As if he was obsessed, Sora spent the following days hunting monsters non-stop. Even if he had never done something so extreme during his previous life, he knew the rules of survival and knew what he could do and not do.
His body was no longer that of an average human; his needs had changed. He stopped to sleep only twice, for two hours at a time, which was all he needed to fully recover.
His mind, however, was constantly racing, looking for new methods to exploit the skills of his new life.
Well-practiced after a few hundred kills, he constantly hunted the bear-type monsters populating the zone with a goal in mind: getting rid of the word "fake" in the name of his skill, [Fake Sword Strike].
The skill, extremely powerful, was much stronger than its original version, and Sora was starting to get annoyed by the word "fake," which implied that the technique he had invented was inferior.
And as if to reward him for the efforts he had made over several days, he finally saw the notification he was waiting for, right in the middle of combat. Unable to wait any longer, he opened the notification.
[Skill Updated: Sword Strike (Alternative) [Evolvable]]
He froze mid-combat, staring at the new name.
"Alternative?" he murmured, feeling a spike of irritation creeping in. "That's it?"
Seizing the moment of distraction, the bear he was fighting activated a skill to knock him down. But even while mentally preoccupied, Sora maintained absolute control over the fight.
He leaped several meters into the air, clearing the wall of earth summoned by the bear, and landed silently behind it.
Sora was still thinking about the skill.
'Alternative sounds better... but you don't label a finished product 'Alternative'. And looking closely, it says the skill is still evolvable, so I still have work to do.'
He ducked his head to dodge a boulder flying in his direction and counter-attacked, eliminating his opponent with a single clean cut.
After dozens of fights, he noticed the skill was continuing to progress, displaying a 1% superiority over the original technique, then 2%. Motivated, he continued to slaughter monsters one after another.
When he began to stagnate, he realized that simply killing monsters in large quantities wasn't enough. He needed to use his mana less rigidly. He had to erase the Swordsman class patterns from his mind and move toward something adapted to the raw energy he was actually using. His mana control improved, and his technique became freer, more inspired. He extended the energy coating his sword to increase his range. Other times, he condensed the energy to inflict focused damage.
'This technique is far more flexible than the original. I feel like the only thing limiting me is my imagination,' Sora thought as he executed the skill using a simple dagger he found as loot.
Lost in his experimentation, he didn't notice the hours passing. Dozens of hours. A notification after thirty hours of non-stop combat finally snapped him back to reality.
[Skill Evolved: Mana Strike]
Sora's eyes widened, and for the first time in two days, he stopped completely. The words on the screen filled him with a sense of satisfaction.
"Now that is an acceptable name!" he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
It had been a long time since he had checked his level or his profile. His sole obsession had been this skill that refused to evolve properly.
He opened his interface and read the description.
[Mana Strike (Perfect)]
[Class Requirement: None]
[Weapon Requirement: None. Can be used without a weapon.]
[Description: A powerful attack that channels raw mana into a weapon, imbuing it with destructive energy. The strength of the strike scales with the user's mana quality, quantity, and control.]
The description was short, but the implications were immense. Sora grinned as the realization hit him.
'The skill isn't exclusive to a particular weapon, and I can use it however I see fit... Usually, skills not tied to a class or weapon are weak. But this... is extremely powerful.'
He raised his hand and coated it in mana. He could activate the skill even without a weapon, a fact that left him speechless.
'I might be able to keep using [Mana Strike] when I experiment with ranged combat classes.'
Still curious, he gripped his sword and set off to find an opponent, eager to test the damage output of [Mana Strike].
A few minutes later, Sora stood over the carcass of a monster that had died in just two hits.
"[Mana Strike] is three times stronger than [Sword Strike (Alternative)]... Which makes it thirty times stronger than the basic version of [Sword Strike]. That's insane!"
Sora hadn't forgotten that [Sword Strike] was a technique that leveled up quickly. A Swordsman mastering the basic version could draw out more power as their proficiency increased, so the comparison wasn't entirely fair.
But Sora didn't care about those details. He started playing with the energy at his fingertips. "Did I really create this technique?"
Grinning like a fool, he opened his status to check his progress.
[Status Update]
Profile: Ralph Eden (Sora Hashino)
Status: Alive (Prestige 1)
Talent Level: 2
Growth Factor: 2
Class: None (Level 20)
Body Level: 3500
Energy Level: 5190
Innate Skill: [Prestige]
Supreme Skills:
[Mana Evolution]
Skills:
Sword Mastery (Level 8)Shield Block (Level 1)Critical Strike (Level 9)Dodge (Level 9)Mana Regeneration (Maxed)Mana Strike (New!)
Sora had reached Level 20 after two days of combat. Running low on potions, he had focused on opponents that were easy enough to beat, but still a few levels higher than him. Gaining a massive amount of experience from every fight, he had kept his heavy training gear on the entire time.
"Body Level is already at 3500! Not bad!" With no one to talk to, he congratulated himself. "I should be able to hunt Level 25 monsters, or maybe even a bit higher now." He hesitated when he thought about Level 26 monsters. The higher the level, the better their skill arsenal, and the fewer obvious weaknesses they had.
'Even if I can one-shot a lot of monsters, I'd rather avoid getting one-shotted myself because of a stupid mistake...'
He quickly curbed his enthusiasm and checked his skill levels.
'Sword Mastery, Critical Strike, and Dodge are rising steadily, but they're still far from what they were in my old life,' he thought nostalgically. 'On the other hand, my mana regen is maxed... Thank you, [Loved By Mana]. I owe you everything.'
He reflected on the difference between his current combat style and his previous life. Instead of carefully absorbing and conserving mana, he was reckless. He didn't have to worry about absorption rates and could spam his skills without consequence.
There was no backlash for channeling too quickly. No penalty for failing to channel perfectly. No need to spend all his free time recovering lost mana.
Eager to continue his experiments and leveling, he started moving toward another area, when a sudden wave of pain washed over his body.
'My body is too weak... If I don't rest, I might pass out.' He quickly realized he had been fighting for too long and found a safe spot to rest.
***
Sora woke up thirty minutes later, his body fully rested. At his level, the human body no longer functioned the same way; the duration of his rest depended entirely on Body Level and regeneration capacity.
He opened his interface, checked the date, and smiled.
'I reset exactly five days ago, and I'm already Level 20... That's much faster than I expected.'
He thought back to his predictions at the start of the week and his despair at the thought of regaining his old level quickly.
He pulled a Level 10 sword and his Level 10 set from his inventory and equipped them. The gear was still in good condition, and although he could equip the Level 20 versions he had, he preferred to use his old equipment until it was almost destroyed.
'It's time to regain every technique lost during the reset.'
Sora set a goal and set out to achieve it.
He first set his sights on [Sweeping Blade]. It was a simple attack he had used countless times. It was a wide, horizontal slash designed to hit multiple enemies at once. It was the first technique that came to mind when he needed an area-of-effect attack.
He focused, channeling his mana through his body. He guided it just as he had guided Sword Energy in the past, searching for that familiar sensation. When he was satisfied, he flowed the energy into his sword and attempted a technique he hadn't yet successfully executed in this life.
[New Skill Unlocked: Fake Sweeping Blade]
"Let's go!" Sora rejoiced.
He had managed to reproduce the technique on the first try. But knowing this was just the beginning of the process and that he still had a long way to go, he immediately began training to perfect the skill.
A full day. That was what it took to develop an alternative version of [Sweeping Blade]. Tired of repeating the same technique endlessly, he allowed himself to relax by rediscovering other techniques, alternating between them to keep his training fresh.
[New Skill Unlocked: Fake Piercing Thrust]
[New Skill Unlocked: Fake Phantom Blade]
The first technique was a precise strike targeting vital points, allowing swordsmen to pierce through armor or heavy defenses. Sora was fond of this skill because it dealt colossal damage to single targets.
The second skill was more complex. Sora had to attempt it dozens of times just to create a functional version using mana. The original version utilized the user's speed and technique to create afterimages, confusing the enemy before delivering a sharp, unpredictable strike.
Sora spent the following days training. He sometimes prioritized one technique over another, and occasionally chose to switch zones to gain more experience, thinking that leveling up would make the task easier. When he realized that wasn't the case, he had to continue training with his training gear to force his Body Level to catch up.
After three more days, he was very different from the person who had left the village of Villafranca de Córdoba almost a week before.
'I'm already Level 29... It's completely nuts. Spamming skills and killing monsters on repeat might be enough to reach level 50 in less than a month…' he thought, reading his updated status.
Admiring his skill list, he focused on the last three he had unlocked:
[Mana Sweep (Perfect)]
[Mana Piercer (Perfect)]
[Mana Mirage (Perfect)]
Each of these techniques was a version far superior to what he had used in his previous life.
'[Phantom Blade] was hard to replicate, but the new version was worth it.'
He thought about [Mana Mirage], which transformed his entire body into a weapon and created copies of him, rather than just afterimages of his sword.
'I have four completely overpowered skills... They're based on low-level skills, yet they're more powerful than any technique I used in the past. I never had any skills rated as perfect before.'
Sora, lost in thought, was idly playing with a dagger in his hand when he saw a wolf respawn in the area.
'You respawned in the wrong neighborhood...'
Seized by an urge to try something, he activated a skill and thrown his dagger at the beast.
[Green Wolf - Level 31]
The [Green Wolf], which had the luck of respawning less than two hundred meters from Sora, didn't even have time to react before a dagger pierced it between the eyes. The dagger didn't stop there; it tore through the beast's entire body before exiting through its rear.
Sora raised his hand to transform the body into loot.
'[Mana Piercer] deals less damage when thrown, but apparently, it can be used as a ranged attack. ' Sora smiled, happy with the discovery.