Sam watched in amazement as Annabelle carried his bed out of his room and into the narrow hallway. Her arms were glowing green and when Sam looked closely he could even see her veins glowing the same colour.

Wow, magic was really powerful.

“Is the ability you are using from the Beast Mastery?”

Annabelle nodded as she passed the bathroom and basement doors which were directly opposite to each other and then took a deliberate wide left turn into the main bedroom.

As they had walked back from the marsh earlier, Sam had spent the time digging up all of his unanswered questions and felt eager to find out the answers.

With a huff, Annabelle put down the bed in the corner of the bedroom near a cupboard. The room was now very cramped but a person could still move around without too much trouble.

“Aunty, I have a few questions that I haven’t been able to ask previously…”

“Because you were scared of looking like an idiot?”

Sam blushed and Annabelle chuckled.

“That day has long passed. Why do you think I was suspicious? You knew far too little, even for someone with memory loss. So, what do you want to know?”

“What are all the elements? You have mentioned Fire, Earth and Spirit. I am guessing Wind is an element?”

“Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Nature, Spirit and Blood are the elements I have encountered. People who use the Spirit and Blood elements are normally… a bit different and rare. The Mind is also an element but it is a bit different from the others because it doesn’t have a physical component. The most common example is the Knowledge Mastery which is related to the Mind element.”

Sam blinked. That was a lot to digest. Spirit and Blood? He wasn't sure if he wanted to think about magic and blood. Too many stories went bad when magic blood was involved. Thistlvale definitely sounded like a place to visit someday.

“Ok thank you. Next question: How does health regeneration work? Can it regrow limbs? And stamina, it is used for running right?”

Annabelle frowned a little in thought and then spoke.

“Health regeneration recovers wounds and heals over time regardless if the injuries are internal and external. It is very slow and can be even slower if the wound is large. For large wounds, direct healing is much better because if you rely only on health regeneration then you have a great chance of getting sick. Health regeneration is not recommended for limb regrowth because it is far too slow and painful. Direct healing is better than regeneration in almost all areas except cost which regeneration being much cheaper. Healing magic, regardless of the source of mana, is always very expensive which makes sense because it is a very complicated type of magic. Uncle Berry knows much more on the topic than I do so you can ask him when you see him.”

Annabelle paused and then seemed to remember the second question.

“Stamina is quite straightforward; if you exert your body to do something it will use stamina. Some abilities also use stamina especially Earth based abilities. Your stamina will decrease slowly over time throughout the day and recovers when you sleep. Having zero stamina will cause you to fall unconscious which I don't recommend.”

“Ok thank you. That helps. When I was levelling some of my skills and abilities, I noticed that I couldn’t purchase the last level, is there a reason for this?”

Internally Sam was freaking out. He could regrow a limb? Screw aquaboy, what about lizardboy?

Annabelle began walking out of the room and towards the kitchen door as she spoke. Sam quickly followed.

“You can’t purchase the final level of any skill or abilities, you have to earn it. The earning part may be as simple as using the ability once but often it is more than that. You have to use the ability in the way it was meant to be used. So if you have a healing ability then you would have to heal a large wound, which would cost a lot more mana than usual, and then you may earn the last level. Does that make sense?”

Sam replied as they left the house and headed towards the stables.

“That does make sense. Next question is about your Beast form. It looks very powerful even if it is a bit scary. Can anyone with the Beast mastery get such an ability?”

Annabelle made an unpleasant face as they entered the stables.

“I would agree with you on the scary part. It is very powerful but difficult to live with. If someone has enough points and spends enough time then yes, they could purchase the ‘Beast form’ skill but it is never that simple. There are choices that are made in life and opportunities that appear that not everyone has. I can transform into a wolf because of some unique circumstances and that is not common even amongst those who have the ‘Beast form’. The form of any predatory animal is difficult to obtain and control but it can become very powerful. I would not recommend obtaining the ‘Beast form’ skill to anyone because it has been a burden on me and has caused tragedies that I regret.”

Annabelle voice was full of sorrow and regret as she fetched two brushes from the nearby wall. She handed one to Sam and they both began brushing the nearest horse. He copied her motions and as soon as they both got a rhythm she spoke with a smile.

“So what should we train you in whilst we wait for the bandit attack?”

Sam was pleasantly surprised by the direction of the conversation and answered.

“If I train the Labour Mastery, I can get more stamina and strength which can help me run away or punch someone.”

Annabelle shook her head.

“Attributes bonuses are a blessing and a curse. You have to train with a consistent attribute level until you are familiar with them whilst fighting. In other words, if your strength changes by large amounts, you won't be familiar with how fast or slow your arms move or how hard they can hit. I am assuming you have no fighting experience since you don’t have the Body or Weapon Masteries so getting extra strength is not going to help you much. I suggest you practice your Water Mastery skills. If you can get another skill to maximum level, you should get a boost to your skills with Water.”

Sam blinked. Is that how attributes worked? He knew strength gave him more muscles but it did make sense that needed to have to train his body in order to use them.

“Can you teach me the Body and Weapon Masteries?”

Annabelle shook her head and spoke.

“My fighting style is a Nature specific style and I mostly use spells or attacking abilities. If I am really stuck, I can just become a werewolf as you like to call it.”

She gave a grin with teeth that seemed longer than before.

Sam shuddered as he understood. Annabelle couldn’t help him with gaining those Masteries.

“Jerald and Jeremy can definitely help you when you are back. The Body Mastery is close to the Labour Mastery in the way that they both focus on training and exhausting the body.”

She paused her brushing which caused the horse to neigh in response, she quickly resumed her brushing as she spoke her mind.

“Other than the Water Mastery, you have the Knowledge, Chosen and Mana Masteries. The Knowledge Mastery won’t help you in a fight so that leaves the Chosen and Mana Masteries. The Elder says the Chosen Mastery makes your special but I don’t know enough about it. From what I know of the Mana Mastery, it is not a combat focussed Mastery."

Sam sighed at the last options which were both useless in combat. The Chosen Mastery didn’t give him any skills or abilities at all and the Mana Mastery hardly seemed useful in combat. Sitting down and meditating whilst fighting an enemy would be asking for a quick death.

“I have been practicing my Water skills so I will continue but the Chosen and Mana Masteries won’t be useful in fighting enemies. I do want to practice the Mana Mastery though but I lose track of time when practicing. I don’t want to lose two days again…”

“Anything I can help with?”

Annabelle’s eyes were glowing green now and it was a little unnerving. He ignored it and focussed on finding a solution to his problem.

“Do you have any way to keep track of how much time has passed?”

Annabelle grinned and her teeth were definitely longer now.

“We have an old clock in our cupboard. It is one of the trinkets Jerald had bought in town. Let me see if I can get it working. How would it help?”

Sam elaborated on his problem of losing time in [Meditation] and his plan to familiarise himself with how much time had paused.

Annabelle agreed to lend him their clock and Sam felt eager to start practicing. He would’ve started immediately but the animals still needed care and Annabelle seemed like the only person who could keep him safe at the moment.

They ate a late lunch of the usual apples and beef strips. Annabelle revealed a secret stash of cookies that Sam happily consumed.

The rest of the afternoon was spent caring for animals and doing normal maintenance. Without Jerald and Jeremy to help, there was quite a bit of work. They kept their distance from the farm borders which Annabelle said her familiar was guarding.

When sunset was approaching, Sam got to meet her familiar whose name was Felix.

The dog looked like a bloodhound but with an unnatural dark grey body. With the dark colouring, Felix looked very formidable and reminded Sam of a miniature tank.

After some sniffing, Sam got to scratch and pet Felix which was a bizarre experience considering the dog’s body was hard and cold. Felix happily enjoyed it and Sam made a friend after some beef strips were gifted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night, after a supper of warm beef and carrot soup, Annabelle got an old wooden pendulum clock out of a cupboard. After some tinkering, she got it working and placed on top of the cupboard inthe main bedroom.

Sam watched happily as the pendulum swung back and forth rhythmically. After a minute of staring, the smaller clock hand moved. He doubted the time was right but he didn’t mind, he just needed a point of reference.

After telling Annabelle that he was going to practice [Meditation], he activated the ability. After 30 seconds, he was sucked into the world of nothingness.

After what felt like five minutes, he cancelled the ability and checked the time on the pendulum clock.

It had only been fifteen minutes.

He sighed in relief. At least he hadn't lost a day or two like last time.

He decided to try unlock [Mana Sense] so he activated [Meditation] and waited patiently.

When he was thrust into the world of black, he immediately tried to feel around the blackness. He didn’t know what he was looking for but wanted to at least try something.

Time passed and he knew he had to use his time wisely. He thought about how he could unlock [Mana Sense]. If [Mana Sense] was like one of his own senses then he should be able to get feedback from the world around him.

He decided to try use his five senses and focussed on hearing the world around him. He strained his mind as if he still had ears and concentrated on listening.

Time passed and Sam heard nothing and felt no change.

He tried his sense of smell next, followed by his sight.

None of his attempts changed anything. He had gained nothing about the world from him. It was just empty blackness with no odor or sound. He thought about his last two senses: taste and touch.

Taste just seemed like a stupid option so he decided to ignore it for now. As his only realistic option left, Sam reached out his arms and tried to grab onto anything. He had done it earlier and the verdict was the same: nothing.

He decided to change his approach and then imagined himself touching something. He remembered the pendulum clock nearby, he imagined what it looked like and he mentally reached for it.

He quickly felt a wall of resistance and he pushed against it. The wall shuddered and he suddenly became aware of a giant bubble that was surrounding him and blocking out the world.

He mentally pushed against the bubble and he felt more resistance. He stopped pushing and thought about what to do next.

He had to burst through the bubble. He was sure it was the reason the world was black and empty. He didn’t know what lay on the other side but he hoped it was [Mana Sense] level 1.

With a mental breath to prepare himself, Sam began pushing against the bubble with all his mental strength. As he pushed, the bubble distorted as it tried to contain him.

The resistance started causing a headache to form but he didn’t stop pushing even though it felt like blood should be coming out of his nose.

The strain was unpleasant to say the least but Sam kept pushing until the resistance suddenly gave away as the bubble popped silently. The world of black began collapsing all around him and Sam suddenly found himself sitting on his bed in the chilly dark bedroom.

He felt exhausted and based on the chilly night air, he guessed that he had missed out on a few hours of sleep. His head was pounding from an exquisitely painful migraine but Sam didn’t care. He had a silly grin plastered on his face as he looked at the notification that had appeared in his mind.

Mana Mastery: Mana Sense Level 1 gained.