An icy chill the size of a grain of rice flowed through Jack’s veins as he looked through the changes to his status screen.

Health 54/54 Stamina 81/81 Mana 0.1/0

Right under his stamina, where he always thought it would go, was his mana. The curious thing about it was that his maximum mana was zero, even though it showed he had a tenth of a mana point. He didn’t know how that was possible.

Kai was no help in figuring it out either, since he didn’t have mana himself and he never took the time to learn about it. There were several people he suggested that might know back with the herd.

Mana 0.1/0 Regen 1% per hour

The regen rate also confused him. Health and stamina regenerated based on your maximum pool. Theoretically so should mana, but his maximum was zero which would mean he wouldn’t regenerate anything.

Mana Absorption said that the mana he drained would be stored separately from his ‘natural reserves.’ That could explain why his maximum was zero. He just didn’t have any natural mana.

If his new perk was anything to go off of, gaining a mana pool without an evolution was a rare occurrence. Kai said that he didn’t even know it was possible, but again his knowledge on the subject was limited.

The Wizard’s Origin perk gave him two rewards, the first was easy to locate. Right under vitality was a whole new attribute.

Convalescence 5 Convalescence controls the rate that you naturally regenerate mana.

It seemed pretty straightforward; it controlled his mana regen rate. With his current mana pool, it wasn’t very helpful, but it did give him an interesting idea. If there was an attribute that you could unlock to increase the regeneration of mana, was there one for health or stamina?

A quick check with Kai confirmed that there were indeed attributes for that. If someone were to unlock the health regen one, could they potentially invest enough points in it that you just couldn’t kill them?

The image of a dita grater from the first dungeon flashed in his mind. It was bitten in half and fully recovered in a half hour. It did have the Regeneration skill, but it probably had the health regen attribute unlocked as well.

Giving himself another reminder to go back to that dungeon and learn the strange creature’s skill, he moved on to the second reward.

It took a little searching, but he eventually found something labeled Mana Battery. It was in his buffs, right under Human Resilience.

Mana Battery Mana Regeneration increased by 200% This stacks additively with other bonuses

While relatively useless to him now, it did fit well with the other reward. Once he had a natural mana pool, he would probably cherish both of his new boons.

With his rewards analyzed, he could finally turn his attention to the shard of mana flowing through his blood.

It was strange that it actually felt like a physical object in his veins. Like an icy ball no bigger than the tip of a pencil. It traveled from his heart to his extremities, then back to his heart in a little under a minute.

The weirdest part was when the mana would travel up and into his brain, giving him a split second of brain freeze.

Since Lucy’s Born of Mana racial trait said that mana was also in her blood, he consulted her on if what he was feeling was normal.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t much help. Either it was such a natural feeling for her that she didn’t notice it, or she just couldn’t feel the mana in her body. It was probably the latter because she had been struggling to weave mana into her webs even though she had an evolution that should allow her to.

With no one to help him, he was on his own to figure out how to use the mana.

Targeting the feeling of it flowing through his body, Jack slipped into the meditative like state when he used Focused Senses.

Jack had been relieved when the subject of the boss had been brought up, and Kai immediately began giving him advice on how to kill it.

It had been a slight worry that Kai may want to kill it himself. The birdman had been stuck at the same level for almost two years, and Jack knew he usually took every opportunity to get experience that he could.

If Kai had even hinted that he wanted the boss kill, Jack would have stepped aside instantly. If they had never crossed paths, who knows where he would be right now.

He would have probably continued following the river while recovering from the great owl attack. Even though Kai had let him know how stupid that was.

Apparently, if you wanted to avoid predators, staying near water sources was a bad idea. Most animals and monsters still needed water, so a riverbank was a preferred hunting ground for many predators.

So even if he had avoided getting attacked again, there was no way he would have progressed as much as he had. While Kai hadn’t provided much direct training while traveling, he provided a safety net that let Jack work on his skills without having to worry about ambushes.

Hell, the only reason he stumbled upon the dungeon was because Kai told him to go north. Even though he obviously went the wrong way, Kai indirectly gave him the perfect grinding area to get stronger.

Even if Kai had just left him in the forest, that was still better than what some people might have done. He had plenty of rare equipment that apparently some people would easily kill for.

So even though the birdman insisted that Jack owed him nothing. Jack felt like he owed him his life and would easily give up the boss if Kai wanted.

Again though, being the great guy Kai was, he never once seemed to consider taking it for himself. He just gave all the information he could about bosses and plant monsters. They even went together to scout out the boss, so Kai had a better idea of what Jack would have to fight.

When they neared the boss Jack paused, turning to Kai. “Ok, so in about twenty feet you should be able to see the boss. As long as we stay far enough back, it shouldn’t be able to spot us. It took me a few tries but I have a pretty good feel of what is too far now so follow me.”

Shaking his head Kai replied, “There is no need I can see it from here.”

“Oh, well, that’s just cheating.” Jack peered into the fog in a hopeless attempt to see the boss from this distance. He even tried using Focused Senses on his vision, to no avail.

“Does it remind you of a sunflower too? I mean besides the huge leafy balls attached to its stalk, and the fact that it’s purple and red. Do you even know what a sunflower is? For all I know, after five thousand years sunflowers could have gone extinct, or maybe evolved into some sort of monster. Oh! Maybe the corpse titan is a sunf-” He was interrupted by an annoyed click from Kai.

“Sorry, anyways, the little pods on its face should be filled with needles coated in poison. I suspect it’s a more powerful version of the ichor in the drones.”

Kai was listening attentively while his eyes looked to be scanning the boss. Jack continued, “The middle of its face opens up when it wants to swallow a new host or a vine filled with that golden sap. When a host is swallowed, it goes down the inside of the stalk and is deposited inside one of the balls. After a day or two, the ball opens up, releasing the new drone. I’m still not sure where the sap goes so that it can absorb the vitality in it.”

Jack paused, trying to think of any other relevant information about the boss. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure it will use those four giant red vines to attack along with its roots which can pop up out of the ground and entangle you.”

When he was done explaining, Kai nodded to him and stepped forward, walking towards the boss. “Wait, Kai, where are you going?”

Pausing for just a moment before continuing, he said, “To fight a being so much more powerful than you, you need all the information you can get. I will spar with it, stay nearby and observe.”

Jack stood there a bit flabbergasted as Kai disappeared into the mist. Looking to Lucy who was riding his shoulder as usual, “Well, I guess this is happening. I am kinda excited to see how Kai fights.”

He felt a bit of excitement bubble up in Lucy as well.

Quickly finding the spot he usually stands in to watch the boss, he settled in for the show.

Kai stepped past the fog wall that surrounded the boss. He stood in a defensive pose and looked alert, like nothing in the area could surprise him.

There were four blooming drones currently roaming the boss area, and they all took notice of the intruder. Two boars, a wolf, and a brown bear. None of them had a class.

The boars charged straight at him, while the wolf and bear stayed back, extending out their tentacle-like vines.

The smaller of the two boars reached Kai first. When it was within melee range, it suddenly crashed into the ground, missing its head.

Kai had attacked so fast that Jack almost missed it. He lifted his leg and brought his talon down on the boar, slicing through it like it wasn’t even there.

Jack’s jaw dropped. If he had blinked, he could have missed it. The second boar swiftly met a similar fate.

The vines of the other two drones lashed out at the birdman, but he cut them down mid-air with his clawed hands. They shot their ichor-soaked needles at him, but a wave of his arm cause a small gust of wind to send them off target.

With both of their ranged attacks easily brushed off, the drones charged forward to their death.

Even though they had really stopped posing a threat to him, Jack was still impressed with how easily Kai took them out. The small fight lasted maybe thirty seconds, and Kai hadn’t moved from the spot he was standing.

The Blooming Corpse Titan’s face was looking directly at Kai as it pulled in its four long vines. Kai waited patiently as it prepared to fight.

In a burst of motion, Kai jumped ten feet to his left as the boss’s large roots shot out of the ground right where he had been.

A dozen of the black pods on the boss’s face exploded, shooting hundreds of dagger sized needles in a large cone in Kai’s direction. At the same time, more roots popped out of the ground where he was standing.

Kai was able to jump up away from the roots but didn’t give him enough time to get out of the wide spread of needles. Opening his beak wide, Kai’s chest puffed up as he took a deep breath then let out a piercing shriek, putting the Spell Seeker’s Sonic Howl to shame.

The wave of needles was blown back without a single one reaching him.

Pumping his wings, Kai stayed in the air and started to circle the boss. Its four large vines were not going to let him do that easily though as they tried to swat him out of the air. Kai was too agile though and easily dodged most attacks.

The ones that he couldn’t get out of the way of, he would bring up his legs grabbing the vine and use it as a jump pad.

The Titan seemed to be ill-suited to fight a flying enemy, but the constant entangling roots would be hard to overcome for someone stuck on the ground. Just another reason he knew he couldn’t fight the thing directly.

Kai occasionally went on the offensive, attacking the vines or the stalk, leaving long gashes in it left and right. The wounds closed fairly quickly though, after a few minutes.

While Kai circled it, the boss released several drones of a new type.

Deer Empowered Titan Drone Level: 12 Rarely seen unless its parent is under direct attack, an empowered titan drone is a temporary warrior. They are actually a quickly modified incomplete version of the budding drone. Where the budding drone is meant to slowly drain the life out of its host, the empowered drone burns its own lifeforce to strengthen itself.

Age: 1 minute

Highest Attribute: Strength

Highest Skill: Foraging

These drones looked just like healthy animals, but with a vine attached to them. The vine was thinner than normal and completely devoid of the usual budding flowers.

With Kai flying, the new drones seemed pretty useless. They would follow under him and try to jump up and attack him. The height they could reach was impressive, jumping almost thirty feet into the air, but it did little when Kai could just go higher.

In a few swoops Kai was able to kill the new drones easily, leaving only one alive. Jack was wondering why he left the one when he heard the birdman answer his unasked question.

“See how it compares to the others.” He then flew directly over Jack and Lucy, bringing the drone directly to them.

Quickly retrieving his staff, Jack fought off the attacking drone. The empowered drone was a league above the others when it came to strength and dexterity. Moving fast and hitting hard. But it was still mindless, allowing them to dispose of it with just a little more effort than the others.

After killing it, Jack watched as Kai attempted to tease out any other surprises from the boss, but that seemed to be its entire bag of tricks.

Before Kai retreated, Jack shouted out a request. “Try to grab a bunch of those needles, I need them for training.”

So with over fifty ichor-soaked giant needles, the three of them made their way back to camp to develop a plan for Jack to kill the boss solo.