As she remembered the past, she couldn't help giving herself a wry smile.

At first, she didn't understand emotions as she did now. Fear of the unknown was something you adopted through life. She hadn't understood emotions such as pain, sorrow, and happiness at first. But now, she could somewhat relate. The necklace around her neck kept reminding her of the countless wonders she had experienced. Without going through those past experiences, she wouldn't have become what she was today.

However, she knew that she was special. Amongst her countless brethren, only she remained.

Like herself, she couldn't rule out that those empty eyes could have changed over the duration of millions of years.  However, after that incident, her perspective on other species had changed. The sheer disappointment she felt clouded her mind. 

This time she wouldn't make the same mistakes as in the past.

As she ventured upwards, she kept thinking about how she would interact with them.

However, soon she felt her breaths shallow, and her legs didn't move as smoothly. Her stamina and energy were running out quicker than she thought. She didn't know how far she had left, but it couldn't be much more. She leaned up against the wall and tried to take a few deep breaths. However, it didn't matter. Her energy wasn't going to return anytime soon, and she didn't want to take the chance.

She endured the cold floor as she sat down. Once again, she grimaced slightly as her skin made contact with the tiles.

It didn't take long for her to return inside the crystal, as her body vanished from sight. Even as the crystal was lying on the floor, the cold temperatures didn't matter. She could feel it, but it wasn't uncomfortable. She focused her senses on the flickering torches, keeping her thoughts from slipping away. The mysterious beings who made them felt increasingly interesting. Somehow, the fire didn't burn as fast as normal flames. She had checked a couple of times, and she knew that they didn't contain any energy. However, as she looked at them, the flames still burned down ever so slightly.

When they finally reached the bottom, they slowly went out. Suddenly, the corridor returned to its natural pitch-black state. Without the flickering lights, she couldn't help herself as she felt time slip from her grasp as she slowly regained her strength.

This time, she felt her strength return much more smoothly than before, a clear sign that her body was adjusting. Before she knew it, she had fully regained her strength as she continued upwards once more. Confident that she would reach the entrance.

***

Soon, she found herself exiting into a large cavern. The familiar sight reflected in her eyes made her smile.

Six tall pillars reached up underneath the cavern's roof as they held everything in place. Their structure was strengthened by countless symbols etched into their surface. She had transformed energy into pure gold as their foundation to make sure that the spell she had inscribed would function for many years.

However, as she slowly made her way through the center, she stopped.

The pillar's golden foundation had been removed, leaving them bare and non-functional. She looked over towards the pillars near the entrance to her corridor.

[Where're the foundations?] she couldn't help muttering as her eyebrows twitched slightly. Five of the six pillars were missing their foundations, leaving only a single active pillar intact.

She couldn't understand why someone would remove the gold from the pillars. In her mind, gold itself was only useful for a few long-term spells. However, before she managed to study the pillars further, she spotted a small fire in one of the remote corners, next to the giant pair of doors. The floor was around was littered with strange objects.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she picked up a satchel from the floor. She had never seen anything like it before. Inside, she found a few small knives and some vials of liquid.

She wanted to know more about all these strange things. Unlike the torches down inside the corridor, these were much more interesting. Without thinking, she moved a small amount of energy through the object from within her manifestation. Then, something she had never seen happened.

A short burst of information flooded through her body as her energy made contact with it. Never before had she experienced anything like it before.

She looked down onto the cooking knife and tried to do it once more. Almost instantly, she felt the same information flush through her mind again. Her eyes widened as she looked around once more.

She tried to flush her energy through a few more objects as she tested it out.

She didn't know how to react. She hadn't seen anything like this before. Somehow, she could extract information from the strange objects around her. She had never had this sort of ability before. She thought about it briefly before she sat down on the sleeping bag. Her body vanished from sight as she drew herself back into the crystal. She waited for a brief second before she tried to flush the energy within the crystal through the sleeping bag as she did before. However, nothing happened.

She turned back and tried her newfound powers on a few more strange objects around her, and she once again felt information slip into her mind. The result was the same.

Then, she tried to push energy through her own wrist, and yet again, she felt information flush through her.

[Health? Mana...? Equipment?] she slowly muttered the strange new concepts out loud. Everything was foreign to her. She couldn't help but inject herself a few more times. Slowly, the field with mana dropped down to seven, and she felt her energy slowly vanish. When she saw the number slowly getting lower and lower, she couldn't help but wonder.

[Mana? Is mana the same as energy?]

She could clearly feel herself spending her energy as she kept casting this strange spell. However, she didn't have any idea how it really worked. She removed her necklace and held it in her hand. Then, she tried to inject energy into herself once more.

[Equipment?]

She looked down at the necklace and shook her head. It didn't make sense. Somehow, this spell could see whether or not she had her necklace on.

[So, whatever I have stuck on my body is listed in the equipment section...]

Feeling curious, she tried to inspect her crystal.

[Hmm? It clearly feels like it's working, but I'm not getting any information?] she asked herself in wonder. This strange new ability would require some more testing, she thought.

However, from the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw a pair of flickering shadows enter through the large doors. Her eyes flickered as she quickly looked around herself. Apart from the pillars, there was nowhere to hide.

Making a split decision, she escaped into the crystal once more.