No level up, but that’s fine. I wouldn’t expect it to be this easy. Level ups don’t come that quick, not even in games.

I let out another sigh of relief. I’ve done things I’d never would’ve imagined to have done before I died. I’ve reincarnated into a new world, turned into a beast, fought scorpions, cast magic…

Oh right. Magic was also on my list of goals, wasn’t it?

I bring myself back to reality.

Magic.

I’m itching to try some more things with it. So many questions about how it can be applied – I’m practically salivating at the thought of playing with this mystery energy.

I need to see what I'm doing first. Mana Sight.

I remember how I had the idea to imbue my eyes with magic. I think what happened there was that I had imagined my eyes improving to being able to see magic and it just happened. I already knew what magic looked like and felt like. I could sense it inside of me, and using my innate knowledge on what magic is feel like, I had successfully altered my eyes and gained the skill.

Now, what if I do that to my other parts of the body? I smile mischievously at the thought getting even stronger.

I look into myself, concentrating on the magic. The mana flows through my body in a natural circulation pattern. It comes from the center of my body, then disappearing back into the center in some unknown way. Why does it do that? Well, it doesn’t matter for now. With my will, I use magic to form a magic barrier, cutting off circulation. So I can influence the flow of mana that way too? It’s only slightly less efficient but didn’t require very much conscious effort at all. Interesting, but no apparent applications right now.

I continue to redirect the flow of my mana, focusing it into my legs. Like before, I can feel the mana being infused into the body part. Something is changing. Strangely enough, the mana absorption slows down considerably after the first burst of mana, though it still remains burning mana at a high rate. My legs feel much more powerful though. I look at it.

Even without my mana sight, my legs seem to have some sort of blueish aura around it. A thought of my eyes glowing blue when using mana sight pops into my mind. I push that back, trying to focus on one thing at a time. With my mana sight, I can see that the mana is somehow enhancing my legs still, but on the inside, I can’t sense any change currently happening.

Curious, I test the strength of the legs and jump as hard as I can high into the air.

I let out a high pitched yelp. Sure I knew it was going to be high, but I didn’t really prepare myself for that feeling.

Not a very fun thing to test out on a cliff.

If I had to put a number on it though, I say I went about one and a half Aarons high into the air. Much greater than the one quarter Aaron I could do before without the enhancement.

Alright then! So success!

I let my mana resume its natural circulation. Once the mana is unfocused on the legs, my enhanced legs disappear and my normal legs return.

Alright then. Not quite success.

You have gained Internal Magic Manipulation LV1

Uh… Kinda success?

So that’s interesting. It looks like enhancing my legs, unlike my eyes, requires a constant drain on my mana in order to keep running. I focus the mana into my legs.

It enhances, but this time, there was no brief period where the mana has to absorb into my muscles. Looks like the beginning expenditure of mana was a one time thing only.

I wonder if that means using my mana sight takes mana as well. I mean, I never really noticed a mana drain whenever I would use it, but my sense of mana could very well just be inadequate at detecting tinier flows of mana. I mean, I don’t really know if it takes mana, but it would make a lot of sense if it did.

Okay, so maybe I can’t have permanently enhanced legs then. The utility to be able to jump one and a half Aarons high would probably come in handy for future use though. With enhanced legs, traveling the terrain would become a much easier task for me.

With that, I begin enhancing every part of my body. I’m not really sure how strong my arms become during its enhanced state, but I’m sure it would be just a powerful a tool as the enhanced state of my legs. My torso and head didn’t really change much, as expected. All of the enhancements do seem to share a couple of things in common though, such as the soft aura and the enhanced durability. I’m not sure how durable, but it could at least withstand the force of lifting me that high into the air. All of those mana expenditures leaves me feeling absolutely exhausted though, and I feel a little light headed from it.

Mana: 7/50

Gah! Did I really use up that much mana already? I guess I did use a couple of points with the flash and bullet spell from the scorpion battle, but those must've been some pretty hefty enhancement costs.

I guess I have to sit here and wait.

Staring on the cliff, over the lake view.

That beautiful lake. This beautiful cavern. Pretty horrible with all of its monsters, but it is unmistakably pretty, no doubt.

A yawn escapes from my mouth, showing off my spiky mouth.

I’m so exhausted.

From the scorpion.

From the mana.

From this cavern.

But it’s not too bad in the end.

I smile. My eyes close, and I begin to drift into sleep.

-----

I wake up. The soft dirt serving as slightly better bedding than hard rock. Still, I’d prefer something at least a little more comfortable.

“…? Is… is it morning already?...”

I open my eyes, a land of gray greeting me. I sit up suddenly, half-wondering where I am.

Then, I remember what has happened. I start to calm down a little bit more, then lay back down. I know that I this isn’t really the safest situation to continue napping in, but I just… don’t feel like moving right now. Just a little more time to myself. Time spent reminiscing about the past…

…

Okay that’s enough. I jump up on my feet, ready for the day. I already know what I’m going to do first: offensive spells.

Light spell, you’ve done me well, but I don’t think that you could kill a monster by yourself. Now then…

I close my eyes, trying to focus on the mana within me like last time. I see it clearly, that mysterious misty blue substance. I’ve seen it plenty enough times before. I already know what I’m working with.

Also like before, I will the mana to condense over the palm of my hand. I try to stretch it out as far as I can, but I can feel my control over the mana weakening the farther out I go.

Alright, the only option for projectiles at the moment is to manually impart my bullets with kinetic energy.

I move the ball of mana back to my palm. I wonder, how much mana is contained in this tiny little ball?

Mana: 46/50

Okay, so there is four mana in this ball.

There really should be some unit of measurement I could use instead of just using numbers…

I shake my head. That’s beside the point. The next step is to give this mana physical substance. I wonder, the only thing I was able to convert this mana into was energy, but can I convert it into matter? I focus intently.

I want ice. Cold and solid.

A tiny block of ice forms in the air, which then drops down onto the ground once it’s fully formed. A surprised look appears on my face.

I bend down and pick up the ice. It’s a cube about the size of my thumbnail. I bring it up to my eye, inspecting it closely, all while feeling the cold seep into my hand.

Well, it certainly feels like ice, and it looks the part too. When I put it in my hand, a blue mist appears around it. The cube is disintegrating. I activate my mana sight.

Sure enough, it’s behaving similarly to when my regular mana dissipates. So it doesn’t last forever.

It’s more than enough to be used as a projectile though, as it seems to keep it’s physical properties still. It makes me wonder though, is there any way to give the items created this way some permanence? A part of me scoffs at the thought, dismissing it as a groundless theory in creating matter from nothing. The other part wonders how different the laws in this universe are from my own.

I give it a try. Again, I focus.

I want real ice. The stuff that stays forever and turns into liquid.

My mana sight detects the mana circling round and round as well as trying to converge into itself. In the end, no dice. Maybe I’m just not capable yet, or maybe it’s impossible.

Back to my ice spell though. Ice is nice, but metal would be better for piercing my enemies.

Lead bullets, iron bullets. All are good.

The mana converges above my hand. It doesn’t have to be out of my palm, however, using my palm greatly improves my control over my aim and it just comes more intuitively than having a bullet form out of my chest or something like that.

Anyways, I focus and, using both my hands, try to form both at once. The mana swirls around me as I fall into a deep concentration. I struggle at directing the mana, trying to focus even harder to move both simultaneously. The mana, however, keeps slipping out of my control and resuming normal circulation. Sweat begins to fall down my face as I finally let out a big sigh and give up on the idea.

I’m… not able to control two mana flows at once. The difficulty in balancing both acts at the same time is not something within my capabilities right now. I think, for now, I will have to work on improving those skills.

I begin casting a spell to summon iron first. The mana flows much easier this time, and a tiny iron cube forms in my palm, the volume of which is less than what I was able to get with ice. Not the best for doing general damage I guess, but it could be useful when hitting vital points or when trying to pierce something.

Next is the lead. Casting the spell this time took much longer, and I ended up with a pitiful amount of metal. Not much to do anything with.

Okay, so I found out that different materials require different casting times, with some conjurations being more difficult than others.

My next step is to imbue these projectiles with kinetic energy and propel them at my enemies. I conjure up some ice, being an easy material to conjure while still being nice and solid.

I aim it at one of the big mushrooms around the lake below me. I hold it up and begin to build up kinetic energy within my palm with levitating the cube with magic. Moving mana and manipulating it to convert itself into energy is much easier than conjuring matter, which is the reason why I can simultaneously manipulate multiple orbs of mana within at the same time. The limit I can do for right now is about three smalls ones or two big ones.

I take aim at the mushroom tree, my magic itching to be released. I take a hold of the fully formed ice cube, and like before when I threw that rock, I took one step back.

I must not make the mistake on ignoring the power of my body to focus on magic, especially with the power stat. I will imbue this cube with energy both physically and magically.

I arch back, and throw with all of my might, spending my mana to convert it into force as well. It soars through the air with such speed that it becomes difficult to see its trajectory.

The results look splendid from atop this cliff, but I really can’t see how much damage I have done to this tree.

Maybe I should’ve aimed at something closer to me. Regardless, this will be a chance to test out my magical enhancements.

My legs glow with mana, and I take off running as fast as I can. I move with astounding speed, being able to cross with a considerable decrease in time. If I had to put a percentage to it, I’d say enhancing added about a fifty percent increase to my speed. I can feel my mana start to drain really rapidly though – much faster than normal casting.

Midway to the mushroom tree, I stop using the mana enhancement, instead opting to jog the rest of the way to conserve mana and keep myself fit at the same time. My endurance helps me a lot in that regard, but it unfortunately doesn’t level up.

Jogging, I arrive close enough to the tree to see how much damage it has done. The results are as expected from the speed at which it was shot.

The ice seems to have landed near the base of the tree. I forgot to consider gravity in my aiming. The damage though is already it more than enough to pierce through flesh and exoskeleton, with it leaving a dent into the shroom that measures about two and a half inches deep. A smile pops up on my face.

My first, true weapon. Shall I call you… Ice Bullet?

Yes, direct and basic naming for a direct and basic spell. It’s power though, is nothing to be scoffed at. My next test shall be with the iron.

I have an idea to form the iron into a spike to further increase it’s penetrating power. While conjuring, I imagine the form of the object instead of just thinking about the material. The result is an oblong cube, shaped nowhere near anything to a spike. Interesting... So do I need to manually shape the object while or after it’s done forming?

I will my mana to shape the iron. It’s malleable but takes considerably more effort to shape than other soft material. The result is a… well it’s close to a spike I guess. The “needle” portion of it probably won’t cut anything if I press it into my skin, but if launched at high speeds…

I raise my palm and aim at the tree again, this time at a more reasonable distance – one where I may find myself in while fighting against monsters. I build up mana and launch the spike into the tree, doing less damage around the area of impact, but going deep enough to the point where I can’t easily see how far it went.

… I think the story may differ.

I walk up to the poor, abused plant. Sorry, but you’ll just have to serve as my test dummy for the time being. I look into the hole the iron bullet has made.

As expected, it’s too dark to see anything in there. I ponder how I could measure how much it went through the mushroom, and ended up settling on using my spiky fingers. I mean they’re decently long and thin, reaching up to a maximum of five inches for my longest finger.

I measure it and I see that the iron bullet actually went up four and a half inches into the tree! That’s much better than I expected, instead of the maximum three inches I originally thought it was going to travel.

I smile, feeling pleased with myself for finally finding something I could defend myself with. I feel much more secure than before, like I actually have a chance to survive in this place.

Feeling light headed, I sit down in a nearby open area. I check my mana.

Magic: 4/50

Wow…

I used a bunch of mana in the span of like… thirty to forty five minutes?

I sit down to rest myself for a moment.

I breathe out, relaxing myself for a bit. There is still much more work to be done.