Once I had washed the blood off myself and my clothes I scowled at the tattered remnants of my shirt. I really had to spend some time working on my Nature Shaping Skill so that I could repair my clothes but first I decided to complete my Aspect of the Mage. Opening the Aspect Menu, I placed 10 of the 12 points that I had into the Aspect of the Mage and confirmed my decision.

Once I did this I was once again thrust into my internal world where I could see that things had changed once more; in my internal world the single-celled organisms were doing something rather unusual, upon coming into contact with one another they seemed to fuse together briefly before the conjoined cells split into four separate individual cells and I realised that this was the first type of sexual reproduction appearing in my internal world. Then everything started moving faster and faster around me until it became a blur as time passed in my internal world. Once things had slowed down I realised that my perspective had shifted to land once more where I saw what appeared to be primitive multicellular plants growing in the virgin soil before my perspective returned to my body and I quickly read the new notifications that had popped up in front of me.

Aspect of the Mage has been completed providing you with the following benefits.

Where Intelligence is a useful Stat for any mage allowing them to become more powerful than ever it is useless without the Wisdom to know how to use this power.

Wisdom increased by 2!

While Intelligence and Wisdom are two of the most important aspects of being a mage, without the Willpower to use them they are pointless.

Willpower increased by 1!

Growth Rate increased by 3 Intelligence, 2 Wisdom, 1 Willpower, 20 MP and MP regen increased by 1/min.

2 random spells unlocked!

Mana Blade unlocked!

Mana Weapon unlocked!

New Aspects Unlocked!

Aspect points: 2

Soul Aspect increased to Level 50!

As time passes new ways of passing down genetic information emerge massively increasing the rate at which new species evolve.

+2 Unassigned Stat Points!

Growth Rate increased by 2 Unassigned Stat Points!

Following the success of other forms of life outside of the oceans new species have evolved to survive in the hostile environments on land. Each of these new organisms is formed from a cluster of cells that each specialise in one or two things allowing them to flourish in ways that have never before been seen.

Vitality increased by 3!

Constitution increased by 2!

Growth rate increased by 2 Vitality and 1 Constitution!

Wow, I honestly hadn’t expected to get two new spells from completing Aspect of the Mage, one definitely but I definitely didn’t expect to receive two. On the other hand, what I got from reaching Level 50 in my Soul Aspect was a bit disappointing. I had been hoping that I would get something really good for reaching what had felt like a milestone to me.

Mana Blade Unlocked!

Creates a blade of Mana that deals a small amount of damage to anything that it strikes. Cost 20 MP.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Intelligence.

Mana Weapon Unlocked!

Covers a weapon in Mana increasing the damage that the weapon deals by a small amount. Cost 15 MP/min.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Wisdom.

Well, these new spells look like they could be very useful, especially considering that the amount of damage I could do with my axe was appeared to mostly be affected by my Strength which was my lowest Stat. I wasn’t sure how much it would help but it was easy enough to find out. Drawing my axe to test the spell out, I cast the spell on my weapon which was soon covered in a faint blue glow that was actually a little intimidating, even to me. Swinging the weapon at a nearby tree the blade cut deep into the trunk and I deactivated the spell and tried again once I had pulled the weapon free. Comparing the two it was easy to see that the first strike had done more damage and I then decided that I might as well try out my other new spell as well. Casting spell created a blade of blue energy about half a metre wide that shot towards the tree I was using as a target and slammed into it, sending chips of wood flying. Upon getting closer I could see that while the cut in the tree was considerably wider than either of the ones, I had made with my axe it wasn’t as deep as even the shallowest one. Still, this spell could damage multiple targets if I fired it at a group which would be useful, and I was sure that it would become more powerful when I levelled it up a bit.

Having gone over the notifications and my new spells I decided to spend the two Unassigned Stat Points that I had received from my Soul Aspect. Bringing up my Status Screen I briefly considered my Stats before placing one of the points into Strength to increase the amount of damage that I could do if I got caught in close combat again and then decided to heed the advice that the Aspect of the Mage had given me by placing the other point into the lowest of my magic-related Stats; Wisdom. Having a lot of MP was all very well and good but if I ran out then I would be stuck fighting in close combat which with my low Strength just wasn’t a good idea. After I had done this, I examined the changes to my Stats with a grin.

Status

Level 1

Exp: 28%

HP: 120/120

MP: 107/107

HP Regen: 9.1 per minute

MP Regen: 7. per minute

SP: 70/70

Essence: 11

SP Regen:6.9 per minute

Str: 6 (+3/Lvl)

Agi: 7 (+3/Lvl)

Con: 16 (+ 4/Lvl)

End: 8 (+6/Lvl)

Tou: 14 (+2/Lvl)

Int: 12 (+17/Lvl)

Coor: 9 (+5/Lvl)

Vit: 17 (+4/Lvl)

Wis: 10 (+8/Lvl)

Will: 17 (+11/Lvl)

Per: 10 (+10/Lvl)

Cha: 8 (+5/Lvl)

Additional Growth Rate: +8 Unassigned Stat Points/Lvl. +20 MP/Lvl. MP regen increased by 1/min per Lvl.

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

With the Stat increases I had received from Aspect of the Mage I now had over 100 MP to work with which was great, but my Strength was still a bit wimpy meaning that I still had to be careful if I got into close combat again. My Soul Aspect was still increasing my HP and HP regen which would keep me alive longer but if I got caught in close combat with something that was physically more powerful than I was then all that would do was make it take longer for me to die. Sighing I rubbed my face, these Stat increases from Aspects were all very well and good but Levelling Up would still provide me with a much larger boost to my Stats, to a point where I would be more than twice as powerful when I reached Level 2.

However now it was time to go through with my plan of harvesting some of the fruit that I had seen the Feathered Chimp eating outside the barrier before repairing my damaged clothes and doing some more training.

Walking past the corpse of the Feathered Chimp I also made a note to bury the creature’s remains thankfully other than the reaction that I had upon arriving on this planet I had been too busy training to have any time to think about the magnitude of what I was attempting and at the rate things were going I wasn’t going to be able to relax long enough to dwell on things like that any time soon.

After spending some time checking for anything moving outside the barrier, I exited the safe area that the Admin had created for me for the second time today and walked up to the slender tree that the fruits I was looking for were growing on. Making sure to take a closer look around, paying special attention to the branches above my head as I remembered how many books mentioned that people had a tendency not to check above their heads but didn’t see anything that looked even a little bit threatening. As I did so I realised that something slightly odd was going on; back when I lived on earth I had never really had a good sense of direction and it wasn’t like I had really been paying attention to where I had exited the barrier the first time and yet I had ended up at the same place as earlier without even really thinking about it. This seemed like even less of a coincidence when I realised how sure I had been that I had ended up on nearly exactly the opposite side of the barrier that I had been ambushed on yesterday despite being too panicked to pay attention to where I had been.

Now that I had started actually thinking about this I slapped myself as I realised what was going on; I had subconsciously been using my Mapping Skill to work out where I was going decided to actually work out what it did when I got back to safety.

Clumsily climbing up the tree I started picking a couple of the strange fruits, which resembled some sort of cross between a strawberry and a peach and dropped to the ground below.

“Right well that was easy,” I muttered turning back towards the barrier. I had half been expecting to be ambushed again but it appeared that my caution had been unfounded. Or at least that was what I had thought until I saw a shadow moving behind me and I quickly leapt to the side as one of the starfish things like the one that I had fought yesterday dropped down from a high branch.

“Or not!” I said as the thing landed where I had been a mere second ago. “That was bloody close!”

The creature was the same size as the one that I had fought yesterday and a quick check with my Identification Skill confirmed that this one was a Level 1 as well. As the thing gathered itself to leap at me, I dropped the fruit that I was holding and conjured a Mana Shield that it smashed into.

Snarling I drew my axe and fired a Stone Shot at the thing that sank into its rubbery flesh with a thudding sound making the thing hiss in pain and me smile in triumph as I saw how much more effective my new attack spell was than my Mana Bolt had been.

The thing then decided to charge at me and lash out with the claws on the ends of its legs making me consider using my Earth Armour spell but I decided not to and instead reversed my axe and slammed the spike down into the hole that my Stone Shot had made in the creature’s body causing its legs to writhe in pain, ripping gouges out of the earth before swinging them at my face.

Quickly I ripped my axe from the things body and stepped back as one of the claws sliced into my face barely missing my left eye and fired a Mana Blast at it that sent the thing skidding along the ground before it managed to right itself and leap at me once more.

With a smirk I fired another Stone Shot at it as it flew through the air, the projectile sinking into its body just to the left of its maw and knocking it out of the air once more. Since I had fought one of these things before it was much easier to fight this time and I quickly cast my gaze around me just in case I was going to be ambushed once more before looking back at the now severely wounded thing that had attacked me. After the last attack one of its legs was hanging limp from its central body and I decided that I had to take advantage of this before more of its friends arrived.

This time I was the one that charged forwards while my opponent tried to back away from me, its wounded leg dragging long behind it. I fired a Mana Blade at the damaged leg as I ran in the hopes of slowing it down even more, the blade of energy nearly ripped the leg from its body completely, slowing it down even further. Catching up to it I pinned the wounded leg under my foot and started hacking at its body with my axe until it finally fell still. Determined not to miss out on dissecting and harvesting the Essence from this one I quickly picked both it and one of the fruits that I had harvested up and was about to pick up another when I heard a shrieking sound in the distance.

“Nope!” I exclaimed and ran back towards the barrier before I could be ambushed again. Once I was back safely behind the barrier, I turned around to see a shape even larger than the thing that had tried to ambush me yesterday rushing at the barrier.

With a loud thud that thing slammed into the barrier and began pummelling it with its legs which were almost as thick as the trunk of the tree that I had harvested the fruit from making me leap backwards in surprise. This particular creature seemed to have more legs than the one that I was carrying, including two that seemed to have a different shape and had a bulbous end like the poison sac on a scorpion’s tail. It was these limbs that were pummelling the barrier and for a while I was worried that it was actually going to break through but after watching for a few minutes I noticed that the attacks seemed to be lessening in intensity and soon it seemed to give up and moved off.

Once I was certain that it had left I headed to where I had left the corpse of the Feathered Chimp and dumped the surprisingly heavy body of my most recent victim beside it and put the fruit that I had picked a short distance away from it before drawing my knife and starting to saw away at the rubbery hide of the creature gasping in surprise as my fingers slipped in the oily blood that oozed from the tear that I was slowly making in its skin. This was going to be a bit more difficult to dissect than the Feathered Chimp had been and I quickly readjusted my grip to one of the patches of skin that was covered in the bristle-like hairs that I had noticed on the other one I had fought yesterday so that I wouldn’t lose my grip again.

About half an hour later I could say that I knew considerably more about the monstrosity before me than I had when I started. Whatever this thing really was it seemed like it was closer to an octopus or squid than something you would find living on land back on Earth. The flesh was tough and rubbery even under the skin and each of the limbs was partially supported by small rods of a greyish material that was either bone or the same stuff that a shellfish’s shell was made of that allowed them to keep their flexibility while still being able to support its weight while moving. The claws on the ends of its limbs and its teeth also seemed to be made of this substance. In the end I never found anything that I recognised as an eye on the creature which told me that my hypothesis that it its species was blind was probably correct and it used some other type of sense to find its way around and track down its prey. Its internal organs were as foreign to me as the rest of the thing, but I did manage to find the stomach, the contents of which were predictably disgusting and didn’t bring me any closer to finding something that I’d ever try and eat. Glaring at the stinking thing for a bit I sighed and decided that this was the most I would be able to learn from this particular corpse. I just didn’t know enough about anatomy to figure out how to classify this creature, but I had decided to name it a Crawler for now. A simple name perhaps but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing in the end.

Now that I was finished with my dissection, I drained 8 Essence from the Crawlers corpse and went looking for some materials to make a shovel from so that I could bury the corpses. Once I had made the shovel, I started digging a large hole next to the corpses and dumped them inside.

“Heh,” I puffed staring at the mutilated corpses in the hole. “It’s weird to think that I’d never killed anything bigger than a mouse until today and I had just used a trap for that so I’m not even sure that even counts.”

After covering the corpses I decided that now that I had actual food I should probably make a trench where I had been doing my business and after I had done that I washed the greasy blood and dirt off of my body and clothes and then went and cleaned the fruit that I had picked for good measure before ripping it in half. Cautiously I opened my Status Screen and noted that I was now 37% of the way to Levelling Up before licking some of the tangy fruit juice from my hands and swallowed paying close attention to my Hp as I did so, it would be foolish to just bite into this fruit when I wasn’t sure whether it was poisonous to me or not so I was being careful. When my HP didn’t start dropping, I took a careful bite of the fruit enjoying the sensation of the flesh being crushed between my teeth and swallowed. To my great relief nothing happened and the next bite I took was much larger and I took the time to actually enjoy it this time. Soon the fruit was gone, and I was licking the juice from my hands happily, the cakes that I had been subsisting off were good, but the fruit might have been even better.

Grinning as I realised that this meant that I had partially solved the problem of my food supply I glance hungrily at the Feathered Chimp meat that I had left nearby before shaking my head, that could wait until tonight. Right now, there were more important things to do like check my new Skills. Swallowing the saliva that had filled my mouth at the thought of freshly cooked meat I brought up the new Skill notification.

Digging Unlocked!

This Skill improves your ability to dig and tunnel safely and efficiently.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Endurance.

1 Aspect Point Awarded for unlocking Digging.

I looked at my new Skill notification with a blank face, compared to the other Skills that I had unlocked this was pretty lacklustre, I mean I was sure that it would come in useful, but it just seemed a bit boring.

“Oh well,” I sighed as I brought up my Skill increases. Maybe these would be a bit more impressive.

Skill increased!

Mana Blast increased to Lvl 2

Mana Shield increased to Lvl 2

Spell Targeting increased to Lvl 2

Nature Shaping increased to Lvl 4

Mana Manipulation increased to Lvl 6

Available Aspect points increased by 5

I now had eight Aspect Points to use on a new Aspect if I wanted so I brought up the Aspect Menu to look at the new Aspects that I had unlocked.

Unlocked Aspects

Aspect of the Warrior 0/25 (Locked until Lvl 10 Aspect of the Crafter 0/25 (Locked until Lvl 10), Aspect of the Scientist 0/15, Aspect of the Wizard 0/50, Aspect of the Sage 0/50, Aspect of the Summoner 0/50.

Aspect Points:8

Personal Aspect

Aspect of Evolution

50

Alright now this was interesting, the new Aspects that I had unlocked seemed to be more specialised versions of the Aspect of the Mage which made sense. I was guessing that each of the three new Aspects specialised in one mental Stat specifically. In other words, Intelligence, Wisdom and Willpower but until I started putting points into them, I couldn’t know for sure. After considering the options available to me I decided however to complete Aspect of the Scientist first as I wasn’t quite sure what sort of magic, I wanted to specialise in.

Placing five points into Aspect of the Scientist I confirmed my choice once again.