I couldn't tell how much time had passed and I was a bit confused about what had happened at first, but I remembered little by little. I didn't expect the monsters I fought against to be so strong and although it may have looked like a clean win in the end I didn't even have the power to stand up anymore. But where am I?
"Are you finally awake?"
It was a sweet voice and it didn't sound like she was planning on killing me, but I couldn't be too sure. I just realized how stupid I was and used my senses to check my surroundings. I noticed that I was in a rather cold place and it seemed like it was something like a cave again, but I could feel the wind coming from the entrance, so I wasn't somewhere deep in a mountain at least. My hands were tied together and my hands had been covered, probably be the same woman who just spoke to me. When I tried to sense her I noticed that her mana felt a lot different that the mana of goblins or the monsters' I encountered, it was purer and way stronger.
"Yes, did you save me when I feel down unconscious?"
"Yes I saved you, but don't think anything of it. I only saved you, because you had killed the Orzeths."
Was that the name of these monsters? Well at least I got saved, so she shouldn't really have anything bad in mind.
"If I am allowed to ask, are you a human and are you at war with the Orzeths and saved me, because of it?"
"You never met them before, did you? Well my identity is not too important right now, but you won't find me anywhere near here and we are not at war with the Orzeths, but they are hated beasts. You don't need to know anything else."
"Ok then I assume you are going to leave?"
"Yes I just wanted to help someone, who is potentially going to be a strong individual in the future, after all you are able to kill three Orzeths all alone and from their deaths you even seem to be superior in skill. Well at your age that is already really good for a human, but I am going to take my leave now, farewell."
"Please wait a second, would you please tell me your name. I want to repay this debt, because I could've easily died after the fight."
I could sense her going to the exit of the cave and then she stopped and turned around to me.
"I won't tell you my name, but you can remember the name red flower."
And then she seemingly just disappeared and after a few seconds I couldn't feel her presence anymore.
"Well let's get up first."
My hands were tied together pretty loose, so I was able to easily free myself. I took of the restriction on my eyes and then opened my eyes. My eyes had sort of gotten used to the light and in the cave it was still not too bright, so my eyes were finally getting used to the light again. Though I felt as if my eyes were sort of changed in a weird way and it felt a bit weird, but that was probably the cause of being basically blind for maybe even over half a year.
I stood up and noticed that the sword I got from the Orzeth, my knife and my bag with my bow and the broken katana were all lying next to me on the ground. I picked them up and next to the sword there was a sword holster that fit the size of the sword, the woman that saved me probably got it from the Orzeth and brought it inside.
I took everything and was now wearing sword and bow on the back and it was quite heavy, though it was bearable because of my strength, which improved a lot during my training since I came to this world.
I left the cave and was walking in the direction of the river that was a few dozen meters away from the cave I was in. I walked up to it and looked down at myself.
I didn't think of it before, but my clothes were of course completely blood red after killing so many goblins and the three Orzeths yesterday, I honestly looked like someone you shouldn't fight against. My hair grew longer over the past half year, but what definitely shocked me the most, was that my hair was completely black like the darkness I had been in. It looked like my hair was naturally extremely dark and not brown like before.
But what shocked me even more was when I looked at my eyes.
"What?!"
My normally also brown pupils had changed colour, it also changed to a dark and I could somehow feel an intensity in them that I couldn't feel before. It was a dark that I myself couldn't look through and I somehow felt intimidated but also familiar with it.
After checking my surroundings once again and not sensing any strong existence I sat down and closed my eyes. I had once tried it before, but somehow I feel like it would be different now.
I tried to sense something inside of me, like a place where my mana would be gathered. I didn't manage to find anything and wanted to give up, but then I tried one last thing.
I completely cut my senses, I couldn't hear, nor could I smell, taste, feel or see anything. It was a weird state, but I now had full concentration and if it didn't work like that it would probably be impossible. I searched and tried to look at my whole body and then only certain regions. In the book about magic I read it said that after releasing your magic by using a "magic stone" for the first time you would be able to use magic when having a weapon with this magic stone. It also said that the center of magic would be the dantian, exactly like in the typical novel I read in my previous world.
But I wasn't able to find anything at all, so before giving up I searched one other place, where I'd maybe be able to find it. I searched for my eyes and when I arrived there I immediately noticed something completely different from the rest of my body, my eyes seemed to be the gathering place of my mana, like I had thought and it was completely dark. The center was much larger, but when I concentrated I could feel the mana flowing through my whole body, but nowhere as strong as in the center, my eyes.
I tried to examine it and then I suddenly had an extremely different feeling completely indescribable. From one moment to another my mana flow that had been very slow before changed and I could feel the power running through my whole body. I enabled my senses again, opened my eyes and could feel the power running out through my body.
But the weirdest thing was the appearance of a sudden darkness that was going out from my shadow. I felt the darkness swallowing up everything else and the power was drained from my body, it was extremely tiring so I immediately stopped the mana flow and when I looked at the water my eyes and hair had their normal colour back and I felt normal again.
"What the fuck happened in the cave?!"
I had so many questions, but first I went back inside the cave and sat down to rest. The use of magic for the first time was extremely tiring and I felt like I had been awake for several days, but I didn't want to fall asleep and potentially not wake up for several days, so I just sat down and again cut my senses and only let myself feel the mana of the other lifeforms, which surrounded me.
I sat there and just thought. And after thinking about any possible explanation I had only really come up with one. There was also one certain phrase, which just wouldn't leave my thoughts.
"If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."