By leveling up, I was able to create various tools other than just fireball staffs. When I wanted a tent, drinkable water, food, a blanket, and a tool to repel monsters with, I was able to make each thing for 100 MP or less. With so little MP, I could only make disposable items. I would’ve liked some better-quality goods, but I had to make do living survival-style for a few days on the harsh and dusty plains with nothing but my Creation Magic.
And so my level rose to 6, and my total MP hit 300. However...
“Creation! Gyah?!”
I clearly visualized making something higher quality than anything else I’d created so far, but apparently I just didn’t have enough mana for it.
“Dang. I get the sense it would’ve worked though, if I had about three times the mana...”
Even if I wanted to grind my level up, there were hardly any monsters in this wasteland to defeat. Without monsters, I couldn’t level up. And without leveling up, I wouldn’t be able to increase my mana pool.
“Hmm... At this rate I’m not gonna be able to create much at all. Ah, I know!” I suddenly realized if I could manage creating this one item, I’d be able to solve my MP shortage problem. After waiting for the mana I wasted on my failed Creation Magic spell to regenerate, I tried making something new.
“Please let me be able to make this item... Creation!” What I proceeded to spend the entirety of my 300-MP mana pool for was a juicy-looking fruit similar to a pear.
“Uuugh...” Having never used up all of my MP at once before, I flopped down in my tent, weak from the lack of mana in my body.
The thing I’d made was...a strange fruit. Yep, just like that one stat-raising item from a certain popular RPG series.
“Will eating this make me feel any better?” I wondered aloud, before biting into the fruit and feeling the pear-like juiciness spread throughout my mouth. In the games, sometimes the strange fruit raised your max MP by a random amount—and at other times, it was by a set amount. When I checked my status, I saw my max MP had gone up, but unfortunately the fruit didn’t regenerate any of it.
“So it doesn’t restore any mana... At least the refreshing taste took my mind off my suffering for a minute.” There was nothing to do now though but lie down and wait for my MP to regenerate.
“Ahh, that was rough,” I muttered. “But being able to raise my max MP without having to level up should help me avoid running out of mana again.” Once enough of my mana regenerated, I tried making something else. “Creation: mana potion! This should restore 100 or so MP.”
Spending another 300 MP to make a mana potion that only restored 100 MP was obviously inefficient, but it would be good to have if I ever ran out of mana again in the future.
I continued to create more of the strange fruit, and after spending a few days researching its effects, I’d learned the following:
I could make as many strange fruits as I wanted, so long as I had enough mana.
I could only benefit from the fruit’s effect once a day, so there was no reason to eat more than one at a time.
The amount that the fruit raised my MP by was random, but it definitely rose every time.
“So if I were to eat one strange fruit a day, 365 days a year for sixty years, I’d gain 21,900 MP at the very least, huh?” It sounded to me like my ability to create strange fruits was an epic loophole for gaining more MP than I could ever know what to do with. Slow and steady wins the race, as they say...
“But honestly...it kinda sucks to have to eat the same thing every day for the rest of your life,” I murmured. “And then there was that goddess’s vague request. She told me to live a long time, but what should I be doing exactly?” For the time being, all I really could do was wander through the wasteland, continually in search of stronger monsters.
I eventually created some paper, a compass, and some writing tools. Using them, I drew myself a map as I carried on with my survival lifestyle.