Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell laughed, seeing Felix's pleading look as he stared at the mushroom carcasses beside him. Maxwell couldn't understand the dog, really. The mushrooms didn't even have mana inside anymore, so they couldn't be that nutritious to him.

"Go ahead," he said to the dog, and watched as a mass launched from the dog's mouth with immense speed before returning with the carcasses. There was no chewing or anything; the bodies were immediately gone. Felix, now content, jumped up to Maxwell's arm like always, and Maxwell just shook his head, feeling the dog's weight. He still didn't weigh more than a puppy, so where did everything he ate go? In many ways, Felix's abilities seemed more broken than his.

He summoned his notifications. These mushrooms were truly a great way to gain levels.

Prima Sense Leveled Up 92→93

Myriad Mana Constructs Leveled Up 90→95

Soul's Dominion Leveled Up 20→21

Etheric Duality Leveled Up 28→33

Runic Formations Leveled Up 40→44

Soul Over Matter Leveled Up 1→3

Visualization Leveled Up 94→96

Close-quarters-combat Leveled Up 14→16

All of the skills were coming along nicely, but Maxwell really needed a way to improve them before they reached level 100. As it was, though, there were not many methods he could use. He was still quite clueless about what he was missing when it came to creating elements, and there were no revolutionary ideas in his mind. He summoned the next window.

Iridescent Brother - Level 49 Killed. Experience rewarded.

Iridescent Sister - Level 49 Killed. Experience rewarded.

Level up! Stats points are distributed. (4x)

Immediately, Maxwell groaned, relaxing with a surge of energy that enhanced his body. He was not sure how the system did it, but the effects of leveling were always amazing. He was a bit concerned at the start about his physical stats going to waste due to his duality, but after the time with decay mana, he was pretty sure that he needed them.

Even if the ratio of his trait reached 10:0, he would still have a physical body after all. It was just that it would be fueled by soul instead of vitality. Duality reduced the effects of physical stats when he was in mana form, but he could hardly go around while being completely made of mana.

He glanced at Felix thoughtfully. One could argue that the dog was going around with a body of pure imagination, but Maxwell was sure that even the dog had physical stats. They probably changed according to the form he took, though.

He cleared his mind and checked on Blueberry. The bird seemed to be having some sort of fun outside, as she was probably bored.

It would hardly be fair if others got stronger as Blueberry watched, so she took matters into her own wings. The eel she possessed was pretty strong, but thankfully, it was as dumb as a twig, making her able to possess it without much problem.

Controlling the body had been a foreign experience, but once she woke up some parts of the eel's mind, it had become a lot easier. That was one of her new tricks. She was forced to invent it, as she could hardly remember every type of body she controlled.

The eel curled through the sand, showing no signs of awkwardness, as Blueberry searched for a fitting prey. She would need to be a bit careful, as the stupid man was still inside the eel's mouth, but Blueberry would manage. She probably should be a bit careful about not exploding the eel's body, though.

Soon, she found a prey, a weird fish with many teeth, that was looking at her like she was the prey. She immediately overcharged the body of the eel by a small dose and swung its tail like a whip.

There was a great movement of mass as sand got pushed around due to the unnatural movements of the animals, and the tail struck the fish like lightning, releasing a loud sound. Immediately, the side of the fish was obliterated by the illogically strong impact, and even the eel's rocky scales got damaged. The fish, though, was not dead.

It snapped at the eel's tail with a lightning-fast movement, but Blueberry intervened by launching a mental wave at the creature. What the wave did was simple, as the creature snapped at a spot a bit left of the tail, its jaw clamping on sand.

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Blueberry immediately made the eel strike once more with its tail, and this time she made it aim for the head. Previously, she was anxious that the fish would bite it, but now it was a chance.

The tail struck the fish on the side of its head, and the brains of the creature soon decorated the sands, piercing through it like bullets due to the high momentum.

Blueberry released a mental sigh as she could feel energy rushing inside her soul, enhancing her. She really liked this feeling of getting stronger. It was one of the reasons why she got so strong as a simple bluebird. As soon as she got to level 2, she couldn't help but strive for more levels, and her friendship with the crocodile formed due to that. The crocodile, though, was beaten by his human. Blueberry was a wild animal, so she didn't really see anything wrong with this. It was just natural that the crocodile would die when it attacked someone stronger than it.

She realized that she had gotten a bit too far from the tunnels the others were in, so she directed the eel back. She could sense that the others were in a fight, but she was not one bit worried about them. If this fish was anything to go by, the others would have no problem.

When Blueberry got closer to the walls, Maxwell relaxed his senses. Even if he trusted the bird not to do anything too risky, it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on her. The bird was getting better at fighting, though. She effortlessly killed a trapfish around level 40.

Soon, they were once again progressing towards the core region of the tunnels. The mushrooms around them were slowly getting bigger, too. Maxwell was a bit confused why a species like this existed in a desert planet like this, but to be fair, the planet could be lush outside this place for all he knew.

They found a couple of brothers and sisters on the way, but Maxwell immediately assaulted them with a straitjacket fitting their elements, so the creatures were quite helpless when they got eaten by a hungry Felix. Maxwell didn't bother to kill them for experience, as he discovered that he was not getting any more levels from these creatures.

The system probably didn't want them to level up by doing the same thing over and over again, so it didn't give any experience from these kills. To be fair, the kills were too easy anyway, and that could easily be the reason, too. The system didn't pillage the energy of the corpses or anything to give out levels, so Maxwell figured that it was not obligated to give out levels for every kill.

His skills increased by a couple of levels as he got used to using his runes with the constructs, but that was it.

Myriad Mana Constructs Leveled Up 95→96

Runic Formations Leveled Up 44→47

Visualization Leveled Up 96→97

It was a steady improvement. He glanced at the walls absentmindedly, still taken aback by how much mana the whole structure contained. He really hoped that whatever was in the center wouldn't blow it up, as it would probably destroy the rift along with most of the desert. Now that he thought about that, maybe going to the center was a bit dumb, but curiosity was one of Maxwell's greatest sins.

He observed one of the mushrooms on the walls, noticeably bigger than the mushrooms before. It also contained a lot more energy.

Iridescent Mushroom - Tier 2+

A mushroom infused with more than ten years of mana exposure. The color of the glow indicates the element the mushroom contains.

The mushroom uses the surrounding sand as a resource and forms rocky formations, creating its own habitat.

The only difference was hard to see at once, but thankfully, Maxwell could remember a lot due to his soul stat. The explanation now said that this mushroom was infused by mana for at least ten years, which is different from the younger mushroom. This meant that all of these caves were formed in the last ten years. This, though, was a lot concerning, as with that timetable, this world would have tier 4s.

This, though, seemed not to be the case. Maxwell had been in a war against tier threes before, and even then, their frequency was a lot higher than this planet had. Maybe the progression stops in some cases? That was a thought-provoking idea with no way to prove it for now.

Looking at the mushroom, Maxwell suddenly realized something, though. I'm such an idiot sometimes. He thought. Wasn't this place just amazing to improve the compendium? He had been walking through these tunnels for a while now, and it didn't cross his mind to actually use them to improve the neglected but powerful skill.

He sighed before mentally latching onto the man inside the fire affinity mushrooms. Maybe the fire was not a good initial choice, but he was too immature when it came to the element.

Immediately, an immense amount of mana started to gather around him before getting absorbed. He made a part of his mind repeat this as they walked from now on. When the fire mushrooms were few in number, he absorbed some mana from the mushrooms with the earth affinity. There were no rare or interesting affinities in these mushrooms, but even the basic ones would do much good to him.

It didn't even take a few minutes for the fire mana to reach level 2 of recording, and a few minutes later, the earth mana followed in its footsteps by reaching level 1. Maxwell just sighed, seeing the notification.

The Compendium Leveled Up 11→13

Better late than never, I guess. He consoled himself as he stopped walking for a moment. Even though he didn't expect the efficiency to be this good, so he decided to record all elements around him for a level at least.

Around twenty minutes later, a smiling Maxwell could be seen sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. He glanced at his notifications happily.

Light Mana reached level 1 recording.

Lightning Mana reached level 1 recording.

Nature Element reached level 1 recording.

Nature element detected as a canopy element. Wood affinity is absorbed into the recording.

Nature Element reached level 2 recording.

Maxwell didn't know something like that could happen, but he wouldn't complain. This probably meant that he shouldn't absorb overly specific mana into the compendium, though, as it would just mean working more for less effect.

He realized long ago that all rock types had slightly different mana inside, so this was no surprise when he thought about it.

He got up, preparing to continue on his journey. He would still keep absorbing mana, but he could almost feel the palpable boredom radiating from Blueberry. They had a whole cave system to explore.