The cold air of the night blew my hair as I read the system interface.
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Choose one.
>DARK STARE (rank 0):
Your eyes are imbued with dark element mana passively, granting great vision in the dark and slowly weakening any being you stare at. (strength of weakening varies based on darkness present in the environment).
>DARK CHAIN (rank 0):
Using your mana materialize from either you or a dark area a chain that binds to a target, while bound the target skills are suppressed and his movement is slightly restricted. (strength varies based on darkness present in the environment).
>TOUCHED BY DARKNESS (rank 0):
Your Dark element skills and control over dark element mana is improved based on TOUCHED BY DARKNESS level and rank, however you are unable to manipulate non dark element mana. (strength amplified in darkness).
Note: Suppressing, weakening and restricting effects may be resisted in many different ways.
For example, a target with a Clarity rank higher than your Power rank may reduce or completely nullify both skill suppression and/or Mind weakening effects.
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“Finally” I said to myself looking at the dark chain.
Though it didn’t deal damage, the idea of finally having some ranged combat options was enticing to the point I almost selected it instantly.
But then a detail caught my attention, every single one of these skills grows based on darkness in the surroundings, meaning at night my power would be significantly better.
The problem was, if in dusk I already struggled to see, in the dark hours of the night when I would be strongest, fighting and hunting would be impossible.
A true waste in my opinion, especially when the solution to such a problem was right in front of me.
‘Other options will show up eventually’ I consoled myself while selecting dark stare.
Suddenly I felt my mana change slightly as a bit of it flowed to my eyes.
Not a moment later like the world filled with blue light I was able to see like it was day time aside for the blue filter.
No, I could see even better and further away than in day time.
‘Should I test out the other effect on the wolf?’
I contemplated for a bit before deciding against it, since weakening my only ally for an unknown amount of time was a bad idea.
Then a system notice popped up once more.
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In response to the acquisition of *DARK STARE* skill your mana has been slightly attuned to the Dark element.
Note: Future skill options may reflect your attunement.
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‘So its not only through my dark sacrifice that I can get dark skills, huh’
Opening my stat page I noticed that although the rank and points had been reset, the body rank progression seemed unaffected.
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Stats:
Body rank 0 - 1/3
-Strength: rank 0 - 44/100
-Health: rank 0 - 1/100
-Resistance: rank 0 - 72/100
Mind rank 0 - 0/3
-Power: rank 0 - 9/100
-Mana: rank 0 - 32/100
-Clarity: rank 0 - 28/100
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‘But damn, 1/100 is quite the harsh reset, it’s even lower than my initial Health stat.’
Thankfully stat points and ranks didn’t seem to affect me that much physically, at least for now.
‘Well I’ll find out how much this affects mana nourishment tomorrow, for today let’s sleep.’ I think to myself making my way to my personal night warmer, only to see her with a mouth full of blood still gulping down pieces of the fox.
‘Yeah, let’s wait for her to finish first’
***
Jake and Frost woke up at the break of dawn, with Jake unable to go back to sleep even after a short and poor night, a given since even a wooden floor was luxury in the middle of the forest.
With Frost as a guide they slowly made their way to the river, watching carefully for signs of both prey and danger and though no prey was found, throughout their walk both of them noticed worrisome claw marks the size of Jake’s functioning arm carved in the trunks of a few trees.
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Worried they were inside such beast territory they accelerated their pace, soon reaching the magical waters that seemed to shine with even stronger light than yesterday.
***
Jake
Looking down at the crystal-like waters I could see numerous fish swimming frantically while fighting in the river’s currents, in a way it truly made me wonder if the mana presence had something to do with their sheer quantity.
After all, outside this river I hadn’t seen many animals in this snowy forest.
‘Maybe it’s for the best.’ since chances are we might be dead already if the woods were as competitive.
Taking a moment to try the dark stare’s weakening effect I stared at a fish that was fighting close by, only to watch as it was soon carried away by the currents before any effect took place.
Sighing to myself I look for one that isn’t moving with the river, which ended up being a 4 meter long carp swimming dozens of meters deep, right below the fast currents.
Locking my gaze onto it I stared.
And stared.
And stared a bit more.
Till after a few minutes I felt the wolf poke my side growling, confused by my sudden lack of movement.
Sighing I stopped my experiment, since even after all that looking at the carp itself seemed unphased, not even looking at my direction once.
So I concluded that either the skill did nothing during day time or the carp had stats significantly higher than me.
‘Maybe both to be honest.’
With that out of the way I squatted and carefully put my hand below the water surface, wouldn’t want to be snatched away by a gigantic carp after all.
Activating mana nourishment the difference was instantly noticeable, with the amount of hunger and thirst it diminished going from weak to almost not even there, thankfully I still felt some of it working.
“I’m gonna need some time today buddy.” I said to the wolf, half joking to myself.
To my surprise along with the usual growling a voice resonated in my head.
“Really?” It sounded female and gruff, which made me guess the speaker instantly.
‘This fucker had spent the last two days growling, barking and acting oblivious when she could not only understand but talk back? Was she fucking with me?’ I thought in shock.
“Since when you can talk? Why didn’t you say something earlier?” I questioned her, baffled.
“Not get talk before... get talk now.” she answered with broken words, but somehow I understood the message clearly.
“Is that part of the soulmates mark skill? Or something else?” I asked curious, excited at the possibility of knowing her capabilities better.
“Soulmates mark.” she answered bluntly, clearly not used to communicating this way.
‘Not that I am either.’
“Hey I’ve been curious for a while, but what else does that skill do?” I knew it did something when one of our vitality went to below critical levels, that if one of us died the other would go on too and that it served as some sort of mental communication channel.
Which when added with the magical language acquisition, made me question if I got unlucky with my inborn skill, then again, dark sacrifice seemed like a growth focused skill.
“Mark do a lot.” She answered curtly.
“Come on, list it to me, we have the time anyway.” I insisted, nodding towards my submerged hand,that made it possible to keep mana nourishment active even while we talked.
She stopped for a few seconds seemingly considering what to say.
“Choose someone once. Mark together forever. Communicate easy. Understand easy.” She paused a bit, concentration clear in her blue eyes.
“You get strong. I get small strong. You get smart. I get small smart. That good part.” She said, before pausing once more to think of her next words.
“Bad part. Not together. Both get weak. Big not together. Both die. One die. Both die.” She said at last, visibly proud of her apt communication skills.
‘Wow, that's a good skill, though the whole not together die frightens me a bit.’
“Well done buddy.” I praised her with a smile.
“I know it's a bit late, but my name Jake, what’s yours?” I introduced myself to my wolf companion, a concept that would have me laughing at its absurdity a week ago.
“Frost Hunter.” Though still short and gruff, the happiness in her mental voice was palpable and only made more obvious by her fastly wagging tail.
“That’s a very fitting name Frost.” I comment, when suddenly I feel something grab my hand under the water.
Panic instantly fills my heart as I jump away from the river, bringing the hand biter together with me.
Frost reacts fast, biting it out of my arm before I even process what happened.
With the sound of my own heartbeat loud in my ear, as I stare at my right hand, thanking every god and deity I knew that it got out unharmed.
For a moment I truly thought I would lose my last hand, not even a couple days after losing my left hand and forearm.
Taking deep breaths I slowly calmed myself down while lying on the snow staring at the sky.
‘Not gonna get distracted while touching the magical river.’ I vowed to myself, not even a week had gone by and I was already getting too complacent.
After calming down I looked at Frost tearing the half meter trout apart.
“Thanks for the help Frost.” I said, slowly squatting back at the river’s shore readying myself to have my “meal” once more.
But this time fully concentrated on the beasts that traveled the magical currents.
And at first all went well, although significantly slower and more mana consuming, I could tell that in less than half an hour I should be done.
But around the 15 minute mark a headache started to gradually set in, at first it was so subtle it had me thinking it was just tiredness from a bad night of sleep, but as the minutes ticked and I pushed on with mana nourishment it kept worsening.
At some point I lost track of time, it got hard to think, I could barely keep concentration on the creatures below the surface and I felt I might puke at any moment, but in a trance I just kept going.
At some point things got fuzzier.
I felt like the world around me was shaking.
A bunch of system notices started to pop up.
A voice entered my mind.
A sudden force pulled me back.
And the moment my hand left the river all confusion went away, leaving me laying in the snow, with my muscles spasming out and a headache that felt like someone was pounding my head with a hammer.
“Jake! Jake!” Frost repeatedly yelled in my mind, poking the side of my head with her snout.
“Calm down Frost, I'm fine.” I said weakly to calm her down, in actual fact I was not fine.
Hearing my answer her voice stopped and not a moment later she put her head on my chest growling in what felt to me like a scolding tone.
Looking away from her I read the system notices.
----------------------------
Mana rank up threshold reached!
Mana rank 0 —-> 1
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Second threshold reached Class - Wanderer I —-> Wanderer II
Class skill related to Mana ready for claim!
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----------------------------
Clarity rank up threshold reached!
Clarity rank 0 —-> 1
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Third threshold reached! Class - Wanderer II —-> Wanderer III
Class skill related to Clarity ready for claim!
----------------------------
----------------------------
WARNING!
Low Mana Poisoning detected.
Any active utilization of mana will incur backlash, increase poisoning duration and has a chance to increase poisoning level.
Estimated duration ~24h.
----------------------------
Looking at the notifications the results seemed good since what I had gained of progress in the stats more than justified a 24 hours debuff.
‘I should be happy’ I think to myself.
Bringing my right hand close to the claim notifications as I try to sit back up with the help of my other arm, only for my left stump to press a bit deeper in the snow, leaving me just as close to the ground as I was before.
A bit of sadness seems to creep in as I stare at my only hand shake in front of the claim message.
I sigh and shake my head.
‘For now survival is all that matters.’
I click on the notification while laying down on the snow.