Dave was leaning against a tree. He still felt exhausted but not too hurt anymore. After he had almost collapsed on the floor, or as he saw it, took a well deserved break, Sam had swooped in to patch him up..

After some touching around his ribcage, a few tightly drawn breaths and a curse or two, Dave found out that he had broken a few ribs. And probably had a mild concussion from charging headfirst into the wooden knight.

Luckily it only took a few minutes of healing from Sam for him to feel a bit better. The soft white light always felt warm to the skin and almost soothing for the mind. The rest of the group was in pretty good shape, other than Max’s cut on the head maybe, but he had headed into the circle of trees immediately after the battle and hadn’t emerged yet.

Dave wanted to check on him, but Bixby told him it was better to leave him be, interfering with the Node claiming process could lead to devastating consequences. So he waited.

There was a rush that came after surviving a fight of life and death. An elation that came after being the surviving party of a conflict. But such a feeling only lasts for a short period of time. After that tiredness and exhaustion took over.

A few jokes were exchanged after the battle. None of them too funny but well needed to release some of the tension that hung in the air. They didn’t consciously address it but they had all run into danger almost too eagerly.

Sure the battle turned out to be surprisingly easy, the wooden knights were intimidating but slow. yet their minds still hadn’t fully adjusted to the new reality they lived in.

More than that though, Dave remembered how helpless he felt against the NoteFox at the river. Like a fish out of water. And even that paled in comparison to what he felt from the darker NoteFox.

He had felt helpless, weak and somehow also excited. Dave wanted that kind of power for himself. This wasn’t his world anymore, the rules had changed. But that gave him a chance, he could make a place for himself in this world. He could protect those dear to him and become something more.

A week ago he had only been an accountant for a shitty firm, in a shitty office, hating most parts of his day. Now he could become somebody. If that meant fighting more monsters, more risks so be it.

He rememberd the feeling of thrill and excitement when he leveled up his Skills after the fights with the Nodefoxes. It gave him a thirst for strenght.

Dave was pondering all of these thoughts when a window popped up in his vision.

“Max Cavanaugh has claimed Node SG-545. Mana Attunement process for nearby people has finished.”

A wave of blue energy swapped over the clearing. Like a soft breeze of wind but loaded with energy. Dave's hair on his arms stood.

“Congratulations, your Mana Attunement process is 100% finished. Free Mana in your body has been converted.

*Congratulations you’ve reached:

  Rank: One

*Your body has become able to thrive in Mana dense surroundings, your skills will be stronger and your body functions better.*

*Quest system is now unlocked!*

*Congratulations, your Minor Spark Skill has reached Level 5. Minor Spark changed to Spark. New Paths for Spark have become available.*

Spark: Create electrical charge in your palm. You can release and direct it at targets. The charge deals moderate damage. Damage and controllability lessen the further said target is away.

Spark has increased Damage, Controllability, Range, Cooldown and Manacosts.

You may add an additional effect to Spark:

Sniper, Common - Spark has increased Range

Blaster, Common - Spark has increased Damage

Lightning Feet, Rare - Slightly increased Movement Speed while casting and moderately increased Movement Speed for 1 second after casting.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Dave's eyes shone. The first part already got him excited but it was the second part that made him feel like a kid in a candy store. Or rather like a nerdy gamer in a real life RPG game. Which was even more exciting in his opinion.

Video Game logic already told Dave that he should probably choose the latest option for Skill effects. It was rare and there had to be a reason for it to be rare. But over the last few days he had learned to think practical. Increased damage or increased range on his Minor Spark Skill might've made things a lot easier for him in the past.

Dave had no idea what Movement Speed would entail. If it was only a slight increase, it certainly wasn't worth it. If he thought about his fight with the wooden knight, that Skill might have been handy. His tactic of dancing into range, attacking with Minor Spark in the pocket and stepping out again would've been perfectly enhanced by this new effect.

Was that the reason he got the option?

He still almost wanted to take the rare option by instinct. But his experience as a gamer had taught him to really think it through. There had been countless times when he stifled his own growth in RPG games by not planning out his class carefully.

So he took a few more moments of concentrated thought. Dave didn't want to take that decision lightly.

In the end he took the Lightning Feet option. Not just because logic told him it would be the better option, but also because he was intrigued by it.

Dave quickly checked his other Skills and saw that he reached Level 4 in Soul Weapon and Level 3 in Soul Weapon Mastery. Now that he knew he would gain additional effects for his Skills at Level 5, he couldn’t wait for the next upgrade of Soul Weapon.

Enjoying the rush of becoming stronger, Dave closed his Skill windows with a satisfied smirk. There was another message that he almost didn’t notice underneath the flood of information after Max claimed the Node.

Curious, he followed that lead and opened a new window.

*New quests:

Peacebringer, General: Help to claim 3 Nodes. 1/3

Sideobject: Defeat or participate in defeating 5 Node Guardians. 3/5

Shocking Development, Domain: Defeat 10 foes with Minor Spark. 0/10

Master of Arms, Domain: Spend 100 hours in practice with your Soul Weapon. 0/100

*Congratulations, now that you have quests unlocked, your true strife towards progress may begin. Please note there will always be a quest available for you, so don’t hesitate to finish them off.*

Dave grinned from ear to ear. And he had gotten 3 quests. Bixby said there was a good possibility that quests would amount to new skills.

This felt like a big step forward. He saw the others having similar reactions. From the outside it looked as if they were all staring into space. Dave laughed at how it must look for an outside person entering the clearing.

But Dave knew they were all reading and thinking through their messages as well. He noticed Bixby looked curiously over at him. With the rise of an eyebrow he brought him to speak.

“Your Mana attunement process should be complete now, no?” Dave got better over the last few days of reading the NoteFoxes facial expressions but he wasn’t sure what he saw right now, “Where before some lines you probably couldn’t read, now you should also see more about Skills. Tell me, can you see the origin now?”

Nervousness? Was it nervousness in the NoteFoxes face? But there was also something else, a glimmer of interest maybe.

“Uhh wait a second I’ll check.” And Dave pulled up the status screen for his Soul Weapon Skill. He wanted to check to see if anything had changed anyways.

Soul Weapon

Rarity: Common

Level: 4

Effect: : Conjure a weapon. The weapon is bound to your soul. You can desummon the weapon and conjure it again at will any time after the cooldown is over. Soul Weapons are slightly more durable than usual weapons. Number of weapons you can bind as Soul Weapons will increase with advancement of the Skill.

Origin: Inherent

Dave closed the window again, it wasn’t a lot more new information, actually just one new line, but the text seemed sharper somehow now. Maybe he at least could read his level up notifications properly. He looked over to Bixby again.

“Well I can read it better, but there’s not much new information about my Skill. Actually only this origin thing you talked about.”

“What does the part about origin say?” Bixby said, and leaned forward.

“Nothing much, it just says ‘Inherent’ ” Dave shrugged. It sounded a bit weird but the new origin stat wasn’t really what he was interested in. Although if Bixby asked, there could be something about that.

“That’s normal. What about your other skill?” the NoteFox said

Dave gave the status screen for his Spear skill a quick glance over.

“Huh that sounds weird.” Dave said, raising one brow. “Under its origin it says ‘Gifted’. What does that mean?”

For a second shock broke out over Bixby’s face, but it quickly calmed again.

“I thought maybe you were just lucky, I’ve never heard about a plane of existence being integrated into the Manaverse again, so maybe it was possible. I explained to you before, usually when people have multiple Domains so early on, it’s because they come from an influential family. Powerful scions can give their heirs access to Domains and Skills you could only dream off. I don’t know how but it happened to you.'' Pausing, the NoteFox collected his thoughts before speaking again, “I don’t know who gave you this access to that Domain. But it was somebody powerful. Somebody with the ability to look into this plane of existence and who found you interesting enough. We’re talking about a level of power that would make Marekiel look like nothing more than an infant.”

Dave swallowed. Was this the effect of what Reginald had done to him?

He wasn’t sure how to feel. On the one hand he was happy he got access to such a power, he felt a bit flustered even. On the other hand he didn’t believe Reginald had done that out of sheer altruism. There was probably a reason for why he gave Dave such a valuable gift.

But what interest could he have in him? Heck Dave couldn’t even begin to understand what level of power Reginald must possess.

“So what does that mean?” Dave asked. The others had started listening to the conversation. Their attention resting on Dave. He was never good being in the center of attention so he avoided looking at them. He stole a quick glance at Sarah but didn’t make eye contact.

“Honestly I don’t know. As I said we’re talking about power levels I haven't experienced yet. My clan was a Rank 2 clan, this is far beyond us. But I’d say be grateful, there’s no way to know why this person gave you that gift, so all you can do is accept it. Cultivation is a cutthroat competitive game. Take every advantage you can get.”

Thoughts kept running through Dave’s mind. Sam saw how uncomfortable he was though and tried taking attention away from him by talking about his new skill. Apparently he got some sort of X-Ray vision, but he could only use it for medical purposes yet.

That quickly erupted into a discussion about where and how the difference between medical purposes and other purposes was drawn. Which in turn became a discussion about the Skills the others received after the fight and the quests they had gotten.

They kept talking for a while before Max came back out. With a look on his face that Dave knew all too well. He had his usual carefree smile on his lips, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. His slight frown on his face would’ve been missed if one didn’t know where to look with Max. This solemn face could only mean one thing.

Max had bad news.