After Oliver checked the contents of the space bag, he was dumbfounded. It was full of glittering mana stones, even though the bag was only about one cubic meter—it was filled to the brim. This amount was enough to buy even a house.
He could definitely sell them for a fortune, and maybe even enroll in the academy with the money. The realization dawned on him. Although it would probably cover only one year's tuition, he was pretty sure that by the time he needed to pay again, his space bag would be filled to the brim once more.
"This is a jackpot!!" He grinned sheepishly.
Well, that was if what he assumed was correct, since he did not know how fast his ring generated mana stones.
Still, since his space bag was already full, he decided to take out a few mana stones and put them in his pouch, creating empty space for the ring to generate more.
When he checked the time, it was still early in the morning. He planned to see how many mana stones his ring would be able to generate by the end of the day.
If the result was nowhere as he initially assumed, well.. he would be fine with it, really. With this ring, his future now looked promising and full of possibilities. He should feel more thankful for that.
He raised his hand higher and looked at the ring on his finger, a contented smile etched on his face. It might have looked ordinary, but for him, it was the most exquisite ring in the world.
One should not judge by its appearance. If anyone knew what this ring could do, they would kill him on the spot to get it. Thus, the ability to hide its presence was extremely valuable in that regard.
"Oh, and I don't think I'll be carrying this pouch around anymore…" he guessed.
Now that he had his supply of mana stones on demand, which he could fetch anywhere, he decided to leave his pouch of mana stones in a large chest in the corner of his room and lock it.
"Let's get some fresh air outside and try my new skills. Hehe." He laughed sheepishly and stood up from his bed.
He then walked out of his room with a satisfied smile, met his family, and spent some time with them. He also met his sister Kalisa and talked with her.
"Hey, how are you today?" he smiled widely.
"I'm fine. My shoulder wound is almost healed by now. But, how about you, brother? Are you alright? Everyone in the house literally could hear your scream, like you'd encountered a ghost or something…" She tilted her head.
Ah, what a familiar question. Before he recovered his memory, he was someone who was easily freaked out over the simplest things. His parents were no longer surprised when he freaked out in the morning over nothing. It was just a normal occurrence that happened pretty often.
"Yes, I'm totally fine. I was interested in your ring collection, though. Mind if I take a look?"
"Yes, go ahead. It's in the drawer." She gestured toward it with her hand.
As he expected, after touching all of them, he discovered that her rings were all just ordinary. Only his ring seemed somewhat special. How curious.
"Do you remember where you bought the ring you gave me for my birthday?" he asked her spontaneously.
"Uh.. no. It was a long time ago when i bought it with mother. Why?"
"Oh, nothing… nevermind then." He smiled at her and left her room.
His sister gave him one last curious glance before shaking her head.
Oliver then took breakfast before deciding to go to the north side of the village wall. There was some breach there, the wall was broken and many people were trying to repair it to prevent monsters to come inside the village.
There were also a few monsters constantly harassing villagers who were working on the reconstruction of the village wall.
Maybe he could find a monster to use as a test subject for his newfound power, he assumed.
After a few minutes of walking, he arrived at the place.
One of the villagers he noticed was running in his direction, and he wondered why.
"There are a few monsters outside. Don't come near the wall!" The person shouted at him, then ran off in another direction, likely to warn other villagers. He was probably one of the village guards stationed nearby.
Hearing that, Oliver became worried and came closer to the guard, asking for more details about the situation outside.
"Is it more than a dozen?" he asked.
"It's slightly more than a dozen. You'd better stay away. I need to inform the others for reinforcement!" he explained while running, clearly in a hurry.
"Alright. Thanks." Oliver watched the village guard disappear down the road and between the buildings.
Of course, what he was about to do was not to stay away. In fact, it was completely the opposite.
If there were so many monsters, it would indeed pose a problem for him. He hadn't even tried the artifacts' power yet, so he didn't know how strong he really was.
If its power were too strong, it would draw too much attention and cause trouble. He need to test it first. He would decide whether to help the village guard after assessing his strength.
He then asked the other villagers how many guards defended the northeast wall. Surprisingly, there were only a few of them.
They were struggling to defend, so one of the guards asked for reinforcements. The relentless assault from the monsters was why the reconstruction of the wall kept being delayed repeatedly.
He quickly went to the northeast wall to evaluate the situation with the monster attack.
There were around ten village guards valiantly defending the wall from the monsters, trying to prevent them from bypassing it and running rampant through the village.
The wall that was still in the middle of reconstruction, was destroyed once more because of their attack. Debris flew everywhere around the periphery of the fighting scene.
The defenders were helplessly pushed back as they were outnumbered. A few of the guards were injured as well. The situation looked pretty dire, as far as he was concerned.
"I don't think I can treat it lightly, as I initially thought," he surmised.
Because the guards were so few, the monsters had the upper hand in the battle. The guards looked like they could lose at any moment. He didn't think reinforcements would arrive in time to control the situation before they succumbed.
"Alright… calm down. Let's see if I could be of any help." He concentrated on his ring, which was still invisible, and got ready to cast one of his skills at any moment.
He was honestly quite nervous considering the situation, and he quickly strengthened his resolve to fight. The village guards did not notice that a young non-combatant was behind them, observing their skirmish against the attacking monsters.
First, he would try to use [Blazing Fire Ball] to see its effect on a monster. This skill became stronger the longer he channeled it, but it would consume ten percent of his mana. For now, he would test the power of an uncharged Fire Ball first.
He looked at the surroundings to make sure no guards were in the way of his skill, then aimed at one particular monster that looked weak, was alone, and, most importantly, was not moving too fast. Then he activated his skill.
He spread his hand, and a scorching blue Fire Ball quickly materialized in front of his palm, then he released it toward his target.
"Take that."
BOOM.
The monster that got hit bounced from the impact. It was pretty much still alive and capable of fighting. After successfully gaining its attention, the monster started charging at him. He quickly sent [Blazing Fire Ball] two times to their face and with a thud, its dead.
"Three hits at the minimum, huh?"
That was not too bad for a start.
The skill was pretty good, as he expected. Considering that the artifact was using his mana, perhaps he was just too weak. After all, he was not even a novice-rank warrior. His mana purity was pretty much trash.
Come to think of it, revealing too much was a bit risky for him even in this situation. So, he would stick with [Blazing Fire Ball] for now.
"Well then… let's kill some more, shall we?" He licked his lips and grinned.