Name: Adrin || Age:17 || Villager [level 0]

Life: 20/20 || Stamina : 30/30

||

Strength: 4 || Intelligence: 5 || Agility: 2

||

Bodybuilding [1], Arithmetic [1], Melee weapons [1], Spearfishing [1]

||

Hack [1], Throw [1]

A list came out when he wanted to see all his achievements. It was the first thing the voice inside his head asked him to do after waking up the next morning.

He couldn’t believe it was all gained only on the first day. Adrin wasn’t sure if others had this kind of progress too, but he didn't think they did.

He began the day by drinking some water before he started exercising. Adrin did push-ups and pull-ups numerous times without getting out of breath. Just like yesterday, he pushed himself to the limit, but in the end, nothing. No update in his skill or attribute.

‘The spirit is right, leveling up the skill is much harder than gaining them,’ he mused inside.

‘We might not even receive any attribute on the next level up,’ the spirit added.

Adrin wondered what he should do next before his door was knocked. He wondered who it was as he opened the door, and a familiar face greeted him with a wide smile.

Marla peered inside before she slipped into his shack. Her smell tickled him odd.

“You did catch something,” she said while looking at the head bone, “and it’s huge. Emi wasn’t lying about her first meal with you.”

“What do you need, aunt-”

She pressed a finger to his lips, “you are an adult, don’t call me aunty anymore,” the lady giggled. “Besides, I’m just your neighbor, but would you help me with the water again today?”

“Sure,” Adrin said when the spirit agreed with the idea.

He said nothing as he walked past the woman toward her house to get the buckets. He used to help her to get water from the river in exchange for food, but today was a little puzzling. The woman was acting weird, but Adrin didn’t notice it until his spirit pointed out the obvious.

The older woman couldn’t help herself checking him out after he opened the door. She was literally breathing to his face when she asked for help. The spirit might be right, she wanted him to claim her using the hunter’s favor.

It was silly, but also he didn’t want to miss the chance of leveling up his skill. Carrying water back and forth could be more practical in leveling up the [Bodybuilding] skill than a simple exercise. It was worth a shot.

As expected, the first trip from the river barricade hadn’t resulted in any advancement. However, he almost could feel his body scratching the limit between lifting two heavy buckets, walking, and balancing them on a pole. The feeling got stronger after a few trips from the river all the way to the widow’s house.

‘Maybe overtaxing the body will yield better results?’ said the spirit.

And Adrin agreed with the idea. After the first level, doing push-ups and pull-ups didn’t feel as hard anymore. The one-point increase in his strength should have had something to do with it as it wouldn’t make any sense if the increase had no effect.

He should be right when the skill advanced on his eight’s trip. Adrin's whole body was screaming in pain by the time the skill updated.

Bodybuilding leveled up.

Bodybuilding [2], +2 Strength & +1 Agility.

His body heated up and thin smoke escaped his body as his muscles became more defined under his shirt. It didn’t increase in size but he had become leaner under his skin.

Adrin took off his rag shirt to let the breeze cool him down. It always felt great when his attributes increased. It felt so great until he only stopped after he did a few more trips to completely fill the tank.

The whole exercise had taken him as long, and moreover, he never had been able to fill the huge wooden water tank before. Climbing up the stairs to pour the water was already a huge struggle just three days before.

The two buckets felt nothing when his Strength reached five points. It became obvious that it would not cut it anymore. He would need to find another harder exercise or more buckets to carry at one time.

But the spirit had another idea. It was time to train with the odd blue stone. Adrin had no idea what to do, but the spirit had a few ideas they could try.

There were a few ways to learn something that they had no knowledge about. Learning from a magic tutor or from a magic book was insanely expensive for the village chief, let alone someone like him. He had no choice but to improvise.

First, the spirit wanted him to try using a neutral stimuli method. Adrin had no idea what it meant until the spirit explained it to him. It basically meant trying to feel and react to the stone.

Well, if the stone was anything special. He might not be able to figure this out before, but he doubted that Emi would lie or the peddler had had the guts to trick the village chief.

Her father had told Emi how he got it. She also would have gained nothing from lying, and the peddler would only harm his future trading if he had lied. There was very little reason not to believe it was indeed a special stone.

Adrin returned to his shack with the thought in mind. He closed and locked the door using a stick. According to the spirit, he would need peace and quiet. His shack being away from other houses once again had worked in his favor.

He sat on the bed with his legs folded in as he had seen in the spirit’s memory. He closed his eyes and tried to think of nothing but the stone. A few thoughts came bugging him but he pushed it away while focusing on the stone in his hands.

It took him a long while before everything quieted around him. It felt like he was somewhere else and not even sitting anymore. He felt like floating while he still could feel the rag under his butt.

It was then when he felt an odd rotating sensation. At first, he thought he was just imagining things, but after a while, he began to realize it was something tangible. He had lived in the shack for years already but never had he felt a breeze like this.

The usual breeze would leak through the wood above the mud and straw walls, but never rotating in his hands. It felt like the stone was moving something around, creating this weird ‘breeze’ he felt.

Oddly enough, the stone wouldn’t do anything if he placed it on the bed. It would only begin to move something in the air whenever he touched it.

No, that was not true. The stone would only circulate when he willed it to do something while he was touching it. Then he realized what it was.

The stone was circulating mana according to his will.

Mana Sense ability obtained.

Mana Sense [level 1], +1 Willpower.

---

Willpower discovered, base Willpower: 1.

Strong spiritual presence detected, Base Willpower +12

Willpower: 14

---

Mana bar unlocked, ?/?

The world transformed around him.

Suddenly everything became clearer, and tracers of mana in a certain area around him moved lazily according to his will. He tried to push it into his body but nothing happened. It was obvious because he didn’t know exactly how to do it.

Adrin focused on the stone again. He wondered how the stone was able to take in mana and release it back into the air. A clue came to him when he felt something odd in the stone. It felt like space, or rather some sort of void-space, according to the spirit.

The only reason the stone was releasing the mana was because of the tiny chip on it which might have not been accidental. It was too precise to be an accident. Someone had purposely chipped the stone so somebody else could learn how to sense the leaking mana.

He tried to copy the stone. It was the only thing he and the spirit could think of. Adrin didn’t know how long he had lost in his effort to create a void-space within him. It felt like time wasn’t even moving as he stayed stone still on the bed.

‘But if mana only moves by will, then perhaps the void-space is the same?’ the spirit reasoned.

The spirit said that they might need to continue to observe the stone as it absorbed and released mana. This was another foolproof method in learning. Observation and try to mimic.

Adrin nodded to no one as he focused on trying to mimic the stone. Maybe creating his own flawless mana stone inside him. He willed Mana to move around him and through him. Adrin created what the spirit called a vortex of mana that originated from every pore on his body.

He had seen this vortex in the river before. Anything near it would be sucked down in an instant. The image inside his head had helped him to better realize it.

Mana rotated around him in waves until they met in the middle inside him before dispersing. He didn’t know if it was the right or wrong thing to do, but he trusted the wise spirit. Because without the spirit, he couldn’t even figure out how to learn anything from a deceivingly simple blue rock.

He decided to practice moving the mana until it began to feel natural. Adrin had the idea to practice it with his breathing until it was something he could do without thinking about it. Maybe he could get somewhere by developing it as a habit.

His stomach groaned and rumbled. Based on the sunlight, it was already evening when he reopened his eyes. He couldn’t believe that he had been sitting on his ass for almost the whole day. Adrin wondered why he didn’t feel terrible, instead, he felt refreshed.

His mana bar was still empty other than five points of mana, but it should already be a lot of progress. Emi had the stone for a year and she couldn’t figure anything out. The whole daylight might have been wasted, but it was nothing compared to the whole year. It felt like the stone was made for him but that couldn’t have been possible.

‘Maybe Emi’s spirit didn’t have a strong enough willpower?’ the thought occurred to him.

Adrin's stomach protested again. It was time to go spearfishing once more.