I open my eyes and see nothing but darkness, but I can feel myself swaying side to side so I'm either on a ship or in my hammock. I feel a cool cloth being placed on my forehead.

"Ruby?"

Ruby says "Oh! You are finally awake!"

I suddenly feel a weight on my chest, Ruby is lying across me hugging me hard and crying. I raise my right hand to stroke her hair.

"Shh, shh, it's alright. I'm sorry I scared you, I'm back now."

Ruby says "You've been asleep for three days! I was so worried you would never wake up!"

I hold Ruby gently until the tears stop. As I hold her I can't help but think, this was worth coming back for, no matter the pain I go through or the hatred I have to face, this is my world now, and I am glad for it.

"You sound exhausted, did you stay up the entire time I was asleep?"

Ruby says "Yes, I had to take care of you, you have a fever."

"It's okay now, I will meditate and take care of it."

Ruby says "Umm, also, your leg where you were bitten has turned to stone, and it is slowly spreading."

"That's why it hurts so much and feels so heavy, I will see what I can do about that too. But you need to rest, you can join me in the inner world while you are resting."

Ruby says "Okay, I do need to rest. But you call me if anything goes wrong!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

I smile in her direction before her weight vanishes and I assume she has returned to the amulet. I slowly get myself out of the hammock, I have to balance on my right leg since my left won't hold any weight.

I hop over in the direction of my practice area, I have the camp layout firmly in my head and can almost see it as I move through it. When I get there I sit down and force my legs into my meditating position then I quickly enter into the inner world to see how bad things are.

The first thing I check is my eyes, the eyes themselves and the optic nerves are undamaged, but when I look outside of them I see a complex tangle of mana covering them. So it is a spell effect of some sort, annoying but that won't kill me, so I look at the rest of my body.

The fever is from my body trying to fight the poison, I can see it in my left leg where I was bitten and spreading out from there along the veins. So the poison is in my blood and slowly spreading and turning me to stone, this is what will kill me if I can't stop it.

Before I start, I check the amulet in my chest and can tell Ruby is inside and sound asleep. I let her rest and focus back on my left leg, I zoom in on the blood in my leg and start tracking down and destroying the poison one drop at a time.

It takes me a few hours to eradicate all the poison, that stops the spread but does nothing for the part of my leg that is already turned to stone. I try several things but can't figure out how to return the stone parts to flesh. I can think of only one way to fix my leg but I know it's going to hurt a lot.

So I take out black razor and clench my teeth, then I cut into my leg. I scream through my teeth as the knife cuts through my leg, but I keep going until I have cut out all the stone. It leaves a gaping hole in my leg but the stone is gone so I return to meditating and focus all my healing energies on my leg. The wound slowly closes over the next hour or so.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Pain Resist has progressed to level 5!

Pain Resist

Level 5

You feel 50% less pain.

Physical damage reduced by 5%.

Once the wound seals I fall out of meditation and drop onto the ground on my back panting and whimpering from the pain. The skill helps reduce the pain but I can't wait till it is level ten, I am hoping I won't feel pain anymore at that point. Once the pain fades I stand up and test out my leg, it works perfectly, and my fever is gone too.

Now all that is left is my eyes, but before that, I'm starving! I walk over to where I keep my net and feel around before grabbing it. I walk over to the river, it takes me a few tries before I am able to cast the net properly blind. I can't see the fish so I have to keep casting it over and over before I get lucky and net a pair of fish.

Cleaning and preparing them blind isn't anywhere near as hard and I quickly cook them up and devour them. After eating I find the Armatite bar and channel all my mana into it then climb into my hammock and sleep for ten hours.

When I wake up I am relieved that I didn't have any dreams, I get up and stretch. I walk over and sit down in the practice area, then I enter the inner world and call out to Ruby.

'Ruby, are you awake?'

Ruby says "Yes, master, I am here."

"Good, I hope you are feeling better."

Ruby says "I am, I'm not fully rested but I feel much better now. So did you need something?"

"Yes, I want you to take a look at my eyes with me. This tangled mess is what is keeping me blind I think, what would happen if I cut the strands?"

Ruby says "Well, I can't be sure, but my best guess is it would explode."

"Ugh, nope not doing that. So my only option is to try and untangle that mess?"

Ruby says "I think so. Unless you know a spell to dissipate the mana, unraveling it is probably the only other way to remove it."

"Nope, I don't know any spells like that, the hard way it is!"

Ruby says "Do you want me to help you?"

"No, thank you. Go back to sleep for now. I may need your help later though."

Ruby says "Okay, be safe!"

I wait until I sense Ruby is asleep before I start studying the tangle of mana looking for a loose end to start from. To me it looks like a ball of yarn after a kitten has been playing with it for a few hours. It takes me a while of searching before I finally find the end of the thread that I am looking for.

I mentally grab a hold of it and pull it through the first of many loops to free a bit more, as I untangle the thread bit by bit I realize this is going to take me a long time. I manage to free a few inches of the thread when suddenly what I have freed disappears and I feel a headache.

MP: 705/505

*DING*

Congratulations! You have acquired the magic skill Disenchanting!

Disenchanting

Level 1

Int +2 Wis +2 Mana +10

You can remove an enchantment and recover 10% of the mana.

'I have more mana than my maximum? Is that why my head hurts?'

So I recovered mana from untangling the thread of mana? This could be really useful! I quickly go over and grab the Armatite bar and channel all my mana into it.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Channeling has progressed to level 4!

Channeling

Level 4

Int +4 Mana +40

You are experienced at channeling mana.

I wonder if this would work on all those enchanted weapons? If so that could be an easy way to finish filling the Armatite bar and finish my mana veins as well. I will try it later after I can see again.

For now I return to unraveling the mess of mana because I really want to see again. For the next two days I keep at it, only stopping when my mana is full to channel it into the Armatite bar and to get food when my hunger interrupts my meditation.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Disenchanting has progressed to level 2!

Disenchanting

Level 2

Int +4 Wis +4 Mana +20

You can remove an enchantment and recover 10% of the mana.

At this point I have unraveled about half the blinding spell as far as I can tell. I wonder if all spells are this complex or if it is because it was the beast's ability. I simply don't know enough about the magic of this world or the rules, I just keep stumbling along blindly trying things to see if they work.

Not having much choice I resume untangling the mana threads, it is getting harder and harder as I get deeper into the tangle. Each time I free a section of thread, what's left tightens as if the spell is resisting being unwoven. At this point I am not sure if I am going to be able to completely unravel it or what exactly will happen when I do.