“With a spirit of hundred men, our hero tinkered and toiled only to be trivialized by the tyrannical weather of the troublesome forest.”

“Go a bit easy on the t’s. And, what the hell was that weather? Unlivable. I need a far better location. Somewhere where there is less wind. And oh dear lord, what was that wind?

The last thing I expected to be an issue out here was this weather. Luckily I easily dealt with the rain.

Maybe I should take some time to mull over the laws of wind.”

“A few thousands meters or so away from his intended campsite, our hero peaks out of his hole.”

“This is a cave.”

“From his hole, he rose. So immersed in his particular law of water, that the water has begun to unconsciously orbit around him, as if they were rivers and moons.”

“What? When did this happen?

Huh. That’s strange, if I don’t actively make it stop, it just starts up again.”

“There are many points in one’s pursuit of power, in its many forms, where one starts to lack control of one’s power.”

“Lately I’ve been trying to fly. Initially, my thoughts were simple.

I thought; I can make something heavy as dirt float in the air. Granted I lose control quickly as it moves further away from me.

Still don’t understand why, Narry, you’ve been no help in this regard.

But it turns out it doesn’t work. I tried to have water lift me up, my most successful attempt was basically using water, soil and wind to launch myself into the air.

Now. That was super fun, but I couldn’t maintain altitude.”

“Our herois lost in these terrifying woods, filled with beasts that attack and feast on anything with moving blood.”

“Now that you mention it, I did get blown pretty far away. I should go back.”

“A sensible action, yet in a twist of fate, the wrong decision. Even if our hero’s uncontrolled wave of mana worked as a deterrent to the native animals, it won’t deter the undying.

The undying, albeit lesser in intelligence than the common animal, has a thirst, unquenchable thirst.”

“Undying again. It’s been a while since we saw these undying.”

“Although our hero’s entanglement with the ravenous undying has been superficial at best, they do pose an element of threat.

A threat, a danger our hero seems to be quite oblivious to, if his grinning eyes and derisive expression is to be taken into account.”

“You think I've forgotten my near death experiences? Why do you think I spent all that time, being violently bent by a graying old man?

For fun!?

I did it to equip myself with the capabilities of fighting against the obvious oddities infesting my world.

I did it to excel in this world, and believe you me, I will excel in this world or see to it that my end is quick. Rather than the painful constant it is today.

But before we slide into an existential crisis and get me on a suicide watch list, how about you spit out whatever miraculous knowledge you have to offer?”

“What an unexpected bout of impatient urgency. Even when the words slither their way out of that insidious mouth of his, they seem flat and without concern.”

“Worth a shot. Who knows what triggers your responses? Anger? Do you follow a flexible script? Or do I simply need to ask the right questions?”

“The perpetual look of dormant curiosity fades away, replaced with chilling indifference.”

“Don’t be like that. I care about you, Narry. If you ever want a great big hug, I’m here for you, buddy.”

“The loneliness that comes with abandonment has overcome our fragile, delicate little hero.

The world a distant echo of its former self, yet the air tastes the same, the earth smells the same and the sky is ever azure.”

“I’m afraid I’m not sure where you want me to go. You mention a twist of fate and a wrong decision and so on, before you started rambling again. As you do.”

“As our hero contemplates and incoherently scolds the ether, a shadow of a possible fiend is cast on our hero.”

“Gaah!”

“The creature, still concealed in by the shadows and piercing light that shines from above, has flung itself towards our hero.

Our hero instinctively reacts as if forewarned!

The water floating around our hero quickly forms a film around his body. He bellows a deep roar an executes an attack whilst preparing absorb and evade the incoming attack.”

“Whirling water!”

“The spell, even if simple, is both efficient and effective.

The idea of the spell and execution can be utilized by a myriad of laws, but in the case of our hero its core is the fluidity of water swirling in a circle, supplemented by wind, adding to the flat spinning disc water.”

“Huah! Fluid steps, left to fall!”

“The spell has its merits and demerits, mainly being it depends on the centrifugal force to sharpen its edges, but lacks any weight to cause an impact, if it were to be countered properly.

Luckily for our hero, the ambusher was detected before successfully attacking, leaving it vulnerable in the air with no other discourse than to defend against |Whirling water|.

This unfortunate position has resulted our poor attacker to be split in two.”

“Look at it, that’s not a zombie creature is it? Why can’t it be furry? Ugh, the few sporadic hairs growing on its carapace.

You said that animals would not seek me out, but avoid me.”

“After invading the Bark lice territory, our hero has the audacity to slay one scouts of the colony. In a few moments, the scent of the severed lice will notify its kin, provoking the swarm.”

“Swarm? Swarm, hmm. Swarm?

Nothing ever good comes in swarms, right? What direction is the exit to this forest? I’m not staying here to meet a swarm of anything.”

“A question worthy of thought, are not all directions the exists to a forest? Or are they all entrances?

Will a lost man find his way if his steps are true? Often we find ourselves in these circumstances and remember times of confusion and indecisiveness.”

“What in the ever-loving gods are you talking about? That’s not even deep, that’s just nonsense!

Fine. Whatever, I’m going thataway.”

“Following his most primal instincts, our hero starts heading toward small source of Orter stones.

The Orter stone, is a plain stone imbued with mana over a time, including a particular environment, giving birth to a vein of such stone.”

“Now we’re talking! Orter stone, huh?”

“The natural mineral can be ground into course or fine dust and ingested in small quantities to strengthen the body.

It can be used as a foundation for many formation practices, it can be used as material in miscellaneous items, which of course means it is capable of being engraved.”

“I’m still not sure how hard it is to get weapons, which is the main reason I have decided on a profession.

If I can find a way to get weapons or have someone craft them, I can take up support crafts such as engraving and formations.

But I have no way to know how powerful any of these arts are. I wish I could just take them all.”

“Oblivious to the ways of the world and their strong intent of seeing our hero prevail, he has assumed he will only be able to learn two profession.

But reality is far more generous, and could be considered even more so now, than in the past.”

“Hmm. In that case, shouldn’t I get tailoring, forging, alchemy and engraving? Those seem have a very nice synergy.

Alchemy to create better materials, forging and tailoring to craft weapons, armour and clothing. Then finally, I can engrave them, improving them again.

In the end, all of them have their merits. Actually forging may be a mistake. I could create weapons, but I seem to excel in all things mana.

Of course I can use mana to strengthen myself and take up arms in that fashion as well. But that was always plan b, wasn’t it?

What was the plan again?”

“A nonchalant walk in the forest, filled with dangers. Who else but our hero can afford such luxuries?”

“I’m running. Galloping. Alright, jogging. I can’t be running full speed out here, it’s all uneven ground.

Overgrown bushes and grass, trees aren’t an issue, their just large and hard to not notice.

I was hoping this would be far more straight forward, considering it is a quest.”

“Simple and complex. These things are relative terms. Sadly, complexity seems to be an easily reached goal for our hero. One is left in lamentation of better days.”

“What? What do you mean? Quests should give me better instructions. Look, I’m just out here in the woods, trying to escape some exotic tree lice.

How is that simple?”

“Wisdom of the almighty ones, let the world freeze over when the insignificant low-realm plebeians guess its intentions.”

“Well whatever happens, I’ll just fight. The part to make a base here was optional anyway, I wonder if becomes easier of it take up woodworking.”

“Yes, woodworking. The art of working with wood. Or so the story goes, yet our old bones know better, a more befitting name would of course be sculpting.”

“Sure sculpting wood. Whatever.”

“Of the myriad of arts, few hold their true name to date. Forging? How laughable. Yet appropriate when diluted to suit the spark like lifespan of these short-lived beings.”

“We, the people, have been insulted. It’s nice you aren’t just focusing your mocking on me alone.

I guess you can sculpt anything, huh. I mean, no ye. Even diamonds get sculpted right?”

“The scenery flows by as our hero nears the exit to the forest. Yet despite his speed and the time he spent traveling he has managed to obliviously pass multiple life-forms.”

“I saw a few, wasn’t going to stop though. Good to know I’m going in the right direction.”

“Right, wrong. These are relative terms. Up and down. Left or right?”

“Eh?”

“Soon we will enter a more open area, safer area. Although no such area currently exists in these regions for the moment.

Even when all the sentient beings on this plane are taken into account, none have travelled so far into one of the so called wildzones.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Despite having formed many powerful organizations, the inhabitants of new Earth have only managed to explore a measly thirty-two percent, the ocean not included.”

“That’s kind of mind-blowing. I mean, we had satellites mapping the entire planet at one point.

I know technology got backtracked and all, but it feels a bit exaggerated.”

“If the humans have any merit, it was their ability to adapt, and yes their brightest mind have developed technology that astonished their kind.

But the deciding difference was the existence of untapped ambient mana, a source of energy so vast it eclipsed any other.”

“Huh. Well, you know. What about radiation? I guess chemical warfare is still a viable thing, but what about something like a nuclear bomb?

I understand that guns may not be very effective in this millennia but it surely has its place, right?”

“Even children laugh in the face of kinetic force, even with its piercing capabilities.

For reference to our hero’s perspective, we can look at one of the strongest people of his time and assume he struck our hero.

If our hero moved even an inch, it would be an achievement.”

“Oh look, this should be the end of the forest, right?”