At the cairn’s entrance, I picked up my wand and pocket watch. Thale did not bother me during the walk back, so I assumed the mana realignment process knocked him out. My wand was returned to its holster, and I held my pocket watch in one hand, examining my reflection in the fire-lit reflection.

Physically, I was unchanged beyond the smeared blood on my face and the dark circles under my eyes. My ears were still rounded, and my eyes were their usual red color. For all intents and purposes, I was still human. Yet, if you looked under the surface, you would see something completely different.

[Observe, Lvl. 9]

Name: Thale Feldrast

Class: Mage

Level: 20

HP: 61

MP: 455

Fortitude: 6

Strength: 6

Agility: 7

Intelligence: 20

Willpower: 16

Charisma: 13

Mana Conductivity: 3.8 μ/s

Tier: C

Abilities: [Mana Perception], [Transmutation], [Warding Circle]...

Spells: [Fly], [Gust], [Wind Knife]...

Talents: [Hellfire], [Observe], [Triage]

Alignment: Scrupulous (Good)

My mana had been replaced with elvish mana by the Mark of Ahriman. Since elvish mana was 50% more efficient than human mana, my mana reserve had increased by more than 150 points. Though late game Mages could theoretically reach more than 1000 points in their mana reserve, it should have been impossible to reach 400 mana at level 20. At my current rate, I would have no difficulty reaching 1000 mana. With this, I could be a lot more liberal with my spellcasting.

As I walked back to camp, I remembered that I had leveled up earlier that day. Considering that I had just reached level 20, I figured that I should still have two points to apply to my attributes. With that in mind, I mentally sent a message in English.

System. Do I have any attribute increases on standby?

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

English words appeared in my vision.

Yes. You may increase any of your attributes by two, or you may increase two of your attributes by one.

Increase my Intelligence score by two.

Without hesitation, I gave this command to the System. A warm sensation filled my mind, as if warm water had spilled on my brain. It felt like my mind had become slightly more quick and energetic, like I could do math equations faster.

[Observe, Lvl. 9]

MP: 475

Intelligence: 22

Considering the attribute that had just appeared in front of my eyes, I realized that Intelligence was just a quantification of spellcasting ability. That attribute increased your mana reserve and allowed you to cast more advanced spells.

The campfire had just reentered my sight when I thought about how there was no pop-up telling me that I had achieved an attribute increase. I had handled it up to that point by telling the System where to increase my attributes every four levels. If I didn’t know that the System granted an attribute increase every four levels, I wouldn’t have known to ask.

System. What would you have done if I didn’t tell you which of my attributes to increase?

I would have increased your attributes automatically a week after you leveled up. Your attributes would have been increased based on where I thought your Character Sheet was lacking.

I was suddenly very glad that I remembered to apply my attribute increases quickly. The System probably would have dumped all my points into Fortitude if I wasn’t careful.

Is there an option to turn that off?

If you find the automatic application of your attribute increases distasteful, then I shall not do so in the future.

Yes. Please do that.

As I approached the camp, I heard Eadric’s voice call out from the darkness, “Is that you, Thale?”

“Yeah, I’m back,” I responded.

“You’ve been gone for more than an hour,” Eadric said as he walked up to me. His tone was one of confusion rather than one of worry. He knew that I could handle anything that forest could throw at me, and he merely wondered where I had been.

“I was just taking a walk,” I lied.

“Okay…” Eadric said with his eyes narrowed. He squinted meaningfully at my pallid and bloodless expression, but I tried to ignore him. He had known me for long enough to know that I rarely did anything for no reason.

Eadric quickly dropped the subject, and I retreated to my tent. A powerful exhaustion gripped my body, and I wished for nothing more than to fall asleep as soon as possible. I fell back-first onto my bed and withdrew the blue-silver ring from my pocket.

My first instinct said that the ring was made out of mithril, but that assumption was borne out of other fantasy worlds. I had never actually seen mithril since I came to Ferrum. Seeing a magic ring made out of blue metal, my modern mind immediately jumped to mithril.

Three rows of miniscule runic script marked the edges of the ring, making it look like it had a rough texture. I turned the ring around in my hand, holding it up to the Hellfire spark to get a better look, and saw that one side of the ring was dominated by a large image of a rose.

I immediately thought of House Polaris and, to a greater extent, the entirety of the Kingdom of Etronia. Though, based on my memories, the crest of House Polaris was much more refined than the rose inscribed on the ring. The ring’s rose was smaller, and its thorns were much more apparent. It was as if the crest of House Polaris portrayed a domestic rose, and the ring portrayed a wild rose.

I was too tired to further consider the ring. I moved the ring with the intent to place it on the middle finger of my right hand, but I hesitated. The ring was gifted to me by a greater demon, after all. Though I trusted Ahriman to follow through on his promises more than any other demon, his nature was still demonic. He never promised that the ring wasn’t cursed.

Unsure of what to do with the ring, I clamped my hand around its metallic body and held it close to my chest. I didn’t want to put it on my finger, and I really didn’t want it to get stolen. With my hand firmly around the ring, I extinguished the Hellfire spark illuminating my tent. Within seconds, I was asleep.