally was heard as Alira emerged between the ursine.

"Thank the gods!" I exclaimed, I really deserved a break after the day I had.