Kyle sat high above on the branch he halfway broke off a couple hours earlier, with his back to the tree's trunk he watched the surrounding forest as his friends slept down below.
Four beds of leaves above snakeskin lay on the snow surrounding the tree in front of his, a large direwolf lay sleeping between Sly and Reyna. Kurt slept while facing the tree's trunk, the bark being crunched on as the beast sleepily bit at it.
Kyle smiled amused by the beast's actions, laying his head back onto the trunk he kept watch while letting his thoughts flow. His mind drifted through everything that had happened so far, having the personality of dealing with his own emotions during quieter times he had ignored them thus far.
Being trapped in this world didn't bother him, the thought of another world to explore did not excite him as it did for his clan mates but it did not bother him like it did with the rest. What his true interests lay in was something else this world had that his own did not, magic.
He glanced back and forth to his hands as he continuously created and dissipated slime, training his skill over time by making use of [Core Overload]. The skill making use of twice the mana he had to make use of made for an easier way to train the [Ooze] skill and [Core Overload] itself, along having no mana cost for controlling the created slime it was the perfect skill for him to focus around and so he did.
In between cooldowns of the [Core Overload] skill he used those 60 seconds of no upkeep cost to figure out better ways to use slime in combat. Thinking back, he had found himself too weak and relying too much on either his friends or luck itself to survive. ("Talking it out won't always be an option") he thought to himself, he wanted to get stronger, he had the means to but couldn't quite figure it out.
He let the blue slime flow around his body as it froze, compressed and liquidated over and over, while doing so he thought over his current capabilities. ("The slime blade/spikes I create are too fragile, fracture too risky to use at close range and the frost bite DOT is just background additive damage…") He thought while letting some slime flow over his arm, he froze it into the best bladed shape he could muster then stared at it as suddenly [Core Overload]'s upkeep reduction ran out.
The slime around him immediately dissipated due to being out of mana to keep it up leaving him with the frozen slime blade on his right arm, he stared at it intently ("From creation to control its all within the [Ooze] skill, this blade is nothing more than solidified slime shaped into a makeshift blade by my mind. It's not a skill itself…").
Sighing he dissipated the slime blade and went back to waiting the one minute between casting for the rest of [Core Overload]'s cooldown. ("It's not a skill…can I make it one? What would be the requirements? Blacksmithing knowledge? Slime knowledge? Is the system limited by set skills or does it create them depending on our accomplishments and knowledge?") Kyle continued to theorize about the system, deciding it was time to figure out the basics himself.
Opening his inventory, he spotted the VCD among his gold coins and gear sets. He somehow hadn't lost them after being killed by the curse but let it pass thinking it had something to do with Lucifer's magic. "Cornelius".
"Ah young adventurer, how may I help you?" The old man's sour face appeared within the device's crystal surface, annoyance plastered on his expression.
"Didn't think you'd be still awake, is something wrong?" Kyle asked noticing the man's mood.
Cornelius snorted "Nothing important to you, your leader's a sly bargain" he stated dismissively.
Kyle smirked at the thought of how badly Birse had dealt with the mage's predicament "I have some questions about your main topic of study".
"Main? I have many studies young one, almost as many as I have in years" Cornelius spoke quickly as his attention lay on whatever he was currently focusing on and little on the conversation.
"Magic, Cornelius. I want to ask about the system behind it." Kyle quickly added gaining the mage's attention "What defines a skill? What are the requirements behind gaining one? Can they be created or are skills just a set list I need to pick from?"
Cornelius dropped what he was doing and laid back in his chair, he stared down at his notes thoughtfully "That is a complex question, putting it simply isn't an easy task adventurer. Your mage companions are taking basic training on magic with my apprentices, it will take them time to develop their skill."
"But I don't have the time they do" Kyle guessed as his expression darkened.
Cornelius smiled as he turned to look into the device "You're blessed that I am no ordinary mage" he suddenly stated "Your magic is a strange one indeed, something I've never seen before but I have seen my fair share of slime monstrosities in action. Firstly I'll have to points a couple facts to you."
Kyle continued to survey the forest while paying attention to the mage.
"Mana, the base resource of all magic is an ethereal substance that can be found everywhere but requires to be processed by the mage to be made use of as unprocessed mana is highly poisonous to the rest of the inner body." Cornelius began explaining in detail "The process of such is automated, as you make contact with the ground, air, reality itself you drain mana out of your surroundings. That mana converges with another ethereal substance stored inside your body, the soul."
"The soul processes the mana and stores it inside itself, this is what we call a mana pool. The soul is capable of storing different kinds of mana and you can train yourself to store different amounts of each but certain types are volatile to each other. Aura is dangerous to store along Deity given mana we call Astral mana, general elemental mana is immediately converted when stored with Dread the resource for necromancy and other dark arts while more physical types of mana like Rage is deadly if stored alongside any other than Aura."
"As for skills" he raised his right hand with palm wide open in front of himself "They aren't limited by no list you've mentioned; the system is adaptive letting us create our own as long as we follow specific rules". Green ethereal energy began forming above his palm, forming slithering lines of mana that swirled and spiralled along each other "The rules are such; Resource, Flow, Process, Casting and Naming."
"The resource is what I explained earlier, what type of mana is used and how much. The flow is how said resource is used, where it goes, what form it takes." The magic re-entered his palm as he turned his hand over, suddenly tendrils of long grass began to grow from his wrist "Nature mana obviously can create life of a basic type, where it's created, what form it shall take and how much is created. That is the flow."
Cornelius closed his hand into a fist as the leaves suddenly burst forth pushed out by light brown bark growing all over his arm "Next is the process, what is done with the magic you've formed." Kyle watched in amazement as the bark formed a perfect gauntlet around the mage's hand. "Then there is casting, although not as important as the previous three this is a requirement that determines how powerful any skill is over all. I assume you know about spell casting some?"
Kyle gave a dejected nod and answered "Infusing your words, not the sound but the meaning with mana to give them power", remembering what Lillior had thought him.
Cornelius suddenly clenched his fist and the tree bark gauntlet dissipated into green sparks of mana "Exactly, it is important to know that fact. Infusing mana into your voice is a physical enhancement while infusing mana into your words is of a spiritual design. The first we call mana speak while the latter is spell casting."
"Lastly, the most important part of creating a skill. Naming. Unlike spell casting which determines the power of the magic, naming is confirming the skill's existence to the system. This is usually done by the system itself but there are many unconventional ones that require to be named by it's caster. Your magic is probably one of these." He opened his hand again "Nature's grasp" he spoke out the skill's name and the gauntlet suddenly reappeared at a faster rate than before.
"Naming a skill reduces the cost of resource and time as the first, second and third rules are automated by your soul." He dissipated the skill again finishing his lecture "Any questions?"
"You're kidding me" Kyle's expression twitched between disbelief and anger "I couldn't get any attack skills of good quality because I have to name every damn one of them!? Plus the a chant?!".
Cornelius entered a fit of laughter as Kyle grimaced, raising his arm up he formed the slime blade then froze it. Thinking it over momentarily he then named it "Slime Blade", no notification or any other sort of confirmation was given to him.
"Let me guess, you got nothing" Cornelius asked ending his fit with an amused chuckle.
"Nothing…" Kyle replied as his shoulders slumped down, he let his arms fall limp beside him.
"Think adventurer, why hasn't the system accepted that magic as a skill? What of that spell doesn't fall under it's definition?" Cornelius asked giving the bare minimum of helping.
"Slime blade…well it's made of slime…It's a blade…" Kyle slowly answered as he stared down at the makeshift double edged blade covering his arm.
"A blacksmith would be infuriated by your lacklustre definition of a blade…A Dwarf would straight up slap you silly, with an iron hot hammer nonetheless!" The mage laughed loudly while caressing his moustache.
"Oh" coming to a realisation Kyle smashed the slime covered arm into the tree's trunk, the edge cracked and mostly fell off the moment it hit the bark. "It's too fragile" Kyle stated out what he had realised before "So it still has to be somewhat realistic to be accepted by the system?"
"Indeed, not only is that spell's shape unworthy of being a blade but its material is not suitable at all." Cornelius explained.
"One last thing" Kyle carefully picked his words "What do you think of necromancy?"
Cornelius hummed in thought as he stared at Kyle with scrutiny "A nefarious art, scorned by most magic practitioners. The Elven empire strictly deals with necromancers, the dead is not something that should be messed with."
"I'm not interested in necromancy, more so specifically souls and binding them to bodies along with the creation of a body" Kyle quickly answered "With my slime magic I may be able to create a body for something but I have no clue how to animate it other than binding a soul and I have no clue on how to do that either" he explained.
"Ah you wish to learn Golemcraft then?" Cornelius replied with relief "Binding a monster's soul is not an easy task but neither too advanced, you need some very specific ingredients depending on the soul being bound though. Golems are adaptable and therefore perfect bodies to inhabit but lack actual lifelines."
"Lifelines? What do you mean?" Kyle asked not understanding the therm.
Cornelius shook his head "Golems tend to fall apart after a certain amount of time depending on the materials used, the more powerful the soul the more specific the materials required to create the body therefore the shorter they last due to the fragility of said materials. Golemancers usually keep around the materials and bind the soul to a monster core to be able to summon the Golem at any given time, I can tell you that you have the right idea about what path to take for your magic but unfortunately soul binding isn't something I can teach solely through speech and show."
Cornelius suddenly stood up and grabbed the VCD as he walked off somewhere, Kyle noticed the many book cases around him. Taking out an old grey book Cornelius sighed "I suggest you train on any monster cores you may come around, focus your mana into the core and see what happens. Do not mess with soul binding yet unless it's a minor monster, that's all the help I can give on that subject right now. Well I'll leave you at it young one, I still have some notes to finish before night time".
"It's morning" Kyle stated with a frown.
"Oh" Cornelius's opened wide and the connection fell.
Kyle put away the VCD and glanced down at the broken blade of frozen slime, dissipating the half-assed spell "Guess I'll have to come up with something else huh…".
Standing up and balancing himself on the branch he thought forward the list of notifications he received so far, ignoring the repeated ones he read through them.
Through straining your mana pool you've increased your INT! + 1
"Four of those…"
Grinning at the welcome surprise he opened his skill book.
Attribute effects are kept, further attribute upgrades progress through each attribute owned meaning that all upgrades for previous effects can be earned later on.Warning skills tier cap is 15 therefore you are limited to 30 attribute upgrades.
Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Frost)]: (Ice)
(Frost) (Cold) Effects:
[Cold Mist]; Turn into a freezing mist,
[Cold Puddle]; Turn to sticky liquid while retaining temperature
(Frost) (Snow) Effects:
[Blizzard]; Turn into a flurry of snow flakes,
[Snow Touch]; Physical contact causes a spread of [Frostbite] which spreads on further contact
Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Demonic)]: Null
(Demonic) (Cursed) Effects:
[Weakness]; The slime attaches itself to the target slowing them down,
[Illusionary]; The very sight of this slime causes hallucinatory effects
(Demonic) (Monstrous) Effects:
[Demonic Shell]; The slime forms a hardened shell similar to demonic monstrosities,
[Demon's blades]; The slime forms sharp claw like appendages similar to demonic monstrosities
(Demonic) (Vampirism) Effects:
[Leech]; Leeches life over time and regenerates the user's,
[Drain]; Drains mana over time and regenerates the user's
Currently unlocked attributes for [Core Overload]: Null
Colossal: 10% increase in slime created
Limbs: Slime control upkeep cost disabled for 60 (+ 60) seconds, Mana exhaustion 180 (+ 20) seconds
"Demonic Ooze shares skill level with Frost? Now the 30 upgrade limit makes sense, must mean I cannot actually get every single one for all existing Ooze types…" Reading the effects over carefully he thought it best first decide what he can do with what he currently has.
"Frost slime, Ice variation" he began listing the skill as blue slime grew out over his palm, raising it high he watched "Freeze" as the slime froze over and solidified. "Packed Ice" adding more mana to the already frozen slime solidified it further, glancing over at the others still sleeping mostly soundlessly he threw the frozen lump of slime away "Fracture" and watched it explode with a slight popping sound sending shards in every direction.
"Melee is out of the question unless I want to bash monster's face in with a hammer that fractures with every use…that actually sounds amusing…What can I make for ranged attacks…" Thinking over what skills he currently had at his disposal he began listing some ideas "Bow?…nope nothing to use for string or flexible bow and arrowshafts…"
"What about a gun?"
The sudden voice from behind caught him off guard "Huh?" turning around too quickly lost him his balance making him slip off the branch.
"Hold on!" Karnage told him as she held onto his left arm while hanging upside-down with legs around the branch.
Sighing in relief he looked up and asked "Can you pull us up?"
She tried to pull him but she could barely lift him closer "Nope…Guess I'll have to let go, can you land that?"
Glancing down he shook his head "Rather not, here let me" swinging back and forth he bent his lower body waiting for the right moment.
Realising what he was doing Karnage suddenly screamed out "STOP!"
Her sudden scream made him flinch as he forced his arm out of her hand and surged upwards, directly into another branch. "Damn…what was that for…" as he held onto the branch he glanced downwards.
"Nothing!" she responded with reddening cheeks, already sitting back onto the branch.
Kyle pulled himself up and looked back at her direction realising something "Is that armour new?" he had just noticed the difference.
"Yeah had it sitting in my inventory, completely forgot about it cause of the demons appearing…" she answered while holding her dress down shyly. With a blood red reaching down into an abyssal black dress till her knees and metal padding along the sides she looked like a knight princess, her two short-swords sheathed to her sides giving the set its final touch.
With a short running start from the tree's trunk she ran along the branch and leaped off to the closest tree, pushing off said tree she then landed standing upright on the snow.
Kyle let go of the branch after swinging himself closer to the tree's trunk, his claws growing out he held onto the bark as he slid down leaving claw marks behind.
"Ugh…what's with the commotion?" Reyna had been woken up by the sound and walked over to them, her hair growing out into the strangest angles.
"Is that our healer or some miniature Yeti?" Kyle joked after giving her a glance.
Reyna crossed her arms and glared back at him "At least I don't have paint at the end of my ears and tail" she pointed out.
"You don't have a tail Reyna" Karnage added with a chuckle.
"What you talking about?" Kyle asked as he pulled back his tail and glance at it, just as Reyna had said the tail's end had permanently turned blue "What the hell? How did this happen?"
"You didn't dye it?" Karnage asked in confusion.
"No…how long has it been like this? Crap my ears too!?" Kyle exclaimed loudly after reaching up to bend his ears forward trying to get a glimpse.
Karnage hummed in thought trying to remember "Somewhere between that time in the town plaza and the incident with Zeeke and the guards"
Thinking back Kyle remembered that was around the time he had gained his class Lord of Slimes "It might be my class then…" shrugging he let go of his tail "Let's wake the others, we should get moving" the urgency to regroup with the others aside, Kyle wanted to find some monster cores to train on as quickly as possible.
("If I can't get her body back…I'll make her a new one") he promised himself