Needlessly Realistic

"This game is needlessly time-consuming sometimes," Rin muttered.

There was no inventory as of yet, which was a big let down. Things would have been so much easier if they had kept the inventory feature available.

Perhaps they would sell those for big bucks after some point. You know what they say, nothing beats capitalism.

Anyway, Rin was looking forward to finding out how they had optimised the taste of foods. The meat looked roasted enough, though it looked far from appealing. Rin sniffed a little and thought he would have to make it through with this for today and probably the next.

Expecting nothing much, Rin bit a small portion of the rabbit meat. It was surprisingly tender, though burned and tasted like stinking smoke. Was that his poor cooking skills or the developers' error? Probably the former.

All Rin did was leave the meat above the fire while trying his hand at manipulating mana. He could feel something different with his body for a while now. Right after, he fused with the Origin mark. But he still couldn't make the mana work properly.

He found out mana works in the way of visualisations, but what was there to visualise when he could not feel it clearly? Other than knowing there was foreign, unknown energy in his body, he could not even point out where it was. He regretted not asking for more explanation from the white-haired lady, Dawn.

As a pro player, Rin was well introduced to meditation like many others, but he wasn't a pro at meditation either.

In the end, all he could manage was stir up the rune mark in the centre of his chest a little. Rin was certain if he kept at it for some time more, he could make something out of this, although he wasn't sure what that would be.

'The mana thing should be similar to Avalon Online,' Rin thought, 'then I should be able to do all the things I could do in Avalon Online.'

Rin paused and viewed the surroundings quietly. This all felt real. What would be the most fulfilling thing he could come up with to do?

Rin looked up at the sky. "I would like to fly."

Well, Rin decided it. His first purpose in Apotheosis Online would be to fly.

But for now, he had to leave here and prepare to log out.

Rin covered the meat with thick and large leaves before tying it with the ropes he made from the bark of trees—it was surprisingly tough. Tying the other end of the rope to his belt, he left it hanging on his back. Another bag, made of animal hide, was hanging on his back. It looked fresh and probably will rot in a few days, even after his work on it.

Well, all he did with the hide was burn it so that it wouldn't smell. All he wanted from that was to work for a few days. There was no shortage of hides, after all.

"Hmm, this is a kind of like the nomad life that I wanted to try so much once," Rin mused in amusement. It would've been a lot more fun if he were with a few other people.

It was still hot, with nothing around other than the lively high trees. The sky was still harsh blue, with the hot yellow sun moving a little in the meantime. Only the shade of the trees helped him from the sunburn, but it was time to move again.

He had met no one after his encounter with the group of four, and he was okay with that. Rin didn't want to bother with the countless questions they would bring up if they recognised him. Thankfully, most people wouldn't recognise him after he hid his name tag.

Rin was better off alone, for the time being.

"Still nothing beats playing with friends," he thought out loud. Unfortunately, there were only twenty-five thousand-odd players in this game so far. There was an impossibly thin chance of one of his friends outside the professional players ending up in the beta program.

Well, Rin didn't dwell on those thoughts and got back to understanding mana again.

After some painstaking focusing exercises, he managed to work something out. Basically, he would focus on the mark in the centre of his chest, visualising the small quantity of mana to coalesce into it.

Then magic happened.

Instinctively, he found two ways to go from there. Up or down.

Rin chose "Up" casually, rushing all the thin tendrils of mana he managed to force into the mark upwards. For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then his stomach churned and convulsed as if he had ingested something wrong. Rin almost vomited, but managed to stop himself, calming his breathing.

It didn't take him long to figure out his body weight had been shifted. His weight had decreased by a large portion. Almost by a third. And it kept on decreasing as his mana kept on going in the upward direction.

"I need to stop this," Rin told himself and literally forced himself to visualise the wisp of mana rushing downwards.

A weird sensation pulsed through his whole body as Rin felt his body weight returning. This time, he couldn't stop. He vomited whatever he ate before onto the lush, green grass.

"Fuck," Rin cursed, "Magic is weird in this game."

Hopefully, he wouldn't have to vomit if he wanted to use magic power every time. But before hoping for anything else, he needed to control his mana now, as he was getting a little heavier with each moment.

Mana was like a wrecking train. Once he directed it in one direction, it kept on going, until he forcefully stopped it.

It took Rin almost half an hour to revert his weight to normal. While doing that, he managed to get some usage in that mana application as well. The process bar rose by a couple of per cent as well.

And that drained almost ninety per cent of his mana.

Weirdly, his thirst for water rose even further as he was done with training mana.

Clicking his tongue, Rin moved through the forest at a steady pace. Though he felt a little tired in the hot weather, he still could go for more. Now it was time to find water.

Well, Dawn said, the tutorial zone had everything necessary for survival. He already had food and fire, and now only water was left, though getting a safe place to stay for the night does not appear half bad.

Not that he would stay here. He planned to log out after learning something about how to wield mana.

However, that was not to be as suddenly the echo of howls resounded in his ears as movements started to occur in his surroundings.

"Wooooo!"

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