When Sol woke up, he felt as if he had been tossed around by a troll. With his body in pain, he mustered the energy to get up and assess his surroundings.
The bodies of the kobolds were scattered everywhere away from where the blast took place, and the variant kobold lay near the center with a metal blade stuck in its chest.
"Why do I feel so exhausted…"
Trying to figure out why he felt this way, Sol opened his status page to find out more.
MP: 0/100
"Ah… I overdrafted."
Mana overdraft is a common symptom many inexperienced mages face. When the spell they use costs more mana than what they have, it will most likely fail. But if the mana cost of the spell and the amount of mana the user has are not too far apart, the spell may succeed using ambient mana to finish the spell. The downside of this is that it leaves the user with no mana, which makes them feel as if they ran a 24-hour marathon. The other symptom of mana overdraft is that the user's mana will not recover for a period of time. Sol had never used mana before, so he was not used to feeling these symptoms.
"I need to take time to properly practice the skills I learned before using them in battle like that."
When Sol used [Siphon], he gained the skills by experiencing them being used in his mind. While he could cast the spells without issue, he didn't have a proper understanding of the cost each spell had, nor had he properly incorporated them into his fighting style.
Willing himself to move, he made his way to the variant's body.
He smiled proudly and said, "At least it was worth it." Sol then used [Siphon] on the variant.
Learned [Basic Unarmed Mastery] Lv 3!
Learned [Snap Punch] Lv 2!
'Now I don't need a weapon to fight enemies, though I would rather have one.'
Slowly walking around the room, Sol used [Siphon] on all the kobolds. With them having almost no skills, there was no need to choose.
Learned [Strength Up] Lv 1!
[Basic Throwing] leveled up! (2 -> 4)
[Foraging] leveled up! (4 -> 7)
[Agility Up] leveled up! (1 -> 2)
Once Sol finished learning the skills of the kobolds, he sat back down to rest and recover a bit more before heading out.
Resting for 30 minutes, Sol felt better and decided it was time to leave. He walked out of the cave and headed back to the village. On the way out, he didn't spot any other kobolds, so he judged they had all died, and the few that lived had escaped already. If a few kobolds really did escape, it wouldn't be an issue; they had no more reason to attack the farms with the variant dead, and even if they did, they were too few to pose a threat.
Making it outside, Sol noticed that the sun was already up, and it was midday. From the moment Sol entered to the end of the fight, not much time actually passed, being only an hour. The rest was him passed out from the mana overdraft.
"My first quest, and I spent the majority of it sleeping? What a grand start to my journey…"
Eventually arriving at Nestral, he headed directly to the guards' house and met with them.
The woman, upon hearing Sol's report, asked, "You found a variant? Well, that explains the odd behavior of the kobolds."
The man nodded his head and said, "When you left, we were later attacked by kobolds again. For a second, I thought you had perished."
"I'm sorry about that. I made a small mistake, but I managed to take down the variant along with most of the kobolds."
"It's okay; things can't always go according to plan. But thank you; with this, your quest is complete. We will sign your quest paper so you can receive your reward at the guild."
Sol handed over his paper to the man, and he walked away to find a pen to sign it.
The woman still in the room asked Sol about his future plans, "Where do you plan to go from here?"
"I will keep heading north to Kerman city, where I plan to stay for a while."
The man walked into the room again and handed the quest paper to Sol. He then said, "On foot, the trip to Kerman city is 8 hours. Are you going to head out tonight? We have a spare bed here if you wish to stay the night and leave early tomorrow."
Contemplating his offer for a second, Sol decided to accept. Sol would rather not travel while having mana overdraft.
"Thank you; that would be great."
"No problem, I will show you where you can stay tonight."
Led to an empty room, Sol finally laid down on the bed and relaxed. Although Sol slept at the cave, it was on the floor and it wasn't real sleep as instead he was unconscious. Even though it was still daytime, Sol quickly fell asleep.
On the morning of the next day, Sol woke up. Feeling much better than yesterday, he checked to see if this change is also reflected on his status.
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talent: [Siphoner]
Level: 25
Exp: 13,200/35,000
HP: 300
MP: 100
Str: 45 (+5)
Vit: 30
Agi: 30 (+10)
Int: 10
Wis: 10
Available Stats: 0
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 2, [Analysis] Lv 1
Passive Skills:
[Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1, [Silent Steps] Lv 2, [Parry] Lv 4, [Quick Cast] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 2, [Foraging] Lv 7, [Basic Throwing] Lv 4, [Basic Unarmed Mastery] Lv 3, [Strength Up] Lv 1
Active Skills:
[Cross Slash] Lv 1, [Leap] Lv 6, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2
"My mana is full again, and I don't feel the symptoms of mana overdraft anymore."
Getting out of bed, Sol washed his body and changed to another set of clothes he had in his backpack. He then headed out to the kitchen and saw the two guards already there chatting with each other.
"Morning, we're about to have breakfast; want to join us?"
Sol nodded his head and took a seat.
The trio ate their food and had some light discussion. It was a simple meal but Sol was never one to be picky and was starving after yesterday's encounter.
"Thank you so much for letting me stay the night."
"No worries; are you going to head out soon?"
"I plan on leaving right now actually."
"Really? Well then, we wish you safe travels."
"Thank you."
Sol walked to leave the house but abruptly stopped after remembering something and turned around.
"This is a bit awkward, but I never got your names."
The guards looked at each other and laughed. "Name's Jessie, and the idiot over there is James."
"Who you calling an idiot!"
The three laughed.
"It's been nice meeting you two. Hopefully, we'll meet again in the future."
After saying their goodbyes, Sol left the village of Nestral and resumed his journey north towards Kerman city.