The sound wasn't close but it was deep—resonant. Like stone grinding against stone, or a very deep breath from a large creature.
They turned in unison.
"That wasn't the mist," Ethan muttered, hand already drifting towards his axe.
Another sound followed—closer this time. A distant clatter that echoed through the haze.
Victor stood without a word.
Walter remained seated for just a second longer, then rose slowly as he adjusted to his newly reformed body.
"I think we've drawn enough attention," Sam said, already putting on his pack.
AJ's form condensed. "Seems like something big noticed us."
With quiet urgency, they packed their things, secured their weapons, and moved out—away from the core of the mist.
Their movements, despite their speed, carried a strange awkwardness.
They were adjusting.
The enhancements they'd earned from their breakthroughs had subtly—yet deeply—rewritten the way their bodies moved.
Every step carried more force than intended. Every shift of weight had to be recalibrated. It was like they were learning to walk again.
Ethan stumbled when he leapt down a small ledge, his landing rougher than expected. "Damn near broke the ground," he muttered, half-grinning, half-concerned.
"It'll probably take a few days before we get used to the changes in our bodies." Sam noted.
"I feel like I could punch a boulder in half, but also like I might accidentally break my foot by stepping on it wrong," Ethan said.
Victor remained silent, but even he moved strangely, not with his usual grace—each step was tested and measured.
Lily lagged slightly behind.
Her breathing was shallow, her eyes constantly shifting, unfocused. She winced whenever the wind changed direction, and flinched from the sound of a pebble clattering.
"It's too much," she whispered. "Everything's too sharp."
The Earth Realm had pushed her senses further than she was prepared for. Light shimmered too brightly in the mist. Every footstep felt like a drumbeat. Her skin prickled with overstimulation.
AJ pulsed beside her, keeping close, his presence comforting her.
Right now, she's flying too close to the sun, he thought. But she'll adjust.
Walter, by contrast, walked like he had shed years. His posture had straightened. His steps were smoother, more assured. Where there had once been stiffness, there was now fluid motion.
He inhaled deeply and smiled to himself. "I'd forgotten what it felt like to move without pain."
Sam glanced back at him. "You holding up?"
Walter nodded, a small smile tugging at the edge of his mouth. "I'm feeling better than I have in years."
They weren't attacked by any creatures and whatever had made that sound earlier didn't appear.
Not too long later, the terrain began to change again—less jagged now, more open. The mist was thinning, revealing cracked stone fields scattered with luminous moss and white grass.
Victor slowed, eyes narrowing. "We're outside the heart of the basin."
The others felt it too.
The air, whilst still heavy with mana, no longer buzzed against their skin. The slight pressure of that central zone had eased. But with it came a slight sense of loss. As though a gift had been taken away.
AJ compressed his mass as they moved, reducing his size to roughly that of a basketball. "Absorption rate's dropping."
"Yep," Sam said. "Sadly we can't stay here forever."
Victor exhaled slowly, watching the mist trail behind them. "It's a shame we can't bottle it up and bring the mana with us."
Ethan was looking for the limits of his new body. He stretched, touching his toes wasn't an issue, all his limbs ranges of movement were improved and they somehow felt more responsive.
They kept walking, leaving behind the mist as they left the canyon. Then came a sound—low and resonant, like the growl of something buried beneath the earth. It echoed in their bones more than in their ears.
Walter paused mid-step and glanced over his shoulder. "That sounded almost like… a farewell."
"Or a warning," Victor said, his eyes scanning the mist.
---
The terrain around them changed gradually. Jagged stone gave way to dense, marshy lowlands, where patches of bright green moss clung to half-submerged logs and the ground squelched underfoot.
Narrow stretches of slightly firmer earth crisscrossed the bog, bordered by wide-leafed plants and pale, drooping flowers.
AJ, riding on Sam's shoulder once more, extended a tendril and touched a bulbous mushroom. After a few seconds he withdrew it. "Non-toxic. Should be rich in nutrients."
"Food is food," Ethan ripped off a chunk and chewed on it without hesitation. "Tastes like a wet sock though."
That first night in the marshlands, they found a dry patch of ground beneath a gnarled, barkless tree that glowed faintly in the dark. Sam and Victor built a fire while Ethan was off hunting.
He returned dragging a creature with six legs and a frog-like head, its mouth lined with rows of soft grinding plates. It hadn't resisted much, just tried to hop away.
"Tried to eat my boots," Ethan laughed.
Victor roasted the meat over a low fire that crackled with blue-green flames.
Walter sat cross-legged near the edge of the firelight, humming a tune none of them recognised. His face, usually lined with age and weariness, seemed softer now, less stressed or burdened.
Lily leaned back on her elbows, eyes half-closed. "It's quiet," she murmured. "You'd think a swampy area like this would be constantly bubbling with noise."
They walked through the wetlands for three days, keeping to the high ground where they could. Occasionally they spotted silhouettes moving in the deeper pools—long-necked creatures that resembled serpents with finned heads and wide tails.
---
Soon enough the world opened up into sprawling savanna. Tall, sun-bleached grasses rolled in waves under the wind.
Massive flat-stone ridges jutted from the land, some with birds the size of gliders nesting atop them.
The air here was dry and visibility stretched far into the distance, reminding them of the plains they had traversed previously.
Travelling became faster.
On the fifth day of their trek, they encountered a herd of strange, camel-like creatures with smooth, hairless skin and translucent patches along their sides that pulsed with light.
They were docile, eating cactus bulbs as they watched them.
One approached Lily, sniffed her hand before trundling off.
Victor's eyes were on the sky.
A flock of birds flew high above, casting enormous shifting shadows. They didn't flap—just coasted letting the wind carry them.
That night, the wind picked up, they built a windbreak out of tough grass stalks and dug out a pit for the fire. As they sat around the warm glow, Ethan using a stick to nudge the charcoal.
"Six days since the breakthrough," he said. "How's everyone holding up?"
"Much better than before, but I'm still getting used to it" Lily replied first.
"Time seems to be flying by," Walter said, smiling faintly.
"Doing good, I've adjusted to the changes." Victor added.
Sam exhaled through his nose. "We'll be coming across a river in the next few days. We're going to have to cross it so here's hoping it's not too bad. "
Victor nodded. "And after that?"
"Forest, lots of it." Sam replied.
---
The savanna eventually narrowed into a gorge—not steep, but long and winding, with high stone walls. The ground here was baked hard, and the plants were gnarled things with roots exposed like grasping fingers.
On the 7th day they were attacked.
It came at dawn, silent and swift. A pack of four-legged predators with glistening skin and no eyes, their legs ending in blade-like claws. They attacked as a unit, synchronised, targeting Lily and Ethan first.
The battle was brief but violent.
Ethan's new agility allowed him to intercept two at once, driving them back with blunt force. Lily moved swiftly taking down a third creature with her bow before helping Ethan out.
The last leapt at Walter—only to be smacked by his cane mid-air.
They left the bodies where they fell.
After gathering as much meat as they could AJ consumed them. "Their bodies are brimming with mana. If they were taught how to cultivate they could have had similar strength to us."
"The creatures are adapting," Victor said. "It's good to be ahead of the curve."
The next night, they camped atop a ridge overlooking a canyon. They stared up at the stars above. Walter and Sam pointed out constellations, they felt a sense of comfort knowing the stars above them weren't affect by the wish event.
Lily sat beside AJ, watching the sky.
"Do you think we'll ever understand all of it?" she asked.
AJ didn't respond right away. The stars reflected dimly in his surface.
"Hard to say, it's a definite maybe."
Lily smiled faintly. "A definite maybe, huh?"
Morning came with dense fog clinging to the ground. They broke camp early, coming down from the ridge and back into the rolling savanna. By midday, the grass began to change—shorter, more interspersed with muddy patches and shallow pools where bright insects buzzed in lazy spirals.
Bird calls echoed from a distant treeline.
Then they heard it: a low, constant murmur.
They crested a gentle hill and stopped.
Below them, the river stretched wide—at least 30 metres across, shallow in places, but deceptively fast. The current glittered under the sun, fractured by smooth stones and broken reeds. On the far side, the land sloped upward into a forest.
"That must be the forest," Walter said, shielding his eyes from the sun.
Sam studied the riverbank. "We need to cross but it's not looking very doable from here."
Victor was scanning for crossing points. "No easy ways across, we'll have to swim."
Ethan cracked his neck and made his way closer to the rivers edge. "I'll go first."
They began to prepare—stripping down to their underwear, AJ created waterproof bags using plastic that he had absorbed in the disappearing house all those moons ago.
After putting their things into their bags they began considering how to actually make the crossing.