A few days have passed in a blur and the forest calmed down once more.

In recent days, Gerald hunted down and killed a few dozen wild animals and drank their blood. Although a lot of it fell on the ground and soaked in the dirt, the amount he consumed was still immense.

He was soaked in blood from head to toe and the dried blood on his clothes turned a disgusting blackish-brown color.

There was at least one good piece of news in all of this. Gerald's sanity slowly returned, and although he still felt great hunger, his mind was now under his control.

He was currently squatting down near an animal he had just recently killed and he was gorging on its blood and flesh.

Suddenly, Gerald stopped what he was doing and a flame ignited on his hand, quickly growing and turning into a flaming ball.

"Stop! If you take one more step forward I'll burn you to a crisp!" Gerald warned without even seeing the newcomers.

His mind detected a few dozen living beings behind him when they entered his detection radius. He slowly turned around, blood still dripping from his lips, only to see a wolf pack led by a giant Silverback.

The animal was even bigger than the last one he fought before. This one had much whiter fur and was the size of a grown-up horse.

But Gerald wasn't afraid. Fur burns easily, and he was alone here, which meant he didn't have to hold back while fighting.

The Silverback lifted his head sideways and then slowly spoke, "We mean you no harm, human."

"Then why the fuck are you sneaking up on me?!" Gerald roared back. Although he had some control over himself, he was still getting easily irritated.

But his aggression did not bother the Silverback. It was an intelligent animal and it knew that the human was not in his right state of mind.

"Don't worry, we were just following after you because of the food you left behind. It was not our intention to bother you," the Silverback slowly spoke.

"Aha!" Gerald jumped up and Stone Spikes rose from the ground as he continued to rage, "I knew it! You are after my food after all! Prepare to die, beast!"

"Wait! You are not in the right state of mind! We don't wanna fight you!"

Gerald roared, "Bullshit! I'm here, starving, and you are trying to get my prey! Don't you try to persuade me with your sweet words! It won't work on me!"

The Silverback saw that its words had no effect, so it slowly retreated with the wolf pack. While retreating it continued to converse with Gerald to keep him from attacking, "It appears you are suffering from Eternal Hunger, human. I can help you solve that problem!"

"Hmm?! What Eternal Hunger bullshit? What are you even talking about? Scram or I will burn you to ashes!" Gerald continued to threaten, but the words Eternal Hunger got stuck in his mind. He was, after all, suffering from unending hunger.

The giant Silverback made use of the opportunity and continued by saying, "That's right! You are not the only one that experienced Eternal Hunger! Try eating the stones that contain Nature's Energy, it will help satiate you!"

Gerald was listening to the beast speak and the fire burning in his hand slowly extinguished. He did not trust the Silverback and his eyes narrowed when he asked, although he didn't scream anymore, "What are you talking about, what Nature's energy?"

The Silverback pointed with its snout towards Gerald's last kill, "There, behind you. That stone on the forehead… That's the Nature's Stone containing Nature's Energy."

"Etherium Crystals?" Gerald looked at the animal on the floor.

"Is that what you humans call them? Well, if you consume that you will feel better."

Gerald was still skeptical. Headmaster Orin warned him that consuming Ether Crystals was dangerous and could result in spontaneous combustion.

Although, that only happened if a great amount was consumed and there would be no harm if he only gave it a little try, right?

Gerald kneeled down and took out a knife to carve the stone out of the skull. He still kept most of his attention on the wolf pack though.

"Just placing it in your mouth should suffice to verify that what I'm saying is the truth," the Silverback continued to encourage Gerald.

So, although skeptical, ultimately, Gerald brought the crystal to his mouth and lightly bit down on it.

Surprisingly, it was much softer than Gerald expected. It had a texture similar to cartilage and it did not feel like a stone at all, despite what he expected.

"This is so stupid…" Gerald commented as he tasted the bland Ether Crystal, but then he started to feel his mouth tingle.

The feeling quickly spread across his face and head, continuing to expand across his entire body.

It somehow felt similar to the feeling you would get after eating sugar after a few days of starvation. It was quite pleasant actually.

But then the feeling slowly dissipated and Gerald was left with a mouthful of dust and sand.

The Ether melted and was absorbed into his body and only the impurities in the crystal were left. And because the crystal was poor-grade, that meant that the remaining disgusting mass accounted for around 99%.

"Pfft, pah!" Gerald spat out the sandy remains.

The Silverback was right though, Gerald's hunger lessened quite a bit. Just that small piece, had half the effect the blood gave him, in the last few days.

"Is my hunger related to Ether? Is that why I was craving blood?" Gerald spoke to himself. But it made sense, apart from the Ether Crystals, the part that contained most Ether was blood.

Of course, Gerald never expected to suffer such severe side effects due to Ether deficiency. Mostly because he was under the impression that it was dangerous to consume it in great amounts.

But, in the end, the Mana Elixirs did not contain enough and he almost lost his mind because of it.

'Wait, is that the reason Wargs are so bloodthirsty and aggressive? They become Wargs after they are starved for sustenance for a while after all,' Gerald thought.

It would make sense if that was the case. Ether deficiency appeared to have some quite severe side effects if it went on for the long term. Just the thought of it was quite scary.

Gerald turned to the pack once more, "So, what's the real reason you came to me? I don't believe you just came to help me. State your real reason!"

"Your hunting disrupted the peace in the forest, human. Everyone is on high alert because of you and that makes it much harder for us to hunt. So we came to ask you to stop, but since you were affected by Eternal Hunger we can understand," the Silverback stated what was on its mind.

"Is that it?" Gerald squinted his eyes skeptically, "Hmm, if that's the case you can rest easy, I'll leave soon, don't worry."

"Thank you. Then we will leave you alone for now." The Silverback left these words and then it bowed its head down as a gesture of respect and it then turned around and left.

The wolf pack soon followed and Gerald was left alone once more.

"Phew," Gerald breathed after it was all over.

The last few days were quite hectic, but even though he was in a state of confusion and bloodlust, he kept all of his memories. He was quite well aware of everything that happened.

Also, his control over magic increased once more. He could now use spells almost without thinking. They became an extension of him and not just a tool he had to think about when using.

Magic could be considered to have become a part of his reflexes or muscle memory.

Mages all across the continent strived towards faster spell-casting and more powerful spells in general. Achieving a wordless spell-casting was considered the peak of skill and speed, and every mage that was capable of using it for the spells of his rank was highly respected and revered.

And currently, Gerald was capable of lightning-speed wordless magic, but for the sake of keeping a somewhat low profile, he decided to hide that fact.

It was always good to have a hidden ace in case his enemies tried to do him harm. The more secrets someone has, the harder it is to prepare for a successful strike.

Unknown variables are always the most dangerous after all.