A fucking peryton! Was Mike's first thought. It wasn’t a productive thought, but he was very curious about how this creature came to exist. Again not productive. As the huge predatory and if his table-top gaming knowledge was accurate, evil, creature dove towards him with its knife-like talons extended he flailed out with his control to grasp the Light mana in the Aether into an attack of some kind but found no purchase.

He didn’t know how he could attack with Light Magic. He had seen it used to put him to sleep and whatever that huge beam had been as he was escaping, but trying to make the mana do either now wasn’t working.

As the peryton was only feet from him he finally processed that he should get out of the way. He only managed to drop to the ground as the talons were less than a foot from his shoulders. He felt one of the monsters sharp talons cut a burning-hot line across his scalp and he screamed. His left hand shot up to cover the wound as it radiated agony as if it had been cut into his brain and he hit the ground on his back.

The Mike from Earth before would have fainted now, he thought, and now he still wasn’t far from it. He could feel the warm blood in his hair, on his hand and running down the back of his neck. He could feel his stomach turning as he opened his eyes and saw bits of his hair on the ground in front of him.

“No!” he growled, he sent a mental shove to the AI, telling it to put his free mental stat from the Wizard Level into Willpower. He felt the pain and the wooziness of his stomach lessen in his awareness, they were still there no better than before, but he could ignore them better now.

He looked up to where he could see the peryton beating its wings and gaining altitude for another dive attack. He reached out with his control for the Light mana again, this time trying to just grasp it and control it, not giving it any intent.

He got it this time and he felt the mana come under his control and be shifted from the Aether into the Mortal realm, he felt Arcane Logic come to life in his mind, those same unknown equations just out of focus telling him only the result, that he currently had just over 20 Light mana under his control.

the glowing white mass of Light mana appeared before him, the size of his head, as he saw the peryton turning around to make its approach. The bright light of the mana didn’t seem to bother it as it began its dive with a strong beat of its wings to propel itself towards him, screeching again as if to mock him.

Mike could feel the Light mana trickling away, though not as fast as it had before his higher Control was slowing its decay somehow, he knew it would be gone in less than a minute though. Still he waited, what he had in mind wouldn’t work if the monster had time to consider it.

Right as the Peryton was less than two metres away Mike shaped the remaining mana into a spell, Minor illusion, he cast with no words or gestures just controlling the mana to take form. It worked, the mana shifted into a flat disk a metre across, the side that was facing Mike was grey and translucent, allowing him to see the diving peryton. The side that was angled upward was a mirror, he hoped.

As the huge bird-thing shrieked in surprise. Mike quickly started to roll to the side, seeing it flap its wings to slow down as it got closer to its own reflection. It collided with the illusion and shrieked again in confusion as it broke into motes of Light mana, its talons digging into the ground where he had previously been lying.

Mike put his hand under himself and pushed himself to his feet, feeling the limits of his 8 Strength. As he got to his feet he reached into his jacket where he had stored the dagger, grasping its hilt and pulling it free. He made the same stance as earlier from memory. He was less than two metres from the monster now and he could appreciate its size, even more, its wings had to be almost 6 metres from tip to tip.

He moved to attack the nearest wing with his dagger and felt the smoothness of the Skill guiding his movement. He swiped the blade through the feathers in a downward cut, he didn’t feel the blade contact flesh but the sharp edge cut through the feathers like paper.

The peryton shrieked again, its confusion from the Minor Illusion finally fading as it screeched toward him and flapped its massive wings, to lift off the ground. Mike saw the wings grasp the catch the air under them as the monster took off, his mana sight flicked on and he saw the wing folding around a light green or cyan mana, as its wings beat again to gain more altitude the mana appeared under its wing again, not coming from the peryton itself, just fading into existence under its wings as they caught the air for lift.

Mike blinked as the blood from his head wound dripped down over his left eye he reached up to wipe it away and his hand came back covered in blood. He felt a spike of dizziness but managed to focus as he forced himself to look back up at the peryton.

He needed to attack it with something that mattered, but he had no idea how to use Light magic to do harm, it was obviously possible as he had seen the High Elf do. He did know a way to cause the monster pain though, but it would be incredibly risky.

He looked up to the deer-headed bird and saw that it was high enough up now and was gliding around him in a circle, moving behind the huge trees and coming out the other side, he turned with it to stay facing it. It seemed to be warier now, he had hurt it, if only superficially. Its right-wing missing a swathe of feathers at the middle.

He decided to take the risk and mentally commanded the AI to open his Skills window.

Spoiler: Skill window

Skills

Equipped

Governing Stats

Mastery

Level

Physical Skills

Skill Slots

✓

2

Knife FIghting

✓

AGI/DEX

Amateur

2

Mental Skills

Skill Slots

2

Language

✓

INT/WIS

Novice

11

Acting

WIS/WIL

Amateur

10

Arcane Logic

✓

INT/WIS

Amateur

1

Magic Skills

Skill Slots

2

Mana Sight

✓

ATU/PER

Amateur

2

Light Magic

✓

AFI/CON

Amateur

3

Light Magic Resistance

RES/AFI

Amateur

1

Dark Magic

AFI/CON

Amateur

1

Dark Magic Resistance

RES/AFI

Amateur

1

Arcane Magic

AFI/CON

Amateur

1

He expected it to reach out with its talons as it had the last two times but it didn’t, instead, it made another beat of its wings for more speed and lowered its head to ram into him with its huge branching antlers. Mike’s mind screamed in terror but he couldn’t move. Then suddenly he could and he immediately jumped to the side as fast as he could. As soon as the window appeared he raised his hand and moved the tick from Light Magic to Dark Magic. He froze up, and the peryton noticed. It immediately flapped its wings to accelerate towards him. This was one of the longest moments in his life as he saw the massive creature, intent on killing and eating him, dive towards him while he was completely frozen.

He wasn’t fast enough, again, he felt one of the branching prongs of the antlers hit his shoulder and he screamed again as it knocked him backwards and tumbling. The peryton screeched in triumph as it reached down towards him with its talons but he was on his back and he managed to make another swing of the dagger guided by the Skill, despite the aching pain of his shoulder.

The monster screeched in anger as it drew its talons back up and flapped once more to gain altitude. Mike groaned as it moved up and away, behind him, he shifted his head to keep an eye on it and thought that that could have gone worse. A glance at his shoulder showed him that the antler hadn’t pierced the leather padding, meaning that the pain from his shoulder right now was the huge bruise that he would likely have when this was done. If he survived.

He had done what he wanted though and could now dimly sense the Dark mana in the pouch inside his jacket, he blindly reached in with his left hand as he continued to keep an eye on the peryton. He loosened the tie and put a finger in the pouch, as he did the amount of mana inside the one gem he was holding came to him from the passive calculations of the Arcane Logic Skill, there was more than 300 mana in just one of these gemstones.

As he realised that, the peryton started to turn towards him for one last dive, if he couldn’t stop it now then he was dead. He fed his control into the gemstone and grasped at the Dark mana inside, its density made it much easier to grasp the ephemeral element, though he needed to strain to actually extract it from the gemstone.

He pulled his hand out of the jacket trailing a shadow of Dark mana. The peryton was coming towards him at breakneck speeds, or so he hoped. He raised his hand and guided the mana, giving it an objective like he had the last time he used Dark magic, he wanted the peryton to feel pain.

He felt the mana shift from energy into a spell as the shadowy glove of Dark mana that he had taken from the gem shot out and maintained its shape. It hit the bird thing halfway through its dive.

It shrieked in agony, its wings locking up folding inwards causing it to plummet to the ground with a crunch, more than three metres from Mikes position. It continued to shriek in pain as Mike saw the spell, still formed into a hand that was digging its fingers into its chest like claws.

Mike wanted to sigh in relief but didn’t have time, the pain it was feeling was only illusory, he needed to finish it while it was vulnerable. He lifted himself off the ground with his left arm only, making it to his knees before he could stand, he reached up and grasped his aching shoulder with his hand, then he walked towards the screaming creatures as fast as he could manage, four too slow steps.

As he arrived before it he saw its eyes widen in confusion as the hand of mana started to dissipate. While it was still distracted Mike made the stance with his dagger, and stabbed forward guided by his skill. Before the peryton could regain its wits, his dagger was buried to the hilt in its throat. Its eyes looked up at him and its mouth opened, this close up it looked like a beak with serrations all along its inner edges like teeth.

It tried to shriek at him again but it came out as a gurgle, its eyes unfocusing quickly as it died, slumping forward with a thud as its antlers dug into the ground beside Mike. Mike sighed as he collapsed to his knees beside it.

That could have gone worse, he thought as he felt the blood from the still open wound on his head starting to slow slightly, likely not a good sign. The dizziness and pain that he had been holding off this whole time, which likely wasn’t more than 2 minutes, started to hit him like a truck.

He didn’t have the energy to scream, but he did remember what the AI had told him about creatures he killed. He reached his right hand down and put it against the chest of the monster, over its heart. It likely didn’t have any magic or mental EXP for him. He felt the tattoo grasping outward as it had when he touched the shard, it found what it wanted and more, he could feel it interacting with a part of the beast he couldn’t feel, it took something from it and brought it back. Then a notification window appeared in front of him.

Congratulations! You have defeated Level 6 peryton!

EXP gained from the fight

80% Physical EXP

20% Mental EXP

60% Magic EXP

+1 Magic aspect Level!

40% Wizard EXP

Skill Levels gained from the fight

Light Magic +1

Knife fighting +2

Dark Magic +1

You have unlocked the spell

Spells

Mastery Level

Requirements

Mana Cost

Cast Time

Duration

Description

Chill Touch

Amateur

Dark Magic - Amateur

20 Dark mana

Instantaneous

10 seconds after contact

Emit a blast of Dark magic in the form of a hand at a target with 20 metres that will cause illusory agonizing pain and cold on contact. Causing the targets body to seize up and spasm.

EXP Gains from plundering the peryton

95% Physical EXP

+1 Physical aspect Level!

You have received a Quest: Spirit beast Plunder analysis I

By the time he finished reading his vision was blurred slightly, seeing the gains for the fight made it kinda better, he intended to speak up to open his status and spend the stats he had gained, but before he could the window suddenly vanished and he felt a twinge from the tattoo.

Then he heard someone speak up behind him, “What happened here?” said a deep voice with a mystified and curious inflection.

Mike spun around to face the voice but couldn’t make out the person clearly as more than a blur holding a longbow.

“Wha-,” he started to speak up but the dizziness that had been getting worse the longer he sat here finally peaked. Before he knew it he was pitching forward, his eyes drifting shut, unconscious.