Chapter 05

Zero woke up the next morning. He went back to the river to wash himself and his clothes.

His day then went on to be the same as the one before. The only difference was that he tried out multiple different weapons. The results were always the same in the sense that he could wield them all correctly without prior experience.

"What do you guys think about this?", asked Zero to his fellow companions.

"Maybe you're talented?", responded Kunai refusing to think much about the subject.

[He's definitely talented.], said Shadow without raising up a fuss about it.

Zero then continued hunting goblins until it became nightfall. Just like the day before he went on to the river and washed himself, and then went on towards the cave. Once in there he practiced using his mana before going to sleep once again.

He woke up the next morning and, throughout the day, he kept on hunting goblins with various different weapons. The weapons he used weren't a lot, but getting used to wielding them was hard. They were also quite heavy and that made him use his stamina pretty quickly. He spent a couple of days just getting used to weapons in the Crimson loadout and just doing that became repetitive and boring. Zero then decided to start working out. Of course, working out would not help him that much when he was in the body of an 8 year old, but he could at least practice the technique, which would help him with building his muscles correctly in the future. He asked Shadow and Kunaigai to watch over him and to make sure he was doing the exercises correctly.

After a couple of weeks of repeating the same things over and over, Zero was now able to increase his mana and use lightning to a certain extent. He could definitely use it, but it was not to the extent that he could make use of it in battle.

He continued to work on his mana for weeks until he felt that he could not increase the quantity that he could store inside of him. When that happened he made sure to start refining the use of the mana. He would dedicate himself to use the amount of mana he had as efficiently as possible. He tried wrapping the lightning around his hand and condensing it to make a lightning blade. It was extremely powerful, but it consumed way too much mana. He also tried shooting it out, but it spread everywhere. It would have been useful if he was faced with many weak enemies, but it also had way too much mana consumption.

With the first skill, which he now named electro blade, he tried to apply it in a different way. Zero took out a small dagger from the Crimson loadout and held it with his right hand. With his left hand he gathered electricity on his index and middle finger. He then dragged them both next to edge of the dagger's blade. He made sure to spread the lightning evenly on from the bottom of the blade to the tip of the blade. Once he did so the color of the lightning slowly turned from a sky blue color to a crimson red. He then picked up a branch from the floor and used the dagger to cut it in half. Without any effort the dagger cut through the branch as if it were butter.

It didn't take as much mana out of him, but Zero decided not to use it that often. He would rely on it only in times of need and the original version of the electro blade, he would use when he was unarmed and had no choice but to use it. The skill would remain unnamed since it was just an extension of the electro blade. After this discovery he wanted to try out something else, but he couldn't do so because he had not much mana left.

He then went and washed himself in the river and went on to sleep.

The next morning he woke up and instead of going to the river first, he decided to practice the other thing he had thought of the night before. He wanted to try and shoot out the lightning in a different way. This would also solve an issue he had with the Crimson loadout. Zero could summon guns, but there was a lack of ammunition. He then took out a pistol and loaded its magazine with lightning, he loaded it into the pistol, and then attempted to fire the pistol. Nothing happened.

"Of course it wouldn't work. This type of weapon is not designed to fire things out without gunpowder.", said Zero which he followed with a sigh.

"Cool idea, but I guess you'll have to wait until you can get your hands on a gun that works like that. If you can find one or you make it yourself, I can always scan it and add it into the Crimson loadout.", said Kunaigai trying to make Zero feel better, since he seemed to be bummed out by his failure.

"How am I supposed to build something like that.", responded Zero.

[I could teach you in the future, but I can't do so right now, since we don't have neither metal, a smithy, or electronics to work with.], said Shadow trying to reassure Zero.

"How did you learn-", said Zero before getting cut off by Shadow.

[I'll explain it to you in the future, but for now you should start building stuff with the items that are around you.]

"What things?"

[Look around you.]

Zero then proceeded to take a look at his surroundings. He saw trees, leaves, and rocks. He looked at it all and then proceeded to ask himself: 'What am I supposed to do with any of this?'

He then proceeded to think up of various ideas on what to make with his surroundings and thought of one thing. He should try his hand at making a bow and some arrows. He had a bow in the Crimson loadout, but he didn't want to shout out to summon it every time. With that in mind he started to piece together what he would need to make a bow.