49 Void

Jim was falling. He didn't know for how long, his sense of time wasn't working at all. Neither was his sight or hearing. There was something suppressing him, his mind wouldn't work, he was paralyzed, helpless, hopeless.

Nothing was here, nothing was anywhere. Everything was meaningless, he should just give up, fade away. 'No, fuck that!' Jim's mind suddenly came back to him, his mind and will were dulled.

[Hypnosis Resistance Skill Obtained]

[Mental Encroachment Resistance Skill Obtained]

[Illusion Resistance Has Reached Level 5]

Jim still couldn't see around himself, he reached Detection out and quickly figured out the concealment. It wasn't much different from what the Void Treader had used before. He wasn't actually falling, he was completely still. There was no gravity here. The 2 pedestrians and 6 agents were nearby, they weren't moving but seemed to be unharmed, he stretched magic hands out and placed them in companion storage.

Before he teleported out, he contiued searching the area. He found formless blobs also stalled in place, he couldn't tell what they were. 'Appraisal'

[Formless Void Treader]

[Level: N/A]

'Huh...not question marks?' All the other stats were also N/A. Pondering on it for a moment, Jim figured that appraisal couldn't display stats because they simply didn't have any, they simply hadn't been formed yet, like concepts which haven't been put into practice. 'The other one...did it get tossed out of this place somehow?'

Jim thought he couldn't figure out anymore here, so he used minor teleport to leave. 'Mm?' He was still here. 'Uh-oh.' He tried to use Blink too, still nothing. Jim began studying the minor teleport circle again. 'Why won't it work?'

He couldn't really tell, but he felt that around 4 hours may have passed given his normal research speed. Jim kept tinkering with Minor Teleport's functions, but nothing worked. Eventually he started making up new ones. 'Can I do this? Yeah, should work.'

Casting again, he found himself in his condo. 'Huh? I meant to teleport just outside the hole, what happened?' He stopped for a moment and began pondering. 'Oh! So that's it!' Jim began grinning. 'I can use this.' Using the normal minor teleport, he headed to the tent where Sam was waiting.

Jim: "Hey, I'm back!"

Sam: "You..made it out? What took you?"

Jim: "Huh? What do you mean?"

Sam: "It's been 3 days! We thought you were lost too."

'Was my time perception that messed up in there?' Jim headed outside and brought the passengers outside of his companion storage. They were all unconscious, he wasn't sure if being in that place would damage a normal person in some way, their status was normal so he figured they'd be alright.

After informing them of what he encountered in there, Jim took off. He figured Sam could handle all the clean-up. Now back at home, he started thinking of what to do first. There were still 5 months left on the Dimensional Travel cooldown.

The innovation Jim was forced to make in the void solved the problem he was having with his magic research. He gathered Jane, Astrill, and Libta to explain he'd be going away for a while and not to worry. Leaving a large number of pills with Astrill, he wanted her to be the contact for Bill.

'Alright, let's do this.' Jim activated the newly modified teleport spell. Suddenly, he was in a forest clearing. His mana ran dry, he started feeling dizzy, lightheaded. 'Ugh...'

After a few minutes, Jim recovered. He had teleported back to Bahn Tai. 'It worked!' The broken remains of the lodge he had built before was nearby. The ground was cracked and craters were everywhere. 'Seems that old guy went on a rampage.' Sighing a bit at the loss of one of his first buildings, he decided to start moving.

Sending Detection out, he attempted to find more useful spirit herbs like the Jing Qi Flower. Spirit herbs were really expensive in the shop, but he had come across one accidentally by just wandering around here.

Heading west, he spotted the occasional herb.

[Purple Spirit Grass - Quality: Low]

[Stores Small Amounts Of Yuan Qi]

[Calming Huan Root - Quality: Common]

[Suppresses Primal Qi]

[Herbalism Has Reached Level 4]

Jim felt it easier to spot these ingredients as time went by. He began using Lightning Drive to move. A platform of electricity arcs suddenly appeared underfoot, as he kicked off, he rocketed ahead far faster than with Surging Thunder Steps. Furthermore, when he willed it, the platform was created underneath once again, he could stand in midair now with this skill.

Although it wasn't true flight, being able to run through the sky was exhilarating. It also caused him to move even faster, since he no longer needed to worry about terrain anymore. It was so fun that Jim completely lost track of his original purpose. After crossing an unknown distance, he calmed down. Looking at his mental map, he had truly gone incredibly far. '10 times the speed of Surging Thunder Steps? More?'

Suddenly, he noticed something on his map, a tiny grey dot. 'What is that?' Turning back, he headed to where it was and activated Detection. 'Huh...nice job spotting that, mental map.' There was a concealed entrance to an underground space here.

It didn't take long to find his way in, the stonework inside was wonderful. Detection didn't find any lifeforms inside. 'Is there a formation that keeps out rats and such?'

Heading inside, immediately after putting his foot down a barrage of needles flew at him from the surrounding walls. 'Whoa!' Jim managed to dodge them at the last instant. Reaching detection towards the locations the needles came from, he had to focus for a while to actually find the openings and mechanisms within. 'Seems this might be a bit dangerous.'