《Heir of the artificial Gamer system》Training days of Ira
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After getting legendary hyper focus I set off into the familiar forest. I could train with zombie ID but that would get repetitive over time. In the familiar forest I'll get to face hundreds of different animals and might even fight a few dragons, Not that I'm ready for that yet. But I'll be soon, probably.
I land at the edge of the familiar forest and I'm surprised. In the anime this place doesn't seem that overly big, but here? It's fucking MASSIVE. I honestly think that this may be the biggest forest I've ever seen!
I walk into the forest and immediately notice that it feels weird, the atmospheric pressure suddenly changed… I look behind me and see only trees, weird? I thought I just entered the forest, did I get teleported to a random part of the forest or something? That would explain my ears popping. I try to use telekinesis to fly up and see where I am only to realise that it doesn't work… Someone is blocking my telekinesis? Or someone?
My assassination training comes in handy as I see a black blur in the corner of my eye and I spin around to see my attacker, but I don't see anything… weird, I feel like I'm being watched but I don't see anything.
I try to use telekinesis to pick something up and realise that none of my skills work, not even the gamer system… Did I hallucinate all of what I just experienced? Was I high on drugs and accidentally walked into this forest while high? No, that's impossible… It was too realistic. I'm sure I died, so then what's going on? I'm not in an illusion, gamers mind would cancel that for sure… A test? The only thing in this universe that can cancel the gamers system would be the gaming system itself, is it testing me to see if I'm worthy or something? Does it want me to get out of the forest? At Least give me a quest, an objective?! Fuck does it want me to do?
I sigh and start walking forward, the gamer system is testing me for an unknown reason and I don't know what I'm supposed to do, for now I will assume it wants me to get out of this forest, or defeat some kind of boss. That's usually how these things work, right?
I break a branch off a tree and use a rock to sharpen it into a spear, good enough for now. The fauna in this forest is really weird, some areas have completely different fauna than others, it's all a mix and match, the trees however are all the same, big, towering redwood trees. I hear a branch break and I freeze. I look over to the direction that the branch broke and see a small, green humanoid creature, half my size. It's staring at me and I'm staring at it.
Deciding to be the first one to strike I run forward and stab the spear towards it's eye, it tries to dodge but ends up falling on it's ass and my spear goes through its eye. I feel the familiar rush of XP going through my body but get no notification, it's confirmed, the system isn't responding to me on purpose. But since it's such a child it forgot to stop me from earning or feeling XP. Or it might not be able to stop that, I'm not sure yet. What I just killed was a goblin, they usually travel in groups of 5 or more just like humans, this one might've been a scout or had run away from it's base, which was unlikely. So I will assume it's a scout.
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I quickly hide the body under a pile of leafs and climb up a nearby tree, these trees have massive branches so my entire body is hidden from ground view, I watch out for any titanoboas because if there are goblins, then I'm sure there are titanoboas.
I was right in my assumption, 3 goblins follow the same path that the scout took, they're all wearing loin cloths but these one's have actual weapons, A rusty dagger, A stone mace, and a makeshift sling. They look confused when his footsteps end, then they notice my much larger footsteps running towards the small footsteps, they gain a panicked look and start frantically looking around, but it's already too late, I drop down from the tree and hit one of them in the face with my spear, he clutches his face and drops his rusty dagger. The one with the mace swings at my groin but using my superior reach I stab him in the face with my spear. I notice that the third one is missing from my sight and realise my mistake immediately, but it's too late for that. I feel a sharp pain in my neck and I immediately turn towards where the pain came from, behind me. I look behind me and see the little goblin fucker, the one with the sling. I throw the spear at him and hit him in the stomach, the spear going straight through his body. He looks up at me in terror and slumps down to his knees, what a drama queen. I look at the goblin still clutching at his face and boot stomp on his head, It explodes in a violent gush of blood and brains everywhere. Probably not the smartest thing to do since it'll attract other animals, but I was mad. Gamers mind isn't cancelling my negative emotions anymore so I have to apply manual emotional discipline.
I check my neck for any damage and find none, the rock hadn't managed to penetrate through my thick skin, good. It left a slight bump but it's healing rapidly. It seems like I still maintain my enhanced body, and probably strength too. The spear is ruined however so I can't salvage that. My inventory doesn't work either so I can't store things conveniently, thats too bad.
I pick up the rusty knife and smack it against a rock a couple of times, it holds and doesn't break, it's not been rusty for too long, so it's good enough. I've never been a mace kind of guy so I leave the mace behind, I have no clue how to use a sling so I leave that too. I remember that In reincarnation novels and Isekai that goblins have magical cores, which sell for a lot, but I assume that I'm still in highschool dxd, So they probably don't have any magic cores, I don't want to get blood on my hands so I don't bother to check. It'd be too messy.
I walk north for a few minutes until I hear the sounds of a river flowing. It sounds quite powerful so it's probably quite a big river. I need to be careful since animals like coming to take a drink, and predators usually camp the rivers. Fucking alligators.
I walk over to the river and don't see any immediate threats, I'm still not sure if everything that happened over the last few days has been real, since for now I've lost telekinesis I need to check if everything has been real, just to make sure. I walk over to the river and stare at my reflection. My heart settles, which I hadn't even known was racing when I stare back at myself, white hair, heterochromia and a beautiful face. BOTH of my hearts settle, sorry. I forgot I have two. By the way, I have two hearts. Jealous?
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I wash off my right boot and take a quick drink. I hope this water isn't contaminated by ligma, that'd be horrible. What's ligma you ask? LIGMA NU- *WHOOSH* I instinctively roll backwards and dodge a massive death club, I get out from underneath this monster and take a look at what I'm dealing with.
How did this fucking thing sneak up on me? It's a massive towering orc with chiseled muscle and holding a massive club, did the water infect me with ligma? Is that why I missed the orc! Wait.. This is no time to be joking it's a fucking orc!
*WHOOSH* The orc swings its massive club and I roll underneath it, I use my iron knife to try and cut the orc but it breaks, shitty fucking knife! I drop the knife and roll underneath the orc again, my only advantage in this fight seems to be my agility, and intelligence.
Before the orc has a chance to turn around I jump on its neck and start raining down blows on its head, I get 13 blows in before the orc reaches up and grabs me with his thick fingers, I can feel him trying to crush me but my bones hold, probably because I made everything so dense. I kick him in the face and he stumbles back, instinctively dropping me to hold his now bleeding nose.
He stares at me with fury and roars a primal roar. I think he's angry.
The orc charges at me with everything it has and swings the club in a downward arc, I roll to the side and bring my heel down on top of its hands, a wet crunch is heard and the orc drops his club and screams in pain. I quickly rush to the club and heft it onto my shoulder, this thing weighs at least 40KG.
I use basic physics to my advantage and start spinning in circles with the club to build up centrifugal force. After a few seconds I'm at terminal velocity and I have an unbeatable barrier of death. Time to plan, how do I beat an opponent who outclasses me in pretty much anything physical, except agility? It barely has any weaknesses, I can't cripple it by it's knees since the thick muscle prevents it from breaking easily, I don't have enough force to break it's knees. Can orcs swim…? Of course they can, right? Okay, Drowning the orc won't work. I can use it to escape if things take a turn for the worse.
I doubt the orc is much stronger than me, I can use the club with a little bit of difficulty, but the orc seems to be able to wield it very easily, so I estimate that the orc is probably twice as strong as me, overall not that bad. Not bad at all. I need to decide on a plan soon or I'll become nauseous, I can only spin for so long before that happens. If I went fist for fist with the orc I think I have a good chance at defeating it, especially if I target it's eyes. So that means I need to get rid of its weapon, which I have right now. Every time I do a full revolution I can see the orc staring at me with incredible amounts of patience, weren't orcs meant to be impatient cannibals?
I try to let go of the club at the perfect moment to hit the orc in the face, accounting for the lead and speed at which I'm spinning. I let go and the club hits the orc in the face, breaking several of its teeth and causing the orc to stumble back. The club got cracked right down the middle, making it pretty worthless. Still dangerous, but it has a high chance of breaking on its next swing.
I quickly rush the orc since it was retarded enough to grab its face with its mangled fingers. I jump high into the air and grab onto the stunned orc, forming my hands into makeshift spears I launch it at the orcs wide open eyes. I'm holding onto the orc by wrapping my legs around its waist. The orc tries to swat away my hands with its hands but my hands are simply too fast. My hands fly into the orcs skull and I try to cause as much damage as I can by shoving my hand into his eyes up till my elbow, till it can't move anymore. I rip out my hands from its eye sockets and they're coated in blood, I unwrap my legs from its waist and drop to the ground, rolling backwards as soon as I land incase of retaliation.
The orc drops to its knees but it's still fucking alive, I circle around the orc to behind it and roundhouse kick it in the back of the head. Completely breaking its neck and killing the orc. That was easier than I had expected, but I got very lucky with that club throw. I need to get stronger. Also need a new spear or something. I feel the rush of XP through my veins and a small, almost miniscule smirk grows on my face. I think I just leveled up a dozen times, I'm not sure tho. No gamer system, remember?
I wash the blood off of my hands in the river and decide to be serious for the time being, this is all pretty dangerous. I rinse my elbows in the river and realise that my leather jacket actually didn't absorb the blood, it seems like my clothes given to me by the system is waterproof, or something.
I look up and down the stream in search of anything, I honestly don't know where I am, but I think it's still the same familiar forest. Which means that there are unlikely to be any human civilisations down stream. But there could be other civilisations? Who knows what lives in this massive forest.
I start walking down stream and try to keep an observant eye in all directions, but alas I only have two eyes. And one direction that I wasn't looking was downwards. Sad but alas nothing can be done. A snake strikes and latches onto my calve, I can feel venom being injected into my leg before I can do anything, I pick up a nearby rock and smash it on the head. Killing it instantly.
I'm really rusty, I need to start shaping up or I'm really going to die. The venom shouldn't be lethal but It'll make walking over long distances difficult. Not a massive problem. My modified body should be able to purge the venom rather quickly. I'll be fine for now.
I decided to take a short rest to let my body rest and get to work on purging the venom.
After 20minutes I can be seen sweating incredible amounts and slightly shivering. I was wrong, this venom is really fucking deadly, shit shit shit shit, Fuck do I do? There's nothing I can do at this point… Will I really die like this? WAIT! My sacred gear, there's no way that the system can block even that off, right!? I try to summon my sacred gear and fail, I try again and fail, same as before. I try one last time but this try I summon all of my failing willpower and bash it against the mental lock that holds my sacred gear, I can feel my consciousness fading but I keep bashing. COME ON!
After one final bash of willpower the lock crumbles to dust, I immediately summon my sacred gear and prepare for the pain of a lifetime, Entering a meditative state I target the venom inside my own body and BURN, pain wracks my entire body and I feel as if I had the worst fever ever, I can't move and I can barely think. I mean, I'm setting a fire in my own veins, what did I expect? The venom made it to my heart, and the fire burns through my heart, destroying it almost instantly, both venom and heart. The venom only made it to my first heart, my brain and second heart are completely fine. After 2 minutes of overbearing pain I finally go unconscious, however, all the venom in my body had been purged by fire. I think I'll survive, fate will decide.
-pov change-
We were travelling upstream to fetch some buncle apples for aunt Maer, she was cooking my favourite! Buncle apple and venison stew!
I'm travelling with my elder brother and father. I am only 13 this summer but the tribe has decided that I'm allowed to go on foraging runs for the upcoming winter, we start preparing for winter at the start of spring because we hibernate during winter, so we eat a feast before winter and hibernate through it. Oh? Why do we hibernate you ask? Aren't you just super silly? obviously because frogs hibernate.
Yes! I am a frog, a greater frog to be exact. One of the rare intelligent species that occupy this massive forest. We live in tribes of 40 members, any more and we can't collect enough food for the winter, so once a tribe reaches 40 members it splits off into 2, 20 and 20. And one of the groups leaves the hunting area and the other stays. There's not enough food in the one area for both tribes after all. We trade goods with other tribes but the tribe that we split off from has a significant place in our hearts, so they get discounts. We trade things like footwear, some clothes for women, delicacies like rare plants and mushrooms, everything and anything that has value!
As I was saying currently we are looking for buncle apples for stew, they are like regular apples except they're made out of meat. They still grow on trees though, but the trees have to be killed before you can get the apples, this is still considered foraging weirdly enough, the trees are made out of meat too but our weak jaws can't eat it, it's very hard. Hunting is reserved for females over 20 and males over 14. Foraging is reserved for females over 12. Babies don't forage. They just play and stuff, anyway, where was I? Uhhhh, oh yeah! Stew! Stew is like the greatest thing ever! Especially aunt Maer's stew, it tastes so good! I'm drooling by just thinking about how great it'll be.
I nearly stumble when I come out of my thoughts but I manage to not embarrass myself in front of elder brother and father. We keep walking for a few minutes before dad abruptly stops, elder brother walking into his back since he wasn't paying attention, hehe stupid elder brother.
"Stop, there is a massive amount of ambient magic on the path in front of us, however, It feels very chaotic and in pain, it could be a wounded greater animal. We shall avoid this path, come, let us go around." I gasp in amazement and my eyes widen in astonishment, a greater animal!? Greater animals are usually very intelligent, like us, but have greater combat capabilities than our race, Greater animals are just a name we use for any race that has great combat capabilities, some of the greater animals that also have large mana reserves include some elves, greater falcons, greater tigers, and ground dragons. Dragons in this forest are very rare, and they don't count as greater animals, every dragon counts as an elder animal of the forest. They are above even greater animals!
Greater frogs like us are at the bottom of rankings, we are just known as magical animals, animals with no intelligence at all are known as just normal animals. Like bunnies and insects and stuff.
"But father! If it is wounded could we not kill it!? We must rush forward and kill it for the glory of our tribe! Just imagine all the glory that we could achieve!" Shouts elder brother, he's always been a glory seeker and "brave" toad.
"Silence fool! Even a wounded greater animal can easily destroy an entire tribe! Do not tempt fate you idiot!" Says father in a reprimanding voice, I try to feel for the mana that father talks about and realise how vast it is, It is most definitely chaotic and in pain, but I also feel another emotion? It's hard to describe but it feels like a cry for help, or perhaps it's cursing itself for being so foolish?
"Father, I think we should help the greater animal, it seems like it's in pain and it's crying out for help, please father?" I ask with the best toad eyes that I can give him, his resistance crumbles in a second and he sighs. "Alright, however, if it turns out to be hostile then we run instantly. And you must stay behind me at all costs. If I say run, you run. Understood? And son, if you dare attack it, I will castrate you myself! Do NOT attack it, even if it is asleep." Father says in a strict voice, stricter than I have ever heard. Father is really serious about this for some reason, he's gone hunting for wild beasts before but he has never been this serious before, are greater animals really that dangerous?
We continue on the same path that we were originally taking and the mana in the air grows even thicker, thick enough that even elder brother can feel it, even with his non-existent sensing ability. I can hear him gulp and sweat starts to trickle down his frog-nose
Females are generally better at sensing mana than males, no one knows the reason or questions why. It just is.
Father stops and stares at something, Me and elder brother don't see since we're behind him, "Father, what's wrong? Is it a dragon? Is it a vampire!? Or is it even something bigger?" Elder brother says excitedly, with a tinge of nervousness.
"No, It's smaller, It looks like a vampire but it doesn't have pale skin, I'm not sure what it is. It looks like an elf without pointy ears. All I know is that it doesn't seem to be hostile, I think it might be sleeping." Father said, he continued walking towards the greater animal with deliberately loud steps in order to alert it of our presence.
The greater animal didn't stir, the oldest toad thought that it might have been dead, but dismissed that notion as quick as it came, dead things don't emit so much mana after all. The father figure quickly did a once over of the weird animal and saw that it was wearing clothes, much much higher quality than the hemp clothes that women wear in their tribe. It seemed like it was made out of some kind of animal hide, and plant fibres. The greater frogs have no ability to tan leather so they could not create these clothes, even if they wanted to.
The eldest frog inched closer and only then did he see that the greater animal seemed to have been bitten by a snake, looking on the ground he did not find any snakes, which suggests that the greater animal didn't kill it, which is unlikely or that the greater animal travelled a great distance even when bitten.
"Get out our treatment supplies, get the snake oil ointment and herbal paste and give them to me." The only snakes in this part of the forest are Xenopeltidae,spiny tree vipers and some rare vipers here and there. They can't treat the venom of any of the snakes, the only thing they can do to try and curry favour from this intelligent greater animal is to boost its natural healing using snake oil and herbal paste. The tribe produces this herbal paste and trades it with others from their herb farm. They are the only ones in the area who have suitable conditions to grow the required herbs.
The elder brother gave both of the requested items to the father and was wondering what the father was doing, if the greater animal was so injured then couldn't they kill it and brag about it? But he did not dare to disobey his father, so he did as asked.
The father told the two siblings to stay where they were at and walked closer to the greater animal. Once he was one meter away he spoke in the common tongue of the forest. "Hello, greater animal, please let me help you with your snake wound. I wish to assist you in your time of need. If you are unconscious and do not reply I will take that as consent." The father had not spoken common tongue for a long time, so he was rather rusty and only remembered the formal,strict versions of everything.
The greater animal did not respond, did not even acknowledge that the greater toad was in its presence, so the father assumed that the greater animal was unconscious from the venom. He sat down next to the greater animal and stopped blocking the view of the elder brother and sister. They both gasped and elder brother had to restrain himself from attacking the wounded creature. They both kept alert of their surroundings like taught but sat down to rest their legs. They've been walking for quite a while after all.
The father treated the bite wound and made sure plenty of herbal paste got into the hole, he smeared snake oil onto the exterior of the oil and then used a cleaned leaf to bandage up the calve.
The father wasn't sure if bringing this creature into their tribe land was a good idea, but staying here was a really bad idea. It wasn't dangerous if you knew the best routes to take but the river was a popular hunting area for big predators. Greater frogs can only survive in these areas because they know the best routes to take, to avoid the predators entirely.
The greater frogs weren't that much smaller than Ira, The father had hardened muscles from hunting dangerous opponents like coyotes and deer. (dangerous for them) So he was sure that he could carry Ira with ease. But when he tried to lift him, he wouldn't budge. The greater frog put everything into trying to lift Ira but he could only make him move slightly.
"Son, come here, we can't leave this greater animal in this open, exposed area, I don't know what it was thinking sleeping here. It's one of the worst spots it could pick. It might be new to this area. Come help me pick it up and move it to a better place." Both frogmen positioned themselves at either side of Ira, one at the legs and one at the head. They both grunted and managed to lift Ira.
Over the course of 15minutes they managed to move him into a safer place. They were inside one of the great redwood trees, a hole in the base of the tree serving as makeshift shelter.
"What do we do with it father? If it was bitten by a snake then it probably won't awaken for another few hours at least. We should just leave it here and get apples, then check in on the greater animal when we're on our way back, and if it has awoken then we can ask it if it would like to take refuge in our village until it gets back on its feet." Said the elder brother, that was actually unusually wise from the stupid toad.
The father contemplated this and decided that there wasn't anything else they could do. If they waited here for the greater animal to wake up then night would come and they wouldn't have any apples, there is no guarantee that the greater animal would wake up at all. "Okay, we'll go get buncle apples and then if the greater animal has awoken we shall offer refuge. That was a good suggestion, son. Let's go." And with that they set off to collect apples. Leaving behind a recuperating Ira.
-Ira pov-
I woke up to a rat nibbling at my foot, I lift my foot and crush its head with my heel, feeling pain all the time during my movement. God damn it now I have rat blood on my foot, I should've thought that through better. Fuck. My veins still feel like they're on fire, thick syrup being pumped through my sensitive veins. I can't move without feeling immense pain. I can feel my veins being regenerated at a pretty fast pace, if I had to guess I'd say I have about, 30hp or so right now. Which is probably not too good. That snake really blended in well. I look around and notice that I'm in some kind of wooden construct, it looks circular and wooden so I assume I'm inside one of the trees, I don't remember entering one before losing consciousness so it must've been someone else that carried me in here, or something else.
I weigh 120Kilograms so there's no way it was another human, it must've been something similar to an orc to be able to carry me so far. Or it might've been a group of people, well, not people, but you know what I mean.
Or it's possible that the rat I just crushed dragged me all the way here to this tree, and was trying to wake me up by nibbling my feets, oh god I feel horrible now, why did you have to think of that possibility brain? Just kidding.
Well, there's really not much for me to do right now, It'll take me atleast a day to heal fully even with my insane regeneration, My regeneration with the gamer system is truly insane, but right now the gamer system has temporarily left me for some unknown reason, so I'm back to pretty much baseline levels of regeneration… Wait a fucking second, burn victims back in my world had it pretty rough… What if my veins never actually repair? But what was it that I felt when I woke up? This needs immediate investigation.
Entering a meditative trance I immediately look deep inside me. I look for my veins and out of the darkness of the void comes lines that take the form of a human body. 70% of the veins are red and the rest of them are a healthy green, both of my feet, up until my first heart are red, my brain and second heart are fine. Thats probably why I'm still alive, never thought that my idea of making myself a second heart would actually pay off, what I would've actually used it for was like "*SPLAT* *Blood gurgle* You… This… This power, I see. I've lost. You win this time, *Bleh*" and then the guy that I'm fighting would be like "You were a good opponent, rest in peace." and then I'd be like "Just kidding lmao I'm not dead" and grab his sword and pull it deeper into me, and moan while doing it or something.
My daydreams are cut short when I notice that my damaged veins are turning yellow by the minute, slowly but surely, one by one they are turning yellow, and then green, and then it moves onto another section of vein. So somehow I'm still healing, slower than if I had the gamer system since I'd be able to heal within minutes, but I'm still healing fast for a human.
I exit my meditative trance and get back to waiting for my mobility to return. If someone or something dragged me here, and didn't eat me, then does that mean that whatever dragged me here is friendly? I sure hope so since I can't get out of here. All I can do is wait for whoever dragged me here to return, and hope that they weren't just saving me as a snack for later. If they don't come back at all then that's good too.
The entrance of the tree that I'm sitting in can't be taller than 5 feet, so it's likely multiple people.
*31 Minutes later*
The first thing that I heard that alerted me of someone's presence was the shuffling of leaves. It was getting closer and closer, I grabbed a rock in case a fight broke out. It's better than using my bare fists. I was still in tremendous pain but I have regained basic mobility.
A dark silhouette slowly poked its head from the side into the little room that I was in, Once my eyes adjusted and focused on the figure I was stunned
Standing in front of me is a brown frog. Yes, standing. The frog in front of me is bipedal, and staring at me with curiosity but a high amount of caution.
"Hello greater animal! Please do not attack, I have helped you with your wound, we wish to offer refuge to you!" Says the frog in a weird japanese, the frog has an accent and it's obvious that it barely knows the language. Since I am a certified weeb I know fluent japanese, and this frog does not! On to the less important point, it wants to help me? Or is it trying to lure me back to its home to eat me? It has some kind of backpack on its back made out of thatch, so it's obvious this is some kind of primitive caveman frog, how did he help me with my wound?
"How did you help me with my wound? What did you do to it?" I ask in perfect japanese.
"I used our tribes herbal paste to speed up your healing! And I also spread snake oil over the entrance of your wound to help it close up! At last I used a cleaned leaf to cover up your wound." Says the frog, how the fuck did a frog learn basic first aid? That's overly complex for a frog in the primitive era. Back in even medieval times people would usually be like "Oh you've got a fever? Bloodletting. Broken spine? Bloodletting." everything was dealt with by bloodletting. Or leeches. But I guess the frogs developed in a different way since their brains function differently, or something like that, I'm really not sure.
He's also giving our information freely, which could be for three reasons, he's stupid and doesn't realise he's doing it, or he doesn't see me as a threat, or he doesnt mind giving out information. I relax upon realising this and nod to the frog. It's probably the third one. So I'm probably in the green for now.
It called me a greater animal, and is being very polite to me, I think that a greater animal is some sort of powerful being in this forest that has earned a classification of it's own.
"What is your name frog?" I ask with a semi-arrogant voice, gotta play the part of greater animal after all.
"This humble frog's name is jebediah your lordship." I assumed right, he's calling me a lord, so greater animals are nobles of this forest or something. Why did it assume that I'm a greater animal tho?
"You can call me Ira. Explain to me which quality of mine you enjoy the most, as to call me a greater animal, which I most certainly am." The frog looks confused for a second before nodding and speaking
"Lord Ira your mana quantity is truly astonishing, me and my children came across your massive mana and felt that you were in pain. I shall be honest my lord, at first I had not wanted to come near you, I felt that you might lash out if someone came near you in a time of pain. However my daughter convinced me of getting closer to your lordship, incase you were in need of aid!" The frog explains, alright, so it was him and his children who helped me, great.
"I see, for showing courage and wisdom that is admirable, I shall not feast upon you. You said you wished to offer me refuge? I shall check if your refuge is acceptable and then decide. Let us go." I say to the frog, Free shelter? Yes please.
"Ah, Lord Ira, before we head to my village can you please not kill anyone when we arrive? Also, excuse this arrogant frog but is there perhaps any way of you reducing the amount of mana in the air? Most of my tribe do not have as good resistance as me. And even I am suffocating slightly." Ah yeah, my mana I lost control of it and haven't stopped producing it ever since the venom. I realise that I have mana, but I can't actually use it without the system since I don't know what telekinesis does to it. How to shape it and how to achieve telekinesis without the use of mana… It feels weird, since when you're using telekinesis with the system you just CAN and you don't really question it. It feels natural and you feel like you're the one actually doing all the work. You take it for granted and when you lose it you realise that without it you're nothing…
Fuck it didn't work. I was trying to appeal to the system to stop being a whiny bitch and give me the system advantages back, what a massive cunt. But all that I said was also true. Not having the system truly sucks balls.
I mentally command my mana to stop being produced when my mana pool is full and immediately the frog in front of me stands up a little straighter, as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders.
I try to command my mana to move around inside my body and I can feel it respond eagerly. So I can still use mana, I just can't use it to make spells. Good to know.
In some anime the main character can unleash destruction by only using mana, I wonder if that's true here too? I can't test it now since the frog in front of me is looking at me weirdly. It's been a few seconds since I said lets go, he's probably waiting for me to get up or something… Which I can't.
"Come here, help me up. The deadly venom from the heavenly destruction sect's sky king viper did a number on my mobility. I suspect I will need a few days to recover." I lie. I have no fucking idea what that snake was, I also lied about needing a few days to recover. Incase they were planning to attack me or something, I'll be able to recover in a day and then be ready for an attack. Sky king viper also just sounds really cool.
"Ah, a sky king viper… Yes that is a very deadly snake species indeed. It is very amazing that lord Ira has survived being bitten by one." Says the frog in a complacent tone. I don't think he believes me.
The frog walks towards me and extends his slimy frog hand towards me. I grab it and heft myself up, I forgot that I was 120kg so I used all of my power and nearly dragged the frog down to the ground.
I met the children of the frog and not gonna lie, his daughter was kinda hot. Also underage. I mean… Maybe frogs have something like dog years? Yknow? It's also a forest… Soooooo.
The other child wasn't very interesting, he was looking at me with vigilance and clear excitement, a weird mix for sure. He looked pretty generic and I doubt he amounts to much in the tribe.
Along the way the biggest frog told me about his tribe, their traditions and whatnot. He couldn't tell me much since we only traveled for about an hour before arriving in a decently sized primitive village. I counted 34 houses which suggests this village is going to split into 2 soon. I could see their herb garden with my enhanced eyes, it was cleverly hidden in a small rocky outcrop with the entrance covered with vines. It was probably hidden so that rabbits and foxes didn't eat the herbs, not against other intelligent beings.
We entered the village and the frog people looked at me very curiously. Jebodiah has told me that there are other greater animals that occupy this forest that look exactly like me. Vampires and elves to name a few. Vampires are known to be aggressive to all races except themselves, and elves just fuck trees and smoke leaves or some shit. They're just a race that stays in their part of the forest and don't want conflict with any of the other races. The frogs are afraid of both because the elves have "advanced" magic.
And there are tales of vampires. It is said that they are so fast that you can't even see them move, all you see is a blur and then they're gone, along with your friend or loved one, or even you! What a shitty rumour, they probably haven't seen a single vampire and this is all based on rumours. Rumours that are probably true but it's still just rumours. I could probably beat a vampire. Yeah totally.
I was led to the village leader and my situation was explained to him. He had really saggy frog skin and all his fingers drooped like soup. He looked like he was on his death bed with gray hairs sticking out of his scalp all over the place. He was pretty nice though, I guess. He offered me refuge but I suspect it was only because jebediah told him that I was a greater animal. The elder looked skeptical but when he saw the resemblance to vampires and elves he immediately changed his mind.
I was told that vampires and elves change into greater animals once they reach adulthood, or late teenagehood. The earlier you reach greater animalness the more talented you are. I have no clue how you determine whether someone is qualified for being classified as a greater animal so I asked.
It's based on the amount of mana you have, once you're able to make a fox or coyote crumple to their knees by using only the pressure of mana on the animal, you are classified as a greater animal. So it's basically based on MP size. Cool.
I use mana sensing to see how much mana jebediah had and he has about 130units of mana, the elder has 96 and his children have 40 and 35. Everyone in the village was somewhere in between.
I assume that the amount of mana needed to force a dumb animal to their knees is somewhere around 300 or 400. I have no reason for this number but it just seems like that's the right answer. So if we put all this together, we can assume that adult elves and probably vampires have a mana pool of around 400-? And can use "advanced magic" which gives them a big advantage. I don't have any books on how to use telekinesis or any magic, so I can only rely on experimentation with mana. Not being able to use magic sucks balls.
I was led to a slightly bigger than normal thatch hut and introduced to the rooms of the house. They probably keep this house as a guest house specifically since there is dust everywhere and it looks like no one's lived here for years. The house was hastily cleaned of dust by a bunch of children frog. Child labour for the win.
After everyone left I lied down on the rough bed and started thinking. I wanted to experiment with mana but right now even walking was difficult, so I settled for thinking. What was the objective that the system wants me to do? Can't it atleast give me a tip? I don't feel hungry or sleepy at all so I'm assuming that I still don't need to eat or sleep, which is always good.
I can't do anything physical right now so I decided to just go to sleep. I was about to drift off to sleep when I heard it.
*Ping*
*Congratulations to user for surviving one full day without system assistance. User has been deemed worthy of information on current situation.
User has guessed that this is a test. User is correct. User's objective is survival in the forest. User's main objective is to subdue the dragon tiamat in the middle of the death forest without the use of the gamer system.*
*Quest complete: Survive one full day in the death forest without assistance
Reward: Information. +15levels. +Blade of the hopeless.*
*Blade of the hopeless: A blade given to those without any hope of survival, it uses the powerful emotions of despair and fear of those around the user to power up. The more fear the blade consumes the sharper it will become. Base sharpness can slice through wood easily.*
… Okay. That main objective seems a little excessive, how do I kill a dragon without any magic or the gamer system? But the wording seems weird, it says subdue, not kill. The definition of subdue is to gain control over someone or something, subdue is mostly used in the temporary time frame. So does that mean if I were to tell tiamat to stop moving, and she listened even for a microsecond, that that would count as being subdued? The system doesn't answer my question so I think I might be right. I won't take that risk tho so I'm going to train the shit out of my body and hope for the best in trying to learn magic without the system.
I also assumed correctly that this is no longer the familiar forest, but in canon the dragon tiamat is supposed to be working as an administrator for rating games? It makes no sense for her to be here.
*Ping*
*The dragon tiamat in this ID is fake. Created by the system for the user to subdue. The death forest is all one big ID created for the user to be tested in. Exiting ID is forbidden.*
Oh, so I'm in an ID. When I first entered the forest I had actually felt the same sensation as entering an ID, but couldn't place it until now. This being an ID changes nothing however, the threats are still very real and everything in here can kill me. I can't go to sleep now so I experiment with my mana.
I try to bring my mana out of my body and succeed immediately. All my practise paid off. I try to shape the mana into an arrow shape and launch it at something. The mana harmlessly collides with the wood that I launched it at. Frick.
I have no information on how the magic system in my body works, for humans in dxd it's all based on maths (ew) and complex formulas, but it's obviously not that case for me. Maybe it's based on intent?
I summon mana into the air in front of me and will it to change into a fire element. Nothing happens. Alright, listen buddy… Wait, perhaps my magic works with science? I know that's a massive oxymoron but it makes some sort of weird sense. In my previous life I loved science, so maybe my magic takes the trait of working by imagining science? This might limit me greatly but it could be being used as a nerf of sorts. With all my knowledge of anime and all the different powers that I could just imagine into existence, I would be unstoppable.
I call mana into existence a third time and imagine 3 parts of the mana turning into fuel. Oxygen. And 1 part of my mana into a naked flame. As soon as I imagine the naked flame a massive fireball combusts into existence in front of my face, luckily it was far enough away that I only felt a residual blast of heat. Oxygen is the main component of combustion, and a very good fuel source for fire. So the resulting fireball was very powerful, but only lasted for a short while since all the oxygen was used up instantly. I only used about 200units of mana in that fireball. I wonder what all of my mana could do? And what sort of limits that I have? The "nerf" that the system tried to apply to me has backfired amazingly. I will become god with my magic, and the best thing? I doubt anyone can copy it.
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