"Isha you said that your purpose is to guide your contractor in becoming strong, but this body can't cultivate, so just how are you going to help me to become stronger?" Jayde asked she was really curious just what Isha could do.

"Of course you can cultivate," Isha replied matter-of-factly, as though Jayde should have already known this.

He further went on to clarify "It's just that all your magic has been sealed away by a seven elemental weave blood-curse ward."

"Seal? Seven Elemental Ward, explain further," demanded Jayde, shifting into a more comfortable position, her buttocks were becoming numb from sitting on such a hard surface.

Need to get some soft cushions, she thought, thankfully Isha didn't hear that private thought, as he would have been quite irate with Jayde, worrying about your buttocks during such a serious discussion would have lowered his opinion of his new contractor.

"A seven elemental weave ward means that seven wards are sealing your magic, each layer being a different element, it would require someone at least of Emperor of the 6th class to place this ward," Isha explained patiently.

"Hmm, Isha does that mean that the person who hijacked my soul also sealed this body as well?"

"Not necessary, the seven elemental wards is a blood-curse, meaning only someone sharing a direct blood relationship with you could have placed it," Isha explained.

Isha explanation confused Jayde even further, from the previous soul's memories Jayde parents were shocked and disgusted she was a null so they couldn't have placed the blood-curse on her, and thinking about the other members of the Freehold clan, no-one was that powerful, which only left two alternatives. One there was an unknown member of the Freehold clan or two she wasn't related to the Freehold clan.

Either way, there was nothing she could do about it now, but it was something to investigate later. Quickly bringing her mind back to the current issue at hand.

"Alrighty, so how do we go about lifting this curse?" she asked.

Isha explained to Jayde lifting the first layer wouldn't be too difficult, but due to the amount of energy he had spent transferring her soul and healing the terrible injuries on her body, he would need some time to recuperate.

Jayde wanted to find out more about Isha and the Divine Proteus artifact, but Isha requested to be excused telling her that he needed to rest. Hearing the exhaustion in his voice, Jayde decided to let things go for now, and speak to Isha later once he had recovered his strength.

With Isha resting, Jayde explored her cave, it looked like she would be staying here for a while.

Taking one of the oil lamps, she shook it gently to check if there was still oil left, happy to hear the sloshing of liquid, she took a small twig to the campfire, once the twig was lit, she then lit the wick.

Smelling a strange fragrance, Jayde eyebrows knitted in confusion, there was a memory of this scent, examining the memory from the previous soul, she recalled that this oil was from the Fragrant Katydid.

A rare bug found deep in the Dark Forest. The oil from the Katydid was a luxury item, which was highly sort-after. Besides producing a pleasant fragrance when burnt, the oil lasted over 100 times longer than regular oils.

Happy with the discovery, Jayde as least knew she didn't have to worry about light for a while, the oil left in the lamp would last a couple of weeks.

Opening up the chests, Jayde was pleased to discover they held some treasures and a lot of items she sorely needed. There were heating crystals, a number of flasks with Katydid oil, jars of spices, cleaning materials, towels, tunics, and robes.

In one chest she found some weapons — a bow with a quiver full of arrows, a short katana shaped sword and a couple of daggers.

Jayde was curious why these items were in such good condition, as the dampness in the cave should have eroded them. She wondered if there wasn't some sort of protection spell on the chest that had protected these items. She made a mental note to ask Isha about it when he awoke.

Looking at these ancient weapons, Jayde really missed her blaster. Thank goodness she had some training in swordsmanship, although that was decades ago and her skills were really rusty. Looks like I will have to brush up on those old skills, she thought.

Another chest was filled with bottles of potions, and small porcelain jars of pills. Having no idea what she was looking at, Jayde made a note to speak to Isha about it; hopefully, he had some clue about what was in the chest.

From the memories, she inherited she knew that potions and pills were precious in the Lower Realm and that they could be beneficial to cultivators. She was also very curious about the healing potions and pills that the previous host had in her memories.

Jayde found it fascinating that one could just drink something and your injuries could heal. She could understand why near-instant healing happened in the Federation as they had the technology to inject nanobots which repaired the damage, but her mind boggled just trying to think of how some magical potion could have the same effect.

Jayde was finding it difficult to come to grasp with all this magic, the dagger that she had picked up in the forest could self-sharpen, chests that could keep everything in stasis, people being able to shoot fireballs from their fingers, everything was just too unbelievable.

Jayde felt like she had landed in an upsidedown world, where the standard rules of the universe didn't exist anymore. It was like the universe was playing a prank on her — either that or she really was dead, and this was some sort strange last minute dream she was having. The last firing of her dying synapses.

Her left arm was covered in tiny bruises from the number of times she had pinched herself, trying to prove to herself that she was awake and experiences this mad world.

During her exploration of the cave, Jayde had found piles of beast skins, strange stones, and metals. In a corner, Jayde found a cauldron and furnace of some sort. All of these items made Jayde curious about the old guy who used to live in the cave.

Walking over to his skeleton, she looked at him carefully, then bowing down she paid her respects. It was thanks to him that she had gained so many things, and everything would come in handy, helping her to survive in this strange new world, she shuddered to think of just what sort of situation she would be in now if she hadn't stumbled upon this cave.

Straightening up, Jayde saw something glittering on the ground near his hands. Bending down she had a closer look, it seemed like some sort of ring. Picking up the ring Jayde examined it. The ring was intricately carved, and it had a beautiful amber stone embedded in the center, it was made out of some strange metal, that had a slight blue sheen to it. Placing the ring on her thumb, she would ask Isha if he knew what the strange glyphs meant that were carved into the ring.

Noticing a small satchel just to the side, Jayde picked it up and had a look inside, taking out one of leaf covered items, Jayde had a closer look. Her eyes widened as her lips curved into a small, tentative smile, she knew what this was — it was elven wafer bread.

The only reason why she knew about it was due to the previous host's memories. Za'thul liked to show off the one he had received years ago. He had received it as a gift from some son visiting the Lower Realm from a noble family from the Mid Realm, elven wafer bread was a luxury ration only available in the Mid Realm, and according to Za'thul, it was quite rare there too.

Only the most affluent clans could afford it. Jayde was not sure why it was called elven wafer bread, as it was not made by Elves, but the story went that the recipe came from the Elves. Jayde wasn't quite sure if she believed that Elves even existed, her inherited memories contained no actual sighting of Elves all the information available in the Lower Realm was from legends and fairytales.

Elven wafer bread was said to last forever, never to rot and was suppose to always be fresh, it was rumored to taste delicious, and a person only needed to eat half a wafer a day. According to the conversation the previous host had overhead, Za'thul had boasted that if a mage ate an elven wafer bread every day their body's constitution would improve.

Well if the rumors were true that would mean that this elven wafer bread was very nutritious and was beneficial to one's health, Jayde thought.

Eagerly taking out the rest of the wafers, Jayde counted the leafy packages, and she was happy to note that she had over thirty wafer pieces of bread. If what they said was true, then she had enough food for two months. That was more than enough time for her to train this body so that she could enter the Dark Forest and hunt her own food.

Removing one of the leaf covered, elven wafer bread Jayde took a cautious bite.

Yummy! They weren't lying about it being delicious, it had a sweet fruity taste. It tasted similar to Zirconina peaches Jayde had once eaten when visiting Xi Corporation headquarters. Zirconina peaches were one of the most expensive luxury products available in the Federation and cost thousands of credits each.

Feeling quite pleased with her discovery, Jayde quickly ate half of the wafer and was surprised to find that she was feeling pleasantly full. Wrapping up the leftover wafer, she put it back in the satchel.

Walking to the desk, Jayde had a look at all the books available on the shelves above the desk. Opening one, she couldn't understand a word written. The previous Jayde had never been educated, so Jayde had no memory of learning to read or write.

Looks like it another thing to add to the list to ask Isha, thought Jayde. Her list was growing quite long as Jayde was feeling a bit impatient, she couldn't wake for Isha to wake up as she had so many things to discuss with him.

Taking one the cooking pots, Jayde gave it a good scrub with the cleaning soap she found. Then she filled the pot with water from the deep pool and placed the pot on the fire to boil. Once the water had boiled for at least 5 minutes, she removed it from the fire to cool down. At least now she had safe drinking water.

Standing up she looked around her cave, she was really quite lucky she had found a safe haven to live in for a while, she had food, water, and a roof over her head. Really not bad — not bad at all, she thought.

Finding a broom, she gave the cave an excellent clean, taking the bedding outside and using a wooden stick she beat the bedding to remove the dirt and dust from it, then she made up a new bed for herself. Once the whole place had been cleaned, Jayde looked down at herself and found she was filthy.

Pulling the wooden tub she had found closer to the pool, she used a bucket to fill the tub up with water, then she dropped one of the heating crystals into the water. She waited for the water to heat up. Once the water was hot enough, she removed the crystal, undressed and jumped into the tub.

Leaning back against the tub, Jayde let out a deep sigh, she was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted — it had been a grueling couple of days for her.

It had only been two days, but Jayde felt like she had lived a couple of lifetimes. Jayde summed up all that she had gone through over the past two days. She had been in a fight for her life, been shot multiple times, betrayed by her brother, died, resurrected in a strange body on a strange planet, smiling bitterly Jayde thought, it really feels like I am living one of those weird dramas that humans liked to watch.

Giving herself a good scrub, and washing her long hair, Jayde climbed out of the tub. Drying herself off she then put on one of the tunics that she found as well as a pair of trousers. Both were too large for her tiny frame, and she had to find some rope to tighten the pants.

After dragging the tub outside to empty it down the deep ravine Jayde returned to the cave, by this stage Jayde was too tired to even think, staggering to the newly made bed, she climbed in, after covering herself with the blanket she instantly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Waking up the next morning, Jayde felt refreshed. While this new body of hers was weak according to Jayde's standards at least, it was physically fit. The previous Jayde had been a slave, so she was accustomed to doing hard physical labor.

Which was a good thing in Jayde opinion, if she could eat enough, and with proper exercise and training it should not take her too long to get this body fighting fit.

Feeling motivated, Jayde jumped out of bed. Stretching like a cat, she rubbed her face, then quickly leaving the cave she found a private place to relieve her bladder, after returning to the cave, she washed her faced and ate the other half of the wafer bread. Drinking some water Jayde yearned for some kaffee, but from her inherited memories, she couldn't find anything similar to the kaffee that she used to drink on this strange new world.

Kaffee was a synthetic caffeinated drink available in the Federation, it was based on ancient earth coffee and chocolate, both of these plants had died out a long time ago due to an environmental catastrophe that happened on old Earth. Stupid humans couldn't even look after their own planet thought Jayde, thinking back to the history books she had read.

After making the bed, Jayde looked around there was not much she could do, so she decided to start training this new body. After training for half an hour, Jayde was fed up, the clothes she was wearing were too big, and she kept on tripping and getting herself tangled up.

Adding synsuits to her list of items that she dearly missed from her previous life — if this carried on she would have to train naked, while Jayde wasn't a prude, but training naked was really taking it a bit too far as far as she was concerned.

Jayde had a mental picture of her training naked and then being attacked by some creature and having to run around butt naked, shaking her head to dislodge the disturbing image. Jayde decided to have a look around to see if there was anything that she could use to make clothes that fit for herself.

Seeing the beast skins, Jayde eyes lit up. Walking over to the skins she picked up one of them, feeling it, it felt like synleather, a material available in the Federation. The leather had been properly cured and was soft and supple.

This will do, she thought, she could make herself some pants and shirts from this leather. Her dagger would be sharp enough to cut the leather, but how was she going to sew these pieces together.

After looking through all the chests and boxes, Jayde couldn't find anything to use as a needle. Sitting down and scratching her head she tried to think up some sort of plan. Without thinking she picked an old animal bone which she fiddled with while eyeing the items piled up.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her right index finger, looking down she saw a drop of blood.

Confused she had a look to see what was in her hand that had pricked her, seeing the small bone, her eyes brightened, if she whittled this bone, and drilled a small hole into it, it would make a great needle.

Opening the chest that contained the weapons that she found the day before, she took out one of the old daggers. She didn't want to use the sharp dagger that she had picked up that used to belong to her second uncle, it was a really well-made dagger, and even though it was a self-sharpening blade, Jayde had no idea how long the spell would last, and she would need it when she entered the Dark Forest.

After a couple of hours of whittling and shaping the small bone, Jayde finally had a decent needle. Taking some of the smaller pieces of leather, she cut them into thin strips to use as a thread to sew the pieces of leather together.

Feeling hungry again, Jayde ate the leftover rations that she had bought with her, she didn't want to waste food, and she would rather eat it all now before it went off.

After lunch, Jayde went back to making herself a new set of clothing. It took her a while to figure out how to measure herself for her new pants, but she finally had the pieces of leather marked, using the old dagger to cut the leather she ended up with cut leather pieces.

Using the bone needle and leather strips, she sewed the pieces of leather together, it took her some time as the leather was really tough and even though the bone needle was sharp, it still took quite a bit of effort to puncture the leather pieces.

Finally, Jayde had finished sewing her leather pants, trying them on Jayde was satisfied that they were comfortable and fit her small frame nicely. After she shadow fought for a while, Jayde was really pleased with her new pants.

After dinner, Jayde tackled making her shirt, since she didn't have anything that she could use as buttons she used leather strips so that she could tie the front of her shirt together.

Putting on her new outfit, she was really delighted with her hard work, it had been worth the effort.

Thankfully this body hasn't started to develop yet, so I don't have to worry about things like a bra, she thought.

Feeling tired but satisfied with what she had accomplished, Jayde had a quick bath and climbed into bed.

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