“SCREEEEEEEEEE”

I woke with a start to the sound of a hawk, I think it was a hawk. Because when I, carefully as to not cause sounds, peeked out of my tent what I saw was not a half meter to meter long hawk. No, what greeted my eyes was a bird at least three meters tall sky blue eagle perching on one of the larger ledges of the nearby cliff. Around it five smaller sky blue eagles were flying and screeching along.

The fuck, is it a mating ritual or something? I think as I observe the birds, after another round of flying and shrieking the large eagle unfurls their wings, and damn that’s large! If the eagle is around three meters tall in height the each of its wings is at least SIX meters long. when the massive wings are fully extended the bird lets out a ear splinting

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE”

I feel myself go deaf for a few minutes as dizziness assaults me, and I’m at least fifty meters away from the bird. I look up again to see that only one of the smaller birds is still standing with the ripped apart corpses of the others around them. Fuck that hurt, I take it that one won whatever they were doing then. I look on for a few more seconds before the eagles start to get uncomfortably close to each other. Yep, definitely a mating ritual. And is that cracks in the ground!?

I decide that the inside of my tent is a wonderful place to be fore the next couple of hours and I scoot over to where my now abandoned bedroll is.

I never really got to try manipulating Mana yesterday, guess I’ll practice that while I wait for the sound eagle to leave. I think back on the knowledge I gained yesterday from the skill tutorial, To start with I sneak my hand out of the tent really quickly to grab a small pebble. Then I place it in my palm and try to focus my Mana sense on it. and finally once I can make out the vague sensation of ‘solid’ Mana I try “pushing” it.

Of course its not just a mental push, but more like my mind has muscles that I’m trying to flex. It takes nearly thirty minutes before I get my first reaction from the stone, when it jumped up about a centimeter.

“Yes!”

Mana Manipulation has reached level ‘2’

I clamp my hand on my mouth and look outside towards the sound eagle…nothing. phew. Now that I managed to make it work once and with the knowledge from the level up it only takes another hour before I can make the little pebble hover above my palm for a few seconds before it falls down.

Mana Manipulation has reached level ‘3’

Mana Sense has reached level ‘5’

And with the advancement comes the level ups! I consider practicing some more but the eagle on the cliff just left and I’m in a severe need of a toilet. while I go out of the tent I take my chance to get some water from the stream. I once again eat some dehydrated food before starting to pack away my tent. Don’t want the eagle deciding I’m a good sized snack for its children.

I start walking north from my former camping spot as I take out my map and go through all the spots I already marked. Guess I could go down the valley but I'm guessing there will be more mutated creatures there so I’m probably safer going higher up. In the end it took me only around an hour or so to get to the new place.

I went around the cliff I had been staying near and followed the stream that lead to the waterfall for a kilometer or so before reaching a small little “canyon” that the water flowed from. I set up my tent near the entrance so I had a chance of running if something tried to get close without getting cornered.

And then under a moonless night I went to sleep.

After waking up I spent the morning hours checking out the nearby area for any animal tracks I could find with my limited tracking skill. Maybe I could get an actual skill for it later. After inspecting the surroundings I sat myself outside my tent and continued practicing my skills. Given the state of the valley, or even the entire world. I’m probably going to need it sooner or later.

Mana Manipulation has reached level ‘4’

Mana Manipulation has reached level ‘5’

Mana Sense has reached level ‘6’

You have reached level ‘2’

By the time I started making my lunch I had gotten several levels. The stat point that I got went in to perception again, and again I couldn’t tell a difference. Plus its probably the most important stat I have available. It’s not like I’m going to be able to fight something like the sound eagle anytime soon, might as well get good at detecting it first.

And with my level in Mana manipulation getting to five I managed to learn how to move a drop of water around, I expected the water to be easier to move since it is less… well, solid. But instead it was super hard getting a ‘grasp’ on the liquid like Mana in it. I can also sense Mana up to ten or so centimeters away from my body.

The Mana sense doesn’t actually tell me much more than the state of the Mana around me, which I can see with my eyes so I hope that improves as I level it. What if I tried to sense the Mana inside of me?

I go inspecting the nearby area again for animals before laying down on and returning to my training, I feel like my life has changed quite a bit in these last three days… lets hope it’s for the better…