Max woke to the sound of scratching. I guess it really wasn’t a dream... I’m lost and alone. The sound started to get louder. The sky was bright blue and visible rays of light filtered through the dense treetop. Max noticed the tree shaking in an irregular pattern. He looked around the base of the trunk, the sand slowly draining from his eyes. Three Forest Shire Wolves greeted him with their teeth bared, foam dripping from their gums, and food on their mind. Each was slightly different size, all being bigger the one from the day prior.

“Iris! Iris! There are three wolves here! What do I do!” Max exclaimed.

“Wha… huh. Oh... Where are you? The Tree?” Iris said in a groggy voice.

“Yes, they can’t get me, but they are trying.”

“Alright three wolves... Can you inspect them? What level are they?”

Max inspected them like she suggested. Their levels were 2, 2, and 3. Max relayed the information to her noting that one of them was called Starving Forest Shire Wolf.

“Alright here's what we are going to do. I have been giving permission to try and teach you a simple spell. The spell is called Twisting Roots. This is a common spell for any mana touched, it allows the caster to control the roots of a tree they are touching. You should have enough mana to cast it two times. Are you ready?”

He noticed her being given permission about spells, he made a mental note to ask about this. Max shifted himself on the tree, making sure that he could see the roots. His muscles ached in stiff pain from his awkward sleeping position.

“Ready.” Max said bluffing a sense of calm.

Spells, especially those taught by master to student, ranged in difficulty. The spell Twisting Roots is a rather simple and basic spell. One a child would learn. One that is the steppingstones for any rookie mage, and a bridge to the greater nature affinity spells. The difficulty for leaning this spell wouldn’t come from the instructions, rather not having a visual representation to work with. Max would have to learn the spell by word of mouth, while most learn from watching live examples. However, Iris could tell that he would learn the spell and live. She could feel it, just from his one word. She believed in this man, a man who she had never met. She had to.

“Take a deep breath. Pull from within yourself a deep power. I personally see my power as a small sapling, when I need to use my power, the sapling grows, the roots set-in deep and the trunk grows tall. Branches extend further and further, and leaves cover all. This is my mana system. Look inside yourself and find yours.” Iris guided.

Max listened deeply. He could do this. He had to. Max closed his eyes, searching within. Minutes passed by. Iris made sure to remain silent as Max worked, knowing that concentration was a mage’s best friend. As the minutes ticked by, Iris slowly became worried. There were a few spells, such as inspect, that everyone regardless of standing of mana touched could cast. Twisting Roots was, however, not one such spell. It was indeed a basic spell, but Max would need the prerequisite birthright that being mana touched gives. Luckily for Max, he had already felt the mana. With in the first few minutes of arriving on Nava, Max noted the subtle tingle the air had.

Max slowly found his mana. A sapling didn’t resonate with him, instead he felt as though his mana system should be an ocean. A small core of mana lied waiting in the center of his body. When Max finally noticed it, it felt like it had been a part of him forever. It was molded into his very being, his ethereal form, his mantra, his karma. Words bounced around Max’s brain finding similarities of concepts he knew from Earth to understand such a foreign concept such as mana. He briefly thought if mana existed on Earth.

At first the sea of mana was calm, nothing more than a slow dwindle of waves crashing into countless bubbles. But when Max started to try and move his mana, the ocean started to erupt. It was slow at first, but as he understood how to manipulate his mana a storm formed within his body and mind. Mana rebounded off the edges of his core, trying to free itself with and use Max’s will as a guide.

Liquid coursed through his exterior mana line, directing into his right hand. Max felt as the tingling turning into a crescendo of forceful movement. Max knew of the destruction that water could bring. He knew from life experience that a hurricane can deal more damage and be more destructive than just about anything. Max lived in southern Florida, he’s seen his fair share of the absolute carnage that waves, and rain could bring. He used that image to fuel his spell, causing an eruption of pure mana from his palm.

Blue-white mana expanded from his hand like a garden hose. Leaves and branches were pushed side by the pressurized steam of water-like-mana. The stream quickly cut when Max figured he had errored in some way. A sudden feeling of cold and the beginnings of a headache plagued Max’s body.

“I think I messed up.” Max said rubbing his eyes in remedy to his growing headache. “My mana exploded out of my palm, into a strong stream.”

“You have to have control over your mana the entire time. After it leaves your core, it will follow the path of least resistance graining speed and power. Explosive results can come from losing focus on more powerful spells. Try again, this time gently coax your mana though your mana lines. Gather it into your palm and from there out of your skin into a condensed ball. Will it to connect you to the tree…” Iris continued talking, but Max zoned-out.

He followed her instructions, coaxing a crashing wave into a mana line. It was difficult, but Max carefully regulated the speed of his mana. He never let it pool in one spot too long or slip from his focus. He held it at the end of the mana line, allowing it to gather power and condense. With his eyes closed, he visualized a ball of pure mana peeling through the pores of his skin, joining together as droplets into something greater. Something grander.

He was hesitant but he opened his eyes. His palm was glowing green. But as he inspected the blaze of mana, he realized that it wasn’t his palm that was glowing but a wide orb. It hovered just above his palm, creating a long, flat sphere. The orb was the size of a quarter but twisted and contorted with Max’s hand. He hesitantly touched the orb with the tip of his thumb, scared of the result. A familiar tingle of mana greeted him like an old friend.

Max slowly moved his open palm parallel with the tree branch in front of him. For a moment Max thought the orb might fall, but it stayed perfectly in tune with his palm. Max slowly pressed his palm into the tree. He moved his eyes to the ground and found the root he wanted to control. His mana orb flooded into the trunk, quickly expanding Max’s influence. He willed the root to move, unearthing itself. It took some trial and error, but at this point Max had decided that the wolves couldn’t get to him. Max had to cut his connection with the tree as his headache become too much.

“I have to stop.” Max pleaded. “I did, however, get a root to move. I think I’m safe up here at the moment. Does this headache go away?”

“It will.” Iris reassured. “Its going to take an hour or so, but it will dissipate.”

“Guess I’m waiting.” Max sighed, leaning back into the tree.

“Did you get a spell box?”

“Spell box?”

“A blue system box saying, ‘congratulations you have learned twisting roots’?”

“No, just the headache. Why?”

“When the system deems a spell worthy, it awards a spell box. It just shows that you know how to cast the spell with enough prowess to be recognized as a caster of the spell. Most of the time it takes a few tries to find the more effective and efficient version of the spell. But once you have the box, the system helps the caster.”

“Helps the caster?” Max asked slightly dumbfounded.

“Correct. Some spells require great levels of concentration, meaning that if using in an offensive capacity the caster would be totally defensive. The system provides a crutch allowing spells to be cast with greater ease once deemed worthy.”

“I see.”

“But then again, if you don’t like the version of the spell the system gives you, you can always try again. I personally have a few versions of Barbed Arrow.”

“Is there away to make my mana regenerate faster?” Max asked, feeling the pain of his pounding head.

“Nothing that you have access to now. Mana potions and enchanted items being the main.”

“A pity.” Max muttered.

An hour went by as Max nursed his decaying headache. Iris talked a lot about mana and spells, giving Max a few ideas about how to better approach spells. It, of course, would take practice to become a true mage, but Max was determined. Mages were badass in Max’s mind. The wolves eventually gave up trying to get to Max in the tree. Instead, they hovered around the base of the tree, circling Max watching for movement. Their action reminded Max of nature documentaries about sharks circling their prey to tire them out.

But now, it was showtime. His mana had fully recovered, and his headache was nothing more than a distant memory. Again, his mana system invigorated itself with knowledge that Max was needing a spell. He fought to remain in control, however, something that he did not do last time. Instead of massive swells, his ocean resembled a lake on a windy day. Choppy.

While waiting, Max had drawn small amounts of mana into his mana lines. Iris explained that as the lines had never been in use prior to today, they were going to be sore. This was mainly a symptom of elderly mages, and first-time child spell casters, but the same idea applied to Max. Max asked if mana systems were similar to muscles in the fashion, they the destroy themselves and regrow stronger, but she had no idea what he was talking about and sited that she had known a mage that had a broken mana system. “It was not pretty.” She said.

Max found himself staring at a golf ball of mana. It hovered gently above his palm, just like last time. But differently from last time, it seemed to be more active. It already knew what Max wanted and was subtly pulling itself towards the tree. As he pushed his mana into the tree and the connection between the two formed, Max pleaded. He begged the tree to assist him in removing the wolves. Iris had explained that all living things had mana, such as trees. Some had more, like humanoids and monsters but a connection could be formed between all.

Max asked, he pleaded with the tree to allow him to move its root faster and with better accuracy. This time, two roots moved independently of each other, both acting on Max’s will. The wolf on guard quickly made an alerting sound. Max took this chance of confusing to attack, slamming a root down on the nearest wolf. It yelped in surprise but was otherwise uninjured.

The slam was too weak, Max decided. He would either need to flood the spell with mana or trap the wolves. He remembered the headaches and chose to go the route of least mana used. A root uncovered itself on a standstill paw, quickly coiling itself around the wolf’s thin ankle. It fought to loosen itself, biting and scratching, but the root only wrapped tighter and tighter. A second wolf noticed its partners distress and moved to investigate. A second root burrowed out of the ground in attempt to pin the new challenger, but the wolf quickly retreated.

As Max moved roots, he noticed that his connection with the tree deepened. As a result, his control over the roots as well as the speed and power that he could reach increased. He felt the tree guiding him as he attacked. Max could tell that the tree wanted the wolves gone as much as he did. They bothered its slumber and wanted nothing more to rid itself of this plague of sharp claws.

A second wolf was pinned by a root that spiraled around its mid-section. The scene reminded Max of a boa constrictor restraining its prey. The wolf let out a low, panicked howl, causing the remaining wolf to become frenzied. It was, however, the starving one. Max had been observing the wolves for the better part of an hour and a half at this point. This one particular wolf was much more sluggish and weaker compared to the others. It hardly jumped and scratched at the trunk to the tree to get to Max, opting to conserve energy. With one final glance at the two restrained wolves Max spoke to Iris:

“Two of the wolves have been rooted. I am going to jump down and finish the last one. It won’t get close enough.”

Max didn’t wait for a reply and with a soft hop, landed on his feet. His sword materialized as he stalked forward. He ignored Iris' questions for the moment. He had one goal, and he was going to see it through. With a slow and calculated stab, he penetrated the first wolf's bare chest, as the starving wolf watched from a distance. He would have preferred to stab the brain, but the wolf was snapping at him, this way there was no risk of injury. The wolf howled in pain, causing the free wolf to charge.

Max leaned into the swing easily cutting into the hesitant wolf. A line of blood shown through the wolf’s thick fur coat signaling a deep cut. The wolf limped around the tree in a staggered stalk. Even though his life was in mortal danger, Max couldn’t help but be calm. Whether it was his growing hunger or the memory of the golden euphoria of level-ups, Max knew he had to fight and that for some reason calmed him.

The wolf lunged again, and again Max slashed. This time a small gash appeared across Max’s thigh, but it was nothing more than a scratch. The wolf, however, was down and out. Max finished it with a deep stab through the skull. Lastly, Max finished off the remaining pinned wolf.

“The wolves are dead. I-I need a minute.” Max said, panting.

He moved away from the bodies and tree. A few moments later he was throwing up. There was little in his stomach to begin with, but something still spewed out. Once he was done, he sat down looking at the destruction before him. Misplaced roots, displaced dirt, blood, and bodies. Max Just sat there, taking it all in. Just another reminder he was alone. Something like this would not have happen on Earth. Not like this, wolves being killed by swords and roots.

Max checked his notifications. To his surprise there was a lot.

Congratulations you have killed two level 2 Younge Forest Shire Wolf!

10 Experience gained!

Congratulations you are level 3!

You have gained 5 stat points.

Congratulations you have killed a level 3 Younge Forest Shire Wolf!

7 Experience gained!

Congratulations you have learned the spell Twisting Roots (common):

4 mana + variable.

Become one with a tree, coaxing its roots to bend to your will.

Congratulations, Twisting Roots has become level 2!

Congratulations, Twisting Roots has become level 3!

Congratulations, Twisting Roots has become level 4!

Congratulations, Twisting Roots has become level 5!

Congratulations through knowledge or dedication Twisting Roots has evolved into Grasping Roots (Evolved Common).

Grasping Roots: Become one with a tree, changing its will to your own, allowing for better control of its roots.

Congratulations, Grasping Roots has become level 6!

The same white-gold light enveloped him, removing his fatigue of sleeping in a tree, and a headache that he didn't realize had rekindled vanished. The scratch on his thigh disappeared and he felt loose and limber. Max checked his profile. He saw that his Mana was 10/10 and he had 10 stat points. Lastly, he was level 3 with 8/20 experience.

“Alright what now. I am level 3 and have Grasping Roots level to six. '' Max asked, hoping for guidance.

“G-grasping Roots level 6? You evolved a spell on the first cast? Are you alright? Does your head hurt?” Iris was completely dumbfounded.

“I think it was technically my second cast. I had a headache, but it went away with the level up… Bloom?”

“Oh right, sorry it's been a while since I have leveled up… Let me be the first to congratulate you on your first successful spell. Believe it or not, most cannot do what you just did. Most do not fight, hence the need for adventurers I am truly impressed.” Iris sounded genuine.

“Thank you, Iris. Thank you.”

“Let's get you safe. Other wolves might be coming, you should get moving. Your Priority today is to find the river, which will bring you water to drink and fish to catch!”

Right food and water… So much to do, Max thought. With that he moved away from the tree and the wolves. As he started away, he felt a connection with the tree flare alive again.

Thank You, the tree whispered. The connection dropped… Just another question he had to ask Iris.