After they leave I just sit there for a few minutes thinking over what happened and how I could have done better, I feel bad for making them worry about me again but for a brief second I felt useful and if I am to continue on my path to overcome all of this I needed this boost in confidence.
I was about how I could further enhance my strength but the only thing that comes to mind right now is to just try and increase my skill list as a whole. I had an idea while fighting that what if I could make a ball of smoke that just stayed around the enemies head that would be better for when I am fighting with others at my side instead of just disrupting every ones vision. but I couldn't think of how I could shape my mouth to make just a ball unless It was to create the smoke blast but that is more explosive than what I was thinking but what if I could use wind magic, if Salus wasn't so sadistic and hated my guts I would ask him for help so next best thing is 'fake it till ya make it' I will imitate his wind ability that I saw him use and maybe I can use that as a base to combine with my smoke breath.
I had to ask for some kind of target due to what my spatial bullet did to the hide from before but after a bit my father brought in a human chest piece which was decently ok, enough to be for target practice anyway, I focused on trying to remember what Salus was using during the fight, if I had thought about it more clearly I would have studied all of their elements more before now but hindsight being what it is I can only lament and move forward. But after a few minutes I was able to remember him slashing with his hand that glowed green for a second before a wind slash appeared and flew towards the monsters, thinking about it I came to the conclusion that I would have to physically create some wind and then use my own mana and create a slash, it might be flawed ofcourse but it was a starting point.
I tried to slash and create a draft but with my body being hurt I wasn't able to go fast enough and even moving as fast as I could caused my body to ache. Since that was a bust I had to rethink a bit and then I had a facepalm moment because a better way to create some wind was using what I do naturally to live. Which was to breath, using that I focused a small amount of mana In my mouth and then blew out without using my smoke and was able to feel like my breath was more forceful than normal so instead of my mouth what if I focused on my lungs instead and used mana to enforce the air inside first before exhaling. I spent a few minutes topping up real quick just in case and then using that method I exhaled as hard as I could and.... I blew away the chest piece slamming it into the wall while also basically spinning myself like a top and slamming myself into the wall behind me. I coughed up blood and was feeling a massive throbbing from my back and legs it seems that the spell is starting to wear off, but hearing the loud commotion my mom came running back in with a worried expression.
"Vexsus what happened what was that noise?"
"It was nothing I was just trying to learn how to harness wind magic to use with my smoke breath."
"You fool, this can only be my fault for not teaching you I overlooked it due to how well you learned by yourself that I forgot to tell you that using your mana after what you did could have permanent negative effects."
Ofcourse, why didn't I think of that I mean I felt like absolute dog crap when I ran out of MP so why wouldn't something like this be true aswell. So it looks like I will be focusing on healing naturally and just be useless. With an expression of defeat I look up at my mom.
"I'm sorry I should have thought about something like that happening."
"Aslong as you realize your mistake I won't give it any more thought however after you heal up enough to use your magic without hurting yourself I will come and teach more about it, but for now I will just cast another healing boost and come back in a few hours to see how your feeling."
"Ok mom thank you for everything." As she walked away I had a thought. 'what if I didn't have to rely on healing spells, what if my body was able to recover all on its own just by sending mana through it or maybe some other method that didn't require mana seeing as right now I need to think in terms of magic lockdown before I get beat for not listening'
I was going to start coming up with a gameplan but I got a notification first.
[The condition : Past the 1st test has been completed]
[Message from Ancestor acquired. do you wish to listen : yes or now]
Ofcourse I selected yes and after a second a voice played in my ear
"Ahem.. Ahem.. testing testing this is your Ancestor I saw that you passed the test I was surprised at your perseverance and tactics. But I am also upset at how much of a risk you took So as a reward for passing I am going to unlock your devour skill in the hopes that your body is strong enough to withstand it unlike the first time. I suggest that you heal up as soon as possible because since you showed some surprises I will be sending along a few more tests and goals just think of this as a side quest from the games of your old world, Good luck my descendant."
[Message End]
[New skills unlocked]
[The skill Devour has been acquired]
[The skill Assimilation has been acquired]
[The skill Chimera has been acquired]
With a huge smile on my face at getting new skills I immediately open up my skills page and look at them in detail.
Devour lvl 0 1/10 - consume flesh and energy of living and nonliving things, can store genetic material for healing or for body improvement.
Assimilation lvl 0 0/10 - using the genetic material from consumed flesh and energy able to strengthen the users body in different ways depending on what has been consumed.
Chimera lvl 0 0/10 - consuming enough of a species will grant the user the ability to partially morph and exhibit parts of the species devoured, later levels allow for more species to be used.
Sweet with all of that opening up the possibilities just came flooding in but I am confused what does it mean by 1/10 on my devour skill? Did it count even though it happened near the beginning of my time in this world? if so does that mean I assimilated the meat from back then or since it failed does it not count as working since assimilation is 0/10? tis was a bit confusing but not being able to get the answer I just decided to do the next best thing, Eat. I called for my mom when she came I asked for some food saying.
"Mom I wasn't trying to use mana or anything but I figured out that I had a skill that would allow me to heal using food and other things, so I was wondering if you could bring me alot of meat and maybe even the skin or fur of the creatures from the fight?"
She looked at me with a strange look on her face "that is a strange skill but if it can do what you say it can than just give me a moment to see what I can find." Then she left and after a few more minutes she brings what looks like some of the leg meat from the rhinos and I could spot some even having the skin and white and black fur.
"If this works than we can start your training sooner however keep this a secret because this could be seen as taking away from the others but since you cannot hunt for yourself right now I will take the blame if they find out, Now I have to leave and finish training with the others I will be back to see if it worked or not."
After she left I picked up one of the black rhinos legs and just focusing on the meat I took a bite but shortly found out that just like the creature when it was alive the meat itself is tough and unforgiving when bitten into I could have sworn that if I were still human I would have lost all my teeth trying to bite this. Seeing as how I couldn't eat it like this I decided to smoke it and make it a bit more edible. Looking around and wondering how I could accomplish this task I get another notification.
[Optional tasks]
[1. Kill and devour 5 creatures.] Rewards: Nothing, are you crazy your lucky I'm giving you this much
[2. Learn another element.]
[3. Learn invisibility.]
Looking over the optional tasks I was at first angry at the rewards just because I was hoping I would get some cool stuff but I guess using devour I could gain some good skills, but what is with the 3rd task why do I need to learn invisibility wouldn't that require that I learn light magic? freewebno vel.com
After contemplating what that meant I could only think that maybe something would happen in the future where I would need to hide? Who knows but that changed what I planned on doing. 1st on the agenda heal as fast as possible which means figuring out how to smoke this rock hard meat. I look around again and after a few minutes I couldn't really find something to hold the meat while I smoke it but I just had to set it down and after creating an area to contain it and a small hole to slowly fumigate the area I just started laying on the smoke and thankfully my rolling fog ability came in handle. Unfortunately after a few minutes I was getting light headed, I closed up the hole let the smoke be contained I rested until the lightheadedness pass then I keep at it until finally I was able to eat the meat with little difficulty.
Eating the whole leg like it was candy I got a notification.
[Fire Rhino consumed]
[Assimilate? Y/N]
I selected yes immediately and I get a new message
[Due to body of user being in weakened state devoured material will be prioritized as healing.]
I feel a wave of energy blast through my body and I hear cracking from my back and legs before a wave of pain washes over me shortly after and I pass out.... Just kidding (haha got you reader), I look down towards my legs to see them start to bulge while I feel my back start to do the same and I can hear popping sounds and stabs of pain as I assume my spine is popping back into place. I can feel my blood flowing like a river through my veins and my muscles flexing trying to contain the healing power rushing through me. After 30 minutes of a combination of healing comfort and the pain of my body being fixed I finally breath in relief and I get up slowly and find that I was able to use my back legs, which means that my back was fixed aswell.. A feeling of happiness overtakes me and I jump up and down enjoying the feeling of using my legs again.
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