Chương 31: Chapter 30

As Sam ran through the forest, surrounded by giant ironwood trees and some sparse underbrush, he couldn't help but get a little nervous. The first obstacle for the quest was a monster that he had no hope of defeating. He imagined that if a player with a guild got it, they would be still there, trying to figure out how to win against the boss.

'I wonder how long it would take them to consider talking with the monster…' he mused as he tried to find that one specific tree that the old ranger told him about while ignoring the cricket on his head. Who, for some reason, was humming. He slowed down, throttling his speed back from an all-out sprint to a leisurely jog as his head was on a swivel, trying to spot a literal tree in the forest. Sam slowed to walk and then engaged all his sensory skills.

According to the old man, the tree had a symbol on it, and it probably still contained some mana, which would help him find it. Slowly, his walk stopped, and he stood at the edge of a regular clearing, with closed eyes and his senses stretched to the limits. Trying to spot a minuscule amount of a very specific concentration of mana. With a giant cricket on his head that was still humming. He felt the mana in the air, in the trees, in the vegetation and in the ground.

He felt as great clumps of mana moved around – animals and monsters – mostly away from him and his impromptu passenger. Sam at first excluded the ground, slowly but surely twisting his senses so that the information that came back to him didn't tell him anything about the ground he stood on. With that, he had more mana available to gather information about the rest of the targets. He slowly wound the mana in a pattern that somehow made sense, and in an instant, the monsters and animals vanished from his senses.

Then Sam took a little breather, waiting for his reserves to fill up, trying to find his objective but coming up short. Not at all perturbed, he continued with his manipulations of the skill. Mana moved upon his command and was twisted into shapes which were further linked together, in turn creating bigger shapes. It was almost beyond his ability to coherently describe it to anybody else.

The mana manipulation was such a unique and, most importantly, alien sense that even years into the future people would struggle to adequately define it to anybody who didn't use it. Not to mention those who went beyond what the skills in the game provided and tried to manipulate the very mana in the game. There were rumors, but it was said that more than one person went mad due to the phenomenon. He ignored all those feelings, fully focusing on the mana and the feedback it was providing.

The ground and the fauna were already excluded, so the next thing on his to-do list was the underbrush and any other vegetation that wasn't a tree. Slowly, the Mana Sense skill cohered into a new shape and the only thing he could 'see' with his mind's eye were the giant trees towering over them. Unfortunately, he was in a forest where there were a lot of trees. Thankfully, he had an answer to that.

Carefully extending his hand, Sam touched the nearest tree, one of the famous ironwoods, and channelled a minuscule amount of mana into it. He delicately circulated the mana in the tree, following the veins in it, from the roots to the treetops, to every leaf, then back to his hand, getting familiar with the tree's mana signature.

Sam spent a small amount of time getting to know the signature, memorizing it (it was rather simple thanks to it being a tree) then slowly he removed his hand from the tree and returned his focus to his Mana Sense. Slowly, using his own mana, he began to construct the mana signature of the ironwood tree into his spell. He failed.

The spell fizzled out and the Mana Sense with all the filters built into it came crashing down on him, causing him to stagger back cursing in a low voice, while the cricket was chortling on his head, her laughter like bells tinkling. He ignored her, then tried it again. First, the exclusion of the ground. Then the animals and monsters. Then the flora. And finally, he began to construct the mana signature of the ironwood again. He failed again. And again. And again. It was annoying.

Especially the needling laugh of his unwanted passenger. So he tried, tried and tried again… Two hours later, Sam was mentally exhausted; the cricket was still chortling, and he was on the brink of logging out and going to sleep for days before trying again. He knew it was possible. He (or rather the other Sam) read the accounts from the high-rated mages. Granted, their explanations at the time made no sense to the other Sam, but to him? It made some sense…

The shapes of the mana just moved in a way that made sense to him. Even if his life depended on it, he couldn't explain how it made sense to him, but it did. Finally, scrounging up his last remaining concentration, he began shaping the mana. Slowly and carefully, he took hold of each grain of mana, and one after another put them into place. And the shape of the ironwood tree, in the abstract, took shape in his Mana Sense skill.

There was no warning, instead, the skill clicked and one moment he could sense all trees and the next only the ironwood trees. Thankfully, he was at the edge of the true ironwood forest, so he wasn't overwhelmed with choices. Quickly, before the very delicate mana construct could shatter, he focused and began looking for the symbol. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. It was a hidden symbol, used by the rangers of old to denote areas of importance.

The new generation of guardians used the same symbols to protect the areas where the true ironwood trees resided against deforestation. Occasionally, they ventured there to get a few samples for some important people, but people mostly had to be content with the young forests around Ironwood city. Eyes still closed, feeling something on the periphery of his senses, Sam began to slowly walk forward, hands held out to avoid bumping into something.

After a few minutes of bumbling, ignoring the cricket's laughter, he finally arrived at the spot he was aiming for. Letting go of the spell, feeling as if a giant weight had been lifted off his body, Sam sighed deeply and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a giant ironwood tree, covered by moss around the roots, and high up a mysterious symbol, slightly glowing to his Mage Sight. The second thing was, of course, the notification screens. [Advanced Mana Control is now Level 15!] [Stable Mana Control is now Level 4!] [Thanks to your miraculous effort, Mana Sense has reached Level 25!] [Thanks to pushing your senses to their absolute maximum (again), you gained the sub-skill, Natural Sensor!] [Natural Sensor: Level MAX (Passive) You are a natural sensor. Your sensing range, detail and every other attribute are increased. Mana cost of sensing skills is decreased. Grants the Flow skill.] [Flow: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Thanks to being a natural sensor, you can read the flow of mana. Increases your stability and the bonuses any movement or martial art skill provides by 1% per level in the skill.] Ignoring the sassy system, Sam couldn't help the wide smile appearing on his face. Getting the Natural Sensor skill was something he never expected. In his inherited memories, the other Sam only knew one person who had that. And that person was somebody who was raised by a guild of mages attempting to create the perfect mage years after the start of the game.

And while they bragged about the skill, they kept the details about acquiring it to themselves. However, getting the skill also meant something different to Sam. The other Sam was never talented enough with mana to get even close to what Sam had achieved. He had the theoretical knowledge, of course, but he could have never done what Sam had just done. This meant that Sam was different, which helped with the low-level issue that had been simmering in the back of his mind for a long time.

He was different from the person he had inherited the body from. He wasn't the other Sam with some memories. He was a new Sam. With memories from a particular timeline, but he wasn't that person. It strangely helped with his sorta-impostor syndrome that had been bubbling under the surface. Sam would have to think further about it, but for now, he was somewhat reassured.

Feeling, once again, as if a slight weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he returned his attention to the rest of the screens in front of him. [Intermediate Breathing Technique is now Level 1!] [Calm Heart is now Level 15!] [Multitasking is now Level 34!] [Efficiency is now Level 6!] [Mana Synergy is now Level 7!] He was a little disappointed that Mana Well didn't level up, but it probably needed a little more usage of mana.

Thanks to his monstrous mana regeneration, he was never in danger of running out of mana. Looking back up at the symbol high up on the tree, he directed his Mana Sense at it, marvelling at how detailed and easy it was to use. As if after looking around with bad eyes he was suddenly given prescription glasses. Concentrating on the faint mana signature in the symbol, he reached out and looked for the others that would lead him to his final destination.

Finding one, he nodded, ignored the monster's complaint, and began calmly walking. Sam spent a better part of several hours hopping from tree to tree, following the symbols high up in the air like some kind of demented treasure hunt.

'I mean… it's kinda a treasure hunt… If you squint…' he mused as he felt what was probably the last symbol. It was much bigger and held much more mana than the previous ones. Even the terrain was changing. Mirroring his approach to the bandit hideout, the rocks and stone on the ground were multiplying, though here the trees weren't thinning. Ironwood trees didn't really care where they grew, be it plains, hills or mountainsides.

Navigating the still-thick forest, he arrived in front of the last tree, marked with the biggest symbol. He spent a minute looking up at the symbol, raised high by the passing time, then nodded and began walking around the trunk of the tree until he stood across from a small crack in the mountainside, with an old, weathered, moss-covered stone marked with the same symbol, though lacking the mana imbued in it. Which made sense. Stone held mana much worse than living beings like trees.

The crack, according to the old ranger back in Ironwood city, the last time he saw it was a proper hole with an arch and everything. Apparently, nature and time didn't much care for what man had wrought. Instead of heading in immediately, he simply sought a dry spot near the crack, set up his tent, and spent a minute feeding Lucky, who spent the entire time he wandered through the forest in his shadow, patiently watching. Sam thought that the loyal wolf deserved a little pampering.

The cricket finally hopped off his head and began looking around the clearing curiously. He just sat in front of his tent, playing with Lucky, who was on his back, tongue out and in pure bliss. Finally, the cricket looking up at the giant ironwood tree with the biggest symbol spoke up.

"Fascinating…" Sam just continued to pet the wolf.

"You're supposed to ask what is fascinating, child of man!" came the pouting call from the cricket. Sam sighed.

"What is fascinating, ma'am?" The cricket immediately perked up.

"I'm glad you asked, child of man! This mana! It is familiar!" Now that managed to raise Sam's head.

"Oh, how so?"

"I don't know…" came the reply, and Sam could hear the frustration in her voice.

'If we go by tropes, she is probably the familiar of an ancient ranger or druid or protector. Or maybe the last owner of the Chalice…' he thought, but didn't speak up. Neither did the cricket. Instead, it continued to hop around the crack, checking out things while Sam pampered the dog. Looking up at the sky, he saw it was quickly darkening. Nodding to himself, he set up a proper camp, then after making sure that the cricket wouldn't eat him while sleeping, he crawled into his sleeping bag and logged out.

The moment Sam pulled off the helmet, he rushed to the bathroom, had a quick shower then fell into his bed fast asleep, mentally and physically tired beyond belief. The next morning he was still a little off, so he took his time to do his exercise routine, had a nice breakfast, watched the news and did a little cleaning. Then, with a heavy heart, sat down in front of his computer and began checking the news. The troll hunt was still ongoing. The guild wars it generated dominated the news.

Everyone wanted that skill book. Everyone.

'Hmm… that gives me an idea…' Turning his attention to other news, he checked the popularity with a little trepidation, and he was rewarded by a nice statistics graphic on the game's website that proudly proclaimed how many people are playing the game. Scowling, he checked his bank account and smiled a little when he saw how much the shares he bought were worth.

'At least that's nice…' Sam went through his list of important people, checking up on them on the internet. The streamers were easy. SummerRose was gaining followers ever since he directed her towards the unique class, and other currently beginner streamers were gaining ground. Soon, much sooner than he expected, he would have to start networking. Getting on the ground floor in this was vital to his plans. As for his enemies? He was making very detailed notes on them.

After he was done with that, he spent a little time just spending time on the internet, still finding the new world's internet culture fascinating. Sadly, he had to stop, as he had a pseudo-dungeon to run. Reluctantly, he stood up from the computer and laid down and put on the helmet, ready for whatever was inside that mountain.