Neo is taking a little break right now, sitting down on the ground holding on to a couple handful of packed snow. He was waiting for it to melt and boil so he could have a drink. He didn't channel his mana to speed it up, he just used the excess heat naturally produced by his body. He made that mistake once, by the time he managed to bring his cupped hands toward his mouth all the water had turned to steam. Once he quenched his thirst he decided to take a look at his Status screen.

  Status sheet

  Neo Wagner

  Level: 1

  Traits: Thermonuclear Mana Heart

  Attribute

  Str: 3

  Agi: 5

  Con: 3

  Int: 23

  Wis: 12

  Free: 0

  Titles:

  Little Boy Survivor

  Cooked Bacon

  Vlad is Chump

  Beloved by Mana

  Skills (1/5):

  Mana manipulation lvl 32

  He found that he could minimize the description in his status by simply wanting it enough. It's a lot neater now and doesn't give him a headache trying to read the wall of text. His Mana manipulation only went up a couple levels from his little sword experiment, the level up requirements seem to increase as the skill level goes higher. Maybe he needs to use his mana in a unique way to help with the leveling.

  There is only a couple hours left until the monster wave arrives, he is hoping that the monster is edible. He is starting to get a little hungry, there isn't much hope of finding anything he could eat in this frozen wasteland. Maybe if he could find a frozen lake he could catch some fish.

  He is considering getting another skill, he didn't think a couple hours would be enough to push his Mana manipulation to the next threshold. What he needs at the moment is either a movement skill to keep his distance or a defensive one that could shield him. A healing skill would definitely be nice to have, but he couldn't think of any way to earn it. He had some ideas on how to gain the movement skill, but he is not sure if it was safe to try. His mana might not burn or hurt him, but an explosion or a drop from height most definitely could.

  He had some experience with falling, he once broke his arm falling off a bike. It's not exactly his fault, he was seven at the time. Another older kid hit his bike and he is not really an expert at riding, so he fell and broke his arm. That was also the day he learned how ruthless his brother is, he was there when it happened. But he didn't say anything at the time. The next week that kid had an accident and broke both his right arm and leg, there is no proof of course. But he knew from the satisfied look on his brother's face that it was him.

  He shook his head and stood up, this isn't the time to procrastinate. He decided to start with the defensive skill instead, it should be a lot safer. He is just not sure if it would count as a separate skill. He started out by making a small construct in the shape of a round shield, just big enough to cover his body. He could scale it up as needed later. He basically just spun his mana into a disc then he gave it a little curve in the middle. He had already made something similar when he made his hat. Now he just had to figure out how to make it solid enough to work as a shield. He should test the baseline first to create a control group, it turned out that having a scientist as a dad could be useful in an apocalypse. He hovered the shield in front of him at chest level and tried to find some rock to throw at it.

  This is harder to accomplish than he thinks, there's only some dirt and pebbles around the clearing. He decided to compromise and ran to the edge of the clearing where there is some snow to make some snowballs. Once he had some ammo he threw one at the shield, the shield shredded the snowball and threw up some steam and water to the sides of the rim. Seems like a snowball is not solid enough to test it, he decided to throw a pebble just to see what happens. The small rock is thrown to the side of the shield, hitting the ground while glowing a little orange. He could see that it's partially melted, it appears that he didn't have to worry about making a defensive skill for the moment. He could always add more mana and speed up the rotation as needed, maybe even change the shape into a dome that surrounded him. He decided to shelve the defensive skill idea and focus on realizing his dream to cosplay as a fighter jet.

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  The key to realizing his newfound dream is the ability to fly, he already had the bombardment part handled. The first step is for him to be able to stand on one of his constructs. But if he just did it his fate would be similar to poor Mr.pebble. He is currently using himself as a reference point for all his constructs movement. Maybe if he kept a platform at a fixed distance from him then use a propulsion system to move it the construct can move him instead. That could work. But what kind of propulsion should he use?, definitely not rocket style, that is way too dangerous. Should he made an entire airplane from his constructs?, that seems way too complicated to maintain in battle. He didn't actually need to move fast if he could hover at heights. So he decided to copy drones instead, he should start with making a propeller. He knew the basics of how it worked, it's basically the same thing as an airplane wing with a little twist along the blade added for some reason. The tip of the blade should also be smaller than the center part.

  He started off with just a two bladed prop to keep it simple, he focused on the edge first. Creating a rectangle with a fat rounded middle part, then he gave it a little twist keeping the middle part in the shape of a circle. After he had the outline he filled out the inside layer by layer making sure to keep a circular hole in the center. He thickens one side of the blade then he creates some extra layers on top, forming a loft shape and making sure to keep the bottom flat. After he finished forming the propeller, he crafted another construct. This time it's just a simple cylinder with a wide slightly pointy domed shape, he then slotted the shaft onto the propeller adjusting the shaft diameter until it fit properly.

  Everything is ready for the test run, he put the propeller directly on top of his head. He then changed his mind and decided to put some distance in case it failed. He lifted it up about 10 meters above him, that should be safe enough. After that he kept a tight hold of the shaft, fixing the distance relative to his body. He took a deep breath and did some little stretching to prepare himself. He began to spin the propeller blade around the shaft, slowly at first but increasing the speed when he barely felt any pull from the shaft. He could see his feet slightly lifting off the ground, but he already hit the limit on the speed of the spinning construct. Maybe he should have made the propeller bigger so he didn't have to spin it so fast. But he had an idea on how to break the speed limit and wanted to give it a go instead. He usually kept a tight hold on an entire construct to keep up the flow and maintain its shape, but his title allows his mana to know what he wants and maintain the shape for him. He focuses on the propeller and asks his mana to maintain its shape, he then lets go of the control he had on the propeller. The propeller kept on spinning due to its momentum, he just had to occasionally flick it to maintain its speed. He slowly increases the frequency of the flicks, ramping up the speed of the propeller until there is a loud humming sound coming from the propeller.

  He looked down to the ground as he steadily rose higher and higher, swaying a little from side to side following the movement of his propeller. A bigger problem is the spinning, he has to stab a couple of hastily crafted anchors to the ground to stop the spin. He forgot that he needed more than one propeller to cancel out the spin. Nonetheless he considers this experiment a partial success, he already has a lot of ideas to have more stable flight. He'd probably start with a bigger propeller, the flicking takes a lot of his attention. He carefully lowers himself to the ground and dissipates his construct after the blade stops spinning. He grinned to himself and put his hand on his hips, dreams do come true after all. It won't be long before he could cosplay as a fighter jet, he just had to iron out the kinks and the monsters would be introduced to 21st century German warfare.

  He paid attention to the notifications that he ignored during the experiment, it's probably a lvl up for his Mana manipulation skill.

  …

  Congratulations, your Mana manipulation skill has reached lvl 35

  Sure enough, he didn't get a new skill for that. He is just using the one skill he had in a novel way, maybe he doesn't actually need another skill. He would still like a healing skill of some sort, but he still has no idea on how to do it. He has a bit more inspiration when it comes to defensive skill, at the moment what he needs is not a shield of some sort. He could easily build one with his construct. What he needs is a body reinforcement skill, he is basically just a squishy 132 cm human. One good hit would take him down for sure. But just like the healing skill he is not sure on how exactly he was going to accomplish that, maybe he should build an exoskeleton?. That could work, but it probably won't count as a separate skill. He settled on shelving it for the moment and focused on perfecting his flight.

  He crafted another propeller blade, this time he made sure it's extra large. It's almost twice his height, about two meters in diameter. Then he created another one with an opposite spin direction to cancel out the angular momentum. Then he built the shaft, slotting it into the propellers making sure to add some spacing to prevent collisions. This time he chose to add a funnel attached to the top and bottom of the shaft, tapering down into a smaller diameter as it goes further from the props. It should speed up the air coming out and reduce the noise, he is basically just copying a jet engine without the combustion. After that he told his mana to hold the shape for him and began to craft two more engines identical to the first one, this should give him a more stable flight. He moved the engines to about 10 meters above him with two slightly in front of him and one behind.

  He started the engines so to speak by spinning the propellers inside. It takes some getting used to, especially the opposing direction. But once it got going it didn't take as much focus to maintain. He immediately began to rise up, a lot faster than before. It didn't take a lot of thrust to lift him off the ground, he only weighed around 25 kg and the engines are basically weightless. He kept rising up, higher and higher, until he almost couldn't see the snowless clearing that he came from. He stopped rising and looked at the winter encrusted land, the perpetual light snow that never stopped falling. The sun that has barely moved from the moment he is transported here. He even saw a blackened crater in the distance where some irresponsible dude had thrown an explosive giant sword. That was the moment he fell in love with flying, he promised himself that one day he would be able to truly fly. Without the help of his construct.