25 - Safety, confusion, danger, and Clams

This was a disaster, but it also gave me a way out.

When I had been in pain, I couldn't focus enough to cast healing spells on myself, but now I could.

Quickly, I cast the highest healing magic I knew, the 10th circle [Pseudo-Undeath].

It could help you recover from any injury so long as you weren't dead and your brain was fine. Even if your brain wasn't fine, if it was mostly intact and still alive, you could still recover, just with permanent amnesia.

Casting it, my condition visibly improved, and I almost looked completely ok again, but the spell took a large toll on my mana. Just for one static injury wouldn't matter much, but for the chaotic mana that kept injuring my body till near death, I had to continuously cast [Pseudo-Undeath].

After just one minute, my mana was emptied out.

Still, the body had reserve mana, for emergencies.

After another 10 seconds, it too was emptied out.

I tried to keep [Pseudo-Undeath] cast as long as I could, to that last fraction of a second, so the moment my mana ran out completely, the magic circles, all 10 of them, shattered instantaneously and all at once.

When the circles broke, my body once again started to grow worse. I thought of something and took out a set of items from the treasury.

They were clothing and jewelry with healing effects.

Ixtra hurriedly came forth and ripped my current clothes off entirely before quickly clothing me in healing items.

I also took out some mana potions. I had forgotten to use them after my mana ran out due to panicking too much. Moreover, it took all my mental energy to cast [Pseudo-Undeath], as it wasn't a spell I cast often, or ever after learning it actually, so I didn't have the mind to think about these.

Drinking them, I recast [Pseudo-Undeath] and finally calmed down slightly.

I had enough mana potions to last me maybe an hour or so of a continuously cast [Pseudo-Undeath]. I had stockpiled them utterly shamelessly.

Finally, I had some time and space to think about my situation.

Actually, with [Pseudo-Undeath], plus the healing items and Ixtra's healing, and my healing and resistance skills, my body could manage all the chaotic mana.

Still, there was no time to lose. It would be over after an hour this time.

I instructed Ixtra to head out and gather as many mana potions as he could in and then to head back here immediately after 30 minutes were up.

Nodding and saying yes quite nervously, he received a bunch of mythril bricks from me and went out.

He changed his appearance as he did, using a mix of his bloodline abilities and magic, becoming a middle aged man.

He went to a store that sold a variety of goods for those that had awakened their mana, "the awakened". He showed the mythril to the clerk and told him to bring his boss out for a major sale, and the clerk did so.

The boss came out as time ticked on and Ixtra told him to give him as many mana potions as possible.

"I'm sorry, but it will take some time to verify the mythril's purity. Why don't you rest in my office while we-"

"I have no time! Give them to me now, or I'll take them from you."

"Wha-take them? Sir, you must know this is a premium establishment that serves as a branch of-"

"Don't care, doesn't matter. Mana potions. Now."

Ixtra showed an open palm waiting for a mana potion and released his demonic energy.

He controlled it so that it didn't release outside, but the clerk, boss, and people in the store were horrified.

"A-a demon!"

Ixtra, annoyed, thought about killing the person who said that but just stared right inot the boss' eyes.

The boss of the store immediately folded and quickly went to get all the mana potions in their stock.

He also used a special token to transmit information to their head office.

In at most 3 days, someone would come to investigatr and help, but until then, he was on his own, so he obediently took out all the mana potions the store had.

He brought them out in a large crate, and Ixtra took the entire crate and ran with it, not looking back. He left the mythril. Well, this wasn't the commotion I wanted him to cause when I sent him out, but it didn't really matter.

Ixtra repeated this process 3 times at the 3 largest sellers in the town before heading back.

Thankfully, we had chosen to stay in a decently sized town. It wasn't big enough to have anyone too strong in it, and it wasn't small enough to have no mana potions.

When he was back, I was relieved at all the mana potions he had brought back.

This would last me another 3 hours, on top of the one hour I could last already. That should be long enough for most of the effects to die down.

If the effects really didn't lessen after 3 hours, now 2 hours and 15 minutes, then I'd see to that in the last hour.

Of course, I didn't just stop here.

I had Ixtra carry me to another town nearby and made him do it again.

I couldn't move myself even with thebpain gone and my body in a decent condition because I was spending too much energy casting the spell.

I could move normally, basic movements like walking or drinking a mana potion, but I couldn't move quickly, it was slow and cumbersome, so it was faster for Ixtra to carry me.

Before he had ripped off my clothes and now he was carrying me. Why did it feel a little off?

No, focus. That wasn't important.

The hours passed and the symptoms finally died down. I had used 30 mythril bricks to get the mana potions. Although I had thousands, it still felt extravagant, since I had never used that many in one go before.

By the way, technically I was rich, but my wealth was all in Jackal's mythril blocks.

I still had a lot of mana potions left over after the symptoms were little enough to not cast [Pseudo-Undeath].

In the process of all this, I had also obtained a new skill.

Unfortunately, it wasn't [Basic Chaotic Mana Absorption].

After all the destruction and healing happening in my body, I obtained a better version of [Lesser Blood Burst Resistance], which I called [Greater Blood Burst Resistance]. My blood would be extremely tough and resistant to bursting now.

It would still take a while to get [Basic Chaotic Mana Absorption], so I decided to just use my current skill slot on [Greater Blood Burst Resistance] for now.

And no, I couldn't replace [Lesser Blood Burst Resistance] with the [Greater] version, thereby freeing up a skill slot. I needed the previous one for the next one to be infusable, I tested it, so I would have to take up 2 skill slots for both skills.

After Ixtra told me about the fuss he had created outside, I facepalmed while sighing and shaking my head, but in the end didn't reprimand him.

It's not like it mattered. So there was a semi-strong demon on the loose, what about it? Had nothing to do with me.

Nope, no sir, not at all. I was just an innocent little lamb going about his life, nothing to see here.

After a day of rest, I tried eating another bite out of the compressed mana crystal, but to my pleasant surprise, it didn't go as I expected.

Thanks to my new skill, my blood managed to handle the absorption process almost 10x better than before.

After Ixtra cast a basic pain reduction spell, there wasn't even any pain.

Oh, and about that.

My brain had stopped sending paim signals after the pain had crossed a certain very, very high threshold, but after recovering fully and a night of sleep, it seemed to have reset itself, so I could feel pain again.

I was worried about that, so that made me feel relieved.

Pain was a necessary and essential component of my body's response mechanisms after all. I literally wouldn't even know how I died without it.

Anyway, back to the task at hand, I managed to absorb all the chaotic mana in that bite in a mere 10 minutes.

It was so easy compared to before that I was tempted to take two bites at once again, but recalling the previous experience, I held myself back.

In an hour, with some break time in between, I had eaten five bites.

After 20 hours, 100.

Looking at the compressed mana crystal that had a large chunk of it missing from the top with odd bite marks at some places, I felt much better about continuing the training.

If it was gonna be like before, I might have really quit. Well, maybe not. After the last time, I could probably manage the base amount of pain I had suffered the first time relatively easily.

Well, not too easily.

Regardless, I'd never know, since now, the whole process was easier for me.

Moreover, the next day I could absorb a bite in a minute less time, and the time went down more and more, albeit more slowly later on, until 1 month passed and I could absorb a bite's worth of raw mana from the compressed crystal in under a minute.

At this point, I really was tempted to take multiple bites, so I did.

Of course, I was better prepared this time. In case my pain sensors once again short circuited, and I could cast spells again in the process, I stocked up on even more mana potions, without causing rumors of demons running amok this time.

Speaking of, the investigator apparently came but found nothing and left. There was residue from the 10th circle spell casting that he found at the warehouse I had rented, but I just said I was training my spells and the investigator drew no connection.

Ixtra's spells left residue too, but they were low level enough that I could perfectly hide the traces.

Now, today was the day I'd take two bites at once, for the second time.

Doing so, I felt the mana rampage slightly, but not much. Stunned, I took a 3rd bite, and it rampaged slightly more, but then settled as well.

I took a 4th and 5th bite together, and it only took slightly longer to settle.

I started taking bite after bite, and the mana from the first bite settled by the time I took the 5th. The mana every 4 bites rampaged, but not enough to cause any real problems.

That meant I could just keep eating at a normal pace.

So I did, and 3 hours later, the entire mana crystal was gone.

That wasn't the limit of my current rate of absorption, but the fastest I could physically eat it.

Excited, I brought out another one after shrinking and compressing it to the size of a human body and ate heartily.

There was no taste, but why did it feel like something tasted quite good right now?

I suddenly stopped and stood up.

I decided to learn some spells to eat things faster.

A week later, I found an interesting book after rushing to the capital.

In it was an 8th circle spell called [Aspect of the Voideater - Gluttonous Limb].

It was part of a set, but the other "Aspect" spells weren't in that book, nor was the description of what a Voideater was.

All that was there was the spell and a description. It would turn any limb temporarily into a certain form, ready for eating.

It looked like a large, purple-black sphere with a mouth with pointed pirple-black teeth. There was a purple-black haze that released all across the newly formed "Gluttonous Limb", and the mouth could be widened to eat something as large as a house.

It was pretty awesome.

Well, ok, it was pretty weird, actually, why would anyone ever make a spell like this, and why would anyone ever learn it?

Well, people in my situation, I suppose.

Learning the spell, I quickly tested it out. It could be cast to any of the 4 limbs, and the hands were fairly comfortable, but the legs just felt quite weird to cast it onto.

The book also mentioned there should be higher circle versioms of the spell that could eat a larger area, but it wasn't sure.

Well, surely I'd never need to eat something larger than a house...right?

Whatever, I'd deal with that when it happened. For now, I returned to a room I had rented to continue absorption practice.

With [Gluttonous Limb], I could eat an entire compressed mana crystal at once if I wanted.

Of course, I wasn't an idiot. At least, not that big of one.

I first ate 10 bites worth at a time, and continued at that pace all day and night.

Time passed, and after a month, I had eaten all the mana crystals, but still hadn't obtained [Basic Chaotic Mana Absorption].

I went to the forest Sylvia lived in, and to her "lair", but she didn't answer when I called out or knocked.

Confused on what to do, I went back to the capital and talked to the guard captain.

Doing this meant he'd find out my talent, but that didn't matter since I was already strong enough to defend myself against him.

I asked him why my training might not have worked, and he was similarly confused.

I still had 10 mana crystals left since Sylvia gave me extra, and I hadn't used them yet.

I decided to eat 1/10th of a crystal all at once.

My blood struggled to suppress and absorb it, but it succeeded after 30 minutes. I decided to get more mana crystals and just keep trying for now.

I wasn't going to go hunt forest giants again. I wouldn't risk angering an existence like Sylvia now that I knew she was around.

I went past that same forest, which was in the north, and crossed it to get to the border of the land, facing the sea.

I continued going forward and out into the sea, further and further until I was out far enough, and then plunged straight down.

I used a spell to surround my head in an air bubble and dove deeper and deeper into the abyss of the ocean.

I merely channeled my aura to withstand the water pressure.

About 3 kilometers down, I saw it.

Beneath me, the gigantic body of sea beast called a water dragon could be seen.

Water dragons came in a variety of shades of blue and had different miniature features to each of them, but what stayed the same was the overall shape, size, and capabilities.

It was scaled, as dragons are, and had 4 strong legs, a fierce looking skull, and a long torso with an even longer tail.

The tail was shaped weirdly, like a large open folding fan. Presumably, it used that to help it swim quickly.

They were known for swimming at a depth of 4-5 kilometers, and eating anything that got close to them. They were aggressive, and their towering bodies could make almost anyone afraid.

The ocean ranged in depth, but generally, it got deeper the further out you went from the land. It had been the same in my previous realm, that I was born in, too.

I was still a kilometer above the water dragon, but it spotted me as I spotted it.

Suddenly, it lunged forward at me and tried to eat me in one bite.

I hurriedly dodged and swam back up.

That's right, I ran away.

Immediately, even.

Did you think I was gonna fight a dragon? Yeah, no. Screw that.

Dragons were apex creatures at the peak of the class blood stage. They were basically all old things that were just waiting to break through to the void magic stage.

Some might never breakthrough, being unable to cultivate any known techniques, while others with a trace of superior bloodline could transform into human forms temporarily to practice human techniques to breakthrough, and others still might find a draconic technique to cultivate instead.

Ones like these, swimming freely in the depths of the ocean, belonged most likely to the first category. And a dragon that was grown, and hadn't broken through to the void magic stage, was essentially guaranteed to be a powerhouse in the class blood stage. It should be a decent amount stronger than me currently.

I might not be strong enough to beat it, but I could certainly still run away.

Coming out of the water, I finally relaxed. I had the advantage here.

In the water, I had to reserve a portion of my strength to cast a spell to breathe, which significantly weakened me.

Moving back towards the land slightly, since I had clearly come too far out, I dived down again and this time, I struck gold.

After the last time, I had done some research, and discovered a faster way to gather large mana crystals.

Clams.

That'd right, a certain distance out into the ocean, there were these giant clams that existed in large groups in the hundreds that just rested on the seabed.

And inside them were not pearls, but mana crystals. Giant ones, exactly what I needed.

I'm not sure if the author of [Sphinx Cutter] just didn't know about this method, or was truly weirdly obessed with massacring sphinxes, but this was the best method I had found.

Of course, the clams were still dangerous.

They were called "Mythril Clams", because besides the mana crystal inside, part of the inner clam shells actually had mythril deposits growing on them!

Mythril was actually pretty common among beings of this level, I discovered. The sphinxes had mythril level material for their bones, and now there were these clams with actual mythril.

For people below the class blood stage, mythril was rare enough that they would most likely never come across it, but at the class blood stage, it was exceedingly common. Of course, it still wasn't that easy to get.

I was one of the stronger ones among the class blood stage, so I had an easier time hunting the sphinxes, and now, I'd have a pretty easy time with these clams.

Mythril clams were only dangerous individually. Even though the existed in groups, they did not attack in groups.

They didn't attack at all, actually.

Inside the clam shell, there were existences that fed off the giant mana crystal that contantly grew inside the clams, and they would come out to fight any invaders.

The strongest of these existences was also at the class blood stage.

For reference, the clams were as large as palaces, just like every other powerful creature I had met so far.

This meant there was room for entire groups to live inside.

The class blood stage creature in particular, one per clam, would usually stay inside the clam shell all year round.

They were called "explosive vortex chasers", and were bundles of mana shaped like vortexes. They would chase enemies that threatened their mana supply and explode upon contact.

This was only viable because of their large numbers and reproductive capabilities.

Some would sacrifice for the group, as usually there would be groups formed around a large mana source.

They had limited consciousness and awareness, and could be easily tricked.

And besides absorbing mana, chasing, and exploding, they couldn't do anything else.

I used a 10th circle spell, [Summon Wisp King], which summoned a large wisp the size of a stadium. It was at the peak of the solid crystal mana stage, although it didn't use that progression system, and if I summoned a bunch of them, I could trick the explosive vortex chasers to come out and target them instead, while I snuck around and took all the mana crystals with haste.

After a while and several mana potions later, I had summoned quite a few Wisp Kings, and had them go down to the clam colony.

Meanwhile, I cast some stealth spells and also activated my old [Stealth] skill and watched from the side.

When the vortex chasers all started rushing up, I quickly went down and started stealing mana crystals.

I had the golden key, and the mana crystals weren't conscious, nor were they considered part of the clams' bodies, so I managed to take the mana crystals directly upon contact.

I'd pry open the clam shells, launch the golden key towards the mana crystals, and step back. Rinse and repeat, and I quickly and efficiently collected over a dozen mana crystals before the vortex chasers noticed me.

Running away, I rested, summoned more Wisp Kings, and releated the process countless times.

Like I said, the vortex chasers had limited consciousness and awareness. They couldn't adapt to the strategy at all.

By the end of the day, I headed back with hundreds of large mana crystals in the treasury.

The vortex chasers, meanwhile, were crying non-existent tears.