At the break of dawn, Tim, Skendus, and Ortana made their way to the south side of the reef, which was hours away. It was a lengthy journey, but their fins didn't feel the first half of the distance, because they were pretty sleepy. That kept them numb.The other half of the journey felt much more intense to them, however, because they started anticipating danger through every beating second. It was their understanding that the fish which were infected with that green stuff, often made very explosive movements, the anti-mana made them agile like that. They didn't want to get pounced on by a creature of such speed, so they kept an eye on their surroundings at all times, and hoped not to die so randomly!In the spirit of their potential predicament, Tim expressed. “If those motherfuckers managed to make more of those green pools, then we're already dead. They'll have us surrounded in no time!”“So? We'll fight!” Ortana added, uncharacteristically.“We're not the most efficient fighters,

Timothy had plenty of cognitive challenges in the past, this was a part of his characteristic charm, even, as it was often funny. However, regardless of those challenges, he could still piece some puzzles together very well, and the intelligence upgrade he went through certainly helped him with that matter, it helped him analyze things better, he was more than alert now!Specifically, he could see that a new wave of danger was developing in front of him, and the team! One could even say that he had a seventh sense for these sorts of things, he could very well sniff out any pending danger, especially if it was right in front of their naked eyes! He saw it best to point at the potential danger too, for alertness’ sake.“I’m no exorcist, guys, but there’s a soul floating around over there, and it probably belongs to one of those dead bastards that I just killed. This can’t be peachy, so maybe it’s time we get out of here, because it’s becoming harder and harder to fight these diseased, a

Tim got his mana back, and so did the rest of the team. However, he felt especially defensive after he heard that loud, and unfortunately sexy, female voice talk to him and the team. He wasn’t so fond of mystery voices, so his senses were heightened, and he planned to shoot anything that moved!“Where are you?!” He demanded to know.“If I tell you that, you’re gonna try to kill me.” She answered, with a soft tease hidden within her tone.The conversations that followed along were mostly just mere, tight-arsed sessions of bickering. Both sides were intimidated by one another, but they were also willing to communicate, and this was what brought them some favorable results! The mystery lady revealed herself, and well, she was a fish, unsurprisingly.The mystery lady was a very blue, damselfish, and her name was Arvena. She was tiny, only about fifteen centimeters long (six inches), which was as small as Tim had been in the beginning, when he had reincarnated, so she was truly tiny, and h

Arvena was to guide the team across the micro-universe of Valporovus, she had taken over that responsibility. Now, regarding shapeshifting, she had to lead by example, because she was their guide!Arvena had to show them what a goblin looked like, in detail, in order for her guests to assume that shape accordingly. She started shifting on a spot where the waters were pretty shallow. It was safer to shift in shallow waters, because as her mushy, shifting body became heavier, she only sank a couple of feet below the waters, which wasn’t problematic whatsoever!It only took her a single minute to transform, so she managed to stand up at three feet tall in no time! She was only chest deep in the salt waters, so it was totally manageable for her, it was practically impossible for one to drown here.Anyway, her quick transformation hinted just how powerful she was. Sure she was only a few levels ahead in mana quality, but even that gave her such a grand advantage. Her guests won’t be able t

The ruins of Aqumus were oozing with harvestable mana, the place has been like that for thousands of years now! No one truly understood why the place was so rich in mana, but there were plenty of theories and legends about it. The most believable legend was that these ruins used to house the creator of this micro-universe himself, specifically in the very beginning, when Valporovus was created, which was some millenia ago. It is also believed that the creator sank his own home, and or kingdom into the sea, because he ascended to a new, celestial home that he made for himself! The rich mana quantities were supposedly fractions of air that the creator had breathed before, and the air was so dense that it refused to dissolve over thousands of years now, regardless of the circumstances. Furthermore, once these ruins sank, it is believed that the sea was given air for the fish to breathe in, before that, the sealife was practically non-existent!These cumulative legends ended up giving bi