So, what now?

I move mana through my body and strengthen the pulses of my Kinetic Mana Heart. The bear tilts its head and tries to copy me. It fails, and energy continues to destroy its body while green mana continues to restore it.

It's now confirmed that the bear will die on its own after its mana runs out.

But we can't have that! What about my experience points? You won't take them away from me!

But one thing is interesting, the bear learns, slowly but surely. So, I keep showing him how I handle the kinetic energy my heart creates, and it tries to copy me. I sit there and observe it all.

It's all very interesting. The bear, maybe because it's created by the system, maybe because it's undead, or maybe because it's an animal, continues to try to handle kinetic energy in a much different way. So, I continue to watch it.

Oh! This one was nice. I like the way it lets the energy vibrate its bones, then absorbs a tiny bit of that energy. It feels a bit more high frequency than the one generated by my heart. Good job, undead Winnie! Try it again!

But he fails, and his body gets torn apart. The monster opens its mouth even wider and slams them shut, sending a vibrating wave of kinetic energy into its surroundings.

I absorb it, mold it, and shoot it high in the air.

Why was I even scared before? The monster is weak; its only strong point is its high defense, and it made a terrible mistake.

You tried to copy the wrong thing! My Kinetic Mana Heart is not something a chump like you can handle.

Hehe.

Finally, Kim and the twins come from behind me, all having bags filled to the brim with water. They move extremely carefully and pause for a second, their gazes on the corpses of two one-question-mark wolves.

Well, what remains of them.

“Did you kill them?” Kim points at the wolves, and I see that once again, he is getting into a bad mood. The kid is still comparing himself to me.

That's dumb. I'm not exactly normal, so don't do that.

“They were weak,” a few concentrated blasts of kinetic energy were enough to deal with them.

“Your hand…” Kim says out of nowhere, and the twins look at each other.

“It's fine, nothing to worry about. Oh, and you, two little jerks. I can feel you talk behind my back. I feel your connection. If you want to talk, say it out loud, okay?”

That makes them instantly shut up, and the connection between them cuts off.

The bear fails again, and a massive wave of kinetic energy explodes from him at the epicenter, destroying the land around him and deepening the crater he is in. When it reaches me, I absorb it, and not even the trio behind me gets affected.

Now then, the system offered me a passive skill:

Passive Skill: Energy Channeling (Rare) - The user has mastered the art of channeling various energies into their mana-infused weapons or constructs, achieving a seamless integration of different energy types.

It's something I have already tried before, but now I can try a bit harder with my Mana-Fortified Resilience allowing me to push my body further and handle a little bit of misuse.

A sword appears in my hand, and I transfer the kinetic energy into thermal, then try to infuse it into the sword instead of shooting it outside of my body. Carefully, I consolidate both parts of [Focus] and put it all into this task. I slowly move it outside of the body, then through the handle and towards the blade.

Oh, it almost broke; let's change the mana a bit, and make it denser. Leave some space for thermal energy.

Good!

Oh, it almost exploded. Better put it more under control.

The bear shoots another wave of kinetic energy and I absorb it and shoot back. A thin cone of energy piercing touches its chest and obliterates its heart only for it to be restored by green flame-like mana.

I put my [Focus] back on thermal energy and lead it a bit more carefully. Then when the blade explodes after a small mistake, I absorb the thermal energy of the explosion and, after reforming the blade, I continue to try to fill it again.

Kim says something but I can't hear him as I delve deeper into what I'm trying to do. Putting my entire [Focus] makes it feel as if the world around me has slowed down and I watch it with my entire being.

Then, as if by a snap of a finger, I come to a realization and change the way I do it even more. I use [Mana Infusion] as an inspiration but make slight modifications to it, then I switch from thermal to kinetic energy.

[Redistribution - lvl 26 > Redistribution - lvl 27]

[Redistribution - lvl 27 > Redistribution - lvl 28]

Yeah, who needs passives offered by the system anyway?

Now then, what about this? I slash the sword against the tree that is some distance away from me and release the kinetic energy and the tree gets slashed diagonally, the cut being extremely clean.

Well, that's disappointing. I could do something similar with [Oscillation]. I reform the sword into a javelin, fill it with kinetic energy and throw it at the bear. The moment the javelin hits the bear, a thin cone of kinetic energy shoots at the point of contact, piercing the bear and allowing the javelin to dig deeper.

That's it? A little bit more piercing damage? I could do that by boosting the javelin more or not even bothering with that and shooting kinetic energy directly. It wouldn't be as concentrated but it would do a lot of damage.

“Nat, are you sure it's fine to attack it like this?” Finally, I hear Kim and it reminds me that we need to get back with the water.

“You guys go back, I'll join you soon. Oh, and a moment, Kim, how would you fight this bear?”

“I wouldn't? I would run away.”

Smart guy.

“If you had to?” I ask and he pauses.

“I would try to destroy its head and heart at the same time. Stuff like that often happen in games.”

“Oh?”

“I'll go then, okay?” He glances at me while leaving.

“Good job with the boar, I watched how you guys killed it,” I say before they leave and then turn back to the bear, unable to look at Kim much longer.

I did watch them the entire time, and Kim better not think I didn't notice him trying to copy me. What is he? A cosplayer?

But they did well, the three of them against a boar that seemed to be only a bit over or under level one hundred. Kim slowed it down with his [Gravity Well], the twins continued to confuse it with their skill, and then they slowly destroyed the monster, piece by piece. The poor boar only showed some lightning attack that Tess would laugh at, and that the trio easily dodged, fighting like matadors dealing with a bull.

What I said to Kim was just a simple compliment, so why was he so damn happy?

Oh boy, it's so bad. I'm glad I decided not to go with this passive. The idea of infusing thermal or kinetic energy into my weapons sounds good but they all pale in comparison to my tricolored projectiles that remind me of mini-nukes.

If my projectiles were weaker I think I would be happy. Long-range projectile infused with thermal energy for some extra damage? Sounds good!

Projectile with extra piercing power. Very nice.

While bombarding the bear for a bit longer, I came up with a few ideas that could be super interesting to use, but are currently way out of my reach.

What if I infuse my projectiles with kinetic energy and make it so this kinetic energy activates once in a while, boosting the projectile. With a bit of work and some marking on my target that would allow the projectile to follow, I would be able to make homing projectiles.

I could also infuse kinetic energy into my armor, making it explode towards my attacker if I get hit. I think some tanks have it, it's called Reactive Armor or something like that. Or I can use it to do a similar effect to [Oscillation].

For thermal maybe I can create a mana orb that would constantly radiate some heat and heat up the room while I sleep or I'm not there? I could set stuff on fire from a long distance? Flame sword? Flame armor?

I'll have to think a bit more. Overall, it's not terrible but it's also far from good. The best thing about it is that it will allow me to infuse energies I get in the future and that might work better with my mana projectiles.

Well, now back to Undead Winnie. Even after such a long time, the bear wasn't able to control kinetic energy and I can feel his mana reserves dwindling, so I just try MY new idea.

I'll try to destroy its head and heart at the same time!

Yup, that's quite a good idea I say. I might be a genius or something.

So I shoot two orbs, one passes through the bear's eye socket and into its brain and the other one hits its chest. Tricolored mana explodes and implodes as many times before while I watch from the distance and the nearly manaless bear finally dies.

[You have defeated the Undead Bear - lvl 158]

[Lvl 109 > Lvl 111]

That was kind of underwhelming. Let that be a lesson for all the monsters not to try to copy me!

After I invest my stats I glance at them. Not bad at all.

Lvl 111

Strength: 33

Dexterity: 31

Constitution: 92

Mana: 327

Before leaving I also fill my bag with water and wash my face and entire head in it. I can't even explain how refreshing it all feels. I also take a small sip and decide to wait a bit longer to see if it's safe. Tess will surely tell others to do the same. We will see how well the water will do in this world under the Decay.

After climbing the wall I pass by a few houses and enter the one I remembered. The one where I left my cut-off left hand. The hand is gone and instead of it, there is a Peacemaker. But there is one huge difference from the defensive item from before.

This one is totally made from my flesh and bones. The item doesn't radiate any mana I could perceive, yet I can feel an edge of mana circuits that are so complicated it makes my head spin just to try to perceive the tiniest part of them.

When I try to inspect it, no text appears, and the item just lies there, looking extremely creepy.

Should I burn it?

The item moves as if it's breathing, and I notice veins and short hair on its surface as it pulsates.

I totally should burn it.