Nightmare

Ethan could buy a lot of things in his shop, but skill books or anything that could teach him skills in an instant wasn't available. That never surprised him, even though he could buy all kinds of materials, weapons, armor, and accessories. Still, despite such problems, things inside Ethan began to change when he increased his MAG.

When his MAG reached ten, he could feel his mana like the air around his body. When it reached fifteen, he could make it move inside his body, and when his MAG finally reached twenty, Ethan felt the energy leaving his body when he wished for it.

"I can control mana now, but I didn't receive a single notification or skill," Ethan said while he rubbed his chin. "I guess I need to accomplish something with my mana."

Maybe now was a good time to put into use the things he felt while facing the slimes. The air around them changed moments before they cast the spells, so the trick was there. It shouldn't be difficult to learn simple spells. Ethan didn't know if he deserved that title, but he was a hero, and he could learn some abilities pretty fast.

It took a while, but Ethan eventually managed to create a small sphere of mana that could be seen by him. That being said, the sphere that was smaller than a finger consumed all his mana.

"No notification again, huh," Ethan scratched the back of his head. "Ah, that is right. Spells need to follow certain procedures to work properly. I can't just make the magic projectile and hope that it will fly toward the enemy."

Ethan never learned magic that way, but he recalled a mage talking about how one should activate certain spells once. First, one had to give mana a nature, an elemental nature.

"Wait a minute," Ethan said. "This only explains how elemental spells work. What about the others? Well, let's start with the basics."

After giving mana a nature, the caster had to give it a shape while thinking about firing the magic projectile. Ethan thought that giving the shape would come first. Still, given how small projectile his mana created, it looked like once they obtained some elemental properties, the spells might become bigger. He didn't know any other way of giving mana a nature aside from wishing for it. So, Ethan did that… surprisingly enough, his mana turned into a small sphere of water the very moment he wanted for it. What surprised me, even more was the fact that the sphere of water fell on his bed and wet everything.

"It looks like I can't control the mana once it becomes an element," Ethan nodded to himself. "To do that, I will need a more advanced skill."

Although Ethan was tired, the success didn't make him drop his guard and relax. He was determined to only sleep after learning at least one spell. In the end, he succeeded after just half an hour. Probably because he increased his MAG quite a bit, it wasn't that hard to follow these procedures.

Congratulations! You learned the skill Water Ball!

Damage: MAG (x 20%) - Res

Cost: 05 mana

Lv 01 – 0/100

Congratulations! For learning a new ability without help, you received one thousand coins.

"Hehe," Ethan laughed in satisfaction. "Well, let's stop here before I get too excited and decide to learn Fireball and end up burning my room."

Name: Ethan

Class: Omni Hero/ ????

Level: 09 (230/1200)

Health: 100/100

Mana: 235/235

Stamina: 50/50

STR: 15

MAG: 30

PHY: 10

END: 05

RES: 05

SPE: 05

DEX: 05

EVA: 05 + 03

ACC: 05

Coins: 2005

Status Points: 05

Skill Points: 16

Skill List

Physical: Dash Lv 03, Bash Lv 03,

Magic: Meditation Lv 03, Water Ball Lv 01,

Passive: Martial Arts Lv 02, Rest Lv 04, Swordsmanship Lv 02, Spearmanship Lv 01, Evasion Mastery Lv 04, Block Mastery Lv 04, Fire Resistance Lv 04, Cold Resistance Lv 04, Wind Resistance Lv 04, Earth Resistance Lv 04,

Ethan progressed quite a bit that day, so he fell asleep while seeing his status screen with a smile on his face. Thanks to all that, he thought he would have one good night of sleep… he couldn't have been more wrong.

Suddenly, Ethan saw himself back in that world. Somehow, he immediately understood that he was in a dream… or perhaps a nightmare was more accurate. Who could have thought Ethan would be forced to revive those memories so soon? Regardless, Ethan tried to control his dream, but he failed. Maybe it was one of the effects of using the simulator. Still, Ethan felt as if he was under a powerful illusion spell. He couldn't do anything, and yet, the dream seemed as real as it could be.

It was raining that day. Although the foot was bad and slippery, the commander didn't give the order to his men to stop and rest. Ethan watched the rain make him feel himself and everyone depressed with every single moment. That being said, he was nice and warm inside a carriage since he was the summoned hero.

"Finally, the day has arrived."

Those words echoed in his head, and Ethan soon recalled what that day was… it was the day of his first campaign against the demon army. That world had demons and monsters, but they weren't the same thing, even though both species prey on humans. Monsters were just like wild animals that sometimes could use magic. However, demons were different. Although some of them couldn't speak, all of them had intellect. They were smart, and that was make them terrifying.

Ethan felt something dark deep down in his heart since he already knew what would happen. To gain experience, he was forced to join that campaign against one of the many commanders of the demon king's army. The enemy leader was a lich who had a massive army of gremlins. When Ethan heard what they could, he couldn't help but show a pale expression.

His first real fight couldn't have been against a worse enemy. Unfortunately, he couldn't back down since the demon army was going to attack the north side of the Hedo kingdom, one of the regions where they most produced food. Failing wasn't an option because even if he managed to survive despite that, many would die of hunger, and Ethan would be the cause of it.

Ethan knew what was going to happen, and yet, he forced himself to wake up, but as if he wasn't controlling his body anymore, the dream continued.