To make things worse, they can also self-detonate and send spikes of missiles that explode on impact. While the skill has a pretty big backlash, it doesn’t affect the others, which Tetsu assumed was telepathy or darn good coordination, and the caster, if treated on sight, can be restored to full health within the hour.
“Healers are something else.” He made a mental note to probe Hana before leaving the base.
The sole strategy Tetsu devised to overcome the horde was to eliminate their leader with a single precise shot, incapacitate their healers, and incite the remaining members into a frenzy, causing them to self-destruct in the name of retaliation. By investing two points in luck at the opportune moment, the success rate could skyrocket by one hundred percent.
Tetsu scoured their base for two days, marking their positions with [RR] before advancing. Later that same day, he stumbled upon a herd of hovering cows dubbed [Lumibovines]. Despite lacking discernible facial features, their classic black spots on white fur and eerie moans, reminiscent of a cow’s moo, earned them the nickname “Beef” in Tetsu’s mind.
These floating slabs of flesh emitted a peculiar resonance, echoing within one’s head whenever they vocalized their moos. The challenging pronunciation of their original name further solidified Tetsu’s decision to tag them “Beef.”
The [Beef] hoard encountered by Tetsu were herbivorous, albeit if one were to regard beings of varied intellectual maturity as similar to plants.
The sight of a patch of grass hungering for blood can compel anyone to reassess their perspective on life, let alone an overthinker who already does.
Beef possessed remarkable camouflage abilities, allowing them to thrive amid this chaotic world. With the aid of the rune [Mark], Tetsu was aware of their ability to blend into their surroundings or maneuver under their disguises. On occasion, they would construct expansive forests spanning hundreds of yards, appearing to move as one cohesive entity. If Tetsu hadn’t witnessed the spectacle, he never would have believed in a moving oasis.
Even as he traversed the mobile oasis, featuring a tranquil waterfall, crystal-clear pond, luscious fruits, trees, and even a rainbow, Tetsu remained skeptical.
The Beef melded with the terrain, blurring the distinction between creature and environment. Without the initial mark placed before mounting the Beef’s back, Tetsu might have remained oblivious to the world passing by.
Within this enigmatic realm, entire societies can thrive and perish with no one figuring out the truth.
Once ensnared on the Beef’s back, even with the aid of the mark rune, Tetsu found himself unable to dismount. At first, he wrestled with the notion of sacrificing the beasts to save himself from predators, only to later discard the burden of remorse after spending a day trapped in this surreal environment.
After enduring twenty-six grueling hours, Tetsu finally extricated himself from the trap by unleashing chaos. He detonated the mountain into a cascade of debris, tore the rainbow asunder, and reshaped the landscape through sheer force, only to be expelled from the oasis by the Beef. However, his jubilation turned to dismay as he realized his actions only perturbed the illusion; the oasis restored itself, with no harm befalling the Beef. Frustrated and exasperated, Tetsu accepted the reality before him and resigned himself to seeking a new target. The elusive [Beef] seemed beyond Tetsu’s grasp this time, and no, he wasn’t referring to the creature itself.
In the ensuing hours, he encountered a voracious maw known as [En’gorger], capable of consuming anything without the need for, or the existence of, a digestive system. There was also a centipede named [WhimsiWorm], stretching his imagination to picture an inverted train.
Another peculiar discovery was an uncommon snow fox with an oversized head adorned with fractal patterns. This elusive creature either darted about at lightning speed or vanished via teleportation before Tetsu could study it in detail.
Tetsu leaned towards favoring teleportation, as after a futile ten-minute pursuit, the fox expressed its disdain through a snort and disappeared forever.
“Wait until I master teleportation; then I’ll have my fill of fox meat,” he vowed, his determination mirrored by his sharpened fangs.
As they descended, the elusive fox fled Tetsu’s gaze once more, prompting him to vow that if he ever caught one, he’d feed it first—a feat both he and his fangs recognized as highly unlikely.
Amidst the foliage, Tetsu encountered a peculiar tree or rather vines masquerading as one, known as [PythonWood], a peculiar fusion of bat and wolf named [Night Warg] that for some strange reason refrained from forming packs like regular wolves, and the ultimate sloth, [Zenwarden Monkloth], who proved unrivaled against [Alloyhide Horrors] and [Cosmosplit Simians] attacks.
Eager for a minor victory, Tetsu collected the remains of both [Cosmosplit Simians] and [Alloyhide Horrors], extracting a decent amount of flesh despite their peculiar constitution. Meanwhile, the Zenwarden Monkloth remained in its meditative stance, a clear mockery of everything and everyone in its serene surroundings.
“Oh! Taunt skill,” Tetsu exclaimed with a smile, eliciting confusion from the serene sloths.
The Alloyhide Horrors boasted thick plates of metal for skin, requiring an intense battle to chip away the layers before even Tetsu could consider consuming them. Recognizing the potential value of their metal-like skin, he stored some in his pouch for future artifact creation while burying their bodies underground for later retrieval.
“Perhaps Bert has methods to chip away the metal,” Tetsu mused, opting to leave behind the carcasses with excessive skin while collecting the rest of the Cosmosplit Simians.
These enigmatic creatures exhibited a perplexing ability—it either manifested as a unified entity that split into many, or a collection of beings merged into one. To Tetsu’s bewilderment, they all appeared identical, transforming into various lunar shapes when merging or splitting into smaller, identical counterparts.
All individuals retained identical features, resembling various primates, albeit without tails, and adorned with skin reminiscent of the moon’s surface. Their size fluctuated as they morphed or multiplied, yet each kept their distinct characteristics.
Tetsu deduced the transformations were geared towards augmenting their power, as the size didn’t correlate with the skill displayed, and each identical creature wielded a distinct ability.
The skirmish sparked a surge of inspiration within Tetsu as he contemplated their techniques and compared them to his own, imagining the challenge of facing them without the advantage of his newfound knowledge.
Tetsu found himself on the losing end in nine out of ten encounters, surviving only once, and even then, it was with the aid of a free point in one scenario. The leaders of the creatures, though only at level five, posed a formidable challenge, making one-on-one confrontations seem unfavorable.
Opting for a strategic retreat, Tetsu trained and fulfilled his daily eight-hour quota of slumber within the territory of the slots. Despite their condescending stares being the worst he faced, they provided a rather safe haven for recovery and experimentation.
Tetsu hoarded the potions seized during the journey, intending to use them to advance his theories. He uncorked a mana potion followed by a health potion and took a sniff. The lack of discernible ingredients in the potions left him intrigued and eager to unravel their mysteries. His heightened olfactory senses, thanks to the rigorous training regimen, were useless in front of a system-created potion.
“Ah! Thou heartless machine.” Tetsu frowned at his system screen.
One drop at a time, he tested various theories, most of them dedicated to giving him a better understanding of mana and life force.
Both mana and life force shared a fundamental principle, where beings could either generate and absorb energy or expend and share it.
Mana, the omnipresent essence of energy, flowed through every object, unlike life force, which was exclusive to living beings. Unlike life force, this energy transcended the boundaries of animate and inanimate, coursing even through objects devoid of consciousness. Although incapable of generating mana themselves, such objects maintained their structure through a subclass of mana.
The longevity of a person is reduced once they depend on the essence of life they produce. On the contrary, one could extend their lifespan by focusing on consuming the life force of others.
Creatures that centered their existence around life force, such as plants and other similar species, exhibited a tendency to create and store more vitality than necessary. Whether by happenstance or design, when their storage reached maximum capacity, the surplus energy would escape into the atmosphere.
In the spectrum of life, Tetsu speculated that there were myriad species, like trees, that had achieved what mortals deemed as immortality through this abundance of life force.
In contrast, Mana operated in contrast to vitality in nearly every aspect beyond the initial baseline. While creating mana was an arduous task, once generated, it became pliable and easy to manipulate to one’s will.
This opened up the possibility of moving a mountain by a mere thought or shaping a world by one’s desire. It also explained why dead or inanimate objects were super easy to move with the help of [Pave Path].
All these theories were formulated by consuming four flasks and four productive sessions of slumber recovery. Tetsu maintained a sleep duration of two to four hours each time, as the act of hiding did not induce fatigue to a critical level. This period was sufficient for him to assess the gains, recalibrate his focus, and reaffirm his commitment to the promise to Bert.
Tetsu wished to break the flasks to celebrate, but after he found out they were perfect to hold mana or life force, and there remained a possibility to will both energies into a concentrated liquid state, he relented and stored them with utmost care for future experiments.
“Thank you,” Tetsu offered a respectful bow. “I will return to learn your defensive skills.” With a wave, he bid farewell to the slots.
In the days of traveling, Tetsu etched many [Eye of providence] around the forest, encompassing a substantial area around the mountain safe house. These runes remained dormant unless activated, and when they were active, he used them alongside [leech over] to conceal their true meaning and presence. Although he had yet to master the art of activating them mid-combat, the creatures preoccupied with leveling remained oblivious to the beauty of their surroundings or the runes placed in plain sight.
═─┈─{═E═}─┈─═
To make things worse, they can also self-detonate and send spikes of missiles that explode on impact. While the skill has a pretty big backlash, it doesn’t affect the others, which Tetsu assumed was telepathy or darn good coordination, and the caster, if treated on sight, can be restored to full health within the hour.
“Healers are something else.” He made a mental note to probe Hana before leaving the base.
The sole strategy Tetsu devised to overcome the horde was to eliminate their leader with a single precise shot, incapacitate their healers, and incite the remaining members into a frenzy, causing them to self-destruct in the name of retaliation. By investing two points in luck at the opportune moment, the success rate could skyrocket by one hundred percent.
Tetsu scoured their base for two days, marking their positions with [RR] before advancing. Later that same day, he stumbled upon a herd of hovering cows dubbed [Lumibovines]. Despite lacking discernible facial features, their classic black spots on white fur and eerie moans, reminiscent of a cow’s moo, earned them the nickname “Beef” in Tetsu’s mind.
These floating slabs of flesh emitted a peculiar resonance, echoing within one’s head whenever they vocalized their moos. The challenging pronunciation of their original name further solidified Tetsu’s decision to tag them “Beef.”
The [Beef] hoard encountered by Tetsu were herbivorous, albeit if one were to regard beings of varied intellectual maturity as similar to plants.
The sight of a patch of grass hungering for blood can compel anyone to reassess their perspective on life, let alone an overthinker who already does.
Beef possessed remarkable camouflage abilities, allowing them to thrive amid this chaotic world. With the aid of the rune [Mark], Tetsu was aware of their ability to blend into their surroundings or maneuver under their disguises. On occasion, they would construct expansive forests spanning hundreds of yards, appearing to move as one cohesive entity. If Tetsu hadn’t witnessed the spectacle, he never would have believed in a moving oasis.
Even as he traversed the mobile oasis, featuring a tranquil waterfall, crystal-clear pond, luscious fruits, trees, and even a rainbow, Tetsu remained skeptical.
The Beef melded with the terrain, blurring the distinction between creature and environment. Without the initial mark placed before mounting the Beef’s back, Tetsu might have remained oblivious to the world passing by.
Within this enigmatic realm, entire societies can thrive and perish with no one figuring out the truth.
Once ensnared on the Beef’s back, even with the aid of the mark rune, Tetsu found himself unable to dismount. At first, he wrestled with the notion of sacrificing the beasts to save himself from predators, only to later discard the burden of remorse after spending a day trapped in this surreal environment.
After enduring twenty-six grueling hours, Tetsu finally extricated himself from the trap by unleashing chaos. He detonated the mountain into a cascade of debris, tore the rainbow asunder, and reshaped the landscape through sheer force, only to be expelled from the oasis by the Beef. However, his jubilation turned to dismay as he realized his actions only perturbed the illusion; the oasis restored itself, with no harm befalling the Beef. Frustrated and exasperated, Tetsu accepted the reality before him and resigned himself to seeking a new target. The elusive [Beef] seemed beyond Tetsu’s grasp this time, and no, he wasn’t referring to the creature itself.
In the ensuing hours, he encountered a voracious maw known as [En’gorger], capable of consuming anything without the need for, or the existence of, a digestive system. There was also a centipede named [WhimsiWorm], stretching his imagination to picture an inverted train.
Another peculiar discovery was an uncommon snow fox with an oversized head adorned with fractal patterns. This elusive creature either darted about at lightning speed or vanished via teleportation before Tetsu could study it in detail.
Tetsu leaned towards favoring teleportation, as after a futile ten-minute pursuit, the fox expressed its disdain through a snort and disappeared forever.
“Wait until I master teleportation; then I’ll have my fill of fox meat,” he vowed, his determination mirrored by his sharpened fangs.
As they descended, the elusive fox fled Tetsu’s gaze once more, prompting him to vow that if he ever caught one, he’d feed it first—a feat both he and his fangs recognized as highly unlikely.
Amidst the foliage, Tetsu encountered a peculiar tree or rather vines masquerading as one, known as [PythonWood], a peculiar fusion of bat and wolf named [Night Warg] that for some strange reason refrained from forming packs like regular wolves, and the ultimate sloth, [Zenwarden Monkloth], who proved unrivaled against [Alloyhide Horrors] and [Cosmosplit Simians] attacks.
Eager for a minor victory, Tetsu collected the remains of both [Cosmosplit Simians] and [Alloyhide Horrors], extracting a decent amount of flesh despite their peculiar constitution. Meanwhile, the Zenwarden Monkloth remained in its meditative stance, a clear mockery of everything and everyone in its serene surroundings.
“Oh! Taunt skill,” Tetsu exclaimed with a smile, eliciting confusion from the serene sloths.
The Alloyhide Horrors boasted thick plates of metal for skin, requiring an intense battle to chip away the layers before even Tetsu could consider consuming them. Recognizing the potential value of their metal-like skin, he stored some in his pouch for future artifact creation while burying their bodies underground for later retrieval.
“Perhaps Bert has methods to chip away the metal,” Tetsu mused, opting to leave behind the carcasses with excessive skin while collecting the rest of the Cosmosplit Simians.
These enigmatic creatures exhibited a perplexing ability—it either manifested as a unified entity that split into many, or a collection of beings merged into one. To Tetsu’s bewilderment, they all appeared identical, transforming into various lunar shapes when merging or splitting into smaller, identical counterparts.
All individuals retained identical features, resembling various primates, albeit without tails, and adorned with skin reminiscent of the moon’s surface. Their size fluctuated as they morphed or multiplied, yet each kept their distinct characteristics.
Tetsu deduced the transformations were geared towards augmenting their power, as the size didn’t correlate with the skill displayed, and each identical creature wielded a distinct ability.
The skirmish sparked a surge of inspiration within Tetsu as he contemplated their techniques and compared them to his own, imagining the challenge of facing them without the advantage of his newfound knowledge.
Tetsu found himself on the losing end in nine out of ten encounters, surviving only once, and even then, it was with the aid of a free point in one scenario. The leaders of the creatures, though only at level five, posed a formidable challenge, making one-on-one confrontations seem unfavorable.
Opting for a strategic retreat, Tetsu trained and fulfilled his daily eight-hour quota of slumber within the territory of the slots. Despite their condescending stares being the worst he faced, they provided a rather safe haven for recovery and experimentation.
Tetsu hoarded the potions seized during the journey, intending to use them to advance his theories. He uncorked a mana potion followed by a health potion and took a sniff. The lack of discernible ingredients in the potions left him intrigued and eager to unravel their mysteries. His heightened olfactory senses, thanks to the rigorous training regimen, were useless in front of a system-created potion.
“Ah! Thou heartless machine.” Tetsu frowned at his system screen.
One drop at a time, he tested various theories, most of them dedicated to giving him a better understanding of mana and life force.
Both mana and life force shared a fundamental principle, where beings could either generate and absorb energy or expend and share it.
Mana, the omnipresent essence of energy, flowed through every object, unlike life force, which was exclusive to living beings. Unlike life force, this energy transcended the boundaries of animate and inanimate, coursing even through objects devoid of consciousness. Although incapable of generating mana themselves, such objects maintained their structure through a subclass of mana.
The longevity of a person is reduced once they depend on the essence of life they produce. On the contrary, one could extend their lifespan by focusing on consuming the life force of others.
Creatures that centered their existence around life force, such as plants and other similar species, exhibited a tendency to create and store more vitality than necessary. Whether by happenstance or design, when their storage reached maximum capacity, the surplus energy would escape into the atmosphere.
In the spectrum of life, Tetsu speculated that there were myriad species, like trees, that had achieved what mortals deemed as immortality through this abundance of life force.
In contrast, Mana operated in contrast to vitality in nearly every aspect beyond the initial baseline. While creating mana was an arduous task, once generated, it became pliable and easy to manipulate to one’s will.
This opened up the possibility of moving a mountain by a mere thought or shaping a world by one’s desire. It also explained why dead or inanimate objects were super easy to move with the help of [Pave Path].
All these theories were formulated by consuming four flasks and four productive sessions of slumber recovery. Tetsu maintained a sleep duration of two to four hours each time, as the act of hiding did not induce fatigue to a critical level. This period was sufficient for him to assess the gains, recalibrate his focus, and reaffirm his commitment to the promise to Bert.
Tetsu wished to break the flasks to celebrate, but after he found out they were perfect to hold mana or life force, and there remained a possibility to will both energies into a concentrated liquid state, he relented and stored them with utmost care for future experiments.
“Thank you,” Tetsu offered a respectful bow. “I will return to learn your defensive skills.” With a wave, he bid farewell to the slots.
In the days of traveling, Tetsu etched many [Eye of providence] around the forest, encompassing a substantial area around the mountain safe house. These runes remained dormant unless activated, and when they were active, he used them alongside [leech over] to conceal their true meaning and presence. Although he had yet to master the art of activating them mid-combat, the creatures preoccupied with leveling remained oblivious to the beauty of their surroundings or the runes placed in plain sight.
═─┈─{═E═}─┈─═
