After some time she sighed.

  "No point in thinking more. First, we need to think about our survival," she said.

  She turned to look at him. Sweat was dripping from his face, and he was still lost in his thoughts.

  "You will not get any answers by thinking. You need to talk with the person who brought you here," she said.

  His body shook. He again forgot that she was there.

  The feeling of losing his memories was not pleasant, and he still had to survive in this world.

  He remembered the bodies in that room. If anyone saw that, execution would be his end.

  The probability of dying cleared his mind. He nodded at her, signaling her to continue.

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  "The world we are in right now is very different from yours. Our world has something called Aether or mana—you could call it anything you want."

  He nodded. He couldn't feel Aether, but the memory of suddenly teleporting had easily persuaded him.

  She continued, "This Aether can be used by anyone to do a lot of things: create food or water, burn something, even create life or fight with each other."

  "Anyone who can utilize Aether is called a transcendent. It's a universal term shared among all races. If a mindless beast uses Aether, it would also be called a transcendent, though their class differentiation is another matter."

  "Aether is quite dangerous, and if someone's body is not adapted enough, they will die or turn into a monstrous being with their consciousness still intact. It's quite painful."

  She had seen people transform, and being a mind-related transcendent herself, she knew how bad it felt. Even burning alive for hundreds of years was far better than going through that. The only escape is to die—and even after death, Aether continues to tear your soul into pieces to absorb it.

  "Aether is something that is nonliving yet still has a will. It wants to absorb everything around it. A transcendent has to remain cautious all the time unless they want to become the first food."

  A transcendent has to be careful all the time. Aether is like a poisonous drug. It modifies your brain and your nature to be more bloodthirsty. If you fall for its tricks, Aether will take over you and turn you into a hungry monster. It will try to devour everything—from clean air and water to plants and, finally, living beings.

  A transcendent is like someone working with a very potent drug in search of its cure. The cure is impossible to create, and you know it, but you still wish to try. It's a race between what will happen first: you finding its cure or you falling into the drug's clutches—and almost all the time, the latter wins.

  Those who do not fall into its clutches have to continue to survive another day.

  Sure, it sounds dangerous. But the benefits cloud people's minds. Even if you are only successful in becoming a low-level transcendent, you could live like a god among mortals.