The goblins threw him into a room with a bed made of leaves.
There were four female goblins there.
The big male goblins spat some gibberish at the females and left.
Ainen had a bad feeling.
'Are they going to eat me?'
Ainen knew he was going to get eaten, one way or the other. As for why they wanted to eat him, he could only think of one reason—Because he displayed his power to use the Fire element.
The female goblins surrounded him.
Two of them held him down after breaking him free from the ropes.
And the other started tearing off his simple linen shirt and trousers.
"Let me go…" Ainen spoke, sweat oozing all over his body.
'I need to break free.'
Ignoring the discomfort, Ainen closed his eyes and tried to use Fire Manipulation again. This time, with proper control.
Ainen hardened his heart.
The female goblin bent down, preparing to eat him.
But right before that, Ainen's eyes glinted with fiery light.
A crude flame dagger formed before him that swiftly shot and pierced her forehead.
From Ainen's arms and legs, flame whipped out like snakes, causing the female goblins to panic.
But he didn't want noise.
The flame snakes obeyed his control as he looked at their necks. The snakes quickly wrapped around their necks before…
They seared on brightly, burning their throats entirely before their heads rolled off.
[You have killed four level four to six Goblins.]
[You have reached level 5]
[20 stat points acquired.]
[Congratulations on reaching level 5. You have acquired Level 5 Mystery Box.]
Ainen dragged himself away before standing up and sitting at the corner.
His heart was pounding with fear.
If a goblin arrived here to take a look, he would be done.
And it was going to happen. It was just a matter of time.
But before that, he had to get strong!
Ainen took a deep breath and calmed himself.
'I got 20 stat points and a level 5 mystery box…'
—> I Cook Limitlessly.
Stats: 20 stat points.
—> Fire Manipulation (S)
'Fire Manipulation should scale with Arcane and Mana, right?' Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel_fіre.net
'Let me see if I can check the skill in detail.'
Ainen focused on the Fire Manipulation tab, and indeed, it expanded.
—> You can transform mana into fire and control the fire as if it's your limbs. You have high fire resistance.
'Proficiency 12%? Given this number, it likely increased because of my training. So if you can create more spells, or rather, better spells, the proficiency will naturally increase.'
However, Ainen didn't find what he wanted to find.
'Maybe if I focus on stats, I can get their information?'
Without further ado, he focused on the stats.
[Vitality]: Determines the life force of your body and natural resistance to everything harmful.
Ainen continued as he focused on Strength next.
[Strength]: Determines the potency of your cells, blood, bones, and muscles, allowing for higher physical strength.
[Stamina]: Determines the fuel of your body. Stamina is consumed whenever you exert your body or use physical-based skills.
[Agility]: Determines your physical and mental agility. Physical agility is the ability to coordinate your body, change physical direction, shift in speed, and position quickly and easily, while mental agility is the ability to adapt one's thinking, behavior, and perspective rapidly in response to new information and changing circumstances.
[Cognition]: The mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
'So this could affect my ability and speed of learning and mastering skills.'
[Arcane]: Determines the potency of your magic.
'This is simple. The higher the Arcane stats, the more powerful my magic-based skills.'
[Mana]: Determines the amount of Mana in your body.
'Now, time to distribute the stat points.'
Ainen knew what he had to do after reading the details of the stats.
He added 2 points in Vitality.
Afterward, he added 7 points in Mana.
Instantly, he felt that strange fatigue vanishing as energy filled him.
He still had 10 stat points.
He added 2 into Agility, 2 into Cognition, and 6 into Arcane.
'Looks good.' Ainen smiled.
'Now, I need to practice Fire Manipulation.'
Ainen stood up and controlled the blue streams, which were Mana, and transformed them into flames with his Fire Manipulation.
An uneven fireball was floating before him.
It moved around at his mental commands.
'I need to make some solid spells. Controlling mana and transforming it before shaping and controlling flames…it shouldn't take this long to use spells, right?'
In combat, that didn't seem practical to him.
Moreover, he was already having a headache because of his previous actions of creating and controlling the flame knife and flame snakes to kill those four female goblins.
'It feels like I am doing this wrong.'
His brow furrowed. 'There must be… a shortcut.'
'People do incantation in those fantasy settings in movies and novels…some even just think in their mind, and the whole sequence of the spell executes.'
'Wait, a sequence? Is incantation a pre-determined sequence? If I fix a shape in my mind, chain the flow of mana into steps, and tie it to a word or name…then it should work, right? That's basically incantation, right?'
Ainen didn't know. It wasn't like there was a school of magic on Earth from which those fantasy writers learned.
But he had to try what he thought.
This time, he first imagined it in his mind.
He imagined transforming his mana into flame and shaping it into a knife. Sharp and sleek. Refined.
And then, he turned this imagination into a practical sequence.
He channeled his mana, transformed it into flames, shaped it into sleek and condensed two knives, before shooting them forward by exerting his control at full.
The flame knives embedded in the wall a bit before dispersing.
'Hmm, I should make some changes in the reaction of those flames.'
A couple of minutes later, Ainen executed the sequence again from scratch.
This time, the flame knives had a brighter spot in the middle. The moment thye hit the walls, the knives exploded in a compact manner instead of just dispersing.
'It worked!' Ainen's eyes lit up. 'Compression flames into a small point for violent reaction. Yep, it's perfect.'
'I call this spell…Flame Knives.'
Ainen closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again.
'Please, let this work.'
He looked ahead and mentally spoke the incantation.
Three flame knives conjured in front of him before streaking forward!
Ainen's lips trembled. "It worked…"
[ Do you want to register this spell under the skill—Fire Manipulation (S)? ]
'I need to rest now and recover fully.'
He still had roughly half of his mana, but he didn't want to use up all of his mana in case goblins arrived.
Ainen clenched his fist, his eyes determined.
He didn't plan to go out on his own initiative. He would stay here and train more until the goblins outside decided to check in.
Once they come here, he will start his grand escape.
Ainen sat down and took out the mystery box from his inventory. This new tab [ Inventory ] appeared below his name in the corner when he got this mystery box.
'Oh yeah, I also need to check my innate talent. But first, let's open this box.'