Tim got his mana back, and so did the rest of the team. However, he felt especially defensive after he heard that loud, and unfortunately sexy, female voice talk to him and the team. He wasn’t so fond of mystery voices, so his senses were heightened, and he planned to shoot anything that moved!
“Where are you?!” He demanded to know.
“If I tell you that, you’re gonna try to kill me.” She answered, with a soft tease hidden within her tone.
The conversations that followed along were mostly just mere, tight-arsed sessions of bickering. Both sides were intimidated by one another, but they were also willing to communicate, and this was what brought them some favorable results! The mystery lady revealed herself, and well, she was a fish, unsurprisingly.
The mystery lady was a very blue, damselfish, and her name was Arvena. She was tiny, only about fifteen centimeters long (six inches), which was as small as Tim had been in the beginning, when he had reincarnated, so she was truly tiny, and her figure overall was like that of a flounder’s.
One could say that she was as thin as a piece of paper, but such beauty standards didn’t really translate well for fish. She was just normal, and it wouldn’t be crazy to assume that she called the reef her home too, as plenty of damselfish lived in reefs, one wouldn’t even second guess it if she claimed the latter!
However, even though Arvena had adapted to the reef’s environment effortlessly, she didn’t actually live here, she was from elsewhere, and she admitted to that rather quickly! This was where things got interesting, and also very weird.
Arvena was actually from a micro-universe, a universe which amongst other species, was also filled with multiple species of goblins! She was a goblin, by heritage, and she was out here in the sea waters, because she was tending to the alarming situation regarding anti-mana. Even though she didn’t look the part, one may call her a hero, because she was out here handling serious, and noble business!
Although her story sounded weird, the team did not second guess it. She had been invisible up until a moment ago, which hinted towards grand power, and she was also floating on top of an anti-mana pool. The latter was especially difficult to look over, because no fish this small would approach such a pool willingly, unless they had a plan in mind!
Arvena did have a plan, and she tried to guide Tim and the team accordingly. However, as it would appear, only Skendus the sawfish was capable of helping her, or cooperating with her, because the quality of his mana towered at level four! It was strong enough to do damage, and it was pure enough to be offered as a sacrifice of sorts! The process was rather interesting, because as she explained things, it became more and more apparent that Skendus had to make a sacrifice, he had to sacrifice something that was really special to him, which was his mana.
It wasn't a light decision to do so, but Skendus wanted to do an honorable deed here, it would be worthwhile. He was especially willing to help, after he figured out a lot about the overall daunting mystery of anti-mana today, as their new friend had a lot of information to share, and she gave it away willingly.
A lot of his twitching questions had been answered, which was good, but now his explorative motives died down almost entirely, because there wasn’t anything puzzling for him to figure out anymore. He now knew perhaps everything that one needed to know about anti-mana, and just like that, his own mana didn't feel as important for a moment, because he didn’t have to savor it for an upcoming battle of sorts anymore, no, the battles were about to end here.
“Eh…” He sighed, while he lined up near Arvena, and thought. “Anti-mana, or psidium mana as she calls it, sounds as interesting as ever, but I figured everything out about it already. What am I supposed to do in this big, boring sea now? Might as well help destroy this pool, it’s my good deed of the day, eh? The sect will love hearing about this psidium mana bullshit, it’s a new name to them, so at least their excitement won't die down as quickly as mine!”
Anyway, afterwards the two of them were ready to, quite literally, destroy this pool of anti-mana! Within the upcoming process, he and Arvena had to hand over a whole level of their mana quality, in order to destroy the pool, this was the sacrificial part of the deed, but they were up for it!
They got ready to chant the associated, spoken-word spell in order to get things started. It was a bit lengthy, but Skendus managed to memorize the spell beforehand, with some help from Arvena, so he was ready to make the sacrifice!
“Our will is against uncertainty, and we despise this destruction that’s masqueraded as revolution! Be gone, psidium, for we do not need you to mimic what is ancient and holy! Mana, is the truest magic of them all, and we do not accept any substitutes!” They both chanted, eloquently, from within the depths of their hearts.
Then, from the very tip of their noses, thin beams of mana shot out, and headed towards the pool. The pool started gurgling in response, which by all means hinted that the spell was working!
Spoken-word spells circled around the will of an individual, so such strong willpower was difficult to ignore! This pool of liquid was very responsive, its bowels howled as if they were inflamed!
“Look at that!” Tim gasped, as he slowly backed away.
They could see the bottom of the pool now, as the psidium mana was so repulsed by these beams, that it retraced as far away from it as it could. That's what Tim pointed at.
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Considering these responses from the pool's side, one may even acknowledge this pool as sentient, but thankfully that was not the case! Though the pool did continue to struggle nonetheless, as the beams of mana that Skendus, and Arvena unleashed were ongoing, they were to shoot out continuously for a while!
Arvena may be doing most of the damage here, because she was sacrificing her great, golden mana (level seven) within the process, so surely they were upsetting this massive pool quite a bit. She had joined the seas as a tiny damselfish, just so she could maintain the quality of her mana, so her contribution today was surely great!
The thin beams of mana chased after the contents of the pool, the beams flew around, and it was at this stage where things really started escalating! All that green, destructive substance in the pool started drying out, and once it dried out, it then crumbled like a pile of dirt, which marked the end of its reign!
The entire pool went out that way, until they could finally see the bottom of the former lair entirely! The bottom was spotless, as the pool had apparently devoured every skeleton that had fallen within it, so things were nice and spiffy now, though a pile of wet dirt remained.
After the deed was done, Arvena and Skendus stopped shooting those beams from their noses. They could finally relax!
“I can’t believe that you did it,” Tim vaguely congratulated them afterwards, he also added. “That bastarding pool has given me nightmares, guys, it’s the scariest shit I’ve ever seen, but you destroyed it so fast!”
“Yes, we did. I’m glad this big guy here came to help, otherwise I would have to sacrifice like three levels of mana quality just to get things done. That pool was too big, one of the biggest pools I've seen, it was nasty as if it was full of puss!” She followed along.
“Well, we didn’t know how to get rid of it, otherwise we wouldn’t let it get this nasty.” Tim followed along, “It almost killed me a couple of times, actually, because I tried to protect this place before! I hated that nasty bastarding pool, so yeah with that said, we’re gonna try our best to stop other pools from appearing.”
“Oh, that’s no job for mere fish… No offense guys, I know they’re popping up in your own habitat and all, but fish aren’t adaptive enough to deal with these pools! You all really suck at improving the quality of your mana, so, the psidium pools would get to you folks far before you can muster up enough strength to destroy it, that’s factual. Let us goblins fight these pools, it is our battle, though, I could use some help patrolling the area for a while, you all can help me with that.” She remarked.
Tim and the team felt offended, but they couldn’t ignore the truth either. For that matter, they cooperated, and for the sake of the reef, they offered to help in whatever means necessary!
…
Arvena and the team of three, had patrolled the reef and its surrounding area for a whole week!
They had gone through several minor battles, for the sake of protecting the reef from any potential pools of psidium mana. These battles have been explosive because creatures from the deep sea had tried to re-invade the reef, they wanted to spread their tainting substances aggressively! Though difficult, the team reigned victorious, they managed to fight the creatures off.
The enemies failed this time around, because they had been actively hunted down. The process of starting a mana pool was weird, but Arvena knew the process thoroughly, so she knew where to hit them! These tiny fish emerged from the deep seas, for example, they were called messenger fish, and if they managed to die and decompose within an area, their flesh unleashed these seeds which then invited the growth of anti-mana!
The nature of the anti-mana was to harvest actual, pure, blue mana. If those seeds harvested enough of it, then those seeds would inflate, and then transform into that loathed, liquid form! Infected fish from the deep seas would then sniff out the fresh pools, and try to be a part of it, in order to reap any and all benefits. Oftentimes they would bring those creepy green bricks, which would only intensify the arsenal of the anti-mana pool.
That was the process, and it may have been what destroyed the blistering mana sect to begin with, as Marlo had invited many fish in the sect before without questioning them whatsoever. He may have unknowingly invited several messenger fish, and concentrated their influences all in one place, a.k.a the sect's lair! This would explain why the pool was so violent.
Anyway, to prevent anything like that from happening again, the team had to kill anything that looked even remotely green, that was the best way to do things!
Tim managed to kill fifteen of them alone, so on top of doing a good deed for the fish community, he had also piled up enough system points, to buy every available upgrade from that new batch of upgrades! He bought them all, and now he truly was a force to be reckoned with.
Tim was strong, though he didn’t manage to put his new abilities to the test just yet, because he bought most of them after they had killed all of those enemies. Tim was fresh out of system points too, so he really wanted to put these new abilities to the test soon, though, he may not be able to test them against these vile deep-sea creatures for now. He may not have the option, because he and the team were given an interesting, adventurous offer! An invite.
Arvena offered the team to join her, she invited them back to the micro universe of Valporovus where she was from! She invited them because of their recent, good deeds, but also because their services here in the reef were no longer needed.
In the timespan of a week, more and more creatures from that micro universe had joined the seas, and had volunteered to protect the reef for a while. Their work was far more effective, so this portion of the sea was in good hands!
Anyway, her invite was a fantastic offer, because the universe that she was from, promised accelerated progress in the field of mana quality! With something like that as part of the offer, Tim and the team simply could not reject it.
They didn’t have anything better to do over here in the sea anyway, and since Arvena promised to be their guide as well, they virtually had no reason to wait any longer, or to refuse the offer. Adventure awaited, and they so hoped that this micro universe would help them finally escape the god’s punishment realm of mana!