Magic, Ethan noticed, wasn’t set in stone, it was malleable and with the right knowledge, could be formed like wet clay but it can also easily break apart. Then it will shower you with the remains of your work and so Ethan got hit in the face by the first snowball of the tutorial, his own spell backfired and hit him on the cheek.
But despite this obvious failure, his plan was one step closer, the fact that he managed to create snow in the first place was a step in the right direction. During his journey he experimented, Nora helped him avoid the bigger creatures and guided him towards smaller prey, but all of them below his level and not worth much experience it seems because level 6 was still out of reach. But he didn’t mind the speed of his progression, in his mind developing a small core set of skills seems better in the long run. Having skills from the start and using them all the way could make them evolve in different ways, it also seems more manageable to have a few powerful skills than hoarding basic skills.
With his new ability to create snow he managed to form it, from a ball to a cube and from a cube into more complex things like rings or pyramids. But that wasn’t his goal at all, he planned to hurt as many goblins as possible in a short amount of time and his new ability gave him an idea. What if he could, instead of shooting ice spikes, make traps that damage multiple goblins at once. So he formed something like a caltrop. The concentration needed to keep the shape out of snow made him nearly pass out, the pain he felt when overextending his mana slowly came back, the feeling of molten metal in his veins. But he powered through and with a silent scream and a loud grunt the snow turned to ice, leaving a single caltrop on his palm shining in a brilliant white of frozen snow.
One look on his mana told him he fucked up…
Mana Points (MP): 40/250
…but he knew from his fight with Ouroboros that you can learn skills if you just work on them enough and understand them. So he waited and continued his training. During this Nora became his lookout, she kept watch and made sure he was safe and in exchange he hunted small animals for her to feed on. They only knew each other for half a day at this point but their bond was strong, strangers still but it seems that his patron was right, he could grow with her and become a team.
When evening approached again he looked over the forest, the dim light of this artificial world would soon become total darkness once more so he picked a tree and with Nora’s guidance he managed to climb it to the top without breaking his neck.
Sitting there he practiced a bit before drifting into a dreamless sleep, memories tried to surface but something was suppressing them. When he woke up he felt refreshed but sitting on a tree branch wasn’t something he enjoyed, his back and legs feeling sore but Nora told him they would soon reach the goblin camp. It turned out that Ethan almost walked a whole round in the inner circle of the tutorial, why did he know that? Because Ouroboros cheated and he gave Nora some knowledge about the tutorial, only the basics but even those would help him in the long run.
In the center was the goblin camp, surrounding it was the swamp and undead, Ethan was glad he didn’t encounter those. In the third circle the beast king ruled with an ironfist and in the last circle…there Nora’s memories didn’t mention an enemy but if his guess was correct it would take a long time to reach the last circle.
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When his feet touched the ground again he stretched his sore body and took a deep breath of the stale air, he hoped his plan would work. So the duo continued on their way and Ethan made caltrop after caltrop, each of them looking better, precise, deadly. Until finally his system responded
*Update* Ice Caltrop(Basic) gained - Form your ice into a caltrop, can serve as a deadly trap if used correctly. Slowly enemies down, bleeding chance, will inflict frost poison if not resisted.
Ethan grinned like a child on its birthday and he would have yelled but he could restrain himself. Again he formed a caltrop but with the new ability it worked a lot better and quicker, still he noticed the improvements he made himself due to his understanding of the ability he created on his own.
He continued to generate caltrops, his hands overflowing with them while they slowly drained his mana, ten caltrops only taking six mana from him. While he played around Nora interrupted him. I know you enjoy it Ethan but we’re getting close to the goblin camp. I feel a large amount of heat signatures up ahead so you better conserve your mana and wipe that stupid grin off your face, she looked at him. Even without the ability to move her face she looked at him accusingly.
I know, sorry, I’m just excited that’s all. I promise I concentrate, he stopped playing with magic and followed the guidance of Nora towards the camp. It wasn’t a long way but he quickly noticed the presence of goblins in this area. Footsteps left paths in the ground, crude warnings made from animal skulls and fur hung in the trees and the smell of feces and rotting flesh filled the air.
Ethan tried not to choke or cough during his approach, he snuck up the hill the cave was located in and only his eyes looked over the hilltop and inspected the goblin camp.
Down below he spotted around fifty of the dark green creatures and again half of that in wolves. The camp was bustling with activity, some goblins repaired weapons, other cooked meals made from very human looking arms and legs. Some fed the wolves or inspected their rubbish equipment. In the end Ethan was rather interested to see the chief of this camp, everything looked well organized, of course his gaming time could influence them but he didn’t think goblins are this meticulous with their equipment.
But in the end he didn’t really care, after all he just needed to kill them and move on, if he managed to get the chief? Even better. So he waited, the day was just beginning but he needed to know everything, when a patrol moved out, how big it was and when it returned. He looked out for crafters and warriors, making sure to count properly. In the end he learned a lot, his focus never wavering.
When the day finally ended he noticed the activity dying down slowly, until only the night watch was still awake. Nora and Ethan discussed what to do and she suggested breaking the goblins spirit, so that’s what he did. Like a madman he threw the caltrops into the camp, but instead of slamming into the packed earth they floated like snow through the whole camp and only when in contact with the ground did they turn to ice and gained some weight. Ethan smiled, the ocean of shiny caltrops and the shining stars in the sky made it look almost magical. “Let’s hope you sleep well tonight goblins, tomorrow you will be in a world of pain.” He activated his poison before finally going to sleep for tonight.
When the first scream echoed over the camp Ethan opened his eyes and smiled, a big happy smile. The brutality of the goblins last time seemed excessive and he enjoyed the idea of killing those that tried to hunt him down for sport. “I think it’s time to take a look, right Nora?” The snake was still sleeping so he decided to take a peek after all, hoping his plan worked as intended.
