At one corner of the cave, the walls are charred black and cracked. Telling the unknown number of blasts and explosions it had gone through, before looking like this.
And it doesn't seems to be the end.
As the mad goblin darted away right after activating two random magic orbs, filling it with Mana to the brim, before diving down behind a boulder to take cover in a hurry. Expecting an explosion to happen. Oscar giddily guessed, will it be big or small.
"Khe! Khe! Khe!"
Seemingly looking just like a certain mad scientist or a mad goblin in his case; experimenting with all those magic devices to get the knows and how of each of them.
"Hmm?"
After not feeling anything for a moment. Oscar uncovered his ears with a confused face before peeking through the cover, just enough to see the situation behind...
"Yikes!!!"
Only to duck down as fast as he could, saving his head.
"Boom!"
Countless lightning zapped with tiny snake like arcs coursing through the walls, covering every nook and cranny, electrocuting the walls till it turned deeper shade of charred black.
"Gheeeesh"
Oscar sighed internally, as he saw the after-math of his "little" Experiment.
'It's true, never play with a fire if you don't want to get burned' he thought wisely, as he scratched a cross mark against the number 7 by his nails, on the crude list made on the rough walls surface.
After burning and poisoning himself in the middle of the fight by these magical orbs. Oscar is dead set on knowing their thorough uses or he would just simply throw them away, if he can't figure it out.
Magic is cool and fun, only when it doesn't costs your life in the most stupid way.
'Hmm... This seems to be used with this, and this with.... Ghaaa this one'
Making two-twin tables with each having the same number going 1 to 10. Oscar subsequently draws a line matching from number 7 to number 3 and 4, while number 3 with number 8 on the other side.
After playing mad scientist for day long and almost losing his hand, yet again. Oscar eventually learned, which orb blasts deadly icicles straight at his face, or which orb conjures a giant fireball straight on top of his head. All in alll, the goblin was convinced, these orbs are used for suicide rather than attacking the enemy in a fight.
Meanwhile, He had made some great discovery, which was a common sense among the people outside, many of the orbs are meant to be used with another one or a combination of others, to be able to use them effectively
Better yet, if he could use them without touching them would be the best.
'Maybe that's why that mage lady has a wooden-taff, she knows how dangerous these orbs can be'
Just like the poison orb. It only calls the poison while he would need another, a wind orb to collect it and throws at the target, or using the acceleration orb for better aiming.
"Haaaaa..."
With a focused mind, Oscar pulls out the Mana from a mana stones.
As he saw some sparkly particles swirling around the air without aim before getting into a round spherical shape, as directed by him, causing a few beads of sweat covering his forehead; showing the strain it puts on his brain.
"Fuuuu...!"
Suddenly, he inhales the concentrated mana through his nostrils, before feeling a slightly burning sensation in his wind pipe. As the controlled Mana settled down around some parts of his chest, probably lungs.
Holding his breath, Oscar saw '8' appearing besides the ever present zero, against the MP in his character sheet.
Meanwhile, he could still feel the connection with the Mana through the 'Mana concentration'.
Although, it puts a strain on his mind in keeping/holding all those mana in check inside of him. But it's still better than letting it run wild, before causing the mana overload and blast him from inside out; just like that pitiful rat.
"Fuuu..."
Breathing out, while forcing those mana out of him. He sighed with relief; knowing that he didn't gets blasted to pieces like he feared. Instead he got the reward for the risk he had taken, his skill had finally reached the peak!
'At one hand; I will be able to sense and manipulate the Mana at a greater range, assuming the mana is abundant in the surrounding. On the other hand; my current manipulation ability will be more efficient if I choose the second option. And taking my future plan to carry Mana inside of my body, rather than carrying dozens of Mana stones with me all the time, like an idiot, this seems to be the best option'
But then, Even if Oscar ignore the addition of range. The direct increase of will power, is giving him a stinky eye, when he was about to select the second option.
Sure, he will be less tired and might feel less nauseous, but the direct increase of his will power will do the same, albeit a little low in numbers. The increase in 'Will' stat may also be more beneficial in other skills he doesn't know yet, giving him double benefits. And not to mention, he has yet to encounter a skill or a mutation that raises his Will stat directly.
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'Urgh! Can't I take both of them?'
With a sour look, Oscar selected one of the option with a closed eye, as to not feel bad of ignoring the other options.
Decided, he felt a minor change within his mind, and how he felt the Mana. Although he still couldn't direct the too-thinned out Mana in the air, he could feel the drastic change when he tried to direct the Mana in an already concentrated form; The naturally formed Mana stones like.
If before, he felt like pulling a weight on a rough ground, as he manipulates Mana. Now he felt like his mind was pulling the light-weight on wheels, with a better control of direction he could lead it to.
With less strain on mind, he was able to hold the Mana within his chest with more fluidity and ease, while his mind didn't felt like squeezing inside of his skull, whenever he felt like reaching his limit.
Of course, he doesn't have to keep holding his breath to hold the Mana.
'It's dangerous, but I don't know when I will finally be able to get a monster core of myself. Maybe on my next evolution? But I'm currently sitting rock bottom on Lv 6, and god knows when the next giant snake or rat comes running after me. More importantly, I can't carry a bag all the time with all those magic equipment. At most, one or two magic orbs can easily fit safe inside my pockets. Any more, I will have to risk it being dropping without my knowledge or my hands will always be busy in carrying stones, rather than tearing the monsters skin'
Oscar mused to himself, while taking out another mana stone- after using it up the previous one, causing it to turning to dust with fine ash grey particles, sliding down in between his fingers.
Before the zealous goblin, starts repeating the process of Inhaling the mana and holding as much he can with a fervor. Raising the temporary number besides MP to 12 and then 15 in a repeated loop.
Stopping, just when he felt like losing the control over the Mana.
While holding the temporary mana, he picks up a long leg bone-turned-staff, with a glowing magic orb; forcefully stuffed at the tip of it by him.
Oscar brings it near his mouth, and with an action; perfectly mimicking a dragons breath. He blows a stream of air, as hard as his mouth could push out of his lungs.
Mixed with the mana, his breath rapidly passed through the man-magic orb; inevitably activating and producing a stream of raging fire rapidly. Turning his breath to a bellowing raging fire, that roared against the air and, Lo and behold... A fire breathing goblin has appeared!
'Khe! Khe! Khe!'
'Truly a work of magic, eh...' He thought, as he burns the spiders web covering his cave. All the while, he keeps recharging his mana breath in succession, producing a constant breath of fire as he plays with it.
Today, Oscar has learned; Magic is fun, only if used carefully and in a well practiced manner. 'I guess, it's no different from any power source in my world. Albeit, it can imitate all and any types of other material source; like a raw clay, which we can hold it with our hands and mold it to any shape of our desire, given the right method/spell-orb used... Eh?' He stopped his musings, when something fell right behind him. Instantly putting him on edge.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Hmm?"
Stopping his fire breathing show. Oscar saw as the fire reached the top side of the web, and some white cocoons dropped in the middle of burning, before some screens popped in front of him, one by one.
'So... The spider's hiding her eggs in these cocoons?'
Oscar thought, as he had unknowingly levelled up yet again. Some small dozens or so crumbs of spiders, the size of his pinky-finger can be seen wriggling in the burning cocoon before bursting through it but falling short after a second; seemingly all dead.
Seeing the baby-spiders burning alive, before they could even see the world. Oscar, did felt bad for them, but just for a second. Shrugging, he thought 'Better luck next time chumps'
As he continued to burn the remaining webs, cleaning his house from any possible pests. With the same playful dragon-breathing-style. Only stopping when he had turned his cave to a charred black, the dark navy blue stones had turned to a charcoal black, with a faint burnt smell lingering in the air.
Oscar had already eaten clean that spiders meat and yes, he had used the promised seasonings. Only to drop a mind numbing amount of chillies on the meat, mistakening it for the salt, and the genuine salt for chillies after.
'Why in the seven hells! Chillies are white in color in this world...'
He was too used to see red and green as chillies in his world, that he didn't even think of another possibility in another world. Not wanting to waste the great amount of Gene aliments, Oscar grits his teeths... No, he grits his tongue in this case. As he finished the extra spicey spiders meat, before gurgling his mouth with dirt- after drinking all the water in the leather flask- he gasped for breath, while he cursed the already dead spider for another ten minutes and patting himself on the back; seeing the skill upgrade.
Indeed, Oscar didn't struggle in vain, as he saw the final Gene aliment numbers crossing above 100, for the first time. While the skill points almost reaching 100, just short of 10.
'Let's see, what do we have here...' Rubbing his hands together in anticipation. He opens the skill list and the mutations with great expectations.