I was thinking…

About Mike. And his “ability”.

At this point, I’d rather just call it an interesting method…

While not a spell that I would learn, it was definitely something that I would be able to mimic. At least if I was correct in my earlier assumptions.

To boot, I also was in a body that definitely was able to do that before. Maybe a bit more… converted, sure. But that would only help. I mean it SHOULD help.

How would I go about it again…?

To pump mana into my own heart…?

Well, I can try. Especially with that much to spare. Thanks to a certain someone.

I had to focus…

Well, easier said than done. Being pelted by a rain of small spikes constantly wasn’t exactly relaxing… Well, maybe for some it was, but they’re weird.

But…

This strange feeling…

…

I wanted to swat the annoying projectiles with my hand. Or a spell. Or anything.

For a second, I looked up, and saw another one flying right at my face.

Right at my eye…

Instinctively, I closed my eyes, preparing for the pain and at the same time trying to dodge it somehow…

But it did not come.

Did he miss? Or I dodged it?

I opened my eyes to a sight weirder than I thought.

It wasn’t that he missed. It’s just… the projectile didn’t arrive yet.

For some reason, everything suddenly was sluggish. Including myself.

For me, it felt like I was moving in water. I could push through, but if I put my mind to it, I would just move like usual. Everything else though… was just slow.

I… I did it?

I didn’t even concentrate properly… and yet it worked?

I looked at my enemy.

Yeah, he was still moving. I could tell that he was about to toss yet another spike at me. But while his projectiles were moving ridiculously slow, he himself… was almost normal.

Well, if he was enhancing himself, that made sense.

But my enhancement was apparently better: he still looked a bit slower to me. Or it was just the contrast from what I just was experiencing and now…

But, this was enough for me to notice what exactly he was doing.

Sure, he was casting spells. Creating stone to use as projectiles.

But those weren’t as magic-less as I thought.

Before every single cast, I could tell that a piece of crystal was flying right from one of the holes in his clothes right towards the stone he was conjuring.

So, those were enhanced with the crystals? I was right?

How was he even able to hide those, then?

The projectiles were slow enough.

I could catch one…

And did.

It was so easy… it actually surprised me.

I mean, sure, it was sluggish for me, but honestly, I was expecting for something to happen. I don’t know what, but it felt so easy…

Shrugging off this feeling, I instead focused on the spike I caught.

Was there really something inside…? Or was I just insane…

I wanted to snap it in half to see inside, but… there was a problem.

Sure. I caught it. But the moment I wanted to snap it in two, I literally turned it to dust.

And I didn’t even have my hands covered in stone! Nor turned to crystal, for that matter. I was still pretty fleshy, since most of the damage was able to avoid my hands…

Damn. And I wanted to check it to be sure… It’d be nice to know what exactly I was dealing with. Or at least get a closer look.

I mean, I could always approach him, but…

I could just get another one?

Wait, speaking of. What’s up with him?

From my perspective, he was almost normal before, so after this stunt he should’ve noticed that something’s afoot, right.

But nope.

Quite the opposite, actually. He was just standing there.

Wait, pause. He was not moving?

And not only him. Just like that, it was also that attacks of his were… frozen.

No, wait. They were still moving. Spikes, I mean. Very. VERY slowly. But still moving.

What the fuck.

For a second I thought I stopped time or something like that.

So that’s how it looked from this perspective, huh? That’s confusing as shit.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

But at least I didn’t have to worry about him retaliating. That’s good.

Then, I could focus on inspecting his attacks. And crystals. If he’s so slow, there’s no way he would be able to do anything, right?

Thinking that, I wanted to get another projectile to see exactly what's inside, but there was a problem.

Not in catching, no. I could get it no problem…

But what was after…

When I wanted to move it from the spot it was flying through… or rather was frozen in, it was hard to move it.

Before, it felt like I was moving through water. When I picked it up, it felt like this small piece of rock was the heaviest thing in existence, almost like it was rooted in place.

Of course with my enhanced flesh I was strong enough to pull it away… or rather I should say I was too strong.

Instead of moving it, I broke it again. It turned to dust in the spot I was grabbing.

I wanted to get the remaining pieces, but the same thing happened. Whatever I touched, it felt like it was hooked in place, and when I pushed against it, I broke it.

I went through every single piece that was near me, with no luck.

I was trying to be as gentle as I could, I even tried tying a piece of cloth that I tore off of myself and pulling on that. That only made me destroy the clothes with no effect: it just tore the moment I pulled on it.

Well, that complicated things.

If I wanted to know what the crystal was, I guess I should just go straight to the source.

I mean, he couldn’t be as fragile as those, right?

Yeah, about that… If those were so fragile, how the hell were they able to hurt me so well?

I mean, sure, they did shatter after hitting my rock, but still. Those were supposed to be stone with a magical crystal inside.

Hm. Well, he did break those crystals with his bare hands though…

That made me even more curious.

I probably should just get to him and grab one right from the source…

As I thought that, so I did. Or wanted to.

Movement was terribly hard. I compared it to water, right? Now it was more like jello. And with every step it was getting harder.

For an ability that was making me move faster, I was impressively slow. Funny how that plays out…

I pushed through the resistance, and was about half-way towards the guy, I noticed that he moved.

Well, he didn’t do it much, but it seemed like he was trying something.

With him being this slow, though, I didn’t think much of it.

That is, until I got even closer.

Yeah, I was pretty sure that he noticed me.

One look at his face was enough. Now contorted in a weird mix of surprise

I mean, if I understood that correctly, in his eyes I just moved towards him with speed that was hard to comprehend.

No wonder he was trying something.

The question was, what?

I don’t think there was much he actually could do to hurt me. Or even just try to stop me for that matter.

It made me hesitate.

Should I wait? To see what he's trying?

But, judging by his speed, that was going to take a while. A long while.

Did I have that time, though?

The truth was, I had no idea.

Sure, I could pour a stable stream of mana into myself, I had a lot of it after all, but still, this was the first time I’ve done something like this. How long, realistically, can I keep it up without something going wrong. Minutes? Hours?

How the hell should I know.

Mike didn’t have any problems with that, but I was not him. Well, mostly.

Nah. I probably should do what I wanted and then try and observe him. With this speed I would definitely have plenty of time to react.

So, let’s get to the source.

First things first: let’s get rid of that strange “shield” of his.

I mean, that was just a piece of clothing, and at this point already ripped in multiple places, so destroying it shouldn’t be a problem. Especially with my enhanced power. I only had to be careful to not kill him accidentally, which was very possible, considering the fact that just a simple attempt at grabbing a pebble ended in me crushing it into dust.

I was right to be careful.

I didn’t even have to try to destroy his clothes.

Just like I saw before, he indeed was hiding some kind of utility belt. But… it was strange.

He had already expended a multitude of crystals. I’ve seen him do it. And yet, all the pockets, sockets and everything that would look like could hide a crystal was still full of it.

What’s up with the infinite supply?

As if to answer my question, I noticed one of the crystals slowly flow out of his pocket.

The process was unbearably slow, but I observed how it started floating from one, just to go towards his hand and be covered in stone that appeared out of thin air.

So he was even making the rock?

I mean, we were surrounded by mostly concrete and brick, so that was expected… No wonder I had no difficulty absorbing most of the impact…

Before the projectile formed, I bumped it away, turning it into dust.

I reached my hand into his pocket.

Sure enough, it was full of crystals.

Hm… a bit too full…

I grabbed a handful and took a better look.

Yeah. It definitely looked like some form of Origin Crystal.

But, I was correct in my earlier assumptions: it was a lot less durable.

Just by pulling it out of the pocket, I managed to crush it in my fingers, even though I was trying to be careful.

This was definitely something new. No matter how strong I became, or how much the time difference was affecting the current situation, I would never be able to crush Origin Crystal with my bare fingers. I mean, I would at least feel some pain while doing that….

But this… this felt just like crushing a cue of sugar. Even the texture was similar, at least to the touch.

I wondered about how much mana this thing was packing, when I started feeling the magic seep into me.

Right, no matter how fast I was, mana was still going to move with the same speed.

Meaning slow. To me now, at least.

I moved my fingers away, and instead of trying to absorb the magic directly, I just wanted to see how much of a cloud it’s going to produce.

I had to wait a moment, but that gave me a clear picture: this thing was definitely able to host quite a bit. Definitely not as inexhaustible as THE Crystal, but still pretty good. No wonder they were using it as fuel for their mages.

I wonder, how were they able to make it?

I mean, by all means, we were ones that were responsible for experiments on the Crystal. There shouldn’t be anyone left…

Ah, who am I kidding? The databases were still left. I already knew that. Why would they stop, seeing as we managed to discover that much…

Honestly, I was hoping that they’d learned to be a bit more careful with that… especially after that many deaths…

But still, this did not answer how he was able to have that much of a supply. Was he somehow making it on the fly?

Impossible. He had to get this mana from somewhere, right…?

Something irked me to check his pockets again.

This time, I wanted to see how much exactly he had on him.

My intention was to essentially frisk him.

First, back to the pocket I checked before. I am pretty sure I never reached the bottom of it…

I reached my hand in.

Yeah, I definitely did not.

Wait a second…

I started reaching deeper.

And deeper.

I managed to fill my whole arm, elbow included.

Huh. No wonder he had that much: his clothes were enhanced with spatial properties.

A void bag in a pocket.

No wonder he had a seemingly endless supply of it.

But wasn’t it a bit too risky…?

One stray spell and this whole thing would blow up.