I woke slowly, as if drifting up in some kind of lake, viewing the sky through the surface of the water but not reaching it, only seeing its distorted visions.

Everything felt muted and slow, but as I reached the surface of my consciousness and regained my senses I snapped awake.

My skull felt like it was splitting open from the inside out, and my chest was filled with horrible stinging pain.

Worst hangover ever.

Trying to get a good look at myself, I winced at the unexpected scratchiness of my eyelids and the terrible brightness of the light surrounding me.

Right. I had stupidly tried to drink some unknown liquid and blacked out.

It seemed that blue asshole-juice was still burning up my insides even though the bit I swallowed must have reached my stomach by now.

There was a small point where most of the pain was focused, directly in the center of my chest. It felt like a bead of molten iron. Unmoving and silent but still burning with incredible heat.

I continued to regain my feelings slowly- but every second the muted pain in my ribcage became more revealed and focused.

As that feeling increased my breathing sped up and I scratched feebly at my skin, hoping for some kind of release. Hoping for it to stop.

It did the opposite.

That one bead of unbearable heat started to grow.

The fire was like a rising tide, a flood that began to stretch through my bones and veins. Something inevitable and irreversible yet at the same time terribly slow.

It reached the boundaries of my ribcage and exceeded them, dripping slowly into my stomach and rising up my shoulders and neck.

....

It filled my organs and ballooned outwards towards the ends of my limbs.

....

It reached up my neck and drowned my throat in liquid fire.

....

It grew and grew for what felt like hours as it filled me completely, just under my skin.

....

An ocean of still flame, brimming to my splitting point and burning away everything inside. Like my body was just some sort of bag. A container for whatever was now within me.

....

I felt completely empty except for that fire. My insides were already gone. My bones, gone. My senses, gone. My mind, for the most part, gone.

Everything that I was had been erased by that heat.

My thoughts had already gone still, the only thing I could do was focus everything onto that fire filling my body. I couldn't move in the slightest. I paid no mind to any outside stimulus. Everything I breathed, felt, and saw was that ocean of heat underneath my skin.

While occupied by that ocean, I lost all concept of time. It felt like days, weeks had passed while I sat unmoving, feeling, and thinking nothing.

And after that eternity, I felt something again.

Finally, mercifully, the pain began to fade away.

So slowly that it was nearly unnoticeable, the pain started to lessen. As if that ocean began to just evaporate into a mist. It didn't drift away or recede, it didn't flow out of some unseen drain, it simply faded. Like it had never been there, to begin with.

As that ocean turned to mist, I began to regain my senses, and every piece of that ocean of fire completely faded away.

Every piece except for a single spot. A single bead of that fire still remained, sitting in the center of my chest, unmoving.

....

I let out a gasp as my eyes opened and I flung myself into a sitting position, grabbing violently at my chest.

"...."

My eyes scattered around the bright cave as I attempted to slow my breathing.

"ha...."

I chuckled dryly for a second or two, before going quiet again.

Flashes of what had happened went through my mind.

I could remember my body filling with fire and stagnating. I could remember a feeling of hot agony across my whole body for an unknown period of time. But besides that, nothing. It was just flashes. I couldn't remember how long I was in that state, and for the most part, it just seemed like a half-forgotten dream.

Just like a dream, I couldn't remember the full thing, just the feelings and emotions I felt as well as flashes of specific memories.

But based on what I could remember, and the emotions swirling through me, I believed it was a good thing I had been basically unconscious through most of that.

My body was covered in a cold sweat, and my hands wouldn't stop shaking, but what worried me the most was the faint heat coming from my chest.

Before looking too deeply into that, though, I checked my status.

First, I looked at the skill acquisition time remaining.

I had around five minutes left on the timer. I shuddered when I first saw that number. It meant that what had felt like genuine weeks of pain was in reality, only a minute or two.

Then I checked my stats.

My hp was normal, as was my sp.

My mp was sitting at 8, with the regen/day 20. It had gone up from 0.

Sighing, I nodded to myself.

I somewhat expected that, thinking about it. It was a mysterious blue liquid that gave off light, and was located in a place called a "boon for wizards". I was very stupid for not realizing it was some sort of magical liquid sooner. It made perfect sense that it would be this world's version of liquid mana, or whatever.

I didn't think it was worth it, though.

Even if I could use magic now, going through that kind of mind-destroying torture to get the ability simply was not worth it.

I turned my attention towards the inside of my chest again. That small bead of heat wasn't leaving, and I suspected it had something to do with my mp increasing.

I sighed again. I was getting sick of figuring out unknowns by myself.

....

Unless I was focusing all my attention on that heat in my chest, it was hard to notice.

The bead seemed to be layered, or maybe a better word would be hollow. There was a space inside of it that I could just barely sense.

Inside of that hollow space, I could make out two or three different things. They were vaporous and wispy, very hard to notice, but I could feel them.

It was hard to tell what they were exactly. They felt like clouds, drifting around inside the bead of heat. I was too tired to really get a very good view of them in my mind's eye.

But I was able to see there seemed to be three of those clouds, all different sizes, swirling in lazy circles.

Trying to force my attention even deeper, I pushed into those forces and attempted to see what they represented.

I grabbed the smallest one with my will and tried to mentally wrestle it into view. As I snatched at the cloud I vividly saw a deep, rich, blue, filled with tinges of green and grey, swirling tempestuously within my mind.

It didn't seem dangerous or threatening, the force simply didn't want to be held down, and instinctually fought my will.

It was a weird thing, to be grappling with something inside me, something that should be mine. I was somewhat intimidated by the thought that this thing was actually residing in my body and could deal damage to some part of me that others couldn't.

But after a few seconds of that mental battle, I successfully grabbed onto the force and peered inside.

I was blasted with the sense of the ocean, rivers, and rain. I could nearly feel the gentle force of water flowing down my bare skin, and I could smell a faint sea breeze.

I was suddenly aware that my mind was in something other than my body.

Filled with panic, I automatically retreated from those visions to the safety of my own thoughts, breathing hard and fast. I quickly opened my eyes and looked around the cave to make sure I had escaped that vision.

That had felt too similar to losing my senses in the fire that had previously filled my body, and I didn't want to risk anything else.

During that temporary panic, the cloud of energy escaped my grasp- but it seemed slower and more docile than before. I felt like if I wanted to grab it and see those visions again it would be much easier.

Beginner Water Magic: Level 1 Acquired

Water magic. I suppose that meant the other two clouds were also magic elements.

I grimaced. I did not want to risk sending my mind into the other two energies. It seemed dangerous, and I didn't want my mind to get trapped or broken by some sort of wild magic.

I remembered that unending agony when my body was occupied by that fire. If looking into those clouds of force ended up with me in a similar situation, it was not worth it.

It didn't matter how beneficial the end result would be, I was not prepared to go through that again.

Even if, even if, even if I would get, powerful magic or whatever, if I had to go through.... what had just happened to me, a second time-

I couldn't-

I wouldn't be able to...

"ha...."

I took a deep breath.

Calm down.

Think about the risks, think about the rewards.

I had already examined one force and gained a skill relating to water magic from it.

Think objectively, Lake.

Nothing bad had happened after my mind entered the water element.

All I needed to do now was pacify the other two elements and quickly look inside them, leaving immediately.

Think objectively, Lake.

Control over magic would solve many problems. I could potentially create food and water, defend myself better, and maybe even escape this horrible place.

If I could control magic, I could use it to escape.

With it, I could escape.

I could escape.

My fists clenched tightly on the ground, and I prepared to dive into the second element.

....

The next cloud was bigger than the one I had already examined, but only slightly. It was still smaller than the last one.

I grabbed the force with my mind and grimaced as it pulled away with decent power.

It was difficult to immobilize the energy since it felt semi-gaseous and slipped away from my attention easily.

But with all of my focus on it, the cloud couldn't evade for long and I was able to hold it still.

Now comes the hard part.

Forcing my mind through and into the energy, I was blasted with a bone-deep chill.

I saw a sparkling winterscape, filled with starry white snow. I smelled fresh dew and my vision was filled with silver ice.

Before I could see anything else, I was already pulling myself out.

When I returned to my senses I found myself laying on the ground of the cave, shivering and covered in goosebumps.

As I thought, entering those visions was dangerous. Even though I wasn't actually in any icy landscape, my body thought I was.

But just as before, the ice element was now much more docile and almost sleepy as it swirled around in my core.

Beginner Ice Magic: Level 1 Acquired

The last cloud was a deep crimson, almost liquid in its texture, and so rich it caught the eye.

Even though this one was at least four times larger than the previous two, it looked slower and easier to catch.

Not wasting any more time, I rammed my will into it and demanded it stop.

Surprisingly, that attack worked perfectly. The cloud immediately froze and sat still, defenseless.

I was confused by the ease in which I had won but decided it was unimportant and dove into the force.

My sight was clouded by a crimson wall.

The pain of the vision swept through me and my mind was overwhelmed.

....

I opened my eyes, and saw that I was laying on the ground of a.... classroom?

I was sitting in the corner of the room, underneath a desk.

My head was pounding.

Standing, I looked around, trying to remember where I was and what was happening.

I was struck by an uncomfortable sensation, as I felt much shorter than I normally am.

I looked over my body and realized I looked years younger. I was in the body of a young teenager.

I'm.... nineteen, right? So why do I look like this?

Looking around the classroom, I saw- what looked like- bullet holes in the whiteboard on the wall.

No, I shouldn't be here, I was in a cave, in.... hell.

I was in some sort of hell, right? There were demons there, trying to kill me, right?

What was I doing here?

I took an uncertain step forward, trying to remember what was happening when I heard a damp noise.

I looked down, and saw blood, too much blood, covering the tile floor.

The blood was a deep crimson, almost reflective in its texture, and so rich it caught the eye.

At that moment, it clicked. This was where I took classes when I was in my early teens.

Looking up from the blood, I saw a body, lying between the rows of desks.

It was a young teenager, with dirty blond hair and vacant hazel eyes. His name popped into my head; Tyler. He used to be a classmate of mine.

His blood was such a deep, rich crimson.

I had been... going into visions and subduing magic elements, right?

They had been showing me visions. This was a vision. This was.... just an illusion. It was just an illusion.

I looked at the corpse on the ground and met his blank stare.

....

I tore my mind out of the vision and let out a scream fueled by anger and fear.

As I listened to my own broken voice echo off the cave walls, I registered how pathetic it sounded.

Beginner Blood Magic: Level 1 Acquired