Expanding on his previous thoughts Nik considered how to attribute his stats. He was currently walking out of the valley towards the more normal-looking forest. Whereas normal-looking was certainly an understatement, as it was definitely more exotic than the part of the forest in which he had appeared first and also vastly different in fauna compared to what Nik had been used to on earth. It was however at least more normal when it came to plant concentration and size. The part of the forest he was still wandering through had basically scaled up everything by at least a factor of five, completely removing everything besides trees along with that.

The topic of stats had grown increasingly more difficult once he had started experimenting with [Stealthy Movement] and Running, and had chosen [Haste]. Whereas before he had only really had a use for physical stats he now felt the need to put some points wisdom. He was still on the fence about Willpower, however. Resources did not seem to actively regenerate when you were using them. A point that Nik found rather irritating, most games did only have that constraint on health.

Additionally, Nik would prefer the stat numbers to be multiples of ten, at least five though. A difficult decision. Made even more annoying by the fact that once he would level up all of his stats would have messy numbers again. He was however certain about the fact, that he wanted strength at 100. It was probably the most helpful thing in this entire world right next to how vitality seemed to work and his hammer strike. 90% stronger than my baseline would be pretty good. Right now I am at 77% stronger if he interpreted the little box correctly. It certainly felt that way. That really just shows me that I need to train my body more, every percent extra strength my body gets is almost doubled right now. Going from 77% to 90% would result in a relative gain of 5 to 10%, but increasing my normal strength by a few percent would double that result and how hard could that be? he mused all in all had what seemed to be three times more physical energy.

Maybe I should also invest in Physique. It supposedly only adds stamina but I feel more resilient than ever before, and that sounds less like strength. It could be though…

Ok, so 13 points in strength leaves me with 17 points for other stuff. Wait no, for some reason I got 31 stat points for 3 levels, that has probably to do with the evolution right? So 18 points, I don’t need willpower as I can just eat the berries that almost messed me up. A shame there are no bushes around here though, so as long as I am close to the other part of this forest there is basically no need for willpower. I bet those berries far outshine the amount of Mana I can get from willpower any time soon. And I would almost bet that having a higher mana pool lessens the effects of overflowing my body with mana. And it means more [Haste] uses and maybe two invisible legs, he thought with a grin.

Alright, 13 points to strength and 18 points to Wisdom? Sounds like a plan I guess.

Vitality

380 Healthpoints

38

-

+

Strength

1.90 Strenght

55 Hp/hour

100

-

+

Physique

410 Stamina

41

-

+

Endurance

44 SP/hour

44

-

+

Wisdom

280 Mana

10

-

+

Willpower

10 MP/hour

10

-

+

Hmm, I should have probably put at least some in vitality, guess I was way too overeager to do more spells. I really should try to work on all of them. Though I guess getting [Lesser Hammer Strike] to 100% would be a smart idea. I also wanna train with well all of my skills. I am not really hungry, but I haven’t eaten much in the last couple of days, so I need to get a grip on that. Guess [Digestive Herbology] will help with that. I really wanna train [Stealthy Movement] but it just sipped all my mana the last time I tried it. Wait, that was with the invisibility, so if do it without it should do some leveling up.

All of a sudden Nik stopped his walk and hit himself with his balm in the head. I still haven’t done anything with internal Mana manipulation. That could be so useful, I bet the mana costs for both [Running] and [Stealthy Movement] would go down if I were to use it.

Doing so Nik started running in a circle with both skills active. [Running] was not using any mana right now and [Stealthy Movement] had a steady drain of between two to three mana per minute. Observing the flow of energies through his body he pushed the mana, it worked, he did not have to change his mindset at all it just did want he wanted. “Yay for me,” Nik exclaimed. His happiness had kept up for about five seconds until his mana usage for [Stealthy Movement] skyrocketed to a mana usage of one mana per five to six seconds and nothing else happened, he did not get invisible, and his steps were just as loud.

Well that is just stupid he thought and switched the skill off. Not having given up his hope completely he pulled his focus in on the effects of running onto his body. This time he pushed the mana to reinforce the stamina flow. The touch a lot more refined than the last time he tried the same thing.

He went faster, his motions just as fluid as before, the frequency of the steps just as before. What had changed was the power in his movements. Each steps just a bit longer than before, and he felt a drain on his mana. It was almost as bad [Stealthy Movement] but it at least had an effect. He quickly dropped the skill again to preserve mana and continued to the forest. He had big plans for the rest of today.

Well not really big-big plans, but he had a bunch. He wanted to level up his skills, gather wood for the creation of charcoal, and maybe to build a treehouse, though he would have to do that in the lower forest, improve his own actual physique and get another way to transport things. He had left his rock bundle at the tree he had put it down earlier and did not plan on picking it up, except for one last time.

One last consideration changed his plans. He was not going to move into the previous undiscovered forest where he had been ambushed twice. No, he would keep it safe and move closer to his former boulder. The big cat - he dismissed the thought quickly again - would not be there anymore. Gathering sticks would prove to be easier and he could also see about getting some food.

So he jogged the way back he had come earlier on his flight from the Teerox. After some deliberation, he decided on turning on [Running] and boost it with [Internal Energy Manipulation], it should be fine, there should be plenty of bushes around where he was going, and some would have edible berries with a mana boosting effect thanks to [Digestive Herbology].

Going at a breakneck speed he rushed through his surroundings and had cleared the tail of the ridge after just 5 minutes. Man, I gotta be as fast as any of the Olympians right now. Hell, I would probably demolish every sprinter back on earth. I don’t know about long distance, I will probably be a mess once I get down to 10 stamina or so. Just after he had passed the summit next to him he felt something in the skill structure of [Running] change, it had gone up a level and whatever the percentage meant was at 20% already. So I guess getting running up is a lot easier and only depends on either the running duration or mana input. I have put slightly over 60 mana into the spell so would that mean 300 to reach 100%?

Musing further on the nature of skill level-ups he also switched on [Energy Veil] a spell he had forgotten until he saw it on the list again. After some applying of his newly acquired manipulation skill, he was able to upkeep [Energy Veil] almost subconsciously, but the effectiveness of the skill would slowly degrade, Nik something Nik noticed after a couple of minutes.

He reached the creak between the two mountains after a total of thirteen minutes if one were to believe his stamina points, and right now Nik did. This would make for a great clock, at the cost of accuracy.

The first item on his agenda was food, he wasn’t overly hungry, the fact that he had barely eaten anything besides a few handfuls of berries was starting to get him worried. Obviously, one of his stats was involved somehow, his bet was on Physique or Endurance. That would also explain his drastic weight loss. He would bet he had lost 5 kg at least since arriving here and if his stamina was generated from energy in body fat that would explain a bunch.

He found a bunch of bushes rather quickly, to his delight they were all the same mana berry he had eaten the other day. This time he would be careful though. No overeating. So I wanna do some tests, I will eat five now and look for other edible stuff as well. That will show me how much they regenerate each and give me some sugar to sustain myself. Maybe I will do ten. Hmmm naah, I should be careful. I am at 139 Mana right now so let’s see what happens.

Popping 5 in his mouth he chewed a bit and started looking for more edible food. After several minutes he realized he had done something very stupid, his belly was aching, not from too much mana no, it was famished. His belly had probably released a lot of gastric acid and had prepared itself for food. Maybe I am digesting myself right now, ahh no cannibalism today, I will find something soon. Not finding anything he sighed and looked up to the sky. Well at the treetops and almost hit himself. Nuts!! How could I not check?? Maybe they are not ripe, but I should at least check. He stood around 20 meters away from a tree with hundreds of thumb-sized dark brown pods on its branches.

He approached the tree to identify it. It just said Nut tree. Well, there goes that. I am pretty sure Identify somehow works with my brain. If I know something it gives me the information, if I don’t I get nothing. I guess it does work differently with rocks and food.

Jumping up, the lowest nuts were just out of range, but he could identify them. Just before actually realizing what the skill said he wondered at his jump height. He had probably jumped up about a meter.

Toenut - a slightly underripe nut

He did not get a bad feeling from whatever had warned him before and he was confident in his skill. He slowly climbed up the tree which was surprisingly easy. Losing a couple of kilograms and gaining some strength is really nice. Should have done that early he mused once he hung from a thick branch.

Pulling himself up and down to shake the branch did not do much. Only climbing further along the branch and actually tearing the nuts off proved successful. He had hung on to the branch with one had to his surprise. It wasn’t easy but he could hold for just 10 seconds each time. His stamina was dropping quite quickly though.

All in all, he stopped once he had liberated all of the nuts in his reach, around 100 probably more lay on the ground, ready to be collected. And he did just that. Taking off his shirt he folded it to carry the nuts. He quickly stashed them and returned to the Blue Blossom Bush.

In the first 10 minutes after eating the berries, he had recovered around three mana per minute afterwards it had trickled to a slow stop leaving him with 38 more mana. Probably one or two had come from his natural regeneration but it was only a small amount compared to the berries.

That confirmed his previous theory of mana poisoning. He had probably had eaten 50 or so before, something that would have resulted in around 300 mana. And he was gonna do it again right now.

After collecting more berries to consume he proceeded with the nuts. He cracked them between two stones, actually needing to use [Lesser Hammer Strike] to make it quick. The shell looked similar to individual brazil nut casings but contained two to four toe-sized nuts that tasted somewhat like walnut, just a lot more stale.

The new description was also not really helpful but it also somewhat confirmed his theory about [Identify].

Toenut - A savory and papery nut. High energy density.

But the description also gave him some peace of mind. Not everything here was magical.

It took him some time but he cracked all of the nuts and ate enough berries to fill himself twice over with mana. Interestingly enough, this time it was a lot less harmful and less painful. He felt uncomfortable but easily dispersed of the mana through [Stealthy Movement].

The excess in his body could either not be used as efficiently or it was less than he had expected, it vanished in an instance, fueling the amplified skill for just a half-minute before he felt a drain on his mana pool. He ignored it. He was focusing on expanding the scope of [Stealthy Movement]. The last time he had managed to make one leg invisible, he tried the same for two with more mana but it didn’t work, though it was draining twice the mana. He changed the spell to create a larger invisible area, reaching from his left foot to his naval, slowly expanding the skill. He went down the right leg, it took ages. He ran out of Mana as he reached his knee.

Nice, so the percentage went up so did the level, whatever that means. 38% of what? I will take those two levels though. Well, I will find out eventually. I have other things to do. Get wood, get a backpack, improve my body and level skills up. Wait, I have been doing the last two already, so I guess getting wood without a backpack will be super annoying. I could carry a lot under my arms though. Let’s make backpack plans.

So what is possible for me right now? Wait no, that the wrong approach. What do I need for a backpack? Well obviously either fabric or leather. So no backpack… No there has to be another way. I also can’t make any buckles, zippers, and whatever else I need. So I gotta go more primitive. I could hollow out a log. No, that is too much work and also too heavy, and I don’t even have any tools, what am I thinking.

What did people use before all that was available? I guess there were pouches, those were fabric too, right? Not an option either. What were those magical things called again? Something bag. Bag of Holding, could I get one? Magic is real after all. Maybe not right now.

Hmm, what about a basket. That would not be that helpful with sticks, I would guess, but it would help with food. Yes, that is a lot more important anyways.

What do I need, well I need to know how to make one. I guess it is a form of weaving. I will try that. But I need bendable sticks for that. I guess young sprigs would be best. So do I go around tearing new branches off of bushes and trees? I guess so.

With that Nik went on the tear of small branches. Something that turned out to be harder than it looked. He had changed to using two stones to make the job easier. One of them was chipped and had a semi-sharp edge, the other was blunt. Hitting them against each other worked. He wanted to use [Lesser Hammer Strike] but it just made the sharp rock break faster and didn’t result in much efficiency.

Having gathered enough so that carrying them under one arm had grown difficult he moved back to the blue blossom berry bushes to put them down. His stamina had gotten low during the working and thus he set out to find some stamina berries. While he didn’t find any Vosrut berries he found something different. And something a lot better.

The Vosrut berries were upon looking back probably weaker than the blue blossom berries, at most 30% as strong. The blackberry-type fruit he found was around as strong as the blue blossom berries. Each giving him around 5 Stamina over the course of 10 minutes. The name however did not fit.

Paleberry - Sweet and herb berry. Slightly intoxicating, non-lethal.

He did not feel any of the intoxication effect and so he ran back with [Running] on full blast.