A soft breath of cold air brushed against Zephyr's face from one side. At the same time, warmth flowed onto his face from the other. Even before he opened his eyes, Zephyr could see light flickering through his eyelids. The warmth was radiating from the direction of the light.

"Hm," he groaned, confused.

The last thing he remembered was... fainting.

'Did I do something stupid again?' Zephyr wondered, opening his eyes.

He was lying on his back. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the night sky and the twinkle of starlight. Turning to the side, he gazed at the flickering light coming from a small bonfire.

'Ugh!'

'It seems I'm not dead. That's good,' Zephyr thought.

Then he squinted, gazing at the silhouette sitting behind the fire. Her golden hair was lit perfectly by the flames, allowing him to instantly recognize her.

'Aurelia.'

Next to her, another person was sitting, gazing into the fire.

'Elenor.'

Seeing the two ladies, Zephyr breathed a sigh of relief. There was nothing to fear. He slowly turned his head toward the sky, gazing up at the stars again. Perhaps due to the presence of the bonfire, the stars seemed a little dimmer. Usually, in a clear sky, he would have been able to see the galactic arms sprawled across the heavens.

'Being anchored to a place was not the only side effect,' he said to himself, remembering what had happened.

His memory flew back to the time he used the mana-gathering formation. The formation had worked perfectly—just as he intended. He hadn't expected it to work on the first try, and yet, it did.

However, this caused him to overlook the potential side effects. The first trial was supposed to be a test, but, drunk on power, he had gone a little overboard.

'Could the overflowing mana have influenced my mind?' Zephyr wondered.

It was unlike him... No, it was exactly like him. But he should have shown some hesitation before going haywire. He should have at least pretended to consider the pros and cons before doing something like that.

'That was... risky.'

He was not pleased with how he had fainted onto the solid rock platform, helpless. If Moss had any thoughts of harming him, he would be dead by now.

'Now that I think about it, where is Moss?' Zephyr moved his head around, slowly and deliberately.

His body was aching from head to toe. Each movement he made ended in a negotiation between his body and mind—his body asking him to stop, while his stubborn mind commanded it to move.

'It feels like the first time I worked in construction.'

Reflecting on his time carrying cinder blocks, Zephyr recalled the payday parties thrown by the older men on his crew. The parties involved a lot of booze—a crap-ton of it, to be specific.

Zephyr was a lightweight, and while he appreciated their kind intentions, he dreaded the effects of the alcohol. To Zephyr, a man who found great pride in his ability to think and reason, the sensation of the world spinning was an insult to his intellect. He hated the mental fog it induced, yet he drank anyway, unwilling to disrespect them.

Currently, along with pain, that same mental fog was covering his mind. His thoughts were flowing sluggishly, moving in unexpected directions. It was similar to the hangover he got the day after those parties.

'Mana overuse seems to have its own problems.'

Zephyr took a deep breath.

'Anyway, humans are stupid creatures. That includes me, the "great." We never learn things even if we are taught. Partial memories of magic and half-knowledge are a crutch. They can never truly teach me.'

Zephyr sighed.

'Experience is the best and only teacher.'

He sighed again.

'Only through failure and repeated trials can a person move beyond their limits. By doing stupid shit, I took the first step in understanding magic.'

Zephyr's lips curled up into a smile.

"Dumbass, what are you smiling at?" Suddenly, a voice came from his side.

Aurelia, squinting her eyes, was looking at him. Zephyr turned to meet her gaze.

"I am alive. It's a happy occasion, right?" Zephyr said, showing a grin.

"Yes, it is." Aurelia grabbed a wooden stick and threw it at Zephyr angrily. "Dumbass, who looks like a goblin."

A mild pain shot through Zephyr's thigh at the exact point where the stick collided.

"Hey, that hurts," he said, trying to sit up.

"Not as much as having your mindscape rocked, right?"

Zephyr tilted his head. What's that? It was the first time he had heard the words "mindscape" and "rocked" in a single sentence. Aurelia noticed his confusion and chuckled.

"You should try looking at your mindscape. Overusing mana while you are not at a level your mindscape can handle will often cause damage to the core," she stated.

"What kind of damage?"

Zephyr pulled his body up, straightened his spine, and sat on the cold platform.

'Now that I think about it, how long has it been since the rabbit massacre? Why are we still on the stone platform? Haven't they killed them all?'

The mental fog had made him overlook his environment until that point. But once he sat up, the thoughts that questioned everything once again churned in his mind. Paranoia and a sense of danger were returning to him. Taking a deep breath, Zephyr clenched his jaw. He filed the thought away for now, returning his attention to what Aurelia had just said.

"What kind of damage are you talking about?" he asked, wheezing.

A taste of metal filled his mouth as he spoke. His saliva and mucus seemed to have a tint of blood mixed in again. He cleared his throat, pulling out mucus from between his throat and lungs before spitting it away from where they sat.

Aurelia gave him space before answering. "The kind of damage that will erase the runes you engraved or... in serious cases, crack the core itself."

"Uh!" Zephyr's eyes widened. "That could happen?"

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