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 enslaved him, they still couldn't steal his phantomized mana! For that matter, he still had a bit over seven-hundred points to his name, and was bound to collect more! If Tim was lucky enough, he could become powerful quickly. That prediction was only a sample of the benefits he could win over, and there were other benefits too. Tim guessed that since these enslaving entities were several, if not tens by number, then they were far more well-traveled than him, they understood the skies far better than him, in comparison. Since they were well-traveled, odds were that they knew how to locate more prominent, ghostly clusters, such as a ghostly kingdom! If Tim could learn how to find one of those, then utter soul-shaking progress was inevitable for him. One's soul could be upgraded too, and he was eager to do just that, it wasn't impossible! He thought, “These bastards are gonna help me become the toughest fucker out there, even if they do so accidentally. They don't know what I'm capable of, hell, even I don't know what I'm capable of, hehe!” He was enthusiastic, however, he couldn’t really ignore the odds and ends of his current situation either. The only, and rather prophilic downside of this situation was that he was enslaved, rather thoroughly, and he couldn’t really do much about that either. He couldn’t taunt or harass his slave masters, because for now, it seemed impossible for him to do so. He could only follow them, regardless if he respected them or not. Under that setting, he and the slithering plague snakes managed to travel quite a bit. There was nothing stopping them either, since a soul or an entity of any sort, did not get tired at all. He and the snakes wouldn't get tired physically, they wouldn't get fatigued, and thanks to that fact, they managed to travel for two days straight, without taking a single break! This pace of traveling was interesting to say the least, Tim felt like a migrating bird. Throughout this time bracket, these snakes obliterated a bunch of other entities, and they even ended up enslaving some of them. In the very least, it was fun to watch such battles unfold, but that was about all of the entertainment Timothy could get along the way. He was enslaved, so he couldn’t move around on his own, and also, he hadn't even been used by the slithering plague snakes so far whatsoever, no; He only followed them around, but that was about it. That latter part made life especially boring for him, and it was disadvantageous too! He couldn't participate in any of the battles, he couldn’t get into any action at all. This part was disadvantageous, as mentioned, because it further robbed him of his freedom. Tim's soul had a health bar, just like his body did, and in order to escape this weird enslavement, he would have to deplete that health bar, otherwise known as the bar of essence points! That was the easiest way for him to be set free of this enslavement, yet he couldn’t deplete this health bar himself. That aside, these snakes weren't planning on lessening the amount of their slaves, they weren't using Timothy in battles, so for now, he was quite stuck as a slave! That was one of the reasons why the past couple of days had been frustrating, but that wasn’t all. Tim hadn't made any significant discoveries within this time bracket, which was the most frustrating part about this forceful trip, because he was really looking forward to discovering anything important. Sure he saw a couple of ghosts along the way that seemed interesting, but that was about it, those were the spoils of his lengthy trip across the sky, nothing else! He didn't discover any ghostly kingdoms, or anything like that. They found a few tiny clouds that were filled with phantomized mana as well, but he couldn't harvest those, so it did not matter that he saw them. The snakes devoured the gaseous clouds instantly, so they were gone by now! “No mana, no kingdoms, and no fucking system points either. The skies are not fair, damn it!” He complained. Furthermore, he added. “If I have to look at this blue sky for one more day, I'm going to fucking loose it!” Timothy was really frustrated, and rightfully so. He hated the idea of being so isolated, and controlled. The sky out here was so massive, to the point where he felt isolated out here in the open sky, and he would feel similarly so, even if he hadn't been enslaved by these snakes. The sky was just too large, and he floated too slowly to make any good discoveries, so he was literally a small fish in a big pond, with the pond being the whole sky! With that considered, he then thought. “Soon as I'm free, I'm gonna try to upgrade my soul. Dunno if that'll make me faster, but it sure as hell will make me stronger. I'll be a fucking slave master too, if that's what it takes to make some progress out here!” Timothy was frustrated, but just then, he saw something that immediately distracted him from all of this frustration. He saw an entity that was too big for comfort!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
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
[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'
“There is, huh? Looks like there's a fucking upgrade for everything!” Tim partially celebrated.He was also angry, however, so he then added. “Why didn't you tell me about the upgrade before, instead of making me eat a bunch of panzer crabs just to get bigger!?”[The upgrade wouldn't have done you any good before,] The system answered, [It's pretty expensive, and it can only make your body smaller than it already is. The upgrade wouldn't help you become larger, and it would have stunted your already impressive progress. I'm sure you would've wasted a lot of time, if you went around fighting bacterias rather than mages.]Tim was still irritated, however, he was also somewhat reasonable, he embraced common sense. He didn’t argue with the system, but instead, he became solution oriented about the issue.He asked, “Okay then… how much am I supposed to pay for the upgrade?”Tim asked that question while he swam. The situation he was in had multiple problems, and thanks to these problems, h
Timothy ate a fish, and then another. He was supposed to, as most stingrays were carnivores, and loved to eat meat. However, he had approached this school of fish in a less than rithmic way, and this was inevitably problematic. Fish weren’t the brightest creatures in the world, not by a stretch, but they were smart enough to understand some forms of rhythms. The social complexity of a mega-school of fish, naturally had some rules, and if someone broke those rules, a bunch of fish within the school were bound to notice! The rules were simple. For example, huge fish who preferred solidarity, knew to swim slowly within such crowds, they were typically very relaxed as they knew better. Smaller fish were more frantic, but they knew enough not to separate from their groups or respective subgroups, and this was what kept most of them alive. Those were the couple of little rules that such large crowds of fish followed, however, it was problematic that Timothy didn’t follow any of such soci
Tim swam forward for a few more meters, before he unleashed another wall of fire within the waters. He still didn't understand how his fireballs were water resistant, but as long as they did what they were supposed to, he did not question their mysterious nature. He used the fire's collective, wall-like results to eradicate the things that had threatened him, and he succeeded as a result, he won the battle.“That should be the last of them,” He mumbled, “I spun my tail like it was some fucking helicopter blade! Spun it longer than I wanted to… I didn't even know that my thin ass tail could get so exercised.”The things that he was saying were as horrendous as ever, but this time, he said them with the pretext of irritation. He was irritated, because he felt worn down and still hungry, and overall really challenged. He had enough reasons to excuse the nonsense that he just spewed.Then, the system came along to twist his feelings even more. A couple of things had happened over the cour
Timothy ate a bunch of small fish, about sixty of them. After that, he had to put an end to his seafare. He had dared to explore the open ocean, because hunger had encouraged him to do so, but now, it was time to go back home. He didn’t necessarily have to go back to the reef, but he still had to hide somewhere, preferably a spot where there wasn't a dark, bottomless pit below him. He wanted to feel safe, because there was a purchase option that he wanted to buy.Timothy wanted to, and quite frankly, he had to buy that micro shift ability. The ocean was treacherous and unforgiving, even more so, to the 3.5 meter long, swimming disk that was Timothy. For that matter, he simply had to buy this ability, and alter his size to fit any environment better.The system encouraged his motives as well as she could. She even gave him the greenlight from her side, regarding the purchasing matter. Apart from that, she also had something else to say.She said, [Congratulations, Timothy! You've accum
The purchase he bought didn't go easy on him. Tim had hoped to have a painless experience, but that request was out of the system's hands. She tried to grant his little wish, but inevitably, it was the brute pain that knocked him out, rather than anything else!He did not have a fun time, especially in the beginning. However, he was sound asleep throughout most of the implementation of said purchase, which all facts considered, was the only type of mercy he got as a result. The process itself took four hours, it wasn't fun!Tim woke up, about two hours after the purchase was implemented. He felt both well rested and worn down, at the same time, which was quite a sensation! The process had put his body into a strain, so it wasn't a surprise how he felt chewed up and spat out! It mattered more that he was alive, however.The system cheered him up even further, as she bashed a couple of notifications on his face. One was relative to the previous task, and the other notification was more
The second check-point that Arvena so treasured, wasn’t as easy to get to. It had these perplexing issues behind it, and the main issue was that they had to reach a portal of some sort, in order to get to this said second check-point (or location).It wasn’t easy to get to the portal, as they had to pay for their transport, in literal gold coins. This was perplexing for them, it was the main issue, because the team had to get actual jobs in order to afford the means of their transportation! In other words, they couldn’t fight like cavemen any longer in order to progress, as it wouldn’t work as often in a civilized society. It was true that they usually got what they wanted through such fighting and slaughtering, but they couldn’t behave like that this time around, no. They had to pay twenty-five gold coins each!Now in any universe, that amount of gold was pretty sizable, it was expensive. The average goblin family had to work four months straight in order to accumulate around twenty-
Arvena had gone through a portal, no doubt about it. Timothy wanted to go after her to make sure that she was okay, but then he realized how a terrible idea that was, he realized that it would be too dangerous to follow her, and that was what made him reconsider things! Arvena had read those scrolls for hours before she opened that portal, she was prepared in other words, and Tim feared that if he charged into that portal ‘heroically’, then he might get vaporized one way or the other because he was severely unprepared. It was simply stupid for him to go in there. Tim even looked at the scrolls close by, to figure out what was going on, but it was hopeless. He couldn’t make out a single word out of them, and with that said he simply backed off, he couldn’t get involved.“That crazy bitch wasn’t up to anything good anyway,” He tried to console himself.It was great that Tim backed away, because moments later, that portal started generating a suction of some sort. It tried to suck the t
The quality of Timothy’s mana was flash upgraded to level three, he bore decent mana now, that was its literal name. He was still shocked about how it happened, it had been painless and quick, hence it being a flash upgrade, but despite being shocked, he was also really happy! This was the easiest mana quality upgrade that he had ever gotten, his friends were congratulating him quite a bit too, they were excited! Well, everyone congratulated him, apart from Arvena, who was fixated on her scrolls.Anyway, then things got even better! The system came with a great announcement.She cited, [Congratulations, Timothy. Apart from all the benefits you got from that flash upgrade, your mana pool has also expanded. As of now, you can accumulate up to 3,000 points of mana in your pool, in this goblin form! As a stingray, however, you’d be able to accumulate a maximum of 8,000 points, that is, if you chose to swim in your full, gigantic size! You have great options overall.]“Eight thousand point
The team had made it to the ancient library of Rempegana, which was amazing, especially since they made it here in one piece! Now the dilemma was that the elevation drop in front of them was too intimidating, it was concerning. They could quite literally fall to their death because it was a twenty meter drop, and in a world full of magic, this may be one of the most embarrassing ways to die. It would be tragic!For that matter, Tim asked. “How do we get down there, Araduli? I think your friends stole all the ladders from here.”“The ladders withered away, they were made out of wood I presume. I believe that’s what you call it, wood? Besides, you don’t need any ladders today, because I’ll just cast a light-wing spell on the lot of you. It’s very effective, you’ll be flying.” He answered.“That sounds useful, cuz you don’t hear much about flying goblins out there! You must be a pretty powerful guy then, Araduli?” Tim asked, he was a bit curious.“Yes, I would say so. Calidum mana lets u
It wasn’t easy to get to the ancient library of Rempegana. The tunnel that they found was pretty, yes, but it also featured a lot of danger! Danger in this case, was no different from a textbook barricade, as no one would willingly engulf themselves in the utter darkness that the tunnel featured.Apart from this path being poorly illuminated, there were other issues to it as well. Some kind of creatures lived here, and this part was pretty predictable, however, these creatures were especially dangerous because they had a genetic advantage, they were mammals!After the team swam about ten-meters forward, something swam past them, right within the tunnel! Aside from the initial scare of being spooked in the dark, Timothy also picked up on a very important detail.“Was that a fucking foot I saw?” He asked, and their guide just nodded.That’s how they discovered that they were entering mammalian territory. With that said, what was to follow was bound to be a challenge, because even though
Timothy wasn’t going to buy a mana quality upgrade anytime soon. He couldn’t afford it, first of all, but that wasn’t the main reason behind his decision. He didn’t feel like spending them due to various reasons, so he’d rather accumulate any and all system points for now, and spend them later on, perhaps on more sensible purchases. Since the quality of Tim’s mana was at level two now, he felt like his normal self again, he felt confident! He was powerful enough to do plenty of damage, independently, and that was the second, more important reason behind his prior decision. He didn’t feel the need to upgrade the quality of his mana again so quickly, he wasn’t in a rush.Despite the main reason why they’ve entered this micro-universe to begin with, which was to improve the quality of the individual mana they bore, he wasn’t in a rush. Level two was plenty for a crafty rascal such as himself.“I went through thick and thin with this rustic ass mana, and most important of all, I survived
Timothy and Arvena hunted the whistling mana-muncher eels. It was evident that the team reigned victorious in this battle already, the enemies were fleeing, but if they were to assure their personal safety even further, then it was best to kill these sneaky, potentially invisible eels, they couldn’t spare them. It would be stupid to let these few vengeful munchers roam free, as they could come back for revenge in any given time later on! It was safer to kill them!Arvena ended up doing most of the work. The fireballs she shot out from the front of her forehead were massive, hot and dangerous! She managed to scorch an eel whole with a single shot, and this spoke volumes of the amount of power that she bore! It was understandable how she was the main contributor here. In the meantime, Timothy managed to kill a single eel, purely by accident. He had spammed lightning-bolts and fireballs against the enemies, and it so happened that he hit one of them at the same time when Arvena had stru
“A demon? Hell no, I don’t want to meet a demon! The gods hate me enough already.” Timothy refused, he joked partially, then again he was really curious about the matter. Arvena helped maintain his curiosity, as she added. “It’s a caged demon, so don’t worry. Your gods have punished this demon a long time ago, so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you talking to it.”“Oh shit! You’re serious, aren’t you?” He followed along, “I thought you were talking about a statue or something? I didn’t expect a living, er, unliving demon!”After that part, they swam towards the bottom of the pool without much of a debate. Considering that this demon somehow illuminated a big area, the team expected to see a huge beast, the thing of nightmares, even! They expected a lava-encrusted monster, and rightfully so, but that wasn’t nearly the case!When they got there, the team got really disappointed, Timothy especially! He noticed that the ‘demon’ didn't even have any horns, so it was inappropriate to call it a
Arvena and the team started shifting. It came to them as a bit of a surprise when she asked them to shift, because they were very deep underground right now, so it simply was the worst place to turn into a fish! Their utter confusion was mostly Arvena’s fault, because she hadn’t been too specific so far, regarding why this pool of water would be helpful to them. She didn’t explain it to them yet, but just told them that their visit here would be a great check-point in their journey to mana quality ascension! It might be a great check-point, however, they were yet to discover the pool’s contents.The team was cooperative, but then the most annoying part about her idea was that they had to disrobe first, in order to shapeshift afterwards! This was really uncomfortable for them, socially speaking at least. As goblins, neither of them wanted to walk around naked in front of their friends, even if it was for just a minute, so they dimmed their torches while they took their armor off, for t