Chapter 143: A very resilient reptile

Buying skills based on dark magic was out of the question right now. Jimmy was a few thousand system points short.

To rack up enough points just to tap into the dark realms of mana, he had to kill a couple of humans at least, or over ten big animals. Maybe big fish?

It was hard to decide on the matter, but right now, killing humans was out of the question.

The scattered villages across the Lakelands may contain a problematic human or two, maybe more, but after everything that happened within twenty four short hours, he didn’t have the mental energy to seek out another troublesome human to scorch.

If he had killed that village Chief, the equation could’ve been a little bit different, but last night, Virena had beat him to it.

For now, he decided to keep on their direct course towards God’s Spine Mountain. Though they weren’t exactly in a rush, he knew that they were a day behind schedule already.

The disturbance in God’s Spine Mountain may be worth a lot more than whatever these mere villages, and occasional towns had to offer.

The system was vague about the task regarding the mountain, but since she introduced him to the task, he could feel that there was something worthwhile there.

Something useful, hopefully, because so far, he had racked up a couple of skills, and even revelations that he didn’t know on what occasion he could use, or that he couldn’t use at all, such as the Flesh Weaver. He was hoping to progress enough to use the full potential of his extensive arsenal.

Grow into his shoes, so to speak.

’I can’t believe that I’m about to spill into the fucking third realm of mana, but I still feel like I’m behind.’ He thought, ’It’s not fair.’

The fact that he believed that, kept him true to his course towards the mountain. The team flew for six hours straight, made it a bit past the middle point of the journey, and then, they had to land.

The team was a little bit tired, for one thing. Gliding across the sky wasn’t tiresome itself, but they hadn’t had the chance to catch up on their sleep.

Secondly, Jimmy was hungry again.

They landed near one of the hundreds of lakes across the Lakelands, up on a lone tree, a hundred meters, or three hundred feet away from a village.

Jimmy, being the curious crow that he was, already spotted something interesting.

He wasn’t bothered with the village, as he knew that unless someone from that village came and attacked him directly, he wouldn’t bother with them. This far out into the lakelands, he figured that the villages were desperate for resources, as there aren’t any cities nearby, nor quarry, or even wood, so he knew that they likely had nothing to offer. Their potential poverty, and fishing-based existence in a word, bored him.

There were barely any other villages this far out, close to the heart of the Lakelands. He was hoping that there weren’t any more of them either.

Moving on, the interesting thing he spotted was too green to be a mammal, and yet he spotted it on land, outside the banks of the lake.

Naturally, he flew over, to inspect what it was.

"Hell nah..." He held his breath, "That’s not a croc? Is it?"

For the sake of his bottomless curiosity, he flew closer to the reptile, and circled above it. Naturally, despite this sighting being interesting, it also looked like his next meal.

"It can’t be a crocodile," He said, "Those fuckers are supposed to be in salt water, I think? They’re not supposed to be in a lake... so maybe this one is an alligator?"

"Hmm..." He further muttered, "I never tried alligator meat before."

The alligator was not intimidated by Jimmy whatsoever. In its eyes, a crow was a crow.

It may not even see Jimmy as a crow, but rather, a tiny, black snack. Its primitive nature was evident in its nearly motionless attitude.

"The fucker is sun bathing..." He said.

A dinosaur through and through. Its species had not cared to evolve for millions of years now.

Jimmy was done investigating it. A gator was a gator, nothing special about it.

Since his hunger had already begun to alter his mental state, he then shouted, "Blue Fireball!"

[-250 mana points]

[Remaining pool: 1,930 points]

A beautiful beam of the sun’s unseen flames rushed towards the reptile, and hit its hard, scaly back.

The alligator remained motionless, and likewise, Jimmy believed that he had killed it.

When the smokeless remains of the fire dissipated a few seconds later, he took another look at the alligator, and was instantly confused.

"Huh?" He grunted, "Why does he look like that?"

The rough scales of the mild beast, right where the fireball had hit, were charred black, which wasn’t surprising, but the most interesting part was that its scales did not look melted, or even remotely damaged!

Jimmy flew a few feet closer to have a better look, and when the reptile moved a little bit, his shock settled into full effect!

"What the fuck!" He exclaimed, "How?! The fucking blue ones are supposed to burn 2,600°C! Iron would be easier to melt!"

What spread salt in his theoretical wound, was the fact that the blue fireball, usually wrapped itself around its target for a few seconds. It also had a forward pushing force as heavy as a sledge hammer at full swing!

It had left craters on thick stone walls, even when he had been a beginner mage, and yet, it couldn’t even scratch the scales of this alligator!

"Come on! Motherfucker!" He kept getting angrier, "I don’t want to waste my mana points on you! My pool was only half full to begin with!"

Despite the fact that he mourned his points, Jimmy gave this another shot.

"Violet Fireball!" He exclaimed.

[-300 mana points]

[Remaining pool: 1,630 points]

A mildly purple ball of fire beamed towards his target. At three-hundred degrees celsius hotter than his previous fireball, he counted on it to do more damage.

Once it hit the gator, the fire remained there, and as the system described, it should stick to this ’surface’ for two whole minutes, burning at relatively the same heat it reached the moment it left his claw!

"Let’s see you survive that, you little, big fucker..." He held his breath in anticipation.