After searching every nook and cranny of the small church-tavern and finding nothing else magical, I resigned myself to some hard earned sleep. All that walking earlier tired me out.
And so, after dusting off the bed, blankets, and pillow, I fell asleep.
'...'
That night, I dreamt of my family back home. My wife Melissa, my parents Hailey and Chiron, my relatives, and my best friends.
They were attending my funeral. Sadness and nostalgia blanketed their expressions while they recounted their experiences with me.
I could see Melissa fiddling with her wedding ring, her lips pressed together in a tight, desperate line. She was trying—really trying—not to break down.
My mom stood still, her hands clenched so tightly that her knuckles had gone pale. My dad's eyes were red-rimmed, but dry, like he'd already cried himself out before the service even began.
And Jackson, that bastard, had finally admitted I won that argument. Took my damn funeral for him to say it, though.
I wanted to yell at them. Tell them I was here. That I was alive. But I couldn't.
Instead, I hovered in silence, watching the largest gathering of people I'd ever known, all mourning me. It broke my soul.
I wished and hoped with all of my being that I could bring them here. To let them know I'm still alive. To let them know I'm okay. To gloat to my colleague Jackson that 'I TOLD YOU SO.'
But alas, it was only a dream. A sad, depressing, and frustrating dream.
I woke up somber. I figured that unless I suddenly became a god, there was no way to reach out to them. No way to reassure them—only acceptance awaited.
But I couldn't just sulk over the past forever. Maybe that makes me cold-hearted, but I've always adapted quickly—no matter how painful the change. Rather than mulling over not being able to connect with my family, striving to connect with them again while moving on would be a much better use of my willpower.
'There exists magic in this world' I thought as I pressed down the switch next to me.
This small convenience in a foreign land held the greatest significance any item has ever held. It brought hope. A hope that one day I will wield magic strong enough to bring me to my family. Magic so powerful that the vast distance between us no longer bound me.
I needed it. Magic was simultaneously my life's dream but also my greatest hope and attachment to earth.
With that being said, I had a goal to achieve.
'Lets research some magic.' I thought, trying to lift my spirit.
To begin, there was something I needed to test. From the many times I pressed the magic button I felt there was something happening around me. The pressure that was bearing down on me from the atmosphere briefly increased then went back to normal. This put a theory in my mind.
'This pressure might actually be mana.' I thought.
'The best way I can describe this pressure? It's like standing near a massive bonfire. Too close, and you'll get burned. But at the right distance, the heat is comforting—almost inviting. Either way, you respect it.'
Whether it was the mana exerting pressure on me because there is so much here, or my rebirth giving me a new-found mana sense, I wasn't sure, but I had to experiment either way.
'But I have to be quick.' Why? You may ask. Because food and water obviously. I needed to secure my basic human needs as quickly as possible, I just couldn't contain my curiosity for magic.
'Eating and drinking? Bah! Who needs those? Ill just eat my own FIREBALL MOTHERF*CKER.' I cackled to myself, recalling the nonsense my roommate in college would spout to justify playing videogames all day.
I closed my eyes and sat in a lotus position, focusing fully on the pressure I felt in my lower right stomach. Then I pressed the button.
Fwoo
I felt it. An extremely small increase in pressure. Now that I was focusing on it, the depth astonished me. It was a vague sense before but now it was as if I new exactly where the increase in pressure was. Not because I already knew its position, but because I could roughly feel the location of the condensing magic.
'This is crazy.' I thought. If I was right, this would mean that I could detect magic presences just by existing near them. I needed to test just how strong this ability was.
And so I spent the next hour testing this "magic sense" as I called it.
Through my testing I found out many things. And with these many discoveries, I wrote them all down. You see, while I may not have found anything else containing magic in this church-tavern place, I did find some useful nick-knacks.
For instance, I found six ink bottles and a quill along with a bunch of old parchment paper I could write on. I also found a compass with what looked like 8 different cardinal directions, not that I could read the dang thing.
But this quill and parchment were perfect for jotting down my findings. My findings were as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------
Trying to sense mana fluctuations at a distance.
Failure. Device didn't activate.
Testing if device works without a human touching it.
Failure.
After closer inspection, the device seems to have a hole in it so that my finger touches a "mana stone" underneath.
Confirmed. The "mana stone" doesn't activate with inanimate objects.
Attempting to stretch my arm to see if I can sense mana at arms length.
Confirmed. mana detection feels slightly weaker but not enough to rule out placebo or concentration error.
Attempting to see if obstructions interfere with "mana sense"
Complete. A blanket, a table, immediate covering with a wooden bowl after touching.
All methods of obstruction yielded approximately the same level of detection that yielded without them.
Spamming button. It feels really weird... After spamming the button for 20 minutes, the device no longer works.
THANK THE LORD. The device seems to regenerate mana. What would I do without this oddly pleasant sens- I mean intriguing magical convenience!
Mana regenerated to roughly 1/4th of what it was before spamming the button considering spamming it now only lasted for 5 minutes. Further testing needed.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Mana may or may not induce inefficient and wasteful tendencies while note taking." I said, after realizing how much precious ink I wasted writing that nonsense.
"...I'm not into that kind of thing" I added quickly, just in case the universe was listening.
"I just... y'know... My wife never... Never mind." I said, clearing my throat.
"Anyway. Back to the vital, groundbreaking magical research at hand."
Overall, my findings were solid. The progress was slow to start but I'm sure as I understood more I'd ramp up my magical findings.
'My path to being a grand mage has just begun.' I thought, without an ounce of shame.
gurgle
"Well, shit. Can't put off the basic human needs for too long can I?" I said, disappointed.
I was hungry. Very hungry. And definitely approaching dehydration. I had managed to get some morning dew to trickle down roof after disturbing it, but I didn't have any clue weather the term morning dew was even correct considering the fog was constantly there and never went away even at dark.
But I needed better. My current food supply consisted of dirt and peat moss and my water was probably contaminated with the bubonic plague for all I knew.
'Let's review my options.' I thought.
'Rain should be a safe bet for water because unless the trees here don't need water to grow, there is clearly an abundance of rainfall'
To that end, I cleaned out the chest freezer-type thing and left it outside to hopefully collect rainwater. I also put some rags from the kitchen cabinet onto the roof to collect dew for more immediate water consumption needs.
'Next, I need some food.'
This was the biggest problem.
I had two choices—hunting or foraging. Both sucked. The first method required me to find an animal big enough to eat, and be killable by me, then I need the know-how to skin it and cook it, all without killing or injuring myself.
Then there was the second method. While yes, if it worked this method would be the safest and most reliable method. But that's if it worked. I would rather not gamble my life eating random strange plants out of desperation. Not to mention how difficult it would be actually finding a plant that isn't that damnable purple flower or peat moss.
But that raises a new question. Would there even be any animal life here? The only possible plants to eat would be the peat moss and purple flowers, and I haven't seen a single bug since I got here.
I glanced around at the empty church-tavern, the endless fog outside, and my distinct lack of anything edible.
"...Yeah, I'm probably screwed."