I thought over my idea. That brief flash of heat had taken 4 points off my health and left my palm painfully burnt. However, the shard hadn’t been hot when I first touched it. It had only reacted when it sensed the mana from my ability being used on it.

I walked closer to it until I was just one short step away. I couldn’t feel any heat coming off it. I tentatively put my injured hand back on it and just kept it there, not doing anything. Nothing happened. There was no response from the shard. I was happy to see my hunch was correct.

“That heat was a defense mechanism,” I said, talking out loud to help cement the idea I had in my head. “It must take energy to use, so I think it will only defend itself when it perceives a threat. It doesn’t believe I can physically hurt it, probably based on the complete lack of damage my staff caused, so I can touch it. But if it senses me try to use mana on it again, it will probably defend itself. If this is some kind of dungeon core, how long do you think it could keep that heat up?” The last part was directed towards Cax.

“Firstly, I think your reasoning is sound,” Cax let me know. “As to how long…I am not sure. However, due to its low level and the poor concentration of mana in the environment, I don’t believe it could sustain its defense for long.”

“Ok. My mana is very limited, so let’s run some tests to see if anything else can trigger its defense.” I wasn’t keen to get burnt again, but I was sure this was the best way to defeat this thing. If I could get it to exhaust its energy on defending itself, it might become vulnerable enough for me to damage it.

I started off slowly. I put both hands on the shard and tried pushing it gently. There was no retaliation, probably because it didn’t move even the slightest bit. I leaned into it and increased the force until my face was turning red. It didn’t budge at all. I stood up straight and put my hands on my hips, taking a moment to rest and wondering what to try next.

The sight of the disturbed ground at the base of the shard gave me an idea. It won’t go over. I wonder if it will go up? I squatted, wrapped my arms around the lower part of the shard and pulled up with all my enhanced strength until I collapsed backwards, panting. It still hadn’t shifted.

“It may actually be using some of its energy to reinforce the ground around it to prevent being taken out,” Cax suggested helpfully.

If that was true, maybe I needed to go after the ground directly to get at the shard. If I could weaken its support, it might be possible to pull it out. It wasn’t the best tool for the job, but I thought my staff might be able to help break up the earth at the shard’s base. I looked around for it and that’s when the glow on the defeated skeletons caught my attention. The loot! Even better! Cax had said looting would give me something I could use, not what I wanted, but I might be lucky and get something that fit both categories.

I went around to all the skeletons and looted them. I got what looked like another health potion, a plain, bright-white ring that seemed to be made out of bone, and a set of five bones that Cax let me know could be used for crafting.

“First the possum meat, now these bones? The world has a weird idea of what a reward is,” I said, shaking my head. I held the bones in my hands gingerly and looked at them. They were all differently shaped and sized. I picked one out and held it up, looking at it carefully. I was pretty sure it was a finger. I’ve literally been given the finger, I thought with a chuckle. Some of my tension disappeared at the silly thought.

I didn’t need materials to craft thanks to my unique ability, so I was confused why I got them.

“Even simply as a trade good, they have value to you,” Cax advised me.

“Except there’s nobody on this world that would want bones to craft with, so there’s nobody to trade with,” I reminded him. I dropped the bones back beside the body. I didn’t want to carry them around since they were of no use to me.

Even though I was almost certain the potion was a health one, I analyzed it just to be safe. It would be pretty crappy if I drank poison just because I was being stingy with my mana. My ability confirmed it was indeed a health potion. I touched the one in my pocket to confirm it was still in one piece after all the fighting. I was happy to find it intact. The vials were tougher than they looked.

Since I had two potions now, I decided to drink one. If I was going to be doing some digging, I wanted my burnt hand fixed up. It would take much too long if I waited for it to naturally heal. I raised the potion to my mouth and pulled the cork stopper out with my teeth, spitting it to the side. Then I drank it all down in one go. It tasted surprisingly good. It reminded me of a mixed berry juice. The redness on my palm immediately faded away and I saw my health bar fill up completely.

Feeling much better, I analyzed the ring next.

Bone Ring of Minor Health

Increases health by 5 points when worn.

My first magical piece of gear! I slipped it on eagerly. It was a little loose.

“Focus on it and imagine it changing size,” Cax told me.

Doing as he said, I felt my energy go into it and it shrank a little to fit snugly. Nice. I checked my stats and saw that I now had a maximum of 125 health. It wasn’t much of a boost, but I would take whatever I could get. Plus, I thought it looked pretty good. I tried not to think about whose bone it was made out of.

Unfortunately, there was nothing in the loot that could help me with the current situation.

“This won’t help, but here is some good news,” Cax told me. A notification filled the lower half of my vision.

Congratulations!

You have gained a sufficient amount of insight into your [Analyze] ability to reach Rank 2.

Apply your insights to evolve your ability in one of the following ways:

1) You will be able to retrieve more information on the target, provided it is no more than five levels higher than you.

2) The range will be doubled, from 10 meters to 20 meters.

3) There will no longer be any mana cost. However, the ability can only be used via touch.

Good news indeed! I thought. I wish I had more time to enjoy this clear sign of my progress, but I had to hurry. I quickly considered which option was the best one for me.

I was seriously tempted by the third option. This ability only cost 5 mana to use, but it had taken a lot of my mana due to how often I used it. There was a reason this was my first ability to rank up. If it didn’t cost mana anymore, I would be able to save my energy for healing myself.

Ultimately, though, I crossed it off. Being able to get information on a potential enemy from a distance was simply too useful. If I needed to touch the target first, I might find myself in a situation I otherwise would have avoided. I didn’t want to fix one problem just to create another.

Being able to use the ability from further away would be useful for the same purpose of avoiding a tough enemy. So far, though, the 10-meter restriction hadn’t seemed like a problem, so I decided not to go with the second option. That left the first one. I would be able to get more information on the target so long as they weren’t too far beyond my level. Here on Earth, that wouldn’t be a problem. My eyes lit up as an idea occurred to me.

I quickly selected the first option and confirmed my choice. Then I hurried back over to the shard and analyzed it again.

Undead Shard

Level: 2

Health: 300 / 300

Mana: 45 / 250

While anchored in the Earth, this Colvoen construct can redirect force used against it down into the ground.

“Yes!” I shouted, clenching my fists in triumph. It had worked just like I’d hoped. The shard’s energy levels were now visible. A new blue bar even appeared beneath the health bar that was floating above it, courtesy of my interface and Cax’s tweaks. This would help me work out how much it was using on its heat defense. The other additional line caught my eye.

“Umm, Cax? Who are the Colvoen? And why does it say the shard is a construct? It’s got health. It’s alive, isn’t it?”

He was as bewildered as I was. “I do not know. Hurry and defeat it so you can absorb it. The information it must hold…” The sense of curiosity I got from him mirrored my own.

He was right. Absorbing it would give us access to everything it knew. That should give us some answers to what was going on here. I put the questions the new information had raised to the back of my mind and focused on the matter at hand. According to the extra information I had read on the shard, if I could get it out of the ground, I should be able to break it with my staff.

I got my weapon and slammed the butt into the ground, right at the base of the shard. It cracked the soil and created a small dent in the earth there. There was an immediate reaction from the shard.

It emitted a pulse of heat that I could feel from two steps away. The wood on the bottom of my staff became a little charred from the brief exposure before I managed to pull it away.

I eagerly looked at the shard’s mana bar. It had gone down! That defensive measure had used up 2 mana.

“We’re on the right track!” I told Cax excitedly.

“Yes, but that took some durability off your staff. You can’t let it break. It’s the only thing capable of dealing decent damage to this thing once you get it out of the ground.”

He was right. To protect my weapon, I decided to try pulling the shard up and out again. I could check how much energy it used to remain fixed in the ground now. I laid my staff off to the side and squatted down in front of the shard. Wrapping my arms around it, I tried to lift it up. Again, it didn’t move, but because I was keeping an eye on its mana bar, I soon saw it tick down by one point.

I continued pulling it up, trying to use only a fraction of my strength. I needed to make the shard use its mana to maintain its position in the ground by keeping constant pressure on it. This was a marathon, not a sprint. I had to conserve my strength. Another few points of its mana were used up when suddenly it activated its heat defense, burning my arms and chest where they were pressed up against it.

I immediately released my grip and fell back, patting myself down unnecessarily. I wasn’t on fire, but it sure felt like it! I pulled out my remaining health potion and drank it, relaxing as the magical drink healed me up and the pain faded. My skin was back to normal, but my shirt was completely ruined. It had been in bad condition after fighting the skeletons and the possum, but the heat had completely done it in.

I got up and stood a little bit back from the shard. It was smart. It must have realized my plan and decided to try and get rid of me. Checking my logs, I saw that I had lost 10 health from that attack because so much of my body had been affected. With the amount of energy the shard still had left, it could kill me before I got it out of the ground.

I needed an edge. I pulled up my stats page and looked at how much experience I had to work with. It was actually a fair bit. The two level 1 skeletons had given me 15xp each, and I’d gotten 20xp from the level 2 one. I had a look at what I could spend them on.

Experience points available: 52

Please choose from the following options:

Level up (30xp)

Magical Affinities (30xp)

Spells (20xp)

Active Abilities (20xp)

Passive Abilities (30xp)

Skills (20xp)

Professions (30xp)

Alright. Now, what could help me out here? I had enough xp that all the options were open to me, but it wasn’t enough that I could afford to make a bad choice. That worry left me stuck in indecision.

“Let me help,” Cax offered. “There are several viable options. First, leveling up. Upon reaching level 3, you receive another spell for each of your affinities. It’s the last time the World provides such direct assistance. It’s thought to be a final nudge towards helping you choose your class. However, there are several problems with this choice. One is that there is no way to know what spells you would receive. They may not be useful in this situation. Another issue, as you’ve discovered, is that you do not have an abundance of mana to use at your low level. It might take too long to make use of the spells if they do turn out to be useful here. The biggest issue, though, is that you may not receive any spells due to your unique nature.

Your second option is to unlock a specific spell that can definitely help you. There is the information stored in your core for a Life element spell that can create a barrier along your skin to absorb damage. The problem is, it can only block 20 points of damage. Your low-mana levels won’t allow you to recast it once it fails, so it would provide you with limited protection at the moment.

The last option, and what I believe to be the best one, is to unlock and incorporate a passive ability into your body. There was a fairly common one on my world that I absorbed the information for. It can make you resistant to elemental effects, such as heat, by changing your body both inside and out. This means you’ll take less damage from these effects. Overall, it would add up to more than the barrier spell would provide.

The problem with this choice is that it will only reduce the damage you take from the heat. You will still lose health and be subjected to the full pain from the heat while trying to remove the shard from the ground.”

Once he finished listing my choices as he saw them, he became silent and let me think over what he told me. I would be a fool to ignore his advice, so as tempting as it was to level up and see if I got a few new spells, I chose not to. I already knew how difficult it was to manage my mana, so spells weren’t a good solution at the moment. I agreed to use up my one available passive ability.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to endure the pain for the necessary amount of time, so it made me feel better knowing I would have enough experience points left over to learn that barrier spell if I couldn’t stand it. It was always good to have a Plan B.

Cax helpfully pulled up the information on the passive ability and I confirmed I wanted to use my xp on it. My entire body was suddenly wracked with intense pain. I dropped to my knees and clutched my thighs as tightly as I could and tried to stop from shouting. My face was scrunched up, but I tried to keep my eyes open to make sure the shard wasn’t doing anything. A minute later, it ended.

“You could have warned me about that!” I breathlessly told Cax as I slumped down, my muscles unclenching as the pain disappeared. I was angry he hadn’t given me a heads up.

“If you had known, you may have chosen a less optimal path forward,” he said simply. His tone changed, becoming intense. “And now you know you can withstand any amount of pain! What you’re about to do is going to hurt. You’re going to want to stop. Don’t! Remember what you just endured. You probably thought you couldn’t, but you did. Hold onto the knowledge that the pain will not last. Don’t give up!”

I took many deep breaths to try and get my anger under control. After his pep talk, I understood the reason why he didn’t warn me. It didn’t change the fact it was a dick move. While I was pulling myself back together, I checked out the information on my new passive ability.

Elemental Resistance

Your body has been altered to withstand damage from the elements.

You will receive 25% less damage from elemental attacks and environmental effects.

That was now a permanent part of my body. I had to admit, it sounded pretty good. Was it worth the pain I had to endure? Probably, I reluctantly thought. I pushed myself to my feet and approached the shard.

Mentally preparing myself for the pain, I grabbed it again. This time, I made sure only my hands and arms were touching it. It was a bit of an awkward grip, but it was doable. The reduced contact with my skin should decrease the amount of damage done.

I began to pull the shard up and it immediately became hot. The pain hit me as my hands and arms began to burn. I stubbornly refused to let go, recalling Cax’s little speech and convincing myself that I could do this.

The shard was actually coming out of the ground slowly. It was using all its energy to attack me and wasn’t maintaining its position in the earth. I kept pulling the shard up, motivated by the progress I was making, as I kept an eye on its mana levels and my health bar. I was losing 5 health points (hp) a second, and the shard was losing 2 mana points (mp) a second. It was going to be a race to see who ran out of steam first.

My arms felt like they were on a hot stove. I focused on the physical sensation of pulling it up and on the numbers to help distract me from the searing pain. 36mp, 115hp … 24mp, 85hp… 12mp, 55hp … 0 mp, 25 hp.

I’d done it! I blinked my eyes, coming back to myself. The pain in my arms returned in full force, but there was no longer any heat coming off the shard. It had run out of energy. I put all my focus into pulling it up. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take a break. I was afraid it would just sink back down to its original position.

A short while later, it came all the way out of the ground. The bottom ended in a point identical to the top section. It had actually been fairly deep, and now that its full length was exposed, I could see it was a little taller than me. It was heavy, too. I was struggling to hold it. I pushed it over onto its side and then sat down to catch my breath. I was going to wait until I had enough mana to heal myself. That should take care of the burns on my arms and make it less painful for me to use my staff.

About a minute later, the shard started to move. I quickly got to my feet, ready to move in case this was some kind of attack. It slowly began to right itself until it was standing upright again, hovering very slightly off the ground. I just watched, on my guard but curious to learn more about it.

When it started to sink into the ground again, though, I quickly grabbed it and lifted it up. I once again dropped it down on its side. Swiftly going and getting my staff, I came back and whacked it again, but not at full strength, wary after what happened the first time. Also, with my arms as injured as they were, I wasn’t sure I could hit it much harder.

Its health bar went down! Now it was out of the ground, it was vulnerable. It had only lost 3 hp, though. Damn, this thing is durable! At that rate, it was going to take a while to finish it off.

I settled in for a long slog, beginning to bring my weapon down on the shard again and again. Each hit helped keep it down on the ground, so it was unable to rise. My arms were killing me, and my body was aching all over. All I wanted to do was lie down and rest. It was another reminder that even though my body had been improved in amazing ways, it still had its limits.

“This should cheer you up,” Cax said, sharing a screen with me. “You got this after the shard ran out of mana.”

Congratulations!

You have learned a new skill.

Determination

Your iron resolve keeps you going until you have achieved your goal.

Effect 1: It is slightly easier to maintain your focus and ignore distractions in any situation.

Effect 2: When focusing intently on a task, you perform it slightly better. This also provides a slight increase to the chance to learn new skills and improve existing ones.

Having tangible recognition of my efforts felt unbelievably good. It made the struggle feel worthwhile. That gave me a second wind and I started putting more effort into my swings. Or maybe that was the effect of the skill. Was it helping me perform the task of smashing the shard better? How can you tell the difference between a placebo effect and actual magic?

Something occurred to me. “Why haven’t I gotten a skill for using my staff yet?” I asked Cax, continuing my steady rhythm of hitting the shard. “I’ve killed 5 creatures with this thing, and here I am wailing away on this thing.”

The sense of amusement I got from him had me worried. What stupid thing did I say now? “You have some very…interesting...ideas.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, resigned to basically being told I was a dumbass again.

“You have also successfully consumed drinks several times since I joined with you. Did you expect to get a skill for drinking, too? Don’t forget you fell over a couple of times. How about a falling skill?”

“I’ll have you know I already have a drinking skill. It just doesn’t come with magical benefits.”

“Yes, I’ve seen from your memories how fond you are of willingly ingesting poison. That’s a discussion for another day.”

He carried on with his lecture. “To get a skill, you need to learn it through magical means, take lessons from someone experienced in that skill, or devote time to training yourself and working out the fundamentals to the skill. You cannot gain a skill simply by doing something a couple of times. Besides, even if it were that easy, based on your performance with that staff, you would have gotten a skill in this cricket game of yours instead.” He was so entertained by this that I was surprised he wasn’t openly laughing.

“Yeah, alright. Settle down. It seems like I’m going to have to forget a lot of what I thought I knew. But how about that Determination skill I just got? That was pretty easy.”

“Holding onto a burning hot object for twenty seconds was easy? I’d say you demonstrated more than a fundamental understanding of how to remain focused.”

He was right. I guess I had earned that one.

As soon as I had enough mana, I healed myself and couldn’t believe how good my arms felt. I could now put my full power behind every swing. Even giving it everything I had, though, each swing was only doing 5 points of damage. The shard’s sturdy exterior was still protecting it, even when it was out of the ground and unpowered by mana. I varied where I hit it, trying to find a sensitive spot in order to do extra damage with a critical hit, but I couldn’t find any weaknesses.

Finally, after who knows how long and how many hits, the shard cracked and its health bar disappeared.

I sank down, exhausted. The lower half of my vision was suddenly filled with a screen similar in appearance to the one that had sent me here. I read over the message while I rested.

Quest Completed!

Investigate the Breach

The intruders proved themselves to be hostile.

They have been dealt with, and the threat they posed has been removed.

Rewards: 50 experience / Custom class available for selection

I dismissed the screen, excited to look at the class information but too tired to do it right now. Once I finished up here and was safe at home, I promised myself it would be the first thing I did. I took a few minutes to just sit there and rest, appreciating the fact that I was ok and that I had won. 4 skeletons, a crazy possum and a mysterious shard. All beaten by me! I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment greater than any other time in my life. What I had done here actually had meaning.

While resting, I took the chance to look at how much experience I had now. 117 / 30. That was quite a windfall! The shard had given me 45xp. With the 50xp reward from the quest on top of what I had remaining, I’d ended up with a nice amount to work with. I should be able to get a fair bit done with that, I thought excitedly.

After a couple of minutes, I tiredly got to my feet. It was time to get out of here. The glow surrounding the shard perked me up a bit. As soon as I get my reward.

Before I could put my hand on the shard to loot it, Cax told me, “Don’t forget to absorb it!”

“Yeah, yeah. Settle down, professor. Loot for me first, absorb for you second.”

A wooden staff and a small crystal shimmered into existence. Double loot! “Whoa!”

The staff was a bit shorter than the one I had now, and the color was lighter, like straw. Both ends were covered in some kind of light-gray metal that went down about a hand’s length. It looked much more impressive than the one I had made. I picked it up eagerly and analyzed it.

Metal-capped Staff

Damage: 18

Durability: 75 / 75

Enchantment 1: 10% chance on hit to stun undead for 3 seconds.

Enchantment 2: none

That was a lot better than my current staff! I checked my old one out of curiosity. Its durability was down to 5. Whatever material the shard was made out of had really done a number on it. I wouldn’t get much more use out of it.

I did have a repair ability that I hadn’t used yet, but because I could create a new staff out of nothing, I didn’t think it was worth fixing it up. If I had to craft like a regular adventurer, I would probably think differently.

I absorbed it, not wanting to leave any evidence behind. Then I excitedly gave the new staff a few swings. It was a little bit heavier than the other one, but easily manageable. I really wanted to try it out, almost enough to wish there would be another attack. Almost.

I held the staff in my right hand and picked up the crystal. It was half as big as my palm and fairly squat. A quick count told me there were twelve sides. It was clear, and inside I could see a rainbow mist swirling around slowly.

Vision Crystal

Some of the answers you seek, earned by your actions.

That was it. Just a name and a fairly vague description.

“Be careful not to activate it!” Cax told me quickly.

“You know what this is?”

“They are used to store copies of memories. They are a fairly uncommon way to share information. If you activate it with your mana, you will be able to see the contents as though you were actually there. Don’t use it until you are well-rested, though. They can be quite taxing on the mind.”

I looked at it consideringly. I wonder what kind of memories it holds? And whose? Taking Cax’s advice, I put it in my pocket for later. I wasn’t worried about it breaking. The vials the health potions had been in had taught me that appearances were deceiving when magic was involved.

I gazed around the clearing. It looked like a serial killer’s lair with all the skeletons lying around. I didn’t want anything to draw attention to this spot, so it was time to clean up.

Judging by the size of the shard, I probably didn’t have enough mana to successfully absorb it yet. Trying to use the ability proved me right. I needed 80mp available to fully cover it and transport its pattern back to my core. I already knew the skeletons needed 60mp. There was nothing I could do at the moment except wait to regenerate enough mana.

Keeping in mind what Cax told me about learning a skill, I used my new staff to try and practice proper technique. I focused on where I put my feet when I swung the staff, trying to maintain balance and put more force behind each attack. As I concentrated, I felt a little more energetic. It was like I could ignore a little of my tiredness. Also, it was hard to describe, but it was like I was more in the moment. Everything around me faded into the background a little as I practiced different movements with the staff.

That must be my Determination skill kicking in, I thought idly, staying focused on the staff practice. I guess that means it was just a placebo effect before when I was beating on the shard. I mustn't have been concentrating hard enough to trigger the skill.

I was just making the movements up as I went, which was apparent when I failed to get a new skill by the time I had regenerated enough mana. That was even with the small boost that Determination was supposed to provide to learning a skill, so my made-up moves must have been way off the mark.

Once I finished absorbing the skeletons, I used the ability on the crafting bones I’d received as loot and then moved on to the shard. On the way, I pocketed the empty vials. I might be able to find a use for them.

I started the process of absorbing the shard and a couple of minutes later there was no trace left of it all.

“There’s a lot here,” Cax said distractedly, already digging into the information the shard contained. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

I took one last look around the clearing. Apart from the hole left behind by the shard and some flattened sections where I’d fought the skeletons, there was no sign that anything unusual had happened here.

My interface let me know it was just after five in the morning. The sun hadn’t started to rise yet. I recast Glowing Orb, not wanting it to run out while I was in the forest.

Even though I was worn out, there was a little bounce in my step as I set off. I had completed the quest, learnt a new skill, improved my body even further with a passive ability, and gotten loot! A smile lit up my face as I thought over everything I had gained. The pain I had to endure to accomplish all of it was already a fading memory.

With my new staff clutched in my right hand and a mysterious crystal in my pocket, I reentered the woods and headed back to the park and my car.