Chapter 211 - Hunched Humans

“Great! As if I had a lot of mana to begin with!” Tim remarked, sarcastically.

The function of the pyramids in front of him was very clear now, they were purely put here to convert the abundant mana around them! It converted blue mana into dark mana!

The humanoids here were practitioners of the dark, arcane arts, there was no doubt about it now. If they weren’t, there was virtually no other reason for them to convert the mana to begin with!

“How the hell am I supposed to stop whatever these damned pyramids are doing?” He asked himself.

Timothy had taken the responsibility of making these ruins safe to access, he assumed this task, but right now, he was stumped. There was no easy way to approach the task without risking his neck!

“System…?” He pressured her, hoping for an answer, or for some help.

[The pyramids are externally influenced by various sources, so I cannot help you with this matter. Considering that there’s an altar here, these pyramids might as well be down right demonic too, or, influenced by a demon. This situation is beyond my control, and beyond your control too, so it’s best if you abandon this task altogether - Avoid the pyramids as much as you possibly can.] She advised.

“Nah…” Tim muttered, “I might be a sea cucumber, but old habits die hard. There are a bunch of necromancers here, I’m sure of it, and I want to steal all of their powers. I can’t steal shit if I don’t kill them...”

One may consider him stubborn, but he had really good reasons to be that way. The concept of power stealing, for example, had long exceeded his primal need to kill animals, so his motives here were not instinctual whatsoever, rather, they were purely led by curiosity. The fact that he could tear apart, and analyze abilities as of recently, was firmly imprinted in his brain, and this was what pushed him to slaughter these people!

He plotted, “I'm gonna kill them all, one by one, and I'm gonna analyze every tiny bit of their dark powers! I don't know what I'll learn by analyzing them, but that's the fun of it, right, system?”

This was the entirety of his new plan, he wanted to understand dark, magical abilities better, but to do this, he had to turn into an Aqus Goblin in the very least, because he wasn't as quotient regarding magical manners in his current, Sea Pig form. As a Sea Pig, his MQ was at fifty points, and this wasn't nearly enough if he wanted to make any real progress, so he had to turn back into a mammal, regardless of how dangerous that choice may be!

Timothy hid in the darkest corner of this huge room, and then he started shapeshifting. Considering his current mana quality, shapeshifting was one of the easiest tasks for him to perform, and considering his current situation, it was especially advantageous that this ability didn’t require any mana points to summon! This was one of the few things that were going his way.

Timothy shapeshifted successfully, and as his brain adapted towards a full, and indisputable consciousness, he became more and more aware of the risks behind his sudden decision! First things first, he was naked again, so he was susceptible to something as simple as a dagger to the chest!

Well, a two-hundred pound man would need to swing that dagger if one was to pierce through Tim’s skin, but the fact of the matter remained. It was dangerous to run around naked, so his disadvantages stacked one over the other quickly!

“I need another set of bone armor,” He grunted.

However, considering his current circumstances, creating a new set of bone armor may be difficult! Even as a goblin, his mana pool was absolutely empty, as the pyramids in front of him were sucking him dry! He was losing more points than he was harvesting, so it was difficult for him to use any of his powers as a matter of fact, regardless of what his needs were!

Timothy had to be very cautious about his every move he made as well, which made things all the more difficult. There were six humanoids in this hall right now, and he knew that he had to kill all of them eventually, and he tried to plot their death, but something else caught his attention instead.

The MQ he possessed was heightened now, thanks to the fact that he turned into a goblin, so the weird, magical things that were happening around him grabbed his attention firmly. Specifically, he focused on the three pyramids, and right now, he could even count how much mana was being poured into them!

“Those bastarding pyramids are harvesting two-million blue mana points a second, each!” He panicked, internally. “With the amount of mana they're taking, I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to summon Satan himself, or whatever the hell else the tough demons are called around here!”

Considering these circumstances, panic was inevitable, and he panicked even more when he remembered that he couldn't do anything to stop these pyramids! He was petrified!

However, his day could still be bountiful, as long as he managed to kill a couple of people here. Regarding that matter, he started focusing on the pyramid in the middle, as this was the only pyramid who was exerting mana, rather than harvesting it!

After observing it for a moment, all the way from his dark corner, he plotted. “Hmm… I'm sensing a stupidly large amount of dark mana coming out of that pyramid in the middle. System, do you think that I can harvest enough mana from it to make an armor for myself? I need a dagger too.”

[It is possible, yes. Although the other pyramids are latching on to your mana pool to the point where they're even taking your dark mana away, you still have a shot here. You need to get closer to the pyramid that's exerting dark mana, or you need to sneak out of here, and harvest the mana elsewhere, within these ruins. The choice is yours.] She explained.

“With all due respect, system, I'm not letting these bastarding humans leave the room. They're gonna die today, and I'm going to steal their powers, if they have anything worth stealing.” He followed along, quietly. “It so happens that their mana quality is weaker than mine, so their bones will be my armor very soon. Hehe!”

After deciding on his course of action, he snuck within the dark sides of the large hall, and then pounced on the closest humanoid he saw! Timothy was merely a three-foot tall goblin right now, but with a skin as hard as iron, and with a strength equal to that of a body builder, he physically dominated his first victim very quickly! He broke the humanoid's neck with little effort!

[+250 dark mana points,] The system then beeped, she highlighted this notification aggressively.

“Aha! So these bastards were harvesting the dark mana before I could!” He thought.

Afterwards, while he was working on the skeleton of his first victim with one hand, he proceeded to pounce on his second target. He slapped his second victim on the neck using his free hand, and killed this one as easily as he killed the first one! His opponents were about seven feet tall on average, though, so he surely could've been hurt if his enemies were given the chance to attack! He was lucky that he ambushed them.

The remaining dark mages noticed him at this point, but he did not budge, regardless of the fact that he couldn't sneak up on them anymore. He was receiving enough dark mana in his pool, just enough to carry out his plans, and his plans alone were intimidating his enemies thoroughly! They were frozen on the spot.

Timothy was turning one of the corpses into a surfboard, and he used the other corpse's bones to create a set of bone armor. As a dark mage, this may be one of the most efficient ways to intimidate other dark mages, especially these guys who had a weaker mana quality than he did! If he ran into more capable dark mages then he would be in trouble, but in this room, he was the strongest, and this was a fact! The cracking bones of the corpses were freaking everyone out.

“Now… which one of you bastards wants to be my helmet?” He asked them, and he spoke in the Aqus Goblin tongue. “Raise your hand.”

“We've been infiltrated!” One of them yelled out, but his scream yielded no results.

Quick as a flash, Timothy then launched several bolts made out of bones towards his enemies, and killed them all within just a few seconds! His first, great challenge here was taken care of, just like that! He dominated.

[Congratulations! You just killed six, Hunched Humans. 12,000 mana points have been added to your sum as a reward.] The system beeped, shortly after.