Timothy and Arvena hunted the whistling mana-muncher eels. It was evident that the team reigned victorious in this battle already, the enemies were fleeing, but if they were to assure their personal safety even further, then it was best to kill these sneaky, potentially invisible eels, they couldn’t spare them. It would be stupid to let these few vengeful munchers roam free, as they could come back for revenge in any given time later on! It was safer to kill them!
Arvena ended up doing most of the work. The fireballs she shot out from the front of her forehead were massive, hot and dangerous! She managed to scorch an eel whole with a single shot, and this spoke volumes of the amount of power that she bore! It was understandable how she was the main contributor here.
In the meantime, Timothy managed to kill a single eel, purely by accident. He had spammed lightning-bolts and fireballs against the enemies, and it so happened that he hit one of them at the same time when Arvena had struck. She had completely weakened the enemies, she had pushed them to the very edge of death even, and then Timothy just pushed them a bit further! He shot at them at the right time, and therefore, he tipped the bucket, and killed one of them!
The reward afterwards was plentiful, regardless of his minor contributions. After the battle was officially over, the system came in with the details.
She announced, [Congratulations, you reluctantly killed a whistling mana-muncher eel, and won 1,800 system points as a reward. This is good, because you spent 182 mana points during this battle, so it would be horrible if you didn’t win anything in exchange. This reward is good for you, because you entered this universe without a single point to your name.]
“Eh, that’s good, but I’m not rushing with the upgrades for now. I bought everything I needed like a week ago, so at this point I’d rather just improve my mana quality for a while.” He thought.
[Accumulate your points, then, because the following upgrades can be expensive, whenever you’ll choose to buy them.] She said, [Also, on the account of your upgraded IQ, I plan to give you a bit more freedom regarding what upgrades you can buy, or when you can buy them. Of course there will be some limitations, with expensive prices being one of those limitations, but this freedom should let you favorize whatever powers you want to improve on, you’re smart enough to be picky now, so I trust your judgment. I’ll explain this concept, in depth, when the time comes.]
“That sounds fun! I guess my nagging finally worked, you’re gonna let me buy the cool shit whenever I want!” He celebrated.
Anyway, although that concept sounded really interesting, there were other things to do now that he had to pay attention to, things regarding mana. Arvena hadn’t insisted on brutally killing those eels for nothing, she had a little plan in mind. These dead eels had ‘mana-munchers’ in their name for a reason, they fed on mana, in other words, they accumulated it!
Killing them would turn these eels into a short-lasting fountain of mana, and the team were about to use their carcasses for that specific purpose! Skendus helped gather the eels together, through raw strength alone, and then the team started feeding on this fountain that promised the very thing they were after!
The team circled around this cluster of carcasses, and the free-roaming mana that followed along was so dense here, that Tim managed to fill his mana pool to the very brim, within just ten minutes! It was phenomenal, he felt as if he had found a mana-root here, so he truly felt rewarded beyond means!
Ortana experienced the same thing. She and Timothy were the weakest in terms of mana quality, so it was no surprise how they got really lucky here! With a full mana pool to their disposal, the two of them were then confident to try out something rash, they wanted to upgrade their mana quality right away! There was no point in waiting.
For weak creatures like them, it was nearly impossible for them to have such a full, dependable mana pool, because they generated mana really slowly, so all aspects were against them. They were slow!
In a world of magic, one couldn’t survive without spending mana on a daily basis, that’s what worked against them. In this rare occasion where their mana pool was full, they had to try and upgrade the quality of it! There was no working around it, this was their best shot to do so.
It wasn’t much of a debate, Tim immediately pitched. “We should upgrade now, plant lady. Well, I’m going to do it, because I don’t need to beg the gods for a blessing anyway, I’m a rebel, hehe! This is the kind of upgrade with a 100% survivability-rate, so I’m not gonna waste the chance. I won’t spend another second in this… weak state.”
Despite such cockiness, Ortana still nodded along to his idea, she agreed. They were getting ready to cast their spoken-word spells, otherwise known as pleads or demands, but Arvena, their guide, interrupted them right before they were about to cast them!
She said, “Neither of you have to beg the gods, actually. The god’s punishment realm of mana is less punishing in our universe, so it’s best if you alter your spell accordingly. Timothy, you blabbered something about being a rebel, that’s good, but it doesn’t really matter here. Both of you can utter the same spell, and expect the same results, so let me teach you, please. The two of you will survive this for sure!”
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“You’re giving out guarantees as if you met the gods personally, Arvena.” Tim pointed out, “But… I guess you can help us, cuz you’re the strongest one here, after all, you must know what you’re doing.”
Arvena smiled in response, as deeply as a fish could smile, and then she taught them accordingly. She wanted to teach them a decent, spoken-word spell, one that would hopefully push them through a less intensive experience! This realm was for the aspiring mages, after all, and there was no need to punish a mage so constantly, no. She insisted on helping them.
Ortana was the first to try the spell out, she chanted. “My will is but mana, and mana is life! God, gods? You know where I am, you know why I’m here, and you know what my intentions are, my will is pure. Gods, please bless me with purity, I demand it, as mana is greater when pure! On behalf of the creator of this micro universe, I ask you to bless me!”
The spell was lengthy, as it included many external factors, so it was surely expansive. However, its length didn’t make it any less effective. The gods heard her plea, or, her demand, and the result was in coordination with her direct demand!
What followed along was a five-minute episode of sweaty, hot, and concerning twitching. The spasms she had were very concerning, but then again they weren’t much of a surprise either!
Mana was stored in one’s body, and if its quality or purity was to be altered, then one’s whole body had to be put into use, it wasn’t dandy! She basically had to shake out any ounce of low-quality mana that she had in her body, and this was only possible if all of her internal organs were put into use. At some point, she was pissing black ink into the waters too, so the process was fairly brutal, but she had to push through.
“God damn it! This feels like I’m giving birth or something!” She complained a few times.
Anyway, regardless of how painful this process was, there thankfully was a light at the end of the tunnel. This micro-universe guaranteed success, so it was unlikely that she would’ve died along the way, but it was still great that the gruesome process was over now. Ortana bore rustic mana once more, and she was quite happy about it, it was done!
Just a few minutes earlier, Timothy had repeated that same spell, and he was going through the same process now. He was pissing black, icky mana all over the place, and this was a bit funny too; He thought that it was hilarious, at least.
Considering that he had gone through far more gruesome upgrades before, the pain that tagged along in this one, was pale in comparison. He giggled quite often, even!
“The gods are having fun after all,” He thought.
Anyway, regarding such upgrades, it was factual that he could’ve waited a little bit longer, and then he could’ve bought this same mana quality upgrade off of the system, without taking much of a risk either! It was entirely possible, but he refused to do so, for a couple of reasons.
Over a period of time, he had grown to dislike the gods for various reasons, and that was a topic of its own. However, now, when he was given an opportunity to taunt the gods, he chose to use this opportunity wholly!
It was truly something else to have the opportunity to taunt the gods with this treasured, 100% survival-rate, so he did so accordingly, he was eager. Tim had chanted the spoken-word spell, and despite what the gods might have felt up there, in their great divinity, they were still slaves to a handful of social constructs, so they granted his demand accordingly, without any strings attached. They listened. They could only ignore the fact that Tim’s will was to tease them, the gods, they couldn’t do anything about it!
The quality of his mana bounced up to level two, and by having done that, he regained about seventy-five-percent of his magical arsenal as a result.
“Hehe! God’s punishment realm my ass!” He celebrated, “I guess the gods owe a favor to this universe’s daddy or something, they couldn’t kill me through this upgrade!”
Tim was power-amped once more, which was advantageous. He could be even stronger if he wanted to, meaning, if he wanted to unlock his entire arsenal, he just had to shapeshift into a bigger stingray. That’s all it took, and it was entirely possible, but he chose to avoid that for now, because he didn’t want to be a big, easy target within this body of water. It was safer to be smaller, even if he was a bit weak as a result.
Anyway, once he upgraded the quality of his mana, he started thinking about what the system had to offer. She was truly powerful, and she had told him before that she was immune to any kind of rage that the gods would feel, she could ignore their decree. With that being said, she could offer Timothy these very expensive upgrades, regarding mana quality levels! She caught Tim thinking about this, so she started explaining things accordingly.
She said, [I can offer you the ability to upgrade the quality of your mana, Timothy. I mentioned it before, a few times too, but your memory seems to work against you, you have forgotten about this purchase option completely.]
“Well, a fish brain is less than useful. My lacking memory had actually been my smallest problem before, in comparison to some other problems, as you can recall?” He added.
[You’re right about that,] She seconded, [Anyway, I can offer you a mana quality upgrade. You can bounce up to level three right away, but it costs 10,000 system points for you to buy it and apply it on yourself.]
“Shit,” He sighed, “It’s no wonder that I never bought this thing before, it costs an arm and a leg! Then again, I can’t be stuck with this rustic mana forever, so it would be stupid to ignore your offer… Let’s hope that I get lucky with system points.”