“We really should find better clothes,” Maxwell said as they dressed. They washed their clothes in the river, but they were still barely passable as clothes. Maxwell and Bob had nothing more than rags from the start anyway.

  “I can try making something from the animals, but I doubt you would like the smell,” Gendor answered. He had the best clothes in their small group, as he had not been a slave before coming here.

  “Chirp, Chirp,” Bluebird added helpfully. It was still comfortably perched on Maxwell’s head.

  Bob was looking at the bluebird with a weird expression. He held out his hand awkwardly, trying to pet the bird.

  “Hehehe, aren’t you a cutie…” he mumbled creepily. The bluebird was less than impressed and tried to bite the boy’s finger.

  “You don’t like me?” Bob said crestfallen.

  “Leave it alone Bob. We will find you something soon enough.” Maxwell consoled the kid as he checked how he looked in the reflection on the river.

  He felt pretty awkward being a 15-year-old boy now that they were out of constant conflict. His malnourished look was gone, though. With his stats now, he was way above the standard human form by any means.

  He also realized that his body was growing at an accelerated rate. He looked at least a year older than before. He was not sure why that was happening, as Bob seemed pretty much the same as he was before leveling up.

  If his clothes were normal instead of being the loose rags they were, they would already be too small for him.

  Maybe this body catching up to my actual age? The idea made him shudder. He really didn’t want to turn into a 50 year old again.

  “Chirp?” the bluebird asked, and he was saved from the terrifying thought. The Soul channel was still open between them, and he could roughly understand the bird.

  “You want to hunt?” He asked, laughing. Others looked at him weirdly.

  “Don’t tell me you understand the bird…” Gendor asked, his face deadpan.

  “I won’t,” Maxwell answered. “So, are we going to stay here?.” He asked.

  “I know the general direction for the city. I can go ahead and scout the place. The trip probably would take around 2 weeks.” Gendor said. Maxwell noted that there was a strange glint in his eyes.

  “You just want to hunt without interruption, don’t you?” he asked.

  “Ehem, let’s not put it that way,” Gendor said, looking slightly embarrassed. The guy’s bloodthirst was a bit unhealthy. Maxwell couldn’t blame the man, though, as his feelings were pretty close knowing that he could increase his strength just by killing things.

  “You can go ahead if you want to. We can prepare something like a camp here.” Maxwell said as he took a glance at Bob. The boy was staring at the bluebird intently.

  “Right, Bob?” He asked.

  ’’Huh? Sure, sure, whatever,’’ Bob answered absentmindedly.

  ’’Well, at least I can, it seems.’’ Maxwell corrected himself while shaking his head. He was quiet eager to get rid of the man for some time. While he was pretty sure the man wouldn’t betray them, that didn’t mean he was comfortable being himself around the guy.

  ‘’I will go scout the area north. If I can reach the city, I will try to get a feel for the average level,’’ he said.

  ‘’Bring us some clothes too, please,’’ Bob added pleadingly. He was apparently back in the real world. It was ironic that he wanted modern clothes so badly when having a class named after cavemen.

  ‘’Well, I will see you when I see you then,’’ Gendor said and started walking towards the forest casually. Their parting gave a weird feeling to Maxwell as it was way too abrupt. Maxwell watched as the man disappeared into the forest.

  ’’What do we do know? Bob asked.

  “We can hunt some beasts, but first, we better create something like a hut,” Maxwell said. Even if no beasts wanted to attack them, he still didn’t want to stand in the open if it ever rained.

  “Why not a cave?” Bob asked, probably taking the idea from his class.

  “That might actually be a good idea,” Maxwell answered. While there weren’t any caves around, he supposed it wouldn’t be too hard to carve one into a rock. As dumb as he seemed like Bob had good ideas from time to time.

  Do you know where I can find a big rock around here? He sent to the bluebird. It was a native to this area, after all.

  The bird looked at him in incomprehension for a second not understanding the verbal thought. But he could see realization dawn on it as it probably managed to decipher the complex thought it received.

  “Chirp.” It said, and Maxwell could only guess it was asking them to follow it. It flew away, finally leaving its new nest.

  They followed the bird as it flew from tree to tree, waiting for them when they were left behind. A couple of minutes later, they could see a rocky hill on the side of the river.

  ‘’We should probably leave Gendor o marker if we use this place. It looks good, though,’’ Maxwell commented. The hill was not very big, but it was enough to carve a cave into. Also, the rock seemed sturdy enough that it wouldn’t come down on their head.

  ’’Bob, can you go back and leave a message for Gendor? You can carve it on a tree bark or something.’’ Maxwell said.

  ‘’Sure. You will make the cave?’’ Bob asked, showing a rare sight of curiosity.

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  ’’Yes.’’ Maxwell answered. He was already brainstorming about how to perform this task. He guessed he could use metal affinity to create a mana drill or something, but that hardly sounded experimental.

  He was left alone with the bluebird as Bob started on his way back. He fully activated Prima Sense and glanced at the rocky hill. He could see that some places were different in his senses.

  So my senses can be used as a mining detector, Maxwell thought. This would have been useful in his past life. After a while, he decided to carve the cave behind a giant tree near the river. The tree would give them some coverage, and honestly, he just wanted a scenic place.

  He touched the rock, feeling its texture. He could sense that the mana in the rock was similar to the metal mana but still slightly different.

  Is this rock mana? He was a bit confused, seeing that everything was so neatly divided regarding mana.

  He supposed that people probably had affinities in a broader sense, as having an affinity for mana in a certain limestone wouldn’t really help.

  He tried to pull the mana away from the rock and found that he could do it with some effort. He would probably be able to do it for a meter-wide section every minute.

  He touched the part he pulled the mana out and he found it crumbling inside his hand. Mana inside neutral objects had no will, he felt. They didn’t really fight against you when you tried to pull them out beyond a certain natural resistance.

  He focused for a couple of minutes, pulling out mana from a section. After around 20 minutes of careful guiding, he had a maneless zone of around 20 cubic meters.

  He contemplated how to remove the brittle rock from this space as he stared at the zone. He didn’t think this far when he started.

  A little bit of honest work wouldn’t hurt, I suppose. He thought and found a branch he could use as something like a shovel.

  The rock, which was unsurprisingly hard as a rock before, now had the consistency of regular dirt. After digging for a couple of minutes with his superior physical stats, he was in a room shaped like it had been created by aliens.

  The room was unnaturally cubic, as Maxwell didn’t really care about authenticity, though he admitted that the cave looked absolutely weird right now.

  As a finishing touch, he infused the walls with extra mana. He didn’t want to be buried alive in the first earthquake.

  “What the hell?” He heard Bob behind him. The boy sounded surprised.

  When he saw the boy, he froze for a second. The boyy was completely and spotlessly covered with blood. It was like he meticulously bathed in the blood to not leave a single spot remaining.

  “Hmm.” Maxwell hummed, just waiting for the boy to say something about his new style.

  “How did you carve this? It looks weird.” The boy said as if a cube-shaped cave was weirder than himself.

  “Why are you covered with blood?” Maxwell asked, finally losing his patience.

  “Oh, I was a bit distracted while leaving a message, so a snake ate me. It’s fine, though; I could get out pretty easily,” Bob said, utterly unbothered by his own weirdness.

  Did I remove his brain alongside his fear… Maxwell thought before pushing the boy with a mild mana burst.

  “Whyyy?” Bob screamed as he flew in an arch before he fell into the river with a splash. Maxwell was quite surprised at how much mana it took to push the boy.

  He checked the notifications he was ignoring for the last couple of minutes as he left Bob in the water

  Soul’s Voice Leveled Up Lvl-25→30

  Guide Mana Leveled Up Lvl-40→42

  Prima Sense Leveled Up Lvl-30→32

  Mana Infusion Leveled Up Lvl-21→23

  Athletics Leveled Up Lvl-5→7

  Mathematics Leveled Up Lvl-37→40

  Infused Mana Burst Leveled Up Lvl-6→7

  Meditation Leveled Up 35→36

  That’s a lot of levels for an excavation. He thought. The levels for Soul’s Voice were probably for his communication with the bluebird, though.

  After seeing the mathematics notification, he focused on the maddening part of his mind for a second. He had not been aware of that part of his mind since creating it.

  What he found was very hard to understand. He was still at his usual thought speed, so the mind was too fast for him to track. He could understand that it was still doing algebra, but it was way faster than before.

  He could feel that it was becoming less of a challenge for the mind as time passed. He changed his perspective for the first time since creating the parallel thoughts skill as he felt the world slow down.

  He was welcomed with an incredible amount of memories as he merged his minds once again after so much time. He felt a stabbing pain in his head as he felt a month’s worth of consistent algebra practice entering his mind.

  Mental Resistance Leveled Up Lvl-12→20

  Parallel Thoughts Leveled Up Lvl-1→3

  He was unsure for a second who he was, but the notification sound from the system pulled him back into the world. He felt like he had spent a month doing algebra, with a couple of breaks in between for his usual life.

  I will probably go mad like this, he thought. He could see equations in the air as he glanced at Bob. The world was once again in slow motion. The boy was trying to stay afloat in the water, wildly swinging his limbs.

  What? He thought before remembering that he had pushed the boy into the water days ago. He focused and opened a telepathic channel between the boy and himself. In his slow-motion state, he could feel the channel form very slowly, connecting their minds.

  He imagined himself in the river, swimming, and he quickly sent the sensation of it to Bob’s mind. He watched as the boy slowly stabilized himself in the water. He had no fear to undermine his first time swimming.

  When he was sure that the boy was not dying he turned back to his mind. After considering what he should make his second mind do, he decided on geometry. Maybe visualization paired with an unfamiliar field would make it harder for it to master the skill.

  Once again, he started to separate himself from the mind as he felt its thoughts turn into an undecipherable stream. Soon, he was normal once again—at least as normal as one could be after solving algebra for a month without any breaks.

  Parallel Thoughts Leveled Up Lvl-3→5

  Mental Resistance Leveled Up Lvl-20→22

  Soul’s Voice Leveled Up Lvl-30→32

  Skill “Visualization” Unlocked

  Visualization: You have a slave inside your head, forced to create boring shapes constantly. With this skill it can create them more clearly.

  This is actually pretty useful, Maxwell commented mentally. This skill would really help with magic. It was weird that how manipulating mana didn’t just grant this skill.

  Geometry was apparently considered a part of Mathematics in the system, so it didn’t give a separate skill for that. I will become the greatest mathematician after transmigrating if things continue like this. He really didn’t want to imagine himself with a thousand in the soul attribute.

  His thoughts were interrupted as Bob walked towards him, this time thankfully covered with water.

  “Hey, Max! You won’t believe what happened! I was trying to stay afloat in the water, and suddenly, I started dreaming and learned swimming from the dream!” He said excitedly, though he sounded a bit weirded out for some reason.

  Maxwell waited for the boy to continue with curiosity. It was not every day that he taught someone to swim by telepathy.

  Bob continued after taking off his shirt and placing it under the sun.

  “You can’t imagine how it was! I was swimming in the dream, but it was so strange. I looked around and all I could see was math symbols flowing by me! Like plusses and shit and there was no water anywhere. It was over quickly but it was so weird.” The boy said in wonder.

  “Oh,” Maxwell answered, his voice deadpan. “I definitely couldn’t imagine something like that.”