But before doing so, Ikaris spent the next two days training his System Spell as soon as his batteries were recharged. After each activation, he would end up dripping with sweat and on the verge of fainting. To recover as quickly as possible, he always followed the same routine.
A bite of Demonic Boar and off to bed. Only at night did he refuse to train because the risk was too great.
If he wasn't sleepy, the boy would wander around the jungle on the outskirts of the village to explore the area or to craft his bow. The project was well underway and he was quite pleased with the result.
With the goblin sinew, he had woven the string of his bow after extracting the fibers. As for the wood of the bow itself, he had found a straight branch just over a meter long that met his expectations. By heating it over a fire, the branch could be bent into a bow.
For a good bow, the main requirement was for the wood to be strong and flexible. Some well-known woods like yew, ash, oak and bamboo made very good bows, but there were none here. Even if there were, Ikaris wouldn't have been able to recognize them. He had to break off a few branches to conduct his tests, but he ended up finding what he wanted.
If his System Spell was powerful enough, he could have used it to identify the trees around him, but he was too scared of passing out in the jungle if he tried that spell in his current state.
The other good news, and to his utmost delight, Ellie had stopped bothering him.
Oliver, the survivor of the second night, was a simp and to woo the pretty lady he was ready to do anything. This gallant prince who was a hairdresser on Earth had volunteered to fetch her water from the pond and share his occasional finds. And who would have believed it, but after a few words whispered in his ear by the young woman, he also started to bring water to Ikaris.
It was probably Ellie's way of apologizing for her cowardice when she had spinelessly abandoned him alone against a goblin. Ironically, it was that helpful Oliver who was paying her debt on her behalf. Since then, they had been sharing the same tent, but to the hairdresser's greatest regret, the wild night he had dreamed of had not happened...
Of course, the boy was not the type to refuse a free gift.
"Thanks for the water, Oliver." The teenager thanked him on the fifth morning with an awkward expression.
"The pleasure is mine." The brown-haired, rather athletic, but plain-faced young man replied with a somewhat exaggerated friendliness as if they were best friends.
The poor guy was starting to show serious signs of exhaustion. In addition to having given his blood the day of his capture, he had hardly eaten anything since then and was constantly running around to fetch them water and seduce his sweetheart... In addition to having appalling dark circles, he had already lost a few kilos.
If out of courtesy Ikaris had not advised him to boil his water, his condition could have worsened further.
In addition to Oliver, three other prisoners had survived their night of baptism. Their names were Toby, Jacob and Bree.
Toby was a military veteran with the rank of colonel and was the only survivor of the third night. He had received praise from Malia for having managed to wound one of the Crawlers, making the job of the two Guardians much easier. By breaking a few femurs, he had already reached the rank of squad leader, with his own team of loyal minions.
In this world where might makes right, a brave and hard-hitting man like Toby was a born leader. It was said that he had tried to defeat Malia and Grallu to seize the village, but what was certain was that he had never done it again. He seemed to have accepted his fate.
Jacob and Bree had survived the fourth night and shockingly, although they were Otherworlders like themselves, they were not from Earth. However, they must have been used to fighting because they had managed to survive to the end at the cost of some minor injuries.
Bree could even use magic and it was the bright strobe she had produced to dazzle the monsters that had saved them. Unfortunately, it had also exposed to her for a split second the true appearance and number of the evil creatures attacking them. Since then, they had been having nightmares and nothing seemed to be able to placate them.
Needless to say, Ikaris didn't care about his new comrades. Still, he kept himself informed. By the third day, only six prisoners had been captured and two villagers had to spend the night outside with them. By the fourth day, they had captured thirteen and that also explained why Jacob and Bree had fared so well.
Now that they were on day five, the boy prayed that as many new prisoners as possible would be captured. Without realizing it, he had begun to think like the aborigines he so despised.
"Anyway, let's try the System Spell again. System." Ikaris intoned with great focus.
[ATTRIBUTES:]
[Age: 15 years old.]
[Height: 1.62m.]
[Weight: 42>44kg.]
[Magic Power: 0.001>0.002 points.]
[Stamina: 1>1.1 point.]
[Strength: 0.6>0.7 points.]
[Agility: 1.2 points.]
[Constitution: 0.8>0.9 points.]
[Vitality: 1.2>1.3 points.]
[Soul Strength: 100 points.]
[PRIMARY SPARKS:]
[Divine Spark lvl1: 0.001>0.002 points.]
[Soul Spark lvl1: 100 points.]
[Life Spark lvl1: 1>1.1 point.]
[SECONDARY SPARKS:]
[Black Veil lvl1: 0.05 points.]
[Self-Healing lvl1: 0.02 points.]
[System lvl2: 0.05>1.01 points. Passive Effect: The System can now be accessed subconsciously at the cost of immense concentration]
"Finally!" Ikaris erupted with joy at the sight of his new Status.
The growth curve of his System Spark had been nothing short of monstrous. From 0.05, it had gone to 0.075, then 0.11 and 0.156 by the end of the third day. When his Divine Spark increased from 0.001 to 0.002 his progress skyrocketed from 0.156 to 0.242, 0.359, 0.478 and 0.617 on the fourth day and finally 1.01 just now.
His attributes had also increased and he also had his theory about it. Every time he cast a spell it was like condensing an intense workout into one short second. The amount of lactic acid in his body was so high that it could kill him.
Though, as Ikaris had noticed very quickly, the energy used during a spell was limited. Otherwise, he would have lost all his fat long ago. Although he was rather skinny, he wasn't skeletal like an anorexic either.
Basically, the spell drained energy from every cell in his body at once, but in the end it was like trying to lift a 500kg barbell. Whether Ikaris succeeded or not, he would end up on the floor with no strength left.
But casting a spell was different from lifting weights. The whole body was being put under strain, but only its stamina was being sapped.
So it was like doing an intense workout without actually working out. The stimulation was the same, at least in terms of cardio, but his muscles weren't as badly damaged. As long as he ate properly and took adequate breaks, it was the ultimate training regimen.
With the meat Malia had given him, Ikaris had temporarily solved the shortage of food and his body had finally started to recover. He had no mirror to look at himself in, but he looked less frail than before.
"System."
"System."
" ... "
Casting this spell didn't require as much effort anymore and Ikaris could easily hold it for more than a minute.
Without calling on his Divine Spark this time, he closed his eyes and sought to access his Status. The sensation was different, and much more hazy, but eventually the mental interface appeared before his eyes. He couldn't see the numerical values, but he could vaguely gauge his various stats.
From now on, this System was part of him.
"I'm awesome." Ikaris complimented himself narcissistically as he turned off his System.
It wasn't narcissism. As he personally witnessed the meteoric growth of his Secondary Spark, he had realized just how overpowered 100% progression by spell reiteration was. Granted, it hadn't doubled exponentially like he'd hoped, and the percentage wasn't uniform, but it was mind-blowing nonetheless.
In two days he had managed to develop a spell that would have taken most apprentice sorcerers in the Forsaken Lands several long years to master.
Now that he had mastered his System, he could devote his attention to his two killing moves: Black Veil and Heart-Puncturing.
The latter did not appear on his status and Ikaris had come to the conclusion that this Secondary Spark was simply not developed enough for his System to recognize it. In fact, in creating his System he had probably developed many other auxiliary Secondary Sparks, but they would not reveal their value until much later.
Ikaris could have chosen to focus on a combination of spells that would increase his stamina, strength, or agility, but he had a hunch that it wouldn't be as easy as he'd hoped. As smart as he was, he couldn't properly visualize how this magic would enhance his abilities.
So it would be a mere wish and he could not hope to replicate the 100% progression of his Black Veil.
Ikaris also had another reason for not making this choice...
He was running out of meat again. To survive, he would have to hunt.