The hunters moved like shadows between the trees.
Not a branch snapped. Not a stone rolled. Twelve warriors, one shaman, and their king advanced through the dim forest, guided not by sight—but by scent. Nostrils flared. Tongues tasted the air. The smell of prey was fresh, warm, alive.
One creature.
Alone.
Strange.
The others must have wandered away. Or died. Or hidden. It did not matter.
Warrong saw what truly mattered.
The Settlement Crystal.
Even from a distance it pulsed faintly, heavy with power, rich with promise. Points. Meat. Weapons. Strength. The future of the tribe.
Warrong’s lips curled, exposing sharp, wet teeth.
He could already imagine the feast. Thick meat bought with system points. Sweet water. Hard metal blades that did not break against bone. The tribe would howl his name again.
His gaze shifted toward the lone creature sitting near the crystal.
Tall. Soft-looking. Strange shape. Not kobold. Not goblin.
But meat was meat.
Pity there was only one.
Warrong swallowed slowly, feeling saliva gather beneath his tongue. He was king now. Kings did not eat scraps. Kings took the first bite.
The hunting party froze behind him, waiting. Twelve warriors crouched low, muscles coiled. The shaman stood silent, clutching bone charms and whispering to unseen forces. None would move without Warrong’s command.
Then—
Movement.
From the corner of his eye, Warrong saw something crawling toward him through the grass.
The pale shaman dragged himself across the cold ground, claws trembling, breath shallow.
"D-Danger, my king… we must not kill," he rasped.
Warrong did not even turn his head at first. His tail swayed slowly behind him, heavy with authority.
"And why is that?" he growled at last. "You do not give commands here."
The shaman slammed his forehead into the dirt, body pressed flat in submission.
"N-no, my king! Not what you think! I only… sensed the mana around the creature. It is… wrong. Unnatural. I beg you, stop the attack. We must examine it first. It may carry great danger for the tribe."
Warrong finally looked toward their prey.
For a moment, the night was silent except for the slow breathing of twelve hunters crouched in the darkness and the distant crackle of the wind beneath the changed sky.
Then Warrong opened his [Mana Perception] — Level Three!
No king before him had possessed such power. Only the greatest shamans of old legends ever reached this height. The world shifted. The air became threads. The threads became currents. The currents became truth.
He studied the strange creature near the settlement crystal.
"Hmm…"
Something was different.
The mana around the creature felt… thin. Dim. As if the world itself gave it less strength than other beings.
Less power.
Less presence.
Less worth.
Warrong’s lips curled, exposing sharp teeth.
"The enemy is not dangerous," he declared. "The mana around it is weak. Which means it is weak."
"B-But—!" the shaman tried, voice breaking.
Warrong’s gaze snapped toward him — cold, heavy, absolute.
"If we do not take this settlement today," the kobold king said quietly, "we will still have a feast tonight."
He stepped closer, towering over the trembling shaman.
"And you will be the main dish. Do you understand?"
The shaman’s body shook violently.
"Y-Yes, my king…"
Warrong turned away, already losing interest.
His eyes locked onto the crystal.
Onto the prey.
Onto the coming feast.
And he smiled.
Warrong rose to his full height, chest swelling with confidence. Pff. This creature was no threat. He took a step forward—
BAM
The shaman’s head snapped toward the sound. There—standing between the trees—was a pale figure. Wrong. Completely wrong. It had a smell… but not the smell of life. Not blood, not sweat, not breath. Something cold. Something empty.
THUD
The shaman jerked his head back just in time to see Warrong collapse onto the ground.
For a heartbeat the world froze.
Then the warriors moved.
BAM — BAM — BAM
Three hunters crossed an invisible line.
Three thunderclaps shattered the silence.
Three bodies struck the earth.
The shaman’s jaw slackened. The remaining hunters stopped as if turned to stone. A few began to step backward, tails twitching, claws trembling.
Damn it. There was nothing useful in the shop. Nothing! Who even needs wood in the middle of a forest?!
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
BAM
“Huh? What was that?”
Finally, Monsters?
BAM — BAM — BAM
“Oh, there you are…”
David exhaled, stretching his fingers. I was starting to think that there was so much mana here for nothing.. But he probably should learn how to control it before trying anything big in a forest.
He stood and walked toward the sound.
After about a hundred meters, he saw it — one of his defense robots, smoke drifting from its barrel, weapon still aimed.
On the ground lay five… creatures.
Behind them, two more figures trembled, clutching crude spears and slings.
“Oh! Intelligent species?”
Maybe neighbors?
David quickly pulled out his phone and tapped a command.
— Fire control: Pause. —
He approached slowly.
Up close, the creatures looked like upright lizards — or something close. Smaller than him by a head… sometimes two.
One of them twitched.
“Oh, good. Robo-guard didn’t finish everyone.”
David hesitated.
How do you show you’re not hostile to… lizard people? Smile? Nod? Start discussing world domination politely?
“…Ah, whatever.”
He simply extended his hand to help the creature up.
The creature moved — and promptly soiled itself.
David blinked.
“Wow. Am I really that scary?”
But then the creature stiffened, focused… and began manipulating mana.
Slowly.
David grew curious and activated [Mana Perception].
The creature was weak — terribly weak. Inside it pulsed a small crystal, slightly larger than the cores of the first dog?monsters. But what it did with mana… was different.
It pulled mana from its core.
Shaped it.
Wrote a symbol in the air.
Primitive… but it seemed like it had some purpose.
Before David could memorize the what it was doing—
FWOOOSH
A fireball exploded in his face.
“…Huh.”
David calmly slapped out the flames licking his shirt.
“Well, there goes another T?shirt.”
It was already half?burned anyway — leftover damage from that morning incident when he couldn’t stop the mana flow. His hair, however, remained untouched, protected by [Major Law of Fire].
The creature stared at him, half?lying on the ground, eyes wide like plates. It didn’t look human at all, but the expression was unmistakable — shock. Pure shock.
David sighed and reached out his hand again—
Then paused.
“…Oh. Right. Haven’t discharged the core in a while. That’s starting to hurt.”
He raised his arm and fired an overcharge straight through the forest canopy.
A plasma beam tore a glowing hole through leaves and branches far above.
Silence.
Then panic.
The surviving creatures bolted into the forest — all except one.
The last one lay motionless.
Foam dripped from its mouth.
Eyes rolled back.
David crouched beside it.
“Hey, buddy… that won’t work on me. We have opossums back home. Stop pretending.”
Pause.
“…Buddy?”
David lingered a while longer, prodding the fallen creature with a stick. It did not react—no hiss, no twitch, not even the faintest growl. Just a limp, scaly body breathing so shallowly he could barely see the chest move. With a quiet sigh, David crouched, slid his arms under the small reptilian figure, and lifted it.
"Well… congratulations," he muttered. "You’re my first guest. Try not to die on me, okay?"
The creature was lighter than he expected.
Back at the base, David laid it down carefully near the crystal and sat beside it. He tried to reopen the shop window, forcing his attention onto the endless list of useless items—but after everything that had just happened, his mind refused to focus. The scrolling text blurred. The numbers meant nothing.
He exhaled sharply and switched to [Mana Perception].
The world shifted.
Soft currents of pale energy flowed through the air like invisible rivers. David turned his gaze toward the lizard.
"Let’s see what makes you tick…"
Mana gathered around the creature… yet strangely, it did not rush into the core the way it did with David. Instead, the stream approached—touched the edge of the core—and stopped.
David leaned closer.
"Wait… no, it does flow… and then… it stops?"
Why did it happen automatically for this creature—but not for him?
David narrowed the intensity of [Mana Perception], sharpening the image.
Then he saw it.
The stream twisted.
Just before entering the core, the mana spiraled inward like a tightening whirlpool, folding into itself in a controlled rotation.
"…You’ve got to be kidding me."
He reached out with his will, trying to imitate it where several mana streams converged nearby his core before entering it. He tried to twist the flow—guide it—force it to coil the same way.
The stream slipped.
Collapsed.
It slipped out of his control like he was trying to tie his shoes with hot dogs instead of fingers.
"How does this tiny thing do it…?"
He tried again.
And again.
And—
[Ability Unlocked]
Mana Control acquired.
David blinked.
"Ah… so that’s how."
He leaned back, rubbing his forehead.
"Weird I didn’t get this earlier."
A pause.
Then he let out a quiet, dry laugh.
"No… I definitely studied magic the wrong way."
He glanced at the unconscious lizard.
"Alright. Let’s keep going."
The kobold woke with a violent gasp, as if dragged back from the edge of death. Its yellowish eyes snapped open and immediately locked onto David. By that time, David had already reached the second level of [Mana Control], though he still felt like a child fumbling with forces far beyond him.
The kobold’s arm shot forward, a trembling claw pointing straight at David.
"Garun?tag! Garun?tag!" it shrieked in a rasping, broken voice.
Before David could react, the creature began weaving mana again.
Another fireball formed.
This time, David was ready.
He no longer wore a shirt, and [Mana Perception] was already on, because he was trying to repeat that thing with the vortex in his core. He watched carefully as the kobold drew the symbol in the air — a simple pattern, really. Something between ancient Nordic runes and hurried handwriting, traced in a single flowing line of mana.
Fssst. The first fireball hit and dissipated near his torso.
Yeah… definitely a kobold, David thought. All those nights eating junk food and slaying dragons with my friends weren’t useless after all. Mom said it was a waste of time…
His chest tightened for a moment. Fssst. (No it was not because of the second fireball that hit him.)
Where are you now, Mom? You must’ve been terrified when all of this started…
The third fireball was already forming.
Right. Focus.
Fssst. The third fireball hit him and disappeared.
David pulled mana from his core, copying the kobold’s motion. The first attempt collapsed instantly. The second twisted out of control. On the third — the flow held.
The kobold stopped casting and slumped to the ground, breathing heavily. Its mana was clearly exhausted.
David ignored it, fully absorbed in the glowing line of energy forming between his fingers.
Okay… curl here… sharp turn — ninety degrees…
The symbol spun out of control and dissipated into the air.
"Damn it. Again."
He tried once more. And again. Each time, he enlarged the rune slightly — it was easier to hold the lines that way.
When the kobold finally recovered enough to lift its head, it did not attack again. It simply stared.
Wide?eyed.
Unblinking.
0_0
David barely noticed. He redrew the rune, it was bigger again and more stable.
A faint pulse rippled through his chest.
[Mana Control – Level Up]
At that exact moment, the kobold suddenly jumped to its feet — and ran.
"Hey— what?"
David froze.
Mana was moving.
Not inside him.
Outside.
It began flowing from his core toward the drawn symbol — along the very thread of mana he had used to create it.
