Chapter 59: Night

Chapter 59: Night

Bran sat cross-legged by the campfire, staring blankly at the flickering flames. Black Cat Huahua lay lazily across his lap, unhurriedly licking her paws. A few meatless bones were scattered carelessly nearby, with several squirrels sneaking around to nibble on them.

There was still some time before dark, but this was all he could do. For a long journey alone, he had to conserve some strength to deal with any unexpected events, so Bran started resting early.

Annoying mosquitoes began to gather above Bran’s head, eventually forming a swirling cloud of smoke. From a distance, it looked like he was wearing a spinning black cloud. The Mana Web was constantly disturbed by this dark mass, feeding back a rhythmic buzzing to Bran, which jolted him out of his daze. The Dragon Gold, which had been assimilated by Bran’s mana, began to evenly cover his skin under his command, preventing insect bites. The advantage of Dragon Gold now became clear: it was breathable, and he felt no stifling discomfort all over his body.

This area was still within the range of home. At Bran’s walking speed, it would take several more days to truly leave the influence of the castle, so it was relatively safe here. Having learned from the morning’s lesson, Bran no longer dared to take things for granted.

Five specks of Starlight floated out from Bran’s body. This was Bran’s recent gain. After being assimilated by Bran’s mana, the Starlight became part of the Mana Web and could be withdrawn into his body without any hindrance. Yet, they remained clearly separate from Bran’s original mana. Although this Starlight was formless when inside his body, causing Bran no discomfort, when released, it became visible to the naked eye as Starlight shrouded in darkness.

Over time, the memories related to the Wizard’s original self within the Starlight gradually faded. Now, no memories could be retrieved from the first Starlight he obtained. But what was this? Bran’s confusion grew. Bran let these Starlight float outside his body; there was no need to hide them now. He directed one speck of Starlight into the insect swarm above his head. For now, he could only rely on various hit-or-miss experiments to uncover the secrets of the Starlight.

…

After nightfall, Bran began carefully sorting through the various pieces of information obtained by his Mana Web. Taking advantage of the relatively safe environment, he needed to categorize this information, understanding what could be ignored and what required attention. For Bran, camping in the Northlands for the first time, everything felt very novel. He was not without camping experience; he had survived in the wild before, but that was too long ago. Many events from his previous life could only remain memories, and many things had been lost. This young body needed to re-experience various events and stimuli to absorb and digest the bits and fragments from his spirit and memories, before they could become part of his physical instincts. Now, everything had to start anew.

The Mana Web could receive too much information. Passively matching this information with physical objects would be a long process. For the external environment, it often required a process to gradually become familiar and adapt, then slowly integrate into it. Just like someone from a mountain village entering a city for the first time might feel disoriented by the city’s noisy sounds; or a city dweller suddenly entering a mountain village might be startled awake by the silence of a quiet night. This was the body adapting to the environment. A sudden change in surroundings could cause strong mental and physical stimulation, leading to increased mental and physical exertion as one tried to adapt.

Now Bran needed to take the initiative to complete and accelerate this process. So he did his best to compare the strength of the information feedback with his own senses of sight, hearing, and touch.

…

Looking at the night sky before him, how long had it been since he last gazed at the stars? When was the last time? At least Bran was certain that since arriving in this world, he had never looked up at the stars in the wilderness. There were no familiar Big Dipper, no familiar Milky Way, no Magpie Bridge, no annual meeting.

A disturbance broke Bran’s thoughts. Huahua, who had been lying on Bran’s leg, gently turned over and stood up. A small snake, about as thick as a thumb, was slithering around Bran. So he shifted his attention to this little snake, trying to understand its intention.

Soon he discovered what attracted the snake. Several specks of Starlight around Bran had been rising and falling, rotating around him. The outermost speck of Starlight had drawn the snake’s attention.

This piqued Bran’s interest. In the wild, such small animals were abundant, too many to bother with. But why was this little snake attracted? If the Mana Starlight had the ability to attract such small animals, then Bran would have been surrounded by now.

He stopped the movement of that speck of Starlight and brought it right in front of the little snake. The little snake actually let out excited hisses, trying to coil around the Starlight. But Mana Starlight was, in a sense, formless, so its body passed right through it. In Bran’s eyes, the snake’s body and the Mana Starlight seemed to exist in two different dimensional spaces, with part of the snake’s body obscured by the Starlight.

After many unsuccessful attempts, the little snake finally lost patience. It opened its mouth and directly tried to swallow the Starlight. Just when Bran thought it would fail again, it actually managed to swallow the Mana Starlight. As it swallowed the Starlight, Bran sensed a strong surge of mana erupting. Was this little snake also a Magical Beast? Its mana reaction was just too weak, causing Bran to overlook it.

The connection between the swallowed Starlight and Bran grew faint. This was due to the little snake’s own bio-field interfering with and blocking the mana. However, that speck of Mana Starlight had already become part of Bran’s mana. Now, it continuously emitted waves of mana from within the snake’s body. This simultaneous internal and external effect eventually penetrated the interference and blockage, clearly feeding back to Bran everything that was happening.

Two mana forces tangled and consumed each other. After the initial eruption, the snake’s mana suppressed the Starlight for a while. Then, gradually, that mana was assimilated and drawn out. Finally, the two mana forces were no longer bound by the little snake’s body and gradually floated out from it. Just as Bran had observed earlier, the two specks of Mana Starlight and the snake’s body seemed to exist in two different dimensions, not affecting each other. At this point, Bran could no longer spy on or sense the situation inside the snake’s body.

Having lost its own power, the little snake did not seem to be fundamentally harmed. It simply lost interest in the Mana Starlight and slithered away on its own.

Bran pulled back the two specks of Starlight and observed the one obtained from the little snake. This orb was somewhat smaller and was now orbiting the larger Starlight orb like a satellite. Interesting. This wasn’t simple assimilation or consumption. The original Starlight orb had captured the other, just as Bran had captured it.

Bran felt excited. He had overlooked something, ignored it from the very beginning. In this world, it wasn’t just people who could undergo Awakening; animals could too, and perhaps all other living beings as well. He should have thought of this when Black Cat Huahua underwent Awakening with him.

Now he faced the entire Northlands. He would head into the Wasteland, where he would encounter countless, innumerable lives. Statistically, an ant colony, a massive beehive—they all should have such individuals appearing. He had just overlooked it before.

When the moon reached the middle of the sky, Bran relaxed his body with a joyful heart and fell asleep sitting cross-legged just like that. At this moment, his Mana Web shimmered with the starlight in the night sky, like a giant invisible spider web, protecting Bran within it.