Tide obviously selected yes. No way he was going to pass up this gift. Honestly it was much better than any gear. He had already gained a companion pet, which could level up along with him and become a valuable ally in the long run! Not to mention that it was a freaking dire wolf, those could grow to the size of a freaking horse! I mean tide was a huge fan of Game of Thrones before all this started and was excited to have his own dire wolf.

After he selected yes the screen disappeared and another replaced it.

What would you like to name your companion?

Tide took a moment to contemplate what he want to call the wolf cub in front of him. He had a couple ideas but was oddly compelled to choose the name onyx. I mean it really did fit the little guy so Tide submitted it. As soon as he did the chest disappeared and the cub instantly ran at Tide jumping up and slobbering all over his face. Onyx was practically bouncing as he ran around tide sniffing and play fighting with him. Tide let the little pups excited mood affect him and he wasted some time wrestling with the pup.

After playing with the pup and giving him some dried meat, the little guy dozed off. This gave Tide some time to think about his next move and regen some more health.

He made a list of things to do based off of necessity.

Find somewhere safe to set up camp Test out skill and decide where to place stat points Find a good hunting ground Level up Level up pup Get the hell away from town before the week ended

Alright Tide having made up his mind started to get ready to leave. He looked at Onyx still sleeping and decided that right now the cub would only slow him down. To fix that Tide pulled out his bedding and began to start to fashion a little backpack for the guy to sit in. Once it was finish he woke the pup up and placed him inside the bag.

Onyx ready to go poke his head out of the hole and stuck his head over tides shoulder with his tongue hanging out. Tide seeing that everything was ready began to walk back towards the starter town. The monsters near there would be lower leveled. Until he got there he would have to avoid fighting anything.

He was force to a light jog to avoid sending Onyx flying off his back. After about an hour the puppy soon got bored and began to start nipping at Tide’s ear. Tide sighed and began channeling mana in the air creating shapes and what not to distract the impatient passenger.

Occasionally Tide would have to stop and hide and wait for a monster to pass before continuing. Other than that he managed to make his way back to the town without conflict.

As he got closer to town the monsters began to become much less scary it went from, wolves goblins and bears to forest deers, slimes and horned rabbits. He also saw a couple groups of people fighting them. Tide admired their hard work, if they kept it up then they might make it through the first week. While he most likely could take those mobs out and help some of the groups he decided it was best to set up his base of operations first.

Eventually he found himself at town, but decided it was best to stay out for now. Most likely it is already being run by a group of bullies or the Communist ideology has started and everyone is expected to share everything. Either way Tide would become a target due to the fluff ball on his back. Rather than have to deal with that shit he found a nice shady tree and took out his map a bit away from town.

After taking a short break to find where he wanted to go and rest his muscles. Tide started off again this time away from the town. There was a hilly section nearby only a hour or so away from the town where the monsters would still be relatively weak.

Once he got there he found a nice section of hill that gave him some privacy. Once he checked and made sure the surroundings were safe he let the fidgety cub out and gave him some more dried meat. At the same time Tide ate his own meal and sat down. He told Onyx to stay near by and run back if he saw anything.

The cub just looked at him with his head tilted before running around for a bit. Tide hoped he got the message and got to work.

First things first is he opened his status screen.

Tide Blackwater

Lv: 3 (27%)

Class: Elementalist

Health: 45 (Regen 29/h)

Mana: 60 (Regen 36/h)

Stamina: 50 (Regen 30/h)

Vitality: 9

Strength: 5

Endurance: 10

Reaction: 10

Agility: 6

Willpower: 9

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 12

Control: 14

Affinities-

Earth: 17%

Fire: 9%

Water: 11%

He saw the diminishing gains he obtained from his jogging and playing around with his mana and sighed. Basic training like that wouldn’t be nearly as useful now that the first week was done.

He hoped that his class was worth it, I mean he could have been grinding the shit out of his stats instead and had stats in the twenties.

Tide sighed and focused on his classes name. A new screen popped up giving him a description of it.

Elementalist: A mage who is in tune with the world. Able to bond with any element, they have a flexible range of powers. Favored by the world they can take on characteristics of the elements around them and summon servants of the elements to serve them.

Tide looked at the description and couldn't help but smile. Able to bond with any element, must mean that he could raise his affinity with any element, even the ones he hadn’t bonded to. If that's true then he would have a wide range of ways to fight. That and he would always be able to use a mobs weakness against them!

He decided that he did indeed make the right choice picking this class he pulled up his skill list.

Skills:

Meditation- The ability to clear your mind and feel the mana around you. While meditating mana regen increases.

Mana Manipulation- The ability to move your mana to your will. Passively helps control other mana based spells.

Element Manipulation- The ability to merge your mana and an element giving you control over the mana infused element. The more you wish to control the higher the mana cost. Mana cost will decrease in accordance with elemental affinity and control stat.

Bind Golem- The ability to pour mana into an element bring it to life for a period of time to serve you. The more mana you use the longer the golem lasts. The larger the golem the faster it burns through its mana. Mana cost will decrease in accordance with elemental affinity and control stat. Ten control must be dedicated to controlling each golem.

Element Infusion: The ability to absorb an element into you body and change its characteristic. The mana cost is based off of wisdom and intelligence. The more your body changes the more mana it costs. Slowly drains mana while active.

Looking at the skill Tide was a little confused. They were very open ended. In his past life most skills were very cut and dry. You activated the spell it does a predetermined action. For instance his earthen spear spell would activate and Tide would select a target. Then earth spears would just skewer whatever the target was. Both the element infusion and elemental manipulation seemed to be very open ended.

Tide shrugged his shoulders, it be best if he just tried out the skills and saw what happened.

He started of with elemental manipulation. He focused on mound of dirt in front of him and activated the spell. While he did this he was watching his mana bar and saw it lose a fourth of its contents. Grimacing at the high mana cost, Tide began to move the earth around like he would if it was his mana. The only problem was it was much chunkier and difficult to control. After a minute of having it float around the mana in the dirt wore away and the dirt fell to the ground.

Tide nodded seeing how this could be useful, especially as he gained more control. Next up he put his hand on the mound of dirt and activated element infusion. He felt as if his hand was a vacuum absorbing the dirt. After a clump of dirt was absorbed his hand began to turn greyish. Making his hand into a fist he didn't feel any different. Thinking that it perhaps boosted his defense, he took out his axe and pressed his hand up against it gently. Slowly he began to press harder and harder. Tide was surprised how hard he had to push before he began to bleed.

Looking at his mana he saw that activating the skill took about a tenth of his mana away and after that it drained his mana very slowly. Activating the spell again he tried to absorb more dirt. This time the grey color traveled all the way up to his shoulder where it stopped. Checking his mana again he found that sixty percent of his mana was gone and the rest was going down quite fast. Dispelling the effect Tide sat down to meditate and regen his mana back to full.

After a half an hour Tide got back up, checked on Onyx who was chasing down bugs gleefully. Shaking his head tide moved on to his final skill. Focusing on the mound of dirt in front of him he activated bind golem. As soon as he did he felt a massive drain of mana flowing out of him into the mound of dirt.

The dirt glowed slightly blue before it began to shift and and form into a semi human shape. Torso was formed first along with the head. Next the arms and legs became defined and eventually small holes in the face began to glow blue.

The small golem stood up and eyes reached tides chest. It was very stocky also and just stood there staring at tide.

“Umm hello” Tide said hoping to get some sort of response. Much to his disappointment the golem just sat there.

“Jump” Tide said cautiously trying to see if it followed his commands.

As soon as the words left Tide’s mouth the little dirt man gave his best attempt of a jump. It only got an inch or two off the ground before it thudded back to the ground.

Tide let out a small chuckle before testing out what the golem could do. He checked his mana quickly and saw that it took eighty percent of his mana to create the guy.

The golem lasted for about an hour before falling back apart into a clump of dirt. By the time the golem fell back apart the sun was setting. Taking out some wood Tide made camp. He called Onyx back and opened up his status screen and added five of his points into wisdom to increase his mana pool and and five into control to decrease his mana cost. Looking at his skills and stats Tide felt much better about his position. The last thing he did was summon one more golem with his extra mana and told it to start digging into the hill next to him.

Letting the golem work to its heart's content, Tide fell asleep with Onyx curled up next to him.