The micro shift ability was a purchase that Timothy had been obsessed about for a while now. It was an important ability, because in theory, it could solve some of his physical problems, however, it was also very expensive to use this ability. Using it only once, would deplete a lot of his mana, a solid three-thousand points of them, to be precise. That’s what the math suggested, which was the same reason why he had been hesitant to use it so far, it was expensive.
Today, he was motivated to finally use it, because of an important, calculative reason. Being smaller would help him avoid predators, yes, but that wasn’t the main reason that he had in mind, no. He wanted to be smaller, because in theory, he might have the chance to be less skinny, which in turn would help him become a lot healthier. That aside, if he was smaller, then he’d also have to eat a lot less food on a daily basis.
Those were the couple of reasons that motivated him, as simply, it was dangerous to be so large and skinny. Also, it wasn’t easy to find twenty to fifty pounds of food every day, in an area where life was so scarce. This part of the reef was desolate, and a half-a-ton stingray couldn’t survive on the tiny shrimp that this place had to provide either! It wasn't possible.
Tim either had to reduce his body size, or travel more in order to find and hunt bigger prey. In hindsight, the first option seemed a lot safer, and the safety it promised was why he pursued it.
However, since he never used this ability before, he didn’t know how to activate it either, or summon it, with the latter being a more appropriate description. He didn’t know how to summon this power!
For that matter, he requested. “System, how about you help me use that micro shift thingy? I want to be smaller.”
[I’m aware of your intentions, Timothy, your idea is splendid!] She followed along, [How small do you want to become? I need a number to work with here.]
“Hmm… I want to be half as small, so that’s what? Forty percent smaller?” He added.
[50%,] She corrected, [Math must still be very difficult for you. Luckily, you can’t ever use the micro shift ability by yourself, I’ll always have to be involved on the count of its complexity, and the dangers it poses. You must remember that if you input the wrong percentage while using this ability, you could get wiped out of existence. It’s a perplexing ability, so even if I encouraged you otherwise before, I won’t let you use it by yourself, as that would be stupid from my side. I hope you understand.]
“You know what? That’s more than fair.” Tim nodded along, he could read the lines of reasoning behind what the system said.
Then, he said. “Let’s do fifty percent!”
After that point, it took little effort to put things into motion. The system was cooperative, so she granted Tim’s request right away. Of course, she did all of the math behind this operation, all for safety’s sake, so things went smoothly.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Things went smoothly math-wise, that is. Pain-wise, however, he ended up getting as ‘punished’ as ever, which itself was an indicator that the micro shift ability was working well, but it didn’t make things any easier for him nonetheless. He was in immense pain, for about ten minutes straight! He didn’t transform in mere seconds as one would assume, that wasn’t how this ability worked!
The micro shift ability apparently had micro in its name, for a reason. It reduced Tim’s bodily size, one micro portion at a time, which was a really painful process. While his whole skeletal structure reduced in size, along with the rest of his body, Tim’s bones crackled as if he suffered from the most severe case of arthritis! The pain was ruthless!
The thing he was experiencing was no fancy magic, he didn’t transform upon the wave of a wand, as some would assume, no. He was experiencing intense and ongoing bodily changes, and this process was very painful.
Tim felt as if his organs were dropping out of his body, even, over and over. In actuality, his organs were just sloshing around, as within this process, they were the last to decrease in size. Up until this point, he had barely known what organ pain felt like, and now that he experienced it, he wasn’t a fan of it whatsoever! He squealed more than a pig ever would.
It was very advantageous that he was within the new lair when he activated this ability. He was a few inches under the sand, and the other sect members were out hunting as well, so no one really witnessed him suffer. Tim underwent extreme changes in just ten minutes, and no one was here to witness it.
Tim was certain that the sect would spam him with questions sooner or later, but he planned to tell them that he just possessed some magical ability which helped him shift bodily sizes. This actually wasn’t so far from the truth with such a description, so he wasn’t expecting any trouble from the sect members.
He thought, “I’ll tell them most of the truth, no harm to it. They’re fish, it’s not like they can tell if I bend the truth a little bit.”
Anyway, once the micro shift process was done, Timothy then noticed a couple of things about himself. The shift didn’t ‘cure’ his anorexia all that much, regardless of how he had inwardly wished for it. He was just a smaller, slightly healthier version of himself, but he had most of the physical disadvantages that he had before. Those things tagged along, he didn’t feel any greater!
The only, direct physical advantage that he won over because of this shift, was that he could cure his anorexia in the following weeks, a bit easier and or faster. Since he only weighed two-hundred and fifty kilos right now, he required less food daily, in order to survive and or heal. He felt confident about finding fifteen to thirty pounds of food a day now and onwards, it wasn’t much of a task anymore, as he’d only have to kill a couple of fish at most, who were much smaller in comparison to himself.
With that considered, the decisions he made today, early in the morning, were quite smart. Survival was much easier now that he was half the size of what he was about ten minutes ago. He was much safer in general, because out there in the open waters, a stingray of his size (1.75 meters long, tail excluded), was a little bit harder to spot by the common fish. As of now, he was less of a target, by basically anything that was stronger than him.
With that considered, he plotted. “I’m smaller, and harder to kill now, hehe. My skin is tough as shit too, so… time to get some shit done, I can't waste my time! I need a strong body for myself, a strong soul too. I'll have to toughen myself up all together!”