Just when Ryan was about to create the tenth arrow by using the extra mana he had thanks to Meditation, he received that notification. It was only obvious that the more they level up, the harder it would be to make the skill stronger, but Meditation leveled up pretty fast. He just had to use it for ten minutes, after all.

“What should I do, my quiver can only carry fifteen of those arrows, so I guess make more of them would be a waste of time,” Ryan said. “I guess after creating those fifteen. I should try to use mana and learn other skills.”

That was a problem. Ryan had no idea how to use mana without using the spells he had. Instead of learning how to cast Fireball, Ryan wanted something that would increase his skill with the bow. Although he treated the weapon seriously, he couldn’t help but think that it would be very cool if he could shoot down enemies from hundreds of meters of distance… and Ryan was fully aware that only magic could help him with that.

In the end, the number of things Ryan could do in that dungeon was limited. He tried many things, but it was a bit too much to learn some ‘push-up’ or ‘squat’ skills as expected. That being said, he at least learned a new one.

“How about Jump?” Ryan asked. “Can I learn a skill like that and perhaps make it evolved into something like a double leap?”

Ryan tried, but he didn’t learn such a skill, not even during a fight. It looked like he wasn’t that creative, but given that only two hours have passed since the monsters appeared, perhaps he didn’t have to worry all that much.

Still, even though he was progressing quite a bit, Ryan didn’t give up on thinking about new skills. However, he had to stop for a moment when he killed a slime, and then something appeared at the same place the creature evaporated.

“What the heck…” Ryan muttered, surprised when he saw a worn-out ring on the ground. “I guess this is a drop… kind of unexpected that monsters could drop those.”

“Well… it isn’t that bad,” Ryan put the ring on his finger. “I wonder if there is a limit of how many rings I can wear. This isn’t a game, so probably I can use ten.”

It would take a long time before Ryan can see ten rings dropping from monsters, given that he didn’t have any intention of buying them, but it was something he was looking for if it were to happen. Although he had neglected most status except dexterity, speed, and recovery until now, Ryan began to wonder if putting some points into luck wouldn’t help him find even more drops from monsters. It was a pity that he couldn’t sell things in the dungeon shop, but he still could trade items like that for other things that might be useful.

“I already have fifteen extra arrows… so, I guess I can experiment with the extra mana I will recover by using Meditation,” Ryan said. “Even if I fail, as long as I spend mana, I will end up leveling up Mana Transfusion, so it is fine.”

Ryan tried to fuse his mana in one of his wooden arrows, but nothing happened. Activating skills was easier, but even though he wanted, nothing happened. He tried the same thing with his ring, but again, nothing happened.

After a while, Ryan concluded that he couldn’t transfer his mana to things that were made of mana. At the very least, that logic applied to the wooden arrows. Still, considering that the ring magically increased his recovery, then the ring also had mana.

“Now I can recover a bit more mana and stamina,” Ryan nodded to himself in satisfaction.

If Ryan could learn somehow a skill that temporarily increases his dexterity at the cost of mana, his chances of defeating the slime would increase a lot. However, trying to do that without having a single idea of how to control mana was impossible. It was possible that he could obtain a tome that could teach him the skill he was looking for. But considering the rings and tomes' prices, and the number of slimes Ryan had to kill to get that item… count on that was madness.

“If only I could see the monster’s health…” Ryan began to bite his fingernails. “If I could do that, I would be able to strategize more. In most games, players can see the monsters’ status automatically, but then again, being able to see that in reality would be way too convenient.”

“It looks like leveling up active skills is easier than leveling up passive ones…” Ryan concluded when he killed the ninetieth slime.

Ryan didn’t know why he counted the slimes that he killed, probably because it was the only thing he could do to see what time it was. Since he wouldn’t need it anymore, Ryan had left his cellphone in his car… but the main reason was that he didn’t want to think of Mia and Daniel.