Sweat rolled off my back despite the air in the forest cooling as the sky started to turn orange from the setting sun. I was staring down the jaws of the giant salamander that had chased me around the forest and had me jumping around trees like a Scooby Doo chase sequence.
We were looking at each other like it was a Mexican Standoff, I was sure that if it had not fired off so much water that it was starting to look like a dried prune, Wooper there would be sweating too. We started to circle each other slowly as I began to take note of the surrounding terrain, making sure to note where the trees, roots, and rocks are.
While the giant salamander looked low on water and had some scratches on its skin from when it ram into trees after I dodged its lunge, I myself was not in any better condition. My muscles were aching, and my mana core was probably more than halfway empty based on the aching sensation that I began to feel. Something that I had been able to judge more accurately with more practice.
As I was trying to look for an opening to strike, the giant salamander seemed to have found its opening first. It had gradually dragged its large tail into a small pool of water that was blocked from my line of sight by its large body. I could only tell it was absorbing water as the veins along its body started throbbing, signs that it was channeling water to its head.
The salamander opened its jaw and spat out the jet of water, which I managed to evade with a Lightning Infused jump. As I landed, the salamander decided to lunge at me, though its stance was a little off right after blasting off that jet of water. Its speed was slower than its usual lunge, either from the poor stance or it was getting tired. That few seconds allowed me to find my footing before I kicked off in another direction with another infusion.
All this while, I was building up a much stronger charge of Lightning Bolt in both my palms. As the head chomped on the spot where my head was. Our eyes connected momentarily, and I almost thought it looked like it knew it fucked up.
"Chomp on this, you oversized tadpole!" I aimed both my palm right beside its left eye and unleashed both spells. The slime covering its entire body had mostly been shed off during the chase throughout the forest. Bolt the bolts landed its head near the eye socket, the sound temporarily deafening me being so close to the target.
The eye ball closest to me burst as the body flew past me, splashing some super heated eye ball juice on my face and into my mouth. I hated myself for thinking that it had a fishy but earthy umami taste and promptly spat it out before I could swallow on reflex.
The salamander was collapsed on its belly, all its legs limp by its side. I did not even seize this time as I guessed the concentrated lightning had fried its brain from inside out. I waited a whole minute and sent another bolt at its head for good measure, making sure it was really dead.
I took a few seconds to catch my breath by inhaling deeply for a few times. I found that deep breathing seemed to slightly increase the rate that my core replenish its mana when it was empty, albeit only slightly. Whether I was really able to absorb the ambient mana in the air into my core faster or whether it was a placebo effect, I really did not care currently as all I wanted was to soothe the ache in my sternum.
I made my way over to the body with my Electro Perception still running. I could see that there was no longer any neural activity coming from the giant salamander. The last lunge by the salamander right as its brain got fried caused the entire body to bury into the soft soil, creating a trench as the momentum carried its body forward till it got stopped by a large tree.
I stepped over the loose stones that were unearthed along with the soil and approached the body. I could sense the huge well of energy in the core and approached it quickly, afraid that the core might start degrading if I did not absorb it soon.
I placed my palm on the squishy skin above where the mana core should be, which was already starting to feel cold to the touch despite being deep fried by lightning just a few minutes ago. A rush of energy, unlike anything I had ever felt before channeled through my arms into my core.
I could feel another chime of notification at the back of my mind from the Weave, which I would get to later. The sun was already starting to set, and a carcass this size would attract beasts from deeper within the woods. Something I would not be capable of handling in my current state.
I decided to call it a day and only go back to the cave in a few days after a little more preparation, praying internally to whatever gods people in this world deified that another beast would not settle into the cave that I had just cleared out.
It was a good thing I lacked any visible wounds on my body, and only looked absolutely filthy like I had decided to roll around in the mud for no reason. Marta had given me a death stare and made sure I had thoroughly cleaned myself before joining the rest for dinner.
Her standard for cleanliness had increased ever since I had taught them how to make soap. Not that I mind but a bite or two would not hurt before I cleaned myself as I was starving from having missed lunch.
I was glad that dinner was a rather silent affair as Marta had probably given up at having me stay completely out of trouble and rather not ask as long as I came back in one piece. I finished up dinner before heading to the room, finally getting to the notifications I had held back. I had an inkling I had achieved what I was pushed for the whole winter.
[Lightning Bolt leveled up 3 -> 4]
[You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 800]
[Your core have progressed to the next stage: Orange -> Yellow]
[New Core Mutation unlocked: Lightning Adaptation]
[Lightning Infusion leveled up 3 -> 4]
[You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 400]
[Lightning Infusion leveled up 4 -> 5]
[You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 500]
[You have absorbed a Yellow Core. You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 250]
It was funny that the capacity increased I needed to breakthrough to Yellow grade had eluded me all winter, and the fight with the giant salamander alone had given me three times over what I needed. I guessed the saying of When It Rains, It Pours was true. I could also reaffirm my hypothesis that an individual would progress their spells faster when pushed to the limit, especially if their lives were in danger.
Hunting Red cored beasts all summer had not given me a single level in Lightning Bolt but just that short fight with the giant salamander had pushed me up. The fight would have probably also gone a lot better if I had cored up before that.
I also noted on the new core mutation that I received. It seemed like whoever created the Weave did not give it a very good sense of granting names. Everything I had received so far was Lightning This or Lightning That, I would need to submit another support ticket to the administrator some time soon.
I mentally pulled on the Weave to pull up my status window.
StatusCore: Lightning Affinity (Perfect)Core Stage: YellowStage Level: 1Mana Core Capacity (MCC) Progress to Next Level: 1464/2500Core Mutations:- Lightning Brain- Lightning AdaptationSpells:- Electro Perception (Tier 1) - Level 10- Lightning Bolt (Tier 2) - Level 4- Lightning Infusion (Tier 1) - Level 5Soul Mutations:- Adaptive Soul- Nature's Constitution
The levels through Yellow would probably be an arduous grind, considering that it would take multiple level ups from my spells to get enough progress for a single level. Even absorbing mana from a Yellow core only gave me 250, which was only one tenth.
I was lucky that the salamander was a favorable match up for my lightning affinity. If it was an Earth affinity beast which was the most common affinity for beasts in the Greywoods, or one with much higher agility or faster ranged attacks that I was unable to dodge, my story would become one of the shortest Isekai books every published.
I focused on the Lightning Adaptation core mutation entry to bring up the description.
Lightning Adaptation: The body grows resistant to the strain and backlash of the user's own lightning. Channeling, infusing, and discharging the affinity inflicts less self-damage over time; the user can endure sustained and repeated casting that would otherwise burn out the body.
Ok, now that's interesting. I was beginning to suspect the core mutation granted at each promotion stage had something to do with the mage's aspiration and also what the mage subjected themselves to. Of course it should be within the realm of possibility for the relevant affinity as well. I doubt subjecting myself to freezing temperatures constantly would grant me the ability for my lightning spells to freeze my targets.
I would need to be more mindful of what I wished for, as well as what I subjected myself to as that could directly influence the type of mutation I could get. Another thing that I had not much success with was my Soul Mutations. Ever since the very first Nature's Constitution mutation I did not even have an inkling of what might grant me something new.
I dismissed the status window and pulled out the Magical beasts Compendium to look up what that giant Wooper was. If I did not know better, I would have thought I got reincarnated in Johto region of Gold and Silver. Those protruding gills and its Water Gun attack would have convinced me it was a Pokemon for sure.
I found a sketch that sort of looked like what I fought and checked against descriptions.
"The Weepwyrm is a great salamandrine amphibian, long and low and eel-bodied, built to lie almost entirely submerged....
...weeps a continuous thin film of its own across the whole surface of its hide, secreted from glands banked along the spin...
...hide is thin enough to be faintly translucent, and through it run the water-channels. A branching network of vein-like vessels, blue-grey and slack at rest, that flush dark and visibly swell when the animal draws..."
Hmm, description was close enough but I confirmed it was definitely a Weepwyrm when I read the section on signature attacks.
"...Pressure-jet, with its tail anchored and soaking, the Weepwyrm draws water up the channels, pressurises it through the water core, and expels it from the mouth..."
I would have known about the pressure-jet attack had I actually read the compendium, taking note of beasts that were likely to settle in the Greywoods. But I had been overly focused on just beasts that could make me money.
Not only that, I would have actually known its ambush patterns and would have detected it before it could lunge at me near the cave.
That should be another lesson I need to keep in mind. There were definitely too many close brushes with the Grim Reaper today. I got settled in bed and decided that the beast compendium would be my nighttime reading material till I had most of the beasts memorized.