Geez, Billy is quite savage when his sleep gets disturbed… 'Plus 5 to Wisdom please,' it is currently my lowest Attribute among the three mental stats. I guess there's not much Wisdom in lower leveled monsters and animals, though there is even less Charisma. While most have higher physical attributes instead.

Alrighty. The night is young and an OP spell won't make itself; I cast my senses to focus on the spatial tunnel that is, my Blink Spell. I want another one like this, but sturdier, smaller and one that pulls stuff to me rather than sending me out. The memory of crafting the tunnel resurfaces and I proceed to construct another smaller, more offense oriented version.

First of all, the exit. A resizable standard connection between True Space; which is where most everything resides, and the layer of Subspace that allows sentients passage; which is also the exact layer upon which Blink's tunnel exists. Then similarly the tunnel itself. A few key differences being; one, this tunnel is much smaller, rather than being of a size large enough to easily fit a person, I made this one to be smaller than a ping pong ball. And two, rather than the soft fabric-like design of Blink's tunnel, this one is sturdy, muscle-ly and in the design of an octopus's tentacle that is made of strong metal. Let us say; something like adamantine—I want it to be both robust and flexible… At this stage, it kinda looks like Snatcha all over again.

At the end, the input tunnel. I make a similar connection between True Space and the select Subspace, but this one in the shape of a maw. A devourer. Its job is to lurk within the sub-spatial dimension, engulf a target and to swallow it through itself, into the tunnel then towards mine possession. Imagine being in battle with someone, one moment you're fine and the next some vital parts in your neck are gone; 2 centimeters of off your esophagus for example. I observe the finished tunnel and can't help but chuckle to myself, seeing a long neck and a rounded head that is all jaw, because I am reminded of an ambiguous wyvern design from a game series called Monster Hunter. By 2044, the twelfth had just been released, if I am not mistaken.

Now to name and finalize the spell. Since I plan to use it as a way to invade the insides of my enemies, and evacuate a part of them outside. The spell shall be known as Invaseviction! Upon cast; it wholly manifests and resides within the subspace, the only point of contact with True Space being the maw and the… other end that ejects any evacuated object. All in all the spell costs me 250 mana, mostly spent on maintaining both connections and compressing its form, to provide the oomph it requires to bite and pull. You need a small part of your consciousness to maintain its presence, once unneeded, it may easily enough be dismissed. I step outside and target the ground some 10 meters away and the jaw lashes forth. It takes a weak bite, managing to pull a handful of dirt out its back end and onto the palm of my left hand… need to improve bite strength.

That used up another 50 mana, I had to make a simple muscle structure for its jaws. Just some sturdy retractable muscle-like strings that work on a skeletal-like structure, kinda like our own mouth. I think. I ain't no doctor… but now, for 300 mana, a new spell has been brought forth. It is strong enough to snatch a piece of rock from within a boulder. 'Updates.'

** DING **

Novice Rank spell learnt; Arcane Vaults

Skill level up, Taunt 20 > 22

Skill level up, intimidate 29 > 32

Skill level up, Unarmed Combat Proficiency 28 > 29

Skill level up, All-Armors Proficiency 18 > 19

Skill level up, Visualization 44 > 45

Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 43 > 44

Congratulations. You have created a new Expert rank spell. As its creator, the spell will grow with you as your understanding of it grows.

Invaseviction… spell logged

Strength + 6

Constitution + 8

Dexterity + 10

Intelligence + 4

Wisdom + 2

Will + 2

Charisma + 2

Parry have not been improving lately, even when used intensively, another one of those damned Threshold! Both Parallel thought and Spatial Intuition are also two other skills that have not level up in a while, but this time, maybe through lack of use. The kind of uses that truly stretches the skills capacity. That is something for me to work on in the near future.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Midnight came to pass. So, like yesterday, I devoured two more level 5 Earl Vespas from my Pocket Suspense; this leaves me with ten more Earls, some Dukes and Barons, as well as a few Roaches… then, to spend the rest of the night, I hunted nearby creatures and experiment on my new spell. Spent fifteen minutes to take my usual short nap-sleep before continuing with the experiments.

Starting with the easiest measure; distance. Anything within an approximate distance of 60 meters seems to be well within the range of my spell. Second, the maws may expand to engulf an object that is about 60 centimeters in diameter, the object would then cause the tunnel to bloat and debloat as it passes by. Quite similar to a snake swallowing something larger than itself, just more comically, imagine the bloating a 1 centimeter-ish small snake swallowing a watermelon would experience. Unfortunately, something as hard as a rock seems to be the limits of its jaw strength, which meant metals and bones are outside of its biting capabilities.

So far, among the woods within this mountainous terrain, the only enemy I have encountered are various versions of squirrel-like animals. Their levels vary from a low number of fifteen to as high as the forties. Each variant also shoots off their own different variant of acorn bullets. All three identify as an Acorneer-something; the three I have seen so far are Snipers, Bombarders and Assaulters. The first has a shooting range of approximately 200 meters, through branches and leaves, the acorn itself is narrow and sharp. Bombarders are physically, slightly larger than the two, it comes to within ten meters of its target or to a point above them on a tree and tosses a large acorn that explodes on impact. The last seems to prefer being within the 80 meters range; its thrown acorn would fly in a relatively straight line and burst into a cluster of shrapnels a few meters away from its target.

881 syscred and 3,562 exp awarded

I was more experimenting than hunting for experience, which meant I took on a more passive approach of standing in place by the hidden entrance to our Tower cave and waiting for an enemy to initiate the fight. By the morning, I had slain a little less than 50 of the creatures, a random mix of all three and level. Fortunately, these are all above level 10, which meant I need not care about keeping their corpse and soul intact for my consumption.

The first thing I tried was to nip a 1 centimeter sphere of the target's heart out. I watch It fall to the ground and convulse for a minute before it stills. The next target being the brain; this time to mixed effects. Not to be mistaken as all targets perish to the attack, but some die in an instant while others survive long enough to shoot back at me. The fastest cause of death seems to be when I evict any parts on the center lower area of their brains. Which I can differentiate through use of Mana Sense… Conclusion; the removal of any parts of an organ always results in death, the only variable being how long it takes for the condition to settle. Removal of muscles would cripple the use of any relevant limbs, the most effective being the muscles found along the back. The same goes for any bone small enough to take whole. So far, I find the spell functions fine and as designed, will need further testing.

Eventually, the sun rises over the horizon, bringing light and a new day to the world. A party of six people can be felt entering my range of Mana Sense, approaching us in casual-caution. I think I recognize these figures… the first party we fought?!

This made me grin, did their surrender in our previous battle resulted in them being delegated the job of speaking with us? As things stand, I happen to like this bunch best among the locals… so for now. In a fit of playful mischief, I once again refer to the results of my Mana Sense and use it to pinpoint an ideal location to Blink into, somewhere slightly behind them.

Blink. I proceed to activate my camouflage and started making faint noise that disturbs the usual balance of noises found in the area. The snap of a branch behind them, Blink. Then the blunt thud of something hitting a tree, Blink. Leaves falling into their paths, Blink. Rustling bushes, something heavy stomping on the ground, and many others. This fun continued for a few minutes, I watch them grow increasingly wary and paranoid, just up until they were about five minutes away from our Tower. I then blink back into the cave and wait for their arrival.

"Something wrong?" Roy asks me while they have breakfast, he is a very quick eater. And when asked; habbits die hard he always says.

"Yeah, we got incoming. Remember the party that surrendered in our previous fight." I tell him, but loud enough for the others to hear, grinning from ear to ear. "They're making their way here right now. ETA 5 mins last time I checked."

"And why were you checking," Henry asks looking straight into my eyes. As an automated response, my face shifts into a neutral expression. "I know that mischievous grin. Spill it!"

What choice do I have? I spend the next few minutes explaining my deed. "And why did you do that?" Billy asks.

Huh?

"That's a good question," I stop to think… and a wide grin cannot help but once again adorn my face. "Honestly, I don't know. But at that time, it just felt like a fun thing to do."

They ate breakfast and discussed the implications of my mischief while we waited for the party to arrive. I have not been using Mana Sense to pay much attention towards them; more invested in the conversation, in my own thoughts on ways to improve myself, fabricating more Mana Cores and keeping track of the vicinity. But that messenger of a party sure is taking their time to arrive…

"Gear up! They're under attack!" I tell the others, while doing the same for unifomity's sake. Spatial inventory and an armor made out of magical plates that listens to your mind is truly the work of wonders. Where a heavy infantry would need a few minutes and the assistance of at least one more person. Ours are worn in seconds and without assistance.

We rush out, them following my lead. But I ended up having to slow down, due to how much slower they are moving through the uneven terrain and natural obstacles. But it is imperative I arrive as soon as possible. "Follow my disk!" — I was mistaken, when I assumed it would take 5 minutes. It was how long it would take for me to arrive at my inhuman speed of movement, not these lower leveled people…

Blink! I arrive in the middle of a small clearing, they party stands combat ready in a way that seems to mean they are under attack from both their front and back; so I see both tanks each facing the opposite direction while the other four stand in the middle, heads warily turning to look in all directions. Upon my arrival, I was first noticed by Stabby, which told the others. Then by the enemy, as told by the incredible amounts of chitterlings.

They are ambushed by a massive group of Acorneers! I even see some unfamiliar looking ones.