Mana Sense

"Grrrrr."

The sound of his stomach grumbling interrupted Ky's thoughts.

'Close Interface.'

He climbed out of the lake and put his clothes back on before grabbing his doru that was leaning on the wall.

He made his way out of the cave to finally go hunting again.

He decided to forgo eating for the past few days so he could focus on core formation. Now, he was way too hungry to just ignore it.

Stepping out of the cave, Ky thought, 'Hmmm. I didn't think about that.'

He stood with his chin in his palm and was stroking it like he had a long beard.

He came to the realization that he had no way of tracking down a beast.

He had next to no experience hunting other than the killing he had done over the last week. Even then, all of the beasts he fought had come to him. He never had to seek any of them out.

'Let me try using my mana sense.'

Ky had a guess on how things like this would work because of those novels he read before this whole thing began.

He closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of mana in the air.

It was much stronger than before.

'Seems like my core really boosted my senses by alot.' He thought.

If before he could only feel that there was mana in the air, now he could feel its density as well.

Ky spread his senses out as far as he could, which was about a 500 meter radius around him.

There were a lot of spots where mana was clustered together more, he realized these were trees.

Even the trees were drawing in or already had mana in them.

The reason he knew these clusters of mana were the trees was because of their spacing. He also opened his eyes to see if the trees were in the spots where he sensed the mana clusters.

'Wow, I can even sense it with my eyes open now!'

Opening his eyes allowed him to understand that not only were his senses amplified, but he also didn't have to concentrate as much as before to use mana sense.

*Ding*

[Mana Sense (1) has leveled up. It is now Mana Sense (2)]

A few seconds after using mana sense with his eyes open, he received the new message from the system.

'Nice.' A smile formed on his face.

Ky then left the opening of the cave while still using mana sense.

He didn't know exactly what to look for, but he tried to focus mainly on the clusters he could feel.

Ky assumed that any animal would have a mana cluster around it as well. If trees with no mana core could have mana concentrated around them, then a normal monster or animal should as well.

~

After walking through the forest for a few minutes, Ky finally discovered something.

'Got you!'

He detected a cluster of mana that was moving fast between the trees 200 meters in front of him.

'Big boy is coming towards me, so there is no need to find him.'

Another smile formed on Ky's face thinking about the upcoming fight.

He crouched down into a stance with his doru and aimed it in the direction the monster would be coming from.

"Grrrrrr."

He didn't have to wait long.

The wolf barreled through the trees in front of Ky.

Ky was prepared. He instantly sidestepped the pounce of the wolf and as it was flying past him he lifted the doru up and slashed down.

The wolf was instantly split in half. The doru was still slicing flesh like it was cutting butter.

"This HAS to be a beginner dungeon or something. These monsters are way too easy to kill." Ky mumbled with a frown on his face.

While he received a few brutal injuries from the wolves of this forest, he never seemed to be even close to death.

Common sense for video games and dungeons states that a dungeon is a hard activity for even experienced players to complete unless it's a beginner dungeon.

'Whatever… I'm too hungry to think about this sh*t right now…'

Ky grabbed the 2 halves of the wolf and started dragging them back to his cave.

Luckily he wasn't that far, so it only took him 20 minutes to bring the wolf back.

Ky took another 30 minutes to get some relatively dry branches from the trees and start a fire.

"Ahhhhh, that smells heavenly."

The smell of the cooking wolf meat wafted throughout the whole cave.

When it was done, Ky ate his fill, but made sure not to eat too much and risk getting sick.

Going a few days without food and then suddenly gorging yourself could cause you to throw up because your stomach wouldn't be able to handle that much food again instantly.

Ky sat back down near his bed roll and began eyeing the staircase near the lake.

*Sigh*

"I'll figure out how to use this mana a little bit first, then I guess I should make my way up that ominous, most likely dangerous staircase."

"There isn't even any need for me to say something that would set up a flag. The staircase itself is the flag…" He mumbled to himself.

Ky closed his eyes and began sensing the mana around him and inside his core.

He could feel a very large concentration of mana sitting in the middle of his chest.

'Now move!' He shouted inwardly to the mana.

'Hey it worked!'

He could feel the mana twitch inside of him at his command.

Ky then tried to will the mana to move to his right hand.

'Wow, this is so cool.'

It started to slowly make its way from his core to his hand.

It took a whole 5 minutes for it to finally reach his hand, but the fact that it only took 1 try astonished Ky.

"Whoahhhhhhhh."

His whole right side from his right pectoral to the middle finger on his right hand began to feel empowered.

"I feel at least 2 times stronger with this, but it's fading very fast." Ky mumbled to himself.

The effect of the mana only lasted for 30 seconds.

It took 5 minutes to activate, and only lasted for 30 seconds, but a 2 times strength increase would make it worth it.

Ky didn't know for sure if the 2 times increase was accurate, but it felt at least around that number.

~

Ky spent the rest of his day, and even a lot of his night, experimenting with this internal mana control.

He was able to send it to every part of his body, he just had to focus on the specific part and will the mana to go there.

It took 5 minutes every time to reach its destination no matter how far away it was, but the duration of the effects were different each time.

Ky could even send the mana to his head to empower his brain, but the effects only lasted 5 seconds.

It was worth it though. It felt like he was able to see in 4k and like everything went into slow motion around him for those 5 seconds.

When he was done for the day, Ky didn't even have to try going to sleep, he just directly passed out after all of his strength left him.

~

"Hurry up those stairs boy!!! My patience is running thin!!"

A very large figure shrouded in darkness shouted towards Ky.

Ky couldn't make out a single feature of the creature except for its large gray eyes that were dozens of meters high in the air.

"Eee."

The only response Ky's body allowed him to give was a few small nods and a squeak of fear.

He had never felt so afraid of his life, not in real life and especially not in a nightmare as he was now.

If he was awake, he would have for sure passed out, but only after peeing his pants and letting go of his bowels.

~

"UHUGHHHHH!"

Ky shot up and breathed in a large intake of air.

"What the F*CKKK!" He screamed.

Looking towards the staircase across the room caused all of the fear from his nightmare to return again.

A cold shiver traveled down his spine, and it took everything in his power to not pee his pants at this moment.

*Sigh*

It took a little over an hour, but once he calmed himself down he stood up while still staring at the staircase.

'That's another flag, but what else can I do about it?'

*Sigh*

Ky put on his mantle of fur and grabbed his doru as well as the other scraps of fur before walking towards the opening in the wall where the staircase was located.

*Sigh*

Letting out his third sigh in just a few hours, Ky said what could be his final words.

"I may have died a virgin, but I did so as a rich and funny one. I am not like you who were not only virgins but also broke and not funny!" He shouted with a serious expression on his face.

Ky then moved his foot onto the first step.