Chapter 5: Chapter 5 – New experiences

I slept like a rock, but at some point I woke up because it was too cold. After a moment of disorientation, I found my bearings again, the unbelievable events of the previous day were present again. I lay on the hard ground of another world and looked through the leaves of an alien tree at strange constellations. Sleep was out of the question, I was cold, my muscles were stiff and I was hungry.

I put my sweater back on and sat down next to the tree and leaned against it. Dawn was just beginning to set in. It was still too dark to walk any further, so I decided to meditate. I tried to suppress my thoughts and achieve a state of tranquility. But the thought of a big cup of hot coffee could not be chased away. And if it did, it was replaced by thoughts of pancakes, cheesecakes, cheeseburgers, hamburgers and steaks. There was no point in continuing like this. I checked on my magic core. The jar filled completely during the night, mana 10/10.

Somehow, a vast lake of mana came into my mind, floating right above my head. A river of mana rushed down from the edge of the lake, stopping towards the vessel of my magic core. The mana flooded it and flowed off on all sides, running past it and seeping into the ground. I held on to this image. An endless golden stream fell from the top to the bottom, the substance transparent and streaked with tiny sparks. Fascinated by it, I watched mindlessly for what felt like hours. Unexpectedly, I felt a pulse of warmth in my center that slowly spread throughout my body. My concentration was lost and the mana flow dried up, leaving only the mana in my magic core. Underneath it now read Mana 11/11.

Wow! I could hardly believe it. My magic core had grown, it worked! The euphoria quickly faded. It was only one mana more, if I would get just one more every day, I could reconnect with Vaari just before the upcoming demon invasion. On the other hand, my mana storage had just increased by a tenth. From that point of view, things were looking much better. In any case, I still had nowhere near enough data to draw any conclusions about the growth curve. It remained only to hope that it was not a coincidental event.

In the meantime, the sun had risen a bit and I made my way deeper into the forest to the giant tree that I had marked as a possible lookout last night. It was harder than I had imagined. The forest was absolutely untouched, bushes, dry fallen branches and rotten tree trunks blocked my way, thorny vines tugged at my clothes. Simultaneously paying attention to where I put my feet and keeping the course was an impossibility. I struggled forward, orienting myself by the rare rays of sunlight that penetrated the dense canopy, but exactly where the large tree was that I wanted to get to, I hadn’t been able to tell after the first quarter of an hour.

At some point, I came across a game trail that wound through the forest, which made progress a little easier. I was so careful not to lose the path that I didn’t even notice how I was suddenly standing in a clearing. In the middle, a huge tree towered into the sky. Was it the one I wanted to get to? I don’t know, and I didn’t care. It was a lot taller than the trees surrounding the clearing, so it should be good enough for my purposes.

I approached the tree. Its trunk was so wide that I couldn’t even embrace half of it. The furrowed bark provided a good grip for climbing. With some effort, I reached the lowest branches, which were as thick as the surrounding trees themselves, after that it got easier. I kept climbing until the branches became so thin that I hardly dared to stand on them. From there, I looked around.

Looking back showed that the distance to the edge of the forest was not as great as I thought. I must have really been walking in snaking fashion, because the few kilometers to the grassy area I crossed yesterday felt like at least 20. The forest spread from south-west to north-east as far as the eye could see. I turned further south east and the sun, already above the average trees, blinded me, I could see next to nothing in that direction. I could only look further south, past the sun. And there... there, too, only treetops could be seen, but above them, far away, was that smoke rising? I wasn’t sure, but it was the most promising thing I saw. If that was really smoke, and at least it didn’t look like clouds, then there had to be people there! I memorized the cardinal direction based on the sun and began the arduous descent.

As usual, it was much easier to climb up than to come back down. But after half an hour of cursing, almost falling, dangling on one arm and feeling for branches, I had made it at the cost of some abrasions, several scratches and tons of burned nerve cells and was firmly back on the ground. Relieved, I took a breath and paused briefly. Wait, wasn’t that a soft splashing sound I heard? Attentively, I circled the thick tree trunk and sure enough, there was a spring under its roots. The water sprang from the ground, formed a small basin, and flowed off in a trickle that was immediately lost in the grass of the clearing. I dropped to my knees and drank greedily from the spring. The water yesterday in the stream was already delicious, but this surpassed it by far. The taste was truly magical. Stop! Magical? I straightened up again and activated the Magic Gaze.

In a familiar way, the surrounding colors faded a bit, but the previously colorless water of the spring took on a distinct blue hue. A few small aquatic plants had taken root at the bottom of the spring pool. Most of them also became pale in the Magic Gaze and were almost unrecognizable through the bluish water, but one clump of plants glowed even more intensely than the water itself. I reached out and carefully pulled it out of the water. In the air, the glow dimmed a bit and the blue of the water also diminished a shade, but both were still present.

I switched back to normal vision and took in my prey. It was probably some kind of algae. But what could I do with it? Surely a magical plant had to have some use for me? My stomach growled. Was this a sign? Should I eat the algae? What if magic was poisonous? No way, right? Not for me, I had a magic core after all! I plucked off a few twigs and put them in my mouth. It tasted like nothing. I chewed on it slowly, a slight grassy taste could be detected. And then I felt again this warm impulse in my center. Surely this was not ...? I quickly called up the view of my magic core. Indeed, Mana 12/12! I could hardly believe it. Without taking my eyes off the magic core, I stuffed the rest of the seaweed into my mouth and chewed it up. I saw two blue drops fall into my golden mana and slowly dissolve into it, accompanied by the pulses of warmth spreading through me. The mana display rose to 14/14. Cool!

Highly motivated, I activated Magic Gaze again and searched the entire clearing, spiraling around it starting from the tree. Unfortunately, there were no more magical plants to be seen. Somewhat disappointed, I drank some more from the spring, with no noticeable effects, although the water in it undoubtedly contained some magic as well. I also ate some more algae from the pool, but nothing happened. Why had only some of the algae become magical? Was it a random mutation? It would have been nice if I could ask Vaari about it. Unfortunately, she was not available to me. Even if I could already increase my magic core a bit, it was still a long way until I would have 1000 mana. At least I was a little more confident about the future now.

And speaking of a long way... I faced south and immersed myself in the forest again. If I didn’t find people before I starved, I would never see Vaari again.

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