Waking up to the feeling of heavy air, the kind you could have in your room if you didn’t air out for a few days. Gilliam felt horrible.

Step one was to get breathable air, this time using a magic circle with the rune for Air, Exchange, Fresh. Tied to the Exchange rune was a rune for Old-Air.

This magic circle did wonders, it removed the old and used air at the same time that it sent out fresh air to replace it. Though still a bit warm for his preference it was dramatically better. He could breathe comfortably and the air was as fresh as being outside in a field.

Given the size of the room he made before he collapsed, the fact that the air was this bad meant that he either slept for quite a time, or that whatever the dirt walls here contained did its part in consuming it. In either case it was fixed now.

Creating a simple multi-light-control spell, in fact the first spell circle he learned, fixed the darkness instantly. Just being able to see this little square hole in the ground was oddly calming.

This also let him take a look at himself, he was dirty, the wound had closed but seemed like it was getting infected, makes sense... Luckily he knew enough from how puss and bacterial infection worked from watching videos on your immune defence on online platforms, as well as the little he had read at the academy, that though he might not be able to instantly fix it but he could at least improve the healing considerably.

He needed sustenance and energy, he knew that the unstructured stream of water was drinkable and created clean water, so this was what he did next. Aiming became a slight problem but he might as well clean himself with the stream at the same time. It didn’t let him get properly clean-clean, but it got most of the shit off him. Though no soap he scrubbed himself the best he could and soon felt... well.. Sort of rinsed.

He also filled up on water at the same time and this actually did wonders, hydration is key. Now he just needed food, something he had yet to learn how to make. No matter what he was going to do from here, he needed sustenance, so this became the next goal. In his dark underground cave he started experimenting on creating food.

He didn't know how long he had been doing this, but he had been testing a lot. Using all the elements, trying to use creation runes with food, sustenance and other applicable words didn’t work properly. Water was simple as it was its own element, but food was different. He cursed himself for not taking survival seriously at the academy, everything was handed to him so he just took everything for granted.

He had figured out that he could alter existing shape and form of existing objects but this was just like magical smithing, but he could not create them. He could change the shape of a rock, make a sword, hammer or even a small statue that was taller than the rock itself, though it could not change the volume of the rock just change its shape. The downside was that this took tremendous energy. Something as simple as changing a head-sized rock into a small statue of himself standing all heroic like, making it taller than the rock was long at its longest, ate up basically all of his remaining mana. Not enough to give him the mana-starved sickness, but it took enough that he didn’t feel like he could cast anything else without going into that drained state.

A minor success in shaping, but a huge failure in obtaining food.

He missed school life already, though he’s not sure how long he had been gone he assumed at least a few days. He wanted his bed, his money for winning that duel, and though he only knew her for a few days; he really, really missed Savia. That soul bond was no joke. He felt like he missed a life-long friend, or a family member, a part of himself. He was with her for less than a week, they didn’t even have the time to properly interact that much but... This felt horrible. Well, if nothing else this was just another drive to get back. Realising that he didn’t really consider Petal in this list of things he missed, he did feel some responsibility for her but he has only known her for like two days or something. Sure, he did own her according to the magical contract they made but he really didn’t properly know her. He wanted to wonder about why she chose to become a servant of a human, not even knowing how she was going to be treated. But this was instantly self-answered based on just what he saw when chained up, though he didn’t see that much abuse he did see what kind of life they lived. And just the terrified servant that handed the Gatekeeper the dagger, he looked terrified.

No, he had to stop considering this, this was leading him into depression, he had to focus.

Slapping his cheeks a bit harder than needed, he needed to get back into it. Though he had ‘cleaned’ his wound he needed to start working on it, so this became his next goal. He couldn’t hunt or fight or whatever while also fighting an infection.

Focusing his minimal knowledge about wounds and infection, he focused healing energy on the wound in his side, basically letting it do its thing... Due to the lack of proper knowledge this took quite some time, but afterwards the wound looked proper. A proper scab had formed and it had lost its nasty yellow/white colorations, it also didn’t feel as pressured when poking it.

Since he didn’t feel any other effects like a fever or whatnot, he decided that it would have to do for now. Getting up he felt the effects of both the lack of food, but also the lack of mana, this had him slump back down. Chuckling to himself, this felt a bit weak. He needed to find a way back, against a horde of demons looking specifically for him. He didn’t know where he was, he couldn’t teleport, he was out of man, no food... The list of things he needed to do was getting longer and...

Waking up he felt like breathing was a problem, much like last time. He must have passed out as he can’t remember going to sleep.

Like before he started by swapping out the air, it worked just as nice as last time, the refreshing feeling was very welcome. Another rinse and drink had him realise that he needed to make a latrine of sorts, luckily he could close the hole after using it which made the situation a bit more manageable. The accidents that had happened when he was unconscious was also easily taken care of by shoving it down the hole and cleaning himself.

Pondering his situation, he needed food, he also realised that he didn’t have much sympathy for the demons of this world, his treatment, the way they think and how they are attacking ‘his’ world. The exception to this was the servant class, based on Petal’s information they really just wanted out, though there were bound to be some loyal individuals or even those who liked it, he.. Well, he didn’t plan to go killing everything and anyone, but he needed food.

For now he considered hunting, the demons here ate something, right? Hopefully they didn’t eat each other and there were some local animals or something to hunt.

Readying himself he started making way to the surface, luckily he didn’t have to consider exactly where to come home to as he could just make a new room wherever he wanted.

Using the same spell as before he tunnelled upwards at an angle so he could walk at the same time. He quickly found out that this was not the way to go as he clearly had more magical stamina than physical at the moment, casting his flight spell like before amended this, also letting him tunnel straight up for faster result.

It took an oddly long time to get back to the surface, he was rushing getting down but he didn’t realise just how far down he had gone. And sure, he was moving slower now as he didn’t want to just eject upwards and perhaps braining himself against something he wasn't ready for, but still; this took quite some time.

Finally breaking the surface he immediately realised that he was not alone, popping out of the ground like a cork in water due to upwards momentum he came face to face with one of the smaller flying imps.

Panic mode kicked in, the little creature inhaled at the same time as Gilliam pointed his palm towards it, energy built up in Gilliam’s hand until it discharged what for a very brief moment looked like a yellow arrowhead flew from his palm through the imp’s head. The arrowhead crashed into the sand not far from them in a large puff of dust. The imp fell to the ground on the account of it no longer having a head. Gilliam winced a moment at the unexpected gore as he hid under an overhang in a nearby rock.

He listened for several minutes before he calmed down. It was good to know that his reactions were proper but... he couldn’t help but react to the amount of gore. He had played games and watched movies before, but this was something very different.

At the same time, it didn’t affect him as much as he expected, he did just kill someone, or something, but perhaps the fact that it was so inhuman helped?

Since it didn’t really affect him he decided to just ignore it, wouldn’t help to dwell now that he had a goal in mind. He needed to learn how to get out of here, but he needed energy to do so. Though he had a kill in front of him he didn’t really like the idea of eating anything humanoid, he was not that far gone yet. No, he wanted something animal looking, he’d chance that instead.

But there was nothing around at the moment, just sand and rock. He needed to go elsewhere and see what he could find.

The flight spell was still active, and would be so until he dismissed it, so he might as well use it. He was easily spotted in the sky, but he could easily hide or burrow away, he had escape possibilities for now so he was not too sceptical. Taking to the sky at full speed, trying to get some distance before he potentially got noticed, he found himself quite high up.

From his new vantage point he actually learned a lot,

He knew there were smaller ‘camps’ of sorts from his escape, he got a better total overview that day, one such camp was not far from where he was now. The camp itself was simple, some rudimentary buildings set up with something looking like leather on poles, some were made of stacked rocks and some were just a tarp on some sticks, the whole thing was placed in a mini-valley of sorts between some rocks.

There were also a lot of demons seemingly still looking for him, there were a lot of different variants of creatures scampering around together. He also found that there did seem to be some animals here and there. Still looking quite demonic they at least somewhat looked like animals rather than demonic people, this calmed Gilliam’s mind a lot, he didn’t have to eat ‘people’.

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There was also a staggering lack of water or any natural fluid in the area, they might get their fluids from alternate sources, but there was nothing properly natural. Not that this affected Gilliam, but it was still something interesting about the people living here.

For now, he needed food and stealing felt like the most appropriate way of handling it. Though it seemed that most of the demons enjoyed their lifestyle, based on Petal, the servant class might not so much. So taking too much food might impact the undeserving at the same time as the ones who do deserve it.

Before he could make any solid plans he heard the shrieking of a weird flying creature heading his way. It looked like if you took a small dog, gave it bat wings and turned it inside out. It was flying towards him with clear ill intent.

Gilliam had time to prepare this time, and since the attack on the imp worked as well as it did, there was no reason to change tactics.

This time he used a structured spell makeup, using the runes for Aether, Dart, Speed, Power and Target in a pentagon shape. Aiming at the creature he put only a tiny bit of power into it, the circle absorbed the energy and pulsed its teal colour a split second before collapsing into a more streamlined dart. It exploded forwards at blinding speed, not giving the creature time to react before it had a hole blown through its body. The flapping of its wings stopped and it started free falling. The dart itself hit some rocks in the distance and seemed to make a snapping sound over there.

This was not part of his plan, it seemed that he needed to find out a way for his projectiles sto stop so he didn’t do any collateral damage in the future... In this case it became a blessing in disguise, the demons in the camp started mobilising towards where the dart hit, an accidental distraction was created.

Taking advantage of this Gilliam flew down as soon as most of the demons started leaving the camp, he flew down a good distance outside of the camp before he started making his way towards it. A flying target is easier to spot, after all.

Since there were still some servants, some warrior-like demons and more of the flying dogs he didn’t feel like spending too much time in there. He had seen where the food was prepared as he got closer, still having his flight spell active he planned to just fly in, get the meat and fly off before they could react.

Aiming at a decent slab of meat on a table he prepared himself, casting a transparent barrier on himself, augmenting the magic circle to add a Transparent rune to it did wonders. It was still not perfectly clear but was something akin to a glass sphere around him; bending things a little but not enough to become a problem in any way.

Flying at max speed towards the slab of meat he passed by several of the dog creatures, he startled them as he continued towards his goal. He noticed that some of the servants saw him but were too confused to react, one of the warriors pulled his sword seemingly made of bone fragments tied together to a solid core of sorts. An alarm was sounded by the time he had made it to the table. He braked as late as he possibly could but this had the unfortunate side effect of making his barrier bump into the table, knocking it over.

Everything was sent flying a short distance, extending a telekinetic tendril towards the piece of meat it didn’t even get the chance to land on the sand before it was flung into Gilliam’s hands.

Without waiting for any reaction he sped out another way than he came in, several thrown and shot objects hit his barrier, some arrows, a few rocks and a whole bone sword shattered against it before he managed to leave the outer ‘walls’ of the camp.

Not waiting for anyone to catch up he repeated what worked so well the other day. Flying off into the distance he found a point behind a large rock where he could break any line of sight, activating his burrowing spell he started flying downwards a bit. The barrier around him made burrowing a bit harder as it extended outwards from his body, this plugged the hole and stopped him moving at one point, so he had to dismiss it entirely.

Not burrowing as far as the last time as he didn’t need that much distance, but since the spell also repaired the ground behind him he didn’t need to consider anyone following him.

Stopping going downwards after a short while he made a tunnel a few metres (1m ~3ft) sideways before he used a different structured spell to make a larger room like before.

The first thing he did was to fix the air quality before he could finally sit down and dismiss the flying spell. His mouth was already watering, he was so hungry that his mind instantly dismissed considering what meat this actually was. It didn’t matter, they ate it so in theory it should be somewhat safe... Ignoring that they might have some racial bonus that made it safe..

He couldn’t cook it raw, he needed to prepare it. The simplest thing is to just grill it, not having any tools he did the simplest of the simple. Using a structured spell to get a small energy blade he cut it into smaller pieces, keeping them in the air with telekinesis. Once the slab of meat was cut into smaller pieces he simply manifested a fireball in his hand, this ball wouldn’t burn him but it was still fire, using it to simply grill the meat over an open fire. Having on purpose cut the meat into smaller pieces they should grill rather fast, letting him get the first bite much faster than if he made a thick steak.

Ignoring that they might be overdone, he chose to grill them a bit longer than needed, even getting a slight char. He didn't know what kind of parasites or whatever might live in this meat, so making sure that everything in it was guaranteed dead, but not charring it too much as that had its own dangers. In the end he got his first bite of food in who knows how long.

He barely chewed as the stream of meat was brought from the floating pile, into the fire for a few minutes and then into his mouth.

The fire did wonders for eating up the available air in this room, so he had to recast the air-cleaning spell several times during all of this. His mana reserves didn’t like the way he was doing things but he absolutely didn’t care, he was getting food and as hunger is the best spice; this tasted and felt amazing!

He ate way too much before he managed to calm down, luckily enough he stopped himself before he got to the point where he had to throw up, he had access to water and there was still meat left after he was done eating. For the first time since he got here he felt a little satisfied. Putting out the fire he instead manifested some simple lights. A new latrine was needed but this was hardly a problem.

The remaining meat was put on a cleaner spot of dirt, he tried to make it as un-dirty as possible but he was underground without any proper surfaces, deciding that he’d just clean it later he just placed it on the floor for now. Cleaning up and drinking his fill he also went to sleep on his own accord this time, which alone felt rather satisfying.

He had food, he had water and he could make shelter wherever. The first three hurdles of survival were covered. The next step was to find a way back, but this was a problem for tomorrow-Gilliam, now he wanted to properly rest, and the built up fatigue was inclined to agree.

After a final air-purification he simply found a somewhat soft patch of dirt, seconds after closing his eyes he drifted off.

He woke to a sudden strong vibration, casting some lights right away he could see around in his room, though this didn’t let him see what was causing this at least he could see that some ant-like creatures had found the stack of raw meat...

Adrenaline snapping him out of his post-sleep drowsiness had him analyse the situation more, the vibrations were strong but stopped a few seconds later, then did so again. Each vibration felt like a nearby explosion or some kind of punch. Just before each pulse there is a buildup of energy, feeling like the same heat at a distance, someone was gathering a lot of mana before each punch.

Not wanting to accidentally get crushed he cast the same transparent barrier from before, making sure it was sturdy. The pulses were getting stronger and stronger, it felt like they were getting closer.

Suddenly a quarter of the room just disappeared in an explosion, though the barrier took the damage it sent Gilliam into the opposing wall, its spherical shape making a nice concave indentation into the wall.

As he cast the flying spell on himself and prepared the burrowing one, he heard shouting through the newformed hole.

“I see a room down there.” The voice was small and shriek’y, but it didn’t take more than a second before an imp crashed into the bottom of the void that the explosion had created. Shaking its little head it looked around.

“It is he*!” The imps confirmation of Gilliam’s presence was cut short as an Aether dart penetrated its chest, making a deep hole in the compact dirt behind it.

Without waiting Gilliam properly manifested his burrowing spell and left the area. Making sure to go at an angle and not ‘away’ from them, as that might be too easy to track.

This time he went on for quite some time, he turned a lot to the sides to make sure there was not just a direct line in case they could follow the path. Eventually stopping at whatever distance he had obtained he made another small room and fixed the air.

How did they find him? Based on the explosion they clearly had some magic on their side, perhaps someone can track him? Since they didn’t find him the first time he hid, was that because they didn’t know in what area to look, or perhaps the mage was hard to get? Or perhaps it was the extra amount of magic he used when cooking that let them sense him?

Gilliam needed to find out how to get off the place faster, he wanted to get off this rock but it might be that the portals are the only way to get back to the world.

Before Gilliam could properly formulate a plan, the tremors started again, this time the time between them was shorter.

They will be here soon.