Aria hid in a nearby bush, readying herself for the upcoming battle. In her hand was a crystal of irregular shape, somewhat resembling an octahedron; it was whitish, like bone.
It was a mana crystal that they had obtained after killing the pale monster. Like a video game, monsters had crystals inside of them that were filled with mana, though the amount wasn't large per se. But for someone of the 0th rank, having first started casting spells, it was extremely helpful for Aria.
'50.. No, 60% of my mana has been recovered.'
During their fight against the pale monster, Aria had used the first-tier spell [Windblade] a total of 3 times.
That had drained her total mana down to about 10%, leaving her pretty exhausted, if not for the mana crystal in her hands, which slowly seeped mana throughout her body.
'I did pretty well back there, but I should have aimed for the legs instead of the head. I overestimated my power and thought I could kill the monster in one shot.'
Aria had aimed for the head during the battle and tried to kill the monster instantly, but what she should have done was try to hinder its movements and allow Ren to finish the job.
These actions were caused both by her subconsciously overestimating herself, as well as the fact that she didn't fight with others too often, causing her to rely less on Ren's support.
'Hahh…and to top it off, I'm back at the 0th rank.'
Ranks started from 0 and went all the way up to 10. Aria, who had just been reincarnated, was currently the weakest at rank 0. But despite the low rank, she still managed to cast a tier 1 spell, which was typically meant for rank 1.
This was partly due to her experience and the body's natural affinity to wind magic. If she didn't have any of these things, even casting a single rank 1 spell would have completely drained her mana reserve,s let alone the one she shot before that had such a high power it cut the pale monster's body like butter. But another big reason was the sheer density of her mana; it was much heavier and stronger than it should have been.
'To rank up, I need to make a mana core by gathering fragments of mana and solidifying them. But unfortunately, I don't have time for that.'
Each rank up had various requirements, but since this was only the start at rank 1, it had the simplest, which was to create a mana core by gathering your mana and solidifying it.
To make this process easier, it was good to have a large amount of mana in your body, whether it was internal or external. The mana crystal in her hand was an external source, a crystal of the 0th rank like her.
'That monster was only the 0th rank, huh?'
She had figured it out by the amount of mana she was given as she absorbed the crystal. The fact that such a strong creature was only a 0th rank was surprising to say the least.
That rank was at the level of someone who could sense mana but still was an overall normal human; at best, they would be as fit as an athlete on Earth. At the beginning of the 1st rank, you start to become superhuman. You would be able to control the mana inside you better, expel it faster, absorb faster, and most important of all, start to fully saturate your body in your mana, increasing your physical strength.
'In past life on Solaris, most of the population was between the 0th to 3rd rank.'
The 3rd rank was for people who trained for several years, the 4th for those who trained for decades, and the 5th was the absolute limit of the talentless. Anything above that was the realm of prodigies or geniuses.
'We haven't met a person yet, but from what I've seen, this world is similar.'
Aria looked at the grey mana crystal. It shimmered softly before, but now its light was dying as she absorbed the last portion of mana in the gem, and soon turned into an ordinary rock no different from the pebbles on the ground.
The appearance of the mana crystal was both surprising and not at the same time, and wasn't limited to monsters; they came from the process of creating a mana core and advancing to the 1st rank. So even humans have a mana crystal in their bodies.
The crystals are a very good source of mana and are much easier than just absorbing the natural mana in the air, as that process requires you to filter and refine the rough natural mana, while the mana in mana crystals is already refined.
This was one of the main reasons why they wanted to kill the furred monster; from what they've seen, it must at least be of the 1st rank.
What's difficult is retrieving the crystal; you have to open up the body of the monster, and it's a guessing game of where it could be inside.
'There are spells to find Mana crystals, but it's too inefficient at the 0th rank.'
When Ren had cut its body and taken the crystal out, that was when the nasty acrid scent spread, and the pair had to run as they heard the approaching screeching of other monsters.
'Hooo, my mana is at 80%, it seems this is all the crystal could give me. But this should be enough, right?'
Aria's [Wind blade] used about 30% of her total mana, and it did a devastating hit on the pale monster before. But Aria knew that against the monster that Ren had dubbed Bigfoot, it wouldn't be enough.
'I'll have to use another spell.'
Currently, Aria had learned two spells: the first was [Wind Discharge], and the second was the [Wind Blade] that she used previously.
The wind element didn't just appear out of nowhere; it first needed to be converted into the wind element from her regular mana. [Wind Discharge] was the 0th-tier spell that converted her mana into wind element and was the basis of [Wind Blade] and all the wind spells she would use in the future, whether that be a rank 1 or even a rank 10 spell.
Learning spells was difficult, but Aria, having a lifetime of experience, knew plenty of wind magic; in fact, wind magic wasn't even her main element, it was actually soul magic. But that didn't mean she could throw tornadoes out willy-nilly or destroy a person's soul.
Aria had multiple reasons why she couldn't. One of them is her mana capacity. At rank 0, she barely had any usable mana; even though her body was filled with mana, she couldn't use it all. It was as if she had a large vat of water but could only use a small cup to pour it out. The only advantage that Aria had was that her mana was unusually dense.
This was a problem that would be solved once she had a core and became rank 1. Another problem was elemental affinities. As long as you knew how to perform the [Discharge] spell of a certain element, such as [Water Discharge] or Aria's [Wind Discharge], you could technically start to learn any type of spell relating to that element.
But [Discharge] spells, despite being 0th-tier spells, were hard to learn, and without affinities to the element, it's a complete waste of time; your learning speed, output, absorption, and instinctual understanding are all diminished without affinity.
The difficulty isn't small; powerful elements such as Transformation, Dream, Law, or Aria's Soul magic are impossible to learn without certain special conditions.
The reason why Aria could use Wind magic was that it was one of the basic elements you could learn that wasn't heavily nerfed by affinities, and it was also because of her extensive knowledge of the element. The other basic elements were pretty obvious: Water, Earth, and Fire.
To deal a decisive blow, she could only use wind magic, and instead of a cut across the monster, what Aria needed was a thrust that would completely pierce through all its defences!
On her lips, a smile formed, her eyes started to glow and shimmer with golden mana that had a greenish hue.
'I have just the spell.'
…
Ren let out a sigh, his pale face staring ahead at the furred monster that he called Bigfoot. This was mostly because of its brown fur that completely covered its body. But compared to the ape described in the stories, this creature with its mouth that reached to the waist and eyes that glowed an ominous red was much more terrifying.
'Or maybe Domo-kun would be more appropriate…'
Ren grabbed his right hand with his left and started to massage the palm with his fingers. This was a habit he picked up in his past life to calm himself, especially when he was about to fight something way above his weight class.
'Hmmm, it pauses whenever it tries to swallow its prey.'
As Ren started his slow descent down the cliff, he observed a furred monster as it started to eat the corpses of the pale monsters around it. Interestingly, it ate by swallowing the monster whole without even chewing, despite having many rows of teeth. During that moment when it swallowed the corpses, it paused while trying to push the large mass inside its mouth.
It was an obvious opening that Ren, who was currently hiding in a nearby bush, was surprised.
'No… during the battle earlier, it had dodged some attacks at its back… but, there was a limit.'
When the pale monster with a spear had attacked it, another pale monster managed to strike its back, but this was a very rare occurrence, as throughout the battle, the furred monster seemed to have a sense of when an attack was going to land on it and how strong that attack would be.
'Or maybe instead of a limit, it was confident that it wouldn't get killed in one shot?'
The thought occurred to Ren as he nodded, readying himself,
'It doesn't matter anyway, I don't have to kill it, I just have to stall for time so Aria can prepare her spell.'
'If shit hits the fan, we can just run.'
Ren smiled for a couple of moments before his expression turned blank, his hand slowly moved to the hilt of the sword at his waist, his eyes dulled as his focus shot up through the roof.
'Even though it's injured, it can still kill me with one hit,'
The pale monster's head was annihilated by the monster for Ren, who had weaker defenses he had to be extra careful. In such a magical world, oddly close-quarters combat for the early ranks was the same to attack while not being hit yourself. The only difference was that some moved at superhuman speed and had enough strength to hurl trees across the sky.
The furred monster had some of those aspects, yet Ren, not having any special strength, decided to fight, his determination flaring immensely.
'I have made sure it doesn't move from this area.'
'I have to hit it and not be hit.'
'I have to make it bleed without bleeding myself.'
Bigfoot lifted the corpse of the largest pale monster, which was the one that was fighting with the bone spear. The next moment, the pale monster's head was inside its mouth, then its torso, then its waist. When Bigfoot got to the monster's thighs, it stopped pausing once more.
Without sound, Ren's sight blurred. All but the furred monster was in front of him as his view of the monster slowly got bigger during his approach. The first steps were the loudest, but it turned eerily quiet afterwards.
One moment, Bigfoot was eating the pale monster, the next crimson blood splattered from its ankle and the back of its knee as Ren moved, slashing two times in quick succession.
One moment, Bigfoot stood tall, towering over Ren; the next, it fell to its knees.
A roar resounded, anger filled its crimson eyes as the battle began.