Robin woke up the next day dirty and stiff, but alive.

Without the exhaustion and fear, he could finally start processing what had happened the night before.

Magic.

"I cast magic!"

One could count the stars glimmering in Robin's eyes at the realization.

"Well, yes my hand became medium rare because of it, but-"

The stars were all smothered in a blink as he realized what it meant for a part of his body to have literally been on fire.

It didn't hurt, but that could just be from nerve damage. Burn wounds were some of the worst, as even if initially you were fine they would worsen in time if left untreated. He sat there for a second, unwilling to look.

"Damn it. Not knowing won't change how fucked I am." he took a breath and brought his hand up.

"Huh" Healed. As if nothing had ever happened to it.

But something had happened to it. He wasn't sure how much because of the adrenaline pumping in his veins, but he'd felt some pain. There should have been at least some redness or inflammation, if not plain blackened skin and bubbling burns.

"Or at least that would be the case back on Earth..."

A second passed. Robin then poked his previously presumed hurt hand with a finger. It felt exactly how it would feel a day ago.

His stress slowly drained out of him as the world once again made it obvious he wasn't home anymore.

"Well that's handy." his honest smile turning strained from cringing, he got up.

"But still, I don't remember having any Skills that increase my regeneration, so that should mean this is how everything heals around here."

He opened his Status screen to check his Skills though, just to make sure.

Status

Name: Robin Greystone

Race: Human (Uncommon)

Age: 20

Resources:

Health: 50/50

Stamina: 20/20

Mana: 40/40

Attributes:

Agility: 2

Endurance: 2

Intelligence: 4

Perception: 3

Resistance: 1

Strength: 2

Vitality: 4

Willpower: 4

Skills:

Identify* (C)

Elemental Affinity* (S)

(!) Spark (I)

Sure enough, everything was the same as last night except for the health and mana, which had now regenerated to full.

"At first glance it feels overpowered, but that's probably just because it took hundreds of times longer to heal from stuff where I'm originally from. And then again, if 'overpowered' is actually the norm, then it's not really overpowered."

It did feel nice to get a new Skill, but even if it did have an exclamation point before it Robin wasn't going to just set his hand on fire again just to get rid of it.

"If that even did get rid of it."

Then he remembered - last night, he had gotten the inspiration to use Identify on his other Skill, and it caused more information to pop up.

"Interesting interaction. And I guess it's intuitive enough."

"Now, this thing doesn't cost anything to use from what I've seen, so I should just use it on everything on the page to get a clue on what they all do."

He looked at 'Human' and said "Identify."

Nothing happened.

"Okay, maybe it only works on skills?"

He tried using it on Spark - "Identify."

Again, nothing happened.

"What the fuck?"

"I'm sure it worked last night on Elemental Affinity though."

He tried it once again, on the Skill it had worked on before.

Frustratingly enough - nothing.

"Was it just a one-time thing then? That seems important enough to be worth mentioning though."

"Maybe it just has a cooldown if I use it on Skills?"

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He turned from his screen and attempted it on a stick.

Wooden Stick

Material - Inferior

"Okay, so it still works on 'real' things." That didn't help his growing confusion.

"But then, hmm..."

He was intently staring at the perplexing Skill while trying to figure out how it worked, and the screen changed.

Identify* - Common

Active Skill - No Cost

Allows user to Identify any Organism or Material, providing basic information. Information provided always includes Name and Type. When possible, Grade and Threat level are also displayed.

* - Skill has been granted as a blessing from Nydros, The First #%@*(&]%>@{+^

"Oh. Organism or Material. I guess this means I didn't actually use it last night then."

He had no clue what the number meant, given he had already used it quite a few times but it hadn't gone up.

"If you got a new Skill you should at least know what it does, so it does make sense for the information to be available just like this."

That reminded him;

"Speaking of..."

(!) New Skill

Spark - Inferior

Active Skill - 33% Maximum Mana/Cast

Invoke a small flame on a chosen point of the caster's body, which will spread towards the first target it comes in contact with. The Spark damages the caster until used or dispelled.

"Seems decent for an Inferior Skill..."

"Then again, It's basically a glorified lighter that can only be used by setting myself on fire with it."

Saying that did feel a bit sour, but not nearly sour enough to take away from the wonder Robin felt from having the skill.

Again, he could do magic!

Self-harming, "Inferior" magic, but beggars can't be choosers.

The day had started pretty great, all things considered.

And then his stomach decided that was the perfect moment to interrupt his joy. He was starving.

He had barely eaten since he'd came to this world, even though he had forced himself to as much as possible.

He removed the last edible abomination from his pocket.

"I really have to find something else to eat."

He raised it to his mouth, and the fight with his instincts began again.

He had managed two full bites this time around, before his body started gagging even when his "food" was barely touching his lips.

"...among other things..." he glanced around and then at himself.

His only possessions at the moment were his clothes, his crocks, one half of a horribly tasting fruit, and a pile of sticks.

"Well, nobody ever said surviving in the wild was easy..."

However, unlike when he started, he currently had an easy way to start a fire and - although an utterly disgusting one - a food source.

He was making progress.

"Now, two other things on the list are water and shelter." he looked up.

The sun felt warm on his face.

"Sky's clear, so shelter is not the highest priority at the moment."

"I could spend the day looking for a spring... But is that really-" he had a thought.

He opened the details screen for his Superior Skill.

Elemental Affinity* - Superior

Passive skill

Allows user to invoke any Element in their most base forms. Mildly boosts ability to comprehend and manipulate Elemental Magic. Increases Mana efficiency when casting Elemental Magic. Slightly reduces damage taken from Elemental sources.

* - Skill has been granted as a blessing from Nydros, The First #%@*(&]%>@{+^

"Wait, water should be considered an 'Element' here!"

But even if he was right, the problem would then become how to make water.

"Last night I made fire by just thinking hard about it... Hopefully other magic is just as easy to do."

He was downplaying it a fair amount, but that was what he had basically done.

"Still, trying to ‘magic’ water into being is safer than wandering aimlessly through a magic forest."

He recalled what he had done the night before, or at least most of it.

“It probably started when I just wanted to have a fire. I wished for it with everything I had, desperate. Then I recalled an image of it, and the memory somehow morphed and got so realistic that it felt as if I was back there again. I had felt the fire in my memory. It was so hot all of a sudden. I then somehow touched it through the memory… because I know I didn’t actually touch the campfire back then… And then somehow scooped it out?”

Robin barely had any ideas on how to try and replicate the process, but thankfully had some free time on his hands.

----------------------------------------

After about two hours of mental gymnastics and tests of what he came up with, Robin made some progress in his spellcrafting.

He found he could cast Spark in two ways. Either by simply calling out its name, or in the way he initially did it. He found out that his method cost him only 10 points of Mana, but the fire took about ten seconds to fully manifest. It would be very hard to make use of his method in a real fight, but the ability to reduce the cost of the Skill from a third to a fourth of his mana pool felt like an important ability to have. His fire going out was now that much less of a setback.

The second thing Robin found out was that there was something about this world that made it extremely easy to enter something akin to a trance. The world acknowledged his wish for something to happen, then revealed a way for him to make his wish reality and nudged him towards it.

But whereas his image of fire was all about warmth and safety, the thing that he associated water with the most was... cold. And pain - all of a sudden he felt like he was freezing. He tried to move but couldn’t. He gasped for air but the cold entered his mouth and then his throat-

His eyes shot open and he coughed. Similar to earlier attempt, the elemental in his vision extinguished his tiny Spark and then smothered Robin himself.

Unfortunately, the “path” the world gave him towards acquiring the ability to summon water was a fair amount less straightforward than the one for fire.

“But at least I’m fairly certain of something else because of that…”

It seemed like his own attitude had an impact on how difficult it was for him to learn a Skill.

Over the course of the next few minutes, Robin once again recovered and steeled himself. This wouldn’t be what stopped him.

He once again sat down, legs crossed.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He tried again.

The light wind grew lighter and died down. Noises grew distant, as if he was sinking. He could no longer smell the greenery that surrounded him or feel the warmth of the morning sun on his skin. As he opened his eyes, he found himself standing and completely surrounded by black. The scene was somewhat familiar by now. Somehow this darkness wasn’t because a lack of light – he could still see - but because the light itself was black… somehow.

The silence was oppressive, even though it wasn't completely unfamiliar by now. He knew it was the calm before the storm, and now that was here once again he hesitated to make that first step. He tried to think of something he could do differently this time. He had tried feeding his Spark more Mana earlier in hopes to make it bigger, but that only lead to either wasting Mana with no palpable improvement or just the complete collapse of the Skill.

Seconds ticked by slowly while everything kept still. Belatedly, Robin realized he didn’t need to breathe in this realm as he had been unconsciously holding his breath for a while while he thought.

But he didn’t really come up with anything new. This was going to be a slam yourself against the wall until it cracks scenario, but at least he didn’t take any damage in the real world while doing this.

Robin took a deep breath and stepped forward into the darkness. As he moved, tiny circular ripples formed and began sliding along the inch-high inky water that seemed to cover this place.

The first time he got here they seemed normal, but the fact that they kept forming even after he stopped moving gave him goosebumps. And this time Robin tensed once again. The miniature waves’ trajectory was shifting, all of them converging to a point half a dozen meters in front of him.

Soon, new ripples stopped emerging. At the same time the water around the convergence point began to bubble.

Robin summoned his Spark in his right palm and looked at it. He turned back towards the forming elemental and sighed.

He tried forcing the fire to grow bigger before, but it wouldn’t go past his wrist or a few centimeters away from his skin.

“Fighting water with fire is an uphill battle to begin with. But I need this damn Skill.”

The elemental was now at the height of his waist, so he charged, hoping to hurt it before it finished morphing.

With every splash his feet made, his enemy seemed to get an inch taller. By the time he was close enough to ‘burn’ it, it was nearly done forming. But this time, out of the corner of his eye he saw something small shift inside the elemental as his Spark came in contact with it.

He’d basically just slapped it with a burning hand, which was sadly the best idea he had come up with, but a small pearl of some sort shifted to the opposite side of the creature.

Even though he was cold all over once again, ears popping, he smiled.

Back outside, another series of coughs ravaged his throat. Being crush-drowned by a water elemental was far from a pleasant experience every time, even if it was just some kind of illusion. Still, without even getting up this time for a break, Robin closed his eyes and went back in. This time he had a plan.