Ashton was unconscious. Or rather, half-unconscious. He couldn't move, like his body was fully paralysed, but he could still hear and see things. He could feel the cold, frozen ground, and the sword of bone that had been stabbed through his body.

  It pushed through his left lung and scraped his heart. Of course, poison had immediately spread through him. It was starting to course through his body through his heart, too. But luckily, he had the Spawn of Akrazoth. It would take a little while for the surgery to be done, and the price was steep, but that was how it was.

  Speaking of, the demon was digging through his body right now. There wasn't any pain, but it was uncomfortable nonetheless. It had cut out the affected part of the lung, and cut away a portion of the heart. The demon replaced that portion with muscles from all over Ashton's body, taking bits and pieces. Just little enough that it wouldn't affect Ashton too much long term.

  It wasn't perfect, but the portion could help the heart repair itself with those repurposed muscles. The potion would also help him recover the muscles that had been plucked from other parts of his body.

  That much could be done with the potion. But counteracting dead flesh, deep wounds in vital organs, recovering blood, and all that without severe side-effects? That wasn't it. The rapid healing potion was to be a last-ditch effort.

  It was great at healing things fast, not precisely. Even if it did manage to heal his heart and lung, he would have massive scars taking up large chunks of either, which could potentially cripple Ashton if he wasn't careful. He didn't want to worry about the risk of having a heart attack or a collapsed lung in the midst of all of this.

  But this kind of surgery was expensive. Deeply expensive. The Spawn of Akrazoth could already demand more than other summons. Just a few surface-level stitches cost a few limbs off human corpses. The only reason Millie's amputation was so cheap was because the Spawn had just been summoned, and was given a limb off a living human in a rare state. The Guardian had held back the zombie infection from spreading past her arm, but that arm itself had almost fully zombified. That was a special case.

  And now, this was a life-saving surgery. Whether it was to save the summoner or not didn't matter. If Ashton died, the spawn would just be sent back to hell, with no further harm coming to it.

  So, the price was steep. Whole human bodies, vital organs of living people, that sort of thing. If this were a fully equal contract, Ashton could just stuff the spawn full of the carcasses of monsters, but not in a contract where this demon had the upper hand. That, or a few vital pieces of the summoner.

  By nature, the summoner's parts were just that much more valuable. Someone sacrificing parts of another could be valuable, but sacrificing pieces of yourself was invaluable.

  Ashton had the finger from before, but that wasn't worth enough. Rather, the spawn didn't seem interested in it at all.

  It asked for something else. Something much more valuable in a world like this. After about an hour, the surgery was over. The Spawn of Akrazoth had taken its payment and disappeared back in the mark on Ashton's arm.

  He was able to move again, and his body had been repaired. He felt around his chest, feeling the stitches. His muscles were sore, but the anaesthetic the demon could secrete was enough to let him get through.

  "Backpacker..." Ashton said, though as he spoke, his chest felt tense. Breathing and speaking felt weird right now. "Can you give me the..." he cleared his throat. It was dry, "... rapid healing potion?"

  The Backpacker, who was already sitting by Ashton's side this entire time, quickly handed him the bottle, before he even finished speaking. They didn't have to take the bag off their back for this, either.

  "Thanks." Ashton smiled and clumsily opened the bottle, pouring some of the remaining liquid down his throat. He felt the steam roll off his skin and his cheeks, as searing pain covered him all over. This was far worse than the surgery itself.

  After a couple minutes, the pain receded, and Ashton could stand up. Now, he noticed Poppy sitting on his legs, clutching him intensely. It sounded like she was crying.

  "Don't worry, you guys. It's going to be fine. I'll be okay, I promise." He took a step forward, but stumbled lightly. "... Backpacker, could you give me my staff? The magic one. The other's broken. The cloak too, and a bottle of water, please."

  The Backpacker quickly did as asked, pulling both out of their bag. Ashton used the 'Ancient Summoner's Staff' to keep himself propped up. His clothes were ripped. He'd have to get some help picking out new ones later. These were his last batch, and Ashton wasn't in a state where he could patch them. Not without a little practice, at least.

  He drank some water and put on the cloak. It was still freezing in here, but the anaesthetic was protecting him from that, too. The potion pushed away all frostbite that he got while laying on the frozen ground during the surgery.

  "Perfect, let's go." Ashton said, stretching lightly before starting to walk. The Backpacker stopped him, grabbing the hem of Ashton's sleeve.

  "Hm? What's up?" He asked, and the Backpacker stayed silent. But Ashton could understand what they meant. It seemed like their familiarity had gone up quite a bit. He understood the spirit pretty wordlessly now. "I'll be fine, I promise."

  He squatted down and smiled. "Here, could you give me my old shirt? One of the dry ones. It's fine if it's already ripped."

  The spirit hesitated, but did as asked. Ashton felt around the shirt and found a good spot, then started ripping off a long strip of fabric that he promptly placed onto his face, sitting right on the bridge of his nose.

  As Ashton tied it in the back of his head, he smiled. "See? Don't I look pretty cool like this? You can't even tell I don't have eyes anymore."

  Poppy cried. It sounded like someone crushing small brass bells under their boot.

  "It's okay, really," Ashton said while picking the fairy up and placing her onto his head. "This isn't the end of the world. I'll probably be able to get myself a new pair of eyes sooner or later, and until then, I've got the elementals. Plus, once I adjust to this, just being able to sense mana and the veil will help me a lot. Worse has happened."

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Speaking of, Ashton quickly had the backpacker give him a prepared meal. Well, it wasn't really a meal, just a small piece of 'bread' that he threw together with leftover flour and water. Under his cloak, he pushed his hand into the pouch and pulled out the premade summoning circles.

  "Well, that's a bit annoying, actually. Sorry, could either of you help me find the right summoning circle? The wisp's has a symbol at the centre of one of the cornerstones that sort of looks a little bit like a five-armed stick figure. Can you see it?"

  He held the notes forward, and a few moments later, Poppy pulled on his hair. Ashton brought the notes closer to her, and she tugged on the paper.

  "Perfect, thank you so much. Here, have one," he said, giving her a small piece of candy. She took it, but it didn't sound like she was trying to eat it.

  [[Executor of the End] is perplexed at the sight of you]

  Within the absolute nothingness that now surrounded Ashton, the system window appeared. It wasn't something visual anymore. He could just tell that it was there. It was like the raw information was placed into his brain.

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  [[Observer in the Veil] points out that you have just lost your sight, and should be more frightened]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] says they do not know many that would react like you did to losing their eyes]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] asks if you were always blind in the first place]

  Ashton scoffed. "Of course not. I had perfect vision, actually. If I do say so myself, they were quite a pretty colour too. The spawn got themself a real deal with those."

  A few more messages came from the constellations, trying to show their concern. Even the Daughter. It wasn't exactly normal for demons to be this compassionate. And if you put the fact they were all constellations onto this? Ashton somehow felt like he hit the jackpot. He probably found the only handful of non-psychopathic constellations. Most of them would be just excited that something so unique was happening to Ashton.

  "Actually, where did the other constellations go? I expected some messages from them, too."

  [[Executor of the End] said that the onlookers went off for the time being]

  [[Observer in the Veil] adds that they got bored]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] points out that they did send some donations before scurrying off]

  That definitely wasn't true. Pain and suffering? That was like what shit was to flies. Not that it mattered to him what happened. As long as they were gone, Ashton was happy.

  For now, he summoned the wisp, and another message popped up. It was one that had appeared earlier, but Ashton hadn't paid attention to it. So for now, he checked out what he had missed.

  First, as the Daughter had said... he had made quite a bit of money. There were the thousand from killing the draconid, and then another almost two thousand worth of donations. Another reason to not believe the constellations on what happened to the others, but Ashton didn't really care.

  As for the other notifications...

  [Class | Summoner - Level 10 -> Summoner - Level 11]

  [Contract | Lesser Undine - Level 9 -> Lesser Undine - Level 10]

  [Due to persistent growth, a contract is ready to advance]

  [Through the high trust between you and the summon, you have been given the right to choose the advancement]

  [Contract | Lesser Wisp - Level 9 -> Lesser Wisp - Level 10]

  [Due to persistent growth, a contract is ready to advance]

  [Through the high trust between you and the summon, you have been given the right to choose the advancement]

  [Notice: Until a skill has advanced, it is not possible for it to collect further experience]

  Ashton stared at the messages. A level up was extremely unexpected from that. Already? What happened for that sort of experience to flow into him? Not that he had any reason to complain.

  But the other two...

  "... Poppy, can you tell me which one the undine's circle is? One of the cornerstones has a symbol that looks like a small flask with eyes, and one that looks like a ring with horns." The fairy quickly tugged on the note, and Ashton use some water that the Backpacker had already prepared to summon the undine as well.

  With both elementals in front of him, presumably, Ashton let out a long sigh. "Are you two really sure? Depending on how things go in the future, this might affect how you will permanently be. You might get abilities or traits you end up not liking. Is this really something you want to leave up to me?"

  It didn't even seem like something either of the elementals had to think about. The wisp nuzzled themselves under Ashton's chin, while the undine flowed along his cheek.

  "... Thanks, you two. I'll make that choice after we get out of here, okay? I don't have a weapon right now, so I'd like to go before any other monsters come roaming into here. For now, Ashton had the undine move into his vessel. The transition felt... painful. Seemingly not for the elemental, but for Ashton. He had protected his vessel from the brunt of the drawback of using a technique like that forcibly, but it was still injured. It was more comparable to an extreme soreness, though.

  Ashton took a deep breath and began to channel the wisp. The moment he attempted it, the lesser elemental placed itself onto the staff Ashton was using to help him walk. It was probably sitting tightly inside that small hook-like thing at the top. Though, the staff creaked, and the flow of mana changed a tiny bit, so maybe it changed to fit the wisp better.

  There might be more to the staff than Ashton thought. He'd have to check it out a bit closer, later.

  But for now, Ashton had to get started. He used the sensory input from channelling the wisp to replace his sight. The nothingness around Ashton was promptly replaced by a view of the mana in the world around him. It was turbulent, to say the least.

  A mana well had been destroyed in this place. That would definitely mess up the flow of mana quite a lot. But even so, Ashton was able to see fine enough like this. He could see the rough outlines of the shelves and things on the ground, so he wouldn't run into anything, and he should be able to spot any monsters approaching.

  Now that it had come to this, though, Ashton should practice this a bit more and figure out if he could push this further. All other forms of channelling had changed with veil mastery, so there must be a way to use it here, too.

  As he looked around, Ashton spotted a few things of note. For one, the 'corpse' of the draconid. Rather, mostly just its bones were leftover. It seemed like its flesh was practically a solid mass of poison, and dissolved almost instantly. Ashton had the Backpacker collect the bones and put them away. They were stock full of mana, and extremely useful. The magic stone was put away fast, too, and as he picked it up, Ashton noticed that some scales might be sitting on the ground, too.

  The Backpacker collected them all, and then the focus shifted to something else.

  In the midst of all this, there was something particularly 'bright' in Ashton's view. The magic stone was already pretty bright like this, but it was like comparing a dim LED to a star in the night sky.

  Neither were actually super bright, but one felt a hell of a lot more special. And in this case, the star was a small, perfectly round stone on the ground. It wasn't a magic stone, Ashton could tell that much. The mana frequency didn't match that.

  Well, of course it didn't. This didn't have a mana frequency at all. It was practically completely blank and pure, something that Ashton had never seen before.

  The only thing that Ashton could think of when he saw this was that hole that sat at the centre of the mana well before. Once he had someone to read it out loud to him, Ashton should have the Pen of Insight inspect this. Sadly, Ashton's mana-vision wasn't particularly precise yet, so he wouldn't be able to read, even if the text was written in ink full of mana.

  And now, everything was ready, as far as Ashton could tell. He stepped out of this ritual area, using his summoner staff to help him walk while still feeling a little weak on his legs. And, of course, also to help him avoid walking into random stuff.