The wolves continued to prowl around the cliff, and with seemingly no intention to leave I steeled myself for the long haul. I tried peeling of stones with Mana manipulation from behind me to have something larger than a chair sized platform. And pebble by pebble I had managed to carve a hollow large enough for three of me to sit comfortably in.

Mana Manipulation has reached level ‘8’

Mana Sense has reached level ‘10’

Ohh, max level! I rested my back toward the inner side of my little hollow and looked at my status screen.

User

Identity - Auden Leymoore/Elf?

layer - 1

Tier - 0

Level - 4/10

Oath

0 - “Magic”

Stats -

Perception - 4

Wisdom - 0

Intelligence - 0

Vigilance - 0

Creativity - 0

Skills

Mana Manipulation 0 - 8/10

Climbing 0 - 4/10

Mana sense 0 - 10/10*

Whats that? I focused my attention on the little asterisk after the level on Mana sense…

Really, Nothing! This system doesn’t tell you anything! After calming down from the disappointment that was the system I tried to figure out what it meant. Worst case it means I cant meant it anymore, but what about the zero in front of the level? Do I need to do some advancement quest, to get it to level up? is it because my level is to low, do I need to reach a higher level before I advance?

It doesn’t make sense for it to be based on my level though, I’m six levels below my Mana sense in level. Maybe I need to increase the level manually, the earlier levels always seemed to be based on improving with the help of the system. What if I need to reach the same level of improvement without help?

In the end I sat there for nearly an hour thinking before let go of the thought. Never mind that, I need to figure out a way to escape.The wolves were still below me and seemed to be in it for the long haul, they had eaten most of the deer and were almost comically bloated. This didn’t seem to slow them down though as even with this size they still managed to jump almost five meter into the air.

How do I know? Because every twenty minutes or so they would try to get up to me, an though they seemed to be failing so far I wasn’t so sure about my safety. For all I know they also have the system and can get a jumping skill. Better safe than sorry.

So I continues digging, if they managed to get up here I wanted to at least be able to push them off without falling, and a for that I needed a larger hollow.

By the time I had made my platform large enough that I could lay down safely I had chance on the ground from exhaustion.

For almost 30 hours I had been training with my Mana and for the last 15 or so hours I had been in constant stress about the wolves so when I had the chance I took it.

When I woke up the sun was… right no sun. But I think the surroundings were lighting up. I shifted my body to get a better view of the wolves below me to confirm if they were still there, yep still there. I went to the back to the now nearly two meter deep hollow and continued trying to dig deeper, it’s not like I had anything better to do and it helped distract me from my growing hunger.

I hadn’t eaten for all of yesterday since I was stuck up here after all.

While I continued to dig I tried to control the air and whatever drops of water I could find. the level up information was still based on my actions and I didn’t want to be stuck with only manipulating solids in the future.

Mana Manipulation has reached level ‘9’

I felt the now familiar rush of knowledge as I leveled up, I could now control almost a fistful of stone and I could “throw” a small pinky sized stone almost five meters forward.

Using the new knowledge I continued separating the stone from the cliff side I heard the quiet sounds of yelping. Turning around once again I looked out of the cave to see that on the ground there was almost a dozen small wolf pups playing with the boned of the deer under the careful watch of what I guess is one of the older wolves.

I watched them for a few minutes before once again for the millionth time setting my sights on my little cave. Actually… I look at the cliff outside of the hole. With my proficiency increasing I should be able to make some simple hand holds that could let me climb to the top. I grab hold of a small crack in the stone and use my climbing skill to determine where I should place the holds.

This could work! I think as I trace the soon to be “staircase” across the stone with my eyes.

The first couple of steps were simple to make but when I had to start climbing while I used my manipulation on the stone was when it started slowing down. Not to say it didn’t give results. after about four hours of constant climbing back and forth from the cave to rest my fingers I had completed the stairs. I had also received some quite needed rewards.

Climbing has reached level ‘5’

Mana Manipulation has reached level ‘10’

You have reached level '5’

Climbing has reached level ‘6’

The levels in climbing were especially useful as they helped me with knowledge of how to manipulate Mana while climbing. And as interesting as the implications of the skill gains were, I couldn’t bring myself to care as I climbed up and over the edge of the cliff.

I had looked ahead to make sure that none of the wolves were up here and they weren’t. I slowly stood up as I inspected my immediate surroundings, I stood on a predominately stone ledge that sloped gently upwards towards the peak of the mountain. The cliff stretched into the valley to the left and to the right I could see it continue past the next hill.

Most important of all, I was no longer stuck in a cave! though I would probably be sleeping there until I can think of a way to get my stuff back from the wolves.

I took some of the moss and carried it down into the cave to be used as a bed while I looked for anything that looked vaguely edible. By this point the hunger was a near constant pain and my thirst was killing me.