Cheshyr 「 No, no, no. You’re doing it wrong. Do you even have any mana skills? Show me your status. 」

Becca 「 How do I do that? 」

Cheshyr 「 You don’t even know that? Try chanting Status in your mind. 」

Status?

Oh, something popped up. It’s like a screen is flashing in midair in front of me. When I reach out to touch it my hand goes through it. It’s like a hologram or a game’s UI is implanted on my eyes. No matter where I turn the screen moves with me to stay centered in my vision.

Cheshyr 「 Do you see it? That thing is Status, an innate skill that all people possess. Only the possessor can see their status. Status is a skill that identifies your strengths and capabilities. Can you see the top heading where it says your name? Next to that should be your health and mana gauges. 」

At the top of the status screen it reads: Name – Becca Thorn. I guess it recognizes my shortened name since I introduced myself to this world as such. On the other side of it are two bars, red and blue.

It reminds me so much of a game that it’s quite easy to tell. If this red meter goes all the way down I run out of life and die. And this blue bar is my mana, as long as it isn’t depleted I can still use magic.

Becca 「 I see it. Huh. Mana reads 0/0 though 」

Cheshyr 「 That’s strange. It seems your body doesn’t naturally store any mana. But if you have a mana skill like anyone else you should be capable of building it up. Go to the Skills section, see what you have there. 」

Below the top part towards the center is a drop-down column called Skills. I imagine there’s a mouse pointer clicking on the arrow, and the list successfully drops down. Sadly, there’s only three things on this list.

Skills -

Realization

Super Strength

All Language Comprehension

Becca 「 I see it, but no skill about mana. What are skills exactly? 」

Cheshyr 「 Skills are sort of the other end of the mana spectrum. Magic is the outward manifestation of mana, while skills are the internal results of mana. Think of skills as an innate type of magic that doesn’t require spell-casting. Of course there are skills that affect what magic can be used, so in a sense skills are more closely tied to mana than magic spells. 」

When I focus on one of the skills it brings up a description like a menu.

All Language Comprehension and Super Strength are self explanatory, but what is this Realization skill?

Realization – Manifests thoughts and will through the creation of skills.

Wow. Assuming this list is in order of acquisition, that means I had Realization from the start and somehow got the other two. Actually, it’s possible I acquired the other two skills through Realization. It says it can actually create skills for me. If so, doesn’t that sound pretty broken?

Becca 「 What kind of skills would I need to use magic or mana? 」

Cheshyr 「 For those that possess magic, they usually have a skill to manipulate mana and a skill to create magic spells. I have Mana Control Level 1 and Fire Magic Lv1. That allows me to freely wield the internal mana I have and use fire spells. 」

In that case, what if I make a skill to generate mana? Something like mana regeneration or mana absorption. Oh, the list got updated in real time and now it has two new skills. Mana Regen and Mana Absorb. Strange, they don’t have levels like Cheshyr’s skills do. While I’m at it, Mana Sense, there. Another skill successfully added.

Becca 「 How do people normally get new skills? 」

Cheshyr 「 Are you joking? You don’t just get new skills like buying groceries. Skills are a result of harsh training and mastery of the basics. For someone to learn magic they have to sense mana and learn how to guide it outward. It takes years of practice with the sword to acquire the Swordsmanship skill, for instance. 」

My Realization Skill is definitely a cheat. It’s so unfair to all the people of this world, but skills are just things I can create whenever I please. I guess that the All Language Comprehension and Super Strength were skills I unconsciously created.

In truth, I had wanted a way to communicate when I came upon people, so maybe that skill is what allows me to understand and speak this world’s language so perfectly. And the strength I displayed earlier must have been my unconscious wish for power. I admit, a tiny part of me expected some super cool powers when I heard the Goddess gave me some. That must have been when Realization created Super Strength.

Turns out magic will be easier than I expected.