I walk for about 45 minutes to the second river cray location. I didn't want to practice my lightning based attack in the same body of water as everybody else, so I needed to put some distance between us. I could see this being a rather short journey for everybody if I end up roasting them by accident.

Upon arrival, I can see a River Cray digging a hole… I wonder why. Kera should know so I'll ask her later.

I decide to benchmark from the least amount of damage I could do to the highest. Some situations will call on me injuring and not killing a target and if I do to them like I did to that tree earlier today, I can’t imagine they would even slightly survive.

“Hey, there little guy… I’m not going to attack you” I say as I slowly approach the River Cray

…They are oddly intimidating up close. I reach out with my sword and lightly tap the top of it with the lightning stone

Kriii? Zip KRiii!

When I do, it convulses rather wildly, sparks can be seen going around it and the water. Eventually, the sparks stop and its convulsing ceases.

KRII!

It makes an annoyed sound as it picks itself up and stammers over to me. It seems to be struggling to move, but it doesn't seem like it’s going to run from the fight.

kriII!

It lunges its claw at me aimed at my chest

“Iyaa!” Freaked out I make a slight squeal and kick it.

Crackle

When I kick it, its face seems to cave in. It launches from my kick several meters in the air and after a parabola, it lands in a tree about 8 meters away.

“Sweet, most of the meat is left intact! …Oh, wait I forgot to give Gero orders to collect the meat.” I say slightly dejected as I walk over to the tree the River Cray landed in.

gero “You called Mano-sama?” Gero stepping out from behind a tree that was next to me.

“Son-of-a!…. Gero, please stop showing up like that…” I say letting out a deep sigh when I notice its Gero.

“Yes, I did call for you I suppose. Stay with the others and collect the meat and shells of the River Cray they take down. Also if you could alert everybody when the sun is at it's zenith, it would be greatly appreciated.” I say as I try to poke the River Cray from the tree with my rapier.

gero “Understood Mano-sama. I will alert you all at the specified time.” Gero says jumping into the tree canopy above.

…When he does the River Cray falls from the branch. I suppose that was meant to look like an accident since I didn't ask him to help me.

One of the pieces of the shell is hardly hanging on so I finish it off and begin to observe it. It seems to be quite thick and tough, but from its weight, you would assume it was hollow. Tea might be able to process this into some nice gear, I should give him what we collect as thanks.

Kriiiiek!

I hear a shrill screech from above me. When I turn to look I see a River Cray that has jumped to pounce on me. Frightened, I thrust my still drawn rapier at it and after a small weight gets added to my blade, I turn to see its fate. My blade has completely impaled it, enough so that the River Cray is resting just above the handle as if it was a shish kebab.

Seriously? I hardly put any strength into that. Either this sword is absolutely amazing, or those stats weren't kidding… I would probably find this cool or amazing even, if not for one over looming fact that has me in cold chills… The Yuusha’s stats are likely to be equal if not even higher at the same level.

slap!

I slap my face to get my mind off of it and move on to the next experiment. I move along the river until I come face to face with about 8 River Cray in short proximity to each other.

“…I beseech nature to spare your wrath, stun my enemies. Ai-Va-Aer.” I ready the words as I carefully aim my rapier at the River Cray closest to the center of the group

Moments before the spell, a smug grin begins to crack on my face. Admittedly, I do find stuff like this cool; the pose I'm standing in looks like it should be on the cover of a light novel. Surprise easily takes its place on my face however as the bolt of lightning that comes from the tip of the rapier is easily 3-4 times as bright and thick. It strikes the River Cray I aimed at and begins to arc to all the others around him, some of the electricity is diffusing into the stones around them as well. The aim of the experiment was A: to see if I could shoot spells using my rapier as a conduit, and B: To see if the spell arcing would lower the power enough to only injure. Unfortunately what I see before me could easily be described as “decimation”. Every River Cray involved in the attack isn't only dead but burned so heavily that even their thick shells are crumbling.

This stone seriously raised the power of that attack, didn’t it? In the first place that attack was never supposed to be as powerful as it is when I just use my hand. Do my stats affect the spells this heavily? Or perhaps it has to do with the fact it’s not a skill on my list?

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“Ai-Va-Aer Stun!” I yell thrusting my hand at the River Cray corpses.

…But nothing happens.

When I use my normal skills I don’t have to perform a chant first… perhaps the chant is what is making it so much more powerful than my normal spells.

“Tei-Va-Feir Fireball!” I say thrusting out my hand aiming at the river, as to not start a fire.

The fireball is a different color than yesterday, it is bolstering a bright yellow flame instead of an orange one like before. Though its speed, size, and control are all about the same level as yesterday, it can be seen by how much water immediately evaporates around the fireball on approach that the flame is burning several times hotter than before.

I suppose intensity is what my stats are increasing, but the attack itself remains unchanged. Though the gap in the fireball from yesterday and the fireball today is much smaller than that of the electrical attack Kera showed me… I suppose I won’t get anywhere without more information on the subject. While I’m alone I decided to test the rest of my new skills.

“Fal-Su-Feir Fireball!” I say thrusting my hand again at the river.

Considering I don’t have any water spells, practicing fire-spells (especially considering that I’ve yet got a reading on my own strength) worries me far too much to fire at anything but the river… Though I do feel bad for the ecosystems we have been destroying yesterday and today.

Quite a few factors come to a surprise when I activate this skill. First, there are three fireballs. Secondly, they don’t immediately fly where my hand was pointed but rather are floating in an arc over my head. Lastly, they aren’t the same color as the fireball I just launched, but rather the color of the fireballs I was firing yesterday.

“Woah!” This surprise elates me a fair deal and I can’t help but show it audibly.

For once a surprise that didn't immediately break something or threaten my year of peace; I was beginning to think this world wasn't going to allow me many of those. Happy with my new ability, I attempt to move them and they moved as commanded. This was far easier than I imagined it would be, as they seem to respond to nearly any control method I use. Directing them with my fingers was by far the best method though, as the level of control it gave me was by far the highest.

I look at my skill menu to decide which skill to test next. Let’s see… what else was there? All that’s left is “Earth manipulation” and “Restora” to test.

“Fal-Kei-Tera Earth Manipulation” I say trying to imagine what it would do.

Unfortunately, nothing actually happens. however, upon inspection of my MP bar, I've most certainly lost quite a fair amount of MP for using it. Maybe I didn't meet the prerequisites? Like for instance if it was meant to fire a stone or change its shape, I would need to be holding a stone. I pick up a stone from the river and try again.

“Fal-Kei-Tera Earth Manipulation” I yell imagining the stone shooting from my hand.

Contrary to what I imagined though, the stone slowly floated from my hand forward. Upon experimentation, I learn that I can control the stone on the same level as the fireballs. I fail to see why this would take up so much of my SP though. I decided to try and change the shape.

Kriiiiichtitch

Miraculously the stone changes into the shape of a star just as I had imagined it, and quite quickly as well. So the point of this ability is to change the shape of the earth then? That could be quite handy.

I place both my hands on the ground and recite the spell again.

“Fal-Kei-Tera Earth Manipulation” This time when I say it, a good amount of exhaustion flushes over me.

I suppose this is the result of using several of my highest rank skills right after one another. I decide to continue the experiment however since it seems to only be the activation of the spell that takes SP.

The ground before me ripples like water for a second before the center of the ripple shoots upward, and created a spike-shaped pillar protruding from the ground. I continue to make it rise until I am assured of the spells capability. At some point, however, the test became hard to judge as the top had risen too far for me to accurately measure the height since I was standing directly at the base. In front of me stands a pillar several times higher than the canopy of the trees around me. I would estimate about as tall as a four-story building. It’s impressive nonetheless.

Now for the experiment that holds the most weight behind it. I walk over to the corpses of the River Cray, which despite landing in water still have a few fires and embers scattered on them.

… I question for a moment whether I really want to see the result of this… In the end, however, I decide that I can’t hide from the answer, even if it’s not the one I want.

“Fal-La-Tu Restora” I say holding my hands directly over the corpse of one of the River Cray.

A light envelopes it and the lobster-red color begins to return to its shell as pieces float back into place. Far faster than “Restore” the creature in front of me is returning to exactly how it was when I first saw it. After the spell has finished I wait a few moments and check the corpse again… and of course, it was still a corpse.

Believe it or not, I’m immensely relieved by this. I still know little of this world… but for this much death to be floating around, and for a war to still exist between the Yuusha and the Maou, a method for revival would only make things worse. Considering I wish to end the war between the Maou and the Yuusha, such an ability existing would only make matters worse. It truly scared me that I might have had such an ability, even more so when I thought I might be the only one. I mean you try and convince somebody that you aren’t inherently evil when you hold the ability to control life and death.

I shake my head to get it off of such a heavy subject and decide to continue. I pierce my rapier in a line down the back of the shell and hit it until a crack forms between all the holes. When pulling the shell off of the meat it is apparent that the abilities of “restore” and “restora” have some flaws. The embers are still burning softly in the meat, where the fires seem to have been snuffed out by the restored meat and shell.

“What in the world happened here?!” I hear suddenly from the trees.

I quickly grasp my rapier surprised, but I lower it when I notice that the source of the voice was Kiel. How in the world did he get here so quickly? His speed isn't to be underestimated I suppose.

“What are you doing all the way over here? I told you and the imps to train at the other river.” I say casually.

“Well at first it was to figure out why a giant spike showed up, then I hurried cause I saw a glowing light. More importantly what in the word is going on? Roasted corpses, a giant spike, scorched earth, and you're talking to me casually while you dissect a River Cray.” Upon him pointing it out, I hurriedly pull my hands off of the shell they were previously holding open

“I was… experimenting.” I say not looking him straight in the face.

“…You only get more and more scary you know that? The Maou’s powers are nothing to take lightly are they?” He says walking up to the pillar and putting his hand on it

“…Let’s just hope, because we are going to be headed for that goblin camp in just under an hour.” I say looking at the position of the sun.