"Okay, what now?" Jacob asked himself as he started stretching, after finding out that he can cast magic, he honestly didn't know where to go from there. The first thing that popped up in his mind is to find the nearest civilization but where does he even start with that? Finding a river? Where the hell can he find a river? Going into the forest and searching for food sounded like a good idea but then the thought of foraging pretty much stopped that before it could even form cohesively.

'No, fuck that.' Jacob thought as he glanced at the plains. Save for the occasional grazers- some brown and black thing with four horns, - it is mostly empty. And it's exactly because of that he's suspicious of the place, there's no way in hell that he's gonna go into a Savannah and explore it, not without a gun, a car, magic, or all three.

So the Savanna isn't an option- and a quick look later, he's seen the place has actual tall grass, possibly to his height. Making the four horned animals outright gigantic, he didn't even want to consider going to it. - and now he's left with what? Either the forest or stick to the plains which... is not even that big to begin with, the place feels artificial actually, as if some group had camped her months ago and except for the grass that's been cut short, everything else that would've been their trace is now gone.

Looking up, Jacob saw the sun is now starting to dip down the horizon, he doesn't know what kind of monsters lurk in the darkness but he's not stupid enough to not realize that nocturnal hunters are dangerous during the night. 'I need to go.'

He paused, 'Okay, so no Savannah, but forest is a go.' His eyes went down and checked his clothes, a tank top, black leather jacket, jeans, and a pair of sneakers are the only things that he has as clothes which... while aren't bad, could definitely be better. Especially if he were go inside a forest.

His hand went inside his pockets, his phone is gone from his jacket's pockets but his wallet is still in his jeans. He opened it and checked, nothing but dollars and an ID. 'Useless, most likely,' He grimaced. 'Fuck.'

What else did he have? 'Let's see- Ah.' He opened his status screen and checked, and yep, right next to the word Stat is the number 5 stuck between two parentheses, 'Obvious is obvious, those are distributable,' He said to himself as he continued to pace back and forth, 'Now, where can I place them?..'

Cognitive didn't sound that bad and a test of placing one there resulted in satisfying stuff; His Amp increased by two and he can feel that his [Bolt] is now stronger than before. 'Magic for Cognitive, then.' Next was his Physical and placing one point there did nothing. 'Fuck.' Okay, so a lot of points are needed for that stat to show actual results. 'Though...' One more point went into the stat and finally, the remaining two went into his Cognitive.

He checked his status screen.

Health: 20/20

Amp: 16/16

Class: Energy Mage (Lvl 1)

Stats (0) :

Physical- 3 + 2 = 5

Cognitive- 5 + 3 = 8

Mental- 2

Spiritual- 1

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Skills:

Jabbing (Lvl 2)

Haggling (Lvl 3)

Financial Management (Lvl 3)

Cooking (Lvl 1)

Spells (3/4):

-Bolt (Lvl 1)

-Shield (Lvl 1)

-Guard (Lvl 1)

He didn't feel confident when he saw his Amp reach 16- he could've just easily regenerated the Bar by running after all - but the feeling of his Spells getting stronger was at least a reassurance that made him feel safe. He knew it wasn't much, probably just a basic increase to the damage or whatever it is that got upgraded. 'At least it's something.' He thought, gazing warily at the forest, 'I just hope that it's enough for me to be able to live through all this.'

His foot took a step forward, then another, and again until he went past beyond the trees. Each one was easier than before, and knowing that nothing jumped him did wonders for his confidence, 'I just... need to watch out for anything, that's all.' He said to himself, doing his best to ignore the lead that dropped into his gut.

To Jacob, there is nothing scarier than getting murdered by some random passerby on the street. Now that he's walking inside a slowly dimming forest as the sun goes down, he's thinking he might want to rethink his fears- A hoot came from behind him and his head whipped back to take a look, he stared warily as he pictured [Bolt] a mental circle slowly forming in the crevice of his mind. He continued walking, his eyes not leaving his back. He flinched when the Owl sang again, followed by a self deprecating laugh, "Fuck me, why am I scared, anyway?" He asked as if genuinely confused about the reaction.

Actually- to Jacob, there was nothing scarier than trying to remember something and coming out empty. He shuddered when he tried to dig through the nothingness that ate up most of his memories, worry in his gut. 'What the hell happened there?'

For a while, his fears went unwarranted even as the forest around him slowly darkened, even then, he kept looking around to make sure that there wasn't some random creature willing to attack him because he doesn't expect it. But even as his neck turned to peek at every tree, and his eyes kept seeing things, his mind wasn't really there, he wasn't paying attention, and all he does is put on a show to convince creatures that they shouldn't attack him. Cold air washed over him and a brief moment of clarity came. Jacob was back in his body, he pulled up his hood, then was out again, his body going through motions as if it was a robot.

Then something rustled and his focus went back, he eyed the berry bush ten feet away from him, his hands raised and his mind picturing a magic circle that's slowly being filled up with magic so that it remains stable. The bushes rustled again and in panic, Jacob activated [Shield] - A transparent yellow barrier his height and twice his size appeared in front of him and he started channeling a new spell, the magic circle for [Bolt] came to the forefront of his mind and he filled it to the brim-

The spell shot out, flying.

Jacob's eyes widened in panic when it did nothing but hit his own translucent barrier and it was at this time that the source of the rustling came- a small humanoid with no nose, slit-like eyes below bushy eyebrows, red hair, and ashen skin came out of the bushes. It didn't slow down one bit as it rushed to a frozen, wide eyed Jacob, mouth opened to showcase four canine teeth that are more than enough to tear through his neck.

Its body collided with the barrier, shattering it and waking Jacob up from his reverie- he channeled another [Bolt] as the thing walked in a daze, he raised his shaking hand and aimed it at the creature, he filled the magic circle when he thought he had a good shot.

The thing yelled as a yellow ball collided against its shoulders, tearing through it like paper.

Upon seeing the blood, most people would've gone frozen but to the stressed out and confused Jacob, it did nothing but reassure him that he's much more superior than the piece of shit who was only half his height. He ran forward and kicked it, his feet landing on the screaming monster's stomach, causing it to reel in pain and lurch forward, puking out black blood and whatever it had for its last meal.

Jacob raised his foot and with teeth gritted from anger, he stomped down again and again until the creature's head caved in, it tried to turn around halfway through, showing just how resilient its bones are but that didn't deter the teen, if anything, it encouraged him to stomp on the two holes that was the creature's nostrils. He continued to do it again and again until the monster stopped moving, and when he saw that it's head was still intact, even when he's practically panting from exhaustion, he didn't let things go to chance and grabbed the creature by the neck.

He channeled another [Bolt] and shot it out fully powered at its neck point blank, the result was its head getting torn away from its body.

When all was said and done, Jacob slumped down and waited for his head to clear. And once it was, he stared headless body, he didn't feel guilty, but he still felt sick. He puked, wiped his mouth, and decided that things just happen. Still, that didn't stop him from walking away from the corpse with a pale complexion.