Lost and alone, freezing cold and pitch dark. A deafening headache pounded painfully and roused a man from his timeless sleep. The world rocked like a ship in a storm underthe influence ofhisdelirium, his body awkwardly angled against jagged stone. Without a memory to cling to, his life is nothing butdisorientationand pain, devoid of lightor any form of relief. The torment only ends when the broken body returns to the slumber from whence it came.


    A crisp blinding sunlight beams upon the unknown man''s face. The bright morning lightpierced the tightly shut eyelids and patronised the battered man to conciousness. Virgin eyes openbrieflybefore slamming close,unusedto the sun''s radiance that brings a burning pain to the shattered brain''s senses. The pain only overshadowed by the limbs that had remained immobile for days on end and the countless bruises that cover them. Suddenly aware of his dire situation the limp body cranedit''srickety neck away from the sun''s rays, seeking the respite of shade.


    Excruciatingminutestrickle by as his mind regained it''s senses.


    Sight,currently, the inside of his eyelids. Smell, a musty and verdant vegetation. Sound, oppressive birdsong and a gentle breezerustling through an uncountablenumber of distanttreetops. Touch, an uneven stone floor covered in small stones and dead leaves. By extension of touch, anall-encompassingpain, like a rag doll that had tumbled from a sheer cliff. But through the agonyshone a light, a fire that fed off thepain and sufferingandblazed violently.


    This turbulent inferno was not one of hope ordesire to live, but a seething rage. Who was he? Why was he here? Why does everything hurt? And could someone turn those fucking birds down?!


    This rage invigorated the barelyconsciouseyes awake and a pairnonfunctionalarms lunged forward in a pathetic mockery oftransportation. A slow grueling crawl brought parched lips to a smallgrimeypuddle of water on the ground.His mouth wasn''t greedy, it drank slowly andsparingly, the bone dry throat at firstchoked and splutteredthe trickle of moisture, but then gladly acceptedwithoutreservation.


    After exhausting the small puddle, he lolled his head to thestone floorand stared blankly at a mossy cave wall. He then began to painfully stimulate his limbs with tiny jerks, attempting to reclaim any control of motor functions.


    "Status" came a dry croak from the laying body.


    [Zeke] level 1, Defier


    Health/4/142


    Mana/15/15


    Skills: Avarice


    Seeing the status seemed to trigger a forgotten knowledge in Zeke''s mind. Namely, his name, also, his reserves of mana. It seemed strange how he forgot such important things, but now that he remembered, helostconcern with the temporary memory loss.


    (Special Explantion, from Rhapsody: Mana is the mysticalenergythatpermeatesthrough all things inexistence. Itcan beharnessed and channeled by those with the talent for it)


    With little much to do Zeke continued wiggling what little muscles he could to awaken his body while his mind began to focus on his innate mana.


    Even through he knew the existencemana and it''s presence in all things... manipulating and making use mana was a new subject altogether. First he tried to feel his own mana in his body, all 15 of it.


    He shifted his focus across every millimeter of his body, sensing for any fluctuations or abnormalities. This little session of meditation was timeless and lasted for many hours, far into the afternoon. Through this inner-exploration, Zeke discovered that his mana was mostly contained within his spine, a smallerconcentrationwas spreadevenly throughout the rest of his body, in his skin, blood, bones and marrow, mana was omnipresent


    +1 Mana (12/16)


    Good, progress.


    Next was to manipulate the mana inside him. First would be to move it. Zeke tried to shift the mana in his spine where the mana was most potent. Easier said then done apparently as no amount of willing would impact the mana inside him, but he did notice that the mana flowed around in a circuit and was never stagnated. Frustrated with the lack of progress Zeke shifted his mind to another part of his body, his hands, the mana in his hands was minimal, the flow was like a calm spill to the rapid river in his spine.


    Surprisenly, it was mucheasierto sense and influence the smaller amount of mana his hands contained. Within just a few minutes of practice Zeke was able push, pull andprobethe mana inside. He pulled the mana from his fingers into his palm and vise versa, there was no goal in mind just raw manipulation. A voice in the back of his mind told him that mana control wasnecessary, for what, he knew not. He then began to swirl the mana in his palm like a miniature whirlpool or hurricane, slowly adding more mana and increasing the intensity. Just when he felt has if he was on the cusp of reaching some new benchmark of progress, his weakened mind slipped from control and darkness overthrew him, forcing him unconscious.


    + 1 Mana (0/17)


    Morning light once again woke the sleeping man from slumber, apleasantlight warmed his legs, a feeling that heralded the quick return of soreness, only slightly lessened from the day before.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Zeke once again grasped at the rocks before him while seeking out another puddle of water. There was one about 2 meters away,largerthen the empty below him. The journey was mucheasierthe second time but just as painful to his wobbly arms.


    Upon reaching the pool of water he drank deeply, bringing it to half empty before rolling on to his back. Zeke sat there for a few moments to regain his expended energy before crawling towards the mostcomfortablelooking section of the rocky wall. With hisback against the wall, he was able for the first time, to take in his surrounding enviroment.


    He was sitting by the entrance to a small cave mouth. The entrance was low, to the point where you would duck your head to pass, the cave''s inside however were tall enough to stand in. A soft looking green moss and ivy coated all the walls, abitof red moss was visible too. The cavewent deeper into whatever mountain side itwas entrenchedin, but Zeke''s eyes couldn''tpenetratethe darkness so the exact length wasunknown. Tiny little stalactites lined the roof which he noted would make for a nastysurpriseif someone decided to jump while underneath them. Other than these features there was nothing else of note and with his immediatesafetyassured, Zeke began to manipulate his mana a second time.


    "Status" spoke Zeke.


    [Zeke] level 1, Defier


    Health/58/142


    Mana/17/17


    Skills: Avarice


    It seemed as if a night''s sleep wassufficientto refill his total mana capacity.


    Zeke closed his eyes and focused on the nearbreakthroughhe achieved yesterday, gathering and swirling his mana in his palms. He quickly reached the state he achieved earlier and pondered where to go from there. With his mana slowly dwindling, time was against him. He knew he only had enough mana to try one of 2 things. He could try to eject the mana outside of his body and see what became of that. Or, he could unleash the mana through his body in a strong pulse. A thrid option may have been totry andmoving the mana from his palm around the rest of his body in a form ofcomplex manipulation.


    Ultimatelyhe decided on the recently thought of third option that occur to him.


    The swirl of mana in his palm surged intensely, he figured the easiest way of moving it would be to drag the ''eye'' of the storm and hope the rest followed. There was moderate success in this method as the mana movedthrough his arm and towards his chest. The closer it got to his chest/spine, the faster it spun and the stronger it pulled in mana. Zeke felt a little worried at the prospect of losing control but before it became to big to handle what little mana Zeke had remaining promptly depleted. The swell of focussed mana evenly dissipatedbackinto his natural mana flow.


    +1 Mana (0/18)


    Zeke let out a sigh of satisfaction. Working with mana was like a strenuous workout for your mind. Seeing a numerical improvement to his efforts greatly inspired Zeke to train further. Raw mana manipulation seemed to increase his total capacity which was incredibly useful for longer practice sessions even though it had no practical application. Trying his other optionsmight''veyielded different results which he was eager to test out once his mana refilled.


    Prying his eyes open he noticed that it was around noon, the mana sessions had a noticeableeffecton his sense of time, as the few hours that passed felt only of a few moments.


    Zeke decided that he would spend his time exercising his arms. Stretching them, flexing the weary muscle and feeling a good sense of control throughout the suffering, Next were the legs, which had been mostly neglected in favour of using his arms as transport. His legs were clearly in a bad state, he could barely bend it before the pain becametoo muchtobear, so he just settle for a toe-wiggling workout.


    Thehour-longexercise left Zeke acutely sensitive to a grumbling stomach. Turns out forgoing meals for 3 days started to show symptoms of starving. This was a problem.


    Grimeywater could only fill you so much, but that didn''t stop him from draining the remaining half into his greedy stomach whilst he pondered the issue. He guessed that if he ventured out into the forest outside of his cave he may find some edible vegetation, not that he would be able to differentiate from the inedible. This hunger brought attention Zeke''s attention to the only skill hepossessed, Avarice.


    "Status"


    [Zeke] level 1, Defier


    Health/66/142


    Mana/2/18


    Skills: Avarice


    He focused on the skill in question, he didn''t know why he knew this, butthinking hard enough would conjure infomationon it.


    Avarice: Greed incarnate, take from others and stand above all.


    The remainingremnantsof power from a recently slain foecan beabsorbed toempowerthe victor. Has a random level of success.


    Hmmm, Zeke thought.


    A skill that could potentially grow toridiculouspower. He wasn''t sure why he had such a powerful skill, it may have had something to do with his title ofDefier.The description ofthe skill made it seem as if Zeke was some sort a demon incarnated as the skill soeloquentlydescribed. He wasn''t going to complain too much lest he jinx his luck.


    Although extremelypowerfulit wasn''t something that helped with the current food situation, so he quickly put the unrelated thoughts to the back of his mind.


    Due to his mostly immobilepredicamenthe decide to try eating the soft looking moss that grew in the cave, at worst he would just vomit it up. He didn''t want to risk the forest outside as it was an unknown element and maypotentiallybesuicidedlydangerous. The cave however, hadn''t killed him yet, which was dubious logic at best.


    Scraping along the walls beside him Zeke manged to collect a handful the spongy plant. It smelled earthy and ''green'' much like a brocoli, it didn''t seem to malevolent, in fact, it was quite appetising, mostly due to hunger. Without hesitation Zeke shoveled the small helping of moss into his mouth and began to slowly chew.


    It tasted of grass and dirt, not the mostpleasanttastes but under the circumstances he wasn''t one to complain,at leastit wasn''t instantlyregurgitated. It was very tough despite it''sappearanceand clung to his teeth in an annoying fashion, still, he was already scraping another handful of the stuff, popping it in.


    Several mouthfuls in, Zeke stopped eating, not because he was full or because he''d clear the immediate area of moss, but because he knew that consuming too much moss was boundto beunhealthy, especially if it turned out to actually by poisonous or otherwise harmful. For the short-term, he had more or less sated his hunger. Zeke promised himself that he wouldn''t eat the moss for any longer than the day after tomorrow, incase he suffered any dietary-based issues.


    The sun had fallen to about late afternoon after the glorious moss-meal. Zeke''s mana had refilled about 12, another mana session would take him to the night and then he could sleep till morning. Which is exactly what he did.


    He decided to try a different mana exercise, one he thought of earlier.


    After a few seconds. or what felt like seconds, a circling storm of mana was in his palm. He quickly peeked through a half-openeyejust to see if there was any visible change to his palm during this process. Just the same old bruised hand it had always been. He closed his eyes and again and regained his focus. He brought the storm of mana to the limit of what his remaining mana would sustain. Just before his mana had completely depleted he forced the mana through his arm in a singular strong pulse.


    Zeke could feel the warmth radiate from his hand, tapering off as it traveled, it was ablissfulfeeling. As quickly as the warmthoccurreddid the ever-present pain return,ahh, so fleeting.


    With just a single digit of manaremaingand a weary bones to match, Zeke felt a sleep quickly seep into his thoughts. A sleep he encouraged tiredly.


    Skill earned: Blood Regeneration