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During his trek to the mountains, Isaia had had to search for animals to replenish his energy.

He couldn't test the limits of his powers and conduct experiments, trying to do the minimum in the form of hunting. Each use of a skill meant the emergence of hunger and fatigue, something he very much wished to avoid in a situation like this. It required a less stressful and peaceful environment, not being on the run and in the forest. It would be possible to learn more about the newfound power only after finding safety, but now it was an unthinkable luxury.

On the other hand, he did not want to return to a half-dead state, dragging his existence on the edge of survival. It was not without crises, though.

One day, a pack of gray and toothy creatures that had long warned of their presence in the forest by howling wanted to encroach on the young man's interests, apparently smelling blood after another of the lad’s hunts.

This time the wolves were close enough to squeeze their own interference into Isaia's plans, but everything went smoothly. He had to spend two days in the tree though, waiting for the patience of the already hungry wolves to run out.

He decided not to take risks by confronting them, considering the adventure too laborious and thankless. The lad remembered that every time his mistakes consisted of ignorance of some aspects about the wild environment and lack of knowledge. Usually, he was not in favor of getting into crisis situations so often.

Not having to move allowed him to conserve his energy reserves, from which idling in a tree mostly consumed his time resources.

For quite some time Isaia even had a long respect for his own person, that he could plan ahead and get on the right course in his affairs. Alas, the statistics had been spoiled by the events of the last few days, when he had made mistake after mistake, which had made him less conceited and required him to pay special attention to everything.

The days passed one after another, and with each passing day more and more was learned about new features, and on the third day of his stay Isaia concluded that sleep was no longer necessary. There was no fatigue, no psychological cravings or pressure, it was only necessary to constantly replenish energy reserves through blood, the rest was like water off a duck's back.

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The two-day wait in the tree until the wolves' patience gave way allowed him to feel some little unwanted fatigue and hunger all over again, but it was nothing like what happens when you drain your energy reserves to the minimum by manipulating the blood for too long.

As a result of the experience of sitting in a tree, it was decided to kill any animal in the vicinity, so that if it was necessary to wait several days in one place again, these feelings would never come.

Speaking of the unfortunate event itself, it was on that day that Isaia realized how sneaky and cunning animals can be.

Having lain under the tree for a whole day, the beasts that were definitely not clean on their hands, made it appear that they were leaving, tired and recognizing their defeat, but in fact everything was the opposite of appearances.

If they had been card players, they would have cheated, pulling a new deck out of nowhere, so unscrupulous and sneaky were the wild creatures that day.

It wasn't his vigilance or foresight that saved the lad from another mistake, it was the manipulation of blood again. With the help of his senses, which he had already gotten used to, Isaia felt that the wolves had not gone far away, but had hidden themselves somewhere about thirty meters away from his tree.

It wasn't good to rely on his senses all the time, but in this particular situation they had, on the contrary, cautioned rather than forced him to take a risky action.

That day he vowed to himself to be more cruel to the animal world and not spare them just by the blunt expression on their faces, losing all respect for Mother Nature if she taught her followers to play by such dishonorable rules.

And what actors, Isaia began to have doubts about Hollywood, this forest was where talent went to waste, if wolves can so professionally play the downcast mood and surrendered personalities who resigned themselves to their fate and slowly leave to seek sustenance elsewhere with their heads and tails down.

On the other hand, in the field of the magical component, Isaia began to get used to it. He even defined himself his own scale of energy satisfaction. He did it involuntarily, his body was getting used to it and automating the process. And now before a slight fatigue and hunger appeared, the lad could already anticipate it and increase his blood supply.

This recent experience with the wolves had shown that it was impossible to keep with an overflowing energy reserve all the time, and there would be situations when it might be necessary to do without additional blood supply.

It was always better to overstock, but it also turned out that if he did nothing and just stayed awake, his stamina consumption was minimal and he could probably last a week, feeling only a fraction of the fatigue and hunger he'd felt on the first day.

On the other hand, the ability was a bit of a letdown when it came to over-energy. By the end of the first week in the forest, the lad had for the first time replenished his blood supply to its maximum capacity. This value equaled roughly that obtained from six boars or about thirty hares.

He estimated that if he took the value he had when he woke up at the edge of the forest as the standard, he now has twice as much energy by the end of the week, but it wasn't without bad news.

The unexpected, one might even say a misstep and a negative factor, was that having received an excessive amount of energy Isaia found that he felt worse and had a severe headache if he tried to absorb more blood than the current two times of the standard amount.

As soon as he tries to absorb more, there are feelings of nausea and headaches. Apparently, it comes from the excessive amount of energy that causes high blood pressure. Not wanting to take any risks, he stopped looking for a new source of energy at the first onset of these symptoms.

It's also worth mentioning that as the blood manipulation was used, some mastery of it emerged over time.