Encounter

[Mark! move awa-] Before Pass could continue something green shot out of the pond toward Mark.

The green thing lashed against his gut, shooting him meters away from the pond.

Not wasting a second more, Mark turned around and ran straight toward the cave. His gut hurt, probably bruised and cut by the green thing. The pain wasn't hard to ignore, so he did just that.

He got back to the cave after about fifteen minutes of running. Inside the cave, he fell on his butt, gasping for air.

"What was that?" Mark asked between his breathing.

[A plant]

"What kind of plant jumps out of the water and attacks someone?" Mark was confused and a little scared. If he didn't run, he wasn't sure he could survive. If that plant had caught him and continued to attack him, his life would have ended.

[A Veracious Vine. They are native to this planet, and they use mana to move. They tend to find a water source to take nest in. After finding their nest, they become extremely territorial, and attack anything that comes towards it. They prefer to scare predator away, rather than kill them]

'I should have known life wouldn't become easy just because I moved dimensions'

"Are there many kinds of monster like the one that attacked me?"

[It was a plant, and yes]

"How come you didn't tell me earlier that something was going to attack me?"

[The vine had camouflaged its mana with the water surrounding it]

"I should stay away from that pond," Mark said.

[You should be fine to go back there. Before you ran away, your eyes had already marked the plant instinctively, so I would be able to distinguish it if you went back to the pond]

'I relaxed to early. I still need to train so that my survival won't be threatened so easily,' Mark reaffirmed his will to train.

For the next three days he entered a cycle of training. Wake up, train Water Manipulation, use Meditation, refine the body, use Meditation, Regeneration. Take an hour long break, train the body naturally, use Regeneration. Finally, Mark everything he could see. Rest and repeat.

'Time to check how much I improved in three days'

Name: Mark

Profession: Null

Health-130

Mana-110

Constitution-13

Strength-7

Speed-9

Intelligence-11

Will-22

Abilities:

Minimal Regeneration(Rank 1, Level 2 30%)

Minimal Meditation(Rank 1, Level 2 72%)

Light Marking(Rank 1, Level 1 24%)

Water Manipulation(No Rank, Level 3 17%)

He focused more on speed than strength because he wanted to make sure he would be able to run away from danger. He also found that there were certain tricks to using and improving his abilities.

Water Manipulation became easier to use when he had a clearer image of water and what he wanted it to do, Meditation improved when he tried to make the vortex spin faster or grow bigger, and regeneration helped more if he focused his Mana on one spot at a time.

Light Marking was the only ability he couldn't find a trick for. Well, other than when he marked something with more Mana his ability improved more. He could faintly see the Mana of things he looked at when he focused Mana into his eyes.

Looking around his cave a thought came to Mark, 'If outside is dangerous, doesn't that mean that this cave could be dangerous?' Wants the thought hit him he had to check. He didn't want to continue sleeping in a place he doesn't know is safe.

He can help Pass scan by letting him use his Mana, so he did. When he let Pass use his Mana, Pass would place it in the air in vibrate it. Seeing him do this, Mark decided that he would try it later.

With Pass's scanning enhanced, Mark felt safer, so he started going towards the inside of the cave. At first It got darker and darker, but not that much long after he could see a pale blue light.

At the end of the cave was a small pool of water that let out a blue light.

"Hey Pass, did you decide were we would go when we traveled dimensions?"

[No. The destination was determined by whatever your soul was attracted to]

'This is probably what my soul was attracted to then' thought Mark. The pool wasn't that big, only big enough for one person the lay in. At the bottom of the pool, about a meter deep, there was a blue stone. The blue stone was probably the source of the light.

Just looking at the stone Mark could feel his soul become... happier? What he was sure of though, was that there wasn't anything dangerous in the cave, so he decided to take a swim.

The water was cool and refreshing. His mind and body both calmed down from the restless state it was in when he was searching for danger. His hand reached out and touched the stone.

Nothing surprising happened. At least not for a moment, but after a moment the stone shined brighter and soaked into his body.

[Ability acquired]

Water Affinity(Perfect)- Water loves you as much as you love water.

"What is that even supposed to mean?" If Mark could see Pass he would be giving him a weird look.

[It means that water is easier to control]

"Then why didn't you just say that?" Mark didn't get a response from Pass.

....

The pool became Mark's favorite spot in the cave, so he spend most of his time their. Every time he took mass from the walls, the room with the pool grew just a little bigger. The walls of this room were also denser than the walls of the rest of the cave.

Through more testing of Water Manipulation, he found that controlling water became much easier. The water in the pool, however, seemed to be special. He didn't need Mana to move it. With just his will alone it would move. With farther testing, the water could even go inside his soul, which didn't surprise him. His soul wasn't always empty, so putting something in it now didn't seem strange.

If Pass had bothered to explain it to him he would have learned that it was strange. Only Mana should be able to inter and leave a person's soul. However, Pass didn't explain, so Mark wouldn't learn how special it was until a week later.

For the next four months he returned to his training schedule. After the first week, body refining didn't help him as much so he tried to make it harder. He was successful. By making his Mana vibrate in his body, his body could absorb more Mana. His new found method hurt far more, though

On that same day, he experimented with the Water in his soul(Water will used for the water that can inter his soul. Regular water will just be lowercase-Author Comment). When he put the Water in his Mana while it was spinning, the water would turn into to more mist. He tried doing the opposite, spinning the water and the putting Mana in it, and that worked, as well. His soul could hold more water than mist, so he turned all of the mist, which is Mana, into the Water. He got a notification from Pass saying one of his skills ranked up.

Using the watery Mana for all of his abilities worked far better than the mist. The Water even slowly spun on its on, so it collected Mana faster than the mist.

After a month and a half, all of his abilities that hadn't ranked up were all level 10, the max for ranked abilities, except for Light Marking. It took him another month just to evolve them. After they ranked up, the gain of experience for them slowed down to a snail crawl.

For the last month of his training, he was creating, learning, and practicing spells. He created all of the spells he can use by manipulating water in different ways.

When he formed a ball of water and shot it out, the spell-Water Ball-was created. When he formed and line of water and swung it around, the spell-Water Whip-was created. All of the spells were created with ease for Mark.

Once he created them, he practiced them to the point he would be able to use them in battle. Water Whip saw the most benefit, as he felt that it was the easiest spell to use.

Name: Mark

Profession: Null

Health-130

Mana-110

Constitution-13

Strength-7

Speed-9

Intelligence-11

Will-22

Abilities:

Small Regeneration(Rank 2, Level 1 1%)

Small Meditation(Rank 2, Level 1 3%)

Light Marking(Rank 1, Level 2 38%)

Water Manipulation(No Rank, Level 11 41%)

Water Affinity(Perfect)

Spells:

Water Ball(Rank 1 20%)-Forms a ball of water that explodes on contact and fires it

Water Arrow(Rank 1 20%)-Forms an arrow out of water and fires it

Water Whip(Rank 1 40%)-Forms whips out of water that can be used as a weapon

"Why do the spells only have a rank?" Mark asked Pass.

[A spells power doesn't increase in between the ranks, so there is no level in between them. The percentage after the rank represents your mastery over the spell. As the mastery over a spell increases, you will be able to cast the spell faster, and use it more efficiently]