Even with my form before, I was already barely human-looking, and now it got even worse. Sure, I retained human proportions and build, but my barely-formed face was not very inviting. I could only expect that the first reaction to me would be to either run as far as legs would go, or, if someone was feeling brave, a spell right to the face.

In either of those cases, I decided to hide.

For a second I contemplated an idea to dig myself a hole and hide in the sand. Since I didn’t have to breathe it would be a nice spot to not be discovered, but decided against it. If I was to use a more regular hiding spot I’d at least have a slim chance of talking to someone before eating a spell to the dome. And, with that I would be able to actually spy on them, not just with my enhanced senses.

And so, I hid in one of the houses furthest away from the direction they were coming from, the most dilapidated-looking, that still had enough of its walls to give me a proper place to hide, and waited.

The group that was approaching was not even ten people large.

I sort of expected that those would be people that were associated with the guys who were using me as their mine, and I assume I was correct.

When they entered my view, I realized that they could’ve also been connected to the guy who attacked us back at sea, because they were wearing similar wraps. Well, on second thought, it probably just was the clothing of choice of every inhabitant of this desert. Temperature was a problem.

I couldn’t tell much besides that.

As soon as they entered the ruins, they swiftly moved towards the larger buildings in the middle and started setting up a camp there.

I picked a good spot to hide, I think. Not a single soul even tried going towards where I was, but nonetheless I was on edge, observing every single one of them.

I was almost correct in my earlier assessment, there were eight of them. All of them working in pairs, constantly keeping an eye on each other. Interestingly, the pairs consisted of one large individual and one smaller. Almost like a child and a parent.

I mean, it wasn’t impossible… but unlikely. To bring kids to some random ruined city? For what?

But, on the other hand, they did look like some wandering tribe. If that was correct, it’s not like they had a place to leave them in the first place…

But if that was the case, wouldn’t at least one pair be a trio? Where’s the other parent? I kind of find it hard to believe that every single one was missing. Like, what are the odds? It almost looked like that was set up on purpose…

After half an hour or so, they finally started unpacking some of their stuff and I immediately realized that whoever they were, they had some interesting stuff on them.

They were equipped with void bags.

That in itself was nothing special, but what caught my attention was the contents that started pouring out of them: crystals.

And not just some random crystals. The mana was hard to mistake.

It was my own mana. Those were my own body parts.

Yet it was hard to tell that they used to be part of me. Every single one of them was either crushed or broken into pieces smaller than just a finger, and now were spilling out of void bags, lying near one of the houses.

What were they trying to do with those…?

The question was almost immediately answered, because one of those people pulled out an, I kid you not, anvil and a hammer.

Yep. Well, I say pulled out, but it was more like he dragged it out and let it land in the sand next to them.

He grabbed a few pieces of crystal and started hammering them together. Or at least attempted to.

The hammer was definitely magical, I could tell even without using my enchanted senses. If not, it would’ve just shattered right when it hit the crystal, or at least chipped a bit, but no. It instead started glowing.

As soon as that started, the rest of those people gathered around and formed a circle around the anvil, looking straight at the person working. Kind of strange. It reminded me of a ritual or something.

And I was absolutely correct.

The glow of the hammer was fading with every single strike. Hell, no wonder, the enchantment was probably taking a beating. Just when that happened though, the one person that was paired with the smith working on the crystal shards was led towards it and after a few words extended their hands towards the anvil.

I could tell that the mana started flowing back to the enchanted hammer.

They were recharging the power of the enchantment.

Wait, no. They were recharging the power of the person that stood right next to the anvil. They were the one that kept the blacksmith’s hammer intact.

Clever… that way there was no problem with mixed mana. One person, working as a conduit, was mixing the mana in themselves to create a stable output, giving as little strain to the tool as possible.

But, on the other hand, they were straining themselves.

It was obvious that they weren’t going to last very long.

Despite that, the person was surprisingly resistant. And even managed to outlast the ones that were fueling the ritual.

I noticed that the only ones fueling were the smaller ones… Hmm…

The blacksmith was not standing idly. They were swinging madly at the shards, hammering them into shape.

See, apparently the hammer was not only enchanted so it wouldn’t break, it also was able to meld together the pieces of crystal. I am not sure how exactly, but I could tell that with every swing the piece was growing larger and larger, just for the smith to grab another piece and start hammering once more.

He almost was able to go through the whole pile, melding them together into one large chunk. Strangely, it was not even half the size of the chunks combined. I guess the process was not very efficient. No surprise there, for that to even work was a feat in itself, to be honest.

The “batteries” started collapsing one after another, and soon there was only the blacksmith left standing along with the “guards” and the one used as a conduit.

I thought that they were done, but immediately they started discussing something. I swear, for a second it looked like they were going to fight each other, but after a moment the conversation finally stopped, and the ritual began anew. This time the ones fueling ritual were the ones left standing: the guards, so to speak.

No wonder they were not used first: they started collapsing almost immediately.

While there was just a handful of crystal left, all of their mana was barely enough to finish the smithing.

And what did they make?

That was a good question.

The finished product was even smaller than before. During the second phase of smithing I swear it shrunk instead of gaining size. But the product was easy to distinguish.

A sword.

Or well, almost a dagger. A shortsword.

Strange choice. I mean, as far as weapons go it was probably the easiest one and most convenient. If they were indeed able to smith my own flesh to create some kind of weapon, using the simplest one was indeed the play. But what for?

Yeah, of course, besides the obvious.

But, more importantly, what would that kind of item be capable of? Did it retain my ability to drain mana?

I looked closer.

It definitely was full of mana, but that was the only thing I could tell. Funnily enough, most of the mana inside it was not from the people that helped craft it, instead it was still mine. I was not sure if that was good news or bad news for me.

Blacksmith, apparently happy with the results, swung a few times towards the still standing building and…

I expected for the building to be split in half. Maybe for it to shoot a blast of energy or something. But I didn’t expect it to create a bunch of holes in the wall. Just like someone tossed a few orbs at the wall, that imploded, leaving marks like swiss cheese…

Wait.

THAT’S how those holes were made?!

There was no mistaking it. Even from that far, I could tell that the holes were still full with residual mana. The same one that I not so long ago was absorbing to heal myself.

Ha. No wonder I managed to heal so quickly. I was just getting back my own mana. Strange that I didn’t recognize it myself… Although on second glance, the residue left was not that similar to the sword’s power… Now, when I had the comparison, the sword had most mana that belonged to me, while the explosions were apparently fueled by the mana left in the sword by the smith, or rather their “helpers”.

That’s a fancy weapon.

A weapon that I had to deal with sooner or later. And probably not only once.

It was clear to me. That was not the first time they did something like this. This was not some one-time experiment. That was deliberate and planned. They’ve done this before, and this was just one of many items they forged. Out of many weapons that were now… somewhere.

Fuck.

I was unsure what I should do.

It was clear that soon they would figure out that I was gone. I was hoping that they would leave as soon as they could, but that was just my wishful thinking.

Just observing them for a while was enough for me to tell that they were waiting for something. And I was pretty sure that I knew for what.

Or rather for who.

The pair that went ahead to get some more materials for their weapons. The same one that was now dead.

The only question was, what was going to be their reaction?

And it was looking like I wasn’t going to wait long for an answer.

First thing first though. It started getting dark.

It honestly caught me by surprise. Before I was thinking that this place had a perpetual day or something, at least that felt like before.

But now, when I was able to see with my own eyes and was no longer just a half-conscious piece of rock, there was no mistaking it: this place had the day and night cycle as any other normal town.

I mean, duh, anything else would be way past weird. But, after being teleported to a different world where people lived at the edge of an infinite waterfall, I sort of thought it might have happened again.

It still was not completely out of the question, since the sandy desert was the furthest thing away from the lush green forests I’ve gotten somewhat used to…

In any case, when it started getting darker, people from the camp started finally showing more signs of life, as in the ones that were used as fuel for the smithing regained most of their mana.

For a while I was worried if I was going to be spotted: after all, I was crystal and was somewhat scared that I’d be glowing in the dark thanks to the mana residing within me, but that was apparently not the case.

My body changed.

See-through also meant a lot harder to spot in the dark.

But, with the darkness came one unexpected problem.

I started feeling weak.

It caught me off-guard. For the first time in… I don’t know, a very long time, I started feeling tired. Almost sleepy.

Soon it was not only that, I also started having issues standing up, so I just sat down, leaning on the wall, trying to focus on not drifting off…

It helped, but not completely. I still was weak, but when I slumped down, I no longer felt tired for some reason.

Thinking of what exactly was going on with my body, I realized that my mana was lower than I expected.

Sure, I used a lot just to regenerate myself and by walking through the sand, but when the light was out I was able to passively absorb more than enough to keep me going. And now I was standing still, so what gives?

That question had an easy answer.

I didn’t have it immediately, but managed to figure it out eventually.

See, when I was back in the greener parts, I managed to survive on residual mana and all that, right? I didn’t even have to bother with eating, nor would it be a pleasant experience for me anyway.

Initially I thought that it was me absorbing mana from the environment, but it was not it. Or rather not all of it. Besides that, I was also getting mana from another source: sun.

Yeah, strange, right?

In the next couple of days I figured out that the crystal that was my body was absorbing mana from the actual sun. Before it was not so distinguishable, since, you know, I was in an environment full of life. And on top of that, my body was not fully crystal, as in see-through. I guess having a clear body helped me absorb more from the sun or something?

I was not sure, but I had an idea that it also was explaining the fact about my weakness to light magic.

Before, I thought it was the only thing that was making me weak, but it was not the case. It was quite the opposite.

Every time I was hit with light magic, I straight up was getting overcharged to a degree that I couldn’t handle. Jumping straight past the regular “blinding” overcharge into pain territory.

Wild, right?

But I didn’t know that yet. Instead I was preoccupied with being awake and trying to keep tabs on everyone in the camp.

I somewhat managed to do so, but I am pretty sure that I might have dozed off for a while there, during the night, thanks to the mana deficit, and instead got awakened by the first rays of the sun the next day.

I immediately scoured my surroundings.

No one had found me yet, and it also seemed like no one had woken up either.

There was one pair that was on guard duty though, and judging by their mana they felt a bit on edge.

I assumed that was because of the two that I got “rid off” earlier.

I think I was correct, because when they all finally were awake, the pair went to sleep and now another one was sent towards the way where I knew I was being kept under the tarp, somewhere further away from the town.

That put me in a tight spot.

Should I act?

It would definitely be the best time.

Eight of them. Two sleeping. Two away. Leaves four.

Would I be able to take them on?

Good question. Before all of this bullshit I would’ve said “for sure, no problem”, but now…? I wasn’t so confident with myself any more.

After the mishap with the guy that was chasing Axelrod-Mike, I was painfully aware of my weakness to light, funnily enough this time being incorrect.

Besides that, my body was different from what I was used to, and I was still not very familiar with its new properties, if there were any.

On top of that, I was still not in full strength, especially after the night.

Yet, despite that, I decided that I should do something.