The winds blow in his face, and Nolan shudders in pain. The sun was moving toward the horizon as the day was nearing its end. Their first day will soon come to its end.
Looking at his degrading body, which was getting worse by the second, he tried hastening his feet, but even that was proving to be hard.
Looking at the spear which he was using as support, he whispers, "If it weren't for the enchantment... I would've long been dead..."
To conserve his essence a few minutes earlier, he had dismissed the Ember, but the moment he did that, the enhancement he was receiving from the [Drenched] and [Blood Trial] vanished.
And, the moment it vanished, the strength left his body, and he just dropped on the ground without any resistance at all.
Shaking his head, he somehow moved his feet, taking one step after another.
It was fortunate that the tree was close by, and unfortunate that he had decided to make a tree his base. Turning his head upside, he looked at the gigantic tree and muttered,
"How am I supposed to climb this thing... in this condition?"
He looked at his feet, and as if knowing what was coming, both of his feet were already trembling in protest, as if they were saying, 'Not today, master.'
Sighing, Nolan considered everything and whispered, "Looks like we have to spend the night in the skull..." Looking at the crow who was circling above his head, he added, "... what do you think, crow?"
Caw! Caw!...
Shaking his head, he muttered, "Well, I don't know the crow language, but I will take that as yes."
Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself and somehow climbed the skull in one go and went inside through its eye socket.
Looking around, he couldn't help but think aloud, "Now that I think about it... Isn't this place more secure than the top of the tree..."
A few seconds later, Nolan nodded his head while looking at the only entry point—the eye socket—which was toward the very top. There was another crack, but it was at the very back and was only small enough for something small to fit in. Even he, after trying his best, could barely get out of it.
Looking at the area around it, he came to another conclusion, "...There is no way Gralliths could climb this high... and those slow Shrooms will not be able to enter as well."
After considering everything, he decided to make the giant skull his temporary base and began sweeping the area inside of it. Cleaning the area a bit, he removed the shirt and put it on the ground and placed his shirt on the ground.
After putting the organs there, he laid the essence stones and was about to pick one when the crow landed in front of him and began pecking at one of the shards.
Looking at the crow with a hint of interest, Nolan muttered, "Do you want one as well..."
Caw! Caw!.. the crow replied, continuing to peck at the shards.
"Look at your greedy ass... aren't we gonna make a great team.... here... enjoy while you can." Pushing a shard toward the crow, he picked one for himself. The moment his hand touched the shard, a screen appeared in front of him:
[Do you want to absorb the essence shard?]
Reading the notification, instead of doing anything, he just continued staring at it. After looking at it for a while, he desired to know about the essence shard, but unlike previously, no new information magically popped into his mind.
'Hmmm! Do I have to trie---.' Nolan was contemplating what to do when something interesting caught his attention.
'Huh! I can eat it?' he thought, looking at how the crow had picked the shard and swallowed it in one go.
Placing the shard back on the ground, he paid close attention to the bird, wanting to know if anything would happen to it.
Will there be any changes?
But when nothing happened a minute later, he couldn't help but be disappointed. He didn't know what to expect... but "nothing" was not something he had in his mind.
'So, is it like a food source?..' After seeing that a native of this world was comfortable eating it, Nolan came to this simple conclusion.
'At least there is no side effect... should I eat it as well?' Confused, Nolan picked the shard again. The same notification appeared in front of him.
[Do you want to absorb the essence shard?]
This time, instead of being silent, he whispered, "Yes..."
The moment he said those words, the shard in his hand melted and got absorbed into his skin. He waited for a second, but he couldn't feel any change at all. It didn't seem like it was food, as there wasn't any effect on him.
"tsk!... nothing happe—" he was about to finish his words when something indeed happened... something very significant.
Ahhh!
Nolan cried in pain as his head began to burn for a moment. He was about to regret absorbing the shard... but the increasing pain didn't give him enough time to think about the nonsense.
The heat remained trapped inside his head for a moment, but after a while, it began to move.
Like a wave of string, it moved out of the head and circled around his heart for a second. Moving on to the stomach, it remained there for more than a few seconds.
After which it reached his navel... there, something else happened as some of the heat got absorbed there... soon the heat reached his leg before circling back to his head.
The same thing repeated itself multiple times until all the heat was absorbed by his navel.
When everything finished, Nolan came back to his senses, 'Huh! What was that?'
Confused by the sudden assault of a wave of heat and how it had gone even quicker, he inspected himself to check if something had happened.
'S-Something had changed!?' He could feel a change... a deep, fundamental change within himself, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't point his hand to it.
'Wait a minute...' Something clicked inside as he quickly went and checked his desire, and sure enough, at the very bottom, something had indeed changed,
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[Rank: Primor]
[Rank Description: Like everything else, you are a spark left of the primordial. Now, charged with purpose, you are to traverse your own path, guided by the force of Desire.]
[Trail: A trial awaits you, but before that, grow yourself.]
[Growth: 0.5%]
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