Turns out, this world is quite rich in minerals and materials that would be considered very rare in my world while some of the materials might not even be understood by science.

After walking into the cave, I came across various deposits of metals and materials that were nearly at surface level. Thanks to my powers, I was able to manipulate the ground and make these materials burst through the ground for me to absorb. Among these materials were diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other such gemstones along with many different forms of metals that I could not identify.

However, given the presence of such large quantities of precious gems, I should assume that this place must have seen significant volcanic activity in the past.

As I traveled deeper, I soon stumbled upon some more crystals in the underground caves that kept going deeper and deeper into the surface. This time, I was able to identify some of the crystals thanks to the fact that my previous self had once absorbed them.

Turns out, I am able to identify any material that I have already absorbed once through instinct alone. A handy tool in my arsenal.

But there was one crystal that I identified that would firmly sit in the fictional and fantasy category.

A large vein of crystals that was glowing with a blue light, illuminating its surroundings. From my memories, I was not able to identify what this crystal was called since my previous self never bothered to either name them or learn their name given his lack of interaction with other beings on the planet (is this even a planet? Or am I on some kind of flat world? Or something else entirely? So many questions with no answers)

What I did know, is that this crystal is very powerful. Highly unstable based on my memories of seeing it explode the moment it was hit with a measure of strength. Highly energy dense if the way my previous self felt bloated for a long time after absorbing a similarly sized vein in the past. And given the way it caused my previous self to shoot up in height and size after absorbing it, I think it is safe to say that it has some kind of power-amplifying effect for creatures like me.

Without wasting any time, I carefully broke off a few of the crystal growths and held them in my palm, willing my body to absorb them.

I watched as the crystal slowly sank into my palm and a surge of power that I had no name for shot through from my palm to my chest where I felt a stuffy feeling. But, unlike what I remember happening the first time around, this feeling was significantly lower and lasted for a few seconds at most.

Contemplating the nature of this crystal, I got an idea as I looked at the darkness of the cave as it descended even further underground past the crystal vein.

With a thought, my fingers, knuckles, and forearms transmuted into the luminescent crystal that I just absorbed, illuminating the surroundings with their glow.

Ok, so that works. For the next step.

My arms turned back into stone, ready for the next part of the experiment.

This time, I turned a circular part of my palm into a luminescent crystal (that is a long name, maybe I should shorten it? Let's go with LED Crystals for now). Then, I closed my hand into a fist and changed the shape and structure of my fingers. I turned them into a convex shape while turning them into clear quartz crystals.

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The result is a makeshift torch made from my hand which has adjustable focus thanks to the fact that the focusing lens is literally made from my fingers and moves at my will.

Experiment success.

Time to go find out just how fucked I am.

Using the homemade flashlight, I ventured deeper underground, a task that has become much easier thanks to the light which allowed me to avoid various obstacles that had caused me to fall on my face countless times by now ever since I began my adventure.

Thankfully, there was nothing in the caves that saw me make a fool of myself while trying to walk blind in the darkness.

I hope so.

During my walk, I also discovered another facet of my new body.

The energy that I felt when I absorbed that LED Crystal was not a one-time thing. After carefully feeling my body while trying to take a clumsy meditative pose, I realized that I did not really have to concentrate much to feel the energy circulating within my body.

I think circulating is a misleading word. More like, my body is filled to the brim with this energy and I am able to easily manipulate it with just a thought, very convenient indeed.

I also found out that I can increase the intensity of the light emitted by the LED crystal in my torch by pumping it with my energy. Although, there does appear to be a limit to how much energy the crystal can handle before it explodes.

Once again, I thank the fact that I can't feel much pain because there is no doubt in my mind that I would be in unmeasurable agony after my hand exploded thanks to the crystal detonating after flooding it with my energy without restraint.

Further experimentation revealed that I only needed a tiny stream of energy to pump the crystal to its maximum capacity, barely registered by my mind thanks to how tiny the amount is.

The result is a light source that illuminated my surroundings as if the sun itself had descended into the caves.

Very useful.

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….Ok, this is bad. Very bad.

It did not take me long to explore the rest of the cave system save for the passage that led even deeper underground.

Incidentally, I think I also explored the same path through which I traveled before when I was making my way to the river. A path that I am now able to see clearly with the help of a light source.

My earlier hypothesis was right. It was indeed living creatures that attacked me when I was passing through in the darkness, causing itchiness across my body. The same creatures became a pile of twisted flesh and bone thanks to my scratching across my body during the same time when they must have attacked me in some way.

As far as I can see, the floor of the cave is covered in piles of flesh that I simply cannot hope to identify. Their original forms are long gone and all I can identify is a wing here, a limb there, and scaly leather all around.

If I had a stomach and a digestive system, I have no doubt that I would have thrown up by now after such a sight.

Even worse, I am feeling a strange pull towards the corpses, like my body is pushing me to do something with the corpse, something that I am not able to understand.

Experimentally, I crouched down and slowly touched one of the corpses that was as big as my palm.

Suddenly, I felt my body move on instinct as, just like with the LED crystal, the body disappeared into my body with a familiar rush of power flowing through my hand and settling into my chest. But, unlike the energy that I got from the crystals, this energy felt wild, untamed, and uncontrollable, causing me to feel itchiness across the insides of my body.

Just like before, the feeling stopped after a few seconds but I did not want to take any chances and started running past the bodies before my body decided to do something disgusting again.

However, no matter how disgusted I am with it, I cannot deny that what I got from that corpse is very interesting.

The bones of the creature, or what’s left of them, are very strong and durable. Unlike what I know from my previous life which dictated that avian creatures must have hollow bones to facilitate flight, this thing had bones that were probably stronger than any material known to humanity from my old world. I don’t know how I know this, my best guess is that my instincts are once again supplying me with the knowledge that I had no chance of knowing.

In the same way, I also recognized that the material that made up its skin is also extremely superior to anything that I know.

Unfortunately, I can't replicate any of that material since they are organic in nature and incompatible with my powers from what I can tell.

Shaking my head, I headed back into the deeper parts of the cave to avoid thinking back to the creepy incident.

Time to see just how deep this hole goes.