Chapter 53: Looking for Scraps
The following two days were a long experience of waiting.
I had to recharge my space-breathing choker and fill my armour with mana constantly.
I didn’t need much food because I had long reached the point where my mana would mostly sustain me.
Once my armour had finally repaired itself to a stable state I got ready to wear it and remove a portion of the pain that my body was dealing with.
The armour looked notably less bulky but that was fine as long as it worked. The cannon was completely wrecked and while the bomb glove was working I had no ammo for it.
I followed Espr's instructions and removed all the mana from my body, I chose to keep pouring it into my armour as that was the safest thing to do.
Once I reached the first quarter of the process's duration, my stomach decided to metaphorically squirm and sting.
The tingle of pain that began to emerge from my body was due to the process. A warning signal saying ‘What you are doing now is stupid’ but I ignored it and moved on with the process.
And as Espoiramissa said, after five hours the pain was finally gone, as if it just washed out of my system.
Oh, thank fuck that is gone.
I could deal with the pain, but not having to deal with it was definitely the better option.
Sadly any hope of the pain caused by the crimson monster didn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Any action from–using my mana, manipulating my soul pressure, to even just focusing on my soul page–caused me agony.
Physically I had also mostly recovered, one of the lumps on my head disappeared but the other only shrunk slightly. I also found another one on the right side above my ear. I figured I must’ve hit the ground harder than I thought.
Well, time to move on to the next step of the plan.
I stood up and looked towards the stars.
“It’s time to get off this rock.”
(“ Excellent, what’s your plan to do so? ”)
“I can shoot fire, so time to start my best impression of a rocket and fly.”
(“ I would be lying if I said if I expected a different plan; I did expect you to word it differently, however ”)
I wouldn’t die flying through space and I could keep my momentum going without any effort. All that was required was to change direction when needed.
(“ Any idea what direction you will go in? ”)
I’m willing to take suggestions. Is there any particular direction that will help you figure out where I am?
“Well if that’s the case, the direction will be straight up. Once my mana recovers.”
I was still at 0% mana due to the removal of the curses but after a full day of waiting, I was back up to full. My starlight had also reached 80%; I didn’t have much to do besides look at the stars.
I repeatedly [Burst] off the surface of the tiny planet until I was out of the planet's gravitational pull. Now it was time to fly and I hoped I would find something useful.
I summoned a large burst of fire beneath me and flew at the highest safe speed I could.
[Sleepless Nights] meant there was no sleeping through the experience, which to some might’ve been hell on earth–being forced to fly in a void of spaces for an extended period of time with nothing to do.
I mean I did have my phone, but unsurprisingly it was extremely damaged. It could be fixed with the correct people and the right equipment, but I had neither of those so for the time being it would continue to be broken.
Being in a vast unknown part of space did have one good side, I got to see stars I had never seen before.
I could normally see stars that were way further away, better than some telescopes; a natural bonus of [Starlight] but even that had its limits.
So in a way, it was nice to be out here. It would’ve been something nice to do in my free time; be on a ship and explore the stars. While the current situation did put a massive damper on those feelings, I had long learnt to take the good in any bad situation.
(“ What are you trying to find? A ship, civilization, or looking for a miracle? ”)
Espoiramissa, confused, paused.
Just some scrap? oh, it's a saying, that just means anything useful.
(“ Surprised you never said it before ”)
It's more of an in-space term, so I just instinctively said it here. Back at my job, we would sometimes check asteroid fields near space stations for anything interesting and I learned it from some of the people who were trying to find anything valuable.
I began to reminisce on the fun parts of my old job, spending my days with my friends and enjoying every second of it. The job itself was boring but every moment in between was worth it.
I should’ve said a better goodbye to Beatrice… the same with Lila. I just have to hope your sister is now safe Rosa.
I held some regrets but at least Lila should be in a better place now.
(“ Do you ever plan to take revenge against the company? ”)
Someday, not how I will though. Mother had already started the legal process, I want to do more but I have no idea who exactly was involved.
(“ Just go after everyone ”)
That is a bit much, it could’ve just been one person you know.
… I just want to figure out a target first. Maybe I’ll hire someone, or maybe I’ll make a friend who can do the dirty work. But either way for the time being my primary target is Dominous Hood.
Espoiramissa went quiet and my long journey through the infinite nothingness full of life that was space truly began as I floated and watched everything pass by me. The goal was to make it back before a year had passed and I would do everything in my power to ensure that happened. I just required a bit of luck.