Otto walked along the dirt road running through the forest, he stumbled across it at some point by accident.

“I don’t remember this road being on the map…” he thought.

“I guess it was a bit odd that there were only three towns in the entire world… I bet they’re just the big ones… So I guess the same logic applies to the roads…”

The leafy canopy above let in only small dots of light reach the ground he traversed, on either side of the road were tall bushes and massive trees.

“Hey, buddy… don’t you think the woods are a bit too quiet?” asked the book.

“Stop it, you’ll jinx me…” Otto sighed.

That’s when he was met with a low growl.

“…”

“Please tell me that was your stomach…” he pleaded.

“No stomach, remember?” the book reminded him.

Otto slowly looked back and saw a massive, horse-sized tiger leave the cover of the bushes, its eyes were solid black, its fur looked grey with black stripes.

Its body looked like it had massive, bulging muscles under its fur.

Two massive fangs hung from its upper jaw as if it was a sabretooth tiger.

“…”

“I was always something of a cat person, y’know…” he said in hopes of gaining any sympathy from the beast.

“RUN IDIOT!” the book commanded; as if he was waiting for those words, Otto broke into a sprint the instant he heard the word “run”.

Another loud roar came from behind him as the creature began its pursuit.

“WHY IS THERE A MASSIVE TIGER IN THE FUCKING WOODS?!” he demanded running for his life.

“With the rest of the world inhospitable, the local wildlife had to fight for territory… survival of the fittest!” the book speculated.

“I COULDN’T HAVE GUESSED BY THE FUCKING SIZE OF THAT THING, THANKS!” Otto cried looking over his shoulder to see the tiger following him at a leisurely pace.

If it really wanted to catch up to him, it would have.

He lifted his hand towards the tiger.

“WaterBolt” he exclaimed as a ball of water flew from his hand and at the tiger’s face.

“Got it!” Otto cheered.

The tiger let out a more ferocious roar than before.

“All you did was piss it off!” the book replied.

“IT WORKED ON NORMAL CATS!” Otto argued back.

The tiger let out a mighty roar as a red magic circle appeared before it’s face.

“…”

His expression looked betrayed, as if the entire world just performed a collective kick in the balls, his balls symbolising any chance for his survival.

“THE ANIMALS KNOW MAGIC TOO!?” he cried sounding defeated already.

Otto never even realised when it happened, but the ground before him rumble and deform.

Immediately, he lost his footing and fell down onto the soil.

The path, as well as the grass, began moving downwards in a way similar to the ‘Inthrude’ modifier.

He opened his eyes seconds later seeing that he was covered head to toe in a thin layer of dirt and roots.

“It’s an antlion pit…” he thought seeing the steep walls he had no chance of climbing, at least not with the tiger keeping him down.

“Is it hoping for reinforcements?” Otto thought fearfully.

“I don’t think I can handle more than one of those…” he admitted.

“Bold of you to assume you can handle one…” the book remarked.

Otto looked up seeing that the tiger was circling him, it didn’t seem eager on jumping inside.

“…”

“Hold on…”

“It only started casting magic after I fired the water bolt!” he exclaimed.

“It was probably hoping I’d lead it to a town or something… Then, once I used magic it decided to wait for me to fall asleep or starve before killing me!” he speculated.

“Maybe I should play dead?” he wondered.

“You might as well… it’ll be great practice for when the tiger comes down here to eat you a few seconds later…” the book replied.

“No need to be such a dick…” Otto replied.

He got back up to his feet hearing the loud roar again.

“Alright… I need to think of a way out…”

“Option one; I wait for the tiger to come down here, I shoot a few water bolts and get mauled to death…”

“Option two; I shoot a fire spell into the air hoping somebody sees my improvised flare…”

“Option three; I could try and scare the tiger away with a big ball of fire or something!”

He smiled.

“I don’t want to kill you, tiger, so here’s your warning! Go back to your cave or whatever!” Otto exclaimed.

Unsurprisingly, the tiger didn’t reply.

Otto extended his hand upwards, “I need to make something big!”

“CreateBattery « SetBatterySize 20β « Name FireBattery « SetPlace Palm « SetManaOutputPlace FireSpell « SetManaOutputAmount 5β « SetLifespan 10«… SetElement ElementFire « Name FireSpell « SetShape Orb « SetSize 20µ « SetPlace Palm « SetDirection PalmPointOne PalmPointTwo « SetSpeed 10µ « SetLifespan 10 «”

As soon as he recited those words, regret began to make its way into his heart.

The massive, scorching ball of flames created only centimetres away from him began burning his skin.

“BatteryDestroy FireBattery!” he exclaimed as the heat burned his skin and charred parts of his arm.

A desperate hiss was heard from the tiger as it retreated into the nearby bushes leaving Otto badly burned in a pit.

His smoking body collapsed to the ground.

The pain took a second to register, but as soon as the adrenalin disappeared Otto was overwhelmed with an agony previously unknown to him.

“AUGHHHH!” with his left hand propped himself up.

“ƒ WATER « SetElement ElementWater « SetPlace LeftPalm « SetSize 5µ « SetLifespan 100 «”

Otto didn’t bother setting up a battery, he lifted his left hand over his burned hand and exclaimed “WATER!”

“WATER!”

“WATER!”

Even though he knew the answer, he couldn’t help but think “Why isn’t it healing?!” over and over.

“WATER!”

He was laying in an ever-expanding puddle of water and mud as the short-lived relief from the cold water came and left.

The mana-regenerating seal barely managed to keep up with his mana usage.

“WATER!”

“WATER!”

The book remained silent as it floated on the surface of the newly-created pond.

That was when he heard the sound of a person speaking.

“H-hello?”

“A… a bandit?!” he thought.

“D-doesn’t matter!” he decided.

“Down here!” he exclaimed.

Moments later the person came into view, it was a human with messy blond hair and round glasses.

He wore a brown bucket hat and a light-brown coat over a grey vest and red tie.

Over his should was what looked like a leather bag.

“What the hell happened here?!” he asked,

“Was it the nightbeasts?” he continued.

“Since when can they use fire?!”

“And water too?!”

Otto just casually sat there in intense agony listening to the man talk to himself.

“A-anyway, just sit still!” he instructed.

The man placed a hand on the burns gently moving it down the hand causing Otto even more pain.

Once enough skin was touched, he exclaimed: “Rejuvenate!” causing the burns to slowly disappear.

Otto could see the green magic circle on his palm, though he was unable to see one in charge of recovering his own mana.

“W-woah…” Otto finally mustered up enough strength to speak again.

“Don’t worry! It’s just healing magic!” the man anxiously assured Otto.

“Alright…” Otto replied with a sigh of relief.

Slowly the water in the hole disappeared.

One could easily assume Otto was traumatized or that he would swear off magic for the rest of his life, but the only thing going through his mind at the time was.

“How can I get my hands on the source code for that healing magic…”

“If I could heal myself, I wouldn’t need to worry about fire magic anymore!” he smiled.

“Hey, are you alright?” the healer asked waving a hand in front of Otto’s face.

In an instant, he turned to face the man.

“Do you think I could take a peek at that healing spell?!” he asked with a look of pure excitement on his face.

“Eh?”

The healer took a step back.

“Magic doesn’t work like that… I can’t just… hand it over…” the man replied.

Otto shook his head.

“I mean the script, the code, the words that make up the healing spell!” he explained.

The healer cocked his head uncertainly.

“The words that… make up a spell?” the man repeated Otto’s words.

“…”

Otto’s smile slowly faded away.

“Could it be… that he doesn’t know… about the code? No way!” Otto shook his head.

“Hold on! How does your spell work?” he asked.

“Uhm… the… the ritual is just… that I have to touch the flesh I want to heal and… then I say the words “rejuvenation” …” the man explained.

“…”

Otto looked extremely disappointed; his shoulder sunk low as he looked down to his feet.

“So, you only know the name of the function and not the code that makes it up?” he asked.

“…”

“What?” the healer questioned.