The Way Ahead

A crash of thunder jolted Edwin awake. After a few confused moments spent drowsily trying to recall where he was and what was going on, he mentally groaned, Darn it. I knew I jinxed it. Things were just going too smoothly for me, weren’t they?

Peeking outside his shelter, Edwin got just a moment of warning from the pitter-patter of endless raindrops falling upon the canopy above before the heavens opened and an absolute downpour of rain started, the downpour extinguishing what few embers were left of his campfire, making Edwin groan. He’d never get it started again now. While he vaguely wished that he could have had the fire inside his little cave, there simply wasn’t even enough room to stockpile more than a few pieces of dry wood, let alone enough space for open flame- to say nothing of the inherent flammability of his bed. Still, there was nothing he could really do about it now. Just hunker down and hope it blew over by the morn-

Level Up!

Basic Mana Sense 8→11

Edwin’s entire body lit up with the crackling, static-y feeling he’d come to associate with magic, the most he’d ever felt. Touching the rock above him, he jolted back after barely brushing it- his boulder was positively brimming with magic in a way reminiscent of touching a live wire. It wasn’t quite as strong as that, though, but it was still at the point where it was almost painful to touch. He rushed out from under his cover, trying to get as far away from whatever was making it so hyper-charged, figuring that he could deal with a bit of rain better than magical rocks. He got out just in time, as the entire boulder was wrenched suddenly from the ground it was so firmly embedded in and flew into the air, leaving a gaping hole where it once was. It crashed into the canopy with such speed that the enormous branches it broke off from the trees above didn’t fall to the ground, but were instead carried along with the massive projectile into the sky.

Congratulations! For reaching level 12 in Basic Mana Sense, you have unlocked the Mage path!

Level Up!

Basic Mana Sense 11→14

Ooh, a Mage path. Screw Explorer, he was getting magic when he got up to 60 skill points.

Far above him, Edwin could just barely make out his former shelter as it joined a handful of similarly-sized boulders orbiting a seemingly empty point. Then lightning flashed, and straining his eyes as much as he could, he was able to just barely make out a tiny black dot in the center of the circling stones.

Level Up!

Seeing 8→9

Was that… a person? If so, that was both a terrifying prospect, that someone could have that much power… but also thrilling, because he absolutely wanted magic now. Both to maybe wield that kind of power himself one day, and also just because it was magic, and what sort of self-respecting scientist didn’t want to break stuff like gravity over their knee? Oh, something was happening again. He moved to get a better view of what was happening, barely feeling the rain pounding down on and all around him as he focused on the mage.

The boulders spun up, faster and faster, blurring together until he could barely distinguish them from one another-

Level Up!

Seeing 9→10

Okay, that was getting annoying. Disabling automatic notifications for the moment…

-and one of the rocks flew forward at a devastating speed, only to be struck intercepted by bolt of lightning, shattering the boulder and lighting up the sky. Now that he had a clear idea of where to look, he could just barely make out another speck far up in the sky. Was that another person? Edwin lost track of the second person as the dot darted away, and the sky lit up with lightning. The vast majority of the bolts struck the orbiting shield of rocks, shattering several of boulders, but a lot of the lightning cascaded all the way to the ground. For the briefest of moments, the entire mountain lit up from the brilliance of dozens of simultaneous lightning strikes, then it went dark and the thunder struck.

Even through covered ears, Edwin still felt as though his eardrums were going to burst, a pressure wave rolling over him as he decided that perhaps watching two insanely powerful mages clash in the skies above wasn’t the best idea, and he took off running at top speed. It seemed as though he wasn’t the only thing with such an inclination, as he saw several other creatures- the first of any appreciable size he had seen so far- burst from the surroundings and join in a massive wave of terrified animals.

Behind him, he heard more peals of thunder, almost omnidirectionally reverberating through the woods, and he redoubled his sprint to get literally anywhere else. He’d never find where his cave was again, but that hardly mattered now. Every once in a while, he’d feel the buzz from his mana sense, usually followed by a chunk of terrain being ripped from the ground nearby or a bolt of lightning striking too close for comfort. He diverted around a stream too wide to jump over, an assessment the deer-things he was running alongside clearly disagreed with, cleanly outpacing him and bounding into the air, soaring what must have been twenty feet off the ground and twice as far horizontally only to land effortlessly and continue their prance on the far side of the river, vanishing into the bushes and taking any possible lingering doubts Edwin had about animals having Skills alongside them. There was no way that sort of thing was possible under normal biology and physics.

Sadly, Edwin was still limited by such things, at least for the time being, and so had to resort to running parallel to the riverbank, doing his best to keep his feet from getting stuck in the mud. He pretty much succeeded, and even when he chanced a glance behind him- another massive bolt of lightning forked across the sky as he did so- he managed to not trip. He wasn’t sure whether to be proud of that fact or ashamed about him potentially feeling proud of it, but it was proven moot either way a moment later when the ground shook beneath him and knocked Edwin from his feet into a solid faceplant in the mud. A series of further crashes kept him from regaining his footing at first, but he managed to adapt to the series of minor earthquakes before too long.

Edwin, fueled by desperation and a non-insignificant amount of adrenaline, kept running until he saw sunlight. The river at that point had shrunk to the size of a small brook, but it was bursting its banks with water. It was well past daybreak- the sun had clearly already risen well past the horizon, but it took far longer for the clouds finally to finally enough to let a few haggard rays of weak, watery sunshine through. Considering it had been at least a minute since any tremors or peals of thunder had last reverberated through the landscape, it seemed the battle had finally stopped. Exhausted, Edwin turned around and let himself look at the scene below.

It looked like a hurricane had passed through- which, he supposed, it sort of had. Plants were flattened, sections of the forest were covered in uprooted and splintered trees, and there were even a few boulders lying here and there which he could spot if he looked closely. Now that Edwin had more than the occasional fleeting second to take in his surroundings, he could see far more clearly the mountain he found himself upon. There weren’t as many trees up here, instead favoring hardy-looking grasses and a few scraggly bushes, and the air was noticeably chilly in comparison to the forest. He wouldn’t be able to stay up here for long, though the more open ground meant he might have more luck spotting proper civilization.

While he sat down to recover his breath, Edwin triggered his notifications, letting the numbers wash over him.

Level Up!

Seeing 10→11

Walking 9→14

Athletics 13→16

Basic Mana Sense 14→15

That brought Edwin to… 58 Skill Points, presumably just two shy of getting magic of his own. He couldn’t wait. It still left him with the question of where to go now, though. Really, he was back to more or less square one. His chear grove was most likely destroyed, or at least unfindable again, so he needed to find more food. His cave, after all that work put into it, was absolutely gone, destroyed before his very eyes, and he needed a new place to shelter.

Not really seeing any other options, Edwin set off on a path towards the sun. There didn’t seem to be any mountains that way, and going in a cardinal direction should hopefully help him avoid going in circles.

The view really was spectacular from up here. Looking down the mountain, Edwin could see an entire tapestry of greens laid out before him. Granted, a lot of that was torn up at the moment, but from up here, he could more clearly see endless plains stretching to the north, with a few white dots that might have been cities but were just as likely to be lakes or even just a trick of the light.

It really was chilly up here, but walking at least kept Edwin warm enough. Overhead, a few flocks of birds swooped across the sky. To the south, some magnificently snow-capped peaks loomed high above him, almost seeming to stretch to the sky.

Level Up!

Walking 14→15

One more skill-up to go. It was getting harder to level up his skills, though he was still making a little bit of progress, he could tell.

Finally, he got what he was waiting for.

Level Up!

Breathing 7→8

Bit of an odd one, though Edwin supposed it had been quite a while since it had leveled. He eagerly opened his status and dumped all his skill points into the Mage path.

Mana level set to... 1

You have unlocked a new Attribute!

Mana

Done!

…

Calculating Rewards…

Class Change!

Outsider → Outsider Novice

You have completed the Mage path!

You have witnessed greatness and aspire to reach it. You may be weak, lost, and confused, but your potential is beyond the peaks of the highest mountains. Your power, weak as it may be for the moment, has been awakened, and the possibilities before you are endless.

For the first time, Edwin actually felt the change as it happened, his body beginning to tingle with magic from the moment the final notification came through. While the sensation spread out mostly evenly across most of his body, it was most pronounced in the space between his collarbones, so much so that Edwin looked down and prodded the skin there just to make sure it wasn’t glowing or had otherwise visibly changed. Though there were no ostensibly obvious changes, he felt a bit of mana come away attached to his fingertips, clinging to it like a film which quickly faded away. A few more tries yielded the same result, with no obvious effect beyond setting his Mana Sense off. Still though, magic! It was like the message said, he had the world at his fingertips- literally.

Level Up!

Basic Mana Sense 15→16

This is awesome, Edwin couldn’t help but think, disabling level-up notifications for the time being, I’m magical. Sure, I suppose the System is basically magic, regardless of what my mana sense… manareception? Arcanoception? Something like that, anyway. Regardless of what my mana sense may say, the System is magical, but it still feels different from this. So magic! You’re a wizard, Edwin.

Even as he continued his walking, and the sun started passing into the late afternoon, Edwin kept trying to play with his brand-new magic. Sadly, none of the standard fantasy tropes for mastering magic that he knew about were helping. It didn’t pulse with his breath, didn’t crackle to the touch, didn’t respond to gestures and words, picking up a stick and waving it like a wand didn’t do anything except make Edwin feel silly, and visualizing a fire in his chest made no difference either. It was probably like wiggling your ears, namely, really hard to find the right muscle group to move them, but trivial to pull on once you had found it. At least, he hoped so. Magic would probably be hard enough to learn without needing some special dance or taking an hour to get his mana flowing each time. The speed at which the two fighters had been throwing attacks out earlier in the day had suggested it would be quick once Edwin was good at magic, but the scale at which they did so also suggested they were very, very good at it. Maybe novice magicians needed a half hour to light a candle or whatever.

But okay, magic. Even though Basic Mana sense had acclimated to Edwin being saturated with the stuff, so it thankfully no longer felt like he was being poked by thousands of pins and needles across his entire body, he could still sense it radiating from his torso through his limbs. He tried visualizing it as a miniature sun, throwing off magic in the form of light. During one break from walking, he tried sitting and meditating for a while, breathing carefully and trying to feel every part of his body. Granted, he had never done proper meditation before, but, as sore as Edwin may have been, he was able to sit in the lotus position, so it was basically the same, right? Nothing worked. He even tried calling on his magic in much the same way he had unlocked Identify and Status, or how he used his Almanac, but no amount of thinking ‘magic’ really hard made it work.

Why couldn’t this stupid system have come with a user manual? Edwin mentally bemoaned, even as he started the process of looking around for a shelter to spend the night in. It wasn’t quite dark, but the incomplete night of sleep meant he was quite tired already nonetheless. Eventually, he settled down under a tiny outcropping of rock, sheltered from the winds, but shivering nonetheless. There were a few small trees nearby, and after some time working on them with his knife, he had a small pile of twigs that were… probably dry enough to light. Unfortunately, he was having about as much luck getting a spark as the first time he’d rubbed two sticks together.

If only I had my magic working. All I’d need to do then would be to just snap my fingers, and boom. Instant campfire. Even easier with my… Firestarting… skill. Edwin sat back on his haunches, could it be that easy? He wondered.

Holding his hand out over the stack of sticks, he snapped his fingers, using his skill in a way he hadn’t tried before. Instead of just accepting whatever passive benefit it might provide, he tried triggering it manually, focusing its effects into a single moment of time.

Firestarting.

No response. Undeterred, he coated his fingers with mana and tried again.

Firestarting.

This time, there was a brief flash of blue between his fingers, and sparks rained down on his tinder like embers, setting it ablaze.

Congratulations! For integrating mana into a skill, you have unlocked the Skilled Arcanist path!

You have unlocked the Basic Mana Manipulation skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Heck yes.

Basic Mana Manipulation

Lightning! Fireballs! Teleportation! Eh, maybe one day

Manipulate your personal mana

Increased capacity per level.

With a contented sigh, Edwin allowed himself to relax, using a moss-covered rock- it was actually a rock, he confirmed with a quick Identify- as a pillow as he let his notifications come in.

Level Up!

Firestarting 3→6

Survival 5→6

Basic Mana Sense 16→20

Research 7→10

Walking 15→16

Breathing 8→9

Edwin smiled as he drifted off to sleep, but knew better than to tempt fate by so much as thinking anything positive. Darn it, that was probably too much already, wasn’t it? Yeah, he was totally screwed. Hopefully it didn’t… nope, not finishing that thought.

Level Up!

Sleeping 5→6