When he reached the end of the clearing Adam emptied a quite a few of the bushes since they only seemed to be standing at the edge of the forestry and started walking opposite to the way he came from.

While walking Adam thought about the potions he got from the weird goblin. He did not have Mana but he knew magic would make his survival much easier: he needed a ranged attack other than the jellyfish. The jellyfish were incredibly useful but he only had six of them left and that supply would run out the moment he would encounter a large group.

There is no one to teach me magic so how am I supposed to learn it? I don’t even have the Mana stat that’s probably necessary. I should probably first focus on getting the mana stat before I can start thinking about magic.

In this world I seem to be able to get certain skills and abilities if I fulfil certain conditions. So the question is which conditions will bring me mana. It can’t be as simple as just drinking a mana potion ,right? Can it? Actually, why not? I got [Waterbreathing] when I breathed in water, so should why shouldn’t I get the mana stat from drinking a mana potion? Although it’s a bit of a gamble and possibly a waste It’s not like I am able to enjoy it if I die before I learn magic.

With that decision, Adam took the mana potion and drank it.

Stat unlocked: Mana

It seems I won this gamble. So now I need to figure out a way to use it. I should first take a closer look.

Name Adam Xavier Witt Race Human(Evolution Requirements not met) Age 25 Status Hungry Titles Outsider, Survivor, Amphibious, Unconventional, Dedicated, Specialist, Predator, Indomitable Spirit, Genius, Legend Classes N/A Equipment N/A Skills Skill book War Blunt Weapon Master Lv. 2/100, Fist Mastery Lv. 1/100, Kick Mastery Lv. 2/100, Throw Mastery Lv. 1/100, Bite Mastery Lv. 1/100, Block Lv. 1/100 Skill book Body Sneak Lv. 2/10, Swimming Lv. 3/10, Running Lv. 2/10, Physical Fitness Lv. 2/100, Waterbreathing Lv. 5/5, Salt Water Drinking Lv. 1/1 Skill Book Assistance Identify Lv. 10/10, Fisheye Lv. 20/20 Skill Book Resistance Poison Resistance Lv. 21/100, Pressure Resistance Lv. 2/100, Cold Resistance Lv. 3/100, Pain Resistance Lv. 1/100, Absolute Mental Resistance Lv. 100/100 Unique Skills The Eyes of the Demiurge Lv. 1/? Stats Mana 1/1 Strength 8 Dexterity 6 Intelligence 9 Willpower 15 Vitality 9 Endurance 16 Wisdom 7

Only one mana, huh. Isn’t this world way too stingy? It’s magic power, right? So it should be some kind of force inside my body, I guess. I should try moving it.

Slightly dissatisfied at his low mana Adam tried moving all the power in his body towards the tip of his finger. Something seemed to move inside his body but nothing happened.

Four hours later Adam was still trying to move his mana when finally something happened. A small electric current left his finger only to disappear a few seconds later.

Skill gained: Inner Mana Manipulation

Excited he tried to do it again but this time nothing happened. He checked his status screen and as he had expected his mana was exhausted. He wondered if it would replenish itself and luckily an hour later he got a notification.

Stat unlocked: Mana Regeneration

Adam checked his status screen again and indeed there was a stat called [Mana Regeneration] and its value was 0.000278/sec. Which he assumed would mean that he needed to wait an hour to replenish his astonishing amount of 1 mana. Adam again brought all he mana towards his finger in an attempt to replicate what he did an hour ago and again a small electric current left his finger only to disappear a few seconds later.

Hours later Adam was still walking while trying to train his [Inner Mana Manipulation]. The sun was already setting and he had only encountered some harmless looking wild animals. His [Inner Mana Manipulation] was still at level 1 but he believed it was only a matter of time before it would level up.

Since dusk approached Adam started to look for a suitable place to sleep and half an hour later his eyes fell upon a crevice in one of the hills. It was big enough for a human but too small for large predators so Adam felt it to be an appropriate place to sleep. He entered the crevice and an fairly large cave revealed itself to Adam. In the middle of the cave was laying a wolf with her young.

As soon as the wolf saw Adam she started to growl threatening, but Adam simply took one of his jellyfish and readied his club as he approached. The wolf started to run towards Adam but halfway she was met with a white blob full of paralytic poison. As soon as the jellyfish hit her the muscles in her body started to go numb and a few steps later she fell over and stopped moving. Adam quickly closed the distance and ended her with his club.

Even though a day had passed and he had walked all day and had even fought in the morning he was still not sleepy. He decided that it was probably an effect of his endurance as it had reached a value much higher than its initial value. He started to think of a way to improve his magic to something useful in combat. He thought about it for a while when his unique skill came up. It could see all kinds of these so-called ‘Laws’ and perhaps mana would be one of them.

Putting his theory to the test Adam held his hand before his face and activated [The Eyes of the Demiurge]. The world lit up again but Adam focussed on his hand. Red laws streamed through his hand like rivers. White areas were divided up by the red rivers. He presumed the red rivers were his blood vessels. As his head started to hurt he tried to move all the mana in his body towards the tip of his finger. Slowly his hand started to become faintly blue. The blue started to spread to the surroundings and many small blue laws started to leave his hand. The blue in his finger was slightly darker. After a few seconds all the blue in his hand was suddenly sucked up by his finger, while at the same time all the blue in his finger broke through the skin at the tip of his finger. Most of it spread out but a small part of it formed a small electric current. The rest of the blue laws slowly floated away and spread out through the cave.

When Adam saw all this an understanding dawned upon him. The electric current was only a small part of the mana; the rest of the mana was simply lost to the air. If he could make this process more efficient his magic would be much stronger. The problem was that doing this would probably take days at the very least since he could only use magic once an hour. He thought about the small floating blue laws. He regenerated his mana once an hour. But that mana had to come from somewhere? So what if it came from the air and he was simply breathing it in over the course of an hour? It would make sense that he needed an hour to breathe in so much mana. But the mana inside the cave was denser than outside the cave since he just scattered all his mana throughout the cave. So he should regenerate his mana faster if he stayed in the cave. To confirm this he opened his status screen to take a look at his regeneration.

Mana Regeneration 0.000278(+ 0.000001)/sec

It seems I was right. Unfortunately, the rate only got a little bit better. If only I could absorb all the mana in this cave at once. But my lungs aren’t big enough for that. But if I could breathe in concentrated mana-air It should be able to go up some more.

Adam looked at the mana-laws floating in the air and decided to just mentally try to pull them towards him. An hour went by when the mana-law he was focussing on suddenly seemed to be pulled a little closer to Adam by some invisible force. Another hour went by and it happened again, but this time the mana-law was pulled much closer. Adam kept trying to pull the mana-law towards him when two hours later he suddenly received a bunch of notifications.

Skill gained: Outer Mana Manipulation Inner Mana Manipulation has levelled up to Lv. 2 Title gained: Magic theorist

Right after the notifications, the mana-law he was focussed on was pulled towards him and bounced off off his skin.

Adam canceled his unique skill as his head felt like splitting open and with a head full of pain and an heart full of excitement he opened his status screen.

Name Adam Xavier Witt Race Human(Evolution Requirements not met) Age 25 Status Hungry Titles Outsider, Survivor, Amphibious, Unconventional, Dedicated, Specialist, Predator, Indomitable Spirit, Genius, Legend, Magic Theorist Classes N/A Equipment N/A Skills Skill book War Blunt Weapon Master Lv. 2/100, Fist Mastery Lv. 1/100, Kick Mastery Lv. 2/100, Throw Mastery Lv. 1/100, Bite Mastery Lv. 1/100, Block Lv. 1/100 Skill book Body Sneak Lv. 2/10, Swimming Lv. 3/10, Running Lv. 2/10, Physical Fitness Lv. 2/100, Waterbreathing Lv. 5/5, Salt Water Drinking Lv. 1/1 Skill Book Assistance Identify Lv. 10/10, Fisheye Lv. 20/20 Skill Book Resistance Poison Resistance Lv. 21/100, Pressure Resistance Lv. 2/100, Cold Resistance Lv. 3/100, Pain Resistance Lv. 1/00, Absolute Mental Resistance Lv. 100/100 Skill Book Magic Inner Mana Manipulation Lv. 2/100, Outer Mana Manipulation Lv. 1/100 Unique Skills The Eyes of the Demiurge Lv. 1/? Stats Mana 1/4 Mana Regeneration 0.000278(+ 0.000001)/sec Strength 8 Dexterity 6 Intelligence 9 Willpower 15 Vitality 9 Endurance 16 Wisdom 7 Rare title: Magic Theorist, He who hung above the abyss of knowledge caught a glimpse of the truth of magic, +3 Mana

Content with his progress Adam, who started to feel sleepy, decided to go to sleep.

The following morning Adam woke up to his protesting stomach and decided to eat something for the first time in 24 hours. He ate some of the berries he collected at the edge of the clearing and decided to continue his magic research.

Adam activated [The Eyes of the Demiurge] and started to pull at the mana-laws. This time, however, he decided to pull them towards his mouth in the hope of inhaling them. Several mana-laws flew towards his mouth and Adam opened his mouth and inhaled.

Skill gained: Meditation(mana)

As soon as that notification came, the number of mana-laws that flew towards his mouth started to sky-rocket and in no-time, a solid stream of mana flew into his mouth. Adam stopped and decided to use up his magic and see how long it would take to replenish his mana with his new skill.

He gathered all his mana in his finger and soon an slightly larger electric current left his finger only to die out after a few seconds. Undisturbed by the sad display Adam sat down and activated his new skill.

10 minutes later his mana-pool was completely refilled and Adam didn’t even need to activate his unique skill in the process. Pleased, he started experimenting on creating something useful with all that mana and activated his unique skill again.

Mana gathered in his finger but this time he tried to keep the mana from escaping his finger. The blue flowing out of him dimmed slightly and when he released the current the current became slightly larger. Excited, Adam became engrossed in his practice and when night began to set again, he received a notification.

Title gained: Perfect Mage

A few centimeters thick current swirled through the air before disappearing. The blue flowing out of his finger had completely disappeared and an enthusiastic Adam checked his new title.

Legendary title: Perfect Mage, For those that practice magic the waste of mana is unavoidable. Only those that transcend normalcy can be truly efficient, +5 Mana

Now I can finally start with the final stage, creating a spell with it.

After replenishing his mana Adam again brought all his mana to his finger. The mana broke through the tip of his finger and at that moment Adam tried manipulating it. The current made some weird moves and disappeared. Adam replenished his mana and tried again. This time the current made some weird twists and snapped in two.

Outer Mana Manipulation has levelled up to Lv. 2

Adam kept trying and days went by until the result finally presented itself.

Skill gained: Mana Bolt Common Skill: Mana Bolt, shoots a bolt of pure mana, primary stat: Intelligence, secondary stat: Wisdom, Cost: 2 Mana

A blue ball as big as a tennis ball appeared at the tip of Adam’s index finger. With a thought, the ball launched itself against the wall but no damage was done to the wall.

This should have been the attack that goblin shaman used. It was only enough to dislocate my shoulder so it should be difficult to kill anyone with it. Maybe if it was bigger it could work. I should try making it bigger.

Adam again used the skill and and when the bolt was floating at the tip of his finger he started adding more mana to it. Slowly but steadily the [Mana Bolt] started to grow until it was as big as four tennis-balls. That was the extent of Adam’s mana and with all his mana in the bolt he fired it at one of the trees outside the cave.

Skill gained: Mana Overload Mana Bolt has levelled up to Lv. 2 Mana Bolt has levelled up to Lv. 3 Mana Bolt has levelled up to Lv. 4 Outer Mana Manipulation has levelled up to Lv. 3

A shallow dent was the result. It was definitely more powerful than the normal bolt. It was an improvement, but using it once would cost him all his mana.

I don’t have much mana and I honestly have no idea how to get more on the short term. So I should conserve my mana as much as possible. I need a spell that doesn’t cost much mana, but can still kill. When I shoot a bolt the mana flies off and doesn’t come back. So I lose all the mana in the bolt. If the mana could come back or not leave in the first place I would not lose so much mana. What moves and always comes back? A boomerang, but such a thing would probably get stuck inside an enemy. It needs to easily bounce or slide off the enemy. A circle always returns to its starting point. Should I try to make a circle?

Experimenting, Adam created the current and tried to connect its two ends. He only needed three tries before he created what looked like a 4-year-old’s drawing of a circle.

It needs to be more stable and round or it won’t be of any use. Going with physics I should try to spin it to make it round. The question is if physics would even work on mana.

With not much more to go on Adam started spinning the circle. As it began to spin it became more and more round and before he knew it he had a perfect circle . He kept trying to make it faster and faster until he could not get it to go any faster.

Skill gained: Mana Chakram Unique Skill: Mana Chakram, A rotating circle of pure mana rotating at fast speeds on the back of the user's hand, to be launched at his enemy or to be used as a shield or short distance weapon, Primary Stat: Intelligence, secondary stat: Wisdom, Cost: 4 Mana Outer Mana Manipulation has levelled up to Lv. 4

To be used as a shield or short distance weapon? This magical chakram seems to differ a bit from its non-magical counterparts. I wanted a weapon that wouldn’t cost so much mana, but I had not thought it would go this way. Well, as long as the usability is good it should work.

Adam shot the mana chakram at the tree he previously shot the bolt at and the bluish glowing and madly spinning chakram cut into the tree with astonishing speed; It kept turning and drove itself deeper and deeper into the tree until it finally stopped and left a deep cut in the tree trunk. It slowly dispersed on its own after that.

Again, Adam summoned the chakram. The blue circle appeared floating on the top of the back of his hand. At his will, it started spinning and reached its top speed in 10 seconds. He kept it on his hand and punched out with his hand at the tree. His hand did not do much damage but the chakram, still spinning on the back of his hand, cut through the tree trunk like a knife through butter.

This seems usable on goblins.