The mana arrow sailed through the air, streams of power flowing freely through it. The powerful spell radiated power as the arrow continued the short journey towards its target which it had been designed to pierce.

Moving slowly across the open plane the Ice Shroom was continuing its pleasant journey in search of food. The creature had started as a lowly Shroom, however, it had stumbled upon something which had helped it gain an understanding of the law of ice, which in turn had mutated its body and given the simple creature intelligence. Transitioning from hiding constantly, fearful for its life to casting ice shards formed out of pure white mana to defeat its targets, had made life easier for the solitary Shroom, who had not found its brethren in this strange place, even though it had been searching for days.

Hearing a low whistling sound approaching the Shroom glanced around just in time to witness a blue glowing light, piercing straight towards it. Unable to dodge the Ice Shroom could only helplessly accept its death.

Level 8 ice shroom killed 800 XP gained

"Oh yeah, did you see that Albert! what a shot" exclaimed Daimon.

"Yes yes, don't go blowing your own horn, it was a lucky shot on a low-level fungus congratulations," Albert responded with a wry smile.

However Albert was very wrong, it wasn't a lucky shot and Daimon proved it throughout the rest of the day.

When the mana arrow hit the Shroom the power behind the arrow caused the helpless creature to explode. Attracted by the smell and free meal, along came a new creature several minutes later.

Goldfinch ravager level 7

A beautiful bird appeared to consume the corpse of the Shroom. This goldfinch Daimon noticed was 3 times larger than its normal counterpart and its talons looked like they could shear through steel. Unfortunately for the bird, its bright colors made it stand out in contrast with the empty plane below.

Aiming at the creature who was feasting upon the eyes of his last victim, Daimon aimed once more and fired, watching as the arrow dipped in the air and took the unsuspecting creature in the side. The customary notification appeared as the XP flowed freely into Daimon.

You have reached level 10

Calculating

Congratulations for being the first to reach level ten access to the shop (Individual access) has been granted.

+3 Intelligence stats granted

Excited by the rewards, which was understandable considering his intelligence had doubled, Daimon became ecstatic, deciding to firstly address the extra intelligence, Daimon found that he could almost think faster, React quicker due to faster decisions, and hopefully some other benefits which he hadn't yet discovered.

"Alberttttt"..... said Daimon

"Yes?" replied Albert, clearly confused at Daimons' tone of voice.

"Well remember you said I wouldn't gain access to the shop for a long time? What would you do if I told you that I had just hit level ten and gained access to the shop as one of my rewards?

"There's no way the system was that generous, no way said Albert in a strange tone.

"Thankfully it was however it says Individual access?"

"Yep it means no one else can use it except you. Look at your wrist".

Looking down at his wrist Daimon noticed a futuristic-looking watch attached to his wrist, lightly touching it a hologram the size of a computer screen appeared with 2 options attached buy and sell.

"Only you can use this, it will not come off your arm unless you purchase or gain an upgrade as a reward, however, we can come to that later, you have more prey to kill and I have a feeling you may find this one a little bit harder to kill."

Quickly glancing at the plane, Daimon saw another bird swoop down low and land in front of the previous bird's corpse, this one was much bigger, however other than the sheer mass increase, it looked normal.

Chickadee level 17

Aiming once more, Daimon released a mana the mana arrow and watched as it pierced the creature's side. However, the bird did not go down immediately, as it let out a pained chirp that had pierced through the air. Thankfully the arrow rendered the bird unable to fly away, watching as it slowly looked around looking for the attacker, Daimon prepared another arrow and fired, this one finished the job.

Chickadee level 17 killed 1400 XP gained.

Daimon was surprised to learn that his first attack didn't bring the creature down, thankfully the second did. He was now glad that he didn't fire an arrow at that rock giant yesterday, that creature surely had much more defense than a bird. He broke out in a cold sweat thinking about how it could have turned out had he fired that shot. The realization made him realize how weak he truly was, and helped him focus on the task at hand.

"Albert why can't I see how much XP is needed to reach the next level? and 1 stat point per level seems low," questioned Daimon.

"I keep forgetting you haven't been through the tutorial, it is usually explained there, the system wanted to give its occupants a more natural feeling to their life, which means less of a numerical value to one's life and more of a natural feel, that's why mana, stamina, and XP amongst other things are considered as hidden stats. There are however some class-related skills that let you see the values. Unfortunately, it is extremely rare." Replied Albert.

"I'm not too worried, however being able to see my mana numerally and the cost of my spells would be helpful". Said Daimon.

The rest of the day went by smoothly using the already dead monsters to attract more was working perfectly, although as Albert had mentioned, after an hour past the slain creatures turned into strange dark particles and spread into the wind, almost like ashes but not quite. It was a surreal experience, what scared him the most was the fact that humans would vanish in the same way, gone were the days of burials. How would the religious people of the world deal with it knowing that they could no longer lay their loved ones to rest?

Firing arrow after arrow gave Daimon an idea of how much mana he could Use. He worked out that he could fire 6 mana arrows per hour while using Hawkeye before his mana ran low. Resting took roughly 40 minutes with the help of a Pasque Flower and Meditation to speed the process up. Considering that there were only 16 hours left until the tutorial ended, Daimon decided to spend most of the day and night continuing to harvest lives below the cliff hoping to push his level, skills, and stats higher.

As Daimon continued his wanton slaughter of the creatures attracted to his kill zone, the usually serene weather on the mountain began to stir, gales of wind started tearing through the air, having to fully focus on the wind to ensure his shots landed on the target created a sense of insight which Daimon could not place. Peering inwards he noticed that the law of wind was flowing freely within his core, Usually, in an inert state it had become stirred up by the wind rampaging through the mountainside.

Taking a quick break Daimon began coxing the wind law with his mana and was surprised to learn that it acted in the same capacity as his normal mana. Weirdly the two separate forms began to merge. Thick threads of mana became tinted with green streaks of what Daimon could only describe as wind energy. Guiding the new form of wind mana through his core Daimon began creating threads of power and controlling them individually as he had done with the original mana during training. It was slightly more difficult to control however Daimon could sense the power behind the new mana, it was immense. An hour passed Daimon was able to control 40 threads of wind mana before his core ran dry.

Continuing with the rapid mana regeneration mix of Pasque flowers and mediation he was back on his feet 40 minutes later. Deciding to forgo the new wind mana for now he set back into the battle at hand.

The only thing Daimon hated about killing the creatures in this way, which he told Albert, was the fact that he could not loot the corpses. Albert had then informed him that the shop had many items capable of collecting the treasure, however, they weren't cheap.

Many different types of creatures fell that day before Daimon retreated to his cave for a sleep albeit a short one considering there were 4 hours left until the tutorial ended. Eating the bread which he had now grown to hate had soured his mood before sleep claimed him.

Meanwhile, Albert had disappeared floating off into the distance to have a word with the system.

"Why did Daimon receive access to the shop so soon?" said Albert.

"We have been watching him because he is unique and may be useful in the future. Continue to stay by his side and guide him on the right path, We know this is already your desire, I also like your name Albert maybe all of you should choose a name from now on".

"Thank you, master, I will do my best," replied Albert.

"A word of warning Albert this area he resides in is extremely dangerous the other peaks have powerful entities guarding them, however, the word guard implies that there is something to protect".

Albert's eyes lit up in excitement, "Yes master I understand thank you "

If Daimon had been awake and near he would have been shocked, the system had outright spoken to Albert out of thin air making use of the ambient mana and not through a screen or message almost as if it was alive.