Goal

'In immediate desperation, irrationality can turn even the shrewdest person silly.'

Prinz's action is exactly rash. There is no guarantee that the round-shaped fruit is harmless. Yet, in the face of incredible hunger, he does not hesitate. Believing that the fruit is fit for consumption, he swallowed the fruit whole.

Now, he has to bear the consequence.

His entire lower-body skin has been discoloured from the cold on his feet. At the same time, his face becomes bright green while all his muscles quiver uncontrollably. Prinz leans down on the surface of the World Eater's tongue that is covered in sticky translucent fluids. His body experiences extreme cold in instant, as the rest of his body comes near to the fluids; turning his current condition worse. His voice could not reach out for help. Even if he wants to scream, there is nobody else in this place. While enduring the pain, he suffers from a gradual loss of his consciousness.

The life-threatening situation could not get worse. Prinz is only suffering from the ensuing coldness.

The fruit travels from the throat and through the oesophagus track until the fruit he swallowed reaches to the stomach. The whole process took seconds to conclude before a notification is alerted:

"You have consumed a seed of a World Tree"

Prinz is in a severe cold condition, that he could not take notice of the notification. His vision blurred as the cold goes all the way to his bones and spreads all over the body. Prinz could not even think of anything useful to save himself. He has lost the warmth that makes his entire muscles to function. The survivability rate has decreased without doubt as his consciousness fades in time.

At one point, he becomes unaware of his body predicaments.

Prinz suffers through the beginning of the process; however, it is only until he loses his consciousness. The severe cold condition starts to slowly recover afterwards. For some reason, the gradual recovering process seems to take in effect after he swallows the fruit. Prinz's facial expression appears at ease when his body is in the recovering process. At the same time, the pain from involuntary muscles contraction is longer present.

Despite that, Prinz is still covered in a thick layer of sticky fluids that come from the World Eater's mouth.

When the cold sensation finally disperses from his body, Prinz then instantaneously wakes up. It is not known how long he laid unconscious inside the World Eater. However, even when the cold sensation is loss the excessive chill that comes from the sticky liquid is still making him shuddering non-stop.

"Grr... It's cold! Grr... I need to get out from here," he mumbles softly.

Step by step, he walks out from the World Eater's mouth. As soon as Prinz left, he reels his body relentlessly on the ground until the thick fluids finally have gotten rid of his body. The fluids permeate on the ground. Only a thin layer of these fluids is still left on his body; even so, it is negligible to the current Prinz.

Unlike a moment ago, the previously exhausted Prinz has regained his vigour. There is no change to his malnourished state. In spite that, he feels his body has become well again; as if he is reborn anew. Noticeably, his mental condition has also changed for the better.

"Good freaking nature, what have I done? I almost breathe my last breath for being reckless!" Prinz reproaches himself.

He is irate for his recklessness due to extreme hunger. He suffered through a near-death experience after succumbing to his desire. Perhaps, there will be a second time if he again falls into the same desperation. The whole preceding state of his mind was lethal.

It is exactly as what Prinz has once said that the mind and body work hand-in-hand.

He then assesses his body condition. He touches his temple to gauge his body temperature, but there is not a slight of warmth he feels. He brings his hand to the back of his head to scratch before entirely new information, containing his current status, appears before him.

[Prinz Heilig]

A humanoid life form.

Status: Barely-alive

Life: ????

Energy: ????

????: ????(grayed)

????: ????(grayed)

????: ????(grayed)

????: ????(grayed)

????: ????

{You are not in good condition. Restricting your proficiency to acquire all particular information regarding yourself}

|Your remaining Mana essence: ????|

"This is just outrageous. How could it not display anything useful?" Prinz laments inside.

The very first moment he sees the status, he could not even grasp any useful information from it. Now he could a few details that reveal a little bit about him. After all, Prinz has woken up in an entirely new body. At the bottom of the notification, he notices in particular about the remaining Mana essence. The one other non-greyed detail about him has also been revealed on the notification status. He contemplates inside:

"There is something extra in my status, perhaps this non-greyed details in my status is my attribute. Life and energy seem to be revealed as well but I see nothing but questions marks. Also, there is nothing I can do to them. But this last attribute is different. This is reminding me of 'Rebirth on New Earth'!" Prinz murmurs inside.

He recalls the 'Rebirth on New Earth' game; an In-Depth Reality RPG game that he has once played before. He somehow relates that maybe the current world that he is living in right now is comparatively similar in the game process. It is just an assumption. After all the RPG game is a fantasy version of Earth, but his current predicament is a cruel reality.

In the 'Rebirth on New Earth', every avatar has their own designated 2D notification interface that allows them to raise their abilities from accumulated evolution points. The points are limited to each player's growth and experience in the game. Therefore, they are not always abundant and can never be given. Each avatar must improve themselves to gain the evolution points.

'No pain, no gain'

This sentence is the classic echo that resonates with everyone in the game.

Prinz then uses his hand to touch his status, yet he cannot feel anything real from it.

"I can't touch the status! How to raise my attribute then? Still, is it wise to randomly to try-out an attribute that I don't know what? I can see only questions marks and no other details whatsoever. It is not wise to take the risk, yet at the same time it would be unwise to not risk it."

Prinz hesitates to take the risk. He is in a confused state; not knowing what he should do right now. At that moment, he recalls about a protagonist in a certain illustrated story who raised one of h** attribute to an extreme digit. The protagonist becomes super-intelligent and strong with many cheats like abilities. The G**** character becomes worth a lot more as the story progressed. But in the end, the author failed the story even though the protagonist premise has huge potentials.

Aside from remembering the story, he weights on his decision once more.

"It would be very wrong to associate my real situation with the G****. Nonetheless, I might just take the risk and raise this one attribute. What could go wrong?" Prinz convinces himself.

There are many things wrong with that thought. In the end, Prinz makes his decision to raise the attribute. A voice then requested him for confirmation.

"Are you sure you want to raise '????' using your remaining Mana essence?" The voice asks indifferently.

The voice is different than the one Prinz recognizes.

"Yes! Remaining? Huh? No, no, no."

It is too late. The moment he gave his consent to the question, the change has already taken place. Prinz unknown attribute is raised, though he could not inspect its value. No visible and physical change is seen either – none at all.

"Mother freaking nature! No! I said no." Prinz screams in regret.

He heaves a deep sigh once. His facial expression, on the contrary, shows a sign of being at ease instead of antipathy.

"Well, it's done and my attribute has been raised. There's nothing can be done to reverse it."

He does not express grief from his sigh. He is actually meant to raise the entire attribute that he could right now to increase his chance of survival. Yet, there is only one. Therefore he takes the chance. If it was the RPG game, an increase in an attribute means that one would be stronger.

Additionally, his relief comes from eating the fruit. It is a lucky circumstance because he found the fruit inside the World Eater. Deep down, he knows that he might not be fortunate again, should he ever encounter another desperate situation. Looking at the bright side, Prinz is still alive and now his stamina has also replenished. There is also an extra attribute, which he now indirectly receives.

"Only after I consume this fruit called 'seed of World Tree', I gain Manna essence. It couldn't be helped that I use it all, though I wonder about something," Prinz murmurs inside.

He has his doubt onto something but decides not to dwell on it. After consuming the fruit, his mind becomes clear and the fatigue he always feels all over his body is no longer there. Prinz then stretches his arms up in the air and warm himself up with a simple workout. He is prepared to move. Without delaying much time, he sets forth to search for a clue. He aims to search for information; primary about where he is right now and secondarily about his survivability as long as he stays in this new world. But first, he has to retrieve something.

Prinz walks into the mouth of the World Eater again to retrieve the bone stick. He has been using the femur bone as walking stick all the time. After retrieving it, he distances himself from the creatures and walks around it.

Using the World Eater's body as his expedition reference and hides in the shadow, Prinz constantly on a walk.

Time passes by quickly.

It takes an awfully long period to get around the World Eater's body. He almost gets on his nerve from weariness in the seemingly endless journey. The body size of the World Eater is just excessively massive in volume. At the same time, Prinz does not walk in leisure. On the contrary, he stealthily avoids the open sky and puts himself under the indistinct shadow that encloses the creature's body. Also, he has to ensure that his footsteps are cleared from his track.

By chance, Prinz arrives at a location where the ground appears silvery-white with multiple plants are seen growing from it. The huge meadow of vegetation covers as far as his eyes could see and even further. The unique soils congregate at one end; around the huge tree trunk that has lost all the leaves. At one end of the tree where the roots are supposedly located, have been uprooted and gone missing. It turns out that the silvery white ground is the only area where vegetation can grow in verdant.

This place that Prinz has come across turns out to be a haven, where a tiny hope of survival is found.

____

The remain of the World tree.

It is what Prinz recognizes the current tree trunk that he takes shelter in at the moment. There is a hollow spot in the trunk where there is plenty of space for him to stay.

He gathers various small plants that grow in the meadow of vegetation in the place where he stays. He does so to sustain him from hunger. There is also a source of a liquid that pours out from the trunk. Prinz drinks from this source to quench his thirst, albeit a little. He has to be vigilant with the amount he drinks at a time. From the time of his arrival, Prinz would simply eat the plants at random; whenever he feels hungry he will eat a small portion of what he gathers; as there is no way to determine day or night in the world reside now. Everything on the sky remains scarlet as always.

Since he woke up until now, Prinz is not able to find an appropriate time to consolidate all the information that he gathers. Throughout the entire expedition that he goes, there was not one day he forgets his goal. Regrettably, there is no information found. Neither about this new world nor about the death of all creatures that scatter across the land is discovered. Despite that, Prinz brings together with him everything that he believes to be of use from his expedition. They are taken from the humanoid body. He rummages from their clothes or delves into their belongings to find them.

For the past unknown period, Prinz would often go on an expedition. Instead of enclosing himself in the shelter he wanders around to every open area and barren places to search for information. Utilizing the huge World Eater's carcass as a point of direction, he could find his way back with no trouble.

It is at this point, he brings an end to search for information activities. He finally begins inspecting everything found. Until now, he has only collected them and never looked through anything.

"There is a heaping amount of what seems to be manuscripts or scrolls, four remaining pieces World Tree leaves and a collection of many different items; that some I can identify but there are a whole lot more that I know nothing about. It can't be helped I don't know what they are. But then, they are just conspicuous in my eyes," Prinz told himself.

He found all these items and gathers in the corner. After a long period of moving to and fro from all over places, Prinz hopes that all his hard work and patience is worth.

On his right hand, Prinz holds the remaining Wold Tree leaves tight. Initially, he has eight pieces. When he first found the tree trunk he consumes four of them to fill his empty stomach. At that time, he is just thinking of satiating his hunger. Up until now, he is very fortunate. The first Wold Tree leaf that he has consumed gives an aptitude that allows him to recognize plants. Prinz learns of this aptitude when he touches the other leaves, which he is about to consume; before a notification suddenly appears before him. Prinz saves half of the eight pieces and consumes the remaining away. Utilizing his ability to recognize plants, he gathers all the edible plants from the ground as an alternative.

It is unclear as of why Prinz has a knack of hitting upon occasion where his guts turn harmless even if he blindly follows them. To begin with, he has consumed whole the seed of the World Tree out of desperation from hunger. Then found the remains of a World tree where he now takes shelter in. Next, he has even consumed the leaves of the World Tree and receives an aptitude.

"All the things I discovered from the World Tree have been too handy. Are they just a coincidence?" Prinz questions himself, always.

He contemplates inside while assessing the current predicament he currently in. Prinz realizes that he has made a few blunders. It might have been due to various circumstances that he fails to notice.

First, there is a time limit to the translation that appears at the bottom of the unknown sentences from the notification status. Prinz catches a glimpse of what appears to keep changing at the corner of the notification status. Although, he does not recognizes what is changing, as time passes the character becomes shorter – like timing or some sorts. The notification status only appears when he touches the creature's vital limb, specifically the head. This is separated from Prinz's ability to identify the plants; as he has only gained this ability by a piece of the World Tree leaves.

Secondly, there is no sign of development to his physical body even though Prinz has eaten a whole variety of plants. The reason is unknown. But he assumes that it could have been because he is 'not in a good condition'. Nevertheless, Prinz has expended his entire collections of plants based resources – trying to recover his body. Although there is whole vegetation growing, they would eventually deplete. He needs to find an alternative at his point onward.

"For now, I can pass over the second blunder as it would not occur anytime soon. However, for the first one, I must haste my speed to learn the character and understand the language from the notification status without the translation. A bonus would be to also learn all other languages inside all these manuscripts and scrolls. After an occasional appearance of the notification status, I recognize almost the entire language characters. It is limited though, without anything to take note with," Prinz laments inside.

Nonetheless, he hardens his resolve and starts hitting on the manuscripts first. He has limited time to complete his reading at the same time to memorize the numerous unknown characters that seem infinite in numbers. Prinz understands that it is not an easy task to redeem his blunders.