Winston sighed as he made his way through the snow, squinting through the glare. He would miss the wolves. He wanted nothing more than to go back. Still, he knew hunting with the pack was holding him back, and his presence had brought them nothing but problems. Acolyte-tier beasts were drawn to him, putting the pack in danger. And while he knew that Thalysar had just been hunting when he happened upon the wolves, he felt guilty nonetheless.
As he walked, the cave became smaller and smaller until it faded out of sight. Winston closed his eyes and looked up. Now, he was alone. Truly alone. No Erynd, no Caltherans, no wolves, nobody but himself and the frigid mountains.
He would train. He would hunt. Winston still felt guilty whenever he killed a beast, but he had to leave that behind. He had to grow stronger. He had to get to the second floor. Then the third. He would keep going until he found his humans or died. He had to. No matter the cost.
Eyes still shut, he tried to sense the world around him. Over the past weeks, his ability to sense energy had grown stronger and stronger.
He reached out with his mind, searching for any traces of mana or anything else. Then, at the edge of his perception, he felt something.
Winston’s eyes shot open, determined. Turning, he strode towards where he’d sensed it.
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Winston stood across from a bear, its once brilliant white coat now matted with blood. He’d killed several of its kind in the past few days, but this one was by far the strongest that he’d faced.
Staring straight into the beast’s eyes, Winston activated [Mental Manipulation]. The bear, already exhausted and bleeding out, could barely even fight back. There was a brief clash of wills, and then Winston had shattered the beast’s defenses, taking control of its mind.
[Mental Manipulation lvl 3 → Mental Manipulation lvl 4]
He’d done so half a dozen times throughout the course of the fight, training his skill. At first, it’d been difficult, with the bear even repelling him from its mind. But as the fight dragged on, Winston’s mental reserves proved to be far greater than the beast’s.
Ordering the bear to drop its defenses, Winston launched a spear of golden energy, stabbing through the creature’s neck.
[You have killed Permafrost Bear - Acolyte 2]
Winston let out a breath and relaxed. Striding over to the corpse, he stored what he could in his spatial ring, consuming the rest. He’d stopped putting energy towards more stat points, instead saving it to advance to Acolyte 2. It hadn’t been too urgent before, but now Winston knew he had to advance.
While he was Initiate-tier, the limit to his skills had been level 10. Every rank he advanced past Initiate was another level added to the skill cap. He was at Acolyte 1, which meant his skills could go up to level 11. The problem was, his favorite and most versatile skill, [Channel Food Energy], was already level 11.
It was annoying, how it held him back from advancing, but there was nothing he could do about it.
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After a moment of rest, Winston closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses. After a moment, he felt nothing. So he pushed harder.
Winston clenched his jaw, his mind straining to detect anything. Slowly, the range of his detection increased as well, a few inches at a time. As he concentrated, he began using energy, trying to enhance his senses. He didn’t know how he was going to do it, but he circulated the golden energy through his body, moving it towards his mind.
Winston tried to infuse his senses with the energy, but nothing happened. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself. He’d been trying to brute-force everything. He could feel a small part of his mind that was allowing him to detect energy. He didn’t know how or why, but he knew it was there.
Slowly, he began moving more and more energy to the spot, trying to enhance his detection.
Then, it was as if one moment he’d been blind, and the next, his vision had returned. Everything was so clear. He could sense the energy around him so clearly that he could almost see it. When he opened his eyes, a notification floated before him.
[Skill gained - Energy Perception(Uncommon)]
[Energy Perception lvl 1 → Energy Perception lvl 2]
For a while, Winston just sat there, staring into space as he sensed the world around him. Everything was so…alive. So vibrant.
Eventually, Winston refocused. Activating his new skill, he tried to use it to sense nearby creatures.
After a moment, Winston sighed. Nothing was perfect. It had enhanced his ability to sense energies, but only in a small range. After a dozen feet, his senses went back to how they used to be. And while just a few minutes ago, it had seemed like enough, now it was dull and weak. Outside the range of his skill, he could barely sense energy, and even when he could, he couldn’t get any details from it.
Slightly disappointed, Winston began to walk, still searching for any energy signatures. It may not have worked just the way he wanted it to, but it was still amazing. Not only had he gained the new skill, but he’d also learned that he could gain new skills. This meant he didn’t have to buy them from the shop. And the fact that he could sense energy, albeit barely, meant that the skill only enhanced what he could already do. What if he could keep gaining new skills this way?
As he moved, Winston found himself constantly distracted by the traces of ambient mana and other energies floating around him. It was beginning to give him a headache, but instead of entirely deactivating the skill, he tried to lower its intensity. After a few tries, he managed to get it to the point where it allowed him to detect energy without bombarding him with details about it.
Winston kept walking, searching for any traces of energy from a beast. Eventually, he stumbled upon a creature, but not where he expected.
As he walked through the snow, Winston suddenly threw himself to the side, feeding energy into [Energy Conversion Core] and boosting his dexterity, narrowly dodging the talons of a massive eagle. If not for [Energy Perception], he wouldn’t have noticed the bird until it was too late. It hadn’t used any energy, relying solely on its physical stats. The eagle had been unknowingly releasing trace amounts of mana.
Spinning around, Winston glared at the beast that had tried to ambush him.
[Eagle - Initiate 9]
As the bird flew back into the air, Winston began to form an orb. Halfway through, he stopped. He’d noticed it before, when he used [Energy Conversion Core], but now that he had [Energy Perception], it was painfully obvious. His usage of energy was inefficient. Extremely efficient. Winston could see energy leaking into and dispersing in the air around him.
Concentrating, he tried again and again, each time wasting slightly less energy. On the fourth iteration, Winston sensed the eagle diving down at him once more. With a thought, Winston launched the projectile upwards, followed by several more, not even bothering to look at the bird.
[You have killed Eagle - Initiate 9]
Winston stepped to the side as the body of the bird came crashing down in the snow. His spatial ring was full, and he doubted the materials of an Initiate 9 beast would be worth much in the System Shop, so he just consumed the bird.
Even as he did this, he could feel a growing sense of excitement. With the energy from the Eagle, he could advance to Acolyte 2.
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