In a dim forest, a black-haired young man is facing off against a black raven. The young man is of course Alex Volff. He's only been in this area for less than an hour and he has been attacked five times by the ravens. After the first raven that manages to run away, there are three more that follows. All of them managed to run away after getting scratched by the {Energy Arrow}.

This is the fifth that attacks him. Alex has missed with 4 {Energy Arrows} earlier. This time he increases his concentration and starts chanting the rune-words for {Energy Arrow}. A black shadow charges at him from his back. Alex steps to his left and avoids the raven, meanwhile he shoots the white {Energy Arrow} to a space in front of him. The arrow manages to pierce the raven's body, causing it to fall from its flight onto the ground.

Seeing this result, Alex immediately runs to the raven while brandishing his wooden sword. He swings the sword towards the raven's head to end its life.

"Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 4 credits," Fay's voice sounded in Alex's head, marking the death of the raven.

Alex checks his stats using [Observe].

>-----<

Name: Alex Volff

Age: 15

Race: Human

Rank: F**

Credits: 29

>-----<

Basic Stats:

- Strength: 39

- Speed: 36

- Agility: 38

- Endurance: 42

- Spirit: 60

- Mana: 11/60

>-----<

Skills:

- Energy Manipulation (F)

- Energy Arrow (F)

>-----<

Kill Count: [60 F*], [1 F**]

Achievements: 0

Records: 0

>-----<

He was left with only 11 mana. Alex used up 50 mana using the {Energy Arrow} skills 5 times in a row. The 1 mana point seems to be recovered while he was fighting. Alex sits down in meditation and wait for his mana to recover while training his spiritual control.

After his mana is recovered, Alex decides to head a little deeper to the area where there are less ravens. These ravens are a pain to deal with. He can't guarantee to be able to kill one when he encounters them. They are just a waste of his time.

After frightening off another 3 , Alex finally encounters another creature. Fifty meters in front of him is a wolf standing on its two hind-feet like a human. Alex uses [Observe] on the creature.

"As expected, this is the territory. According to the UDA database, they are stronger than the , but they should be easier to handle than the ravens," Alex mumbles to himself.

Alex Volff grips his wooden sword with his right hand and starts forming the {Energy Arrow} with his left hand as he approaches the werewolf. Alex plans to sneak attack the werewolf to gain an advantage, or even to one-shot the creature. As Alex draws near, the werewolf can sense the danger coming from behind it. It turns around to see Alex that has finished chanting the rune-words and in he middle of shooting the white arrow made out of energy.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

The werewolf avoids the arrow and howls at its human attacker. It immediately charges at him with frightening speed. All of its limbs are pacing on the ground trying to shorten the distance with the human.

Alex knows he doesn't have time to use another {Energy Arrow}. He readied himself to meet its charges. After getting in range, the werewolf immediately swings its left front paw diagonally at Alex. Alex responds by parrying it with his wooden sword. When both the paw and sword meets, he can feel that they are both equally matched in strength.

Alex manages to parry the first attack, but the werewolf immediately attacks with its right front paw without caring about its slightly unbalanced body. It is easy for Alex to avoid this second attack with a slight tilt of his upper body. After avoiding its second attack, Alex try to put a distance between him and the werewolf, waiting for its next attack.

Without waiting, the immediately leaps at him and trusts its right paw towards Alex's head. Being ready for this attack, Alex uses his footwork to move towards its right side and swings the sword at its body. The werewolf is unable to avoid this attack because it is in mid-leap. Knowing that it cannot avoid this attack, the werewolf uses its left paw to block his sword. The sword and the paw meets, making the werewolf loses its balance and lands on its left-side.

Both man and werewolf continues to exchange blows. But, what worries Alex is that the doesn't seem to suffer internal injuries despite being hit several times. If this keeps up, Alex is the one that is going to be in trouble. His stamina won't be able to compete against the werewolf, because according to the UDA database, this creature has frightening amount of stamina.

Alex decides to finish this battle fast. He immediately uses the {Energy Manipulation} skill and enters the mana-enhanced state. This state enhances his physical stats by around 50%, so he can now overwhelm his opponent. But, he has to finish this fast, otherwise when he can't keep up the skill anymore he will be in a disadvantaged position.

In this state, the werewolf's movement seems slower than before. Alex is now sure that he can split his attention to chant the {Energy Arrow} rune-words now while avoiding its attacks.

After avoiding another attack, Alex starts chanting the {Energy Arrow} rune-words. But, to his surprise, he fails after the first rune-word. Alex immediately realizes the problem. He doesn't have any mana now in his dantian as all of his mana is being used for this mana-enhanced state. He can't direct any mana to his dantian now, because doing this will bring him out of this mana-enhanced state.

Alex only tested entering the mana-enhanced state after forming the {Energy Arrow} when he was training. He didn't test forming the {Energy Arrow} after entering the mana-enhanced state.

While contemplating his current situation, the werewolf's attack almost hit his head. Alex rolls out of the way when he comes to awareness. Alex firms up his mind and try to finish this battle without using the {Energy Arrow}.

Alex increases his attacking pace and manages to pile up injuries on the werewolf. But, it doesn't seem to be enough to finish it off as there is only around 10 seconds left for him to be able to keep up being in this state. Alex decides to try and go for the kill on the next move.

As the werewolf once again swings its left paw towards him, Alex jumps up and makes a flip in the air to avoid the attack. He extends his right leg towards the werewolf's head while fully concentrating, trying to gather all of his power onto his right leg.

Suddenly, he can feel all of his mana dispersed around his body gathers in his right leg. His right foot meets the werewolf's head and he hears a crack sound immediately.

"Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 5 credits," Fay's voice sounded once more in Alex's head.