“Yes, yes, I recognize this doesn’t cost us anything, but where is the fun? We’ve all watched these monkeys root around in the dirt before, and this one won’t even have those metal-sprayers they’re all so fond of.”

“Well, that’s an idea,” chimed a third, booming voice. “Let’s just drop a whole lot of them with their metal sprayers and see if they can pose a challenge to one of the other races. That’ll make for a good show.”

“Friends,” the second voice chimed in, exasperated, “How could it not be fun watching him struggle? I won’t even place any shelter for him. And what if I grant him the Staff of Mardun. It’s an old relic, but still quite strong. It will force him to deal with mana sooner rather than later, and that’ll be quite a show. Maybe he’ll come up with some spells all on his own. Maybe he’ll burst into flames.

“Or maybe he’ll actually be able to come and kill us all so he can fix this damned universe.”

There was an atmosphere of awe at the idea, and the other two both stayed silent for much longer than was their usual wont.

“Do you really think there’s a chance he could become so strong?”

“We can only hope.”

As Mason fell under the shade of the tree-line, he could feel his skin start to cool immediately. It had grown pink in place of the pale he was used to, but he supposed that couldn’t be helped. He had spent enough time throwing a fit out in the field, and the sun really was blazing today.

When the trees grew thick, it quickly became a completely different ecosystem. Long-dead leaves, sticks, and branches lay scattered across a distance of brambles and bushes filling in the space between tightly packed trees. He wished he had found a sword instead of a staff- this land would need to be cleared one way or another.

His stomach rumbled, and he shivered as a gust of wind caught the sweat on his skin and dropped his temperature quickly. Sighing, he began picking his way deeper into the trees, hoping to find water, food, and shelter.

Mason hadn’t gone far before he heard a skittering amongst the brambles. He saw nothing, but with the way the sound popped up along his horizon, he feared that whatever was making the noise was either very quick, or that there were many of them.

Hoping against reason that whatever it was would leave him alone, he kept moving, using his staff here and there to push thorny vines out of his way, and moving gingerly as if the plants were more of a threat than an inconvenience.

The rustling didn’t stop, but instead grew more frequent, following him.

He pushed his staff well ahead of him to try to sweep out a path through the undergrowth, but when he lowered the end of it to find the ground, it seemed to press into something squishy- and in moments everything went haywire.

The skittering grew loud as four greyish black blurs darted up nearby trees, and then one of them launched itself directly at Mason. He screamed, a high-pitched, nasally thing, and tried to duck down and run, but that didn’t prevent the sharp claws of whatever was attacking him from leaving thick red marks along his skin.

Though the cuts weren’t shallow, they seemed to hold together and he only lost a little blood as he ran, being hounded by these strange creatures no matter how fast he went.

He finally broke out past the brush into a region which was somewhat clearer- a muddy, clay-like basin which slowed him considerably but whose spindly grasses were much worse cover for the beasts.

Seeing them did not make them less threatening though- like a cross between a squirrel and an imp, they truly were a greyish blue, with thick, tough-looking skin and angular features. They sprinted on all fours and launched themselves claw-first.

Mason drew his staff and began swinging, recklessly, as the squirrel-imps kept attacking.

In a bout of extreme luck, he managed to crack one in the head with his staff.

It fell to the ground, dazed, and scampered a few feet away, but more noticeable was the resulting notification.

You’ve attacked an enemy! Your health and mana will now be revealed. Stay determined, and you will grow stronger.

Health: 14/20

Mana: 0/20

Mana (Mardun): 0/20

“Now they tell me…” Mason didn’t have time to figure out why his mana was empty, but he was pleased to see that his health was still considerably high. Taking a deep breath, he tried to track one of the imps, and swung at it right after it leapt at him.

He managed to connect the gem of the staff with the middle of the imps body, and it flew back into the ground and rolled before righting itself. “Okay, you’re not down yet, but you’re not impossible to hit, either.”

Congratulations, you’ve unlocked a skill! You’ve learned Focus.

Focus: Concentrate on the objective at hand, making more careful observations and increasing your ability to react. Wisdom and endurance improve the duration you can use Focus.

Congratulations, you’ve discovered the Staff of Mardun’s first ability, Mana Vampirism!

Mana Vampirism (Mardun): Leech mana directly from the life-force of any target. Mana gathered this way will enable you to cast empowered life-stealing spells. Your base mana pool is halved while this staff is equipped.

These notifications flicked past his eye, and he only was able to gather the gist of either of them, obviously noticing the words focus and mana. What was more pressing was a significant burning sensation in his hands, as the staff warmed up to an intense degree.

He screamed, this time in a much deeper octave- a scream not of fear, but of agony. Every part of his body alternately tingled or shocked, and he had to fight to prevent himself from twitching. He hardly even noticed one of the imps latching onto his back and biting vigorously at his back.

“Fucking stop!” He shouted, spinning around and grabbing at the beast on his back. He ripped it off hastily and felt his skin go with it, then in a fury he smashed the butt of his staff onto the beast as it landed on the ground.

To his surprise, the attack actually went straight through the beast, and it died before him.

Another notification popped up in his vision but he dismissed it mentally.

He felt his eyes go wide, and he took another deep breath, listening and looking for the next attack.

He saw a blur of motion to his right, and he swung his staff out. Focusing all of his attention on that point, he let loose the painful electric feeling from within him.

It moved like a puff of air, but he could see black streaks move out and past the imp as it flew. By the time it made it to him, it had gone limp, its eyes fluttering slightly. The black streaks in the air returned to the staff even as Mason swung it at the imp that he had knocked to the ground.

What he experienced as he had released the energy felt like the exhaustion of total release- every muscle weakening, but with the return of the black wave he felt the staff feeding more of the electricity back into him, charging him up.

He hazarded a glance at his stat screen.

Health: 8/20

Mana: 0/20

Mana (Mardun): 2/20

The fire raged within him, and he knew he had to let it go. He found his next target, and then another, releasing that wave at both of them. When they were downed, he smacked each of them with his staff to make sure they stayed that way.

There were four dead imps scattered about him now. One of them was split in half from the force of his stabbing, while the other three just looked mildly deflated. He gritted his teeth, the Mardun mana eating away at him from the inside.

With desperate hope, he launched the spell in a continuous stream at the sky, and didn’t move to pull any energy back toward the staff.

Mason felt a momentary peace as his muscles relaxed and the energy disappeared, but then he collapsed in a heap, leaning heavily on his staff to keep him from laying in the clay-like mud.

“What the fuck was that?” He asked to the bodies of the squirrels around him.

After a short rest, he got back up, but his head swam dangerously and he stumbled halfway across the muddy path to lean against a tree. The mana had done considerable damage to his body, in a way that his health was not reflecting.

His muscles burned like they had been worked out well beyond the point of exhaustion, but he knew that despite the cuts he had sustained and the exploration he had done so far, nothing explained the agony he was in like that mana had.

“Is all mana so dangerous, or is the vampirism mana somehow different? Maybe if I level up the vampirism it won’t hurt so badly. Hell, maybe I can use it for an actual spell instead of that life sucking thing. Fuck, this never happens to mages in video games.”

He bent down and picked up the nearest imp thing, its mangled body dry from having been life-drained. “I wish I knew what level this was. Aren’t video games supposed to have name plates?” He pulled it up to his face and looked closely at it. With a deep breath, he tried to channel his focus ability.

Pain shot through his body again, and he saw a new bar show up on his status.

Stamina: 0/20

Right, he thought, I’m exhausted.

He noticed another status icon, and putting his mind to it, it expanded with a description.

Mana Sickness: Your underdeveloped body cannot handle mana. Its presence drains your stamina and prevents health regeneration for a short time.

And that’s just great.

He looked again at the imp, and noticed for a brief second a flicker above its head. He saw its name, Imp-Squirrel Level 2?.

Judging by the very unofficial name, he presumed that this status was partially driven by his own understanding. The question mark after the level wasn’t very reassuring, but he figured it made sense; after all, he didn’t really know, and it was him that tried to analyze it.

Congratulations, you’ve unlocked a skill: Analyze (Focus).

Analyze: Through your own observations and understanding, identify and assess characteristics of the world around you and all that inhabits it. Intelligence increases the speed at which you can compare a subject to existing knowledge. Creativity increases your ability to intuit information about an unknown subject. Your skill in Focus will improve this skill in a variety of ways.

Collapsing backwards against a tree, Mason’s eyes closed momentarily as he tried to rally his energy. He wanted to keep moving- had to keep moving if he hoped to survive for long- but his body rebelled against him.

He looked at his stats, and with another deep breath, concentrated on using his focus ability to look at them more closely. A splitting pain shot through his skull which sent him crouched on the ground against the tree, but when he looked at his screen, he saw what he wanted to know.

Health: 9/20 (1/hr) (Affected by Mana Sickness)

Mana: 0/20 (0/hr)

Mana (Mardun): 0/20

Stamina: 0/20 (1/min) (Affected by Mana Sickness)

“Okay, so I’ll recover, but not quickly. I wonder how long mana sickness lasts?” He looked at its description again, then swore as he realized what he’d have to do. He took a breath, and channeled his focus ability. The pain was worse this time, and his eyes closed as he collapsed to the ground.