Ike called up his stat sheet, just to make sure he’d properly learned the skill.

[Name: Ike | Age: 15 | Status: Nm | Rank: 2 [Abyss Dweller]]

Skills: Common: 5 | Bronze 2 | Silver 2 | Gold 1 | Rare 2 | … | Unique: 4

Common: All-Around Runner Lvl 8 | Razor Handling Lvl 9 | Spear Handling Lvl 4 | Axe Handling Lvl 4 | Sword Handling Lvl 9 | Bow Handling Lvl 1 | Primitive Crafting Lvl 8

Bronze: Sensory Enhancement Lvl 9 | Mana Manipulation Lvl 5 | Lunam Manipulation Lvl 0

Silver: Flurry of Kicks Lvl 3 | Chlorophyll Lvl 1

Gold: Shockwave Punch Lvl 2 | Ice Armor Lvl 1

Rare: Salamander Healing Lvl 9 | River-Splitting Sword Lvl 6

Unique: Lightning Dash Lvl 9 | Lightning Grasp Lvl 7 | Lightning Clad Lvl 2 | Lightning Caller Lvl 3

Ike punched the sky. Hell yeah! I got it!

Another new skill jumped out at him: Lunam Manipulation. It was level 0, but it was a skill he had, nonetheless. He raised his brows. Interesting. I suppose having lunam in my core qualifies me to learn lunam manipulation? But having mana didn’t give me Mana Manipulation. I had to play with mana to earn the title. Is it because lunam is a weird energy? Is it because I know Mana Manipulation, and now I have lunam in my core, and the combination qualifies me to know Lunam Manipulation exists?

He shrugged to himself. There was no point worrying about it. He had an extra skill. A bonus skill. He should celebrate, not question it. It was a level 0 skill, so he couldn’t use it without additional insight or practice. Basically, it was a glorified menu listing, and little more. Barely better than seeing it in Orin’s book. But still, that was more than not having it.

Ice Armor was the important skill, in any case. It was only Gold, which somewhat surprised Ike. As strong as it had seemed on Garrus, he’d guessed it as at least a Rare, if not Unique. Though, looking at his list, Shockwave Punch was also a Gold, and it was a powerful skill in its own right.

Ike pinched his chin. Maybe the difference between Gold and Rare is that Gold skills are very good for one purpose—a punch, or armor—whereas Rare skills are good in the general case. Salamander Healing is good all the time, and River-Splitting Sword is basically a whole fighting technique in one. If I compare the two martial techniques directly, Shockwave Punch is a single attack, while River-Splitting Sword is a full fighting style. Multiple sword strikes, wrapped up into one skill.

Across the field from him, Wisp opened her mouth wide. A ball of fire burst out and exploded on the side of a tree with a blast of smoke and debris. Ike stared, startled from his thoughts.

The smoke cleared. A huge chunk of tree was gone, replaced by a smoking, black crater. Ike raised his brows and whistled.

I’ve never seen Wisp’s true strength, come to think of it. She’s never bothered fighting. And this was just her testing a skill? How strong is she?

Wisp chuckled. “Not too bad.”

“Not too bad at all,” Ike agreed, nodding.

She turned to him and clapped, gesturing for him to step forward. “So? What’re you waiting for? Let’s see that skill!”

Ike rolled out his shoulders. He jogged in place, bouncing back and forth, then activated the new skill. Ice Armor!

A thin layer of ice crackled over his body. It froze him in place, completely killing his motion. Ike jerked to a halt mid-bounce and began to topple over.

Wisp laughed, pointing at him.

As the ground loomed, Ike snapped the ice around his knees and elbows. Stepping forward, he barely caught himself in time. He drew a breath, shaking his head at himself.

“Well, it worked,” Wisp commented, chuckling.

“Yeah,” Ike muttered. He checked his core. His mana had dropped a little, but the layer of lunam sat there, untouched.

Hmm. That might become a problem. If I can’t figure out how to process that, that’s just a useless chunk of material filling up my core for no benefit. I’ve essentially got a core smaller by the amount of lunam in my core until I use it up.

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“I need to make the ice thicker before it’s useful. And make it thinner around my joints, so I can still move,” Ike said. He patted himself down, breaking the ice up and knocking it away from his body before it melted into his clothes. For now, it might be better to localize the Ice Armor. Basically, do the opposite of what I did for Lightning Clad—only freeze the small areas that need the armor. Unlike Lightning Clad, the limited Ice Armor would only be a stopgap until he managed to master it. It would allow him to use it before he mastered it, though, unlike its current unusable state.

It also lets me practice thickening the Ice Armor without investing the mana to thicken the whole thing, Ike noted.

Wisp sat back. She put her hands behind her head. “What next?”

“Huh?” Ike asked.

She gave him a look. “You just killed half of Lord Gerund’s strongest mages. You can’t go back to Abyssal. You’ll have to leave the rest of the mess to your friends Ket and Tana.”

“Oh… yeah. I should warn them…”

“I guarantee you, they already know. By now, Abyssal’s king knows he’s failed. You need to figure out what your next move is before he figures out his. If you keep sitting around here, you’ll end up dead.”

“I dunno. I killed a mid-Rank 2…” Ike muttered.

“And almost died to him. How do you feel about a Rank 3 and another Rank 2?”

“You could take them,” Ike pointed out.

Wisp rolled her eyes. “Sure, I could. I could do a lot of things. I choose not to do them because they’re more trouble than they’re worth. Human politics are bullshit and I don’t want anything to do with them. This time, I helped you out because I liked you, but I’m not going to fight your battles for you.”

Ike waved his hand. “No, I understand. It was a joke.”

“Better have been,” Wisp muttered.

He sighed. Turning to face the depths of the Abyss, he sighed again. “I don’t know. Whether I burned it or not, the mana field is dead to me. If I run off into the Abyss, I need a way to get mana. Or learn how to turn lunam into mana.”

“Or become a lunam mage.”

“No. I want to leave the Abyss. I know it can be done. I’m not giving up on mana just because it’s a temporary inconvenience,” Ike declared.

Wisp nodded. “Fair enough.”

He looked at her. “Actually, I’ve been wondering. Could you teach me how to process energy the way monsters do? So that it doesn’t matter whether I’m absorbing mana, lunam, or whatever, I can use it anyways.”

Wisp chuckled. She curled her hands into claws. “Ooooh. I could try. Might kill ya. But I could try.”

“Kill me?” Ike asked.

Wisp shrugged. “Everyone has some energy in them. Lunam, mana, primordial energy, whatever. Most people don’t have enough to cast magic, but no matter what, everyone—and everything—has some.”

“Right. And I’m guessing it’s essential to life?” ike asked.

She nodded. “If I were to teach you, we’d start by purging all the energy in your body so you could sense primordial energy—aether, as some people call it. But if you fail to figure out how to absorb aether, and you’ve purged all your energy…”

Ike rubbed the back of his head. “I die. Got it. What if we wait until I’m in an area with a lot of mana?”

Wisp shrugged. “You’d still be risking death. From the moment you purge your energy, you’re risking death. Surrounding yourself with mana makes it a little less dangerous, sure, but you’re still putting your life at risk.” She paused, thinking, then spread her hands. “Might not be less dangerous. Absorbing a sudden influx of mana all at once from zero can be dangerous, too.”

Ike considered. Learning to absorb aether put his life at risk. On the other hand, not being able to absorb different energies put his life at risk, too. The Abyss was one small valley. There were probably lots of other regions with unique energy streams, too. He already knew about solam as well as lunam; what was to say there weren’t many other energy types, too? If he could absorb all energy, he wouldn’t have to worry about any of that ever again. Even if there were only three types of energy, mana, lunam, and solam, he’d still be better prepared than most other mages. It would be an advantage he could tactically use for the rest of his career as a mage. Sure, mages would expect universal absorption of mana from their battles against monsters, but they wouldn’t know to expect it from a human as well.

It was a better option than swapping to lunam for sure. He wasn’t going to do that. Limiting himself to the Abyss sounded like a horrible idea. Better to limp along, killing monsters for mana, rather than convert to lunam and lock himself away.

But was it a better option than continuing to limp along on mana? He considered it, pursing his lips. It would be limping. Truly limping. Rosamund wouldn’t provide enough mana for him, if the mana field didn’t anymore. He’d have to constantly fight and kill monsters, which wasn’t necessarily a problem, since he’d have to do that anyways. The real problem laid in the fact that he would have to use the bare minimum of mana on each kill in order to come away from each kill positive on mana. If he used more mana than he absorbed, he’d end up in a hole. Plus, he’d struggle to ever fill his core. His profit margins would be tiny for each individual kill. Unless he stumbled across a core, like he had with the rooster, he’d be truly edging along at the bare minimum of mana.

If I don’t learn aether absorption from Wisp, I’m risking my life to scrape by, continuing to rely on mana, and putting myself on the back foot for the rest of my time in the Abyss. If I do, I’m risking my life to learn a skill I can use for the rest of my life.

He nodded to himself, then looked up at Wisp. “Please teach me.”

She giggled and gave him a thumbs up. Dropping to all fours, she scuttled off.

Loup wandered over. She sat down beside Ike, then looked up at him.

“Yeah, I don’t know, either. She’s a weirdo,” Ike said, shaking his head.

“She’s your teacher!” Wisp shouted at him from across the field.

“That’s right. Thank you, honorable teacher!” Ike called after her.

Wisp grinned. She gestured him on.

Ike looked over his shoulder one last time. To his surprise, he locked eyes with Ket, standing at the top of the valley.

Ike froze. He stepped back and opened his mouth.

Ket opened his mouth. Silently, he said, I know. Go.

Hesitating one last second, Ike nodded. He lifted his hand in thanks, then followed after Wisp.

Behind him, Ket faded into the woods. Before long, the entire mana field vanished behind him, as Wisp led him into the truly deep parts of the Abyss.

END BOOK 1