I left Zolast alone after asking some more questions, mostly about the hunting outpost, which Jertann and the rest were overseeing. Apparently, almost a thousand people decided to trust Jertann and live in the new outpost, which surprised me.

I would have expected far less. It seemed that people really trusted Jertann.

Zolast asked me to visit them and make sure everything was alright. I agreed immediately, as I wanted to get out of town for some experiments with the small silver box I was carrying.

Or, more accurately, what was inside of it. A blue stone, glowing with a faint blue light, about to vanish completely. A mana stone that was about to be depleted, which I took from Zolast, claiming I would be using to test prospective blacksmith recruits.

Of course, I had no intention of doing so. I didn't have the resources to attract a blacksmith capable of forging magical weapons in the first place. And even a miracle happened and I found one, what I had learned about the divine-sourced discrimination among blacksmiths made it difficult.

The easy thing was to just fire my newest bunch of employees. The effort I had invested in them was negligible, and it would allow me to avoid some great problems on the road…

But also, would mean losing a great opportunity.

It was not by accident that every single successful illegal organization in the world was built by the people that were being discriminated against. Even in America, the dominant racial nature of the criminal families changed, Italians, Irish, Mexicans, African-Americans; the discrimination prevented them from getting decent jobs, and their best and brightest ended up working for the mob and the gangs…

It was more ambitious than I wanted, but it would be a lie to say I wasn't tempted. The advantage it would grant if I could pull that successfully would be incredible, especially since if my expectations about the development of the macroeconomic situation here were accurate.

Not to mention, my own personal beliefs. I always liked to give a chance for the downtrodden to strike back. I would never hold their hand all the way, as I was not their parent, but giving them a chance was a different issue.

"Another big choice," I murmured as I arrived at the outer-town complex, and stopped thinking about it in favor of walking around the ongoing games to make sure everything was working as intended.

There were a few problems, but nothing that required my direct intervention. I just mentioned them to Mahruss before walking away.

In another tent, my team of rebel blacksmiths was working, but I avoided them. I wanted to maintain my distance until I could make a decision…

With the most urgent tasks handled, I left the town, acting unaware of the several people that started to follow me halfway. They were incompetent enough that I wasn't afraid of the threat they posed. And, for the fact that they were spying on my movements … was inevitable, and avoiding them would alert their bosses even more.

They stopped following me once I passed the outer guard line, their visage scared. Though,, that decision alone confirmed they were working for different people — or at least unaware of each other's presence — because they could have handled the threat of the monster relatively easily.

I still walked a bit more than a mile — two elatriss — at a normal pace and made sure there were no eyes on me, then I rushed away, using Speed to limit. My most recent stat was my biggest advantage, allowing me to handle things without making people suspicious.

After all, who would suspect the mysterious man who had just made a deal in a town a hundred elatriss away was poor old man Euon, who had just seen in his own casino half an hour ago… Especially if they had no reason to suspect in the first place.

However, this time, my aim was not to visit another town, but once again to attempt to awaken a skill. I rushed around until I found a cave, the beasts inside easy to handle for me. Then, I flipped the silver box open, which bathed the dark cave with a soft, flickering blue light.

"Let's see if I could pull that trick again," I said as I grabbed the small stone, letting it dance between my fingers while I closed my eyes, trying to sense the energy that was radiating from it.

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A chuckle escaped my lips as I realized I was trying to feel the magic from a rock, the exact type of new age nonsense that I dismissed my whole life … but I had to admit, the presence of gods and monsters had been rather convincing to change my perspective.

It didn't take long for me to start feeling mana dancing on my fingers. It was a soft, faint feeling, cold and hot at the same time, leaving a tingly aftereffect that faded just as quickly as it appeared. Maybe it would have been easier to feel if I hadn't picked a stone that was about to lose its luster, but I didn't want to waste a better to start.

At first, I lost my ability to feel the mana the moment I dropped it off my fingers, but, as I continued to play with the stone, I slowly learned what to look for, and I could sense the stone even from the other end of the cave.

Though, I had a feeling that such quick progress was only possible due to my high Perception.

No matter how much I played with the stone, no warning popped up in my view … but that didn't surprise me. The process of gaining the Speed stat gave me the direction of success, and this new challenge allowed me to test that.

I closed my eyes, and start thinking about what mana meant in this new world. It was the material that fueled the whole civilization. Vitality and Health were ubiquitous, but in a way, it was like wood and coal, easy to access, easy to use … but ultimately, limited.

Mana was like oil. It was harder to access, harder to store, and harder to use, but still, it was worth the effort due to the potency that it offered. It allowed the giant castles to float in the sky, it fueled flying carts, and it created giant shields of energy impervious to anything.

Moreover, it was used as a material, allowing ordinary metal and wood to bypass their base limitations, allowing men to leverage their strength to a much greater degree. And, those were the things I had seen in a dismissed corner of this world, dismissed by anyone worthy.

I could feel that those were just a fraction of what magic was truly capable of. I remembered the gods, their presence threatening and suffocating even when they lacked the ability to touch me, their power fueled by magic and more…

That, I wanted for myself. I had pitted myself against the gods just by daring not to listen to their fancy offers of what amounted to slavery with a fancier name, and I needed the power to stand against them. My Stats, amazing as they were, didn't give me the power to stand against a small army, let alone the gods themselves. I needed more.

I needed mana.

I needed to be able to pull it, store it, manipulate it as needed; create the tools I needed, empower my abilities, and even develop my followers…

Mana was a critical component of my future, a fundamental aspect of my power…

[Stat Potential Awakened: Attunement

Accept / Reject]

"Excellent," I thought even as reached mentally and accepted my newest stat, adding another dimension to my power. However, rather than accepting that immediately, I started thinking about my success in getting another stat without any outside assistance.

Everything I had learned about Stats and the System suggested that it was a significant achievement — though I lacked the context to rank it properly, whether it was like the strongest kid in the class, or being an Olympic champion.

The way it was linked to my understanding of power was interesting … I wondered if it was how it worked for everyone, or if I was a unique case. Unfortunately, considering the number of unique variables I was experiencing such as my method of arrival, my class, and my relationship with the gods, it was impossible to answer.

Something else to be added to my growing list of things of tasks, with a much lower priority compared to other urgent tasks.

Instead, I turned to my more immediate problems, and I gave a mental order.

[-1 Stat Points]

[+1 Attunement]

Unlike Speed, I didn't immediately dump ten stat points. Unlike Speed, I didn't know just how immediately useful it would be … and also, I had almost depleted the Stat Points I was keeping in reserve. I didn't want to spend the rest — especially since my newly discovered ability awaken Stats.

"Let's see how much mana I have," I said, calling that part of the status screen.

[Mana (0/15)]

"Just like Health, then," I said as I grabbed the mana stones, and realized I didn't even ask Zolast how I was supposed to use it. I was supposed to absorb it, that much was clear from my Promotion and my unique skill. But in both cases, the suction worked automatically and I was just a vessel.

"Let's try to replicate it," I thought as I grabbed the mana stone, my eyes closed once more as I focused on the warmth, trying to hook it mentally and pull inside while I did my best to meditate.

Unfortunately, when it came to serene activities like meditation, my best was not particularly impressive. I shuffled in discomfort as I tried to grab the growing energy and exert some kind of control … a troubling affair that made me feel incompetent.

Luckily, what I lacked in meditating and keeping my mind serene, I made up with stubbornness, and an hour later, a line of text appeared in my view.

[+1 Mana]

I didn't need to open my eyes to understand the glow of the stone had dimmed significantly. I kept my eyes closed, trying to repeat the effect. This time, it took ten minutes.

[+1 Mana]

Five more minutes, and another notification. But this time, I felt the stone in my palm crumbling. When I opened my eyes, my palm was not filled with a precious mana stone but mere dust. Still, rather than throwing them away, I dumped them back into the silver box. Maybe they could be useful.

Not that I would care if the opposite was true. I already had my reward…

[Mana (3/15)]