Karolina took another deep breath and closed her eyes. She activated Strong Blow, feeling the stamina leave her and trying to follow it. She had a hunch that, just as she had figured out how to see mana, she should be able to see stamina too. They were both energy that was created somewhere in her, after all.

So far, it was going better than she had expected. When she had learned to see mana, she had only been able to use Mana Armor, which was incredibly expensive in terms of mana. She had had to wait for her mana to regenerate between attempts, which had slowed the process down dramatically. Now, she could use Strong Blow over thirty times before her stamina ran out.

She was getting close, she could feel it. When she first started experimenting with Strong Blow, she felt her stamina decrease but couldn’t trace the energy at all. Now, she was able to sense that stamina came out of her soul, just as mana did, and could feel it move towards her arm.

Finally, it clicked. When she used Strong Blow, she felt the stamina leave her soul, and saw it travel out of her torso and down into her right arm and fist. It was different from how Mana Armor felt, though. Less complex. When the mana left her soul and formed into Mana Armor, it was shaped and layered carefully, and then something else was pushed into the mana so that it formed into the skill.

In the case of Strong Blow, however, the stamina wasn’t carefully shaped at all. It was just concentrated in her arm and fist, and the mere presence of it seemed to strengthen her body past its limits.

She opened her eyes, looking down at the red energy that she could now see within her arm. She had done it. She could now perceive stamina, just as she could perceive mana. This morning was already more successful than the majority of yesterday.

After Karolina, Ada, and Thomas had finished with the big goblin and its friends, they had continued wandering the woods, searching for challenging enemies, but they hadn’t found anything higher than level five.

Ada and Thomas had both managed to level up once, but the monsters that they fought hadn’t been enough for Karolina to level up. It was getting harder and harder to find decently leveled monsters near camp.

That was why she and Thomas were only a little bit into the woods today, trying to get better at using their skills. Thomas had wanted to practice in camp, but Karolina had wanted more privacy than the crowded camp afforded. Karolina also hoped that she would be able to rank up one of her skills, as Thomas had done with Mana Bolt yesterday, but she wasn’t sure if that was going to happen.

Karolina had wanted Ada to practice with them, but she had gone off into the woods alone instead. The scout had come to the empty clearing with them, but then wandered off, claiming that she didn’t need to practice any of her skills. That had left her and Thomas alone in the clearing, each practicing their separate skills.

Karolina looked over at Thomas. She couldn’t see any of his stamina, just as she couldn’t see any of his mana besides the strange mana that emanated from his soul. She guessed that it was probably a hard limit on these types of perceptions, being unable to see other’s energy when it was inside of them.

Thomas was practicing his new Mana Barrier skill. It was similar to her Mana Armor skill, except he made floating blue bubble walls instead of armor.

He was concentrating intently, his brow furrowed. She watched the barrier start to form in front of him, except it was red instead of the normal blue. Just as the barrier was reaching a third of its full size, it abruptly collapsed, the mana escaping back into the air. She heard Thomas let out a muffled curse and stifled a smile. She should probably get back to work.

She looked back down at her glowing fist and arm, seeing the stamina shift and flow inside of the limb. From experience, she knew that the energy wouldn’t be used up until she actually hit something. The stamina definitely didn’t completely fill the limb, which made her wonder why Strong Blow seemed locked at only using ten stamina.

Could she gather more stamina and strengthen herself even more? Strong Blow was certainly invaluable, but it didn’t feel like it was doing as much as it used to. She thought back to how she had only knocked the wind out of the big goblin when she had first hit him using the skill yesterday. She relied on Strong Blow to be able to hurt things, so her blow not even breaking any bones was a worrying sign.

She had tried using multiple Strong Blows in the past, and it worked when she was strengthening different parts of her body, but the skill failed when she tried to use Strong Blow twice on the same arm. It might be different now that she could actually observe the process.

She watched the red energy slowly circulate around her limb for a moment, the skill still active. The energy didn’t go away until she used it.

She had an idea for what she could try to break the skill’s stupid, arbitrary limit. She used Strong Blow again, this time on her left arm. She felt the stamina leave her soul and start to head towards her limb, but she closed her eyes and focused on the energy before it could reach its destination.

This stamina was hers, made in her soul and moving according to her desires. It was hers to control. She strained to alter the course of the stamina, to turn it towards her right arm instead. The stamina shifted only a little, set in its course, but she was determined. She kept trying, and right before the energy crossed over to her left arm it shifted right just enough to miss her left shoulder.

The energy bounced off of her left side, causing an agonizing muscle cramp. She whimpered, trying to hold in a scream. This was more painful than any injury she had received. Before she could regain any control over the rampant energy, it slammed into her right side, instantly making those muscles cramp up, too. She couldn’t hold in her scream this time.

She collapsed to her knees, scraping them on the uneven ground. She desperately tried to regain control of the energy, knowing that that was the only way to make the pain stop. She blotted out the world around her, ignored her agony, and focused on controlling the stamina.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she started to make the red energy stream curve down. It was going to hit her left side again, below where it had hit last time, and then she should be able to direct it to her right arm. She gritted her teeth, trying to prepare for the pain, but it was a futile effort. Her scream was loud and agonizing.

She felt the energy begin to slip the weak reins that she had placed over it. She wasn’t good enough, experienced enough, to keep control of it. She tried to regain what little control she had mustered, but her pain kept intruding on her thoughts. Finally, just before the energy would hit her side again, she managed to steer it into her right arm.

She held her breath, hoping that this wasn’t going to cause her any more pain. The stamina immediately joined with the stamina that was already there. She felt a painful twinge from her arm, but nowhere near the pain that she experienced when the energy slammed into the boundaries of her body.

She opened her eyes, breathing heavily. She had done it! She had pushed past the limits of Strong Blow. All it had cost her was unimaginable agony that was only slowly starting to go away. In front of her face she saw a blue screen.

Your skill, Strong Blow (F), has upgraded to become Strong Blow (E).

Original Skill:

Strong Blow (F): Gives the user the ability to strengthen their blows using a small amount of their stamina. The additional damage dealt by their attack is based on their strength.

Upgraded Skill:

Strong Blow (E): Gives the user the ability to strengthen their blows using a variable amount of their stamina. Using too much stamina can result in damage to the user. The additional damage dealt by their attack is based on their strength.

She closed it, not anywhere near as happy as she had expected to be. Her body was suffering, and it was difficult to be happy when in the amount of pain that she was in. She looked up and saw Thomas hovering anxiously near her, clearly uncertain about what to do.

She tried to get up off of her knees, but her pain flared. She sat back down heavily, now in a sitting position. Thomas moved closer, and after a few moments, he sat down in front of her.

“I figured out stamina perception and upgraded Strong Blow,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“Congratulations?" he asked.

“It hurt, a lot. Uncontrolled stamina is dangerous. Distract me, talk about something, anything,” she said, wincing at her continuing pain. Hopefully the low-level regeneration given by the system would be able to handle fixing her muscles.

Thomas just sat there for a few seconds, opening and closing his mouth. When he finally spoke, it wasn’t what she had expected him to say at all.

“My parents died when I was little. My foster parents were fine, I suppose. They took care of me, but it was clear that they never really loved me. I never really made any close friends, either. That’s why I love this new world so much. Beside the fact that I can do magic now, I’ve made friends here, real friends, which is more than I can say about my old life,” he said, the words pouring out of him.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Karolina asked. Thomas was apparently kind of an oversharer.

While she waited for him to respond, she shifted a little, hoping to ease her pain. It was slowly starting to go away, which she took as a good sign.

“You’ve saved my life, and I’ve saved your life. And I realized that I really don’t know that much about you, and you don’t know that much about me. I know you used to be a corporate mediator, but that’s about it. Friends talk about this kind of stuff, right?" he asked.

“I guess they do,” she said, looking at Thomas more closely. His soul was fluctuating nervously, but he seemed to be determined to have this conversation.

He had shared a lot with her, so it was only fair for her to respond in kind. She started to speak, trying to choose her words carefully. “Well, my parents are alive. Sarah and John. They’re great, I don’t know what I would do without them. I’m really worried about them, about how they're coping with the System. They sell insurance, so they have no idea how to deal with all this. I hope they’re still alive.”

She blinked rapidly, not expecting the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. Thinking about how her parents were doing was having a bigger effect on her than she had expected. At least the pain from the runaway stamina was continuing to die down.

“I’m sure they’re doing just fine,” Thomas said awkwardly.

Karolina stopped herself from snapping at him, demanding how he could possibly know that. He was just trying to comfort her, and she should take his words as he meant them.

“Yeah, I’m sure that they’re fine,” she replied. They sat there in silence for a bit, both unsure how to continue the conversation.

“This all still doesn’t feel quite real. I mean, we’re doing magic. Real magic. And we’re in some strange place, fighting monsters. It’s all just…” he trailed off.

“Yeah,” Karolina agreed. She knew what he meant. This whole situation was insane. She much preferred this life to her old one, but it was definitely strange.

“Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I’m glad that I met you,” Thomas said. Karolina smiled at him, her stamina-induced pain finally gone.

“I’m glad that I met you too. You’re a good friend,” she replied, and then got to her feet. “Well, I’m feeling better, thanks. I’m glad we talked.”

Thomas nodded, and then he went back over to his part of the clearing to continue practicing with his skills. She stared after him, thinking about the magician.

Thomas had been a strong ally to her in her time in this Tutorial. He had saved her life, taught her mana perception, and had been someone she could count on in the fights that were so ubiquitous in her new life.

Beyond all that, he was her friend. He was nice to her, and fun to be around, and she knew that she could count on him when it mattered. She hadn’t been lying when she said that she was glad that she’d met him.

More than that, she was glad that she was in this new world. Thomas was glad that this was happening because he had made friends and got to use magic, but she was glad for a far more selfish reason: this was an opportunity for her to reinvent herself.

In the old world, she had been mediocre, and hadn’t accomplished anything of note. She was never going to accomplish anything, never going to change the world. Now though, now she felt as if she actually had a chance. As long as she pushed herself to become as strong as she could, she could actually become someone important.

That was why she went out in the woods every day, and why she had pushed Thomas to come out with her, too. That was why she was working on her skills today, and had encouraged Thomas and Ada to do the same. She knew that many of the others in the camp were content to just wait there, hoping for their old lives to come back. Not her; she was going to be something in this world, and that meant working hard. And working hard started with testing out her upgraded skill.

She used the new version of Strong Blow, watching the stamina flow into her arm. Now, she could actually control how much stamina was used by the skill. She could only fit around 25 stamina in her arm before it began to hurt, but she still felt a dramatic improvement in the speed and strength of her attacks compared to the older version of her skill.

She continued practicing with her skill and with controlling her stamina, a smile growing on her face. This was going to be very useful.

After a while, Ada showed up at the edge of the clearing, apparently done exploring on her own, with a wide smile on her narrow face. “‘Sup losers, miss me?" she loudly asked.

“Not likely,” Thomas shot back, letting the red mana barrier he had partially created dissipate into nothing. He had been making progress: the barrier had been more than halfway completed.

“I’m glad you’re back, and that you’re safe,” Karolina responded, thinking back to the giant direwolf. Ada had gotten better in a fight, but not that much better. Karolina hadn’t wanted her to go off on her own, but she had insisted that she needed to be able to handle herself alone and Karolina hadn’t thought it was worth fighting about.

Ada just smiled back at her, not even bothering to respond. She seemed to be in a good mood. Karolina looked at the dagger she was holding in her hand; she could easily spot the bloodstains. Apparently, Ada had gotten to kill something.

Honestly, she was a little concerned about how much pleasure Ada took in stabbing things—not that she had much room to talk, considering how much she enjoyed the thrill of the fight.

Looking this closely at Ada’s dagger gave Karolina an idea, actually. Of her four class skills, Combat Perception was easily her most important one. It was the skill that allowed her to face off against armed opponents and triumph, but she still didn’t really understand how it worked. Maybe mana perception would give her more of an idea.

She motioned for Ada to come over. Ada started walking over immediately from the edge of the clearing.

“Need something?” Ada asked when she got close enough to hold a normal conversation.

“Yeah, I want to practice one of my skills. Can you wave your dagger around?" she asked. Ada looked at her like she was crazy, but then started dramatically waving the blade around with large, exaggerated movements.

She could have just used a rock or a stick, but she wanted to test the skill the way that it was supposed to be used, to make sure that whatever she found was accurate.

She used mana perception and felt her eyes begin to burn immediately. She wondered why stamina perception was so much easier to use; was it because she could only see her own stamina, while with mana perception she could see all of the mana that was naturally in the world?

She used Combat Perception on the blade, feeling time begin to slow around her. She had used the skill enough to know that time wasn’t really slowing; rather, her perception of it was sped up enough that she was able to process all of the information that the skill fed to her. She watched a blob of mana leave her soul and jet towards the dagger, almost too fast to see, even with her heightened perception.

She focused on the dagger, the skill helping her to keep her eyes on it despite its erratic movements. She squinted her eyes and tried to see if there was any mana inside of it. Usually she couldn’t see mana inside of anything, besides soul mana, but she hoped that if it was her own mana it would be different.

As she looked closer, she could see that the mana had formed into some strange, 3-dimensional formation in the center of the dagger. It looked like a blue wireframe sculpture, all curved lines connected in asymmetrical places.

She tried to nudge the shape, and saw it begin to collapse before it reformed itself. It seemed that she was able to affect her mana when it was outside of her body. She was sure that would be useful somehow. Now she needed to work on both her stamina and mana control.

“Are you done yet?” Ada asked.

Karolina blinked her teary eyes, her concentration broken and mana perception disrupted. She could have messed with the mana formation more, but honestly she was too inexperienced at mana manipulation to do much with it.

“Yeah, I’m done. Thanks, this was very helpful,” she replied.

“Great. I’m glad that waving around my weapon like an idiot was helpful,” Ada replied, putting the dagger back in her sheath. Despite her sour tone, Karolina could tell from her soul that Ada didn’t actually mind. Apparently she was just compelled to be rude, no matter what.

“You know, Ada, we haven’t really talked,” Karolina said.

“What’s there to talk about?" she asked flippantly.

“You know, this whole situation we’re in,” Karolina responded, unsure how exactly to put her feelings into words. After her talk with Thomas, in addition to just learning more about him, she felt like she understood him better. Now she wanted to understand Ada better, too.

“All this System stuff? I love it,” she said.

“Why?” Karolina asked, wondering what she would say. Would she say something about friendship, as Thomas had, or something about this being a great opportunity? Maybe something about the incredible abilities they now had?

“I hated my old life, and now I have crazy superpowers and get to kill stuff. What’s not to love?” Ada replied, and then walked away.

She had a point, Karolina thought as she watched her walk away. She wished that she could just live in the moment and enjoy life like Ada seemed to. Unfortunately, she just wasn’t wired that way. She needed to prepare for the future, not just enjoy the present.

Her mind went to the next thing she had to worry about; the meeting with James Buckley and the rest of the camp leadership tomorrow, and the idea that she was going to present there.