2 Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Failure

It was already nighttime when Zed started to follow the river stream. In the end, he arrived in front of an enormous waterfall reaching great heights.

He had been looking for a place to stay the night, but in every place he found, there would be creatures living in it.

Luckily for them, most of the creatures they stumbled upon were either asleep or not aggressive.

Zed did think of building a tent or shelter for themselves but he couldn't afford to make strenuous movemt especially with a weakened baby in his arms. Therefore, he settled with the gaping hole hidden behind a waterfall.

It was a large cave and the waterfall's sound filled the spacious hollow space inside the cave. 

At first, he was hesitant to enter the cave because there might have been another beast hiding inside.

But pretty soon, he realized that he had no choice in the matter. He knew that his body would collapse and he would without a doubt, faint.

He had already walked several miles just to arrive at this cave and even then, his body was already severely exhausted before he started his journey.

The toll on his body was too extreme.

Which was why after gathering several leaves to make a makeshift bed, he and the baby finally rested inside the cold dark cave.

"Haa..." His sigh of exhaustion was left unheard due to the loud splashing of water from the waterfall.

'What's going to happen to me... to us?'

As he looked at the baby in his arms, his exhaustion reached his mind. Soon, he fell asleep while sitting but his arms never stopped moving to gently cradle the baby.

-

"GASP!"

Zed was woken up by a head-splitting pain. It was so excruciating that he felt like his mind was being split into two. However, even though he was experiencing such pains, his first thought was the condition of the baby.

'W-what happened to her?'

He noticed that the sun had already risen and bright rays of line passed through the waterfall. While the cries of the baby rang in his ears. He knew that she must have been starving but he literally couldn't do anything right now.

'D-damn it! God damn it!' and the freaking headache isn't helping at all!

Feeling frustrated and stressed out at his current situation, he tried his best to endure and keep the infant his top priority.

He tried his best to ignore the pain after realizing that he and the baby hadn't eaten anything for days. Out of bad habits during stressful situations, he unconsciously chewed on his right thumb.

Puk!

That was when he accidentally bit too hard that a wound appeared on the surface of his thumb.

'Tsk!'

He was about to wipe it away but then he noticed the baby's eyes tracing after his bleeding thumb.

'Hmmm... is it healthy for a baby to drink blood? It should still contain a fair amount of nutrients...'

Zed didn't really know since his knowledge revolved around magic and magic alone. Tending to infant's needs nor raising children was not in his field of knowledge.

However, he noticed that the child began crying once more after seeing that he had yet to offer his thumb to it. After some consideration, He realized that he had no choice in the matter as their situation was that desperate.

And so, he offered his bleeding thumb to the child, and almost immediately, she stopped crying as she suckled on Zed's thumb.

Zed ignored the weird sensation of having the infants' gums sucking and chewing on his thumb.

"..."

Zed observed the state of the baby which became quiet after feasting on his thumb.

Just as he was about to sigh in relief, his thoughts were rattled by a huge shock in his mind which was soon followed by unfamiliar memories that Zed was sure wasn't his.

His eyes became misty as he fell into a trance all while the child in his arms continued to suckle on his bleeding thumb.

After a few minutes, Zed managed to regain his bearings and calmed himself down before organizing the new information in his mind.

His situation was simply too unnatural and unreal that he just had to sit down and contemplate about the new and at the same time, familiar knowledge he gained.

'I see... so this is a different world. A world of martial arts, cultivation, immortals, fairies, and so on.

And the reason I couldn't feel my mana circuits was because... this isn't my body but a child from a fallen nobility.'

'And his name is Li Zixin.'

However, despite being an heir to nobility, his parents were still mortals and they were only rich enough to hire cultivators as guards.

As one would guess, cultivators were worshipped in this world, whereas, Immortals were akin to Gods.

As for mortals however, they were considered fodders or ants since they could easily be killed.

'So that's why I couldn't feel mana. My mana circuits haven't been opened yet.'

As Zed was reviewing his memories, his train of thoughts were cut off by the baby, Lan'er in his arms as she cried once more.

He smiled gently as he asked, "What's wrong little Lan'er?"

The latter, however, continued to cry. It didn't take long for Zed to figure out that his wound had already dried up, and blood refused to flow.

With a sigh, he bit his thumb once more, this time making it deeper so that Lan'er could continue drinking.

His face was barely irked despite the self-harm he did to himself.

Xue Ruolan.

She was the daughter of his uncle, Xue Zemin who was the lifelong comrade and brother of his father, Li Guang.

As it turns out, they weren't abandoned but were forced to escape because of several unknown enemies that attacked their family.

Zed was already sure that their parents died and now, they were orphans with no guardians to rely on.

A sigh escaped his mouth as he realized that they would share a similar fate to his previous life as a person who grew up in the slums.

'No... I can't let that happen to Lan'er.'

Growl...

"!"

Zed immediately began looking at their surroundings, thinking that there was a nearby predator, only to realize a second later that it was his stomach grumbling for food, causing eyebrows to twitch in perplexity.

He sighed at his hunger and began to ponder his next course of action.

'I should first explore the surroundings and familiarize myself with the forest. I have experience in hunting but that was when I was a mage.

But now... I don't have any tools, much less a weapon, to help me hunt. So I'll be needing to learn how to improvise and adapt.'

'The next concern is making a shelter for ourselves. We can't stay in this cave since there is still a chance that beasts made this place as their home and if we were ever to encounter them...'

Zed shivered after remembering the traumatizing memory of wolves chasing after him day and night.

'Hopefully, we can find nearby human settlements while exploring, but...'

Another sigh escaped his mouth.

'I can only do so little with this small body of mine.

As for my magic circuits... I'll need to open them myself, even without tools.'

When Zed thought of opening his magic circuits, he was referring to the old and more primitive process of manually opening his magic circuits.

It involved stabbing a part of his skin and exposing the circuit to the air. From there on, he would need to keep gathering mana, and if he was lucky enough, then the process would finish faster with better circuits.

If he were unlucky, the process would be slow and he could risk dying of blood loss.

It was a gruesome process, but as a mage, he needs to open them.

Usually, though, there would be a less painful and much safer way of opening mana circuits back in his world, but that was only when they had the necessary tools to do so.

He inadvertently sighed once again when he realized the pains he'll have to go through in the following days.

Once he finished opening his magic circuits and consolidating his foundation, that was only when they could continue to travel and look for human settlements.

He was also planning on becoming a cultivator along with his sister after realizing that they were the most powerful and authoritative figures in this world.

Even his parents from this world, though they were nobles, still had to show respect to a normal cultivator. Fortunately enough, he had basic knowledge for martial arts along with swordsmanship which would give them a better chance of being accepted into sects.

Sects are a group or society of cultivators where they would either band together or study under the same teachers.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any specific knowledge about cultivators and their ranks as it was considered a taboo topic for mortals to discuss about cultivators.

Anyway, after a long contemplation and planning, he accepted that this was his current reality and was ablr to come to terms with it. Soon, he laid down to rest his mind and body. His body was aching terribly today and every muscle in his body was cramping which shouldn't be surprising considering the overuse of his body for the past few days.

And so, with his current condition, he decided to rest for now and move tomorrow, albeit enduring the extreme pang hunger he felt within.

-

A week passed and Zed had made a blockage of sorts on the cave's entrance. After his body recovered to a considerable extent, he first prioritized checking out whether the cave was a safe place to continue staying in or not. Otherwise, he'll have to exhaust himself again to look for another shelter to stay in, which would be another strenuous work for him to do.

Fortunately, the cave was shallow and he found no inhabitants within. He rejoiced at this fact and officially decided to use that cave as their shelter. After doing so, He began to learn how to hunt and forage through the use of Li Zixin's knowledge and his own experiences.

His first hunts were awkward and his prey kept escaping. Rabbits, deer, boars, and creatures of the likes kept escaping from his grasp.

Lan'er felt entertained most of the time while watching her brother kept moving and failing. She most likely thought they were playing.

Rather than annoyed, Zed felt even more motivated to try his best while hearing Lan'er's adorable laughter.

During his exploration, he managed gathered numerous fruits and herbs that he deemed safe to eat, based on Li Zixin's knowledge.

However, his exploration wasn't completely safe as he was met with danger several times and he would have died if not for his experiences as Zed Williams.

After another week of passing, Zed was finally able to hunt small creatures, earning himself meat that he would cook in the fire after skinning their fur.

He had learned how to use makeshift tools and weapons such as sharp rocks or sharped stakes made from wood that greatly helped in his hunts.

After a month had passed, he had completely adapted to his new lifestyle and was able to hunt deer with an improvised spear that he made.

Pelts of his hunted prey were starting to stack in their temporary shelter while he had also gathered fruits and vegetables for his sister to eat.

However, despite all the different kinds of crushed fruit and vegetables he fed to Lan'er, her favorite meal was still his blood.

He was a little worried about this as he knew that what she really needed was milk. But even after a month of exploration, he had yet to find cows or goats.

He also failed in finding any nearby human settlements. Zed knew that the only way to find them was to leave this forest.

But he also knew that it would take several days and his small body wouldn't be able to last a journey that long.

And so today was the day he would open his mana circuits.

It was mid-day as Zed and Lan'er were hiding inside the spacious cave behind the waterfall.

After making sure that she fell asleep, Zed placed Lan'er between a stack of soft leaves that he tied together to make a pillow.

In front of the waterfall, Zed was shirtless as he straightened his back upright while his legs were kneeling. On his hand was a sharpened flint knife.

He was both nervous and excited at the same time. Make no mistake, he wasn't a masochist.

He was excited because the talents of a mage are decided depending on the mana circuits he or she was born with.

In his previous life, he was born with thin and brittle mana circuits which limited his mana capacity, making him remain a 3rd rate mage his entire life.

But now he had a different body, so he was quite excited at the thought of possibly being born with mana circuits befitting a 1st rate mage.

He aimed the knife beneath his left arm, directly on top his ribcage before very slowly making a deep wound.

Zed remained unmoved by the pain as he continued to unhesitatingly slice his flesh. He made sure that the wound was deep enough to reach the circuits.

After five minutes of careful slicing, Zed's entire left torso was bleeding while he tried his best to calm himself in face of the unbearable pain. His entire face was sweating which showed the amount of struggle he was in and yet he was trying to remain quiet and focus on what he was doing.

"Haa... haa..."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. With one of his circuits exposed, he tried to feel the mana.

Unfortunately, even after a minute or so, he had yet to feel even the slightest bit of mana.

'Damn it... did I not cut deep enough?'

He thought something was wrong but then it was at that moment that felt a small tingling sensation from above his ribcage.

'This is it!'

Without wasting a second, he focused on the tingling sensation as if he was pulling it closer and closer to his body.

Soon enough, that tingling sensation stopped and was replaced by a ambiguous sensation that had an inexplicable fluidity.

This odd sensation soon began to spread from his chest towards his entire body.

Mana would keep flowing into his body, so this process required his full focus and concentration since a single mistake could lead him to injure one of his circuits.

'So far, so good.'

He also found out that his mana circuits were thicker than his previous ones. This brought him great joy, but he couldn't let himself lose focus and remained concentrated.

It took him a long and arduous process as he slowly opened the other parts of his circuits and spread them all over his nerves.

The stinging pain was also one of the reasons why he struggled to spread the mana properly. It kept distracting his sharp focus.

Zed had long forgotten his sense of time as he reached the peak of the operation.

He only needed to finalize the mana in his body by circulating it to the last part of the circuits which was located inside the brain.

As he let the mana flow from his chest to his neck and finally towards the brain, he was shocked to find out the last circuit was missing!

'What the-'

With the mana continuously flowing, that split-second delay of his immediately put him in danger.

'Shit!'

He hurriedly expelled all the mana that accumulated in his body, forcing it out the same way it came in.

This resulted in the wound in his ribcage widening and almost making him fall into shock because of the unimaginable pain that followed.

'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!'

He was frustrated, despairing, and worried that he had lost too much blood.

He hurriedly ripped a part of a little cloth that his previous robes had left and used it to close his wounds.

"Damn it!" He growled.