After an unknown amount of time, probably more than two hours, Rain opened his eyes.
He was so addicted to the mana that he couldn't stop.
"Phew…" He felt his heart fill with energy. He still wasn't fully satiated and felt that he could absorb more mana.
"Time for test two." Like earlier, he drew mana to the palms of his hands. Slowly, sparks of fire appeared.
Then the fire lit and intensified. However, as the fire burned slightly above his palm, he felt a searing pain in his arms, as if the mana was burning his veins and evaporating his blood.
The fire was also hot—not like in anime where characters hold fire in their hands without any pain.
It burned his palm so intensely that it charred black, with blood flowing out.
However, he succeeded in creating a fireball.
The rotating ball of fire was so cool, and he threw it at a wall.
Boom!
The explosion was bigger than the last one.
"Ah…" He let out a long sigh, feeling a tingling pain in his arm and palm. It was painful, yet he didn't react much, as if it were just a light burn.
"Let's try healing!" He imagined life in his mind as he drew mana to his arm and palm.
Cells reproducing, burnt skin shedding, veins being repaired—he visualized it all intensely.
The mana circulated from his arm to his palm.
By now, he could partially control the mana but still didn't have full mastery.
But practice makes perfect, so he continued to circulate the mana.
The mana turned green, and his palm glowed.
The pain faded slowly. The burnt skin disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
A minute later, he felt better, completely free of pain. His palm was back to normal.
"Wow." He was amazed.
It was awesome and fascinating. Using mana felt incredibly cool.
"Now let's try to enhance my physical strength and speed with mana." He stood up and circulated mana around his body.
He visualized strength and speed, focusing on increasing his muscle power and leg movements.
It was tricky, but with vivid images of skills used in anime, he felt his strength increase slowly but surely.
His body glowed red, and as he moved, his legs stepped insanely fast.
Raising and landing his feet took less than a second.
As he ran, his legs moved so fast that it felt as if his muscles were tearing apart, and the friction with the air caused a slight burning sensation.
But he was fast!
"Now, strength." He spotted a large rock and punched it.
The rock was very tough. No matter how strong a person was on Earth, they might fracture their knuckles but couldn't crack such a stone.
For the normal Rain, causing even a small crack in this rock was impossible. But with magic-enhanced strength, his punch not only created a large crack but shattered the rock completely.
Small and large rock particles flew around, some even hitting his face and body, but he healed easily with magic.
"Wow! Wow!" Rain's face brimmed with a smile. He was so happy he could do a breakdance.
He didn't know or care if this was the normal way to use magic or if he was making mistakes.
"For now, let's leave this place and find out where I am." Nodding to himself, he exited the cavern.
In the hallway, a skeleton was moving lifelessly, as if it had no consciousness. When it turned and saw Rain, its hollow eyes flashed red.
Swinging its rusty sword, the skeleton rushed at Rain.
"Fireball is painful. I'll just beat it with my fists." He had no time to use new magic since he was still a rookie with partial control over mana.
So he enhanced himself with magic. He discovered that once he used a spell, it was much easier to perform it the next time.
It didn't take long for him to enhance himself again.
The reason he didn't keep the enhancements active was that he had no control over the mana.
He had to maintain focus to keep the enchantment going, and a slight disturbance could break his partial control.
Also, one minute was his limit. After a minute, unless he maintained focus, the magic would be dispelled.
So, he was fine for a minute without needing to focus on sustaining the magic. But after that, he would either need to recast the spell or concentrate to maintain it.
In gaming terms, his magic effect duration was one minute.
Rain ran towards the skeleton and ducked as the skeleton swiped its sword.
The skeleton was slow but felt strong. Rain's instincts told him not to get hit, or he would be gravely injured.
He pulled back his fist and punched the skeleton in the stomach. With his enhancements, his strength was immense.
The skeleton shattered with a single punch.
As the skeleton fell apart, black gas flowed out.
"Woah." Rain felt drawn to the black gas. "Is this dark energy or dark mana?" He inhaled the dark energy, absorbing it completely.
He didn't know if it would have any consequences, but as he absorbed the mana, he felt a sudden surge of energy.
His mana reserves nearly doubled.
"Ooooohhh!!!" Rain's attention sharpened. It had taken more than two hours of meditation to accumulate this much mana, but the energy from the skeleton nearly doubled his reserves instantly.
Rain's motivation skyrocketed, and he started walking around, looking for more skeletons.
"Skeletons, skeletons, where are you?~~~" Singing, he wandered to the left and soon encountered a large group.
At least 100 skeletons filled a cavern about 200 meters away from the one he had just left.
Rain hid before the skeletons could see him. "So they can see me but not hear me." Perfect. He concentrated on forming a large fireball.
"Healing magic and fireball—I'll try to multi-cast!" He drew mana into both arms.
In one hand, he tried to convert mana into life energy, while in the other, he converted it into fire energy.
It was difficult; each time he attempted to convert the mana, he lost control. But with patience, focus, and multiple attempts, he succeeded.
Fortunately, the skeletons were aimlessly wandering around the cavern with no sign of leaving anytime soon.
One hand glowed green while the other ignited with fire.
He focused more on the fireball, pressing his glowing hand against the fire-lit hand to heal it.
Pain came and faded as his hand was continuously hurt and healed.
The fireball in his hand grew in size, but controlling it became increasingly difficult.
A large amount of mana was drawn out, almost to the point of exhaustion, but the fireball's size had grown tremendously.
It was now larger than the stomach of a 300-kilogram person and burned intensely.
Rain ran into the cavern. Instantly, all the skeletons' eyes flashed red, and they rushed toward him.
"Burn well!" he shouted as he threw the fireball.
Ka-BOOM!
The explosion was massive, so powerful that the aftershock sent Rain flying.
"Gah!" He collided with the wall.
He circulated mana to heal himself, but his reserves weren't enough.
"God…dammit!" he cursed, standing unsteadily. He leaned back against the wall.
"Is it broken?" he wondered, but as he moved, his legs gave way, and he fell again.
His back seemed broken. Blood dripped from the back of his head. The world turned blurry and white.
He was slowly losing consciousness as darkness crept into his vision.
"No way…" he whispered weakly.
He crawled toward the cavern entrance, breathing heavily.
In the quiet cavern, the sound of his tense breathing echoed.
A mist of black energy covered the entire cavern, and as he breathed in, the black energy was absorbed into his body.
He cast healing magic repeatedly.
Mana circulated, focusing entirely on his head.
The mana transformed into cells and skin, attaching itself to the damaged areas.
Blood loss was prevented, and new blood cells were created.
He focused intensely, visualizing healthy bones. Mana concentrated into calcium, and broken bones grew back together.
Slowly, he returned to normal, but the explosion had torn his clothes apart.
There was lingering pain that mana couldn't heal, but he endured it.
Once he felt better, he entered the cavern and absorbed every ounce of black energy, not letting a single drop escape.
He felt incredible, as if the black energy was healing him. His heart brimmed with mana.
Even after absorbing all the black energy, he still felt he could take in more.
"Do I have a black hole inside me? No matter how much mana I absorb, I never feel satisfied." Rain was confused by this but didn't dwell on it.
In the dungeon, there was a chest!
A golden chest!
Some of the gold had burned and melted, but most of it was intact!
"Is this… a legendary gold chest?!" Like in RPGs, finding items in chests was common.
Rain became more excited and rushed towards the chest.
As he opened it, his expression changed.
"What… the heck is this?"