As Isaac looks beyond the lake, he gives the forest one last look before burying his head in the book and reading.
The two most important parts of the book right now are learning how to feel mana and how to use mana with a conduit.
All magic uses mana, which can be found in all things. When the truth about the other world was exposed, scientists tried to find out what mana really is, but the extensive research they performed did not reveal much about what mana is.
The closest thing they could get to the truth was that mana is like electrons in both weight and size. They are also able to join together like atoms, but are too thin to be seen with light, unless used through a conduit or a medium.
Isaac rubs his head as he feels it warm up and he reaches for a drink of water before flipping a hoping to find the method to learn how to sense mana, as Isaac has never got this far in the book before, because the thought of something like electrons that was never discovered made his head hurt and put him off magic for a long while.
Isaac lets out a complaint under his breath, "Why do these books have to be full of useless theory? Magic should be something marvellous, not whatever this is."
He rolls his eyes and continues to read the book, and his eyes finally shine as they land on something about how to actually sense magic.
To sense magic, you must run mana through your body until your body adjusts to it. The first, and easiest way is to have someone use your body as a conduit, but this is the least safe choice as the person running mana must share all forms of magic and race as you.
The second way is to bring yourself near death and eat something that is high in mana and has healing properties, and then you use it as a crutch to live, but to find those items, you must be in a world full of mana, and Earth doesn't have much mana.
The third and final way is to eat a conduit and use the mana stored inside it to flow through your body and adjust it that way, but there is a chance that your body can't handle that mana, and you die.
Isaac looks at all three methods and sits there in shock at how death focused all these methods are and how unusable they are in his current condition.
"How on earth does someone figure out how to do this. After how many people die, do you think that you shouldn't try it? No wonder magic is used by crazy people."
Isaac looks up from the book and over that forest across the river and sees the trees lose their colour and wither. This has been happening ever since that purple figure left. It's almost like the trees are dying and turning to dust.
Isaac stands up and starts walking around to gather his thoughts.
'The only one I could most likely do is the second method, but I don't know which plants are full of mana and have healing properties. Besides the second method, the third one could be possible, since I am cursed, I count as a conduit for the curse, but it's kind of hard to eat yourself and live.'
Isaac looks south and wonders.
'Maybe those figures have a magic conduit, that purple one definitely looked like magic, and considering that scream was also in my dream, I would say it's safe to say it's the thing that cursed me.'
Isaac is hit with a wave of realisation as he thinks about the purple figure.
'That's definitely why they knew where to look directly at me, so they definitely cursed me on purpose, but why wouldn't they just kill me right away? If they can use magic, then they have some form of intelligence.'
Isaac stops that train of thought because trying to understand something from another world could be a death wish and lull you into a sense of understanding of them, and then they could go against all forms of understanding.
Isaac walks over to the shore of the lake, crouches down, and looks into the water. He looks at himself in the reflection, his brown hair is a mess, his blue eyes look slightly dull, and his clothes are dishevelled.
Isaac speaks to himself, "What should I do? I have no clue what to do. The only thing that could help is borderline impossible, and I can only just sit about until I die of starvation, or by some animal."
Isaac lets out despair towards the water, hoping for some magic response from his reflection, but nothing of the sort happens. Isaac throws a nearby rock at his reflection before standing up.
Isaac turns around and picks up his bag and lets out a shout, "You know what, screw all of this, if I'm going to die out here, then I am going to let it be on my terms."
Isaac starts walking into the forest, which starts ripping plants out of the ground or off the plants they were attached to. He starts to retrace his steps back to where he was first brought here, while gathering all the plants and herbs he can find.
He attempts not to gather the same plant twice, but some slip through. Isaac walks around the forest like a madman for hours on end before arriving at the opening he first saw. The tree that was behind him when he first got here is now a lot bigger, at least by a few meters, which does make Isaac wonder how it grew so much in just a day, but he lets those thoughts rest.
Isaac sits down at the foot of the tree and starts drawing the plants in one of his old textbooks. After around an hour, almost 50 different plants have been crudely drawn, he starts to eat each plant one at a time and writes down its effects.
Some plants make Isaac gain a rash in record time and others almost make him fall asleep. after a few short minutes Isaac is down to four plants left, and included in the plants is the blackberry like plant he saw the squirrel's eating yesterday, he was saving it for last because he considered it to be poisonous is someway due to how abundant it was.
After steeling his will, he put it in his mouth and swallowed it whole. He felt a warm feeling flow through his body, he could hear his heart beating fast inside his body, he felt parts of his body flex involuntarily. He could feel something worming its way up his body from the inside, from his intestines, and thought his stomach then out of his mouth.
Pitch black mucus flows out of Isaac's body nonstop, causing his consciousness to start to fade. Parts of the world start turning blue and green, almost like his reality is turning into a painting.
Isaac gives a glancing thought about the past hours. He was originally trying to do the second method of learning to sense mana, but now it really seems like he will die.
Right as Isaac is about to pass out, he feels a burning pain hit his eye, it feels like an ice pick stabbing right through, and then a rush of Isaac's life rushes through his mind, all the times he learned new things have a drawing effect on Isaac, like the memories are trying to keep Isaac alive.
Through tears, Isaac could make out something from his right eye, a transparent dark blue screen was burned onto Isaac's iris.
**
Name: Isaac Wright
Monument:
Titles: N/A
Traits:
Unoriginal:
You can only learn things that others have before you.
Human:
Your body adapts to the environment around you to make it liveable.
Origin:
You can always tell where you originated from.
Minor Curse:
A curse that makes you suffer from terrible nightmares.
Allies:
James York: N/a
**
Isaac uses the last of his strength to let out a few words
"You have got to be kidding me."
Isaac's eyes close, and darkness floods in.