*Earth Elemental (level 35) Slain!*
Mike ignored the notification, instead his attention being drawn swiftly to the injured people that lay on the ground all around him. He briefly examined each of them before determining that most of them would survive, as long as they weren’t attacked in their helpless states. The only one in danger of death was a mage woman who lay on the ground, large chunks of skin and flesh missing all across her body.
She wasn't bleeding, but mana was slowly trickling out of her body, flowing into the air around her and dissipating. He rushed over, his own mana flowing over her body as he attempted to figure out the root cause of her condition. He was startled at what he saw, his mana almost reflecting his shock as he needed to hold it back from damaging her.
The woman's mana pathways were in complete and utter shambles. They looked as if they had all just kind of exploded simultaneously, with nothing but the leftover mana signifying where the pathways once were. This was not what had surprised Mike. What surprised him was that every last inch of her body was constructed from mana. It made up her entire being, and suddenly her condition looked much worse when Mike realized her losing mana meant she was losing her body.
With a gentle force of will, Mike's own mana mingled with hers, with him attempting to guide it to flow along the correct pathways. It was an entirely different challenge than what he had used his magic for in the past. He needed to actively hold back the effects of his trait as the woman's mana attempted to repel the foreign energies from her body. This had made it count as hostile, and if Mike had let his trait do its thing, the woman would likely be dead in seconds. He used his mana to create a shell around her, blocking any further leakage.
It took a while to finally convince her mana to flow in the natural pattern that it needed to in order to flow through her body, and it took even longer to get it to stay there. The hard part of the process was that he couldn't infuse any intent into her mana. With his own, he could usually let it know generally what it was supposed to do, and his mana would obey. With hers, it had absolutely no guidance thanks to her being unconscious.
He had needed to repeatedly reinforce the pathways by allowing her mana to circulate all throughout her body. He slowly pulled his mana out of her body, making sure she wouldn't self-destruct from her mana running wild again. Her pathways held firm, and she began regenerating her magic once more. Mike sat down, letting out a sigh at the effort he had put into helping the woman.
*Skill upgraded! Beginner Mana Control, becomes Intermediate Mana Control (Heroic)*
Intermediate Mana Control (Heroic)
Control your mana, bending the magic of the world to your will. You can control your mana to a higher degree as well as have a minor effect on the mana of others.
That was very interesting. It was Mike’s first skill that surpassed the epic rarity, and looked to be completely cosmetic. ‘What was the point of having the skill if he had just done it without the skill’, he thought. These negative thoughts were immediately wiped away when he tried to move his mana through his body. It felt a lot more responsive than it had been previously. He tried making a ball of it in his hand, and it was just there.
It felt nearly instant, as if he had just thought it into existence. Still thinking, Mike was a bit sour that his first heroic skill couldn’t be something like an upgrade to Cleave, as he was certain nothing would stand up to another upgrade of that particular skill.
He looked around at the people lying on the ground, slowly recovering as their bodies knit themselves back together. Mike simply waited, since there wasn't much he could really do to help them. He wasn't a healer, even if he had just fixed the mage up. He still didn't know why she was entirely mana, and it was going to be his first question when the group got into condition to speak.
A man with a large tower shield was the first to rise, shakily getting to his feet as one of his arms slowly regrew itself at a slow but visible rate. It was a gnarly sight, even to Mike. He had cut beasts in half and seen the beheaded bodies of people, but seeing an arm grow from a stump made his skin crawl.
“Thank you.” The man said in a quiet voice. He was pretty obviously not in the mood to speak, but Mike was grateful that the man had ignored said mood and showed his gratitude anyways. The next to rise was an archer woman, who didn't say anything, opting to just sit against the dirt wall. Third to rise was a man wearing plated armor and an expression of pure reverence. He walked up to Mike, giving a slight bow before speaking.
“Thank you, executioner of God's will. I knew our creator wouldn’t leave us, even in this new world.” He said, before dropping to his knees in a bow. Mike felt very awkward at the display of gratitude, and it took him a moment to realize where the whole god thing had come from. He supposed his new wings did kind of look angelic. He dismissed them back into his soul, grabbing the man's shoulder and hoisting him up to his feet.
“I’m not an executioner of anyone's will.” Mike said. “I was just passing by and swung by to lend a helping hand.” The man's expression fell upon hearing this, but the determination never fully left his face.
“You may not have been sent by god, but I don’t believe our encounter was a mere coincidence. No matter the cause, you saved us today, and you have my eternal thanks.” He then stuck a hand out. “My name is Isaiah, it is good to meet you, our fated savior.”
Mike still didn't know how to deal with the man putting him on such a pedestal, but he shook the offered hand nonetheless. “Good to meet you too. Where did your group come from, I don't recognize you from the village.”
“What village?” Isaiah asked. “We live in the settlement of Gratsden.”
“Another settlement? I don't suppose you would be the group that first reached the rank would you?”
“No, we only became one just two days ago. Haven’t even had our first settlement ranked night raid yet.”
“Well, then you better prepare well. They are a lot rougher than you would expect. Do you have any defenses?” Mike asked. The first raid as a settlement had been pretty rough from what Mike had heard, even though he hadn't been there during it.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The conversation went on and on, with the two exchanging information about their respective homes. Mike talked about how they had just introduced a system of currency, and Isaiah had told him about the druid that was leading the settlement he lived in. Interestingly, this druid he mentioned seemed to be the backbone of the entire settlement, and was running basically everything with his coven of nature mages.
Mike didn't bring up the fact that he was the leader of his village, but instead shared details about it that he felt would leave a good impression. The conversation ended when the mage woman finally awoke, rubbing her head as she sat up.
“I’m still alive?” She asked, looking around confused.
“Alive and well.” Isaiah said, rushing over to help her to her feet. “Good to still have you here Lila.”
“Yeah about that whole alive and well thing.” Mike said. “ What's up with you being made entirely of mana?” He tried to broach the subject with a gentle tone, not wanting to seem like he was accusing her of anything.
“It's my trait.” She explained. “It’s called Mana Made, and essentially means that both my health and stamina have converted into mana. I am now an entirely magical being, down to my very core.”
“And that doesn't seem at all weird to you?”
“Not weirder than seeing a giant pile of rocks trying to kill you.” She said, kicking the rubble that was once an elemental. “Now, I think we need to deal with that damn healer.” She said, a scowl suddenly etched onto her face. The same facial expression was echoed across the faces of each of her teammates. Mike waited for one of them to explain, and thankfully Isaiah jumped in to provide said explanation.
“Our group had a healer, but at the first sign of danger to his own life, he fled. Really proves how cowardly those who picked the class are.”
“Well hang on, not everyone became a healer to avoid confrontation.” Mike said, before remembering that is the exact reason Aaron, the village's head healer had picked the class. “Ok, that is not the reason some of them became one.”
“Well from what I have seen so far, they are all the same. Except for you, what kind of healing ability was that? You fixed Lila up even though she doesn't have health.”
“It wasn't a healing skill per se, but was just a clever use of magic. All I had to do was stop the mana in her body from leaking out and damaging her further.” Mike said. “Her natural regeneration took care of the rest. On the note of natural regeneration, how did you just casually grow a new arm over the course of this conversation?” Mike asked, looking at the man with a tower shield, and a brand new arm.
“That’s my trait. It lets me recover very quickly. Still hurts like a bitch though while I heal.”
“Well that is a very interesting one.” Mike said. He was impressed by the sheer variety of traits some people had. His own trait was quite strong in his opinion, but having one that just made your body entirely of mana just seemed to be on a completely different level of game changing, and another that made you basically the ultimate tank didn't seem so bad either.
“Anyways, we need to get back to Gratsden now, and hopefully find that damn healer.” The archer said. “If we are lucky, he would have gotten torn apart by some monster on the way back.”
After Mike smashed down the dirt wall with his hammer, the group began jogging back to their settlement. They had offered to bring Mike with them and show him around, but he declined. He had left Thudfall to go hunting, and that is what he was determined to do. It took him several hours of searching, and quite a few falls from the sky, but he eventually found his next prey. It was a pack of deer.
Mike wasn't a huge fan of venison, but given that the head stag was nearly 10 feet tall, not including its magnificently large horns, he would make an exception. He identified the animal, following his standard procedure of making sure he wasn't about to suicide dive into an unwinnable fight.
*Nature Stag (level 43)*
He expected to get a response along the lines of Forest Stag, but instead it had the prefix of nature. It was a minor difference, Mike didn't feel there would be a significant difference between his expectations and reality. He dive bombed from the sky, infusing his hammer with thousands of points of mana. The weapon quickly became several tons in weight, and was bearing down on the stag with great speed.
The stupidity of Mike's assumption was brought to light as the stag's horns glowed a bright green light. Several trees below Mike bent to block the aerial attack, with branches locking them together and holding them steady. For the future, Mike once more had to remind himself to not be so gung ho with every entrance to a fight he made.
“Not a chance I am giving up my flashy entrances.” He said to himself as he and his hammer crashed through the trees. The branches had slowed him down, but they had not stopped him. His lessened momentum prevented his attack from instantly pulverizing the stag, instead just buckling its back in before he was pushed off. The stag limped away as its back slowly pulled itself back together from the awkward angle Mike had just put its spine in.
The four other deer around it positioned themselves between Mike and the stag. They were all female, as they didn't have any horns, which meant Mike wouldn't need to worry about any magic juju being pulled on him again. He swept his hammer in a wide arc, sending a powerful Cleave out in front of him.
Mike was once more reminded to not make assumptions as the god damn deer's eyes began glowing the same green color the stag's horns had. He cursed as his attack was blocked by a wall of roots that roared up from the ground, destroying the roots but preventing his strike from reaching the deer. He ran at them, dodging under, over, and around many roots as they came at him from all directions.
He had been grabbed several times by them, forcing him to use Freedom to free himself more than once. The occasional root managed to poke a weak spot in his armor, drawing blood, but none ever managed to penetrate more than an inch deep. The grass itself tried to stop Mike from advancing, tying into knots in an attempt to trip him as he ran. It didn't work, his foot instead ripping the grass out of the ground as it caught on his boots.
His hammer connected with the side of one does head, killing it instantly. The other three were quickly dispatched as well, just leaving the injured Stag. It tried all it could to escape Mike, but given how injured it was, it couldn't run for long. Mike quickly caught up to it after having to smash through several walls of trees, branches, bushes, overgrown grass, and just about every plant between him and the stag. His hammer quickly struck the stag several times as he attacked it over and over, killing it soon after.
*Class level up! Mighty Feller of Giants (level 35)*
He picked the massive corpse up, and attempted to jump into the air and glide back to the village. His feet left the ground, he soared up, his wings spread, and he fell right back down to earth. “Guess I’m doing this the slow way.” He said, with the slow way being sprinting through the forest at the speed of a car on the freeway, all the while carrying a several ton corpse over his head.