Devon didn’t stay idle for long, just enough to get his mana back up to 130/160. His Health seemed to be capped out at 92/100 for now, likely because of his still healing wounds. It was good enough for now, so he set on to his next task, getting shelter and warmth for the night that would set in soon.
Luckily, Devon at least knew how to make a fire with a hand drill, and he was able to use mana to carve the wood precisely and quickly. In no time he had a small fire going with wood from the trees scattered along the riverbank. The shelter part was a little harder, as he just had no idea how to go about making some.
He hadn’t even built his fire near a possible location, so he might have to relocate it. The only thing Devon could remember was that fallen trees provided easy shelter, but he couldn’t find any on the riverbank. While he didn’t want to lose his source of water, he eventually had to give up and head towards a valley overlooked by the hill he came down.
The valley was heavily forested, and as Devon walked towards it he felt a twinge of worry, but his worry that he might not survive a cold night overshadowed his fear of the dark grove.
He didn’t have to go too far from the river before he found a fallen tree. He was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to set up a sort of lean to that provided protection from the wind, but he was still cold. However, night had fully fallen by then, so he had no other choice but to curl up in his lean to on the cold hard ground and try to sleep.
* ••
Devon felt tired still when he woke up, and was disappointed to realize that it was still dark out. He lay in his shabby shelter for a bit, trying to fall back asleep. It was then that he heard a growl, freezing his breathing.
It sounded close to him, and the owner snuffled around for a bit before growling once more, now closer to him. He slowly sat up in his shelter, wondering what was outside. With what he had seen thus far it could be anything, but he didn’t want to find out.
Making sure not to hit his head on the roof of his shelter, he retrieved his wooden spear from his side and squirmed onto his belly. Luckily, he had thought about this possibility when setting up his shelter and made a large entrance. All he had to do was wiggle out and he would be-
A loud snort from right next to him interrupted his thoughts, and he burst out of his shelter, sticks falling everywhere. He heard a screech that he couldn’t believe came from the same creature with the deep snuffles as earlier, and his body suddenly felt sluggish, a weight settling over him.
It was a struggle to move his arms, but he backed against a tree, getting a good look at the creature that had accosted him. It seemed to have been just as scared as him by his burst from the shelter, but it snorted again and started padding towards him.
It looked like a fox, if a fox had a bear’s snout and thicker legs. Its brown fur blended in against the forest background, and its yellow eyes seemed laser focused on him. Using Identify, Devon saw that it was called a Rolt, but the level was again obscured.
As the Rolt approached him, the icy calm of Bravery once again settled over him. Devon felt it this time, and he let it happen, prioritizing his life over complete control of his body. He settled into a crouch, holding the spear out in front of him and making it perfectly clear to the Rolt that it would be attacked.
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Its fur rippled, and that was all the warning Devon got before it attempted to dive under his spear. Not having time for a piercing attack, he brought the tip of the spear down on its head before dashing away from the tree to maintain his range advantage.
The Rolt was visibly rattled, and Devon was surprised by how much damage his hit did. Still, it shook it off and began looking for another opening. Now that Devon was calmer, he could very much admire its grace and the way in which it moved. There seemed to be mana moving throughout it as it dashed or lunged, empowering the muscles used.
While this gave Devon ideas of his own, he had already resolved not to experiment with mana inside his body until he understood more about the world.
The Rolt circled around him, occasionally attempting to bat away his spear with its front paws. It was always too fast for Devon to follow, so he decided to take the initiative. He thrust his spear towards the Rolt, forcing it to take several steps back. He capitalized on his advantage, carefully pushing it toward the fallen tree that served as his shelter until it could not back up any more.
The Rolt growled, and Devon saw that it only had two places it could conceivably go, both equally likely. Time slowed to a crawl as the Rolt attempted to make its escape, and Devon felt the mana around him react to his need to know where the Rolt was going. A purple path flashed into existence to the right of the escaping Rolt, and Devon immediately thrust his spear towards it, trusting the path.
At the same time, the Rolt suddenly pushed off, leaping with lightning speed right into Devon’s waiting spear. The impact hurt Devon’s arms, the Rolt fully impaled on the spear. Devon could feel as Bravery’s effect ended, and he quickly pulled the spear out and stepped away as his normal thoughts rushed back into his head to greet him.
The Rolt looked pitiful as it lay there dying, but Devon found he didn’t care much. It had attacked him, and no matter how much it looked like an animal from Earth, innocent of complex thought, Devon knew now that the System changed these creatures. The Rolt was clearly well fed, and its aggressive immediate attack made Devon think that it wasn’t just trying to eat, it was trying to kill.
Devon saw the system messages pop up in front of his eyes, reminding him that the Rolt wasn’t the only one rewarded by kills.
You killed Rolt Level 11!
Level up! *2
You have reached level 5! Upgrade available!
Choose one class skill to upgrade. This choice will influence future class upgrades!
Bravery
Crafting
Mana Manipulation
This was a pleasant surprise, though he would much rather have gotten the option to get a new class skill. However, the choice itself was hard. Bravery and Mana Manipulation were the skills that he actually used, but he really wasn’t sure which would help him more. In the last fight, he could tell looking back that the purple guiding lines were created by a fusion of the two, so upgrading either would help, but Bravery had saved his life many times even in the short time he had been in this world.
In the end, the choice came down to his personal feelings on the skills. Bravery, however useful it was, was still affecting him in a way he didn’t like. And if he wanted to get rid of it, it seemed like choosing Mana Manipulation was his best bet.
Choosing the skill didn’t seem to do much, but checking his status it had changed to Lesser Mana Manipulation. That seemed like a downgrade to him, but the System probably knew better than him. The level had also gone down by one, suggesting it would be harder to level, but again it was probably just stronger. He did want to test it out, but first he had some stat assigning and looting to do.