Looking out the open window from his room Duncan looked at the roof of the opposite house and breathed in. The black hole sun was slowly going down in the sky. It was a spectacular sight he by now got used to.

He wondered what else he would get used to here. So far, the walking skeletons and ghostlike entities were the most bizarre things but from what he read in the bestiaries they were nothing compared to what was still out there for him to avoid.

Well, unless he got strong enough to face them the smart thing would be to run.

Duncan sat down on his bed and took the ‘Mana manipulation for beginners’ into his hands and activated the reading skill. As he finished it, he got a new skill predictably called Mana manipulation. His Reading skill and Learn skill also leveled up again.

The skill of Mana manipulation gave a bonus to Wisdom. Duncan learned from the book he could actively push mana from his core towards the outside of his body.

To get the desired effects he would have to find a seed particle or create it. For the creation of a seed particle, he would need to imagine the shape of his mana in the rune of the corresponding element he wanted.

“I know the runes, for this,” Duncan exclaimed with a smile on his face.

He learned 10 runes from the recruitment game and the proper paths the mana must flow. Lightning was, fortunately, a part of those. The runes he knew were separated into basic elements: fire, wind, earth, and water. Then came special runes which were light, darkness, life, and death. The last two were lightning and gravity.

According to the book, you needed an affinity to keep the runes semi-permanently. The better the affinity the longer they would stay near your core. Otherwise, they would disperse as soon as you stopped controlling your mana.

They acted in two ways as a magnet or as a transformer.

If you used them as a magnet, you would collect the corresponding mana particles of the elements from your surroundings, and when you gathered enough, release them.

As a transformer, you could supply your mana through them and they would change it into the particles you need.

Both had their merits. In a fire-rich environment, you could skip the transformation and just gather and release fire mana as a spell. In a water-rich environment that was impossible but you could force your mana to transform into fire mana and release it. It would get weakened greatly but at least it was an option.

Duncan rubbed his forehead.

“So, now all I have to do is imagine my mana from my core turning into the rune shape I know,” he muttered to himself.

“But where the BLEEP is my rune core and how do I push mana from it,” he whispered in frustration.

Duncan then remembered he felt pain near his belly button as he tried the Meditation skill. He once again used it and the pain returned. He had a location now. He imagined mana from that location moving a bit farther along the path he created in the game.

With no mouse and hand coordination screwing up his movements the task seemed surprisingly easy. According to the book he had to imagine drawing mana from his core and draw the rune symbol in one stroke and then fill it with mana.

As he did so he managed to draw it in about 15 minutes. The rate at which he controlled mana was slow. Glaciers moved faster than mana moved according to his will. By the time he finished the rune, he had not enough mana to keep filling it to make it stable for a long time and it dispersed.

Duncan tried his Meditation skill again and now he could feel a cool breeze all over his body as it flowed towards his core however it once again moved at a glacial pace.

After ten minutes the mana from the body parts that were closest to his core reached it. There was a noticeable increase in how his mana filled in the indicator and he waited out until it was full. It took him around 45 minutes of sitting still to do it.

“This is going to take forever,” Duncan whispered.

He consoled himself with the idea that both skills are at level one and that eventually, he would see progress; just not today. Duncan had more important fish to fry.

He checked the books he still had not read and the time left. He had a little over 10 hours to go.

“I can do two more rounds of reading with a pause in between for dinner before I leave,” he spoke to himself as he gripped Herbology vol.1.

After about 90 minutes of grueling reading of the thick tome, about different healing grasses and their uses, all that knowledge hit him like a train. The Herbology skill was a nice surprise in the end. With so much new data even Identify skill leveled up again.

As he checked the description, he raised an eyebrow. Endurance and Wisdom bonuses didn’t quite fit with the skill. He thought about it and it did make sense in a way that you would need a lot of endurance and knowledge for picking herbs. Endurance to cross the fields, forests, and whatnot, to find them, Wisdom to recognize them.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Too bad you don’t need charisma,” he joked.

“Maybe, there is a book about taming animals, it should be there,” he said after he had a spark of inspiration.

Duncan continued his reading marathon and finished volumes 2 and 3 before his head hurt enough for a break. Herbology went to level 2. Nothing else leveled, however, he had a feeling by the amount of information he stored, it will have to level soon.

Each book took him more than an hour and he was down to 5 hours and 47 minutes before he could go back. However, first, he needed something to drink and eat.

Walking gingerly downstairs armed with the new knowledge he almost forgot his predicament.

Wazsh was not in the kitchen and as he walked into the backyard, he noticed that the light turned dusky. He returned inside and walked into the bar and was greeted by familiar faces.

Bolgar at his familiar table right at the bar and Elland at the bar pretending to be suave. Duncan smirked at the notion of Bolgar trying to sit at the bar with his short legs.

“Good evening, everyone,” Duncan said as they turned towards the door he walked out from. They greeted him back before Wazsh said with a whisper, “Have you been back already or why are you in such a good mood?”

That single sentence turned Duncan’s smile to a frown.

“You just had to bring it up!” Duncan said as he remembered he was still in limbo concerning his well-being on the other side.

Wazsh shrugged his shoulder before he replied, “Beer?”

Duncan shook his head, “Yeah, give me a beer and some food. What’s on the menu?”

“The rat legs and stew, then there is venison stew, venison steaks, the stir fry you had today. Yeah, that’s all,” Wazsh said while scratching his head.

Elland asked, “What was that about?”

Duncan and Wazsh gave each other a look before they replied in unison, “Nothing.”

Elland raised his hands in resignation and stated, “I finally managed to translate a part of one of the books you brought back from the crypt. I will finish in about three days.”

“That’s great news. What is it about?” Duncan asked.

“It's about death magic…” Elland said quietly.

Duncan frowned before asking, “Necromancy and stuff?”

“Could be I haven’t gotten so far. It only talks about how to get a death affinity and how hard it is to fill the rune afterward. No practical applications so far are mentioned,” Elland applied.

“Alright. There is no hurry but why did you choose that book to translate?” Duncan asked.

Elland sipped his wine and looked away before whispering, “It was the thinnest of them.”

Duncan sighed.

Another lazy bastard.

Bolgar suddenly interjected, “Any luck at the mine? Dug out anything good?”

“Not yet. Maybe next time I go deeper,” Duncan replied and Bolgar nodded.

After that Duncan ate his dinner, while Bolgar bothered Elland and Wazsh smirked at the bar.

“One happy family,” Duncan thought and shook his head.

He left soon after eating and went back upstairs to rest and then to read some more.

Checking the time, he had 4 hours and 57 minutes remaining before getting an hour on Earth.

Returning upstairs he took volume 4 of Herbology and activated the Reading skill again. As he predicted after using Learn on it Herbology, Identify and Learn leveled.

Duncan’s head started to develop a migraine and he knew he would have to stop soon. He decided to risk one more and opened volume 5. Reading and Herbology leveled together with the headache.

He dropped the book on the books he's already read and went to the bathroom to sprinkle some water on his face and the back of his neck. Looking in the mirror he noticed his eyes were bloodshot from all the reading.

Duncan needed to focus to see clearly as his eyes developed diplopia from the fatigue. He was seeing two ghost outlines from sharply contrasting elements. It was unnerving but he knew it would pass since this has happened to him in real life before.

Reading for 8 hours straight on your mobile phone for a few days will do that to you. Fortunately, it passes after you rest your eyes.

He had 2 hours and 55 minutes remaining before he could return. Checking his stats, he saw his mental stats have left everything but dexterity in the dust. Agility and Endurance were especially problematic. One was good for running from danger. The other was how far he could run. Both in his opinion were critical stats.

“That’s it I guess for today if I don’t want to fry my brain,” Duncan mumbled in the mirror.

As he checked his Intelligence, he remembered it directly correlated with the volume of his transfer slot. The rubies should fit right in but when he tried it, he got a rebound. He decided to take one more diamond with him and tried putting it inside and it rebounded again.

Checking the transfer inventory, he found the culprit. The golden ring was still inside taking up the slot since Duncan forgot to remove it on the other side.

“Duncan you…” he stopped himself, “whatever.”

He left the ring where it was and decided he will try a ruby next time.

He soon got bored laying, about in his room, and went downstairs to check what the gang was doing. Elland and Bolgar had already left. Wazsh was experimenting in the kitchen with some veggies.

Hearing the footsteps Wazsh turned around from the stove and asked, “Ready to go?”

“There are still 2 hours and 14 minutes before I can leave,” Duncan sighed as he said it.

“I am sure you are alright on the other side,” Wazsh said and Duncan nodded, “otherwise would have a cleanup on my hands right now instead of cooking.”

Rolling his eyes Duncan replied, “Thank you for the pep talk!”

“You are welcome!” Wazsh replied not getting the gist.

“Give me a beer!” Duncan demanded.

“That would be 5 bronze coins,” Wazsh replied.

Duncan set them on the table before he asked, “How does your pricing work?”

“I have to pay in advance as I get stuff from my inventory and it’s rigid. I can’t charge less than it wants but can charge more. For food, since it’s not made by the employer, I can charge whatever I want though,” Wazsh explained.

“I wonder where they get it from,” Duncan stated.

“They got you here and you wonder where they get the drinks from,” Wazsh said as he laughed.

“Yeah, I am not really here as far as I understand it. It’s a copy with a mental link through the nanobots,” Duncan retorted.

“There is your answer. If they can copy you what makes you doubt, they can’t do the same with a pint of lager,” Wazsh replied with a smug expression on his face.

Duncan nodded before he requested Wazsh to wake him in 2 hours. Wazsh confirmed and went to bed to rest his wary head.

“Wake up! Time to go,” Wazsh yelled.

Duncan raised his head from the pillow in a hurry and checked the time. He still had 4 minutes to go. Breathing deeply, he said to Wazsh, “Thank you!”

“Don’t forget the pepper seeds!” Wazsh said as he nodded.

After that, he waited out the time and activated the transfer.