Magnus here, there was once a time where I was asked by an ascended female high god if I prefer young children over mature women. At first, I didn’t really understand why I would have a preference of anything. I was confused but answered mature women. The moment I answered, she teleported both of us in a beautiful bedroom and started undressing. I was so confused at what it meant at the time and I immediately I pushed her away. I was enraged because my time was wasted and as punishment, I reduced her power to that of a lesser god for a few centuries. I kind of regret that, she was very beautiful and well... very well-endowed.

“Magnus run to your right, the forest there isn’t as thick” I follow Absolution’s advice and quickly curve to my right, so I can easily lose my enemy.

This is starting to itch. I recall the newly tanned bear pelt I'm wearing, it's still rough. It took me a week to make it at least wearable.

I keep running, thinking I managed to outmaneuver my hunter but my hopeful thoughts are immediately banished as i hear the dreadfully familiar sound of grass and stray leaves being crushed underfoot.

“Magnus, it’s still here” I can hear the light and deft footsteps of my hunter.

“I know Absolution, any more ideas” Absolution’s voice rings in my ears as she tells me to jump at the next large tree and grab its branch. After running a few more seconds, I spot the tree Absolution tells me to jump up to.

I jump and immediately swing from the branch upwards to a higher and larger branch.

*pant pant* this is tiring, thank god I decided to train with Remries before or I wouldn’t be capable of doing any of these lifesaving movements.

“Good job Magnus” Concerning Absolution’s absence of using the honorific lord, it was because I was getting annoyed of it. It took 3 days of continuous convincing for her to finally stop. I managed to convince her when I said that it would take our relationship as friends to a higher level. I ignored her happy cheers afterward.

The rough and fast footsteps earlier have disappeared, only to be replaced by the peaceful silence of a forest morning.

I scan the immediate area with God’s eye. Apparently it’s too hidden physically, so my God’s eye cannot immediately find it. My senses scream at me as I swipe my head to the left to look at a tree near mine.

Suddenly I hear a rustling from the surrounding trees, as a giant white wolf jumps from the tree behind me.

Shit, it tricked me.

I immediately spin my body to face the white wolf. I manage to spin right in time and dodge to my right side.

"Urghh" I groan in pain as I manage to avoid its lunge but it raked my left shoulder with its sharp claws.

The wolf's lunge missed me and it falls down the forest floor gracefully.

It looks up and stares at me. This wolf has been stressing me out for a few days now.

A few meters away, I see a fat pig wandering aimlessly, just a few meters away from the wolf. I point at it vigorously and make signs, so the wolf will take notice of it.

"Hey look at that fat and juicy pig!" I start speaking to the wolf, as if can understand me.

The wolf doesn’t even budge one bit.

I bet this thing can smell that pig, a few meters away from it, but chooses to hunt me instead.

“Magnus, this wolf is pretty persistent” Absolution floats just right of my face. At first I thought she would only manifest on top of the coin but eventually she gained enough mana to be capable of floating a few meters away from the coin. Unfortunately, she can’t manifest if the distance from the coin is too large.

When I checked its status, it had a rare extra skill, which is surprising since non-magical beasts barely have any skills unless it’s racial.

Under its extra skills is a skill called [Fearless determination X]. The skill is already at max capability and it's because of the capital X. If a powerful skill is paired with an X or similar modifier, then that skill’s potency will be multiple times stronger than a skill without it.

Some skills cannot be paired with any modifiers, such as my [God's Eye] skill. The fact that this creature has an X level extra skill means that it must have learned it through some event or trauma. It must've gained a lower level of the skill and then continuously trained it.

If only that was the problem, maybe I would’ve been capable of killing it but there’s another problem, this thing’s hide is so hard.

Flashbacks of broken wooden spears go through my head.

Apparently, I’m not the first human this thing has fought and it must've developed its skill through constant fights with human hunters.

Unfortunately, the skills isn't what makes it annoying, this thing has a title and status as well. Its title is called [Human Slayer] and it has a status called [Burning Hatred]. The moment it saw me, that status popped up and it immediately received a sizeable buff. Fortunately, my race is fallen god and its [Human Slayer] title doesn't give it bonuses against me.

Something traumatic probably happened to this creature to make it hate humans but it doesn’t mean I’ll slow my hand against this thing even for one second.

The wolf is just staring at me, waiting for me to do the next move. While I think about of what to do next, Absolution starts to show rude gestures towards the wolf and starts hurling insults at it.

“You dumb overgrown fur ball, why don’t you leave already and sniff your butt or something.” I guess she’s a cat person.

The wolf stares at me, not giving Absolution’s antics any attention.

I feel that this thing will wait for all eternity just to kill me or unless another human shows up. I don’t really like the idea of using someone else though, maybe I should tame it? I’m not really that fond of wolves.

"Should I tame it?" I ask the babbling spirit besides me.

"Ehh? Tame a wild wolf? No!"

Okay! it’s decided since both of us dislike wolves, I’ll just eliminate it.

Looking around, I snatch some small branches from the surrounding trees that are near enough to reach. After gathering 10 small branches, I start drawing small and intricate circles on the middle of each branch.

“Magnus are those…” Absolution stops from her rude rambling for a moment and stares at the very small intricate circles I drew on the branches.

“Yes Absolution… They’re Alchemy circles” I answer Absolution’s curiosity.

Alchemy circles is another form of magic I created, it’s for the more intellectually inclined than the talented.

While magic talent is rare in itself, alchemy is an even rare talent and not everyone can be an alchemist. Out of 100,000 magic users there will be only one alchemist, not because it’s rare but because understanding alchemy means understanding the fabric of reality itself.

Alchemy, after all, is the ability to change and create reality through science. Even though I make it appear that Alchemy is amazing, the circles I’m writing now are the most basic ones.

Alchemy revolves around the thinking that every action has an equivalent reaction. That is true and this is the reason why alchemy and magic doesn't mix. Magic is the ability to create miracles from nothing and Alchemy is the ability to create supernatural phenomenon by changing reality. Unfortunately reality is an extremely persistent object and alchemical changes are usually temporary. It is said, that the end goal of all alchemists is to find a way to permanently alter reality.

These circle are basic ones and I'm currently inscribing them on wooden branches. These circles have the ability to change the material's weight temporarily. Eventually the circles will lose their power and return the brances to their normal weight. If that time comes, I need to reapply the circles. The moment I finish one branch, its weight multiplies by 5. I heft the newly inscribed branch and appreciate its heavier weight. With it’s heavier weight, it might be enough to deal damage, lethal damage. 

After finishing the circles, I start to sharpen the edges by using a sharp rock that I found a few days ago. After doing the tedious work of clearing out the bark and sharpening it to lethality, I look down to find the wolf gone.

“…”

“…”

“Absolution... where is the wolf?”

“… I don’t know” Absolution is dumbfounded as much as me and I did all that work for nothing. Well at least I don’t have to kill anything but I should at least wait for a few more minutes to make sure it’s gone.

*5 minutes later*

“Magnus?”

“Shh… I’m trying to sense if that things is still here” Paranoia? I think, but I’m also not sure. After all no one wants to die, even a god. I never truly understood the fear of death, until my pseudo death a month ago.

After a few more minutes, I slowly and safely climb down the tree. When I get down, I immediately pull out one of the heavy sharpened branches, turned spears, from my fur clothing. I created a makeshift quiver from a hollowed out trunk, albeit it is very small compared to other trunks, making it the perfect quiver.

After a few minutes of constantly checking my surroundings, only silence answers my cautiousness.

“I guess it’s really gone” Absolution smiles and agrees toward my statement.

I imagine something else took the wolf’s attention, that it had to leave me.

I start walking towards the direction of where I’m currently staying.

A few hours pass by and the sun is starting to set, I finally managed to get back to my shelter, well not really shelter maybe make-shift cave? Either way this is my home for now. Absolution suggested that I stay secluded in the woods for a while until I can use magic, so I can cover up my cursed eyes with a proper illusion.

Once inside the cave, I take a good look of my make-shift home. The cave isn't too small, it resembles the cave the wyvern lived in, minus the small hoard of treasures. Inside the cave is a small rack with strips of meat salted and being dried by a small alchemical circle that is constantly providing low heat. While Absolution guides me in basic survival, like making jerky, it's my ingenious mind that allows me to survive using my knowledge of magic and alchemy.

On the floor is a bunch of pelts I've collected from the animals I've been hunting the past month. I'm using them as a makeshift bed. Besides the pelts are alchemical circles, drawn on the ground, that provide warmth and heat, similar to a heater. Every few hours, I need to reapply the circles or else they lose their power and I can't stand the cold.

At first, I had a hard time skinning them and each time I did, blood would spurt out dirtying my body but eventually I learned how to hunt properly and gained the title [Hunter]. While this living style would sound horrendous to other beings, I find it extremely refreshing. I've been loving this type of lifestyle and I admit, I don't miss my powers too much.

It’s been a month and 3 days since my fight with dead-eye, I can imagine it caused a little bit of commotion since rank 6 spells aren’t common.

Even though I hit him point blank with two powerful spells, I have the sneaking suspicion that he’s still alive and I’ll probably meet him a few more times.

I sit down on the warm pelts and enjoy the warmth, my alchemical circles are giving me.

After a few minutes of relaxing, I browse my knowledge of magic and start cleaning the mana veins in my body. Before the fight with Dead-eye, I managed to clean my mana veins but it was only a quick job because I didn't have enough time. Now that I have a lot of free time, I can start cleansing my mana veins without any rush.

Earlier I gave a small explanation of what Mana Veins are but I never went too in depth about them.

Mana veins are hidden veins that exist within the body of every living being. Basically, Mana Veins are the circulatory system for mana, and just like the circulatory system of the blood, it is important to every creature. If one's Mana Veins are cleaner, their ability to use magic will be more fluid and easier but this is not easy, because all beings start up with clogged mana veins, preventing them from easily using magic. To use magic, beings will first need to clean their mana veins and the process of cleaning differs for every individuals. Less talented individuals will have a hard time cleaning their mana veins and the process could range from a few weeks to a few years but geniuses like Elizabeth and Lazar wouldn't have to go through the same hardship as them, their process could range from a few days to at most, a week.

If an individual doesn't fully clean their mana veins and start casting spells, like what I did before, the mana clogging becomes harder to remove and it'll be harder to clean it in the future. This generally weakens my mana usage and it'll prevent me from reaching higher levels in the future. If I continued generating mana with my mana veins being clogged up, my body would adapt to it, weakening my potential.

After a month of acclimating to the forest life, I spent 3 days to map out my whole body’s mana vein system. Because of my fight with Dead-eye, I had a harder time cleaning it but I’ve been dilligently cleaning it ever since. The advantage having a cleaner mana vein will result in better mana conservation, better mana ratios, and better mana regeneration. 

 “Magnus my scan says that your mana vein system is-“I cut Absolution off before she starts saying every known fact about how important and imperative that my mana veins should be cleaned. I already know about them. 

”75% clean, I know Absolution, I can see my own mana vein system.”

I did create the foundation for magic after all, but my mana veins are not the same for everyone that’s why it took me 3 days to map it all. Cleaning it is already hard and I need to slowly melt the solidified mana clogged inside my veins or else it'll rupture the veins. It took me 3 days to map my mana veins while staying in this forest, I slowly cleaned my veins.

Despite my horrible living standards and annoying situation, I feel elated. The feeling of working hard for something melts into my bones as if it’s lava.

That’s a horrible analogy but I’ll take it.

“Magnus I wanted to ask, what will be your goal once you’ve prepared yourself” Absolution’s question breaks my line of thought.

Staring at Absolution’s floating ghostly body, I ponder what I will do first. I think of my siblings first but I’m sure they can handle whatever’s happening in the heavens. Then I think of the keys I purposefully split up. Hmm… Maybe I should get those first as a form of adventure. My eyes sparkle with excitement as I break a smile.

“Magnus…. Why are you smiling” I see Absolution backing away a little bit. Maybe I scared her with my smile. Is my smile that scary? I remember Branac telling me that my smile always seemed to be the smile of a madman.

“Sorry, I just thought of what I should do first”

“Really?” It seems I’m not the only one excited of exploring the world.

Truth to be told, this cave has grown on me.

The past month has been quite monotonous. The first thing we did was secure shelter and find a stable food source. Because of that I gained a new title and managed to improve my [Pain Tolerance IV] to [Pain Tolerance V]. I even gained a new resistance called [Hunger Resistance I].

It was a good choice letting Absolution stay because I absolutely had no knowledge on how to survive and feed myself. The first week was Absolution teaching me how to urinate properly and shit. I never knew mortals had it so hard. I felt extremely triumphant when I finally managed to master my bodily needs, though I didn’t show it to Absolution.

“Magnus you already managed to clean it by 80%” After looking at the status of my mana veins, I nod towards Absolution. In a few more days, I’ll be able to fully clean my veins and I’ll be able to finally start my adventure. At least this time, I won’t be weighed down by anyone else, I kind of miss that wyvern though.

New Status Update

Name: Magnus

Race: Fallen God 

Ability Level: 1

Magic Power: 10/10 

Max Magic Power: 10 

Body Power: 10 (5+5)

Defence: 1

Agility: 10

Resilience: 1

Magic: 1 

Magic Defence: 1 

Unique Skills: Creation (Sealed) (Ultimate) | Indestructible Essence (Ultimate) | Endless Mana Capacity (Legendary) | All Magical Knowledge (Partially Sealed­) (Legendary) 

Innate Skills: God's Eye (Sealed) (Godly) I God Senses (Sealed) (Godly) I God’s Stare (Sealed) (Godly)

Extra Skills: Pain Tolerance V (Normal) (↑) I Martial Knowledge from the Goddess of War (Partially Sealed) (Legendary) 

Magic Skills: N/A

Custom Skills: N/A

Affinities: N/A

Resistances: Hunger Resistance I [New] I

Weaknesses: N/A

Titles: God of Magic | The Fallen God | The one who wished for more | Masochist | Friend of the wyvern | Hunter [New]

Blessings: Sealed (Indeterminable) | Cursed Eyes 

Equipment: Bear Fur Clothing (Normal)

Items: N/A