《I'm a Stingray? [Book 1, Complete]》 Chapter 1 - System Reboot "The hell!? Why am I underwater?" [System reboot] [Loading...] [I''m your ocean survival system, you are my servant] [Feed me points, and I''ll show you the secrets of survival with the aid of body upgrades] "Oh for the love of..." ... [Your first task = Locate and eat any small species of the crustacea ignatius family, juveniles are preferable¡­ less steamy.] This message in his head was very confusing. That aside, he, Timothy Lake, a human, didn''t have the slightest clue, regarding how he suddenly appeared underwater! It was nothing less than absurd. He completely ignored what the system said. In fact he wasn''t even sure what the ''system'' was, and thought that craze was creeping in. He could hear the system but not see it, which was a rather radiant hint of auditory hallucination, if not other things! "Who the hell are you? How did I get here?" Tim exclaimed, as his panic blossomed. [I''m your inbuilt, ocean survival system. You, Timothy, are the new owner of this newborn, stingray body.] It answered. But, it didn¡¯t stop there either. [As for me, I have knowledge equal to one world and beyond it, I can help any oceanic creature survive this cruel, magical environment.] "Damn this thing has a lot to say." Tim thought briefly and privately, as the system''s disruptive voice annoyed him shitless. [I heard that,] It said. "Oh so you can read my thoughts too, perfect." Tim added, he felt embarrassed, especially since the system sounded like a lady, though her tone was computerized. [Yes,] It followed along. Silence stretched after that point, for a whole minute, as Tim was given a lot to think about. The system eventually broke the silence, in a way that was a bit annoying; Basically, she started spamming some information. [Available system points = 10] [Purchase options = 1] Tim would rather not interact with the system, but she was persuasive. Since he was almost convinced that what he was experiencing was a dream, he saw no harm in playing along for a while. Dreams must end eventually, even nightmares, and this felt like a nightmare! He said, "Let''s hear that option out, I guess." There was no harm to that, as everything about this truly felt like a dream. He even tried to swim fast, as fast as he could, but that effort was dimmed by slow and pale results. Just like in other nightmares, he moved really slowly! [Option number one, and the only option right now = A brochure, explaining the details of your new body, and species in depth.] [Price = 3 system points] "Kind of expensive for information that is solely about ''my'' new body." The little stingray continued complaining, though he knew that he was becoming a bit annoying. He knew that he wouldn''t be here for long, so he gave in completely. There was no point in being all grumpy, he started playing nice-er. He sighed and said, "Whatever, okay. I''m purchasing the first, and only option." [Purchase confirmed,] The system said. Stolen novel; please report. [Loading¡­] [Species = Bluespotted Ribbon-tail Ray] [Family = Dasyatidae extingius] [Gender = Male] [Age = 29 days] [Length = 15 centimeters] [Width = 7 centimeters] [Weight = 0.3 kilograms] As a closing sentence, she [Your purchase is complete, and as a result, 3 system points have been consumed. Due to this subtraction, only 7 points remain in your total sum.] Tim ignored all that talk about points, and said. "Sounds like I''m very small." He expected an answer, but the system wasn''t very responsive. Instead, it continued spamming information that may only be interesting to her and her alone. She said, [Because of your most recent purchase, three more purchase options have been unlocked.] [Option number one = Learn your current location] [Price = 14 system points] "A geo-tagger?" Tim recalled this modern, human phrase. Afterwards, he joked. "Yeah, fish definitely need that. Nothing like a good old GPS to get you across the Pacific Ocean." He started being more and more sarcastic, because he was getting nervous. Everything that was happening didn''t feel like a dream anymore, so he had to cope somehow. The system, however, didn''t respond to such sarcasm whatsoever. She continued going on with her business, by spamming more of her information. She said, [Option number two = View the chart of your current capabilities. This one is essential to have and memorize, therefore it''s priced cheaply, 3 system points.] "That sounds interesting." Tim thought, he felt intrigued. "I want to buy that one." [Purchase confirmed,] The system said. It was nice to hear her respond instantly for once. Considering the circumstances, he''d love to be distracted right now rather than face the problem at hand. Somehow he was a fish, and he wasn''t quite ready to accept that. [Loading¡­] Afterwards, the system described. [Your capabilities will be listed shortly. Levels state just how strong a specific capability of yours is, with level zero being the lowest.] [Hunting, jaws, and natural camouflage = Level two] [Barb, and barb venom = Level zero] [Bodily strength, and speed = Level one] [Sight, scent and overall senses = Level one] [Intelligence of either, four forms = Low] [Mana = Pathetically low] [Magical powers = None] [Sex appeal = Level zero] "Wow, pretty low. Looks like anything can kill me, though." Tim pointed out, and tried to ignore the devastating fact that his ''sex appeal'' was down to level zero. [Everything can kill you, yes.] She confirmed. Afterwards she said, [Your purchase is complete, and 3 system points have been consumed in exchange. Now, only 4 system points remain in your total sum.] Tim was given a lot to think about. This world started feeling more and more real, and the salt water hinted at it so, but that wave of realization wasn''t the worst part. If everything was real, and as it appeared, it was, then he was given the worst cards to play with. He was just a tiny, weak, stingray! He didn''t know how his soul ended up in this body, but it would be embarrassing to die in this same body, as much as it was embarrassing to own it and live in it. In the meantime, the system didn''t care about his feelings whatsoever, and continued making her sales pitch. She said, [Option number three = Upgrade Hunting, jaws, and natural camouflage to level three. This option is priced at 28 points.] "Kind of expensive for a pair of jaws, don''t you think?" Tim asked. Now he didn¡¯t have any idea of how these points were attained, but they seemed like a lot. Part of him considered suicide, rather than to go through with everything a fish had to do on a daily, but the rest of him was curious. Sure he was also terrified, but if this world truly had magic within it, then it was worth exploring! The system decided to respond to his question for once. In fact, she even wanted to help him become a bit more practical. She said, [Let me show you some statistics, free of charge. The following consists of your current state of overall health and well-being.] [Health bar = 87/100 points] [Hunger bar = 3/15] [Sleep, and stamina bar = 11/35] [Mana = 0/0] At last, she sealed the deal off by adding. [You need to be a good hunter in order to survive. Now you can''t afford ''purchase option number three'' for the time being, but you can still hunt. As I said before, find a crab that you can kill, you need it and you definitely need the points that it can give you in exchange, once you kill it. Good luck, Timothy Lake.] Chapter 2 - Enemy "System, I''ve been waiting for an hour now! Where the hell are those iguana crabs you talked about?" Tim complained, and the attitude he had was fueled by anger alone. The system didn''t make things any easier for him, as she said. [You mean crustacean ignatius, not iguana? Also, you''ve been waiting for 37 minutes, and guests aren''t supposed to lie. Please behave!] Before he could say anything, the system answered the prior question as well, though she was a bit vague about it. She said, [You should just continue waiting for a little while longer. Crabs will eventually crawl over here, so stop talking and rustling around, you''re gonna scare them away. Don''t let ''natural selection'' be your worst enemy, please the oceans are already dangerous themselves. Don''t do stupid stuff.] Ironically, right now, the system spoke more than Tim ever did. She distracted him, even, so he was set quite for a surprise, after he felt a couple of doting, hot steps on his soft, fishy stingray back! "Youch!" He exclaimed. Then, upon an in-built primal reflex, he swung that dangerous tail of his. Afterwards, he noticed that the barb on the tip of his tail, punctured whatever crawled on his back! That was not enough to kill the said creature, however. His back still felt very hot, as if he was the one getting stabbed. In a mode of panic, Tim pulled his tail out of the creature, and began stabbing it over and over again! He had the slightest hint that he was attacking a crab, but throughout these few seconds, it didn¡¯t matter much. Tim fought until he won, arose from the sand he had buried himself in, and then finally got a good look of what he had just killed. It was a crab, and it didn¡¯t take a detective to figure that out. The crab had colors equal to that of live flames, which explained why its feet had been so heated up to begin with! But in another aspect, it didn¡¯t make sense. Tim recalled some very bland details from his past life, and before he reincarnated into this fishy body, he had never really heard of flaming crabs. It sounded insane. Nevertheless, he was happy that he killed the puny crab. It was smaller than him, but the damage it had dealt was insane, Tim had marks on his back now, which may take a while to heal. He did not want to experience that again, the crab''s death brought him peace. He even started mocking it, calling the carcass fat. "Guess that''s why they call it an iguana crab, look at that ridiculous belly." [No, no.] The system was quick to correct him, [It''s an ignatius crustacea, which translates to flaming crab. That''s why its legs fried your back a little bit, this species is your natural predator and prey at the same time.] As the system said that, Tim remembered that he had to eat, and therefore felt nauseous. He looked at the crab, and since it was half the size smaller than him, the stab-wounds it had, made it seem all the more disgusting. Through a mouthful of barf, he asked. "Hmm, flaming crab, huh? Does that mean it''s already cooked and ready for me to eat?" [No, its flesh is actually really wet and chewy. I recommend you wait until the crab cools down, though. However, if you don''t see yourself adapting to this lifestyle, death is an option. Though, if you want to die, you have to starve yourself to achieve such a blessing.] The system followed along. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "That doesn''t sound any better," Tim said, and then just decided that he was to eat this crab. His belly was empty, and he''d rather be angry with a full stomach, rather than grumpy and hungry at the same time. This new life already seemed hard, and there was no point in making it harder. The system cooperated with him for once, she went quiet and let him be. A few minutes went by, and he noticed how the crab''s flame died out through every passing moment. He associated this crab with the shocking and sudden pain he experienced, so he was happy to see it die, fully and forever! "Hehe," He smirked. Anyway, now that he was more edible, he sunk those small jaws of his, on the crab. It took a moment to break its shell, but once he got a mouthful of its meat, it didn¡¯t taste as bad as he thought it would be. In fact, he didn¡¯t taste anything at all, as Bluespotted Ribbon-tail Rays didn''t have taste buds, apparently! This was a blessing, the more he thought about it. His belly started feeling full, and he didn¡¯t feel disgusted as he finished the crab off. Moments later, the system informed him. [You successfully killed a flaming crab, so 1 system point has been credited to you. I encouraged you to murder a crab to begin with, so you recieve another system point as a reward.] Aside from that, she also added. [In total, you have 6 system points in your sum.] "Thanks for making me feel better about killing and eating my natural nemesis, system." He joked. The system was quiet for a while, as it seems like she was doing her own thing again. She was analyzing some information, and prepared to talk about a bunch of stuff. She said, [You ate a full-grown flaming crab, and that comes with plenty of benefits. Your Hunger Bar is at 7/15 points now, but that''s not all; You''re also amped up with a fraction of the crab''s magical powers, at least for a little while, and I suggest you use it.] "Really? That''s badass!" He exclaimed. However, as he wiggled around in excitement, he shot out the bit of power he had stolen. A tiny fireball shot out of his barb, and just diminished as it arose up the salty waters. "Oh shit, I messed up, didn''t I?" He sighed. He felt stupid that he lost the only bit of magical powers he could attain, but rather than arguing about it, the system worked with him on this. She said, [Your bodily conditions are working against you a bit. You can''t focus, and with that tiny mind of yours, not being able to focus adds up on your stack of daily problems. With that considered, I recommend that you bury yourself as much as you can, and just sleep for a little while.] "You don''t have to tell me twice," He said. The meat he ate was finally weighing on his stomach. It made him feel warm, a bit cozy, and surely comfortable. He could use a nap right now! ... Upon opening his eyes, Timmy spotted a big fishy face right in front of him, that was glaring all the way down to his little soul. Worse yet, this fish carried a pair of terribly shiny jaws! In response, he peeped a bubley complaint, and demanded to know. "What''s that?" [I recognize some species of shark, but I can''t give you any specific information right now. If I am to analyze this thing properly, then you need to bite the shark.] She said. Tim would rather not do that, and instead, he asked. "Can I outswim it? I don''t want to know who its uncles are right now." The system did not answer to that, at least not immediately. She was carrying out her own procedures, and was quite greedy with any forms of information. Tim however, didn''t have any time to waste. The shark was getting curious, it started head-budding his spine, which couldn''t be a good thing at all. He responded quite primitively, and stung the shark right on the face! This was the best he could do. Chapter 3 - The momentum The shark reacted immediately. Once it got stung by Tim, it jerked its head left and right, then it quickly swam away. A two-inch deep stab was quite effective from the looks of it, very painful. "Feels like I stabbed that fucker with my ass," He joked, while in utter stress. However, he couldn¡¯t have killed that shark with one stab alone, it was impossible. So necessarily, Tim was still in danger! The shark circled back, within half a minute. It was either looking for trouble, or a meal, but either way this was really problematic! The shark had to be at least two meters long, and it seemingly had powers too. Its fins left a line of fire across the water, regardless of how fire wasn''t supposed to lit up down here. It was scary, and overall, Tim didn''t stand a chance! He stabbed the thing, by pure luck to begin with, it had nothing to do with skill. Seconds later, it charged towards him! The shark exploded with speed within a couple of seconds, and it would be a terrible idea to stand in its way. Tim was aware of the latter, so he sank within the sand as much as he could, and hoped for the best! Apparently, the shark wasn''t so smart. Once Tim was out of sight, it swam right above him, as it had lost track of its target completely. This was good, it bought him some time. However, Tim couldn''t hide in the sand for long. He was too deep within it, and was suffocating already; He did not want to die this way, not at all. For that matter, he ended up emerging from the sand. He hoped that the shark had gone away already, but that was not the case. It floated right behind him, so Tim decided to swim away, with all of the power and speed he could summon right now! "Fucking hell! Being a fish is hard." He thought. The shark didn''t notice him immediately, so he got a ten second head start. The little stingray was as enthusiastic as he was scared, and although he wasn''t the fastest swimmer, he did see a potential hiding spot. He saw a tiny hole, about ten more meters away, and got really excited about it. If he could hide in there, then virtually no one could hurt him, he''d be safe! However, a few seconds later, he heard a couple of tail-flaps, which could only mean one thing! The shark saw him, and now it was chasing him, unfortunately! Moments later, the enemy floated right above his head, and then dove down for some reason. This completely disrupted Tim''s momentum, and he was forced to swim downwards along with the shark! In a bizarre fashion, his barb somehow met with the enemy''s flesh again, and it slid across the surface of the enemy''s white belly. He scratched that belly accidentally, without a doubt, but that was enough to irritate the shark. It tail-smacked Tim as a result, which under this setting, felt like he was just hit by a truck! He didn''t suffer any broken bones, but he did feel quite disoriented. The system announced, [Health, -22 points.] "Fuck you, flamy-ass fish! If I survive this, I promise to find you one day and rip your guts out¡­ I promise." He spoke, but could merely cause a few tiny bubbles, even if he shouted. This slap, however, came with a bit of an advantage. The hole he tried to swim in, was just a meter away now. He mustered up some strength to swim towards it, but his luck may be running out soon! The shark had made a U-turn already, and started approaching. It clapped its jaws, with this utter hunger and need to destroy the stingray in front of it. Tim was scared shitless, but right now, there was nothing he could do to stop or as much as harm the shark! At this point, the little stingray gave up. He stopped swimming, and just waited for his death. Within the following few seconds, however, the unthinkable happened. A strange, roundish head poked out of the very hole, which Tim had tried to swim in! At that speed and momentum, the creature managed to dig its jaws in, right into the shark. "Fucking hell!" He squeaked, in surprise. Everything about this clash was accidental. He was sure that this creature had tried to eat him instead, but he had no time to mutter that over right now. The magnitude of the two, bigger animals, flipped him around like a pancake, several times! He had no orientation whatsoever, and for a few seconds, he was even back to back with that damned shark! Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. This situation was terrifying, so instinctively, he started fighting for his life. He started stabbing the shark, to the point where he managed to flip himself around. Then, with the best of his abilities, he started both stabbing and biting the shark as well. He wanted to cause as much damage as he possibly could! "Who''s the boss now, fatty!" He whispered, and for a short moment, he was even enjoying himself. What happened next, however, was even more surprising than that creature''s pounce. While he was stabbing the target like a maniac, the system spammed an important, and surprising notification in his mind. She said, [Flame-finned mako shark, identified. You snagged a few mouthfuls of meat from this shark, so now you have a fraction of its power.] "Huh?" Tim mumbled, as he continued to attack the shark. The system followed along on what she just said, as she added. [My calculations estimate that you''ll have flaming fins for yourself, for about three days. Note that every kind of power that you steal from other creatures, though useful, it''s still temporary.] Tim was distracted by the system, just slightly. This distraction, however, made him lose his grip on the shark. So he was tossed away from battle within seconds, and crashed right near the hole which he had tried so desperately to get in. This hurt, and the system was quick to announce. [Health, -10 points.] "Stupid hole! Stupid shark!" He complained, and then barged in the same hole he cussed. Moments later, the system accumulated the damage he had suffered this past minute. [You''ve lost 32 points of health, which is almost critical for a stingray of your size.] Furthermore, she added. [Your Health Bar now is 55/100. You''ll feel numb for a while.] "It''s not that bad, it''s not that bad..." Tim tried to convince himself. His Health Bar was low, yes, but at least he won''t be hunted anymore. The shark and that creature will end up killing each other, most likely, so he had this little den all to himself. This hole was bigger than he imagined, about a meter wide, so it was a good spot to live in. It was a little ugly, but that didn¡¯t matter much. However, as Tim tried to distract himself from the pain, he noticed something very interesting. He saw a whole, green brick on the bottom of this den, which radiated a faint light of the same color. It was just a bit bigger than him in size, but as far as common sense was concerned, bricks weren''t supposed to be green! He wanted to touch the brick, but its light, although faint, still managed to hurt his eyes. The system warned him too, she said. [Stay away from that, I have no idea what it is.] It sounded unusual for the system to not know something, Tim was stumped. Nevertheless, he heeded her advice, and just steered clear of the brick. There were plenty of other spots to lie down on, and he was no experimental scientist, he wasn''t so curious. Within a few seconds, he decided to heed the command and just floated away. He had no idea what exact purpose such a brick could have. And it was even more difficult to understand why it was in this den, but right now he did not want to think about it. He wanted to feel home here, but something wasn''t right. The brick burned his eyes a bit, yes, but he could feel that something else was wrong. With the little power he had, he floated towards the exit, to have a look at the surroundings. He saw that two-meter long shark, and noticed that the creature it was fighting was an eel. That eel had lived in the very hole Tim was in right now. It protected the brick for some reason, and by that alone, he figured that it wasn¡¯t the best idea to live in this den himself. At least, not for long. There was just something very odd about that brick, and he didn¡¯t want to find out what it was! Right then, the system interrupted his train of thoughts. [That fight won''t last long, Timothy. If you want to swim away, now''s your chance.] "Right right," He thought. Afterwards, he busted out of the hole, and then spotted a glowing, red coral reef close by. A coral reef could give him more advantages, when it came to avoiding huge predators, as it was a mazzy, rugged place. Tim was beaten and bruised, so technically, he shouldn''t be able to swim all that much. However, he did steal a bit of power from that flaming mako shark, and subconsciously started using it. The flaming tips on his fins made him swim faster all of a sudden. Tim barely sloshed around, yet he swam at a steady pace of 10 km/h! This was a lot for a tiny stingray, so he reached the coral reef in seconds! Afterwards, he slipped through a bush-like sea plant, and then swam down further within it. This reef offered tiny tunnels, and within this tunnel, he found a sizable, foot-wide spot where he could properly relax in. Five minutes later, he could see that same mako-shark, poking its nose on the bushy sea-plant, which Tim recognized as the entrance. Fortunately the shark couldn''t fit in, so he remained safe. However, Tim couldn''t fall asleep if a shark was poking around, so he found a much safer escape route. He found another tunnel within this foot-wide den, and this tunnel was much smaller than what he was used to already. The snug tunnel wasn''t a problem for him, however, as he was a squishy stingray. He practically crawled through this tunnel, only for a short moment, before another opening revealed itself. This place was far bigger, about three meters wide, and it was mostly isolated. Big shark''s wouldn''t be able to get in here. He was surrounded by red, protective coral here. But at the very bottom of this cave-like place, there was sand, and he noticed how a bunch of small, spider-like critters crawled around down there. They didn¡¯t seem dangerous, and Tim was still hungry, as the damage he withstood took a lot out of him! He had to munch on the spiders! Chapter 4 - Pinpoint Spiders always looked creepy, the ones of the sea even more so. However, Tim tried to put his discomfort aside for survival¡¯s sake. He did so, and ended up eating seven whole ¡®sea spiders¡¯! He ate so many of them, because they weren¡¯t so filling, they didn¡¯t have any fat on them. Their long legs were inedible, so he only chomped through their small, red main bodies. He didn¡¯t have to fight them in order to eat them, as these ¡®spiders¡¯ were as stupid as one would assume! This was an easy, but surely creepy meal. The system spammed him with some information afterwards. [You successfully killed and consumed seven marble shrimps, so in total, you get 14 points of health out of them. Of course, your hunger needs have been fulfilled as well.] ¡°Health, huh? So that¡¯s why I was feeling better¡­ This isn¡¯t temporary, right? I don¡¯t want to feel like crap after an hour or, whatever.¡± He asked. His concern was valid. A tiny stingray didn¡¯t have a complex system of pain receptors, but the few that he did have, had numbed most of his movements up until moments ago! He didn¡¯t want to return to that. Thankfully, the system answered. [These points aren¡¯t temporary, no. You replenished your health bar, and unless acted upon, your health bar will be 69/100 from now on.] ¡°That¡¯s good, you know? Finally, something to be happy about.¡± He thought. However, from the looks of it, these shrimp also had a negative effect. He ate seven of them, and each shrimp took a point away from his sleep and stamina bar. He felt pooped, and therefore looked for a tidy place on the sand, where he could sleep on. This place was pretty safe, or at least, huge creatures wouldn¡¯t be able to get in here. He shouldn¡¯t find himself facing any enemies here, none which he knew of, so this time around he could sleep peacefully. While he dug himself into the sand, the system came along with another chunk of information. [The kills you just made, also reaped you 7 whole system points. In total, you now have 13 points at your disposal.] That didn¡¯t sound bad at all, but TIm didn¡¯t care about points right now. The lack of stamina knocked him out cold, just moments after he dug into the sand. He felt safe, stronger, and he even dreamt about killing that mako shark who chased him. This wasn¡¯t as bad of a day as he made it out to be. ... About five hours later, Tim woke up and he felt fully rested. He was alive, there weren¡¯t any enemies in sight as surely, sharks wouldn¡¯t be able to squeeze in here. He was safe, and felt strong for once as well! He had dreamt about being the strongest stingray in existence, which was far from the truth right now, but it was something good to aim for. Before he went asleep, he remembered the system talking about points, and now, he figured that it was time to use them. ¡°Gotta get stronger somehow,¡± He mumbled, and then asked. ¡°System, what can I buy right now?¡± The system was quick to answer that, she said. [There are currently two available upgrade options, and you can¡¯t afford either of them.] [Option number one = Learn your current location. This option is priced at 14 points] Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. This option seemed bizarre, and for a single reason only. Location, or knowing one¡¯s own location, shouldn¡¯t matter much for a little stingray. He could travel to another sea or anything like that, he was really small and slow. He hoped that there was more to this purchase, otherwise it would be a waste of points. Anyway, the system continued. [Option number two = Upgrade your Hunting, jaws, and natural camouflage capabilities to level three. This upgrade is priced at 28 points.] Tim wanted to buy this option instead, it seemed really useful. However, it was also expensive, too expensive for him. It would probably take a while to get another fifteen points to use, and under the current circumstances, he didn¡¯t really want to put the work in. He didn¡¯t want to eat those spidery shrimp anymore, especially not fifteen of them all together! For that matter, he had to decide. ¡°Oh well, can¡¯t buy the cool stuff, but might as well buy something. I want to learn my location, system, maybe it¡¯ll show me the good stuff, like where to find better food?¡± [As I mentioned before, you lack the required points to purchase this option. Go kill another one of those ¡®spiders¡¯ as there are plenty of them in your den. If you don¡¯t want to eat any of them, just bite its head off, as it will still give you a point, though, it won¡¯t affect your health or stamina at all.] The system said. Tim was irritated right now, he didn¡¯t want to move, but he had to comply. He found a marble shrimp, and killed it without remorse! [Purchase confirmed,] The system immediately said. [Finding host¡­] Suddenly, a map appeared in front of Tim''s vision! It stretched from one end of his vision to the other, and it looked a lot like a computer screen! Interesting for sure. "Wow!" He exclaimed. Plenty of moving images flashed in front of him afterwards. An earth-like planet appeared on that screen, except the planet¡¯s atmosphere, unlike earth, had a stroke of red mixed between its overwhelming blue gas. It was beautiful! The globe spun quickly within the screen, and once it stopped spinning, it zoomed in on a specific part of the ocean, which had a stretch of land nearby. Tim wasn¡¯t on earth right now, that aside, he was a stingray, so he didn¡¯t really recognize landmasses by their name. All of that looked like miscellaneous information to him. The computer-like screen ignored the landmass as much as Tim did. Instead, the screen zoomed into the sea water, submerged within it, and started taking numerous quick turns below the water. TIm felt as if he was being chased by a camera crew right now, one which had superpowers, because eventually, the screen showed him the very coral reef he was hiding in. It found that stretch of red coral, and he only assumed that the ¡®cameras¡¯ were above his head now. He was too scared to swim upwards and look at them, but the system still impressed him nonetheless. The system then explained, [[You are in the Strait of Teutana, near the city of Trekanas. The area is mostly safe, but I advise you to exercise caution. You¡¯re too small, so a small injury can snowball into a deadly infection. This coral reef can be your friend for a while, explore carefully.] As the system spoke, Tim looked at the screen in front of him, and tried to make sense of the area. The screen wouldn¡¯t zoom in any further, but from the short glimpses he had gotten earlier on, it was obvious that this reef was absolutely massive! There were infinite hiding spots here, and he guessed that plenty of other small animals used this place to hide in. With that in mind, if he tried enough, then he¡¯d plenty of spots to farm points on. It was inevitable! Anyway, the system sealed this whole topic off, as she explained. [This purchase consumed all of your points, so I¡¯d say that you should take your explorative aspirations seriously. If you¡¯re to progress, you will need many points.] Tim was aware of that, so he didn¡¯t get demotivated when the system pointed it out. He was a poor little stingray right now, but since he didn¡¯t want to die anytime soon, it was best to just work and aim for progress! The system added one more thing, [That aside, about ten minutes from now, you won¡¯t be able to look at this map anymore, so pay attention and try to not forget your surroundings.] ¡°Okay, guess I can¡¯t swim fast unless I need to, huh?¡± Tim came to those terms, ¡°Hate to waste these flaming cunts, but oh well¡­¡± Chapter 5 - Just in time Tim squeezed within the reef and its many contents, in search for easy points. He swam around for three hours, quite carefully, but hadn''t managed to find as many creatures as he hoped to find. He just found a few more marble shrimps, and half of them had been in his den. They seemingly were the most abundant creatures in a fifty-meter radius, but their numbers weren¡¯t infinite. He only killed twelve of them, but avoided eating most of them, because he didn¡¯t want to exhaust himself too quickly with their negative side-effects. Tim avoided utter exhaustion as long as he could, but yet again, swimming around slowly and carefully for three hours straight, wasn''t easy at all. He got tired, and used his last bit of energy to swim back to his den. Then, he fell asleep. It was a good idea to relax for a while. Tim wasn¡¯t hungry, and his health went up by six points too, because of the few shrimp he ate. For that matter he could sleep peacefully. He went to sleep while hearing a brief notification, from the system''s side. [Your health bar now is 75/100 - Good job!] ¡­ "Wow, I woke up and there ain''t no shark trying to kiss my face." Tim joked. He tried to move around afterwards, but he had slept like a rock, potentially for six hours, so it wasn''t easy for him to move. Even as a fish, he had to stretch first! He took a peek of the surroundings, and noticed that mother nature had blessed him. A bunch of marble shrimp had crawled into his home, so quite literally, there were a few easy points in front of him which he could reap. Tim felt a bit hungry too, so this was a very good scene to wake up to. Six of them had crawled in his large den, and within a couple of minutes, he bit all of their heads off, and then ate them. His sharp little plate-shaped jaws were quite efficient for the job! Throughout that murder spree, he even jokingly yelled. "You''re in my land, hehe!" Moments later, the system announced. [You successfully killed and ate six marble shrimp, and now, you accumulated 18 system points.] [Health bar = 87/100 points,] She added. "Nice, I feel a lot better too. Need me more shrimps though, I still need like six points to buy that hunting thing." He expressed. The system was quick to correct him, she said. [You need 10 points, not 6.] Tim wasn¡¯t the best at math, that was obvious. As a stingray, it was astounding that he recognized numbers to begin with. Anyway, although he wasn''t smart enough to do mathematics, he was smart enough to ask good questions. He asked, "Why can''t I buy anything else, though? Like tail venom and stuff like that." The system was prepared for questions like this, so she broke the topic down slowly. There were a few aspects to cover. Firstly, she said. [You''ll upgrade your tail eventually, amongst hundreds of other powers and attributes that are also available. However, it''s best to take things slow, and buy the simple stuff first, before you move on to anything dangerous and advanced.] A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Furthermore, she added. [For survival, your options are bracketed to what your current bodyform and size needs, you''ll only get a few purchase options at a time. Specifically, this will keep you from making irresponsible purchases. I took the privilege to organize every available option for you, based on your overall weaknesses and strengths.] "That''s good," Tim nodded his flat head along, and added. "I wouldn''t trust myself either." The system didn''t comment on that. She maintained a standard line of professionalism, and focused on more important things. Just moments later, she announced. [You''ve made progress, Timothy. For that matter, based on your current overall state, you can proceed with a task, task number two, to be exact.] Then she explained, [Your official, second task is to locate and kill a bubonic sea urchin. Upon completion, you will receive twenty system points as a reward.] In all seriousness, he asked. "Bubonic, huh? Does this mean that the urchin has boobs?" The system was stumped by that question. For a second, in her infinite wisdom, she couldn¡¯t figure out if the other was joking or not. Eventually though, she answered. [No, it''s called bubonic, because a stab from its spiky spines can make you gravely ill.] "Oh," He mumbled, "I''ll avoid its booby spines then, hopefully." For a second he wanted to avoid this task altogether, but a reward of twenty points sounded great! Number-wise, he''d have to kill twenty shrimps to get that same amount, and surely, he''d rather not waste hours hunting for shrimp. This would even be a good opportunity to buy that upgrade, and even have points to spare afterwards! He found a string of enthusiasm just so he could follow this task, and then recalled. "I saw plenty of urchins while I was looking at that flashy map of yours, system. They were in the sand out there, out of the reef¡­ so let''s hope I can find the right urchin, before that stupid shark finds me instead." Moments later, he squeezed through a tunnel, and poked his head out of those red, bushy sea plants. With his limited vision, he wanted to check if the perimeter was safe. He found himself being all the more careful recently! There weren¡¯t any dangers to speak of, so he left the reef, and used the flames on the tip of his fins to swim quickly. Tim felt as if he was a fighter jet, because he didn¡¯t have to move his fins much in order to travel quickly, it was very fun! He swam twenty meters away from the reef in seconds, and right then, he saw a carcass on the sandy sea-floor. It was an eel, and its body was almost split in half, so the scene was gross and pretty graphic! Tim however, was feeling opportunistic, so he quickly took a bite off of the eel. To his utter surprise, the system then announced. [You just killed a thunderous moray eel, and as a reward, you received 40 system points! In total, you''ve accumulated 58 system points, which are to your full disposal.] Tim freaked out, and quite joyfully, he asked. "What the hell? But, it was already dead!" The system ignored his questions for a moment, and instead, she said. [There are 20 volts of thunderous electricity stored in your barb, and you can use half of that amount in a single second. You can either use that amount sparingly, or continue to eat the eel carcass in order to accumulate more voltages.] Tim felt like the luckiest stingray in the world right now, but also, he had so many questions. Plenty! At first, he insisted. "So I accidentally killed this eel¡­ and got all those points? Please answer me, system, don''t play with me." Finally, she expanded on that question. [I''m not ''playing'' with you. It looks like the shark had bitten the moray eel badly yesterday, but it didn''t exactly kill it. The eel used its voltages of power to stay alive, but it had exhausted most of its powers already. You''re lucky, because in any other setting, you would''ve been fried dead.] "Now that''s luck," He celebrated. Tim could buy that big upgrade now as well, which was phenomenally advantageous, but chose to push the upgrade away for later. He was out here with a goal to find an urchin, and he intended to complete that goal. However, to protect himself from the potential dangers, he took a few more bites off of the dead eel, and accumulated a total of fifty points of voltage on his tail''s pointed barb. Tim would love to figure out just how dangerous this ''thunderous voltage'' was, so for once, he hoped to get attacked by a shark. For once, he felt powerful, rather than helpless! Chapter 6 - Health, -10 points! Tim searched the flat sea-floor for about five minutes, and within this time bracket, he found three urchins. Each of them had different colors, one of them was even purple, so without risking his own health in the process, he had to figure out which urchin was the bubonic one. He wanted to charge towards one of the urchins like a barbarian, but he had to resist those fishy urges. The urchins couldn¡¯t crawl away, after all, so he didn¡¯t have a reason to rush things. He approached one of the urchins, and almost took a bite out of it. Common sense advised him otherwise, however, at the very last second. The urchin¡¯s spines were spiky, so undoubtedly, it would be dangerous to put his mouth on its spines! It was beyond dangerous, actually, it was stupid. ¡°Hmm¡­ can¡¯t trick me!¡± He exclaimed. Tim debated on how he should approach this urchin, and after half a minute, he remembered that his tail was practically charged with thunder! It may be useful against an urchin, but only if this shock was a ranged attack. Otherwise, if he had to impale the urchin in order to kill it, then he may get poked by its spines as a result. He decided to give it a shot, and remembered to be cautious. His tail could shoot out ten points of voltage a second, so if he wasn¡¯t mindful about it, he could lose every point of this magical attack almost instantly! Tim lifted his butt-cheecks upwards, to aim at the red urchin, and then flapped his tail forward. His tail, in response, shot a string of thunder towards the target; He didn¡¯t even have to ¡®summon¡¯ this thunder, in order for it to dart forward, it shot out naturally! An explosion erupted in response! Tim was tossed away a whole foot, he survived the explosion, but for a good moment, he had no idea what went on. He didn¡¯t know what just happened! [Health, -10 points.] The system announced, and also added. [Health bar = 65/100] ¡°Fucking hell, that hurt!¡± He complained, ¡°I only used like five volts, that was insane.¡± Tim didn¡¯t have the slightest clue regarding how powerful a single volt was, but he figured that it shouldn¡¯t cause an explosion! Nothing made sense at that moment. The system helped make sense of things, as she added. [You successfully killed a sulfuric urchin, and got 7 system points as a reward. In total, you now have 65 points.] Furthermore, she added. [These urchins are a really explosive species, and don¡¯t really offer anything in return, apart from points and health loss. Your attempt was good, but, B- for caution though.] ¡°So I didn¡¯t even find the right urchin, huh?¡± Tim asked, and sighed in disappointment. ¡°Good thing I didn¡¯t bite that bastard.¡± Tim¡¯s belly hurt, it burned even. However, he hadn¡¯t really completed the task that the system gave to him, so he couldn¡¯t quit now! He quickly moved over to the next urchin he had found, and this time, he kept a distance of one meter from it. That red urchin exploded on his face, so quite frankly, he didn¡¯t want to know what a purple urchin was capable of. This one was a hunch bigger than him as well, which intimidated him even more! ¡°Here we go¡­¡± He mumbled, and shot ten volts of thunder against the target. Thankfully, this one did not explode! He killed it successfully, and split it in half, even. Unfortunately though, this one wasn¡¯t the right urchin either. The system specified that, as she said. [You just killed a normal sea urchin, and as a reward, you¡¯ve received 2 system points.] ¡°Two points for that fat fucker? That¡¯s not fair,¡± Tim said. Then again, he couldn¡¯t do anything to reverse this small reward. He just moved onto the last urchin in his close perimeter, and shot ten volts of thunder towards it. This one exploded as well, but in another, special way. Upon the explosion, its spiky spines spread across the waters. Tim didn¡¯t want to be anywhere near those spikes, especially since they were green, so he swam a couple more feet away from them. Afterwards, he asked. ¡°Did I get the right one this time, system?¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. [Yes,] She said, and then added. [The reward is yours, but this urchin doesn¡¯t offer any powers either¡­ Instead, consider this as a community service, as any slaughtered bubonic urchin is only a positive contribution to the oceans. Anyway, in total, you¡¯ve accumulated 92 system points!] ¡°Yay!¡± He celebrated for once, ¡°Mission accomplished, huh? Good, I gotta get back home and eat a shrimp or two, cuz my belly is fucking barking!¡± Tim referred to the pain. He completed the task successfully, and did so without contracting a disease, however, he was still hurt in the process. He didn¡¯t feel comfortable with his health bar being this low, so he started rushing home, all for comfort¡¯s and survival¡¯s sake! ... Tim got home, and found three more marble shrimp there. He ate them all, and replenished six points of health as a result. [Health bar = 71/100 points,] The system notified him. ¡°Ahh¡­ that feels kinda better.¡± Tim said, as the pain on his belly reduced by half. He laid down on the sand afterwards, just so he could relax for a little bit. This had been a busy day, so he needed a break. While he relaxed, however, he remembered something important. ¡°I think I¡¯m ready to buy that upgrade now, system.¡± [Confirmed,] She said. In an instant, he felt a large sensation of pain on his jaws, and around his mouth too. That pain spread out in other ways afterwards, and by now, he could only assume that all of this pain came from the upgrade! It had to. He developed a strong headache moments later, and then, his whole body started aching hellishly! He wanted to shout once or twice, but the pain muffled his voice. That aside, his body was so numb that he couldn¡¯t move at all! He went through a whole minute of soul-tearing pain, until finally, the system said. [Congratulations! Your hunting, jaws, and natural camouflage capabilities have been upgraded to level three.] [This upgrade consumed 28 of your system points, and 64 of them remain.] She added. "Finally." The boy sighed. The pain went away as fast as it arrived, he was glad to survive it even, but it had been terrorizing! Little did he know, the pain he went through had an indirect reward, one which would encourage a ¡®shopping spree¡¯. [Four new purchase options have been unlocked,] The system announced, and the following options, for once, actually seemed interesting rather than daunting! [Option number one = Upgrade your barb, and barb venom to level one. This option is priced at 45 system points, expensive but infinitely useful.] She described. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Tim sighed, as he debated if he should buy this upgrade, right on the spot. However, no matter how much he wanted to, he resisted buying it. The system spoke about the rest of the upgrades quickly after, which made him bicker with himself intensively; He didn¡¯t know what to buy! [Option number two = Endure water pressure for 100 more meters. This option is priced at 75 system points.] She added. ¡°What the hell is water pressure¡­¡± He bickered with himself. He didn¡¯t expect an answer, but surprisingly, the system described. [It means you can swim 100 meters deeper, without taking damage from the sea¡¯s water pressure. This is essential to your progress and survival.] Tim didn''t even know that water itself could hurt him, but he was curious about it now, so he asked. "How deep can I swim now then, system?" [For the time being, your maximum depth durability is 200 whole meters.] She said. That sounded good enough, and it was great that there were special upgrades like these, ones that could fight against the effects of water pressure. They were expensive, sure, but he felt safer nonetheless! Anyway, the system continued listing the upgrades out. [Option number three = Increase your personal IQ by 10 points. Upgrades like these are special, so this one is priced at 90 system points.] The price intimidated him, but he felt that he didn¡¯t have to buy this one right away. He considered himself to be smart, smart enough, which fairly was a delusional perspective, but he believed it thoroughly. He even asked, "How huge is my IQ now, system? Gotta be over 160¡­ right?" She answered that question very quickly, [Your current, personal IQ is 45 points.] That was not what he expected, at all. However, he had enough reasons to be positive today, and in the midst of his numerous active delusions, he found another lie for himself to indulge on, one which he could believe easily. He exclaimed, "Well of course, that makes sense! I''m a stingray now, not a human, so I have a smaller brain, way smaller! I¡¯m still smart though, for a fish at least. Yeah, I¡¯m a genius, no debate on that hehe!" Tim¡¯s point of view was interesting, but it didn¡¯t really matter much. The only thing that mattered now were the new upgrades that the system introduced. They were important, but for a minute or two, he forgot about them completely; He still bickered about his own intelligence, which was a topic that could last for hours, if not interrupted! The system interrupted him, thankfully, as she listed the last, new option. [Purchase option number four = Unlock your explorative soul abilities. This option is your birthright, so it''s priced cheaply, 40 system points specifically, just so you can purchase it easily.] Chapter 7 - Essence Points? "Explorative soul, huh? What''s that for?" Tim asked. He was stumped. In fact, for a good few hours he even believed that stingrays didn''t have souls to begin with, he had been convinced about that. For that matter, he didn¡¯t have the slightest clue now, regarding what a little stingray could do with a soul of their own! He was confused. Thankfully, the system shed a bit of light on the matter, she said. [The explorative soul ability, allows you to go into a hibernation-like state, and after that you can detach your soul from your body. Overall, it''s a very good method to accumulate system points quickly, and explore this expansive, magical world as well, without hurting yourself in the process.] "The world¡­ you mean, I can float out of the sea, and hunt birds or some shit?" He asked. [Yes, although that would be unproductive.] The system followed along, [There are whole, invisible kingdoms made out of souls and soul-based energy, so it''s best if you go visit one of those spots, rather than hunt pelicans. Don''t waste time, Timothy!] "Fair, fair." He nodded along. Tim didn''t care about pelicans to begin with, but rather, in his own way, he asked a trick question. He wanted to know if his soul could fly out of the sea, and apparently, it could. He was so excited about that, because in a weird way, if he got out of the water today, then he could embrace his human upbringing a bit more! He''d love that. So far, he swam through salt for less than a day, and he was already sick of it! Tim craved to be on land, or at least out of the water, at least for a little while. His human soul craved it more than anything else! With all of that considered, the following steps were a no-brainer. He had to buy this fourth option first, and then check out every other option in due time! He didn''t care about the other upgrade options as much. He said, "I want to fly, system, give me the good stuff! Don''t worry, I won''t bother any pelicans." [Confirmed,] The system said. A moment later, the waters around him suddenly stirred up. A white, aura-like entity surrounded him just for a few seconds, and throughout that time-bracket, it spun around him so quickly, that it stirred up a little, visible dust cloud! That was about it, this upgrade wasn''t as intense. It wasn''t painful like the previous upgrade, for example, but it was spooky! Thankfully, it even disappeared before things could get uncomfortable to the slightest. Tim was fine, he wasn''t feeling any pain, and the system came along with a relieving message quickly after. While the dust-cloud calmed down, she said. [The upgrade was implemented successfully, and it took 40 of your system points in exchange. Now, 24 system points remain in your total sum.] "That''s¡­ not a lot, but I did buy two cool things, so it''s okay." He muttered. After this point, he felt the urge to activate this new ability right away, he was enthralled to do so. He needed a bunch of points anyway, and since this new ability promised points, then there was virtually no reason to avoid giving this ability a shot. Tim was ready to separate his own soul from this little stingray body! Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. The system encouraged him too, ever since the beginning, but now she had to give him a couple of warnings. One warning was about the dangers, and the other warning was for the sake of efficiency. Tim couldn''t waste any time, no matter what the circumstances were. She said, [Timothy, if you want to try out this new ability, I have two suggestions. First, find the best hiding spot possible, because quite literally, anything can eat you or hurt you, while you''re in that hibernation-like state.] "Right," He nodded, "That makes sense." The system felt that Tim wasn¡¯t listening, so she insisted. [It''s imperative that you hide properly, because if your body gets destroyed while you''re in this explorative mode, then your soul can''t return to it. You''d have to find a new, non-occupied body, which is a really rare occurrence, it''s less than achievable!] "Well shit," He muttered, "I''ll bury myself as best as I can, then¡­ sharks can''t get in here either, so I should be fine for a while. What''s the second thing, though?" [Other souls can attack you,] She said, [Although that won''t hurt your body directly, it still has negative sides. If your soul receives enough damage, it would be sent back here into your stingray body. After that, you''d have to go through a cooldown timer, before you can explore again. Try not to get banished too quickly, it would be really inefficient.] "Okay, well that''s not so bad, then. Banished or not, at least I''ll be alive." He followed along, and continued to bury himself within the sand of his den. He didn''t want to suffocate, and from what he understood, as long as a third of his head was out of the sand, then he''d be fine. Tim didn''t have any room for mistakes right now, rather, he only had room to reap points! Progress was inevitable, and he was willing to chase it. After Tim covered himself with sand, he said. "System, I''m gonna sleep now¡­ when I wake up, I better be flying." This wasn''t a threat, it was quite the opposite. He didn¡¯t know how to ''hibernate'' himself and hoped that the system would cover that part. The system did as she was asked, it was her job after all; Tim sunk into that hibernation-like state, in no time at all! ¡­ "Bloody hell, when did another stingray get in here?" Tim panicked. He woke up, and saw a light-blue stingray''s head, right underneath him. This scared him shitless at first, but a moment later, he caught up with what was going on! "Holy shit, that¡¯s me!" He exclaimed, and then celebrated. "It worked, muhahaha!" [Indeed,] The system added, [You''re free to explore, as far as your soul permits.] "You''ll be joining me too, huh?" He asked, and right then, he noticed that his soul had a mostly transparent, light-blue color. [Of course,] The system answered, [I am embalmed in your soul, for good, you can''t get away from me, hehe. Okay now pay attention¡­ as a wandering soul, you''ll have a different health bar. It''s called an ''essence bar'' and you only have thirty points of it, so, if you lose those thirty points in battle or anything like that, your soul will return straight to your body! So, be careful.] That was a lot to take in, all at once, but Tim felt ready nonetheless. He felt agile, and had this intense urge to explore the world. If the sea had explosive urchins, then he couldn''t wait to see what interesting things the rest of the world had! In excitement, he started floating right through the coral, to head towards the water''s surface, as quickly as he could! Moments later, however, the system gave him another warning. She said, [Timothy, your body back there is equipped to stay two days at most, without food, you should know that. Try to keep track of time, or else your stingray body could starve itself to death!] "Okie dokie," He said, and finally escaped the sea. Chapter 8 - Semi-automatic Stingray! Tim was astounded by what this world had to offer. The air, apparently, wasn''t as bland as he imagined. It looked clear, yes, but further away the sky had more to offer! "Fucking hell, everything looks like a rainbow¡­" He thought. Tim could see multiple colors across the sky, and these colors were spread randomly. They looked like clouds, even, and each of these huge clouds were divided by color. Some clouds appeared softer, while a smaller percentage seemed very concentrated, and dense. They were interesting. Tim eventually flew into one of the latter! He flew into a pink, five-meter wide cloud which was dense in color, as it was fairly concentrated into that limited, five-meter wide space. He was really curious about it, and at that pace, he figured out what it was for! One would assume that it was stupid to fly towards a funny-looking cloud, but it wasn''t so bad after all. Tim experienced the cloud''s effects first hand, and thankfully, it didn¡¯t kill him, neither did it try to. He didn''t feel anything bad, but instead, he could suddenly see the dense cloud dissipating! Its rich pink color faded away quickly, as Tim had apparently swallowed this cloud wholly, just by flying into it. He got very confused, and grunted. "Huh¡­ Were those system points or some shit? Is this how hunting works?" Almost immediately, the system answered. [No, that was just a cloud of phantomized mana. You reaped every ounce of it, and you''ll definitely need this kind of mana.] "Oh, so ghosts have magical powers too? Yeah, that makes sense." Tim nodded his transparent head along. The system didn''t have to describe things any further, because he experienced the power of this special mana immediately. He suddenly got this urge to shoot stuff, and then, right in front of his head, some sort of ball which was filled with magic, appeared and shot out randomly, across the sky! The ball was a foot wide, and it beamed across the air very quickly! Its confidence was as rich as its silvery color, Tim was impressed. "Well damn, that looks so cool! Did you see how it spun, system? It looked like a damn fighter jet for a little while!" He exclaimed. Tim was as excited as a child, which at this point was difficult to excuse, because his soul was that of a full-grown human''s. He was excited beyond bounds, and couldn''t wait to figure out what other kinds of powers that his mere, stingray-shaped soul had. He shot a couple of other magical balls, just for the fun of it. Immediately after, he was scolded by the system. [Don''t be wasteful with your phantomized mana, Timothy! It''s not limitless, and although that cloud which you dried out was dense with mana, you''re still making expensive shots right now. These balls of ''silver razors'' you''re shooting, are very rich in color, and therefore, really rich in mana.] She said. The system took the initiative to explain that magic system as thoroughly as she could, because clearly, what Tim just did was a bit clumsy. He was out here to hunt for system points, and therefore, he couldn''t afford to waste mana like that. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. For that matter, she also added. [You have 207 points of phantomized mana left in you, and each ''silver razor'' you''re shooting, takes 12 points of such mana away from you. Use them sparingly, please.] "Okay, okay, I get it now." Tim said. The system was very logical, he had to agree with it no matter what he thought. Though as far as math was concerned, he was oblivious to the fact that he just wasted thirty-six phantomized mana points, for fun. He ignored the math, even, and floated around the sky as happily as an unsupervised child would. There was more across the sky to explore! He spotted an area, perhaps five kilometers away, which seemed like what the system had described before, as a ''ghostly kingdom''. Tim assumed so, because there was an astounding variation of color there, even black, which intertwined with one another! From afar, it seemed as if three rainbows had clashed with one another; Scary, but beautiful. Tim wanted to go there, but the more he traveled, the further away this ''presumed kingdom'' appeared. He flew for ten minutes, and got really irritated already! Even the clouds of mana were farther than he assumed they were, he couldn¡¯t reach any of them. Now, he understood why the system scolded him about mana, because as it would appear, it was really lucky to run into a dense cloud of mana to begin with! "Bloody hell," Tim grunted, like a fish. "I should get back home¡­ there''s nothing for me out here, I''m too slow." His enthusiasm about this whole, ''explorative soul'' business had dimmed down quite a bit. He was irritated, bored of flying, and grew this sudden urge to bite things. Of course, he couldn¡¯t bite anyone right now, because he assumed the form of a transparent soul. Though, his aggressive attitude still idled by, it was there. Tim traveled for five more minutes, just for the fun of it, but then suddenly, he spotted what could''ve been mistaken, as a fast-flying flock of pelicans! A wide, pipe-like line of white, faded out souls flew off right in front of him. Well, it was about fifty meters away from him, but the scene was still accelerating and all the more terrifying! If he had flown across that spot, two seconds ahead of time, then his soul would''ve been destroyed! Tim didn''t know what to think about this fast-traveling line of seemingly infinite souls, but the system on the other hand, had a thing or two to say. She exclaimed, [Shoot at them, Timothy!] He was confused for a moment, but, since this all-knowing system encouraged him to go rogue, then he had no reason to fight the urge at all. Tim started shooting ''silver razors'' of mana against the crowd, as quickly and as recklessly as he could! Tim shot several razors within five seconds, and as he did so, the quality of his attacks decreased. That latter part wasn''t entirely a bad thing, because his shots were still taking out handfuls of tiny souls at a time! The quality of the ''razors'' decreased, yes, but in total, he should be able to shoot about thirty times! At some point, he even started laughing like a villain about it. "Muhuhaha, die, sperm souls!" The solid system points he won along the way, encouraged him to deplete every bit of phantomized mana he had. The system kept spamming him with notifications about the system points he won over, which in a sense, made Timothy feel high! He was on a murder spree, and shot ''silver razors'' as if he was an automatic weapon! However, this spree met with an end. From within that crowd of seemingly migrating souls, a massive ball of fire shot out. Now Tim didn''t know if it was fire, but the ball of mana got to him, as soon as he depleted his own phantomized mana. The fireball shot him out of the sky, and depleted his essence-based health bar almost immediately! He was shot down in ''cold blood''. Moments later, he suddenly woke up below the waters. It took little time to figure out that he was a stingray again, a physical form! Tim recognized his den too. "Bloody hell," He cussed, "That was fun¡­ but the system did warn me about this, and now I gotta go through a damn cooldown timer, probably forever¡­ stupid sperm souls!" The system intervened right after, she said. [Don''t panic, the cooldown timer only takes a week. That aside, congratulations! Your murder spree was efficient, as you accumulated 192 system points throughout the wild shooting. In total, you have 216 points at your disposal.] "So that''s all it took, huh? I had to shoot at stuff¡­ damn, cruel world." He muttered. Chapter 9 - Special Crabs? Tim returned to his stingray body, and now, he had a lot of time to kill before he could explore again. The wonders which were sandwiched between the sky enthralled him, so he couldn¡¯t wait to get up there again, a week from now! Exploring the skies may get boring at some point, but the rewards were plenty! Tim gathered up a bunch of system points while he was up there, for example, and that was the best reward of all. He intended to use those points fully, but he wasn''t in a rush right now. Upgrades were expensive, so he hoped to find a couple more critters to kill first, before going on a shopping spree later on! It was a responsible idea. "Ah, this''ll be more than boring, it''ll be exhausting¡­" He sighed. It wasn''t easy to swim for extended periods of time, but right now, he didn¡¯t really have anything better to do. Tim stretched his fins a bit, and then started exploring the reef! This place was massive, especially since it had complimenting cracks and tunnels within it, which made the reef all the more expansive! So just like that, he got occupied for a solid two hours, within a puny, thirty-meter radius across the reef! He barely reaped any fruits from this labor. There were plenty of fish across the reef as well as other species, ones which may or may not give him points, but he couldn''t catch either of them, as they were too fast and very good at hiding! "Bloody hell! Why don''t they just give up? They can¡¯t be having fun here!" Tim referred to those fish, he was very irritated. Throughout this time span, Tim only managed to find about seven marble shrimp, and four ignatius crabs. Such a haul wasn''t too bad, but these creatures only gave him a point per kill, and that was what made things difficult. He didn¡¯t manage to accumulate as many points as he hoped for, and that aside, he could barely even eat half of these critters either! Tim wasn¡¯t so hungry, and the shrimp would put him to sleep if he ate them, so he only bit their heads off, and left their carcasses to float around. It was cruel, but a bit efficient. Considering the overall results, however, he wanted to call it quits here, and check out what upgrades he could buy from the system. Small-time hunting wasn''t getting him anywhere. The system said that he had gathered 225 system points in total, and in hindsight, that amount did seem like a lot. He was eager to use them all, for progression''s sake! Tim slipped through a bit of coral, and sought out a comfortable spot to rest on. He wanted to lay down on some sand, and have a layer of protection surrounding him as well. Safety was important, after all. However, it would appear that he slipped in the wrong hole. He swam into a wide place which was quite dark, but yet, it wasn''t empty! You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Tim spotted a pair of light-blue eyes in the midst of darkness, and could only assume that these eyes belonged to some monstrous fish! He was getting stared at directly, and it was nerve wracking! "Hello, I''m Harold. Please, don''t leave..." The inhabitant suddenly spoke out. "You can talk to stingrays¡­ so, are you one? Let me see your tail." Tim followed along. Tim didn''t trust this one, it was difficult to. That aside, he would only feel comfortable around other stingrays, so if this was another creature instead, then he planned to beam out of here! "I''m not a stingray, I''m an eel, kid. A shivering var-blood eel, to be exact." It said, and then added. "But please don''t be scared, I''m not gonna hurt you¡­ I need your help." Tim had tried to position his thunder-charged tail, the moment this thing said that it wasn¡¯t a stingray. He wanted to burn the eel''s eyes off, if not kill it, just to protect himself! Then again, a creature who pleaded for help wasn''t so easy to kill or attack. He ended up asking, "Help with what? Also, how do you understand me? You''re not a stingray¡­ not even close." Harold got a bit irritated there, though he did answer. "I''m an eel, kid, and your language isn''t that hard to understand. But please, listen and focus¡­ I''m stuck here, have been stuck for months because this place really managed to fatten me up. I''m not as small as I used to be, and that''s what''s killing me now." With that being said, Tim was intimidated even more. He barely saw the eel''s body, apart from small portions of its head, and yet he was still intimidated. If this thing was as big as it described itself to be, it could kill him in a blink! For that matter, he didn¡¯t really feel comfortable about another eel being loose across the reef. It would be hazardous! Tim''s better judgment convinced him to back away, and meanwhile he said. "I can''t help you, Harold, sorry. Eat less and exercise¡­ maybe that''ll get you out of here?" "Oh, you''ll help me." Harold insisted, and his voice sounded quite sleazy now. "You''re looking for food, right boy? The sharks went on a feeding spree a few months ago, and they devastated most of the reef¡­ damn, it''s why I hid here to begin with, but, I do know where to find good food, special crabs, if you know what I mean¡­? Help me get out of this shithole, and I''ll show you where the blue-clawed crabs are, I promise!" "Oh¡­" Tim sighed, and he was enthralled by this offer. "Well, how can I help you then?" With a hint of joy in his tone, Harold answered. "Look, sharks are assholes, but I did manage to make friends with a few of them. There should be a shark with flaming fins here, around the reef. Find him, and tell him to come and get me¡­ his name is Drake, mention his name, and he won''t eat you." "Shit¡­ I saw that guy. This idea can kill me, Harold, so those crabs better be worth it." He sighed, and then left, by squeezing through a couple of short tunnels within the coral. On his way out, he even asked the system about these special crabs, but she didn''t respond kindly. He would have to bite on those crabs himself, in order for the system to talk about said crabs. There could be many species of blue-colored crabs, and they couldn¡¯t make any speculations without seeing, and tasting one of them, first hand. He couldn''t cheat his way towards the good stuff. Anyway, Tim was very nervous about approaching a shark, as things could go horribly wrong along the way. He was excited though nonetheless, and couldn''t wait to taste these special crabs as soon as possible! Chapter 10 - Fish Vendetta! What Timothy was about to do, took a lot of guts. He was about to encounter that big mako-shark, and this encounter could end up badly, but he was simply mesmerized by the idea of ¡®special crabs¡¯! He wanted them. He found the shark lurking about fifty meters away from the reef, and then approached him. Tim felt uncomfortable about this plan, but he had to get close in order to catch the shark¡¯s attention. "Hey, flame-ass! Harold the eel needs your help, he sent me to find you!" He shouted. However, a stingray¡¯s vocal cords were very limited, so he couldn''t make any loud noises. For that matter, he had to approach even closer, and then yell out once more. He called out, ¡°Hey, fish face! Harold needs your help! Can you hear me?¡± Tim was about ten meters away from the shark now, and this was as close as he could get. If he swam any closer, then Drake the shark may attack, and he surely didn¡¯t want to get bitten today. Thankfully though, the shark seemed to have heard him. It turned around, and then headed towards Timothy. ¡°Nope,¡± Tim grunted, and then instantly swam towards a little hole nearby. The hole was snug, but it was made out of stone, so he figured that the shark wouldn¡¯t be able to bite him there. This was the safest option he had right now. Moments later, he heard a gravelly, manly tone calling for him. ¡°You¡¯re that menace that bit me¡­ get outta there, I saw your flaming fins, jackass!¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s me.¡± Tim answered, and yelled as much as he could. ¡°Get your dumb nose away from my hole, buddy! My tail is amped up with fire and thunder, so I¡¯m not afraid to use all that on you, Drake.¡± ¡°How do you know my name?¡± The shark gasped, much like a shark would gasp. ¡°Pull your ears out of your ass and listen to me,¡± Tim yelled out, ¡°Harold the eel sent me here! He¡¯s trapped in some coral, and he needs you to get him out!¡± Drake sounded confused afterwards, as he asked. ¡°That fucker¡¯s still alive? I haven¡¯t seen him in ages!¡± The conversation that followed was more of a long session of bickering. Tim didn¡¯t want to get eaten, so he made Drake promise on his mother¡¯s watery grave that he wouldn¡¯t attack whatsoever. It took about ten minutes of bickering to reach an agreement of that nature, but they did meet with mutual terms eventually. Tim slipped out of that hole in the ground eventually, and swam side by side with this two-meter long mako-shark. It didn¡¯t attack him, and Tim couldn¡¯t be happier about it! He convinced a whole shark to behave properly, and with that part done, most of this little mission was completed already. He just had to show the shark where Harold was trapped at, and that was about it. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Both of them swam quite fast, as Tim was still bearing the ¡®flaming fin¡¯ powers he stole from this same shark. They got to the reef within less than a minute, and then, he showed Drake where to go. He explained, "That¡¯s the spot, under the sea-bushes there. Now¡­ how are you gonna help Harold, huh?" The mako-shark didn¡¯t answer that question. Instead, he just charged towards the coral and bashed his head against it! That bash wasn¡¯t enough, though. The coral was tough, especially since Harold was stuck under a couple layers of them, so it won¡¯t be easy to break them! Drake didn¡¯t stop trying, however, he continued to bash the coral with his head, even though each bash was piercing through his skin! This was painful to watch, there was blood everywhere! At some point, Drake struck the coral with the left side of his body, a couple of times, instead of with his head. This was more comfortable, and seemingly more effective too! The layers of red coral shattered into four, huge pieces, so Drake¡¯s barbaric approach was now a success, as they saw a huge, dark-blue eel emerging from within the coral. The eel was three-meters long, half as fat as his shark friend, and surely seemed terrifying all together! ¡°There you are,¡± Drake celebrated. ¡°Here I am!¡± Harold followed along, ¡°This place almost drove me crazy, I was cooped up in there¡­ and could barely move.¡± ¡°And now you can move,¡± Tim interrupted the two, quite shamelessly. ¡°How about you stretch with me a little bit? Show me where those special crabs are, eh?¡± He was intimidated by these huge beasts, however, he had a tail packed with power, which made him feel a tad protected. He was willing to threaten these beasts if he had to, in any given second. Harold didn¡¯t seem amused, however, he said. "Get out of here, dumbass, there¡¯s no such thing as special crabs!" With that said, Tim realized that he had been tricked, so yelled out. "What the fuck? But we had a deal, you big fat liar!" Drake intervened afterwards, he said. "Fuck off, kid. Quit harassing my friend." Timothy did not let that slide. This new fishy life made him really greedy over these past few hours, so he wasn¡¯t willing to do free labor, even for a minute! This betrayal angered him quite a bit too, so he was quick to respond. His tail spun around a couple of times, as if it charged with power. He was just finding the best way to aim at these beasts, and moments later, he attacked. Less than half an hour ago, he had eaten flaming crabs, so his tail was charged with a bit of fire too. Paired with the lightning he had stolen from that slaughtered eel, the attack he unleashed left a mark! Tim shot Harold right on the forehead. This shot was powered with twenty volts of thundering electricity, so surely, it left a mark! Harold squeezed backwards in response, and then shot a gust of cold wind from his mouth. This wind was meant to hit Tim, but it was too slow, so he got away from it quickly! Afterwards, he poured every ounce of offensive powers he had, both against the shark and the eel. He didn¡¯t manage to kill them, no, but at least he managed to pour his anger out on them! It felt nice. Afterwards, he swam away quickly, and started squeezing within the many layers of coral close by. The beasts were both too fat and too tired to follow him, so he escaped effortlessly! He even mocked them along the way. Anyway, though he got a bit of revenge on these traitors with his attacks, it was certain that he and them had a vendetta from now on. A vendetta, which wouldn¡¯t stop unless either side was dead! Tim bickered with himself, "They will die by my hands, well fins¡­ soon enough Vengeance is the only way!" Chapter 11 - Upgraded Stingray! Tim''s sense of vengeance went down, as soon as he found a place where he could rest at. The hard outlay of coral was his best friend around here, and he used it well, as he hid beneath about four layers of this hardy coral. Nothing could get to him at that point, nothing dangerous at least, he was deep within these natural barricades! He thought, "Harold can''t get me here¡­ and fuck that guy! Who tricks a kid by promising spooky crabs? That was borderline pedophilia there, or at least, in the real world he would''ve gotten in trouble for tricking a child! I''m only like twenty-nine days old, god damn it." Such accusations were way out of line, but this little outburst had a simpler outlay. He cared less and less about either Harold or Drake, the more he talked about them, and as long as he avoided them from now on, he''d be perfectly fine with forgiving them. Forgiving was an exaggerated word, even, as he simply did not care to get involved with them at all. He had a life to live. Here, deep within the coral, he found a few marble shrimp and ate them. They were about to put him to sleep, but he got four more system points out of them, and thought that now was the best time to put them into use. The system had announced, [You''ve accumulated a total of 233 system points. It''s a decent sum for you, especially since you''ve only used this stingray body for a day now.] "Well, thank you. Getting into trouble all the time has its rewards, right?" He joked, and at this point he was half asleep. [High risks do have high rewards, yes.] The system agreed, and then said. [Anyway, your health bar is looking better too. It''s at 79/100 ~ It could be better, but you won''t be feeling anything more than a headache from now on.] "Yeah, shrimps help¡­ but I''m falling asleep, system. Can you tell me about the stuff I can buy?" He followed along. [Certainly,] The system said, [You can upgrade your barb, and barb venom as a start. This is the cheapest option available, and you''ll need your barb in the long run.] "Okay, let''s go with that." He said. [Confirmed,] The system followed along. Almost immediately after, Tim felt a sudden sharp pain on his whole tail. This took a toll on him, as the pain spread like the plague, it was simply unbearable! He didn''t understand why upgrades came hand-to-hand with intense pain, but it wasn''t fun whatsoever! About two minutes later, the pain stopped, and the results seemed decent. The system said. [Congratulations! Your barb and barb-venom has been upgraded from level zero, to level one. In exchange, 45 of your system points have been consumed.] "That''s nothing¡­ the pain consumed me entirely, though." Tim joked. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Anyway, in regards to the barb, he wasn¡¯t really able to see it, because his eyes didn''t roll that way, but truthfully, his tail was really looking better. It was fatter, sharper, brighter and had the capability to store more magic in it now, as well as utilize the magic all the more efficiently! In this world, Tim''s tail was his main weapon, and he was happy that he could upgrade it so cheaply. His barb and barb-venom had been at level zero before, and now that its level was higher, he was hoping that the venom could deal some decent damage, against anything that moved. He did understand, however, that it wasn¡¯t strong enough to kill any monstrous fish whatsoever, just small ones. He moved on quickly after, and asked. "Okay, let''s keep the fun stuff going, system. Tell me about that intelligence thing? Can I afford it, and do you think I should buy it?" [You can afford it, I priced it at 90 system points. Considering your recent blunders, you definitely should buy it¡­ ten points go a long way when you''re a fish.] She said. "You are very¡­ right." Tim added, "Okay then, spray me with brain juice or whatever!" [Confirmed,] The system said. Immediately after, she added. [Congratulations, your IQ successfully went up by 10 points. In exchange, you spent 90 system points, because as you know, upgrades like these are a bit expensive.] Tim didn''t care about the price right now, no. Instead, he was offended by how quickly this upgrade was implemented into his brain, it only took a second. Tim''s little headache remained the same too, he didn¡¯t feel anything new whatsoever! "I guess I''m too dumb to feel brain pain," He sighed. The system didn''t care to console him about that. There was just one other upgrade available, and she was quick to re-introduce it to him now, rather than talk about feelings. She explained, [Okay, do you care to feel a little bit more pain? I want to tamper with your organs a little bit, hollow them out by 10% maybe? Here and there, tit and tat, it''ll only take a moment, and you can afford it.] "As long as it''ll knock me out, I want to sleep for a while." He said. [Confirmed,] The system added. She didn¡¯t fail to deliver. Tim started feeling weird right away, as if there were bugs running around his blood vessels! It wasn''t quite painful, but along the way, he got more freaked out than ever, and even started twitching a little bit. A medieval peasant would consider this procedure to be necromancy, but in actuality, the system was doing some work that would need both a doctor, and a scientist to perform! She was optimizing Timothy''s body, so he could endure water pressure for about 50% more! This was no simple task. She was quick with it too! The upgrade only took about five minutes, but Tim got knocked out half way. The system did her job thoroughly, and announced things, regardless of how Timothy was fully unconscious. She said, [Congratulations! You can swim up to 300 meters deep now, without receiving any damage from water pressure. This''ll aid your explorative nature greatly, for every next adventure to come¡­ I''ll tell you about this, again, after you wake up. This upgrade cost you 75 system points, which is a bit hefty for a beginner such as yourself.] Furthermore, she added. [At least math isn''t your trump card, though, you probably won''t notice that you only have 23 system points left, after all the upgrades. These three upgrades cost you 210 points all together.] Afterwards, the system started talking to itself. [Eh, he''ll be a little bit mad, but he''ll get over it once I tell him about the new upgrades¡­ Besides, he''s making great progress already, the explorative soul ability he used a few hours ago, will have him inching towards humanity soon enough. Free-flying is the first, essential step to shape-shifting¡­] Chapter 12 - Magical Stingray! Tim woke up after about five hours, and he was fully rested. However, the recent upgrades have tampered with his body quite a bit, so he felt really weird right now. He felt lighter, quicker, and had this urge to explore the seas and hunt anything that moved! This was how he usually behaved, yes, but today this behavior was amped up tenfold for some odd reason! Tim felt powerful and capable, but thankfully, the coral that surrounded him managed to cage his deadly enthusiasm. He couldn¡¯t move much down here, and while he tried to slip out of the coral layers he had hid in, he found the infinite wisdom to calm himself down. Well, his wisdom was very finite actually, but that was not the point. The point was that he could reason with himself a lot more now, it was fascinating! In due time, Tim figured out what was happening with himself; This jolting temperament had something to do with the brain upgrade he had, just a few hours ago, he was sure of it! ¡°I feel moodier than that human girlfriend I had, god damn! She was always hungry for some reason.¡± Tim thought. Just then, he noticed that he was also recalling some of his human memories all of a sudden, which was quite a surprise. He did not want to think about his past, human life right now, as he felt sure that he¡¯d mourn those good old days. Recalling those old days would beat on his conscience viciously, without a doubt! He thought, ¡°Even my divorce was easier than this, new thing¡­ I¡¯m a fish now, god damn it!" Tim was a bit depressed right now, however, as he dances within the lines of depression, he came to a realization. It was still amazing that he could remember fractions of his old life to begin with, regardless of how much it hurt to remember them! He was impressed. The system promised power, and a fraction of the power she promised, was evident at this very moment. His soul had migrated here, all the way from earth, yet he still had the option to remember stuff from his past life, and this fact alone was fascinating! There was a lot to think about, he was stumped for words! However, the system interrupted his train of thought, before these thoughts of his could run rampant, for hours and hours on end. This world certainly didn¡¯t need a stingray who had anxiety right now. She said, [Timothy, hello. I¡¯d like to tell you that each upgrade was a success yesterday, and as for now, you¡¯re experiencing hormonal changes, which come with impulsive urges, and some occasional mood swings. Nothing about this is permanent, it¡¯s just that the rest of your body is still adjusting to your recently restructured brain. It''s no easy task.] ¡°That makes sense,¡± He nodded, and accepted the fact that he just had to be patient, at least for a little while. Moments later, he squeezed himself out of the four layers of red coral, and then had this urge to rush across the sea. This urge of his was equal to that of a feral dolphin, but then he noticed that the sea seemed darker than usual. This scared him, so he didn¡¯t feel so explorative anymore! Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°I¡¯m afraid of the dark? Glad to see that I still have some human traits¡­ or maybe I''m scared because in this body, I¡¯m just a baby? Baby stingrays are probably scared of a lot of stuff, they gotta be.¡± Tim asked himself. Right then, the system followed along. [The entirety of what you just said is¡­ debatable. However, do not be sad because of your lost humanity, as you will get back most of it, eventually. Your ¡®explorative soul¡¯ ability is the first step to worldly exploration, and eventual shape-shifting; I can help you turn back into a human one day, but you have to be patient.] ¡°Really? Well that¡¯s a fantastic thing to say!¡± Tim celebrated, ¡°I don¡¯t want to get any of my human friends back, fuck them! I want new friends, and maybe a wife that won¡¯t divorce me, just to run off with her stupid assistant! God, I just remembered how much humans make me sick¡­ maybe being a fish is a blessing, but I just haven''t realized it yet?¡± [Your stances are debatable, but as far as I''m concerned, you can have it all, as long as you try to survive long enough. The magic in this world is extremely developed, so anything is possible, I promise you that!] She said. ¡°Survive, huh? Okay, I probably shouldn¡¯t be out here at night, then.¡± He said, and then squeezed back into the coral reef. Tim had wanted to hunt just a moment ago, but he couldn¡¯t see anything out here, nothing at all, it was too dark. Predators were dangerous enough during the day, so he didn¡¯t want to run into them at night, not in the slightest! He had to kill a few hours of time, and he may get a bit hungry throughout this period of both waiting and napping, however, this wasn¡¯t a major task. He was safe within this coral, and that was all that mattered. Besides, the system was keeping him company. After all, she had a bunch of other upgrade options which she had to introduce! After Tim settled in some coral, the system got into business right away! She said, [Okay, Timothy. Since you bought every upgrade available yesterday, you unlocked a few new ones, five of them, to be exact. Now, some of them are pretty expensive, but they''re really worth your while.] "Let them be expensive, I''m not intimidated by your prices anymore. It''s not that hard to get system points, or at least, it''s easier than what I had imagined at first." He added. Tim wasn¡¯t cocky, no, but he was very direct instead. Exploration came hand to hand with system-based rewards, and he sure as hell liked to explore, so for that matter, he didn¡¯t care about the prices anymore. The system didn''t really expand on this side-topic either, but instead, she started talking about the new upgrades. She introduced, [Your first purchase option is pretty useful, essential even. For 60 system points, you can upgrade your bodily strength and speed, to level two! This is pretty much the cheapest upgrade right now.] "Hmm¡­ yeah, speed is very important. Anything that keeps me away from the mouths of sharks is something worth buying." He muttered. [Well, you can''t afford to buy anything right now, but it wouldn''t be a bad idea if you prioritized buying that one. Strength and speed are truly essential if you''re to improve your chances of survival.] She said. They could talk about stuff like these in detail, for hours if they could, and considering that he had several hours to waste, they just might do exactly that. However, there were four more upgrades to introduce, so the system was prioritizing that at the moment. She said, [Your second purchase option, is what''ll link you to your stingray ancestry thoroughly, and for good! For 200 system points, you can unlock the ''extingus breath'' magical ability, which would help you deflect most kinds of offensive magic, as long as the opposing caster isn''t too strong! This ability is very common amongst your species, and you don''t need spells or mana to use it.] Chapter 13 - The great introduction! Tim was astounded by the concept of magic. The fact that it was available in this world, was the only thing that kept him from being suicidal. This world simply promised a lot! The talk about magic brought back some memories, even, he said. ¡°A protective spell, huh? I think you mean a deflective spell, system. When I was a human, I remember playing a video game of some sort, one about dragons, and it had a bunch of these deflective spells, they were pretty cool.¡± Tim was feeling nostalgic, it was difficult not to be. However, the system snapped him out of it right away, as she made another promise. [Video games? Oh, they¡¯re available in this world too, in the mildly advanced civilizations at least. This world is very vast, and it¡¯s difficult to get into a good civilization, however, if you do get into one, then you can play plenty of video games there. The highly advanced civilizations have even better games, hyper-realistic ones.] The system followed along. Tim was confused by some parts of what the other said, so he asked. ¡°Advanced civilizations, in a magical world? I expected to see kingdoms or shit like that, not skyscrapers, system.¡± The other was quick to answer that, she said. [There are plenty of kingdoms too. As I said, this world, this planet is really vast, huge! Ghosts have their own dynasties, animals do too, the sea is very unique on its own, and also, there are plenty of humanoids across the planet as well, of distinct species! Some creatures are even beyond what you can imagine right now, trust me.] Furthermore, she added. [The categories of species are vast. Due to these vast differences, there are also huge gaps in terms of technological, and magical progression, across the hundreds of civilizations on this planet! In due time, you''ll get to experience some of these things first hand.] ¡°That sounds like a big headache, er, for me.¡± Tim expressed, ¡°Can¡¯t believe I¡¯m saying this, but maybe there¡¯s too much to explore in this world. I don''t want to see skyscrapers again.¡± Tim was still eager to explore the world, but now, he understood that he had to prepare himself, as best as he could. Since this planet was so expansive, it could also be equally dangerous as well! He didn¡¯t want to die as soon as he walked across the lands out there, and in order to prevent that, he had to be strong and prepared. It was mandatory! With that in mind, he insisted. ¡°Gotta play it safe¡­ Can we talk about the other upgrade options, system? I want to go out and swim as soon as the sun rises, and I need some motivation to do that. Give me a reason to hunt for points, please.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. [Certainly,] She answered, [Your third purchase option is to densify your bodily durability by 120% ~ There¡¯s no exact way to measure this type of durability, but for a body as soft as yours, any increase is good. This one costs only 80 system points, since your durability is horrible to begin with.] ¡°Now that¡¯s a way to survive!¡± He said. Durability and an increase on it sounded very interesting! When Tim thought about it, he pictured himself withstanding many bullets at once, without suffering as much as a scratch! It was very unlikely that he¡¯d face a line of rapidly shot bullets around here, because fish probably didn¡¯t carry any guns, however, it was fun to imagine things like these! His fantasies weren''t limited to this stingray form. Anyway, the system didn¡¯t care to talk about this matter, as she continued to introduce the few of the other upgrades. The rest of them were quite interesting as well. [The fourth purchase option is to upgrade your emotional intelligence by 10 whole points.] She said, [This one will cost you 130 system points, which is expensive, but it¡¯s an intelligence-based upgrade after all.] ¡°An intelligence upgrade, again? System, I still feel queasy from the last one.¡± Tim complained, he didn¡¯t look forward to anything like that again. "Go easy on me." [Upgrades like these are essential for you, especially this one that is based on your emotions. After you buy this upgrade, you''ll be less likely to make dumb decisions, also, you¡¯d fit in within social crowds a lot easier; It¡¯s essential for your survival.] She answered. Afterwards, without waiting to hear Tim¡¯s opinion on this, she continued to introduce the last purchase option. This one was the most expensive, and perhaps, the most important upgrade so far! The system introduced, [Purchase option number five = Unlock and deepen your internal mana pool, for it to accept 300 points of low-quality, magical mana, exclusively. This one costs 400 system points, but it will fully introduce you to the world of magic!] ¡°Oh, I can¡¯t afford that anytime soon¡­ but at least it¡¯s something to look forward to.¡± Tim followed along. There were still plenty of more hours to kill before the break of down, however, the system gave him a lot to think about. Though he still needed plenty of points to buy anything, he still wanted to spend some time thinking, in order to decide which upgrade he was supposed to get first! He had to prioritize the most practical one, whichever one that may be! Since the system was done with her introductions, she now had some time to talk with Timothy. The system understood how confused and yet excited he was, so she wanted to help, even if slightly. She said, [You should prioritize either the durability buffing, or the upgrade on your bodily strength and speed. They''re both cheap, and they''ll help you avoid most threats across this shallow reef. In terms of practicality, it''s a no brainer; Speed and strength have always been the centerparts of survival¡­ intelligence comes second.] Tim agreed with that, however, he had to argue. "Hm¡­ but wouldn''t that deflective spell help me survive as well? It''s expensive, yeah, but magic is much harder to dodge. I don''t want to end up as a toasted, sea pancake." [That is also a very good point,] She said. Chapter 14 - Panzer Crabs! Tim was intrigued by the new purchase options. He and the system discussed them for a long time, just so he could pick the best option there was. They came to the conclusion that the cheapest upgrades were the best option, as though they weren''t as effective as the rest of the upgrades, they still were the most accessible! Accessibility, on its own, was really useful in terms of ensuring survival. Tim was convinced about what he was supposed to buy, and now, there was only the matter of getting system points, a bunch of them. For safety''s sake, he waited until dawn, just so he could see and analyze his surroundings better, as it was really stupid to hunt in the dark, and he simply wanted to avoid getting killed. Tim took a couple of naps, just to kill some time, and when it was finally the break of dawn, he emerged from within the protective layers of the coral reef. Tim swam for a few meters, and then mumbled. "God damn¡­ I am really hungry! My stingray belly can''t fit much food, huh? That kinda makes sense, I shat four times in a day, so, no wonder I''m hungry." In the following couple of hours, he carefully, and thoroughly explored the odds and ends of the coral reef. Tim was hungry, and needed a lot of points as well, for that matter, he was focused, lazer-sharp, beyond what he was used to, even! For exploration''s sake, he even swam beyond the invisible borders he was used to. Tim hunted across an estimated radius of 60-70 meters this time, and quite frankly, he had to! This whole area was as depleted out of life, as Harold the eel had explained. The feeding spree which happened a few months ago, before Tim was born, really messed this place up. Anyway, within the two hours of hunting, he found two, separate groups of crustacean species, specifically, crabs and shrimps. He firstly found the shrimp, a few marble shrimp to be exact, and he recognized them instantly, because he was accustomed to their weird bodily forms. Tim wasn¡¯t intimidated by their weird legs anymore, so he chewed through all five of these shrimp, mercilessly! Once he had done so, the system announced. [Hunger bar = 7/15] Furthermore, she added. [Health bar = 89/100] With that said, Tim felt better than he ever did. He ate enough shrimp to replenish his health, which in return, got rid of any kind of pain he had; The few points he got out of them were really important too! However, regardless of how rewarding these little shrimp seemed at the moment, this was not the most fun or rewarding part of his morning, no. The crabs he found, moments later after he found the shrimp, were all the more amusing! He found them within a layer of yellow coral, and they were priceless! The crabs were blistering red, had big claws, and were two-foot wide! They were plate shaped, had three pairs of short legs, and had a horrible attitude which vouched for their survival. They could pinch almost anything without suffering any consequences, because they could hide within the numerous coral cracks really well, due to the weird ways they were shaped. Tim had approached them carefully, because simply, he didn¡¯t want to get killed by them! He was fairly intimidated. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. These crabs were three times his size, at least, and he feared that any pinch from their big claws could snap him in half. He did not want that to happen, it would be embarrassing, so he came up with a little idea. Tim harassed them quite a bit, just to lure them out. He pooped near the entrance of their den, smacked his tail around to make some noise, and made just about any sound that a little stingray could make. That way, he lured a couple of them out, and then primarily used his speed to finish the job! His fins were still flaming with magic, he could fly really fast. For that matter, Tim used this speed to sneak up on them multiple times! He found their blind spots, pounced on them, and used his sharp little jaws to bite their whole claws off! To do so, he targeted the thin arms these crabs had, which was very efficient! Tim even stabbed them a couple of times, with his tail, so they''d die off faster. The venom in his tail wasn''t the strongest, but the internal organs of a crab weren''t so strong either, so they died off in minutes! He repeated this whole process a few times, until he killed six of these crabs! They weren¡¯t so smart, and for that matter, each of them fell victim to his repetitive tactics! Once he killed all of them, the system announced. [Good job! You yielded 22 system points, out of each of these crabs! In total, you now have accumulated 160 points!] "Oh, hell yeah!" He celebrated, "My hunting tactics worked¡­ I was wondering when that old hunting upgrade would come in handy." Anyway, the true celebration began, once he started munching on one of the dead crabs, it was when he figured out that they were truly priceless. Tim got a few mouthfuls of raw meat, and moments later, the system blurted out a very important notification! [Congratulations, Timothy. It looks like you''re eating a really dense, and magical, panzer crab. Their kind of nature is relentlessly aggressive, but eating them gives great rewards for newborns like yourself. Eat as much of it as you can, camp near it if you must, because these crabs will encourage your very first growth sprout!] She said. "Growth sprout? So you mean¡­ I could grow bigger?" He asked. [Precisely!] She agreed, [The sprout could change your body size, anywhere from 14% to 291% ~ So, please take this situation seriously.] Tim was very intrigued by the idea of growing up to be a bigger stingray, especially if he could do that in a day or so. However, he really hated the idea of camping near these crabs, because he didn¡¯t want to wait for hours on end, until he was hungry again! That would be inefficient. His stingray belly was really small, so it could take ages before he ate one of these crabs entirely, not to mention all of them! He didn''t want to spend several whole days in hiding, so he came up with another idea. "They''re special, it''s almost like I found a few special crabs of my own, but I gotta ditch them for now. I''ll just push them back in their hole, right there." He muttered. Tim had filled his belly entirely by now, and he didn¡¯t really want to eat the same meal for days, so this plan was perfect. Sharks couldn''t barge in thin coral cracks either, which made this plan of his seem all the more efficient! "I''ll get back to them as soon as I can," He planned, "But for now, I gotta keep hunting!" Chapter 15 - "I hate you, Harold" Tim searched the reef for any other kind of creature for him to kill. His belly was full, so he wasn''t really desperate for food, but he did need to gather up a bunch of points! The panzer crabs he had killed gave him plenty of points, yes, but they weren''t enough. Some of the upgrades were really expensive, and if he was to afford them, then there was no benefit in slowing down right now. Tim wanted to hunt for a few more hours at least, and then get back to those panzer crabs afterwards, once he got really tired. The idea was to get points, and then to find a safe spot where he could rest afterwards. He could eat a few mouthfuls of crab meat as well, to encourage his growth sprout. If the area near the crabs was safe enough, then he planned to buy an upgrade or two as well. There were a lot of things on his plate today, but he didn¡¯t mind it. Tim enjoyed working under pressure, it gave him this overwhelming, and constant adrenaline rush! He enjoyed it quite a bit. This time around, he was working hard in order to progress as well, rather than to just survive, like he did so far. Life was far more interesting, when he didn''t have to worry about food for once! He wanted power. Anyway, after snooping around the reef for less than an hour, he found himself floating back towards his den. The den he called home was more of a ditch, which was hidden under coral and sea plants. It was an interesting and useful place, because a bunch of tiny critters often ended up there, and he was hoping to find a few more of them today, for the sake of getting some quick points! However, before he got there, Tim''s senses tingled. He was suddenly more alert, as he noticed some commotions in his very den! "Something big is in there, fucking huge¡­" He thought, and then immediately found a place to hide. Tim was a small stingray, so he managed to nosedive, and slip deep within a coral crack, almost immediately. His senses were tingling, and they advised him not to face whatever was lurking in his den. Common sense encouraged it as well! Instead of confronting the beast, he simply stalked the spot, for about half an hour. Throughout this time bracket, he got a couple of glimpses of what lurked in his den. "That fucker is large, long and very dark skinned¡­ or, blue-ish? If I didn''t know any better, I''d say that Harold stole my fucking house! The fuck would he do there? He wouldn''t fit¡­ unless he has a kink for tight places now, or something?" Tim thought. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Regardless of what was happening, Tim had to keep his peace, and play it safe. It was a terrible idea to confront a three-meter long eel right now, especially since he didn¡¯t have an ounce of destructive magic to his aid! He only had a bit of venom on his tail, but that wasn¡¯t enough to kill an eel, no. It was best if he avoided his home, his den, completely! Tim was furious about it, he thought. "This fucking vendetta just got real¡­ I''ll be back for you, Harold. I will mount your head on my wall, eventually!" Afterwards, he carefully snuck out of that crack within the coral, and made some distance away from his den. Survival was the ultimate goal, after all, and if he was to get his revenge, then he needed a lot of points first! Points and upgrades, that is. For the sake of points, Tim planned to swim deeper within this massive, coral reef this time around. He hadn''t found anything to kill so far, and figured that he had to expand his hunting grounds in order to progress. However, before he made it twenty meters away from his den, the system spammed him with a little announcement, which made him reconsider his course. She said, [Timothy, I have three new tasks for you, official system tasks, that is. You''re in a hunt for points right now, so it¡¯s appropriate to introduce you to some tasks that pay well.] This was the best announcement he could''ve hoped for, it definitely shifted his mood for the better! Anyway, in order to carefully listen and focus on what the system had to say, he hid in a little hole within the stretch of red coral, and then listened to her patiently. The system then went into detail about the matter, she added. [Task number three = Locate and kill at least twenty sardines! They swim in schools of fish, and often are really easy to kill, so good luck with that. If you succeed, you will get fifty system points as a reward, and of course you get to keep any point you make by killing the sardines.] "Alright, that''s fantastic!" He celebrated, "I''ll get that spooky, magical breath in no time!" The system didn''t celebrate with him, instead, much like a computer, she continued to explain the couple of other tasks that were available. She was efficient, so she avoided small talk once more, as she often did. The system added, [Task number four = Put your depth durability to the test and to its limits, by swimming three hundred meters under water. This task is a bit dangerous, but otherwise it''s rather easy to do, so it''ll only get you thirty system points.] "Okay, that''s fair." He thought. That task may even be the easiest task he ever had to do, because he''d be able to achieve it within minutes! A task like this was definitely easier than poking at random, explosive or bubonic urchins in exchange for a couple of points, so he didn¡¯t complain about this low-paying task at all! The next task, however, sounded a lot more interesting. The system said, [Task number five = Locate and meditate near a bulge of thick, undersea mana roots! This species of roots is a bit rare, so if you find a bundle of them, you''ll be rewarded with a hundred whole points!] Chapter 16 - Sardines; Deadly, or not? "Wow¡­" Tim gasped in amazement. He was astounded by the idea of magical, mana-oozing roots. He guessed that they''d only make him more powerful, but overall, he also got this explorative, adrenaline rush after hearing about them! This world had so much to offer, so he couldn¡¯t wait to escape his current physical limitations, in order to explore things that were beyond, and greater than magical roots! He was desperately eager. Anyway, the system broke his train of thought shortly after. She announced a little warning. [Timothy, pay attention! Before you go near any roots, you need to unlock your mana pool at first, specifically, the most expensive upgrade available right now. Mana roots excrete mana, and in order for you to harvest it or accumulate it, you need to unlock your mana pool. You don''t need to rush on about this task, however, you probably noticed that each of these tasks encourage you to explore the world more, so one way or the other, this hunt will be good for you, even if you don''t find the mana roots immediately. Be careful, Timothy, and happy hunting!] Tim needed a moment to process everything that the system just said, and once he did process it, he figured out that the best idea was to leave this coral reef for a short while. The edge of the reef was really close to his den, so he could leave this place easily. Furthermore, the waters here, around the reef were very shallow, which meant that he couldn''t put his depth durability to the test over here. He had to head for the open seas instead, and hoped to finish more than one task along the way! Later on, he was to return to the reef before nightfall, as he had stashed a bunch of panzer crabs there. He needed those crabs for his growth sprout, so it was important to swim back to them. Overall though, today''s goals were fascinating! He was to explore the seas more than ever before, and hopefully win a bunch of points along the way! ¡­ Tim swam two hundred meters away from the reef, and it didn''t take him so long, but it was a bit boring for him along the way. There was barely any life out here, apart from seaweed and a few dozen urchins here and there, which didn''t really appeal to him. The area outside (and in front) of the reef, was mostly a stretch of desolate sand. He could''ve stopped by to try and poke at one of those urchins, but the risks associated with them weren''t worthwhile, especially since he didn¡¯t have any ranged attacks to use against them right now! Urchins were one of the most dangerous creatures across the sea ~ Some of them were explosive, and he could even contract the plague virus from other species of urchins, so it was best to leave them alone. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Besides, the open seas were far more interesting! Tim swam all the way to an elevation drop, and there, he could see how deep the waters could truly be! He only saw utter darkness, as this portion of the sea was at least a kilometer deep, it wasn''t shallow, like the reef whatsoever! Tim looked at these depths, and couldn''t help thinking. "The deep sea¡­. I wonder what kind of jackasses swim down there. Back on earth, deep sea creatures were terrifying! Can''t imagine how weird they are in this world, I wouldn''t be surprised if there were humans down there¡­ this place is too weird." He was tempted to swim towards this deeper area, just to figure out how it felt like, however, something else caught his attention. Tim''s hunting senses tingled, as he noticed some intense vibrations, which were above him, towards the water''s surface, rather than towards these depths underneath him. His instincts made him prioritize this huge commotion over anything! "There you are, you fishy bastards¡­" He grunted. It didn''t take him long to locate the source of all this commotion. There was a cloud-like thing in front of him, about fifty meters away, and this cloud stretched further than the eye could see, it was perhaps over two kilometers wide! Within this massive cloud, there were a bunch of silver dots, which flickered aggressively for some reason! Tim was scared shitless for a good moment! The color gray didn''t scare him, no, but he had this irrational fear that the large cloud of fish in front of him, were actually a crowd of sharks! It was unlikely that he was facing sharks right now, but still, he''d rather be safe rather than depend on his luck in this situation. With that considered, he even thought. "Maybe I should hide somewhere? The sharks had a feeding spree in the reef before, maybe they''re coming back for a second dinner? Can''t risk it¡­ it''s not like I''m the protector of the reef or something, I don''t have to be heroic here." This latter part of his thoughts wasn''t as stupid. He was being quite rational, in fact, so he slowly started swimming backwards, just to avoid any and all attention. The system scared him to hell and back afterwards, as she suddenly said. [Timothy, those aren''t sharks! You''re getting spooked over nothing, it''s kind of pathetic.] "Survival is pathetic? I have to disagree with you there, system." He countered. [The underwater cloud in front of you, is most likely a school of small sardines, very small. They should be docile as well, because sardines of this size cannot and won''t hunt most species of stingrays. They don''t bite.] She followed along. With that said, Tim calmed down a little bit, and then added. "Can''t be too safe, when something as stupid as an urchin can kill ya." Tim then spent a good moment observing this cloud, which was presumed to be a school of fish. He doubted the system''s expertise for once, because the cloud in front of him was far too large, so it couldn''t be as harmless as she presumed. He didn''t want to die there, however, it wasn''t any more efficient to hide from fish that were smaller than him. He needed points, and this was a great opportunity to get said points! Chapter 17 - The murder spree! Over the course of a couple of minutes, Tim gathered all the courage he needed to approach this odd and massive cloud. Sure this approach made him a bit nervous, however, he gathered a bit more courage, as he kept insisting that this was a golden opportunity, one where he could reap a lot of system points! If these sardines were easy to kill, then he could just slip between this school of fish, and stab them left and right with his tail. This could turn out to be his greatest, point-farming opportunity yet, and he was aware of it! Tim also noticed a hint of suspicious, green dots within the cloud as well, but decided to ignore that for now, as he didn¡¯t want to back down. He wasn''t given much time to think about that either, as now the cloud was approaching him by itself, rather than the other way around. This sudden approach intimidated him a lot, but he wasn''t even given any time to think about swimming away from the approachers, no. A few seconds later, he was surrounded by the same, speedy cloud! At first, he had it difficult to comprehend all of this commotion around him, but he eventually calmed down, because he wasn¡¯t threatened within this school of fish whatsoever. A few small fish bumped into him, but they didn¡¯t really hurt him whatsoever, as this massive group seemed pretty coordinated. Tim eventually attacked one of the fish. He charged towards one of them, and bit its head off. These silvery fish were a few inches long, each, so it wasn''t really a challenge to kill them. A moment later, the system announced. [Congratulations, you just killed an alefin, rotter sardine, and won 5 system points as a reward. If you kill nineteen more of them, then you''ll also be rewarded for completing a system-given task, the one which is about killing sardines.] Furthermore, she added. [If you consume these sardines, their oil will make you feel very drunk. However, in this drunk state, your bites will become beyond venomous! You''d be able to force your living targets/enemies to rot, just by biting them! The intensity of this magical ability, entirely depends on how many sardines you consume.] "Holy shit!" Tim exclaimed, "That''s borderline necromancy¡­ and I know exactly who to use it on! Watch out, Harold, I''m coming to take my home back." Tim got overly excited afterwards, for two reasons! The sardines couldn''t hurt him, so he felt like a god here, and could hunt any of them freely. That aside, he could also and finally exact his revenge! This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. He didn''t want to get drunk now, because he wanted to kill as many sardines as possible, as he couldn¡¯t miss this opportunity. However, as far as goals were concerned, he was set towards one direction, and knew what to do for the rest of the day. With that considered, Tim stopped plotting those little plans of his, and then got into work! He charged at everything in sight, just to rack in as many points as possible! Upon every kill, the system kept spamming him with information about the points he won over. This part was a bit annoying, especially since he couldn¡¯t mute the system, however, he was still having the time of his life! This murder spree made him feel high, Tim was feeling a cluster of mixed emotions that no tiny kid should ever feel. He raged through the cloud, for a whole, half an hour, and throughout this timespan he killed fifty-two sardines! Such an amount was insane, but yet again, it wasn¡¯t enough to buy every available upgrade there was right now. He had to work even more to buy them all. Anyway, Tim completed one of the tasks that the system gave him, regarding killing more than twenty sardines, and this in turn came with a reward of fifty points. However, the cloud of sardines outswam him by now, so he couldn¡¯t kill any more of them. That huge cloud went away as quickly as it arrived, and for now it was floating across the huge reef he called home. That latter part was alarming, but it was unlikely that they were going to the reef just to live or feed there. Odds were that these sardines were just migrating, if fish even did that. Tim didn''t think about it much, and instead, he celebrated the points he won over, throughout this time-bracket. The system went into details about it. She first said, [You killed fifty-two sardines, and as a result, you accumulated 260 system points from them. Aside from that, you also get 50 points as a reward, because you completed the associated task that I gave to you, regarding the sardine hunt.] Afterwards she added, [In total, you now have 470 system points at your disposal.] "Now that''s badass! It''s definitely a way to end the day." He celebrated, however, the end of the day was nowhere near. It was still a few hours after the crack of dawn, so he could use the rest of his day to get some other work done. He didn¡¯t want to buy any upgrades yet, because he was too far from home¡­ or at least, too far for comfort. Instead, he wanted to seek out the few sardines that were littered across the sand, around the shallow area near the coral reef. He wanted to get drunk and then hunt Harold afterwards, but then he remembered that he could do another task here, before going all stupid in the middle of the morning. The task was rather simple. The deep sea was right behind him, so he decided to swim towards it, and sink as deep as he could. He won plenty of points today, yes, but he wouldn''t mind winning thirty more of them, just by swimming three hundred meters deep under the sea. Tim''s fins were still flaming with power, so he could get down there within minutes! Chapter 18 - Drunk Stingray! Tim was quite speedy. He swam three hundred meters deep, under the sea, and completed the task as a result. He didn¡¯t get hurt either, as at some point he swam really slowly, just so he wouldn¡¯t cross any physical bounds. His disk-like body was upgraded to endure three-hundred meters of ocean depth, specifically three-hundred, and he wasn¡¯t willing to try his luck on the matter. The system confirmed his success, the moment he hit the mark, she said. [Okay, that¡¯s enough. You¡¯re 300 meters deep, so we can mark the task associated with it as complete. Congratulations!] Furthermore, she added. [As promised, you just got 30 system points as a reward. In total, you¡¯ve accumulated 500 points, which isn¡¯t bad at all for a guy your size! Good job, Timothy, very good.] ¡°Thank you,¡± He said, ¡°You deserve most of the credit, though, for getting me out here. I got a hell lot of points, without working much for them¡­ and I guess that¡¯s why I need you as a guide in this new life. However, I have a question, system, why did you bring me all the way down here. It can¡¯t be because of the points or the view, plus, I feel really weird right now, kinda tingly too.¡± The system didn¡¯t expect such a question from Timothy, and fairly so. He was presumably too dumb to ask such deep questions, so for a short moment, the system was stumped for words! The system didn¡¯t answer immediately, but when she did, she said. [The whole idea behind those three tasks I gave you, was to help you become more explorative. The reef is nice, and safe for a little guy like you, yes, but it would take an eternity to earn points there. You need to feel the sea weighing on your back, if you¡¯re to become a true, powerful explorer. It¡¯s as simple as that.] Tim couldn¡¯t argue with that ideology. The water pressure made him feel weird, yes, but then, at a certain point he didn¡¯t mind it anymore. He found it interesting even, and spent a moment looking around. The depths he was in, featured utter darkness, so although he didn¡¯t get to see much, it was still pretty interesting to be down here. Eventually though, he spotted a little freckle, far below the sea, that was both interesting and intimidating! He saw many tiny, green dots, which were likely at the bottom of the ocean for some odd reason. They were at the bottom, yet they shone so luminously, which was the most interesting part about this, as simply, the light was powerful enough for the average eye to notice it! Tim didn¡¯t know what to think about them, he was really stumped, and so he asked. ¡°System, why am I seeing those green dots? Are they dead sardines, because I saw a few green dots in that sardine storm as well¡­? I know I¡¯m new to this world, but all this green stuff can¡¯t be normal. It shouldn''t be.¡± [Such sightings are becoming quite a pattern, aren''t they?] She followed along, and also added. [I fear that the smartest fish across the sea are planning something evil, they have to be. Now I don¡¯t have evidence on this, but nothing about this world encourages such a constant appearance of green¡­ products? Something is going on, and it¡¯s new, so it''s too modern for me to know about it.] Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Tim was amused by this, he even cackled as much as a stingray could cackle, and then he said. ¡°I never thought I¡¯d hear you talk like a conspiracy theorist, system, but I¡¯ll take your word for it. We¡¯ll probably run into the jerks who¡¯re sprinkling this green shit around.¡± With that said, they could move on with their day. Tim had a couple of other things to do, and the next little task, included getting drunk. He wanted to eat a bunch of those rotter sardines, and then hunt Harold the eel to death. He planned to settle his vendetta today, and was happy that he had discovered the cruelest way to do so! He was ready to have some horrendous fun. ¡­ Tim had a good-ish, working memory. He was able to memorize where a few of the dead sardines had floated down at. He found several of them across the sand, somewhere in front of the reef. After he found them, he didn¡¯t eat the sardines immediately, no. Instead, he pushed and fin-slapped the sardines, just to form a big pile of them, all in one place. He figured that he wouldn¡¯t be able to find so many of them if he was dead drunk, so he was preparing against that, before time. He pushed nine sardines together into a pile, and now, he was ready to eat them. ¡°I spent half an hour slapping these motherfuckers around, let¡¯s see if they¡¯re worthwhile. Harold won''t see what''s coming, hehehe!¡± He muttered. The idea was to eat all of these sardines, and that was quite possible too, because they were really small, a few inches each, actually. He wanted to get really drunk, or in another word, really amped with power! Tim was quite hungry too, as he had been swimming around for a few hours now, so he ate all nine of these sardines within minutes! At some point, he complained. ¡°Hmm¡­ where is the drunkenness?¡± Tim waited for about ten minutes, but he didn¡¯t really feel drunk yet. This was weird, so he briefly considered lurking around for more sardines, in order to eat them and encourage drunkenness even further, but that may not do him any good either. His stomach was full now, so he couldn¡¯t fit more sardines in there, even if he tried. With that considered, he started getting really irritated. For a second, he even wondered if the system had been wrong about the sardines and their promised powers. It was unlikely for her to be wrong, yet at the moment, he couldn¡¯t help thinking about it. However, what happened next was quite spontaneous! He was suddenly drunk, very drunk, to the point where he didn¡¯t notice that he was floating upside down! Tim noticed that he was drunk, about two minutes later. There were some key factors that convinced him about it, for example, his vision was very blurry, and he couldn''t bear a single, coherent thought! That aside, he was also floating upside down right now, and because of that, he had spent a good moment bickering with himself about the reef he was seeing. Tim didn¡¯t know that he was upside down, so he kept thinking if the reef in front of him was new or not. He didn¡¯t know if it was a new arrival, and these questions boggled his mind for ten whole minutes! He was bewildered. Chapter 19 - Vengeance, exacted Tim was severely drunk, however, he did eventually find his way to the reef, and even closed in to the den, where Harold the eel was living in. He had spiraled like a WW2 warplane for a while, but at least he swam near the spot that he had aimed for. He was as confident as a drunkard could be, so at some point, he shouted. ¡°Harold, get outta there and face me, you retard!¡± Tim¡¯s intent was clear, and some may even think that what he was doing was suicidal. However, regardless of how dangerous his idea was, he didn¡¯t plan on backing down! Anyway, since his vocal cords were very limited volume-wise, Harold didn''t hear him whatsoever, he wasn''t in trouble. This gave him a bit more freedom to attack, and he did exactly so! Just moments later, in that drunken state, he came up with an idea that was both crazy, and perhaps effective. He simply rushed into the snug den, and aimed to bite anything in immediate sight! Harold was still in there, in the den, by pure luck! With that considered, Tim managed to ambush this horrid eel, quite efficiently! Harold couldn¡¯t move much, as the den was snug, so Tim pounced on him, and then bit him several times in seconds! His speed was very dependable, thanks to the flaming fins that he still bore, and since he was drunk, every move of his was very unpredictable! Harold couldn¡¯t stop him. Within seconds, he noticed how Harold¡¯s dark-blue flesh started changing its color. It adapted this pungent, bright red color at first, and then, that color switched into a pitch black, odorless shade! Whole patches of Harold¡¯s flesh, dried off and then broke down into millions of pieces, right off of him! When a few of Harold¡¯s bones started getting exposed, Tim was very sure of himself, and this victory that he just bagged. He won, as he beat this fat, and three-meter long enemy, in the cruelest, and most unfair way possible. Everything had been to the little stingray¡¯s advantage, and he didn¡¯t feel bad whatsoever about that, or of the way he ambushed the other. He was victorious, and that was all that mattered! Moments later, while floating upside down, he faced Harold head on, and watched him as he passed away. In that drunken state, he had a couple of words to share with the other. ¡°Harold the eel, let me just say one thing¡­ I¡¯m so happy that your long ass is dying, I killed your ass, and you deserved it. You tricked me, and stole my home too; That¡¯s a horrible way to treat a kid, and in my world, you¡¯d be in prison right now for it. Fuck you, and i hope you go to hell!¡± He mumbled. What he just said wasn''t so easy to comprehend. He jumped from one topic to the other, but considering the circumstances, it wasn¡¯t like anyone could stop him from blabbering on like a baby. A third of Harold¡¯s skeleton was exposed, for example, so he couldn¡¯t really react all that much. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°What the flip¡­¡± Harold grunted, and then, his conscience faded away forever, and for good. Those were his last words. However, Tim was in no condition to celebrate. He ate one sardine too many, perhaps, as he crashed down two minutes after his enemy died off. The drunken state he was in, was what knocked him out. He was safe here, nonetheless. Most creatures didn¡¯t know about this den, as it was hidden within some sea plants, so it was unlikely that he¡¯d be eaten in his sleep. Tim could spend many hours here, safely! ¡­ Tim woke up, possibly several hours later, and once he did, he felt as heavy as a rock. The rotter sardines he ate had really worn him down, and now, he was experiencing what had to be a hangover. He felt this splitting headache that no fish should feel, and as for a child, this headache was almost crippling! It wasn¡¯t right. The system didn¡¯t seem to care about his condition, as Tim was alive and that was all that mattered. Instead of talking about his pain, she made an important announcement. She said, [Congratulations, Timothy! Through some drunken effort and also dumb luck, you successfully killed a shivering var-blood eel ~ In exchange, you won 1,200 system points as a reward.] ¡°Holy shit!¡± Tim celebrated, while he looked at the eel¡¯s carcass. ¡°I killed him out of spite, not for the points¡­ I did not expect a reward, not at all.¡± The system then followed along, [Well, you got the points, and now you¡¯ve accumulated 17-hundred of them, so, you better buy those upgrades as soon as possible. Also, you stole the eel¡¯s powers, and can use them for a whole week. You can swim faster now, basically, and can freeze the blood of anyone you swim close to! Have fun with that.] Furthermore, she added. [Though, I advise that you don''t eat the eel¡­ his flesh is mostly rotten by now, and you already absorbed a fraction of its powers, just by sleeping near the eel for several hours. Find something else to eat, you have other food stashes.] ¡°I stole his powers, huh? Vengeance can¡¯t get sweeter than this¡­ I really am the best!" Tim muttered with himself, he was excited, and even ignored his crippling hunger for a moment. He was happy! Anyway, the drunken state didn''t allow him to celebrate for long. He needed twenty minutes to pull himself together, which was a whole challenge on its own, as he felt very worn down. Tim noticed that dusk was just a couple of hours ahead, so it meant that he had been sleeping for at least eight hours here, in his den. That alone, would be enough to disorientate him, even if he hadn''t gotten drunk hours prior! Hunger-wise, he won''t be able to last any longer. His digestive system had already processed all the sardines that he ate, and he even had excreted a massive piece of shit in the den. He was really hungry now! ¡°Gotta get to my crabs now¡­ let¡¯s hope I don¡¯t get lost. Harold is done for, so I don¡¯t have to worry about anything else today.¡± Tim muttered. He was nervous about swimming right now, because he was still disoriented, however, he didn¡¯t have another choice. Harold was stripped out of life, as half of his skeleton was exposed by now, and that rotter venom really messed him up. In other words, it was considerably safe for Tim to swim across the reef now, carefree. He started moving! Chapter 20 - 5x Upgrades! Tim found the panzer crabs he had stashed. It took him a moment to find them, since he was both hungry and disoriented, but he did succeed nonetheless. Without wasting a second, he started munching on them. He got a belly full of crab meat in less than ten minutes, and from the looks of it, he wasn¡¯t going to run out of food anytime soon. Tim was still pretty small, so his belly could only fit so much food. Survival felt a lot easier this way, and Tim guessed that if he killed anything as big as a shark, then he''d have food forever around here! Of course, he wasn''t so great at math, so he didn¡¯t consider that meat would rot quickly. There was no such thing as an infinite food glitch, even in this odd world, but it was fun to fantasize about it nonetheless. Anyway, as for the panzer crabs that he had stashed between a crack of coral, he was eating and protecting this stash for a greater reason, as he remembered what the system told him about them. These crabs were precious! Regarding them, he had a question. "System¡­ these panzer looking motherfuckers are supposed to help me, right, I''m supposed to have my growth sprout? How much more of them do I have to eat, because I''m tired of being this small! Any motherfucker could kill me, and I''m sick of being scared of that! If it wasn''t for my venomous, rotter bite, Harold would''ve eaten me like a pancake by now! I don''t feel safe, not at all..." His concerns were valid. Tim had a stroke of luck so far, because he ran into the right magical creatures at the right time, and stole their powers, however, this type of luck may not last forever. In every beating second, he was a mistake away from getting mauled! The ocean was not safe, so he couldn¡¯t count on his luck forever. Instead, he needed both physical and magical strength to survive, or more simply, he needed every kind of advantage there was. The system was quick to give him an answer, about the prior matter. She said, [You need to be patient, Timothy. The growth sprout is a body altering, and bone toggling mutation, that isn''t easy either to achieve or endure. Stingrays aren''t supposed to double in size within a day, but when that happens it will be effective, and also really painful. Bottom line, if you''re to encourage this growth sprout, you need to consume a lot of the alternation encouraging proteins that the panzer crabs contain, right within their meat. You have to eat more of them, as much as you can.] "Well, this is gonna be an annoying couple of days." He sighed, "But then again, I do get hungry pretty often, so maybe I don''t have to wait that long¡­? It''s getting easy to kill time as well, cuz the hunt for points is endless¡­ speaking of which system, I want to buy every upgrade you have for me right now. If all the pain that comes with the upgrades knocks me out, then so be it, that''s good too. I''d wake up as hungry as a shark, ready to chow on more of these hard-assed crabs!" The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It wasn''t typical of him to think ahead, but for once, he had an idea that was quite effective. The system granted his wish right away, because she knew that this decision couldn''t kill him. Since he had enough points to buy every available upgrade anyway, then there was virtually no barricade that went against his wish. Timothy dug deeper in a hole within the corals, and waited for the upgrades to unfold upon him! The first thing he noticed was a couple of bodily spasms on his fins. Tim''s muscles twitched quite a bit, so this meant that his muscles were being tampered with directly! He automatically assumed that his speed and strength were being upgraded right now, because he had thought about this upgrade for a long while, since it had been the cheapest. It was the first thing that crossed his mind right now. Thankfully though, this upgrade didn''t hurt him too much. Although he did twitch more than a stingray ever should, the spasms were totally manageable. The next thing he felt, however, was more unrelated and far more challenging! Tim''s skin was suddenly burning, to an extent where brazilian waxing would be considered pale in comparison! The pain knocked every logical thought out of his head, so he couldn¡¯t really figure out which upgrade caused this immense pain! He was clueless for a moment. Moments later, he also felt a couple of sharp pains within his head, and this wasn''t easy to deal with, but there was a bright side to it. This was likely an intelligence-oriented upgrade, and since his head hurt because of it, it meant that he was finally smart enough to feel brain pain, directly, right on the spot! This was a new sensation for him, but a terribly painful one nonetheless. He kept feeling sharp pains within his head, and then his headache developed to the point where it was so severe, that it managed to knock him out cold! Tim went unconscious. This was what he wanted to begin with, as apart from being a bit of a time skip, getting knocked out, was also an escape from all of the pain that he was experiencing right now! After this point, he''d wake up possibly hours later, and hopefully experience less jittery or horrendous feelings afterwards; It was a good way to handle such multiple upgrades! The system went on with her work, and after about ten minutes, she implemented all five of the available upgrades, successfully. The upgrades had beaten Timothy''s body quite badly, but she didn''t care about that right now. He was alive, and would also wake up later, as a stronger, and likely more destructive stingray, and that was all that mattered to her right now. With that train of thought, she shamelessly left a couple of notifications for Tim to hear, as soon as he woke up later on. She went into a few specifics. [Upgrades complete,] She notified. Furthermore, she added. [These upgrades consumed a total of 870 of your system points, Timothy. Although the upgrade session was expensive, you still have 830 more system points remaining in your sum.] Timothy had progressed a lot today, and this progress had been expensive in many ways, but at least starting now, he''ll be more magical than ever. He could accumulate his very own, low-quality mana from now on, which could keep him busy for a long while. As for the upgrades that were yet to come, even though he may be able to buy a couple of them soon, the pain he just experienced, may have him ignore these upgrades for a while! Chapter 21 - Mana/Voltage conversion rate Tim woke up feeling like a sack of shit. It wasn''t the brightest idea to handle five upgrades all together, and quite frankly, it was stupid to handle five of practically anything! It was too much, and in this case, the upgrades have beaten on his body relentlessly, to the point where he may have been halfway close to death! It had not been an easy process. Tim woke up in the middle of the night, which meant that he had been knocked out cold for seven hours at least, and yet, his skin still burned a little bit. The reason behind this mild pain was obvious, some of the upgrade''s after effects have stuck with him, apparently, which further vouched the intensity of the upgrades! The pain was overwhelming, but yet again, he was happy that he hadn''t been awake to experience most of it. Now, he even joked around. "Fucking hell, I feel like I''ve been put through the ringer. If I was back on earth, a massage like this would do me good, but today I feel like I lost my virginity, that was beyond a massage. I remember my friend Steve talking about butt-sex¡­ erg, what I went through earlier is probably rougher than that." [Hello, Timothy.] The system suddenly interrupted his train of thought. Tim squealed, as much as a stingray could squeal, and then also exclaimed. "You scared the shit out of me! Damn it, system!" [You''ve defecated prior to waking up, so don''t blame me for that.] She argued, and then asked. [What was that butt-sex you were talking about? It''s unheard of in the animal kingdom, you especially, shouldn''t think about it, as you are both a kid and a stingray.] "My body may be that of a puny little stingray''s, but my soul is still that of a middle-aged human''s, system. Also, forget about the butt stuff, it''s nothing to worry about." Tim followed along. For a moment, he had forgotten that there was a literal lady (system) living in his head, so he was a bit embarrassed right now. For that matter, he tried to skip that questionable topic as a whole! With that train of thought, he then hastily asked. "What kinda upgrades did I buy, system? I can''t really remember anything you told me about them, I just remember that they were really expensive. Tell me more." [Well, they were expensive.] She followed along. Afterwards, throughout the next couple of minutes, she explained each of the five upgrades, how much they cost him, and what the main highlights of this upgrade session were. There were two highlighted upgrades, which were the most important out of the bunch; One was the extingus breath magical ability, and the other was the mana accumulation pool, which he unlocked! The extingus breath ability was a form of deflective magic, which a great majority of stingrays had, regardless of their branch of species. Stingrays were an evasive species, who depended on their hiding skills to survive, and likewise, they depended on deflective magic if they were in any tight, and dangerous situations! Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Tim was to use this spell, perhaps for an eternity, as it would be useful regardless if he was a stingray, baboon or a human, in whatever point of his life. It was always handy to have an ability, which would deflect dangerous magical spells from an opponent! He needed it. Anyway, as for the mana pool, it was equally useful. He could use it to accumulate mana, and with said mana, he could power up spells that he stole from dead or injured opponents. For example, he could start shooting thunderous bolts out of his barb again, and those tiny fireballs too! Those powers weren''t lost. Originally, he accumulated said powers in voltages, for example, from fallen creatures. But now and onwards, he didn¡¯t need to munch on another thunderous eel, in order to harvest its powers, no. He could summon those thunderous bolts, regardless of how he had run out of them a couple of days ago! The voltages were to be converted into mana from now on, and although the lighting bolts were to be less than original, and therefore less dangerous, they were still offensive powers! Tim''s low quality mana wasn''t strong enough to challenge a shark, but as far as details were concerned, he could endlessly power up every magical ability he stole from enemies, as long as he had enough mana to do so. Even the flaming fins he bore weren''t just temporary anymore, no, as he could power them himself from now on! Anyway, with these massive benefits, came an equally large challenge. Tim had multiple powers to his advantage, and most of them were stolen, yes, but he still had to power them all by himself from now on. It may not be easy to use magic, when his own, accumulated mana was on the line! The system described that since his newly bought mana was of the lowest quality, he''d need to put double the amount of mana, on a simple, magical ability, in order for it to work. For example, if he wanted to shoot out ten volts of thunder, he''d need to use twenty points of mana for it to work! The entire process was expensive, and he wasn¡¯t looking forward to that part of the journey. Worse yet, his body couldn''t produce enough mana to support a steady use of his powers, which was a very demotivating thing to discover. The system described that he could only produce ten points of mana an hour. This demotivated him. Specifically, he could only produce two-hundred and forty points of low quality mana a day. In hindsight, that sum sounded like a lot, but in any hazardous situation, he''d waste every single one of those points within a minute! It wasn¡¯t enough. Tim couldn''t produce enough mana, not naturally at least, and with that said, he started paying attention to a little task which he had avoided for a few hours; It was the one about mana roots! The system promised a reward, if Tim could find some mana roots within the ocean, and now, from the looks of it, he needed those roots more than ever. He wanted to hunt down a bundle of them, as soon as the sun arose! It may take a while, but he was ready for it. The system could read his thoughts thoroughly, so she was quick to make a little offer. It was an offer which may motivate Tim even more. She casually introduced, [Timothy, hello again. I can see that mana points and their accumulation are proving themselves to be a challenge to you a lot, at least in comparison to the average stingray, so I have a recommendation for you. Since you bought everything a few hours ago, you''ve unlocked five more new upgrades, and one of them promises to deepen your mana pool by 700 points! I recommend you buy it, as it''s a painless upgrade, inherently painless, and you can afford it as well.] "Fucking hell¡­ that''s exactly what I need. A thousand points of mana does sound better, a lot better, hehe." He said. Chapter 22 - Want s#x? The upgrade he bought cost him six-hundred and thirty points. It was costly, but at least now he had a greater advantage, in terms of his overall hostility against the world. Under the right circumstances, he could attack anyone he wanted, and that was all that mattered in the end. He didn''t care that he only had two-hundred system points now, no, and if anything, he had a greater reason to explore the ocean now, because of how vastly depleted his points were! Anyway, Tim still ended up wasting seven hours afterwards, because he had to wait for the sun to rise, so he had been less than productive. He found a couple of good ways to waste time, as the upgrade he bought, for example, had him obsessing over the mana points! He stared at a faded out computer-like window in front of him, for hours on end, and watched as the points increased! He was absolutely mesmerized! For a stupid little stingray, he sure was obsessed with numbers for a good moment, it was an interesting reaction from his side. Tim also napped a lot. Anyway, within this time span, he gathered up seventy points of mana. His body stored the mana, so naturally, it was also able to generate it on its own! Tim didn¡¯t want to use this mana, unless he absolutely had to, but overall, he was happy that he could produce it to begin with, that expensive upgrade was worth it! This was a huge step towards some greater means of survival. However, since his body could fit a thousand points of mana now, he needed a faster way to accumulate them, preferably within a few hours too, rather than within several days! He aimed to look for a cluster of mana roots, as mentioned, because it was mandatory to find some of them now! Tim waited until the sun rose, and with a belly full of crab meat, he started floating across the waters, in search of the roots. He had spent a lot of time eating and or napping, so he was more than ready to put some work in right now. "Okay¡­ if I was a valuable mana root, where would I hide¡­? This is a stupid question. Hell, I''d hide in coral even if I was a fucking ostrich, I like this place." Tim bickered with himself, while he was on the search. This massive, possibly two-kilometer wide coral reef, seemed like the best place to hide valuable stuff. He was convinced about this, regardless of how much the system encouraged him to explore places outside the reef. He guessed that mana roots were somewhat conscious, and if they were, they wouldn''t be stupid enough to be in plain sight, especially across the sand. That wouldn''t make any sense! He was enthralled to sniff through the reef, and he did exactly so. Anyway, about half an hour later, he ran into a couple of creatures that seemed more than odd. They were roundish, a bit bigger than him, and had this alarming yellow color on their skin! Tim''s hunting senses tingled due to this flashy color, and he was put between a primal fight or flight response afterwards! He could be in danger over here! "What the hell are those?" Tim asked himself. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The system then answered him almost immediately, she said. [Those are pufferfish, and they seem to be toying with a couple of crabs. I''d recommend keeping your distance, as these pufferfish could be very poisonous.] "Yeah, no shit." He said, and tried to back away from the scene, slowly. Tim had a bit of magical power stashed in his tail, and every ounce of it was powered by his mana. He could use it against the pufferfish, but he didn''t want to waste it on them. It didn''t sound sensible, since they weren''t attacking him anyway, so he just kept backing away instead. This was the best option. "I''ll save my mana¡­ because I probably need to flee one moment or the other. My flaming fins are fucking expensive too, so I don¡¯t have any mana to waste." He muttered. Just then, he was eyeballed by one of the pufferfish. The said pufferfish approached him slowly afterwards, which hinted that it didn''t want to pose a threat. It wasn''t malicious. Then, it vocally asked. "Are you a stingrat?" "Sting-ray," Tim emphasized, "But yeah, I am one. What do you want from me, puffy?" "I am Koob Tonon Bonon, very pufferfish. Do you want to join sex?" It asked. Tim realized that Koob wasn''t the most fluent, in terms of the stingray language. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh, however, he was also intimidated, because he didn¡¯t want to mate with a literal pufferfish! It was absurd. For that matter, he countered. "Sir, that is rape! I am a child, so I will not have sex with you, not now and not ever!" "Sect!" The other pufferfish came along, and corrected the other. "Forgive my brother, he stupid. I am Konon Tonon Bonon, also very very pufferfish, so, do you want join sect?" "I''m glad you''re a bit more fluent," Tim followed along, and then asked. "What''s your sect about? Can you help me find cool shit?" "The poopiest," Koob interrupted, quite shamelessly. Afterwards, Tim spent ten minutes bickering with these pufferfish. He wanted to understand what they were rambling about, and eventually, he figured out that they truly were part of a sect. Koob even went far enough to fetch the sect''s master, which surprisingly, was a reef shark! Tim got intimidated by the idea of consulting with a shark, but since this one was only a single meter long, he felt less threatened. If things got bad, he could just nail the shark on the head with a lightning bolt, and then make his escape. He could also rot any enemy''s flesh now, upon will, so he''d use every tool at his disposal if things didn''t go the way he wanted them to. He was safe. The shark seemed very friendly, however, it said. "Hello there, I am Marlo. I hope my friends didn¡¯t scare you, as their stingray vocabulary can be wobbly sometimes." "Well, they offered to have sex with me, so I''d say they could use a bit more studying." Tim followed along. "Oh, yes, you aren''t the first stingray they offered sex to. They can never really get the pronunciation right¡­ Anyway, I''m the headmaster of the blistering mana sect, and I officially invite you to join us. We need guys like you, kid¡­ I could smell your rage from the other side of the reef." Marlo said. Chapter 23 - Blistering Mana Sect From the looks of it, TIm really ran into a sect, whose members were primarily fish. Odds were that this sect was more of a cult, but he didn¡¯t want to point fingers like that just yet. He was offered to join the sect, and therefore, he hoped that there were some benefits from joining said sect. If there were benefits to it, then he wouldn¡¯t mind putting himself at risk for them, in whatever means those risks would occur. If however, this sect was both dangerous and useless, then he had all of the power necessary to make an escape for himself. Tim aimed to be efficient. ¡°They can¡¯t kill me¡­ not unless they¡¯re really sneaky, so, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± He thought. Anyway, Marlo, the headmaster of this sect, invited Timothy to visit their secret, hidden lair, and he accepted this invite. The concept of a hidden lair sounded even more cult-like, but then again, Tim had a lair of its own, kind of. Lairs can''t all be inherently evil. Fish needed places to hide in, for survival¡¯s sake, so it was unlikely that the hidden lair that Marlo promised, had some sort of doomsday devices in it, no, that was unlikely. Tim felt safer, the more he thought about the odds and ends of this invite. He¡¯d just look at the place, and if the sect had nothing to offer to him, then he¡¯d just leave! It was simple. He was a bit excited, and they had to swim for about two-hundred meters to reach this place, which wasn''t much of a challenge, so his excitement remained radiant. Distance-wise, it wasn¡¯t so far away from Tim¡¯s den, so it was a surprise that he hadn¡¯t met these guys before. Anyway, once they got there, the group of four had to go through some maze-like tunnels for a dozen few meters, in order to enter the lair. A couple of twisty rights and lefts later, they swam into this vast, pit-like area that seemed very dark at first. Tim¡¯s eyes needed a moment to adapt to the darkness here, but once he did adapt, he could see tens of creatures swimming around in here! ¡°Fucking hell,¡± He sighed, and then thought. ¡°These jokers weren¡¯t kidding! This feels like finding Atlantis, except this shithole has nothing but fish.¡± It was an interesting place. Some of these creatures even kept this place lit, occasionally. Their magic shone radiantly, which gave this place a bit of light to work with. With that considered, Tim noticed that this place was truly shaped more like a deep pit, rather than anything else; It was fifty meters deep, it was also equally wide, and it had a stretch of blue coral at the top, which acted as its protective and very dependable roof! Tim liked this place, he had to admit that. There was an evident smile on his face, and for a moment, he fantasized about leading these fish some day, preferably towards a bloody battle! This seemed like a fun thing to do, but in actuality, he swam in here for very greedy reasons to begin with, he wasn¡¯t looking to build an army, but he yearned for more power instead. With that considered, he looked at Marlo the reef shark, and wanted to ask him a couple of questions. He wanted to steer the conversation towards a way that would benefit him the most. Subtly, he asked. ¡°Quite the number of fish you got here¡­ but, what do you need them for anyway? More importantly, how can you afford to feed them all? I¡¯m asking you this, because I can''t even feed myself sometimes, so I can¡¯t imagine feeding a bunch of other fish. It sounds impossible!¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°Oh, everyone just feeds themselves, so we almost never worry about food. Sometimes, we travel for days to hunt, but the hunt never really bothered us. The feeding spree devastated the reef, yes, but there are plenty of other reefs out there¡­ reefs, and other stuff, more stuff." Marlo followed along. ¡°More stuff?¡± He emphasized, ¡°What do you mean by that? What are you hunting, Marlo?¡± ¡°We hunt everything, and by doing so we expand our understanding of the world. We are not just fish, Tim the stingray, we are mages, mancers, wizards, witches even, you name it! Much like most sea creatures out there, we aspire to be more than just fish, we aspire to be much respected, and loved humanoids. Full on!¡± Marlo added. ¡°So, I¡¯m not the only one chasing that dream, huh?¡± He aksed. ¡°No, not at all.¡± Marlo said, and then added. ¡°I started off as a shrimp, a marble shrimp, to be exact. But I collected enough mana, and then transformed. I¡¯ve been a shark only for a year, it¡¯s been fun¡­ but I want to be more than a shark. if not human, I want to be a blistering eagle, at least!¡± Tim was astounded by the idea that anyone could shape-shift in this world. For a moment he was disappointed, even, because he realized that the grand goal for transformation he had, wasn¡¯t his exclusive experience to keep, as apparently everyone here chased the same goal. He felt irritated by that! However, this also meant that this world was even bigger and perplexing than he had presumed, and at the very least, he could steal so much more magical abilities than he had imagined! The opportunities were limitless, and mana was supposedly everywhere, waiting to be discovered. Anyway, he chatted with Marlo for about ten more minutes, just so he could get a better understanding of how other fish behaved. Apparently, most of fishkind had ambitions which were huge, as big as Tim¡¯s ambitions, even! Some of them wanted empires, and this part was really interesting, he did not expect it whatsoever! However, as ambitious as these fish were, it would appear that they didn¡¯t have the one advantage that Tim had, which set him above everyone else; They didn¡¯t have an all-powerful system to guide them! The latter may be what defined Tim from the rest, he believed so! He poked around throughout multiple conversations, to figure out if these fish got any major external help from someone, that being, help from a system. He didn¡¯t mention the system directly, of course, but from what he understood so far, these fish were mostly on their own! They hunted alone, meditated alone, and progressed with their powers, mostly alone. This sect in particular, used this den to relax once in a while, without having to worry about getting attacked by other creatures, but cooperation-wise, that was about it. That and, they shared a lot of information here! Tim loved the idea of having yet another expansive source of information. He had the system to help him, of course, but if he joined this sect, then he may be able to find the good stuff he lurked for, even faster. With that said, he started asking what this sect did, when they wanted to progress with their magic. Headmaster Marlo gave him an appealing answer. Marlo said, ¡°We look for mana roots, mostly, I bet you heard of them? Also, we try to figure out the best combinations¡­ or, recipes when it comes to power-merging. We merge our less than necessary magical powers, to attain stronger powers as a result, understand? We treasure our magic, hence, we¡¯re called the blistering mana sect, we love mana too!¡± Afterwards, Marlo also asked. ¡°So¡­ are you convinced by now, Timothy? Will you join us? If you do join us, I can hook you up with a dozen of other stingrays. You can work together with them for as long as you''d like!¡± Chapter 24 - "I used to be a plant" Tim may be the busiest stingray out there right now, as he wholeheartedly accepted to be part of the blistering mana sect! He was to be very busy soon, because Marlo introduced him to a lot of things today, regarding magic, and he wanted to try out everything that was available! He wanted to merge his powers together, for example, just so he could hopefully spend less mana on them. That was a good idea, however, Marlo instructed otherwise. He said, "Timothy, let me say that I''m glad you joined our sect, but, please don''t rush things. Power merging requires 500 points of decent quality mana, it''s really expensive, so don''t merge your powers unless you''re absolutely sure that you''ll need them that way." "Oh, I need them." He said. Tim wanted to merge his flaming fins ability, with his recently acquired, shivering blood ability. Both of them were great individually, but when he used them together, there was a resulting dual effect, which seeped his mana twice as fast! He''d lose eight points of mana every second, and that wasn''t affordable whatsoever, especially since he needed a whole hour to replenish about the same amount of points! Bottom line, he needed a loophole, and power-merging may be it. Anyway, he didn¡¯t talk about specifics with Marlo because he didn¡¯t trust him so much. Instead, he asked a couple of one sided questions. He asked, "I need to merge a couple of my powers, Marlo. How long do you think it would take to upgrade my mana quality, huh? I can only generate low quality mana, and that''s probably not good enough to merge things." "Oh, it''s not. It looks like you haven''t even reached the second level of mana quality, which is called rustic mana¡­ and with that considered, you won''t be merging your powers anytime soon. However, I can help you get there." Marlo followed along. "You can, huh?" Tim asked. In actuality, he only wanted help from the system, regarding mana, so he didn¡¯t want to adapt any external ideas. However, he was willing to hear out what the other said. Marlo added, "You just need to fill up your mana pool, and then, I''ll give you a spell to cast on yourself. You''ll either explode as a result, or you''ll start gathering up rustic mana! One can never tell, so I hope you''re lucky." Tim thought this idea over afterwards. He really wanted to start gathering up better quality mana, however, he didn¡¯t like the idea of simply exploding. No one would like that, as in this world, there were a lot of things to look forward to, rather than just die! He didn¡¯t want to die, so as he nodded along to what Marlo was saying, he also waited for any word from the system¡¯s side. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. The system did not disappoint, as she followed along quickly, and said. [Marlo is somewhat correct, Timothy. That is one way to upgrade the quality of your mana, however, you can also buy the upgrade from me, which is a far safer option. It all depends if you want to be patient about this upgrade or not, but, if you want to be cheap about it, then you can take the dangerous, spell-casting route, the one that Marlo offered.] He did not answer to that immediately, no. Tim was thinking about his options here, and he was also listening to Marlo as he spoke. The reef shark had a lot to say, and eventually the conversation led to something good; He wanted to introduce Tim to a bunch of other stingrays! He was really enthusiastic about the latter part, because in this new life, he never saw a stingray before. Anyway, as for the mana levels, he made a simple decision! If a mana upgrade wasn¡¯t available in this new set of upgrade options, then he¡¯d choose whatever was closely available! In his head, it was less dangerous to risk an explosion, rather than to spend time gathering up thousands of system points, just to advance towards the upgrade that he wanted. The system didn¡¯t give him the upgrades that he was curious about, no. Instead, she aligned the upgrades based on what Tim needed the most, and in other words, he¡¯d need to work a lot, just to get to the super interesting, rustic mana upgrade! He was not willing to wait that much. Anyway, about ten minutes later, he met a few stingrays. He was happy about this, especially since he noticed that one of the stingrays looked exactly like him! He saw a bluespotted ribbon-tail ray, and he couldn¡¯t be happier about it! Tim eyeballed the said stingray, and then asked. ¡°You look like me¡­ a lot like me, are we brothers?¡± ¡°You mean am I your sister? I¡¯m a girl.¡± The other emphasized, and furthermore she added. ¡±Also, no we are not related. I used to be a stinging nettle plant, erg¡­ about a hundred years ago. I assumed the form of a stingray only recently.¡± ¡°Gosh, you¡¯re old.¡± Timothy expressed himself, carelessly. What he said was a bit offensive, but in his mind, he had complimented the lady. It wasn¡¯t easy to survive in this world, and he couldn¡¯t even imagine how a plant could shapeshift to begin with, so what he said was purely meant as a compliment. However, the other understood his words differently. She said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to call me an old hag, sir¡­ yes, I am old, but age doesn¡¯t matter much nowadays, does it? In fact, it is my understanding that age never mattered! There are immortals flying above our heads, after all, so please, don¡¯t be rude.¡± Tim then bickered with the other for about five minutes, but eventually, they agreed that what he said was meant as a compliment. He didn¡¯t mean any harm, and now, since they put that topic aside, the team of seven stingrays (Tim included), could focus on what mattered the most; Magic! Apparently, this specific team of stingrays were on a mana root hunt, since they too were pretty weak, and needed to be overloaded with mana in order to progress. They were a collection of the weakest members in the blistering mana sect, and it was time to change that! The little old lady that Tim talked to, who went by the name of Ortana, was pretty weak too! Her mana was as weak as Tim¡¯s, it was level one (low quality), and she urged to change that. She had been powerful enough to shapeshift multiple times throughout her life, but that damaged her mana quality quite a bit, and now she was looking to fix that. Collectively, these seven stingrays had a goal now, and they were willing to follow it with every ounce of willpower they got. Marlo gave them the directions of where a cluster of mana roots may be hidden in, and now, they had to follow these directions carefully, if they were to reach the said cluster! Attention to detail was key, if they were to succeed. Chapter 25 - Freezing Blood Ability The team of seven stingrays were on the move. Marlo directed them to a spot, which was a whole kilometer away from the hidden lair, and it was laid out on a stretch of sand. Originally this spot would be really unassuming, but Marlo taught them how to find the good stuff! He told them to follow the edges of the reef, in a very straight line, until they couldn¡¯t anymore. This, in turn, would lead them directly towards the designated area. After separating themselves from the reef, the team were to look out for holes in the ground. The place which may contain mana roots was very well hidden, so they had to check on every noticeable hole on the sea-ground, in order to find the place. Of course, they also had to be careful, because an animal could be living in any one of the random holes, and swimming into them could be dangerous! Marlo described that they should be searching for a shrine-like, hidden temple. Religion was a thing across fishkind, apparently, and oftentimes, religious sites were built around magical items of great value, such as powerful mana roots! In a sense, mana wasn¡¯t such a bad thing to worship, as this world revolved around magic, after all. The site which the group was trying to find was rarely visited, and almost forgotten too, which also meant that any seed of mana root had the opportunity to grow there! Tim was counting on that, he was really enthusiastic! However, he also got a bit irritated by now. Half of the stingrays in his team swam very slowly, just about as fast as a stingray could swim, so the one-kilometer trip had stretched for over an hour now. If Tim was alone, he would''ve gotten here in ten minutes, but for the time being, he simply couldn''t separate himself from the rest of the group! "Can''t believe that I''d swim that slow too, if my fins weren''t magical¡­" Tim thought to himself. Anyway, they separated from the reef by now, and as the other stingrays were poking their heads in random holes, he felt entitled to advise them for the better. Tim knew from experience that eels loved to live in holes on the sea ground, in holes much like the holes they were seeing here! With that considered, he didn¡¯t want his group members to be brutally pounced on. He yelled out, "Watch your head, flat asses! You wouldn''t believe how many animals could hide in holes in the sand." Tim wasn''t their leader by a stretch, but he still felt responsible for them! Also, he really didn''t want to report any casualties back in the sect, especially since he had the feeling that he''d be the sole survivor, if any real fight occurred! That latter part wouldn''t be so easy to explain, without being called a murderer in exchange. He was right to be cautious. Five minutes later, a rather unlovable creature emerged out of one of the holes which were scattered across the sand. It was a blue sea-snake, and it bit a light-brown stingray, right on and over the face! "Holy shit!" Tim yelled out, "I told you to be careful, god damn it!" The unfortunate stingray was killed. He had been a bit bigger than Tim, but he didn¡¯t necessarily have enough endurance to withstand a bite from a one-meter long snake! That one stingray was dead, but it was important to protect the rest of the group, so Tim went into action! Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. He knew that it would take a lot of effort to kill this thing with lightning strikes or fireballs, and he didn¡¯t have enough mana for that kind of an approach either, as the snake was simply too big! Instead, he depended on the next best thing, which was to freeze the enemy''s blood. Tim acquired this power only recently, by killing Harold the eel. He hadn''t used this magical power all that much, since it was expensive to do so, however, this situation called for drastic, and efficient measures! The snake in front of them wasn''t too fast, which was relieving, but if he gave it enough space to attack the group, then it might kill off the rest of the stingrays one by one, and that was less than ideal. Tim didn''t want that to happen, so he approached the snake. He approached slowly at first, just to study its moves a little bit, as he didn¡¯t want to rush towards it just yet. Ortana the stingray noticed what he tried to do, so she joined in. She said, "We have to divert its attention, kid, don''t do this alone unless you want to get your face chewed off. Listen to me¡­ I may have been a plant before, but that doesn''t mean I don''t know how to fight!" "We don''t need to fight it," Tim answered back, "But yes, we need to confuse it, so swim that way, to the right. Use your extingus breath if you suddenly have to protect yourself, but try to keep your distance at all times! This''ll be quick." With that little plan in mind, they approached the snake together, and took two different directions. Ortana approached it first, and got all of its attention, the snake wasn''t so smart! Tim found a blind spot, about five seconds later, so that was when he charged forward with every bit of speed he could muster! He used his flaming fins ability to speed up, and the blood freezing ability gave him a bit of a boost too! He approached the target, at 10 km/h! The water itself started freezing up in exchange, as Tim''s fins unleashed a steam-like substance, because he had activated the latter ability! Whole chunks of ice started sinking towards the sea ground, and when Tim met with the target, that icy wave clashed on the target and beat it shitless! He froze the snake''s blood, quite literally! It was a three second job, and within these three seconds, he managed to paralyze the snake severely! The abrupt halt of blood flow restricted most of its movements, and in return, a bunch of its organs started failing as well. Its heart got damaged the quickest! The system later announced, [You just spent 24 mana points in three seconds, slow down! As of now, 240 points of mana remain in your bodily mana pool.] Tim heard that, but he didn¡¯t care about the expenses right now. He then left the snake alone, and just watched it suffer for a while. In about five minutes time, it died off, and he reaped every benefit that came with killing a far bigger opponent! The system said, [You successfully killed a blue menace sea-snake, and won 350 system points in exchange! This snake is powerless, as it''s just a normal sea snake, so you won''t be able to steal any magical powers from it.] Furthermore, she added. [In total, you now have 550 system points at your disposal.] Tim was a bit upset that he couldn''t steal any powers from this snake, but yet again, he had too many powers to begin with. He didn¡¯t need a new ability, so he humbly started celebrating instead. He thought, "Hah, look at all those points! I didn''t even have to use my rotter bite¡­ it was totally worth the mana!" Chapter 26 - Gods Punishment Realm Tim removed a huge barricade from the group¡¯s way, he killed that snake! His work was appreciated by the other stingrays, by those who survived at least. They had one casualty so far, but as far as the main task was concerned, as of now, they could continue to progress! The stingrays searched the area cautiously, as they didn¡¯t want to get pounced on by another snake. Furthermore, they hoped that there were magical mana roots here to begin with, they hoped that Marlo¡¯s speculations were dependable. If there wasn¡¯t anything valuable here, then they risked their lives for nothing! They weren¡¯t sure if any mana roots were here, but odds were that they were going to figure this part out quickly. The stingrays were taking this task even more slowly and cautiously now, sure, but since there were six of them putting in some work, it was only a matter of time until they searched every nook and cranny of this fifty-meter wide area! They were bound to formulate a conclusion at some point. In the meantime, Tim encouraged the utmost caution, as he yelled out. ¡°Take care of your asses, guys, please! We don¡¯t know what¡¯s sleeping around here. Also remember, if you see a fish or a snake that you can¡¯t fight yourself, just swim away, don¡¯t be a hero, because we don¡¯t need any more casualties! Be safe.¡± What he preached was good and noble, however, a couple of stingrays weren¡¯t so fond of it. They hadn¡¯t contributed much to this task, and yet, they got a bit edgy when Tim micro-managed them. Two stingrays, named Bob and Knob, searched the area together as a pair, and chatted with one another in the meantime as well. They were not happy. Bob said, ¡°Who put him in charge? We¡¯re the biggest stingrays here, so we should command the group! It¡¯s only fair.¡± Knob agreed with him, he said. ¡°Yeah! What you said! We should be the ones getting stingray vaginas, not him¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I said at all,¡± Bob followed along, but their little chit-chat dissipated after that point. Neither of them could confront Timothy about this topic, so their rage right now was just as soft as their bellies. They couldn¡¯t fight well, and they definitely couldn¡¯t lead anyone, but yet their ego was hurt! Such issues were common amongst teams, but as far as details were concerned, they were to follow Timothy¡¯s guides to the letter. They had plenty of reasons to be obedient. Bob found himself in a hole that turned out to be a tunnel. It stretched five meters below the ground, and there, he discovered what the entire group was after. He saw a bulge, or more specifically, a knotty collection of glowing roots, sandwiched and overgrown between a few slabs of neatly carved stone! It would make sense for these things to be underground, as they were called roots, after all. Anyway, as Bob looked at the marvelous blue lights which the roots emitted, he couldn¡¯t help but get greedy all of a sudden! He wanted the roots all for himself, and this urge of his defied all logic. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He didn¡¯t care that there were other stingrays around him that could find the roots as well, at any given time, no. He was willing to guard this magical treasure with his life, and believed that the roots would reward him with a bunch of mana in exchange for such loyalty! Knob had followed him, so he also found the roots, moments after. He was amazed by how wide, huge and maze-like the roots looked, much like the roots of a fallen tree! He was mesmerized, and indefinitely distracted. Bob used the other''s stunned, distracted state, to his own advantage. He pounced on his friend Knob, and with the aid of his tail, stabbed the poor guy several times, and ended up killing him! This was an act of mindless greed, and it was apparent that either his own greed, or the roots themselves, had influenced Bob''s mind somehow. He killed a good friend, after all, which was beyond brutal! "Mine¡­ her majesty is mine!" He muttered, and then he floated away from Knob''s carcass. He wanted more mana! Bob''s body had absorbed quite some mana by now, about two-hundred points of them so far, and yet he urged to reap more of them. For that matter, he swam closer towards the cluster of roots, and then just laid down, right over them. The roots were very effective, especially when one was this close to them. Bob was filled up with another thousand points of mana, under ten seconds! He was as stuffed as a Thanksgiving goose! However, Bob couldn''t withstand this flow of mana any longer, as it beated on his body like a hammer. With that considered, he started shouting out an effective, spoken-word spell. He shouted out, "My will is but mana, and mana is life! I call upon the gods to bless me with purity, even if punishment is the means to my end!" Purity was an ironic word to use right now, considering that he just murdered a friend, but then again, purity was used as a formality in this procedure. He wasn''t spiritual, rather, he was just casting a spell, and understood that mana responded well, when the gods were mentioned. Mana and its quality came in realms, and each realm had several levels. The realm everyone in the group was currently in, was called the god''s punishment realm, and it was called that way, because the dangers within each upgrade were pretty high. Any creature could die while leveling up, and this was said to be a punishment which was reigned down upon the lowest ranks of mortality, by the gods themselves! Bob wasn''t the most prepared stingray in the world, but he at least was aware of those few legends and formalities! He knew some spells. Just like that, the quality of his mana leveled up! He had low quality mana before, and now, his mana was officially rustic! That name didn''t sound so great, but in actuality, rustic mana was four times stronger than the former! A mage of any species who possessed rustic mana, could in theory, easily kill anyone below this level. Bob wasn''t looking to attack anyone right now, however. He was still greedy about the mana, and wanted to absorb more of it, so he laid down on top of the mana roots again, and greedily absorbed tens of points from it, every second! This bundle of roots was far more powerful than anyone here had expected, and he wanted to reap every point of it right now, before anyone else got the chance to do so! Chapter 27 - Stingray x Stingray battle! Tim and the rest of the team eventually noticed that a couple of stingrays were missing. When someone was underground for more than five minutes, it was inevitable to notice their absence. Tim got extremely paranoid in response, and guessed that those two stingrays (Bob and Knob) were either dead, or they had found the roots, and were hogging them! His paranoia was valid, as for example, he couldn¡¯t really trust a couple of fish that he had met just moments ago, it wasn''t logical. With that said, he began exploring the area more thoroughly, and was amped with anxiety throughout the whole time. He stopped being stingy about mana for once, and charged his tail with both fire and thunder, all for safety''s sake! He didn''t want to get pounced on, but if someone attacked him, then they''d have to deal with a bit of a rash from his side. The rest of the stingrays were on high alert too, but unfortunately, one of them ran into the main problem. A sudden, soul-shaking explosion hinted so! The explosion was muffled by the waters, but its quake and little shockwave was still noticeable. Everyone closeby felt it, and now everyone was clearly in trouble, regardless of what the source of the explosion was! Tim was just slightly relieved, however, he said. "Thank god that explosion didn''t happen around my ass! I don¡¯t wanna be deep fried, it''s not a manly way to go! Or maybe it is? I don''t care, they can call me a woman if they want, but I will do whatever it takes to survive!" His feelings were in a bit of a twist, more than a pair of underwear would ever be, he was stressed. However, the main issue remained; Something exploded! It only took a moment to locate the source, as it was hard to miss something so harsh. Tim spotted a gust of stirred, sand-dust, and figured that it was where the explosion came from. He was correct. What scared him shitless afterwards, was that a stingray swam freely within the dust. Judging from its agile movements, that stingray was the culprit behind this explosion! Its confidence also suggested so. Regardless of how it was the culprit, Tim did not want to approach it. He had handled tougher opponents before, yes, but this situation was different, as he could be in greater danger. Tim was almost sure that this confident stingray had found the mana roots, and went absolutely insane as a result! That aside, it was difficult to predict just how powerful the stingray was right now, and it was also a dumb idea to experiment with this question. He didn¡¯t want to fight. Moments later, he heard Ortana''s voice from behind him. She yelled out as much as a stingray could, and tried to guide Tim for the better. It was difficult to ignore her. She yelled out, "Let''s get out of here, Thomas¡­ erg, Timeeth? Whatever your name was, let''s fucking flee!" "No shit, I''m right behind you." He muttered. Afterwards, he took a sharp U-turn, and started swimming away. Speed was to his advantage, thankfully, as with the flaming fins ability alone, he could swim up to 6 km/h! Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Tim outswam Ortana in mere seconds that way, because she didn¡¯t have any speed-amping abilities. He did not want to look back after this point, but seconds later, he heard a couple of other explosions, which then forced him to decide between two options; He either had to turn back and preserve what was left of the group, or, he could use every point of mana to flee! Survival suggested the latter, but within this pocket of seconds, he decided to pick the former. He had to help those few stingrays, because they couldn¡¯t help themselves, as they were practically powerless! It was cruel to leave them behind. Tim turned around, and faced the dangers head on. He didn¡¯t want to be heroic, but instead, he depended on his abilities quite a lot right now, and knew that he could buy everyone some time. However, as he turned around, a couple more explosions erupted, a few meters in front of him. That aggressive, power-amped stingray had not been shooting randomly, no! Rather, it had targeted and shot at everyone in its close sight! With that said, most of the group of stingrays had been wiped out already, which meant that Tim had turned around to face the dangers, for nothing! The murderous stingray had tried to kill Ortana as well, but she was on the better side of luck. She swam through the aftermath of the recent explosions, and once she saw Timothy swimming the opposite direction, she couldn¡¯t help but panic! She yelled out, ¡°Where the hell are you going, Terence?¡± Ortana never really got his name right, but this was not the time to bicker about it. Once he assessed the situation properly, Timothy thought of yet another plan, right on the spot, which may help save both him and Ortana. He knew that this lady couldn¡¯t swim fast enough, and judging from the explosive powers that the opponent was flashing, Tim wouldn¡¯t be able to swim that far either. With that considered, he headed directly towards the threat, and aimed to eliminate it. By doing so, he believed that he was also protecting the rest of the blistering mana sect, from a power-mad stingray! Every aspect of this situation forced him to be heroic about the threat at hand. Tim maneuvered through the dust, in a way where he used it as a cover. He hid within the sand-dust for a while, until he got very close to the destructive stingray. He found the target¡¯s blind spot, and aimed to use it, however, the said target suddenly turned around, and started shooting! All of a sudden, he saw a water-resistant fireball heading towards him! Tim¡¯s response was instant, he swam directly upwards, and just like that, he evaded the one-meter wide fireball! His evasion was effective, however, he did not want to wait around for another fireball to sizzle the waters, no. Tim charged directly towards the target, and used two of his powers to speed up. His flaming fins ability helped him speed up, and his blood freezing ability did the same, but its icy attributes also helped bring some balance within the boiling water! Tim had a safe-ish little trip! ¡°I don¡¯t care what level you are, you¡¯re going down!¡± Tim muttered. He reached the target in a blink, and despite how expensive it was, he decided to use many kinds of magic all together, in order to deal as much damage as he could! Tim decided to use his rotter bite. He managed to bite the target right across the back, and since the target was only a bit bigger than him, the bite turned out to be effective, and expansive! He also managed to freeze the target¡¯s blood, throughout that short, split second. With both of these attacks combined, the target died off just moments later! Then, the system announced. [You just spent 62 points of mana, just to win 20 system points in exchange¡­ I have to agree that it was worth it, since you killed a power-amped stingray, but it was expensive.] ¡°Yup, I killed a stingray¡­ one of my own kind. It''s nothing to be proud of.¡± Tim muttered, he felt terrible about that. Chapter 28 - Depleted Mana Roots Tim won the battle, he killed a very dangerous stingray. However, he felt disgusted about this, because in a sense, he felt as if he killed a human being! He felt that this was a horrible thing to do, even if it was for the greater good. Normally he would celebrate for such a tremendous victory, and perhaps he should. He killed a creature that was likely multiple levels above him, in terms of mana quality, which was something to celebrate about, however, he remained idle. Tim didn¡¯t care about the little amount of points he got in exchange, and he didn¡¯t care about the mana points he lost either. He just floated there, almost motionlessly, and continued to contemplate. The system broke his train of thought, as she announced. [You have accumulated a total of 570 system points. Also, 178 points of mana remain in your mana pool.] Tim did not care about all that right now, but the few astounding facts remained erected. He killed a really powerful stingray, a powerful mage even, with the aid of his low quality mana. This detail came to show that anyone could kill anyone, regardless of their mana qualities! If one had the right tools for the job, one could kill a far stronger opponent, as long as the said opponent hadn¡¯t invested in bodily durability all that much. Bob the stingray had been powerful for a moment there, but his skin was also soft, like that of any random stingray. That had been his main weakness, and Tim had acknowledged this weakness from the beginning, and used it to put an end to the battle. He had been efficient, but now, he was also depressed. Ortana swam towards him, about a minute later, and she was a bit more enthusiastic in comparison. The rest of the group of stingrays was gone, yes, but that didn¡¯t crush her spirit all that much. Deep inside, she was an old, stinging nettle plant, after all, so she did not care for friendship or companionship. At first, she yelled out. "Are you alive there, Tom?" Ortana was a bit concerned, because Tim hadn''t moved much after he won the battle. It wasn''t a surprise that she even assumed him dead. However, he helped the other find a bit of relief, as he said. "I''m alive, don''t worry. Also, my name is Timothy¡­ Tim for short." "I can''t promise that I''ll remember that," She followed along. Afterwards, without even mentioning the poor stingrays who had been torn into a million pieces just moments ago, she went right into business, as she started looking for the mana roots! Regardless of her lacking memory, Ortana was a smartish lady, so she had assumed that the cause of this destruction was solely mana. More specifically, a severe overflow of mana. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. With that considered, she said. "Come on, the roots have to be somewhere around here. I think I can see a couple of stone slabs over there, up ahead. Bobbert probably blew up that old, little chapel." Tim would be enthusiastic in a normal situation, but right now, he didn''t even care about the mana roots, as he still felt devastated. What snapped him out of this sour state at least for a moment, was Ortana''s knowledge of otherwise very human words! He felt really perplexed. For that matter, he followed her, and asked. "Are you sure that you used to be a plant? Because you''re saying a bunch of awfully human words, it''s getting kinda creepy. Why do you know what a chapel is?" "I used to be a lot of things," She answered, and then emphasized. "I even was a spider once, but that was kinda boring. My point is, I got to hear a lot of human phrases! Back then I just remembered their accents and words without understanding them, but now, I kinda know what a chapel is¡­ or a credit card too? Words tend to get confusing, because some nations haven''t even discovered spears yet." "How would you know what a spear is?" He followed along. "I was a messenger bird too. One time, this city of humans wanted to eliminate a tribe of far dumber humans, and I mean, two pairs of eyebrows dumb. It was hilarious!" She said. Anyway, at that pace, they briefly chatted, and snooped around the sand too, until they found what they were looking for. In a wide hole that was also about five meters deep, they found the blue mana roots! The roots didn''t seem as interesting to them, as they had seemed to Bob, and this was for a very good reason. Bob had reaped a lot of mana out of the roots, too much, even, so the roots were almost out of juice right now. Ortana confirmed that, as she added. "That fellow Bobbert left us with some mere crumbs! Look at those roots, they''re dying!" Then, Tim followed along. "I doubt that we can save them, though, so how about we harvest what''s left of it. I did most of the work back there, but we can do a 50/50 split on the mana, I don''t mind." "Oh, don''t get me wrong! The roots are dying, but there''s still a lot of mana in it for us and our low-levels. I''d say Bobbert was so filled up with mana, that he almost escaped the god''s punishment realm a moment ago! So, good job on killing a mage that was five-hundred times more capable than you." She said. "He had more mana than me, yes, but he was not more capable. What sort of dumbass doesn''t spend two or three points on body armor or something?" He added. Ortana had a solid answer for that, as she had more experience, so she said. "Magic doesn''t work like that in our realm of mana, Thomas. He''d have to steal the body armor ability from someone else in order to then use it on himself, and as far as I know, there wasn''t anyone in the group he could steal that ability from. Let''s just say that you killed a very premature madman, before he could''ve been a true threat to the world." Chapter 29 - Meditative pancakes [Congratulations, Timothy, you found mana roots.] The system announced, [This means that you successfully completed your fifth, system given task, and won 100 points as a reward! In total, you¡¯ve accumulated 670 system points.] ¡°Nice,¡± He thought, though he wasn¡¯t as excited about the points this time around. He was still depressed over the death of so many stingrays, as in a weird way, he considered them human, and such deaths shouldn''t be taken lightly. Overall though, regardless of how he had been sandwiches between fireballs earlier on, this had been a pretty decent day. Tim got what he wanted. They found a cluster of mana roots, and although the roots were mostly depleted now, there was still enough mana for him and Ortana to share. They were to play nice about these remaining properties. Him and Ortana were the only remaining survivors within that group of stingrays, and although this part was depressing, it served as a solid lesson! They shouldn¡¯t fight over mana, not while they were this weak and frail at least, as they were very killable, and therefore they had to be rational. Tim was scared of death nowadays, and today he was especially frightened, he thought. ¡°Man¡­ death is weird. If it wasn¡¯t for my rotter bite, I¡¯d be a burnt pancake by now. I keep surviving because of luck, there ain''t no refusing that, so I hope that there¡¯s a system upgrade, one which would give me even gooder, er¡­ better luck. I¡¯d spend two-thousand points on that if I had to, no second thoughts. Can¡¯t afford to make any more mistakes, I¡¯m still so fucking tiny!¡± Safety was key, for multiple reasons, as even mana didn¡¯t tolerate weak creatures. The mana could be as punishing as this realm¡¯s name promised, as it had its complexion that weak creatures could not comprehend; It pushed Bob towards insanity, and the punishment didn''t stop there either! Mana, in a way, had punished every other stingray within the group that didn''t have enough mana, or skill to fight for themselves, there was no ignoring that fact! Mana, and the gods were very punishing! With that in mind, these two lone survivors had to play nice with each other, they had to be cooperative. They survived for a reason, so they had to respect both their good luck and the will of mother mana. For that matter, in order to prevent any possible complications within this harvest, they avoided the roots by a whole couple of meters! They didn¡¯t want to get too close to them, as it would be dangerous to do so. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Tim could feel the intensity of the mana within the roots from two meters away, however, the mana had less of a grip on him now, than it had on Bob the stingray earlier on. This was due to a couple of reasons! The mana roots were weaker now, as a start, and also unlike Bob Tim wasn¡¯t as dumb as a frying pan. He wouldn¡¯t be as influenced by greed, regardless of the circumstances. With that considered, although he felt the power within the roots, he remained idle. As for Ortana, she was way older than him, so she maintained an even better composure near the roots. She was pretty calm, and even though she was a stingray, she started meditating thoroughly! Once Tim noticed that, he started taunting her. ¡°Oh, you can¡¯t remember my name, but you can suddenly meditate?¡± ¡°I was a plant,¡± She answered, ¡°There wasn¡¯t anything else for me to do before.¡± Although the situation was a bit comical, she was practicing something useful. The idea was to remain calm for a while, because it wasn¡¯t quite easy to absorb hundreds of mana points in just a few minutes. Some may even consider that pace to be unnatural, which served the point, she had to remain calm! Timothy wasn¡¯t nearly as calm, however, because he was torn between two trains of thought right now. He still felt hung over the recent slaughters, as this couldn¡¯t rest so easily on his conscience. That aside, he was also obsessing over the increasing numbers of mana, very much so! The system flashed these tiny, computer like screens in front of his eyes, and these screens showcased the increase of mana. He got a hundred points within two minutes, which didn¡¯t sound good in comparison to what Bob had received, but this amount of mana was still great. It was far larger than what he could muster up in an hour, and with that said, his utter lack of calmness was understandable. At some point, he couldn¡¯t help thinking. ¡°I wonder how much mana I¡¯d get if the root hadn¡¯t been chewed up by that fucker Bob. Hell, I¡¯d probably get two-hundred points a minute, if I got just a little closer to the roots right now¡­¡± Tim wasn¡¯t about to get closer, as he wasn¡¯t that stupid. He understood the risks, and had agreed to split the mana with Ortana as well, so he didn¡¯t plan on moving a single muscle right now. However, the prior point still stood; He was not calm, and he practically felt torn by all of the excitement! With that considered, Ortana was far more progressive than him. Under the same time-bracket, she absorbed twice the amount of mana points, and then she wanted to put them into use. She was not greedy either, so she swam away from the mana roots, as soon as her mana pool was filled to the brim. She then said, "I''m gonna go try to upgrade my mana quality, please try to do the same when your pool is all filled up. Later on, I think we can squeeze a couple more points out of the roots, it should be possible, so like, don''t die, because we have a good thing going for us here. Also, if you''re done upgrading before me, somehow, please wait for me, Thomas. We''ll harvest what''s left of the roots, together, don''t be greedy." Chapter 30 - 54% Survival-rate! Tim finally filled up his pool of mana. It took him about twenty minutes, because the root was degenerating more every second. He also couldn''t concentrate all that much either, which stunted his progress, but the important thing was that he succeeded, even if he did so eventually. His pool now had a full, one-thousand points of mana. With that said, now and onwards, he could decide on two things. He could either save these points up and use them sparingly in the future, or, he could try to upgrade the quality of his mana now, and for good! The latter part seemed more appealing, however it was also the most dangerous option right now! The latter option had a fifty-percent survival rate, as it was said to be physically and mentally challenging, so it could quite likely kill him. He wanted to have better mana, but the thought of death scared him dearly. At some point, he decided to ask the system for a second opinion. She was much smarter than him, so it was a good idea to respect her knowledge and experience. Tim didn''t typically have any good ideas, but this idea, the one to ask the system about a second opinion, was perhaps his best one for the day. He asked, "System, am I being crazy? Tell me more about a mana quality upgrade¡­ Do you think I can survive it?" [The gods punish those of whom they please, as this is what this realm of mana is all about. You have a belly full of mana right now, yes, but do you think you deserve a mana quality upgrade? Your success can depend on what you achieved, or what you think you achieved, and with that said, this kind of upgrade is quite a mental battle. Anyway, I assume that you care more about the numbers? Number-wise, I believe that you have a 54% chance of surviving this upgrade.] She said. "That''s kinda low, it doesn''t make me happy." He thought, and then he asked. "What would my survival rate be, if I bought the mana upgrade from you though, system?" She was quick to follow along, and said. [If you buy it from me, there''s a 100% chance that you''ll survive. The gods are punishing, yes, but I am not prone to their divinity! My goal is to make an immortal wizard out of you, and that is the same reason why I picked out specific upgrades for you to buy, one at a time. I highly recommend you to trust me and be patient, however, even though I can defy the gods openly, I have no right to taint your free will. So, do as you please, Timothy.] "Thank you. That wasn''t confusing at all, and I definitely don''t feel as stressed now." Tim replied to the system, through a thought. Tim was being incredibly sarcastic, of course, as he was really stressed out. He was even more scared now, because he developed this absurd paranoia that the gods were after him. The system openly refused the decree of the divines, and since he was attached to the system physically, he feared that the gods were out to get him as a response, just because they couldn¡¯t hurt the system herself! This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. It sounded like a rational fear in the heat of the moment, but in actuality, he was being totally ridiculous. Gods had other mages to look over, and torture, so they could easily miss any fraction of disobedience that wae commited across the seas. It wasn''t such a big deal if the fish were religious or not, even the gods didn''t care all that much about that. Regardless of that fact, Tim was scared straight, and he did not want to risk his life! For that matter, he muttered. "Guess I can wait¡­ I''ll let Ortana use up the rest of the mana roots, cuz my pool is full." This was his new little idea, but it wasn''t set to stone, as the oceans were unpredictable. He suddenly noticed a school of massive fish, for example, and they were possibly sharks too! Regardless of their species, they were uncomfortably close by. They were about fifty meters away, and they came here for a reason. They were not idiots! "Maybe they heard all those fucking explosions," Tim thought. With this situation considered, he was now forced to pick between two options. He could either man-handle the risks of facing these sharks, or he could risk upgrading his mana early. The dilemma was apparent and erect, so he had to pick something! If Tim was to face these sharks, then he had to be more powerful, for example. These potential opponents were huge, and the reef was an uncomfortable distance away from him and Ortana, so there was no outswimming those who approached! These sharks likely had better quality mana as well, so there was no underestimating them. "Fucking hell! The things I go through just to survive, this ain''t fair!" He complained. Afterwards, he put a bit of effort to find Ortana. She was upgrading her mana quality right now, about ten meters away from the cluster of mana roots, so it didn¡¯t take long to find her. However, when Tim found her, he got even more nervous. Ortana was in no state to move around, not because she was injured or anything, but rather, the upgrade took a really big toll on her. Ortana''s muscles were twitching, as her veins were being restructured right now, just so she could support and process a better quality of mana. Tim was baffled, so he panicked. "All this for some rustic mana? For fuck''s sake, I don''t want to upgrade my shit at all now!" Ortana was literally glowing as well, far more than a torch ever could, which was what made him nervous the most. The blue light which she unleashed, may have been what was attracting this bunch of sharks as well. It was difficult to miss her, as she looked like a bundled up pile of Christmas lights that exclusively shone blue, so she had been practically begging for trouble! The situation developed beyond what he had expected, however, he didn¡¯t want to leave her behind either. Tim couldn''t fight the sharks, but at the very least, he wanted to get his friend to a safer place! After that, if time allowed it, he was to upgrade his mana as well. He swam close to Ortana, and then said. "I gotta get you out of here, plant woman! Hang on to me, bite into my skin¡­ I can handle the pinch, let me get you out of here!" Chapter 31 - Begging the Gods! Tim helped Ortana get out of trouble. He lifted her away from plain sight, and hid her in some random hole on the ground. There were plenty of such holes surrounding them, and they could hide within any of them, just because they were very small-bodied stingrays. They were safe for the time being, or at least, Tim wanted to believe that he and Ortana were safe. He muttered, ¡°Those fuckers are probably coming after the mana roots, so, if we¡¯re quiet enough, then they won¡¯t bother us.¡± ¡°They will bother us, Thomas, they will.¡± Ortana suddenly added. She hadn¡¯t spoken much for a while, as the upgrade session took quite a toll on her. She had been preserving her energy, but now, the situation demanded otherwise. She had to add, ¡°You¡¯re full of mana, so they¡¯re gonna sniff you out, and then try to eat you whole! Your mana is pretty weak, but that doesn¡¯t matter for them; Those sharks will still benefit a lot from eating you¡­¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s fucking peachy,¡± He whispered. Timothy was in danger, because apparently bigger animals ate smaller animals, for more reasons than one. Ortana briefly explained that if one ate an animal that was full of mana, their bodies would absorb and then amplify the said mana. With that said, Tim was at risk of being sniffed out and eaten, even if the sharks were several levels above him in mana quality! They wouldn''t spare him, as he¡¯d be a great snack. WIthin seconds, Tim came up with a solution against the possible dangers, but it wasn¡¯t a solution that he really liked. In order to escape the scent of those sharks, he had to do a mana quality upgrade, which in turn, would deplete every point of mana he had! This would deter the scent of mana off of his body, and since he couldn¡¯t go out there and that bundle of sharks, this was his only solution! ¡°I hate to be vulnerable right now, but this has to be done! Let¡¯s hope that the sharks waste a few minutes on those roots.¡± He added. Afterwards, he took a couple of safety precautions. Tim assumed that his body would glow a lot throughout the upgrade session, which in return could attract even more unwanted attention. He wanted to avoid that, so he buried himself within a couple inches of sand, just to be completely out of sight. This idea made him feel safer! After that, he felt ready to upgrade his mana quality, or at least, he felt just a little bit more ready. He was still a nervous wreck for the time being! He then asked, ¡°What¡¯s that spell again, plant woman? The one about a mana upgrade.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Marlo was supposed to teach him this spell, but he hadn¡¯t gotten the chance to do so. With that considered, he had to depend on Ortana for the spell instead, regardless of how occupied she was right now. ¡°I don¡¯t remember mana upgrades being this rough, this feels worse than giving birth.¡± She muttered to herself first. Afterwards, she mustered up the strength to give a solid answer to the boy. In the utmost detail, word by word, she eventually explained the spell to Timothy, without accidentally recasting the spell on herself in the meantime! She didn¡¯t want to make a mistake like that, so she took her time. Tim understood and memorized the spell eventually, and once he did, he casted it on himself immediately. He had to handle a long, spoken-word spell, and these were the kind of spells that he had to believe in himself in order for them to work, so it took him a while to mentally prepare for that. He had to bring himself in a very sour, emotional state, in order to believe in the spell, and he also started depending on it in a very desperate manner. He then casted, "My will is but mana, and mana is life! I call upon the gods to bless me with purity, even if punishment is the means to my end!" The gods were really responsive, or at least, the spell was. In response to the spell, every fraction of Tim''s body started twitching! Throughout these first few seconds of distress, he figured out that magic could be extremely physical, even though that was hypocritical to magic as a name itself. "Fucking hell¡­ I''m steaming!" Tim muttered, as he noticed that he was even making the waters warmer, at least by a few degrees. The mana quality upgrade was taking a real physical toll on him, but the reason behind it was at least a little bit logical. Mana was a magical substance that had to be stored, and processed through organic bodies, as that was how mana typically worked in this world. With that said, the upgrade was simply preparing Timothy''s organic body to accept a better quality of mana. His veins may be twitching, his muscles and organs may be changing forever, but if he was successful with this upgrade, then he''d be able to harbor a better quality of mana as a result. It was a tough process, but the results promised multiple rewards and advantages! Tim twitched for about five minutes, and then the twitching and bodily spasms stopped. His pain halved immediately, but now, he couldn¡¯t move all that much. Timothy''s body remained dormant for a moment, until suddenly, he started radiating a luscious, blue light! The light would''ve been blinding originally, but he buried himself in sand for the same reason. The sand was coating most of the blue light which he was radiating, and this in turn provided him with a simple advantage; Mainly, the mana quality upgrade session could go on without any interruptions! It was really advantageous that he wasn¡¯t to be interrupted, as he wouldn¡¯t be able to protect himself in the slightest. Tim couldn''t concentrate much, as the burden of this upgrade was both crippling and overwhelming. He didn¡¯t want to remain like this for long, so with every bit of strength he could muster, Tim tried to trick the gods to accept his attempt at a mana upgrade, even if he had to pretend like he was begging them along the way! He could put up an act. Chapter 32 - Rustic Mana upgrade! Tim endured various bodily challenges. The mana upgrade session was very tough on his body, as it basically was a painful restructuring of everything that slushed under his flesh. Although the said restructuring wasn¡¯t too drastic on its own, it and its definition was still spiteful against mother nature, and in exchange, mother nature knocked Tim out two times, through raw pain alone! He didn''t have fun. The whole process wasn¡¯t easy, not at all, but at last, he was seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The upgrade was nearing its end, and from the looks of it, he survived it, as the gods believed his plea for power, or, supposedly they did. Tim thought that the spell itself had been humiliating, but at the end of the day, he wasn¡¯t one who preached the contents of that spoken-word spell all that much, he wasn¡¯t a worshiper, so he could live this humiliation down eventually! He progressed, and that was what mattered the most. However, he was still really angry! So after a few sessions of getting knocked out, he finally woke up, and then started screaming. He yelled as much as a stingray could yell, and the sudden complaints he had were rather creative. He yelled out, ¡°Fuck this shit! What kinda god thought that it was fun to punish mages who just wanna be better? I hate those kinky bastards, they''re gross! Disgusting!¡± Afterwards, he arose from the sand, and immediately looked for Ortana the stingray. He recalled bringing her here, all for the sake of hiding her from the brewing dangers which floated from above. Naturally, he now expected to see her again. Tim looked for her briefly, and figured out that she was not here. She had escaped for some reason, and left Timothy to fend for himself here, in this unprotected, very fragile hole in the ground. If the sharks had discovered him, they would¡¯ve eaten him alive, without fighting much in order to do so. Anyway, regardless of those faint hints of betrayal, Tim still wanted to remain trusting towards that lady. He figured that it would be too much to ask of a stranger, to risk her life for him out here; It was absurd, so he wasn¡¯t really upset with her. Instead, he thought. ¡°At least she upgraded her own mana, I think? She then probably took off when she got the chance, so¡­ maybe the sharks are gone too?¡± Tim wanted to think positively about Ortana, positively only, because she had been really helpful to him before. For that matter, he peeked out of the hole, and wanted to figure out if his conclusions were right. He figured that if the sharks were gone already, then Ortana hadn¡¯t really left him for dead out here, but instead, she may have gotten bored waiting for him to wake up. It was a possibility. He peeked out, and then unfortunately stood corrected, he was wrong. The sharks were still floating around, so Ortana had most likely escaped this place out of desperation! She had likely felt threatened here, and therefore escaped immediately. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t ditch her, that''s not how I roll¡­ but at least she didn¡¯t kill me. She could have stolen a bunch of my powers when I was knocked out, but she didn¡¯t. Now that''s a friend, a goodish friend.¡± He thought. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Tim was being positive, and at this point he was even leaning towards the delusional side in terms of positively, but he really didn¡¯t want another enemy right now. He didn¡¯t want to end up fighting another Harold-like character for the sake of honor and vendetta, or stuff like that, this was less than ideal. Instead, he focused on surviving this mess, or what was left of this mess. The sharks were still lurking around the mana roots for some reason, and he figured that this had to be a bad thing, somehow. The roots were supposed to be empty, and dried out of mana by now, so he didn¡¯t understand why the sharks were still here, they were uncomfortably near the roots! He was stumped. Tim floated out of the hole again, until he got about a foot away from it this time, just to have a better look of what was going on. He was nervous about doing this, but he had to do something, as he couldn¡¯t afford to wait here for hours on end. He took a peek, and then thought. ¡°I don''t smell any mana¡­ so maybe these fuckers are upgrading their mana quality too?¡± Just as he thought about that, he then came to a sudden realization, one which made him panic a little bit. He hid right back in the hole, just so he could get excited about his realization, without risking his life. ¡°I can smell mana now?!¡± He panicked. That was when the system followed along, as she transmitted a message in his head, which shed light on this phenomenon. She answered his question. [You bear Rustic mana now, Timothy, and it promises numerous perks. You can smell mana now, regardless if it resides in a mana root, a human, or your average flappy fish. So, congratulations, the insane risks you took were worth it!] She said. ¡°That''s nice,¡± He said, ¡°So what other shit did I get? What else can I do with this rustic mana of mine?¡± The system, in her infinite wisdom, naturally bore a list. She had a list of all the recent benefits which Tim won over, and she showed this list to him. He could read them out clearly. ¡°So¡­ my powers cost more mana to cast now, huh? That''s the last thing I wanted.¡± He muttered, after he read through a portion of the virtual list. [You understood that wrong, Timothy. It''s more costly for you to use your powers now, yes, but that is so because of a very good reason. As of now, your powers are four times better than they were before, much stronger, so to say.] She followed along. Afterwards, she also added. [Besides, you can generate 80 points of mana an hour now, all by yourself. You won''t be as dependent on mana roots as you were prior to this upgrade, you don''t need to hunt for roots as much now. The upgrade is pretty balanced.] With that said, Tim came to another realization. He didn¡¯t need to figure out what the sharks were doing, no. Instead, he just had to wait here for another hour, just so he could replenish more of his mana. His body could produce it naturally, and he figured that the sharks wouldn''t be able to pick up on the scent of his mana, if the amount remained under one-hundred points. He wanted to replenish his mana just a little bit, and then dash towards the reef later on! If he was lucky enough, the sharks won''t notice him whatsoever. Even if they did, odds were that he was more than likely to outswim them, because his flaming fins ability for example, was four times as strong now! He was really eager to put his powers to the test. Chapter 33 - Sneaky Stingray! The risks that Tim took, came hand-to-hand with advantages. The quality of his mana was greater now, so he managed to pave an escape route for himself as a result. He beamed through the waters at an astounding speed! Tim swam low, pretty close to the sea-floor even, so he managed to escape the danger zone successfully. The sharks didn¡¯t notice the commotion he caused across the waters, and since his mana pool was scarce of points too, they couldn¡¯t smell the mana on him either. The scent on him wasn¡¯t noticeable, not at all. ¡°Peww¡­ I made it. Fuck those sharks, I ain¡¯t fighting them, and odds are that they¡¯ll never find me either.¡± He mumbled. Tim had reached the coral reef in seconds, and he was relieved. He had swum towards safety, with the aid of his flaming fins ability, which had allowed him to swim at a speed of up to 24 km/h! This part of the experience was intense, due to numerous reasons. The said speed was the reason why he had caused a tiny commotion across the waters a moment ago, as he had a tiny complication because of it! He swam really fast, which got him flipping around the waters as a result. He didn¡¯t make his escape as smoothly as one would imagine, which was why he was so relieved that he had escaped unnoticed to begin with! ¡°Shits got me flipping around like a pancake,¡± He thought, ¡°I gotta be smarter next time, for my own fucking sake. I¡¯m the definition of light weight, so it¡¯s kinda stupid of me to swim at full speed. The sharks were grannies in comparison too, so I was rushing for nothing!¡± The system was listening to him, as she always did. As she listened to the other¡¯s rants, she couldn¡¯t help but add her two into the conversation, because she knew a thing or two about physics. She said, [It¡¯s almost always a dumb idea, for a guy of your size to swim that fast. You have a flat body, so if you keep this up, you¡¯re going to fly like a plane at some point, except the results will end up being far less favorable for you than you¡¯d imagine. Stingrays aren¡¯t built for speed, so you need more weight to counter your natural, plate-like aerodynamics. You¡¯d be more efficient that way too, specifically, you won¡¯t be wasting most of your mana points as easily, for a 14 second trip.] ¡°No kidding, system! My brain isn¡¯t fit for math yet, but I¡¯m not retarded either, I get ya¡­ There¡¯s no way around it, I need that growth-sprout to happen as soon as possible. It¡¯ll help balance my aerodynamics or whatever.¡± He added. Tim acknowledged what the system wanted to say, he was aware of his predicaments, so he was willing to work on them as soon as he got the chance. He was eager, but he was out of mana for the moment, however, so he couldn¡¯t really move around much without risking his life across the open waters as a result, so he came up with a solution that promised safety and eventual progress! He hid between a couple layers of yellow coral. This was his plan, and it worked well too, because he was really small, and could hide for hours in plain sight if he wanted to, it was a no brainer when it came to safety. The layers of thick coral were protective, he depended on them. He was sick of resting all the time, but he acknowledged the reasons behind it too. This boring disadvantage came hand-to-hand with the daily troubles of magehood, it was inevitable for every species. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Tim had to replenish a bunch of his mana, and he had to wait for it to replenish, which was the boring part about this plan, but it was all for safety¡¯s sake. It was mandatory, because if he needed a boost of speed throughout his travels, for example, that would only be possible through mana. He needed reserves, so he planned to rest for about three hours to get them! At some point, Tim got hungry as well, which was very frustrating, but he also understood why he was hungry all the time. His belly couldn¡¯t fit much food, and he moved around far more than the average tiny stingray did, which in turn was very energy consuming. Since those two aspects went parallel with one another, his metabolism was oftentimes at a strain, as his body couldn¡¯t keep up with his explorative and jittery characteristics! He was aware of that. The hunger beat down on his body for about two hours, but he didn¡¯t bother looking for food in the perimeter he was hiding in. He wanted to empty his stomach thoroughly instead, in order to eat as many chunks of panzer crab meat as possible, which in turn would encourage his growth-sprout even more. Tim had that little plan and he followed it thoroughly, and part of his plan, didn¡¯t allow him to rest in one spot for an extended period of time. He moved across the reef from time to time, from one spot to the other, as he wanted to get closer to his food stash, without taking any huge risks along the way. These several tiny sprints he made, throughout the span of three hours, cured a portion of his boredom too. The risks he took by moving around were minimal, but the sprints still were a good distraction for him. That aside, Tim was tens of meters closer to his food stash as a result! Anyway, after about three hours of such fragmented sprints, he managed to sneak a comfortable distance away from the sharks as well. He was safer now, and since he managed to accumulate almost three-hundred mana points in total, he started putting them into use; Tim sped up across the open waters, he wasn¡¯t hiding anymore. He aimed to swim towards his stash of panzer crabs, and furthermore, he thought. ¡°It¡¯s better to tend to my stash now, and uh, I shouldn¡¯t visit the sect today, it¡¯s too risky. Marlo probably won¡¯t accept me there anyway¡­ cuz for all I know, Ortana probably told him that I was the one who killed all those stingray friends of ours, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised. I should avoid those blistering bastards for a while, erg, blistering mana sect, or whatever they¡¯re called.¡± Tim had to be calculative, even if he didn¡¯t like it. He hadn¡¯t seen Ortana along the way, he hadn¡¯t seen her at all for hours, so it was reasonable that he was suspicious. Tim wasn¡¯t as positive about the whole friendship thing anymore, which gave him a lot of room to embrace common sense, he didn¡¯t want to make any mistakes. He found the food stash, and started munching on it. There were still plenty of panzer crab meat laying around for him to eat, as apparently other critters hadn¡¯t been able to sneak into the coral crack where he had stashed them in. Furthermore, the salt within the seas was helping preserve the meat as well, so the meat hadn¡¯t quite rotten either, it was edible. Tim had this little backup plan, which included eating as much crab meat as he possibly could. He felt that this effort would finally seal the deal, and give him the growth-sprout that he wanted. That way, even if the sect turned against him, he¡¯d be better off, and could likely protect himself more. Besides, others would think twice about killing a big stingray! The system, out of a sudden, gave him another idea, which promised safety. Tim had a couple of other upgrades that he hadn¡¯t touched, and it was about time that he looked them over. She said, [Hello, Timothy. I noticed that you¡¯re ignoring your four upgrade options, for whatever reason? It¡¯s not smart, and considering the plausible tension across your immediate area, I suggest that you consider upgrading your already purchased, extingus breath magical ability. This upgrade promises your extingus breath, a stronger resistance against any offensive, elemental magic that an opponent may cast upon you, so don¡¯t be negligent, buy it.] Chapter 34 - "Who gonna drown me?" Timothy wasn¡¯t the brightest fish in the world, not by a stretch, but under any hostile circumstances, he knew what had to be done. He listened to the system, and bought the upgrade that she recommended. Since he could afford it too, there was virtually no reason for him to avoid this upgrade. The extingus breath upgrade, was implemented into his arsenal of powers in a snap. It was quick and painless! The system confirmed, [The extingus breath upgrade, has been implemented into your body successfully. You can now shield yourself from a certain degree of elemental powers, which in this world, is a very good attribute to have, congratulations.] Furthermore, she said. [The upgrade cost you 600 system points, so now a total of 70 points remain in your sum. The upgrade was expensive, admittedly, but that''s only because you recently upgraded the quality of your mana also. I have adjusted the upgrade and it''s power-volume, for it to fit that said, rustic mana quality.] Tim liked the sound of that, he liked the idea of being generally more powerful too. He also understood that his upgrade in mana quality, has tweaked every magical power he already had as well. It took him a moment to realize this part, but basically, he was more dangerous than ever now! That fact alone was a bit absurd, even the ocean wasn''t used to it, because stingrays of his size and age were typically very prone to getting slaughtered. With that considered, from this day onwards, he may shock other enemies and stingrays alike, because his powers were surely explosive! Anyway, although he wanted to celebrate such success thoroughly, he couldn¡¯t do that just yet, because his mind was preoccupied. The tiny amount of system points he was left over with, wasn''t what bothered him, no, but he was focused on his newly attained ability upgrade instead. Tim asked himself, ¡°Elemental powers, now what the hell is that¡­ I''m supposed to deflect elemental shit now, yes, but what am I protecting myself against, exactly? Water is an element, but how the hell could a fish weaponize a bunch of salt water? What, is someone supposed to drown me or something? That can''t be right.¡± The questions he asked were interesting to say the least, but the system did not answer them. He had bought the upgrade and could protect himself better now, which was all that mattered for the time being. Besides, he had other things to do right now that were of greater importance. It was advantageous that the upgrade had been quick and painless, because now, for example, he could get back to munching on those panzer crab carcasses. He had found his stash of food, and took several bites of them already! Tim expected to have his growth sprout now, he really needed this to happen as soon as possible, so he got this great motivation to fill himself to the nose with crab meat. This idea wasn''t easy on his body, because at some point he felt as bloated as a balloon, but he felt enthralled to take such extreme measures nonetheless, as he really wanted to become bigger! Ultimately though, he got all worked up over nothing. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He ate until he brought himself into a food coma, and eventually fell asleep too. When he woke up about two hours later, the only big thing in his close vicinity was the vast amount of food he passed through his body. Tim took a physically astounding shit! Obviously, this was not the result that he had hoped for, so he was quite angry about it. His first instinct was to put the system under a microscope, and question her about this failure that he experienced. He pressured, ¡°What¡¯s happening, system? I¡¯m still as small as an asswipe, even though I devoured an entire fucking panzer crab! Do you even know how harsh its legs were on my sensitive tummy? I could¡¯ve punctured my gut, for christ¡¯s sake.¡± [You¡¯re the one that¡¯s rushing things, Timothy.] The system countered, and she also added. [Growth sprouts can¡¯t be forced on or controlled, as even I can¡¯t do anything to control them. You''re being obsessive, though I also have to admit that in your case, the sprout is taking a bit too long. This could either mean that your body isn''t processing the magical side of these panzer crabs for some reason, or¡­] ¡°Or?¡± He pressured. [The sprout may end up crossing the average growth volume that stingrays experience by this. I encourage you to believe the latter, because it¡¯s a really great thing to look forward to. We¡¯re talking about a growth sprout from 200% and up to 451%, it¡¯s a rare but phenomenal occurrence.] She said. ¡°Well¡­ that doesn¡¯t sound bad,¡± He sighed, and also relaxed a bit. ¡°You sure know how to sell an idea, system! Mattress stores would love to hire you, I just know it.¡± [But they wouldn¡¯t let me sleep on the mattresses, so that isn¡¯t a job for me, I can''t be a saleswoman.] She joked. Furthermore, she added. [If you¡¯re looking to kill some time though, I¡¯m glad to announce that a week has passed ever since the last time when you used your explorative soul ability, so you can use it again now, as the cooldown timer went out. Explore the skies, Timothy and get some points for yourself, because you¡¯re as poor as one would expect a fish to be. Have fun!] Tim was excited about this. The last time he used this ability, he got to fly across the skies and shoot at a bunch of stuff too. It was a fun experience, but this time around he hoped to discover more than a couple of sparkly clouds. He wanted to find one of those soul based civilizations that the system had mentioned before. To prepare and use this ability, Tim ate a bit more food, because he had to indulge in a meditative, hibernation-like state. His soul would be detached from his body for a while, and in order to prevent his body from starving and fading away, he had to fill up with food. ¡­ Tim floated across the skies. The explorative soul ability, in theory, promised a lot, but for the time being he was indefinitely bored. The sky was wide and seemed endless, which would make one think that its opportunities were endless too, but that latter principle didn¡¯t apply to everyone. Tim was small and admittedly weak, which meant that his soul was weak too. Not only was he prone to attacks from other souls, but it was also a miracle to meet another floating, conscious soul out here, because it took him a lot of time to get from one spot to the other! He flew for hours at end, until he finally found a colorful cloud which only slightly promised opportunity. This cloud may only have a few drops of phantomized mana stashed in it, but for the time being, this was as much as the world was willing to offer to him. Tim had to be patient and opportunistic in order to progress! Chapter 35 - Slithering Plague Tim floated into a colorful, ghostly cloud. The average fish or even mammal for that matter, wouldn¡¯t be able to see this cloud with their naked eyes because the cloud was virtually invisible, it wasn¡¯t meant to be seen by physical creatures. However, he was traveling around as a soul right now, and he was exploring the world to find specific clouds like this one. The air was rich with these gas-like clouds that only souls or ghosts could see. In other words, whoever floated out here, floated around either because they had to, or because they were in a hunt for phantomized mana, in order to strengthen themselves. Phantom magic was a branch of magic itself, after all, so mere souls urged to cultivate the quality of their phantom mana, all for power¡¯s sake! Tim managed to find a purple, gaseous cloud, and since the color of it was so thick, he unsurprisingly found phantomized mana in there. His soul started absorbing the mana right away, and in turn, the same cloud¡¯s rich color, started fading away. He saw the cloud dissipating more after every beating second, and thanks to such speed, he was reminded that phantomized mana was much easier for one to attain. Tim couldn¡¯t produce it himself, no, but since mana clouds like these were far more plentiful than mana roots, then he didn¡¯t care what he could produce. Out here, he could just float into a cloud, and reap hundreds of points of phantomized mana in seconds! It was a grand activity for an opportunistic entity such as himself. Anyway, after about five minutes, he managed to absorb every whiff of the purple cloud there was. He was efficient. Then, the system announced. [Hello, Timothy. You have accumulated 777 points of phantomized mana, congratulations!] ¡°This is nothing to be congratulated about, system.¡± He followed along, ¡°Where are those ghost kingdoms you talked about? I¡¯d feel much more accomplished if I found one of those, or at least, it would be cool to look at stuff like that.¡± The system had an answer to this, she said. [Unlike the rest of the world, aerial kingdoms do not have borders. Ghost-based kingdoms are very far away from each other, because they have virtually no reason to be near each other to begin with. You¡¯d have to fly for days to find one of these kingdoms.] Timothy didn¡¯t have that kind of patience, not at all. He wasn¡¯t willing to fly for days, so he gave up on the idea of finding ghostly kingdoms, entirely. Instead, he decided that it was best to be on the hunt out here for some system points, as this had actually been his original plan. He needed a lot of points. He thought, ¡°I have a bunch of phantom mana now, so I should use it to hunt shit. If I run into another mana cloud, that would be pretty good too.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. The prior idea was simple but effective. He was to hunt other entities, in exchange for system points, and since he was loaded with mana already, hunting, in theory, should be easy for him overall. That theory was proven incorrect, however, about an hour later. He bumped into a group of entities that seemed too weird for comfort, he simply couldn¡¯t ignore their prickly, and dark features. When Tim thought of ghosts or souls, he imagined otherwise bland, pale, and blobby figures, so he would never have imagined to see ghosts that were shaped like snakes! Tim didn¡¯t like snakes, or any elongated animal for that matter. Likewise, he didn¡¯t nearly want to see a two-foot long, darkened entity. He felt intimidated right away, and pictured that this ¡®snake¡¯ was a fallen demon of some sort, and for that matter, he started blasting mana against the said demon! He could summon these silvery, and razor-like balls of mana, so he immediately put those into use. The shots he was firing, behaved a bit like the average mage¡¯s fireball, except, it mainly featured cold razors. Tim shot several of those, until he hit his target. ¡°Haha!¡± He celebrated. Tim had erased the target from his sight. Razors may not be able to hurt a very non-physical entity, but the shots he fired were purely made out of phantomized mana, which explained his success. He had won this short battle, in a bit of a cruel way. However, moments later, several of that same species suddenly appeared. He got surrounded, and even though he managed to shoot one of these entities down, he wasn¡¯t quick enough to shoot all of them. Tim was approached by them, and then, he got bit, except the bite was just coated with this dark, spooky substance. Immediately after, the darkness then engulfed the rest of his soul. Tim¡¯s soul was originally colored light-blue, but now it seemed as dark as the night! He felt terrified about it, because not only was he defeated right now, but there was more to this. This darkness didn¡¯t permit certain things. For example, he didn¡¯t have the freedom to move as he pleased. He could only follow this group of black, ghostly snakes, but that was about all he could do. Tim followed them, as if instinctually, and so, they soared the skies together. He was free to have thoughts, however, and naturally he was panicking. Internally, he slammed the system with a bunch of questions! It was reasonable for him to be anxious, because what he was experiencing was the textbook definition of slavery, or at least a variant of it. In panic, he asked. ¡°What the hell is going on, system! They fucking defeated me already, so shouldn¡¯t I wake up all comfy, at home?!¡± [No,] She answered, [You¡¯ve been bitten by a slithering plague ghost, and their sole purpose is to infect as many entities as possible. They don¡¯t have leaders, or any social structure at all for that matter, but they do have one goal; To spread their plague!] ¡°What does that mean? Am I dead?¡± He asked. The system was thorough and direct, she said. [No, but you will be floating around for a while, at least as long as these snakes see you as useful. Once they dispose of your soul, you¡¯ll be free to get back to your body.] ¡°Well, crab shit!¡± He remarked. Chapter 36 - Small fish in a big pond Timothy''s soul was enslaved. He did not like it, no, but there were also certain aspects that worked to his favor. For example, he didn¡¯t have to worry about flying anymore, because he couldn''t control where he moved towards. Now that seemed like a bad thing in hindsight, but since he was a lazy and greedy guy, he could really abuse this situation! In simple words, he could explore the skies, without putting in any effort in himself. He''d figure out where gaseous, mana-filled clouds were located, for example, without having to look for them himself. These slithering plague snakes that enslaved him, were bound to fly across some of the said clouds eventually, and Tim, in turn, would figure out where these precious clouds were! This way, he was bound to be rich in phantomized mana, by amount, it was inevitable, that is, if the said clouds were too huge for these snakes to harvest. He didn¡¯t care about the smaller clouds. Furthermore, as far as he understood, even though these snakes enslaved him, they still couldn''t steal his phantomized mana! For that matter, he still had a bit over seven-hundred points to his name, and was bound to collect more! If Tim was lucky enough, he could become powerful quickly. That prediction was only a sample of the benefits he could win over, and there were other benefits too. Tim guessed that since these enslaving entities were several, if not tens by number, then they were far more well-traveled than him, they understood the skies far better than him, in comparison. Since they were well-traveled, odds were that they knew how to locate more prominent, ghostly clusters, such as a ghostly kingdom! If Tim could learn how to find one of those, then utter soul-shaking progress was inevitable for him. One''s soul could be upgraded too, and he was eager to do just that, it wasn''t impossible! He thought, ¡°These bastards are gonna help me become the toughest fucker out there, even if they do so accidentally. They don''t know what I''m capable of, hell, even I don''t know what I''m capable of, hehe!¡± He was enthusiastic, however, he couldn¡¯t really ignore the odds and ends of his current situation either. The only, and rather prophilic downside of this situation was that he was enslaved, rather thoroughly, and he couldn¡¯t really do much about that either. He couldn¡¯t taunt or harass his slave masters, because for now, it seemed impossible for him to do so. He could only follow them, regardless if he respected them or not. Under that setting, he and the slithering plague snakes managed to travel quite a bit. There was nothing stopping them either, since a soul or an entity of any sort, did not get tired at all. He and the snakes wouldn''t get tired physically, they wouldn''t get fatigued, and thanks to that fact, they managed to travel for two days straight, without taking a single break! This pace of traveling was interesting to say the least, Tim felt like a migrating bird. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Throughout this time bracket, these snakes obliterated a bunch of other entities, and they even ended up enslaving some of them. In the very least, it was fun to watch such battles unfold, but that was about all of the entertainment Timothy could get along the way. He was enslaved, so he couldn¡¯t move around on his own, and also, he hadn''t even been used by the slithering plague snakes so far whatsoever, no; He only followed them around, but that was about it. That latter part made life especially boring for him, and it was disadvantageous too! He couldn''t participate in any of the battles, he couldn¡¯t get into any action at all. This part was disadvantageous, as mentioned, because it further robbed him of his freedom. Tim''s soul had a health bar, just like his body did, and in order to escape this weird enslavement, he would have to deplete that health bar, otherwise known as the bar of essence points! That was the easiest way for him to be set free of this enslavement, yet he couldn¡¯t deplete this health bar himself. That aside, these snakes weren''t planning on lessening the amount of their slaves, they weren''t using Timothy in battles, so for now, he was quite stuck as a slave! That was one of the reasons why the past couple of days had been frustrating, but that wasn¡¯t all. Tim hadn''t made any significant discoveries within this time bracket, which was the most frustrating part about this forceful trip, because he was really looking forward to discovering anything important. Sure he saw a couple of ghosts along the way that seemed interesting, but that was about it, those were the spoils of his lengthy trip across the sky, nothing else! He didn''t discover any ghostly kingdoms, or anything like that. They found a few tiny clouds that were filled with phantomized mana as well, but he couldn''t harvest those, so it did not matter that he saw them. The snakes devoured the gaseous clouds instantly, so they were gone by now! ¡°No mana, no kingdoms, and no fucking system points either. The skies are not fair, damn it!¡± He complained. Furthermore, he added. ¡°If I have to look at this blue sky for one more day, I''m going to fucking loose it!¡± Timothy was really frustrated, and rightfully so. He hated the idea of being so isolated, and controlled. The sky out here was so massive, to the point where he felt isolated out here in the open sky, and he would feel similarly so, even if he hadn''t been enslaved by these snakes. The sky was just too large, and he floated too slowly to make any good discoveries, so he was literally a small fish in a big pond, with the pond being the whole sky! With that considered, he then thought. ¡°Soon as I''m free, I''m gonna try to upgrade my soul. Dunno if that''ll make me faster, but it sure as hell will make me stronger. I''ll be a fucking slave master too, if that''s what it takes to make some progress out here!¡± Timothy was frustrated, but just then, he saw something that immediately distracted him from all of this frustration. He saw an entity that was too big for comfort! Chapter 37 - Green Di#do Tim and his slave masters noticed a huge entity. The entity wasn¡¯t only big, it looked really weird too, and from what he could understand, these ghostly snakes feared the said entity a lot! Even though the snakes were transparent, he could see how they in a way, shivered in fear! He couldn¡¯t help thinking, ¡°Hmm¡­ maybe this can be my way out, towards freedom, cause these fuckers look really scared. It¡¯s weird that they are scared, because this big motherfucker looks a lot like them, except it''s green. I¡¯m no scientist, but maybe she¡¯s their mother, a big ass mother or something? It''s possible.¡± There were a lot of things to think about here. Tim was not a thinker inherently, so his conscience was really strained right now as he tried to figure things out. The said, green entity wasn¡¯t making any sudden moves either, so he didn¡¯t really know what to make of this encounter, as he was not in danger. He could only guess that this encounter was either parental, or hostile, but that on itself wasn¡¯t really a wide variety of guesses. He was quite clueless. Tim was certain about one thing, however, the slithering plague snakes were struggling right now. That was a fact, and this solid fact expanded even further, as the huge, green, and slithering entity demanded it so. The snakes struggled, because the opposing entity was forcefully reverting them! Reversions for entities was similar to utter enslavement! These snakes, which originally had a black-looking exterior, were forced to adapt with different shades now, specifically, the color which this bigger entity bore! They did not like this at all, they even protested. Tens of snakes from the same species, then appeared out of thin air, to attempt and fight the opposing, larger entity, but their effort was futile! All of them got enslaved in seconds, and now, they collectively obeyed their new master¡¯s bidding. Timothy, however, was free of enslavement. Those snakes weren¡¯t influencing him anymore, not at all, and the larger, quite elongated entity, wasn¡¯t really looking to enslave him either. The entity preferred these slithering plague snakes, for some reason, so Tim, and the rest of the entities that these snakes had enslaved over the last couple of days, were now free of enslavement, as free as an entity could be. They could sport their rights of freedom once more, and this, at the moment, was the most wonderful feeling in the world! ¡°I did not expect this at all, then again, the skies are pretty fucking weird to begin with.¡± He thought, ¡°At least I¡¯m free, nothing else matters, hehe.¡± Tim wasn¡¯t amongst the wisest of men, but he knew a couple of things really well. For example, he knew when to put up a fight and he also knew when to flee. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Since the green entity was busy enslaving those snakes, he took the opportunity to slowly, and cautiously back away. Odds were that the entity wasn¡¯t going to chase him to begin with, but still, he knew not to make any sudden movements. This was a good decision, and for multiple reasons too! As a meat-eating predator himself, he knew that anything that moved frantically, would attract the attention of a predator. Based on that logic, even if this green entity didn''t want to enslave him, if it saw Tim suddenly floating away quickly and abruptly, the entity may be encouraged to chase him. This was common sense for a fish such as himself, and Tim was very happy that for once, he was embracing said common sense. Slowly and cautiously, Tim fled. The green, elongated entity went on its merry way too! He was safe now, or at least, he felt safe. He sighed as thoroughly as an entity could sigh, and thought. ¡°Well, I wasted two days of my life just like that. My body must be starving, cuz I don''t think that I ate enough crab meat for it to support long trips like this. At this point, it would make sense if I didn''t have a body to get back to, hell, for a moment I even forgot that I had a fucking body. The punishment fits the crime.¡± Once he thought about that, the system then interrupted. [The punishment is death, Timothy. Your body back there is fit to survive two days without food, three at most, so you''re really stretching your luck out here right now. I suggest that you try to return to your body as fast as you can.] ¡°That''s a bit of a problem, then. It would take another two days to get back to my body, and I don''t think I have enough time to do that.¡± He followed along. Tim had been eager to explore the skies, and at some point, he even forgot that he owned a body. Such negligence had consequences, and although he had been the victim of slavery so far which was what made him waste a lot of time, he still had to face the rough consequences of this trip. He couldn¡¯t float back home, not in time at least, so he was quite in some trouble right now. Factually, this situation only had one solution. He had to be directly attacked by another entity, in order to deplete his essence-based health bar, and if he was to survive, he had to act quickly! With that considered, he quickly came up with a plan. ¡°Hey! Dragon guy, green dildo, can you hear me?! You planty bastard, hey, please, come shoot at me!¡± He exclaimed. Timothy was an entity right now, however, so he couldn¡¯t really speak. His exclamations were more of very insisting thoughts, rather than words, he wasn¡¯t loud. For that matter, he really hoped that the green guy which he had put effort in to avoid earlier on, could read minds, or hear him in whatever way possible at the very least, as he really needed some help! He was looking to get shot, in whatever means possible. Just then, he realized why the ¡®green dragon¡¯ had such an advantage. It had been about fifty meters away, initially, but as Timothy yelled out, the green entity suddenly appeared right in front of him! It was fast, powerful, and apparently very communicative too! It had all the advantages! In an instant, it transmitted a thought, which stated. ¡°Never call me a green dildo again, or else I will smite thee with the power of a thousand suns! The mana is my sun, my enlightenment, and I will use it as the gods permit, trust me on that!¡± Chapter 38 - %? Timothy didn''t expect to communicate with this green, dragon-shaped entity whatsoever. In fact, he hadn''t communicated with any entity at all so far, so he was surprised when this green one answered his call. Of course, he was the one who provoked the green one to begin with, but he was still surprised! He thought, ¡°Well shit¡­¡± This situation was a bit of a surprise, so he didn¡¯t really know what to do. He felt stumped at first, but within seconds, he figured that the best plan here was for him just to act natural, this was his solution. He only had to be himself, in order to manipulate the situation to his favor! Tim only had to annoy the entity, so he then transmitted a very coherent thought, citing. ¡°You heard me right, and I won''t be taking anything back, green weirdo. Mana is your sun, huh? That''s nothing new in our magical world, so don''t consider yourself holy and shit, don''t act all unique, cuz you''re just another stupid ghost, hahaha!¡± The idea was to irritate the entity as much as possible, and to achieve that, he didn¡¯t have to think about it all that much, Tim just had to be himself, as mentioned. Once he had transmitted those thoughts across the air, the green entity naturally reacted, and it did so with a full-on attack, rather than an argument! The entity shot a spear-like beam of light against Timothy. The spear was green, obviously, and it was also very destructive, so he didn¡¯t really stand a chance against it! The spear hit him, and in exchange, it dissolved his light-blue, stingray-shaped soul within seconds! Tim didn¡¯t get enslaved like the rest of those entities, no, his soul simply faded out of the sky instead. After that, the green entity thought to itself. ¡°What world are we growing into, where mana isn¡¯t respected? Depressing, sad.¡± The entity didn¡¯t even bother to enslave him, which itself explained how much it disapproved of the other''s foul words. The entity was angry, but as far as facts were concerned, Timothy got what he wanted out of that brute exchange. He had lured the entity to attack, and this, in a weird way, aided his own survival and longevity. Throughout that commotion, Tim¡¯s health bar had run out, so technically, his soul should return back to his body now. This is how his explorative soul ability worked, and he used its features to try and get back to his body, without putting in much effort to do so. With that said, now he could only hope that his soul would travel back to his body as quickly as possible, preferably in under just a few hours, rather than over a day! If it took over a day, he would surely die. ¡­ If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Tim woke up. He wasn¡¯t feeling fully rested, but that wasn¡¯t such a big issue, as it was a true achievement that he woke up to begin with. He had expected to die, the prior situation had hinted so, and for that matter he was beyond happy that he actually survived! His lucky streak of surviving such and similar odds, hadn''t run out after all. He then mumbled, ¡°I made it, system! But¡­ from the looks of it, I probably lost three pounds of fat, my stomach feels as empty as my wallet used to be, for fuck''s sake.¡± [Hello again, Timothy. First things first, you¡¯re being a tad delirious about your weight. You can¡¯t lose three pounds, if you don¡¯t even weigh a pound to begin with. Secondly, yes, you¡¯re very hungry right now, we don¡¯t need to look at statistics to know that, you¡¯re close to death.] The system followed along. Furthermore, she added. [Luckily though, you went into hibernation mode close to your food stash. The stash of panzer crab meat you have may be a bit rotten by now, but they are your best choice for the time being. Consume it, because you¡¯re a fish, after all, so you don¡¯t need to worry about tummy aches as much.] Tim did not appreciate the system¡¯s sarcastic remarks all that much, but he didn¡¯t have any time to argue with her right now. His frail, tiny body had gone at least two days without food, so he had to eat something immediately! Thankfully all the food that the system mentioned, was right in front of his nose, so he wasn¡¯t in any immense, starvation-related danger right now. Food was available, so he didn¡¯t have to hunt for it. Tim started munching on the crabs afterwards, perhaps too fast, even, because he started throwing all the contents up, after he went for the seventh bite of food. The rotten meat didn¡¯t treat his stomach so well, and paired with the fact that he rushed through the meal, it wasn¡¯t a surprise that he felt nausea for the first time ever as a stingray! The meat wasn¡¯t treating him well, but Tim wasn¡¯t treating himself so well either. With all of that considered, he had to slow down. He only took a few bites at a time afterwards, no matter how hungry he felt, as this was the safest way to eat food after a long period of starvation. This method worked well, because after about an hour of careful munching, he didn¡¯t feel as horrible anymore. The food helped him attain a spike of energy, even, regardless of how it was rotten; His belly could finally digest everything now, so he reaped the usual benefits of a meaty meal. Thanks to the meal, he could also think straight now. Slowly but surely, he realized just how bad his recent trip across the sky had been. Not only had he been enslaved for two days straight, but also, he didn¡¯t win any system points along the way! With that said, he obviously couldn¡¯t buy any new upgrades for the time being, which was quite a bummer. Tim felt like a failure, and felt that he had wasted a lot of time, he thought. ¡°No points, I didn¡¯t find any kingdoms either, plus I got humiliated on top of all that! God damnit, the skies are not nice at all!¡± He had a bunch of reasons to be angry, most souls would get as angry as he was, if they were in his place, there was no doubting that. However, he wasn¡¯t given enough space to explore all of this sadness. All of a sudden, either the gods or the crab meat, blessed him with a different kind of an upgrade. His body suddenly exploded in size, to the point where he had to force himself out of this tiny, hiding spot! Timothy finally had his growth sprout, apparently, and the said sprout was really decent. Percentage wise, the system had a couple of numbers to share with him! Chapter 39 - 382% [Congratulations, Timothy. According to my calculations, you''ve had a 382% growth in bodily size. Something that''s worth pointing out, is that this increase in size didn''t go parallel with your previous bodily statistics. Specifically, a good portion of the growth sprout was concentrated on your body-weight, for balance''s sake, you¡¯re pretty heavy now. The crab meat really knew what it was doing.] The system said. Tim was still feeling an adrenaline rush, so he didn¡¯t process the other''s words so carefully, no. He focused on a couple of things only, specifically, the aspects of the upgrade that he didn¡¯t like, and he formed a question based on that. He asked, ¡°So the crab meat made me really chubby? That''s nothing to be happy about, system!¡± Slowly and punctually, the system explained. [Actually no, that''s not what I meant. The sprout focused on your body weight, because otherwise you would end up looking really weird. You used to weigh a pound only, and a 382% increase in weight isn''t as good for you as it sounds, as you''d still end up weighing just under forty pounds, a weight which would not be substantial for and with your bodily length. This is why the increase in size didn''t go parallel with your previous bodily dimensions, as you would''ve ended up crippled, flat, and also very elongated. Statistically, you¡¯re still underweight, even, regardless of how you weigh half a ton right now, so you need to eat a lot! I hope all of this makes sense to you.] ¡°No it does not,¡± He admitted, without a dot of shame behind his noggin. Tim was still feeling excited, so he couldn¡¯t really concentrate much. The system spoke of a lot of things, and he was never good with math to begin with, not to mention any form of geometry, so he couldn¡¯t really catch up with what the other was saying. Thankfully though, the system was very patient. She came up with another answer, one which may make more sense. She said, [Okay, well picture this. You could''ve been 5.73 meters long, but that wouldn''t work out for you, because you need to weigh at least 1.3 tons to support such bodily length, weighing just 4 pounds for example, couldn¡¯t have ever been enough to support your current bodily length. With that said, the sprout focused more than half of its powers to help you weigh more, half a ton as I said, and since it focused its powers on your weight, you''re shorter and also less wide in exchange. You could''ve been 5.73 meters long (tail excluded), but you''re 3.5 meters long instead, it''s a give and take situation.] ¡°Okay, I think I''m starting to get it, mostly. I''m still pretty fucking huge though, from the looks of it, so I won''t be complaining about anything, hehehe.¡± He followed along. The silence that followed after was short, but deafening, and it was apparent that even the system was unsure of what to say. On one hand, she didn''t want to taint the other''s positive attitude, but on the other hand, the situation wasn''t as peachy as Tim assumed. She had to urge him about some important matters, she cited. [You don''t have time to complain, Timothy. I suggest you start hunting and eating stuff right away, because you¡¯re still pretty underweight right now. For a stingray your size, you need to gain at least 200 more kilos of weight in order to be strong and healthy! If anything strong attacked you right now, you''d get torn up like a piece of paper. The magical growth sprout only had so many magical quantities to work with, so you need to do the rest of the work by yourself; Eat.] Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. What the system said made a lot of sense, however, Tim still got really intimidated through her lectures. The danger he was in was imminent, and he had to do something about it, and quickly! His stomach felt like an empty ditch, and that itself was the least of his problems. There were other things to worry about. For example, regardless of how huge he was, Tim seemed a little bit slender in comparison to other stingrays, as he was only 2.7 meters wide, his wingspan was nothing to boast about. With that considered, he had a couple of staggering physical challenges! He was long and slender enough to be mistaken for a snake, yet he didn¡¯t have the agility of a snake. His tail was roughly four meters long itself, but that length wasn''t enough to work in cooperation with his long body. He couldn¡¯t use the tail''s forceful barb itself to puncture prey with it, it wouldn¡¯t be easy, unless he hid under the sand and waited to stab something by ambush. However, unless an elephant mistakenly stepped on him over the course of the next few hours, then he won''t be getting food anytime soon, not in the aforementioned traditional ways, at least. Instead, he had to hunt big animals using his magical powers, and could only hope that the said animals won''t be brave enough to fight him back! ¡­ Tim was on a hunt for food, and at some point, the system showed him even more fresh, new information, which resulted in him being more motivated to hunt. The newfound motivation was fueled by fear, but that didn¡¯t bother him as much as one would imagine, because he was used to feeling frightened more than once a day. Anyway, the system had specified. [Timothy, since you experienced a rather significant growth sprout, there has been a change in certain bars of yours, including your mana. Specifically, your health, stamina&sleep, hunger and mana bar, have met with significant upgrades. This necessarily means that you need to move more, because first things first, your new hunger bar features 400 points that you have to fulfill, in order to feel full and healthy. Currently, that bar is down to 34/400 points, as the remains of those panzer crabs you ate weren''t really fulfilling.] ¡°The crabs looked really small this time, and I guess that makes sense? I could eat a couple of reef sharks at this rate, and I still wouldn''t feel full.¡± He added. Then, the system followed along. [Hunger is a challenge for a guy as big as you now, however, these challenges also have tagalong benefits. For example, your health bar went up to 1500/1500 points, so your new body is a lot more durable in comparison to the old one. You can now withstand a few nasty bites from predators, and this health-bar isn''t set in stone either, it can go up, the more weight you gain. My point is that your new body truly has its perks, as you can even carry a maximum of 6,000 points of mana now!] ¡°Wow,¡± He sighed, ¡°So size is everything out here, huh? I feel blessed, really, but this body feels very new to me. I enjoyed being small and slippery, where the hell am I gonna hide now? I''d be safer on a fucking beach than in the ocean!¡± [About that,] The system followed along, [There is a way to alter your body size, if you deem it necessary to your survival. There''s an upgrade for that¡­] Chapter 40 - Sandwiched Dangers! ¡°There is, huh? Looks like there''s a fucking upgrade for everything!¡± Tim partially celebrated. He was also angry, however, so he then added. ¡°Why didn''t you tell me about the upgrade before, instead of making me eat a bunch of panzer crabs just to get bigger!?¡± [The upgrade wouldn''t have done you any good before,] The system answered, [It''s pretty expensive, and it can only make your body smaller than it already is. The upgrade wouldn''t help you become larger, and it would have stunted your already impressive progress. I''m sure you would''ve wasted a lot of time, if you went around fighting bacterias rather than mages.] Tim was still irritated, however, he was also somewhat reasonable, he embraced common sense. He didn¡¯t argue with the system, but instead, he became solution oriented about the issue. He asked, ¡°Okay then¡­ how much am I supposed to pay for the upgrade?¡± Tim asked that question while he swam. The situation he was in had multiple problems, and thanks to these problems, he couldn¡¯t quite afford to have a lengthy conversation. He had to be on the move, in order to find and kill anything edible. For the sake of that issue, he just hoped that other fish would be scared of him, in any confrontation to the point where they would just give up, rather than the other way around, because he didn¡¯t really want to chase after them, especially not for a long time. Anyway, the system did answer his prior question, she said. [The micro shift ability, otherwise known as the third upgrade on the row, from the new badge of upgrades, costs 1,800 system points to unlock. Its price is like nothing you''ve seen before, because the upgrade is very useful in this new world, it''s simply essential for any great mage. Furthermore, since this ability is highly dependent on magic, the price is also adjusted in accordance to your current quality of mana. It''s pricey for those couple of reasons!] ¡°Let it be expensive, it¡¯s not like I can haggle for a cheaper price.¡± He added. There was no room for bickering, Tim had things to do. Although it was imperative to buy the upgrade that the system mentioned, there was no rushing it, he couldn¡¯t forcefully complete this goal. For now, he could only hunt things and try to survive! Surviving and hunting was all he could do, and since hunting itself came hand-to-hand with the possibility to get plenty of system points, then his hunger-induced rush was both essential and efficient. He could stack up points, and also, not starve to death! ¡­ Tim was on a hunt for food, but he avoided the reef. He knew that place well, and understood that it was not a spot where he could hunt ¡®big game¡¯ at. The reef mostly featured critters, as far as he knew, and that wasn''t enough to fill and sustain his new, massive stomach, which was equal to that of at least nine human stomachs. He had to kill bigger stuff, in order to survive; That was the deal. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Thanks to that fact, rather than going to the reef, he headed out for the open waters. The sea was massive, so as he explored it, he wasn¡¯t necessarily limited to the reef and its close vicinity. He took a risk to explore the open seas, only now when the odds were staking up against him, as in the heat of the moment, he felt that this additional burden of exploration was worth the baggage. The train of thought behind his decision sounded wise, but the actual thoughts he was having, weren''t so wise. His brain had grown and expanded along with his body, but he was so malnourished for the time being, to the point where coherent, smart thoughts were almost illegal for him! He thought, ¡°Wonder if I can run a barbecue around here? I''m sick of eating raw meat.¡± Tim didn¡¯t either have the body or the proper environment to host a barbecue right now, but regardless of facts, that was what his brain was pressing at for the time being. The line between malnutrition and retardation was only so thin! The open seas were more boring than he imagined, which explained why he was so easily distracted. Tim swam only around ten meters below the water¡¯s surface, and although this gave him the opportunity to explore for as long as he wanted, he was still bored as a result, because there wasn''t an ounce of thrill to work with anymore. Thrill was what usually kept him sharp-minded, and in its absence, his brain was so smooth that it was indistinguishable from his fin! Then suddenly, thrill was exactly what he got, and thankfully so. The reason behind the thrill was predictable, he saw a school of small fish, roaming tens of meters away from him! The school was massive too as the open seas supported it. Tim was a whole kilometer away from home right now, and the risk of this decision came with its rewards. He could finally have a decent meal, as long as he ate enough of them, regardless of how tiny any singular fish was within that school! He felt excited about it, food seemed like a reward. With that excitement, he beamed towards the school of fish at full speed. He didn¡¯t care about scaring them off with his enthusiasm, because he wouldn''t really have to chase them in order to get fed. The fish in front of him were so many in numbers, that their group seemed more like a huge cloud rather than a school, and this cloud stretched about a whole kilometer wide. Tim had plenty of fish to nibble on, plenty of options, and since his swimming speed had increased along with his body size, it was easier than ever for him to catch a bunch of tasty fish! Tim eventually mixed within the school, and then he started chopping. He killed seven fish within a minute, and since most of them were only under a foot long, he managed to swallow them whole! He killed three species of fish so far, none of which were magical, yet regardless of how plain they were and looked like, these fish served two purposes for him at the moment! They fed him, and gave him system points! The system then announced accordingly, she said. [You successfully killed 7 fish, and got 82 points as a reward. Do not stop there, though, because you need over twenty times the amount of points, if you''re to unlock the micro shift ability!] ¡°No shit,¡± He thought, and then chased after a couple dozen more fish. Tim was hyper focused to get food for himself, the situation demanded it so. He was surrounded by food, but little did he know, schools of fish were also extensively diverse! Along with food, danger was oftentimes sandwiched between such crowds. Chapter 41 - Green, again? Timothy ate a fish, and then another. He was supposed to, as most stingrays were carnivores, and loved to eat meat. However, he had approached this school of fish in a less than rithmic way, and this was inevitably problematic. Fish weren¡¯t the brightest creatures in the world, not by a stretch, but they were smart enough to understand some forms of rhythms. The social complexity of a mega-school of fish, naturally had some rules, and if someone broke those rules, a bunch of fish within the school were bound to notice! The rules were simple. For example, huge fish who preferred solidarity, knew to swim slowly within such crowds, they were typically very relaxed as they knew better. Smaller fish were more frantic, but they knew enough not to separate from their groups or respective subgroups, and this was what kept most of them alive. Those were the couple of little rules that such large crowds of fish followed, however, it was problematic that Timothy didn¡¯t follow any of such social standards. He rushed into the school of fish, massacred everything in his sight, and even started separating the crowd, he split them up to some extent. With all of that considered, unsurprisingly, he ended up buying a boatload of trouble for himself! Several creatures, most of which were huge in body size, went after Tim! He was surrounded in a matter of minutes, and in order to survive this predicament, he had to act really quickly. Tim spotted one of them, and then he couldn¡¯t help but think. ¡°Hmm¡­ that fucker¡¯s a bit too big ain¡¯t he? But that¡¯s no shark, it can¡¯t be, so¡­ I should be able to kill it? I have to kill it, cuz these fucking sardines aren¡¯t really hitting the spot. I need a bigger snack, or, a whole ass dinner actually.¡± The fish he had eaten weren''t sardines whatsoever, but they had been small. However, those little details didn¡¯t matter much right now, considering the issue at hand. Once Tim noticed that first big fish, he became more attentive. Thanks to such attention, he started noticing the rest of the dangers that surrounded him! He muttered, ¡°Oh shit, another toothless shark! And¡­ another one there, damn, there are five of them fuckers! I¡¯m either gonna have a good meal, or I¡¯ll be the meal¡­? Hmm, I don¡¯t see myself getting eaten by toothless fish, that would be really embarrassing! I gotta kill them all, then, hope they aren¡¯t magical and shit.¡± Dolphins, the ¡®toothless sharks¡¯ that he was talking about, were dolphins. However, just like he didn¡¯t acknowledge their species, he hadn¡¯t caught up with the dangers that these dolphins posed, either! He didn¡¯t take them seriously, and just stared them down as they circled around him, quite menacingly. Even if he didn¡¯t know it yet, the situation was escalating beyond what he would want to handle. He didn¡¯t notice it immediately, but some faint dots of green light were in the process of developing into a unique problem. The color green wouldn''t be so threatening in most situations, but in the oceans, there was a certain threatening, and mysterious aspect to them! This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Tim wasn¡¯t too attentive, but once he saw three dots of green light, he started feeling threatened! There was just something about the color green that didn¡¯t feel right. He thought, ¡°Green stuff¡­ maybe these motherfuckers have lasers on them or something? I wouldn''t be surprised.¡± Tim then started observing his surroundings more, and noticed something paternal, regarding how these potential enemies were surrounding him. Simply, the ¡®toothless fish¡¯ were closing in on him, and that was anything but good! The best idea was to swim away, however, he didn¡¯t want to be chased either, so he came up with a two-step plan instead, one that might be more effective than just fleeing. The plan was simple, so it hadn¡¯t taken him much time to think about it. Tim started swimming downwards, and activated his flaming fins ability at the same time, just to swim faster; This was the first step of his plan. ¡°Let''s hope I''m fast enough,¡± He muttered. The second step of the plan made him more anxious, because he only had a small window of time to perform it. He wanted to attack the targets efficiently, and in order to do so, he had to perform a high degree of maneuverability! Once he had nose-dived towards deeper waters, he then flung his tail around and aimed at the dolphins who were closing in on him. This part wasn¡¯t easy, he had to be precise with the aiming! Afterwards, he shot four balls of fire from the barb of his tail, with the intention of killing those dolphins! It had taken him little thinking moments earlier, to recognize those dolphins as a threat, so he didn¡¯t feel bad about attacking them right now. The results however, weren¡¯t as consistent as his homicidal intent, as he didn¡¯t even manage to kill half of them! The five dolphins that had tried to surround him were pretty agile. He killed one of them by headshot, which was a gruesome scene, because he blew the dolphin''s head off, but the rest of the fireballs he shot weren¡¯t as efficient, no. They were rather wasteful. He burned one dolphin across its back, and although such a burn was painful, it wasn''t enough to kill the said target. One dolphin also lost its dorsal fin, but that wasn¡¯t exactly crippling. The dangers for him hadn''t yet diminished! Tim nosedived within the school of fish successfully, and he was fast too thanks to the flaming fins ability, but he was still in danger. Four dolphins were chasing him across the waters, and they were vicious, perhaps faster too! In panic, he asked. ¡°How am I looking, system? Do I have enough mana to fight for my dear fucking life? I''m kind of in a tight spot here.¡± The system was quick to answer him, she said. [As I specified earlier, thanks to your recent growth sprout, you have a bunch more mana points to spend. You have accumulated enough of it while you were either knocked out or hibernating, so I''d say, go crazy with it! You have mana to spend, use it as you please.] ¡°That''s just what I wanted to hear,¡± He celebrated. Afterwards, Tim did just as the system had encouraged. He unleashed several fireballs behind him, to the point where they collectively evolved into a threatening wall of fire! Thanks to this, the dolphins did not stand a chance! Their green powers shone within the wall of fire, but inevitably, the fire was more powerful in comparison! The light which the dolphins identified with, abruptly diminished. Chapter 42 - Green veins Tim swam forward for a few more meters, before he unleashed another wall of fire within the waters. He still didn''t understand how his fireballs were water resistant, but as long as they did what they were supposed to, he did not question their mysterious nature. He used the fire''s collective, wall-like results to eradicate the things that had threatened him, and he succeeded as a result, he won the battle. ¡°That should be the last of them,¡± He mumbled, ¡°I spun my tail like it was some fucking helicopter blade! Spun it longer than I wanted to¡­ I didn''t even know that my thin ass tail could get so exercised.¡± The things that he was saying were as horrendous as ever, but this time, he said them with the pretext of irritation. He was irritated, because he felt worn down and still hungry, and overall really challenged. He had enough reasons to excuse the nonsense that he just spewed. Then, the system came along to twist his feelings even more. A couple of things had happened over the course of ten minutes, so she had to update Timothy on the matters. First, she said. [You''ve spent 432 mana points in just under two minutes. Although I understand that it was necessary, do your best to avoid any other battle like that one for a while. In total, you have 712 mana points remaining.] This notification was enough to irritate him even further, and the system didn''t stop there either. She had good news to share as well, but those news were stitched together with this perplexing disadvantage, one that made him question his morals, even if just a little bit. The system went into as much detail as she could, she said. [Congratulations are also in order, Timothy, as you just won 4,109 system points throughout that battle, so in total, you''ve accumulated 4,261 system points. You killed a bunch of dolphins, though, I am yet to find a reason regarding why they were the way they were, but killing them is still frowned upon by some civilizations! Unfriendly dolphins are rare, and dolphins who bark out green light, well, they shouldn¡¯t exist at all, so I don¡¯t know what species they were. You were right to kill them, but plenty of people will challenge your better judgment someday.] ¡°I was right to kill them, no kidding! They were the ones who tried to corner me, so I would''ve killed them even if they were friendly, system! Friendly doesn''t mean that they can''t become deadly at some random point of time, and I learned that the hard way. I don¡¯t regret killing them.¡± He muttered, and that was about all of the remorse that he felt. Afterwards, Tim ignored all the system points he won over, and focused on the dolphins instead, because he wanted to find reasons to further excuse the murders he had just committed. He was also curious about their weird nature, very curious, so he then tried to find one of their carcasses, in order to observe it properly. The system applauded his scientific effort. He found a dolphin, one who was slowly sinking within the crushing embrace of the salty sea, and then he approached it. The sea¡¯s embrace was especially abusive against mammals such as dolphins, because the immense depths of the sea would eventually force its carcass to implode, but then again, that was how mother nature functioned. There was no challenging the will of mother nature, regardless of what planet he lurked in. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Tim didn''t care to preserve the dolphin''s body, neither did he plan a proper funeral for it. Instead, he just wanted to figure out why the dolphins had emitted that radiant, green light, as there had to be a reason behind it. That was the main thing that interested him right now. He found the carcass, as mentioned, and then circled around it to get a closer look. It didn''t take a scientist to figure out where the problematic area was spread across; The dolphin''s abdomen, along with its frontal pelvic fins, were seemingly infected by this layer of gross-looking, green flesh! ¡°Is that a fungus or something?¡± Tim asked, because he was under the impression that fungus was green. [No, no. Fungus doesn''t give anyone any magical powers. Or at least, I''d be surprised if it actually did bless someone with powers.] The system followed along, [Then again, even though not every species harbors magical powers, them, and everything physical still has the potential to carry mana at some point of their existence. So¡­ for once, I''m not sure what to think, maybe this is magical fungus after all?] ¡°I think you were right the first time around,¡± He added, after a moment of silence. ¡°This can''t be a fungus infection, because fungus isn''t supposed to make someone¡¯s veins glow, right? I can see the fucker''s veins, they''re drawn out like some elegant ass map of a river.¡± [It can''t be fungus, then.] The system concluded, but the rest of the issue seemed unsolvable, so she then decided. [I wish we could analyze this creature more, but everything about its body seems deadly, and or poisonous to be around. Forget about eating it as well, it is inedible!] Timothy did not like that part of the deal. He was still as hungry as a starving hyena, so he hated that he couldn''t eat this fatty, two-meter long dolphin! If the dolphin''s flesh hadn''t been poisonous, then he would''ve stopped his hunt for food right here, but considering the circumstances, he couldn¡¯t stop hunting now, or anytime soon. The system points he won over, however, were really plentiful, more than he ever had. He had been on a hunt for points for a while now, so it felt pretty bizarre how he got a bunch of them so randomly. Furthermore, these points gave him a little idea. Tim backed away from the dead dolphin, and in the meantime, he asked. ¡°System, I have enough points to buy that micro shit upgrade now, right? I want to be smaller, as soon as possible, maybe I''ll feel less hungry too, but do you think it''s a good idea to buy that shit here? Would I get knocked out from any kind of pain? I gotta know.¡± [Micro shift,] The system first corrected. Furthermore, she added. [Also, unlocking this ability will most definitely knock you out, because it will make a lot of changes to your body, including altering your internal organs, for them to retract and expand upon will. It''s not a fun process whatsoever, so fill your belly up first, and then find a nice patch of sand to hide in. You''re in no condition to take unnecessary risks.] Tim may not be the smartest fish in the ocean, but he was smart enough to take the system''s recommendations seriously. The hunger that he still felt motivated to be cooperative even more, so as a response, he continued to hunt anything within close vicinity. The fish within this massive crowd were mostly small, but he felt sure that if he ate enough of them, Tim may tame his hunger at last! Furthermore, the discovery they made regarding the dolphins was shocking, but there was nothing they could do with this scarce information right now. Their radiant, green color remained a mystery, one that even the system couldn''t decipher! Chapter 43 - 1/100 Timothy ate a bunch of small fish, about sixty of them. After that, he had to put an end to his seafare. He had dared to explore the open ocean, because hunger had encouraged him to do so, but now, it was time to go back home. He didn¡¯t necessarily have to go back to the reef, but he still had to hide somewhere, preferably a spot where there wasn''t a dark, bottomless pit below him. He wanted to feel safe, because there was a purchase option that he wanted to buy. Timothy wanted to, and quite frankly, he had to buy that micro shift ability. The ocean was treacherous and unforgiving, even more so, to the 3.5 meter long, swimming disk that was Timothy. For that matter, he simply had to buy this ability, and alter his size to fit any environment better. The system encouraged his motives as well as she could. She even gave him the greenlight from her side, regarding the purchasing matter. Apart from that, she also had something else to say. She said, [Congratulations, Timothy! You''ve accumulated 4,813 system points! You have more than enough points to buy the micro shift ability, and because of that, it''s due time we recount the warnings that come with this upgrade, and its use. This power is ¡®cool¡¯ as some would call it, but this isn''t a superhero movie, so the use of this power has quite the consequences and limitations!] ¡°That''s peachy,¡± Tim remarked, as he ogled the sea for a flat, shallow floor. Following along, the system specified. [Two peaches, actually! There are two things that you should be worried about. The first one is the most important, so please try to remember it, Timothy!] ¡°I will try my best, I can promise you that.¡± He answered honestly. [Okay then,] The system sighed, and then continued. [The micro shift ability allows one to reduce their body mass and size, that is its premise, and there is no formal limit of how small you can become, that is your choice. However, this freedom of choice comes with repercussions! There is this unofficial, and very dangerous limit, that may erase you from existence if the said limit was crossed. It¡¯s deadly.] The system hadn''t even gone into full detail yet, but Tim was already terrified. He wanted to know what this dangerous limit was about, so he remained quiet for the sake of it, he didn¡¯t interrupt the other. Such a quiet atmosphere allowed the system to continue with her warnings, she emphasized. [After unlocking this power, you can reduce your body size as you please, but know that if you reduce it by a hundredth of your current, original body size, you will die, there is no coming back from it. You''d become so small, that you''d literally be erased from existence itself! That is the unofficial limit to this power, so unfortunately, you can never battle any bacteria, not with the micro shift ability, at least. Stay safe!] Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Fuck me¡­ now I gotta do math too?¡± Tim sighed, but then, he said. ¡°Thank you for letting me know, system, I''ll do my best.¡± Math wasn''t his trump card, it never was, but he had to take it under consideration now. He had to be thoughtful with the utter power that he was about to purchase, there was no working around it. Anyway, the system had mentioned that there were two important things that she wanted to talk about, regarding the micro shift ability. The first point terrified him already, so he was very anxious to hear about the second part. The concept of doing math terrified him already, but if he had to do something like physics as well, then the best option for him would be to just give up. He may purposely erase himself from existence! The system continued, [I think we went into enough detail, regarding the dangers of the micro shift ability, so let us talk about its downsides also, the one related to mana.] ¡°So it isn''t a downside to literally die? That''s kinda hilarious.¡± He muttered, stressfully. [Death is swift and oftentimes painless, it''s not a burden, not technically.] She followed along, and then she added. [However, the downside of having to accumulate mana, constantly, is a huge burden, and this is what I wanted to talk about. Whenever you wish to use the micro shift ability, you''ll have to spend half of the mana that you can formally carry. In this case, since you can carry 6,000 points of mana in total, you''d have to spend half of that amount, if you wish to use the micro shift ability. It is an expensive power, without a doubt.] ¡°You''re shitting me! How the hell am I supposed to get three-thousand points? There aren''t that many mana roots in the ocean for me to play with, you know.¡± He complained. [As I said, the burden of accumulating mana can be immense.] She added, [However, you''d be glad to know that thanks to your recent growth-sprout, you can generate 250 points of mana every hour, naturally. So if you''re savvy with how you spend your mana, you will have the opportunity to use the upcoming ability more than you think.] ¡°Hope so¡­¡± He said. ¡­ Eventually, Tim reached the vicinity of the reef. He was glad to remember his way back home, but actually, he didn¡¯t care about the reef all that much. It was the stretch of sand that he valued the most here, because sand was the only thing that allowed him to hide properly for the time being. He couldn¡¯t hide in the reef, because any creature that was over three meters long, couldn¡¯t really fit in within any nook and cranny that the reef had to offer. It was impossible. Tim buried himself within the sand as well as he could, so now he was almost invisible to the naked eye of the average fish. With that done, he was ready to buy the most expensive thing he had to buy, the micro shift ability! He said, ¡°Okay, system, I''m ready to buy the shit. If you have to knock me out, please do it painlessly. I''ve already made peace with shitting myself in my sleep, ever so often, but I don''t want to get used to hellish pain¡­. Gotta draw the line somewhere.¡± [I will try my best,] She said, and then, things went into motion. [Implementing your purchase¡­] Chapter 44 - Task 6, 7, and 8! The purchase he bought didn''t go easy on him. Tim had hoped to have a painless experience, but that request was out of the system''s hands. She tried to grant his little wish, but inevitably, it was the brute pain that knocked him out, rather than anything else! He did not have a fun time, especially in the beginning. However, he was sound asleep throughout most of the implementation of said purchase, which all facts considered, was the only type of mercy he got as a result. The process itself took four hours, it wasn''t fun! Tim woke up, about two hours after the purchase was implemented. He felt both well rested and worn down, at the same time, which was quite a sensation! The process had put his body into a strain, so it wasn''t a surprise how he felt chewed up and spat out! It mattered more that he was alive, however. The system cheered him up even further, as she bashed a couple of notifications on his face. One was relative to the previous task, and the other notification was more of an ego boost. First, she announced. [Congratulations, Timothy. Though it cost you a vast amount of points, the micro shift ability has been implemented into your body successfully. In total, you have 3,013 system points remaining in your sum.] Afterwards, she also announced. [Also, while you were asleep, you accumulated over twelve-hundred mana points. It''s quite the amount, and in total, you now have 2,098 mana points to your name!] ¡°Well shit, getting mana is easier than I thought! At this rate, I''m gonna become smaller again, soon¡­¡± He celebrated. [In about five more hours, you will be able to micro shift, yes.] The system followed along, and then she added. [But you''ve burned 50 bars of hunger points while you were asleep, so I''d suggest that you hunt for whatever''s in that reef in front of you. You don''t want your hunger bar to go down, especially while you''re this awfully anorexic version of a stingray. You need more meat in you.] Tim understood what the system meant, he understood her well, but yet he was hesitant to explore the reef. In a weird way, he was more scared of the tiny critters within the reef, than the big guys within the open waters behind him. He wasn''t as scared of big fish anymore, no. This train of thought he had, was fueled by trauma. He had a lot of bad experiences in the reef, so he would rather approach it as a tiny stingray, rather than a SUV-sized one. A portion of his fear was illogical, but even though he was aware of that, he simply couldn''t adapt with the idea of entering the reef now, in his massive body size. He just couldn''t do it. He even thought, ¡°Maybe I should sleep some more? Five hours is nothing for me, I definitely won''t starve to death.¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. The system picked up on his hesitation, so she swooped in to try and save the day. There were only a couple of ways she knew of, where she could motivate the stubborn mule of a stingray that was Timothy. [I know that you don''t want to hear about the two other purchase options on the list, and rightfully so, you''re sick of upgrades. However, do you wanna hear about a couple of new tasks I got for you?] She asked. ¡°Hell yeah!¡± He answered. All and all, the idea of following and completing system-given tasks, didn¡¯t scare him as much. He remembered having fun with tasks, because he got to discover explosive urchins and stuff like that, along the way. Tasks fed his curious, explorative nature, so he was more than motivated to follow and complete any task that the system offered. The system went right into business, she introduced. [Okay, so the following task is the sixth task I''ve ever given you, and it has to do with the unusual stuff we left behind, out there across the open sea. Something weird is going on, with fish having green, poisonous features. It''s unusual, and it''s even weirder how you saw a green brick before, who had a similar, if not identical aura to those dolphins. If you find more information for me, regarding the weird green stuff, you''ll win 250 system points in exchange! That''s the sixth task.] Tim only nodded along to that proposition. He didn¡¯t really need system points right now, but he was also curious about why those dolphins had a green, seemingly ¡®corrupt¡¯ belly. With that considered, he was willing to explore the ocean further, for exploration''s sake itself. The system was proud of the inspiration and motivation that she was able to encourage, and for that matter, she didn''t hesitate to introduce the following task. She didn''t waste a single second! She continued, [Task 7 = Find a soul tampering cave. A cave like this, as the name suggests, may help improve your soul''s strength. Your new body size alone is bound to affect your soul as well, but it''s still a good idea to find a soul tampering cave and harvest its beneficial properties, just so you won''t waste tens of hours the next time you''re up in the sky, like you did last time. If you complete this task, you will earn 120 system points.] ¡°That''s a hell of a task,¡± He expressed. The idea of strengthening his soul motivated him quite a bit. He barely had any idea how that concept as a whole worked, neither did he understand how one soul was stronger than the other, but he was willing to progress. Confusion and progress could go hand to hand at times, if one was willing to explore their options. He also muttered, ¡°I will find a soul cave, I''ll try my best. It''s embarrassing to get enslaved, so there''s no point in going back up there in the sky, if I''m not ready to fight. Those slithery plague bastards weren''t even strong, I was the one who was too fucking weak¡­ can''t let anything like that happen again.¡± The worries he had were valid, but the system wasn''t willing to pause and discuss the matter. She moved on to the next, and only other task that she had to offer right now. This one, was bound to poke his natural curiosity even more! She introduced, [Task number 8 = Find and kill a bubonic shifter. If you do so, you will be rewarded with 400 system points!] Chapter 45 - Koob Tonon Bonon! ¡°A bubonic what?¡± Tim asked. After hearing that name, his explorative urges went down for a second. He was really intimidated by the name, and considering that the reward for killing one of them was decent, he could only guess that they were really dangerous! He frantically repeated, ¡°Bubonic, huh? I''m not planning to get sick for some points, system.¡± [It''s called a bubonic shifter, mind you. Odds are that you won''t get sick from them, as long as you play it safe. Use your deflective magic, you have the extingus breath ability for a reason, it deflects magic, use it more often.] She followed along. ¡°What should I expect from a bubonic shifter then? Help me be more prepared, system.¡± He tried to pressure the other. [They shift,] She answered, [Shapeshift, to be exact. That is one of their main powers, and also, they can shoot plague darts out of their nostrils. They''re interesting creatures, but bubonic nonetheless, so it''s a good deed to kill one, or more of them.] ¡°Nostrils, huh? Bloody hell!¡± He fixated on that one thing, and then he sighed. ¡°I gotta admit, that sounds pretty cool. Let''s hope that they''re rare, though, because I don''t want to deal with bastards like that everyday.¡± [They are rare,] She confirmed, and then added. [But before you kick the sand and get a move on, may I interest you on the only two remaining purchase options on the list? It''s best if you buy them as soon as possible.] ¡°Oh, hell no! I''m not getting tortured again! My anus feels cramped, system, that''s not supposed to happen!¡± He complained. Timothy associated upgrades or system-based purchases in general, with utter pain, and rightfully so. He didn¡¯t want to get tortured several times a day, so naturally, he was hesitant towards what the system had to say about the purchases. Yet, she insisted, and assured. [If you buy them, these two purchases will be practically painless for you! Worse-case-scenario, you''ll feel a headache, but that''s about it.] With that said, Tim couldn¡¯t refuse the purchases any longer. He had a bunch of points to spend as well, so he simply agreed to buy them both, just like that! The system went into action immediately, too! She made those ~beep boop~ robot noises, and implemented one of the purchases, all within seconds! Then, she added. [Upgrade number four complete, and you''ve spent 350 points as a result of said completion. Your IQ, otherwise known as your intelligence quotient, has been upgraded by 10 points, and now you sport a total of 65 IQ points! Congratulations!] Tim didn¡¯t know what this intelligence quotient truly meant, even after the system talked about it a little, but it sure was expensive. He wanted to ask questions, but since he knew that the system wouldn''t answer his questions until she finished her job, he remained quiet, and allowed her to work properly. Within seconds, she also announced. [Upgrade number five complete, and you''ve spent 700 system points as a result of said completion. Your sight, scent, and overall senses have been upgraded to level four, and this upgrade was pricey, because the growth sprout you had recently, had already altered your senses for the better.] Stolen novel; please report. Furthermore, she added. [Congratulations on these couple of improvements. As of now, 1,963 system points remain in your sum.] There was a lot to comprehend here, but Tim focused on a couple of things the most. He noticed that a lot of his attributes, and powers have changed along with the growth sprout, which wasn''t really a bad thing on its own, no. He didn¡¯t really like it, however, how this set of changes across his attributes was pretty selective! For that matter, he asked. ¡°System, you say that my senses upgraded, just because of the sprout¡­ hell, I appreciate that they did! I can see way better now, and I can smell the mana out of every bum-hole out there! It''s cool, but why was the most important upgrade of mine so tiny, like my intelligence? I''m sick of having the brain of a fish, it''s not fun, it''s inhumane. Sixty-five points is still nothing, I know it''s nothing, because I don''t understand what intelligence quotient means, hell, I don¡¯t even know what quotient means!¡± This was perhaps the most well put together question and complaint he had ever made, so the system took the time to analyze his words properly. She wanted to give him a good, thorough answer. After a moment, she said. [The average brain contains a lot of fat, Timothy, and this fat has to be more honed, in order for one to reap intelligence points out of it. That is the science behind it, and it''s what intelligence upgrades do to your brain, you can¡¯t rush them. In your particular case, your brain did expand along with your body, yes, but considering that you''re quite anorexic right now, your brain in turn, is very malnourished, which in turn mimics actual retardation. You''ll be way smarter at some point, especially after you gain a couple hundred kilos, that would be really helpful. You need food, protein, as anorexic creatures such as yourself, are prone to things such as brain fog and literal brain degeneration. You have to eat, and then we can make bigger upgrades if necessary.] What the system said made a lot of sense, so he didn¡¯t question it. In fact he felt happy that he''d be smarter one day, it helped him become more hopeful. Anyway, with such topics aside, he then focused on what was more important, and actual. He focused on the recent, system given tasks! These tasks required him to get a move on, he couldn¡¯t hide under the sand anymore. He had things to do. Tim emerged out of the sand, and then approached the reef in front of him. Once he floated above the reef, his car-sized, pancake shape, casted a vast shadow across a fraction of the reef! If this place hadn''t been reaped out of most life already, he would''ve intimidated quite a few critters. He was huge! Since he couldn¡¯t fit into his prior, pit-like home either, he decided to explore the reef further. His senses were pretty honed right now, so he wanted to figure out if he had missed out on any details within the reef before. Tim was willing to look across the layout, in order to discover something new. Five minutes into this exploration session, he was approached by a rather familiar figure. He saw this round, characteristic pufferfish, and noticed that it was very willing to communicate! "I am Koob Tonon Bonon, very pufferfish. Do you want to join sex?" It blurted. It was hard to forget a pufferfish like that. This guy belonged to the Blistering Mana sect, and it doesn''t look like his vocabulary had expanded all that much over the days. It also wasn''t a surprise, how Koob the pufferfish didn''t remember Timothy either, as he was pretty huge now, he wasn¡¯t a tiny stingray anymore! Tim acknowledged the invite, but he didn''t know if it was worth it to visit the sect right now, considering that he had a bad experience with a group of stingrays before, who associated themselves with the very same sect. In fact, he had forgotten about the sect completely for a while, but even though he was hesitant, now seemed like the best time to handle the matter directly! Since he felt less scared and vulnerable of the sect itself now, it was about time to visit them. He had to address the past bad experiences. Therefore, he answered. ¡°I¡¯m already part of your sect, Koob. Find Marlo for me, we need to talk, it''s been a while.] Chapter 46 - Marlos invite Marlo was an important fish, he was a shark! Well, his species did not matter much, however, the position he bore here across the reef, did matter. He could get things done, and in this case, Tim had to talk to Marlo first, if he wanted to get back into the sect without being labeled a murderer, and or traitor! A few days ago, he had a bad experience with several stingrays from within the sect. He experienced a deadly brawl which only allowed him, and Ortana (another stingray), to escape! Now Tim didn¡¯t know if Ortana was still alive, he didn¡¯t know if she made it home, but if she did, then he had to know how she had portrayed him within the sect! This was the safest course of action, because he couldn''t just barge in the sect right now. He wasn''t able to predict how its members would react! Ortana could''ve said simply anything to preserve her privileges and her very life, and Tim wanted to know just what she said! That was why he wanted to talk to Marlo, he wanted to play it safe. Koob, the barely verbal pufferfish, proved to be an excellent tool as well. He acted as the messenger, and went to fetch the headmaster, Marlo. He aided the previously mentioned, and important motives. In the meantime, as Tim waited a comfortable distance away, he spent his whole time pondering over things. He wanted to have a plan for every possible scenario, just so he''d survive whatever the sect had to throw against him. He wanted to be ready! In that spirit, he thought. ¡°If Marlo tries to bite me or some shit, I''ll blow his head off! Erg, if I can? That fucker probably has the best mana quality in the sect, so let''s hope that I don''t have to fight him. My mana is still rustic as shit.¡± Tim waited for more than half an hour. Though at some point he got tired of waiting, he was still a bit happy about the delay, because he was given more time to accumulate mana points. This was great for various reasons! If the sect attacked him, then he''d have plenty of mana to defend himself. If the sect re-accepted him, then he''d still need three-thousand points of mana in order to use the micro shift ability. He was certain that he wouldn''t fit within the sect''s hidden passages, as they were too snug for a stingray such as himself to push through. Tim''s wingspan was two-and-a-half meters long, after all, it was no laughing matter! At some point, Marlo did arrive, and met Tim right out here in the open, a few meters above the coral reef''s rugged textures. He seemed baffled, as one would expect him to be, because it was really rare for the reef to be visited by such a monsterous stingray! ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Marlo pondered, and after a moment, he noticed a couple of patterns across the other''s skin, so he thought. ¡°That''s a ribbon-tail ray alright, but why is he so big? This is really weird.¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Moments later, he started talking to Timothy directly. He didn¡¯t see Tim as a threat per se, regardless of the circumstances, so he felt comfortable to make an approach. He asked, ¡°What brings you here, sir stingray? I have to admit, your presence amongst our reef is quite a surprise, as we are not used to seeing folks your size.¡± With that said, one thing was obvious! The sect didn''t recognize him anymore, even Marlo wasn''t able to recognize him, regardless of how he was smarter than the average fish! Tim acknowledged the other''s confusion, and he could even abuse said confusion if he really tried to, but he was hesitant to do that. He didn¡¯t have a plan in mind for this particular situation, and he didn¡¯t feel motivated to make some new plan either. For that matter, the best solution for him was to be direct about his new appearance, and tell the whole truth. First, he said. ¡°It''s me, Marlo!¡± Afterwards, he added. ¡°I¡¯m Tim! I ate too many damn panzer crabs, and they made me huge as shit! You probably heard about them, they''re these really annoying, flat, crabby bastards...¡± At some point, Marlo expressed. ¡°I''m more surprised that you managed to eat one of those, Timeeth. Their shell can induce a rather horrendous toothache¡­ good job!¡± There was a lot to ponder here. Marlo hadn''t even fully accepted that this massive stingray was actually Timothy. It was difficult to paint a mental picture of this situation, even though he had a very visual example to work with here. Tim''s shadow was somewhat as overwhelming as that of the moon''s, he was massive, yet Marlo was hardly convinced that the little stingray he knew had grown so big, as even magic had its limits of how magical it could be! Regardless of the odds and ends, Marlo went on to discuss the past. Tim didn¡¯t have the greatest reputation in the sect, so it was due time to talk about it. Then again, Tim wasn¡¯t hated or banned from the sect either, so Marlo didn¡¯t even second guess himself as he proposed an invite. He followed along, ¡°It appears that your adventures have been interesting, Timothy, but do you care to join us, and explain yourself to the rest of the sect? I can assure you that most of the sect still accepts you as one of our own, but you still need to make an appearance, to soothe their curiosity. Fish are becoming more and more social by the passing day, emotional too, so I¡¯m sure they¡¯d be happy if you explained to them how you became this big. I know you ate a bunch of crabs, but come on, give our younger ones a good story for them to follow...¡± ¡°As if my big flat ass could fit in the lair. I¡¯d love to come, Marlo, but I''d probably get stuck somewhere and rot.¡± Tim followed along, he joked. He didn¡¯t tell the other that he possessed the micro shift ability, but that was only because he wanted to keep his cards close to his chest! If the sect ended up threatening him, or attacking him, then he¡¯d like to have the element of surprise, and simply shift sizes if an upcoming situation demanded it. For that matter, he played the role of the helpless ole stingray, and asked. ¡°Is there another entrance for me to use, one that¡¯s stingray friendly? I don¡¯t wanna get stuck.¡± Marlo then answered, but as he did, his tone and posture even seemed worried, as he explained. ¡°We have a lot of new entrances, kid. The lair suffered quite a quake!¡± Chapter 47 - Anti-mana pool (1) ¡°The open waters were no joke!¡± Tim exclaimed, as he tended to a bunch of kids within the sect. He wanted to give them a fun story, as Marlo requested such, so he then added. ¡°There are hundreds of fish out there, thousands of them that we can eat, but they¡¯re crazy as shit! There¡¯s no fighting them, so stay here, and listen to your elders until you grow big and strong¡­ or at least until you can shapeshift into something bigger, cuz the oceans aren¡¯t so friendly towards tiny fish. I know all about that first hand, I used to be very tiny too!¡± The small fish (some older than others) loved his over-dramatic storytelling, but at some point, he had to put an end to those same stories. There was a lot going on here, in the sect, so he didn''t want to waste anyone''s time. He didn¡¯t want to distract these folks. That aside, he was yet to see Ortana, a female stingray whom he considered to be a lousy traitor! It was imperative to meet her, so he wanted to spend a moment looking around for her. Tim wanted a word with her, but he didn¡¯t want to appear too eager about seeing and or looking for her either, because he didn¡¯t want to look hostile right now. He was under a microscope now, regardless of how the sect members were busy with other drama that had recently unfolded. With that considered, he wanted to be friendly and approachable, or at least socially invisible. He didn''t want any trouble right now, regardless of how pent up with anger and stress he was. He thought, ¡°I will see you again, Ortana. I know you''re not dead, no, you''re too sneaky to die. Gotta play nice now, but I will find you¡­ and that asshole of yours better be ready for damage, because I''m raining a storm of fire on you! Well, I might? She probably had a good reason to betray and abandon me, let''s hope she did, because come to think of it, I don''t want to fight an entire fucking sect.¡± Tim felt perplexed about the sect, he felt both challenged and welcomed by them. Speaking of which, he and Marlo got back to the blistering mana sect, about half an hour ago. Tim was welcomed here, even if not entirely peacefully. He was welcomed without suffering any questioning, because there was a lot going on within the sect''s very lair right now. This necessarily meant that no one had enough time to hate him, as fish could only multitask so much, they weren¡¯t the brightest! They were exceptionally busy, due to multiple reasons. The lair suffered implosion-like damages, due to a quake of sorts, so the lair lost a great portion of its walls! That was why the sect members were busy, they stood guard, and tried to keep this place as safe as it can be under the current circumstances! The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Tim managed to fit within the new cracks of the lair, and he didn¡¯t even have to slip and slide in order to enter successfully, but that was the only positive side of what this place was suffering, nothing else. The lair was as exposed to the world as an open wound would be, which was no fun, as its contents were up for grabs! At some point, Tim thought. ¡°Hell¡­ I can kill them all myself, if I attacked fast enough. The big guys are distracted, they wouldn''t see a fireball or two coming. I''d feel much safer in the reef if I killed them all¡­ but damn, can''t say that it''s not risky to try either. Erg, so I shouldn''t try. Besides, I need them to help me find a soul cave and shit, they gotta know something about that.¡± Tim had a lot in his mind, but the solid facts remained. The sect''s inhabitants could be attacked at any time, as long as there was an opponent in the vicinity, who had the guts to attack! This exposure itself, ruined the entire meaning of a secret, hidden lair. However, the sect didn''t care about getting attacked, they didn''t care much, as they had another problem to deal with, problems which came along with the aforementioned quake. The lair''s bottom, for example, its flooring, was crackling with this fresh layer of intoxicating, green, and heavy liquid. The liquid weighed down to the bottom of the lair, it sank there, and judging from its aura alone, this green stuff could only mean trouble! The liquid had a threatening aura, it fried a couple of fish too, but this itself wasn¡¯t threatening enough to scare the lair¡¯s inhabitants away. The lair was like a cavern, it was about fifty meters deep, and since the liquid only occupied the bottom portion of the lair, the inhabitants were a comfortable distance away from this horrid liquid. They weren¡¯t dumb enough to swim in the pool below them, no, but they didn¡¯t feel threatened enough to flee either. This was a perplexing situation that the blistering mana sect found themselves into. Tim observed the area, and then he had his own two cents to share about the matter, as he too had sour experiences with weird, green stuff before, be it with bricks or with whole fish! Most recently, he saw those weird dolphins, so he decided to start a conversation with that particular experience. He looked at Marlo, and then he asked. ¡°What do you make of this green pool, Marlo? I killed a couple of dolphins recently, they were as green as this pool, and they were also very poisonous. It can¡¯t be natural, so where do you reckon all this weird green shit is coming from? It¡¯s obviously bad for the fish kind.¡± ¡°That right there is what my great grandpa would call, anti-mana. Very rare, but also very destructive if its quantities were allowed to multiply.¡± Marlo followed along, and furthermore he added. ¡°I haven¡¯t always been a shark you know¡­ so I¡¯ve heard plenty of stories. Stories aside, I know it''s destructive out of experience, because when I was a tiny marble shrimp, I had an uncle who got corrupted by this anti-mana; He went insane with power and then he done wiped out most of my lineage, it was gruesome!¡± Chapter 48 - Anti-mana pool (2) ¡°The green stuff drives fish mad, yes.¡± Tim emphasized, ¡°Anti-mana thing is no joke, then, but is there a cure to it, Marlo, a fix? I wasted a lot of meat today, because I couldn¡¯t eat all those crazy dolphins that I ended up killing, and now, I can see that you''re losing your home too, all because of this anti-mana shit! It¡¯s no fun, and that''s why we need to do something. Is there a fix to this?¡± ¡°We¡¯re already doing something about it, we''re fixing it.¡± Marlo said. Afterwards, he went into more detail about what some would consider a rather boring topic. The topic itself wasn¡¯t entirely boring, but for one to understand the concept of anti-mana thoroughly, a one-hour long lecture was mandatory. Marlo didn¡¯t hesitate to lecture the other, regarding everything one needed to know about anti-mana, or at least everything that he knew of, so that was exactly what Marlo did. Tim listened to what Marlo had to yap on about, and at the end, he was confident to boast about remembering a whole third of the hour-long lecture! He remembered the key bits of information, at least. He started looking at the imploded lair here, with a freshly new perspective. He asked, ¡°So, our big guys are purifying the anti-mana, huh? They¡¯re giving it what it wants, which is mana.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Marlo nodded, ¡°Anti-mana feeds on less than competent mages, it''s how it expands its grip on the world. But in actuality, it can be thoroughly eradicated with pure, strong mana. We got the situation under control, at least a little bit. Our best guys are on the job, as you said.¡± Marlo was confident about that, because ironically, he was more well-informed than the system itself, when the topic was about the phenomenon that was anti-mana. In theory, anti-mana had two purposes; To harvest, and to corrupt. Those were the two things that some fish had figured out on their own, through various experiences, but in this case, Marlo was guiding the sect to react accordingly! Anti-mana could only corrupt those with a weak level of mana purity, that¡¯s what they knew. For that matter, in order to cripple this huge pool''s capabilities for destruction, the strongest fish had gathered up, and were feeding the pool with their own mana. Marlo taught them to do so, and it was a fool-proof plan! Since the anti-mana couldn¡¯t corrupt these strong fish, the counter-result would be for the pool of anti-mana, to be dried out and stripped out of power instead. In technical words, they were overwhelming whatever magical (or non-magical) circuits this anti-mana had, these tough fish were deep frying the internal properties of this substance that had invaded their home! This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. These fish were pretty good at it too, as if they had a bunch of prior experience. They may have experience, or they may not, but the key point of their contributions was the purity of their mana, rather than experience itself. There were five fish here, for example, who were oozing bronze mana, of ~level four quality~ and they were pouring this mana, towards the pool, in insane quantities! Tim could only imagine how much mana these five folks could accumulate. At the same time, two other, even stronger fish were pouring dense, iron mana towards the same pool, and their mana was ~level six~ at the quality scale! This level was well within the god¡¯s punishment realm in mana quality, but one had no choice but to respect these marvelously powerful fish. They were sharks, and they weren¡¯t so huge in body-weight, but their worth excelled beyond what the reef typically had to offer! Tim had a good time observing everything, especially since no one really bothered him so far. The sect accepted him with open arms, so he was calm-ish, however, there was this one thing that still confused him dearly, and it didn''t allow him to relax thoroughly either. He was thinking about a topic regarding anti-mana, which Marlo failed to explain. Tim was direct with his question, he asked. ¡°Okay, so we know how to destroy anti-mana, I¡¯m glad we¡¯re not hopeless about that, but¡­ where does it come from, Marlo? Did all of this green stuff come from underground, and exploded in here like some volcano? I gotta know, so I can avoid it for good. As you can tell, my mana isn''t nearly good enough to fight a whole fucking pool of anti-mana!¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know where it comes from,¡± Marlo emphasized. ¡°As a kid, I was taught not to ask too many questions about anti-mana. I just know that when it appears, and if one lets it, mass-destruction follows! For that matter, I was only taught how to prevent the anti-mana from expanding and inflicting its invasive properties, that¡¯s all I know. Don¡¯t ask me about anything more regarding it, as it was never my responsibility to know either.¡± With that said, Tim chose to stay quiet, he didn¡¯t have another choice. Tim felt like the other made a vague threat, one which most fish would not notice, so he knew not to ask any more questions! Anyway, as far as facts were concerned, it would appear that even the smartest of fish kind, didn¡¯t know everything there was to know about anti-mana! This made a bit of sense, because fish weren¡¯t scientists, after all, they weren¡¯t supposed to know everything. That itself was comforting, but the overall gray area regarding anti-mana, was still pretty frustrating! Anyway, Tim understood that this lack of knowledge, may or may not affect the system¡¯s self-esteem as well. She didn¡¯t know anything about anti-mana, which was odd considering how powerful and knowledgeable she was, but it may make her feel better to know that even fishkind didn¡¯t know everything there was to know about anti-mana. He wanted to ask how she felt about the matter, even, but now was not the time. There was a lot going on. Tim wanted to observe the best of wizards and witches within this sect right now, he wanted to see how they handled the pool of literal death below them. These fish were pouring thousands upon thousands of points of mana towards the pool, which was something truly amazing to witness! The visible waves of blue they were pouring were magnificent! Chapter 49 - Signs of the anti-dots! [Congratulations, Timothy. You found me some information about all that ¡®green stuff¡¯ and therefore, you completed system task number six!] The system suddenly announced. Tim did not expect this. In fact, he had completely forgotten about this specific task, and had spammed Marlo with questions about the anti-mana, only out of curiosity! He hadn''t done it for points, or for the task¡¯s sake, not nearly. For that matter, he was in a mild shock, when the system then further announced. [Due to the completion of this task, you''ve won 250 points as a reward. So as of now, you''ve accumulated a total of 3,263 points.] ¡°That''s nice,¡± He added, ¡°I should take a moment to spend all those, right? I have this nagging feeling that I''m running behind on upgrades, it¡¯s a really annoying feeling.¡± [In an imperfect world, you''d be far behind, yes. But this is a perfect world, in a magical aspect, at least.] She followed along. Furthermore, she added. [You need to remember, every upgrade offered from my side is adjusted, in accordance to any type of progress you make. Your growth-sprout, and your mana quality upgrade had indefinitely affected your entire body, which means that you''re stronger now, even though I wasn''t the one who gave you that strength directly.] [In other words, a lot of your attributes have upgraded themselves already, so you don¡¯t have to tend to each and every one of them at a time, in order to progress, that¡¯s not necessary. With that said, every following upgrade will just make you stronger than the average stingray, so you¡¯re already ahead. You''re good!] She emphasized. There was no arguing with those hard facts, not logically. Tim could probably find something to argue about, because he simply wasn¡¯t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he chose to stay quiet. He was simply happy right now, because he had plenty of points, and was apparently powerful too, so he didn''t have anything to complain about! He was tame. With all of that considered, it was best for him to focus on the issues at hand. There was a lot going on, still, so he had to be attentive! The sect''s prime fish, for example, were still battling the massive pool of anti-mana that had overtaken the lair. The quantity of mana these prime fish bore was baffling, yet still, it may not be enough to tame the green anomaly below them! There was a lot of anti-mana at the bottom of this lair, and for that matter, these good fish couldn''t take a break, not even for a second, as they were nearly overwhelmed by it! If they took a break, then the anti-mana would bounce back in power, there was no questioning that, so they couldn¡¯t relax just yet, not to the slightest. The sect''s members were watching in contempt, everyone was pretty nervous! Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Tim thought, ¡°I¡¯ve never seen fish act so focused¡­ makes you kind of think that they aren¡¯t so stupid after all. I should keep an eye on them, cuz they might attack me at some point, no matter what bullshit Marlo spews about unity.¡± It was reasonable to fear an attack, regardless of the situation. The ocean was unkind, he knew that first hand, so it was always great to keep an eye out for danger. However, this time around, he was focusing on the wrong thing, the dangers didn¡¯t come from below him, not from these sect members, no; Instead, the dangers suddenly shone from above! He looked up randomly, and then got scared shitless, once he saw multiple dots of green, tens of meters above them. Typically he wouldn''t get spooked out by some random dots, but recent experiences had taught him that dots of this nature were anything but random! Fish were approaching the lair, and he was as sure as ever that these fish had gone insane with anti-mana. Their bodies were corrupted! Tim was scared, but in this situation, he didn¡¯t have to handle the problem by himself. He wasn''t alone, and since the sect had far stronger fish who could fight instead, it was best if they did the heavy lifting, rather than him alone! No one expected him to fight to the death. For that matter, he ended up shouting. ¡°We''re being attacked! Marlo! Corrupt fish are coming, look at all that green shit over there!¡± ¡°Right,¡± Marlo sighed. The entire sect was tense already, so no one really wanted to battle right now, they didn''t want to feel any more tense. They didn''t want to feel stressed, but the situation demanded otherwise. Half of the sect members had to get involved! This was a unique situation. The toughest fish were taming the anti-mana, so they couldn¡¯t help in battle, not to the slightest. With that considered, the fish whose mana quality was level-three and under, had to fight! Nothing was expected from the fish whose mana was level-one in the quality scale, as they were the weakest and therefore were systematically protected within this sect. They were protected, even now while the lair''s walls and portions of its ceiling were down! Marlo led his platoons of fish thoroughly. He had the platoons of weaker fish (with level 2 mana quality), guarding the several entrances that the recent quake had caused, as it was very important to guard these spots. This platoon was higher by number, there were about sixty of them, so naturally, they were the best option in terms of withholding the main line of defense. Collectively, they could cause a lot of damage! In the meantime, a handful of stronger fish (with level 3 mana quality), were on the offensive. There were about twenty of them, and they were facing the threat head on. They were sent out to kill stuff, and they didn''t have room to do anything else! It wasn''t a coincidence that green, fishy enemies appeared here and were approaching the sect. It wasn''t a coincidence, because there was an entire pool of anti-mana here within the sect, and that had to be important for these attackers. They either sensed the anti-mana, or were called by it, but either way the situation was problematic. There was no reasoning with corrupt, zombie-like enemies, the sect had to fight for the sake of their home! Chapter 50 - Dots, no more! Things went down within seconds, trouble multiplied as the enemy attack enveloped into something greater! Marlo and the sect had tried to form both a defensive and offensive line in order to protect what they held near and dear, but that wasn¡¯t enough. The sect was literally within a rock and a tight spot, as a proverb would encourage. The green-coated enemies weren''t as reckless as one would imagine them to be, no. They pierced within the lines of defenses (and offenses) with minimal casualties along the way, their efficiency was terrifying! The attackers barely suffered any losses, and this itself was very concerning, because it said a thing or two about the power they were packing! There were just a few lifeless bodies floating around here and there, and most of these bodies didn¡¯t belong to the enemies either. These attackers dismembered rather powerful sect members, whose mana quality had been up to level three! This hinted that the enemies didn¡¯t want to fight to begin with, but if they really wanted to fight, then they could¡¯ve dealt a lot of damage! This was concerning. Anyway, since the enemies were so fast, the results they achieved were equally fast. They weren¡¯t as mindless as one would assume, in fact, it appeared as if they had a plan in mind; A very complex plan, even. One of the enemy fish passed through Timothy, and for a split second, he thought that he was going to die, and he nearly didn¡¯t care if they had a plan or not. Their power and speed was explosive, which left him to feel genuine fear once again. He only got a tiny glimpse of the fish as it passed by, and that was enough to scare him shitless! The fish was slender, dark-ish, and had these blade-like fins. The fish moved so fast that one would assume that it didn''t make any bodily movements whatsoever! Its speed was explosive, and terrifying without a doubt. Tim didn¡¯t know what species these fish were, and at that moment, he didn¡¯t care to explore such biological aspects either. He got frightened, and through that split second, he realized that these attackers could achieve anything they wanted to achieve, nothing could stop them. Their powers were beyond what he imagined that a fish would bear, and Tim felt rather disabled in comparison! ¡°Jesus, fuck! I almost shat my¡­¡± Tim tried to express himself. However, at that very moment, the situation expanded into something far greater, and far more dangerous than the sect assumed in the beginning. When that fish passed by him, almost ripping him apart, the system sensed quite the turbulence in exchange. She cut Tim''s words short, and for the sake of his survival, she triggered a number of functions, regardless if he liked it or not! [Extingus breath!] She exclaimed. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Just like that, Tim started blasting a layer of blue colored mist across the waters. This blast didn''t cost him a single mana point, but its use was clear, it was a protective/deflective spell that most stingrays naturally bore. It served great purpose in this predicament, even though he wasn''t aware of the unraveling dangers below him! Most of the sect members weren''t aware either, not within this split second, but that didn¡¯t matter. The system tried to save Tim¡¯s life, and Tim¡¯s only. He wasn''t going to fight the system''s rigid demands either, because he didn¡¯t have a single solid argument helping his case. Tim allowed for events to unravel, because there wasn¡¯t anything he could do himself, he was as limp as a falling leaf. Except, in this particular situation, he wasn¡¯t falling, but he was going upwards instead, all of a sudden! The extingus breath was what got him out of trouble, initially, at least for half a second, and one could assume why. Tim recently upgraded the extingus breath magical ability, for it to protect him against elemental attacks. It was a deflective spell by nature, so it was advantageous how the power itself had been upgraded recently. Now he didn¡¯t know if there was anything elemental about the dangers that unfolded below him, he wouldn''t be able to tell, but as he propelled upwards, the extingus mist he left behind protected him nonetheless, at least to some degree. Thanks to the aforementioned upgrade, the mist''s color had adapted a deeper shade of blue, so one could only assume that its properties were deflective enough! Anyway, the system kept blasting spells, with that same purpose in mind! She wanted to push Tim away from trouble, as quickly as possible, so she used a couple of effective spells rather quickly. [Flaming fins!] She exclaimed. She forced Tim to use that ability, which in this case was necessary, because it helped him swim upwards a lot quicker. Tim had beamed a whole meter above and away from the sect''s lair as a result. [Shivering blood!] The system ordered. After that ability was activated, Tim got out of the lair. The shivering blood ability was best used to freeze the blood of an enemy, but it also helped one swim (or move) even faster. He was forced to use the latter benefit of this ability, and therefore, he swam fast enough to escape the unravelling dangers a bit more. Along the way, the system had made him spit out ounces upon ounces of protective extingus breath, for two whole seconds! For that matter, he remained mostly unharmed, or at least, in one piece. A fraction of a second later, a violent explosion erupted! This explosion pushed him further away from the sect, and it must be what the system had been worried about through these past couple of seconds. She had tried ever so desperately to nudge him away from danger, and she had been mostly successful! [Health, -310 points] The system then announced, and furthermore she also added. [Health Bar = 1190/1500 points] ¡°That''s not so bad,¡± Tim expressed, though he was really unaware of his surroundings right now. He didn''t understand what was going on, or what had happened. Tim couldn''t see much either, because he was surrounded by an aggressive dust cloud, the explosion had deafened him quite a bit as well. He only knew that he had to swim upwards furthermore, and that itself wasn¡¯t good enough to make sense of things! he was terrified. Chapter 51 - Ten-fish sect! Tim endured quite the explosion there. The lair had been blown to bits, and he would''ve suffered a similar fate, if the system hadn''t used every fraction of a second to get him out of trouble! She saved his life, and although this seemed uncharacteristic from the system''s side, she still did so, her success was radiant. She saved his life, in exchange for tens of mana points; That¡¯s all she took throughout her intervention. Tim couldn¡¯t care less about the mana points. Sooner or later, he could replenish any mana he lost, naturally even, so it was more important that he was alive to do so, he didn¡¯t complain. Most of the sect didn''t have the same luck as him, after all, and he could see that. The sect members were vaporized by that explosion, they were dead, while Tim himself, he only withstood a bit of damage, he was in one piece. ¡°My belly is fucking steaming¡­¡± He naturally complained, but then he thought. ¡°Then again, my belly was burning for food a few hours ago, so steaming can''t be that different from burning; I''m good.¡± It was important to be optimistic throughout this madness, otherwise he''d be enveloped by a single dot of insanity sooner or later. He was optimistic for a while, and he felt even more so, once he escaped the dust cloud, and discovered that fifteen fish had survived the explosion as well! These fish belonged to the sect, and their collective power was immense, because each of them could boast their level three mana quality! These fish were tough, but in this case, they survived the explosion purely out of luck, and not due to their toughness. They had been sent out here to fight the previous attackers, which meant that they hadn''t been in the immediate proximity of the sect, and its explosion. Sure the explosion both deafened and blinded them for a little while, but that was about all the damage they withstood, these fish were otherwise really healthy. Tim met with them, and asked the question that most would ask, he exclaimed. ¡°Hey guys, so, what the fuck is going on?¡± ¡°Infestation and eradication! A rather efficient one, may I add? We got wiped out clean, most of us.¡± A fish answered. Tim spoke to a great, but not fully grown, barracuda. Barracudas had a ferocious attitude, typically, and this barracuda was no exception! He had a sharp body posture, gruesome teeth, and overall, he had enough power to back his ferocious attitude! That aside, one could easily tell what was going on through the barracuda¡¯s mind right now. Even though he had the power to survive for longer than the average fish, he was tense and he was especially intimidated. The barracuda felt intimidated by that explosion especially, because the whole context regarding anti-mana seemed unnatural and out of place! This hinted that death could envelope him randomly, at any given time, regardless how powerful he was. This train of thought weighed on his little fish consciousness immensely! In that tense state, he hollered. ¡°Man, fuck this anti-mana nonsense! We spent an eternity trying to make this place a sect, and we lost it within a week? It¡¯s not fair, for the lord''s sake!¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°It''s not fair, but what are we gonna do now? We still gotta live.¡± Tim followed along. It was very important to input that question, because at this point, most of the sect members were gone, and the sect''s lair itself was destroyed. It was important to focus on that, if they were to come up with a proper plan regarding how to survive. The reef wasn¡¯t safe anymore, so they couldn¡¯t live like they used to any longer, they needed a new plan. The remaining members of the sect were strong, they were ideal fish, but the handful of fish that they were, wasn''t enough to protect and carry on the ideals that the sect had tried to set to stone. Not to mention, the reef was far more dangerous now! With all of that considered, it was very important to ask a couple of questions, to determine what was to happen with the blistering mana sect. Separation, in this case, was the death of all things they held near and dear! That barracuda, whose name was John, blurted out an answer, he said. ¡°We get out of here, and we find a new lair. Marlo is gone, the big guys too, so there isn''t much for us to salvage here! Let that bastardous anti-mana have this damn lair, we¡¯ll find a better and safer place!¡± ¡°That''s reasonable enough, cuz I''m not going back in there either.¡± Tim added. Tim couldn¡¯t agree more with John the barracuda, but half of the other survivors weren''t as cooperative. They weren¡¯t willing to group up any longer, nonetheless be a part of a sect; They lacked the motivation to do so. There were a couple of meter-long reef sharks, who were especially hesitant. They greeted everyone and simply left the premises! They were reef sharks, so they naturally wouldn''t steer too far away from this coral reef that the lair used to be based on, it¡¯s their home, but in terms of cooperation, they''ve made their answer clear. They didn¡¯t want to be part of the blistering mana sect any longer! A few plague flounders were hesitant as well, but only half of them floated away, the rest, including some red nurse sharks, decided to stay. With that considered, Tim and John were now part of a ten-fish group, where Tim himself was the weakest member! This group didn''t have the slightest clue regarding what the future withheld, but it was better to hang around with them for now, and depend on each other for protection. It was a smart decision. The reef didn''t bear any major threats, other than the pool of anti-mana, but as today proved, danger can be quite spontaneous! These fish needed each other to stay alive. With that considered, they started taking that previous idea seriously, which was to find a nice and new, dependable lair. They were hoping to find a lair that anti-mana couldn¡¯t quite penetrate, not under any circumstances. Although they didn¡¯t know what that kind of lair would look like, they hoped to figure it out along the way! Tim felt motivated, he thought. ¡°We''ll find a new layer¡­ If not, at least I''m stuck with these strong fuckers who know their way around. It''s like I have my own personal body-gaurds! Of course, they''re not the quickest fish either so I''ll rely on myself as well, when it comes to protection. Only a stingray would know just how a stingray should be protected.¡± Chapter 52 - Another 120% Tim had quite the day. He wouldn¡¯t have ever guessed that he would have to endure such an explosion, at any point of the day, and yet he did experience it, endure it, and survived it too! Though he survived it, he was still shaken to the core! The extreme attributes of this experience had scarred him mentally, and there wasn¡¯t much he could do about that either, other than live with it. He had to endure the shock and trauma of it all! Life at sea wasn¡¯t designed for the weak, after all, and come to think of it, it wasn¡¯t entirely designed to serve the strong either, as the anti-mana had so visually proven, as it killed some of the strongest fish within the sect, in a split second! The surviving members, who were supposed to be pretty tough, were equally terrified without a doubt. They felt a fear that they had abandoned a long time ago, this explosion had revived their fear, and it was to stay in their conscience for good! John the barracuda, thought. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t have been that vulnerable, it doesn''t make any sense. Our mana isn¡¯t weak at all, it''s not supposed to be considered weak, yet it is¡­ Decent Mana my bullocks! What kind of world did we come to, where level three mana doesn¡¯t mean shit anymore?! It feels like I¡¯m a beginner once more, yes, this day painted a grand picture for us! We must hide, much like every beginner does throughout the delicate period of their mana accumulation! We are mere fish once more¡­¡± There was a lot in his mind, which was something interesting to say about a barracuda. John was scared, petrified even, and with that said, one could only imagine how scared Timothy was, whose mana was a whole level weaker! He felt as if he was a single speck of dust, in a cruel desert. Trauma and fear were tough on one''s conscience, but in a way, these couple of things encouraged one to move forward with their lives. Fear itself didn¡¯t guarantee survival, no, but in this case, what remained of the blistering mana sect, knew one thing for sure, they had to move on! They knew that they could either flee from here, and try to progress, survive, elsewhere. It was either that, or, they could face what the pool of anti-mana had created in their lair, and this option sounded a lot worse to them. Fear encouraged them to know better, and pick the first option; If they were to progress, they had to survive first! They suffered defeat today, yes, but inwardly, they hoped and aimed to be strong enough in the future. If they were to survive a disaster of this similar magnitude in the future, they had to focus on progressing power-wise, and mana quality-wise, regardless of how they felt shamed and humbled by the anti-mana right now! The next time around, they wanted to survive such a spontaneous disaster through raw strength itself, not just through luck. The death of their many friends, made them feel angry and devastated enough, to the point where they reaped motivation out of their sour emotions! Some fish had such strong, complex feelings, apparently! Tim shared similar emotions. Except, he didn¡¯t picture himself doing a one-hundred year long, secretive, ninja-like ¡®training montage¡¯ like these fish pictured themselves doing, no. Instead, he was more motivated than ever, to look into those upgrades that he had left unattended so far. There was a whole bundle of new purchases waiting for him, and he wanted to buy them immediately! Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The system insisted that he wasn¡¯t behind in upgrades, but Tim thought otherwise, he didn''t want to take any risks! He wanted to buy as many upgrades as possible, as soon as he and the team of fish found a discreet place where they could rest properly at. He wanted to feel protected first, before he tried any potentially paralyzing upgrades! He thought, ¡°I need upgrades, some good ones¡­ Maybe something that''s gonna make me explosion-proof too? The system has to have something that''ll make me explosion-proof, cuz I can''t keep floating around all willy-nilly, it''s too dangerous! Eh, we''ll see, I''m hopeful.¡± ¡­ Tim and his nine friends swam out of the reef, and they made it out in one piece too. Although the latter fact sounded like a blessing, to them, it didn''t really feel like enough of a blessing, as survival itself wasn¡¯t as great as they thought it would be. They lost a lot of things today, things that had to be replaced in order for these survivors to feel whole again. They were out in the open now in search for such a life, or in the very least, they hoped to find a better lair, where they could hide and develop their mana quality at! Everyone in the team felt as if they were a bunch of newborns right now, as if they had nothing to their name, be it in a materialistic sense, or in a wealth-oriented sense. Mana was ¡®wealth¡¯ to them, and without a team of smart mages and wizards to help them ascend further in terms of mana quality, and its respective realms, they felt quite poor as a result. No one could help them, not significantly, at least! The reef was desolate, in terms of housing other powerful fish, most of the reef was empty, at least. They knew this to be a fact, because the sect had explored this place thoroughly before, as they had progressed that way, in a magical sense. The sect had hunted down and killed most of the powerful fish within the reef, fish that did not want to cooperate. With that said, they knew enough to search outside of the reef for any plausible, new lairs, or at least, at the very edges of the reef where no one really lived on, at any point of history! John the Barracuda led the team of ten fish, and so far, he had led them half a kilometer away from the lair. They browsed the side of the reef which had more shallow waters, in hopes of avoiding any random but powerful fish along the way. The reef wasn¡¯t supposed to have any powerful fish, but they didn¡¯t want to take any chances! Anyway, two kilometers later, they had to take a break. All the swimming wasn''t quite easy on their fins, so they had to slow down. They haven''t found anything significant yet, so there was no point in pushing forward so stubbornly, there was no benefit to it. Tim used this break as an opportunity to buy an upgrade or two! There was a whole new wave of purchase options waiting for him to explore them, options that he had avoided to check out so far. He avoided them, because he feared experiencing any sort of intense pain, such as paralyzation, or sharp brain sparks, and rightfully so. They weren¡¯t fun! Anyway, he asked the system to list out the purchase options that were available, and she obliged immediately. In fact, she highlighted the most important upgrade for the time being, which was a very helpful gesture! She said, [You''ve unlocked seven new purchase options, Timothy, you''ve unlocked them a while ago. However, I recommend that you densify your bodily durability by another 120% first of all! Although it''s an expensive thing to buy, it''ll help you escape otherwise deadly situations easier, that is, you''ll take less damage! This upgrade costs 1,100 system points to implement.] Chapter 53 - Stingray anxiety Tim was more than enthralled to spend a bunch of points right now. He wanted to implement the durability upgrade in his body immediately, because the literal explosion that he survived a couple of hours ago motivated him to do so. He was petrified, and wanted to feel safer once more! He thought, ¡°I need upgrades, immediately. Hell, I might get paralyzed for a day or so, it could happen? I don''t remember if durability upgrades hurt, maybe they do, but that¡¯s a risk I''ll have to take! Shit¡­ I can''t mess around and ignore this upgrade for too long, that would be dangerous as shit.¡± This was perhaps the best time to buy an upgrade too, as the team of ten were resting right now. They had found a five-meter wide cave to hide in, and odds were that they wanted to stay here for a few hours, to replenish their mana, mainly, and to hide away from any and all danger for a while. Tim planned to use this break to his advantage. He sank within the sand, to act like he was resting, and then he went into action. The system then approved his request for an upgrade rather quickly, she was cooperative. He only heard a ding in his head, and then he felt immense pain across his back, along with his fins as well! It wasn''t any fun. He was undergoing a bodily durability upgrade, so it wouldn''t be a surprise if this upgrade affected the very structure of his being, including his skeleton, and nervous system too. It wasn''t a light process, it was meant to be painful, and the upgrade gradually intensified as well, mercilessly! Once he was ten minutes into the process, his skin started burning too! It wasn''t a surprise that his skin was affected by this upgrade so violently, because after all, the skin was to withstand any and all damage, from external, opposing forces. Tim''s skin was his first line of defense, and if it wasn¡¯t tough enough, then this durability upgrade wouldn''t be much of an upgrade to begin with. Anyway, the upgrade took a whole hour to complete. Luckily though, he didn''t experience any muscle spasms along the way, nothing of that variant, so no one noticed that he was undergoing something so intense! He hid in the sand, and seemed peaceful. The other nine members rested similarly, so no trust-oriented complications arose. Once the upgrade was done, the system then announced. [Congratulations, Timothy, the durability upgrade has been implemented into your body successfully! It took 1,100 points in exchange, as discussed, so in total you now have 863 points left to your disposal.] Tim didn¡¯t care about the points right now. He was barely conscious, so he didn¡¯t have the grand freedom to be greedy. Though he didn¡¯t react at all, it was apparent that he needed more system points for himself if he was to progress, and soon. The recent upgrades had been very expensive, and the following upgrades were sure to have staggering prices as well. With that considered, he had to be on the move, and kill things, in order to buy each upcoming upgrade as quickly as possible. At this rate, he had to kill a whale or something, in order to have good purchasing power, which itself signified that he might fall behind with his upgrades once more. It was a vicious cycle! Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Anyway, later on, he regained his consciousness, and noticed that he was running low on points. This had a paradoxical effect on his feelings, as he felt both stressed out and relieved as a result! Tim was stressed out because he was obviously very poor, point-wise, but at the same time, this was what also made him happy. At this slow pace, he could master the powers he already had, thoroughly, before he''d move on to another promising purchase. If he mastered his current powers properly, he wouldn¡¯t feel as overwhelmed by the idea of having several kinds of power within his arsenal, he''d be all dandy! Likewise, he also thought. ¡°I can¡¯t rush with them upgrades, it¡¯s not so easy to buy all of them anymore. Gotta slow down at some point, I guess? Also, I have to merge my powers at some point, though not anytime soon, so it¡¯s good that shit¡¯s starting to get more expensive, cuz I can focus on all the powers I stole as well, they''re plenty!¡± What he thought didn¡¯t make much sense in hindsight, but in actuality, he said something very smart. Tim was attentive of the past, and strategic towards the future for once. Right now, he even tried to balance the use of his powers, in order for these powers to fit the present situation, and whatever issues were attached to the present! Tim mentioned power merging, because of a relatable reason. He had stolen several powers from animals before, and he still uses those powers to this day. The point was, since these powers were several in number, he didn¡¯t want to get overwhelmed by them in the future, on the occasion where he stole even more powers from other animals. Power merging helped one keep the number of stolen powers under control. He¡¯d be able to squish two powers into one, and attain an even better ability in exchange, an ability which would be a mix of the two selected powers he was to merge. The ability to merge powers was very useful, though, he couldn¡¯t use this to his advantage right now, because the quality of his mana was terrible. This was where his worries intertwined, and related with one another; This was where things started making sense. Tim couldn¡¯t buy any upgrades as regularly now, because they were too expensive, as a result, the system won¡¯t be overwhelming him with any new powers and or abilities anytime soon. This necessarily meant that he could steal even more, new powers from other animals, without feeling overwhelmed by his own arsenal of powers in exchange. He didn¡¯t have to care about power merging either, because at this rate, stealing powers from other animals was one of his main ways to progress, Tim didn¡¯t have to worry about getting rid of his numerous powers for a while. This was how his worries intertwined, and kept him calm as a result. His arsenal was balanced for the time being and he acknowledged that. He felt relieved! It took a lot of brainpower to process the arsenal-orientated situation he was in, and Tim mostly lacked his brainpower, yet he was reluctantly able to do the math this time around. He acknowledged his disadvantages, and hoped to fix them soon, but he also acknowledged his advantages, which was a really thrilling feeling! Anyway, the system picked up on his train of thought, efficiently. She understood what Tim was worried about, and focused on those worries, rather than focusing on his positive feelings. Afterwards, she gave him a comforting recommendation! She said, [Tim, I know you don¡¯t want to handle one too many system upgrades, but I recommend you to purchase this one, solely because it¡¯s affordable. Now look, it won¡¯t keep you alive any better than the other upgrades did, or make you any more powerful either, but it¡¯ll help boost your luck with the ladies! For 600 system points, you can upgrade your sex appeal to level three!] Chapter 54 - "Make me more s#xy..." ¡°Sex appeal, huh? Wasn¡¯t it level zero before? I specifically remember being embarrassed about that level.¡± Tim followed along. He barely understood why fish needed to have sexual-appeal levels to begin with, so it was difficult to follow along with what the system had to say. Furthermore, the offer she made wasn''t as appealing as she thought, because he was still pretty young and couldn¡¯t care less about being more appealing to other fish, especially in a sexual manner. The system picked up on his train of thought, so she then corrected the other, she said. [You bear the body of an adult now, Timothy, that¡¯s how growth sprouts work in this world. With that considered, certain hormones will settle in your body in the following weeks, and in order to cooperate with these hormones, you need an adequate sex appeal level, to do your bidding. Buy this upgrade now, boy, don¡¯t leave it for later.] While Timothy pondered over what she said, the system then also answered his first question. Her answer correlated with what she previously explained. She said, [As per your first question, your sex appeal is at level two now, because it leveled up itself once you had that growth sprout. All of your physical attributes have leveled up, actually, as I told you before, which makes things easier for you now, things are going your way for once. You¡¯re one purchase away from being more attractive than the average stingray, which is quite a beneficial statistic to have.] Tim thought about this for a moment, and then he added. ¡°Well, since you put it that way. Make me look sexier, I guess?¡± [Ding,] She confirmed, [Done! You look a lot shinier now, so, full grown female stingrays will find you more attractive. It¡¯s worth mentioning that some stingrays are known to practice homosexuality, so, bear this upgrade with responsibility. Be critical.] Furthermore, she added. [This upgrade consumed 600 of your points, as agreed upon, Timeth. As of now, only 263 points remain in your sum.] Tim had a hard time processing everything that the system just said. First, he didn¡¯t understand why female stingrays found shiny guys appealing, this didn¡¯t make any sense to him. Furthermore, he skipped entirely past the gay stingray part, because he didn¡¯t have the mental capacity to think about that right now. His brain was overwhelmed, as he still hadn¡¯t recovered from the pain he experienced from the durability upgrade, so he wasn¡¯t ready for something new. Anyway, he took all of this information as a grain of sand, and thought. ¡°No biggie, I¡¯ll worry about the weird stuff in the future. I¡¯m five inches deep in sand right now, so who gives a fuck if I¡¯m shiny or not? There isn¡¯t any other upgrade that I could buy either, so I might as well try and rest for once. I¡¯m pooped!¡± Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Then, Tim did exactly as he plotted. He fell asleep, and rested for a solid three hours, which was a lot for a stingray such as himself. His energy of course replenished in exchange, so when he woke up, Tim felt more ready than ever to face the troubles of the sea. He plotted, ¡°We¡¯ll find a new home, that¡¯s what we¡¯re out here for. After we find a new home, I¡¯ll pick up on the stuff that I care about. I need this sect, er¡­ what¡¯s left of the sect, so there¡¯s no point in ditching them now. We gotta survive.¡± ¡­ It¡¯s been a couple of days since the lair of the blistering mana sect got attacked, and within these two days, its ten known survivors had traveled quite a distance. They swam all the way to the other side of the reef, where life was known to be more scarce, and they ended up finding a decent, new lair there. They believed that the north-side of the reef was pretty safe to live in, because of that aforementioned reason. This area only housed a few species of animals, and these animals were prey at best, they were not dangerous. Hunting groups from within the sect had explored this side of the reef a few times before, so they were aware of the low-risk factors that this area featured. This new den/lair was safe, as long as a pool of anti-mana didn¡¯t randomly erupt within the vicinity of the lair. John the barracuda, and the remaining survivors of the sect, hoped that they wouldn¡¯t be that unlucky! Anyway, throughout these couple of days, Tim had slaughtered and eaten several fish. These fish were smaller than him in comparison, at least by half, because he had nitpicked who to attack and eat. Tim killed fish that weren¡¯t much of a challenge, solely for the purpose of eating them. These fish didn¡¯t have any powers either, so the species that they represented did not really matter much. Instead, their meat mattered more, and so did the amount of points that these fish forked over once he killed them. Points were really important recently, as he wanted to upgrade his abilities as much as possible. Tim had gathered a few hundred points from the kills that he made these past couple of days. In total, he now had seven-hundred and twenty-five system points, which wasn¡¯t a lot, but it was better than nothing. He had to kill a bunch of other low-risk fish in order to have enough points to buy the good stuff, but more recently, he didn¡¯t feel as rushed to do so. The new lair and its vicinity was less threatening, so he didn¡¯t really feel motivated to rush with his level-ups. Tim gained about four kilos in two days, and that itself felt like plenty of progress, considering that he was quite anorexic. He felt excited! Tim¡¯s feelings towards progress were a bit mixed, and even paradoxical, so he didn¡¯t really have his priorities straight, but that didn¡¯t matter much, because as mentioned, he wasn¡¯t really threatened here. He was safe, so it wasn¡¯t a big issue if he slacked off sometimes! Anyway, regarding anorexia, he had this theory, which might be a quick solution to the same anorexia he was experiencing. Tim had accumulated enough mana to fill his mana pool entirely, six-thousand whole points of them, and with that said, he felt comfortable enough to use a recently purchased item, the micro shift ability. This ability would really put his theory to the test. He thought, ¡°If I was smaller, I should become a lot fatter, in theory at least. I guess that it¡¯s worth a shot, it¡¯s worth half of my mana¡­¡± Chapter 55 - 0.25 ton Stingray! The micro shift ability was a purchase that Timothy had been obsessed about for a while now. It was an important ability, because in theory, it could solve some of his physical problems, however, it was also very expensive to use this ability. Using it only once, would deplete a lot of his mana, a solid three-thousand points of them, to be precise. That¡¯s what the math suggested, which was the same reason why he had been hesitant to use it so far, it was expensive. Today, he was motivated to finally use it, because of an important, calculative reason. Being smaller would help him avoid predators, yes, but that wasn¡¯t the main reason that he had in mind, no. He wanted to be smaller, because in theory, he might have the chance to be less skinny, which in turn would help him become a lot healthier. That aside, if he was smaller, then he¡¯d also have to eat a lot less food on a daily basis. Those were the couple of reasons that motivated him, as simply, it was dangerous to be so large and skinny. Also, it wasn¡¯t easy to find twenty to fifty pounds of food every day, in an area where life was so scarce. This part of the reef was desolate, and a half-a-ton stingray couldn¡¯t survive on the tiny shrimp that this place had to provide either! It wasn''t possible. Tim either had to reduce his body size, or travel more in order to find and hunt bigger prey. In hindsight, the first option seemed a lot safer, and the safety it promised was why he pursued it. However, since he never used this ability before, he didn¡¯t know how to activate it either, or summon it, with the latter being a more appropriate description. He didn¡¯t know how to summon this power! For that matter, he requested. ¡°System, how about you help me use that micro shift thingy? I want to be smaller.¡± [I¡¯m aware of your intentions, Timothy, your idea is splendid!] She followed along, [How small do you want to become? I need a number to work with here.] ¡°Hmm¡­ I want to be half as small, so that¡¯s what? Forty percent smaller?¡± He added. [50%,] She corrected, [Math must still be very difficult for you. Luckily, you can¡¯t ever use the micro shift ability by yourself, I¡¯ll always have to be involved on the count of its complexity, and the dangers it poses. You must remember that if you input the wrong percentage while using this ability, you could get wiped out of existence. It¡¯s a perplexing ability, so even if I encouraged you otherwise before, I won¡¯t let you use it by yourself, as that would be stupid from my side. I hope you understand.] ¡°You know what? That¡¯s more than fair.¡± Tim nodded along, he could read the lines of reasoning behind what the system said. Then, he said. ¡°Let¡¯s do fifty percent!¡± After that point, it took little effort to put things into motion. The system was cooperative, so she granted Tim¡¯s request right away. Of course, she did all of the math behind this operation, all for safety¡¯s sake, so things went smoothly. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Things went smoothly math-wise, that is. Pain-wise, however, he ended up getting as ¡®punished¡¯ as ever, which itself was an indicator that the micro shift ability was working well, but it didn¡¯t make things any easier for him nonetheless. He was in immense pain, for about ten minutes straight! He didn¡¯t transform in mere seconds as one would assume, that wasn¡¯t how this ability worked! The micro shift ability apparently had micro in its name, for a reason. It reduced Tim¡¯s bodily size, one micro portion at a time, which was a really painful process. While his whole skeletal structure reduced in size, along with the rest of his body, Tim¡¯s bones crackled as if he suffered from the most severe case of arthritis! The pain was ruthless! The thing he was experiencing was no fancy magic, he didn¡¯t transform upon the wave of a wand, as some would assume, no. He was experiencing intense and ongoing bodily changes, and this process was very painful. Tim felt as if his organs were dropping out of his body, even, over and over. In actuality, his organs were just sloshing around, as within this process, they were the last to decrease in size. Up until this point, he had barely known what organ pain felt like, and now that he experienced it, he wasn¡¯t a fan of it whatsoever! He squealed more than a pig ever would. It was very advantageous that he was within the new lair when he activated this ability. He was a few inches under the sand, and the other sect members were out hunting as well, so no one really witnessed him suffer. Tim underwent extreme changes in just ten minutes, and no one was here to witness it. Tim was certain that the sect would spam him with questions sooner or later, but he planned to tell them that he just possessed some magical ability which helped him shift bodily sizes. This actually wasn¡¯t so far from the truth with such a description, so he wasn¡¯t expecting any trouble from the sect members. He thought, ¡°I¡¯ll tell them most of the truth, no harm to it. They¡¯re fish, it¡¯s not like they can tell if I bend the truth a little bit.¡± Anyway, once the micro shift process was done, Timothy then noticed a couple of things about himself. The shift didn¡¯t ¡®cure¡¯ his anorexia all that much, regardless of how he had inwardly wished for it. He was just a smaller, slightly healthier version of himself, but he had most of the physical disadvantages that he had before. Those things tagged along, he didn¡¯t feel any greater! The only, direct physical advantage that he won over because of this shift, was that he could cure his anorexia in the following weeks, a bit easier and or faster. Since he only weighed two-hundred and fifty kilos right now, he required less food daily, in order to survive and or heal. He felt confident about finding fifteen to thirty pounds of food a day now and onwards, it wasn¡¯t much of a task anymore, as he¡¯d only have to kill a couple of fish at most, who were much smaller in comparison to himself. With that considered, the decisions he made today, early in the morning, were quite smart. Survival was much easier now that he was half the size of what he was about ten minutes ago. He was much safer in general, because out there in the open waters, a stingray of his size (1.75 meters long, tail excluded), was a little bit harder to spot by the common fish. As of now, he was less of a target, by basically anything that was stronger than him. With that considered, he plotted. ¡°I¡¯m smaller, and harder to kill now, hehe. My skin is tough as shit too, so¡­ time to get some shit done, I can''t waste my time! I need a strong body for myself, a strong soul too. I''ll have to toughen myself up all together!¡± Chapter 56 - Intertwined tasks! Tim felt more ready than ever to explore the odds and ends of the ocean, which was advantageous because he had a couple of things in mind. He was often fixated on souls these past few days, for example, because he had discovered that, much like magical powers, one¡¯s soul could be altered as well, or in other words, upgraded. It was an interesting topic at the very least, but at its very best, it was also great for one to upgrade their soul, for multiple reasons! There was a whole micro universe of souls out there, crammed within this very same planet, and in order to explore that universe properly, he needed a strong soul, one which would battle the staggering tides of the paranormal universe. Tim even had a task which was associated with soul upgrading, specifically, task seven. The system promised that if he found a soul tampering cave, by any means necessary, he¡¯d win one-hundred and twenty points in exchange. The points were a minimal, but handy reward, however, the greatest reward which tagged along with the completion of this task, was the raw opportunity to develop one¡¯s soul. That¡¯s what he cared about! Souls, much like magic, came along with realms (levels) of power, and if he was to propel through these mysterious realms, a soul tampering cave seemed absolutely necessary. He had to find one of those, of course, he didn¡¯t have the slightest clue regarding where he could look for them. In order to get a hint, he planned to ask the other sect members about soul caves. About three hours later, four members of the sect returned from their hunting session. Tim asked them about these soul tampering caves, and without missing a beat, they gave him an answer. These particular members didn''t even bother asking why Tim was half the size all of a sudden, they didn¡¯t care. One of them simply answered, ¡°Gotta go top-side, bud. Only air breathers have the blessing of visiting a soul tampering cave. Well, air breathers and all those bastards down in the deep sea. Since we¡¯re neither of those, we won¡¯t be visiting those spooky caves anytime soon, not unless we need to.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that I need to upgrade my soul, it¡¯s just that I want to do it¡­¡± Tim followed along, ¡°Call me crazy, but based on what you said and how you said it, you¡¯re making air breathing sound pretty easy. What do you suggest I do, if I want to tamper with my soul, sir fish? What¡¯s your advice?¡± The lair was dead silent for a moment. The fish didn¡¯t know if Timothy was joking, but come to think of it, it¡¯s not like they were willing to ask a bunch of questions either, as they didn¡¯t possess any dot of intellectual, abstract thinking, regardless of how the quality of their mana was better than his, in bleak comparison. They had the same attention span of a human baby, and thanks to that attention deficit, they were quick to give an answer. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. One of them added, ¡°Well, you need to breathe air first, and have legs also. You¡¯ll need those couple of advantages for a while, to get things done¡­ Have you ever shapeshifted into another animal?¡± ¡°No,¡± Tim answered honestly. ¡°You gotta kill a bubonic shifter, then, and steal their powers. Have you ever heard of them? They¡¯re rare, but you¡¯re more likely to find them two-hundred meters below the air, erg, sea surface.¡± The other followed along. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of those bastards! They shoot darts out of their nostrils and shit, right?¡± He asked. The four fish nodded along to his answer, and that was basically where the conversation ended, as no one had anything more to add. These fish were especially brief, they didn¡¯t waste time. Anyway, the task that Tim had wanted to pursue, inflated into something greater than he had expected, just like that, within a snap! It was very apparent that in order to tamper his soul, Tim had to kill a bubonic shifter first! This was no easy task, it was really dangerous too, because if he was even slightly clumsy, then he could contract some version of the plague from those very darts that the shifters could shoot out of their nostrils! The task he wanted to chase was dangerous and perplexing. Regardless of that, he wasn¡¯t willing to back down, so he mumbled. ¡°Fuck it, I¡¯m going out to hunt a shifter, I guess,? No bother, I¡¯ve killed worse things, so how bad could it be?¡± Tim was motivated to progress, regardless of what the means were. He had undergone some changes in order to adapt with this overall environment better, and since he had made such changes, he felt less overwhelmed to pursue a task or two. He felt ready. Speaking of tasks, the system offered him a reward if he was to find and kill a bubonic shifter, four-hundred system points, to be precise, which wasn¡¯t a tiny amount. She had introduced this task a couple of days ago, task eight, to be exact, and Tim couldn¡¯t ever have guessed that these couple of tasks would end up getting intertwined! Killing a shifter was imperative, if he was to tamper with his soul in the near future! Tim was aware of that fact now, but he wasn¡¯t any more intimidated by that fact, he thought. ¡°I¡¯ll get shit done. Besides, how bad could those needles be? My skin is as tough as a nail now, I hope. It should withstand a stupid plague dart.¡± ¡­ Timothy went out to the open sea, alone. The members of the blistering mana sect, didn¡¯t really want to deal with a bubonic shifter now or anytime soon, especially after they considered the massacre that had happened a couple of days ago. They weren¡¯t willing to take any risks. Because of all of that, he was out here alone, and ready to brave the elements! He worked better alone anyway, so he wasn¡¯t really offended by how the sect members chickened out moments ago, by refusing to help him. His nerves were pretty tame. Timothy browsed the sea, and hoped to find a shifter whom he could pounce on. He wished to have the element of surprise, but considering the environmental circumstances that he faced here, it may not be possible for him to have the advantage. He was two-hundred meters below the sea right now, and at this mark, he was barely able to look a couple of feet in front of him. Most of the sea was dark, after all, so he had to depend on his other senses more, if he was to navigate across this darkness safely! Chapter 57 - Mouth sensors, and a halved mana pool! Tim¡¯s sight, scent and overall senses were upgraded to level four most recently, but that may not be enough to battle the utter darkness that the sea possessed. He had to be very attentive, just to have a brief understanding of what was going on around him at all times! It wasn¡¯t fun. However, there were a couple of things working to his favor out here. It didn¡¯t take much effort for him to maneuver through the darkness, for example, which was a good thing, as he technically didn¡¯t have any physical obstacles out here on the open waters. The advantage behind this was that he could focus on heightening his senses, other than sight, as vividly as possible, without having to worry about bumping into something along the way! This was great, and surely, he had to use every advantage there was, if he was to succeed. Tim tried his best to focus, but he was also getting really hungry, yet, there wasn''t any food around for him to eat. With that considered, at some point later on, he ended up developing a couple of hunger-stricken thoughts, which were very odd. He thought, ¡°I¡¯m eating that shifter, no doubt about it. Let¡¯s hope it knows how to shapeshift into a sandwich, because if I find one, it¡¯ll end up dead anyway. It might as well do something useful, erg¡­ other than giving me its powers.¡± Such a train of thought from his side was frantic, but it wasn¡¯t uncharacteristic either, as he had said worse things before, he was never quite normal. Furthermore, the hunger he was experiencing was what gave him unparalleled confidence, which was also tainted with utter desperation. He was more than willing to put this confidence into use! Tim continued to browse across the dark waters. He had swam two-hundred meters deep, and down at this point, it was obvious that life was really scarce. It was either scarce, or it could be that he wasn¡¯t quite able to put his other senses into thorough use. He couldn¡¯t catch a whiff of anything kicking, it wasn¡¯t easy. Aside from that, he had a bunch of natural sensors within his mouth, which were supposed to help him notice any sparks of electricity across the water, electricity that his target animal, or any other animal had, and yet he didn¡¯t notice anything. His mouth sensors weren''t helping much! The bubonic shifters themselves, weren¡¯t creatures who had magical electrical powers for him to notice, no. Instead, their bodies simply used micro amounts of electricity to function properly, and so does every other living creature, come to think of it. Brains need electricity to function, and that''s what he was counting on out here. Timothy could sense these electrical currents which animals possessed, so in theory, he could use his mouth sensors to track creatures easier. This was his sixth sense, that most stingrays possessed. However, until now, he hadn¡¯t made any progress. Which meant that either life was very scarce at this point of ocean depth, or, it could mean that his senses weren¡¯t as developed as the system had described. Level four wasn¡¯t as fantastic as he presumed. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°At least my skin is pretty tough,¡± He thought, as he tried to maintain a positive attitude. ¡°Toughness probably doesn¡¯t matter when it comes to man-handling those fucking bubonic, nostril darts, though? So maybe I should have my flaming fins ready to light up as well, cuz, I can¡¯t risk getting shot. Gotta be speedy!¡± Speed, or best described as agility, was always useful. He needed speed if he was to survive, regardless of the circumstances. Anyway, he browsed the darkish portion of the sea for about two whole hours! At this point, hunger was really getting to him, so he wasn¡¯t thinking straight whatsoever. He was far less alert now, and the system managed to distract him even more after she made a little announcement. She said, [Warning! Your hunger bar has dropped to an alarmingly low phase! Eat something as soon as you can, or else you may be prone to organ damage, and or severe organ failure, thanks to the anorexia, which you also suffer from!] ¡°God damn it! I really hoped that the anorexia would go away after I shapeshifted. Guess I¡¯m not that lucky!¡± He sighed, ¡°Okay then, system, how much do I have to eat in order to survive? I haven¡¯t sensed a single dot of life out here, so I might as well abort the mission! I need to kill a dolphin or something, that should be enough food to keep me alive.¡± [Not necessarily! You don¡¯t need to kill something as big as a dolphin right now. Aim for smaller and immediate meals, like a bunch of sardines, for example. I know that your hunger bar has been halved ever since you shape-shifted, but still, don''t be picky about your food, eat whatever you can find. Your hunger bar is at 5/200 points right now, which is a very dangerous amount to live with.] She answered, in as much detail as she could. ¡°You could¡¯ve said something earlier, system.¡± Tim complained, he was really irritated. Afterwards, he got ready to abandon this mission, or at least, he aimed to postpone it for a few hours. He needed some meat in him immediately, and in order to do so, he had to swim upwards, where life in general was much easier to find. While Tim got ready to dash, he browsed through a couple of statistics, and noticed that his health bar, stamina&sleep bar, and even his mana pool, had been halved. This had happened after he shapeshifted, obviously, so this was a consequence of being smaller in body mass. Tim acknowledged that since these bars of his were halved, life will become harder for him for a while, until he decided to shapeshift again! However, he chose not to think about this aspect too much, because he didn¡¯t have the time to do so. His life was on the line here, and unless he reacted quickly, he quite literally might die of something that no one would expect a magical stingray to die from; Anorexia induced organ failure! Tim was on the move, but then suddenly, as soon as he swam about ten meters upwards through the darkness of the waters, something happened. He felt an electrical turbulence in the water, one which he could not ignore! The electrical part of his senses hadn¡¯t been challenged for more than a couple hours, up until now. With that said, once he felt that turbulence, he felt both overwhelmed and anxious as a result! He thought, ¡°Shit, what a bad time to get ambushed! I damn near pissed myself! System, should I stay and fight?¡± Chapter 58 - Twelve-armed Octopus! [You have no choice, Timothy, you must fight.] The system said. At first, even Tim second guessed the logic behind her words, but then, she also added. [The ambusher will likely follow you, especially if it¡¯s a bubonic shifter, so it¡¯s pointless for you to swim away. That aside, even if you escape with your life, you don¡¯t really have the privilege to waste another hour. You need food immediately, and it so happens that the ambusher is edible, well, most likely edible. Kill it, and eat it!] With that said, Tim didn¡¯t put up a debate. He heeded the system¡¯s recommendations, and in effort to intercept the ambusher in a safer manner, he made a sharp turn to the right, and then started swimming as fast as he could. He had intercepted the electrical signals behind him, and in order to launch a proper, defensive attack, he had to make some distance away from the ambusher. He had to get a bit more comfortable, if he was to have a fighting chance! Tim used both the flaming fins ability, and the freezing blood ability, to propel forwards, as fast as he could with this new-ish body. Apart from that, along the way, he also spammed a bunch of magical and very damaging lightning shots out of the barb of his tail, and these shots inevitably slowed the ambusher down, at least a little bit! ¡°Hehe,¡± He grinned. Tim was faster than the ambusher in this particular setting, he got lucky. Other than making an upper advantage for himself, against the ambusher, now, he also had the freedom to proceed with the next step of his counter-attack plan! It was time to face the attacker head on, which should be more effective than spamming a bunch of thunder bolts. Tim made a sharp and complete U-Turn, where he then caught a glimpse of the attacker. He could see the attacker¡¯s head, because its head was glowing, faintly. The attacker looked much like an anglerfish, a big one, even! One known fact about anglerfish was that they had a rod-like extension, which stretched out from right between their eyes. This rod had a lantern-like bulb on its other end, and this bulb, otherwise known as the lure, emitted light. Tim¡¯s attacker emitted light, that was the fact of the matter right now, and he was insistent to use this fact to his advantage! Tim shot a single bolt of lightning at the target, except this time around, his lightning shot was precise, and more intense. He didn¡¯t spam bits of thunder across the water, no, he was being very calculative! At that very moment, the system bothered him with a visual notification. She partially blocked his vision at the worst time possible, to make an announcement which wasn''t so important. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. She said, [Be weary of your mana, Timothy. You just spent 280 points of mana under ten seconds. I understand that the situation is dire, but dual-wielding your powers is twice as expensive, even now when your mana pool and mana consumption was recently halved. Be careful.] ¡°This is a horrible time to worry about mana, system. Don¡¯t bother me, I¡¯m trying to fucking survive here!¡± He exclaimed. Quite frankly, he was desperately hoping that he would survive. The idea was to kill the anglerfish on the spot, and for a split second, he forcefully believed that his plan worked. Although he didn''t see it happen, Tim believed that he had succeeded, and the anglerfish was dead. But that was not the case, he was in trouble! The anglerfish has had a countering solution as well. Tim didn¡¯t see much, because the system had spammed him with a notification at the worst time possible, but the fact of the matter was that the anglerfish had dodged that thunder bolt, effortlessly! The anglerfish had shifted its body, and turned itself into a donut-like species. This in turn, forced the thunderbolt to follow that singular path it had taken, and pass right through the anglerfish. The bolt didn¡¯t touch the anglerfish at all, not even for a microsecond! It survived, it was alive, and kicking, which in hindsight was very concerning. It was concerning, but it also confirmed the anglerfish''s identity. It was less of an anglerfish, and more of a shifter, a bubonic shifter, that is! For a brief moment, Tim wasn¡¯t even aware of the aforementioned fact, but he was in danger nonetheless. ¡°Shit,¡± He said, sharply. Tim was then scared shitless, as he saw the anglerfish do a horror-inducing performance. It shifted from that donut-like form, and seemingly upgraded itself afterwards, to become a bigger, and likely more dangerous fish, a fish that Tim may not be able to fight for too long! This was a bubonic shifter alright, there was no doubt about it, this thing was terrifying. For a moment, Tim cursed the sect members, and the system as well, because they hadn¡¯t told him how terrifying these shifters could be! He was absolutely petrified, and for a moment, he felt frozen into place. The shifter exploded in size within seconds, and during those seconds, Tim thought. ¡°The scariest part about this fucker, should¡¯ve been its nostrils, so, what the fuck is this!? This is way worse than some nose darts!¡± Tim had every right to complain, but that won¡¯t get him far. Negligence got him into trouble, and if he was to escape with his life, then he had to use every following, beating second to his advantage! He didn¡¯t have the privilege to idle around, not for long, at least. The anglerfish was now a blue octopus, which shouldn¡¯t be as terrifying in comparison, yet it was! Unlike the typical octopus which had eight arms, this octopus in front of him had twelve arms, and was about ten meters wide (with its arms included), which was double the size of the typical octopus! All-and-all, this was terrifying, because Timothy was at least five times as small in comparison, and who knows how much weaker! He was stunned, and regardless of how desperate he was for a solution, he may not swim away with his life today! He mumbled, ¡°I¡¯m fucked! My extingus breath won¡¯t protect me against this big and ugly bastard''s tentacle slaps!¡± Chapter 59 - Fully-automatic Stingray! The octopus wasn¡¯t as cruel as Tim had imagined. This thing stopped charging at him all of a sudden, for example, which was a really confusing course of action. Then, the octopus just stared at him! Tim stared back of course, and then he asked about what was on his mind. ¡°What the hell do you need fifteen arms for, man? You could kill me with like, four of them if you tried hard enough.¡± This was not the greatest time to ask such a question. Come to think of it, it never was a good idea to converse with an enemy, when both sides were so close to battling! Yet he did ask questions, quite shamelessly too. Even the bubonic shifter was confused by Tim¡¯s questions, as he appeared overconfident while he spoke! Scared folks weren¡¯t supposed to ask casual questions, it was just the natural order of things. With that considered, the shifter was enthralled, and felt really motivated to converse. This was a unique encounter without a doubt. It said, ¡°I have twelve arms, guy, not fifteen. Also, I am a woman, don¡¯t call me ¡®man¡¯ ~ It¡¯s inappropriate, and also disrespectful!¡± ¡°How the hell would I know what¡¯s between your tentacles?¡± He argued, efficiently. ¡°I can barely tell what other stingrays are, not to mention squiddy guys like you. I didn¡¯t have the slightest clue what you were, especially since you shapeshift and shit.¡± Tim made a compelling argument. One might even mistake him for a genius, even, but that was not the case. He missed a couple of grand details, and since the shifter was detail-oriented, she ended up getting really annoyed. She was pissed. ¡°I¡¯m not a squid, I¡¯m an octopus!¡± She yelled. After that point, she seemed to be getting ready for battle, she wasn¡¯t as curious anymore. They conversed enough, more than they should have, too, and with that aside, the events that were to follow were inevitable and really painful! In fact, things could play out in two ways only; Tim could either be the victor, or the victim! Throughout most of the meet and greet, Tim felt like the victim, and was sure that he was going to end up as the victim, regardless of how he countered the shifter with tactical battle plans at first. He had felt helpless! However, throughout that conversation he had with the shifter, he had bought himself both more time, and a solid opportunity as well. This opportunity could help him reign victorious! Tim picked out a way to attack, and had a good plan in mind. He targeted the other¡¯s big head, and figured that it was the best, and most vulnerable spot to strike the enemy at! To buy himself a couple more seconds of time, he casually said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for getting confused about what you are, miss octopus, it won¡¯t happen again...¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Just like that, Tim bought himself more time, quite successfully. The fact that he was casual about his apology, was very off putting. The other was confused, and Tim then used this confusion to launch a virtually unavoidable attack! He unleashed several fireballs, from the very tip of the barb on the end of his tail. The fireballs were ruthless, and effective! They were effective, for two very simple reasons. The shifter had been too close to him up until a moment ago, and also, unlike a thunderbolt, fireballs were much harder to avoid. Tim overwhelmed the shifter in less than a second, and afterwards, he continued to shoot balls of fire, for about five whole seconds! Throughout this time bracket, he had shot forty fireballs, and had hit the target¡¯s humongous head, about thirty times. Tim had been quick, and one may even consider him a fully automatic stingray, as he was quite the shooter, with an impeccably fast firing-rate! With all of that considered, there was no denying the fact that he reigned victorious! Be it by luck or skill alone, he still won! The shifter¡¯s noggin was both blown into bits and burned into a crisp. A second later, the system had something to say, so she added. [Your fighting method was really interesting, Timothy. You harassed, confused, irritated and killed the shifter, all in under a single minute. Your method was admirable, but it still cost you a full 200 points of mana. Be cautious with how you spend your mana, because you only have a bit over 2,500 mana points left in you, and although that sounds like plenty right now, that doesn¡¯t mean that your points are infinite. Caution is key!] The advice she gave was solid, however, Timothy¡¯s eyesight was still coated by the wall of fire that burned in front of him, so he barely heard what the system said. His attention was engulfed by the fire, and he wasn¡¯t the best multitasker either, which was why he had ignored the system almost completely. It took him a minute to figure out that he reigned victorious, as he hadn¡¯t been so attentive. However, when he realized that he had killed the other, he felt happy, and a bit sad too! The bubonic shifter had sounded like an intelligent lady, she didn¡¯t deserve to die the way she did, however, it was also a fact that she forced his hand, or fins. If he hadn¡¯t killed the shifter, then the shifter would¡¯ve killed him, so it really was an eat or get eaten situation! Since he was really hungry too, he¡¯d rather do the eating instead of the other way around. While the wall of fire diminished in front of him, he saw the shifter¡¯s blown up head. It was graphic, but the scene managed to relieve him a little bit. He mumbled, ¡°Well, she¡¯s dead, really dead. At least I didn¡¯t get shot with a nostril dot or something¡­ I won, and I didn¡¯t get infected with the plague either, so maybe the murder of smart fish isn¡¯t that bad¡­?¡± Tim didn¡¯t remember if he was supposed to eat the shifter, as it had bubonic in its name. He didn¡¯t remember if the system specifically mentioned this part or not, but regardless of that fact, he decided to take the risk. If he didn¡¯t eat anything immediately, he may die anyway, and with that considered, he started chewing on the shifter¡¯s torched head. ¡°Mmm¡­ fried squid!¡± He celebrated, and continued to chow on the shifter. Then, the system came along with another announcement, she said. [Congratulations Timothy! Aside from the point-oriented awards, you also won over a fraction of the shifter¡¯s abilities!] Chapter 60 - "Ill never be a seagull!" ¡°A fraction? What does ¡®fraction¡¯ mean?¡± He asked. Tim was in no condition to think. It wasn¡¯t easy to escape two deadly threats at once (the other being hunger), and with that considered, it wasn¡¯t a surprise that his mind was absolutely scrambled right now. He felt burned out. The system never felt tired, however. She was far more superior than a computer, and therefore, the work she did was tireless. For that matter, she was quick to come up with an answer, she was sharp! She said, [A ¡®fraction¡¯ means that it¡¯s a tiny portion. Specifically, you only absorbed a tiny portion of the shifter¡¯s powers. The shifter was far stronger than you, in terms of mana quality and although you killed a much stronger opponent, it doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯re strong enough to absorb all of its powers, you won¡¯t be able to shapeshift as greatly or efficiently. I hope that makes sense to you.] ¡°It does make sense, and it also doesn¡¯t. How was I able to kill a stronger guy¡­ erg, girl?¡± He followed along. [Luck, I suppose? You must remember that better mana quality doesn¡¯t necessarily equal profound, bodily durability. The shifter was likely soft-skinned, which would explain why she was avoiding those thunderbolts like the plague, she was really scared of getting hit. Distracting her with your nonsensical rambling, bought you the greatest advantage imaginable for a guy of your level. Not to forget, you did hit her forty times!] She said. ¡°Haha, stupid squid!¡± He giggled, while he had a bunch of food in his mouth, and after that, he said. ¡°So that¡¯s why she needed fifteen arms then, huh? She wanted to scare me, cuz she wasn¡¯t the shit, she was just shit. Scaring other fish half-to-death was probably the only way she managed to kill stuff.¡± The system was surprised that Tim picked up on that, for once, he really put things into perspective. However, as unusual as his insight was, this wasn¡¯t the time to praise him. Tim was barely conscious, so there was no point in talking to him all that much. Instead, the system remained quiet. She only started speaking again after thirty minutes, when Tim had recovered from his hunger-driven exhaustion a little bit. He ate some food, and the protein within the food was helping him become both stronger, and more attentive, his body responded well to it. He wasn¡¯t half dead anymore, he was doing well, and therefore was able to talk. The system made a little announcement afterwards, she said. [I¡¯m glad you¡¯re back, Timothy, as I have some statistics to share with you. The shifter you killed was both rare, powerful, and inherently evil, so the reward for killing it is great. You won 1,500 system points just for killing it!] Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Damn! That¡¯s probably the most points I got from a single kill.¡± He celebrated. [Correct!] She said, and then added. [Furthermore, you earned an additional 400 system points thanks to the same kill. Task number 8 encouraged the slaughter of the shifter, so you won the associated award, congratulations! In total, you¡¯ve accumulated 2,163 system points.] Tim felt happy that he bounced back, point-wise, but he didn¡¯t pay too much attention to the wealth that he had accumulated. He didn¡¯t care enough, because of two solid reasons. The first reason was that he knew how expensive each future upgrade was. He had only bought two purchases from the bundle of seven, and had been broke for a while as a result. He needed thousands of more system points if he was to progress properly, and this was a sour fact! The second reason why he wasn¡¯t minding the points all that much, was because he was focused on the interesting topic of shapeshifting. Shapeshifting was going to help him immensely soon, because it would allow him to find a soul tampering cave, out there on the dry lands! Finding such a cave would be a highlight of this new life, and if he was to reap its benefits, his personal arsenal may increase thoroughly! He¡¯d be one of the greatest fish out there, without a doubt. With all of that considered, his next couple of questions were predictable, he followed along. ¡°Okay, system, thanks for all the points! Now will you tell me more about shapeshifting? Give me some good news, please. Will I be able to turn into a human?¡± [No,] She answered bluntly. Tim¡¯s life goal was to be human again, even if a wizardly one. He''d even be happy if he shapeshifted into something that resembled humans, like an ape, or a goblin, he''d be over the moon in joy! This was the most important life goal he had, as he didn¡¯t want to be a fish forever. No one would, even the other fish, they had such great aspirations. This was his life goal, however, the system insisted otherwise! She said, [You only absorbed a fraction of the bubonic shifter¡¯s powers, I mentioned this before. The powers you¡¯ve absorbed are pretty weak, and since the quality level (2) of your mana isn¡¯t that great either, you can¡¯t shapeshift into anything bigger or greater than yourself. You can shapeshift into a shrimp for example, a spider, or even a seagull, but a human? Absolutely not!] ¡°Well shit!¡± He complained, ¡°No power in the world will convince me to turn into a seagull, no, never! I¡¯ll be a spider, a very cool one!¡± [A cold spider? I don¡¯t think those things exist.] The system followed along, as she took the other¡¯s words very literally. What followed along was a ten-minute debate, regarding what Timothy should shapeshift into. He had plenty of ideas, but at the end, he was convinced to shift into an average, not-so-cool spider. Tim felt devastated that he couldn¡¯t turn into a palm sized, super venomous spider, but at some point, he made his peace with this crippling disadvantage. He had to be an average spider, for the sake of cooperation, so no, he won¡¯t be venomous at all. Anyway, as he swam towards the surface, in order to search for some dry land, the system mentioned a couple of conditions to him along the way. She explained that the moment Tim turned into a spider, a bunch of statistics of his, including powers, were to decrease, and to minimize. The science behind it was confusing, but basically, if he wasn¡¯t careful, then he could die due to the most random reasons, like getting stepped on, for example, because he wouldn''t be powerful enough to protect himself. This made him furious, so he mumbled to himself. ¡°So this is what a fraction means, huh? I can¡¯t do shit!¡± Chapter 61 - "Three-inch Spider!" Tim was an explorative guy, by nature, his soul craved it. However, today those explorative senses of his were beaten down and abused. In the search for land, he had been slapped shitless by the ocean waves, who refused to cooperate with him. He was near the ocean shores, which meant that the waves could be more violent once in a while. He was flipped around like a pancake, tens of times, as his body seemingly wasn''t designed to browse the ocean surface, out here near the shores, not at all! Things were tough, but at least the trip he took wasn¡¯t entirely bad. The coral reef below him, for example, had softened up the intensity of the waves, at least for a little while, and this gave him some peace. The reef was complex enough to protect the ocean shores from tougher waves, which was beneficial to him, but this itself hadn¡¯t been enough to tame Tim¡¯s scrambled nerves. In fact, other than helping him, the reef also irritated him. The reef was huge, so it had taken a while to cross it. The waters were calmer while he crossed the reef, yes, but he still had to travel a great distance just to cross it, and this itself was a very annoying, and bland experience! The ocean shores were right after the reef''s outskirts, but the damage was already done, he was really annoyed! ¡°Rainbow ass reef,¡± He had cussed, often, and complained. ¡°I feel like I''m swimming through unicorn piss.¡± Aside from those obstacles, Tim had also been out hunting on the open seas, just a couple of hours ago, and this was another obstacle on its own. He had been far away from his new home, as a start, which stretched his trip towards the shores even further! It wasn''t fun. He had to swim a lot, for about five kilometers, to be precise, and things started getting more complicated as he approached the shores as well. In bleak comparison, the shallow waters were even more treacherous! The shallow waters were treacherous, because the area they covered was massive. For example, he had to swim half a kilometer through two-meter deep waters, exclusively, just to inch closer to the shoreline! This was annoying, because the waves were both pushing him forwards and pulling him backwards! He spun around like a WW2 warplane. It wasn¡¯t either fun or easy for him to manage this part of the journey, so he cursed about seventy-two times along the way, as a result! Then, he had to swim another two-hundred meters, through extremely shallow waters as well, waters which were less than a foot deep. He had to swim slowly through this area, just to be more safe, and this was nerve-wracking! ¡°Stupid water,¡± He cussed. Tim then got beached, finally, and as mentioned, he had put a lot of effort in to do so. That aside, he had also maxed out his hunger bar as well, two hours prior, so this trip had been anything but comfortable. The waves have quite literally forced the shit out of him along the way, and also, he had felt like a bloated cow throughout at least half of the trip! It was no picnic. He was extremely irritated, so come to think of it, it was a good thing that he couldn¡¯t shapeshift into anything venomous. If he bore venom, then he¡¯d be in trouble, because he was angry enough to fight anything in sight! That itself may kill him. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Anyway, after he beached himself on the ocean¡¯s sandy shoreline, he thought. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that the sand here is more comfortable than the fucking water, I feel all toasty! Hmm¡­ I need to remind myself not to eat another shifter, ever. That was the most empty, shallow meat I ever ate, I feel like I ate a bunch of fucking milk cartons! One-star meal, nothing more, she doesn¡¯t deserve a better rating! Eh, I¡¯m sure she won¡¯t be mad about this lone, single star I gave her, hehe.¡± [Focus, Timothy.] The system interrupted him, and then pressured. [You¡¯re beached, so you have just another minute to shift, or else you¡¯ll suffocate. Don¡¯t idle around.] ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s why I¡¯m feeling all snug?¡± He thought. Anyway, he then summoned the shapeshifting powers that he had recently acquired. It took little effort to summon these powers, because since they belonged to him now, he could summon them through a couple of thoughts alone, nothing more. Once he summoned them, Tim¡¯s bones started crackling. He hadn¡¯t shapeshifted yet, but it felt as if this new power was waiting for a command from his side. About ten seconds later, Tim felt as if he was a puddle; He was in a sub-liquid state now, and therefore, he couldn¡¯t move, not at all! ¡°Okay¡­ I want to turn into a spider, with all the legs and shit. Erg, I can¡¯t be palm-sized, so, make me as small as the palm of a baby human¡¯s. That¡¯s a reasonable wish, right?¡± He thought, and then his train of thoughts, turned into a whole command. The shapeshifting magical ability he had acquired, had seemingly listened to him, it was attentive. With that considered, Tim¡¯s request was granted almost immediately! Thankfully, this shapeshifting process wasn¡¯t painful. The benefit of being in a sub-liquid state, was that he couldn¡¯t feel any pain, regardless of what happened, because his nervous system was quite numb as well throughout that time-bracket, it had to be numb. He stopped breathing as well, which sounded alarming, but it was actually a blessing, because the lack of breath wasn¡¯t bothering him all of a sudden. This shapeshifting power he stole was effective! Anyway, within a period of five minutes, Tim¡¯s bodily size reduced significantly. He assumed the size of a three-inch wide spider, which may appear huge to some, and it was huge in the right context, however, in this context, he had assumed the size of a mostly harmless spider. Tim had felt really weird when the form that he assumed started getting more detailed, because at that point he had shifted into a more solid form. He felt weird just there, because he heard a lot of crackling sounds, as if spiders had bones to crackle or something. He heard a lot of noises that he didn¡¯t want to hear throughout the process, but the results of the detailing session were worth boasting about, even if it took him almost ten minutes to shapeshift. He had been slow, but indefinitely successful! He really looked like a spider now, he had eight legs and all. Sure he wasn¡¯t venomous, but as far as facts were concerned, he now was free and ready to browse the dry lands! He beached himself over here, to find a soul tampering cave for himself to progress in, and that¡¯s exactly what he planned to do, even if he had to eat bugs and shoot webs out of his bum for weeks at a time. He was determined to progress! Tim was determined, because this was perhaps the easiest thing he had to do in this new life. His first impression was that life should be a lot easier, as a spider, which was what super-fueled his motivation. He felt unstoppable, because in theory, mere spiders should have a lot less challenges thrown against them, in comparison to what he had experienced so far, as a stingray. He felt ready, and thought. ¡°I¡¯ll find that cave, no matter what. Let someone try and stop me, I¡¯ll put my leg here up and through a thousand flies¡¯ asses if I have to!¡± Chapter 62 - "Scared of Seagulls!" Tim Was very self-motivated for once. Such a feeling was rare for the likes of him, because he was usually motivated by fear, rather than such an indomitable progressive will. It was a new feeling, and he was willing to chase its euphoric highs for as long as it was physically possible. He urged to do so! Physics may be his biggest enemy throughout the following few days, come to think of it, and the reason behind this conclusion was obvious, he was a spider! Spiders weren''t quite heavy, not at all, and Tim was an anorexic spider, too, which although it sounded hilarious in certain contexts, it still served the prior point; He was very light, and perhaps vulnerable too! Now there were certain physical disadvantages when it came to being a spider, even when things weren''t going wrong. In this case, things were going very wrong at the very beginning, because Tim was a wet spider! The ocean waves had hit him a couple of times ever since he shapeshifted, and those same waves almost killed him too, but he managed to survive. The present, post-survival disadvantage, was that his slender, medium-length legs were collecting a bunch of sand. The waves that splashed on him had made him all sticky! This was a problem, because all that extra fatigue he burnt by dragging all that sand around, was alarming. It was too much for an itsy-bitsy spider, such as himself to handle! After he crawled through the sand for about two whole meters, which to him felt like half of the Sahara Desert in comparison, Tim then couldn¡¯t help cursing out loud, aggressively! He yapped, ¡°Fucking hell, stupid, piss-stained sand! I was a stingray two minutes ago, sand isn''t supposed to be my enemy, for fuck''s sake! I was more scared of lizards or some shit, but sand?! Fuck this!¡± The anger he felt, had nibbled at his fatigue as much as the sand, if not more. With that considered, he was forced to take a break. His indomitable will got slightly dominated, so he had to put everything to a pause, at least until he dried up. However, he felt vulnerable resting out here in the open, because for all he knew, those seagulls that he loathed so much, may swoop in along the shoreline, and then eat him alive. It was possible, he was an insect, after all. Since he felt vulnerable, he decided to use the very thing he cursed out so vividly up until a moment ago, which was sand! ¡°Pissy, fucking sand¡­¡± He cussed. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Tim wanted to cover himself with sand, to both avoid predators, and dry up a little bit. His theory was that sand wouldn¡¯t stick on him forever, especially if the glaring sun shone above him for long enough, so this seemed like the best thing to do, it was the best idea. At the very least, he¡¯d be a lot less threatened by both the environment, and any potential predators in the vicinity. With all of that considered, he followed through with his plan. Tim used his eight spider legs to cover himself with sand, and although the motion seemed unfamiliar to him, in this insect form, he still managed to bury himself properly, a couple of inches deep, at least. After he did so, the mild temperature of the sand felt very comforting, it felt like home! ¡°Ahh¡­¡± He sighed, ¡°That¡¯s nice. As much as I hated it two fucking seconds ago, I¡¯m supposed to be close to sand. It¡¯s nature and shit, it¡¯s natural for me.¡± It was no surprise that he felt more comfortable now, after burying himself in sand. Tim was a spider now, yes, but he was no stranger to such methods, as he had been a stingray for weeks now, so he knew how to make the sand work to his advantage. Tim had hours to spare, even, as he had shapeshifted to a spider with a full belly, so his idea was clever, and efficient! Anyway, he didn¡¯t really have to wait long in order to dry up. It took him less than thirty minutes to get back into a top, and mobile shape. The sand had felt like a weighted blanket too, so he had almost fallen asleep in the process, he had been comfortable, and had calmed down quite a lot as a result. As long as anything didn¡¯t irritate him along the way, he was ready to stride the dry land, subtly, with a calm demeanor. Tim shook off most of the sand off of himself, at the very moment when he crawled forward. The water on his back and legs had dried off already, so it was near impossible for the sand to stick on him for more than a few seconds. Tim was free, and he managed to make quite some distance this time around. Well, it was a decent distance for a little guy like him! He managed to crawl for ten whole meters, and every bundle of steps he took, fueled him with motivation to move even further. The excitement was helping him regain that euphoric high that he had experienced recently, it was a wonderful feeling, and it just may help him find a soul tampering cave soon enough. Tim was itching to be successful with the task that the system had given him! Furthermore, the fresh air he was breathing also motivated him a lot! It wasn¡¯t that this air was pure enough to cure an illness or something like that, no, it was just normal, breathable air. However, the air reminded Tim of his humanity, and this was a really important, and wonderful feeling! Tim was a human before he reincarnated into this magical world. Regardless of the circumstances he found himself in across this world, he yearned to be human once more, so this air that he breathed, made him feel normal again, it made him feel whole! He almost cried. ¡°Ahh¡­¡± He sighed, ¡°Nothing can beat what fresh air feels like. I¡¯m meant to be human, and nothing less, and that¡¯s exactly what I¡¯ll be. The gods can throw all of their wise punishment on me if they want, I don¡¯t give a shit, even they won¡¯t be able to stop me! I will be a fucking human again! Erg, or a little goblin at least? I just want to have feet.¡± Chapter 63 - "Spider Wizard" Tim wanted to be a human again, he craved to be one as soon as possible! However, for the time being, he was an itsy-bitsy spider, and like most spiders, he was very vulnerable to all sorts of danger! Aside from that, he also had certain limitations now, power-wise. His arsenal of power had been severely weakened at the very moment when he turned into a spider! The system started getting into detail about the matter, as best as she could. While Tim strode forward and across the sand, she unraveled a bundle of information, in a computersized manner. She called for attention, [I respect your aspirations, Timothy, however, let us get back to reality for a while. Your current statistical, and or arsenal-oriented capabilities are the following¡­] [Health Bar = 32/32] [Hunger Bar =11/12] [Sleep&Stamina Bar = 10/16] [Mana Pool = 120/120] ¡°Well shit! Looks like I gotta go ninja-mode for a while, because at this rate, I can¡¯t risk running into something as little as a cricket, it¡¯s not safe! Gotta protect my fuzzy, blue, and manky ass.¡± He thought. [You¡¯re not that vulnerable,] The system followed along, and then she added. [This spider body has set a lot of limitations on you, yes, but a couple of abilities still work to your favor. For example, since you bought two bodily-durability upgrades before, your body, even now, is 240% more durable than the average spider of your species, and size. You¡¯re a blue-dotted spider, yes, but a really durable one, you won¡¯t die that easily.] [Furthermore, your mana quality remains at level 2. You bear rustic mana, and that won¡¯t change, even if you shapeshifted into an ant! With that considered, you can destroy plenty of insects, with these powers of yours! Though not all of them, you¡¯ll fare well against at least half of any opposing insects.] She added. Timothy felt a bit relieved after he heard that, but the statistics were still stressing him out. There was a bit of math involved, so he couldn¡¯t help but express his frustration as a form of protest! He said, ¡°Things were already confusing with all the shapeshifting madness, system, now you¡¯re telling me that I¡¯m a tensile spider¡­ I love being tough, but I really can¡¯t understand the math here. Can a human flatten me with their foot, or not?¡± [Likely, yes.] She answered, and then emphasized. [However, tiny lizards won¡¯t be able to kill you, for example, as they don¡¯t have enough of a bite-force to break through your cuticle (skin). Seagulls on the other hand, they could kill you, yes, but the density of your body could choke them if they tried to eat your remains.] Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°I¡¯d die peacefully, if I knew that I choked a stupid seagull.¡± He thought, and after that point, he didn¡¯t bother asking any more questions. Tim had looked at the rest of the statistics, and for the most part, he didn¡¯t care what the other statistics had to show. He knew that he was a semi-dangerous spider, and he also felt comfortable that he could use the power-deflecting, extingus breath as well if he had to, even as a spider. That fact gave him quite a bit of comfort, so he ignored the rest of the statistics entirely. Tim then continued to travel. He crawled for what felt like an eternity, and finally escaped the shorelines, or at least, he escaped the sand. Now, he had to make his way through whole patches of grass, and although that sounded like a task that was less daunting, the patch of grass¡¯ size was virtually endless for a little guy like him! It was a new challenge, but as far as facts were concerned, it may take him a while to find a soul tampering cave, as the odds weren¡¯t really working in his favor. It may take him a long time to find such a cave, however, he was bound to find a bunch of other, less decent things along the way, like other insects, for example. It was inevitable, so that was exactly what he ran into, about twenty minutes after he pierced the grassy fields! The grass was pretty tall too, tall for him, at least. The grass was two-to-three feet tall, and it was very maze-like. It had many twists and turns, and such a layout proved to be quite dangerous! Tim was consistently blind sided by all the grassy turns, and then suddenly, he was pounced on by a very dangerous ant. The attack scared him to the core, because he couldn¡¯t have predicted it whatsoever! He took a moment to respond. ¡°Ouch!¡± He yelped, and used his eight spidery legs to leap out of danger. [Health, -2 points.] The system then announced. ¡°Oh great! I got bit by that headass, ugly, bastarding ant!¡± He cursed afterwards. Tim then noticed that the opposing ant had bit him a bit above the shoulderline, which was really painful to deal with, however, he was thankfully still in one piece. The ant didn¡¯t even manage to break through his skin, as Tim¡¯s bodily durability was strong enough to resist an ant¡¯s bite. However, that didn¡¯t mean that he was out of danger entirely. Even though he survived a single bite, his sudden opponent was still pretty dangerous. Tim had to face a massive, two-inch long, and very agile, red-bellied ant! Tim wasn¡¯t an expert, but he guessed that any creature that had a red belly was incredibly dangerous! The situation got even more intense, when another handful of these ants suddenly appeared from every side. Now, Tim had to be quick enough to avoid several monstrous ants, whose nature was to tirelessly chase, and tear their prey apart! It was no picnic. ¡°Bastards!¡± He cussed. Afterwards, he was forced to depend on his powers. Tim summoned a fireball, and then shot it against the closest target he could find! Thankfully, he managed to make a very accurate shot. As a stingray, he was used to summoning these fireballs from the tip of his tail, but this time around, he had to direct his powers through other means. The fireball didn¡¯t shoot out of his rectum, thankfully no, but it generated on the tip of his front legs instead. Then, Tim summoned a couple more fireballs, and set some of the grass ablaze as a result, after he unleashed them. He seemed like a crazy wizard for a second, however, instead of waving any human arms around, he was waving his slender, spidery arms around instead! ¡°Burn, you flappy footed motherfuckers!¡± He shouted, diabolically. Chapter 64 - Devilish Ants! Tim was in a lot of trouble, for multiple reasons, and on top of that, he also felt incredibly disturbed! He noticed that unlike any other insects that he had seen before, these ants that were attacking him, had feet! Now of course these feet weren''t as full and as detailed as the feet of a human''s, but it was disturbing enough nonetheless, when he saw that their legs bent outwards near the very tip of their legs, it was odd. These red bellied ants had feet, each and everyone of them, and he didn¡¯t know how to feel about that. On top of feeling disturbed, he was irritated as well. ¡°This is why they run around so fucking fast,¡± He thought, and then pouted. ¡°Why didn''t I get a pair of flappy feet? I need a pair. They sure as hell would''ve gotten me out of that sand quicker, I almost died there!¡± There was a lot to think about here, however, he didn¡¯t have the luxury to pause and complain about things, not for long, at least. Tim was still being hunted by these ants, regardless of how he killed one of their friends. That aside, he had also set the grass around him ablaze, and on a hot and sunny day, this was the dumbest thing to do! Tim was just a little spider, so when the fire picked up in volume, he felt as if he was stuck between a bunch of huge, burning skyscrapers! There had also been a tiny amount of dry hay lying around within the grass, and this hay managed to expand the fire drastically. With all of that considered, he was in no position to idle around! Tim dashed through the grass, as fast as he could, and just hoped that he wouldn¡¯t run into any other insects along the way. This was the best he could do, he could only run. When Tim shapeshifted into a spider, he had imagined that other insects would be really easy to kill, but he was mistaken. Much like any other human, he hadn¡¯t expected to run into gigantic ants, he couldn¡¯t have predicted that. It took a lot of effort to kill these ants too. Tim had to set all of the grass around him to a blaze, in order to hurt and or kill them. The tagalong risk factors were intense, he almost died himself, and the damage he caused wasn¡¯t significant either. He ¡®sedated¡¯ some of his attackers for good, yes, but the damage he caused wasn''t nearly enough. The system confirmed this, as she added. [You¡¯ve successfully killed three devilish ants. Typically this kind of kill wouldn¡¯t get you any points at all, on the count of how insignificant these ants are, but since these ants were exceptionally powerful for their species, your cumulative reward for killing them is twenty system points. Congratulations!] What the system said, would¡¯ve been good news if Tim had the tactical advantage in this situation, but he didn¡¯t. He was running for his life, and so far, he only killed as many ants as he could, that amount being just three; He couldn¡¯t wipe all of them out at once, no. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The danger he was in wasn''t going to end anytime soon, and such life-threatening danger wasn¡¯t worth twenty points, definitely not. Tim didn¡¯t care about the reward, and instead, he¡¯d be far happier if he wasn¡¯t dodging flaming bits of grass right now, he''d be over the moon! Furthermore, he thought to himself. ¡°I killed a couple of big bad bullies, huh? Big deal, this isn''t a high school drama damn it, and I''m not trying to be a hero. This is bullshit!¡± Tim thought so, but in actuality, he was dedicated to kill his opponents as quickly as possible, he had to kill them all, regardless of how many disadvantages he had. He was running away from danger, yes, but he didn¡¯t even have to face his opponents in order to harm them. Eight legs came in handy, that was a simple fact. He slowed down once in a while, and shot fireballs out of his hindlegs, just for the grand purpose of setting everything to a blaze! He was stoked when he realized that he could shoot fire out of his hindlegs, as it was advantageous, and he found it a bit funny too, but those legs served their purpose. He created wall after wall of fire for the enemies to run into! Tim created a hostile environment, even at the expense of his own safety, but damn did this method work well. Those devilish ants were big and scary, yes, but they weren''t so smart, so they kept running into the fiery grass, and died along the way. He killed more ants than he had initially counted. The system helped him realize that, as at some point she announced. [Congratulations, you killed 12 more devilish ants. Since those ants were equally huge and powerful as the last few ants that you killed, you get a decent reward, 80 more system points, to be exact. It''s not the greatest amount of system points, but you just killed a bunch of ants, after all, it isn''t anything worth mentioning in a tavern.] ¡°Right,¡± He nodded along, but in actuality he couldn¡¯t care less about the points. Tim was just happy that he escaped such radiant danger in one piece. He had seemingly killed all of those vicious ants too, so he felt more than relieved as he crawled away from the fiery grass! The system was equally indifferent to what the other had to say, so she shamelessly spammed another notification in front of his eyes. It wasn''t like anyone could stop her. [You''ve accumulated a total of 2,263 system points, congratulations!] She said. ¡°Yeah yeah,¡± He sighed, and also added. ¡°It''s not like I''m gonna buy any upgrades anytime soon, I''m a spider.¡± The system didn''t bother to argue with him, which was a blessing in disguise, because he could focus his attention on the world around him more, rather than getting distracted by her. He had to pay attention, because even though he made a good distance away from the huge fire, he still hadn''t escaped danger entirely. Tim climbed on top of a flower, in order to observe the surroundings better. While he was up there, he saw a bundle of creatures, who looked a lot like fireflies. Except, there was one problem, fireflies weren''t supposed to be out and about in the middle of the day. Even if they were, would anyone really notice the light that they emitted from their tiny bum? Their light shouldn''t be so radiant! ¡°Ah shit,¡± Tim panicked, once he noticed that the ¡®fireflies¡¯ were heading his way! Chapter 65 - Devilish Ants, reborn! [Before you go mental on those fireflies, you should know that you¡¯ve spent 10 mana points already. That¡¯s a lot for a little guy like you, do I have to keep reminding you? Be careful with how you spend your mana, please.] The system scolded him. Tim looked at the ¡®fireflies¡¯ in the meantime, the same ones who soared above the grass, and as he watched them approach, he couldn¡¯t help getting nervous. He also ignored the system entirely, as this was not the time to be greedy or cautious with his points! He had to survive! Tim then looked down at the circle of grassy ashes, the very graveyard-like pit that he had caused. It was a foot away in front of him, and as he looked at it, he couldn¡¯t help but piece a certain puzzle together. He guessed that the intense fire that he caused was what attracted these specific fireflies! It was a firm theory, and it made him really nervous, so he thought. ¡°Look at them go! I¡¯d be damned if they were here to have a picnic, those bastards want fried, spider meat in their diet! I know it!¡± With that considered, as the fireflies swiftly approached, they forced his hand in exchange, or foot, in this case. In the means of self defense, he summoned a couple of bolts of thunder at the very tip of his front legs, and then he bent those legs upwards as much as he could, just to aim properly. Then, he shot the bolts forwards! The thunderbolts beamed above the grass and hit one of the fireflies in an instant, the collision was swift! He saw the target go down and crash like a little meteor, and as the target¡¯s lumenus body diminished, he guessed that the shot he took was effective! However, his attacks did not repel the five other ¡®fireflies¡¯ in the vicinity, he didn¡¯t frighten them. In fact, they flew towards him even faster now, which was very alarming! Tim, in response, shot out several bolts of lightning against them, in complete disregard for his mana. He didn¡¯t care if he ran out of that stuff, he had to survive! Furthermore, he guessed. ¡°These fuckers are gonna try to set the grass on fire, and I¡¯ll be damned if I run across a fiery patch of grass again, that¡¯s far more dangerous than facing these motherfuckers! I¡¯m not fucking running, this ends here!¡± With that kind of fire in his belly, he was destined to win, the enemies got overwhelmed shortly, most of them at least. He kept shooting thunderbolts at them! Then, he shot at a single firefly who had survived the prior storm of thunder that he had opposed against them, and the battle ended there. The offensive he took was successful, at some point he could even see an x-ray version of their insides, his thunderbolts were that effective! Their bodies were complex too, but they dropped like flies nonetheless! [Congratulations, you won.] The system said, but a sarcastic undertone hid behind her words. [Your way of fighting was very efficient, well, not really. You used up another 15 of your mana points, but you survived, so I guess your high-spender nature is okay, kind of?] You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Yes, I did survive.¡± He followed along, and his legs unclenched the flower which he had climbed on. Then, he asked. ¡°What were those fiery motherfuckers anyway?¡± [Devilish ants, Timeeth.] She answered, [They¡¯re called devilish for a reason. Fire can kill them, yes, but in the event where these ants get burned alive, they get reborn, instantly, as sub-phantom beings. They¡¯re not immortal, as you discovered, but in that form, they¡¯re a lot more advanced, and dangerous!] ¡°Oh, that¡¯s fantastic!¡± He remarked, in a sarcastic tone. Tim became sarcastic as a natural response, because he was stressed. He was stressed, because he just realized that he hadn¡¯t even ¡®re-killed¡¯ half of the devilish ants out there, which meant that more fireflies were to rise from their ashes soon! He hadn¡¯t expected this at all, so he had let his guard down for a couple of minutes, he hadn¡¯t been expecting any threats. Then, all of a sudden, he was surrounded by a bunch of fireflies. He had been in an aloof state for a couple of minutes, but now he was in a really awkward and dangerous position! Tim couldn¡¯t escape, as the fireflies had surrounded him and were staring him down. Since he was up on a flower, the fireflies had snuck up on him from below, and gained the aforementioned advantage! ¡°Youch!¡± He then screamed. The flower he was on, had apparently been set ablaze already, and the fire had gotten to him. Unlike what his blue, cool-looking rump would suggest, Tim, as a spider, was very vulnerable to fire. He wasn¡¯t fire resistant, so he jumped up a little bit just to avoid the burning sensation below him! Then, out of desperation, he summoned the extingus breath ability. It was summonable by thought alone, and its use was fit for the situation he was in. Tim blew this special breath of his against the fire, and extinguished a part of the said fire. He ended up falling off of the flower, and got a bit burned along the way, but he survived. [Health, -9 points.] The system then announced. That looked like a big loss, health-wise, but it could¡¯ve been worse. Tim was a vulnerable spider, and if his bodily durability had been any weaker, he would¡¯ve been dead for sure! He was lucky to drop down from that tall flower, in one piece. Anyway, as he fell down, he pierced through all the fire with his extingus breath ability, and made a mostly safe passage for himself. This power was free for him to use, as deflective powers inherently belonged to stingrays, however, he didn¡¯t really care about mana right now. He escaped the fireflies by a whim, but that kind of luck may not last him forever. Nine fireflies were on the chase, and it so happens that they could shoot out some kind of fireball too. With that considered, there were waves of fireballs falling down from above him, this happened only seconds later, and this was a situation that he had specifically tried to avoid! ¡°Fuck fuck fuck!¡± Tim panicked, as he tried his best to dodge the fireballs. The magic deflecting, extingus breath he had, had thankfully gone through an elemental upgrade before. This meant that the blue mist he unleashed was more effective against the fire, but although that may be really helpful right now, there still were nine shooters in the air. He couldn¡¯t run away from them forever! Chapter 66 - "Risen from the ashes!" Tim beamed through the grass, in a desperate attempt to escape those fireflies. He didn¡¯t want to get burned again, because he feared that this time around he''d burn his legs off, and a spider without legs was a dead spider! He didn¡¯t want to end up like that, so he ran as fast as he could. In sync with his train of thought for once, the system then interrupted him slightly, and asked a question. [If you¡¯re so scared about losing health, why don¡¯t you just spend a few mana points in health regeneration? It¡¯s expensive, because you¡¯re practically trading mana in exchange for health, but it¡¯s your best option in a situation like this.] ¡°I¡¯d rather not get hit at all,¡± He thought. Tim was being difficult, but the system did give him a relative idea. He wasn''t planning to regenerate his health anytime soon, but since he had some mana to spend, he might as well spend it all for the sake of survival. Rather than health-regeneration, he decided to rely on some other powers that he was familiar with. Tim wanted to try if the flaming fins ability worked out here, on dry land! It wasn¡¯t supposed to work, as spiders didn¡¯t really have any fins to set ablaze. However, he was really desperate, so he decided to give it a shot! Tim summoned the ability, and then, he found himself running across the grass at an uncomfortable speed. He could barely see anything in front of him, but he may not need to see stuff either. His legs had adapted that flaming color, and its explosive heat too, so he was slicing through all the grass roots effortlessly! This field didn¡¯t stand a chance. With all of that said, it was now certain that the flaming fins ability also worked on spiders! His legs were steaming with power, to the point where he ran twice as fast, in comparison to how fast he moved just moments ago! He outran them. ¡°Ah¡­¡± He then sighed in relief. Tim made it a good two meters away from the fireflies, and from the destruction that they were causing. He decided to rest, and hide within an earthy bunch of pulled, grass roots. This spot should be safe enough. Then, he thought to himself. ¡°I got shit under control now, thank god¡­ but, do I keep running away, or do I fight those bastards?¡± In hindsight, it sounded stupid to fight nine power-amped sub-phantoms, but then again, Timothy wasn¡¯t the sharpest tool in the shed either. He bore a version of natural stupidity, and unreasonable bravery, which encouraged him to try something stupid. He was motivated by the idea of dimming the light that those fireflies radiated, and felt obligated to chase this idea, regardless of the circumstances that he had. With that considered, he decided. ¡°Fuck it, I''ll kill them. It''s not like I''m not in constant danger anyway, so what''s a couple more risks? I''ll take my chances! Besides, those bastards remembered my face, I think? As long as I''m a spider, they''ll probably gonna chase me everywhere I go.¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Tim had made out his mind, no doubt about it. It seemed as if he was trying to reason with himself there, and his thought might be making sense, but the underlying reason behind his idea was simply stupid. He was vengeful, and that''s all there was to it. Tim then buried himself in the dirt, right below the bundle of roots that he was hiding in. He did so quite efficiently, because he had eight legs, after all, and he used those to throw a bunch of dirt over himself. Then, he thought. ¡°Now, I wait.¡± It may seem uncharacteristic for him to be calm and patient, but when certain situations demanded it, he could perform. He was a stingray just moments ago, after all, so a part of his instincts still encouraged him to bury himself, and then ambush prey or enemies. For the average stingray, that was the best way to get food! Old habits die hard. Anyway, he didn¡¯t have to wait long in order to experience some action. Grass was very flammable, especially if there were portions of dry hay sprinkled in it. The fireflies set everything ablaze, and they didn''t do so randomly either, they had reasons, they too had revenge in mind! The fire reached Tim pretty quickly. His hiding spot was almost compromised as a result, but he refused to give up. The fire wasn''t burning him right now, for a couple of reasons, and those reasons were what kept him planted to the ground. He was resilient. He thought, ¡°Can''t give up now¡­ If I survive the fire, then I can attack these motherfuckers from behind. They won''t see it coming!¡± Tim realized that a part of his initial plan was compromised, but he still remained vigilant and adaptive. He ended up pouring a couple of mana points into health-regeneration, after all, just so he could endure the brittle outskirts of the fire a bit better, but that was about it. He didn¡¯t have any other challenges, because grass didn''t burn for long, and he was covered with a layer of dirt already, which protected him a lot. He was safe. He even joked to himself, ¡°That fire got me feeling all nice and toasty. It''s like I''m sunbathing again!¡± Anyway, in his close perimeter, the fire dimmed down in less than a minute. The fireflies assumed that they wouldn''t have to rummage through the ashes of every two-meter wide grass patch that they had burned, so they didn''t bother circling back. They kept setting other areas on fire, with the hopes of thoroughly destroying their recent, grand enemy (Tim)! Tim couldn¡¯t care less about how angry the fireflies were, and with such an attitude, he arose from the ashes of burnt grass, and then he gave a peek at the perimeter. He then noticed the fireflies cruising about two meters ahead, and since they seemed rather unassuming, he locked in on them. In order to catch up with them, he summoned the flaming fins ability again, and dashed forward. He ran at a grand pace for a whole meter, and then stopped rushing after that one-meter mark, because he wanted to be both more sneaky, and more preserving of his mana for once. Tim had spent almost half of the mana from his mana pool so far, but that didn¡¯t make him nervous at all. He knew that he had enough firepower to shoot his enemies out of the sky, and out of existence, once and for good! He approached with caution, and was uncharacteristically calculative. Chapter 67 - Sniper Spider Tim crawled towards the fireflies. He did so very efficiently, because it would appear that the fireflies weren''t so smart. They were brickshit stupid in other words, and this stupidity gave Tim an advantage, because the fireflies were just randomly setting whole patches of grass ablaze! There was no plan or technique behind their doing, they were just determined to burn everything to the ground. They were stupid. With that considered, once he snuck up on them, Tim buried himself in a bit of dirt, and then started sneak-snipping the fireflies. He shot the first target down with a single thunderbolt, and then shot a couple of other bolts against another firefly! He relied on thunderbolts, because he feared that if he shot fireballs at these things, then he''d accidentally fuel their next rebirth. It was possible that all fifteen of these enemies could be reborn for the third time, and he didn''t want to risk that. He tried to work in an optimal manner. Anyway, he continued snipping his targets down, to the point where he started giggling. He killed four fireflies already, and they couldn¡¯t do anything about this murder-spree, because Timmy was very well hidden. He depended on the ashes and dirt to hide, and muffled his location as effectively as he could. He muffled his location, by shooting a single bolt every ten seconds or so, and this kept him from being spotted. Tim acted like a solid, sneaky wizard just there, or at least, he acted like a very handy, sniper spider. Either nickname would be exceptional, but the upcoming results were the same; He secured his victory! ¡°Hehe,¡± He giggled, after another successful shot. In the following two minutes, Tim secured his victory. He destroyed every single one of the fifteen fireflies he had to deal with, and secured his momentary survival. Killing those phoenix-like fireflies had other rewards as well, as it would appear. His enemies had been very tiny, so he hadn''t expected a huge reward out of them, point-wise, but the system begged to differ. She announced, [Congratulations, Timothy! You successfully killed all fifteen of those phantomized devilish ants, differently known as the fireflies. Such kills are deemed improbable to achieve, a lot of other insects wouldn¡¯t be able to do it, so the reward is great, but reasonable. You won 400 whole points for killing those fireflies.] Then, she also added. [In total, you''ve accumulated 2,663 system points.] ¡°Nice! I''m not planning to upgrade anything while I''m a spider, though, cuz it could be risky¡­ but at least I''ll have a lot of points to get back to later on. I''ll be a fish again, soon hopefully, and I¡¯ll be a really happy fish too! It''s really hard to be a spider, harder than I thought!¡± He rambled on. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Tim was ready to be a fish again, no doubt about it. He couldn''t have ever imagined that an insect''s life would be this difficult, so he didn¡¯t want to live like this for long, not nearly. Shapeshifting was otherwise very useful, though, because under the right conditions, he could be human once more, and this was his dream goal. However, since the conditions weren''t right for the time being, he had to settle with being a fish, for as long as possible; It was his safest option, safer than being a spider at least. Anyway, he waited a few minutes for every whiff of fire to diminish, and then, he got ready to crawl across the dry lands. He had leaped out of the waters with a goal in mind, after all, and now that he had the opportunity to focus on the said goal, he was on the move. As he crawled across the dust and ashes that the fireflies left behind, he couldn¡¯t help thinking. ¡°It feels like it''ll take a while to find that soul tampering cave. I hope it doesn''t take long either, cuz it''s been brutal ever since I beached on this bitch of a land, man, and all to find a soul cave. I can''t guess what I''ll have to do just to be human again¡­ gonna have to murder a civilization sized amount of creatures, just to get shit done, no doubt! Shit¡¯s scary.¡± Tim was a contemplative little spider, he wanted to be cautious about the future, he had to be. As for today, he was happy that he survived the onslaught. That aside, he wanted to relax for a moment, because he didn¡¯t either have the nerves or the mana to fight again. The system confirmed this, she pressured. [Your mana pool has gone down to 34/120 mana points, Timothy. Be careful with how you spend it, because in this spider body, you can only regenerate 10 points of mana an hour. That''s a significant downgrade in comparison to what your stingray body was capable of regenerating. It would even be a good idea if you hid and rested somewhere, just for a couple of hours.] ¡°Hmm¡­¡± He contemplated. Out of all the things that he expected to go wrong, he didn¡¯t expect to run out of mana. He even took measures to be more savvy with mana, in the midst of battle, so this problem seemed fresh for him, unprecedented even. He ended up feeling really nervous as a result, and then started developing a sense of fear too, so he decided to take the system''s recommendations seriously. Tim buried himself within the naked roots of some grass, and then he started to rest. His belly was full of food and he wasn''t in danger anymore, so there was no harm in resting for a couple of hours, all for the sake of replenishing his mana pool. It was a sensible decision, because he was in no condition to rush! He tried to be logical, and therefore, he pondered. ¡°I''ll rest, system, there isn''t shit else that I can do. Maybe an ant or two will cross in front of me, erg¡­ smaller ants hopefully, the type that I can eat. It would be good to find something to eat, maybe I can eat those devilish ants too, or maybe not? Chances are that they''ve been burnt for good, right out of existence.¡± Chapter 68 - "A goat?" Tim arose from the dirt, three hours later. The idea was to rest for a couple of hours only, but he got really bored along the way, to the point where he took a nap. This extra hour didn''t bother him, neither did he notice it, come to think of it, but the system did assure him that he was a bit more ready to face the world now. She said, [Good job, Timothy. You''ve accumulated 64/120 points of mana! If you''re more savvy with it this time around, it''ll go a long way in terms of helping you survive. Be careful.] ¡°I¡¯ll try to be more careful, this time.¡± He followed along, ¡°You weren''t kidding when you said that I need the mana. I was knocked out for hours, but my mana pool is only halfway full. Let''s hope that I won''t have to deal with any more devilish ants. Hate those big, ugly bastards!¡± Anyway, Tim then crawled across the landmass, and he could only hope to progress. He didn¡¯t know if he was close or far from finding a soul tampering cave, as it was really hard to tell. It felt like he was far from it, mostly, and that was the same reason why he was on the move. He felt as if he was getting closer to such a cave, just by exploring more. Tim ended up crawling for about twenty meters, which was a significant distance for a little guy like him, it was an achievement! One would fear that he¡¯d get lost in these grassy fields, especially since the field seemed more like a jungle to him, but he wasn¡¯t really lost, and neither did he care even if he was lost! If all things went bad, he could just shapeshift into a tiny fly and then seek out the ocean. He had options, which was why he traveled almost fearlessly. After he traveled that far, he suddenly found himself on a downwards hill, a hill with a 45¡ã angle, to be exact. He was technically too small to notice such hills, because it was almost flat for the likes of him, but then he did notice the hill after all, because while he walked, his front legs were enduring a lot of pressure all of a sudden! This was hard to ignore. Tim then took care of his composure, of course, he didn¡¯t let the hill overpower him. He slowed down, which was the most effective way to battle a steep-ish hill. Then, as he had some time to gather his thoughts, he noticed another detail about his surroundings. He was intrigued. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± He mumbled, ¡°This is an odd place, I haven¡¯t seen a single tree so far. Is land supposed to be without trees?¡± This was a good question, but it wasn¡¯t so important either. He couldn¡¯t care less about what mother nature provided around here, but it still seemed odd to him that there weren¡¯t any trees around. The thought of it left him fairly distracted. In that less than focused state, he continued crawling downhill, until he found himself in a predicament. He didn¡¯t fall off a cliff or something like that, but he was still in trouble, as he ended up below the ground instead! He fell in a hole, which was stretched across the steep-ish hill that he was climbing down from. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The hole wasn¡¯t life threatening, but since he was so small, the hole seemed more like a cave to him. Sadly, it wasn¡¯t the kind of cave he was looking for. The system even assured him that this wasn¡¯t a soul tampering cave, she had to specify that. Anyway, since he wasn¡¯t panicking much, he managed to notice a couple of other important characteristics of this hole. He noticed that it was more of a tunnel, rather than anything else! Tim confirmed that it was a tunnel, because there were a bunch of these tiny rocks that kept the place well illuminated. They radiated numerous colors of light. Spiders didn¡¯t have the greatest eye-sight, and they especially couldn¡¯t see in the dark, at all. So in this case, when he saw clusters of light positioned here, in a place that would¡¯ve been otherwise dark, he got more than intrigued as a result. Tim followed the tunnel, quite fearlessly, and allowed his other senses to be more sensitive too, just for the sake of safety. This tunnel was well lit, but it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to be more alert of his surroundings. If he was to be explorative, he might as well be cautious too! While Tim crawled forward, he couldn¡¯t help getting a bit nervous about his safety, he thought. ¡°I swear to god, or the gods, or whatever¡­ I swear, if I run into gigantic ants down here, I¡¯m going to lose my shit! It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if giant fucking ants dug this tunnel, it looks like something they would do. Please gods, don¡¯t give me any more challenges, I¡¯ve gone through enough of them. No more ants!¡± [Although insects, especially ants are keen to dig elaborate tunnel systems, your conclusions are less than probable. These tunnels are too big for most insects to use properly and or thorougly.] The system added, and she tried to help him embrace common sense. ¡°I hope you are right,¡± He expressed, and continued to explore. The tunnel, as the system had vaguely described, was actually part of an elaborate cluster of tunnels. Tim ended up taking many left and right turns without noticing it much, to the point where he unsurprisingly got lost. He only noticed that he was lost about ten minutes later, when he felt that he had taken one too many sharp, left turns. When he started crawling uphill afterwards, he started feeling really nervous! ¡°Think I watched too many horror movies when I was a human.¡± He blurted, ¡°I could swear that a monster is waiting for me on top of this fucking tunnel.¡± Tim was scared, but he crawled forwards nonetheless. He was a spider, so it didn¡¯t take him much effort to climb upwards. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t run into a monster, but he did run into another badge of fresh questions. A fraction of the tunnel that he had crawled towards, featured these weird scriptures, that were carved on stone. There were some symbols too, which almost seemed demonic. ¡°A fucking goat?¡± He said, and didn¡¯t really know what to make of that symbol. After some pondering, he thought. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s legendary for insects to see a goat, or something? It could be a horror story.¡± Tim made an astute observation there, but it didn¡¯t matter much all of a sudden, because his vibrational senses picked up some movements close by. Something legless was approaching, rapidly! Chapter 69 - "Can insects worship the Devil?" Tim wasn¡¯t ever scared of goats, so the symbol that was carved on the stone didn¡¯t frighten him all that much. Come to think of it, he wasn¡¯t too scared of elongated, snake-like creatures either. However, the recent trouble that he had gone through, taught him to be aware of any and all creatures, and the dangers they could cause. He had to avoid whatever approached him, for safety¡¯s sake! For that matter, he tried to hide in plain sight. He wanted to get out of the way of whatever legless creature approached! ¡°Hello dirt, my dear friend. You always provide me with excellent camouflage.¡± He thought. At this point, he was two inches deep in the dirt. He was so confident with his idea, that he felt comfortable joking with himself too. Tim had buried himself in the tunnel¡¯s walls, on the right side of it, to be exact. No one could spot him, not even if they tried, especially if some brainless creature tried to do so. With that said, this would be considered a calculated, and rather smart move. He had figured that if the approaching creature was heavy, then it would be a stupid idea to bury himself in the flat ground. It would be stupid, because he¡¯d end up flattened, just like that, he¡¯d be dead! It would be a dumb way to die. That aside, no creature would be paranoid enough to gnaw at the tunnel¡¯s walls either, so the move he made was beyond smart. Tim wasn¡¯t the sharpest tool in the shed, but even dull tools could cut off a finger sometimes, especially if the tool was paired with a couple of poor circumstances. The creature that he had sensed approaching, was here now, and he could sense it sloshing around the tunnel. The creature couldn¡¯t find him, though, so Tim giggled to himself as a response. ¡°Silly bastard,¡± He thought. The legless creature passed by him, and at some point, it disappeared, at least momentarily. Tim was doing well for himself, however, since he was buried in the dirt the whole time, he couldn¡¯t see what the creature looked like. He did sense its movements, however, and figured that the creature that had crossed him was definitely snake-like. It was also about two feet long, which would make it a hell of an opponent to deal with, far too big for Timmy to handle. It was best to avoid that hasty snake. In fact, it was best to avoid every creature around here, for safety¡¯s sake. However, he couldn¡¯t stay buried in the dirt forever, so he emerged from the tunnel¡¯s walls about five minutes later, with the idea of exploring these tunnels even further! One would consider it very risky to be in these tunnels, but as far as facts were concerned, he couldn¡¯t afford to waste any time. He was lost in these tunnels anyway, so if he didn¡¯t find any food within the following hours, he¡¯d end up risking starvation. It wasn¡¯t ideal to die because of hunger, so he had to get moving, and risk running into any other weird creature. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Before he explored the tunnels any further, though, Tim was tempted to have another look at the symbols that were carved on the rough, stone-covered side of the tunnel¡¯s walls. The symbols intrigued him, he felt enthralled by them, so he observed them for a moment longer. Tim looked at the carving of the goat, and then, he thought. ¡°This has to be here for something, it can¡¯t be random. No breathing motherfucker would have the nerves to carve stones out of boredom, no. There¡¯s a story behind this ugly-looking goat.¡± Tim¡¯s ways of describing things were rash, but he wasn¡¯t blurting out any nonsense either. These symbols were weird, he could notice a star within them too, and stars paired with goats were rarely a good thing. At least, that¡¯s what he thought. He spotted a couple of written scriptures too, but being a spider, and a foreigner in this world as well, it wasn¡¯t a surprise how he couldn¡¯t read a single word that was written on the stone wall. He was stumped. ¡°Even the words look spooky. Eh, I bet I can find all the evil shit in these tunnels, though, I''ll find whatever evil shit this wall''s talking about. Maybe there¡¯s a reward to it as well, huh, system? What do I get for killing a bunch of demon-worshiping bastards?¡± He asked, and hoped for all of the points in the world. [The rewards would be handsome,] She followed along, [But it¡¯s unlikely that lesser animals are associated with demons, so you¡¯re just wasting your time in these tunnels. Get out of here, and look for a soul tampering cave instead.] ¡°Fair enough,¡± He nodded. Tim then left the carved scriptures and symbols behind him, and continued to prowl across the maze-like tunnels. He was lost, yes, but that didn¡¯t bother him as much as the hunger he felt, the hunger which slowly increased in severity. Tim feared that he''d starve to death in the following hours, if he didn¡¯t find something to eat. Apparently all the running and shooting around that he did earlier on, took a lot of energy out of a little spider. He had to be more cautious! About ten minutes later, he ran into something which he would otherwise want to avoid. Tim wanted to avoid most of the things that breathed, except if it was an insect he could feast on. Come to think of it, he¡¯d rather avoid anything that didn¡¯t breathe either. Tim ran into some undead, and transparent entities! ¡°Ghost insects!¡± He exclaimed, ¡°Ah hell, I can¡¯t eat those. But¡­ maybe this is also a good sign. Ghosts should hang around soul tampering caves, right, system?¡± [Not really,] She disagreed, and refused to elaborate on the matter any further. Tim didn¡¯t want to pressure her with more questions either. He wasn¡¯t really in immediate danger, and the tiny entities weren¡¯t paying any attention to him either, so there was no point in poking at the topic any further. He was good. With that considered, Tim walked through and away from the handful of entities, and sweated quite A bit along the way. He then assumed that he was safe, however, after he walked a few inches forward, he had this urge to turn around and look what was behind him. Right then, he noticed that the entities were following him! As he noticed that, he couldn¡¯t help thinking. ¡°Let¡¯s hope these creepy bastards don¡¯t have any firepower in them¡­¡± Chapter 70 - "Singing terrors!" Back on earth, entities were considered evil. That was the perception which folklore typically encouraged, and as for what could be said about entities in this world, Timothy didn¡¯t plan to spare anyone¡¯s feelings. The entities that were following him, couldn¡¯t be god loving, not a chance! Tim didn¡¯t pull his opinion about them out of his ass either, he had reasons to be scared of them. The several, tiny entities kept following him, for example, and they hummed this soft yet terrifying tone along the way, as if they were trying to put a curse on him. With that considered, he had plenty of reasons to be scared of them, and so he tried to crawl away from these entities as quickly as he could. At some point though, the panic engulfed him thoroughly. All the running around wasn¡¯t doing him any good, as he both got tired quickly, and he didn¡¯t manage to escape the entities either. Furthermore, these tunnels seemed virtually endless, so in this case, there was no ¡®light at the end of the tunnel¡¯ that could save him! There was no point in the frantic running that he had been doing. That was why he panicked, and exclaimed. ¡°Quit following me you spooky bastards, I haven¡¯t done anything bad to you!¡± The entities weren''t either responsive or cooperative with those words, however, so he had to reconsider his approach. Tim put that little spider brain of his into use, in search of a solid solution. ¡°I can''t hide from them, no.¡± He pondered, ¡°They can probably go through walls, like all ghosts can? Since there''s no fucking hiding from them, I gotta fight them, then!¡± Tim was in a state of panic, that was certain, but he had tried to reason with himself, even while in this state. Furthermore, he had tried to avoid any and all conflict with these entities, but it was obvious that he couldn''t reason with them, regardless of the circumstances. His only option was to fight back, and since he had destroyed other entities before, he felt very confident with his abilities to ¡®kill¡¯ undead things. He had the arsenal to do so, and decided to rely on It! Tim turned around right away, and after he faced the enemies, he then started blasting! He shot lightning bolts at the bundle of entities in front of him, because bolts were more precise overall, and a bit less destructive. He didn¡¯t want to bring the tunnel down on his own head, after all, so bolts were more effective for the moment! The bolts pierced through a couple of entities right away, their speed was explosive, while the targets themselves weren''t agile whatsoever! The system was quick to announce the utter destruction of those entities afterwards. [You successfully killed two singing terror entities.] She announced, [They''re evil, obviously, so it''s noble to destroy them. The tagalong reward for your deed is also decent, you won 30 system points.] Thirty system points didn¡¯t sound bad, especially since he only killed those tiny little entities, however, he wasn¡¯t focused on the points right now. Seven more of those entities were still charging towards him, and since terror was in their name, he had to do everything in his power to keep them away, or, at least scare them away! Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Tim continued chugging bolts of thunder at them, in the hopes of reigning victorious. It was expensive to fight them, mana-wise, but it¡¯s not like he had any other choice other than to fight. He continued shooting, and had to run away a couple of times as well, in order to not get overwhelmed by the entities. They hadn''t hurt him yet, and he didn¡¯t want to know what kind of attacks they could muster up either. Personal safety reigned above everything else, so he ran a lot. Tim managed to destroy all of them eventually, he reigned victorious. He was relieved now as a result, yes, but he had spent a lot of mana and energy along the way, just to survive, it hadn''t been fun. He barely won any points in exchange too, so he felt really annoyed. The system was more enthusiastic, however, as she announced. [Congratulations, Timothy! You killed 7 more of those singing terror entities. The reward for each kill should be 15 points, but since you killed a bundle of them, the reward for your good deed, gets rounded up from the initial 105 points, to 120 points. The reward isn''t so great still, especially once we consider how expensive any upcoming upgrades is, but it''s better than getting nothing. In total, you''ve accumulated 2,813 system points.] ¡°Hmm¡­ points are adding up, that''s good. I would''ve earned a lot more if I killed a dolphin or some shit, but as you said, this is better than not getting anything.¡± He expressed. Anyway, Tim escaped what could''ve been a dangerous situation back there, and that was what he cared about the most. He survived and had only spent about five mana points in exchange too, so the fight he put up was pretty economic! He was happy, but now that he had time to think more, he realized how insane it was to be chased by ghosts! It wasn¡¯t normal back on earth, at least, things were less insane on earth. ¡°I sure as hell don''t want to see any more ghosts and shit.¡± He heaved out in stress, ¡°Fucking hell, I came here for a soul cave or whatever that shit''s called, but instead I''m being harassed by ghosts after every turn I take¡­ Gotta admit, that''s kinda funny, but it''s becoming a pain in the ass.¡± In the spirit of those latter words, he then had to ask. ¡°I don''t want to fight any more ghosts, system, so tell me, can those singing terrorist motherfuckers revive themselves?¡± [Singing terrors,] The system corrected, and then she said. [All entities have this gift to ¡®revive¡¯ themselves, one way or the other. Entities, ghosts, phantoms or anything else that''s transparent, are just bundles of less-than conscious energy, and energy itself can''t either be created or destroyed, even though you did destroy the ¡®form¡¯ that these singing terrors had assumed. If these singing terrors have what it takes to reassemble their own energy, then they may revive themselves.] ¡°So, I will get attacked again then, by the same motherfuckers?¡± He asked. [Probably not. Energy takes a lot of effort for one to recollect and or reassemble. You don''t have to worry about them, not unless there''s something seriously wrong with your personal luck. Either way, it''s best if you keep moving, don''t hang around in the murder site for too long.] She added. Chapter 71 - Acrobatic goats! Tim wasn¡¯t having any fun. He could barely recall how he even ended up in these tunnels, but he knew one thing for sure, the tunnels weren¡¯t so friendly towards spiders. He either had to keep fighting, or keep getting attacked by random creatures, which was a real hassle to work around. This was especially bothersome, once he considered that he barely won any rewards in return for all of the fights he put up! He was just running around, and surviving, which was less than ideal. ¡°Magical tunnels should¡¯ve been more fun,¡± He pouted, ¡°Well, this place isn¡¯t fucking magical, I guess, but it does have magical creatures, and ghosts. Too bad that they¡¯re all attacking me, I¡¯d much rather use them. They could help me find my way out of here, at least, if not show me the way to a soul cave or whatever that thing is called. Oh well, I''ll have to shoot at shit for as long as I can.¡± These tunnels were chaotic, but he had to keep moving. Tim was getting hungry, and the fear of starvation that he felt, encouraged him to be on the move. It was tough enough to be anorexic, so he didn¡¯t want to risk anything, he didn''t want to test what would happen if his hunger bar went low again. It was simply too dangerous, so he kept moving, and tried to be as attentive as possible! Tim¡¯s senses were heightened, and they remained heightened, for five minutes straight now. At that very attentive state, he heard something that he would''ve rather ignored, and yet he couldn''t. He heard a goat''s call! ¡°Behehehe,¡± It echoed. It was difficult to pinpoint where this sound came from, but he didn¡¯t care to seek it out either. He was terrified. In any earthly setting, he wouldn''t be scared of a goat, it wouldn''t make sense to be scared of one. But he wasn''t on earth here, and goats weren''t supposed to be underground either, so he was fairly petrified. In disrespect of his fear, be it intentional or not, the assumed goat, continued to sing its song of lust. One would think that it was taunting whoever crawled in its vicinity. ¡°Bahahahehehehe,¡± It vocalized. This was Tim''s breaking point. He stopped caring about food all of a sudden, and then he buried himself on the right side of the tunnel''s wall. He was really good at camouflaging himself, due to his upgraded ability of camouflage, so he used that to his advantage. Such measures may have not been necessary, but he didn¡¯t want to take any chances. He then waited for this creature to approach him, whatever this creature may be. ¡°Goats aren¡¯t supposed to be underground, for fuck¡¯s sake!¡± He thought. Then, under that state of panic, he remembered something very specific. He recalled seeing a goat, carved in one of the tunnel walls, and couldn¡¯t help wondering if it and the goat sounds he was hearing now, correlated. It didn¡¯t sound insane, but yet, this puzzle he tried to piece together, didn¡¯t really help make sense of things. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The goat continued to call, but Tim didn¡¯t plan on answering it. He remained in the tunnel walls, and just listened. He did so for nearly twenty minutes, but no one approached, he didn¡¯t sense any living being in his close vicinity! Five whole meters of territory had to be clear of danger, he was sure of it. Once he made that observation, he relaxed a little bit. He popped out of the walls, and felt ready to explore again. The goat kept calling out, even now after twenty minutes, which was pretty concerning. However, as terrifying as that was, he chose to ignore it, and hoped that he wouldn¡¯t meet whatever was hollering. Tim followed the maze-like tunnels, and every bundle of steps he took was paired with caution. His senses remained heightened, because he wanted to predict if some creature chose to attack him. In any plausible sour situation, he wanted to have the upper advantage! Try as he might, some things were just unpredictable. After about five minutes passed, he ran into something that seemingly popped up out of nowhere! He saw a bunch of goats, tiny goats, and they were all bolting towards him. They were far more agile than spiders could be, because they could run up and down on walls, in a spiral manner. As they approached, he saw them bolting across the ceiling, very effortlessly. Tim turned around and hoped to outrun them, but that wasn¡¯t much of an option, apparently. He was surrounded by these goats, from the front and the back. One would think that these goats were infinite in number, especially since they were charging at him all at the same time, but that wasn¡¯t the case. He got surrounded by twenty of them, and so far, their intentions were unclear. After he noticed that the goats weren¡¯t attacking him, he couldn¡¯t help yelling. ¡°What do you want from me, you hairy fuckers?!¡± The goats didn¡¯t answer, and it was perhaps best that they didn¡¯t. He wouldn¡¯t be able to stay calm in the sight of a bunch of talking goats, as that would simply be too much to handle right now. He contemplated attacking them, which was something very natural to think about, however, he chose to act idle. Tim was outnumbered, so even if he had enough mana to put up a fight, it did not matter. He had long lost his opportunity to attack, and could get killed in seconds if he tried anything stupid. He ended up muttering, ¡°So, no one wants to speak to me, huh? Things could get worse than this, I suppose? They¡¯re a bunch of tiny goats, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they ate me alive or some shit. They tricked me, somehow¡­¡± Tim took his time when he made such conclusions, he even stopped looking at the goats for a few seconds. When he did the latter, things got even weirder. The twenty or so goats were dead all of a sudden, every single one of them! Their skulls were littered all across the tunnel, and had gathered enough dirt to make one think that they were here for thousands of years! Similarly, Tim started debating with himself about how long he stood here; Time seemed very difficult to grasp, all of a sudden, he felt stumped. Then, he heard a voice which couldn¡¯t belong to a goat, not nearly. This voice was very articulate, and directed a couple of questions towards Timothy. ¡°You¡¯re quite the tough guy, aren¡¯t you, mister spider?¡± It asked, ¡°My goats didn¡¯t scare you, well, you haven¡¯t shat yourself, at least! Such courage is foreign to these tunnels, you are a foreigner for sure. This begs the question then, I urge to know¡­ where are you from, dear spider?¡± Chapter 72 - Skendus, the rat Tim didn¡¯t exactly know who was speaking to him. It was hard to figure things out, because he didn¡¯t see anything either living or undead in front of him. He was supposed to be alone right now, yet he wasn''t! The goat skulls which were littered across the tunnel, ripped his attention-span into pieces as well, he was overwhelmed, and didn''t know what to pay attention to first. In that disturbed state, he decided to answer the strange voice, he said. ¡°I''m from the sea, guy, erg, are you a guy? Doesn''t matter. I''m looking for a soul tampering cave, that''s all I''m here for, so, can you help a brother out?¡± ¡°Brother,¡± The other followed along, ¡°We are not of kin. You are a fish, and I am a rodent!¡± ¡°A rodent, huh?¡± He asked, ¡°Well that means you''re alive, right? We''re kinda like brothers, cuz we''re both breathing.¡± Tim tried to be political here, or diplomatic too, in a way. He tried, but neither of those things were part of his trump cards, and they hadn''t been in any universe. He was just yapping! Yet, the rodent was intrigued, in fact, he bursted out laughing. The creatures within this tunnel were typically mindless, indefinitely, so it was really refreshing to be a part of a debate of sorts, for once, rather than a one-sided slaughter. The rodent was amused. With that considered, it followed along. ¡°Alright, you''ve convinced me, kid. I usually eat little guys like you, but you''re an exception, cuz you don''t deserve to be used as food. That would be a waste of life, and I have this feeling about you, I feel that you have a lot to offer, in whatever way.¡± Afterwards, the rodent popped out of the left side of the tunnel walls, and created quite a dusty mess as a result. Once the dust cleared up, Tim grasped the details of a rather muscular and big, six-inch long (tail excluded), gray-haired rat! It was quite the scene. If one looked at this rat for a single second, they could understand how it survived this long. The thing looked huge, capable, and dangerous! He was built to battle the challenges that these tunnels posed, undoubtedly. Anyway, apart from the rat, Tim noticed another important detail. He noticed that all the goat skulls were suddenly gone, as if within a blink! This was weird, so he couldn¡¯t help but question his own sanity. He also vocalized his burning question, he asked. ¡°Where the hell did all those dead goats go, man?¡± ¡°Oh, they''re mowing the dandruff off of my backside. I have a bunch of fleas for them to feed on too, hehe! So, don''t worry about them, they''re doing fine.¡± The rodent answered. Afterwards, he introduced himself. ¡°I''m Skendus, by the way, and I''m an illusionist from the radiant one-eye sect. Pleasure to meet you, sir fishy spider.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Another sect¡­ that¡¯s great.¡± Tim thought. ¡°I heard that,¡± Skendus added, ¡°I¡¯m an illusionist, don¡¯t forget that so quickly. Your brain is like a sponge to me, and I love squeezing sponges. You know, cuz they squirt out all that water and stuff, they¡¯re fun!¡± Tim had a lot of questions to ask, he certainly felt stumped by this encounter. His questions were mostly heavy, though, so he decided to start with an easier one. He ignored the fact that the other could read his mind, and tried to act normal for a moment. ¡°You sound very smart, erg¡­ friend?¡± He first said, and then he pressured. ¡°You know what a sponge is though, huh? It is to my knowledge that only humans know about that stuff, sponges and all, so, does that make you human in any way? You know some stuff that you aren¡¯t supposed to know.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just a rat.¡± Skendus answered, ¡°But I¡¯ve infiltrated those bumpy, human homes before, multiple times even. I can¡¯t understand how they live topside, the sun is very annoying, but¡­ erg, I¡¯ve touched sponges before. Funny story, I thought it was trying to eat me! Turns out it was just really soft.¡± At this rate, it was easy to go off topic. Skendus was really articulate, he could understand spiders, even, so one could not challenge his intellect and or his ability to confuse or distract someone by just talking. He was a motor-mouth. Tim was a motor-mouth too, without a doubt, and yet he didn¡¯t appreciate how Skendus went far enough to mock his way of speaking, it was disrespectful, but it wasn¡¯t like he could do anything about it right now. Instead, he simply followed along. ¡°Okay, so that¡¯s how you understand what sponges are? Your stories are funny! Eh, can you tell me more about illusions though, how much of my brain can you read, for example?¡± ¡°Oh, enough not to kill you, Timeeth.¡± Skendus said, and it was apparent that he wasn¡¯t willing to answer any more questions, so it was best not to ask them. Instead, he said. ¡°Follow me.¡± ¡­ Tim did not expect to run into an illusionist today, one who was also a rat. It wasn¡¯t surprising to find a rat underground, no, but he simply had forgotten that rats existed. He had no particular reason to remember them, just like he didn¡¯t have a reason to remember that seagulls existed, or hippos. His brain was constantly being challenged in this new world, so he wasn¡¯t the best at remembering things. In this case, he was lucky enough that he ran into a nice rat, or in other words, a slightly intellectual rat. Those latter words didn¡¯t fit well together, but Tim was a witness that it was possible! Not all rats were gross, some of them were pretty interesting. Anyway, they walked across the tunnels for about fifteen more minutes, and since Skendus took the role as the guide, it was impossible for them to get lost. This was his home, and as science would so willingly encourage, rats were pretty good at figuring tunnels out. Tim was pretty safe now! Skendus didn¡¯t speak much along the way, but considering that he could read minds, it may not be necessary for him to speak at all. They shared common thoughts, and weren''t just walking around randomly either. At some point, Tim noticed that the presence of entities became more and more frequent around them. They walked past several bundles of ghostly entities, but these entities weren¡¯t as violent in comparison to the ones that he had run into before. These ghosts were either calmer, or respected Skendus the rat far more. Either way, Tim could finally relax a little bit, he felt safe! However, since he noticed an increased amount of entities flying around, he couldn¡¯t help asking himself a solid question. ¡°Is he taking me to a soul tampering cave?¡± Tim thought, ¡°That¡¯s gotta be it!¡± Chapter 73 - Endless tunnel Tim and Skendus eventually walked into a place that seemed a lot like a cave, except it didn''t seem like the type of cave that he was looking for, as nothing about it was paranormal. They walked into a wide opening, where life was really abundant, there were a bunch of things to eat here! Tim was really hungry, so he didn¡¯t waste a single second, he chased after a couple of insects immediately! It wasn''t easy for one to be an explorative spider, as it demanded a lot of energy. He had over-exerted himself, quite frequently, so he was more than happy to run into these insects now, as they could help bring a bit of his energy back! He moved quickly! ¡°Huhuhahaha!¡± He celebrated, after he bested a couple of ladybugs. Back on earth, it was frowned upon to kill ladybugs, but the settings over here were different. He wasn''t on earth anymore, and he was a spider too, so he couldn¡¯t really be picky; He had to eat them in order to survive! Anyway, Tim then second guessed his kills, at least for a brief moment, as he remembered that Skendus was an illusionist, who was capable of fabricating reality quite aggressively! He had to second-guess himself, for the sake of clarity. The rat could be playing a sick joke on him, it was very possible, especially since he didn¡¯t get any points from killing these bugs, it was odd that he didn¡¯t get rewarded. However, he then figured out that he was being all paranoid over nothing, right after he started nibbling on the first ladybug. The food felt real enough! ¡°Mmm¡­ good enough? It feels weird on my gullet, though. No wonder I didn¡¯t win any points, this is just a fleshless shell, so¡­ I won''t be gaining weight anytime soon, damn. Those panzer crabs helped me grow bigger before, a lot bigger, but now I can''t shake off my anorexia even when I''m as little as a spider. Shit is sad, I gotta get fat all by myself, even the system can''t help me with this.¡± He mumbled, ever so endlessly. Tim had a lot in his mind, but that didn¡¯t stop him from eating. He puked a bunch of his stomach acid on the bugs, for it to help break the bugs apart and make them easier to consume. He felt weird about the process, but it happened instinctually, so it didn''t feel entirely new to him. The stomach acid sizzled through the bugs for a bit, and then, he started chewing on them! This meal was good enough, except for the bug''s wings, which felt really weird in his throat. He ended up spitting those out. However, most body parts which belonged to these bugs were edible, he felt better already! Later on, he killed three more bugs, to dismantle and eat. He didn¡¯t recognize their species, but they were blue, and they were smaller than the ladybugs too. They looked unique, but since these bugs didn''t have any powers to give him, he didn¡¯t even bother asking about their species¡¯ name. After he ate them, Tim felt well-fed and all dandy now. He was in a better state of mind too, and as a result, he could think straight once more. He was sharp enough to start asking some important questions now! Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Thanks for the meal, I appreciate it.¡± He said, ¡°But where are we? Are you taking me to a soul cave or not, Skendus, or is this the soul cave? You know where I wanna go.¡± ¡°This is not the soul tampering cave, bud. I just figured that you could use a meal, and I was more than right, apparently. As for the cave, we¡¯ll get to it soon, don''t worry, I know exactly where it is. You should remember that I¡¯m an illusionist, so naturally, I¡¯ve tampered with the paranormal a lot of times throughout my life. So¡­ you¡¯re in good hands, I''ll help you as best as I can!¡± The other answered. Timothy didn¡¯t expect to get an answer that was this expansive, especially since Skendus had acted very mysteriously so far, but he was pleased and appreciative nonetheless. He had his suspicions so far, but at least he could worry a bit less for a turn, which when paired with the sensation of a full stomach, was very relieving! He was happier. Anyway, they walked across this little cave, and indulged into a bunch of tunnels once more. Along the way, Tim was pretty clueless about his surroundings, most of the time, especially since they weren¡¯t getting attacked by anything, but at some point even he realized that they had gone deep underground. They were in deep, and continued to go in even deeper! He trusted that Skendus knew where he was going, because if he didn¡¯t, then it would be a long way back out, if he could make it back out! ¡­ Tim and Skendus walked, for what felt like forever, the journey even seemed never-ending to a little guy like him. At first, Tim tried to pay as much attention to his surroundings as possible, for safety¡¯s sake, but his attention-span started failing him eventually. It faded away, even, as if he had lost consciousness, but yet he didn¡¯t lose it ~ For some reason, he was in the middle-point of consciousness and unconsciousness, as if something forced him towards that state of mind. It wasn¡¯t fun! He was barely aware of his condition, because for some reason, he didn¡¯t feel the need to think things over. The tunnels they were walking through seemed endless too, which didn''t make the situation any better, and this was especially tiring, because he couldn¡¯t look forward to a ¡®light at the end of the tunnel¡¯ kind of scenario. That wouldn¡¯t work, because light was also surrounding them at all times, for some reason! This meant that it might take him forever to reach the soul tampering cave, and this conclusion deprived him of all critical thinking. He was overwhelmed, and yet underwhelmed at the same time. Tim had a goal in mind, yes, but that wasn¡¯t enough to help him be attentive, and it certainly wasn¡¯t enough to help make sense of things. The light that surrounded him was overwhelming, and blinding, so he had no idea how long it would take him to reach the cave. God forbid, he may even forget his goal entirely! It wouldn¡¯t be a surprise, especially since something was messing with his brain! At some point, Tim suddenly realized that he had walked alone for a long while now. Skendus wasn¡¯t by his side anymore, which was very alarming, because he was supposed to be Tim¡¯s guide around here! Since he was alone, it didn¡¯t seem as smart to push through this radiant tunnel any further, not anymore! The reward of a tampered soul wasn''t guaranteed anymore, and this realization hit him like a truck, he got furious! He stopped walking, and then asked himself. ¡°What am I walking for, and where the fuck am I going? This has been going on forever, where am I!? Is my name even Timeeth at this point? I forgot! God, I just want to be human again, a human with a strong soul, yes! So why am I getting punished like this, it¡¯s not fair, man! Fuck that stupid cave.¡± While he debated himself, the radiant tunnel was then tainted with tens of red lines. These lines appeared suddenly, but once they did, Tim felt a strong tug on his very soul, a tug that he had never felt before! Chapter 74 - The spooky readjustment Tim didn¡¯t know where he was. His mind was initially in that pre-conscious state, and unfortunately, it spiraled down to a completely unconscious state in a short time, it wasn¡¯t nice! Something about these tunnels was weird, as it destroyed any ounce of critical thought that he had! An active conscience was what defined a human from a dumb animal, and in this case, since his conscience wasn¡¯t really working, Tim was trapped within his own body and mind. He was trapped, and he wasn¡¯t aware of that fact either, due to the very conscience that he lacked. If he was aware, he would be absolutely terrified! This situation was bad. To make things worse, he wasn¡¯t even at peace, regardless of how he wasn¡¯t conscious! He couldn¡¯t afford the luxury of such simple, mindless peace. A bunch of red lines had appeared in this tunnel, as mentioned before, and they were really making him struggle. These lines interrupted his peace, because they were tugging on his soul in some way, and each tug intensified after every couple of seconds! He really felt harassed, tortured, even. Since he wasn¡¯t conscious, however, he couldn¡¯t muster up the energy to ask any questions. The red lines continued to tug on him, for what seemed like an eternity, and then, something even weirder happened! Tim was fully conscious again, but for three whole seconds only! During these seconds, he saw Skendus the rat, right there beside him. They were still in some tunnel, but the surroundings weren¡¯t as radiant anymore, the tunnel walls weren¡¯t as blinding. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± He asked, but his voice came out muffled. He was terrified. ¡°Trust the¡­¡± Skendus tried to talk to him, but to no avail. Timothy was dragged right back into that unconscious state, as if those red lines themselves pulled him back in. They were tugging on his soul after all, so this process couldn''t be random. The light around him became more radiant once he fell asleep, it became more violent, and the reason behind this was rather confusing! He wasn¡¯t able to figure things out, but since his spidery eyes lacked eyelids, his eyes got tortured by this light thoroughly, even while he was asleep! He was aware of its radiance. He was aware of the radiance, but he was oblivious of the reason behind it, he was clueless. If he had been awake, then he would''ve seen that he and Skendus weren''t alone anymore! Several ghostly entities were present now, and they meant business, in fact, they were the ones who, in their way, encouraged the tunnel to be so bright! They were powerful. They were powerful, but their form seemed so paradoxically unappealing, that one may not even see what was so unique about them. Neither of these entities bore a form of their own, for example, or any noticeable characteristics whatsoever, because they were all merged together as one being, they looked all weird and smushed! These entities were actually a single, huge, and joint entity! They certainly behaved like a lone, single creature, even if they didn''t look the part. Tim would be terrified if he actually saw them, so it was great that he was asleep. Several hollow faces were riddled across this joint entity, and unsurprisingly, they all chanted these similar, or even dot-to-dot identical chants, too. These loud chants sounded isolated, and cultic! Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The entities were simply terrifying, and in that joint state, they had surrounded Timothy. They acted like a tunnel once they surrounded him, which was even more heart-stopping to witness. Thankfully, he still wasn¡¯t actually awake, so he was barely aware of their presence! However, even in an unconscious state, he still knew that something weird was going on. These entities were tugging on his soul too, intensively, so it wasn''t hard to notice their work ~ his heart felt heavy. Considering the circumstances, he might eventually be able to guess what they were doing, and why they were all so intense! He''d guess that they were actually tampering with his soul, rather than just harassing him, there was no other way to describe this. Tim¡¯s spidery body was close to getting torn apart, as he was getting pulled from every direction possible by this single, joint entity. If this thing went on, then he might actually get torn apart for good, as there was only so much that he could endure! ~ One could only hope that this uncomfortable process wasn¡¯t aimless, as he certainly didn¡¯t want to get pushed towards death for nothing! Thankfully that was not the case, because then suddenly, he woke up! He was feeling a bit sore shortly after, but this soreness was nothing in comparison to the intensity he felt up until a second ago! He had felt molested, but he was doing fine now. Tim woke up in an area that was mostly empty, which was convenient, because he didn¡¯t feel like seeing anyone right now. Skendus was still by his side, unsurprisingly, and it was apparent that he had tried his best to act as both a guide and a sort of guard dog. Skendus had remained hospitable at all times, even if Tim got abused by entities so violently in between this said, soft hospitality. Anyway, Tim looked at him and then asked. ¡°Where are we, man? I want to talk to whatever spooky ghost was with us, cuz I¡¯m pretty sure that something has touched my butt-hole! I''m sure of it.¡± ¡°We¡¯re at a place called the phantom scrambler cave, and as you can guess, it¡¯s one of the many soul tampering caves out there! It¡¯s a very decent spot to end up on, may I add, you lucked out when you met me.¡± The other answered. Then, he also added. ¡°As for the ¡®spooky ghost¡¯ you¡¯re talking about, don¡¯t worry about it¡­ or, them. You won¡¯t see the punished brothers anytime soon, because they already did what they were supposed to do¡­ They blessed you, they did their job.¡± Tim didn¡¯t bother to ask anymore questions after that, and he had a couple of reasons behind his slight hesitance. For one thing, he didn¡¯t want to annoy the other with endless questions, because he¡¯d end up sounding like a scared puppy. He was scared, exceptionally scared, but he didn¡¯t want to appear so! He put up a tough front. Skendus read through his calm-ish demeanor, though, and thought. ¡°Hah! This little bastard keeps forgetting that I can read minds. He¡¯s so harmless!¡± Tim was oblivious of what the other was thinking about, so he kept up his ¡®tough guy¡¯ front. The second reason why he didn¡¯t want to ask many questions, was because he likely didn¡¯t need to. He was in a soul tampering cave now, after all, and if there was anything to explore, he could do it right here! He muttered, ¡°Those spooky bastards ¡®did their job¡¯, huh? Well let¡¯s just see then, shall we? I almost lost my legs trying to get to a soul cave, countless times too, I put in a lot of work! So, let¡¯s hope that those spooky brothers made me stronger already, cuz I don¡¯t want to work for it anymore.¡± ¡°Oh, trust me, they helped you.¡± The other followed along, ¡°The punished brothers tampered with your soul, they readjusted it, so to speak. The work they did on you, is sort of like an initiation process, to get accepted to the cave that you¡¯re in right now. This cave will ¡®fuel¡¯ the readjustments that the brothers made, it¡¯ll give you a type of strength that you won''t get anywhere else in the world. With that being said, this is the best spot to test what your soul is now capable of. Go nuts!¡± Chapter 75 - Joint aspirations! ¡°Oh¡­¡± Tim sighed, ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding about the ¡®readjustment¡¯, man. I¡¯m feeling a lot of new things!¡± Skendus the rat remained in the cave with him. He didn¡¯t talk as much now, but one could notice the excitement that he was feeling, as it was very apparent in his gleaming, wide pupils! He wanted to see what Timothy was capable of now. Tim did exactly that, he tried to summon one of his new, soul-based powers. Much like most of the powers that he possessed, it only took a thought to summon these new ones. Through a single thought, he summoned the unpredictable! It was unpredictable, because he was suddenly airborne. For a second, Tim thought that he had detached his soul from his own body, but that was not the case. He was transparent now, much like most ghosts were, yes, but he didn¡¯t actually leave his body behind this time around, but took his body with him instead! This twist of things was phenomenal due to multiple reasons. Rather than detaching from his physical body, he had, in a way, transformed his whole body into this blue, ghostly form instead! One may even question how this was possible, and rightfully so as this was really weird, however, magical abilities were never restrained by the mundane laws of physics, no, so simply everything was possible! This transformation was truly something, because it broke many barriers of what the typical ghost and or living creature was capable of. It broke the basic norms of evolution, shapeshifting, and or soul-based abilities all together! Tim could even re-summon his physical body upon will, so forget being human, this was a trait fit for the gods, he felt powerful! ¡°It would appear that the punished brothers have gifted you with their signature power,¡± Skendus added, ¡°A long time ago, they gifted me with the same abilities, so I can tell you that they''re really useful! You should be able to merge with other souls as well now, Tim, just like they can.¡± Tim then transformed right back to a spider, as he had already put his powers to the test, at least a little bit. He was excited how this new ability of his worked so flawlessly, so he smiled as widely as a spider could smile! Then, he followed along. ¡°This is all so badass, man! They touched my bum-hole, but fuck it, I can forgive them! I can forgive you too now, Skendus. You scared the shit out of me with those goats, but you helped me the most, so I appreciate it!¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome, erg, I was just feeding my ego, come to think of it.¡± Skendus added. ¡°Feed whatever you want, it doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m like a god now, muhuhahaha!¡± He celebrated, in blissful ignorance. ¡°Not quite, you¡¯re just despising the gods, Timmeth, remember that. So am I, actually, and so is everyone who received blessings from this cave, we all despise the gods!¡± Skendus pointed out, ¡±These new powers that the punished brothers gave you, they¡¯re very rare, at least for all of us within the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana, so these powers, they''re a shining emblem of our defiance, boy! You know things are bad when even the dead stand in protest, ghosts are equally as punished as us, so we''d like to think that our cause is justified. We stand against such brute punishment that the gods so carelessly inflict upon us!¡± Furthermore, he added. ¡°We must protest, for as long as we stand. The god¡¯s punishment realm of mana is specifically designed to punish us weaker creatures, as you know, and so many have died while they tried to push through the realm¡¯s eight, gruesome levels! The punished brothers died like that as well, hence the word punished in their name. However, their failure made them so angry, that they came back as ghosts, created their own soul tampering cave afterwards, and have offered mystical powers ever since! They offer their ghostly powers to anyone who wishes to bear them, so let their resilience be a motivator to our cause.¡± Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Although all of this sounded pretty interesting, Tim didn¡¯t ask for such a lengthy history lesson, and yet Skendus didn¡¯t ask for his permission either. He had tried to stay quiet, but now, he felt obligated to educate the other regarding the new powers that he obtained! For that matter, he continued. ¡°You now have powers that don¡¯t belong in the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana, not at all, remember that. So, by accepting these powers, you despise the gods as well, just as much as we do! You despise the gods, and the torture that they inflict against us, the weaker! Erg, that¡¯s all you have to remember about your newly altered soul, kid.¡± ¡°Cool,¡± Tim nodded, ¡°The cave looks pretty badass too! Lotta colors, purple and shit.¡± Just then, Skendus realized that Tim hadn¡¯t been listening to a single word that he said. Skendus then used his illusion-oriented powers to brush through Tim¡¯s brain for a few seconds, and confirmed that he hadn¡¯t been listening at all. He was admiring the luminous colors of the cave, but that was about it, his brain was fairly smooth, so smooth that it could reflect rays of light! ¡°I guess the sea doesn¡¯t offer many colors,¡± Skendus thought, and decided not to bother the little spider anymore. Tim then led the conversation himself, he said. ¡°As cool as the cave is, I gotta get back home, bro. I thought that the dry lands would be fun, but I almost died seventy-two times ever since I beached on this god-forsaken land! It''s not funny anymore.¡± ¡°Right, you¡¯re from the sea. There¡¯s a lot in your mind too, ironically, erg¡­ What''s this green stuff you¡¯re thinking about? Call me crazy, but I think that it traumatized you more than the devilish ants did.¡± The other asked. The conversations that followed along were extensive, and half of them were quite pointless. Timothy was a chatty patty, he talked to himself a lot, for example, and with the system too, so he didn¡¯t mind being a part of lengthy conversations with other living creatures, he parkoured from one topic to the other one too! Skendus didn¡¯t initially want to bother the other with a bunch of questions, but now he couldn¡¯t help himself. Tim was an experienced little fish, and he spoke his mind quite unapologetically too, so it was fun to talk to him about any matter, especially since he was really friendly as well. A bunch of their conversations ended up being worthless, but a few of them turned out to be serious. They stupendously ended up making a joint plan, and it was a very important plan too. They reached such an agreement because they had very similar minds and aspirations! Skendus was an explorative guy as well, and unsurprisingly, he bore the explorative soul ability too, just like Timmy did. He had explored the world a little bit, and liked what it had to offer, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise that they got along really well. Anyway, as for the plan, Skendus decided to join Timothy on his trip back home. They were to submerge in the sea together, and battle whatever the tides had to throw against them. Skendus could shapeshift too, and even though he wasn¡¯t used to swimming, he was sure that he could adapt quickly. He was confident about the idea, especially since his arsenal of powers was plentiful. He thought, ¡°I stole the powers off of a demonic shifter a long time ago, like two decades ago probably, so I guess it¡¯s time to put them into use. Should be fun to be a fish for once, fish are entertaining!¡± Skendus would have to leave the radiant one-eye sect behind for a while, and this was disadvantageous because the sect was very important to him, but his mind was made up already. The sect wouldn¡¯t punish him for exploring the world, so he could come back home whenever he wanted to. He had every ounce of freedom that a rat could wish for! Anyway, since they¡¯ve decided to leave this place together, that¡¯s exactly what they did. They transformed their physical bodies into ghostly ones, with the separate use of that power which Tim had acquired earlier, called atomic shifting! This ability was useful, very easy to use as well. Then, they left the soul-tampering cave! The exit of the cave didn¡¯t go easy on their souls, though. It felt as if they were going through a snug, astronomical wormhole, and this was very uncomfortable. They even felt a bit of pain, which shouldn¡¯t be possible at all for ghosts, yet they felt it! They made it out of the soul-tampering cave eventually, and once they did, they didn¡¯t really have any other obstacles in front of them. The sea was close by because Tim hadn¡¯t traveled too far, as he had been a spider throughout his time spent on dry land, and spiders didn¡¯t really have the biggest or most travel-friendly legs. Since he didn¡¯t travel far, they reached the sea right away, and dived towards it with a goal in mind. They wanted to explore the sea, more specifically, they wanted to figure out where anti mana came from, and they hoped that nothing would stand in their way! Chapter 76 - Sawfish While Tim and Skendus were airborne, the system managed to spam him with a couple of notifications. Tim has achieved a lot recently, no matter in what means he completed those achievements, so it was time to talk about them. She spammed, [Congratulations, Timothy. You successfully found a soul tampering cave back there, and altered your soul too, so you gained 120 system points as a reward. The reward itself isn¡¯t great, but at least you attained some very important, and new powers from that cave, that¡¯s what matters the most! You¡¯ve also accumulated a total of 2,933, which is a decent sum. From what I can see, you¡¯re ready to face the tides of the sea, again, Timothy!] ¡°Well, I am ready, and I can¡¯t really complain about anything, system. It feels like I¡¯ve been through hell and back, yeah, but it was fun. I made a new friend too, so all-and-all, the trip wasn¡¯t that bad.¡± He thought. Skendus was out here with him as well, he floated across the air, and he moved as freely as a bird would. He was also listening to the conversation that Tim and the system had, even if unwillingly, because he had this inbuilt ability to read through minds! He listened, and he was really intrigued. Afterwards, he expressed himself directly. ¡°Quite the magic trick you got there, you have an internal helper in you or something. I suppose she¡¯s handy?¡± ¡°She¡¯s chatty, first and foremost, but yeah, she has been helping me a lot.¡± Tim admitted, but he refused to speak of this any further. This day had been difficult already, so he''d rather not bicker about anything right now, he didn¡¯t want to explain what a system was either. It wasn¡¯t a good idea at all, and Skendus wasn¡¯t being too nosy about the matter either, so he¡¯d rather keep this part about himself as much of a secret as he could. The system, for now, shall only be called a ¡®helper¡¯ by anyone else! If Skendus could accept those terms, then it may not matter at all how much he knew. It didn¡¯t matter how deeply he could read Tim¡¯s mind, as long as he didn¡¯t do anything with such information. Anyway, it was fair to say that Tim felt really burnt out right now. He explored a mere fraction of dry land, and that was advantageous, in an explorative-sense, but he also understood that he wasn¡¯t ready for the raw, dry lands right now. It was really tiring to survive out there, so unless he had a bigger body to walk the land with, he''d rather not explore the dry land at all, not for a long while! It was best to be cautious. ¡­ Tim and Skendus finally split the sea. Well, unlike Moses, they didn¡¯t have a good relationship with god(s), so they didn¡¯t really split the sea, they more like splashed into it. This was an interesting thing nonetheless, because rats such as Skendus, wouldn¡¯t be seen paddling across any bodies of salt water, no, not typically! He wasn¡¯t built to handle all of this nasty salt. Skendus had to adapt accordingly here. He possessed shapeshifting powers as well, so he turned into a lovely fish. He didn¡¯t have to settle for less either, as he sacrificed a whole level of his mana quality, in order to turn into a big, powerful fish! Due to this sacrifice, the quality of his mana was demoted to level four, differently known as bronze mana, but this demotion really was worthwhile. He turned into a muscly, three-meter long, largetooth sawfish! This was a rare, and fantastic species of fish. Now this species, in many instances, could grow up to double in size, but he was satisfied with being only three meters long. He didn¡¯t want to stand out too much, even out here in the open sea as it wouldn¡¯t be safe! So, this size was good, he felt comfortable! The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Anyway, even if he looked a bit slender, Skendus¡¯ resulting form was great nonetheless. His skin was blue, smooth, and a bit reflective! He looked pretty sharp, just like the fifty teeth on his chainsaw-like nose would encourage. No one would believe that he was a tiny rat up until a moment ago, no, but shapeshifting had that kind of charm! The sacrifice he made was worthwhile, for sure! Tim was quite a fan of the result too, he said. ¡°See, I told you that you¡¯d look badass, sawfish are the shit!¡± Skendus could only nod along to that, he agreed. Initially, he wasn¡¯t aware that such bizarre fish even existed, but Tim had a very specific image in his head when he pitched the idea, and Skendus could read right through that idea. He extracted the image out of Tim¡¯s head, and then had shapeshifted accordingly. All-and-all though, he was quite ready to face the tides of the sea, he started adapting accordingly already! Anyway, as for Timothy himself, he shifted back into a stingray, into his original blue-dotted kind of species, to be exact. He felt the most comfortable in this form, and the size that he shifted into was especially comfortable, when it was paired with his overall arsenal. He was 1.75 meters long now (tail excluded), and 1.30 meters wide. This was the exact size that he bore earlier on, before he got beached on those shores, so he was big enough, and he was certainly ready to battle the tides of the sea! Tim and Skendus had splashed into the sea, strategically. They shapeshifted together earlier, all while they were a couple of meters below the waters. The latter may seem odd, but they did so purposely! They materialized their bodies before they splashed in the waters, and then they sank. However, they hadn¡¯t suffocated, because breathing was quite optional when one was in a shapeshifting state! They did well, and only had to wait for about ten minutes until their bodies shifted accordingly. The process was fun at the very least, but also really painful. After they shapeshifted, they swam close to one another. Nothing romantic was going on here, no, it was just that Skendus wasn¡¯t used to being a fish, this was all new to him! He flopped around a lot like a beached fish, except he was in the waters and had a chainsaw-like nose, which made things very difficult. Tim almost got stabbed by that nose, several times, but he chose to stay close to his friend nonetheless, and such diligence marked the start of a beautiful friendship. ¡°Use your fucking tail, man!¡± He tried to encourage the other. ¡°You were a rat before, how are tails new to you, ye flappy bastard?! I genuinely don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°Rats don¡¯t use their tails like fish do, you cancerous tit.¡± Skendus expressed himself directly, and unapologetically. Later on, throughout a lot of back-and-forth banter, Skendus got the hang of his new body. He started swimming normally, and didn¡¯t seem as disabled anymore. If he had rattled across the shallow waters any longer, then he would have attracted a bunch of hungry reef sharks, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if he did so. Animals, especially predatory fish, loved to prey on disabled and or hurt fish. Skendus wasn¡¯t either of those things, but he sure has looked the part for a few minutes! Anyway, they continued swimming, and ended up doing so for a couple of hours. This area had an uncomfortably lengthy area of shallow water, so they had to swim slowly, because the waves hadn¡¯t been treating them well. Tim hated this part of the journey, but there was no going around it. They could transform their bodies into that ghostly-state, in order to cross this body of shallow water quicker, yes, but they avoided that. Skendus could use the practice, and what better way to learn swimming, than to pierce through challenging waters? He adapted quicker out here, far quicker than what it would take him to adapt on calm waters, that was for sure! They swam forward with a little goal in mind, and they hoped to achieve it. Skendus was curious about anti-mana, and its concept as a whole, and since this weird substance was ever so present in the sea, then they were to explore the seas for as long as it was reasonable. This was their goal, it was purely adventurous, so the ending result was bound to be intense, though it was less than likely for this intensity to convert into anything positive, no! They may die, but then again, there wasn¡¯t anything else for them to do. Tim achieved his little aspiration to upgrade, and or tamper his soul, he did so quite successfully. Now, he was really bored and up for anything, even if dangerous! Chapter 77 - "Frolicking horse" While Tim and Skendus swam through a wide area of shallow water, the both of them had one thing in common, they got bored really quickly! The sea was wide, massive even, so it was very common for a fish to swim for hundreds of meters, miles even, without actually reaching an important location. It would take a while for them to escape these uncomfortable, shallow waters! Since they were pretty bored, Tim decided to browse the rest of the upgrades that the system had to offer. He was offered a list of the available upgrades, and got really excited only moments later, because he realized that he could buy at least two of them! He did a lot of math to figure that out, the math made his head hurt, inevitably, and this resulting irritation that he felt helped him decide which upgrade to buy first. Tim decided to buy an intelligence upgrade. It was a hardy and useful upgrade, promising thirty-five points of brain power! The system said so, she specified. [This upgrade costs 700 system points, yes, but let¡¯s be honest, Timothy, you need it. You''ve needed these 35 points for a while now, but don¡¯t expect it to solve all of your problems. Remember, you¡¯re a bigger stingray now, so your brain should¡¯ve increased in capacity along with your size, yet it didn¡¯t. Anorexia is locking away a good quarter of your intelligence, due to various reasons, so the more you eat, the better you¡¯ll feel in the long run. At the very least, you¡¯ll get rid of that nasty brain fog in your head!] ¡°Oh, looks like I need to do a lot of things. It¡¯s so hard to become fat around here, though, but I will try my best.¡± He thought. Afterwards, he just bought the upgrade. He experienced bad headaches from such upgrades before, and he even feared that he would get paralyzed this time around, but he took the risk nonetheless. The waters were shallow here, and Skendus was ¡®understanding¡¯ of the need to progress, so Tim did exactly that. He bought the IQ upgrade, for the sake of progressing! Tim then expected to get knocked out cold, but that wasn¡¯t the case. He felt a slight pinch from deep within his head, which wasn¡¯t painful at all, but otherwise he was fine. What followed along after, however, was perhaps the greatest episode of euphoria that he had ever felt, it got him ¡®high¡¯, in a sense. It was a really wonderful feeling! The fog that had taken his brain hostage, since basically forever, now cleared up, well, mostly. He could think straight for once, he developed some good coherent thoughts as a result, but mostly, he then got this intense urge to swim at high speeds! Tim suddenly felt as if he was a horse, who got freed from the barn after a long, whistling, cold winter. He just wanted to run and frolic! Unlike a horse, however, he didn¡¯t have any legs, so his fins had to make due. He swam like a really fast fish, for about ten whole minutes! It was fun. Skendus was surprised earlier on once he saw Tim take off, but he then understood what was going on. Skendus, as an illusionist, had this intense ability to read through the minds and brain-waves of other creatures, so he understood that Tim¡¯s brain was suddenly a lot faster, which in turn converted into such frantic, energized movements! His friend zoomed around for a little while, but he managed to swim close by nonetheless, until the other calmed down. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Once he calmed down, Skendus asked. ¡°That seemed fun and all, all the swimming about. How do you feel?¡± ¡°I feel like I farted out all of my dead brain cells, well, not literally, but I do feel a lot better.¡± He expressed. Of course, Tim wasn¡¯t the best with words at the moment, since he got a bit tired from all the swimming around, but he felt good indeed. If he could find a better way to describe himself, he¡¯d say that it was really accelerating to go through an IQ upgrade of this volume. This upgrade was valued to be a staggering 54% increase in brainpower, so yes, this was really accelerating for him! Ironically, the numbers didn''t matter that much to him at the moment. He was smarter now, and that was what mattered to him the most, that''s what he cared about! The utter lack of intelligence that he suffered with for a while now, had acted as a solid barricade to him, his goals, and his overall survival. Things hadn¡¯t been easy, so it felt amazing to break out of that cycle of uncertainty! Anyway, the system then interrupted his train of thought. She had some important things to go over, and hoped that the other would be more attentive this time. The system said, [I¡¯m glad that you enjoyed the upgrade so¡­ thoroughly, so I¡¯d like to believe that its cost was justified. Anyway, 2,233 system points remain in your sum, so you have a bit of purchasing power remaining. I¡¯m sure you noticed the CQ upgrade, which was next in line to the upgrade you already bought. CQ stands for creative intelligence, and it can be useful in many instances, in your case, it would be useful in any battle.] ¡°Oh? That sounds interesting.¡± He admitted, though that was the least frantic thought that he had for a while. [I¡¯m not rushing you to buy it, especially since your CQ already seems to be abnormally high, but it¡¯s a good option.] She followed along, [Think it over, though ideally, you best buy a couple of the other upgrades for now, and worry about the intelligence upgrades later. You sport an IQ of 100 points now, and no one¡¯s rushing you academically either, you¡¯re smarter than most fish! So, no pressure.] ¡°Well that¡¯s relieving¡­¡± He added, and then somewhat dozed off. Tim was swimming across the shallow waters along with Skendus, because that was all they could do in this boring area, so he didn¡¯t have any physical challenges in front of him specifically, no, yet his brain seemed to be the biggest challenge of all. This was alarming, considering that he had just got his brain upgraded! He did expect to get any cognitive malfunctions, so he was concerned! Timothy continued to spiral down to that ¡®dozy state¡¯, and eventually, he fell unconscious. This was alarming, but at least it wasn¡¯t painful for him whatsoever, because he just fell asleep! It was unlikely that his brain was responding to some kind of internal trauma, he definitely wasn¡¯t responding to physical trauma, so in theory he should be okay. Skendus watched him go down, and thought. ¡°Well, that looks bad, though expected. This fucker has been zooming around in an empty stomach, I¡¯m surprised he didn¡¯t crash earlier. I better get him some food, maybe I can use this huge nose of mine to hunt better, too?¡± Chapter 78 - Pre-necromantic upgrades! Tim woke up feeling partially rested. He had crashed on the sand, so it wasn¡¯t that he had been uncomfortable while he was asleep, he was comfortable, but some things were still working against his favor. His stomach felt like an empty pit, first of all, and furthermore he felt hungover, which shouldn¡¯t be so common amongst fish, yet it was. Though not damaged, his brain had been overworked! While he had been asleep, Skendus the sawfish, had tried his best to be helpful. He hunted and brought a slaughtered, fatty, one-meter long reef shark, for Tim to nibble on. Considering the circumstances, this may be the best time to eat a whole shark, as he really needed to eat. He nodded at Skendus, and muttered. ¡°Shit, for a second I thought that you killed Marlo for me there, he was a shark too, but that poor bastard is dead already. He was a good friend, but the anti-mana got to him, and he died in an explosion.¡± That part was sad, but then again, not every reef shark was related to Marlo, they didn¡¯t bear his memory, so there was no point in wasting this delicious food. Tim needed the food, gravely, and one whole shark may not even be enough to feed him if he decided to share the carcass with Skendus, no. The latter was double the size, he strode the waters at three meters long, and he was a true fatty fish, so he¡¯d surely eat a lot! Thankfully, Skendus wasn¡¯t as hungry, he followed along. ¡°It¡¯s sad that your friend died, but that shouldn¡¯t stop you from eating these kinda sharks, ¡®reef sharks¡¯ you call them? They¡¯re pretty common around here, I ate two of them before you woke up. They''re pretty filling, so you shouldn¡¯t exclude them as a food source, kid. Eat whatever you can, because I don¡¯t think that stingrays should look as flat as you do, it doesn''t look healthy, you gotta become fatter.¡± ¡°Well, no kidding, I¡¯m slim!¡± He said, after chewing through a few mouthfuls of shark meat. ¡°It¡¯s not that I can¡¯t eat, but I had a big growth-sprout before, and my body just hasn¡¯t adapted to that sprout yet. I¡¯m as soft as a feather, well, internally.¡± While the other nodded along, Tim also asked. ¡°How¡¯d you manage to kill three sharks? That sounds pretty badass for a guy who never was a fish before, it really is something to brag about.¡± ¡°I have a big nose,¡± Skendus answered, and he didn¡¯t need to explain himself any further. Skendus was a sawfish now, as his magical arsenal had given him the opportunity to be one, and such fish had a very useful saw-like nose, like the name encouraged. His nose was two-and-a-half feet long, and it was armed with fifty, pointy teeth too, which meant that he¡¯d just have to slash his nose against his prey in order to get the job done. That method was simple, and effective! A sawfish didn¡¯t even need any magical abilities to hunt, though Skendus wasn¡¯t as crude. He still used his illusion-based powers, and he used them to soothe the sharks, before he executed them! It was safer to hunt that way, and the results were bountiful, as he managed to feed both himself and Timothy. Skendus did well overall. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Anyway, Tim then started questioning the system, he asked. ¡°Why did I faint, system? I¡¯m used to fainting because of upgrades, but that was very sudden. I feel like I ate a hundred alefin rotter sardines, and I remember those fish specifically, because that was the last time when I got drunk!¡± [Look at you remembering whole names now, the upgrade did its job, for sure!] The system teased him, and then she added. [As per your question, you just fell asleep earlier, you didn¡¯t actually faint, and the reason behind this is easy to understand, you should be able to understand it now.] [Due to the recent upgrade, a lot of neuro-transmitters were suddenly generated, and then they were released in your brain, all at once. This was a sizable surprise for your brain, and since it couldn''t counter the neuro-transmitters whatsoever, your brain just accepted them, and then started working really fast! This speed was what made you feel so euphoric, and as you know, euphoria has to end at some time, no matter how great it feels to experience it. When you started slowing down, your brain also relaxed, thoroughly, and that was when you crashed. All of this was just like a sugar-rush, except the sugar, in this case, were a bunch of neuro-transmitters! You¡¯re fine, don''t worry.] She explained, as best as she could. The system¡¯s explanations were expansive, as always, but they were useful. She covered topics that Timothy wouldn¡¯t even think of, so there was no replacing information like that! Most of fishkind didn¡¯t even know what a neuro-transmitter was, for example, and this emphasized how important her vast information-sharing was! She was priceless! Anyway, since Timothy got an explanation for what happened, he could focus on other things afterwards. He had a couple of open, visual system tabs in front of him, which explained some possibilities. One tab featured the remaining system points that he had, and the other tab featured the five remaining upgrades that he was to buy, eventually. They were all really interesting, so he focused on those. ¡°Twenty-two hundred points for a CQ upgrade, huh? I won¡¯t be buying that anytime soon, then! What does CQ even stand for, again?¡± He asked, through a thought, while he nibbled on the reef shark¡¯s intestines. [Creative intelligence,] She answered, [Creative intelligence as I mentioned, can be useful in many instances. In your case, it¡¯ll help you come up with more clever, and creative solutions when your back is against the wall. It¡¯s really useful in battle, great war generals are known to be creative!] ¡°Well, I¡¯m fighting fish, so that doesn¡¯t require much creativity from my side, not for now at least, so I¡¯m gonna have to skip this upgrade for a while, system. If I¡¯m being honest, the level-six jaw upgrade thingy looks a lot better to me! It¡¯s cheaper at least, it¡¯s only eleven-hundred points.¡± He expressed. Tim was contemplative for once, and this was interesting, as it was an indicator of progress. It was very rare of him to think things over, and in most cases, he simply picked the first idea that was presented to him. He was rarely picky, so this was a new phenomenon! Perhaps it was best that he actually was picky this time, because aside from those two, mentioned purchase options, the remaining three seemed especially useful. All three of them were magical abilities, and although they didn¡¯t seem extremely destructive, they may offer the most unique advantages that Tim had ever heard of! Even their names seemed manic, gravely. Not to mention their descriptions! These powers could even be considered pre-necromantic! Their names were the following; Bone multiplier, electro nerve splitter, and soul grabber! Chapter 79 - "Well well well" Bone multiplier, electro nerve splitter, and soul grabber were some intense names, first of all, but they didn¡¯t just sound terrifying, they were terrifying! These three magical powers had a necromantic undertone to them, and all things necromancy were frowned upon, even within this world of brute slaughter, and invasive magic, it was shunned. Necromancy tipped the bucket for most, apparently, as plenty of people and or creatures drew the line there regarding how brutal magic should be. Their reasons were purely ethical! Timothy, however, wasn''t as ethical. Even with an upgraded brain to his advantage, things like ethics, sympathy, and empathy eluded him. He was far smarter than the average fish now, which shouldn¡¯t make him evasive of such decent principles, and yet he was! Perhaps he was so unethical because he was smarter? It was paradoxical. Tim was more experienced in worldly matters, as he had explored the seas, the lands, and the sky too, and this was a part of what made him cruel. Within his journeys, he flirted with death several times, so overall, he came to the conclusion that this world was very violent, and very dangerous! There was nothing ethical about being burned alive by an enemy, for example, it was horrendous, and yet not unheard of. This served his point! He shouldn¡¯t be the only ethical, or overly-ethical creature within this world of horrifying brutality, it didn¡¯t make any sense. So, if these pre-necromantic powers offered any sort of an advantage to him whatsoever, he¡¯d use them proudly, without batting an eyelid, even! A frantic explorer such as himself needed any advantages that he could get, regardless of how little they were, or how evil they seemed, so he wasn¡¯t planning to get bound to any little laws regarding decency! There was no debating on that matter, his mind was made up. However, he was far away from buying all of these interesting, magical powers, because they cost fifteen-hundred points each, they were very expensive! He would need to kill several big creatures in order to buy all of these available purchase options, that was the main way. Anyway, since Tim couldn¡¯t buy all of them, he chose to buy just one of them. Specifically, he chose to buy the one that seemed the least problematic; The electro nerve splitter! The system had described this power as something that could help him paralyze a weaker target, quite easily. Paralyzation sounded like a decent way to avoid some unnecessary, potentially dangerous battles, so he went with that. It seemed very useful. ¡°I¡¯m buying that one system. Give me the nerve splitter.¡± He requested, through a thought. Tim was still eating, so he had a moment to spare when it came to upgrades. Besides, this was the last upgrade that he¡¯d be able to buy for a while, so he could spare a few minutes to buy and implement it. The system approved his request right away, and a few seconds later, he noticed that the implementation process was pretty painless, he didn¡¯t feel a thing! A few bolts of electricity frolicked around his fins, but that was nothing to worry about, he was all safe and dandy! The system then announced, [Your purchase has been successfully implemented into your body, and it cost you 1,500 system points in exchange. A total of 733 points remain in your sum, so I¡¯d say you¡¯re not that far away from buying another upgrade and or power. Try to kill something big, that''ll help.] ¡°Hmm¡­ I¡¯ll try.¡± He waffled, through a mouthful of meat. ¡°Careful with your nerve splitter magic, there.¡± Skendus suddenly intervened, he seemed excited for the worse. ¡°I still don¡¯t understand how that voice in your head is giving you powers, but since it is, you better use your powers wisely. If anyone sees you splitting nerves, even the nastiest of creatures will gather together to hunt you down, they''d consider it a noble deed. Hell, they¡¯d try to kill me too, so try to keep your spooky powers hidden, please.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Tim didn¡¯t know how to accept such advice, but at the very least, he was happy that his friend wasn¡¯t too nosy. He was really helpful instead, which was something rare to expect out of a friend, under any circumstances. It was also really helpful that he wasn¡¯t nosy, because Tim didn¡¯t want to explain the whole concept of a system to anyone! It was a hassle to do so, if not dangerous even, and that was why he was glad that no one was asking him questions about the system. He just nodded along to Skendus¡¯ advice, and promised to stay out of any unnecessary trouble, because come to think of it, the last thing he needed was for bands of evil fish to start hunting him down. It would be gravely unlucky, so he decided that he wasn¡¯t to use this new ability unless he really had to! This was for the best. Anyway, Tim ate most of that carcass eventually, and then they were on the move again. The two friends wanted to swim to the reef, because that was where the magic happens, or best said, that was where the anti-magic happened! They were to explore the anti-mana pools, and hopefully, they were to do anything that would help other, innocent fish. ¡­ A coral reef, in a way, was a hotspot for all things dramatic! Tim knew that first hand, because he had reincarnated right into the vicinity of a reef, that¡¯s where his journey started, and that¡¯s where he was to return to inevitably. He was returning to the reef today, because of explorative reasons, and also because it truly felt like home! In a way, he urged to reclaim his home. The pools of anti-mana were also located there, which hence, spoke a thing or two about the overall drama that the said reef bore. Things were a mess there right now, but this volume of drama wasn¡¯t all that the reef had to offer, surely not, especially since those pools were only a recent event. Their imprint on the place wasn¡¯t as strong, and this was why he wasn''t too scared of those pools, he was ready to take his home back! Tim had to take his original home back, because as for now, he didn¡¯t have anywhere else to go! The deep, dark sea wasn¡¯t as comfortable either, he hated it there, so it wasn¡¯t much of an option for him to live out there, in the deeper areas. He wouldn''t be able to survive out there, not for long at least, as the open, cold waters were not a place for the weak! Since he didn¡¯t want to live in the empty, desolate parts of the reef either, then his path for the day was carved out. Apart from their exploratory purposes, he was either to get his home back, or die trying! Anyway, the two friends then swam towards the north-side of the reef, because that was where a certain lair was. They wanted to get to the new lair of the blistering mana sect, which contained ten members only due to recent, sad events. The sect was both small and isolated, it was less than optimal, but today it was to serve a purpose. Skendus wanted to get some information out of them! ¡°I doubt that anything changed there, man.¡± Tim expressed, as they swam together, and then he further added. ¡°Though it feels longer, a lot longer for fuck¡¯s sake¡­ II¡¯ve only been gone for a day, hell, less than a day. It¡¯s dusk now, I left in the morning, I think? So yeah, I doubt that anything new happened.¡± The concept of time was confusing once in a while, but the fact of the matter remained, he hadn¡¯t been gone for long. They were about to reach the layer soon as well, it only was fifty meters away right now, yet Tim felt really weird and queasy about returning home! This new lair wasn''t as fancy, but it felt a bit like home nonetheless. Tim felt as if he had been gone for an eternity, and almost expected to run into a bunch of full-grown kids of his, as if he was a soldier who returned from a whole decade of war, which was a really weird feeling. This feeling couldn¡¯t steer any further from the truth, especially since he was a young virgin himself, but his mind went through such weird thoughts nonetheless. Skendus snapped him out of it, as he followed along. ¡°When things are going wrong, a day can mean a lot, kid. Let¡¯s ask your friends what they know, we¡¯ll rest a little bit too, and then we¡¯re going to see the anti-mana pools.¡± That plan sounded good enough, so Tim didn¡¯t protest against it, it would be aimless to protest it. The anti-mana was what got them to jump into the sea to begin with, so it was ideal to proceed strategically. Anyway, as they got closer to the lair, Tim saw a fish that he¡¯d rather not see. The fish was flat, like a pancake, so it had to be a stingray, there was no debating that part. Most of the stingrays that he knew were dead, though, so from all accounts, this had to be Ortana near the lair! She was a less than honest stingray! ¡°Well well well¡­¡± Tim muttered to himself. Chapter 80 - More bricks? Ortana idled around near the entrance of the sect¡¯s lair. One would get intimidated by her presence, especially considering her rotten past, a past which reeked with the severe lack of loyalty, but still it was pointless to fear her. She was a mere stingray, after all, and she didn¡¯t have much firepower on her, if not at all so she couldn¡¯t do any direct harm. Tim was aware of that, so he approached her confidently, and then scolded. ¡°What the hell are you doing here? Who was dumb enough to let you get near the sect?¡± ¡°John,¡± The other was quick to answer, and then she pressured. ¡°Watch your tone there, Terrence, I¡¯m a proud member of this sect, so you can¡¯t talk to me like that! You can¡¯t deny my long long membership.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lecture me, you left me for dead! I could¡¯ve been eaten by sharks, lady!¡± He countered. ¡°But you¡¯re not dead, so what are you mad about? You large baby you!¡± She yelled. Timothy wanted to scream at the lady in response, but he contained himself. Somewhere down the line, he couldn¡¯t really ask anyone to risk their lives for him, it was crazy, so it was pointless to argue over the matter, as anyone could have ditched him under the same circumstances. In fact, he had forgotten about Ortana entirely up until a moment ago, that was for sure, and he was just mad right now, because he was reminded that she existed! That about summed up his fit of rage, but otherwise he was good, as everything hinted that his rage was superficial. Skendus was unfortunate enough to witness their fit of rage, and he was quite intrigued now. This drama was funny at best, but he was also surprised how Ortana, a significantly smaller stingray, wasn¡¯t scared of either him or Timothy. It was simply baffling for her not to budge at all, while in the presence of a three-meter long sawfish, and in front of the human-sized stingray that Tim was! It was amazing. She was either fearless, suicidal, or, she trusted her stingray friend a lot. Only the latter made any actual sense, she trusted Timothy! Skendus picked up on that, as he could read the minds of most. He sensed the drips of trust within the waters, and he didn¡¯t identify a single sour thought from Ortana¡¯s side either, and with that considered, he had to point out the overall good will. He said, ¡°If I may add, Terrence, your little stingray friend is a good person, erg, individual. She slaughtered whole tribes of shrimp, yes, but otherwise she¡¯s really nice.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know that sawfish could read minds,¡± She followed along, though she steered completely out of topic. ¡°Don¡¯t remind me that I¡¯m a sawfish, I burned an entire level of mana quality away, to become this big. I used to be a rat, like four hours ago, though, so I guess that it¡¯s worth it to be sacrificial once in a while. But yes, I can read minds too.¡± He answered. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Such an answer was vague, even Tim had a hard time following along with it. He had shapeshifted before, but although his mana pool had increased or decreased in the process, the quality of his mana never really budged. It was untouched, so he didn¡¯t understand what Skendus was talking about. The two weren¡¯t aware of his confusion, but Ortana still helped make sense of things a bit more. She had her own little story to share. ¡°Oh, I feel you, honey. I used to be a plant, a very powerful plant too, but you can¡¯t do much as a plant. I had to offer the quality of my mana to the gods as well, in exchange for ¡®better¡¯ bodies, eh, better is a horrible way to describe them because I¡¯ve been a weakling ever since. Anyway, regardless of how weak I was, it was fun to shapeshift most times, erg, well except that one time when I was a spider. That was very very boring, god!¡± She explained. Skendus couldn¡¯t help chuckling in response to that latter part. He tried to taunt Timothy, who had been a spider up until a few hours ago, but then he decided to leave him be. Tim was pretty angry already, so there was no point in taunting a burning fire. They didn''t clash. Anyway, the following conversations were more detail oriented. They discussed the condition that the coral reef was in, specifically, the conditions on the opposite, south side, where the anti-mana was the most active on! They knew that side to be the most tainted of all, purely based on the personal experience that these stingrays had there. The south side of the reef had been struggling, and the more they talked about it, the more intense things seemed to become. The south side was still struggling, and due to fresh new matters too, which was less than optional, because the team of two was still feeling explorative. They were explorative, while the anti-mana itself had become too dangerous to explore, so they quite likely might get killed. Ortana told them all about it! She explained that the place was like a warzone now, and yet it didn''t feature just brute slaughter alone. Something more advanced was happening, well, advanced for fish at least! Green fish from the deep dark sea were emerging from their habitats, just to bring those weird, green bricks to the reef. From experience, Tim knew that green stuff was anything but good here in the sea, and he was right to think so, as these bricks were somehow advancing the already dangerous pool(s) of anti-mana! The anti-mana substance grew in intensity, and since the name itself suggests that anti-mana wanted to destroy mana itself, the main problem was apparent. This reef would soon be unfit to live in, no lair would be good enough to protect them from danger, and with that said, most of the already brittle life of this reef was bound to be destroyed! However, the concept of an expanding pool did sound interesting, the two friends were mesmerized by the thought of that, and their urge to explore increased, however dangerous that sense of exploration may be! Ortana was less enthusiastic, but she felt a bit indebted to Timothy, so she decided to join them too, as long as the other two did their best to protect her from danger. She didn''t want to die because of any causeless reasons! Their conversation ended there, more or less. The team of three already discussed everything that was important, and since they agreed on that little plan to explore the anti-mana pools, there was no need for the atmosphere to be so dense anymore, so the two stingrays calmed down. They entered the den together afterwards, to rest for a while, and Skendus followed them, though he had to squeeze his way in due to his explosive size. The den was substantial, he was happy to be here, and then in order to make some conversation, he asked Ortana a question that he wanted to ask about thirty minutes ago, when they had first met. Tauntingly, he asked. ¡°Why do you call him Terrence? It¡¯s really funny¡­¡± Chapter 81 - Essence harvesting! At the break of dawn, Tim, Skendus, and Ortana made their way to the south side of the reef, which was hours away. It was a lengthy journey, but their fins didn''t feel the first half of the distance, because they were pretty sleepy. That kept them numb. The other half of the journey felt much more intense to them, however, because they started anticipating danger through every beating second. It was their understanding that the fish which were infected with that green stuff, often made very explosive movements, the anti-mana made them agile like that. They didn''t want to get pounced on by a creature of such speed, so they kept an eye on their surroundings at all times, and hoped not to die so randomly! In the spirit of their potential predicament, Tim expressed. ¡°If those motherfuckers managed to make more of those green pools, then we''re already dead. They''ll have us surrounded in no time!¡± ¡°So? We''ll fight!¡± Ortana added, uncharacteristically. ¡°We''re not the most efficient fighters, well, most of us. Do you have any firepower on you, plant lady?¡± He asked. It wasn¡¯t that Tim wanted to be a pain in the ass, it was just that he tried to be safe around here. If they could approach any and all danger strategically, then they may not die after all. Survival was a secondary goal at this point, yes, with exploration being the first goal, but they¡¯d still rather not die. He wanted to be prepared. Thankfully Ortana gave a good answer, she said. ¡°Oh, I may not be big like you, but I went through another mana quality upgrade ever since the last time we saw each other. Decent mana (level 3) is really coming in handy, so yes, I do have ¡®some¡¯ firepower on me, Terrence, hard coal actually! I won''t tell you what kinda powers they are, though, we''ll let that be a surprise.¡± ¡°Hey, I won¡¯t bother you as long as you try to keep us all alive. Whatever powers you have, may it help you not to ditch us when shit hits the fan.¡± He said. Tim was obviously angry about being ditched in the past, which didn''t make any sense because he was cooperating with the same ¡®dishonest¡¯ fish right now. His feelings were mixed about the matter, as he didn''t like traitors at all, so at least that part of the issue was understandable. Everything else was an enigma of sour emotions! Ortana didn''t answer his complaint, she remained idle, though it was obvious that she wanted to say something stupid. Thankfully she refrained from doing so, and they could continue with their little journey thanks to her silence, they didn''t need any unnecessary barricades right now. Tim still tried to be prepared for any upcoming complications, he thought to himself. ¡°If things go sideways, I can use that new shit of mine, the nerve splitter. I don''t wanna die, and I''m sure that those green motherfuckers don''t mind dealing with a dash of necromantic powers either, hehe! They''re insane themselves, so what do they care about magical decency?¡± Anyway, they continued traveling with that pace of cramped up nerves and raw confidence. Thankfully nothing pounced on them along the way, so when they entered the vicinity of the anti-mana pool, they had the grand advantage of camouflage and flawless infiltration. They had the upper hand! Tim then noticed that the pool of anti-mana had really expanded. He could notice it, because what used to be a lair for the sect, was now more of a large, open pit! The lair''s ceiling was gone, it had been destroyed on the day of the explosion, so virtually this green, goo-like substance had all the freedom in the world to expand itself. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. In theory, those weird green bricks helped expand the pool too, somehow? A bunch of infected dolphins could have tossed as many bricks in this pool as they wanted, and expanded the pool in exchange. It wasn¡¯t like anyone could stop them, so this was only inevitable! The pool seemed a lot deeper now too, at least five more meters deep at least. It has increased in volume, and if it continued to do so, the pool''s contents could escape this large ditch¡¯s borders soon. That wouldn''t be a good thing whatsoever, considering that this green stuff despised and destroyed all things mana! ¡°Jesus, why do all of this shit just to destroy magic? Seems pretty pointless to live without magical powers in this world.¡± Tim thought to himself, his question was quite valid too, though without an answer. Anyway, even though they had the advantage of being hidden, two large creatures couldn''t really stay hidden for long! Skendus was a three-meter long sawfish, after all, so his size was disadvantageous when it came to staying hidden. They got discovered. Two rabid-looking barracudas had spotted them. They had great eyesight, so it wasn''t nearly a surprise how they spotted the team, even though the said barracudas were over fifty meters away! They spotted their targets, and then charged forward. Although it took a few seconds to realize that their hiding spot was compromised, Skendus still managed to give his team a blunt advantage. He could hear the thoughts of other creatures, and when he heard a couple of thoughts beaming through the waters, he realized that he and the team had been found. ¡°Scatter!¡± He shouted, and his tone was soaked in panic, it was a sort of panic that was hard to ignore. Tim and Ortana acknowledged his warning, so they started moving quickly. They arose from the coral, and looked at their surroundings to figure out what was hunting them. That was their first thought, they could only guess that they were being hunted! Tim then noticed the rapidly approaching barracudas, and although he was intimidated by their speed, he had a plan in mind long before he got here. The south-side of the reef may not be ready to witness pre-necromantic powers, but he wasn¡¯t planning to respect anyone''s feelings! He locked in on one of the beaming, green barracudas, and then he summoned his recently acquired, nerve-splitting powers! Before he attacked, the tip of Tim¡¯s fins shone with this black, fuzzy light, which signified just how dark these powers were. Then, two needle-like bits of light shot out from his fins, and darted towards his target! Tim seemed like a WW2 fighter plane for a moment, which was a bit funny, but the results he managed to muster up, all under a single second, weren¡¯t as funny. His target stopped swimming all of a sudden, and was left under the mercy of the waters, who forced the barracuda to slow down, and then drift away aimlessly. His target was paralyzed, perhaps not thoroughly, but efficiently! Afterwards, he aimed at the second green barracuda, who had gotten uncomfortably close already, and shot at it. He paralyzed this one as well! Tim sighed in relief, he sighed largely, and then he expressed. ¡°Nerve splitting is no joke! Look at those big motherfuckers, they shriveled up so badly that they look like old men''s cocks¡­ Damn, I saw a lot of those in locker rooms before.¡± Skendus then stepped in, and said. ¡°The pool doesn''t seem to be a fan of your nerve splitting trick, kid. Look at that, it''s gurgling!¡± All of sudden, three fish emerged from the pool. This shouldn¡¯t be possible, as a pool of anti-mana was strong enough to destroy everything physical, even its own kind, but then again, it wasn¡¯t that they could understand much about this pool and its contents to begin with! These green fish emerged, and although it was hard to identify what species they were, they sure looked dangerous! They were fatty, plumb, short-spined, and a whole meter wide. What they did afterwards was phenomenal! The fatty fish suddenly harvested the paralyzed barracudas. This harvest, however, was in no way physical, as the barracudas were being converted into this essence-like form, a form which almost seemed ghostly! They weren¡¯t eaten. Afterwards, the blobs were getting ready to attack, it was obvious. Tim tried to attack one of them immediately, but he may not have time to paralyze the three of them. The upcoming clash was bound to have some unfortunate repercussions! Chapter 82 - Stripped out of mana! Tim shot at one of the green, tubby fish that had emerged from the pool of anti-mana. He didn¡¯t want to fight this particular battle, because he felt that he would lose, but it wasn¡¯t like he had the option to pick his battles right now. The enemies were attacking the team, and in response, he attacked them as well, by paralyzing one of them with the nerve-splitting ability, his response was immediate! Tim¡¯s attack was pretty effective too. Rabid or not, every creature seems to have responsive, and vulnerable neural nerves. He used that to his utmost advantage, that one fish couldn¡¯t stand a chance! Anyway, since the two sides clashed all within seconds, it wasn¡¯t a surprise how the enemies came up with an interesting attack of their own. They shot out these beams of light that seemed anything but holy! The beams swirled around a lot, as they traveled forwards, they even seemed like ribbons for a split second. The beams traveled very fast, however, so one wouldn¡¯t even notice most of their art-like swirls. The damage they delivered was impactful, and yet, it was not physically harmful as one would expect! Skendus was the biggest fish in the team, he had been the easiest target, so he was the first to figure out what kind of attack this was. The beams of light passed through the lower half of his body, and within a second, he was stripped out of every single point of mana that he had! This was disadvantageous, because he couldn¡¯t use his illusion-based magical powers now! The powers were still within him, he could feel them pulsing so thankfully the enemy hadn¡¯t stolen them, however, he couldn¡¯t use them for a while, which was a really rare occurrence for him! Skendus rarely ran out of mana, he knew better. Anyway, the enemies were getting ready to attack again, it was obvious, but he did have a little window of time to utilize here. He used this window to complain, or best described, he wanted to warn his friends! ¡°Bloody hell, they stole all my mana! Stay away from those beams!¡± He warned them, and then sulked. ¡°What a stupid way to be rendered defenseless, but I guess that''s what these fat bastards used those barracudas for? They turned them into anti-mana beams, that''s gotta be it, and that¡¯s pretty¡­ unlucky.¡± Skendus¡¯ train of thought was understandable, he was really agitated. Though he was okay physically, it was clear that he had already lost his greatest advantage in this battle, his powers, and that was why he sulked. If he could have used his powers, then he would''ve unleashed a sensational wave of calmed nerves against the enemies. He could have made them feel so numb, to the point where their brains would¡¯ve simply stopped working for a while! That would''ve been advantageous, but he couldn''t do anything right now, he could only hope to survive. For that matter, he floated idly by and tried his best to hide from any other pending attacks. He felt that the opposition had other, more dangerous tricks up their fatty, manky fins, and they were about to use them soon! Timothy wasn¡¯t so lucky either, in terms of magical arsenal. The beams of anti-mana had hit his lower left fin, and although that was a smaller, afflicted area, especially in comparison to how much Skendus got hit, he still lost plenty of points! Most of them, actually. [Well, you''re fresh out of luck.] The system said, and then she briefly explained. [You spent 50 mana points while using the electro-nerve splitter, and you lost most of your mana points thanks to that green beam, 2,013 points, to be exact. You only have 120 of them left, so attack efficiently, because your life may depend on it!] A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°The nerve splitter is as efficient as things are gonna get,¡± He thought. Then, he went ahead to attack another one of the blobby enemies. He felt that the enemies needed a few more mere seconds to attack, and he would rather beat them to it, so the bolts of dark light that he shot across the waters, were the few remaining fragments of his good will. He tried to put up a fight! Tim hit one of the blobs, then he hit the other one. Everything happened within a second, and it was so fast, that his friends didn''t even register what had happened. The battle was seemingly over, and although that was hard to believe, it seemed to be the case! He was agile. ¡°That was fun,¡± He said, and then he complained. ¡°I wish I could''ve done that without losing all of my fucking mana, though! I only have twenty five points left!¡± The system didn''t have to tell him about the latter, as he understood math now. It was astounding that he understood it, but then again, the presence of comprehensive math in his mind wasn''t as refreshing as he would imagine. He was pissed! The system did then tell him about something more encouraging, though, she announced. [Congratulations, you killed three huge, and seemingly diseased anglerfish. One of them got you 900 points alone, as she seemed to have been a queen of some sorts. The overall reward for your kills is considerably handsome, you received 1,900 system points, and as of now you''ve accumulated a total of 2,663 points. Good job, you did well!] ¡°What good job? I don''t have a drop of mana left in me, so I''m practically naked out here¡­ Also, did you just say that I killed an anglerfish? Those did not look like anglerfish.¡± He babbled along. [Well, they likely arose from the deep depths of the sea. Their bodies have been severely damaged while and after they arose from those depths, so that¡¯s why they look like that. They can''t adapt to the different, although lighter water pressure up here around you. Their skin, and even their bones are simply not made for this environment, so it''s amazing how they even survived for this long. Though, as ironic as it might sound, I guess that the pool of anti-mana fueled them with some kind of power of its own, and this might explain how they survived, vaguely.] She concluded. ¡°Well, they got their death wish.¡± Tim boasted, ¡°They had to have had a death wish since they came up here. Hell, they even stole some of my system points from the looks of it? I didn''t get any points from those barracudas that I killed earlier, so yeah, they had a really bad death wish.¡± Tim tended to his friends afterwards, and tried to figure out if they were okay. The team hadn''t faced any physical challenges, so they were doing good, thankfully, but since they were stripped out of mana, it may be best for them to get out of here while they still could! Tim was especially motivated to leave. Ortana, the little stingray, insisted otherwise for some reason. Such bravery was rare from her side, and in this case it was just weird, it struck suspicion! As she tried to assure them of something, she said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, guys. I still have a lot of mana in me, so I''ll keep you safe. Let''s see what else there is here, maybe we can figure out how to destroy this stupid pool?¡± ¡°It is very unlikely that we can destroy it,¡± Skendus tried to reason with her. However, they weren¡¯t given enough time to bicker with each other, as something very unusual afflicted the waters shortly after! Tim noticed these freckles of life frolicking across the waters in front of them, and then he warned the team, and made them stop arguing immediately. ¡°Bloody look at that!¡± He said. These things in front of him seemed like fireflies, especially from a distance. Considering that the light that they were radiating was very green-colored, it was unlikely that they were fireflies, this could not be anything good. Tim then noticed that these dots of light gathered together into a cluster, and this was alarming because they gathered up right next to the three blobby, anglerfish carcasses! Chapter 83 - Blobby soul Timothy had plenty of cognitive challenges in the past, this was a part of his characteristic charm, even, as it was often funny. However, regardless of those challenges, he could still piece some puzzles together very well, and the intelligence upgrade he went through certainly helped him with that matter, it helped him analyze things better, he was more than alert now! Specifically, he could see that a new wave of danger was developing in front of him, and the team! One could even say that he had a seventh sense for these sorts of things, he could very well sniff out any pending danger, especially if it was right in front of their naked eyes! He saw it best to point at the potential danger too, for alertness¡¯ sake. ¡°I¡¯m no exorcist, guys, but there¡¯s a soul floating around over there, and it probably belongs to one of those dead bastards that I just killed. This can¡¯t be peachy, so maybe it¡¯s time we get out of here, because it¡¯s becoming harder and harder to fight these diseased, athlete-foot looking motherfuckers! I hate the color green for life now.¡± He expressed. Tim may be exaggerating things, but then again, the situation demanded it so. The green bits of light in front of them weren¡¯t flying around for nothing, as he had pointed out, they weren¡¯t trying to gather up together in a single cluster just for the fun of it. A strong soul tried to gather up enough energy for itself, and it tried to assume a dependable, transparent form too! The concept of energy worked in a very unique way in this world, it was frightening. Raw energy itself wasn¡¯t strong enough to be conscious, but, if a deceased creature was strong enough, it could gather up these tiny bits of energy together, and form a strong, conscious, and seemingly strong soul for itself! This was dangerous for Timothy and the team, because they¡¯d rather not fight something that was strong enough to re-assemble its own soul, essentially avoiding the concept of death in its entirety! If a soul was conscious, what did it matter if its hosting body was destroyed. In Timothy¡¯s eyes, it simply was one more hostile entity! It refused to pass along towards any soul-based universe, so its strength should not be underestimated. Skendus had seen several cases like this before, so he encouraged. ¡°Tim¡¯s right, we should get out of here! Those fish came out of this evil pool, so who knows what they¡¯re really capable of? We shouldn¡¯t disrespect them any longer, not in their own habitat.¡± The team had observed their surroundings for a few seconds only, and they already felt intimidated, so he made a very good point. However, even though just a few seconds had passed, the cluster of green lights in front of them needed that same, minimal amount of time to make a move! The team couldn¡¯t leave on time. This entity quickly assumed the form of a single, large blobby soul. Then, all of a sudden, the three anglerfish carcasses started moving too, frantically, and in a terrifying manner! They expected this stubborn soul to be powerful, but this tipped the bucket. Tim¡¯s first thought was to attack the blobs, especially since the bodies in front of them weren¡¯t swimming around just yet. He wanted to have the upper advantage by slaughtering them once more, however, he failed almost immediately! The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Tim didn¡¯t have any points of mana left in his mana pool, because those blobs had taken most of it from him only moments earlier! This predicament wasn¡¯t only demotivating, but it was absolutely frightening too, because he was naked out here. Since he ran out of mana, Tim couldn¡¯t either attack or protect himself. Since these blobs seemed pretty brainless and undead, he started getting desperate. ¡°Well fuck,¡± He sighed, sharply, and then weeped. ¡°Ortana, you were babbling something about protecting us, so, why don¡¯t you do that, right now? This is your time to shine, show us all the tricks that you¡¯ve been keeping up your¡­ fin?¡± ¡°Oh sure! Leave it to me to fight the big green monsters, that¡¯s fair.¡± She complained. Tim expected an answer like this, so he wasn¡¯t so surprised. He was a bit irritated, but that didn¡¯t matter much, as the problem in front of them was still present, and erect. It seemed like the best idea to swim away and flee, but by all odds, the undead enemies could catch up to them easily! With that considered, he came up with a simpler plan, which was to stand and fight. He asked, ¡°Have you gotten used to your nose there, Skendus? Paired with my barb, I think that we can put up a good fight. Well, we may die, but this is our only option.¡± ¡°I¡¯m growing aware of our options, kid.¡± The other followed along, and then he decided. ¡°We¡¯ll fight them, then!¡± The little debates that they had may seem lengthy, but everything had happened within less than half a minute, so their panic-inducing arguments were excusable in a way. However, within the same time-bracket, the enemies managed to put themselves together as well, they too were ready to attack. They attacked instantly, even, which caught Tim and the team completely off guard! The enemies attacked in a very unique way too, they attacked with fireballs, which was very unpredictable on their part. Out of all things, Tim didn¡¯t expect to be overwhelmed by bright red fireballs, it seemed uncharacteristic for these blobby beings to possess such powers, yet they did. They shot tens of fireballs right out of their mouths, all within three seconds! ¡°Motherfuckers¡­¡± Tim said, sharply. Fireballs were swift, so he and the team got overwhelmed by them quickly, it didn¡¯t even take a whole second for the fire to reach them! Tim expected to be burned alive right then and there, so he started to accept his fate. This was a dumb way to die, but then again, he couldn¡¯t recall any smart ways to die either, so he didn¡¯t mind it much. Death was never out of the equation for him, after all. Tim was ready to die, however, about five seconds later, after all the fireballs had clashed against him and the team, he noticed that he was still alive for some reason! He had felt the fire crashing on him, yes, but he did not feel the pain that was supposed to follow along. The fire had felt like a gust of wind to him, rather than a destructive force! ¡°What the fuck?¡± He grunted, ¡°This is weird, why am I not all messed up & shit?¡± While he asked himself that question, another wave of life-threatening danger was tossed against him and the team! Tim spotted and heard several bolts of thunder, they were beaming towards him, and even the divines knew how ruthless a bolt of thunder could be, so he expected to die. Yet, he didn¡¯t die. Tim then looked at his friends, who were also alive and well. As he glanced at them, he noticed a smug smirk on Ortana¡¯s face. Then, something clicked, Tim realized what was going on! ¡°You¡­!¡± He huffed, with a hint of grateful irritation in his voice. Ortana didn¡¯t give much of an explanation to the other, her response was filled with giggles. Instead, she then encouraged the most brute of violence against these blobby fish! Her giggles, surely deadly. She shouted, ¡°Attack! Kill them, I got you!¡± Chapter 84 - Devolved fighting! The concept of being resilient to fire and thunder seemed new to Timothy, and it seemed new to Skendus as well. They were aware that plenty of types of defensive magic existed, but this one that Ortana possessed, tipped the bucket in the power-scale! Fire couldn¡¯t hurt them, thunder couldn''t hurt them, and that was what helped them feel very special, they felt Immortal. They charged towards the enemies, with every ounce of confidence that immortality could offer to a fish! Tim put those fragile muscles of his into use, and pierced through the waters as efficiently as a disk-shaped fish could pierce it. He was excited, and he was ready to wave his tail around, as his tail was his only weapon for the time being, on the count that he lacked mana. Tim felt devolved when he thought about using his tail to fight, but the situation demanded it so! ¡°Yiaagh!¡± He let out a battle shout, after two bolts of thunder clashed against his head. The bolts were ineffective, they couldn''t stop him! Tim then clashed with one of the enemies immediately, though he wanted to maintain minimal contact with them, because they were all green and gross. These resurrected fish were tainted with the liquids from the anti-mana pool, it was visible on their skin even, so it would be really stupid for one to touch them for longer than a second! Tim was strategic about it. He charged at the enemy at full speed, slid right below the enemy, and then ran the tip of his solid, sharp barb across a very soft-looking area of its flesh! He sliced through the target''s belly, and rendered it completely immobile, all while ignoring multiple fireballs! The executed target''s internal organs poured out of its belly, most of them at least. They were all green and gross too, undoubtedly really hard to look at, so it was great that they just floated down towards the pool below afterwards, right where they belonged! ¡°Haha!¡± He celebrated, from a distance, and then he tried to make a U-turn, to swim back to the battle. The system, in the meantime announced. [You just re-killed a resurrected anglerfish, but the reward isn''t any greater due to the resurrected anglerfish being very weak to begin with. You won 300 system points, and accumulated a total of 2,963 of them. At your convenience, you should look at the available purchase options again, you can buy one of them.] ¡°Thanks for letting me know,¡± He followed along, though he was simply being nice, because he didn¡¯t really care about any upgrades right now. Anyway, all in the meantime, Skendus the sawfish didn¡¯t have as much of an emotional buildup along the way. He strode to battle in a calm demeanor, because he felt confident with his abilities to do damage, as he had a two-and-a-half foot long weapon as a nose! He was a big sawfish, after all. Skendus ran his nose against an enemy, and tore it into several pieces! The fifty teeth he had on his nose were very effective at shredding things, and his three-meter long body allowed explosive and strong movements too. One would even say that he was a tank in this reef, and only a few mere beings could mess with tanks! Anyway, he then tried to kill the only remaining, physical enemy, but then something weird happened. He saw a bunch of huge goats, in the waters! They were gigantic, intimidating, but most importantly, they had no business being here! He was very aware of the latter. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Goats? Well they can''t be real, because they''re not suffocating.¡± He muttered. Unlike his friends, Skendus was a really logical guy, so he immediately figured out what was going on. He pieced the puzzle together, and got rather irritated too. ¡°That entity has stolen our powers, hmm¡­ or at least they''re imitating our powers?¡± He guessed, ¡°They stole all of our mana, so I wouldn''t be surprised if they stole our powers too. Bastards! This certainly ironizes everything they feel about mana.¡± Skendus was a contemplative guy, but as it would appear, he was a really good fighter too. He had ignored the goats, and then he destroyed the last remaining reborn enemy! He was quick with it, and all at the same time, he had contemplated the matter of anti-mana. It was really easy to think about anti-mana now that there was an entire pool of it right below them! Furthermore, he managed to put a little plan together. He looked at the entity who was frantically moving around, and locked in on it, he decided to chase this entity! Within seconds, he managed to shift his entire body into a ghostly state. This magical ability was called atomic shifting, and it didn''t cost a single mana point to cast. It was very useful because he didn¡¯t have to leave his own body behind in order to be a ghost, but rather, his whole body shifted into a phantomized form, as mentioned! This way, he could fight the green entity head on. It was the most effective way to do such specific damage! ¡°You may have taken my mana, but you can¡¯t take my essence points, haha!¡± He threatened. Then, he attacked! Skendus blasted the entity out of the waters, with the help of a phantomized, fireball-like attack. Being an adept explorer of such soul-based abilities, the damage he managed to deliver was destructive and efficient! The entity was destroyed, and hopefully gone forever! After he succeeded, the salty waters themselves started gurgling, so in a way, the waters were responding to the death of the entity. This was weird, but then it became even weirder once a stream of blue, transparent content expanded within the waters, at the very spot where the entity was destroyed. This was scary, but it didn''t take long to figure out that this was just stray mana, and it was likely mana that the entity had been stealing, and hoarding! Skendus shifted back into a sawfish seconds later, and then he started feeling instantly more powerful, or at least, he felt perfectly competent. He could use his magical abilities again, and this was the greatest indicator that he got a bunch of mana points back, he absorbed it! ¡°Looks like I killed a queen of some sort. It has to be it, I mean, we had to kill her twice, so she had to have had a title of sorts.¡± He muttered. Anyway, Timothy swam over and took a whiff of the same, funny business. He absorbed the mana like a sponge, and got fifteen-hundred points of them back. Ortana was full of mana already, so she didn''t intervene whatsoever. Skendus¡¯ mana pool was much more expansive, however, especially since he was a huge sawfish now, so he only managed to refill half of his mana pool. He was still happy about it, however, as six-thousand points were pretty substantial! Anyway, since they gathered up all together, this was the best time for them to discuss their next course of action. They had initially planned to flee, but now since they got their mana back, it may be worthwhile to hang around the pool for a little while longer. They came here to figure out how things work, and yet, they haven''t really learned anything so they had to stick around! The team was willing to learn more, except for Ortana, who really wanted to flee, so they bickered about the matter for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, they heard a smug, loud-ish voice near them, a voice that they surely did not recognize! This put their bickering into a complete halt! ¡°You guys were pretty brave, there!¡± It said, ¡°I don''t know so many sane fish who''d approach psidium mana willingly!¡± Chapter 85 - Noble duties, and the grand offer! Tim got his mana back, and so did the rest of the team. However, he felt especially defensive after he heard that loud, and unfortunately sexy, female voice talk to him and the team. He wasn¡¯t so fond of mystery voices, so his senses were heightened, and he planned to shoot anything that moved! ¡°Where are you?!¡± He demanded to know. ¡°If I tell you that, you¡¯re gonna try to kill me.¡± She answered, with a soft tease hidden within her tone. The conversations that followed along were mostly just mere, tight-arsed sessions of bickering. Both sides were intimidated by one another, but they were also willing to communicate, and this was what brought them some favorable results! The mystery lady revealed herself, and well, she was a fish, unsurprisingly. The mystery lady was a very blue, damselfish, and her name was Arvena. She was tiny, only about fifteen centimeters long (six inches), which was as small as Tim had been in the beginning, when he had reincarnated, so she was truly tiny, and her figure overall was like that of a flounder¡¯s. One could say that she was as thin as a piece of paper, but such beauty standards didn¡¯t really translate well for fish. She was just normal, and it wouldn¡¯t be crazy to assume that she called the reef her home too, as plenty of damselfish lived in reefs, one wouldn¡¯t even second guess it if she claimed the latter! However, even though Arvena had adapted to the reef¡¯s environment effortlessly, she didn¡¯t actually live here, she was from elsewhere, and she admitted to that rather quickly! This was where things got interesting, and also very weird. Arvena was actually from a micro-universe, a universe which amongst other species, was also filled with multiple species of goblins! She was a goblin, by heritage, and she was out here in the sea waters, because she was tending to the alarming situation regarding anti-mana. Even though she didn¡¯t look the part, one may call her a hero, because she was out here handling serious, and noble business! Although her story sounded weird, the team did not second guess it. She had been invisible up until a moment ago, which hinted towards grand power, and she was also floating on top of an anti-mana pool. The latter was especially difficult to look over, because no fish this small would approach such a pool willingly, unless they had a plan in mind! Arvena did have a plan, and she tried to guide Tim and the team accordingly. However, as it would appear, only Skendus the sawfish was capable of helping her, or cooperating with her, because the quality of his mana towered at level four! It was strong enough to do damage, and it was pure enough to be offered as a sacrifice of sorts! The process was rather interesting, because as she explained things, it became more and more apparent that Skendus had to make a sacrifice, he had to sacrifice something that was really special to him, which was his mana. It wasn''t a light decision to do so, but Skendus wanted to do an honorable deed here, it would be worthwhile. He was especially willing to help, after he figured out a lot about the overall daunting mystery of anti-mana today, as their new friend had a lot of information to share, and she gave it away willingly. A lot of his twitching questions had been answered, which was good, but now his explorative motives died down almost entirely, because there wasn¡¯t anything puzzling for him to figure out anymore. He now knew perhaps everything that one needed to know about anti-mana, and just like that, his own mana didn''t feel as important for a moment, because he didn¡¯t have to savor it for an upcoming battle of sorts anymore, no, the battles were about to end here. ¡°Eh¡­¡± He sighed, while he lined up near Arvena, and thought. ¡°Anti-mana, or psidium mana as she calls it, sounds as interesting as ever, but I figured everything out about it already. What am I supposed to do in this big, boring sea now? Might as well help destroy this pool, it¡¯s my good deed of the day, eh? The sect will love hearing about this psidium mana bullshit, it¡¯s a new name to them, so at least their excitement won''t die down as quickly as mine!¡± Anyway, afterwards the two of them were ready to, quite literally, destroy this pool of anti-mana! Within the upcoming process, he and Arvena had to hand over a whole level of their mana quality, in order to destroy the pool, this was the sacrificial part of the deed, but they were up for it! They got ready to chant the associated, spoken-word spell in order to get things started. It was a bit lengthy, but Skendus managed to memorize the spell beforehand, with some help from Arvena, so he was ready to make the sacrifice! ¡°Our will is against uncertainty, and we despise this destruction that¡¯s masqueraded as revolution! Be gone, psidium, for we do not need you to mimic what is ancient and holy! Mana, is the truest magic of them all, and we do not accept any substitutes!¡± They both chanted, eloquently, from within the depths of their hearts. Then, from the very tip of their noses, thin beams of mana shot out, and headed towards the pool. The pool started gurgling in response, which by all means hinted that the spell was working! Spoken-word spells circled around the will of an individual, so such strong willpower was difficult to ignore! This pool of liquid was very responsive, its bowels howled as if they were inflamed! ¡°Look at that!¡± Tim gasped, as he slowly backed away. They could see the bottom of the pool now, as the psidium mana was so repulsed by these beams, that it retraced as far away from it as it could. That''s what Tim pointed at. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Considering these responses from the pool''s side, one may even acknowledge this pool as sentient, but thankfully that was not the case! Though the pool did continue to struggle nonetheless, as the beams of mana that Skendus, and Arvena unleashed were ongoing, they were to shoot out continuously for a while! Arvena may be doing most of the damage here, because she was sacrificing her great, golden mana (level seven) within the process, so surely they were upsetting this massive pool quite a bit. She had joined the seas as a tiny damselfish, just so she could maintain the quality of her mana, so her contribution today was surely great! The thin beams of mana chased after the contents of the pool, the beams flew around, and it was at this stage where things really started escalating! All that green, destructive substance in the pool started drying out, and once it dried out, it then crumbled like a pile of dirt, which marked the end of its reign! The entire pool went out that way, until they could finally see the bottom of the former lair entirely! The bottom was spotless, as the pool had apparently devoured every skeleton that had fallen within it, so things were nice and spiffy now, though a pile of wet dirt remained. After the deed was done, Arvena and Skendus stopped shooting those beams from their noses. They could finally relax! ¡°I can¡¯t believe that you did it,¡± Tim vaguely congratulated them afterwards, he also added. ¡°That bastarding pool has given me nightmares, guys, it¡¯s the scariest shit I¡¯ve ever seen, but you destroyed it so fast!¡± ¡°Yes, we did. I¡¯m glad this big guy here came to help, otherwise I would have to sacrifice like three levels of mana quality just to get things done. That pool was too big, one of the biggest pools I''ve seen, it was nasty as if it was full of puss!¡± She followed along. ¡°Well, we didn¡¯t know how to get rid of it, otherwise we wouldn¡¯t let it get this nasty.¡± Tim followed along, ¡°It almost killed me a couple of times, actually, because I tried to protect this place before! I hated that nasty bastarding pool, so yeah with that said, we¡¯re gonna try our best to stop other pools from appearing.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s no job for mere fish¡­ No offense guys, I know they¡¯re popping up in your own habitat and all, but fish aren¡¯t adaptive enough to deal with these pools! You all really suck at improving the quality of your mana, so, the psidium pools would get to you folks far before you can muster up enough strength to destroy it, that¡¯s factual. Let us goblins fight these pools, it is our battle, though, I could use some help patrolling the area for a while, you all can help me with that.¡± She remarked. Tim and the team felt offended, but they couldn¡¯t ignore the truth either. For that matter, they cooperated, and for the sake of the reef, they offered to help in whatever means necessary! ¡­ Arvena and the team of three, had patrolled the reef and its surrounding area for a whole week! They had gone through several minor battles, for the sake of protecting the reef from any potential pools of psidium mana. These battles have been explosive because creatures from the deep sea had tried to re-invade the reef, they wanted to spread their tainting substances aggressively! Though difficult, the team reigned victorious, they managed to fight the creatures off. The enemies failed this time around, because they had been actively hunted down. The process of starting a mana pool was weird, but Arvena knew the process thoroughly, so she knew where to hit them! These tiny fish emerged from the deep seas, for example, they were called messenger fish, and if they managed to die and decompose within an area, their flesh unleashed these seeds which then invited the growth of anti-mana! The nature of the anti-mana was to harvest actual, pure, blue mana. If those seeds harvested enough of it, then those seeds would inflate, and then transform into that loathed, liquid form! Infected fish from the deep seas would then sniff out the fresh pools, and try to be a part of it, in order to reap any and all benefits. Oftentimes they would bring those creepy green bricks, which would only intensify the arsenal of the anti-mana pool. That was the process, and it may have been what destroyed the blistering mana sect to begin with, as Marlo had invited many fish in the sect before without questioning them whatsoever. He may have unknowingly invited several messenger fish, and concentrated their influences all in one place, a.k.a the sect''s lair! This would explain why the pool was so violent. Anyway, to prevent anything like that from happening again, the team had to kill anything that looked even remotely green, that was the best way to do things! Tim managed to kill fifteen of them alone, so on top of doing a good deed for the fish community, he had also piled up enough system points, to buy every available upgrade from that new batch of upgrades! He bought them all, and now he truly was a force to be reckoned with. Tim was strong, though he didn¡¯t manage to put his new abilities to the test just yet, because he bought most of them after they had killed all of those enemies. Tim was fresh out of system points too, so he really wanted to put these new abilities to the test soon, though, he may not be able to test them against these vile deep-sea creatures for now. He may not have the option, because he and the team were given an interesting, adventurous offer! An invite. Arvena offered the team to join her, she invited them back to the micro universe of Valporovus where she was from! She invited them because of their recent, good deeds, but also because their services here in the reef were no longer needed. In the timespan of a week, more and more creatures from that micro universe had joined the seas, and had volunteered to protect the reef for a while. Their work was far more effective, so this portion of the sea was in good hands! Anyway, her invite was a fantastic offer, because the universe that she was from, promised accelerated progress in the field of mana quality! With something like that as part of the offer, Tim and the team simply could not reject it. They didn¡¯t have anything better to do over here in the sea anyway, and since Arvena promised to be their guide as well, they virtually had no reason to wait any longer, or to refuse the offer. Adventure awaited, and they so hoped that this micro universe would help them finally escape the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana! Chapter 86 - Welcome to Valporovus! Opportunity and progress often went together hand by hand. Those of the deepest willpower sought out opportunities of any kind, so it wasn¡¯t surprising when their hunger ended up in raw, accelerating progress! In this world that was filled with magic, it was only expected. Timothy, Skendus, and Ortana strode the seas with the same kind of motivation in their minds! They were given a special invite to visit, and roll their lucky dice in this micro-universe called Valporovus, and they accepted the invite right away, of course! This was a universe where mana was supposedly very plentiful, and with that said, it was really easy for one to improve the quality of their mana there, so easy that some may even consider it as cheating! It was fair to treat this opportunity like a cheat-code, due to numerous reasons. For example, it would be a real blessing to escape the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana, there was no debating that! So, if one escaped this realm quicker than others, the process in between had to be considered cheating, and or unnatural too! Amongst other adjectives, that was one of the ways to describe such raw, accelerated progress. Anyway, the micro-universe itself wasn¡¯t either easy to find nor easy to enter. To find its entrance portal, the team had to travel near the surface of the open sea waters, for a long, fin-straining period of time. They traveled for three weeks straight, to be exact, and they hadn''t been able to sleep much along the way! It was really uncomfortable for them to sleep in the open waters, because there was no solid ground right below them. They were far away from their natural habitats, so It felt weird, and unnatural for them to sleep out here! Tim complained the most about it, he often quoted that ¡°something was tickling his tail¡±. Something from the deep sea, apparently, so he wasn¡¯t happy at all! They hadn¡¯t slept much, and since they traveled so far from home to find this ¡®portal¡¯, the team even started second guessing if this promised, micro-universe even existed! The exhaustion got to them, it added up over time, so their boiling paranoia wasn¡¯t surprising. Anyone would get paranoid under these rattling, confusing circumstances, it was inevitable! However, Skendus managed to keep his friends sane. As an illusionist, he had the ability to read minds, and he concluded that Arvena, their guide, was telling the truth about this micro universe, she wasn¡¯t misleading them. This was really relieving! Skendus could read her mind like a book, regardless of how she was more powerful in comparison, so in a way, he gave the final stamp of approval regarding what was true, and what was not. They trusted him, and this was what kept the team together! Furthermore, this journey had some benefits too, it wasn¡¯t solely tainted with despair. For example, they managed to eat a lot of food, and this kept them especially calm from time to time! There were times when the open waters were very devoid of life, yes, but the team lucked out this time! Skendus soothed and killed a bunch of fat fish, tuna fish mostly, and this managed to keep the team¡¯s bellies full. The team did not complain as much when they had a full belly! Tim had even recovered from his anorexia along the way, mostly, so other than the lack of sleep, he was feeling really dandy! The sea was good to them for once. Anyway, in whatever state, be it dandy or horrid, they finally reached the portal after three weeks of swimming! The micro universe¡¯s entrance portal was very well hidden, and this managed to irritate the team a bit, they did not want to be challenged right now. Stolen story; please report. The portal was hidden within the midst of darkness, out here in the open sea! Even Arvena was confused about its whereabouts for a moment, it took her a while to find it. Once they did finally find it, the portal didn¡¯t give them an easy ride either, so to speak. They were entering another universe, after all, so it was not some fun joyride to enter it! As soon as they swam through it, the team felt as if their bodies were getting stretched out, and spaghettified, and this was really painful, they almost died along the way. The portal acted like a tunnel of sorts too, so they could only look forward along the way, nothing else. This part of the journey was the very definition of having tunnel vision, they couldn¡¯t look in any other directions, so they only had to be patient and hope for the best! Overall, it was fair to say that most of the journey had been very abusive to them, in multiple ways, traumatizing, even, but at least it was over after about fifteen minutes, after they passed through the portal! They made it to the other side of the portal, and although this other side wasn¡¯t as visually impressive either, the team was still happy to get here, especially since they were still floating in a body of water. The latter fueled their willpower, they were excited. ¡°Okay¡­ I know all that stretching wasn¡¯t fun, guys, but we finally made it, we have arrived! Welcome to Valporovus, the land of the goblins!¡° Arvena announced. ¡°Land? Where in the sea or something, so, this is the sea of the goblins.¡± Tim added, though, it was obvious that he was joking. The team experienced a lot of discomfort up until a moment ago, so this may not be the best time to crack any jokes. It was inappropriate to joke, even, and Tim was aware of that, yet, he did not budge! Then, he had the audacity to tease one of his friends too, he asked. ¡°Why the long face, Skendus? We made it!¡± ¡°Yes, we did, but you have to stop talking about my nose, kid. I can¡¯t help having a ¡®long¡¯ face, it¡¯s a genetic mark.¡± Skendus expressed himself, and it was obvious that he didn¡¯t enjoy those couple of jokes at all. This was a tough crowd overall, no one was laughing. They were within dark sea waters as well, so he couldn¡¯t really see their facial expressions either, but if he could see them, then he would act accordingly. Right now he decided to stay quiet for a while. Tim''s bad jokes were linked to his intelligence, ironically. About three weeks ago, he bought an upgrade which had massively increased his creative intelligence, otherwise called CQ, and the increase was a total of 50 points! He was fairly intelligent now, one could not refuse that fact, as Tim sported 150 points of CQ, and not everyone could say that about themselves, certainly not! The system had even questioned if he was a warlord in his past life, or at least an artist of sorts, as such creativity couldn¡¯t be random, no, but he didn¡¯t have an answer for that, he was clueless about his past life. Nevertheless, even though he scored high, his CQ mostly served him to crack goofy jokes for now, that was about it, he hadn¡¯t been in any complicated battles for weeks now. The team was really irritated by him, but there was nothing they could do, so they swam upwards in that irritated state, and were in search of some dry land. They swam for a while, because even though Valporovus was a micro-universe of sorts, it was still pretty big for any mere creature to explore! Arvena called it half-a-planet, so it was best not to underestimate its size. The team swam up, and as they searched for land, they were very expecting of the inevitable. They knew that if they were to progress here, they had to walk on land for a while, and in order to do that, they had to turn into goblins, or an equivalent creature! This was quite a burden, because In order to switch into such a creature, who was admittedly smarter, they just knew that they had to sacrifice another level of their mana quality! They had to be sacrificial, in order to shapeshift properly. It was a grand sacrifice, but it was necessary as well, because they had to fit in around here, they couldn''t afford to explore the world as insects, like Tim had tried before, back home. In this micro universe, goblins were the dominant species, so they couldn¡¯t settle to be anything lesser during their visit, especially since they had the opportunity to turn into a goblin. This form was less hectic in comparison to turning into a human, without a doubt! Anyway, unlike the rest, Tim was pretty excited to be a goblin, it had been within his bundle of ideas for a while now! He was ready to walk, and he was ready to laugh too, as it should be interesting to see his friends turn into goblins! Chapter 87 - The four naked goblins! Arvena was to guide the team across the micro-universe of Valporovus, she had taken over that responsibility. Now, regarding shapeshifting, she had to lead by example, because she was their guide! Arvena had to show them what a goblin looked like, in detail, in order for her guests to assume that shape accordingly. She started shifting on a spot where the waters were pretty shallow. It was safer to shift in shallow waters, because as her mushy, shifting body became heavier, she only sank a couple of feet below the waters, which wasn¡¯t problematic whatsoever! It only took her a single minute to transform, so she managed to stand up at three feet tall in no time! She was only chest deep in the salt waters, so it was totally manageable for her, it was practically impossible for one to drown here. Anyway, her quick transformation hinted just how powerful she was. Sure she was only a few levels ahead in mana quality, but even that gave her such a grand advantage. Her guests won¡¯t be able to transform as quickly, no, they weren¡¯t as powerful! Skendus felt confident enough to be the next one to shapeshift. He was a huge, three-meter long sawfish after all, so it shouldn¡¯t be difficult for him to turn into a mere three-foot tall goblin. He gave it a shot right away! While his blobby body sunk a couple of inches within the sand, he couldn¡¯t help making a couple of guesses. He may not shapeshift as quickly, no, but from the looks of it, he didn¡¯t have to sacrifice another whole level from his mana quality either! This was what he was pondering over, and this was why he was so confident. He guessed, ¡°I already burned through a whole level when I turned into a sawfish, so, it would be dumb to sacrifice another one, right? Hell, I¡¯m a large marine predator, so this shift is more of a downgrade rather than anything else, yeah! A goblin can¡¯t be greater than a sawfish, never, that doesn¡¯t even sound right.¡± Such an attitude was helpful, because one would think that even his body adjusted in cooperation to this confident attitude. About five minutes later, after he successfully shapeshifted, it was easier to believe that concept about attitude! He looked great. Skendus arose from the waters, at four feet tall. He was huge, gray, fat-ish, and also muscly! It only took him five minutes to achieve this great form, so one could say that his conclusions, and his exaggerated confidence were reasonable! However, those things aside, he was also naked right now, so he emerged from the waters with his penis swinging around violently, as if someone owed it money! He met Arvena in that matter, right on the warmths of the dry sand, and it would appear that she was naked too! Her green body was really well-toned, as she was a warrior of sorts, but Skendus then noticed that this ¡®warrior¡¯ was acting a bit funny. Therefore, he asked. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± It took her a moment to answer, but once she did, her answer didn¡¯t manage to make the surrounding atmosphere any less awkward. She pointed at the main, embarrassing flaw that most conscious beings bore; Lust! She admitted, ¡°See I expected to see all of you naked, but I didn¡¯t expect any of you to be bigger than me. You seem¡­ ideal. I wouldn¡¯t mind breeding with you if fate has appointed that to us!¡± Just then, Skendus caught up with what was going on, he recalled that one way or the other, every creature had to breed. Although at first he didn¡¯t understand why Arvena was so aroused, he then managed to read through her mind, with his illusion-based abilities, and he found some terrifying, sexual stuff in there! He understood her feelings now, but he wasn¡¯t a fan of them, not at all. He was quick to lecture her about it as well, he scolded. ¡°Behave yourself, lady! We were butt-naked as fish as well, all fish are naked, but you didn¡¯t act like this earlier.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to hump no fish,¡± She answered, shamelessly, but then she calmed down a little bit. She sighed, and said. ¡°You¡¯re right though, I¡¯m sorry! There¡¯s a barrack close by, so we can get clothed appropriately, soon.¡± Anyway, while they bickered out here, Tim and Ortana were still in the waters, and they weren¡¯t as lucky regarding shapeshifting! They both possessed the ability to shapeshift, however, they were far too weak to shift into goblins, not without sacrificing a portion of their mana quality, at least! They didn¡¯t have much to sacrifice either, as the level of their mana quality was pretty low already, but still, they had to act accordingly. They had to be sacrificial, because it was stupid to walk these lands as lesser beings! Tim had been a spider before, for example, and he had tried to explore the lands in that form, but it wasn¡¯t easy whatsoever, so he knew the challenges of being so small! Ortana had been a spider before as well, amongst other creatures, so she too was aware of such challenges, they couldn¡¯t risk being so small again. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. With that considered, they decided to sacrifice most of their mana quality. Ortana¡¯s mana was at level three, however, her tiny stingray body was so small and under-complicated, that it wouldn¡¯t be enough if she sacrificed just one level of her mana quality! For that matter, she sacrificed two of them instead, by casting a spoken-word spell, which was far more effective than sacrificing just one level. She started shapeshifting accordingly right away, the gods were very giving! Regarding specifics, the spell sounded like this. ¡°My will is but mana, and yet I have to let it go¡­ Hear my plea, gods, as I wish to assume a greater form. Take thy blessings, but replace it with another!¡± This was a strong, spoken-word spell. Some might say that it was an emotional spell too, but that didn¡¯t matter much. The gods listened to her, they were really merciful this time, so they granted Ortana¡¯s wish in mere seconds. She was to assume the form of a goblin, surely! Ortana came prepared when she casted that spell. She got a good look at Arvena and Skendus earlier on, when those two had shapeshifted, so she knew what goblins looked like, and was ready to join them in that exact form! Tim joined the procedure last, except, he was a bit luckier because he only had to sacrifice a single level of his mana quality, simply because he was a large stingray already, which gave him a bargaining advantage! Things were easier for him, which was great, because he didn¡¯t have anything more to give. He could only sacrifice a single, insignificant level. However, since he and Skendus despised the gods, he simply couldn¡¯t beg the gods for mercy in order to transform. He and Skendus were blessed by the ghostly, punished brothers some weeks before, and by accepting their blessing, they also accepted their cause! Tim was a rebel, and he rebelled against the punishment that the gods bestowed upon the weaker, specifically, upon creatures who were still within the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana. Creatures within this realm could die, brutally, anytime when they tried to level up the quality of their mana, and he believed that this was overly cruel! Death was a common punishment of those who wanted to progress, and that was what Timothy was rebelling against! This explained why he couldn¡¯t simply beg the gods to help him transform, he couldn¡¯t. Instead, he had to ask them for tolerance, and in accordance with that plan, he was taught what spoken-word spell to use! Skendus taught him. Tim was ready to cast it too, so he chanted. ¡°My love for mana is radiant, but yet I have to let it go. Hear me, gods, and understand my motives! Show a rebel such as myself your tolerance, give me a greater body, and perhaps I may despise you less for the destruction you inflict amongst the weaker!¡± This spell spoke of many volumes. One would even be scared to think about such a spell, especially if they were still within the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana, however, Tim didn¡¯t budge. He had memorized the spell, chanted it proudly, and his attitude allowed for instant progress! The atomic shifting ability he bore was then activated, which meant that the gods had accepted his demand. He started shifting into a goblin, a blue one, to be exact! Tim managed to transform after ten whole minutes. Although that sounded like a long time, it still wasn¡¯t that big of a problem, because he didn¡¯t really have to breathe while he was in this mushy, pre-transformation form! The timespan was just a minor inconvenience, as Arvena and Skendus had to wait for him topside for a while. Tim transformed into a two-and-a-half foot tall, blue goblin. He was smaller in comparison to the other two that had transformed before him, but that was only expected, as he didn¡¯t sacrifice much. He was pretty muscly though, which was useful in the long run as he expected that goblins used their limbs a lot, for fighting and things like that. Anyway, ever since he arose from the seawater, he had cracked a lot of penis jokes. The three of them were butt-naked, so his jokes were only inevitable, he annoyed the two half-to-death! Ortana was the last to transform. It took her twenty whole minutes to do so, because she was a far lesser being in comparison to the rest of her friends, it took a long while to work against that fact. She came out as a whole, healthy, and blue goblin though, which was what mattered the most! She was also as tall as Timothy. The intense process she went through, however, didn¡¯t spare her from Timothy¡¯s jokes, he was direct with them! As a goblin, Ortana looked surprisingly young and healthy, so he worked with that. ¡°Wow, lady! I expected to see a pair of saggy, perky stuff, but you proved me wrong. The gods gifted you, far more than they gifted me...¡± He joked. She wasn¡¯t as forgiving, however, so she bit back. ¡°What? You wanted a pair of boobs on your chest? That¡¯s a weird wish, kid.¡± ¡°Now, that¡¯s obviously not what I meant!¡± He panicked, slightly, but his vantage point escaped from his grasp already. Tim was defeated. He couldn¡¯t crack any other jokes without making a fool of himself, a.k.a without admitting that he bore a small shaft, in this goblin form. He had to give the jokes up, at least for now! Anyway, they were ready to stride the lands of this micro-universe now. There was a barrack nearby, where they could get clothed with armor, and they wanted to do exactly that, they wanted to get clothed, which would help them feel a lot less exposed. They needed armor, possibly more than any other goblins did, because they¡¯ve stepped on this land with very low levels of mana quality! Skendus was at level three, and his friends were both at level one, so it was fair to say that they were very vulnerable out here! If it wasn¡¯t for their powers, they could be killed by anything that moved, even by something as simple as a goblin with a dagger! They had to be careful in these foreign lands. However, they also beached on this land with a goal in mind. Within this micro-universe, they wanted to propel through the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana, as quickly as possible, and this universe gave them that opportunity, it was oozing with mana! So all-and-all, the risks they were taking, and the sacrifices they were making, were bound to be worthwhile! Chapter 88 - The four armoured goblins! The four goblins got dressed. It wasn¡¯t appropriate for conscious mammals to walk around naked, so Arvena and her guests were expected to wear clothes, as it was a mere, basic requirement that any civilized society would demand. It was so basic, that even this civilization of goblins insisted to uphold this social standard, even though they weren¡¯t the spiffiest of creatures to begin with. They insisted for the better! Anyway, the team walked over to the guard¡¯s barracks in order to get dressed, and this part was a bit annoying, because this building was about one-hundred meters away from them, or from the sea shores! They were very capable of walking a hundred meters, yes, but it took them about ten minutes to do so, because they were all pretty short-statured, and this was mainly what annoyed them. The team took their time, they didn¡¯t rush, all for the sake of their sanity. They did get dressed up eventually, and that was what mattered the most. The guards within these barracks were pretty friendly too, as they happily welcomed any fellow, unproblematic goblins, so they helped the team dress accordingly. The social principles that these goblins had, kept them from harassing either Arvena, or her guests, sexually, which was impressive because the four of them were butt-naked, and this would invite trouble under other circumstances, yet it didn¡¯t endanger the team here. One could learn a lot from these goblins, and the principles that they withheld so proudly! Regarding armor, Skendus and Arvena got dressed with iron armor, because they could carry it, they were big enough to do so. However, Ortana and Timothy were smaller in comparison, so they were suited with leather armor instead. There were metallic plates embedded on the leather, yes, but the plates were located on important places only, such as on their shoulders and on their knees, so these plates were few by number! They weren''t so heavy either. ¡°This looks pretty smart, cuz I don¡¯t want to get stabbed on my fucking knees!¡± Tim mumbled, and he could imagine the crippling pain of such a knee injury. Though he was scared of the idea, he was still happy to worry about his knees again, because such specific worries were human traits, above all. Anyway, this leather coating left the two of them more exposed in comparison to their friends, but it was for the best, because they weren¡¯t strong enough to carry around eight kilos of iron, no, even the two kilos of this lighter material felt like a lot to them. Tim only weighed twenty-two kilos while in this goblin form, so much wasn¡¯t expected of him in terms of physical strength. The brown leather was suitable enough for him. Anyway, after they suited up, they were given the opportunity to pick a weapon of their choosing. These weapons weren¡¯t as heavy, because they were designed to serve the average, three-foot tall goblin, so even Timothy could choose a good, dependable weapon for himself. He was ready to carry a decent-sized sword. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­¡± He pondered. Now it didn¡¯t seem so natural for magic-bearing creatures to be equipped with cold, iron swords, but in this universe it was seemingly necessary. Goblins were the dominant creatures around here, there were several species of them, and a lot of them were armed to the teeth too, so it wasn¡¯t so smart to walk around without a solid weapon. Shields would be very useful here as well, because as it would happen, there weren¡¯t many spells that could deflect a warhammer''s bone-breaking blow! Anyway, Tim picked up a sword that was a whole foot long, and he fell in love with it. It was made out of iron, and it didn¡¯t bear the greatest quality, no, but by all accounts, a man was always the happiest while behind a sword! He took a few swings with it, and the whistling sounds that came from his swings, made him happier than the sea ever did! He was happy, but then he also had an important question, so he asked. ¡°Not that I¡¯m complaining, but why is iron so important here? This universe is supposed to be a haven of free mana and shit like that.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The question that he asked was solid, and in-depth. This goblin body has made him smarter, by thirty whole IQ points because he had a bigger head now, so he couldn¡¯t help being analytical about a lot of things. Civilization-oriented questions like this one, were especially easy for him to formulate. Arvena was first surprised by this question, because she simply couldn¡¯t picture a goblin without a weapon, it was unheard of! But then, she remembered that these guests were initially fish, so they didn¡¯t see the importance of iron as much as a goblin did. It took her a moment to collect her thoughts, but then she tried to answer from a neutral stand-point, for the sake of clarity. ¡°I¡¯m no historian, but weapons have been used here since forever.¡± She answered, and then she followed along. ¡°For example, we use our swords here to channel our destructive powers, and that method is really effective, because a fireball that¡¯s backed by hot iron will always burn a little bit more! So yes, we¡¯ve been using swords and stuff like that since forever, regardless of what magical realm we were in. Iron is as old as magic here, it¡¯s cultural to wield both of them.¡± Tim appreciated that answer, because it really helped him paint a picture of what to expect from the civilizations, and or smaller communities of this micro-universe. By being able to picture it, he also started plotting ways to protect himself better, in the occasion where they get attacked. He was sure that they were going to get attacked across this land, very often, so it was best to be prepared. Anyway, Ortana listened in to their conversation, and came up with a simpler, and yet more practical way to appreciate these weapons. She was really expressive about her understanding too! She said, ¡°You forgot to mention that this sharp stuff can be more dependable than magic. Mana can run out pretty quickly, but it isn¡¯t as expensive to swing a sword around, it¡¯s basically free. Also, cutting through bastards is really effective, trust me, I¡¯ve seen a lot of tribal wars back in the day, and the blood they spilled could paint a whole lake red! Of course, I was just a messenger bird back then, so I never swung a sword up until now, but I¡¯d be happy to behead a bunch of goblins here on your land, haha. A sword, and a good arm will keep our enemies below the ground, dead and for good!¡± The input that she added was both practical, and terrifying. She was the shortest here, as she only stood two-feet tall, and yet she managed to terrify everyone within the vicinity, effortlessly. The guy who was handling the armory¡¯s inventory here, seemed especially terrified. He subtly added, ¡°We¡¯ll have to keep an eye on you¡­ but hey, as long as you don¡¯t cut our men down, you can have as many swords as you can carry. Feel free to pick!¡± ¡°You¡¯re sweet,¡± She answered. Then, she just grabbed a small, five-inch long dagger, rather than anything huge, and she also grabbed a tinny leather scabbard, to sheathe her dagger. This felt like the best weapon for her to carry around, so now, she felt completed, protection-wise! Skendus chose a two-handed warhammer. He was a huge goblin, even when compared to the guards in the vicinity, so a heavy warhammer befitted him the best. He was a huge beast, and was eager to deal damage accordingly if the future circumstances demanded it so! Arvena carried a short-handled, but heavy battleaxe. It was the weapon of her choosing, and it seemed to fit her well. Anyway, after the four of them got dressed and armed, they were ready to hit the road. The barracks here were made of stone, it was a huge, and comforting place, but they had to leave it behind. Barracks, and the collection of guards and or soldiers that it housed, weren¡¯t ideal if one wanted to expand their magical arsenal. These buildings were just placed strategically, to protect the land, and that was all there was to them. In order to progress, the team had to be on the move. Arvena spoke of a place where mana was really dense, it was oozing freely, for anyone to grab and manipulate. The place was called Aqumus (and or the Aqumus Ruins), and it was far away from here! However, if they were to reach it throughout their journeys, then the progress that was to follow regarding the improvement of their mana quality, was swift and vigorous! Chapter 89 - Gods new home, and a homosexual dragon! The ruins of Aqumus were oozing with harvestable mana, the place has been like that for thousands of years now! No one truly understood why the place was so rich in mana, but there were plenty of theories and legends about it. The most believable legend was that these ruins used to house the creator of this micro-universe himself, specifically in the very beginning, when Valporovus was created, which was some millenia ago. It is also believed that the creator sank his own home, and or kingdom into the sea, because he ascended to a new, celestial home that he made for himself! The rich mana quantities were supposedly fractions of air that the creator had breathed before, and the air was so dense that it refused to dissolve over thousands of years now, regardless of the circumstances. Furthermore, once these ruins sank, it is believed that the sea was given air for the fish to breathe in, before that, the sealife was practically non-existent! These cumulative legends ended up giving birth to a couple of religions, ever since the creator¡¯s supposed departure that is, which wasn¡¯t so surprising. It would take great power to begin with, in order to create a micro-universe, it wasn¡¯t easy, so if people worshiped the creator, it was by merit! Factually, no one could confirm those great legends entirely, but most mages chose to believe them anyway. They felt important once they imagined that they were harvesting mana, in the very place where the creator of Valporovus once stood, it was quite a legend for one to follow. Any mage would love to attain a tiny fraction of greatness, and or prestige that the creator bore, they¡¯d dream of it! Anyway, legend or not, the fact of the matter remained. These ruins were very rich in mana, regardless of where that mana came from, and the team was eager to harvest as much of it as they could, they wanted to progress rapidly! There were other places where mana was also free to harvest, but those places were too far away, practically out of reach to the team, as it would take ages to get to them! The team would rather head to these ruins, and face the dangers that were stashed in them, however, this didn¡¯t necessarily mean that the ruins were close by. Despite its name, this micro-universe was actually the size of a tiny planet, or half of planet earth, which was pretty sizable once square metrics were put in the equation. Now the universe wasn¡¯t curved like a planet, no, but it was still pretty big, so the important places weren¡¯t so easy to reach, great journeys were mandatory if one was to progress! To get to the ruins of Aqumus, which was some four-hundred kilometers away, the team had to make three important check-points, the fourth being the final destination. The first check-point was only twenty kilometers away from them. They had to walk to a small city, which was primarily filled with degranus goblins, and this was the same race that Arvena had. It wasn¡¯t a bad idea for their first check-point to be full of friendly faces, so that¡¯s where they were heading. ¡°Twenty kilometers, huh¡­¡± Tim sighed, ¡°You sound pretty sure about that distance, so, how long will it take us to get there? Days? Hours? Hopefully soon because I keep walking like a cricket, it¡¯s killing my knees!¡± ¡°Goblins don¡¯t even have inverted knees, so I don¡¯t really understand why you¡¯re struggling. Maybe the knee pad is pinching you or something? It shouldn¡¯t be a big deal, you¡¯ll get the hang of this walking thing eventually.¡± Arvena first said, as she scratched her head in confusion. Afterwards, she added, ¡°Also, yes, it will take us a day or so to get there, maybe until tomorrow at late noon? It¡¯ll be dusk soon, and that¡¯s really cutting into our traveling time, because soon, we gotta make camp for the night. It¡¯s annoying to camp, yes, but we can get to Figus even earlier tomorrow, if we wake up and start walking in the morning, I¡¯m sure of that!¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°No rush, camping sounds good.¡± Tim seconded, as he didn¡¯t really care about mana for the moment. He just wanted to rest, as that would keep him from walking funny. The woods were uncomfortably close to the beach, so they had to walk through the woods right away, which was a bit uncomfortable for them. This place was weird, proportion-wise, but they tried to manage as best as they could. This part of the journey wasn¡¯t entirely bad. There was a dirt path in between the woods, which was far more useful than walking through itchy branches and bushes, so the team made use of it, they followed this path, and tried to find a good, comfortable camping spot along the way. They walked through the woods for another hour, and before they could decide where to camp, they heard a sudden, loud, and seemingly intimate screech that shook them to the core! They were terrified. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Tim asked, in panic. ¡°That should be a cockatrice dragon,¡± Arvena answered. ¡°A cock-a-what? Dragon!?¡± He panicked even further, and then he tightened his fists as he scanned the sky. He then promised, ¡°We¡¯re not playing nice with a fucking dragon, I¡¯m putting a hole through that motherfucker! Thunder can kill it, right?¡± Arvena was confused by the other¡¯s raw, and seemingly unreasonable fear, she was stumped. It took her a moment to understand his reaction, but she caught up once she remembered that her guests were foreign to this land, very foreign! They weren¡¯t aware of the creatures here, and if they actually knew better, they wouldn¡¯t be scared of a mere cockatrice dragon, no, that wouldn¡¯t make sense. To soothe her visitors¡¯ nerves, she added. ¡°Cockatrice dragons are barely dragons, kid, they¡¯re more like a mixture of a chicken and a bat. Ugly creatures for sure, but they¡¯re not nearly actual, huge dragons, hell no! Actually, if we play our cards right, that horny thing can be our dinner for the night. Chicken tastes really good, trust me!¡± ¡°My question remains, then, can thunder kill it, lady?¡± He pressured. ¡°It could, but that ugly bastard is too fast for you to hit. It¡¯s best if you put your trousers down, and bend over like a heifer in heat in order to attract our dinner ~ you too, Skendus! Our cockatrice dragons are known for being notoriously homosexual, and if you two offer your asses to it, the cockatrice won¡¯t be able to resist them. When it gets close enough, I¡¯ll cut its head off with a single hit, and then, we¡¯ll eat.¡± She explained. ¡°What?¡± Tim asked, helplessly, and then he yelled out. ¡°I¡¯m not getting fucked by a chicken, never!¡± ¡°Rooster, technically.¡± Skendus intervened, ¡°But yes, what he said, I¡¯m not getting rammed by a crazed rooster either, Arvena! That sounds far too bizarre, and painful!¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be such babies. I won¡¯t let it get too close, and besides, an opportunity has been presented to us here! This is a really easy way to get dinner for ourselves, quality dinner, otherwise we¡¯ll be holding our bellies tonight. Cockatrice dragons are otherwise really hard to catch, so we¡¯re lucky that you two managed to attract one here already!¡± She argued. The debate that followed along was strong, but short. Ultimately, the two good friends ended up pulling their trousers down, and as of now, their assholes met with some much-needed, soft, sunshine. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that they catch food this way, she better know what she¡¯s fucking doing!¡± Timothy complained. Then, he bent his neck forward to get a glimpse of what was behind him. Sure enough, he saw something gray flying around, really close by, and it had to be a cockatrice dragon, it couldn¡¯t be anything else. Tim was terrified overall, especially since he got a brief glimpse of the dragon¡¯s main tool, it was humongous, and it scared him for the worst! Skendus, however, couldn''t help cracking a joke, he said. ¡°Cock-a-trice, hah! Well at least we can say that the species was named appropriately, nice. Let¡¯s hope it doesn¡¯t cripple us with its penis though, it has an absurdly big john!¡± Chapter 90 - The Gubus ruins! The cockatrice dragon fell for the trap, and got killed. Its existence was disturbing to begin with, it was a weird creature, but one shouldn¡¯t reject a perfectly good meal, regardless of what it would take to get that meal. Tim and Skendus risked their anuses, yes, literally even, but their risks were worthwhile. They killed the dragon, and later on they cooked it, once they found a good camping spot to settle in. The cockatrice dragon tasted a lot like chicken (or a rooster), as the name would encourage, and it tasted like quality meat too, the good stuff. The latter part was surprising because this silvery thing looked like the stuff of nightmares up close, it seemed evil, and awfully clawy too! No foreigner would guess that this lizard/bat/rooster would be edible, nonetheless taste good! ¡°Who would¡¯ve guessed that a chicken tail would taste so good? I feel stuffed!¡± Tim sighed, he was happy. ¡°I¡¯m glad you think it¡¯s good, because it was your ass who we put at risk there.¡± Arvena followed along, ¡°Also, that thing you¡¯re nibbling on, it¡¯s more of a lizard tail. You¡¯re eating the reptilian part of the cockatrice.¡± ¡°Oh? I have a taste for lizard meat, then.¡± He said, but some of his words were muffled by the burning campfire. ¡°Are we just gonna dump what¡¯s left of this bastard, though? He isn¡¯t as big as you expect a dragon to be, but he¡¯s still pretty big, as tall as me too, we can¡¯t carry it around.¡± ¡°We¡¯re gonna take its good, fatty parts tomorrow morning, and we¡¯ll leave the rest for other critters to feed on, scavengers and such. We must respect mother nature, after all, and give out our crumbs to it; Mother nature has her tax too, it¡¯s a fair, liveable tax.¡± She cited. ¡°You¡¯re very¡­ philosophical.¡± Skendus then complimented. Anyway, after getting stuffed with a bunch of chicken meat, the tryptophan contents put each and every one of them to sleep rather quickly, within half an hour even. The team crashed. These woods were mostly safe, so it was unlikely that they were going to get attacked at night, while they were sleeping, no. If anything, predators would be attracted to the cockatrice remains more, as its remains were very pungent, it¡¯s guts especially! The team was otherwise to be left alone, most likely. ¡­ The city of Figus was far away from the shorelines, but the team managed to get to it nonetheless. They had been up and walking about ever since the break of dawn, and it had been a tiresome journey, but they made it here and that was all that mattered. They made it to their first check-point! This city was a check-point because amongst other things, it was an entrance to civilization! A functional civilization had quite the effect on one¡¯s mind, for multiple reasons. Arvena¡¯s guests came from the sea, for example, and the sea wasn¡¯t so friendly to anyone. There weren¡¯t many functional, massive civilizations in the sea, no, there were just a bunch of species who killed each other, by instinct. Things were even more chaotic in the sea, when once considered that plenty of species were armed with magical powers there, so there was nothing structural about the sea! Sure there were a bunch of sects within it, but that wasn¡¯t enough for the depths to be considered civilized. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. A serving example was that the team got very nervous when they saw whole groups of goblins within the city. They weren¡¯t used to seeing groups of creatures, and they were nervous about this scenario as a result, because out in the open seas, such groups were rarely a good thing! This cited a point regarding civilization, it was really structural, and functional, everyone was just minding their own business and no one was at any risk of blatant, mindless violence. There were plenty of guards around whose duty was to enforce any, and all law too! Tim and the rest walked in the city, but they were still pretty nervous, so they were keeping their hands close to their weapons. They didn¡¯t want to suffer any surprise attacks, from any of the hundreds of degranus goblins that roamed the street, so they remained cautious! That aside, the city was otherwise really beautiful. There was a sea of red-roof tiling that covered the residential, and or trading areas, to the point where one would think that the city had an infinite supply of red clay! Paired with stone foundations and detailing, this city was a textbook example of a fancy, medieval domain! It was rich, functional, and characteristic, one wouldn¡¯t even be able to believe that goblins built such a great city! Yet again, it was also easy to believe the latter, because most buildings were barely two meters tall. They were sculpted to meet the needs of the average, three-foot tall goblin, and this was perhaps how the city expanded to begin with? It wasn¡¯t gravely difficult to build these small homes. Anyway, Arvena and the team were here with a purpose, the city of Figus had something to offer to them, other than its red-tiled beauty. Goblins were cave-dwellers, by nature, so even though they were dwelling in a city now, it wouldn¡¯t be a surprise if their ancestors had lived in caves back then. In this case, there were a bunch of elaborate cave systems and ruins, right below the city! These were not the ruins of Aqumus, no, those ruins were still very far away. They were to go to the Gubus ruins now, and although the latter one didn¡¯t offer as much mana, it still offered a challenge. The challenge was to survive there, primarily, and if they could survive, they¡¯d have killed the aggressive creatures within the ruins. These creatures, when dead, oozed mana! It was custom to bring visiting, mana-seeking adventurers to these ruins, because it would prepare them for the following couple of check-points, which were higher in difficulty. The sea creatures within the vicinity of the Aqumus ruins, where most of the harvestable mana lied, were far more horrid in comparison, they were really hard to kill, so it was ideal to get a bit of training here first. ¡°Half of the Gubus ruins have been overflown, so, it¡¯s great that you guys were fish before. We¡¯re gonna have to do a lot of swimming if the three of you are to survive.¡± Arvena explained, she was direct about the matter. ¡°I¡¯ve dealt with crazed, green fish before, and managed to kill most of them. So don¡¯t worry, your little caves won¡¯t be able to kill me, hehe.¡± Tim boasted, half arrogantly. ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± She sighed. Then, they headed towards an otherwise desolated, eastern-edge of the city. Figus wasn¡¯t surrounded by any protective walls, so it was easy to exit the city, without any tagalong surveillance over one¡¯s shoulders. Anyone could leave, whenever they wanted to! This desolated area was close to a rocky, mountain-side, and unsurprisingly, there were a bunch of caves here too. The entrance was said to be either one of these caves, and the team got their torches ready with the motive to enter one of them! Chapter 91 - "Why they all eyes?" The caves that the team entered were very cave-like. In other words, there was nothing interesting about them, not in the beginning at least. The team had to walk about twenty whole minutes before they ran into what could be considered a ruin, or simply a fraction of the Gubus ruins, which itself was a bit more interesting in comparison to blank caves or tunnels. They ran into a place of worship, or more like, cave of worship! This place was tidy, which hinted that goblins still came here to pray. Of course, most of this place was made of stone, so it didn¡¯t require much maintenance to begin with, but it was still refreshing to see that some goblins stuck to their roots this way, in the means of worship. The greater things were out there, in the city, so it took quite some willpower to come here and walk through these dull caves and tunnels! Anyway, this place of worship consisted of long slabs of stone where visitors could sit on, an altar, and a human-sized statue. These three things were the basic requirements if one wished to have a whole, respected place of worship! Regarding details ~ The altar, for example, was a flat, white table which was likely carved out of a single, big rock! Its purpose was easy to understand, this was where visitors could place their offerings at. Judging from the contents of the table, someone had prayed here this morning, because there were fresh tomatoes on the altar. Someone had offered tomatoes to the god they worshiped, and this seemed like a good gesture, because tomatoes were expensive in any universe! Regarding the god, one could have a single peek at the statue here, and figure out that these goblins were worshiping a human! Now it was hard to tell if this said human was divine, but they were worshiping it nonetheless. Arvena noticed that her guests were curious, so she introduced. ¡°Some goblins worship Rempegan Lus, well, most of our ancestors did, so there are still a few families who uphold this tradition of worshiping him. This statue is a depiction of him, and our ancestors were very capable of making this statue as detailed as possible, because it was easy for them to sculpt a god that they had seen! They didn¡¯t have to use their imagination.¡± Furthermore, she added. ¡°Legends encourage that Rempegan Lus taught magic to the goblins, which isn¡¯t too hard to believe, but plenty of scholars argue that magic was already present in this universe back then, prior to Lus, but goblins couldn¡¯t have been arsed to learn it. Nevertheless, plenty of my people see Rempegan Lus as the father of magic, and this statue stood firm for well over two-thousand years to honor his memory! The rust had destroyed some features of the statue over time, but that didn¡¯t stop worshipers from coming here. I could say that a thousand people still worship him, they see him as a god.¡± ¡°Do they get anything out of it? Like extra mana or something?¡± Tim asked. ¡°No,¡± She answered, honestly. After that short introduction, they continued their journey within the tunnels. What followed along was not a surprise, well, they didn¡¯t get attacked or anything like that, but the visitors did discover that these tunnels were really lengthy! There were tens of caves in between the tunnels, and even though these caves had served their purpose in the past, they were mostly empty now, which made the team¡¯s journey ever so boring! They had to go through these caves nonetheless, for whatever reason Arvena believed in, as she was their guide, after all. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Nonetheless, Tim couldn¡¯t help complaining along the way, he complained a lot. They were walking through tunnels for an hour now, without much rest, so the irritation he felt was reasonable. He also didn¡¯t like tunnels very much due to past experiences, they made him uncomfortable. ¡°So many statues¡­¡± He later remarked. The statues were the main thing that survived the passing of time around here, and these ruins seem to be characteristic for having so many of them. There were several statues of Rempegan Lus spread across the vicinity, which was reasonable because Lus had been the god that the goblins had worshiped, but there were also a lot of statues of mere goblins, far more in comparison to those of Lus! These latter statues were not worshiped, no, but they were idolized and respected instead. There had been plenty of heroic war-heroes and or war-lords in the past, which explained why the team counted over thirty statues of goblins so far! These creatures had tried their best to preserve their rich history, if not their culture. Anyway, even though most of the place was truly ruined, the team managed to reach a spot that actually mattered. They reached a spot that seemed more preserved in comparison to the rest of the ruins, and it was better preserved solely because it was deep underground, about two hundred meters deep, to be precise! It was another cave, technically. It took Tim and the team a moment to figure out just why this place was labeled as more important, but they caught up right away, once they heard their own voices echo into the darkness! This cave was huge, it was a cavern, technically, and it was filled with plenty of respective carvings, and or important, ancient statues that had been preserved really well over the passing of time! The latter part stamped this place with the mark of utter importance, without a doubt! This was not a place of worship, it was perhaps greater than that, as it served an ongoing purpose, a purpose that guaranteed peace! There also was a certain detail about the statues, that was difficult to ignore. ¡°I know what you might ask,¡± Arvena sighed, and then she added. ¡°You want to ask why the goblin statues here have such big eyes, right?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Tim admitted, ¡°It feels like they¡¯re staring down my soul¡­ So yeah, why are they all eyes?¡± This cavern was illuminated only slightly, it wasn¡¯t too radiant, and yet the team still managed to discover the statues on their own! They had torches on their hands, so it was only inevitable for them to run into weird stuff, but now they had a bunch of burning questions to ask. When the team suddenly stepped in knee-deep water, citing the discovery of something really important, Arvena then had an answer for Timothy¡¯s prior question. She had an answer that might satisfy all of their curiosity, even! ¡°That¡¯s why the statues are all eyes!¡± She exclaimed, ¡°There are weird creatures in these waters, horrible creatures! Legend has it that the statues keep them at bay, that is, whenever a monster tries to escape from these waters, the statues stare them down, and scare them back into the waters! This is a tale as old as time, I remember my grandma telling me about this pool.¡± ¡°And that really works? All the staring?¡± Tim asked, he was a bit skeptical. ¡°Well, there are no records of it not working, our ancestors haven¡¯t been attacked as much by whatever roams these waters. Plus, look at those scriptures on the wall, over there, those are spells which demand help from the gods, all the gods, and I¡¯m guessing that these spells were the most effective. They¡¯re everywhere!¡± She added. Then, after that short history lesson, she said. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s start shifting. We¡¯re gonna fight the horrible monsters in the waters, whatever monsters that the gods have been banishing for over two-thousand years! This should be fun, and it¡¯ll serve as training for you guys.¡± Chapter 92 - 0.12 ton Stingray Arvena and the team started shifting. It came to them as a bit of a surprise when she asked them to shift, because they were very deep underground right now, so it simply was the worst place to turn into a fish! Their utter confusion was mostly Arvena¡¯s fault, because she hadn¡¯t been too specific so far, regarding why this pool of water would be helpful to them. She didn¡¯t explain it to them yet, but just told them that their visit here would be a great check-point in their journey to mana quality ascension! It might be a great check-point, however, they were yet to discover the pool¡¯s contents. The team was cooperative, but then the most annoying part about her idea was that they had to disrobe first, in order to shapeshift afterwards! This was really uncomfortable for them, socially speaking at least. As goblins, neither of them wanted to walk around naked in front of their friends, even if it was for just a minute, so they dimmed their torches while they took their armor off, for the sake of privacy. Then they neatly placed their armor near the pool, on any dry area. Tim was sad that he couldn¡¯t crack as many jokes about this, he felt demotivated! Anyway, once they disrobed, they started shapeshifting accordingly. Timothy was very used to being a fish so he wasn¡¯t nervous about this plan, however, there were some complications along the way. Since he had sacrificed a whole level of his mana quality yesterday, just to be a goblin, the shapeshifting he was about to go through, came with many limitations! The system gave him a more detailed explanation. She said, [You can''t be 1.75 meters long just yet, Timothy. Though you¡¯ve attained your previous explosive size through the consumption of panzer crabs, or simply in means that doesn¡¯t include mana directly, you still can¡¯t be as big as before due to indirect reasons regarding mana. The size of your mana pool, and the level of your mana quality have significantly decreased yesterday, which in turn has locked you out of the bodily size that you could turn into before! You¡¯ve even been locked out of the mana pool upgrades that you have made in the past, so the situation is a bit bad. Let¡¯s just say that your sacrificial efforts yesterday were¡­ sacrificial, you lost things!] ¡°Oh, well then I¡¯m never sacrificing anything again, because I worked hard for all the shit I had! I can¡¯t work for them again¡­¡± He complained, inwardly. [You don¡¯t have to work for them again,] The system followed along, and then she added. [You will regain those greater statistics once you level up, hence the fact that those statistics are simply locked away from you, for now. If your mana quality gets back to level two again, you can be a five-meter long stingray once more, if you wanted to! The math or logic behind this is easy to understand, really. Anyway, as for now, you can be one-meter long at most, your mana pool only has the capacity of a thousand points this time around, and your powers are really weak too! So, under these current conditions, I can only wish you the best of luck! Try not to die in that spooky pool, kid.] Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Tim was at a disadvantage here, that was for sure, but even though he was irritated by this fact, he still wasn¡¯t nervous. He had survived as a tiny, powerless stingray before, which was far more difficult to do in a world where almost every creature was power amped! With that considered, it was a treat to slide in this pool as a one-hundred-and-twenty kilogram stingray, as he wasn¡¯t completely helpless! He was eager to kill things. Anyway, his friend Ortana, wasn¡¯t as lucky either. She was locked out of her former fish body as well, which was disadvantageous, because she had been really small as a fish to begin with, and now, she could only be smaller! She ended up turning into a four-inch sardine. Now the magical science behind this was really difficult to understand, but she was still a subject to this science nonetheless. Ortana had sacrificed a level of her mana quality yesterday, and seemingly her body as well, in order to turn into a goblin, a whole mammal. Tim suffered something similar, but she had to sacrifice a lot more in comparison! She could switch into a full goblin later on if she wanted to, because she had bought herself that option, yes, but she wouldn¡¯t be able to be as powerful as a fish anymore, because of the very sacrifice that she made. She was only greater as a goblin, for now! However, even though she had sacrificed a lot, her future was identical to that of Timothy''s. She sacrificed her flat, boneless back in exchange for a belly button, yes, but she could also turn back into her ¡®sacrificed¡¯ form, a stingray, after she levels her mana quality up! Her fate was really linear regarding shapeshifting, so she was comfortable as a sardine right now, especially since she was less of a target in the eyes of the average enemy. She could also protect herself really well, regardless of how big or small she was! Arvena was weaker as a fish as well, though not defenseless. Being born a goblin, she had simply never sacrificed her mana quality in exchange for a fish body, because she didn''t have to. She just settled to turn into a small, but deadly fish, and she was deadly because it didn¡¯t take as much mana to kill a fish, when one''s mana quality was at level six, for example! She could just evaporate an enemy whole, even if her mana pool was limited, she had the advantage, so she didn''t need a greater fish body. Skendus was perhaps the luckiest, as he exploded in size, and switched back in to a sawfish. He had made his sacrifices long ago, when he had been a rat, so the gods weren¡¯t punishing him as much now as he tried to ascend through levels, no! He was all dandy. Anyway, after they shapeshifted, they were ready to explore what else this pool of water had to offer. There were sections of it which seemed deeper, so by all means, this pool in the middle of the cavern probably had a lot to offer, trouble-wise that is. The team was excited nonetheless, they were ready! After they swam ten meters below the water, they discovered that the area was actually illuminated really well, even though they had subconsciously imagined the opposite up until a moment ago! The area was illuminated, because the walls were smooth and glass-like, which allowed the walls to reflect sources of light that shone from numerous places. Light mainly shone from the bottom. Arvena noticed that they had caught up with the latter fact, so she gave them a really taunting offer. Skendus had already predicted what she wanted to say, and yet he could barely muster an answer, even on his own behalf. She asked, ¡°Are you guys ready to meet a demon?¡± Chapter 93 - Whistling Mana Munchers ¡°A demon? Hell no, I don¡¯t want to meet a demon! The gods hate me enough already.¡± Timothy refused, he joked partially, then again he was really curious about the matter. Arvena helped maintain his curiosity, as she added. ¡°It¡¯s a caged demon, so don¡¯t worry. Your gods have punished this demon a long time ago, so I¡¯m sure they wouldn¡¯t mind you talking to it.¡± ¡°Oh shit! You¡¯re serious, aren¡¯t you?¡± He followed along, ¡°I thought you were talking about a statue or something? I didn¡¯t expect a living, er, unliving demon!¡± After that part, they swam towards the bottom of the pool without much of a debate. Considering that this demon somehow illuminated a big area, the team expected to see a huge beast, the thing of nightmares, even! They expected a lava-encrusted monster, and rightfully so, but that wasn¡¯t nearly the case! When they got there, the team got really disappointed, Timothy especially! He noticed that the ¡®demon¡¯ didn''t even have any horns, so it was inappropriate to call it a demon to begin with, it was unusual. Then he noticed a few other features that made this creature less of a demon, and more of a fish. Tim was the first to point it out, he said. ¡°That¡¯s no demon, Arvena! That fat motherfucker is an anglerfish of sorts.¡± ¡°An anglerfish with two lightbulbs? That¡¯s rich.¡± She countered, ¡°I like to think that those bulbs are its ugly horns.¡± They debated over the creature¡¯s origin for a little bit, they had to, and they did so quite freely as well, because the creature was truly locked away! These large, net-shaped, metal beams contained it, so it couldn¡¯t either escape or harm anyone within its close vicinity, it was a prisoner! The team could discuss the creature¡¯s origin, and even gender, for as long as they wanted, no one could interrupt them. However, at some point they decided to move on with their day. Whatever this creature was, they were just glad that it was caged, because otherwise it would be near impossible to kill this thing, if the situation arose where they had to fight it. They wouldn¡¯t be able to win without taking major, deadly damage, no, because this thing was truly huge! Its body was short, about twenty meters long, but the ¡®demon¡¯ was pretty fat, much like an anglerfish, so it looked huge! It had an overwhelming bodily girth of twenty-five meters, there was no fighting it! ¡°I¡¯m glad that this fat motherfucker is just a night-light for us, we¡¯re lucky that the gods imprisoned it or whatever.¡± Tim expresed, and then they moved on. Arvena gave the team a bit of a scare there, and she did so purposely, because she didn¡¯t want them to relax down here, not even for a second, it would be stupid. She had been down here before, and knew how dangerous this place could be, so one couldn¡¯t afford to be inattentive in this deep body of water, not even for a second, it was too dangerous to do so! She figured that if her guests looked a demon right in the eye, then they may be more cautious around here, and she was right! The team even started swimming slower, they slithered across the waters in a sneaky manner, as if they wanted to pounce on anything that was to cross their path! They were more cautious now. It was great that they were cautious, because danger was really quick to find them. About five minutes later, they got attacked! A group of fish attacked them. Now although that sounded better than getting pounced on by a demon, they were still in trouble nonetheless! If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Is that a fucking snake!¡± Tim asked, in panic. There were actually seven of these elongated creatures slithering around the team, and their appearance had been very spontaneous! These creatures could either camouflage really well, or it was possible that they were invisible, because there was no other way to describe their sudden appearance! The name of their species didn¡¯t help make sense of things either, no. ¡°They¡¯re whistling mana-muncher eels, not snakes!¡± Arvena shouted out, that¡¯s what she called them. ¡°Kill them!¡± Her voice echoed. Then, the team mobilized themselves to do exactly so, they were ready to kill, in fact it was their only choice! The three-meter long eels lived here, and they didn¡¯t have the slightest sense of community, so they were ready to tear apart anything that they could. They had to be killed! Timothy on the other hand, he was contemplative. ¡°Munchers, huh?¡± Regarding the name of this species, it was obvious that they consumed mana, perhaps a lot of it, so Tim tried to stay as far away from them as he could, which slowed down any attack that he could inflict against them. His contemplation reaped him out of the pleasure of killing them! Timothy didn¡¯t have much mana to spare, or in this case, hand over, so he tried to be cautious within this chaos, he avoided the enemies! He tried to preserve his mana, so he got really paranoid about the matter of losing mana, to the point where he forgot that the enemies had been invisible up until a moment ago, he forgot entirely. This was less than optimal because he forgot about a great fraction of their power, and if he was to truly avoid them efficiently, then it was stupid to ignore that core part of the enemy¡¯s abilities! Anyway, regardless of such circumstances, he remembered something for sure; He and the team had to kill these silver-skinned giants, there was no other way around it! ¡°I have half a mana pool, let¡¯s see what I can do with it.¡± He muttered, ¡°My fireballs are known to travel far, I think? Let¡¯s hope that I can shoot ¡®em down from here¡­¡± Tim spammed a bunch of fireballs and thunderbolts from his tail, and this ended up being really effective against the enemies, though it was reckless. He could¡¯ve hit a friend, for example, but thankfully he didn¡¯t, and managed to clear the area a little bit instead, because these eels were very responsive to fire! Although he didn¡¯t manage to kill any of them, the eels still swam away once they got burned, so he got that personal space that he so craved! ¡°Okay, I bought us some time¡­¡± He muttered, and then he yelled. ¡°Shoot ''em now, kill those disgusting, long bastards!¡± ¡°You two shoot them!¡± Ortana countered, ¡°Me and Skendus can¡¯t shoot fireballs out of our asses!¡± ¡°Right,¡± He caught up, and then he chased after the enemies. Arvena joined him, and this was good, because even though she was a tiny fish, she could shoot these huge fireballs, she bore most of the fire-power here! Since the quality of her mana was at level six, her fire burned especially badly, so she had managed to kill two snakes already! Anyway, while she and Tim chased after them, two eels were clever enough to circle back. It was in their nature to be sneaky, and or a bit strategic, so the two of them circled back, and then they pounced on Skendus! They whistled this high-pitched tone as they attacked, which was very disorienting! Their jaws were jerked outwards, bent rather unnaturally, and their intent was even uglier than that! They tried to kill him, and reap every drop of mana out of his body afterwards, that was their plan, but they met with a unique challenge instead. The very teeth of the enemies shattered, as they discovered that Skendus¡¯ skin was somehow tougher than metal, they couldn¡¯t bite him. Skendus was surprised by this himself, but then in response to the attack, he swung his two-and-a-half foot long nose around, and slit the two eels into many many pieces! His nose, which was equipped with fifty pointy teeth, was very effective, he marked a milestone! Four out of the seven whistling mana-muncher eels were now dead, and three of them remained. Ortana didn¡¯t kill any of them, but she sure liked to toot her own horn nonetheless! ¡°I saved you! You¡¯re welcome, fatty.¡± She said. ¡°Oh, that was you?¡± Skendus asked, ¡°I keep forgetting that your shields are very advanced, thanks, lady! I thought that I was a goner there, these bastards are notoriously sneaky¡­ very immune to my powers too, I could not frighten them no matter what I tried!¡± Chapter 94 - Stingray ink Timothy and Arvena hunted the whistling mana-muncher eels. It was evident that the team reigned victorious in this battle already, the enemies were fleeing, but if they were to assure their personal safety even further, then it was best to kill these sneaky, potentially invisible eels, they couldn¡¯t spare them. It would be stupid to let these few vengeful munchers roam free, as they could come back for revenge in any given time later on! It was safer to kill them! Arvena ended up doing most of the work. The fireballs she shot out from the front of her forehead were massive, hot and dangerous! She managed to scorch an eel whole with a single shot, and this spoke volumes of the amount of power that she bore! It was understandable how she was the main contributor here. In the meantime, Timothy managed to kill a single eel, purely by accident. He had spammed lightning-bolts and fireballs against the enemies, and it so happened that he hit one of them at the same time when Arvena had struck. She had completely weakened the enemies, she had pushed them to the very edge of death even, and then Timothy just pushed them a bit further! He shot at them at the right time, and therefore, he tipped the bucket, and killed one of them! The reward afterwards was plentiful, regardless of his minor contributions. After the battle was officially over, the system came in with the details. She announced, [Congratulations, you reluctantly killed a whistling mana-muncher eel, and won 1,800 system points as a reward. This is good, because you spent 182 mana points during this battle, so it would be horrible if you didn¡¯t win anything in exchange. This reward is good for you, because you entered this universe without a single point to your name.] ¡°Eh, that¡¯s good, but I¡¯m not rushing with the upgrades for now. I bought everything I needed like a week ago, so at this point I¡¯d rather just improve my mana quality for a while.¡± He thought. [Accumulate your points, then, because the following upgrades can be expensive, whenever you¡¯ll choose to buy them.] She said, [Also, on the account of your upgraded IQ, I plan to give you a bit more freedom regarding what upgrades you can buy, or when you can buy them. Of course there will be some limitations, with expensive prices being one of those limitations, but this freedom should let you favorize whatever powers you want to improve on, you¡¯re smart enough to be picky now, so I trust your judgment. I¡¯ll explain this concept, in depth, when the time comes.] ¡°That sounds fun! I guess my nagging finally worked, you¡¯re gonna let me buy the cool shit whenever I want!¡± He celebrated. Anyway, although that concept sounded really interesting, there were other things to do now that he had to pay attention to, things regarding mana. Arvena hadn¡¯t insisted on brutally killing those eels for nothing, she had a little plan in mind. These dead eels had ¡®mana-munchers¡¯ in their name for a reason, they fed on mana, in other words, they accumulated it! Killing them would turn these eels into a short-lasting fountain of mana, and the team were about to use their carcasses for that specific purpose! Skendus helped gather the eels together, through raw strength alone, and then the team started feeding on this fountain that promised the very thing they were after! The team circled around this cluster of carcasses, and the free-roaming mana that followed along was so dense here, that Tim managed to fill his mana pool to the very brim, within just ten minutes! It was phenomenal, he felt as if he had found a mana-root here, so he truly felt rewarded beyond means! Ortana experienced the same thing. She and Timothy were the weakest in terms of mana quality, so it was no surprise how they got really lucky here! With a full mana pool to their disposal, the two of them were then confident to try out something rash, they wanted to upgrade their mana quality right away! There was no point in waiting. For weak creatures like them, it was nearly impossible for them to have such a full, dependable mana pool, because they generated mana really slowly, so all aspects were against them. They were slow! In a world of magic, one couldn¡¯t survive without spending mana on a daily basis, that¡¯s what worked against them. In this rare occasion where their mana pool was full, they had to try and upgrade the quality of it! There was no working around it, this was their best shot to do so. It wasn¡¯t much of a debate, Tim immediately pitched. ¡°We should upgrade now, plant lady. Well, I¡¯m going to do it, because I don¡¯t need to beg the gods for a blessing anyway, I¡¯m a rebel, hehe! This is the kind of upgrade with a 100% survivability-rate, so I¡¯m not gonna waste the chance. I won¡¯t spend another second in this¡­ weak state.¡± Despite such cockiness, Ortana still nodded along to his idea, she agreed. They were getting ready to cast their spoken-word spells, otherwise known as pleads or demands, but Arvena, their guide, interrupted them right before they were about to cast them! She said, ¡°Neither of you have to beg the gods, actually. The god¡¯s punishment realm of mana is less punishing in our universe, so it¡¯s best if you alter your spell accordingly. Timothy, you blabbered something about being a rebel, that¡¯s good, but it doesn¡¯t really matter here. Both of you can utter the same spell, and expect the same results, so let me teach you, please. The two of you will survive this for sure!¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°You¡¯re giving out guarantees as if you met the gods personally, Arvena.¡± Tim pointed out, ¡°But¡­ I guess you can help us, cuz you¡¯re the strongest one here, after all, you must know what you¡¯re doing.¡± Arvena smiled in response, as deeply as a fish could smile, and then she taught them accordingly. She wanted to teach them a decent, spoken-word spell, one that would hopefully push them through a less intensive experience! This realm was for the aspiring mages, after all, and there was no need to punish a mage so constantly, no. She insisted on helping them. Ortana was the first to try the spell out, she chanted. ¡°My will is but mana, and mana is life! God, gods? You know where I am, you know why I¡¯m here, and you know what my intentions are, my will is pure. Gods, please bless me with purity, I demand it, as mana is greater when pure! On behalf of the creator of this micro universe, I ask you to bless me!¡± The spell was lengthy, as it included many external factors, so it was surely expansive. However, its length didn¡¯t make it any less effective. The gods heard her plea, or, her demand, and the result was in coordination with her direct demand! What followed along was a five-minute episode of sweaty, hot, and concerning twitching. The spasms she had were very concerning, but then again they weren¡¯t much of a surprise either! Mana was stored in one¡¯s body, and if its quality or purity was to be altered, then one¡¯s whole body had to be put into use, it wasn¡¯t dandy! She basically had to shake out any ounce of low-quality mana that she had in her body, and this was only possible if all of her internal organs were put into use. At some point, she was pissing black ink into the waters too, so the process was fairly brutal, but she had to push through. ¡°God damn it! This feels like I¡¯m giving birth or something!¡± She complained a few times. Anyway, regardless of how painful this process was, there thankfully was a light at the end of the tunnel. This micro-universe guaranteed success, so it was unlikely that she would¡¯ve died along the way, but it was still great that the gruesome process was over now. Ortana bore rustic mana once more, and she was quite happy about it, it was done! Just a few minutes earlier, Timothy had repeated that same spell, and he was going through the same process now. He was pissing black, icky mana all over the place, and this was a bit funny too; He thought that it was hilarious, at least. Considering that he had gone through far more gruesome upgrades before, the pain that tagged along in this one, was pale in comparison. He giggled quite often, even! ¡°The gods are having fun after all,¡± He thought. Anyway, regarding such upgrades, it was factual that he could¡¯ve waited a little bit longer, and then he could¡¯ve bought this same mana quality upgrade off of the system, without taking much of a risk either! It was entirely possible, but he refused to do so, for a couple of reasons. Over a period of time, he had grown to dislike the gods for various reasons, and that was a topic of its own. However, now, when he was given an opportunity to taunt the gods, he chose to use this opportunity wholly! It was truly something else to have the opportunity to taunt the gods with this treasured, 100% survival-rate, so he did so accordingly, he was eager. Tim had chanted the spoken-word spell, and despite what the gods might have felt up there, in their great divinity, they were still slaves to a handful of social constructs, so they granted his demand accordingly, without any strings attached. They listened. They could only ignore the fact that Tim¡¯s will was to tease them, the gods, they couldn¡¯t do anything about it! The quality of his mana bounced up to level two, and by having done that, he regained about seventy-five-percent of his magical arsenal as a result. ¡°Hehe! God¡¯s punishment realm my ass!¡± He celebrated, ¡°I guess the gods owe a favor to this universe¡¯s daddy or something, they couldn¡¯t kill me through this upgrade!¡± Tim was power-amped once more, which was advantageous. He could be even stronger if he wanted to, meaning, if he wanted to unlock his entire arsenal, he just had to shapeshift into a bigger stingray. That¡¯s all it took, and it was entirely possible, but he chose to avoid that for now, because he didn¡¯t want to be a big, easy target within this body of water. It was safer to be smaller, even if he was a bit weak as a result. Anyway, once he upgraded the quality of his mana, he started thinking about what the system had to offer. She was truly powerful, and she had told him before that she was immune to any kind of rage that the gods would feel, she could ignore their decree. With that being said, she could offer Timothy these very expensive upgrades, regarding mana quality levels! She caught Tim thinking about this, so she started explaining things accordingly. She said, [I can offer you the ability to upgrade the quality of your mana, Timothy. I mentioned it before, a few times too, but your memory seems to work against you, you have forgotten about this purchase option completely.] ¡°Well, a fish brain is less than useful. My lacking memory had actually been my smallest problem before, in comparison to some other problems, as you can recall?¡± He added. [You¡¯re right about that,] She seconded, [Anyway, I can offer you a mana quality upgrade. You can bounce up to level three right away, but it costs 10,000 system points for you to buy it and apply it on yourself.] ¡°Shit,¡± He sighed, ¡°It¡¯s no wonder that I never bought this thing before, it costs an arm and a leg! Then again, I can¡¯t be stuck with this rustic mana forever, so it would be stupid to ignore your offer¡­ Let¡¯s hope that I get lucky with system points.¡± Chapter 95 - "The Obsidian Towers" Timothy wasn¡¯t going to buy a mana quality upgrade anytime soon. He couldn¡¯t afford it, first of all, but that wasn¡¯t the main reason behind his decision. He didn¡¯t feel like spending them due to various reasons, so he¡¯d rather accumulate any and all system points for now, and spend them later on, perhaps on more sensible purchases. Since the quality of Tim¡¯s mana was at level two now, he felt like his normal self again, he felt confident! He was powerful enough to do plenty of damage, independently, and that was the second, more important reason behind his prior decision. He didn¡¯t feel the need to upgrade the quality of his mana again so quickly, he wasn¡¯t in a rush. Despite the main reason why they¡¯ve entered this micro-universe to begin with, which was to improve the quality of the individual mana they bore, he wasn¡¯t in a rush. Level two was plenty for a crafty rascal such as himself. ¡°I went through thick and thin with this rustic ass mana, and most important of all, I survived too! I¡¯ll be fine.¡± He thought. Furthermore, Tim¡¯s mana pool could fit fifteen-hundred points of mana now. That capacity wasn¡¯t the greatest, it definitely wasn¡¯t what he was used to, but it was good enough for now. He didn¡¯t worry about this matter, because he bore a smaller mana pool voluntarily, it was entirely under his personal control. Tim chose to remain small in bodily size, and that decision kept his mana pool small-ish. He did so for the sake of avoiding unnecessary attention from any and all monsters here, so it was a good decision overall! Besides, smaller pools were also easier to fill, which meant that he could harass the gods for another mana quality upgrade. He¡¯d be able to do so sooner, rather than later! This was better and cheaper than harassing the system herself for an upgrade, he had it all thought out. Anyway, these muncher-eels ended up giving the group a few more mana points. Skendus and Arvena couldn¡¯t get much mana out of this cluster of eels, because the quality the two of them demanded was greater! With that said, Tim and Ortana ended up absorbing a lot of free-roaming mana, they got lucky. They got five-hundred points each, and this was great because their pool had initially gone to zero, after the mana quality upgrade! They needed any and all mana points. Arvena and Skendus weren¡¯t as lucky overall. They couldn¡¯t manage to make any upgrades whatsoever, because as mentioned, they couldn¡¯t harvest much mana. The latter was really problematic, because their mana pools were significantly larger in comparison, especially Arvena¡¯s, her pool was within the tens of thousands! The two of them had to wait for an upgrade, for an unknown amount of time, however, they were still happy that their weaker friends managed to become a bit stronger. They weren¡¯t sour. Even if they felt sour, a belly full of meat may console them, the eel carcasses were perfectly edible! Arvena couldn¡¯t eat much meat, because she was a tiny damselfish, but her guests sure had an appetite! Skendus was huge, so even if he didn¡¯t have a big appetite, he still ended up eating half of an entire eel just to feel full. He was noticeably happier now! Anyway, about twenty minutes later, after they reaped all benefits out of those eels, the team of four were on the move again. This body of water surely had a lot more to offer, and it was up to them to explore what its contents were! They were on the move now, and as they swam, Tim then couldn¡¯t help but ask a question. Something was bothering him, he was curious about the eels that they had left behind. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He asked, ¡°Hey¡­ so not to be ungrateful, but is everything here huge, like those eels? Do your people come down here often, to kill bastards like those big eels and stuff, because I have a feeling that you don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Oh, we don¡¯t. This place has become over-populated, and I was tasked with, eh¡­ reducing the population here as soon as possible, so I figured that we shouldn¡¯t let all that mana go to waste.¡± She answered. ¡°So we weren¡¯t supposed to be down here today?¡± He asked, bluntly. ¡°No, we typically don¡¯t bring visitors here.¡± She admitted, ¡°However, since you folks helped me clear those green, psidium mana pools back at your universe, I figured that you three deserved a reward. This place is ancient, my friends, so not only will you get a lot of free mana, but you¡¯ll also understand the very concept of mana, and a bit of its history too. Trust me on that.¡± ¡°Well, I trust you,¡± Ortana added to the conversation, she took over for a moment. ¡°You and your people traveled universes to protect all-things-mana, so I¡¯m guessing you had some very good reasons to protect it, Areesa dear, other than playing as heroes.¡± Other than absolutely butchering her name, Ortana served a good point. One way or the other, this little trip was bound to be beneficial, even if it was scary or annoying at some point of time. Therefore, the team was eager! The caged ¡®demon¡¯ lit their way too, as the bulbs above its head provided mostly dependable light, though not at the deepest spots of the vicinity, no. The latter was a bit problematic, because the team ended up swimming even deeper, as they found these short tunnels that led to an even bigger, cavern-like opening! Though they could not see the bottom of this water-filled cavern, there were still a couple of huge things that grabbed their attention. The walls were weirdly shaped, they noticed this part right away! The walls were weirdly shaped, in a sense that it seemed as if someone had tried to build a castle here before. A great portion of the cavern walls were carved in a way where they mimicked these huge, medieval brick walls, the kind that was used to protect cities! It was a beautiful sight, but that wasn¡¯t all, no. As of now, the team was on top of the cavern, and about thirty meters below, they also spotted a few towers of some sort. There were tower-like structures carved out of the cavern walls, and it was apparent that they were really tall too, as they stretched out all the way to the bottom of this place! Someone, or some goblins in the past had really tried to make this place look nice, and had also tried their best to protect it, it was apparent. Now these structures in their entirety were especially impressive, when one considered that the walls of the cavern were made of dark, volcanic glass! Obsidian, in other words! There was no doubt about it, this place used to be filled with lava, perhaps far before the ancient goblins had settled in here. Water or air might have been what cleared this place out of lava, and everything impressive had happened after that part. ¡°This place didn¡¯t have any water when our ancestors settled,¡± Arvena added. This was an important piece of the puzzle. Her goblin ancestors built this place in the absence of water, which was reasonable, but it was still very impressive, because obsidian was very brittle, it didn¡¯t take much force to crack it! With that said, it had taken intense, yet soft craftsmanship to build this place, without crushing the obsidian that is. It was even more impressive how the obsidian structures had held on for thousands of years, they were still intact! The water pressure may have helped in some way, but otherwise the team was clueless regarding the immense structural durability here! They could only observe the carvings in awe, as they were not allowed to touch anything. Fifty more meters below, when the surroundings started getting dark, they swam into something even more interesting! The team found an entrance, but it was nothing like the average cave or tunnel entrance, because this one was very beautifully carved. The entrance and its tunnel was carved in the shape of a five-sided pentagon, and its details were accurate to the very last millimeter! Now this tunnel was made out of hard stone, rather than brittle obsidian, but it was really impressive nonetheless. The ancient degranus goblins were amazing architects, no doubt about it, they were great! A moment later, Arvena introduced this place to her guests. ¡°Welcome to the ancient library of Rempegana, kids! Of course, it¡¯s named after our timeless god, Rempegan Lus. We can learn a lot about mana today, as very important knowledge has been preserved here for over thousands of years!¡± Chapter 96 - The Molten Dwarves It wasn¡¯t easy to get to the ancient library of Rempegana. The tunnel that they found was pretty, yes, but it also featured a lot of danger! Danger in this case, was no different from a textbook barricade, as no one would willingly engulf themselves in the utter darkness that the tunnel featured. Apart from this path being poorly illuminated, there were other issues to it as well. Some kind of creatures lived here, and this part was pretty predictable, however, these creatures were especially dangerous because they had a genetic advantage, they were mammals! After the team swam about ten-meters forward, something swam past them, right within the tunnel! Aside from the initial scare of being spooked in the dark, Timothy also picked up on a very important detail. ¡°Was that a fucking foot I saw?¡± He asked, and their guide just nodded. That¡¯s how they discovered that they were entering mammalian territory. With that said, what was to follow was bound to be a challenge, because even though Tim and his team were smart-ish, they were still fish right now, they felt crippled in comparison. Mammals had a greater advantage when it came to intelligence, in other words, they were much harder to kill, so the team was about to face a true challenge. Come to think of it, it may be the best idea to avoid fighting all together. ¡°You saw a foot back there, well, you saw a very fast molten dwarf.¡± Arvena started explaining things, it was best to shed more details about the matter. ¡°They¡¯re not goblins, and they¡¯re our ancient enemy, actually. It was them who forced our ancestors to go and live topside, but now these stupid dwarves are living near the library only. Their choices are very offensive to my people, I mean, why start a whole fucking conquest to begin with, if you don¡¯t care for your enemy¡¯s territory? They killed my ancestors in spite, in cold blood!¡± Arvena was whispering, for the sake of avoiding grabbing any unnecessary attention, she didn¡¯t want to alert the enemy. However, it was still very apparent in her tone that she was passionate about this matter, she was angry! ¡°Only one known species of dwarves in the entirety of Valporovus, and they¡¯re known for running us out of our homes! So unlucky¡­ some god must have punished us!¡± She mumbled to herself. Anyway, since it was apparent that these dwarves were really cozy here, this meant that it was especially difficult to enter the library. The molten dwarves had even destroyed portions of the architectural wonders here, to make their own lives easier, and this made them all the more dangerous because they knew every inch of this area by heart, they knew what they were doing! They were invasive, yet grand enemies, so it was unwise to cross them. At some point along the way, the team started second-guessing this little mission, due to various reasons. It was really dangerous for them to be here, as a start, and in the occasion of a battle, Timothy didn¡¯t really feel comfortable with killing other, intelligent creatures. It seemed wrong to him, and rightfully so. Tim would kill a thousand fish if he had to, any day, as they were like savages, but it didn¡¯t feel morally right to kill a mammal, not at all. These dwarves were very damn close to being human as well, which made killing them even more morally difficult! ¡°How many of them do we have to kill?¡± He asked, as they swam further within the dark tunnel. ¡°They¡¯re dwarves, sure whatever, but it still feels wrong to kill intelligent life. Come on, they¡¯re basically mini humans!¡± ¡°Humans?! That¡¯s insane of you to say! So you want to bargain with the dwarves, then, is that it? That¡¯s rich!¡± She countered. Before he was about to answer, a sharp tone echoed from within the darker areas of the tunnel. It managed to frighten the team quite a bit. ¡°Bargain?¡± It parroted. ¡°Yes, bargain!¡± Tim was quick to answer, as he understood that they had a good, and surely sudden opportunity here. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. He followed along, ¡°You¡¯re not animals, so we don¡¯t want to kill any of you little bastards! Come on now, please let us enter the library in peace.¡± ¡°Ok,¡± It answered, shortly. Moments later, a mere, bearded dwarf swam in front of them, peacefully. It didn¡¯t seem like he wanted to attack, which was advantageous, but as far as details were concerned, Tim and his friends finally understood why these things were called molten dwarves! The dwarf¡¯s face was really red, as if he had a rash of some sort, and his skin seemed pretty tough too. Great portions of his skin was coated with iron, perhaps naturally, so one could say that he was resistant to most kinds of attacks. It would be stupid to attack them to begin with, it was obvious now, and Arvena hadn¡¯t told them this when she brought them down here. She brought them down here in order to fight anything that moved, and this part was a bit suspicious of her, but the team didn¡¯t have time to ask her any of such questions right now, no. Tim, instead greeted the red-bearded fellow, he said. ¡°Hello! Can you understand me?¡± ¡°Yes, I can understand you, or I can understand some fish, especially when they have a goblin accent like you do.¡± He answered, ¡°I am Araduli Grimfoot.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Tim¡¯s smile stretched out, he was surprised. ¡°I¡¯m Timothy Lake.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a funny name,¡± Araduli added, and then he asked. ¡°You wanted to see the library? I can take you there, us dwarves rarely use it anyway. There are too many useless scrolls there, they¡¯re about mana mostly, so we don¡¯t really need them.¡± ¡°Useless?!¡± Arvena interrupted them, she got steaming mad right that instant, not that she hadn¡¯t been pretty mad already. Then, she scolded. ¡°You¡¯ve been gatekeeping knowledge that¡¯s thousands of years old, it¡¯s precious to us, you bastard! Don¡¯t say anything stupid like that ever again, because I¡¯m trying my best not to kill you, you red faced demon!¡± Araduli looked at the tiny damselfish, and then he said. ¡°You, kill me? I trust that there is iron in your veins then, if you¡¯re so confident about killing me, but your rage may be your misdoing. You goblins mainly come here to fight us, and that¡¯s about it, you never asked us if you can enter the library. If you asked, we would¡¯ve let you.¡± Araduli could¡¯ve said something stupid right then and there, but he avoided it. Instead, he praised the little damselfish, and then he embraced logical reasoning too, which managed to deescalate the situation quite a bit. He made a smart move, because Arvena was basically an over-powered laser pointer in this bodily form. She was tiny, but super dangerous, and she would¡¯ve attacked if she had enough pretext to do so! A dire battle was avoided. Timothy was especially thankful that those hostile tensions suddenly died down. He didn¡¯t want to kill any dwarves, and he wanted access to the library too, so this was a win-win situation really. He felt jolly! The team was promised safe passage to the library, so they took that offer, regardless of the perplexing undertone of that negotiation session. This was a good opportunity for them to learn about mana. Arvena was their biggest security threat along the way, because she noticed how a lot of these ancient tunnels had been destroyed, in order to fit the needs of the dwarves, which was very offensive to her. This place used to have other useful rooms before, huge air-filled caverns even, it didn¡¯t feature just the library like it did now. Plenty of important places seemed to have been locked away because of the rubble, possibly forever, so Arvena was not happy! Thankfully though, they made it to the library in one piece. The other dwarves did not bother them at all, so their passage here was more than safe, if not peaceful. At some point, they had to shapeshift into goblins, because the library was not submerged underwater. Parchments wouldn¡¯t last long under such conditions, not nearly! Once they shapeshifted, Araduli managed to get some clothes for them, because he couldn¡¯t have guests walk around naked. He couldn¡¯t walk around naked either. Araduli was only a little bit taller than Skendus too, so it didn¡¯t take much effort to find spare clothes for his guests, clothes that fit. The team was equipped with what the dwarves called eel leather, and this was quite comfortable on their skin, it felt like silk. It was unknown how they extracted leather from an eel, but in this case, it was best not to ask any questions. Anyway, when they entered the library later on, the team met with a huge drop of elevation, a pit! The entrance was very close to the library¡¯s ceiling, and the twenty-meter pit below them featured this circular wall, with plenty of scrolls stashed away inside of those walls! This was a beautiful, big, and single room, but with the clear lack of ladders, it may be difficult to find important scrolls here, without the team falling to their death. What was to follow, was bound to be a challenge! Chapter 97 - Flash upgrade The team had made it to the ancient library of Rempegana, which was amazing, especially since they made it here in one piece! Now the dilemma was that the elevation drop in front of them was too intimidating, it was concerning. They could quite literally fall to their death because it was a twenty meter drop, and in a world full of magic, this may be one of the most embarrassing ways to die. It would be tragic! For that matter, Tim asked. ¡°How do we get down there, Araduli? I think your friends stole all the ladders from here.¡± ¡°The ladders withered away, they were made out of wood I presume. I believe that¡¯s what you call it, wood? Besides, you don¡¯t need any ladders today, because I¡¯ll just cast a light-wing spell on the lot of you. It¡¯s very effective, you¡¯ll be flying.¡± He answered. ¡°That sounds useful, cuz you don¡¯t hear much about flying goblins out there! You must be a pretty powerful guy then, Araduli?¡± Tim asked, he was a bit curious. ¡°Yes, I would say so. Calidum mana lets us be really flexible with what spells we want to use, because well, we don¡¯t have any gods looking over us. Our god is iron, and our belief is in solid architecture.¡± He added. ¡°That¡¯s rich, considering that you destroyed everything here apart from the library. Architects my ass!¡± Arvena interrupted, she was very keen on arguing with any and all dwarves. Nevertheless, Araduli did not engage, and he brushed that comment off with a smile. Then, he gave the team the freedom that he promised them. Araduli wiggled his fingers in front of his face, muttered a spell to himself, and then he stretched his hands out towards the goblin guests! A red flash erupted in front of them, it was quick, painless, and then the team suddenly forgot that gravity was a thing! Or in other words, they didn¡¯t fear this deep drop as much as they used to, so the result was great overall. Arvena was the first to start floating, as if her rage powered her new ability of flight. She was a bit happy considering that she wasn¡¯t falling to her death, but now since she had the great opportunity to browse the library, she did exactly that. She pulled out one of the many scrolls out of the neatly designed holes in the stone wall, and was more than eager to read its contents! ¡°You know, I¡¯ve been in this library before, only once, with my grandpa.¡± She spoke, but her tone was faint so she was mostly speaking to herself. ¡°We snuck in here and read a couple of scrolls, but we couldn¡¯t get to the important ones. Only if we did¡­ this library would¡¯ve been ours.¡± Araduli picked up on what she said, despite her faint voice, so he came up with a sweet answer. ¡°The library is yours, lass, for twenty-four whole hours. That¡¯s how long my light-wing spell will keep you floating, so read what you have to read, and then I will guide you out of here. You can tell your kin that contrary to popular belief, us dwarves are more than hospitable.¡± ¡°That¡¯s rich,¡± She muttered to herself, and she didn¡¯t fight him on the matter. This was a wonderful opportunity to become more powerful, and she wasn¡¯t going to waste a single second of it. Arvena took one peek of the scroll that she had grabbed, and put it right back on the wall afterwards, because it wasn¡¯t what she was looking for, it wasn¡¯t as ancient. Then, she floated down at the very bottom of the library, because that was where all the good, forgotten stuff was supposed to be. Stolen story; please report. Arvena pulled three, two-foot tall scrolls out of the wall, and then she was very gentle with them, so as to not tear them. The metallic handle of the scroll had collected a lot of rust over the years already, it was almost unusable, and this alone hinted how old these scrolls actually were! With that said, she didn¡¯t want to figure out just how fragile the very parchment of each scroll was, no, she wanted to be as gentle as possible with them! It was best to roll the scrolls down flat on the ground, and she did exactly so with the three of them, the ground was bone dry. Once unraveled, each of them were from one-to-three meters long, and this itself hinted that the scrolls withheld great knowledge! The language on it was ancient, it was simply impossible to understand it at first sight, but she came here with a solution in mind rather than a complaint. She knew a spoken-word spell that was fit for this occasion, one that would help her decode this ancient, degranus goblin language! She sat near the scrolls, cross-legged, and then she chanted. ¡°I call upon you, first fathers of our goblin kind, fathers of our holy degranus race! I seek the knowledge you bore, I seek to speak your ancient tongue¡­ Let me read the scrolls you once wrote, for as to maintain what we considered lost, for as to rediscover what our world would surely underestimate! Bless me with your sight, first fathers, and let me carry out the greatest of traditions!¡± The chant was extensive, but its purpose was grand. The first fathers listened to her as well, apparently, because moments later, the very color of her pupils faded away by half! A less experienced goblin would be freaked out by this phenomenon, but she knew what she was doing. As of now, she truly bore a pair of old, faded eyes, the eyes of the long gone, first fathers! Arvena could read the ancient scrolls now, they started making sense to her effective immediately. She could read the large paragraphs effortlessly, as if every word was highlighted for her to check out, and this latter part was especially useful, because she could read the paragraphs even though the library was poorly illuminated! Each important paragraph was highlighted with this golden glow that only she could see. ¡°I am eternally grateful for your blessings, first fathers¡­¡± She muttered. Eternally grateful wouldn¡¯t begin to describe this phenomenon, she struck gold. The title of the longest scroll, for example, spoke of great importance as it cited; Mana Thinning, And The Alternation Of The Pool. Arvena struck gold, no doubt about it, so she started reading through the scroll as fast as she could. There were so many other scrolls that she wanted to pick up and read, so there was no point in wasting even a single second today. Progress was inevitable, she craved it! In the meantime, Timothy and his friends had picked up a couple of scrolls from the top of the library. They grabbed them randomly, and figured that it was best that they floated on top here, because the scrolls on top were far more understandable to them in comparison to the others. In this goblin form that they were in, the team of three could understand some goblin languages, and their understanding was almost genetic, even, primitive. Their goblin brains were wired to pick up on goblin words and phrases, so it wasn¡¯t too surprising that they could read the scrolls. They could read these ones at the top of the library very well, because odds were that these scrolls were not that old. Though the degranus goblins started living topside about three-thousand years ago, plenty of religious priests had forced their way into the library in the recent past. Some had had credentials to write scrolls of their own, and they had stashed them here, in the library of Rempegana for safe keeping, and this explained how some of the scrolls were so new! The team picked up a few of them, for educational purposes. They started getting bored because they picked up a bunch of scrolls about goblin history, but then, Tim made a great discovery! Tim picked up another random scroll, unraveled it, and then the very quality of his mana upgraded at level three all of a sudden, it was amazing! It only took a second, a mere flash even, it was painless, yet such results were nothing short of phenomenal! This was the best thing Tim got out of reading, that was for sure! Chapter 98 - "100 points of mana an hour" The quality of Timothy¡¯s mana was flash upgraded to level three, he bore decent mana now, that was its literal name. He was still shocked about how it happened, it had been painless and quick, hence it being a flash upgrade, but despite being shocked, he was also really happy! This was the easiest mana quality upgrade that he had ever gotten, his friends were congratulating him quite a bit too, they were excited! Well, everyone congratulated him, apart from Arvena, who was fixated on her scrolls. Anyway, then things got even better! The system came with a great announcement. She cited, [Congratulations, Timothy. Apart from all the benefits you got from that flash upgrade, your mana pool has also expanded. As of now, you can accumulate up to 3,000 points of mana in your pool, in this goblin form! As a stingray, however, you¡¯d be able to accumulate a maximum of 8,000 points, that is, if you chose to swim in your full, gigantic size! You have great options overall.] ¡°Eight thousand points, huh? That would take forever to fill up, I definitely won¡¯t be four-fucking-meters long anytime soon.¡± He thought to himself. Then, the system corrected him. [Don¡¯t let these bigger pools intimidate you, Timothy, because the rate at which you can generate mana naturally, has also upgraded. In this goblin form, you can generate 100 points of mana an hour, and again as a stingray, if you choose to be gigantic, you could generate 220 points of mana an hour! These rates are to your favor, that is, they¡¯re significantly higher to what you¡¯re used to, and that¡¯s just one of the perks of upgrading the quality of your mana. Congratulations!] Those rates of mana regeneration were great indeed, Tim was very excited! From what he understood, if he avoided spending mana all together, then he could get another mana upgrade shortly, after a day or so! He felt very lucky because of that, and since the gods were less likely to kill him during a mana quality upgrade in this universe, then he truly felt like he had struck gold here! Tim could propel through several levels rather quickly, and this reminded him that this was the religious charm of Valporovus, this was why he was here to begin with! ¡°Gotta collect my mana, I gotta play it smart!¡± He thought to himself, ¡°Let¡¯s hope these dwarves don¡¯t attack us, otherwise it will take me forever to fill my mana pool afterwards! A single fireball probably costs thirty points now, that¡¯s less than economic.¡± Anyway, after considering his stroke of luck, his friends Ortana and Skendus then got motivated to read a few more scrolls themselves. They picked up several of them, in the hopes of getting a flash upgrade too, but they didn¡¯t seem to be as lucky on the matter. The scroll that Tim had grabbed, only offered a single flash upgrade from the looks of it, he confirmed this, because the scroll didn¡¯t work on his friends! This demotivated his friends a little bit, but then they kept searching through other scrolls regardless! The two of them tried their best not to damage the scrolls in the meantime, as most of these things were old and fragile. They tried to be careful, but such carefulness may take a lot of their time, because there were about five-hundred scrolls in this library! Their search for power was a daunting task without a doubt, they had their work cut out for them for sure! About two hours later, their search ultimately led them to the lower parts of the library. The scrolls that they had gone through so far, either featured a bunch of history about goblins, or demanded for the whole scroll to be read in exchange for a ¡®surprise¡¯ of sorts. The later part sounded intriguing, but since they had a timer on their heads, they¡¯d rather not spend hours reading through a single scroll in exchange for a mysterious surprise, as it didn¡¯t seem so productive. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Plus, they didn¡¯t know how to properly roll a scroll back together anyway, so if they were to read through a couple of them, they wouldn¡¯t be able to put the scrolls back in their original position, no. They¡¯d rather not risk it, instead, the two of them wanted any sort of instant progress! For that matter, they were at the lower parts of the library now, and as a result, Arvena basically started hissing at them! She wasn¡¯t so happy that the ancient scrolls were being touched. At first she spoke to them in the ancient tongue of the goblins, as the insightful blessings she summoned were still pretty active, but then she noticed what she did, and switched to her original language pretty quickly! ¡°You¡¯re gonna tear them!¡± She hollered, ¡°You better fucking know what you¡¯re doing!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Ortana answered, ¡°We¡¯re barely opening them anyway.¡± Ortana then picked up another scroll, despite the prior harsh warning, and it was perhaps good that she did. Apart from the ancient dust that got in her eyes, something interesting actually happened this time! Someone suddenly whispered in her ear. The voice was that of an old man, but she couldn¡¯t make out what he said, his language must be undoubtedly ancient! Regardless of that, she still understood what was going on. A huff of pink smoke went in her nose, and as it did, she felt the presence of a new power! She wasn¡¯t possessed, thankfully, neither did she obtain any sort of upgrade, but she did obtain a new, magical power! ¡°Shaman¡¯s grip, huh?¡± She muttered, as she felt the presence of a ghost right in her personal space. Ortana couldn¡¯t see the ghost, but she was well aware of what was going on! The aforementioned shaman guided her in some way, he kept her calm. Then, she expressed. ¡°Thank you, shaman, I¡¯ll squeeze the life out of my foes one way or the other. Thank you!¡± Ortana got lucky, or she forced luck on herself at least. There were several ways to describe this occasion, but the truth of the matter was that she had an offensive magical ability now, that was what mattered the most! The Shaman''s grip was quite a literal power, she could literally try and crush her enemies to death with a grip of sorts, and if the quality of her mana was good enough, she could take on more massive foes too! This was very beneficial for her, because she was rarely dangerous before. Skendus didn¡¯t manage to drink out of the same well, unfortunately, he wasn''t as lucky. The two special scrolls that his friends found, were seemingly ¡®depleted¡¯ of their gift-giving abilities now, even the prior scriptures that were written on them had disappeared! The latter part was pretty spooky, but it wasn¡¯t like he could do anything about it. Anyway, moving on, it would appear that their guide Arvena had been the busiest here so far. She had gotten to the point where she was reading all three scrolls at once, seemingly effortlessly, and this had a sort of resulting triangular effect! It was triangular, in a sense that three bulbs of light were now shining in front of her ~ Two on her hands, and one near her forehead! These bits of light were fist sized, and their colors were white, gray and black. Since there were three of them, it was more than likely that each of these wisp-like lights represented each of the three scrolls that she was reading! With that said, her situation was getting quite symbolic now, it was spooky, especially because she exclusively spoke in that ancient, goblin language as well! She was whispering some kind of incomprehensible spell to herself, and that may be where the ancient language came in handy, but all-and-all, the trance-like state that she had gotten herself into, was terrifyingly unpredictable! Timothy took one look at her, and then he instantly complained to himself. ¡°Jesus¡­ this looks familiar. Hell, this is no different from some possessed fool speaking clean latin! I have a feeling that she''s gonna get us all killed.¡± Timothy might be right, because a moment later, the three bits of light that floated near Arvena, got together and turned themselves into a single, shiny, and flat triangle for some reason! The triangle was pitch black in color, and its purpose was rather unpredictable at first. When Arvena stood up and somehow stepped in the triangle, its purpose then was very clear. She had created a portal for herself, and considering the portal''s ancient undertone, it was unlikely that she had done something noble here! Chapter 99 - Flash-fix Arvena had gone through a portal, no doubt about it. Timothy wanted to go after her to make sure that she was okay, but then he realized how a terrible idea that was, he realized that it would be too dangerous to follow her, and that was what made him reconsider things! Arvena had read those scrolls for hours before she opened that portal, she was prepared in other words, and Tim feared that if he charged into that portal ¡®heroically¡¯, then he might get vaporized one way or the other because he was severely unprepared. It was simply stupid for him to go in there. Tim even looked at the scrolls close by, to figure out what was going on, but it was hopeless. He couldn¡¯t make out a single word out of them, and with that said he simply backed off, he couldn¡¯t get involved. ¡°That crazy bitch wasn¡¯t up to anything good anyway,¡± He tried to console himself. It was great that Tim backed away, because moments later, that portal started generating a suction of some sort. It tried to suck the team in towards it, but the three of them did the smart thing and floated towards the top of the library! They made a good, twenty-meters distance from it, so in theory they were safe now, up here. Below them, they later noticed that the portal actually started moving! Well, it wasn¡¯t moving towards them thankfully, that would be very terrifying ~ It was just spinning in place. This spinning perhaps summoned something, because even though they were airborne, the team could feel that the ground was rumbling below them, or around them. Well, they heard it, it was a loud quake of sorts! All in the meantime, the triangular portal had turned into a pyramidic portal, which didn¡¯t make things any less intensive. The ground was shaking even more violently as a result, and once a portion of the library¡¯s walls caved in, the team started believing that this was the end for them, it could be! They tried to escape, but the only exit of this place was blocked already, it had crumbled, so they were stripped out of options almost entirely. ¡°Fuck!¡± Tim panicked, and then he pitched. ¡°I think we should turn into ghosts, that¡¯s our only way out of h---¡± Tim¡¯s words were cut short, because time itself stopped for a second. All the team saw was a flash before things were supposed to go to utter shit, but yet this situation failed to escalate any further, because there was something more to this flash, it wasn¡¯t here to cause trouble, no! Considering the current situation, the team needed any help that they could get too, so this was advantageous. The flash came from the portal, and once it flashed, all of that scary commotion was put to a sudden halt. Everything went quiet after that point, and once the flash¡¯s blinding light started diminishing a blink later, time itself may have started going in reverse! One could tell that time had gone in reverse, or something of that divine equivalence, because the library was somehow intact after the flash went away! They could tell that it was intact, because the walls of the library were no longer caved in, they were all smooth, pretty and lacking in any challenges! Something divine had happened for sure. Trouble went away as fast as it came for whatever reasons, so Tim and his friends were safe now. They didn¡¯t understand what happened, they may never understand it, but that did not matter because for the time being, they were simply happy that they were alive! The library walls were supposed to crush them, just seconds earlier, so they were just happy that it did not crush them, they survived this too. The portal was gone afterwards, and good riddance to it, because neither one of them wanted anything to do with it, they never wanted to see it again. Their very survival seemed too good to be true right now, so yes, they''d rather not see anything that danger ever again! Though they weren¡¯t in danger now, things didn¡¯t stop getting weirder. Arvena''s voice sounded out from the entrance of the library, somehow, there at the very top. Tim started questioning his own sanity, because he figured that she had died already, in whatever spooky way she had decided to die; He didn¡¯t expect to see her again. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Tim didn¡¯t expect it, yet her voice was persistent. She called them over, to the exit, and met them there afterwards. It was her, in the flesh, and she wasn¡¯t feeling too explanative from the sounds of it. ¡°I should thank you for your help, my guests, even if you were overly-engaging with those disgusting dwarves¡­ more than I would approve.¡± She expressed, and then she added. ¡°Nonetheless, you helped me regain what rightfully belongs to us goblins, and you kept me alive long enough to help me get to the library, which is impressive.¡± ¡°What the hell are you talking about?¡± Tim asked. The confusion he and his friends felt was reasonable. A lot had happened within mere seconds, and Arvena here was thanking them as if they all met with the end of some tiresome, decade-long adventure, which was a bit annoying! Her behavior didn¡¯t make any sense to them, and it didn¡¯t help how she barely spoke of anything specific! ¡°Come see for yourself,¡± She encouraged afterwards, and further lured the team towards the exit of the library. The three of them were still utterly confused by this whole situation, but they followed along nonetheless, because they couldn¡¯t do anything else. They headed towards the exit, and the moment they set foot on the exit¡¯s short corridor, they noticed that they couldn¡¯t float anymore. The spell that Araduli had casted on them, had worn off, or it had been deactivated at least! Either way, they were done with the scrolls for the day, they couldn¡¯t enter the library anymore without risking their own lives. They didn¡¯t plan on going back either, because the greenery that was on the other end of this short corridor, had gotten a hold of their attention entirely! They could see grass, and as they stepped on the grass, they noticed that they were on a field now, as in, they weren¡¯t some hundred meters under the ground any longer! ¡°What the fuck?¡± Tim sighed, that was the only thing he could say. ¡°Fascinating¡­ this isn¡¯t an illusion either, nothing that I could detect, at least.¡± Skendus then expressed, after his mouth hung upon for a bit too long. ¡°We¡¯re either dead right now, or we may have underestimated our pretty guide here. It would take grand magic to teleport an entire structure like this, so I think that she has left the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana behind her, somehow.¡± ¡°Your untainted judgment will get you far in life, Skendus, but you¡¯re very wrong about this.¡± She corrected, ¡°I can¡¯t share too many details with you, because it would dumb, but I can say that this ¡®teleportation¡¯ was solely achieved under Rempegan Lus¡¯ will, because even he agrees that the library belongs to us goblins! Let those stupid dwarves rot underground from now onwards, for all I care they can keep whatever else is left over of our ancient city. We have the library!¡± There was a lot to process here, and it didn¡¯t make things any less confusing when Arvena spoke as if she was a wise priest of sorts, no, in fact it was really annoying! Tim and the rest knew her as a lustful figure, she lusted over many things, so this new attitude of hers was disturbing more than it was refreshing, they questioned her attitude! The entirety of what just happened felt like a fever dream too, so it was understandable how they still suspected that they had died. Inevitably, the team needed a whole day to rest, it took them hours to accept that they hadn¡¯t died. They needed a bit of time to wrap their heads around what happened, and rightfully so as it had been a confusing occasion, but at some point, they made their peace with reality! That whole library was in the middle of the fields now, its teleportation had been very real, and there was no other way to go around this fact! They didn¡¯t care for the library, but they were still beyond fascinated by the magical aspect of it all, they were amazed. Anyway, the town proved more than hospitable to them in the meantime. They gave the group food and shelter, and they would be hospitable for an eternity if need be, because they saw the three of them as heroes! The library was priceless. The guards had taken it upon themselves to equip the group with proper armor, again, armor that goblins made. This was far more comfortable for everyone involved, because no one wanted to see anything that was crafted by those molten dwarves! The guards equipped their guests accordingly, with gear of their individual choosing. After that, as far as the team was concerned, they could move on with their lives now. They came to this micro universe in order to improve the quality of their mana, and they planned to do exactly that, by whatever means necessary and regardless of distractions. Nothing was stopping them, and Arvena was still to be their guide throughout their search for power, especially now when she felt greatly indebted to them for helping her restore the library of Rempegana! She owed them a great deal of gratitude. The restoration of the library marked the completion of any and all tasks related to the first check-point, there was no debating that. They were ready to move on to the second check-point now, whatever that may be ~ Arvena was to guide them! Chapter 100 - "Eighteen-hundred log bolts a day!" The second check-point that Arvena so treasured, wasn¡¯t as easy to get to. It had these perplexing issues behind it, and the main issue was that they had to reach a portal of some sort, in order to get to this said second check-point (or location). It wasn¡¯t easy to get to the portal, as they had to pay for their transport, in literal gold coins. This was perplexing for them, it was the main issue, because the team had to get actual jobs in order to afford the means of their transportation! In other words, they couldn¡¯t fight like cavemen any longer in order to progress, as it wouldn¡¯t work as often in a civilized society. It was true that they usually got what they wanted through such fighting and slaughtering, but they couldn¡¯t behave like that this time around, no. They had to pay twenty-five gold coins each! Now in any universe, that amount of gold was pretty sizable, it was expensive. The average goblin family had to work four months straight in order to accumulate around twenty-five gold coins, so it was understandable how no one was willing to help them financially, it would be an expensive good deed! A total sum of seventy-five gold coins would strain their foster town¡¯s finances greatly, so these people couldn¡¯t help much. Due to this overall predicament, the three of them had to do a bunch of odd jobs just to pay for their rides. Since they were in the beginning of fall in this universe, the most prominent seasonal job was for one to be a wood-cutter, as every house needed wood to keep warm! There were several lumber mills in a one-hundred mile radius, mills who employed anyone that they could due to the seasonal demands of wood, so the team got lucky, they found plenty of places to work at. They cut wood all day, with these heavy, iron axes. That was their main job, and they withheld this job for six whole weeks! Now a job like this would barely pay five gold coins a month, that is, if one worked every day of the week without discrimination, in order to get paid that much. It was a lot of hard work, and although five gold coins would be a respectable salary typically, it still was less than optimal for the team, because they needed a lot more gold. At that payment-rate, they would need to work more than five months in order to make the amount of money that they were looking for! It was a very long time. It was a predicament even, a hassle, but they found a way around it, they were given a free, magical ability to use! It was a bit of a cheat-code, because they could chop wood a lot faster with this ability, but they used it gladly regardless of what other goblins thought about this. The average goblin wouldn¡¯t waste their mana on wood-cutting, as it would be too expensive for them, so almost no one else around here used magic to cut wood. Tim and his friends however, they did so gladly for weeks, because they were stripped out of options. They didn¡¯t want to do hard physical labor for five months, so they exhausted their mana pool everyday, cutting wood, it was fun. This raw, daily spending of mana had consequences. They couldn¡¯t upgrade the quality of their mana, for example, because their pools were never full. They couldn¡¯t upgrade their mana even once, and although they understood that the measures they¡¯ve taken were necessary, this lack of progress still put a dent on their willpower. They were tired, and annoyed. Anyway, Arvena was the one who told them about this ¡®wood-cutting¡¯ ability; It was attainable if one read a very local book, to be exact. This ability allowed them to move really fast, without experiencing too much pain or exhaustion in the process. This ability was called flash grip, and it only worked if one¡¯s feet were grounded, so they couldn¡¯t run super fast as one would imagine, no. They ended up chopping wood a lot faster than everyone else, and they did so with a seventy-five percent reduction of potential exhaustion, or movement related pain! This was the ability¡¯s main charm. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Thanks to flash grip, they made all their gold in six weeks, as mentioned, and they only felt the pain of a group that had worked for ten-days straight, ten hours a day, rather than six weeks or more! It wasn¡¯t too bad, the math of it all was a bit comforting too, and they were to recover soon from the countless aches that they felt. Once Tim re-counted all of the gold that he had earned, he put them all back in a tiny, thin leather bag afterwards. Then, he couldn¡¯t help but think about the livelihood of the goblins here. He admired it, because salaries and or trading were traits that also represented humans, vividly, and trading was especially embedded in the society here! He had felt very human these past six weeks, which was a fantastic feeling for the likes of him. While he pondered those feelings, he then couldn¡¯t help doing some more math. For example, he always got a good laugh when he looked at the faces of lumber-mill owners after he and his friends chopped a collective, eighteen-hundred bolt logs a day, the owners were always stunned! They were surprised that anyone would waste mana on wood-cutting to be exact, it was unheard of, and this was what forced Tim to do all that math. He thought, ¡°If no one here uses mana on their jobs, then how come everyone isn¡¯t a fucking god by now? Mana accumulates naturally, and over a decade, anyone could be very very powerful through patience alone, without risking their biscuit like we do¡­ So, why isn¡¯t everyone fucking divinely powerful?¡± This was a great question. Since they rested at Arvena¡¯s family home at night, she was close enough to him, so he asked her that very same elaborate question. Thankfully, she had an instant, and clear answer. ¡°There is a limit to how pure one¡¯s mana can become, everyone has that limit.¡± She cited, ¡°It¡¯s hard to explain the whole magical science behind it, but basically, this is why half of the goblin population never leaves the god¡¯s punishment realm; They can¡¯t.¡± ¡°That¡¯s sad,¡± He sighed, ¡°If I got stuck in this realm then I¡¯d kill myself, or I¡¯d offer my ass to one of those cockatrice dragons! Either way I wouldn''t enjoy living, cause life already is pretty unenjoyable.¡± ¡­ The group of three secured the finances for their next journey, and they felt that it was a great bonus that they chopped a lot of wood for the community along the way, enough wood to keep many villages warm for the winter! They felt good about that, regardless of the soreness that their bodies suffered, because they knew that they were paying back some of the endless hospitality that the goblins had shown them so far. At the very least, they managed to reduce the average price of wood by fifteen-percent, in a one-hundred mile radius so yes, goblins will appreciate their contributions a lot! Anyway, since they could afford their transport now, there was no point in wasting any more time. The very next day, they asked Arvena to arrange their transport! Tim expected a camel, a flying horse, or anything of that equivalence because it seemed like a big, and expensive deal to get to this respected portal. For twenty-five gold coins a head, he really expected to travel in style, in a luxurious manner! However, Tim was gravely mistaken. Arvena took them to a shaman of sorts. Shamans were very common amongst goblins, and their typical magical abilities were related to the darker sides of magic, such as necromancy and or summoning! The team went to see a summoner. When Tim saw an old, wrinkly shaman with his hairy balls hanging about, he felt that all of his work had gone in vain. They expected very little from this dry-knuckled geezer! ¡°Is he fruity too? I¡¯m not giving my ass to anyone, Arvena, I was kidding last night!¡± Tim pressured, though most of what he said was a joke. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t taint my potency with your dusty butt-crack,¡± The shaman answered instead of Arvena, and then he pointed his staff towards the group, and added. ¡°If you seek passage to the nano-universe of Nul, then I shall help you, otherwise I will not tolerate your senseless harassment!¡± Chapter 101 - Nul The shaman didn¡¯t bother to introduce himself, because he thought that it was pointless to know the names of any random customer that walked into his workshop. Perhaps he was right, as he would rarely see a customer come back here for another, second purchase? Twenty-five gold coins were a lot for most goblins, after all, and he didn¡¯t offer many other services either, so overall it was pointless for him to memorize everyone¡¯s names. The team were unaware of his actual name too, and neither did they care to know it. They were mainly focused on this portal that they were supposed to enter, as a very important world waited for them on the other side, behind that portal! They were excited. Arvena was helpful with this matter, as she took over the lead of the conversation and spoke to the shaman. She knew how to properly speak to goblins, she was a tad diplomatic too, so she was the best girl for the job. In this case, she wanted to prevent any and all conflict that could spring out of Timothy¡¯s mouth, because her guests couldn¡¯t afford to offend the only summoner in a one-hundred mile radius! That would be really stupid. ¡°All three of them wish to enter the nano-universe of Nul, sir summoner. I vouch for them. They¡¯ve accumulated the right amount of gold, and I am to be their guide through thick and thin.¡± She explained. Arvena helped their case, without a doubt, but the bags of gold coins that the three of them brought, helped too. Gold was very convincing, and considering how much gold they were handing over, this nano universe better be the greatest thing ever! She hadn¡¯t given them much if not any information about that universe, they only knew that it was very expensive to get there, so at this point the shaman was supposed to be doing the ¡®convincing¡¯ rather than the other way around. They were spending a lot! Anyway, the shaman was very cooperative once he got paid. Two minutes later, he started summoning these strange beings that were otherwise impossible to run into, nonetheless tame! He was summoning seventy-five gold coins worth of phantoms, ten entities, to be exact! Anyone with heightened senses could feel the presence of these numerous entities, as the sense of their presence grew ever so intensive by the passing second. Skendus could sense them! The shaman was chanting a few indecipherable words, in repeat, and this was likely a spoken-word spell of sorts. It was intensive. One could assume that this procedure was demonic too, and rightfully so, because nothing about this summoning sounded holy! ¡°Moges radukes scut`us, ragnik alus! Nul!¡± The shaman repeated, and he yelled out that last word especially aggressively. When the shaman repeated this spell for the fifth time, the ten entities became fully visible. Their transparent bodies nursed a black shade, they looked really weird overall, and the odds were that these entities were inherently evil too! It was dangerous to summon them, yet they had to. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. The entities were really frantic after they were summoned, they were jittery, and this was especially scary to witness because at first sight they looked like mutant, three-armed starfish! Their arms were long and bendy, so the entities surely looked terrifying while they wiggled their arms around so manically. If they had the ability to scream, then anyone would defecate to the sight of them! They were clearly upset about being summoned here, but then the shaman started speaking to them. He didn¡¯t cast a spell this time, no, it was obvious from his tone that he was just speaking to them! ¡°Ulakis, ran.¡± He said, and then the entities calmed down. ¡°Nul u¡¯rakin, trakm!¡± They were really responsive. The mood of these entities had shifted a lot thanks to the shaman¡¯s intervention, one could even consider them all as bipolar. They went from angry, to calm, to goal oriented! They were staring at Arvena, and her guests beyond intensely after the shaman spoke to them, that part of their behavior wasn¡¯t so hard to decode. They truly had a goal in mind. The entities had a single big eye in the very middle of their bodies, and as they stared at the group, those singular eyes themselves were enough to scare the team shitless! Tim even started praying that the shaman hadn¡¯t said anything stupid to the entities, he prayed to whichever god that may be listening to him. Anyway, the shaman then pointed his staff at Arvena, and said. ¡°You, girl, have chosen to be their guide, so your passage to Nul shall be complimentary, as your will is pure and progressive. Guide these guests towards what they seek!¡± After he said that, the entities started moving around more than anyone was comfortable with, their receptiveness crossed languages. They piled the group of goblins together, got a sort of physical hold on them, and then they collectively became airborne! They flew through the roof of the stone-walled workshop as if it was non-existent, and then they flew towards the big blue sky! The entities flew upwards in a spiraling manner, they flew in circles, and they did so at high speeds! Although this spiraling motion managed to make the team feel really sick, there was a purpose behind it, the entities knew what they were doing. They spun in that matter for a while, up until they flew a whole kilometer above the ground. Once they had flown that high, they didn¡¯t have to spin around anymore because they disappeared, they disappeared in a way that one would think they got engulfed by the surrounding atmosphere! It was a confusing and scary process, so it was great that the team wasn¡¯t awake to see it, the four of them had blacked out only moments ago. Anyway, after the team disappeared together with the entities, they managed to enter the nano-universe of Nul. If the team was awake, they would understand why this trip was so expensive, or at the very least they¡¯d understand that the entities did their job really well. The entities created a portal of their own, they summoned it, to be exact, and that was why a portal of this kind was so expensive to get to; If one could afford it, it took less than a minute to pass through it! As far as facts were concerned, the nano-universe of Nul waited for them on the other side! Chapter 102 - Aqus Goblins The team got into the nano-universe of Nul, and since this tiny universe solely featured a big body of saltwater, the entities didn¡¯t leave the four of them alone until they woke up. Water could be deadly against an unconscious person, especially saltwater, they could all easily drown! The entities felt morally indebted to help these guests survive the post-entrance experience, and all they had to do was keep their heads above the water, really, it wasn¡¯t a tiresome task. Once the four of them woke up, the entities left right away, they disappeared out of thin air within the blink of an eye! As for the four goblins in question, they felt beyond pissed off that their clothes and armor got wet, so it was best that they didn¡¯t have to deal with any spooky entities on top of this discomfort. Too stressful. It was really uncomfortable to wear anything wet, their skins couldn¡¯t really work around this sluggish discomfort, so their first thought was to take all of their clothes off right away, they wanted to strip naked. They figured that they shouldn¡¯t be needing any clothes here underwater, but it appears that they¡¯re wrong about that! ¡°Keep your clothes on, people, we don¡¯t need to see each other¡¯s junk this time.¡± Arvena interrupted them. Then, she explained. ¡°We can turn into aqus goblins, if we¡¯re to fit in around here. Nul is filled with them, and since they¡¯re about our size, then we don¡¯t have to take our clothes off this time. We¡¯ll refrain from taking them off, because armor and weapons are expensive, you know? We¡¯ll be shifting into aqus goblins.¡± ¡°You make a compelling argument,¡± Tim joked, ¡°I was looking forward to using a sword anyway, we never get to use these things.¡± ¡°Hold on to that because you may need it,¡± She nodded, ¡°There are a lot of normal goblins like you and I, who never left Nul once they got here, and they¡¯ve become very territorial over time, very dangerous too. We may need to fight them, heck, I got chased out of here last time before I could make any real progress, so always be on your guard.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Tim sighed, and then he thought to himself. ¡°I still have a couple of tricks up my sleeve that I never used before. I''m sure that these hiki-tiki bastards won¡¯t complain about being killed by spooky necromantic powers, so we should be alright.¡± Anyway, after that short conversation, Arvena led by example. She shapeshifted into an aqus goblin, and since this species wasn¡¯t really superior to degranus goblins, she didn¡¯t have to beg the gods in order to achieve this transformation. She had visited this nano-universe before, and understood that aqus goblins were just dark-blue skinned goblins, who also had gills. Those were the main differences between the two species, they weren¡¯t too special. Stolen novel; please report. With that considered, it didn¡¯t take her long to grow a pair of gills, she transformed under five minutes! Tim transformed under ten minutes later on, and then he started mocking everyone¡¯s ears, this latter part was predictable. The ears of aqus goblins were longer in comparison, and they hung backwards like the ears of a rabbit, so they were funny to look at on most occasions! Skendus and Ortana shapeshifted as well, without any complications. Since no one in the group had to sacrifice anything, the sizes of their bodies remained very much the same. Skendus was still the largest in the group! Their feet had grown a bit too big, so they had to take their shoes off, but other than that they were the same. It was easier to swim without shoes, and the webs that had grown on their hands, along with their feet, were sure to help them swim better as well. Their pairs of shoes were the only things that they had to sacrifice in this journey, and since their skin was very recipient of the seawater around them, odds were that they didn¡¯t have to leave any more clothes behind! Anyway, after they were fit to travel, the four of them started swimming. Their idle swimming speed was about 5 km/h, which was handy because most fish swam at that speed, so they really felt at home here! At most, they discovered that they could swim up to 11 km/h if they needed to, apart from Tim, who could swim even faster than that with the aid of his powers. He was happy with the numbers overall, and so were his friends, as they could swim away from danger if they needed to. They ended up swimming deeper in this weird sea, they had to. This nano-universe consisted of a single, circular, five-kilometer wide sea, so they knew that they only had to swim down if they were to discover anything important. The explorative part of this journey consisted of that simple formula, so they weren¡¯t going to see anything that hadn¡¯t been discovered by their forefathers already! Arvena came here with a plan in mind, and since she had some back-up now, she felt confident that they were to reign victorious against any and all obstacles that could be tossed against them. In previous journeys when she had been in this universe alone, she hadn''t been fortunate at all, progress-wise, and that¡¯s why she was so appreciative of the help that her guests were willing to offer, all for the sake of collective progress! She knew of its value. With that said, she was comfortable enough to share her plan. ¡°We''re here to remove the mana-quality bracket that each of us have, guys. I''ve told you about this before, each of us are bound to hit a limit of how much we can improve the quality of our mana, this is inevitable, it happens to most mages, so we have to do something about it. In this universe, we can ¡®push¡¯ this limit further away, it¡¯s very possible to do so, and I haven¡¯t told you much about Nul before, because I didn¡¯t want to discourage you. It''s very dangerous to swim in these waters!¡± ¡°Nothing is as scary as being stuck in the same level forever,¡± Tim added, as he swam alongside her. ¡°You should''ve told us.¡± ¡°Well, I am telling you now. Our goal today is to find a holy site, basically, and we''re to kill everyone in the holy site that opposes us. It feels wrong to kill our own kind, but the degranus goblins here have usurped a bunch of holy sites for decades now, and they don''t accept visitors. We''ll be fighting some really powerful guys, but if we win and remove our power brackets afterwards, then I''ll take you to the Ruins of Aqumus back in the mainland, where our progress will be bountiful!¡± Chapter 103 - SUS The Ruins of Aqumus were sounding more and more like a fairytale these past few weeks, they may not exist. Arvena has been promising to take the team to the ruins for a while now, but throughout recent events they discovered that she was less than trustworthy. Arvena rarely told the truth, and when she did try to tell it, she didn¡¯t tell the whole truth, as in, she ultimately failed to mention her agendas in the past, and or the associated dangers that are tied to her agendas, she failed to mention those a bunch of times! Her behaviour was alarming. As a matter of fact, she barely told them anything useful about the library of Rempegena, even though it¡¯s been a month since the library was unearthed, or, teleported. She refused. The team didn¡¯t get much out of that little journey, they were just dragged there to act as bodyguards, just to keep her alive, rather than anything progress-oriented. To tip the bucket, neither three of them were allowed to enter that library after it was unearthed, which truly was a shame. They earned at least some of those ancient secrets, so they should be treated better in that regard. If that wasn¡¯t annoying enough, one also had to remember that most of what happened regarding that library was creepy. She didn¡¯t explain how she teleported the whole structure, and she didn¡¯t admit to discovering any new powers within it either, which in hindsight was beyond suspicious. She refused to share her findings, and the quality of her mana was a frightening mystery now as well, she refused to speak about her exact level of power! For all they knew, she could kill them on the spot if she felt like it. With all of that considered, it was very likely that she was hiding something, again. She may be using the team to solve the mere, egocentric problems of the locals, rather than helping the team progress! This was very possible, and yet it was the least problematic theory! It didn¡¯t take much to figure out that she was lying about something, because initially, in the beginning she had explained that it was very important to go through two hypothetical checkpoints, if they were to get to and survive the Ruins of Aqumus, those were her words. She considered those checkpoints to be dire, and yet they hadn¡¯t gotten any closer to traveling towards those treasured ruins, they wouldn''t be getting any closer to them even if they escaped this nano universe with their lives! It was unlikely. The ruins were likely on the other side of the world, so they won¡¯t be seeing that place anytime soon. The team did the math in their heads, so they didn¡¯t trust this lady at all now, yet they still felt forced to follow her lead because not a single other goblin had volunteered to be their guide in the prior universe. If they didn¡¯t follow her, then they would be utterly and completely alone here, and that wouldn¡¯t be the best formula to progress either. So as they followed her lead, the team had to hope for the best, because if the problem regarding mana quality brackets was as consistent as she described it to be, then they had to try and do something about it! Arvena was their best shot, regardless if they liked it or not. Well, they didn¡¯t like it, and that¡¯s why Tim asked Skendus to keep an eye on their guide. The latter could read through minds, so he could help keep everyone away from any potential, explosive danger. Tim made that demand through a wordless thought, and knew that Skendus would pick up on it. At some point, through a whisper, Skendus then admitted. ¡°She¡¯s blocking my attempts¡­ This nasty little goblin has definitely ascended through the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana, because rarely anyone could reject my powers before. Let¡¯s try not to die here, okay?¡± With that considered, this trip within the universe may be coated with multiple challenges, challenges that they had to face. There was no real way to predict anything that could happen, so their best bet was to be on their guard at all times. Ortana had been loyal and honest enough these past couple of months, so they warned her of the potential dangers as well. If not anything more, she has these great, defensive capabilities, and could keep her friends alive, or shielded, if great challenges arose. They trusted her to be on the lookout, they trusted her the most. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Anyway, regardless of their sour feelings about those numerous matters, they did later on make some progress in this nano universe. The body of water they were in was unpredictable, sure, but they managed to progress nonetheless, because they swam towards the very bottom without any casualties or confrontations. They were four hundred meters deep underwater, to be exact, and although they started feeling the water pressure weighing down on them, they felt that the risk of imploding was worthwhile. They found a city of sorts here, and although they didn¡¯t know where to look in order to make this city worth their while, they were still enthusiastic! ¡°This place looks like ancient Rome, god damn it, except it¡¯s less sophisticated. What¡¯s the point of building something like this underwater? It looks all ruined and gross.¡± He complained, so carelessly, as perhaps the water pressure was getting to him. ¡°Rome? I haven¡¯t heard of anything like that before.¡± Arvena admitted, ¡°This looks like the old city. In theory it should be filled with aqus goblins, but they¡¯re probably guarding their holy sites or something like that. Let¡¯s hope they left a tiny little holy site behind them, one that we could use.¡± ¡°So this city is empty? Because if we have to fight them, plus fight a bunch of degranus goblins, then we might all die. Come to think of it, it¡¯s almost sounding like you¡¯re trying to kill us.¡± Tim added. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not, and you probably misunderstood me. Aqus goblins are way more accepting of guests, if those guests share the same species as they do, that is. I mean they could probably guess that we aren¡¯t locals, but they¡¯ll be less likely to attack. This is why I didn¡¯t let you turn into fish up there, it¡¯s much more safe to be disguised as the main, intelligent species here.¡± She explained. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re making sense again, but if you¡¯re up to some weird shit like you were with that library, you better believe that we will turn back. I don¡¯t want to end up crippled or dead because of you, you best understand that.¡± He warned, directly. Arvena nodded along, which hinted that she acknowledged the other¡¯s concern. Though odds were that she was just agreeing in order to shut his mouth, because of all things, she seems to be a master at pacing herself based on her own goals and or agendas, she could play along well. Regardless of what she vocalized, Timothy could still see her boundless willpower behind her indifferent smile. He couldn¡¯t be fooled as easily nowadays. Anyway, they browsed the city that they found, with the hopes of locating a holy place within it, or any place of worship really, as small as that place may be. Arvena insisted that it was imperative to find a place like that, if the four of them were to remove the mana-bracket that may occur in the future, it was imperative. Although she refused to explain how a holy site would help them, she still felt entitled to the support of her guests. This was an interesting, if not infuriating situation. The four of them searched through the ruined, stone city with that goal in mind, even if they felt very confused and agitated while doing so! The city seemed like ancient Rome back on earth, because there were a lot of white, marble columns spread across the city. Paired with the fine stone houses, one could safely assume that the people here had lived well, that is, if they had figured out how to make use of such houses while deep underwater. The place was all gross and mossy now, yes, but in its prime it was likely a wonderful domain. Anyway, after about an hour of searching, the group¡¯s effort lied in vain. They didn¡¯t fight a holy site, or a church, nothing of such sort. Something found them instead! The group was within the increasing darkness of the deep waters, they were at the bottom, and yet when something as huge as a whole whale floated on top of them, it was simply difficult to ignore all of the commotion in the waters, or the shadow that followed the creature! Something truly had found them. What was one monster, became two, and then they let out a couple of calls equal to a cry of an angry dragon! The group could only pray that these beasts weren¡¯t hungry, that was their best shot, because there simply was no fighting them! Chapter 104 - Held at gun-point! ¡°Is that a damn whale?¡± Timothy thought to himself. This may be a dangerous situation, especially if they let it unfold as such. However, they didn¡¯t know how to prevent such a disaster from ¡®unfolding¡¯, so all three of them kept quiet for the sake of avoiding any unnecessary attention, as they did not want to get eaten alive by these monstrous fish! They remained quiet. ¡°Is this a new species?¡± Arvena asked herself, ¡°I don¡¯t remember seeing anything like this the last time I was here, hell no. But then again, I got chased out of here before I could explore the sea at all! Those bastards I guided weren¡¯t as assertive, useless pricks!¡± Two minutes had passed, and these twenty-meter long whales of sorts had not attacked, and since they seemed so docile, the team started thinking about sneaking out of here as quickly as they could. This ruined city had plenty of spots to hide in, so they figured that they could eventually make some good distance away from this potential slaughter that they¡¯ve found themselves in! They had to give it a shot. Right before they were about to move, they spotted something that could either be considered terrifying, or potentially helpful, but either way it was exciting. They saw several goblins swimming down from the couple of whales, as in, it was very likely that these goblins had ridden on the whales up until a moment ago! ¡°Ah shit¡­ well at least goblins are easier to kill.¡± Tim thought, and started charging a lightning-bolt on his palm. Tim thought that he had a shot to survive here, but then he noticed that the goblins were absurdly fast, they would not allow loose ends! Less than ten seconds later, someone had even snuck up behind him, and was holding him at gunpoint. Well, they didn¡¯t have guns, but he was still one wrong move away from getting his head fried, as the goblins had magical powers at their disposal as well! ¡°Gegegegegeegegegegege,¡± The goblin exclaimed. Tim could not understand this goblin, that was for sure. However, when he turned around, he noticed that he and it were of the same species, this was an aqus goblin who threatened him! When the goblin then spoke again, its slurred speech was suddenly more coherent, Tim could understand everything this time, as his brain adapted to their language! ¡°Why do you impersonate us?!¡± It asked, ¡°I can smell your horrid, degranus stench from a mile away! You can''t hide from us.¡± ¡°Degranus? Nah, I¡¯m originally a stingray, so your nose isn¡¯t as great as you think.¡± He taunted. Tim was being put under pressure here, he was being threatened, yes, but that didn¡¯t stop him from saying what was in his mind. They couldn¡¯t force the amped, lightning-bolt out of his hand, so he could kill at least one of them if the situation demanded it so. He remained unwinding. ¡°A stingray? I never heard of anything like that before.¡± It followed along, and it stopped holding Timothy at ¡®gunpoint¡¯. Then, it asked. ¡°Why would you leave your comfortable seas just to get here? Fish aren¡¯t supposed to be greedy, and we have a couple of large examples above our heads, even. Those spring whales are our pets, their whole ambition is to serve us. Did you come here to serve us as well, stingray?¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Fuck you, and your whales, pencil dick! Put some damn clothes on. I came here to spite the gods, not to be your pet.¡± He answered. After that point, he wanted to blow this guy¡¯s head off, and tried to figure out the best way to aim, but then he noticed that the other¡¯s attitude was changing towards the better, for some reason. This was a confusing conversation overall. ¡°Degranus goblins have invaded many of our temples in the past, and that is why we try our best to kill any new goblin that enters our oasis, we were about to kill the four of you as well. However, we can¡¯t kill a fish who challenges the gods, the latter is unheard of, so we won¡¯t fight you, because you might win and embarrass our families for the next few decades, we won¡¯t risk it. We will leave you be, but if you came here to cause trouble like the typical goblin does, then we will have your heads, regardless of how many of us die while doing so. Seek power, but seek it in a fair, balanced manner, don¡¯t force our hand.¡± It said. This was a lengthy, and unexpected explanation, but it was best that they were talking it out. It was better than getting ruthlessly attacked by these beings, because Tim would have lost, regardless of what the collective consensus was. However, since he and the team also hated the other degranus goblins that lived here, the two parties managed to understand each other really well. The aqus goblins then left as quickly as they had arrived, they were gone in half a minute. His friends were shocked by what happened, the whales had scared them quite a bit, but all-and-all it was great that not a single drop of blood had been spilled throughout the encounter. Tim saved his friends by being his normal, insufferable self! ¡­ Tim and his friends spent three more hours in, and around the city. They had the freedom to do so, and this helped them figure out the infrastructural layout of the vicinity. This city was too big, so it couldn¡¯t be so lacking in ¡®holy sites¡¯ to the extent that they initially believed it was, there had to be something available to them. One-hundred meters away from the city, they found something that was buried within mud, gravel and sand. It was a temple! They could tell that it was a temple, because the tip of it was cone-shaped, and was made of stone. Such a design was really difficult to craft, so they figured that the past residents invested in this building, because its bowels bore some kind of importance! Arvena spoke her truth too, she explained. ¡°There¡¯s plenty of mana down there alright, it can¡¯t be anything else. I haven¡¯t felt this alive in erg¡­ weeks.¡± ¡°So we have to dig it out, then? I think it¡¯s buried pretty deep, so it¡¯s gonna take us a while if we have to dig around it.¡± He said. However, just a second later, he remembered that he bore a special, and mostly unused ability that might help him dig. Well, they won¡¯t be able to remove the sand with ¡®the flick of a magic wand¡¯, but in this nano universe, neither of them wanted to spend more time than they had to! ¡°Bone multiplier, that was its name!¡± He celebrated, inwardly, and then he pitched. ¡°I have a sort of power that might help us dig this place out faster. We don¡¯t need to spend months here, that would be really unproductive.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get productive, then. There¡¯s mana down there, so it should be a holy temple. If it¡¯s a temple, then we can also remove the bracket on our mana quality in there.¡± Arvena followed along. It didn¡¯t take any more convincing after that point, Tim got into work. However, as Skendus witnessed the events unfold, he couldn¡¯t help asking himself a question. He was skeptical. ¡°The city behind us is ruined, but it isn¡¯t buried, yet this temple is¡­ This is getting creepy, why would they bury only one building out of the entire city? This fiend says it smells like mana, heck, I think it smells like trouble!¡± He thought to himself. Then, he became more alert, and thought. ¡°I¡¯m gonna try to keep my friends alive, that¡¯s the least I can do for them if everything goes wrong¡­¡± Chapter 105 - Tims extra toes Tim and the team started digging. They weren¡¯t so fond of this physical labor, especially since their goblin bodies weren¡¯t cut out for big-time digging, but this was the best option that they were left with. They didn¡¯t even have shovels with them, or tools of any sort, which was disadvantageous, so they had to make use of their hands, mostly. Arvena eventually found an old, chipped stone from a ruined pathway, and then used it to dig through the mud. Though this wasn''t as productive against hard gravel, this chipped stone was still better than digging with one''s hands! With her example, Skendus did something similar, he also found a sharp stone of sorts, but he didn¡¯t exert as much energy while he worked, because he found more creative ways to get things done. Since he already carried a warhammer around, he used that to bash the ground with it, at a fairly vertical angle, which opened the ground up a little bit in exchange, it made things easier for him. The warhammer was heavy, so he didn¡¯t really have to swing it in order to get results. He just thrusted the hammer on the ground, vertically, and this was very effective against dirt, as well as gravel, and since the water pressure had hardened the sand a little bit, his hammer was useful against sand as well. After he hammered everything down, he then just scraped his way through the ground with a chipped stone, which didn''t tire him much, as the ground broke apart as if he was cultivating it. Skendus managed to dig a one-foot deep hole near his feet in no time! Ortana helped him too. Anyway, considering that it would still take a long time for them to dig like this, Tim was trusted to make most of the contribution here, because he volunteered to do so. However, he hadn¡¯t been able to lend a hand yet, because he couldn¡¯t figure out how to use his magical ability, he couldn¡¯t use it efficiently at least. Bone Multiplier, was a power that was considered pre-necromantic, it was almost an evil sort of power, but Tim didn''t care to follow formalities regarding his arsenal. He had this ability at his disposal, and he intended to use it now if it would help him get the job done, it was only logical to use it. However, this didn''t necessarily mean that he had mastered this power just yet. Tim had neglected this new power for a while now, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise how he couldn¡¯t figure out its charming benefits. The system tried to help him, but her guidance didn¡¯t amount to anything good, it only made things more complicated. ¡°Fucking hell, why can''t I get rid of this toe!!¡± Tim lost his temper, he was pissed. ¡°I have a fucking extra toe on my crotch as well¡­¡± [That''s not how you''re supposed to use the bone-multiplier,] The system added, [Once again, you need to pour a lot of mana on whichever part of your body you want to modify, and then you must imagine every external and internal detail about that modification, or else this won''t work. How difficult can it be to imagine arteries, and blood vessels, kid? It can¡¯t be that hard, and yet your new toes are blacking out because apparently, you don''t see it fit for them to be a part of your blood flow. This is a severe lack of detail from your side.] ¡°I''m not a biologist,¡± He added, and mostly ignored her. After that, within the stress of failure and extra toes, he blurted a very important question! He was desperate. ¡°Can''t I just multiply someone else''s bones?¡± He asked. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. [Actually yes, but avoid giving your friends extra toes for now, as I have a better idea.] The system answered. In cooperation, she then pulled all of the mana out of Tim''s extra toes, and shot it out towards his surroundings. The mana shot out from his head, and they were visible to the naked eye, regardless of how thin it seemed. The several strands shot out like the water from a fountain, and then they slithered across the area as if they were on the search for something! This was really interesting, but for the time being, Tim was just happy that his extra toes fell off, this caught a lot of his attention. The toes were very physical, so they may decompose here almost like real, severed toes would, which was very impressive regardless of how terrifying it sounded! It was new to him. Anyway, the strands of mana continued doing their work, until they achieved something amazing. The strands had located a bunch of old bones from dead carcasses, and although most of these carcasses weren''t whole and actually pretty small, their remains were still really useful. The bones started floating, they headed towards Timothy at an idle pace, and then circled around him. The bones were old, fragile and gross, but they were bones nonetheless so the system then guided him even further afterwards. [I''m pouring more mana on the bones, so get ready for a good show regarding the manipulation of your surroundings.] She said. Tim had been fairly distracted, so it was good that the system called out for his attention, because he would''ve missed everything otherwise. He was more attentive towards the bones now, he eyed them down, and counted six big bones along the way, along with tens of tiny ones. There wasn¡¯t anything significant about them, except for this one which featured a whole skull, it had likely belonged to a goblin before. The system then poured more mana on all these bones, just like she said, about a hundred points of mana to be exact. It was expensive, but he could feel that this expense was a one-time thing, as he was certain that he wouldn''t need to spend hundreds of mana points just to control these bones. That wouldn¡¯t make any sense whatsoever! After she spent the mana, the few random bones multiplied in number, they doubled, and they did so within seconds! Tim counted two skulls now, which was fascinating! ¡°Shit¡­ I guess that''s why this ability is banned everywhere? With enough practice and mana to spend, I can make an undead army for myself!¡± He blabbered. [You¡¯re quite right,] She added, [But on more important, present matters, you best use this pile of bones properly, for them to help you dig. You can manipulate and restructure them to your favor, so try to be a bit more imaginative this time.] ¡°Well shit, we''re circling back to problem-number-one, then. I can¡¯t bring myself to imagine a whole goblin, so can''t I just use these bones as a shovel or something?¡± He asked through a thought. The system did not answer directly, but he did not need an answer, because he suddenly got another idea. Through a bit of thinking, he commanded the bones to turn into a bunch of tiny daggers, they were very pointy, and would surely get the job done if one wanted to dig with them. However, since this team only had four pairs of working hands, he had to command the bony daggers to float over the digging site, and scrape through there all at the same time through the use of his mana! There were twelve daggers in his disposal, as even the skulls had adapted to this form, so it was fair to say that the digging which he was about to do was fast, and effective, as they treated the ground the same regardless if the daggers were going through sand or gravel! Tim had to spend three points of mana on these daggers after every swing, but it was worthwhile to have them float around. He had a bunch of mana to spend, and mana in exchange for physical labor was a cheap conversion-rate in this scenario, so he didn¡¯t feel bad about even spending all of it now that he had to! ¡°Be careful with those,¡± Arvena eventually added, ¡°Let¡¯s try to dig a hole all the way around the building, so we can find a window to squeeze through, we don''t have to dig all the way down. I think this thing is built like a tower too, it''s round, so we don''t have to spend too much time here, we could even get inside the tower today if you have enough mana to use.¡± Chapter 106 - Quiet Goblins Tim and the team made great progress, they dug through what could be considered two to three hundred kilos of dirt, sand, and gravel. It was a great amount, and it was all the more impressive when one considered how tiny they were in this bodily form, aqus goblins were pretty small, three-foot tall mostly, so yes it was impressive. It was Tim who did most of the work, yes, but his friends still had to help him shovel the dirt away. They carried everything in their hands, just to clear the path for the floating daggers, because the daggers themselves couldn''t carry anything whatsoever, they were just used to stab through the ground. The team were all doing their part, their work, most of which featured hard, and futile physical labor, but in the end it was worth their while. The progress they made was decent, the team dug over two feet deep by now, and they dug around the tower thoroughly, which was all the more impressive. Now if they dug just a little bit deeper, then they may finally break into the tower, and if they managed to do so today, then it would be especially amazing for them, it would be noteworthy! Without Tim''s help they would''ve wasted a lot more time here, so yes, putting in a shift''s worth of labor only, was really impressive for this situation, it was certainly better than spending several weeks here! Three hours later, they found something that they''d have preferred not to find. They dug deep enough to find a huge crack, a crack in the tower''s walls to be exact, and although this provided an entrance for them, it also hinted that the tower might have imploded a long time ago. An imploded, and ruined tower would not do them any good! ¡°Ah, darn.¡± Arvena sighed. Just after she complained, the team started getting nervous, because it could mean that all the work that they had put in so far, may have been for nothing! They were concerned. ¡°No luck? Do you think that we can remove our mana-brackets here, Arvena?¡± Ortana asked, as being the weakest in terms of mana quality, she was especially eager to progress in any way or form. She was nervous. ¡°This hole complicates things, but we still might be able to get some work done¡­ don''t you smell the mana? It''s very refreshing, eye-opening even!¡± Arvena added. ¡°I can''t smell anything,¡± Ortana admitted, ¡°You¡¯re probably more sensitive to mana.¡± Ortana did not attempt to taunt the other, but her wordplay said otherwise. Everyone here was suspicious of Arvena, and rightfully so, but she chose to ignore their non-trusting eyes either way. She didn¡¯t care, and her lack of care perhaps spoke of her power? Nevertheless, they had no choice but to follow her. Seconds later, she ducked, and squeezed between the crack on the wall, she did so almost effortlessly even though she was one of the bigger goblins here. The team followed her, and they didn''t let the darkness within the tower intimidate them either, they pushed forward. Once they squeezed within the crack, all of them panicked without discrimination, because the water sucked them downwards all of a sudden! It wasn''t a violent kind of suction, no, but they could not counter the water''s mass even if they wanted to, meaning, they couldn''t swim upwards. This complicated things, because their only exit was at the top! The team did not understand what was going on, and things became all the more confusing once this great amount of light pierced through their eyes! They were getting sucked in towards a huge area, it was a great cavern of sorts, perhaps a hundred meters wide, and over thirty meters tall. It was hard to believe that the tiny tower above their head, sheltered this huge place, it was unthinkable, so they were baffled overall! Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Guess this place is safe as long as the cavern''s walls don''t cave in,¡± Skendus added. The team managed to relax just a little bit afterwards, as they weren¡¯t in any noticeable danger so far, so it was at times like this where they could take a moment to observe their surroundings better. They were curious, and as they looked at everything closer, they developed this mad notion that most of this cavern may not be filled with water at all! They got this idea, because the light that surrounded them was too bright to be underwater. Light was well-spread throughout the cavern, and it was so luminous, that they could see various shapes of some structures within the cavern, they could even spot the shadows of those structures! The latter detail sealed the deal. Arvena was the most curious, so she decided to swim forward, as much as she could, in order to put something to the test. She exerted a lot of energy swimming forward, up until something very interesting happened. She found a barrier to this water that surrounded them, that is, she could stick her hand through this barrier, and wave through dry air on the other side! This was fascinating, so she then stuck her head through the water barrier, and confirmed her theory afterwards, which made her shreek in joy. Most of the cavern truly was dry, it was well-kept, and it hadn''t succumbed to the passing of time at all! Her and the team were breathing through water now, yes, but the water around them was more like a transportation tube, a tube which dragged anyone from above, towards the bottom of the cavern! The science behind this didn''t make any sense, physics wouldn''t be able to make sense of it, because there wasn¡¯t enough water leaking from above to create this smooth, and slow downward suction, but nevertheless, she didn¡¯t care to make sense of the water that entrapped them. She assumed that it was held up by mana, magic, so there was no point questioning the salt water''s physical laws beyond that point. Arvena pulled her head out of the water barrier afterwards, and said. ¡°We''re so lucky! Most of this place is dry, and the water is pushing us towards the bottom, which isn''t as bad as it sounds. We''ll step on dry grounds soon, and this place looks pretty holy as well, so we should be able to remove the brackets off of our mana quality very soon!¡± ¡°That''s probably the best news you''ve ever given us,¡± Tim joked, though he too was as excited as ever. ¡°They¡¯re good news indeed,¡± Skendus added, ¡°But I¡¯m absolutely sure that there are people living here, I can hear them, I can hear their thoughts. There are a bunch of children, at least fifty of them, and since I can''t hear their parents at all, we can assume that their parents ascended through the god''s punishment realm already. They''re immune to my powers, very much immune if I can''t even sense their presence. I''m assuming that they can resist fireballs as well, so let''s try and avoid fighting them, guys, please?¡± Skendus felt obligated to protect his friends, as best as he could, but for all he knew they could be floating down to a death trap right now! He wasn¡¯t the strongest guy in the world, so he certainly couldn''t protect anyone if they were to face very powerful enemies. The four of them would die together right then and there, so he felt obligated to prevent that! ¡°Those other aqus goblins didn''t kill us, so¡­ maybe these guys are cool as well?¡± Tim added, he was optimistic, though indefinitely delusional to a certain degree. Anyway, moments later they all reached the bottom of ¡®the tube¡¯ and the water pushed them out on the dry grounds. Their transition from water to dry grounds was smooth enough, the team was unscathed. Well, the light across the area blinded them a little bit, but that was hardly a problem after a minute or two. Then, Arvena explained. ¡°We don''t need to shapeshift just yet, aqus goblins can breathe air for up to three hours. Our gills are sucking the moisture off of the air, so let''s take our time, we''ll explore this place a little bit.¡± Chapter 107 - The Holy Three! This cavern was perhaps the most important place in the nano-universe of Nul. Well, considering how small Nul actually was, this cavern didn''t have much competition, but it was great nonetheless. The team realized the latter after they shook the water out of their ears, they then caught up with its magnificence. The structures that they had noticed while they were in the water tube, weren''t just mere houses, or multi-selection taverns, no, the structures looked holy! They represented the best that mana had to offer, and their purity ascended all bounds! The team were visitors here so they wouldn''t know too much about its importance to begin with, but the aura here was just too strong, they could all sense that this was the place where they needed to be. If this cavern couldn''t remove the bracket on their mana quality, then nothing would! They spotted a structure which seemed like it was the most important, it caught their attention immediately. It featured a long, upwards staircase, and even though they couldn''t see what was on top of the staircase, they assumed that it was something very important. ¡°When we were floating down the tube, I saw a big orb up there, well, it looked like an orb.¡± Arvena pointed out, she got the team excited about it. ¡°I don''t know what it is for, but it looks important enough, and also, we can make a stand there if anyone tries to attack us. If that orb is important enough, then we can threaten to destroy it or something.¡± ¡°I don''t think we''re capable of destroying anything here,¡± Skendus pointed out, ¡°We''re dealing with powerful people, Arvena, so please let''s try and avoid conflict.¡± Multiple good points were being made, but their perspectives had a couple of flaws in them. Being the genius that he was, Tim took the good of both of their ideas, and created the best idea of all, though it also sounded like the dumbest thing they''ve ever heard. ¡°Their kids are more vulnerable, erg, mortal? If we have to threaten them with something, we might as well threaten their kids, so Skendus, I need you to figure out where their kids exactly are. Can you still hear them?¡± He pitched. ¡°I can,¡± Skendus answered, he was shocked that the other pitched such a brute idea, it was sudden, and he felt that he had to fight against it, so he said. ¡°Let¡¯s hold on to that option, we''re not in danger yet.¡± The team made it up the staircase, and found something marvelous there on top of it. There was an orb here right enough, it was covered in these polished, green and blue colors to the point where it looked like a giant marble. It was interesting to view it with that perspective, because one would never see a twenty-foot wide marble/orb on any other occasion, this was a rare sight, and they were nervous about it. The orb was surrounded by three other, smaller stone sculptures. These three sculptures did not represent any man or beast, no, but they were these simple, gray pyramids instead. In hindsight they didn''t seem so important, especially since they were on the ground and looked like weird spikes for that matter, but Tim picked up on their presence, and he understood that these pyramids could bear countless symbolic values! If he was lucky enough to decode those values, then he figured that the reward would be great! ¡°What would pyramids be doing all the way here? It''s gonna be hard for me to ignore them, they¡¯re engulfed between universes for fuck''s sake!¡± He thought, though he didn''t want to make too many assumptions yet, because he figured that Arvena knew something about these three-foot wide pyramids. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Tim waited for her input, but she ignored them completely, she only focused on the orb, which was a bit infuriating. He didn¡¯t know what to think about these gray pyramids now. ¡°By the gods¡­ I''m so close to a heart attack!¡± Arvena mumbled, ¡°This is it, this is where all the mana is pouring from! I felt it from all the way up there, even while we were digging!¡± With something like that said out loud, it was easy to grab everyone''s attention. The team considered Arvena a bit of a loose cannon, so they were getting nervous of the idea of her being so close to such great amounts of mana! They weren¡¯t as strong as her, but even they could sense that this orb was powerful, and this made their situation all the more concerning. ¡°Okay, so we found this holy site that you''ve been rambling about. What do we do now?¡± Tim asked, he wanted to snap her out of her trance-like state. ¡°I¡­¡± Arvena mumbled, she didn¡¯t have an answer to give them. ¡°I removed one bracket of mine back home, at the library, but this orb is beyond me. I never dealt with an orb before, I wouldn''t have ever guessed that they were so¡­ powerful!¡± This was not something that the team wanted to hear. They have been through countless challenges just to get here, and now it would appear that Arvena didn''t even know what she was doing. By all means, she likely didn¡¯t even know that there was an orb down here, and this was infuriating, because apart from being their guide, she was the one who stubbornly insisted on bringing them into this nano universe in the first place. She shouldn''t have the luxury to be under-informed, no, so they really started looking at her as their enemy! There were a lot of cruel things that the team could say or decide on right now, but before they could''ve done anything, they were suddenly interrupted by someone. It was a resident! ¡°I see you found our orb,¡± The resident said, and grabbed everyone''s attention immediately, as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Even Arvena snapped out of her trance-like state. This resident was a goblin without a doubt, but he wasn¡¯t an aqus goblin, no. He was buff, pale, four feet tall, and had more hair than the average goblin, so plenty of ladies may consider him their dream man, especially since he also had a more defined jawline. Only Skendus could meet him eye-to-eye, height-wise, but Skendus was likely far less powerful in comparison, so it was best if he and the rest avoided fights of any sorts! Being the most cool-headed, Skendus took over the conversation, and spoke on behalf of the group. ¡°Hello! We found the orb, yes, but we don''t know how to use it. Is this where we can remove the bracket off of our mana quality? It¡¯d be great if it was.¡± ¡°That''s exactly what it''s for, but this orb is far more efficient at removing brackets, multiple of them even, greater than anything else I know of.¡± The resident goblin followed along, ¡°It''s not a substitute, it''s not a weak alternative, but it''s the real thing, so getting down here is probably the smartest thing you folks ever did¡­ but it could also be the dumbest.¡± ¡°We don''t want any trouble¡­¡± Skendus stated, half nervously. ¡°It is not me that you should fear, rat. The holy three are yet to shine in your presence, so, the four of you may not be worthy of the orb''s contents. With that said, I suggest caution, as your end will be quick if you choose to engage with the orb by yourselves, without supervision.¡± The resident added. ¡°It sounds like you''re hoarding the orb here, guy. Supervision is another word for ¡®controlled failure¡¯ - You want us to fail.¡± Arvena interrupted, ¡°And do not call my friend a rat, when you''re hiding underground like cockroaches, sandwiched between universes, you''re a coward, a big one. Tell us how to activate the orb now, we don''t need your supervision!¡± ¡°Fine, it is not up to me to evaluate you anyway. You reject my supervision, so you can all die for all I care, I am not responsible for what may follow.¡± The resident said, and then waved his arm towards the group, as he blasted a wave of blue rays towards them. ¡°Seek the blessing of the holy three, that''s all I can say.¡± He added, and the team disappeared out of thin air just seconds later! Chapter 108 - Energy Pocket It was not always good to disappear out of thin air, especially if it happened against one''s will, it was terrifying. The team of four did not only disappear, but they seemed to have teleported in some way as well! The good thing was that they were conscious though, and Tim had been the first to complain as soon as he noticed what had happened. Well, he hadn¡¯t caught up entirely, but he still had this inward sense that they had teleported, he was sure of it. ¡°If we''re in an even smaller universe, help me god¡­ I''m going to lose my shit!¡± He complained. Tim perhaps overreacted, as it wasn''t the worst thing in the world to pierce through universes, no. It entirely depended on how hostile the universe was, and as far as he was concerned, he was not in danger right now, but rather, he was just engulfed in utter darkness. This was a little scary, but he didn¡¯t really feel endangered, though it didn''t take long for him to get weirded out. When Tim mentioned universes, something strange happened. A tiny universe of sorts appeared on his palm, and he found himself holding his hand out to ¡®hold¡¯ the tiny universe - it emitted just enough light for him to see what was going on. This tiny universe looked like a ball full of clouds, but inwardly, he knew exactly what it was. For a second he even felt like a god, but then he couldn''t help cracking jokes about it, he couldn¡¯t take this thing seriously. ¡°If this is my universe, then every duck shall have two cocks!¡± He giggled. ¡°Quit talking about those, please, sometimes I think that you don''t like women at all.¡± Arvena interrupted him, though he could not see her. ¡°I like women, obviously, but ducks with two dicks would look really funny! Hahaha!¡± He countered. ¡°Forget about the ducks,¡± She scolded, and then added. ¡°I think I know how this place works, we don''t have to be in the dark.¡± Just after she said the latter, the crippling darkness that surrounded them swiftly disappeared, just as she hinted. Everyone''s eyes ached afterwards, as the light that had popped up above their heads, felt brighter than the sun itself to them, they had to cover their eyes! Arvena then somehow flicked the source of light away from her and the team¡¯s close vicinity, she pushed it upwards as if she had sent it towards the sky, where every huge source of light was supposed to be. Then, as the team rubbed their eyes to view their surroundings better, a lush, green field materialized around them, it simply faded into existence. ¡°This is starting to look like a fever dream,¡± Tim sighed, his eyes still hurt. ¡°Tell me about it,¡± Ortana added, as she nodded at a single, brown duck that was in the middle of the field. ¡°No way! I summoned the dual-dicky duck!¡± He weirdly celebrated, ¡°Yeah, I''m starting to understand how this universe works as well.¡± Tim did not in fact understand. He just assumed that he could summon everything he wanted here, and although that was true in a sense, he was overlooking every other potential that this place offered. This wasn''t some sort of small universe either, as he had assumed, no, it was just a place where all forms of energy were non-solid, until proven otherwise. In other words, he was in a pocket of space where everything and almost nothing existed at the same time - One may even call it a two, three and four dimensional space, it wasn¡¯t easy to understand it fully, quite impossible really. Arvena was the most informed one here, but of course, she couldn''t put everything she knew into comprehensive words, so she put it in terms that everyone was familiar with, regardless of how much she understood herself. She felt almost burdened with this information, and this was not something where she could benefit from if she kept it a secret, her friends had to understand where they were, because that way, they may be more likely to survive whatever was to come next! If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°This is an energy pocket, guys, I think it translates into that. Energy is used on everything, one can even use it to revive themselves, because if you suddenly die for example, the energy imprints would hang around your lifeless body for a while, and if those imprints are strong enough, you can bring yourself back to life. I understand that even that simple example is confusing, but you''ll understand the concept of energy a lot more after you escape the god''s punishment realm of mana, I assure you.¡± She explained. Furthermore she added, ¡°Since we''re in an energy pocket right now, we can literally be immortal if we tell our bodies to not get old, our energy imprint is undying, it does not dissipate here. Though¡­ I''m guessing that we won''t be here for long, so such immortality is only theoretical - don''t listen to me, I''ve read one too many scrolls back home.¡± ¡°Well thanks for all of that, Tina, but I still don¡¯t understand anything.¡± Ortana admitted. ¡°You don''t need to understand all of it, we will either be banished from here, or get harvested by this energy pocket if it suddenly decides to harvest us, we can all be ducks with two cocks if things go wrong. Either way we won''t be here for long, I hope not, so don''t worry about it.¡± Arvena added. The team wasn''t a fan of what she just said, but at least she was being honest for once. Though, the situation also managed to escalate here nonetheless, because it seems that even Arvena didn''t know what to do in this situation that they were in, even though technically she was the one that brought them here. She did not guarantee their survival. Anyway, they explored the grass field for a little bit, and realized that they weren''t really going anywhere within this energy pocket space thing. Arvena had ¡®summoned¡¯ the field, so it didn''t feature anything beyond her imagination, it was an infuriatingly limited space. These limitations forced the rest of the team to be more imaginative, since there was nothing else for them to do. They felt like they were lost in space, so they couldn¡¯t do anything other than imagine things, they were enthralled to do so. Ortana imagined a fever of small, blue stingrays. She made them float above the ground, and this developed into quite a majestic scene, because twelve or so stingrays were floating about, in perfect harmony, and they were also a bit luminous. This reminded her of home, a fever of stingrays had that calming effect on her, regardless of how she had assumed the form of many other creatures before she became a stingray ~ this form felt closer to home, and it was perhaps because of the memories she had back on the reef, that could be what influenced her. It was a beautiful scene, but then Skendus managed to make the atmosphere a lot weirder in mere seconds, after he summoned a bunch of eyeballs! He summoned eyeballs from multiple species, including those of goblin''s and rat''s because those were the kind of eyes that he was familiar with. Now he didn¡¯t summon these things just to freak everyone out, no, rather, it was because eyeballs bore this great value to an illusionist. The eye(s) were symbolic in that branch of magic, and in this case, the multiple eyeballs also gave him many, literal perspectives for him to view. He could observe the world with them, and although he could do this back in the real world as well, it did cost a lot of mana to summon them, and it was often not worth the expenses, though here he realized that mana was virtually infinite, so he experimented with powers that he wanted very well to spend more time on! Skendus was happy, but little did he know, by using his imagination as well, he had triggered a response. The energy pocket responded to his, and everyone else''s collective use of imagination! Everything that they had imagined suddenly expanded and multiplied, until they were surrounded by a world based off of the four physical things that the team of four had summoned. Their four, distinctive imaginations created a great world around them! Then, three pyramids suddenly appeared in the sky. They were very visible, because they were huge, glowing, and they summoned nighttime as well. Their radiant glow was now impossible to miss! Their presence caused the ground to rumble, and as they spun in a strict circle, it was very apparent that these pyramids were trying to summon the orb as well. It was materializing right in the middle of the rapidly-moving pyramids, its appearance was expected! A horribly loud sound emitted from those pyramids afterwards. It was truly loud, but also comprehensive, it spoke in their current, goblin tongue! ¡°Your presence has been noted, and your forms of symbolism acknowledged, travelers. Though religion eludes you, we must still evaluate you as if you praised a god, for we are not shallow enough to discriminate against you based on faith alone.¡± They said. Furthermore, they added. ¡°We shall judge what you have presented to us, that being; A field and its comforting sky, a fever of stingrays, a swarm of eyes, and¡­ a duck?¡± Chapter 109 - Duck; Accepted! ¡°What a bad time to talk about dual-sworded ducks,¡± Tim muttered, he was concerned. This was obviously not how he would wish for an event to unfold, he hadn''t expected it, and he couldn¡¯t have ever guessed that this duck that he imagined earlier on, would represent him today! It was unthinkable, and yet here he was, within the consequences of his own imagination! ¡°Out of all the things you could have summoned, you chose a duck¡­ why?¡± The three pyramids asked him, as even they questioned his decisions. ¡°Because ducks are funny,¡± He answered honestly. Tim was deep in cow dung right now, so he didn¡¯t bother trying to excuse himself. If he died because of his decisions, then this would truly be the most hilarious way for him to die. He didn''t regret a thing! Perhaps he may die quickly too, because the pyramids spun even faster once Tim had answered them. Their velocity could contest that of a meteor''s, so it was crystal clear that if something was to happen, it would happen now and it would be horrid! A split second later, the pyramids beamed towards the ground! They moved at such speeds that they created three, individual craters once they hit the ground, and the literal heat they brought was intense! Although they landed about thirty meters away, the team was still tossed a couple of meters away as a result. They didn''t suffer too much damage, but they did get blinded for a minute, and their ears were ringing to the point where it was painful, so one couldn''t say that they were unharmed. Considering what just happened, they assumed that they were all going to die! Whatever process of evaluation this energy pocket space had, it was beyond them, the team did not understand what they were supposed to do here in order to get ¡®blessed¡¯ - Death seemed like the only result right now! Just as they started to get on their feet, the orb landed on the ground as well just moments later, and got them knocked out for the second time! The team could not catch a break. ¡°Thanks for pissing them off, Terrence, this is definitely the way I want to die.¡± Ortana remarked, sarcastically. ¡°I never wanted to come here-¡± He tried to argue, but his words were cut short. They suddenly became airborne, because they were being dragged towards the pyramids, somehow. This made them almost defecate themselves, because it would be a brutal way to die if either of them landed on top of the pyramids, for example, as they would get impaled! Arvena broke a sweat while they floated, she was perhaps the most nervous one here. She might as well be nervous, because this would be a stupid way to die, especially for her who had actually achieved something in life! She was a wonderful mage, and she had a breakthrough in her mana quality just weeks ago, so this was not the right time for her to die, as her talents would be utterly wasted as a result. She was nervous, but thankfully, she survived, death did not befall anyone! In fact, she and the team weren''t attacked at all, well, apart from being blinded and deafened just a moment ago, they were otherwise fine. The four of them landed right between the pyramids, quite comfortably ~ They landed on top of the big, marble-patterned orb, to be exact, avoiding the pyramids entirely. ¡°Thou shall be blessed,¡± The pyramids said to them, as their thick, genderless voices reverberated around everyone''s ears. The orb shone even brighter afterwards, brighter than ever. Its green and blue colors radiated so violently, that one would think they pierced through the hypothetical stratosphere above them! Though it was the middle of the night, the sky now shared a mix of blue and green colors, as if an aurora event had suddenly erupted! ¡°Dunno what all of this has to do with mana,¡± Tim muttered, after he felt sure that he wasn''t going to die here. Then, he heard a sudden snap within his body. For a second he was sure that his hip was broken, he felt that snap right within his hips, but although what he felt was painful, he had not actually been crippled, no. The mana bracket, or potentially brackets, broke all at the same time within him, which created that sort of bone-cracking illusion that he felt, but he was otherwise fine. The pyramids, or perhaps the orb, had blessed him. Whichever one it may be, it did not matter, as Timothy didn¡¯t have a mana bracket holding him back anymore, and that was what was the most important to him! The rest of the team were equally as lucky. Their mana brackets were removed as well, but their ¡®bones¡¯ cracked a bit more in comparison, as perhaps they had more brackets to remove. Arvena''s insides cracked the most, they were loud, and everyone for a moment assumed that she died off, but she was fine, she was alive. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°I never thought that I''d see the day¡­¡± She quietly celebrated at first, but then she exclaimed. ¡°From now on, as long as I stay within the micro-universe of Valporovus, I''ll be the strongest and richest mage alive!¡± ¡°You will be, I don''t doubt that.¡± Tim encouraged her, but then he also added. ¡°All the more reason for us to head back and find those ruins, right¡­ the ruins of Aqumus? I remember you telling me that there was plenty of mana there.¡± ¡°We will get there as soon as we can,¡± She assured. Before they could say anything else, the world around them suddenly crumbled. It disappeared, the pyramids and the orb disappeared as well, and they didn''t make a single sound as they went away! Utter darkness almost surrounded Tim and his friends afterwards, for the second time. However, before it could''ve done so thoroughly, the team vanished as well, they vanished almost as quickly as everything else! What felt like seconds later, they popped up in the underground cavern that they had been in before they entered the energy pocket space. This cavern featured many holy relics, and they were happier than ever to see them again, because whatever space they had been in just moments ago, had been gnawing on their nerves in all the wrong ways, they were happy to survive it! They were in the cavern now, and that resident goblin was there to greet them, as soon as they popped up in here. He didn''t seem so happy to welcome the team, but the pyramids and or the orb had spoken, the team was now fit for the road, as they had been blessed without a doubt. They completed their little mission here, as confusing as everything was. ¡°So the holy three spared you? You met the essences of the three pyramids, and they did not tear the flesh off of your bones? I congratulate you, then, as that doesn''t happen often nowadays.¡± The cavern''s resident said, quite smuggly. ¡°Thanks, guy, though you don''t seem glad to see us.¡± Tim added, and then he pointed out. ¡°I''d say that you look like you''ve seen a ghost, but it''s more like you fell on a pile of chalk, you greedy, pale bastard! You sent us in that energy pocket thing, fully expecting us to die¡­ that wasn''t so holy of you.¡± ¡°That''s how the process is supposed to go, I don''t make the rules. Besides, you''re the ones who infiltrated our haven, our home.¡± The resident argued, ¡°You''re lucky that we didn''t try and defend ourselves, otherwise you would''ve never met the holy three to begin with, you filthy heathens!¡± Tim felt the need to smack this guy on the mouth afterwards, but he avoided it. He was smart enough to remember that this guy was probably a whole realm or two above him in terms of mana quality. It would not only be stupid to attack him, but also suicidal! Besides, he didn¡¯t have a single valid reason to fight anyone here right now. He and the team got what they wanted, the mana quality brackets that they had, perhaps multiple of them, were now broken! Well, a mage would need to face countless brackets if he was to ascend through the realms, but he was happy enough that he''d be able to escape the god¡¯s punishment realm soon, so he became quiet, he didn¡¯t want to spoil his achievements. Skendus took over the conversation instead, and very calmly said. ¡°Thank you for having us heathens, sir, we acknowledge your¡­ hesitation. Assuming that our guide here agrees with me, we''ll be going now, as we don''t wish to disrupt your peace any further.¡± ¡°We''ll be going, yes.¡± Arveena agreed, ¡°I barely know who this place belongs to anyway, I haven''t studied enough.¡± ¡°Studying is an attribute of every great mage, I wish you luck with it.¡± The resident goblin added, his tone was a lot calmer now. Then, the resident waved his hand towards them, and so, Tim and the team disappeared out of thin air once more! They vanished from the cavern where the holy site resided, and then appeared on the water. The thing was, they weren''t deep underwater, no. They were very close to the surface, everyone could notice this even within the midst of the utter nighttime darkness that had engulfed them! Within the darkness, they then felt something lurking in the waters, which was terrifying! The team didn''t have any phobias that they knew of, but being in the open waters in the dead of night encouraged a type of fear that they never felt before! Tim felt as if a shark was going to grab his leg any second now. Something did grab him eventually, but it wasn''t a shark. He felt these three, long, tentacle-like arms grabbing on to him, and at first he almost shat himself in response, but then he got a hint of what was going on. He remembered those entities that the shaman had summoned before, the ones that brought him in the nano-universe of Nul to begin with, and he figured that they were the ones who were touching him up right now! The entities pulled the team up towards the very surface, and then started swimming around them, until everyone involved started floating above the water, and towards the sky! They flew for a while, and as the dark, three-armed entities spun them across the air afterwards, another portal opened up! The entities along with the team, pushed their way through the portal, which in turn rendered everyone in the team unconscious! They weren''t aware of what happened next, but what felt like an hour later, they woke up in a lush green field, right near the red-tiled town where Arvena had grown up in. They got out of the nano-universe of Nul, and made it back to the micro-universe of Valporovus! Chapter 110 - Sir Lestuk After he left the nano-universe of Nul, Timothy had woken up with an improved quality of mana. Level five to be exact, otherwise known as Good Quality Mana! Since ¡®good¡¯ was in its name, Tim felt pretty excited about it, because he could finally pose a threat against the common dangers of this universe. The micro-universe of Valporovus was not for the weak, and he was sick of either running, or depending on others for help, so level five did him good. Two weeks later, however, he was at level six (dense, iron mana), which was even greater! Him and the team didn''t have to use their mana all that much these days, and since Valporovus naturally encouraged faster mana-regeneration, progress was only inevitable! Nothing was holding them back, the rest of the team had the same amount of luck as he did. To further increase their progress, they made up their minds to start a journey towards the ruins of Aqumus! These ruins supposedly promised more mana per hour than any other place in the realm, up to four more times as some shamans claimed, but it could be even more than that. Going there was a must! If the team made it to those ruins in one piece, then they may likely become godly! At the very least, they''d escape the god¡¯s punishment realm of mana, and that was enough of a reward on its own. Anyway, although getting there would be ideal, it was not an easy journey. The ruins were about four-hundred kilometers away from Arvena''s hometown, it was not close by. It would take weeks to get there, because the environmental factors of this universe, for example, were one of the main things that would slow them down. There were mountains in front of them, a couple of thick forests too, so thick that one would confuse them with jungles! Now the issue with this was that the team could travel fifteen kilometers in one day, and then as little as three kilometers the other day, so this part of their journey was purely unpredictable, and there weren''t any ways to work around it, no cheap ways at least. It also didn''t help that they were tiny goblins, that was another burdening factor. The team had changed into normal Degranus Goblins weeks ago, but apart from having them breathe air, changing back into this species did not aid their journey all that much. Their steps were simply small, and short. The team could maybe turn into birds, so they¡¯d fly wherever they wanted to go, but that way, an eagle could eat them or something like that. It was not a safe alternative to walking! Anyway, two weeks into the journey, the team were in the middle of a forest, sixty kilometers away from Arvena''s hometown. This place was called the Frozen Red-leaf Forest, and it was called so, because the weather was unpredictable for a start, but also, the forest was knitted with these red leaves regardless of the season. One would think that they''ve gone into autumn as soon as they stepped foot on this place, it was bizarre! Well, bizarre and interesting, though crippling nonetheless, because the team had to make a lot of pit stops, in order to avoid freezing to death. It snowed twice here already, and the temperatures dropped as low as -5¡ãC! ¡°God¡­ I never thought that I''d hate snow this much.¡± Tim complained, ¡°But I guess it''s better than itching our skin off because of all the branch scratches, we''ll survive this.¡± The universe was perhaps against Tim''s words, because as soon as he encouraged the team for the better, something bad happened. A monster of sorts appeared, right in front of the team''s campsite! If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The monster was gorilla-like, a yeti to be exact. It had white fur, it was huge, but what made it the most terrifying, was its spinal composure! The monster had five arms, one of which stretched out from its chest! Since it had so many arms, it crawled across the ground much like a spider, which was beyond terrifying to witness! The yeti did not ¡®stand up straight¡¯ whatsoever, no, it just surfed along its path. Skendus was the first one to spot the beast, well, he heard its violent thoughts as soon as the monster was within his vicinity! In the blink of an eye, he alerted the team. ¡°Attention! Monster over there!¡± He shouted. Now Skendus wasn¡¯t an army general, but shouting and pointing may be the best way to get things in order within mere seconds! He wanted his friends to be safe, that was what mattered the most. Arvena clocked the monster immediately afterwards, and without pushing her arm forward all that much, she shot a fireball right out of her palm, and towards the yeti abomination! Common sense encouraged that anything with white fur, would be vulnerable to fire, but then again just about everything was vulnerable to fire if the caster was strong enough. With the fireball that she had shot, Arvena could burn a fraction of the forest down. It was an eight-foot long, rapid-moving ball of fire after all! Tim followed after her, and shot against the monster as well! Since their two other friends didn''t have any offensive abilities, he understood that he and Arvena had to do most of the work here, though he also understood that his fireballs may be far less effective in comparison to her¡¯s. ¡°Bloody hell, did we kill it!?¡± He yelled out. ¡°I think so,¡± Arvena said, and then the fire died down by her command alone. After the fire died down, they saw what was supposed to be the carcass of the monster. It was supposed to be dead, but when Tim saw that its fur was still all white and bright, he knew that something was wrong! The monster then suddenly started moving, at rapid speeds. It jolted towards him, and used its huge, muscly arm that stretched out of its chest, to grab him by the neck! ¡°You¡¯re my new girlfriend now,¡± It whispered, intimately, and then tried to run away into the forest with Tim on its arm. ¡°Hell nah!¡± He refused, and then did two very important things as a counter attack. First, he summoned various buried animal skeletons in his close vicinity, multiplied them, and bashed them into the yeti''s chest arm, all within two seconds! The Bone Multiplier ability that he had, was very effective for this job! However, even though the yeti was stabbed, the multiple wounds barely sunk an inch on its skin, so Tim had to do something else to free himself. The second thing that he did, was grab a hold of the yeti¡¯s very soul, with the aid of his Soul Grabber ability - He found its use quite self explanatory! After he grabbed its soul, the yeti was commanded to let go of him. Tim wasn¡¯t as weak as he used to be, so he had a much better control over his abilities, even though it was very expensive to use them now! He had grabbed onto the other''s soul so hard that he made the yeti float three feet above the ground, he was powerful. ¡°I am not your girlfriend, you hairy spooky bastard! Why does everything in the animal kingdom want my ass?!¡± He yelled. ¡°Nature has decreed that you shall have butt bumps,¡± Ortana suddenly added, ¡°I''ve seen plenty of humans treating those.¡± After she said that, it was very difficult to stay serious, which was conflicting, because Tim had a monstrous yeti at his disposal, and or mercy. Either way, he was spending a lot of mana per second, sixty points to be exact, and the team had bursted out laughing, so they weren''t any closer to a grand decision, but he was closer to spending a great portion of his mana. ¡°What the hell are you?¡± Tim asked, eventually. ¡°I am sir Lestuk,¡± It answered. Chapter 111 - The blizzard The team was in a very peculiar situation. Tim had this ten foot tall ape on a choke hold, but since he was pouring mana into this advantage that he made for himself, he couldn¡¯t keep things going for long, as his mana pool was not infinite! The Soul Grabber ability was currently taking sixty points of mana out of him, every second, and this example was not cheap. That aside, this ape seems to be quite tolerant to the team''s attacks, they wouldn''t be able to kill him so easily even if they wanted to! Tim felt that he had to negotiate. ¡°Do we have to kill you, sir Lestuk?¡± He bluffed. ¡°You can try,¡± The other picked up on his bluff. ¡°You want me to try, huh? Okay.¡± Tim threatened, but this time he wasn¡¯t bluffing as much, because he wasn''t as clueless anymore - He had an idea! ¡°Skendus, what do you make of his brain?¡± ¡°Intelligent for an ape, but I''m probably smarter than him¡­ by a nudge.¡± Skendus was quick to answer. Timothy smiled in response, this was the best thing that he heard today! He loved dealing with enemies who in bleak comparison, were dumber than him, because he knew that in a way, they were very vulnerable! To set his plan into motion, he then removed the bones from the yeti''s gross, chest arm, and bashed those bones in the yeti''s head instead. Every part of this process was telekinetic, so he didn¡¯t have to lift as much of a finger in order to impale the target again, he just had to spend a lot of mana! However, he then noticed that the yeti was still protesting, he was resistant, and since his mana was very limited, Tim had to ask for help. In this case, Skendus was to come in really handy! ¡°Do your work on him, try to overload his brain!¡± He requested, ¡°If we can''t kill this big bastard through brute force, then we''ll just fry his head from the inside.¡± ¡°I see what you''re trying to do,¡± Skendus nodded, and then he pushed his arms forward. Skendus was an illusionist, so when he used his recently-overcharged powers, symbolic eyes appeared to mark his involvement. The eyes were very realistic too, they were as big as his head, and by figure one could tell that each single eye belonged to a different species! These eyes then floated around his head to the point where they looked like Saturn''s rings, and that was when the magic happened. He poured hundreds of points of mana towards the yeti, to make him live these very real-looking, torturous illusions! The yeti¡¯s fears were used against him, Skendus made Lestuk imagine that his bones were suddenly very breakable. The illusion featured Tim breaking Lestuk''s bones, and then rolling him up like a banana leaf, it was brutal but very effective! The following screams of fear and pain were unavoidable, Lestuk was being tortured, so at this point one may even question Tim''s ways of handling things, as he may have gone too far here. ¡°Is this really necessary? We can just knock him out.¡± Arvena added, of all people, she was the one that was concerned by this display of brutality. ¡°We can''t let him go, because if he found us once, he can find us again.¡± Ortana argued with her, she was an experienced, oldish woman who has seen a lot of the world. ¡°Besides, if even your fireball can''t burn this spooky thing, then what makes you think we can stop him next time?¡± ¡°Relax, I''ll make his death quick¡­ and mostly painless.¡± Tim guaranteed. Afterwards, he used a trick that he had been holding on to, it being the Electro Nerve Splitter ability! He hadn''t used this one that much so far, because it was very costly to do so, but if he didn''t use it now then he may never get to. This abomination of a yeti had to die today! Tim casted multiple nerve splitters against the target, they cost hundreds of mana points, but they did travel to their destination very quickly, in a blink even, so it was mana well spent! They hit the yeti''s brain, and then scorched a bunch of nerves that were connected to his brain! The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. That and Skendus'' help with the matter, brought a result that everyone was at least relieved with, if not comfortable in a moral sense. They fried the yeti''s brain, quite successfully, so Tim finally stopped using his powers. The brain damage was extensive, irreversible, so the yeti died ten minutes later, in a paralyzed, and senseless state of mind. He did not suffer much, and this issue was over. Timothy did not get any rewards for killing this ape, which was very weird, as the system should have rewarded him with thousands of system points! She was supposed to, but yet she argued that Timothy did not kill this ape alone, and she also insisted that the ape was not real, in a physical sense! There was no easy way to understand what she just said, but he couldn¡¯t take system points out of her by force, so he just let it be, regardless of how much mana he had spent on this ape. Anyway, out of all the things that they expected to happen today, encountering a mutant-looking ape wasn''t one of them. It seemed like a bizarre case, but then the team realized that it wasn''t too bizarre after all! For example, this place was called the Frozen Red-leaf Forest, and the weather here was absolutely unpredictable. The layers of snow that had coated the forest for a couple of days, didn''t seem as weird now when they realized that a yeti had lived in this forest, things made sense! Weird stuff like this was supposed to happen in this forest, as it was considered natural. Timothy was not a fan of what just happened nonetheless, so he looked at Arvena, and scolded. ¡°How the hell is it that you brought us here, knowing full well that we could''ve gotten beaten to death by an ape?¡± ¡°You give me too much credit, I can barely tell one forest apart from the other.¡± Arvena argued, she sounded quite sincere. ¡°If you want someone to blame, blame that Innkeeper we visited a couple of days ago, he didn¡¯t bother warning us, even though it was him who told us what this forest¡¯s name was.¡± ¡°For someone that''s native to this universe, you sure sound stupid. The forest was practically on your doorstep, how would you not know about a forest with indestructible gorillas?¡± He argued. ¡°I''m a mage, not a¡­¡± Before she could answer properly, a bolt of thunder struck on a tree near them, and it muffled her words effectively. The booming sound almost gave them heart attacks, but this unpredictable weather was just part of the forest''s charm. At first things weren''t too weird, but then the temperatures around them suddenly dropped by a solid 40¡ãC, all within a few seconds, and this part was pretty weird! Degranus Goblins weren''t particularly known for their resistance to cold and harsh environments, so inevitably, they all started shivering badly, more than they already were. Arvena almost went into shock, even, she was not tolerant of such cold, so she immediately started shooting a few small fireballs in front of her feet, with the hopes of getting a bush burning, for it to act like a mini-campfire. She tried, but it was pointless! Harsh winds picked up around them, and the wind developed into a blizzard moments later, and this could not be any more demotivating than it already was! These circumstances had a very high probability of killing them, if they didn''t act fast! Tim gave a hard look at the situation that they were in, and since a great portion of his stingray life included hiding and taking shelter, he quickly recognized that most of what this forest contained, would not help them survive this cold! With that said, he focused on the things that may give them a fighting chance, those being plain dirt and old animal bones. It took little time to summon more bones from within his close vicinity, and once he had those bones multiply into hundreds of bones all within just a few seconds, he then had them dig a ditch. They were tiny and sharp, so they bashed their way through the dirt quickly, ultimately fulfilling his commands! The ditch then turned into a tunnel, because the bones had also dug sideways, and this tunnel went a couple of feet underground, and created a nest of sorts as a result. It took half a minute to do this, and it perhaps put the team in further risk by leaving them exposed this long, but this was their best shot they were going to get, they had to go underground in order to avoid this sudden, brutal environment! ¡°If I was alone, I could''ve just floated my way out of here.¡± Tim thought to himself, however, he didn¡¯t nearly regret saving the group. They went underground, and Arvena kept a couple of fireballs burning above her palms, to maintain some of the heat. Considering that they were avoiding most of the wind and snow now, they only had to deal with the descending temperatures. Now the underground nest they were in helped avoid half of the cold, but they still had to work their way around the other half. Tim guessed that it was about -25¡ãC in the nest right now, and if they couldn''t fight this situation, they may die of hypothermia within a few hours. It solely depended if this blizzard would hold out for long, but as far as they were concerned, it was only getting colder right now! Either way, he was fresh out of neat tricks. The abilities he used recently were still new to him, he bought them last, and he only got to use them properly today, but he already noticed their charm faded away! Soul grabbing, nerve splitting, and bone multiplying would not save him from the cruel death that hypothermia could bring, it wouldn''t work out. Chapter 112 - Dragons? The atmosphere around them got colder, and colder, to the point where it was physically impossible to survive it for long! Arvena had practically sealed the exit of the nest that they were in, she sealed it with a scorching coating of fire, but that was not enough to make the team comfortable, for a couple of reasons. First things first, a sealed exit cut down on their oxygen supply pretty quickly, it left them almost breathless after ten minutes of her futile efforts. She had to stop it, because the fireball wasn''t even helping the team warm up enough anyway, and that was the second reason why they were not comfortable. The surrounding cold temperature was too much of a competition for her to handle, virtually nothing could battle it! At best, she made the underground nest achieve a temperature of -5¡ãC, and that was not enough to heat everybody up, especially since she couldn''t keep this up for long. The air around them had only gotten colder from that point, and when she got rid of the fireball, it sunk to about -50¡ãC in mere seconds! It was physically impossible to survive these temperatures for more than a few minutes, especially when they were in shock from the sudden cold! ¡°Maybe the gods are punishing us, because we killed sir Leshtuk, I''m starting to think that it wasn''t right to kill him¡­¡± Ortana admitted through a shiver, though it was quite likely that she wasn''t thinking straight right now. ¡°Either way, I think we should just get out of here.¡± Tim interrupted her, he brought the topic right back to the main issue. ¡°Skendus, you and I can escape with our lives, you know we can float out of here!¡± ¡°We can''t leave these ladies behind, don''t be a prick, be brave!¡± He countered, as the deafening sounds of the blizzard muffled some of his words. ¡°If you can get out of here, then you must go¡­¡± Arvena encouraged them, her voice was very puny, and almost lifeless. ¡°I''ve read about some really weird things back home, but I''ve never heard, or read about a blizzard this violent!¡± Before they could argue about this any further, they noticed that the deafening sounds of the blizzard above them, suddenly stopped. It went away as quickly as it had come, to the point where it was challenging to picture its sudden department! Arvena was the first to notice that the blizzard went away, and she wanted to use this opportunity to help everyone survive, so she started guiding them accordingly. She had everyone take a few deep breaths, and then sealed off the exit of the nest again, using one of her very hot fireballs! The fireball was more effective this time, because the cold wasn''t as overwhelming now that the blizzard was gone. Within five minutes, she got the air temperature up to a whole 5¡ãC, which was her best result yet, and it saved the group too, because their bodies didn''t look like lifeless corpses anymore, but they were recovering instead. Their skins even developed a rozy haze, which was a good sign, because they had been seconds away from death just a moment ago! ¡°What the hell is happening?¡± Tim asked, he was really uncomfortable right now, but he was happy to be alive nonetheless. ¡°The forest probably acted weird, like it''s supposed to. The Innkeeper did warn us about the weird weather, so regardless of your conclusions, Ortana, the gods were not punishing us.¡± Arvena added, as she kept the fireball going. ¡°I never said that,¡± The other followed along, though it was obvious that she was a bit delirious. Anyway, after about two minutes, Arvena had to get rid of the fireball, because they were running out of oxygen again. She figured that she had to repeat this process a few times until everyone warmed up properly, as it was their best way to bounce up without risking much, especially since the nest was doing half of the work already. They were not exposed to the outside elements, so they stood a chance. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. While she waited for everyone to catch their breath, she then noticed something weird. She spotted something through the exit of their nest, and it was simply too unusual to ignore it. ¡°Where did that dragon come from?¡± She mumbled, and then rushed to get out of the nest, the same nest which was their main advantage. Considering what they just experienced, it was very stupid to go above ground right now, especially to see a dragon, but she did so anyway! Her body was still numb, however, so she bounced around the short tunnel on her way out, and she got a few bumps as a result, though these bumps did help her become a bit more cautious. ¡°That''s not supposed to be here,¡± She anxiously sighed, as she looked at the remains of a dragon that was trapped in ice. The dragon was obviously dead, so she wasn''t in danger, but this situation was weird nonetheless. It got even weirder, when she noticed that she was surrounded by walls of ice for as far as she could see! The walls were tall, and very isolating, so she figured that it would be really dangerous for her to blast her way through this mess. Instead of discovering a way out of here, she discovered more frozen carcasses in mere moments! They were all trapped in ice as well, and most of them were dragon carcasses, rather than whole skeletons, so this was quite concerning. The ice was so clear that she could identify about six species of dragon almost immediately! ¡°A Black-tailed Wyvern¡­¡± She stroked her chin, ¡°Quite rare, though pretty useless to me, because it¡¯s as dead as a bastard can get.¡± The rest of the group followed her moments later, they left the nest because they were concerned, and after they got out, they were equally confused as to what was happening! All things considered, they were not supposed to be surrounded by the brutal remains of an ice age right now, so they all started panicking one way or the other. ¡°We couldn''t have slid somewhere underground, right? I didn''t feel us move at all.¡± Tim was the first to make theories. ¡°No¡­ we never moved.¡± Skendus shook his head, ¡°Maybe the gods are messing with us after all, because judging from the conditions of the brains, these¡­ big winged fellas have been in the ice for a while, hundreds of years, perhaps up to a thousand? That little blizzard couldn''t have gotten to them, can''t be that.¡± ¡°It''s a good thing that they''re dead either way. Look at that long bastard, it looks like it came out of the depths of hell¡­ I mean, why does it even have horns?!¡± Tim added. No one engaged with him for a moment, because everyone was busy with their own concerns. The atmosphere out here was close to sub-zero temperatures, so the cold was getting to them again, they were in literal pain now. Furthermore, it didn¡¯t look like they were getting out of here anytime soon, so their overall morale was pretty low. They were not willing to bicker over anything, or exert more energy than they had to. Arvena eventually cut him some slack, however, and explained. ¡°You were pointing at the Devil-horned Wyrm, and they haven''t got any legs. They were notoriously destructive back in the day, erg, thousands of years ago, but they''re all dead now. They went extinct, and thank god they did, because they could grow up to sixty feet in length - Big, snakey bastards, I hate them too!¡± Timothy fully believed what the other said. The wyrm had black scales too, so one would truly believe that it came from the depths of hell, and he did not want to meet any of those in his lifetime. Anyway, they got a couple of fireballs going afterwards, to nudge the group closer and closer towards survival. Although they were stuck between a labyrinth of ice walls, there were no cold winds around here, and the group could breathe all they liked without having to risk hypothermia. So despite the irony of being surrounded by ice, this may be their best chance yet to warm up properly, and avoid death by hypothermia all together, so they took it! While they warmed up, there was a single question that dominated everyone''s train of thoughts; They were all wondering where these walls of ice came from! Chapter 113 - Blinking Dragon The team warmed up. They started to look less and less like corpses now, and since their clothes and armor were not wet, they were able to recover quickly. In a timespan of half an hour, they were their normal selves again. Ortana seemed to have forgotten most of what happened, the cold really messed with her good from the looks of it, but she did remember something very specific. It was about Timothy. ¡°You tried to ditch us!¡± She yelled out, and smacked him upside the head. ¡°You treacherous bastard¡­ you almost had me killed when I ditched you back in the day!¡± ¡°The past is behind us, let''s look towards the future.¡± Tim joked, as he didn¡¯t think much of her judgy attitude. Everyone was frankly happy to be alive, but their worries hadn''t become any smaller, as they were still trapped here. They''d rather find a way out of here instead of wasting time bickering, because it wasn¡¯t either normal or safe to be between such great walls of ice for long. They had to move. Timothy only had a couple of options when it came to digging himself out of trouble. He would either ask the system for help, or develop an idea himself, though the latter is oftentimes more troublesome, so for that matter he decided to talk to the system instead. He asked, ¡°What can you give me, system? I think I''m ready to look at that new badge of upgrades you kept talking about, so, can you give me something that¡¯ll help us cut through the ice without crushing us to death? I''d really appreciate it.¡± [I don''t have anything like that in particular, that''s a very strange request. Besides, you only have eighteen-hundred system points right now, so you can''t buy anything important.] She answered. ¡°What! Only eighteen? That doesn''t sound right.¡± He bickered. [You had spent a lot of system points on the pre-necromantic upgrades, the ones that you''ve been using today. They were expensive, but also, you only managed to kill a single creature in this universe, it being a Whistling Mana-muncher Eel - You didn''t kill anything else after that.] She pointed out. With that said, Tim realized that the system was absolutely right. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he hadn''t been on the hunt for system points all that much throughout these past couple of months, no, he had only cared about mana, and mana quality! The latter was a blessing and a curse, because although his mana quality was good now, better than it had ever been before, his hyperfocus on the matter, has stripped other options away from him. He couldn¡¯t buy new abilities, he simply couldn¡¯t get his hands on those, and it was frustrating. To comfort himself, he thought. ¡°Well, at least every magical ability I have, upgraded along with my mana quality. I probably saved a lot of system points that way, maybe thousands!¡± Timothy was a bit optimistic, but ultimately, he had strayed off-topic by a lot, even though he had just been talking to himself so far. It was difficult to keep a straight train of thoughts right now. In the meantime, Arvena was looking around, as she was more dedicated to get out of here. Since she had warmed the team up enough, she was now free to explore their surroundings, and did exactly that. She hoped to find an exit point, which in hindsight was too much to ask for from a literal labyrinth of icy walls, but she tried to find it nonetheless! Twenty meters away from where she started, she discovered three new pathways to follow. She figured that two of them would lead to dead ends, so she was hoping to find that one path that would help them progress, and then lead everyone through it. She was hopeful, but also distracted, so she had ignored what was in front of her almost entirely! Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! When she did eventually look up, she noticed a full, four legged dragon trapped in ice, its scales were dark-red. This dragon didn''t seem out of place at first, but then, she saw it blink! Arvena did not want to battle a dragon, so almost instinctively, she turned back, and ran towards the group! There, she almost smacked Skendus behind the head. ¡°You told me they were all dead!¡± She yelled, with her tone out of order, and her in panic. ¡°Their brains are dead, the brains of the dragons that I can see, at least.¡± He followed along, but he was a lot calmer in comparison. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°One of them blinked at me,¡± She answered truthfully. ¡°You seem awfully scared of dragons,¡± Ortana pointed out. ¡°A fire breathing dragon that''s trapped with us, below all of this ice, is not our friend, Ortana. One wrong blow, and we''re all dead, so it doesn''t matter if we could kill it or not!¡± She bit back. While the two of them were arguing, Skendus had slipped away from the group, and headed towards the direction of the ¡®blinking dragon¡¯. He was a big guy, but he had managed to sneak away nonetheless, because his steps were delicate when his natural curiosity was at stake! The trapped dragon was just twenty meters away, so it didn''t take long to find it. He was very happy to find something alive around here, because it could help him figure out just how all of this ice that was full of carcasses, popped up around them in the first place! Skendus found the dragon, and then started racking through its brain. He searched for coherent, explanatory thoughts within its brain, but was fresh out of luck on that matter, because this dragon didn''t seem so bright. However, it was alive, and its brain was mostly healthy, so it meant that this dragon had been trapped here only recently. His guess was that it had randomly flown into that prior blizzard, and had gotten ensnared by the crippling cold temperatures as well! ¡°Pretty calm for a dragon¡­ maybe it''s calm because it''s trapped in the ice?¡± He thought to himself. Skendus was absolutely right, the ice was doing its part. It wasn''t just calming the dragon down, but it was killing it as well, and he noticed this moments later, when he picked up on its gradual decline of brain activity. The dragon was dying! ¡°If a fire breather can''t withstand the cold, then what chance do we have? We''re gonna get trapped in ice one way or the other, and then we''ll be perfectly preserved examples as to why no one should mess with this damned forest. We don''t stand a chance!¡± He thought. With all of that considered, he started getting really desperate, so he called Arvena over, and pitched an idea to her. One where they would free this dragon, and naturally, she was not on board with it! ¡°Are you crazy? As soon as we set it free, it will start blasting! We''ll all have ice blocks through our heads in a matter of seconds!¡± She argued, and it was a compelling argument, but Skendus had a better one. ¡°A fire breathing dragon can come in handy, we''re trapped in ice, and so is he, he''ll recognize the patterns here and cooperate. Besides, it has one of the calmest brains that I''ve ever read through, calmer than Tim''s, that''s for sure.¡± He joked. ¡°Okay¡­ let''s melt our funeral out of the ice then.¡± She sighed. Afterwards, she summoned these multiple, dagger like bits of fire on her palms, and started cutting through the ice with them. The cuts were elegant and precise, to the point where she didn''t even allow a freckle of ice to get out of order, she melted through those freckles efficiently. The dragon seemed to notice what she was doing, so it tilted its head a little bit. This freaked everyone out, because a dragon that was trapped on ice, shouldn''t be able to move at all, everyone in the group almost shat themselves in response! However, when a tiny stream of water suddenly splattered out of one of the cuts, the cuts on the ice that Arvena had made, they started understanding what was happening. The dragon had tried to free itself before, and when it noticed that the melted ice could make it drown and also shiver, it had stopped blowing fire against the ice. It had stopped trying to survive, and gave up. With that said, this dragon may not be so stupid after all, he at least embraced realism. In a sense, Arvena felt a bit more comfortable about helping it now, because she was convinced that the dragon was capable enough to understand compassion, and loyalty! Contrary to what she was worried about before, the dragon may not freak out after all. Chapter 114 - Freed Dragon The trapped dragon was now more excited, because the dripping water gave him a couple of advantages. For a start, it gave him just a bit more air to breathe in, and this itself was a great thing to be excited about, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise that his brain activity was going up now, he just avoided death by a ball-hair here. The second advantage was far greater in comparison! Since the water had an exit point, he could melt more of the ice around him now, and not drown himself in the process either. This way, he would be free a lot quicker! The dragon started blowing tiny amounts of fire against the ice that had entrapped it, he got into work right away. This tiny amount of fire may not free him immediately, but he did not want to scare the goblins that were helping him, as that would be a really stupid thing to do. ¡°He¡¯s pretty smart, Skendus, smarter than you said he is.¡± Tim pointed out. ¡°Maybe I misread his brain? Sometimes, a dying brain is difficult to tell apart from a dumb brain. My mistake.¡± He admitted, ¡°But at least he''s smart enough to not attack us as soon as we break him free. I bet that he can understand that the ice walls can knock him down as well, he''ll behave.¡± Skendus had a point, so no one argued with him. They didn''t want to distract Arvena anyway, so everyone kept quiet. Arvena eventually cut a whole doorway through the ice, and she was able to do so without much worry, because the ice walls were tough enough to not shatter around her. Well they would''ve broken apart if she was within the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, but she wasn''t in that realm for a long time now, she was beyond that curse of a realm. Her fiery daggers were sharp, precise, and hot enough to cut steel, so she did not worry about the ice right now. In other words, she knew what she was doing. They didn''t trust Timothy as much, however, so they kept him as far away from the work-site as possible. Arvena extended the doorway into a tunnel, and kept going for about three meters, until she met the dragon halfway. Once she broke into the area that the dragon had been trapped in, she then kept her guard up, because she fully expected to be attacked despite what everyone in the group had said. The dragon did not attack, however, it just took a few more deep breaths, and heaved out a big sigh afterwards. Every living thing needed to breathe, and Arvena got less scared of it as she saw it breathe heavily, because the dragon seemed more and more vulnerable this way. It was mortal, and had its vulnerabilities like most living things! ¡°Do you think you can squeeze through there, boy?¡± She asked, and pointed at the tunnel that she had melted through. The walls of the tunnel were pretty stable, because the surrounding cold temperatures had frozen the weak parts of the tunnel back into place. It was safe to cross it. The dragon laid down on its stomach afterwards, and sniffed the tunnel out. The tunnel was only three feet tall, and two feet wide, so he simply could not squeeze through it. Its antler-like horns would get stuck before he even entered the ice tunnel, it wouldn''t work.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Too small, eh? You¡¯re right, I did make it just wide enough for me to come through¡­ let''s see if we can double it up.¡± She said. Considering that the dragon wasn''t immediately hostile, she was feeling especially helpful now, so she started carving out the tunnel to the best of her abilities. She figured that the tunnel had to be at least six feet wide for the dragon to crawl through. The dragon just relaxed, and breathed in lumps of fresh air in the meantime. He was just trying to regulate his body as best as he could, because being trapped in ice had its certain tolls, he had to heat up as quickly as possible as well. Plenty of dragons were prone to hypothermia, it was how the rest of these dragons had died out in the first place, some sort of blizzard may have gotten to them as well at some point. Anyway, while they waited outside, Tim couldn''t help asking a couple of questions. He didn''t want to bother Arvena, however, so he bothered his friends instead. ¡°Do dragons have mana pools? This big bastard doesn''t look like he''s gonna run out of fire anytime soon.¡± He asked. ¡°About everything that lives or doesn''t live, has a mana pool. I used to be a plant, for goodness sake, so that should tell you everything you need to know about mana.¡± Ortana pointed out. ¡°That doesn''t really tell me much,¡± He said, ¡°I just want to know what realm he is in.¡± That was where Skendus chimed in, he theorized. ¡°He has to be in the same realm as us, considering that I can see through his brain really vividly. Perhaps dragons don''t use their mana all that much, I mean, if I was a dragon I''d just eat everyone that opposed me. It''s simple for them.¡± Either perspective here was understandable, but either one did not matter right now. They were all happy, because in a way, they expected this huge, dark-red scaled dragon to get them out of here today, they hoped so. They were very enthusiastic about escaping this ongoing, terrible situation that they were in. Anyway, Arvena eventually made a tunnel wide enough for the dragon to crawl through, and that was where everyone understood that the dragon would have it very difficult to move within the labyrinthic walls of ice that surrounded them! The common pathway was five feet wide, but this dragon was a staggering six feet wide, even when he tucked his belly in! He will not have it easy whatsoever, though he seemed happy nonetheless, because in a sense, he enjoyed a lot more freedom now in comparison to a couple of minutes ago! ¡°Okay¡­ so how will he help us get out of here?¡± Arvena asked, after he followed the dragon outside the ice trap that he had been in. ¡°Can you talk, dragon?¡± The dragon just looked back at her afterwards, and shook its head in disagreement. It could not speak the goblin tongue, it only grunted, and had about the same vocal range as a lizard did. ¡°It can''t talk like us goblins, but it understands us pretty well.¡± Skendus confirmed, ¡°It also has some very vivid thoughts, they''re visuals in decent detail, so I think I can figure out what it''s trying to do.¡± After he said that, everyone looked at Skendus anxiously. They were hoping to hear some good news, but they still had this inner fear that the dragon would turn hostile whenever it got the chance! It was reasonable to expect that, regardless of how cooperative the dragon was now. ¡°It wants to signal other dragons, to help it break out. We can''t break the ceiling on top of us without killing ourselves, but he can call for some smaller dragons who should be able to do the job.¡± He explained. ¡°It should signal them, then.¡± Tim added. ¡°It can''t signal them here.¡± He refused, ¡°The dead dragons are making him really nervous for some reason, wait, not nervous, but weak. He¡¯s feeling really weak¡­¡± Chapter 115 - Humans? ¡°Well that sucks, we dug it out for nothing.¡± Ortana sighed. ¡°We? I did all the work.¡± Arvena corrected. Either way, it didn''t seem like they were to progress anytime soon. The dragon was even wedged between the ice walls, so it wasn¡¯t like he could move away from the other dragon carcasses anyway. The team was as stuck as they were before, but now they also had a dragon to care for, they were pissed. ¡°Maybe we can do something here,¡± Skendus initiated, ¡°If the dead dragons make it feel weak, then we just need to help it crawl away from here. We can only try, because I don¡¯t see another way out for us.¡± ¡°That could take hours, and besides, how do we know that there aren''t dead dragons on every turn?¡± Arvena countered. ¡°Me and Tim will scout the area,¡± He answered, and then he looked at Tim. ¡°It¡¯s time we put our Atomic Shifting into use, eh? Only this time we won''t use it to try and flee, we''re getting our friends out of here.¡± There was no reason to refuse his plan, especially since it wasn''t dangerous whatsoever to follow it. Tim and Skendus were to shift their bodies into a ghostly form, just so they could explore their surroundings properly, it was absolutely safe for them. Atomic Shifting was an ability that Tim attained when he met Skendus, and it was throughout that period where Tim explored the lands as a spider. It was a traumatizing experience for him overall, but at least now he could shift into a ghost, without leaving his body behind, so the trauma he endured was worthwhile. The Punished Brothers from within that set of underground tunnels that Skendus had previously lived in, had been very useful, they gifted the both of them with this ability, though not in the same day, as Skendus was blessed a very long time ago. Anyway, the two of them shifted immediately, through a thought alone, and became airborne, and absolutely invisible. The girls could not see them. The boys could float through the ice now, which was a very effective way to find their way around this mad place. The two of them floated in separate directions so they could cover a wider area, but they didn¡¯t worry about getting lost, because they could sense the souls that their friends possessed. It was very easy to locate them for the second time. While they explored, the two of them discovered some really weird things. For example, dragons were not the only thing that were frozen in time, there were other creatures as well from the clear looks of it. Skendus saw a bunch of these big, hairy, prehistoric-looking creatures whose species he did not recognize. There were tens of them spread all across the icy labyrinth, and he figured that they too had been unlucky enough, and got caught in a blizzard at some point of time. Their bodies were very well preserved in the ice, although likely thousands of years old by now, he was fascinated, but this wasn''t nearly a great discovery. It was terrifying! What Tim discovered wasn''t any better, it was far weirder in comparison. He found a bunch of humans, who too were trapped in ice just like everything else around here was!This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Oh damn!¡± He thought, upon spotting them. ¡°The gods are definitely punishing us, because what the hell is this? I''m being taunted with the bodies of humans, humans that I urge to shapeshift to? Cruel¡­¡± The humans seemed like cavemen, but he was still sad on their behalf, he was sad that they died this way. Though he was sad, he was also very confused, because this forest became all the more mysterious than it already was! Not only did this labyrinth of ice seemingly appear out of thin air, but it also contained untouched, well preserved bodies of several species! It did not make any sense, because a blizzard wouldn''t be able to move ice around like that, and this begged the question of who moved the ice to begin with! Either a god was messing with them, or the forest was really angry that the team killed one of its yetis. The latter wasn''t a bad theory, but then again, it didn''t explain the sudden appearance of the ice! Tim was nowhere close to understanding what was going on, but he didn¡¯t have time to ask questions right now, as tempting as it may be. He already located a place where dead dragons weren''t present, and it was close enough to the team, so he started figuring out what path they would have to take in order to get here. This part may take a while, but he didn¡¯t feel cold while he was in this ghostly form, so he had some time to explore his surroundings. Anyway, all in the meantime while they waited for the boys, Arvena put in some effort to keep the dragon warm. Now it wasn¡¯t easy to keep a twenty-foot beast warm, but she had to try nonetheless, because this poor boy was weak, and had started to shiver. Even a big, tremendously scary beast deserved some compassion, and if she didn''t show some compassion now when the universe has presented her with a grand possibility to be kind, then she may never be as selfless again in her entire life. Arvena kept the big guy warm, by lighting a very low-heat fire on her palms, and running it across his dry scales. She wasn''t contributing much like this, but if she used a hotter fireball then she might hurt the dragon, and it was pretty stupid to hurt their main, and potentially only way out of here. The dragon was vulnerable, but he seemed to trust the few goblins around him completely. ¡°I didn''t peg you as a dragon enthusiast,¡± Ortana expressed, sincerely. ¡°I haven''t seen any dragons before we bounced into your realm, so I barely understand what they are, but didn''t we eat the last dragon we saw? He was really delicious.¡± ¡°That was a cockatrice dragon, they''re basically spooky chickens, and are edible, even other dragons eat them, they do not matter. Also, big dragons are not edible as far as I understand, so quit talking about stuff like that, because you¡¯re going to scare Georgie.¡± She argued. ¡°Georgie?¡± Ortana repeated. ¡°Yes, short for Gothatar Ice Veins.¡± She added, ¡°Now shush.¡± After she warmed Georgie up by a couple degrees, she then started carefully melting the ice around him, so he''d feel more comfortable. This dragon had to recover, and she wanted to help him recover to the best of her abilities! Anyway, about ten minutes later, Tim appeared right in front of them, out of thin air. He had a smile on his face, so odds were that he brought some good news for the gang to hear. ¡°I found a spot that doesn''t have any dragons in them, just humans.¡± He said, and then squatted near one of the dragon''s eyes. ¡°Will that do big guy? Dead humans shouldn''t be able to bother you, right?¡± The dragon lifted its head, and then shook it in cooperation. This was good, they could start making their way towards that dragon-less spot right now! Skendus re-appeared as well, just moments later, and seconded Tim''s route, he said. ¡°That place full of dead humans is the closest, good spot around. Let''s go.¡± Chapter 116 - Georgie, the baby Since they both discovered where those frozen human remains were, it would make sense if only one of them led them to the spot. Skendus led the way, because this arrangement would be more efficient if he led, and Ortana joined him to keep him company. Tim was to stay last in line, just to keep the dragon warm, since he too could summon fire of many volumes. He knew enough not to burn the dragon by accident, and he was happy with this arrangement, because he was light enough to ride on the dragon''s back as well! A bunch of his childhood fantasies were fulfilled just like that, he was really happy. Arvena cleared a path for Georgie the dragon to walk on, that was her main job. If they were to make it to their destination, they needed a six foot wide path in front of them, and neither the dragon or Timothy were in a good enough state to carve a path, they couldn''t. Arvena was their best hope in this matter, they had to follow her lead. This procedure may take a while, because it takes a lot of effort to carve a path without having the ice collapse over their heads, but they were forced to be patient. Every extra crack that they heard, gnawed on everyone''s souls deeply, because they couldn''t shake away the terrifying notion that they could die at any time! Mages weren''t immune to heavy objects, after all. It took her a full thirty minutes to carve a twenty-meter long path. At some point the dragon simply went to sleep, because even though he understood the plan, he realized that it would take a while to get away from this dragon-filled graveyard. He was efficient, and Tim kept warming his scaly spine too, so this was perhaps one of the greatest naps that Georgie took! He was far more comfortable than he was half an hour ago. Anyway, considering how slow their progress was, they may have to work for another three hours. The labyrinth did not promise a straight path, after all, there were various sharp turns and drops of elevation, so it wasn¡¯t easy to carve through all of those obstacles! Arvena even complained that she was spending a lot of her mana, and even though her mana pool was quite deep, her utter depletion of mana may be a problem soon! ¡°Let¡¯s just keep pushing,¡± Tim encouraged her, ¡°I feel this big guy heating up already, and I think he''s gonna get warmer the more we move, so we can all rest on his back after a while. Let''s just hope we don''t go through another blizzard, because then we''ll be really fucked, thoroughly humped.¡± ¡°I can''t prevent blizzards, so let''s hope we''re not that unlucky.¡± She said. The following couple of hours were brutal, mostly for Arvena, because she had to move her arms around all the time, in order to implement the utmost precision on the path that she was carving. It wasn''t easy, it was mentally draining too, but to be fair, everyone else in the group wasn''t having a good time either. Ortana and Skendus were the closest to hypothermia, because they had to stand around in the cold all the time. They were at the front of the line, so they were exempt of any warmth whatsoever, apart from their clothes and armor which kept them a bit warm. They suffered -15¡ãC temperatures all this time, they were the most harmed.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. At that point everyone had to stop moving, for multiple reasons, even though their destination was just ten more meters away. Everyone had to warm up a little bit, apart from Arvena who has had her own fiery daggers to keep her warm so far, she wasn¡¯t as desperate for warmth, but she stayed near Georgie nonetheless. She couldn''t spend any more mana, so everyone had to depend on the dragon''s hot scales to stay warm. Half an hour later, everyone was in top condition again, because the scales managed to warm them up quite quickly, they were fine. Georgie looked a lot healthier now too, so he was awake, but he had tried not to move that much these past few minutes, in order to let his friendly goblins relax, and recover - He wanted to return the favor. Skendus hopped off of Georgie¡¯s back a moment later, and asked. ¡°Are you feeling better, dragon? Can you signal your friends from here? You should be able to.¡± Georgie shook his head in disagreement, he did not feel ready, regardless of how healthy he looked. This was not the answer they were looking for, but at least they could communicate well. Skendus looked through the other''s brain, and saw that he was still picturing that icy graveyard behind them, the one that was full of dragons. That was enough to realize that the dragon was still uncomfortable. ¡°We have to move,¡± Skendus added, ¡°I''m fairly certain that the dead dragons could block off any signal that he could send out, maybe dragons can do that to each other? If yes, then I assume this ice is an even bigger enemy to us than we thought, because it kept those dead dragon¡¯s carcasses very well preserved, enough for them to bother the living. This is terribly bad luck.¡± The dragon just nodded along the more the other spoke, so their issue was confirmed there. In order to progress and get out of here, the dragon had to make it to those frozen humans, as it appeared to be the only way to get things done. They made it there after another half an hour, thankfully. Since they hadn''t been killed by a random blizzard so far, this was simply the best time to signal for help. Georgie the dragon appeared to be happy now, he was as cooperative as ever. He was a warm, snug little boy, and he wanted to get his new friends out of here as soon as possible. In order to fulfill that goal, he suddenly lifted his tail up, rounded his spine just like an angry cat would, and then he screeched at a frequency that his goblin friends could not pick up on! This looked weird, but when everyone became more acknowledging of this guy¡¯s sheer size and overall weirdness, they believed that he knew what he was doing. The screech didn''t bring the ice walls down on their heads either, and that was something to be quite happy about. Anyway, after Tim saw how big this guy truly was when standing up on his four¡¯s, the questions that popped up in his head afterwards, were exclusively oriented towards size. He could not comprehend how big dragons actually were! ¡°You called him a little guy, Arvena. Do you mean to say that Georgie will grow even bigger than he already is?¡± He asked. ¡°Yes, he''s barely a teenager.¡± She answered, and left everyone baffled. Facts aside, be it a baby or a teenager, Georgie still managed to get the job done! He seemed to have successfully summoned some of his pals, they were floating all the way up there, above the top of the icy walls! ¡°Haha! He did it!¡± Tim celebrated, he was the loudest of the bunch. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of this god forsaken forest as fast as we fucking can!¡± Chapter 117 - "Where go?" The dragons that Georgie had summoned were quite tiny, but that was not a problem. They were very well suited for the occasion, because large dragons would not be able to help them much in this situation, even if they were successfully summoned. The ice walls were over thirty meters tall, so there were a lot of ways for things to go wrong - They needed precision to get out of here, and not brute strength. The tiny dragons pierced through the ceiling of the ice labyrinth successfully, and they did so elegantly. They cut multiple small holes through the ceiling, to create a very-much controlled exit point. It took a while for them to achieve this result, because the exit point ended up being thirty-five feet wide which was exhausting to achieve, and it was that wide, because they were counting Georgie¡¯s wingspan in the equation! Georgie the dragon had a staggering wingspan of thirty whole feet, he was huge! He wasn¡¯t as baby-ish as Arvena described him, so he needed plenty of space to fly out of here! ¡°Those tiny motherfuckers look really handy,¡± Tim complimented, ¡°I like them, dragons are good lads in my book¡­ except for those cock-wielding bastards, I hate them!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not distract our dragon friends,¡± Arvena interrupted the other¡¯s train of thought, and added. ¡°It looks like they still have a lot of work to do. The walls are really close to each other, so they have to trim the walls down for Georgie to fit through, and this should be the most dangerous part about our escape. Let¡¯s not stay directly under where they¡¯re working.¡± There was no arguing with such logic, everyone heeded her advice. Even Georgie moved away from the worksite, as he didn¡¯t want to get hit on the head by a block of ice, it was the sort of pain that he did not want to experience without proper cause. The tiny dragons kept working. They worked for two more hours, until they widened the gap between the walls enough for their huge dragon friend to fly through. It took a lot of work to achieve this, so much to the point where all seven of these tiny guys were absolutely exhausted in the end! They were exhausted, but at least Arvena and the team had virtually no other obstacles to face from this point onwards. Their way out was paved in melted ice, so it was about time they got out of here, and they were willing to get out of here immediately, because they had spent too much time in below-zero temperatures! Georgie the dragon has done a really good job at keeping everybody warm, but the cold has still been overwhelming for them! The team looked like walking corpses, and by all odds, this staggering cold was not to exit their bones anytime soon, and it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if the cold had reached all the way down to their souls already! These past few hours have been absolutely brutal.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°It''s about time we leave,¡± Tim said, as they all hopped onto Georgie''s back. ¡°It''s too fucking cold in this death trap¡­¡± They had to hold onto Georgie as best as they could, because from the looks of it, the flight they were about to take was to be very vertical, at least until they made it past the thirty meters tall ice walls! Since it wasn''t easy to hold onto smooth scales, the team had to depend on the dragon''s antler-like horns for stability for a few seconds. After they got comfortable, Georgie the dragon then took off! He flew upwards and between the walls of ice, and he made it to the top within ten seconds! It only took a few wing flaps for him to get there, and he did use his claws to bounce across the ice walls here and there, but his steps were smooth and delicate. He did not cause a ruckus. Georgie was delicate, regardless of how he flew up with this explosive power that just left everyone shocked! They did not expect him to move so bombastically, especially since they''ve seen him nap for several hours before, point being, he didn¡¯t exactly strike anyone as an agile dragon, no one saw him that way up until now! ¡°Woohoo!¡± Ortana hollered in joy, as the dragon''s wings slid through the red sky! Everyone was happy. Riding on a dragon was very accelerating on its own, but they were also very happy to leave that icy death trap behind them! A lot of their questions about that place were left unanswered, but they simply had to take those questions with them to the grave, because neither of them were willing to explore this forest any longer than they needed to. In fact, they asked the dragon to fly away from the Frozen Red-leaf Forest as quickly as he could, as there was absolutely no benefit in staying here any longer! The tiny dragons followed after them as well, and they were really distracting. They were these pretty, four legged dragons, who seemed a bit average by figure, but had the same color scheme as a dragonfly insect! Their scales were beautiful, and they had saved the day today, so their value was beyond what gold could buy. Anyway, they flew away from the forest in ten minutes'' time, and they all sighed in relief because they officially left that icy nightmare behind. They did not want to visit this forest ever again, for as far as they would live, so they barely even bothered looking back! If they looked back, however, they would''ve noticed something very peculiar. They would''ve seen that the icy labyrinth that had entrapped them for several hours, disappeared moments after the team escaped the entrapment, it was gone! Everything about it had been a very physical nightmare up until moments ago, and yet it disappeared so quickly, that one may not consider it physical at all. It took all the carcasses with it too! Perhaps it was good that the team of goblins did not look back, because they would''ve just summoned new questions that they would never get the answer to! Some mysteries were best left untouched, there was no other way to go around them, and it was enough of a reward that they survived, even against all odds that were tossed against them! Chapter 118 - "You cannot kill a god" Georgie the dragon, and the group of goblins came to an agreement. Since they helped him survive that icy death trap, Georgie was to fly them to the ruins of Aqumus! Now this was a great deal, because Georgie didn''t have to exert too much energy to fulfill his end of the bargain, and the goblins could reach their destination without risking their necks every step of the way. A distance of four hundred kilometers was a lot for them, but not if they were on the dragon throughout most of the way, which was a blessing above anything else! They could get there in a couple of days, so they felt glad that they helped a trapped dragon today, it paid off. ¡°He is absolutely beautiful,¡± Tim complimented, as he saw the dragon¡¯s majestic wings flutter across the sky. ¡°A beautiful beast, and I can¡¯t imagine how breathtaking he''ll be when he''s all grown up!¡± ¡°Dragons are known for their beauty, regardless of how they''re lizards by ancestry. Small lizards are absolutely gross, and often taste awful too, so it''s difficult to pinpoint where the dragons get their beauty from.¡± Arvena added a fun fact. Before they could continue that conversation, however, Tim felt something strange. His chest tightened, and before he knew it, he couldn¡¯t hold on to the dragon¡¯s antlers any longer, because he fainted only seconds later! No one knew what was going on, but after they saw him suddenly fall off the dragon, their hearts sunk to their boots! This was sudden, unpredictable, and certainly terrifying for everyone involved. Tim fell from the sky at dusk time, so as the sun laid a beautiful red-and-yellow coating across the sky, he plummeted towards his doom! From a certain perspective, he even looked like he was rolling down across the sun, which was beautiful, in a sense, but deadly nonetheless, as the hard ground did not care for beauty! Georgie was too large to dive down and catch up to Timothy on time, he couldn¡¯t do anything to help. Although they were a kilometer above the ground, which was quite high, it would still take Timothy less than half a minute to hit the ground, so Georgie wouldn''t be able to catch up, it was a concerning situation! Although he could not help, Georgie didn''t just watch helplessly. He grunted a couple of times, and roared with that puny voice he had, until the smaller dragons heeded his command, and quickly dove down. All seven of them went after Timothy, and if they were fast enough, they might catch up to him! It would be best if they did, because he was in no condition to help himself, because he showed telltale signs of suffering a heart attack just there, and this wasn''t a light issue. He was unconscious, and he was also having this weird dream that he couldn''t make sense of. In other words, it was unlikely that he would wake up anytime soon! In this dream, he was in a pit of utter darkness, and this man with a thick timber on his voice, was yelling at him. It felt like this man was two feet above his head, but no matter how much Tim tried to reach out, he couldn¡¯t grab a hold of him! At first, this man¡¯s words were incoherent, but eventually, since they were being yelled out in repeat, his words were a bit more understandable. Though still, everything about this experience was terrifying! ¡°The defiant shall not escape!¡± It repeated, ¡°Punishment is nigh, as The Punished are marked by Falakame!¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Tim was in no condition to have coherent thoughts right now, especially since he was dreaming, but those couple of facts did not prevent him from doing something stupid. He didn¡¯t like getting yelled at, especially about something like punishment, something he openly defied, so not only did he realize what was going on now, but he also had a bit of a reply to give out. ¡°Grab your punishment and shove it up your arse!¡± He yelled, in his dream, and then he simply woke up. After he woke up, he noticed a couple of dragons holding on to him. They were those tiny dragons, who''s species name was called the Craftsmen Dragonflies, and they were very useful creatures from the clear looks of it! The dragonflies managed to get a hold of him, and then they carefully set him on the ground until further help arrived. They were helpers, after all, not doctors. Georgie landed with everyone else about two minutes later, and then Tim''s friends rushed towards him to make sure that he was okay. It was quite a fright he gave them, and no one really realized how much they cared about him, until he took a dive just moments ago - Their sheer worry crossed all bounds! ¡°Are you okay?¡± Skendus asked, as he rushed over. ¡°Uhh¡­ I''m pretty sure I just had a heart attack.¡± He admitted, ¡°And I figured out who''s been messing with us, it''s¡­¡± ¡°Don''t speak,¡± Arvena intervened, ¡°Heart attacks are absolutely treatable, we just need to feed you mana that''s purer than your own. Lucky for you, mine is pretty pure.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a sweetheart,¡± Tim said, and then he fainted again. Once he fainted, everyone panicked even more, so Arvena got right into work. She placed her hand on Tim''s chest, and started pouring these micro amounts of mana into his chest, with the hopes of not killing him in the process. Arvena was at least a realm ahead of him in terms of mana quality, so she didn''t want to kill the little guy by accident! ¡°It''s gonna take a while to make him normal again,¡± She said, ¡°How about you guys set up camp here? Let''s try to keep him warm tonight, it''s the least we can do.¡± This was not the best place to set camp, as they were in a field where there was a severe lack of trees, but they tried nonetheless, because at least they weren''t in that dreaded forest anymore. They had to keep a campfire going, potentially for hours, so they tried to do exactly that, and so even the dragonflies went out looking for branches! Those little guys were truly helpful. Anyway, while everyone was deeply panicking about their friend, Tim was having yet another weird dream. This time, he felt more powerful, likely thanks to Arvena''s help, and this affected his dream in the way where he wasn''t in utter darkness in his dream anymore, not this time around. The dream he had was full of color, and here, he was back in the Frozen Red-leaf Forest. Although this terrified him for a moment, he was then smart enough to realize that this was just a dream, it couldn''t be real. Moments later, that yeti appeared. He didn''t rush towards Timothy this time around, though, and just approached slowly instead, with a stick on his hands. It pointed the stick towards Timothy, and from afar, it mumbled something incoherent. It was difficult to grasp what the ape was saying, but it was apparent that it tried to speak the goblin tongue once more! The ape approached, struck the stick on the ground so hard that a bunch of dirt shot upwards because of it, and then it spoke again. This time however, he was more coherent. ¡°You cannot kill a god,¡± It said, and then just disappeared. Tim was baffled, but as confused as he was, he was not scared. If he survived a heart attack just moments ago, then he could also survive a stupid dream, so he remained calm. Anyway, afterwards he looked down at where the yeti''s stick had struck, and noticed a bunch of symbols carved on the ground. There was a triangle, the letter H, and a cross with slightly curled arms! Tim couldn''t nearly fathom what any of these meant, all he wanted to do was chase that ape and give him a spanking. However, that was not possible right now! Chapter 119 - The Cross Tim woke up. The dreams he recently had were surely bizarre, but they were just that, dreams, and they couldn''t hurt him. Though he was as confused as ever, he was still happy when he woke up, as he had a couple of reasons to be happy about. For a start, he survived a heart attack, which is something that not everyone could say about themselves, or their loved ones, he got lucky. Secondly, he was happy because he never saw Arvena be this affectionate before! She had been watching over him for hours now, and had poured several hundred points of mana on his chest, which was very selfless from her side, and in this case, uncharacteristic. This same woman had risked their lives a couple of times before, for purely selfish reasons, and now she was trying really hard to keep one of these same people alive! It was weird. Not to mention, she had spent thousands of points helping Georgie the dragon escape from that ice trap earlier on, which too was quite selfless. No one in the group could understand why she was being so kind all of a sudden, but they didn¡¯t want to question it, and hoped that this selfless episode would last forever. ¡°Thanks for not letting me die,¡± Tim said to her, and made sure that she acknowledged his gratitude, because he looked her straight in the eye. ¡°I appreciate it.¡± ¡°I couldn''t let you die,¡± She said, though her eyes then disappeared within the coat of the night, because she stood up. ¡°Some god is messing with us, and if you died, the gods would ¡®win¡¯. You do not want to die right now, because if you go to hell, you''ll be considered a trophy up there, the gods do not like most of our universe, or anything we stand for.¡± She may have a point there. The micro-universe of Valporovus and its inhabitants were known for their open defiance, a defiance which they put up against the Gods of Mana, otherwise known as the ones that oversee the main universe. The main universe featured the world that Timothy and his friends were from, that''s where all the big things happened, and it was under this strict control of the divine. Anyway, Valporovus defied the God''s Punishment Realm openly to be more specific, and they defied it the most, because they did not believe in the ruthless killing of random practicing mages! That''s what this realm of mana quality often did, it randomly killed practicing mages while those mages tried to ascend. It wasn''t difficult to find the heart to defy such a ruthless punishment amongst the mortal kind, no. The common mage could avoid this punishment, if they sought refuge by hiding within Valporovus. It was a haven for the common mage, and this was perhaps why the gods despised this place! Most inhabitants and refugees from this micro-universe, would be considered trophies up there in hell, that is, if a mage had been unlucky enough to be killed by one of the Mana God''s soldiers. Valporovus¡¯ stance was despised by the gods, because the gods believed that no one should evade punishment. They believed that it was up to them to decide regarding who would get punished, and this perspective was a power-trip without a doubt, but they were consistent about their stance! Anyway, since the gods technically could not meddle in Valporovus directly, they seek out other ways to mess with many of the mages. Arvena caught up with this issue, and she caught up fast! Since the gods could not punish Tim or his friends in a divine manner, they tried to punish them in other, physical ways, which can be far more brutal in comparison. If the team was punished ¡®divinely¡¯ then they''d die while trying to ascend through levels of mana quality, for example, which was a quick death, it would be more humane. But unfortunately for them, it would appear that they weren''t being punished divinely, but rather devilishly instead, because as mentioned, the gods could not directly meddle in this universe. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°I think that ape summoned the blizzard,¡± Arvena suddenly announced, ¡°I missed it before, but the signs were all there!¡± ¡°What?¡± Tim asked. It would appear that she had thought about this topic for hours now, because she immediately came up with answers, she described. ¡°The ape never died, it was just making us think that it did. Then it summoned the blizzard, and taunted us with the caracasses of some other poor bastards that it had killed in the past, each of which had to have been mages. Don''t you see it? The ones frozen in ice were also punished here in Valporovus, the gods are known to assume sub-physical forms in order to punish who they can''t reach spiritually! The gods really want us dead, and that ape had to have been a god of sorts.¡± There was a lot to catch up with here, and Timothy had it especially difficult to follow along considering that he was knocked out cold for hours up until now, but he did understand half of what the other said. Come to think of it, a lot of what she said correlated with his recent, weird dreams! ¡°No wonder I never got any points from ¡®killing¡¯ that ape,¡± He thought. Afterwards he told the group, ¡°I saw the ape in my dreams, he was waffling about me not being able to kill gods. He said something like that, though I didn''t think much of it.¡± ¡°Darn it, I''m afraid to sleep now.¡± Ortana added, she was curled up near the campfire. ¡°Shush,¡± Arvena urged, ¡°What else did the ape say? This is really important, so try to remember everything you saw!¡± Before Timothy could''ve answered, Skendus interrupted them. He called out for attention, summoned these three fat eyes, and had them hover over the campfire. Afterwards, he shaped the eyes into those three symbols that Timothy had seen in his dream. Those being a triangle, the letter H, and a cross with slightly curled arms! He then followed along, ¡°These are the symbols that he saw in his dream, and the ape also told him that The Punished are marked by Falakame, whatever that means. Are you able to decode any of this, Arvena?¡± Arvena did not answer immediately, she was pondering everything over. Skendus did a good job here explaining what Timothy had seen, he explained things quickly, but this didn''t really help make much sense of things! In fact, everything became even more confusing. ¡°I have no idea what any of that means,¡± She eventually admitted, ¡°It''s beyond me.¡± Neither of them wanted to hear such an answer from her, but it was the truth, and nothing but the truth. Arvena was stumped, she was clueless, and this was very demotivating because she was their last hope regarding the matter, because if she was clueless then the group was symbolically retarded in comparison! Anyway, minutes later, Skendus suddenly got a big smile on his face. He routinely browsed through the brains of everyone around him, apart from Arvena who refused his powers, however her defiance did not matter right now, because he found something very important within the brains of the dragonflies! All seven of them were picturing one of the symbols in their head, from the same bundle of symbols that Timothy had seen in his dream. They''ve been grunting about it for a couple of minutes now, but everyone assumed that they were just hungry or something, they didn''t think of it as much. However, when he saw a very visual image of a cross in their heads, he immediately understood that the dragonflies knew something of value! Chapter 120 - Gong Goblins At the break of dawn, the team and the dragons were on the move! They all wanted to reach the ruins of Aqumus as fast as possible, but this task that Tim¡¯s dreams had brought upon them, was difficult to ignore. The dragonflies knew how to find that cross with bent arms, and that was all that mattered right now, they had to figure out what that cross was about. They were on the air, the group was on Georgie¡¯s back, and the dragonflies led the way as they seemed to be the ones who were the most well-traveled in comparison. The location of the cross wasn¡¯t too far away from them, apparently, it was just a two hour flight. The dragons kept picturing a house of worship, and that house was located within a city, and this was one of the biggest cities within the micro-universe of Valporovus! The city was located a hundred kilometers away from the forest that they had left behind, so if a god really has tried to reach the team, such a cross being a hundred kilometers away from the group, made their theories sound all the more plausible! They connected the dots. ¡°What do you make of that cross, Arvena?¡± Skendus asked her, he was persistent. ¡°I''m asking you again, because we''re going to a church of sorts, that''s what the dragons are picturing. It''s not a hidden church either, and it''s large, and widely accessible by anyone from the city of Glorious Letazix. Why are people praying around a symbol that signifies the Mana Gods, the same gods who want to kill them so badly?¡± ¡°I''m telling you, I have no idea. Letazix is filled with Gong Goblins, how would I know what those bastards are doing? We do not have diplomatic relations with them.¡± She answered, and she seemed honest. Skendus did not trust her, however, and he asked her the most questions, because he still didn''t have access to her thoughts! He was very suspicious of everything. ¡°I guess we''ll figure it out in the city, then.¡± He muttered. It was great that they were traveling on the back of a dragon right now, because if visiting the church turned out to be a waste of time, then they could return to their main objective efficiently. They''d be up in the air again, with the aim of reaching the ruins of Aqumus! Anyway, they made it to the vicinity of the city within a couple of hours, and Georgie had to drop the group about five kilometers away from the city, because dragons were not so welcome by civilization in most cases. He didn¡¯t want to get hunted down, and turned into a trophy, so he and the rest of the dragons hid in the middle of a field that was coated with tall grass, and were told to wait there. If one was to hide in plain sight, then a field like this was their best shot, because the average goblin was pretty short, after all. Skendus had a very good visual of how the church looked, so he didn¡¯t need the help of the dragonflies to find the church. He was sure that he, and the group would find it eventually.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. The group may not be welcome in the city, however, because they were Degranus Goblins, and they may be even chased away for that reason, which could turn out to be a big problem. However, if the group bargained that they came here for religious reasons, then they might be allowed to enter the city freely! They might as well be allowed, because everyone was starving right now. They had a bit of gold with them, and hoped to spend it on some hot meals, as a hot meal did sound fantastic after what they went through yesterday! They battled against the tall grass, and made it to the city gate. A ten-meter tall wall surrounded the city, which itself signified its importance, because ten meters was pretty tall for most goblins! Anyway, they met a bundle of five-foot tall guards on the gate, who immediately blocked the group from passing through. They looked dangerous, alert, and most importantly, they were armed to the teeth! ¡°What is your business here?¡± One of them asked. Just then, Skendus answered the guard, because he knew exactly what to say. ¡°We''re here to visit the Church of the Arius, sir, for research purposes. Our lord sent us here to study, and indulge within the importance of Ariuism, so if you will have us, we''d love to have a look for ourselves.¡± ¡°Okay, I''m assuming that you had a long journey, considering that all of you are armored up, so don''t let me waste more of your time. Ariuism enthusiasts are always welcome in our hold.¡± The guard said. Afterwards, the guard reached his arm out, and waved his hand on top of Skendus¡¯ forehead. That symbolic cross appeared on his forehead afterwards, and it also appeared on the forehead of everyone else''s, which in hindsight was really interesting. ¡°This is so the church doesn''t fry your brains,¡± The guard said, and then the rest of the guards opened the gate. This interaction went better than anyone expected, their lies worked. They did not expect this huge, boar looking goblin to be so cooperative, no one could''ve imagined it, because these people actually did look like literal wild boars! They had hair everywhere and had tusks on their jaw, so they didn''t strike anyone as welcoming, but yet they were. Nevertheless, looks can be deceiving, because the guards even wished them luck while the group went through the gate! With that considered, Arvena''s racism towards other goblin races had perhaps been exaggerated, it must have been. No one bothered them within the city either. A food stand served them, and the servants didn''t even have a dot of disgust in their eyes as they served the group food, they were nonchalant. This felt good, Timothy was especially happy because such civilized manners were unheard of amongst the fishkind back home, he couldn¡¯t have ever stayed idle if he was between thousands of other fish, never. However, the peace that they felt here, somehow managed to raise Skendus¡¯ suspicions. He was a very alert man, due to the branch of magic that he practiced, so he picked up on these tiny details that everyone else would miss. Without lifting his head away from the direction of his rabbit stew, Skendus looked Timothy right in the eye, as in to catch his attention. When the other looked back at him, the ladies also understood that something was wrong. ¡°Don''t look now, but we''re being followed.¡± He announced, calmly. ¡°There are five guards on our tail, and they''re labeling us as Issue-6. Arvena, you were right not to trust these pot-bellied boars, they''re¡­ smart.¡± Chapter 121 - Falakus, Firunal, and Farazal Despite being in potential danger, Skendus and the group ate their meals quietly, and calmly. They were calm because if someone was to attack them, they could protect themselves! Those guards had to be within the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, considering that Skendus could read their minds without much of a struggle, in other words, those guards were perfectly killable. ¡°They¡¯re protecting the church,¡± Timothy pitched, as he jammed a whole beef steak down his gullet. ¡°Meaning, they really got something to hide, they could be hiding ingots of gold as far as we know.¡± ¡°No¡­ the church of this city alone is worth a few tons of gold, so I''m guessing gold doesn''t have a huge value here.¡± He argued, ¡°In places like this, I''m guessing that ideals are oftentimes worth more than gold, because regarding wealth, each and every single guard here is richer than we are. One of them had a belt covered with jewels, back at the gate, and that belt is only supposed to hold his mace up. They''re rich, very rich.¡± That was not something the rest of them wanted to hear, but then again it was quite believable. This was one of the most well-kept cities that they''ve stepped foot on, facts being that even Arvena was not accustomed to such pristine, stone streets, and orderly government systems, and this was amazing, because it wasn¡¯t easy to maintain a city that had about five-thousand stone buildings in it, no. As far as they understood, this city did not have an owner either, it wasn''t ruled by any king or prince of sorts, but rather it was just well-kept by its people, and by the fact that wealth was abundant here. Such grand order was foreign to everyone in the group! ¡°Let¡¯s just try not to die here, or get tossed in a dungeon, and let''s keep our plan simple, we''ll kill anyone who tries to kill us. I can''t believe we''re here because a mystical bastarding ape popped up in my dreams, but we''re here, so keep your eyes peeled please, we can do this.¡± Timothy added. ¡°We won''t spend more than six hours here tops, that''s what I''m hoping for.¡± Arvena added, ¡°I do not like these Gong bastards.¡± After they finished their meal, the group paid the servants with a couple of gold coins, and then stood up. They were to explore the deeper parts of the city now, because by all odds, something as valuable as a huge church would not be located near the city walls, where it would have too much potential to be wrecked by any random attackers of the city, or any random disbelievers. ¡­ The group found the church. It was located in the heart of the city, just as they predicted, and they were granted entrance by the guards there almost immediately. This church had guards as well, because it was absolutely huge in size, perhaps about one-hundred meters wide, and thirty meters tall, it was truly something worth protecting! ¡°Wow¡­¡± Ortana''s mouth hung agape, ¡°Are you guys sure that we aren''t reverting to their religion? I want to be part of a rich church too, I like gold.¡± ¡°Well, har har har.¡± Arvena fake laughed, ¡°You keep forgetting that the last time we saw a symbol like the one this church is flashing, Tim almost died. I''ve spent twelve-hundred mana points trying to keep him alive.¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°I''m just joking¡­¡± The other said, however, she was not joking. Either way it did not matter, this city did not accept reverts, regardless of how it looked like this place was blessed by the gods. One may even think that Ariuism was race-specific, it wouldn''t be a big surprise to the group. Anyway, after they entered the church, they got absolutely baffled by its contents! The outside of the church had its layers of gold here and there, sure, they noticed it, but it mostly featured these large stone columns that held the structure up. The insides of the church, however, were completely the opposite! Gold was plastered upon every wall, every room, in every shape, way, or from! One would think that a quarter of the micro-universe''s wealth was stashed in this one place of worship, that''s how rich it seemed! ¡°A single one of their golden daggers would make me rich back on earth, I wouldn''t have to work for a decade¡­¡± Tim thought, as he was becoming greedier the more he viewed the inside contents of this church, he was not happy. Perhaps he was focusing on the wrong thing too, because they did not come here for the gold, no, they came here for more information. Since Arvena didn''t know much about the Ariuism religion, the group had to figure things out themselves here, in person, and for that matter they had to be on the lookout for anything symbolic, rather than anything materialistically valuable! Thankfully, Skendus was more vigilant than his friends in comparison, he was very alert. He saw tens of those crosses with bent arms so far, he even saw a big cross before when he was outside, it was on top of the church, and it was majestic in every way! However, he was not impressed by its beauty, as he was not here to admire another religion. The very roots of his beliefs were very much against religion, because he did not believe in, or simply, he refused to admire the senseless punishment that the Mana Gods ¡®bestowed¡¯ amongst the various species. He really couldn¡¯t stomach the latter. Anyway, they walked all the way to the other end of the church, and there, Tim realized that at least one part of the church was very similar to what humans would make. There were three bent crosses in a single room, and they were huge, almost mystical even, because they expelled an energy that was difficult for them to comprehend. The cross in the middle, however, was the biggest! There were tons of seats in front of these crosses as well, long benches of sorts, and this was what made this church look very earth-like. Tim almost felt at home here! Besides the three crosses, there were three priests. Each of them were as old as grandfather clocks, but they did not seem as weak as one would assume they would be, they were very alert! ¡°What brings you here, mages?¡± One of them asked, it was the priest from the big cross in the middle. ¡°Are you interested to hear us pray today?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Skendus walked a couple more steps forward, and then he asked them directly. ¡°How about you tell me who you pray to? What are your gods called?¡± Almost as direct as him, the priest then answered. ¡°I pray to Falakus, son of the supreme goddess Falakame, may she be praised now and forever! My associates here pray to her two other sons, and although they''re present in my church, my associates shall never bear our cross with pride. My associates here pray to Firunal, and Farazal, also sons of the supreme goddess Falakame - The symbols they represent are vastly different to mine!¡± Chapter 122 - The first blessing Skendus was getting sick of all the formal praises here, so he decided to be even more direct. This was a universe where mana gods shouldn''t be worshiped, after all, and from what he could understand, these priests were clearly praising those that they were not supposed to! The symbolism, their recent stroke of bad luck, etc, he could connect all of those dots immediately, and decided to ask these priests the questions that many other people would hesitate to ask. He didn''t hold back. ¡°Who is Falakame? Is she a Mana Goddess?¡± He asked. ¡°Indeed she is,¡± The priest in the middle, answered fearlessly. ¡°And although her power knows no bounds, our church finds the greatest of honor worshiping her son, Falakus instead! May he be praised forever.¡± Before this back-and-forth conversation of pointing fingers could go on any further, the same priest gestured for Skendus to stop talking. It would appear that he''d like to lead the conversation now. ¡°Let¡¯s skip the stupid questions, we know why you''re here. You''re marked for death, I can see it, I can smell it, the four of you reek of unholiness!¡± The priest stated. ¡°Marked for death? Even me?¡± Arvena asked, she was nervous, and when the pope nodded, she was aghast. ¡°No one in my town has ever died while ascending through levels, so I''d say you don¡¯t know what you''re talking about.¡± That was a heavy accusation, but unsurprisingly, the priest had an answer. ¡°This universe protects us from such deaths, Rempegan Lus¡¯ will is unshakable on that matter, yes, but you''re still marked, and all of you will die as soon as you leave Valporovus. Tell me, how many times did you almost die ever since you entered our universe, outsiders? Do not play the fool, we can sense that most of you are not really goblins. How many times did you evade death?¡± ¡°Recently, a lot¡­¡± Skendus admitted, though he was not proud about it. ¡°Ah, so our gods have taken matters into their own hands.¡± The priest said, and then stared at Timothy. ¡°From the looks of it, our beloved god Falakus is actively hunting you down, hah! Your fear is reassuring, I saw the same fear in the eyes of many people who got attacked by Falakus.¡± ¡°The ape? He was the god? But he wanted to drill my ass!¡± Timothy intervened. ¡°Falakus works in mysterious ways,¡± The priest admitted. Anyway, with the truth so openly on the table, the next topic was only predictable, they wanted a solution. The team realized that they could not punish these people, regardless of how they worshiped an enemy of their universe so openly, they couldn''t punish them, so they had to bite their tongue! Finding a way to dispel the Mark of Death, sounded far more reasonable in comparison for the moment, because they didn''t want to spend their entire lives running around in this universe waiting for death to come. The problem was that even if they escaped the God''s Punishment Realm of mana soon, they''d still be hunted down by a literal god, which in hindsight wasn''t easy to deal with regardless of the future circumstances. For that matter, as much as he despised it, Skendus asked. ¡°Can we remove this mark? I''d like to believe that we don''t deserve to die, so, will you help us, that is, if there is a way to change a god''s stubborn decision?¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°You may appeal against the goddesses'' mark, by being blessed by her three sons.¡± The priest explained, and then his next few words got louder by the second. ¡°The only way for you to do that, is to be accepted, and blessed by all three of our churches! Now, as a token of our goodwill, I bless you on behalf of the Church of Ariuism, on behalf of the very grand church you''re standing on, and I bless you proudly! May you be guided towards the light, and achieve the grand lady''s forgiveness.¡± After the priest announced everything, the huge cross that was in the room with them, shone with this golden, blinding light, and this truly seemed holy in every way they could think of! Then, the crosses on the group''s forehead disappeared as well, which seemed related to the prior, blinding glow. Timothy panicked when he saw the crosses disappear off of his friend¡¯s foreheads, because he feared that everyone''s brains would get fried now as some sort of a sick joke, but that was not the case, it did not happen. The marked crosses disappeared from their skin, because they didn''t need them anymore, the church had truly accepted them, and blessed them! ¡°You weren¡¯t joking,¡± Tim sighed, ¡°Does this mean that Falafel is gonna stop chasing us?¡± After he said that, he realized that he absolutely misspelled the name, but to his surprise, the priest maintained his patience, and he didn''t take his blessings back. This was good, because he didn¡¯t want to harm the rest of the group due to a reason as stupid as that. He heaved out a sigh of relief. The priest then answered, ¡°Falakus will stop trying to exact his mother''s decree, but Firunal and Farazal will continue trying, so I suggest you make haste. Head for the two other churches, my associates here will tell you where to find their houses of worship.¡± ¡°Thank you for your guidance, your Holiness.¡± Arvena then bowed down, of all people. It wasn¡¯t that she cared about Ariuism all that much, but she did appreciate the grand gesture of not being hunted down by one of the gods anymore. She almost died of hypothermia due to such related reasons, so she did not want to see what Falakame''s other sons were capable of, she wanted to play it safe, and unsurprisingly so because she cared more about her survival and ascension, rather than any weird practice or religion. She simply bowed down to play along, and the priest seemed to appreciate her gesture as well. The priest gave them a good deal overall, it was a good start for the group, but Skendus wasn''t too happy about this. He never cared to be forgiven to begin with, and or accepted, but rather, he just came here to figure out what was going on, and scold religious figures along the way if he had the time. He did not care about these ¡®blessings¡¯, but since his friends were overall less threatened now, he played along as well because their safety was more important to him than any old ideal. Skendus could not have the blood of his dear friends on his hands, so he just did a light bow to show cooperation. Anyway, after they conversed with the other two priests for a little bit, the group were ready to be on their way. The priests were very helpful, so the group knew where they were going next, and they knew how to get there with ease, assuming that they wouldn''t get hit by lighting, or something like that on the way there. They were going to the church which featured the letter H as their symbol, it was just fifty kilometers away from here, and that sounded like a great distance, but it really wasn''t if one had a flying dragon at their disposal. They wanted to get there as soon as possible, to convince the priest there to bless them as well, and they figured that it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to do so, considering how accepting the priest here in the church had been. A few guards came into the church moments later, to escort the team out of the city. Skendus recognized them immediately, they were the same guards that had been following them ever since Skendus and his friends had entered the city, they were the guards from the main gate! He wasn¡¯t too happy to see them, but at this point it wouldn''t make sense to hold any grudges, as they had to be on their way now. ¡°Thank you, priest.¡± He said, as they were about to leave. ¡°And congratulations on escaping the God''s Punishment Realm.¡± Chapter 123 - Armor-hide Goblins The group was escorted out of the city of Glorious Letazix. The guards escorted them, and although they expressed that the group was welcome in the city, they suggested that the group sought out the blessing of the other churches, before visiting here again. In fact, it would be great if they stayed away from civilization all together, according to the guards, because a god on a mission wouldn''t mind vaporizing innocent bystanders, as they believed that their means justified relentless slaughter. It was a paradoxical thing to worship a god, but the guards were trying their best to read between the lines. They knew how to keep the peace, as that was their job, after all. Skendus and the group briefly thanked the guards for the assistance, and left. They walked out of the city, and kept moving for about five kilometers, until they found that patch of tall grass. This was where the dragons were hiding, and Georgie was their means of quick transportation, so they didn''t mind walking those few kilometers to get here. ¡°Georgie, baby boy, are you still here?¡± Arvena called out, as she slid between the four foot tall grass patch. ¡°It''s me!¡± They heard a couple of muffled grunts afterwards, and then, Georgie arose from the grass. He was a nine-foot tall dragon, head included, so it was really difficult to miss him once he stood up! The dragonflies were a lot smaller, but the group could hear them dashing around within the tall grass. ¡°Are you ready to fly?¡± Arvena asked, and for a brief moment, a wide smile stretched on her face as she reunited with the dragon, but then she got a whiff of something horrid, and her smile disappeared. There were a bunch of ravaged carcasses on the ground close to him, and they barely had any flesh on them. It was clear that the dragons had a feast here, they were carnivorous after all, so she just hoped that the dragons wouldn''t attack her next! Also, she asked. ¡°Please tell me those aren''t goblins! We just made peace with them¡­¡± ¡°They¡¯re not goblins, they''re sheep, dead sheep anyways.¡± Skendus intervened, after he brisked through the brains of the dragons. ¡°They killed six sheep, Georgie ate four.¡± ¡°We better fly out or here right now, then. We don''t need any eye witnesses, or else the priest might take his ¡®grand blessing¡¯ back.¡± Arvena advised, and then they just hopped on Georgie¡¯s back. They were on the air seconds later, and started heading north-east. The church that identified itself under the symbol letter H, was in that direction, and it was only fifty kilometers away, so it wouldn''t take long to reach it now that they had a dragon to do their bidding, it may take a couple of hours at most. If Georgie was full grown, they''d get there in under twenty minutes, but things like that didn¡¯t matter right now, because the group wasn''t in too much of a rush. They departed. ¡­ The group made it to the next city, and they had not been struck by lightning along the way. They were fine.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. However, now they had to deal with another race of goblins, and another city all together, and that simply wasn''t the best thing in the world. They felt both anxious, and unwilling to deal with such matters, but yet they had to push themselves anyway, because no one really wanted to get hunted by gods throughout their entire life either, no. They had to enter this city that was called Manape, and this made them nervous, because the city didn''t seem as organized in comparison to the one they had left behind. This place looked like the aftermath of a war, and its structures were mostly made of wood too, so one couldn''t count on these goblins to be civilized. Manape seemed to have several main neighborhoods, but there were these big, empty gaps right between the city, that made the place look heavily unorganized, and its own people far apart from each other. Some goblins have had the infinite courage to build single houses, right in between these two-to-three hundred meter wide gaps of space, and this made the city look all the more ungoverned. The domain wasn''t surrounded by a protective wall either, so it was obvious that these guys simply didn''t care for anything luxurious. Tim and the rest of the group saw everything from above, while they rode on the dragon''s back. Now they may have flown over too close for comfort, but it wasn''t like anyone down there could catch up with a dragon, so they scanned the city from high above, before they decided to land about three kilometers away from the place. Manape was located near a tall mountain, which had a luscious, green bottom, and a rocky top. This wasn''t unheard of when tall mountains were put in the equation, it was a beautiful scenery even, but the group decided to use the mountain to their utmost advantage rather than admire it. They found a cave, and had the dragons hide in there. It didn''t take much convincing, because a cave was a far better place to hide beasts in, when compared to any patch of grass. Georgie and the dragonflies hid in the cave, and then the group made their way down the mountainside afterwards. While they made their way down, Arvena cautioned them. ¡°Okay¡­ so this is probably one of the worst places for a church to be in, because Manape is full of Armor-hide Goblins, so I need you guys to be careful. Keep your hands close to your weapons, because these hairy bastards will attack you if they have a chance to, no matter how small they seem. Sometimes I hate that Valporovus is so huge, I barely know how to deal with these bastards, I''m not as well-traveled as my old few uncles, so be careful.¡± ¡°Don''t worry, it''s gonna be easy to kill them if we have to, and I''m actually looking forward to it.¡± Timothy bluntly expressed, and furthermore he added. ¡°Most of them probably haven''t crossed past the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, they couldn''t have, because it looks like their religions don''t let them progress much.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, but we''re here for the church, so let us try extra hard to avoid trouble.¡± Skendus discouraged him, as they made their way down towards the city. It wasn''t that Skendus was cowardly, no, he was quite brave. However, he was also aware that the goblins down there were going to pay the group a lot of unwanted attention already, just because the group belonged to a different species. If a fight broke out, this unwanted attention could turn into a really unwanted bounty on their heads, and they couldn''t have that! The city appeared to host about three-thousand houses, after all, so there was plenty of space for things to go wrong. They had to be quiet, and behave, as it was in their best interest to do so. ¡°The gods have slithered their way into this universe, where their insane ideas are not welcome. They found loopholes, snuck their sons in, and they''re obviously using these unsuspecting people, just to have a presence here, it''s pathetic!¡± Skendus thought, and he was becoming quite a bit paranoid. Perhaps rightfully so as well, because then he couldn''t help worrying. ¡°I don''t want to know how much work they''d put in on someone they want to punish, for goodness sake. The gods might even use these ugly goblins to tear us apart today, I wouldn''t rule that out! Let''s just hope we convince this other bastarding priest to bless us as well, it''s our best shot.¡± Chapter 124 - "No" Even though it took them about two hours to climb down from the mountainside, the team finally made it to the city. Manape left much to be desired, but it was their picked destination spot nonetheless, so they strode within the city with their eyes wide open, and their weapons swinging around on their belts. No one attacked them, thankfully, but it took a while to find the church. This city was way under-organized, to the point where even its architectural layout was messy, and hard to figure out. Most of the structures here were made of wood, so it was difficult to tell houses, businesses, and religious sites apart from each other. The church should''ve been easier to find, considering that places like that often looked expensive and holy, but that was not the case here. When they found the church, after asking several other goblins for directions, they discovered that this House of God was no different from the houses of Frank and Francina, or whatever the common names of these Armor-hide Goblins were - Point being, the structure was poor, and funny looking. It was shaped like the letter H, in the most literal sense possible. Now the symbolic values behind this architectural design radiated dominance, but it still made the church really snug overall, and for that matter barely functional! ¡°Okay, so the priest is up there?¡± Skendus asked a guard. ¡°Yes,¡± The guard answered, and then he waved his arm above everyone''s heads. Once the letter H appeared on all four of their foreheads, the guard then relaxed a little bit more. There weren''t many guards around the church, so this one was pressured into handling the responsibility that would otherwise require several more men to perform. Anyway, after the marks were imprinted on their foreheads, the guards said. ¡°This is so you don''t go nuts up there, the marks will keep you safe. You guys are strangers, and maybe you don''t know how things work here, but trust me that it is our duty to keep every visitor alive, as best we can.¡± ¡°We really appreciate the gesture,¡± Skendus said, and then after they greeted the guards, the group made their way up. The two towers that held the thing together, featured narrow staircases within them. The staircases were barely different from what a lighthouse would have, except these ones here were even tighter! Timothy chased his tail while he climbed up. ¡°Jesus, I can''t tell if I''m going up or down¡­¡± He blurted, the dizziness was getting to him. Anyway, once they made it on the platform that held the two towers together, a priest greeted them there, and had them sit right away, as it would appear that people were praying here right now. There were about fifteen people in this room, they were all sitting on the floor, and crying near an altar that was made of marble. This may be the only thing made of marble in the entire city, and perhaps it was worth the expense too, because it signified their god. Above the short marble table, there was an iron metalwork of the letter H, and this symbol was of the utmost importance to the church! The group managed to squeeze between the crowded prayer room, but of course, they did not pray here with everyone else, and just listened instead, because they did not follow this religion themselves, just like they didn''t follow the one in the prior church. This was the Church of Gulism, that''s what their religion was called, and they prayed to the god Firunal.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. It was very foreign to the group, even Arvena hadn''t heard of it, so of course they didn''t want to be part of it. They just waited for about half an hour, and listened to the believers bawling their eyes out. After that point, the goblins started leaving, slowly but surely. After each and every one of them left, the priest started paying attention to Tim and his friends. Unlike the priests in the prior city who wore enough gold and silk on them to put a whole neighborhood in debt, generational debt even, the priest here was not up to par. He wore fur clothes, perhaps because the mountainside was colder, but also because this city may not have too many variations regarding clothing. Either way, he seemed humble, and the only thing of importance that he wore was a silver necklace with the letter H on it, and that necklace could be used to assume this guy¡¯s entire wealth. Anyway, he was also nice enough to come and speak to the team directly, rather than summoning them. This prayer room was too tiny to allow any actual summoning, but this was still a gesture of goodwill on his side. ¡°I imagine you''re not here to pray, children, so what brings you here?¡± He asked. Arvena decided to lead the conversation from this point onwards. She knew that Skendus hated the idea of begging some random priest for help, so she didn''t want to put him through that torture, especially since he might say something stupid in the process, perhaps something even dumber than anything Timothy would say! That would be dangerous, so they talked about this prior to getting here, only Arvena was allowed to speak. They bowed to the priest first, and then she said. ¡°We came here to seek your blessing, father, to seek the blessing of your church. We were in the Church of Ariuism a couple of days ago, and they claimed that we''re cursed with the Mark of Death.¡± ¡°Oh, so that''s why you reek?¡± The priest asked, he was in visual discomfort. ¡°The other priests said the same thing about the stench,¡± She played along, ¡°The church there blessed us, though, so we''re seeking your blessing today as well. If you can find it within your grand belief in faith to help us, will you bless us?¡± ¡°No,¡± The priest answered shortly, and boldly, so perhaps his prior kindness had just been a mask. After that point, it took every ounce of strength for Skendus not to intervene and cuss out the priest as a response! He was grinding his teeth in silence instead, because he understood that this conversation was already going terribly, and he didn''t want to make it any worse. Patience was the key. ¡°Why won''t you help us?¡± Arvena then asked the priest. ¡°Why should I? God is supposed to forgive everyone, but it seems that you folks are beyond forgiving. You have your stench to prove your lack of worth!¡± He expressed, and then further added. ¡°If you want to appeal to me personally, then you should be on your way to the Forbidden Caves.¡± ¡°It sounds like it''s forbidden to go there,¡± Timothy couldn''t help himself from pointing out, he broke the no-talking rule. ¡°It is forbidden,¡± He admitted, ¡°The caves have been sealed for three hundred years now, and the city has gone downwards ever since. There is a lot of iron down there, and a priest in the past had been stupid enough to deprive the city from the tons of ore that came out of those caves. To this day, we still don''t know why exactly it was sealed, but that doesn''t matter. Go unseal it, make sure it''s a safe place for my workers, and then come back here for your official, second blessing!¡± At last, he also added. ¡°The priest in Letazix may have been generous, but I am not. My brother is in that church, he''s been gone for years and serves as a diplomatic delegate there, and greed has overcome him, he''s no man of god. The Church of Ariuism may be wealthy, but they''ve never sent a nugget to our struggling city, even when we needed their help the most! Half of the believers come up here to cry, daily, because they can''t take the hunger anymore¡­ if those fat guys in Letazix only knew of the struggles here, I wonder how they would react.¡± The priest spoke of a lot of things there, he was surprisingly open about rather tough topics, and perhaps many respected him for that matter. However, it was obvious that he had given the team a task just there, a task which was likely to be dangerous, and they had to accept it, worst of all, no questions asked. They could only oblige, and hope to not die because of the potential dangers that were sandwiched in those caves! Chapter 125 - 42,000 mana points The team was not happy about serving some church that was located in the middle of nowhere, they were not fans of this idea whatsoever! Though regardless of what they felt, they had to cooperate here, because for some reason, this oddly built Church of Gulism had plenty of spiritual values, and deep undertones! They needed its priest''s blessing, and they needed it soon. ¡°If there is a big ass monster sealed away in that cave, I''m gonna lose my shit!¡± Tim hollered, as they walked back towards the mountainside. ¡°It''s not that I''m scared of monsters, but the priest should''ve come with us if he wants those caves so much.¡± ¡°The priest?¡± Ortana challenged him, ¡°Wouldn''t it make more sense if he lended us some guards instead?¡± ¡°Oh yeah,¡± He nodded, and this conversation ended there, as his anger was very short-lasting for once. Anyway, the priest told them where the caves were, they weren''t too far from the spot where Georgie had landed on. With that said, they went right around the caves, and climbed higher to fetch the dragons. Tim and his friends did not know what they were going to face in the Forbidden Caves, but they figured that having eight dragons to their aid might come in handy. Well, only one of those dragons was huge and intimidating, but help of any kind was surely welcome. Along the way, the system broke her silence streak, and spoke to Timothy. She said, [There has been a lot going on recently, so I''m going to try and make these struggles worth your while. I''m going to convert your recent tasks here, into ¡®system given¡¯ tasks.] ¡°Really!?¡± He celebrated, ¡°That would really help me out, system, because I''m the poorest I''ve ever been regarding system points! I never knew that I''d be poor with eighteen-hundred points to my name, it''s insane, we need to work on this.¡± [Purchases tend to get more expensive as you progress, especially if you improve your mana quality. It''s very normal.] She assured. [Your new tasks are the following¡­] She then said, and caught his attention even further. [Attain the blessing of the three churches, and you will be rewarded with 11,000 system points. That''s task number nine.] She announced. Furthermore, she said. [Cleanse, and survive the Forbidden Caves, and you will be rewarded with five-thousand system points. That''s task number ten.] Tim couldn''t be happier about these offers! The promised system points were in the thousands, and he was supposed to do these things anyway, so it was almost like he was being rewarded for nothing. This was a good way to start the day, he trotted up the mountain very willfully now!The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Anyway, the group fetched the dragons, and then flew over to the Forbidden Caves. It didn''t take much effort to find the caves, but they met with their first obstacle almost immediately after they got here. The place was sealed, as the priest had mentioned. It wasn¡¯t sealed magically or anything like that, no, it was just sealed with rocks, a lot of rocks. The entrance was about seven meters wide, and it was entirely blocked, meaning that it had taken a lot of effort to seal this entrance about three-hundred years ago. Likewise, it would take a lot of effort to unseal it, perhaps more in comparison. Tim took one look at it, and said. ¡°Yeah¡­ I''m not bending over to pick up rocks, not even a single one, I don''t want to work. Let''s play it smart, everyone back off, and let me handle this. Shoo, go over there!¡± There was no holding him back. Tim was a point chaser, he loved the idea of winning thousands of system points, so he was the first to face the challenges from now on! Aside from that, he had the widest assortment of abilities in comparison to everyone else, all thanks to the system. He had better ways of breaking through these boulders, meaning, blasting fireballs against the debris was out of the question. They were asked to clean the entrance, not cause an inner collapse, so he was the best choice for the case. Tim summoned the Bone Multiplier ability, because it promised the most precision in comparison to his other powers. It took little effort to summon it, and once he did, he had it seek out animal bones around him! This ability was supposed to be used to manipulate his own bones, as in, for him to grow extra limbs and things like that. However, he didn¡¯t want to risk doing anything like that soon, so he has found very creative ways to use this ability differently instead! Since he could find the bones of dead animals, he collected those bones, and then multiplied them. He could manipulate their sizes thoroughly, so he turned the bones into a bunch of tiny daggers, as he often did, and this started to become like a signature move of his, just because of how useful the daggers were! Anyway, with about sixty daggers to his disposal, he started chipping through the debris! The boulders in front of him were pretty tough, but they could not withstand the several hundred tiny hits per second that he inflicted upon them. The daggers were really fast-moving, and within minutes, they split a boulder through the middle as a result! Tim was effective with his powers, but it would still take a lot of time to break through this entrance, that was for sure. It was seven meters tall, after all, he wasn¡¯t just dealing with a couple of stones, but hundreds of them! He could only hope that this job wouldn''t drain his mana pool entirely. He was worried about that, so while he worked, he explained. ¡°I''m gonna try to make a little hole for us to jump through, otherwise this will shit will take days for me to clear out. I don''t have enough mana for that, so, a six-foot wide hole will do us, we''ll enter through the top of the rubble up there.¡± The group just nodded along, they agreed with him, because he was the one spending mana here. Tim had a massive mana pool to his disposal, yes, he could fit about forty-two-thousand points in it, but regardless of how deep the pool was, its points were very easy to spend. His mana quality was at level six now, meaning that every ability he had was more powerful, but it also took more mana off of him upon use! For example, he was using fifty mana points per second right now, just to dig through the debris! With that said, he was hoping to make an entrance for himself as soon as possible, because it would take a long time to get all these mana points back! He could naturally generate just about seven-hundred mana points every hour, which sounded like a lot, but it really wasn''t when one considered how deep his mana pool was. Chapter 126 - Boom-er Despite the magical expenses, Timothy pierced through the boulders faster than one-hundred men would. He aimed at the boulders on top of the entrance¡¯s blockage, because they were cheaper for him to bash through, and they were less likely to cause a rock slide! Timothy was right to carry out his plan in that manner, because he did make an entrance at the very top, and nothing bad happened either. Then, they climbed up the boulders, and had the dragons stay behind because they could block the way, quite unnecessarily. ¡°The torches, light them up. You can''t see shit after about five meters, so this is gonna be tough.¡± He explained, and he knew better because he had already been up here. The group did as they were told, and then hopped into the new entrance. The tunnel he had made was six feet wide, so they as tiny goblins had plenty of space to move around within it. The dragons were left last in line as mentioned, because amongst other reasons, Georgie had to squeeze through the new entrance, as he was a nine-foot tall beast, after all. Anyway, Timothy led the way. He didn¡¯t have any torches on his immediate disposal, because he needed the free hands, as he was both their guide, and main line of defense throughout this little journey. While they trotted forward, he explained. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to stop when I tell you to, because I didn¡¯t manage to dig all the way through. I couldn''t see shit past five meters, and things started getting expensive too, so I''m going to have to pick it up again.¡± It was best to be direct, as he couldn¡¯t have them distracting him. It wasn''t that he didn¡¯t enjoy their chatter, but he spent about five-thousand mana points already, just to dig this tunnel, and he''d rather spend a couple of thousand more to finish the job, rather than another five thousand. He didn¡¯t need any distractions. They reached the tunnel¡¯s end, and had to stop there. Timmy summoned the Bone Multiplier ability, and then called out for the tens of daggers that he had carved from the bones of dead animals earlier on. The daggers flew towards him in a blink, and so, he started digging again! This part of the blockage had less stones and more dirt on it, so at first he figured that it would be easier to pierce through it. However, he was also smart enough to understand that a dirt ceiling could collapse a lot easier because of the soft dirt, and he didn''t want to accidentally crush his friends. In order to avoid anything horrible like that, he had to dig downwards, which took all of the savvy fun out of digging through plain dirt. He was annoyed, but this was the best way to push forward, there was no other way around it. Tim dug down through the blockage, and a while later, they finally found a wide, accessible opening to jump in! He didn''t have to dig anymore from the looks of it, which was good, because he spent another three-thousand mana points digging down. This job was really expensive! ¡°Weapons up,¡± He said, before he stepped in. ¡°We don''t know why this place was sealed.¡± Afterwards, they jumped in. The group was extra cautious, so they made it their priority to illuminate the place, and have a look at its contents. Once they did so, they were relieved that they didn''t have to fight anything right here on the spot, as it would appear that they weren''t in any immediate danger. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The group fully expected to run into a monster. It wasn¡¯t that they were scared about fighting one, Timothy even looked forward to it, but in any situation, it was best to avoid conflict all together. Avoiding conflict with something utterly unknown and sealed off, was not a cowardly thing to do. Anyway, the cave they leaped in was huge, it would''ve even been considered a cavern if it was about ten meters wider. With that said, they now understood how iron ores were extracted out of here before, because if one cave alone was twenty-five meters wide, then they guessed that a collection of such caves had something good to offer! The team found another pathway afterwards, and followed it. They didn¡¯t care to explore every inch of the cave they were already in, but rather, they wanted to eliminate any potential threat that strode the caves, so they just kept going. Arvena was on the front with Timothy, on account of her firepower, and the dragons had already squeezed in the cave, and were guarding the team''s behind. This was a battle formation that everyone felt comfortable with. The tunnel they followed was about thirty meters long, and it was secured by these old support beams. The support beams were mostly made of metal, so it wasn¡¯t surprising how they survived the passing of time. These beams signified that miners had dug down this way before, so they expected to find a series of elaborate tunnels next. At the very least, they expected to run into a lot of dead ends. The first dead end that they ran into, helped the group understand why this priest wanted these caves so bad. They found traces of sulfur there, well, they smelled it before they saw it. At first glance this deposit didn''t look like anything important, however, it could be sold at a high price, if one of the cities or countries were in the middle of a war, for example. Tim picked that hint right away, and although he didn''t know just how technologically advanced this universe was, he still understood that sulfur was a key component when it came to making important things, such as explosives! At the very least, this sulfur could aid the process of creating gunpowder, which later could be used on cannons! It wasn''t too difficult to make a cannon, a country could create one with little trial and error if they wanted to. Tim couldn''t help but add some comments to such a find, he said. ¡°The priest either knows about this smelly stuff, or he doesn''t, there seems to be a lot of it around here either way. Everyone, keep your torches away from the sulfur please, that is, if you want to keep your arms.¡± They didn''t fight him on the matter. One didn''t have to be a miner in order to know that it was stupid to swing a torch around at all times, a torch was an open source of fire, after all. Anyway, as they progressed through the tunnels, their path kept twisting in various directions. They may even be lost right now, but Tim didn''t care about that, because he could turn into an entity, and find his way back by floating through the walls. He wasn¡¯t worried about that, however, moments later they did hear something that tied everyone''s guts into knots! ¡°The hell was that?¡± Tim asked, and looked at Skendus for an answer. Various low-pitched screeches sounded out around them, it was terrifying! As much as Skendus would want to have an answer to what was making that horrid sound, the answer eluded him, he was clueless. ¡°Maybe it''s a goat?¡± Skendus felt pressured into making a joke, as he referred to Tim''s old adventures, the ones he had when he was a spider. ¡°No? Not a goat, then.¡± Chapter 127 - Nerve Shaker Ability The ones who screeched were not goats, and that wasn''t surprising, but they were still terrified beyond comprehension! The group felt confident that they could handle a single monster, but judging from the screeches, they were about to be attacked by several of them, and this was a lot trickier to handle! ¡°Does anyone see anything?¡± Tim asked, as he nursed fireballs on his palm. Georgie answered, except Georgie couldn''t speak the goblin tongue, no. He just barfed out a fireball, which flew right above everyone''s heads, and beamed across the tunnel! The fireball hit something, they could tell, because one of those low-volume screeches, turned into an ear-piercing scream! Everyone had to cover their ears, and all of the dragons were in clear discomfort too. ¡°Shit¡­ looks like he can see in the dark really well.¡± Tim muttered, and then he ressummoned the fireballs on his palms, and shot them at the same direction that Georgie did. They heard another, loud screech afterwards! Everything about this exchange was absolutely deafening, and terrifying, but that''s just how it had to turn out. There was one good thing about it, though, and the system popped up in his head to give the good news. [Congratulations, you just killed a Yellow-bellied Cave Snake, and unfortunately for you, these snakes seem to exist in more than one universe. You''ve won 500 system points as a reward, and you can assume the snake''s abilities if you choose to consume its flesh. Your friends could try and do the same, though it would likely be less effective for them.] That was a lot of information, though, he could wrap his head around it for once, because he was adept in killing for the sake of power, he wasn¡¯t a beginner in that matter. He understood that animals stole powers from each other all the time, it was natural, but the absorption-rate varied from mage to mage, there were numerous factors to it, but the bottom-line was that some mages stole powers better than others. Arvena may have the best of luck in absorbing the cave snake''s powers, but by all odds she may choose to avoid it, in order to protect her degranus heritage which she valued dearly. She was picky. Only Timothy absorbed anything he could get his hands on, but for now, he didn¡¯t have time to steal. Despite the system¡¯s lengthy announcements, the battle was still ongoing! Everyone''s ears rang badly, so they couldn¡¯t hear the low-pitch screeches that the snakes sang, but they could still feel their horrid presence. The team was alert, and tried to avoid getting pounced on by all necessary! The battle progressed towards the extremes moments later, when a snake sprung out of the ground, right near Timothy''s feet! The snake tried to take him down, and it might as well succeed because this was no small snake, but he spotted it at the last second, and came up with a counter attack! He evaded it. Fire was a good tool, it could solve everyone''s problems, so he used it here once more. He had to get out of the snake''s projected direction first, as he couldn¡¯t fight back on the spot, no, because if he tried to fight back now, then he would get pinned down immediately!The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. It was best to get out of its way, so he used a little trick that he hadn''t used in weeks now. He summoned the Flaming Fins ability, though as a goblin he didn¡¯t have fins, so it was his feet which jolted thanks to the fiery blaze that he had summoned. In other words, this ability made him move faster, but he didn¡¯t depend on this thing alone! Tim also summoned the Freezing Blood ability, which as a bonus helped him move even faster. However, with this power he also forced the enemy to slow down, because he had been close enough to freeze its blood directly! All of this happened within a couple of seconds, and he didn''t bother turning these couple of abilities off afterwards, no, he didn¡¯t do that even though he had already beamed out of the snake''s path. Instead, he used this freedom that he bought, to summon a couple of fireballs too, and then he blasted them against the snake! His moves were successful! He had worked up the target so efficiently and diabolically, that the target''s flesh turned from a frozen meat-steak into a well roasted lunch, all within three seconds! This time he didn¡¯t even hear the snake scream, as perhaps he had frozen its vocal cords too, and this was a really good bonus, because he didn¡¯t want his ears to ring all day. Then, he finally turned all of his summoned abilities off. [You just killed another Yellow-bellied Cave Snake, and won 500 more system points as a reward, congratulations.] The system announced. Afterwards, she also cautioned. [You just tri-casted some of your abilities there, though, and I advise you against it, because it''s a really expensive decision. You just lost 744 mana points in under three seconds!] ¡°It was worth it,¡± He said, and then bent over to tear a bit of roasted meat, right off of the snake''s carcass. ¡°I wonder how this tastes?¡± Tim took a bite, but little did he know, the battle was not over. His ears were ringing so he could barely hear anything right now, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise how he was completely oblivious of the dangers around him. Another snake leaped at him just then, and he couldn¡¯t see it coming whatsoever! Everyone shouted at him to get out of the way, but to no result, he was still oblivious! All of a sudden, a blue forcefield appeared out of thin air, and it circled around Timothy, it coated him thoroughly, so the snake ended up just crashing against the forcefield, where it caught his attention afterwards. Tim turned around, and said. ¡°You sneaky bastard, you''re going to be my dinner later on! I''ll enjoy frying you.¡± Speaking of frying, he then summoned the Electro Nerve Splitter, and fried the snake''s brain whole. He fried its electrical receptors! [Another 500 system points, good. You''ve accumulated a total of 4,000 points.] The system showed a point-counter in his head. Looking back at Ortana, he confirmed that it was she who protected him with that forcefield. It was her signature ability, so he was reminded why they kept her in the group to begin with. He was appreciative, and nodded at her in order to thank her quietly. Timothy then bent down, and grabbed a handful of meat off of that first, fried snake, and ate it. He didn¡¯t learn from his mistakes, as in, he still wasn¡¯t looking around to see if there were any more snakes coming, but this time his negligence didn''t matter, because the battle truly was over. He was okay, everyone was okay. After a few more bites, yet another notification popped up in his head, and it said. [Congratulations, you successfully obtained the Nerve Shaker ability. You can now emit a sonic-like humm, which will leave your opponents disorientated, depending on the intensity of the exchange. It¡¯s a good ability to have.] Chapter 128 - Yellow Dragon ¡°I guess the Nerve Shaker will come in handy eventually, let''s just hope it isn''t as expensive as everything else I use.¡± He muttered, and then he gestured for the rest of the group to try and steal the same ability from these carcasses. For a few minutes it was difficult for them to understand each other, because their ears were still ringing, but eventually they understood what he initially meant. Ear pain was one of the worst pains of all, they were not happy. Anyway, Ortana was very keen on Tim''s Idea. She didn''t have that many abilities to begin with, due to the fact that oftentimes she had to sacrifice them in exchange for shapeshifting. She had shapeshifted a lot before, however now, when an opportunity to obtain new powers was presented to her, she did not hesitate to take it. She cut off, and ate four fat pieces of snake meat, regardless of how tiny she was by stature, and she noted that it was delicious! Ortana managed to steal a quarter of a snake''s power, and that amount was good enough, because Timothy couldn''t do any better. She had the ability at her disposal now, she could pour mana points on it, and that was what mattered the most, as the quality of each power she had, improved along with her mana anyway! ¡°A bit sour, but food is food.¡± She joked, but she also had this dangerous look in her eye, which only confirmed that she obtained the ability. This was a good day. They got new powers, and did not get killed by six-foot long snakes either! It was definitely something worth celebrating about, and they were celebrating inwardly, however, the rest of the group wasn¡¯t as enthusiastic about eating snake meat. Arvena expressed, ¡°That''s a fool''s game there, eating animals to steal their powers. Nurture what you already have, or open a book, as it''s the only honorable way to cultivate a new ability.¡± ¡°We¡¯re fish, there weren''t any books in the sea.¡± Tim pointed out. There was no debating that part, so Arvena let them be. After all, she didn''t have to like their methods in order to cooperate with these people. Skendus however, had a better excuse as to why he won''t eat snake meat. ¡°I didn''t have any books either, anyway, I''m an illusionist so I don''t need this¡­ nerve shaker? I can paralyze a person in a hundred other ways, both physically and mentally. I''m good.¡± There was a lot of talking regarding this issue. Tim hadn¡¯t realized that a simple suggestion from his side would end up sparking ethical debates, but yet here they were. He wasn''t happy about this, he could see the repulsion that his two friends felt, and quite frankly he didn''t expect this from them. Arvena had done treacherous deeds before, and she hadn¡¯t been ¡®educated¡¯ as rigidly in comparison, so this was odd. ¡°Looks like the snakes pissed on everyone''s nerves already,¡± He thought. However, they didn''t have time to debate right now, as they were on a little mission here. The dragons ended up eating all of the snakes, which was a bit of a waste, because for some reason they couldn''t obtain any powers in return, but that was the ethical debate finished. The meat was wasted in a sense, but the dragons did seem pretty happy about their meal.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Anyway, they continued walking through the tunnels afterwards, and they did so confidently, because they managed this first attack really well. They figured that if they were attacked again by whatever creature, they''d be able to handle themselves! The torches they carried were a symbol of their radiant confidence, they weren''t scared, though inevitably they ran into about eight more dead ends along the way which managed to halt their stride. The dead ends weren¡¯t surprising. This tunnel system was beyond complex, as there was a lot of work done to create it in the past, perhaps decades of work even! With that said, they could understand why the priest valued this place so much. Though there was no written record of how the mines had operated, anyone could guess that a mining operation that was this huge, had likely required hundreds of men to have it function. Any mine that required hundreds of men, truly had something to offer! In this case, it has had so much to offer, that the mines hadn¡¯t been completely forgotten, even though several generations were born after those old miners! The Forbidden Caves might as well do the city some good, this place had potential, the team saw at least four large iron deposits so far, for example, with some minor sulfur deposits. It was plentiful. After a few more dead ends, the team ended up in another cave. This couldn¡¯t be that first cave that they left behind, because it didn¡¯t have the doorway that Timothy had made, no. This was an entirely different cave, and it was far bigger in comparison, well, half of it featured a major elevation drop! There was a fifty-meter deep ditch of sorts here, and they guessed that it was about fifty meters, because they tossed a stone in it, and it took a few seconds for the stone to hit the ground. It was deep, and if Tim hadn¡¯t been careful, he would''ve been the first one to fall in the ditch because he was at the front of a line. ¡°I prevented another tragedy today, I saved myself.¡± He joked, inwardly, and then he pitched. ¡°Okay, looks like we''re gonna have to fly down there. Can your dragon fly in caves?¡± ¡°I don''t know, we both met him yesterday, and I don''t think anyone can own a dragon, that¡¯s a weird thing to say. He''s probably smarter than you are.¡± She said, though no one really understood why she was so defensive over labels right now. Either way, they figured out that Georgie could fly them down there. He even sat down, just so the goblins could climb on his back, which confirmed the notion that he was a very smart boy. At the very least he was very cooperative, but either way, they could progress deeper within the cave now. They flew down to the bottom of the ditch, and they landed safely. Afterwards as they tried to decide on what to do next, a faint hint of yellow light caught their eye! The ditch was surrounded by about seven walls, which together almost formed a circle. One of these walls featured a gaping, three-meter tall entrance which led downwards through the aid of yet another tunnel, and it was there where they spotted that faint little light, it was about fifty meters away from them! Curiosity was their strong suit, so the team followed the light, as it looked like a good lead. It looked interesting at the very least. Once they made it to the other side of the tunnel, they heard, and saw a very large pool of lava! It was right in front of them, poking at their pupils, and looking overall amazing! ¡°This can''t be what scared the miners, right?¡± Ortana asked, and they were all wondering the same thing. Moments later, they saw a weird, yellow creature flying about ten meters above the lava. This creature looked a lot like a dragon, and it had spotted the team, so it was flying their way with all the speed that it could muster! That thing may have scared the miners. Chapter 129 - Thunder Clap Despite their recent adventures, running into a dragon was usually a horrible thing. Dragons were powerful, typically, so they could choose to be really violent if they wanted to! In this case, a dragon floating above lava was less than friendly, the team was in big trouble. They only had two options here as far as anyone was concerned. They could either run away and hope for the best, or they could attack the yellow dragon directly! In this case, the first option was ruled out in three seconds, without giving much thought to it as an option. The team weren''t keen on running away, and odds were that they couldn''t outrun a dragon anyway, no. Tim attacked the dragon as soon as he noticed its rapid, violent approach, and he didn''t second-guess his decision either. Tim wasn¡¯t running away, he shot at the dragon several times instead, but not with a fireball, as this time around he used the Nerve Splitter ability! He figured that if dragons were truly smart, then any and all brain damage would cripple them really quickly! However, despite his speculations and attempts, the dragon did not slow down! In fact, it charged forward even faster, and that was when Tim decided to rely on a more physically offensive attack instead. Tim clapped his hands with the intent to unleash a thunderbolt against his target, because he figured that pretty much everything was susceptible to countless volts of electricity, this should work. Since he couldn¡¯t split the dragon''s nerves internally, it may be more effective to blow its big, slender head off all together! Tim tried to summon a single bolt first, in order to get a hang of this ability, because the last time he used it, he had been a stingray. The idea was to unleash a single bolt first, and several bolts right after, but on the account of his level six mana quality, despite his wishes, he ended up unleashing about twelve bolts of thunder as soon as he clapped his hands! The bolts jolted towards the dragon, hit its head, and forced the dragon to change its direction, however, despite his ears ringing because of that thunder clap, he didn''t manage to kill the elegant beast! It wasn''t an easy task to slaughter this violent inhabitant, that was apparent now. The dragon was alive, and worse yet, it had willingly taken a deep dive towards the lava pool, moments after it got hit by bolts of thunder! Tim was terrified when he saw it swim in lava, he could not fathom a creature being that strong, yet such raw power was displayed here, right in front of him! This dragon may as well be what forced the city of Manape to shut these mines down, so many years ago, as this was quite a solid reason. ¡°Look at that bastard go!¡± He shouted, and pointed at the yellow dragon, who then leaped out of the lava with a streak of elegance that would outshine all of the fish in the sea. ¡°It''s a big bastard alright,¡± Skendus added, ¡°Its head is steaming, and it''s not steaming because you hit it with bolts. It wants our flesh, it just wants to see blood!¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Well, it doesn''t look like I can kill that long-ass bastard.¡± Tim followed along, ¡°Any volunteers?¡± ¡°Move,¡± Arvena grunted, and then dragged him away from the vicinity of the lava pool. Afterwards, she stepped in closer, and shot several fireballs towards the yellow beast, without aiming at it all that much. Her fireballs were ten feet wide, so some of them were bound to hit the target regardless of effort! ¡°What?!¡± Her heart sank seconds later, she was in panic. ¡°It didn''t even flinch, how¡­?¡± ¡°It''s pain receptors are barely active right now,¡± Skendus then added, as he was still reading through the dragon¡¯s mind. ¡°The two of you barely scratched it, and the sound of Tim¡¯s thunderclap just spooked it, that''s why it''s swimming around like a maniac. Shooting a bunch of fireballs at a dragon that swims in hot lava, might not have been the smartest use of your mana, Arvena.¡± Most people did not appreciate being criticized, but once putting this very hostile situation into consideration, it was apparent that critical thinking was their best friend right now. They had to correct each other, and come up with better attacks, or they were all going to die today! Luckily, after getting spooked by the thunder clap, the dragon was not in a rush anymore. It just swam around in its hundred-meter wide pool, and this was good, because Arvena was given the chance to recollect her thoughts. She needed a plan, because she couldn¡¯t afford to be scared forever. ¡°Its mana quality is almost a realm above mine, I felt that as soon as my fire touched the bastard''s scales. Georgie stands no chance against him either, I have to keep him away.¡± Arvena loathed, quietly, and then she came up with a colossal plan. ¡°I''m no celestial, but neither is this lava muncher, so a Celestial Spear should do the trick!¡± A celestial attack of any sort sounded like the best way to handle a stronger opponent, but in reality it was a really sacrificial course of action. For a start, it was difficult to summon a Celestial Spear, because it required a spoken-word spell, amongst other things, and even if she was successful, she would get knocked out cold at the very least! ¡°Everyone, back away.¡± She said, and pushed the team until they were about five meters away from her. ¡°I¡¯m going to try something here, but I might faint after, so please don''t leave me here for dead.¡± The team just nodded along, they agreed with whatever it was she tried to do, because it was apparent that she was trying to help here. Despite her recent moodiness, she was preparing to do something very selfless, and that was obvious, they could see her desperate goodwill just by looking into her eyes! Even if that wasn''t the case, they still wouldn''t leave her behind. ¡°Okay, dragon.¡± She whispered, ¡°I hate to spend a single point of mana on you, but I won''t let you embarrass me twice with that disgusting confidence of yours...¡± Afterwards, she sat down in a meditative position, and stretched her arms outwards. This was the best way to summon a celestial spear, and all that was left to do now, was to recite the spoken-word spell. ¡°My will is but mana, and mana is the definition of balance itself.¡± She meditated on those few words, and then she loudly chanted. ¡°I summon thee, Celestial Spear, for my enemy is about to best me, and I dare not be bested. Take my mana, for that is my most treasured possession, and distort its quality if my enemy is to die as a result of distortion!¡± Chapter 130 - Celestial Spear Arvena kept repeating the chant, she was dedicated to summoning what she wanted to. ¡°I summon thee, Celestial Spear, for my enemy is about to best me, and I dare not be bested, so listen to me damn it! Take my mana, for that is my most treasured possession, take as much as you want, and distort its quality as you please! My enemy has to die, that is a must!¡± The chant was very convincing, however, regardless of who it was that she was praying to, and how badly she wanted to have this spear in her possession, the other side was not cooperative! At some point, her voice distorted to the point where it was beyond gibberish, because she kept pushing boundaries that she wasn''t supposed to push. Typically, one was supposed to give up after the third chant. If the Celestial Spear hadn''t appeared even after the third chant, it was best to give up, because each attempt that followed afterwards demanded a bigger sacrifice! Arvena was well aware of those rules, but she didn''t have so many options here. The opposing dragon was swimming around in the lava, which gave the illusion that the team could make a run for it, however, she was certain that as soon as she stood up to run away, the dragon would follow right after her! She wasn''t that experienced in hunting dragons, no, but she understood how predators behaved. Running away from a predator was often the same as signing a death certificate, so she couldn¡¯t flee, which in turn thoroughly left her out of options. Arvena kept pushing against the will of the divine as a result, and ended up chanting seven times! Her tone had sunk into a pitch so deep that she''d outshine chainsmokers, and this hinted how much pressure she was feeling at the moment! ¡°Celestial Spear, I offer a realm of mana to you! Hear my plea, and perform for me!¡± This was her seventh chant, and it was the absolute most of what she could offer. Each chant of hers was different from the other, because spoken-word spells had a lot to do with willpower, rather than just memorizing the spells themselves, and she was hoping that her willpower alone would make the celestials succumb. She succeeded at the final try, but the sacrifice she made turned all of her adventures with the group behind her into nothingness, because she sacrificed almost all of the mana levels that she had gained with the help of the group! ¡°A single level above the God''s Punishment Realm, dang, this dragon embarrassed me for the second time.¡± She thought to herself, ¡°But it''s surely the last time, beast!¡± Arvena successfully summoned the Celestial Spear, her willpower was truly unstoppable. The chants she made were so heavy, that she got practically frozen in time for a few seconds, and there even was a slight gravitational pull around her, but a win was a win! She pushed forward even under those circumstances. The spear appeared in front of her, and its appearance came along with a blinding celestial light. It was explosive, the rest of the team were tossed five meters away as a result of its appearance! ¡°So that''s what she learned in the library,¡± Tim said, as he held his head which rang like a bell at this point. ¡°Sneaky bastard¡­¡± Tim was absolutely oblivious regarding how this summoning worked, but he didn¡¯t have to understand it right now. The spear was summoned, and that was the most important, as its honed power was an absolute game changer. Its presence shook every inch of the cavern walls as well, so at that point, the team feared that everything would collapse over their heads! Thankfully it did not.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The spear started spinning in place afterwards, much like an airplane''s propeller! This part was a bit weird, but its beauty was unmatched nonetheless, as most of its body was painted in gold, and furthermore the spear-head was quite wide, and flat. Anyway, after it started spinning, its momentum, unsurprisingly started causing waves across the lava pool''s surface! Literal waves formed, and split away from the middle of the pool, before they came back again, and clashed with one another. Just seconds later, this commotion within the lava, forced a great portion of itself to splash towards Arvena! This was alarming. Considering what she was occupied with right now, she could not protect herself whatsoever, her hands were tied. However, Ortana picked up on the commotion that was happening across the other side, and despite being mowed down by that celestial eruption a moment ago, she still managed to lend a hand! Ortana summoned a forcefield, and surrounded Arvena with it, and she did so seconds before the lava was about to hit her. She summoned the protective forcefield on time, and considering that lava was actually not an unstoppable force in comparison to some other challenges, its contents just bounced off of the forcefield. Arvena was safe, and she had been saved by something really inexpensive. ¡°You better know what you''re doing,¡± Ortana muttered, and kept the forcefield up with little effort. The Celestial Spear kept spinning for half a minute, and once it acknowledged the Yellow Dragon''s presence, it beamed across the cavern just seconds later! The spear beamed at such speeds, honed power, and velocity, that it disintegrated half of the lava pool along the way, but it happened so fast that it only appeared like a quick flash of light to the average eye, before it dealt any damage! The spear exploded once it hit the dragon, and thankfully the explosion didn''t bring the cavern down either, because the spear had been sentient enough to muffle its own combustion! This was good, because there was no point in massacring everyone in the vicinity just to kill a dragon, her friends were alright. The dragon disintegrated along with the lava, because the spear that she had summoned was far greater than what she originally bargained for! This was an overkill. She had hoped to summon the spear after the third chant, which would only take three levels away from her mana quality, however, with a whole realm of mana sacrificed, it necessarily meant that virtually nothing could''ve gotten in the spear''s way! If one had the ability to see how the spear performed within that split second, they would think that god himself had beamed down here in order to kill the dragon! The spear she had summoned had been a product of great willpower, and greater desperation, so her poor target never stood a chance! The forty-foot long dragon was first split in half, and then turned into plain dust. The spear had been beyond effective, it was atomic even, she won. Anyway, regarding the prior explosion that the spear caused; Even though it had been muffled, it still caused a shockwave of sorts! The shockwave was supposed to hit Arvena, but she was protected by a forcefield, so she remained unscathed. Now the shock wave hadn''t been strong enough to break the protective force field, but apparently, it was quite influencing if the shock wave just touched the forcefield, because then something really weird happened as a result! Ortana felt a pinch on her wrists, which forced her to let go of the forcefield. Now this wasn''t problematic because the battle was over, she didn''t have to protect anyone anymore, however, when she looked at her wrists, she noticed something really weird about them. Her veins were quite visible now, and they were somehow painted in gold! Chapter 131 - "Is it over?" Ortana''s veins were painted in gold. They had that literal golden color on them now, and it was present from her hands, and all the way up to her elbows! It was terrifying, but she had only felt pain for a short second throughout this experience, and that pain was very minimal, so at least that was something to be positive about. ¡°What happened?¡± Skendus panicked, and tried to help her. ¡°I don''t know,¡± She shook her head, ¡°But I''m fine, that is, my fingers didn''t fall off, so my hands are working pretty well. All things considered, that''s what hands are supposed to do, right?¡± ¡°You should tune out Terrance more, because you''re picking up on his sense of humor.¡± He said, and then he helped the other stand up. The three of them didn''t really know what to make of these golden veins, but since she didn''t feel any pain, she figured that this weird color scheme would go away on its own eventually. She hoped that it would, at least, because the color yellow was very noticeable in the wild, it would ruin her natural camouflage quite severely. Anyway, they rushed towards Arvena afterwards, because even though she didn¡¯t suffer as much as a scratch so far, she was still knocked out cold. It wasn''t an easy task for one to summon anything celestial, so she had fainted as a result. She was lucky that she only fainted, because if she withstood any physical damage instead, then she would either lose an arm or get burned into a crisp, so in a way, that prior exchange really went her way, mostly. It would appear that she also exerted a lot of energy up until now, because even though she was alive, her body refused to wake up regardless of how much water they splashed on her face. She was out like a light, and she might remain so for several hours, so the team just sat around her, and waited. A lot has happened this past hour, and the group couldn''t understand half of the events that unfolded, so this was the best time to sit down and think about them. Skendus and Ortana were of a fair age, and despite their experience in life, they never heard about celestial weapons before, they never even imagined them. However, most tiny creatures never crossed the God''s Punishment Realm either, so their ignorance regarding celestial weapons was excusable, but they were still beyond surprised! ¡°I can''t see the dragon,¡± Timothy then said, ¡°It''s carcass is supposed to float on the lava, right? I was hoping to steal some of its powers.¡± ¡°What makes you think that you can fry its flesh to begin with?¡± Skendus asked. ¡°Hey, I''ll eat it raw if I have to, because what''s the worst that can happen? Two days of diarrhea? That''s nothing!¡± He answered, and he wasn''t joking either. Unfortunately for Timothy, there was no carcass for him to nibble on, but he was none the wiser, because he hadn''t witnessed the collision between the dragon and the spear. All he had heard was lava sloshing around, so his current cluelessness was excusable. Tim still ran his eyes across the mana pool in the hopes to find some dragon meat, but he was unsuccessful. However, he did notice a couple of very important things instead!A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. For a start, he finally noticed that the lava pool now was only half as deep as it used to be! This in turn revealed how big the pool''s surrounding cavern was. It was so big in fact that one could fit an entire mining town here, if it wasn''t for the rest of the lava that remained at the bottom part of the pool. This truly was a fascinating site, but as he sweated through his decent shirt because he was within the vicinity of the lava, he noticed the second thing of equal, great importance. He spotted a bunch of tunnel openings, right where the lava used to be. The lava had sealed off these tunnels up until a moment ago, so by all odds, no goblin had ever stepped foot over there! ¡°There¡¯s nothing there, I know it, but¡­ I gotta see where those tunnels go. Maybe I¡¯ll find some diamond deposits or some shit?¡± Tim muttered, as he developed this great crave to explore what was left of this place. Since they haven''t found any other pathways so far, he figured that the point he was currently at, was a dead end. This didn''t feel right, and it was what convinced him to explore those tunnels to begin with. Furthermore, he wanted to confirm that if there were greater threats out there, even greater than this dragon that Arvena had killed. He had to know this part for sure, because if there actually was a greater threat than that Yellow Dragon, then they were in big trouble, because they''d be far away from completing the task that they were sent down here for! Since the system hadn''t rewarded him yet after they cleared the caves, he was more and more convinced that their little mission here was not over yet! Tim stood up, grabbed a torch out of his bag, and said. ¡°I''m going for those tunnels over there, they look interesting. Georgie, you can see in the dark, right, so do you wanna come with me? I could use a dragon.¡± Georgie stood up, took one look at the lava below them, and shook his head in disagreement. This was the first time where he wasn''t cooperative, and this was alarming, as it was a great sign that Timothy''s idea was terrible! ¡°You are flying a one-ton dragon over all that lava. Besides, even if you make it to the other side, he''ll get burned a hundred times before you even squeeze into a tunnel properly.¡± Skendus said, and he was making a lot of sense too, as this plan had a lot of holes in it. However, an adventurer''s spirit was unshakable at the sight of common sense, so he did not give up. He figured that a smaller dragon would do the trick, so he stared at the little dragonfly guys awkwardly, until one of them stepped forward to be a volunteer. Each of them were about five feet long, and although that sounded small, they could still carry him, because their wingspan was a decent, teen feet long! With that said, working with one of them made his plan seem a bit more plausible. ¡°Okay, I barely weigh twenty-five kilos so you should be able to lift me. You look like you weigh four times as much, so I¡¯m assuming we won''t take a hot bath as soon as we''re in the air?¡± Tim spoke, though, he managed to confuse the dragon quite a bit. The dragonfly was visibly confused, so Tim then decided to start making things more simple. ¡°Okay, dragon, I''m gonna stop calling you dragon, it''s too formal. How about Greg?¡± The dragon shook its head in disagreement. It was obvious that it didn''t like that name whatsoever. ¡°No? Okay, how about Cornelius?¡± He asked, and the dragonfly disagreed again. Tim sighed in frustration because he was getting nowhere with this, so he actually came up with a good name next. He was desperate to get his little mission started. ¡°How about Bolivamus Tal the Greater? Billy for short.¡± He pitched, and the dragonfly finally nodded, he seemed really happy with that name. While his friends cracked up laughing at his poor attempt at bargaining with a dragon, Tim climbed on the other''s back, and grabbed a hold of its short, slightly curled, dark-blue horns. He was ready to fly. ¡°Okay Billy, go for those tunnels over there.¡± He pointed, and then said. ¡°You better not drop me, or else I''ll end up becoming the ugliest fried kebab in all of Valporovus!¡± Chapter 132 - Saranax Timmy, and Billy the dragonfly, darted above the pool of lava, and they did so without suffering any casualties. Billy avoided making any spin moves, and that was about the main thing that kept the both of them safe. Dragonflies were generally very agile creatures, they strived in precision, and they were capable of thinking critically, so Tim was in good hands! ¡°I gotta keep an eye on Arvena,¡± He muttered quietly, as he didn¡¯t want to distract the dragon. ¡°She made all that lava disappear, it''s almost like she drank it or some shit, because where the hell did half of it go? Twenty fucking meters of boiling rocks shouldn''t just disappear. I''m guessing that the yellow dragon is gone as well, so¡­ so much for eating its flesh.¡± Timothy was perplexed, but at least the lack of lava made his little trip a lot safer, as he could barely even feel the heat on his combat boots, nonetheless his skin. The hot lava was just too far away from the two of them, though it would still be deadly to fall into the pool, so they had to be careful. They made it to the other side of the cavern, where they scanned the twelve or so tunnel entrances afterwards. Now that they were up close, they could see that at least three of the tunnels were very short, and they''d lead into an instant dead end, so it was best to avoid them. Instead, he eyed a tunnel that was about twenty meters away from them, because he was almost sure that it wouldn''t lead them to a dead end. He looked at it a bit earlier, and noticed that it featured a strictly downwards path, and although it was likely that the bottom of it bore some amount of lava, it was still worth the risk to fly down there. ¡°Okay, we''re going in that one.¡± He pointed, ¡°But it was filled with lava up until a moment ago, so be careful, its ground has to be really hot, do not land on it. Also, you can see in the dark, right?¡± When the dragonfly nodded, Tim then said. ¡°Okay then, let''s go. Do not touch anything in there, just fly, that''s all you need to know.¡± With the plan sorted out, Billy then dived in. This was hardly a challenge for him, because the tunnel was five meters wide, it was very easy to fly through it without his wings hitting the walls. The two of them dove about fifteen meters deep, and Billy had to make a sharp turn afterwards, because that''s how the tunnel was shaped. The only other option had been to dive into this ditch of sorts where the remaining lava had pooled at, and that was very much against what either of them wanted. They progressed throughout the tunnel further, by flying upwards. They flew upwards for about fifty meters afterwards, and the tunnel was quite winding, but they made it through without any issues. They made it to another cave, and landed there because they were sure that the lava couldn''t have reached this high, even when it had been at the peak of its volume. The cave here was really cold, actually, and they felt the temperature drop seconds before getting up here. ¡°Okay, what do you see?¡± Tim asked, and his words echoed back to him, which confirmed that this cave was more of a cavern. ¡°I''m gonna light a torch, cause it''s not like you can answer me anyway. If you see a monster, don''t fight it, we can''t risk it, we''ll just turn back. Now let me get that torch¡­¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Tim lit the torch, and got a slightly better look of his surroundings, but he still couldn''t see much. The cavern was too big, and his torch was too small to shine any real light on his surroundings. He needed tens of such torches to make sense of things, but that wasn¡¯t possible right now, so he had to improvise. ¡°Let¡¯s hope there isn''t any flammable gas around here,¡± He said, and then shot a bunch of light fireballs across the cavern. The progress he had made regarding mana quality, gave him a much greater control of his abilities. He could pick how intensive each power of his could be, and in this case, he made the fire cold to the touch. Now cold fire was unheard of in any other context, but it was a simple trick, he just removed the heat out of the fireballs that he shot, and just kept the light on them, because it was the light he needed. Several fireballs flew across the cavern, but they weren''t in the air for long, as they dissipated before they could even hit anything. That was the main disadvantage with these heatless fireballs, they disappeared too quickly, but at least he wasn''t going to run out of them anytime soon. Each of them cost a single mana point to shoot. ¡°Nothing, there''s nothing here¡­¡± He sighed, he felt mopey. ¡°I guess finding nothing is better than finding another dragon.¡± Tim wanted to toss a few more fireballs across the cavern, just to have a final look at this place. After that, he just wanted to head back, but before he could do either of those, he heard something that was even more terrifying than the symbolic hollering of a dragon. He heard something mammalian, he heard the voice of a woman! ¡°Hello? Who''s there?¡± She asked. Tim did not want to answer, because at first he thought that a ghost was messing with him or something like that, but that was not the case. It was not a ghost. After gathering the guts, he decided to answer. ¡°I''m Terr-Timothy! Who the hell are you? Are you living in these caves? How many of you are there?¡± ¡°It''s just me, I''ve been alone for twelve years now.¡± She answered, and then with a clear hint of desperation in her tone, she asked. ¡°Is it finally over, did you kill Saranax?¡± ¡°Saranax?¡± Tim asked, he was clueless for a moment. ¡°The dragon, that''s what my ancestors named him. That''s its name in the old goblin tongue, it translates to Sulfur Demon! Please tell me you killed it!¡± She followed along, and by now it was noticeable that she was getting closer. ¡°Oh? That big yellow bastard? We killed it, my friend blew it out of existence a couple of minutes ago.¡± He answered, and he tapped his free hand on Billy¡¯s back, in order to have him look for this woman. Billy had apparently been planning on it already, because he pounced just a second later, and pinned that woman down. Any and all threats were seemingly eliminated there, because the system rewarded Timothy with the points that she promised him, upon the completion of task number ten. The Forbidden Caves were now safe, and he felt relieved to have the system confirm that! [Congratulations on the task completion. You managed to survive, and clear the Forbidden Caves, so you won 5,000 system points as a reward. In total, you''ve accumulated 9,000 points.] She confirmed. Now that was one of the best things that he could hear about, but he couldn¡¯t focus on this decent reward right now. He walked over to where Billy was at, and had a look at who he had just pinned down. Tim got a good glimpse of this very hairy goblin woman, and gasped in response. He had expected a ghost for a moment there, so it was surprising to him that Billy the dragonfly actually caught a living being instead! ¡°Who are you?¡± He asked her. Chapter 133 - Golden gift ¡°I''m Lisa,¡± The captive answered, ¡°Please keep your dragon away¡­ I hate dragons!¡± Timothy didn¡¯t want to hold a young lady captive, especially this hairy one who looks tough enough to beat him up, he didn¡¯t want to make her an enemy. However, meeting her here has raised a lot of questions, though he was terrified, he was also itching to know everything! ¡°Lisa, I need you to relax, okay? I just have two questions, and after that you can be free to do whatever you want.¡± He promised, and tried to appear calm for the sake of cooperation, but in reality he was really worked up. When the other nodded, he asked. ¡°How long have you been in these caves, and how did you end up down here?¡± ¡°I''ve been here ever since I was born,¡± She answered, and the indifference in her tone vouched that she was telling the truth. ¡°My parents were born here too, and my grandparents as well. Our ancestors were miners, but they were blocked in here by the lava that Saranax summoned.¡± ¡°Well, holy shit¡­¡± Tim''s mouth hung agape for a second, and then he tapped on Billy''s back, to have him free the captive. ¡°So, you never saw grass and shit like that?¡± ¡°My parents spoke of it, but I never saw it myself.¡± Lisa admitted, and as she stood up, she asked. ¡°Is it true that it tickles your feet?¡± ¡°I mean it depends, but oftentimes yes.¡± He said, and Lisa seemed like the happiest girl in the world once she heard that answer. However, considering the uniqueness of this situation, Timothy didn''t leave her alone with her thoughts for long, and therefore wiped the smile off of her face with another question. He had to be thorough, because this may be the most unique, and severe case of isolation in all of Valporovus! ¡°How did your people survive down here? How many of you were there in the beginning?¡± He asked. ¡°Fifty miners were trapped here in the beginning, about three-hundred years ago, twenty of them were women. After being trapped down here for more than five years, I guess everyone just decided to reproduce, because down here there was a greater strength in numbers. They ate rats, snakes and insects to stay alive, to survive, and this was substantial for a long time, until it finally wasn¡¯t. Throughout these past fifteen years, we''ve been struggling with food a lot. I buried a lot of my people, and although there were forty of us just fifteen years ago, they all died off. Now, it''s just me, I was unfortunate enough to survive.¡± She recited. ¡°Jesus¡­ that''s really sad.¡± He sighed, this was a terrifying story. ¡°Okay, you''re free now, but I''m also going to try and get some food in your gut as quickly as I can. First, we''ll have Billy here go and fetch you another dragon, because we have to fly you across the lava pool. You''re gonna bear with me until we get to the other side.¡± Billy the dragonfly understood the conversation, so he beamed down towards that lengthy tunnel afterwards without even being asked to, and left the two goblins alone. He was likely to return after a couple of minutes, though.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Anyway, after Billy left, Tim had to ask one more question. ¡°Is there anything else important in these caves, anything of value? I need you to be honest with me now, because we have a guy who can tell if you''re lying. You shouldn''t lie to your heroes.¡± At first, Lisa seemed hesitant to answer, but considering the circumstances, there wasn¡¯t any other way around it. Her hesitation gestured that she knew of something really important! ¡°The lava, there''s something below the lava. That''s why Saranax appeared to begin with, he was protecting whatever it is that my ancestors found.¡± She said, and left the other covered in goosebumps. There was a lot more intrigue to this trip then he thought, that was for sure. This was no meaningless mine-clearing mission, no, and he even started believing that the gods were messing with him again! The latter was plausible, but he had to decide what to do with this new information regardless, and he had to decide quickly, because theoretically, there wasn''t anything that could prevent another, powerful dragon from appearing out of thin air! He didn''t want to deal with another Saranax, because they would all die. ¡°Guess I should figure something out before the system takes those points away from me,¡± He thought, ¡°These bastarding caves could be only temporarily safe, I can¡¯t rule that out, so I gotta get below that lava as soon as possible. Maybe there¡¯s a dinosaur below the lava or some shit, maybe there is someone I can bargain with¡­¡± ¡­ Bolivamus Tal the Greater, or Billy for short, got to the other side of the lava pool, and reconnected with his friends. Everyone panicked when they saw him return without Timothy, even the dragons panicked, but Skendus helped make sense of things, because he could read through the pictures within the dragon¡¯s head. ¡°Tim''s okay,¡± He confirmed. In one way he was relieved that his friend was alive, but what he was about to say next got him and Ortana very tense again. It would appear that these caves had endless issues, and the team were saddled with fixing those issues! They felt really unlucky. He explained, ¡°Tim found another goblin down there, and judging from how hairy she is, she has to be one of the miners. She''s an Armor-hide Goblin through and through.¡± ¡°Hairy is okay, let¡¯s just hope she''s not godly. We''ve dealt with enough godly creatures today.¡± Ortana added. Ortana had Arvena rest over her lap, because she didn''t want to leave her unconscious body unsupervised. There was no telling when she was going to wake up. Furthermore, Ortana had the feeling that there were plenty of Yellow-bellied Cave Snakes around here, so she''d rather not have their only official guide in this micro-universe get eaten by a random snake. Anyway, about two minutes later, Skendus asked her. ¡°How do you feel, Ortana? I don''t want to pressure you considering everything that''s happening, but something weird is going on with you.¡± ¡°Weird?¡± She parroted, though she wasn''t oblivious to what the other was trying to say. ¡°Yes, really weird.¡± He insisted, and then added. ¡°I can''t read your brain anymore, Ortana. Did you escape the God''s Punishment Realm of mana back there?¡± ¡°No, I did not.¡± She refused. Afterwards, she raised her hands up in front of her face, to look at her golden veins once more. Almost instinctively, she summoned something that she had been avoiding for a few minutes now! She summoned a very physical spear on her hands, and it had the same shape, and color scheme as the spear that Arvena had summoned earlier on, before she fainted! Ortana held the heavy spear in her hand, and said. ¡°I don''t think this can bring down a lava dragon, maybe it can just kill a snake, I don''t know? The gods wanted me to have this ability, though, and I was unfortunate enough to receive it without my say-so.¡± Chapter 134 - Creative treasure hunting Bolivamus Tal the Greater, and his other dragon friend, made it across the lava pool and all that it entails. They got to where Timothy was hiding, and it was quite a journey to get here. ¡°Okay, our rides are here.¡± Tim said, and then he pointed at the second dragon. ¡°Do you wanna climb on top of Short Tail over there, Lisa? I saw him fly before, he''s a skilled little man.¡± ¡°Short Tail¡­ okay, as long as it means getting out of here.¡± She agreed. Afterwards, Lisa climbed on the dragon''s back, quite awkwardly, and ended up pinching the other a few times entirely by accident. She was neither happy, nor comfortable right now. ¡°I can''t believe I''m touching a dragon,¡± She gagged, and then said. ¡°We better get out of here quickly, before I throw up¡­¡± ¡°You should relax, these dragons aren''t the evil kind, they saved our lives a couple of days ago.¡± Tim said, and then he grabbed one of Lisa''s wrists, and placed it over the dragon''s horn. ¡°Hold on to those horns, cause these little guys are faster than they look.¡± Anyway, they started flying afterwards, and dove into the tunnel close to them. He was happy to leave this cavern for good now, because he knew that it wasn''t worth exploring it, and he developed that impression solely based on how desperate Lisa was to get out of here! This place was desolate, there wasn¡¯t anything in it. They reached the lava pool in no time. While they crossed it, he noticed that Lisa was covering her eyes, and he assumed that it was because she wasn''t used to such a great amount of light. It was unlikely that she was scared. Furthermore, he just noticed that she was wearing a lot of fur clothing. He hadn''t noticed the fur on her before, because his own burning questions had distracted him, but now he couldn¡¯t help asking himself what kind of furry, underground creature she had to kill in order to get her clothes. It was beyond him, but at this point, it was apparent that Lisa was as skilled as she was traumatized! There was no messing with her, and the thick, unshaved mustache on her face confirmed that too. The two of them made it to the other side of the lava pool, and that was where Tim regrouped with his friends. The two of them felt uncomfortable about meeting a Armor-hide Goblin down here, and even the dragons seemed jumpy, but it was just how their day turned out to be. For the sake of goodwill alone, they were introduced to each other, and Lisa ended up answering almost the same questions that Timothy had pried out of her just moments ago. Just like that, they started to get used to each other. Everyone felt pity for her, and fairly so, but Tim broke that cycle of sadness with his extreme enthusiasm. He first noticed the spear by Ortana''s side, and he pointed at it just like a child would if they saw a fun-looking toy. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± He asked. ¡°A less-than-celestial spear,¡± She joked, and then tossed her spear away just for show. The spear beamed above the lava pool, and once it hit the cavern walls that housed the pool, it caused a bit of a collapse. Though the collapse was not intensive, everyone felt a bit envious of this new ability of hers!This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°So that''s why your hands are golden now?¡± He pointed out, and then he shamelessly joked. ¡°You can summon your very own, pointy god stick, very nice!¡± There weren''t many ways for one to respond to his description, so Ortana played along. It was just harmless fun, and besides, it was a bit difficult to focus on jokes right now, she was focused on Lisa instead, and understandably so. It wasn''t easy to be in the presence of a creature whose bloodline had been isolated for three-hundred years now! ¡°Can you tell me¡­¡± Ortana was about to ask her a question, but Timothy interrupted her shortly after. Frantically, he asked. ¡°Plant lady, lava can''t break your forcefield, right?¡± ¡°No, it shouldn''t be able to break it.¡± She answered, though she was clearly annoyed by his seemingly endless energy. ¡°Why do you ask, Terrence, did you see another cave you want that to fly into?¡± ¡°No, I''ll tell you later.¡± He followed along, and then for some reason he emptied his backpack. ¡°Cover me with your forcefield now, and hop on Short Tail over there.¡± No one enjoyed working without much context, but she trusted his word. Timothy was known for making impulsive decisions, but he came back alive every time regardless of the intensity that his decisions brought. That was his charm, he was a curious guy. The two of them flew over the lava, and Tim had the dragons fly just ten meters lower, so he¡¯d get closer to the pool. Then, he had to guide everyone swiftly, or his plan might otherwise fail. Tim put his emptied, fur backpack over Billy the dragon''s mouth, and whispered to him. ¡°Breathe slowly into this, I''m trying to protect you. I should be back in two minutes.¡± Then, he asked Ortana to do the same. ¡°Try not to breathe in any lava fumes, it''s very toxic. Cover Short Tail¡¯s mouth as best as you can, and cover your mouth too! If you don''t feel okay, you can fly away from here as long as you can keep the forcefield going.¡± Ortana was confused, but she did as she was told, and she had to ask. ¡°What do you need the forcefield for? I don''t think that it¡¯ll protect you from the fumes...¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t let go of the forcefield, no matter what.¡± He said, and he rubbed Billy''s back afterwards. ¡°Don''t come after me.¡± Tim stood up, and jumped into the lava pool afterwards, head first, without thinking twice about it! This may be the most rash decision that he ever made, but it did not kill him, he pierced through the lava without feeling even the slightest bit of pain! However, he quickly found that the lava was too dense, it pushed him towards the surface just seconds later. This was not what he expected to happen, so he swam out of the lava quickly after, as he found a sort of dry spot close by, and he climbed out here on the dry grounds specifically because he spotted a volcanic rock of sorts. It gave him an idea. The rock was small enough for him to grab, and lift, but it weighed about ten kilos so it took some effort to lift it. Then, he waddled towards the lava, and jumped in it with the rock in his hands! The idea was to sink with it. This idea of his worked really well, as he sank in the lava along with the rock, and although he couldn''t see anything but this flaming shade of yellow afterwards, he still progressed. Tim''s feet touched the bottom of the lava pool, and as he started walking around with the aid of his couple of powers that helped him move faster, he eventually bumped into something that in a sense, wasn''t supposed to be at the bottom of the pool to begin with! Tim bumped into a pole, and he soon discovered that there was a tiny container at the very top of this pole. When he managed to touch the container, some sudden commotion pushed him upwards! However, he was very stubborn, so he grabbed onto the container so tightly that he brought it along with him! Tim did not find any dinosaurs. Chapter 135 - Fossilized surfboard Timothy finally managed to get a good look at the hand-sized container that he brought up with him, and noticed that there was a ring in it. The container was made out of some sort of light-blue crystal, and the crystal was very clear, so he could see through it no problem. ¡°So this is what Saranax protected for three-hundred fucking years? I was expecting to find the entrance to a world of dinosaurs or some shit, this ring can''t even buy me a house if I tried to sell it.¡± Tim ranted, he really liked dinosaurs. Anyway, despite how cleverly he had retrieved this ring out of a literal, hot pool of lava, he still wasn¡¯t the smartest man in the world. For example, he kept talking about dinosaurs, and completely ignored the possibility that this ring bore some kind of power! He didn¡¯t think of this until a whole minute later, after he got himself on some dry grounds. ¡°Shit, this ring could let me summon dragons or something! It summoned Saranax, and maybe it did that on purpose?¡± He asked himself, but despite how captivating that train of thought was, he had to forget about the ring for now, as he had to get out of here first. Although he wasn¡¯t affected himself, Tim''s friends were breathing in micro doses of volcanic fumes right now, and that was beyond dangerous, so he couldn¡¯t have them flying above his head for long, getting them out of here was his priority. This might as well be his priority, because he couldn¡¯t crack open the ring¡¯s container even if he stopped, and tried. Tim¡¯s friends were excited when they finally saw him swimming out of the lava, they were happy, but ultimately, they couldn''t fly him out of here! Ortana couldn''t get the dragons down here, because she couldn¡¯t run three force fields at a time, at least, not without absolutely destroying thousands of quantities of her accumulated mana! He couldn¡¯t ask that of her, and he couldn¡¯t risk them falling into the lava either, so he had to come up with a plan of his own to get out of here. ¡°God damn it, this place looks a lot deeper when you''re at the bottom. I didn''t think I''d have to climb to get out of here.¡± Again, what he said was very stupid, but the course of adrenaline that had run through his veins earlier on, only provided plans sound enough to keep him alive during the most critical parts of his tasks. Adrenaline didn¡¯t promise staircases. In other words, he didn¡¯t nearly think everything through, and this was alarming, but he didn¡¯t feel threatened even for a single second. If he could swim in lava, he could just as easily get out of a ditch! ¡°Okay¡­ climbing out of here isn''t an option.¡± He muttered, as he looked at the walls. Afterwards, he thought of a little idea that might work out for him. He summoned the Bone Multiplier ability, as he wanted to find a bunch of old animal bones to use.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Now it was very unlikely to find bones in this severely hot ditch, but he wanted to try anyway. In order to max out the bone-searching capabilities of this power, he stretched his hand out, and allowed strong volumes of this dark, cloudy mist to pour out of his hand! This intensified the ability he was using, because he was directing a great portion of his mana towards his hand. Timothy had low hopes about this plan working, but he was mistaken, as about twenty seconds later, the mist found something! It found some bones deep below the lava pool. ¡°Oh, this is gonna be expensive¡­¡± He sighed, ¡°But what choice do I have?¡± Choices were limited within a lava pool, regardless of the circumstances, so he worked tightly with what he had. Tim cranked the Bone Multiplier ability to the max, which cost him a solid two-hundred mana points per second to maintain, but he was hoping to make progress soon, so he kept going, he kept pouring all that mana towards that bone! ¡°I just need a couple of bones to fly out of here,¡± He mumbled. A moment later, he noticed a small wave in the pool of lava. This wave was very minimal, but it still hinted that there was something going on below it, and that hint was apparently very informative, because a bone of sorts popped out of the lava right after! ¡°Holy shit! That''s not a bone, that''s a fucking fossil!¡± He exclaimed, and he was quite happy, because a fossil would do him good as well. Tim had pulled a crystalized skull out of the lava, and although the skull wasn''t big, it was a skull nonetheless, so he started putting work into it. Using his unique ability, he split the skull into ten pieces, and then had those pieces multiply into hundreds! Afterwards, he brought all the pieces together, and merged them, in a very physical sense. He turned them into a single, four-foot long bony, surfboard, a fossilized board sure but useful nonetheless, because he could have the board float around with the same, Bone Multiplier ability. It floated with his say-so. Tim hopped onto the board, and joked. ¡°Pre-necromantic¡­? This power is straight up demonic in my hands, it has to he demonic if I can eventually become strong enough to turn my enemies into fucking surfboards!¡± There was no greater way to show how useful this ability was, he was simply overpowered with the Bone Multiplier to his possession! He felt immortal for a second, but then he remembered that Ortana was the one who was keeping him alive, so he decided to be a bit more humble. Teamwork made the dream work, after all. Anyway, after he climbed on top of the floating board, he then couldn''t resist this great, impulsive urge to go lava surfing, so he did exactly that! He surfed across the lava, and didn''t worry about burning his feet, because he was protected. When the surfboard started melting, however, he stopped surfing, and immediately floated towards the only good exit that the cavern had. He floated towards the rest of his friends, and Ortana followed after him! The bones had melted into his combat boots at the end, so he had to dissolve the melted bones quickly, and then he had to make a jump for it. He ended up landing on Georgie the dragon, which was less comfortable than he would imagine, because Georgie in this case was like a brick wall, Tim felt his brain shake! He didn''t stick the landing, unfortunately, but he did make it out alive, and that was what mattered the most. [Congratulations, you just spent 3,000 mana points.] The system remarked, sarcastically. Chapter 136 - The second blessing ¡°It''s never a boring day without you, kid.¡± Skendus complimented, as he helped the other get up. ¡°Your bravery is¡­ excessive.¡± Lisa added. ¡°Thankses you tew,¡± He blurted, and at this point, it was obvious that the forcefield would not protect him, if it was Tim who behaved like a projectile. ¡°I got ring.¡± When Ortana saw him afterwards, she bent over, laughing. She kept him safe so far, so she didn''t feel bad about laughing at his current, poor mental state. She was bent over double! Tim was left to rest afterwards, because he really needed to. It wasn''t like he cared about that ring all that much either, because as mentioned before, he had hoped to find dinosaurs below the lava, so he gave the ring to Skendus without thinking about it twice. Half of what he did recently was nonsensical, but he managed to come back alive from his impulsive attempts, so it did not matter if he didn''t make any sense. Anyway, after he crashed out, Skendus eyeballed the ring, and muttered. ¡°Fascinating¡­ to think that this little ring caused so much pain, and suffering. I imagine it couldn''t have been fun for that dragon to be stuck in here for three-hundred years, and odds are he was summoned very much against his will as well.¡± ¡°Do not feel sympathy for Saranax,¡± Lisa interrupted him, her mustache twitching in anger. ¡°My ancestors were trapped here as well, but they didn''t kill hundreds of miners in response! Saranax was nothing but an evil, old dragon.¡± ¡°I''m purely speaking from an observational point of view. Sorry for not introducing myself properly, I''m Skendus, and I¡¯m an illusionist.¡± He followed along. Although Lisa was oblivious as to what an illusionist was, she still calmed down, and tried to be cooperative. After all, these people were her best shot at understanding what she was to expect from the top-side of the world. She was hoping to keep it a secret that she was the last survivor of her little tribe, as this was a very sad thing to mention in any, and all occasions. She wanted to live the rest of her life as peacefully as she could, and she had a lot to look forward to as well, because she was only in her twenties, and had a long life to live. ¡°We''ll protect you,¡± Skendus suddenly said, breaking the deafening silence. ¡°From an observational point of view, you seem like a good-hearted lady, and deserve to live the rest of your life in peace.¡± Lisa didn''t panic in the response to the other''s deep insight, but just nodded along, and she thought. ¡°So illusionists can read minds¡­ That''s great, he''ll eventually figure out that I used pointy rocks to satisfy myself. How can my life get any more embarrassing than this?¡± Skendus did not flinch, but it was obvious that he picked up on that train of thought. He was visibly uncomfortable, but picked the ethical way out of this awkward situation, by not talking about the embarrassing things. He instead started asking questions about the ring, as the ring was more important right now. ¡°So, you don''t know anything about this ring?¡± He asked. ¡°No,¡± She answered, ¡°We always thought, well¡­ my ancestors believed that Saranax was trying to protect its eggs. This is the first time I hear about this ring that you''re holding.¡± Skendus believed her, because after all, he could read through minds, so it didn''t matter what she admitted to. He could check if she was lying, he did check immediately, and matched her words with her thoughts. Lisa was clean, she wasn¡¯t a liar. Anyway, since she didn''t know anything either, everyone was stumped as to what they were supposed to do with the ring. Skendus tried pouring some raw mana on the ring''s case, because he wanted to lure the casing with mana in order to get it to open, but he didn¡¯t have any luck. They just had to set the ring aside, and hope that it wouldn''t summon another dragon.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Skendus put it in his bag afterwards, and tried to forget about the ring for a moment. With their task regarding the Forbidden Caves finished, he hoped that Arvena would wake up soon, so they could get out of here. He was brought up in caves and tunnels himself, so he saw more of them than he would ever wish to see. ¡°That priest owes us more than a blessing, the exchange looks really unfair to me.¡± He thought, and he felt cheated. ¡°I have half a mind to bring my entire sect to this universe, and build a church that openly detests the Mana Gods! They can ¡®mark¡¯ me all they want after that.¡± ¡­ Arvena woke up after three hours. She needed a lot of recovery time, that''s for sure, but everyone waited for her willingly, because they understood that she made a great sacrifice just earlier on! The sacrifice she made required the greatest willpower, and her symbolic willpower will not be forgotten anytime soon. Everyone welcomed her with a warm smile on their face, and after they helped her catch up with some of the more recent events, they were ready to be on the move. They headed towards the exit, and admittedly, they needed a moment to find their way out of these winding, perplexing tunnels, but they made it out eventually. After everyone crossed the exit, Tim spent a bit more time destroying the barricade that the seven-meter wide entrance of the Forbidden Caves had. He would have to crush a lot of rocks if he wanted to remove the barricade entirely, and he knew he couldn''t do that, so he just crushed the largest boulders of the bunch instead, and watched a quarter of the barricade collapse within itself. A couple of rock slides later, he made the Forbidden Caves perfectly accessible. The goblins from Manape had just to put a bit of work in to clean the rest of the mess themselves, they had to, because Timmy already did more than he was asked to do. Anyway, they made their way to the Church of Gulism afterwards, and they were happy to tell the priest that the Forbidden Caves were less forbidden now. The caves were perfectly safe to enter, as long as a tunnel wouldn''t collapse over anyone¡¯s heads, but that was beyond Tim''s pay grade. He didn¡¯t care about future collapses. It was dusk now, so the team was also craving to settle down and rest for a while. Although the priest didn''t offer them rooms for the night, he did finally agree to ¡®bless¡¯ them, as this was what the team came here for to begin with! ¡°The Church of Gulism acknowledges your bravery, marked ones. It is under my authority, on behalf of the church, to bless you and your efforts. I bless you, and may your paths lead to greater, pure deeds!¡± The priest recited. For a second, it felt worthless to be spoken positively off, because neither of them respected this priest to begin with. They considered him to be really greedy, regardless of how he stated that he cared about his people so dearly. They couldn''t stomach his attitude, but when the altar shone after he said that he blessed them, the team relaxed, as they were now very sure that this church blessed them as well. Considering that they needed just another blessing from the third church in the row, in order to remove the Mark of Death from their souls, they were now pretty excited! The letter H disappeared from their foreheads as well, so they were ever so grateful. Their little mission here was over. ¡°There is an Inn across the street,¡± The priest rushed them, ¡°Go sleep there for the night, and leave tomorrow. I understand that you fought a dragon, you are heroes, but please take any kind of bad luck that you might have caught in those caves, and get it out of my city! My people have suffered enough, and we shall only progress from this point onwards.¡± ¡°I surfed on lava,¡± Tim said randomly, and then made his way out of the church. He still had a bit of a concussion. The team said their goodbyes to the priest, and then followed after Tim. They really needed to rest now, and furthermore, since the priest wasn''t aware of that special ring¡¯s existence, they decided to keep it for themselves, so they avoided the topic all together! They too were greedy this time around. Lisa was with them, she had waited outside the church, but she did follow them to the Inn. She seemed to like the outside world so far, and regarding her identity, they decided to keep it a secret, because the priest would surely try to exploit both her, and any kind of knowledge that she had. Lisa spent the night with the rest of the group, and she was very happy to be around them, though she discovered that she didn¡¯t like being around her own race of people all that much. Her feelings about this city were mixed, she didn¡¯t know what to think, but for now she was very excited to try the hot meals that Timothy had mentioned. Chapter 137 - The Church of Ontarum The next morning, the team woke up alive and well. A lightning bolt hadn''t struck them in their sleep, and considering their streak of bad luck, that was good. It was always good to not get struck by lightning. Aside from a hot beef stew at night, the team shared a warm cabbage soup in the morning. The menu items in this Inn were really cheap, on the account that this city was very poor, so the team could buy things without batting an eyelid. They still had some gold on them, Arvena mostly, but they''d be fine in a while regarding food money. Lisa seemed to have liked both of her meals a lot. Between eating raw meat throughout her entire life, and those types of meat being limited to three-to-four species, she couldn''t say that she ever had a square meal up until last night. The caves had not been good to her, she was very happy to be out, she enjoyed warm meals thoroughly. Anyway, regarding Lisa, she wasn¡¯t very fond of the contents that a big, bustling civilization offered. She thought that there were too many people around here, there was too much noise, so she''d rather be somewhere that wasn''t a big city. She decided that she wanted to build a house along the mountainside, a wooden house to be exact, as everyone else in this city lived in those. The house would be located above the Forbidden Caves, so if she ever wanted to visit her original home again, or if she wanted to help out in the mines, she could do so easily. With this idea of hers, she''d have a foot on the doors of both worlds, and this was what she was the most comfortable with. She explained her plan to the team, and they only wished her good luck, and gave her some gold to get started with her wholesome plan. They figured that a bit of gold would help her get a long way, it would at least make her first year easier as she tried to adapt to the outside world. ¡°We''ll be going now, Lisa.¡± They started saying their goodbyes, and Tim added. ¡°No offense, but I''ll never step foot in this shithole again, unless I want cheap food.¡± ¡°That''s okay,¡± She chuckled lightly, ¡°Have a safe trip to¡­ wherever you''re going.¡± ¡°Stay safe here, okay? Don''t get into any trouble.¡± Skendus then added, and winked at her. Lisa nodded, and avoided eye contact. Anyway, the team then finally made their way out of Manape, and this felt like the best hour of their life to them. They hated this city thoroughly, so they walked out of here joyfully, and planned to never come back! The next city that they were supposed to go to, was fifty kilometers away from them, and it was located southeast. Now this would''ve been a great distance if they had to walk on foot, it would take them days to reach the other city, but thankfully, transportation was easy for them considering that they had dragons to their side! The team went on to fetch the dragons across the mountainside, it didn¡¯t take long to reach them. Gothatar Ice Veins, Bolivamus Tal the Greater, and his little pals seemed just as enthusiastic to get out of here, now, and for good! ¡­ The city of Runimus was an interesting place. It is said to be a haven for arcane practices that aren''t as usual amongst the average mages, such as illusion magic, telekinetic magic, and sculpting magic. The latter made the city a lot more breathtaking as a result, because the place was filled with great architects!This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Though the architecture was great here, it was also very limited, because there weren''t that many people living here. The city was more of a town, to be exact, as it looked really small from the sky, and it didn¡¯t strike anyone as a city. It must have about fifteen-hundred buildings at most! It was hardly the domain of the century, especially in terms of population, but it was worth the visit. It was a beautiful place, and the third church was here, so the team had to visit it regardless if they wanted to or not. After they had the dragons hide within some hills, they then made their way towards the city. Later on, they discovered that the church wasn''t inside the city to begin with, it was located on a flat field, five-hundred meters away from the city. A patrolling guard told them about this, so it spared everyone an unnecessary walk to the city. They walked to the church, and discovered that it might have the most interesting shape yet. Much like its symbol, the Church of Ontarum was built in the form of a pyramid, and it was built entirely out of a darker type of stone! It was simply weird to call it a church. Regarding pyramids, Timothy was reminded of the countless, brain-rotting conspiracy theories back on earth, so he proceeded to this place with extra caution. According to procedure, the entrance guards marked their foreheads as well, because they could sense that this team was not welcome here, even by the gods. A tattoo-like pyramid was imprinted on everyone''s forehead, and so, they entered. This church looked big from the outside, it was about fifty meters wide, and equally as tall, it was enormous! However, from the inside, it was a snug place, without much room for anything other than prayer. They had to follow a single, three-foot wide, square corridor for about fifteen meters, until they finally reached the altar room! The altar room was only two meters tall, and six meters wide, so it wasn¡¯t exactly remarkable. This church didn''t seem to care much about decorations either, because there wasn¡¯t a single thing in this room other than the statue-like altar. There weren''t even any benches here, just a four-foot wide, dark-stone pyramid! ¡°At this rate I wouldn''t be surprised if Anubis popped up, and beat the crap out of us with his wonder stick.¡± Tim thought, but he kept his thoughts quiet because he didn¡¯t want to upset the gods any further than he already did. The church''s priest entered the altar room through another corridor, and greeted the team. He was surprised to see them, so they assumed that this place wasn''t visited very often, not by strangers at least. The priest caught up afterwards, as he noticed the type of unholy stench that the visitors bore. Only priests noticed this smell from the looks of it, so the rest of the conversation became easier. ¡°So, you''ve been marked for death? I''m assuming you came here for my blessing?¡± The priest asked. ¡°Yes, priest.¡± Arvena spoke, she was the calmest goblin of the bunch. ¡°We''ve put everything aside, to obtain the blessing of the great three churches, and we only need your blessing to rid the Mark of Death off of us for good.¡± ¡°May I ask why you''ve been marked to begin with? What did you do to displease the Mana Gods?¡± He asked. ¡°We didn¡¯t do anything more than anyone else in this universe. Valporovus is a haven for the improvement of mana quality, and we were doing just that, we were improving our mana all of this time.¡± She answered, and this was a part of the truth. ¡°You must continue to please all of the gods, rather than just the mana gods.¡± He stated, and then explained. ¡°I can''t bless you unless I know that you''re on the path to do good deeds, I need to see a grand gesture from all of you, and I''m not talking about gold.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± She sighed, though she also nodded in cooperation. Then, the priest added. ¡°The dragon problem has only increased throughout Valporovus, they''re gaining too much of an advantage over the entirety of the goblin kind. There is a particular dragon that burned down twelve villages recently, and we''re set out to kill it, to at least discourage any other dragon that wants to follow his steps. We''ve named this monster, we call him Iron Claw the Wicked. Now I don''t expect you to kill him yourselves, but you must take part in his demise, so go find Guard Master Zedim, in the city, and tell them it was I who sent you. When that dragon dies, you will have my blessing, as you¡¯d have pleased the gods, and restored a sort of equilibrium.¡± Chapter 138 - The old dragon ¡°Stupid Iron Claw, stupid city¡­¡± Tim grunted, he was not happy that they were sent out to do another task here. ¡°We''re nowhere closer to reaching the Ruins of Aqumus, all because of these damned churches! Fuck their stupid villages, I just want to be a grand ass wizard!¡± One could tell from his incomprehensive blurts that he was not happy, his head was steaming in rage! From all of the things that he expected from this universe, he did not expect these sect-like churches, and the insane tasks that they demanded finished. Tim was just a stingray before this, and by the natural order of things, Stingrays weren''t supposed to fight dragons! ¡°Random ass universe,¡± He grunted. Those were amongst the many reasons why he was annoyed. Regardless of how creative he was at finding solutions for his challenges, he had still expected a straight forward path towards mana quality improvement. Much like a child, he didn¡¯t want to face any challenges whatsoever, but he still obliged. Skendus had a different attitude towards this matter. Sure he didn''t look forward to fighting a dragon, but he was very eager to explore the city, solely because of the many illusionists that lived there! The entrance guard of the church told him about it, and mentioned that there even was a sect of illusion within the city, so it was fair to say that he was beyond excited to explore his opportunities! ¡°A sect¡­¡± He muttered, and then he vocalized. ¡°There¡¯s a sect of illusion there, guys. Maybe I can finally pick up a book, Arvena, because I''m due to learn something new. My powers have served me well, but they''ll hardly help me take a dragon down now, will they?¡± ¡°Books are always a good idea,¡± She nodded, and then jokingly flirted. ¡°Read enough books, and then maybe I''ll let you marry me.¡± Anyway, they made it to the city, and were directed to the main Guard House with the help of a few fellow men that patrolled the area. The people here were really helpful, and it was likely because they were very comfortable in their own city, they were handy people. Every single goblin of this city was of a single race, and they were considered the superior race by some due to various reasons. They were Fal Goblins. The team saw a Fal Goblin before, in the nano-universe of Nul, but they only saw a single one of them. The Fal Goblin there helped them get into the Energy Pocket space, where they had a couple of mana brackets removed from their mana quality progress. That journey was quite the experience, but they expected for that race of goblins to be exclusive to Nul, they didn''t expect to see hundreds of them in this city! Even Arvena had been oblivious to their existence. These goblins were typically buff, pale on the skin, four feet tall, and had more hair on their heads than the average goblin. They were considered rather beautiful creatures too, so the team kept ogling every goblin that passed by them! ¡°Nice,¡± Tim grinned, to a pair of jiggling butt-cheeks that crossed his path. Anyway, apart from the fine goblins, the city was very beautiful as well. Considering that there were plenty of mages that practiced sculpting magic in the city, it wasn¡¯t a surprise how every house seemed to have a design of their own. Some houses looked medieval, some made of marble, and some looked like they came out of the twenty-first century from earth! The only thing that was missing here was electricity, and if they had electricity, they''d truly be the most superior race on the planet!The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°God damn, that house looks like two snakes fucking!¡± Tim pointed out, he was amazed. It was easy to get lost in this city, especially since there weren''t any protective walls surrounding it to keep them on track. They had to be attentive, as they couldn''t admire this place forever, so with enough effort, they found the main Guard House that they were supposed to visit. They were welcomed there very formally, and quickly, so it was obvious that the guards had intercepted plenty of such ¡®volunteers¡¯ before. They knew what they were doing. The team were invited to the Guard Master''s office, where they had a chat regarding what was to follow. He was very direct. ¡°Hello, I''m Guard Master Zedim, please make yourselves comfortable.¡± He said, and then he asked. ¡°Okay, so, can any of you shoot fireballs? We need mages with offensive powers.¡± ¡°Fireballs and lightning bolts,¡± Tim raised his hand, ¡°Amongst other things.¡± ¡°I can shoot fireballs as well,¡± Arvena added, since they were being direct here. ¡°Just fireballs, though, nothing else.¡± Zedim then looked at the other two members of the team, and wanted to get an answer out of them without asking for it. The Guard Master looked like a bear with this set of big, luscious, and curly hair of his, so he was very good at putting some pressure on the bunch. ¡°No balls from me, just spears.¡± Ortana joked around. ¡°Spears?¡± Zedim nodded, ¡°That''s a new one.¡± Skendus was the only one that didn''t answer. He didn''t have any powers that were directly offensive, and he wasn''t worried about looking stupid because of that, no, but he was nervous to explain what branch of magic he practiced. It might not be intercepted well. ¡°I''m an illusionist, so¡­¡± He tried to speak, but the other cut his words short. ¡°That''s not a problem, head over to the Floating Pupil sect, and learn a couple of offensive powers for yourself. Dragons tend to be immune to cognitive attacks, so don''t try to hypnotize them if you ever face one, or whatever it is you do. You should also learn the duplicate illusion, it tends to be effective if you''re a runner.¡± Zedim explained, he was quite thorough. However, this was exactly the kind of treatment that Skendus had feared, this was worse than being ridiculed. Sure he wanted to read a bunch of books here, and learn new skills, but he didn¡¯t want to be treated like an imbecile, just because he couldn¡¯t shoot fireballs. Though illusionists didn''t typically burn people alive, they were still dangerous, and the very opposite of imbeciles as a matter of fact! His head was steaming, he was not happy. Then, Zedim added. ¡°Do not take part in any covert actions this week, not unless you learned the three main offensive attacks. Find the sect, we¡¯ll be in touch.¡± Skendus was then asked to leave the room. This overall treatment from the Guard Master''s side seemed harsh, but in reality he didn''t want to have any one of his volunteers die due to being underprepared, as the latter was one of the greatest ways to lose any decent manpower that a domain had! Anyway, after Skendus left, Zedim then turned his attention to the rest of the team, and said. ¡°Iron Claw the Wicked is an evil, old dragon, and he is not someone to be trifled with, so I''m going to need all of you to be prepared for anything. At the very least, you should know how to stay alive, so go to the training yard behind us, and have a trainer assess your abilities. They''ll tell you what you''re lacking, and they won''t waste your time, because the gods know that Iron Claw isn''t wasting any time either...¡± Chapter 139 - "Why you no precise?" Timothy and a training yard were a bad combination. He had a lot of powers to show, and he wasn''t scared of showing them, because even though the majority of these goblins were a couple of levels above him in terms of mana quality, he did not fear them. A couple of levels weren''t enough to protect one''s self from an Electro Nerve Splitter attack, for example, and that was why he did not fear anyone here! Tim, and the remaining team members were sent to target practice, and the targets here were made entirely out of stone. Since the training yard was more of a field, stretching a hundred meters wide, he had all the room in the world to portray his powers in a barbaric manner, without worrying about hitting someone by accident! Timothy unleashed a thunderclap against a stone target, and caused a huge, foot-wide hole on it! The thunderclap allowed him to unleash several bolts at the same time, but it would appear that the bolt in the middle was always the most power-amped. Once he saw the hole on the statue, he got this idea to try and concentrate his numerous thunderbolts into a single, deadly bolt once more, and he guessed that this would be effective even against a dragon! ¡°That''s a good shot, I can very much sense that your mana quality is at level six.¡± The guard trainer complimented, and this was one of the best compliments to give to a fellow mage. Once Timothy smirked, his smugness was wiped off of his face immediately after, as the trainer asked him a question. ¡°This level must be very new to you, I''m guessing? Your bolts almost hit a civilian on the other side of the stone wall there.¡± ¡°Almost,¡± Tim grinned, ¡°They¡¯re fine.¡± The trainer was not one for humor, so he swiftly commanded. ¡°You should get closer to the targets. Try to be more precise with your shots, and also, don''t spend so much mana on every shot you make, as mana is scarce in any universe! Always be savvy.¡± Timothy then did what he was told, because regardless of his damaged ego, he was given good advice here. He had spent thousands of mana points throughout the mission they completed in the Forbidden Caves, for example, and that surely was a lot! He had to figure out how to use his powers more responsibly. Anyway, the guard trainer then went over to Ortana, and asked her. ¡°So, you toss spears, right? That''s really new, so I don''t quite know how to train you¡­ how far can you toss the spears, in terms of meters?¡± With little effort, she summoned a spear on her hands afterwards. The spear was heavy, about seven kilos as it was very thick, so she had a bit of trouble moving it around without the aid of magic. She seemed sloppy for a second, but after she tossed the spear at speeds that the average eye would almost miss, she distracted at least a quarter of the people in the training yard! Her toss was explosive!This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. A loud thud was heard once the spear hit the target. She actually managed to split a tall, human-shaped target in half, which was a very grand display of her powers! Although she used magic to toss it, she did all that damage using only the hard, iron metalwork of the spear, nothing else! There were no elemental powers attached to her attack, the spear simply inflicted damage with its raw, physical velocity! ¡°That is impressive, you might even poke a little hole on Iron Claw with that attack.¡± The trainer said, and then he advised. ¡°You can toss your spear for about thirty meters with good precision, it''s exemplary. How about you go on the other side of the field, and try to achieve the same damage from a hundred meters distance? Your powers are strong, but you need to be more precise, so walk over to the other side, and try your best to not to hit any civilians, please.¡± ¡°Will do, chief.¡± She nodded, and then she stuck her tongue out at Timothy, just to taunt him. ¡°You had your bolts since forever, kid, you should handle them better by now!¡± ¡°Mind your business you weedy bastard,¡± He grunted, and hurled another bolt at a stone target. Anyway, Arvena and her abilities were assessed lastly, because it was a bit more difficult to work with someone who had crossed the God''s Punishment Realm of mana. People with her firepower were unique, they were powerful, so it was very easy to misunderstand their abilities, and give her bad advice as a result. The trainer needed to calm his nerves down, so he drank half a bottle of ale, and then walked over to her. Then, he went on and made a couple of good points. ¡°Okay, let''s see your fireball, lady. We don¡¯t see as many volunteers from the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana, not as many as we would want to see, so I''m counting on your firepower. Can you destroy that target?¡± ¡°If I try to destroy it from here, I''ll set at least four houses on fire.¡± She admitted, ¡°Bigger fireballs tend to be less precise, regardless of what realm of mana you''re in.¡± With that said, Arvena was asked to get closer to the target. Being just ten meters away from it, she managed to absolutely disintegrate the stone target in front of her with a single, two-meter wide fireball! If she used a bigger one, then she would surely cause casualties. Only ashes and dust remained from the target, which was terrifying, because it wasn¡¯t easy to get ashes out of a literal, hard stone! ¡°Very good, but it bothers me how the lot of you struggle with precision.¡± The trainer sighed, and then he commanded. ¡°Go to our local library and grab the Book of Fire, it''s absolutely free to read. Find the Laser Shot ability in that book, and study it thoroughly, because it may be the greatest ability you¡¯ve learned yet. With an ability like that, and with a mana quality like yours, you''ll be one of the few people here who can actually harm Iron Claw the Wicked. Good luck on your training, we¡¯ll be in touch!¡± Arvena was really pleased with the idea of learning a new ability, so she did as she was told. She darted out of the training yard, and left her friends alone here, but neither of them really minded being left alone. This training yard was as safe as a bunker, no one would bother them here. The two of them trained freely, but about an hour later, their main trainer had them teamed up with a bunch of other, less-than-precise volunteers. There were twenty of them in total, and together, they were given a task of slaying a bunch of invasive bugs! The bugs were venomous, agile, and ate sheep, so it was bound to be a challenge to slay them, but it was great target practice nonetheless. Timothy was quite irritated today, so not only was he happy about this task, but he was impulsive too, he was looking forward to it. He wanted to turn a bug into a surfboard! Chapter 140 - Phantom Hands Before they were sent out to squash some bugs, the guards and volunteers were given some time to prepare. Squashing those bugs was bound to be a two-day campaign, so apart from everyone needing to wear a suit of armor, they also had to pack their bags with food and supplies. Preparation was mandatory if they were to be successful, that''s what the trainers said! Tim and Ortana were already wearing armor, so they just had to stuff their backpacks with food, and a couple of blankets too. They were given an hour to prepare, but they got ready in ten minutes. This was good, because the two of them had these separate, personal tasks in mind that they wanted to get to. Tim was worried about the dragons, he didn¡¯t want to leave them alone in the open fields for two days, so he snuck away from the training yard, and beamed out of the city with all the speed that he could muster! Tim paired his Flaming Fins ability, with his Freezing Blood ability, which together allowed him to move really fast! Although he wasn¡¯t a superhero, he still managed to run up to a top speed of 24 km/h! Though that didn¡¯t sound like a lot itself, it was surely a great momentum for a little goblin such as himself, and he was practically leaving a dust cloud behind him! Tim got to the dragons and back, in under ten minutes, and he had darted through the hills so effectively, that he even found them a great hiding spot for the week. He led them to a little lake that was very much covered by the surrounding trees, so they¡¯d be as safe there as they would be in any cave. ¡°We¡¯ll be gone for a few days, but we''ll be back for you.¡± Tim explained to the dragons, ¡°There are fish in the lake, so you have plenty of food to go around. Try not to get spotted by anyone, but if you do get spotted, just eat the goblins, I couldn¡¯t care less.¡± The dragons were very cooperative, so he left them with a clear conscience on him, and got back to the training yard rather quickly. He was so fast, that it was almost like he wasn¡¯t gone at all, so the five-thousand mana points that he spent were very much worth it. He was not savvy. When he got back, he noticed that Ortana was experimenting with her powers. This was the personal matter that she was attending to, she was honing her abilities in a way that evaded common training, and although that sounded bad, experimenting was often tied with decent results! ¡°That looks new,¡± Tim approached her, as he nodded at these big, manly, phantom hands that were floating near Ortana. ¡°The Shaman¡¯s Grip ability? Oh, no, it¡¯s not new, I just haven¡¯t gotten around to using it, with you guys doing the killing and stuff. I¡¯m guessing that it¡¯ll be very effective if I want to slap a bunch of bugs, and it¡¯s also useful for other things.¡± She explained.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re already practicing the ¡®other things¡¯, so how about you give me a little show?¡± He encouraged her, and as she agreed, she then asked him to back away for a few feet. The Shaman''s Grip ability was really literal. She could summon up to five, three-foot long phantom hands, and move them upon her will. Now this ability wasn''t particularly useful, because it was both expensive to cast and had a short reach, so it was hardly an offensive ability, but when paired with her new ability, it had a certain charm! Ortana led by example. She summoned four phantom hands, and then she summoned four spears, and held them with the help of the phantom hands! Dual casting was expensive, but the pairs of hands she summoned may as well make the expenses worthwhile. Ortana grabbed the spears, and then tossed all four of them against one of the stone targets! The spears whistled with speed, and considering that she was only thirty meters away from the target, her accuracy ended up being truly remarkable! Not only did she destroy the targets, but the spears also sunk into the thick, stone wall which was built behind the target! This quadruple spear attack was very effective. ¡°That was fucking amazing!¡± Tim celebrated more than her, and he also encouraged her. ¡°That''ll kill the bugs!¡± ¡°Yes, it should.¡± She agreed, and she was calmer in comparison, mildly concerned even. ¡°Dual casting is very expensive, though. It costs me 120 mana points the second I toss a spear with my phantom hands, so I''m hoping not to use this trick unless we get absolutely swarmed.¡± ¡°Hah, you worry too much. I just spent 5,000 points to visit our little flying pals.¡± He laughed, though inwardly he started to realize how much those points actually were. He was laughing, but his heart was strained. Anyway, everyone got ready to depart afterwards. There was a bit of a journey in front of them, and they expected it to be tiresome, and surely a pain-in-the-bum for some, more than others. It was only a matter of who would have the worst luck. Timothy noticed that the other volunteers were all of different races, neither of them were Fal Goblins, neither of them were residents of the city. Considering the overall racism in this universe, he very much believed that the Fal Goblins saw every other race as cattle, it was very possible. With that considered, he suspected that this bug squashing task, was more of a suicide mission! This conclusion didn''t sound crazy, but then he remembered that they also had a big dragon to slay, which was a task that they had to get to sooner or later. If they were going to participate in a suicide mission, then going after Iron Claw the Wicked sounded like a better use of manpower. He relaxed a bit, though he was still paranoid. ¡°Volunteers my ass, everyone came here out of desperation, not willpower. Let''s hope these bastards actually want to keep us alive, and let''s hope their exaggerated preparedness isn''t just for show.¡± Tim thought, and then, they departed. Come vote your favorite plot outline for Volume 4! Unfortunately, I thought of another, pretty good plot outline for Volume 4. Odds are I will think of more, but I didn''t want to forget this one. As you now, I''m using the Mana Root Harvesting plot on Volume 3, purely because you voted for it here, but even though I''m just several chapters into Volume 3, I already thought of another plot that sounds interesting to me. You know the drill. I''m going to list the three, available plot outlines, and at the bottom of the post, you can vote for your favorite. It will take a while to finish Volume 3, so you guys have all the time in the world to come and vote. #1 - Demonic Dimension Plot ~ I don''t have this outline entirely figured out, but basically, Timothy and his friends get summoned in a sea, in one of the many dimensions of hell. Since one could summon demons from hell, it only makes sense that demons to summon animals from the main universe. I think this can be a very unique, neverbefore used plot, so if you like it, be sure to vote for it. #2 - Body Switching Plot ~ Timothy and the team switch bodies with other fish, from across the world, where their soul, their essence, is easier to develop. In the world of magic, one has to have a tough soul, so this plot will help develop that aspect of the story, whilst keeping the team in the sea. The latter will help keep the base aspect of the story of Tim being a Stingray, alive.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. 3# - Sea Orc Plot ~ Timothy and his friends would have to help humans here, a city of humans, who are suffering from Sea Orcs, that had shapeshifted to walk the lands. A Sea Orc is a dragon who lives in the sea, as the name suggests, but a few hundred of them had decided to invade the lands, so they figured out how to shapeshift, and turned into twelve-foot-tall humans. Or, er, Orcs? The point is that they can walk, they''re practically indestructible, and can destroy cities no matter the Arcane standard of a city. #4 - Mana Channel Universe Creation Plot ~ This contains a spoiler! On the latter chapters of Volume 2, Timothy learns how to make new abilities, using the manipulation of mana channels. Now imagine a god doing the same, but creating universes, rather than powers. This plot would include the team entering a special universe of a certain mana god, and performing specific tasks that would aid their understanding of mana channels. This in turn, would help the team learn what it would take to create a micro universe, nano universe, or needle universe. It''s perplexing, but I didn''t want to forget this idea, so I''m jotting it down here. You can vote below. It''s also worth noting that the Sea Orc plot got a lot of votes last time. If you''re an author, feel free to take any of these ideas, I''m not worried, because I will likely find a more manic way to write the plot. Chapter 141 - "Find me a bug, John" Tim and Ortana were paired with eighteen other volunteers, so they didn''t exactly feel alone here. They even met a couple of Degranus Goblins, which was a very interesting encounter, as they claimed that they''ve been paid stupid amounts of gold to come, and volunteer here! This was absolutely believable, so they didn''t even bother questioning it, as gold was oftentimes a good motivator, even if it was paired with desperation. The twenty total volunteers were escorted by ten guards. The latter were very skilled, and although they held the title of city guards formally, they were actually nothing less than competent, journeymen battle mages! Heavy armor coated their skin, and offensive magic circled their palms, so they were made to deal with such hostile situations! The volunteers were as safe as they could be under the current circumstances. Anyway, the location that they were supposed to go to, was simply an open field, and it was on a field, because that was where the sheep kept going missing. It was ten kilometers away, though, and for the average goblin, that was half a day''s worth of traveling, so that was a bit of a disadvantage. It would take several hours to get there, especially with heavy armor on, so later on, once they got to the field, and assured that the perimeter was safe, they had to make camp for the night there. This field had three neighboring villages to its vicinity, and these villages have been losing a lot of livestock, all because of these huge, carnivorous bugs that the volunteers were supposed to squash! The city of Runimus was tasked to protect these villages, even though the city had no taxative ties with them. They were asked to help, simply because the city had a more established army of sorts in comparison to any other domain in the close vicinity. The army was full of city guards, so Runimus didn¡¯t technically have an army, no. But since it had plenty of manpower, the guards were like a full army, and so they were often tasked with such covert action missions! The city of Runimus wasn''t very keen on this responsibility, but they obliged either way, because they were tasked to help anyone they could. They had to be the heroes, they had to save the day, assuming that a dragon wouldn''t wipe those villages out entirely anyway! ¡°Bastarding villages,¡± A battlemage grunted, ¡°Can''t they learn a simple spell? It can¡¯t be that hard to burn a bug!¡± ¡°They¡¯re said to be very religious,¡± Another battlemage pointed out. ¡°Religious my ass!¡± The first battlemage bit back, ¡°We have the Church of Ontarum in our city, but you don''t see us begging anyone else for help. They''re in Valporovus, for fuck''s sake, how come they never bothered to increase their mana quality? They can''t even protect themselves from a bee, not to mention Demon Beetles!¡± Both of the mages made very good points, but regardless of what they thought, they were tasked with this mission that the church had forced upon them. There were a lot of defenseless villagers within the vicinity of the three churches, because there were thousands of villagers who dispelled their mana everyday, willingly, absolutely letting it go to waste, in order to please the Mana Gods! This was a fantasy of theirs, as they were hoping to please the gods now, in order to have an easier afterlife, and they felt enthralled to please the gods, simply because the micro-universe of Valporovus, didn''t allow for one to die while ascending through levels of mana.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. They were scared of the various types of punishment that the gods would inflict upon them, if they willingly improved their mana in this universe! It was a twisted type of faith, but many people participated in it, through the influence of the three main churches in this one-hundred-and-fifty kilometer radius, they very much encouraged it. It was funny that they were scared of being punished, because in a way, a random beetle might punish them straight out of existence on a random tuesday. Being a goblin, and also being stupid, had plenty of disadvantages. Anyway, they made it to the fields eventually, and set up camp there. Setting up camp didn''t take more than an hour, and that was good, because they had a few more hours of sunlight left to scout the area. Demon Beetles were known to make big nests, so if they could locate the nest, then their job would become a lot easier because they could attack most of the beetles then and there! Tim paired up with Ortana, and another fellow named John. There were thirty people in total in this camp, so it was best to pair in groups of three, in order to be both more secure, and more effective at scouting. After about an hour of looking around, things started to get boring, because they couldn''t find anything. They haven''t seen a single bug so far, which was a bit alarming, because they weren''t exactly small creatures, they were difficult to miss! ¡°Jesus¡­¡± Tim sighed, ¡°I¡¯m so damn bored! It would''ve been more fun if we went after that big ass dragon at this point.¡± ¡°Getting eaten alive doesn''t sound so fun to me,¡± John expressed, ¡°I hear Iron Claw once swallowed an entire platoon of guards with one gulp, he''s a big, evil monster!¡± ¡°You¡¯re taking the fun out of everything, John.¡± Tim grunted, ¡°Find me a bug to kill, then.¡± ¡°Will do,¡± He said. John was a Gong Goblin. They''re rather hairy creatures, and almost look like wild boars who learned how to stand up, but he was a goblin nonetheless. John came from the city of Glorious Letazix, a city well renowned for its riches and discipline, so one could depend on him without second guessing themselves. Tim was especially accepting of him, because Letazix gave him, and the team the least trouble in comparison to the two other cities that they''ve been through. He let John and Ortana do the scouting, and he laid down on a grassfield by himself. Tim was looking at the blue sky, and as he noticed a couple of planets that floated beyond the stratosphere, he couldn¡¯t help but admire the universe he was in. This was truly a fantasy world once he stopped and thought about it. ¡°I can''t believe that there are a bunch of planets in this universe. I thought Valporovus would just be a big, flat land, but we''re sitting on a whole planet here¡­¡± He thought. Anyway, he had a bit of time to himself here, so he decided to check on something really important. He had plenty of system points to spend, so he finally started browsing the batch of ten new system-based upgrades! Regarding this matter, the system was entitled to remind him of a few details. [Hello, TImothy. Considering your recent acceleration in power, you now have the freedom to pick out which upgrade you want to buy first. We don''t need to be linear about the options, but know that you must buy all of the upgrades, if you wish to unlock the following batch. Happy buying!] ¡°Oh wow, that''s awesome!¡± He thought, and then he also remarked, sarcastically. ¡°I feel like a little girl on Christmas Eve, so many options to choose from!¡± The system did not answer, she didn''t bother to. Tim was given all the freedom to explore the options that have been given to him, so he did exactly so. ¡°I can upgrade the Blood Freezing ability now, huh? That''s new. I thought that I couldn''t upgrade the things that I stole from other fish.¡± He added. [Technically, no, you can''t.] She added, [This is a densification purchase, more than it is an upgrade. The Freezing Blood ability won''t upgrade into anything new, but it''ll cost less mana to cast, exactly 20% less, but it''ll deal the same damage. That''s why it''s relatively cheap for you to buy it.] ¡°Actually that sounds pretty good, considering how much mana I tend to spend.¡± He added, and then requested. ¡°Densify it, then, because a thousand system points isn''t too expensive.¡± Chapter 142 - Blunderous Bolt Skendus walked through the city, in order to get to the Floating Pupil sect of illusion. The sect was very easy to find, considering that the guards helped him locate it, so it took him less than twenty minutes to get there. Once he got there, he was beyond amazed! Much like the name of the sect would encourage, the building of the sect was in fact, a whole floating pupil! Well, it was a floating eyeball, to be exact, a very detailed depiction of a large eyeball. Skendus stared the forty-meter wide eyeball down, and couldn''t help wondering how much gold and mana it might have taken to build this place. It was a phenomenal building, truly unique! ¡°We''ve been told that there are sculpting mages in the city, but this looks unreal, it''s almost as if I''m in a fantasy land.¡± He thought, and he also couldn''t help calculating. ¡°It must have taken millions of mana points to build this, because I''m yet to see a stone that can so vividly mimic the color of the blood vessels that our eyes have. For goodness sake, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if a hundred mages were commissioned to build this thing!¡± There was no easy way to comprehend what he was witnessing, he was baffled, but he didn¡¯t come here to admire the architectural values of the sect''s building, so he had to move on. He tried to get into the sect, but of course, this eyeball didn''t have a simple door that he could walk up to, it was simply a big, floating eyeball. For that matter, he had to try and call an illusionist out here. ¡°Hello, is anyone there? Guard Master Zedim sent me here.¡± Just as he said that, Skendus suddenly found himself in another place. It took him a moment to realize that he was now in the eyeball itself, and this simple display of power managed to impress him quite a bit! ¡°Coming here may be the smartest decision that I¡¯ve ever made. Well, it wasn¡¯t my decision, but I''m still glad.¡± He muttered. ¡°It''s about time you came here,¡± A Fal Goblin greeted him, ¡°Hello, I''m Notird the Third. We''ve sensed your presence ever since you''ve stepped foot in Valporovus.¡± ¡°That can''t be right,¡± He awkwardly shook the other''s hand, and then pointed out. ¡°Why would you track me to begin with? I''m a nobody, and I never lived in an eyeball house like you folks.¡± ¡°Decent humor is a rare trait,¡± Notird complimented, ¡°But illusionists are even more rare, so we''re aware of everyone that practices our beloved Arcana Branch throughout Valporovus. Your presence has been acknowledged, and you''re very much welcome in the Floating Pupil sect, should you wish to become a member.¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°I''m already part of a sect¡­¡± He pointed out. ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve already searched through your brain a few weeks ago. You''re Skendus, and you''re part of the Radiant One-eye sect. We respect that you''re loyal, but you must understand that most of our library is limited to sect members.¡± Notird followed along. Those terms were difficult to accept, and Skendus didn''t plan on accepting them, because his loyalty lied on his roots, so he didn¡¯t want to join a new sect. He was just a rat who got lucky enough to explore another universe, and he was very respectful of where he came from. With that said, he just bargained to study what the Guard Master had sent him here for, and Notird agreed. The sect library was a short walk away, so he was led there, and was given a small book to read. The small book featured the three main offensive abilities that every illusionist should know, and although the pretext made these abilities seem difficult to learn, that was not the case. They were very basic, but they were labeled as important, because abilities like these could help an illusionist survive for extensive periods of time, which in a sense hinted that this sect had life figured out already. They knew how to survive, and therefore they dedicated the rest of their time in mana quality ascension. Skendus sat down on a chair, started reading the book, and kept his head down. He didn''t plan on causing any trouble, not only because he appreciated the hospitality here, but also because he would easily get killed if he chose to upset the sect members. He couldn¡¯t read through Notird''s mind, as a start, which was a telltale sign that the latter had crossed the God''s Punishment Realm of mana a long time ago! ¡°They can sense every illusionist in Valporovus,¡± He thought, and was quite nervous. ¡°They might as well have crossed whatever realm comes after the God''s Punishment realm.¡± Anyway, as he browsed through the contents of the book, he started figuring out what the three main offensive attacks were. There were exactly twenty pages dedicated to each ability, and the content within the book was very comprehensive. A page of the book, cited the following introduction. ¡°The Blunderous Bolt ability is the first, and the most basic ability that a practicing illusionist can learn. With this ability in the caster''s possession, one can summon bolts that look like they''re made out of iron, and the bolts can be shot immediately against the caster¡¯s target afterwards. If it takes a caster more than one second to shoot a bolt, then they''re yet to master this exceptionally basic ability. Although the bolts don''t cause direct, physical damage, they can still create the illusion of immense pain, equal to being shot with an actual crossbow bolt, and this illusion of pain often tends to paralyze the opponent. The average goblin can withstand 20 Blunderous Bolts before they die from shock, and this effect varies on other creatures, largely based on what abilities they possess.¡± Skendus was amazed by this very basic ability, but he had never heard of it before! He could kill opponents through a heart attack as well, in his own ways, but the methods he used were far more elaborate in comparison, they required more time. The latter was why he was amazed that there was a more simple ability which could achieve a very similar result! ¡°If I could shoot twenty bolts per second, it necessarily means that I could kill a goblin every second, if I wanted to.¡± He plotted, and continued to read through the first chapter of the book. Chapter 143 - Demon Beetle Timothy spent a thousand system points, and condensed his Blood Freezing ability right away! The process had been painless, which was always a good thing, and now he could focus on buying yet another upgrade. He had a few thousand more points to spend, and figured that it was best to buy the upgrades sooner rather than later, since they''d be facing that deadly dragon one day or the other. ¡°What else should I buy¡­¡± Tim pondered. There were nine more purchase options in front of him, he could see their descriptions vividly through a screen that the system flashed. He was stumped. ¡°All of them look good, but I can''t afford all of them now, can I?¡± He muttered, it wasn¡¯t easy at all to decide on what he should pick next. ¡°The mana pool upgrade looks pretty useful, but it would mean that I need to accumulate more mana in order to improve my mana quality later on. That''s not for me, I¡¯m a big spender, so I''d much rather enjoy an upgrade that gives me more mana per hour, but of course you aren¡¯t giving me that option, system.¡± [If you upgrade your mana pool, you''ll also be able to generate more mana per hour. These two things come hand by hand.] The system pointed out, she was quick with her answers for once. ¡°Hmm, I guess it''s worth the 5,000 system points, then? Okay, give me a bigger mana pool.¡± He requested. [Confirmed. As of now, you have 3,000 system points remaining in your sum.] Without so much of a warning, Tim then suddenly fainted. He forgot that it was very painful to upgrade his mana pool through the system''s help, and this forgetfulness left him in a very awkward position now! In hindsight, he should''ve expected that an increase as large as roughly twenty-five-percent was bound to hurt, and yet he didn¡¯t think about it at all. John noticed what happened, though he didn''t know that Timothy fainted, so he said. ¡°Looks like your friend fell asleep, that''s a bit irresponsible, isn''t it?¡± ¡°I guess it is?¡± Ortana followed along, and then she said. ¡°He''s weird like that sometimes, but don¡¯t mind him, we should continue scouting.¡± ¡­ Tim eventually woke up, but it was dusk now, so he figured that he was out like a light for about three hours now. This was not a good time to be unconscious for three hours, not with killer bugs on the loose, so he stood up as quickly as he could, but ended up crashing on the ground again! That upgrade really took a toll on him, he was a mess now. ¡°God, I''m so sore!¡± He grunted. [Upgrade complete! You''ve successfully upgraded your mana pool by 25%, so you can now fit 52,500 points in your pool. Furthermore, you can naturally generate 800 mana points per hour now.] The system specified. ¡°Only eight? That doesn''t sound like a 25% increase.¡± He pointed out, as he tried to stand up. [It''s not supposed to be. Your mana pool increased by 25%, and your mana regeneration increased in cooperation with your pool. Though, it''s minimal in comparison.] She explained.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Either way, it''s shit.¡± He complained, and he was very moody, because his head hurt as if it had been inside of a ringing, church bell, he was in pain. ¡°At least I piled up a couple thousand points of mana while I was asleep.¡± Tim had to put in some effort to stand up afterwards, and once he did, he figured out that he was alone out here. He saw his group at the bottom of another hill, about three-hundred meters away. The two of them were far, and after he saw them scouting that far away from him, he got really angry at them, and cited them as very irresponsible! ¡°How could they leave me here!¡± He grunted, and then tried to walk, but he was too sore to move a muscle. ¡°What a bastard, eh?¡± Timothy first decided to rest here, and wait for help, but then he remembered that he had to return to the main camp soon. If nightfall caught him here, it would look really bad for him, then later on the Guard Master back in the city could banish him without blinking an eye. He couldn¡¯t afford to be banished, it would be too much of a risk, on account of what the bigger picture was! ¡°Fucking hell, looks like I''m gonna need to spend a bunch of mana points again.¡± He muttered, and then he summoned the Bone Multiplier ability. The idea that was to follow was rather simple. Just like he did before in the Forbidden Caves, he wanted to make a surfboard for himself, entirely out of bones. He calculated that it would take less than a minute to fly back to the camp, so he may not need to spend too many points after all, though it was absolutely mandatory for him to fly out of here soon. [21,000 mana points remain in your pool, use them wisely.] The system cautioned. Tim acknowledged that warning, and he didn''t say a thing, because he didn¡¯t have the strength to be sarcastic right now. Using the Bone Multiplier ability, he found a whole sheep carcass buried two-meters below the ground, and considering the agricultural practices here, that wasn''t too much of a surprise. These round hills were filled with skeletons. However, once he had it unburied, the unthinkable happened. Something else came out of the ground as well, about two meters away, and it was a huge, living beetle! ¡°Oh shit!¡± He exclaimed. It was apparent, Timothy had to get out of here a.s.a.p! At the very least, he should move out of the beetle¡¯s way, because this thing was a stunning six feet tall, it was certainly taller than him! Since he didn¡¯t have enough time to make a surfboard out of bones, he just snapped four bones out of that skeleton instead, and had them lift him off of the ground. It wasn''t comfortable whatsoever to fly like this, because he had to balance his entire body using those four bones, but he made due, he got out of the way quickly, and floated about ten feet above the ground! Due to the limited use of this ability, he was only spending about one-hundred and fifty mana points per second right now, so it wasn¡¯t too costly. Anyway, while he floated, he got a good look of the beetle, and figured out that it was just an extra large version of a rhinoceros beetle, though it was terrifying nonetheless! It was dark-blue in color, and had this huge, eight-foot long horn on its face along with a big, rounded spine to protect itself! ¡°What a fucking buffalo! Bugs aren''t supposed to be this big!¡± He grunted, and then flew a few feet higher. Tim couldn''t afford to put up a fight here on the count of his current condition, but then he quickly discovered that he didn¡¯t have another choice! The Demon Beetle could jump, it leaped towards him! ¡°Hell nah!¡± Tim grunted, and within a split second, he snapped several bone shards from that prior skeleton, and hurled them against the beetle. The shards weren''t strong enough to break its shell, but they did change its projected direction. The beetle was pushed to another direction, and landed on a lower portion of the hill afterwards, where it rolled a few times before it regained its composure in a matter of seconds! ¡°You ugly bastard!¡± Tim grunted, and summoned the Electro Nerve Splitter ability a second after, because right now, it was the only other thing he could depend on. Chapter 144 - The Bony Bolt Tim shot about six Electro Nerve Splitter shots against the beetle, and he made those shots rather quickly, on account to how intense the situation was. However, the beetle wasn''t even winded by those, it kept trotting forward as if it didn¡¯t have a brain at all! ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± Tim sighed, and then just continued to fly upwards. At this point he had spent about a thousand mana points already, and this price hurt him, because he barely made any progress so far, but that was just how the situation played out, he was unlucky. He figured he''d be okay as long as he kept flying, and tried to stay still. Tim was about fifty feet above the ground now, the bones that he was controlling, helped him fly that high. He felt safer now, regardless of how he might fall to his death if he flinched too much, but then, he noticed that the beetle had become airborne as well, which shook him to the core! The beetle wasn''t jumping, it wasn¡¯t reaching, but it was flying! It had wings, and although those insect wings may not be enough to allow the beetle fly as elegantly as a dragon, it was airborne nonetheless, and it flew towards Timothy quite stubbornly! ¡°You ugly, rhinoceros-looking bastard!¡± He grunted, as he was irritated as much as he was nervous. After a couple of seconds, he managed to position his hand well enough to summon a fireball, so he did exactly that. He shot the hottest fireball he could summon, and had it expand eight feet wide, so he could engulf the beetle with fire entirely, horn and all! Once he heard the beetle screech out in pain, he grinned, and his grin was purely evil, because he was thoroughly enjoying the pain that the beetle was feeling! One may question his ethics, but it wasn''t like the beetle was a noble creature either, it would''ve eaten his corpse if he failed to shoot it down. Anyway, although the beetle¡¯s body wasn''t burned too much, its thin wings were absolutely destroyed, so it plummeted towards the ground afterwards. Once it crashed, it created a bit of a crater on the field! ¡°Fat bastard,¡± He said, after he heard the thud. Tim then noticed that the beetle was still moving, and this was alarming, because if his hottest fireball couldn''t obliterate this thing, then nothing might! This was problematic, because he had already spent two-thousand mana points throughout this battle, and it would stupid to be even more wasteful now, he wanted to be savvy with the nineteen thousand points that remained in his pool. After a moment of turning the wheels in his head just to find a plan, he came up with something that might just kill this beast, and he was willing to try it out.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Fire doesn''t kill it, huh? Maybe gravity will, then.¡± He plotted. Since the beetle couldn''t fly back to him, he used this grand freedom to multiply the four bones that were holding him up. He multiplied the bones into hundreds, and at first he merged some bones in order to make a very short plank for himself to sit on, as he needed a bit more balance up here in the sky. Two small bones were holding his back, so he was quite steady now. Afterwards, he kept multiplying the other bones, until the numbers entered the thousands! This was the charm of this ability, because as long as he had the mana, he could multiply a single bone into an infinite amount, and have them hang around for hours at a time as well. It took hours for the bones to disintegrate after he stopped pouring mana on them, so he could pick up the same bones at a later time within the day as well if he needed to. This ability was beyond useful, he was glad that he bought it. Anyway, at some point he stopped multiplying the bones, and started merging them instead. He merged them in a way where he formed a huge spear, and this spear was about fifteen feet tall, and three feet wide! Its tip was pointy, so this was practically like a gigantic crossbow bolt, rather than a spear. It was glorious! Tim wanted to hit the bug with this bolt, however, he understood that he had to be very accurate if his plan was to work. This bolt wasn''t easy to move around, as it was very heavy, so he had one shot to make his plan work! To carry out what remained of his plan, he had to fly down, and meet the bug on the ground. This was beyond dangerous, on the count that he could get mowed down easily, but he was thirty-five hundred mana points deep into this battle already, so he couldn¡¯t back down! Tim beamed to the ground, but he didn¡¯t bother standing up from his little chair, as it would take too much time to do so. He just stared the Demon Beetle down, and watched it charge forward much like an actual rhinoceros would. When the beetle was ten meters away, he stopped fueling the large, fifteen foot long bolt that had been floating above his head. The bolt, in turn, plummeted towards the ground, but of course, the beetle didn''t notice this, because its eyes were locked on its target that it very much loathed! The beetle kept charging forward, until it suddenly felt its own shell break after a loud thud! The large bolt had hit it, and it had been heavy enough to pierce through the beetle through and through! Two seconds later, the beetle exploded into four, large pieces! It was dead. Once he grinned on its severed carcass, Tim stopped using his mana entirely. He had already been four-thousand points deep into spending, so there was no point in spending any more of it. Using his own abilities was expensive itself, but making large bolts was even more expensive, though effective! [Demon Beetle killed.] A notification sounded out in his head, [1,200 system points have been added to your sum as a reward, and you''ve accumulated 4,200 points in total.] ¡°At least something good came out of this,¡± He grunted, ¡°Who''d have known that a beetle could grow to the size of a fucking buffalo? It''s making me question if I even need to be blessed by that bastarding priest.¡± Tim tried to relax afterwards, because he figured that his group would come back for him eventually, as they must have heard all the commotion, even from that far away. He wanted to wait for them, but then he heard the ground rumble again! Four more Demon Beetles crawled out of the ground, and each of them were different in size. He didn¡¯t know how to deal with these ones yet, but he knew that it was going to be a very expensive battle! Chapter 145 - Smart Ogre Arvena went to the local library, which was easy enough to find. Based on the trainer''s command, she came here to find and read the Book of Fire, because she needed a more precise kind of attack if she was ever to harm an enemy without getting too close. She had to learn the Laser Shot ability, and she had to learn it within the day, because she really needed it in the upcoming battles! However, it was easy to get distracted around here. The local library that she entered was about a hundred meters wide, and it¡¯s said to contain countless works, from magic books, to various manuals, to literary fictions! It had it all, but unsurprisingly, magic books filled up more than half of the library. Anyone could come and study here, as long as they would treat the books gently. There were plenty of guards in the library too, who often checked on people to see if everything was in working order. They protected the books, the magical books specifically. ¡°So much knowledge, and it''s all stashed within a random place in Valporovus¡­ Even I didn''t know that this library was so huge, it¡¯s absurd how well-read they are. This makes me wonder how much they respect their gods around here, because this is the most progressive town I¡¯ve ever seen! People aren''t scared to practice magic here, so maybe the church is just for show?¡± Arvena thought, as she tried to see things from many, different perspectives. ¡°I guess it doesn''t matter how accessible the library is at the end of the day. I can''t become an illusionist even if I tried, some things really are genetic, or exclusive. I doubt that there are more than a few versions of illusion books here, those bastards keep their cards close to their chest!¡± She further thought. Regarding the accessibility of the library, Arvena ended up seeing a couple of interesting things throughout the day. The book she was reading was interesting, but her attention kept swirling because of the interesting city guests that visited the library! Arvena saw a large ogre enter the library, and the ogre gently walked across the wooden floor, as in not to disturb anyone who was studying. It was apparent that the ogre came to study here as well, and this was beyond amazing to witness, the ogre seemed genuinely happy to be here! Although he was a stunning seven feet tall, he still observed the library''s rules. The stone pillars within this library allowed the structure to be very tall, so this place could welcome most creatures as long as they could fit through the door, ogres included! ¡°No wonder the doors were so tall,¡± She thought. Anyway, the ogre then fetched a couple of books that were more his size, and sat on the floor afterwards, because no chair here would ever be able to support him. He then started reading, and didn''t make a single sound. Arvena was beyond intrigued, so she snuck around to figure out what book the ogre was reading, but she was dumbfounded afterwards, as she couldn''t find an answer. The book was written in a different language that she couldn¡¯t understand, or at least that''s what she figured out from the large book''s title. She couldn¡¯t understand it.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°That book is written in their own tongue,¡± A guard suddenly said, he had been following her, as it was his duty to keep the library as orderly as possible. ¡°Our library has countless translations which various species have helped us translate, we have a decent, multi-lingual collection.¡± ¡°Indeed you do.¡± Arvena added, she almost knocked a shelf down in panic. ¡°I guess it makes more sense for him to read in his language rather than our own, but, I still wonder what can an ogre possibly be reading about? I''m speechless.¡± The guard had an answer, as having answers to questions like these was also part of his job, so he explained. ¡°Well, I can''t read the title either, but based on that book¡¯s color scheme, he should be reading about elemental summoning. He doesn''t want to shoot fireballs or anything like that, but rather, he wants to summon a bunch of rocks out of thin air, boulders too. A mountain even? That''s one of the categories in elemental summoning, while masters of this Arcane Art just summon gold for themselves. Ogres tend to build whole environments.¡± The guard gave her many examples, he went into this topic, and explained things rather thoroughly. But it didn''t look like he wanted to have a conversation here, his gaze was piercing, and based on how formally he spoke, he expected discipline from everyone, including her. Arvena picked up on those hints, so she stopped stalking the ogre, and went back to her seat. She figured that if she did anything else that would challenge the rules here, she would get kicked out, and that was the last thing she wanted, regardless if she wanted to be here or not. With that considered, although she didn''t bother anyone, she still saw a few more unique guests entering the library. She saw orcs, a couple of molten dwarves, and even another ogre, so at this point she believed that almost any creature could study magic if there was a book they could understand, or some sort of instructions that a trainer could offer them. She saw countless possibilities here, but it wasn''t like she planned to open up a school for sheep and orcs anyway, so she finally started reading more of the book that she had picked up. After about two hours, Arvena hadn¡¯t made much progress, she hadn''t even flipped through five pages so far. Not only that, she hasn''t even found the chapter about the Laser Shot ability yet, so it was fair to say that she was very unproductive today. To make things worse, she then saw something that murdered her productivity all together, she saw a human! ¡°I didn''t know humans visited our universe,¡± She muttered, and ogled this five-foot tall lady, who strode the halls of the library with a seven-foot long, royal cape following her. ¡°I guess Tim would love to meet one of those? He''s been yapping about humans for weeks now, he really wants to become one, but god, I don''t see the charm. Hypothermia can get to this lady even with all those clothes over her skin, she looks so weak...¡± Arvena then debated if she should tell Timothy about what she saw here, she debated if it was worth the risk to make him all happy and enthusiastic. The group was in the city doing tasks that they didn''t want to do already, and with that considered, she figured that Tim would drag them into all sorts of new trouble just to figure out where this human came from, and in hindsight, that was not worth their time. Furthermore, they couldn''t afford getting kicked out of the city, especially now when they were so close to lifting the Mark of Death off of their souls! ¡°He''s going to have to forgive me,¡± She thought, and decided to keep what she saw a secret. ¡°Let¡¯s hope he doesn¡¯t run into her.¡± Chapter 146 - Sky-diving beetles Timothy was in big trouble. He wasn''t exactly surrounded by his enemies, but there were still four Demon Beetles charging at him, and he had to do something about it! It was difficult enough to move himself out of danger, considering that he was sore to the point of immobility. Fighting these beetles exceeded the threshold of the difficulty he could handle all together, he wasn¡¯t ready! Tim wasn¡¯t ready, but he was very angry! With anger fueling him, he managed to come up with a quick plan that might just spare him thousands of points of mana. Sure he had to use his powers again, but it might now be too expensive this time around. First, he helped himself stand up straight, using the bony little plank that he had made for himself earlier on. This barely took a second, and it didn¡¯t require much mana to simply move a bone, so he only ended up spending fifty points which was good, but nothing about this experience was fun. ¡°Holy shit!¡± He grunted, as the sudden movement he made, forced his entire body to a severe ache! The pain almost knocked him out, but he didn¡¯t give up. He forcefully moved his hand out afterwards, and then activated the Soul Grabber ability! He had to use his hands for this, because it was the best way to grab the souls of specific targets. With this ability to his aid, he grabbed on to the soul of the smallest beetle from the bunch, and then forced the beetle to jump up, which forced it to roll down the hill afterwards because he let go of its soul, at the exact right time! He did this, because he was very well aware that he couldn''t grab four souls at a time, so he made a bit of an advantage for himself. With that considered, the next move was about to be a bit expensive. He grabbed the three remaining beetles by their soul, moments before they were about to mow him down for good! The closest one had only been five feet away from him, so he really dodged the coffin with this move. ¡°Oh, you ugly bastard...¡± He grunted, and he had grabbed them by the soul hard enough to lift them up, they were airborne now. ¡°The red ones really look like demons! It''s a very accurate name, I''ll give them that.¡± The remainder of his idea was to lift them as high as possible, and then just drop them from the sky. It was a simple, and brute idea, but it was bound to be effective! Tim lifted them towards the sky, but apparently, the individual weight of each beetle mattered a lot here. He had managed to lift the three-foot tall beetle fifty feet above the ground already, which was great, but its fat friend was barely fifteen feet up right now. It took a significant amount of time to lift him up, and this was a bit understandable the more he thought about it, but it was annoying nonetheless! His arms were stuck in place, and he was spending a lot of mana, so it was taking more effort than he had initially hoped it would take in order to kill these bugs!Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Fat bastard,¡± He grunted, and then used both of his hands to lift that one, seven-foot tall beetle. ¡°This is gonna cost a bunch.¡± The rest of these beetles weren''t as lucky, however, as he flew them well above a hundred feet by now, so it was time to toss them. As he tossed them, he made sure to hurl them down with a bit of a spin, just so they couldn''t use their insect wings to regain their balance, mid air! Their wings were really small, so this part of his idea was golden. They fell from the sky, and the momentum that they gained throughout their fall, was enough to do the job! Their shells cracked. Tim couldn''t be happier about this, especially since he hadn''t even spent a thousand mana points yet, he felt proud. There were two new kills to his name, so most of the battle was over, and apparently it was cheaper to win if he was less creative with his battles. Creativity was a difficult thing to avoid, though, considering that his CQ was close to two-hundred points in this goblin form, so it was truly difficult to reject his own senses, but he had to be cautious. Anyway, as he lifted the big one towards the sky, that tiny beetle had finally managed to climb up the hill again. He hadn''t dropped this one from the sky, but rather, he tossed it down the hill a moment ago when the battle began, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise how this one hadn''t died yet. Since this beetle was puny, and shorter than him in comparison, he decided to shoot a lightning bolt at it. This was effective, the bug exploded into a million pieces before its remains were littered across the hill afterwards. ¡°Hehe,¡± He grinned, as this battle became more and more fun. There was only one bug left for him to kill, and this one was twenty feet above the ground right now. It may take a while to put this one on a high enough point, and this was expensive, so Tim couldn''t help but unleash his frustrations against the bug! Through a single fireball, he burned its insect wings, so it couldn''t try to fly itself to safety later on, even if it tried to. This was a horrid practice of his powers, but this same bug would be gnawing on his bones right now if he hadn''t defended himself, so he didn¡¯t feel bad about torturing it. Along with this recent fireball, he was fifteen-hundred mana points deep into the spending frenzy, but this time around he wasn¡¯t as worried, because he would at least get a bunch of system points in return! The spending-and-rewarding ratio was finally smoothing down a bit. ¡°I could''ve gotten out of here a long time ago if I turned into a ghost, god damn it.¡± He cussed, and he was rightfully irritated. ¡°At least I can say that I killed five Demon Beetles, and I bet no one can top that, hehe.¡± Half a minute later, he got the last bug to the one-hundred feet high, aerial point. This was good enough to do the trick, so he just dropped the bug, however, he ended up dropping it on a trajectory which was very close to where he was standing, so he summoned the Bone Multiplier ability next, and darted out of there! The bug missed him by two feet, but at least it was finally dead. ¡°Jesus!¡± He grunted, ¡°That was stupid.¡± [Congratulations!] The system beeped, [You killed four more Deemon Beetles, so you received 2,800 system points as a reward. In total, you¡¯ve accumulated 7,000 points.] ¡°That''s awesome,¡± He celebrated, but then the adrenaline wore off, so he fainted just seconds later. Tim fell from his transportational set of bones, and plummeted towards the ground from a height of ten whole feet! He landed very close to where the rest of the dead bugs were. Chapter 147 - Soul Tracking Tim woke up at the crack of dawn. He felt a lot less sore now, and most importantly, he was alive, so perhaps it wasn''t the worst thing in the world to faint once in a while. He had thoroughly enjoyed the long nap! However, as he tried to regain his composure, he discovered something really weird. He was covered in this thick, smelly liquid, and he was covered head to toe with it! ¡°Gross!!¡± He squealed. Although he couldn''t nearly understand how he was covered in this weird, purple juice, he did eventually recognize the smell after countless whiffs. He had smelled the same scent on the last bug that he killed, before he fainted a few hours ago. ¡°Looks like one of these ugly bastards had one lick of my ass, and spat me out.¡± He guessed this was one of his theories. Tim wasn¡¯t left to theorize for long, however, because one of the city guards found him. This was one of the same guards who had escorted him, and the other volunteers to this place to begin with, and he seemed as angry as he was relieved. ¡°Oh, you''re alive? We''ve been searching everywhere for you!¡± He exclaimed. Tim wiped some of the gooey muck off of his face, and then said. ¡°I can understand why you had a hard time finding me, sir, I think I was in a beetle''s gut for a few hours.¡± ¡°That''s impossible! Your armor would be corroded if you spent even ten minutes in its gut, and I can see that your armor is fine, it''s shining even through the goo.¡± The other countered, and unfortunately, he made a lot of sense. ¡°I should know, because some beetles ate two volunteers of ours last night, we found their armor!¡± Tim then wracked his brain to figure out what could''ve happened to him while he was asleep, he tried his best. His memory failed him, however, so he was stumped. A second later, the system popped up in his head, and explained. [You''ve been sleepwalking last night, you sleepwalked only once, and I''ve tracked everything. I could tell you what happened, however, you can also use the Soul Grabber ability to track where your soul has traveled to throughout the night, it''s a relatively cheap trick, mana-wise. You can easily use it on the count of your current, mana quality.] Tim was surprised by that offer, and of course, he then got this impulsive urge to try this trick. He ignored the guard entirely, and walked around him, with the hope to get things started. ¡°Ah¡­ it feels so nice to walk again.¡± He sighed, and then he activated the Soul Grabber ability. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. However, since his own soul was the target, he had to turn his palm towards his own chest, in order to target his own soul. Using his pinky finger, he unleashed a fraction of the power on his chest, and thankfully he didn''t accidentally paralyze himself in the process, he did good. A second later, he saw a transparent image of himself, walking around the hill. He followed it, and ended up near the carcass of the last Demon Beetle that he had killed. Then, he saw himself slicing a portion of the beetle''s shell using a concentrated ray of fire, and apparently he had done so just to climb inside the beetle¡¯s shell afterwards! He had stayed two minutes in there, before he walked out of it covered in goo, and from the looks of it, he then had walked back on the field, and slept at the spot where he originally fainted. The system explained that this little episode happened an hour after he fainted, she was very specific about the timeline. ¡°Fascinating,¡± He thought, ¡°Even when I¡¯m unconscious, my survival instincts do not fail me. I even remember dreaming about this, the insides of that bug smell even worse!¡± ¡°What are you walking around for?!¡± The guard then interrupted him, he seemed fed up. ¡°Looks like I fainted, sir, because I strained myself killing five of these demonic bastards! I seemed to have sleepwalked into that big guy''s shell, to cover my scent from the predators. I''m assuming that I looked like a pile of goo at night too, so that''s why neither of you could find me.¡± Tim explained, he was mostly honest about it. ¡°So you killed all these bugs!?¡± The guard asked, and when Tim nodded, the guard screeched like a little girl. ¡°That''s amazing! I managed to kill two at most myself, but you killed five?! That''s definitely worth mentioning to the Guard Master, he''ll be pleased.¡± Considering the overall enthusiasm from the other, he assumed that he wasn''t in trouble. His mission to attain the third blessing from the priest was as safe as ever now, and he was quite happy about that. He wasn''t as happy about the rotten-egg scented goo that was on his skin, though, so he ended up rolling down the hill just to wipe the goo away. When he got to the bottom of the hill, he noticed that the guard had not followed him for some reason. This was intriguing, so he climbed up the hill for the second time to see what the guard was up to. Once he questioned the guard, the other answered. ¡°The tunnels that these beetles crawled out of, are awfully close to each other. I''m guessing that there''s a nest below us, so it''s best if we stay here and patrol the area. I''m going to send out a distress signal now, we need more men and women on board effective immediately!¡± A second later, he shot a type of fireball towards the sky, and then shot two more. The fireballs crashed with each other up in the sky, and created a sort of multi-colored firework display, which was sure to grab the attention of anyone who could recognize the distress signal! The guard then said, ¡°Let¡¯s hope that we don''t have to fight more of those bugs, because we''re quite weak alone, with all respect to you, and your recent kills, there''s unity in numbers. Also, I hear that your friend almost died last night during an encounter with one of the Demonic Beetles, she almost died while she was looking for you.¡± ¡°Oh shit!¡± Tim exclaimed, ¡°Is she alright?¡± ¡°Yes yes, she''s fine. A couple of bruises never killed anyone, and she did spear the beetle through its neck after all, she killed it. We discovered that its neck is its weak point thanks to her! But regardless, it¡¯s stupid to face off with a bug alone.¡± The other expressed. Chapter 148 - The stalking Essences Skendus spent a few hours reading through the sixty-page book that he was given, he read through it thoroughly, about three times. He didn¡¯t want to miss any details, because even though it was a book featuring three basic powers, these powers were still one of the greatest things that he had run across! They were bound to be very effective. The learning process for illusionists was very interesting as well, because new abilities weren''t easy to achieve. It wasn''t simple. Skendus had to comprehend the content that he was reading, and he noticed that the moment he understood what he was reading, something unique happened. Not only did he feel more enlightened cognitively, but there was also this pair of eyes that appeared in front of him as a result of his comprehension, and they popped up when he had been reading the first chapter of the book! The inner mechanics of its appearance was difficult to understand, he couldn¡¯t figure it out. For that matter, he focused on the simpler parts instead, and eventually noticed that this pair of floating eyes kept growing, the more he read! ¡°Fascinating!¡± He exclaimed, ¡°They¡¯re really tracking everything I¡¯m doing!¡± Although it was very tempting to stare this pair of eyes down, he had to stop paying attention to them eventually, because at that point he had only been on the first chapter. There was plenty more to read, he couldn''t get distracted. Once he fully understood the first chapter, both of the floating eyes had grown to the size of his head, and they looked a bit creepy now. Thankfully, they started dissipating moments after. The pair of eyes collapsed within themselves, and turned into this sparkly, blue mist, and Skendus ended up inhaling this mist afterwards. The huffs he took, allowed the mist to go directly towards his brain, and as a result, he felt enlightened to the point of euphoria! ¡°Okay, it makes a lot more sense now.¡± He sighed, and then summoned a bolt on his palm. Skendus summoned a Blunderous Bolt with ease, and this was the result of reading, and understanding the first chapter of the book that he was given! He twirled the bolt on his palm, and felt very happy that this bolt only cost forty mana points to summon. He was convinced that this ability would be more than useful to him, not only throughout the following days, but forever! Therefore, he was more than excited to read the rest of the book, and in the end, he had reasons to read through the book multiple times! He enjoyed it thoroughly, and was happy to feel overpowered with abilities that were considered basic in the world of illusion.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I''ve been surviving with the little power I have, for decades even¡­ Anything new is overpowered in my hands, so maybe joining this sect isn''t a bad idea after all?¡± He thought, as he was very contemplative at the end of his studies. ¡°I have to think about this for a while,¡± He figured, and then he asked to leave the floating building that he was in. ¡°I never thought that I''d read anything for eight hours straight, nevertheless a modern book. Timothy, and his unbreakable spirit brought me to this city, so that little menace deserves all the respect he gets. Well¡­ I should express my respect for him more often, though, I''d guess that he doesn''t even care about who respects him?¡± Anyway, he was escorted out of the premises moments later. He was ready to face the world with three new offensive abilities in his arsenal, and he was quite excited about it, but now it was almost night time, so he went to the main Guard Barracks in order to find a bed to sleep in. He did enough work today. ¡­ Arvena spent four hours at the local library, but she was distracted often, so she ended up studying for two hours only. She made good progress nonetheless, and the experience she had with learning a new ability was similar to what Skendus went through, though not identical. The little goblin lady discovered that while she studied, a certain element monitored her progress. A thin line of fire twirled around her head, and this fire moved around much like a Chinese Dragon! The fire didn''t burn her hair, nor did it harm her in any way, but as she absorbed more knowledge from the book in front of her, the line of fire thickened. In the end, the fire looked as wide as a claymore sword''s blade, which hinted that she understood the book''s chapter properly, and thoroughly! Her mana quality was decent, so she didn''t have to spend too much time in order to learn a new ability, this was a fact, and the Laser Shot was a good example. It was an adept ability, it wasn¡¯t basic, and yet she learned it in just two hours, she officially added it to her arsenal of powers. ¡°Boring,¡± She grunted after, as she was not so amused here. ¡°How could the authors of this book comfortably say the word ¡®fire¡¯, over four-hundred times in a single chapter?! This is more than boring, I feel mentally abused!¡± Plenty of mages would think otherwise if they had the same luck as her, but that was just how she felt right now. She was fairly depressed about losing an entire realm of her mana a couple of days ago, so she didn''t want to be bothered to learn something new. This was very uncharacteristic from her side, because she had gone to extreme lengths for knowledge''s sake before, she had risked everything for pure, superior knowledge, but she wasn''t as enthusiastic today. She didn''t even bother checking out the rest of the book, and walked over to put it back on its shelf. Arvena had another power to her arsenal now. She had breathed in the fumes of the thick fire that had twirled around her head, and after the fire disappeared, even the euphoria that came from obtaining a new ability, didn''t lift her spirits. The fire dissipated, which also meant that she was officially free to explore the town for a while, as she completed her little task here. ¡°I want duck meat,¡± She decided, and walked into the town to find a restaurant that sold it. Chapter 149 - Hornet, -1 Tim, and the guard patrolled the area where the dead bugs were. They were yet to receive help from other goblins, and that wasn''t too surprising, because the closest ones were supposedly a whole kilometer away! It was going to take a while for them to get here, if they saw the signal to begin with, that is. The guard started second guessing if anyone saw the first signal, so he unleashed a new one every five minutes. That way, someone was bound to see the signal eventually! Anyway, it took little time for things to become boring here. Personal safety was a luxury that every creature longed for, but factually, the sense of safety left a lot of room for boredom. Since Timothy was especially prone to boredom, he ended up doing something stupid. He stuck his head in one of the tunnels where the Demon Beetles had crawled out of! This was beyond stupid, because any bug could snap his head off down there, but the thrill of his own stupidity was euphoric! He felt sharper than ever now, mentally that is, and so, he managed to pick up on an important detail. Tim then pulled his head out of the hole, and asked. ¡°Hey, guy? Are beetle holes supposed to be this dark?¡± The guard was too far away to see what he was doing, so he yelled out. ¡°Why the hell are you looking down a beetle''s asshole?!¡± ¡°You¡¯re talking about the wrong hole, John. I''m going to call you John from now on.¡± He followed along. ¡°My name is Gustav,¡± The other countered, and finally, he figured out what kind of hole Timothy was talking about. ¡°You mean the tunnels? Yes, the underground is usually dark, it''s supposed to be.¡± Timothy wasn''t satisfied with that answer, because he could tell that the guard was being negligent here. As a response, he walked over to the biggest tunnel he could find, which was almost nine-feet wide, and walked into it. Gustav the guard followed suit, because he didn¡¯t appreciate these random acts of exploration from the other. He was about to scold Timothy, but then he figured out what the fuss was about! ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding, that''s a hole as dark as any!¡± Gustav said, and he was referring to something very specific, he was talking about a pitch black portal! Every tunnel that these bugs had dug before, when they crawled out of the ground, led back to one single point. The tunnels led to the portal, so after this point, it was easy to put two and two together! ¡°It''s a portal, then? Let me guess, it leads to a nano universe?¡± He asked.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°I''m afraid not,¡± Gustav added, ¡°Nul is the only nano-universe I know of, and it''s pretty hard to get there! This portal leads to something smaller, smaller than a nano universe. There has to be a needle universe sitting on the other side of that portal, they''re usually just a kilometer wide, and don''t have a sun surrounding them. It''s a place people go when they want to age more slowly.¡± ¡°Well shit, I never heard of a needle universe before.¡± He expressed, ¡°Maybe this is why we couldn''t find that many bugs so far? They''re all hiding in there, and they''re all coming out of one portal, so it would take a while to find a specific spot like this.¡± Gustav nodded, and was angry enough to break the strict, disciplinary rules he followed, as he said. ¡°Shit, you''re right! Beetles are known to cover their tracks as well, they''re experts at it, so they could''ve hidden this whole ass portal here for a long time now! Sneaky¡­ bastards!¡± Tim grinned, he was amused by the other''s cussing, but then he got a bit of a devious idea. He wanted to trick the guard, to have him enter this needle universe willingly, just so he could follow after him. Tim knew that he''d get in trouble if he jumped into this portal himself, as he would have to do it without permission, so he had to improvise here. ¡°You know, we can catch the bugs by surprise if we jump in the portal now, right? I''m guessing that less than ten bugs had gotten out of that portal since last night, so they¡¯re scared, they''re retreating.¡± He pitched. ¡°No, we must wait for backup.¡± Gustav refused, he strictly followed protocol. Just as they were about to back out from the tunnel, a bug suddenly popped out of the portal, however, this one was not a beetle! It was a foot-long hornet, and it pounced on Gustav, trying to poke his chest out! Tim subconsciously tossed himself to the left side of the tunnel, just to avoid the hornet. When he saw its two-inch stinger, he focused on it, and then snapped its needle off using a condensed, blade-like shot of fire! The needle never even touched Gustav''s armor, so the rest of this battle was easy. Being a sub-experienced battle mage, Gustav¡¯s first reaction was to burn the hornet alive, so he grabbed it by the chest, pushed it away from his face, and burned the living senses out of it, to the point where he tossed it back into the portal! ¡°Ah!¡± He then yelled in frustration, ¡°I''m okay¡­ but that was freaking close!¡± The guard was really worked up, so one may wonder how much he''d panic if he was actually stung by that hornet. Tim was having a lot of fun here, despite that close encounter. He found the other''s reactions hilarious, and he was a weird glance away from pissing himself out of laughter! Then, Gustav suddenly said. ¡°You were right, Timothy. We should be taking the fight in there before the bugs can get a chance to fight back! Let''s go!¡± Without much of a warning, he leaped into the portal afterwards, and Timothy was left with his hand covering his mouth. Now, he had the freedom to laugh as much as he wanted! ¡°Oh my god, he is such a scaredy cat! Hahaha!¡± He hollered, and after a few seconds of hysterical laughing, he jumped through the portal without second guessing himself whatsoever. Tim had regenerated a few thousand mana points throughout the night, so he was up at twenty-one thousand points again. He figured that it was enough to put up a fight there, and it was especially easy for him now, since he could both move freely, and had an extra pair of hands to help him shoot bugs down this time. He jumped into the portal head first! Chapter 150 - The Mantis Once Tim jumped through the portal, he almost gagged in response to a strictly crimson-colored world that he popped into! It was a universe solely made out of red-ish trees, and plants, and he didn''t really know how to feel about that. ¡°How do these bastards even walk around here? Everything looks identical. I''m going to bump into so many trees, I just know it!¡± He complained, though afterwards he remembered that he was supposed to be looking for Gustav, because he had leaped into this universe as well. ¡°Where is that bastard?¡± He muttered. After walking for about twenty meters through the crimson world, he started to differentiate one object from the other, just slightly. His eyes were slowly adapting to the almost identical color variations here, but he still wasn¡¯t a big fan of this place nonetheless, because now his eyes were straining more than ever as he tried to make sense of things! He had hoped for this universe to be more fun, but it wasn''t fun so far, it was just red. After he walked about ten meters more, he finally spotted Gustav. The latter was just another twenty meters away, and he was staring a random bug down. Timothy didn¡¯t understand why he didn''t just shoot the bug, but as he got closer, he understood where the other''s hesitation stemmed from. The bug was too small to attack, so Gustav was just observing it, or rather, he was looking at a weird skeleton, whose remaining flesh that the bug was feeding on! After the two of them were aware of each other''s presence, Gustav asked. ¡°This skeleton is a bit too big, and slim, isn''t it? It can''t belong to a goblin.¡± A question like that was worth pondering over, because it could help them understand this ¡®needle universe¡¯ a bit better. Either that, or it could raise a lot more questions, it was hard to tell right now, but they were on the hunt for answers nonetheless! After looking at it for a couple of minutes, Tim came to a realization, so he then pointed out. ¡°That''s no goblin, man, it''s a human skeleton!¡± ¡°What the heck would a human be doing here? This place is just full of insects, it can''t have important minerals on it, or anything like that.¡± Gustav pointed out. Tim was still mumbling over the fact that he found a human skeleton, so he ignored the other completely. After this discovery, he hoped to run into other, living humans, because it would be the greatest discovery in the world for him! He was aware that there were plenty of humans back in the main universe, but he was far from meeting them, because he couldn¡¯t shapeshift into an appropriate body yet. He didn¡¯t want to be their pet, but rather, he wanted to meet them eye to eye, as a fellow human!Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. It would be amazing if he ran into more humans in this universe, because it would be a shortcut to whatever plan he had regarding transformation. If he met a few, he was sure that he could bargain his way into their civilization! He''d use every card he had, because he knew that under the current circumstances, humans wouldn''t attack anyone that would help them kill bugs. Anyway, once he snapped out of his train of thoughts, he paid more attention to his surroundings, and got this gut feeling that they were being watched. He stood up, and had a look around, but it was no use, as everything was red around here, and almost unidentifiable! ¡°Keep your eyes peeled,¡± Tim cautioned, ¡°We might have to fight soon.¡± Surely, the tiny bug that was feeding on the human skeleton was not the problem, it was just a half-a-foot long ladybug that they could simply step on if they wanted to kill it. This specific insect wasn¡¯t a challenge, but he was absolutely certain that they were being watched, so he came up with a little plan. Tim shot a few fireballs around him, and this ended up setting a bunch of trees on fire! Now this was bad, it was brutal even, from an ecological standpoint, but it was his only option, because he had to see what was around him. Initially, he also hoped to get a reaction from whatever was stalking them, but that didn¡¯t work. Instead, the shades of color that the active fires, and the smoke from those active fires provided, helped him understand his surroundings better, just as he planned! The overwhelming cycle of red shades was now broken, he could see the details of everything that was around him, at a whole twenty-meter radius! Eventually, he spotted a creature. Well, he spotted the leg of the creature first, which then led him to spot the rest of its body. There was a huge mantis just ten meters away from them, and it wasn¡¯t only huge, it was gigantic! One would expect for a mantis to be green in color, but no, this one was red. ¡°Is that big bastard in your encyclopedia? Do you have a name for it?¡± Tim asked. When Gustav figured out what the other was pointing to, he first grunted. ¡°No.¡± Afterwards, he shot about sixteen fireballs against the mantis in a span of two seconds! Tim was bent over double, he laughed his lungs out at the other¡¯s overreaction, but then he was forced to lock in, because the mantis had only taken a couple of steps back, in response to those many scorching fireballs! ¡°Ah shit¡­¡± He cussed, ¡°This big bastard is going to be hard to kill, huh?¡± It might as well be hard to kill it, because the mantis was a stunning sixteen feet tall after all! This was not supposed to be an easy kill. Tim''s first response was to try and batter its brains out with a bunch of shots from his Electro Nerve Splitter ability, but that did not work. It didn''t work on the beetles before, so he wasn¡¯t surprised how it didn''t work on this mantis either. This was just bad luck. ¡°It¡¯s as if he doesn''t have a brain at all,¡± He whispered, and then he decided on another, simpler course of action. Tim activated the Soul Grabber ability next, because no matter how big an insect was, and no matter if they rocked back and forth as if they practiced Kung Fu, everything had a soul. He grabbed onto the mantis¡¯ soul, and therefore prevented any advances that it was about to make! Then, he said. ¡°If you have a stronger shot that you planned on using, now''s your chance, Guss! I got him by the nuts, so do your thing.¡± Chapter 151 - The lump of coal Regardless of what one might think, it wasn¡¯t easy to hold on to a giant mantis, it was quite challenging. The mantis had a partially developed soul too, apart from other things, so it put up quite a fight! The mantis stopped being observant, and tried to attack now. Despite Tim¡¯s grip, it started walking forward slowly, and it was apparent on its stubborn stride that it wanted goblins for its lunch today! ¡°Guss¡­ what are you thinking about? He¡¯s gonna bite you in half if he gets any closer!¡± Tim warned, and he couldn¡¯t do anything else to attack the mantis, because both of his hands were tied, as he tried to push it away using the Soul Grabber ability. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Gustav stroked his chin, and for once, he didn¡¯t seem as nervous. ¡°If one species has a weak spot, shouldn¡¯t every other seemingly indestructible creature have one as well? Oh, this is going to go very much against protocol, but it¡¯s worth a shot!¡± With a plan in mind, he allowed the mantis to get just a little bit closer, and when it swung its long arms as a form of its attack, that was when Gustav made a move. He slapped the mantis¡¯ hand away with the aid of a bunch of fireballs, and then ran forward! With such little effort, he was under the beast¡¯s belly afterwards, so he had a sort of a vantage point now. He didn¡¯t plan to attack its belly directly, as he guessed that it would be a waste of mana. Instead, he first aimed at the arm socket¡¯s of this beast, and dual shot about twenty fireballs from each of his palms, attacking those sockets! The mantis finally made a sound now, which was a good sign. It made this sound as if it was chewing on metal balls, and seconds later, its large, dangerous arms snapped off and fell to the ground! Gustav¡¯s plan was an absolute success! ¡°You smart bastard,¡± Tim complimented, and was hoping that he could let go of the cricket now, because it was a costly task. ¡°Don¡¯t let go,¡± Gustav stared right into his eyes afterwards, his demand was firm. Afterwards, carrying out the rest of his plan, he attacked its leg sockets. The mantis¡¯ legs were thinner in comparison to its huge arms, so it took less firepower to burn through each of them. In less than five seconds, he left the mantis immobile, and then bounced out of the way, so he wouldn''t get crushed by the remainder of its body! Tim then let go of the mantis¡¯ soul, and heaved. ¡°Jesus, you¡¯re a good fighter! If you let me fight that thing I¡¯d spend fifteen-thousand mana points on it, that¡¯s for sure, so maybe you''re better than you thought?¡± Tim was aware of his own shortfallings, so he could respect an efficient kill. In this case, he only had to spend a thousand mana points in order to avoid certain death. The cricket would¡¯ve destroyed the two of them if they hadn¡¯t worked together on this, and from the looks of it, there was a bit of a reward out of this exchange as well. ¡°It¡¯s not dead yet, but it¡¯s gonna die.¡± Gustav pointed out.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. That was when Tim saw a great opportunity, he got really excited. He may get a lot of points here if he killed the mantis himself! ¡°I¡¯ll put it out of its misery, it suffered enough today.¡± He said, as he pretended to be noble. Afterwards, he walked over to the mantis¡¯ side, and blew a thunder clap on its head. The proximity to the mantis, and its current condition allowed for a quick death after Timothy attacked it. It died off, and successfully escaped that brutal state it was in. ¡°That¡¯s good of you,¡± The other said. Timothy couldn¡¯t care about that mantis at all, but he did care about the points he won over. He delivered the final blow on it, so technically this was his kill, and the system then confirmed half of his conclusions. [Giant Mantis killed.] She beeped, [However, since this is an assisted kill, you only get half of the reward, which is 3,000 system points. You¡¯ve accumulated a total of 10,000 system points now.] ¡°I can live with that,¡± He thought, and he was happy, because he was quite rich now in terms of system points, even though he had bought a couple of upgrades last night, which had been a bit costly together. He felt that he progressed just now. Anyway, after this, the two of them had to pick their next course of action. The world around them was still crimson red, it was difficult to walk through it, and they couldn¡¯t stand in this place for long, because the smoke around them was becoming too much to handle! Tim set one too many trees on fire earlier on. ¡°Are you ready to go?¡± He asked. ¡°Ready to go back, you mean?¡± Gustav argued, ¡°There aren¡¯t any beetles here, and we almost got killed by an overgrown cricket, it¡¯s a miracle we survived. I don¡¯t know what I was thinking, scratch the volunteers, it¡¯s stupid to walk in this universe without an entire platoon!¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t a miracle that we survived,¡± He refused, ¡°I paralyzed the bastard, and you killed it. That¡¯s as efficient as it gets, we work well together.¡± Gustav was enthralled, because that was a very good point, it was difficult to argue with it. A second later, just as he was about to agree to explore more, he noticed something weird on the mantis¡¯ burnt head. ¡°Why¡¯s there a lump of coal in its head?¡± Gustav asked, and reached his hand in to grab it. Despite their first impression, this was not a lump of coal, it wasn¡¯t on fire, despite how the mantis¡¯ head was still sizzling hot. It was its brain from the looks of it, but they couldn¡¯t understand why it was so solid, and also cold to the touch. ¡°It has that for its brain?¡± Tim grunted, and then he thought to himself. ¡°No wonder I couldn¡¯t kill it with the nerve splitter, this bastard doesn¡¯t have a brain to split!¡± The two of them didn¡¯t understand what they were seeing, but it wasn¡¯t expected of them to know everything either. Since this large, black lump wasn¡¯t dangerous, they just grabbed it, and put it in Gustav''s bag. He could take it back to the city later on, and have brighter people analyze what it was. ¡°Looks like there¡¯s more to this universe rather than just big insects, so, how about we explore it a bit more?¡± Gustav pitched, and this was uncharacteristic from his side, so it was quite interesting. ¡°But if we¡¯re outnumbered, we run, okay? No shame in retreating if we get to escape with our lives.¡± ¡°Okie dokie,¡± Tim said, and also, he was quite happy to get that lump off of his hands. Regarding weird treasures, he and his friends still had that ring which was protected by this unbreakable casing of sorts. For that matter alone, he wasn¡¯t so enthusiastic about weird treasures that he couldn¡¯t understand. ¡°Why can¡¯t I ever find a cool sword instead?¡± He muttered. Chapter 152 - "A Castle?" Timothy and Gustav continued to explore the forest of sorts that they were surrounded with. The both of them were quiet as they walked, because since they couldn¡¯t see the creatures around them, who were typically camouflaged, they wanted to try and hear them instead. This was their best course of action, and they were willing to burn the whole forest down if it came up to that point, because this place held wildlife that were very hostile to the goblin kind, after all. If beetles went through the portal, so can every other insect in here, and they took that into consideration. The two of them were quiet, and the further they walked, the more accepting they became of something that they noticed. This forest had a single, straight path between it, and this path led back to the portal that they¡¯ve left behind. There were sections where the red grass was trimmed, as if someone tried to make this path more walkable, and this was very difficult to miss! They couldn¡¯t miss it, because as explorers, they were very appreciative of the fact that they didn¡¯t have to barge through a bunch of trees right now. They were avoiding the itchy sensation that trees and bushes would cause, and they were happy about that, as on top of other benefits, they could also observe their surroundings better! Tim decided to abuse this current sense of peace, as he wanted to be a bit more prepared to face whatever else was to come. He pressured the system for any, and all quick upgrades! ¡°What upgrade can you give me, system? I want something painless, something that won¡¯t make me faint this time.¡± He requested, through a thought. [There are two upgrades of that type to your disposal.] She beeped, [One allows you to upgrade your bodily strength and durability to level three, in exchange for 800 system points. The other is a densification process, which would include any and all kinds of fireballs that you can summon, and this one costs 1,200 system points to buy. Both of them are virtually painless, and they can be implemented quickly.] ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about¡­¡± He celebrated as quietly as he could, as this was one of the rare times where the system came in handy in specific, horrid situations. ¡°I want them both, 2,000 points is a steal!¡± [Confirmed,] The system beeped, and within seconds, he felt something weird happening to him. Timothy wasn¡¯t in any pain, but he did feel his armor tightening around his body a little bit. It took little thinking to figure out that he just became a little bit buffer, and stronger! This was a fine primitive trait that anyone could use in certain points, so he was happy about it. Now he couldn¡¯t remember if an upgrade like this had put him through pain in the past, but neither did he care to know right now. The latter densification process of the fireballs he could cast, felt even more insignificant. He didn¡¯t feel any pain so far, in fact he didn''t feel anything, and yet the process was already done, which meant that each fireball of his would cost twenty-five-percent less mana to cast from now on, and this was the greatest upgrade he could get! He was excited about it, because he was known to spam fireballs against his enemies, so at least it won''t be as expensive from now on!Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. [The upgrades are complete, and you just spent 2,000 system points in exchange. A total of 8,000 points remain in your sum.] The system specified. ¡°Worth it,¡± Tim grinned, quietly. Anyway, the two of them continued following the straight path in front of them. They walked slowly so as to not rush into any unnecessary trouble, and ended up walking about a quarter of a kilometer in that manner. At the half-kilometer mark, they noticed something that was hard to miss even within this world where almost everything was camouflaged! They saw a castle, a big one. The reason why they were able to spot it, was because it was really difficult to paint stones red, so the castle was very visible, it was gray. Bricks were red, sure, but they were not used to build castles, at least, this specific castle that they spotted couldn¡¯t be made of bricks! ¡°Is that supposed to be there?¡± Tim asked, as he was dumbfounded, and so he added. ¡°That''s a damn castle, and it''s bigger than the church back in Letazix!¡± ¡°I don''t know anything about this place, man, we came here together.¡± Gustav reminded. The two of them were frustrated, but at this point they were excited to see something that wasn''t a tree or a plant. They started rushing towards the castle a little bit, because it was a solid, two-hundred meters away from them, and they wanted to get to it as quickly as they could. ¡°I doubt that there are any beetles in there, but we could use it as shelter. We can relax for a couple of minutes.¡± Gustav pitched, and rightfully so, because it wasn¡¯t easy to carry seven kilos of armor at all times. Timothy just nodded along, but he also had this weird gut feeling that danger awaited them within that castle. He wasn''t stupid enough to walk in there while defenseless, so he summoned the Bone Multiplier ability, and had it scan the perimeter for any, and all bones. It took little effort to find a bunch of them, because this place was bigger than one would assume. There were plenty of bones buried within the ground, and this was a bit concerning when he thought about it more, because insects didn''t have any bones! He was a bit spooked, but decided to play along with things nonetheless, because he could really use these skeletons right now. After forcing the bones out of the ground, and then through the bushes, he discovered that a couple of them were femur bones, and they used to belong to humans! Finding more human skeletons was one of the worst things he could find here, because even though he was desperate to meet another human, he¡¯d hate to guess what could''ve been strong enough to kill them. These skeletons were not buried in appropriate places, so it was safe to assume that something had killed them! ¡°Let¡¯s hope we''re stronger than humans,¡± Tim said, as he showed the bones to the guard. Afterwards, he multiplied the bones he had, into several pieces, until he got a total of twenty, floating bones. He then shaped those bones into sharp, foot-long crossbow bolts, in order to have them at his quick disposal. Since the bolts were very physical, he stashed them in a small leather bag, and held the bag between his left armpit. He didn¡¯t have to supply the bolts with mana anymore for now, but when he needed to, he could launch all bolts in a single second, and he figured that most creatures wouldn''t be able to withstand being hit twenty times in a single second, because at least a quarter of the bolts were destined to pierce them! The gray-colored castle was about a hundred more meters away, and inwardly, Tim hoped that he wouldn''t have to use his bolts. Chapter 153 - "The Light Feet sect" Timothy and Gustav eventually made it to the castle. They hadn''t been attacked by anything else ever since they killed that mantis, which was weird, but they were happy about it nonetheless, because neither of them wanted to pour their mana points on every corner along the way. They discovered that the castle had a big, wooden door, which surely kept the outside world away. The main entrance was ten-meters tall, while the castle itself was about fifty meters tall. It was the largest building Timothy had seen ever since he stepped into Valporovus, he was impressed! Anyway, such large doors were quite difficult to push, especially for tiny goblins such as the two of them. If the door was barred from the other side, then it was virtually impossible to enter this castle, and this was concerning, because neither of them wanted to walk around in this red hell right now. They wanted to rest, even though they didn''t feel good about entering a mysterious castle. ¡°Any bright ideas this time?¡± Tim asked. ¡°No¡­ unless throwing our backs out pushing this door is an idea?¡± Gustav added. They were stumped, but after a moment, Timothy wanted to shift into a ghost, so he could pass through the door, and see what was hiding on the other side. It was a good idea, but he wasn¡¯t allowed to execute it, because suddenly, someone called out for them from a tiny window from the castle, and this window was covered with iron bars, so they couldn¡¯t see who it was that called them. ¡°Hello there! Who are you?¡± A man called out. ¡°I''m Tim, and this pale guy besides me is Guss!¡± He yelled out, and then asked. ¡°Can you let us in? We''ve gone through hell ever since we jumped in that stupid portal!¡± ¡°You willingly jumped in it? That''s stupid.¡± The man said, and then, without much of an explanation, the doors of the castle suddenly opened. The two of them were baffled, because the doors moved so smoothly as they opened inwardly, but once they opened, they saw that there wasn''t anyone pulling them. Whoever spoke to them, had opened the door through the aid of magic! It had to be a form of telekinesis magic, and this was a rare practice no matter the universe. Anyway, they walked into the castle, and found a bit of comfort within its two-meter thick walls. This was a place that no bug could pierce, or so they hoped, because they wanted to spend a couple of hours here, to rest. A minute later, a man floated down in front of them. He jumped down from the balcony that this large entrance hall had, and landed without bruising so much of a toe. As he greeted them formally, they could tell by his voice that it was him who talked to them before the castle doors opened, this part was easy to pick up on. The castle doors closed again just seconds later, and took the remaining natural light with them, but Tim was beyond excited now regardless of the lack of light, because he had noticed a couple of features on this man that looked a lot like human features!This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Are you friendly, or a dick?¡± Tim asked him, because he wanted to initiate a conversation. ¡°We don''t want to fight you.¡± A mere, hand-held torch shone some light on their surroundings afterwards, and it was the host who lit it. He had walked close to his guests, and as Tim got a better look at his tall stature, the prior conclusions he had were confirmed, this was a human! ¡°You¡¯re a human!¡± Tim shouted, and although his tone came out as threatening, he was in fact the happiest he has been in a while. ¡°I''ve been wanting to meet humans since forever!¡± The other had backed away a bit once he was yelled at, but then he understood that his guest wasn''t hostile, but just enthusiastic. It was rare to run across such enthusiasm, so he ended up feeling a bit perplexed. For that matter, he asked. ¡°There are several human species that I know of, also countless races. I don''t understand why you''re so excited to meet me?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been wanting to shapeshift into a human since forever now, but I still can''t. If you spent a few months in the sea yourself, you''d understand why being a human is one of the best things that can happen to you.¡± Tim explained, he told a portion of the truth. In any setting, he guessed that it would be stupid to mention that he used to be a human. If he told them that his soul came from an entirely different universe as well, then he''d likely be labeled as crazy, so he avoided mentioning that he was from earth all together. Thankfully, this human was cooperative enough, and said. ¡°Well, I hope you become a human someday, then. Let me introduce myself, I am Tonirus, a telekinetic mage from the Light Feet sect, and you''re more than welcome in our castle.¡± ¡°There are more of you?!¡± Tim exclaimed, he was even more excited now. ¡°I want to meet all of you, please, humans are so cool!¡± Again, that was not the entire truth. He remembered hating at least half of the humans he knew back on earth, he hated them wholeheartedly. However, he still missed the feeling of being around humans, and he wanted to watch them, just doing human things. The latter was a psychological need that had been buried deep in his heart up until now. He was sick of seeing both goblins, or fish, and wanted his soul to feel whole, and normal for once. It was a basic human need to be around other humans. ¡°You''ll meet them eventually,¡± Tonirus said, and then he turned around, to walk towards the staircase that led upstairs. ¡°Please follow me, let us treat you with some food, and maybe we can help each other too. I''m guessing that you''ve never tried roast crickets before¡­ they''re not as bad as they sound.¡± ¡°We killed a giant ass cricket like twenty minutes ago,¡± He pointed out, ¡°Well, it was a Mantis, but it''s dead either way. You can harvest its body, if you eat that stuff.¡± ¡°It''s amazing that you held your own against a Giant Mantis, we''ll go have a look at it later on.¡± Tonirus said, and as he walked forward, his guests were temporarily coated by the shadow of his tall stature. ¡°Did you take the mantis¡¯ brain? You could make a shield with that, you know? One that deflects most elemental attacks.¡± Chapter 154 - "Where Tim?" ¡°What do you mean he disappeared five days ago?¡± Skendus asked, and he was beyond worried. ¡°Timothy disappeared first, and Gustav, one of our guards is said to disappear within the same timeframe as him, someone saw the two of them together up on a hill. We''re quite certain that it was Gustav who signaled us, but when we got there, they were gone, and our best guess is that they got severely wounded in battle.¡± A guard explained, and his tone was rather formal, he almost sounded unapologetic. It wasn''t too hard to believe that Timothy might have died, because he was generally reckless, and got himself into trouble quite often. Paired with the fact that a literal god may beam down here at any time, and kill them all together, his death became all the more believable. Arvena was here in the camp too, and she wasn''t so appreciative of the other''s tone, so she asked. ¡°Well, did you find their bodies? Also, where¡¯s Ortana?¡± ¡°Ortana is out looking for Timothy¡¯s body. Our scouts report that she''s killed twenty beetles alone so far, and she''s been cutting them open, to see if she could find your friend in one of their guts.¡± The guard explained, and then he added. ¡°She''s up that hill over there, that big one approximately one kilometer northeast. She can fill you in with any other questions you have, because we need to get back to work. A scout has spotted another beetle nest, and we¡¯re going to see if we can eradicate it today.¡± Arvena wanted to bash a laser beam against the other¡¯s skull, as she didn''t appreciate how she was being treated, but she resisted this urge. It was best to avoid unnecessary conflict right now, so they just started walking towards the hill that they were pointed towards. While they walked, Skendus said. ¡°You better calm down, it''s very unlikely that he''s dead, regardless of how stupid he can be. He was surfing over lava a week ago, that''s a sign of a man who doesn''t die easily.¡± ¡°I know,¡± She nodded, ¡°I¡¯m not worried about him, but that guard deserves a beating. I hope he gets eaten by a beetle, or humped by one, I would be happy either way.¡± ¡°Easy¡­¡± He discouraged the other, though he was quite amused. Anyway, they made it to the top of that hill eventually, and met Ortana there. They were told that this was the spot where Timothy had supposedly been killed at, so they figured if there were any clues to find, those clues would be here. They analyzed the scene, and quickly caught up with the fact that the guards didn''t know what they were talking about! ¡°So they take down five Demon Beetles, and then just die? If they could kill five of them, they''d be able to kill two-or-three more, right? I doubt that two people could run out of mana that quickly.¡± Arvena pointed out. The dead beetles didn''t strike them as threatening either, they figured that these beetles couldn''t be too dangerous. They shouldn''t be, especially if a bunch of volunteers were trusted to deal with them throughout the week, or at least that was what the team believed, though two of them didn¡¯t fight a beetle themselves. However, since the death-count of Demon Beetles was beyond fifty by now, their belief was set in stone, these beetles were weak.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Skendus had a better look around, and then he discovered something out of place. He noticed that the shell of the beetles were severely cracked, they looked especially disgusting now that they''ve decomposed almost beyond recognition. ¡°Did you crack their shells, Ortana?¡± He asked. ¡°No, I found them like that. It was really easy to look through their guts too, but I couldn¡¯t find Timothy in there.¡± She explained. With that said, Skendus couldn''t help but picture how the battle went down. He was very good at piecing such puzzles together, especially since he knew Timothy longer than anyone else, he was very well aware of what his friend was capable of. Once he noticed that the big beetles also had a crater around their carcasses, he figured that the battle had happened up in the sky! The latter wasn''t too difficult to figure out, though he missed it at first, because grass had already grown around those craters. It''s been five days ever since the battle, after all. Anyway, since the battle happened up in the sky, he was sure that Timothy couldn''t have been caught, and eaten. He was very handy with those flying bones of his, to the point where he''d outsmart any, and all insects easily. He also figured that big, round bugs couldn''t fly that well either! ¡°Okay, so Timothy didn¡¯t die, ladies.¡± He called out, and then explained. ¡°Tim carried out the entire battle in the air, and odds are that he had killed these critters far before that guard, Gustav, went missing.¡± ¡°The timeline that those bastards explained, didn''t make any sense to me.¡± Ortana then pointed out, ¡°I¡¯ve walked through this hill about five times, far before any guard did, and I¡¯m almost absolutely sure that the two of them never met. TIm killed the bugs alone, and probably just dashed somewhere afterwards.¡± ¡°He killed the bugs, but he didn¡¯t dash.¡± He argued, ¡°My best guess is that he tried to figure out where the bugs came from, and he''s likely hunting them still. Otherwise, he would''ve returned to the camp a long time ago, because let''s admit it, five days is a long time. Do we have any hints as to where these dead beetles came from?¡± ¡°They came out of the ground over there, but I already checked the tunnels they dug. The tunnels must have collapsed before I got here, because they''re all dead ends.¡± She answered. Skendus believed her, but he still wanted to check for himself, so he got towards the biggest tunnel he could find, and walked into it. He was beyond curious to check them out, because he believed that even if the tunnels had collapsed over Timothy''s head, he¡¯d still survive that situation easily. ¡°He would''ve dug himself out by now,¡± Skendus figured. The three of them walked into the tunnel, and as they went in deeper, it sure looked like a dead end afterwards. However, as their eyes adapted to the darkness that any underground tunnel would have, they started noticing something weird - It seemed as if the dead-end side of the tunnel, was swirling around. ¡°That doesn''t look like a dead end to me,¡± Skendus added. Once Arvena got a better look at what the other was pointing at, she then exclaimed. ¡°That''s a freaking portal! There you have it, that little bastard went through this portal, and chased after the bugs, he''s safe.¡± ¡°How did I not see this before? I''ve been down here three times¡­¡± Ortana sighed, she felt very humiliated that she couldn''t help her friend sooner, and then she yelled. ¡°I wasted so much time cutting through bug guts, I feel so stupid!¡± ¡°You¡¯re not stupid, you''re brave. I wouldn''t touch an insect¡¯s gut even if my own life was on the line, I¡¯m sure they''re pretty gross.¡± Skendus comforted her, and then added. ¡°I''m sure Timmy will laugh his lungs out when we tell him that you''ve been dissecting a bunch of bugs, just to find him.¡± Anyway, they didn''t waste any more time afterwards. The three of them leaped through the pitch black portal, and hoped to find their friend on the other side! Chapter 155 - "You must help" Tonirus led his guests across another portion of the castle. They crossed a small library, and this library didn''t look too significant, so they didn''t even stop to look at it, or ask questions about its contents either. They were led to a dining hall. It was big, with a sizable table along the middle, and plenty of chairs too. This hall was meant to house the entire sect from the looks of it! ¡°Sit, please, I''ll go and get our Sect Master.¡± Tonirus said, and then walked out of the room. While he walked out, he snapped his fingers, and a bunch of silverware started floating in response. The silverware gently landed in front of Timothy, and Gustav, and the two of them were fairly amused by this light display of power. ¡°You''d never guess that someone would use telekinesis for house chores,¡± He said, as it was very fun for him to see something other than bones float around for once. ¡°Seems like a waste, though, right? They could be lifting houses and shit, but they lift spoons.¡± ¡°I think they figured out their own equilibrium a long time ago. Let''s not forget that they appear to be natives here, if not natives, they''ve been here for a long time. They have a castle to prove it.¡± Gustav added. Anyway, a bundle of roasted crickets floated on their plates as well. It was refreshing to see crickets that weren''t as tall as houses, these ones were barely bigger than Timothy''s hands. The crickets looked edible too, so he took the risk, and took a bite out of one of them. He even set his bag of bolts aside, just to free his hands for the job. A bit of goo splashed into his mouth afterwards, and at first he was disgusted, but this liquid goo tasted amazing! It was warm, comforting, and yet somehow, it tasted like chocolate ice cream too! ¡°Oh god, that''s the best thing I''ve tasted in a long while!¡± He grunted, and then he chewed on the rest of the cricket. Gustav wasn''t a fan of insects in general, he was especially disgusted by them if he had to put them in his mouth. However, he already broke plenty of protocol rules today, so he figured that eating a cricket would be the least of his problems when he got back home. He was certain that no one would ask him if they ate crickets or not. ¡°It¡¯s pretty good,¡± He huffed, in joy. About five minutes later, they both wiped their plates clean, and that was when another human entered the room, it was an old man, and he had enough white hair on his face to be considered a super senior in human years. He was being followed by Tonirus, so he had to be the Sect Master. The master sat at the edge of the table, and then greeted the guests. He sounded like quite a gentleman so far, as even his greetings were exaggerated. His name was Urayas, surely an exotic name.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°So you little fellas managed to kill a Giant Mantis, huh?¡± Urayas asked, and judging from his enthusiasm that fought against his old age, his question wasn''t meant to be offensive. ¡°Yes, we blew its arm sockets out. It appears to be its weak spot.¡± Gustav answered, he was formal. ¡°Amazing!¡± The old master exclaimed, ¡°Well, we''re telekinetic mages, you know, so we just crush their organs from afar, as this tends to work just as efficiently as any fireball. Tonirus here tells me that you took its brain out too, that''s smart, it''s a very good bug repellent on top of other things, it keeps the critters away, it warns them to be wiser.¡± ¡°So that''s why we haven''t seem a single bug for half a fucking hour!?¡± Tim exclaimed, the realization made him feel excited. Despite his formality, the master burst out laughing in response! He was very amused, so Tim figured that they don''t get many friendly visitors here. Anyway, after a few back-and-forth conversations, such as where the goblins were from, the master went into more important matters at the end. He went down to business. ¡°We need skilled men, like you two, I''m not ashamed to admit it.¡± Master Urayas said, and then he specified. ¡°Although I can''t offer you a spot in our sect, on the count that neither of you practice telekinetic magic, I can offer you a cooperative deal that should benefit us both. See, these insects are becoming a menace, for both of our worlds, but we can do something about it.¡± ¡°I hardly doubt that you have trouble with them, on the count that you can crush their hearts from the comfort of your castle.¡± Gustav pointed out. Gustav was here to kill beetles, that was the duty that he had taken over himself. He wasn''t so keen on taking responsibility over any other random tasks, he didn¡¯t want to fight anyone else''s battles. ¡°Oh, not all of them are that easy to kill.¡± Master Urayas admitted, and then he explained. ¡°In the past five years, a bunch of insects have grown unexplainably bigger. Don''t get me wrong, our universe, Purpureus Mundi, used to have big insects ever since it was created, but some of them have tripled in size, they don''t even fit in our universe any more! They must be dealt with.¡± ¡°So you want us to deal with them?¡± Timothy asked, as he was less formal, and could cut to the chase without fearing a soul. ¡°Forgive me, master, but we just came here to kill a bunch of beetles, and we almost died dealing with a stupid mantis, so we''re hardly the heroes you''ve been hoping to meet. What are we supposed to do? Go out there and kill a thirty-foot tall bumble bee?¡± ¡°Well, we want you to hunt a couple of centipedes. One-hundred foot long centipedes, to be exact. We¡¯ve watered you, and fed you in our castle, so you must pay your respects to it. If you don''t help us now, those centipedes could come crashing through our floor boards at any given second, so you must understand the severity of the situation!¡± The other demanded. ¡°I''m sorry, master, but there''s no way in hell we''re fighting a hundred-foot long centipede.¡± Tim said, as this was one of the things that he could decide on firmly, it was something that he didn''t want to explore. However, a second later, he felt his heart tightening all of a sudden. He felt as if he was going to have a heart attack after a few mere seconds! Tim didn¡¯t know what was going on, but then he noticed that the master was looking him in the eye, and had the most sinister grin on his face. He insisted, ¡°You must help.¡± Chapter 156 - The Devils kiss Timothy was very close to a heart attack, but his willpower was unbreakable, he wasn''t afraid of death! However, he didn¡¯t want to die so randomly either, so he put something in motion to try and save his life. Gustav seemed to be oblivious through all of this, it took him a while to realize that something was wrong with his friend. When he saw Timothy holding his chest, he thought that he was choking on a cricket leg or something, so he patted him on the back! The old master hadn''t attacked Gustav yet, and this was for the best, because he helped create a great diversion. Timothy leaned forward after he was patted on the back, as if to comfort himself a bit, but in reality, he was just trying to hide his hands under the table. A second later, a single bolt flew out of Timothy''s open, leather bag of bony bolts, and it darted towards the master! He had been summoning the Bone Multiplier ability while his hands were under the table, and was strong enough to launch a single bolt. It was a solid fact now, his gut was very often right, and he vowed to always trust it from now on. Tim was right to trust his gut to begin with, this castle ended up offering nothing but vague threats, and dangerous tasks to them, so he was lucky that he had set the bag of bolts on the table to begin with! The bolt ended up piercing the master''s forehead, and killed him on the spot! It would appear that an all knowing master of telekinesis wasn''t strong enough to stop a tiny bolt, or in this case, it was likely that he hadn''t seen it coming. Everything happened within a blink, and the master blinked at the wrong time! It took the two other men in the room a moment to realize what happened, but Timothy could make use of this negligence. His heart was safe now, yes, it escaped the master''s grip, but he still needed a moment for his blood pressure to stabilize again. He had to breathe. ¡°I hate you for what you made me do, master wrinkly tits¡­¡± He thought to himself, he was very ashamed that he had to kill a human. ¡°What did you do!¡± Gustav asked seconds later, in panic, after the master fell off of his chair. ¡°Nevermind what I did,¡± He said, and without much of an explanation, he then attacked Tonirus. Tonirus had been walking over here, and judging from his tightened fists, and rigid body language, he was walking over to start a fight. This was another conflict that Tim couldn''t avoid, so he ended up flinging the other nineteen bony bolts against this man! Tonirus stopped ten bolts, he managed to do that in a blink, but the rest of them bashed through his armor, and pierced his chest and guts! They went up to three inches deep, so this was a death sentence as solid as any, though he didn''t die immediately. ¡°What are you doing!?¡± Gustav yelled, grabbed Timothy by the collar, lifted him off of the ground by a couple of feet, and bashed his face on the table. ¡°I thought you liked humans! Why did you kill them?¡± ¡°Because they tried to kill us, just now!¡± Tim exclaimed, and then he pushed his body against the table, sending Gustav backwards by a few feet. His new strength & speed upgrade came in handy here. ¡°That task with the centipedes, it wasn''t a request, but a demand! As soon as I refused, he tried to crush my heart!¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Gustav caught up with what happened, and he was pissed. Despite his extensive beliefs and discipline, he got this urge to go and kick the old master''s corpse around! ¡°Wrinkly bastard!¡± He cussed, and thus he went against his own rules once more. The best idea now was to make a run for it. They couldn¡¯t hold their own against the several other telekinetic mages, it was stupid to fight them, so they had to go out of this needle universe immediately, and maybe return with backup later on! The latter was Gustav''s original plan when he saw that portal, and he was absolutely right to think so, they shouldn''t have come here alone. However, before they could''ve dashed, they heard a faint whisper. Tonirus was calling for them, and he forced a few words out. ¡°Hey¡­ please come here, please listen¡­¡± It was a miracle that he was still breathing, but he was going to die soon anyway, so the two of them walked over, and figured that they had twenty seconds to spare to listen to him. ¡°You must close the portal, get the book¡­¡± Tonirus started gurgling on his own blood. ¡°Library¡­¡± ¡°Ah, hell nah!¡± Timothy exclaimed, and then the two of them just walked away. ¡°We''re not closing the portal while we''re still in it!¡± Gustav felt the same, but as they crossed through the library moments later, their curious nature got the best of them. They stepped into the small library, and grabbed any and all books that seemed abnormal. They figured that if there was a book that could somehow close that portal, it had to look unusual, and not like a common instruction book. ¡°Maybe we can try and close it when we''re close to the portal, we can bring the book there.¡± Gustav pitched, as they continued to search through the library for it. ¡°I don''t think that''ll work,¡± He said, and perhaps both of them had a point, but for now they just hoped that they wouldn''t get jumped. Timothy ended up tossing a bunch of books off of the shelf, he did so accidentally because he was rushing. But after he did so, he did discover something weird. ¡°That''s as devilish as it can get,¡± He grunted, and bent over to pick up a book, which between its parchment papers, had a page that was made entirely out of metal. The page had the carving of a red star on it, so he automatically associated it with demons. He wanted to browse the rest of the pages as well, but he accidentally cut his hand on the metal page''s very sharp corner instead! Once a few drops of his blood landed on this ¡®devilish¡¯ page, the book shone faintly for a few seconds, and then it disappeared entirely! Inwardly, he started realizing that this was a very stupid mistake to make, as he just accepted something unholy in his body. A sharp pain beated deep within his head seconds later, and it was beyond the pain threshold that most goblins could handle, it wasn''t fun. But thankfully, it only lasted a few seconds! Although the pain felt unholy at first, it was actually a blessing of sorts, because he just accepted a new ability, a new power! It was never a bad thing to obtain a new power, but since everything about this process has been against his own free will, he wasn¡¯t a big fan of it. ¡°I''m pretty sure that I wasn¡¯t supposed to be cut by that bastarding devil page, but¡­¡± Tim blabbered, half of his sentence was difficult to follow along. ¡°I should be able to close the portal now, we don''t need any books. That devil page gave me its powers, that book was supposed to close the portal, but here we fucking are!¡± [The Devil''s Kiss ability has successfully been added to your arsenal,] The system beeped. Then, she beeped again. [You successfully killed two telekinetic, human mages, both of which had a different quality of mana. You get 8,000 points for killing the master, and 3,000 points for killing the gatekeeper. I must congratulate you, as you''re wealthier than ever now, with a total of 19,000 in your sum!] ¡°I can''t be too happy about that, I just killed a couple of human beings.¡± He thought. Chapter 157 - "I gots me a universe" Timothy and Gustav knew how to close that portal now, so they virtually had no other reason to stay in this castle any longer. With that said, they made their way to the door, but after they ran down the staircase that led to the main hall, they were quickly reminded that there was a gigantic door in front of them. It was a door that they couldn''t open, at least not without destroying it! ¡°We should burn it down,¡± Gustav pitched. ¡°No¡­ that door is half a meter thick, it''ll take forever. We''ll be dead by the time it burns down.¡± He pointed out. With that considered, they had to figure out a smarter way to get out of here. Jumping through a window might do the trick, but of course, they had to walk back upstairs to find one of the few windows that were in the castle, and furthermore, they had to cut through the cell bars just to jump out. It was a lengthy process which could lead to their demise, just as quickly as their first idea. The two of them were stumped, and ten seconds later, their chance for an escape was taken away from them, because the enemy mages caught up to them. One of them caught up, at least, and several more could be heard running across the corridor above their heads! The one mage that got to them, was strong enough to immobilize Timothy and Gustav. Although he didn''t attack their organs, he did restrict their movements, their limbs, and had them hover about four feet above the ground. The mage then asked, ¡°Which one of you devilish fiends killed master Urayas?¡± The two of them could barely even move their jaws, and yet a response was expected out of them. Neither of them wanted to speak, but Timothy did find enough strength to utter a single word. ¡°Bastard¡­¡± They were in a horrible position right now, and they may die just seconds later, however, the threat of a brutal death, in this case, was a great motivator. Despite the restrictions that were cast upon him, Tim still moved his fingers, as much as he could, and at the same time he had summoned the Bone Multiplier ability to his aid! The latter has proved itself really handy to him in recent days, the possibilities with it were greater than what a mere fireball could offer, so he put it to use once more. Timothy tugged on the telekinetic mage''s ribcage, but since he could barely move his fingers, he couldn¡¯t do any damage. At last, he decided to dual cast the Bone Multiplier, which made the ability be more noticeable to the naked eye, and it was especially apparent a second later, as several men ran down to the entrance hall, with luminous torches on their hands! Despite the clear, greater risk that he was facing now, Tim kept fighting. He poured as much mana as possible towards the ability, and made all ten of his fingers put some work in! ¡°What are you doing?¡± The mage reacted, as he started feeling funny, his insides were moving around a lot more than they were supposed to. He sensed this. The mage felt even more pressure five seconds later, and so his grip over Timothy and Gustav, lessened just by a nudge. Gustav caught up with what was happening, especially after he dropped half-a-foot closer to the ground all of a sudden, he was more alert now, and just knew that Timothy was playing with bones again!Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Considering that ten men had reached the scene already, this was their last chance to make a move, otherwise they¡¯ll be killed shortly after! Gustav had a plan in mind, so he tilted his head downwards just a little bit, and then muttered something that was hard for anyone to hear. ¡°You should''ve ripped my lungs out while you still could,¡± He mumbled, and then he summoned an unholy amount of fire. This was no normal counter-attack, however, because he was shooting fire out of his mouth, not his palms. He poured a nine foot wide fireball against the mage, and not only did he burn him alive, but he hit a bunch of other mages as well! In the heat of the moment, and as his hands were freed of that telekinetic grip, Tim then broke that unlucky mage''s ribcage apart, and then shot all of those broken bones towards the remaining enemies! It was brutal, but effective, because just like that, they wiped out an entire sect of mages, regardless of how each of their individual mana qualities was greater than that of Tim''s, and Gustav''s. Those mages had put all of their mana in telekinetic magic, so their skin was as soft as a canvas, they weren''t meant to be fighters, they weren''t meant to dodge bolts. ¡°You¡¯re right, we do work well together.¡± Gustav then said, and he had a point, because their counter attack had been in perfect sync with each other''s. ¡°Yeah, we do, but these bastards were also pretty pathetic.¡± Tim said, his mind was tainted with violence, perhaps more than usual too. ¡°They could''ve lifted our kidneys up to our throat, but they didn¡¯t, they were all cowards. They''re a bastarding shame to anyone else that''s a human.¡± The two of them walked over the severed corpses afterwards, and tried to look for a key. They hoped that the large door in front of them would have a keyhole that they could twist on, in order to get out of here. However, they didn''t find any key of sorts on these corpses. They still couldn¡¯t get out of here, but that wasn¡¯t too much of a problem, because they weren''t in a rush anymore. It was best to walk up in the castle corridor again, and look for a lever that could open the doors, and this was their greatest hope, because they didn''t want to burn the door off of a perfectly good castle. Timothy put most of the several, hand-held torches out by stepping on them, and just picked up two of them, so he and Gustav could explore the place. He figured that these dead mages wouldn''t need the torches anymore, they were gone for good. ¡°How messed up is this, huh?¡± Gustav said, as they walked up the stairs. ¡°These bastards forced our hand, it wasn¡¯t even our plan to fight them, and then they died. They all died for nothing...¡± ¡°They underestimated us, that''s why they were so comfortable with threatening us. They threatened Valporovus too, because I¡¯m sure that old fart had opened the portal himself, to let those centipedes out, but only a bunch of beetles went through the portal instead. Their plan failed horribly, so these dumb bastards lost their lives, their castle, and their universe today.¡± He followed along. Tim put the pieces of the puzzle together thoroughly, he made great sense. The telekinetic mages lost everything they owned, and handed it over to him. Not only could he close that portal now, but he could summon a new portal as well, because the power that he accepted in his bloodstream, fully gave him the capability to be the one and only master, when it came to entering this universe whenever he wanted to! He hit the jackpot, even though he almost had his heart torn apart just moments ago! He was a bit happy. [Congratulations,] The system then beeped, [You just killed four more humans back there, the lot of them were telekinetic mages. In exchange, you''ve won 12,000 system points, and you¡¯ve accumulated 31,000 in total.] ¡°I guess this is what the concept behind Risk & Reward means,¡± He smiled. Chapter 158 - The Centipedes Skendus, Arvena, and Ortana crossed the portal that they¡¯ve discovered. They were immediately overwhelmed by the exclusive shades of red here at first, and then they made sure to be cautious of every step they took, because they didn''t know what to expect here. For all they knew, they could be overwhelmed by a bunch of Demon Beetles at any second, and they would''ve been none the wiser, because they couldn''t even tell the trees apart from the bushes around here. Caution was beyond necessary! ¡°Aah, do you smell that?¡± Arvena asked, after a deep sigh. ¡°Do you smell the mana? This has to be a needle universe, they''re so secretive, and very hard to get to!¡± ¡°A needle universe, huh? That''s interesting, but I can''t really smell mana like you can.¡± Skendus admitted, and Ortana was just as helpless. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of mana in the air, more than in Valporovus, actually.¡± She insisted, and then she pitched. ¡°Maybe we can stay here for a while? Assuming that we don''t get attacked by bugs. My mana pool is becoming impossible to fill recently, I''m not even halfway there.¡± ¡°I''m not so keen on accumulating mana right now.¡± Skendus admitted, ¡°It''s best to avoid climbing levels until we get blessed by the Church of Ontarum, or else we''ll upset those darn gods more than we already have. It pains me to say it, but I¡¯ve been shooting bolts at the sky yesterday to prevent my mana from accumulating.¡± No one in the group agreed with his method there, they despised it, but they didn¡¯t bother fighting over this matter, because they were to get blessed by the priest sooner or later. After that, their individual opinions over mana wouldn''t matter as much, as they could all ascend through levels regardless. Anyway, one could say that they entered this portal less than prepared, as their mana pools were far away from being full. Ortana''s pool was only halfway full as well, on the count that she¡¯s been hunting for five days now, it wasn¡¯t a great amount. They could all use the extra mana that this needle universe provided, as they were hunting bugs, after all, on top of looking for Timothy. The three of them progressed towards the red forest, they walked for about thirty meters now. Though this place confused them as much as one would expect, they were still eternally grateful that they weren''t being attacked by any random bugs right now, because they didn''t know if they could fight them off! They instinctively guessed that every bug in this forest was perfectly camouflaged, so they were on their toes as they walked. Eventually they made it to a giant, dead mantis. They almost stepped over its carcass, but its stench helped them figure out what was in front of them. After they discovered its head, they were both amazed, and terrified by how big this mantis actually was! ¡°I don''t want to cross paths whoever dismembered this poor guy, this is some psychotic work.¡± Ortana expressed, as she was sure that Timothy couldn''t have killed the mantis. ¡°Don''t get me wrong, I dismembered plenty of things before, but our Timmy isn''t strong enough to do damage like this, he''s just a goofy kid.¡± ¡°Hey, you actually got his name right for once! He won''t believe it, haha!¡± Skendus joked, that was the only thing he focused on.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. One could say that most of their assumptions regarding this place, and Timothy were somewhat accurate, but a couple of their guesses were dead wrong. They weren''t the greatest detectives, but this wasn''t a big issue, as long as it wouldn''t get them killed. They kept moving. After they crossed the Giant Mantis, they wanted to progress through this universe even further, but then they were stunned, as they noticed a few of creatures that were very much not camouflaged, they were dark brown by color! These insects were confident with their stride, and slithered towards the team at full speed. ¡°Are those snakes?¡± Arvena asked, she was very confused about what she was seeing here. ¡°Snakes aren''t flat. Those are centipedes!¡± Skendus exclaimed, and after that point, he didn¡¯t bother talking anymore, and attacked. Using both of his palms, he started shooting tens of Blunderous Bolts each second, right towards his target! He has gotten the hang of this new ability over the last few days, and now, he started using it almost instinctively, especially since he hadn''t practiced his other new powers that much. The bolts struck one of the giant centipedes, and thankfully, the bolts stopped it on its spot. Skendus didn''t manage to kill it, and that wasn''t surprising, but at least he had slown one of them down for a moment. The two other centipedes were still on the move, however, and they were just a terrifying twenty meters away! Although they were all terrified, Ortana and Arvena hadn''t been standing throughout this exchange either, no. They shot against the centipedes as well, and tried to do as much damage as they could! Arvena shot twenty fireballs against them, in a span of two seconds! When she noticed that the fireballs weren''t hot enough to burn the rock-like heads of the centipedes, she decided to take another course of action. She summoned that new ability of hers, and focused it on one, single centipede this time around, rather than the both of them. Using a few laser shots, she first attacked its head, and then its fat legs. Unsurprisingly, that didn¡¯t kill it either, but she noticed the centipede jitter after she lasered one of its many legs, so she decided to work with that clear, but tiny advantage. Arvena blasted about forty Laser Shots from her palms, focused them on a single point on the target¡¯s leg, and gained enough of an advantage to hear the centipede squirm! ¡°Haha!¡± She celebrated, and saw that centipede back away, with a permanently damaged leg. Afterwards, she was about to do the same thing against the only other giant insect that stubbornly charged forward, but suddenly, she didn''t have to. Ortana had followed her example, apparently, and nailed one of these brown fiends against its legs so many times, that it eventually bled out whatever liquid its body held. It made sense that she managed to spear it tens of times, including on its legs and sides, because a centipede moved in a slithering manner, it had been exposed to the countless spears that Ortana summoned! ¡°You actually killed one of them?!¡± Skendus asked, he was shocked. At the same time he managed to scare the third centipede away, because one of his new powers gave the illusion of a hundred thunder bolts. The centipede would be scared of the sound, if the ¡®fake pain¡¯ hadn''t gotten to it already. This was called the Fool''s Thunder ability, and it was very useful if one wanted to put their enemies into shock, both internally, and externally! It was useful enough today. Anyway, they went over to look at the carcass afterwards, and as they observed it, they were racking their brains trying to figure out just why an insect would grow this big. This was both unnatural, and weird, because they couldn''t even picture a dragon being this big, not to mention anything else! A one-hundred foot long centipede was difficult to fathom. Chapter 159 - The Button Tim and Gustav explored the castle that they were in. This place was even roomier than they had imagined, as they ended up exploring several rooms, most of which looked like personal bedrooms, it was a big place. The prior inhabitants have been living here for a while, so it was a bit sad that they died so unnecessarily, as simply, they could''ve kept their homes if their master wasn''t so rash. These dead mages were one of the unluckiest humans in any universe! Apart from the bedrooms, they also saw a few workshops. Though they understood that one of them was a forge, and one of them was an alchemy lab, they couldn''t nearly understand what two of the other workshops were about, on the count that the tools there were very foreign to them. Anyway, even though they explored most of the castle, they couldn''t find any lever of sorts to open the door. The mechanics of the main door seemed very complex as well, they were connected to a bunch of old, large mechanical bolts, springs, and other steel attachments. One couldn''t simply pick the lock, because there wasn¡¯t a lock to begin with, as these long, four-foot wide metal beams barred the door, so, this door wouldn''t open unless the attached mechanics were triggered! This was quite frustrating, because unless they were comfortable with blowing a hole in one of the castle walls, they were stuck here. They could float down from the highest floor of the castle, but they''d rather find the lever instead. They wanted to preserve this castle, so they didn''t want to take any shortcuts, or dismantle anything today, not even the barred windows, because an open window would make the castle penetrable! With huge insects running around the universe, the last thing they needed was a surprise guest. They wanted to be safe in the castle, even if they ended up spending just a single day here at the end. ¡°Maybe the lever is in the basement, man?¡± Gustav pitched, ¡°Tonirus spoke to us from the second story before he let us in, but he was a telekinetic mage. If he could explode someone''s heart from a hundred meters away, he can surely flip a hidden lever from the comfort of the library.¡± ¡°We''ll check the basement, then, it''s not like we have anything to lose by just looking.¡± Tim followed along. The two of them went to the basement afterwards, and they went together, because it was the only place that they hadn''t checked through the past hour. Sure enough, they ran into something weird really quickly. They found a big room, it was about seven meters wide, it was mostly square shaped, but had a pit of sorts in the middle. This pit was filled with those coal-like brains that he, and Gustav pulled out of that dead mantis'' head. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°That''s one way to keep the insects out,¡± Tim joked. Gustav walked into the room afterwards, squatted down to shine some light on the room, and then came with a conclusion. It didn''t take him long to put some pieces of the puzzle together. ¡°The lumps are spent, this is a disposal room.¡± He pointed out, ¡°I''m guessing it''s dangerous to leave the lumps outside, because it may attract bugs. A spent cricket brain has to be less threatening, these brains are not keeping the insects away. No chance.¡± The two of them couldn¡¯t care less about spent cricket brains right now, so they walked out of the room, and continued to explore the rest of the basement. Unlike the several rooms above them, the basement seemed to be a limited space, its few rooms were tiny, and insignificant. There were a couple of cells as well, which made this place almost look like a dungeon. There were three cells, and they were all shut, with the keys missing, which seemed a bit irresponsible, especially since they also found a skeleton in one of those cells. This skeleton belonged to a human, and by all means, this could¡¯ve been someone who either broke the rules of the sect, or had simply angered the recently deceased sect master. Either way, it was apparent that this was a bad way to die. Anyway, the only other room here was just a storage room, and it only had worthless things in it, like brooms, and buckets. They could not find a lever here, and it would be weird if they did. The two of them gave up afterwards, and they wanted to get up in the castle, to relax for a bit. They planned to look for the lever again, after their heads cleared up. The castle was designed by humans, after all, so it was possible that they missed the lever because of the height difference between humans and goblins. While they walked up the stairs, in order to get back to the main floor, a small rat crossed their path. The rat seemed young, so he was as clumsy as he was energetic! The rat jumped around in panic once he heard the goblins walking towards it, and tried to climb up the walls. It failed, of course, but as it tried to climb up the walls, the fourth block, height-wise, suddenly caved in. This block was light to the touch, and after it was pushed it dove in by about six inches, before it returned to its original position. A second later, they heard a bunch of metal bits clanging, and clicking around the walls. This got the two of them very excited, because by all odds, the lever that they were looking for, was actually more of a button! They rushed out of the basement afterwards, and ran towards the entrance hall, where they saw that the main door was finally open! That button had triggered its hidden, complex mechanics, so now they knew how to get out of the castle without having to destroy its protective door! As for getting in, they had to settle with floating above the castle, to enter through one of the hatches on the roof, because they didn''t want to look for another button from outside the castle. Anyway, as the light of the outside world pierced their eyes, it also grabbed their attention. They looked outside, and ended up seeing three people that Tim at least, was very happy to see! They saw Skendus, Ortana, and Arvena! His friends found the castle as well. Chapter 160 - The portal closer ¡°You¡¯re alive!¡± Ortana rushed over, and hugged him. She was relieved. ¡°Of course I am?¡± Timothy hugged back, and looked at the rest of the team. He was wondering what was going on. ¡°You¡¯re alive too. I guess?¡± The group chuckled in response, they were enjoying his confusion. He might as well be confused, because he only saw this woman yesterday, and yet she acted as if he had been missing for ten years! ¡°I¡¯ve been looking for you for five days¡­¡± She then said, ¡°The guards said that you got killed, and eaten, so I gutted a lot of bugs in order to find your body. Those guards are liars, they lied to me with a straight face!¡± Before Gustav could chime in on that last statement, Timothy cut his words short because no one wanted to be lectured right now, and then he emphasized a question. ¡°Five days? We''ve only been here for an hour. Maybe an hour and a half, give or take.¡± With that said, both sides caught up with all the drama almost instantly. Time worked differently in this universe, and that was what caused all of their worrying. An hour here, was about five days back in Valporovus! ¡°Needle universes are unique. Time moves fast here, or it moves very differently at the very least.¡± Arvena tried to explain this situation based on what she knew, she tried to sum up a proper explanation for her friends. ¡°I don''t have enough books with me to prove a point, but we could stay here a year, for example, and we would''ve only aged a year, not a day more, but in Valporovus, decades would pass! 50 years, a hundred? I don''t know, but we''d certainly walk into the future.¡± ¡°So we have our own personal time machine, then.¡± Tim added, his excitement returning as quickly as the plague. ¡°Something weird happened back there, girls, I can close the portal now, and I can also open new ones.¡± ¡°Bug problem solved, then. Let''s get out of here before the priest curses us instead of blessing us. By the time we get to the portal, ten whole days would''ve passed since your disappearance. Let''s go claim credit for the bugs that we''ve ¡®stopped¡¯ before anyone else does.¡± Skendus said, as he insisted on getting out of here. Tim wanted to complain about the corpses that were in the castle, he wanted to remove them, but then he figured that even if they came back here after a month, the corpses wouldn''t have aged for more than a couple of hours. With that said, he wasn¡¯t worried about them stinking the place out, they could toss the corpses out of the castle some other day. However, Timothy didn¡¯t want the castle to be attacked by anything either. He didn¡¯t want to know what those centipedes were capable of, so they took the mantis brain out of Gustav¡¯s bag, and then he went into the castle with it. As he ran, he shouted. ¡°Wait outside, I''m gonna reset the security system!¡± Sure enough, two minutes later, the main doors shut as if magically. No one could enter the castle now without his say-so, and he left the mantis brain on the dining room table too, which was on the first floor. He hoped that the centipedes would get discouraged from breaking through the castle floor boards like this. The mantis brain should scare them. Afterwards, he went to the fourth floor of the castle, and climbed out of a hatch in order to get on top of one of the four, short towers that this place had. Tim then summoned a couple of bones, floated down from the tower of the castle ever so gently with the aid of those bones, and landed in front of his friends. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Okay, we''re good to go.¡± He nodded. ¡­ When Tim was told that the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi could give him more mana per hour, he was over the moon! The system hadn''t bothered to tell him about this, but it was true nonetheless! [In Purpureus Mundi, you can generate around 1,200 mana points an hour, and it''s also considered natural. It''s not a cheat.] The system explained, once she was asked. ¡°Hell yeah!¡± He celebrated, inwardly, but he was sad that they couldn''t stay here for long, because they had to get back to Valporovus. ¡°We gotta get back here when we don''t have anything else on our plates, or else it would be too much of a risk to disappear for months. I bet the dragons miss us a lot as well.¡± ¡­ The team of four, and Gustav, made it to the portal. They walked here cautiously since they didn''t have a mantis brain to protect them, and thankfully, they hadn''t run into any bugs along the way. While they traveled here, Timothy and Gustav took one look at the giant, dead centipede, and were infinitely happy that they didn¡¯t have to fight it, and its friends. A one-hundred foot long centipede was a nightmare in anyone''s book, it would indefinitely be a nightmare, unless one was a four-hundred foot tall chicken, who could eat these centipedes. The latter was less than plausible. As they moved on, they noticed that the fire which Timothy previously caused, had died down already, because the fire didn''t have much to burn considering how small this needle universe was. Tim also believed that he had sent a message with that fire that he caused, as he indirectly warned every critter in the area, to not approach goblins unless they wanted to be torched in a way similar to those trees! He believed that he warned them, though realistically he didn''t have the slightest clue how insect brains worked. Anyway, as they were about to leave the portal, they instinctively turned back to have a last look of the place, and ended up spotting something that neither of them wanted to see. They saw two large centipedes charging either towards them, or towards the portal - Either way, they were coming here fast! ¡°Hell nah, I''m not fighting those!¡± Timothy exclaimed, and then he pushed his friends towards the portal. This was not the time to make a stand, even if they could kill these things. They''d rather not waste a half hour here, considering that their efforts back in Valporovus might go in vain after every tick passed here, in this universe! Timothy was the last to jump into the portal, but before he leaped through, he took a couple of seconds to unleash tens of Nerve Splitter shots against the centipedes! He hardly believed that this ability worked against them, but he was hoping that it would at least slow them down, because he didn''t want them crossing through the portal as well. Without wasting another second, he then went through the portal, and met his team on the other side. It would appear that they¡¯ve been waiting for him for five minutes now, they were worried sick. Tim avoided speaking to them for a moment, and focused on closing the portal instead. The portal''s activity was a subject of his say-so, he felt that in his blood, and for that matter, he tried to the best of his abilities to close the portal. Closing it wasn¡¯t easy. He assumed that he had to summon some kind of ability first, but that was not the case, there was nothing to summon! After about a minute, he eventually walked closer to the portal, and almost instinctively, he reached his arms out, and then quite literally grabbed the portal from its bottom left, and tore it out of place as if it was a page of a book! The portal closed in response, it dissipated on his hands, and this left the entire group of people behind him speechless, because they never witnessed such a display of power before! Now, he didn¡¯t have the slightest clue of how to summon the portal again, but that was a problem for another day. It was good enough that those beetles, centipedes, and any other bug remained in Purpureus Mundi! The team could now claim credit for the latter. Chapter 161 - The platoon of 351 warriors Visiting the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi was quite an adventure, but despite the mana it offered, they''d rather not visit that place for a while. It was comforting enough to know that they had access to that universe, and they could go there whenever they wanted in the future, granted that Timothy figured out how to open the portal again. Relatively, the closing of the portal was great, because bugs couldn''t pass through it anymore. Farmers, and their livestock won''t be harassed by those any longer, so the short campaign here that the guards of Runimus city developed, was nearing an end. ¡°The bugs can eat each other, for all I care. Isolating them in their own universe is the best way to starve those big bastards to death. If one of these centipedes got out here, they''d eat a hundred goblins before the guards put it down.¡± Tim thought to himself, he was beyond happy that he closed the portal. Anyway, they made it to the campsite afterwards, where all the guards were located, and greeted them. The guards, and volunteers were very surprised to see this group of people who were assumed dead, they didn''t know how to react! ¡°We thought that you folks died off looking for your friend,¡± A guard expressed, ¡°Pardon my language, but where the heck have you been? We had search parties looking for your bodies up until a day ago!¡± Tim and the group understood that these guards were less than happy to see them, regardless of their reactions, but they didn¡¯t bother arguing with them. They told them portions of the truth, mentioned the needle universe, and told them that the associated portal somehow ¡®disappeared¡¯. They didn''t tell them that it was Timothy who closed it, because they wanted to keep this a secret for the sake of his safety. As long as an illusionist didn''t reluctantly search through his brain, their secret was safe. They wanted to keep the universe for themselves. Gustav was on board as well, he told plenty of lies today, because he wanted to protect his new friend. Furthermore, he was considering retiring from his duties as a guard, because by all odds, he could''ve died throughout this campaign, and no one would even care to avenge his death. Despite the endless formalities that these guards spoke of, he was sure that no one had been looking for him! ¡°Lousy pricks,¡± He thought to himself. Anyway, the campaign lasted for two more days only, as they had to hunt the few more Demon Beetles who had gone through the portal recently. It wasn''t an intensive hunt, but they had to follow through nonetheless, as to not let them reproduce here, in Valporovus. They killed ten more of them. Once they killed what they believed to be the last beetle, the guards hoped that another portal wouldn''t appear around here anytime soon. Quite frankly, they hoped that it wouldn''t pop up anywhere in Valporovus, because this has been a daunting, and dangerous task for everyone involved! This task took the lives of seven volunteers, and two guards, and this death count was a lot for them, considering that they needed all hands on board soon if they were to kill Iron Claw the Wicked. Iron Claw has burned another village down recently, and he ate most of its people. He was a hungry dragon no doubt, but it was difficult to figure out why he was eating through goblin villages, rather than livestock, or wild animals, it was almost as if he hadn''t hunted wild animals at all recently. Such behavior was weird, but then again, no one planned to go bargain with him. The volunteers, and the guards made their way back to the city of Runimus, where they were to prepare to hunt the dragon. Every volunteer who survived this bug-hunting campaign, proved themselves to be skillful enough to handle an actual, greater battle.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°If we all die in battle soon, then so be it, we¡¯ll sacrifice our lives for a greater cause¡­¡± A couple of the guards talked to themselves, they were battle mages after all, and took pride in the mad notion of dying in battle. ¡­ The city of Runimus was just as they left it. Though it wasn''t the biggest place in the world, its luxurious features remained unharmed. Its citizens were happy that dragons weren''t brave enough to attack any big or small cities, because inwardly, none of them wanted to fight a large dragon. Even though they were quite capable of putting up a fight, they''d rather avoid it. The guards and the remaining volunteers entered the city with a sense of pride, because they came from a campaign alive, and had achieved great results, and a great kill count. Some of them were prouder than others. The guards were greeted by anyone that they met on the streets, and the guards were labeled as heroes, because they believed that it wasn''t easy for them to both manage people, and hunt giant bugs! The citizens were well aware of this campaign, and appreciated the guards'' sacrifices quite a lot. The volunteers weren''t given as much credit, though, they were quite literally considered war animals, just as a knight''s horse would be labeled, and this wasn''t fun, but at least they got to come back with their lives! After flirting with death, respect seemed less important. Anyway, after a good night''s sleep, they were summoned to meet Guard Master Zedim on the training yard the very next day. Every guard and volunteer were summoned, the lot of them, and they all knew what to expect, they knew that they were going to fight Iron Claw the Wicked soon! There were seventy volunteers here, two-hundred and fifty guards, and the lot of them stood in the training yard quietly. Zedim''s presence was valuable to them, so they did not dare muffle anything that he was about to say. ¡°Men, and women, I''m sure a lot of you know why we''re here. A wicked dragon is scorching the land, he has no remorse, and he''s killed well above two-thousand villagers so far! He won''t stop until he delivers a great deal of damage to the goblin kind, we have to kill him, even though no other domain offers to help us! We''re dealing with an absolute monster here, he''s pure evil, but recently, he made a mistake.¡± Guard Master Zedim spoke loudly, this was the start of his speech. Then, he continued. ¡°Iron Claw made a mistake, because he couldn¡¯t manage to wipe out an entire village. He attacked a village two days ago, yes, but there were a handful of survivors. These survivors followed him, located his nest, and now we''re as sure as ever that we know where he''s hiding! He has eluded us in the past, but this time, he won''t be as lucky, because we''re going to hit him tomorrow at noon!¡± ¡°Iron Claw the Wicked shall die on our hands tomorrow. I too will be joining the campaign, and with the three-hundred-and twenty of you by my side, our victory will soon be carved in stone! We''re dealing with a one-hundred meter long monster here, and he''s as tall as ten houses, but he shall fall! Our victory is certain, because I¡¯m happy to announce that our local, Floating Pupil sect, will be sending thirty, adept illusionists to fight with us!¡± The latter was a great announcement, it made everyone feel more comfortable about fighting a dragon that was above forty meters tall. He then added, ¡°We will be discussing battle formations now, so I need each, and every one of you great warriors to pay attention! Battle formations will save us from losing too many people, but if you have any ideas of yours that you want to share, please feel free to do so.¡± Arvena stepped forward all of a sudden, she interrupted the Guard Master, and pitched an idea to him. ¡°Our battle tomorrow won¡¯t be ordinary, master, it will be dangerous, and we don''t want to die in it, not if death is avoidable. My point is that me, and my friends would like to offer you an extra, unique sort of back up, that¡¯ll make fighting Iron Claw more effective.¡± ¡°I¡¯m listening,¡± Zedim said, and for once he appreciated being interrupted. ¡°How would you like to have a few dragons in your team?¡± She pitched, ¡°We tamed them, and they''re hardly threatening to the average goblin, they eat fish and stuff like that. They can come in handy, because with an aerial advantage at our disposal, we can attack Iron Claw from the sky, we can put some of your greatest shooters on a couple of dragons!¡± ¡°I like it,¡± Zedim smirked, ¡°We could use all the help we could get tomorrow¡­¡± Chapter 162 - The Dragons Nest Getting to the den of Iron Claw the Wicked, wasn''t a journey that was too lengthy. It was a seven hour walk, and since the platoon set out at the crack of dawn, they got to their location by early noon. Now they didn''t rush into the dragon¡¯s nest directly, no, because after such a long session of walking, everyone needed an hour to regain their strength. The need for a break was one of the things that held them back, while the tactical disadvantage they had here, was the second thing. The platoon had to climb up a rocky mountain, just to get close to the nest here. The mountain featured many cliffs, and edges that could kill a panicking person faster than the dragon would. There was a cliff that had a huge, deep river underneath it, so someone might get lucky enough to land on the river upon conflict, assuming that they could withstand splashing on the river after falling from a two-hundred meter tall cliff. The latter was the most comfortable death upon impact. Fighting at the top of a rocky mountain was really disadvantageous, a lot of people were going to get hurt! Guard Master Zedim didn''t like that fact, so he didn¡¯t bother resting at all, but he started running around instead, to try and make the best of use of the area that they were in. The survivors of the dragon attack had drawn him an overlay of the place back in the city, but now that he was here to see the top of the mountain himself, he realized that several issues regarding their plan, had to be toggled quickly. Iron Claw the Wicked was about a hundred meters away, so he wanted to be quick before his platoon was spotted. The platoon were setting up a small camp, as quietly as they could, because they were wise enough to not underestimate the sensitive ears of a dragon. Speaking of dragons, the seven tiny dragonflies had joined the platoon, along with Georgie. They were bound to be useful, and the dragonflies were proving themselves helpful already, because they started scouting the area without making too much noise. It was unlikely that they would startle Iron Claw. Seven illusionists had tapped into the brains of the dragonflies, and in the meantime they drew landscapes as best as they could, for the Guard Master to look at later on. They drew a bunch of landscapes with a loose hand, without putting too much attention to detail, so they ended up throwing away a quarter of what they drew. Afterwards, they put the pieces of parchment together, in order to create a big, table-wide map of the perimeter in front of them! It was very useful, but not exactly whole. At the middle top section of the map, right there on the edge, was where Iron Claw was resting. The dragonflies didn''t get too close to that area, so the parts of the map where their target was supposed to be, was riddled with uncertainty, they didn''t draw anything there. This was problematic too, because they''d have a blind spot in battle up until they saw the dragon themselves, and this could lead to a lot of casualties unless they were extra cautious! They were hoping for the best. Guard Master Zedim returned from his scouting session, thirty minutes later, and after he looked at the maps, he smirked in response. Zedim managed to get a grounded look at at least half of the map that the illusionists drew, and with this whole aerial map to his advantage, his head started spinning as he tried to figure the best strategies for the platoon to use!Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°I saw that big bastard on the other side there, he''s sleeping. However big you think he might be, he''s even bigger, but we do have a couple of advantages.¡± He explained. Zedim then continued to formulate a plan, he kept drawing on the map in front of him. At some point he started writing plans so quickly, that no one, apart from himself could understand what he wrote, regardless of how they spoke the same, goblin tongue! From the looks of it, he was convinced that they could use at least half of the battle formations that he planned back in the city, while the other half were new. His platoon had memorized those battle formations entirely in a short time, so surely, they could have a look at the last-minute ones, and act accordingly. ¡°Hmm¡­ yes¡­¡± He grunted, as he drew a dot right in front of where Iron Claw was sleeping, and this dot signified the position that he was going to take in battle. Guard Master Zedim was in the third realm of mana, regarding mana quality. He was a dragon within mere men, but not many people talked about his mana quality, because it was a topic that was strictly taboo. Either way, him facing the dragon head on, was the smartest thing he could think of, because at close range, he could deliver an unholy amount of damage! The fun part of his plan was that he planned to bury himself within rocks and dirt, to avoid the dragon''s attention at first. He wanted to attack it from underneath, if he got the chance! Anyway, the platoon continued to rest as he drew all of those plans and battle formations. They kept chucking meat down their throats, because if they were to be focused enough to fight one of the greatest fiends in Valporovus, then they needed their strength! They had to be as focused as they possibly could be. Forty minutes later, he called everyone over, and thoroughly explained his new plan to them. They were to make use of this rocky mountain as best as they could, they were to hide between wedges, and since most of them could summon fireballs, they hoped to burn Iron Claw alive before he had a chance to fight back! Since a lot of portions of the plan still remained the same, they knew where to go without causing too much of a ruckus. The plan they had, was also supposed to help them approach slowly, without rushing, just so they could get a better feel of the battlegrounds before they actually went into battle! The plan, since the beginning, was to allow the illusionists to go first. They could mask their own steps through magic, and if the rest of the platoon was unlucky enough to be spotted by the dragon before they got into their battle positions, then the illusionists could buy them some time. They could blind the dragon with their countless attacks, which in turn would give everyone the space to get ready! ¡°Okay, men and women¡­ Let''s bring this bastard down today, eh? Let''s declaw him once, and for good! Everyone knows where they''re supposed to go, and when to attack, let''s not mess this up.¡± He spoke to the platoon, and he asked them not to cheer, nor to make any noise. After they nodded in cooperation, he took the illusionists with him, and they started slithering between the rocks. Five minutes later, the rest of the platoon was supposed to follow suit, but for now, they were taking care of the first step of their orders. The platoon of 320 warriors was supposed to split into five groups, each consisting of 64 goblins! Chapter 163 - The wave of fire The platoon made advancements towards Iron Claw the Wicked. They tried their best to sneak around him, and the main idea here was to attack the dragon while he was asleep, as it was one of the greatest advantages that they were going to get! It was less than ideal to waste any time, and yet they couldn''t rush towards their battle positions, because they didn''t want to be heard. It took the platoon fifteen minutes to reach their battle positions, but thankfully they did so without facing any problems. Now, they were ready to launch an attack! The illusionists were supposed to attack first. Skendus, and a couple of other guys who practiced illusion magic, had joined the thirty, adept illusionists that came from the Floating Pupil sect, because together they could deliver the first attack that was just a nudge stronger! This was more effective, because there was no point in dragging illusionists along to anywhere else, as they couldn''t fight like the battle mages could. The adept illusionists decided to bind their forces like this, after the five groups of mages assumed their position, it was not the Guard Master''s wish. The illusionists located the dragon, in fact it was very hard to miss it, because he was sleeping on top of the mountain! He was sleeping on a flat-ish, rocky spot right in front of them, and that spot couldn''t be comfortable at all, considering that he wasn''t even protected from the wind. This place was cold, the temperatures had dropped by 15¡ãC while they climbed the top of the mountain, it was cold, regardless of how it was the middle of summer in this universe! Sleeping like this, exposed, and without a worry in the world was beyond bold! Then again, climbing up a four-hundred meter tall mountain to fight a forty meter tall dragon was even bolder. Plenty of people would call this platoon stupid, but they were here to finish the job, and they wouldn''t have gotten help from any other domain even if they waited for them. This dragon must die today! The illusionist focused on the four legged dragon, whose scales were pitch black, and despite how intimidated they were by its size alone, it was time to attack it! The group of thirty-three summoned the most offensive attacks they could muster, and attacked the dragon in union! The idea was to stun Iron Claw as effectively as they could, but after they attacked, they only managed to wake him up from his slumber! Iron Claws'' meter wide eye opened, and he spotted the illusionists right after! Of course, the group didn''t want to wait until he stood up, so they launched wave after wave of attacks in response! Although these attacks were meant to be only mere illusions to the dragon, everyone else in the vicinity could see the attacks as well, purely because how amped each shot from the illusionists was! If one was none the wiser, they would assume that a rainbow was floating towards the dragon, rather than waves of attacks. The attacks that they launched were a cue for another portion of the platoon to attack, specifically, the long-range battle mages! About forty mages, from all the five different groups, launched what could be considered a wall of fire against Iron Claw!If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. These mages were mostly guards, so they were well above the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, and although they were strong enough to make more accurate shots through the use of fire, they were commanded to shoot plain, huge fireballs instead! That was the plan, they were not to rely on more advanced abilities for now. This plan was effective, because between the literal waves of roaring fire, they could hear Iron Claw roaring! He got burned a bit, as even his scales weren''t indestructible, he was taking damage. ¡°Keep going!¡± The leader of the illusionists shouted, and the leaders of the other five small groups followed his example. Every half a second or so, they could see the dragon between the flames. They noticed that it had stood up, and it was trying to flutter its pitch dark wings in order to launch a light, but very deadly counter attack! It was less than ideal for that to happen, so everyone within the five groups of mages were ordered to attack! Every pair of hands was on board. The mages with the lowest range were commanded to use the Laser Shot ability to attack the dragon, as that would be the most effective use of them as mages, and it aided the cumulative damage that the entire platoon inflicted! The mid-range mages were shooting both lasers, and fireballs, and all together they wanted to overwhelm their target as quickly as they could. The battle position posts that the Guard Master had found for them, allowed everyone to shower the dragon with fire, without fearing the rocky environment around them along the way! There were rarely any thunderbolts beaming across the air, most people didn''t know how to summon them, as thunder was a more complex branch of offensive magic. Timothy had tried to shoot as many bolts as he could so far, because he wanted to contribute as best as he could. The strongest mages in the platoon could shoot thunder bolts as well, but they were much more comfortable relying on fireballs. Tim eventually stopped shooting thunder, and walked away from his group. Considering that the dragon wasn''t dead yet, the use of fire and thunder may not be enough to bring it down. He didn¡¯t want to die here, so he started doing things his own way! Tim crouched to have a better look at the dragon, and below the waves of fire, he started casting an ability of his own. He summoned the Bone Multiplier, and tried to get a hold of the dragon''s spine! ¡°Oh¡­ he''s a tough bastard¡­¡± Tim grunted, after he noticed that he wasn''t going to move Iron Claw¡¯s bones anytime soon. The best idea now was to dual-wield the ability, and he did exactly so. He poured mana on both of his palms in order to charge the ability to its very limits, and kept trying to tug on the dragon''s bones! His palms were oozing a black mist, but this power in its entirety, even while it was cranked up, might not be enough to as little as nudge the dragon¡¯s bones, nonetheless break them! ¡°Come on you bastard¡­ we can''t have you up in the air¡­¡± He grunted, and poured five-hundred points of mana a second, in order to initiate his little plan. Collectively, half-a-million points of mana were being poured against this beast after every beating second, because they couldn¡¯t afford to make even a single mistake today! On top of that, they also needed every advantage they could get, and Tim was trying to make an advantage for the platoon! Chapter 164 - Iron Claws counter-attack! Timothy tried his best to nudge, crack, or even break any tiny portion off of Iron Claw''s spine, he tried everything, but it didn''t work. It would appear that just like his claws, the dragon¡¯s spine could be considered iron-like as well! Considering that he just spent thousands of mana points on this attempt, he decided to stop trying. It was a failure of a plan. He was down to twenty-three thousand points of mana now too, and it was best to hold on to them! ¡°Bastard¡­¡± He grunted, and figured that he''d rather not try the rest of his pre-necromantic powers on this beast, because they''d fail as well. He couldn¡¯t do much alone. Since he couldn¡¯t do much alone, he then decided to return to his group. Even though he believed that their collective attempt to kill the dragon was just as futile as his personal attempt, he still decided to re-join them. He figured that if Iron Claw launched a counter-attack, he could use their bodies as shields. He didn¡¯t want to die today. However, before he could return to his group, he got distracted by something. Since he had crouched to have a better look at the massive dragon, he saw everything that was happening below the roaring fire! For one thing, he noticed that Iron Claw was standing on his hind legs right now. His torso, and widely spread wings were taking all the damage, but he did not budge! Seconds later, he also noticed a single goblin suddenly appear out of nowhere. This goblin was very close to the dragon, so plenty would assume that this course of action was nothing but a deathwish! It didn''t take more than a blink before that goblin attacked the dragon, and once Timothy witnessed how much power was beaming out of that one, single man, he immediately knew who that man was! ¡°Zedim¡­ what a brave motherfucker.¡± Tim sighed, and continued to watch the Guard Master from afar, in admiration. Zedim was a true force of nature, he was shooting four kinds of attacks all at the same time! He was shooting fireballs, laser beams, lightning strikes, and lighting circles all together, and the heat those attacks brung, immediately shifted the waves of battle! Everyone in the vicinity could hear Iron Claw screech, and then roar, though most were unaware that it was the Guard Master who caused this! They were clueless of his plans, but a screeching dragon raised the overall battle morale nonetheless. Zedim left a large burn mark on the dragon''s underbelly, he burned the scales of that area badly, almost enough to break the scales all together! If he had been about twenty meters closer to the dragon, he would''ve torn through its belly, but that situation didn''t occur, because Iron Claw hasn''t taken a single step away from his original spot, he hadn''t walked forward. Zedim had to work with what he had here, he couldn¡¯t stop attacking, not now. With his help, they even managed to make the dragon back away a few feet. This happened just moments later, and it was the kind of abrasive progress that they were hoping for! ¡°Haha!¡± The platoon laughed in union, they mocked the dragon''s pain openly. The cumulative morale right now was strong enough to move the planet, the absolute power everyone felt on their palms was groundshaking! They kept pouring mana into this battle as if there was no tomorrow! Furthermore, since they managed to make the dragon back away, the next part of the plan could now go into motion. Nine, power-amped mages hit the sky! A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. These mages left their groups, hopped on to the dragons that were to their disposal, and started attacking Iron Claw from a closer distance. The dragonflies were tiny, and agile, so it was unlikely that they could ever be hit by any of the enemy''s attacks! These mages on the dragons were amongst the strongest, so the damage they dealt on closer range was beyond terrifying! They flew thirty meters above the waves of fire that their platoon was unleashing, and were trying to meet Iron Claw eye to eye! Being this close, they finally started to rely on thunder as well. They alternated between large fireballs, and thunderbolts, in order to deal more variations of pain against their target. They managed to leave huge burn marks on the dragon already, and another roar from the dragon''s side confirmed this! ¡°Haha!¡± The entire platoon celebrated his pain. ¡°These bastards are really onto something! Maybe we won''t die after all.¡± Tim said, because after he returned to his group, he saw the multiple dragons in the sky. Originally, he had pitched to ride a dragon himself, he felt entitled to fight with Billy up there in the sky, but perhaps it was best that he was refused the opportunity. He was sure that he would have defecated, if he saw the dragon''s twelve meter wide head moving along the sky, he''d defecate if he saw it up close, so this task wasn''t for him. Anyway, after Iron Claw was forced to back away once more, the dragon still managed to sneak in a counter attack. Despite the pain he felt almost constantly, he managed to flutter his wings forward just once! He had tried to flutter them before, but at least one-hundred mages had been hitting his shoulder blades every second, up until now! Moving his wings forward hurt more than the deep, burning fire of hell, but he did so anyway! Once he did, the wind he caused redirected most of the fireballs that were being launched towards him! Some fireballs dissipated, while the stronger ones were knocked back like ping pong balls, and they were heading back towards their casters! Normally they would be able to dissipate their own fireballs upon will, but the wind knocked half of the platoon off of their feet! Some of them landed on rocks, some were protected by the outlay of the mountains, but paired with the ricocheting fireballs, the overall damage the platoon then withstood was significant! Twenty people died on the spot, just because of the strong wings that Iron Claw had flapped towards them! ¡°You can flap your wings all day¡­¡± Guard Master Zedim muttered. The wind had knocked him down as well, but he didn¡¯t die, his armor withstood most of the damage. He then saw that the dragon was about to breathe fire, and understood that he¡¯d lose a lot more men if the dragon had managed to figure out where the groups of warriors were! He couldn¡¯t allow that to happen, because the battle would then be lost, almost immediately. The men and women in the sky were in the most immediate danger, especially the couple of them who were riding on Georgie the dragon, so they moved out of the way quickly! They could see a roaring wave of dragon fire float above their heads afterwards, and although it missed the men that were riding on dragons, the fire surely still had a target! The fire was forty-meters wide, and it was heading to wipe out an entire group of people, sixty of them to be precise! Zedim couldn¡¯t prevent this attack on time, even though he did something rash to try and distract the dragon! He hit the dragon on one of its eyes to catch its attention, but it didn''t work. Zedim tried, but he failed. The wave of fire hit the group afterwards, and everyone assumed them dead, but when the dragon fire then dissipated quicker than it was supposed to, the rest of the platoon noticed that something was odd. The fire dissipated, and then a counter-attack of multi-colored fireballs, was the response of the men and women who were supposed to be dead right now! The assumed victims of the dragon fire survived, and fought back. Everyone was surprised, even the dragon, but their survival wasn''t random. Ortana had been within that group, and she just spent five-thousand points as she had cranked her forcefield ability up to the max, in turn, protecting her comrades as best as she could! Her contribution was golden, but it alone wasn''t what saved the group. The strongest mages had already tried to dismantle Iron Claw¡¯s fire attack, they spent thousands of mana points towards this. Paired with Ortana''s protective forcefield, they escaped this grand attack without as much as a light burn on their skin! With such a result, the overall battle morale of the platoon bounced up again. Zedim noticed what happened, and as another wave or roaring fire started overwhelming the dragon, he decided to use his greatest ability to his disposal, his ace card. They needed a great advantage if they were to win, so he decided to summon some White Flames! Chapter 165 - White Flames Guard Master Zedim stood in front of the giant dragon, and started summoning the greatest, offensive ability to his disposal; White Flames! White Flames wasn''t only a formal name of a greater ability, it was a very literal description. Fire was its hottest when it was white, this was a well known fact, purely because any mage who could shoot fireballs, wished that they could summon white fire some day as well! It was the supreme amongst supremes, and almost no creature could withstand it, especially since it wasn''t a mere fireball, but rather a coating of fire instead. Zedim didn''t want to use this ability unless it was his last choice, and considering the couple of counter attacks that Iron Claw the Wicked launched against his platoon, this might as well be his last choice. If the dragon attacked again, the battle would be lost, regardless of how they had the upper hand right now. To summon this ability, he had to sit down. He could be stepped on by the dragon if he sat down, sure, that could happen, especially since he had ran closer to the dragon just moments ago, but it was a risk that he had to take. Close proximity to one''s target made the White Flames all the more effective! Zedim sat down into a meditative position, and closed his eyes, because the amount of mana that he had to pour on this ability wasn''t only great, it was unreasonable. He had to focus in order to channel great amounts of mana towards his palms! It was unknown how deep his mana pool was, because he refused to tell anyone that wasn''t up to par, but in this case, everyone could guess how much mana he was about to spend once they saw him sit down. Being well aware of the taboo topics regarding the Guard Master, not a single soul thought that he sat down because he was hurt, or that he gave up, no, everyone knew that he was about to attack with a force greater than ever! Anyway, he summoned the ability on his palms, he successfully managed to channel it into a gaseous form. These several, tiny bits of fire danced on his palms like little kids, and once he opened his eyes afterwards, that was when the magic happened! A coat of white flames suddenly coated a quarter of Iron Claw''s body. The flames looked like a huge net once they were together, and the flames dug themselves between the very thin lines of exposed flesh that were located around each, and every draconic scale! This was no fireball, it was the greatest, and hottest net of fire that a mage could summon, this was the peak of heat! The dragon roared in response, but Zedim showed no mercy. A second later, he moved the net of fire, and shaved the damaged scales off of the dragon entirely! As a result, a quarter of its body was now exposed to everything, even something as simple as a mosquito bite, nonetheless a fireball! Iron claw''s underbelly, and part of his left leg, looked a lot like that of a shaved cat''s now. It was disgusting, but the graphic scenery didn''t stop there, as blood started raining off of his raw, dark skin afterwards! Iron Claw the wicked wasn''t strong enough to roar anymore, he was close to being defeated. The dragon had been on his hind legs up until now, he had been up on his feet, and was a stunning seventy meters tall while he stood that way. No matter how terrifying it was to look at a seventy meter tall dragon, his seemingly immortal durability was nearing an end. He was forced to walk on his fours now, and he didn''t seem as terrifying in comparison!The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It was time to accept defeat, and Iron Claw knew that, as he was smart. Dragons may be brutal, oftentimes, but they were smarter than the average human by a long mile, so as he realized that defeat was close, Iron Claw decided to pull out his own ace ability as a last attempt to defend himself. The only other alternative to this was death, and he didn''t want to die! Most of the platoon had recovered, what remained of them at least, so he expected another wave of fire from the platoon, he had to make a move. Between the roaring fire that was unleashed against him, he gathered his strength to roar once more, but this time, he wasn¡¯t about to shoot a wave of fire out of his mouth, no. Iron Claw roared, and a sort of a sonic wave shot out of this mouth in exchange. This wave didn''t knock anyone off of their feet, but it dissipated the waves of fire that were launched against him. Once the fire disappeared, they could see hundreds of these multi-colored, galaxy-like bubbles heading towards a great portion of the platoon. The bubbles were not made of fire, they weren''t directly harmful, but they weren''t worthless either, as then, seventy percent of the platoon disappeared out of thin air right after the countless bubbles hit them! Even the illusionists weren''t so lucky! The dragon then clawed the bunch of stones in front of him, and sent tens of rocks and boulders flying towards the platoon! He put his tough claws into use. This wave of sharp, and heavy rocks, ended up killing over fifty men and women! Most of these victims were crushed to death, while the rest were either in shock, or were about to bleed to death. With damage like this done in just mere seconds, the survivors couldn''t imagine how quickly Iron Claw would''ve killed them, if they hadn¡¯t caught him by surprise ever since the start of the battle. The advantage they built in the beginning was what kept them alive for a while. However, with nearly a hundred warriors now dead, and over two-hundred simply missing, they couldn''t say that the platoon got the best off of this exchange. They were about to lose! Zedim survived these couple of recent attacks, the dragon missed the only man who could kill him, he was their last chance to end this battle once and for good. Zedim was concerned for his men, but he didn¡¯t look back for the sake of maintaining the white fire that he had summoned! He knew that something was wrong, as the battle roars lessened along with the fireballs, but this was a problem for later on. He wanted to finish the job now! The fifteen-thousand points of mana that he was pouring on each palm, through every second, was an effective expense as much as it was a mad one. It was effective, because after shaving the dragon''s scales away, he could deliver the final blow now! Although he couldn¡¯t see the dragon''s underbelly anymore, he still attacked it. The net of White Flames dug into Iron Claw''s exposed skin, and went towards his inner organs. Finally, after such a tremendous struggle, Iron Claw fell to the ground, as his guts had spilled out. A dragon''s final breaths were sometimes depressing, but in this case, they were putting down a monster, so they were relieved, although the loss of so many troops was as depressing as things were going to get. Zedim dispelled the White Flames ability, and approached the dying dragon. He walked over to the dragon¡¯s meter wide eye, and stared him down, fearlessly. ¡°You don''t deserve any mercy, you evil bastard, but my willpower is stronger than yours.¡± He said. It was brutal to let a dragon die like this, slowly and painfully, so Zedim summoned the fattest laser beam he could muster, and pierced Iron Claw through the eye with it. The beam went all the way up to the dragon''s brain, and granted him a quick death in return! The battle was now officially over. Timothy would''ve loved to sneak in the final, killing blow here, in order to win over thousands of system points, but he couldn¡¯t do that. Much like most of the platoon, he and his friends have disappeared! Chapter 166 - Mouth Portals In a blink of an eye, Timothy found himself in a new world. At first he couldn¡¯t comprehend how the scenery changed from a rocky mountain, to a lush green field, but then he caught up with what happened. Iron Claw the Wicked had unleashed this wave of colorful bubbles against him, and most of the platoon, which in turn forced this change of scenery. He was alive, he was okay, but it would appear that they¡¯ve all teleported! ¡°That motherfucker!¡± He cussed, ¡°This is another universe, a nano universe if I''m not mistaken. We barely have a sky on top of our heads, it can''t be a planet.¡± Timothy was spot on, he didn¡¯t take a wild guess here. Universes of various sizes were almost always intertwined with one another, he wasn¡¯t surprised about that, however, he was still very irritated. There were a bunch of other guards here, close by to him, and a couple of dragonflies too. They all shared the same fate, they were in an unknown place, where the scenery looked so beautiful that one would almost throw up because of the excess beauty. It was like a fantasy land, with islands in the sky, even! It was a beautiful place, but the way they''ve teleported here was illogical, and terrifying! Tim felt spooked, and rightfully so, because Iron Claw the wicked had summoned countless portals through his mouth, just moments ato, that was the case, that was what brought them here. He had blown the portals over to the platoon, as if it was a wave of fire, and this had been a very unusual way to summon portals! It was unheard of. This was why he was spooked, so naturally, he complained. ¡°That big bastard was like a literal god, and they brought us to his nest to fight him¡­ I can''t even begin to say how irresponsible that is! We would need ten-thousand mages to kill that thing, not three hundred! The city wanted us dead, there''s no other way to describe this.¡± ¡°Lying bastards! If that priest doesn''t bless us after all of this, I¡¯m going to blast his brain to oblivion¡­¡± He promised himself. Anyway, after he and the people around him overcame the shock of popping into a new universe, they tried to assess their situation afterwards. There were eighty goblins in total around him, seven of them were volunteers, and the rest were guards. In a way, these numbers were good because it meant plenty of people survived Iron Claw''s attack, but at the same time it was terrifying. Timothy was no math wizard, but he was certain that the portals had engulfed almost everybody back in that mountain, way beyond eighty people, that was for sure. Considering that the rest of the people who fell victim to the portals, weren''t paired with the group around him here, he could only assume the worst! They could be dead, and this was terrible, because he couldn¡¯t see his friends anywhere, they weren''t part of the goblins around him.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°They have to be somewhere close, or they''re dead.¡± He thought, ¡°Let¡¯s hope they''re close.¡± Timothy then wanted to talk with the mages that he was with, but he noticed that they were arguing already. Despite their endless formalities, and discipline, they were fighting over who gets to command the group now. ¡°Pathetic,¡± Tim sneered, and since most of these people were stronger than him in terms of mana quality, he didn¡¯t bother offering them any help. ¡°They can find their own way back home, I wouldn''t want to hurt their little ego.¡± Anyway, the best way to explore these lands was to have a better look from above, he had to fly. Luckily, Bolivamus Tal the Greater, otherwise known as Billy the dragonfly, had teleported close to him, and this was more than advantageous! Billy followed him like a puppy, and the other dragonfly followed suit instinctively. He had two dragons at his disposal, and he didn''t plan on sharing them. Tim rubbed the dragons around the chin, and then he asked them. ¡°Why are you guys so happy, huh? We almost died a second ago.¡± The dragons did not answer, and thankfully so, because he wouldn''t be able to handle talking dragons right now, so he just went along with his plan. He climbed on top of Billy, and as they were to take off, he noticed a man coming out of the crowd of guards. It was Gustav, his recent friend. ¡°Off to trouble again, huh?¡± Gustav asked, preventing Tim from taking off. ¡°I didn''t see you there, that armor of yours makes you guys look like clones. Anyways, I''m gonna hit the sky, I have to find my friends.¡± Tim followed along, and then he offered. ¡°You¡¯re welcome to come with me, Guss. We have a better chance of getting out of here than those howling bastards behind you, we work well together you know?¡± ¡°I''ll take you up on that offer,¡± Gustav said, and climbed on the other dragon. ¡°Do I have to name him or something? I don''t want him to drop me from the sky, so would naming him appeal to the dragon?¡± Timothy nodded, even though he knew for sure that Gustav wouldn''t be in danger if he hit the sky with the dragonfly, he would be good. However, Tim was convinced that this naming process would be funny, so he let his friend give it a shot. ¡°How about Crawford?¡± He pitched, but the dragon shook its head in disagreement. ¡°Thompson?¡± He pitched again, but the dragon squealed, it was irritated now. ¡°I think it''s a girl dragon, Guss.¡± Tim pointed out. Although it was really difficult to tell their genders apart, they still took it into consideration. Guss was adaptive. ¡°How about Catherine Light-wing, then? Cathy for short.¡± He pitched, and the dragon appreciated this name, so it nodded. Anyway, after they got into Cathy''s good side by giving her a decent name, they hit the sky. The universe around them wasn''t too big, but it still was about ten kilometers wide from what Timothy could guess, so they had some exploring to do! The group of guards, and volunteers were left behind, with their fingers up their noses, and their overall tension high. Considering their overall arsenal of power, they felt too proud to even think about asking help from the guys on the dragon, so they didn''t bother. The guards were certain that they could find their own way home, assuming that they didn¡¯t kill each other first. Chapter 167 - The Wyvern Timothy and Gustav were up in the sky with their lovely dragon friends. They were to explore the nano-universe around them, in hopes to find Tim''s friends! ¡°I hope you bastards didn''t die on me¡­ we''re so close to removing the Mark of Death off of us, it would be sad if you died now.¡± Tim thought, his anxiety was through the roof. One shouldn''t be depressed or anxious in the sight of such luscious greenery, but his head was steaming. If his friends died on that mountainside back on Valporovus, then the wrath he was to unleash on the city of Runimus was not only expectable, but also continuous! He wouldn''t stop until he destroyed the pyramidal church entirely, and hunted down every city official as if they were ravenous, problematic wild dogs that had to be put down. He wouldn''t spare anyone, so for the sake of avoiding excessive bloodshed, he hoped that his friends were alive. The green flat lands were attractive in terms of providing a good spot to land on, but the two of them didn¡¯t want to land just yet. They flew high above the ground, until they got to one of the tiny islands in the sky! Well, the sky above them was purely superficial, but in this case, they did fly up about a kilometer above the ground. It was a great height, and they hoped to observe the nano-universe better from up here! ¡°This is the most fantasy-inducing shit I''ve seen so far,¡± Tim expressed, and then he asked the other. ¡°Could you have ever imagined that one day, you''d step on an island in the sky?¡± ¡°I still haven''t gotten over that bug-infested universe that we visited, don''t patronize me. Don''t make me think too much.¡± Gustav answered, half of what he said was a joke. Nevertheless, what they suffered recently helped put things into perspective. Tim and his friends stepped into Valporovus purely to upgrade the quality of their mana, and yet they kept getting dragged into suicidal tasks that they never planned on performing to begin with! Valporovus was as cruel as it was interesting, it didn¡¯t hand over its vigorous mana without a fight. Anyway, after looking down at the tiny universe in front of them for a few minutes, they decided to explore the tiny island they were on afterwards. They wanted to get off of this island, because admittedly, they underestimated how difficult it would be to spot anything of importance from up here, but first they wanted to see if they could find anything else on this floating island. ¡°Well, this is a tiny place.¡± Tim sighed, as they didn''t find anything. The island was only fifteen meters wide, had a small, curved hill, and that was about it, so it didn''t take long to explore it thoroughly. The four of them were almost about to quit walking, but then they decided to have a look at the only tree that was on the island.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. It was a birch tree, and it wasn¡¯t so tall, so it wasn¡¯t significant whatsoever. Close to the birch tree, there was a ditch of sorts, and this was where they made an important discovery. The ditch held a great, two-meter wide nest! ¡°Jesus¡­ What do you think of this, Guss? Maybe it''s a gigantic eagle''s nest.¡± Tim theorized, and he was almost convinced of that, because there were a couple of large eggs on the nest as well. Gustav groaned anxiously, and added. ¡°I don''t know, Timothy, but if it''s a giant eagle''s nest, then we shouldn''t be here to begin with.¡± Some of the question marks they had in their heads were answered immediately after, as they heard a loud screech that was no different from that of a giant eagle''s! The two of them were terrified, they almost defecated in their trousers, and this situation was especially terrifying because they didn''t know where the screech came from! They didn''t see anything for a moment. Seconds later, an albino, draconic creature arose from underneath the island, and starred the goblins down, observing them! This creature looked a lot like a dragon, except it only had two limbs (its legs), so by species, this was considered a wyvern, not a dragon! It was huge nonetheless, with its wingspan being close to thirty meters, and as it fluttered its wings, Tim and his friends were tossed a couple of meters backwards! The eggs remained untouched, though, as the albino wyvern knew how to elegantly maneuver the wind currents that her wings caused. ¡°Well, that''s no eagle.¡± Tim joked, ¡°It''s a female dragon, those eggs have to be hers.¡± ¡°That''s a wyvern, not a dragon. They''re totally different species, but dangerous nonetheless.¡± Gustav couldn''t help himself from correcting his friend. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here!¡± Timothy wanted to fight the wyvern, but he kept reminding himself that she was just protecting her precious eggs, so he backed away slowly. Their dragons followed suit, and kept trying to communicate with the wyvern, as to dispel any form of hostility. The two sides didn''t indulge into battle, thankfully, and once the group of four went to the other side of the island, the albino wyvern landed near its eggs, and protected them as fiercely as any mother would. She was five meters tall, even while she was laying on the ground, so she had it easy to intimidate most creatures, she occupied most of the island. Tim just thanked the gods that she didn''t attack, he thanked whatever god kept them safe throughout this encounter. The two of them got on their dragons, and flew out of there. They were happy to escape with their lives, because they wouldn''t have been able to protect themselves if the dragon attacked them at such a close range! They got very lucky. Anyway, as they strode across the sky, they noticed more creatures flying around in the far distance. They spotted both wyverns, and dragons, so of course they got immediately nervous, because they had their fair share of conflict with such creatures for the day! Once they were more aware of their circumstances, Tim yelled out. ¡°This universe is full of fucking dragons! Iron Claw sent us to his home universe, so the dragons here can finish us off! Desperate, clever bastard!¡± Chapter 168 - Goblin Canons Timothy and Gustav were more aware of their circumstances now, they knew that they were dealt a bad hand of cards. Not only did they partake in the tasks that they didn''t want to do, but the city had sent them up that mountain as cannon fodder as well! The city''s greater names hadn''t expected the volunteers to kill Iron Claw the Wicked, no, they had simply been hoping that the dragon would kill the volunteers first, so they could spare as many guards as they could, though from the looks of it the guards hadn''t been too important either. Either way, it was a death sentence for most, because even though they had hoped for the volunteers to die, death came upon the platoon completely randomly, it didn¡¯t pick favorites, as about a hundred people died today! The battle was cruel for everyone involved. The people who could be considered lucky, were only a few, they survived the attack and could go home today, but those people were in the tens. The rest of the warriors who survived were stuck in a universe that they didn''t want to be in, and they didn''t know how to get back home, so it was fair to say that most of the platoon was fresh out of luck! Tim was especially irritated that he was in a universe full of huge dragons, so he muttered. ¡°Iron Claw is dead but we''re stuck here, man, I can''t get back to the church¡­ We might have to fight more dragons too, Jesus! Well, that''s both balls firmly kicked¡­¡± The two friends were up in the sky, and they were hoping to avoid other dragons along the way. However, since they had a couple of friendly dragons at their disposal here, Tim wanted to ask for their help, and aside from that, he was also getting very curious about this universe, so he had plenty of questions to ask them. ¡°Bolivamus, are you listening to me?¡± He asked for the dragon''s attention, ¡°Do you know what universe we''re in? Could this be your home? I never asked where the hell it was that you came from when you, and your friends swooped down and rescued us.¡± Bolivamus Tal the Greater nodded violently in response, and he made a bunch of happy noises too. This confirmed it, this had to be his home! ¡°Ahh, so that''s why you little bastards were so happy to be here. I understand.¡± Tim said, and now he managed to relax a bit more, because he knew that the dragonflies could help them in this universe one way or the other. ¡°Do the dragons here kill goblins, Billy? Like, do they eat us regularly?¡± Billy the dragon shook his head in disagreement, though he didn''t want to move too much at this point, because they were in the sky, and couldn''t afford to lose balance. His non-verbal answer was good enough, though, so Timothy was relieved. ¡°That''s good, because the last thing I want is to fight some big ass dragon right now. The face off with that wyvern is as close as I want to get to these scaly bastards!¡± He thought. Then, he gently inquired. ¡°Okay, Billy. Since this is your home, can you help us find our friends? Is there any other hotspot where everyone else could''ve teleported at?¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. The dragons just looked at each other, and then in response, they started diving towards a lower altitude. They were gaining a great amount of speed in short seconds, so the goblins had to hold on to them, in hopes of not falling off! There was no room for panic, however, as Billy and Cathy seemed to know where they were going, and that was all that mattered. ¡°I should''ve asked them sooner,¡± Tim thought. Anyway, they traveled for about a kilometer, and landed on a big, bell-shaped hill. Hills were apparently a hotspot for portals, because as soon as they landed there, they found another part of the platoon, well over a hundred people to be exact, and all the illusionists from the Floating Pupil sect were here as well! Tim was very excited once he found them, and when he saw his friends within the large group afterwards, he was over the moon! Georgie the dragon, and the rest of the dragonflies were here as well. He was very happy that they were all alive, and went along to hug them, and he even hugged the dragons, as awkward as that may be! Then, they started talking with his friends about the situation that they were in. ¡°We''re in the fucking dragon lands,¡± Tim said, ¡°We just escaped a big dragon with wings!¡± ¡°A wyvern,¡± Gustav stubbornly corrected him, ¡°Every dragon has wings, Timothy.¡± ¡°Potato potato! We have to get out of here!¡± He exclaimed. In response, Arvena started sharing what she knew. ¡°I''m afraid that getting in this universe is easier than getting out, I don''t see a portal anywhere. This is the nano-universe of Mare Draconum, and yes it''s full of dragons, exclusive to dragons, the library of Rempegana had a scroll about this universe, but I¡¯ve barely read it. However, I know enough to understand that we''re not supposed to be here, because the dragons will start hunting us down eventually!¡± Ortana saw that the dragons were frowning the more Arvena spoke, which hinted that she was spot on about the matter. Upon seeing this, she started getting very nervous. ¡°If we start getting hunted down, I¡¯m turning into a plant, no shame in it. Wait, my body is too complex now for me to shift back into a plant, so I''ll just turn into a tree. I''ll make like a tree, and¡­ not bounce?¡± She thought. Vocally, however, she expressed. ¡°It''s not like we came here willingly, they can continue eating sheep or whatever it is they eat here. Also, quit scaring the fleas off of us, but give us a solution here! Did you read anything about portals that''ll get us back to Valporovus?¡± Arvena did not have an answer, but as Georgie the dragon heard the word ¡®portal¡¯ several times, he rushed over, and laid down so Arvena could climb on his back, he was very energetic. This was very exciting, it gave the team some hope for a solution! ¡°Looks like Georgie knows where to find a portal,¡± She said, and then, they climbed on the rest of the dragons. Having not bonded with any one of the dragonflies all that much, other than riding on Short Tail''s back a couple of times, Ortana just hopped on Georgie''s back instead, and held tight. She accidentally caressed Arvena''s breasts a couple of times as she was looking for the best place to grab on to, but that was okay, it was all trial and error. They were in the air afterwards, and the rest of the dragonflies followed suit. The illusionists from the Floating Pupil sect watched as the few volunteers took off on dragons, and they were not happy. They wanted to attack them at first, but had the infinite wisdom to resist their murderous, self-righteous temptations. ¡°They just left without us? How arrogant can they be to think that they can survive without us?¡± The illusionists mumbled variations of these questions over and over. Chapter 169 - The Pillars The team of four, and their dragons, flew across the sky in the hopes of providing the team with what they desired. They desired to get out of the nano-universe of Mare Draconum, but by all odds, their dragons didn''t want to leave this place, no matter how sensitive they were to the team''s commands, so this was a topic that everyone was avoiding. They flew for about ten minutes, and then had to dive off of a huge cliff in order to get to the destination that the dragons had in mind. This cliff featured a one kilometer drop of elevation, which was very unexpected from this world who mostly gave them lush flatlands, and normal hills to look at so far. The team was stunned when the ground below them was lower than it was supposed to be, so they held on a bit tighter. Ortana held on the tightest in comparison to her friends, she was afraid of heights. Sure she had been a messenger bird through a portion of her long life, throughout her shapeshifting journey, but she had always avoided flying too high because of the same reason. A bird with the fear of height was unheard of, but she experienced it. ¡°Do you want to grab on to my armored pillows again?¡± Arvena joked, after she noticed the other whimper nervously behind her. ¡°You can squeeze your hands below my armor this time if you want a better grip, I mean, it''s better than holding on to cold metal.¡± ¡°Don''t be gross, I¡¯m old enough to be your mother! Don''t let my young goblin body fool you, I''ve lived tens of lives before this...¡± Ortana spat in the other''s ear, as she noticed that she was flirting lightly. ¡°Well, I like them ancient.¡± Arvena joked. Afterwards, they plummeted towards the bottom of the hill at greater speeds. Ortana was close to defecating herself, so once more, she held on to what she knew to be more dependable. They landed at the bottom of the cliff eventually, and had the pleasure to witness these three, huge pillars afterwards! The pillars were forty meters tall, ten meters wide, were fifteen meters away from each other, and were made entirely out of stone. The stonework looked like it was as old as time, and the carvings on them that were from various languages, made the pillars look all the more ancient. ¡°Are you sure this place is exclusive to dragons?¡± Skendus asked, and then he pointed at some characters that were chipped into the pillars. ¡°That''s written in the rat language, my language to be exact. So if rats were here, then the whole world was here.¡± The writings they witnessed seemed as old as the pillars themselves, so they were baffled. This universe was apparently visited more often than they realized, and this was weird, because according to some written records, the last time goblins visited the nano-universe of Mare Draconum was well over two hundred years ago! If this place was visited as often as these pillars hinted, there would be more recorded cases, but yet there weren¡¯t. Arvena was stunned, but she protected her own perspective nonetheless. ¡°The universe is exclusive to dragons, but that doesn''t stop people from sneaking in. Maybe some other poor morons tried to fight Iron Claw in the past as well?¡± ¡°Humans were here too, from the looks of it.¡± Ortana pointed at another carving. ¡°I recognize this language, it''s what some weird cavemen used. It says to¡­ summon the lights?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Skendus then mumbled, ¡°The carvings I''ve read said something similar. It said to summon the light beacons.¡± The team didn''t have the slightest clue of how to summon anything like that over here, so they looked at the dragons for help. The dragons brought them here, so the team figured that they were more informed, as this was their own, home world after all.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Can you get us back to Valporovus, dragons?¡± Skendus asked them, he was formal with his request. In response, six out of the seven dragonflies just took off, and flew at the top of the stone pillars. Their quick response to his request was accelerating, it was a good sign, so everyone held their breath in and hoped for the best. Billy watched his friends work. The dragonflies then collectively blew fire, and they struck the top of the pillars all at the same time. Two dragons were blowing fire on each pillar, for almost a whole minute, and then, something interesting happened! Once the dragons stopped blowing fire on them, the three pillars suddenly lit up, with a fiery glow shining from deep within their stone bodies! The glow was blinding, even in the middle of the day, and if the large pillars had lit up just a little bit more, then the team wouldn''t be surprised if the pillars caught on fire! ¡°Jesus!¡± Tim backed away, ¡°Look at that! All the writings are blue now!¡± They were fascinated by this display of power, but as amazing as it looked, they still didn''t see a portal in front of them. This made everyone anxious the more they became aware of it, but then, Billy saved the day! Billy the dragonfly shot a single fireball through his jaws, towards the pillars, and the fireball disappeared as soon as it entered the very center point that was between the pillars. Once the fireball disappeared, a large, twenty meter tall, and ten meter wide portal popped up! It was dark blue, which was the same shade that the carvings currently had. It was beautiful, and it almost looked like the dark night sky, as it was only missing a couple of star-like bits shining within it to complete such a canvas! The team was mesmerized! ¡°I guess any dragon can get out of this universe whenever they please,¡± Tim pointed out, and as he walked a bit closer to the portal, he said. ¡°Let¡¯s hope that we won''t get visited by another Iron Claw sized bastard anytime soon. I''m praying to whatever god is the closest, to keep us safe¡­ oh, who am I kidding? The odds of us fighting a gigantic dragon again, willingly, are next to zero.¡± While he mumbled on, Arvena had already pushed him through the portal, and she was making sure that the rest of the team were passing through as well. She wasn''t in a rush, because she wanted to say goodbye to Georgie, so she was to be the last to go through the portal. ¡°I don''t know why you were in Valporovus, Georgie, and I''m glad I saved you from that ice prison, but it''s time for us to part ways. This is your home, I can''t ask you to leave this universe, it has one of the most beautiful mountains I''ve ever seen, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d miss them¡­¡± She tried to express herself, and then a hot tear ran down her eye. Georgie, seeing this, took a few gentle steps at first, and then he started rushing forward much like a happy, excited dog would! He bumped Arvena on the chest, and so, the two of them ended up going through the portal. The dragonflies followed suit, they were equally as happy to bounce through. Their enthusiasm gestured that the dragons had it much easier to go in and out of this universe, purely as they pleased, and with that considered, Arvena had gone through the portal without the slightest bit of guilt in her conscience. She never asked Georgie to leave the nano-universe of Mare Draconum, it was his choice, his leap was purely voluntary! Anyway, the portal closed two minutes later, and the unique glow of the pillars disappeared along with the portal. The carvings on the pillars looked a lot less interesting now. If the team had taken some time to read more of the carvings, they would''ve figured another portion of this universe''s history. There was a specific carving, written in the goblin tongue, that may be the most interesting one from the bunch! ¡°Iron Claw the Wicked eludes us, he keeps jumping between universes! If we don''t stop him soon, he will grow up to be well over fifty meters long, and I''m afraid that we won''t be able to kill him then!¡± The carving said. What was written here was expectable, but it was likely written a long time ago, because the Iron Claw that the team just fought, was well over one-hundred meters long, not fifty! Whatever had encouraged his growth, had worked really well! Iron Claw was either a few hundred years old, or had grown very fast throughout a couple of decades. Either way, he had always been a menace from the looks of it, but thankfully, he may no longer plague the micro-universe of Valporovus any longer! He had been slayed for good! Chapter 170 - The third blessing Tim, his friends, and the group of dragons bounced through the portal, and therefore escaped the nano-universe of Mare Draconum. They were more than relieved, because considering the recent events, they''d rather not fight a dragon ever again! ¡°That was easier than I expected,¡± Tim sighed, after they made it to the other side. ¡°Let¡¯s hope that time ticks similarly on both universes, because we can''t afford the priest forgetting us. He hasn¡¯t blessed us yet.¡± Despite their anxiousness to get back to the pyramidal Church of Ontarum, they otherwise felt content. Timothy was very happy that they escaped that universe without as much as a single battle, he was over the moon! He and his friends made it out in one piece, because the dragons at their disposal had helped them greatly, and the peaceful escape they achieved was what mattered to him the most right now. Iron Claw the Wicked''s desperate move to kill off the platoon, failed to kill him and the team. Almost two hundred people were still in the nano-universe of Mare Draconum though, and they may actually die, but that didn¡¯t matter so much right now, it didn¡¯t matter to him. They were all capable mages, in theory, and perhaps their bottomless ego will help them find their way out of the universe, it might save them, assuming that they aren''t dumb enough to start a war with the hundreds of dragons there. Tim didn''t care about their well-being whatsoever, and Gustav was just as nonchalant, as he was thoroughly done with the platoon now! He was to hand in his retirement notice as soon as they got back to the city. Regarding the city, it wasn¡¯t exactly close by. The team had asked the dragons to make a portal that would lead back to that rocky mountain, where Iron Claw was killed, but they were in the middle of a lake here, and the lake was between a lush, green field, not a mountain. There was a platform made of hard stone in the middle of this two-hundred meter wide lake, and on the platform, there were three different pillars. They only were ten meters tall, and were six meters apart from each other. These pillars had numerous carvings on them as well, so it would appear that they were very much connected to the pillars of the prior universe, so the team couldn¡¯t have teleported anywhere else regardless of how much they wanted to. With that considered, they were far away from the city of Runimus. From what Arvena could guess, they had to be at least a hundred kilometers away, but at least they weren''t lost, because they could just follow the setting sun and end up in the city after a couple of hours. All things considered, they were very happy about how things turned out for them. Every friend of Timothy''s was alive, and they still had the dragons with them, so this was a good day. At one point, they felt so lucky that they started believing that the gods hadn''t marked them for death after all, because if they survived that streak of dangerous events, then they could survive anything that the gods threw at them! Anyway, after they recovered from the shake that the portal had caused them, everyone climbed on top of a dragon, and wanted to hit the sky. Everyone knew what dragon to pick, they''ve grown accustomed to the dragons they''ve befriended, apart from Skendus, who just hopped on Georgie''s back, and held on to Arvena. Once he climbed on, Arvena joked. ¡°You¡¯re not gonna caress my breasts too, are you?¡± That question was loaded with jokes, and she looked at Ortana as she asked that question, winking at her. The latter didn''t react, and climbed on Short Tail the dragonfly''s back, to avoid any further awkward conversations.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. As cluelessly as ever, Skendus the great illusionist, then answered the prior question. ¡°Why would I hold on to your breasts? They''re the most wobbly parts of a goblin woman¡¯s body, Arvena. I''m not suicidal, I don''t want to fall to my death because you''re feeling romantical.¡± Ortana almost cracked up laughing in response, but she held her composure. The group took off afterwards, and the remaining dragonflies followed suit. The city of Runimus was a couple of hours away from them, so they were moments away from being blessed by the third, and final church. They put in a lot of work to attain their blessing, but at least it was almost over, and the Mark of Death was moments from being dispelled! ¡­ The priest of the Church of Ontarum blessed them. The altar-like pyramid within the church shone upon the priest''s firm words, which only marked their grand success! Their souls were free, and Falakame, who was one of the goddesses of mana, won''t be sending her freakish sons down here on Valporovus any longer, they were not to hunt the team. ¡°Thank goodness for this. I''d rather not deal with another super yeti again, that stupendous coldness still hasn''t left my bones.¡± Tim thought, though he didn''t dare to say that to the priest directly, because he was afraid of getting the group''s blessings revoked. ¡°We could''ve been in the Ruins of Aqumus by now, if we weren''t side tracked by all of this shit just to feed the ego of the gods! Oh well, one way or the other, we won''t be lacking mana from now on. We''ll be fine.¡± There were a lot of thoughts going through Timothy''s brain, but his demeanor was as goofy as ever. Being free of that curse now, he also wanted to confirm things with the priest, he wanted to make sure that they were not going to be hunted by the gods anymore. He asked, ¡°How do we smell now, priest? You can ignore our sweaty armpits, but you need to tell us if we smell like death or not, please?¡± The priest was stunned by how direct his question was, but he wanted to get these people out of the pyramid, so he told them whatever they wanted to hear. He told the truth, to be fair, and made his explanation as simple as he could. ¡°You¡¯re free from the Mark of Death, as I said, so no, you don''t smell like death.¡± He nodded. Afterwards, to get them out of the church, he said. ¡°I suggest you leave now, and perhaps go and take part in the city-wide feast, as we''ll be celebrating the death of Iron Claw tonight. They killed him just a few hours ago, as you know, and I hear that they''ll bring his skull down from the mountain next month, to mount it in the city center. His wicked ways have finally met an end, he won''t be bothering anyone from now on, all thanks to the Guard Master.¡± The team just nodded in response, they didn''t care to be praised right now, even though it wasn''t fair for Guard Master Zedim to take all the credit for the recent covert action. Sure he killed the dragon, but it was the rest of the platoon who had to pay the price of the cruel battle! There were around two hundred people who were stuck in the nano-universe of Mare Draconum right now, and surely, they''ll be angry when they''ll hear that the Guard Master took all the credit. Assuming that they escape the universe, they will be very angry! Anyway, since it was almost dusk now, the team went to the city to have a free meal. They needed their energy for the rest of the journey that they¡¯ve taken upon themselves, and also, they had to meet Gustav there, as he was to join their team. Gustav went to the city to sign his retirement from his duties as a guard, and after claiming a couple of bags of expensive gems for his services, he was to join the team, and head for the Ruins of Aqumus with them! Anyway, Timothy was the happiest goblin from the bunch, because as soon as they left the church, the system gave him a notification, and flashed a point counter in front of him. This was one of the greatest notifications he could get! [Congratulations, you completed task number nine, as you got blessed by all of the three churches of your close vicinity. You received 11,000 system points as a reward, and in total, you''ve accumulated 30,000 system points!] She beeped. ¡°Woohoo! Risk and reward baby!¡± He celebrated, inwardly. Chapter 171 - Zedims expensive mead The team of four made their way to the city of Runimus, and entered a restaurant that was the closest to the main Guard House. This was where Gustav asked them to meet, because free feast or not, he wanted to treat his friend with a big, four-course meal dinner tonight. He wanted to treat them well, because the journey in front of them may be even more perplexing than what they endured recently! The restaurant was big, and unsurprisingly so considering that the guards picked to have their feast here. Other restaurants were also holding feasts across the city, and they did so without a worry in the world, because the city¡¯s governing body would pay for all of the free food that the restaurants were about to give away tonight! Anyway, the group entered, and met with the rest of the guards here, otherwise known as the survivors of today''s battle. One would expect that a massive party would be held here, with drinks and music in order to celebrate the death of Iron Claw, but that was not the case. The guards were eating quietly, as if they were in the wedding of a third cousin, they were very quiet and formal about it. They didn''t seem sad that they lost so many comrades today. ¡°Jesus¡­ what a riot.¡± Tim remarked, sarcastically. Being recognized as volunteers, the four of them were accepted in the prestigious restaurant, but they were led to a table where a bunch of other volunteers were sitting. Them, and the city guards were separated like goats from sheep, it was very humiliating the more one thought about it. ¡°Of course,¡± Arvena sighed, as she was being reminded just how racist almost every race of goblins were. The tension from this fact went up to her nose, but she was seduced to be quiet once she saw a couple of roasted ducks on the table that they were about to sit on. The duck bought her silence, she sat down with all the enthusiasm in the world. When her friends looked at her weirdly, she said. ¡°What? It¡¯s an acquired taste.¡± Anyway, after they were done eating the various meat and minimal vegetables that were presented to them, the rest of the volunteers suddenly left the table all together. There had been seven more of them sitting here on the same table, but they suddenly left as if someone had ordered them to. When Guard Master Zedim sat with the group afterwards, they immediately understood why the other volunteers left. They caught up. No one had been drinking during this ¡®celebration¡¯ of sors, and yet Zedim offered the team tankards, and then he personally poured this expensive, house mead for them. ¡°Please drink up,¡± He said, ¡°Gustav will be joining us shortly. I personally handled his resignation documents earlier on.¡± This sort of hospitality had a fine line between it, and hostility, so the team were surely nervous now. They expected to be attacked on the spot if they said the wrong thing. Timothy was oblivious, though, he drank the mead right away. ¡°Mmm¡­ that''s strong.¡± He grunted. Anyway, Gustav joined them a few minutes later, and judging from how relaxed he was, it was a sign that the team may not be in danger after all. He retired today, so he seemed more than relaxed, he felt liberated! The piles of gems in his bag surely helped him feel better, but regarding safety, guards were also very honored within the city. Plenty of rules protected them, so he didn¡¯t bat an eyelid as he sat near the Guard Master!You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Okay, so now that we''re all here, I¡¯m going to make things quick for you. How many gems do you want?¡± Zedim asked. ¡°Huh?¡± Skendus grunted. Noticing the confusion, Gustav then chimed in, and explained. ¡°I explained to the Guard Master that more than half of the platoon are stuck in the nano-universe of Mare Draconum, and he wants to know where the portal is. Considering that we discovered the portal together, and that I resigned today, I have no obligation to tell the Guard Master anything, just as you guys have all the privilege in the world to walk out of here, and not tell him where the portal is.¡± Gustav was being very bold here, it was agitating, but he did explain the rights that the team had, which was very helpful. Tim never expected such boldness from him, so he almost cracked up laughing, but he did his best to hold his laugh, no matter how difficult this was with a belly full of expensive mead. ¡°The Guard Master is offering us gems in exchange for information,¡± He further added. ¡°Please, tell me, I¡¯m just trying to get my troops back. I understand that ex-guard Gustav feels very strongly that we see the guards as dispensable, but that''s not the case, that¡¯s not what I think about them. I did my best to keep everyone alive and well, but my hands were tied.¡± Zedim pleaded, he sounded sincere. ¡°Your guards refused to follow us, back in Mare Draconum, they didn''t want to wiggle a toe unless there was a dragon to carry them. They''re self-obsessed bastards, and you''re better off leaving them to the dragons!¡± Arvena then expressed, loudly, and she was very honest, likely because she has been within a group of guards recently - She had plenty to say about them. Furthermore, she lectured. ¡°I come from a long bloodline of guards, we''ve been dissolving psidium mana ever since the dawn of time, but we nearly aren''t as high strung, despite our achievements! We''re beyond nobility and stupid formality, we get things done, sir, and that''s a kind of standard that your guards will never reach!¡± Arvena had a lot to say, and Zedim just listened. His heart was in the right place, so he was willing to tolerate this unorderly explosion of emotions, as long as he could figure out how to get his troops back. ¡°You may be right, I guess we need to change some of our ways.¡± He nodded along, and then he said. ¡°Endless formalities is perhaps why it took so long to find and kill Iron Claw, but we''ll see to it, big changes aren''t made in a day. That aside, we can''t just let over two-hundred troops get slaughtered, please let me help them, tell me where the portal is.¡± Being the least emotional of the bunch, Skendus decided to take over the conversation afterwards. He had a couple of rewards in his mind, and wasn''t going to budge about obtaining them. ¡°We hear your plea, Guard Master.¡± He nodded, and then he demanded. ¡°We don¡¯t want to hussle you, but we need some gems for the road, because we want to get back home. If you give us thirty gems each, and grant me access to ten books from the local sect of illusion, books of which ascend in complexity, then we will tell you where to find the portal, or, the pillars that summon the portal.¡± Zedim accepted the terms immediately, he didn¡¯t attempt to bargain. This was a humble price to ask for, once he considered how many lives were on the line. The Guard Master left the restaurant, and came back with five bags of gems, and ten books about illusion. The books were a bit more difficult to get, on the count of the local sect''s exclusivity regarding their books, but they wanted to get their mages back as well, so they obliged. Skendus and the team got what they wanted, and as of tomorrow, they were free to leave the city. Once Zedim was told how the pillars worked, he insisted that anyone could open the portal, as long as the fire they summoned was hot enough, and this made sense, because countless other species had visited that nano-universe before. They couldn¡¯t have all had dragons to their disposition. With that said, the team didn''t have to tag along on the rescue mission. They were as free as the seasonal birds, and wanted to dedicate their next few days to finally escape the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, and they were very eager to do so, because they learned to hate everything that this realm represented. They were disgusted! Chapter 172 - The tar Timothy, Skendus, Ortana, Arvena, and Gustav explored Valporovus together. Their target was clear, they wanted to get to the Ruins of Aqumus, with the hopes of accumulating great amounts of mana there! The team has been on the air for a couple of days now, their dragons really came in handy in terms of proper transportation, so it wouldn''t take long until they finally reached the ruins, it may take them a couple more weeks. They were very enthusiastic to reach the ruins, though one couldn''t say that their progress, regarding mana quality improvement, has been slow. The team was doing fine, and with minimal trouble throughout their flight, their mana had mostly been accumulating! Since their mana accumulated, the weakest members of the team could upgrade their mana quality soon! They could either choose to initiate an upgrade, or spend the mana over a period of time, they had those couple of options. The latter option would be less than ideal, because a better mana quality would do them a lot more good than having some extra mana to spend. The lot of them who could improve their mana quality today, had made their mind up to do exactly so, that was a no-brainer. Due to their decision, they had to stop somewhere secluded for the night, and give it a shot! They needed to be somewhere safe tonight, because the process of jumping from one level to the other was quite painful. Most of the team experienced that sensation of pain before, they were familiar with it, and had even experienced it a couple of times before they visited those three cities! They knew how to prepare for it. Initially they wanted to hide in a cave to do this, as caves were often one of the safest places, but while they were in the sky, they spotted a village of sorts which looked a lot more appealing. When they flew down there, they noticed that it was empty, abandoned. Considering that this village was built on a dry, short mountain, it was likely abandoned because one''s livelihood was difficult to sustain here. It was a beautiful place nonetheless, especially if someone bothered to dust off all of the cobwebs, and perhaps replace a few of the rotten boards from the several small buildings that were situated here. It was a lovely set up. The cold breeze became more consistent every hour, especially after noon, which would make this place a smashing vacation home. It was refreshing to be here! Anyway, seeing that this place was rather safe, the team set up in the town houses. They ate a fine steak dinner first, as they needed a lot of energy if they were to upgrade their mana quality, and then they separated. Jumping from one level of mana quality to the other, wasn''t only painful, but recently, it was also quite disgusting. Small amounts of this black, tar-like substance would come out of their skin during their ascension, and also, since their inner organs literally sloshed around to adapt towards the encouraged changes, they ended up smelling like death, so they had to shower in the end. In other words, the team needed privacy, so those who could ascend tonight, set off in different houses with a couple of buckets of water on their hands. Arvena and Gustav didn''t have enough mana to initiate an upgrade, so they just decided to sleep in the same house. They had enough room here to respect each other''s privacy, and they didn''t need to guard their friends either, because there were eight, agile dragons around them to do that job for them! The dragons surely were grand protectors!If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Okay¡­ don''t panic, you¡¯ve done this before.¡± Tim spoke to himself, and he stared at the crackling fire as it roared, sheltered by the stonework of the fire pit. ¡°I''m under much happier circumstances here too, better than what I had to go through when I was in the sea. I''m in a house here! Besides, it''s gonna be fun to have enough firepower to burn a whole town, heh, cuz level seven isn''t as puny as those bastarding guards made it out to be. Maybe I''ll go and burn their bastarding city one day? We''ll see.¡± Timothy spoke with himself a lot, and this was especially the case when he was nervous. He forgot half of the things that he was saying, and at some point he even started annoying himself, so he decided to be more serious, and started to focus. It was necessary to have a clear mind if one was to go through the upcoming process quicker, but at this point, he figured that the pain would clear out his mind really well. Anyway, after he felt ready, he started uttering a spell that was appropriately designed for mages that lived in the micro-universe of Valporovus. This spoken-word spell was used to trigger the mana quality upgrading process, and its effects were rather instant. This was about to be the fourth time he recited this spell, so he memorized it thoroughly! He muttered, ¡°My will is but mana, and mana is life! Gods, you know where I am, you know why I¡¯m here, and you know what my intentions are - my will is pure. Gods, please bless me with purity, I demand it, as mana is greater when pure! On behalf of the creator of this micro universe, I ask you to bless me!¡± Considering that he wasn''t cursed with the Mark of Death anymore, he had the courage to address the mana gods directly. They couldn''t kill him during the upcoming ascension, as the micro-universe of Valporovus protected him from such death. The pain, however, was eminent. The upgrade started taking a real physical toll on him, he felt a lot of sharp pains within his organs right away, and it was brutal! The reason behind this pain was logical at least, it wasn¡¯t random, no matter how brutal the process may be. Mana was a magical substance that had to be stored, and processed through organic bodies, as that was how mana typically worked. With that said, this upgrade was simply preparing Timothy''s body to accept a better quality of mana! It made sense. Tim''s muscles twitched for about thirty minutes, at a rate that one would confuse this process with severe seizures, which wasn¡¯t fun at all, but the twitching stopped eventually, and that was what mattered the most. His pain halved immediately, but now, he couldn¡¯t move all that much, he was immobile. Timothy''s body remained dormant for a moment there, but then he started radiating a luscious, blue light out of his body! The light pushed out impurities out of his skin, hence making the mana more pure. This was when the tar-like substance appeared, as expected, and it was mostly coming out of his chest. A smaller portion dripped out of his forehead, and it got his thighs dirty, as he was in a strict, meditative position right now. ¡°Ahh!¡± He yelled out afterwards. Timothy''s organs were sloshing around again, and the pain returned, in fact, it became all the more violent! He couldn¡¯t hold in his cries, and it was fair to say that he couldn''t focus that much either right now, despite the meditative position he took! Since focusing was out of the question, this process was going to take longer than he expected, he might suffer like this for another couple of hours. The extreme pain was inevitable! Skendus and Ortana, were also screaming from their individual little houses. This was going to be a long, painful night for the three of them! Chapter 173 - Great, Golden Mana! Three hours after midnight, Timothy successfully improved the quality of his mana. He now had the honor to identify himself as a bearer of Great, Golden Mana, and he was very excited about it! Despite the name, this didn¡¯t mean that his mana had a golden color now, it was still as blue as the ocean, but it still was a great level to attain. This sort of mana quality was also known as level seven, and as of now, he only had to pass through another level, the eighth one, and then he''d have the opportunity to escape the God''s Punishment Realm of mana once and for good! ¡°Oh¡­ my god.¡± He grunted, as his spine cracked tens of times while he tried to straighten up, and then he muttered. ¡°Whatever it is like to get chewed up and swallowed by a Demon Beetle, I understand it, this has to be a similar feeling.¡± Timothy felt like all sorts of things. He felt like he was hit by a big truck, by an airplane too, or any other vehicles really. He felt like he was run down by all of them, and rightfully so, because at some point he had even felt his bones move, or retract, before they went back to their original position! He didn¡¯t know why his bones moved around during the process, he didn¡¯t know for sure, but he just assumed that it had something to do with his body accepting a better quality of mana. The mana was stored in his body, after all, so he could understand how a greater quality needed different physical conditions to suit it. [Congratulations on ascending your mana quality to level seven. You''ve come a long way ever since you left the sea.] The system beeped, and then she also added. [You can accumulate up to 65,000 mana points now, while you''re in this goblin form. It''s a sizable amount, and although your mana pool has been emptied during the upgrade, you''ll be glad to know that you can naturally generate 900 points of mana an hour now! These couple of changes came hand to hand with your mana quality upgrade, as you know?] ¡°I know¡­ I don''t have any mana now, huh? Good thing we found this town, then, because we''d be naked without a bunch of mana to protect ourselves with. Well, we are naked right now, but that''s not what I meant.¡± Tim blabbered, he mostly spoke to himself, and wasn''t really wanting to make conversation with the system right now. Timothy didn¡¯t lose as much mana when he was ascending through the first few levels of the mana realm, he got to keep a lot of it back then, but he could understand that higher levels had higher demands. It was logical. Nevertheless, having an empty mana pool was a curse as much as it was a blessing. Sure he was an overall stronger mage now, but he couldn¡¯t protect himself, not until after a few hours. He''d have to wait until dawn to have just enough points to protect himself from any and all attackers, which made him a bit anxious, but he found relief in the fact that the dragons were protecting them. That aside, Arvena and Gustav weren''t upgrading their mana quality tonight, so they were to do all the hard work in case of an emergency. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Timothy managed to relax. He cleaned himself up with an old cloth, started a fire in the fireplace again so he wouldn''t get cold at night, and then he just fell asleep. The upgrade had tired him beyond preparation, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise that he fell asleep so quickly. ¡°I could''ve used a couple of naps earlier on, too bad the pain was keeping me up.¡± He muttered, moments before he fell asleep. Anyway, Skendus and Ortana experienced the same night more or less. They ascended to level seven as well, so they suffered everything that came with making that attempt. Now, they too were proud to bear Great, Golden Mana in their veins! It hasn''t been an easy ascension, and they imagined that when the time came to upgrade their mana quality again, level eight was to shake them even harder! For now, they were happy that they could finally fall asleep. ¡­ Tim woke up at early noon. He realized that he had slept well, when he needed two minutes to remember where he was. He was stiff as a board too, because he had apparently crawled out of his sleeping bag throughout the night, and the cold had gotten to him, so he started blowing a low-temperature fire out of his palm, and tried to warm himself up with it. He warmed up eventually, and realized that the cold had also numbed any kind of pain he felt, post upgrade, so he¡¯s been in a sort of deep sleep, as if he had been under the influence of anesthesia! ¡°I feel like a fucking mummy,¡± He grunted, and eventually, he walked out of the hut, because he was hungry. Tim needed some meat down his stomach right now, he craved it, so he hoped that either Arvena or Gustav had hunted something today. Apart from feeding themselves, it took a lot of effort to feed eight dragons as well, so they had to hunt often, almost everyday. When he walked outside, he was delighted to see that Arvena was preparing to cook something delicious! She had knocked down a few boars, from the looks of it, and brought them here. These boars had to be well over five feet tall, considering how huge and fatty their raw, meaty remains were, so his mouth started watering in response, his stomach singing! He couldn¡¯t wait to have them cooked. Noticing him and his enthusiasm, Arvena expressed. ¡°Oh, you''re awake? You must be hungry right enough, I''d be too if I slept for thirty-four hours. That''s your new record.¡± ¡°Thirty four, huh?¡± Tim grunted, and despite his enthusiasm he was still walking around like a zombie. ¡°Can''t say that I''m surprised, that mana upgrade almost brought my kidneys to my throat, it was brutal. It''s good I slept that long, cuz my body and my brain enjoyed it thoroughly!¡± Anyway, as he tried to help Arvena prepare a large bonfire, he started noticing this weird feeling from deep inside his body. It was difficult for him to understand this feeling, but in short, he felt more capable of handling a power that was very new to him. Soon enough, it was all he could think about! Timothy suddenly felt capable enough to try and open a portal, a portal that would lead him to the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi. The bug world, to be exact. Firstly he didn¡¯t understand where this urge came from, but since he was feeling very capable of summoning a portal today, it could only mean one thing. His ascension to the Great, Golden Mana level had to be tied with his sudden urge to open this portal. This had to be the root cause of his confidence! Chapter 174 - Boar meat Timothy couldn''t ignore the sensation he was feeling, he couldn¡¯t turn a blind eye to it. He felt capable of summoning a portal that would lead him to the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi, and moments later, he decided that this was exactly what he wanted to do! Arvena was close to him, slicing through the boar meat, so he had to step away from her, for the sake of not compromising their meat supply with a random portal. It was best to be safe. ¡°Let¡¯s hope that the gods aren''t playing tricks on me,¡± He mumbled. The following steps were purely instinctive, they were natural, and he felt as if he had lived with this ability for a hundred years now! It was a weird feeling. First he put his arms in front of his stomach, and then he got his hands very close to each other, but he didn¡¯t lock his fingers together, he kept them an inch apart. ¡°Purposes Mundi Aqus,¡± He whispered, partially against his own will. As a result, a tiny, black cloud appeared in between his hands! Its shade was as dark as the night, he couldn¡¯t see through it despite it being a mere cloud. Tim then held the cloud in his right hand, raised it up in front of him to have a look, and watched it shape up into a tiny version of a portal. Though a tiny version, this was exactly the kind of portal he saw when he was dealing with those Demon Beetles! It was identical. ¡°Well then, there you go¡­¡± He muttered, and then with a flick of his hand, he threw the portal on the ground, and had it expand! The portal exploded in size, and stretched out to be eight feet tall and wide! It was definitely a bit bigger than the portal he was used to. ¡°Wow, I actually did it!¡± He celebrated, ¡°I can finally summon portals, and it didn¡¯t cost me a single mana point, haha! The guys will be so happy, we can ascend to level eight today if we wanted to.¡± Arvena heard that he was mumbling about something, however, when she turned around and saw an open portal, she shrieked in joy! Her enthusiasm matches his! ¡°Will that take us to the bug world!?¡± She asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Timothy answered, but then he realized. ¡°We have to kill those centipedes, though, because we can''t have them and their one-hundred legs running around while we level up. They could eat us whole, and we wouldn¡¯t know.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± She nodded, ¡°It''s best if we bring the dragons with us too, they can protect us, fight with us. We also can''t leave them here for weeks, because time passes quickly on Valporovus when we''re in Purpureus Mundi. A day there is probably like five months here, I''m yet to do the math.¡± The two of them turned their enthusiasm into light mathematics. They wanted to be very thorough before they entered this universe, and with that said, it was best not to rush and jump in there. They had to be prepared. They had a bunch of boar meat to prepare, and fry first. They needed the energy to face the dangers of the other side, so they also had to pack up a bunch of meat with them, as they planned to stay overnight, in that castle.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. In simple words, he had to get rid of this portal first. They couldn''t go through it yet anyway, so they couldn¡¯t risk having giant bugs coming out of there, as the portal was quite wide, after all. Timothy simply tore the portal out of its place, as he had done the first time around. After that, he wanted to go and inform the rest of his friends that they''ll be going to the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi soon, likely tonight, and he was excited about it! Anyway, later on, he kept thinking about the few little words he spoke before he summoned the portal. It was not a spoken-word spell, but he just mentioned the universe¡¯s name instinctively, before he summoned its portal. This was all fine and well, but he couldn¡¯t nearly figure out why he included the word ¡®Aqus¡¯ into the summoning! It was against his will. Tim had said, ¡®Purpureus Mundi Aqus¡¯ - But he couldn¡¯t recall seeing any body of water in that universe, be it big or small. Sure there may be a natural stream of water there, but that didn¡¯t excuse the use of the word ¡®Aqus¡¯. He was perplexed, but just decided to play along with it, because he was happy that he could summon a portal to begin with. This was a rare power! Tim spent the rest of the afternoon helping prepare all the boar meat, and a couple of hours before dusk, they started cooking the haul. The cold air up in the mountain had prevented the meat from spoiling, so it was still edible. Collectively, they got a huge fire going, because it wasn¡¯t easy to cook four whole boars! They could put a stick through a boar¡¯s butt and hope for the best, but no one wanted to spend their night rolling the boar around, no, they avoided this from the beginning, as they dissected a couple of boars very thoroughly. They laid a bunch of chops on a wide, flat stone, close to the fire, and watched it sizzle as its impurities were forever destroyed by the heat of the fire. Thin slices were easier to fry on a large stone, it didn¡¯t take much time, so they cut a bunch of those first, so they could have some lunch! It wasn''t ideal to have lunch at 5pm, but they spent a great deal of time preparing the boar meat. Everyone had lent a hand earlier on, it wasn¡¯t an easy job. Once they felt content after eating a few thin slices, they started cooking these fat steaks afterwards as well! The smell of the sizzling steak could wake a bear out of hibernation, it smelled delicious, so they were hoping that this wouldn''t bring them any trouble. The dragons were pretty hungry too, and although they didn''t seem to prefer cooked meat, Arvena insisted nonetheless. She threw almost two whole boars on the huge fire they''ve lit, and flipped them a couple of times, until she was sure that she destroyed at least some of the live bacteria, worms, and other extremities within the boar''s body. ¡°I can''t have you guys getting sick,¡± She said, and then threw a boar leg at Georgie the dragon. He was fairly happy. ¡°Worms can kill you, and it won''t be a quick death either.¡± ¡°Good call,¡± Skendus nodded, but now he felt less than enthusiastic to eat the steak in front of him. He imagined worms sizzling within the steak, and felt sick. ¡°Look at me, huh? A picky rat, that would get the humans cackling.¡± Anyway, they cooked a bunch of steaks up until after dusk, and ate half of them. They put the other half of the well-cooked steaks in their separate bags, and hoped that they wouldn''t spoil at least until tomorrow. The dragons ate what remained of the boar meat, and since eight dragons were rather difficult to feed, it wasn¡¯t a surprise how they didn''t leave any scraps at the end. Georgie was even strong enough to chew through a few bones, his belly was like a bottomless pit, as he was a twenty foot long dragon. After this, they felt ready to be on the move. Timothy had blabbered about a portal earlier on, so it was about time to summon it once more. Timothy focused, put his arms in front of his chest, and then he gently whispered. ¡°Purpureus Mundi Aqus...¡± The tiny portal appeared between his palms once more, so he flicked it towards the ground. The portal then expanded into its great, eight foot size, and was ready to accept visitors! Chapter 175 - Dinosaurs? The team jumped through the portal, and their dragons followed suit! They were very excited to harvest the benefits of the needle universe in front of them, they wanted to get as many mana points per hour as they could! However, once they passed through the portal, they were stunned by the multiple shades of blue that immediately pierced through their pupils. This shade was unexpected, because this universe was as red as a rose the last time they were here. They hadn''t seen a single spec of blue within it before, but now, it was all they could see! ¡°What the hell?¡± Tim blurted, and the rest followed suit with their curses. There was a sea of sorts in front of them, and this was very perplexing, because a one-kilometer wide universe wasn''t supposed to have a sea. It was too small, it wouldn''t be able to sustain it, nonetheless create it under natural circumstances! ¡°I guess that''s why the portal had ¡®Aqus¡¯ in its name. This is as watery as things can get.¡± He muttered, but no one understood what he meant. Thankfully they hadn''t splashed down in the sea, but landed on a dry stone of sorts instead, however, even the stone was weird. The stone was so discolored, that it looked like it came out of the bottom of a volcano! The stone was the only bit of dry land they could use, and it was only twenty meters wide, but they were glad to land on it. The rest of the universe featured deep waters, exclusively! ¡°Are you sure this is the bug universe?¡± Gustav asked. Gustav felt entitled to harvest the benefits that Purpureus Mundi offered, because after all, he helped dominate it. His hands were smeared with the blood of some unlucky humans, and if he can''t reap the benefits of the dangers that he survived, then he may have gotten his hands bloody for nothing. He was getting angry! With his anger expending, he then pointed out the obvious. ¡°Timothy, this is looking a lot like the nano-universe of Nul. We''re not supposed to be in Nul, there''s no benefit to it!¡± Timothy wanted to answer back, and he planned to be as sarcastic about it as possible, however, he wasn¡¯t allowed to nurture his sarcastic nature. Something weird happened that caught everyone¡¯s attention, they saw a huge creature leaping out of the water, and once it splashed in the water, it created a small wave that reached all the way up to the team¡¯s hips. They were almost dragged in afterwards! ¡°What the¡­ have you ever seen a fish like that, Ortana?¡± Tim asked her, as she was the most well traveled person here. ¡°Are fish supposed to have a long nose like that?¡± ¡°I haven''t flown over the seas all that much, but that fish is weird, it looks like it''s a thousand years old¡­¡± She pointed out. Timothy tried his best to understand what was going on, and at first this was difficult, but when he saw a couple of other smaller fish splashing around in the close distance, he got a brief hint. Now, he was flabbergasted!The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Those are fucking dinosaurs!¡± He yelled out, worriedly, though also carelessly, because the rest didn''t have a clue of what he was talking about. ¡°What the heck are dinosaurs supposed to be?¡± Ortana asked, ¡°I haven''t heard that name before.¡± Timothy needed a minute to gather his thoughts, and now the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the word ¡®dinosaurs¡¯ was exclusive to planet earth, it was inappropriate to use that name here. The fish in front of them looked prehistoric at best, but they weren''t dinosaurs. ¡°They''re really old fish, you got it right the first time.¡± He finally answered, ¡°I think this is a different timeline of Purpureus Mundi, because I added the word ¡®Aqus¡¯ to this realm''s name, just before I summoned a portal. This is really difficult to explain, but let''s just say that we''re at a timeline where bugs are yet to exist, we came here millions of years early.¡± ¡°That can''t be right, even Valporovus is just a few thousand years old. This needle universe couldn''t have been created before Valporovus¡­¡± Arvena pointed out, she knew her ancient history really well. Now regardless of what each of them thought, the fact of the matter was that this timeline was very different to what they met with the last time they passed through a black portal. This truth was very consistent, regardless of how weird, they couldn¡¯t wrap their head around it. Anyway, they stopped worrying about the bug and the fish, when they suddenly noticed their mana pools depleting! Everyone could instinctively sense how many points were in their mana pool, and when they noticed a slight decrease, they started panicking thoroughly! ¡°I lost fifty mana points in this god forsaken place already! I wanted to get more mana points, not lose them!¡± Gustav yelled, and this was perhaps the angriest he ever got. ¡°Calm your tits, big boy.¡± Arvena scolded, ¡°If you bothered to read more books back home, you''d understand that only a few things can steal your mana. Those being either mana roots, or bearers of psidium mana, and since it''s very unlikely for us to find any bastards in here infected with psidium mana, it could only mean one thing; There are a bunch of mana roots down there!¡± With that said, the five of them started getting more excited. Gustav didn''t know much about mana roots, as he had been isolated in his city throughout most of his life, but he had heard about them. Mana roots were amongst the few things that could give someone large amounts of mana, in mere seconds, rather than hours! If he could harvest those roots, then he''d fill the rest of his deep, mana pool very quickly! However, this wasn''t an easy task. Considering that the roots were in harvesting mode right now, this made their new task here all the more difficult! They wanted mana, but the roots wanted the very same, they wanted mana as well, and were harvesting everything within close vicinity! ¡°There has to be tens of roots down there¡­¡± Arvena muttered, ¡°To hell with filling our pools, we can ascend several levels if we play our cards right!¡± Afterwards, she started shapeshifting, and she didn''t think twice about it. She wanted to turn into an aqus goblin, and turning into a water-breathing goblin was more practical, because she didn''t have to take her armor off while in this form. Aqus goblins and degranus goblins were very similar in size, after all. The rest of the team followed suit, they started shapeshifting, though they didn''t understand what the rest of the plan was. Jumping in the water while the roots were in ¡®harvest mode¡¯ sounded like a very stupid idea in hindsight, but they were willing to follow her lead. Every goblin started shifting, apart from Gustav. He never attained this ability, as there weren''t too many books about it. One had to kill and consume a shapeshifter in order to attain this ability, and Gustav never had the chance to do so. ¡°I can''t shapeshift, and I''m not much of a swimmer either, so...¡± He admitted, and then he said. ¡°I''ll stay up here with the dragons, just in case any of those big bastarding fish are feeling lucky. We can''t have them wreck our village back home.¡± Notice; Stubbing at the end of the month! Hello, Considering that we''re 175 chapters deep already, it''s due time for me to stub the first volume of the series. This means that half, or most of volume one will be available elsewhere to read, behind a paywall. Initially I didn''t plan on stubbing, but the monetary support on Patreon has been very poor, and paired with the senseless, early 0.5 star ratings here on RR, I''m forced to take this measure to balance things out. I can''t make this series as large as I want it to be if there is not zero, but negative support. I''m still deciding if I should place the stubbed version on Amazon, or have people buy it on my Patreon, which would keenly be available in all three Tiers, including the 2$ one. I will keep you guys updated on the matter. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. If you''re up to date with the series, this stub won''t interrupt your reading experience, and I thank you for your support. Despite my short, work-related hiatus, volume three is in the works, and I only got about 50 or so chapters until I finish writing it. As for Volume 2, it will end at chap 220. Thanks for reading!