You have opened an Iron Chest.

Contents: Water bottle (Mundane), Fire-starting kit (Mundane), Iron Dagger (Standard), Minor Attribute Ticket (Standard), Mana Orb (Enhanced).

Item Description: ‘Water bottle’ is a Mundane-ranked bottle capable of carrying 64 liquid ounces at a time.

Item Description: ‘Fire-starting kit’ is a Mundane-ranked kit containing a ferrocerium rod and its complementary scraper, which can be used to start fires.

Item Description: ‘Iron dagger’ is a Mundane-ranked tool or weapon. It is a simple iron dagger.

Item Description: ‘Minor Attribute Ticket’ is a Standard-ranked ticket that will allow Subject to add an additional 0.2 Attribute points to any one Attribute. Tear the ticket to use it.

Item Description: Mana Orb is an Enhanced-ranked item capable of storing and passively generating mana.

“I want the ticket and dagger. We can decide who gets the water bottle based on how good the Mana Orb is.” Alyssa said as they walked up to the chest, which Ethan thought was remarkably fair.

‘The Attribute ticket reminds me; I gained a level. I should go deal with that after dealing out the loot,’

“I’m fine with that,” Ethan said, “We share the fire-starter kit, I imagine?”

“Yup; it doesn’t really matter who gets that. I guess we just give it to whoever’s better at starting the fires?” Alyssa said, seeming to be in a very good mood- which was reasonable. He was too, of course, but the joy also had to contend with the pain in his leg.

Ethan and Alyssa went through the chest, taking everything out and laying it out on the ground. The moment that everything left the chest, it disappeared into thin air.

Since they’d already agreed on the allocation of stuff, Alyssa tore the Minor Attribute Ticket in two, and he could sense the two sides burst into mana, which flowed down her fingers and into her body, where he couldn’t detect anything anymore.

While she did that, Ethan inspected the Mana Orb. It was roughly the size of a baseball, and looked almost identical to a crystal ball. He wasn’t sure how durable it was and wasn’t willing to test it, but it had some considerable heft to it. Of course, none of that was the Mana Orb’s purpose. Ethan always had his mana sense active, but he could focus it much more easily than he could ‘focus’ any other sense.

The first thing that became clear to him was the maximum capacity of the orb, which it was about halfway to reaching. Ethan was relatively certain that, at its maximum capacity, it could store about four times the amount that his mana core could. After that, Ethan spent almost an entire minute trying to carefully monitor how fast the Mana Orb’s mana generation was, but his senses unfortunately weren’t sharp enough to perceive such a minute thing outside of his body.

Ethan wondered if he could permanently maintain two goblins simultaneously if he put the points from the level he’d gained into his Magic Attribute and utilized the Mana Orb’s mana generation. It would probably be a narrow call, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to boost his Fortitude, which would help him to heal faster, or if he wanted to gamble for the second goblin.

To start with, Ethan opened his ‘Panel’.

Subject: Ethan Cross

Class: Summoner (Uncommon)

Level: 4

Rank: 0

Attributes:

Agility: 1.6

Creativity: 1.5

Fortitude: 1.3

Insight: 1.2

Magic: 1.9

Processing: 1.4

Strength: 1.1

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Impartments: Summon Goblin

1 Minor Physicality Attribute Points available.

1 Minor Attribute Point available.

1 Attribute Point available.

‘I… forgot that I leveled up after summoning Fred.’ Ethan thought. That was yet another gigantic mistake, on par with having forgotten to tell Fred to stand guard. In his defense, he’d been tired. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have complained about the System’s notifications…’

Since he couldn’t put the Minor Physicality point into Magic, he put it into Fortitude, so that he’d hopefully heal faster, causing It to go from 1.2 to 1.4. After that, he noted that his Magic Attribute had gone from 1.8 to 1.9 all on its own, similarly to Agility.

Unlike Agility, though, Magic was more easily measured. He focused on his mana core, where his mana sense was significantly more powerful than with the Mana Orb, and took measurements.

Undoubtedly, he was generating mana faster than before, and his maximum capacity had risen. Ethan roughly estimated that it would be on-par with a 0.1 Attribute enhancement from the System.

Now that he’d made that observation, Ethan put both of the remaining Attribute Points into Magic, raising the Attribute from 1.9 to 2.5

…It was different from how it had been every other time, though. Ethan let out an involuntary scream as his mana core fractured all the way throughout, clutching at his chest as his vision swam. Mere moments afterwards, though, mana seemed to come from nowhere all around him and pushed into his body with ease, cradling his ruined mana core and carefully piecing it back together. The processing was agonizing too, but his dry throat felt raw from the first guttural scream he’d let out and only barely let him get groans out. After three seconds of putting his mana core back together like it was a jigsaw puzzle, a different sort of mana flowed into his mana core, and… it was suddenly back together again.

Congratulations! Your Attribute, Magic, has reached a Milestone and undergone a fundamental upgrade.

Ethan panted heavily, clutching his chest and trying to keep from making too much noise. Phantom pains tore at his chest, but gradually, they faded. Gradually, his vision stopped swimming and crawled onto dry land, and his ringing ears cleared enough for him to hear Gadget’s fearful whining and Alyssa’s voice, although he couldn’t yet make out what she was saying.

The marching of time stopped for nobody and nothing, though, and Ethan eventually managed to make out her words. They amounted to repeatedly asking if he was alright, which seemed like a stupid question, and what was going on, as though they were mantras. He knew that he should answer so that he wasn’t scaring her anymore than he already was, but Ethan couldn’t bring himself to make even just his mouth move.

Gadget shoved his nose into Ethan’s chest, whining loudly, and Ethan’s resolve to move even slightly steeled. He managed to force out what he imagined was a slurred, “I’m alright,” but he wasn’t sure.

A full minute later, Ethan managed to sit up and could hear and see clearly. He was trying to explain what had happened to Alyssa, but his raw voice forced him to stop every few words. Eventually, he managed to explain that his Magic Attribute had apparently reached a ‘Milestone’ and had undergone a fundamental upgrade, which had been utterly agonizing. She seemed terrified at the prospect, but…

Now that it was already past him, Ethan felt a bit excited to see the benefits. Ethan focused his mana sense and checked in on his Mana core for the second time in a few minutes, to find that…

His maximum capacity for mana was larger, and more mana was flowing into his core per second than ever before, but… It was only sixty or so percent better, which would’ve happened even without the ‘fundamental upgrade’ to his Magic Attribute.

It took until Ethan focused on the mana itself and not his mana core to realize the difference. The mana was denser and more powerful; it was vibrant and bursting with power, and felt more attuned towards summoning than before.

It was difficult to make a comparison on the difference due to the many changes his mana capacity and mana generation rate constantly changing, but assuming that his capacity and generation were reverted to when he had first summoned Bob... Ethan reckoned that what had taken half of his mana core then would only take a quarter of it now. Paired with his other gains, Ethan didn’t think it was anything less than very plausible that he could summon and sustain three goblins simultaneously, permanently.

Ethan mentally swept his Panel away, finally shutting off his phone’s flashlight and checking the time. The numbers on his watch, which luckily glowed, read 12:22 A.M.

Ethan sighed. So much had happened, and yet they weren’t even through the morning. Hell, he’d almost died twice and he hadn’t even been here for twenty-four hours. After a few seconds of sitting silently, allowing his mind to simply be empty, his stomach rumbled, proving that his mind wasn’t the only empty thing at that moment. Only a second later, Alyssa spoke.

“The water bottle’s halfway full,” She said, and Ethan stood up rapidly. ‘Makes sense; the Mana Orb was halfway full, too.’ He thought, even as he rushed over.

“It’s my bottle, I get to drink first!” Alyssa said, yanking it away from him. Ethan watched miserably as Alyssa downed half of the bottle in one go, before handing it to him with a positively glowing smile- at the quenched thirst and not his misery, no doubt, but it still annoyed him.

“Gadget, come.” Ethan said, and he did. As Ethan debated how best to give the dog some of the water without wasting any of it, he decided to take a swig himself. He simply couldn’t resist the life-giving liquid’s call in his dehydrated state. He held himself back, though, stopping after drinking only a quarter of the liquid.

“I feel bad now,” Alyssa said quietly, staring at the panting golden retriever at his feet. “I was mostly just trying to get even with you for giving me a heart attack,” She forced out.

That made Ethan feel bad, and he quickly shook his head. “It’s fine; we can just get more soon. It’s raining, you know?” Ethan told her. Frankly, he was annoyed at the lack of consideration for Gadget, but it wasn’t considerable and definitely wasn’t worth causing strife. Humans didn’t operate well individually; they relied heavily on both tools and teamwork.