After 2 days of removing impurities, the adventurers are getting closer to their destination: Aria Academy.
Cliff has managed to remove most of his impurities, his magical circuits glowing more brightly than ever. Esther, the mage, was pretty surprised at how fast he purified most of the impurities out of his circuits.
They've arrived at a dense forest. For now, they are currently camping near a large tree. They first made sure that there weren't any, they didn't want to repeat the same events after all.
Even though monsters except magical beasts can't ambush them out of the blue inside this dense forest.
Both Cliff and Enrid are seen exercising, doing jumping jacks and racing on climbing trees. To see who is faster and more agile between the two of them.
Unfortunately, Cliff lost. The destruction of the [ Goblin's Footwear ] made him revert to having 20 points on the agility status.
After exercising, the teenager went to his magic teacher: Esther.
"I believe that you are ready to do mana amplification now, wanna try flowing your circuits with mana?"
"Yes!" Cliff lifted his fist, overcoming his weakness by finally having victory over the impurities that kept him from using mana.
He closed his eyes and smiled, relaxing his entire body and letting his source of energy, the [ Mana Heart ] pump his magical circuits with mana. Slowly, he flows the mana into every corner of his circuits. His body glowed, showing signs of his magical circuits being used.
"Now, try moving around," Esther commanded. The mage is pretty serious when it comes to teaching magic, slacking off and goofing around isn't gonna work, unlike Enrid's not-so-serious but still serious physical training.
Still closing his eyes, he jumped upward and felt the air breeze through his hair. He opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of the giant tree.
"It worked…!"
His expression brightened, and his smile grew large as his body expression became more erratic and moving like a child. He ran in a zig-zag on tree obstacles, he was pretty fast. His movements became more smooth, and his reaction time improved.
Then, a holographic message popped up on the side.
[ You have unlocked "Mana" and "Mana Amplification Lvl.1" Congratulations! ]
[ You will be given an MP bar! ]
[ MP: 100 (-50) ]
A Minus… It must be…
[ Due to the curse, your mana bar will be halved even if the amount of mana has increased. ]
What an annoying mechanic.
After running, he halted when he finally returned to where they were camping.
"So~ How's the feeling of using mana for the first time?" She smiles, awaiting the teenager's response.
He panted, sweating like crazy.
"More exhausting than I thought… But regardless, it…was the best…!"
"For the first time in my life, I can use magic! Can you imagine that?! This is what I've been missing in my life?! My god, I want to lear…."
Gushing about magic, he excitedly kept talking. He was physically tired but he couldn't get rid of the feeling of excitement for using mana for the first time.
[ Night Time ]
The moon was up in the night sky, there were no clouds present. This is why the stars are exceptionally bright tonight, making it a perfect time to check his character profile away from his allies.
On top of the giant tree, Cliff can be seen sitting on one of the thick branches alone.
"Character Profile."
<•••••••••••••••••••••••••>
[ Character Profile ]
Name: Cliff Carmesi
Age: 17 years old
MP: 50/100 (-50)
Personal Skills:
[ Intermediate Archery Lvl.4 ],
[ Athleticism Lvl.2 ], [ Negotiator Lvl.1 ],
[ Adrenaline-Rush Lvl.2 ],
[ Craftsman Lvl.1 ],
[ Hunting Lvl.2 ], [ Intermediate Cooking ], [Trap-Maker Lvl.1 ], [ Taunt Lvl.2 ], [ Pain Tolerance Lvl.1 ],
[ Divine Phoenix's Blessing ],
[ Mana Amplification Lvl.1 ].
Overall Stat:
STR: 20 (D0)
CON: 23 (D3)
AGI: 22 (D2)
INT: 20 (10) (E0)
WIS: 30 (D10)
CHA: 15 (E5)
LUCK: 32 (D12)
Curse:
Curse of Mana Depletion [ Mana Deficiency ]
<•••••••••••••••••••••••••>
"It's been a while since I've checked my profile." Using his mind, he telepathically scrolls his character profile without the use of his fingers. His pupils are going up and down.
"The Phoenix's blessing…"
The Divine Phoenix is one of the most powerful animal deities that you can worship and gain powerful skills from. Just like what had happened before, it allowed him to get revived once upon death.
The blessing of the phoenix gives you 70% resistance over fire/flames. With this, enemies with fire attacks are easy to deal with for now.
However, receiving a blessing from a deity means that you will inevitably follow them and cannot worship any other deities from now on. If you worship other deities, the divine phoenix will remove their blessing from the player and cast a curse of eternal fire, eternally burning the player's armor and breaking it.
As a [ Ranger ], the possibility of encountering animal deities is extremely high. But that isn't why it blessed him, it's because the Carmesi Family is devoted to the Divine Phoenix.
For now, the divine phoenix is an ally. Later? I'll have to figure out how to worship other deities as well as not getting cursed by that fiery bird.
In the game, there is a way to bypass worshipping other deities. But there's no point thinking about it when it only happens when the player reaches level 70, where the player can upgrade his class into something else better.
For now, it is better to improve these skills since gaining status points is impossible unless the system gives it to him after completing a mission.
"Inventory."
A holographic interface appeared below his face. Cliff pulled herbs and a mortar and pestle. With this, he can create potions, leveling up his craftsman skill and possibly gain a new skill.
He closed his eyes and started working on grinding the herbs into dust while being relaxed and breathing normally.
[ Mana Amplification Activated. ]
With his CON, AGI, WIS, STR, and INT amplified by magic by 3 points for 2 minutes, he can create 8 minor health potions by combining the ground herbs and boiling river water together.
[ Craftsman Lvl.1>Craftsman Lvl.3! ]
[ You have gained a new skill! ]
[ Alchemy Lvl.1 ]
Creating potions is extremely hard but thanks to his luck status being high, everything is going well and he gained a new skill because of the potions.
[ Alchemy Lvl.1:
The ability to create a wide variety of potions (Minor-Size potions only.) ]
"With this, I will be able to craft mana potions and antidotes for low-tier poisons…" His jaw opened and let out a massive yawn, his body stiffened so he stretched his limbs and felt extreme relief afterward.
He stared at the moon.
Should I just go to sleep? There's nothing I could do right now.
Then, a sudden interface appeared in front of his face.
[ Exhaustion %: 48% ]
Now that I think about it, why didn't you pop up during the fight with the Knight of Flowers?
Everything about the system is confusing and suspicious. When he left the city, the system was named "Order". It popped up and gave him rewards for achieving feats.
Right now, the system is his ally. In many media, the systems are usually the villains behind the scenes manipulating the main character to do their bidding. He wonders what kind of missions he will have to complete to survive and not get forcefully killed by the system.
"My exhaustion meter will keep increasing if I keep staying up like this… That CON boost helped regulate and stabilize my exhaustion meter for the past few weeks now, huh?"
Then, he remembered something.
His eyelids widened and immediately opened up the inventory interface.
"I forgot about this already…"
A shiny ticket that could only be used once to obtain an incredibly rare item for the players to use as part of their arsenal in the future.
By ripping it, it'll summon an item that will either aid him now and in the future or be completely useless for him. Either way, his luck status is pretty high… If he were to wish for an item, it'd be the [ Fairy Step ].
An accessory that allows the player to glide in the air and temporarily walk on air for a few minutes within a certain height.
He held the golden ticket between his fingertips and closed his eyes. For some reason, he started praying.
"Buddha, lord, god, brahman, or any god from my previous world… if you can still hear me, please give me a good one…!"
With a single tear, the ticket was ripped in two. It glowed bright gold, just like the sun. The ticket dissipated but the light didn't, it flew above his head.
"Oooh…! I hate the fucking suspense…!"
[ You have obtained… ]