Throwing Punches

[Flame Blast: Fires a powerful blast of concentrated flames in a straight line. It hits enemies up to 15 meters away and explodes on impact, dealing heavy fire damage.]

Riven rushed through the explanation of the spell, his lips curved up in a smile as he looked at it. He had gained a powerful fire spell; that was a step in the right direction.

He didn't know per se what rank this spell was, as there were different rankings of spells in the story. It started from Basic spells, Intermediate spells, High-level spells, Advanced spells. After Advanced came a whole threshold of spells that Riven could barely recall.

Unique spells with different types of classification. The story, though filled with a lot of fan service, still had a solid plot.

Riven looked at the book again, eager to flip through the pages and find more spells, but as his fingers got close to the book, it shut itself, almost taking his finger as well.

He flinched back, tripping on his own feet. He fell on his butt, -Bam-. He pushed himself off the floor, taking another look at the book. He walked close to it, his hand stretching slowly toward the book, uncertain of what it would do again.

His finger touched it, and nothing happened. With added confidence, he picked up the book. He walked to his cupboard and placed the book hidden within his clothes for now. He would definitely find a better place to hide it later.

Now that the book was out of the way, Riven wondered how he would use the spell he had just gotten. His mind wandered about how he would cast the spell.

But as he thought about that, the mana within his body flowed, intertwined with his will, it rushed toward his palm.

Riven felt the rushing mana. He saw sparks crackling over his palm. Panic flooded his mind, his heart rate spiked. He couldn't cast the spell here—he didn't know the level of destruction it carried.

If he destroyed his room, his father would surely lose all faith in him, and what he was trying to build would shatter. He couldn't afford such a slip-up.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, trying to block the spell and stop it. Luckily, the spell was blocked, but his arm received an immediate backlash for stopping the spell.

His arm jerked back, cuts appearing around his arm with the blood scattering in different directions. The mana that he had used could not flow back into his core. It needed an exit point, and so it forced its way out of his hand.

Riven fell to his knees, groaning in pain. He gripped the injured hand, trying to stop blood flow to the wounds. The cuts felt like burning needles, giving a non-stop piercing pain.

He stayed that way for minutes, until his arm calmed down and the bleeding also reduced. His eyes were bright red from tears, his veins bulging on his neck and head.

He got up and sat on his bed, looking at his injured arm. "That was really something else," he said, letting out a small chuckle. He began thinking of what his next steps would be while waiting for his arm to get a bit better.

Nobody took him seriously in the manor. Everyone saw him as a waste. If he wanted to gather their respect, he would need to get on his feet by himself. He didn't want anyone to know what he was doing; he just wanted them to see the change that followed.

'I need a place to test my magic and practice the sword on my own. The best option for that is to become an adventurer.'

In the story, every town and city had an adventurer's guild, filled with people who would go on quests for money and resources. They could access the forest easily and carry out quests.

Riven knew he could go to the forest on his own, but if he became an adventurer and had quests to do, he would also get rewards for it, and he would have goals to work toward.

"I'll head to the guild tomorrow. For now, I have something I want to test," Riven said with a sly smile. He got up from the bed and walked to the cupboard, taking a piece of old cloth. He tore it up and wrapped his hands to make sure he stopped the bleeding.

Then he walked to his bed, pulling out the mattress. He lifted it up and placed it against the wall. He took a few steps back, then, taking the stance of a boxer, he lifted his arms and threw a punch.

His fist landed on the mattress, -Bang-. After the first punch, he kept going, throwing punch after punch. He kept going for a few minutes, and then a notification came up.

[Fist Fight unlocked.]

[Fist Fight Lv1: Increases all fist-based attacks by 2%]

When Riven saw the notification, a geyser of happiness burst inside of him. He got the idea to try this because he had seen something similar in the story. He didn't know if it would work for him, but now that it did, he couldn't hold back his joy.

With this, he could be able to get stronger without anyone knowing how he did it. With his lips curled up into a smile, he kept punching, going at it with full force.

He spent hours doing it until his knuckles hurt, but he had gained rewards for it.

[Fist Fight Lv3: Increases all fist-based attacks by 10%]

[Strength +1, Endurance +1, Willpower +1]