The flame in Jake's hand was currently the size of a flame that reached up; it was around the size of a small blade. Jake's goal was to turn this flame into a ball, but even with this new vision he had, it wasn't as easy as he had hoped. Each time he tried to condense the flame, it would slowly form into a ball-like shape, only for the flame to stop moving and collapse on itself. It was as if flames could only burn upwards. He continued with his folly for two more days until he finally gave up and began working on something completely different. Jake poured more and more mana into the flame, and with his experience from the last two days, he condensed the flame, crushing it into what resembled the shape of his sword of Damocles. The condensing of the flame made it semi-solid; it would be able to parry a strike from a common blade, but nothing more. Jake dismissed the flame and tried again from the start.

“One, two, three ... nine, ten. Fuck, it's too slow. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Yes, it's finally done. How am I going to use this in a real fight? What's worse is I don't even know how to use a sword, but it was the only thing that would work.”

With the flaming sword in his hand, he thrust forward, then sliced upwards to bisect his make-believe opponent before he dashed away and attacked again from a different angle. Then he dismissed the flame and dashed away as he began condensing a new blade in his off-hand.

“Fifteen seconds, it takes fifteen seconds. I need to start condensing earlier.”

Dashing back to his make-believe opponent, he struck it with his fist, then ducked before bringing the still-forming blade up; only this time the blade didn't hold together and flames exploded, blocking his view.

“Not fast enough, I'm dead,” Jake said to himself as he fell to the ground, gasping for air.

“I can only manage to make two swords before my body gives out, and one sword is only good for two strikes. That's a pretty low output for the effort. I hope the damage it does is worth it; otherwise, I've wasted so much time down here.”

After resting and regaining his mana, Jake tried again, but this time he began condensing the new sword after the first strike, giving himself just enough time to form the second blade before he attacked, allowing two more full-force strikes before he was out of the fight again.

“That's it, that's all I've got to give. Time to get out of this place.” For the first time, Jake remembered the issue with the exit.

“And how exactly do I do that? I'm not a bloody fox now, am I?” Jake thought over his new dilemma as he sat staring at the tiny exit tunnel.

“Need a shovel or something.” Looking around the room for any such objects, the target he was using for a target earlier was just a big rock Zero had not been able to remove; at least that's what Jake thought, as he didn't remember if it had been there the first time he entered the room. But one thing he was certain about was that the rock was very tough; not even with all the attacks he had made on it did it break. If only he could use his smithing skills, he might have been able to make what he needed.

“Well, I could try; it's only going to cost me time, after all, and I've got that in spades right now,” Jake said before sitting down in front of the rock, cross-legged, and putting his hand on the rock. He began by pushing mana into the rock and, with his new ability, watched the mana enter it. The mana passed into the rock and travelled down paths that looked similar to the pathways in his own body. Jake pushed in more mana and observed the results. It was then he noticed his new issue: the pathways just kept expanding as if the mana itself made it stronger.

“Well, that's a problem. If only I had the ability to see arcane energy, then I could try that instead.”

All Jake was trying to do was crack a section of the rock off so it would be more manageable. Jake tried reaching out to grasp his arcane energy, but all he felt was mana. Not even around him, all he could feel was mana—no life energy or void energy, just mana and only mana.

“This is bad; this is really bad.” Jake just sat there watching the pretty blue lights zipping around him. “Maybe, yes, what can it hurt to try?” Jake began to use up his mana stores, draining it away as quickly as he could while sitting and watching for any changes in the environment around him. It was a slow process, as he couldn't use his new skill to quickly drain his mana; it wouldn't allow Jake to focus on his observations. It wasn't until an hour later, when Jake started to feel the mana in his body running out, that he saw its colours: blue, green, red, black, and many others. Jake grabbed for the black energy, hoping it was arcane energy; after all, he remembered back to the tutorial when he first saw the Arcane Potion of Rejuvenation. It was as black as night and the best potion Jake had ever seen. Jake was beginning to feel faint as he had completely run out of mana, his eyes slowly closing as he saw one of the black wisps slowly move towards his hand before everything went black.

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Some time later, Jake woke up and the first thing he did was check if he could see a difference from before.

“Fuck, I was so damn close.” In Jake's vision, he could only see the same blue wisps fill his sight. “Not a single other colour at all. What a waste; let's try again. I know it will work; I just need more time,” Jake said before repeating the same process as before. Only this time, the moment he saw a black wisp, he grabbed at it, bringing it into his body before going for a second, wondering if it would work or not. The moment the second wisp entered his body, he fainted once again. Once he woke up, a small smile emerged on his face as he could see—not a lot of them, but he could see at least two—which now gave Jake the ability to gather more of them into his body. His idea was to somehow increase his ability to see arcane energy. Jake continued until his body hurt so much that he had to stop; even his fingernails hurt. Jake fainted five minutes later and didn't awaken for fifteen days, and when he did, he could see the arcane energy in all its glory. The moment he got his bearings, he began channelling arcane energy around his body, watching its pathways through his body; then he did the same with mana and watched.

“It seems they have different pathways. Does that mean I can use them at the same time without exploding in a flaming pile of flesh?”

Jake tried to use them both at once, mana in one hand and arcane energy in the other.

“I've got to do it; I know it's a bad idea, but come on.” Jake slammed both hands together.

Bang!

A beautiful swirling flame shot forwards in the direction of the exit tunnel and blew a hole all the way to the surface.

“Holy shit.” Jake looked at the light entering the room, then down at his blackened hands. “That was unexpected; I was certain I was going to lose my hands back there—not blow a hole big enough to squeeze through. I need to hide it; I'm not finished here.” Jake squeezed his way up the tunnel and, with haste, hid the entrance and climbed back down the tunnel. Jake's hands hurt, but he couldn't stop yet. Jake used everything he could find to block the hole. He sat down at the base of the tunnel and thought over the outcomes that could have happened due to his idiocy.

“I could have died; I'm so stupid. Why do I always do this stupid shit? Why did I use so much mana? I knew it would explode, so why did I go so big?” Jake sat there for a while before moving to the rock and checking on the pathways the mana was flowing through. The mana that was infused would stay within it for a while before dispersing into the atmosphere and back into the natural cycle.

“I wonder what would happen if I filled the rock with mana and lit it up with a spark of arcane energy. I bet it will split at its seams. But how do I protect myself and this room so it doesn't collapse on me?” Jake thought about it for a long time before he just went balls to the wall and started filling the rock with mana as he held a tiny spark of arcane energy in the other. The moment Jake's mana depleted, he slammed his hand down on the rock.

Bang!

Jake was shot back into the wall right beside the exit tunnel, shards of rock peppering the wall beside him. It was then the room began to rumble.

“It's going to collapse.” He grabbed the rock fragments from around him and shot up the tunnel. As he reached the top, he looked back over the ground and watched as the dirt sunk into a gigantic crater.

“I guess I need a new place to hide.”

Jake searched the area, and to his delight, found a small cave just big enough to sit in, and the entrance was small enough that no one would notice it, especially since it was halfway up a cliff face. It wasn't as hidden as Zero's hideout, but it was good enough for what Jake needed it for; after all, it was only going to be used to practice smithing. Tucking himself inside, Jake began going over what he remembered of his skills. One of the good things was that Jake had recited the three skills he needed word for word each night since he got them.

Skill (Arcane Hammer, Rare)

Use your arcane energy to reshape items < (Refined Arcane hammer rare) use your refined arcane energy to reshape items in a more detailed manner. Reduces the amount of arcane energy required by 50%

< (Refined Arcane Hammer, Rare) use your refined arcane energy to reshape items in a more detailed manner. Reduces the amount of arcane energy required by 50%.

Sadly for Jake, there was no way he could replicate the advanced version of the skill in a reasonable time, and this skill might just be the hardest of the three to replicate.

Skill (Arcane Flame, Rare)

An explosive flame contained within a mana barrier. < ( Attuned arcane flame epic ) a roaring flame of pure arcane energy that is attuned to the casters will.

< (Attuned Arcane Flame, Epic) a roaring flame of pure arcane energy that is attuned to the caster's will.

This skill Jake could already do, just a much smaller version of it. He didn't know how big of a flame he could make yet, but it was a good start. But then there was the last skill.

Skill (Small Mana Shield, Common)

You can produce a small physical shield of mana anywhere on your body < (reactive mana barrier rare) a barrier is formed and changed at the unconscious will of the caster barrier size is limited only to the casters mana pool.

< (Reactive Mana Barrier, Rare) a barrier is formed and changed at the unconscious will of the caster; barrier size is limited only to the caster's mana pool.

This one was an issue of its own; it wasn't that Jake couldn't make a mana barrier, but that there was no way it could be done unconsciously with Jake's current understanding of how his will worked. Jake sat in his cave and began working on his skills. In one hand, he had arcane energy, and in the other, he was working on a mana shield. The shield wasn't large enough yet, but it was good enough to bring a smile to Jake's face.