As the disorientation of blindness quickly set in, Takuma was filled with both anger and panic. The slightest of hopes seemed ripe for crushing when it came to dealing with curses. He stopped moving after a short time and stood still, acclimating himself to the black void. Though his eyes were gone he could still hear. The sounds of insects all around as they chirped, birds and the scurrying of animals. He decided to take a seat on the ground and meditate, after a few moments to calm down he realized this would probably pass soon as well.
It would be another ten minutes before he regained his sight once more and during that time he'd decided which action to take next. Preparation for the journey ahead. Once he was able, Takuma decided to examine his world map for any nearby towns or cities. The closest one was far to the east but he had no way of judging the distance which meant he had to prepare for anything. Stuck in the wilderness with no food or water just after midday could be the beginning of the end. He'd only been in this world presumably for six to eight hours; he'd nearly died twice and been crippled just as many times. He had to balance the scales somehow.
To this end he decided to first estimate the distance between his current location and his destination. He did this by marking the map with a way point from his current spot. The map itself was completely basic save for key locations and landmarks which Takuma assumed were well known points to the world at large. The regional map, by contrast, was blank and only seemed to fill itself if Takuma moved to a location in order to survey it personally.
He decided to walk twenty meters to the east from the ruined chapel. This might be a better indicator of distance based on how far his World Map indicator moved. Another five minutes later he'd surmised that the nearest town was roughly 24.6 kilometers away.
Based on this, Takuma surmised it would take him nearly seven hours to reach the nearest town. He guessed the time to be just after midday based on the position of the sun. Given all of these thoughts, he might reach town after sunset if he left right now. This also posed a problem. He had no water or food. He wanted to push himself as much as possible so that he could quickly claim his rank up, in addition to reaching the town before nightfall.
He only spent a few moments deliberating before he decided to throw caution to the wind and begin jogging. There was a path leading from the ruined chapel to the town from what he could surmise via the world map and even if there wasn't he could easily right his course. What he needed to watch out for now were edible plants or food.
He decided to take things slowly at first and get accustomed to his new body. He quickly learned that his stamina would hold out for ten minute bursts at a jogger's pace.
"Whew. My stamina is terrible..." He said to himself as he stopped to catch his breath. He timed this as well by using the curse counter. His stamina refilled much more quickly than his vitality, within thirty seconds he'd managed to catch his breath and recover all of his stamina completely.
Next he decided to try using some techniques he'd learned from a past life. Though it looked silly he began to use "footwork". By picking up speed and kicking off with his feet he used less stamina and traveled further. The only problem was that to an untrained body this was very taxing on the leg and foot muscles. He found that after doing this for seven minutes his muscles were screaming. Still, by comparison he'd moved nearly three times as far in roughly the same amount of time.
Takuma couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he imagined what he might look like skipping through the forest. His calves and feet had already begun to grow taut. It would have been ideal if he could use some sort of fast movement technique but he would need to train his body more before that would be a realistic option for travel.
Next he tried running which was even worse for stamina consumption. Though he moved a fair distance he emptied his stamina in five minutes and only managed to run about half as far when compared to jogging. As far as sustainable techniques however, jogging appeared to be best as he suspected. He next opened his Status menu to take note of Modified stats.
In particular Takuma noticed that his Vitality and Stamina modifiers had increased in a short amount of time. He couldn't help but feel slightly aggrieved. He'd spent a lot of time cultivating physical strength through all of his past reincarnations and usually the weaker someone was the more quickly they could grow.
Which meant--
"I'm seriously weak. This is..embarrassing." He whispered to himself.
Vitality (82%)
Mana (6%)
Stamina (96%)
Force (145%)
Accel (55%)
Knowledge (45%)
These were his new modifier stats after almost an hour of activity. During that time his current curse, Blight Carousel, also flared up two more times. Fortunately the effects weren't so terrible - he developed a migraine and nausea which caused him a severe case of the dry heaves. Each time the sensations would last around five to ten minutes depending on the ailment. He shuddered to think just how severe these effects would be without the protection of his Meister's Constitution. Through it all he continued to walk and along the way took note of his surroundings.
He also began to notice plants along the pathway occasionally. Due to their faint white outline he realized they were items he could gather, so he did.
"Inventory [1] : As a Relic Meister your inventory has several unique qualities. You don't need to lug around storage packs like other people. You can use dimension storage to keep track of a large number of items and recall them at will. The current limitation on your inventory space is 100 types of items."
This was the alert that appeared after having picked up his first herb.
"Dimensional Storage hmm?" Takuma had lived enough lives to realize that Spacial magic was extremely rare.
"I guess being a Relic Meister isn't all bad." He said with a grin as he inspected a nearby item.
"Sour Grass [Quality 45] : An herb that can be used to make 'Bitter Antidote'. Edible but not tasty." Takuma eyed the yellowish green stalks of grass in his hand. Strangely enough he hadn't felt hungry since he arrived in this world so he placed the items into his inventory and continued on his way just in case.
"Acquired Sour Grass x 1."
When he wasn't afflicted by an ailment, he was jogging and when he wasn't jogging he was walking briskly. Soon two hours had passed and the sky had become clear, sunny with occasionally fluffy clouds in the distance. It might have been considered a beautiful day if Takuma wasn't being periodically assaulted by curses. With just thirteen hours remaining Takuma was filled with a sense of impending dread. He tried to stymie the feeling, drowning it out with the distraction of activity but it gnawed at him behind the scenes.
The cold, heavy feeling of the amulet seemed to be getting more dense and after the third hour of his travel it was confirmed as more than mere suspicion. The curses increased in both intensity and frequency. If there was a single silver lining in the situation it was that the curses remained the same - so far. Splitting headaches. Random bouts of blindness which forced Takuma to a standstill, crippling pain in his chest, nausea -- if these were all the curse had to offer it would be great.
And that's exactly what gave Takuma such a feeling of unease - he was certain that things would only get worse. He decided to take a short break under the shade of a nearby tree as he looked through the random items he'd gathered along the way. For every new thing Takuma learned it seemed that his Knowledge percentage would rise 2%. This included Lore entries, system features, skill descriptions and more.
Takuma had just gotten comfortable and proceeded to check his stats when blindness started to set in. He was surprised to learn that he could still recognize his system interface, view his menus and even interact with items in this state. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense, after all how would one use a restorative if they couldn't see what they were doing? Following this line of logic, Takuma opened his world map and realized that he could use his location indicator to travel while he was blinded.
He decided to chance it. It should be okay for walking and though he might miss some items along the way it was much more important to reach the town as soon as possible. Takuma had to admit that walking without sight was a strange experience. Everything seemed more intense, the sound of his breath, his heartbeat -- at one point he felt he could "hear' air currents on the breeze. If only all of his ailments were this 'tranquil'.
His latest bout with blindness lasted about twenty minutes by his count, much longer than before. He'd managed to make it halfway to his destination in just about four hours and he desperately wanted to pick up the pace. Though he didn't really have any evidence that nightfall would bring danger, he felt like it was a given in any wild environ. He decided to trust his gut and opted for a slower but sustained jogging pace. This way he could constantly move and for longer periods. He managed to catch his stride, uninterrupted for half an hour until a crippling sensation flared up in his body.
"Ugh!" He grunted as he clutched his chest and fell forward on his face instantly. He soon found himself on the ground, writhing in pain as he coughed and spurted up blood. He could see his vitality bar quickly depleting as he struggled to get to his feet.
"No way…" He grunted groggily as he got to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his right hand. Thankfully the duration of those internal attacks had not increased but the intensity of the damage had become almost unbearable. He glanced at his Vitality bar and realized one third of his health had disappeared. While this wasn't a huge cause for concern now, Takuma couldn't help but think of the eventuality. It took him about an hour to completely regenerate his vitality if he was uninterrupted. With slightly more than 30% of his health gone in one stroke and several hours to go during this curse duration, he wondered if his recovery abilities would be enough to keep him alive. He needed a healing spell, or even potions would be good in a pinch!
Undaunted, he continued to jog as best he could given the weariness and mental fatigue he was now suffering. He absolutely needed to make good time and not a second could be wasted. Soon time began to lose all perception for Takuma as the mental burden of the amulet began to dull his resolve. At times he lost his sense of purpose as well. Why was he running? Where was he even going? Covered in sweat, blood and dirt he questioned his own sanity before snapping back to reality. He dared not even glance at the time remaining for the curse, it would do little more than irritate him.
Instead he focused on collecting items as he moved. Herbs, flowers, various nuts and even some berries. He stuck a few blades of Sour Grass in his mouth and gnawed on them for the biting flavor. He'd never tasted something so pungent, sour and bitter. Still it was like a sharp blow to his dulled mind and the flavor was something he could focus on so he gnawed on it feverishly until he consumed all of its taste.
The word 'haggard' didn't even begin to describe his current mental state. He had begun to hallucinate, as if his body and limbs were slowly stretching and contorting. His sense of direction had been compromised as vertigo set in. Even as the sun began to sink behind the treetops Takuma dared not stop, for he imagined creatures with dark features peeking from within every shadow.
Finally, after a delirious, painful and disorienting journey Takuma found himself standing before the stone wall surrounding the settlement of Arnia. He put his hands on his knees, breathing deeply as he gazed up at the flickering braziers which illuminated the area outside of the city.
"Who's that? Make yourself known!" A gruff voice shouted from high atop the wall as several men filed out of the nearby gate, spears at the ready. They surrounded Takuma, their weapons leveled at his chest as they demanded his identity. In response he did the only logical thing he could do : faint from fatigue.