I've been reading...

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*pants* *pants* How could they do all of this for that long?!

Only after 15 minutes did I get very tired. Like, no energy at all. That's when I decided to stop before my energy stoops to dangerous levels.

I saw them do this for at least half an hour and they didn't show a lot of fatigue. Maybe there's something to this?

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And of course, after hunting some rabbits to replenish my energy, I quickly sneaked into the library through the window and tried to find anything about stamina or magic or something.

And I did.

So I read a bit of it. Just 10 minutes really, and I think I know where the energy in casting magic comes from.

So there's this thing called magical essence which is basically the stamina for use using magic. Or in a game, you'd call it mana.

Every magical being has magic essence in them. Monsters actually deplete them when they are killed. The blue orb I absorbed is most likely the magic essence of that vampire cat guy.

A monster only releases a quarter of its magic essence when killed, and if left untouched or unabsorbed, it can turn into magic crystals which can then be used for other types of magic including communication, illusion, mind-reading, and others that are unobtainable for mages. All they need to do is to learn basic skills of alchemy to have the right elixirs and spells to change them into the different types of crystals.

While humans can't absorb the magic essence, other monsters can, and it can either heal them, make their magic essence stronger, or both if the magic essence is strong enough to do both. But it won't replace the mana that you used. It just adds more into the max mana you could have.

And of course, more complicated magic would need more magic essence.

Unlike monsters, humans can increase their magic essence threshold by doing a sort of cultivation ritual. But it adds additively, not exponentially. So the greatest mages must have been cultivating for years to have their kind of mana and skill and class.

In the end...

That's so unfair! Why do I have to kill to increase my self-defence capabilities!

I was exploring around my old home, the cave.

And like how god sometimes try to kill you by doing it literally or by giving you a heart attack, there was a big fat bear who seems too big and fat to exist somehow came out of nowhere and tried to swipe at me. I happened to hear the rustle of the plants so its claws merely grazed me as I then used both my wings and wind magic to boost myself very quickly to the air, practically teleporting.

In that flurry of my panic and the speed of my takeoff, I managed to give myself a few seconds of dizziness and nausea. Before looking back down to see the same bear charging an earth-spear attack in my direction. I managed to avoid certain death by manipulating some earth too to create a wall in midair. It wasn't enough to stop it fully, but it was strong enough to stop most of the momentum so that the big rock wouldn't reach me.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I was fully expecting another attack, but it just huffed and walked away. My mind had a civil war at this moment.

I think it's too hungry to hunt animals that can run a lot.

Too hungry? Too HUNGRY??! LOOK AT IT! THAT MUCH FAT COULD FEED GODDAMN GODZILLA FOR FUCK SAKE!

Yeah, but all bears always are fat-looking, right?

IT WASN'T LOOKING AT US WITH HUNGER. THAT THING IS EVIL I TELL YOU

Now, now. How could you be so sure about an animal's face expressions?

ITS AURA WAS EVIL. I CAN FEEL IT

You surely are being delusiona-

HA! EXPLAIN THAT!

That's when I snapped out of the mental civil war to see the same bear damaging trees and grabbing branches only to snap them into a million pieces. Sometimes if would sniff one, wave it around and then throw it to just randomly conjure earth from the ground to catch.

It's bored... Now we know who won that civil war.

I decided that I would watch it just in case it would harm anything in its boredom or if it went to town for a destructive visit.

It went almost the total opposite way from the Univ, which is a relief yo the second worry.

I stalked it for 5 minutes, and it seemed to be out of its murderous mood as it ignored the birds close enough to it that flew and the Tree critters that were close enough for it to charge towards. I doubt it is going back to its cave, considering we did a U-shaped journey. I was worried again if it goes straight to town. But that would be the least of my worries when I heard familiar chirping of a blue jay and its children. That attracted the bear's attention as he switched directions.

If it dares try to kill those innocent birds, I'm gonna give it a trip to hell.

And guess what? It did.

It swiped at the tree hole where the avians located their home. Before it had a chance at taking more swipes, I quickly lodged an ice shard into its head, killing the ursine once and for all. I learnt ice magic when I was training. I wanted to get the water to be hard and attack sharply like that waterjet gun thingy, but then a part of my mind slapped the other and said how stupid I am for not turning it into ice and then I tried a succe-- we're going out of the present now.

A blue orb appeared and started floating on top of the bear. And of course, I poked it, absorbing it in the process.

The same feeling of something growing and getting stronger inside happened again, but a little less than the time I killed that bloody cat.

I think that's because this bear is not as strong as that criminal who managed to cut down trees with its own fucking paws. Why is he a criminal? Because DEFORESTATION is illegal.

I saw that the bear's face was wet, which is a mystery to me as I killed it by hitting the back part of its head.

I looked back up as I saw part of the birds' home destroyed. I decided to check if the birds were ok, even though the little ones are chirping like a machine gun. Only to get hit by water face-first. Pwueeh, some of it went into my mouth. Guess that's what happened to the bear.

I looked again to see the mother bird charging another water magic shot.

Guess they aren't normal blue jays...

I manipulated the water before it hit me and dispersed it. The parent kept staring at me, keeping still. It's kinda creepy how people or animals can do that, especially when one of the children also starts doing that too...

Wait...

One of the hatchling is also staring at me too...

And before I know it, the same hatchling hopped closer to me. As it gets closer--to my surprise-- the mother then starts screeching like a broken alarm clock but is too scared to stop its child.

And before I know it, the baby jay was right under my head. I lowered my head to inspect the nestling. Yesss... Nestlings, that's the right term, not hatchlings.

It then started nuzzling and rubbing itself against my snout. My eyes went wide, but I reciprocated the affection by gently nuzzling it too.

I think the mother is shocked now, because she stopped screeching.

After a minute or two, I decided it's enough and started slowly nuzzling and pushing it back to its nest. It seemed to get the message as it then goes back to where it were when I came.

Goodbye... Blue baby bird.

I left to go back home.