Sam channeled her Mana Repair skill as she sank slowly through the water. The skill was working overtime to reset her bones and close the gaping wounds on her back. She found that channeling the repair skill lessened the pain of the wounds slightly, which was good because her current level of pain tolerance left much to be desired.

Swimming under the surface until she was clear of the riverbank, Sam resurfaced, realizing the wolf hadn't followed her into the water as she had hoped. Instead, the Great Timberwolf had backed away from the riverbank and was cautiously eyeing the murky water; it was for good reason, too. The wolf couldn't see what Sam had already spotted with her mana sight; a large Deep Hunter was moving toward her from downstream. She wasn't bothered by the appearance of the Deep Hunter; quite the contrary, she was elated at the development. Her phase two plan hinged on there being a predator nearby in the water. Her plan was simple; if she couldn't take out the wolf while it was paralyzed, she would use the river and, more importantly, her ability to detect the Deep Hunters with her mana sight to her advantage. Now, she just hoped this plan worked better than her initial failure.

“Here goes nothing!” Using her mana, Sam magically propelled herself through the water directly toward the wolf, which was still eyeing her and the river cautiously. She formed a harpoon construct in her right hand, then connected it to the thickest rope she could make using all her mana threads, twisting them together like a braid. Finally, Sam formed another harpoon on the other end of the rope, keeping her hand on the middle of the mana rope so she could channel mana into the constructs to keep them from dissipating. She manipulated the first harpoon out of the water using her mana rope so it was aimed directly at the large dagger cut she had made in the wolf’s side. With all the concentration she could muster, she hovered the harpoon up directly at the wound. She sent a pulse of mana through the rope to the butt of the harpoon blasting the mana outward like an explosion that launched the harpoon into the wound. “Yes!” Sam screamed in her head when the harpoon penetrated deep into the wolf’s side, and a yelp of pure pain could be heard from the beast. Almost instantly, Sam pivoted in the water and launched the other harpoon through the water and into the Deep Hunter's body, tethering the two creatures together. "Now all I have to do is stay in contact with the rope, so it doesn’t dissipate, and I’ll be able to, argh—” Sam grunted when the mana rope went taut and yanked her through the water. The force of the Deep Hunter pulling back against the harpoon and rope, as it was trying to get away from the invisible force attacking it, jerked the wolf back toward the river's edge. The Deep Hunter pulled against the wolf even harder as it struggled to stay on land, the tension in the rope nearly snapping it in half. Sam ground her teeth as she pumped mana into the rope, trying desperately to keep it from breaking.

Sam had already figured out her constructs were invisible to the naked eye; she noticed her enemies had not reacted to them. It gave her the initial hint: the constructs were difficult or even impossible to detect. She had confirmed her suspicion the day before by making a few different-sized constructs while toggling her Mana Sight on and off. Her mana threads and simple mana daggers were entirely invisible to her without mana sight active. The larger constructs, such as the mana rope and harpoons, gave off a faint purple glow, but she knew the glow was only visible to her because she knew what to look for. She was using this knowledge to her advantage now because it seemed the two beasts had no idea what was attacking them. She was hoping to turn them on each other.

The Deep Hunter gave another mighty surge, trying to escape. The strain on the line became even greater, draining a significant amount of mana from Sam. She flooded the rope with energy to keep it from breaking. The wolf stood its ground, though, and Sam was starting to worry her plan wouldn't work if the rope broke before either creature gained the upper hand. Just as she was about to release the constructs, one of the wolf's paws slipped in a puddle of its own blood when it tried to take a short step, causing it to lose purchase for an instant. That was all the Deep Hunter needed, and with another surge from the Deep Hunter, the wolf was yanked to the edge of the river, its hind legs slipping over the bank and into the water. Working fast, Sam shortened the mana rope, essentially reeling the two creatures closer together by taking up the slack from the wolf slipping. It was quickly pulled the rest of the way into the river by the Deep Hunter.

Releasing her constructs, Sam propelled herself upstream, putting some distance between her and the two creatures. She would have preferred to keep the two tethered together until the Deep Hunter drowned the wolf. But Sam was running low on mana after healing herself and holding the forms of the harpoons and rope for so long. Channeling her stamina into mana using her repair skill, she watched with relief as the octopus monster ignored her entirely and instead swam toward the flailing wolf, which already had half its body out of the water as it scrambled up the river bank, trying to find purchase in the soft sandy bank.

Four tentacles wrapped around the wolf's hind legs, and the beast was dragged back into the water by the Deep Hunter. The wolf tried desperately to tread water with its front legs, but it was useless; water wasn't its natural element. It was pulled beneath the surface within a few seconds, leaving expanding ripples behind when its nose finally disappeared beneath the water's surface.

***

“Okay, time to get to work on phase…wait, is this still phase 2, or is it phase 2.1…maybe it's 3…doesn't matter, or does it? Maybe I'll call it the end phase or something. I should probably wait till this is over before I call anything the end, though." With those less-than-helpful thoughts, Sam propelled herself toward the two beasts as they struggled with each other. She managed to land on the wolf's back, facing backward so she could see the octopus. She gripped a handful of fur with one hand and formed a short spear with her other. In her best rodeo impression, Sam held onto the bucking wolf with all her might and stabbed the spear into the wound on the wolf's side over and over. She held on for dear life as the animal thrashed and writhed in the water, trying to turn its head to bite her. The wolf's teeth came dangerously close more than once. The bites were getting so close that she turned and started poking at its muzzle with her spear construct each time the wolf snapped at her. The entire time, the Deep Hunter was pulling them deeper and deeper into the murky darkness.

***

The wolf managed to bite down on Sam's spear hard enough to break it, the construct dissipating in a cloud of mana. The familiar sharp pain of magic backlash shot through her brain, causing her to wince. As the wolf bit through her spear, Sam heard a muted crunching sound behind her. She looked back to see the Deep Hunter had just bitten off both of the wolf's hind legs and was eagerly putting more of the animal's rear end into its hungry beaklike mouth and crunching down, the cracking of bone muted in the dark water.

“Shit, that’s one hell of a bite!” For a moment, Sam wasn't sure what to do, “should I stop attacking the wolf and let the river monster take care of it? But then I might not get any credit for the kill, and all this will have been for nothing.” She decided to detach from the wolf, which was now flailing about madly as it was slowly being devoured by the Deep Hunter.

Sam boosted away from the two monsters, formed a harpoon, and shot it into the Deep Hunter's head right between its eyes, causing it to let out the same weird underwater screaming sound and squirting ink like the other one had when she had cut its head open. It released the wolf and started swimming away. Sam was prepared for that and propelled herself toward the retreating foe. Formed another harpoon twice the length of the others she had created at nearly two meters, using most of her dwindling mana reserves to do so. When she got close enough to the creature, she stabbed the harpoon deep into the soft flesh of its head, using a pulse of magical energy to push it in as deep as possible. Several tentacles wrapped around her, their barbs sinking painfully into her flesh. The tentacles pulled at her, tearing at her muscles and skin, creating new wounds and reopening the deep gashes on her back that hadn't fully healed yet. Sam held her ground through the pain and continued pushing the spear deeper. She felt a 'pop' in the monster's head and then another as the harpoon traveled deeper. She hoped the pops were vital organs rupturing, which must have been the case because she received a notification confirming the kill as soon as the harpoon stopped its forward momentum.

Sam mentally sent the notification away, tore off the tentacles latched onto her during the attack, and put the beast into her inventory. Boosting herself upward, she made a beeline to the surface with the last of her mana; her last breath had been minutes ago, and her vision was already tunneling. She had forgotten in her excitement to trap some air around her head with a mana bubble.

***

Just before Sam breached the surface and sucked in a few deep breaths, coughing up the water she accidentally inhaled, the tunneling in her vision started reversing again. She didn't know what that meant, nor did she have time to think about it. Treading water, she looked around for the wolf's corpse. To her surprise, the animal was slowly paddling toward the river's far bank with its front paws and a long trail of blood floating behind it.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she groaned and began slowly swimming toward the, hopefully, mostly dead monster, failing to avoid the long trail of blood it was leaving behind.

Reaching the wolf as it started struggling to climb up the riverbank with its two remaining legs, Sam dragged herself onto its back, her exhaustion making the process painfully slow. Thankfully, the exhausted and exsanguinating wolf didn't seem to notice as she climbed up its fur. Sam figured she was in a little better shape than the wolf, but it was not by much. Her mana and stamina were almost bottomed out. The octopus tentacles had done a lot of damage, taking a large chunk of her remaining health, leaving it, again, at around two percent of her lifeforce remaining, her health bar flashing its usual bright red. She had managed to stop the bleeding from the earlier paw swipe but hadn't closed the wounds fully, opting instead to conserve her mana for offense. Sam now realized this was probably a mistake. She was now in a precarious state because the tentacle wounds were still bleeding. She possibly had enough mana for one more construct and a pulse of magical force to drive it home. Hanging onto the wolf, she thought about what to do, "Do I heal and then recover some mana before attacking, or do I go all in and trust in my natural resilience?” Thinking back to how quickly the wolf had shrugged off the poison and its incredible speed, she knew what she had to do, "it's obviously a much higher level than me. For all I know, it could be pretending to still be weak just to get me to let my guard down,” she really didn’t believe that but also didn’t want to give the powerful beast more time to heal, “screw it, it’s all or nothing I guess.” Sam decided to form a crude spike in the palm of her hand, holding it right between the wolf’s shoulder blades. A pulse of raw mana propelled the tip into its back and through its spine with a wet crunch, the mana pulse making her recoil from the force.

The wolf went limp beneath her, the kill notification arriving a moment later. Sam collapsed onto the broad back of the wolf, exhaustion and pain finally overtaking her. She closed her eyes and entered meditation, her health still falling. In fact, it was now falling faster than before, the recoil of her last strike having reopened the wounds on her back from the paw strike that had just barely closed. "God, this really sucks," she mumbled into the wolf's wet fur as she focused on not passing out. She feared what would happen if she passed out and lost her meditation boost.

Sam lay there for twenty minutes, the wolf's body slowly cooling beneath her. Once she was finally healed enough and had refilled her stamina, she crawled over the top of the wolf onto the soft soil of the riverbank. Sam laid a hand on the wolf's nose and deposited its corpse into her inventory. She surveyed the river and forest with Mana Sight and found no indication of threats. Relieved the fight hadn't attracted any more predators or scavengers, she still hiked downstream cautiously to get clear of the battle area. Performing a self-assessment, she found that, although mentally exhausted, she was otherwise fully recovered thanks to her insane regenerative abilities and meditation skills.

***

“I really need better clothes,” Sam was examining her shredded leather shirt and pants by the light of the campfire she had dried them over. Sighing, she slipped back into the smoky dry clothes, even mostly shredded as they were. Something was better than nothing. She had continued walking downstream for a few kilometers after the fight before making camp. It wasn't yet dark when she stopped, but she hadn't had the mental energy to stay alert enough to keep moving. She dumped the two new corpses out of her inventory and looted them before storing them back in her inventory. The Deep Hunter had given her much the same as the previous one, and the wolf didn't have any real surprises either, although she was surprised to see it had been level 61.

Great Timberwolf Items:

5 -Gold; 69-Silver; 7-Copper; Monster Core [Great Timberwolf; Level 61]; Great Timberwolf Pelt [Level 61]; Heart of a Great Timberwolf; Wolf Fang x 4; Iron Dagger x 2; 100kg Great Timberwolf Meat; Large Mana Potion; Stamina Potion.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Thinking back to the loot notification, Sam realized she still needed to check her kill notifications. She had delayed checking them until she was in a safe place; the memory of how close the wolf had gotten to her before she noticed it was still fresh in her mind and made her extremely wary of her surroundings. She had become complacent, thinking her abilities were sufficient to protect and warn her of danger, “I thought I had covered all my bases with my mana sight and mana threads.” The wolf had proven that was certainly not the case. If she had learned anything, it was her mana threads, and mana sight were not enough to guarantee her safety in this dangerous forest.

Sam resolved to be more cautious and checked the Deep Hunter meat she had roasting on a stick over the fire. Seeing it was done, she dipped the meat into the organic ink she had poured into a concave leaf she had found just for that purpose. Coating a corner of the meat in the ink, Sam took a large bite out of it. She moaned with pleasure as she chewed the savory meat; it really was delicious. She had been dipping the meat in the organic ink and eating it for a while now, and it was amazing! Plus, her poison resistance was going up steadily as the ink took nearly thirty seconds to counter the poison, allowing it to take effect before negating it. She figured it was because she wasn't receiving the full benefit from the ink. She wasn't consuming a complete dose by only dipping the meat in it like a sauce instead of drinking it like an antidote. The ink dipping helped to prevent the paralysis from the meat and shortened the poison timer. Dipping the meat into the 'ink sauce' again, she took another bite, savoring the delicious morsel she excitedly chewed before swallowing with a gulp.

You have been poisoned with Deep Hunter Toxin -1.7hp/sec for 324 seconds; paralysis for 77 seconds. Paralysis negated by Organic Ink.

‘Bing’ Your Poison Resistance has leveled up to level 9. By all means, continue poisoning yourself to increase its level and effectiveness.

The poison didn't stack, so each bite just reset the timer. Making full use of her Mana Repair skill, Sam wasn't so much healing herself as replacing or repairing her damaged parts. It was fascinating to her because the skill allowed her to sense what it was doing, giving her an idea of what parts of her body were damaged by the poison and how the skill was going about fixing the damage. Apparently, Deep Hunter toxin was magical in nature, as her mana sight had proved, and started working the instant it touched the saliva in her mouth by attacking her nervous system, shutting down her organs, and eating away at her nerves.

Her meditation was leveling up also, making it even more efficient and coupled with her Mana Repair, which leveled up significantly when she healed the catastrophic wounds all over her body, now allowing her to keep her repair skill going indefinitely as long as she meditated and didn't idly make constructs. The effect of the toxin with her added poison resistance was not only negated, but she gained her health right back after the initial drop. All of that aside, she was also really enjoying her meal. It was like having roasted octopus at a nice restaurant.

After Sam finished her third cube of octopus and put a fourth on to roast, she wondered if the amount of meat she was eating would give her some health issues over time but then discarded the idea because her repair skill didn't seem to be fighting anything like scurvy or constipation. "Come to think of it, I haven't had to answer nature's call since that day, or maybe it was the day after I arrived here. I haven't even had to pee in two days, and I know I have drunk at least ten liters of water while I traveled. Maybe it's the way my new body operates now?" She decided to ask someone about it when or if she found civilization. Now, with her hunger satisfied, she opened her notifications and, with thought, scrolled back to the fight from earlier in the day.

'Bing' Defeated Deep Hunter [Level 52]: Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy thirty or more levels above your own.

‘Bing’ Defeated Great Timberwolf [Level 61]; Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy fifty or more levels above your own.

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to Level 8, +5 free stat points received.

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to Level 9, +5 free stat points received.

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to Level 10, +5 free stat points received.

This went on until…

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to Level 15, +5 free stat points received.

“Holy shit, from level seven to level fifteen! No wonder I couldn't stab that knife into the wolf's brain through its ear. I'm lucky I could even penetrate its hide. Not to mention how I could penetrate the Deep Hunter's head. It must have something to do with the attributes of the monster. The Timberwolf probably had high vitality, while the Deep Hunter had high agility? Who knows, maybe there's a bestiary somewhere I can check. It could also be the type of mana I use that makes some monsters more susceptible to my attacks or my higher-than-normal intelligence stat making my magic more potent against certain creatures…probably both."

Sam continued checking her notifications.

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to Level 7, +10 free stat points received.

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to Level 8, +10 free stat points received.

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to Level 9, +10 free stat points received.

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to Level 10, +10 free stat points received. Bonus: +1% to all base attributes.

This went on until…

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to Level 13, +10 free stat points received.

Eight levels in my race and seven in my class, that’s…,” Sam did some quick calculations in her head, “one hundred and ten stat points! For just one fight! And I finally got the bonus percentage gained to all my attributes from my class every ten levels!”

Sam continued through the messages before she could get too excited, skipping any she had already seen.

'Bing' Mana Crafter has leveled up to level 10: Mana cost has slightly reduced. You can now make your mana constructs permanent, although at a significantly higher mana cost.

'Bing' Mana Repair has leveled up to level 10: Mana cost has slightly reduced. You are now able to repair other organic life forms at a much higher mana cost than repairing yourself.

'Bing' Resilient has leveled up to level 3: Passive recovery speed has increased slightly.

‘Bing’ Mana Sight has leveled up to level 7: Mana cost has been reduced slightly.

'Bing' Congratulations! You have learned a new skill: Mana Caster. Level 1: By using your mana to increase the velocity of your constructs and turning your mana constructs into projectiles repeatedly, you have developed the skill Mana Caster. By channeling the skill Mana Caster, you may now create energized projectiles that can last significantly longer without your direct mana infusion. The amount of mana infused into the projectile will determine each projectile's damage.

Sam was stunned. Not only could she heal other organic life forms now, but she would no longer have to use her mana threads to maintain contact with her construct and keep a constant flow of magic to retain them until she was ready to use them. She was almost overwhelmed with the information in the notifications and read them several times to ensure she didn't miss anything.

Sam closed the notification screen, relaxed against a large log she had placed by the fire for that purpose, and started thinking, "How do I distribute my free attribute points? Do I keep doing what I'm doing, which, if I'm honest with myself, is just winging it, for the most part?" She thought about her experiences thus far. On the one hand, her nearly constant mana drain was a problem during fights. Still, the more she created new skills and leveled up her current skills, the less of an issue that would become because each new skill and skill level brought with it a reduced mana cost to varying degrees. More mana was always better, though…right? She wasn't so sure.

However, on the other hand, if she had been strong enough, she could have ended the fight with the wolf before it ever really began with a single blow to its brain, or so she assumed. In the end, it had taken a massive blast of mana to get her mana spike to penetrate the wolf's back and spine, "now that I think about it, I’m lucky the mana spike didn’t shatter.” Now that she knew the wolf's level, she realized she was extremely lucky. But what if she had thought of that trick at the beginning of the fight? She could have ended it right there with her magic.

“That’s two points to more mana and magic power,” she thought. Still, there were her constant near-death experiences. Hell, even the System recognized she spent pretty much every fight on the brink of death, if not from the very beginning, certainly by the end, so increasing her health pool should be at the top of her list of priorities…shouldn't it?

"Okay, with the mana manipulation ability, I can create specific skills that will make specific mana manipulation tasks more efficient and easier to perform, thus reducing the mana required to perform said task; even the description says something about the ability eventually becoming obsolete, although I doubt that will happen anytime soon. The System was right when it said I am only limited by my mental and physical abilities. I need to note it does mention physical abilities," Sam tapped her chin in thought, "If I had been stronger in both magic and strength, then I could have conserved mana by brute forcing that mana spike into the wolf's brain which would have allowed me to continue fighting with both magic and stamina in the event there had been more wolves present or something land-based had come from the water. But that still leaves out the fact that I only got close enough to the wolf because it was paralyzed. I would have been slaughtered if I had tried to fight it head-to-head, and I would have never been able to outrun it." Sighing, she knew how she had to distribute her points; she had always known, but the min/max gamer part of her brain was still struggling.

In the end, Sam decided she no longer wanted to be nearly killed by a single hit within the first few seconds of every fight because her health pool was so small. She wanted to be able to dodge those lethal hits, too. Still, Sam made sure to increase her mana pool by adding points to wisdom and her magic strength, which came from intelligence, according to her primer. Having thought about it more, she was now much less worried; she was making a mistake by not focusing exclusively on the caster route. Fear of being killed in one hit by an ambush predator she failed to detect with her magic helped make her mind up. It kept her from dumping all her free points into intelligence and wisdom. Plus, she had no idea if it could happen, but there could be a time when her magic was suppressed, and all she had was her strength and speed. So, with all that in mind, Sam distributed her free points and confirmed her choices. After the wave of power and ecstasy washed over her, she checked her status page.

Samantha Alecto Moura [S.A.M.]

Race: Human; Mortal [Level 15]

Class: Arcane Pathfinder [Level 13]

Health: 861

Stamina: 485

Mana: 2066

Attributes:

STR – 45 [46]

VIT – 43 [48]

END – 26 [29]

AGL – 27 [27]

INT – 45 [46]

WIS – 57 [115]

Free Attribute Points 0.

Abilities:

Spatial Inventory

Loot

Linguistics

Cartography

Mana Manipulation

Mana Sight [Level 7]

Class Skills:

Mana Crafting [Level 10]

Mana Repair [Level 10]

Mana Caster [Level 1]

Racial/General Skills:

Identify [Level 3]

Resilient [Level 3]

Meditation [Level 7]

Class Spells:

None

Racial/General Spells:

None

Resistance(s):

Pain [Level 10]

Heat [Level 5]

Poison [Level 9]

Sam sat back on her bedroll and stared into the softly crackling fire, dumbfounded by her stat increase. In one fight, she went from a weak human with an epic class to a freaking unkillable powerhouse, or at least that's what she hoped she was now. It was difficult to see it any other way when she was now essentially twice as strong as she had been when she had, at her low level of 7, taken on a level 61 and 52, respectively, and survived against all odds. Now, she had more than doubled her level! She was ready to test her new strength. "I would annihilate a freaking Deep Hunter right now, and I could probably take on another Great Timberwolf without assistance…probably." That thought gave her pause. She had only survived the encounter with the wolf because she had used the Deep Hunter to weaken it significantly by crippling it and taking it out of its natural element. After thinking about that for a while, she decided she would still be able to win without help if she encountered another wolf, mostly because she knew her magic blades were currently more powerful than the basic Iron Daggers she had been given by the System. She could make them thinner, sharper, and more rigid. She could also use efficient ranged attacks with the mana caster skill. Also, her agility was slightly higher.

Sam sat for a while in silence, simply enjoying the glowing fire and the cool breeze from the nearby river. After a few minutes, she scrunched her brow in thought, remembering her stat sheet. When did meditation and pain resistance go up? "Oh well, it doesn't really matter. I do need to focus on meditating as often as possible, though; something tells me if I am ever able to meditate and fight at the same time, it will be a game changer."

Sam couldn't bring herself to, although she wanted to try her new mana-casting skill. She didn't want to accidentally shut down the safe zone her campsite had created. She was already taking enough of a risk by eating the poisonous meat, knowing it would harm her. Thankfully, it didn't count as an attack, but she didn't want to push her luck.

"No more experimenting," Sam told herself, "Just enjoy the fact you're still alive and relax by the warm fire for a while." Taking her own advice, Sam spent the next several hours enjoying the peace and quiet of camping in the little clearing. As she lay on her bedroll, she stared up at the unfamiliar moons and stars as they floated silently across the night sky, watching them absently until finally drifting off, thinking about how peaceful the forest was when it wasn't actively trying to kill her.