Uncivilisation

John had very little time even with the fire and he knew it, conditions like these wouldn't be beaten just with some hastily constructed fire.

John on the contrary was using the fire to warm his clothes, his level five body was enough to survive cold for a moderate amount of time as long as he didn't get wet.

John also had spotted the fire magic he was most looking forward to achieving, Flame Manipulation, like it sounds the skill allowed him to manipulate fire completely.

John figured that with a goal he would be able to survive longer, John set himself the goal of achieving a practical level of magic.

The creatures that attacked John in the water seemed to use magic crystals, John didn't know what he could gain from them but knew that they might make decent makeshift arrows if he had time to create a bow.

John touched one of the crystals directly and felt something, the power stored in the crystal and the will of the creature he had killed were fused within. John felt the essence of the power within the crystal travel into his body, causing extreme pain as his entire right arm suffered a painful shock.

John felt as if his arm was being pulled apart violently from the inside out and his skin seemed to want to escape his arm with a hellish stretching, his arm fell limp after suffering for what felt like an eternity.

John had no idea what he did but he figured that it couldn't be good, he wanted to figure out what happened and appraised the crystal as he had appraised his axes earlier.

The crystal only displayed itself as "lightning essence crystal." This provided no help to John who closed the appraisal window, leaving only his status window displayed.

John Maxwell Level 5 Strength 27 Agility 27 Dexterity 25 Perception 25 Vitality 25 Intelligence 29 Fortitude 25 Unspent status points. 0 Unspent skill points. 1 Experience for LVL UP 0/1600 Magic affinity: (lightning) 2

John felt mild confusion, knowing for a fact that he had spent his last two skill points on the two fire skills.

What the hell are these crystals?

John then spotted the additional stat added to his menu, magic afinity (lightning).

Those crystals are insane, I've basically got half the effect of levelling up skill point wise.

John couldn't resist touching a second crystal, then a third, then a fourth and so on.

John had eventually absorbed all 12 crystals and checked his status.

John Maxwell Level 5 Strength 27 Agility 27 Dexterity 25 Perception 25 Vitality 25 Intelligence 29 Fortitude 25 Unspent status points. 0 Unspent skill points. 12 Experience for LVL UP 0/1600 Magic affinity: (lightning) 24

John felt a craving to find more of the crystals despite the excruciating pain they caused him, the reward was worth the pain of touching them.

He knew that he didn't have time to try and find more of the crystals and instead needed to either find civilization or find his way to his classmates.

John left the warmth of the cave but no longer felt the exscrutiating cold quite as badly, levelling himself had allowed him to just barely push past the point of suffering too badly. John walked around, axes in hand, searching for some sign of other people.

John's search eventually led him to a town, the walls were ruined and the town made no noise but John was still excited to find a possible place to stay.

When he entered the town John noticed around a dozen shambling figures wandering the streets, their expressions were blank and their eyes were glazed over.

As John looked closer he realized each had a large, almost clear blue crystal embedded into them.

My first thought is... zombies... but that isn't a positive outlook. That could just be what people around here look like, I'll be cautious but not too cautious.

John slowly and calmly approached the creatures, trying to look non-threatening.

The creatures were clearly aggressive once John got close, a few tried to grab him and he had to start fighting them.

"These aren't good conditions to fight in for me, but your houses look warm and dry and I'm in dire need of a place to stay. I'm sorry."

John struck down all the shambling figures with his axes, the system recognising them as "Ice element Undead"

They don't give much experience if I've killed this many and not levelled up, but if those crystals are the same as the lightning ones the reward will be more than enough.

John pulled one of the crystals free from an undead and appraised it.

"Frost essence crystal."

John gathered ten frost essence crystals, the remaining undead only had crystals that appraised as "Unformed essence crystal."

John was a tad disappointed as he absorbed the 10 crystals.

John Maxwell Level 5 Strength 27 Agility 27 Dexterity 25 Perception 25 Vitality 25 Intelligence 29 Fortitude 25 Unspent status points. 0 Unspent skill points. 22 Experience for LVL UP 0/1600 Magic affinity: (lightning) 24 Magic affinity: (ice) 20

John had more skill points than he had gotten from levelling up in total, he realised that the reason most practical skills cost so many was because points could be earned in other ways.

"It stands to reason that if skill points can be earned like this than maybe status points can be too."

John looked around the ruined village for a suitable house to stay in for the night, the least ransacked house was at the far end of the village and was fairly large.

Entering the mansion allowed John some much needed warmth and comfort as he checked for something comparable to a bed.

John then heard a noise and investigated the house, he discovered a group of normal looking humans that weren't shambling around.

The ring that the knight gave John allowed him some understanding of others, he simply tried to greet the group of around a dozen people.

"Hello."

A large, muscled man approached John and patted him on the shoulder.

"You adventures are just getting younger and younger, thanks lad."

John didn't feel entirely comfortable with sleeping near total strangers but figured that he had very few other options.

John pulled one of the unopened elixers from his bag and drank, his body was suffering from fatigue and damage that sleep alone couldn't solve and that he hoped the red liquid was.

This is a game esque world, red liquids tend to be health potions in games. If I'm wrong and it's demon piss then I'll be annoyed but it's better to try and to fail than to not try at all.