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.