Everything just moved past me, metaphorically speaking at least. But that only makes things worse doesn't it? I'm sitting here, stuck in a daze that might as well be crippling, my memories still full of how close I was to death, and the world?

  The world spins. Nothing more, nothing less. The fire will keep burning even as I am left as nothing more than embers forced to endure the cold winds.

  Feeling poetic usually only comes when someone is on the verge of death— but then again, I am pulling shit out of my ass just to justify my current feelings so is this even true? It is to me. — where they have wounds that are outright fatal and their blood is flowing to the earth in large quantities. That type of thing.

  Wait, actually, does that only happen because of bloodloss? Being light headed due to a lack of blood is pretty much the only conclusion I can come up with here.

  Maybe thinking about this isn't a good thing... It is, actually, I realize that I'm not as hung up as I was with my life-and-death experience just now. No, instead I'm focusing on the semantics of people becoming poets whenever they're about to die, which I guess is better than having a panic attack over a giant ferret.

  Ferrets. Ones that could mind control people like me into thinking they're harmless, I'm shocked after learning they can apparently do that but I'm guessing that thing is probably just as surprised as I am, how many people can resist its natural charm after all? Not much? Okay then.

  Point is, I'm starting to think that my preparation was more than enough. The dungeon apparently throws a mind controlling monster at me the moment I discover it was unaccounted for but everything else is in my line of expectations, which is saying a lot considering how little I know about it during this point in time.

  Gradually, my mood recovered. Everything is still under my control, nothing bad is happening, and the only thing that I need to do now is to make sure that my levels are high enough to take on the dungeon, I actually prepare traps around it— or inside it, once I get access. — and that my passives are able to support me once I go crawling in there.

  Levels and traps can be worked on later while my passives need to be checked, so I did just that.

  Passives:

  *Minor Poison Resistance

  *Intermediate Magical Sense

  *Intermediate Physical Resistance

  *Intermediate Physical Recovery

  *Intermediate Mental Resistance

  *Intermediate Magical Recovery

  *Minor Night Vision

  Other than my magical sense going from [Minor] to [Intermediate], nothing much seemed to have immediately changed in terms of my passives. Unfortunate but also expected, I haven't been trying to upgrade any of them and so they're lagging behind.

  Well, I say that but the truth is, my current passives are a lot more developed compared to kids my age and I think that also has something to do with my complacency in terms of developing them.

  I should actively make my system upgrade beyond kids my age, that's the point. Avoiding it only led to my current situation, and a little while before that, I would have been killed if I wasn't born with [Intermediate Mental Resistance].

  So working on my passives is going to be my main priority, and I think that the one I should be upgrading for the time being is my [Intermediate Physical Recovery], which I think is far more valuable than say, mental resistance since it's already shown to be able to resist the mind control effects of the ferret anyway.

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  And besides that, how am I gonna upgrade my mental resistance passive? Maybe when my level gets high enough I can encase a ferret in ice and then stay within the radius of its charm until my passive gets upgraded? Yeah, I think I'll do that.

  Wait, no, I don't even need to level up to do this now do I? I just need to create a trap that will imprison the ferret and everything will just fall into place!

  Not right now though, I still want to work on my physical recovery passive, that's not changing anytime soon.

  Standing up, I felt much better than when I first initially collapsed to my knees. Progress was slow though and during my wallowing, the forest has turned dark.

  Night usually isn't a big deal for me but that only applies when I'm not stuck in a forest full of monsters, there are so many magical hotspots here thanks to the leyline that when night strikes, monsters roam the entire forest.

  Well, most of it.

  No monster has snuck up on me all this time and the reason for that is obvious: the effect that the mender's cottage has on the environment protected me.

  Whatever it is, it's beneficial enough that I wouldn't want to touch it without asking for Wardcruncha opinion on it first. If he says no, I shouldn't touch it, then I won't. But if he does? Then I go with my original plan of making the cottage near me into a temporary base during winter.

  For now, I should focus on getting out of here without dying.

  Leaving the general vicinity of the cottage actually made me hesitate, I can see it from where I'm standing, where the invisible line that divided the mana filled environment, that is the rain forest and the strangely "lifeless" cottage is drawn.

  Rays of blue ebbed just a few meters out and all I need to do is to walk out of here and I'll be on my way back to Flotol, where mom and dad are definitely worrying about me.

  You know what's funny? It wasn't my mother's angry expression that gave me the courage to start walking, no, instead it was the thought of her sitting by the door to our house, hands clasped together, brows knitted in worry, and wondering whether or not her little girl is going home.

  Deep breath. Then exhale. That's all it took for me to calm my racing heart, after that, I started moving. Panic attacks can hit me whenever they want, I'm more worried about my mother staying up the entire night instead of some unseen ferret lurking in the darkness.

  My feet passed the invisible line and I was back inside the rain forest, different shades of blue took over my vision and the sounds of nocturnal creatures echoed all around me. The drastic change in everything was like a switch had been flipped.

  My mother, no... My entire family kept me from running back to the safety of the cottage. It helped me push past my initial fear and realize that the ferret is now gone, it made me remember that like most dungeon monsters, the ferret cannot stay outside of its home for too long.

  Why? I dunno. It's never really explained, my personal theory is that dungeons recall their monsters when it gets too far out of their range without chasing anybody.

  Aaaand I'm back to thinking about random stuff again. I shake my head, my smile light as the night blooms around me, there are monsters out there, I am aware of that, and yet my feet never stopped moving.

  This whole thing reminds me of my previous life, when I was young I... Was as much of a prodigy as I am now, everyone around me treated me like I was going to do great things when I grow up and I listened to their words of praise, basking in nonexistent glory.

  It didn't take long for the real world to catch up to me, and what was once a prodigious kid became just like everybody else.

  But that didn't stop me from trying anyway, every night I would force myself to study, not because I'm scared of expectations or that I can't face reality, no, it's because I wanted to make my mother proud, to be happy.

  When you push yourself to the brink almost every day and consider rest as nothing more than an option, it's only natural that your body eventually gives up.

  Collapsing was never part of my plan, and yet that seemingly random occurrence made me realize that my goal is pretty stupid. Making my mother proud? She already was.

  All I was doing was making them worry about my health. Seeing her face in that hospital, all pale and ghostly, it finally clicked to me that my continued existence is worth more than any grade to her.

  That was when I stopped trying, I could have definitely gotten the scholarship I was working for but it didn't matter anyway, I still got into a decent college, got myself a job, and have given my mother a much better gift in the end: showing up for any important occasion that happens in our lives.

  Sure visiting them every Christmas sounds basic but it adds up you know? They're happy, I'm happy...

  "... What?" To me, it was blink and you'll miss it moment.

  Before I knew it, I'm out of the forest and no monster ever attacked me throughout my walk for some reason.