Ch. 6: Decimation

Carbonized. Decimated. Everything within eyesight was either clearly dead, or just gone. That blast had turned all those huge trees to tiny things that looked like they would literally crumble with a touch.

So… This is magic at its highest level. Insane. I couldn't take my mind off of it. A combination of awe and terror welled up inside of me, but I also felt pride at the fact that I managed to survive something this devastating.

But over all of that…

"GGGRUMBLE!" Yup. I was hungry. Really Hungry. Incredibly thirsty, too. The sun was high in the sky, which meant that it had probably been over a day since I had eaten or drunk anything. Time for [Skill Creation].

[Confirmed. Unique Skill Invoked.] [Basic Skill: Hunger Resistance will be created for 20 MP].

[Confirmed. Unique Skill Invoked.] [Basic Skill: Thirst Resistance will be created for 20 MP].

[Confirmed. Unique Skill Invoked.] [Basic Skill: Water Magic will be created for 60 MP].

[Confirmed. Unique Skill Invoked.] [Basic Skill: Nausea Resistance will be created for 10 MP].

I created [Nausea Resistance] because I was starting to get tired of the feeling that I was going to lose my lunch every time I rapidly exhausted my MP. I was probably gonna get some real mileage out of that one.

Unfortunately, none of these skills were too immediately useful. I felt less hungry, and less thirsty, but I still lost my lunch due to MP fatigue, and I didn't have much MP left to use on [Water Magic].

Despite that, I still used whatever tiny bit of MP that I had left to create a water ball above my head and rain it down on me, my mouth open.

It was small enough that it almost completely fit into my mouth, though it only did a tiny bit to help me with my thirst.

"The rule of 3, huh?"

Three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food. With that in mind, I'd probably only gone a single day so far without food, and I could make water with magic, so I should probably make a combination of skills that can deal with hunger next.

I also wanted [Air Magic] and [Spatial Magic], which I hadn't made earlier because it probably had some sort of limitation, and would also take out most of, maybe even all of my MP to make. Let's check.

[Confirmed. Unique Skill Invoked.] [Basic Skill: Spatial Storage will be created for 350 MP.] [Error, Skill Creation Failed, Not Enough MP.]

[Confirmed. Unique Skill Invoked.] [Extra Skill: Spatial Magic will be created for 1275 MP.] [Error, Skill Creation Failed, Not Enough MP. Skill Mastery Too Low].

Nope. Not happening any time soon. Storage took around three times my current max MP, while Spatial Magic took over 10 times my current max.

And since I had no clue how fast I leveled up, it could take over a hundred levels for me to get that much MP, and I'd have to level up my [Skill Creation] for [Spatial Magic], which wasn't that big of a worry for me, since I relied so heavily on it.

"At least [Stealth] isn't something I'll have to worry about any time soon." I had enough stealth skills to walk straight through the royal castle of a major kingdom without being caught, even if they were on high alert.

I really did need more MP pretty badly, though. Now… Should I stay here for a little while, or try to break through whatever sort of perimeter that they likely made around the area affected by the magic?

I decided to try to leave, since whoever they had on hand right now likely wasn't too much better than the soldiers that I had been able to get around fairly easily.

...

"So, Grant used his [Skill Creation] to escape, using Mia and Corey as hostages? Then you found their bodies outside of the castle, so you called in a grand magic strike on the forest? Grant's dead now?" Parker had trouble wrapping her head around it.

'Grant would never do that.' She knew that. If he sensed something was off, he would definitely do whatever it took to escape, but as much as he hated people, he wouldn't kill someone unless he felt they needed to die.

Grant didn't hold to what people normally considered morally right, but he had his own code that he held by. He was pretty reckless, and he probably wouldn't hesitate to kill someone if they were in his way, but hostages? Taking them if he was in a jam, maybe, but he'd consider them reluctant allies after that.

He'd keep an eye on them and take care of them until they betrayed him, at which time, he'd simply cut ties and disappear. Parker seriously doubted that Grant had harmed Mia and Corey, but she didn't doubt that they were probably dead.

Grant's not some killer. He had once admitted that he was pretty sure that he had a few sociopathic tendencies, but he had his own way of coping with it.

He cared about how he treated people, even if he couldn't bring himself to care about the people themselves. He thought pretty deeply about the consequences of his actions in those regards.

I guess it didn't matter that much, now. He was dead, and the country needed her help to kill those demons.

...

"Finally. Back to full MP." Actually, I was at 119 MP, but It'd be full again in a moment. Normally, it was supposed to take me a little less than an hour to fill my MP, but I'd needed to use [Obfuscate Presence] pretty heavily in order to get past the lines of soldiers looking for me by the edge of the decimated area.

Seriously, paranoid much? Though I did actually survive, so I guess they had good rights to be.

Now, let's deal with my hunger. I knew that I'd have to work on my [Hunger Resistance] skill eventually, but going without food and having to go without food were two very different things.

I wanted to hunt for my food, but I didn't know the area, nor did I know the strength of the monsters inhabiting it, so I decided that I was better off staying as far away from anything potentially dangerous as possible until I was strong enough to kill it. I didn't like scary unknowns.

On that note…

[Confirmed. Unique Skill Invoked.] [Basic Skill: Summon Weak Enemy will be created for 80 MP].

Summoning was a skill that was divided into six different types, and three different difficulties. The six types were as follows: [Summon Enemy], [Summon Ally], [Summon Hero], [Aided Enemy Summon], [Aided Ally Summon], and [Aided Hero Summon].

I had almost certainly been summoned by [Aided Hero Summoning], as the aided summonings drastically reduced the price at the expense of the being giving aid being some random God.

Unfortunately, normal Summoning skills cost too much MP for me to [Create], so I ended up creating the weakest difficulty of [Summon Enemy] and shunning the Aided skills out of distrust.

Even weakening the skill as much as possible, it cost me two-thirds of my maximum MP, but I still had enough to use 20 MP to dig a hole with [Earth Magic], which had bumped itself up to level 3 already, and drop 10 more MP to summon something inside of it as a test. [Examine].

Weak Slime.

Nothing else of note. Stats at a straight 5, no skills, just a fist-sized ball of gelatin that barely moved. It didn't seem to have a Core, like some slimes did in games and novels.

The slime itself didn't seem very useful as a living entity either, as expected from something that would likely have only taken a single MP to summon if summoned with aid. It was able to react to my hand reaching down into the hole, but it only just barely jiggled, and touching it didn't hurt me at all.

I decided to put it in an [Earth Magic]-made cup before killing it. Normally, I'd shun killing a living being so easily, but I didn't really consider something that couldn't move, and had a total of 5 Intelligence as living being, and I had created it with [Summon Enemy], so it would likely have been hostile had it been any stronger.

In the end, the poor slime turned into something that looked like jello.

I now have the ability to make jello out of 10 MP and thin air. Now that's an achievement!

Even my thoughts were sarcastic as I [Examined] the slime, determined that it wasn't going to kill me, and scarfed it down. It was utterly disgusting, and I was out of MP. How great.

Wait, no I'm not out of MP, I have 4 now? Did my [MP Regeneration] go up? Yeah, it's level 3 now, so I get a little under 4 MP per minute, so I'll be full in a little over a half hour now, instead of a full hour? At least I don't really have anywhere to go.