"let's go"

"...okay"

Mars and Victoria slipped out of tent and soon they reached the outskirts of the camp where sentries patrolled the perimeter of the tent town, Mars and Victoria easily slipped past the patrols and soon Mars was running in the night dessert with top speed towards his target

"please still be there..."

a few minutes later Mars reached his target, the air still smelt rather burnt and part of the desert sand was turned to gla.s.s, there was rotting body parts and bodies all over the place but most importantly there was mana stones all over the place

"bingo"

Mars reached down and pulled a mana stone out the dismembered chest of a dead cla.s.s 1 golem before he activated his [Energy: basic drain touch] and drained the energy units out of the mana stone until it turned to dust moments later

"about 100 energy units..."

a smile spread on Mars's face as he reached for the next mana stone and after absorbing the energy form numerous mana stones Mars felt his storage was filled and chanted

"...status"

Name: Mars

Age: 0 (vessel 5220)

Race: Half-dragon human

t.i.tles: [Living G.o.d of energy] [Conquer of Salen] [Tyrant King] [5000 year prisoner] [Man that fell from the sky] [Contracted]

Cla.s.s: [Energy]

Cla.s.s level: 19

Status points:

Strength [25/1000] Const.i.tution [47/2000] Dexterity [36/1500]

Intelligence [27/600] Wisdom [40/900] Charisma [18/50]

Active skills: [Dragon-flame magic lv 5] [Swordsmans.h.i.+p lv 4] [Shadow magic lv 2] [Demon dreaming lv 1] [Instant movement lv 1]

Cla.s.s skills: [Energy: absorption] [Energy storage: 1900/1900] [Energy: discharge]

[Energy: upgrade shop] [Energy: information] [Energy: restoration] [Energy: healing] [Energy: absorb s.h.i.+eld] [Energy: reactive s.h.i.+eld] [Energy: basic reinforced storage] [Energy basic drain touch]

Pa.s.sive skills: [Fire resist lv 15] [Commanding lv 3] [Mental reinforcement lv 5] [Pain resist lv 5]

"open the upgrade shop"

commanding his status the words soon changed to the upgrade shop

Energy upgrade shop

[Energy] cla.s.s skill level up price: 1900

Cla.s.s skills currently available: none

"level up my cla.s.s"

after the words left his mouth a warm spread across his body and soon he felt all his stats raise by 20

"...I'm not done yet"

Mars kept savaging for mana stones and less than 30 minutes later his storage was filled again so he once again chanted

"open the upgrade shop"

Energy upgrade shop

[Energy] cla.s.s skill level up price: 2000

Cla.s.s skills currently available: [Living G.o.d: presence] [Energy: sense]

"oh... would you look at that, some new skills... let's see..."

Mars focused on the first new skill and a moment later the text changed

[Living G.o.d: presence]

use cost: none

status: locked

price: none

function: display the might of your status as a living G.o.d for all mortals to feel

"this seems... fishy"

never mind the vague description Mars felt great distrust about the whole no cost thing

"well... let's just look at the other skill..."

Mars focused on the other skill and soon the text transformed again

[Energy: sense]

use cost: none

status: locked

price: 2000

function: feel any and all energy movements in the vicinity of the user

"see now this feels more like a proper skill... unlock [Energy: sense]"

feeling his energy units drain as usual Mars let his guard down, that's when it happened

"AGGGGGHHHHH!!!"

pain, sudden pain made him scream out and clutch his head while he fell to his knees, it felt like a molten metal rod was being inserted into his brain, rolling around on the cold desert sand for awhile Mars wordlessly screamed until suddenly the pain disappeared and he was finally able to catch his breath again

"Mars! Mars!"

"I'm fine Victoria... wait Victoria hold still for a moment"

he could feel her even though she was standing behind him he cold still feel her from her heart beating to the neurons firing in her brain he cold feel it all including her magic beast core next to her heart, it was like getting a whole new sense

"are... you okay?"

"yeah I'm fine now"

Mars petted Victoria on the head as he himself calmed down for a moment until something else caught his attention, it was like a small orb of energy buried under the sand a few meters away from him, crawling over and digging for a few seconds Mars uncovered a mana stone

"this is weird...but so pretty"

when Mars looked at the mana stone it was the same dull blue gla.s.s like stone as always, but when he felt though his new sense the mana stone 'glowed' in a soft blue light, Mars began absorbing the energy inside it and gradually the light dimmed and went out just before the mana stone turned to dust

"this is... neat, yep neat"

Mars nodded to himself, finding his new sense well worth the pain and went back to finding more mana stones with renewed fever only stopping when he had nearly filled his storage again

"let's stop here... Victoria let's head back to the camp before the sun rises"

"okay..."

heading back to camp Mars and Victoria avoided the guards and easily slipped into the camp and soon got back to squad 7's tent were Mars sneaked in and got into bed without waking any of the others

'today's harvest was rather good... I wonder what higher cla.s.s golems are like and how much energy there is in they mana stones...'

Mars laid in his bed and felt the energy around himself, form Victoria next to his bed, to Nicole that was sprawled out on her bed a few meters away

'the energy that's circulating in her body... is it mana..?'

Mars found himself drawn to gray energy that was circulating around Nicole's body, but soon found it rude to 'stare' and pulled his focus away and slowly fell asleep...

Mars awoke late he felt a little groggy form his late night treasure hunt nut he still felt fine as he rose and sat up in the bed and looked around, the tent was almost empty except from Nicole that was tinkering with her armor suit and Vanessa that looked like she was about to head out carrying a wooden sword but stopped when she saw Mars was awake and gave him a smile

"good morning"

"morning, are you heading out to train?"

"yeah"

"mind if I join you?"

"sure why not"

"neat"

Mars quickly got up and grabbed his sword and got clothed before he followed after Vanessa out of the tent on the way to the training field Vanessa asked Mars

"so how much do you know about handling a sword?"

"a lot, at least I'm no beginner"

"...I see, then I will go easy on you"

Mars could feel a sense of compet.i.tiveness form Vanessa but gave a light smile before he spoke

"oh... then I will do the same"

"we'll see"

they soon arrived at the training field were Vanessa grabbed a wooden sword and threw it to Mars before she gave a light smile and said

"come at me however you want"

"sure thing"

Mars decided to smash her confidence and activated [Instant movement] as soon as he caught the wooden sword and arrived in front of her before he slowly swung down

"wh--"

and lightly boinked her on the head with the sword

"and that's one point for me"

Mars showed a teasing smile to Vanessa

"you... fine let's go again!"

"as you wish captain"

Mars walked back a few steps and raised his wooden sword stood ready

"here I come!"

Vanessa kicked off the ground and swung down towards Mars only to have her wooden sword blocked by Mars that raised his free hand to cover his mouth and yawned before he asked

"is that all?"

"you!"

Vanessa quickly took some distance and stared at Mars for some time before she asked

"what's your [Swordsmans.h.i.+p] level?"

"5"

shock covered Vanessa's face

"5..!?"

Vanessa gritted her teeth for some time before she asked

"could you instruct me then?"

"sure, why not... come at me then"

"yes here I come!"

Mars closed his eyes and relied on his new energy sense to fight off Vanessa's attacks for a while until she began to let her guard down and he suddenly attacked and lightly boinked her on the head with his wooden sword

"that's 2 points for me"

Mars pulled back his sword and Vanessa attacked again, the whole process repeated itself for sometime with Mars only attacking when she let her guard down and after some time she was out of breath and Mars opened his eyes again and asked

"should we stop here for today?"

"yes... I... think... that's... for... the... best"

Vanessa looked slightly down so Mars gave a sigh and walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder

"don't worry about it, you will improve fast under my guide"