Sitting back down, I finally let myself properly relax and process what just happened.

Damn, okay. That was crazy. I don’t know what I expected when I decided to mess with the ritual. But anyway, that’s the first time I killed something. Does it even count as killing though? I mean, sure, it is a living being, but on the other hand, it is something that functions on a completely different set of rules.

I’m sure there are people in the wider multiverse that can answer that question. I don’t need to worry about it.

And also, yay! I didn’t know that I could make my spells stronger by focusing on it without using amplifiers. Or is focusing on it considered an amplifier? But if I go down that rabbit hole, what wouldn’t be considered an amplifier? Either way, I’m going to have to train that. Maybe portals aren’t that far in the future after all.

Okay, I think I’ve calmed down enough. Let me check my gains.

Level Up!

Fortified mind – level 59 -> 63

Languages – level 31 -> 32

General knowledge – level 37 -> 39

Visualize – level 49 -> 51

Parallel processing – level 61 -> 65

Improvised implements – level 32 -> 33

Meditation – level 41 -> 42

Digestive system – level 7 -> 10

Aha, I knew it! Once again, the stories are right. Fighting, or life and death situations, really do help with levelling.

Not really sure why improvised implements levelled up, but whatever.

Before I can think much deeper about it though, the System gives me a new prompt.

Congratulations! You have performed a great feat!

Your skill Parallel processing has the option of tiering up.

Do you wish to continue?

What? Great feat? What does that mean? And there are tiers to skills? System! Please give me an explanation, I beg of you!

Nothing happens. Wait, maybe general knowledge can identify something from the notification!

Great feat

A monumental action or otherwise that pushes against the limits of your abilities or has a great impact on the world or otherwise.

And that’s all. I would have thought that ‘tiering up’ would also be identifiable, but I guess not. Hmm, no I did something really great, huh?

I wonder which part it was. I mean, I don’t mean to brag but there were a number of things that could be considered as great feats.

Summoning an eldritch creature could be considered one. Also killing it. But summoning it wasn’t really thanks to my abilities. Killing it though. Well, I suppose that it means I wasn’t in that much danger after all.

What else could it have been...?

The screen flashes before me, pulling my attention to it.

Huh? That’s never happened before. Is this a timed prompt? But there’s no timer. A nothing else has been timed. Other than the Magic bullshit, and that had a visible timer on it.

Anyway, I’d rather not risk it. Tiers seem like something very important. But should I?

Obviously great feats are just that, great things I did. So logically, there should be an appropriate reward. Right? Damn, I really hope I’m not making a mistake.

Identifying great feat.

Great feat identified.

You corralled your vast amount of thought streams to all focus on a single task, controlling your magic.

Your skill Parallel processing becomes Focus magic!

Huh.

What does that actually mean though? Not just the new skill. But also, what happened to parallel processing. I guess there’s just one way to find out. And that is by checking my status. It’s been a while since I did that.

Name: Ra’mon

Age: 0

Level: 0 + 1

Body: peak mortal

Mind: superhuman

Soul: magic initiate

Traits:

Void brushed

Cognito-hazard resistance

Skills:

Silent step – level 47

Fortified mind – level 63

Languages – level 32

General knowledge – level 39

Visualize – level 51

Parallel processing – level 65

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Focus magic – level 0

Improvised implements – level 33

Meditation – level 42

Digestive system – level 11

…

Spells:

Distort Spacetime

Well, ignoring the fact that my digestive system keeps levelling up, it’s interesting. Let me just make sure that it isn’t crossed out only as a sign of what changed and… okay, yes. It’s still there.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Which I expected because I still have all my thought streams running in my head. So why is it crossed out when I clearly still have access to it? Eh, I’ll find out later.

Onto the more important stuff. I have a magic skill! Sure, it’s not a spell and seems similar to the other amplifier skills, but still! There’s just one more thing I need to know. What does it do?

Focus magic – A tier 2 skill stemming from Parallel processing. Allows the focusing of the entire mind on a single action, magic. Slightly enhances mind while focusing.

Okay, so not an amplifier skill after all? Ah, but that comes back to the idea I had a little while ago. Everything could technically be an amplifier.

Anyway, might as well try it out. But before that, I need to do something about this corpse. I can’t just leave it here. What if one of the very few surviving creatures eats from it and becomes eldritch? Can’t have that.

I look at it, pondering over what to do. And freeze.

It’s smaller. Not by that much, but my fortified mind clearly remembers that it used to be larger. Is not dead after all? Somehow fleeing through microscopic tendrils I can’t see?

I observe it for a minute. Ah, good. It’s not running away.

I guess this must be another property of eldritch beings. Maybe reality rejects their form or whatever, but the shadowy flesh is slowly turning into smoke and then promptly vanishing. But it’s so slow that it’s barely noticeable.

But what to do with these ritual stones? I don’t want something, or someone, else activating it. And maybe they even have some sort of timer inside, after which they activate automatically. In that case I should dismantle it.

But then again. This could be a good training ground. At the very least for skills. Maybe even for my actual level, but I’m not so sure anymore that that one increases from killing things. So, I should keep it and come back every once in a while, to summon a horror and train against it?

I don’t know, seems sort of dangerous. But dismantling it could also be dangerous. What if there are some defensive mechanisms in there? Or what if it’s actually containing the rift into the abyss? Then again, why would you put in a function to open something that you want contained.

Could I cast an illusion spell over this clearing? I mean, I can. But the question is whether it’d last for long enough. And also, whether or not I have enough mana to cast it.

Ah, whatever. I’m going to trust that everything else around here is already dead and what isn’t doesn’t have the capabilities to do anything with magic.

Sure, that doesn’t sound irresponsible at all.

But anyway, that’s all I came here for. Not much else to do here. Right then, I’ll leave first thing tomorrow. It’s already getting quite dark.

The next morning, I wake up bright and early. Sure, thanks to fortified mind I can exhaust myself to the very brink of passing out, but I can also recover much quicker.

I check up on the eldritch corpse and see that only a fist sized chunk remains of it. Shrugging my shoulders, I pick it up.

Might as well take it with me. Maybe I can use it for something, probably magic, but if not it’s better to keep this out of the wrong hands. My hands, on the other hand, are very right. And left.

The trip back takes about two days once again, though this time I remember my long-forgotten experiment.

I haven’t learned anything else about the red leaves of the Sappard trees, so if general knowledge tells me more about it than last time, I’ll finally have my answer.

A fallen leaf of the Sappard tree. It has a striking deep crimson blood-red colouration. It helps disguise any signs of the Sappard’s victims. Which is also from where it gains its colour.

Yes! So purely levelling the skill is enough to learn more!

Also, that plant is even more evil than I thought. Not only does it dissolve creatures, it also uses the blood of those very same victims to disguise any marks it may have left over. Pumping it into its leaves and then letting them fall off.

They are almost more eldritch than the actual eldritch.

And then I’m back home. Home? When did I start calling it that? No, it certainly isn’t home and I’m leaving as soon as I’m able to.

And since I ate the last bits of my preprepared food the day before, I’m quite hungry. Which means it’s time to cook.

The harvesting of the bark has become routine by now. Sure, a bit of focus is still necessary, but that’s mostly because my knife isn’t very good.

Not even ten minutes later a pot of water is already over the campfire and I’m ready to start the flavour enhancing ritual. Except that this time I have a new skill to try out.

I start casting. Over my stay here I refined and added onto the simple phrase it was originally. It actually became so complex at one point that it took longer that the actual magic, so I had to reduce it. Now it takes exactly as long as the magic is flowing out of me into the food.

And I added the dancing to it too. What can I say, it became boring to just sit still for a couple of minutes reciting the incantations while imagining the flavour I’m going for.

Right as the mist starts to seep out of me, I feel the new skill activate. Which is what I’ve been waiting for. I was beginning to worry a little bit when nothing was happening for a while.

Of course, it isn’t like suddenly all of my thoughts snapped to focus on casting the magic. It just became much easier to make them all do the same thing and cooperate. But the biggest thing is that I felt it guide me.

Only the faintest of nudges, even weaker that an instinct, but it told me what to do. Quickly, I enter into meditation and let myself be guided.

Before, when I was trying to cast multiple spells at once, I figured out that they have to exit me at different point or they’re going to interfere with each other. And somehow, I managed that. I shifted the origin point from my front to my sides, so that both can exist at the same time.

What I hadn’t realized back then was that I managed to manipulate the esoteric mist that is magic. But now I know, and whatever instincts the System forgot to mention are part of focus magic are helping me apply that to more.

Not only to where the spell comes from, but also the stream itself. I manage to straighten it, make it travel a more efficient path before actually becoming the spell. I also learn to slightly condense it, to waste less power travelling.

It’s beautiful. And then it’s over.

The spell ends and all I’m left with is some spaghetti. It’s admittedly good spaghetti, the best spaghetti I’ve ever had even, but still only spaghetti.

Oh well, it’s not like that was a onetime thing. I can just do another spell and it’ll come back.

Hmm, ok. One last thing before I get back to the grind. How are my levels doing?

Level Up!

Silent step – level 47 -> 48

Languages – level 32 -> 34

General knowledge – level 39 -> 42

Focus magic – level 0 -> 11

Improvised implements – level 33 -> 34

Meditation – level 42 -> 45

Digestive system – level 11 -> 22

Nice, now onto some more magic.