Valerie carried out the test a few more times, using different cuts of meat as well as any other food she had laying around, from processed slop to cloned fruit. Regardless of what it was, whenever she placed it into the care of her [Eternal Companion] and then removed it again, regardless of how long it was left in there, the result was always the same.

The food came out completely fresh. In fact it was so fresh, that a clone grown banapple - which was a not very nice, but cheap, fruit that was a combination of a banana and an apple - had not browned on the inside when she had taken a bite out of it, even after an hour.

The only thing she had not had a chance to test it with was blood. Although they had an abundance of it between them, in fact their bodies were practically sloshing with it, there was a problem. To them, their own blood tasted absolutely vile.

It was a recurring theme that Valerie had discovered, and perhaps was a surefire way of discovering other people like herself.

But with that issue of taste, it meant they could not drop fresh blood into the [Eternal Companion] and then take it out to taste, because either way it tasted horrible, making it impossible to tell why. If they had someone here to offer their blood, that would be a different story, but they did not. Even if Bai Yin very eagerly agreed to go kidnap someone to please Valerie.

In the end, that left them with two possible conclusions. Conclusion one, that it was only blood that the [Eternal Companion] messed with, and made stale.

This was unlikely, but not impossible. Although if that was the case, then it felt like one giant slap in the face to her and her need to feed. If she could store all of the food in the world, except for the one that she needed to survive, then it must really be some cruel, twisted joke by Sylvi or something, because what are the odds of that?

That led to conclusion two, and the more likely of the pair. It was not specifically about storing blood, but where she got the blood from that was the issue. Perhaps it was something to do with how they moved between worlds, which was something Valerie had no idea about, that messed with the bloods freshness.

Or perhaps it was simply a case that the two worlds rejected each other, or simply operated on incompatible frequencies, and food from one world became useless in the other.

Either way it required more testing, and more science, to understand the rules of this magic. Regardless of the why and the how, however, one thing was for certain. Valerie was screwed when it came to getting blood easily.

It would have been so nice to get guilt free blood from Dawd, so that she didn’t have to drain anymore innocent people, if Bai Yin could be considered an innocent person, of their blood. But no.

If she wanted to eat, there were no easy ways out, she had to feed. Thankfully, she was not too hungry as of the moment, but it would come eventually. The most she could do was hope that she got mugged and drain them instead, at least that way there would be less guilt.

Plucking one of the crystals from the couch, Valerie turned it over in her hand and gently poured some mana into it. Thankfully, unlike the blood, the refined Source remnant hadn’t been corrupted or diluted by the trip across worlds, as it glowed dimly in response to her magical nudging.

Raising it to her lips, Valerie stuck out her tongue and let it scrape across the edge of the crystal, and felt it immediately melt wherever her saliva touched.

She smirked at the sweet taste dancing across her tongue, before tossing the crystal into her mouth and gulping it down. The power stored within flooded through her body, flowing into her chest then pouring out to her extremities until she could feel it sparkling in her fingertips like pins and needles.

"Woah..." She muttered with a smirk, "That definitely felt different. Good to see though that my ultimate cheat skill is still available. Who needs that dumb drink now, huh? Maybe that crystal cult is really onto something."

The ’Crystal Cult’, or as it was known by its proper name ’Witches of Freedom’ was a collective that had grown over time in the past, as a scattered group of like minded individuals who loved to study the power of crystals and the magic it could bestow.

Of course it was all nonsense, but that never stopped them from gathering up and creating their own commune to continue their studies in peace. If they had known the type of crystals that Valerie possessed and the type of magic she could actually do, it would blow their minds.

Laughing softly to herself, Valerie grabbed the other crystal and was about to eat it to, and perhaps push herself into the second step, before she paused.

Narrowing her eyes at the crystal, she poured mana into it and it obediently glowed, just like the last one. However this time she did so with a purpose, as the pointed tip of the crystal soon flickered to life as a dancing flame.

It was a flame no bigger than a cigarette lighter or a candle, but it was sustained entirely by mana, less mana that Valerie usually used to create a flame.

With the second step very much on the horizon, and something she could easily push for, Valerie was suddenly hit with a choice. An incredibly important choice.

In Dawd, she had a powerful body and used that body as her weapon by inscribing runes onto herself to use magic, along with the innate skills that she had.

In this world, the real world, Valerie still had access to those skills, but lacked the powerful body. Now, with the regenerative abilities of her new race, it was most likely a matter or time, and blood, before she regained her body or perhaps even surpassed its previous limits and entered into the realm of the supernatural.

However, she also remembered the pain that she had felt simply empowering her legs with that same supernatural power. Mana increased all parts of her body, including her disease.

If she chose her path in Dawd, then she would be walking a fine line between health and power, between strength and weakness. Any use of her natural abilities to strengthen a punch or launch herself into the air with a kick, would definitely result in pain at the least or complete degradation of her body at the worst.

At any moment her body could betray her and leave her helpless on the ground once again, without her main weapon.

The more she thought about it, the less that it became a choice and more of an inevitablitiy. Just one that Valerie had to come to terms with.

In this world, she couldn’t be the Glyphborne... not as she was used to at least. She could still use her runes, just in a different way.

In this world, she would have to be a mage, using the knowledge of a glyphborne to become the best mage in the world. Even if her body remained weak, or got ravaged by her condition, her power would never diminish.

Weak of body, strong of mind. Two bodies, two paths.

The only issue was what she had to do when it came time to take the second step. Valerie remembered vaguely what her teacher had said, about the different paths and methods. The path of the Glyphborne involved compressing it into a singular source, while mages tred into the realm of multiple wells of different power.

When time came for the second step, she would be treading in unknown territory, with no guidance to assist her this time.

Lowering the crystal, Valerie decided not to eat it, and instead use it for its intended purpose. After-all, someone had went to all this trouble to carve it into a refined gem, that could amplify and concentrate magic, so it could be used in a mages wand.

It would be selfish of her just to eat all of that hard work.

If Valerie was going to be a mage, she was going to need a wand, or a proper way to store the focus. However... there was one major issue with that.

"How much money do we have left?" Valerie asked with a frown, turning her attention to Bai Yin.

The thrall frowned slightly, both in annoyance at herself for failing her mistress and at the world for creating a situation in which she was forced to disappoint her. A slight she would not soon forgive this world for.

"We barely have any Ollie’s left." Bai Yin finally answered despite her grimacing reluctance.

Valerie sighed deeply, cursing herself for wasting all that money on plants. If she knew she was going to end up with a windfall like this, she never would have spent it all like that in the first place. Although...

A smirk spread across her face as she slowly looked towards the spear resting beside her, and ran her hand over the spears shaft. A shaft that was constructed of pure, and very real, wood.

Perhaps this was a windfall in even more ways.