— ["Mana permeates the world and fills everything and everyone. It shapes and defines the world and those who can manipulate it directly are few, being the ones blessed by the world."]
— ["Title: True Mage (Novice)"]
— ["Description: You have discovered how to shape your path through mana, the world can become whatever you desire.
You gain +10 Intelligence and +10 Will.
Mana consumption is halved when casting spells.
Mana regeneration is increased by 50%."]
This made Edart very excited, but it didn't end there.
— ["He who has broken the shackles of two worlds cannot be stopped. There is no prison that can keep him bound forever.
— ["Title: Unstoppable (Unique)"]
— ["Description: You cannot and do not want to be restricted by anything or anyone. All restriction effects lose strength, nothing can bind you forever. The effect caused increases the more you feel that you are being restricted. The stronger the feeling of restriction, the easier it is to free yourself from its bonds."]
Edart had a silly smile on his face, everything was going well, it seemed like the world was helping him.
— ["As there are those who do not like to be restricted, there are those who do not like to have loose ends in their plans. Feeling one of these ends being born and one that can manipulate mana at will, your current world did not like this at all."]
— ["Afflicting the world: The underdog."]
— ["Description: The world did not like your actions, manipulating mana is not something that everyone can do. Since the World cannot attack you directly, it will influence the environment around you to destroy you. Wherever you go, luck will be far away, be careful from now on."]
Edart had a crooked smile on his face, he didn't understand why he was being attacked like this. He was the victim here, who was thrown into an unknown world. Because the world was going against him, if he knew he couldn't do this, he would never have tried to do such a thing.
— ["Acquired skill: 'Mana Manipulation (Mystic) (Level: 1)'"].
— ["Description: Like modeling clay for children, the mana in your hands is like a dough ready to create something new. What will be created depends only on you, try hard and make this world a wonderful place.
This skill increases your Intelligence, Perception and Willpower as you evolve. Intelligence, Perception and Willpower +1."]
Edart read and reread these messages several times, he didn't know whether to be happy or sad. He didn't want to be on the bad side of the 'World', even though he didn't know how the planet could have consciousness, it didn't seem like something weak, but looking at the good things he had achieved, he felt it was worth it.
— "I don't know if this is a good thing or not. If I don't interfere too much in the world, maybe I won't have too many problems."
He just needed to stay out of the world's radar and not do anything to harm his relationship, although Edart didn't know how that would work.
Unable to test his new ability for now, Edart returned to his camp. On the way, he noticed how his body was shivering from the cold, his clothes were soaked and standing for so long wet made his body lose heat, falling into a weak state of hypothermia.
Edart needed to warm up and dry his clothes, on the way he tried to think of how to do that. After thinking for a while, he made a detour before returning to his base.
…
Edart was standing looking at a plant in front of him. This plant was the 'Chalice Azulis'. He looked inside and saw a clear liquid with a slight shade of blue.
— "More good news, now I just need to find a way to store it."
Seeing this, he became excited. The plant only took 3 to 4 days to renew its liquid, which gave 20 mana directly. This meant that he had a source of mana potion, which would cost nothing and would produce new potions indefinitely.
Although 20 mana was too little for his current mana, if he found more of these plants, his low mana recovery and long time to create the liquid would not be a problem.
Not wasting any more time, still trembling a little, he approached the plant and drank the liquid inside. Soon a warmth filled his body, the cold and the shaking subsided, but it was still there. Having nothing else to do here, he went back.
...
Edart had to dry his clothes, or he would die of cold at night. During his walk, he fell twice, getting even wetter and dirtier. He didn't know if it had to do with the world cursing him or was just bad luck, however, he had to do something about his clothes.
He had an idea, but he didn't know if it would work. With his mana restored, it was worth trying his idea. In the worst case scenario, he would let his clothes dry in the sun.
— "This is embarrassing, thank goodness there is no one here."
Taking off his clothes and standing naked in the middle of the forest, Edart had already wrung out his clothes, even so, the little water in his clothes was a problem. Stretching his clothes on a rock, he sat down and began to concentrate.
Focusing his focus on the clothes, he began to use his new ability. His idea was to use 'Mana Manipulation' and force the water out, whether it would work, he did not know.
The water contained in each piece of clothing was tiny, which made it difficult to identify the water mana in the clothes. After many attempts, he had a small success. Focusing his focus on one end of the clothes, he began to gather the water, then forced this water to the other end of the clothes. The more water gathered, the easier it was to control.
Small streams of water dripped down the stone, coming out of his clothes. After almost consuming all his mana, his clothes were considerably dry, containing only a little moisture.
— "I can't believe it worked, but the mana consumption is too high."
Using the sunlight at the end of the day, he dried his clothes as much as possible.
Edart only felt a few chills, the right thing to do would be to eat something warm to ward off the cold, but having no fire or utensils to heat something, the best he could think of was to do exercises to warm himself up.
Soon the day came to an end, his clothes were considerably dry. Aside from a few chills and a cold wind, the night passed peacefully.
…
The sun shone brightly in the sky, Edart took advantage of this and warmed himself with the heat it emanated, the cold that bothered him the whole night went away.
This was already the eighth day that he had been in this world, many things had happened so far. Edart didn't know what the future would be like and he couldn't think too far ahead, because his current situation was deplorable. If he failed, he could end up six feet under.
Lying in the middle of the clearing near his tree, enjoying the warmth of the sun. He thought about his current situation, he spent some time thinking about what to do next.
—"What should I do?" That was the thought that was on his mind.
His best chance of survival was to find other people, however, his only clue to some civilization was the apple orchard that had been abandoned for a long time.
Seeing no possibility of finding people quickly, he would need to think of ways to live here. A shelter was his priority, if it rained again and if the rain persisted for longer, he could really die from the cold.
He could get water easily, but purifying it would be a problem. As for fire, he had an idea that needed to be tested for functionality.
Food wasn't a problem yet, however, he needed new sources of nutrients. As soon as he could make a fire, he would go after rabbits. With the collect skill, it wouldn't be a problem to clean the meat.
Having lined up his new survival plan in his mind, it was time to start putting it into practice.
…
The first thing to do was to provide a shelter. He wanted to use mana manipulation to build something, so he could test the limits of his ability and see how far he could go.
There were two possibilities in his mind. The first option was to make his shelter in the trees and the other was to make it on the ground.
A high shelter was the best choice, it would be away from the ground, decreasing the chances of being attacked by some beast.
—"Let's start with the tree." With that in mind, Edart climbed his tree.
Sitting on the branch facing the trunk, he concentrated his focus, trying to perceive the mana present.
Soon the mana balls appeared, he focused on one that was moving and tried to stop it. This time, it was relatively easier to stop this mana, however there was still some resistance to his commands.
Shifting his focus to the points that were still, Edart tried to move this point, slowly it began to move, but there was an enormous resistance opposing his will, trying to keep this mana still.
Edart moved this point to the edge of the tree bark. Imagining the tree bark stretching, he forced the mana out. He didn't know if it would work, but he tried it anyway.
Little by little, a protrusion began to form on the tree bark. After a few minutes of effort, the tree, which was round, had a rectangle that was 30 centimeters high, 20 centimeters wide and 2 centimeters thick coming out of its side.
As Edart moved the mana in the tree outward, a new bark formed in its place. As he did this, he felt that there was something trying to resist him, but he couldn't say what it was.
It was amazing to see a new bark growing on the tree, which would take months to grow naturally, but was done in minutes using mana. Edart noticed that as the bark grew, the mana he controlled was decreasing. Apparently, the mana was being converted into organic matter.
After resting for a while, he tried to do the same with the left side, however, this time he manipulated his mana to enter the tree at the point where he wanted a new bark to grow.
This made it much easier to perform the task, but his mana was also used in large quantities.
Edart was curious about this feeling of resistance to the manipulation of mana, when he did the same with the water from the stream, this feeling was not present. As he thought about this, something came to his mind.
To test his theories, he climbed down from the tree, reaching the ground, and looked for a high place, where he could build a shelter and the rainwater would not get in the way.
Activating his abilities again, he focused on the ground. When he looked around, a very faint brown glow illuminated the entire ground. Wasting no time, Edart began to manipulate the mana contained in the earth. His idea was to make a hole in the ground.
Gradually, the mana was moved and, with it, the earth began to move. It was much easier to move the brown mana and the earth. That resistance he felt when manipulating the tree's mana was not present, and the entire process was smooth and peaceful.
Thinking about it, Edart came to a conclusion that was the only thing he could think of.
—"Could it be that the tree was resisting me?" He asked no one in a whisper.
When he was manipulating the water or the earth, nothing tried to stop him, however, there was something in the tree. Edart imagined that it was the tree that was trying to resist his attempts to change the mana.
Whether the tree was a conscious, thinking being, he could not say, but it seemed to have a will like a living being and that will was resisting him.
When he manipulated the earth and water previously, there was no will resisting him, as they were not beings, just elements and mana, without any consciousness.
There was the 'World' that seemed to be angry with him, however, this 'World' did not resist him or perhaps it could not have such a small control over every place on the planet.
Contemplating all this, Edart gave up on the tree and decided to make his shelter on the ground. Why did he decide this? Simple, if one day the tree became conscious and remembered what he had done to it, Edart did not want to become the target of a tree's revenge and apparently the world could not act directly against him.
Looking at these points, he preferred to offend the world rather than the forest he lived in. Since this was a world where magic existed, he did not know what could happen, so it was better to be friends with his neighbors.
Thus, the place of their shelter was decided.