Merchant Of Yliaster

It took some time to find Erne, and for a while, they even suspected that the man had died. Luckily, though, Maxwell could see the mana behind objects, and they found the man after a couple of minutes of searching.

His state was weird, as his body was almost entirely devoid of mana. Actually, Maxwell detected the man because of that fact, as there was a man-shaped spot on the ground, nearly devoid of mana.

A random rabbit would probably be able to kill the guy as he was. Maxwell was curious about what the guy did, though. Apparently, other people also could use the mana infused in their body, albeit with significant drawbacks.

They lit a fire, and laid the man on a stone near it, alongside Ellie. The woman was sleeping soundly, and she looked almost completely healed. Neivor actually looked worse, as he was pale as a ghost. Even his eyes looked empty due to his exhaustion. Maxwell watched as he sat on the ground, cross-legged, before starting to pray. Does he not sleep? He thought.

He was a bit skeptical about godly people, as back in the war on Zephyr, friction between religions was one of the most significant hurdles they faced when they were trying to organize the world. Luckily, with the help of Etherium, it was not too long before people understood that they were pretty much the same in their feelings.

In this world, though, Maxwell was even more skeptical, as gods seemed much more intrusive. Even if he trusted the man, he didn't trust his god. He couldn't deny that the man saved Ellie's life from his explosion, though, so he still felt grateful.

He sat alongside the others before starting to check his notifications.

Guide Mana Leveled Up 76→85

Prima Sense Leveled Up 65→ 72

Magic Theory Leveled Up 60→66

Myriad Mana Constructs Leveled Up 51→72

Soul's Voice Leveled Up 63→70

Mana Infusion Leveled Up 62→65

Infusion Empowerment Leveled Up 12→40

Elementary Soul Energy Manipulation Leveled Up 12→15

Runic Formations Leveled Up 15→19

Window Of The Soul Leveled Up 50→56

Parallel Thoughts Leveled Up 28→40

Visualization Leveled Up 50→62

No readjustments, huh? Maxwell was a bit hopeful that some of his class skills would readjust, as he had a feeling that level 100 would be a turning point, like with his stats. If this were any similar to a game, it would be better to have stronger skills before reaching that point.

This time, the greatest increase was to the level of his constructs. Maxwell already expected this, as the bolt he created was immensely more powerful than anything he had made before with the skill. Visualization, too, got a really good upgrade, as he was visualizing how the bolt would fly the whole time.

Infusion empowerment probably leveled so much due to him trying to carry a heavy ass satchel around the battlefield as they fought. Now that he thought about it, that was not very smart on his part.

Title "Slaughterer" Acquired.

Slaughterer: You kill creatures, harnessing the energy of their demise to fuel yourself even more.

Title "Adept Of Explosions" Acquired.

Adept of Explosions: You manage to create bigger and bigger explosions with a persistent passion. Be careful, as other people are not immune to your shenanigans.

This time, the lineup of titles was a bit embarrassing as they judged him silently from the interface. Maxwell was curious how they would affect the tier advancement in the future, though. Now, it was time for the most exciting part of the notifications.

Wolf Of Duality - Level 32 Killed. Experience Rewarded.

Level Up! Stats Distributed. (5x)

Maxwell groaned, feeling a sudden surge of energy as his stats took a great leap forward. He quickly put the rest of the free points into soul, making the stat reach 333. It was a respectable number, alright.

He got up and stretched, enjoying the new feeling of strength. His mana was also back to full, and he felt great. Now he had a very difficult job. He needed to find the beast core of the Wolf of Duality. He refused to believe that such a creature wouldn't have one, but he was not optimistic about finding it, as the wolf exploded quite violently at its last moments.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

There wasn't even a body to speak of, as there were only a couple of ruined fragments here and there, scattered on the battlefield. The air also smelled really bad due to wolf carcasses starting to release their odor, but at least it didn't seem to pull beasts towards them. Other beasts were probably careful approaching something that could kill so many wolves.

He started walking, Felix following him enthusiastically. He tried to see the core with his prima sense. The wolf had ice and probably something like a rot element, so he tried to see something similar. The ice element was easy to isolate, but the other one, Maxwell, was not really sure. He was relatively bright when it came to remembering things, but he couldn't even remember a specific color among millions of different shades.

He guided some ice element to his hand, and stared at it intently. he could lower and increase his prima sense, so maybe he could use the skill to see only a single mana type? He quickly tested his theory as he focused on the element and the feeling it gave.

Prima Sense Leveled Up 72→74

The notification came, and at the same time, he felt the world lose its luster around him. Almost an infinite number of particles in the air disappeared, and only a thin light blue mist remained. In its own way, this was beautiful too, Maxwell thought.

He got to work, using the new application of the skill as he tried to find the mana core, and despite the skill's new usefulness, it still took him more than ten minutes of searching to find the little bead among the carnage.

He finally found the core under a carcass. It looked completely light blue to his eyes, but when he turned the prima sense to the default mode, he could see a dark yellow energy in the core too. He threw the carcass away and snatched the bead. It gave little energy to the outside, feeling weirdly isolated. That was why Maxwell couldn't easily see it in the first place. He observed it.

Beast Core Of Duality - Tier-2

A core containing ice and decay elements. Two elements clash, as their concepts are not aligned. One increases decay, and one tries to arrest it. The rare couple makes this core rare, but also hard to use.

So it was decay. Maxwell was happy with learning a new element, as he didn't know many elements that he could use as a medium of attack. Yes, he could create very sharp projectiles, and he could use fire mana to harm things, but those still felt lackluster.

Maxwell was a bit disappointed with the fire mana if he could be honest. The attribute was a bit lackluster with his way of controlling mana, as he couldn't create real fire with it without a medium.

He returned to the camp after throwing the little core in his satchel. And he was surprised as he saw all of the party sitting around the fire, cooking something over the fire. Maxwell still couldn't get used to the way people healed after the initiation.

In the case of Ellie, for example, even in her healed state, one would probably need to rest for almost a week to feel better. She, though, was staring at a piece of meat ravenously as if she were not close to dying just now. Maxwell really didn't wanna know what animal that meat belonged to.

He was seen by the party soon enough, and Ellie waved at him enthusiastically.

"Where were you?" She screamed, as if he couldn't hear him from a couple of meters away. She didn't wait for him to answer, though. "How are you so strong? Do you want to join the army?" the woman asked, stars shining in her eyes.

Just now, this made Maxwell remember she was a soldier. The woman's lax nature made him completely forget that fact. Also, what would she have been doing with mercenaries if she had been in the army?

"Not really, no," he answered before glancing at the meat above the fire. He hadn't eaten anything proper since coming to this world, and this meat didn't look like it would change that fact. He grabbed one cautiously.

"What is this?" he asked. The meat looked normal, but it barely had any fat.

"The wolves you killed," Erne replied from the side. He was scribbling something in a notebook as he stood on the ground. His body was in better condition compared to before, but it was far from healed.

"Oh…" Maxwell threw the meat towards Felix, who looked at it for a second before gobbling it down happily. Maxwell desperately tried not to think of the implications as the cannibal dog looked at him, eager for more.

"What do you mean no? You would make such a good fighter!" Ellie seemed to finally comprehend his answer, as she blew up with indignance.

"I'm a merchant. Why would I even join the army?" Maxwell asked helplessly, taken aback by the woman's enthusiasm.

"Don't take her seriously. She always tries to recruit people." Erne said helplessly. On his notebook, a shape was slowly forming. He can draw? Maxwell was surprised; the man didn't look like the type.

"Forget about the weirdo, just listen to me. Don't you want to level fast? Enter the rifts? We could give you many resources, even." The woman tried to persuade him. Throwing a nasty glance at Erne.

"I have some friends in the city waiting for me, so I can't really give you an answer even if I wanted to join. I don't, though, mind you." Maxwell said. The promise of rifts tempted him, but he doubted that many people could stop him if he simply tried to walk into one of them.

The last thing he wanted right now was to be associated with the army once more. It hadn't been enough time for him to feel nostalgia, too. A little more than a week before, he stood at the top of an entire civilization's military after all.

"Hell, I will invite them too, I doubt a freak like you has normal people for friends," The woman said, making Maxwell raise an eyebrow. The woman certainly wasn't kind but he welcomed the bluntness.

"Don't remind me." he said, thinking about what Bob and this woman would cause if they ever met. The fact that, that would happen soon immediately put a weight on his mind.

They would surely get on well, but he was concerned that Bob would become an idiot when he met a woman. The boy was just 16, and he grew up on a ship filled with boys. Where were the girls, I wonder? He thought.

Bob, though, was completely on a different level compared to the woman. Maxwell didn't think the wolf fight would be so hard if the boy were here.

Still, falling back on the boy to make the fight easier would only limit Maxwell in the future. He already had some ways of attacking, but he was really lacking in terms of mobility and defense. Summoning shields, and wildly throwing himself around with mana bursts were not really acceptable battle tactics by his standards.

For his defense though, he never had advanced battle training, and he didn't exactly have many resources that he could use to improve on these when he was in the forest. He could probably fix his body being weak with the empowerment skill, but he really needed to learn what different mana types did to his body.

"Hey! Are you listening?" He was startled as Ellie pushed her face into his vision, screaming at his face. He apparently got a bit lost in his mind, ignoring the woman completely.

He didn't answer as he glanced around the camp, trying to find a way out of the woman's focus. He could see that Erne finished his drawing, as he was checking it out intently. The drawing was a surprisingly good one, and it depicted the Wolf of Duality in its full glory. Maxwell looked at the drawing for a second before looking at the man himself with his unkempt and gruff appearance.

Some people really surprise you. He thought and threw Felix another piece of meat.