After resting for a few minutes I push myself up with a long drawn out groan and get to work on digging the cores out of the goblins.
Carving out a dead creature is something I have experienced in both my lives. My grandfather on earth decided that a 10 year old girl from the city should know how to gut and cook her own catch. I didn’t lose my lunch or anything, but the whole situation was traumatic enough to scare me off seafood for the rest of my life. Now, digging my silver knife into the spine of a mangled bloody goblin all I can think is that I would kill for this thing to look more like a fish. Then at least I would have something to eat.
I refuse to even think about eating a goblin.
After having dug out the cores and converted them I decided to identify them without placing them in golems yet.
Looking over the opaque brownish green crystal no larger than a pebble from the level 8 goblin I question how the goblin managed to break the one in Alpha. It must have been from the repeated impacts rather than a direct hit. I will have to keep that in mind if the cores are that fragile. Though it could have been my evidently shit luck and the goblin just managed a direct hit after all its random stabbing.
Side by side I can see that the core from the level 11 goblin is a slightly brighter green. I remember the cores from the monsters I butchered for training being of a much brighter green and less opaque than the ones I have in my hands. The mana cores probably change the higher level you are.
[Golem Core - Lv : 2]
[Golem Core - Lv : 6]
While I really want to test my newly upgraded skill I realize I need to focus on finding someplace safe, or at least a source of water before I go wasting what is left of my mana. I managed to refill my mana a bit from the level ups but I am far from full after these repeated battles.
So I begin to limp my way towards the same direction I had been heading before. Leaving a small trail of blood behind as I wander through the forest with towering trees that could rival skyscrapers I try and get some answers out of my personal villainess.
She had mentioned that I should get a skill that would help me find a river or something but I got mugged by those goblins before I could circle back to the question. I asked for some hints and the answer I got was a blunt “your eyes take in light to function do they not?” And with that I began trying to pull in distant light and redirect it to my eyes.
I may or may not have blinded myself half a dozen times before I figured it out. I was also forced to figure out how to focus my [Passive - Solar Regeneration] into a single place. I will leave exactly what location up to one's imagination.
[Skill [Passive - Solar Regeneration] has leveled up!]
[You have learned the skill [Telescopic Vision]!]
Now with my new skills I can feel a warm sensation buzzing along my wounds, the cuts and bruises very slowly stitching themselves back together. Though not fast enough to be visible in any way. For now I decide to focus my regeneration towards the gashes across my leg in hopes that I can heal enough before my next encounter that I will be able to move faster than the zombie-like pace I am currently moving at.
Focusing on running mana through my eyes I see the world before me begin to open up, everything becomes a bit brighter and I can make out details on a tree that is probably a mile away. It is quite disorienting to see all this detail from such a large distance, especially when I am not just seeing a single point, but a wide range. After a moment it starts getting hard to focus my eyes on any single thing with all the information flooding my brain that I have to cancel the skill rather quickly before I give myself a migraine.
“Ow, I thought skills were not supposed to harm you like that.”
“Normally they would not, but as I have said repeatedly, your mind can not be accessed by the system and therefore the system can not provide assistance in processing the information.”
Well that sucks. Apparently I will have to slowly train my brain to accept the new information overload if I want to use the skill without splitting my skull open.
While it seems like it will be a while before I can make use of the skill I realize that there might be something else I can do.
Sitting down in another beam of light I begin to gather some into the palm of my hand using my mana and smooth it out. it begins to shift from white to red and then it becomes fully invisible, after pushing a bit harder I manage to get the light past infrared and into the microwave realm again. However this time I don’t stop, I continue to smooth out the light over and over trying to reach my goal. And just when I feel like I am getting close, I suddenly stop.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
However I didn’t stop because I wanted to, but I felt a push back. like something clamping down on my mana, preventing me from smoothing the light any further.
Pushing harder and harder with more mana all I can feel is this massive wall in my way, refusing to budge and let me smooth the mana and further.
“Ugh, why?! Why can’t I make radio waves?!”
“If you are referring to the frequency of light below what you called microwaves then I assume you ran into a wall while trying to create them?”
“Yeah, no matter how hard I push I feel something forcing my mana back, preventing me from making them.”
“That would be the effect of a grand curse laid upon the world long ago, I can not go into detail but creating that type of energy through unnatural means, like mana or technology, is no longer possible.”
“Wait, what? I have never heard anything about a grand curse!”
“Humans are rather forgetful and the curse was cast a very long time ago so I doubt you would have heard of it. I really can’t say more.”
Thinking on the ramifications of a curse that limits the type of light I can create, I go over the spectrum of light in my head. From the longest wavelength to shortest it goes Radio Waves, Micro-waves, Infrared, Visible Light, Ultraviolet, X-ray, and finally Gamma-rays. While not exact, getting into the nitty gritty of light is a waste of time right now. I don’t know the exact effects of the curse and I am certain that it does far more than just limit light magic, but for me the effects on light magic are all I need to worry about at the moment.
After explaining the order of the electromagnetic spectrum to my personal and slightly unhelpful search engine I ask enough questions to get some form of answer I was looking for.
While I can just barely create microwaves, getting far enough to make radio waves will never happen. More intriguing is that I can create ultraviolet waves and even nudge into X-rays. Sadly I was not a physics major in college so I don’t know exactly what I can use most of this for. However I do know that if I can concentrate high energy light, I can dish out a lot more damage. At least I think I can?
Interrupting my mental tangent on using different wavelengths of light to maybe survive the snark machine casually throws in that makes all my over thinking go to waste.
“You know if you are trying to use light to scan the area then you don’t actually need what you call radio waves, microwaves are more than sufficient.”
Slumping my shoulders at the obvious realization that all I needed was a long wavelength of invisible light to make a pseudo-radar, I began working my magic instead of trying to act like I am smart.
It takes me another 2 hours of trudging along and the horrible realization that I soon won't have much time left in the daylight before I manage to project my little laser pointer of microwaves off into the distance and figure out how to detect and process any information I get back.
Considering I had no idea how a real radar worked I was forced to trial and error my way to my new skill.
[You have learned the skill [Shitty Radar]!]
“Hey! Why is my skill called that!”
“Because the skill is basically useless without The System's assistance to properly map the information so I took the liberty to rename the skill to match. Right now you have something that is no more useful than a magical measuring stick.”
“Urk. Wait, you can rename my skills?”
“Skill names are all made up by The System in the first place, obviously the word ‘radar’ is not part of this world's language. I just based it on your own description.”
“Huh, I wonder why I have never heard about any of these quirks of The System before?”
“Who can say?”
And with that enigmatic response I focus on what is ahead of me. I had been hearing it for a little while now. A quiet staticy rumble off in the distance. I had been throwing around my [Shitty Radar] all over the place while trying to learn the skill when I noticed something odd. Off in one direction I was not getting any feedback, I would have expected to hit a tree eventually but if I fired at just the right angle through the trees my radar would not hit a single thing.
It may have been stupid and reckless to head towards an obvious unknown but with lack of any better options I started trudging towards the mystery radar dead zone. And Alice didn’t seem to comment on it being stupid which I decided to take as a good sign.
The sun is finally starting to set. I have no idea how long I have been walking for but it seems focusing my regeneration skill on the leg wound the whole time was just enough to make it so I can walk again instead of limping. Granted I am not moving at a fast pace as the gash is still there, it has just healed enough that I can put weight on it again.
[You have learned the skill [Infrared Vision]!]
I had also been practicing a new skill, at first I started to make a ball of light so I could carry it around to see when it got dark. This got me yelled at by Alice for trying to do something that would obviously attract a horde of monsters my way.
After the angry lecture I decided to try a different approach which resulted in my new skill. I had thought this for a while now but I seem to be picking up new skills rather quickly. Alice says I must be a prodigy, but only in the realm of light magic, otherwise I'm a complete dumbass.
I found it hard to argue with that.
Just as the sun fully set and I switched to using my new skill I finally saw off in the distance the reason why my radar didn’t pick anything up.
It was a cliff. A massive straight drop so horrifically steep that I could see the tops of the skyscraper like trees spreading out below.
I thought I was screwed for a moment when I arrived at the edge but just as I was about to turn around, I spotted it. It was pretty far away, so far that I needed to use my [Telescopic Vision] skill alongside my [Infrared Vision] skill for a brief moment just to be sure I was not imagining it.
A tiny speck and yet so absurdly huge, there it was. A massive waterfall carving its way through the landscape and plunging off the edge of the bottomless cliff.
I had finally found a source of water. Now under the vibrant stars and subtly glowing moons I focus my night vision skill along the edge of the cliff and into the forest. Making sure I am not being followed by any other annoying goblins, I begin to make my way to my salvation off in the distance.
----------------------------------------
Moving along the treetops a pair of bright red eyes looks down on the little blue haired human marching along the edge of the cliff, the border between the first ring of the forest and the second.
“Interesting.”
With a single word the eyes vanish into the darkness of the canopy.
“I wonder if you will be able to entertain me.”
…