Your intelligence has increased by 1

I grumbled at the pop-up and dismissed it immediately. I've gotten three such notifications since I started studying... Three hours ago? I blinked my eyes repeatedly to allow some moisture to return to them. Switching between a bright computer screen and a dark textbook over and over again for multiple hours was exhausting on the eyes.

I wrote down what I believed to be the answer to the last question I had before my work was complete. I'd forgotten how much of an absolute pain in the ass homework could be.

I know I joked about missing the days when monsters were trying to kill me, but if I was being perfectly honest, I would rather fight a horde of goblins then have to look at another algebra problem today.

I breathed out a long sigh and massaged my temples. I collected mana on the tips of my fingers and slowly massaged it into my head-

A new skill has been created in response to your actions!

Soothing touch

level 1 (0.00 / 100.00)

Cost: 2 mana per / second

By focusing mana into your fingertips, you can sooth the muscles and nerves of your target. This also has the effect of calming an anxious mind if targeting the head.

I immediately felt the tension in my forehead, melt away and the headache I’d been feeling for the last forty-five minutes left with the tension. It was a wonderful feeling, one I'd wished I'd tried a bit sooner.

I didn't know if I'd gotten even half of the questions correct. Most of this stuff was new to me even before I spent five years in a world where eighty percent of the population couldn't even read. Coming back now, it wasn't going to be easy. Especially if I had my parents breathing down my neck about my sudden loss of knowledge.

And honestly, what could I tell them? They wouldn't believe the truth, I lived it and I barely believe it. They would most likely think I was making the entire thing up,

and was suffering from some unknown disease that was affecting my memory- or maybe causing hallucinations.

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure that they would’ve been wrong. Maybe I had dreamt the entire thing up, and even now, I was lying unconscious in a hospital bed. I had no way of knowing… Well, wasn’t there a saying said you couldn’t feel pain in your sleep- Or was it that you couldn’t cause yourself pain?

I shook my head and reactivated (soothing touch), I was giving myself a headache just thinking about it.

The clock on my bedside table said it was 4:18 PM. I’ve been trying to listen out for them, but I still hadn’t heard a peep from either of my parents. I was hoping they would have come walking through the front door, arms full of grocery bags, with happy smiles on their faces… Until they saw the dogs.

They hated having the dogs inside the house. Not because they are messy, all of them were potty trained and knew to go outside if they had to use the bathroom. My parents just didn’t like the smell of dog getting all over the furniture.

Mom said it wasn’t proper and could offend one of her guests. Not that I cared; my mom usually brought people over a few times and to talk about one of her half-dozen volunteer-centric projects.

She’d been saying since I could walk that one day she wanted to include me in the family business. I didn’t mind, not really, I liked visiting her at the gas station when I was younger and cleaning the floors was one of the few ways I was able to earn pocket money as a child.

But every time she brought it up, she made it sound far grander than it actually was. Like the gas station business was some higher calling… Or maybe by ‘family business’ she was really talking about the volunteer programs. It was hard to know with her, sometimes.

I spun away from my computer and looked at the doge hive clustered on my bed. With them laying in a huge pile like that, it looked like I had a fur rug draped over my bed.

I chuckled quietly. “Who wants to go outside with me?” I asked the question that must not be asked. Eight of the nine dogs reacted immediately, their heads popping up and swiveling to look at me. The only dog who didn’t seem excited was Fifi, and that was most likely because she was half deaf… And because she hated going outside. Can’t forget about that part.

“Yeah, you want to go?” I asked them, purposefully hyping them up. “Let’s go.” I snapped my fingers and pointed towards the door.

A stampede of fur and excited barks raced out my door and down the steps. Fifi remained curled in a ball on top of my pillow, clearly of the opinion that she didn’t need to go. I scooped her up under my arm and headed for the back door.

Fifi protested; she yipped and growled, if I’d spoken dog I would have no doubt heard several interesting swears hurled in my direction. But I didn’t speak dog, and so it sounded like the inevitable whines of a dog destined to be tossed on her butt.

I wasn’t actually going to toss her, but she would no doubt act like I threw her like a baseball. To the outside world, Fifi was this innocent little princess. To me, she was an overly dramatic brat who pretended like any slight against her was a crime worthy of being brought before the Geneva Convention.

I made it out the back door into the bottom of the brick staircase before I set her down. She whined and whimpered, upset that her delicate feet touched the filthy ground, and I ignored her as I always did.

Only lasted for a moment, though. Rose waddled by a few moments later, and Fifi lost all interest in pretending. There was only one dog both much older and much larger than the pretentious princess.

Like a handmaiden waiting to serve her Queen, Fifi toddled off after Rose, and I was left to my own devices.

I settled onto the bottom step and held out my left hand. I focused on my mana, that warm energy sitting within my chest, just waiting to be called on and used.

“(Flare)” I whispered the spell name under my breath. My entire focus was on the image I had inside my mind; a small ember in flight, exploding with all the force of a firecracker at the moment of contact.

A new skill has been created in response to your actions!

Flare level 1 (0.00 / 100.00)

Cost: 10 mana

Range: 20 feet A weak flame spell. Barely worth using unless you're planning to light a campfire or a torch.

I smiled at the small flame dancing above my palm. I felt no heat from it, though I knew that if anyone else were to touch it, it would feel like an actual flame.

Spells are nothing more than your own mana made real. Because of this, only spells designed to affect the caster could do so. In most of those spells fell into one of two categories: (Boons) and (Curses).

A (Boon) was something beneficial. This could be anything from a healing spell like (Soothing Touch) to a detection spell like (Sense Presence). Both were considered (Boons) because they offered something to the caster, or the caster target.

A (Curse) was the exact opposite. It usually required the caster to harm themselves in some way, in order to cast an effect on someone else. I knew a few such spells, though I disliked using them for obvious reasons.

I even knew a spell to revive the dead. But… Let’s just say the cost was something I could only pay once and leave it at that. It was a moot point, though. I had neither the stats nor the mana to cast such a spell, even if I wanted to.

I threw out my arm and sent the (Flare) flying into the sky. The instant it reached its maximum range, it exploded like a firework. Smoke and ash slowly drifted towards the ground in the aftermath, and I watched it to ensure the grass would not ignite. I highly doubted it would, but I was in enough trouble as it was. No need to burn the house down too.

I opened my character panel after ensuring I would not be homeless at the end of the day. I was curious which skills, if any, had gained experience.

Name: Robin Murray

Race: Technically Human

Level: 1 (0.00% / 100.00%)

Attributes: HP 10 / 10 | MP 22 / 32 | SP 100 / 100

Stats: STR 3 | AGI 4 | VIT 2 | INT 8 | WIL 10 | LCK 1

AP: 0

Skills:

Main Character's Body | Level MAX (0.00% / 0.00%)

Inspect | Level MAX (0.00% / 0.00%)

Heat Resistance | Level 1 (41.68% / 100.00%)

Study | Level 1 (87.10% / 100.00%)

Soothing touch | Level 1 (32.87% / 100.00%) | Cost: 2 mana per / second

Flare | Level 1 (0.00% / 100.00%) | Cost: 10 mana

"Study; Since when was that a skill?" I tapped on the entry and brought up its information panel.

Passive skill Study Level 1 (87.10% / 100.00%) Through long, arduous hours of studying, you have grown 1% more proficient at memorizing new information.

I shrugged my shoulders and dismissed the panel. The skill was functionally useless at the moment, but over time it would show its worth. The same could be said about most skills. The only outlier being attack skills; each one was useful from the first moment you were able to use them. The downside, is that they are, normally, exceedingly rare. At least that's how it worked in the game.

I was lucky since I was able to create my own spells and skills, while the NPC's needed to use skill books or pay exorbitant prices to be taught the skill directly.

Once acquired, leveling up a skill wasn't too difficult in the early stages. Most skills only needed to be used a single time to gain experience, and for the first ten levels the amount of mana required to cast the skill was equal to the experience gained. Beyond that point though, the amount of experience needed increased, while the experience gained from using the skill decreased.

This became especially troublesome with attack skills, since they only gained experience if used to inflict damage. Hence why (flare) remained at zero experience.

If I remembered correctly; in order to take (flare) from level 1 to level 100 would require me to use the spell between ten thousand and eleven thousand times. I couldn't remember the exact number, but it didn't really matter at the moment, anyway. Level 100 was so far off for me, that I need not even consider it right now. I would be better off taking it one step at a time, and focusing on the things right in front of me.

Besides, unless I decide to go on a crime spree or become a superhero, I'd have no reason to level up beyond a certain point. It would just be a waste of time and energy in the current world.

"My peaceful, mundane world..." I sighed.