Ahhh. This scene is perfect. A beautiful, glistening river that cuts through the heart of a large forest, adjacent to a small clearing. A bright and warm fire crackles lazily in the center of various work benches and chairs. The trees are swaying gently in the wind and the river between them flows slowly, but strongly. The random squawks and growls of birds and monsters adds to this sound; a peaceful symphony of nature. A beautiful and breathtaking experience interrupted by a man in one of the chairs.

  A crazy person with a bucket on his head, firing spells into a portal.

  Yep, that's me. I've been doing this for a while now, ever since I finished my alchemy table and figured out how to make mana potions. After gathering various herbs and fruits that refill my mana gauge, I started using them to mass produce Mana potions. Basically it's just fruit and herb juice.

  Health and stamina potions are a different matter. Almost everything in this world provides a little bit of health and stamina, but nothing seems to do that exclusively. Not yet, at least. Maybe I haven't found them yet, or maybe this world just doesn't work like that. I do have health regeneration potions though, so that's what I've been using. They only increase the rate of health regeneration though.

  While I'm firing off different spells like; Fireball, Rock Blast, Ice Bullet, and a bunch of others, I occasionally hit myself on purpose and heal the damage using magic. All to power level my spells as much as I can as fast as I can. I'm also looking through my "character menu" or whatever it's called in this world.

  I've noticed that my name from my old world is also on here; George Smith. I've always hated that name. It's the most boring name possible. I've discovered though, that I can select my name and change it.

  Noice! Sips Mana potion.

  This is the perfect opportunity to go full gamer mode and pick some ridiculous name, maybe one that's also a pun. I've picked a lot of stupid character names in my days. Even in that adventure game I used to play, with a certain green loving forest dude, I made his name the same as the main villain of the whole series.

  Why? I think it's funny.

  Some random NPC will run up to you and yell, "Hey G**on, good thing you're here. We need your help!"

  Comedy gold.

  This time though, I want to go with something more puntastic and more real. This is the real world after all, not a game, so I can't go with the simple "Dickhead" approach to spruce up the canned dialogue I know is coming. I'll have to actually interact with people. Shiver. So I need a clever joke that also sounds like a real name.

  Something like… Aiko.

  Yeah! That's the ticket. Aiko

  It sounds like a real name but I can introduce myself in a fun way. Making a game out of it, so to speak.

  "What's your name?" Asks the random stranger.

  "It is Ai!" The madman shouts back.

  "Can you help me, brave warrior?"

  "Ai!" Ai shouts back (in Japanese for some reason) "Fear not dear citizen, for I, Ai am ight with assisting you!"

  Confusion ensues.

  I seriously hope I'm doing that right. I don't have access to the internet anymore, so I can't check to see if I'm using Japanese correctly. Let's just pretend I am.

  This might be the perfect name. It's either that or my second choice, "Protag-kun", I don't really like that though. I'll go with Aiko.

  The user, George Smith, has changed their name to Aiko.

  "Thank you sweetie."

  Still nothing huh?

  I'm still not sure if she can actually hear me, or if she's actually real and not just a program of some kind, but I'll keep thanking her regardless. She just sounds so nice. A slightly deeper and more robotic voice than Miss Adelika, but just as buttery smooth.

  Alright. Next on the agenda is studying the rest of this menu. Most of it is pretty standard, like the stats list and my new name at the top, but the rest is a bit different. After learning enough Magic Forms, the menu changed slightly and made a new tab. Instead of seeing a list of only a few spells, and only a couple magic types listed at the bottom, there's an entire interactive menu. There are several Magic Forms in various shapes. The spells associated with them are plotted onto those shapes in specific locations.

  The Space Magic form looks like a 3, no, 4 dimensional structure. Like a tesseract that continuously flips inside out while maintaining its cube like shape. The 3 spells I have are bright dots on the structure, among the many I don't have that are blacked out or gray.

  Pocket Dimension: Stage 9: A spell that creates a portal to another dimension for storage. Anything non-living can be stored inside. Max capacity is 10,000 cubic meters. The capacity, and mana cost, will increase with proficiency. 13% until stage 10

  Spatial Barrier: Stage 1: A spell that bends space to create an invisible shield. The strength of the shield and mana cost increases with proficiency. 58% until stage 2 (New)

  Dimension Phase: Stage 1: A spell that allows the user to phase into a different dimension to avoid attacks. The length of time and mana used will increase with proficiency. 87% until stage 2 (New)

  I think I learned those new spells because I kept using my portal as a shield.

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  There's one that's gray instead of blacked out now that I've gained some proficiency in it. I can't see the details of what the spell is, or does. I can guess though. This might be an issue later for spells that aren't as obvious.

  Teleport Object Stage 0: 27% until stage 1.

  The rest of these structures in the Magic Forms menu resemble mythical creatures. Likely the creatures the magic was created by or based on. It makes me wonder what types of creatures or Gods might be in this world, and how powerful they are.

  The Fire Magic form looks like a fire spirit and fire God blended together. Like Ifrit without flesh or physical form, just fire. It looks like there's something in the background of the form, but I can't make out what it is.

  The Water Magic form is an octopus-like sea monster. Some of its tentacles are frozen, which is also where the ice spells are. The head and a few tentacles are water and the rest of the tentacles look like fog or steam. The dots that represent each spell crawl up every tentacle, and there are more on its head.

  The Wind Magic form is basically a furry dragon. It looks kinda weird, and it's messing with my perception of dragons. There are blacked out spells on its claws. I wonder if that's where some sort of wind cutter or wind blade spell is. Those spells seem to be in every game and Isekai.

  The Wood Magic form is obviously just a Treant. This Treant has a bunch of flowers on it, how pretty. That might mean something too. I don't know what though.

  The Ground Magic form is the weirdest one. It looks like a giant worm crossed with a mole rat and millipede. Freaky. There are blacked out spells on its claws and hooked limbs too. I wonder if those might be metalwork spells, because the claws look like they are made of metal.

  Finally the Recovery Magic form looks like some sort of Goddess of Healing. Not trying to be insulting but, she's like a less pretty version of Miss Adelika. I'm sorry miss healing lady, my heart belongs to another. The blacked out spell where the heart should be must be resurrection or something.

  After that, there's the third and final tab labeled Crafting where the Alchemy, Woodcraft, and Blacksmithing Forms are. Just like the Magic Forms tab there are images for each one. Herbs, fruits, grains and liquids for alchemy. A hammer, anvil and forge for blacksmithing. Then, some simple structures like benches with bows and spears on it for woodcrafting. There are others here that I can't make out yet. Maybe stuff like enchanting and magic item crafting. I can't know for sure though, those forms are almost completely blank right now.

  The thing that's most interesting about the forms is their placement and relationship to one another. They seem to feed into each other. Fire magic is next to water magic on the side where steam is. Ground magic is on the side where ice spells are. Beneath but also between them is where wood magic is. Wind magic is the same beneath steam and fire. There are even locations where spells could fit at an exact middle point between these different forms. All of this is true for the crafting tab as well. Hmm? That is interesting. I wonder if there are special spells that can only be unlocked when you have two or more forms completed.

  I finish up my exploration of the menus, and put all my focus into power leveling. I've been firing spells for hours now taking sips of my fruit and herb smoothie. I've already maxed out every base level spell and a few others. There's a problem though. Just using spells continuously won't always unlock different spells. It maxes out the one you're using until it evolves into a greater form, and occasionally unlocks adjacent ones but only if they're very similar.

  That's great and all but I can't unlock new spells or new forms without trying for hours to use my magic in a specific way. Maybe that's where spell books come in handy. I just have to get my hands on some.

  Fire Shot can become Fireball, but it's still the same, one's just a bigger version of the other. I can't seem to learn any fun stuff like "Flame Cloak", or maybe, "Fire Domain", or any other awesome sounding stuff that you typically see in games.

  I did unlock Fire Circle which is an adjacent spell, and I have gotten most of my spells to evolve to the next stage at least once. When a spell reaches stage 10 it resets to 1 with a new name and greater strength. I just need to keep grinding until I've done that with all of them at least once. Let's get to grinding then.

  Don't do it

  Don't do what, weird voice? You won't even talk to me properly or tell me who you are. Whatever, I have to power level my spells to become a true game exploiter.

  Ugh. What the...

  After speeding up and drinking more mana juice, I started feeling really sick. It feels like there's something poisoning me. I can feel my body breaking down, like there's a toxic sludge, all throughout my flesh and organs. I'm dizzy and my vision is so clouded I can barely see. I stop everything and try using healing magic.

  Ugh. That only made it feel worse. I'm inspecting every inch of my body to see if something latched on to me and stung me.

  Huh? WHAT!?

  I look a lot more colorful than usual. Instead of sweat, there's all sorts of colored liquids pouring out of me. Red, blue, green, and even brown. Something isn't right here. That looks kinda like mana. I quickly pull up my menu again, and look at the first tab.

  Name: Aiko. Level 5. Class: None

  Health: 118/125, Mana Points: 137/98, Stamina: 98/113

  Strength: 30, Magic Strength: 53, Speed: 40, Dexterity: 41

  Defense: 31, Magic Resistance: 23, Fire Resistance: 18, Poison Resistance: 23

  *Status Effect: Mana Poisoning.* You have consumed too much Mana. Your Health will slowly deplete and you will be in a weakened state until the Status Effect is removed.

  Remaining duration: 412 seconds

  WHAT!? Mana Poisoning? Did I drink too much of my potion? I didn't know that would happen.

  Even the mana bar on my screen is overflowing past its boundary. That and the first number is higher than the total amount. It looks kinda like a glitch. Without that status effect shown at the bottom I would think it was glitched.

  I told you

  Damn! Game balancing bullshit. I feel like hell right now. I guess it's true what they say though, too much of a good thing is never a good thing. Hell, in my old world even if you drink too much water too quickly you can dilute your blood. You can even die from that, potentially.

  Now that I think about it, Mana is incredibly powerful and volatile. After all, it can create fireballs, lift massive rocks, rip open portals, and so much more. I may as well have been overdosing on battery acid. That's why I feel so sick. I'm not just nauseous, but I'm in an incredible amount of pain. It feels like my body is falling apart or dissolving from the inside out. I need to end this now.

  I quickly undo the bucket hat and rush over to the bushes. Panicking, while seeing my health slowly tick down, I shove a finger down my throat and violently hurl the contents of my stomach. A cascade of beautiful, vibrant colors erupts from my mouth, painting the flora as it falls and plops onto the ground. I'm still dizzy, faint and nauseous.

  Though, even through the fog of such an unbridled sickness, I can't help but to see the humor in this. This wouldn't need to be comedically censored if it were an anime. A match made in heaven.

  Pushing that thought aside, I rush over to a makeshift outhouse I built the other day. I've emptied my stomach, but the rest of my digestive tract needs to be emptied as well. I focus as hard as I can on purifying my body with healing magic while trying to push everything along with water magic. It's a liquid after all, so I should be able to do something about this.

  After about 30 minutes of trying something pops up on the Magic Forms tab. It's Mana Manipulation, a new form of magic, so I must be doing something right. I stop using healing magic because it's not helping anyway, and press both hands to my abdomen. Focusing really hard, I finally get some movement and... Let's skip that part.

  As I sit atop my throne of shame, I ponder, this is one hell of balancing feature. One that I could die from. So, how am I supposed to get around it? There might be items or spells that can increase Mana Regeneration instead, but I feel like I would have the same problem with that method. Maybe a Mana siphon spell of some kind? I don't know. All I know for sure is that it won't be easy.

  I thought I was breaking the system, but in the end, 'twas the system breaking me.