Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

"It's my turn, now" I said as I pulled back the spell interface of [Spell Planner] and quickly made another [Earth Wall] spell. I kept the same configuration as I casted it next to the tree and crawled my way there. It was lucky too, as the next bullet pierced the wood right where I was standing.

I immediately backed away and casted a few more [Earth Wall] between me and the fish. It was the right call as I heard the next bullet hitting the dirt from the wall I had made and piercing a couple of them. I needed to deal with it or just run away, as it is always an option.

I chose to fight and pulled the interface from [Spell Planner] again. This time I searched for lightning in the elemental tab and a bullet shape. In the charge tab I still had 87% of MP left, so I cranked the slider to the max before casting it without thinking. The spell formed on top of my finger and somehow I instinctively knew I needed to make the gun gesture with my hand to fire the spell, so I knew what I needed to do.

Up until now the water bullets have been consistent on the firing time, meaning there was a casting time for the fish before it could shoot another one. I timed it and ran towards the [Earth Wall] I had made, jumping on top of it just as the water bullet pierced it. Once my legs were on top of the wall, I jumped again, flapping my wings as I did so to gain even more height. I saw the fish, he was preparing another bullet as the water around him flowed around his body before condensing in a small ball in the middle of his mouth. It didn't look like he saw me yet. I pulled my hand up and aimed at him before I made the gesture of shooting. The moment I finished the gesture, the spell flashed white and crackled with electricity before it shot off. I felt something inside me being drained and I felt dizzy as a massive headache suddenly appeared pounding on my head.

I blacked out for a moment and when I regained my senses, I was upside-down on a tree branch and my body was hurting all around. The presence of sticks and leaves around and falling to the ground revealed I had crashed on this tree and this branch managed to break my fall. I tried to stand up, but my feet slipped and I fell straight to the ground, hitting my back on one of the roots. I was paralyzed from the pain as my body slid to the side and finally hit the ground.

After some time I was able to finally move. My back and head hurt like hell as I stood up, but fortunately there wasn't anything broken, at least I thought so. I looked over at myself and only saw some minor scratches that tore off some scales and were bleeding slightly, but nothing to worry about. I looked over at the water where the fish was but saw nothing there. The fish probably ran away as I hit him with that electric bullet. I was glad it did, because I wouldn't be able to continue the fight with the headache I was feeling. Opening my status screen revealed I had lost 200 HP and all but 5 MP. If my guess was right, the headache wasn't because I lost HP but because I lost almost all of my MP. If I consider that magic and mana are something closely related with the mind, using everything at once like I did will only cause harm.

I shook my head. If that was true, I just needed to be conservative with how much mana I poured into each spell. But first I needed to make sure of one thing. I sat on the ground and watched my MP status for a while. This world was like an RPG, but there are two types of RPG, one that mana regenerates automatically after a while, and one that mana does not regenerate and you need things like mana potions and items to increase your mana capacity and give you the regen ability. Thankfully it looks like it's the former one, as my MP increased 5 points in a minute, meaning that if I was at 0 MP I would need 20 minutes to go back to max.

Knowing that I relaxed a little, but not much as I was still in an unknown area with unknown dangers that could kill me easily enough. I needed to find somewhere to take shelter. Though, finding or creating shelter was going to be quite easy, as I had access to magic that can literally shape the terrain around me.

I waited until my MP was back to full before casting more of the [Earth Wall] spell, creating what could only be described as a Minecraft noob house, meaning I had created a dirt hut. The walls were easy enough, just a casting of [Earth Wall] and it's done. The problem was the roof. This wasn't Minecraft and the dirt didn't magically stay in the air without any support, and the dirt on the spell wasn't magically conjured as well, it was taking the dirt from the surrounding areas to complete, a fact I discovered when I tried to create the roof only for it to use the dirt on the walls before falling to the ground. I tried a few times before I gave up on doing it this way and tried another.

The interface didn't have a "hut" shape, so I ended up just creating another [Earth Wall], but this time as big as I needed and excavated the interior by hand. It took more than I expected with magic and it left me tired and thirsty. Fortunately there was water right outside of the small hut I had made and a quick sip was enough for me.

Okay, I had water and shelter done. Next I needed to find food and fire. Fire was easily enough to do with my skill, meaning I only needed to find food. I turned my head towards the small stream of water. If it worked once… I thought and entered the water, letting it wash away the blood that was already drying on my back. I let it wash away for some time until there was no more blood bleeding from the scratches and then promptly left it and hid in the hut I've made.

Fast forward a few minutes later and I saw the water moving strangely. It looked like a lump of water was moving contrary to the flow of water. It kept moving until it began moving outside of the water. I saw the fish I hit earlier inside of it, except it wasn't swimming or controlling the blob of water, no, it was partially digested and leaking a red liquid that dissolved in the water and vanished a few centimeters away from the body.

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It was a slime, I was sure. My thoughts were confirmed moments later as the lump of water left the river and kept moving to me like an amoeba in a Petri dish. I walked out of the hut and began walking to the side of the slime, but it somehow saw it, even though it had no eyes, and adjusted its movement to follow me.

It clearly could sense me somehow and I wasn't going to let it get closer to me. I began moving backwards at the same speed which the slime advanced, keeping the distance between us equal. As I backed slowly, I used the opportunity to use [Appraisal] on it.

[Water Slime

Level 20]

The moment I casted [Appraisal] the slime began shedding water like an overflowing manhole before shooting some of it at me. I instinctively turned my head to the side and put my wings in front of me like a shield as something hit them with a wet splash. Moments later my wings began burning like I had placed them over an open fire. As I separated them I saw the white membrane that covered them was bright red and blood was dripping from it. It was a chemical burn, and considering it was a liquid that a slime could throw, it was acid.

My thoughts were confirmed as I watched the slime again and saw the now much smaller blob of liquid rolling to me, dissolving every piece of grass that it rolled on, leaving only a clear path of dirt. I pulled the [Spell Planner] screen and made another of the electric bullets I had made earlier and shot them at the slime.

The slime stopped after being hit by the electricity that crackled through his body and discharged to the ground. I shot five more times, each one eating a small chunk of my MP, which already was pretty low. A headache started to form after I shot it three more times, probably hinting my limits and that I would pass out like I had a few moments earlier.

I stopped shooting, my wings were still hurting like they were on fire, but it would be much worse if I didn't stop the slime from trying to eat me. I looked at the paralyzed slime as it shrunk with the electricity running through its body. Soon, it started to glow yellow with electricity that arced from its body and hit the ground nearby, and then it started to roll like a bowling ball, straight at me.

My eyes opened wide when it came rolling at me with more than triple the speed it was moving a few seconds before. I instinctively jumped to my side at the last second, unfortunately it wasn't enough to completely avoid it and my leg and the tip of my tail both touched the slime, and I was hit by an electric arch that made every muscle of my body to tense up, accompanied by the burning sensation of the acid.

I managed to look at him with my stiff body and casted [Appraisal] once more.

[Electrified Water Slime

Level 5]

That's what I thought, the slime had changed its species due to my spell, though I wasn't so certain as to why it lost 15 levels with it, even though it doesn't seem like any weaker whatsoever.

The slime kept rolling fast as a bowling ball on those slippery wood floors, had the same mobility as one, seeing as it was beginning to turn in a wide arch. I needed to do something about it else I would end up as his lunch.

Thankfully the way the slime was turning gave me a few seconds to think.

If electricity didn't work on it, what else should I try? Fire? Water? No, they wouldn't work, it won't keep still enough for me to boil it and water will only make things worse with the electric arcs it's expelling… What should I do, what should I do?

Unfortunately I didn't arrive at an answer in time, the slime was almost on top of me, coming at me like a car, startling me out of my thoughts.

"RAMP!" I shouted as I hit the ground in front of me. A part of the ground lifted up like a mechanical piston at the same time that my head felt like it was hit by a hydraulic press. The next moment, I saw the slime flying off the dirt ramp I had somehow erected like a hot wheels toy car. It flew various meters away from me, but not before one of the electric arcs it was producing hit me square in the head, making everything go white.

…

…

…

"ARGH!" I screamed in pain as a powerful shock jolted me awake, followed by the burning sensation that my lower body was being dipped in lava. Through stiff muscles because of the electricity running through my body I saw the slime covering everything up to my belly, and I saw how the scales on my body were being corroded by the acid and electricity, with blood seeping out of them.

I needed to do something, else I was a goner. I tried to cast a fireball, but the moment I tried to bring up the [Spell Planer] interface, a headache hit me like a wrecking ball. No, I couldn't be out of MP at this moment, I needed to do something. I tried again, and another hit to my head. I tried again and again, each time it felt like my head was being hit with a jackhammer.

As despair creeped its way inside me, I tried again and again to no avail. I even began screaming at it as I tried and tried again but nothing changed. Is that it? No, it won't end like this. I can't let it end like this. I kept screaming at it while I tried to punch it, throw dirt that I grabbed from the ground at it, but it didn't stop. Everytime I was trying to cast a spell, any kind of spell, but nothing worked. I even felt blood dripping from my nose and ears.

Suddenly I felt something deep inside me pulse. It felt like three circles of energy intertwined. It pulsed once more, releasing a wave of energy that filled my body so much I felt I was going to explode, I tried to control that energy but it wouldn't budge no matter what I tried. It filled my body like a balloon, but before I burst like one, it found a way out.

As everything was happening, I kept screaming at the slime, and it looked like the energy was going to use my mouth as an escape valve. I felt as if it all rushed to my throat and condensed there. Soon, it all left my body through my mouth, a wave of white light blinding and a sonic explosion deafening me. When my vision came back, all I saw was a piece of the forest was simply gone, together with the slime that was eating me before passing out right there