@Kazemitsu

She was splashing the water with what looked like little flippers... barely little bits of flab at a glance.

Your efforts have produced a Skill!
Skill Gain: Limited Shapeshift I
By practicing the manipulation of your body, which Slimes are naturally predisposed for, you gained this skill. You cannot alter the total size, texture, or consistency of your body. You also cannot alter your body’s primary qualities--you cannot become “sharp” or “hard,” for example. At this level, complex structures are too difficult. But making yourself into a rolling sphere, a flat puddle, or shaping your pseudopods would all be possibilities, plus more. This skill consumes Stamina, not MP.

"What the hell was that?" She asked at a glance before looking at her little nubs. "Hah! Success!" She paddled in the water laughing, nearly forgetting about Asura or the voice that just happened.

Asura seemed annoyed and she used her new little appendages (to great effort) to climb back up the hill. "Oh relax, there might be other like minded individuals out there and I can be nice enough for the both of us. I'm quite sure we don't taste good and there isn't something we wont see eye to eye about." She got back to him and went back on their path, looking out to find the trails she suspect they could follow. "No no, I'm sure if they wanted our help they'd call back. Lets keep- Wait a sec, Asura, over here."

She came a cavern entrance and studied the ground. It was clean, slick, and it was big, bigger than the both of them. There was nothing else, and that made sense to her. "I got a feeling about this way." She said, making a little bump to point.

@Rune_Alchemist@CollectorOfMyst

Your Stamina is very low. You are exhausted. You are dehydrated. You are Starving. Your MP is almost depleted. Your HP is starting to deplete.

“Yeah yeah...Tell me something I don’t know...” Naji mumbles, slowly crawling from the new hole his lizard associate just opened up for him before promptly flopping to the floor like a lead bag. He lay there silently for a moment, the Lizard talking at him and some new pixie, the words dimly registering in his brain while his stomach attempted to turn in on itself from the sudden burst of movement. He looks over his new associates from his vantage point in the dirt at their feet. “Hello. I’m Naji. Thank you so much for asking...” He says quietly.

He sits up slowly, his body raging agaisnt any action that was not ‘sit down and continue to die slowly.’. He huffs as the lizard asked for his and the other pixies help in learning magic. Typical bad customer. Demand something right off the bat, no matter how unreasonable it may be. Still...the offer was tempting. While he was not really overflowing with magical knowledge, he DID have a innate healing and defensive spell. Valuable resources to leverage, especially for an offensively oriented creature like the lizard. Better yet, it didnt know HE barely knew what he was doing.

“Nothing’s free friend...” He starts slowly, letting his egyptian accent rise a little more prominently. “As it stands, I dont even have MP to teach you how to cast, even if I wanted to. But you scratch our backs....” He adds, letting the lizard fill in the blanks for itself. He waits for a moment longer before looking over the other Pixie. He was probably in a much better position as Naji was, but it would feel...wrong to just leave him out of the deal. They were both relatively helpless without someone else to protect them. Guilt was a shitty garnish to a meal anyway.

“If you need more convincing Mr. Lizard...while I can’t speak for our friend here, I can offer to be your...god whats the MMO term for it...” He pauses for moment, scratching at his chin as he searched his memory. His eyes light up as it finally comes to him. “Heal slut! I think thats the slang for it. Once you get the hang of magic enough to do it yourself...we can renegotiate the deal or part ways. If thats still not to your liking...you can just leave your fellow man to die.”

In truth, the deal favored the lizard a little more than he liked. But, he didn’t really have much of a choice at the moment. A potential guarantee of immediate survival somewhat trumped the urge to cheat the lizard. Besides, the worst it could do was say no. ...Or eat him. But one life threating situation at a time Naji.

Asura gave a derisive snort when Edith said like minded. "And most of the creatures here are mindless. I've already been attacked randomly by two creatures." He growled out while she climbed up the slope towards him. She was using little appendages instead of using her whole body to cling to the surface like he was. She was still too stuck in her 'human' mindset. The voice was quiet though, so maybe they ran off to get friends or something might have eaten em. Either way they were safe if they moved.

Edith had pointed to the large trail that had been spotted. "Lets get going. Maybe we'll run into the other slime I met before. It was soulled like us considering it did more than eat." Asura said while shaping himself into a ball and started to roll. Not the perfect sphere she had but one that was more "flat" so there was more surface sticking to the slope. He didn't want to find out what might be in that water aside from tiny fish.

@ShwiggityShwah

Exploring Near Crystals and Cave Walls (D1)
@SilverPaw@Jobst
As Xiao Mei rushed back to the safety of her mother’s side, Asteria tried to ward off the two Fanged Lizards that Lorek had tried and failed to hunt. But rather than scare them, it seemed she instead attracted their attention. One of the Lizards was clearly hurt, so they must have taken her hiss as a sign of aggression rather than one of warning. Instinctively, they sought to keep more potential attackers at bay, and both once again launched their Poison Spit at the group of rats.

Mother Rat would no longer be calmed by her offspring, and with a snarl of her own she leaped away from the oncoming globs. With that well known rodent agility, she landed on a nearby rock and then bounded off again, teeth gnashing and claws slashing. She didn’t even look to see if her two daughters would follow her into the fray, or if they had been struck by the poison...

---

Battle Royale (D1)
@Searat
Ed jumped off the rocks and fell upon the Wisp with ravenous fury. The creature squealed as his fangs bit into it and his claws slashed at it. Wisps, as he had just seen with Mei’s sneak attack, were not the most physically sturdy of creatures. With this one having just been hit by the goblin’s rock, it was no match for the already physically powerful Dire Rat.

As Ed finished off the Wisp, the rest of the battle continued to rage. The first of the other Dire Rats, the one that had been bludgeoned, shook itself off and once more launched itself at the goblin. The green creature managed to get his hands up in time to defend himself, but the rat still sank its fangs into the meaty part of one hand. The goblin screamed, but tightened his grip and then attempted to smash the rat--in the process using it as a makeshift bludgeon on the still-entwined Slime and Fanged Lizard. Both of the creatures reacted in shock at the blow, separating from one another. The Slime didn’t seem too awfully worse for wear, aside from the fact that the lizard’s acidic spit seemed to be continually damaging it, but the Fanged Lizard was shaky on its feet. It fired a glob of poison spit right into the goblin’s eyes--just as the second dire rat that had been shot by the Wisp ran up the green monster’s back and sank its teeth into the greenskin’s neck. The Slime, meanwhile, now grappled with the first Dire Rat. With the other rodent already weakened, it seemed almost too easy for the slime to begin enveloping and crushing the life out of it.

The goblin would be down any moment, as would the other rat, but the lizard, the slime, and the second rat still had some fight in them despite their weakness...If Ed played his cards right he could get a second kill, but did he want to risk charging into the melee…?

---

On The Trail (D2)
@Kazemitsu@ShwiggityShwah
As Asura and Edith rolled away from the pool and followed the trail into the darker area of the caverns, they soon moved away from the green herbs. The moss, however, continued to grow here. It seemed that with the darkness and dank, there was some slight ground water dripping from the stalactites above them. It made a good environment for the algae or fungus, whatever it was. And the trail continued, no matter how thick the spongy green carpet became.

But soon their rounded forms, spinning just a little too fast for their “eye” sight to register in time, softly bumped into something and bounced off. When they unfurled themselves, they would see that they had come to a simple rock ledge--if they had still been human, it would have been no more than a step or two high.

On top of the ledge was a flat shelf, where less moss grew. But it was hard to see much else, as the cave had become almost pitch black at this point.

Something big burbled out of the darkness. Something that sounded like a rat squeaked once, then went silent with a squelch. As if sensing the presence of two more creatures, the big burbling thing came forward.

A blue slime, easily twice and a half as big as Asura or Edith, slowly lurched towards them out of the darkness…

---

The Pool (D1)
@Bishop@Duthguy
As Lorek ran away, he at least managed to use one of his crystals to restore his MP. But his HP was still in dire straits, and what was more as he ran he blindly found himself now over the watery pool from before. At least he was out of range of anything except other wisps now, as the lizards couldn’t seem to spit as far as he could shoot his magic. But the green herbs were getting very thin here, there might not be many of them left.

Angrily, he cursed the wretched vermin who had done this to him. The rage and hatred, the metaphysical blackness that burned his soul like bile that refused to come up, came to a boil inside him…

You are experiencing a fast rate of Skill Progression.
Your Curse Affinity grants you a higher growth for one of your skills.
Your experiences have granted you a new skill!
Skill Gain: Curse Word I
The simplest form of curse, using your words to focus all of your malice upon a target. By channeling your power through these words you obtain a true “curse,” causing your opponent to take slightly more damage from a single attack that hits them afterward.

Meanwhile, as Danny rushed to help his fellow Wisp, he let himself get too focused on someone else’s needs. He neglected to watch his surroundings, and it cost him…

He and the random Pixie collided with one another, nearly knocking both of them out of the air. As they each shook it off, the pixie made angry sounding, childlike noises at him, before dive bombing him with a flying kick as its wings fluttered...

---

The Hole in the Wall (D2)
@Guy0fV4lor

---

As Jason used Stone Shot to shoot the severed Goblin hand inside him, the Wisp let loose its second Mana Orb. The two projectiles collided in the tunnel, and the result was a sudden splatter of goblin flesh and blood, and the slight clatter of bones against the cavern walls. Jason managed to flatten himself against the tunnel floor, and surged forward in an attempt to get under the Wisp. The Wisp, unsure whether or not this was an attack of some sort, pressed itself closer to the ceiling of the small chamber. But as the two avoided each other, and Jason achieved his goal of getting back towards the entrance of the tunnel, the Wisp managed something he hadn’t seen yet.

He had seen enough of other Wisps in the cave at this point to realize that they only had a few Mana Orbs to shoot before they ran out of MP. However, if they were out of MP, how did they continue to float? Or return to floating after only a few moments, without actually using a Mana Crystal? It stood to reason then, that some of their magic could be activated with very little MP, or perhaps didn’t rely JUST on magic to function. Much like someone who has exercised themselves to exhaustion can often take a deep breath and get in just one more repetition, the Wisp strained itself just once more.

Its Lesser Force grabbed a gooey chunk of Jason’s body and squeezed. A single Mana Crystal, like a soap bar under pressure, shot out of the green slime’s membrane and clattered to the floor between the two combatants...

---

Nearby the Bonfire (D2)
@Old Amsterdam

---

As Rain pumped her skillpoints into Poison Glob...there was no notification that she had gained a new skill yet. It had been at 0.1, and she had pumped 5 points into it...but no Skill Gain. What was up with that?

But, she successfully stealthed her way closer to the bonfire, where she could observe Crispy and that female hunter from before as they seemed to be talking about a trade of some sort. That female goblin was oddly eloquent for some reason. And the last time Rain had seen her, she had been chasing Ash after the Lizard Tribunal’s hasty dispersal. What could that mean for Rain’s other allies…?

She managed to get within range. One of the goblins moved suddenly, but he was looking up at the ceiling, not at her. And it looked like Crispy had discarded his torch for the moment, and was focused on what the female was doing...

---

Looking to Trade (D2)
@Lucius Cypher

---

”I can make something you do not have. But to make it, I need something only you have.” Crispy looked at her clay, then followed her gaze to his torch. He raised an eyebrow, and took in a breath. ”I want to know how you make fire. Your magic. I try to make fire but it is hard and difficult. I know fire can do muchz make much. With fire…” Crispy started to say something, but then stopped. “We goblins can be so much stronger. But only if I know how you made it, how you control it. Teach me, and I shall teach you what I know.”

Crispy held up his torch and cleared his throat--

”I have been in this cave for only a week. But I have seen much. And I know how much of a struggle it is for us goblins. We don’t have magic. We aren’t strong. And a lot of us aren't that smart.” The flame-touched goblin furrowed his brows. Orchid looked to the three goblins who were obviously just here as muscle. She removed the makeshift bandage on her shoulder to show the goblins her scars. Though the herbs healed most of the damage they could still see the ugly hole where she was stabbed.

“Alone we are weak. A few of us might become strong, like Rattleskull or you, Crispy. But if we don’t work together and share our power? We will die, like all the other goblins before us. Teach me how you make fire. And I will teach you how to make weapons, armor, and many things that will make us goblins rule this cave. And then the world!”

“YOU TALKS TOO MUCH!” Crispy flailed with his torch and stomped his foot for a moment. He gave Orchid an “evil eye” before he finally got to say his own piece. “And...how you talks so good and so much? You only been borned a week...you already hunt? Made dat sword? Made fire?” Now the fiery goblin seemed more suspicious than anything. He dipped a finger in Orchid’s clay and rubbed it for a moment, then stood straight again. “Hmm…” He finally turned back to his fire, putting what was left of his torch back into the blaze before turning back to Orchid with crossed arms.

“You weird, youngling. But show little bit of what you trying to trade. I’ll teach den.” He gestured towards the bonfire with his head. “You can has wood if you needs it. But just a little!”

One of the three goblins glanced upward. He looked like he had seen something--or rather, like he thought he had seen something, but upon actually looking couldn’t really find anything...

---

The First True Party!? (D2)
@King Cosmos@CriticalHit@Gardevoiran@floodtalon

---

As Mourningstar practiced refining her Mana Orb using what she had learned from Mana Shape, the orb came out with a slightly different shape. Rather than a perfectly round sphere, it became elongated and somewhat thinner. It took on a crescent shape, and once fired, spun through the air more like a thrown blade than a straightforward projectile. But doing it that way took significantly more effort, and as of yet it didn’t seem to have any real effect on what the orb actually did...perhaps with practice she could continue to refine that thinner edge, or increase its speed…

Oberon, on the other hand, took a less hands-on approach at first. His first step was to use his Magic Analysis skill until he understood what Mourningstar was doing. For the second step, he took a calming, almost meditative route and did some introspection over his own magic and how it felt to use it, to manipulate it. He compared it with his observations, with what he had learned. And only then, after coming up with a clear image in his mind, did he begin to practice.

Skill Rank Up: Magical Analysis II
Gain more detail about Magic oriented Skills and Spells. Lose less effectiveness when analyzing Monsters, Materials, etc so long as they are magically inclined.

You are experiencing a fast rate of Skill Progression.
Your use of Magical Analysis grants you further insight into the nature of a spell!
Your practice has culminated in a new skill!

Skill Gain: Mana Orb I
A simple blast of magic. At the moment it only does as much damage as a strong punch on average, unless the enemy is weak to magic. As it gets stronger it becomes a generic, non elemental energy blast.

As he threw his concentrated ball of Mana, he felt it practically jump from his hand. With an almost angry sounding crackle, it crashed into one of the rocks nearby and singed it before dispersing. Success!

@Kazemitsu@Zeroth

"Well maybe you just don't know how to talk to people, or monsters." She jeered at Asuna, her words quite condescending but designed purly as a friendly jab. Following forward with their plow, Edith did become quiet. They didn't have much then the darkness and eachother to keep themselves safe and for the most part, Edith felt exposed.

She balled up and slid near Asuna merely for the proximity. She took observation of the area around her. Mold, Moss, but nothing else. Like everything was eaten, and the moisture was trying to grow things back. She nearly bumped into the ledge that would hold their goal but just instead seemed to bounce back.

Then all of a sudden, "Is... that mom?" She said backing up in the blue slime's shadow. The rat squeaked and that made her squeak too. "Well... umm. Hello!" Edith started. "Asuna, is she? Can she talk?"

Orchid merely snorted when Crispy threw a tantrum because she talked too much. She guessed that Crispy wasn’t as smart as his ability with fire indicated. She’ll just have to use smaller words. ”Fine. First I teach you something, then you teach me something. Watch.” Orchid went over to her clay and grabbed a handful of it, shaping it into a ball. She showed it to Crispy to see. ”This brown mud called clay. Find at pond. Very tough, make into shape like this.”

Orchid took her ball and shaped it into a bowl. But because it was wet clay it was still a bit floppy. ”This bowl. Hold stuff. Water, food, whatever. But soft. Cook in fire make it hard.” Orchid but the clay bowl next to the bonfire’s flame to let it cook. ”Easy, but important. Clay break if hit too hard. But hide things like dirt and ash, make… Poof. Very useful.” She wanted to explain more about it to Crispy but guessed he wouldn’t really care too much about it. So now it was his turn to start teaching. ”Now teach me fire magic.”



@Zeroth

Not good enough. Mourningstar grunted and began working on her Mana Blade once more, but stopped as she noticed what Oberon was doing. She could see it in his eyes, he was analyzing her. She wasn't about to admonish him for doing it, it made sense to copy her so he could have a way to defend himself. But it did give her an idea. She worked on her Mana Blade again, this time using Magic Analysis on herself to see if the skill could provide her with any info on what she was doing. After doing so she focused even harder on thinning the blade, it needs to be razor sharp if Mourningstar wanted a true blade. Then once more, she let loose at the wall that Oberon had just fired at. Regardless of results, she was out of MP so she went to go refill at a nearby crystal.

"Alright, I have the perfect place to go eat. We're gonna head to this big bonfire I saw a few days ago, it seems like a lot of monsters seem to gather around there because of the light. They probably get attracted by it or something, some primal bullshit. Easy pickings." With that Mourningstar began to float in the general direction of the bonfire, smiling and working on her Mana Blade as she led her group. She also made sure to use Magic Analysis on anything she hadn't done so before, such as the mana crystals around and the healing herbs. What better way to grind a skill then by using it constantly right?

Ardur The Pixie

Home sweet home >>>> It takes a lot more than just fancy flying /// day 8 // Morning

Ardur found himself stirring from his deep sleep rested and ready for the next day. The Pixie could feel his muscles and wings where a bit stronger and almost seemed lighter. His friend had curled himself around the pixies legs and seemed to be sleeping. Although still a little creepy, Ardur found the small black spider somewhat adorable in a strange way. His slight shuffling did seem to stir the spider as it wandered off to check its webs.

“Such a strange creature” he thought out loud while sitting on the stone floor of their small home. He did notice however that the spider did seem increasingly more docile and flat out friendly towards him. As well as being slightly larger than when he first happened upon the injured spider. Ardur was still uncertain as to if the spider was simply growing normally or if the repeated uses of his heal spell to help regrow the things legs over the last week was the cause of this. Further research and study was needed to prove which hypothesis was correct.

Yawning slightly the pixie moved the leaf clothes and spider silk he was wearing before heading for the opening of their small burrow. Leaning slightly out and into the open, Ardur took his time to look over the ground below. He was looking for anything useful to do. He wasn’t really hungry after eating a few bugs Steve left behind for him but was curious to see what everyone was up too today. Honestly he wasn’t all too picky when it came to food, he’s had much worse where he had come from and at times while he was growing up had nothing to eat at all.

For the moment though, it seemed that the goblins where off ally quiet. Their big bonfire seemed to be dimming and only a few seemed to be milling around it. He could see something making ripples in the deep pool near the back while also noticing a few more healing herbs and mana crystals that grew from the walls. With the abundant mana in the cave, he wasn’t all that surprised that these things grew back so quickly. After all, with no light he simply figured that the mana was the reason things around here where so plentiful.

The pixie took a moment longer to think about how lucky he was to have such a good vantage point here before finally deciding on what to do next. First he would try to glide around the cave a bit and get better bearings on what was around before trying to find his mighty steed once more. He only hoped the information his brother would always give him about fighter jets and airplanes would pay off. However, if he was unable to find his friend he would simply resort to trying out the new Lesser Flight II skill. And with that he was off.

Flying to the highest part of the cave he could get too, far out of the reach of any goblin and as far as he could tell anything that might cause him harm. Ardur did notice that there were several larger crystals up here unreachable by the goblins and left to grow on their own. A place he would have to visit again but for now all he wanted to do was fly. So with this he dropped from his perch sticking his arms and wings to his side to drop as fast as he could before spreading out his wings. Of course if this didn't work he would be sure to use his magic to keep him air born, but was trying to use as little as possible.

He hoped that his stronger wings wouldn't get hurt now with the sudden deceleration. But would continue to not use his flight and instead use the speed of him falling to power his flight around the cave. Ardur wasn't close to the ceiling or the floor and while being less agile he was very quick but could still turn for the most part. Any damage that may incur to his wings he was sure he could heal but didn't think that shield would protect him from that. For now, he would focus on this going fast could prove useful and more importantly annoying for others.

@Zeroth

@Zeroth @Bishop

When Danny noticed the pixie he bumped into about to hit him with a dive kick his first instinct was to hit it with Mana Orb. Before he could even start casting though he realized it was a bad idea, he needed to preserve his MP in case he needed it to pull out any herbs. He didn't have any time to think off something else though. Luckily his reflexes saved him as he managed to just barely dodge the fairy's attack.

Still it was way too close for comfort and judging from its chittering it was unlikely that he could negotiate with it. That left him with only option, booking it and hoping that it was either too slow to follow or lost interest. He wasn't too happy about it but he took off at full speed once more, this time paying slightly more attention to what was in front of him and hoped he would reach he herbs both without anymore incidents and before it was too late for Lorek.

Indeed, as Reoth hunted he knew very well his white scales made him easy to spot for many. It was due to this knowledge that he knew he had to move quietly, and quickly. He would dart from rock to rock as quickly and quietly as he could in order to keep from being in the open for longer than needed, or very long at all. Right now, speed and silence were his best friends when traveling.

It was as he darted into a cluster of stones that he picked up on a different buzzing sound from the usual insects. Following the noise cautiously, he would soon peek out around a rock to spot a pixie flitting through the air. It seemed to get closer, however, the little thing seemed to be paying very little attention below it, and therefore had yet to notice him.

This was Reoth's first chance at a real meal for the day, and he knew that he might not catch it if he alerted now. So he would wait, until it was close enough for him to be less likely to miss. Then somewhat instinctively, he opened his mouth and shot poison spit out at it, aiming for its back where its wings connected. A little surprised that he could do that, but maintaining sight on the creature to see if he hit.

"I know we just met and all, but perhaps you two could help a lizard learn how to use magic?"

“...Teach you?” Scott had to admit... he had no idea how to do that.

His eyes turned to the other pixie - who called himself Naji, and appeared to be in a bit of a sorry state. Had he even been eating? It didn’t look like it at all. And he might have been stuck back there for such a long time...

Wincing slightly at Naji’s usage of ‘Heal slut’, he looked to the lizard to make his own offer.

“Ah... well, I think the main issue here is that I don’t know how to or even if you can be taught magic. I... as far as I know, this healing spell came naturally to me. I-I think I have an idea, though.”

He ran along the ground to the nearest pebble - which was actually about the soze of a football to him - and with a huff, lifted it up and brought it back to the others. Biting his lip, he gestured to her claw.

“May I? Oh, and,” Scott forced himself to smile. “By the way, I’m Scott.”

@CollectorOfMyst@ghastlyInc - Pixie and Crystal dust

---

"Heal...slut?" Ash tilted her head slightly to the side. "I...have no idea what that means, but you realize I could have just left you in there, yes?" She chuckled, though it was mostly just to tease and mess with the Pixie. "But yes, I suppose that is how this is going to work." It was a good deal for her, honestly. Not so much for the Pixie, Naji, but he didn't have much of a choice, did he? Plus, she would feel maybe a tiny bit bad if she didn't help him in some way.

"As for whether I can or not," She turned her head to the other Pixie. "I have MP. However, I have no natural skills that make use of it. After leveling up a few times it's clear that its certainly not a natural skill for Fanged Lizards to learn...hence my interest in these crystals." She tapped the one under her claw again. She should probably store it in her 'throat pouch', whatever that was. Did she just try and swallow it or something? A thought for later at the moment. Scott, the second pixie seemed to suggest something quite a bit dangerous.

"Well...I suppose the best way is through seeing. Oh," She glanced back to Naji. "I know it's hard to tell because I'm a hideous lizard face, but that's miss Lizard. The name's Ash."

Asura shook his head as they moved. "It's not a matter of talking. Most of these creatures are pure instinct and we're either prey or rivals." He explained. Had this girl never gone out into the wilderness? Was she purely a city girl who knew nothing of the natural world? Judging by how she talked he'd have to take a guess and say yes that was the case. As the moved in the dark she moved closer to him. A little amusing really.

The further along they went the darker it got and the more vegetation was on the ground due to moisture. For the moss to grow so well the soil or water had to have some acidic content in it. As he moved he sucked some of it into himself, eating as he went. The darkness was slowly being adapted to, no man-made lights helped as he adjusted. Suddenly the pair bumped into a small ledge, if he had been human he could have just stepped up easily.

Asura vaguely remembered this ledge. Like a childhood memory in the normal world. A squeak of a rat put him on guard until he heard the unmistakable sound of liquid engulfing something. Silence reigned for a moment before the familiar slime burbling echoed out. " Move behind me and get ready to run if that is violent..." He muttered to Edith. The huge blue slime was moving towards them and he was unsure if he could handle her if she was violent.

Edith asked a few questions which earned her a shrug while he shifted into his man-blob form. "Don't know. I'm not sure how slimes reproduce but she wasn't around when I was small." Asura stated while taking a more defensive posture. Which meant contracting into a smaller compressed version of himself. He'd let Edith do the talking, he'd do the attacking if he needed to.

@Zeroth

The feeling of warm life blood splashing onto his fur was strange and unfamiliar, yet welcomed feeling. The sensation of tearing and ripping flesh was disgusting...but he took a macabre joy in doing so. The wisp struggled weakly under the raging dire rat that continued to maul and bite it's vulnerable flesh. With a final, but forceful, bite the wisp lay still on the dull grey cave floor, save for the immediate area that was stained with the wisp's blood and viscera. The battle raged on around Ed. He observed how the goblin was soon to die as the fanged lizard spewed toxins into its eyes while a dire rat attacked from behind, sinking its teeth into the exposed neck of the goblin. The other, more weakened dire rat, was being slowly crushed by the slime as it squirmed in its grasp.

The monsters were preoccupied with one another and the chaos of things, gave Ed an opportunity to turn tail and run. Ed could have escaped then and there and called it a night, but he was tired of running and he was almost sure that at least one of the monsters can and will track him down. If he had left now, it would surely bite him in the ass in the future. He steeled himself, focused on the situation, and observed the monster that posed the biggest threat to him at the time. The fanged lizard.

'The reptile can spew poison...' He glances to the slime and sees the slime's surface where the lizard had bit earlier and saw what seemed to be steaming spit at the time. '...and the saliva is dangerous too. A sneak attack would be optimal.' Ed made up his mind and designated the lizard to be his next target. Ed could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins throughout his system as he charged at the lizard, hoping to catch it unaware; his maw aimed at the lizard's vulnerable neck.

"Well...I suppose the best way is through seeing. Oh, I know it's hard to tell because I'm a hideous lizard face, but that's miss Lizard. The name's Ash."

His nervous smile still going, Scott took hold of Ash's claw, and began to use it on the stone, dragging it over the surface, while trying to focus magical energy on the stone."I'm not sure if this will work, or if I have enough MP for this, but hopefully..." Scott checked what he'd already written. "It should work."

And with that, Scott stepped back, looking at his handiwork. The pebble now had the word 'Heal' written on it .

Well, that had been… a lot easier than he had expected, honestly. By the time he had finished practising two new messages had appeared in Oberon’s mind; the first was an upgraded version of his magical analysis skill, which meant he was going to have to take a look at his spells again later and see if he could find out anything useful. The description for the skill also suggested that the ability could be used to analyse things other than spells, such as creatures or materials if they were magically inclined; this was something he already could have guessed from the way it had analysed Mourningstar last night, but it was something he was going to have to remember so that he could experiment with it later.

What was interesting was that the skill had increased in level despite the fact that he wasn’t using it to observe anything new. Maybe it had been passively active the entire time he was working on his new skill, which would have accounted for its fast growth and might have had something to do with the fast development of the new spell. This also suggested that actually thinking about what you were analysing was better for the skill’s growth than just looking at things and seeing what the skill told you.

The second message was a new skill, Mana Shot, which sounded an awful lot like the magic missile he had seen Wisps firing off and exactly like what he was looking for. He now had a basic offensive spell and something he could use as a jumping off point for much more experimentation later. In fact, there was something he wanted to try right now.

Oberon was broken out of his musings as Mourningstar spoke again, this time to suggest that they head towards a large bonfire where a lot of creatures gathered in order to hunt. Putting aside the fact that killing and eating creature that might resemble one of their group members made him extraordinarily queasy, there was something else about this plan that bothered him. “Shouldn’t we pick something a little more isolated to attack? We’re looking for breakfast, not trying to start a war. We can check out the bonfire later, it sounds interesting and we might find others like us, but we shouldn’t push our luck trying to attack a whole gathering like that.”

Turning back to his experimentation, Oberon raised his hands again and held them slightly apart. “Anyway, let’s see what the others think.”

He was interested to see if he could cast a Shield on a Mana Shot before firing it and if the magical enhancement would do anything to strengthen the spell. He formed another Mana Shot between his hands, the act being a lot easier now that he had the skill to draw on, and just before the moment he felt it would leap from his fingers he tried to quickly cast a Shield spell on the ball of magic.

@Kazemitsu

"What was your plan then?" Suddenly realizing that they were here because of him and his idea to find it. She hoped he had some kind of explanation and equally if not more so hoped that the blue slime wasn't just going to try to eat them like two big balls of marmalade.

Edith didnt get behind him like he asked. Smaller and weaker, but she didn't want to give off the wrong idea that they were afraid what she could only assume was the thing that bothered to spawn them in the first place, and their bloody souls just decided to jump in. Regardless there was a bunch of things she didn't know, so she figured it was worth the effort to do something crazy.

She began with a bit of a sputter as she thought of the words. Then she sang...



She sang the verse and then stopped, letting silence fill the cave again. She wasn't bad, it was just a woman singing acapella in a cave. She sang gently as if the words were a lullaby, not trying to put anyone to sleep, but sooth the savage beast. It was quite a silly thing to do but she reasoned. "I liked it when my kids did stupid stuff for me..." Was her only explanation for the sudden bit Taylor Swift's 'The Best Day'. She was amazed she could even remember the words.

---

Digbie followed behind the group of plucky monsters, moving slowly every now and again as to not overexhaust himself once more. The system said he wasn't doing so well in the stamina department, but he was experiencing some sort of fast skill progression, which seemed really nice. As he followed behind the group, heading towards the bonfire that Mourningstar spoke of, Digbie attempted to use Tremor Sense to check around the cave, see if there was anything of note that he could point out to the group.

"Hello, Oberon and Mourningstar?" Digbie spoke up as he switched between his items, deciding that the <Stone Spike^TM> was a more appropriate item to use in this case. "Are you two tryin' to shape your magic? I dunno if this makes any sense... but maybe think of it as reverse diggin'?" Digbie said as he slowed down a small bit. "Instead of makin' a hole, try and use what you got to fill the hole or make a pile. Maybe that'd work?"

---

@Zeroth
SHIT. This was obviously not your average wisp, was it a lvl 2 like Jason? Right now, it didn't matter; all that mattered was survival. If that wisp got that mana crystal, it would be game over.

Unless....

Taking a gamble, Jason activated [Stone Shot I] again, this time using his own digestive fluids as ammunition. As the glob of stomach acid sailed toward the wisp, Jason lunged over the edge, and onto the inclined section of his tunnel. Remembering back to the level up screen, he remembered he had an undeveloped shape-shifting skill, if he could manage to manifest it here, it may just save his slimy skin. As membrane touched rock, the slime attempted to take the shape of a ball, constantly oscillating his weight in order to gain even more speed; he rolled as fast as he could to the bottom of the incline. Moments before crossing into his main tunnel, Jason consumed one of his mana crystals. Just as he crossed into the main section of his tunnel, he used [Rock Spire I] to block the top half of the opening into the newer section of tunnel before lunging over to his storage as he once again consumed a crystal. Snatching up the Tainted mana crystal, Jason whipped around, activating [Tremor Sense I]; as to be able to locate the wisp with pinpoint accuracy, as well as readying [Stone Shot I], using the tainted crystal as ammo.

The second that little puffball Fucker showed it's face, it was gonna get belted.