NOVEL FROG Chapter 63: Ideas and Action.
[Mana-infused Blood has reached Level 14]
[Regen Heart has reached Level 13]
“You know I’m not good at this, right?” Luine lightly joked as she healed me with nature magic. I was lying down on the grass, fully immobile.
For once, I did not rise to the bait. “Yeah. Yet you still do it. Thank you, Luine.”
She raised a brow. “You getting sentimental on me, Haell? Your decades too young for that!”
I’m older than you realize.
“A little bit. It’s just… you really have helped me out. And I don’t get why. I haven’t given you shit.”
She shrugged. “I’m no saint. Well, maybe I am ‘cause they’re definitely some bad motherfuckers. But I do have motives of my own, you know that.”
“...I do. So ask. Ask and I’ll help. I owe you that much.”
She shook her head. “No. I’ll not ask you to do shit. I have deemed it best to just leave you be to do your own thing. That’ll give the best result.”
“Your friends at New Grandera wouldn’t agree.”
“Then they can get fucked.”
I raised a brow, but didn’t say anything more. We passed the rest of my healing in silence, until I was able to move around and jump again.
“Here.” Luine handed me a pendant. It depicted a flightless bird taking flight.
“What’s this?” I asked and scrutinized the gift.
“The emblem of New Gandera. A very high-ranking one, made of mithril and the materials of monsters nearing the realm of heroes.”
The realm of heroes in Angelore referred to level 80.
“Thanks. It looks nice!” I wore it over my neck.
Luine snorted. “Maybe don’t wear it in public. But I’m giving this to you now. It’ll give you some pull in the new nation, and with any resistance movements here. Do with it as you wish.”
“I could be some kind of spy that reports back to the angels. I could ruin your movement from the inside.”
“You could be,” she agreed. “You could be lots of things. But that’d be a moot point soon. If your plans go well and you gain the power you seek, then you will be able to destroy any movement on the surface of this planet. So it matters not.”
“Wow. I don’t feel pressured at all.” I deadpanned.
“As if you don’t believe in your own hype.” She snorted.
“Oh I do. But I could just be delusional. Verdict’s still out on that.”
“Bloody idiot.” She smirked and shook her head.
“You’re right.” I looked down at my armor soaked in red. The dull gray-blue of fantastreel had become a fair bit darker. “I should get all this cleaned up.”
~~~
The last sprint for levels continued, towards the next finish line. I kept up my practice with self sacrifice magic, willfully bending the menace mana within myself to my desires, and forcing it to remember my instructions. To not end myself, nor cause any permanent damage. Because there was never an opportunity to try and control myself upon activation of the hyperdemon gland. It’s like I was knocked out, and then something else takes over. I couldn’t just power through it in a normal way, so now I was going to power through it in an abnormal way.
I chose to divert a lot of focus to both my regen heart and blood for now. They were a bit behind the other Mutations on account of starting back at level 0.
Luckily, I was able to devise a wonderful method to train the both of them at once, and even gain skills in a whole new field of artistry. The basic idea was simply to stab myself and allow my blood to bleed out of me. My regen heart worked to replenish the lost blood, leading to experience and levels. My blood was replenished, the mana within that was lost was pumped back into it by my menace heart. The lost blood would then be drawn into rituals, either by me, Moonwash, or even Elfrafim, and I would always participate in the casting in some way. It was of course difficult to collaborate with someone when it came to magic, as the conflicting ideas would clash. But the blood being mine gave us a lot more leeway than usual, I could take the lead in the casting and minimize the incongruencies. The remaining inefficiencies with double-casting rituals were fun to hammer out over time, as we trained and trained through sheer repetition, until we could put our wills into proper synchrony.
My levels shot up from this practice, the blood more so than the regen heart. It was still a big mystery how Mutations actually leveled, but using them was generally a pretty fucking good idea. And tackling my Mana-infused Blood from so many angles like this seemed to have done the trick as it managed to shoot up all the way to level 16 in just a few months before I got my first Mutation to level 20.
[Demon Brain has reached Level 20!]
It had been my highest Mutation from the beginning, and it was still buffed compared to my other Mutations, albeit that difference was waning fast as the enhancement of my Reincarnator soul feat was additive, one and done. Not something multiplicative that’d scale as I got stronger.
I went on a rampage after that, killing monsters and animals day after day to get all my Mutations to the threshold. I could feel their level-ups closing in, and I dragged everyone all the way to The Endless Dive wonderzone in order to find more prey.
I fought the varied monsters there, from the usual culprits to other more sophisticated ones. Like a heavily venomous forest octopus that coiled amongst the trees called the necropus. It had sharp and short spines all along its many limbs to deliver its toxic payload with but a squeeze.
The wolf-sized monster got the drop on me, and I flailed my limbs as it tangled with my head. I usually didn’t have to worry about poison because I was in full armor so it would be very hard to deliver the payload in the process, but this level 10 necropus hugged me every which way, finding the holes in my helm and joints in my armor. I was still trying to pry it off when I began to feel sick and vomit out blood. Elfrafim and Luine offered to help, but I was here to get stronger and learn so I refused. I weathered the pain and the exhaustion that suddenly took over me. I did not just ignore the blood spilling out of my mouth, but I actively spat what I could out of my helm and towards my tormentor. A quick pseudo-ritual cast had its flesh withering in desiccation. Fire followed, from the repository in my mouth. I set the both of us on fire, but I was impervious to heat. My attempt did a lot of damage to my enemy, but it also unfortunately just caused the necropus to clamp down harder so I was not able to drive it away. My armor began to bend lightly, and more poison found itself into my system, even if most was wasted on the metal.
I switched to menace magic, once I’d depleted my source of fire mana to half. I did not go for any mental effects this time, as my aura quickly made me aware that the necropus’ first instinct for everything was just to double down and squeeze harder. So instead I went with the classic waves of weakening, giving me some much-needed leeway.
The hold upon me loosened, and I was able to move around more properly again. The poison was a still problem, but I was still standing.
So I charged against a tree. I slammed my head into its hard and damp bark, along with the necropus that still hugged my face. And then I did it again and again, running through the bluish forest and towards any nearby trees. Even when the necropus tried to climb toward my back, I still chose to charge against the arrogant trees of this wonderzone, only with an added somersault at the end so that it was the monster that took the brunt of the impact.
The hold around me lessened more and more over time, until finally I was able to pry the damn thing off. I found its head, and a single slash ended it all, just in time for me to collapse.
Holy shit. That wasn’t even level 20. Best not get overconfident against the opponents of my level. Power varies, clearly.
Except it was still alive, the limbs all seemed to have a mind of their own. I allowed Moonwash to handle it as Elfrafim nursed me back to health with her heals.
“Thank.”
“Kay’.”
And then Moonwash too collapsed, having gotten herself poisoned. Baston and Luine took care of that mess. Ah, what a merry bunch we were.
~~~
I laughed and wiggled around on the ground once I was sure that Moonwash was safe. “What the fuck was that?”
“I was finishing off the necropus and extracting the poison from its body.” She paused, and eyed the remains in front of her now. “It’s almost depleted. It was used up on you.”
I snorted, feeling the toxins be excised from my body. Elfrafim healed me with water magic this time, because while quite a fair bit of elements were capable of healing, they had their own identities. Water was especially good for poisons and other impurities in the blood. It was also supposed to be quite difficult to use in healing, but of course Elfrafim could pull it off. It was wild how many elements she could use, though not as wild as Moonwash who seemed able to learn anything.
“Thanks for the concern.”
“You’re welcome.”
Our visit to the local wonderzone went on like normal after that, and we collected a lot of materials that we had to bring back in sleds. Elfrafim found that very amusing, and she also helped. Astan did not deign to do the same thing, although he did circle around to drive away the monsters that may have been attracted toward us.
Moonwash’s crafting progressed even harder since then, and I began to help her in creating cursed weapons. We used the concept I explained, of the autonomous will within my menace magic. Which was why I had to be present, as even with her talents in extended channeling, I still had a better grasp of overcharging my emotions and then forcing it into my magic.
I admitted to no one how happy it made me feel, to have gotten one over her, in her own fields. I was sure it was just my menace mana acting up again.
~~~
The forge roared as Moonwash hammered a dagger, imparting upon it creepy but masterful designs that spoke of its intended nature. She altered it in real time, as I activated my menace magic and infused it all into the object. I thought of all the things I knew about the dagger’s structure, their cruel and violent purpose. I even shanked and killed many creatures using another dagger just in preparation for this creation.
This process continued for days. I frequently left and ran laps around the base during the times when my mana was depleted, before returning when I was full to continue the same infusion of cursed energies. I’d even wake up in the middle of the night just to use my mana. Moonwash herself almost never left her forge, getting some spontaneous sleep there, always ready to restart the process. The dagger was just kept somewhat hot and malleable throughout the entire process, as she trusted Elfrafim with it during the times she had to slumber.
It was as I yawned on the seventh day, that Moonwash informed me of its completion.
“It’s a success,” she said, almost in awe. “From a regular sheet of metal, to a regular dagger, to a fully cursed weapon. A strongly cursed weapon. The things goblins left in their wake do not compare.”
She handed it to me, and I laughed at its feeble attempt to try and corrupt my mind. It was nothing compared to literally having curse-aligned magic running through my blood.
There was one curious thing about it, however…
“Hey Moonwash. How come you’re fine and unaffected? The curse here seems stronger than in your menace staff?”
“It’s not? I can tell the effect is strong, but the pressure on my mind isn’t very strong…”
Moonwash suddenly froze, staring into space. Or maybe there was something profound in that random spot on the wall. It did kind of look like an angel if I twisted my eyes at just the right angle...
Jokes aside, I knew that expression. Moonwash just had a light bulb moment, and she was likely about to drag me into some big and weird experiment. Not that I resented her for it, my friend’s projects were fun.
She told me her idea soon after, and while I wasn’t sure how she made those leaps, I was all for trying it no matter how much it might hurt me. I could just endlessly heal myself anyway, so long as the damage didn’t cross some vague nebulous line.
I pocketed the dagger as I left my friend’s workshop, in preparation for a darker time. I might have completely forgotten that I had one of those during my battle with the necropus…
Oh well. No harm done.
