Now that I think about it, how long has it been since I last slept? My body is always in peak condition due to the effect of [Photo-Thermic Synthesis], but this can't possibly alleviate my need for sleep much. Time is hard to judge down here without a day-night cycle or any other time indicator to go off. Also, how do levels affect mental resilience, like the ability to shy away from sleep for longer periods of time? The instructors said that mages generally improve mostly in the mental faculties, but what does that actually mean for me?
Also, How long has it been since my fall? How long did I spend being unconscious in the magma as it slowly shaved away at my constantly regenerating body? How long did I spend wandering around, vigilantly observing my surroundings in hope of finding a monster close to my level and to not die in general? Has it only been days? Months? Maybe even a year? I didn't think so, but it was hard to say for certain. While I was sure I hadn't spent more than two weeks at the very most being awake down here, I had no possible way of finding out how long I was unconscious for.
Though, if you think about it, if it would have actually taken me months to escape the magma, I think it would have killed me instead of only grievously wounding me. If my regeneration was improving so slowly that I spent that much time down under, I don't think it could have staved off my death so far back.
Well, all of this didn't really even matter right now. However much time passed, I was still stuck down here. Still, I felt like I was slowly going insane. The longer I was here, the more I absolutely hated it. The constant heat, while comfortable to a certain extent, was slowly growing annoying. I was also constantly at risk of just dying suddenly. Who says that an incredibly strong monster doesn't just suddenly pass by and continues to stomp me to paste?
I still had things to do in life, I didn't want to remain down here until I inevitably die one day.
Gathering new resolve, I surfaced again. It was time to test out my theory from two hours ago. Would surfing my board of solid fire directly on lava actually be more efficient than just moving it in the air?
I was actually a bit confused about this magma here. Why was it that I constantly sank or floated inside of it? In the first period I spent in there, I sank under the surface by quite a bit, but not even close to far enough to hit the ground. While I wasn't an expert on the physical properties of magma, it should just be molten rock, right? As such, shouldn't I, as a definitely less dense human, straight up float on the surface instead of sinking under?
Maybe I was wrong about the presumed density of magma, but people could even easily float on top of saltwater. So, what is going on here? Is this even real magma, or something else entirely? I haven't ever seen real magma or lava before on Earth, but it looked exactly the way I imagined it would.
Maybe the laws of physics were just a bit flunked in this realm? Everything else I've seen behaved quite normally, though. Except for the obvious existence of magic, of course, but that didn't count.
Anyways, that was maybe something to think about for the future, but it didn't really matter right now. I then used [Candlelight] to create another board-like object, this time directly on top of the maybe-magma. The physical weight gained from the densification of the normally weightless flame pressed gently against the magma, but it didn't sink in.
Good. If even the very lightweight board had sunk in, I would have seriously questioned reality. I pulled myself onto the board and waited. I wanted to see if it would sink with my weight added on, so I didn't exert myself to mentally push against gravity.
As expected, it started sinking almost immediately. It had less surface area than even just my body had, so that was about as expected. Still, keeping it afloat on the magma took significantly less mental effort than keeping it flying in the air did.
I noticed, however, that actually moving the board was a bit harder than when it was airborne. The friction from the board with the viscous magma resisted any motion I tried to instill. Nevertheless, it still took significantly less energy than if I had to fight gravity as much as before. This made this inherently more usable than the previous approach had been.
On the other hand, however, this only worked on the magma for now. I figure I'd need to figure out how to make something like wheels on a skateboard if I wanted to do this on actual solid ground where the friction would be even greater. Well, at that point I'd rather just make it all float in the air. There is basically no justifying the effort needed to make something like that if another solution is right there. I'm only going to get better at it from here on out, so there's that.
Well, great that this somewhat works for now, but it isn't going to help much against the wolf. I already got an idea for that as well when I was ruminating in the magma. Instead of creating a sword to manually swing against the creature, I should just create a floating blade so I can fully utilize my mind to attack with it.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Just a normal sword-like blade would be stupid, however. Making it sword-shaped was not an effort I needed to make. Instead, I imagine it would be much more effective to create something like a saw blade. I know for a fact already that I can not just move my objects but rotate them as well.
Rapidly spinning blades of solid flame sounded much more deadly than a fiery sword did. Additionally, the disk shape of the saw blades could even be used as shields as well. While they probably won't be too robust for now, that will change with time.
I dismissed the test board I was still standing on and lowered myself back into the magma. For this test, I'd need as much mental capacity as I have available.
The problem was, I couldn't just make as many separate objects as I wanted. While there was technically no upper limit set by the skill, I was very well limited by my own mind. If multitasking two creations at once was already challenging, then doing it for five, while still having enough focus to overwatch the fight itself, was downright impossible.
A quick test confirmed my guess. I could at the very most do two saw blades at once. Since I also had to spin them, that already scratched hard at my limit. For now, I think I'm going to have to restrain myself to one blade while I familiarize myself with them.
I stopped my experiment just as my head was starting to pound again. This time, however, just before the splitting headache could set in.
That done, I recuperated my mind before setting out to fight the wolf again. I don't know where it went off to in the time since our last fight, but I hoped it wasn't far. I really did not want to have to go around looking for days on end again, already did enough of that.
As I arrived back where I first fought the wolf, there was nothing there anymore, not a single sign of the wolf. Just as I turned to search the nearby area for clues, I noticed it out of the corner of my eye. Hidden in the shadows of a big rock, maybe one hundred meters away, it sat there, monitoring me with its faintly glowing orange eyes.
And then it was gone.
You're not going to catch me twice with the same trick, though. I quickly whirled around and formed a solid disk with [Candlelight] just in time to block its strike. The primitive shield dispersed right after, but it mostly did its job. The slight delay added by this obstacle was enough for me to dodge out of the way.
I wanted to form a saw blade and finally go on the offense myself, but that damn wolf was relentless in its teleporting strikes. By now, the ever-present sight-inhibiting storm of ash that the creature was so fond of was whirling around me again. It was still annoying, but I had anticipated it, so it didn't do much more than that.
Still, it took all my senses and concentration to avoid being slashed in half. The wolf did nothing more than strike before teleporting away again. I could do nothing against it, and that was incredibly frustrating. What do I do? In the heat of the moment, I couldn't come up with anything.
Shit, a momentary slip in attention and it was right there again. I hastily constructed another shield, which did prevent me from being cut apart by its claw, though it couldn't take all of the force. Despite my best efforts, the strike still sent me flying, this time, however, without any broken bones. At least that went better than the first time.
Still, this wasn't a fight I should continue. No matter what I tried, I was seriously outclassed here. I didn't even get to try out my new attack. With a heavy heart, I carefully retreated back into the magma again.
I'm simply too weak to face off against the wolf. Every strike of it is enough to seriously trouble me. Paired with the unpredictability of its teleport skill, I stand no chance against the mix of surprise and raw power.
My saw blade tactic, while great in theory, was built on the premise that I actually even get to use it. If I'm on the back foot every single second of the fight, it's virtually useless.
But what other options do I have? It would be great if I could fight the wolf from inside or on top of the magma, but my range with [Candlelight] isn't that great, and it could just escape away instead of fighting me there. The thing's not stupid, it clearly has its own tactic for fighting. In comparison, I'm way less combat experienced than the wolf.
I took another peek at my status. Maybe something changed in some helpful way?
[Name: Hanah Mayflower
Race: Human
Level: 13
Mana: 263/280
Achievements: [Hero Candidate], [Predator I], [Molten Rebirth]
Class: Firefly (Uncommon)
Active Skills:
[Candlelight Lv. 12]
[Flash Lv. 2]
[Minor Fireball Lv. 7]
Passive Skills:
[Photo-Thermic Synthesis Lv. 17]
[Minor Fire Affinity]
[Minor Light Affinity]
General Skills:
[Identify]
[Heightened Senses Lv. 5]
[Pain Resistance Lv. 12]
[Fire Resistance Lv. 6]
[Mana Sense Lv. 1]]
Nope, nothing new to see here. A couple skill levels here and there, but nothing world-changing. By now, [Candlelight] is clearly starting to leave my other skills behind. Especially [Flash], which is still stuck at level 2, but it's just such a useless skill that it's impossible to actually use it. Even [Minor Fireball] has become rather useless with how good of a skill [Candlelight] has become. There was almost nothing there that I couldn't just do with my highest-level skill.
At this point, there was also no beating of [Photo-Thermic Synthesis]. The skill was already sitting at a comfortable level of 17, which is rather understandable as I'm constantly relying on it like a lifeline. Well, that is probably what the skill was intended to be in the first place, so I can't really complain. My mana was also almost back to full already as well, another super useful perk of having that skill.
After the short but hectic fight with the wolf, I was feeling a bit tired. My body was, as always, in absolute peak condition, but my mind wasn't. The recent disappointments were weighing me down, and I was weary from the exertion of controlling [Candlelight]'s flame for a prolonged periods.
Maybe tomorrow will bring something different for me. If you can even call it tomorrow, that is. After all, I have no idea what time it actually is right now. Maybe I'll wake up the same day I started sleeping in. Who knows at this point? Well, it really doesn't matter, even if the thought is a bit interesting.
With that, I settled down in the blanketing magma and quickly drifted off, once again into another dreamless sleep.