After a well-earned rest, Maxwell patted his clothes before getting up. He still felt a bit tired, but he was fine enough to continue.

  “Chirp?” Blueberry asked, and she flew to a nearby branch. The bird seemed to be completely unbothered by the pressure since evolving. Maxwell suspected that the soul attribute had something to do with that.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Maxwell said. He summoned the notifications he had been ignoring due to these last events. He was vaguely aware that he was receiving them but didn’t have the time to check everything.

  Guide Mana Leveled Up Lvl-62-->71

  Soul’s Voice Leveled Up Lvl-48-->60

  Prima Sense Leveled Up Lvl-51-->55

  Magic Theory Leveled Up Lvl-46-->50

  Mental Resistance Leveled Up Lvl-40-->45

  Visualization Leveled Up Lvl-38-->43

  Parallel Thoughts Leveled Up Lvl-19-->27

  Mana Infusion Leveled Up Lvl-50-->55

  Elementary Soul Energy Manipulation Leveled Up Lvl-10-->12

  Huh? Maxwell was surprised to see the last level-up notification. As far as he knew, he didn't use any soul energy manipulation.

  Will this only level up when my traits do things beyond me? He thought. He didn’t really like his skills being so out of his control.

  He found that he still couldn't do much else other than giving the small field of soul around him a slight vibration with the skill. He sighed before continuing with the other window of notification.

  Meditation Skill Changes Detected.

  Meditation is being readjusted.

  Meditation(59)-->Window of The Soul(20)

  Window of The Soul:

  They say senses are just windows for the soul to percieve the world. Close the windows of your soul as you leave the unimportant matters to your body to process.

  Window Of The Soul Leveled Up Lvl-20-->38

  This was a long time coming, but what's with the level drop? The level drop when readjusting the skill was stupidly high. This was probably the reason why the skill took so long to be readjusted. He simply didn't have enough levels before.

  It was not hard to see that the skill was much superior to the default meditation skill. With normal meditation, it was a constant struggle to keep your focus. With this skill, though, it was like an on-and-off button for any distractions.

  The body part was probably about reflexes. It made sense, as Maxwell used this skill a lot while doing random things. His reflexes would continue to take care of things even if he wouldn't focus on the said things.

  Maybe I can mix this with parallel thoughts? He theorized. That was an experiment for another time. He created the arithmetic mind just now, and he didn't want to stop it immediately.

  Soon, he was walking towards the south like before. He already discovered that he didn't feel the same strain as others, though. With Blueberry, it was apparent that the problem arose from the mana deficiency. He could see back then that the bird was losing mana at an alarming rate with seemingly regenerating nothing.

  He didn't feel any change in his regeneration, despite the miserable states of other animals in the forest. He could see that after her evolution, this was the case for Blueberry, too.

  He didn't know why this was the case, but the soul attribute was the most likely culprit.

  After a while, once more, he could detect many footsteps on the ground, albeit them being a lot fewer than before. It didn't take long for him to see people once more.

  In the distance, he could see a small troop of soldiers standing. They looked pretty scary with their metal armor, but Maxwell found their expressions funny. Most of them had an expression like they were having a serious bout of constipation.

  I'm too lazy to deal with this. Maxwell walked without disturbing these soldiers. He guessed that they, being soldiers, would treat him like an intruder. He would try communicating with someone if they looked a bit more approachable.

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  Around 20 minutes and two kilometers later, he got what he wanted. In the distance, he could see a man standing still. He wore a robe like mages from those fantasy stories and seemed awfully focused on something.

  He approached the man with a leisurely pace, a bit curious about what he was focusing on. When he was around 20 meters from the man, the man spun towards him, apparently startled by his sneaky approach.

  He threw some type of magic at Maxwell that he couldn’t recognize. It didn’t look like anything. He could see that it was a type of mana, though, so he just used his compendium to see the affinity. The book was still open in his soul, after all.

  Sound Mana – Available For Absorption

  Maxwell didn't expect to face such a specific element, but he suspected that this would probably hurt his ears a lot if he didn't block it somehow. He quickly infused his ears with mana and created two small contructs over them like an earphone. It felt weird that he had to use most of his skills for a human after all the weaklings.

  The bundle of energy hit the ground near him, and he watched in surprise as it tore through the soil, expanding circularly. He quickly improved his way of protection as he created a flat projectile, which probably shouldn't be called a projectile anymore, in front of himself.

  The sound attack reached the projectile a moment later, and Maxwell could see the projectile losing its stability and rapidly vibrating. It still held on, though.

  "Would you like to make sure we are enemies before fighting?" he asked the man. Now that he was close, he could see the man better. He noted that the man had a weird feminine quality. It didn't help when he spoke.

  "Oh, you are not a brute like others?" he said, sounding delighted. Why is his voice so smooth... Maxwell thought. The man could probably be a very successful singer if he hadn't been one already.

  "You have met others?" Maxwell asked.

  "Of course, how would I not? They are like a colony of ants," the man answered with apparent disgust. After he spoke, Maxwell could catch the man throwing an anxious look backward.

  Maxwell walked casually towards the man and gazed at the place where the man was focusing so intently before. He could see a small tree in the distance. He used observation on it.

  Thunder Tree – Lvl 12

  At least I’m not lower level than a tree this time. He couldn’t understand what was the deal with the tree apart from it fighting off the pressure without any problems, though. He guessed that laws for trees were different as they were still as prominent as everywhere in this place.

  “What’s the deal with this tree?” He asked the man, who was still looking at the tree in concentration.

  “That, my friend, is a tree worth dying for.” Man shouted before taking a deep breath dramatically before continuing. “I can feel how well that wood would transmit sound even from here. Can you imagine what my music could become with such wood?” he asked, his voice turning into an excited whisper towards the end.

  Another nutjob, I see, Maxwell thought; he was not really surprised at this point. Since he transmigrated, he kept running into crazy people. Gendor and Bob fulfilled this just by themselves.

  Maybe I should have passed by this guy, too. In his prima sense, though, he could see that this man was still steadily absorbing mana from the atmosphere. He observed the guy.

  Bard – Lvl 20

  Finally, someone decently leveled. He was starting to think people just slept through the initiation. However he looked though, he couldn’t see this man killing beasts. Also, his class was very different from any he had seen until now.

  “I see. Why don’t you get it then?” he asked the man after an awkward silence.

  “I can’t. I’m scared of thunder.” The man answered as if this was the most normal thing ever. Maxwell couldn’t believe what he heard for a moment before sending the man an incredulous look.

  “Hey! Don’t look at me like that. I was like this even before the initiation.” He raised his hands defensively.

  Maxwell glanced at the tree before looking at the man once more. He sighed before starting to walk towards the tree. He could see a startled expression on the man’s face.

  “Wait! You will make it-”

  Maxwell ignored the man and created a simple blade with metal mana before launching it at the base of the small tree. It was not a big tree by any means, being only 20 centimeters or so in width.

  Maxwell watched as the blade reached the tree, and he could immediately hear his eardrums rattling with a deafening sound. He could also hear a faint noise of thunder in the distance through the noise.

  He annoyedly turned to the man who was screaming his lungs out. The annoying thing was that, albeit it was very loud, the noise was actually quite pleasing if it wasn’t loud enough to kill a human before the initiation instantly.

  This was probably the first time Maxwell felt really annoyed after his transmigration. A smile that would be quite infamous in the future slowly appeared on his face, and he quickly formed a soul channel between the man and himself before opening the full content of his mathematician mind to the man.

  What followed was a very brief, empty look from the man as his scream abruptly stopped. After a moment in which he stood like time was frozen, the man tumbled to the ground, unconscious.

  Nero – Bard – Lvl-20 Defeated. Expeience Rewarded.

  Maxwell glanced at the man's sprawled form and couldn't help but give a small laugh. This would teach him not to burst people's eardrums whenever he heard some thunder.

  He quickly grabbed the sad-looking plant before throwing it towards Nero—Apparently, that was the man's name. Now that he took his revenge from the man he wouldn't abuse the man.

  "Chirp?" Blueberry, who was watching the exchange from a nearby tree, asked, looking a bit puzzled in a way that bird shouldn't be able to.

  "No, he was not searching for a mate," Maxwell replied to the bird. Afterward, he could hold in the coming laughter for almost 10 seconds before bursting. He could agree that man would probably wouldn't have any difficulties finding a mate if he was a bird.

  He massaged his ears, trying to make the ringing stop before moving south once more. This time, he wouldn't stop without a proper reason, as he seemed only to encounter trouble.

  He walked and walked some more. About an hour later and after passing by some other groups with very militaristic looks, he could clearly see that there were a lot fewer footprints now. Actually, he hasn't seen one for more than 10 minutes.

  Whatever this thing was, trees were also not completely immune. As he progressed, he started to see withered trees around him mixed with unhealthy-looking ones, as they couldn't exactly run away like the animals.

  It was a very depressing sight to see on a lush planet like this. The contrast was simply too much. He still found that his mana was regenerating like always, but he could almost taste the presence in the air now. It was like very humid air but for the soul.

  Soon, trees became more and more withered, and eventually, there were no living trees left around him. Blueberry chirped sadly on his head. She stopped landing on trees after they became like this.

  Soon, he could see a clearing without a single blade of grass remaining. The soil looked dead, and it was smeared with the remains of plants. On the clearing, he could see three figures sitting on the ground, looking haggard.

  They were facing a cave in the distance, and Maxwell could see that it was roughly at the center of the dead clearing.

  He walked casually into the clearing, feeling the pressure increase with every step.