Running towards his opponent, Kira did not underestimate him. The man had muscles larger than Kira's thighs and the size of the claymore was nothing to laugh about. With the man's level 9 above his head, he was an even more dangerous opponent.

Swinging his katana, Kira found it unexpectedly blocked by the claymore, but due to to the man's superior strength, the claymore found itself going through the lighter katana. In order to avoid the deadly blow, Kira side-stepped, but his arm was still grazed by the edge of the oversized weapon.

-60 hp

'Fuck! I should not let it hit me at all. Next time it hits me, I will die!'

Taking that into account, Kira swiped across, hoping to behead the man quickly. Unfortunately, the man's speed matched his and the blade was avoided. 'I see. The man would be slower than me if I was level nine, heck even if I was level seven. The difference in levels makes up for that. This is not going to be easy. In fact, I may have to cheat.' Ducking under a horizontal slash, Kira grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at Tetra. Blinded, the man could do nothing as Kira slashed once. Twice. CLANG. The swipe that should have killed the man was blocked by the claymore. 'Son of a bitch. One more and I would have won.' Not losing hope, Kira slashed again, and again only to have his sword blocked once again.

Tetra counter-attacked; he went for a downwards overhead swing. Seeing an opportunity, Kira raised his sword upwards, going for the block, but that was just a ruse. As soon as the blades connected, the katana gave way, but still deflected it to the side. The sound of metal scraping against metal was unpleasant to the ear but it did not affect Kira. Using the pommel of his sword, he quickly hit Tetra square in the jaw. Stunned, a sudden pain woke Tetra from his stupor. Looking down a katana was in his stomach. The sharp edge pointed upwards, glinting in the sunlight. The katana moved upward, making his senses explode in pain. However, no sound escaped his lips. He was sliced in half, held together only by his waist. His warm, slick corpse fell face first; blood spilling from its wounds, dirtying the road.

*Ding* Congratulations. You are now level 5! Please distribute your stat points. Stat points available: 20.

*Ding* Congratulations. You are now level 5! Please distribute your stat points. Stat points available: 20.

"Put 3 points into strength, agility, health and mana capacity. For the others, put two."

His health, stamina and mana went to full every time he leveled up. It did not seem that he was in a life or death battle just moments before if not for the blood on his cloak. Now all he had to do was get rid of the bodies and the weapons; he already had a great weapon and all the other clothes were useless.

Kira suddenly had an idea; he recalled what he had read in the library: Mana was described to flow. Where mana flowed, magic could be cast from it. Mana was proven to have no organ yet it still existed in the body.

Kira straightened. He had found the source of magic. What flows in the body and has no organ holding it? The answer was blood. Blood was the life of all living things. *Ding*

Congratulations! You have found the secret behind mana. You now have mana sensing!

*Ding* Another notification.

New skill learnt: Mana sensing.

Skill effect: You can now sense mana. You can now control the mana in your body. What you do with your new-found power is up to you to decide.

'Nice. Now then. Let's experiment.' Kira imagined his mana flowing into one of his hands and leaving his body. He then pictured spark, setting the mana ball alight. Opening his eyes, Kira saw a fireball the size of his fist hovering. *Ding* New skill learnt: Fireball. Consumes 10 mana.

'Alright. Let's get rid of the bodies.' After picturing the fireball flying towards the eight bodies, he was left with 20 mana. The smell of burnt flesh floated in the air.

Exiting the alleyway, Kira put the cloak into his inventory; going around with a bloodied cloak seemed highly suspicious.

He then found himself near to where he respawned. 'This time I hope I can ask someone more trustworthy.' Finding himself a guard, Kira was given directions to the gates.

Walking outside the city was a breath of fresh air; the city lacked the freedom, the pureness of the forests and of course the monsters outside...

As little as a minute later, Kira was being swarmed by a manner of mobs.

He sidestepped a wolf lunging at him, bringing his blade down on the place where he had been a second before. The wolf fell in two pieces. He kicked another wolf in the face, making it roll away before finishing it off with an axe kick to the throat. He burnt another one with a fireball. However, he was not without injury. He had various cuts and bruises where the animals had successfully connected to him. He was down to 30 health.

Suddenly, the pack of wolves ran off. For some, that would have been great; not for Kira though. He knew the law of the jungle. The only reason a strong predator would run off would be if an even stronger predator appeared. Standing less than 30 meters away, was a red bear. It had probably been attracted to the blood and corpses which Kira was currently standing in the midst of. A level 16 flashed over its head. 'This is not good... I better get out of here.' Turning tail, Kira started running, hoping the bear liked to eat corpses more than live food. Apparently not. As he ran, Kira could feel the ground trembling as a tonne behemoth ran across it. The distance shortened;

25 meters

15 meters

'Ah shit. I won't be able to run. Then its either fighting and dying like a man or running and dying like a bitch.' "COME AT ME YOU STUPID BEAR!" The bear did just that.

It swiped with its claws. Kira dodged, but still felt pain. Looking down, he saw that his left arm was not connected; instead, it was in the mouth of the bear. "Fuuuuucccckkk!!!!" Kira screamed. He was sure he dodged that. What he didn't know was that the bear had activated its skill called 'Air claws.' They allow the bear to extend the range of its claws by 30cm and that is what took Kira's arm.

*Ding* Bleeding status in effect. You will lose health until you stop the bleeding!

"Pain nullification my arse" he swore. Fighting with one arm was going to awkward and wrong. Gripping his weapon, Kira charged, only to be bitchslapped into a tree. That was the effect of a large level difference.

*Ding* You have received a concussion! You will fall unconscious!

Closing his eyes, the last thing Kira saw was the bear sauntering up to his body.

*Ding* You have died! You cannot log back in for 24 hours!