XVII

  The page rolled out in front of Kaz’s current page, and it read:

  Status Enhancement: Blessed by [ Hidden ], Health Point and Mana Point regeneration increased by 10% for 3 Days, 18 Hours, 22 Minutes.

  He was excited by this development, not only with the boost to his regeneration, which was always welcome for him, but that he ran into a monster that was so far ahead in its tier of Resonance, and he was able to befriend it. He hoped that one day he would reunite with this three-tailed fox, not sure what he could offer, but so that he could show it that he has grown more powerful, not wasting the second chance the fox gave him.

  Kaz closed that page from his [ Archive ], and remembered his Resonance increased to 9 now. He assumed that with his last few fights, he gained a lot of momentum in his progress, probably due to the fact he was pushing not only his Abilities to a new height, but also himself.

  His new Mana Points total was 74, and his Health Points total was 91. He was getting closer to the normal values of people who were just starting out their adventure. Kaz didn’t stress over it too much, as his Power was behind his attacks, and he knew he would be Powerful with his Abilities, raw numbers didn’t always mean one was more Powerful.

  Going over to his [ Skill Abilities ] page, he looked over his only current Skill Ability, [ Mana Burst ]. Kaz wondered when he would unlock his next Skill Ability, as it has been quite a while he has been fighting these monsters. He was only at 9 Resonance, but he was going through the tiers quickly, and he wanted to have all three slots filled before he reached 25 Resonance, in order to make sure he would be Ranking them up in a balanced way. His [ Mana Burst ] Ability was at Rank 13, and when he focused on it, the description showed:

  Manifest a pure form of mana and attack an enemy, up to 30 yards. Uses 5 Mana Points per use, dealing 22 damage to Health Points. (Rank 13)

  No new changes here, just the simple addition to damage to Health Points, but at least the Mana Point cost didn’t go up. What made him proud was that his damage output was now more than double what he started with, which just shows how much stronger he got in the short time he has been on his journey. Thinking about it now, it has been around a week and a half, if he were to guess, since he left Forith for Sarus. He knew he was getting close to the next town, as Bartly showed him this location with the Ironbark Boars was around ? of the way to the town of Sarus. He curbed his growing excitement and slightly anxiety, focusing on his other page, [ Passive Abilities ].

  His two Passive Abilities, [ Mana Regeneration ] and [ Evasive Step ], have both Ranked up, and honestly, it was not a surprise to him, as he did gain two tiers of Resonance, and just his one Skill Ability wouldn’t be the reason the huge jump would be made.

  [ Mana Regeneration ] was now at Rank 10, with the description of:

  Channel your mana and increase the rate at which your Mana Points regenerate. Increase regeneration by 10% while channeling. (Rank 10)

  No changes there, just the simple increase in percentage that equaled his Rank. He glanced over his other Ability, [ Evasive Step ], and much was the same for this one, albeit it was at Rank 8, it read:

  Your body responds with instinctive action. Gain an 8% boost to movement speed and reflexes while in combat. (Rank 8)

  Just like that, he made big strides in his progress, but nothing was, in a sense, exciting for him. He dreamed of massive powerful Abilities, summoning waves of Fire while deflecting attacks with a massive barrier made out of walls of Fire mana. Kaz would get there one day, but at the moment, his simple pure mana constructs and lack of defensive Abilities would have to go through the process of Ranking through the tiers.

  Kaz closed his [ Archive ], satisfied with his progress, and started to fall asleep on his tree, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere in the forest, with a warm breeze flowing through the trees. Just as he closed his eyes, he opened them the next morning, another dreamless night for Kaz.

  He ate a little breakfast, consisting of prepared meats, dried cheese and hard bread and it tasted amazing to him, because he was starving. He stretched, and began his descent down to the ground, looking for any monsters around him. Kaz didn’t find anything near him, so he began walking casually through the forest, trying to convince himself that he wasn’t lost.

  He traveled for a few hours, slaying a few Woodspike Hedgehogs and a couple of Ironbark Boars, but they don’t provide much of a challenge for him. The hedgehogs were a mere nuisance, to the point where he didn’t even collect their crystals. It made Kaz wonder, was there anything else he could do with the crystals in person, could he absorb them or anything of the sort?

  Reaching down, he picked up one of the crystals from a Woodspike Hedgehog he just defeated. It only took him two quick attacks with his [ Mana Burst ] and the monster just fell over, not knowing what hit it. Kaz tried to get his mana core to absorb the crystal, and he felt a slight tug in his mana core, but then a painful feeling came from his mana core, making him double over, grasping his stomach.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  This was the same pain, although in a way lesser form, he had from when he had his cursed Awakening. He never wanted to experience that again, so Kaz simply threw the crystal as far away from himself as he could. It wasn’t a very impressive distance.

  He continued on his journey, and at one point decided to try something new. He was casually walking through the woods, lost. He finally admitted to himself that he was lost. And the worst part of it was the fact that he hasn’t run into a single person during this time. Kaz sat down on the forest ground, leaning on a fallen log. He tapped his chin wondering what he could do. The sun rises in the east and falls in the west, he could use that look where the sun was setting, and go in that direction, as he had to step off the road to the right, which was to the east. He decided he would do that, as sunset was approaching.

  He looked up at the sun, regretted it, and looked away, but he understood the trajectory. He began walking west, towards the falling sun. He walked for a solid two hours, not running into anymore monsters. For one, he was glad that he wouldn’t waste his time on the underpowered monsters, but he was missing that adrenaline rush he would get from a battle.

  Kaz decided that he had traveled enough when he noticed he began to drag his feet tiredly. He climbed up a tree that seemed to have many overlapping branches, and he found a spot where he was quite comfortable in. As he was settling in, a thought came to his mind. Mountains. Kaz knew that there was a mountain range that sat in the distance, but that mountain range began directly to the north of Sarus. Since he was in the forest that had many tall trees, he wasn’t able to look at those mountains, he only managed a small glimpse during the time he spent on the actual road.

  Steeling his nerves, he took a deep breath and began climbing the tree. Thankfully, the tree had many branches, which did make his mission of climbing them more difficult, but he had an abundance of places to take a breather and continue upwards. He climbed the tree for a good ten minutes and reached the part where he was able to emerge over the canopy of the forest, looking into the clear night sky.

  Fortunately for him, the two moons were in full force that night, illuminating the world in their light. He looked around and saw the snowcapped mountains, prompting him to make some quick calculations, and realized he was heading in the right direction. Kaz made a quick mental note, trying to see which trees seemed large and where were some clearings, so that he would be able to mark his progress.

  Kaz slowly climbed down, his muscles aching from the effort he put in while climbing up and unfortunately for him, climbing down was just as difficult. A few times he missed his footing and fell a couple feet before a set of branches caught his fall. By the time he reached the spot he enjoyed earlier for his rest, he was covered in slight scratches and full of leaves and pieces of wood, ending his eventful descent from the top of the tree. Kaz closed his eyes, getting comfortable, and sleep found him quite quickly.

  He awoke the next morning to something pecking his forehead and woke up to find a bird pecking his forehead. Thankfully, this bird was a smaller blue feathered bird, and became startled when Kaz waved sleepily at it, causing the bird to fly away to safety. He wondered if at his current Resonance, he would be able to take down that annoying bird that troubled him when he first began his journey. Kaz ate some food, and began slowly climbing down the tree, and once he reached the ground, began heading in the right direction this time, enthusiasm fueling his fast pace.

  Along the way, he ran into a monster that startled him a bit, bringing back memories. It was a Timberfang Wolf, strolling through the forest in the early morning. It seemed to be roughly the same size as the previous one he encountered, but this one had fur that was more brown than beige.

  Kaz locked eyes with the wolf, yellow eyes staring straight back at him. Both of them stood there, staring each other down. Kaz began casting his [ Mana Burst ], breaking the stare down first, and the wolf began charging at him. It was slower than the Ironbark Boars when they were charging, but this wolf barely made any noise and seemed to be in full control of its speed and movement. Kaz’s attack landed on the upper part of the wolf’s head and neck, who snarled in return and lunged at him.

  Kaz easily stepped to the side, his [ Evasive Step ] working wonders in this battle. He wished he had this Ability when he fought the Timberfang Wolf the first time. He cast again, slightly shifting to the side, avoiding another attack. His next mana construct hit the wolf near the back of its body, causing the wolf to lose its balance when it tried to pounce on Kaz.

  Grabbing his dagger, he held it in one hand, wondering if he could still cast while holding the dagger. He was able to cast, but found it took him a little longer to finish casting, but that was no issue to him, as Kaz wanted to be able to have that last resort in case the wolf made an attack on him while he was casting. His third attack hit the wolf, which caused it to go into a frenzy, which Kaz assumed meant that the wolf was running low on Health Points. The wolf managed to land a few scratches on him, but they weren’t deep enough for him to concern himself over it. He managed to stab the wolf twice, each time the blade bit into the body of the wolf and cleanly sliced through, causing the fur around the wounds to stain red with blood.

  The wolf made a desperate lunge at him, which Kaz managed to dodge easily, and cast his final [ Mana Burst ], ending the battle with the Timberfang Wolf, which disappeared moments later. The crystal it left behind was similar to the first one, but this one was slightly larger, and the yellow glow was marginally brighter. He really made a jump in Resonance, as this type of wolf earlier in his journey almost ended it all for him.

  Sighing in content, he grinned to himself, feeling the pulse in his head, meaning his Abilities Ranked up. He would check on that later, as he was on a mission to get to this destination, the area of the goblins.

  As Kaz walked for hours, he ran into a few Ironbark Boars and Timberfang Wolves, but none of them caused any issues, and with his Status Enhancement he received from the three-tailed fox, he was able to recover his Mana Points quicker and continue on his journey. As he kept on walking, he noticed the forest started to thin out, becoming more rocky and less green.

  He took this as a great sign, it meant he was most likely reaching his destination, and he could now catch glimpses of the snowcapped mountains in the northwest, which verified his feelings earlier of being on the right path. He took a small break to eat some rations, leaning against a relatively hard rock, but it was slightly warm due to it baking in the sun for half the day, which helped Kaz relax his sore muscles for a bit.

  As he was resting, he saw two people walking in the distance, and he couldn’t believe his eyes. They were quite far away, walking between the trees slowly, as if they were taking a stroll. Kaz couldn’t contain his excitement, as he finally found some people, maybe they could help guide him, or even accompany him for the rest of his trip to Sarus. He sprang up on to his feet, and slung his bag over his head, jogging over the people, with a slight skip in his step.

  He could see them now and he called out to them, “Hey guys! Hey! Wait up for a second!”

  Kaz saw them pause and turn in his direction, and from here he could see they were quite short, around his height, so maybe they were Gnomes like him, which excited him even more, as he hasn’t met many Gnomes yet.

  They started jogging towards him as well, which slightly confused him, but in his longing for company, he ignored it. As they drew closer, Kaz’s steps faltered, and with horror, he looked at the people who were now running at him. They weren’t people at all. They had torn rags over their gray skinned body, with pointed chins and ears, eyes bulging out of their heads, one of them with a rusty sword in hand, and the other with a wooden battered club.

  These were Stonerock Goblins.