Chapter 27: Gathering the Fragments

The mage’s memories could wait; Wade first took the mage’s relics.  

He tore off the mage’s robe—rare, good-quality fabric with minimal wear, definitely not to be wasted.  

The magic wand wasn’t worth taking. The entire stick was riddled with holes eaten away by growing moss, brittle and fragile. The impact from battle had already snapped it in two.  

It was just a broken wooden stick; Wade only took off the shattered gem embedded at the top.  

The gem was about the size of a goose egg, dark green and dull, covered with sand dust.  

In the center of the gem, there was an ice-like crack spreading through it, and faint small rune engravings could be seen on the surface, but no magic power could be felt from it anymore.  

This thing was probably broken, but it was still a rare artificial artifact worth bringing back as a collectible.  

In the future, if he could still pass through the door and go outside, he might be able to find out which culture the characters on it belonged to, discovering the origin of this magic wand.  

That way, Wade could gain some understanding of his own situation.  

He didn’t care much about history or culture, but he hoped to leave this wasteland.  

This place was harsh and full of danger, with no sunlight in sight.  

Although he was a skeleton and his survival needs weren’t as complicated as a living person’s, he still didn’t like this barren land where he couldn’t even sleep peacefully and had nothing at all.  

To find a way out, studying this gem was necessary.  

Wade put the shattered gem into a pocket he had picked up. He found three pockets on the mage’s body in total—one he used to store the gem, and for the other two, he shoveled moss from the ground into them.  

These seemed to be seed pouches originally, containing a little white mycelium. Some seeds hadn’t been fully emptied and had sprouted inside the pockets.  

Wade stuffed the two pouches full; the glowing moss wasn’t much, but barely enough to fill the two pouches.  

He tied all three pockets tightly into knots and fastened them to his rib bones.  

He didn’t leave a moss colony in this corner. After seeing the mage’s memories, he understood that this corner was actually unsuitable for such extraordinary plants to grow.  

They could only form a small colony thanks to some spell the mage released before dying.  

Before Wade and Mia set foot in this corner, the bones, the magic wand, and the moss’s magic maintained a delicate ecological balance that allowed them to survive.  

Now that this balance was broken, leaving the moss here would only lead them to wither and die soon.  

Since that was the case, it was better to uproot them all and try to keep them alive.  

Wade spent a bit of time cleaning the mage’s relics.  

An eighty percent new magic ring, a goose-egg-sized shattered gem, two pouches of glowing moss, a mage’s robe, and a pair of boots—quite a haul.  

Wade put on the boots right away, tied the laces, fastened the boots to his leg bones, kicked a few times, and they fit barely well enough to walk. At least better than bare bones stuck in the sand.  

Before leaving, Wade gathered the mage’s bones, took off the round shield from the left arm, and swept sand over it.  

Mia mimicked Wade by piling sand; she floated down and rolled her small body in the sand pile. It didn’t really help, just rolling in the sand, but seeing her so happy, Wade didn’t stop her—let her play on her own.  

Wade made a grave for the mage’s bones. Burying a skeleton didn’t take much effort.  

After taking so much from someone else, this was what he ought to do.  

He was used to digging graves for other skeletons; before, he had only buried cracked skulls, but this was the first time he buried an entire body.  

To ensure the sand wouldn’t be blown away by the wind, Wade stood up and pressed the sand pile firmly with his foot.  

Mia hopped on the sand mound, essentially dancing on the grave.  

Wade picked up the little one and took the broken magic wand split in two, stuck it in the sand pile as a tombstone.  

He had to hurry back, hoping the wind wouldn’t pick up on the way home.  

Wade tied the mage’s robe around his waist; it became like a skirt, covering his lower half.  

He left the corner, carrying the thorny branches he had picked, and headed back.  

The wind had picked up again, but it wasn’t strong yet.  

He quickened his pace, standing on the sand slope with his knees slightly bent, sliding down like skiing, using the boots to speed down the thorny sand hill.  

A long time ago, he had learned to ski and knew how to maintain balance.  

Unfortunately, without a smooth wooden board, using boots as a sand sliding medium was still very difficult. With his current control over his body, he almost fell every time he tried to stop.  

Wade thought maybe he could make a skateboard.  

He pondered what he could make from today’s gathered items as he hurried along.  

The view became hazy; the rising sand dust blocked his sight.  

Wade untied the seed pouch holding the gem and gestured for Mia to hide inside to avoid being blown away by the wind.  

The little ghost dove straight in. She burrowed a few times inside, then poked out a tiny head, placing her small hands on the edge of the pouch to look out.  

She seemed to like the pouch and didn’t float out again.  

Wade told her to stay hidden and endure the wind and sand on the way home.  

At least before the strong wind arrived, he spotted the stones blocking the cave entrance.  

Luckily, he made it in time. Wade strode down the slope, moved the stones aside, and crawled into the cave.  

He hadn’t been resting long when the outside wind howled like ghosts and wolves.  

Wade didn’t waste time and immediately stood the thorny branches up, making a basic framework upgrade.  

It was just pressing the thorny branches at the edges of the cave to share the load. Without a saw or machete to process materials, he could only make do for now.  

The effect was pretty good; he planted two “thorn walls” on either side of the cave entrance, firmly holding back the loose sand.  

For the sand above, Mia first froze it to keep it stable.  

About one-third of the thorny branches remained unused; he stored them at the cave entrance and poured out the moss.  

The glowing moss illuminated the cave.  

Wade carefully cleared a patch of sand in a corner deep inside the cave and laid the moss flat on the ground.  

He took a few thorny branches and formed a small square fence to avoid accidentally stepping on them during movement.  

Maybe some water was needed to nurture them.  

Wade saw the mage used fresh blood to water the moss. Since he couldn’t find fresh blood, he decided to try water first.  

As for a water container… he picked up the scale piece. It had wavy, regular circular patterns and was inwardly concave, like a bowl.  

That’s why Wade took it as a shovel.  

He’d make do for now; if he found something better later, he would replace it.  

He placed the scale piece under the ice blocks; once they melted, there would be water.  

Water…  

Ice…  

Wade looked at the mage’s robe and Mia hiding in the seed pouch, suddenly struck by inspiration.  

It seemed he had a way to cut this robe.