A Change

Before I went up to Sarah, I took out the backpack from the storage ring.

As I got closer, I genuinely smiled. After what I went through today. It felt nice and warm to see someone wait and worry for me.

'Do I deserve someone who cares for me so much?' I thought while looking at her sitting on a bench.

Not so long ago, I was just a cripple dying in a hospital bed, forgotten by everyone and left alone to die.

'Where were my parents when I was going through the last days of my life?'

'Where were they, when on my 16th birthday I learned that I would die soon?'

'Where was anyone?'

'Where?!'

I couldn't understand my emotions and my thoughts.

I knew that it wasn't their fault, but at the same time, I still blamed them.

I was angry and sad about it.

As I thought about this, I felt like crying. I looked down so that I could hide my face from Sarah. I didn't want her to see me in that state.

After Sarah noticed me, she ran up to me, pulled me into her embrace, and hugged me while saying.

"I was worried."

'Huh'

At that moment, something broke inside me.

All the emotions and regrets I tried to hide, from which I always ran away throughout these years at that moment, blew up.

I burst into tears.

'Why? Why was she so nice to me?'

Noticing that, Sarah started to panic.

"Huh, Wha- Are you alright?"

"Yeah, It's just..."

She hugged me tightly and patted me on the head.

"It's ok, here, here..."

I realized something.

At that time, when I was all alone waiting for my death, I just wanted some warmth. I wanted to feel that someone cared for me. I didn't want to feel abandoned.

All I wanted was for someone to visit me and treat me like a human. Talk to me and hear me out. So at least for a moment, I would feel that I'm not just a burden.

It's been years since I last felt this warmth.

"Thanks," I said, and after a short pause, I continued.

"And sorry..."

"Hmm? For what?" Sarah asked, confused.

"No, it's nothing," I replied.

'Right'

'How was I any different?'

'I completely overlooked it because I haven't hurt anyone yet, but...'

'Up until now, I treated everyone in this world as if they weren't humans, but just characters from the novel.'

'I lied to them, manipulated them, and never considered their feelings.'

'I thought about this world as if it was just a novel.'

'I never took anything connected to this world seriously, and because of that, today I also almost died.'

'I'm no longer just a reader.'

'I'm part of this world now...'

.

...

.

"How did you know?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"I saw you in the news," Sarah replied.

"Oh, I see. Thanks. I mean for coming here and everything." I said while I wiped my tears.

"Yeah"

After I calmed down, we started to walk to the exit from the train station.

As we walked, I decided to ask her.

"Hey, why are you so nice to me?"

It has been bothering me since the day we first met. There had to be a reason why Sarah treated me so nicely.

"Ummm..." she scratched cheek, puzzled.

A few seconds passed.

Seeing her still like that, I decided to stop there.

"It's alright. You don't have to say it now. You can do it when you are ready to reveal it."

"Thanks," she replied in a relieved tone, and she smiled a little.

I didn't want to push her to answer.

Because I also had a secret that I didn't want to say yet.

But.

'Maybe one day.'

'I will be ready to tell you the truth, and you will tell me yours.' I thought while I looked at her face as we walked out of the train station.

.

...

.

"Here," I said with a smile on my face as I handed her 200N.

"I told you that you don't have to," Sarah replied.

"And I told you that I would repay you," I said stubbornly, still smiling.

Two days have passed since the dungeon incident. All the Mana Stones that I looted from the tomb were worth around 2300N.

Unfortunately for me, they were all low-ranked. I guessed that it's because Azkaf used the better ones on himself to increase his mana pool.

Just like with the rewards in dungeons, If your rank was too high, the lower rank Mana Stones weren't as effective on you or didn't work at all.

You also couldn't use them infinitely. You could use only ten stones of each rank.

I sold a few of them and bought more materials for upgrading.

I also used a few [G] rank stones to increase my mana.

Now my status looked like that.

――――――――「 Status 」――――――――

Name : Michael Bertz

「 Stats 」

Rating : [1.06] +0.05

Vitality : [0.15]

Mana : [2.26] +0.21

Strength : [0.62] +0.02

Agility : [0.62] +0.02

Intelligence : [1.65]

Luck : [2.8]

Special Point 0.23

「 Skills 」

<Death is Just a Beginning (Hidden)(Passive)[EX]>

<Mana Star(Passive)[S]>

<One with the Darkness (Active)[S][Lvl. 1]>

――――――――――――――――――――――

I tried training a little for the past two days, but it was way harder than I thought. I was utterly exhausted after sprinting for 30 seconds. Even doing five push-ups was difficult.

Anyway.

I was a little bit excited at the moment because Sarah promised me that she would teach me a new skill today. At first, she tried to teach me how to control and use the mana, but thanks to the knowledge from the novel, I already knew how to do it, probably even better than her.

As we were sitting on the couch facing each other, a small purple skill stone appeared in her hand.

"Alright, Michael, look, do you know what this is?" She asked as she showed me the skill stone.

"It's a skill stone," I answered.

"Exactly, I dropped this one from a dungeon. Now, I want you to take it and use it." She said as she handed me the skill stone.

"Alright."

A small window popped up in front of my eyes.

―――――――――「 Alert 」―――――――――

Do you want to learn:

<Purple Lightning Bolt(Active)[E]> ?

―――――――――――――――――――――――

"Yes"

After I said that, I could feel information about the new skill flow into my mind.

――――――――――――――――――――――

<Purple Lightning Bolt(Active)[E]>

Lvl. 1 - You can shoot a weak lighting bolt.

Lvl. 2 - ?

.

.

.

Lvl. 10 (MAX) - ?

――――――――――――――――――――――

"Done," I said.

"Alright. Now then, gather your mana in your right finger and use your skill."

I did as she told me, and a small purple lightning bolt appeared above my right finger. It had the size of a toothpick and looked like a toothpick.

'Should I just name it a Lightning Toothpick?' I thought as I imagined myself screaming "lightning toothpick!" out loud while attacking the enemy.

"Now attack me with it," Sarah said.

"Ok," I replied as I shot the toothpick at her.

It was flying really slow. So slow that I thought that I would be able to outrun it.

When it came into contact with her body, my powerful toothpick got absorbed by her, and nothing happened.

'...'

I didn't even try to hide my disappointment at this point.

"That was incredible!" I heard Sarah say, then she continued.

"To think that you would be able to do it on your first try!"

'Huuuuuh?' I exclaimed in my head, confused.

"Usually, it would take hours to learn how to use the skill, but you not only did it on the first try, you also cast it so fast, and it was so powerful."

'Pardon?'

"You must be a gift sent to me from heavens, Michael!" She said as her smile grew wider.

'Ah, I see...'

"Alright, you can stop making fun of me now," I said.

She couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Pffft! Hahahaha, sorry, it's just the l-look on your face after y-you saw your attack. You should have seen it. Hahaha." She said while laughing as she held her stomach with her left hand.

'...'

.

A few minutes passed until she stopped laughing.

'Was it really that funny?' I thought to myself.

"Are you done?" I asked, still a little bit angry.

"Huu, yeah," she replied and then continued.

"Just so you know, the part with you doing it on your first try and the quick cast was true. That was actually incredible."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks." I thanked her a bit sarcastically.

"Anyway, back to the teaching. To increase the power of your lightning bolt, you should try gathering more mana in your finger next time."

"Oh, and also use the skill whenever you regenerate enough mana. You will get used to it, and it will level up faster. Your mana should also increase." Sarah explained.

"Alright, thanks. Oh, and don't think that I won't repay you for this skill." I replied.

She then said.

"I forgot to tell you. If you are training, then shoot the bolts at me, or you might damage something in the apartment."

'Using the skill for the first time wasted only 5% of my mana pool. Should I try putting more mana into it?' I thought.

I gathered around 18% of my mana and created a lightning bolt. I aimed it at Sarah and shot her in the back.

When my attack reached her, I heard her say.

"Ahh, yes~."

'What was that? Did she just-'

"Can you aim a little bit higher? Somewhere around here?" Sarah said as she pointed her finger at a spot on her back.

'...'

'Is she treating my almighty attack as a massage?!'

"Aren't you enjoying yourself too much?" I asked sarcastically.

And then I gathered mana in my fingers, around 4% each, and started shooting my lighting bolts at her neck and stomach.

"Huaa, ahahaha, stop it's t-ticklish, stop I'm sorry, pfft! ahahahaha, p-please stop!"