Wain rested for several days before his wounds fully recovered. During this time, the monsters and Frigus managed to explore the caves beneath Snow Desert by 20%, which was pretty good.

Splash.

Wain climbed out of the icy water and did a warm-up. The thin layer of ice on his body cracked, and his eyes sparkled. A 3D map of Frozen Land appeared before him.

He scrutinized the dozens of new passages beneath the Snow Desert that the monsters had found under the guidance of Frigus.

"The monsters did a good job. I wonder how many Desert Earth Roots they discovered? It doesn't really matter at this point, though. All the Roots will be kept in storage anyway." Said Wain.

He decided that there was no point in using Desert Earth Root without an alchemist. It would be a waste of a precious resource.

Wain was sure he would be able to find an alchemist soon, and by then, he would have several warehouses stocked with various resources.

'Hmm, the alchemist... Once he shows up, the situation will change significantly. I need to start preparing right now.' Pondered Wain and headed towards Black Rabbit.

...

When Wain arrived in the garden, the potion preparation was already finished. The goblins poured the liquid into vessels and carried it to the warehouse that the golems and massive beasts had made before.

The warehouse was not far away. With the help of monsters, Black Rabbit made a short tunnel and dug a large amount of ice, creating a rather large room.

At this point, it was a single, spacious room, but the warehouse could easily be expanded and upgraded for greater efficiency.

"Wain! The decoction is ready!" Black Rabbit exclaimed when he saw Wain.

"Excellent." With a slight smile on his face, said Wain, "Show me what you got."

"Sure, one second."

Black Rabbit walked over to the cauldron, which was already half empty, and took one of the filled vessels. He handed it to Wain.

[Decoction of Delicate Icefruit and Energy Ice Crystal (First Chronicle, Common Rating)

This is a simple decoction of two fairly common ingredients, but it has no obvious drawbacks other than its disgusting taste.

The decoction will be especially effective for creatures with the ice attribute, and conversely, is contraindicated for creatures with the fire attribute.

The decoction is infused with a lot of energy from Delicate Icefruit and Energy Ice Crystal and will help in faster progress and energy restoration. Also, the decoction briefly increases resistance to the ice attribute by 7%]

"I see." Wain nodded. "This decoction slightly improves the quality of the ingredients used to create it. Not bad."

"Yeah." Proudly said Black Rabbit, "I'm certainly no alchemist, but this is a task I could handle without difficulty."

"Well, how many bottles of this potion will you get in total?"

"Hmm..." Black Rabbit thought about it, "We used two hundred fruits, quite a lot of water, and crystals. I think that would make about a hundred bottles."

"I see, that's a decent result. It took you about three days to make everything, I'm right?" Asked Wain.

"Yes." Black Rabbit nodded, "In four days, there will already be a new crop. Look, small Delicate Icefruits have already appeared on the tree branches. By the time the fruit ripens, the goblins, golems, and beasts will have had time to rest."

"Good, give them a little more crystal than the others. They deserve it. By the way, do you think it's possible to increase the number of trees?" Asked Wain.

"I've thought about that too, and I've already done everything. All fruit pits are already buried under the ice around the main trees. Maybe some of them will start to grow, and then we'll have more crops. At least, I hope so."

"Good, then keep up the good work. I leave the management of the storehouse, the fruit, and the potions to you."

"Sure, you can count on me, but what do we do with the potions?" Black Rabbit asked.

"Hand them out to the monsters, but only after you've made a second batch. Then you'll have about two hundred bottles, and each of the thousand monsters will get some of the potions."

"Got it, I'll do it."

Wain nodded and headed for Frigus.

...

Wain found its location on the map and reached it in a few minutes.

"Frigus, how many roots did you find?"

Wain was sure there weren't many roots, so he was ready to hear any answer.

"Unfortunately not many, I would even say few, very few..." Frigus muttered.

"Hmm... I see that the monsters have explored about 20% of the Snow Desert. How rare are the roots?"

"All we have is ten roots. When we fully explore the whole area, at best, we'll find forty more, and then we'll have fifty in total." Said Frigus.

"Oh, that's really not much... Only fifty roots, okay, that's better than nothing anyway. Frigus cut the roots and take them to Black Rabbit, in the garden, there's a special warehouse where all the herbs and resources will be stored."

"Good." Frigus nodded and headed for the nearest root.

"Two problems solved, it's time to head to the arena, but before that, I have one more thing to do." Mumbled Wain and headed for the crystal warehouse.

He picked up some energy crystals and spread them out in front of him. Wain could not absorb energy from them, but he somehow had to get an Essence. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to advance any further.

'I don't know how other races absorb energy from their environment, but I don't need that information. I'm a human, and I have to find a way that works for me.' Thought Wain and took one of the crystals in his hands.

Wain stared at it for a while, trying to interact with the energy in this way, but he was unsuccessful. Then Wain began to try all sorts of ways to absorb energy.

He remembered how the monsters did it and decided to repeat after them, hoping that he would understand what he needed.

Wain ate the crystals, broke them into pieces, powdered them, stirred them with water, and drank them as if they were medicine, but nothing worked. He didn't get even a drop of energy, let alone Essence.

'Hmm, I'm definitely doing something wrong. I need to change my approach, but how?' Wain pondered.

...

Wain spent the next few days pondering and trying different methods, but he was no closer to figuring it out even after all this time.

He knew he was moving in the wrong direction, but he didn't know how to find the right way.

"Maybe I should start at the beginning... Humans can't absorb energy from the environment, but we get it from souls when we destroy them and devour them..." Wain muttered.

Wain had destroyed and even eaten energy crystals many times before, but he had never given it a second thought.

Wain smiled, and his Seal of Darkness glowed brightly. He took a few steps forward and disappeared into the ink.

...

Whoooosh.

Ten minutes later, the ice turned to ink in the same place, and Wain returned to the cave. He was briefly back in the slums at Overion.

Click.

Wain snapped his finger, and ten white souls soared around him. He decided to kill some zombies and use their souls for experiments.

Wain thought he needed to understand better the process of soul devouring by a human, in which case he could understand how to get an Essence.

He squeezed one soul and got some Soul Essence. This time Wain watched carefully as the energy was absorbed into his body and drew some conclusions for himself.

When Wain had destroyed five souls, he decided to try again to get an Essence from the ice crystals. However, as before, he was unsuccessful.

"Fuck! I'm standing still! No matter what I do, it's a failure every time!"

Wain got angry and clenched his fist with all his might. The crystal shattered into many small shards, which flew in different directions.

One of the shards reached Wain's hovering soul, and then he saw something strange.

"Hmm? Was it just me, or did the shard fly through the soul, and there were vibrations around it?" Wain muttered.

Then Wain had an interesting idea. He took the soul in one hand and the energy crystal in the other. He wasn't sure, but it seemed to him that they interacted with each other in some way.

Wain crushed the soul and the crystal simultaneously, and to his surprise, he didn't get Soul Essence.

The energy from the soul and the crystal connected with each other but in the next moment disintegrated into small particles. It was another failure, but this time Wain was smiling contentedly.

Unlike the last time, he saw some progress, and given the circumstances, it could already be called a small victory.

"Maybe I need to combine the crystal with the soul, and then with the soul energy, I can get Essence from the crystal?" Wain muttered.

Then he put the white zombie soul and the crystal in his hand. Wain squeezed it, and the energy from the soul and the crystal merged together. Wain smiled.

"Looks like I finally made it." Wain muttered.

The energy gradually condensed and became one, but suddenly it disintegrated into many particles and dispersed into the air.

"What?! Why didn't it work?!" Wain exclaimed.

He was sure that the combination of soul energy and crystal was the answer to this mystery.

Wain thought that since he could gain energy by devouring souls, he should have used the soul as a catalyst, but in fact, that wasn't the case, and Wain was defeated again.

"Okay... I just need to think for a while and calm down. I'm on the right track. All I have to do is take one last step and practice a little. After that, the problem of extracting an Essence will be solved, and I can finally improve my skills."

Crackle.historical

Wain crushed the soul and the crystal at the same time once more. The process repeated itself, and the energy dissipated.

"Hmm... Assuming that this energy is supposed to turn into Essence, that means something is preventing it. Essence, as well as souls, have an attribute. Perhaps the fact that I'm trying to combine two different attributes is preventing the creation of an Essence?"

Wain shook his head, "No, that's unlikely, other races don't mix soul and crystal energy, and there's a reason for that. More likely, the fact that the two types of energy are trying to become one is an obstacle."

He decided he was missing some detail. When he was destroying the soul and the crystal simultaneously, he almost succeeded. The only problem was the soul energy.

"So I'm trapped, right? If I don't destroy the soul, the energy fusion process won't start, but the soul energy prevents the process from getting to the end. I need to get rid of the soul energy, but then the process won't even begin..."

Wain spent hours pondering, and an unusual idea came to him at one point.

'I am a human, and the soul absorption process was natural for me. I didn't even have to learn it. Rather, when I absorb a soul, a process is triggered that I hadn't even thought about it. It is like the ability to breathe. I can breathe from birth, I didn't have to learn it or understand how the lungs work. It's the same situation here.'

Wain decided that to get an Essence from a crystal, he must somehow trigger the same process as absorbing a soul.

That's why Wain had some success earlier when he decided to destroy the soul and the crystal at the same time.

"Hmm, I need to destroy the soul, but at the same time not destroy it, it sounds like nonsense, but in fact, it is quite possible. I will probably be able to do it easily in the future since I will be training, but right now, I need to resort to special ways."

Wain had one idea how something like this could be pulled off. He decided to use a trivial knowledge of how the human body works and psychology.

Most of the things a person did or took are first impulsed to the brain, except for reflexes that required a lightning-fast reaction.

The brain was like a computer that processes the request and gives instructions. This was also affected by the individual speed of human reaction.

This meant that if Wain's brain thought it had destroyed a soul, it would trigger a process by which it could absorb energy. Simply put, Wain planned to fool himself. In his mind, that was the only way to solve the situation.

It sounded crazy, but it was actually quite easy to trick the brain, even if one knew about it.

There was a popular experiment in Wain's home world where a fake hand was placed in front of a person while the real hand was concealed with something.

The fake hand was manipulated in various ways to make the person feel something, such as stroking it with a brush.

Then a knife was sharply thrust into the fake hand, and the person would sharply bounce back screaming, only to realize a few seconds later that his real hand was intact.

"Okay, now I have a plan, but I'm not likely to fool myself considering I just figured it out myself. I need a helper." Wain thought and looked at the map of Void.

He decided to find some goblin or similar monster to help him with this experiment.