Chapter 9: Practice and Crab Legs
When I step out of the cavern and into the tunnel, I am immediately confronted by the stone rune wall. I quickly activate the runes and wall through the portal, wanting to forget the horrible experience of only being able to kill an enemy because it thought I was dead.
When I regained my vision, I found myself back in the vine room, with water still pouring down in the corner of the room. I looked behind me and saw the runic circle, signaling that I could go to the sixth floor whenever I wanted.
I quickly take a bath in the water, only being able to clean myself in the occasional stream before this. When I finish cleaning myself, which took longer than it should have, I think about what I should do next. I haven't felt tired since I came into this world, and besides being used for that, I couldn't find a use for this room. As I make my way to the runic circle, I think of how helpless I was in that boss fight.
I don't know how I died but I do know that the rat punched through my head like wet paper. I couldn't do anything against it and I still can't think of how I would fight against the fast and small little asshole. I think back to my ice magic and my lack of practice and use of it.
I turn away from the runic circle, lay my back against one of the walls and start practicing my ice magic. I practice making spears and shorts swords so that I can finally have weapons to use instead of my claws. Spears will be my main weapon and short swords will be my just in case weapon. I also practice making shields to guard against attacks that I do not have the ability to stop. I have come to notice that while I can tank attacks and just heal from them, the wound that I receive slows me down.
Time quickly passed as I practiced ice magic. The difference between my Astral stat going from 7.5 to 12 was immense. My magic jumped from 75 to 120 but the bad news was my magic regeneration stayed at one percent per second. Which while not bad, was also not where I wanted it to be. My unrealistic expectation aside, I was happy with the changes that my magic went through.
While practicing my magic before, I figured out that making the ice was much more difficult than manipulating it. In an area about the size of my arm, it costs about 5 MP to lower the temperature enough to create basic ice and 10 MP to make the ice condense. Hard ice on the other hand costs 10 MP to make and 20 MP to condense. The colder the ice is, the harder it is. was a fact I quickly learned while experimenting.
After creating the ice, it cost about half of what created the ice to keep it from melting a second. So it cost me 5 MP per second to stop the ice from melting and becoming brittle. Practicing my ice magic is split into three parts. It takes about 10 seconds to lower the temperature all around me to make hard ice generate at any second and 2 to 3 seconds to make an area the size of my arm. I work to make this time shorter and to make the time it takes me to lower the temperature at further distances quicker.
The second part was to be able to make more shapes with my ice and to change the shape quicker. I can generate the ice into any shape but changing the shape after I made it cost twice as much MP.
I practiced by constantly freezing the opposite side of the room and making blocks of ice. I would then try to change the blocks of ice into swords, spears, and shields from the distance. This is where I found out that I can't heat areas after lowering the temperature. I also couldn't get rid of the ice I generated, the only way I could get rid of them was by dispersing them and making the surroundings colder.
...
Time passed quickly while training and I didn't stop until I had noticeable results in all areas. Especially the area that involves making weapons. I manage to shave a second off of all my times with lowering temperatures and almost double the distance that I can generate ice quickly. I was even able to raise my resistance by two from constantly subjecting myself to frostbite from the freezing temperatures. Now my fingers just lose a little feeling and nothing more.
It seems like the more I'm used to lowering temperature then the easier it is. I was also able to make all the equipment that I wanted and was even able to shoot out the weapons. It took 10 MP to shoot the weapons at a speed that can actually injure something.
I stood up hungry, horny and ready for my next fight. I activated the runic circle and walked through the opened portal. The sight that greeted me was a giant beach with white sand and sparkling blue water. I was amazed by what I saw and stood rooted to the spot. I quickly shook my shock off and moved on. I first looked behind me to see the stone wall with the runic structure still on it.
I turned around, made an ice spear and walked cautiously, not knowing what enemies I would be facing. A few minutes after I started walking, I saw an area of sand move and a giant ass crab rise up. The crab was bright red and looked like any average crab except for the fact it was spiky as hell and was a few heads taller than me.
The crab tried to grab me with one of its giant pincers. I rolled to the side, dodging the pincer, and ran underneath the crab. I quickly stabbed its underbelly with my spear before it could crush me, killing it instantly, judging by how it instantly stopped moving. I stabbed my tail in the same spot that I stabbed my spear and drained it of its blood and essence. It tasted like the crab legs that I ate in my past life but a hundred times better.
I suddenly think back to the crab rising up when it noticed my presence and wonder how it noticed me if I wasn't making noise. 'I think I remember that crabs can feel vibrations through sand' I thought to myself, answering my own question. I look back at the sand, wanting to taste some more seafood.
I could fly above the sand but then I wouldn't be able to tell where the crabs are and they wouldn't come out. I also don't want to risk walking on the sand since I can be sneak attacked by a crab. And after my last experience with getting surprise attacks, I don't want a repeat performance.
Inspiration hit me and I looked at the 10 legs of the crab. I use my sword to cut off all of its legs and store them in my ring. I fly up in the air with my wings, which comes naturally to me like I have been flying my whole life. The feel of wind in my hair and the freedom of moving in full three dimensional space is freeing and I wonder why I am only flying now. I enjoy flying for a bit before getting back to work.
I throw the legs down to the sand every few seconds, waiting for crabs to come up, and if they don't I go put the legs back in my inventory and try again. When a crab does come up, I quickly drop down with an ice spear and kill them. Whenever I run out of magic to keep my spear up, I wait for my magic to fully recover and summon it again. I quickly run through the entire beach until there are no more crabs. I arrive back at the stone wall, ready for the next fight with my many crab legs in my seamlessly endless storage ring.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone