Hello everyone!
This chapter is bigger than usual, I wrote a lot...
I hope you like it!
Tell me your opinions at the end.
Peace.
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As the seconds passed, no one came to talk with Dale.
But it wasn't due to some controversial reason, it was merely due to the fact that they understood his condition.
So instead of risking it and ruining his chance by getting his attention, they opted to remain far away and give him time to think.
Even when it seemed that his trance was over, and when sat on the ground to rest, they still kept on watching.
"Phew..."
Testros let out a sigh of relief, however, he knew the most important thing right now was to give the boy room to breathe and think, instead of congratulating him.
He could feel it from here, he saw it happen, how the boy changed. He knew what had to be done.
It was the same for the others as well.
Shaking her head in relief, Tina, who had arrived close to the end, turned around and left, she had many things to do and her presence here wasn't necessary.
She said something to a young lady next to her, but the young lady opted to stay, much to Tina's amusement.
Misgurd and Edimund did the same, they had many things to do, and it wasn't like Dale was leaving forever. Later, they would have their chance to talk with him and ask how he was feeling.
The others did the same, and one after the other, the Elders left to continue their activities, leaving Testros, and the young lady behind…
Her eyes were Violet and her hair was long and black… She was wearing a white cape, something extremely rare in this Village...
It was Yumi, now fully recovered after over an entire day had passed.
(I forgot if I had described her hair, so if anyone remembers, tell me)
After she had recovered, the first thing she did was put on some decent clothes instead of her battered garments.
She was ready to resume her life and interact more with others, especially a certain someone who helped her take the first step and was the one behind this change.
However, instead of meeting him as she wanted, she was brought here by her Master to witness something she had only heard and read of…
In the training arena, she saw him, bloodied and hurt, moving a sword bigger than him as droplets of blood fell on the rocky ground beneath him.
What a way to meet with him again… Last time he was the one to see her at her worst, now it's the contrary…
Such irony...
Yumi wanted to go and heal him, but she was stopped, not by the others, but by herself.
As the initial shock decreased, her rationale returned, and she understood that it wasn't wise to interrupt him...
That was why she left running and came back holding a purple potion in her hands, it was the strongest healing potion she had...
Yumi was ready to run as soon as she noticed that something was wrong, even if it meant breaking his focus…
And the others were okay with that as well, better alive than dead, right? A chance may come again, but everything would be useless if he were to die.
But their worries were unnecessary as Dale's hardest moment was over already…
…
/POV change/
"Urg..."
'My head hurts a little…'
After the excruciating pain of having all of his muscles cramp at the same time, of feeling what it's like to tear your palms open, and how it feels to have a hole in your heart, the potions he took were finally starting to show their effects.
So after a few minutes of waiting, Dale felt much better and ready to investigate what had just happened.
'First… I need to see my Status.'
[Player: DareDevil (Dale Houston)
Attainments: Body Reformation; Eclipsed; Massacre of 100; Culling Blade; Forged Heart amidst desperation; Minor Enlightenment; Heart Gate Open
Level:27 (89.3%)
Class: Heavy Spearman
Character Status:
Strength: 104(129); Constitution: 104(139); Dexterity: 104(129); Mental Power: 79(94); Reflexes: 79(94); Mana: 104(129 -> 258)
Skills:
Slot 1-> Spear Technique 3.5-Star (Neutral)/ Mana Conduction 2.5-Star (Neutral)
Slot 2-> Close quarters Combat 3-Star (Neutral)
Slot 3-> Stable Emotions 3-Star (Passive)
Slot 4-> Spatial Awareness 1-Star (Passive)
Slot 5-> Fighting Spirit 3-Star (Active)
Slot 6-> Miasma Immunity 0-Star (Passive)
Slot 7 -> Vital Heart 0.5-Star (Active)
Temporary Skills: None
Current Effects:
Aspect of Might -> All Stats +15
Molded Heart -> Mana Ratio = 2
Heart Gate -> Mana +50
Body Reformation -> Natural Healing and Stamina recovery speed have been greatly increased
Class Effect -> Constitution Ratio = 1.1
Blessed by Ju-Arkesios -> Constitution +10 while within a 5Km radius of any of his Temples
Injured Heart -> All Stats -50 (8H 21 minutes...)
Inventory (+)
]
"Hm…"
'At a first glance, nothing much seems to have changed.'
'But that would be terribly wrong.'
Dale kept opening and closing his hands, trying to get the blood pumping and remove the numbness he was feeling right now...
'First… My attainments.'
'There are 2 more of them, however, I don't remember seeing a notification about one being made…'
'Did I miss it somewhere in the sea of system notifications?'
Dale inspected his Menu for a few moments but saw nothing.
'Hm… Perhaps there are some Attainments that aren't notified? Or perhaps... The notification was simply not recorded like many others.'
'And since I was in a Trance, the notification simply disappeared after some time...'
'Whatever it is, they are now there I guess…'
"Next…"
Dale looked at his stats, letting out a dry laugh.
'How did my Mana grow so much?... I used to make fun of it during my days' training in the real world, mocking it for being 0 all the time no matter what I tried to do to raise it…'
'Now it's literally double even my highest stats…'
'My other stats didn't change, only Mana increased drastically.'
'I can't really explain what happened, but I can pinpoint its origin… It's pretty obvious as it's written here, it's all due to the Heart Gate being opened.'
'What is the Heart gate though? I hope someone can properly explain that to me…'
'But it's not like I'm clueless, from what I experienced, if I were to put it into words, it's a location inside my heart that stores Mana.'
'Pretty simple… Probably too simple... But its ramifications are far from that.'
'Because its existence purposes the idea of Skills being unnecessary for me anymore… Allow me to explain.'
'With my current understanding of Mana, and with the Heart Gate opened, I can directly control Mana, be it in the outside environment or within me.'
'Shape it into something I desire...'
'From the perspective of a player, the way mana's used is pretty straightforward, he simply willed for a Skill to activate, and the system would do the rest for him.'
'The classic thing Players do, some scream their Skills in order to activate them, others press buttons, while some simply leave it to their own unique ways, the ones they're most comfortable with.'
'And in this process, a fixed amount of Mana would be deduced, allowing the Skill to be cast. The usual of every RPG.'
'For a standard player, they would be able to keep track of how much Mana each of their Abilities consumes, but for me, I simply have my instincts to rely upon.'
'Wherever I use a Skill, I will feel myself feeling a bit more tired, however, unless I use said Skill several times, I wouldn't be able to feel its effects at all due to my high Mana Pool for what I can currently do.'
"But now… It's different."
'I can precisely track where and how the Mana moves… From point A that's normally my Heart, to point B that can literally be any point within my body... Or even outside.'
'As an example, If I use Fighting Spirit, a portion of Mana will move from my heart into my brain, and a small portion of it would scatter around my body, probably to improve it, since this Skill has as one of it's effects, an All-Stat boost.'
'Since I can see how it moves, and I know how to control the Mana, then I can simply do it myself, right?'
'Any Skill, as long as I know how it's performed, then I won't need a Skill Slot to use it!'
But Dale dropped his head in disappointment.
'Or so it should've been…'
'First, it's way harder than it seems, Fighting Spirit, for example, needs me to control many threads of Mana as they run all across of my body, and that's… Extreme.'
'Not only that, I need to maintain a certain all-time control over it to maintain its effects, something so hard I even find difficulty breathing during it due to the level of Focus I need, much less move and fight.'
'I won't even go into how wasteful I am with it as well, and how the effects are lessened… Instead, I'll go to the most important aspect of a Skill, and it's the fact it can improve over time.'
'After using it many times, or achieving certain requirements, the Skill improves, but if I try to copy a Skill, the only way for me to improve it is through my own understanding of it.'
'There wouldn't be a shortcut...'
'And I'm no Sage to reach multiple enlightenments and understand the intricacies of every single Skill I come across… There would also be a matter of time to study and understand how the Skill comes into being before practicing it myself and doing it...'
'It's in a sense, very much like a Martial Novel... Practicing a technique takes time... Or at least it should.'
'Yet, at the end of the day, Mana is a tool, something that will deeply help me as long as I can learn more about it…'
'And it just so happened I brought with me an entire archive of books, some of which I do remember being about this subject…'
"Sigh, I'll have to study… Never thought I would say such a thing in a… Game?"
"Game..."
Dale fell silent.
'A game huh… Is this truly a Game though?...'
'The more time I spend in it, the less this feels like a crafted world though...'
He suddenly had an idea…
'There's one way to confirm it… The crazier it may sound.'
'Perhaps not to confirm it, but more about uncovering a little bit more about this world's secrets…'
'My real life body is changing according to how my Character's body changes, in that regard, if I can feel and move mana in the real world…'
Dale laughed.
'Look at me, thinking about using Mana in the real world…'
'But… It's not like my situation's normal, to begin with...'
'I'll keep it on the back of my mind.'
"I'm not done yet though…" He said in a low tone
'There was a single phrase that bugged me in the Event Log.'
He opened the Event Log once more and scrolled through it, reading everything with focused eyes just in case he noticed something odd…
…
[The culmination of your Life training is passing through your eyes]
'This phrase… The Culmination of my Life training... What does it mean?'
'I'm not retarded, I can read it and I do understand the meaning of the words, however, I can't quite piece together what they are trying to say when they're put together like this…'
'My life training… It's culmination... That's hard to interpret.'
'Let's start small...'
'What did I feel during that time?...'
'I remember thinking, thinking really hard about every ounce of training I ever did.'
'I remember feeling that something was missing, that they didn't feel natural or in a sense, not the best I could do.'
'So I tried looking at them again from several perspectives, and eventually, I reached something I was satisfied with… My current knowledge.'
'Something I could be proud of...'
'Is this the answer?'
Dale frowned.
'If what I think is correct, this is pretty much saying that I have refined everything I have ever learned in regards to training and combat.'
'And that would be the reason why my Spear technique and Close quarters Combat increased at the very end, not because I learned something new, but because I reviewed everything that I had ever learned.'
"I'm starting to lose track of my own thoughts... Focus..." Dale mumbled to himself as he messaged his temples
'This would mean I have no more to grow on my own, as I have already perfected what I have, this is my limit… As such, I need to seek out more things to learn.'
'And one day in the future, I may have the chance to review everything I learned again, but through another perspective…'
"Lastly... My heart."
'It seems that I won't be able to escape unscathed from what happened to it, even with potions...'
'But thankfully, it's merely a Debuff, my heart will heal soon enough. I only need time.'
'However... It's 8 hours... pretty much the entire day...'
'Heh... Funny enough, I was thinking about taking it easy now and reading some books to understand my current situation.'
'I'll probably have to jump the daily training and the forest exploration since I was planning on reaching Level 30 by today.'
'But with my heart like this, I'll have to leave that for tomorrow... However, if everything goes well, I'll raid the Hidden Dungeon in the Sewers and Level up to 30 as I explore it.'
'It would also be a good time to test just how much I changed.'
Dale slowly got up from the ground.
"I'll have to think more about this some other time…"
'But for now…'
He turned around, looking at the smiling man and girl…
"Hm?"
But Dale was confused.
'Who are they?'
Dale could not recognize the 2 of them…
…
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Notes