The sun rose over the horizon in the distance, marking the early hours of the morning.
A large plain was bathed by the Sun, which received its energy, making the plants grow. As far as the eye could see, there were colorful balls jumping and eating the grass.
Its colors were the most diverse, representing the most common elements, blue (Water), green (Plant), brown (Earth), red (Fire), to the most unusual, purple (Lightning), silver (Metal), red and black (Magma), faint and translucent green (Wind), whitish blue (Ice). These were some of the types of slimes that lived in this plain.
Their sizes varied, the smallest were at the edge of the plain and the further towards the center, the bigger and stronger the slimes became.
Occasionally, there would be a tree lost in this sea of slime. As these trees had no competition, their growth was not limited, so their height easily reached 25 meters in height and the oldest ones reached 40 meters in height.
Atop one of these trees, a hunter was lurking, looking and searching for prey, prepared to strike when there was a chance.
In front of this tree, several sticks could be seen stuck into the ground, pointing straight towards the sky. Each of these sticks was about 5 to 10 meters apart, covering a good area.
Near the tree, as a last resort, were two piles of chipped stones, with sharp edges. These mountains also had a distance between them. This was all out of precaution and redundancy.
— "Now I just need to wait."
Edart looks at his hunting field with pride. He woke up early and went further into the plain until he reached this tree. From the edge of the forest to the tree, it was about 500 meters. Arriving here, he scattered his spears and stones, finally, he climbed the tree and waited for his prey to arrive.
In the center of the field, he placed a bunch of berries, hoping to attract slime more quickly.
It took 2 hours to prepare everything. He had to make a few trips to bring everything, as he didn't have a backpack and he wasn't like those game characters who could carry 1 ton of items in their pockets, all he could do was divide the load into several trips.
With everything prepared, all that was left was to wait for his victim to arrive. Having nothing to do, he activated 'Mana Perception' and climbed as high as he could into the tree. Up there, he had a good view of the plain, it stretched for miles ahead.
Next to him, Edart could see some slimes and one was coming towards him, but it would take a while to arrive.
The 'Slimy Plain' didn't have much to see, the grass stretched as far as the eye could see, there were some lost trees and some small hills. Slimes were seen everywhere and their numbers were enormous.
Spending time observing them, Edart noticed that these slimes weren't fighting each other, they were just focused on eating.
Looking further into the plain, he could no longer see the slimes, nor the small light they emit. When he looked towards the center, unlike what he expected, there was a mana light, it was large and diffuse, covering a large area.
Edart didn't know what it was, but whatever it was, it was huge. His curiosity was piqued, but he felt cautious. The thing that emanated so much mana was in the middle of this plain, and to get there, he would have to kill a lot of slime and walk a good distance. Although slimes did not attack themselves, their attitude was different towards other beings.
At that moment, a blue slime arrived at his hunting field, heading towards the berries that were huddled together in the center of the field.
—["A slime arrived in the center of the field."]
Being warned by Éris, Edart began to descend from the tree, stopping 5 meters high. There, there was a spear, it was one of the best, its body was straighter and it was one of the best when thrown from a long distance, maintaining a high hit rate.
Edart did everything he could to not be noticed by the slime, he successfully grabbed his spear and prepared to attack. The slime was 10 meters away, from this distance, Edart had a 60% chance of hitting it according to his tests.
The slime arrived at the berries, stopped there and started eating. Edart saw this and prepared himself, raised his spear, aimed and threw.
—"Oh damn."
As the spear heads towards the slime, it is falling from branch to branch, until it lands on its back on the ground.
His world was spinning, when he reached the ground, the air left his lungs and his whole body hurt.
After throwing the spear, his right foot slipped off the support, having nowhere to stand. His body fell and luckily, he hit other branches, which cushioned his fall, losing only two life points.
His plan was a total failure, he wanted to attack the slime while it was distracted, thus being able to cause more damage, or hit a more important part.
—["You killed a 'Blue Slime (Level: 5).'"].
— ["You gained 27 XP"].
— "It wasn't a total failure, hehe." He laughed at his predicament, without the slime to attack, he could relax and laugh at his epic battle against the tree, which he lost.
His spear hit the slime's core, which was a great stroke of luck. Edart didn't forget to thank Miss Luck.
He took his spear and reward and returned to his perch, waiting for the next rush.
…
The Sun made its way across the sky and was already approaching its end. Seeing this, Edart prepared to leave back to camp. His spears would stay here, as he would return the next day.
— "I finally managed to make a good breakthrough."
Her hunt was a success. He managed to kill 10 slimes which earned him two levels and 4 stat points. One point went to Endurance, to increase the time he can battle, increasing the number of slimes he can kill.
Another point was for agility, to increase your speed. The remaining points went to intelligence. Even though he used his 'Mana Perception' skill all day, he didn't have any breakthroughs, he was looking forward to this breakthrough, he couldn't wait to see what the rewards would be.
He thought about why it was so difficult to level up this skill, but he didn't come up with any answers. So his last hope was to increase his intelligence.
After assigning these points, the world in front of him glowed softly, the glowing points of mana seemed to become more palpable, before they were like ghost points, now it seemed to be taking shape, body and after that it returned to normal. His 'Mana Perception' was active, he wanted to see what would happen.
This surprised him and made him more excited, it seemed like his bet paid off.
Furthermore, his skills and work have also leveled up.
His Hunter job reached level 4 which yielded a new skill.
— ["Acquired skill: 'Accurate Shot (Common) (Level: 1)' "].
— ["Description: A hunter waits a long time for his prey, if he fails to get a hit and loses his prey, his day will be a failure. This ability helps with hunters' aim.
This ability increases your Perception and Dexterity as you evolve. Perception +1, Dexterity +1."]
This was a skill that helped a lot in the last fights of the day. When Edart had a spear or stone in hand, he could use this skill which would use his mana and increase his accuracy, making his hits increase enormously.
The mana consumption varied, if he applied more mana, the better his aim would be, and the less mana he used, the smaller the effect on his aim would be. It was a great help, even with his low mana. That was one of the reasons to put some points on intelligence.
Some of his skills have also evolved, with 'Collect (Level: 5)', 'Club Handling (Level: 6)', 'Throwing (Level: 9)' and 'Spear Throwing (Level: 4)' gaining two levels each. 'Identify (Level: 8)' only increases one level, but it was expected due to its rarity.
…
Edart arrived safely at his camp, he stored his spoils with the others and climbed his tree.
He was excited to try some things tonight.
As he kept 'Mana Perception' activated all day, his head hurt a little, but that didn't stop him. This was the cause of the pain he imagined.
— "Éris, keep an eye out for any movement in the forest, if something happens, let me know."
— ["You can leave that to me."]
Focusing on the branch in front of him, Edart activated his mana perception and observed the glowing green balls on the tree. Some were smaller and weaker, these flowed down the tree slowly. The biggest and brightest ones remained motionless on the tree.
— "Interesting, the mana is being used in two different ways."
Edart watched for a while. After a few minutes, he focused his attention on just one larger, brighter spot. As he kept his focus on this point, it seemed that this point became more and more corporeal and Edart had the feeling that he could touch it, but the bark of the tree was stopping him.
— "Can I move these points?"
Unable to touch with his hands, he tried to use his mind. At first, nothing happened, as time passed, he felt that it was possible to move this point, but it was as if this bright spot was 2 tons. In the end, he felt that it was possible to tinker with this mana point, but he didn't have the necessary strength.
— "This is harder than I imagined."
Shifting your focus to the smaller points, he tried to focus on one point and make it corporeal, but it was more difficult as they moved. With time and effort, he succeeded and the next thing he tried to do was stop that mana point.
His mind started to hurt more and the harder it was to concentrate. Some time later, he succeeded and the stitch stopped, but he felt a huge weight on his mind.
His mind hurt to even think, but he didn't give up, putting in twice as much effort. He tried to move this point in the opposite direction from before.
The pain increased and so did the weight on his mind, soon the point moved, 1 centimeter, the pain and weight increased again, 2 centimeter and what he felt doubled in intensity.
When the point had moved by the third centimeter and he was reaching his limit, then familiar messages began to appear in his vision.
—["'Mana Perception' is level 10. Plus 3 points for Will and Perception"].
As this message appeared, his control over the mana point in the tree seemed to become easier, his pain and pressure in his head seemed to ease a little. He tried to stay focused, but this message took his focus away.
— "No, no, I'm almost there."
Even if he didn't lose concentration, he knew he couldn't continue for much longer.
Knowing he couldn't continue testing, Edart settled into the tree and rested as he thought about what happened.
He realized that the two points could be moved, each with its own difficulty, but what would happen when he moved a long distance? He didn't know and wasn't even sure if it was possible.
He also realized that trying to manipulate these points was the path to magic. At this moment, he thought about his mana, that should be the first thing he tried to manipulate, but due to 'Mana Perception' he focused on the mana around him.
— "I need to start somewhere easier."
Closing his eyes, he brought his focus to his body. The greater his concentration, the greater his headache. All he saw was darkness, and when some light began to appear in his vision, his headache reached its limit.
Feeling that if he continued, his consciousness would go away, he decided to stop for today. Trying to use the tree's mana consumed a lot of his mind, he was playing a big game, it would be better to play with something smaller.
Before ending the day, he wanted to check something, soon messages appeared in his vision.
—["Edart: Health: 40/46, Mana: 1/22, Stamina: 10/27."]
As he expected, his mana was almost at zero and the feeling of losing consciousness was from almost exhausting his mana.
Seeing that he could no longer continue, the only thing left was to sleep.
Soon, Edart fell asleep and another day came to an end.