With the faint understanding he had gained of the strange sensation, Shad Darc finally began to understand what it actually felt like.
If he had to put it into words, he would describe it as cold.
Extremely cold.
Yet it wasn't the kind of cold that came from the air or touched the skin.
It felt deeper than that.
It was as though he had been submerged at the bottom of a perfectly still body of water.
There was no current.
No movement.
No disturbance.
Just stillness.
Absolute stillness.
And with that stillness came an overwhelming sense of calm.
Peace.
A strange, almost indescribable peace.
Something Shad had desperately wanted for a long time.
And now...
It was here.
"Ah..."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"This feeling... how peaceful."
He closed his eyes.
"If only I could hold onto it forever."
But he already knew that was impossible.
There was no such thing as absolute or everlasting peace as long as one was alive in this world.
At least, not in the way Shad understood it.
The only permanent escape he could think of was death.
He quickly pushed the thought aside.
That wasn't important right now.
What mattered was understanding this strange sensation.
The more Shad examined it, the more convinced he became that it was somehow related to the forest.
But that was only part of the answer.
The true reason remained unknown.
He needed more information.
More observation.
More understanding.
Only then could he determine what was really happening.
Just as he began to focus more deeply on the sensation, his mind suddenly went blank.
Again.
But this time, something was different.
The state of emptiness had intertwined with the strange sensation.
The two seemed to merge together, creating something entirely new.
Strangely enough, the resulting feeling didn't feel strange at all.
It didn't feel alien.
It felt familiar.
Welcoming.
Almost as though Shad had experienced it countless times before and was only now becoming aware of it.
His thoughts stopped.
His mind became completely blank.
Yet his other senses remained.
For some unknown reason, he could still perceive what was happening around and within him.
The strange sensation.
The stillness.
The peace.
The cold.
Everything seemed to exist together.
Then, instinctively, Shad drew in a long breath.
The moment he did, everything changed.
It was as though an invisible force had suddenly pulled him out of the state of absolute depression.
His thoughts returned.
His awareness sharpened.
His ability to reason came back.
But this time, something was different.
He was now completely aware of what he had been feeling.
And with that awareness came a deeper understanding.
The sensation felt almost like being submerged in the deepest part of an ocean.
But instead of feeling the enormous pressure that should exist at such depths, Shad felt only cold.
And stillness.
There was nothing else.
No movement.
No current.
No disturbance.
Just the calmness of water that had stopped flowing entirely.
It was strange.
Almost unnatural.
Can an ocean really be this calm and still?
Shad frowned.
This doesn't make any sense.
He continued examining the sensation.
The deeper he looked, the more he realized that this wasn't simply some ordinary physical feeling.
There was something else to it.
Something deeper.
Something spiritual.
Something supernatural.
That realization caught him off guard.
Shad was not someone who completely rejected the possibility of supernatural or spiritual phenomena.
Still, he hadn't expected an encounter with something supernatural to feel like this.
"Well..."
He sighed.
"Maybe I'm not wrong."
He paused.
"Or maybe I'm exaggerating the whole thing."
Another sigh escaped him.
"Either way, it doesn't really matter."
Shad looked down at his hands.
"It'll only matter when I know what's actually going on."
His expression became serious.
"But first, I need to understand this first layer."
He didn't know what the strange sensation was.
He didn't know where it came from.
And he certainly didn't know why he could perceive it.
So there was no point in trying to understand things beyond his current knowledge.
I can't fully understand something I don't know anything about.
Shad closed his eyes again.
So I won't waste time thinking about things I can't comprehend yet.
One thing at a time.
With that thought, he began organizing everything he had learned so far.
The first thing he understood was that this wasn't an ordinary sensation.
It was something extraordinary.
The second was that it was somehow connected to this strange forest or something else.
He didn't know how.
He didn't know why.
But the connection was there.
And for now, that was enough.
The third thing he discovered was that the sensation seemed to be connected to his subconscious.
Shad was almost certain of it.
But he couldn't explain the connection yet.
So he set that question aside.
He would return to it once he had more information.
The fourth thing he discovered was perhaps the most interesting.
The sensation felt like a form of energy.
Not exactly physical energy.
At least, not in the way he understood it.
But it gave him the distinct impression of an energy source.
Something within him.
Something that made him feel empowered in a way he couldn't properly explain.
"Damn."
Shad couldn't help but feel even more conflicted.
"Just where am I?"
He looked upward.
The night sky stretched above the dark canopy of the enormous tree.
Millions of stars glittered across it.
But something about them felt wrong.
Shad narrowed his eyes.
"The night sky..."
He stared for a while.
"Why does it look different?"
At first, he couldn't identify what was bothering him.
It didn't exactly look fake.
But it didn't look normal either.
He continued staring.
Then he noticed it.
"I see."
His eyes narrowed.
"It's not that the sky looks fake."
He paused.
"The stars are just... much larger than the ones I'm used to seeing."
Shad continued observing them.
Then his expression changed.
"Wait."
His eyes moved across the sky.
There were nine particularly enormous stars.
They appeared to form a circular arrangement.
Nine stars.
Arranged in a ring.
Shad stared at them silently.
"Weird."
He continued looking for a few seconds.
"This is so weird."
Eventually, he looked away.
There were already too many questions in his head.
He didn't need another one.
His gaze dropped toward the ground.
The bear-like creature was still there.
But this time, it was looking directly at him.
Shad stared back.
There was something strange about the creature's expression.
Anticipation, perhaps.
He couldn't say for certain.
But whatever the creature was feeling, its behavior was becoming increasingly odd.
Shad slowly exhaled.
He closed his eyes.
Then he began reviewing everything that had happened since he first awakened in the forest.
The strange environment.
The mysterious voice.
The creature.
The chase.
The enormous tree.
The strange meditation.
The sensation.
The emptiness.
The nine stars.
Piece by piece, Shad went through everything.
He still didn't have the answers.
Not even close.
But for the first time since arriving in this strange world, he felt that he had begun to understand the situation.
Only faintly.
Only the first layer.
But it was something.
And for now...
That was enough.