The next day came, and Alex was up even before the sun shined.
He cast Windslicer one last time.
Swish. The sharp sound of concentrated wind resounded in the cave.
The wall, his greatest enemy, had suffered dozens of cuts over the last day.
"A little over half a second," Alex said, releasing a sigh.
"The cast time is good enough to be usable in ambushes or with good foreplanning."
After the first time he cast the skill, Alex quickly got used to it, improving exponentially over time.
He then sat down to rest and recover the mana he had lost. Afterward, he would leave the cave.
After 30 minutes of practicing Wind Gathering, he opened his status.
—STATUS—
Name: Alexander (Beginner Mage – 1.2%)
Age: 14
Mana: 102/102
Mana Gathering: Wind Gathering (Beginner)
Elements:
– Wind (Beginner) (38%)
Skills:
– Wind Slicer (Beginner) (65%)
He had upgraded his skill by a whopping 60%.
'It seems I'm not as useless at magic as I thought,' Alex commented to himself.
'Also, it seems that mana increases by a point for each 0.1% of level gain.'
Between rest sessions, Alex noticed that practicing Wind Gathering at full mana could increase his maximum capacity.
He hadn't noticed this before, since all the times he used the technique he had already spent mana. The concept was simple: by gathering more mana than he had, he forced the core to expand bit by bit.
"Does this mean that someone could reach 100% without ever increasing their elemental understanding?" he questioned.
Alex had a lot of questions, but they would have to wait until he reached the village where he had agreed to meet Marc.
'I wonder how that bear is doing. I hope he didn't shout to everyone on the street that he had gold and magic books,' Alex thought suddenly.
His friend was too kindhearted sometimes, despite looking like a thug, which made it easy for others to take advantage of him.
"He had a pretty bad wound on his hand, but with all the gold he had, he probably bought a healing potion," Alex said to himself.
"I'm speaking to myself again," he muttered.
It seemed that eleven days stuck in a humid, cramped cave without sunlight had started to affect his fourteen-year-old mind.
'Right, let's get out of here,' he thought, quickly getting ready.
The first thing he did was place every expensive item into the pocket watch's subspace.
Then he put the rest into his bag, passing it first through the crevice of the cave to the outside before crawling out himself.
He was lucky the trees covered most of the sunlight, because even the reflection off the surface had him squinting.
"After eleven days, I'm finally out of that fucking cave!"
Alex then started moving forward, spending a minute remembering the direction he had come from based on the cave entrance's position when he first found it.
'I need to find the river, and hopefully I'll come across some plants along the way.'
Alex still remembered which plants he needed to look out for, since they could bring him a little extra income once he reached the village.
He moved through the jungle carefully, focusing all his senses on finding either the sound of water or the noise of any kind of monster.
It didn't take long to find his first one.
After forty minutes of walking, he started hearing strong sniffing noises.
He quickly crouched and moved close to a tree trunk to hide.
It was some kind of wild boar. It had brown fur with black stripes, stood almost one meter tall and one and a half meters long, with a pair of big fangs decorating its ugly face.
The first thing Alex thought was to avoid the encounter.
He had practiced Wind Slicer a lot, but he only wanted to use it if he had no other choice, since he could cast it no more than twice before needing to stop and recharge mana.
So, he started moving slowly around the monster, keeping his eyes on it the whole time.
Midway through circling it, he started hearing galloping noises. They were getting stronger.
He looked back and saw another wild boar charging straight toward him.
"GAH!" he yelled, half-dodging the boar, but it still clipped him hard, sending him spinning to the side.
"Ughhh, fuck…"
He'd been hit hard and probably had something broken.
Looking down, he saw his forearm twisted at a strange angle, the bone poking out.
"Shit!" Alex screamed.
He had something broken indeed.
There was no time to think, as the first boar had already turned and was charging again.
He quickly got up and ran toward a big tree.
When he reached the trunk, he turned to face the boar. As it neared, he threw himself to the side, making the animal crash head-first into the tree.
A thunderous noise echoed, and the tree shook violently.
The boar staggered from the impact, dazed.
But a moment was all Alex needed. He raised his hand and cast Windslicer.
Fueled by adrenaline, his cast was faster than ever, and he fired the spell straight at the monster's neck.
The skill landed, but he had no time to check the damage.
He rolled on the ground, dodging the other boar's fangs as it came for him again, but its hooves slammed into his leg and chest.
Alex heard a sickening crack as the monster stepped on him.
"Aghh!" he screamed in pain as his ribs shattered and broke inward, puncturing his lung.
He started coughing blood.
The boar turned around, only half a meter away, preparing to charge again.
When it did, it was greeted by the sight of Alex, his hand raised and trembling, pointing straight at its neck.
"Cough… cough… That's the second time, motherfucker! It HURTS!" he yelled, casting Windslicer with everything he had left.
Swish. The wind howled as a sharp current of air sliced forward, hitting the boar squarely in the neck.
Squeal! A high-pitched cry echoed as the beast stumbled, blood pouring from the wound and soaking its fur.
It made a few more noises, trying to move, but after a short struggle it collapsed into the growing pool of blood and died.