In the golden glow of the oil lamp, I watched as the mana droplets filled the aluminum bottle, it had wards that make it the best mana storage tool I have, it was my most valuable asset.

One more mana droplet fell in, this is it, my life-line, my only hope to survive this world, energy.

I walked away from the condenser and went to the crafting table.

Time for me to think outside the box until I can find out how big is this damn box.

Thinking too much is and will never be a good thing when dramatic changes are thrown at you.

I have died and came back in another world found magic and killed a shaft-less freak last night, and its corpse is in the corner inside a barrel, I tried not to think about it.

About my death or the freak or what could be outside waiting for me to get out from my little safe space.

'Fuck, I am thinking about it.'

A man in my position should not think too much, just enough to live another day.

I need a new temporary goal, it is always good to have goals to work towards.

Like a light source, my first goal will be light.

For now the light from the oil lamp and the light from the door cracks is Strong enough for me to see, that won't last, and I need a light source that won't eat my mana too fast.

Using a blade I cut a small fragment from the light Crystal the size of a LED, the small fragments from the crystal, will be sufficient for my needs.

I took that crystal and affixed it on a Hair clip (Barrette), I made it from aluminum, I clamped it on my shirt collar, with my aura I can turn it on/off. I will keep it always on me, always ready to push the darkness away.

Next I wanted control over the earth, so I made a bracelet and carved wards and added the symbols of power over the earth, this is called a mining bracelet.

Used by miners to tunnel and control their environment, and most importantly save up on time, no need to make the wards over and over.

It's mana intensive, yet it could be helpful if I wanted to work fast. This thing can work very well with rocks. That's what the book advertised.

My next goal will be to increase my effectiveness without increasing the mana usage.

For protection, I found that my best option was a long range and close rang weapon, I prepared more aluminum for the reshaping process, and prepared the tools.

After I followed the ritual, the aluminum was ready.

Now I can reshape it however I want because the mana inside it has made it as malleable as clay.

In the light of the oil lamp and the low power light crystal, I made a Morning-star mace, an unusual mace because of the modification I added.

Its Overall length is 95 cm with a Max Outer diameter of 11 cm.

That Outer diameter was the modification, it had four deep barrels, and a central spike.

The length of barrels from touch hole to muzzle was 28 cm, the Bore 13 mm.

It’s designed to be used as a bludgeoning weapon when the charge was spent. Plus it can work as a lightning rod, I can use it to shock anything I don't like to death.

I called it the Love sprinkler, because nothing says I love you honestly or as bluntly as a mace to the face.

After I made the mace I started to feel my clothing get stuck to my skin, that's when I realized that in my temporary madness and fear I didn't clean my self very well from the blood.

In the oil lamp light, I washed my self with a small piece of cloth and a bucket half full of cold water, as I did, I started thinking.

I know the world outside has people, I just don't trust them, they could be worse than the monsters, and the scary part is amarys has no memory of the thing I killed last night, nor is it in the books.

That reminds me, I need to look for better books, actually I need better everything.

I want more mana, more secrets, more magic and power.

If I go out, and eventually I must, I need to be ready for violence.

I looked at the mana condenser With more power, I will soon start kicking ass on a new playing field, yet for now I must keep calm and wait.

I need plans on how to best use the mana efficiently, for some unknown reason I keep losing mana, my aura feels good after every mana absorption, yet I can feel some of my mana getting consumed or lost.

Am not sure why it's so inefficient, I must find out.

And I need long-term plans on what to make with it, how to best use my limited resources, I can't even guess on the dangers waiting for me outside.

So my planning needs to be creative and consider multipurpose tools to give myself options.

Like the mace.

I squeezed the rag in my hand and dipped it back, this was the worst sponge bath I ever had, I don't even have a sponge. Yet, beggars can't be choosers.

I dressed, and made a mental note to wash my clothing later.

I stood watching the mana condenser work, it was a source of comfort to me, truly magical, this thing won't work without mana, the mana was controlling the steam flow, use it to spin the turbine connected to the copper.

Collect mana to be purified, and use some of that pure mana to power the boiler, it's a loop.

I watched the bottle fill slowly like a battery, not only was it charging with mana it was charging my hope.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The last steps to finish the mace was making the bullets, I made sixteen small balls, 12-13 mm.

As for the gunpowder, I don't have it, so I went with the next best propellant, water.

I made 4 small disks and carved them with the fire wards to heat up the disks, and pushed a disk in all 4 muzzles, next I filled every muzzle with water, and added one bullet with a small bit of clay aluminum at the sides to make sure the water won't get out.

If I push too much mana into the wards, it will create a steam explosion, as a result from the flash of liquid water into steam. It was one of the warning about fire wards in the books.

After I loaded the mace, I removed the mana from the clay aluminum. Now I had a primitive gun.

Next I made a small double barrel sawed-off shotgun and loaded it the same way I did the mace, only this shotgun had 10 smaller bullets five mm. just in case I meet big trouble and the love sprinkler wasn't up to the task.

The sound of lightning interrupted me, I walked to the door and looked through the side crack, the forest was dark from the sounds I could tell it was raining.

Winter is getting closer, and am not ready for it.

I had an idea on how to test the bracelet.

I used my aura to activate the mining bracelet and controlled the walls to seal the lower gaps between the door and the walls and under it that should stop the water from entering the room. The last thing I want is flooding.

I was tired from all the mental pressure from yesterday and today, the work, the planning and fear, and the concentration to guide mana.

Not only that, but I wanted to sleep I really did, I couldn't, wouldn't, and didn't.

My insomnia was about safety, the violent awakening I had last night interrupted my sleep in a way that makes me suspect I might have been shell shocked.

The mental pressure should have broken me, yet here I am still alive and kicking, every time am about to break I find the strength to stand back up.

Whatever is keeping me together won't last, nothing lasts forever. To sleep peacefully I need to go deeper into the hillside, I need a locked safe room, a panic room, I looked around me, yeah time to dig.

The plan was simple first dig a basement, a small room just for sleeping later I will build a safe base deep into this hill. As for bathroom, I am using aluminum buckets for now.

Before I start digging, I needed a nap short nap, I didn't feel safe so close to the outside, so my only option for now was to build a wall over the door.

Using the bracelet and some of the mana from the condenser I quickly shifted the walls to holed the aluminum door from both sides, I only left a small crack on-top for air. The door looked as if it was part of the walls.

I carved up air wards used by mine-workers to keep the air fresh, that ward needs to be mana charged every 5 hours, but am not in a deep mine, I only charged it once for safety.

I went to bed with my mace, shotgun and kukri blade next to bed. and one small oil lamp as my safety light.

I woke up to the darkness, at first I almost panicked until I felt the crystal on me and activated it, its light was like a flashlight illuminating the room.

Before I went to sleep I didn't refill the oil lamp, I quickly found them all and filled them and turned them on one by one.

Picked up all my stuff, moving them to the crafting table, away from the digging area.

The idea of a safe hole to sleep in motivated me to start digging.

Using mana to dig the hole will be very wasteful, that's why I will use it on my body and dig with a shovel.

I pushed mana into the shovel, activating the wards, and started to dig deep.

The work was hard more mentally than physically, this aura was still new to me, using the mana from the cores for power and my own mana as extra energy helped, I was digging the cave floor fast. Only stopping to take out the dirt and rock's or to drink water and absorb purified mana.

The digging was actually a good exercise for my body, mana pool, and aura control. I could feel my mana pool growing as I absorbed and released mana, the next absorption was easier and my capacity bigger.

Having mana reinforcing my body gave me superhuman strength, that was good for my stamina as well as my self-confidence.

After a lot of hard work, I had what looked like a hole two meters in diameter and two meters deep in my cave floor. I stopped.

I took out my pen used copper as ink and started to carve the merge and reinforcement symbols on rocks and adding pathways for the mana to flow all around the hole, my plan was to make a solid cylinder.

I gathered my mana, and activated the wards.

All around me the soil, rocks and dirt were pushed back by the mana compacting, it looked as if the hole was stretching, inflating slowly and then hardened and stooped.

"I will never get used to this", watching mana, do magical stuff will never get old.

I touched the cylindrical wall, it looked like what you would expect any normal soil yet, I touched it, and it felt like sandstone.

Finally, I settled myself against a wall, and turned my new senses inward, and stabilized my mana, aura and core.

After I woken up in this lovely world my aura was like rusted iron now the more pure mana i get the more it looks like polished steel, I can see it if I concentrate on making it denser and more visible, and in time it will be silver and after silver gold, from that, the door to mage opens up.

So far I’d been using my mana almost entirely for physical strength, and aura manipulation.

I absorbed more mana from a core.

The trickle of power from my modified cores is far purer than the mana purified in my core, or any other, and it took only a few minutes for that mana to wash away most of the physical fatigue left by the long non-stop digging and pushing the dirt into the room corners.

I can feel my control over my new body and its accompanying add-on's getting better like a skill, my only confusion is how can I be using both arms comfortably, am left-handed, or I was now am both handed!.

To my mind, It's almost irrelevant which hand I use. It feels as if I took more of amarys than just memories.

I stopped thinking, and went back to digging.

Whoever said, When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Did not know shit about how safe a hole can feel like when there are monsters outside the door.

I took in the mana and felt the rush of power, mostly it was absorbed by my core, yet I was holding on to some of it for the work I have ahead of me.

Before I started digging, I looked around me to see my progress and plan my next move and as I looked around I felt my self losing weight as if I was lighter or gravity forget I exist, that's when the surrounding walls moved up.

My sleepy brain finally understood what was happening, am falling!.

"Ah fu-------"

I let out a gasp as I hit the solid rough stone ground, the dust was in my eyes making them water, I stood and looked up and around me the only light was from the hole above me, this place was big the sound of my fall and coughing echoing around me was a good hint, I looked around me.

Behind me, I could see stone and dirt all the way up, in front of me was darkness, next to my feet I spotted my shovel, I picked it up and lifted my shovel up like a baseball bat. I was powered-up and ready to put a dent in the first skull that gets too close.

I stood in the circle of light, darkness surrounded me.

I pushed my mana into the light crystal affixed to my shirt collar, the light illuminated the darkness like a flashlight for me to see, I froze as I looked at, the bones, chains, shackles claws, skulls with claws in the jaws.

I took a few quick and panicked breaths. Calming my aura, I searched for movement.

All of this horror was underneath me, I was shaking until I started to calm, again am not sure how my mind found the strength to calm.

This place is not a hill, it's not a home, it's a grave. Am not digging to safety, I am digging my grave. Everywhere the light shown there were mounds of bones, I stood watching this grave in muted horror.

It was a carpet of bones, it littered the entire area, long skeletons.

Feeling sick at the sight. I felt my self becoming very, very self-aware, as my Self-awareness expanded, I realized my situation.

"I should have stopped digging".

I jumped up as hard as I could my mana enforced legs pushed me up all the way to the cave floor level, I kicked the wall pushing my self away from the wall and hole underneath me.

With my aura I reached out to the bracelet and took control of the soil around me melting and using that mass of earth to plug the hole from the bottom up.

A moment before the hole was sealed, deep below me, I saw eyes glinting in the darkness.

My mana supply ended, the hole was now sealed from the bottom yet half full.

I was suddenly overcome with a pang of fear. it made my aura vibrate, I told my self I was imagining things.

My knees shaking I went to the condenser absorbed mana and quickly pushed more soil in, I carved a reinforcement ward on the newly formed layer securing the hole, and added another layer of earth on top to make sure the wards won’t fade, if something is down there I don't want IT up in here with me.

I added all the soil and rocks around me and hardened it. And backed up, to my mace.