Neither of us had moved for around a minute, and I was starting to grow a little confused.
I turned to the demoness beside me and noticed that she was looking off into the distance with some kind of expectant look on her face.
Again looking outward, I recoiled at the new sight.
It was eyes—numerous sets of eyes hesitantly but unanimously moving in my direction.
A bushel of grass parted nearby, and a tall imp pushed its way through.
Ahh, it's the lanky one from before. Gross, it's like I have some stalker imp waiting for me in any visually obscure area.
I turned back to face the woman beside me, only to see her with a rather bemused expression with her arms folded.
Was she leeching on me for entertainment?
Throwing me to the dogs like this?
I thought we were friends.
Well, well, I see how it is now, but she certainly isn't going to get any conventional entertainment from me.
I quickly dashed a few paces to the side, kicking up sand and dust, causing her to step further away.
Crawling on three limbs, she looked at me quizzically while my hind leg dragged through the ground.
I quickly completed a circle and then another before graciously sitting in its centre like some zen master.
Slightly opening one eye, I could see her, hand on hip, looking as confused as ever.
Hmph, that's right, you're not going to get your fix from me.
She looked to my side, and I followed her gaze.
A few demons had touched the red sand and were now approaching my territory.
Interestingly, the stalker-imp sat themselves in the sand nearby, outside of my concentric circles.
Ohh, smart move.
I frowned and began rattling my scales as they drew ever closer, but they seemed to take this as some kind of provocation.
Watching closely, I finally saw a single claw break through my supposedly impenetrable sand barrier.
Immediately, an arc of lightning coalesced from multiple areas on my body before lashing outward and striking the imp in the leg.
Damn, I need to work on my accuracy. That was supposed to be its face...
The many imps halted for a moment, a scaly surprise plastering their nearly emotionless monsteresque faces; yet, after this brief pause, they continued moving forward again.
More entered my cone of magic, and I began to continuously revolve the lightning around my body.
Since there were now so many, a few of my shots missed their mark, but mounds of ashen sand would be kicked up, splattering against my many adversaries' faces, forcing them to halt in place.
This continued for some time.
As they gained confidence, they began rushing in faster and faster, but my confidence grew in kind, and my arcing lightning grew in both accuracy and frequency.
For these imps, they were fighting against a fierce, thunderous storm; the arbiters of their cause had already been thrown to the wayside, but they would not give in so easily to such a tumultuous threat.
HAHAHA, my power is beyond their reckoning! I inwardly smiled seeing the numerous imps scattered across the ground.
I briefly noticed the demoness barely holding back a laugh, and my mind halted. So too did the magic, but there were no imps remaining who had the will to push through the lightning field.
I regained some perspective and realised this tiny battle had been nothing more than a small charade amongst competing children... and I looked so serious doing it too.
Ahh, I'm going to die. My heart. The embarrassment.
Part me from my misery...
I gripped my heart as if in great anguish.
But just then, another foot entered my domain.
Hmm.
It was the lanky imp.
I held back a cough as I regained my composure.
A new challenger, huh?
I tried to look more nonchalant this time, but my embarrassment had turned to anger at wanting this humiliation to be over.
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Quickly firing off several bolts of lightning, I was immediately surprised to see the imp seemingly deflect the lightning with its scales.
The imp pushed forward through my barrage, but I saw its deflection growing weaker with time and charred fractures beginning to appear on its scales.
It must be a skill, but for a skill like that... it must be a class? Since it seems to rely on mana but influences the body and isn't some kind of directly cast magic. That must mean this imp has some class framework thingy then...
[ [Lightning Magic lvl2 --> lvl3] [Spatial Awareness lvl2 --> lvl3] ]
Oh, what a pleasant surprise! That reminds me, I should spend all those skill points I have...
But this imp is quite interesting... Must be the most powerful of the group.
It was close to my second circle now, so I raised myself to my feet.
The imp was quite charred and sluggish, having pushed through my barrage, but did well to make it all the way here... Hm, they all felt around level 4 to 5, but it's harder to tell with this guy...
Well, I'm still not gunna go easy on them.
I curled my fingers inward to keep my claws away.
The moment the imp's foot crossed the line, I launched my fist forward, immediately colliding with its face.
The imp flew through the air and slid against the ground, just barely outside of the outer perimeter.
I stood seemingly unfazed, but surprisingly, not a single scale fractured at the impact, and now my hand was burning in pain.
A sudden hysterical laugh drew me from my thoughts.
I frowned at the sight of the demoness hunching over.
Has she snapped? It wasn't that funny... hmph.
I shot my last remaining lightning in her direction but watched as it merely vanished into the air around her. I did manage to catch sight of some kind of black force consuming the magic, but that was it.
Whatever...
I decided to just slump to the ground, now worn out from nearly exclusively using my new magic.
It was powerful, and since it levelled up, I can now see some ways to improve it.
Back then, I was just throwing it from my body while pouring in mana, but the level-ups seem to unlock some kind of intuition, though it's hard to describe. You feel almost like you figured it out yourself, like the dots were there all along and your intuition just spontaneously threw them together.
Anyway, I can see now that by projecting my magic at specific points on my body, I can cause the lightning to do half the work for me, but I first have to get used to the numerously various ways in which the natural behaviour of the lightning will change depending on how I choose to use it initially.
So... if I can get nature to do most of the work, then the magic will be cheap, and I'll have the freedom to make it drastically more powerful.
Heh, there won't be any classes deflecting my magic again anytime soon.
On the outside, it appeared as though I was relaxing against the hot sand. Most of the imps that had originally come to test me as a newcomer had already dispersed, and for a moment I saw the demon lady walking off towards some finely crafted wooden building behind me.
I guess maybe she lives here; this seems like quite a full-on job after all...
I was curious to go inside and have a look, but I'll have plenty of time to do that later; right now, I want to take a look at the system again and get my bearings.
[Remnant of the One: System Interface
[Name: Syrin] [Level: 9/10 (340/2560 exp)]
[Health: 98/98] [Mana: 1/38]
[Bloodline: Imp]
[Soul-type: Inner-world (Grade I: Garden)]
[Class: Choose]
[Special Class: Contractor]
[Stat Points: 10
[Strength: 7]
[Agility: 13]
[Mind: 5]
[Enyin: 13]
[Exyin: 13]]
[Abilities:
[Scratch lvl3] [Scale-cast lvl4] [Aphantic Mana Sense lvl3] [Stealth lvl2] [Ambidextrous Manoeuvring lvl3] [Spatial Awareness lvl3]
[Lightning Magic lvl3]]
[Titles:
[Synesthesic] [One Against Many] [Monster Slaughterer]]]
Level 9... Damn, I still feel surprised.
At the time, I didn't really want to think about the fact that the exp was doubling with each level, but the amount I gained from that battle was shocking despite that.
I must be at the same level as that ape now... It does feel like my magic is about the same.
[ [Enyin: 13 --> 21]
[Exyin: 13 --> 15] ]
I'm quite confident in my skills right now. Well, exp gain is good and all, but my evolution is near, and 20 Enyin at least feels like a special threshold. If I can get some rare evolution, like my class, then I might just be the most talented demon of all time. Heh heh.
Okay, I should check through what these titles do next.
----------------------------------------
I looked at Synesthesic just to check, and it was exactly as expected—it was some kind of crossing of the senses. It didn't mention sight in particular, so maybe I should practise for the others, but it's not really something I'm worried about right now.
But it's strange that I can feel people's gazes or see scents I haven't smelt yet, so its potential seems a little beyond the description alone...
The one against many title grants me a +10% mana and hp recovery during combat with more than 5 opponents, but its most important effect is the small 1% perceived time dilation... Which, if I'm right, should allow me to perceive the world 1% slower than it actually is.
If these titles can be upgraded, or if I can get others like them in the future, then I could be rather monstrous by virtue of them alone...
Come to think of it, the titles might be the only completely unique quality of the system. I imagine some of the abilities I get are just those of other species or other classes' exclusive skills, though I could be wrong.
But titles are quite ephemeral; they're just direct permanent powerups derived from nothing...
The system is almost like a class itself, connecting all the pieces together while adding its own unique component to the mix.
Hah, so many things to figure out... But I can't hide my intrigue from myself at the growing mysteries here.
For the final title, monster slaughterer, monsters are more intimidated by me, which is rather vague. Along with this, and more concretely, my magic will wound them with 10% more efficacy.
The only thing I'm worried about is whether these percentages are additive or not. Like if I deal 1% of their health in damage, does that increase to 11%, or 1.1%?
Since the title was, in all honesty, so easy to obtain, I can only imagine it being the latter.