Matt reached his dust-ridden dune buggy a few steps later. Actually, was calling it ‘his’ correct?

  It hadn’t belonged to him before, but he also doubted he’d be able to return it even if he wanted to. Would Amir even care about having it back?

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  One positive thing at least about what he was attempting was that he could return it in a better shape than he had gotten it in. As long as it remained in one piece that is, which was something he was having less and less confidence in as days went on.

  He tried to clean the dust and sand covering the buggy, but there was just too much of it that he eventually gave up. He wanted to see the repairs in real time, which was why he bothered with the dusting, but seeing how ineffective it was, he decided to settle for keeping an eye on the more obvious repairs.

  Finally, with the same hand he had been dusting his trusty vehicle, he cast [Repair]. Mana started draining from his body at a noticeable rate as the green mana beams shot out of his fingers and onto the buggy that had definitely seen better days.

  Nothing noticeable was happening. The sand vehicle looked exactly the same even when mana was rapidly being consumed. It could be an incredibly slow process, or the skill might simply be working its way from the inside out, fixing anything problematic first since anything on the outside would probably be of an aesthetic nature, so he just kept going, monitoring for any minute changes he might notice.

  When his mana hit 80% he started casting [Revitalize] on himself, which wasn’t enough to cover the expenditure but his mana was now dropping far slower, extending what would’ve been thirty seconds until his mana dropped to 20%, to more than two minutes. Whenever his mana hit 20% he got up, stretched, moved around for a bit, all while keeping [Revitalize] on.

  The resource skill recovered 80% of his mana pool in forty seconds, which was incredible. It meant he’d barely have any downtime, and that was with it being only level 1. Mana was the lifeline for any healer or caster, and the skill turned out to be even stronger than he had initially thought. Much of that could be attributed to his high Spirit and Willpower, both of which helped [Revitalize] scale, he just didn’t know by how much.

  He also needed to test if recovering stamina at the same time meant he’d get less mana per second, but all in all, he was incredibly happy with how effective it was.

  It took four more cycles before he started seeing actual changes on the outside, which was something that was incredibly satisfying to witness. Knicks, cuts, dents, and even grime, all were being cleaned and restored in real time. A sight that captivated Matt and kept his eyes glued to the process to the point that he had missed his mana dropping to sub 10%. At least until the headache came down on him like a hammer, the surprise and panic causing him to drop both hands and clutch his head, stopping both skills.

  “Fucking fuck!” he exclaimed before activating [Revitalize] again, slowly feeling better as the headache started to fade. A few seconds later his mana was back to full, but a slight phantom pain still lingered. It always felt unnatural how the pain from an injury or a splitting headache could be cured in mere seconds. Even his mind couldn’t fathom it, the sense of wrongness staying with him longer than it should, and apparently the two week long dungeon excursion had done nothing to alleviate that.

  But… was it really wrong? Did he even want to get used to the feeling? To the wrongness of it?

  It did open its own set of possibilities. Fucked up ones, but possibilities nonetheless. Like sacrificing a limb, knowing full well it could be regenerated in a few seconds. Or luring someone in who thought they had landed a fatal blow. Maybe even healing the flesh and bone around a weapon and sealing it in.

  Actually, was that last part even possible?

  Too many movies, Matt. Way too many movies, he thought as he got back to work. The idea itself wasn’t bad, it just required an extremely delicate balance backed up by either skill or knowledge. Like what would he do if the strike he let through contained poison or venom of some sort? Maybe even a curse, or something else entirely courtesy of the system and its many unknowns.

  The cats had talked to him as if survival was his ultimate goal. And while survival was good and all, to him it was a forgone conclusion. His aim was higher. Much, much higher.

  Minutes went by as Matt alternated between [Repair] on the buggy, and [Revitalize] on himself. It felt as if he was watching the skill turn back the clock on the desert vehicle, breathing life into it, as if it was fresh off a factory assembly line, although dustier. A lot dustier.

  He stopped supplying mana to his resource recovery skill, using that hand to dust off the frame of the buggy, revealing its brilliant red color as it glistened under the illuminating light of the full moon.

  A smile dawned on his face at the sight. He had hoped his skill would work in this capacity, but he had to curb his expectations in case it was never meant to be used in a similar manner. Now though, he could finally let the excitement take over, and that was exactly what he did, as he laughed through the night, his voice echoing across the empty desert with its endless sand. Because it had worked! Repairing something he had no knowledge of and no idea of the damage it had suffered had really worked! It was truly a beautiful night. And it was only getting started.

  It only took another couple of cycles before [Repair] stopped drawing mana, signaling the completion of a job well done. He got up and stretched his body around for a bit as he prepared himself for the next part of his plan. There was another skill he had wanted to try after all.

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  [Revitalize] (common)

  Health is not the only limitation in battle, running out of resources could be just as detrimental. A mage is limited by their mana and a warrior by their stamina. As a mender, you have the tools necessary to make sure that resources are never in short supply. Imbue energy into a target, replenishing resources, giving it a second lease on life. (Effect increased with spirit and willpower.)

  Similarly to [Mend], the skill’s description implied that it could be used on non-living targets. A fair assumption since almost everything needed a resource of some kind powering it up, so wasn’t it also fair to assume that a skill that replenished resources should, in theory, replenish resources?

  That was exactly the thought process behind his next field test: attempting to refuel his newly refurbished dune buggy with a mana restoration skill.

  He hovered a hand over the frame of the buggy, holding his breath as he willed his new skill on.

  It should work. There is no reason it shouldn’t. [Mend] had worked just fine, so this one should too, he kept telling himself, trying not to let doubt creep into his mind. Because while it should work, you never really knew with the system.

  Sadly, his fears were soon realized as, even after a few seconds had passed, the skill refused to remain active or draw on his mana.

  Matt bit his lip as he tried to figure out why the skill refused to work. He closed his eyes and dove into his soul, focusing on his mana pathways. They were full of mana, yet for some reason, none of it was passing through his wrist, where there was some strange translucent triangular shape separating the mana in his arm from the one in his hand.

  Weird, Matt thought as he moved the palm of his hand to his chest, willing the skill on.

  Surprisingly, mana started passing through the triangular shape in his wrist, causing a slight mana draw before warmth spread throughout his body once more, replenishing his barely dented resources. With the skill active, he moved his hand towards the buggy, and again, unsurprisingly, it stopped working, the mana flow getting cut off completely.

  For a minute, he mulled it over. [Mend] had done similarly during his initial rounds of testing, but right now something else worried him. Would he be able to use mana wave?

  He moved his hand away from the vehicle and started slowly pushing mana towards his hand and through, what he was now calling, the skill trigger. Thankfully, the mana went right through, keeping its bright blue color and allowing him to breathe out in relief as it started gathering in the palms of his hands.

  “Okay, disaster averted,” he muttered as he felt the tension in his body subside.

  Next, he tried focusing on making the skill actually work. He put his hand on the dune buggy and closed his eyes. On activating the skill, he noticed the triangular shape, or the skill trigger, gained its light green luster, but no mana was passing through it, so he simply directed mana into it. It wasn’t difficult, thanks to his mana control skill, but it was mentally taxing.

  He was trying to be as slow and deliberate as possible, blowing up a few limbs tended to make a person more careful after all, and thankfully, the first of it was able to pass through, turning into the bright green of life mana, albeit refusing to continue on its own.

  It was a weird feeling. Almost like holding a toddler’s hand and pointing them directly towards what you wanted, but they still lacked the comprehension necessary to do it on their own. It seemed as if it refused to accept the buggy as an object in need of resources.

  Matt wasn’t ready to give up yet though, even if it meant he’d have to do it all himself. He kept controlling the mana to the best of his abilities, directing it towards his fingertips. The skill was on and the mana was converted to its life variant with its green color, so all he needed to do was direct it to the skill’s activation point, which was at his fingertips.

  “Slow and steady… slow and steady,” he kept repeating as the mana, very slowly, made its way towards its intended destination and, surprisingly, as soon as it did, it was as if a faucet had been turned on, as mana started exiting through his fingers and into the dune buggy.

  “Yes!” he exclaimed triumphantly, raising a victorious hand to the sky before closing his eyes and monitoring the process. Mana was being consumed, however, the trigger still refused to accept any mana on its own. He had to keep directing the resource to and through it for the skill to keep running smoothly.

  A small price to pay, he thought while keeping an eye both on the process and his mana. When it approached 30%, he prepared himself to stop the skill. He couldn’t really control the mana infusion. He could push less mana through the trigger, but the expenditure was always the same, and the skill simply stopped working once there was no more life mana in his hand to draw from.

  At 20%, he warily turned off the skill and got up, still a little suspicious that nothing had gone wrong so far.

  He started casting [Revitalize] again, but this time on himself to replenish his own resources, and thankfully the skill worked just fine, recovering his mana at the same rapid rate of around 2% every second.

  Next, he made his way to the gas tank gauge in the buggy, and… a massive smile grew on his face.

  “It worked! It worked!” he said with a cheerful laugh. “It actually worked! The tank is half full!” he continued to exclaim in both surprise and jubilant joy.

  While he had expected the skill to work in some capacity, seeing it actually do so in reality filled him with relief and a sense of glee he didn’t know he needed. If things hadn’t worked out, he would’ve been stuck out here for who knows how long. Knowing that not only will he not have to worry about gas again, but that his skill had such phenomenal versatility, flooded him with emotions, the biggest of which was hope.

  Not wanting to waste more time, he started the engine, the sound of it coming out so smooth and clean that, for a second, he thought it hadn’t even started. Just to make sure, he did so again, and the weird sound the engine made let him know loud and clear that, indeed, it was very much on. Not wanting to be told twice, he got in, bouncing slightly on the newly refurbished rubber covered metallic seat, a chuckle on his face the entire time.

  And then… he drove.

  As soon as the cool wind hit his face, he felt alive once more. He didn’t know why, but the wind had never felt so amazing in his entire life. Being inside the dungeon had felt different. Even the open spaces like the sandpit and the temple, which even had day and night cycles and wind blowing every which way, had felt… off. Unnatural. Like there was nothing outside of those tall walls. A feeling that was much more prominent now that he was out in the open, feeling as if everything was truly ‘open.’ Like he had nothing holding him back anymore.

  It was a freeing feeling. The kind you never truly appreciated until it was taken from you. Which was why he was reveling in it as he continued eastwards, hoping to reach Hurghada soon, but not minding the journey as much anymore.

  He did, however, take a look at his compass as he was driving. The pointer seemed to point southwest, almost the exact opposite direction of where he was headed.

  Luxor is probably a safe assumption, which is around 180 miles from Hurghada. But if it’s taking me this long to reach Hurghada, then I don’t wanna imagine how long it’s gonna take to get to Luxor, he thought, dreading the journey that he was gonna have to make if he wanted to take on the second trial.

  “One day at a time, Matt. One day at a time,” he sighed, letting the matter go for now as he enjoyed the cool breeze and the calm stillness of the desert.

  Because, no matter the time nor place, nothing felt better than a late-night drive.