I stared down at the corpse of the demon-spider.

That fight was a lot harder than it needed to be. It felt like the spider had more health than it should've, and it managed to dodge a lot of my attacks.

Luckily, it hadn't managed to bite me or anything like that. I was worried that it might have some sort of poison.

I walked over to my sword and picked it up.

One problem was that I had been unarmed since the demon had caught me by surprise. It would be smart to make sure I always had the Cirilka claw on me, in case a demon ever managed to get close stealthily.

Sitting down with my back against the wall, I laid the sword flat across my knees and closed my eyes, trying to look into my soul-space.

I had already figured out my water element and mastered the spell Create Water. Next up was experimenting with the other types of magic.

Besides water, I also had ice and blood magic at my disposal. I hadn't touched them at all, but just thinking about what they could do made me excited.

Just think about it! If I could control ice, I could form shields and spears, cool down the surrounding area, maybe even shoot off a frost nova or some other cool fantasy spell!

And with blood magic, I might be able to kill things by forming blades from their own blood, or heal myself, or maybe create blood pacts!

I grabbed hold of the ice magic and expelled a small amount from my soul-space. It was getting pretty easy to control the flow of the magic cloud, and it seemed like even though ice and water were different, I could control them with the same amount of proficiency.

The small cloud of ice magic swirled lazily in the air before me, and out of simple curiosity, I raised my hand to touch the point in space.

Surprisingly, I actually felt a difference this time! When I used water magic, I couldn't feel anything while trying to touch it, but this stuff noticeably changed the air. It felt much cooler inside the small cloud of ice magic than the surrounding area.

I smiled. Time for the fun stuff.

With the same method as before, I reached out with my mind and started compressing the ice magic. It didn't feel any different from Create Water, but it was still straining. I gritted my teeth and squeezed hard, breaking the barrier holding my magic back, and the ice succumbed.

The cloud of magic shrank into a single point and with a loud pop, the spell activated.

A tiny cloud of white dust appeared in the air where my magic was. It looked like a small cloud of snow.

Within seconds, it disappeared.

You Have Learned: Snow Dust

....

What the hell! That's so useless!

How am I ever going to find a use for that? It's way too hot for snow to be of any use to me, and the amount that spell creates is so insignificant! That used 2 MP, for a tiny cloud of snow that instantly disappeared!

Actually, how was I going to use ice effectively?

Even if I managed to figure out a spell for creating ice spears, wouldn't they just melt in this heat?

It doesn't feel like it to me, since I leveled up Heat Resistance, but the temperature is something more than 120 degrees outside.

Ice magic wouldn't be effective at all.

Fuck! I totally didn't think that through!

I looked into my soul-space and sure enough, there was another spell blueprint taking up space. Peering into the construct, I saw instructions detailing the exact method for casting Snow Dust.

So every time I learn a new spell, even totally useless ones, my remaining soul-space gets filled up. When I first discovered the soul-space, I tried stretching it out, but it shrank back to normal when I stopped. I wouldn't be able to get more space easily, which meant I had a limited amount of spells before my soul was filled up.

I didn't know what happened when I ran out of soul-space, but it probably wouldn't be good.

If it's anything like what happened when I drank that magic-juice...

I shuddered.

Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

Looking at the area left in my soul-space, it seemed like I would be able to learn around five more spells before I was completely filled. Maybe I would be able to cram in six, but it would be tough.

I reached out towards the blood magic cloud. To be honest, I didn't have any idea what it would do once compressed. Ice magic had made snow, and water magic created water. Would blood magic form a bunch of blood? That would be weird and sounded pretty useless.

As that thought went through my head, I hesitated. I was about to start experimenting with the blood magic, but I had already wasted my free soul-space with the Snow Dust spell. It would be stupid if I used up more space with a blood-making spell.

But what if it was really useful? What if it was an offensive spell, something I could deal damage with from a safe distance?

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Okay, I don't have enough information right now, but there's no drawback to just waiting and trying to use blood magic later. There's no "spell acquisition time" like there was for skills, just a hard limit to the number of spells I can use. That means I should probably wait before trying out new spells. It would be sensible to use my limited space on only really useful magic, stuff like destructive spells, or things I can use for utility.

Speaking of useful abilities, I still haven't checked out the skills I got before the end of the acquisition period. Let's see what they do!

Beginner Water Magic [Uncommon]: You have an easier time manipulating water mana and casting beginner-rank water spells. (Passive) - Level 1

Beginner Ice Magic [Rare]: You have an easier time manipulating ice mana and casting beginner-rank ice spells. (Passive) - Level 1

Beginner Blood Magic [Rare]: You have an easier time manipulating blood mana and casting beginner-rank blood spells. (Passive) - Level 1

Fire Absorption [Very Rare]: Passively absorb fire damage under level 15. Fire damage under level 30 does no damage. For a cost of 2 SP per second, fire damage under level 30 will be absorbed and fire damage under level 60 will deal no damage. (Mixed) - Level 5

I'll just say it now, Fire Absorption looks so good.

I'm completely immune to fire under level 30. Based on my level and the demons I've seen, that's great. Plus, if I need to, I can even raise the immunity! It's crazy good! And although I still don't know what absorbing fire damage does, it sounds pretty awesome. Either way, a Very Rare skill seems like it can do it's job well.

Along with that, I have those three magic skills. They look pretty decent, but they're all passive so I don't need to think about them too much.

I stood up, stretching, and nearly yawning. That scared me a little. I was getting tired, but it was absolutely not safe to sleep yet.

Would I be able to figure out an alarm spell to help me, or maybe-

Something moved in the corner of my eye.

I whipped my head around to face the opening of the cave, and I saw another giant tarantula crawl through the hole. It moved slowly and quietly, crawling across the ground with caution.

What the hell? That's another one of those Tiletiks, is it somehow related to the last one?

Frowning, I raised the Cirilka claw in front of my body.

Not a second later, the spider twitched and threw itself across the cave towards me.

It easily reached me in under half a second, more than double the speed of the last spider!

Crap!

I barely managed to throw myself to the side, the spider flying past my face. It fell to the ground behind me clumsily, and I turned around, panicked.

That was so much faster than last time! The spiders looked identical, why was that one so much faster?

What was going on?

Before I could formulate any other cohesive thoughts, the Spiderling dashed towards me, its body low to the ground.

I stabbed downwards and missed. The demon had managed to dodge to the side.

Just barely avoiding my sword, the little bastard jumped up and started crawling up my arm!

"Shit! Get off me!"

I punched the demon multiple times, but it stuck to me, its legs digging into my shirt and drawing blood across the skin.

It sunk its fangs into my shoulder.

The pain felt like pure fire was being injected into me, and my whole body shuddered, my eyes tearing up.

Then I smiled.

I've actually had quite a lot of experience with pain, recently. Did you know that?

I grabbed the Cirilka blade with my free hand and slashed it across the side of the spider, nearly cutting the demon in half.

The Tiletik instantly dropped to the ground, separating into two pieces and tarring the rocks with a waterfall of black blood.

You Have Slain: Tiletik Spiderling, Level 3

+20 XP

As the message popped up, I clutched my arm and gasped as the pain resided. My arm literally started steaming, which was scary, but after a few seconds, the fiery pain in my upper arm started to fade. Checking my status, I saw that bite took 4 hp away from me, and I was sitting at 12/17 health.

That spider was level 3, while the last one was level 2. Did a single level difference really increase their strength that much, or was there something else I hadn't noticed?

One thing I had realized was I barely used my active skills while fighting, even though I have a good amount of sp.

Was there any way to sort my skills, and have all my combat-oriented ones be in a list?

I opened my menu and was happily surprised by the fact that I could drag around the skills in my profile. I started organizing my abilities, putting the active skills useful in combat together.

Demonic Envelopment - Level 1, Sprint - Level 1 , Persistance - Level 1, Time Dilation - Level 1, Blood Rush - Level 1, Taunt - Level 1, Regenerate - Level 1, Double Hit - Level 1, Block - Level 1, Counter - Level 1, Fire Absorption - Level 5

All of those were active skills, either working as attacks I could use in combat or buffs affecting me.

My skills were more focused on speed and reaction time than anything else, but I also had a few defense skills and basic power-increasing skills.

My build was probably going to lean towards DPS Blitzer, which actually sounded pretty fun to me.

Though I still had barely used any of my skills, looking at the levels. I needed to find some kind of safe environment to practice and figure out the specifics of each ability in combat.

After fiddling with my options for a while more, I succeeded in putting the list of combat skills in the corner of my vision, so I would be able to see them at all times.

Looking over that list of skills, I nodded silently and started walking over to the Tiletik that I had just killed.

Now, a foot-long tarantula that's been sliced in half is not a pretty picture, but I couldn't stop myself from staring down at it. I noticed that there was a thick yellow cream on the ground, and I stooped to look.

The small puddle of cream was maybe a few ounces, and it looked like some kind of buttery slime. As I poked the slime on the ground, I realized that it was seriously hard to pull my fingers away. This stuff felt like some kind of glue.

Demon-spider glue?

More research needed. I'll definitely have to make time for some spider-dissection later.

Actually, that sounds disgusting. We can move that to the bottom of the priority list.

But it would be very nice to have some glue...

I could use it for making proper armor, or some sticky traps. Not that I know how to make armor or traps, but having glue would probably help.

Standing up and stretching, I started making my way to the opening of the cave. I wanted to try and find more of those spiders. The Tiletiks were very easy to fight compared to other demons I've encountered, so I wanted to grind with them as much as possible.

I had learned over the course of the past few hours that being reckless was dangerous. I needed to avoid anything stronger than me while seeking out the weaker demons, and these spiders were a perfect opportunity to gain XP in relative safety.

I looked around the cave one last time before leaving. There were three dead Cirilka scattered around, most of them missing shells and other body parts due to my snacking. Failed armor experiments carpeted the ground along with two huge tarantula corpses.

The cave was quiet.

Even though it was pretty cluttered in there, I felt like it was a lonely place.

Dead demons were scattered around, dust caked every surface, and a single person stood in the center. Me.

I was covered in blood, both my own and from countless demons. My skin was red and blistered, my clothes were torn, all my bones felt numb and old.

My hands were bare, my knuckles were peeling and torn.

I didn't have a mirror or reflection to see my face, but I could tell my expression was dark.

What did my eyes look like, I wonder?

I was suddenly, painfully aware of just how alone I was.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes.

....

Alright, I'm ready.

Let's go kill some demons.