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 powerful stingray, a powerful mage even, with the aid of his low quality mana. This detail came to show that anyone could kill anyone, regardless of their mana qualities! If one had the right tools for the job, one could kill a far stronger opponent, as long as the said opponent hadn’t invested in bodily durability all that much.

Bob the stingray had been powerful for a moment there, but his skin was also soft, like that of any random stingray. That had been his main weakness, and Tim had acknowledged this weakness from the beginning, and used it to put an end to the battle. He had been efficient, but now, he was also depressed.

Ortana swam towards him, about a minute later, and she was a bit more enthusiastic in comparison. The rest of the group of stingrays was gone, yes, but that didn’t crush her spirit all that much. Deep inside, she was an old, stinging nettle plant, after all, so she did not care for friendship or companionship.

At first, she yelled out. "Are you alive there, Tom?"

Ortana was a bit concerned, because Tim hadn't moved much after he won the battle. It wasn't a surprise that she even assumed him dead.

However, he helped the other find a bit of relief, as he said. "I'm alive, don't worry. Also, my name is Timothy… Tim for short."

"I can't promise that I'll remember that," She followed along.

Afterwards, without even mentioning the poor stingrays who had been torn into a million pieces just moments ago, she went right into business, as she started looking for the mana roots! Regardless of her lacking memory, Ortana was a smartish lady, so she had assumed that the cause of this destruction was solely mana. More specifically, a severe overflow of mana.

With that considered, she said. "Come on, the roots have to be somewhere around here. I think I can see a couple of stone slabs over there, up ahead. Bobbert probably blew up that old, little chapel."

Tim would be enthusiastic in a normal situation, but right now, he didn't even care about the mana roots, as he still felt devastated. What snapped him out of this sour state at least for a moment, was Ortana's knowledge of otherwise very human words! He felt really perplexed.

For that matter, he followed her, and asked. "Are you sure that you used to be a plant? Because you're saying a bunch of awfully human words, it's getting kinda creepy. Why do you know what a chapel is?"

"I used to be a lot of things," She answered, and then emphasized. "I even was a spider once, but that was kinda boring. My point is, I got to hear a lot of human phrases! Back then I just remembered their accents and words without understanding them, but now, I kinda know what a chapel is… or a credit card too? Words tend to get confusing, because some nations haven't even discovered spears yet."

"How would you know what a spear is?" He followed along.

"I was a messenger bird too. One time, this city of humans wanted to eliminate a tribe of far dumber humans, and I mean, two pairs of eyebrows dumb. It was hilarious!" She said.

Anyway, at that pace, they briefly chatted, and snooped around the sand too, until they found what they were looking for. In a wide hole that was also about five meters deep, they found the blue mana roots!

The roots didn't seem as interesting to them, as they had seemed to Bob, and this was for a very good reason. Bob had reaped a lot of mana out of the roots, too much, even, so the roots were almost out of juice right now.

Ortana confirmed that, as she added. "That fellow Bobbert left us with some mere crumbs! Look at those roots, they're dying!"

Then, Tim followed along. "I doubt that we can save them, though, so how about we harvest what's left of it. I did most of the work back there, but we can do a 50/50 split on the mana, I don't mind."

"Oh, don't get me wrong! The roots are dying, but there's still a lot of mana in it for us and our low-levels. I'd say Bobbert was so filled up with mana, that he almost escaped the god's punishment realm a moment ago! So, good job on killing a mage that was five-hundred times more capable than you." She said.

"He had more mana than me, yes, but he was not more capable. What sort of dumbass doesn't spend two or three points on body armor or something?" He added.

Ortana had a solid answer for that, as she had more experience, so she said. "Magic doesn't work like that in our realm of mana, Thomas. He'd have to steal the body armor ability from someone else in order to then use it on himself, and as far as I know, there wasn't anyone in the group he could steal that ability from. Let's just say that you killed a very premature madman, before he could've been a true threat to the world."