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Name: Silvester

Age: 23

Race: Human

Level: 1/50

Attributes

Mana consumption: Mana can be converted into energy for the body.

Regeneration: Surplus energy can be used for regeneration.

I looked at my status, dumbfounded. What the fuck!?

I still remember what that “Great Will” offered, and I was sure I refused.

Dismissing my Screen, I roused myself up.

“What the fuck!?” I repeated loudly, making the kid jump. It needed to be repeated out loud.

Not for the first time, I asked myself if I had some type of hallucination, or if some strange entity was having fun toying with me. Why ask me if you’re doing it anyway, you fucker!?

Maybe someone else would have been happy all the same, but I detested it. I really hated it when people forced things on me — I already had enough of it for a lifetime after being a slave. I was fuming, but I realized I could do nothing about it.

Well, maybe it was just lying, and the Attributes would have been there anyway. He was trying to scam me. That was also a possibility. The Screen never interacted with me before, so maybe some strange being tried to dupe me or something. I thought of every possible thing that could have happened before I could calm down enough to accept things.

Reasoning things out is the best thing to calm down. Even if I’m just deceiving myself, I thought forlornly.

In the meantime, the kid was looking at me with a wide-eyed look.

“It’s fine, kid. I just thought of something infuriating,” I said, fully expecting my words to have no effect. I was right.

Well, he’ll calm down eventually.

I then thought back to my Status Screen.

Let’s look at it positively. I should be much stronger than before now.

But more importantly for me, I could still get stronger.

It’s been years since the first time I saw the Status Screen, and my level has always been the same. It was almost an obsessive thought at one point, but I had to let it go. And I still got stronger even if my level remained the same, it’s just that most of it was from skill, instead of pure strength.

That level “1/50” though gave me a good feeling.

I don’t feel any weaker now than when I was level 25, so I’m sure it just means that now I can improve even more. That 50 is probably the maximum level I can reach, like the 25 I reached before. But what does it mean? It seemed too much to think I would get 50 times more powerful, so maybe twice? Or trice? Only time could tell.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Now, tackling those Attributes.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about them, but they would surely be a big help in the future. I just hoped that nothing would come back to bite me later.

But how do I use them? My Status Screen was as terse as always. I had to be thankful it didn’t just give me the names and left it at that.

I think Mana consumption is the reason why I keep the same amount of mana even when I keep absorbing some. It was the first thing I thought that could explain that. I also felt a bit more energetic all day, and I hadn’t even eaten much. Maybe it’s something automatic… I’ll have to enter meditation to check better.

The easiest thing that could give me visible and concrete results right now was Regeneration.

Easy to check that, I thought, taking out a knife. I then cut my forearm.

The kid made a strange sound, and when I looked at him, he didn’t look that well.

Is it my fault? I thought, before looking at the knife. Maybe he’s scared of knives? Or of me holding them.

I cleaned and sheathed the blade before putting it away, but he didn’t seem to get better — it will take some time, maybe.

I then proceeded to look at my cut. It didn’t seem it would heal soon… maybe the blood coagulated a bit faster? I wasn’t sure. I usually moved around a lot when I was slashed, so I couldn’t really compare, and now it was better not to scare the kid again.

The next best thing to do was to meditate and see what I could do with that.

I was getting faster and faster at entering the right mindset, and now I could clearly feel how the mana was moving inside my body.

Everything was about the same except for the area where I cut myself. I could perceive a minuscule amount of mana being consumed from near the wound. So regeneration works with mana?

It said surplus energy, so no… maybe it’s taking energy from that part of my body and the other ability is supplementing? That felt like a better explanation. But how do I control that? If I can even control that.

I wasn’t sure if I could or how I could, but it didn’t cost me anything to try.

Maybe I can will them to do it? I tried to will mana to give energy to the wound, or for the cut to heal faster, but it didn’t work. Then I tried to will the wound to use more energy, and there seemed to be a difference. I tried a few more times and I got a probable hypothesis. Maybe it’s less will and more feeling.

I then tried to concentrate on the feeling I had from the wound. It felt a bit draining; maybe it was that.

As soon as I got a hold of the feeling, I tried to heighten it as much as possible so that it would drain more energy.

It was a mistake.

As soon as I did it, I felt like all the strength was sucked out of me. The change was so sudden and jarring that I involuntarily exited meditation. Fortunately I was laying down; had I been sitting, or standing, I would have gone down like a sack of potatoes. I felt totally drained of strength, and I couldn’t move.

I was alarmed, but I maintained my calm. Keeping my breaths steady, after a few seconds I felt a bit of energy coming back to me; enough to shuffle a bit.

Good. I didn’t cripple myself, I thought, relieved. I had to be more careful when handling my abilities, or who knew what would happen.

After I entered meditation again I could see that mana was being converted at the same rate as before, which wasn’t nearly enough to make me feel better, so I tried to accelerate that too… with moderation though.

I found out that the feeling I got from that was almost the same as I had from my regeneration, it had a different connotation though… more like eating, or consuming, like the Attribute name.

I had to consume almost half of my mana to feel like I wasn’t about to pass out, and two-thirds to feel normal again.

Coming out from meditation, I checked the cut on my arm. It wasn’t even fully healed. Damn, and here I was hoping to have automatic healing during combat.

It’s not like I wasn't aware how incredible it was — my recovery time would decrease greatly, and I wouldn’t even need a healer for most wounds — but I still felt a pang of disappointment, though it faded quickly.

I took a breath, thinking of all the benefits I could have with those abilities. The feeling of getting stronger was really nice.

Well, now it’s better to get some sleep, I thought, turning my head.

The kid was still staring at me. “Hey, kid. It’s better if you hit the sack, or tomorrow you’ll feel like crap.”

I did my part. If he couldn’t fall asleep, it wasn’t my fault.

I certainly won’t carry him tomorrow too, I thought as I finally drowsed off, pushing away the Status Screen that popped up again.

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