The Forest of Wishes (3) - 68

A/N: Been at the Harvard Debate Tournament for the last few days so yeah, sorry about that, but wasn't able to write. We didn't even make it to out rounds unfortunately, but it was certainly a learning experience.

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Jokes aside, I immediately felt the amount of energy in me increasing as soon as my belly started digesting the two fish.

With one fish consisting of pure blood and the other consisting of pure mana, both energies in my body immediately became invigorated as they fought to circulate throughout my body.

And, due to the fact that I had merged my mana veins with my actual veins, the two energies were currently fighting it out in the exact same area, multiplying the strain on my body by a hundredfold, as my veins seemingly wanted to burst out, causing me to self implode almost.

But, to me, a person with enough concentration and attention to detail to be able to stay for 203,000 years in a space without anybody else in it, it was an easy task to take the reins on the whole situation and so I started using my Reverse Genesis Inclusive Technique.

And, well, what do you know? When you use a technique that is the child of two extremely broken techniques, well, let's just say that the child would be a monster, as I somehow, in less than 10 minutes, absorbed every single last bit of energy that those two fish had had in their bodies, putting me on the verge of breaking through to the second star stage.

Yes, I had just completely surpassed the 1 star stage too, putting me on par with most of the mediocre kids at Pantheon.

And, as they say, any hole is a goal, and so this was already a lot better than I could have ever asked for.

To believe that I could have gotten to 3 stars in such a short amount of time was a naive thought, and one that I had discarded long before, so this was actually a pleasant surprise.

With this, I was already halfway there, halfway to actually achieving a semblance of power in this world that was cruel to the powerless.

But there was a problem here...

Who in the world would have ever thought that eating the fish was the right thing to do to open the inheritance?

As, immediately after I finished "digesting" the fish, I saw a blue, swirling gate appear in front of me, one that eventually started sucking me in with almost no resistance from my side.

After all, who was I to resist the possibility of getting a power-up beyond my imagination?

I wasn't the protagonist, and so I would literally have to grasp every single opportunity no matter how small it was.

'Ah!'

As I thought that one thought, somehow, I broke through a mental barrier, or well, something that really couldn't be described but was best thought of as one such thing, and suddenly remembered where a bunch of smaller opportunities lay.

Was this some god given buff? No, it was probably just myself and my subconscious reorganizing what was most important to me, and I was completely fine with that.

I had just realized that I hadn't been putting my focus on the right thing.

Rather than overpowered opportunities that were dangerous to get, I should just be going to the smaller opportunities that my sister had gotten because of her protagonist's luck instead.

And, with these opportunities being smaller ones, they would really not do anything to affect my sister's performance.

I mean, she was now a lot stronger than the version of herself in the novel at this point in time.

So yeah, it wouldn't hurt anything.

And taking those opportunities wouldn't hurt me either, as opportunities that came from luck were almost always opportunities that she has just stumbled on, and had not needed to fight to get.

I would probably just take maybe one really important thing.

That'd be all...

Ah, anyways, my mind had accidentally gone off on a tangent, so it was about time I really faced the entity in front of me.

I had been moved into a space that, well, according to the beast in front of me, was the setting of one of the most impactful memories in my life.

And well, it sure was, as I stood on a cloud, looking up at the unfiltered night sky from above the stratosphere.

The stars all shining, twinkling, burning brighter than ever, contrasted with a blackness so infinite.

I could even see a few galaxies here and there.

This was my precious memory of the first time I had been in space, having been put here with the rest of the crew by the government so that we could jump on the target unexpectedly.

With no plane to detect as we were literally jumping from a satellite, there would be no troubles with our element of surprised unless they could somehow detect humans with their system.

But then again, we had already switched out all our metal gear with plastic gear, and so, once again, with another redundant measure, there was literally no hope of the enemies detecting us.

And, in the end, this had become one of our most famous missions, although we weren't given the credit.

Just, the assassination of the leader of a terrorist group was probably going to be the most publicized government military operation ever.

There were even movies made about it.

Anyways, once again, having gotten caught up in some bittersweet memories, I finally removed myself from my trance and looked at the "beast" in front of me, right in the eyes.

//Ah, a feisty one has come...//

//Well, what would you do, except try your best to figure out the intentions of the "other" in these circumstances?//

//Good, good. It seems like my long wait will be finally rewarded. But kid, you know that, because this is so "cliche", doesn't mean that my trials will be easy to conquer.//

//After all, I am the one and only Spirit Wanderer.//

//Spirit Wanderer?//