The System

CH- 10: Fireball?

Exhausted both mentally by overthinking and by physical exercises, Tetsu packs in for the day. He finds his old grave he dug for himself and packs himself inside once again. "Good night mind fucker." He salutes the tree.

The next day, he rises before the sun, wishes the tree good morning, checks his surroundings, and gets back to training. Around the fourth day, the tree reappeared in its mystical form.

Tetsu lets out a sigh of relief. "Thought you were dead! Glad to see you ain't. So, finally, out of anger?" He laughs. Before it changed back, he bowed and apologized again. "I'm really sorry." He says, getting back to training.

It's weird how Tetsu forgot about food. Back on earth, both his mother's competed within themselves as they served Tetsu delicious food. Health and love served on a single plate, Tetsu never craved junk food. While at present, his mind took over his body. Every day he slept thinking about magic and got up to practice said magic. On autopilot, he never craved food, nor did he listen to his body, which demanded food.

On his second day of training, a strong shower of rain cleaned him and provided several puddles of water. Having not eaten anything, he had nothing to let out, so he used those puddles purely for drinking. He wished this would continue, but on the fourth day, his stomach went on strike, demanding some food.

"One breakthrough and I will find you some," Tetsu pleaded with his stomach.

He completely forgot the fact that they shared the same brain and it knew that he had made progress. From exerting most of twenty-seven points of mana, he could control and exert just one point. He also found out that he leaked mana over every activity and had to have his entire focus on his mana to hold it inside.

The stick didn't change, nor did he get any closer to solving the symbol. Yet his progression was astounding, and quite enough, his stomach roared back.

Tetsu looks back at the tree as it readies its roots. "I'm not going to eat you, you moody old sap." He scoffs, frowns, and turns to his surroundings.

"Anything out there that would rather be in my belly." Tetsu scans around. His eyes stop on a puddle of murky water. His stomach squeezes tight, not wanting water for the umpteenth time. "I get it. I meant to see if some fish found their way in." He scolds his stomach.

His eyes wandered around until his stomach approved of a dead body nearby. "I can't eat diamonds!" Exclaimed Tetsu. His tongue rubs over a missing tooth from an incident not too long ago. "Yup! I can't eat rock." He smiles. With a gap.

His stomach squeezes harder, forcing his eyes over the jelly splattered around. "Why didn't you say sooner?" Tetsu asks and his stomach replies with a grumble. "Yeah, yeah... I didn't listen."

He strolls down the hill and squats near a small serving of pink pudding. The jelly was left in the open for four days now, and yet it looked fresh and appetizing. Tetsu blamed and thanked his stomach for the illusion. He scooped a little with his pinky "Drugs." He smiles, tastes, and spits it out.

"Yuk." His gag reflexes try to puke his guts out and fail.

He carries a handful of jelly near a pool, washes his hand in one, and sprinkles clear water over the jelly from another. Once satisfied that the jelly was clean, he blasted it with his mana.

I completely forgot Tetsu learned how to control his flow as he forced more mana out of his hands than the rest of his body. This technique drained his mana pool fast, yet Tetsu held it on top of his progress list.

"Mana-blast." He named it his first skill.

Mana blast costs ten mana points per minute. Damage zero. The range is laughable. Strain: plus forty points in fatigue. It was so pathetic that he had to make his own notification. Even the system didn't recognize or encourage him by acknowledging this skill.