The barren chocolate wasteland began to dominate the landscape as the rolling grassland gave to its hilly cocoa incline. Liam trekked, keeping the milk chocolate river close—despite being a source of natural-‘water’-like substance, life only flourished within very narrow proximity to the river.

So he kept outside of the flourishing tree-line, taking advantage of the open landscape to spot any threats.

There was more wildlife out here, often small and scurrying away. Nothing confronted him the way those gingerbread men had, or like the gummy bears. After a couple of days of climbing up the slope, Liam decided he was far enough away to test his new spell.

He set up near a pile of boulders, took a quick check to make sure nothing was paying attention, and then began to experiment, digging out five pieces of rock candy.

Liam threw them at first without using the spell. Resolved to work on his aim and adjust to the act of flinging the small stones of sugar. In the future, he wanted to be spot-on with his aim. Even with a theoretical explosive force, if he didn’t get it within target or know his effective range, the spell was damn near useless.

And hitting a moving enemy would be a lot harder than a stationary boulder.

It was frustrating, and a part of him was excited to just try the spell out, but he knew that sometimes the most effective way to collect data was to perform dry runs before the true testing. After about an hour of practice—throwing, making himself run and throw. Turning and throwing, all sorts of different methods with the rock candy, he felt confident enough to hit the boulder.

He walked ten feet away, cocked back his hand, and tossed the rock candy at his target. Then willed the spell to go off.

With a bang, the sugar crystal erupted into a purple fire halfway between himself and the boulder. He’d mistimed the attack, but it had exploded. Liam let out a whoop, a grin stretching from ear to ear.

His eyes flicked to the mana bar in the corner of his vision [75/150] The second part of the test. He started to count in his head, waiting for it to reach its maximum again. It took six minutes and fifteen seconds. Liam begged for his character sheet, and the blue box appeared again. There. He’d spotted it. Willpower. If he divided the rate by time, he could see that it’d regenerated at exactly twelve points of mana per minute. Matching the attribute. Thank god, another piece of this puzzle is solved.

With that test reasonably concluded, and a solid hypothesis formed, he returned to testing his new spell. A burst of green fire, this time actually hitting the side of the chocolate boulder, cracking and melting some of its surface with the sudden application of explosive force. The powdered sugar ignition proved rather potent even if one use drained half of his mana bar.

Liam stroked his chin, considering the remaining three explosive rocks. Time to adjust the test. Change a variable.

He took more steps back—throwing less accurately, but at almost twenty feet. Timing it was even harder, and he managed to cause the rock candy to explode in a loud burst a good three feet away from the target.

Was there a determination for how far away he could activate the spell? Liam placed a piece of rock candy on the ground and walked away to triple his original distance. He focused on the candy and called the spell again. This time it didn’t explode. What’s the difference? Ah. I introduced two variables this time. Bad scientist, Liam. He’d placed the rock down and walked away instead of throwing it. As well as altering the distance.

This time he placed the rock ten feet away, walking away at the same place he had with the original test, and tried to activate the spell. Nothing.

Was it time?

It had to be. The distance was the same as the first, but the time he took to get away was increased. That meant the spell relied on some form of time before his last physical contact with the sugar before he could use it. So of course, the scientist that he was, Liam focused on this. Having a solid understanding of the constraints of his abilities would present far more opportunities to effectively use them. In this world, that knowledge might save his life.

After a couple of rounds of testing, he was down to a single remaining test candy and had determined that after five seconds, he’d lose the ability to explode the rock candy. It had a timer. Distance didn’t seem to matter—as long as it didn’t violate the length of time it took to use the spell from when he last touched the sugar. Coming to this conclusion spawned another one of those blue boxes.

Sugar Crystal Disruption has advanced to rank: Beginner [2]

Congratulations, you’ve gained insight into how this spell functions! The following information has been added to the spell description: Spell is usable up to [5] seconds after contact with target Sucrose Crystal.

Liam rubbed his eyes. Of course. This damn system was concealing information about how his spells functioned, likely that Gastromancy skill had some stuff hidden away too. Secretive, this H.E.L.L. was out to get him. The words of that demon had said as much. No, it wouldn’t be ‘fun’ if he knew everything right away.

He didn’t have the anger to conjure up anymore. Liam blew his last crystal on another practice throw to get his timing down, before calling it a day. Whenever he saw rock candy next or something with a dense crystal structure, he’d collect it and attempt to synthesize more weapons for himself.

Dense crystal structure…

Liam slowly pulled out the Sugar-Glass sword. Oh. Yeah. That was a possible solution. It had more than enough material to dump all of his mana into. An effectively double explosion, if he’d ever had to use it. Never mind that exploding it near him would be a patently painful experience, even if he’d thrown it, all he’d have was the peppermint axe, which had a much shorter range. Still. He filtered the knowledge away, hoping he’d never have to rely on such a suicidal move. This place didn’t pull punches, and if it came down to it, Liam would take whatever evil that attacked him down with himself.

If this place was filled with malicious intent, he’d show it that he could be just as spiteful.

⬽ — ~ ☼ ~ — ⤘

Like all nights, he settled into an uneasy sleep.

But he was startled into alertness with a snarl that radiated out from the dark. The constant paranoia of this place had settled him into an almost regressive primal survival instinct. Liam instantly threw himself out of the licorice sleeping bag and rolled onto the chocolate terrain—frantically grabbing at his sword.

A creature pounced on where he’d been a second before, fangs digging into the treated licorice leather with a triumphant howl. Liam jerked to his feet right as his assailant registered it’d been duped, turning its two oversized glowing green eyes locked on him.

It appeared like a wolf—long and lanky and on four legs with a muzzle and sharpened white teeth. Though, instead of fur, its surface was decorated in finely shaved chocolate. It’d be almost adorable if it not for the fact he’d just seen it rip into the spot he’d been in before, trying to make him a swift dog treat. His hesitation as he examined it led the Wolf to try to take advantage, it launched forward trying to down him with a vicious bite.

Liam narrowly avoided the snapping jaws, trying to retaliate with a clumsy swipe of his sword. To which the nimble creature easily avoided. I’m not going to be able to hit it. Liam’s eyes widened in horror. It was too fast. The creature would avoid all of his sloppy blows and eat him. Finishing his horrible hellish experience. There wasn’t a way out of it, he just wasn’t good enough with this weapon. Panic spread through him as his mind raced.

I’m not a warrior.

He wasn’t meant to fight like this. To use a sword to conquer these things. He didn’t wanna give up a part of himself that he valued more than anything, or he’d have sacrificed it all to become a Sugarbarian if he’d been interested in simple and brutal survival. If he wanted to walk out of this, he needed to leverage the one thing he did have.

Liam fished into the pouch tied to his side as the Wolf started to circle. It’d registered him as more dangerous and was looking for an opening. With a flash, Liam yanked out the rock candy and tossed it toward the Wolf.

As expected, the creature easily evaded the potential attack, able to react to the danger.

But that wasn’t the point. Liam didn’t detonate it, letting the creature consider the rock that landed near it, for it to inspect it more closely, then dismiss the rock as a threat. Counting down seconds in his head. After registering that it’d been a simple distraction, the Wolf returned its full attention to him. Liam made a clumsy strike to the left.

It leaped back to the right—tensing as it prepared to pounce and rip out his now exposed throat.

Liam called upon the spell, and a plume of blue fire burst right underneath the backside of the creature. It yelped, flipping over through the air and slamming into the ground on its back with a crack. It tried to scramble back to its feet, but Liam sprinted in and slammed the point of the blade into its exposed flank. Then stabbed it down again, and again, until the creature stopped moving.

You have gained +1 Strength

Chocolate Mousse Wolf Slain! 200 Experience gained!

He panted, his sword slick with a brackish mud-brown substance with the consistency of pudding. That brief struggle took a lot out of him. And as the rush of adrenaline faded away, he leaned on the sword and collected himself from diving into a panic attack.

Then he heard it, a weak whimper from the darkness. Weary, Liam lifted the sword and slowly made his way toward the source of the sound.

A bundle of chocolate fluff tucked behind a boulder, a miniature version of the creature he’d just killed. A pup? Its wide green eyes flashed at him, giving a small snarl as tried to back away—it bumped into the chocolate boulder behind it, causing it to yelp, and it dumbly turned around in alarm.

Seeing that it hadn’t backed into another threat, the pup flipped around and returned its attention to Liam. Not daring to look away again. Flabbergasted, Liam held his sword at the ready. Not sure if this thing would suddenly launch into an attack or… something. No. The Chocolate Mousse Pup maintained its cautious position. I killed its parent. Liam had a sudden horrible realization. Not that he’d been given much choice in the matter, since the creature would’ve gladly made him a meal if he didn’t defend itself.

But he’d essentially just condemned this pup to death.

Fuck. “Wait here, okay?” Liam said, tucking away the sword. This creature wasn’t big enough to be a threat. He ran back to the campsite—quickly lifting and ridding it of the dead wolf—before scrounging through his pack and retrieving some sugar berries he’d collected from a plum-colored bush.

When he returned to the boulder the Mousse Pup hadn’t moved, only whimpering more to itself. Liam approached slowly, lowering himself to the ground. The pup maintained wariness.

Slowly he extended the palm filled with berries towards the poor creature. He braced for it to bite his hand. Expected the pain. Even knowing that it might just take advantage of him, he couldn’t help himself. He’d done this to the poor creature, and if he became the sort of person to just slaughter the helpless, then he’d have lost his humanity. Candyland would have won.

The Pup’s head darted forward—but didn’t bite into him, it took a few berries and retreated away, slowly eating them and maintaining eyes on Liam. Slowly, he fed the creature the rest of what he’d brought. Then when he dusted his hand and stood up to leave the pup followed him at a distance back to his camp.