2024-11-28 21:16:23Tim removed a huge barricade from the group’s way, he killed that snake! His work was appreciated by the other stingrays, by those who survived at least. They had one casualty so far, but as far as the main task was concerned, as of now, they could continue to progress!
The stingrays searched the area cautiously, as they didn’t want to get pounced on by another snake. Furthermore, they hoped that there were magical mana roots here to begin with, they hoped that Marlo’s speculations were dependable. If there wasn’t anything valuable here, then they risked their lives for nothing! They weren’t sure if any mana roots were here, but odds were that they were going to figure this part out quickly. The stingrays were taking this task even more slowly and cautiously now, sure, but since there were six of them putting in some work, it was only a matter of time until they searched every nook and cranny of this fifty-meter wide area! They were bound to formulate a conclusion at some point. In the meantime, Tim encouraged the utmost caution, as he yelled out. “Take care of your asses, guys, please! We don’t know what’s sleeping around here. Also remember, if you see a fish or a snake that you can’t fight yourself, just swim away, don’t be a hero, because we don’t need any more casualties! Be safe.” What he preached was good and noble, however, a couple of stingrays weren’t so fond of it. They hadn’t contributed much to this task, and yet, they got a bit edgy when Tim micro-managed them. Two stingrays, named Bob and Knob, searched the area together as a pair, and chatted with one another in the meantime as well. They were not happy. Bob said, “Who put him in charge? We’re the biggest stingrays here, so we should command the group! It’s only fair.” Knob agreed with him, he said. “Yeah! What you said! We should be the ones getting stingray vaginas, not him…” “That’s not what I said at all,” Bob followed along, but their little chit-chat dissipated after that point. Neither of them could confront Timothy about this topic, so their rage right now was just as soft as their bellies. They couldn’t fight well, and they definitely couldn’t lead anyone, but yet their ego was hurt! Such issues were common amongst teams, but as far as details were concerned, they were to follow Timothy’s guides to the letter. They had plenty of reasons to be obedient. Bob found himself in a hole that turned out to be a tunnel. It stretched five meters below the ground, and there, he discovered what the entire group was after. He saw a bulge, or more specifically, a knotty collection of glowing roots, sandwiched and overgrown between a few slabs of neatly carved stone! It would make sense for these things to be underground, as they were called roots, after all. Anyway, as Bob looked at the marvelous blue lights which the roots emitted, he couldn’t help but get greedy all of a sudden! He wanted the roots all for himself, and this urge of his defied all logic. He didn’t care that there were other stingrays around him that could find the roots as well, at any given time, no. He was willing to guard this magical treasure with his life, and believed that the roots would reward him with a bunch of mana in exchange for such loyalty! Knob had followed him, so he also found the roots, moments after. He was amazed by how wide, huge and maze-like the roots looked, much like the roots of a fallen tree! He was mesmerized, and indefinitely distracted. Bob used the other's stunned, distracted state, to his own advantage. He pounced on his friend Knob, and with the aid of his tail, stabbed the poor guy several times, and ended up killing him! This was an act of mindless greed, and it was apparent that either his own greed, or the roots themselves, had influenced Bob's mind somehow. He killed a good friend, after all, which was beyond brutal! "Mine… her majesty is mine!" He muttered, and then he floated away from Knob's carcass. He wanted more mana! Bob's body had absorbed quite some mana by now, about two-hundred points of them so far, and yet he urged to reap more of them. For that matter, he swam closer towards the cluster of roots, and then just laid down, right over them. The roots were very effective, especially when one was this close to them. Bob was filled up with another thousand points of mana, under ten seconds! He was as stuffed as a Thanksgiving goose! However, Bob couldn't withstand this flow of mana any longer, as it beated on his body like a hammer. With that considered, he started shouting out an effective, spoken-word spell. He shouted out, "My will is but mana, and mana is life! I call upon the gods to bless me with purity, even if punishment is the means to my end!" Purity was an ironic word to use right now, considering that he just murdered a friend, but then again, purity was used as a formality in this procedure. He wasn't spiritual, rather, he was just casting a spell, and understood that mana responded well, when the gods were mentioned. Mana and its quality came in realms, and each realm had several levels. The realm everyone in the group was currently in, was called the god's punishment realm, and it was called that way, because the dangers within each upgrade were pretty high. Any creature could die while leveling up, and this was said to be a punishment which was reigned down upon the lowest ranks of mortality, by the gods themselves! Bob wasn't the most prepared stingray in the world, but he at least was aware of those few legends and formalities! He knew some spells. Just like that, the quality of his mana leveled up! He had low quality mana before, and now, his mana was officially rustic! That name didn't sound so great, but in actuality, rustic mana was four times stronger than the former! A mage of any species who possessed rustic mana, could in theory, easily kill anyone below this level. Bob wasn't looking to attack anyone right now, however. He was still greedy about the mana, and wanted to absorb more of it, so he laid down on top of the mana roots again, and greedily absorbed tens of points from it, every second! This bundle of roots was far more powerful than anyone here had expected, and he wanted to reap every point of it right now, before anyone else got the chance to do so!
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I'm a Stingray? Chapter 27 - Stingray x Stingray battle!
Tim and the rest of the team eventually noticed that a couple of stingrays were missing. When someone was underground for more than five minutes, it was inevitable to notice their absence.Tim got extremely paranoid in response, and guessed that those two stingrays (Bob and Knob) were either dead, or they had found the roots, and were hogging them! His paranoia was valid, as for example, he couldn’t really trust a couple of fish that he had met just moments ago, it wasn't logical.With that said, he began exploring the area more thoroughly, and was amped with anxiety throughout the whole time. He stopped being stingy about mana for once, and charged his tail with both fire and thunder, all for safety's sake! He didn't want to get pounced on, but if someone attacked him, then they'd have to deal with a bit of a rash from his side.The rest of the stingrays were on high alert too, but unfortunately, one of them ran into the main problem. A sudden, soul-shaki
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 28 - Depleted Mana Roots
Tim won the battle, he killed a very dangerous stingray. However, he felt disgusted about this, because in a sense, he felt as if he killed a human being! He felt that this was a horrible thing to do, even if it was for the greater good. Normally he would celebrate for such a tremendous victory, and perhaps he should. He killed a creature that was likely multiple levels above him, in terms of mana quality, which was something to celebrate about, however, he remained idle. Tim didn’t care about the little amount of points he got in exchange, and he didn’t care about the mana points he lost either. He just floated there, almost motionlessly, and continued to contemplate. The system broke his train of thought, as she announced. [You have accumulated a total of 570 system points. Also, 178 points of mana remain in your mana pool.] Tim did not care about all that right now, but the few astounding facts remained erected. He killed a really pow
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[Congratulations, Timothy, you found mana roots.] The system announced, [This means that you successfully completed your fifth, system given task, and won 100 points as a reward! In total, you’ve accumulated 670 system points.] “Nice,” He thought, though he wasn’t as excited about the points this time around. He was still depressed over the death of so many stingrays, as in a weird way, he considered them human, and such deaths shouldn't be taken lightly. Overall though, regardless of how he had been sandwiches between fireballs earlier on, this had been a pretty decent day. Tim got what he wanted. They found a cluster of mana roots, and although the roots were mostly depleted now, there was still enough mana for him and Ortana to share. They were to play nice about these remaining properties. Him and Ortana were the only remaining survivors within that group of stingrays, and although this part was depressing, it served a
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 30 - 54% survival-rate!
Tim finally filled up his pool of mana. It took him about twenty minutes, because the root was degenerating more every second. He also couldn't concentrate all that much either, which stunted his progress, but the important thing was that he succeeded, even if he did so eventually. His pool now had a full, one-thousand points of mana.With that said, now and onwards, he could decide on two things. He could either save these points up and use them sparingly in the future, or, he could try to upgrade the quality of his mana now, and for good! The latter part seemed more appealing, however it was also the most dangerous option right now!The latter option had a fifty-percent survival rate, as it was said to be physically and mentally challenging, so it could quite likely kill him. He wanted to have better mana, but the thought of death scared him dearly.At some point, he decided to ask the system for a second opinion. She was much smarter than him, so it was
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 31 - Begging the Gods!
Tim helped Ortana get out of trouble. He lifted her away from plain sight, and hid her in some random hole on the ground. There were plenty of such holes surrounding them, and they could hide within any of them, just because they were very small-bodied stingrays. They were safe for the time being, or at least, Tim wanted to believe that he and Ortana were safe. He muttered, “Those fuckers are probably coming after the mana roots, so, if we’re quiet enough, then they won’t bother us.”“They will bother us, Thomas, they will.” Ortana suddenly added. She hadn’t spoken much for a while, as the upgrade session took quite a toll on her. She had been preserving her energy, but now, the situation demanded otherwise. She had to add, “You’re full of mana, so they’re gonna sniff you out, and then try to eat you whole! Your mana is pretty weak, but that doesn’t matter for them; Those sharks will still benefit a lot from eating you…”“Well that’s fucking peachy,” He whispered.Timothy was in da
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 32 - Rustic Mana upgrade
Tim endured various bodily challenges. The mana upgrade session was very tough on his body, as it basically was a painful restructuring of everything that slushed under his flesh. Although the said restructuring wasn’t too drastic on its own, it and its definition was still spiteful against mother nature, and in exchange, mother nature knocked Tim out two times, through raw pain alone! He didn't have fun.The whole process wasn’t easy, not at all, but at last, he was seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The upgrade was nearing its end, and from the looks of it, he survived it, as the gods believed his plea for power, or, supposedly they did. Tim thought that the spell itself had been humiliating, but at the end of the day, he wasn’t one who preached the contents of that spoken-word spell all that much, he wasn’t a worshiper, so he could live this humiliation down eventually! He progressed, and that was what mattered the most.However, he was still really angry! So after a few sessio
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 33 - Sneaky Stingray!
The risks that Tim took, came hand-to-hand with advantages. The quality of his mana was greater now, so he managed to pave an escape route for himself as a result. He beamed through the waters at an astounding speed!Tim swam low, pretty close to the sea-floor even, so he managed to escape the danger zone successfully. The sharks didn’t notice the commotion he caused across the waters, and since his mana pool was scarce of points too, they couldn’t smell the mana on him either. The scent on him wasn’t noticeable, not at all.“Peww… I made it. Fuck those sharks, I ain’t fighting them, and odds are that they’ll never find me either.” He mumbled.Tim had reached the coral reef in seconds, and he was relieved. He had swum towards safety, with the aid of his flaming fins ability, which had allowed him to swim at a speed of up to 24 km/h! This part of the experience was intense, due to numerous reasons. The said speed was the reason why he had caused a tiny commotion across the waters a mo
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 34 - "Who gonna drown me?"
Timothy wasn’t the brightest fish in the world, not by a stretch, but under any hostile circumstances, he knew what had to be done. He listened to the system, and bought the upgrade that she recommended. Since he could afford it too, there was virtually no reason for him to avoid this upgrade.The extingus breath upgrade, was implemented into his arsenal of powers in a snap. It was quick and painless!The system confirmed, [The extingus breath upgrade, has been implemented into your body successfully. You can now shield yourself from a certain degree of elemental powers, which in this world, is a very good attribute to have, congratulations.]Furthermore, she said. [The upgrade cost you 600 system points, so now a total of 70 points remain in your sum. The upgrade was expensive, admittedly, but that's only because you recently upgraded the quality of your mana also. I have adjusted the upgrade and it's power-volume, for it to fit that said, rustic mana quality.]Tim liked the sound of
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Chapter 372 - Pure lava
Garry was led to the burrow of the groundhog he befriended. The burrow was close by, several meters away, and it didn’t quite look appealing from the outside, which was expected, as the burrow only had a couple of holes that they considered entrances.Well, one entrance was a fake one. It led nowhere, and it was used to keep predators busy, such as foxes.The other entrance led to the deep interior of the burrow, and quite frankly, Garry was astounded when he squeezed into it. This was no mere home with weak, dirt walls to hold it up, no, as everything within the burrow was enhanced by a six-inch layer of carved stone! The stone walls within the burrow weren’t placed randomly. They weren’t bumpy, but rather, they were smooth, and had these rows of symbolic words carved into it with a language that he could not understand. Nevertheless, he was impressed.“Woa…” Garry sighed, as he looked at the walls around him.“Why are you loafing about here?” The guiding groundhog asked. “This is o
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As of recently, Garry was at the pinnacle of his life! He became an Arch Mage at a fairly young age, young for a demonic basilisk, at least, and ever since he got to this rank, he had eased up on a lot of his beliefs or principles, and was just enjoying his life.In hindsight, he didn’t care much to progress into the following rank, which was that of an Arch Magus. He figured that such a title was years away from him, if not decades, so he simply didn't think about it much. He wasn't worried that he stumbled into another mana bracket as soon as got to the third level of the seventh realm of mana. He was okay with it.Initially, one of the main reasons he chose to stay in this universe rather than going back to the universe of hell, was because he wanted to help Timothy, his former summoning master, progress. He felt indebted to help Timothy, because he had saved him from deadly wounds back in those old ruins, so he chose to stay.However, he couldn’t help Timothy progress all that muc
Chapter 370 - Dark Moon
“Freedom… it outweighs everything in the world, be it mana or gold.” She thought, as she breathed in the crisp air at the crack of dawn.Fortana was up in the sky, along with her dragon, and she was now about forty-kilometers away from the City of Fik. She decided to leave the city for a short while, for two reasons.Firstly, she and her team were stuck in the city for an undetermined amount of time. Timothy said that they’d be stuck in the City of Fik for around a month, but she figured that they’d be stuck there for several months, and she could not remain stationary for that long. She spent most of her life stuck in the Dungeons of the Old, and now that she had gotten a taste for freedom, she could simply not remain in one place for long, otherwise she would either sink into depression, or suffer through wave after wave of anxiety. She didn’t like it.The second reason why she left the city was primarily related to her self-absorbed need to improve her arsenal. Most Expert Mages ha
Chapter 369 - Bored
The eight-hundred Expert Mages that joined the frontline were quite capable. They were very useful on the count that Timothy and his team spent a few hours nudging them in the right direction, and once they got a hang of what to do, there was no stopping them!Ten more shapeshifted Ancient Sea Orcs had tried to attack the city before sunset, and the Expert Mages, otherwise known as the city's soldiers, had killed them all! They killed them without losing a single man or woman in the exchange of attacks.They discovered that the giant orcs had this odd ability to toss exploding fireballs around almost randomly, but they worked around it. Ten mages shot fireballs at the giants to overwhelm them, essentially blind them, and then twenty mages snuck below the line of fire, and froze the giants solid! This method worked like a charm, and Timothy had helped them develop it, so the mages didn't lose arms and legs during their many fights.The dark giants helped them. Fortana insisted for the
Chapter 368 - 800 Expert Mages
Timothy needed about ten minutes to explain to Cornelius everything that had happened over the past hour. It was quite difficult to explain such a complex matter to a man that did not care, but he got through to him eventually. At the end, Cornelius bluntly added, “I understand. You accidentally killed what, like five-hundred soldiers? It happens.”Furthermore, he added, “But if you want to mask your mistake properly, you best add a couple more frozen giants. You can sell your story easier to the city officials if you say that five giants went neck to neck with the city’s best mages.”“Right,” Tim nodded, and then he communicated with Fortana telepathically, and got the tip across to her, even though she was forty meters away. “Add two more frozen giants. It’ll be more believable.”While Fortana got into work, he turned to Cornelius, and asked, “You don’t care about this city at all, do you? Genuine question. Are you only loyal to yourself?”“I’m only loyal to my pool progression, an
Chapter 367 - Ablutions
“What the hell was that! Aren’t your giants supposed to be under your control?” Tim pressured.Rattled, Fortana answered, “They are under my control. However, if hundreds of people charge at them, they’re gonna defend themselves no matter what I say. Those stupid bastards dug their own grave.”“We have a big problem here,” He said. “Anyone who can put two and two together will think that we killed the soldiers. We cannot afford to be banished from the city.”Fortana was aware of that, and for a moment she felt helpless, however she then came up with an idea that sounded plausible. She swiftly created a giant, one that looked a lot like the Ancient Sea Orcs that they’ve been killing, but she avoided giving life to the giant, and just froze it in place.Afterwards she created two more of these replicas, and placed all of them in front of the soldiers along with the first, frozen giant. By all means, she was trying to fake a battle scene.“There you go,” She said. “The sea orcs froze the
Chapter 366 - 10 Dark Giants x 700 Humans
The barricade of ice that Timothy had created was holding strong. Now the barricade wasn’t much taller than the sea itself, but it was dense, it reached almost at the bottom of the ocean for the most part, so it was a great tool in terms of keeping the Ancient Sea Orcs away. The ice barricade may even last several days, on the count that the temperature around, and within the ice was quite low. The mild summer rays would need days to melt through it.Anyway, Timothy had hoped that the system would inform him that he had successfully killed one of these sea orcs, through the barricade alone. He was hoping that he had frozen one of them solid, but this did not appear to be the case.By all odds, any of the remaining sea orcs who originally planned to walk their way out of the sea, were scared off as soon as the temperature of the water around them dropped significantly. When Timothy thought about the matter this way, he further confirmed his theory that the creatures he was dealing wit
Chapter 365 - Hydro, tainting
Timothy initially wanted to take the battle to the sea, and kill every last Ancient Sea Orc out there. That was his idea this morning, however, they had barely thought about what they would do if the sea orcs brought the battle up here beyond the shores!It was normal that they hadn’t thought about it, because in a normal situation, sea creatures shouldn't walk. It wasn’t natural. Timothy was dumbfounded, however, he also understood that it was imperative that he and the team stayed here, in front of the beach, so as to prevent any remaining sea orc from attacking the City of Fik. They had to stay, until backup arrived.Today, the city had proved themselves utterly unprepared when it came to managing a disaster. It was evident, so the team couldn’t, in good conscience, leave their spot until a bunch of soldiers arrived here on the beach, and manned the frontline. “Don't be discouraged, guys.” Tim tried to motivate his team. “Remember all the gold we're gonna make. At the very least,
Chapter 364 - Timothy Tentacles
The team killed a shapeshifted Ancient Sea Orc a moment ago, and they were proud of it, as the battle had been swift, and their moves were effective. However, they did not expect to see four more of these giant monsters pop out of the sea! They were petrified.“Dragons, cover fire!” Timothy yelled out again.The dragons understood what those words meant now, so they didn’t have to be taught as much this time around in order for them to contribute. They started blasting fireballs towards the giants, and even though it was more difficult to push all four of them away, the contribution the dragons were putting into the battle was worthwhile! If not anything more, it served as a great distraction. Timothy then gathered his team of goblins, and the two giants that were also on his team, them being Garry and Gustav, and then they rushed into battle! The giants were less than forty meters away from them, and they wanted to take control of the situation before these monsters got the chance t
