Amid a colorless expanse, hordes of black spherical monsters, and spirit swarms, were surrounding what looked like a human with only his left hand, sprawled on the floor.
The man didn't appear helpless, however. Several magical bolts shot out from around him.
The creatures, which were formed of an amalgamation of spirit colonies mutated by a magical virus, proliferating at high speeds, burst and became corpses of a black gooey substance, acrid and foul.
They seemed to only have one purpose; killing the human. Drawn to him and undulating towards him like mindless creatures despite the fact that spirits are supposed to be clever and communicative magical creatures, even if below the level of humans and close to smart animals.
They didn't even cast magic, opting for physical touch and contamination to damage the human, which is unusual for the supposedly clever spirits.
Sometimes, the human would fire two light blue bolts, reminiscent of spears, that would pierce straight through multiple mutated spirits clusters, paving a way.
Or at times, he would fire a barrage of six yellow crackling bolts at bigger mutated spirits, causing brilliant firework-like yellow explosions, casting some color into this otherwise monochrome dimension and bubbling through the larger mutated spirits and destroying them.
Other times, he would fire a barrage of six dark violet-colored bolts, going in three different directions, helping with dealing with crowds surrounding him.
And also, he would cast the plain white bolts too.
He found out that casting the magic bolt spell variations in rotation was much more efficient since their cooldowns are somewhat independent.
Too bad, he couldn't simultaneously cast the spells. It required much better mastery, understanding of magic, and knowledge.
Casting every spell required lots of mental work. If not for the information that was ingrained in his head every time he 'leveled up', he'd hardly be able to cast one spell, let alone cast in rotations.
In the first place, many things seemed inconsistent to him, but thinking about them was impossible, given that even a second of distraction could kill him.
Since he had resumed this endless fight about an hour ago in earnest after waking up from that heavy upgrade that rendered him unconscious, losing his legs as a result, he felt like he was about to reach the threshold of leveling up again.
He'd received two other orbs of life during this process, the orbs had made his condition better, but the effect was still minimal given his severe condition, along with the fact that he was constantly exerting himself.
My brain is exhausted. I need rest. I really do. But if I close my eyes, who knows, maybe I'll wake up to see most of my body trunk missing. Or more accurately, I won't wake up.
He needs more regeneration, and his weakened body is also a big issue, the third modification point isn't far away, but the amount of combustion mana needed for each point is increasing fast. There are about 96 points in total since that's the amount of slots I could count under each modification combined.
Directing his gaze at some mana globes nearby, he dragged his body toward them, using the telekinesis spell to collect them.
His eyes narrowed as a heavy headache hit him, he steeled himself, trying to distract himself by focusing on casting out spells.
A headache hit him, but more acceptable than last time. Barely staying conscious, he browsed through the information he received this time. His expression eased slightly.
The amount of magic bolts I can cast now can be up to three at a time. This means three Magic Arrows at a time or nine Fireworks or Fissions since those branches triple the cast bolts. This increased my damage output by half.
A timely advancement, he thought. The creatures were getting more and more numerous. To the point where wherever he looked in this flat and seemingly endless world of the same terrain; there'd be writhing balls moving to him, making his eyes dizzy and overwhelmed.
"Also, the gaps in the knowledge about the Magic Bolt spell have been becoming less and less, if I could relax for a few days, and study the magic I have been stuffed with, I could probably figure them out somehow. I am close to mastering this spell." He muttered under his breath, still using his left hand to spin himself on the floor to keep aiming and killing off the monsters.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
That thought was more like a fantasy. If he could get even a minute of rest, he'd be thankful.
Sighing, which sounded more like a wheeze, he discarded those empty thoughts, focusing on more strategic thinking.
It's only a matter of gaining more resources, growth and combustion mana, for now, he concluded, how do artifact chests appear? They're my saving grace so far but I don't know when they appear, the interval, rules, or conditions for them to show up.
Coincidentally, as he had that thought, a chest appeared in his sight. Perhaps it had been there for a while but he missed it because of his low vantage point as well as the numerous mutated spirits clusters swarming him.
However, this one looked special, almost metallic, but different than the chest the Clest left. A sort of power radiated from it.
It was in a horde of mutants about 24 meters away, he'd need to carefully approach it.
Though, it wasn't easy. Perhaps because he moved so slowly, and the numbers increasing so much, he could barely move a few drags with his left hand before he'd have to stop.
No matter how many he killed; new mutants would appear, blockading the way, infinite.
In the meantime, he'd gotten another orb of life, which made his stumps grow for at least one centimeter, but he'd still need at least a hundred of these at this point to heal fully given his constant exertion, injury accumulation, and lost limbs.
It's already miraculous that I'm alive, I'm not complaining. The most important thing is to keep this steady pace, his eyes glinted sharply despite his hazy vision, calling out 'human' in English and summoning the black paper.
He went to the modification index, I can buy a new point.
This time though, he chose another modification that he'd initially ignored.
Vitality.
'Vitality:
Increase in vitality, in other words, Health Points, by 20%.
Orbs of life are 2% more effective. (Affected by Awakening)'
The second part is good, my main source of healing is the orbs of life provided by the Mr. Meat artifact but the increase is very minimal.
However, vitality itself is vague. In games, vitality means harder to kill, and more HP, but how would that translate here? Probably a tougher or sturdier body, and I need just that right now. I'm losing strength in my left arm, making me slower and slower, he prepared himself to confirm the modification.
The regeneration modification hadn't caused much to him other than a minor headache and body pain and shaking when choosing it, perhaps because it had the '(Affected by Awakening)' description. He theorized that it was for some reason bound or restricted as some other effects were like the increase of effectiveness of the orbs of life, and even the meat artifact.
But this Vitality modification's first part wasn't. So far, the only trend he'd noticed was that regenerative abilities were restricted.
Working around this was necessary for better efficacy.
The regeneration stipulated that he'd regenerate 0.1% of his current body's health per minute. However, what if his body were to become stronger? Wouldn't that increase the healing's effectiveness?
Thinking that he'd found a new faster way out of this limbless situation, he steeled himself and confirmed the exchange in the black paper.
He found out that he could use his hands - similar to tapping a phone or screen - to do this process, so he used it.
Under Vitality, one circular slot filled up. From the previously six hollow circles on the black paper, the first one filled up with green.
Immediately, he felt numbness in his whole body, then his body squirmed, muscles, connective tissue, bones... Having cramps all over his body.
It hurts like hell! Why does everything involve pain!? I've had enough of pain throughout my whole life!! He thought unfairly, gritting his teeth and slumping onto the ground.
Still, he couldn't even take a second to breathe, he still locked his eyes warily on his surroundings, casting spells continuously and using his core strength to roll from side to side to survey everything around him in order to properly aim.
When the cramps seized and the modification finished, he let out a long, shaky breath.
Other than the increased mental burden, he did feel more physically strong, his left arm visibly grew bigger muscles too.
But other than that, he didn't pause to admire the other changes in his body; he barely had a body with his three missing yet regrowing limbs.
The metallic chest, now within reach, emitted a heavy, tangible, force. Whatever artifact inside this chest emitted an oppressive aura, dense with mana.
Carefully, he lifted the lid, then propped himself with his left hand onto the edge of the chest, feeling like it was much easier now to move.
Peering inside, his expression turned confused. So far, the artifacts he'd collected had a certain form.
This one though, filled the whole chest, he'd almost touched 'one of it' when he supported himself up to lean on the chest.
It was a bunch of peacefully floating hollow cubical structures with colored borders. Many cubes were of different-colored borders. They rotated around themselves to settle, then rotated again in a different direction.
He felt a premonition. Then closed the chest.
"I will probably pass out when I touch it," he muttered.
He could only hope the chest wouldn't disappear until he found a way to obtain the artifact.
It seemed special, the peaceful and silent nature of the floating cubes made him feel uneasy.
If he'd learned anything since waking up in this dimension, it would be that nothing safe happened here, no matter how good it seems. Even the seemingly good advancements led him closer to death more than one time.
This artifact may be able to grant him impressive powers, but he'd rather not pass out like a few hours ago.
I would pass out, then pass away, he mocked and leaned back against the closed chest, firing spells at the oncoming monsters.
If anything, the leveling-up process may kill me soon, he looked down at the floor, then at his missing legs, when I leveled up the fourth time, I passed out, it was the point of differentiation for the magic bolt spell, then he quickly returned to complete focus on killing surrounding monsters.
I'm going to master the Magic Bolt spell soon... In Clest's entries, there were '6' differentiation branches for Magic Bolt. I learned three, does that mean I'll learn the other three soon? They would be at a higher level. And that would undoubtedly make me pass out or make me unable to focus or cast spells. My mind isn't that strong._
His eyes fluttered, discouraged, but he stayed in place, thinking of a solution while repelling the mutated spirits.
The mutated spirits clusters were only increasing in number, behaving more erratically. He could previously afford to momentarily lapse in judgement and reason because they needed time to get to him. However now, if he stopped for as little as a few seconds, his body would be swarmed.
He called out 'Human', summoning the Black Paper and then pressed on the 'Magic Classes' index, the place where he could unlock spells.
Reflected on his eyes was the black page, floating in midair.
Reading through each class, he noticed that he could enhance the Magic Bolt spell by buying upgrades for its class.
The magic bolt class was a bit more descriptive of the changes that would appear when upgrading than the rest, which had no descriptions at all. Perhaps because he could use the spell.
But he dismissed the idea of focusing on Magic Bolt.
He browsed through every class icon, which was not descriptive, only a title, a scribble, the name of the class and the accompanying spell.
His eyes finally locked onto one 'class - spell'.
They reflected the two words, 'Summoner - Spirit'.
