I am sure that there are some lingering effects of Sophie's skill. Unfortunately, I am unable to detect them at the moment.

They seem to prevent me from hurting Sophie. They don't seem to affect me when I think about hurting someone else, so in the worst case, I can just blackmail Sophie.

That makes me reaffirm my decision to invest my next stat points into mana. I just don't know what else I can do, and my mind becomes a mess every time I think about it.

Sure, I can go and hurt her sister even now, but then what? Sophie will surely hate me, and I might be unable to fight back properly.

Should I ask Tess or Hadwin to do it?

It could work, but it might end up with her using them, or she may have already done so, and they won't be able to do anything about that.

So even though it deeply disgusts me, I need to give it a bit more time and learn more about how the skill works and what I can do to counter her.

Leveling up [Mana Perception] and [Mana Manipulation] should help me find what she did to me and counter it somehow. For now, it would be better to avoid her as much as I can.

After a few hours, Cassian and Dominic seem to be fine, so I drink plenty of water.

It smells and tastes slightly like gasoline.

That's another thing Cassian will have to pay for.

I know it's probably hard to wash it out properly, but he could try harder, right?

Still, I drink plenty and get some for Tess. After that, I grab one bottle and save it for later.

Obviously, there are a lot of people screaming and complaining, but I let Hadwin take care of that and move slightly away. No one bothers me, and I just filter out all the screaming and complaining.

With the corner of my vision, I notice a corgi named Biscuit eating small pieces of raw deer meat that fell from its carcass while Hadwin skinned it. The dog is trying to chew it, but the meat seems to be too firm for the small dog to eat, so he just gulps it and runs towards the circle of complaining people while barking.

It looks like we have another tester besides our duo.

After a bit of complaining and worrying, they eat a few pieces of meat, so now we are waiting. If they are fine after a few hours, I will take some too. I am sure that will start another round of complaining, but that's what Hadwin is for!

Yup.

I will shamelessly eat some, save some for later, and disappear into the background.

Yup, again.

Tess will get a lot of it as well since it's her kill, and the rest isn't my problem.

Most likely, Hadwin will share some. It's not like we can put it into the fridge or plan to smoke it, so it's better if they eat it rather than throwing it away.

I take a gulp of water, and Biscuit comes running to me. His owner, the older lady, is still complaining with other people.

Biscuit sniffs and barks softly while poking my leg with his snout. His short tail swings wildly, but the tail is so short it looks more as if he is shaking his butt. Like every corgi, he seems to be smiling cheekily.

Sigh...

I pour some water into the cupped palm of my hand and let him drink it. I repeat this a few times. Biscuit drinks everything and keeps licking my hand to get the last bits of water. Then, for a moment, he waits, and when he sees I am not pouring more, he barks, turns around, and runs back to his owner while barking at the people surrounding her. He wobbles from side to side as he runs because of his short legs.

We will have to go for water soon enough.

Sigh...

What if that bear is there?

Somehow, dying due to a lack of water doesn't sound that bad of an option.

After a few more hours, everything seems fine, so I eat plenty of meat. Because of our lack of seasoning, it tastes very bland, but it's food, so I eat as much as I think I can without making myself sick.

Tess gets her portion, and she shares some with a few kids.

Then another round of complaining starts.

As I sit by the bus and eat a few more pieces of meat, the corgi comes running to me and starts poking my leg with his snout.

Shameless little bugger.

With a sigh, I feed him a few small pieces of meat, and when he sees he won't get more, he runs back to his owner while barking.

It looks so similar to the last time that I wouldn't be surprised if I were in some kind of time loop.

Tess is still on the roof of the bus, keeping watch, and I keep feeling pulses of mana from her. My [Mana Perception] is now easier to use than before, so the pulses are more clear. I am sure she is training her [Psychokinesis].

Relying on her just a little bit, I practice my mana manipulation. Focusing on my legs, I keep sending mana into them. It's much more difficult than with my hands for some reason. Maybe because of the distance from my heart? I need to spend more mana to be able to reach my feet, but I keep pushing it. My intention is to use it to strengthen my legs. Maybe to be able to kick stronger or make me run faster?

To be honest, I don't know. It feels as if I am a monkey and someone put me inside the cabin of a helicopter and told me to fly.

It's annoying and discouraging.

But it's fun.

Every time I learn something, it feels as if it's worth it.

What excites me the most is the new skill I got from the past few hours of practicing. I did completely use up my mana a few times, and I still feel lightheaded, but I feel that it's well worth it.

[Oscillation]

The skill is still only at level one and far from being useful in combat. Right now, I can use it while in deep [Focus], and the result is a tiny thread of mana extending from the tip of my finger. I was able to extend it a bit more than before and make it denser, and I was able to make it vibrate while testing. The result is an extremely sharp thread of mana.

During that, I also gained one mana stat point.

In the future, I hope to be able to apply [Oscillation] to weapons to make them sharper, but I am still far from that.

I stop my thoughts when Tess stands in front of me.

"The sun hasn't moved at all since we came here."

That's also something I already noticed. We have been here for close to twelve hours, yet the suns are still in the same spot as when we arrived.

"Kevin said that there are some places in Alaska where the sun doesn't set for over two months, so maybe it's something like that?"

Maybe?

"Someone said that two suns so close to each other shouldn't be possible. The second one wouldn't be so bright. Its brightness would be that of a bright star at most. Something about a binary star system."

I shrug.

"Also, I got my [Psychokinesis] to level two," she adds, and to prove it, two small stones float over the palm of her hand, spinning around each other.

"Did you try throwing stuff and pushing them with your skills to make them go faster?"

She nods.

"I'm not that proficient yet, and most of the time it's worse than just throwing it, but I will get there."

"What about the others?"

She sighs shortly.

"Most of them are too stressed to even try something. Unsurprisingly, younger people seem to be getting into it a bit easier, but only a few were able to use their skills."

While we talk, her eyes keep moving around, still keeping watch.

"Kevin was able to use his [Reflection]. When you throw some small thing at him, he can reflect it back at you, but with much weaker force." The tiniest smile appears on her lips. "He says he can't wait for his Hero class."

Dude...

What's with kids nowadays?

"I have a feeling that someone's trash-talking me!"

Tess sighs quietly and rolls her eyes a bit as a few schoolkids come closer to us. The boy leading them looks at me and smiles brightly.

"You must be the wulf slayer!"

Wulf?

"I expected you to be taller."

"…"

"You smell a bit."

"Kevin!" one of the girls shouts at him.

Is he asking for a beating?

"Anyway, nice to meet you." He reaches out with his hand, but I ignore it and continue sitting on the ground.

The same girl who yelled at him before pushes him back.

"W-we are sorry… Kevin is… weird sometimes," she ignores his outrage. Then she shyly smiles toward me. "We wanted to thank you for…" gesturing around, "for everything, I guess."

Finally, some appreciation.

Praise me more, bring me some offerings; sweets would be nice.

Darn, I would love some chocolate.

And sure, I may have done it all for myself, but they don't have to know.

So I nod.

"At least introduce the others, Kevin." Tess shakes her head and starts pointing at people while introducing them.

Kevin Wilson, 18 years old, brown messy hair, the kid with a weird laugh.

Lily Chen, petite 17-year-old girl, she seems to be shy. Black hair tied in a ponytail.

Kim Min-Jae, 15-year-old boy with big glasses. He is really thin.

"Others are keeping watch." Kevin smiles once again.

He seems to be really bright and optimistic.

I don't like him already and his seemingly endless energy.

My worst enemy, an extrovert.

I already feel as if he is sucking the life out of me.

Is it a skill?

It must be, right?

Tess probably notices my growing annoyance and stops Kevin, who is already talking about the class he would like to get.

Why Necromancer, and why does he think it will be OP?

What happened to the Hero class?

Whatever.

"I wanted to show you something." Once again, he smiles. "Try throwing a stone at me," he challenges me.

So I grab a stone from the ground and throw it at him. I aim between his eyes. That surprises him a bit, but the stone comes close to hitting him and then just deflects, flying back at me. The speed at which it flies back is much slower and even the force seems to be weaker.

A cocky smile appears on his face, and then a second stone hits him right in his forehead.

"Fuuuuc…" he staggers back and starts rubbing his forehead while reproachfully staring at me.

Another stone hits his nether region.

"What the heck!" he screams in pain.

Deflect that, dipshit!

Hahaha.

Look, he deserved that, and I am the last person to deny that I can be really petty sometimes.

"What was that for?" he asks, covering his crotch and looking at me like a sad puppy.

"I would recommend to you to practice a bit more."

The skill seems to be fairly useful, but it doesn't matter if the person controlling it is just a clown.

He sighs.

"You sound just like my dad. Practice more, Kevin. Use your brain, Kevin. Why are you so dumb, Kevin," he gestures wildly and looks straight at me. "I will, I will, don't worry."

Something tells me that he isn't taking this whole situation too seriously.

Kim and Lily seem to be fairly scared. It's easy to see from the way they twitch sometimes and keep nervously glancing towards the forest, yet Kevin is… Well, I guess it must be slightly calming for other kids to be around him. It's his life, so you do you, Kevin.

"See ya later," he waves, and the others follow him. Kim nods towards me, and Lily gives me a small smile.

"I will go back to watch," I nod back at Tess as she says so.

"Buuurito, Buuurito, come here, boy," Kevin calls as they walk away from us.

"It's Biscuit. Miss Samantha won't like it if you…" I hear Lily say.

Then they exit my hearing zone, and I get back to practicing.