Chapter 48: Immersion
What I need to do now is theoretically simple, but it will take a long time to accomplish in practice.
Additionally, it will be hell for me, the pain won't be trivial at all, the process is difficult, but I have to do it.
The reason why I'll feel pain this time, whereas I don't feel anything when I consume the fruit normally, is quite simple.
First, I want to destroy my muscles to the utmost extent, so I am on the verge of complete bodily paralysis. After I finish doing that, I will start the process of healing my body, which may take longer than usual.
I sighed, the process may be more difficult than I imagined…
I first need to extract the parts of the sacred fruit and separate the destructive part from the healing part. I have to do this for about 40 fruits, concentrating them into two doses.
The first will destroy my body, and the second will heal it. The duration it will take ranges between two to three weeks; I will have already reached the city by that time.
Under normal circumstances, this process wouldn't take all this time, but I clearly lack advanced equipment. I have to do it with what I currently have.
If I had Jin's ability... it's unfortunate that I can't transfer my knowledge and scientific expertise to him... otherwise, everything would be easy….
Wait a moment…
***
I left my room after a bit of sleep, feeling a bit numb. I had stayed awake for several days conducting experiments, and it's only natural that I would reach my limit eventually, even if I possess the Commandment of Sloth.
'I shouldn't repeat this often… it's damaging my brain.' Even after sleeping, I felt a bit of a headache.
I drank some water and ate; I still have the supplies I got from Loana when I first went to the Mountain of Fog.
Thinking about it... I've been through a lot since I came to this world initially…
I remembered my days of depression and laziness; my depression was due to knowing that something like this would happen eventually…
It's really impressive how this world managed to surprise me, even though I know most things about it. And even more impressive is that I did this to myself, what did I do in my life to deserve this?
With deep thoughts, I headed towards the front of the carriage, where Jin was resting with Elara, exchanging a few words. Jin would stop for about three hours a day, wanting to rest and restore his mana reserve to 100%.
Driving this carriage is not only extremely costly but also requires astonishing concentration, and Jin's ability to do this increased my belief in my next step.
Elara looked at me strangely when he saw me; I didn't know how to respond to his gaze.
He is a very complex man, and the worst part is that I don't know much about him, even though I wrote his character.
All I know is that he cares about those around him to some extent, his mentality is mature but heavily biased by his emotions. If I told everyone that the puppet Society still exist, he would be the first to decide to return, without even thinking.
"Hey!" I tried to be polite at least, so I greeted him before looking at Jin, wanting to borrow one of his skills for a bit.
I asked for his help. "Can you help me with something quickly? It won't take much of your time."
Jin looked at Elara and nodded to him. "I'll be back in a moment." He stood up after bidding him farewell and started walking with me towards the nearby room.
The carriage is the size of a bus, so there were only about two meters between my room and the front of the carriage, the overall space was very tight, but it was better than a horse-drawn carriage at least.
This was the best Jin could do with his understanding of carriages; after all, he spent most of his life working under Loana, and I doubt she allowed him to learn much.
"What do you want?" Jin looked at me after closing the door and tilted his head slightly.
"Please sit." I pointed him towards the far edge of the room and immediately sat opposite him.
"I will try to use the
The Immersion skill allows the user and the target to share their senses, emotions, thoughts, and state. By using it, I can transfer certain information to Jin's mind, but there is a limit to it.
I gathered the information I wanted in my mind, eliminating all unnecessary thoughts to use the skill.
The process took longer than I anticipated; I didn't want to transfer unnecessary things to Jin's mind when using the skill, as that might result in something flawed.
After purging my mind of all unnecessary thoughts, I used the skill.
My and Jin's eyes widened at the same time, then everything around me turned white. That lasted only for a second, as our minds quickly adapted to the unfamiliar effect.
I felt like Jin and I had merged into one body, the feeling was strange and difficult to describe.
The closest description I could imagine was: Imagine you have a third hand, it's there but you can't see or feel it, try to move it now.
The feeling you get when you try to move it is what we felt now, but multiplied by dozens of times, maybe more.
It was very strange, it made me feel somewhat helpless, it was good that it lasted only for a second.
I took a deep breath and tried to share with Jinn all the thoughts that were in my mind.
Fortunately, the process is somewhat automatic, and doesn't require much control from my side, making it much faster for both of us.
What I shared with Jin were parts of my studies on the sacred fruit over several days, information about how the fruit grows, the types of materials inside, and much more…
My understanding of this fruit reached very high levels after studying it for days and being exposed to its effects for months. The information transfer ended after about ten minutes, using the
The third-hand feeling stopped after the fifth activation of the skill, maybe our minds had already gotten used to that effect.
When I finally finished transferring the important information, I noticed that my mind had reached its limits, my ability to transfer all this information continuously was thanks to my high wisdom stats.
Sweat trickled down my forehead, I leaned my back against the wall, looked at the ceiling for a while, then looked at Jin.
"What do you think?" I asked without hesitation, hoping he understood some things at least.
"This is really strange, knowing certain scientific materials deeply, while being ignorant of the basics…" I saw a hint of tension on his face for the first time since I met him, enough evidence of the complexity of the information I sent to his mind.
"What do you even want to do with these materials? Its sole purpose is to destroy your body!" Jin spoke in a confused tone, still not understanding why I wanted this material.
The reason goes mostly back to the fact that I transferred half the complete information; he now knows only about the destructive part of the fruit, teaching him about the healing part requires trying again after a long rest.
My mind has reached its limits now, it might explode if I push it more than this…
"You know how the body gets stronger, right?" I was extremely tired, but still tried to explain.
"Stressing the muscles, then resting. That's the natural process at least, and that doesn't include completely destroying them." He seemed to have some general knowledge about this topic at least…
I responded, "We don't completely destroy them because the body can't rebuild them from scratch, but what if I told you there's a material that can do this instead of the body? And without leaving any side effects."
Jin's eyes widened, he put his hand on his chin and started thinking a bit, "Are you talking about those fruits? I heard they have an effect on the body, but that comes at the cost of severe addiction!"
I thought about his words a bit, then replied, "You're right, but in the past few days, I've completely analyzed it, I want to concentrate the fruit's effect to the utmost extent, then apply it to my body."
He looked at me for a second, then spoke, "Are you serious? Just from the information I got now, I can say that this idea is extremely bad, no human can withstand this effect…"
I wanted to respond, but he interrupted and continued.
"Is this to heal your injury? I'm sure there are other solutions for it!"
He was extremely worried… is it because my death means his death? I can somewhat understand.
"There are other solutions, but all of them are currently out of reach…"
Jin wanted to respond, but I didn't let him.
"You can go now, Elara is waiting for you."
"…" he didn't respond, looked at me with a strange expression, sighed, then left through the door.
"As you wish." Those were the last words I heard before the door closed. I fell asleep immediately after, my exhaustion reaching its peak.