In the colorless world, there were several spheres of black closing in on a certain point.

  The sky, an ashy bright white, with wisps of black or dark gray ash occasionally flying in it, gave off a gloomy and desolate aura, foreboding.

  The ground, unusually spotless, symmetrical, and light gray, made of six-meter-sided square slabs, also gave off such a feeling.

  Though, the area where those black spheres were moving to was not so spotless; strewn with black ichor, and amid said area an unconscious human lay.

  The human was a man, his body was too dirty and covered with that black ichor to discern any notable features other than his missing right arm. By human standards, he'd be considered tall. The few parts that could be peeked of him were very pale.

  He was frowning, he looked to be in immense pain, his left hand placed on his head clutching his hair, and a strand of hair had been ripped out from his head because he'd unconsciously pulled at it too harshly a moment ago before he passed out.

  Information flooded his mind and he slowly regained his bearings. But he saw black and red, he wanted to desperately get up, but he could barely think.

  The black gooey substance coated him more as he twisted on the ground, his chapped lips opened and closed like a fish out of water, but nothing came out, neither sounds of gripe or saliva.

  His eyes opened suddenly, revealing crazed bloodshot eyes, reflecting the white sky with a silvery hue, only to close just as quickly, his brows, forehead, and the corners of his eyes wrinkling from the force of exerting his facial muscles.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the headache calmed down, despite it only being around two minutes.

  He heaved, shaking heavily, trying to open his eyes again...

  What reflected in those eyes wasn't the white sky.

  The reflection took on a darker hue, writhing and snaking like a mass of grotesque liquid.

  A black cluster mass of wriggling mutated spirits – right at his legs.

  It appeared larger than the usual ones he saw.

  Spell! Spell! Spell!!! He desperately thought, endeavoring to cast the spell, but... too late.

  The undulating spirit sunk itself into his legs.

  Unimaginable pain shot through him as his legs exploded, but the mutated spirit wasn't like the usual ones... Instead one of those unlikely strong ones. An elite, if you will.

  It crawled more, upwards, 'eating' more of his legs.

  Delirious with pain, he barely managed to use the Magic Bolt spell with the new information, firing the differentiated Magic Arrow spell, an evolved attribute of the Magic Bolt.

  The magic arrow spell shot far larger than the magic bolt, with a spear-like tendency and shape, two magic arrows fired and pierced through the mutated spirit, killing it before it could kill him.

  He had lifted his torso upwards from the sheer urgency, sitting upright.

  His hollow gaze looked at the remnants of the mutated spirit, then down at his 'legs', all that was left was up to half his thighs, bleeding.

  "... Why me?” he choked out, despite trying to stay collected and disregard everything he went through so far; he felt immense hatred.

  Hatred for that deranged individual that brought him here. Hatred for this deranged world. Hatred for Earth. Hatred for himself.

  It wasn't in him to even react to the agony coursing through him.

  Leg loss... His mind was still processing everything, even logically thinking, there's no way out of this... Isn't it better if I die already...

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  His mind flashed back to a piece of paper, 'HAHAHA! YOU'LL DIE ALONE. I HATE YOU, BECAUSE WHY ARE YOU THE PERFECT VESSEL BUT NOT ME?! BE SURE TO DO LOTS OF FUN THINGS BEFORE KILLING YOURSELF FROM BOREDOM!'

  It flashed to certain individuals, 'Why would anyone ——— you? ——— -out you? Just ———. Take ——— and ———. —— is —— you!'

  It flashed again, showing a distorted memory dyed in indescribable colors.

  It flashed once more, to a dark room.

  He snapped out of it and finally let out a yell of pain, "Agh! AA-! NO! Why... Why... Why why... Why?"

  A pool of blood seeping out of his mostly lost thighs was joining the puddle of black ichor.

  ... As he grew more hysterical with everything going through him, he saw a red orb appearing in the corner of his eyes.

  Orb of Life... It's the meat artifact... he snapped out of it. The orb of life seemed close enough.

  With his only remaining limb, he reached out, touching it.

  Immediately, the orb turned gray and crumbled, and he felt a revitalizing energy waft throughout his body.

  The bleeding in his legs stopped and he felt some of his lost blood returned to him, but nothing else happened, the injury was too severe, and even stabilizing him was already a miraculous deed.

  Right... Right... If I survive without worsening in condition the next half hour, it will get better... Regrowing limbs seemed possible since my right arm grew a bit when I took the life orb last time... One by one, recovery... Is possible... Possible... He tried to encourage himself despite his mind resisting such words, wanting eternal rest.

  It's possible... Clest had mentioned that the Magic Bolt has 6 differentiation points and 3 fusion points. This 'upgrade' was originally supposed to choose one of the three branches of differentiation for Magic Bolt.

  Which are, Magic Arrow, Fireworks, and Fission.

  The first is a piercing and powerful projectile with high velocity. Very efficient.

  The second is a spell that splits the original magic bolt into three, making them deal more damage and explode, it needed a longer time to cast than the others.

  The third is a spell that basically fired the magic bolt spell two more times, allowing it to target three enemies at once.

  Normally, a Homunculus would only be able to choose one of these three to cast.

  But he could cast all of them, even the original Magic Bolt spell without differentiation could be cast. He could freely choose which spell to cast. Perhaps that is why the 'leveling up' process this time resulted in particularly agonizing pain, he had acquired more than three times the expected information.

  This was an actual power-up. Each ability had its merits. The Magic Arrow is versatile, dealing with both crowds in a straight line and high damage. The Fireworks would be six in total, since he fires two magic bolts at a time, with the explosion and high damage output, it would be good to deal with enemies like the strong mutant spirits. The Fission is good for when he gets crowded in different directions.

  Touching the violet globe of mana formed by the spirit that had taken his legs, he used his left hand to drag himself along the floor...

  He felt heavily upset, crippled to the point of no return with only one usable limb. He wouldn't have even considered going on if it weren't for the meat artifact providing him with orbs of life every 30 minutes.

  Mr. Meat, thank you... He thought inwardly, using the Magic Bolt spells to kill the mutant spirits' swarms, collecting more mana globes.

  With the differentiated spells, it was much easier to handle the mutant spirits, the most troublesome thing he faced was moving to collect the orbs with only his left hand.

  During that time, he had slowly begun feeling slightly better, perhaps due to the Regeneration modification.

  Approximately thirty minutes later, an orb of life appeared next to him.

  Without hesitation, he took it.

  As it crumbled, he felt slightly refreshed and felt a weird sensation as a small amount of his limbs regenerated.

  Okay, slowly but surely. This is doable. I can do it. I can do this. I won't die, he took a deep breath, calling out and summoning the black paper.

  However, he still didn't have time for the next modification.

  So, curiously, he browsed through the magic classes and magic overseers sections.

  The former is a way to unlock new spells or enhance certain spells or special abilities.

  For example, he currently had no classes in his possession. He could exchange for the class related to the Magic Bolt to enhance the spell further. Or buy another class that would unlock another spell. There were many unlockable spells.

  The latter is a way to gain small modifications and symbolize each spell by a special modification to one's appearance.

  It was out of reach for now, being very expensive, and requiring high amounts of combustion mana.

  He unsummoned the black paper. He didn't want a new spell right now, but to continue upgrading his regeneration.

  Glancing around, he continued firing the spell from the ground at the endlessly appearing and approaching mutant spirits.

  But shortly after, he turned around to see another wooden chest had appeared at some point, silently waiting for him to open it.

  These are scary, they really appear out of nowhere... though he was slightly excited at the prospect of a new artifact, if another artifact like Mr. Meat showed up, it'd be very useful.

  He was akin to a monster with one arm, his left hand clawing and clutching at the floor. Though the smooth floor was really hard to grip, his nails were bloody from the force he had been exerting on them, but their pain was negligible compared to his other injuries.

  After a grueling ten or so meters, he finally reached it.

  Something good, something good, I'm hoping for something good. He chanted like a mantra in his head.

  Then, he reached up and opened the chest's lid, though he couldn't see inside yet because he was sprawled on the ground.

  Using his left hand, he lifted his body up and leaned on the ridge of the opened chest, peering inside.

  "... A backpack?" He muttered, reaching his hand to touch it.

  The bag disappeared, and he got a small flood of knowledge, a mild headache only.

  As he was about to move, the wooden chest disappeared. He fell face-first onto the ground.

  "..." Embarrassed, he used his left hand to lean up, resuming his continuous onslaught of spells onto the oncoming mutant spirits. With the continuous casting, he used Magic Bolt more effortlessly now, though he still needed to determine the direction of the enemies before casting so he could aim well. The casting process had become easier though.

  He called for the black paper and opened the artifact index.

  The new artifact; called 'Spell Bag', is a common artifact. For reference, the 'Meat' artifact is rare.

  The effect of the artifact turned out to be decent though, at least, for his current circumstances.

  'Spell Bag: Able to use telekinesis spell on non-living objects. Telekinesis spell radius +50%. Also referred to as pickup radius.'

  That was the description of the artifact.

  He materialized it, and the spell bag was unremarkable, mostly empty. Only one scroll in it with images of the Magic Bolt spell and the three current differentiations he knew, no other functions.

  He dematerialized the artifact and then looked at the nearest formed mana globe, a few meters away, he could instinctively use the telekinesis spell.

  But it was out of range, so dragged himself closer, and closer, retrying until it floated towards him.

  Whoosh... Blub. Crack.

  It hit his head awkwardly with a thud, then drained of color and crumbled like usual.

  Two and a half meters is the range for 50%? He mused, That's pretty useful, I can crawl... Uh, drag myself less. Do worms and animals without limbs feel this way?

  He dragged himself across the floors, acting as a human mop for the ground, collecting mana globes more efficiently while different forms of Magic Bolts hit the approaching monsters.

  ———————

  Mr. Meat, work harder, please...