Looking at the sky Trystan estimates around an hour had passed, his health bar was full again and he was pleasantly surprised to learn that while he was actively meditating his mana regeneration rate had doubled, which was allowing his to actually regain his mana even while keeping the Mana Shield up and running. As an additional surprise, it seemed that surviving and suffering through the poison had actually left him with another small gift, both his Endurance and Willpower rating had increased by one through the ordeal.

Trystan had known that it was possible to increase your stats, to grind them up without spending points, but by the time humans as a whole had learned about this system advantage they had already, for the most part, purchased up to levels that made it take months in order to increase it further. He would need to experiment with it, but it did seem like there was some sort of formula that was utilized to determine how much work was required in order to increase a stat. Regardless, for now, it was just good to see his health, regeneration, and magical abilities increase, if only ever so slightly.

Groaning he stands up from his sitting position. While meditation definitely helped him to survive, and to increase his mana regeneration, it wasn’t the most comfortable position to sit for a long time. As he feels the caked mud on the back of his pants he also notes that perhaps it was more the location than the position. He puts up another Mana shield and then looks at the sun to gauge the direction he needs to go. Ahead to the east and he should find his way to Opiales, well eventually.

With the Mana Shield up and running, the Mosquitos minor damage had been dealt with, but the experience with the snake made sure he didn’t let his guard down. There were too many other dangers within the swamp that he had heard about, and the snake was the least of them all. As he continued trudging through the murky water he realizes that there are fewer and fewer mosquito attacks occurring, so he had to renew his shielding less often. Not that that was a bad thing, but it did mean that something was either naturally keeping them away, or thinning out their numbers.

Trystan looks around at the water, looking for hints of movement dwelling within it, movement other than his own. He spots a couple of areas where the ripples seem to be moving towards him rather than away from him, but they are far enough away that he shouldn’t need to worry about it. Then he hears the cry of birds, more than one. He sees a large hawk-like bird getting dragged into the water by an elongated leathery jaw, and then two more, jumping up off of the little patch of land that they were standing on.

Trystan ducks quickly as one of the birds, fly directly at him, talons stretched out as if his presence was the cause of its former flockmates death. His reaction speed isn’t quite quick enough for a swooping hawk, and his shielding takes the brunt of the damage, but the red lettering of damage still comes across his vision as it strikes.

-12 hp

Damn, he had just refreshed the shield and it still had gotten through it, a single swooping strike from a hawk would remove almost a third of his health without shielding. He quickly recast Mana Shield as he rushed towards the nearest landmass. He wouldn’t be able to roll and dodge in the water, especially since there was still that alligator-like animal in the water somewhere nearby. As his feet touch the muddy edge of the land he slips slightly and feels another swooping strike from a hawk across his back, his backpack, and chain shirt reduces the damage slightly, but mainly the bird’s attack was thrown off slightly by his unexpected movement.

-10 hp

Trystan scrambles up the muddy edge of the swamps island and then looks quickly for the birds attacking him. He sees the two birds wheeling around and coming at him again. The birds wouldn’t have that much health, but he wasn’t sure if a single strike from a Mana Bolt would actually be able to kill one.

Mana Bolt - Initiate

The most basic of Mana based attacks, Mana bolt allows the user to generate a bolt of mana that strikes out at the target for a small amount of damage.

Description: Bolt attack with a base value of 10 points, value modified by Spellpower.

Cost: 10 mana

Trystan shakes his head as he dives to the side, barely dodging out of the way of the swooping hawks. It would take time, and mana, but the bolts would likely eventually kill the hawks. The question was whether or not they could get him before he got them, and how weakened he would be by that point. Later on even the most basic of spells would be powerful enough, but this zone wasn’t one that many people looked into. It was one of the most dangerous areas on the first level, and that was just considering the local wild-life. Outside of the wild-life, the actual mob’s in the area had evolved to be able to survive easily within the swamps. He would hopefully bypass them completely, there were a few things that he absolutely needed to purchase back in one of the Shops, things that he had forgotten, and after that, he needed to try and meet up with his family and friends. He may not be able to keep them safe from everything, but being together and supporting one another would bring about a kind of strength in all of them that would hopefully change the future this time around.

Trystan keeps his gaze on the hawk, at the bare minimum he could try and use the hawks as a practice to increase his understanding of Mana Bolt. Reaching out a hand he gathers the mana into his hand, forming the bolt but not releasing it yet. The energy coalesces around his hand and he can see the dancing blue-white light that it forms. It was different than Ki, not internal energy, but a manipulation of the external one. Maybe if he had stayed with Ki he would have been able to instantly raise his levels of understanding, but he knew he had to try something different this time. But maybe, maybe it wasn’t as different as he thought it was. He feels the energy with his mind, the pulse of energy from the Tower, the power that he is channeling to this bolt spell. There were some familiarity with it and Ki, after all, some pieces of it still originated from the same source, whether it was internally created or externally manipulated the true source was still the Tower.

Trystan tries to push more mana into the spell, it was something he was capable of doing with his Ki based weapon attacks, channeling extra energy into the ability in order to increase its effects. It wasn’t a very energy-efficient method, but sometimes it was more important to take out an enemy quickly rather than to be able to use your abilities more.

-5 hp

The energy forms thicker around his hand and starts burning his skin as it gains a denser form. This wouldn’t do at all, he couldn’t take damage in order to do more damage. He quickly raises his hand finding the hawk as it comes swooping down at him. Aiming down his arm he wills the bolt to strike out from his hand, maybe he could go for a critical strike, hit the bird directly on the head, either stunning it momentarily or causing enough damage to kill it directly. Unfortunately without a Luck stat, it would be completely up to his skill and aiming as to whether he could enact a critical strike.

The bolt crackles out from his upraised arm and strikes the hawk, missing the head and hitting its chest. The hawk screes in pain and jolts to the right circling around again. He reads his status messages quickly and see’s that the spell took double the mana and did around fifty percent more damage than what it should after adjusting for Spellpower. Not bad, but definitely not something that he can do often, not with the backlash from overcharging, that wasn’t something that he had to deal with when using Ki.

-10 hp

He feels the flaring pain of claws across his face as the second hawk strikes at him again. Striking out with his sword he realizes the bird has already left before the sword came anywhere near it. This would have to be a ranged battle if he was to survive. Keeping his eyes locked on the hawks he gathers another strike of energy and aiming carefully releases it as the first hawk comes circling around to face him head-on again. It strikes it squarely on the chest, but it doesn’t seem deterred this time, instead it tucks its wings and begins it’s swooping attack. He gathers more energy again for another Mana Bolt spell, trying to feel the energy coursing through the air, trying to direct it and guide it to form before the hawk reaches in, it finally forms and releases out as the hawk reaches out towards his face with its talons. The hawk is struck again and tumbles to the side, dying as the bolt struck it.

Turning his attention to the final hawk he watches with a careful eye, once again forming the bolt of energy and just holding it to him, trying desperately to feel every molecule of the bolt before it’s released. Only by understanding the ability would he ever be able to truly increase its level. Unlike the video games of the past, merely using an ability wasn’t a guarantee of raising it’s level, knowledge, understanding, hard work, all of these things played a part. Usage of the ability was just the way that most people, later on in the Tower, came to understand the ability and thus started raising their ability levels.

The mana bolt flashes out towards the hawk, striking its head as it comes diving down at him, stunned the hawk has no chance to react as he sidesteps the bird and it comes crashing down to the ground. He strikes out with his sword finishing the hawk as it stays stunned and damaged from crashing to the ground. More statuses of point gains occur as this happens. He would need those points, he could only gain so many points from each Floor on the Tower. Points spent on equipment and goods generally didn’t count towards that limit, only the final points that could be banked when advancing to the next level. This meant that generally speaking people didn’t gain any new abilities on the first couple of levels, well the ones that didn’t engage in PvP actions didn’t at least, that was one of the allures of PvP action, you could gain all of the points that the other player had gained.

Looking around he saw the leathery snout of the animal that had dragged down one of the hawks poking out of the water near the land he was standing on. He would need to wait till later to actually experiment more with his abilities, already he was under half of his mana pool available to him, and while his health was a little better off, it wasn’t by much. He would need to kill the creature before he could take a moment to rest, experiment, and try to continue leaving this swamp.

Readying a Mana bolt he waits until he can see a little more of the animal. It reaches the alligator and strikes its snout directly, but his jaw drops open as he reads the damage output. Way too low, the alligator must have a version of natural armor that reduces the damage taken, almost half of what he was expecting to do was taken away. This shit right here was why he had never done the swamp in the past, the creatures were resilient, often poisonous, and always deadly.

The alligator rushes out from the water, going directly at the puny thing that had attempted to sting it. Trystan backs away firing mana bolt after mana bolt at it, two, three, four, five mana bolts and it just keeps on coming, much slower out of the water Trystan manages to keep out of its way until his feet hit the edge of the water at the opposite side of the small island. ‘Shit’ he thinks. Quickly he casts a Mana Shield and readies his sword as it comes at him. He strikes down with his sword as it approaches within range, but again it ignores the damage. It’s head moves slightly and then it jumps forward, it’s jaws clamping down on his leg.

-25 hp

Trystan roars in pain as he can feel his bones wanting to give way under the alligator’s clamping jaws. He starts striking out of the sword furiously, ignoring the damage and just trying to hit it as many times as possible before it deals more damage. The alligator responds by just pressing down with more pressure again.

-47 hp

Trystan screams in pain as his health drops perilously low. Striking out one final time the blade finally cleaves through the skin and the alligator lets go as it’s health finally drops down to zero. He pants as he realizes that not only his mana but his endurance is also at zero. He has no more energy to give. Collapsing to the ground he tries to find a center to start meditation so that he can recover enough mana to recast mana shield and keep himself alive.