Dave sat on the branch, still, book in hand as he tried to understand how to cast his first spell. "for the first spell we recommend one of the elemental attacks (air slash, water ball, earth bullet, fireball) first gather the mana where you want it to come out from your body, for example, the hand. now picture the magic you want to happen. while you picture the image you will need to follow a certain rhythm." Dave took in the instruction and pictured a metronome that was going around 50 bpm. While the metronome was playing in his mind he pictured a ball of fire growing larger and hotter with each beat. after the fourth beat, he opened his eyes to find nothing. it was disappointing, all he felt was warmth leaving him which was mana. He tried, he failed and he lost 10 points of mana. "if I stop trying now I'll keep saying later.." He moved around a bit, trying to find a more relaxing position as he continued trying to cast his first spell. after losing another 50 points of mana he finally did it, a ball of about 5 cm in diameter, appeared in front of him. If you touched it for a second you would probably just shake it off and think nothing of it but it was his first-ever spell and he was proud of it, the dopamine encouraged him to keep trying, make bigger balls and make them even hotter, so he did so.
New skill gained: Fire Magic
In the end, he was at 0 mana and a few burn marks on nearby trees beside where he was sitting. As he waited for his mana to replenish he continued reading the book. "the element of space is hard to require, it can only be found in people from different worlds that the gods summoned, their descendants and heroes. Because of that, the space element may have been impossible for normal people when it was discovered but now it is common. most heroes form harems and sire a lot of children which made the space element become common." As Dave read it he had one thing in his mind. "Stupid harem protagonists..." he flipped the book as he tried to forget about the Harem protagonists and all the trouble they brought in all of the books he read, hoping it wouldn't happen to him.
"The Taming+summoning affinity is common around farm people, requiring them to be around animals or monsters for a long period. A lot of people have it but not many use the skills or tame monsters since it forces you to always be in danger, the fact you were able to form a taming contract doesn't force the monster or the animal to like you, they may still attack you. If you are confident in the bond between the creature and you or are willing to take the risk of the creature attacking you there is another problem. After making a contract you may store your creature in a special dimension, it may sound great but the cost of summoning or storing the creature is 1500 mana. those reasons make this affinity one of the most unused even though the number of people who have it is high." Dave sighed as he finished reading the description. "I guess that rules out me becoming powerful by taming a lot of creatures, I need to have a strong bond with them for them to listen to me.." Dave decided to come back to that idea later as he continued reading about spells he might be able to use later and after a few pages he finally found it! The Identify spell! But he didn't have any mana right now.
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After putting the book back in the bag, Dave decided to explore more of the forest, maybe find an empty shack he could use as his resting place. he got done from the tree and looked around. the sun was in the middle of the sky which meant it was around noon, he had at least 5 hours before the sunset. As he walked around he started to regret using all of his mana on practising the fireball spell and not saving some in case he needed it for something else like the identify spell, but he couldn't change the past he would just have to move on.
after 2 hours of searching, Dave found himself near a small cave that was empty. the cave was only 2 meters tall and 5 deep, it was more of a hole than a cave but it was a start. it was also only 50 meters from the lake so if he was thirsty he could always go there. dave also had a secret plan now that most of his mana was back he could use one of the earth spells he found while he was up on that tree. The spell was "earth wall"! if he could create the wall while he was inside then no dangerous animal could attack him while he was sleeping! It was brilliant! After an hour of hard work and his mana back to 0, Dave was all alone inside his small hole cave with a bit of an opening for light and air to come through but now he was also stuck inside his hole cave since his mana was at 0 "at least I have some air and light..." dave laid down on the hard dirt as he put his bag down and used it as a pillow to sleep, in the end his first day on this new world wasn't terrible, he did forget to eat though...
New skill gained: Earth Magic