∼ Day 4 ∼

Regaining consciousness I groaned mentally.

What the fuck happened...

Urgh...

It would seem that luckily no creature had taken advantage of my situation while passed out.

Looking towards the twin suns I can see that they had risen over the horizon a bit.

About half an hour has gone by if I were to estimate.

What was that energy that my mind was trying to pull?

Since it wasn't stamina... could it be...

Mana?

If so, then it would make sense if I were to try and draw something from my body that was virtually non-existent that the strain would be too great for me too handle.

Goddamn, magic is a dangerous thing to handle, no wonder that it's seemingly so rare from what I can observe.

Even though I had been knocked out cold, and it doesn't seem like I can use my newly acquired skills and abilities, I now more than ever is excited by the possibilities that they provide.

Oh, yeah. Remembering back I think I can vaguely remember a skill description that involved magic, which talked about something called a mana-source.

Is that what I'm missing or maybe more than just that?

I pull up my status to inspect it closer.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 7 Skills 12 -Race- Sanguinite VIT 10 Traits 3 ⇒ 4 -Sex- Male AGI 14 ⇒ 15 Titles 0 ⇒ 1 -Rank- I- DEX 9 ⇒ 10 Skillpoints 2 ⇒ 5 -Level- 4/20 INT 15 Resistances

Health 44/44 CHR 0.84 ⇒ 0.89 Physical Resistance 0.972 ⇒ 1 Stamina 18/18 WILL 13 Magical Resistance 0.160 ⇒ 0.180 Mana 0/0 MAG 0.37 ⇒ 0. 42 Mental Resistance 6 ⇒ 7

Okay, let's pull up the description for mana.

-Mana!-

[Indicates the amount of mana available to the individual. Mana is the energy used when conjuring magic]

I see...

Not much different from what I had expected.

So the mana-source must be where either mana is drawn from and/or stored in.

Let me try and search for some spells in the skill shop.

-Skill shop, spells!-

Skill shop Search > Spells Skills Name Type Cost Requirement

Uhh, no spells?

Either I can't see the spells on the shop and/or I have to acquire them somehow else. Or there simply aren't any fixed spells in this world.

Magic does definitely seem to work differently in this world than I'd expected that it would've.

Let's just try searching up skills that allow magic then.

-Skill shop, magic!-

Skill shop Search > Magic Skills Name Type Cost Requirement -Mana shaping- Magic 10 INT - 20 / MAG - 5 Allows you the ability to shape the mana within or outside your body. -Magic Talent- Magic 15 INT - 20 Enhances your ability to control magic. -Spell formation- Magic 5 INT - 20 Allows you greater ease with casting magic by premaking spell formations. -Mana condensation- Magic 8 INT - 15 / MAG - 10 Condenses the mana within your mana source to make it purer and more potent.

I preemptively filtered out the skills that just used magic to activate and such, so the skill shop wouldn't be filled with all kinds of skills that simply had the magic element in them.

So I ended up with these skills.

They're very interesting, to say the least, but also very expensive.

I can easily see a use for each one, and in tandem with each other, they could be seriously effective.

Unfortunately, none of these seem to be able to grant me mana.

The one thing I lack is a mana source.

While I know that the system most likely can't help me answer my question, I still posed it to be safe.

-System, what is a mana source?-

[I can't answer that question]

(Sigh)

It was worth a try.

What should I do with my current five skill points plus the two I'll get as soon as I advance smell?

Well, I'm in lack of a 6th limb, so maybe something that can help me regrow the limb?

-Skill shop, Limb regrowth!-

Skill shop Search > Limb regrowth Skills Name Type Cost Requirement -Lesser Limb Regrowth- Defensive 12 VIT - 25 Allows the user the consume stamina and nourishment to very slowly regrow a lost limb over a longer period of time. Time and nourishment spent are tied to the innate value, power, and complexity of the limb.

Ah, that's quite the expensive skill and has an annoyingly high requirement of 25 vitality.

I'll guess I just have to put my faith in evolution...

Let's just advance smell and then look at what defensive skills I can get.

-Skill advancement, smell!-

Skill advancement - Smell Choose one advancement -Greater Smell- Greatly increased smelling capabilities. -Mana Smell- Increased smelling capabilities. Can vaguely smell the mana in the air. -Detect Emotions- Increased smelling capabilities. Can vaguely smell the emotions of creatures. -Aerial Smelling- Increased smelling capabilities. Allows for more long-distance scents that travel in the air to be picked up.

Well, the mana one seems cool but not needed in the slightest. Detect emotions seem useful when interacting with humans but after the village, I have no intention of doing so any time soon.

So it's between greater smell and aerial smelling. Either one seems to end up doing pretty much the same thing. But greater smell seems to make my ability to track and follow certain scents as the will be stronger.

And aerial smelling might just only allow me to smell over more scent from farther away, and possibly also just only alert me to the scent but not actually allow me to be able to follow up on it.

So I decide greater smell.

-Greater smell!-

[Skill - Smell has been advanced to Greater Smell!]

[For advancing a skill you receive 2 skill points!]

Now let's check up on the defensive skills available for seven skill points.

-Skill shop!-

Skill shop Search > Defensive, ≤ 7 Skills Name Type Cost Requirement -Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton- Defensive 5 STR - 2 / VIT - 5 Enhances the exoskeleton of the user. Increased toughness and resistance. -Lesser Enhanced Organs- Defensive 5 VIT - 8 Enhances the inner organs of the skill user, providing them with increased the toughness of their insides and also a slight increase in the effectivity of those organs.

While lesser enhanced organs are very good, I'm an insect so improving my exoskeleton instead will help me greatly.

-Lesser enhanced exoskeleton!-

[Skill - Lesser enhanced exoskeleton has been added to the skill list!]

Great, now let's see what difference it made.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 7 Skills 13 -Race- Sanguinite VIT 10 Traits 4 -Sex- Male AGI 15 Titles 1 -Rank- I- DEX 10 Skillpoints 5 ⇒ 2 -Level- 4/20 INT 15 Resistances

Health 44/44 CHR 0.89 Physical Resistance 1 ⇒ 3 Stamina 18/18 WILL 13 Magical Resistance 0.180 ⇒ 0.355 Mana 0/0 MAG 0. 42 Mental Resistance 7

Holy crap!

While it might just only be an increase of only 2 points. For me, that's really quite a lot.

Satisfied, I direct my attention to what I'm going to do next.

I have to get the hell out of these damned rocky hills and back to the glades.

Before taking my leave, I remember about the infected goblin.

Trying to sense the location of the goblin, I come up short.

I can no longer feel it. It's probably out of range, maybe if I level the blood plague skill then I might be able to extend that range if that's the case.

Done I set off for the glades.

Onwards, to my own little rabbit slaughterhouse!