After pushing myself through the dense vegetation for what felt like hours. I slowly emerged on the other side.

By using my arms to shield my face I had numerous deep cuts running in lines down my naked skin. Blue liquid slowly seeped out from the ghastly looking wounds while the heavy air moisture prevented the wounds from closing properly. Because of this I felt completely battered as I slowly collapsed onto my knees. The cold water somewhat alleviated the stinging pain as I made a quick decision completely submerge myself. Lying on my back I quietly looked into the canopy above me. It was currently completely dark except for the faint light coming from the core still tightly grasped in my left hand.

A faint shimmer occasionally graced my fatigued eyes as the star lit nightly sky were exposed between the swaying leaves. As my body and mind gradually fell into tranquility, I slowly tightened my grip around and started slowly absorbing mana into my body. The path through the dense vegetation had truly taken a great toll on my body. The wounds that wouldn't stop bleeding, and the constant sense of being swallowed by the plants and hidden dangers around me had expend a large amount of mana just to keep going forward.

As I slowly returned to my normal state of mind. I found myself at the exact same place. The creek were not deep enough to be of any danger as long as I kept lying on my back. My hand was still tightly hanging onto the core. Looking closely at it make me feel a bit depressed. My previous injuries were apparently pretty serious as I had subconsciously drained half of the mana stored in the core.

Slowly climbing back onto my feet I checked my body. The grim looking wounds were all healed and my blood had been washed away by the water. Looking at myself and my delicate skin. I was glad that there were no scars or lingering effects. But I felt that it would be weird if I could not even heal that much since I could technically just regrow the destroyed skin by expending some mana... That's why I dared to push forward despite the obvious pain of getting my skin mangled by thorns and branches for hours...

After doing a final checkup I started moving upstream again. Weirdly enough, the water still contained a considerable amount of mana. But the pebbles and rocks at the bottom were not like those I found back at the clearing, so I immediately started moving without much thought.

Not much changed in the scenery during the past hour or so. I did not even have to take any breaks as I slowly absorbed mana from the creek through my feet as I dragged them through the slow moving water. There might not be enough mana to refill the core in my hand but my body could still get something out of it.

As I no longer had to endure the pain of walking through the undergrowth I spend little to no mana moving forward as I slowly made my way. My short legs carried me at a steady pace as I tried to avoid the occasional sharp rock hidden beneath the water surface, or a fallen tree blocking my path.

After another hour of walking a few rays of light started penetrating the canopy above. I took a short break to appreciate how the moisture in the air started forming a soft blanket that covered the damp soil under the tall trees.