After a few rounds of vigorous testing, Roland had a basic understanding of his new ability. Whenever he thought of taking something in or out, he would be able to do that as long as he was touching it. Of course, the space in the storage was finite, and there was only a meter by meter space inside.
However, this was plenty for Roland. At most he would put in anything he found interesting. It wasn't like he had a lot of things in this new world. However, he had discovered something else. Anything placed in the storage wouldn't emit a mana signature! Mana signature was the term he had made for the unique kind of mana certain things emitted. He would be able to know roughly what it was just by looking at its mana signature.
However, he did wonder if he could go inside the storage space. Technically, a rock wasn't a living thing, so he could go inside, but he didn't want to test and find out.
Done with his experiments, he surveyed the area around him. The plants and trees were in tatters, with huge gashes in them from his wild attacks. Lying on the destroyed ground were the dead bodies of all the creatures he killed.
He looked at them for a while, before rolling up to the largest one. It was half the height of a human, and most of its body mass was the giant eye.
Touching it lightly with the side of his body, he sent it into the storage space.
Checking the storage, he nodded satisfactorily before rolling away. It was a bit tight of a fit, but the Creature's carcass made it into the storage. He didn't know why he kept it in there, he just thought he might as well bring it along since right now, he wasn't using the storage anyway.
After that, Roland continued towards the top of the mountain. On his way, he could see many creatures. He could see some had more mana than others, and some didn't have any at all. Out of curiosity, he threw a wind blade at a passing rabbit with no mana, but it leaped out of the way as if it knew he was going to attack. Giving him a look of disdain, it hopped into the distance.
Roland felt like he had fallen down the food chain. It seemed the higher he went, the stronger things got. He could see that the mana concentration was higher, leading to the disparity in strength between the bottom and top of the mountain, but he didn't see how even a creature with no mana could evade his fastest and strongest attack, wind blade.
Of course, he then reminded himself that if they were so weak, the creatures without mana would have died out already.
Continuing forwards, and looking at the scenes by the path, Roland found himself in a good mood. He continued trekking till midmorning and looked at the mountain's peak, which looked a lot closer. Now, a layer of snow was covering the rocky earth. Rolling forwards, Roland found it became harder and harder to roll, eventually being forced to fly in the air. Although flying had been a dream in his past life, he still liked to feel grounded. Moreover, he had a major fear of heights. When he traveled up the mountain for a bit longer, a sound he hadn't heard in a while rang.
"Ding!"
[Achievement Completed]
Slightly surprised, he opened the achievement screen.
[Achievements]
[Go 5000 ft above sea level] [Collect Reward]
'So that's how high I am,' This told him why there was already snow gathering on the ground. From what he learned in science class, it should have happened a lot lower, but since he was in a new world, what he learned in school clearly couldn't be applied here. Other than that though, this mountain was pretty tall by his standards. The tallest mountain he climbed in the past was only 2000 ft tall, and he had only gotten halfway up.
Continuing, he eventually reached the top of the mountain.
[Quest Complete]
[Collecting Reward]
[25 SP Obtained]
Roland sighed. Normally, he would be very happy about another 25 system points, but now, it seemed like such a small amount.
[Issuing Second Quest]
...
[Chained Quest: Hidden Mana Source]
[Part Two]
[Requirements for completion:]
[Find the source of mana]
[Rewards:]
[50 SP]
[?]
Looking at the reward, Roland was satisfied. Of course, he was a bit annoyed at the conditions of the quest. For the other quest he got back then, he at least had a map to guide him. Now, he had to search through the snow and find it himself. Besides that, one of the rewards was a question mark! It was usually a good sign, but he wasn't sure what the rewards were. Then again, he had come this far and he might as well get something out of it. Warming himself up, he used basic mind magic and lifted himself off the ground. Moving forward, he scanned the area with the passive of his spirit sense
An hour later, there were no results.
3 hours later, there were no results.
After a day, there were still no results.
'Where is it???' He had the passive of his spirit sense on at all times since it could see things that his active couldn't, but nothing could be found. He sighed, deciding to rest for a bit. A few minutes later, he thought of something. Since he was looking for a source of mana, wouldn't spirit sense work just fine? It could see mana after all, and if an area had more mana than another, it was probably where his objective was. Turning on the skill, he was immediately blinded by the bright mana in the air. After adjusting his vision, he could see that all the mana was heading towards the same place. A cave at the side of the mountain.
Like strands of bright blue light, the mana slowly followed the wind and went through the open mouth of the cave.
Following the trail, he rolled to the entrance. The cave looked ominous, the stalactites looking like giant, rocky teeth, and the entrance looking ready to close at any moment and lock him inside.
Cautiously, he rolled inside. After making it inside without any problems, he rolled at a normal speed. Normally, the cave would be pretty dark, but as the sun set, the light went through the jaws of the cave, lighting up the interior.
Suddenly, Roland flew behind a stalagmite protruding from the ground. Up ahead were two, shadowy creatures!
Quickly using spirit sense, he went to check on the two creatures. Then, he stopped. He hadn't seen what he looked like when he used the skill. Then, he looked down at what he was when he activated spirit sense. Right now, he was an almost completely see-through ghost, unable to touch anything as he floated in the air. The good thing was, no one could see him. His current form looked a lot like his past self, looking the same as when he died. He still had the same, ruffled shirt and pants he wore all day, every day. The shirt was made of cotton and was a dull white color. The pants were the generic blue ones that could be found everywhere, and he was even wearing the leather shoes he kept by his bedside in the one-room apartment. He did wonder what he was when he turned on the skill though. Eventually, he thought of an idea. The skill was called spirit sense, so could just call his current from a 'Spirit'.
Moving his spirit forward and leaving his body behind, he moved towards the two shadowy creatures. After he floated closer, he could see that the entire body of the two creatures was practically made of shadows!
At the center of their bodies was a dark crystal full of mana. The rest was made up of dark wisps of a strange gas. Returning after this, he flew back to his body
Just as he went into his body, he wondered if there was a skill In the shop that could tell him what those creatures were. Immediately, he opened the shop.
Skills:
[Mana Manipulation] [50 SP]
[Water Creation] [60 SP]
[Wind Blade] [75 SP]
[Fireball] [60 SP]
...
Not seeing anything of use here, he expanded the list. As he did, Roland gasped seeing the array of options. There were so many skills available! Some were like basic mind magic, allowing him to use a few elemental skills, others had cool names like 'Hurricane' or 'Inferno Blade' and there were even skills for cooking and cleaning too! Curiously. he clicked on the skill for cooking to see its description.
[Cooking]
[Allows you to efficiently cook and how to bring the best taste out of your ingredients]
Although surprised, Roland knew what this skill was for. He assumed it would make him cook faster, and make the food he cooked taste better.
Of course, he continued scrolling through the screen to find what he needed. Eventually, he found what he was looking for.
[Appraisal]
[Tells you the name and level of a creature no higher than 5 levels above you. The spell will tell you how dangerous it is]
'This could work.'
After checking the price and seeing it was 100 SP, Roland wasn't worried. He would still have more than 90 system points left over even after he bought the skill.
'Appraisal.'
[Purchasing Appraisal for 100 SP]
[Confirm?]
[Yes] [No]
'Yes.'
[Appraisal Added to your Skill List]