Chapter 4: Chapter 4 – It’s cold outside

I don't know how much I ran, but the lone building I was at was not visible anymore.

I stared at the moon, high in the sky, I had looked behind me 3, 4 times, I always thought myself extremely composed at any situation, I think, but that, that proved me wrong. I thought as I am plopped on the floor, why? because for some reason I collapsed while running, fatigue just washed over me, like I flipped a switch.

[Skill acquired: Fatigue Reduction (C1).]

And there goes another slot, but where did my stamina go?

[Inquiry detected. As a spirit you do not have normal capabilities of feeling tired, only at the almost total absence of energy, currently your stamina is empty, and your mana is at 5%.]

Why would my mana be 5%? I didn't use any magic.

[Inquiry detected. Your mana was used as a less efficient fuel in place of your absent stamina.]

Okay that makes sense, should have thought of that. maybe just to tired... and cold? isn't this a savanna? Can I even get frostbite?

[Inquiry detected. Yes, at -40ºC.]

[Skill Inquiry has leveled up.]

Cool, level 4 if I remember right.

So not in danger of frostbite then, I still don't like this cold, should've gotten a jacket. "Wait... I forgot a lantern, anything to see in the dark." I'm an idiot. Let's just go. I walked around the same direction I was going to, though I did not run, can't fall like that again, and there are mounds, with caves, and eerie silence. "Let's see if I find corpses around."

---

None, let's go in. greeted by nothing I breathe more easily, sitting at the end of the cave, thinking, as I ask. "Can I even sleep?"

[Yes.]

Short, concise, leveling up does something, though I like the long answers this is all I need right now. Sitting I close my eyes, with my halberd in one hand, and my dagger at my waist.

---

Morning greets me with the smell of plants, and rock, and dirt, and skittering. Skittering... Jumping I readied my halberd to the direction of the sound, finding a small yellow bugger, just laying there, half-buried, on the wall. I waited for it to get out completely before anything, maybe the one I met was just extra aggressive, maybe the group. as it fell on the ground it looked around, finally settling on me, and jumped to my chest.

Well tried to, my halberd was in the way. Bouncing on the halberd's pole, it fell once again to the ground. It was trying to kill me, but so ineffectively it was funny. "Hahaha, I'm sorry but you started this." I struck at it's mid section, surprisingly it did not make any sound of pain, maybe it did not have vocal-cords. I struck it over and over until it died, "That took a lot of time, should've just kicked you."

As I exited the cave I remembered one of the books I got, the first magic one seemed like the best start I could get. I didn't have much in my bag, so I easily retrieved the book, the cover was partially erased, mostly around the face of the alleged professor.

It didn't take much time for me to read it all as I continued to walk east, the basic idea is that there are many first magics, though the one that I think is most useful for me is the light, and then the heating one. I can't just have no vision during the night, I don't know what's out there, besides these yellow buggers, there are a lot of them, like, I see at least one every 25 meters, I just attacked the ones that try to jump on me.

But back to the light spell, to use any spell I first need to sense mana. That is what I did all day, it took me a long time to sense it, but when it happened, I knew it happened.

[Skill acquired: Sense Mana (C2).]

Apparently my mana was in my head and beneath the abdomen, it did say it varies from person to person. Though now that I have the skill I can feel some differences in both pools, it's not much. can see that later, now light. I had already left the territory of the buggers, there was not much fauna around. So I started to reread the instructions as I laid close to a tree, "Once you feel your pool, take from it, with the idea of light. A firm belief that a shape of light can be brought forth, and direct it to your hand and outside."

It did not take much for me to move my mana, I was surprised I hadn't got a mana manipulation skill, but no matter, the Idea took much more effort though, many times I thought I had it, just to push it outside and nothing to happen, It took me many tries, but finally at 27% mana and already at night, the moon was halfway between it's start and zenith, a point of light surfaced from my palm, and the notification appeared.

[Skill acquired: Light shape (C2).]

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"Finally!!!" I almost screamed in joy, the point of light stayed in place, not dissipating even after my attention at it dissappeared, though I could feel, sense it weakening, it was not permanent, however I didn't need to focus on it to have it exist after the first cast, I did not feel sleepy so I started to touch it. it did not have a physical body and just stayed in place, if my hand was in the same place as the light, it stayed inside my hand lighting it up from the inside, creepy, after a while the light dissipated much to my surprise, I was sure the light would last much more then that.

I cast it again, much more easily with the skill, it had given me an easier way to cast it, though I still had to do it myself, this time I made it bigger, costing around 5% of my pool to cast it. Paying attention to it I could say it could last much more then the other one, though I did not trust this instinct this time. Thinking back to what I had done I put my hand on the marble of light, sensing much more closely what was happening.

The answer was the simple one, the light was being interfered by my hand, causing it to dissipated more easily, since now I could make lights, I looked in how I could move it, a stationary light is good and all, but I will need to be able to move it if I wanted to move at night.

"Now that you have acquired the light shape skill you can start on trying to move it, but can't, the answer is simple. This skill is to basic to do such things, there are 2 ways to move the lights, the 1st and recommended is to level the skill to 20 and evolve it, the 2nd and faster way, is to have another skill for it. For the second version go to mana manipulation." having read that last part I was confused. "Why is mana manipulation not recommended?"

[Mana manipulation is the manipulation of all mana, according to the book it is due to the effects of skill fusions, not enough information required to make more assumptions.]

So it is related to skill fusions... And if I don't fuse both of them? would the problem be mitigated?

[The chances of such an idea backfiring is of 60% according to current information.]

Not gonna bet on that, so, grinding it is. I stared at the sky. It was still night, and cold, though I decided not to try the heating spell. I made lots of lights during the night, always stopping at 10%, mostly because I did not want to be unable to move if my stamina was overused again if necessary, but also because the first chapter of the book was about overuse of mana and it's side effects, it said that the more one overuses it, the worst it gets. so I meditated between sessions of light making, because there was a skill related to it, boosting mana regeneration, even if you did not get the skill.

I did various simple shapes with the lights, mostly due to me being unable to keep a single complicated shape in mind long enough for me to bring it forth, so I started with circles, going to spheres, triangles, pyramids, squares, and cubes, after the night passed I finally took a look at the level it came to.

[Skill: Light Shape(C2) Level: 10]

It leveled all the way to ten. "The first barrier." I muttered, it was written in the book, the level common 10 barrier was a leap in complexity, now I needed to make more complicated shapes, though even if I said complicated it was more combining the simple shapes into one. I continued moving forwards, towards east, this time instead of doing it as fast as possible I took time in imagining and holding the shape idea, leaving shapes of light behind me, mostly the 2 dimensional ones, the 3d was still hard to do for me.

[Skill acquired: Concentrate (C1).]

Okay that took me by surprise, though as I thought back I did spend more then 12 hours doing the same thing nonstop. Only then I remembered. "I forgot to look at the skills description." I excluded the fatigue one as it was self explanatory.

[Skill Light Shape(C2) Level: 12.

Skill description: The idea of a shape, brought forth by ones will, and spirit. not movable and non-permanent, the more mana is added the longer it lasts, easily disrupted by physical objects, it is anchored to the location it is summoned.

Shape complexity and duration per mana is increased every level.]

[Skill Concentrate(C1) Level: 1.

Skill description: You have focused on only one task even as you moved, your ability to see one task is improved by your will, when concentrating you will be oblivious to the outside world with simple automated movements, such as walking.

Automated movements slightly increase in complexity per level, mental time deceleration minimally increased per level.]

So it warns me if it might have bad consequences, cool, not much more information on the light skill. "Well, all I can do is continuing the grind. I carried on like that, doing shapes, walking and resting. It took me a long time, but after 5 days, no sleep, apparently I don't really need it, I got it to level 20

[Skill Light Shape(C2) level: 20(MAX).]

[Skill evolution possible, view possibilities?]

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