Mastering my first skill

A short silence filled the cold atmosphere as Surrdon's thoughts ran wild. He was starting to grasp how the levelling stages worked. One thousand mana levels equalled the ten levels. He was at three hundred, which should have been at level three, so why had the stats indicated that he was still at level one?

   He tossed Anya away from the phoenix and rubbed his chin, surfing through the endless questions in his head.

    "Is my system broken?"

Anya slowly drifted to levitate beside Surrdon. She rolled her eyes and said, "Your stats work differently. Your general level will hop to ten once you have enough mana in your body. Also, if you won't let me eat the bird, you can at least make it your pet."

   Surrdon eyed Anya suspiciously. Did she intend to eat the bird after his mission?

  "No way. Plus, this bird is too immature. If I must have a pet, I'll get a divine beast."

Anya suddenly broke out in mocking laughter

She rolled in the air, laughing so loud that Surrdon thought the cave would collapse. At least he was the only person that could see and hear the little snake.

    "You're very funny. Do you know how powerful you need to be in order to have a contract with a divine beast?"

   "Um...void realm?"

Anya laughed again till tears rolled out of her eyes. "Were you this funny in your previous life?"

    Surrdon frowned.

He would not let the lazy beast make fun of him. "Can we get this done with? I want to start my practice."

Anya's laugh slowly died out, but the tears were still blurring her vision. She flew ahead of him and stopped near the icy rock.

  "Okay. I'll help you a little. Come here."

He hesitated for a second, but saw no harm in listening to her. Dying a second time might not be so bad after all

   Surrdon walked closer to the rock and stopped next to one of the crystal pillars.

He immediately sensed the strong energy radiating from the crystals, invoking some warmth in his abdomen.

His right hand went to rest on his abdomen, quietly thinking about why his body was reacting that way.

     "Sit on the stone."

"Huh? It must be so cold."

"Quit whining like a child and just do as I say. You are already behind on your practice, this will help you."

   "Oh?!"

Surrdon slowly climbed onto the empty side of the rock, his eyes fixed on the bird so as not to wake it up. While it would not kill him instantly, he still did not need unnecessary trouble. "What now?"

   Anya rushed to his eyesight and placed her tail on Surrdon's forehead. "I'm going to transfer an ice technique. The cold energy in this cave will help you understand it. But should you fail, the energy will backfire and you will injure an organ in your body," she instructed clearly as red energy flowed from her body and into his forehead.

     "You have such a technique? Aren't you a fire snake or something like that?"

  "Shut up! Your fickle mind cannot understand my origin. Now close your eyes and learn what I am teaching you. Remember, you need to concentrate fully."

Surrdon did as he was told, even though he still had a lot of questions about her. When his eyes closed, his mind immediately drifted off to a pitch black space with no sound nor light. He whipped his head around, trying to call upon Anya but no sound came out. He rubbed his throat, wondering how this was even possible when suddenly, a red light began filling all around him, illuminating his surroundings.

     He was standing...on the air.

There was nothing below, above, or beside him. The light started gathering and forming strange symbols that he could, oddly, understand without any previous knowledge of the language. The red symbols began swirling around him at a frightening speed, creating a wall of bright red aura.

      "You may start," Anya's voice fell from above.

Surrdon had no idea how to do it. His hesitation caused a bolt of red lighting to strike his upper arm.

   He grimaced from the pain and rubbed his arm. "What am I supposed to do?"

   Anya's disappointed sigh fell in his abyss before she answered him, "Clear your mind, find any position suitable for you; standing, sitting, lying down, hanging upside down. Just do it before the backlash begins."

  Any position?

He quickly sat down and crossed his legs like in the cultivation mangas he had read. Standing would be too tiring, while lying would be too sluggish.

   He started emptying his thoughts till there was nothing to think about. The bolts of lightning began striking him from every direction. But this time, they seemed to be absorbed into his forehead without harming him.

One after the other, the energy in the form of lightning was all absorbed into his head

He sat there for about ten minutes till all the red energy disappeared, marking the end of the practice. A successful session.

Surrdon's physical body stirred under Anya's keen observation. His skin now looked better than the previous day, with only some dried blood on the corner of his lips from the mental attack.

He had been practicing for a whole day in silence, which worked positively for him. She could feel he was about to slip out of his consciousness and into his body.

And it wasn't long till his eyelids fluttered open till they adjusted to the sunlight pouring in from straight above. It was already noon.

He felt different.

The pain that had been coursing in his arm was now gone.

Surrdon took a sharp inhale and investigated why he was feeling the way he was. It was all coming from his abdomen. He was tempted to check if the sigils were different, but he couldn't bring himself to lift the robes in front of the little snake.

"Congratulations, you have successfully mastered the Heavenly Ice technique. You may now awaken the phoenix before I devour it."

The phoenix! It had almost escaped his mind. "How long have I been here?" He asked as he slid off the rock. His bones felt stiff, but he could no longer feel the coldness of the thick layer of ice.

"A day."

Surrdon gasped shocked. His eyes flew to the entrance of the chamber, concern filling them. "Have they..."

"She is loyal to you. She would not disturb you unless there was any danger."

"Oh!"

Pushing all that aside, Surrdon moved closer to the still-sleeping blue bird. It looked so adorable up close. Its wings had blue and white feathers covering it and so did the feathers on its extremely long tail.

"What is my level right now?" He asked in a whisper while his eyes studied the bird.

"Learning skills does not raise the levels, idiot. Only absorbing and solidifying mana does," Anya answered scornfully. "But you are stronger than before."

She flew to his shoulder and watched his hesitant hands reach out to touch the baby bird. "How long will you take?"

"Shh! I don't want to scare it."

Anya sighed out loud. Why had the Demon Lord chosen such a person? He had no tough bone in his body.

She hopped off his shoulder and on the bird using brutal force.

It suddenly screeched sharply while releasing a circular wave of cold mana. The energy blew away any unsteady object, flapping Surrdon's robes like a powerful wind.

"Do it!" Anya yelled slithering off the rock as quickly as she could move. She had no kind intentions of being the phoenix's energy source.

With zero knowledge of how to tame it, Surrdon jumped at the bird before it could fly away and pinned it down on the rock. A sigil suddenly appeared under the bird and began rotating. White tendrils emerged from the sigil and stabbed the bird, penetrating to its soul without physically harming it.

Anya stared, her eyes round from shock.

She could not believe that the stupid human had activated his first sigil even though it was still locked. He was using it to...suck out the phoenix's soul.

"Stop!" Anya yelled amidst the birds pain filled screeches. She lifted her body off the ground and flew straight at Surrdon. "You're killing it!"

Maybe teaching him such a powerful technique at such a time had been a horrible idea. Due to the insufficient mana in his body, the new skill was sucking out the birds mana and its...soul.