Time passed by as Michael trained and fought.

  Every day, Michael would enter the Consumed Territory and activate Illumination. Like moths to a flame, the Forgotten would rush toward him in almost no time. The size of the groups only grew as time went by, making every fight more dangerous than the last. The addition of a single Forgotten more in a group changed everything.

  Naturally, he was forced to deal with injuries, which only increased in number as the battles went by. Cleansing and Minor Heal were used to patch his broken frame up after every battle. They mended his broken bones, healed his torn flesh, and made him able to keep going.

  On the third day.

  Michael gritted his teeth as he narrowly avoided the arrow coming straight at his head. He kept his gaze on the five Forgotten in front of him. Two orc Warriors were just recovering from their missed attacks, while the two dark elf Archers further behind drew their bowstrings with deadpan expressions, eyes crying white, glowing tears. Even further back, an orc Mage chanted mindlessly. They were his original enemies.

  Lightspeed!

  Michael unhesitatingly activated his movement Skill as he felt an attack approach him from behind. The incoming blade missed him by just a hair, but instead of trying to create more distance, he shot toward the attacker. A moment later, the ground underneath his previous position caved in, then rose in the shape of earthen hands.

  Fueled by Lightspeed’s full momentum, Michael slammed his fist on the dark elf Warrior’s face. The man stumbled backward, but there was no time to finish him off. Michael jumped over the dark elf to avoid another attack.

  Damn it!

  Everything had been going fine. He had been fighting the original group of five Forgotten well, to the point where he had wondered if he would make it out of the battle without a serious injury.

  But everything changed when three more Forgotten joined the fray. Now, the manageable battle had turned into a desperate struggle.

  Michael snapped his head to the side. A mana-filled arrow grazed his cheek like a railgun, only to pierce the house behind him. The wood collapsed as if it were paper as the arrow tore an enormous hole into the house, which then collapsed under its own weight. The warm blood that flowed down his cheek was a stark reminder of what kind of situation he was in.

  Can I win without sacrificing a limb?

  Michael’s mind raced as he continued to dodge the attacks the best he could, activating a deactivating Lightspeed as needed, so as not to consume the timer entirely in one go. His thought process had changed from the continuous fights against the Forgotten – he now understood that if he wanted to succeed, he needed to withstand the pain that came with his choices. Losing a limb might be crippling, as he had no idea if Cleansing and Minor Heals could help him regenerate from such an injury, but everything less severe than that should be treated as a matter of course.

  Injuries piled up, starting with a slashed shin, then a cut shoulder. The pain from the small Firebolt that crashed on his back and singed his flesh overwhelmed that of the other wounds, making Michael stumble. This moment of weakness was enough for three Forgotten to lunge toward him, their blades piercing through the air. As they were about to reach him, Michael gasped out the final part of his chant.

  “Mana Field.”

  Mana exploded out of his body like a tsunami. The storm of blue mana glowed with a golden hue as it dominated the space all around him with enough power to slow down the incoming attacks. Without missing a beat, he ducked under one of the blades and hid himself behind the body of the stumbling Forgotten orc. His mind strained itself.

  Focus!

  The twin Mana Fields rippled like water. However, only one of them moved. As the first Field continued to pressure everything within its radius, the second one instead gathered above each Forgotten. Michael didn’t try to give the mass of mana a shape – he wasn’t skilled enough to do so in this situation. All he needed was for the spell to slow down his enemies as much as it could. He gritted his teeth as he stepped away from the Forgotten he was hiding behind and looked at the sole Mage. The prime target.

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  He activated Lightspeed and rushed toward the Mage. The Forgotten looked at him with a blank expression, struggling to chant or raise his broken staff. Michael unceremoniously slammed his fist into the Forgotten’s face, supported by his full momentum. The man’s nose broke under the weight, but Michael only pulled his fist back and punched it again. He pressed his staff against the creature’s throat, crushing it. He didn’t stop attacking.

  Michael flinched as he was lifting his staff to bring it down once more. He leaped to the side, avoiding one of the mana-filled arrows, then got right back to the injured Forgotten. This pattern repeated itself until he finally heard the System notification that confirmed his kill.

  Instead of spending even a second celebrating, Michael shot toward the next enemy while keeping up his Mana Fields. Naturally, the burden on both his mind and body was severe. Because he had no room to use Cleansing, his injuries only grew in size and depth as he forced his body to its limits. His muscles screamed at him, but he couldn’t stop. This was the solution he’d found to compensate for his lack of Dual Casting.

  Keep going!

  A fighting style that took advantage of all of his stats, as they were all raised by his Level-ups. If he couldn’t cast two different spells at the same time yet, he needed to attack with his body.

  Eventually, Michael stood over the broken corpses of the enemies. He ignored the System notifications of multiple Level-ups and heaved. There were deep gashes on each of his limbs, and his left arm was broken. Even though he could only stand with his staff’s support, Michal grinned.

  I’m alive.

  He had succeeded. Even if he’d gotten injured, and even if he’d had to put his life on the line repeatedly. In the end, he had prevailed.

  Channeling Cleansing and casting as many twin Minor Heals as he could, Michael started making his way back to Bluestone. Now, he needed to work on his third Circle.

  ***

  The days slowly passed by.

  Each day was filled with fighting and struggle. Just like the third day, Michael was forced to confront the possibility of death over and over. Blades cut his neck and arrows punctured his limbs, only for magic flames to single his flesh. But he kept going. Every piece of torn flesh, every broken bone, every ruined muscle, they were all evidence of his desperation.

  The first time he fought a Forgotten Leader since talking to Tairy, it went better than he expected. Honed by his caution and sharpened by his senses, his Skills had been enough to win the fight with only a ruptured spleen.

  The second time, he almost died. The Leader ended up being a Berserker, just like the first one he’d fought, but this one could use ranged attacks as well. The combination of empowered arrows and stats that only grew as the Forgotten became more injured almost resulted in Michael ending up headless. In the end, he won the battle with a hole through his intestines, an almost completely destroyed liver, a left arm that no longer worked, and a crippled right leg. It was the first time that he learned that he could heal from more severe injuries than he thought. Naturally, this only fueled his desire to keep fighting.

  The next few fights, he pushed himself even further. The realization that his body was more resilient than he expected drove him to seek riskier battles. The number of injuries only grew, but so did his battle experience. His Leveling speed increased because of the consequences from conquering consumed Villages, even though the Curse of Darkness’ effects became stronger. By going inside the houses to absorb the spheres of light, Michael succeeded in mostly mitigating this.

  Eighteen days before the end of the Tutorial.

  Michael sat on Tairy’s stone dais with closed eyes. All he could see was his horned spiritual self surrounded by a storm of mana that only grew. The storm took on a circular shape, like a maelstrom, that mimicked the Circle wrapped around his Dragonheart. The third Circle became thicker and more corporeal as his senses surpassed their previous peak. In this state of heightened concentration, he felt only unprecedented calmness. His awareness stared at the Circles around his Heart.

  Flow.

  The word echoed throughout his inner world. Like a rock falling on a pond, the entire atmosphere was disturbed by it. The mana roiled before flooding into his spirit like a raging tide. After an unknown amount of time, the half-finished third Circle fully came into being. It rotated slowly around his Dragonheart. The other two Circles had also been strengthened.

  Michael opened his eyes and looked at Tairy. The old dark elf wordlessly pointed at the house’s door. Michael nodded and quickly entered the house, taking a deep breath and closing the door behind him.

  Once inside, he looked around.

  Everything looks different.

  Had his senses been improved? He could hear the footsteps of the incoming rushing crowd much more clearly, and the colors of the world around him looked more vivid. Scents had also become more striking. Michael looked at his hand and opened and closed it a few times, gauging how much power he now had.

  I need to learn a few spells.

  The easiest way to do so would be to Level up and go through another Skills selection, as usual. In fact, he had been saving one selection already, especially because he had been so close to the third Circle.

  He clenched his fist firmly.