The Red Void.

The planet-sized crow suddenly began to shink. No, collapse into something smaller.

The titanic figure slowly transformed into a humanoid form.

The head was that of a crow's, its wings folded into its body and made some kind of coat, its feet got covered in dark boots and its head got covered with a feathery hat. Its eyes were certainly as red as Corvis'.

The figure slowly approached me and I felt myself being dragged into it.

After about a minute, I was in control of the body of the crow-man.

I looked at my new body and determined it to be mostly human-like except for the long, black beak that was visible in front of me.

I still couldn't talk, but I could feel the temperature and my own touch on 'my' body.

'Corvis? Is this you?', I tried to communicate telepathically.

No response.

'Well, at least I didn't go insane in that dark abyss...', I sighed mentally.

Without much to do, I tried walking.

I couldn't feel the ground below my feet so I assumed I was flying.

I simply imagined moving forward and hoped that I was moving forward. I couldn't really tell my orientation in this gravity-less, monochromatic room.

--- After about 10 minutes ---

I stopped imagining moving forward. I gave up.

I simply waited for something new to happen like what happened with that crow's appearance in the dark abyss.

As I waited, I admired the body I was currently possessing.

It had toned muscles and my whole body was covered with majestic black feathers. The coat was actually an extension of my body and if I wanted to, I could extend it away from my body and it would look like actual wings.

As I was experimenting with my new body, I felt my consciousness fade again.

As I blacked out, I felt that my other body, the demon, was being violently shaken around.

--- An unknown amount of time later ---

"..aw.."

"...craw.."

"CRAW!", Corvis yelled into my ear, jolting me awake.

"GASP! HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!", I struggled to breathe as beads of sweat fell from my forehead.

I frantically touched my face and ran my gloved hands all over it, feeling every nook and cranny.

'I'm back to the demon body...', I concluded.

I looked at my surroundings and saw the old dungeon core glowing behind my throne.

I was back in my throne room...

"Welcome... back... My lord...", two hoarse voices greeted me.

"Hmm... Yeah, thanks... Desmond... Spectre...", I looked at my subordinates.

I then looked at Corvis and picked him up from the ground.

"... What was that? Do you know?", I asked seriously.

"... Craw... craw! Craw... Cr... Crrrrraw! Craw! Craaaaw! CcccAW!", he said.

"The Spirit realm?"

"Craw! Craw!", he nodded approvingly.

'So... After eating the stew, I got high and apparently, my soul slipped out of my body and made it into the spirit realm...? And then, Corvis, being my proxy, got to me as soon as possible and offered me his body for the time being...'

"That really was you?", I asked in disbelief. The little crow I was holding up in my hands was the same terrifying crow I saw in the red void.

"Craw! Craw!", Corvis nodded, saying yes.

"*Sigh... How long was I out for?", I asked.

"Craw!"

"2 DAYS?!?!", I yelled in disbelief.

'So... I should probably never eat monster flesh again...', I concluded.

I remembered reading in the monster bestiary that the humans who ate monster flesh died after convulsing and foaming out of their mouths... I thought that because I was an Arch-Demon, I would have been fine...

'That was foolish of me... I shouldn't risk anything like that again... If I don't wanna die, that is...'

Anyway, monster food was a no-go. Then, how was I supposed to reach the surface?

'Wait... if the dungeon core provides me with energy... and the dungeon core itself needs magic crystals... what if I eat the magic crystals directly?', an outrageous thought came to mind.

But that thought wasn't completely useless.

'Maybe... I can make something like a mana potion. if I grind up the magic crystals into fine powder and mix it with water?', an idea that could actually work came to mind.

"Let's go collect some magic crystals.", I commanded my subordinates.

--- After hunting ---

I got myself 3 intermediate magic crystals and 16 small magic crystals. I decided to grind up 5 small crystals first.

After grinding for about an hour, the crystals turned into fine powder.

I took the powder and poured it into some water.

What followed was something truly magical.

The powder immediately started dissolving into the water, emitting a faint blue light as it did.

As I put more powder into the water, the light got brighter and brighter.

At some point, after about one-third of the crystal powder was dissolved, the liquid started fizzing.

Apparently dissolving magic crystal powder into water was an exothermic reaction.

After cooling the glowing blue liquid down, it was finally time to test it.

I prayed that it wouldn't make me high or take my soul or kill me...

After gulping the liquid down, I waited for a few seconds.

And then-

"Woah... I feel awesome... that tasted pretty good too...", I said in an astonished voice.

I felt that my mana was being replenished at a rapid pace.

So rapid in fact, that it started to hurt around my heart.

"Argh... Oh no... I think I added too much magic powder...", I said regretfully as I collapsed to the ground because of the pain.

After about 10 minutes of excruciating pain, my heart still didn't feel quite normal as it still hurt quite a bit. But I could stand up and move at least.

And then suddenly-

[Congratulations!]

[You have created a Mana Potion(Low).]

[Rewards: WIS C+ -> WIS B]

'Damn... So I really did make a mana potion... but I'll need to figure out the optimal amount of powder to dissolve in the water...'