When Neo woke up, the sun had finally set. It was extremely dark because there was no moon visible in the sky, he couldn't even see his hand. There were only the perpetual gloomy clouds covering up the sky. He created a small orb so he could see, flinching a bit at the sudden brightness. He usually woke up bright eyed and full of energy, ready to tackle the day. But this time he felt lethargic and worn out, he finally understood how his brother and dad felt in the morning. He sat up and yawned, rubbing his eyes to remove the crust there. He just sat there for a while, reminiscing about happier times. When the urge to pee became too much to bear he ran to a dead tree on the edge of his new clearing, thankfully he hasn't got the urge for number two yet. That's gonna be a problem, there's no toilet miraculously hidden as far as he knew. He was used to using bidet like a proper civilized person, even if he was desperate and wanted to use some leaves like some savages. He hasn't seen a single leaf since he got here, not even on the ground beneath the snow.

  Perhaps if he scooped up some snow into a closed tank with some pipes he could get pressurised water?. But nah, that wouldn't work, it would just turn to steam as soon as it exits the pipe. Would steam clean his butt?. He didn't know and he wasn't about to risk his butt for it. What he needed to get some water was simply a container that could hold it, he could always get more snow to melt. One of the ways he could think of was to carve a bowl out of a tree trunk, but that won't hold a lot and the wood would most likely burst into flames as soon as he began cutting. He took a walk back to the clearing and found his solution, he was walking on one.

  He created a scoop similar to the one on an excavator, not forgetting to add some teeth to complete it. Then he began to dig up some dirt, creating one big shallow hole about as deep as his chest if he was standing inside. He added a little bench on one side that he could later sit on to keep his head above water, this would become his bathing pool. Afterwards he dug up a pair of smaller holes, one would be for his drinking water, the other one was to wash his only clothes. He couldn't wait to take his bath. But he first had to waterproof the pool, his idea was simply to melt it into lava then cool it down. He just had to be careful not to leave any sharp edges that could cut him. He didn't need any construct to heat up the pool, he just channeled his plain old mana, spreading it evenly across the surface of the pool. He kept it up until the ground turned into lava, doing the same to the smaller holes at the same time. He built a small curved construct to smooth out any rough edges. While he waited for it to cool down, he made an extra wide scoop to pile up some snow nearby. Only the snow that was actually touching the construct is actually melting due to some effect he forgot the name off, his mom was very enthusiastic when she explained it to him for some reason. He was four at the time, so his dad wasn't the only one guilty of that sin. After a few minutes of waiting while snacking on some mana balls, he figured that it's cooled enough to not crack when he put some snow on it. He began filling up all three pools with snow, heating it up as needed to turn it into water. Until finally all his pools were filled with bubbling water, he might have overdone the heating part. But it should be fine, the heat never bothered him anyway.

  He took a look at his clothes before taking them off. His shirt was falling apart at this point, his cargo pants and sneakers were in better shape. But they're dirty and had some scorched marks, the sneakers even had some parts that were a little melted. That's what you get for wearing cheap plastic, his socks and undies are made of cotton so they're perfectly fine. He took his clothes off and put them in his laundry pool, merely letting them soak for now. He also took some gulps of water from his drinking pool, it's way more refreshing than eating snow.

  It's time for the main event, it would be even better with some soap. But that wasn't gonna happen. He put down his key carefully on the pool edge, then did a cannonball into the pool. He did his best to clean himself up after having his fun, taking his ruined shirt to use as a washcloth. After that he took a seat on the bench, closing his eyes and just soaking in the bubbling water to relax. He spent half an hour there, sitting on the bench. He almost fell asleep again, but managed to prevent it by focusing on the notifications from yesterday.

  You have killed a lvl 70 Orc Swordmaster.

  …

  …

  Congratulations, you have reached lvl 44.

  Congratulations, you have earned the title: One Man Army, you've fought against an army of thousands by yourself and won. Grant bonus damage when fighting alone.

  The leveling speed seems to slow down, he only got 7 levels from killing a level 70, there's probably a penalty for killing those with lower level. Otherwise his level should be way higher, he killed thousands of lower level orcs before the Swordsman arrived. He also gained another title. He opened up his status screen to assign his free points.

  Status sheet

  Neo Wagner

  Level: 44

  Traits: Thermonuclear Mana Heart, Mana Eater.

  Attribute

  Str: 10

  Agi: 10

  Con: 10

  Int: 155

  Wis: 76

  Free: 0

  Titles:

  Little Boy Survivor

  Cooked Bacon

  Vlad is Chump

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  Beloved by Mana

  One Man Army

  Skills (1/5):

  Mana manipulation lvl 42

  He earned 35 free points from those 7 levels, he put 25 into his Int and the remaining 10 into his Wis. This should keep the balance that optimizes his Mana manipulation, which has finally passed the next threshold. He couldn't wait to see the perk, they all tend to be super helpful. He also opened up all the previous notifications to see all his perks.

  Congratulations, your Mana manipulation has reached lvl 10. You can move your mana faster.

  Congratulations, your Mana manipulation has reached lvl 20. You can now control multiple streams of mana easier.

  Congratulations, your Mana manipulation has reached lvl 30. Your mana is now denser and more potent.

  Congratulations, your Mana manipulation has reached lvl 40. You can now sense your Mana better.

  At first glance, this perk didn't seem to do much. At least compared to the other perks, he could already see and sense his mana. But when he closed his eyes and focused on the mana inside him, the difference was stark. Especially when he focuses on the mana that didn't enter his reservoir, when he tried this before he almost couldn't sense the small amount of mana radiating from his skin. Now that he could sense it better, he decided to try copying the Mana Vault trait. He took a hold of all the mana that was leaking out of his skin and formed a barrier that he fixed in place just above his skin. The barrier went around his entire body, the mana inside the barrier flowing in a fixed pattern, he made sure there's no leak. When he was done, he took a look at the mana inside him. Some of the mana that used to radiate outside is absorbed into the barrier, but most of it bounced back into his body and ended up inside his reservoir. There was a notification waiting for him when he finished, he has been trying to accomplish this multiple times now.

  Congratulations, you have earned the skill Mana Mantle. Would you like to add it into your repertoire? (Y/N).

  He didn't know what he did differently this time, he was still using Mana manipulation. Should he actually take it?, he had pretty much accomplished what he wanted without the skill. Which was to stop leaking radiation for a time, this should be enough to interact with other humans when he found them. It's not hard to maintain either, once he forms the barrier he simply asks his mana to maintain it. Perhaps there were some perks that made the skill worthwhile, but that came into the problem of how to level the skill. Would he need to let some attacks hit him to level it?, he didn't like the sound of that. So he decided to decline the skill, he only had 5 slots and there was no way to remove a skill as far as he knew. Taking a skill that he couldn't level was a good way to trap himself. He pressed no and realized there was a problem with his version of Mana Mantle, he was glowing and the water was no longer touching his skin. In fact, he wasn't even touching the bench. More importantly he is running out of breath, he instantly cancelled the mantle and took some much needed breath. His mantle could clearly use some work, maybe if he fine tuned the mantle to only affect mana?.

  He started off by paying close attention to how his mana interacted with each other, he built a thin square plate construct and began bombarding it with a stream of his mana. As expected, the stream of mana mostly bounced off the plate while a small amount was absorbed. He then loosened up the thread that made up the plate little by little, until he could see some mana passing through the plate. After that he tightened up the thread again to the point where no mana is passing through. He now had to test if water could pass through, he put the plate against the surface of the pool and watched as steam erupted from on top of the plate. Gases seemed to be able to pass through without issues, let's see if water could. He curved the construct into a bowl shape then scoop up some water, he watched as water was dripping through the bottom.

  The experiment showed promise, so he applied the new design onto himself. He took a deep breath to see if there was any issue, he could breathe just fine so that part is working. Water is also passing through. But he was still glowing and what about his clothes?. Should he go nakey?, he'd shelved this project for now. It's not that pressing, he should prepare for the next wave instead.

  He dismissed the construct and reluctantly got out of the pool, channeling some mana to dry himself off. He took his clothes out of the laundry pool after rinsing it a couple of times, it's clean enough for his taste. He put his pants and shoes on, letting it dry on his body. He held up his shirt in front of him, looking through the hole in the center. He decided to forgo the shirt, leaving it hanging on a tree branch near his pool. He could always make one from his construct, a helmet would be a good idea too. He took a look at the timer for the next wave, there was only 8 hours left. That was not a good sign, dawn hasn't even come yet. That could only mean he would face more than one wave this day.

  He needed to refine his attacks, making it faster and more efficient is his goal for this training session. He preferred not to nuke everything again if faced a tough opponent. He already had an idea, but it would be quite dangerous so he would have to test it from a distance. He quickly built his standard four engines; he added more propeller blades this time. There must be a reason jet engines had so many, he started off with six blades per prop. Each engine had the previous four opposing propeller designs. As soon as he started the engines he could immediately feel the difference, he could get the same thrust with a slower rotation speed. It made the engines super quiet, there was still a faint humming sound but it wasn't nearly as loud. He took off the ground and began to rise to the sky, he looked down toward his pools. He didn't want the monster wave to ruin his pools, he was planning to fly to the previous battlefield. But he was pretty sure he would never find his pools again if he just went, so he needed to leave signs to guide him back. He opted to keep it simple and produced a giant arrow shaped construct and stamped it to the ground periodically as he flew, making a couple more when it slowed him down too much.

  Once he arrived at the edge of the massive crater he made yesterday, he began his experiment by making a barrel. A small one this time, the hole in the middle is about the size of his thumb. He then made the bullet, this one had a ‘shell’ behind it. He more or less made a small controlled explosive by encasing an extra small compressed mana in the shell. After he put the bullet in the barrel he covered up the back end of the barrel. He then moves the basic gun away from him while he hides behind some layer of barriers he made, making sure the gun is pointed away from him. Pointing the gun towards a tree at the edge of the crater, he covered his ears and looked through a mesh window he made in his barriers. Without ceremony he stripped the shell from the condensed core, the unstable mana instantly exploded and sent the bullet flying along the barrel. There was an extremely loud booming sound that echoed throughout the entire field. He didn't think it was gonna be that loud, he needed a way to lower the sound or he would have to keep the gun far away from him when he fired. He went closer to the tree to look at the damage, there was a big hole that goes straight through the tree. He followed the trajectory until he came across a small crater where the bullet hit the ground, he hadn't even tested the tank sized barrel that he usually used.

  Dawn had finally arrived, he wanted to take a break so he flew up. Climbing through the altitude until he went through the gloomy clouds. When he finally breached the clouds he saw a sight that threw his breath away, he stayed there watching the orange rays of light pierced through the clouds. He even sent his engines far away so the noise wouldn't bother him. He wished he could take a picture to show this amazing sight to his family, maybe even take them flying to see it for themselves.