Apologies for the delay last week!

  Please also give me your thoughts on TSH in the comments, I'm looking for some feedback, whether its on flow, direction, pace, or anything else. Just be aware that the next 5 chaps are already written so the changes caused by the feedback will take some time to be noticed.

  Mid Evening - Early Fall : The Forest of Giants | Temnota

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  - Eve Altera ~

  "Nnnghh..." Waking up with a groan as a lingering heat-like pain flooded my body, I lethargically opened my eyes to see the blurry figure of a black creature looming over me.

  But rather than panicking, I just blankly stared at it...

  Mindlessly laying there, feeling the impression of dull tree bark pressing into my back, a blend of blurry, unsorted memories slowly started resurfacing, playing moments of my childhood, my mother, and the days I spent with my dad like an endless record before I was met with my inevitable demise.

  But as the movie progressed, I eventually made it to a memory of someone, and felt everything freeze.

  It was the moment I first met Evren, reaching her blood-covered hand out to me as she held up the head of a huge dead monster.

  It was a moment I remembered like it was yesterday.

  However, this time, the moment I reached out my childish hand and touched hers, the rest of my memories rushed back like an uncontrollable tsunami, flooding my body with adrenaline and jolting me awake. "aaAAAHH!" Springing up to my feet, I instinctually lunged back from the black creature before my vision finally sharpened and my panic mixed with confusion. -H..huh..?- Even as memories of the creature finally came back to me, I felt a distinct, unfamiliar presence from it. "B..Bella..?"

  Her face instantly washed with worry. "Lady Eve! Be careful moving so much!"

  -What the hell..?- Watching her run up to me in a panic, my face warped with confusion. -Why does she have.. an aura..?-

  But as if I opened the floodgates, the moment I started asking questions, my mind was overtaken by them.

  Until eventually, everything settled on one.

  -How.. am I alive...-

  Unable to forget the endless anabolic burn that filled my lungs before I lost consciousness, my instincts screamed at me to get a breath of oxygen, only for me to realize that the urge to breathe had vanished entirely. -W..what the hell...- Looking down at Bella as she tried to force me to sit down, I followed her guidance before progressively noticing more and more anomalies about my own body.

  Using aura to look at my internal condition, I found that all the organs that previously filled my abdomen were missing, now replaced by a massive mana core, while the rest of my body, from stomach to heart all looked completely unfamiliar.

  It was unlike anything I could wrap my head around. "Bella, what... What happened to me..?" Based on everything I knew, I should have died...

  But there I sat, alive and well as if the memories I had didn't belong to the body I possessed.

  "M-Master saved you..." Still a bit unsure herself, she spoke rather reluctantly. "By Earth's standards, she crippled you, but somehow, your reserve exploding saved you..."

  -W..what...- Attempting to break down what she said, it felt like I was trying to translate it between languages. "She.. shattered my reserve?" -But that can't be right...- Setting my hand on my stomach, I could clearly feel the mana surging from it.

  But sometimes reality defied logic.

  "I just used it as a catalyst to help you get to the next stage of ascension and reformed it."

  Hearing Evren's voice, I jolted, only to look over and see her walking around the tree trunk. "YOU DID WHAT?!"

  "It was pretty risky, but it wasn't something I had never done before." Finally reaching me, she squatted down and set her hand on my shoulder, closely inspecting me before staring into my eyes.

  Subconsciously matching her gaze, I stared back into her void-like pupils only to get lost in them as if I were hypnotized.

  But the moment she blinked, snapping me out of it, a glimpse of light flickered in the void. -Huh..?-

  "Thank goodness... It seems like you're making a full recovery..." Ignoring my confused look, she leaned back with a warm smile while her voice was flooded with relief. "How are your memories? Are your thoughts still cloudy at all?"

  Still a bit unsure what to say, as if caught in a daze, I spoke softly. "They're still.. a little fuzzy..."

  Giving me a pleased nod, Evren finally sat down just in front of me. "If you can recognize that they're fuzzy, then that means they're not gone. They should come back with time..."

  Feeling a sense of understanding coming from her voice, I subconsciously found ease, giving my nerves a moment to breathe without me even realizing it. "Phew..."

  But Evren didn't let my mind have the privilege of comfort. "So, as you may have noticed already, but your body has changed quite a bit."

  Snapping out of my own thoughts, I nodded. "Yeah.. I actually wanted to ask about that..."

  Already understanding that, she continued without hesitation. "Your body now lives completely off mana,"

  -Completely..?-

  "Unlike before, you cannot sustain yourself with food or water alone, and if you run out of mana, your body will literally begin dying. I call it mana suffocation." Noticing me cringe, her smile widened with understanding. "You can supplement your body's mana consumption with a bit of food and liquid, especially if it's mana-infused, but you still need some mana at the base of everything, so don't go firing off spells if it empties your reserve."

  Unsure how to feel, I sat in silence with a conflicted look on my face.

  "Haha, it's not all bad though. Now that you live entirely off mana, you can no longer die from things like lack of oxygen, food, or water, and are extremely resistant to things like blood loss, most poisons, disease, and to an extent, old age. However, you need to remember that you aren't immortal. Just because you heal super fast doesn't mean you should tank hits you can dodge." Reaching her hand out without much thought, she swiftly pulled a shiny chunk of metal out of her inventory before slamming it down in front of me so I could see my reflection. *Thunk*

  But, still trying to comprehend everything she was explaining, I wasn't ready for it. -W..what...- "WHAT THE HELL?!" It did more than catch me off guard.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  In the metal plate in front of me, I found the reflection of an elf that looked no different from a younger version of Mother, something so unlike what I was used to that I didn't believe it was my reflection. She was nothing short of the pinnacle of elven beauty and youthfulness, with long white hair that descended well below her waist, extra long, sharp ears, and skin of porcelain that I only knew my Mother to have.

  But, unlike Mother, the reflection before me was young, like a human woman in her twenties. -Is that really.. me..?- It was like I had regressed fifty years.

  Now, I actually looked younger than Evren...

  "Unfamiliar, huh?" Smiling as if reminiscing, she tilted her head to bathe in the nostalgia. "When I forced my body to ascend like I did yours, I had to question if I regressed. It looked like I went from my fifties to being a youngin' again."

  -So this is what real ascension is...- Feeling like a frog finally seeing the sky after sitting in a well, I wanted to scoff at my previous ignorance. -But...- "What do you mean by forcing yourself to ascend?"

  Not quite understanding, she gave me an odd look. "Well, I did exactly what I did to you, just to myself."

  -Wait, what...- "What does that mean..?" Not sure whether I wanted to know the details, I looked at Bella.

  But she fervently shook her head at me, knowing what it was that Evren meant.

  Perhaps that was my warning... But it was too late.

  As she went on to explain how she ruptured her own reserve and carved out her own organs, I felt so sick I wanted to vomit.

  But even still, she spoke of the moment as if it were some fond memory, and while I wasn't sure why.. I immediately regretted questioning it when I asked about it.

  "Well, after that moment, I didn't have to worry about my guts spilling out whenever my stomach got slashed. Plus, after a while, the extra space in my abdomen was filled with muscle, and that came with its own benefits."

  Feeling the color progressively drain from my face as I watched her so casually speak about horrors I couldn't fathom, my image of how she lived while adventuring in the System darkened to a point of unrecognizability.

  Much like a child realizing her hero wasn't as invincible as her tales foretold, it made me feel an almost unending powerlessness, uncertainty, and doubt. -Just.. what kind of life did she have to live to speak about nearly getting cut in half like a minor inconvenience...-

  However, after continuing to talk about it, it only became more and more clear that it wasn't anything I would ever be able to wrap my head around...

  And while the version of her I idolized as a child was indeed far from invincible, I really had to question if her current self wasn't.

  Walking up to the side of a grotesque, spine-covered drake with hide so thick my strongest spells wouldn't even tickle it, I watched Evren casually sink her fingers into one of its massive teeth before ripping it out and tossing it to me.

  *Pat* It was a material I wouldn't have believed existed if I hadn't seen it, a bone many times stronger than all but the strongest mythrils I knew of.

  But while I stared at it with a look of disbelief, I couldn't even begin to imagine how much I would come to question the idea of impossibility.

  And how my view of reality would warp because of it...

  -----

  - Bella ~

  "Hey Bella,"

  Hearing Master's voice come from inside the drake's massive mouth, I immediately stopped what I was doing and looked up.

  "Go give Eve a hand real quick."

  Nodding without a moment of hesitation, I let go of the short, white blade in my mouth before setting my paw on it and carefully moving it into my inventory. *Vwoop*

  Watching a clump of metal-like grass disappear with it, I felt a chill pass down my spine. -Geez, that feels so sketchy...-

  Finally turning my attention away from it, I made my way around the drake's ridiculously oversized horn before hopping up into a huge gash in its stomach, propped open by a series of orange poles, and making my way into its abdomen.

  About twenty minutes ago, Evren had asked Eve to go into the drake's abdominal cavity to retrieve its more nutrient-dense organs, such as the liver and heart without really saying why, likely just trying to get Eve's mind out of the whirlwind it was caught in.

  But while she went into it with a smile, that turned out to not be as easy of a task as anticipated.

  *Splash-Splash* "Ah, Bella..." Turning around completely drenched in blood while holding an orb of light magic, Eve gave me a forced smile. "Did Evren send you in?"

  Noticing her unease, I spoke a bit more softly. "I wasn't being any help to Master, so I thought I'd see if you could use a hand."

  "Ah..." Letting out a heavy breath, her gaze fell to the floor. "I actually could, but I don't know if it's something you can really help with..."

  -What could that be?- Finding a curious sway in my step, I continued up to her side in the cave-like space. "What's up?"

  "Well..." Looking around the seemingly empty space, she brightened up her light magic. "Typically, the way you find the nutrient-dense organs is by which are darker, but..." Unlike what she was used to, it wasn't just the nutrient-dense organs that were dark.

  Inside the drake, everything was black.

  "I also tried to use analysis magic on some things, but.. they've all given me readings I can't understand..."

  -Is that so...- Quickly shifting to night vision, I took a moment to look around before digging my claws into the wall of flesh next to us, and climbing up to an exposed organ. -It looks like these are the intestines so this could be something...-

  Pulling my head away from the wall for a moment, I pulled my knife from my inventory before catching it in my mouth and slashing the organ. *Vwoop-Tink* *Fwip-Splat*

  As my face was showered with blood, my mind raced to analyze the texture of the meat. -A lot of blood... That's a good sign...-

  Slashing it a few more times, carving out the piece of flesh entirely, I caught it with my paw before immediately putting it in my inventory.

  But rather than being labeled as an organ, like I was hoping, it was just labeled as 'Miscellaneous Flesh'. -Well.. I guess Eve would have figured it out already if it was that easy...-

  However, as I tapped expand on the description, I was presented with a breakdown of the various things inside the piece of flesh by percent. Vitamins, abundant elements, and even compounds.

  To the eyes of a normal being, it was likely information that meant nothing, but quite a number of the elements and compounds in the list were things I knew of, and through them, I could infer what the organ was used for.

  Subconsciously smiling, I looked back down at Eve. "I think this is something similar to the liver!" Releasing my grip on the wall, I fell down to the blood-coated ground with a splash. "At the very least, it has a ton of good stuff in it so it's worth grabbing. I'll check some other things while you grab it."

  Joyfully trotting over to the other side of the space, I slipped between several organs I didn't recognize with an almost dog-like wag in my tail and got to work.

  To most, it was likely quite grueling work, but after essentially dissecting the creature from the inside for a while, I felt a rush I had never felt before.

  It was joy. An endless, pure excitement.

  By the time Eve and I finished and made our way outside, it had simply consumed me. "Master! Master!" Running out of the drake's abdomen with a happy trot, I made my way up to Evren's side before pressing myself into her leg. "Is this the kind of stuff you were looking for?"

  *Beep* Transfering her a few pieces of flesh from my inventory, she immediately pulled them out before reducing them to mush in her hand. "Oh? Did these really come out of the drake?" Inspecting them a bit more closely for a moment, she turned to me with a smile before reaching down and rubbing my head. "Good job!"

  -Hehe...- As a robot, something like joy wasn't something I was supposed to be able to fathom.

  But at that moment, I felt euphoria, unlike anything a computer could replicate.

  Unfortunately, that was just me though. "Now, Eve, come grab your dinner." *Vwoop* Pulling out a much larger chunk of meat I had given her, Master dangled it in front of her with an oddly smug smile.

  And Eve, well.. her expression was grim.

  So much so, I wanted to laugh.

  "Haha," *Pat* Aggressively patting me, Master let out a playful chuckle. "Don't think you're getting away scot-free either."

  -Huh?- "What do you-" *Splat* Before I could even finish, a clump of flesh suddenly appeared in my mouth, instantly reducing to mush before sinking into the sea of metal pieces composing my throat. -E..Ew...-

  What a truly unpleasant moment that was...

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