Caelan gulped and contained his excitement, nearly forgetting about the persistent pain he was experiencing from his injuries.
"Manual for the Basic Armory Skillset."
[Basic Armory Skillset.
A skillset specific to the profession of Armorer. This enables the user to create basic armors from recipes learned.
Current Level: 1
Can forge any type of armor that does not exceed the user's level.]
Right then, Caelan felt a throbbing pain in his head. He had been feeling this earlier, but the pain from his injuries was much more painful that he kind of ignored this headache. Now, for some reason, the throbbing pain was becoming more prominent.
Is using the system taking some of my mental energy? Caelan theorized. Either that or the stress he was placed under puts pressure on his head. Either way, the headache seems nothing compared to his injuries.
Thinking of his injuries, Caelan had an idea.
"Explore…" as he looked at his own leg.
Like what he saw on the dog, dots of light appeared. It was a bit less than that of the dog, but it was visible. Caelan was briefly amazed. It's not just on his leg; it was all over his body and even on his fingertips. The color of the dots of light is composed of light yellow and green. He doesn't know what kind of attribute they are.
Then, when he rubbed his fingertips together, something strange happened. The dots of light swayed along with it.
An idea popped into his head. Can these dots of light be manipulated?
He kept that thought at the back of his head for now. What's worrying is the color of light on his wounds. It seemed like the beaming light of yellow and green was being corrupted or consumed by dark and red lights.
Caelan felt sick to his stomach. It's like seeing his body degrade in real time. He had to fix this quickly. But the big question is how?
"... Manual for how to heal…?"
Nothing showed up, but it was worth the try.
Since the Basic Armory Skillset was in the Manual, then other skills should be in the system, right? In games, there are skills or magic for healing and recovery. Surely, in this fantasy world where monsters have levels and attributes, there are healing skills.
"Manual for healing," Caelan tried wording it differently.
Still, nothing.
Maybe the system needs to register the skill first before I can look at the description for it.
Caelan was at a loss for a while. Will he really die in his second life without even lasting a second day? No way! There are so many things he wants to explore and create in this fantasy world. What if, instead of programming artificial intelligence, he's able to create real intelligence?
Creating life, that will be such a wonderful process!
That's why giving up is the last thing on Caelan's mind. Fortunately, he wasn't a genius for nothing. In a minute or so, he had thought of ways to heal himself.
First is a healing skill. How he can learn such a helpful skill is another question. Second is a material with a healing attribute.
Just like how the Earth Attribute strengthens the skin of the Armored Canine because that is the characteristic of the Earth element, how about the other elements? What element is his body made of? When you think of green, you think of nature, and when combined with the color yellow, you'll think of life. That sounds like a tightlock logic. Living beings should be composed of Life Attribute.
But, as a man of science, Caelan knew this logic was not that strong. How can he say that the colors yellow and green correspond with life? What if he's special? After all, he came from another world.
To solidify his theory, he looked at the Armored Canine again. Other than the remnants of the copper color, looking closer, there are black lights. They are not visible because they are literally the lack of color and feel like they are just the background of the other lights. But having seen himself with Explore, he now has the reference that this black light isn't normal and should represent death or dying, maybe decay? Yeah, death is the closest concept.
That realization sent shivers down Caelan's spine. His wounds are covered in that…
With some ideas on what to do, Caelan finally decided and ventured into the woods. It's impossible for him to stay on the edge of the clip forever. Also, his injuries will not wait for him. If he stays idle for long, he may not be able to move soon.
Caelan walked for what seemed to be an hour now. His head had been throbbing in pain after using the skill Explore minute after minute; it's obvious that there's a limit to which he can use skills.
Like in games, he must have mana that he's exhausting when using these skills. The problem is that there's no way for him to know other than feeling that he's exhausting his mental energy and feeling painful sensations.
However, this didn't stop Caelan from using the skill Explore on everything he's curious about as he walked through the dense forest. He had encountered some beasts similar to the appearance of a tiger, but had a sharper appearance and were greenish in color. Its speed was faster than cheetahs back on Earth. It was good that he was careful and had hidden behind some trees.
With Inspect, he was terrified to know that the monster was level 15. If that tiger monster encountered him, there was no chance of survival.
Keeping his cautiousness high, he further explored the forest and found interesting things. There are herbs with higher 'Life' attributes than the other. Caelan may find them useful in the future, so he kept them in his Storage.
After another half an hour, barely avoiding different monsters on the way, Caelan set his eyes on plants with a green and yellowish hue.
With a thought, Caelan used his Inspect skill. He found that he doesn't need to verbalize it and just needs to have the intention to use it. This is very helpful, especially when he wants to stay quiet.
[Sunlight Lotus - Medicinal Herb - Level 6 - Life Attribute]
Taken!
Caelan didn't waste any time and attempted to use it.
Manual. He attempted to use the skill. But there was nothing. The material is not registered for the system.
Caelan felt his head aching. Not just because of the use of skills that exert his mental energy, but also from the irritation of why it is not that convenient when compared to the games he developed.
Explore.
Rich yellow light filled the Sunlight Lotus.
Caelan doesn't know what to do with it except to either eat it or extract its essence and rub it directly on his wounds. Fortunately, there are three more Sunlight Lotuses lying near it so he can experiment.
Finding a rock nearby, squashed the herb and rubbed the juices it squeezed out on his wound.
"Irck-!" It felt like he rubbed alcohol on it. Caelan had no choice but to endure the hot sensation.
With the Explore skill up, he found that the yellow dots of light were slowly replacing the black dots. His wounds were finally healing. It was working.
Caelan found a huge sense of relief. The invisible guillotine above his head finally dissipated with this. He then used the rest of the extract. With this, he had three extra Sunlight Lotuses left.
One lotus was placed inside his Storage while the other two will be tested. After smelling and visually inspecting the second lotus, he balled it up and— gulp.
He felt a burning sensation in his throat, then in his stomach. Afterward, there was a sense of relief. It felt like his energy was returning to him.
"Amazing…!" Caelan exclaimed.
It seems that different applications of the medicinal herb have different effects on the body. In hindsight, applying the medicinal herb directly to the wound should help heal it, and digesting the medicinal herb will extract its energy.
Now, for the final testing, Caelan actually placed the third lotus into his Storage. It was too valuable to be tested the third time. He doesn't want to waste this lotus since restoring his energy will be important and may replace his needs of eating later. Fortunately, for his next test, it doesn't have to be this lotus as the subject.
Caelan, instead, brought out a different herb.
Inspect.
[Common Fungus - Level 1 - Life Attribute] It's one of the common herbs he found that has the slightest Life Attribute.
Using the Explore skill, he focused on his fingertip. After a minute or so of full concentration, and with beads of sweat forming on his forehead, the dots of light slowly grouped at his fingertips. He then used this group of light as a magnet to sort of manipulate the Life Attribute inside the Common Fungus.
The Life Attribute essence lights, as he calls them, slightly wave from his touch. This fascinated Caelan, letting him continue.
After many trials, Caelan got better control of the essence light at his fingertips, making it easier to control the Life Attribute inside the Common Fungus. At some point of manipulation, something interesting happened. Black light, which should be the Death Attribute, started appearing in the Common Fungus.
Caelan was shocked. Is he interfering with some kind of balance in this fungus, accidentally killing it? With no way of stopping it, the black light spread like fire. Turning off the Explore skill, he found that the fungus had turned brittle, lacking its lively appearance from earlier.
Without missing a beat, Caelan took the third Sunlight Lotus and consumed it, restoring his energy to use the Explore skill for another extended period. He pulled out another Common Fungus and continued the testing.
With a greater sense of control, Caelan wondered if he could pull these essence lights off the object itself? He tried it with promising results. However, the process is very delicate. The moment the essence light, which is the Life Attribute, came out of the fungus, the Death Attribute immediately appeared, consuming its entirety.
Since he didn't take that much time for the second fungus, Caelan was able to continue on a third fungus without consuming another Sunlight Lotus.
This time, he actually tried guiding the Life Attribute essence light of the Common Fungus onto his wounds directly, quicker than its death, thinking it would fight the Death Attribute.
As soon as he saw the Life Attribute essence light of the Common Fungus counter the Death Attribute on his wounds, two notifications simultaneously popped up.
[Basic Skill: Healing. Unlocked.]
[Ancient Skill: Spirit Control. Unlocked.]
"Eh?" Caelan was taken aback. He actually unlocked two skills. The first, Healing, pleased him a lot. As for the second skill, Spirit Control… Ancient Skill?
Before Caelan was about to call upon his Manual Skill for more information, he head ached, and he immediately ate the last lotus. He was saving the last Sunlight Lotus for when he's injured again, but upon unlocking the Healing skill, the lotus will be better off being used as an energy replenishment.
Caelan didn't go straight to learning about his new skills, as he noticed that it was already dark.
Unbeknownst to him, he had actually spent hours testing and controlling the light essence in the fungus. Old habits die hard, even if it's inconvenient. He's very lucky that no monsters attacked him while he was in his concentrated state.
The sun had just set, and the dusk had dawned upon this new world. Even without the monsters, and even back on Earth, total darkness in the woods is terrifying.
And, within the darkness, many things could be hiding. Caelan suddenly felt the chills as he felt a presence in the darkness. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark just now since he was looking at the immaterial light within the fungus earlier.
Caelan took some steps back, and then he stopped. On his back, he felt soft fur. Immediately, all the blood on Caelan's face was drained. Slowly, he looked above him.
A huge bat-like face was looking down on him. Its red eyes were filled with curiosity, but they didn't hide its menacing intentions to devour him.
In a quick instance, Caelan used the skill Inspect.
[Winged-Bear - Level 35 - Earth and Wind Attributes]