The sound of the water hitting the rocks was audible, but it was a good kind of noise. The kind that he didn’t mind. The sound of nature was always a nice addition, barring animals. The buzzing of flies or the chirping of birds was an annoyance. He only liked what nature did —the wind and the sea. Everything else was an annoyance on the worst of days and background noise on the best of days.

It seemed like they were on an island, or very close to the harbor at least. There was no end to the sea in sight, and he didn’t really bother to ask whether this was a large island or an ocean. There was a harbor, with some boats on them. Perhaps that’s why they weren’t all that afraid. He’d wager that the giants couldn’t swim all that well —not enough to catch up to those sailing away.

Sean looked at the ‘complete’ version of the Explosive Spell notification. It was his greatest achievement so far. But it was a timed effect, so it would explode after a certain time period rather than upon contact or cue. So he had to plan ahead when launching it. Otherwise he’d be in for a nasty surprise.

Timed Explosive Mana Ball: Push

A modified ball of Mana applied with an explosion effect that has a time lag of up to 10 seconds. The explosion is harmful to both user and those around them.

Skill Rank: D

Skill Mastery: 0%

Mana Cost: 30 + 5 per second

Damage Formula: (Intelligence * 1.5) - (Seconds * Intelligence * 0.1) (Impact)

Mana Ball: Modified

You have learned the concept modification and have ceaselessly applied it to Mana Ball. Further Mana Ball Variations will be created more easily and all Mana Ball Variations will be included within the Skill Tree.

Skill Tree Rank: D

Skill Tree Mastery: 20%

The second notification had caught his attention. Apparently all Mana Balls and its variations converged to create what was known as a Skill Tree. He pulled out his Skillbook, and sure enough, all his Mana Ball Skills were gone and there was only a ‘Mana Ball: Modified’ Skill there. But when he tapped on it, he could see all the Mana Balls he had. The original Mana Ball, on the other hand, had its damage increased to 0.05 of his Intelligence as a burning damage rather than 0.01 like before, and had been increased to Skill Rank D. Upon checking the other variations, he noticed that likewise, their Burning effect had increased but not the other sorts of damage, like Impact.

He surmised the Impact was from the Push Component, rather than the Mana Ball. And he noticed that there was no collision damage for the explosion. I guess it worked. As for why it was only up to 10 seconds, the Mana Cost apparently became astronomical when using any sigil that wasn’t the first ten, and there was no conventional way of writing ‘one one’ for eleven or ‘one two’ for twelve. Instead, there were all new sigils for the numbers eleven and twelve, as well as all two-digit numbers. And given the fact that there were separate ones for each, knowing three-digit numbers as well as four-digit numbers was apparently something only an Arch-Mage could achieve after years of study.

After looking at the sigil for eleven while flipping the pages for some skimming, Sean promptly decided to simply use the first ten. The difficulty wasn’t linear. Far from it. It was exponential, and with each successive number, it seemed to become impossible. While the first ten were similar to the Hanzi for numbers, the ones beyond ten were comparable to the most complex Hanzi in existence. Maybe learning the one for thirty would be fine, and the one for sixty, the others be damned.

The circles themselves were far simpler than the sigils, so he had an easier time grasping the more complex ones —not enough to imagine them and cast spells with them, but still get an idea of what they were like in general. He’d manage, provided he had time. And he did, more or less.

He’d first tested with ten seconds and saw how far his Mana Ball would go, but he hadn’t tested with five. So he was planning on doing just that. After finally having all the system notifications and screens fade from his view, he finally got up from the ground. It hurt, but it helped.

Then Sean closed his eyes. This was a new trick he was testing. All the spells required for him to cast it was his intent, and he had to signify it in some manner. While he tapped it before, Sean was thinking of another way to cast it —to catch an enemy off guard after making them believe he’d be useless without his hands.

Sean’s left eye glowed a slight blue and he widened it. From within, a transparent stream of blue appeared. It wasn’t bright, band was only a slight hue —one wouldn’t notice it unless they paid attention to it. And he blinked, hard, if such a concept as blinking hard existed.

Then the circles formed. The first one, at the front, created the Mana Ball and the second one propelled it. Not a moment after it was propelled, the explosion component was almost sucked into the ball and it started to glow. Then it did what it was intended to do. After traveling some distance, it exploded.

It was far as well. He didn’t know the exact value, but it looked to be around a hundred meters away. So he grew bolder, and decided to use a three second variation. This one, unlike the others, exploded far closer. It was some distance away from the cliff, but was close nonetheless, from which he stood around ten or so meters away.

Growing even bolder, he tried a two second variation. This one exploded close, relatively speaking, but still far. How fast was the Mana Ball, even? He couldn’t know, but it was certainly faster than a human could run.

But then he was dragged out of his experimentation by a voice. It was a man, and not an old man at that. Sean turned his head to look at whoever had come —the one he’d bumped into earlier. He wouldn’t have necessarily turned to regard whoever it was under ordinary circumstances, but the contents caught his attention. It was a simple, “Fight me.”

“Excuse me?” said Sean, raising an eyebrow.

Then the boy walked toward him, quickly, at that. Before he could even retort, he’d come right next to him. He was on the plateau, which wasn’t all that large, so they weren’t all that far from each other. This was when Sean finally noted his appearance in full. Before, he hadn’t really noticed it, but his hair was dirty blond.

After he reached him, he pointed a finger and poked his chest. Then he stared at him from above, “I want to fight you. What don’t you understand?”

“Yes, but the reason. It doesn’t really make sense when someone approaches you and tries to fight you out of nowhere,” said Sean, trying to break off the tension. Just when he thought that the boy was talking away after he turned his back, Sean felt a gut-wrenching feeling —literally. Nausea built up as a warm feeling coursed from within his stomach and out his mouth. And he dropped to his knees, the pain in his arms coming alive at that point and assaulting him.

Some of the liquid dropped on the boy’s sleeves before he pulled it away, and the rest of it fell to the grass and was expertly hidden aside from the few bunches of meat in it. He didn’t bother to chew all that well. Not many famished people did.

“You’re the Giant Slayer. Stand up!” shouted the boy as he pulled his tunic off after noticing the vomit, revealing a muscular body that screamed out bodybuilder, minus the abs. They weren’t as toned, “You’re supposed to be strong.”

After a coughing fit that lasted a good ten seconds, Sean finally recovered. Or at least got close to it. His abdomen still hurt, though.

“Listen here, you ungrateful prick. It’s unfair to challenge a mage to a fist fight, and if you were a tad bit observant, you’d notice that my fucking hands aren’t working!” said Sean, still on his knees. He started quiet, but not calm, full of venom, and by the end he’d started literally shouting.

This wasn’t like him, but that was because the him up until today had never been beaten up or had come across an ungrateful prick. He’d seen spoiled brats, but when it was aimed at him, it felt different. Especially if it was a beatdown.

“Then use magic. I don’t care what,” said the boy, almost casually. He could blast a Mana Ball at him far too easily, but he wouldn’t. He wanted to fight? Then he’d deny him that. All he knew was offensive, and he didn’t know its effects on humans. With basic math about Fillmore having a Durability of 340 and he himself 310, he surmised a human could take on some punishment if not to the vitals. Then he helpfully shouted out, “Come on! I’m ready!” as he slapped his chest.

“I can’t. I’m out of Mana,” he lied, anti-climactically. It was petty, but he deserved it. The boy stomped away after hearing that. It was a quite unpleasant encounter. Sean rolled over slightly, without getting up, and after making it a few meters away from the vomit, he lied down on the ground. And he pulled out his Character Screen —his HP had dropped to 290. It was by no means dangerous, but that still hurt.

So he had around 20 Strength? Then he had the same amount! Unless it was more and he’d recovered some. Given his regeneration, it very well could be in the thirties rather than twenties since he didn’t instantly pull it out, more like half a minute later. It felt bad, losing against someone. He could certainly understand why some people hated losing in fights, but he didn’t think it hurt this much —broken body parts were one thing, but attacks specifically aimed for the organs for maximum amount of damage and pain was a wholly different thing.

“What’s that guy’s deal?” He asked out loud and closed his eyes. Before he’d even noticed, he’d fallen asleep. The exhaustion was always there, but he’d pushed it back. Perhaps the fact that he was actually almost out of mana added to that fact. Whenever his MP dropped, he grew sleepier and generally more tired.

***

3 days passed by in a flash as Sean tried to wrap his head around new concepts, and was forced to go back to the start to actually understand things. Why the circles were drawn and why the time component had sigils had all been simply glossed over by him back when he was trying to learn spells, and he hit a roadblock which he couldn’t quite scale without further research in the form of an all too important component —Sensors, or as he would call it, Event Listeners.

And to do that, he needed to learn basic Mana Expenditure Theory which was basically a mumble rap about what spell couldn’t be overcharged and what spells could be. And Mana Ball wasn’t one of them unless it was a flawed design… so that meant if he actually wanted to do a Mana Ball that exploded in the face of an enemy, he had to spend at least a week studying how to perfectly balance Mana Expenditure. Needless to say, he put the 3 days of recovery wisely and dedicated that to the Study of Magic.

“You sure you’re ready, kiddo?” asked Fillmore as Sean got up on a horse. His bones had more or less recovered, and there was basically no pain on that front. Unless he’d gotten so used to pain that he didn’t notice a slight pain. Regardless, it didn’t matter much. He was getting used to being slightly injured, “Never hurts to prepare more.”

“Nope. I’d rather not endanger you any longer. At least if I die, they won’t come after you. If they do, you have the boats,” said Sean and looked at the horse. It was the one from Fillmore’s cart, a chestnut colt that was quite tall and apparently used to climbing mountains. Sean would expect no less. It was the one that dragged Fillmore’s cart up to the giants’ mountain for some time.

“I’d give you a hammer, but I’m not very sure you can use one,” said Fillmore, and chuckled awkwardly afterward. Sean didn’t laugh nor smile. He was intently staring at the road and the mountain range that was still visible despite them being a day’s worth of distance away. A light pat sounded and the horse suddenly started to dash. And from behind, Fillmore shouted, “Off you go.”

Sean didn’t say goodbye. That was his least favorite part about leaving. Whenever he left someone he’d gotten attached to, if he said goodbye, he started to cry. So he gripped the reins harder, the backpack on his back. Hopefully, he wouldn’t screw over his ankles by falling down this time. And with that, his journey started.

The sound of the horse galloping upon the dirt was audible, and added to the atmosphere. He was leaning down slightly, and the colt obliged, running as fast as it could. Finally not pulling a weight seemed to have energized it a bit, he supposed. That, or the three days of doing nothing while sitting in the stables.

But then he heard another sound —or rather, another set of footsteps. Much like a child looking back for the first time while riding a bike, Sean carefully turned his head so as to not run into something, despite knowing that there was nothing in front of him other than the road, which Sean knew that the horse wouldn’t trip on. It was just his dormant paranoia creeping out slightly.

Sean’s somewhat bittersweet expression turned into a full-on frown as Sean made out the blond hair of the boy he’d run into 3 days ago. They hadn’t met again during his entire stay in the village, but what was he trying to do again? Beat him up again?

“I’m going,” he bluntly said as he caught up. The horse wasn’t fast, per say, but Sean had simply slowed down his pace by leaning back. They’d probably be the same speed. That, and the wind would have made talking pretty difficult. He knew full well from when he rode bicycles with friends back in high school, and he got the feeling that the horses were faster from the wind alone.

After the boy caught up, he came to a near halt as well, the gallop from before turning into a trot and the trot into a walk. So they were there, riding alongside each other on horses. When they were close, and most importantly, as he wasn’t being forced to look behind his shoulders, Sean noticed that he’d put on something of a leather armor similar to his and an axe was sheathed to his belt. There was also a shield hanging from one side of his horse —it was mouse grey in color.

“Are you going to beat me up again if I ask you to explain?” asked Sean. The beatdown from before wasn’t his fondest memory of the Calibration Stage. Fighting was such a brutish method of solving problems, but he supposed it was a method nonetheless.

“No. I’ll go kill the giants with you,” said the boy much like before, bluntly. Sean groaned. This was the exact kind of person he hated —acting all broody and stoic without any real reason, and antagonizing others, too.

“They could probably kill you,” said Sean, trying to discourage him, “And they won’t be playing around this time. I’ve killed one of theirs, and they’re bloodthirsty. If they kill me, I won’t die. You will.”

“Then I’ll at least take one down with me,” said the boy haughtily with a somewhat deep voice, full of arrogance, “I’ll at least feast in Valhalla, with my ancestors —something my father and his father could not accomplish.”

He supposed he was a good enough bait, but… he felt guilty, despite the fact that he was an asshole. Killing a giant felt like killing a monster in a game, but this guy was akin to an NPC. Possibly getting him killed felt wrong. It felt like he was doing the wrong thing, whereas killing the giant felt like it was the right thing to do. That, and his adrenaline helped along with the fact that he was pumped up then. Now, he wasn’t.

“Suit yourself, but don’t expect me to save you. I’ll be struggling to protect myself,” said Sean as he leaned down and waved his hands holding the reins. The horse sped up and started galloping. And again, he could hear the boy’s horse from behind him. It seemed like he'd gotten an unlikely companion.

***

Sean wasn’t the best when it came to socializing, especially with strangers. But he got attached to the ones that talked to him. Essentially, he was the reactive sort of person —when the other one didn’t initiate a conversation, he didn’t really talk to them, but this time it was an exception. Very rarely did he start a conversation with those he didn’t know, but even Sean had a limit.

The two were back at the village. It felt awfully desolate, with no one there. No cattle, no people and even birds didn’t seem to roost there. The buildings simply stood there, devoid of all life. After a day’s worth of ride, some slow and some fast, they’d reached it. Technically, it hadn’t even been a day due to their pace. Previously, they’d been on carts filled with people, so they’d traveled slowly. Now, there was nothing to carry and were on fast and strong horses.

They’d been riding so long that the sound of hooves hitting the ground had faded into background noise, and Sean felt his back and ass ache from the constant strain. The saddle was a hard one, rubbing into his body in quite an uncomfortable manners. It couldn’t be felt until he became sore from riding it. As good as his recovery was, there was no recovering from something that was damaging him ceaselessly. Even his shoulders hurt slightly now.

It was evening now, as they hadn’t embarked all that early either. Getting enough sleep was the way to go about fighting, and Sean had eaten moderately before leaving so he was starting to starve. But he couldn’t speak for the boy.

“Why did you stop?” asked the boy as he did so as well, looking around the village, “There’s no one here.”

“We’ll rest for today. The road ahead will take half a day. By the time we get there, we won’t have any strength left if we keep on going,” said Sean as he hopped down near the stables. He didn’t really know how much horses could be fed, but he supposed keeping them in the stables with some of the grass that they were fed would be alright.

Of course, most of the knowledge he was using came from Fillmore, and considering that he was quite literally the most experienced person at climbing the mountain, he’d take his word for it. Alas, he’d only rid up dragging a cart. Sean surmised they’d get there faster since they had no baggage, but Fillmore might as well be talking about how long it’d take without any too, given his dependability.

“Then we’ll kill them when they’re sleeping!” shouted the boy, as if it was common sense. Technically, it was, but Sean didn’t want to risk fighting them tired. Fighting them at his peak was hard enough, let alone tired —not that he was at his peak, but a somewhat hurt ankle that didn’t bother him too much was close enough to it, “Our chances are higher!”

“Fighting them when they’re awake is easier,” said Sean, and he had a plan. Explosion in the face until they died or until they fell to their deaths. The higher they got, the easier it would be, he hoped. And easier his escape would be, hopefully, “Slitting their throats is difficult, but having them fall down a mountain is easier. And we’re going with incomplete intel. Even Fillmore doesn’t know what it’s like inside, only that there are a few outposts with a guard in them —single guards.”

“Then all the easier! We kill the first one in its sleep and we’ll push the others to their deaths if they come down. It’s as easy as that,” he said, and Sean thought for a few seconds, in the quiet provided by Research.

“That’s… actually a good idea,” he said after he came to a conclusion, “I’ve seen a hut on my way up, but I don’t know how far up it is. We could ride until we’re halfway there and walk the rest of the way there,” he started, but was interrupted.

“Or they’ll hear the horses, yes, I know,” said the boy. Sean was coming to respect him. He had a brain —not something he saw in a musclehead. At least that’s what he’d named the boy, after how he got beaten up by him, “We ride when the sun falls, in the darkness of the night.”

“Also, what’s your name?” asked Sean halfway through the conversation. Knowing his name helped in teamwork, or at least he thought it would.

“Brandon,” he said promptly, “Descendant of the berserkers.”

“I’m Sean,” he responded in turn, but not a moment after he’d finished, or rather, the very moment he’d finished, Brandon once again spoke and interrupted him.

“You’re the hunter-mage. That’s all I need to know,” said Brandon. Maybe he wasn’t all that decent of a guy. He had no manners.