Like the other three, mana was used to create a javelin made out of metal, but the difference was that instead of being a simple recreation of metal like the others, a fully iron javelin formed in his hand.
When mana was converted to another form of energy, the moment the conversion ended it would stop generating the heat or light he wanted. Even making water wasn't actually creating water, when mana was no longer supplied all of the water simply dissipated. The mana mimicked water, it didn't create any.
And while it was possible to create matter out of mana, he wasn't anywhere near that level, or he shouldn't be.
"What the hell was that? I don't like the feeling of what just happened." The feeling of mana leaving his body to form the short spear was truly disturbing, making his skin crawl.
Instead of the sensation of using something, it felt like something was lost. The only thing that he could compare it to was instead of feeling like he spit out some saliva, it felt like he cut his wrist and blood was flowing out.
It was undeniable that he had just created a metal from mana, something that he shouldn't be able to do any time soon, but after considering his understanding of the metal element as well as his unique way of using mana it started to make just a little sense to him.
Unlike the others where he had either a skill or spell that directly related to the element, the only reference he had for metal was the skill/spell steel skin. Unlike create fire or water, or the light spell, steel skin wasn't a purely metal skill.
It was more metal adjacent, as it didn't create any steel but hardened the skin and increased defenses as if it was steel, but that changed when he tried to recreate it as a spell.
When mimicking it, the heavy feeling he got was some iron being created and deposited into his skin, with the iron being turned back into mana when the spell was deactivated. It wasn't steel skin or steel body, but something in between.
That means that even if he didn't have a proper understanding of the metal element, his strange familiarity of it led to interesting results when he tried to make a weapon based off of it.
If all he knew was the vanilla steel skin then he wouldn't be able to create a javelin out of it as it didn't really have much to do with the metal element, and if he had a purer understanding based off of steel body then the javelin would be like the three others, disappearing when he stopped supplying it.
This left him in a special predicament, using this discovery he could generate any element that he had an understanding of if he could stomach the strange sensation.
While this wouldn't matter with fire or light, especially for fire was mana based fires were generally stronger than normal fire, water would be a great boon for him. For the time being, all of the water that he was drinking was pulled into the portal when the inventory spell was being cast and that water was running out fast.
One of his plans was to run and look for a river or lake, he didn't see one when he ran all the way to the mountain so he was desperate to find something. But if his assumptions were correct, then maybe he didn't have to find one.
He raised a finger and created a ball of water, accompanied by the strange feeling, and put it into his mouth. Besides being very warm it was no doubt water, real drinkable water.
Now he didn't have to struggle to find a water source. While he still would like one as he didn't want to go through the feeling of creating the water every time, he wasn't going to die if he couldn't find one.
He looked at the javelin and decided that he wouldn't use it like the others, instead he was going to change it into a weapon that he was familiar with.
Changing the shape of the weapon was easy as the base of it was just his mana, and after a few more seconds of the uncomfortable feeling it transformed into a strange looking sword.
Those familiar with weapons would identify it was a messier, something closer to a war knife than a sword. It was a single edged curved weapon, but after some consideration he made both sides sharp.
"That should do, of all the weapons that I was trained in I liked the swords the most." While he still enjoyed fighting with his fists, he knew well enough that there was a reason that weapons were used for so long. Not many people could survive any meaningful period of time refusing to use weapons.
Even the monks who were famous for their hand to hand combat used swords and staffs in real fights, weapons offered too much to simply ignore.
Even John had a great sword, and while he never used it when training him, the very fact that he was never far from it should say more than enough.
With his injuries fully healed and his mana adjusted he returned to the new world so that he could start to move towards the desert, but before he could run off he looked into the forest behind him.
He had a look of caution all over his face and after a few more seconds of looking at what appeared to be empty space he dashed off.
'I don't know what that was but I don't think I've ever been so afraid of something in my life.' The pure pressure he felt disappeared so he assumed whatever it was wasn't following him, and now that he was by himself he was sweating bullets.
He kept his calm in the moment to not seem afraid, but had he stayed a second longer he might run away and scream in terror.
Not even in the face of the guild master did he feel that way.
"Whatever it was, I want nothing to do with it." Using his powerful legs, instead of just running on the ground he was running along the tree tops using the branches as platforms.
Running like this is much faster and he had a lot of ground to clear if he wanted to find out what was going on any time soon.
"That was fast, I thought that it would take much longer. It took a full day before." In only a few minutes he managed to clear the distance that took him multiple hours, a sign to just how much faster he had gotten in a few days.
Sitting on the top of a tree he looked at the desert and now that he was more sensitive to mana, he realized just how strange it actually was.
Unlike everywhere else, where mana moved very erratically, the mana here was very uniformed in how it was moving.
There was like a suction effect drawing all of the mana to the center of the multiple kilometer wide desert, even the mana around him was being affected by it.
"Now I really need to know what is in the center of it, whatever it is must be extremely valuable. But that can wait, I still need to find those goblins."
He ran directly west so he needed to move further north to reach his destination, he wasn't going to run directly into some stronghold in the direction that they were definitely paying attention.
He looked into the distance and caught a glimpse of his target.
"Bingo."