A giant pillar of fire could be seen in the distance, near the river.
The sun was already low on the horizon and night was quickly approaching, making the flame look even more impressive.
"Phew, this is quite taxing on my mind!" Gerald wiped the sweat off his forehead.
The blazing fire burned through 1 MP every few seconds, so it couldn't be sustained for longer than a few minutes. But, there was another obstacle that prevented him from doing that.
After just ten seconds, he started to feel lightheaded, and soon he would probably get a headache if he didn't stop.
He already figured that the strain would eventually lessen if he trained with the magic spells often, but going out at maximum power right off the bat was quite a burden for his mind.
"No worries, I have a few more great spells to try out." Gerald calmed down his excitement and readied himself for another spell.
"Stone Body Iron Heart!"
That's right, he was trying out the long-forgotten Combat Art. Mana inside him surged and traveled to every cell in his body, protecting it against damage.
"Heya!" Gerald made a fist and put all his weight behind his punch.
Bam!
He punched a boulder near him with all his strength and… The rock chipped a bit.
It wasn't anything amazing, the same effect could be achieved with a good swing from a sledgehammer.
But, he did it with his fist! And apart from slight redness on his knuckles and some mild discomfort, his hand was completely fine!
"Amazing!" Gerald marveled at the result of his punch. But then he soon frowned. The Mana consumption was much greater than he imagined.
When he was reading and learning from the books and scrolls in the library, he thought the spell would require maybe 10 MP every minute.
Unfortunately for him, the reality was different from his guesses.
It consumed almost 50 MP/min, it was completely unsustainable!
There was another problem. Although Gerald's capacity for Mana increased, that was not so for his recovery.
Although it did increase slightly, from 3.2 MP/h to 4 MP/h, it was far from enough.
To completely recover he would now need almost more than half a day if he did not meditate or drink Mana recovery potions.
These statistics were, of course, great for a human, but Gerald knew they weren't good enough.
"I'll have to tweak some things I think… I'll have to adapt these spells to suit me and my circumstances…"
He already had a few ideas on how to improve on his current situation, but that would have to wait for later. It was already getting late and he was starving, so he hurried back before the city gates closed for the night.
***
The next day Gerald woke early because of hunger.
It seemed a bit odd since he wasn't often hungry in the morning, but he didn't think much about it and went to get a substantial breakfast.
He ate more than twice the amount of food he would usually consume, but he was still feeling peckish.
Although his stomach was full, he was gradually getting hungrier throughout the day. No matter how much food he ate, he just couldn't satisfy his cravings.
The following night, Gerald had the most uncomfortable sleep in his entire life.
The hunger kept him in a state between sleep and awakeness.
Lack of sleep and the constant hunger created a dangerous combination, as Gerald became irritable and easily provoked.
He would become extremely angry for every little thing that was just slightly out of place, even for things he wouldn't even notice normally.
He was barely keeping himself in check to not show this internal battle, even coming close to torching a few people alive who crossed his path unintentionally once. It was a weird moment.
On the outside, he would appear as a moody and unsociable young cripple, which was understandable and people thought he was that way because of the trauma of losing his hand.
But Gerald tried to do many things to fix the problem, such as healing himself or drinking potions, and above all, eating.
He consumed approximately three times the food he would normally eat but to no avail. Instead, his hunger grew with every passing day and it did not appear to be slowing down any time soon.
A week passed by and Gerald was at his limit. He could not keep interacting with people, as they would now trigger an insane bloodlust inside him.
Even the citizens of Geldern started to look more and more appetizing by the day and Gerald wasn't sure if he could hold himself from devouring one of them if things went on like that for a few more days.
There was nothing superficial like morality keeping him from indulging in cannibalism, but that sliver of rationality he had left that kept telling him that it would be a really bad idea.
Having no other choice left, he left the city at the first light and ran as far away as he could.
He ran west, far away from any civilization, into the dense forests of the Kingdom of Myrtana.
He was breathing heavily and his heart was beating fast, but Gerald felt none of it. The only thing on his mind was food.
But not just any kind of food. Wild fruits he ran past weren't spared even a glance. The same was with green plants and even herbs used in potions; he ignored all of them.
His eyes were red like the blood he desired and his face resembled more a bloodthirsty beast than a human.
His senses were sharp and working above the normal levels, gathering information about his surroundings.
His sight was filled with Mana as he was using Magic Eyes to search for prey.
In a radius of twenty meters, his sight was unobstructed as he could see any living being that contained Mana, no matter if it was hiding in the ground or behind the dense undergrowth.
"Soo hungry…" Gerald lamented, but then his eyes picked up a distinct form of an animal in the distance.
"Food!" he roared and his body moved instantly towards the figure.
The animal heard Gerald's roar and was spooked, but how could it escape from Gerald's all-seeing eyes?
Following his blood-chilling screech, more than fifty Stone Bolts shot out of the ground, going towards the same target.
The spell was cast silently, without any word of power to awaken it. It came completely from Gerald's mind that was used to casting the spell hundreds of times already.
Gerald covered the distance in a short few seconds, just to see a deer completely massacred by the Stone Bolts.
He jumped closer and held his hand under the animal's wounds to collect some blood. He then brought that handful of blood to his mouth and drank it all, like a person stranded in a desert after finding water.
"Gaah!"
Gerald released a sound of satisfaction after the drink, but for him, it was far from enough.
It was as if a person dying of thirst drank a few drops of water, it barely gave him any release.
When the last drop of blood fell to the ground, Gerald lifted his head to observe the forest once again.
The moment of sanity was gone once more and his bloodthirsty nature erupted forth once again.
His ears picked up some unusual rustling of the leaves, but it was further than his twenty-meter Mana-detection radius.
He turned his head towards the source of the sound and after a few moments, he kicked off the ground and was traveling at his top speed towards it.
While running the popping sounds sounded every once in a while. He was using Wind Blast spells on his legs to propel himself forward even faster.
At the same time, his skin was protected by magic so he could ignore running into branches and leaves, and completely avoid sustaining any injuries.
Soon an animal appeared in his sight. It was a wild boar.
The beast was much bigger than what Gerald was used to, and it looked dangerous with its long, sharp, white tusks. But Gerald paid it no mind.
With an animalistic roar, he jumped forward, with a knife in hand, spooking the giant boar.
Although looking dangerous, the boar did not attempt to stand his ground and fight, instead, it quickly retreated deeper into the bush.
Gerald soon noticed it was not alone. At least twenty normal-sized wild boars were spread around the area, feasting on what looked to be acorns and wild tubers.
Since the giant wild boar appeared to be the leader, of course, it was also the fastest. And since it decided to run, Gerald had no chance of catching it.
But that was fine.
He just switched his target, targeting a younger boar that was close to him. He ran as close as he could before throwing out a Wind Blast, knocking the boar off his feet.
With a giant leap, he landed on the struggling boar and stabbed his knife straight through the neck.
Blood gushed out like a fountain and Gerald wasted no time before he started drinking it. The boar wasn't even dead when Gerald started feasting on it.
The rest of the wild board ran in all directions as soon as they noticed Gerald jumping on one of their own.
Between fighting and running, the latter strategy had a better chance of them getting away unscathed.
Not even ten minutes later, when once again, the blood ran out, same as before, Gerald lifted his head and soon started on a new hunt.
That day, the amount of blood spilled in the forest was immense. As a bloodthirsty human roamed the forest, even the dangerous beasts made sure to avoid him.
For them, it was a disaster. A new competitor, one that did not appear to be going away any time soon, joined their hunting grounds.