Several months later.
On Great Marsh Lake.
Aaron held a fishing rod, having switched from netting and spearing fish to angling.
After all, his fishing skills were too terrible; he could only make up for them by other means.
Fishing was a patient man's work, and Aaron had gradually become enamored with the feeling.
"If I bought some tea, brewed it on the deck while sipping it, and fished at the same time... that would be quite leisurely..."
Just as he was lost in reverie, Aaron suddenly felt his vision go black.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Static crackled beside his ears, like chaotic mutterings in a dream.
Then, a towering figure appeared before Aaron's eyes.
It wore a black robe, and from beneath that robe, countless writhing things seemed to surge toward him in a smog-like tide...
Though it was exceedingly blurry, the sense of chaos and order coexisting, radiating an eerie aura, made Aaron immediately certain that it was his true self!
An instant later, every illusion and phantom sound vanished, as though everything Aaron had seen and heard had been nothing more than a delusion.
Yet as Aaron looked at the fishing rod that had fallen onto the deck, he understood that it had been utterly real!
For one instant, he had connected to his original body!
Though it had lasted only a brief moment, that fleeting exchange of information had still made Aaron understand many things.
"My goal wasn't wrong. I should lie low while making myself stronger..."
"At the same time, this world is too sealed off, and its energy level is too high... It's impossible to establish a temporary spiritual channel, so any support from my original body is out of the question... Wait!"
Aaron suddenly remembered something. "I performed that ritual months ago... and only after