Chapter 20: New Day's Hurt
I finally woke up sometime around mid-morning, or at least that's what it looked like. I felt like I was hit by a truck. My body was aching while my arm was ardently protesting against the previous day's abuse. It also didn't help that it felt like someone had poured sand into my mouth.
Sitting up I felt something stuck to my face; reaching up, I pulled off a piece of jerky. 'This is just turning out to be a perfect day..' I reflected in a sour mood. But honestly that's what I get after nearly dying yesterday.
I grabbed my waterskin and wet the desert that used to be my mouth. Completely draining the waterskin I tossed it aside as I sluggishly climbed to my feet. I made my way over to the pond and drank my fill. Once I was finished drinking I dunked my head into the water and used my hands to scrub my face as best as I could. The water helping to clear my foggy mind.
I made my way back to my clothes. Looking them over I put the boots and pants back on, unfortunately the tunic wasn't salvageable. I tossed the ruined tunic into my inventory and went refill my waterskin before sitting back down. I needed to deal with what happened yesterday.
While eating some roasted fox I decided to start with my current spell list.
<Spells List:
Fire Magic: Fire Dart
Water Magic: Ice Imbue
Earth Magic: Earth Armor, Tangle, Rock Spike
Wind Magic: Minor Haste
Dark Magic: Shadow Jump
Light Magic: Minor Mend, Orb of Light, Radiant Arrow>
'I wonder...' thinking to myself I cast Minor Mend on myself. My HP was full, but I did receive some relief from my body aches, brightening my mood in the process. I was able to unlock all the spell schools, giving myself plenty of range attack spells an escape or dodge spell, and a utility light spell.
While I was thinking of various attack strategies I noticed pending notifications blinking away in the corner of my vision. 'Let's see what I got' I thought and clicked on them.
*Ding* <Mana Manipulation Skill has leveled>
*Ding* <Mana Manipulation Skill has leveled>
*Ding* <Mana Manipulation Skill has leveled>
...
<Mana Manipulation has reached level 8: Through intense practice you have gained a deeper understanding of mana and now have a greater control over it.>
*Ding* <Elemental Key unlocked: You have gained a deep understanding of the basics of the core elemental powers. Bonus: All basic elemental spells now cost half the mana to cast.>
<1/12 Keys have been unlocked on the path of the Magus!>
Shocked, I couldn't keep my jaw closed. I barely focused on the 7 levels of mana manipulation I gain; no, it was the half mana cost of spells! Shadow Jump, which could be a great lifesaver, went from 75MP to only 38MP per cast. This is a cheating, especially when you add in the x2 mana from my bloodline. If I keep going on this route I will be able to cast spells almost none stop! No wolf will ever get close to me again! I started laughing, I couldn't help myself. With all the stress of yesterday, and this added insanely good bonus broke me down into a laughing fit.
I ended up on the ground rolling around laughing like an insane person. I am not particularly proud of this moment, but you do what you have to when stress builds up. Mentally I was thankful no one was around to see me in this state.
I was finally able to calm myself down. Well my spells were taken care of; now it's time to see about those stat points. I pulled up my attributes.
<Attributes (Stats):
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 20
Charisma: 14
Luck: 7
<Free Stat Points to Allocate: 20>
After giving it some thought I decided where to place my points.
<Constitution: +6>
<Intelligence: +13>
<Dexterity: +1>
As I was placing the stat points I watched as my HP, SP, and MP went up.
<HP: 220/220 SP: 155/155 MP: 660/660>
Just a bit more health to keep my alive, a little more stamina to keep me going, and lastly a huge amount of mana! I did the calculations in my head; without my bloodline bonus I would have 330MP. "I love being related to Merlin!" I couldn't help but blurt out. With 660 mana and my current low-cost spells, and if I had my regen figured out correctly, I would be able to cast spells all day with very few breaks in between. I checked my new attributes.
<Attributes (Stats):
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 22
Intelligence: 33
Charisma: 14
Luck: 7
<Free Stat Points to Allocate: 0>
I had a big smile on my face looking at my new stats, they were still low but for me they meant a longer life. Unfortunately, I had more work to get done, I still had all the animals I hunted yesterday I needed to clean; including that wolf.
My inventory space had some type of time effect inside it, whatever I put in stopped aging. It helped with hunting, as I didn't have to stop, and field dress all my kills constantly. But that just meant I needed to skin and clean them all at once. I also needed some more firewood; I had used the last of my stock last night.
Getting to my feet I forced myself to get to work, I had to remind myself that I wasn't in a position to be lazy. I am on a strange planet, in a forest somewhere on it, and an unknown distance from civilization. On my hunting forays into the woods I kept a look out for signs of people, but I only ever saw more trees.
I made my way into the woods, staying within twenty feet from the tree line. I was still scared to run into another wolf, even with my new spells I wasn't mentally prepared for that yet. I was able to safely gather enough firewood that should last me a while.
I stacked up some wood and started another fire and pulled out the first rabbit to clean. I grabbed my dagger and set to work. I quickly skinned and cleaned all four rabbits, not even paying attention to my notifications, and then started in on the foxes. Once I had finished all the rabbits and foxes I checked out what all my hard work had gotten me.
*Ding* <You receive: Rabbit pelt x1>
*Ding* <10% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <10% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
*Ding* <You receive: Rabbit pelt x1>
*Ding* <10% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <10% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
*Ding* <You receive: Rabbit pelt x1>
*Ding* <10% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <10% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
*Ding* <You receive: Rabbit pelt x1>
*Ding* <10% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <10% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
*Ding* <You receive: Black Fox pelt x1>
*Ding* <25% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <15% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
*Ding* <Skinning Skill has leveled>
<Skinning has reached level 2>
*Ding* <You receive: Black Fox pelt x1>
*Ding* <25% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <15% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
*Ding* <Anatomy (Beast) Skill has leveled>
<Anatomy (Beast) has reached level 7>
*Ding* <You receive: Black Fox pelt x1>
*Ding* <25% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <15% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
No ruined pelts this time, and two skill's leveled up. Not bad at all, although now its time for the big guy. Pulling the wolf out of my inventory it fell heavily onto the ground with a loud thump. It was massive, and still looked like a porcupine with all sixteen of my arrows sticking out of it. I slowly started to carefully remove my arrows.
Some of the arrows were stuck; using my dagger I had to cut them out. Even being careful and working slowly five of the arrows broke. I stashed the arrow heads and what I could of the fletching feathers. I was down to eleven arrows now, but with the crack in my bow it shouldn't be a big deal. I have my spells and enough mana, so nothing to worry about.
Looking at this large wolf, I had to just scratch my head trying to figure out if and how I could successfully skin and clean this thing...
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Ariauth
Ariauth Another day, another chapter! I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Please leave a comment/review or vote with a PS if you like the story so far. And for those that have commented on previous chapters, I have read them all. I really appreciated the comments, so thank you all!
Note: I will be leaving for a trip in a week, I will attempt to maintain 1 chapter release a day during this week. And I will push myself to write extra chapters so that I can still publish them while I am away.
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