Looking around warily, Roland rolled around. He wasn't sure what it was that creeped him out. He stopped using a skill so he could replenish his mana if a fight broke out. As he went around a bend in the path, he stopped.
'Oh God.'
Blocking his way was a literal wall of the furry, one-eyed creatures. He now knew what had happened to the other two creatures he had fought. Leaving the last one behind, they had warned all the rest of their species of his existence. Either they had set an ambush for him here, or he had intruded on their territory. Just as he started to turn back, his spirit sense told him that there was another blockade of creatures on the other side of the path. They were on all sides of the path, blocking him in.
Slowly the creatures started retreating a bit, but still surrounding him. That's when Roland got a bad feeling. As he thought, a second later, the hair on each of their bodies stood up, each forming a needle. As he watched the process carefully, he could see the hair becoming more metallic, each pointed at him. He wondered if that was a skill.
It was at this moment that each of the hairs was fired at him.
'This is gonna hurt'
Although each needle didn't hurt much, as long as a few needles hit the same spot, it would slowly chip away at the rock that formed his body. Immediately, he flew out of the way, forming multiple wind blades as he went. As soon as they formed, he threw them into the crowd. He didn't need to aim; there were so many creatures, it was nearly impossible to miss! As he did that, he could feel each needle hitting him, chipping away part of his body and his HP.
Trying to see through the hail of hair, he looked to see the effects of his wind blades. As the wind blades hit a creature, Roland could hear one slicing through one of the vicious eyes, but the majority only hit the newly formed fur on their bodies.
Immediately, he started rolling through the sea of creatures, occasionally forming wind blades using his mana. He knew that couldn't fire at him, or they would hurt their teammates. However, he knew this wasn't a long-term solution. Not only was his mana running out quickly, but he had discovered that the creatures didn't only use their mouths for eating, they could use them to drag him towards them! They would breathe in, and what seemed like a tornado of wind rotating towards its center and tried to suck him into its mouth. Also, they were now starting to distance themselves from each other to fire their needle-like hairs at him.
Besides that, his spirit sense wasn't of much use right now. Not only was it disorienting looking at himself in third person, but his vision was also constantly blocked by creatures, so he couldn't even see himself. Now that he thought of it, the passive effect of it would be much more useful. Although spirit sense gained a new ability when it evolved, it had kept its old one, turning it into a passive ability instead.
The passive was a leveled-up version of mana sense, so he could process information instantly. That way, he knew where enemies were coming from and move accordingly. Moreover, it didn't use any mana! Turning off Spirit Sense, he felt a bit empty, since he had lost his sight again. Ignoring it, he processed the information he received. Now that he did this, he was surprised by the capabilities of this skill! He could sense that there were 43 enemies on the opposing side, and where they were all positioned. Not only that, he could sense where the ones forming a vacuum of wind were, and where to move so he could avoid it.
Moving through the opponents, he shot a wind blade whenever he sensed that a creature was vulnerable. Occasionally, he would hear a splat, signaling that another vicious eye had died. However, after reducing the number of enemies to 37, he ran into another problem.
'I'm out of mana'
His mana stat was only at two, and wind blade needed a lot of mana to work. Plus, his constant use of basic mind magic was not helping. It prevented him from replenishing his mana since the rate his mana was used was the same as how fast his mana was recovered. Thus, every time he used a wind blade, his mana wouldn't recover at all even if waited for years.
Decisively, he went back to the status screen. If he didn't have enough mana, all he has to do was get more. Frantically, he pressed the plus button next to mana.
[1 Stat Point Added to Mana]
[1 Stat Point Added to Mana]
[1 Stat Point Added to Mana]
[1 Stat Point Added to Mana]
[1 Stat Point Added to Mana]
[1 Stat Point Added to Mana]
[Insufficient Stat Points]
[Insufficient Stat Points]
[Insufficient Stat Points]
After seeing this, Roland stopped. He ignored the comfortable feeling from the large amounts of mana converging on him and started using wind blade again. Now that he had added to his mana stat, he could see that his mana capacity was a lot larger than before, and his mana replenish a lot faster as well. Wantonly throwing out wind blades, he avoided the occasional needles or vacuums of wind from the enemies while flying through their ranks.
Roland was very happy at the moment. He had been a bit sad since he had missed the extra system points from the other two eyes, but now, an entire group of them had appeared! He was very grateful to the other two creatures for bringing their group here, since he could now gain even more levels!
Suddenly, he frowned. They had started retreating, backing up back into the forest.
'Come back!' He thought anxiously, he couldn't let those free skill points get away! Immediately, he made all the wind blades he could using all, his mana, and threw them at every enemy within the range of his spirit sense.
"Splat!"
"Splat!"
"Splat!"
He sighed, deciding not to get annoyed over it. There were at least 15 creatures left even after his rampage! What a missed opportunity!
[You have slain Vicious Eye Lv. 7]
[56 System Points Obtained]
[You have leveled up]
Points Obtained]
[You have slain Vicious Eye Lv. 6]
[44 System Points Obtained]
[You have slain Vicious Eye Lv. 7]
[58 System Points Obtained]
[You have leveled up]
[You have 6 bonus stat points]
[Spirit Sense Leveled Up]
[Spirit Sense Leveled Up]
[Wind Blade Leveled Up]
...
After a torrent of notifications from the system, he checked his status once more.
[Form: Rock (Unidentified)] [Lv. 14]
[EXP: 936/1300]
[System Points] [1166]
[Stat Points] [24]
[HP: 19.7/20]
[Def] [11] +
[Mana] [6] +
[Skills]
[Spirit Sense Lv.6] [Basic Mind Magic Lv.4] [Pure Mana Lv. 7] [Wind Blade Lv.6]
When he saw this, Roland was surprised! Not only had he gained so many system points, but he had also leveled up many times giving him another 24 stat points! Plus, his skills had all leveled up!
'Okay, relax,' he thought, trying to calm down. He thought about what he could do with all those system points. He could probably buy a thousand skills!
Okay, not that exaggerated, but still, he could get a lot of skills with those system points!
Then, he saw a screen appear.
[1000 System points detected]
[Open Spacial Storage?]
[Yes] [No]
[Spacial Storage]
[Allows for anything you touch to be transported into a separate dimension unaffected by the passing of time. No living things can be stored inside.]
Roland was pleasantly surprised. He had read many Light novels in his past life and he knew what this did. It would allow him to store items in a special space. The only problem was how large it was. He was also hesitant since this would use almost all of his newly gained system points. Eventually, he decided. He could always get more system points later.
'Yes'
[Creating Spacial Storage]
Suddenly, he felt a connection to another space. Deciding to test it, he rolled to a nearby twig that had fallen into a puddle.
'How do I put this in the storage?' He thought. Suddenly, in a flash of white light, the twig disappeared. As that happened, he felt that there was something inside his Spacial Storage. Checking inside, he found a brown, muddy twig.