After I threw the defeaning punch, at least to me, I fell on the floor, barely hanging to my consciousness. I had no idea what would happen next. Maybe some monsters would come to our position due to the loud noise. Either way, we have to get back to Trin.
But I had no strength. I couldn't even move a single finger. My eyes could barely change its position. Eventually, I couldn't hold on anymore and let my consciousness fade.
***
When I regained consciousness, I tried to move my arms, but to no avail. My eyelids were closed and heavy. It would take me a crazy amount of effort to open it. Although my eyes worked, there was only darkness.
'What's going on? am I dead? is this the afterlife? am I in Limbo?'
I began to question myself, thinking of the worst that could happen, but at the same time, I was trying to move any part of myself.
'Damn it. Move damn you!'
I cursed myself for my current situation. This was all my fault to begin with. If only I stayed still or maybe if I didn't go too far. My thrill got the best of me.
Suddenly, as I was pondering about my mistakes, my eyelids began to soften slowly. I couldn't move my body parts yet, but being able to open my eyes was good enough.
Soon, my eyes were light enough to be opened. Without hesitation, I opened them.
'A familiar ceiling.'
As I looked around with my eyes, I saw the comfortable color of the walls and some cabinets and drawers for clothing and such.
I was back at the house of the Elves.
A part of me was hoping that all this time, I was having a dream on the bed of the comfort of my own home.
But that was only a part of me. A huge amount of my thoughts garnered more on the hopes that I'm really in a fantasy world and thankfully... thankfully, I was.
... Soon, my whole body was able to move, I couldn't tell if a lot of time had passed, but when I opened my eyes earlier, the sky was covered in the color of vermillion. Now it's enveloped by darkness.
At the same time I got up, Lulu opened the door and looked at me up and down as if she was seeing a ghost.
"Uhh... hey?" I greeted her.
"You're finally awake."
"Actually, I've been awake a long time ago, I think... I just couldn't move."
"I see. Well, all that matters is that you're finally in good condition."
"Yup... so how long have I been asleep?"
"Just for the whole day. I tried to wake you up the time you fell asleep on the forest, but it was like you were dead."
"You must have panicked," I said with a chuckle.
"Of course I panicked, I was so worried that you died!" She retorted with a tone of anger and concern.
"Thank you, and I'm sorry that we put us in trouble."
"You're welcome, and yes, be more careful next time. I don't want to have to carry you and run."
"I will."
'So she was the one who took me home? or did she just go back to the hidden area? I feel like leaning more on the latter.'
"Good, now let's go to the dining room and eat dinner."
We walked through the hallway that led to the living room and walked to the dining room. When we arrived, Sung was already done with preparing the utensils and plates.
"You're finally awake."
"Yep, good evening, Sung."
We greeted each other and took a seat by the table, My movement was stiffed because I was nervous at the scolding that I would get. Lulu and Sung were talking the whole time, and soon, Trin finally came with the food.
I stiffened even more.
Sung looked at me, noticing my odd behavior, and said:
"No need to be so nervous."
"Uhm... okay."
I could hear quiet snickering from Lulu. Trin sat down, and the time had finally come.
"Sim," She said my name.
"Y - yes?"
"I don't think I need to tell you what mistake you did."
"Yes. I reflected on it."
"Good, be more obedient next time. You guys were lucky that you survived."
"I will," I said with assurance. "By the way, what was that horrifying monster?" I added.
"That was Ent," Sung chimed in.
"An Ent... I see. That should have been obvious."
I looked at Lulu, and it seemed like she knew about it, probably because she told them what happened when I passed out.
"Ents uses Elemental magic, and the nature element they use is unique to them. Although I have heard of some that have learned it as well," He added.
"I see, that's interesting."
"Anyway, what you did today was really dangerous, thankfully that Ent was a young one."
'That thing was young? How strong would an adult one be...'
"An adult would reach around 50 up to 60 meters," He added.
I gulped at the moment he said those heights. They're more of a giant than the giant race of this world.
"But those ones are usually in more dangerous places. There are occasionally some young ones that wander and get lost."
"I see... we were both unlucky and lucky at the same time."
"That's the case. Anyway, what truly put you in danger and specifically you, is your mana depletion. You used more than your body had absorbed."
"Mana depletion... will I still be able to use mana?"
That... that would be bad. I don't think I could live without mana in this world, I'd be just a slightly stronger human due to my current stats.
"Well, yes. We call this an Offense. A person could only have five offenses. The first punishment would be just not being able to use your body for almost the whole day.
"The second punishment would be fingers going numb forever, adding the first punishment.
"The third offense would be 2 limbs numbed.
"The fourth offense, all of your body is numbed. But that is to say, you can still move your numbed limbs and body."
A numbed body... wouldn't that basically just be a dead body but with working mind? just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine.
"Wh - what about the fifth punishment?"
"The fifth offense... the punishment would be a person straight up vanishing from the world," Sung replied with a solemn look.
"Isn't that... a massive leap from the past punishments?"
"Indeed. One would expect that the fifth punishment would only numb the mind as well, but that's basically the same as being dead, so there's no difference between that or disappearing."
"Do you know where these people disappear to?"
"No, no one does. But there had been rumors about a person coming back, fully healed and even stronger. But as they say, rumors are just rumors, nothing more."
"..." The place went to an awkward silence.
"The food is getting cold. Let's eat already," Trin chimed in, her voice lightening up the mood.
With that, the discussion ended, and we ate our warm food.
"I'll make a dish from Earth next time, using the ingredients here, of course, in order to repay for what I've done."
"Gladly! just tell me what kind of ingredients you want, and I'll check if we have them," Trin replied with much excitement, Sung also had a look of anticipation.
Just like that, dinner passed, and we said our goodnight to each other.
As I was on the bed earlier, I still had to prepare my futon.
"That was such an experience, huh Lulu?"
"Agreed, thankfully, that Ent was weak, just like Sung said."
"... have you looked at your profile? I think we'd have considerable progress after that," I said after a brief pause.
"No, not yet, I wanted to check with you."
"Haha, it's like a tradition to check it together or something."
"Yup, it's more exciting that way," She replied with a smile on her face.
After a brief pause, we said the magic words.
"View Profile!"
***
-----
[Lulu Berg]
Race: Human
Health: 33 -> 45
STR: 0.5 -> 0.6 (2)
AGI: 0.8 -> 1 (3)
INT: 1.2 -> 1.8 (4)
Mana: 0.6 -> 0.8
Skill: Basic Creation
-----
'My int stat rose so high. But what does the int stat do again? I forgot if Sung mentioned it. I'll just ask either him or Trin. My mana rose, too. Well, considering I practiced a lot and used a lot of mana earlier, I guess that's understandable.'
***
-----
[Sim Kliff]
Race: Human
Health: 40 -> 60
STR: 0.7 -> 1.2 (3)
AGI: 1.1 -> 1.2 (4)
INT: 0.8 -> 0.9 (2)
Mana: 0.4 -> 0.8
Skill: Basic Amplification
-----
My eyes widened in surprise as I looked up and down to check if my profile was displaying my stats correctly. There were a lot of new things.
First of all, my str stat leaped really high.
'Was it because I mainly used strength on that fight? my agi and int stat didn't really rise by much, so it must be.'
Secondly, my mana stat, it went up by 4 points! I think that's higher than Lulu's. Maybe her mana also rose up, though.
'This might be a bonus from mana depletion. In exchange for the first punishment, it rose up a lot. How much would the other punishments give?'
As soon as I thought those things, I threw them away at the back of my mind. I don't want any of my limbs going numb and potentially even disappear.
And lastly, Basic Amplification, it used to be "Simple," but it somehow changed?
'What's going on here? Sung didn't tell us about this... was it because of the way I used Amplification last time?'
I checked the skill description to see if there were any changes.
[Basic Amplification - Be able to amplify either your strength, agility, or five senses for 30 seconds to 5 minutes. The amplify will multiply your stats by 1.5 to 2. The length and multiplier depend on the amount of mana that was used.]
That... that is kind of overpowered. I can see why this is a commonly learned magic now. Although using a 2x multiplier would probably use a considerable amount of mana, it's still useful.
"So? what's your stats looking like? You've been staring at it for a while."
"Well, all I can say is, a lot changed."
I recounted what my stats looked like and told her my theories.
"I see, that's strange. My skill name has been Basic Creation all this time."
"Hm... what does this mean?"
"There might be stages to skills. I don't know the other stages for now, but it seems like every stage has a significant enhancement."
"I agree. Let's ask Sung or Trin for confirmation tomorrow."
"Yeah, it's better to just ask them instead of overthinking about it.
"With that said, let's go to sleep."
"All right, good night."
"Good night."
With that, we laid down on our bed and futon.
I thought that I wouldn't be able to sleep because of how long I rested during the day, but surprisingly, I fell asleep after a few minutes.
***
*knock* *knock* *knock*
"Time to wake up, you two."
Trin's voice sounded in our room and woke us up, this time, not as sleepy and groggy.
"Okay, we'll be there," Lulu replied.
"All right."
Soon, we did our usual routine. And walked to the dining room. We got some bread from the kitchen and a drink similar to coffee, but not as bitter.
As we got done eating, we put on our equipment. We were ready to train.
... As we walked through the forest, I recounted to Trin what happened with my skill and told her our theories
"Yes, your theory is correct. Your skill can also advance just like your stats. Although, it's not just with extremity, but also proficiency.
"There's also the stages, there's Simple, Basic, and it looks like Lulu jumped to Basic the first time she learned magic. Which can happen if you have high int or just a really good teacher," She said with a chuckle and proud tone. She continued to explain, "The next stages are: Better, Effective, Great, Advanced, Awakened, Master, Ascended, and Peak. A total of then stages."
Lulu and I nodded as she explained.
"It seems like the terms changed midway?" Lulu asked.
"You're right, that's because there's a change after the sixth, and it all derived from the fact that it's much harder to advance after the fifth stage.
"For example is the Elemental magic, they need to be extremly specialized in an element or they wouldn't be able to advance."
"I see... that's good information to know."
"It's general information, but it's good that you two know about it. But here's something that's not general information..." she paused.
"What is it?" I asked.
"... There's a stage after Peak. Its term is Original."
"Original..." The two of us repeated the word.
"Yes, Originals can make their own magic. It's almost like Miracle magic, but Miracle skills have existed since a long time ago. There's a rumor that maybe Miracle skills actually came from Originals, but no one really knows."
We nodded.
"Those people must be really strong," I blurted.
"Not only strong, but Godly."
"Just knowing about them existing is kind of terrifying," I added.
"Haha, don't worry, there's not much Originals. If there were, the world would be destroyed by now. You can probably count Originals with two hands."
"I see... that's great to know."
I felt relief, knowing that the chances of me encountering these people are a one in a billion, maybe even more.
...