Chapter 9

I wake up in an empty space.

Everything around me was a mixture of gray and black. There was no source of light, but it was as if you could see anything if there were something present there.

It was a scene of contradictions, of utter chaos and order.

The sense of time was distorted, I don't even know how much time I spent in this space.

Wait, didn't I just get here????

I do not even know what happened here. It is all a confusing experience.

There wasn't anything to do in this space. It's nothing new, but this place is even more bland than the forest.

Let's just observe the space for now. Who knows, maybe I would get something out of it.

And I did, just that the space was as bland as ever with nothing worthy to be noticed.

There appeared nineteen runes in the space. Each more profound than the other.

The runes of heaven and hell. That name appeared in my mind. At least that was the way it feels. It's not a pleasant experience for knowledge to drill itself into your mind.

Every one of the runes appeared ancient, holy, and profane at the same time. It is existence bearing the same concept as the space surrounding me.

I tried to see with details what the runes were.

An immense oppression came bearing me down the moment I tried to.

I'm not even the least bit injured, but my body feels as if it weighs tons. There was also an uncomfortable sensation spreading, not from my body, but from something more ethereal.

I tried to wait for some time before experimenting again.

And so, I entered a circle of rest and self-harm. I concentrated in one rune, trying to see the other ones from time to time.

Each time I recovered I could observe a little bit more of the rune.

One day has passed since the first time I tried to study the rune, or at least that's what I think, it could have been months, weeks, or years, but as said earlier, the time here is messed up.

My progress with the rune wasn't that great. I tried to carve it in the void as if writing a letter, it didn't work.

Normally, or at least what I think it's normal, if you carve a run in the air, it would glow and then it would explode into little particles.

This one didn't do anything, it just stayed in the void. It's not that this place doesn't have qi in it, it's just that the function of the rune isn't clear to me, so I can't replicate it.

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Quite a bit of time has passed since I have come here, and it's starting to get on my nerves this space void of anything except some runes.

The good thing is that finally I can see something in those runes. It's like now I can move in this space.

All of the eighteen runes are made of little runes, and those little runes are also made of runes.

That was the reason why just writing it in the void don't do anything.

Now this has gave me another reason to stay here, it was getting monotonous just looking at the eighteen primordial runes.

Now I can look at the runes directly without needing a pause to rest. So, let's try to study those runes once more.

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I lost my sense of time entirely. I don't even know how much time I've spent studying the runes. I'm even starting to lose myself in this space. I don't know with certainty who I am or what I am.

-Why am I studying the runes in the first place? -

The words getting out of my mouth are raspy, there is even some distant echo. Like mocking the fact that I'm all alone in this space.

-Let's just drift about in this space hoping to get out of here someday. -

I left my work with the runes; I think that I already made enough progress in that.

So, I left the runes behind and started to drift in the space.

Like that, I lost consciousness entirely.

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It's been three days since I started running. I've already depleted all my energy, but it was a necessary thing to do.

The thing that fell from the sky is a drop of some liquid ta can enhance the speed at which someone can evolve.

This can be a powerful enhancement to my companion who is unable to absorb cores, as he calls them.

I haven't seen him in quiet a while. I think I lost him the first day. He'll be fine if he doesn't try to get deeper into the mountain.

He's quite weak but can be a good companion, making some delicious food with all the material I get him.

I'm salivating just thinking about it.

I shall not lose focus here; I still needs to get back towards our territory. Maybe my companion could already be waiting there with an enormous amount of food in stock.

Let's just hope that no one can find me after all the amount of effort I've put into hiding myself, and all of our traces.

It's been one week since I've found the liquid. Now I would try to go back towards our territory, but even now I would try to erase all kind of traces that could lend some enemy into our safe place.

After going around some more, and cleaning all kind of traces out there, I finally made it into our territory.

It was a wonderful sensation, to get back to a safe place. Even the acid fruits seemed delicious enough to be eaten as they are, without even an ounce of sugar.

What a great day to eat a sumptuous meal prepared by my companion!!!!

I ran directly towards the center trying to see my companion.

In the end, I was disappointed. There wasn't anything in our territory, just the thing that my companion calls a "house". Everything was the same way when we left one week ago.

My companion was nowhere to see.