《I'm a Stingray? [High Fantasy, Portals]》


 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.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    [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.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "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!Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    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]If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    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.]Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, 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?¡±Stolen novel; please report.


    [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!Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    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.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    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!This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    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. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    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.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. 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 content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°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.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    [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.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    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.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    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.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    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!The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    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.]This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    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.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    ¡°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!"If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    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! Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    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.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    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!¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°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.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    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!If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    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 from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    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!Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    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.Stolen story; please report.


    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.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    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!Stolen story; please report.


    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.¡±


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.¡±


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


    ¡­


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    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.]


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    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.


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    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.

 Read more on Patreon!

    Due to reasons circling the funding of what I create, I''ve decided to move the rest of volume 1 on my Patreon Page. I''d like to use this post to go through what my page offers! The offers, or options are the following;


    - You can read Volume 1 if you subscribe to any of the available Bronze, Silver, or Diamond Stingray tiers (3, 5 or 10 USD/ month).


    - You can read 10, 40 or 80 chapters in advance, meaning that you''d get to read the more recent chapters if you subscribe to any of the monthly Tiers. These advanced chapters aren''t available elsewhere, such as here on RR, and they won''t be for a while!


    - I''m developing side stories whenever I can. They''re very immersive.


    - Did you know that I''m a Stingray? was a lot different before it got revamped in Sep 2023? You can read the older, 2020-2021 version on my Patreon page! It contains 356 chapters, and it''s basically unfiltered, stupid humor, such as Timothy arguing with crabs, even though he doesn''t understand them. You can guess the things that Timothy would say if his IQ didn''t increase as swiftly as it does in the new version. To read the older version, you can either subscribe to the Diamond Stingray tier, or make a flat, one-time 20$ payment for the whole thing, and read it whenever you''d like!


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    - Regarding one-time purchases, you can also buy the current, new version of I''m a Stingray? for 30$! This purchase will also give you access to future chapters or volumes of the series, even if there could be new 20 volumes in the future! You won''t have to pay twice.


    - An oldish novel I wrote (in 2019-2020), is also available under similar settings. It''s called From Slave to Ruler, and it''s a harrowing book featuring medieval politics, and magic.


    Thank you for reading all of this! I made sure to tailor everything as to not financially strain readers who want to be loyal, or simply just want to relax, reading. I hope to see you on the other side!

 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.


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    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.


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    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.¡±


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    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!¡±


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    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.]


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    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!


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    ¡°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!¡±


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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.


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    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?¡±


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    ¡°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.


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    [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!


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    ¡°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.


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    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!


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    ¡°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.


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    ¡°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!


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    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!


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    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.


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    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!


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    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.


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    ¡°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!


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    ¡°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!¡±


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    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.


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    ¡°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.


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    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.¡±


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    ¡°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?¡±


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    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!


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    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.


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    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!


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    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.


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    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!¡±


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    ¡°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.


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    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!


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    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¡­¡±


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    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.


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    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!


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    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!


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    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!


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    ¡°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!


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    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.


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    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.¡±


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    ¡°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.


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    ¡°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.


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    ¡°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.


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    ¡°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!


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    ¡°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.


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    ¡°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!


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    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.


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    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!


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    [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!


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    ¡°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!¡±


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    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!


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    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.


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    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.


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    ¡°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.


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    ¡°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.


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    ¡°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!


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    ¡°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!


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    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!


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    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!


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    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.


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    ¡°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.


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    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?¡±


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    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.


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    ¡°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.


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    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!


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    ¡°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!


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    ¡°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.


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    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.


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    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!


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    ¡°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.¡±

 Chapter 176 - The patches of mana roots!

    After about ten minutes of rolling around on the dry rock they were on, everyone in the team, apart from Gustav, managed to shapeshift! They had been in a sub-liquid-like form all this time, because that was the key part of the process, but this part didn''t bother them whatsoever, because it wasn¡¯t painful at all. Having sub-liquid bones and flesh for ten minutes was exceptionally painless, it was even therapeutic actually, because even their light joint pains disappeared during that period.


    Anyway, once they shifted, they left their backpacks behind, and jumped in the water quite fearlessly! They didn''t fear these ancient creatures of the deep, because if their understanding of this time period was correct, then the fish within the sea here didn''t have any magical powers at their disposal. The fish were just big, and hungry, which was the main way for them to be threatening, but that was about it.


    The latter wasn''t too big of a challenge for them. Each and every member of this group had faced greater challenges in the past, so not only did they leap in the water, but they ended up killing a couple of big fish soon after! The eyes of the common aqus goblin were very sharp, it allowed them to see perfectly within the increasing darkness of the sea water!


    Arvena killed three of them, she was the main shooter! Her Laser Shot ability was very useful in absolutely crippling her defenseless opponents, even from a great distance, because she would impale their skulls. That was one of the best ways to kill any huge fish or animal, she even killed a shark-like creature that looked a lot like a smaller version of a megalodon, and she did so easily! Arvena believed that if they bothered to sell the meat of these fish, they could make a fortune, because meat like this was surely rare, almost impossible to find!


    Anyway, with little challenges in their way, the team progressed exponentially. They swam deeper, and tried to hit the bottom of the sea, because that''s where the roots were supposed to be. Mana roots were either wedged between rocks, covered by sand, and sometimes they were even a couple of feet underground, but they were always at the bottom, so it was best to try and swim as deep as they could.


    The plan was sound, but they noticed that their mana decreased faster, the deeper they swam. What started as a few points every now and then, turned into five points per second! It was alarming.


    Arvena was a bit more lucky here, because her mana was too dense for a simple root to abuse. She only lost a couple of points every now and then, while everyone else¡¯s mana pool was dropping quicker than a dog''s tongue at the sight of a potential mate! It was rapid, so at the one-hundred meter mark they even considered turning back!


    [-4 mana points]


    [-6 mana points]


    [-3 mana points]


    [-5 mana points]


    The system kept notifying him about this leak every other second. She displayed them on the corner of his eye, and he was getting really nervous about this leak, because although the points he lost didn''t look like much, the overall loss accumulated over time! At this rate, he was losing about three-hundred mana points a minute, it was a huge amount, and it could deplete a great portion of his mana pool even if he stayed in the waters for half an hour!


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    At the two-hundred meter mark, their mana was going down even faster, so he had to pressure the other. ¡°Do you at least know how to stop the mana roots from using us as its fertilizers, woman? Don''t get me wrong, sleeping for almost two days has its benefits, but even the 37k mana points I have, may not be enough to feed the hungry bastards below us!¡±


    ¡°I have an idea in mind, but we need to find the roots first.¡± Arvena answered, knowing that his question was directed at her. ¡°Don''t worry about losing points, because once the roots are fed, they''ll give us our mana back tenfold! Let''s try to have a positive attitude here, because at this rate, there has to be tens of mana roots down there, we have to find them!¡±


    ¡°Tens, eh? It''s worth the trouble, then.¡± He said, and started swimming just a little bit faster, he forgot to be nervous. ¡°Maybe we''ll even bolt through the God''s Punishment Realm of mana today!¡±


    A result like that was what made him more confident. He didn¡¯t fear losing mana as much now, and he certainly didn''t fear the creatures of the deep, so he pushed forward with a stubbornness that would surpass that of a hormonal donkey''s!


    At the four-hundred meter mark, they made it to the bottom of the sea, this was as deep as they could go. After they explored the bottom a little bit, they discovered a few roots soon after, and this got them very excited, but then they discovered another patch, and started getting weirded out!


    The team found eighteen mana roots all together, which was a great find, however, they were aligned so perfectly with one another, to the point where the team was sure that someone had planted them! Someone was looking after these roots, and it couldn''t be the fish here, no, as their heads were as empty as  one¡¯s head could be!


    [-55 mana points]


    [-77 mana points]


    [-62 mana points]


    [-87 mana points]


    The system kept showing those little notifications at the corner of his eye, but he didn¡¯t bother with them. The confusion he felt while he observed the neatly rowed roots, was a much greater emotion than the fear he felt regarding losing mana! At this point, his pool could be emptied up until the last drop for all he cared, he just wanted to know if someone planted these roots!


    ¡°This can''t be normal, right? I¡¯m thinking that a human swam down here and planted them. Either a human or a goblin, because they shouldn''t be all together in one place.¡± Tim theorized, and he was right to think so, as this encounter encouraged it.


    Arvena was confused as well, but thankfully she was more optimistic about the matter, so she started guiding the team. ¡°It''s not normal, but it doesn''t matter. Let''s try and overload the roots, and we''ll be able to harvest them soon. Everyone, pour your mana into it, the roots are already growing, I can see them moving around!¡±


    Afterwards, she went ahead and laid on top of a bunch of roots, and didn''t fear them, because they were premature roots, so they couldn¡¯t hurt her even after they were done feeding. The brown roots around her grew as thick as her arms, in mere seconds, because she was feeding them hundreds of her points without batting an eye! The roots surely enjoyed munching on the decent mana quality that she had to offer!


    Eventually, the roots got too big, so she was covered by them, she was stuck between them. Though this was a bit alarming, she didn''t care about being trapped, because she was going to harvest them sooner or later!


    The rest of the team did the same thing, they laid down on a bunch of roots, and hoped for the best. Whatever Arvena''s plan was, they were hoping that it would work!


    ¡°A root is trying to climb, and sneak in my ass.¡± Timothy mumbled, and moved his anus out of harm''s way.

 Chapter 177 - Bubonic Mana

    The mana roots kept growing, the more they fed on the mana pool that the team provided. Their mana pools were eventually emptied, which was alarming, but they still kept at it because they weren''t in any direct danger right now.


    The team kept pouring every bit of mana that they generated themselves, and at this point the roots had grown so big that even Gustav and the dragons who were above the water, were getting every drop of their mana sucked in by the roots! The dragons didn''t have many points to spare to begin with, but they lost theirs as well.


    Each root was as thick as a tree now, as most of them were four feet wide, while their ending tips were six inches wide! They were gigantic, and one could say that it was difficult to find roots like this under natural circumstances, no. The only other root that Tim and Ortana had seen, for example, was tiny in comparison. Eighteen of these thick boys were bound to make their mana quality godly!


    ¡°Just a few more minutes¡­ the roots should be overloaded soon¡­¡± Arvena mumbled.


    At this point she was getting uncomfortable, because the roots would steal her mana points the moment she generated them. There was no escaping this deep pit of mana munching that they walked in to, but she expected this, and knew for sure that this wouldn''t kill her, or her friends. She was calm.


    Arvena understood mana roots well, because she had explored the ocean long enough to have a few encounters with them. Furthermore, she read a bunch of books which only raised her understanding!


    Mana roots had three phases; Sprouting, devouring, and hardening!


    The roots were past the sprouting part here, they were in the devouring phase instead, and it was at this phase where the roots were the least dangerous to tamper with. They were considered too soft, so they couldn¡¯t actually harm a mage.


    The roots just kept devouring every point of mana that they sensed, and once they''ve had enough, the hardening phase would start. This was what amplified the roots, over a period of decades, or even millenia.


    The more they laid dormant, the tougher the roots would become, and therefore more useful. A tough root was strong enough to kill an unsuspecting mage, because that a hardened root could expel could even help one ascend by a whole realm, rather than a couple of levels. Unless a mage had a virtually endless pool to fill, it was less than advisable to approach those old, hardened roots, because they expelled mana even if one didn''t poke them!


    In this case however, since Arvena and the team caught the roots just moments before they were about to harden, they could safely harvest its properties, at the very moment that the roots started hardening! This in turn, would give them back the mana they lost, more than tenfold, because the root was still considered premature. In other words, these patches of roots were harmless.


    It was a sound plan, but she hadn''t bothered to explain her plan to anyone, so the rest of the team were a bit worried. Gustav from above the sea water, had half a mind to jump in the water and try to save his friends as he was beyond worried, however, with his current declining mana pool, he would become fish food very shortly, because he wouldn''t be able to protect himself all that much. Not to mention that he couldn''t swim, it was just a bad plan for him to jump in the water, regardless of the context. Everyone was alarmed, after all, but they could only hold on.


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    Timothy had plenty of thoughts running through his head, as usual, so he kept talking to himself. ¡°These roots are starting to look like a cage, damn, I guess this is as close as I¡¯m going to get to being locked in prison.¡±


    Furthermore, he thought. ¡°Let¡¯s hope that Arvena knows what she''s doing, because I sure as hell don''t know what''s going on. Screw the roots, I still don''t understand why we''re in the fucking dinosaur period here! The gods may be playing tricks on us again, I wouldn''t be surprised if they were!¡±


    Paranoia was a trait of those who were cautious, and such caution might keep him alive for a long time, especially since he was cautious only when he was paranoid. Otherwise he was like a live tornado, and didn''t value his life more than that of a cricket''s, and this was a bit paradoxical, but it served a point. He was really hoping that the portal he had managed to open, wasn''t just another joke from the gods, or worse, a joke from some kind of demon! That would be worse.


    Anyway, the team could only withstand the uncomfortable situation they were in right now. They did so for about ten more minutes, until finally, the roots stopped gnawing on the team¡¯s pools of mana!


    The relief they felt once they saw their mana points slowly going up, was otherworldly! Furthermore, they were happy that Arvena was by their side here, because she had likely done most of the work here, with her mana quality being a few levels better in comparison. She fed the roots. She had long escaped the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, so it was her who fattened the roots to be up to five feet wide!


    ¡°Heh, if we hadn''t run into these roots, it would''ve taken them hundreds of years to start hardening. Those bastarding fish above us don''t have a single dot of mana to their name, they don¡¯t have anything to give.¡± She muttered, after their little battle with the roots was over.


    Arvena was perplexed by how mana roots could sprout here, where mana was practically non-existent, it was beyond confusing. The books she read didn''t mention anything so paradoxal, so she didn''t know what to think.


    At this point, however, she didn''t care as much, and just guided the team towards the next step. She yelled out for their attention, just in case the deep-sea water pressure was muffling her words.


    ¡°Shoot the root arms!¡± She yelled, ¡°Shoot them one at a time, just to be safe. Use fireballs if you can, but a knife will do as well, you can just cut a hole in the roots with a knife! We''ll start ascending soon!¡±


    The team did as they were told. They could guess what was about to happen next, and by all means, it should not be dangerous.


    Tim summoned a tiny, blade-like bit of fire on his palm, and managed to cut one of the thick roots with it. He cut it four inches deep, which apparently was enough to create a fountain of sorts as a result. He was drinking straight from this fountain of mana, he was close to it, so his pool suddenly accepted a huge amount of mana in a single second! Ortana was in the same patch of roots as him, so when she cut up a root branch as well, the mana he started receiving was groundbreaking!


    [+412 mana points]


    [+955 mana points]


    [+789 mana points]


    [+2,000 mana points]


    Timothy was taking in vast amounts of mana every second, and he couldn¡¯t be happier about it! Considering that he lost every drop of mana to the roots just a moment ago, he felt very happy to be rewarded now!


    Less than a minute later, Timothy''s mana pool was filled to the brim, which meant that he had to try and upgrade his mana quality, regardless of how painful it may be to do so! Before he could cast the spoken-word spell, however, something amazing happened!


    The system suddenly announced, [Congratulations! Your mana quality ascended to level eight! You now bear Bubonic Mana!]

 Chapter 178 - Fintelus Apprentices realm of mana!

    Timothy was absolutely baffled by the fact that he leveled up his mana quality, in mere seconds, without suffering the immense pain that typically came with these upgrades! He didn¡¯t know what to think about it, he did have a flash-upgrade upgrade before, at the library of Rempegana and it too was amazing, but getting flash upgrades at these higher levels was priceless! He was beyond happy.


    The system noticed his accelerating heartbeat, so after a moment, she described. [Flash upgrades like this are inevitable, on the occasion where your mana pool receives such great quantities. Your mana pool adjusts itself, so as to not to disrupt this ongoing flow of mana that you''re receiving, it''s very useful. This is mother nature''s part of making up for the ¡®punishment¡¯ that the average ascending mage goes through, so relax, and let the mana roots do their thing. Please do not tighten your anus any more than you already have, because that can disrupt the flow.]


    ¡°Right,¡± He muttered, and did as he was told.


    Sure enough, he kept receiving mana, tons of it, so another flash upgrade was inevitable! Tim''s new mana pool might take a bit more time to fill, because it could fit a lot more points now, but he wasn¡¯t worried about that. The points kept on coming!


    [+2,302 mana points]


    [+1,754 mana points]


    [+523 mana points]


    [+3,005 mana points]


    The root he stabbed had plenty to give, however, he noticed that sometimes he got less points than average, and that was likely because Arvena''s pool was overlapping in his territory, and took those extra points. She had a bigger hole in her stomach to fill, and she was going to level up sooner or later as well, so surely, she needed a lot of points.


    Paired with the fact that Ortana was laying on the same root patch as him, overlaps were bound to happen often! He didn¡¯t have a say.


    Tim didn¡¯t mind this, as there were plenty of points to go around. He wasn''t greedy with them. The root arm in front of him had almost halved in size, and that was a bit discouraging, but each root had at least five arms on them, so once one of them depleted, he could just poke the other. Today, the team might as well become godly, he fully expected to be that powerful!


    Anyway, the system helped Tim track the progress. She had put a little point counter at the corner of his other eye, and this helped him figure out how close the following flash upgrade was. He got a little bit more excited every time he saw the point counter go up, and rightfully so, because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity! It was pure, dumb luck!


    [Bubonic mana pool = 45,305/100,000]


    It may take a few more seconds until his mana pool filled up, however, as he was looking at the pool''s name, he couldn¡¯t help but contemplate. In this context, it seemed like a really weird thing to use as a name.


    ¡°Bubonic, huh?¡± Tim remarked, ¡°I had to deal with bubonic bastards twice before, and both of them could''ve killed me. I know that it wasn''t you that named this level, system, but it''s still a pretty weird name. I don¡¯t like it.¡±


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    [There is a sort of symbolism behind this name. This level is called bubonic, because it''s dominant, much like the bubonic plague. At this level, you can even challenge a person who''s at the early stages of the following, Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana, and you could end up winning, regardless of the differences between your realms! With this level, you can dominate!] The system explained, as thoroughly as she could.


    ¡°That''s a shame, then. I could''ve used this level ever since I fucking stepped foot in Valporovus. It would have spared me the headache.¡± He sighed.


    Anyway, while the two of them had this little conversation, Tim''s mana pool was already filled up, it was filled to the very brim, and it was ready to pop!


    A blink later, a huge, blue glow erupted around Timothy! It covered his body entirely, and the glow was strong enough to blind a person, if one accidentally looked at its direction!


    Within the deep darkness of the sea floor, this glow lit up his surroundings thoroughly! It even reached up to the other patch of roots, where Arvena, and Skendus were harvesting at. It was official, he experienced another flash upgrade, and this was the greatest upgrade of all, because he finally crossed the God''s Punishment Realm of mana!


    Moments later, Ortana released the same light as him! Skendus too! The three of them were at the same level, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise how they progressed all at the same time!


    Once the light died down, they noticed a weird mark on the front of their wrists, right where their vital veins were. This mark looked a lot like a fresh tattoo, and it was the drawing of a cracked, human skull, and at first this made them panic, because they thought that they were marked for death again or something like that, but that was not the case.


    To catch everyone''s attention, Arvena yelled out. ¡°Don¡¯t mind the skull, it''s not a mark of death, but rather, it''s a stamp. This stamp confirms that you''ve crossed the God''s Punishment Realm of mana! Congratulations!¡± She yelled out, and she was truly happy for them, she even felt entitled to tell them what their new realm was called.


    ¡°You¡¯re in the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana now!¡± She exclaimed.


    The team was very happy to be part of this realm, they were especially happy that they reached this realm in mere minutes, without feeling even a little bit of pain! This was the greatest, dumb luck they ever experienced!


    Their day couldn''t get any better than this, however, entering an entirely new realm of mana also had its disadvantages! As a start, the pool demanded a lot more mana in order for it to be filled, more mana then the three of them ever imagined, but that wasn¡¯t the main disadvantage.


    The main disadvantage was that after these roots dried out, the three of them would only be able to generate five-hundred mana points per hour, in a natural manner! This was a significant drop of natural regeneration! Their powers were a bit weaker as well, and they''ll continue to be weaker, until these folks reach level three in mana quality, in this new realm!


    This was the main difference between someone with level-eight mana from the God''s Punishment Realm, and someone with level-one mana from Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm. The first, would almost always beat the second in a battle, because Bubonic Mana (level eight) was far more domineering in comparison, it was superior within that specific power bracket!


    [Congratulations on entering the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana!] The system beeped, and then she further specified. [Your mana quality is at level one now, on the count that entering a new realm is also considered to be a bit of a reset, or a readjustment. Level one is otherwise known as Silver Mana, and its associated mana pool demands great amounts of content if it''s to be filled. Throughout this level, you''ll only be able to regenerate five-hundred points of mana by yourself. Good luck!]


    [22,015/250,000] The point counter showed, and although this pool was massive, it was obvious that he didn''t start from zero here. The latter helped him feel a bit better.


    Nevertheless, Tim was getting really nervous, because if the first level demanded this much mana, he was scared to imagine how much the other levels would ask for! These eighteen, whole roots of mana may not be able to feed them team for long!

 Chapter 179 - "A gift for Gustav"

    Arvena finally leveled up! A magnificent blue glow erupted around her as well, and now, she was at level three in the Fintelus Apprentices Realm of mana!


    It was a spectacular achievement for most, but in this case, this level-up managed to only lessened her overall depression by a nudge. This was a good level to be in, but once she remembered that she had been beyond the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana just a few weeks ago, it became difficult for her to be happy about this level-up.


    A few weeks ago, within the Forbidden Caves close to the city of Manape, Arvena had sacrificed an entire realm of her mana quality, just to kill an opponent that was stronger than her! She had summoned a Celestial Spear just to kill that dragon Saranax, and although she had succeeded, the loss of such grand mana quality was still gnawing on her conscience. She wasn''t happy, and even though they found plenty of mana roots here, it was very unlikely that anyone would cross the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana today! In fact, it was impossible, and her expanded mana pool hinted so!


    Anyway, after Timothy and the rest of the group saw the glow, they were hoping that Arvena''s mana pool wouldn''t start overlapping even more violently. The arms of mana roots that everyone had poked, were close to withering, so it was only a matter of time until they had to poke at the other root arms, in order to encourage even more flash upgrades!


    Timothy had already poked another one, and Ortana was close by, yielding the benefits as well. In a short time, the first few root arms that they had poked, withered completely, so everyone had to slice through yet another root arm, in order to sustain their progress!


    [+3,500 mana points]


    [+2,744 mana points]


    [+1,490 mana points]


    [+4,034 mana points]


    The system kept on counting the mana points, she did so automatically. Each member was harvesting a great amount of mana! Unsurprisingly, the weaker people of the bunch leveled up again just a minute later!


    Then, the system beeped. [Congratulations, Timothy! Your mana quality is now at level two, and this level is otherwise known as The Fool''s Gambit. Its name is also very descriptive, because with this level, you can technically challenge far greater enemies, but you''ll also have a great chance of dying in battle against said, greater enemy. You¡¯d have to gamble with your life, thus making you a fool.]


    ¡°Very descriptive,¡± He remarked, and then he said. ¡°Funny that you call it The Fool''s Gambit, because I''m about to do something very foolish, hehe!¡±


    A root in front of him had withered entirely, and the couple other ones he sliced were also thinning, so now, he was free to move. Timothy then stood up, and called out for Arvena''s attention.


    ¡°Hey, can I de-root a couple of these bastards?!¡± He yelled out, and Arvena confirmed that it was very easy to de-root them.


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    In response, Timothy grabbed two whole rools, used up all of his strength to pull them out of the sand, and then he started swimming upwards! He had a charitable plan in mind.


    ¡°Gustav could use a couple of roots, we can''t have that poor bastard be stuck in the same level!¡± He said, and headed towards the surface with the giant roots on his hands.


    It took him little time to swim towards the surface, and it was great that neither of those huge fish didn''t bother him along the way. He tossed the two whole mana roots on the dry stone afterwards, where Gustav and the dragons were waiting at, and smirked proudly!


    ¡°Enjoy!¡± He said, ¡°Poke one root arm at a time, and you''ll be able to go through a few flash upgrades. We found a bunch of roots down there, and we''re harvesting them, but I didn''t want to leave you out.¡±


    ¡°Thank you¡­¡± Gustav nodded, his heart felt warm. ¡°I was wondering why my mana was shooting up, you little bastards are messing with mana roots, haha!¡±


    Gustav appreciated this grand gesture, he understood how greedy the common mage could be, and yet Timothy broke all those stigmas. He swam all the way from the bottom of the sea, with two whole roots on his hands, avoiding monstrous fish along the way, and he did all of that willingly, no one asked him too! Such loyalty and good will was far more precious to him, than the mana roots were. Gustav didn''t know what else to say, he was stunned.


    Regardless of that, Timothy didn¡¯t stick around to have lengthy conversations, he didn¡¯t wait to be thanked again. He dove in the water, and activated a couple of his abilities so he could swim faster, as he wanted to get to the bottom of the sea again!


    The speed he gained along the way, managed to split the water even within the deeper portions of the sea, and this wasn''t a surprise, once considering the recent flash-upgrades that he experienced. Tim dove down at 50 km/h, and since he had assumed the form of an Aqus Goblin, this speed wasn''t too much of a surprise, as this was a species of good swimmers!


    [+220 mana points]


    [+744 mana points]


    [+1,500 mana points]


    [+3,506 mana points]


    The system kept showing these little notifications at the corner of his eye, and he felt accelerated to see them, because he had a pretty huge hole in his stomach that he had to fill. His mana pool could fit three-hundred-and-fifty thousand mana points now, and this grand hole wasn''t easy to satisfy!


    Along the way, before he hit the bottom, Timothy noticed something weird. He was certain that he saw another creature down here, walking on its two feet, and it wasn¡¯t one of his friends, because this creature was far away from the roots. His friends were deep within the patch of mana roots, and they were harvesting its properties, it couldn¡¯t have been them who stood up.


    Timothy scanned the area, but he didn¡¯t see another living soul in the vicinity, so now he was even more confused. Either his vision was distorted from all the speed that he mustered, or there was something spooky going on. Being his paranoid self, he didn''t bother sitting near the roots now, but stood guard near them instead.


    This area had to be patrolled, but since his mana pool became more and more difficult to fill, he then started poking the other mana roots as well. He poked another arm of every single root, and enjoyed half of the great quantities afterwards, without fearing repercussions! He knew that this great amount of mana couldn''t kill him now, because regardless of how each root arm was nearly nine feet long, they were to deplete quickly since they were facing the virtually bottomless pools of the four goblins in the vicinity!


    Half a minute later, Tim experienced another flash upgrade! He was now at level three!

 Chapter 180 - +66,040 mana points!

    [Congratulations, your mana quality is now at level three! This level is otherwise known as Pit Mana, and it too has a very descriptive name, because now you have a far bigger mana pool to fill, hence it being a pit.] The system beeped, she was very efficient at explaining the levels that he was on.


    ¡°Let me guess, I need 400,000 mana points to fill this one?¡± He asked, and he was getting nervous.


    Instantly, the system answered. [520,000 mana points, actually. This pool is big, it¡¯s way beyond what the common mage is used to. Hence, it''s labeled as a pit.]


    ¡°Well, fuck me! That''s a lot.¡± He sighed, ¡°I guess we won''t be getting out of this mana realm anytime soon.¡±


    [The pit is massive yes, but still, either of you can accumulate that mana in a month, you can naturally regenerate it, assuming that you won''t go through any expensive battles throughout the month.] The system beeped.


    Timothy did not want to wait for a month or more for another level-up, and he certainly didn''t want to endure the pain that came with it. At this point, it seemed to him that flash-upgrades were the only way for one to progress! It was very effective, though uncommon because of how rare mana roots were. He even started feeling depressed.


    ¡°I''m gonna need to figure out how to make a portal that''ll get us to the bug world, it''s our best shot to level up quicker. We''ll hole up in the castle, and accumulate.¡± He said.


    Originally Timothy would be beyond content if he just escaped the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, that was a fact, but now he started to become very hungry for power. The roots kept feeding him this grand, euphoric feeling that he couldn''t get enough of, as getting thousands of points certainly encouraged that euphoria! He felt like the king of the world, and a king needed to eat luxuriously, which was why he didn''t want to let go of this feeling.


    Anyway, a moment later, Arvena leveled up once more! She was now at level four in the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm, so she was just a level ahead of the people around her, and she managed to progress quicker this time, because her pool was sucking in double the points in comparison to a few minutes ago!


    In a way, it was good that she was harvesting more mana now, considering how deep her recent mana pools were, the pools felt bottomless. Her progress had been slower in comparison due to that latter reason, but now that her mana intake doubled, she had the greatest chance of leveling up once more!


    ¡°Lucky bastard,¡± Tim grunted, as the light that his friend emitted once she leveled up, made him a bit jealous, though he didn''t want to nurse such feelings for long, so he then complimented. ¡°Jesus, she''s above us even when she''s not being sneaky and greedy! Some mages are just meant to be stronger, and she''s one of them! Good for her.¡±


    Timothy tried to be enthusiastic, and amongst that he was feeling a lot of other things, things that may not matter much. He felt overwhelmed, so his recent train of thoughts had distracted him quite a bit, which in this case was problematic. He was supposed to be patrolling the area in case of any danger, and yet for a minute he forgot all about that, he was aloof!


    When that blue light erupted around Arvena, it didn''t only catch his attention, but he also got a better glance of what was in front of him. This, in turn, helped him spot a strange woman that was standing very close to the patch of roots where Arvena and Skendus were laid at! He had been too distracted to notice her.


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    Timothy almost defecated his breeches when he saw this woman, though simultaneously, he got into attack-mode, and was a blink away from blowing this woman''s head off with a thunderbolt! He was about to shoot this unknown goblin right away, but something about this approach didn''t feel right.


    ¡°She looks as old as those fucking dinosaurs above us, so¡­ Why isn''t she scared of us? We haven''t seen any super powerful grannies recently, most people suffer from mana quality brackets, so powerful old people shouldn''t be too common.¡± He muttered.


    These were great questions to ask, they were perhaps life saving too, because he then figured. ¡°She¡¯s either retarded, or as powerful as a retard. Maybe I should talk to her instead of fighting her?¡±


    Timothy didn''t want to attack out of impulse alone, he wanted to be calculative for once. It was best to approach this woman peacefully, and he did exactly that.


    Along the way, he split open a few more mana root arms, to harvest even more mana per second. This was important for two different reasons, and he thought about them as thoroughly as he could.


    Firstly, all of the root arms that they had sliced before, were withering. Each of them disappeared as soon as they were depleted, and considering that the roots he had already been feeding on were only a foot wide right now, he knew that he would need more active roots if he was to fill his mana pool.


    In this case, he sliced fifteen roots open, and although this was a bit of an overkill, he could feel that it wasn''t dangerous to him or his friends. They''d swallow these roots up in no time, he was sure of it!


    The second reason behind his decision, was that he wanted to meet this old lady while his mana quality was at level four. He figured that if a battle broke out, he''d at least be a bit more capable of inflicting unholy damage!


    [+19,500 mana points]


    [+34,000 mana points]


    [+36,100 mana points]


    [+66,040 mana points]


    [+52,900 mana points]


    Timothy''s intake of mana was through the roof, he absorbed more after every step he took, and unsurprisingly, by the time he walked over to this lady, he experienced another flash upgrade. In terms of mana quality, he was now at level four in the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana, surely, the most powerful he had ever been! Better yet, the points kept coming, and he couldn¡¯t be happier about it.


    ¡°We mean no harm, but can you tell me who you are? Who are you, goblin lady?¡± He finally managed to ask her, ¡°What are you doing down here? Purpureus Mundi Aqus is pretty desolate, so I doubt that you''re a part of a tribe or something.¡±


    ¡°I am Gentosamee the Planter, Genta for short. What are you doing in my field, degranus goblin?¡± She was very direct.


    Timothy didn¡¯t know what to say first, he had so many questions. Instinctively, he now wanted to befriend this old woman, but he wanted to do so without getting on her nerves.


    Firstly, to appeal to her, he decided to feed on her curiosity, so he answered. ¡°We came here looking for a castle of sorts, but I must''ve opened the wrong portal, because ain''t no way that there''s a castle here. Those fish that are swimming above us look as old as the sea, so I''m figuring that this is a different time period of Purpureus Mundi, hence, I have to add Aqus in its name before I open a portal.¡±


    ¡°It was you who opened the portal, eh? I''m glad to see your stupid face, then, kiddo. No one has teleported here for over fifty years, I''ve been stuck here all this time¡­¡± She followed along.


    With her answer, he managed to determine that Genta was friendly. He was very excited about that, and considering that she was eager to get out of here, he wanted to use the portal above their heads as a bargaining chip. He wanted to get some information out of her.


    ¡°I can''t imagine what brought you here, but you can walk through the portal whenever you please. It''s still active.¡± He said, and then he asked. ¡°You mentioned that these were your fields, so please tell me, ma¡¯am, was it you who planted these mana roots?¡±


    ¡°No, the fish planted them.¡± She remarked, sarcastically.

 Chapter 181 - Pool of 1.4 million mana points!

    ¡°Haha-¡± Tim released a fake laugh, ¡°The fish planted them, huh? That makes sense.¡±


    Afterwards, he tried to force a question in, as he wanted some information. ¡°So it is you who planted them, then¡­ judging from the marks on your wrists, you crossed a few realms already, so you must''ve harvested a bunch of roots in your lifetime yourself?¡±


    ¡°I have, yes.¡± Genta answered, and in the meantime she was looking upwards, and then she asked. ¡°What year is it in Valporovus now? I''ve been told that time moves differently back home when we''re in needle universes.¡±


    ¡°Years¡­?¡± Timothy stretched his question, and then remarked. ¡°I''m not sure they count the years back home, no city that I know of, at least. They just count moons.¡±


    ¡°Oh, dear¡­ the Religious Era then?¡± She grunted, she was very distressed. ¡°I''m in trouble, I''ve been here for too long. According to my calculations, when I cross that portal, I''ll teleport somewhere around five-thousand years back in time, or¡­ at your contemporary time. This is Purpureus Mundi¡¯s curse, I''ll never be able to see my people again. Darned Farming Initiative, they left me here for dead! Those dirty fiends!¡±


    Genta rambled on about a lot of things here, so it was difficult to catch up with her train of thoughts. Timothy was beyond confused, and at some point he started getting scared too!


    He asked, ¡°Are you saying that me, and my friends are about to time travel five-thousand years into the past?!¡±


    ¡°No,¡± She sighed, and got irritated. ¡°Forty days at most, or none, if you know how to reverse the Time Dilation effect.¡±


    For a second, Timothy was confused, but as soon as the other mentioned Time Dilation, something in his head clicked! In an instinctive manner, he suddenly figured out how to reverse the effects of Time Dilation. He felt capable of this inwardly, though he didn''t understand the name itself.


    ¡°It looks like I do know how to reverse it. My understanding of portals has improved a bit ever since I got here, so I''m guessing all the levels I gained today did the trick. Your roots really helped us today.¡± He said.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to harvest the rest of them,¡± She sighed, and then she was preparing to swim upwards. ¡°You¡¯re going to understand the portals even better, as soon as you enter the next realm of mana. My colleagues experienced the same, I used to know a couple of girls who could create portals.¡±


    Genta then started swimming upwards, and she was bound to be a good swimmer because she too had assumed the form of an aqus goblin. Tim figured that she was of another race, though, she had to be.


    Before she left, she warned. ¡°Do not try to follow me, because we don''t need to run into each other again, especially in Valporovus. Abide my request, and in return, I won''t hurt any of your friends!¡±


    Timothy wanted to follow after her, because a woman from the future, who also knew how to create mana roots, was absolutely priceless! He wanted to learn her tricks, but he was forced to listen to her direct demand here, because he wasn''t nearly strong enough to fight her! Judging from the tattoo-like marks on her left arm, she was at the fifth realm of mana quality, so she was a goblin who could be considered godly, her powers were monstrous! He couldn¡¯t challenge her decisions, he couldn¡¯t afford it.


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    ¡°Ah, you bastard¡­¡± He grunted, and watched her beam away.


    The rest of the team had heard the distortion in the water as she beamed off, but they were none the wiser. They were too focused on harvesting the mana around them, so they couldn¡¯t have cared less even if a giant fish had come down here to try and eat them. Arvena had even heard Timothy talking to someone, but she simply did not care to intervene as long as a battle did not break out, so Tim was the sole witness of this mysterious old lady!


    Timothy''s impulsive thoughts almost made him follow the lady, his head was steaming as he stood still and watched, but eventually he remembered that he was around a bunch of roots. Staying here for a while was the most beneficial, so he dared not swim away!


    A minute later, he had another flash upgrade, so now he was at level five in terms of mana quality! This was a great gain, however, considering that more than half of the mana roots were depleted by now, he figured that he¡¯d reach level six soon, and stop progressing there.


    Level four, the level that he crossed, was called the Branching Dragon level, and the pool associated with this level had been absolutely huge! Now at level five, he had an even bigger pool to fill, so he was certain that their luck would run out soon. The point counter that the system flashed in one of his eyes, helped convince him even further.


    [Grand Mana Pool = 110,045/1,000,000]


    ¡°God damn, this is getting stupid. I can''t believe my mana pool was like fifty thousand points, total, before we fucking leaped into this universe. It''s sad that the roots are depleting, but the amount of levels we gained today is stupidly lucky! I¡¯m up by a whole fucking realm!¡± He waffled.


    Tim needed a bunch more points to cross into the next level, so he started poking the remaining roots. He poked all of them, and made it to level six after two minutes! The blue flash that surrounded him, made it official, and so, all of the mana roots were depleted, and gone for good!


    [Congratulations, your mana quality is now at level six! This level is otherwise known as The Goddess¡¯ Kiss level, and it is said to be a gift from Falakame, which is the same goddess that had insisted on punishing you until a short while ago.] The system beeped.


    Furthermore, she explained. [Your current mana pool can fit a total of 1,400,000 mana points, and you can generate 1,500 mana points per hour.]


    ¡°Hmm¡­ looks like we''re gonna need to avoid fights for a while, then.¡± He said.


    Tim was excited that he reached this level, he went almost an entire realm up in mana quality, and this was beyond fascinating! However, he also found the math behind the new mana pool to be inconsistent, or worrying at the very least.


    It took some basic math to figure out that a single fireball, might cost him five-thousand mana points to throw, on the count that his fire would burn a lot hotter than before. Considering that he could only generate fifteen-hundred points of mana in an hour, spending five-thousand points on a fireball was less than ideal. He wanted to avoid fights, at least up until his pool was filled by a quarter million points, and that itself should take up to a week to accumulate under their new, standard circumstances! He felt stressed, though indefinitely happy that he got to do this kind of math now.


    Skendus and Ortana were at the same level as him, while Arvena was two levels ahead. She was at level eight, so she was closer than anyone else when it came to leaving the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana, once more, and for good! Her depression lessened.

 Chapter 182 - Portal tilt

    The eighteen mana roots were completely depleted, so there was no point in hanging around in this needle universe anymore. They could spend a bit more time here to mess with the giant fish, sure, but that was about all of the activities that they could do, there wasn¡¯t anything else. Purpureus Mundi Aqus was otherwise really desolate, so desolate, that the team didn¡¯t even understand how all the fish hadn''t starved away already!


    This sea was barely a kilometer wide, so it shouldn''t be able to support such huge fish, and yet that wasn''t the case, there were plenty of them in the vicinity. This was very puzzling, sure enough, but they had to leave nonetheless, because they got more out of this place than they originally wanted. They were content, so they swam upwards as if they were satisfied girlfriends, even, their stride was rather jolly!


    At the surface, they met Gustav, and Tim was happy that the old lady didn¡¯t attack his friend here. Although Gustav consumed less mana roots in comparison to his team, he was still at a decent level, because he already had a better mana quality than Arvena earlier on, before they walked through the portal. His mana quality had been at level two, and now it was at level five, which technically made him the weakest goblin of the group now, but a man with a level five man quality was anything but weak, he was very capable. The team has progressed exceptionally well today!


    ¡°Okay, so are we ready to leave?¡± Tim asked, and he had a little smirk on his face, because he felt responsible for all the progress his friends made. Inwardly, he wanted to be praised.


    However, no one praised him, and it didn¡¯t look like they were going to. Gustav even switched the topic entirely, as he started talking about the dragons.


    ¡°Georgie should be at level six right now, he managed to absorb a few mana points. Unfortunately he remains in the God''s Punishment Realm so he¡¯s an entire realm below us, but still, level six isn''t that bad for a dragon.¡± He pointed out.


    Tim was initially irritated that he wasn''t getting praised, but then he excitedly asked. ¡°What about my little Bolivamus Tal the Greater¡­?!¡±


    Just then, he figured out something interesting. ¡°Oh, I can see his mana pool now! Billy and the dragonflies are at level three, that''s a bit sad, dragon''s have been dealt a bad hand of cards¡­¡±


    It was sad that the dragons couldn''t progress as much, but they were dragons after all, so they may not need a good mana quality as much as most creatures did. The dragons certainly didn''t need it throughout the recent, severely dangerous situations that they, and the team survived! They were good, they were happy.


    Regarding mana quality, Arvena then pointed out. ¡°You can see someone''s pool of mana, after you cross over to the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm. You can check on pools, as long as the bastard you''re checking on has a lower mana quality than you, so it¡¯s a very useful tool in most cases.¡±


    ¡°That''s nice, so we''ll always know when we''re about to get fucked? Very handy.¡± Tim rambled.


    The process of checking on someone else''s pool was very easy, and visual. With an x-ray sort of vision, he could see how much mana was accumulated in one''s belly. This process didn''t cost a single point to initiate.


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    Mana in its entirety was blue by color, however, when it is in one''s gut, it has these funny visual features that are symbolic to one''s specific level. He''d only have to look at those symbols once, and then he''d recognize the level instinctively!


    In this case, when he looked at Georgie the dragon¡¯s mana pool, he saw that the pool assumed an iron-like color. Level six was called Dense, Iron Mana, so the symbolism behind the visuals in the pool correlated with the level¡¯s name.


    ¡°Very interesting¡­¡± Skendus remarked.


    Skendus appreciated this ability the most, because initially he had to determine how strong a person was, by attempting to read their minds, and this latter process was a bit more elaborate. His failure or success at mind reading, helped him determine the strength of a lot of people, but this new ability was a lot easier to use! It didn''t take much effort to initiate it.


    Anyway, they were ready to leave this universe now. They''ve certainly seen enough of it, and wouldn''t want to return unless there were a bunch of roots waiting for them.


    Timothy''s new task here was to tamper with the portal so they wouldn''t go back in time, once they crossed over to Valporovus. This was bound to be a bit tricky, but he felt capable of making the adjustments. He didn¡¯t let his friends cross the portal just yet.


    ¡°Give me a minute here,¡± He requested.


    It was crucial that they avoided going back in time, because it could put them in a bit of trouble. Firstly, he feared that he''d lose a couple of blessings from the priests of the three churches, which were blessings that they worked really hard to get, and this was one thing that he didn''t want to risk walking into. If the Mark of Death got ¡®remarked¡¯ on their souls as soon as they crossed over to Valporovus, then they might as well stay in this universe, because it would be better than wasting another few weeks to appeal to the churches again!


    ¡°Okay¡­¡± He muttered, and got very close to the portal.


    Timothy then grabbed the portal, as he had grown accustomed to, and after a bit of thinking, he tilted it. This tilt was very literal, physical too, and he instinctively tilted it by ten-percent!


    Afterwards, he urged. ¡°Okay, everybody jump in! Now now now!


    Although most of the team didn''t know what he was doing here, or what all of this intensity was about, they still trusted his word. He was the portal opener after all, so he was the most informed regarding portals!


    The team jumped through the portal, the dragons followed suit, and so shortly after, they met with the little village that they left behind, before getting into Purpureus Mundi Aqus. The strong scent of recently roasted pork confirmed that they were alright here, it was unlikely that they''d run into past versions of themselves or anything like that!


    ¡°Oh, good, we''re in the present.¡± He sighed.


    Afterwards, as he noticed the confusion on the faces of his friends, he helped everyone catch up with what he had recently experienced. He was very specific about it, so he spent a solid ten minutes helping everyone understand why he had to tilt that portal.


    ¡°There seems to be a lot to this¡­ portal summoning.¡± Gustav expressed.


    Furthermore, he added. ¡°Still, it doesn''t look like we''ll be going to the bug world anytime soon, so, how about we go with your other plan? How about we make a one-way journey to the Ruins of Aqumus?¡±


    Timothy was craving to open another portal, but he understood that it could end up distracting them quite a bit. Visiting the Ruins of Aqumus had been their main goal ever since they stepped into Valporovus, and now since they didn''t have any distractions, and that they were strong enough to stride The Old Sea where the ruins were, there was virtually nothing holding them back from doing so!


    ¡°If we cross the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana this month, then I''ll be the happiest stingray in the world!¡± Tim remarked, and then he tore the portal out of its place.

 Chapter 183 - The Old Sea

    The team beamed through the air, and made it to the vicinity of their destination in two weeks time. It was very easy to travel when they had dragons to their side, and not to mention, the dragons became a bit faster and stronger ever since their mana leveled up! A greater mana quality seems to give them very physical features, such as strength, speed, and tougher scales! This made sense.


    Iron Claw the Wicked has had very tough scales, which hinted that his mana quality had also been very high, perhaps several realms above the common member of the platoon that attacked it! The math was easy to follow.


    Anyway, the team landed in the vicinity of the Ruins of Aqumus, point being that they were about twenty kilometers away from the ruins. The team were on the shores of The Old Sea, and had made camp there for a few days.


    Originally they would just shapeshift, and then stride the waters, but they couldn¡¯t leave Gustav behind, as he was their newest member who changed their calculations. He couldn¡¯t shapeshift, and he didn''t want to sacrifice several levels of his mana quality just to shapeshift, so the rest of the team had spent a couple of days in the water, in the search of a bubonic shifter! They avoided going to the ruins for now.


    It was imperative to bring Gustav to the ruins as well, and this wasn''t because of maintaining their friendship alone. The ruins are said to be very dangerous, even for them who''s mana quality was very decent, so the team needed every helping hand they could get while they were down there, they needed more firepower! They needed him.


    They found a bubonic shifter eventually, killed it, and brought it up to the shore. Gustav then fried the shifter, who in this case had assumed the form of a great white shark before it was killed, and now he was to eat it.


    ¡°I spent a shit-ton of points carrying this bastard, so you better fry me up a fat, fish steak.¡± Tim requested, jokingly.


    It took little time to cut the shark up, and they managed to fry its flesh equally as fast, because they had a good camp set up on the shores. Gustav started consuming the fried fish meat, and already started feeling different.


    The rest of the team could already shapeshift, so this meat didn''t affect them at all. They just filled their bellies with a decent meal, and the dragons did the same thing. The dragons were incapable of absorbing all, or at least most powers from the looks of it - they worked with what they were born with.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡± Arvena pressured, ¡°Can you shift now?¡±


    Before she could finish that sentence, Gustav had already initiated the new ability that he gained. He started ¡®melting¡¯. Eating freshly cooked meat, and gaining an ability out of it was one of the best ways to start their morning, that was for sure!


    It took Gustav ten minutes to shapeshift, and thankfully he didn''t feel any pain along the way, as this ability made his bones and flesh too soft for them to experience any pain. He was all mushy in between his armor, until eventually, his skin became more solid exponentially, and he turned into a four-foot tall aqus goblin!


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    With his skin blue, and a pair of gills to meet the demands of the sea, he was now ready to hit the water. He was ready to swim, it was impossible for him to drown now!


    In the meantime, other members of the team had been preparing as well. Timothy and Skendus had swam across the waters shaped as aqus goblins these past couple of days, but they started growing tired of this form, so they decided to rely on what made them the most comfortable. In order to achieve this, they had to strip naked first, so they left their armor in the camp, and then swam against the waves along the shoreline, until they reached a spot that was about ten feet deep.


    Timothy then started shifting into a stingray, and Skendus shifted into a sawfish! These were the bodies that they were the most accustomed to when striding the seas, and surely, even though they didn''t have opposable thumbs in this form, there were still many benefits to them, such as a larger mana pool, and the grand feeling of feeling comfortable in their own skin! Regarding mana, since the containment of mana was physical, it was only natural that bigger bodies had a bigger mana pool.


    ¡°Hello again, mister battle-nose.¡± Tim teased his friend.


    ¡°Greetings, sea pancake.¡± Skendus reciprocated.


    The rest of the team then joined them in the waters, while the dragons stayed back at the camp, because they could neither breathe water, shapeshift, nor did they need large quantities of mana to begin with. The ruins were not a task that they needed to indulge in. Besides, the team had left their backpacks full of expensive gems at the camp, so someone had to guard them!


    Anyway, once the rest of the team was in the water, Gustav almost attacked his friends, as he mistook Timothy and Skendus for random, monstrous fish, but thankfully Arvena had been there to stop him! They avoided unnecessary injuries.


    ¡°Easy, tiger! Never seen a stingray before?¡± Tim exclaimed. Everyone else around him could understand his stingray tongue, on the count that they hit the waters as aquis goblins.


    ¡°Actually, no, I never saw a stingray.¡± Gustav admitted, so at this point it was difficult to be mad at him.


    The following conversations were purely jokes, they teased one another. Ortana was especially a target to the teasing, because she refused to turn into a stingray, even though she had spent a good portion of her life as one! She''d rather have opposable thumbs, and that was understandable, but it was still very easy to tease her. It was a good way to kill time, because the ruins were nearly nineteen kilometers away from them, it would take a while to swim there.


    Regarding his new body, Timothy made a great choice turning into a stingray! Firstly, he chose to be as huge as possible, he exerted that option thoroughly, so he ended up being three-and-a-half meters long!


    Secondly, he was two-point-seven meters wide, and his width was adjusted to meet the needs of his new muscles! He was a very muscley stingray now, on the count of a strength upgrade that he experienced a while ago, meaning that he could stride The Old Sea with his natural, explosive strength now! Weighing just above a ton as well, he was the healthiest that he had ever been, he was no longer anorexic!


    Timothy''s mana pool experienced some decent changes as well, right after he shifted, and the system made sure to specify them. She was quick with it.


    [The Goddess¡¯ kiss mana pool = 522,045/2,200,000]


    Tim''s pool was bigger in comparison to his friend''s pools, his friends who were on the same level, because he had it increase by twenty-five percent recently. He paid plenty of system points for it, and this percentage-increase would always apply to his mana pool, regardless of the settings and circumstances that he had, so he was very happy about that! Though it would take a while to fill it up, such a vast pool could prove to be very dependable in the face of an expensive battle. Paired with an increased mana regeneration-rate that this bigger body of his provided, he was as ready as he could possibly be to face the challenges of The Old Sea!


    [As of now, you can generate 2,100 mana points an hour!] The system beeped.

 Chapter 184 - "Theres always a bigger fish"

    ¡°My god¡­ it feels so nice to have these motherfucking stingray wings again. I bet I could swim more than 100 km/h with these bad boys, faster than any fish could ever swim!¡± He thought, and this train of thoughts was giving him a sort of euphoria, he felt as if he was in the clouds!


    The fact of the matter was that plenty of fish could outswim him, even those who didn''t have a strong magical arsenal to aid them, but he was avoiding all facts right now. He was in a deep fantasy land, and it might even be dangerous to pull him out of it.


    Anyway, the team of five managed to travel two whole kilometers already, and as of now, they were nearly five hundred meters below the sea surface. They had swam deep enough to feel a great deal of the water pressure around them, and they were very well aware that the water pressure could kill them if they pushed such limits.


    Caution was mandatory, however, the odds were that the other challenges which The Old Sea posed, could kill them quicker than the water pressure would! There were monstrous fish within the sea, and these fish didn''t seem as mindless as the ones that they typically had to deal with.


    Timothy got irritated by this fact, he got angry really fast, and expressed. ¡°I did so much work to be stronger than those bastarding fish back home, but¡­ fuck my efforts, eh? I can''t kill any of the bastards here, some of them are bigger than whales for fuck¡¯s sake!¡±


    ¡°Not to mock your dreams, but, it''s my understanding that there are countless seas out there, stashed between many universes, so it''s unlikely that you''ll be the strongest fish ever no matter how much you try. There''s always a bigger fish.¡± Skendus added. He was trying to comfort his friend, but ended up choosing the wrong words.


    Before the two of them could bicker, Arvena stated something that caught all of their attention. ¡°Screw the fish! I saw at least three sea orcs circling around us, sniffing us out! They''re otherwise known as sea dragons, they''re the big guys you''re complaining about, Tim, so it doesn''t matter if you''re the biggest fish or not, because sometimes the sea is full of bastards that aren¡¯t fish at all! In this case, the sea has fifty-foot long dragons that can eat us all with a single gulp if it decided to attack.¡±


    Tim was distressed, but at some point he just heaved out a deep sigh, and then said. ¡°Well, fuck me twice, then? Fuck my efforts, or, our efforts, because we might die today after all we¡¯ve been through. Sea orcs sound too badass for us to kill...¡±


    Tim may be dramatic, but he had a point. The fact of the matter was that they were truly outmatched here, The Old Sea contained plenty of monsters, so it was best if they avoided fighting them all together.


    The team kept swimming, and hoped not to run into any trouble along the way, but Tim didn''t want to hang on to hope alone, so he decided to spend some of the system points that he had gathered. He was hoping to buy something that wouldn''t cause him much pain, and help protect his friends at the same time, so he asked the system for help.


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    [You can buy a purchase that would increase your water pressure resistance, but that''s about it, the rest of the upgrades are really painful, because they''re meant to upgrade your body in every way possible, rather than giving you new powers to add to your arsenal. Considering your recent massive ascension in terms of mana quality, it''s imperative that you toughen your body up, let your friends defend themselves. Buy the water pressure resistance upgrade, because it isn''t too painful, and it might just save your life out here.] The system explained.


    Furthermore, she added. [Although your ¡®expanded¡¯ stingray body is capable of handling depths of up to five-hundred meters, you''ll be putting yourself at risk the deeper you go. Add three-hundred meters to your depth resistance now, and you''ll have a much greater chance at avoiding such crushing damage later on. Don''t wait until it''s too late, because system points are meant to be spent, after all, Timothy.]


    ¡°I hear ya, give me the upgrade, then.¡± He requested, half depressed.


    After a single beep, the system granted his request. Timothy then immediately noticed that his insides were feeling funny, and although this was a bit painful, it wasn¡¯t bad enough to paralyze him. It was acute pain, which also caused a sizable amount of anxiety, because his organs were feeling weird, as they were being carved and shaped to resist a greater deal of water pressure. It was a process that he didn''t understand, and didn''t want to understand either for the sake of his own sanity!


    After a few minutes, the upgrade was complete, and he was freed from any and all discomfort. Not only did he feel better after at least half of the water pressure was lifted off of him, but he could see better as well, on the count that he didn''t have to protect his eyes as much. The crippling, heavy sea wasn''t weighing down on his eyes anymore!


    ¡°Oh yeah¡­ I haven''t felt this relieved ever since I shat those bones through my ass back at our sea¡­.¡± He heaved out a sigh of relief, though most couldn¡¯t understand why he was muttering about bones right now.


    [Upgrade complete! You just increased your water pressure resistance limit by three-hundred meters! This upgrade cost you 2,000 system points, so 28,000 points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.


    Then, she further explained. [You can withstand sea depths of up to 800 meters now. As mentioned, your current, large stingray body helped increase your water pressure resistance as well, and that¡¯s part of why you can swim down to the 800 meter mark now!]


    ¡°Okay, I can work with that.¡± He mumbled.


    Paired with the fact that his mana quality was also decent, he felt more ready to face the challenges of The Old Sea! Regarding details, he could spot the sea orcs as well after the water pressure was lifted off of him, and he could understand why Arvena was scared of them, they were absolutely massive!


    They had dark-green scales, had a fat head, were snake-like, and were about fifty feet wide! Paired with the fact that he couldn''t see into their mana pool either, it was more clear to him than ever now that they should avoid fighting these sea orcs! Arvena had every right to be anxious about fighting another dragon!


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope we run into a few mana roots or something, we could sure use a couple more levels¡­¡± He said.

 Chapter 185 - "The windmill sized lighting bolt"

    The team continued to swim through The Old Sea. Arvena had never been to the Ruins of Aqumus before, but she firmly believed that it was easy to find the location, on the count that the ruins are huge. It shouldn''t be hard to miss them, even under the sea. Furthermore, she''s read enough books about it to know how to analyze her surroundings within The Old Sea, she even labeled herself an expert! Progress was inevitable.


    They were five kilometers away from the sea shores right now, and although they weren''t in danger, this was where they met with a bit of a barricade. The sea floor was at a higher elevation here, they were up against an underwater hill of sorts, point being, they had to swim upwards, and above it! Considering that their muscles twitched while they swam upwards, it meant that this was no different from climbing an actual hill. It was tiring.


    However, there were benefits to this ¡®climbing¡¯, because once they swam up to the top of the hill, they started feeling a lot less water pressure on their scales, because on top of this hill, they were only four-hundred meters under the sea surface. Apart from feeling a bit more mobile now, they could also observe their surroundings easier!


    ¡°There are too many bastarding fish around here, and they all look powerful¡­¡± Tim expressed a moment later, ¡°Are you sure that there''s any mana for us to munch on? The ruins could be stripped clean.¡±


    ¡°That''s impossible! Mana quantities in the ruins do not deplete, they haven''t depleted for thousands of years, because we''re approaching a god''s former home, after all, not some mere mana root! We shouldn''t underestimate the power of the man who created this universe, you head-head.¡± Arvena explained, her words were honed, like daggers.


    ¡°With all due respect to Rempegan Lus, we went toe-to-toe with a god back at that forest. I killed a god there, I killed that bastarding yeti that called himself ¡®sir Lestuk¡¯! Excuse me if I think that we might be risking our biscuits for nothing here.¡± He argued, and he was a bit abrasive, because the Sea Orcs were making him nervous.


    ¡°Gods are celestials, not mortals. That yeti wasn''t a god, and it was probably just commanded to attack us, it might as well have been - I''ve thought a lot about this. The blizzard we had to go through afterwards, may have just been a symbolic way to try and kill us, meaning that whichever god made the attempt, used the blizzard to honor the yeti''s untimely death. Either that, or that yeti has killed more mages than we can count, and it summoned a blizzard right before it died.¡± She argued, and this was a compelling argument, though it inevitably got them debating over nothing.


    Skendus intervened, and said. ¡°We can all agree that the yeti was weird, and also, the ruins are very close, so we can''t afford to turn back now no matter what we think, or how dangerous it is! We''re not cowards.¡±


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    Furthermore, he pressured. ¡°Where''s your courage, Timeeth? You were riding on lava just a couple of weeks ago.¡±


    ¡°Surfing,¡± Tim corrected.


    ¡°Lava riding and surfing, whatever, we must-¡± Skendus tried to speak, but his words were interrupted by Tim''s sudden movements!


    Tim beamed forward, and then he summoned a massive thunderbolt, and channeled it right through his long tail! His barb then behaved like the barrel of a gun, and unleashed the massive, nine-foot wide thunderbolt that he summoned!


    Although the team hadn''t caught up with what he was doing, Tim had already unleashed countless bolts of electricity, and the bolt was hot enough to melt the sea water as it flew forwards! The electricity didn''t branch across the waters around them, though, so he and the team were not shocked, thankfully.


    [-20,000 mana points] The system flashed.


    Such an expense was massive, regardless of how his mana pool was up to par. He made an expense that might as well risk his life later on, but he did it, because he was aiming at something significant, and didn''t want to waste any time!


    ¡°Swarm!¡± He then yelled, and the team finally understood what was going on.


    There was a swarm of creatures in front of them, or best called a school of creatures, on the count that they were in the ocean. The creatures were about two hundred meters away, though they were a bit tough to spot because when together, they looked a lot like the dark sea! It wasn¡¯t surprising how the rest of the team had required a moment to figure out what he was shooting at!


    ¡°Holy shit!¡± Gustav then cussed.


    There were a couple of thousand creatures in front of them, and although they were not individually massive, a crowd of them was bound to be dangerous! It was beyond challenging to face them, and yet the team didn''t have another choice, because the creatures were approaching quickly, and it was unlikely that they were swimming over to have a talk!


    [You just killed 92 Raptor Orclets, and won 18,400 points as a reward. Killing a single raptor will give you 200 system points.] The system beeped, just after a few seconds.


    ¡°Dang! Now that''s a good exchange rate! Totally worth the 20k mana points!¡± Tim rattled.


    However, no one heard what he said, because the raptors¡¯ short, but collective screams muffled his words entirely! They were close enough to be heard, so Timothy didn¡¯t waste another second, and attacked the swarm once more!


    With a single, but maxed out thunderbolt, he attacked the raptors, and killed tens of them as a result! The bolt he unleashed was too powerful, so he ended up flipping around like a pancake for the second time! His one-ton body was nothing in comparison to the sheer, linear force of the bolt!


    You just killed another 53 Raptor Orclets, and won 10,600 points as a reward.] The system beeped.


    Although such a massive amount of points was attractive, it still didn''t get rid of their problem. Timothy merely managed to kill a fraction of his enemies, and although his friends were attacking the raptors as well now, they were simply running out of time!


    The Raptor Orclets were very close to surrounding them, and if they got surrounded whilst unprepared, death would be imminent! They had to get into a defensive position immediately!


    A dark mist of sorts started oozing out of Timothy''s barb. He was summoning the Bone Multiplier ability, because that was the best form of defense that he knew of!

 The Cavemen - A Side Story based on the series universe

    Timothy the Stingray was a man of many ambitions, he was a great example for any mages who wanted to progress into the higher realms of mana! His ambitions were great, but his knowledge was still under development, as there was only so much that an earthling could figure out on his own, after stepping onto a massive, complicated planet.


    One thing that eluded him for a long time, was the fact that countless civilizations, or tribes, lived in vastly different time periods, even though they were all on the same planet! The planet he was on was so big, that even the more advanced civilizations couldn¡¯t, or at least didn¡¯t bother to help other, lower civilizations advance in technology!


    This was a baffling fact that created the basis of what this planet was about! Naturally, he was unaware, or ignorant of the idea of how some people spend their time, and their life. One example were the various species of cavemen, who haven¡¯t progressed much despite having an ancestry stretching over hundreds of thousands of years! In this case, it was a good example that mother nature sometimes played favorites, because there were plenty of other species of humans on this planet who had progressed greatly in terms of technological affairs.


    Although the minds of these cavemen were yet to develop properly, magic was something that no creature could avoid. Being able bodied, physically, humans had a bit of an advantage when it came to magic, because they could bear more mana in their pools in comparison to smaller mammals, or primates!


    Cavemen lived in various faunas, both filled with modern animals, or with what could be considered ancient animals. The planet that they were on was that big, and supportive of different faunas!


    Leading by example, was a group of cavemen who could be considered that they were in the Stone Age, in earthly terms. Though isolated, this group had discovered the use of magic a couple thousand years ago, and although they use it on a daily basis, they were yet to progress to the point where they could challenge the common mage in more developed civilizations, that lied within the God¡¯s Punishment realm of mana, even though that realm was the lowest amongst the low.


    Nevertheless, this tribe of cavemen was the most advanced in terms of magic in their specific fauna, so they had reigned supreme throughout these past couple hundred years! This group, and its offspring were known to be able-bodied, because they consumed meat more than the average caveman, on the count of how they could access food so easily.


    Their easy access to food was so impactful, that it may even have stunned their cognitive development! When one has easy access to food, they may not go out of their way to get their hands on it.


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    This concept of readily available food is an example, or at least one of the reasons why thousands of species never evolved to be super intelligent! Comfortable creatures would simply not care to put themselves under any unnecessary pressure.


    Anyway, even though cognitive progress may be slow amongst some species, magic itself wasn¡¯t as slow. If it could progress amongst lesser creatures, it could progress amongst humans even easier, regardless of the fact that they were cavemen, as even cavemen could make good use of a bigger mana pool!


    Regarding the group, or tribe of cavemen in question, two ambitious little guys from within the tribe, were experimenting with a series of powers that may help their tribe exceptionally! They were brothers, sixteen and fifteen years old, and one could say that their ambition was almost genetic! The series of trouble that their tribe was facing now had everything to do with how comfortable they had felt up until recently.


    ¡°The big glow is risky, small glow is better. It¡¯s tamable.¡± Tal, the older brother said. ¡°We must tame it first, as we did with the hounds.¡±


    ¡°A snag on our path is merely a stepping stone, brother. We must take risks once in a while!¡± Mali, the younger brother said. ¡°Let¡¯s try our Flesh Mender ability on an antelope, let¡¯s hunt one. If we can fix its burnt flesh, then surely we can fix the flesh of our friends. The mammoths are learning to fight us back, the cat¡¯s too, so we must master the Flesh Mender soon!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, brother, we must make haste. Between the trampling of the mammoths, and the clawings of the cats, our tribe could be wiped out completely in the coming moons¡­¡± Tal agreed.


    Necessity oftentimes led to innovation, and in this case, these brothers were very aware of the risk that their tribe was in. Their bickering may sound diplomatic, but in their actual language, they sounded no different from chimpanzees arguing over bananas! They certainly didn¡¯t look innovative, but they had stepped up, and were hoping to save their tribesfolk in the eleventh hour, so to speak. The growing dangers within their fauna didn¡¯t let them live in comfort any longer, they had to adapt!


    To carry out an experiment, they left the comfort of their cave behind them, and looked for a live, healthy antelope. After they found a healthy one, Tal shot a small, foot-wide fireball at its leg, rendering it immobile for a good minute! The shock of pain kept the antelope immobile, even if the burn itself wasn¡¯t powerful enough when it came to causing crippling, permanent damage.


    The antelope was fine, but since it couldn¡¯t run away, Tal and Mali were given the opportunity to approach the animal. In other words, they could run an experiment on it.


    ¡°Use the big glow, brother, and I will look at the wound from up close. Let us see if bigger glows are better, or worse.¡± Tal said, guiding his younger brother.


    ...


    You just read the first part of the short story, if you are curious to read the continuation of this Side Story, you can find it on my Patreon Page. It has a horrifying twist that you don''t wanna miss! As a bonus, I even made a little comic using ChatGPT, made in an anime/manga style.

 Chapter 186 - Exploding Skeletons!

    The Raptor Orclets were horrible creatures that harassed The Old Sea, and its borders. They were nothing short of weird lizards who shouldn''t be in the water to begin with, they were invasive creatures, and the sea didn''t have room for them, but yet they were adaptive as much as they were invasive!


    This micro universe was said to be a few thousand years old, but that may not be the case. Some of the recorded goblin history may be a few thousand years old, but this universe was a lot older than that, potentially a few million years old, even!


    The fact that these odd, Raptor Orclets had evolved to live in the sea, was a hint of how old the universe was. Unless the raptors found a way to adapt magically, then their grand harassment of the sea was an advantage that built up slowly, over the course of a few million years!


    ¡°Shoot em, you bastards! Don''t move around like old, demented ladies!¡± Timothy shouted.


    At this point he had stopped shooting lightning bolts, on the count that the enemies were approaching too quickly. He summoned the Bone Multiplier ability, and this was the smartest thing to do, because the swarm of these horrid raptors of the sea had surrounded the team, so he did his best to keep the team from getting clawed! They needed some space.


    The name ¡®Raptor¡¯ suggested many things, but primarily, it suggested that the raptors were both fast, and had these horrible, long, reptilian claws on them that would surely leave most mages begging to be killed if they got clawed even once!


    Paired with the explosive speed that their finless, six-foot long, serpentine tail provided them with, the main attack of these raptors was no laughing matter! They were ruthless, and it was best to avoid their attacks!


    Now in any other circumstances the team would''ve been dead already, but Ortana had coated everyone with a protective forcefield. This was one of the few abilities that she had, but it was one that saved the team time and time again!


    It didn''t take too much mana to keep the forcefields running, because as powerful as they may be, a single swipe from the orcs wasn''t nearly enough to break the forcefields! When she felt that the force fields were getting strained, she just renewed them, and thus the team was untouchable for the time being. She was spending roughly five-hundred mana points a second, and with half-a-million points in her mana pool, she could protect the group for a while.


    ¡°Ugly, green bastards!¡± Tim grunted, as he worked his magic on the fifty raptors that were in his deadly grip. ¡°With jaws like that, they''d even force a sea orc to bleed to death! Look at that bastard, one of his own teeth is close to poking his eye out!¡±


    Of course, no one heard him, because the raptors that were circling around them, kept grunting sharply, like angered apes! The sounds they made were terrifying, but their futile attempts to break the forcefield wasn''t getting them anywhere right now, as every raptor that got too close would end up getting shot!


    Skendus paralyzed a bunch of them, for example, and the paralyzed bodies of the raptors were piling up around him! His huge, ten-foot long sawfish body was almost covered by the immobile bodies of his enemies. Of course he managed to kill a bunch of raptors too, because his new abilities, when backed up with his great mana quality, managed to send a lot of his targets into a deadly shock, so he killed well over a hundred raptors by himself!


    Ortana was occupied keeping the force fields up, so she couldn¡¯t attack as often, but her friends were making up for it. Arvena and Gustav may have shrunk the sea by a millionth of a fraction with all the fireballs they were shooting!


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    They were true forces of nature to be reckoned with, as fifteen-foot wide fireballs were just flying around willy nilly, without any proper aiming to guide them! They killed well over six hundred raptors this way, collectively, but as effective as their attack may be, and as strong as they may be individually, they still weren''t close to dismantling half of the swarm in front of them! Mother nature seems to have her own ways of balancing the forces of the world.


    ¡°If these bastards had magical powers, all the fire in the universe couldn''t have helped us today. I''m so glad that they''re just stupid lizards with claws.¡± Tim muttered, as by now, he has gotten a very good look at the raptors.


    The fact of the matter was that he had grabbed onto tens of live, raptor skeletons, so he had a very good idea of how their insides looked, nevertheless their outsides! Furthermore, as he used the Bone Multiplier ability, he had also altered the bone structure of the fifty raptors that were within his grasp.


    Timothy made their two-foot long claws even stronger, and sharper. Afterwards, he made the raptors attack their own swarm, and the damage he ended up dealing this way was substantial. He killed another hundred raptors, and well over two-hundred of them will bleed to death sooner or later!


    ¡°Attack! My mischievous lizards!¡± He yelled out, jokingly, until the very last slave of his was clawed to death by other raptors who were defending themselves.


    Tim made quite a dent on what remained of the swarm. Paired with the few hundred raptors that his friends managed to kill, they were now halfway there to eradicating the swarm that had attacked them! Though they built an advantage for themselves now, they were hoping that the raptors would just swim away and flee, because it didn''t feel right to have the sea painted red, and littered with hundreds of bodies! They didn¡¯t want to be the culprits behind this, even though they were currently dominant. The team felt like monsters, well, apart from Timothy.


    Timothy didn¡¯t feel any remorse for these creatures whatsoever, and even started messing with their carcasses. He didn¡¯t get any system points when he made the raptors fight one another, but he did spend a lot of mana, on the count of the Bone Multiplier ability being cranked to the max up until a moment ago! It was an expensive power, so now he was hoping to balance things out. He got ready to inflict harm on the raptors directly this time, he wasn''t going to make them fight one another this time around.


    [You just spent another 65,000 mana points! Are you sure that you want to keep using the Bone Multiplier ability?] The system put him under pressure.


    ¡°Yup,¡± He said, and seconds later, he made well over a hundred carcasses explode, in the most literal, and brutal way possible!


    It took a lot less mana to steal their bones, so he did exactly that. He exploded each of their skeletons into hundreds of pieces, because he was powerful enough to do so, and then he shot those bits against the swarm with every bit of speed he could muster!


    Some raptors were killed on the spot, and this was good, but a greater portion just got scratched a couple of times, because the carcasses of their raptor friends blocked plenty of the bony bolts! Some raptors were more hurt than others, but all and all, he just managed to kill another sixty-one of them in the end.


    [You just killed 61 Raptor Orclets, and won another 12,200 system points as a reward. You also spent another 28,000 mana points!] The system stated.


    The system flashed the mana depletion in front of his eyes, violently, as to remind him that he''d need almost an entire day to replenish it under natural circumstances. Although he acknowledged the warning, he wasn¡¯t ready to listen to it just yet, so he started exploding the skeletons of the raptors that were heading towards him!


    [-1,500 mana points]


    [+200 system points]


    [-1,500 mana points]


    [+200 system points]


    [-1,500 mana points]


    [+200 system points]

 Chapter 187 - Sea Orc

    Timothy kept blowing up every Raptor Orclet that headed towards him. It was a brutal way to handle things, but considering that the raptor swarm fled only once most of their swarm was wiped out, he hadn''t had any other option but to fight them. Exploding their skeletons was his way of fighting them cheaply, and killing them quickly!


    The battle cost him well over one-hundred-and-fifty thousand mana points overall, so he wasn¡¯t too excited about him and the team winning the battle here. Quite the opposite, it further deepened the paranoia that he felt about this sea, because if a swarm attacked them for no good reason whatsoever, he could only imagine how hard other creatures would fight if large quantities of mana were in question! With that said, each meter he swam towards the ruins, seemed like a personally signed death certificate to him!


    Timothy wasn''t enthusiastic, but then again, he did win a lot of points throughout this battle. He ended up exploding the skeletons of forty-four more raptors, which only increased his already large sum of system points! This sum was the only thing that prevented him from retreating, because he hoped that they could camp somewhere for a couple of hours, so he could buy the rest of the upgrades that were available, and then they may have a better chance to survive the challenges of The Old Sea! It was a sound plan, and he was hoping to initiate it.


    [You''ve accumulated a total of 78,000 system points,] The system beeped.


    ¡°This sum is getting stupid-er,¡± He remarked, and now he was more motivated than ever to stop, and buy the rest of the available purchase options. ¡°Now, we need a place to hide¡­ Maybe we can hide in that pile of-¡±


    Timothy tried to formulate a plan, but then one of the worst possible things happened! With their explosive speed, and humongous bodies, several Sea Orcs hit the scene, and started munching on the countless carcasses of the Raptor Orclets! This was problematic, because even though the team was protected by that set of force fields, this didn¡¯t help them from being swallowed whole!


    The latter was one of the worst things that could happen to them, and it happened. Everyone, except Timothy, were swallowed whole by a single Sea Orc!


    ¡°Bastard!¡± He yelled, after he saw what happened.


    Timothy saw the faint light of the force field dissipate in front of him afterwards. It had protected him so far, and since it faded out, he could only assume the worst! He feared that Ortana had been killed, and if she was dead, the rest of the team might as well be dead, because the stomach acid of the giant dragon was going to kill them quickly, and brutally!


    ¡°I knew something like this would happen!¡± He yelled out, and regretted ignoring his gut feelings.


    Timothy was about to go apeshit on the few dragons that were slithering around close to him, he wanted to use every bit of offensive power that he had on them, but something stopped him. A second before he was about to shoot at them, Skendus¡¯ voice suddenly reverberated in his head!


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    ¡°Timothy, can you hear me? I¡¯m sure you can.¡± Skendus called for his attention, ¡°We got our hands on the dragon''s throat canal, or whatever it''s called, well, Gustav wedged me between a couple of carcasses because I don''t have any hands myself! I''m gonna try to shapeshift to an aqus goblin now, hopefully before I fall in the dragon''s stomach¡­¡±


    He was a bit casual about the dire situation they were in, it was unsettling, but at least he also tried to be helpful. ¡°We''re alright, but please come get us out of here, because the dragon''s insides seem to be tougher than its outsides, its rock solid in here, we can''t get out. Even Arvena can''t burn as much as a hole for us, the dragon could be immune to fire, so you have to try and kill the dragon yourself however you can!¡±


    Skendus was a skilled illusionist. Paired with the fact that his mana quality had also sky-rocketed recently, it wasn¡¯t surprising that he could communicate telepathically, even while he was down the throat of a dragon! This telepathic ability was very helpful, because in this case, it stopped Tim from attacking the Sea Orcs randomly, and the latter potentially prevented him from getting killed!


    ¡°You¡¯re in its throat, huh?¡± He muttered.


    Afterwards, he came up with a plan that excluded fireballs and lightning bolts entirely. He figured that attacking the dragon¡¯s scales would be useless, and expensive, so he came up with another plan.


    Timothy was about to initiate his plan on one of the dragons, but then Skendus spoke to him again! He hated being interrupted.


    ¡°We''re not stuck in that orc, but the other one. Turn to your left, a.a.a.a. right there! That''s the one!¡± Skendus guided.


    Once Timothy figured which dragon it was that swallowed his friends, he started initiating his plan! Originally he wanted to break the dragon''s spine, and kill it right there, but these Sea Orcs were truly tough, and he guessed that they practiced some form of magic that shielded them. It had to be the case, because their bones were impossible for him to move.


    Since his original plan couldn''t work out, he then altered his plans a bit. The plan was simple, but also genius!


    ¡°If I can''t break its bones, I''ll just make some new bones, mu-hahah!¡± He grinned.


    Considering that the dragons were ignoring him entirely right now, as they were feeding on the hundreds of raptor carcasses, he could summon his abilities in peace. He cranked the Bone Multiplier ability to the max, and did as the ability''s name suggested, he created some new bones, out of nothingness!


    The barb on his tail emitted a nearly suffocating dark cloud, which only confirmed that he was pushing the ability to its very limits! He was spending six-thousand mana points a second on this!


    The dragon that he had targeted, started grunting in distress. His plan was working.


    ¡°Chew on that, you bastard¡­¡± He smirked.


    Timothy had created a bunch of new teeth in the dragon''s mouth, and this in turn kept its mouth from closing entirely. Though this wasn''t enough to kill the dragon, it was just enough to help the rest of the team crawl out of its mouth slowly, or at least, that was the plan that he tried to reap success on.


    When the dragon noticed that there was something wrong with its jaw, it darted towards the open sea, and moved at such great speeds that it was easy to lose track of it! Timothy chased after the dragon, and later on paired a couple of abilities of his, just so he could swim faster!


    ¡°You can''t get away from me¡­¡± He grunted.

 Chapter 188 - "How fast can a Sea Orc swim?"

    Timothy followed the Sea Orc that he was hunting, and he tried his best to keep up with the serpentine menace! This has quickly become a battle of speed, and agility, because he needed a lot of speed to keep up with the Sea Orc, and not to mention, he had to attack it as well.


    ¡°Almost¡­¡± His jaws clamped.


    The sea orc started out swimming at a normal pace, well, it was normal in comparison to what it truly was capable of. Its fifty-foot long body knew how to maneuver the sea water to aid its speed, so the dragon''s first fear-induced rush helped it gain a solid 70 km/h, which was simply unachievable for most sea creatures!


    Its speed was purely natural, magic didn''t aid, or amplify it in any way, it knew how to flee! The dragon knew that something was wrong, and acted accordingly in order to evade danger as quickly as it could, even if it didn''t know what it was fleeing from, and even if it didn''t understand why its jaw was locked shut!


    Timothy ended up spending thousands of mana points just to keep up with the dragon. He couldn''t find a way around such expenses, because if he stopped swimming, his friends would be gone forever! Since he locked the Sea Orc''s mouth shut, his friends had virtually no other safe exit to use, even if they somehow mustered an escape plan! He couldn¡¯t let them suffer the outcome of the situation that he created.


    Regarding his speed ~ Timothy was a huge stingray, and he was muscular enough to swim up to 25 km/h without his magical powers aiding him. In this situation, such speed wasn''t nearly enough, and this was why he turned to his powers for help in a short time.


    The Flaming Fins ability, once maxed out, helped him swim 65 km/h at most, which was better than the prior speed, but it costs him two-thousand mana points per second! Worse yet, such speed wasn''t enough on its own, it barely helped him catch up with the beast, but he was a one-ton stingray after all, so there were numerous aspects working against his speed. Each aspect got into his nerves!


    ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can interrupt your stupendous speed¡­¡± He mumbled, and tried to grow a few extra bones across the dragon¡¯s spine.


    Logically, if a creature''s bone structure was altered in any way, especially if incorrectly, then its natural movements would also be altered. In this case, he was hoping to cripple the dragon physically, once and for good!


    Timothy tried to give his little plan a shot, his target was just fifty meters away now, but when the dragon noticed that something was tickling its bones again, it started swimming even faster than it originally was! At this point, it wouldn''t even be a surprise if the dragon understood that it was being directly chased, even if it didn''t bother looking back.


    ¡°He can swim even faster?!¡± Tim was bamboozled.


    The system then helped him keep track of the distance, though that was about all that she could do. She couldn¡¯t help highlight the dragon, to help him spot it within the midst of the continuous, dark atmosphere of the deep sea, no. He was on his own with that matter.


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    [Target = 125 meters away]


    [Target = 169 meters away]


    [Target = 207 meters away]


    [Target = 289 meters away]


    The distance between him, and the dragon widened immediately, his target was almost three-hundred meters away now! Tim couldn''t see beyond the four-hundred meter mark, so this was when he decided that he had to speed things up, because if he didn''t, then the dragon would surely get away for good!


    In response to the developing catastrophe, he summoned the Freezing Blood ability as well, and dual casted it with the Flaming Fins ability! The prior ability cost him three-thousand per second alone, at most, but since the two of them were being casted at the same time, his mana expenses bumped up to ten-thousand points a second!


    [Target = 392 meters away]


    [-10,000 mana points]


    [Target = 325 meters away]


    [-10,000 mana points]


    [Target = 249 meters away]


    [-10,000 mana points]


    This was an irresponsible way to spend mana, because at this rate he''d lose one-hundred thousand of them in under ten seconds! It was an expensive task, but the Sea Orc had reached a grand speed of 130 km/h right now - He had to keep up with it, though he only had less than a minute to work his magic!


    The Sea Orc then started swimming upwards, at rapid speeds, which was dangerous for most deep-sea creatures, because the water pressure could disfigure their bodies! It was dangerous, but the Sea Orc didn''t seem to care, it swam upwards, and Timothy followed suit.


    In five seconds, the two of them leaped out of the water, they crossed the sea¡¯s surface! At 150 km/h, and a flat body to help him pierce the air, Timothy quickly flew above the heavy, large Sea Orc!


    Being in the air, he felt like a WW2 warplane once more, well, he had the wings to act the part as they had this red glow, due to the Flaming Fins ability that he summoned! His organs felt weird ever since he leaped out of the sea, but this wasn''t even bad enough to hurt him, nonetheless kill him, so he felt unstoppable!


    Since he was in the air, and had gained plenty of velocity from the speed that he achieved so far, Tim stopped using the abilities that he dual casted entirely. It was best to cut corners somewhere, and this was the best chance to maintain what remained of his mana pool. He kept flying upwards, ten meters per second!


    The Sea Orc was accelerating through the air as well, though at a much slower pace considering how heavy the Sea Orc was. It was only a matter of time before this tremendous beast started plummeting from the sky, and since it was less than eighty meters away from Timothy, he racked his brain to figure out the best way to attack!


    For a second he considered frying its brain, but he scratched that as an option, because at this rapidly changing altitude, he didn¡¯t want to hit his friends by mistake! He''d never forgive himself if he ended up accidentally crippling them, he didn¡¯t want to push his friends towards a vegetative state.


    With that said, he was stuck with his original plan. Since he wasn''t spending all that mana in dual casting anymore, he decided to crank the Bone Multiplier ability to the max, so he could try and cripple the Sea Orc before it hit the water! By all odds, the impact with the sea water won''t be enough to cripple this beast as efficiently as he would hope, so he had to try his best to do the damage himself, before the beast could get the chance to slip away, and be gone for good!

 Chapter 189 - "Where friends?" (Volume 2 almost over)

    Timothy cranked the Bone Multiplier ability to the max, and attacked the Sea Orc with it. He multiplied a bunch of bones, as the name would suggest, and thus created these whole, random bones across the target''s spine!


    The idea was simple, he wanted to make the target immobile, so it wouldn''t be able to flee anymore. This was the best course of action, because after all, there weren''t many other ways to deal with a huge, serpent-like dragon that could swim up to 130 km/h! He attacked.


    While they were in the air, huge bones grew out of the Sea Orc''s spine, and they were exposed bones too. With the latter, he was finally able to pierce through the target¡¯s virtually indestructible scales. Apparently the scales were destructible if the dragon''s spine was taking all the damage, so he kept expanding the advantage that he made. He even started denting its actual spine like this, because the fake bones were making their way to the dragon¡¯s nervous system, they wanted to be part of the dragon!


    ¡°Hahaha! You bastard!¡± He celebrated.


    The dragon started plummeting from the sky after a moment, but Timothy could still see the beast, so he kept attacking it, until he made its spine absolutely immobile! Amongst other things, about seventeen exposed bones curled out of the dragon¡¯s spine before it had hit the water, so it was fair to say that Timmy achieved his goal. At a spending rate of six-thousand mana points per second, and a total of thirty-thousand more mana points throughout the use of this ability, he achieved his goal all while in the air!


    The dragon just splashed on the water, and it tried to move, but every nudge it made, riddled the dragon in pain as a result, so it simply stopped fighting. It stopped trying to get away, and thus, it was slowly dying - portions of its spine were close to breaking!


    ¡°Why couldn''t you have just spat them out? You big bastard ye. Skendus hasn''t spoken to me in a while, they''re probably all mush now after all this chasing and moving around¡­¡± Tim muttered, as he plummeted from the sky.


    Timothy had leaped well over a hundred meters above the water, nearly one-hundred and fifty, while the dragon reached the maximum altitude of fifty meters. Considering his aerodynamic shape and weight, it wasn¡¯t a surprise that Tim flew higher in comparison, but now it was time to fly down, and he was to land sixty meters away from the crippled dragon.


    It didn''t take long to land in the water, it only took a few seconds. Timothy wanted to avoid any and all damage upon impact, so he dove in head first, rather than belly first, because if he dove in belly first, he''d end up being the flattest pancake in the world! He was too flat-bodied to attempt such a stunt, so he avoided it, and actually avoided most damage shortly after, as the couple of durability upgrades he has had in the past, kept him alive and well.


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    Though, the impact was still pretty strong, so he ended up yelling. ¡°Ouch! Jesus! My brain must''ve spun in place like three times!¡±


    Although the latter wasn''t possible, it still served a point. His head took most of the damage as he dove in, but this wasn''t too deadly for him, point being, he couldn¡¯t suffer a concussion as easily as humans, or mammals would. He was fine.


    Afterwards, he turned around and started swimming towards his friends, and during this short swim, he didn¡¯t even care about all the mana that he lost, not a bit. He just hoped that his friends were alive and well!


    ¡°Come on¡­ Skendus, talk to me.¡± He grunted, and he was getting very nervous, because if a strong illusionist wasn''t able to reach him, then he may not be alive anymore. ¡°Please¡­ this is such a stupid way to die.¡±


    Timothy reached the crippled dragon, and then he undid some of the extra teeth across its mouth. He wanted to see if his friends were there, waiting to be freed, but no luck! They weren''t in its mouth, and at this point, odds were that they had either fallen in its stomach, or got crushed to death one way or the other, because of all the movement and splashing around that the dragon did. Tim felt heartbroken, and he felt partially responsible for this, because he couldn¡¯t stop the dragon in time! He felt that he had failed them.


    However, his spirit was as strong as his good will, so he decided to shapeshift into an aqus goblin, and then walk into the dragon¡¯s mouth himself. This wasn''t dangerous for him, not immediately at least, because he had locked the dragon''s jaw with all the extra teeth that he had created in its mouth. The dragon couldn¡¯t close its jaw, it couldn''t even move its body at all, and unless Timothy decided to spare it, the dragon would be in this state for days to come, because the artificial bones that he created took several days to dissipate!


    ¡°Are you bastards down there?¡± He called out, as soon as he walked through the dragon''s large throat. ¡°Maybe I took too much time shapeshifting? Damn! Well, it''s not like I could''ve swam down here as a stingray.¡±


    Timothy continued the search. He climbed down the dragon''s throat ¡®canal¡¯, because this thing was too big to be called anything else, and he continued climbing down that path. Eventually he was ten feet deep, and although his friends weren''t here, there were vast quantities of blood splattered all over the place, to the point where he could easily tell which part of its throat was coated in blood, and which part was just plain slimey! He was petrified by the thought of his friends having turned into nothing more but a bloody mist, and the pungent stench certainly didn''t help calm him down!


    ¡°No, please no¡­¡± He mumbled, as he climbed down the throat of the dragon even faster now. He wasn''t as careful.


    Tim eventually ended up near its stomach, and although he didn''t fall in the stomach acid close by, he did get a good view of this place. It was as big as a cave, a very elongated cave surely, but a cave nonetheless! Tim tried to find his friends here, but he couldn''t see them, and this was especially concerning, because even if they fell in the dragon''s stomach, he would''ve at least found their sizzled bodies! There were plenty of Raptor Orclets carcasses down here, for example, and they were yet to be consumed by the stomach acid, so he was stumped for words here.


    ¡°Hello there,¡± Someone then spoke behind him.

 Chapter 190 - Flesh Mana

    Timothy turned around in a flash, and saw something that he would rather not see. He spotted this half-a-foot tall, rat-like creature, and didn''t know what to think of this. Considering that the creature also had a belly button, he got even more confused, because this had to be a mammal, rather than a rat or anything like that.


    ¡°What in the name of Falakus, Firunal, and Farazal are you?!¡± He asked, and although he didn''t worship those gods himself, he mentioned their name as a way to release his frustration. He was being dramatic.


    ¡°I''m a leech, well, I''m an Albino Scavenger Leech, but let''s avoid the long names. Call me Thomas.¡± The creature answered, and he spoke the goblin tongue fluently somehow. ¡°I''m supposed to be here, but what are you doing in a dragon¡¯s stomach?¡±


    ¡°I''m looking for my friends, this orc bastard swallowed them whole! They were alive a few minutes ago, I could hear them, but now¡­ I can''t even find their bodies.¡± He explained.


    Then, Thomas followed along. ¡°Aqus goblins shouldn''t be out here in The Old Sea, regardless of how you can breathe underwater, that''s what my father always used to say. But anyway, your friends are fine, we managed to snatch them before the mothership, or the Sea Orc, as you know it, went nuts! It''s rare to scare a dragon like this into full speed, so I salute whatever it was that you did to it out there.¡±


    Timothy ignored most of what this little guy said, he stopped listening after he was assured that his friends were alive! Besides, this four-limbed leech had a very punny voice, so he couldn¡¯t hear most of what the leech said, even if he tried to listen.


    Although the leech was tiny, he was actually quite powerful. For example, as tough as the Sea Orc''s insides and outsides were, the leech expelled just a little bit of multi-colored mana from his palm, and somehow forced a whole portion of the dragon''s rock-hard, internal flesh to open up!


    This was the stuff of horrors, the flesh opened up, and formed a two-foot wide, oval doorway! Timothy managed to squeeze through the doorway, and that was where he saw his four friends! They were alive and well!


    Without thinking about it twice, he leaped over to them, and cried out in joy as he hugged them! His friends were equally happy to see him, but they had been comfortable enough here, from the looks of it, so they didn''t have enough reasons to cry out. Still, they were quite happy to see their friend, because they understood that he was their passage that would get them out of here!


    ¡°Took you long enough,¡± Arvena lightly scolded him.


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    Furthermore, she added. ¡°No offense to the leeches, they''ve been very helpful, but this place is too small for us, and it reeks!¡±


    Regardless of how they were alive and well, they had the right to complain about these conditions. Though this little room they were in was like a grand cavern to these tens of leeches, it was just a two-foot tall, and five foot long pocket of space. Sure it kept their necks from breaking during all of the commotion, but it wasn''t a place where they''d prefer to be!


    ¡°How about we get out of here, then? I have this big bastard crippled, he can''t go anywhere without my say-so.¡± Tim asked.


    The team was enthusiastic to get out of here, and their hosts were eager to have them get out of here, on the count of all the space that the team was taking. Skendus had shapeshifted into an aqus goblin a few minutes ago, so it was great that they didn¡¯t have to drag him across the dragon''s long throat. They couldn''t lift a whole sawfish through physical strength alone, even if they tried to, so shapeshifting was really coming in handy once more! After what he experienced, Skendus didn''t know if he wanted to be a sawfish any more.


    Anyway, hundreds of these leeches gathered around to see their guests go, they had been hiding all over the place. Using their special kind of magic, they opened up tens of tiny, oval doorways and then followed the crowd!


    Timothy noticed this, and he was fascinated, so as they were getting escorted, he turned to Thomas, and asked him. ¡°I know the name ¡®Leech¡¯ is pretty self explanatory, but what is it that you do here? I would hate to be infested by you guys, but¡­ I don''t get it, I can''t wrap my head around the fact that you willingly choose to live in this slimey hellhole!¡±


    ¡°This is the best hellhole we know of,¡± Thomas joked, and in a more serious matter, he then asked. ¡°Have you ever heard of Flesh Mana? The name is very self explanatory.¡±


    Furthermore, without waiting for an answer, he explained. ¡°Flesh Mana allows us to move flesh around, yes, but the leeches who have a more pure mana quality, can assume the indefinite control of a huge beast, such as the one we''re walking in right now! Our goal here is to turn this Sea Orc into our long term vessel, without killing the vessel, and you¡¯ll probably be able to guess that we chose a Sea Orc, on the count of their exaggerated durability. This is a decent, potentially maneuverable vessel for us to raise our children in.¡±


    ¡°I hate to break it to you, but I kind of broke its spine¡­ Well, he¡¯s at least very crippled right now.¡± Timothy then added, and he expected Thomas to get mad, but that was not the case.


    Thomas then stated, ¡°We can heal its spine in two days, don''t worry about it. Though, I have to ask you to remove the extra bones that you¡­ summoned? It''ll spare us several weeks of work, because it''s very difficult for us to work with artificial bones.¡±


    With conditions like these, it was easy for them to come to an agreement, Timothy was happy to cooperate. They made it to the exit point, it being the dragon''s mouth, and this was where they said their goodbyes!


    As they were leaving, Thomas started climbing down from Timothy''s shoulder, and as he did, he also cautioned. ¡°Swimming towards those old ruins is a death sentence as good as any, but it''s not our place to stop you from trying. I wish you luck, friends, and I hope that you won''t end up down another Sea Orc''s throat anytime soon!¡±

 Chapter 191 - The Bony Bunker

    Timothy, and the team returned to the waters. Once they swam a hundred or so meters, he released the Sea Orc from the crippling set of extra bones that he had riddled it with. The beast was free now, well, its spine was still messed up, but the hundreds of Albino Scavenger Leeches that lived within the dragon, said that they could heal the dragon¡¯s spine, so it was far from dying!


    It was expensive for Timothy to let the dragon live, but he didn¡¯t want to upset those little guys either, because he feared that his head would be split in two, if the leeches chose to get violent! The albino leeches possessed flesh mana, a kind of mana that even Arvena was unaware of, so it was best not to anger them! The dragon was spared, and it was also in no condition to chase the team, so this was a win-win, and lose-lose situation.


    Anyway, since the team was in the water, they could continue their seemingly insane motive of chasing after the Ruins of Aqumus! It was looking more and more insane to go after that place, especially once their recent circumstances were considered. It hadn''t even been an hour since they submerged in The Old Sea, and yet they tip-toed with death twice already, and it was stupid to ignore this fact!


    This was not a place where they should be stubborn in, regardless of what waited for them at the other side, or symbolically, at the other end of the tunnel. For all they knew, the light at the end of the tunnel could be another, greater dragon coming towards them, rather than great amounts of mana, so they might be risking everything for nothing! Optimism was dangerous in The Old Sea, but pessimism might kill them too.


    Either pessimism or optimism had to be put aside for now, and they had to embrace realism instead. Realistically, it was extremely stupid to enter the sea without a full mana pool to begin with, so now, they have to camp somewhere, and replenish their mana for a while!


    In his humongous, Stingray form, Timothy could replenish roughly fifty-thousand mana points a day, so he wanted to shapeshift into a stingray again, as soon as he had the chance. Skendus could turn into a huge, three-meter long sawfish as well, which would get him up to par with his friend, in terms of natural mana regeneration!


    The rest of the team chose to remain as aqus goblins, so they could only replenish forty-three thousand mana points a day. This was a bit of a disadvantage, but they didn¡¯t mind it much, because being in this sea was the greatest disadvantage of all, and they tended to focus on the latter! They had to camp their problems away, at least for a week, or else they might die today if they decided to push forward, and against mother nature''s indirectly expressed will.


    Hiding was mandatory, and they couldn¡¯t turn back right now on the count that they wanted to avoid the rest of those Sea Orcs, so they had to camp here, in the middle of the sea. The sea wasn''t known to feature decent, warm campsites, however, so the team had to make use of what was available in their surroundings. They had to build an advantage for themselves, or more specifically, Timothy had to build an advantage for them!


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    The team dove towards the bottom of the sea, at a depth of four-hundred meters, and thankfully they weren''t attacked once they got there. This freedom allowed Timothy to initiate his plan, that being, he started abusing his most overpowered ability yet - The Bone Multiplier!


    Timothy used this ability to find a couple of old bones first, and then he quickly expanded those bones into huge beams. This didn''t take much mana, so he started duplicating them into tens of beams, and then started pushing them against the ground, ten at a time! With thinner bones to act as a flat ceiling, he ended up creating a bunker of sorts, a very roomy bunker even, because at the end he could move around in it, even as a stingray with a two-point-seven meter wingspan! He did so easily.


    The bunker was ten meters wide, four meters deep, and it had been altered to ignore the water pressure around it as best as it could. He did the latter by allowing many, foot-wide gaps across the structure, and these in turn wouldn''t let the structure implode or explode, because he wasn¡¯t trying to create a dry haven for himself here, no, there was plenty of water flowing inside the bunker. He didn¡¯t need to seal it shut, as that would be unnecessarily dangerous! They had a fabulous place here, where they could regenerate their mana without fearing the ongoing hazardous elements of The Old Sea.


    Once they got comfortable, Tim pitched. ¡°I''m thinking that we should camp out for a month, that should be enough to fill a¡­ very dependable portion of our mana pool. I can give these bones all the juice they need, for months, even, it''s inexpensive, and most bones are seven foot thick! They¡¯ll protect us, we''ll be safe...¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not exaggerate things,¡± Arvena argued, ¡°Why months? We only need a week at most, maybe five days?¡±


    Quick as a flash, Timothy argued. ¡°Five days for you, maybe. I just spent three-hundred-thousand mana points up until I crippled that bastarding Sea Orc! You''d think that a larger mana pool would last you more, but it doesn''t - This is bullshit!¡±


    With that said, everyone was convinced that they had to stay here for a while. They hadn''t run into a single thing that would help them regenerate their mana so far, so this was where they had to stop, and be a bit more realistic! Spending more one-hundred-thousand points of mana in a single battle, and not being able to regenerate as little as half of that amount in a day, was scandalous, it was not the best formula! It certainly wasn''t the formula for success, because Timothy spent thrice as much mana compared to his friends.


    The team had to slow down, and the whole team finally made peace with that. They may only go out to hunt for food throughout the following days, but that was about it!


    Anyway, Timothy made this bony camp, because he also wanted to buy the rest of the available purchase options. He wanted to go to the ruins as prepared as possible, he wanted to be like a battle tank, so he decided that it was about time he spent the seventy-eight-thousand mana points that he had accumulated!

 Chapter 192 - MQ

    Timothy usually loathed spending a massive amount of system points, or mana points come to think of it, but in this particular situation that they were in, the prior was justified. A purer mana quality on its own wasn''t enough to survive the squabbles of The Old Sea, not with the team''s current levels that is, so he had to rely on the grand modifications that the system offered in order to survive. With enough upgrades, even his level six mana could look and act gigantic!


    The purchase that the system recommended the most, was the amplification of the Dual Casting trick that he used so often! Dual Casting wasn''t a power or an ability per se, it was just a thing that came naturally while a mage progressed, and in this case, the system could alter it so Dual Casting would cost less mana points to initiate!


    [You can amplify the Dual Casting option, by 25% in exchange for 8,000 system points. It''s an expensive purchase, but at least your mana pool won''t be in shambles every time you try to dual cast.] She beeped.


    ¡°Hell, I¡¯d pay double the price for something like this!¡± He answered, through a thought.


    The system then initiated the upgrade immediately! Unsurprisingly, pain came hand-to-hand with this upgrade, so he ended up bouncing out of the sand for a second. He had covered himself in sand, as an instinctive way to hide himself, and or cover his current abrupt pain, but it didn''t look like he could keep his attempts a secret right now. Something was gnawing on his gut, likely because this upgrade was related to mana one way or the other, so there were little to no ways for him to hide the pain from his friends!


    ¡°What''s wrong with him? Did he get bit?¡± Arvena asked, as she was close by.


    ¡°No,¡± Skendus answered, and although he wasn''t oblivious to what Timothy was doing, he preferred to keep the rest of the team oblivious on the matter.


    So, he then lied. ¡°The kid has a unique way of discovering new abilities, that is, he tends to discover them quickly when he wants to. My guess is that he tugs at his mana pool, until something useful happens.¡±


    ¡°Sounds downright demonic!¡± Arvena argued, ¡°I''ve read that some necromancers attained new powers just like this, well, almost like this. They begged demons, and then experienced brute pain until they got new powers! If he''s begging a demon, I¡¯m going to take him out of his misery right here and now!¡±


    ¡°Don''t be insane! If he can''t worship the Mana Gods, he sure as hell won''t worship a demon. Timmy is not a very tolerant person, erg, fish.¡± Skendus argued, as he tried to protect his friend from unnecessary accusations.


    Timothy didn''t need to be physically attacked, while he was going through an already painful upgrade, thankfully he avoided the prior as his friends calmed down! He endured the upgrade-related pain for about an hour, clenching and screaming, until it finally let go of him once and for good!


    [Upgrade complete! 70,000 system points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.


    Then, she added. [Dual Casting won''t cost you as much mana anymore, well, it''ll cost you a solid 25% less! To put it into perspective, if you Dual Cast the Freezing Blood ability, together with the Flaming Fins ability, and exhaust the two of them to the maximum, it''ll only cost you 7,500 mana points a second to maintain those powers, rather than the previous 10,000 points! It''s a decent saving!]


    ¡°It''ll be a decent saving once I densify the rest of my shit, otherwise tossing something as simple as a fireball is gonna be expensive for a while!¡± He added, and he had a point.


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    Using any ability whatsoever was super expensive now, regardless of how huge his mana pool was, and that was a fact! Unless he densified each ability of his in order for them to spend less mana, then the depth of his mana pool was utterly useless!


    Anyway, after that painful hour, Tim relaxed a bit, and was ready to feel pain again, because the next upgrade was very relative. The following one was about tri-casting, and it too was about reducing mana expenses!


    [You can amplify the Tri-Casting option, by 15% in exchange for 12,000 system points. It''s the most expensive purchase yet, but at least you''re less likely to lose your entire mana pool every time you Tri-Cast!]


    In response, Tim said. ¡°Sounds like a useless purchase, really, because I almost never Tri-Casted. But I¡¯ll take your word for it, system, give me the upgrade.¡±


    [Confirmed,] She beeped.


    The response was immediate, Tim already felt his spine tightening up, and his stomach sinking in a wave of knots! What followed along was a three-hour episode of pain, this upgrade really beat his body down in comparison to the prior one, it had no mercy, because after all, his mana pool was being modified here! It wasn¡¯t a simple process!


    The immense pain stopped eventually, it had to, but the sad part was that so far, he only went through two of the several available purchase options! This was going to be a long night, unless he chose to leave the rest of the upgrades for another day, and considering the fright he got today, it was unlikely that he was going to neglect these upgrades any longer than he already did! After a five minute break from the pain, he started deciding on which upgrade to buy next!


    [Upgrade complete! 58,000 system points remain in your sum. Though I don''t recommend you to Tri-Cast your powers, you can do it at a 15% cheaper rate now. Congratulations!] The system beeped.


    The system also made it clear that his sum of system points was dropping at an accelerating, if not worrying pace! This set of upgrades was very expensive, especially since a few of the upgrades were trying to keep up with his recently improved mana quality, so with that fact considered, it wasn¡¯t a surprise that he spent twenty-thousand system points on two upgrades alone! It was baffling, but it was progressive nonetheless!


    ¡°What''s this MQ thing, system? I understand that it stands for Mana Quotient, but isn''t it too expensive for an intelligent upgrade?¡± Tim asked, and he was willing to buy this upgrade, but he was also hoping for a discount.


    Quick as a flash, the system argued. [Mana Quotient, or a general understanding of mana, and its related powers, is one of the most valuable forms of intelligence! Books will be unnecessary for you if you have a high MQ, because you can either obtain new powers without studying them, or without killing an enemy to get them, but also, you can create new powers out of thin air! Your MQ has bounced around a lot recently, I even have a log that tracked it, however, the log is really huge so I''m just going to highlight the most important examples now, and the last highlight is your current MQ¡­]


    [Reincarnation = 3 MQ points]


    [Unlocking of mana pool = 10 MQ points]


    [First upgrade of your mana pool = 25 MQ points]


    [Unlocking of the three, pre-necromantic abilities = 52 MQ points]


    [Entering Valporovus, and shapeshifting into a degranus goblin = 60 MQ points]


    [Ascending to level six in the God''s Punishment Realm of mana = 100 MQ points]


    [Leaving the God''s Punishment Realm behind = 130 MQ points]


    [Ascending to level six in the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana = 150 MQ points]


    After listing that lengthy log, the system then added. [You can see that one''s MQ increases over time, it''s supposed to, however, having a high MQ in the early stages of a mage''s life, is what determines a bad mage from a great one! You didn''t have a good start, however, if you upgrade your MQ by another 150 points now, you''ll be one of the greatest mages ever, or, you''ll be one of the greatest throughout a couple of mana realms at the very least!]


    ¡°I guess it''s worth the 25,000 system points, then.¡± Tim sighed, ¡°I''m buying the bastard.¡±

 Chapter 193 - Power Merging

    The Mana Quotient upgrade was as painful as it was expensive! Not only did it put his guts and spine into a strain, but it also affected his brain, since intelligence was primarily located on one''s brain! Timothy felt as if a viral virus was attacking his nervous system, he felt dumber by the second once the pain intensified, but he didn¡¯t fear such foul effects per se, because he knew that they were temporary.


    Timothy endured the pain for a whole hour, and at that point, the pain threshold was too high for him to handle, so he fainted. Fainting was one of the best things that could happen to him right now, because the pain he felt while unconscious was reduced by at least a third! He got a bit of peace like this.


    The upgrade was lengthy, because it would ultimately make him different from most mages. As a fish, he would end up being almost godly after this upgrade, and if he chose to shift into a mammal again, then he''d be one of the most magically fluent mammals within the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana! It was worth the struggle, it was worth the hours of pain he endured.


    [Upgrade complete! 33,000 system points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.


    Tim woke up at the crack of dawn, and then he groaned. ¡°It¡¯s over, then¡­?¡±


    ¡°Is what over?¡± Arvena suddenly asked him. She was awake, and bright as a button.


    Timothy didn¡¯t answer her, and he wasn''t planning on sharing the truth, rather, he just started taunting the other. He taunted her, with a couple of tough questions that were masked by his lazy groans.


    ¡°What do you know about MQ, woman? You know, Mana Quotient?¡± He asked.


    He expected a short, questioning answer, but that was not the case, Arvena started blabbing about mana even more than she usually did. ¡°Mana Quotient determines how great of a mage you can become, and back in my town, it''s actually traditional to test one''s MQ annually! Though he refused to tell how he did it, our local shaman knew how to test everyone''s MQ, and we had a couple of youngsters who started out with a score of 100 points! A king recruited them, and although our town hadn''t seen such geniuses emerge ever since, we still weren''t off so bad. The average MQ in our town is 30 points for young mages, and 120 points for the average, grown up mage, hence, we were one of the few towns who were tasked with dismantling Psidium Mana pools back in your universe.¡±


    ¡°Jesus! The concept of MQ isn''t unheard of in your universe, then?¡± He followed along, and then he taunted. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me now, but I managed to get my MQ to 300 points throughout the night.¡±


    ¡°I won''t ask you how, because I know it''s bullshit. You couldn''t possibly score 300 points, especially overnight, you¡¯d be incapable. I''ve seen you fight, kid, your MQ is up at 150 points at most, and it won''t change anytime soon.¡± She bit back.


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    Timothy liked a challenge, so although he had a few other upgrades to buy, he decided to put those aside for now. Instead, he invited the team to go out, and hunt for food, because he was hungry, and he was sure that his friends were hungry as well. Aside from that, he also felt competent to try out something new!


    They slipped through their bony bunker, and started observing their surroundings. Tim didn¡¯t want to spend too much mana on hunting, and he didn''t want to shoot at any creature that was potentially hostile either, furthermore, he did have an ulterior plan in mind regarding hunting!


    They spotted a giant tuna fish close by, and although the name ¡®Giant¡¯ was alarming, it was unlikely for this encounter to be dangerous, as most tuna fish didn¡¯t possess a honed mana quality. They were very fast swimmers, however, so they had to hit the fish hard before it swam away for good - They had to be quick to secure this decent, huge meal!


    ¡°Do you wanna see a neat trick, Arvena?¡± He asked, with a taunting tone.


    The other was not amused, but she did nod in confirmation. Timothy then slowly summoned two balls of light in front of him, one of the balls had a light-blue color, and the other had the shade of a withered crimson leaf.


    Then, he introduced. ¡°These are two of my abilities, Arvena, which are the Nerve Shaker ability, and the Rotter Bite ability. I''m holding their very essence in my mental grasp, and now, I can either choose to get rid of them for good, or merge them into a greater power, muhuhuhehehehehe!¡±


    ¡°Almost everyone can merge powers, and oftentimes it''s useless to merge them.¡± She argued.


    ¡°I can merge them without your little spoken-word spells,¡± He smirked, and so the other started getting nervous.


    Spoken-word spells were one of the main ways to do complex things, such as power-merging. One would have to beg the gods through such a spell, and oftentimes, decent results were not guaranteed, and in this particular case, it was unheard of to merge powers without a spell!


    Timothy started doing the latter, regardless of what anyone might think. He commanded the two bits of light to mix together, and they continued mixing for about ten minutes, until they assumed a single, light-purple color!


    The floating ball of light then floated into his body, and granted him access of use. He could summon a new ability now, he decided to call it the Withering Shaker ability, and its use was very self explanatory!


    Timothy then attacked the tuna fish in front of him, and he didn''t crank this new ability to the max, because it wasn¡¯t necessary to do so. It only cost him three-hundred mana points to shoot it, and paired with the fact that he didn''t pay a button for the power-merging process that he just did, this as well might be one of the cheapest attacks he unleashed ever since he stepped into Valporovus!


    A beam of purple light headed towards the tuna fish in front of them, it traveled a hundred meters in a flash, and hit the target successfully, in turn, withering most of its nervous system! This was one of the most brutal abilities he had, and the system immediately stated that it was considered pre-necromantic too, so he was very excited to have it under his possession!


    ¡°I believe you now,¡± Arvena said, and she tried to hold in a nervous fart.

 Chapter 194 - "Mana Channels, and the creation of new abilities"

    The tuna fish had a quick death, most of its nervous system was fried immediately, so its brain died off moments later. It didn¡¯t suffer any pain, because its pain receptors couldn''t carry out any signals, hence, even though it was necessary to kill this fish, for the team¡¯s sustenance, the kill was very merciful.


    The tuna fish was then dragged towards the bony den, where it was later consumed. The fish was six meters long, so it just barely fit in their den, which in a sense was a good thing, because its fat body could keep the team fed for a week no doubt! Timothy and Skendus were the biggest fish, and the latter had decided to shapeshift into a sawfish in order to regenerate more mana a day, so the fact of the matter was that the two of them were to consume a lot more food on average. If they were to be healthy, the two of them needed at least twenty pounds of decent meat a day, just to sustain themselves!


    Anyway, food aside, the team were still rather terrified by the display of power that Timothy had acted out. Refusing to use spoken-word spells, and still achieving good results were signs of a great, arcane mage, and they couldn¡¯t wrap their heads around how he suddenly became this smart in all matters magical, seemingly overnight! They were stumped, well, apart from Skendus who could read minds - He chose to be quiet.


    ¡°How did you increase your MQ so fast? A score of 300 is a hell of a lot, it''s even suspicious because it''s impossible to achieve for most people! Are you worshiping some sort of demon!?¡± She asked the latter question rather bluntly.


    Tim was quick to answer that question, he said. ¡°No, I don''t even know any demons by name. The demons never even bothered us, but the gods did, so maybe we shouldn''t link this matter to either gods or demons¡­ it''s a deep rabbit hole.¡±


    ¡°You couldn¡¯t have gotten this score naturally, hell, I should know! I had the library of Rempegana at my disposal for weeks, for fuck¡¯s sake, but I couldn''t get a score of 300 even after I crossed the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana! I peaked at 200 points! Tell me how you did it, or I won''t be your guide anymore!¡± She argued, and continued to press him on the matter.


    Timothy wanted to tell her to ¡®make like a tree and bounce¡¯, but it was stupid to lose team members right now, on the count of how dangerous the sea was, so he had to bicker with her to convince her otherwise. Overall, he felt stupid for taunting her with his new intelligence of his to begin with, because Arvena was in a constant state of power-hunger, so it wasn¡¯t bright to taunt her with such matters!


    In order to calm her down, he added. ¡°I guess I have a god helping me, or, a goddess to be exact! She tells me everything I need to know, and unfortunately, she isn''t accepting any new worshippers.¡±


    Everything he said was a lie, but it was better than explaining that he had a super powerful computer of sorts in his head. Pushing all the blame and or glory to a goddess, was a better idea, and considering that the team had learned to not anger the divines recently, they stopped pressing Timothy on the matter of his high MQ. Well, Arvena stopped pressing him.


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    ¡°Fine, then. I¡¯m happy enough to understand that your progress isn''t natural. Goblins with a high MQ are rare, but fish with a high MQ are nonexistent, that was mainly why I was asking you so many questions¡­ appeal to your goddess, ask her not to punish me, haha.¡± She laughed awkwardly, though she was still really ticked off.


    Anyway, they could put this topic aside for now. Everyone relaxed eventually, as the fat, uncooked meal really weighed them down, they started having mid-morning naps, even.


    Timothy was about to nap, but then the euphoric train of thought regarding power merging, didn''t let him fall asleep! He was very excited, and was eager to merge whichever one of his powers he saw fit to merge! It would be best if he didn''t rush with the merging, because each of his abilities were really great individually, so he had to give this matter a long thought, rather than merging things just for the sake of experimenting with them. He had to be calculative.


    Another good idea would be to try and create new powers, in this case, he wanted to create necromantic powers, on the count of how useful the pre-necromantic ones have been! It was a lot more difficult to work with this branch of arcane magic, especially if he wanted to create a new ability all together, but he wanted to give it a shot nonetheless!


    Timothy summoned a transparent bit of light in front of him. This light didn''t have a color, so essentially, it behaved as a container of a power that was yet to be created. If it assumed any shade of color in the following procedure, without that color dissipating into nothingness, it would mean that he had created a new ability out of nothingness, even if that ability wasn''t very useful.


    ¡°I need slaves¡­ cheap skeleton slaves.¡± He mumbled, and then he formulated. ¡°When I made those Raptor Orclets fight each other, I had to control their every move, and that shit cost me an arm and a leg, it''s not worth doing again¡­ Maybe I can create something that''ll cost me ten-points-a-second per slave, or wait¡­ I think I''ve got it!¡±


    Tim then let go of the blank light that he had summoned in front of him, and summoned the essence of his Bone Multiplier ability afterwards. He studied its color, it being as dark as the night, and he even started seeing a maze of mana channels within the ability - better yet, he started understanding these channels!


    ¡°So that''s what makes them thicker, erg, stronger.¡± He mumbled, after he saw a wall of mana within the channels. ¡°I understand.¡±


    Afterwards, he put the essence of the Bone Multiplier ability back in his own body, and summoned that transparent ball of light once more. He then concentrated, and started knitting a strong wall of mana channels within the light, though the channels were still transparent, so he hadn''t succeeded yet.


    Afterwards, he started implementing a couple of other ideas that he separated out of the Bone Multiplier ability. One of the ideas assured that the skeleton would only need to be reanimated once, and be on its feet for weeks without being fed with any more mana, and if he could achieve this, then raising an army of skeletons was only a matter of time!


    The second idea was a mixture of mana channel patterns that he stole from the Bone Multiplier, and whole new channels that he tried to create himself. He wanted to assure that each skeleton wouldn''t take too many mana points to reanimate, but this bit was trickier, because he had to figure out how to make minimal amounts of mana, more amplified. The latter was an especially difficult task, even for himself and his upgraded MQ, but he gave it a shot anyway!


    Moments later, the transparent ball of light finally started assuming a dark color, which stamped his success! Tim created a new ability!


    ¡°Hehe,¡± He grinned.

 Chapter 195 - Cheap Reanimator

    Timothy created a new ability, a fully necromantic ability, even, because he was supposed to reanimate skeletons with it! He absorbed the new power in his body, and hoped that it would work like it was supposed to, because he didn¡¯t want to spend all day tugging on strings of mana channels, regardless of how enthralling that may sound, especially since it didn''t cost any mana to experiment. It was interesting, but he didn¡¯t want to spend hours creating abilities that he would then dispose of.


    ¡°Okay¡­ I need test subjects.¡± He muttered.


    Afterwards, he slipped out of the bony den, swam nearly twenty meters away from it, and tried to put his new ability to the test! A dark cloudy substance oozed out of the barb of his tail during the attempt, but this cloud was small, because he wasn''t cranking the ability up to the max. He didn¡¯t need to.


    The cloud then traveled around his close vicinity, and sought out skeletons to reanimate. This part of the process was costly, he was spending two-hundred mana points a second, just to allow the cloud to do its thing! Though this was a bit expensive, it was pale in comparison to the expenses that he had made recently, he didn¡¯t mind it.


    The cloud found three skeletons in a short time, and started encouraging them to get out of the sand. Though it was difficult to crawl out of several feet of sand, the cloud, although without mass, encouraged this sort of gravitational pull around itself which made the barricading sand a lot lighter for the skeletons! A dust cloud was caused as a result, but that wasn¡¯t an issue per se, it was barely blinding, and at some point, the three skeletons started moving around within the dust cloud!


    This was the fun part! Since Timothy managed to get these skeletons moving already, he then got rid of the dark, necromantic cloud, because the cloud had fed the skeletons with all the mana that they needed! In a sense, he only made a single deposit of mana there, and in turn, the skeletons kept moving and abiding his command, without being fed any more juice, they didn''t require any more mana!


    The latter was the highlight of his new ability, he stole the mana patterns for it from the Bone Multiplier ability, and from the looks of it, he successfully implemented it to his new ability! The highlight was that once the skeletons were reanimated, he didn¡¯t have to feed them any mana again for weeks, or unless the skeletons were destroyed by an external force.


    The bony den behind them worked in a similar way, meaning that the artificial bones that he created were to last for weeks at a time without being fed another drop of mana! This was where he got the inspiration from.


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    ¡°Hu-hahaha!¡± He celebrated, and then joked. ¡°Walk, my monsters! Daddy''s calling!¡±


    The skeletons belonged to various dead fish, so they didn''t have feet to walk on, so they couldn¡¯t fulfill his command. Actually, they couldn''t swim that well either, considering that their mere bones themselves weren''t enough to help them swim, so they were just drifting in the deep waters, helplessly! Their brains had deteriorated a long time ago as well, so they were also brainless, senseless.


    ¡°Well, that''s what a thousand mana points will get ya.¡± He sighed, and realized how pathetic the sight in front of him was. ¡°My plan worked well regardless, these bastards don''t need any more juice, the experiment is a success!¡±


    Regarding names, he decided to call this new trick the Cheap Reanimator ability, because he really loved how cheap it was! Sure he may need to reanimate skeletons of mammals for this ability to be more useful, but the important thing was that it worked, and it did what it was supposed to do, so that was all that mattered. Furthermore, since the skeletons were at his behest, they were sensitive to any other ability he would unleash on them, such as the Bone Multiplier ability!


    The latter ability was strong enough to create entire limbs on living creatures, so, attempting something similar on the unliving, was even easier! With that said, he started experimenting on one of the skeletons that he had reanimated.


    Tim picked the smallest skeleton, so he wouldn''t waste too much mana on it, and slowly but surely, he started building a fish from scratch! He first fixed its missing bone pieces, such as pieces of its ribcage, and tail, until he made a whole skeleton. The skeleton was only four-inches long, so this took him forty-seven mana points to achieve.


    Afterwards, he indulged in the more complex part of his experiments. Calculating it based on its size, he gave the skeleton a couple of tiny organs to use, and then he connected those organs to a new nervous system that he managed to create shortly after!


    Everything about this was complex, but with an MQ of three-hundred points, his abilities were simply overpowered, especially the ones related to creation, such as the Bone Multiplier ability! His understanding of his own powers had deepend significantly!


    At his rate of understanding, he managed to give the skeleton everything it needed to be a fish, such as flesh, eyes, senses, a brain, and so on! The whole procedure cost him one-thousand mana points, and it ended up being cheap, in a sense, on the count of how small the fish was!


    The fish practically came to life at this point, and recognized its master, and swam around in joy as a form of respect for its master! The fish was reanimated perfectly, to the very last detail! He created a tiny anglerfish, because he had worked based on what the skeleton could fit, as to not exert too much mana.


    Tim could¡¯ve turned this skeleton into that of a different creature if he wanted to, but then he had to figure out the appropriate organs for them to use, and that part wasn''t only more complex in comparison, but it was also deathly expensive! He wanted to avoid such overly-ambitious experiments for now.

 Chapter 196 - The difference between reanimation, and revival

    ¡°My very own monster¡­ erg, fish? It''s as if I''m Doctor Frankenstein, only without the creepy lightning.¡± He joked.


    What he achieved here had a lot more math included in it, and of course, he was aided by what could be considered dark magic. It was dark, because he had disturbed this little guy''s watery grave, gave it eyes, senses, a brain to think for itself once more, but he didn¡¯t give it a soul. He couldn''t do that as of now.


    Sure the anglerfish looked happy, but Tim got sad once he remembered that this little guy''s life was purely artificial. The anglerfish, and its insides in its entirety, would fade away in a few weeks if Tim didn''t feed it any more mana by then, they would fade away, regardless of how realistic the little, four-inch fish seemed!


    By his calculations, he had to feed his little slave here, a hundred points of mana by every end of the month, or else it would die, again! It would fade away.


    Anyway, although the ethical aspects of his second experiment were very challenging, what he achieved here was still a baffling amount of success! He could reconstruct entire humans like this, as expensive as the latter may be, as he''d just need to visit a human graveyard to achieve great results!


    The reanimation of dead bodies was cruel, it was dark without a doubt, but it didn''t look so dark to him if he did this to his enemies! He''d love to enslave anyone that shot fireballs against him, but that time was yet to come. For now, he felt a bit sad that he gave this little anglerfish such a miserable existence.


    As Tim thought about the latter, he sighed. ¡°I guess this is why people don''t like necromancers? Actually, the common necromancer probably reanimates gross, fleshy, stinky bodies, so that''s a better reason to hate them. At some point I''m going to have to do the same, I''m gonna have to be a graveyard harvester, but I won''t be as gross about it, I''ll make sure that my slaves are all nice, and spiffy! New arms for everyone if they need them, and new organs too, cuz I can''t have my slaves be zombies - I want them to shit, shower, and shave! Should be easy!¡±


    As she noticed his harrowing train of thoughts, the system chimed in. [Reanimation is generally frowned upon, however, if you upgrade your MQ at a high enough score, you can actually revive people, rather than reanimate them! Most necromancers or healers cannot revive people, so if you manage to get yourself up on that level, you''ll be considered godly! Not to mention, it''s a lot cheaper than manually reconstructing an entire human being.]


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    ¡°How about you help me get to that level, then? When''s the next MQ upgrade?¡± He asked, because he really liked the idea of reviving anyone he pleased.


    Quick as a flash, the system explained. [The next MQ upgrade is available at the next batch of upgrades, in fact, you can choose to upgrade it however much you want later on, but it will be extremely expensive to do so! Not to mention, your other abilities are also costly to upgrade, so unless you''re comfortable with killing hundreds of creatures, you''ll have to figure out how to spend your points properly, and efficiently! The possible selections after this badge of upgrades will be endless for you, you¡¯ll be tempted a lot!]


    Furthermore, she added. [Regarding your MQ ~ Your best chance is to re-visit the library of Rempegana, you can have a better chance at increasing your MQ there, potentially rapidly, on the count of your current, upgraded score! In hindsight, this is better than spending thousands of system points, just to move your MQ by a nudge. I advise you to be more calculative, because you won''t have any protective guard rails soon, as in, the upgrades you¡¯ll choose to buy after this batch of upgrades, will either be what makes you exemplary, or it''ll be your demise!]


    The system flashed those long paragraphs in front of him, and she made spectacular points too, so Tim had to re-read everything that flashed in front of him, just so he''d understand everything properly! The takeaway was that reanimation was expensive, revival wasn''t as expensive, and that he''ll surely get a sore head as soon as he beamed through this current batch of upgrades! There was a lot to think about, but for now, he only focused on a couple of things.


    ¡°I gotta figure out how to revive shit, it''ll come in handy. For fuck¡¯s sake, my friends were swallowed by a Sea Orc yesterday, they could''ve turned into mush if they didn''t get stupidly lucky! We get in trouble all the time.¡± He thought.


    However, revival, as a magical ability, was far beyond him right now. He was yet to master reanimation itself, so he''d rather focus on the later for now.


    Reanimating creatures was a lot easier in comparison, so he summoned his new ability, and started, and sought out more skeletons. He found five more of them, and although most seemed useless, there was one, tiny skeleton that caught his eye.


    Experimenting on tiny skeletons was cheaper, so he started practicing on this one as well. It didn''t take as much mana to fix this one up, because this species apparently lacked muscle tone and fat significantly!


    Once he was done, he observed the creature, but he couldn¡¯t make up what kind of species it was. He just reconstructed it based on the tiny, thin skeleton that he worked on.


    Noticing his confusion, the system then chimed in. [You just reconstructed a Bony-Eared Assfish! They''re deep sea creatures, so I''m not sure what its remains were doing up here, at the four-hundred meter mark. It''s an interesting creature nonetheless, you can keep it as a pet!]


    ¡°A pet, huh? It''s a unique pet, right enough, very assy.¡± He remarked, as he mocked the creature''s large, bony head. ¡°Assfish, haha!¡±

 Chapter 197 - Timothy Te*sticles

    After these couple of successful experiments, Timothy went back to his den. His slaves tried to follow suit, but he ended up discarding most of them, particularly those bigger, useless skeletons. He didn¡¯t want them flapping around aimlessly, without even a pair of eyes to call their own, so he disposed of them mercifully. However, he couldn¡¯t find the strength to dismantle that little anglerfish, and the assfish that he had reanimated, it seemed cruel to kill them, so he allowed them to follow him, though he wasn¡¯t sure what he was going to do with such useless creatures!


    Anyway, regardless of the ethical dilemmas regarding his experiments, Tim was still quite happy that he was able to recreate life! The MQ upgrade that he bought, may be one of the most important purchases that he had ever made, regardless of how expensive the purchase was! It was worth the points!


    Tim''s understanding of magic had increased exponentially, and he was happy about that, though due to the same few experiments that he just performed, he started coming to the terms that he wasn''t a genius per se. He put his abilities to the test, and quickly understood his limits! He was good, but he wasn¡¯t the best, and he was certainly far away from being godly, regardless of what the people around him might think!


    For example, even though he was able to craft new abilities, he couldn¡¯t create mana patterns out of thin air, meaning, he had to pull an ability out of his own body, observe the patterns of mana channels within the ability, and then using a blank sphere, he summoned and modified mana channels that he already studied, in order to make something new! Sure this was a skill that most creatures did not possess, but it didn''t make him a genius, it made him more of a copycat, or an idea thief!


    He even did the math, he calculated. ¡°In human numbers, having an MQ of 300, is like having an IQ of 140¡­ it''s good, but I¡¯m no Nikola Tesla, am I? I''m more like Timothy Testicles, not as prestigious.¡±


    Luckily the concept of MQ was that it could increase endlessly, he just had to put some work into it. He''d be able to create mana channels of his own one day, but for now, the standard he had carved for himself was good enough, though less prestigious. The latter didn''t bother him too much, because besides, being too good at anything would make him more of a target, rather than a respected figure, so he wasn¡¯t in a rush!


    The best idea now was to check what other upgrades he could buy, and he did exactly that. He browsed the few other available upgrades, and looked at the ones who''d help him improve the things that he already had, rather than the ones that offered new abilities!


    Tim wasn''t craving to attain new abilities, especially since he could create his own, regardless of if his own creations had a good quality or not. Most of the purchases in this batch of upgrades focused on improving the skills he already had, so he prioritized those.


    The first one was a simple, physical upgrade, though generally it was a bit useless to him, and in this case it managed to strain his tail quite a bit, he felt immobile for a second after he initiated the upgrade. He was upgrading his barb & barb venom to level two, and sure, he could''ve used such an upgrade a long time ago when he just started out as a stingray, but the system had strict rules regarding the lining of upgrades, so he had to upgrade his barb now, even if he didn''t need it.


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    These strict rules that the system asserted were oftentimes disadvantageous, especially considering that most adventures that Timothy went through were far beyond the behavioral bracket of a normal stingray, but he just had to live with them for a little while longer. He could endure a few more weeks of having his purchase options strictly controlled.


    The system promised him that he could upgrade whichever abilities he chose, as soon as he went through this current batch of available upgrades! He was strong enough now, so the system was willing to give him such freedom, so in the near future, he could spend all of his points on barb venom if he wanted to, for whatever reason, though it was likely that he would never actually upgrade his barb ever again. He had more useful combative powers, such as fireballs!


    Anyway, the barb upgrade only cost him five-hundred system points, so he didn¡¯t mind it, and moved on to the next upgrade that he had an eye on. This one was also a simple upgrade, as it had to with his sight, scent, and overall senses! He wanted to get upgrades like this out of the way as fast as possible, because they were not related to mana, and mainly had to do with the improvement of his basic physique. They were collectively useful, though not as much individually.


    [For 2,500 system points, you can upgrade your sight, scent and overall senses to level five! It''s a bit expensive for a non-mana related upgrade, but level five is decent.] The system beeped.


    ¡°No kidding, it''s the only thing that I''ll have at level five¡­ apart from my mana.¡± He waffled, and asked to purchase the upgrade.


    Tim felt a strain in his head almost immediately after, and that strain continued to affect his spine afterwards, because this was an upgrade that touched the nervous system. The pain he felt wasn''t paralyzing per se, but at some point it was very anxiety-inducing, and this part was horrible. He felt like three anxious teenage girls put together!


    ¡°Ahh!¡± He grunted, though his voice was puny, because the upgrade affected his jaw as well.


    Timothy endured the upgrade for half an hour later, and the pain died down shortly after, so he was fine and dandy now. Overall, this was an upgrade worth buying, because its effects were immediate!


    Not only could he see another one-hundred meters ahead, even within the crippling darkness of the dark sea, through the gaps of the bony den, but he could also see his surroundings a bit more clearly! More clearly by a quarter, to be exact!


    ¡°Hell yeah, 4k vision!¡± He joked.


    [Upgrade complete! 30,000 system points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.


    Timothy had plenty more points to spend, and he was planning to buy everything, though by now it was obvious that he couldn¡¯t afford everything. Nevertheless, he quickly moved on to the next upgrade, as he needed every bit of advantage he could get, if he and the team were to survive the ruins of Aqumus!


    The system introduced, [For 6,000 system points, you can upgrade your Extingus Breath ability, for it to protect you against all necromantic, and or various ¡®dark¡¯ magical attacks! Your protective breath will make you more immune to unholy things, though of course a dark mage can overpower you if their mana quality is significantly greater than yours. You''re well aware of the math, but do not let that demotivate you, because every bit of extra protection could keep you alive a day longer! I highly recommend you buy this upgrade sooner, rather than later!]

 Chapter 198 - An IQ of 170

    The Extingus Breath ability was like a forcefield for Timothy, except it wasn¡¯t as strong as Ortana''s force fields so he had learned not to depend on it. This ability mainly featured a blue mist, a cloud of sorts, so it wasn¡¯t exactly physical.


    This ability was meant to dissolve attacks, more than it was to stop them dead on the spot. If he breathed out a bigger, and wider Extingus Breath, the cooperative blue cloud would be able to dismantle even bigger attacks, which was advantageous, but he hadn''t fully figured out what this ability was capable of, so he''d rather proceed with caution.


    ¡°Might as well buy it since it can protect me from evil shit, then! It doesn''t cost anything to cast it either, so I could really use it.¡± He said.


    The system acted accordingly, she initiated the upgrade sequence. Within a few seconds, Tim experienced lock jaw, and although this wasn''t too painful, it was rather immobilizing, because the lockjaw paralyzed a sizable portion of his upper body! He was happy that he bought it while he was within the comfort of his den, because he wouldn''t be able to manage it anywhere else.


    ¡°God, my neck is gonna fall off¡­¡± He grunted.


    It made sense that his jaw was locked throughout the process, considering that he spat the blue, protective mist through his mouth. Luckily, this upgrade wasn''t too lengthy, it was only expensive, and the latter seemed a bit more painful to him than the paralyzation itself, but those details didn''t matter right now. The upgrade was done, and odds were he wasn''t going to buy such an upgrade anytime soon!


    [Upgrade complete! 24,000 system points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.


    ¡°It doesn''t look like I''m going to be able to buy everything that you''re flashing, system.¡± He said, as he looked at one of the purchase options that cost more than the points that he had. ¡°Guess I already knew that, so I''m gonna buy the upgrades, rather than those new fangled powers you''re highlighting.¡±


    The next upgrade in line was a durability upgrade, except, it wasn¡¯t the kind of upgrade that he was used to. The prior durability upgrades gave him a great amount of improvement in terms of bodily durability, so in theory, he could even take a warhammer against the chest, and the hammer might not kill him. He was that tough! His skin was thick, however, it wasn¡¯t exactly resistant to magic, and this was where the next upgrade came in handy!


    [For 4,000 system points, you can upgrade your body to resist all forms of magical attacks by 120% more! Now please understand that this percentage doesn''t mean much, if your natural resistance to magic is already low. For example, if you could resist a 100¡ãC fireball prior to the upgrade, you''d only be able to resist a 220¡ãC fireball after the upgrade.] The system introduced.


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    ¡°This is one of the things I needed a long time ago, and I still need it now. Give me the upgrade, and give me the other upgrade behind this one as well, let''s get it over with¡­ I can''t buy those three new powers anyway, so I''m going to leave them for another day.¡± He requested.


    The system initiated the next upgrade sequence afterwards, and she did so tirelessly. Timothy had bought several of them today, and he felt like a used up tissue as a result, on the count of the physical toll that these upgrades had on his body, but he had to endure the pain just for a little while longer! He was happy to know that with a set of upgrades like these to his disposal, he had a far greater chance of surviving the dangers of The Old Sea! He was power amped!


    The upgrade regarding durability wasn''t too painful, on the count that his entire nervous system got numb. He couldn¡¯t feel his own fins, and he couldn''t move, but this was only natural considering that this upgrade was chiseling his skin, so as to toughen him up! After an hour, the upgrade was over.


    The system didn''t give him a break, however, as she immediately initiated the next upgrade that he requested. The next upgrade circled around intelligence, it was supposed to increase his IQ by fifty points!


    Since it was that strong of an upgrade, he was knocked out cold almost immediately! It was best if he was unconscious while this upgrade was implemented in his brain, because otherwise the pain he would have to endure, was up to par on the pain scale with suffering a hemorrhage, or a nail to the cranium! It wasn¡¯t nice.


    Anyway, Timothy eventually woke up the next morning, where the system then helped him catch up on the details. She insisted on displaying the information to him, as soon as he woke up!


    [Upgrade complete! 12,000 system points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.


    Furthermore, she added. [Aside from the durability upgrade, you also had an IQ upgrade, which circles around one''s basic, genetic intelligence. In this case, I helped you alter and improve your genetic intelligence by 50 whole points! You now bear a staggering IQ of 170 points, so you might as well consider yourself as smart as that Nikola Tesla fellow you mentioned! Your intelligence will also depend on how big you are physically, or what species you shapeshift into. The latter aspects can affect your IQ by tens of points!]


    ¡°Huh?¡± Tim grunted, he had a right sore head.


    Eventually he read through the paragraphs that the system displayed in front of him, and asked. ¡°How smart will I be if I shapeshift into a human, system?¡±


    Quick as a flash, she answered. [If you shapeshift into a human, your IQ will tower at 230 points! Congratulations, you''re now smarter than you''ve ever been!]


    ¡°Awesome,¡± He grinned.


    Timothy then went out to stretch his body a little bit, his fins, because he apparently slept through the night. It was the crack of dawn now, and his friends were still asleep, so he wanted to use his moment to breathe, so to speak, and perhaps formulate some decent plans for how they were supposed to meet the challenges of The Old Sea. With a shiny new brain to his disposal, this may be the best time to start and be strategic about their upcoming challenges!

 Chapter 199 - "45,000 system points"

    Timothy was excited that he got a significantly higher IQ now! He was up at a scale where he would be considered a supreme genius amongst the fish world, he was one of a kind, and he''d be amongst the small percentage of absolute geniuses no matter what species he shapeshifted into! Be it a spider, a lizard, a goblin, or a human, he''d always be at the top in terms of intelligence! It was accelerating!


    However, intelligence didn''t mean anything, if he didn''t know how to put it into use. In this case, he wanted to use it so he, and his friends could survive whatever challenge was to be thrown against them after a couple of weeks. He wanted to survive The Old Sea with his friends, and surely, survival came hand-to-hand with great rewards!


    ¡°I need an army,¡± He plotted, ¡°Since we can''t fight all these bastards in the sea without emptying our mana pools, I might as well make an army fight for us! System, can I give powers to my skeleton slaves?¡±


    Timothy asked that question, because he planned on building a bunch of indestructible skeletons, who were also great swimmers. If he could give them magical powers as well, such as the ability to shoot fireballs, then the sea might as well be his to conquer!


    The system did answer him, though her answer was demotivating. [You cannot give your slaves the ability to wield magic, not unless you buy one of the current, available necromantic abilities. Buy the Master''s Will necromantic ability, and you''ll have the chance to give magical powers to your slaves! Though I have to warn you, your plan will be very costly, mana-wise.]


    ¡°Looks like it''s very costly, system-points wise as well, lady. You''re asking for 45,000 points for a new ability? That''s mental!¡± He ranted.


    Although he was superiorly intelligent now, he was still subject to minor tantrums. With a price like that pitched to him, he might as well complain! He had seen this purchase before, and had noticed how expensive it was, but he ignored it back then for his own sanity''s sake, and he had tried to create alternatives to the Master¡¯s Will ability, but he wasn¡¯t as successful as he wanted to be.


    ¡°I guess I can''t create everything, huh? I''d probably need an MQ of 500 points to replicate this power¡­ what a bastard, eh?¡± He waffled, and started accepting the fact that he had to go out and hunt again.


    Firstly, he looked at his reanimated little fish pals, and commanded. ¡°Go back to the den, my friends. You''ve probably been dead for two-thousand years already, I don''t want you to get re-killed so quickly, not today! Go to the den, and suck on everyone''s toes if you want to, I order you to piss everyone off.¡±


    Tim had grown a bit attached to these little fish that he had reanimated, especially the anglerfish, it was a cute creature, so he didn''t want to see it die! This fish had a good deal of sentimental value to him, because it was his first, and perhaps most important experimental success! He reanimated the anglerfish even though he just had a skeleton to work with, after all, and that wasn''t an easy task! He treasured the little guy.


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    After the couple of fish left, he started scanning the sea. Though he didn''t want to fight a Sea Orc, or any swarm of creatures, he was still hoping to kill something big! He wanted to buy the Master''s Will ability, but he was thirty-three thousand system points short in terms of wealth, so he couldn¡¯t waste his time killing a bunch of tuna fish, no, he was hoping to kill something rewarding!


    ¡°I don''t see shit,¡± He complained, and started coming to the terms that he had to leave the den for a while. There weren''t any big fish around him.


    Tim swam a kilometer away from the den, he swam north, and with a wider point of view to aid him, he managed to locate four bundles of creatures that he could attack! He automatically discriminated two of them as options, because their groups seemed too big for him to handle, and he started focusing on the smaller groups instead.


    The closest group was four-hundred meters away, so he couldn¡¯t make out what species they were, but by all odds, they were just mere fish, and not some large dragons. He got closer to them by two-hundred more meters, and once he noticed that they were more massive versions of barracudas, he attacked the group immediately! He attempted to fry their brains.


    The barracudas were large, and they probably had magical powers to help them fight, but that didn¡¯t matter. They were mere fish at the end of the day, so it was unlikely that they had any abilities that could shield them from Tim''s attacks, so he stormed through their useless fish brains, with the help of the Electro Nerve Splitter ability!


    [-4,000 mana points,] The system beeped.


    Seconds later, she also added. [Four, Greater Barracudas killed! In exchange, 5,000 system points have been added to your sum.]


    Such a reward was worth the mana that he just spent. He was lucky that those Greater Barracudas weren''t so smart, because if they were, he would have had to crank his ability to the max just to fry their brains, and that would''ve been at least ten times more expensive! The latter wouldn''t be optimal. He got lucky, so he didn¡¯t even bother swimming over to the barracudas at all, and started locking in on the second group of fish.


    ¡°Be kind to me, mother nature, I just provided food for smaller creatures to feed on.¡± He spoke to himself, half-jokingly.


    The second group that he wanted to massacre, were also full of normal-ish fish. Sure they were large, but they didn''t seem too powerful, so he attacked the five of them with the Electro Nerve Splitter ability, but he put a bit more juice to this attack, because these fish looked a bit bigger!


    [-6,000 mana points,] The system beeped.


    Afterwards, she added. [Five Divine Arapaimas killed! In exchange, 8,000 system points have been added to your sum.]


    ¡°Divine, huh? Don''t tell me that I angered the gods again?¡± He panicked, slightly.


    [No, their name is mostly symbolic. They''re considered divine, because arapaimas are freshwater fish, they''re not supposed to be out here in the sea. The fact that this species of arapaimas strides the seas regardless of the prior fact, is what labels them as divine!] The system explained.


    Tim just sighed in relief, and didn''t comment any further. He continued to scout for any other creatures that he could kill, because he was getting closer and closer to having enough system points to make that grand purchase that he needed. He was just twenty-thousand system points shy of buying the Master''s Will necromantic ability!

 Chapter 200 - Blazing, Giant Squid

    Timothy strode the sea to find creatures that he could kill, he wanted to collect a bunch more system points, but it didn''t take long until his motives got him in trouble!


    The sea didn''t intimidate him as much as it did before, so he was cocky as he swam. Tim could see up to five-hundred meters even within the depths of the sea, so his confidence wasn''t exaggerated, however, he still was susceptible to sneak attacks!


    A giant squid emerged out of the sand, and Timothy happened to be floating right above it! The squid emerged out of the sand, and was just fifteen meters below him!


    It flung one of its eight, fat arms towards him, but he evaded it. He Dual Casted, and swam forward at 60 km/h!


    Afterwards, he looked back, and noticed that the squid was well over seventy meters long, and forty meters wide! It was truly giant!


    ¡°How the hell did it even hide in the fucking sand!?¡± He asked himself, as he stared at the giant squid.


    Once he noticed the sharp, fiery features on its tentacles, he got an answer to his own question. The ¡®Suckers¡¯ on its tentacle arms were its greatest tool, because they emitted tiny bits of fire, and this fire would surely help them push the sand around more easily! That''s part of how it hid.


    Furthermore, this squid could camouflage itself really well, it could match its color with the surrounding sand, so even if part of its body wasn''t covered by sand, it wouldn''t matter. They were really good at hiding, and they might as well be, because a giant squid like this one had to hide if it wanted to eat, because hiding, and waiting, exerted a lot less energy in comparison to chasing prey!


    ¡°What a big bastard,¡± Tim remarked, ¡°What do you say, system? Fight or flight? Can I kill it?!¡±


    [You might as well try, you have enough protection to resist its fireballs.] She beeped.


    ¡°Fireballs?¡± He asked, and almost farted out in frustration.


    Timothy had taken his eyes off the squid just for two seconds, and when he looked forward again, he saw what could be well over two-hundred, five-foot wide fireballs heading his way! He immediately flapped his wings in response, and his strength, paired with the couple of abilities that helped him move faster, helped him move forty meters upwards, in less than a second!


    This move helped him to evade most of the fireballs, but about twenty of them still headed his way! Seven of them hit him!


    ¡°Ah, ya bastard!¡± He shouted.


    Though the fireballs hit him, he was still just being dramatic, because he had felt the heat of the fire only for a single second, and he didn''t get burned. His durability upgrades dissipated the enemy¡¯s attacks quickly, so he was fine!


    [Health, -20 points] The system beeped.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Furthermore, she added. [You''re dealing with a Blazing Giant Squid, good luck!]


    ¡°System, for fuck''s sake! You could''ve told me that sooner!¡± He complained.


    Initially he didn¡¯t want to fight this thing, especially since he could get away from it within seconds, but now that he had his toes in the water, he was more and more enthralled to fight it! It could get him a lot of points, firstly, and that was important, but he was also overly-interested to witness a fire wielding squid!


    Timothy couldn''t find it within himself to swim away, especially after he saw about three-hundred more fireballs heading his way, just because the squid moved its arms around like a failed martial artist. It was terrifying to witness such an amount of fireballs, yes, but he ended up finding it hilarious!


    ¡°You can''t kill me, Kung Fu prick!¡± He shouted. He found joy, and laughter out of the fact that he was almost immune to its fireballs.


    Complete immunity against any form of attack was rare, but he was relatively safe right now. The sea beast''s fireballs were either too mild to kill him, or, his durability upgrades became especially useful after his ascension to the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana! The latter sounded more sensible, his durability upgrades may be backed up by his increased mana quality, though the system had mentioned before that durability upgrades were not related to mana.


    It was difficult to pinpoint his durability, but it didn''t matter right now. Either way, he was fine!


    Tim evaded most of the fireballs, and ended up absorbing thirty of them, which cost him forty more health points! Losing that amount of health points may have been alarming when he first reincarnated, but his health bar was up at five-thousand points right now, so he could withstand hundreds of tentacle nursed fireballs if he had to!


    After enduring that wave of fireballs, he then swam downwards, circled around the Giant Squid, and attacked it with various, super-amped, single-shot attacks!


    Timothy first relied on the Withering Shaker ability, as it may be the most effective one of them all. Squids had complex nervous systems, but regardless of how complex it was, the nervous system was still susceptible to attacks!


    [-3,000 mana points,] The system beeped.


    This ability wasn¡¯t too expensive to cast, even when he cranked it up to the maximum! It was handy, and in this case, it was effective, because the squid already started moving weirdly!


    However, the squid was still alive, so he continued attacking it, but this time, he attacked it with the Electro Nerve Splitter ability! He had sensed nine brains on it, eight of them being small, so he knew that he had to attack this squid several times if he was to kill it.


    Timothy sensed that eight of its brains were used to move its tentacles, so he started attacking those tiny brains, with less powerful shots, before he moved over to attack its biggest brain, the one within its head!


    Each small attack cost him two-thousand mana points, which was expensive, as he hadn''t amplified this ability yet, but nevertheless, it was necessary! He spent sixteen-thousand mana points like that, and when he attacked the squid''s massive brain, he cranked the Electro Nerve Splitter ability to the maximum, and lost another twelve-thousand mana points!


    It was expensive, and he may need a day to recover all of the mana that he lost today, but his attacks were thankfully effective. The squid was just big, it wasn¡¯t immortal, and it certainly didn¡¯t have a strong durability, be it physical, or magical.


    Timothy then shot three, overcharged fireballs to seal the deal, and although this cost him twenty-seven thousand mana points, he did manage to kill the squid with them! The giant fireballs were rather effective, he got himself some fried calamari at the end!


    [Blazing Giant Squid killed. In exchange, 33,000 system points have been added to your sum. You''ve accumulated 58,000 system points in total, so now you''re eligible to buy the Master''s Will ability!] The system beeped.

 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.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story 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 story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°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. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    ¡°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 illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°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!Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°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!The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    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! This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    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!You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    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 tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°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.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    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 tale usage: if you spot this story 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.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    ¡°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 novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding 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!This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    ¡°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!You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°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 tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    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.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    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 tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°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. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    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!

 Chapter 176 - The patches of mana roots!

    After about ten minutes of rolling around on the dry rock they were on, everyone in the team, apart from Gustav, managed to shapeshift! They had been in a sub-liquid-like form all this time, because that was the key part of the process, but this part didn''t bother them whatsoever, because it wasn¡¯t painful at all. Having sub-liquid bones and flesh for ten minutes was exceptionally painless, it was even therapeutic actually, because even their light joint pains disappeared during that period.


    Anyway, once they shifted, they left their backpacks behind, and jumped in the water quite fearlessly! They didn''t fear these ancient creatures of the deep, because if their understanding of this time period was correct, then the fish within the sea here didn''t have any magical powers at their disposal. The fish were just big, and hungry, which was the main way for them to be threatening, but that was about it.


    The latter wasn''t too big of a challenge for them. Each and every member of this group had faced greater challenges in the past, so not only did they leap in the water, but they ended up killing a couple of big fish soon after! The eyes of the common aqus goblin were very sharp, it allowed them to see perfectly within the increasing darkness of the sea water!


    Arvena killed three of them, she was the main shooter! Her Laser Shot ability was very useful in absolutely crippling her defenseless opponents, even from a great distance, because she would impale their skulls. That was one of the best ways to kill any huge fish or animal, she even killed a shark-like creature that looked a lot like a smaller version of a megalodon, and she did so easily! Arvena believed that if they bothered to sell the meat of these fish, they could make a fortune, because meat like this was surely rare, almost impossible to find!


    Anyway, with little challenges in their way, the team progressed exponentially. They swam deeper, and tried to hit the bottom of the sea, because that''s where the roots were supposed to be. Mana roots were either wedged between rocks, covered by sand, and sometimes they were even a couple of feet underground, but they were always at the bottom, so it was best to try and swim as deep as they could.


    The plan was sound, but they noticed that their mana decreased faster, the deeper they swam. What started as a few points every now and then, turned into five points per second! It was alarming.


    Arvena was a bit more lucky here, because her mana was too dense for a simple root to abuse. She only lost a couple of points every now and then, while everyone else¡¯s mana pool was dropping quicker than a dog''s tongue at the sight of a potential mate! It was rapid, so at the one-hundred meter mark they even considered turning back!


    [-4 mana points]


    [-6 mana points]


    [-3 mana points]


    [-5 mana points]


    The system kept notifying him about this leak every other second. She displayed them on the corner of his eye, and he was getting really nervous about this leak, because although the points he lost didn''t look like much, the overall loss accumulated over time! At this rate, he was losing about three-hundred mana points a minute, it was a huge amount, and it could deplete a great portion of his mana pool even if he stayed in the waters for half an hour!This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    At the two-hundred meter mark, their mana was going down even faster, so he had to pressure the other. ¡°Do you at least know how to stop the mana roots from using us as its fertilizers, woman? Don''t get me wrong, sleeping for almost two days has its benefits, but even the 37k mana points I have, may not be enough to feed the hungry bastards below us!¡±


    ¡°I have an idea in mind, but we need to find the roots first.¡± Arvena answered, knowing that his question was directed at her. ¡°Don''t worry about losing points, because once the roots are fed, they''ll give us our mana back tenfold! Let''s try to have a positive attitude here, because at this rate, there has to be tens of mana roots down there, we have to find them!¡±


    ¡°Tens, eh? It''s worth the trouble, then.¡± He said, and started swimming just a little bit faster, he forgot to be nervous. ¡°Maybe we''ll even bolt through the God''s Punishment Realm of mana today!¡±


    A result like that was what made him more confident. He didn¡¯t fear losing mana as much now, and he certainly didn''t fear the creatures of the deep, so he pushed forward with a stubbornness that would surpass that of a hormonal donkey''s!


    At the four-hundred meter mark, they made it to the bottom of the sea, this was as deep as they could go. After they explored the bottom a little bit, they discovered a few roots soon after, and this got them very excited, but then they discovered another patch, and started getting weirded out!


    The team found eighteen mana roots all together, which was a great find, however, they were aligned so perfectly with one another, to the point where the team was sure that someone had planted them! Someone was looking after these roots, and it couldn''t be the fish here, no, as their heads were as empty as  one¡¯s head could be!


    [-55 mana points]


    [-77 mana points]


    [-62 mana points]


    [-87 mana points]


    The system kept showing those little notifications at the corner of his eye, but he didn¡¯t bother with them. The confusion he felt while he observed the neatly rowed roots, was a much greater emotion than the fear he felt regarding losing mana! At this point, his pool could be emptied up until the last drop for all he cared, he just wanted to know if someone planted these roots!


    ¡°This can''t be normal, right? I¡¯m thinking that a human swam down here and planted them. Either a human or a goblin, because they shouldn''t be all together in one place.¡± Tim theorized, and he was right to think so, as this encounter encouraged it.


    Arvena was confused as well, but thankfully she was more optimistic about the matter, so she started guiding the team. ¡°It''s not normal, but it doesn''t matter. Let''s try and overload the roots, and we''ll be able to harvest them soon. Everyone, pour your mana into it, the roots are already growing, I can see them moving around!¡±


    Afterwards, she went ahead and laid on top of a bunch of roots, and didn''t fear them, because they were premature roots, so they couldn¡¯t hurt her even after they were done feeding. The brown roots around her grew as thick as her arms, in mere seconds, because she was feeding them hundreds of her points without batting an eye! The roots surely enjoyed munching on the decent mana quality that she had to offer!


    Eventually, the roots got too big, so she was covered by them, she was stuck between them. Though this was a bit alarming, she didn''t care about being trapped, because she was going to harvest them sooner or later!


    The rest of the team did the same thing, they laid down on a bunch of roots, and hoped for the best. Whatever Arvena''s plan was, they were hoping that it would work!


    ¡°A root is trying to climb, and sneak in my ass.¡± Timothy mumbled, and moved his anus out of harm''s way.

 Chapter 177 - Bubonic Mana

    The mana roots kept growing, the more they fed on the mana pool that the team provided. Their mana pools were eventually emptied, which was alarming, but they still kept at it because they weren''t in any direct danger right now.


    The team kept pouring every bit of mana that they generated themselves, and at this point the roots had grown so big that even Gustav and the dragons who were above the water, were getting every drop of their mana sucked in by the roots! The dragons didn''t have many points to spare to begin with, but they lost theirs as well.


    Each root was as thick as a tree now, as most of them were four feet wide, while their ending tips were six inches wide! They were gigantic, and one could say that it was difficult to find roots like this under natural circumstances, no. The only other root that Tim and Ortana had seen, for example, was tiny in comparison. Eighteen of these thick boys were bound to make their mana quality godly!


    ¡°Just a few more minutes¡­ the roots should be overloaded soon¡­¡± Arvena mumbled.


    At this point she was getting uncomfortable, because the roots would steal her mana points the moment she generated them. There was no escaping this deep pit of mana munching that they walked in to, but she expected this, and knew for sure that this wouldn''t kill her, or her friends. She was calm.


    Arvena understood mana roots well, because she had explored the ocean long enough to have a few encounters with them. Furthermore, she read a bunch of books which only raised her understanding!


    Mana roots had three phases; Sprouting, devouring, and hardening!


    The roots were past the sprouting part here, they were in the devouring phase instead, and it was at this phase where the roots were the least dangerous to tamper with. They were considered too soft, so they couldn¡¯t actually harm a mage.


    The roots just kept devouring every point of mana that they sensed, and once they''ve had enough, the hardening phase would start. This was what amplified the roots, over a period of decades, or even millenia.


    The more they laid dormant, the tougher the roots would become, and therefore more useful. A tough root was strong enough to kill an unsuspecting mage, because that a hardened root could expel could even help one ascend by a whole realm, rather than a couple of levels. Unless a mage had a virtually endless pool to fill, it was less than advisable to approach those old, hardened roots, because they expelled mana even if one didn''t poke them!


    In this case however, since Arvena and the team caught the roots just moments before they were about to harden, they could safely harvest its properties, at the very moment that the roots started hardening! This in turn, would give them back the mana they lost, more than tenfold, because the root was still considered premature. In other words, these patches of roots were harmless.


    It was a sound plan, but she hadn''t bothered to explain her plan to anyone, so the rest of the team were a bit worried. Gustav from above the sea water, had half a mind to jump in the water and try to save his friends as he was beyond worried, however, with his current declining mana pool, he would become fish food very shortly, because he wouldn''t be able to protect himself all that much. Not to mention that he couldn''t swim, it was just a bad plan for him to jump in the water, regardless of the context. Everyone was alarmed, after all, but they could only hold on.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Timothy had plenty of thoughts running through his head, as usual, so he kept talking to himself. ¡°These roots are starting to look like a cage, damn, I guess this is as close as I¡¯m going to get to being locked in prison.¡±


    Furthermore, he thought. ¡°Let¡¯s hope that Arvena knows what she''s doing, because I sure as hell don''t know what''s going on. Screw the roots, I still don''t understand why we''re in the fucking dinosaur period here! The gods may be playing tricks on us again, I wouldn''t be surprised if they were!¡±


    Paranoia was a trait of those who were cautious, and such caution might keep him alive for a long time, especially since he was cautious only when he was paranoid. Otherwise he was like a live tornado, and didn''t value his life more than that of a cricket''s, and this was a bit paradoxical, but it served a point. He was really hoping that the portal he had managed to open, wasn''t just another joke from the gods, or worse, a joke from some kind of demon! That would be worse.


    Anyway, the team could only withstand the uncomfortable situation they were in right now. They did so for about ten more minutes, until finally, the roots stopped gnawing on the team¡¯s pools of mana!


    The relief they felt once they saw their mana points slowly going up, was otherworldly! Furthermore, they were happy that Arvena was by their side here, because she had likely done most of the work here, with her mana quality being a few levels better in comparison. She fed the roots. She had long escaped the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, so it was her who fattened the roots to be up to five feet wide!


    ¡°Heh, if we hadn''t run into these roots, it would''ve taken them hundreds of years to start hardening. Those bastarding fish above us don''t have a single dot of mana to their name, they don¡¯t have anything to give.¡± She muttered, after their little battle with the roots was over.


    Arvena was perplexed by how mana roots could sprout here, where mana was practically non-existent, it was beyond confusing. The books she read didn''t mention anything so paradoxal, so she didn''t know what to think.


    At this point, however, she didn''t care as much, and just guided the team towards the next step. She yelled out for their attention, just in case the deep-sea water pressure was muffling her words.


    ¡°Shoot the root arms!¡± She yelled, ¡°Shoot them one at a time, just to be safe. Use fireballs if you can, but a knife will do as well, you can just cut a hole in the roots with a knife! We''ll start ascending soon!¡±


    The team did as they were told. They could guess what was about to happen next, and by all means, it should not be dangerous.


    Tim summoned a tiny, blade-like bit of fire on his palm, and managed to cut one of the thick roots with it. He cut it four inches deep, which apparently was enough to create a fountain of sorts as a result. He was drinking straight from this fountain of mana, he was close to it, so his pool suddenly accepted a huge amount of mana in a single second! Ortana was in the same patch of roots as him, so when she cut up a root branch as well, the mana he started receiving was groundbreaking!


    [+412 mana points]


    [+955 mana points]


    [+789 mana points]


    [+2,000 mana points]


    Timothy was taking in vast amounts of mana every second, and he couldn¡¯t be happier about it! Considering that he lost every drop of mana to the roots just a moment ago, he felt very happy to be rewarded now!


    Less than a minute later, Timothy''s mana pool was filled to the brim, which meant that he had to try and upgrade his mana quality, regardless of how painful it may be to do so! Before he could cast the spoken-word spell, however, something amazing happened!


    The system suddenly announced, [Congratulations! Your mana quality ascended to level eight! You now bear Bubonic Mana!]

 Chapter 178 - Fintelus Apprentices realm of mana!

    Timothy was absolutely baffled by the fact that he leveled up his mana quality, in mere seconds, without suffering the immense pain that typically came with these upgrades! He didn¡¯t know what to think about it, he did have a flash-upgrade upgrade before, at the library of Rempegana and it too was amazing, but getting flash upgrades at these higher levels was priceless! He was beyond happy.


    The system noticed his accelerating heartbeat, so after a moment, she described. [Flash upgrades like this are inevitable, on the occasion where your mana pool receives such great quantities. Your mana pool adjusts itself, so as to not to disrupt this ongoing flow of mana that you''re receiving, it''s very useful. This is mother nature''s part of making up for the ¡®punishment¡¯ that the average ascending mage goes through, so relax, and let the mana roots do their thing. Please do not tighten your anus any more than you already have, because that can disrupt the flow.]


    ¡°Right,¡± He muttered, and did as he was told.


    Sure enough, he kept receiving mana, tons of it, so another flash upgrade was inevitable! Tim''s new mana pool might take a bit more time to fill, because it could fit a lot more points now, but he wasn¡¯t worried about that. The points kept on coming!


    [+2,302 mana points]


    [+1,754 mana points]


    [+523 mana points]


    [+3,005 mana points]


    The root he stabbed had plenty to give, however, he noticed that sometimes he got less points than average, and that was likely because Arvena''s pool was overlapping in his territory, and took those extra points. She had a bigger hole in her stomach to fill, and she was going to level up sooner or later as well, so surely, she needed a lot of points.


    Paired with the fact that Ortana was laying on the same root patch as him, overlaps were bound to happen often! He didn¡¯t have a say.


    Tim didn¡¯t mind this, as there were plenty of points to go around. He wasn''t greedy with them. The root arm in front of him had almost halved in size, and that was a bit discouraging, but each root had at least five arms on them, so once one of them depleted, he could just poke the other. Today, the team might as well become godly, he fully expected to be that powerful!


    Anyway, the system helped Tim track the progress. She had put a little point counter at the corner of his other eye, and this helped him figure out how close the following flash upgrade was. He got a little bit more excited every time he saw the point counter go up, and rightfully so, because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity! It was pure, dumb luck!


    [Bubonic mana pool = 45,305/100,000]


    It may take a few more seconds until his mana pool filled up, however, as he was looking at the pool''s name, he couldn¡¯t help but contemplate. In this context, it seemed like a really weird thing to use as a name.


    ¡°Bubonic, huh?¡± Tim remarked, ¡°I had to deal with bubonic bastards twice before, and both of them could''ve killed me. I know that it wasn''t you that named this level, system, but it''s still a pretty weird name. I don¡¯t like it.¡±Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    [There is a sort of symbolism behind this name. This level is called bubonic, because it''s dominant, much like the bubonic plague. At this level, you can even challenge a person who''s at the early stages of the following, Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana, and you could end up winning, regardless of the differences between your realms! With this level, you can dominate!] The system explained, as thoroughly as she could.


    ¡°That''s a shame, then. I could''ve used this level ever since I fucking stepped foot in Valporovus. It would have spared me the headache.¡± He sighed.


    Anyway, while the two of them had this little conversation, Tim''s mana pool was already filled up, it was filled to the very brim, and it was ready to pop!


    A blink later, a huge, blue glow erupted around Timothy! It covered his body entirely, and the glow was strong enough to blind a person, if one accidentally looked at its direction!


    Within the deep darkness of the sea floor, this glow lit up his surroundings thoroughly! It even reached up to the other patch of roots, where Arvena, and Skendus were harvesting at. It was official, he experienced another flash upgrade, and this was the greatest upgrade of all, because he finally crossed the God''s Punishment Realm of mana!


    Moments later, Ortana released the same light as him! Skendus too! The three of them were at the same level, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise how they progressed all at the same time!


    Once the light died down, they noticed a weird mark on the front of their wrists, right where their vital veins were. This mark looked a lot like a fresh tattoo, and it was the drawing of a cracked, human skull, and at first this made them panic, because they thought that they were marked for death again or something like that, but that was not the case.


    To catch everyone''s attention, Arvena yelled out. ¡°Don¡¯t mind the skull, it''s not a mark of death, but rather, it''s a stamp. This stamp confirms that you''ve crossed the God''s Punishment Realm of mana! Congratulations!¡± She yelled out, and she was truly happy for them, she even felt entitled to tell them what their new realm was called.


    ¡°You¡¯re in the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana now!¡± She exclaimed.


    The team was very happy to be part of this realm, they were especially happy that they reached this realm in mere minutes, without feeling even a little bit of pain! This was the greatest, dumb luck they ever experienced!


    Their day couldn''t get any better than this, however, entering an entirely new realm of mana also had its disadvantages! As a start, the pool demanded a lot more mana in order for it to be filled, more mana then the three of them ever imagined, but that wasn¡¯t the main disadvantage.


    The main disadvantage was that after these roots dried out, the three of them would only be able to generate five-hundred mana points per hour, in a natural manner! This was a significant drop of natural regeneration! Their powers were a bit weaker as well, and they''ll continue to be weaker, until these folks reach level three in mana quality, in this new realm!


    This was the main difference between someone with level-eight mana from the God''s Punishment Realm, and someone with level-one mana from Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm. The first, would almost always beat the second in a battle, because Bubonic Mana (level eight) was far more domineering in comparison, it was superior within that specific power bracket!


    [Congratulations on entering the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana!] The system beeped, and then she further specified. [Your mana quality is at level one now, on the count that entering a new realm is also considered to be a bit of a reset, or a readjustment. Level one is otherwise known as Silver Mana, and its associated mana pool demands great amounts of content if it''s to be filled. Throughout this level, you''ll only be able to regenerate five-hundred points of mana by yourself. Good luck!]


    [22,015/250,000] The point counter showed, and although this pool was massive, it was obvious that he didn''t start from zero here. The latter helped him feel a bit better.


    Nevertheless, Tim was getting really nervous, because if the first level demanded this much mana, he was scared to imagine how much the other levels would ask for! These eighteen, whole roots of mana may not be able to feed them team for long!

 Chapter 179 - "A gift for Gustav"

    Arvena finally leveled up! A magnificent blue glow erupted around her as well, and now, she was at level three in the Fintelus Apprentices Realm of mana!


    It was a spectacular achievement for most, but in this case, this level-up managed to only lessened her overall depression by a nudge. This was a good level to be in, but once she remembered that she had been beyond the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana just a few weeks ago, it became difficult for her to be happy about this level-up.


    A few weeks ago, within the Forbidden Caves close to the city of Manape, Arvena had sacrificed an entire realm of her mana quality, just to kill an opponent that was stronger than her! She had summoned a Celestial Spear just to kill that dragon Saranax, and although she had succeeded, the loss of such grand mana quality was still gnawing on her conscience. She wasn''t happy, and even though they found plenty of mana roots here, it was very unlikely that anyone would cross the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana today! In fact, it was impossible, and her expanded mana pool hinted so!


    Anyway, after Timothy and the rest of the group saw the glow, they were hoping that Arvena''s mana pool wouldn''t start overlapping even more violently. The arms of mana roots that everyone had poked, were close to withering, so it was only a matter of time until they had to poke at the other root arms, in order to encourage even more flash upgrades!


    Timothy had already poked another one, and Ortana was close by, yielding the benefits as well. In a short time, the first few root arms that they had poked, withered completely, so everyone had to slice through yet another root arm, in order to sustain their progress!


    [+3,500 mana points]


    [+2,744 mana points]


    [+1,490 mana points]


    [+4,034 mana points]


    The system kept on counting the mana points, she did so automatically. Each member was harvesting a great amount of mana! Unsurprisingly, the weaker people of the bunch leveled up again just a minute later!


    Then, the system beeped. [Congratulations, Timothy! Your mana quality is now at level two, and this level is otherwise known as The Fool''s Gambit. Its name is also very descriptive, because with this level, you can technically challenge far greater enemies, but you''ll also have a great chance of dying in battle against said, greater enemy. You¡¯d have to gamble with your life, thus making you a fool.]


    ¡°Very descriptive,¡± He remarked, and then he said. ¡°Funny that you call it The Fool''s Gambit, because I''m about to do something very foolish, hehe!¡±


    A root in front of him had withered entirely, and the couple other ones he sliced were also thinning, so now, he was free to move. Timothy then stood up, and called out for Arvena''s attention.


    ¡°Hey, can I de-root a couple of these bastards?!¡± He yelled out, and Arvena confirmed that it was very easy to de-root them.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    In response, Timothy grabbed two whole rools, used up all of his strength to pull them out of the sand, and then he started swimming upwards! He had a charitable plan in mind.


    ¡°Gustav could use a couple of roots, we can''t have that poor bastard be stuck in the same level!¡± He said, and headed towards the surface with the giant roots on his hands.


    It took him little time to swim towards the surface, and it was great that neither of those huge fish didn''t bother him along the way. He tossed the two whole mana roots on the dry stone afterwards, where Gustav and the dragons were waiting at, and smirked proudly!


    ¡°Enjoy!¡± He said, ¡°Poke one root arm at a time, and you''ll be able to go through a few flash upgrades. We found a bunch of roots down there, and we''re harvesting them, but I didn''t want to leave you out.¡±


    ¡°Thank you¡­¡± Gustav nodded, his heart felt warm. ¡°I was wondering why my mana was shooting up, you little bastards are messing with mana roots, haha!¡±


    Gustav appreciated this grand gesture, he understood how greedy the common mage could be, and yet Timothy broke all those stigmas. He swam all the way from the bottom of the sea, with two whole roots on his hands, avoiding monstrous fish along the way, and he did all of that willingly, no one asked him too! Such loyalty and good will was far more precious to him, than the mana roots were. Gustav didn''t know what else to say, he was stunned.


    Regardless of that, Timothy didn¡¯t stick around to have lengthy conversations, he didn¡¯t wait to be thanked again. He dove in the water, and activated a couple of his abilities so he could swim faster, as he wanted to get to the bottom of the sea again!


    The speed he gained along the way, managed to split the water even within the deeper portions of the sea, and this wasn''t a surprise, once considering the recent flash-upgrades that he experienced. Tim dove down at 50 km/h, and since he had assumed the form of an Aqus Goblin, this speed wasn''t too much of a surprise, as this was a species of good swimmers!


    [+220 mana points]


    [+744 mana points]


    [+1,500 mana points]


    [+3,506 mana points]


    The system kept showing these little notifications at the corner of his eye, and he felt accelerated to see them, because he had a pretty huge hole in his stomach that he had to fill. His mana pool could fit three-hundred-and-fifty thousand mana points now, and this grand hole wasn''t easy to satisfy!


    Along the way, before he hit the bottom, Timothy noticed something weird. He was certain that he saw another creature down here, walking on its two feet, and it wasn¡¯t one of his friends, because this creature was far away from the roots. His friends were deep within the patch of mana roots, and they were harvesting its properties, it couldn¡¯t have been them who stood up.


    Timothy scanned the area, but he didn¡¯t see another living soul in the vicinity, so now he was even more confused. Either his vision was distorted from all the speed that he mustered, or there was something spooky going on. Being his paranoid self, he didn''t bother sitting near the roots now, but stood guard near them instead.


    This area had to be patrolled, but since his mana pool became more and more difficult to fill, he then started poking the other mana roots as well. He poked another arm of every single root, and enjoyed half of the great quantities afterwards, without fearing repercussions! He knew that this great amount of mana couldn''t kill him now, because regardless of how each root arm was nearly nine feet long, they were to deplete quickly since they were facing the virtually bottomless pools of the four goblins in the vicinity!


    Half a minute later, Tim experienced another flash upgrade! He was now at level three!

 Chapter 180 - +66,040 mana points!

    [Congratulations, your mana quality is now at level three! This level is otherwise known as Pit Mana, and it too has a very descriptive name, because now you have a far bigger mana pool to fill, hence it being a pit.] The system beeped, she was very efficient at explaining the levels that he was on.


    ¡°Let me guess, I need 400,000 mana points to fill this one?¡± He asked, and he was getting nervous.


    Instantly, the system answered. [520,000 mana points, actually. This pool is big, it¡¯s way beyond what the common mage is used to. Hence, it''s labeled as a pit.]


    ¡°Well, fuck me! That''s a lot.¡± He sighed, ¡°I guess we won''t be getting out of this mana realm anytime soon.¡±


    [The pit is massive yes, but still, either of you can accumulate that mana in a month, you can naturally regenerate it, assuming that you won''t go through any expensive battles throughout the month.] The system beeped.


    Timothy did not want to wait for a month or more for another level-up, and he certainly didn''t want to endure the pain that came with it. At this point, it seemed to him that flash-upgrades were the only way for one to progress! It was very effective, though uncommon because of how rare mana roots were. He even started feeling depressed.


    ¡°I''m gonna need to figure out how to make a portal that''ll get us to the bug world, it''s our best shot to level up quicker. We''ll hole up in the castle, and accumulate.¡± He said.


    Originally Timothy would be beyond content if he just escaped the God''s Punishment Realm of mana, that was a fact, but now he started to become very hungry for power. The roots kept feeding him this grand, euphoric feeling that he couldn''t get enough of, as getting thousands of points certainly encouraged that euphoria! He felt like the king of the world, and a king needed to eat luxuriously, which was why he didn''t want to let go of this feeling.


    Anyway, a moment later, Arvena leveled up once more! She was now at level four in the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm, so she was just a level ahead of the people around her, and she managed to progress quicker this time, because her pool was sucking in double the points in comparison to a few minutes ago!


    In a way, it was good that she was harvesting more mana now, considering how deep her recent mana pools were, the pools felt bottomless. Her progress had been slower in comparison due to that latter reason, but now that her mana intake doubled, she had the greatest chance of leveling up once more!


    ¡°Lucky bastard,¡± Tim grunted, as the light that his friend emitted once she leveled up, made him a bit jealous, though he didn''t want to nurse such feelings for long, so he then complimented. ¡°Jesus, she''s above us even when she''s not being sneaky and greedy! Some mages are just meant to be stronger, and she''s one of them! Good for her.¡±


    Timothy tried to be enthusiastic, and amongst that he was feeling a lot of other things, things that may not matter much. He felt overwhelmed, so his recent train of thoughts had distracted him quite a bit, which in this case was problematic. He was supposed to be patrolling the area in case of any danger, and yet for a minute he forgot all about that, he was aloof!


    When that blue light erupted around Arvena, it didn''t only catch his attention, but he also got a better glance of what was in front of him. This, in turn, helped him spot a strange woman that was standing very close to the patch of roots where Arvena and Skendus were laid at! He had been too distracted to notice her.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Timothy almost defecated his breeches when he saw this woman, though simultaneously, he got into attack-mode, and was a blink away from blowing this woman''s head off with a thunderbolt! He was about to shoot this unknown goblin right away, but something about this approach didn''t feel right.


    ¡°She looks as old as those fucking dinosaurs above us, so¡­ Why isn''t she scared of us? We haven''t seen any super powerful grannies recently, most people suffer from mana quality brackets, so powerful old people shouldn''t be too common.¡± He muttered.


    These were great questions to ask, they were perhaps life saving too, because he then figured. ¡°She¡¯s either retarded, or as powerful as a retard. Maybe I should talk to her instead of fighting her?¡±


    Timothy didn''t want to attack out of impulse alone, he wanted to be calculative for once. It was best to approach this woman peacefully, and he did exactly that.


    Along the way, he split open a few more mana root arms, to harvest even more mana per second. This was important for two different reasons, and he thought about them as thoroughly as he could.


    Firstly, all of the root arms that they had sliced before, were withering. Each of them disappeared as soon as they were depleted, and considering that the roots he had already been feeding on were only a foot wide right now, he knew that he would need more active roots if he was to fill his mana pool.


    In this case, he sliced fifteen roots open, and although this was a bit of an overkill, he could feel that it wasn''t dangerous to him or his friends. They''d swallow these roots up in no time, he was sure of it!


    The second reason behind his decision, was that he wanted to meet this old lady while his mana quality was at level four. He figured that if a battle broke out, he''d at least be a bit more capable of inflicting unholy damage!


    [+19,500 mana points]


    [+34,000 mana points]


    [+36,100 mana points]


    [+66,040 mana points]


    [+52,900 mana points]


    Timothy''s intake of mana was through the roof, he absorbed more after every step he took, and unsurprisingly, by the time he walked over to this lady, he experienced another flash upgrade. In terms of mana quality, he was now at level four in the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana, surely, the most powerful he had ever been! Better yet, the points kept coming, and he couldn¡¯t be happier about it.


    ¡°We mean no harm, but can you tell me who you are? Who are you, goblin lady?¡± He finally managed to ask her, ¡°What are you doing down here? Purpureus Mundi Aqus is pretty desolate, so I doubt that you''re a part of a tribe or something.¡±


    ¡°I am Gentosamee the Planter, Genta for short. What are you doing in my field, degranus goblin?¡± She was very direct.


    Timothy didn¡¯t know what to say first, he had so many questions. Instinctively, he now wanted to befriend this old woman, but he wanted to do so without getting on her nerves.


    Firstly, to appeal to her, he decided to feed on her curiosity, so he answered. ¡°We came here looking for a castle of sorts, but I must''ve opened the wrong portal, because ain''t no way that there''s a castle here. Those fish that are swimming above us look as old as the sea, so I''m figuring that this is a different time period of Purpureus Mundi, hence, I have to add Aqus in its name before I open a portal.¡±


    ¡°It was you who opened the portal, eh? I''m glad to see your stupid face, then, kiddo. No one has teleported here for over fifty years, I''ve been stuck here all this time¡­¡± She followed along.


    With her answer, he managed to determine that Genta was friendly. He was very excited about that, and considering that she was eager to get out of here, he wanted to use the portal above their heads as a bargaining chip. He wanted to get some information out of her.


    ¡°I can''t imagine what brought you here, but you can walk through the portal whenever you please. It''s still active.¡± He said, and then he asked. ¡°You mentioned that these were your fields, so please tell me, ma¡¯am, was it you who planted these mana roots?¡±


    ¡°No, the fish planted them.¡± She remarked, sarcastically.

 Chapter 181 - Pool of 1.4 million mana points!

    ¡°Haha-¡± Tim released a fake laugh, ¡°The fish planted them, huh? That makes sense.¡±


    Afterwards, he tried to force a question in, as he wanted some information. ¡°So it is you who planted them, then¡­ judging from the marks on your wrists, you crossed a few realms already, so you must''ve harvested a bunch of roots in your lifetime yourself?¡±


    ¡°I have, yes.¡± Genta answered, and in the meantime she was looking upwards, and then she asked. ¡°What year is it in Valporovus now? I''ve been told that time moves differently back home when we''re in needle universes.¡±


    ¡°Years¡­?¡± Timothy stretched his question, and then remarked. ¡°I''m not sure they count the years back home, no city that I know of, at least. They just count moons.¡±


    ¡°Oh, dear¡­ the Religious Era then?¡± She grunted, she was very distressed. ¡°I''m in trouble, I''ve been here for too long. According to my calculations, when I cross that portal, I''ll teleport somewhere around five-thousand years back in time, or¡­ at your contemporary time. This is Purpureus Mundi¡¯s curse, I''ll never be able to see my people again. Darned Farming Initiative, they left me here for dead! Those dirty fiends!¡±


    Genta rambled on about a lot of things here, so it was difficult to catch up with her train of thoughts. Timothy was beyond confused, and at some point he started getting scared too!


    He asked, ¡°Are you saying that me, and my friends are about to time travel five-thousand years into the past?!¡±


    ¡°No,¡± She sighed, and got irritated. ¡°Forty days at most, or none, if you know how to reverse the Time Dilation effect.¡±


    For a second, Timothy was confused, but as soon as the other mentioned Time Dilation, something in his head clicked! In an instinctive manner, he suddenly figured out how to reverse the effects of Time Dilation. He felt capable of this inwardly, though he didn''t understand the name itself.


    ¡°It looks like I do know how to reverse it. My understanding of portals has improved a bit ever since I got here, so I''m guessing all the levels I gained today did the trick. Your roots really helped us today.¡± He said.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to harvest the rest of them,¡± She sighed, and then she was preparing to swim upwards. ¡°You¡¯re going to understand the portals even better, as soon as you enter the next realm of mana. My colleagues experienced the same, I used to know a couple of girls who could create portals.¡±


    Genta then started swimming upwards, and she was bound to be a good swimmer because she too had assumed the form of an aqus goblin. Tim figured that she was of another race, though, she had to be.


    Before she left, she warned. ¡°Do not try to follow me, because we don''t need to run into each other again, especially in Valporovus. Abide my request, and in return, I won''t hurt any of your friends!¡±


    Timothy wanted to follow after her, because a woman from the future, who also knew how to create mana roots, was absolutely priceless! He wanted to learn her tricks, but he was forced to listen to her direct demand here, because he wasn''t nearly strong enough to fight her! Judging from the tattoo-like marks on her left arm, she was at the fifth realm of mana quality, so she was a goblin who could be considered godly, her powers were monstrous! He couldn¡¯t challenge her decisions, he couldn¡¯t afford it.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Ah, you bastard¡­¡± He grunted, and watched her beam away.


    The rest of the team had heard the distortion in the water as she beamed off, but they were none the wiser. They were too focused on harvesting the mana around them, so they couldn¡¯t have cared less even if a giant fish had come down here to try and eat them. Arvena had even heard Timothy talking to someone, but she simply did not care to intervene as long as a battle did not break out, so Tim was the sole witness of this mysterious old lady!


    Timothy''s impulsive thoughts almost made him follow the lady, his head was steaming as he stood still and watched, but eventually he remembered that he was around a bunch of roots. Staying here for a while was the most beneficial, so he dared not swim away!


    A minute later, he had another flash upgrade, so now he was at level five in terms of mana quality! This was a great gain, however, considering that more than half of the mana roots were depleted by now, he figured that he¡¯d reach level six soon, and stop progressing there.


    Level four, the level that he crossed, was called the Branching Dragon level, and the pool associated with this level had been absolutely huge! Now at level five, he had an even bigger pool to fill, so he was certain that their luck would run out soon. The point counter that the system flashed in one of his eyes, helped convince him even further.


    [Grand Mana Pool = 110,045/1,000,000]


    ¡°God damn, this is getting stupid. I can''t believe my mana pool was like fifty thousand points, total, before we fucking leaped into this universe. It''s sad that the roots are depleting, but the amount of levels we gained today is stupidly lucky! I¡¯m up by a whole fucking realm!¡± He waffled.


    Tim needed a bunch more points to cross into the next level, so he started poking the remaining roots. He poked all of them, and made it to level six after two minutes! The blue flash that surrounded him, made it official, and so, all of the mana roots were depleted, and gone for good!


    [Congratulations, your mana quality is now at level six! This level is otherwise known as The Goddess¡¯ Kiss level, and it is said to be a gift from Falakame, which is the same goddess that had insisted on punishing you until a short while ago.] The system beeped.


    Furthermore, she explained. [Your current mana pool can fit a total of 1,400,000 mana points, and you can generate 1,500 mana points per hour.]


    ¡°Hmm¡­ looks like we''re gonna need to avoid fights for a while, then.¡± He said.


    Tim was excited that he reached this level, he went almost an entire realm up in mana quality, and this was beyond fascinating! However, he also found the math behind the new mana pool to be inconsistent, or worrying at the very least.


    It took some basic math to figure out that a single fireball, might cost him five-thousand mana points to throw, on the count that his fire would burn a lot hotter than before. Considering that he could only generate fifteen-hundred points of mana in an hour, spending five-thousand points on a fireball was less than ideal. He wanted to avoid fights, at least up until his pool was filled by a quarter million points, and that itself should take up to a week to accumulate under their new, standard circumstances! He felt stressed, though indefinitely happy that he got to do this kind of math now.


    Skendus and Ortana were at the same level as him, while Arvena was two levels ahead. She was at level eight, so she was closer than anyone else when it came to leaving the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana, once more, and for good! Her depression lessened.

 Chapter 182 - Portal tilt

    The eighteen mana roots were completely depleted, so there was no point in hanging around in this needle universe anymore. They could spend a bit more time here to mess with the giant fish, sure, but that was about all of the activities that they could do, there wasn¡¯t anything else. Purpureus Mundi Aqus was otherwise really desolate, so desolate, that the team didn¡¯t even understand how all the fish hadn''t starved away already!


    This sea was barely a kilometer wide, so it shouldn''t be able to support such huge fish, and yet that wasn''t the case, there were plenty of them in the vicinity. This was very puzzling, sure enough, but they had to leave nonetheless, because they got more out of this place than they originally wanted. They were content, so they swam upwards as if they were satisfied girlfriends, even, their stride was rather jolly!


    At the surface, they met Gustav, and Tim was happy that the old lady didn¡¯t attack his friend here. Although Gustav consumed less mana roots in comparison to his team, he was still at a decent level, because he already had a better mana quality than Arvena earlier on, before they walked through the portal. His mana quality had been at level two, and now it was at level five, which technically made him the weakest goblin of the group now, but a man with a level five man quality was anything but weak, he was very capable. The team has progressed exceptionally well today!


    ¡°Okay, so are we ready to leave?¡± Tim asked, and he had a little smirk on his face, because he felt responsible for all the progress his friends made. Inwardly, he wanted to be praised.


    However, no one praised him, and it didn¡¯t look like they were going to. Gustav even switched the topic entirely, as he started talking about the dragons.


    ¡°Georgie should be at level six right now, he managed to absorb a few mana points. Unfortunately he remains in the God''s Punishment Realm so he¡¯s an entire realm below us, but still, level six isn''t that bad for a dragon.¡± He pointed out.


    Tim was initially irritated that he wasn''t getting praised, but then he excitedly asked. ¡°What about my little Bolivamus Tal the Greater¡­?!¡±


    Just then, he figured out something interesting. ¡°Oh, I can see his mana pool now! Billy and the dragonflies are at level three, that''s a bit sad, dragon''s have been dealt a bad hand of cards¡­¡±


    It was sad that the dragons couldn''t progress as much, but they were dragons after all, so they may not need a good mana quality as much as most creatures did. The dragons certainly didn''t need it throughout the recent, severely dangerous situations that they, and the team survived! They were good, they were happy.


    Regarding mana quality, Arvena then pointed out. ¡°You can see someone''s pool of mana, after you cross over to the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm. You can check on pools, as long as the bastard you''re checking on has a lower mana quality than you, so it¡¯s a very useful tool in most cases.¡±


    ¡°That''s nice, so we''ll always know when we''re about to get fucked? Very handy.¡± Tim rambled.


    The process of checking on someone else''s pool was very easy, and visual. With an x-ray sort of vision, he could see how much mana was accumulated in one''s belly. This process didn''t cost a single point to initiate. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Mana in its entirety was blue by color, however, when it is in one''s gut, it has these funny visual features that are symbolic to one''s specific level. He''d only have to look at those symbols once, and then he''d recognize the level instinctively!


    In this case, when he looked at Georgie the dragon¡¯s mana pool, he saw that the pool assumed an iron-like color. Level six was called Dense, Iron Mana, so the symbolism behind the visuals in the pool correlated with the level¡¯s name.


    ¡°Very interesting¡­¡± Skendus remarked.


    Skendus appreciated this ability the most, because initially he had to determine how strong a person was, by attempting to read their minds, and this latter process was a bit more elaborate. His failure or success at mind reading, helped him determine the strength of a lot of people, but this new ability was a lot easier to use! It didn''t take much effort to initiate it.


    Anyway, they were ready to leave this universe now. They''ve certainly seen enough of it, and wouldn''t want to return unless there were a bunch of roots waiting for them.


    Timothy''s new task here was to tamper with the portal so they wouldn''t go back in time, once they crossed over to Valporovus. This was bound to be a bit tricky, but he felt capable of making the adjustments. He didn¡¯t let his friends cross the portal just yet.


    ¡°Give me a minute here,¡± He requested.


    It was crucial that they avoided going back in time, because it could put them in a bit of trouble. Firstly, he feared that he''d lose a couple of blessings from the priests of the three churches, which were blessings that they worked really hard to get, and this was one thing that he didn''t want to risk walking into. If the Mark of Death got ¡®remarked¡¯ on their souls as soon as they crossed over to Valporovus, then they might as well stay in this universe, because it would be better than wasting another few weeks to appeal to the churches again!


    ¡°Okay¡­¡± He muttered, and got very close to the portal.


    Timothy then grabbed the portal, as he had grown accustomed to, and after a bit of thinking, he tilted it. This tilt was very literal, physical too, and he instinctively tilted it by ten-percent!


    Afterwards, he urged. ¡°Okay, everybody jump in! Now now now!


    Although most of the team didn''t know what he was doing here, or what all of this intensity was about, they still trusted his word. He was the portal opener after all, so he was the most informed regarding portals!


    The team jumped through the portal, the dragons followed suit, and so shortly after, they met with the little village that they left behind, before getting into Purpureus Mundi Aqus. The strong scent of recently roasted pork confirmed that they were alright here, it was unlikely that they''d run into past versions of themselves or anything like that!


    ¡°Oh, good, we''re in the present.¡± He sighed.


    Afterwards, as he noticed the confusion on the faces of his friends, he helped everyone catch up with what he had recently experienced. He was very specific about it, so he spent a solid ten minutes helping everyone understand why he had to tilt that portal.


    ¡°There seems to be a lot to this¡­ portal summoning.¡± Gustav expressed.


    Furthermore, he added. ¡°Still, it doesn''t look like we''ll be going to the bug world anytime soon, so, how about we go with your other plan? How about we make a one-way journey to the Ruins of Aqumus?¡±


    Timothy was craving to open another portal, but he understood that it could end up distracting them quite a bit. Visiting the Ruins of Aqumus had been their main goal ever since they stepped into Valporovus, and now since they didn''t have any distractions, and that they were strong enough to stride The Old Sea where the ruins were, there was virtually nothing holding them back from doing so!


    ¡°If we cross the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices Realm of mana this month, then I''ll be the happiest stingray in the world!¡± Tim remarked, and then he tore the portal out of its place.

 Chapter 185 - "The windmill sized lighting bolt"

    The team continued to swim through The Old Sea. Arvena had never been to the Ruins of Aqumus before, but she firmly believed that it was easy to find the location, on the count that the ruins are huge. It shouldn''t be hard to miss them, even under the sea. Furthermore, she''s read enough books about it to know how to analyze her surroundings within The Old Sea, she even labeled herself an expert! Progress was inevitable.


    They were five kilometers away from the sea shores right now, and although they weren''t in danger, this was where they met with a bit of a barricade. The sea floor was at a higher elevation here, they were up against an underwater hill of sorts, point being, they had to swim upwards, and above it! Considering that their muscles twitched while they swam upwards, it meant that this was no different from climbing an actual hill. It was tiring.


    However, there were benefits to this ¡®climbing¡¯, because once they swam up to the top of the hill, they started feeling a lot less water pressure on their scales, because on top of this hill, they were only four-hundred meters under the sea surface. Apart from feeling a bit more mobile now, they could also observe their surroundings easier!


    ¡°There are too many bastarding fish around here, and they all look powerful¡­¡± Tim expressed a moment later, ¡°Are you sure that there''s any mana for us to munch on? The ruins could be stripped clean.¡±


    ¡°That''s impossible! Mana quantities in the ruins do not deplete, they haven''t depleted for thousands of years, because we''re approaching a god''s former home, after all, not some mere mana root! We shouldn''t underestimate the power of the man who created this universe, you head-head.¡± Arvena explained, her words were honed, like daggers.


    ¡°With all due respect to Rempegan Lus, we went toe-to-toe with a god back at that forest. I killed a god there, I killed that bastarding yeti that called himself ¡®sir Lestuk¡¯! Excuse me if I think that we might be risking our biscuits for nothing here.¡± He argued, and he was a bit abrasive, because the Sea Orcs were making him nervous.


    ¡°Gods are celestials, not mortals. That yeti wasn''t a god, and it was probably just commanded to attack us, it might as well have been - I''ve thought a lot about this. The blizzard we had to go through afterwards, may have just been a symbolic way to try and kill us, meaning that whichever god made the attempt, used the blizzard to honor the yeti''s untimely death. Either that, or that yeti has killed more mages than we can count, and it summoned a blizzard right before it died.¡± She argued, and this was a compelling argument, though it inevitably got them debating over nothing.


    Skendus intervened, and said. ¡°We can all agree that the yeti was weird, and also, the ruins are very close, so we can''t afford to turn back now no matter what we think, or how dangerous it is! We''re not cowards.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Furthermore, he pressured. ¡°Where''s your courage, Timeeth? You were riding on lava just a couple of weeks ago.¡±


    ¡°Surfing,¡± Tim corrected.


    ¡°Lava riding and surfing, whatever, we must-¡± Skendus tried to speak, but his words were interrupted by Tim''s sudden movements!


    Tim beamed forward, and then he summoned a massive thunderbolt, and channeled it right through his long tail! His barb then behaved like the barrel of a gun, and unleashed the massive, nine-foot wide thunderbolt that he summoned!


    Although the team hadn''t caught up with what he was doing, Tim had already unleashed countless bolts of electricity, and the bolt was hot enough to melt the sea water as it flew forwards! The electricity didn''t branch across the waters around them, though, so he and the team were not shocked, thankfully.


    [-20,000 mana points] The system flashed.


    Such an expense was massive, regardless of how his mana pool was up to par. He made an expense that might as well risk his life later on, but he did it, because he was aiming at something significant, and didn''t want to waste any time!


    ¡°Swarm!¡± He then yelled, and the team finally understood what was going on.


    There was a swarm of creatures in front of them, or best called a school of creatures, on the count that they were in the ocean. The creatures were about two hundred meters away, though they were a bit tough to spot because when together, they looked a lot like the dark sea! It wasn¡¯t surprising how the rest of the team had required a moment to figure out what he was shooting at!


    ¡°Holy shit!¡± Gustav then cussed.


    There were a couple of thousand creatures in front of them, and although they were not individually massive, a crowd of them was bound to be dangerous! It was beyond challenging to face them, and yet the team didn''t have another choice, because the creatures were approaching quickly, and it was unlikely that they were swimming over to have a talk!


    [You just killed 92 Raptor Orclets, and won 18,400 points as a reward. Killing a single raptor will give you 200 system points.] The system beeped, just after a few seconds.


    ¡°Dang! Now that''s a good exchange rate! Totally worth the 20k mana points!¡± Tim rattled.


    However, no one heard what he said, because the raptors¡¯ short, but collective screams muffled his words entirely! They were close enough to be heard, so Timothy didn¡¯t waste another second, and attacked the swarm once more!


    With a single, but maxed out thunderbolt, he attacked the raptors, and killed tens of them as a result! The bolt he unleashed was too powerful, so he ended up flipping around like a pancake for the second time! His one-ton body was nothing in comparison to the sheer, linear force of the bolt!


    You just killed another 53 Raptor Orclets, and won 10,600 points as a reward.] The system beeped.


    Although such a massive amount of points was attractive, it still didn''t get rid of their problem. Timothy merely managed to kill a fraction of his enemies, and although his friends were attacking the raptors as well now, they were simply running out of time!


    The Raptor Orclets were very close to surrounding them, and if they got surrounded whilst unprepared, death would be imminent! They had to get into a defensive position immediately!


    A dark mist of sorts started oozing out of Timothy''s barb. He was summoning the Bone Multiplier ability, because that was the best form of defense that he knew of!

 The Cavemen - A Side Story based on the series universe

    Timothy the Stingray was a man of many ambitions, he was a great example for any mages who wanted to progress into the higher realms of mana! His ambitions were great, but his knowledge was still under development, as there was only so much that an earthling could figure out on his own, after stepping onto a massive, complicated planet.


    One thing that eluded him for a long time, was the fact that countless civilizations, or tribes, lived in vastly different time periods, even though they were all on the same planet! The planet he was on was so big, that even the more advanced civilizations couldn¡¯t, or at least didn¡¯t bother to help other, lower civilizations advance in technology!


    This was a baffling fact that created the basis of what this planet was about! Naturally, he was unaware, or ignorant of the idea of how some people spend their time, and their life. One example were the various species of cavemen, who haven¡¯t progressed much despite having an ancestry stretching over hundreds of thousands of years! In this case, it was a good example that mother nature sometimes played favorites, because there were plenty of other species of humans on this planet who had progressed greatly in terms of technological affairs.


    Although the minds of these cavemen were yet to develop properly, magic was something that no creature could avoid. Being able bodied, physically, humans had a bit of an advantage when it came to magic, because they could bear more mana in their pools in comparison to smaller mammals, or primates!


    Cavemen lived in various faunas, both filled with modern animals, or with what could be considered ancient animals. The planet that they were on was that big, and supportive of different faunas!


    Leading by example, was a group of cavemen who could be considered that they were in the Stone Age, in earthly terms. Though isolated, this group had discovered the use of magic a couple thousand years ago, and although they use it on a daily basis, they were yet to progress to the point where they could challenge the common mage in more developed civilizations, that lied within the God¡¯s Punishment realm of mana, even though that realm was the lowest amongst the low.


    Nevertheless, this tribe of cavemen was the most advanced in terms of magic in their specific fauna, so they had reigned supreme throughout these past couple hundred years! This group, and its offspring were known to be able-bodied, because they consumed meat more than the average caveman, on the count of how they could access food so easily.


    Their easy access to food was so impactful, that it may even have stunned their cognitive development! When one has easy access to food, they may not go out of their way to get their hands on it.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    This concept of readily available food is an example, or at least one of the reasons why thousands of species never evolved to be super intelligent! Comfortable creatures would simply not care to put themselves under any unnecessary pressure.


    Anyway, even though cognitive progress may be slow amongst some species, magic itself wasn¡¯t as slow. If it could progress amongst lesser creatures, it could progress amongst humans even easier, regardless of the fact that they were cavemen, as even cavemen could make good use of a bigger mana pool!


    Regarding the group, or tribe of cavemen in question, two ambitious little guys from within the tribe, were experimenting with a series of powers that may help their tribe exceptionally! They were brothers, sixteen and fifteen years old, and one could say that their ambition was almost genetic! The series of trouble that their tribe was facing now had everything to do with how comfortable they had felt up until recently.


    ¡°The big glow is risky, small glow is better. It¡¯s tamable.¡± Tal, the older brother said. ¡°We must tame it first, as we did with the hounds.¡±


    ¡°A snag on our path is merely a stepping stone, brother. We must take risks once in a while!¡± Mali, the younger brother said. ¡°Let¡¯s try our Flesh Mender ability on an antelope, let¡¯s hunt one. If we can fix its burnt flesh, then surely we can fix the flesh of our friends. The mammoths are learning to fight us back, the cat¡¯s too, so we must master the Flesh Mender soon!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, brother, we must make haste. Between the trampling of the mammoths, and the clawings of the cats, our tribe could be wiped out completely in the coming moons¡­¡± Tal agreed.


    Necessity oftentimes led to innovation, and in this case, these brothers were very aware of the risk that their tribe was in. Their bickering may sound diplomatic, but in their actual language, they sounded no different from chimpanzees arguing over bananas! They certainly didn¡¯t look innovative, but they had stepped up, and were hoping to save their tribesfolk in the eleventh hour, so to speak. The growing dangers within their fauna didn¡¯t let them live in comfort any longer, they had to adapt!


    To carry out an experiment, they left the comfort of their cave behind them, and looked for a live, healthy antelope. After they found a healthy one, Tal shot a small, foot-wide fireball at its leg, rendering it immobile for a good minute! The shock of pain kept the antelope immobile, even if the burn itself wasn¡¯t powerful enough when it came to causing crippling, permanent damage.


    The antelope was fine, but since it couldn¡¯t run away, Tal and Mali were given the opportunity to approach the animal. In other words, they could run an experiment on it.


    ¡°Use the big glow, brother, and I will look at the wound from up close. Let us see if bigger glows are better, or worse.¡± Tal said, guiding his younger brother.


    ...


    You just read the first part of the short story, if you are curious to read the continuation of this Side Story, you can find it on my Patreon Page. It has a horrifying twist that you don''t wanna miss! As a bonus, I even made a little comic using ChatGPT, made in an anime/manga style.

 Chapter 187 - Sea Orc

    Timothy kept blowing up every Raptor Orclet that headed towards him. It was a brutal way to handle things, but considering that the raptor swarm fled only once most of their swarm was wiped out, he hadn''t had any other option but to fight them. Exploding their skeletons was his way of fighting them cheaply, and killing them quickly!


    The battle cost him well over one-hundred-and-fifty thousand mana points overall, so he wasn¡¯t too excited about him and the team winning the battle here. Quite the opposite, it further deepened the paranoia that he felt about this sea, because if a swarm attacked them for no good reason whatsoever, he could only imagine how hard other creatures would fight if large quantities of mana were in question! With that said, each meter he swam towards the ruins, seemed like a personally signed death certificate to him!


    Timothy wasn''t enthusiastic, but then again, he did win a lot of points throughout this battle. He ended up exploding the skeletons of forty-four more raptors, which only increased his already large sum of system points! This sum was the only thing that prevented him from retreating, because he hoped that they could camp somewhere for a couple of hours, so he could buy the rest of the upgrades that were available, and then they may have a better chance to survive the challenges of The Old Sea! It was a sound plan, and he was hoping to initiate it.


    [You''ve accumulated a total of 78,000 system points,] The system beeped.


    ¡°This sum is getting stupid-er,¡± He remarked, and now he was more motivated than ever to stop, and buy the rest of the available purchase options. ¡°Now, we need a place to hide¡­ Maybe we can hide in that pile of-¡±


    Timothy tried to formulate a plan, but then one of the worst possible things happened! With their explosive speed, and humongous bodies, several Sea Orcs hit the scene, and started munching on the countless carcasses of the Raptor Orclets! This was problematic, because even though the team was protected by that set of force fields, this didn¡¯t help them from being swallowed whole!


    The latter was one of the worst things that could happen to them, and it happened. Everyone, except Timothy, were swallowed whole by a single Sea Orc!


    ¡°Bastard!¡± He yelled, after he saw what happened.


    Timothy saw the faint light of the force field dissipate in front of him afterwards. It had protected him so far, and since it faded out, he could only assume the worst! He feared that Ortana had been killed, and if she was dead, the rest of the team might as well be dead, because the stomach acid of the giant dragon was going to kill them quickly, and brutally!


    ¡°I knew something like this would happen!¡± He yelled out, and regretted ignoring his gut feelings.


    Timothy was about to go apeshit on the few dragons that were slithering around close to him, he wanted to use every bit of offensive power that he had on them, but something stopped him. A second before he was about to shoot at them, Skendus¡¯ voice suddenly reverberated in his head!The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°Timothy, can you hear me? I¡¯m sure you can.¡± Skendus called for his attention, ¡°We got our hands on the dragon''s throat canal, or whatever it''s called, well, Gustav wedged me between a couple of carcasses because I don''t have any hands myself! I''m gonna try to shapeshift to an aqus goblin now, hopefully before I fall in the dragon''s stomach¡­¡±


    He was a bit casual about the dire situation they were in, it was unsettling, but at least he also tried to be helpful. ¡°We''re alright, but please come get us out of here, because the dragon''s insides seem to be tougher than its outsides, its rock solid in here, we can''t get out. Even Arvena can''t burn as much as a hole for us, the dragon could be immune to fire, so you have to try and kill the dragon yourself however you can!¡±


    Skendus was a skilled illusionist. Paired with the fact that his mana quality had also sky-rocketed recently, it wasn¡¯t surprising that he could communicate telepathically, even while he was down the throat of a dragon! This telepathic ability was very helpful, because in this case, it stopped Tim from attacking the Sea Orcs randomly, and the latter potentially prevented him from getting killed!


    ¡°You¡¯re in its throat, huh?¡± He muttered.


    Afterwards, he came up with a plan that excluded fireballs and lightning bolts entirely. He figured that attacking the dragon¡¯s scales would be useless, and expensive, so he came up with another plan.


    Timothy was about to initiate his plan on one of the dragons, but then Skendus spoke to him again! He hated being interrupted.


    ¡°We''re not stuck in that orc, but the other one. Turn to your left, a.a.a.a. right there! That''s the one!¡± Skendus guided.


    Once Timothy figured which dragon it was that swallowed his friends, he started initiating his plan! Originally he wanted to break the dragon''s spine, and kill it right there, but these Sea Orcs were truly tough, and he guessed that they practiced some form of magic that shielded them. It had to be the case, because their bones were impossible for him to move.


    Since his original plan couldn''t work out, he then altered his plans a bit. The plan was simple, but also genius!


    ¡°If I can''t break its bones, I''ll just make some new bones, mu-hahah!¡± He grinned.


    Considering that the dragons were ignoring him entirely right now, as they were feeding on the hundreds of raptor carcasses, he could summon his abilities in peace. He cranked the Bone Multiplier ability to the max, and did as the ability''s name suggested, he created some new bones, out of nothingness!


    The barb on his tail emitted a nearly suffocating dark cloud, which only confirmed that he was pushing the ability to its very limits! He was spending six-thousand mana points a second on this!


    The dragon that he had targeted, started grunting in distress. His plan was working.


    ¡°Chew on that, you bastard¡­¡± He smirked.


    Timothy had created a bunch of new teeth in the dragon''s mouth, and this in turn kept its mouth from closing entirely. Though this wasn''t enough to kill the dragon, it was just enough to help the rest of the team crawl out of its mouth slowly, or at least, that was the plan that he tried to reap success on.


    When the dragon noticed that there was something wrong with its jaw, it darted towards the open sea, and moved at such great speeds that it was easy to lose track of it! Timothy chased after the dragon, and later on paired a couple of abilities of his, just so he could swim faster!


    ¡°You can''t get away from me¡­¡± He grunted.

 Timmys Call; 5 gifts of premium membership on my Patreon!

    For the sake of an announcement, I''m calling you guys here with the aid of membership gifts! This novel could do better, in many aspects, so I''d like to gift you guys as a form of a stabilizer, or a call to action. So here is what I had in mind.


    Apart from the five membership gifts today, I''d also like to make a form of a reward system here. We''ll start with the novel''s 3.82 star rating, for example, it''s not great, so if we can get the rating to 4 or more stars, under reasonable means and honest ratings or reviews, I will give away three Diamond Stingray memberships, and three Silver ones! I think it''s a reasonable deal and or request.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Secondly, I also want to establish a reward system regarding follower count. Instead of bonus chapters, I want to give away various types of memberships to my Patreon every time we''re up by 100 followers! This means that I''ll give out good gifts every time we''re up to a certain follow count, such as 1,500. The gifts will increase in quantity the closer I get to the 2,000 followers mark, and so on. This should be a great reward system for you guys.


    Let me know what you think in the comments, and as for the gifts of membership for today, they''re right below at the post-chapter author notes!

 Chapter 188 - "How fast can a Sea Orc swim?"

    Timothy followed the Sea Orc that he was hunting, and he tried his best to keep up with the serpentine menace! This has quickly become a battle of speed, and agility, because he needed a lot of speed to keep up with the Sea Orc, and not to mention, he had to attack it as well.


    ¡°Almost¡­¡± His jaws clamped.


    The sea orc started out swimming at a normal pace, well, it was normal in comparison to what it truly was capable of. Its fifty-foot long body knew how to maneuver the sea water to aid its speed, so the dragon''s first fear-induced rush helped it gain a solid 70 km/h, which was simply unachievable for most sea creatures!


    Its speed was purely natural, magic didn''t aid, or amplify it in any way, it knew how to flee! The dragon knew that something was wrong, and acted accordingly in order to evade danger as quickly as it could, even if it didn''t know what it was fleeing from, and even if it didn''t understand why its jaw was locked shut!


    Timothy ended up spending thousands of mana points just to keep up with the dragon. He couldn''t find a way around such expenses, because if he stopped swimming, his friends would be gone forever! Since he locked the Sea Orc''s mouth shut, his friends had virtually no other safe exit to use, even if they somehow mustered an escape plan! He couldn¡¯t let them suffer the outcome of the situation that he created.


    Regarding his speed ~ Timothy was a huge stingray, and he was muscular enough to swim up to 25 km/h without his magical powers aiding him. In this situation, such speed wasn''t nearly enough, and this was why he turned to his powers for help in a short time.


    The Flaming Fins ability, once maxed out, helped him swim 65 km/h at most, which was better than the prior speed, but it costs him two-thousand mana points per second! Worse yet, such speed wasn''t enough on its own, it barely helped him catch up with the beast, but he was a one-ton stingray after all, so there were numerous aspects working against his speed. Each aspect got into his nerves!


    ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can interrupt your stupendous speed¡­¡± He mumbled, and tried to grow a few extra bones across the dragon¡¯s spine.


    Logically, if a creature''s bone structure was altered in any way, especially if incorrectly, then its natural movements would also be altered. In this case, he was hoping to cripple the dragon physically, once and for good!


    Timothy tried to give his little plan a shot, his target was just fifty meters away now, but when the dragon noticed that something was tickling its bones again, it started swimming even faster than it originally was! At this point, it wouldn''t even be a surprise if the dragon understood that it was being directly chased, even if it didn''t bother looking back.


    ¡°He can swim even faster?!¡± Tim was bamboozled.


    The system then helped him keep track of the distance, though that was about all that she could do. She couldn¡¯t help highlight the dragon, to help him spot it within the midst of the continuous, dark atmosphere of the deep sea, no. He was on his own with that matter. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    [Target = 125 meters away]


    [Target = 169 meters away]


    [Target = 207 meters away]


    [Target = 289 meters away]


    The distance between him, and the dragon widened immediately, his target was almost three-hundred meters away now! Tim couldn''t see beyond the four-hundred meter mark, so this was when he decided that he had to speed things up, because if he didn''t, then the dragon would surely get away for good!


    In response to the developing catastrophe, he summoned the Freezing Blood ability as well, and dual casted it with the Flaming Fins ability! The prior ability cost him three-thousand per second alone, at most, but since the two of them were being casted at the same time, his mana expenses bumped up to ten-thousand points a second!


    [Target = 392 meters away]


    [-10,000 mana points]


    [Target = 325 meters away]


    [-10,000 mana points]


    [Target = 249 meters away]


    [-10,000 mana points]


    This was an irresponsible way to spend mana, because at this rate he''d lose one-hundred thousand of them in under ten seconds! It was an expensive task, but the Sea Orc had reached a grand speed of 130 km/h right now - He had to keep up with it, though he only had less than a minute to work his magic!


    The Sea Orc then started swimming upwards, at rapid speeds, which was dangerous for most deep-sea creatures, because the water pressure could disfigure their bodies! It was dangerous, but the Sea Orc didn''t seem to care, it swam upwards, and Timothy followed suit.


    In five seconds, the two of them leaped out of the water, they crossed the sea¡¯s surface! At 150 km/h, and a flat body to help him pierce the air, Timothy quickly flew above the heavy, large Sea Orc!


    Being in the air, he felt like a WW2 warplane once more, well, he had the wings to act the part as they had this red glow, due to the Flaming Fins ability that he summoned! His organs felt weird ever since he leaped out of the sea, but this wasn''t even bad enough to hurt him, nonetheless kill him, so he felt unstoppable!


    Since he was in the air, and had gained plenty of velocity from the speed that he achieved so far, Tim stopped using the abilities that he dual casted entirely. It was best to cut corners somewhere, and this was the best chance to maintain what remained of his mana pool. He kept flying upwards, ten meters per second!


    The Sea Orc was accelerating through the air as well, though at a much slower pace considering how heavy the Sea Orc was. It was only a matter of time before this tremendous beast started plummeting from the sky, and since it was less than eighty meters away from Timothy, he racked his brain to figure out the best way to attack!


    For a second he considered frying its brain, but he scratched that as an option, because at this rapidly changing altitude, he didn¡¯t want to hit his friends by mistake! He''d never forgive himself if he ended up accidentally crippling them, he didn¡¯t want to push his friends towards a vegetative state.


    With that said, he was stuck with his original plan. Since he wasn''t spending all that mana in dual casting anymore, he decided to crank the Bone Multiplier ability to the max, so he could try and cripple the Sea Orc before it hit the water! By all odds, the impact with the sea water won''t be enough to cripple this beast as efficiently as he would hope, so he had to try his best to do the damage himself, before the beast could get the chance to slip away, and be gone for good!

 Chapter 193 - Power Merging

    The Mana Quotient upgrade was as painful as it was expensive! Not only did it put his guts and spine into a strain, but it also affected his brain, since intelligence was primarily located on one''s brain! Timothy felt as if a viral virus was attacking his nervous system, he felt dumber by the second once the pain intensified, but he didn¡¯t fear such foul effects per se, because he knew that they were temporary.


    Timothy endured the pain for a whole hour, and at that point, the pain threshold was too high for him to handle, so he fainted. Fainting was one of the best things that could happen to him right now, because the pain he felt while unconscious was reduced by at least a third! He got a bit of peace like this.


    The upgrade was lengthy, because it would ultimately make him different from most mages. As a fish, he would end up being almost godly after this upgrade, and if he chose to shift into a mammal again, then he''d be one of the most magically fluent mammals within the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana! It was worth the struggle, it was worth the hours of pain he endured.


    [Upgrade complete! 33,000 system points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.


    Tim woke up at the crack of dawn, and then he groaned. ¡°It¡¯s over, then¡­?¡±


    ¡°Is what over?¡± Arvena suddenly asked him. She was awake, and bright as a button.


    Timothy didn¡¯t answer her, and he wasn''t planning on sharing the truth, rather, he just started taunting the other. He taunted her, with a couple of tough questions that were masked by his lazy groans.


    ¡°What do you know about MQ, woman? You know, Mana Quotient?¡± He asked.


    He expected a short, questioning answer, but that was not the case, Arvena started blabbing about mana even more than she usually did. ¡°Mana Quotient determines how great of a mage you can become, and back in my town, it''s actually traditional to test one''s MQ annually! Though he refused to tell how he did it, our local shaman knew how to test everyone''s MQ, and we had a couple of youngsters who started out with a score of 100 points! A king recruited them, and although our town hadn''t seen such geniuses emerge ever since, we still weren''t off so bad. The average MQ in our town is 30 points for young mages, and 120 points for the average, grown up mage, hence, we were one of the few towns who were tasked with dismantling Psidium Mana pools back in your universe.¡±


    ¡°Jesus! The concept of MQ isn''t unheard of in your universe, then?¡± He followed along, and then he taunted. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me now, but I managed to get my MQ to 300 points throughout the night.¡±


    ¡°I won''t ask you how, because I know it''s bullshit. You couldn''t possibly score 300 points, especially overnight, you¡¯d be incapable. I''ve seen you fight, kid, your MQ is up at 150 points at most, and it won''t change anytime soon.¡± She bit back.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Timothy liked a challenge, so although he had a few other upgrades to buy, he decided to put those aside for now. Instead, he invited the team to go out, and hunt for food, because he was hungry, and he was sure that his friends were hungry as well. Aside from that, he also felt competent to try out something new!


    They slipped through their bony bunker, and started observing their surroundings. Tim didn¡¯t want to spend too much mana on hunting, and he didn''t want to shoot at any creature that was potentially hostile either, furthermore, he did have an ulterior plan in mind regarding hunting!


    They spotted a giant tuna fish close by, and although the name ¡®Giant¡¯ was alarming, it was unlikely for this encounter to be dangerous, as most tuna fish didn¡¯t possess a honed mana quality. They were very fast swimmers, however, so they had to hit the fish hard before it swam away for good - They had to be quick to secure this decent, huge meal!


    ¡°Do you wanna see a neat trick, Arvena?¡± He asked, with a taunting tone.


    The other was not amused, but she did nod in confirmation. Timothy then slowly summoned two balls of light in front of him, one of the balls had a light-blue color, and the other had the shade of a withered crimson leaf.


    Then, he introduced. ¡°These are two of my abilities, Arvena, which are the Nerve Shaker ability, and the Rotter Bite ability. I''m holding their very essence in my mental grasp, and now, I can either choose to get rid of them for good, or merge them into a greater power, muhuhuhehehehehe!¡±


    ¡°Almost everyone can merge powers, and oftentimes it''s useless to merge them.¡± She argued.


    ¡°I can merge them without your little spoken-word spells,¡± He smirked, and so the other started getting nervous.


    Spoken-word spells were one of the main ways to do complex things, such as power-merging. One would have to beg the gods through such a spell, and oftentimes, decent results were not guaranteed, and in this particular case, it was unheard of to merge powers without a spell!


    Timothy started doing the latter, regardless of what anyone might think. He commanded the two bits of light to mix together, and they continued mixing for about ten minutes, until they assumed a single, light-purple color!


    The floating ball of light then floated into his body, and granted him access of use. He could summon a new ability now, he decided to call it the Withering Shaker ability, and its use was very self explanatory!


    Timothy then attacked the tuna fish in front of him, and he didn''t crank this new ability to the max, because it wasn¡¯t necessary to do so. It only cost him three-hundred mana points to shoot it, and paired with the fact that he didn''t pay a button for the power-merging process that he just did, this as well might be one of the cheapest attacks he unleashed ever since he stepped into Valporovus!


    A beam of purple light headed towards the tuna fish in front of them, it traveled a hundred meters in a flash, and hit the target successfully, in turn, withering most of its nervous system! This was one of the most brutal abilities he had, and the system immediately stated that it was considered pre-necromantic too, so he was very excited to have it under his possession!


    ¡°I believe you now,¡± Arvena said, and she tried to hold in a nervous fart.

 Chapter 194 - "Mana Channels, and the creation of new abilities"

    The tuna fish had a quick death, most of its nervous system was fried immediately, so its brain died off moments later. It didn¡¯t suffer any pain, because its pain receptors couldn''t carry out any signals, hence, even though it was necessary to kill this fish, for the team¡¯s sustenance, the kill was very merciful.


    The tuna fish was then dragged towards the bony den, where it was later consumed. The fish was six meters long, so it just barely fit in their den, which in a sense was a good thing, because its fat body could keep the team fed for a week no doubt! Timothy and Skendus were the biggest fish, and the latter had decided to shapeshift into a sawfish in order to regenerate more mana a day, so the fact of the matter was that the two of them were to consume a lot more food on average. If they were to be healthy, the two of them needed at least twenty pounds of decent meat a day, just to sustain themselves!


    Anyway, food aside, the team were still rather terrified by the display of power that Timothy had acted out. Refusing to use spoken-word spells, and still achieving good results were signs of a great, arcane mage, and they couldn¡¯t wrap their heads around how he suddenly became this smart in all matters magical, seemingly overnight! They were stumped, well, apart from Skendus who could read minds - He chose to be quiet.


    ¡°How did you increase your MQ so fast? A score of 300 is a hell of a lot, it''s even suspicious because it''s impossible to achieve for most people! Are you worshiping some sort of demon!?¡± She asked the latter question rather bluntly.


    Tim was quick to answer that question, he said. ¡°No, I don''t even know any demons by name. The demons never even bothered us, but the gods did, so maybe we shouldn''t link this matter to either gods or demons¡­ it''s a deep rabbit hole.¡±


    ¡°You couldn¡¯t have gotten this score naturally, hell, I should know! I had the library of Rempegana at my disposal for weeks, for fuck¡¯s sake, but I couldn''t get a score of 300 even after I crossed the Fintelus¡¯ Apprentices realm of mana! I peaked at 200 points! Tell me how you did it, or I won''t be your guide anymore!¡± She argued, and continued to press him on the matter.


    Timothy wanted to tell her to ¡®make like a tree and bounce¡¯, but it was stupid to lose team members right now, on the count of how dangerous the sea was, so he had to bicker with her to convince her otherwise. Overall, he felt stupid for taunting her with his new intelligence of his to begin with, because Arvena was in a constant state of power-hunger, so it wasn¡¯t bright to taunt her with such matters!


    In order to calm her down, he added. ¡°I guess I have a god helping me, or, a goddess to be exact! She tells me everything I need to know, and unfortunately, she isn''t accepting any new worshippers.¡±


    Everything he said was a lie, but it was better than explaining that he had a super powerful computer of sorts in his head. Pushing all the blame and or glory to a goddess, was a better idea, and considering that the team had learned to not anger the divines recently, they stopped pressing Timothy on the matter of his high MQ. Well, Arvena stopped pressing him.


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    ¡°Fine, then. I¡¯m happy enough to understand that your progress isn''t natural. Goblins with a high MQ are rare, but fish with a high MQ are nonexistent, that was mainly why I was asking you so many questions¡­ appeal to your goddess, ask her not to punish me, haha.¡± She laughed awkwardly, though she was still really ticked off.


    Anyway, they could put this topic aside for now. Everyone relaxed eventually, as the fat, uncooked meal really weighed them down, they started having mid-morning naps, even.


    Timothy was about to nap, but then the euphoric train of thought regarding power merging, didn''t let him fall asleep! He was very excited, and was eager to merge whichever one of his powers he saw fit to merge! It would be best if he didn''t rush with the merging, because each of his abilities were really great individually, so he had to give this matter a long thought, rather than merging things just for the sake of experimenting with them. He had to be calculative.


    Another good idea would be to try and create new powers, in this case, he wanted to create necromantic powers, on the count of how useful the pre-necromantic ones have been! It was a lot more difficult to work with this branch of arcane magic, especially if he wanted to create a new ability all together, but he wanted to give it a shot nonetheless!


    Timothy summoned a transparent bit of light in front of him. This light didn''t have a color, so essentially, it behaved as a container of a power that was yet to be created. If it assumed any shade of color in the following procedure, without that color dissipating into nothingness, it would mean that he had created a new ability out of nothingness, even if that ability wasn''t very useful.


    ¡°I need slaves¡­ cheap skeleton slaves.¡± He mumbled, and then he formulated. ¡°When I made those Raptor Orclets fight each other, I had to control their every move, and that shit cost me an arm and a leg, it''s not worth doing again¡­ Maybe I can create something that''ll cost me ten-points-a-second per slave, or wait¡­ I think I''ve got it!¡±


    Tim then let go of the blank light that he had summoned in front of him, and summoned the essence of his Bone Multiplier ability afterwards. He studied its color, it being as dark as the night, and he even started seeing a maze of mana channels within the ability - better yet, he started understanding these channels!


    ¡°So that''s what makes them thicker, erg, stronger.¡± He mumbled, after he saw a wall of mana within the channels. ¡°I understand.¡±


    Afterwards, he put the essence of the Bone Multiplier ability back in his own body, and summoned that transparent ball of light once more. He then concentrated, and started knitting a strong wall of mana channels within the light, though the channels were still transparent, so he hadn''t succeeded yet.


    Afterwards, he started implementing a couple of other ideas that he separated out of the Bone Multiplier ability. One of the ideas assured that the skeleton would only need to be reanimated once, and be on its feet for weeks without being fed with any more mana, and if he could achieve this, then raising an army of skeletons was only a matter of time!


    The second idea was a mixture of mana channel patterns that he stole from the Bone Multiplier, and whole new channels that he tried to create himself. He wanted to assure that each skeleton wouldn''t take too many mana points to reanimate, but this bit was trickier, because he had to figure out how to make minimal amounts of mana, more amplified. The latter was an especially difficult task, even for himself and his upgraded MQ, but he gave it a shot anyway!


    Moments later, the transparent ball of light finally started assuming a dark color, which stamped his success! Tim created a new ability!


    ¡°Hehe,¡± He grinned.

 Chapter 195 - Cheap Reanimator

    Timothy created a new ability, a fully necromantic ability, even, because he was supposed to reanimate skeletons with it! He absorbed the new power in his body, and hoped that it would work like it was supposed to, because he didn¡¯t want to spend all day tugging on strings of mana channels, regardless of how enthralling that may sound, especially since it didn''t cost any mana to experiment. It was interesting, but he didn¡¯t want to spend hours creating abilities that he would then dispose of.


    ¡°Okay¡­ I need test subjects.¡± He muttered.


    Afterwards, he slipped out of the bony den, swam nearly twenty meters away from it, and tried to put his new ability to the test! A dark cloudy substance oozed out of the barb of his tail during the attempt, but this cloud was small, because he wasn''t cranking the ability up to the max. He didn¡¯t need to.


    The cloud then traveled around his close vicinity, and sought out skeletons to reanimate. This part of the process was costly, he was spending two-hundred mana points a second, just to allow the cloud to do its thing! Though this was a bit expensive, it was pale in comparison to the expenses that he had made recently, he didn¡¯t mind it.


    The cloud found three skeletons in a short time, and started encouraging them to get out of the sand. Though it was difficult to crawl out of several feet of sand, the cloud, although without mass, encouraged this sort of gravitational pull around itself which made the barricading sand a lot lighter for the skeletons! A dust cloud was caused as a result, but that wasn¡¯t an issue per se, it was barely blinding, and at some point, the three skeletons started moving around within the dust cloud!


    This was the fun part! Since Timothy managed to get these skeletons moving already, he then got rid of the dark, necromantic cloud, because the cloud had fed the skeletons with all the mana that they needed! In a sense, he only made a single deposit of mana there, and in turn, the skeletons kept moving and abiding his command, without being fed any more juice, they didn''t require any more mana!


    The latter was the highlight of his new ability, he stole the mana patterns for it from the Bone Multiplier ability, and from the looks of it, he successfully implemented it to his new ability! The highlight was that once the skeletons were reanimated, he didn¡¯t have to feed them any mana again for weeks, or unless the skeletons were destroyed by an external force.


    The bony den behind them worked in a similar way, meaning that the artificial bones that he created were to last for weeks at a time without being fed another drop of mana! This was where he got the inspiration from.


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    ¡°Hu-hahaha!¡± He celebrated, and then joked. ¡°Walk, my monsters! Daddy''s calling!¡±


    The skeletons belonged to various dead fish, so they didn''t have feet to walk on, so they couldn¡¯t fulfill his command. Actually, they couldn''t swim that well either, considering that their mere bones themselves weren''t enough to help them swim, so they were just drifting in the deep waters, helplessly! Their brains had deteriorated a long time ago as well, so they were also brainless, senseless.


    ¡°Well, that''s what a thousand mana points will get ya.¡± He sighed, and realized how pathetic the sight in front of him was. ¡°My plan worked well regardless, these bastards don''t need any more juice, the experiment is a success!¡±


    Regarding names, he decided to call this new trick the Cheap Reanimator ability, because he really loved how cheap it was! Sure he may need to reanimate skeletons of mammals for this ability to be more useful, but the important thing was that it worked, and it did what it was supposed to do, so that was all that mattered. Furthermore, since the skeletons were at his behest, they were sensitive to any other ability he would unleash on them, such as the Bone Multiplier ability!


    The latter ability was strong enough to create entire limbs on living creatures, so, attempting something similar on the unliving, was even easier! With that said, he started experimenting on one of the skeletons that he had reanimated.


    Tim picked the smallest skeleton, so he wouldn''t waste too much mana on it, and slowly but surely, he started building a fish from scratch! He first fixed its missing bone pieces, such as pieces of its ribcage, and tail, until he made a whole skeleton. The skeleton was only four-inches long, so this took him forty-seven mana points to achieve.


    Afterwards, he indulged in the more complex part of his experiments. Calculating it based on its size, he gave the skeleton a couple of tiny organs to use, and then he connected those organs to a new nervous system that he managed to create shortly after!


    Everything about this was complex, but with an MQ of three-hundred points, his abilities were simply overpowered, especially the ones related to creation, such as the Bone Multiplier ability! His understanding of his own powers had deepend significantly!


    At his rate of understanding, he managed to give the skeleton everything it needed to be a fish, such as flesh, eyes, senses, a brain, and so on! The whole procedure cost him one-thousand mana points, and it ended up being cheap, in a sense, on the count of how small the fish was!


    The fish practically came to life at this point, and recognized its master, and swam around in joy as a form of respect for its master! The fish was reanimated perfectly, to the very last detail! He created a tiny anglerfish, because he had worked based on what the skeleton could fit, as to not exert too much mana.


    Tim could¡¯ve turned this skeleton into that of a different creature if he wanted to, but then he had to figure out the appropriate organs for them to use, and that part wasn''t only more complex in comparison, but it was also deathly expensive! He wanted to avoid such overly-ambitious experiments for now.