Capítulo 11: Second Day's Gains
Once I made it back to the clearing I sat on the ground near the pond, looking around it didn't look like anything had been in the clearing since I had left. Making myself comfortable on the ground I mentally clicked the blinking icon and prepared myself for the onslaught of notifications.
*Ding* <You have slain a Two-Tailed Rabbit, 25 experience gained>
*Ding* <Congratulations you have learned the skill: Small Blades>
*Ding* <You have slain a Two-Tailed Rabbit, 35 experience gained>
*Ding* <You have slain a Black Fox, 55 experience gained>
*Ding* <Congratulations you have gained a level!>
*Ding* <You are now level 2; you have 5 Stat points to allocate!>
*Ding* <Archery Skill has leveled>
*Ding* <Archery Skill has leveled>
*Ding* <Archery has reached level 3!>
*Ding* <You have successfully harvested Illiel leaf x35>
*Ding* <Herbalism Skill has leveled>
*Ding* <Herbalism has reached level 4!>
*Ding* <6% increase to Biology skill>
Not as many as I thought...I LEVELED! Yes! Also, archery level 3, Herbalism leveled to 4, and only a 6% increase to my Biology skill. Biology looks like it won't be that easy to level. But overall a good day, also thanks to that rabbit I gained the Small Blades skill.
Checking the sky again, it looked like a still had a few hours of sunlight left. So, I quickly took some kindling and logs out of my inventory that I gathered earlier and started a fire. Taking out a Two-Tailed Rabbit body out of my inventory, I pulled a dagger from my belt and started trying to skin it. I butchered the pelt pretty badly, but I received the following notifications.
*Ding* <You receive ruined pelt x1>
*Ding* <Congratulations you have learned the skill: Skinning>
*Ding* <Skinning has reached level 1>
I grabbed a long stick out of my inventory and with the dagger I sharpened the end, once I had the rabbit meat prepared I started roasting it above the fire, while I cleaned the rest of the animals.
*Ding* <You receive ruined pelt x1>
*Ding* <10% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <10% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
Another failure, but at least I still had the meat. I started to roast the second rabbit and turned the first one.
*Ding* <You receive: Rabbit pelt x1>
*Ding* <10% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <10% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
One out of three isn't too bad on my first attempt at skinning. The fight with the Black Fox was a lot harder than the rabbits but I was able to take it down before it reached me thanks to a few lucky shots. Let's see if I can get a Black Fox pelt!
*Ding* <You receive: Black Fox pelt x1>
*Ding* <25% increase to Skinning skill>
*Ding* <15% increase to Anatomy (Beasts) skill>
Luck is on my side! I never heard of eating fox before, but I placed it roasting alongside the rabbits, I was taught to never waste food. My mom was pretty strict on that subject. So, while slowly roasting the meats I pulled out the 'So You Want to be a Mage' book from my inventory. Was time to start learning some magic!
Just as I opened the book to the first page a notification blocked my view.
*Ding* <Congratulations you have learned the skill: Cooking>
The notification actually reminded me to check the first rabbit I started cooking.
<Slightly burnt fire roasted Two-Tailed Rabbit meat, edible>
It was fully cooked, just charred around the edges. In college I have eaten far worse, so I can't complain. It reminded me of the girlfriend I had during my freshman year, that girl could seriously burn water. She always wanted to cook for me and would never take no for an answer. I broke up with her the second time she gave me food poisoning. And don't judge me about waiting until the second time, she was pretty gorgeous. And she was pretty sweet most of the time.
Shaking these old memories from my head I decided to pay more attention to the cooking and started reading the book again. The book was fascinating, it went in depth into the fundamental level of what mana and magic was. The wording should have been way beyond my grasp, but it was as if I was only relearning all of this. It listed out the steps to learn mana manipulation. First you needed to mediate until you can find your mana core. Next you will need to slowly pull a thread of mana from the pool in the core and thread it through your body in a complicated pattern. On a second look it looked exactly like the human circulatory system, except its source was located in the head and not in the chest. Magic was really tied to the biology of this the races here, the book even stated that in some cases the body is unable to handle the stress of the mana flow through the body and can lead to death.
The book had even listed the possible complications and had depictions of the results, almost all being lethal. Hell, the few that weren't lethal would make you wish they were. Who in their right mind would go through this? I mean I will, but I had a lot pointing towards me succeeding rather than blowing up. If you had no idea whether you were going to live or die, why would you choose this path?
Shaking my head, I checked over the meat, they were done.
<Burnt meat, inedible>
<Fire roasted Two-Tailed rabbit meat, edible
<Fire roasted Fox meat, edible>
*Ding* <Cooking Skill has leveled>
*Ding* <Cooking has reached level 2!>
Throwing the burnt meat as far into the woods as I could, I stowed the cooked food into my inventory and started reading again. I was so absorbed by the book I barely took notice of the Skill increase, and to be honest I didn't really care. I was studying magic!
Back to the book I continued reading, so once you made the circuit back to your mana core, you would then be able to start learning to manipulate mana outside your body to cast spells. I thoroughly memorized all the steps, and all the tips and tricks written into the book for beginners. Only advice I couldn't follow was to never attempt this without a Mage present, since I didn't have any of those around these woods. I would have to risk it and do it on my own, if a descendant of Merlin can't do it themselves, then who could?
I sat in the lotus position next facing the fire, the pond to my back, closed my eyes and started to meditate. It was hard at first, the sound of the crackling fire in front of me, fish splashing in the pond behind me, and all the animals in the forest. I don't know how long it took until I quieted my mind, but it was well into the night when it did.
The fire had burned down to embers without my noticing, the pond behind me was glowing a light ethereal blue, even the forest had become quiet in what could only be described as reverence. I was utterly oblivious to all this going around me, I had just found my mana core and I was shocked!
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
Ariauth
Ariauth Everything went fine with my family, was able to get home and had enough time to finish this chapter. Thanks again for reading, hope you are enjoying the story so far. This chapter is a bit slower than the last, but its required for the story to keep going. If you are enjoying the story please leave a comment/review/PS, it is greatly appreciated!
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder