The System waited while Miri sat on a rock at the riverbank. Her boots dangled inches above the water and her sword laid across her knees. Her hands were still shaking—not from cold this time, but from the echo of adrenaline that hadn’t quite left her yet.
She took a slow breath and reached inward.
The interface bloomed into existence.
[ Congratulations! You have reached Level 5! ]
Your stats have increased according to your class. Your free points have been assigned by the System.
[ Level 5 Element Selection Available ]
Her mouth twitched into a tired smile.
“Okay,” she murmured, “Let’s see what’s next.”
The list unfurled in front of her, steady and patient.
Fire
Lightning
Ice
Stone
Wind
Miri stared at them, then let out a breath through her nose.
“That’s a trap,” she muttered.
Fire was obvious. So was lightning. Raw destruction. The kind of power that ended fights quickly—if you were stronger than whatever you were facing.
She thought of the ghost. Of how it hadn’t cared about force. Of how brute strength had almost gotten her killed.
She needed something that adapted, something that didn’t care whether the enemy had a body or not.
Her gaze slid lower. Then stopped.
A different option pulsed faintly, less flashy, less dramatic.
Arcane
She tilted her head.
Arcane wasn’t an element in the traditional sense. It wasn’t fire or storm or stone. It was structure. Raw mana shaped by intent. The scaffolding magic rested on.
Fluffkins’ voice echoed in her memory, unbidden.
“Arcane is not strong by default. It becomes strong when the mage is clever.”
Miri smiled, slow and certain.
“That sounds like me.”
She selected Arcane.
[ Confirm Arcane selection? ]
Miri mentally confirmed her choice.
[ Element Selection Complete! ]
Arcane Element: governs raw mana manipulation, reinforcement, shaping, and disruption. Strength scales with control, creativity, and mana capacity; Warning: Arcane magic is inefficient without discipline.
Miri snorted softly.
“Story of my life.”
But she felt a change immediately. Like the world had become slightly more responsive, like mana itself was listening now and waiting for instructions instead of resisting her.
Before she could feel it out, more text appeared in her vision.
[ Level 5 Element Spell Unlocked! ]
A new list of spells appeared with a handful of options for her.
Her eyes snagged immediately on one.
Dispel Flicker
She frowned.
Breaking spells. Disrupting magic. The idea was tempting, especially after fighting the ghost. The thought of unmaking magic instead of smashing through it made something in her chest tighten with interest.
But then she pictured herself in the woods at night. Surrounded. Hurt. Out of breath.
Breaking magic wouldn’t help if she didn’t live long enough to try.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Her gaze slid down.
Warden Veil
She paused.
A shield. A veil. Something thin, intentional. Something you had to choose to raise.
“That,” she murmured. “That would’ve helped.”
Not against everything. Not forever. But long enough to stay on her feet.
Long enough to keep fighting.
[ Warden Veil (Common) ]
Form a temporary barrier of structured mana around the caster.
Absorbs incoming force until depleted.
Strength and duration scale with Spirit and control.
She nodded in satisfaction and brought up her stat profile.
And gawked at what she saw.
[ Name: Miri Anne Sutton ]
[ Age: 24 ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Level: 5 ]
[ Affiliation: Adventurer’s Guild – Helmsworth ]
Physical Attributes:
[ Vitality: 24 ][ Agility: 22 ][ Endurance: 23 ]
Mental Attributes:
[ Focus: 26 ][ Perception: 25 ]
Magical Attributes:
[ Mana Capacity: 44 ][ Mana Control: 38 ][ Willpower: 30 ]
“…That’s a lot more words.”
She scanned the list again, slower this time, instincts lining the numbers up with how her body actually felt.
She was harder to put down.
She did notice things sooner now.
And the mana—
Her breath caught slightly as she focused on the text again.
[ Leveling Parameters Updated ]
Upon leveling, you will now receive:
? 6 Attribute Points to distribute freely
? 2 Mage Bonus Class Points restricted to Magical Attributes
Unspent points may be allocated at any time outside of combat.
[ Note: Balanced development increases long-term survivability. ]
The message lingered.
Then, just as she was about to dismiss it, one last line appeared beneath the rest.
[ Additional System Advisory ]
Avoid assigning all points to a single attribute.
Like when you put everything on one number in Las Vegas.
Miri’s breath caught.
“…What?”
She stared at the empty air, pulse suddenly loud in her ears.
“That’s not…” she trailed off, shook her head.
Miri sat there for a long moment, then exhaled and forced herself to move on.
Magic system, she told herself. Weird gods. Multiverse.
Still.
She hadn’t told anyone about their trip to Vegas.
The System chimed again, making Miri roll her eyes.
[ Unassigned Attribute Points: 6 ]
[ Unassigned Mage Bonus Points: 2 ]
She mentally returned to her stat profile, skimming the expanded attributes again—not reading numbers but remembering what they felt like.
Mana Capacity. The sheer, roaring amount of power she carried now—how it had flooded her veins when she forced mana into her blade. How it had saved her life.
Mana Control. The shakiness. The wasted force. The way Arc Bolt had hurt the ghost, but not enough.
Willpower. The cold. The fear. The moment she’d almost broken.
Her jaw tightened.
The Mage Bonus Points pulsed faintly, waiting. She didn’t hesitate long.
Mana Control, first. She needed precision, not just power.
Then Willpower. Because whatever this world threw at her next, she wasn’t letting it crawl inside her head.
[ Unassigned Attribute Points Available: 6 ]
She flexed her fingers, feeling the familiar ache in her shoulders, the lingering tremor in her legs. Agility mattered. Being able to move mattered. Endurance too. She couldn’t afford to gas out halfway through a fight.
Perception tugged at her thoughts. The ambushes. The gnomes. The night attack she’d barely survived.
She paused, hovering over Mana Capacity again.
“…You’re already ridiculous,” she muttered to herself. “You don’t need to be that ridiculous.”
She allocated carefully. Deliberately.
When she was done, the glowing text faded away.
Miri blinked as the world settled back into itself. And then realized it hadn’t, not entirely.
Her breathing felt deeper, steadier. The ache in her legs was still there, but more a memory now than a warning. When she shifted her grip on the sword, the weight felt… cooperative. Familiar. Like it belonged in her hand in a way it hadn’t before.
She stood slowly, half-expecting the riverbank to tilt or the sky to spin.
Nothing did.
Instead, she felt present. Grounded. As if her body, mind, and magic had finally agreed to talk to each other instead of shouting over one another. She hadn’t even realized the internal discord until its absence.
“Okay,” she said quietly, testing the word. “Yeah. That’s better.”
Mana stirred when she let it, subtle but responsive. It wasn’t the wild surge from before, not the desperate flood of mana she pulled forth to save her own life. This felt like pressure behind a door she now knew how to open.
She sheathed her sword and rolled her shoulders, scanning the tree line out of habit.
Nothing moved.
For the first time since leaving Helmsworth, the silence didn’t feel like it was waiting to pounce.
Of course the System chose that moment to pop up again.
[ Threshold Reached. ]
Miri frowned.
“…Huh.”
No explanation followed. No tooltip. No helpful expansion.
She stared at the empty space for a moment, then snorted and shook her head.
“Later,” she told it. “You and I are having a conversation later.”
