I stood still as I listened to the voice that supposedly belonged to a being named Cyrus. Cyrus claimed to have been a god but didn’t elaborate on what a god was when I asked.

It was possible that this was an illusion caused by some creature but the only creature I had seen that was capable of illusions was a harmless butterfly. Even if it was a trick I can just use [Assimilate Self] to escape since I doubt this creature would be able to harm mana.

‘Hmm, but if I use [Assimilate Self] I would expend mana which would weaken me for a period of time. Being weakened would make me unable to learn more information for a while which is absolutely terrible.’

“Are you even listening?” The being calling itself Cyrus asked.

“To which part are you asking about me listening to?” I asked.

I couldn’t hear anything but I felt a large amount of annoyance coming from the voice’s silence.

“Let’s start with this, what is your current goal?” Cyrus asked.

I thought for a bit, ‘What did I really want to do? Simple, I wanted knowledge. There are so many interesting things to learn about the world and I just want to learn them all.’

I told this to Cyrus but I still felt that annoyance from it. Why can’t I want knowledge? Is wanting knowledge wrong? I asked Cyrus this question.

“No, wanting knowledge isn’t wrong. The issue is that you’re currently in a place where wanting knowledge will get you killed and will prevent me from accomplishing my goal.” Cyrus explained.

’I think that goal is to have the world destroyed but why would something that lives here want the world to be destroyed? I’m still confused but I don’t think Cyrus cares.’

“What you need to do is gather experience and level up to the point where you can safely leave Crow’s Forest. The issue is that there are few things in the depths that are suitable for you to kill so you can level up. There might be a few very low level things like normal rabbits but I doubt there’s much between the low levels and the higher levels for this area.” Cyrus said, I still don’t entirely understand how this communication worked but I suppose whatever a god is would be capable of it.

As if reading my thoughts, Cyrus said, “Are you really so confused about what a god is? Do you really need me to explain my entire existence to you? Well? Do you?”

I immediately asked for this explanation and was rewarded with an even more annoyed response, “A god is a being in charge of a certain aspect of the world. The importance of their aspect and how much it influences determines how powerful that god is and what rank in the godly hierarchy they have. Most gods are Lesser Gods but the few with important aspects such as space are Greater Gods.”

I now had a specific question to ask, “What aspect were you in charge of?”

After hearing my question, Cyrus seemed less annoyed and a bit melancholic but still answered, “I was in charge of one of the most important aspects, the aspect of all living beings.”

“If you’re in charge of all living beings why do you want to destroy the world?” I was still confused.

“I don’t want to destroy the world, I just want to destroy the Godly Realm and all those useless fools in it.”

“Aren’t gods also living beings? Is there a specific definition for being alive?”

“That is a secret you can’t know but I can give you a reason that might satisfy you.”

I paused, this was an issue. I want more knowledge but which knowledge is more important? The knowledge I know is real or the knowledge I know is an illusion like one made from the butterfly?

‘If I have more knowledge then can I use separate knowledge to determine which is real and which is an illusion? This is a good plan.’ I decided to accept the reason that wasn’t the truth.

When I told Cyrus my decision I thought I heard a sigh of relief but I decided to ignore it since there was a much better thing to listen to.

Cyrus started speaking with the unknown method once I chose to listen, “When I was first born into this world I lived my life as a human boy. There were good times and bad along with people I detested and people I didn’t want to let go. I had to escape to the Demon Realm once I awakened my dragon blood but I didn’t have any lasting hatred for the people in the Mortal Realm as they all had their reasons which I understood.

“In the Demon Realm there was constant fighting and bloodshed while in the few safe cities there was a lot of trickery. I preferred the Demon Realm to the Mortal Realm because of how simple and honest the beings there were. They either wanted to kill you and would attack you on sight or they would twist the truth to suit their needs but would never tell a lie. Once I ascended to godhood and moved to the Godly Realm I accepted the people of the Demon Realm and the Mortal Realm.

“In the Godly Realm however, there were things that made no sense. The gods would fight each other secretly and blatantly to gain more power, which I accepted but I couldn’t understand why they endangered the entire world for their own selfish wishes. The people of the Mortal Realm harmed each other for their own desires but they only ever could influence people on a small scale or they believed they had to do those things to survive. The beings of the Demon Realm could influence their entire realm but they were honest, in a way, and they had a simple wish to grow stronger. The gods of the Godly Realm harmed the entire world with their actions and were almost never honest with their intentions. Therefore I don’t consider the gods living beings and will not help them.”

I listened carefully to every word, even though I didn’t understand quite a few of them. From what I did understand I learned that the gods aren’t nice, the Demon Realm is very nice, and the Mortal Realm is ok.

Cyrus didn’t seem to want to say anymore about the topic of his existence and instead started talking about me, “You are supposed to be able to destroy the world but I don’t see how that’s possible if you don’t even want to grow stronger and instead want to keep wandering around this forest and learning mostly useless information. How about I offer you an alternative? You level up to level 20 and become strong enough to leave this forest safely and in exchange I’ll tell you where a nearby village is so you can learn more. Does that sound acceptable?”

I thought about this offer and weighed the pros and cons. Getting stronger wasn’t terrible as I could learn more about what the stat points and skill points I got from leveling up were used for exactly but the sacrifice of learning more knowledge from this forest in exchange for learning the knowledge in a village was a bit difficult. What if I learned more from this forest than from the village? Wouldn’t I have wasted my time leaving the forest?

Cyrus didn’t want to seem to wait too long as he said, “I can impart some of my knowledge of magic and fighting to you but you have to accept my offer and leave the forest once you can.”

This made the offer much more tempting. The forest couldn’t tell me about magic and fighting too much. Although, couldn’t I just try and learn it myself rather than learning from the forest or Cyrus?

“Just accept the offer already, I’ll even give you a way to use your [Ancient Enchanting] skill that would be useful right now.” Cyrus interrupted my thinking with even more temptations.

“Alright, I’ll accept your offer. May I have the knowledge now?” I didn’t have much of a choice, there was so much knowledge just waiting for me to collect it.

Cyrus didn’t say anything else but I immediately felt like I knew a lot of things that I didn’t before. Too many things. I… I think I’m just going to… take a nap.

*****

I awoke and looked around to see nothing had changed.

‘Hmm, there also was no sound of Cyrus. Oh well, I got my knowledge so I have no complaints. Although, since he’s gone can I just ignore his request? Hmm… No! I can’t ignore his request. I said I would do what he wanted and if I didn’t follow what I said I would be giving fake knowledge and that can’t be allowed!

‘Now then, what does this new knowledge tell me?

‘Hmm, biting a head is a bad idea because it has a hard shell but biting a neck is a good idea? Interesting. Magic mostly focuses on forcing your will into mana and then having that will make changes to the mana before it goes back into the natural mana and causes a change? I suppose that’s what my [Ancient Enchanting] did, I used my will to turn the mana into a solid and then let it react with the natural mana to affect the rock. Ooh, I can use [Ancient Enchanting] on myself to create permanent enchantments that directly affect me? Although they can be destroyed if that area gets hit or if I want to intentionally destroy them.

‘Which one of these enchantments would be useful? I could make myself burn but that doesn’t seem like a good idea. There’s one for increasing my Agility but what exactly does Agility do? Did Cyrus give me that information? Oh, he did.

‘So Agility determines how fast I can move, Dexterity determines how well I can control my body and do precise movements, Strength determines how much force I can exert, Vitality determines how resistant my body is to damage, how quickly I can recover from damage, and a small side effect of allowing me to exert more force without harming myself, Intelligence determines how well I can think and learn while also determining how much mana I can have, and Wisdom determines my ability to apply knowledge while also determining my ability to recover mana.

‘Hmm, the best option is clearly to put all of my stat points into Intelligence since having more ability to learn knowledge is always the best thing possible.’

So I did, as soon as I did I felt like there was more space in my head. I could think faster and I felt something warm moving into my body.

‘Hmm, now what exactly are skill points used for?

‘Aw, they can’t be used to gather more knowledge easily? That’s a shame… wait, can I use them to increase the level of [Identify] or [Inspect]?

‘I can’t, I need six or five points for [Identify] or [Inspect] respectively. I suppose I could use them on [Ancient Enchanting] but that’s not as good- wait, couldn’t I upgrade [Ancient Enchanting] and then create a permanent enchantment on myself to increase my Intelligence? This is an amazing plan, thanks me!

‘Hehe, more Intelligence is always much better.’

Ancient Enchanting Lv. 1 → Ancient Enchanting Lv. 2

‘What can this do now?’

I immediately tried creating an image of an owl as according to the one enchantment I have that gives bonuses to Intelligence and Wisdom. I’m not entirely sure what an owl is but apparently it also likes learning knowledge.

The creation of the image wasn’t any easier but transforming the image into a solid object was around 10% easier which was a lot considering I had only succeeded once before.

It still took a few tries but I eventually managed to form a solid mana owl picture and proceeded to touch my head against it since that was supposedly the correct place.

It worked and I immediately felt another increase in space inside my head, some more warmth moving in my body, and a new increase this time that I couldn’t really explain. I didn’t feel any different but I knew that if I came across a problem that I couldn’t solve before I would have a slightly better chance at solving it.

The increase in space in my head and the amount of warmth moving around my body weren’t as much as when I used the stat points but there was still a bit, enough to be noticeable. I decided to check my Profile since it would tell me just how much of a change there was.

Name: N/A

Titles: Fated, Lone Seeker of Knowledge, Creator, Above Terror

Species: Mana Monster

Subspecies: Mana Wolf

Age: 8 months

Level: 2

Health Points (HP): 60/60

HP Regeneration: 0.6/second

Mana Points (MP): 368/430

MP Regeneration: 0.23/second

Stamina Points (SP): 140/140

SP Regeneration: 1.4/second

Stat Points (StP): 0

Vitality: 6

Strength: 3

Intelligence: 43

Wisdom: 23

Agility: 8

Dexterity: 7

Skill Points (SkP): 0

Personal Skills: Identify Lv. 5, Inspect Lv. 4, Ancient Enchanting Lv. 2

Created Skills: Assimilate Self Lv. 2

Unique Skills: N/A

Racial Skills: Shift Form, Physical Mana Manipulation Lv. 3,

Status Effects: N/A

‘Hrm, an increase of three points each? I think I got five stat points from each level up? So around half of a level up for a single enchantment. I suppose that’s not bad but what exactly changed in my stats from the stat points and enchantment?’

I saw an increase of max mana from 300 to 430 meaning there was an increase of ten for every Intelligence stat point while my mana regeneration went up by 0.03 meaning an increase of 0.01 per Wisdom stat point.

‘Now what was the thing I had to do? Cyrus said to get stronger which I did by increasing my stats but what was the other thing?’

I thought, and thought, and thought, but couldn’t think of anything until one of the rabbits that inhabit this part of the forest appeared nearby. Then I remembered that Cyrus said to level up which I already knew how to do because I had done it twice.

Leveling up was very simple, you just had to kill things. I’m not sure on the specific details but killing a rabbit last time gave me two levels which is pretty good… I think.

‘Oh well, since there’s something I can kill easily I may as well try and level up again.’

I was just about to rush toward the rabbit when I remembered the fighting knowledge that Cyrus had given me. It stated that it was much better to sneak around and “ambush” a target rather than charging straight towards it. I don’t know exactly what “ambush” means but I think it has something to do with attacking and being sneaky.

So I did just that, I slowly went around the rabbit and then started walking towards its back. Stealthily of course.

Skill acquired: Stealth Lv. 1

’See? Even the System agrees I’m being stealthy. Now, can I attack this rabbit?’

I had been slightly distracted by the System but I had kept walking forward and… almost walked into the rabbit.

‘I think I’m close enough, right? Oh well, time to attack!’

Leaping forward, I followed Cyrus’ knowledge and bit its neck.

It heard me and was about to flee but couldn’t due to me being so close.

It died as soon as I got its neck and went limp. Much easier than when I had to chase one rabbit through the forest until it eventually got tired.

Forest Rabbit Lv. 3 killed.

Awarding experience.

You have leveled up.

Level 2 → Level 3

‘Yay, one down just 17 more to go? Hmm, will rabbits be able to take me to level 20? I doubt it because didn’t Cyrus say there weren’t many things between the things on the level of rabbits and the things on the level of that spider? That might be an issue but for now I can kill rabbits.

‘Time to go hunt more rabbits, hehe.’

*****

One rabbit.

Forest Rabbit Lv. 2 killed.

Awarding experience.

One more.

Forest Rabbit Lv. 1 killed.

Awarding experience.

And another.

Forest Rabbit Lv. 3 killed.

Awarding experience.

You have leveled up.

Level 3 → Level 4

‘Ooh, a fat rabbit. Will this one be any different?’

Forest Rabbit Colony Mother Lv. 5 killed.

Awarding experience.

You have leveled up.

Level 4 → Level 5

‘Wait, shouldn’t I be spending my stat points and skill points? Hmm, I suppose I can level up [Ancient Enchanting] again. But what do I do with my stat points? I kind of want to put them all into Intelligence again. Is that the best option though? Strength isn’t needed much, Vitality also isn’t too important, Agility might be nice, Dexterity I don’t think I need. What about Wisdom? Being able to think of solutions better doesn’t seem like a bad thing.

‘How about, seven to Intelligence, and four to Agility and Wisdom? That should be good right? Yeah, I won’t be betraying the knowledge if I give most of the points to Intelligence.

‘Didn’t I also gain stat points from random things?’

One Strength point gained due to repeatedly using as much force as you can.

One Dexterity point gained due to repeatedly controlling your body to reduce the amount of sound made from moving.

‘That might be useful? Although, can’t I use something besides Strength now that I think about it? I have a lot of Intelligence which is useful for casting magic apparently so why don’t I try that?

‘So what I have to do first is exert my will onto the mana. I did it before by forming a shape with the mana using [Physical Mana Manipulation] so why don’t I do it again?

‘Twist it here, make a corner here, make another layer, and there we go, perfect.’

A rock shape had been formed out of the mana. It wasn’t supposed to be a rock but due to accidents and mistakes it turned into one.

‘Now I just need to let it go right? That should be pretty easy. Here we go!’

THUD!