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Chapter 3 - 3rd Entry

24th June 2015

During the week between my second entry and now, I have begun to suspect that my physical fitness has increased as a result of the ritual, though I don't have any data to support this claim and am only relying on my intuition.

Along with my physical fitness, my senses also seem to have improved, but again, this is just my personal feeling, and the improvement isn't significant enough to confirm these suspicions.

Aside from that, I also noticed the camera wasn't functioning as it was advertised when I purchased it. I could still use it to perform all functions, but it is considerably slower than it was before. Furthermore, whenever a part of my body enters the frame of the video, slight static begins to appear, almost as though I'm emitting some sort of energy that's interfering with the camera.

I had the camera checked for any damage at a repair store and was told there were no issues with its hardware or software. I suspected as much, but it was still a good idea to double-check.

Perhaps this is an effect that all those with a stronger connection to their spirit bodies produce. This could mean I have a viable means to identify people like that. Speaking of which, I don't presently have a term to refer to such individuals. Well, in that case, I shall simply refer to them as Mystiques, as they are practitioners of mysticism.

During the week, I have also been going through the book more thoroughly. Since the ritual works, the rest of the information provided likely has a high chance of being credible too.

This further begs the question: could I perhaps create a ritual to give me some means to defend myself?

Along that line of thought, I found a few pieces of information that might help me with that:

- All rituals use a star surrounded by a circle as the foundation, the prerequisite being that all points of the star must be in contact with the circle.

- The difference in the number of points changes the purpose of the ritual. For example, a ritual that uses a five-pointed star typically affects the spirit body. The Spirit World Connectivity Ritual is an example of this.

- Four-pointed stars are usually used for engraving spells, though not much is explained regarding what "spells" mean exactly.

- Six-pointed stars are used for relic creation. As before, not much is explained regarding this, but this is precisely what caught my eye. My guess is that relics are essentially mystical weapons or other tools used for various purposes. If I'm able to obtain further information as to what relics are exactly and how they are made, I should be able to acquire a dependable means to protect myself against any threats that might exist.

Naturally, the first place I could think of to search for similar books was the store where I got A Beginner's Guide to Rituals.

It was in a run-down bookstore that looked as if it were on its last legs and would collapse in a couple of years. Compared to the outside, the inside of the store was better maintained—it was to the point that you wouldn't believe you were in the same building you had entered.

The strange thing is that the bookstore isn't there anymore. In its place was a regular old coffee shop. It was almost as if the bookstore had never existed to begin with.

Disappointed, I turned back and returned to my condo. It seems it won't be that easy. Left with no choice, I began preparations for conducting the Spirit World Connectivity Ritual.

My exploration goals this time are to descend as far down as I can. I'm guessing that the deeper down I go, the darker the ocean becomes, but if there's one thing I'm unsure about, it's whether or not the ocean has a bottom. It's described as an infinite ocean in the book, but I'm slightly doubtful as to whether that's true. Either way, even if the ocean is infinite, there's no way for me to be sure.

As usual, I prepared the ritual, took note of the time (19:46), lit the candles, and began my ascent into the spirit world.

Taking note of the scenery, I realized I'm still in the upper layers of the ocean. Essentially, the location from which I wake up becomes a save point.

Aside from that, I noticed that movement has become easier still. My spirit body is becoming used to traveling around the spirit world. Furthermore, I've also realized that I no longer need to swim to move between places as I've been doing until now. Instead, my body seems to move as long as I will it to.

It's a strange feeling to be able to move without exerting any physical effort, but I suppose it's more convenient this way.

As I had planned, I began traveling downwards, and just as I had expected, the ocean became darker the deeper I descended.

I had quickly returned to my starting depth before I noticed a strange phenomenon, the likes of which haven't been recorded in the book.

Although I can't comprehend exactly what happened or why, I can describe the situation as best as I remember it.

At a certain point during my descent, I noticed I wasn't moving. Even when I started kicking my feet to swim, nothing changed. Instead, I started noticing my surroundings warping. Everything around me began twisting into a multitude of spirals, as though there were dozens of underwater tornadoes surrounding me. It didn't take long before my limbs started warping as well. However, I didn't feel any pain in my limbs despite what was happening, although I did experience a headache more painful than I'd ever felt before.

To say that this situation frightened me would be an understatement.

The spirit bodies weren't reacting, nor were the spirals dragging me away from where I was. So there's a good chance that what was warping was actually my vision.

The best way I can describe it would be that it is frighteningly similar to sleep paralysis. Furthermore, this happened before I descended deeper than the point where I started.

After such a situation occurred, I was contemplating whether I should continue.

I ultimately decided to continue, as I had noticed that my spirit body was no longer transparent and had become an identical copy of my physical body, the only difference being that my spirit body was completely white with a slight but negligible glow.

At this point, I'm under the assumption that what just happened was a result of a qualitative transformation. I still need to experiment to determine exactly what changes this would bring about, so for now, I'll have to put off the deep-dive plan.

Before I could begin experiencing the transformation, I found myself back in the room with no time to fully realize the extent of the changes.

Upon checking the time, I noticed I had been in the spirit world longer than I was last time—going from 36 minutes to 41 minutes.

I'm assuming this means I am gradually adapting to the spirit world and that I'm able to stay longer with each entry. But this raises several questions: How does the ritual determine when to pull me out? What sets the diving limit? Why can't I stay longer?