I tried lighting up the cave with motes of mirror Qi, but it had little effect. Rather than give off light, it simply reflected the dark surroundings, which was rather non-helpful. My golden core was still repairing itself, motes of silver flickering in between the two orbs in my soul. It would happen, I just needed to be patient.

Until then, I was fighting off rats. Big, small, loud and quiet, mutated and regular. There were dozens of the creatures, and now that I was moving faster, it seemed more of them flocked towards me. Every few minutes, the butt of my spear struck out, breaking one of the little critters apart.

If I stayed here too long, I might actually have to eat one of them. The thought was accompanied by a shudder. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Grim determination settled onto my face as I moved on, trudging through the cave system. There’d been a system message some time ago, telling me to bring my fused gateway shard to a gatekeeper or an altar, or anything similar to that, really. Just anywhere I could use my experience. I had to hold back from scoffing at it.

Sure, just make it to a gateway, Fio. It couldn’t be that hard, Fio. Why were you being so whiny, Fio?

I spat on the floor in mock disgust, before I regretted the loss of liquid lightly. As much as I was annoyed, I needed to save my strength.

There didn’t seem to be a way upward anywhere close to me. It felt like my eyes were slowly growing used to the dark, which let me tell when sand trickled in from above, even without any light, but that was all. I knew how deep the sand above me went. I also knew I couldn’t even reach it from here.

Without my Qi, I wasn’t going to be jumping ceiling high anytime soon.

All I had to do was march on.

- - -

I… didn’t know how long passed. It must have been days. Maybe weeks. I was so hungry. It felt like my body was wanting to eat itself again, but the Qi was sustaining me. I could barely keep walking. Perhaps, without the ever-shifting glass in my skin, I wouldn’t have been able to.

My provisions had run out long ago. I ate the rats. Still, I was so thirsty. The little creatures avoided me now. I couldn’t hunt them with the poor lighting. Didn’t know where they were.

Instead, I trudged forward. My legs were shaky. I was starting to see a little bit better- I don’t know if it was my eyes adjusting to the dark, or the cave growing brighter.

Slowly but surely, my Qi was running out, though. It was hard to replenish it with the death Qi from the sands. I could’ve done it, of course, if I’d been healthy. But with one core cracked, and the other so new? Trying would’ve been suicide.

It was another battle of endurance. Would my golden core regenerate the crack first, or would my legs give out? My will stood strong with the second answer, for now.

Another step. The glass inside me held my bones together, stopped them from shifting. I’d gotten used to walking almost painlessly. Well, as painlessly as possible. My skin was still bruised, and I had dozens of scabbed over cuts. My boots had long since begun chafing at my feet, and I was sure there were many blisters below.

But there was no scraping of bone against flesh, and for that, I was grateful.

- - -

More days passed. I think. I didn’t know anymore. I was so tired. Just wanted to lay down.

No. Must keep walking. Bit further.

I twitched at the sight of something moving at the edge of my vision, throwing my spear at it. A rat. A big rat. Now impaled.

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I ate it. Then wipe the blood off my face. Then kept walking.

There was a blue glow in the distance. Edible, perhaps.

- - -

Fungus. Iridescent cave fungus. Maybe even mould.

I ate it. Picked it off the wall and into my mouth. Swallowed dryly. No saliva left.

Then I coughed. It tasted horrendous, bad enough for me to forget my exhaustion. The cough wracked my body so hard, everything began aching again. I had to draw in deep breaths of air to steady myself.

My eyes trailed onto another patch of fungus. I ate it, too.

- - -

I lived. The fungus was… edible. Barely. Survivable.

Not to mortals. But my stomach was reinforced by my realm. It wasn’t poisonous, just horrendous. I ate it, and subsisted. Waited, living off of rats, and fungus.

The mushrooms needed water to grow, too. I found brackish pools of it at their roots. I drank it. And I lived.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity but was hopefully just a week or two, my golden core was repaired. My mirror Qi was almost exhausted, barely keeping me on my legs, when my first core came alight. It drew the outside Qi into itself, not even requiring a prompt to myself.

It must have been just as thirsty as I was. The cave now had the tiniest wisps of nature and water Qi. Better than death. It let me live. I thanked the fungus gods, whoever they were. Some part of my stomach roiled, a signal from the actual gods, but I didn’t care. Mushrooms were keeping me alive, not them.

Days ticked by. My golden core refilled. My mirror core refilled.

The Qi rejuvenated me. Bit by bit, the fungus dissolved away into nutrients faster, more effectively.

And eventually, I took a step into thin air.

I laughed. Golden radiance wrapped around the soles of my feet. I took a second step upwards. Towards the ceiling. With the sheen from my Qi, I could see a larger hole, one where sand drizzled down through, one I may be able to climb up.

Then I stood before it. I could squeeze my body into the gap, I hoped. It all still ached. Bruises not fully healed, bones not fully set, but I pushed on. Gold suffused me, strengthened me, and I took a deep breath of air. The sands were deep, but I would make it above.

I plunged into the ocean of black grains. They were cold, icy even. But my golden core warded it off. With the mirror Qi supporting me, I pushed it all aside, bit by bit, and crawled my way upward. Things shifted in the sands around me, but I ignored them. If they came too close, well, that was what the mirror Qi was for.

Some of them did try to attack me, but I activated [Reflection] before they got the chance. Their mirrored selves scared them off, mostly. I didn’t know what the creatures looked like, nor did I wish to. Instead, I pushed further.

The pit of sand stretched for a long while. I was moving through it like a fish, pushing with strength and finesse in equal measure. But my time was limited. I couldn’t breathe here, nor refill my Qi. If my cores were not enough, I would die.

Slowly, agonizingly, the seconds ticked by. I swam up higher and higher, always met with more black sand. The pressure started getting to me, my lungs burning. The golden haze wrapped around my body pushed even harder, accelerating me up, and up, and ever upwards.

And when my vision grew darker even behind my eyelids, the sand gave way.

I drew in gasps of air once again. And above me, there was the night sky, glimmering with hundreds of stars whose names I didn’t know.

I giggled like a little girl, half my body still buried as I slowly raised myself up.

Once outside, I stood still for longer than I perhaps should have, then brushed off my armor. It was as simple as summoning the sand into my inventory, then dumping it all out again.

Without the sun in the sky, I didn’t know which way civilization lay. But that was alright. I wasn’t content to stay still, of course, and the black sands weren’t exactly kind to those who did, but it was fine to move in a random direction for a little while.

I saw some of the krigs circling the sky above me. Dang scavengers. It gave me an idea though, an evil one. I grinned.

Slowly, carefully, I took a step into the air, golden light covering my feet. Then a second and a third. Soon, I was sprinting upwards at the birds, higher and higher into the night sky. I should have been afraid of falling, but I wasn’t, not this time.

The creatures were stupid. They’d thought me weak, easy prey, come from being buried in the sands. If they were smart, they would have scattered, yet I caught one.

My hands wrapped around its elongated neck, even as its four wings and sets of claws smacked and dug at me. It was screeching from a beak with serrated edges, but I simply clamped it shut.

“Shhhh,” I told it, finding the strength to speak for the first time in forever. “No more out of you, little birdie.” And then I snapped its neck.

After my descent back to the floor, I flooded the thing with golden Qi, burning away the vestiges of its own, death aligned powers. Then I ate, and it tasted like heaven.