2 Chapter 2

[|||| = LEVEL 2 = ||||]

I ran away from Vacuo pretty easily. Nobody really paid a two year old faunus any notice. Even if he had a sack they seemed to assume there was nothing in it. Even the orphans only a little older than me ignored me.

It wasn't hard to decide what I wanted to do. I would stagnate in an orphanage and joining up with the gangs isn't really viable because of my age. I'd be tossed out with the other street rats.

So I would try to kill grimm. I had taken the shotgun and pistol from the gangsters. They would help me to fight grimm for a short time until they ran out of ammo. I only had twenty three shotgun cartridges and nineteen pistol ammunitions. I'm hoping that I can get loot from grimm but if I have to make my own armor and such I can manage with a few skills. I'd just have to visit a bookstore for a few minutes.

That wasn't an option right now though. So I walked. It was very tiring. I gained a point in vitality due to the heat though and grew my temperature resistance skill a few levels. This is mountains of growth compared to being stuck inside all the time. There were more points being put into dexterity than vitality, surprisingly. It was pretty hard to keep my footing in the sand roads. I suspected that my dexterity also grew because of my racial bonuses but I can't rightly say.

I finally reached the edge of Vacuo in about an hour of walking. I was practically gasping for breath. For an adult it would have been a casual fifteen minutes to a store or something but for me with my stubby little legs and my sack it was a march.

I fell down onto my ass and breathed heavily. I knew this was a weakness I shouldn't show in the ghettos so I kept an eye open for people who might get an idea. Most of them were ignoring me luckily.

I relaxed myself for a minute with controlled breathing and with a determination in me I set out past the last few houses to the badlands in about ten minutes. I could see a few black blobs in the distance. I casted an observe on them.

Taijitsu minor (Lv. 24) - A non-venomous snake-like grimm that dwells Vacuo. Cannon fodder for most huntsmen.

Ah. That actually reminds me of something. I readied a spinning mana arrow and aimed it as best I could. They weren't affected by gravity, being made of mana, so I could probably snipe with them, right?

*Ding!* Enemy killed - 440 XP earned

*Ding!* You have leveled up!

*Ding!* Physical mana projection leveled up!

No loot? Well alright. I grinned at just the XP but stopped for a moment. How much XP was needed for a level up? I'd gained, ahh, two thousand four hundred eighty from the gangster and leveled up-

XP to next level - 220/800 (100 more Xp needed per level up until level 10, where 200 more XP per level up is needed. Then 300 more at 30's)

Thank you game window. So 100 more xp per level, huh? That's not too bad. At higher levels it will start becoming ridiculous though. Imagine level seventy… that's going to be terrible. Hopefully the stronger grimm give exponentially more XP. For now though…

*Ding!* Enemy killed - 480 XP earned

*Ding!* Enemy killed - 620 XP earned

*Ding!* You have leveled up!

*Ding!* Physical mana projection leveled up!

*Ding!* Enemy killed - 310 XP earned

*Ding!* Enemy killed - 450 XP earned

*Ding!* You have leveled up!

*Ding!* Enemy killed - 530 XP earned

*Ding!* Physical mana projection leveled up!

*Ding!* Enemy killed - 490 XP earned

*Ding!* Mana control leveled up!

*Ding!* You have leveled up!

*Ding!* For efficient and mostly safe farming Intelligence and Wisdom increased by one!

This is ridiculous… and I'll be spending years out here? Well… in reality just killing grimm does nothing to my strength. Levels are meaningless on their own. It's the points that matter. Points which I hope to not use… but I'm not in my safe little house grinding away any more. This is the real world. I can always get more points. I can't always get a different life… it's something for me to think about.

It's going to take some time to make real headway into the desert. I should probably have a compass… Nah. I'll probably have some sort of compass or map spell up when I want to get out. Or a flight spell. I could use that to find some village and get directions.

I should observe everything as well. I have a good feeling about observe leveling up and a hunch I'll need it…

[|||| == ||||]

It happened around the fifth hour. I was getting quite tired and was looking for a cave or something to sleep in. Sleeping out in the cold desert night was just a bad idea on multiple accounts so I wasn't going to do that.

Of course, there was something worse than not sleeping.

"Huh?" I said sleepily. Red eyes were coming closer and closer. I readied a mana bullet and shot towards it but I missed. As the glowing blue bullet flashed by I saw what it was…

Sand Wyrm (Lv. 64) - A large centipede-like grimm on par with a deathstalker alpha. Venomous, fast, armored, and extremely dangerous as well as rather rare. This type of centipede has adapted to 'swim' through sand, giving it it's name. Run.

I did run. As fast as I could. I tried something out of desperation I hadn't before. I willed my aura into my legs in the hopes to run from the beast faster.

*Ding!* New skill acquired! - Aura control

"Mostly we use aura for four things. Semblance, shielding, dust, and enhancing ourselves."

-Signal instructor Grey Mylar

*Ding!* New skill acquired! - Aural reinforcement

"It makes you go zoom!"

-Second year signal student Esther Alabaster

Differing effects based on amount of aura used, potency of aura, and level of skill. Higher levels allow more aura to be used and higher efficiency.

*Ding!* Aura leveled up!

*Ding!* Aura leveled up!

I could feel myself growing stronger as my desperation payed off. I wasn't very fast still. My legs were short and my stats were impeded by my growth. I still had an 80% debuff to my physical stats. That meant that all I had was… my mind and magic.

*Ding!* For keeping a mostly clear head in a moment of terror and making a plan of attack Wisdom increased by one!

I huffed as I continued running as fast as I could. The Sand Wyrm was gaining fast. I opened my window quickly and used my points as fast as I could. It was hard for me to do so but I value my life more than numbers.

*Ding!* By reaching 50 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Magical soul (Passive)

"After using the powers of magic for a period of time your soul may be… augmented by the powers of mana."

-High aural wizard Aaron Faust

-Aura may be used in the place of mana in some spells

-50% more mana and aura capacity and regeneration

-Unknown side effects

*Ding!* By reaching 50 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Insight (Passive)

"Looking past the veils of the mundane is critical to every task."

-Liera Grendel, monk

-Grants insight to elemental affinity (check affinity tab or meditate)

-Grants ability to use elemental mana

-Dust based effects are twice as potent

-light ability to sense mana

Abyss Mavros

Title: The Gamer

Level – 14

HP –44.8

AP – 2248/3000 (+150/min)

MP - 3000/3000 (+150/min)

STR - 11 + (+15%)(20%)= 2.53

VIT - 17 + (+25%)(20%)= 4.25

DEX - 19 + (+30%)(20%)= 4.94

INT - 50 + (+0%)= 50

WIS - 50 (+0%)= 50

LUK - 25 (+0%)= 25

POINTS - 43

LIEN – 0

I gasped as my soul was flooded with power. It grew so fast I nearly stumbled. My mind pulsed almost painfully as I grasped new things I hadn't even considered. Everything looked sharper and more detailed. I could think of things faster and in more clarity than ever before.

Most interestingly, though, was something I had never considered doing. My new intelligence and wisdom, no doubt, working to give me a solution.

I drew on my mana and bended it to my will. It grow around me like an exo suit, as I desired. My magic and soul powered into a body more powerful than my frail flesh. It was a little hard to maintain though. I heard a ding of a skill being made but I ignored it. Perhaps I could take the sand Wyrm but I wouldn't. There would be easier and less suicidal ways to gain power.

The wyrm slowly fell behind me as I ran in my aura and mana powered body. It screeched as I was getting away. I couldn't hold my magical body for too long though. It was bigger than bullets or arrows and even with my enhanced pools of aura and mana I was driving it hard. It wasn't easy to keep it up.

I ran for at least ten minutes. My soul was burning with the stress of holding the exo suit and my mana was running at less than a quarter of what it was. Looking behind myself I saw no sign of the wyrm.

I was getting really tempted to just lie down and sleep but no. I couldn't do that. I looked around desperately for any shelter. Anything at all. My eyes settled upon a tree in the desert. I had seen some before but they had never seemed so inviting.

I approached the tree and climbed it in my suit. Just as I was nearing the top the suit finally ran out of aura. I still had some mana though so I made two arrows that I rammed into the tree. I used those as handholds to go up and I collapsed onto the top of the tree. My eyes practically slammed shut as I let go of my consciousness.

[|||| == ||||]

*Ding!* New spell acquired! - Exo suit

"It's sort of like armor but it moves you. We old people need this sort of thing."

-Elder wizard Cain Renallaso

Using this skill disregards physical stats. Skill level and magical and/or aural capabilities determine strength and durability of the suit.

I dismissed this notification among some others as I woke up on top of a tree. I looked around and shot mana arrows at six grimm I felt were too close. I didn't level up since they were too weak to push me over the edge. Only one hundred XP to level up though.

I suddenly excitedly remembered the insightskill I got. "Affinities." I said with some excitement. Throwing around fireballs and whatnot might not be exactly efficient but it would be fun for sure.

Affinities: From most to least affinity

Air: 47

Light: 32

Water: 24

Space: 3

Electricity: 0

Heat: 0

Shadow: 0

Void: 0

Gravity: 0

Metal: 0

Earth: 0

Time:0

Death: 0

Purity: 0

Corruption: 0

Motion: 0

Knowledge: 0

Crystal: 0

Wood: 0

Explosion: 0

Life: 0

See more?...

Well that's a rather, ah, extensive list of affinities. I had thought it would be like the Naruto fire, water, lightning, earth, and wind. At least… wait, those don't add to a hundred percent. Perhaps it's more like my attunement for the element.

I can understand air. I do desire to be free to do as I please, after all. Water I can sort of get. I'm pretty capable of going with the flow.

Light is a bit more curious. I don't really get what light is supposed to signify. Or maybe it doesn't signify anything. How did I manage space though? My desire to travel? It was curious.

It's a little interesting that there's purity and corruption there. I'm guessing that corruption is like the grimm and Salem and that Purity is… I don't know. Or care really. It could be like the brothers of light and darkness being purity and corruption.

I'm assuming that affinities are what allow me to use elements and my ease at wielding them. There aren't many other ways of interpreting it.

Well… There's nothing I can really do about my affinities except use them and perhaps figure out how to grow them. I'm placing my bet on items and continually using the elements.

First thing to try is meditation of course. I fell into the trance-like state and rummaged around inside myself. I found my soul pretty quickly -oh dear lord that feels nice to sink into- Ah! No time for distractions! I felt at my soul and found the odd sensation of feeling the elements inside me.

Air was fast and sharp. It couldn't really be controlled. It had a lot of energy but It was hard to grasp. I could direct it though. How anybody without my affinity could direct it I have no idea.

Light was fluffy and full of energy. It kind of burned to touch but was oddly pleasant at the same time. It didn't mind being controlled and just liked to run around at all times. It brought to mind that a laser beam was just a stampede of puppies made of light. That absurd image made me smile.

Water was calm and didn't really do anything. It felt like it was sleepy in a way. It would move if I controlled it but it didn't put in any more effort than the effort I gave.

Space was the hardest to find. It was kind of like an affinity that was there but not really… there. It was also small so it didn't have a really significant presence. It was almost exactly like space in real life. I was definitely going to try to cultivate that as hard as I could. If I could ever one day teleport I would. There was also the possibility of dimensional travel but I don't really care too much for that. I'm happy here in remnant for now. I think I'll just try some more basic things for now.

I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. Let's try light. I gathered mana and reached within myself. I wanted a shield from light. Sunlight is a bitch for sunburns. I shaped mana into a shield and drew my light affinity onto it. Suddenly the sunlight over me seemed just a little thinner than it was a moment ago. I got a notification for a skill called sun screen. I rolled my eyes at the play on words.

I tried a few other things with light. I couldn't really do all that much with it, though. I could do a flashlight and push light into a leaf to make it shiny and I got the imbue element skill and produce element spell but things like lasers and hard light projections were above my level of affinity or I wasn't doing them right. I dumped mana into them to see if that worked but no. It just wasted mana. That produce element spell worked with wind and water too. Wind was almost easy to make. I shot a quarter of my mana with it and a powerful gust shot out of my palm. I decided to not do that any more… for now. I was absolutely grinding that produce element skill.

There was plenty of air around, of course, to experiment with. I tried a few things. Pressurizing it and shooting it as a blade was… really effective. I cut off a portion of the tree on accident but it didn't travel very far. When it hit the ground it poofed up lot of sand but it really wasn't impressive. Short range attack, then. I got a new spell for it as well.

A few other things were tried. I could almost make a thin blade of air but I just wasn't close enough to be able to do that. Flight based only off of air seemed almost impossible. I could hover for just a moment but that drained me of almost all of my mana in a minute. I didn't get a skill for it either. Imbuing air into a leaf made the leaf get really light. Perhaps I could… hmm. I'll try that later.

Water could be useful. I pulled on what little water lied below ground and in the air and felt my hand grow moist… then it was wet. Then I could feel a small pool of water in my hand. It was pretty draining to do that, though. About four hundred mana went into just that tiny little handful. It was actually easier to make it from mana than draw it from the environment.

I tried to manipulate the water as much as I could and made a very tiny pressurised whip of it and got a small spell out of it. I tried evaporating it and controlling it and found I could do that fine. Freezing it was easy enough as well. I drank the cold water gratefully and sighed blissfully. Not having to drink didn't mean my mouth didn't get dry.

And possibly the best element… Space. I tried just a little to pull on it. I warped a strip of space in front of me to be just a little bit longer and got a skill for it. That sucker took a LOT of mana though. I have maybe a half a minute with just this tiny space warp. I waved a leaf through the space and my hand warped with the space. I sure as hell wasn't putting my hand in there. I may have the gamer's body but if I have veins I don't want to know what would happen if they suddenly disconnected for a moment. Yeah, don't use space on myself unless I'm REALLY confident that I'll be okay… grimm are fine though. Screw them.

Space held the most potential in my eyes out of all of the elements. Sure shadow could help me somewhat. Wind would let me fly and stuff and light had a whole lot of hidden power and even water offered a lot of applications for utility though not many for combat.

Space could bridge dimensions, take enemies and just throw them to the moon or something, make me faster by reducing the space between here and there, and probably a hundred other things I haven't thought of.

However, it was also immensely dangerous. Not to just others but myself. I sure as hell don't want to try teleporting just to find I left my kidneys behind. So no space magic on myself until I have an extreme affinity for it and enough health and regeneration to not die from being bisected.

Now what if I used space to sense things? I closed my eyes and I could still see the elements all around me. Not all of them but just the ones I have. If I focused intensely on one particular affinity I could ignore some elements for others.

Most importantly, though, I could see the space things took, which by extension let me just have a rip off byakugan. I don't care about using it for shelter though. Caves, shelter, trees, and more besides the monotony of the desert were visible if I leveled up this new skill up. I just couldn't see very far right now though. Perhaps one city block… I would have to grind this skill to see farther. God, that's going to be a pain in the ass.

*Ding!* New skill acquired! - Mage sight

"A man looks at the world and sees the dirt, light, trees, and rock. A wizard looks at the world and sees the same but the wizard knows their true nature."

-Larcen the mysterious

As expected, a skill. I hadn't expected to be able to sense through the other elements but I don't mind at all since I don't have to see through them. It's not what I wanted but

I finally had just one more thing to try. I drew on my aura and imbued it with the air and light element. My aura grew in energy and had a feeling of being light that I never imagined feeling before. I grinned and enhanced myself with my aura and felt my body grow light and full of energy. My aura, unfortunately, attracted grimm with how bright and potent it was. I immediately shut off the imbuement and ran in my suit. So don't imbue your aura. The effects are great but I'm just not strong enough to deal with the grimm.

I ran for a while without my suit since it was good for building muscle and vitality and only used it when I was tired and there weren't too many grimm around. I shot grimm with arrows and bullets and avoided the ones too strong for me. I kept my mage sight on just to build levels with it. I gained five with it and my range of view expanded dramatically each time. I could see a third of a mile now. I wondered how far I could see at maximum level.

All of my skills leveled up a little throughout the day. I used sun screen all the time since it was really low energy. I suspect that it's a really easy spell since… well it's level twenty five now. It's so light on my mana as well that I made about five of them around me because they cooled me down a little. It was nice. It can block about a quarter of the light that goes onto it now, which is useful. It's like I'm walking through a really hot and dry forest now instead of a blistering desert. My temperature resistance skill still leveled up too. I think that fourty two is plenty. I'm in no danger from heatstroke. It's not even that the skill levels up quickly. I'm just exposed to intense heat all the time so it levels up a little. I'm really quite comfortable in my clothes.

I took some time finding a cave. They aren't too common in a desert, as you can imagine. I eventually found a cave that led down about fifty feet. I snuck around just in case there were grimm around. I used mage sight and saw nothing but shadow and rock and the like but I hadn't seen grimm with mage sight so far. They're always too far away since I snipe them with my arrows and bullets.

I lay down on a rather nicely shaped rock and looked to the entrance with worry. I didn't want grimm to come in. That would be… worse than bad. That I found a cave without any deadly grimm is nice and all but more deadly grimm could come in if they cared to.

A minute of thinking solved this. I collected as much water as I could from the cave. It ended up to be quite a lot. Desert caves seemingly were rich in water condensation. How useful! I collected as much water as I could and froze it in a wall over the entryway. The ice distorted the view so no grimm could see me and stopped them from getting through. If by some chance grimm did get through I could probably run or cripple them and then run.

I was a little concerned that grimm could tunnel in but there was solid rock under and around me. I was probably alright. I froze a thin layer of ice over the cave walls just in case. As I fell asleep I smiled. It's a hard life but maybe that's a good thing. It wouldn't be fun otherwise.

[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]

----------------------------------------------------------

If like it please drop some POWER STONES