Kyle was hoping something would feel different now that he was eighteen. He was excited when he went to bed last night. He was slightly less excited when he woke up this morning, and now, after spending a few hours on the practice field, he was thoroughly disillusioned.

It didn’t help that he had to face the reality of Sarah missing his birthday. There were not many kids around his age in the Guild complex, and Sarah was the only one he was close to. He was sure his aunt and uncle would throw him some sort of party, but without Sarah, it just wouldn’t be the same.

With a large sigh Kyle got back up to cast five more Mana Bolts down the practice field. He was hoping to level it up to ten before school started so he could have at least one enhancement point, but with only two weeks left the odds were looking increasingly slim. It would help if his mana regeneration skill could be leveled to ten, but of course such a useless skill would have an equally useless leveling time.

For a skill that should be rare at the very least it sure doesn’t act like it.

When the Change swept the world everyone who had gone through puberty had awoken a skill. It seemed to be truly random when it came to what skill people manifested, as active, passive, magic, or physical seemed to be truly random. Kyle had manifested a rare active mana regeneration skill, which theoretically should be one of the best skills to have.

The reality was far from it though. Kyle’s skill was called Exponential Mana Regeneration. Regeneration skills were separated between active and passive ones. Passive ones worked all the time, while active ones were more like meditation and needed to be concentrated on to work.

The most common mana regeneration skill was passive and was possessed by more than half of all mages as it was very common to find it in dungeons. It leveled easily, and most mages could passively fill their mana pool back up in around ten minutes. All the active regeneration skills Kyle had heard of took less than five minutes to fill their owner’s mana pool up, and often worked better the less mana their owner had.

Kyle’s on the other hand worked better the more mana he had. The skill scaled off of how much mana he had left in his mana pool, so he regenerated his mana faster if he started off half full instead of empty. If Kyle had a bajillion mana then the skill would most likely be without equal. Unfortunately, he still had the starting mana pool of twenty, so currently his mana regeneration was about twice as slow as the average mage and took active meditation to boot.

And every time Kyle came to the practice field he was reminded of that. It was an unfortunate fact that there were certain skills you could only have one of, and regeneration skills fell under that category. There were other ways to boost your regeneration and ways to forget skills but those were all incredibly expensive. It would be cheaper to buy mana crystals to refill his mana.

What this boiled down to was that not only did Kyle miss out on the enhancement point from getting mana regeneration to level ten, but because his regeneration was slower than others he was also slower in leveling his spells. Thomas, who was one of the other kids around his age in the Guild compound, had already gotten his mana regeneration skill and his Mana Bolt skill past level ten and his special skill, some sort of chain lightning, was already level nine.

So before Kyle’s mana pool grew in size he was basically boned. Sarah had even suggested that despite starting out with a magic skill he should try and go the physical route since his growth was so slow. Kyle had thought it over, but decided to stick it out with his regeneration as the skills future looked bright.

But the road to get there was dark indeed, and after a few more times of firing off five Mana Bolts, Kyle decided to call it a day. It was his birthday so he felt he could slack off a little and there was a show he wanted to catch up on.

A few hours later Kyle was in his room watching TV when he heard his aunt calling him.

“Kyle, dinner is ready!”

“I’ll be right there!”

Kyle shut down his computer and headed downstairs to the dining room.

Awaiting him at the table was his Aunt Lisa, Uncle Carl, and his two-year-old Cousin Mickey. As Kyle approached the table he couldn’t help being surprised by the food his aunt had cooked. She had really outdone herself.

“Aunt Lisa did your cooking skill level up again? The food looks amazing,” asked Kyle as he pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.

“It just hit level six,” Lisa said. “There are still no effects other than the increase in taste and smell though. It will add something else at level ten.”

“If you can find someone to watch Mickey you should cook more in the cafeteria,” Carl said around the mouthful of food that had already found its way into his mouth. “Cooking with food from the dungeons should also give the skill more experience.”

“I did ask them about that. They said they will let me know next time they need help preparing a dungeon meal.”

It was a common occurrence for Kyle and his aunt and uncle to share a meal together so the meal proceeded smoothly with the conversation soon turning to Carl’s most recent dungeon expedition.

Kyle and his dad had moved in with his aunt and uncle many years ago when Kyle’s dad had joined the bounty hunting group that his uncle was a part of. When the Change occurred, the group had formed a guild centered around the dungeon that had sprung up on the group’s compound. Kyle had always been close with his aunt and uncle, but they became even closer when his father died in the dungeon. It was soon after the Change when not much was known and Kyle’s dad ended up sacrificing his life so Carl and the rest of their team could escape from an ambush in the dungeon.

Once the meal was finished and everyone had eaten their fill of the cake that Lisa had baked, Carl cleared his throat to get the other Kyle’s attention.

“Since it is your eighteenth birthday, Lisa and I wanted to get you something special. That’s part of the reason why I traveled to that other dungeon this past week. We know you have been frustrated by your skills lack of progress, and while I don’t make enough in the dungeon trips to give you enhancement crystals or many mana crystals, we wanted to get you a useful skill before you leave for the dungeon school in two weeks.”

Carl then slowly took a skill crystal out of his pocket and handed it over to Kyle.

“This skill crystal has already been identified and it contains a skill called Mana Pool Extension. You said that your mana regeneration skill would be more useful with more mana, so this skill should be perfect for you. Normally skills like this are incredibly expensive, but this one has a few flaws so I was able to get my hands on it. You are only able to fill the pool up with an active regeneration skill and you also can’t fill it up with mana crystals so much of the skill’s value is diminished. You also need to use the mana in the extended pool before you use the mana in your normal pool, so you can’t save it for emergencies either. The base stats on the skill look good though, so it should be worth learning.”

Kyle was speechless as he stared at the skill crystal in his hands. He had imagined that his aunt and uncle would get him something for his birthday, but he thought it would maybe be a generic shield spell or an enhancement crystal or something. Not something like this. He had looked into all the different ways of increasing his mana pool, and skills that did so were generally the most expensive. Even more so than artifacts.

Before Kyle’s dad had died, he had wanted Kyle to get stronger. In a world that now had dungeons and super humans, personal power was even more important than ever. Maybe his dad was a bit paranoid from his time in the army on tour, but Kyle still took what his dad said to heart. Now he finally had a path forward. His uncle was steadily increasing his strength but Kyle couldn’t depend on him forever. Sarah was already even going into the Guilds level two dungeon while Kyle was twiddling his thumbs with under-leveled skills.

As Kyle sat there in shock trying to digest the windfall he held in his hands, his aunt finally had enough of staring at his open mouth and exclaimed, “Well what are you waiting for? Learn the skill already!”

Finally coming out of his stupor, Kyle crushed the crystal in his hand as information flowed into his head.

Skill: Mana Pool Extension

Effect: You are able to extend your mana pool beyond what it would normally be capable of. By using an active mana regeneration skill, you are able to fill an additional pool of mana equal to your current pool times two times the level of this skill. This additional pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. This additional pool must be used before your regular pool of mana. This additional pool cannot be used to transfer mana either to or from the user.

Since the skill is level one, the additional mana pool is my current mana pool times two. That means I now have an effective mana pool of sixty! A single level one skill tripled my mana pool. It makes me envious of those rich bastards who can buy lots of enhancement and skill crystals.

Lisa laughed at the goofy smile that was spread across Kyle’s face.

“I know you must be itching to test the new skill out so we won’t keep you. Just remember not to stay up too late since you have to watch over Mickey tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry I didn’t forget.”

With those parting words Kyle practically ran out to the practice field to test out the new skill. Since it was later at night, not as many people were using the field so he had no trouble finding a quite spot to practice.

Okay, so normally it takes me a little over ten minutes to go from ten mana up to twenty. Let’s see how fast I can go from twenty to sixty.

Kyle sat down and activated his mana regeneration skill. When he felt that the extended mana pool was full he opened his eyes and checked the time. Under twenty minutes! It took him under twenty minutes to regenerate forty mana. That would mean if he used up all that forty mana, which he had already made up his mind to do to level the skill, he would be generating mana at twice his previous rate. It may not be better than others who had a more generic mana regeneration skill, but it was at least closer to equal now!

Kyle spent the next four hours casting Mana Bolts and emptying and refilling his extended pool. By the time he decided to go to bed his Mana Bolt skill had already gained a level and was now level seven.

The next two days passed in a flash. Other than the time spent watching Mickey, Kyle spent almost every waking moment on the practice field. Where before he had been losing interest in the repetitive grinding, now he was full of energy. It was on the morning of the third day when it finally happened. Mana Pool Extension reached level two and made his effective mana pool a hundred!

Kyle quickly tested it out, and it took him less than ten minutes for his mana to regenerate from sixty to one hundred. While before it had taken around twenty minutes to regenerate forty mana, now he could do it in under ten!

That means I should definitely be regenerating mana faster than people with a regular regeneration skill. And it will only go up from here. I can’t believe I ever thought this skill was trash, it’s practically a cheat!

About an hour later as he was casting his mana bolts a familiar voice called out to him.

“If I hadn’t heard that you got a new skill I would definitely be able to tell by the goofy smile you have on your face. You look like you just stole candy from a baby.” Sarah paused for a second with a frown, “You didn’t take Mickey’s candy, did you?”

“Hardy har har. Anyone would be happy if they more than quadrupled their mana efficiency rate. I now have a hundred effective mana and I can regenerate forty mana in less than ten minutes! How’s that for efficiency?”

Sarah’s eyes widened briefly upon hearing how much Kyle’s mana regeneration rate went up. She had been used to it being ten mana in over twenty minutes. Now it was forty mana in under ten minutes? She was only in the dungeon for five days but it was like she came out into an alternate universe.

Reaching into her pocket, Sarah then adopted what could only be called a coy smile.

“Since all your mana problems have been solved I guess you don’t need my present any more then?”

Kyle narrowed his eyes at her expression.

“Present? You said you weren’t going to get me anything for my birthday. You always say it’s too much of a hassle and just give me a handmade card or something.”

“Well maybe I changed my mind. Of course, if you are going to complain maybe you don’t want your present and I can keep it.”

“Okay, Okay I want my present. No complaining here.”

A small part of Kyle just wanted to just get back to grinding his skills, but after not seeing Sarah for the five days she was in the dungeon the larger part was glad to be able to talk to her again. They hadn’t been spending as much time together after the Change. Now it was all about grinding your skills. At least they were both going to the same dungeon school so they could enter a dungeon together once Kyle got his skills up to snuff, which with his new skill seemed like just a matter of time.

Reaching into her pocket Sarah took out a small gift wrapped box.

“Happy Birthday! Sorry I am a bit late, but I think my present will be worth the wait.”

Kyle took the small box out of Sarah’s hands. It looked kind of like a jewelry box, but he was pretty sure Sarah wouldn’t get him any jewelry as he likely wouldn’t wear it or would lose it.

“This isn’t a ring is it?” Kyle joked. “Are you proposing to me? This isn’t very romantic for a proposal. It smells like you haven’t even showered after coming out of the dungeon.”

“Just open the box and you’ll find out.”

Kyle was mighty suspicious of the smile that adorned Sarah’s face. He didn’t think she would pull something like when he turned twelve and she got him a box full of dog poop, but he didn’t trust that smile.

With some minor trepidation, Kyle unwrapped and opened the box Sarah had given him.

It wasn’t a ring inside. It was a small gem that Kyle had only seen in pictures before.

“This, this is an enhancement crystal. If you have one of these you should use it yourself. Why would you give it to me?”

Everyone had four stats. Health, mana, physical power, and magic power. They all started at twenty for health and mana and two for physical and magic power. An enhancement gem could increase health or mana by ten points, or physical or magic power by one point. It was the same as when you leveled a skill up to level ten.

Kyle looked at the gem in awe.

“I can’t accept this. You risked your life going into the dungeon for this. You should use it.”

Sarah just shook her head.

“Dungeon diving is not nearly as dangerous now. There is little risk if you have an experienced team. If you really want to pay me back for that, my birthday is in two months. You can give me one then.”

With another radiant smile, and without leaving Kyle time to answer, Sarah skipped off towards the main building.

“See you! I’m off to take a shower. I look forward to hearing how much that crystal will help you.”

Despite him being older, he was always the one being swept up in her pace. It only took Kyle a moment to decide. He would get her two enhancement crystals for her birthday. With that resolution in mind, Kyle crushed the crystal in his hand increasing his base mana from twenty, to thirty, and his effective mana pool all the way up to one hundred fifty.