I felt a soft, wet feeling on my cheek waking me up. Of course, it’s Hnasey licking it. He’s probably hungry.

“Hey there little buddy,” I lazily said as I pet his head.

He purrs and jumps enthusiastically in response.

I sit up and move him to the side as I stretch leaning against the trunk of a tree. Thinking about everything that’s happened in the past day or so. This new world, stats, familiars, and skills. It really is like a video game which could be dangerous but I have this new monster taming skill so at least I won’t be alone in this world.

As I start thinking about all the taming and all the friends I’ll have I start to unconsciously smile to the point it hurts my cheeks. But enough it hurt I couldn’t stop. I was just too excited for this world.

I don’t believe I’ll be the strongest but I’ll live the best I can and that will mean I gotta plan. The first step is finding a town or something so I can eat more than berries, and get more information. And speaking of berries Hansey’s hungry.

I stood up and got a few handfuls of berries before sitting down and giving a few to Hansey, which he ate in gusto, while I savored them one by one thinking. By the time I was full, I came to a few realizations.

First of all, in my status screen, I don’t have the stats attunement and control, unlike Hansey. This means I might have to discover it by myself or get a class that involves it to unlock it. Hopefully, it’s the former so I can start playing around with it. I used to meditate before sleeping and remember that some people could even control this thing called qi so that seems like a good place to start.

I crossed my legs and shut my eyes. Leaning against the tree, slowly relaxing each part of my body until I start forgetting about everything around me. I started to breathe deliberately but leisurely. Never too hard or too soft but just right. My mind’s eye started to form small spots of light, soft and gentle.

After an unknown amount of time, the gentle lights started getting brighter but they didn’t hurt to “look” at. I imagined my body in the center of all these lights, having them slowly gathered towards me. Then I had this feeling of something entering my body through the pores of my skin, my nose, my mouth, even my hair like my entire being was a giant sponge for this energy to go into.

I heard a little ring and a screen popped up.

[-Due to repeating a special action the skill [Mana Meditation] is made!]

[-Due to learning an uncommon skill on your own you gain 100% exp. ]

[-Congratulations you level up! Rewarded 2 stat points.]

[-Due to special action Attunement stat unlocked]

I slowly opened my eyes after reading all of the notifications and let out a small sigh of relief after I gained the attunement stat. I was starting to think that I would need to do something super special.

“WOOOOO,” I yelled with happiness I couldn’t keep in, “New skill and a level up LET'S GO!”

Hansey that was pacing around me jumped back and eyed me in annoyance at scaring him.

I opened up my stat screen and looked up my new skill.

[Name- Duke Boones Gender- Male Race- Human Level- 2 (60%)

Shown Title: None

Titles: None

Perks: None

Primary Class: None

Secondary Class: None

Production Class: None

Stamina 49/50

Strength- 3 Dexterity- 6 Constitution- 5 Affinity- 19

Attunement- 1

Undistributed Points- 2

Skills-

Monster Taming Level 1/10 Mana Meditation Level 1/10

Blessings-

Blessing or Rick the God Of Nature and Life- +10 Affinity]

[Mana meditation is a nurturing skill that can help in raising affinity, focusing the mind, and allow faster mana regeneration]

“Sweet this meditation skill will be useful but what to do with the stat points,” I mused to myself before putting the points into attunement, because it’s too low, and affinity, because matches my aesthetic. As soon as affinity became 20 another message popped up.

[-Minor metamorphosis for affinity conditions have been met]

[-Comprehension of nature as increased a little]

My vision lapsed for a bit before coming back after the message came up. I didn’t feel different besides a feeling of something opening up, like a door cracking open just enough to see hints of light or letting in a draft, but not big enough for me to squeeze through.

I started to look around me and everything looked clearer, and my closeness with Hansey felt much closer.

He felt my eyes and jumped into my arms causing me to laugh and pet his head. We played like that for a minute before I looked into his eyes with a smile.

“You’re my first friend since coming to this world so let’s make sure to take care of each other,” I told him and I don’t know if he understood what I was saying or if he just thought we were playing but he yipped, looking happy. Good boy is all I thought as I set him in my lap and remembered what I was doing before this.

The second thing I realized was that there was a control stat meaning I can control mana better, but also Hansey has an ember skill. While I may not be an expert I’m pretty damn sure that foxes don’t breathe fire normally so I think this may be a mana-based skill. So I’m thinking I can possibly make my own skills while playing around with this new mana.

I put out my hand and focused on it. I pulled from the pool of energy I felt gathering around my stomach when I was absorbing all of it earlier. Slowly I felt something moving through my body up to my chest, through my arm, and to my hand.

Slowly a few strands of smoke like mana strings floated out of my palm. I thought about gathering it into a ball and slowly it moved into a smokey, gray ball floating slightly above my hand.

When the ball gathered I absorbed it slightly back into my hand with some dissipating into the air. I repeated this process of making a ball and absorbing it back in until I heard that familiar ring.

[-Through repeating a special action the skill [Mana Control] is made]

[-Due to learning a common skill on your own +25% exp]

[-Due to special action the Control stat is unlocked]

“Nice,” I said quieter than last time! This is great, I can now work on controlling this stuff to do some pretty cool things.

I held out my hand and started pumping mana through it and let it gather into a ball but this time I didn’t stop it at a tiny size and let it grow and grow. Soon it was the size of my head before it started to ripple and my head started pounding.

I held on to the shape as much as possible before it just dissipated into thin air. I felt my body become weak and darkness took over my vision. My head started falling and my eyes shut as I heard the system ring before I lost consciousness.