XXXIV

  Warm sunlight greeted Kaz when he woke up from his health potion induced sleep. The sun was around the middle of the sky, which meant that he wasn’t asleep for that long, possibly around one to two hours at most. He propped himself on his elbows and scanned the area around him. He saw nothing except for the small traces of battle on the once undisturbed dirt, which were marred with strikes of claws and indents from impacts. He then laid his eyes on his glaive, which was snapped in two pieces.

  Before Kaz could get up and go pick it up, slight pulsing came from his head, urging him to open his [ Archive ]. He was quite excited about this new development, as an intense fight like that surely came with massive gains. Kaz already knew he was elevating his Resonance at a quick pace, having only received his Awakening a couple months prior. Kaz could only grin, as he realized he was outpacing the normal person, and soon he would be able to protect himself from those that only seek to demoralize him.

  Opening his [ Archive ], he was greeted by more Ranks and a bump to his Resonance. He decided to check on his [ Skill Abilities ], as those were more important to him.

  — [ Skill Abilities ] —

  [ Mana Burst ]

  Rank 19 > Rank 21

  [ Mana Shield ]

  Rank 13 > Rank 16

  —

  He noticed a big jump to his [ Mana Burst ], which had stagnated as of late. It had reached Rank 21, but he noticed something that caused him some concern, but it was to be expected. The Skill Ability had developed and now the description read:

  [ Mana Burst ]

  Rank 19 > Rank 21

  Manifest a pure form of mana and attack an enemy, up to 35 yards. Uses 10 Mana Points per use, dealing 30 damage to Health Points. By spending double the Mana Points (20), the attack travels to the target at twice the speed. (Rank 21)

  There were a few changes that appeared in his [ Mana Burst ], the first being the distance for the Ability increased by five yards, now reaching up to thirty-five yards, which he appreciated, every bit of distance helps with his weakness of close range combat. The second thing was the damage increase, which was the usual plus one per Rank. But finally, the dreaded change came, the increase to Mana Points.

  [ Mana Burst ] now required him to spend 10 Mana Points for the regular cast of the Ability, which previously was 5 Mana Points, which was so low he rarely had to worry about conserving his Mana Points. But the part that hurt the most for him, was that the double speed variant of his Ability now required a whole 20 Mana Points, which was essentially a fifth of his whole Mana Point capacity. Meaning he could only cast this variant five times before he was completely out of mana.

  I guess no more [ Mana Burst ] with the double speed modifier anymore, he thought. With a heavy sigh, he looked down to the next Ability, [ Mana Shield ]. He gained three whole Ranks with the Ability, which was now at Rank 16. Nothing changed with the Ability besides now the damage absorption went up to 16%, which he should notice a lot more now. Quickly getting over the new Mana Point consumption that he was previously worried about, he moved on to the [ Passive Abilities ]:

  — [ Passive Abilities ] —

  [ Mana Regeneration ]

  Rank 12

  [ Evasive Step ]

  Rank 17 > Rank 18

  [ Glaive Novice ]

  Rank 8 > Rank 13

  [ Mana Regeneration ] saw no change, which was not a surprise to him, as he was unsuccessful with activating it earlier after his… incident at the Mage Academy. Hopefully he will be able to catch it up, as that was his only Mage Calling specific Passive Ability, and it was at the lowest Rank out of the three of his Abilities.

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  His [ Evasive Step ] only saw a one tier increase, reaching Rank 18. Kaz was confused at this, as the Ability was very useful in the previous encounter, but possibly he hasn’t improved on his actual foundation. Still, earning another Rank was something to be happy with, especially in his early days of his Calling.

  [ Glaive Novice ] received the biggest jump in Ranks, which made him reread it a few times while he looked at his new Rank. It was at Rank 13, a whole five Rank increase, which was still lower than the rest of his Abilities, but the Ability was quickly gaining to his other ones. Like the previous few Abilities, nothing notable changed in his Ability description.

  Satisfied with his new Ranks, he went back to his previous [ Status ] page, and saw that his Resonance was now displaying 16, which meant that he obtained one tier of Resonance. For all the increases to his Abilities, it was odd to him that he only gained one tier of Resonance, especially when he previously flew through the first ten. His new Mana Points total was 95, and his Health Points were at 105, and he was ever so closer to having the numbers be balanced, but he knew as soon as they were balanced, his Mana Points would start pulling away due to the difference of one extra Mana Point over Health Point per tier of Resonance.

  Overall, he felt content with his new changes, he hopped up, eager to get back on his journey, as it had already been a few days, but he hadn’t yet reached his destination. Kaz prompted his investigation Quest and immediately felt the familiar pull in a certain direction, which pointed his head to the direction away from his current path.

  He approached his glaive, which was cracked into two pieces, leaving him with two thirds of his shaft. Kaz would still be able to use this, but he would have to adapt the way he held the weapon, and his reach would be a bit shorter. Putting the smaller part of the broken shaft of his glaive into his bag, he now held his glaive up, resting it on shoulder. It was too short now to use as a walking stick, and too long to hold it like a sword at his side, so he was left with just resting it on his shoulder, making sure to point the edge of his glaive away from the side of his head.

  Continuing along the path, he trudged along, scanning the environment around him. It was quiet as it was previously, but it made sense. The bear was probably the reason behind this area being so quiet and lifeless, as it probably wiped out any previous monsters or animals that roamed this part. Was the bear the reason the path was now not occupied? But that wouldn’t make sense as the Adventurer’s Guild would have offered a quest to take out the bear. With a shrug, he walked on, increasing his pace as there was nothing for him to fight or be careful of.

  After hours of walking, he finally ran into another monster. It was a wolf, but he wasn’t sure if it would be considered a Timberfang Wolf, but at the end of the day, he did not care one bit, as it was going to perish anyways. He estimated the distance of thirty-five yards, and cast his [ Mana Burst ], feeling the rush of mana flow through him into his hands, no resistance in his channeling. With a wicked grin, he sent his bolt of silver mana and was immediately stunned.

  The mana construct flew through the air at twice the speed, around the same speed as the double cost variant. With concern filling his mind, he wondered why that change happened. Did he accidentally cast the increased speed variant?

  With a surprise yelp, the wolf jumped up, and then faced Kaz with fear in its eyes. Unlike his previous encounters, this wolf seemed anxious of battle, hiding its tail between its legs, and panting heavily. It looked around, most likely looking for where it could run off to. Kaz cast his [ Mana Burst ] again and watched as the mana construct again flew at the wolf at its increased speed.

  The mana construct struck the startled wolf again, this time ending its life before it hit the ground, disappearing into the air.

  With haste, he opened his [ Archive ], quickly checking his Mana Points. His Mana Points were at 75, which made sense, as he only cast twice, and each cast cost him ten Mana Points. Kaz closed his [ Archive ] and slowly faced a tree. Putting his hands into his casting form, he cast his enhanced speed [ Mana Burst ], and with a massive drain of his mana, it almost caused him to cancel his cast from surprise. The channeling finished and his mana construct was gone in the blink of an eye. All he heard was a loud crack as his mana construct hit the tree, but his silver mana construct was barely seen. This was dangerous.

  A small crystal appeared where the wolf died, to which Kaz just ignored, as it wouldn’t be worth much to him, and his bag was becoming full, especially with the addition of his broken shaft piece. He knew he had the extra bag for the Manashrooms, but he would only use the bag for them, as there was a reason he was given a bag. Kaz hesitantly got into his sitting pose that he did for his [ Mana Regeneration ] and lightly activated the Ability, probing at it.

  No resistance or pain met him, which allowed him to continue his Ability, slowly increasing the rate of his regeneration, trying to slowly return to his normal state in this Ability. After what felt like a few minutes, he felt the usual uncomfortable fullness that accompanied him when he refilled his Mana Points and he cut off his Ability. With a genuine smile, he got up, and continued his journey, happy that he was back to normal, and his previous worries of the damage being permanent a thought of the past.

  While he was walking through the barren part of this area, with the sparse density of trees and more rocky terrain, Kaz contemplated his whole Awakening so far. His Calling of the Mage was something that he now realized suited him very well, as he was becoming very comfortable with this Calling. The Abilities so far spoke to him, albeit he had a few untraditional Abilities, but he felt a connection to his mana core that felt just… right. He wondered when he would acquire his third Skill Ability, as he was already at 16 Resonance, and he didn’t want to fall behind and have unequal Ranked Abilities.

  After fighting the bear, which he realized he didn’t know what it was called as he didn’t get the list of monsters in this area from the Guild, and the Elite Stonerock Goblin, he wondered if he could duplicate that surge of power when they glowed red. It seemed to be a physical enhancement, sort of like a buff, and it would be convenient for him when he was forced to use his glaive.

  It would increase his damage or his speed, which he knew could help improve not only his efficiency, but his survivability. He wondered how he could get that to work, maybe he would do the reverse of his [ Mana Regeneration ], and send mana throughout his whole body, hoping it did something. He would experiment with it when he had some weaker monsters that wouldn’t be able to take advantage of any potential consequences of his experimentation—

  The smell of smoke broke his train of thought. Kaz froze and quickly scanned the area around him, looking for the source. It was already getting dark, as the sun was already beginning to start its descent behind the mountains. The wind was blowing against his face, which meant the smoke was coming from somewhere ahead of him.

  As stealthily he could, he walked behind trees, trying to cover himself and break any potential line of sight. After moving like this for twenty minutes, he finally reached a place where there were two small rundown buildings. One looked like a house, and one looked like a pointed box house but only had two large doors. The two large doors were open, with one of them already falling off the hinge.

  The smoke was coming from a chimney in the extremely worn down house. It looked like it wasn’t occupied, and hasn’t been for many years, but for some reason, the smoke was still coming out. With some hesitation, he approached the house, which he hoped was occupied by some travelers looking for shelter for the night.

  An arrow embedded into the tree he was hiding behind.