For a few days, Sarah chased after little animals to explore her skills. It actually wasn’t easy at all because most of these animals were pretty fast or slippery. But as she got used to her new tail, the hunt became easier. She was able to shoot out her tail, lengthening it from the length of her legs to double that.

Like this, she skewered a lot of little animals. The ones that survived had to suffer through being experimented on until they died. She always ate the animals, even though they mostly tasted gross. But especially the reptiles and amphibians were often poisonous, so it was a boost to her poison skills.

She found out that she wasn’t really able to induce emotions in the animals. She found that out by manipulating the minds of insects. They didn’t have complex enough brains to really feel anything.

Instead, she stimulated the brain and nerves to go into a state of utter chaos. This simulated the reactions to extreme fear and pain. That was enough to make most beings unconscious. Many of them even died on the spot when she started the experiments.

Even better was, that she was able to influence the signals the brain sent to the body. Until now, she had figured out how to make the animals go limp and stop their breathing. She was also working on stopping the heart, but that was very tricky.

"I kinda feel like I am turning into some kind of nightmarish monster." She mumbled to herself while chewing on a mouse that had just died because she shut off its breathing reflex. "Naah, that’s just my imagination," she reassured herself. She had been doing this a lot lately.

While experimenting on the unfortunate wildlife, she scouted her surroundings. She tried to figure out what else lived in the swamp besides her.

She was located right next to a wide stretch of still water where lots of birds and amphibians lived. Her clearing was part of the dryer regions of the swamp, although it was right at the edge of it. The further she went into the dryer region, the more she started to hear the deep sounds of bigger animals.

Being overly aware of her last encounter with a big rat, she left the area again. She didn't want to get into unnecessary trouble with the bigger wildlife.

They probably stayed clear of the area she stayed in because there were so many poisonous plants and animals here. But that was perfect for Sarah, who was more or less immune by now to most of the poisons that existed here. Only sometimes, her poison resistance couldn’t overcome a new poison. But that was always quickly dealt with.

The days flew by as she always did the same things. Scouting, hunting, eating, drinking, and sleeping. She started to feel like an animal more and more, but she couldn’t change anything right now. At least her hair had started to grow back by now, which made her really, really happy. The thougth of being bald for the rest of her life had just been horrible.

She would slowly find out more about this swamp until she could find the exit. The problem with this was that she had no idea what she was looking for. How does the exit of a spatial error look? Would she even be able to see it? What if the exit was at the bottom of the swamp? She had simply no idea.

By now, she had already checked out a pretty big territory. But an end to the swamp was nowhere in sight. But Sarah didn’t despair.

"I will come out of this alive," she said into the air. "Just wait, you sadistic system. You will have to deal with me for a long time."

The times when she talked into the empty air increased from day to day. But she guessed it was healthier for her mind to talk like this than to press everything inside her.

For now, her goal was to get stronger until she was confident that nothing would be a threat to her in this swamp. But it's easier said than done. She was still level 9, and this number didn’t seem to want to move.

She started to wonder what she hadn’t tried until now. Of course, she had two Life Force points left to mutate herself. But the mutations proved themselves time and time again as emergency measures when death came knocking.

The only thing that came to mind, was her magic power. She kind of felt it inside of her, especially when she used the Infiltration skill. But she couldn’t get a good grasp of it until now.

"Might as well look into this," she mumbled to herself. Then she started to immerse herself in the feeling of the magic power inside her, while going about her usual daily activities.

Some more days went by like this, and she started to notice the effect of the magic power. It seemed like it flowed through her whole body, empowering everything she did.

From her breathing to clenching her hand, everything seemed to be supported by this strange energy. She had no idea what exactly it did inside her body. But it seemed to make her stronger, faster, and more dexterous.

The more she focused on this feeling, the more she thought that something was hindering the magic power. Like her body was somehow resisting the merge with the new energy.

Sarah was eating some leaves dripping with poisonous goo when she felt the reason for this resistance. There was some kind of invisible barrier inside her body. No, her whole body seemed to be part of this barrier. She mentally started pushing against the barrier. In the beginning, nothing happened. But after some time, cracks appeared in the barrier.

Invigorated by this new insight, Sarah pushed even harder. And the barrier shattered away. It was gone, like it had never been there in the first place.

You are now qualified to experience the first recording of Dr. Alain Becker. Initialising sequence.>

Sarah was still mesmerized by the new feeling inside her body, with the magic power flowing through it like a strong river. Nothing like the small trickle she felt before.

But reality came back way too soon as she read the system prompt and saw the familiar timer counting down.

"At least this time I’m not in danger of dying or going crazy." She said optimistically, just before her mind was sucked into emptiness.

For a few moments, there was nothing. She couldn’t move or speak. There was no way to tell how much time went by or if there was something around her. Her surroundings weren’t even black. They were just… empty.

"Recording number one of the incident, Dr. Alain Becker speaking." Said a voice out of the nothingness.

After some time, the voice spoke again: "I could have never imagined that." Suddenly, the origin of the voice could be seen. It was a man surrounded by utter nothingness, being the only thing visible. It was a middle-aged man, with thin brown hair with streaks of gray in it. He seemed haggard, and he wore some kind of white cloak that was ripped in many places. He seemed to be sitting on something, but that was also invisible, like everything else around him.

He started speaking again, this time with a broken and trembling voice. It had nothing left of the calm professionalism of his first words. "None of my measurements indicated an energy of this magnitude. Maybe I should have done more. Maybe I should have, yeah." He shuddered and sobbed a little, and added a few words, almost too quiet to hear: "I’m so sorry, Clarissa." For a while, he sat there in the darkness, resting his head in his slender hands.

After some time, he spoke again: "But what can I do now? Our civilization is no more. The fate of humanity is at best questionable and at worst hopeless. All has gone to shit. So many are dead."

Again, he just sat there, saying nothing and shaking his head sometimes. He seemed to want to say something at certain points. But he always inflated himself immediately before any sound could come out of his mouth.

This went on for a while until he started straightening his back. It looked like a huge boulder was sitting on his shoulder, making it almost impossible for him to sit upright. Some tears could be seen in his eyes.

"I still can not believe it. One wish. One tiny little wish of an insane boy did all of this," he said, while rubbing his eyes. "I always thought that the world would fall apart because of some madman, but I never imagined it to be this way."

He let his hand fall into his lap, looking emptily into the distance. "I guess I should do something." He slowly started speaking. "I mean, I was the idiot who told the whole world about the energy and led the madman right into its epicenter." He shook his head and paused for a while.

"I still have some of my equipment. Maybe I can repair it somehow. Maybe I can… I actually don’t know what I could do. I guess I have to find out what can be done."

He slowly stood up, still looking like a huge weight was making it almost impossible for him to move. He turned around and started trotting into the nothingness until he couldn’t be seen anymore.

Sarah forgot where she was while listening intently to the complicated stuff the man called Dr. Alain Becker said. She was still trying to think through what she had heard, when she felt an immense pull in her mind. She seemed to race through the nothingness until she was thrown into her body.

Her body jerked like it was getting an electric shock, and she felt pretty sick from the experience. But she couldn’t help but feel happy.

While she had no idea what this incident was, something was for certain: There were still other people alive. She wasn’t the only one left.

This fear had rooted itself deep in her mind. Always knocking on her consciousness when she felt exhausted from everything. But with this, the fear went away like it had never been there. Her struggle had meaning. There were other people. She just had to find the exit.

With new-found hope, Sarah stood up and wanted to get ready to leave on another round of scouting. Then the system sent her another prompt.