I flew at a slow yet steady pace. It was refreshing to fly through the wind, and the early night fog against my skin refreshed me. As I felt the cool air, I thought about how my body did it. Since becoming a cyborg, my body has done most things differently.
Everything except my sense of touch. The human body does it so well that I found no reason to change it. If I did change, I wouldn't know how to replicate touch.
It felt weird to have my body. On the one hand, I was perfectly in sync with it, but on the other hand, it wasn't my flesh and blood body. I wasn't even really sure of my capabilities with this body. It was scary.
I'd made this body in effectively a week. I was stuck in a cave with the little materials I could gather. I even had to use the prized sword and armor given to me by my father to make this body.
And I didn't even know how it worked. I made a transistor and circuitry component, but I had no idea how it worked. I prayed and built it to the best of my knowledge, following the blueprint of biological cells, but it was all gum and duct tape.
I suspected it only worked because my subconscious soul made it work. My body wasn't a computer but the bastardization of one. Even the brain I'd transferred my consciousness into was just a metal replica of the human brain.
I knew my body was stronger, faster, and better overall, but it felt like I'd taken away my humanity without much thought. In retrospect, that was what had happened. I'd experimented with creating computers before the dungeon, but it was only in the week after the fight that I'd done it.
Without even realizing it, I was at my destination. These thoughtless rants were getting out of hand. I was having more and more by the day.
I looked around at where I'd stopped. I was on the side of a waterfall. To be exact, the first waterfall that would lead to the river below. The river heading up to the source was covered by mist.
This mist was full of dense mana, so I couldn't see through the usual way. The river headed into a valley between two of the mountain peaks. I was alone right now, so it felt just slightly cold.
Since I left the dungeon, I have always been accompanied by someone, whether Garth, Grey, Arion, or Rex. Vesper was a free soul who liked to fly more than anything else. This was my first time alone since my first solo raid on the caravans.
I shook off the chills and continued into the mist. My clothes transformed into rain apparel, and my rain boots echoed as I walked.
'It times like this I wish had my spotify album.'
I was alone with my thoughts as I walked. I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. These random thoughts kept appearing without me being able to trace their source. I wasn't even sure if these were my thoughts.
The river was slow and clear, giving an insightful ambiance as I walked. I walked further into the mist until I noticed a change. A noise had appeared.
It was the burbling of a stream, but the river was still slow. I continued further upstream in the direction of the noise. I wondered if it came from the river, but it seemed too loud to belong to another part of the river.
I could hear almost inside my eardrums by now. I first noticed the noise when it was as loud as a fly, but now it sounded like a Jet. I tuned out the noise, filtering out the specific frequency. If there were any changes in the sound, I'd notice, but I wouldn't actively hear it.
That was one benefit of my cyborg body. There were probably more I just hadn't thought of yet.
The valley's initially slow slope became sharper as I continued up steam. The ground was gravel where I landed, but I was standing on mossy stone now. It kept getting more complicated to continue.
I hiked for another 10 minutes before I arrived at the source. There was a tiny little jagged peak from which the water splashed down, turned into a river, and went down the mountain.
I flew up to the jagged peak, annoyed by how much I had to walk. I would have flown through the mist, but I wasn't that stupid. On these mountains, danger lay behind every rock, so flying was a no-go.
The mist also obscured my vision, making it more dangerous. Here, it was less dense at the peak, so I could fly knowing I was a little more prepared.
It took me only a short time to reach the small, jagged peak. I settled down on an outcrop overlooking where the river's source should have been.
Instead of getting answers or a beautiful view as I had hoped, the water seemed to come from an unknown source, seemingly spitting straight out of rock. The fog was incredibly dense where the water came out, so I couldn't see what was happening.
Having no choice, I debated before jumping into the water. It was cold but refreshing, and its clarity also gave me perfect sight. I suspected that it was glacier water. Only glaciers could have this clear of water.
I couldn't be bothered to change my form, so I used magic to propel myself in the water. I quickly entered a cave, but the water flowed, so I fought upstream. Water filled the entire cave, so there wasn't much use for exploration.
It was a solid minute before I reached the end. The cave was more profound than I thought. In the end, I saw something very familiar.
At first, I thought the water was spitting out of the rock, and it seemed I was right. I saw the same magic circle as the dungeon. This river was connected to that hellhole.
'Small world.'