A Clear Direction

A blue screen flashed up before his eyes, displaying a window that prompted Leo to accept the Keeper's request. He didn't hesitate to do so. The old man simply smiled knowingly when he saw that, and spoke again.

"I suggest you start right away. A little hint - try to remember the way you felt when you attuned to the stele." The old man winked at him, then turned around and began walking towards the exit.

Leo looked at his figure in silence as the old man walked away. Again, he was on his own. Left to find the solutions to his problems by himself.

"I need a plan." He muttered softly to himself.

He looked at the timer above the stele. Eighty-nine days remaining. Just three months before the entire world gets devoured by the boss. The thought of it sent shivers down Leo's spine. How could he possibly save the world on his own when it was such a huge responsibility and there was no guarantee of success?

The Keeper seemed to be confident enough in his ability to accomplish his task, but he couldn't share any additional information or items to help him, as it would break the rules of the system.

Leo sighed heavily as he leaned against the wall, looking at the cave ceiling above him. After several long minutes spent thinking about all the possibilities, he finally decided what he had to do.

"Step one. Get a hold of my current abilities. The stats on the stele were quite a bit higher than when I last checked. Even though that is good news, I am not sure if it is something permanent or temporary. "

"Step two. Learn a new skill. The Keeper of the Prime dungeon expects me to gain a new active skill through my own efforts. I had gained some skills beforehand, but none of them were active." Leo closed his eyes, thinking carefully about what to do.

"The Old Keeper said that the feeling that appeared when I interacted with Stele might help." Leo looked at the Stele that stood tall right next to him, a faint golden glow radiating from under its surface. He knew that he needed to approach the task more systematically. If he didn't, the likelihood of him making any progress would be very low. He began thinking about what to do next, until an idea popped into his mind.

'It's worth a shot.' He thought to himself, deciding to act on it immediately.

Leo put both his palms on top of the Stele, concentrating as hard as he could while focusing on the feeling he had experienced when attuning to the Stele. After several long seconds the tingling sensation returned, flowing through his body slowly until he could feel it coursing throughout his veins, reaching all the way down to his fingertips. Suddenly, new words appeared below his name in the interface.

Active Skills: Identify, Light.

"Huh, that was surprisingly easy..." Leo stared at the display, surprised at how easy it was.

"I thought it would be much harder than that."

Although the words on the Stele remained unchanged, Leo did not give up. Instead, he continued to concentrate on the strange sensation that flowed inside of him, attempting to channel it towards his hands.

He was beginning to feel exhausted as his strength drained rapidly with each passing second, but Leo still held on tightly to the Stele. After another few minutes, something strange happened. He sensed something else within himself. Something powerful. It was hidden deep beneath the surface of his consciousness but now it was there, clearly visible for him to perceive. He didn't understand exactly what it was or how he should utilize it, yet it felt incredibly familiar. Like he'd known about it all his life, but it was buried so deeply within him that he never realized it existed. As soon as he sensed it, Leo instinctively tried to draw it closer to the surface. At first, he failed miserably, but gradually he learned to manipulate it slightly. It was slow and tedious, but eventually, he managed to bring the mysterious energy near his hands.

-- Mana Circulation Lv.1 obtained.

--One Feat Point awarded.

Success!

Leo almost jumped in excitement as new text appeared on the display panel in front of him.

--Mana Circulation

Passive.

Assists user to circulate and distribute mana inside their body.

Slightly increases mana capacity and regeneration.

Effectiveness influenced by mental stats.

"Fuck yes!" Leo exclaimed triumphantly.

He quickly noticed that his initial attempt was somewhat flawed as he now had a pounding headache, and he was sweating profusely as his heartbeat raced, but compared to excitement brought by the feeling of progress, it suddenly seemed not so bad. He only had one more thing to check.

Leo concentrated once again, this time trying to bring forth mana from deep within his soul as well as drawing from the surrounding mana, filling up his entire being with it until it felt like his body was about to explode. Then he let it all out at once through his palms and a small puff of bluish mist came out. Nothing else happened.

Disappointed, Leo let out a sigh.

"Shit. I guess actually using it will be harder."

He felt utterly exhausted and his body ached terribly from expending so much energy in such a short period of time. All of his muscles were sore and tight. It was worse than an actual heavy workout day at the gym, he felt as if someone played football with his body for two days straight.

Leo lay down flat on the floor, unable to move anymore. He rested for about ten minutes before forcing himself to sit up again and drink some water. He brought his weary body to the pool, splashing his face with water. After drinking enough water, he slowly regained some energy. As her recovered, he used this time to check up on his stats.

First and foremost, since his stats somehow grew higher on their own he decided to check his skills and feats. After quickly looking through the panel, he noticed that not only some of his passive skills grown to a higher level, but he also had gotten three new ones as well.

--Thick Skin Lv.2

Increases damage resistance by 5% per level.

Increases VIG by 1 per level.

--Running Lv.3

Improves Stamina Regeneration by 0.5 per level.

Increases Movement Speed by 5% per level.

Increases END, AGI by 1 per level.

--Swimming Lv.1

Increases swimming speed by 5% per level.

Increases END by 1 per level.

As for other skills, his Dodge had reached level 3 and Physical Conditioning reached level 4.

--Dodge LV.3

Increases dodge chance by 1% per level.

Increases AGI by 1 per level.

--Physical Conditioning LV.4

Improves Health and Stamina Regeneration by 0,5 per level.

Increases Physical stats by 1 per level.

Now his current stats made a lot more sense. Moreover, with those skill levels, he also gained quite a lot of Feat Points. He quickly switched to his Feats screen to see a whopping twelve free Feat Points available to him. It meant that he could max out two, maybe even three feats right now! Moreover, two new Feats were available to him now as well, one of Rare Grade and one Unique.

-- Daredevil Lv.0

Unique Grade

Be first of your world to court death by going as low as 1 HP and survive.

Max Lv. 10

Grants a free stat point for each level.

Grants +3 to VIG upon reaching level three.

Grants +3 to END upon reaching level six.

Grants a 10% increase in Health and Stamina Regeneration upon reaching level nine.

Grants a bonus free stat point per level and five stat points upon completion.

--Dazzling Retreat Lv.0

Rare Grade

Flash!Blind!Run!

Max Lv. 10

Grants a free stat point on level four and level eight.

Grants a 1% Movement Speed increase per level.

Grants +2 to AGI upon reaching level five.

Grants [Retreat] skill upon reaching level nine.

Grants +2 to END upon reaching level ten.

Grants three free stat points upon completion.

Both were great additions to his roster of options since as long as he had feats below max level, he had a way to grow stats and a goal to work toward. The only issue was that he had no way of getting any information on how to gain more feats. Still, he had enough room for growth for now. And since he had skills like swimming, running, and physical conditioning which were pretty much self-explanatory in how to train them, he had a way of getting feat points as well. In fact, he could probably grind out some more right now while his condition was still relatively okay. It was obvious to him that training your body would affect the Physical Conditioning feat, and that running, dodging or swimming would help increase Running, Dodge, and Swimming respectively. But now was the time to spend his accumulated Feat Points.