The fire of the fireplace had begun to die down, its earlier intensity now reduced to a slow, steady burn. Throwing the inside of the cave into a light dimmer than it initially was.

[Fragment]: 304/5000.

Melvin stared at the runes one more time, thinking hard about what might have caused the non-recovery of his Fragment score points.

Was it perhaps it was the cost of using his ability?

Earlier, after they had finished their discussion on how to go about things, none of them could sleep... strangely enough. However, it didn’t mean they weren’t exhausted after all that had happened.

Hence, Melvin had to come to the conclusion that it was so because time in the Silver Spire was totally different from time in Meleny, the world they had come from.

So far, since their expedition in this cursed place, the atmosphere didn’t seem to be changing at all. It had just been the normal, dull brightness of the day... well, he was not sure what to call it now. But maybe, since the night was mostly when people slept in the real world, they couldn’t.

No, that’s not right. People also slept during the day in the real world. Then, why couldn’t they do the same, especially since they were exhausted out of their wits?

’I guess because we have become stagnated moving objects,’ he surmised.

That was the only suitable answer he could come up with. He had noticed that although there didn’t seem to be a day or night, the temperature across certain areas did change.

When they were on the snowy land, it had been cold. Now they are in the cave, and under the blossom of heat, they were getting it warm. That couldn’t have been possible if the nature of the world of Silver Spire disallowed it.

’People like to think we can control everything. That we can decide when it’s warm or cold, when life feels bright or dark. But that’s not how the world works. It all depends on the nature of the area one stays,’ Melvin thought.

Maybe, if they had tried to make fire on the snow land for warmth, there was no guarantee that they would feel as warm as they felt now considering its nature. The snow was just made for its coldness. Even in the caves, it was natural to feel cold. However, due to the mystery behind this cave they were in, its own nature distorted that reality from the start.

Melvin raised his eyes once more to meet the drawings on the wall.

’Was this cave’s change of nature tied to whoever had drawn that image?’

The more he thought about it, the more distant the answer seemed to be. Hence, he also simply concluded that they might not have been able to afford to sleep, probably because their real bodies were paying that price back in the circular dome.

’Whatever. Back to the topic.’

His fragment points were not rising at all. And he didn’t seem to be getting any weaker than he should considering that factor. But the loss of his fragment points still meant loss of his Soul Flux, even if a fraction of it.

Why was His not returning?

Earlier, since they were unable to sleep, he had asked Aurex to use that opportunity to teach him the meditation method that allows one to recover their soul essence. He clearly remembered everything the proud boy had told him.

"It’s not as strange as it sounds. You just need to converse with your surroundings using your mind."

That was how Aurex had begun, and he went on to explain the process for Melvin.

"First, you need to assume a unique concentration posture. In most cases, it comes by usually sitting with your legs crossed, joining your hands together in prayer, and with closed eyes, focusing on your surroundings."

Thinking about it now, he looked around and noticed he was the only one who had disengaged from their meditation. Aurex and Keth were currently still at the peak of their concentrations.

’I guess I should try again.’

Assuming the position, Melvin began to recall everything once again.

"First, you quiet your mind. Not completely empty, just calm enough that your thoughts aren’t drowning everything else out. Then you shift your attention outward. You start paying attention to what’s around you – the air, the sounds, the small changes you would have normally ignored."

Melvin remained conscious in mind enough to realize that the constant crackling of the fire in his mind faded into the background, no longer demanding his attention. In its place, a quiet clarity began to form.

Unsupposedly inside the cave, the air against his skin became sharper, as if he was exposed to the outside, albeit not cold.

"After a while, you begin to notice patterns. I’d like to call them flux patterns, no matter how they appear. And you know the catch: no matter the distance, as far as your sense of concentration covers a close range of the geography, you did see every part of the flux you spent in such area."

’...Flux patterns, no matter how they appear.’ Which meant they can come in different strange forms.

Sounds he hadn’t noticed before seemed to separate and take shape, looking visible and distinct. Generally, even the smallest changes around him felt... present. It was as if he was seeing them even though with no sight.

"It is not magic. It’s just an effect of the experience you gain after dipping yourself into a peak concentration of the nature around you."

He was indeed experiencing them now.

"In that state," Aurex hummed briefly. "Certain things feel consistent, others feel off. Honestly speaking, it’s just your awareness picking up on what’s there and what shouldn’t be. People don’t understand this."

Still in that state, Melvin began to notice those patterns he was able to see change course. It was as if meiosis was currently taking place.

"Uhm. I learned that this can also be applicable to normal humans. But I did continue speaking on behalf of us, flux carriers."

After a short pause, Aurex continued.

"As awakeners, our flux is simply our natural alignment. When you’re paying attention using peak concentration, you start to feel what fits you and what doesn’t. What moves with you, and what resists you."

The meiotic process was still going on. Small fragmented cells on the visible patterns Melvin was seeing began to cut themselves out of the larger group and began to advance toward him. Well, they weren’t just advancing.

The closer the small cells approached, the more it seemed they began to grow and expand. And when they finally reached Melvin, they enveloped him in full spirit and dissolved into him.

What came after that was immediate.

Melvin could feel his soul core somewhere around his abdomen, swirling with a furious flow. However, the harshness of the flow didn’t happen to be affecting him in any way. It all turned out to be natural feeling.

Then, not long after, he felt his flux suddenly becoming steady and constant, flowing through his whole body without effort. He had grasped the patterns he was able to see and was now understanding it without being able to think.

"That’s all it is. Like I said, it’s not magic. Just awareness, sharpened enough that it feels that there’s more to it."

Indeed, Melvin had continuously worked through all these processes. He had continuously absorbed whatever flux he thought he had spent along the way from the snow land up until the cave. Every soul flux he had lost by using fragment costs, he was sure he should have recovered it by how much he tried to meditate.

But it didn’t work. It hadn’t worked.

Hence, Melvin hadn’t tried the process once again just for determining his luck. He had tried the process because he wanted to fully grasp the philosophy of his body’s true alignment.

According to what Keth had taught him during their short duel, he could infer that meditating had already put him through the basic process of his body’s true alignment with nature. What remained was for him to assimilate the "principle of opposites" into it.

’The weak should be strong. And the strong should be weak. Possibilities in impossibilities, and vice versa. And so on, and so forth.’

So, Melvin let the idea seep deep into him. He was already strong; hence, he tried as much as he could to bring his body’s mind-eyes into a visible position where it could see the weak part of him. The evading patterns that didn’t belong to him, he tried to focus his mind on making them come to him.

According to Aurex, it shouldn’t be impossible to achieve such a thing in that state. What was only achievable and absorbed were things that belonged to the meditator.

That was why, after several failed attempts, Melvin... well, he succeeded.

He now felt both heavy and light at the same time. His body had assumed a balance that embraced weakness and strength. Although he wasn’t able to absorb the foreign patterns into him. They had refused to dissolve.

But that was totally fine, because it was a perfect illustration of what Keth had said. "Infinity produces nothing, and everything comes from nothing."

In that case, Melvin saw nothing as the impossible. And since he was able to make the impossible happen by making the foreign patterns come to him, he thought he had grasped what infinity really meant. Those foreign patterns he saw while meditating happened to be his controversial nature.

A subtle vibration rose from his core, coursing outward, mingling with the world. These vibrations flowed like a river, enhancing themselves into encircling him. He was now able to see them as faint energies without his sight, flickering all around him, almost becoming an external part of him.

Having fully grasped the process, Melvin decided to taste the infinity of the air around him, just like Keth had done back then.

He thrust his hands forward, forming them into a perfect blade, then performed an effortless slash with it. The air bent and twisted around his strike, then shot outward with a sharp rush forward.

Oblivious to Melvin, because his eyes were still shut, the strike caused the air to produce a distortion in space. And although invisible to the normal eye, it looked as if the slash had produced an aerial blade.

The force that came with that was...

"Are you insane?"

Keth’s voice snapped Melvin back to reality as he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the runes.

They had not even changed.

"I’m talking to you!" Keth snarled.

Melvin didn’t know what had happened, but the beautiful girl was currently squatting so low. It was as if she had evaded an attack.

"Huh?"

At that instant, the cave walls behind Keth suddenly shattered into debris and fell to the floor.

Melvin now got a grasp of what might have happened. However, what he was currently seeing and feeling was now within his comprehension. Keth and Aurex seemed to have felt the same thing as they diverted their attention toward the wall.

The wall was that on which the images had been drawn. But that was not it. Besides, his companions couldn’t see it.

It might be that eerie feeling they got from the open space beyond the wall that could determine their fate in this cursed land.