Alex was having a pretty frustrating morning. His body was a mass of bruises and pain, while his feet were covered in lacerations and cuts. Thankfully his head was doing a lot better after collapsing into bed the night before. Though, to make matters worse, he hadn’t eaten for what felt like days at this point. His feet had persuaded him not to go out and search for more food, but that was slowly being overruled by his very hungry stomach.

Trying to distract himself from both his hunger and feet, Alex had been messing around with his newfound ability to move mana around. It was a fun distraction, moving around the small blob of energy in his body. Unfortunately, whenever he had tried to move it outside of his body his control slipped, and it proofed away into mist sometimes accompanied by a small flash of light and air.

No matter how hard he tried, all he could get his blob of magic to do was sit on his palm for around a second. Maybe wiggle just a little, but nothing more than that. He felt he was on the right track, pushing magic out of himself, he just couldn’t figure out the next step.

With a defeated sigh, Alex stopped waving around a ball of mana that was halfway out of his index finger. He watched as the blob of mana made its way down his arm to join the rest in the center of his chest. The mass of energy kept undulating, and it was quite a bit bigger than the day before, though it had shrunk down considerably over the course of the morning as Alex played around with it.

He stretched, and got to his feet, wincing at the pain in his feet. He hobbled over to where he had leaned a nice-sized branch he had found and used it as a crutch. Now able to walk without as much pain, he set off into the forest, hopefully to find something to eat.

As he walked, Alex tried to keep his mana sense up as long as he could, but that was usually only a few minutes at most. Every time he tried for longer, he got so nauseous that he had to stop. He still attempted it occasionally, but he mainly focused his attention on scanning the nearby bushes for anything edible.

Eventually, he stumbled his way into a familiar bunch of bushes, their prickly leaves covering the purple berries. Finally, he thought to himself as he started stripping the berries and placing them into his remaining pocket. I was starting to get worried I’d never find more of these again. He munched on a few as he gathered up the rest.

As he gathered the berries up, he kept checking to see if his [Survival] skill would level, but unfortunately, he didn’t get any notification. Dang, I really thought I would get another level out of this. I was looking forward to it as well. Just as he was bemoaning the fact of not leveling up his Skill, a blue box popped into existence.

You have defeated a Yuameth [Rank 1]

You have gained 255 XP

You have gained a level

Level 1 => Level 2

You have gained a level

Level 2 => Level 3

Alex looked around, bewildered. What? What just happened? He just stood there, staring at the notifications, trying to process them. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why did I just level up out of the blue, and twice?

He looked through the three notifications, two just saying he had advanced all the way to level 3. The first notification was a bit different. What the heck is a Yuameth? That sounds very made up. And what’s up with the [Rank 1]? Is that its level? Why not say level then? He frowned at the boxes before mentally dismissing them. Better check my status to see what changed. With a thought, he pulled it up.

Status

Name

Alexander White

Race

Demon (Human)

Class

-

Level

3 (7%)

Titles:

Marked by The Serpent

Health

11/11

Mana

8/12

Stamina

6/7

Attributes

Vitality

11

Toughness

9

Endurance

7

Wisdom

12

Vigor

7

Presence

7

Agility

11

Intelligence

14

Strength

8

Willpower

9

Attribute points

20

As he scanned over his status page, nothing seemed to have changed, besides his level and the number of attribute points he had. Well there to hoping something crazy would change when I leveled up. Still don’t know how to get a class. Looking at the number of attribute points he had to spend, he got a little excited.

I can definitely figure some things out with those. He took a quick look around himself, though I should probably do it back on my bed. Not that it’s any safer there, I guess. He quickly gathered the rest of the berries he could find and started off back to where his bed was.

As he walked, he thought about all the ways he could spend his attribute points. I could just put them all in strength. Sure, it wouldn’t tell me anything, probably, but I feel like having a 28 strength would be quite nice. I would be almost 3 times as strong. That would be pretty crazy. He paused his train of thought to imagine himself ripped and throwing around trees.

Or I could put them all into intelligence. Get a genius level IQ. That wouldn’t be bad either. Can’t go wrong with being a super genius. He hobbled his way closer to his bed as he imagined all the ways he could distribute the wealth of attribute points he suddenly found himself in possession of.

He finally got back to the small clearing that housed his bed and gratefully sat down on it, giving his feet a well-deserved break. I really wish I didn’t have to walk around so much, or at least have some shoes if I’m going to be tromping through this forest all the time. He reached down and started to unwind his foot wraps, letting his feet breath for a little.

And now on to the attribute points. He ran his fingers through his head as he tried to figure out what to do with them. I really want to see if I’m right about what attributes govern what resources, so I think I’ll do those first. Just to be safe.

He brought up his status page again and focused on his attributes. Instead of just putting one into each attribute, he focused only on increasing his vitality. I hope this works, he thought as he confirmed his choice.

As he did, he felt a somewhat familiar warmth start to grow in his chest, spilling out into the rest of his body. The sensation was pleasant, and it faded rather quickly, far faster than when he had done this before. He shrugged and looked at his health on his status. Alex grinned as it showed 12/12, one point higher than before, and exactly what his new vitality was. And I was right about what determined my health. It’s just my vitality! Now onto the other two.

He again focused on raising a single attribute with one of his points, this time Wisdom. When he did, the same warmth spread throughout his body to only dissipate quickly afterward. Alex quickly pulled up his status again and saw that his mana had jumped up a point just like his health. Well, that’s two for two on guessing. One left, though this one might be a little tricky.

He eyed the last resource he had, stamina. It was sitting at a 7, but both his endurance and vigor also had a 7 next to them. It really could be either. They both sound staminny too. He frowned, unsure of which one to pick. I’ll just go with the top one and go from there.

As he confirmed his choice, the now familiar sensation of his attributes increasing flowed through his body. Once it was done, he quickly looked at his stamina. Ha! I chose right! He thought triumphantly as he saw his stamina at an 8, the same as his newly increased Endurance.

He sat back with a smile on his face. Well, I’ve got that out of the way. Don’t really know what the other attributes do though. He looked at his remaining 17 attribute points. Now what to do with you? I could go and get a whole bunch of mana, no idea what I would do with it, but it would be nice.

Though I could dump the rest into strength, that might not be bad as well. Or put them into agility, that sounds like a smart idea. He frowned as he had so many decisions to make. He was half tempted to just put two points in every attribute and call it day.

Maybe I should just choose three different attributes and put 5 into each one. He looked at the list of attributes. Hmmm, definitely strength, that sounds important. Possibly wisdom for more mana, so I can play around with it longer. He ran his fingers through his hair as he tried to decide on the last attribute to increase. Probably no vigor or toughness, since I don’t know what they do, presence sounds weird, so not that either. Agility might not be a bad idea. He then looked at intelligence, hmmm, though I could put a whole lot into intelligence, that would be nice. The more he thought about increasing his intelligence, the more he liked the idea.

With his mind made up, he focused on putting 5 attribute points into strength, wisdom, and intelligence. With a mental confirmation, he locked in his choice. He could feel whatever energy increased his attributes gathering up inside his chest and then ripple out throughout his body. His whole body felt as if he had stepped into a very warm sauna, but only for a few moments before the warmth dissipated just as quickly as it came.

He sighed contently at the feeling, the warmth relaxing him. Now for the last two points I can spend right now. As he was thinking of what to bump up a few points, he felt a gentle tugging in his gut. The same tugging sensation he had felt when he had gone into the clearing with the odd boulder in the middle. Frowning, he quickly closed his eyes and looked inwards with his mana senses.

The blob of energy that resided in his chest looked a little funny. It usually just sat there, wobbling a bit, but now it was stretched slightly to one side, pointing in roughly the direction of the clearing he had gone before. How far am I away from that boulder? And it's affecting me all the way over here? He tried to gauge how far he was from the clearing. I’m probably at least 300 ft away, about a football field, and it’s pulling at my mana? That’s kind of strange, and it just started happening now. His eyes widened. It happened just after I increased my mana. Probably the more mana I have, the stronger the pull.

He took a look around himself, noticing the lack of animals. That’s probably why there’s no wildlife around. If I’m feeling like this with only a mana pool of 18, I can’t imagine what something with hundreds of mana would feel like.

The pulling sensation wasn’t too uncomfortable at the moment, but it was constant. Like if you were mildly lactose intolerant and had just eaten a milkshake. Not the most pleasant feeling in the world, but definitely manageable.

Deciding not to increase his mana for a while, it still left him with two points to spend. Hmm, maybe I won’t spend them right now, save them in in case something crazy happens again, like that bear thing. He suddenly realized something and smacked his head with his palm. I’m an idiot, I bet that bear thing was the Yuameth the messages said I defeated. That boulder must be way more dangerous than I thought. I’m glad I didn't try to touch it the first time I saw it. That would have ended pretty badly for me.

Shivering at the thought of the boulder slowly sucking away his mana and then his life force, Alex stood up. Wanting to test how much his strength had improved, he bent over and gripped his bedframe, and lifted. Straining, he put as much of his strength as he could to lift his bed up, only to not be able to move it an inch. The pretty hefty bed had always rebuffed his attempts to lift it and now was no different. Dang, I thought I would definitely be able to lift it, at least a little bit, he thought dejectedly as he shook out his hands. Maybe something else to test my strength?

Frowning, he looked around, seeing nothing that he would probably be able to lift. Sighing, he dropped to the ground and got on his hands and feet, his body in the classic pushup position. I really hate these, but I guess I’ll do one in the name of science. He slowly did a pushup and noticed it was quite a bit easier than when he had done one previously. He did another, his muscles not screaming in protest like usual.

After 15 pushups, he finally collapsed into the dirt, his arms feeling like jello, but with a happy smile on his face. I’ve never been able to do even five pushups in a row, but now I did 15! Strength for the win! He rolled onto his back and laid there, looking up at the trees. I could get used to this.

Now that he had figured out how much stronger those 5 points had made him, Alex’s thoughts drifted to his newly increased intelligence. I wonder how much smarter that made me. Going from a 14 to a 19, that’s what, he paused to do some quick mental math with percentages. Around a 30% increase, I think. That’s not too bad. But I wonder what I can do with that.

He tried thinking of a few math problems that he could remember, and it felt like he could do them slightly faster. What I really need is a clock and one of those multiplication sheets. That would work a lot better at gauging how much my intelligence changed.

He sighed and sat up, dirt cascading from his shirt as he did. My blob of mana inside my chest looked bigger when I looked at it, so I guess that’s all three of the things I changed. He closed his eyes and once again focused inwards on his mana. With a shrug, he started moving a glob of mana around like he usually did, playing around with it when he had an idea. He got up and grabbed the stick he had been using as a crutch and sat back down again, resting the branch across his legs. What if instead of just letting the mana sit in the air, I push it into something else? That’s got to do something, right?

Concentrating inwards again, he mentally grabbed a bit of his mana and started to direct it towards his palm that was holding his walking stick. As he tried to push out the glob of mana from his palm into the branch, he started to feel a bit of resistance. Like the branch was pushing back against his mana. Focusing harder, Alex shoved at his mana, trying to force it into the walking stick.

All of a sudden, he felt his mana overcome whatever resistance there was and slam into the branch. He saw the energy slowly spread out along the stick, swirling around outside of his control. Alex smiled as he saw his mana not immediately dissipate into mist as all his other tries had done.

Excited, he reached again for his mana. This time he grabbed quite a bit more than the first time and tried to shove it into the branch again. He felt the strange resistance once more but was ready for it this time. Concentrating, he managed to force his mana into the branch much quicker the second time. His mana swirled into the branch, joining the mana that was already there. He just watched for a moment, in awe of the hypnotic patterns the energy made as it moved around in the branch. After a while, the mana started to form small streams that circulated the entirety of the branch.

Wondering if the same thing would happen for something else, Alex reached over and grabbed a smaller branch, roughly the length of his forearm, but only as thick as one of his fingers. He again took a bit of his mana but decided to grab as much as he could, leaving only a small portion behind. As he forced the mana into the smaller stick, he noticed that the initial resistance was a lot smaller, but as he forced more and more of the blob of mana into it, he started to feel the resistance build up again.

Frowning, he concentrated as hard as he could and shoved the rest of the mana through. He could see the energy inside move and swirl around, but faster this time. The mana started to go faster and faster, the streams bunching up as there wasn’t enough room for them to properly spread out like the larger walking stick.

All of a sudden, the mana inside started going wild, no longer in steady streams, but in a whirlpool of activity. The tempo of the mana picked up, going faster and faster as it collided with itself until it reached a breaking point. With a loud bang, the mana exploded outwards, taking with it pieces of the stick. Alex tried to shield his face but was too late as splinters of wood shot through the air, peppering his face and chest.

He opened his eyes to see a ruined piece of wood in his hand, with splinters everywhere around the clearing. Well, not doing that again.