Having made my resolution, I decided to stop sitting on my ass and get out there. My [Map] only showed forests on all sides and I had yet to activate my two remaining senses (the body didn't have a 'taste' function, so there was only smell and touch left), along with a bunch of dangerous-looking enchantments on my arm and some in other places, but just sitting in one place was too boring.

My movements were still quite awkward and I had no 'muscle memory', which made me have to actively think about every single little movement, but it should get better in time. Also, I had asked a question every day to [Olden Knowledge], and although many could not be answered, at least they didn't cost me my daily attempt. This way, I had gathered some general knowledge.

Apparently, I was inside the borders of a theocratic, fairly powerful country called Fairland. Yes, the name sounded like a theme park, and no, I had no clue why they would choose that name. It probably had something to do with the fact that they worshipped the god of justice, but it was still a terrible choice of name.

'Maybe the naming sense has changed a lot in these past millennia...?'

In any case, although this forest was giant and unexplored, the lands surrounding it on all sides were part of this nation's territory, with all frontiers fairly far away. I hadn't been able to get [Olden Knowledge] to give me Tonnas' current location, but I had at least managed to piece out that he was last seen a few months ago working on a big project for an empire just north of Fairland.

'It's gonna take some effort until I can take that name seriously.'

For the first time in millennia I pushed a door open, a stone one that looked heavy but was extremely light for my current body, and climbed the carved stairs up to the surface. As expected, I emerged next to the stone tower.

'So it only has two floors, huh... well, two plus the basement I was in.'

I circled around the building until I found the door and briskly went inside, and what greeted me inside were...

...some fairly normal, if worn and old, living quarters, with a bedroom, a simple kitchen and a bathroom. If there was anything worth noting, it was the dried up, mummy-like corpse that was lying on the bed.

It was most likely the body of the alchemist, and after checking he hadn't turned into an undead that would suddenly spring up on me, I sighed.

'Well, that was anticlimactic. I'd does make sense though. Even a powerful mage needs a place to live in the daily. They can't just stay years living in a lab in the middle of nowhere.'

I searched the place for anything useful, but most of the tools and trinkets were generally unusable, and any perishables had already, well, perished (luckily for me, I still hadn't activated the smelling enchantment). At least I managed to find a salvageable leather backpack, in which I planned to store all the necessary stuffs for the long trip through the forest.

I wasn't some survival freak or anything, but I did know it would do me good to find something sharp enough to easily cut through foliage but not too big, and...

'Do I need anything else? I don't need food, I don't need heat or light thanks to my eye enchantments, so I don't need something to start fires either, I don't need to sleep, so a sleeping bag would be pretty much worthless, and I can't really get infected if I get wounded, even though the damage will not heal, so there's no need for a first aid kit... Wow, robots really have it easy.'

Stolen novel; please report.

But before preparing the supplies I decided to first check out the second floor, although I totally expected it to be some kind of attic or watchroom.

What I saw surprised me.

The walls were darker and seemed much more sturdy than the ones downstairs, despite the other ones already being extremely thick and windowless. It was dark below, but here there was barely even any light. Thankfully I could still see just fine, but I imagined this place would have to be lit up with lamps, most likely magical, going by the theme.

But the most surprising parts was not the darkness or the hard walls, it was the state of the room. All the surfaces were littered with deep gashes, burnt sections and corroded spots, which exposed all the torture they had been through. In the middle was a perfectly square pedestal about 1 meter high, with circular grooves of several sizes, most likely meant for different sizes of containers. And although it also showed some signs of wear and tear, it was incredible how well it had held up, taking into account that whatever experiments caused the room to be in this state had occurred right on top of it.

'I seem to have seen this before... ah yes, it was one of the ones that only appeared at extremely deep altitudes, was it not? It looks very sturdy... should I take it with me? It should be doable with my over 200 strength...'

As I thought of that, I tried to lift it up with my only arm, but quickly gave up after it didn't budge even an inch.

'Nope, not doing that. Maybe if I had both hands, but even then it would take me weeks to drag it through that huge stretch of forest. How did that old man even manage to bring it here? I mean, he probably hired someone that focused on Strength to do it, but still. It seems people can get really strong in this world. Imagine someone with 9999 Strength. Scary.'

After checking everything, I decided to stuff inside the backpack a large metal box which held all the parts that had to be assembled to form my left arm along with a bunch of the most valuable-looking alchemy ingredients and the tools made from the best materials, which was easily discernible from their almost pristine condition despite their abandonment.

One of them was an 80-centimetre-long... flat rod, resembling a sword but with no sharp edges, with a long-ass handle below it, making it well over 1 meter tall in total. Pushing some mana out of my hands and into the thing, I could sense with my soul that it was extremely tough despite being hollow, and the interior was covered with enchantments that were sucking up my mana to produce...

'SHIT!'

As I realised the use of the enchantments, I hurriedly let go of the now blazing hot metal rod. That's right, the enchantments were meant to produce a level of heat that normal humans would have trouble even getting closer than a meter to, much less touching the blade directly.

I looked at my now slightly blackened palm and sighed. 'I suppose I should have activated the touch enchantments before leaving. Pain is the best lifesaver, after all. Good thing my Endurance is so monstrous, otherwise I would've lost my only hand.'

After picking back up the now cooled down weapon and gingerly stowing it in the backpack too, since it seemed extremely useful, I finally, finally left that place for good.

As I slowly made my way down the hill with shaky and poorly coordinated movements, I suddenly felt as if I had gone through something. It was like a half-solid membrane that gave way easily, but it was definitely not some gust of wind.

Turning around, I looked back at the tower, or more accurately at the top of the hill, where the tower was supposed to be.

Because no building could be seen there anymore.

'An illusion?'

Remembering something The System had once said about such things, I decided to try something out.

I 'willed' myself to see past it, and the illusion effortlessly shattered, allowing me to see past it no problem.

'Pretty neat!'

After that short interlude, I finally reached the edge of the forest, and I went into the thick foliage without so much as a second thought. The sunlight was blocked almost completely by the trees, making the place quite gloomy, but my cybernetic vision (not really) allowed me to still be able to see just fine.

And so, my journey began.

'Let us depart. I will roam these lands, devoid of purpose and without a destination, travelling to where the winds may take me.'

'Well not really, I'm going north to find that Tonnas guy, but I just couldn't pass up on saying something so cool. I blame my chunni self for coming up with those lines.'