After Loren and Salrie decided what their first goal would be, the two went on to figure out what different possible ways Salrie could aid Loren outside of having information about the system.
The most valuable ability Loren discovered she had was that she should be able to see not only Loren's system screen but also the 4 other heroes' systems. The reason the heroes could see their screen was because each system fragment was connected to each of their souls, Salrie was able to see the screen due to a special right she had as the system guide, she wasn't linked to the system herself she was linked to Loren. This meant that only Salrie was able to confirm with certainty if someone they suspected was a hero, an edge the other 4 didn't have.
Unless she chose to, Salrie was only visible to Loren, no one else could see or hear her, meaning Loren could use her for reconnaissance, albeit she couldn't move more than 10 meters away from Loren. He found this aspect of her extremely useful and immediately thought of an idea to put it to use.
She was also unable to interact with and touch the world around her other than Loren, this seemed negative at first but Loren believed the power to move through any object and wall was better than being able to attack others with how weak was while in her shrunken state.
While Salrie didn't have extensive knowledge about the world and the application of mana, she at least knew the bare basics about the different countries as well as the stages of mana mastery. So this gave Loren a large amount of information he previously didn't have access to as a child living in a remote town.
Overall, while he would always choose the other aspects of the system over Salrie, Loren was able to figure out a few ways he could make use the little system guide.
***
It was 9 am the next day, after a filling breakfast, Loren left his home and made his way to the town's library. His parents were glad to see Loren was no longer in a sullen state today, believing he wasn't lying yesterday about just being tired.
"Bye Mom! I'll be going to the library today."
"The library? What made a rambunctious child like you decide to suddenly gain an interest in books?"
"I've always loved reading Mom, didn't you know?" Loren was being truthful, he loved reading, he just never spent much time reading in this life, now that he could move freely why read adventure novels when he could finally explore the world personally?
Loren wasn't going simply to read though, he planned to hopefully find someone he knew there.
When he arrived at the library, Loren scanned the building and locked onto an adolescent girl sitting by herself. Her name was Carol Ruthess, the 12-year-old daughter of the town's mayor, as indicated by her unique last name that differed from the other inhabitants of Rito.
"Is that the girl? I don't know about this, it feels like stealing."
"Yeah it is, and how is it stealing if no one even knows or can find out?" Loren whispered, trying not to seem like he was talking to himself.
"I don't think that's how stealing works..." Salrie rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. Now go go, looks like she just started." Loren walked to the bookshelf and picked out a random fairy tale before sitting at the table next to Carol, Salrie left his side and began to hover beside Carol's side.
"Loren? It's rare to see you here, if at all. What made you decide to come by?" Carol took notice of the boy occupying to table next to her. She and Loren weren't particularly friends, but few of the townsfolk were unaware of Loren and his antics, making her curious as to why he picked up such a stationary pastime.
Loren didn't expect she would decide to speak to him, she was a child of few words after all.
"Oh me? I'm basically always here, haven't you noticed?"
"I spend about 6 days a week here, I think I would've." Loren shrugged.
"Ha ha... Well, it's just that I've always wanted to read..." He quickly glanced at the title of the book he was holding before twitching his eye at the name.
'Why is THIS in the fairy tale section?!'
"... "10 Ways To Dress Like A Belmond Princess.", I love dresses in fact, I just don't let others know because it's embarrassing, please keep this a secret ok."
Carol's face stiffened.
'This better not start any rumours.'
"Pfft, I didn't know you had such an interest Loren." Salrie held back her laughter while Loren rolled his eyes.
"...Ok sure." She quickly looked away from Loren and continued to read.
As Salrie began to memorize the book Carol was reading, Loren decided to legitimately read something as he waited and chose "The Adventures Of Augustus". According to Salrie, there had been many other heroes before Loren came to Altera, each of them apparently came from Earth also. Augustus was one of them, he saved the world from a tyrannical dragon who enslaved humans under his rule. Not much was known about Augustus or how he spent his later years, but Salrie noted he was the person who brought both the metric system and Earth's calendar to Altera.
'Isn't this guy from 2 millennia ago? Does this mean time works differently here than Earth?'
***
2 hours later, Carol finished reading and left the library after saying goodbye to Loren, Salrie immediately ran over to Loren in a rush to not forget what she had just seen.
"You remember everything?" Salrie nodded her head.
"About, at least everything important."
"Great!" Loren pulled out a notebook from his bag and began to write while Salrie recited the contents of Carol's Book. The reason the duo went through so much trouble was that Carol was reading a mana mastery technique, an expensive manual that helped teens enter the first stage of mana mastery, teaching people how to expand their control of mana outside of its rudimentary usage.
Loren neither had the funds nor the ability to ask his parents to buy it, he was only 9 and wasn't even able to control any of his mana let alone the complex usage described in the manual. In Altera when a human is born, they will slowly accumulate mana inside their abdomen, once the child reaches 12 and begins puberty the accumulation reaches its maximum and their body gains the first basic usage of mana, body enhancement.
"Alright! This a good start, but I'm not going to spend the next 3 years just waiting around, what ways do you know I can get body enhancement as fast as possible?" Loren asked while he stuffed the notebook into his bag.
"Well, the most common way people do it is by drinking a potion that increases mana control."
"Impossible, I can't afford to buy a mana mastery technique, forget about buying potions. I know a kid in town who could use mana since he turned 10, his parents didn't have the money to buy him a potion either. You know how he could've done it?"
"Well, he could be a natural genius or he went through a... Mana surge." Loren tilted his head.
"Mana surge? I've never heard of that." Salrie sighed.
"That's for a good reason, that process of going through a mana surge is... dangerous. When a child goes through an extremely painful or life-threatening experience, their adrenalin can force all the mana they have to spread through their body activating a more intense version of body enhancement. The method isn't spread to avoid commoners abusing their children in hopes of them learning body enhancement early." Salries' words made a devilish smile spread across Loren's face.
"You're not thinking of trying to do it are you?"
"What choice do I have? The other 4 are probably grinding with their systems to hell right now, I need to catch up." Salrie was apprehensive but reluctantly agreed.
"Now follow me, let's head to the forest."
The two made their way to the forest but on the way, Loren remembered a stop he had to make and made a detour to the church. Salrie questioned why they came there while Loren looked around and made sure that Priest James was away.
"Why did you come here?..." Loren grabbed 2 biscuits, shoving them in his mouth and chewed before spitting the mush onto the Goddess statue, making Salrie go agast.
"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!! Even if you dislike the Goddess such disrespect is-"
"Hahaha, I made her a promise to offer some biscuits, I couldn't go back on my word. Plus remember, she royally boned both of us you know, c'mon just scream "STUPID GODDESS!" once, I promise it'll make you feel great."
"No! I-I refuse!"
"Whatever floats your boat, now let's go before Priest James finds us."
***
At the entrance of the forest, Loren was about to head to his destination before being stopped by a large beast. It was a green deer 2 meters tall and 4 meters long, its 2 horns were a transparent blue with small lights travelling through their branches and gold lines travelled its body from head to tail. It looked down at Loren with wind radiating from its body, a cool breeze hit Loren's face.
"Boy, what were you doing yesterday? All the animals in the forest told me you went insane, some cubs were scared witless!" It was the guardian beast of Rito, a hurricane deer, a stage 3 beast. One of its evolutions gave it telepathy, allowing it to communicate with the people of Rito, a rumour Loren heard said it was a tamed beast of a Beastial Champion who founded Rito.
"Little old me? Ah well, I was playing a new game I made up where you pretend to react to a dumb woman breaking your heart haha." Loren laughed as he scratched his head. The beast shook its head.
"You humans spend your time in the strangest ways, I'll be following you today in case you do anything strange, don't think of trying anything foolish."
"Really? That's great, it helps me a lot, I might need your help."
"With what?" The beast narrowed its eyes.
"You'll see, by the way, can I ride on your back today?"
"I already told you a thousand times, no."
"I'll ride you one of these days just watch." Loren smirked.
Loren made his way through the forest with the deer in tow, arriving at a large crack in the ground 3 meters wide, looking down the crack Loren saw it was roughly 20 meters deep with jagged spike-like rocks throughout the interior.
"Why are we here child, this a dangerous location, if you're going to play do it elsewhere."
"You're here aren't you, I'm perfectly safe, and I'm not here to play." Loren chuckled, bending down in a starting position, he calmed his breathing and focused on his eyes on the crack. Salrie's face went blue when she realized what he was doing.
"Loren stop! It takes multiple near-death experiences to ensure a mana surge, doing it on the first try is 1 in 10000!" She screamed to stop him but it was too late.
"I've been near death for 8 years straight before, I just need a trigger right now trust me." Loren kicked the ground, running towards the crack, reaching the edge he leapt off the ground shocking both Salrie and the beast.
"What are you doing boy!" Loren wasn't even halfway across before he started to fall, he stared down seeing the sharp stones that would surely tear him apart if to landed on them head first. He slammed into the cracked wall! His hands tried to find footing in the rocks that stuck out but couldn't, his body was dragged down, multiple cuts forming on his hands, blood smearing the stone wall. Loren winced in pain before noticing his descent ended, the deer had jumped down not a second after Loren, stepping on top of the air and catching his falling body on its back.
Rushing back above ground, the beast threw Loren onto the floor and bellowed in rage.
"Are you suicidal boy?! Is this your idea of a joke?" Despite its anger, the beast lowered its head and touched Loren's marred hands, a light flashed as the cuts quickly closed.
"Huh, I thought you were a wind beast?"
"I gained the light element in a recent evolution idiot, now explain to me why you just jumped to your death. Or did you want to climb atop my back that much?"
"Haha, I wasn't going to die, watch." Loren stood and approached to tree, blue whisps came out of his body as he felt himself explode with energy as he punched the tree trunk. Splinters scattered as his fist left an imprint on the bark.
[Mana Surge!]
"WOO HOO!! THIS FEELS AMAZING!!" Loren screamed in ecstasy, he'd never felt more invigorated.
"See, I could've climbed out if you just gave me a second, though thanks for healing me, stops me from having to explain to my parents."
"You can use mana now? Sigh... What made you so desperate to do such a thing, if you just waited a few more years you wouldn't have to have gone to such lengths."
"I had to learn this now, I have a good reason trust me." He stared into the beast's eyes with resolve, confidently smiling. His eyes made the beast almost flinch, she found his determination eary.
"You truly are as insane as the beasts told me." It could only shake its head.
"Haha, a little"
"It's right, you really are... You scared me half to death, you remember I'd die if you did don't you..." Salrie could only agree with the deer, now understanding what exactly the man her life was linked to was like.