9 Chapter 9

One year later.

Sam

Physique - 2.675

Agility 2.245

Stamina 1.48

Durability 4.553

Unknown element - 0.34

Condition - good.

For almost the entire year, Sam tried various ways to modify his own body using the water element.

When he lost control of an element outside his body, the element would quickly lose stability and collapse. He assumed that this way magic returned back to the world or something like that.

On the other hand, this process of decay was limited when it came to his own body and the more element he consumed the longer it could last. Therefore, his goal was to redirect the water element into his own body and assimilate it. At the same time, it is advisable not to die in the process.

Initially, he tried to modify body parts. For example, the little finger. But such a drastic change in one part of the body was considered by his own body as an anomaly or injury, causing his pulse to warn of a worsening condition. And Sam himself felt uncomfortable.

Therefore, he came to the conclusion that the easiest way was to use the blood that circulated throughout the body to gradually influence his entire body.

In fact, Sam came up with a suitable spell with which he could create a soft liquid concentrate of the water element.

He used this spell again and again, little by little infecting his bloodstream with the element of water. This element dissolved in the bloodstream and was gradually evenly distributed throughout the body.

Naturally Sam started small. He did this gradually and cautiously, waiting for weeks for this or that reaction or some negative consequences.

Nevertheless, his parameters gradually increased and, apart from slight numbness, he did not feel any special problems. Therefore, he again continued to increase the concentration of the element in his blood, acting more confidently.

Figuratively speaking, he stole magic from outside and forcibly stored it in his body. Although the element inevitably gradually dissolved and left his body, Sam pumped more of the element into himself than he lost.

Whether the body wanted it or not, it had to gradually adapt to the new element in its body step by step.

Sam was afraid that something would suddenly go wrong. For example, his brain will be damaged and he will suddenly become an idiot or something like that. He often laughed nervously at himself with a grimace of madness. But he didn't stop no matter what.

His life was just too cheap. At least he will die doing what he wants and what interests him and not because someone told him so.

And now, a year later, the changes could no longer be ignored.

All of his parameters have increased significantly. He could run twice as fast as before and his strength was obviously already on the verge of human strength.

Durability showed unrealistic numbers. Now he could use his fists to smash trees with all his might without any injury to himself.

Although the pulse did not show the regeneration parameter since it was not provided for by the device, even after receiving a cut his injury quickly healed. The blood now reluctantly left his body.

There were indeed some slightly frightening external signs. Natural colors was rapidly leaving his skin. The pallor began to look unnatural.

However, it was worse with the veins; now they became too noticeable and against the general background it looked quite grotesque. His appearance resembled that of a seriously ill person or something.

Sam wasn't sure he could stop those changes but even if he could, he wouldn't do it. On the contrary, now he was seriously considering speeding up the process.

The fact is that the element of water no longer responded to him with the same zeal as it had originally. At first he thought that he was making a mistake when using spells or that he was tired, but now he realized that the matter was different.

Now that the element in his body had exceeded a certain threshold, he could understand the nature of magic a little better and began to doubt his original assumptions about the nature of his abilities.

There was no explanation and no one to ask, but he instinctively felt that in fact he had never developed any abilities at all.

He didn't need any hand gestures, commands or antics. It was enough to simply imagine the desired effect and express it mentally, so he thought that this power belonged to him.

Initially, he thought that he was interacting with some invisible mana. Then he suggested that he could rather directly control the element of water.

But now, after so many endless interactions of this kind, he was inclined to assume that all this time he had been a banal beggar. All this time there was a certain conditioned spirit or matter or who knows what else, and they simply responded to his wishes for some reason.

He decided to conditionally consider this something as spirit of water. This spirit could be nearby, or it could be everywhere. Either way, for some reason, he wanted to respond to Sam's attempts to interact with the snowflakes that day.

Maybe the spirit was bored. He or that thing just decided to play. Or maybe out of pity, who knows? All the so-called spells that Sam used by imagining one or another interaction with the element of water can actually be interpreted as a way of communication with that something.

In other words, he rather asked or pleaded in his mind and the spirit played along with him for some weird reason. Perhaps, like Sam himself, this spirit was new to such interaction and the spirit happily played this game with him.

According to this theory, initially neither his body nor his mind had any special abilities.

Then what will happen if this spirit one day gets tired of playing? The mere thought that all his magical abilities could disappear at any moment made him feel uneasy. It would be better if they didn't appear in the first place.

What if too many people in the world begin to turn to the conditional spirit of water with their desires, assuming that this spirit is not somewhere nearby, but everywhere?

If for the first time in your life you see a thin beggar with his hand outstretched to you, it will be difficult for you to resist giving him a coin.

But what if, upon seeing this, hundreds or thousands of beggars immediately surround you and begin to attack you from all sides? It's even worse if they literally start robbing you against your will.

The more time passed, the more difficult it became to steal the element of water. His manipulation abilities had stopped improving at some point, and now seemed to be declining.

Because of this, Sam decided to go all in. If he loses the ability to manipulate the water element, sooner or later his body will inevitably lose all remnants of the element.

Even if he was not physically harmed and retained some of his physical characteristics, he did not want to accept such a result.

Therefore, recently he stopped taking breaks and pauses, worrying about the results. On the contrary, Sam brought enough supplies of food and water to his hut, preparing to devote all his time to this.

Now he literally prayed passionately, chanting spells to himself over and over again, hoping to speed up the process of his transformation as much as possible. He no longer cared what would happen to his body in the end.