David logs back into New Reality. It's been 2 days real time since he beat the dungeon. He decides his next plan of action.

'Okay. I have the option of leveling up my blacksmith and alchemy professions to level 5, or I could continuously try working on my Essence of Mana. Once I start one or the other, I cannot stop. Well it's pretty obvious which I should start first. Essence of Mana will decrease my cost by another percent if I level it up, which in turn will allow me to level up the other skills a bit faster. Now according to the book, all I have to do is get a feel for my mana to level it up to Beginner level 2. Okay, here we go.'

He grabs food from the library and goes to a quiet place in the forest. Null sits cross legged and meditates. This isn't the first time he's done something like this. In the gym, whenever he had a problem performing a move, he would use visualization. He would sit cross legged and imagine every single step of what he needed to perform. It would wear him out even more than performing the actual move.

He spent the entire day sitting like this.

'This is boring.'

He then went to sleep in the game. The next day, he cleaned out the pantry of the library, and rushed back to the same spot at the top of a tree.

'This is so boring.'

Boring days became boring weeks, and boring weeks became boring months. On the third month, he finally found what he was looking for.

'I felt it. I think I felt the mana! I just have to bring it out.'

He started concentrating on that feeling. He felt it inside his chest, the mana heart as the author of the book liked to call it.

The feeling gradually became stronger and stronger. On the fourth month, not only did he feel the mana heart, he felt the mana all over his body.

'Wow. Mana really does flow like blood. Shit its cold out here! I forgot about the seasons in this game. It rarely ever gets cold in real life. This is one of the few times I've ever seen my breath. I should get a sweater or something.'

Null goes into town and buys a gray drab cloak.

'This suits me perfectly.'

Null begins meditating again. He felt all the paths where his mana flows, and started memorizing the paths the mana takes. Finally, at the end of the 5th month, a message he's been waiting for pops up.

Essence of mana has leveled up to Beginner Level 2.

Essense of ManaSkill typePassive/ActiveSkill ProficiencyBeginner level 22% decrease in mana consumption for techniques. Can now control mana inside your body..

Null is satisfied.

'Good. That means I'm out of the danger zone. I couldn't even spend half a day on break or I would've rapidly started losing proficiency and would've had to start all over. Now that I have beginner level 2, I can no longer lose proficiency in Essence of Mana. Now what do I do? I guess I'll continue upgrading the skill.'

Null gets in his meditative pose and starts trying to manipulate the mana.

'It's very difficult to move inside my body. Well I've already memorized all the paths my mana flows in. Lets try speeding it up a little.'

Null does this and it barely does anything.

'Well I guess that's to be expected. I'll just keep practicing.'

He does this day in and day out.

'Hey I made an alternate flow for the mana in my finger!'

Null keeps practicing.

'Hey, I just created an entirely new pathway down my arm!'

Day by day, he kept getting better and better.

'I'm able to slow down my mana by flowing the mana in the opposite way of my network. This will help me improve faster than going the other way.'

By the fourth week after Essence of Mana reaches Beginner level 2, another message pops up.

Essence of Mana has leveled up to Beginner Level 3.

Essense of ManaSkill typePassive/ActiveSkill ProficiencyBeginner level 35% decrease in mana consumption for techniques. Increased control of mana.

He moves the mana and is shocked by how easy it is to move.

'I can now control the mana a lot easier now!'

The mana actually went where he wanted with little resistance. Null smirks, which for him means his lip slightly twitched upwards.

'Now I will try moving my mana to try and reproduce different stats.'

Now as was said before, everyone and everything in this world uses mana in some way, but to actually go inside the guts and manipulate the mana is something very few people can do. For example, almost anyone who can read can turn on a computer and go on the internet, but most would be too ignorant to ever get into the nitty gritty of touching the actual hardware and software components of computers. Null is doing the equivalent of hacking into a computer.

First thing Null does is try to reproduce strength by increasing the mana flow.

'It would be to difficult to try to do it with my entire body, so lets start small for now. First, the finger.'

Null gets down from the tree and sits on the ground.

'Okay, first I'll see how far I can dig into this dirt with my mana flow as it is.'

He places his wrist on the ground, and strikes the dirt with his finger. It only digs in about half an inch.

'Okay. Now we'll see it with the mana flow increased.' He strikes the dirt again. It digs in a little deeper at almost an inch.

'I need to work on this.'

Null works on speeding up the mana flow as fast as he can in all his body parts. He gets used to it. In 5 days, he works on speeding up the mana in multiple body parts at the same time.

In 2 weeks, he experiments to see how he could get the biggest strength gains. He manipulates the mana so well that he gets at most a +126 boost in strength for now. If you increase mana flow to only the important muscles, you could save a lot more mana. He even went a step beyond. He made it so in his wrist, the mana will flow in a circular pattern rapidly. Right at the point of impact, he releases the mana resulting in a shock wave. It isn't perfect, and his current limit right now is 4 revolutions per second. Null also has to time it right. Too late and it just adds a little force in the blow, but not enough to make people nervous. Too early and it dissipates in the air. He's doing good, but the problem is he's doing all this standing still. He needs to be able to do all this while he's moving.

This one didn't take as long as the others, as it only took a little over 2 days to walk while moving mana, then run while moving mana, then do fighting techniques while moving mana. Null makes it to a point where he's comfortable with rapidly moving mana. Now he's currently working on the dexterity aspect of mana control. This one's a bit easier than increasing the mana flow for strength, but not by much.

He starts by trying to wiggle the mana. It doesn't work. Null then tries to make it so that the mana inside his body hums. It works a bit better. What worked best for him is imagining that the mana hums like a bee. Since he had his experience of trying to control the speed of his mana to augment strength, a lot of it carried over for manipulating dexterity. It only took 4 days to get it up to speed, no pun intended. He soon discovered a problem. He cannot use speed augmentation and strength augmentation at the same time. He'll have to work around that. He manages to get a dexterity boost of at most +126 Dexterity by focusing on specific limbs.

'I'll figure out a way to mix and match with both and practice on timing with them.'

Now someone might think, 'Wow! He can boost most his stats just by manipulating mana, he must be invincible right?'

Wrong. Essence of mana has a lot of weaknesses. The first one is that to move mana costs mana. To even manipulate mana a little costs mana. To land a blow with that +126 strength requires a quarter of Null's mana pool, and that's only if he focuses purely on strength augmentation. It also only lasts a fraction of a second. Now, the second problem is one that should be obvious from the first problem. If moving mana costs mana, then there would be less mana in the body than before, which would make an attack that relies on mana manipulation weaker.

Null is essentially a firework. The longer he fights, the less mana he'll have in his body, and the more likely he will lose. To truly master Essence of Mana, Null will have to have moves that deals with his opponents quickly. The third problem is, Null's opponents, who have high strength and/or dexterity, do not spend any mana to use their stats. If Null gets a stat boost to equal an opponents, all the opponent would need is attrition to beat Null, and he would lose.

Null thinks, 'I have to invent ways to deal with opponents quickly in the future, and what do you know? I have conveniently gotten the alchemy and blacksmith subclass to help me with that.'

Null is now trying to test his new found abilities against monsters. He is too high level for the wolves, so he goes to the panthers. Now, Null is not trying to kill them. He is trying to see if they can even land a blow on him. His training is essentially dodging.

“Okay panthers, hit me with your best shot.”

The panthers are wary, because they sense that Null is at a higher level than them, but their pride would not allow them to back down. Panthers have dexterity that is unusually a lot higher than normal than other beasts at the same level, but have low health.

The panthers surround him and pounce. One tries going for his back. Null is using his open palm half circle step stance. Null moves out by stepping out to his right and completely dodging it. 'I added too much dexterity with that movement. If I keep adding that much, I'll wear myself out. Learn to control it.'

The panthers took turns pouncing and swiping. Null blocked with open palms and moved out the way. When his mana reached less than half, he ran away. The panthers did not give chase, as they knew that Null could kill them if he had wanted to.

Null goes through his assessment. 'They were able to hit me a few times. It's not easy to conserve mana in the middle of a battle. That requires calm, which is very difficult to do in a fight. I need to practice some more.' Null waits an hour for his mana to refill, then goes back to the panthers.

3 days later, and he stops going to the panthers.

'Good. They got out all the kinks. I'm now pretty confident in my skill. Throughout training essence of mana I gained 9 points in Intelligence and 6 points in wisdom. Now I'm going to do something that will leave a bad taste in my mouth. I will deliberately go to, ick, people. Why must I do this? Well it's the only way to get stronger. Dammit. Fuck people.'

Null goes to the warriors guild. After looking at the signs, he finds the place where the monks train. There's a person near the door throwing punches at a punching bag.

He sees Null standing at the doorway and approaches him. “Yes, how can I help you? If you're here for training to get the Hand to Hand Combat skill, then take this schedule to know when we're starting classes.”

“Sorry, I'm not here for that. I just want to spar.”

“Spar? With us? You realize that we're monks right? Our specialty is fighting bare handed. No other warrior class could go up against a monk in sparring bare handed at the same level except another monk.”

“That's what I came here for.”

“Well I don't know if your confidence is from foolishness, a high level, or you have some sort of powerful hidden class. What's your class?”

“Librarian.”

“...What's your level?”

“47.”

“....pft HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The guy fell to the ground pounding his fist against the ground laughing hysterically. This caused the other monks in the room to stop what they were doing and look at the scene.

“Hey, what's wrong?”

“What's so funny?” The other monks were asking him.

“HAHAHA! This guy... HAHAHA... wants to spar with us... pft... while only being a level 47 Librarian!”

This got everyone to join in on the guy currently on the floor laughing.

“HAHAHA! Is he insane?”

“Heh. Well he has to be insane to pick the librarian class to start with!”

“I... can't... BREATHE!!! AHAHAHAHA!”

Null didn't mind them laughing. In fact, he would find it strange if they didn't laugh.

After a few minutes of laughing, Null says, “...So can I spar or not?”

They stopped laughing as hard, but they were still giggling. “Well sure kid, we have nothing better to do.”

“Good.”

“Okay whose the weakest person here?”

“Um, currently Paul is at level 24.”

Paul got up excited. “I get to fight him? Yes! It's always fun to put arrogant dummies in their place!”

Lets talk about the monk class. The stat gains they get when they become monks are enormous. They also get techniques that further augment their strength and speed into explosive strikes. They can infuse mana into their blows just like Null learned how to, but Null relies on his control over his mana while monks rely on brute force while on system assist. In return for this great power, they are penalized if they hold weapons or wear heavy armors like the other warriors. They also cannot wear multiple armors as the other warriors can. Of all the warriors, they have the highest stamina and have one of the highest strengths and speeds.

Even if a level 24 monk were to go against a level 40 swordsman in hand to hand combat, the swordsman would most likely lose. Even if a level 70 librarian were to go against a level 24 monk in hand to hand combat, the librarian would most likely lose.

Paul and Null started heading towards the ring. They could have made it so that it would be a duel, but people didn't think that Null was worthy of that. In a duel, when you die, you do not lose stat points, and instead of respawning at the last town you used as a checkpoint, you respawn where you died.

People were betting on how fast the match would end.

“I'm giving it 5 seconds.”

“You kidding? 5 seconds is generous. I'm giving the match 3 seconds.”

“You're both crazy. 2 seconds and not a second more.”

The referee for the fight, another monk, talks about the rules. “No poison, weapons, or traps. Only use hand to hand combat. Techniques that augment strength are allowed. Try not to kill.”

He gives the monk a stern look. Obviously the last message was meant for him.

“Yeah, yeah. I get it.” Paul wines out.

The referee yells out, “Begin!”

In a way, the monks that were talking about the match ending in seconds were right. The match did indeed end in 2 seconds. It's just that the picture of what the outcome would look like is reversed. The monk is currently in a dent in the wall and Null is currently fine. Silence. Total, utter silence. No one knew what to say. Paul was trying to show off and left too many openings. Null exploited the openings and drop kicked him towards the wall.

He can now rapidly switch from manipulating mana for dexterity to manipulating mana for strength. It has grown even further, and that was also not including the shock wave. Null can now rotate his mana and release it as a shock wave from anywhere on his body. He used dexterity to move his leg into a fast kick, then switched to strength to give him a powerful blow, then used the shock wave when his foot made contact, resulting in a guy, in a dent, in the wall.

Paul got up infuriated. He was shaking. How dare he lose to a librarian? And in hand to hand combat too?

'I'm a monk! He's a librarian! This doesn't make any sense!'

“I wasn't ready! I want a rematch!”

The referee goes to Null. “Is that fine with you?”

Null nods. He drinks a mana potion to refill his mana. They go back to the ring.

The referee calls out, “Begin!”

'This time I won't give you a chance!'

He uses the Breath of Life technique to pour all his mana into his blows and rushes towards Null again. The match ended the same way, with the monk, in a dent, in the wall. The monks were once again silent.

They were thinking, 'I thought that the last victory was a fluke, but he managed to beat him even with the breath of life technique.'

'What in the world is going on? Was he telling the truth about being a librarian?'

'That blow that he used, it was similar to a monk's technique, but calmer and more refined. Who the hell is this guy?'

“I want to fight em'.”

The next person to volunteer to fight Null shocked them even more than the last match.

“Why must you go? There's no need.”

“I just want to see what he is capable of. That's all.”

“You'll kill him!”

“I'm sure he can handle it.”

Null looks at who's coming to the stage. He is mildly surprised. Null sorta knows this person, though he doesn't talk to him.

Null thinks, 'First the bully, now him. What are the odds?'

He speaks to Null. “David huh? So what should I call you here?”

“Null.”

“In this game, I am Ludis, a level 172 monk.”

What Ludis doesn't say is that he's one of the very few who have unlocked the intermediate level hand to hand combat skill, which along with his extra stats given by completing basic training hall, beginner training hall, and practicing all the time, gives him the stats of a level 300 player.

“With all due respect Ludis, why would you want to fight me even though I am a level 47 librarian?”

'Hell. I have yet to beat you in real life. Why in the hell do you want to fight me when you are higher level than me and a monk? You don't seem like the type to toy with people, but I have been wrong about people's natures before.' Null thinks.

“I just want to see those moves of yours again. They interested me. Could you do me this favor and fight me?”

Null thinks to himself, 'Fighting? This won't be a fight, this will be a curb stomp battle.'

Null nods. 'Well I need to learn how to survive against people with overwhelming power sooner or later.'

They go to the ring. Ludis' real name is Rory Pierce, currently the number one ranked junior MMA fighter in his city. Girls love and swoon over him, and guys look up to or are jealous of him. Null is no exception. He has always been jealous of Rory, though he would never admit it to himself.

Before they fight, Ludis asks Null a question. “Before we fight, I have a question.”

“What?”

“How many health points do you currently have in all?”

“1370. Why?”

“I have to make sure not to kill you is all.”

The referee shouts out. “Begin!”

Null takes the initiative this time and runs to Ludis. He knows if Ludis were to take the initiative, the match would be over.

Null rushes as fast as he can putting dexterity in his legs. He then tries to punch Ludis. He completely dodged leisurely as if Null's punch was in slow motion. Ludis then gets behind Null and flicks him. If Null's blow to Paul was a dent, then Ludis' blow to Null was a crater. He went through the wall and landed outside.

Null is in a daze. 'I'm not dead?'

People outside are wondering what the commotion is all about.

Null looks at his health. He only has 10 health points left.

'So that's why he asked about my health. He can control his blows so precisely. What a monster.'

Null takes health and mana potions to refill. He then walks back inside and confronts Ludis.

“Not giving up yet? That is just like you.” Ludis says to Null.

Null runs towards Ludis again. Ludis tries the same trick, but this time Null ducks it. Ludis had purposefully did the same move again to see how Null would deal with it. Null then tried a back kick, but he strolled through it and round house kicked Null in the face faster than he could see it. He was once again blasted through the wall. He once again had 10 health points left.

Null thinks to himself, 'Now this is what I was waiting for.'

Around 30 minutes pass. The warriors guild looks like Swiss cheese.

The head of the warrior's guild goes to Ludis. “Dammit Ludis! I hope you're going to pay for that! You always do this!”

“Of course.”

Null is now out of health and mana potions, so he decides to leave.

“Thank you for the spar, Ludis.”

“No, it was my pleasure, Null.”

Null then leaves without saying another word.

The monks were talking to Ludis. He might not be the highest level monk there currently, but he is the strongest. No one will dispute this.

“So why did you want to fight him? That's not like you. You only try to fight strong opponents.”

“Yeah. People beg for duels with you and you usually turn them down, but the librarian shows up and you volunteer to spar with him? I don't get you.”

Ludis sighs and then says, “Currently, most of you know that in Darin City near the great lakes, I'm number one in the junior MMA rankings.”

“Yeah, most of us know that. What's that got to do with wanting to fight the librarian?”

“Well that guy you just saw? He's part of my gym.”

“Huh? Really? He talked to you as if you were a total stranger.”

“Yeah, he tends to do that. But anyway, in the last few months, I was never able to beat him once.”

Silence, then laughter.

“Oh come on, Ludis, we're being serious here. It's no time for jokes.”

“Yeah, if he's as strong as you say, then why doesn't he fight in the tournaments?”

Ludis says, “He always says he's not trying to impress anybody, and the only reason he took up fighting in the first place is to protect himself and surpass the person he was yesterday.”

******************************************************

Flashback:

Rory is walking to school with his friends. They are buttering up to him.

“Man Rory, you were awesome! Only 13 and can already handle kids 4 years older than you. When you turn 18, you will probably start beating everyone and become world champion!”

“That's the plan.”

When they are on their way to class, a crying fat kid runs by with food on him. Rory looks at him go.

“Hey Tim.”

“Yeah?”

“Who's that?”

“Um, I don't know. I think I've seen him around before, but I don't know.”

Rory feels sorry for the guy. He noticed him always getting bullied by kids, but he didn't want to intervene because he felt that would only make it worse. He also feels that a man should strive to fight his own battles. The worst part is that no one even knows who he is. Even Rory to his shame doesn't remember his name. To Rory, not having anyone know who you are is a fate worst than death. He always strives to do things in order to get acknowledged. Rory couldn't even imagine ever living without people knowing who you are. Well there's nothing he could do about it so he gradually puts it in the back of his mind.

A few months later. Another girl confesses to him. By now it's routine for Rory to get asked out periodically. It's Keimi, the girl he asked to work with a project on. The only reason he wanted to be her friend was because she seemed like a good person and she was always nice to that kid when the world was cruel to him. Rory thinks she's cute, but right now, that kid needs a friend.

“I'm sorry, but that kid you're hanging around with all the time. You're his only friend. I don't think I should come in between you two like that. I'm sorry.”

The next day, Keimi came to him. “He and I are no longer friends, please go out with me!”

When she said that, Rory had felt awful. He felt like he just ruined that kid's life. She cut off contact from that kid, and it was all his fault.

“Why did you do that!? I would never go out with someone who throws away friendships over some romance!”

She clearly gets upset and leaves.

Rory thinks to himself, 'You know what? I'll take the initiative and try to be that kid's friend.'

A day later. He tries to make friends with him.

“Hey guy, what's your name?”

“David. What do you want?”

“A couple of friends are going with me to the arcade. You wanna come?”

“Not interested. Now if you'll excuse me.”

David walks away, and that was that.

Rory thinks, 'He has clearly changed. The eyes of hope he once had are now dead, and it's all my fault. Well beating myself up over it won't do any good. I've always said it's no use crying over spilled milk.'

He never thought about David again after that.

It's the weekend at his gym. This is the time the basic class and advanced class to get together so that the advanced class can show the beginner class how things are done. Rory is clearly focused on the lesson at hand, but when class ends, he sees David.

'Huh? What's he doing here? I don't think he will last in this gym. It's not called the best in the city for nothing.'

It's been about 2 weeks since David has joined the gym. Some of the advanced students had noticed him.

“Hey, did any of you guys see that fat kid in the gym?”

“HAHA! I thought I was the only one. Did he think this was some kind of bakery?”

“Lets make a bet about how long he'll stay.”

“I'll give him another month.”

“A month? You're clearly being generous. I'll give him another week before he either quits or collapses!”

“Rory, what do you think?”

“I have no idea, but I'm not really expecting much from him.”

2 years later. David joins the advanced class. Since David is new, he has to sit on the side to see how the advanced class is done. After class, David immediately leaves. The advanced students talk among themselves.

“I can't believe he got promoted to the advanced class. Clearly that instructor is going easy on him.”

“It would be a shame if this loser goes to tournaments and represents us. The instructor clearly wasn't trying hard enough. Lets make it so he never wants to come back.”

David always had it harder than the rest in advanced class, but he didn't mind. In fact, this is what he wanted.

Rory thought to himself, 'He's still here even after all that? I clearly underestimated him. He's not as much as a weakling as I thought.'

One year later. The advanced class is sparring again. Rory's partner is David. This is the first time he's sparring against him. Rory quickly defeats him. The other students laugh.

“Clearly that had to be a record for fastest spar.”

“Congratulations Rory for fastest spar!”

Another 6 months pass. The students are gaping. David is now currently fighting Rory on equal terms. No one can get an advantage over the other. The instructor stops them.

“Okay that was a really good match. Keep up the good work David.”

Rory looks at David. 'He has come a long way. To be able to match me in sparring.'

When class is over, the students go to David.

“Hey David. We may have underestimated you. We're sorry for how we treated you. We're all going to my house to watch a movie. You want in?”

“No thanks.”

David walks away.

Rory sighs, 'I thought that with him getting better and people acknowledging him, that he would gradually get friends. It's not that David can't get friends. It's because he doesn't want them.'

1 month passes. David has done something no one thought presently possible. He beat Rory. The student's mouths are gaping! They run up to David.

“David you really, really need to go to the tournament. With you and Rory, the top spots will be filled in no time!”

“Not interested.”

“You always say that! Stop being selfish and join the tournament!”

“Selfish? Ha. It's amazing to me. Every single thing I see of mankind is selfishness. It's only when they want others for their own selfish desires that they call others out on their selfishness.” David walks away.

Rory was thinking, 'To think I could lose! I never thought I could lose. I need to try harder against him!'

From that day on, David was always matched against Rory. What started out as wins, losses, and draws, started gradually going in favor towards David. 6 months pass and now Rory's lucky to draw out with David. Rory was more motivated than ever.

He trained even harder, gotten even better, but David would always catch up and beat him. It's not that David is physically better than Rory. In fact, you could say Rory's a little better in terms of physical strength and speed. It's just that David forces Rory to make a move that puts him in a position David can take advantage of. Humans are victims of their habits after all. While Rory is thinking 1 or 2 moves ahead, David is thinking 3 or 4.

Rory now thinks of David as someone amazing, and he looks up to him, but when he sees David at school, he can't help but sigh. David still acts like he did when Rory tried to make friends with him 4 years ago! He's not even going to the tournaments! Rory is still beating people in tournaments, and the announcers even noticed Rory's improvements and started calling him a genius, but Rory can't accept that. He can't accept being called the best until he beats David.

'David, what's wrong with him?' Rory thinks to himself. 'He's so amazing! David could get acknowledged easily if he wanted to, yet he chooses to stick to being looked down upon and unknown. Why? This infuriates me more than losing to him! I can't accept this! Why wouldn't you want people liking you?'

The worst part is that David doesn't know. He doesn't know that he can fight on par with Rory. His low self confidence cannot accept the fact that he is on the same level as Rory. Rory is an unattainable position in David's mind. He thinks that Rory is taking it easy on him.

Flashback end:

*******************************************************

Ludis tells them the story.

“...Well you don't have to worry about him now in the game. He's a librarian. He won't amount to anything in here. He will never surpass you.”

“No, I thought the same thing when I saw him in the gym all those years ago. Null will eventually surpass me. I think he will probably surpass everyone.”

“You can't be serious!”

“I am.”

“...If you say so.”

------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: Another 5000+ word chapter. You can skip this if you don't like training chapters. Oops. Did I put this warning at the bottom? Silly me.