Chapter 41 Glass Eels
I've been making fairies with one mana mainly, so I don't burn up my mana too fast, but now I kinda want to see how big my explosions can get.
I summon a fairy with the maximum mana I could then empower it twice. With the help of [Twin Minds], I send another double empowerment and my new [Fairy Explosion]. The fairy explodes with a loud boom, the blast reaching the size of a house! Large pieces of unstable beauty mana flew out, and a good number of those exploded as well. The shock wave rushed over me with a strong breeze. That was one hundred mana, thirty from the fairy, twenty from empowerment, and fifty from explosion, then increase that by all my modifiers. Five hundred percent from my Kyhosa, three sixty from my race, whatever my intelligence gives me, my Bond level bonus, and perhaps my class or skill level bonus. At least one thousand percent bonus.
With my new breakthrough in [Sense Mana], however. I can see my spell had around a one thousand one hundred percent bonus if the intensity was anything to go by.
Still, why does mana explode like that? There is way more going on here. I've seen mana with vastly more intensity, yet it remains stable, and why does not all the mana explode at once, I feel like I am losing efficiency, yeah it looks prettier when it's more like a firework, but I lose power. Is it a property of beauty essence?
Soon I heard several footsteps rushing in on my location. I guess that explosions would have alarmed some people.
"What was that?! What's going on?"
"Is it another monster?"
Several people showed up to investigate the noise.
"Ah, sorry about that. I was just testing my new class skills," I apologize with a bow. "I didn't know it'd be that loud."
"Is that all? Well, now you know to warn us and probably do it a little farther away next time."
I wouldn't have used my Kyhosa if I didn't need the mana in it... wait, I only need to wear one piece at a time! As a set, if I wear one piece, I'll only get one sixty percent bonus and sixteen hundred mana that I can still use. I could also continue summoning fairies with one mana and not empower them with [Fairy Explosion], which should result in dramatically less mana used.
As I was about to take off two pieces of my Kyhosa, something caused me to pause. A strange movement in the water. Water mana like a very long snake moving toward the village at a swift pace. The mana isn't very intense, but I can definitely see unique mana as I look closer. This was another creature other than the Domrs and the Tamrs
I sent out a fairy to see if it'll interact with it. An eel jumped out of the water, snatching the fairy out of the air. Its body is seemingly made of water, but the three rows of long dagger-like teeth certainly were not. I took this chance to Analyze it through my breakthrough.
Juvenile Glass Eel Hunter (Major) Sea Hunter (Adept)
I can see its mana generation is fairly high, about five or six times what I currently have; Its stats are way higher than mine, probably all in the hundreds. It is not stopping; it continues to rush at us. Its skills suggested a camouflage type ability as well as hunting type abilities. Improved senses, hunter's eye, and prey mark. That last one sounded too similar to my beauty mark.
"We're under attack!" I shout and launch dozens of double empowered fairies; also, I sent a burst of mana toward the serpent, making my own mark onto it. It did something very similar soon after several marks homing in on us.
I send out a fully powered fairy, the intent on it exploding with full force. Several distracting fairies buzzing around the serpent, the others delivering their full payload, and soon my package reached the serpent, a full package of two more empowering doses with the explosion dose reaching the fairy soon afterward. The loud boom echos across the sea and pieces of the serpent splashed all around.
Ting! You have killed a Juvenile Water Serpent Hunter (Major), Level 43. Extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo.
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 11! 15 status points awarded.
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Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 19! 15 status points awarded.
Ting! Fairy Explosion has obtained level 1!
Ting! Beauty Mark has obtained level 1!
Great experience.
I notice the marks on us didn't go away, But I guess magic doesn't just disappear with the caster's death. Still, I don't like it, so I remove them with [Mana Manipulation]. I wonder, can I weave these? Turn a spell into mana silk? I try, but it felt too slippery; however, I did notice that it's possible, just that my manipulation level was too low. That's actually scary to think about. A good enough weaver could just counter any spell thrown at them as long as they have mana.
I sigh with relief.
"Have any of you heard of..." I pause. How would I describe these things to them? "Chayaotmo?" It meant 'long water transparent being' I assumed it was transparent anyway as its skill suggested.
"Chayaotmo? No, is that what you blew up?"
I nod.
"Hmm, you definitely blew something up, and if it is transparent then that may explain why we didn't see it. If there is another creature out there that we don't know... it's best to notify the elders. Thank you for defending us. I hope this is the last of them."
Thank you for jinxing us. I thought, casting out my perception to look for more. I didn't have to go far; seven more are swimming toward us.
"Maybe you should tell the fighters to don their monster-slaying gear and come here; I can see more coming," I say and sent out my fairies. I checked my mana, thirty thousand. I had taxed my reserves when testing out my skills; it looks like that may have been a bad idea. "Looks like they may have a nest somewhere; we'll also need to warn the other villages."
It's best to prepare for the worst case. They may not have a nest yet but let's assume they do.
I mark the serpents in case they try to run away and harass them with fairies. Two dies quite fast but they were also the smallest, their level only twenty-seven. I sent an exploding fairy to the largest, but before the payload could reach the fairy to make it explode, the Chayaotmo Hunter ate the fairy. Some damage was still dealt, but the payload is wasted, looks like I found a weakness in that strategy.
Probably a good idea anyway; it was probably the explosions that attracted the eels. Two more died before the serpents came close. I retreat further in the village but left my clone as a decoy. With [Dreams of Reality], I shift the village forward a meter with an illusion so that the monsters would miss their attacks.
As another Chayaotmo dies, the last two jumped out of the water just as I planned. They had my clone marked and missed their target. I continue bombarding them with fairies as they tried again, moving through the clone. They tried over and over again until they were both slain.
Ting! You have killed a Juvenile Chayaotmo Hunter (Major), Level 27. Extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo.
…
Ting! You have killed a Juvenile Chayaotmo Hunter (Major), Level 52. Extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo.
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 20! 15 status points awarded.
…
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 30! 15 status points awarded.
Ting! Beauty Mark has obtained level 2!
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 206!
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 207!
Capped out on my level, Still, the new monsters are good experience for my Bond, so that was a plus.
It wasn't long after that the fighters joined me on the village edge.
One of the great things about this language is that you don't have to explain why something is called what it is, normally. Chayaotmo explains itself there is no need to say, "well, it's long, transparent, and live in water so let's call a glass water snake" because it's basically saying that anyway, just fewer words.
"Aly, are you alright? Are you hurt? Where are the Chayaotmo?" Chyzu says. She was in her serious mode.
"Is it those things down there?" Esofy says, pointing at the dead Chayaotmo in the water. She had learned Sense Mana and could see the bodies.
I nod. "There were eight in total, all young. I suspect there is a nest somewhere. I'll see if there's any in my perception range, but it'll take time to check. Can you help me with that, Esofy? Also, the Storm Warden should help us search the area."
Several people now have the ability to see remotely with their Sense Mana so searching should not be long, but if it's not within ten kilometers, then we'll have to go out and search; hopefully, we don't find any nests, but we will have to kill any we see.
Several fighters dive into the water to retrieve the Chayaotmo bodies once we ensured the waters were safe.
The skins are taken off; perhaps it could be useful in some battle equipment.
Chayaotmo Skin: Shrouds the wearer in water camouflage. 12 enchantment allowance.
It has about one slot for enchantment, useful for maybe a water swimming ability, would really help divers be safer in the very least.
"At least its skin is useful; can we somehow capture some to farm the skin?" a Kheshamo warrior suggests. "Tolr Island has a lake in it where we can keep them"
"First, we should take care of any wild nests we find, and if there are any eggs, then we can think about it," Esofy says.
"What level were they, Aly?" Chyzu asks.
"Twenty-seven to fifty-two for young ones. I don't know what level mature ones are at"
"We should assume somewhere around level two hundred to maybe even three hundred; what tier are we looking at?" Esofy asks, examining the teeth. The Teeth are twice as long as her entire hand and were very sharp. Several teeth are missing and some regrowing, suggesting that they were a bit like sharks in that manner. "These would make excellent knives," Esofy mutters.
Chayaotmo Tooth: Enhanced sharpness. 8 Enchantment allowance.
Maybe a weak durability enchantment, but it would be hard to do with the water element though, perhaps a sharpening enchantment instead? Can't do a force directing enchantment unless there's a tooth with fourteen allowance.
"Major for these ones," I answer. Esofy frowns.
"Major could be a problem, That Aydomr was Minor and it..." Chyzu trails off. It had killed six people.
"We are more prepared this time," Esfoy says. "That won't happen again, even if it's a major tier."
"These seemed dumb; they kept going after my illusion, falling for the same trick, nor do they seem adept at using spells; they seemed more like physical type monsters," I say.
"Young Domrs don't typically use spells either, the large one, however... We should expect the same if there are any adults out there." It took Esofy years to stop having nightmares, something I thankfully never had; perhaps not being in the fray, not hearing the crunching of bone being broken, helped me have peaceful nights.
Nothing else of use was discovered from the Chayaotmo bodies, but we could always see if the meat is edible. This one had been one of the larger ones, about the size of me, so it has a lot of meat.
We stayed for a few hours to see if any more would come as we searched the sea for any nests. We didn't find any nests but we found a few more monsters, however. After talking with the fighters, we came to the agreement that we should try to lure as many as we can, but not to the village. We moved to the island about a Kilometer away from the village and started our operations. I also tested my new abilities and tried to get new breakthroughs in my [Fairy Explosion]
Ting! Fairy Explosion has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Fairy Explosion will now continue leveling past level 10!
Ting! Fairy Explosion has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Fairy Explosion will now continue leveling past level 20!
Fairy Explosion: You've sent a large burst of unstable mana to your fairy, causing it to explode.
1st Breakthrough: You've managed to send multiple doses of unstable mana to one fairy; this will help you send even more doses.
2nd Breakthrough: You've managed to send multiple doses of unstable mana to different fairies; this will help you affect more fairies.
Ting! Fairy Explosion has obtained level 2!
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Ting! Fairy Explosion has obtained level 14!
Fairy Explosion: 6/10(Action: 3/5 Knowledge 3/5)
1stBreakthrough: 4/10 (Action: 2/5 Knowledge 2/5)
2ndBreakthrough: 4/10 (Action: 2/5 Knowledge 2/5)
Ting! Fairy Empowerment has obtained level 13!
Ting! Fairy Empowerment has obtained level 14!
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 31! 15 status points awarded.
…
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 35! 15 status points awarded.
The Unstable mana isn't Uniform; this causes some parts to explode first, so the goal now is to improve my control to make the unstable mana Uniform; this means either getting more wisdom or leveling up my skill. I don't want to spend my stat points yet; it'll make getting skill levels harder, so getting skill levels is my choice; also, it'll raise my class level cap.
Unstable mana seems to have something peculiar going on. It's almost as if the attraction force is turned into the repulsion force to cause the explosion. The only problem is that the mana doesn't change to an opposite element; it stays as beauty mana; there is no transformation going on. It's fascinating how I've discovered so much about mana, yet there's always more to it. New phenomena always bring new mysteries; the mysteries bring new questions to which there are breakthroughs and answers to be had. I wonder what else is out there, what mysteries have yet to have an answer for? The fact that the MM force can even change suggests that it's not as concrete as I once thought; it can be manipulated.
I smiled as four more Chayaotmos appears in my perception, attracted to my explosions. I use [Dreams of Reality] to make several decoys in the water. The stupid monsters didn't stand a chance; the mages kills them all as they attack the decoys.
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 36! 15 status points awarded.
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 37! 15 status points awarded.
I didn't get as much experience as we are in a party, and one of the monsters was lower level than me.
No more Chayaotmos came, and neither did we find the nest or nests; this will probably be a large-scale event, every island will need to look out for the nest; good thing that every island now has at least one storm warden to safely search in the comforts of her own home.
