2024-12-09 19:59:27Tim 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 danger, because apparently bigger animals ate smaller animals, for more reasons than one. Ortana briefly explained that if one ate an animal that was full of mana, their bodies would absorb and then amplify the said mana. With that said, Tim was at risk of being sniffed out and eaten, even if the sharks were several levels above him in mana quality! They wouldn't spare him, as he’d be a great snack. WIthin seconds, Tim came up with a solution against the possible dangers, but it wasn’t a solution that he really liked. In order to escape the scent of those sharks, he had to do a mana quality upgrade, which in turn, would deplete every point of mana he had! This would deter the scent of mana off of his body, and since he couldn’t go out there and that bundle of sharks, this was his only solution! “I hate to be vulnerable right now, but this has to be done! Let’s hope that the sharks waste a few minutes on those roots.” He added. Afterwards, he took a couple of safety precautions. Tim assumed that his body would glow a lot throughout the upgrade session, which in return could attract even more unwanted attention. He wanted to avoid that, so he buried himself within a couple inches of sand, just to be completely out of sight. This idea made him feel safer! After that, he felt ready to upgrade his mana quality, or at least, he felt just a little bit more ready. He was still a nervous wreck for the time being! He then asked, “What’s that spell again, plant woman? The one about a mana upgrade.” Marlo was supposed to teach him this spell, but he hadn’t gotten the chance to do so. With that considered, he had to depend on Ortana for the spell instead, regardless of how occupied she was right now. “I don’t remember mana upgrades being this rough, this feels worse than giving birth.” She muttered to herself first. Afterwards, she mustered up the strength to give a solid answer to the boy. In the utmost detail, word by word, she eventually explained the spell to Timothy, without accidentally recasting the spell on herself in the meantime! She didn’t want to make a mistake like that, so she took her time. Tim understood and memorized the spell eventually, and once he did, he casted it on himself immediately. He had to handle a long, spoken-word spell, and these were the kind of spells that he had to believe in himself in order for them to work, so it took him a while to mentally prepare for that. He had to bring himself in a very sour, emotional state, in order to believe in the spell, and he also started depending on it in a very desperate manner. He then casted, "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!" The gods were really responsive, or at least, the spell was. In response to the spell, every fraction of Tim's body started twitching! Throughout these first few seconds of distress, he figured out that magic could be extremely physical, even though that was hypocritical to magic as a name itself. "Fucking hell… I'm steaming!" Tim muttered, as he noticed that he was even making the waters warmer, at least by a few degrees. The mana quality upgrade was taking a real physical toll on him, but the reason behind it was at least a little bit logical. Mana was a magical substance that had to be stored, and processed through organic bodies, as that was how mana typically worked in this world. With that said, the upgrade was simply preparing Timothy's organic body to accept a better quality of mana. His veins may be twitching, his muscles and organs may be changing forever, but if he was successful with this upgrade, then he'd be able to harbor a better quality of mana as a result. It was a tough process, but the results promised multiple rewards and advantages! Tim twitched for about five minutes, and then the twitching and bodily spasms stopped. His pain halved immediately, but now, he couldn’t move all that much. Timothy's body remained dormant for a moment, until suddenly, he started radiating a luscious, blue light! The light would've been blinding originally, but he buried himself in sand for the same reason. The sand was coating most of the blue light which he was radiating, and this in turn provided him with a simple advantage; Mainly, the mana quality upgrade session could go on without any interruptions! It was really advantageous that he wasn’t to be interrupted, as he wouldn’t be able to protect himself in the slightest. Tim couldn't concentrate much, as the burden of this upgrade was both crippling and overwhelming. He didn’t want to remain like this for long, so with every bit of strength he could muster, Tim tried to trick the gods to accept his attempt at a mana upgrade, even if he had to pretend like he was begging them along the way! He could put up an act.
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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
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 35 - Slithering Plague
Tim floated into a colorful, ghostly cloud. The average fish or even mammal for that matter, wouldn’t be able to see this cloud with their naked eyes because the cloud was virtually invisible, it wasn’t meant to be seen by physical creatures. However, he was traveling around as a soul right now, and he was exploring the world to find specific clouds like this one.The air was rich with these gas-like clouds that only souls or ghosts could see. In other words, whoever floated out here, floated around either because they had to, or because they were in a hunt for phantomized mana, in order to strengthen themselves. Phantom magic was a branch of magic itself, after all, so mere souls urged to cultivate the quality of their phantom mana, all for power’s sake!Tim managed to find a purple, gaseous cloud, and since the color of it was so thick, he unsurprisingly found phantomized mana in there. His soul started absorbing the mana right away, and in turn, the same cloud’s rich color, started
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 36 - Small fish in a big pond
Timothy's soul was enslaved. He did not like it, no, but there were also certain aspects that worked to his favor. For example, he didn’t have to worry about flying anymore, because he couldn't control where he moved towards. Now that seemed like a bad thing in hindsight, but since he was a lazy and greedy guy, he could really abuse this situation!In simple words, he could explore the skies, without putting in any effort in himself. He'd figure out where gaseous, mana-filled clouds were located, for example, without having to look for them himself. These slithering plague snakes that enslaved him, were bound to fly across some of the said clouds eventually, and Tim, in turn, would figure out where these precious clouds were!This way, he was bound to be rich in phantomized mana, by amount, it was inevitable, that is, if the said clouds were too huge for these snakes to harvest. He didn’t care about the smaller clouds.Furthermore, as far as he understood, even though these snakes ens
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 37 - Green D#ldo
Tim and his slave masters noticed a huge entity. The entity wasn’t only big, it looked really weird too, and from what he could understand, these ghostly snakes feared the said entity a lot! Even though the snakes were transparent, he could see how they in a way, shivered in fear!He couldn’t help thinking, “Hmm… maybe this can be my way out, towards freedom, cause these fuckers look really scared. It’s weird that they are scared, because this big motherfucker looks a lot like them, except it's green. I’m no scientist, but maybe she’s their mother, a big ass mother or something? It's possible.” There were a lot of things to think about here. Tim was not a thinker inherently, so his conscience was really strained right now as he tried to figure things out. The said, green entity wasn’t making any sudden moves either, so he didn’t really know what to make of this encounter, as he was not in danger. He could only guess that this encounter was either parental, or hostile, but that on its
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 38 - %?
Timothy didn't expect to communicate with this green, dragon-shaped entity whatsoever. In fact, he hadn't communicated with any entity at all so far, so he was surprised when this green one answered his call. Of course, he was the one who provoked the green one to begin with, but he was still surprised!He thought, “Well shit…”This situation was a bit of a surprise, so he didn’t really know what to do. He felt stumped at first, but within seconds, he figured that the best plan here was for him just to act natural, this was his solution. He only had to be himself, in order to manipulate the situation to his favor!Tim only had to annoy the entity, so he then transmitted a very coherent thought, citing. “You heard me right, and I won't be taking anything back, green weirdo. Mana is your sun, huh? That's nothing new in our magical world, so don't consider yourself holy and shit, don't act all unique, cuz you're just another stupid ghost, hahaha!”The idea was to irritate the entity as m
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 39 - 382%
[Congratulations, Timothy. According to my calculations, you've had a 382% growth in bodily size. Something that's worth pointing out, is that this increase in size didn't go parallel with your previous bodily statistics. Specifically, a good portion of the growth sprout was concentrated on your body-weight, for balance's sake, you’re pretty heavy now. The crab meat really knew what it was doing.] The system said.Tim was still feeling an adrenaline rush, so he didn’t process the other's words so carefully, no. He focused on a couple of things only, specifically, the aspects of the upgrade that he didn’t like, and he formed a question based on that.He asked, “So the crab meat made me really chubby? That's nothing to be happy about, system!”Slowly and punctually, the system explained. [Actually no, that's not what I meant. The sprout focused on your body weight, because otherwise you would end up looking really weird. You used to weigh a pound only, and a 382% increase in weight isn'
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Chapter 180 - +66,040 mana points!
[Congratulations, your mana quality is now at level three! This level is otherwise known as Pit Mana, and it too has a very descriptive name, because now you have a far bigger mana pool to fill, hence it being a pit.] The system beeped, she was very efficient at explaining the levels that he was on.“Let me guess, I need 400,000 mana points to fill this one?” He asked, and he was getting nervous.Instantly, the system answered. [520,000 mana points, actually. This pool is big, it’s way beyond what the common mage is used to. Hence, it's labeled as a pit.]“Well, fuck me! That's a lot.” He sighed, “I guess we won't be getting out of this mana realm anytime soon.”[The pit is massive yes, but still, either of you can accumulate that mana in a month, you can naturally regenerate it, assuming that you won't go through any expensive battles throughout the month.] The system beeped.Timothy did not want to wait for a month or more for another level-up, and he certainly didn't want to endure
Chapter 179 - A gift for Gustav
Arvena finally leveled up! A magnificent blue glow erupted around her as well, and now, she was at level three in the Fintelus Apprentices Realm of mana!It was a spectacular achievement for most, but in this case, this level-up managed to only lessened her overall depression by a nudge. This was a good level to be in, but once she remembered that she had been beyond the Fintelus’ Apprentices realm of mana just a few weeks ago, it became difficult for her to be happy about this level-up.A few weeks ago, within the Forbidden Caves close to the city of Manape, Arvena had sacrificed an entire realm of her mana quality, just to kill an opponent that was stronger than her! She had summoned a Celestial Spear just to kill that dragon Saranax, and although she had succeeded, the loss of such grand mana quality was still gnawing on her conscience. She wasn't happy, and even though they found plenty of mana roots here, it was very unlikely that anyone would cross the Fintelus’ Apprentices real
Chapter 178 - Fintelus' Apprentices realm of mana!
Timothy was absolutely baffled by the fact that he leveled up his mana quality, in mere seconds, without suffering the immense pain that typically came with these upgrades! He didn’t know what to think about it, he did have a flash-upgrade upgrade before, at the library of Rempegana and it too was amazing, but getting flash upgrades at these higher levels was priceless! He was beyond happy.The system noticed his accelerating heartbeat, so after a moment, she described. [Flash upgrades like this are inevitable, on the occasion where your mana pool receives such great quantities. Your mana pool adjusts itself, so as to not to disrupt this ongoing flow of mana that you're receiving, it's very useful. This is mother nature's part of making up for the ‘punishment’ that the average ascending mage goes through, so relax, and let the mana roots do their thing. Please do not tighten your anus any more than you already have, because that can disrupt the flow.]“Right,” He muttered, and did as
Chapter 177 - Bubonic Mana
The mana roots kept growing, the more they fed on the mana pool that the team provided. Their mana pools were eventually emptied, which was alarming, but they still kept at it because they weren't in any direct danger right now.The team kept pouring every bit of mana that they generated themselves, and at this point the roots had grown so big that even Gustav and the dragons who were above the water, were getting every drop of their mana sucked in by the roots! The dragons didn't have many points to spare to begin with, but they lost theirs as well.Each root was as thick as a tree now, as most of them were four feet wide, while their ending tips were six inches wide! They were gigantic, and one could say that it was difficult to find roots like this under natural circumstances, no. The only other root that Tim and Ortana had seen, for example, was tiny in comparison. Eighteen of these thick boys were bound to make their mana quality godly!“Just a few more minutes… the roots should
Chapter 176 - The patches of Mana Roots
After about ten minutes of rolling around on the dry rock they were on, everyone in the team, apart from Gustav, managed to shapeshift! They had been in a sub-liquid-like form all this time, because that was the key part of the process, but this part didn't bother them whatsoever, because it wasn’t painful at all. Having sub-liquid bones and flesh for ten minutes was exceptionally painless, it was even therapeutic actually, because even their light joint pains disappeared during that period.Anyway, once they shifted, they left their backpacks behind, and jumped in the water quite fearlessly! They didn't fear these ancient creatures of the deep, because if their understanding of this time period was correct, then the fish within the sea here didn't have any magical powers at their disposal. The fish were just big, and hungry, which was the main way for them to be threatening, but that was about it.The latter wasn't too big of a challenge for them. Each and every member of this group
Chapter 175 - Dinosaurs?
The team jumped through the portal, and their dragons followed suit! They were very excited to harvest the benefits of the needle universe in front of them, they wanted to get as many mana points per hour as they could!However, once they passed through the portal, they were stunned by the multiple shades of blue that immediately pierced through their pupils. This shade was unexpected, because this universe was as red as a rose the last time they were here. They hadn't seen a single spec of blue within it before, but now, it was all they could see!“What the hell?” Tim blurted, and the rest followed suit with their curses.There was a sea of sorts in front of them, and this was very perplexing, because a one-kilometer wide universe wasn't supposed to have a sea. It was too small, it wouldn't be able to sustain it, nonetheless create it under natural circumstances!“I guess that's why the portal had ‘Aqus’ in its name. This is as watery as things can get.” He muttered, but no one under
Chapter 174 - Boar Meat
Timothy couldn't ignore the sensation he was feeling, he couldn’t turn a blind eye to it. He felt capable of summoning a portal that would lead him to the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi, and moments later, he decided that this was exactly what he wanted to do!Arvena was close to him, slicing through the boar meat, so he had to step away from her, for the sake of not compromising their meat supply with a random portal. It was best to be safe.“Let’s hope that the gods aren't playing tricks on me,” He mumbled.The following steps were purely instinctive, they were natural, and he felt as if he had lived with this ability for a hundred years now! It was a weird feeling. First he put his arms in front of his stomach, and then he got his hands very close to each other, but he didn’t lock his fingers together, he kept them an inch apart. “Purposes Mundi Aqus,” He whispered, partially against his own will.As a result, a tiny, black cloud appeared in between his hands! Its shade was as
Chapter 173 - Gread, Golden Mana
Three hours after midnight, Timothy successfully improved the quality of his mana. He now had the honor to identify himself as a bearer of Great, Golden Mana, and he was very excited about it! Despite the name, this didn’t mean that his mana had a golden color now, it was still as blue as the ocean, but it still was a great level to attain. This sort of mana quality was also known as level seven, and as of now, he only had to pass through another level, the eighth one, and then he'd have the opportunity to escape the God's Punishment Realm of mana once and for good!“Oh… my god.” He grunted, as his spine cracked tens of times while he tried to straighten up, and then he muttered. “Whatever it is like to get chewed up and swallowed by a Demon Beetle, I understand it, this has to be a similar feeling.”Timothy felt like all sorts of things. He felt like he was hit by a big truck, by an airplane too, or any other vehicles really. He felt like he was run down by all of them, and rightful
Chapter 172 - The Tar
Timothy, Skendus, Ortana, Arvena, and Gustav explored Valporovus together. Their target was clear, they wanted to get to the Ruins of Aqumus, with the hopes of accumulating great amounts of mana there! The team has been on the air for a couple of days now, their dragons really came in handy in terms of proper transportation, so it wouldn't take long until they finally reached the ruins, it may take them a couple more weeks. They were very enthusiastic to reach the ruins, though one couldn't say that their progress, regarding mana quality improvement, has been slow. The team was doing fine, and with minimal trouble throughout their flight, their mana had mostly been accumulating!Since their mana accumulated, the weakest members of the team could upgrade their mana quality soon! They could either choose to initiate an upgrade, or spend the mana over a period of time, they had those couple of options. The latter option would be less than ideal, because a better mana quality would do th
