Chapter 214 - The Second Bracket

Timothy shot down three blue planktons. He was very effective at killing them, however, the system wasn't giving him any points for it. She just accumulated the points that he had earned by killing those Hunched Humans earlier on.

[You've accumulated a total of 49,000 system points. The Hunched Humans that you killed today, really buffed up your sum.] She beeped, but Timothy didn’t care much for these points, because he didn’t like the number four.

“Good,” He said, and continued attacking other planktons.

There were hundreds of them in front of him, and he attacked even those who weren't bothering him. He assumed every plankton was an enemy of his, so they had to be destroyed! He killed tens of them, and at some point he got bored of doing this, so he stopped killing them. His decisions weren’t thought out all that much.

However, it didn’t matter what he did to these planktons, as long as he remembered the main plan! Regarding that matter, after what felt like an eternity later, he decided to shapeshift.

Now it would be stupid to shift into a goblin, considering that he might get spotted, and caught, so he had to continue to be sneaky. He had to hide within the ruins, with the best of his abilities, and for that matter, he shapeshifted into something that he grew accustomed to - A Sea Pig!

Sea Pigs were just two inches long, on average, and in this case where he was within this huge, old city, it was very unlikely for him to be spotted in this form. Two inches was the best size, if he was to hide, while also making some distance from his enemies!

Timothy shapeshifted in a blink, and as his IQ nudged upwards by a few points in response, he started mocking himself. “Me, now bigger!”

Of course, his vocabulary hadn't increased significantly, but it was way better than that of a tiny plankton's, so he had fun with his wordplay. He kept cursing at the mages who were handling his abandoned, bone armor, and they were none the wiser. They couldn't hear him, and it so happens that there were hundreds of Sea Pigs in the vicinity already, so they couldn't tell him apart from the other Sea Pigs, even though he crawled right in front of them! At some point, he even used his powers in order to crawl faster, but they were none the wiser!

“Me, have many new powers!” He joked, and continued to beam forward.

After he crawled twenty meters away from the bundle of dark mages, he hid within a jagged stone slab, shapeshifted once more, and it took him less than half a minute to do the latter. This time, he turned into a Deep Sea Crab, because in this form, he could crawl across his surroundings better.

The floor of the ruins had that type of form, where a pair of crab legs would come in handy, he maneuvered through the ruins both more efficiently, and faster! Furthermore, although he was bigger now, at six inches across, it was unlikely that he would be found by his enemies. He remained hidden, and at some point, he crawled fifty meters away from them, and then crawled fifteen meters below the ground, within a ruined, old house of sorts.

Here, he was safe. Unless the dark mages could shapeshift as well, he was to remain safe for as long as he chose to hide! This was where he decided to shapeshift into an Aqus Goblin again, because he needed a fatter, mammalian brain if he was to analyze the powers that he stole. The space he was in was four feet wide, so it was just enough to let him move around a little bit.

“It's now or never,” He sighed, and hoped that the ruins of the old house wouldn't crash over his head. “Let’s see what we got here…”

Before Timothy could analyze all of his new powers, the system distracted him! At the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but notice that he was receiving thousands of mana points through every beating second!

[+120,000 mana points]

[+410,400 mana points]

[+254,000 mana points]

[+277,000 mana points]

“Haha!” He celebrated, and accidentally scratched his behind on a piece of stone in the meantime, because he moved around too much.

“I'm gonna have another flash upgrade!” He yelled out, though he was very deep within the rubble, so no one could hear him. “I’m finally gonna catch up with Arvena… god, she will really hate me for it, haha!”

Just as he suspected, Timothy had a flash upgrade seconds later, and so, he successfully passed The Fintelus’ Apprentices Realm of mana, and entered the next one. He advanced.

[Congratulations!] The system beeped, [You’ve successfully entered the Adept Arcana Realm of mana! Just like any other realm, this one has eight levels, and you're currently at the first one. The first one is otherwise known as Mellow Mana, and it signifies the flexibility that a new, Adept Mage is about to experience!]

“Wow… I made it.” He sighed, in admiration of his own success. “I can’t believe that I was nearly three realms below before I stepped into Valporovus… Mana can really be a bitch, cause I couldn't have ever gotten this far as a stingray! The fish kind have been cut an unfair, thin slice of pie into the bargain…”

Slow, and fair cultivation of one's mana quality, appeared to be the trait of a fool's. Timothy discovered this first hand, because he had several flash upgrades due to the mana roots before, and now, due to these ruins, so he knew how overpowered flash upgrades were! If he had taken the slower, alternative path to improving his mana quality, then it would've taken him years to achieve the same result! He learned a lesson here.

Timothy then watched his mana pool fill up again, and he expected to have another flash upgrade, but that did not happen. The pool filled up, and after that, it refused to take in any more mana! It was full, but he didn’t experience another flash upgrade.

[It looks like you've hit another mana quality bracket, and it’s a bit ironic too, because the Adept Arcana Realm of mana is known for its flexibility, it is known to help mages accelerate their powers! You need to try and remove this mana bracket, or else you won’t be able to level up anymore.] The system beeped.

“Fuck!” He yelled out, “l could get all of the free mana in the world here, I’m in the ruins, but this is where I get fucking bracketed?! The gods are messing with me again, this can't be just bad luck!”