First things first, She felt everything more. It was quite overwhelming at first. Especially senses that were previously irrelevant.
We all know of five basic senses. Touch, sight, taste, hearing and smell.
But not everyone knows that neuroscientists identified a bunch of other senses. Which one of them counts, is still being discussed in scientific circles. Some name up to thirty something, like:
Sense of Equilibrium. It’s how you know up from down, and don’t end up on the floor.
Sense of pain. Self explanatory.
Proprioception. It’s why you know where parts of your body are without looking.
Kinaesthesia. Sense of movement.
Thermoception. Sensing temperature.
And so on. Even itching is supposedly different from touch.
Irena would probably fall to the ground from all this sudden information that swarmed her brain, but her newfound sense of equilibrium wouldn’t let her.
She breathed in, and out. In, and out. After what felt like half an hour it began settling down
(Some claim there is sense of time, so it actually could’ve really been that long.)
Sniff, sniff. ‘Damn, I stink.’ How sweaty am I, exactly?’ - The sense of smell and it’s bad sides.
.
She decided it was time for a bath. She briefly entertained digging out a bigger hole, to have a makeshift bathtub she would then warm up using [Flame manipulation], but she didn’t actually know if that would work, and digging so much just to realize you have gained nothing would be something bad for her morale.
‘Suck it up, princess. Of course the water is cold.’
She got undressed, and entered the stream.
Brrr… She shuddered. Cold.
But at least the sweat smelled less.
Ding!
[Hunter’s perception] Reached level 2.
At least she got something out of it.
It was time to exit the stream.
She looked over to her clothes. ‘Laundry it is.’
She reached for her stuff, and began scrubbing blood of off her attire. After that was done, and she finished hanging her laundry on a nearby tree branch, she sat down and began sunbathing and eating.
She dozed off, and once she woke up, her clothes were dry.
She got dressed, and contemplated her options.
After recognizing the fact that despite getting a traveling class, she still had no idea where she was, she decided to look into more fun things to think of.
Like that destructive skill.
Irena was giddy.
‘Let’s check that [Ethical strike] thing. What’s it’s cost? She asked, not expecting to be answered.
{Cost of [ethical strike] LV. 1 is 10 MP, it’s charging time 5 seconds for weapons, and 2 for bare hands. For every level of [Ethical strike], the cost rises another 10 MP, and with it, power}
‘Anyway, I have enough for five strikes. Let’s test it.’
She grabbed her shovel, and focused on her mana expenditure.
Regular repair was cheap, at measly 1 point to resharpen the thing. This one point took two seconds to appear again.
‘Half a point a second, huh? So I can use 1 [Ethical strike] every 50 seconds to never fall below 40.’
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But that was a consideration for a fight. Irena wasn’t fighting, she was experimenting.
She raised her shovel, and focused on activating the skill.
It felt weird, but not unpleasant. She brought down her shovel on a nearby rock. The air cracked with sound, and some shrapnel hit her in the face.
‘Ouch. Better watch for that next time.’
Indeed. It was just dumb luck that she didn’t end up blind.
‘Next.’
She set the shovel aside, and pulled back her fist. First, she hit a dead tree without mana. It left a sizable dent in the wood, but hurt. Then, she used her skill.
Slam!
The tree didn’t fall over, but it the dent was noticeably bigger this time, and her hand remained fine.
She pulled it back again, and hit the tree about 1 second in.
The result was the same as without the [Ethical strike].
She shrugged, and began charging the skill in her right hand. The very moment before the time was up, she hit the tree with her left, and immediately followed with her right.
It appeared she could at least move around and hit stuff while charging, but holding mana in while striking with relevant limb was impossible.
A shame, that could be useful against someone who could see her charging up. But she would work around it, no problem.
This time, she took a machete, and spent 5 seconds channeling [Ethical strike]. Instead of slicing the tree like anime swordsmen, the thing ripped out a huge chunk of wood, and sent splinters everywhere.
The tree collapsed.
She did make breaks between strikes, so now her MP was at [MP:134/150]
Then, it was time to check how easy or hard it would be to hold [ethical strike] up and ready for battle for prolonged periods of time.
Irena charged up the skill, and held it tight. Looking at her mana expenditure, the counter still regenerated, but this time, at 1 mp for every 4 seconds, instead of two.
‘Oh, so it does have a cost, but small. I can live with that, under certain circumstances.’
Ding!
[Ethical Strike] reached level 2.
‘Nice! I might get addicted to busting stuff.’
She waited for her mana to top off, and made her decision.
‘If my class is useless for telling me where I am, then I need to find out myself.’
Having thought that, she didn’t really know how.
Walking down the stream seemed to be a good idea, since she at least wouldn’t lack water.
Her increased perception would be enough to get some food. Even now, she saw signs of animals coming to drink water. Signs she couldn’t see before.
And if there were human settlements, they would most likely be near water.
Win, win.
‘Wait, -Human- settlements?’ Right. She was no longer human. Her ears were proof enough of that. She would need to scout any place for its friendliness towards whatever ‘Fairy Giant’ was.
Thankfully she had her [Fae’s Shyness.] If the skill description told the truth, it would be immensely useful.
But that could come later. First, walking.
She Began traveling down the river. There were rocks, plants, and various other obstacles in the way, and she was plenty loud, [Untouching stride] seemingly not working.
Well, maybe she tripped a little less.
That was when she noticed her enhanced senses.
‘Oh, right. My steps probably are lighter, it’s just my ears that gave me the wrong idea.’
In much better mood, she continued to walk, sometimes even jumping over obstacles.
Ding!
[Untouching stride] reached level 2.
Ding!
[Untouching stride] reached level 3
Ding!
[Hunter’s perception] Reached level 3.
Ding!
[Untouching stride] reached Level 4.
Cool. [Untouching stride] leveled up fast. Was it because she was already good at walking through difficult terrain?
Probably.
She checked her stats.
Class 1: [Giant Longunter]
Class skills:
[Hunter’s perception] LV. 3
[Untouching stride] LV. 4
[Ethical strike]LV. 2
Innate skills:
{Size manipulation} LV. 1
{Faes’ shyness} LV. 1
{Self regeneration} LV. 2
General skills:
{Identify} LV. 1
{Maata Standard language, LV 3.}
{Linguistic Leap, LV 5}
{Flame manipulation. LV. 1}
{Dismantle LV. 1}
{Biological poison resistance} LV. 1
Stats:
Vitality: 30
Endurance: 16
Strength: 60
Intelligence: 10
Dexterity: 16
Wisdom: 15
Health : 300/300
Mana 150/150
Stamina 160/160]
Tis’ a significant improvement.
She would have to stop for the day. It was getting dark, and someone had to do the sleeping anyway.
She decided to start a fire, so she found a dead, dry-ish tree, and started taking it down and apart with continuous Ethical strikes. Bare handed, because preparing fire wood with karate chops felt amazing.
Ding!
[Ethical strike] reaches level 3.
‘Neat’
She prepared some small, dry splinters, and sat down with them.
‘Let’s try making fire with flame manipulation.’
She thought, and focused on pushing mana into the wood, trying to use [Flame manipulation]
Compared to before, her awareness of mana became much stronger and sharper. Which is why she quickly decided to stop. It would be pointless to continue, as flame manipulation apparently needed preexisting fire to work.
‘Or maybe heat would be enough’
She started to rub to pieces of wood against each other, while simultaneously trying to set them ablaze using the skill.
The splinters started to emit smoke, and once they did, the flame burst from the point of contact.
‘that one was easier than I remember.’ Indeed, normally making a fire by rubbing sticks is a pain in the ass.
Ding!
[Flame manipulation] Reaches level 2.
Irena decided to continue.
She added more wood, and focused on the fire.
Once the flame started reliably following simple commands, like an instruction of going in a single direction at the time, another notification resounded.
Ding!
[Flame manipulation] reaches level 3.
‘Like a storm, man. Let’s push further.’
She grabbed the flame with her mana, focusing on its connection with the fire.
Ding!
[Hunter’s perception] Reaches level 4.
She ignored the notification, having a bigger fish to fry.
She started to push the flame into moving in a circle, eventually forming a sphere.
Ding!
[Flame manipulation] reaches level 4.
She detached the ball from the rest of the fire, and started spinning it faster, focusing on making the sphere smaller, denser.
CRACK!
The sound resounded throughout the forest.