LEVEL UP!

Maki Hibiki Lv13

Skills:

1H Swords Lv19

1H Skill Lv19

Slash Lv26

Spell Slots:

Fireball - Variations: Burst

Blasting Bolt - Variations: Discharge

Techniques:

Explosive Edge

I cleared the floor and the incoming wave completely.

I fall to my knees and rest my back against the cave wall as usual.

I take a swig from my waterskin and let it trickle down my lips and throat.

My fingers were trembling. My sword was flat on the floor doing nothing at all.

My whole body was starting to go numb. The slimes stopped coming about an hour ago.

I haven’t seen a single one since.

Just been laying here waiting to have enough strength to walk back to the upper floors.

I finished my drink of water and then took the almost empty vial of potion to my lips and trickled a tiny drop down my throat. I shook as I forced myself upright and then knelt again to pick up my weapon and then limp upwards.

I walk all the way to the hot springs, remove my tattered clothes drop my sword like a nuisance yet again, and splash into the water.

Groaning as I kick back and relax within the warmth of nature, I close my eyes and place my head safely on the earth while my body soaks below.

Satisfied. Right now, I was satisfied with myself.

Something I hadn’t felt in a while and would rarely occur in my day to day life.

This feeling of doing everything you need to do and what you want to do, even in the vacuum of a single day, that's an accomplishment.

Even if it’s something simple, I should be proud of it.

Anyone should. It takes strength to get up everyday and push yourself.

But for me right now? I need a bit more than that.

I need to go beyond the limit every day. I have to. I must.

Otherwise, it’s all over. Though for now I’ll be content. Just for a few minutes.

For one day. It’s my day. My victory. I earned it and I’ll earn more of it.

I’ve always thought that a person’s life was their own.

I still do. So even if I do owe a lot to people, to my ancestors, parents, teachers, friends, and everyone who helped me grow up… I have a responsibility to my own life.

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You only ever get one-!

I start laughing to myself and my voice echoes off the walls.

The fact I got a second chance is miraculous. Even if it was orchestrated or randomly chosen by a weird magical machine, of all people, it was me. I get to say that I had two lives.

Yet I never felt I was really living my first one, so maybe it’s fair that I get a little extension on my time, right?

I get up, dry myself with a towel I bought a few days earlier and travelled to an alcove, sat down and began to consume what was left of the vegetable soup I made earlier today.

Cooking in bulk to save on costs, that doesn’t change no matter where or when you are.

I heat it up with a very small fireball and just lay down on my bed, which was really just a cheap carpet put over the smoothest stone of the room; and just slowly ate my food.

When I was done I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Day 7

I killed one slime today.

I woke up the next day feeling a bit better. A bit strained and a bit groggy but nothing I couldn’t handle.

I ate some more soup and went down to the lower levels.

I couldn’t find a single slime. I combed the entire are up until the 2nd-floor entrance and not a single slime was in sight. Did I slay so many that they were running out?

Or did I beat their manufacturing speed yesterday, so they aren’t caught up yet?

Regardless, I couldn’t find any slimes. So I couldn’t grind for exp.

I was frustrated. I guess I had no option but to wait for them to come back. Rushing into the 2nd floor could be suicidal. I paced around the caves until it was clear I was jogging as a way to kill time. I did push-ups, pulls up, and every basic exercise you can think of but none of it felt right.

It wasn’t the same as fighting. It wasn’t as satisfying.

I ate my food. I read more of the magic book to learn about spells.

Flashing Frost. Grazing Gale. Magnetic Missile. Luminous Lance. Vanishing Void.

So many basic spells that are apparently easy to learn. I could obtain them whenever I wanted.

All were different in what elements they utilised. All were the basics of basics.

Yet the author insisted that that was why they were among the best.

Of course, they’re more powerful spells. Spells with a larger area of effect. Spells with unique properties. Spells that can shift a battlefield. Yet, the fundamentals were stressed again and again to be something not to be forgotten.

“I’d fear the mage that is an expert at one basic but devastating spell than the user of a thousand different flashy attacks that has no idea how to play with them.”

One perfect technique is better than thousands of inferior and unpractised ones.

An ideology that transcends worlds it seems. Of course, that doesn’t mean I or anyone should abandon the more complex or powerful spells but it did mean that people should be careful about how they use them and which ones to devote time into.

After a while, I decided to walk back to the stairs of the 2nd floor.

I just waited there. Staring deeper into the dimly lit abyss. I practiced my sword swings absentmindedly as I was just waiting. Waiting for something to happen.

Waiting for my prey to leap into my open fangs.

Hours later. A single slime appeared.

I rushed towards it and as always it leaped to my left hand that I stretched out as bait.

Perfect. I had been thinking of something I could try. I can’t just kill this specimen and move on.

I needed to experiment. Test my theories. Kill this sense of boredom building within me.

I walked back to a hot spring with the slime still attached to my left hand.

I leaned over and placed my hand and thus the slime into it.

There’s an instant reaction. The slime seems to find the heat somewhat unpleasant.

It wriggles and squirms just a little bit.

I smiled. If anyone saw me at that moment they’d think I was a deranged madman.

A serial slasher without remorse. I placed my right hand just above the water's surface.

“Fireball.”

I began to raise the temperature of the springs with a gleeful look on my face.

I was transferring magical energy into heat. I was boiling the pool.

The slime begins to thrash wildly, trying to climb up my arm.

I shove my arm and it deeper into the now bubbling water.

It’s kicking in all directions. It’s gurgling and frothing.

I push and wrap my fingers around the core.

I plunge it deeper into the boiling springs. It’s like a piece of jelly, squirming from side to side in a desperate attempt to escape from me. I stop generating heat with my right hand and use it to further suppress the slime from attempting to escape.

I press down. Deep into scalding hot water.

It struggles. It flails. It squirms. Until…

I pull out my arms from the pool.

My skin is red. It hurts. It stings. Though that didn’t matter at all to me.

I was holding a perfectly pure and undamaged slime core.

“Jackpot.”