Val decided that he would travel north towards Loka Town, traveling through the outer boundary of the forest, looking for weak monsters and beasts that are alone. It would take him roughly 8-9 days to travel there by foot. He decided that he would try out his skills, getting used to using them and understanding how often he could use them without depleting his mana reserves. Running out of mana during a fight is basically a death wish. When an awakened runs out of mana, their body becomes extremely exhausted, heavy and it is very difficult to even move, in some cases the person will even collapse unconscious.
Once Val had walked a few kilometers away from Vicla Town, he decided to start with [Ice Spike], he used the skill against a tree and was able to penetrate the tree about 8 inches. This was a pretty good result for his first time using the skill, the skill would only get more powerful, the more he used it and the more he understood how to utilize it more efficiently. He continued to use it a bit and found out that the skill did not use very much of his mana. At first, he thought that it was strange, from what he had learned about skills, a D-Rank ability should have been more taxing on his mana reserves. However, after some thought, he remembered his Physique [Mana Body] increase his mana reserves and also increased his mana regeneration, the young half-High Elf also considered the possibility that he used less mana when casting skills. Val was unsure about the last idea, but there was no way for him to be sure right now. After some consideration about his physique, he also remembered that his skills were also strengthened, which explained why his [Ice Spike] was so powerful even though he had just used it for the first time.
After using [Ice Spike] a few dozen times, he realized he had used a large chuck of his mana reserves, so he decided to just continue his journey, letting his mana reserves rise back up. He did not want to allow his mana reserves to drop too far, in case he runs into a strong monster or beast.
After about an hour, Val's mana reserves had increased significantly and he decided that it was safe to start testing and practicing his skill [Port]. Val did not know how far he could use the skill, so he first decided to teleport 5 meters. He used the [Port] and teleported 5 meters in front of him, he noticed he was facing the same way and no part of his body had moved since he used the skill.
"So when I [Port] and teleport I cant move my hands or feet, interesting, I wonder if I can [Port] facing the other way, that would be good for getting a surprise attack on enemies."
Val used [Port] again, teleporting 5 meters again, but this time he focused on making his body face the opposite direction. Val succeeded in his test, however, he noticed it used twice the amount of mana, as it did the previous time.
"So it is possible but it consumes more mana to do so. Okay next let's try traveling 10 meters."
After taking some mental notes of the outcomes of his test Val decided to see the distance he can travel and the corresponding mana consumption.
Val used [Port] again, aiming to travel 10 meters. His attempt was another success but he immediately notice a significant increase in mana consumption.
"My test was a success, however, it seems that the further I travel the larger the consumption of mana, and it seems to be an exponential increase. Traveling 10 meters consumes 4 times the amount of mana it takes to travel 5 meters. Traveling with [Port] already consumes 3-4 times the amount of mana as [Ice Spike] just to travel 5 meters. It seems there is a significant increase in mana consumption for higher-ranked skills. Alright, the next test is to see the mana consumption to travel 15 meters with [Port]. I will take a rest after that to regenerate my mana because if my guess is correct, it will consume an astronomical amount of mana".
After that Val used [Port] to travel 15 meters, and his guess was correct. To travel 15 meters he consumed 16 times the mana he consumes to travel 5 meters.
"Hmmm, it really did consume so much mana, I should not use [Port] to travel more than 10 meters for now, until I improve my control and understanding. I also need to test out how much cool down period there is between using the skill, but that will have to wait till after I recover some mana because I am currently at half my reserves".
Skills have cool-down periods and lag time. The cool-down period is the time period you must wait after using the skill before you can use the same skill again. Lag time is the time it takes from activating the skill till it manifests. The skill [Port] has no lag time, but Val is not sure of the cool-down period. [Ice Spike] has a 1-second lag period and a 4-second cool-down period. These time periods are important to know and take into consideration because without this knowledge one could make some life-threatening mistakes in battle.
Val was feeling a little hungry after walking for a few hours and using his skills for the first time, so he took out some of his dried meat and started munching on it as he walked and recovered his mana reserves. He walked for another few hours and after his mana reserves increased he tested out the cool-down period of [Port] and discovered it was 1 second. The [Port] skill was extremely useful and versatile, but it had quite a large mana consumption.
After a while, Val was quite confused, he thought he would have run into some sort of creature, regardless of if it was an animal, beast, or monster. However, as if the forest was waiting for him to have this thought, Val heard loud growls and banging. It was the sounds of fighting, and it was coming from deeper in the forest.
Val was instantly interested in who was fighting, but he also knew that going deeper into the forest was significantly more dangerous, the outskirts of the forest were relatively safe, but the further in you go the stronger the creature becomes. The boy thought about it for a bit but eventually gave in to his curiosity and decided to quietly go further into the forest on full alert and observe the fight.
Val slowly moved towards where the sounds of fighting were coming from. When he got close, he instantly realized this was not a fight involving people, but rather monsters fighting against beasts. There was a group of Orcs fighting against two large cat-type beasts, one of the cats was laying on the group, breathing heavily with a swollen stomach. It did not take Val long to realize that the cat beast was pregnant, and the orcs were trying to take advantage of the situation to kill both the large cat beasts for food.
Val was interested in how things would turn out, the male cat beast was definitely stronger than the Orcs but there was a very large numbers difference, as it was a 12 v 1, and the cat beast was protecting its partner as well.
Val wanted to get a better view of the fight so he decided to [Port] to a tree branch in a tree not too far from the fight. Right when Val appeared on the branch of the tree, the giant cat roared and a beam of light shot out of its mouth incinerating 3 of the orcs and destroying the arm of another. The orcs instantly become wary of the cat beast, whilst Val was in awe of the destructive capabilities of the cat beast. He wanted to know what beast it was so he took out his adventurer's card, closed his eyes, and pictured the cat beast. The details appeared in his mind, the cat beast was a Light Ray Lion, a lion-type beast with Light Talent, they were known to be capable of becoming an A-Rank beast, as their Light Talent was A-Rank. He decided to look at the orc's details as well. The orcs have the potential to become C-Rank, with C-Rank Body Arts Talent generally speaking, sometimes they will also have a weapon talent as well.
"Interesting, the Light Ray Lion is quite a powerful beast, I wonder why it's so close to the boundary and outskirts of the forest, based on its strength it should be deeper in the forest."
Whilst thinking about the battle and why the Light Ray Lion was in the outer region of the forest, Val noticed a small green monster, in his periphery, whom was also observing the fight. The small green monster was obviously a goblin. It was obvious from the green skin, small stature which was as short as Val, who stood at 1.2 meters tall, and its ugly face that it was a goblin.
Val took a closer look at the goblin, it was only around 10 meters away from him, it had not noticed Val as he was on a branch in the tree, and the goblin's focus was on the battle. As Val was observing the goblin, he noticed that in its hand was a rusty old short sword. It was of low quality, damaged, and covered in rust.
"It's a shit sword but it's still a sword, and it's better than nothing."
After deciding that he wanted the sword, Val had to create a plan. He was not afraid of a one-on-one fight with the goblin, what worried him was drawing the attention of the orcs and the Light Ray Lion who were fighting very close by.
After deciding on his plan, Val was ready to strike.