Mana Armor

Adam sat down and closed his eyes.

He imagined the Mana inside his body as a purple ball of energy located near his heart.

Adam pictured that Mana move in every direction inside his body.

[ You have gained 1 Magic Affinity Point.]

After about 5 minutes, his whole body was covered in purple energy.

[ You have gained 1 Mana Point.]

But he had no idea, he was deeply concentrated on driving his Mana outward.

After a while, he could completely ignore everything that happened around him and the notification that he heard from time to time.

He focused on driving more Mana outside.

The energy that covered his body got denser and denser.

He could feel it becoming heavier.

Adam rotated between driving the Mana outward and imagining the ball of Mana inside him expanding.

Calvin was surprised when he saw the purple energy engulf Adam but that only lasted a bit since the night before, Salma and Layla had talked about how they could use magic.

After a while, Adam could manifest most of his Mana outside of his body.

This didn't use up any Mana Points, as the Mana came back into his body afterward.

A notification forced him out of his deep concentration.

[ Congratulations! You have developed a Skill!]

[ You have developed the Skill "Mana Armor".]

Adam opened his eyes.

"What is it?"

[ Passive Skill: Mana Armor [E]

The user's whole body is continually protected by a portion of the user's Mana.

No Mana Consumption as long as the user is not attacked.

Defense Points: 50.

Mana Consumption: 50. ]

'So it would basically convert 50 Mana Points into 50 Defense Points. That's pretty good.' Adam thought.

He got up right after that and stretch his body.

He had been meditating for about 40 minutes.

Adam noticed Calvin was still running and waved at him.

Calvin waved back and continued running towards Adam.

"Stats." Adam said.

[ Stats: Strength: 60(+0)

Agility: 50(+6)

Dexterity: 20(+20)

Sense: 60(+1)

Vigor & Endurance: 42(+0)

Magic Affinity: 44(+9)

Mana: 38(+10)

Stealth: 63(+5)

Unused Stat Points: 0(+0)

]

'I didn't get any notifications after the first 25 minutes, but this is a huge increase. Adding 8 points in Mana and 4 in Magic Affinity is pretty good.'

Calvin arrived after that. He was surprised when he saw Python on Adam's shoulder, but once again, Salma and Layla had talked about it the night before.

They discussed each other's progress and Adam took his greatsword out and handed it to Calvin.

The latter decided to train his Strength Stat now.

Adam walked away and into the wheat field.

His gaze was lowered, and his hand rested on his chin.

'Am running out of options. Dexterity is my lowest stat and I have no idea how to train it.'

["The Guardian Goddess of All Huntsmen and Workers Of The Land" is happy to see you back here.]

Adam raised his head and looked around him for a bit.

"I'm happy to be back here." He said with a smile.

A walked a bit more and went deeper inside the wheat field.

He once again felt a sense of peace.

He really had no idea why he felt that way inside wheat fields, but he didn't think too much.

He felt good. And that's what mattered.

Adam lied down in the middle of the wheat plants at looked at the sky.

It was as clear as it gets.

Adam lied there for a bit, until he fell asleep.

He slept peacefully.

....

Adam woke up three hours later.

He slowly stood up and walked back towards Calvin.

Once he got closer, he found out that the sisters had woken up too.

The three of them were sitting together outside the house.

Salma had been waving at him for a while.

She, of course, had noticed him way before he noticed them.

Adam waved back.

As he got closer, he noticed Salma was showing her grandpa how well she could use magic.

A flame appeared on the palm of her right hand.

Slowly, the flame started taking a shape.

A few seconds later, a heart made of fire could be seen in the air, just above her hand.

'Damn.' Adam said with a smile. He felt a sense of competition and wonder.

'It took me a lot of time just to cover up my body with my Mana. Giving it a shape and getting it further from your body would be a lot, lot harder for sure.'

He arrived in front of them.

"Salma! What you did there was amazing!" Adam told her.

"Really? It didn't feel that amazing, but if you say so I'll believe you. I'm a Talented Fire Mage after all." She said as she stood up and took a Superman pose.

They talked for a bit before going back inside.

Adam made breakfast for everyone since nobody had eaten yet.

This time, Salma stood behind him as he cooked.

Her heightened senses registered every pinch of spice used, every exact amount of no matter what was used and how each food looked when Adam took it off the fire.

They all sat down.

Elizabeth joined them shortly after.

Obviously, everyone complimented the food as soon as they tasted it.

After that, the sisters started talking about the training they were going to do afterward.

Calvin said he had some work to do.

"Work? You know that in a bit our whole society will be using Gold Coins as currency, right? Living here is the best for this new world. We have our own water and our own food. We should only focus on getting stronger." Layla exclaimed.

"By work, I meant working the field. That's my occupation after all. How do you expect us to have our own food if I don't take care of the field?"

Layla's face reddened as she lowered her gaze and continued eating.

Adam, Salma and Elizabeth giggled at her reaction.

They ate in silence for a bit.

Once Salma finished her plate, she broke the silence.

"I wonder if we shouldn't enter another Dungeon."

Everyone looked at her with a surprised expression.

"What? You just came back!" Calvin said.

"Come on, you were just talking about your training and such." Elizabeth told her.

"Well, yes. But my Sponsor really wants me to go inside a Dungeon. I kind of want to do that too. We're a lot stronger than before, plus we can enter a blue Gate. Right, Adam?"

She put him on the spot.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"I'm not sure. The F-rank Gate I went into was blue, the E-rank we went into was purple. I don't think that's enough to make a statement like blue gates are always F-ranks." Adam explained to persuade her not to take unnecessary risks.

Except, the System answered him vocally. Everyone could hear the answer.

[Correct. Blue Gates lead to [F] Rank Dungeons and purple Gates lead to [E] rank Dungeons.]

"See!?" Salma exclaimed.

"Salma. I think it's a bit too early." Layla told her.

"Okay..." Salma said as she took her plate to the kitchen sink.

Adam, on the other hand, was really thinking about entering a Dungeon Gate.

'Training would take too long. I have to get more Artefacts. Since Blue Gates won't give enough Experience Points for me to level up, I'll have to bet on my ability to obtain Hidden Artefacts.' Adam thought.

Somehow, Layla could read his face.

Once everyone got up except Layla and Adam, she talked to him.

"You're really thinking about going into a Dungeon, huh?" She whispered.

Adam, realizing his plan was found out, could only tell the truth.

"Yep. I need more Artefacts. Plus, I can't train any Stat. My Strength is at 60, my Agility at 50, my Stealth at 63 and my Sense is at 60. I don't know how to train Dexterity which I just got. So..." Adam explained. He didn't bother whispering as he knew Salma could easily hear them.

Salma came running.

"Yey! Let's do it!" Salma shouted.

[ The Fox That Blesses Men wants to see its Blessed One fight!]

[ A Certain Evil is bored.]

[ The Everlasting Winter says that rest is important.]

[ The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin is bored.]

[ The Guardian Goddess of All Huntsmen and Workers Of The Land agrees with The Everlasting Winter.]

[ The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin says that he doesn't like watching lazy people.]

[ The Laziest Of God's Archangels says that it is rest, not laziness.]

[The Hero Who Survived By Sleeping For a Century says that rest is very important.]

[ The Ice Dragon wants Incarnation Layla to get rid of another weak reptile.]

'Another weak reptile? Does he mean The Great Snake? Well, of course a dragon would think that.' Layla thought.

"We're going into a Dungeon, right?" Salma whispered.

"If we do, it'll be a Blue Gate. Therefore, an [F] rank dungeon." Layla whispered.

"We can't keep this a secret." Adam said out loud. " We could be gone for days, you know?"

"True. But they won't let us go." Salma said.

"Am not sure. After all, we have to fight. It's as simple as that. Maybe we could even enter a Dungeon with them. No..that would be too dangerous. It's good that grandpa is training though. I'm not sure what to do." Layla wondered.

"I think if you show them that you're strong enough, they will probably let you go in." Adam told them.

"You think?" Layla asked.

"Yes! That's so smart! Let's do that!" Salma shouted as she jumped up and down.

"Do what?" Calvin asked as he heard the shouting.

"Grandpa, we're going to show you that we are strong enough to take care of ourselves!" Salma said in an arrogant tone.

"Oh. Leaving so soon? You don't need to show me that you're strong. I know you are." He said with a smile.

"Really? I mean... Of course you do, we're so strong it's obvious." Salma said, taken aback.

"Why do you say that?" Layla asked her grandfather.

"Well, I saw Adam swing that greatsword easily. With one arm too. Plus you can use magic and stuff. Also, he said that you two were very strong, so..." He explained.

"Oh. Right. Well, can we go into Dungeons?" Layla asked.

"I can't force you not to, can I? I guess it's okay if it's the easiest ones to get out of, since you already got out of a harder one unharmed. Also, always tell us before you enter one, okay? That goes for the three of you. Please be careful. At least wait about a week, maybe? You just came back yesterday at night." Calvin asked.

The sisters smiled and answered at the same time.

"We will!"

Calvin turned to look at Adam.

"Adam?"

"Yes?" Adam raised his gaze towards Calvin.

"You promise you'll tell us before entering a Dungeon?"

Adam lowered his gaze back down.

"I promise."

"I'll continue training every day. Until I am strong enough to protect these two, please take care of them." Calvin told Adam as he got out of the house.

"Unharmed?" Salma asked as she looked at Layla.

"Well... The scars are hidden beneath my T-shirt. They're going away anyway." Layla answered.

Indeed, her upper body was full of scars that the Spider Queen gave her before it died. Her shoulders and waist were where most leftover scars were located. These were slowly fading away. The other ones had already faded away once her Health Points attained the Max.

'Let's focus on training and finding an [F] rank Dungeon today. I'll enter a Dungeon tomorrow.' Adam thought.