Once more, I want to say that my journey went smoothly and without a hitch, but…

Well, for once that was actually true. That was the easiest I have had it since forever. Even though I had to travel on foot and I was slow, it was pretty nice.

As usual, the weather was great, like seemingly always in this place, the nights warm and I have not met anyone on my way towards the coast.

I was wondering if that was normal though. After all, this was THE road - the main way to get to Kruro. But then I remembered what I heard about the city - it was not under Axelrod’s government. If the people really saw him as that great and powerful ruler, there was no reason for anyone to try and escape his reach.

On the other hand, since he was that “great” and all that, you’d think that all the thugs and otherwise shady rabble would’ve been gathering here, but when I was here last time, the place seemed as normal as it gets. Some fishermen and regular folk, but not people that you’d imagine when you thought of a village outside a governed kingdom.

When you think about it, I was not sure that the info I had was even real. After all, I got it from people that actively were supporting him so who the fuck knows what was true or not - for all I knew that could’ve been just a propaganda to try and catch the inexperienced thugs. Hell, that wasn’t even that far fetched of a thought - after all that is where Rubo was going and exactly where the trap for him and us was laid by Odar.

Not like that mattered. I was not going to stay there nor even try to enter the village if possible.

Speaking of safety. The whole time I’ve been on the road, I’ve been using my mana sense. Main reason was, of course, to keep track of my surroundings and to scout for any danger. Or maybe landmarks. But the second thing was, I also wanted to finally get a better grip on my abilities as this strange creature I’ve become.

I already knew that I was able to absorb mana from the environment and everything that I touched to replenish my own, while also sustaining myself this way. The crystal also increased my mana capacity immensely. Besides that, I also noticed a couple other things that had changed with me.

First of all, I actually was able to regenerate, as I suspected. It was a slow process, but during those couple of days on the road, my ear didn’t exactly grow back, but it was getting there - the stub of my ear got slightly larger. If I was to compare the speed, it was most likely similar to when the crystal was spreading through my fleshy body before. Even the requirements were seemingly similar - it only grew when I absorbed bigger amounts of mana from the environment or some other poor target.

And yes, I was indeed draining some mana on my way. I did not just grab a full tree or something - I was not going to make a trail that would lead even a blind person towards me, no. Every now and again, during nights, I stopped to get a “rest”. But instead of sleeping or something like that, I was gathering certain herbs.

While the fauna and flora that was present here was quite familiar, some of the plants were new to me - and those were exactly ones that I was interested in.

My hunch was right apparently. The herbs I’ve been looking for were those strange flowers, somewhat similar to daisies, that during nights were very easy to spot - they were glowing with dim, blue light. It somewhat reminded me of the glow I was emitting when I absorbed too much mana, although a different shade of it.

That observation was on point.

The flowers were full of mana. Almost too full if you ask me. Some that I found were so saturated that one was enough for me to start glowing again, albeit very briefly. For some reason my body was going through the excess mana quicker than usual. Not like I was complaining, it was better to NOT be a glowing beacon in the darkness of night. Although with all those flowers, if I was to hide in some bush I probably could pass as yet another plant with glowing flowers. Not like that mattered, there was no one nearby anyway.

There was also one interesting thing about those plants. While I was gathering and draining them slowly one night, I also found a small patch of them a bit deeper into the forest that looked like they were already losing petals. The forest floor was littered with them, glowing all over, making the place look pretty.

I sort of expected that the plants that already lost most of their petals would be dying and had a lot less mana, but no. While the glow was apparently tied to the flower petals themselves, the mana content was not. Just one look with magic sense was enough to see that those that were seemingly dying had even more mana than the fresh ones.

Fascinated, I started gathering those ones as well, just to notice that they were not actually wilting. Instead, the center of the flowers in question were turning hard and thick, almost like a nut. Very similar to mana fruit.

Not very similar. Those WERE the mana fruit.

Hah. Weren’t they supposed to grow on trees or whatever? Not just to look like some random daisies on the side of the road? Glowing, but still.

That was fortunate. Happy with the discovery, I gathered a bunch of those and stuffed some in - as I was lacking pockets or a bag for that matter - folds of my clothes. Being very careful not to touch it with my crystal, of course. I failed a few times, turning a handful of them into ash.

At least I had some supplies for once.

The ash that I inevitably was creating was luckily pretty easy to dispose of. The smaller plants or fruit were leaving dust so brittle that it was even thinner than sand, so I just was scattering it on the wind, not like anyone would be able to find it anyway.

The larger fruit, and some branches that I inevitably accidentally drained I had to hide. I had to dig a small hole with my own hands and dump it there, just to be on the safe side.

It was actually harder than I anticipated, on grounds of accidentally making even more plants to dispose of. After turning a small pile of wood and even a good chunk of soil gray, I stopped trying to be stupid and just started using magic. I just lifted a bunch of earth and dumped all the garbage, covering it again. I was thinking of trying to get some leaves or something to cover the freshly disturbed earth, but I thought that was an overkill.

First of all, how the hell would anyone find something like that? What, they have some trained dogs that can sniff out mana disturbances or some shit?

Nah. I probably was just paranoid. I honestly doubted that anyone would even come remotely close to this place, not even to mention being able to notice a small patch of ground with drained mana.

Would anyone look for me anyway?

It did not seem like it, because after a week on the trail, nothing had changed.

I didn’t really bother to try and track time properly, nor was I in any rush, but I feel like it took me about two weeks to finally reach a place where I started noticing the presence of other people.

At first it startled me, used to the emptiness of the forests for that long time. I instantly wanted to hide and wait them out, just to notice that what I felt was just a house not too far from the road, a bit deeper into the forest.

After another minute of walking, I started feeling even more people, meaning I finally reached the coast. Sure enough, soon I also felt the ocean as well.

See, with my, now enhanced, mana sense, I actually was able to tell the difference between the wooded area and the water. I could even tell where the beach and the sea was starting, that is if I paid enough attention. I mean, you did not need to be a genius to figure that out. While the trees and the overall plants of the forest had a certain pattern to them, or rather the mana that they had was easily distinguishable from each other. It was sort of like a large patch of irregularly scattered dots: random bushes, trees, the mana fruit flowers - all of them having different amounts of mana to them.

On the other hand, the sea and ocean - both somewhat similar - had a regular, well, liquid form. The mana was nicely and regularly spread throughout both of them, with the sea having less and less mana the further away it was getting from the coast, until it hit a certain spot where the amount started to equalize.

That gave me a nice estimation of the area I found myself in, and somewhat confirmed that it was indeed the place I was aiming to reach. Thanks to my mana sense, I recognized some spots in the town even. Especially one - the large ship with a lot of people - the tavern.

I was not planning on actually entering the town though. When I got close enough for me to see the shapes of the buildings in the distance, I stepped off the path and started walking parallel to the coast, in the direction of my ship that I hoped was still there.

But the signs were not exactly encouraging.

While I needed to slow my walk, because I had to walk through some overgrown parts of the forest, as well as the ground was slowly getting more sandy, making the situation even worse, I did not stop using my mana sense.

Well, I say I did not stop, but I have to admit, I actually could not. I noticed that a long while ago, when I first started recovering with the mana fruit on the road. It was slightly annoying, because it was not just “an additional sense”, so to speak, that I had now. It was also affecting my eyesight.

While I still was able to see all the things like a normal person would, besides that I also was constantly seeing the “flames” of things, like I would be while I was focusing on sensing mana. I only started realizing that when I noticed that the “mana flowers”, let’s call them, were starting to glow more and more each night, to the point where I could see their glow even in full light during the day.

That was not the only thing though. I also noticed that my eyes were starting to emit the same light, although it was very faint. That one I noticed later, when I saw the reflection of the light in my own body, in complete darkness, under the full canopy of the forest, far away from any mana flowers.

Luckily it was not that bright - it looked just like I had two dying embers for eyes - two white dots in the darkness.

Kinda spooky. And yet another reason for me to try and hide my face from the general public.

But, back on topic. As I was making my way towards the coast, I was starting to be concerned, as I was not feeling any signs of the boat anywhere.

I mean it shouldn’t be surprising, right? The boat was after all made out of dead wood, so what was there to be felt?

A lot actually.

I sort of expected to instantly recognize it, as inside it did have a big magic circle. Also, I did leave the boat disguised… I think?

I mean sure, combat with Odar was hectic and I couldn’t really recall what exactly went down but I was pretty sure that I did hide the boat, just to be on the safe side.

But that did not mean that Odar himself did not tamper with it. He did attack us and he was quite competent. I couldn’t really expect that he would just leave it without inspecting…

If he noticed that is. Or if that other guy didn’t just straight up tell him.

Truth be told, I sort of was banking on him being distracted. But, since I was not feeling any mana remnants, I was preparing for the bad news and the inevitable trip to the town. I probably would have to steal some clothes to not entice panic.

Apparently, I was worried for nothing. While I did not feel any spells in the area, as soon as I emerged from the forest on the beach where the boat was supposed to be anchored - it was still there.

No illusion, no nothing - just beached there. Maybe a bit deeper in the water, but there. That was actually a good thing - it was probably going to be hard to try and get it moving again if it would be completely beached. Now it even looked ready to sail - swaying on the water slightly.

Happy that it was actually there, I gave it a slow walkaround. From where I was, I did not see any damage, nor any signs of tampering, so I promptly walked into the water in an attempt to get on.

That’s when I realized that I’m going to have a problem. While it was nice that the boat was already on the water, ready to sail - would it be thanks to some water tides or whatever would that be - to actually get on board, I would have to swim.

I mean, not a problem right? It was not far and if you can swim, with water being as calm as it was, it should be a piece of cake.

Yeah I thought so too.

The key part was “if you can swim”. And yes, I could swim. Or, as I soon realized, I USED TO.

Apparently having your body turned into a large piece of rock can mess with your buoyancy. Who knew? Well, I learned that a bit abruptly. It never even came to my mind that THAT would be a problem that this body would give me.

Like a wet dog, I started waddling out of the water, soaked to the brim after my “swim”, thinking how the hell should I get on?

There was the stupid way - try and make some raft, or just straight up get a piece of wood to hold onto and paddle towards it. Not the worst idea.

There was a fancy way - try magic yourself a solution.

While it was tempting to be stupid, I decided against it. Magic it was then.

The question though, what spell exactly?

My mind immediately went to the fly spell and I squinted in pain, remembering the failure the spell was.

Eventually I decided to use ice.

I conjured a small orb of frost that I slowly lowered towards the water. Even though the salt water was not the easiest one to freeze, the sea was pretty calm, so I did not have to worry about my footing breaking. I quickly managed to freeze a large patch of water starting just at the coast and ending right next to the anchored boat.

While I had enough mana to redo the spell even a hundred times over, I was in a hurry.

Maybe even too much in a hurry, because just as I was to reach the boat, I slipped. It was ice after all, and my feet were not exactly built to have a better grip on frozen surfaces.

With a loud crash I fell right on my back, breaking through the layer of ice and dropping the spell in surprise. Not my best moment, I admit.

I did manage to grab onto the vine that was used as an anchor though. Didn’t help me much, because I almost immediately lost my grip anyway and started sinking right to the bottom of the sea.

I started flailing wildly, frantically thinking about a spell that would get me to the surface before my lungs filled with salt water.

But yeah, that did not happen.

Either of those. I did not think of a spell that would save my sorry ass from this situation, but not because I lost control and started drowning from the shock.

I mean, I was shocked, but for a different reason.

I realized that I did not have to breathe.

In hindsight, that was sort of obvious. After all, I was made out of rock, and who said that it was only from the outside? Well, if I was not sure about that, this event cleared that out immediately.

I sank to the bottom of the sea quite quickly. It was not that deep to begin with, but was enough for me to stand straight at the sandy bottom and see the surface about two meters above my head. Now, already after the initial shock, I gazed around in amazement. The water was clear and almost completely see-through. The floor was flat and almost completely lacking any kind of plantlife. Nor could I see any fauna for that matter, but that was just most likely because I was too close to the shore. Or I just scared all the fish with my flailing.

Now, a bit calmer about the situation, I realized that I was not exactly correct. I was still breathing, just like I was before. I didn’t just stop and fail to notice it - while probably that would be possible, that was not the case.

I was breathing with the water. Can you even call that breathing?

I could feel the water flow through me as I was slowly trying to understand this strange feeling. It wasn’t unpleasant though. Quite the opposite. I was feeling… rejuvenated. But that I quickly realized was not just because of the water, but because of the mana flowing within it.

While not very potent, the sea was still full of infused water. And submerged, I was steadily absorbing the mana from it - as indicated by the glow that slowly was starting to spread through my body again, this time appearing as if it was from the inside.

Right, my lungs were full of water…Wait, did I even have those anymore? How the fuck did that work?

Curious, I forced myself to hold my breath. I didn’t know what I expected, but, alas, nothing happened. While consciously trying to stop myself breathing was a very strange sensation, besides that, nothing changed. I stood there a good minute, just making sure, gazing into the underwater scenery.

Well, that was quite the development. I took a good watery breath, amusing myself with the feeling of water flowing through my body again, and started… walking forward.