Let me skip over all of the boring stuff. Everyone's fine, they're all super surprised that I have a special kind of magic, they showered me with praise and wanted me to carry their stuff. Been there, done that. Moving on. I hate it when stories spend too much time fellating the main character, or maybe I just hate praise. It makes me uncomfortable. Either way, I can't stand it.

  There's this overabundance of self-insert characters that are always the bestest, and strongest, and kindest, and most awesomest in the whole world full of big meanie heads that stand in their way, not for long of course, and they're always rescuing the prettiest waifus in all the land, endlessly collecting more concubines for their ever growing harem. It's enough to make me want to puke. Just put your cock away and write an actual story with both hands. It might turn out better that way.

  Anyway, where was I… oh yeah…

  We set up camp outside the cave after doing a final walkthrough. I pulled all of my stuff out of the pocket dimension and got to work making more potions. My goal is to see if I can use Mana Infusion to increase the potency of them so I can drink less to get the same effect. Hopefully that'll be enough to stop me from getting sick. The opposite might happen though with an increase in purity, so I have to be careful.

  The pink haired girl, Mika is her name, walks up to me while I'm working with a confused look on her face. Her twin tail hair has various flower pins. One for each of her twin tails and one in the center where some of her bangs are clipped together in the middle. They're all different colored flowers; blue, red, and a pink one for the middle. She's wearing an armored dress colored with various shades of, you guessed it, more pink. I think my eyes are bleeding. Some of the dress is torn and cut from the battle she just had.

  She stares at me for a moment, her eyes are also pink, of course they are, a shade or two lighter than her hair. They are also much brighter and more lively than I expected considering what happened to her just hours ago. She looks like she really wants to say something and eventually breaks her silence with more of a shout than a speaking voice.

  "What's that thing on your head?"

  Oh snap. I forgot about that. Oops. "That's a drinking hat, full of mana juice." Her confusion intensifies.

  "You should take it off, it looks weird. You will never be able to get a girlfriend with that ugly thing on your head. It looks stupid. I don't like it."

  Oh my god. That's just fan-fuckin-tastic. She's a loli tsundere. My worst nightmare. Her voice is high pitched and grating. A little bit adorable though, admittedly. Like a child that doesn't know how to control the volume of their voice just yet. I wonder how old she is. She seems too young for adventuring.

  "Don't think that I like you just because you saved me. You look weird. What are you even wearing?"

  Is she still going? Her arms are crossed now. We might be here for a while, buckle up. I also forgot about my clothes. I guess she got me there.

  "Are you a hermit? What are doing living in the woods with all that stuff? That's why you'll never get a girlfriend."

  Great, I'm a hermit. Kill me now.

  "Are you an outlaw? You must be an outlaw. That's the only reason you would live in the woods with all these monsters."

  "Dear God, woman! Get to the point already and stop shouting! Unless you want me to resurrect all those goblins for you."

  "Eww, that's gross. How could you say that? You really are a monster.*

  "Indeed I am. So, from one monster to another, go away!"

  "Hm! You're so mean!"

  Oh thank heavens, she's walking away. Each step she takes is too long for tiny legs. I imagine each clomp of her feet is accompanied by the same "Hm!" as before.

  I turn to my table so I can get back to work but… someone else is here now.

  "Can I help you?" I'm caught off guard by a pair of curious red eyes staring down at my table.

  "I see you make potions yourself. They're not very strong though."

  Don't make fun of me, I'm still learning. Wait. Don't tell me this is the yandere. Dammit all.

  "How very... observant. I just learned how to make them a day ago."

  "Oh? So, you learn quickly then." She speaks so quietly that I can barely hear the lisp in her voice now. Maybe she's self conscious about it, and tries to hide it.

  "Yeah, I guess you could say that." I lean in closer to try and see her face under the cloak. Just as I get close enough to barely make out the brown complexion of her skin, it becomes much darker. In fact I can barely see her normally bright red eyes. She uses shadow magic to hide her face, it seems.

  "I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry, I was just curious." Even through the void that now covers her hooded face, I can feel her piercing gaze. "I wanted to know what you looked li-"

  She walks away, her cloak opening just enough for me to see her dark brown pants with black leather thigh guards. She seems to have a bit of a theme going. Super dark, for dark people, who live in the darkness. Maybe she's going somewhere to sulk.

  I turn back to my table of various wooden containers and trays filled with ground up and reduced herbs and fruits. Luckily, I don't need glass vials and beakers, or pots and pans, to mix and boil things. I use Water Magic to lift my ingredients into the air, place it onto a curved Spatial Barrier to act as a bowl, and heat it up using Fire Magic. I only need the table to juice and grind everything.

  Once all the ingredients start to evaporate I create another spatial barrier above the other one. This allows me to capture the steam made up of mostly Mana. As soon as the vapors start to condense I open up a Pocket Dimension below it to catch all the droplets. I don't know what goes on in that dimension, but everything that goes in gets grouped together automatically. Perks of living in a magical world.

  Next, I try to infuse the juiced ingredients with additional Mana. My Mana restores automatically over time, so it doesn't matter how much I use. I'm basically storing my own Mana for later use, with extra steps. I'm also trying to precisely control the heat that I use. Mana evaporates at a lower temp, but the difference is small, so it'll take practice. I still have the less potent Mana potions to use while I'm working. Basically, double brewing for extra potency. With some of it set off to the side to drink while I'm working.

  The whole time I'm crafting potions I can feel those curious red eyes from earlier staring at me. I wonder why she's so curious. I don't think I'm doing anything weird or different, then again the priest lady was surprised when I revived pinky. Maybe I am doing things differently? Surely different methods of magic use exist in this world, so their curiosity is understandable.

  After making potions for what feels like hours, I drop it all into my handy pocket dimension. I love that spell so much. It says I have 27 Liters total, 17 of which are higher quality. As it happens, I was able to infuse more mana into the potion as I made it. The difference is small right now, but it means I'm doing something right. All that foraging and accidental practice really paid off. I'm pretty happy with the results.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I put all the tables and tools back into storage and make my way to the campfire the adventurers are huddled around. They're all eating and laughing it up, except one, Cathina, or as I call her, Miss Darkness. She is sitting a little bit farther away than the rest. She isn't eating or talking, just sitting.

  "So, why do you live in the woods?" The kid asked me. His name is Kevin. What's with the weird blend of Japanese and American names? Is there a reason for that?

  "I never said I live here. I was actually.. uh.. lost, until recently."

  "Oh, well in that case, let us help you get back to town. That's the least we can do after you helped us out earlier."

  "Ugh. I don't want him coming with us." Pinky strikes again. What's her problem anyway?

  "I say we let him accompany us." This time it's the healer, Wakana. "There are some things I wanted to ask him."

  I wonder what she's referring to. Actually nevermind that, I just noticed Cathina staring at me in the distance. Her staring is only one of my concerns though, because I can feel her presence almost grabbing at me in a way. The more I concentrate the more I can feel her magic creeping up my skin. It's a strange, almost frightening, sensation.

  "Ugh. Fine." Pinky pulled me back to reality with another snap. I guess that's the end of that

  "What did you want to ask me Wakana?"

  "Uh, it's just. I wanted to know what kind of healing magic you used for it to be so effective."

  I'm just noticing how deep her voice is. I didn't think it would be so deep for someone so small. It has an almost musical tone to it. It's quite calming and peaceful. Her eyes are almost as bright as the green on her tunic, and lit up with a palpable curiosity.

  "Oh, ok. I can show you. I've been meaning to practice anyway."

  “Huh, what do you mean?”

  I drop a goblin out of my PD and start to show her my technique. Everyone seems a little startled by this. Oh, well. How else would I practice?

  "Eww. I thought you were joking when you said you'd revive them. You really are a monster." I'm ignoring that.

  I show her how to use mana infused water creation to refill the veins and arteries of our test dummy, after healing it's wounds with Reconstruction of course. Then I use all the spells I learned one after the other; Revitalize, Strengthen and finally Resuscitation.

  "Graah!" Stab!

  It woke up pretty quickly and went to attack me, so I killed it again. I close the wound I just made and move over to give her space to try... Why is everyone staring at me?

  "What?.. It was already dead. Also, there's no point in practicing if you don't actually revive it." I'm not the weird one. They must have a different way to practice here. To each their own I guess.

  They're still staring at me in complete shock. I don't know how else I'm supposed to practice though. What do they want from me? Wakana eventually shakes off her shock and moves over to the dead goblin.

  "Uhhh, ok. I'll try. I was just put off by you stabbing it." She looks more than put off. She almost looks terrified. Oops.

  She reaches over and starts the procedure. Kevin and Mika are still staring in awe like I just killed someone. I mean, I did, but it's a goblin. I turn back after looking at the two kids for a second, and Cathina is right next to me, watching everything intently.

  Good God woman! Why are you sneaking up on me like that? Are you a ninja? Is there a ninja class in this world?

  Huh? I just realized Miss Ninja is close enough for me to see the uncovered part of her face. She has a dark brown skin tone and black hair. Not only that, but it seems like some of her skin is lighter. I can't quite make it out though. I can just barely see her hairline too, because her hood is a bit higher than usual. There are small, faint bumps on both sides of the top of her hood. Maybe that's why her hood is lifted slightly.

  She must've noticed me staring since she pulled her hood back down and held it there. Hmm? She must be really insecure. She seems so deeply interested in the Magic I use that she forgot to stay covered. There must be a reason for this that I don't know yet, I'll keep my questions to myself though.

  Everyone called it a night and went to bed after Wakana resurrected our little goblin friend only for me to kill it again. She didn't want to keep practicing, and I thought it best not to do it myself with everyone creeped out so I went to lie down too. I wasn't able to sleep much though, I couldn't stop thinking about a possible resurrection loop to exploit later. I couldn't bring myself to try it though. I don't know what will happen to me if I poison myself again.

  There was something about Wakana’s Magic that was different from mine, but I can't put my finger on it. It looked and felt different like it came from a different source or something, or maybe, it's mine that's different. I don't know, and I don't think she'll tell me. I can't see her spell menu either, I'll just add that to the list of things I have to research.

  Once everyone was awake, and everything was packed away in my PD, we headed off. Down one winding path onto another, and down that one, etc. Most of the walk was relatively silent. No one wants to make too much noise so we can avoid being ambushed by monsters. Just before the end of the trail though, we come across a bunch of spider monsters.

  Everyone except Wakana jumped into action immediately. No time for strategy I guess. Maybe these spiders aren't that strong then. I quickly make a portal shield and jump up on a spatial barrier to get a better look at our surroundings.

  There seems to be a few dozen spiders hanging from different branches all around us. They all have bright purple and green colors on their backs. Hm? They must be poisonous then. Actually, I can't say that for sure. Just because that rule usually applies in my old world doesn't mean it applies here.

  I start shooting Rock Bullet at all the ones I can see. They go down with only a few shots each, so they're not much of a challenge. Unfortunately, while I was distracted by the spiders in front of me, one of them snuck up behind me. I didn't even see it coming. I just felt a sharp pain in the back of my shoulder.

  The pain wasn't even the concerning part though. Instantly, I felt really light headed, dizzy, numb, and tingly. It's like the poison is affecting me neurologically. I shoot it down and use Detox while I try not to panic about the poison. Not like it's going to help though. I can already feel myself fading, as though a tunnel of darkness is closing in around me.

  This feels weird. I don't think I'm dying, but I can barely stay conscious. Not for long though. As the colors of the trees and plants begin to shift and churn into brighter and more fantastical ones, I lose consciousness and drop to the ground.

  Wait… I can still see. The world around me looks different though. It's a brighter world with glossy colors, like everything is covered in a thin layer of oil. It looks like I'm in a room. Everything is under designed with oversaturated colors.

  "Konichiwa! You look so, uh, kawaii!"

  Huh? I look towards the direction of the overly cutesy, high pitched voice… uhhh. I can't believe what I'm seeing.

  "Yummy! Where did you come from!?" The woman talking to me is umm… well endowed… and naked. Her massive chest reaches all the way to the floor. Her hair too. Her eyes are huge with pink, heart shaped pupils. Uh.. Did I die again and get reincarnated into a Hentai?

  "Where am I?"

  "You're in my room, handsome!" She starts walking towards me but then.

  SLAM!

  She tripped over her own tits and hit the floor, hard. Yes, they are that big. She tries to recover quickly and raises her head to face me.

  "You can stay here as long as you want, sweetie." She's still talking… after that? Why is she so unfazed? What the hell is going on here? I'm so confused. She seems embarrassed by the looks of her cheeks, but she completely brushed off her accident. "I will always love you and pet you, for ever and ever."

  "Um, ok… Who are you though?"

  She got back up to her feet in a crouched position, ready to launch herself at me. "My name is Hentai-chaaaan!*

  "Ahhhh! The fuck!?"

  Uh. Wait.

  "Are you ok?" It's the healer girl again, Wakana. "You passed out after you got poisoned."

  What just happened? Why was I in that world? I must've been hallucinating or something. Wait, why did she jump at me, and why was her name "Hentai-chan"? That makes no sense. That's like naming someone Miss Porn. The poisons in this world are fucking weird, I guess. I'll have to watch out for that from now on.

  "Hello? Can you hear me?" I forgot to respond to Wakana. Her deep voice is even more soothing now, after that ordeal.

  "I-I'm ok… I just had a weird reaction to the spider venom, I guess." I get up and finish healing myself so she can save her mana.

  I don't know if I'll need her help again, but I'd better be safe. After that experience I'll be extra careful from now on. I can't let something like that happen again. What if she wasn't here to heal me?