After waking up, Alex sat cross legged on his bed, slowly breathing in and out.

  The room was dark and quiet, the faint sounds of the village muted behind thick walls and closed shutters. By his estimation, it was still barely past midnight. Whatever had changed his body had also rewritten its relationship with sleep, compressing what others needed hours for into something far shorter.

  ‘Now, what to do?’ Alex stared at the far wall his brow furrowed.

  Since making the decision to get stronger, while walking with the caravan, he’d been forced to confront an uncomfortable truth about himself. Up until now, most of his growth had been effortless, one could even say accidental. Sure, he’d had to fight and get hurt for it, but he wasn’t going to pretend that the work he had put in was in any way proportional to the reward he had received.

  Drink blood. Gain power. Flood body with mana.

  Those three steps were just about the beginning and end of his so-called ‘effort’. Of those, the first was a byproduct of his survival, and the second happened automatically. Only the third was something he had truly worked on, and even then, it had taken but a few days to learn how to do it.

  ‘Can’t really claim to want to get stronger if I don’t even know my own abilities.’ He clenched a fist.

  Forcing himself to relax, Alex closed his eyes. Turning his attention inwards, he focused on the ball of mana in his core, that warm concentration of power that pulsed in time with his heartbeat.

  Compared to when he’d first sensed it, it had grown considerably, every kill, every drop of blood consumed adding just a little bit more power to his reserves. By now, its size had more than tripled from its baseline, and its ease of use had increased accordingly. Where before he had struggled to so much as make it twitch, now…

  Alex flooded his body with mana, feeling the power surging through his limbs. ‘Seven infusions.’ He grinned.

  When he’d first tried this, he could barely reinforce his upper arm, reaching his elbow was something that pushed him to his limit. Now, all but his torso and left forearm were brimming with power, mana coursing through them under the command of his will.

  ‘…But it’s not enough.’ He pulled the mana back and frowned.

  In Alex’s mind, his current way of using mana was… crude. Like the difference between some gym goer and a world class martial artist. Sure, they might be equally strong, but one could fold the other like a lawn chair without even breaking a sweat.

  To translate that analogy to magic, he was lacking spells.

  Alex knew what spells were, in the abstract sense. According to Elara’s book, they were structured expressions of mana, shaped by symbols, words, gestures, or intent. In other words, do something to your mana, and it would do shit in the real world. Fireballs, barriers, illusions, whatever one may want.

  Obviously, this method of casting wouldn’t apply to him. Even now, he couldn’t project his mana out of his body, no matter how much he tried.

  But the comparison still held.

  Right now, everything he did with mana amounted to the same thing repeated at different intensities. It worked, but it lacked structure. There were no distinct techniques, no refined applications he could rely on for different effects.

  No tools.

  That was the real problem.

  If he ever encountered something he couldn’t kill for some reason—for example someone with a mind control ability, or something immune to physical attacks—his only recourse was… nothing. There was not a single thing he could do or try if he couldn’t punch an enemy to death.

  Alex opened his eyes and stared at his hands again.

  If spells were structured uses of mana, then what he needed wasn’t spellcasting in the traditional sense. It was internal techniques. Ways of shaping mana inside himself to produce effects he wasn’t capable of at the moment.

  Now, Alex wasn’t stupid enough to try creating new spells with exactly zero theoretical knowledge on the topic. But he could at least train his mana manipulation and control, for the day when that changed.

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  This, at least, he could do without theory.

  He didn’t try to force mana outward or flood his limbs again. Instead, he drew out a single, thin strand from the core and guided it slowly through his body. Up one leg, across the hips, through the spine, down the other side. Controlled. Gentle.

  Once it stabilized, he experimented.

  He twisted the strand slightly, folding it back on itself, then stretched it thin again. He split it briefly, merged it, shaped it as it traveled—angles, curves, tight spirals that collapsed the moment his focus wavered.

  It wasn’t useful.

  But it was different.

  The sensation was unlike reinforcement or healing. Nothing he did seemed to accomplish anything, save for slightly strengthening whatever muscle the strand happened to be in. Still, Alex was sure that if he-

  “Ah, fuck!” Pain flared sharply across his thigh, the mana strand unravelling instantly as it rushed back into his core. He hissed and reached down instinctively, fingers digging into the muscle.

  “Bitch!” A second wave of pain spread from his hand, and Alex finally had the wherewithal to roll out of the way and inspect his surroundings. “Oh…”

  Sunlight spilled through the gap in the curtains, bright and unforgiving, painting the floor in pale gold.

  He’d lost track of time.

  Alex scrambled up immediately, pulling the armour on as fast as he could. The weight settled around him, seals locking into place one by one. Only once the helmet was secure and the lenses dimmed did he relax.

  He exhaled slowly.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ He cracked the curtain open just a bit, watching the bright morning light spill into the room. ‘I swear I was only in here for an hour at most, but it’s already morning!’

  It seemed he’d discovered a way to avoid those long stretches of nothing that came with his sleep schedule.

  ‘Oh, well.’ Alex checked the armour again before leaving the room.

  Downstairs, the others were already dressed in their gear, making their last preparations. Rhen looked up as Alex approached.

  “Morning,” he said.

  Alex nodded. “Morning.”

  As the others finished packing, Rhen gestured subtly toward the door. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

  They stepped aside, out of earshot.

  Rhen hesitated, then spoke. “Look, I don’t know how strong you actually are, but… it’s obvious you’re a lot stronger than us. We were hoping you could let us handle most of the fighting. Get some real experience out of this.”

  Alex was taken aback by the man’s request, but nodded after a short contemplation. He didn’t care either way who killed the monsters, as long as he got to suck them afterwards. ‘Less work for me.’

  Rhen let out a breath he’d clearly been holding. “Thanks. Really.”

  They regrouped and left the building together.

  The village was already stirring, smoke rising from chimneys as people began their day. Alex kept to the shaded side of the street as they made their way toward the forest path, aware of every stray beam of light that slipped between buildings.

  The trees swallowed them quickly.

  Shade closed overhead, the forest floor dim and uneven beneath their boots. Alex adjusted his pace instinctively, senses widening as he took point. Whatever happened next, he’d need to move carefully.

  The first trap announced itself with a sharp snap.

  Alex’s foot brushed against a thin cord stretched low across the path. He twisted sideways as a bundle of branches and stones dropped from above, crashing down where he had been standing a moment earlier. The impact sent leaves and dirt spraying across the ground.

  He straightened immediately, already scanning for movement. Behind him, Mira swore as a branch clipped her shoulder, more in surprise than pain. Rhen steadied her, then inspected their surroundings.

  “I guess we’ve finally entered their territory,” he muttered.

  The others nodded and upped their guard, moving more carefully now.

  The traps came steadily after that. Crude snares hidden under leaf litter. Trip lines tied to rattling bones or scrap metal meant to give warning rather than cause harm. Shallow pits that collapsed, forcing awkward climbs back out.

  Alex was never in danger of getting hit, his reaction time more than quick enough to dodge out of the way. But he also never noticed them before they triggered.

  Having had absolutely no training in tracking or uncovering tracks, Alex was about as familiar with the forest as the average twenty-year-old; as in, not at all.

  Eventually, his luck ran out and he triggered something he couldn’t avoid.

  Alex stepped forward and felt resistance under his boot. He twisted on instinct, but not fast enough. A sharpened wooden spike snapped up from the ground much faster than any others before it, scraping hard along his hip before burying itself in the trunk of a nearby tree.

  “Damn, that was close.” He muttered as the party crowded around the object. “That could’ve actually hurt one of you.”

  “Thanks for clearing the way.” Rhen thanked him while the others were still shaken.

  “Don’t worry about it. I- fuck!”

  Alex swore as for the second time today, a burning feeling made itself known on his body. He clamped a hand down on his hip and sighed in relief when the pain faded. Looking down, he carefully shifted his hand from the spot and immediately realised what the problem was.

  His expression fell when he saw the missing patch of armour on his hip.

  ‘Right, despite what it looks like, this is environmental hazard protection, not real armour. Any half decent attack will tear right through it.” Alex thought, then paled as he realised the implications. ‘Which means I absolutely can’t fight the way I’ve been fighting. If I face-tank everything they throw at me, I’ll very quickly learn what it feels like to be an intelligent woman in the 1500s.’

  Pulling on the clothes he was wearing under the armour, he covered the hole, ending his suffering. With a quick warning to his companions, the party resumed their march, this time even more carefully.

  Before long, they started hearing muffled bars and yips off in the distance, occasionally interspersed with the sound of rocks colliding with wood.

  Alex grinned.

  “Well, jadies and lentlemen, it seems the fight is nearby. Get ready.”