Day 34:My mood has become much better, and I feel like I have hope for the future. I remembered this saying from one of the cultivation novels I read: "Train for 50 years, dominate the world for another 50 years." Or something like that. I can't quite remember, but it was something about perseverance leading to power. Well, today I opened the Transmigration Group Chat panel and wrote, "I will be lowkey," and closed it. Sometimes, it's good to be humble, and that's the approach I've decided to take.
I'll do everything opposite of what the typical cultivation novel protagonist would do. No flashy displays of power, no drama. Besides, I don't need to worry about powering my laptop anymore; I can just use the USB drive just fine. It's become my portable little cheat, my lifeline in this world.
After returning to my cave, I noticed that the [Gift] option was green again. Curious, I clicked it. On the screen, I saw the marble I had placed in the temple—it had been there for some time, untouched, as no one dared to touch it. It was almost as if they were too afraid to disturb it. Well, seeing that the [Gift] option was green again, I retrieved the Lumen Pearl from the interface.
As soon as it touched my hand, my heart rate accelerated. The pulse of energy that flowed through me was so intense, I felt dizzy, my body immediately beginning to change. Hair sprouted all over my arms, my skin stretched painfully as my muscles grew.
I quickly placed the laptop aside. What the hell was going on?
My body was becoming... monstrous. I staggered to my feet, feeling my limbs stretch unnaturally. My hands were huge, covered in coarse fur. I looked down at my body in shock and horror. The transformation wasn't just a little bit; it was as if I was turning into a bear. A full-on bear.
"What the hell is this?!" I panicked, feeling my body morph and contort. The marble—the Lumen Pearl—was nowhere to be found. Where was it? Why was there fur all over my body? Why did I have the form of a bear?
I glanced at the reflection in the laptop screen. My heart dropped. The reflection wasn't human anymore. It was that of a bear—a massive creature standing in my place. My thoughts flashed to the two corpses I had found earlier—the two men, their bodies torn apart, each of them with a hole near the heart. Could it be that this Lumen Pearl was the thing they had been fighting for?
I couldn't breathe. My body ached as the transformation took full hold. Then, after half an hour of panicking, my body finally collapsed onto the ground. I blacked out from exhaustion.
Day 36:I woke up, disoriented. The pain in my body was gone, but something felt different. I sat up slowly, noticing that the marble was now completely transparent. As I stared at it, a memory flickered in my mind. The system had mentioned something about the Lumen Core, right? That was the reason those two men had fought—it had to be. They must have wanted the power that came with this marble.
I chuckled to myself, feeling a sense of relief wash over me. My experience as a webnovel reader was coming in clutch here. With this pearl, I now had enough power to protect myself.
I spent the rest of the day experimenting. I played with the Lumen Pearl like a new toy, observing its effects. I quickly realized that the pearl absorbed energy from my body, particularly moonlight. The more moonlight it absorbed, the longer and stronger my transformation into the bear form lasted. But it also took a toll on me—after each transformation, I felt utterly drained, like I had just run a marathon.
The more I experimented, the more I understood how this power worked. The Lumen Pearl didn't actually transform me. Instead, it added a layer of transformation over my body—like a coat, a suit that turned me into a bear. If I didn't have the core in my hand, I couldn't transform. And each transformation left me severely exhausted. My body had to rest after every change.
"Well, enough playing around," I muttered, putting the pearl down and heading out. It was time to hunt again.
I caught three rabbits today. The meat tasted... awful. I was starting to realize just how poorly I knew how to cook. I'd have to learn to make proper meals. But for now, I was replenished, and I still had some ideas I wanted to try out. I was curious about the hybrid transformation. What would happen if I combined my human and bear forms? Would that grant me the durability and super strength I gained in bear form, without sacrificing speed?
I thought about it more. While I did gain the strength and durability of a bear in that form, I lost a lot of speed. Even in bear form, I wasn't as fast as I needed to be. The bear's power was formidable, but not fast enough to escape danger in this world. This wasn't Earth. This was a world of beasts, of unknown dangers. I needed to be faster, smarter, stronger.
As for my cheat—the one that was supposed to give me power after 100 faith points—it hadn't done anything. Nothing had changed. Maybe it wasn't about the number of faith points after all. Maybe it was just about belief—about hope. The more I wanted to grow stronger, the more I convinced myself that I could.
But no amount of hope could change the fact that I still hated living in the wild. I longed to leave this cave. I longed to see civilization again, to return to a place with people, society, and culture.
Day 37:It seems that there is no more energy left in the Lumen Core. The once-vibrant pearl is now dull and lifeless, its transparency faded. The moonlight that had once coursed through it had vanished.
I feel strangely empty. What now?