Chapter Eleven

Jason grimaced as he took another bite to the abdomen. Though the pain was searing, he didn't do anything except raise a hand and think 'Flash Heal!' Sending a warm light through his body, closing the wound again. He could feel his mana plummet by 10 percent the moment the bloody mess was fixed. He looked at the wolf who still held a small chunk of him between its teeth. Though the sight unnerved him, he was beginning to become desensitized. "Alright you bastard, finish up with that bite. There's more than enough left!" He tried to smile, yet couldn't find it in him to do so.

As if receiving permission, the wolf swallowed the hunk of flesh it had torn from its opponent and began to stalk Jason in circles, looking for an opening. Jason's eyes never left the beast's, though he did nothing to avoid the lunging teeth as the wolf decided to cripple him by taking a bite out of his calf.

Jason winced as he felt the tearing incisors, accompanied by the warmth of blood. Before he thought much more about it, he activated flash heal once again, closing the wound once again. Another 10 percent of his mana dropped, while he felt life flow back into him. A small aching sensation settled between his eyes, as if he had eaten too much ice cream. "And that's about all I have for mana." He smiled as he looked the wolf in it's eyes. "Well, come on then!"

The wolf stopped pacing around Jason and lunged, sensing the man's weakness. Though, instead of taking another blow, Jason side stepped his opponent at the last second. He had to continue to dodge as much as possible. A mana point restored per 15 seconds, meaning that he was completely without the ability to heal for at the very least a minute and a half. Yet if he healed at that rate, he wouldn't be able to heal any serious wounds if he focused his attention on healing and took a worse wound in the process.

Instead of focusing on the headache which slowly receded, he focused all of his attention on dodging. While doing so, he was dimly aware of his phone buzzing in his pocket every so often. When his headache was completely gone, he allowed himself to take hits again, each time he was hit, he would heal himself almost instantly. Yet while he did this, he noticed that the wounds became smaller over time. Not because they were regenerating, instead it seemed that the wolf was having a harder time finding purchase on his skin, as if it were getting tougher.

What seemed like hours passed by in this fashion. He did not attack the wolf, instead, he allowed it to eat its fill from his flesh, only to have the flesh replenished on his body with a quick flash heal. He would dodge until he felt his mana replenish, then continue with his self mutualization. He didn't stop until he noticed that the wolf could no longer pierce his flesh. He presented a few different spots of his body to the beast, yet no matter what it did, it could not so much as draw blood. Even so, it still attempted to mindlessly throw itself at him.

Jason smiled and waved at the wolf, then disappeared in a flash. He appeared in the same instant on the lowest branch of a tall tree. Though he had gotten slightly better at the temporal shift ability, he was still limited in distance by the amount of mana he had in his mana pool. 125 mana barely gave him the distance he needed to put him out of sight of the animal. He placed his hand to his temple as his vision blurred slightly. It seemed he had just the amount needed to get out of sight. He crouched on the branch to stay out of sight as he nursed his headache.

Taking out a bottle of water from his inventory, Jason took a long swig from the container while being careful not to make a sound. He sat on the branch with his back to the body of the tree. He was exhausted, yet he felt like he had made a lot of progress. He smiled as he hit [Exit] on his phone and allowed himself to fall into the familiar darkness.

As soon as he released his hold on the dungeon, he found himself back in his room. Taking out his phone, he began checking through the alerts he had received.

'Current Level: 4

EXP: 450/4,500

HP: 65

MP: 125

STM: 65

Armor Rating: 15

Current Skills:

English Scribe: Intermediate

Cooking: Beginner

Cardio: Beginner

Hunter: Beginner

Hand to Hand Combat: Beginner

Sword Skill: Beginner

Spellbook:

Novice Fire: level 0.0

Novice Water: level 0.0

Novice Wind: level 0.0

Novice Earth: level 0.0

Novice Light: level 0.9

Novice Dark: level 0.6

Novice Time: level 0.2

EXP Bonus: 20%

EXP to next Level: 3,000

Spells Unlocked:

Temporal Shift: Mastery: 100%

Arcane Thrust: Mastery: 1.10%

Mana Saber: 1.00%

Hurricane Kick: Mastery: 0.80%

Flash Heal: Mastery: 1.50%

Revive: Mastery: 0.00%

Sneak: Mastery: 0.30%

Other spells may be unlocked upon experimentation and advancement in rank.

INT:11

STR:12

VIT:8

AGI:13

WIS:12

DEF:12

'You currently have 5 attribute points to distribute.'

Balance: $30,259'

Jason looked at the improvements not only on his phone, but also in the mirror. Having his flesh torn apart and healed back so many times over gave it a look of tightness that he hadn't had before. He could feel his muscles swell under his shirt. The increase in his defense was relief enough, but he also had improvements in his agility and strength. It felt like he had been in the dungeon for ten hours, yet it had only been an hour.

"The time reduction in the dungeon is really useful." He sighed in contentment as he fell to his bed. As he looked at his strength stat, he groaned as he remembered the one hour of constant pushups he did just for that one stat increase. Though it proved something that he needed to know. "It seems the only stats I can't increase manually are vitality, wisdom and intelligence." With that thought, Jason decided to split the five attribute points between the three. "Naturally I'll need more health, so I should put two points into my vitality. That leaves three points left." His finger hovered between intelligence and wisdom. "I already have what I need for mana at this level, but I need better mana regeneration." He placed all three points into wisdom.

As soon as he applied the points, he could almost feel a veil fall from his head. He could feel the connection to his mana improve. With better understanding of the system, he felt more comfortable distributing the points. Before, it seemed like he was flailing in the dark, yet now he was able to see his path slightly clearer.

Selena's warning about level 5 seemed a little more manageable now that he had higher stats, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he still wasn't ready yet. His eyes went down to his current currency. His heart ached as he saw the literal thousands missing from when he went to the mall. Yet when he remembered the new clothes that Selena had picked out, he didn't mind so much. She had already made the guest room into her own, so at least he had some privacy.

Something had stuck in his head from the visit to the mall though. "She said something about a marketplace within Mage's Academy, didn't she?" He thought back to how excited she was to see the various dresses and skirts, as well as the skin tight jeans, which she took more of an interest in. "She said that the selection wasn't as good in my world than in the marketplace." Though he did remember that she said it wasn't far off.

Jason flipped through his phone, looking over every detail until he saw a small convenience stand in the main menu. When he clicked on it, a new menu popped up. [Welcome to the Marketplace!] He scrolled past the introduction and began to browse. There were tabs for armor and weapons, potions, pills, vehicles and houses? He clicked on the house tab and his breath caught in his throat.