Identification and mapping? Those both sounded useful.

  The fact that both of the new boons required the use of the codex link was disheartening. I could easily see how sharing maps and information would have been a great boon for a team of hunters, but I didn’t have the luxury of companionship.

  Setting such painful thoughts aside, I looked over my options again. Both of my new options required Codex Recording for full effect. Between that and Codex Customization, my choice was clear.

  Taking a breath, I listened for the sounds of the grunes below me. I could still hear them in the distance, but only barely. The herd was probably far enough away that I could safely resume my journey back at ground level.

  I watched carefully for any of the weird heat-eating bugs as I worked my way back down to the undergrowth. I didn’t spot any more of the bugs, but I did see the remains of one of the grunes. The ice coating its face made me feel a bit guilty for using the herd as a diversion, but I didn’t regret my choice.

  After another thorough search for any of the nasty little beetles, I set to work cutting a few large hunks of unfrozen meat from the grune. It was grizzly work, but at least it was easier than trying to carve through tough leopard meat.

  The meat also proved to be a far, far superior meal after I took the time to cook it. When I was young, I had always loved the taste of grune meat whenever the hunters managed to bring one back to the village. I certainly missed the days when I was allowed a portion of what the hunters and gatherers would bring back.

  Dismissing grim thoughts of the hunter who had ruined that for me, I packed away as much of the meat as I could reasonably carry in my bag. Tired though I was, I didn’t want to set up camp next to the body. I was pretty sure I had already spotted a few small scavengers watching me through the foliage. It wasn’t a good idea to linger long enough to see anything larger.

  Several mostly uneventful marks of walking later, I set up camp for the evening. Once again, I carefully traced out sigils on the side. Curious, I pulled up my interface after finishing the first sigil.

  So one sigil cost 12 mana to paint. Considering that before the system I could draw a touch more than two sigils worth of mana at any time, I estimated that to be about 25 units of mana. With the mana pool added to my usual limits, I effectively had five times as much mana at my disposal.

  After finishing my other two sigils, I double checked the mana in my mana pool.

  Either the numbers were not quite exact, or a portion of my mana pool had regenerated while I was painting. Taking a seat, I watched my status for about a quarter-mark.

  Apparently, my pool refilled two points of mana every quarter-mark. That meant that it would take about twelve and a half marks to refill my pool completely, so only about a third of a day.

  With little else to do as I waited to fall asleep, I decided to test each of the spells I knew to find out how much mana it cost to cast each one. I took another look at my status before starting.

  First, I cast my fire starting spell to make a small spark.

  Next I tried mana sight.

  Mana sense proved similarly priced.

  After that, I used my last spell I could reliably cast. With a few twists of mana, I nudged a small pebble along the ground with an invisible force.

  Seeing how little mana that took, I got an idea. While entertaining, the spell had never been particularly practical. I had always had difficulty focusing enough mana to make the spell any stronger. Using the much more accessible mana from the mana pool definitely changed things.

  I dumped 20 points of mana into the spell just to see what would happen.

  Dirt spayed into the air as the pebble shot off into the night. I looked down at the fist sized hole in the ground where the pebble once sat.

  For the first time in days, a grin slowly spread across my face.