"Anyways, it's not as bad as it sounds," Michael said.

Emm smiled but chose to say nothing. He had to take a moment to catch his breath instead. They were done with exercising and now sat around the fire, enjoying the warmth. Michael's face faintly shone with sweat, but he wasn't nearly as tired as Emm was.

Emm was definitely below Michael's 13 strength and 13 endurance. Worst case, it was possible he'd be under 10 in both if he had a [System].

"The Guide told me working out wouldn't improve our stats," Emm said.

"But why do you do it then?"

"I guess I'm hoping it will work for me since I don't have a [System]. I don't see why our bodies should stay static unless it's the [System] that keeps them that way," Emm said, "Training also helps with the painful burning when I eat anything with mana. Or, when the [Water Mage] tries to kill me."

Michael winced, then spoke, "Manaburn. Or mana overload. The shower wasn't that bad for me, though. Just too intense."

Manaburn is a fitting name.

"The shower I could handle, yeah. His high leveled coffee, on the other hand… It felt like I was going to melt from the inside if I sat still. I think I'll have nightmares from it. But moving around eased the pain, mostly."

Emm stared at his dirt-stained palm. His fingers were still uncontrollably shaking. The coffee's effects weren't gone yet.

"Damn. Feeling better now?" Michael asked.

"Much. And sorry for the snake," Emm said. He pointed to the half-eaten monster placed on a stump between them. "I don't know who it belongs to."

Michael waved it off.

"We left it one out just in case. We eat at the cook's anyways, she manages to make them taste ten times better. She's expensive though, one coin for a bowl of snake broth. I can treat you later, since…"

Since I have no money, and no way of making any?

"You heard us talk?" Emm asked.

Michael nodded, looking at the clouds in the sky. It would be another beautiful day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and Emm was suffering.

"I could've used some backup," Emm said. He was mostly teasing, since Michael couldn't have done anything either way.

"That woman is way too scary! And she already doesn't like me because of my [Class] choice. I'm keeping a low profile."

Emm wished he could've kept a lower profile himself. Maybe then, he could still be allowed to hunt with the others. It was their main source of income.

He tossed another log into the fire. It was one of the last remaining pieces of firewood.

"Did she say why she didn't like [Pyromancer]?"

Michael rolled his eyes and answered, "Not enough mana to keep casting. Which, she's kind of right about. I can only use my [Flame Breath] three times before I'm out. And [Resistant] doesn't help ranged casters that much, since I shouldn't be taking hits anyways. Same with my high agility. So she had me dual-class. This way I can be useful even on low mana."

That… Makes sense?

But, Emm realized, that meant Michael would end up splitting his points across many different stats. His intelligence and will wouldn't help his [Rogue] class much, and his agility and strength wouldn't help his [Pyromancer] one. So, he was risking ending up with two weaker [Classes]. Exactly what The Guide had warned them of, at the start. Hopefully, it wasn't too late to still find a way to make it work.

Emm wasn't sure how he was going to make himself "useful", in Michael's words. He would never be able to shoot lasers out of his eyes, or fireballs out of his hands, or teleport around. He felt a pang in his heart over having to leave the superpowers to the others. But the number one priority was to secure his position. Food, lodging.

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"How do you plan on making money?"

"Not sure. Miss Simmons won't let me kill monsters. I'll ask around, but I have an idea or two. It's time for me to get going, I'll regenerate back to full either way."

Emm glanced at the dwindling pile of firewood. He reached for his spear and stood up – only to notice a crack running through the blade of his weapon.

Emm ran his fingers over it. The jagged crack ran deep, and spread around in a spiderweb pattern. It was like someone had dropped an anvil on top of it.

Confused, he flipped it over and showed it to Michael.

"Oh shit," Michael started, and then put his face in his hands. "Sorry, that's my bad. I forgot about it. You need to get it recharged before it completely breaks."

"Recharged?" Emm asked.

Is the spear also too low level, like our clothes from Earth are? But that's impossible.

Even if they had made the weapons from the lowest mana materials in existence, the area Emm was in couldn't be any higher in mana concentration. They said the forest was the location with the lowest level in the entire world.

"Yeah. Let's head over to Gregor's, he'll take care of it."

They stepped onto the moist grass and started walking towards the weapons shed. It was located near the center of the camp. There still weren't many people up and about.

Emm stared at the ugly, haphazardly crafted tents the other heroes were all sleeping in. He wondered if the camp had even been there a month before. Even the buildings looked crappy. Another aspect that piqued Emm's interest was the fact that there were only a few narrow dirt paths winding around the camp. Most of the ground was still covered in fresh greenery.

Emm broke the silence.

"What did you mean by 'recharge'?"

Michael took out his dagger, then juggled it in the air. "The way Miss Simmons explained it, the weapons they gave us are too high level. Not enough mana in the environment, so they keep leaking. And that ends up with them breaking over time."

Emm started to think of the ambient mana like oxygen, or temperature. A glass that was too hot could shatter when washed in cold water. And the opposite was also true.

That was incredibly annoying. He couldn't ignore the whole mana thing for even a moment. It was a crucial part of this new world. He wished he could just ignore it with all his heart. Mana made magic possible, sure, but not for him. And he still had to suffer its downsides.

"Oh. I'm pretty sure my spear was fine last night," Emm said, then sighed. "This mana stuff works fast."

"We should recharge our stuff at least once a day," Michael said. "Same with the clothes, once we buy some."

Emm nodded in response. He wondered how people even managed to live in a world like that, before remembering how he was completely used to charging all his electronic devices, back on Earth. It became subconscious after a while, automatic. But at least he didn't have to go to a "charging shop" whenever his battery was dying!

He tried to readjust his way of thinking. Maybe this was more like refueling his car. Or watering the plants. Not a big deal, as long as it only took a few minutes a day. Emm would manage.

They approached the open building. Gregor, dressed in furs, was sitting at a workbench behind the counter. His arm went up and down in lazy motions. He was using a rag to polish one of the swords. Its blade reflected the early morning sun like a mirror and appeared to be faintly shining. It looked sharp, and more like it was made of glass than normal steel. Emm hadn't seen it during the weapon selection process.

Gregor wasn't taking his eyes off the sword in his hands. "How can I help you?" he asked.

Emm placed his spear on the table with a clunk.

"Can you fix it? It needs recharging."

The gruff man put his weapon down and gave Emm's weapon his full attention. After just a glance, his eye twitched at the sight, and he shook his head.

"You should've come sooner, fool. There's no fixing the damage. I'm no [Blacksmith]." He punctuated the statement by spitting on the ground.

Another unfriendly one.

"And how much for a new one? Or an axe?"

"Twenty each."

Twenty?!

Emm's mouth involuntarily opened in shock. Even if he had the money on hand it wouldn't be worth it. He had no choice but to use his cracked one. He was fond of it, too, after all the snakes it helped him beat.

Gregor chuckled at Emm's expression, then placed his hands above the weapon in question. The air around the distorted and shimmered, and they began to glow in prismatic colors.

"No, wait–" Emm started. I can't pay for it!

"[Infuse]."

Gregor's words carried power. The spear briefly glowed as well, soaking up the mana.

The process was over in a couple of seconds. Immediately, Gregor held out his hand.

"One skull."

Emm glanced at his friend, and gave him his best pleading smile.