Congratulations, Fire Magic has reached Level 3.

Experimentation had just turned into grinding almost immediately. I couldn’t really think of any other good Fire spells to try and create that weren’t explicitly combat-oriented, so I’d ended up just re-casting Witchlight. Turns out, I could cast it five times before I ran out of MP.

It also turns out that my MP regenerated at a rate of one per second, meaning that it took more than a minute and a half to get back up to full. If I was gonna be this reliant on magic, I needed to either find something that would quickly regenerate it in the middle of battle, increase my passive regeneration rate or just increase my maximum MP. It didn’t matter which one, but I really needed to figure something out.

I was stuck in another period of waiting for my MP to regenerate, so it was probably best to fill the silence as I continued walking. “Eve, how would I go about either increasing my max MP, or my MP regeneration?” I had a tutorial service available, so there’s no way I wasn’t going to use it.

“I was wondering when you’d ask about that! I kept noticing how you were stuck waiting a long time in between your cast cycles. Well, there’s a couple of things you could do, but I’m fairly certain you can’t use complicated rituals and runes yet, so I’ll skip over those.”

Rituals and Runes? I remembered that there were Skills involving those, and I believe I even had XP modifiers to them. Hm… questions for later. “Okay, so is there anything I actually can do in my current state? It’d be nice to not have to worry about running out of options after using Gale Slash twice.”

“Well, you could try increasing your INT and WIS attributes. Enchanted gear or high-level Conduits can also have effects that would be helpful. There’s certain Traits, Quest Rewards and Skill Tree Masteries that might be beneficial. I think there’s a couple Abilities that draw in Aether from the surroundings and convert it into MP as well, though I can’t tell you exactly how to make those work. It’s against the rules.”

Okay, that sounds like a really useful Ability, being able to just absorb Aether. That’s something to figure out for later, but Eve did say something else that was probably useful. “What do you mean by Skill Tree Masteries? Do I get a bonus to things if I max out a Skill?”

“Well, it’s actually a bit more than that. There’s certain rewards you get at various levels, with the best ones being given out every 25. So, it may be worthwhile to grind out your magic Skills if you want bonuses to MP. Oh! I also almost forgot Challenges, but I’ll explain those whenever it comes time, alright?”

“Sure, sure.” I replied while looking at my charcoal wand. Perhaps there was a point to increasing my Skill Level after all besides just higher numbers. I had assumed that a higher Fire Magic Skill might make it easier to cast Fire Magic, and maybe even made the spells stronger, but if I could get some MP bonuses as well, that would be really great.

With a grin, I noted that my MP bar had filled back up. I used Witchlight five more times, then had all five of them disperse almost immediately. They didn’t give much XP each time, but now I had something of a goal to aim for.

Congratulations, Aether Manipulation has reached Level 3.

Hm… I almost forgot about that Skill. It had leveled up as well while I was grinding [Witchlight]. I wasn’t too sure what it was actually used for, aside from perhaps just being a sort of Master Skill for the various types of Magic. Could I use Observe on it?

[Aether Manipulation]

A Tier 1 Skill that mainly presides over basic manipulation of Aether. It gains XP for every Spell used successfully. No known Abilities at this time, but the most likely candidate is the one Eve mentioned which absorbs Aether from the environment.

Well, it was good to know I could Observe my Skills. Aether Manipulation might be the one to go for if I wanted some extra regeneration. On top of that, it seemed like it would gain XP regardless of which type of magic I used, which was even better. If my true goal didn’t rely so much on what I used, merely that I used something, then perhaps it was time to experiment down a different path.

At least, I would have preferred the opportunity, but it appeared that I would have to put that off for a bit longer. My wand was quickly exchanged for the fan. A quick Gale Slash and the strange monster that I’d seen rushing to gore me was flipped on its side, thrashing about but unable to move.

It wasn’t the first time one of these things had tried this. I’d say it was the third time I’d garnered their attention, and the third time I’d been able to use Gale Slash in such a way. It was quickly proving to be a very useful Ability.

The monster itself seemed to be called a Razorboar, according to my Observe skill. It was quite large, and apparently some kind of wild pig. They did have trouble getting back up every time I used Gale Slash, thankfully. Those tusks were apparently made of actual metal, and the long, silver bristles on their back were as sharp as my sword.

While it was on its side, doing its best to get its balance back, my pets struck. Squishy covered its mouth and snout in its body, already starting to consume the boar’s face. As if it wasn’t suffocating enough, Sadie’s own jaw latched around its throat, crushing it almost instantly. Monty was even more brutal and opened up the Razorboar’s stomach with his beak. It didn’t thrash about and scream though, since Charlotte had already injected it with her paralyzing venom.

Congratulations, Beast Taming has reached Level 3.

As was usual by now, I dismissed the notification almost instinctively. It was nice to know that there was an actual reason to grind my Skills, but all of them were so low that there was probably no way I’d actually get one on my first day. Well, maybe if I could just keep spamming Witchlight then I could get Aether Manipulation and Fire Magic up high enough, depending on how the leveling scaled.

Still, those were concerns for later. For now, I approached the corpse of the boar that my monsters were happily consuming. They really did have voracious appetites. It seemed like their hunger was never actually sated, no matter how much they ate. Perhaps I was simply happy to eat a handful of nuts and berries because of my [Ring of the Watch] though.

Placing my hand on the boar, I noted the same loot that the last two had. My pets clearly wanted the meat, so I ignored that. Instead, I focused on the tusks and spines, watching as they both disappeared from the screen and the boar’s body. I didn’t know what sort of metal they were made of, or how an animal could have metallic bones, but surely I’d find some use for them later, right?

Well, even if I didn’t, it’s not as if there was any issue putting them in my inventory. Worst case scenario, I could sell them for scrap the first time I found a workshop. Money was the one thing that I didn’t seem to have any way to make. There was a nagging sensation at the back of my head telling me that it would be extremely important to get some means of income if I wanted to get anywhere significant.

“Alright guys, finish up so we can keep looking.” I commanded as I turned my back to the quartet, looking towards the river I was still following. The further downstream I headed, the more monsters I seemed to find. Sure, only three of those Razorboars had actually attacked me so far, but how long would that luck hold out? At some point, something bigger might decide that I looked tasty. Perhaps something I couldn’t stun with a Gale Slash and let my pets frenzy over.

Should I take my chances and start looking away from the river, or would it be better to keep following it so I could make sure I had my reliable source of water? Perhaps I’d eventually come across a settlement, but they might be hostile.

I still hadn’t seen that Greenskin camp, so it might be further ahead. Just as likely though, was that I may have passed it and it had been further away from the river, hidden somewhere that wasn’t so easily spotted.

This side of the riverbank hadn’t really offered anything like that though. It was basically just open plains as far as I’d been able to tell. There were no forests, no caves, no hills, and no ruined structures. There wasn’t anywhere that I could hide out and gather my thoughts in peace, and it was irking me to no end.

Feeling something nudge my leg, I looked down to see Squishy pushing against my shin and smiled. Kneeling down, I rubbed the top of its body. “You guys are all done then?” A glance behind me confirmed that the boar was stripped down to its skeleton, which was strangely a normal looking bone, rather than the metal of its spines and tusks.

Standing back up, I sighed. “Alright, let’s keep moving then. I don’t like being in the open like this.” I’d already gone this far, so I may as well keep following the river until I found somewhere that had some actual cover. My pets offered no argument and simply followed behind me as I continued along.

These last few hours of walking had really made me grateful to my past self though. I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty thanks to the ring on my finger, and my [Surestep Boots] kept my feet and legs from getting sore or tired no matter how far I’d walked. They were really so convenient to have.

Though, thinking about it, perhaps all this walking wasn’t the most efficient use of my time. There was this river I’d been following the whole time. When I found some sort of shelter, it might not be a bad investment to build a raft of some sort to see what was even further downstream if I ever needed to. Plans for later I guess, first I needed shelter.

For now, I just summoned my charcoal wand and cast another salvo of Witchlight, watching my MP bar drain completely in mere seconds and then begin its slow crawl back to full once again. The five orbs disappeared as I dismissed them and I continued on, ever more on my search for somewhere to call my own, even if temporarily.

I was getting into something of a regular flow at this point, repeating the same actions over and over again. Knowing that just made me sigh again.

Hopefully I found something soon. I was starting to lose that excitement again.