I was guided to what supposedly was going to be my room for the day. It was not the worst I had slept in, if one counted the cell where I had been shackled. I assumed the moldy mattress on the ground was my bed. A safe assumption, if I considered that there was nothing else in the little cell I had been assigned.

The assistant apologized profusely after telling me that I should rest there. It seemed my visit was sudden enough that no other room was free. I chose to believe that was the case. After all the effort put into saving me, this would be a petty move to do.

Any way, it gave me enough time to evaluate my situation. And it was not looking good. There was the fact that I seemed to be involved in some kind of faction dispute. That the faction I implicitly belonged to were some kind of fanatics that wanted to control every detail of my life. And, to top it of, that something felt really wrong.

Since I set foot in this world, my pulses had been acting differently. They still relied all the information they were supposed to. More than usual, given my new [Corrupted Diviner] class. So, in that sense, I could not complain.

However, my status said otherwise.

Status: {

 Name: Darian

 Energy: 723/750

 Classes: { ... }

 Attributes: { ... }

 Skills: { ... }

 General: { ... }

}

It kept going down. With every few pulses, I lost one point of energy. It was not that I had increased the rate, or that my pulses reached further. No, I was doing them the same way as always.

And one had to consider that after the skill itself evolved to [Area Divination], it used even less energy. So, why?

I decided it was time to experiment. Contemplating the problem wouldn’t just magically get me a solution.

I thrust forward one of my energy arms. The very same one I had invoked a few times already. It looked fine. Solid. White. Radiant. Nothing felt amiss.

I moved it around a few times, tried to feel the wall. Everything worked as I expected.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

So I simply retracted it back and claimed back my energy. And then, that’s when I noticed. One point of energy had gone missing. And, no matter how long I waited, it was not coming back.

But I was sleeping for a few days in a row due to the evolution? And my energy was just fine before being force-summo-

I threw a punch to the wall.

Don’t tell me I’m even more corrupted than before? My eyes darted through all the status windows, menus, and submenus in search of any mention of corruption. But I only found the same ones.

It must be the sunlight, then?

That was my next best bet. Somehow, maybe, light here didn’t charge me back. I rushed outside of the building, asking whoever I met along the way for the direction. And sure enough, I found an exit to the outside world.

It looked, smell, and acted just like Fixun. Even the sun seemed to be shining in the exact same way. I flipped over my hands a few times, over-analyzing how the sunbeams warmed my skin.

“What the hell?”

Absolutely nothing was wrong.

Crestfallen, I walked back to my room. I didn’t know what was wrong, the only certainty was that my energy was not regenerating. At this rate, it wouldn’t take much for me to die.

I reduced my pulses to the bare minimum, both in size and in frequency. I only sent one when I was absolutely certain I would bump into something or someone. And it reached far enough barely stop me from crashing.

Without any major incidents and only some missed turns, I stumbled upon my room and dropped on the bed.

I cut all connections to the outside and did the only other thing left on my list.

“[Summon Corrupted Class Book]”

I had a hunch, and it started right on the first chapter of the book.

There it is!

Owners of this class are not limited by ambient mana, but they become tied to their own energy and the ability to recharge it effectively.

Those who poses the [Corrupted Bloodshaper] class cannot access some System enhanced functionalities.

For instance, System abstractions such as `mana` are no longer perceivable. Instead, users are required to acquire a sense of the world's inherent energy by their own means.

“I'm fucked, am I not, Bob?”

It was right in front of me, but I had managed to miss it. Energy was my own interpretation of Fixun’s magic. And it worked wonders on Fixun. I had even my personal stash, 750 of it to be exact, that I had carried with me.

But now I wasn’t in Fixun. Magic here worked and manifested differently. Either I figured that out, or I was toast.

That’s why Bob insisted on getting me back to the System. Why the System abstraction, mana, was such a powerful help. You didn’t have to care about the world, its magic, or any other nuisance. The System just converted it into something you could directly use.

There was a final nail in my coffin, my death sentence. Only someone corrupted-enough would know how magic really works here. And I wasn’t about to announce to the whole world that I was corrupted.

I closed my eyes, and even though I was far from tired, I let the sweet embrace of dreams take me.