In the heart of the forest, a young man darted between the trees, his movements swift and unrestrained. He wore nothing but a pair of shorts, his feet bare against the forest floor. Occasionally, he would climb a tree and leap down, landing effortlessly before resuming his run. When the path ahead was clear, he somersaulted through the air, sometimes jumping for no apparent reason.

After a while, he stopped and sat on the ground, his body still as he stared at the dirt beneath him. If he was hungry, he would eat whatever food he had on hand; if not, he simply remained there, unmoving, doing nothing but gazing at the earth. Half an hour would pass in this strange stillness before he rose again, resuming his relentless run through the trees.

-What are you actually doing?- After observing Alistair for a couple of hours, Ameera finally broke the silence as he rested on the ground.

"I'm training," Alistair replied, taking a bite of bread between his words.

-You're training your... athleticism?-

"Is that how it looks to you?" he asked, a faint smile curling his lips.

-Yeah. It looks like you're trying your best to tire yourself out, then rest, and repeat the whole thing all over again.-

"I'm not tired, though."

-You're not? Then why do you stop? What's the point of this training?-

"I run out of mana," he explained, finishing the last bite of the bread before standing up. "That's why I stop each time. I wait until I recover enough mana, then I continue. I'm not training my body, if that's what you think."

After brushing crumbs from his hands, he stretched slightly. "How much do you know about how an awakened—a mana user—fights with their mana?"

-Hmm? Oh, well, if they're the magician type, they'd use their mana to cast spells. And if they're the warrior type, they'd use their mana to cast skills.-

"Yeah, that’s how initiates usually fight. After becoming an adept, a mana user typically starts learning how to infuse mana into all of their activities, not just magic or skills. This is especially true for the ‘warrior type,’ as you put it."

"As for this training, I push my body with heavy physical activity, but I use mana, so it doesn’t actually tire me—it just drains my mana."

-What’s an initiate? And what’s the other thing? Adept?-

"It’s an arbitrary categorization people in this world use to classify mana users. Someone who has just awakened is called an initiate for their first 10 levels. At level 11, they become an adept, a title they keep until level 40. At level 41, they’re considered a master, and at level 60, a grand master. If they manage to reach level 71, they’re called an ascended."

He paused briefly before adding, "Again, it’s arbitrary, but in general, it works. It gives a rough idea of how strong a person might be."

“Anyway, this is how I used to train.” Alistair continued running, his voice steady despite the exertion. “Well, not exactly like this. I usually trained combat skills without relying on the system. But this body is far too weak—I can’t use any of my combat skills yet. So, I just run. It should work fine. This is how I used to train my children—by having them keep moving without stopping.”

The memory brought a faint smile to Alistair’s face. He leaped toward the nearest tree and began climbing it with practiced ease.

-And why do you stare at the ground like that when you’re resting?- Ameera’s voice echoed in his mind, curious as ever.

“I find I recover mana faster when I do that—sitting still, not doing or thinking about anything. Back when I was a hero, I had a skill called Meditation. It helped me recover mana much faster, but it could only be used like that: staying still, relaxing, and emptying my mind.”

Alistair reached the highest branch of the tree. Instead of continuing his movement, he sat down on the branch, pulled a waterskin from his inventory, and took a slow sip.

“Unfortunately, it’s one of those skills I’ve never been able to learn properly. I can’t trigger the skill without the system’s help. But I did figure out that my mana recovers faster when I’m relaxed, even without the skill.”

-Okay… and the clothes? Or lack of...-

“Hmm? Oh, I’ll be training here for a while. I’d rather avoid doing too much cleaning, and luckily it’s warm enough right now. Besides, training tends to wear down clothes, and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get new ones.”

He paused briefly, glancing at his attire. “I’m only wearing these shorts because of you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered wearing anything at all. Say… I haven’t actually asked—do you mind if I—”

-YES! I do mind! Keep the shorts on!-

“Heh, that’s what I thought.”

Alistair stored the waterskin and began jumping down from branch to branch. At the last branch, he leaped forward, intending to start running as soon as he landed. Unfortunately, his foot came down on a jagged stone hidden by the grass.

“Ah!” He tumbled to the ground with a grunt. Sitting up, he examined his left foot and found a fairly large wound bleeding heavily.

-Ouch… that looks painful. I told you, remember? You should’ve worn the boots.-

“Nah, footwear is the first thing to wear down with this kind of training, especially boots.”

-Now what? I think there are some bandages in the bag.-

“That won’t be necessary,” Alistair replied, placing his right hand over the wound. “Fortunately, I still have enough mana.”

A faint glow began emanating from his hand. After a few moments, the light faded, and he lifted his hand. The bleeding had stopped, and the wound was closed, though the skin remained red and swollen.

TING!

-What did you do?-

“I used a healing skill. What was that sound?”

-The ‘ting’ sound? That’s your system notification. It probably registered your healing skill.-

Curious, Alistair opened his status window. To his surprise, he noticed a new page had been added. Intrigued, he selected it and began to read.

Page 2/2

SKILLS

Heal (basic)

Lv. 3

“Huh? I thought you said this system wouldn’t give me any skills?”

-It doesn’t. But it can register any skills that you use.-

“Register? So I can use skills with my system? Like in the old system?”

-Yeah. Even though it’s a training system, it’s still a working system. It does have the skill assist function. So yes, you can cast any of the skills it registers.-

“Ohhh, that’s cool. I don’t see any skill XP, though. How do I level up the skill? And why does it start at level 3?”

-You can’t level up skills. Remember, you’re the one performing the skills in the first place. The system just registers them as they are. It started at level 3 because that’s the proficiency level you demonstrated when you used the skill. If, in the future, you can manually cast it at a higher level, the system will re-register it. The system always records your skill at the highest proficiency level you’ve ever achieved.-

“Is that so? That’s still really cool.”

Alistair placed his right hand on his left foot again.

“Heal,” he said, and light once more emitted from his hand. When he removed it, the wound had fully healed.

“Nice. I might not use it often, but it could come in handy in the future.” Alistair stood up, testing his left foot by stepping on it a few times. Satisfied with how it felt, he resumed running.

-You’re not going to use it often? What do you mean? Are you planning to stick to manually casting skills and magic?-

“Yeah, that’s how I trained in the past. Using system-assisted skills during training wouldn’t do anything for me. If I train by manually using combat skills, my PHY increases. And if I use magic manually, my MAG increases.”

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-I see. Wait… is that why you don’t wear any shoes? You want to get hurt so you can train your magic?-

“Of course not, that’s stupid. It’s the other way around—I can train without shoes because I know I can always heal any wounds. To increase my magic, I can use other magic skills.”

-…-

Alistair stopped running, lowering his head with a sigh. He could feel she was upset.

“I’m not calling you stupid. What I meant was that anyone who trains their magic by deliberately inflicting wounds on themselves is stupid. I’m sorry if it sounded like I was calling you stupid.”

-…That’s okay. Why exactly is that stupid, anyway?-

“There were some cases back in the kingdom during the early years. Some groups would kidnap villagers, inflict wounds on them, and have their healers heal them repeatedly. The idea was to improve their healing skills as efficiently as possible.

“It worked—at first. But people die if you keep hurting and healing them. Innocent lives were lost for the sake of skill training. Eventually, the kingdom declared the practice illegal. Most other countries followed suit, and the church even declared it heresy.”

-But what if they don’t hurt other people? What if they just hurt themselves?-

“It doesn’t work like that. The problem is the mindset. The moment someone accepts that hurting themselves and then healing it can help level their skill, they’re already on the wrong path. It won’t take long before they realize it’s easier to hurt other people instead.

“And it’s also very detrimental for healers. Casting magic relies on imagination and purpose. A healer who gets into the habit of hurting people might find their healing spells losing proficiency.”

-I see. Then make sure you leave some mana and don’t spend it all before you rest. You never know when you’ll need to heal yourself.-

“Of course I leave some mana, you— I also don’t stay resting until my mana is full, because the more mana you have, the slower it recovers.”

-You almost called me stupid there, didn’t you…-

“Absolutely not. I abhor the accusation,” Alistair replied with a smirk.

____________________________________

The sun had set, casting a dim orange glow over the forest. Alistair was arranging some wood to start a campfire. Once the wood was set, he hovered his hands above it, and the pile suddenly ignited.

TING!

-What’s that?-

“That would be… Fire, Basic, Level 2. Nice,” Alistair said, checking his skill page.

-You know elemental magic? Is this from the Hero skill?-

“No, the Hero class didn’t have any combat magic skills. I learned this the hard way.” Alistair pulled a bedroll and blanket out of his inventory and set them up before sitting down.

-What’s the hard way?-

“Well, the hard way is finding a mage to teach you how to cast the spell. Preferably someone who can do it manually.”

-There are other people in this world who can cast skills manually?-

“There are quite a few, actually. It’s not that rare. Most of them are mages, and they call it chantless casting. That’s because, in this world, you normally have to say the skill name to activate it. A mage who can cast spells without chanting is incredibly dangerous.”

-So you also learned how to cast skills manually, even for ones outside your class? I’m assuming for versatility?-

“I guess that’s part of it. But there were other reasons. I was about 50% sure that my stats increased faster when I mastered new skills.”

-… 50%?-

“Alright, maybe 30% sure.” He smirked. “The main reason, though, was boredom. Training with the same skills for centuries gets tedious.”

-I see.-

Alistair held both of his hands up at chest height. He concentrated, and a flame flickered to life, hovering just above his palms. As he poured more mana into it, the ball of fire grew, expanding to the size of a fist.

-You’re not resting yet?-

“Not yet. I’ll go through three cycles of my mana reserve before I sleep. What about you? Will you stand guard while I’m sleeping?”

-No. Even though our souls are connected, they’re still separate. But my soul is tied to your body, so when you sleep, I sleep too.-

“Is that so?” A flicker of disappointment crossed Alistair’s face. A few intriguing possibilities had just gone out the window.

-Can I ask you something?-

“Sure.”

-How is your body this small? Was it Kotan? Did he do something to your body?-

“Nah. I was small back then. Even among the kids my age, I was really small.”

-Really? How big—no, how small are you now?-

“I don’t know.”

-How can you not know? This is your body, isn’t it?-

“It is my body, but I wasn’t small by the time I reached seventeen. By then, I was already the largest among my peers.”

-You’re being confusing. You said you were small, and now you’re saying you were large. Are you sure Kotan didn’t do anything?-

“Back then, I awakened at fourteen. The church started training me, and with my father’s training regimen, I grew bigger fast. Without that training, I wouldn’t know how much I would’ve grown—or if I would’ve grown at all.”

-But it is small, though, right? Can’t you feel it or something?-

“What do you mean, feel it? Argh…” Alistair stopped conjuring the fire and heaved a sigh.

He took a deep breath and stood up, retrieving a spear from his inventory. He inspected it for a moment before holding it upright with the butt resting on the ground. The spear was taller than him. After a brief pause, he muttered thoughtfully:

“I’d say around 167 cm (5’6”). Satisfied?”

Without waiting for a response, Alistair stored the spear and sat back down. This time, he extended his hands outward, and the fireball was conjured a bit further away from his body.

-That’s… pretty short for a man in this world, no? Were you sick? Or did you have some kind of condition?-

“Nope, my father was short too. He was just a bit taller than I am now.”

-I see… Hey… Alistair?-

Alistair didn’t respond this time, keeping his concentration on the fireball.

-Hey.-

“What?! Are you bored or something?”

-Of course I’m bored. There’s nothing for me to do that isn’t about you. So, talk to me. It’s not like you can’t speak while casting skills, right?-

“Huh, sure, why not,” Alistair replied with a sigh of defeat. “So tell me about this spell Meera cast.”

-Which spell?-

“This place. I haven’t heard anything—no animals, no bugs, nothing. I assume it’s a spell?”

-Yes, it’s a spell. It’s a static formation that keeps animals out. Humans too.-

“I didn’t sense any mana, though.”

-It uses a different kind of mana. Not the type you can sense. Not yet, at least.-

“I see. How long will the formation hold?”

-The formation will hold until you leave it. Once you exit, it will destroy itself. If you stay indefinitely, it could last for around… 100 years.-

“Oh, okay then. That’s good.”

Alistair’s mana was nearly depleted when he dismissed the fireball once again.

TING!

Another notification sounded, but no new skill had been registered this time. He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, before opening his status window.

Page 1/1

Name:

Age:

Class:

Level:

Alistair (Ronan)

17

Monk

1

Stats:

STR

AGI

DEX

11

11

10

MAG

SEN

ATT

11

11

--

-So you leveled up.-

“Yeah, apparently so. My ATT stat, whatever that is, is missing. What happened there?”

-We kind of expected this. Your ATT is off the chart.-

“What’s that supposed to mean? I thought Meera said my mana sensitivity was the one that’s off the chart. I’m assuming that’s SEN?”

-Yes, SEN is your mana sensitivity, and it was off the chart. But to be fair, all your stats were off the chart. When you died and were reborn, all your stats were reset—except for your ATT.-

-ATT is your mana attunement. It’s basically your talent—it’s fixed from the day you were born. It governs everything: how easily your body absorbs mana, how easily you can control it, how your mana reacts to you, and more.-

“I see. How about the other stats?”

-Okay. So, STR stands for strength. This is your body’s raw power. The higher this stat, the stronger and denser your body becomes. It increases the momentum of your attacks, the amount you can lift, and how much damage you can endure.

-AGI stands for agility. This governs your body’s flexibility and speed. Greater flexibility means quicker muscle twitches and faster overall movement. It also applies to your bones and other parts of your body. The higher this stat, the faster you are. AGI also has a minor effect on defense—the more you have, the better your body absorbs damage.

-DEX stands for dexterity. This affects the fine movements of your body. The stat governs how precise and controlled you are, even in the smallest motions. It also impacts striking power, as better precision means more effective attacks.

-MAG stands for magic, just like in your previous system. This one is pretty straightforward—it determines how much mana your body can hold, or your ‘mana heart,’ as you call it. It also affects how quickly you recover mana.

-SEN stands for mana sensitivity. As the name suggests, this governs how sensitive you are to mana. Outside your body, it determines your mana perception and the range of your mana. Inside your body, it affects how fast you can move your mana and how well you can control it. The higher this stat, the more potent your skills become, even at the same level.

-And finally, ATT—last but definitely not least. Like I said before, it stands for mana attunement. It’s fixed from birth and can’t be changed. ATT affects your growth, dictating how easily your body absorbs and controls mana, as well as how mana reacts to you.-

“Hooo, that’s simpler than I thought. So how many stats do I need to increase per level?”

-It’s basically the same as the original system—your stats double every 10 levels. The difference here is that with more stats, there’s added complexity. Each stat isn’t weighted equally; some are considered more important and will contribute more during level-ups. Can you guess which stat is the most important?-

Alistair fell silent. He noticed this wasn’t the first time she’d done this—she liked to play games like this. After a moment of thought, he answered.

“Either DEX or SEN. You said ATT is very important, but since it’s fixed, we’re not counting it for now.”

-Right. What made you choose those stats? I’d assume a warrior like you would pick STR, or maybe both STR and AGI.-

“If the stats work as you described, DEX is definitely the most important physical stat. Do you know why warriors and martial artists practice repetitive drills? Doing the same technique over and over again?”

-Um, no, why?-

“Because to execute a battle technique accurately, you need to understand and control every aspect of your body’s movement—when to move a muscle, how much strength to use, the angle of the attack, when to step, when to breathe, and so on. My father called this sharpness.

“You can train your body to move faster and stronger, but that will only get you to 99% of a technique’s accuracy. The last 1% requires sharpness. It’s the journey toward perfection.”

-So you’ve mastered most of your techniques to 100%, I assume.-

“Nope. There’s no such thing as 100%. It’s a never-ending journey.”

-Your father said all of this? Was he some kind of philosopher?-

The comparison drew a small laugh from Alistair.

“Ha ha, no. He was just a spear instructor in a backwater village. But, in a way, he was kind of a philosopher.”

-Is that so? So why did you also pick SEN?-

“Because the way you described it, it sounds like DEX, but for mana.”

-Precisely. But it doesn’t just affect mana—it also impacts your body, especially your combat skills.

-So, if basic stats like STR, AGI, and MAG are weighted at 1, DEX would be weighted at 1.5, and SEN would be weighted at 2.-

“That makes sense. If DEX is sharpness and SEN is similar to it, increasing those stats wouldn’t be as easy as increasing the others. But the payoff would probably be greater than the effort.”

-Precisely. Now, did you know that if—-

“That’s enough for now. I’m trying to meditate here,” Alistair cut her off mid-sentence, turning his attention to the campfire.

-…-

A small smile crept across Alistair’s face. He could feel her pouting. In his previous life, he always trained alone—in the middle of a forest, on top of a mountain, or deep inside a cave. Solitary, always, because he didn’t want anyone to know the magnitude of his true strength.

Now, though, it might actually be nice having her around.