Name: Kelsey Kain

Primary Class: Magus - lvl 100

Health: 12700/12700 [Regen: 10% of mana per second]

Stamina: 12700/12700 [Regen: 1% per second]

Mana: 27100/27100 [Regen: 10% per second]

Constitution: 1270

Endurance: 1270

Strength: 1100

Dexterity: 1100

Intelligence: 2710

Willpower: 2710

Free Points: 33

Sure enough, her mana regeneration was now 10% of her mana pool per second, and her health now regenerated at the same speed as her mana regeneration. Absolutely incredible. I now have access to 2,710 mana per second to spend on skills. I can regenerate from zero mana to full in 10 seconds. That's unreal.

After closing her status screen, the first thing she noticed about her new skills was her domain. No longer was her view of the world a series of spatial wires, it was as if she had eyes everywhere within a 1-kilometer radius around herself. She could see color. She could see texture. She could see… everything. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt like she would have expected it to, and she wasn’t forced to meditate to get used to it.

There were two major difficulties that she noticed immediately. The first was that it was now much harder for her to block out things happening around her. With her old domain, she had gotten used to noticing private moments happening between individuals and then subconsciously blocking them out. That process was now much more difficult. All across the base camp there were dozens of people currently engaged in private moments with a loved one, or by themselves. She was simply unable to filter those images out of her perception because of the added clarity and detail that her new domain provided. Okay blocking this stuff out is definitely the first thing I need to figure out.

The second major issue she found was that it was now much harder to notice something specific inside her domain. When it was smaller, something out of the ordinary taking place inside would have alerted her. She would have noticed it subconsciously. Now? It was like looking at a forest from the top of mountain, trying to make out an individual ant. She could see everything, but trying to parse that amount of information was completely futile. She was constantly being bombarded with random happenings, and her mind had no way to filter that information correctly.

She would need practice, and a lot of it for her domain to be useful for information gathering further than one or two hundred meters away. Any larger and the information coming in was simply overwhelming.

After experimenting for a few minutes, she retracted her domain to just the area around her tent. She felt less safe, but it was better than watching a bunch of random adventurers ploughing each other.

Retracting her domain, the second thing she noticed was that her body felt much stronger. It wasn’t like her old skill Telekinetic Enhancement which enhanced her movements and muscles via an outside force. This new skill felt more intrinsic, natural, and comfortable. It felt completely normal, like her body had always been this strong. And it was... strong. Doing some small testing of her new body, she thought she might now be twice as strong, physically, as she was before, and that was assuming she had her Telekinetic Enhancement active. I don’t think those werewolves would have a chance of keeping up with me now.

Kelsey wanted to test the rest of her skills, but she wanted to do so away from the prying eyes and domains of the people at the base camp. Eagerly, Kelsey made her way out of the hole up to the tent city, and then left the city entirely before activating her Greater Teleport skill. She now regenerated 10 percent of her entire mana pool every second even without Meditation. With Mediation, that percentage rose to an eye watering 50 percent of her mana pool per second. This meant that despite her destination being over 1,500 kilometers away, it only took a little over one minute before her teleport activated and she arrived where she had envisioned.

Appearing in front of a small wooden cabin that was built a few meters off the bank of a river, Kelsey smiled. It was the small cabin Thadius had built over forty years ago when he first arrived in Anoura, right near the edge of the Mageblood forest.

As she regarded her surroundings, she considered how well the cabin had weathered the elements over the past forty years with no obvious upkeep. I would have thought that the cabin would have a few more signs of its age, but it still looks like it was built just a few years ago.

The Mageblood forest; the place where she first arrived in this beautiful world. Now that she was back here, the forest seemed significantly less daunting. She could see for a kilometer in every direction with her new and improved domain, and in it she saw a dozen Horned Rabbits, Thorn Wolves, and Flame Foxes, eating, sleeping, and hunting.

It feels good to be back. She thought as she took in a deep breath of the fresh forest air.

The last time she advanced, she had done her testing here, so she felt that it was only right to visit the Mageblood forest once again for her second advancement. It was far away from civilization so she was unlikely to encounter another person anywhere near here and would be able to test in peace.

Walking down to the riverbank, the first thing she decided to test was her Creation of the Magus skill. She wanted to make sure that, all things considered, she would still be able to fight like she was used to. She started with what she was familiar with, Telekinetic Creation.

Just like she had thousands of times, she willed a telekinetic spear into existence and a moment later she had a telekinetic spear sitting in her outstretched hand. Except, there was a very important difference that she noticed immediately. It was permanent. Instantly. The moment she willed the spear into existence it was already formed in such a way that would stop it from unraveling itself. Looking at it more closely, she realized that it wasn’t even made from a series of interconnected telekinetic wires, it was itself one solid piece of spatial mana.

Okay, I wasn’t expecting that...

With the spear in hand, Kelsey decided to try Manipulation of the Magus the same way she used to use Telekinesis. Deciding to start with something simple, she just willed the spear to begin floating. Much to her pleasure, it did; the moment she wanted it to, she saw the spear gently lift from the palm of her hand and begin floating. There was however one difference in how her Manipulation now functioned.

When she used Telekinesis to manipulate objects, what she was really doing was warping the space around the object in order to physically control it. It was complex and took an extreme level of concentration to do consistently. She had gotten quite good at it, but it was still difficult.

Manipulation of the Magus did not work like that. Instead, it was more like she was controlling the object itself. With her Domain of the Magus, she could see mana infuse the spear and begin controlling it from the inside. It was a small mechanical distinction, but it would make for a huge difference when controlling multiple objects, or singular complex ones. It's so much… easier.

She continued testing with telekinetic creations for a few more minutes before she was satisfied. Worst case scenario it seems that I can fight exactly the same way I’m used to. She then dismissed all of the telekinetic creations she had made and moved on.

The next thing she wanted to try was significantly more nerve wracking. Depending on how the test went, it could change the way she viewed the world forever.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Bending down to the ground beneath her, Kelsey picked up a single stone that was sitting on the bank of the river. It was gray and smooth from many years of water erosion.

Now or never, I guess. She thought as she looked down at the rock in her hands. Then, activating her Manipulation of the Magus skill, she willed the rock to change shape, the same way she would have done with a telekinetic creation. The moment she did, the rock liquified and instantly snapped to form the image she had made in her mind before hardening and once again becoming a solid object.

Sitting in her hands was a small, perfectly smooth, ring made from a river stone.

No way...

Her heart began pounding in her chest as she excitedly considered the implications of a power like this one. Something like this could change the world. I could just walk over to a mountain, drill myself a hole, find precious metals, extract them, and then turn them into things I could sell. It would take me a few hours to make more money than I’d make in a hundred years of delving into dungeons...

She then looked down at her hands, her chest tightened as she considered what this likely meant for her creation skill.

If this works...

Not wanting to put it off any longer, Kelsey stared at the ring in her hands and activated her Creation of the Magus skill, willing it to create a second stone ring. Her skill activated, a small amount of mana flowing from her body.

Moments later, she had two rings in her hand. To her eyes and to her domain they were completely identical. Sitting in her hand was an atomically identical copy of the original ring.

Without stopping to consider anything else, she summoned a single gold coin from her vault. Breathing deeply, she activated Creation and willed another one into existence. She felt a small amount of mana drain from her as she looked down and saw, sitting in her hands, were two stone rings, and two gold coins.

Kelsey stared blankly at the two coins several seconds, her mind refusing to accept reality.

Then, all at once, the weight of what she had done slammed into her like a ton of bricks and she retched violently, the contents of her stomach spilling onto the ground beside her.

Oh no… I can never let anyone find out about this. The power to create gold, platinum, any type of precious gemstone, or valuable wood… If the wrong person found out, they would trap me in a room and turn me into a creation slave until the day I died. If my skills were secret before...

As Kelsey considered the possibility, her heart began to ache, her mind froze, and she started to feel dizzy. It felt almost like an out of body experience as the emotions, and feelings in her chest began building to a crescendo and panic set in. She instantly started crying, unable to stop the tears; she was feeling scared, hopeless, and utterly alone. The possibilities of what someone might do to control her powers were swimming through her mind. Enslavement, torture, imprisonment. They could kill Thadius, Owen, Lisa, or Gregory… Every person in my life could be at risk if the wrong person finds out about this...

Kelsey began pacing, trying everything she could to get her emotions under control. She was breathing deeply, telling herself everything was going to be okay. Reassuring herself that she had been able to get by without any incidents so far, she could keep doing it.

Nothing worked. Feelings of anger, and fear began to beat down on the small part of her mind that was still trying to remain logical. But soon, even that small part gave in and succumbed to the terror she was feeling.

Not having any internal outlet for her emotions, she began to look outward. Her fear and rage had overtaken her mind and were now completely in control. Wanting to release that anger into something, Kelsey walked up to the nearest tree and slammed her fist into it as hard as she could, dumping every ounce of mana into her Enhancement skill that she could. The old oak practically vaporized as she made contact with it, sending splinters of wood, and droplets of sap flying in every direction.

The instant she realized what she had done, her mind calmed and she stared in silence at the spot the tree used to be. Sorry, tree. At that moment, she gained some clarity. The unreasonable amount of guilt she felt for taking her anger out on an innocent tree brought her back to reality. This is the second time in a year that I have punched a tree in this forest and felt guilty about it...

She stopped spiraling; her anger and fear fell back down into a slow simmer.

After pulling her fist back, she looked down at the objects in her hand. It’s going to be okay. I will be okay. I have Thadius, Owen, Lisa, and Gregory who I can trust. She clenched her hand and unraveled the objects she had created, making them turn back into mana.

Now that she was feeling better, Kelsey entered mediation and thought deeply for several minutes while her mind and body fully calmed themselves. She knew that she must not be the only person in Anoura that could create those kinds of materials. She knew for a fact that the Metal Mage class existed, and that class could theoretically create silver, gold, or platinum too. I just need to get some practice, reach Immortality, and become strong enough that I won’t need to hide my abilities anymore.

She took in one final deep breath, calming herself fully. She would be fine. Little by little, the fear she had been feeling was replaced by excitement, and she started looking forward to practicing with her new abilities.

For now, I think I need to have a bit of fun. To that end, she put her worries out of her mind and set her sights on her brand-new skill, Flight. It was something that she had been excited about since realizing it was possible in her fight against the elven bandit leader. She knew spatial magic would have eventually allowed her to fly, she had already used it to hold herself in the air a few times, but she hadn’t sat down and really tried to learn yet. Now, she didn't have to.

Stepping into a clear area with no foliage above, she activated Flight. It was as if her connection to gravity was simply turned off, she began floating. She felt weightless. She could tell that her skill was draining mana, but it was a small enough amount that she couldn’t even see her mana drop on her status screen thanks to her incredible mana regeneration.

She simply stayed floating in place for several seconds, testing her arms and legs, seeing if moving them did anything, it didn’t. So, she did the next thing that she assumed would work, and imagined herself moving upwards, and then willed the skill to listen. It worked and she began moving upwards slowly, just like she had intended. She then simply willed herself to stop, and she immediately froze midair. It was exactly like being in zero gravity. She could move her body in any way she wanted, and it didn’t affect her movement at all except for the force exerted on the air around her. She laid down flat, went upside down, and did a pretend summersault all while staying locked in the air.

Well, that could be a fun party trick.

Feeling more confident, she raised herself up faster. A few seconds later, she was floating above the treetops, viewing the world from a totally new perspective. The landscape of Anoura was gorgeous. Below her was a sea of blue Mageblood tree leaves. In the distance to the south was the large open plain area that Kelsey knew was filled with a variety of animals and monsters. To the north was the Mageblood mountains, constantly covered in snow. Floating in the air, looking out at the untouched wilderness that was so common in this new world, she felt at peace. The problems and worries that had been so terrifying a few minutes ago now seemed less important, almost insignificant.

As she was staring out at the vast world surrounding her, she found a deep desire within herself to protect it and the people who inhabit it. She had always known she wanted to help people, but now, with her new skills, she was beginning to get a real idea about what might be at stake. She was starting to understand how impactful she could really be.

If I have these skills at level 100, I can’t imagine what an Immortal with a few thousand years of leveling and combat experience would be able to do. Hell, I don’t even know what's really possible.

The beautiful view from the sky, and her thoughts, sparked something in her memory and she was reminded of a quote by a famous scientist from back on Earth. “If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will surely destroy ourselves.” Kelsey didn’t know why this was the quote that popped into her mind at that moment, but it helped her come to a decision that she realized was long overdue. She needed to put leveling on hold and focus all of her efforts on learning and understanding the fundamentals behind this world, the system, and its magic.

She had too many unanswered questions, and she wasn’t going to be able to find their answers if she spent all of her time focusing on gaining more power. If she was supposed to be a master of mana, she figured she better start acting like one. She knew that while she may not gain levels, if she practiced, she would gain mastery, which would be more beneficial in the long run than simply going back to the dungeon and slaughtering thousands of monsters. She remembered how much stronger her skills got during her first time in the forest when she practiced with them.

If I’m going to have access to the skills I do now, I need to understand them. I need to understand magic, and the system. If I don’t, I’ll inevitably make a mistake and do something that I can’t take back. Plus, some time in isolation will help me wrap my head around what I need to do next.

With her decision made, Kelsey continued flying for another few hours, simply exploring the Mageblood forest in a whole new way, enjoying the sensation of weightlessness and total freedom that came with the ability to fly. She didn’t try to get better at flying, or train in any way.

She simply enjoyed herself.

Eventually, the voice in the back of her mind that pushed her constantly forward couldn't be ignored any longer, so she landed back in front of Thadius' cabin.

She had skills to test, and she couldn’t keep putting it off.