Finally, the exit to the cramped tunnel we've been in for so long now!

We squeeze our way out of the tunnel, and plant our feet firmly on the ground beneath us.

Immediately, I notice that this ground is not made of rock.

It's sand.

That explains the sandstone, I guess.

Welp, time to explore.

I’d say following the water would be a good idea, but the stream we’ve been following comes from a small pond in the chamber we’re in, and it seems like the water in that pond comes from the walls or something.

So we just have to choose one of the two paths there are and take it.

{Left or right?}

[Uhh… left!]

{Okay.}

Gloria takes off running down the left path.

Seems she was eager to stretch her legs after walking in that tight tunnel for so long.

We’re lucky neither of us are claustrophobic…

If we were, being reincarnated in a cave would be a lot worse than it already is.

Anyway, I wonder why the cave is suddenly all sandy?

The change between normal cave and underground desert was pretty sudden.

We can't have gone that far up through that small tunnel. It was hard to tell it was even at an angle at all.

Normally you only see biome shifts like this in video games!

I wonder if there'll be stereotypical desert monsters here. Like giant scorpions and stuff.

Actually, I kinda hope not... Giant scorpions might be just as bad as giant spiders.

But we haven't seen anything yet, so there's no reason to worry!

Not yet, at least.

Gotta say, for a desert area, it's quite cool down here. It might even be more cool than the underground forest.

I've always been more tolerant of cold temperatures over hotter ones, so I'm glad it's not as hot as I thought it'd be.

The sand is kinda annoying to walk on though. It's harder to get a solid footing on. It's not impossible to walk on, but we'd definitely be at a major disadvantage if we had to fight anything on this terrain.

I wonder how well our digging skill would fare against the sand?

maybe we should try now, so we're prepared if we need to use it in a hurry?

{Gloria, try digging in the sand.}

[Why?]

{I wanna see how well our digging skill works.}

[Gotcha]

Gloria begins digging at the sand.

As soon as the hole reaches about our body height in depth though, the sand begins sliding back in from the side.

[That's annoying.]

{Hm. Seems like we won't be able to rely on digging for the time being.}

[Nope. Should we go back?]

{I think we'll be fine... probably.}

[If ya say so.]

In truth, going back to the normal cave is probably a better idea. We're in an unfamiliar environment here. We don't know what enemies lurk around the corner.

Yet...

What if there's really good food in this area?!

I've been thinking about it since earlier. This is an entirely new area. Which means entirely new plants and animals.

Obviously, I'm not too excited about the new animals part.

New plants on the other hand, I'm on the edge of my seat for!

Every single plant in the underground forest was either gross or used as an animals toilet, so there wasn't anything good to eat.

But that might not be the case here!

I'm not too hopeful, since plants usually aren't the biggest fans of sandy areas, but maybe, just maybe, there's something!

I know my hope may seem a bit silly, but if don't stay hopeful I don't think I'll be able to survive down here.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The layout of this place is weeeeird.

The area we were in before was made up of long, thin tunnels with intersections every once in a while.

This place, on the other hand, is made up of a ton of large open chambers connected by short tunnels.

It's kinda like an ant's nest. I bet that's what it'd look like from an outside view.

Well, you can't really get an outside view of a cave, but you get what I mean.

Point is, traversing this area is vastly different than the last area.

We could just kinda run in a straight line before, thanks to how long the tunnels were. Now we have to be more careful about which way we go.

We're still mostly just deciding randomly, but it's still taking more careful thought than before.

Pair that with our poor maneuverability thanks to the sand like I mentioned before, and you end up with an incredibly annoying combo that makes navigating this place unbelievably tedious.

And we still haven't found any plants to eat.

I guess it is kinda stupid to be looking for plants in a cave with no sunlight, but still... This is a fantasy world, dammit! Why does it only become realistic when it's detrimental to us!

Why couldn't I have been reincarnated into a power fantasy?!

Ahh, no. I shouldn't get caught up in the bad. I have to look on the bright side! Otherwise, there's no way I'll survive.

But, umm... I can't seem to find the bright side?

We're stuck in a maze of a cave with absolutely no food in sight. The idea of turning back has all but evaporated at this point, because we haven't- no, rather, we couldn't- keep track of which way we came from.

There's no bright side in sight!

Maybe Gloria was right... Maybe the spider cave was the better option...

At this point, our only hope is to just keep taking the pathways that go up. Maybe we'll find an exit at some point.

Yeah right, no way.

Things have never gone that well for us.

Aaaand to prove that point:

Giant!

Monstrous!

Ants!

I was joking when I compared this cave to an ant's nest earlier! It was a metaphor!

Or maybe a simile?

I don't know! What I do know is that I don't want anything to do with those ants!

But of course, I have no choice because Gloria's charging right at them!

{Hey! Idiot! Stop it! Did you not just promise to not do anything like this?!}

[Hmmm... Nope! Can't remember anythin' like that at all!]

{Please, just stop! This is getting repetitive!}

[Fir, we can't find any plants to eat. So, what are we supposed to eat if there's a lack of plants?]

{...Sand?}

[No, meat. And some meat has appeared right in front of us!]

Ugh... She's right.

If we don't hunt these ants, we'll probably die of starvation.

I have no choice other than to let her attack the ants.

That said... the sound of our claws cutting the ants open is... unpleasant.

I think I'd vomit if there were anything in our stomach.

Haha... ha... yeah, I can't handle this. I need to do something to take my mind off the slaughter Gloria's committing.

Luckily, I know just the thing.

I breathe deeply (or at least imagine breathing deeply, since Gloria's the one in control of the body) and focus on my soul.

The mass of liquid comes into view within my mind's eye, gently rippling.

Urk... I'll try my best to ignore that.

I lightly push the surface, causing the ripples to grow larger.

I begin to push harder, attempting to shape the liquid into a sphere.

The surface slowly moves, but stops before it has been fully shaped.

Like before, I'll add some rotation.

The outermost layers of liquid begin shifting, slowly gaining speed as they move around and around.

slowly, the shape becomes more and more spherical as the rotation becomes faster and faster.

Hmm... This is good and all, but it's nothing I haven't done before.

I wanna try making an opening in it. Like a donut.

But how should I do that?

Hmm... It seems difficult.

I can't even fully make it a sphere without adding rotation, so a donut seems... wait, I have an idea.

This whole time, I've been manipulating the mass that is my soul. But, why am I restricted to that?

What if I manipulate the emptiness around my soul, compressing it into the shape I desire?

It might sound stupid, but what I'm seeing when I train soul manipulation isn't actually what's happening. It's just a representation of what's actually going on.

So maybe, just maybe, it may work!

I turn my focus away from my soul, and look outward, at the nothing that surrounds it.

I reach out, and grasp the emptiness.

It feels... like nothing.

next, I try pushing it in the same way I do to my soul.

It seems to react in a similar way, but at the same time, it's different in some way that's hard to explain.

Now, if I form it into sort of a spear shape, and sharpen it, but not too sharp as to avoid damaging my soul, and then, slowly... push it into the center of my soul...

A divot begins to form in the mass of liquid. It continues to grow deeper and deeper, until there's only a thin film of liquid left.

Slowly... Slowly... Aaaaand...

It pierces through, turning my soul into the shape of a donut, just as I wanted.

Success!

Hehe! I'm a genius, aren't I?

Wait, black magic?!

That sounds...

Cool. As. Hell!

I wanna use it so bad!

[What're you doin'?]

{Just training soul manipulation~ Well, it's soul control now, I guess.}

[Uh huh. Well, I'm just about finished if you wanna come back to the real world.]

C'mon, at least compliment me a little!

{Alright.}

URK!

{I don't think I want to, actually.}

[Oh come on, it's not that bad.]

{Are you blind?! There are guts everywhere!}

[Bug guts. Does it really count if it's from a bug?]

{Yes! It looks gross, so it doesn't matter what it's from!}

[Well, unfortunately, those gross bug guts are what we're about to stuff our stomach full of.]

{Stoooop!}

[We're gonna slurp the bug guts down until we're nearly bursting.]

{Stop emphasizing the grossest words!}

[I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just tellin' you that we're gonna have a huge, filling meal of crunchy, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth, bug guts.]

I can feel our stomach wretch.

[Woah! You really find it that gross, huh?]

This is humiliating.

{Can we please not talk about eating bug guts?! Having to eat them is bad enough, I'd rather not think about it!}

[Hahaha! Fine, I'll stop. For now~]

{You're the worst.}

[Go ahead and go back into your mind palace or whatever while I enjoy a good meal.]

Gladly!

Ahem!

Back to the topic of black magic... That's so cool!

This might be the best thing to happen to us since waking up in this stupid world!

Argh! I wanna use magic so bad!

Maybe if I get good enough at magic, I'll be able to find a spell that will let me seperate from her.

Actually, wouldn't soul control do that?

We're two souls in one body, so wouldn't the solution lie somewhere within the soul manipulation/control tree?

Speaking of which, what's with the soul manifestation skill I got?

Will it let me bring the soul from my mind's eye into the real world? That doesn't seem very good...

It seems pretty bad, in fact.

That'd just be an easy way to get a fireball thrown at my very soul.

No thank you!

Although, with a high enough level of soul defense, maybe it could tank a few hits? And with soul control, I could probably form it into a weapon, right?

Wait, that's almost as cool as black magic! A sword and a shield, made from my very soul manifested in the physical plane!

Of course, we'll definitely need to level soul defense for that to be viable.

Well, might be worth testing out at least once anyway. Wouldn't wanna waste time leveling soul defense for a mediocre technique.

It seems promising though! Even if it's not good, it certainly seems like it'll be cool.

[Done eating!]

{Really? You're not pranking me, right?}

[No waaaaay!]

...

Sigh.

Whatever.

I bring my attention back to the real world, where... surprisingly, there's no longer the gruesome sight I saw before.

Huh, guess she wasn't lying.

[I told you!]

{Sorry for not believing you, I guess.}\

[So! Where to next?]

{I don't know. Just keep choosing paths like we have been.}

[Gotcha!~]

I think I need a nap soon.