XI

  Kaz opened his eyes, and he felt his [ Archive ] trying to open. It was a weird sensation, almost as if something was buzzing around in his mind, waiting for him to let it roam free. He opened his [ Archive ], but the weird thing is, it didn’t open to any page as it had in the past. Instead, a thinner strip of parchment rolled out, and the gold writing returned, and this time it was a simple message, it read:

  Would you like to learn the Passive Ability, [ Mana Regeneration ]?

  He immediately accepted, as it was practically the perfect thing for him now. He felt a rush of warmth and mana spread throughout him. It circulated within his body, and ended up returning to the center, where his mana core resided. He enjoyed the sensation, as it soothed him mentally from his previous encounter with that abnormal slime. He shivered a bit at the thought of it again.

  Kaz opened his [ Passive Abilities ] page, and he saw his new ability there, on the very top line. [ Mana Regeneration ]. He admired how it looked on there, a goofy smile spread across his lips. He quickly composed himself, and focused on the Ability, knowing a description would appear once he focused on it. A small description appeared, and it read:

  Channel your mana and increase the rate at which your Mana Points regenerate. Increase regeneration by 1% while channeling.

  He was honestly a bit disappointed by the description. Only one percent? What was he going to achieve with that? He might as well just wait for his Mana Points to regenerate itself while he walked. But then a thought struck him, this is only Rank 1. Would the percent go up with each rank up?

  Quickly deciding to test his theory, he tried to activate his new Passive Ability. Nothing happened. Unlike his [ Mana Burst ] Ability, this one didn’t come to him naturally. He paced around in the dark forest, trying to think what could activate his new Ability. He tried standing still and activating, but nothing seemed to change with him. He sat down, hugging his knees and tried activating. Nothing happened. He tried to start circulating his mana within him, but that led to nothing as well.

  Then he remembered what he was doing before he got the Ability. He closed his eyes, while sitting, and tried to activate his Ability. Something almost happened, it felt like a spark, but it got snuffed out. He straightened his posture, and crossed his legs, and tried again, and this time, something felt right. His Ability clicked, and he felt his Mana Points start shifting upwards, although the change was barely noticeable, but he knew he was doing something correctly. He continued this on, with his Mana Points almost reaching back to its full capacity.

  Something pierced his peace and quiet, the noise of a something shifting in the grass. He felt his hair stand up on his arms, goosebumps appearing, as his body tensed into high alert. He quickly scanned the area around him, and a pair of yellow eyes stared back to him. They were a quite a few yards away, but Kaz quickly got to his feet. Seeing his movement, the monster decided to make a move at him, seeing his stalking has failed.

  He quickly cast [ Mana Burst ] as the monster closed in. He managed to hit the monster, and he received a snarl of pain in return. He was glad he managed to hit the monster, but before he could begin casting his next attack, the monster pounced on him. He quickly dove to the side as beige fur filled his vision, and a hot searing pain tore at his side. He winced and took a sharp breath, as the warmth started spreading around the area. He casted again, and shot out another attack at the monster, which he now knew was a Timberfang Wolf. This one hit the wolf behind his front leg from the side, as it was turning around after not fully connecting on its attack on Kaz.

  The wolf whined as the mana hit the spot where it was sensitive, numbing his front leg for a second. Kaz, seeing the wolf stagger from his attack and limping slightly, began casting again, his confidence rising. He struck again, but this time, it was a hit straight in the middle of the body, not hitting any critical areas. The wolf seemed to react to this, as he became enraged. He leaped at Kaz, and this time, Kaz managed to dodge out of the way without obtaining any more damage.

  This only seemed to agitate the Timberfang Wolf even more, and he began speeding up, only looking to wildly scratch at Kaz. Kaz panicked, as he was getting many scratches, thankfully some of the scratches were absorbed by his robe, but some still cut into him. He backed up slowly, drawing his knife and swinging wildly, matching the energy of the wolf’s attack strategy.

  Hesitating slightly, the wolf tried to get away from his blade. Kaz bumped into the tree, and he felt his heart drop, he wasn’t exactly cornered, but he couldn’t keep up the distance he was building. He quickly started to cast again, and the wolf seeing him standing there, lunged again.

  They traded blows, as Kaz’s Ability struck the wolf straight in the face, which from the short distance it was a guaranteed hit, which also thankfully closed the wolf’s maw. Instead, the wolf rammed straight into the chest of Kaz, who immediately dropped to the ground, getting the wind knocked out of him. The Timberfang Wolf probably had it worse, as it seemed to get dazed from the attack hitting him, and also ramming his head into Kaz, which behind him was an immovable tree.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Kaz recovered quicker, gasping for air as he got back to his feet unsteadily, and did one thing that even surprised him in the moment, his instincts working for him, he climbed. He jumped up and hugged the trunk of the tree and pulled himself up, using his legs to support his climb, until he was able to grasp onto a branch and pull himself up. He continued until he could find a tangle of branches that supported his weight when he stood up.

  Panting, he looked down at the wolf, who looked up in confusion as to how Kaz managed to escape him like that. The wolf grew angry again, and started pawing at the tree, leaving deep scratches as he howled in rage at Kaz. Kaz steadied himself, and cast his [ Mana Burst ], finding a clear line of sight on the wolf. He fired and the mana attack hit the Timberfang Wolf straight in the head again, and it fell to the ground, without making a single noise.

  He collapsed into the branches and found out they provided quite a comfortable spot. He felt his [ Archive ] trying to open again, but in his tiredness and pain, he simply passed out. For once, he was glad he was small enough to stand on a branch and not have it snap on him, making him a tasty treat for a hungry wolf.

  A few hours later he awoke from his small nap. It was still pitch black in the forest, but what unsettled him the most, was the lack of sound. He would occasionally hear the wind blow and rustle the leaves and grass, but he didn’t hear anything. It made sense in a way, he eliminated the main predator in the area, and all the other prey were hiding and sleeping throughout the night.

  He felt his [ Archive ] trying to force itself open again, so he finally gave in. He tried to absorb all the info at once, but there were so many things to look at. There was a huge number 5 glaring at him on his [ Status ] page, but honestly, he didn’t care at the moment. He quickly looked to his Health Points and Mana Points. His Health Points were down a lot, and factoring in his nap, he must have gotten very low during that fight.

  He was sitting at 22 Health Points, so he knew he must be careful, but hopefully when he went to sleep and woke up in the morning, his Health Points would return to normal. After another long bout of sleep, his Mana Points were looking a lot better, he was at 50, but that was better than expected.

  He wanted to look at the progress he made, but he wanted to Rank up his [ Mana Regeneration ], so he quickly got into his sitting form, and closed his eyes, activating his Passive Ability. He felt his mana coursing through him again like he did earlier, and Kaz had to admit, he was getting addicted to the feeling. He felt like he could go on and on.

  After doing this for quite a while, he started to have this uncomfortable feeling build up inside of him. He shrugged it off, as it was probably related to him healing his injuries. But the feeling kept on rising, and it got to the point where he felt like his mana core was going to explode, so he stopped his Ability. Confused, he checked his [ Status ] and saw that his Mana Points were restored back to full, although his number was capped at 62 now, likely due to his Resonance increasing.

  This discovery slightly disappointed him, as he couldn’t progress his regeneration at any time. Sure, he could just fire a few bursts of mana to create space, but he knew he wouldn’t gain anything from it, just like when he tried experimenting earlier in the day by shooting his Ability at trees in the distance.

  He investigated [ Skill Abilities ] page, and he saw that his [ Mana Burst ] has Ranked up, and it Ranked by a whole 3 rankings. It was now at Rank 9, which increased his damage to 18 Health Points. He was almost at the point where he was doing double the damage he was doing earlier on in the day. Kaz was ecstatic by his quick progression, at this rate, he would achieve his first Revelation in no time. The only thing he feared, was that his damage output was increasing, but his Mana Point cost wasn’t increasing, even though he was getting a lot of Mana Points from his Resonance going up. It wouldn’t matter to have an increase in the cost of Mana Points, but he just hoped it wouldn’t be a drastic change that would impact his planning.

  And those plans definitely included attacking from the trees, who said only Archers can use trees for their attacks? He chuckled at his own little joke, and then shook his head, whispering to himself, I’m already going crazy being alone for a day. What is wrong with me?

  He decided to check on his [ Mana Regeneration ], so he opened up the next page in his [ Archive ], and checked the Rank of the skill. He focused on it, and in return, he got this information written out for him:

  Channel your mana and increase the rate at which your Mana Points regenerate. Increase regeneration by 3% while channeling. (Rank 3)

  His theory proved correct, and it seemed that each time his Rank would increase, it would provide him with another percentage. But another thought quickly came in, what would happen at Rank 100? Would he just never have to regenerate any mana? That seemed like an overpowered flaw in the Ability, but he would worry about it when he got to that point, he just barely got it to Rank 3. He really had to get it together and stop thinking about so far into the future, he barely survived today, he didn’t know what tomorrow had in store for him.

  Kaz decided to check on his injuries, and winced when he probed at all his wounds, they seemed to be healing at abnormal rate, closing in on themselves, creating ugly looking scabs. He wondered if he could essentially recover from any type of cuts and stabbings, as long as he didn’t bleed out, naturally with time. And deep down, he hoped that there would be some scarring, as he always found it cool when someone had a scar from their battles.

  His stomach growled in hunger, as he hasn’t eaten anything since beginning his journey. He went to reach for his bag, and realized it wasn’t with him. He looked down and saw it laying on the ground, his contents spilling out. He sighed and wondered if it was worth it to go down for it. He decided it should be, because something could come by and take his food, or even worse, his stuff, and leave him with nothing.

  Reluctantly stepping down from the tree, his body groaned in protest as it was relaxing, well as much as it could in the given circumstances and trying to recover from his intense fight. He went over to his bag and saw that his strap has been torn in half, so he quickly made a double knot and hefted it over his neck and shoulder, crossing his body. He was about to go back up the tree, when something reflected in the grass, reflecting a bright yellow color in the moonlight.

  He picked it up, and the size of the crystal was easily double the size of the big Grass Slime’s crystal. How strong was that wolf, to produce such a large crystal? He threw the crystal into his bag, and climbed up the tree again. Once he settled back on his previous set of branches, he pulled out a piece of dried meat and savored the taste. Kaz contemplated taking his one health potion, but he decided he will be fine, and should use it in an actual life or death scenario. He finished the piece of dried meat, and with a relatively filled stomach, he fell asleep.