[Frozen Wooden Stick: Uncommon]

A stick of wood with frost deeply permeating its nature. Inflicts additional frost damage.

It was surreal how different this [Item] was from the mere [Object] it had been a moment ago. With my [Magic Sight], I could see this was no ordinary stick. What could only be described as the concept of ice was wrapped tightly around it, and it didn’t seem to be heating up.

With just one FFF-rank skill, I created something that violated energy preservation. How splendid.

The frozen stick was the perfect segue into the next skill.

With a mere thought, I made the stick vanish. Then, I made it reappear. Then, it vanished again. By that point, I could barely keep the smile off my face.

I mean, come on, a subdimensional inventory space? It was just so fucking cool! I mean, where did it go!? Well I knew where it went; I had a perfectly clear image of the space where I could store things, but like… where was that space? In another dimension?

And from what I could feel, my inventory was gigantic. If you took a rectangle the size of a football field and made it into a massive box, it would still be a bit smaller than the space I had in my soul. So far, this was likely the most helpful ability I had access to.

Putting items in and taking them out took practically no effort. You could bet that I fully intended to fill it with as many rocks and boulders as possible. I had already confirmed I had a mean pitch, and with a significant source of ammo, I would feel many times safer wandering these woods.

There were only three more abilities left—[Resurrect], [Summon Elemental], and [Oath of Loyalty].

I could use [Summon Elemental] without much problem, but the other two couldn’t be used without a target. As for which ability excited me the most? [Summon Elemental], hands down.

Granted, from a logical perspective, being able to literally bring people back from the dead was probably a lot more impressive, but… eh. So far, I hadn’t encountered anything I wanted to bring back to life, and I’d prefer any creatures I came across, such as the zombie wolf, to stay dead. [Oath of Loyalty] also seemed kind of cool. But I wasn’t exactly sure what it did. The description had also been vague.

The other tho couldn’t be used either way, so my decision was simple—it was time to summon an elemental.

But there was a problem. I took a look at my mana core. It… It had stopped being dull, at least, but… it was still empty. Uh oh. Did I need to do something special to refill it?

Only a few things came to mind. The first of which was to just sit down and focus really hard. As far as I could tell, that didn’t work. I could use [Energy Absorption] to suck environmental mana into my body, sure, but that just made it float around in my body rather than getting sucked into my core.

I could still use this “floating mana” to cast my skills, so without further ado, I focused. The ability was pretty simple. I could “tether” it to any of my affinities—including death and rot—and then invest any amount of mana. The more I used, the stronger the elemental would be.

I decided to give every one of my affinities a go, starting with those that excited me the least. The hierarchy of affinity was pretty evident at a glance. [Fire] and [Death] were at the bottom, followed by [Hellfire] and [Rot], and then [Witherflame], which was a combination of the two. Although my affinity with [Witherflame] was by far the lowest, I intuitively felt that that by no means meant that it was my weakest affinity.

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My decision landed on trying [Fire] first.

It took a few seconds of focus, but soon enough, all the floating mana in my body gathered in my palm. Then, just a few meters away from where I stood, a small flash of yellow light lit up.

As the light disappeared, what seemed to be a… fly… made of fire appeared. A literal firefly. The little guy buzzed around soundlessly for a few moments, and then, a meager gust of wind snuffed it out. That took literally all the mana I had. And that was the result.

My disappointment was immeasurable, and my day was ruined.

I immediately gave up on testing it any further. I had to gather more fuel for the spell; otherwise, my maidenly heart wouldn’t be able to handle another letdown like that.

Now, I was the type of person who always left the nicest fries for last. I put the whole, undamaged chips to the side while I ate the crumbled ones first. Why? Because I absolutely hated ending anything on a sour note.

My mind shifted to the wolf corpse sitting not too far from where I was. Technically, I wasn’t entirely out of skills to test. [Resurrect] needed a target. I had a target.

Slowly, my feet carried me to the bloated corpse. It was surrounded by flies by that point, and not long after, I stepped close enough to smell it. It smelled horrid, but… not in a bad way. The smell of the zombie horde had also not bothered me much. Was this a trait of my race?

In fact, the smell was almost pleasant. The thought of finding it enjoyable disturbed me.

In either case, I was soon close enough to touch it. “Yup… still dead.”

[Resurrect] didn’t require any mana to use, surprisingly. In fact, it seemed to cost nothing as far as I could tell.

But it did have one requirement that nearly made me give up on using it. I had to touch the target to use the skill. But I felt no disgust. It was more just a fear that touching this thing could give me some horrible disease. I settled for lightly grabbing the tip of one of its claws between my thumb and index finger.

“Hey there, little guy,” I shook his hand with a goofy giggle. I was caught off guard by my strangely jovial attitude. I was genuinely enjoying playing with a fucking corpse. The stress seemed to be getting to me.

I brought my mind back on track. “Let’s see if this works.” With a burst of will, I activated [Resurrect].

Instantly, my entire arm exploded in a shower of gore, splattering the corpse and the nearby area with blood. “Ffffuuu—” I screamed at the pain. It was by far the worst thing I had felt since becoming a devilich, and this time, I didn’t feel so detached from the suffering.

You have granted [Zombie Wolf] a [Second Chance].

The stump that was left behind where my arm should have been sizzled with a strange white energy, and I immediately realized what was happening. “Did using that spell cause a backlash? Argh, that hurts!”

Shouldn’t I be immune to holy magic? Or perhaps my own skills don’t count?

[Zombie Wolf] has decided to resurrect.

The rotting, mangled corpse behind me suddenly shone with a bright, phantasmal light. The holy ray bathed the creature, gradually fixing it. The beast was dezombified as it reverted to a living creature. It was big, much bigger than I expected it to be, and its fur almost looked like camouflage. It wasn’t like the wolves back on earth. Then, it got up.

I took a few cautious steps back. Now that the creature was alive again, I wasn’t sure if it would attack me. The holy sizzling stopped a moment later, and my arm rapidly grew back out.

Was that what all holy magic would do to me if I weren’t immune to it? Was I even actually immune to it? In that case, what happened?

Just as I watched it, the wolf observed me back. It didn’t seem to be an evil creature. It wasn’t hostile, but it was cautious. The staring contest between us continued for a while longer. Then, the beast turned around and ran away.

I relaxed for a brief moment until—

“Wait!” I shouted. “Come back! I want to test [Oath of Loyalty], too!”

But the creature was already long gone.

I was undoubtedly faster than it, but… I doubted it would consent to an [Oath of Loyalty] if I chased it down. “Whatever,” I said.

After testing my skills and gaining a better understanding of what I could do, there was only one thing left.

New classes available for selection!