Nearly twenty days of drifting through Wildspace finally came to an end, and Skyl temporarily settled in this distant asteroid belt.
His condition could hardly have been worse.
Gravely injured. Weak. Dehydrated. Starving. Feverish.
But pain and sickness did not stop him from laughing as he cursed at the top of his lungs. "I'm still fucking alive! Hahaha… haha… cough, cough!"
He laughed so hard he curled in on himself.
A light-moth fluttered down and landed on his forehead. Before it could fly away, a hand as fast as lightning snatched it up.
He squeezed out its fluids and smeared them on the inside of his forearm. After waiting a while and seeing no allergic or toxic reaction, he placed a tiny bit under his tongue. When there was still no sign of poisoning, he finally put the whole thing in his mouth and chewed.
Crunch, crunch.
Pale blue tissue fluid spilled over his lips, and he stuck out his tongue to lick it clean.
Skyl was so hungry he was nearly out of his mind. After eating that tiny bug, his eyes practically glowed green. Trembling, he pulled Energy Potions from The Guide, gulped down two bottles, and carefully saved the last one.
His strength gradually returned. His soul felt as if it had finally slipped back into his body.
The exhausted man let out a long groan.
Those days spent drifting in the gale had been an endless nightmare. Sometimes, when he briefly regained consciousness, he could not even tell whether it was better to keep sleeping or stay awake. That stretch of memory had been scattered by the wind as well, leaving Skyl with only a few vague fragments. In the strong-wind zone, terrifying, enormous living ships prowled through the void. One charge from them had shattered a Wildspace squid several miles long. He was grateful he had not been eaten by the predators carried in by the wind.
Skyl had relied on training to numb himself. As for whether he could survive, only God knew.
He had already exchanged for the thirteen-candleflame [Tower Meditation Method]. After reading it in the Tower, he began trying to meditate in reality.
During that period, the wild wind howled like a giant whale. Though Skyl's body was as helpless as drifting fluff, his state of mind was steady as bedrock. He ignored all sensory signals and sank into empty, silent thought.
Through deep meditation, he gradually began to sense the magical energy that existed everywhere, permeating the gaps between matter, as well as the complex Weave that encompassed the universe and connected to the raw essence of magic.
Reaching this stage in meditation proved that he was ready to cast spells. What he lacked was simply the secret knowledge of how to draw upon the Weave's warp and weft to produce various magical effects.
Skyl had now saved up forty candleflames. In another day or two, he would be able to exchange for Compendium of Cantrips, Volume One. Cantrips were also called 0-level magic, a general term for weak spells that did not consume spell slots and could be cast an unlimited number of times.
Cantrips might look unimpressive, but their effects were so varied that they often had unexpected uses.
For Skyl, mastering cantrips was the first lesson on the path of a spellcaster. With cantrips, he would be able to escape the frail helplessness of an ordinary person, and they would undoubtedly help him survive.
The asteroid belt was an area full of life, which meant abundant sources of food, but also danger beyond imagination. Hunters who ventured deep into the wilderness always kept a knife in hand, while he was currently unarmed.
Otherworldly Knowledge: Robinson, the priority right now is to build a shelter. Look around for anything useful, and remember not to go too deep into the asteroid belt. Hide yourself well. Don't let those ill-intentioned guys find you.
The fish-skin glider Skyl had made had already been torn apart in the wind. Only a few scraps remained stuck to his body. His clothing and bundle had also been badly ripped open, and everything inside had leaked out. The Guide was bound to him, so it had not been lost. That was the only good news.
After putting his clothes back on, he looked like a beggar wrapped in a patchwork coat. Skyl figured he now looked like a certified king of the hobos. Even in bitterness, he could still laugh at himself.
The asteroid he had landed on was located at the edge of the belt. The entire body was shaped like a potato, only about eighty miles long and forty miles across at its widest point, roughly the size of a small island.
Near his landing site, Skyl discovered a light-moth nest. These insects reacted sluggishly and reproduced quickly. They were at the bottom of the food chain. A single moth provided very little nutrition, so he had to eat a large number of them to maintain his calorie consumption.
He crouched in front of one exit of the moth nest and ate one every time it flew out.
Halfway through, a blue-skinned chameleon came over to share the meal with him, only to end up in the stomach of the terrifying upright ape.
After barely managing to get half full, the newly minted warlock finally recovered a little dignity. He sat cross-legged, opened The Guide, and began his daily study.
He devoted himself to first aid and survival knowledge. He also read books on mathematics and engineering. This knowledge was cheap, and studying it could only help him, so he could purchase it without worry.
Woo.
From deep within the asteroid belt came a string of low calls, their mournful, pained tone clearly audible.
Skyl shuddered in alarm. He put away The Guide and lay flat against the ground, using both hands and feet to crawl along the surface of the asteroid. When he reached the north pole, he poked his head out to look. Several miles away, a lone space whale was fighting four or five spelljamming ships.
From this distance, he could barely see the details of the battle, but the space whale had clearly fallen into a disadvantage and was crying out again and again.
Surprise and joy stirred in Skyl's heart. For someone wandering Wildspace, the thing he most wanted to see was naturally a trace of civilization. That meant hope of survival.
He desperately wanted to shout for help and attract the attention of the people aboard the spelljamming ships.
But then he thought better of it. His health was poor, he was weak, and the language barrier was a problem. If he rashly went up to them like this, the crew might treat him as a convenient hostage or slave laborer and squeeze him dry. Even if he escaped this natural death trap, his life and death would then be in someone else's hands. That was not worth the risk.
Now that he had The Guide, and his surroundings were no longer barren, he might as well take this chance to train in secret. Once he had mastered a certain amount of magic and gained enough power to protect himself, he could consider making contact with civilized society.
This decision was harder than any choice Skyl had made before. He watched with his own eyes as the space whale smashed one of the spelljamming ships apart. He watched it struggle on the brink of death. Then the spelljamming ships fixed ropes to the whale's corpse and gradually pulled their catch away.
In the end, he made no sound.
Skyl closed his eyes and meditated for a while, then continued his study tasks. Only after receiving his daily bottle of Energy Potion did he start building a shelter.
Of course, you could not build a shelter out of thin air. In the end, Skyl failed to put together anything worthy of the name. Instead, he found a wide crack on the asteroid, crawled inside, and made his home there.
Curled up in the cold fissure, Skyl kept thinking about the spelljamming ship that had been smashed apart by the space whale.
In Wildspace, a distance of several miles was practically face-to-face. Unfortunately, he had no means of movement left. Otherwise, no matter what, he would have gone to search the wreckage. Even if he could not find supplies, bringing back a pile of junk would still have been good. With enough patience, trash could always be turned into treasure.
That night, Skyl gathered enough candleflames and bought a young man's first magic book.
Otherworldly Knowledge: You remember a place called Flourish and Blotts, which sells all kinds of magical books.
Skyl flipped through the spellbook. It contained thirty-three cantrips, covering all eight schools of magic. At first glance, the selection looked dazzling, but the truly valuable cantrips were only a handful.
The first one he noticed was a conjuration cantrip called [Gust]. It could create a gentle current of air. Under normal circumstances, it was basically useless, but in low-gravity and zero-gravity environments, it could provide the caster with a certain degree of mobility.
In addition, [Mage Hand] could create an invisible hand. Although it could only carry objects weighing less than ten pounds and could not move more than thirty feet away from the caster, Skyl still felt that it would prove extremely useful.
To gain a means of attack, Skyl then set his sights on several evocation spells, such as the warlock essential [Eldritch Blast], [Chill Touch], and the wizard staples [Fire Bolt] and [Acid Splash].
Out of concern for safety, the first spell Skyl studied was [Eldritch Blast]. This cantrip had a casting range of up to 120 feet, and more importantly, it dealt the noble force damage, ignoring many immunities and resistances. Among all cantrips, its lethality was quite impressive.
Studying magic was truly a major challenge for Skyl, who lacked a proper foundation. Yet this challenge also forced him to concentrate completely, and he gained more light inside his skull than usual.
With only one hour of hard thinking, Skyl refined four candleflames. This harvest could only be described as abundant.
Immersed in the triple joy of gaining power, knowledge, and wealth, a thought suddenly popped into his mind. Why not just live here in seclusion and keep studying until the end of time before coming out again?
The idea was extremely tempting. Skyl buried himself in study. By the time he had mastered [Eldritch Blast], [Mage Hand], and [Gust], nearly a week had passed, and the nearby light-moths had collectively moved away after being eaten by him.
On this day, he was meditating inside the fissure when he suddenly heard a muffled boom.
Skyl came out to check the situation, only to see the wreckage of a spelljamming ship crash into the asteroid.
Otherworldly Knowledge: Well, that's what you call Christmas coming early. Get over there and loot the supplies. What are you doing, waiting for your rom-com meet-cute?
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