Timothy spent a thousand system points, and densed his Blood Freezing ability right away! The process had been painless, which was always a good thing, and now he could focus on buyi anrade. He had a few thousand more points to spend, and figured that it was best to buy the upgrades sooner rather than ter, sihey'd be fag that deadly dragon one day or the other.

  “What else should I buy…” Tim pondered.

  There were nine more purchase options in front of him, he could see their descriptions vividly through a s that the system fshed. He was stumped.

  “All of them look good, but I 't afford all of them now, I?” He muttered, it wasn’t easy at all to decide on what he should piext. “The mana pool upgrade looks pretty useful, but it would mean that I o accumute more mana in order to improve my mana quality ter on. That's not for me, I’m a big spender, so I'd much rather enjoy an upgrade that gives me more mana per hour, but of course you aren’t givihat option, system.”

  [If you upgrade your mana pool, you'll also be able to gee more mana per hour. These two things e hand by hand.] The system pointed out, she was quick with her answers for once.

  “Hmm, I guess it's worth the 5,000 system points, then? Okay, give me a bigger mana pool.” He requested.

  [firmed. As of now, you have 3,000 system points remaining in your sum.]

  Without so much of a warning, Tim then suddenly fainted. He fot that it was very painful to upgrade his mana pool through the system's help, and this fetfulness left him in a very aosition now! In hindsight, he should've expected that an increase as rge as roughly twenty-five-pert was bound to hurt, a he didn’t think about it at all.

  John noticed what happehough he didn't know that Timothy fainted, so he said. “Looks like your friend fell asleep, that's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?”

  “I guess it is?” Ortana followed along, and then she said. “He's weird like that sometimes, but don’t mind him, we should tinue scouting.”

  …

  Tim eventually woke up, but it was dusk now, so he figured that he was out like a light for about three hours now. This was not a good time to be unscious for three hours, not with killer bugs on the loose, so he stood up as quickly as he could, but ended up crashing on the ground again! That upgrade really took a toll on him, he was a mess now.

  “God, I'm so sore!” He grunted.

  [Upgrade plete! You've successfully upgraded your mana pool by 25%, so you ow fit 52,500 points in your pool. Furthermore, you aturally gee 800 mana points per hour now.] The system specified.

  “O? That doesn't sound like a 25% increase.” He pointed out, as he tried to stand up.

  [It's not supposed to be. Your mana pool increased by 25%, and your mana regeion increased in cooperation with your pool. Though, it's minimal in parison.] She expined.

  “Either way, it's shit.” He pined, and he was very moody, because his head hurt as if it had been inside of a ringing, church bell, he was in pain. “At least I piled up a couple thousand points of mana while I was asleep.”

  Tim had to put in some effort to stand up afterwards, and once he did, he figured out that he was alo here. He saw his group at the bottom of another hill, about three-hundred meters away. The two of them were far, and after he saw them scouting that far away from him, he got really angry at them, and cited them as very irresponsible!

  “How could they leave me here!” He grunted, and then tried to walk, but he was too sore to move a muscle. “What a bastard, eh?”

  Timothy first decided to rest here, and wait for help, but then he remembered that he had to return to the main camp soon. If nightfall caught him here, it would look really bad for him, then ter on the Guard Master ba the city could banish him without blinking an eye. He couldn’t afford to be banished, it would be too much of a risk, on at of what the bigger picture was!

  “Fug hell, looks like I'm gono spend a bunana points again.” He muttered, and then he summohe Bone Multiplier ability.

  The idea that was to follow was rather simple. Just like he did before in the Forbidden Caves, he wao make a surfboard for himself, entirely out of bones. He calcuted that it would take less than a mio fly back to the camp, so he may not o spend too many points after all, though it was absolutely mandatory for him to fly out of here soon.

  [21,000 mana points remain in your pool, use them wisely.] The system cautioned.

  Tim aowledged that warning, and he didn't say a thing, because he didn’t have the strength to be sarcastic right now. Using the Bone Multiplier ability, he found a whole sheep carcass buried two-meters below the ground, and sidering the agricultural practices here, that wasn't too much of a surprise. These round hills were filled with skeletons.

  However, once he had it unburied, the unthinkable happened. Something else came out of the ground as well, about two meters away, and it was a huge, livile!

  “Oh shit!” He excimed.

  It arent, Timothy had to get out of here a.s.a.p! At the very least, he should move out of the beetle’s way, because this thing was a stunning six feet tall, it was certainly taller than him!

  Since he didn’t have enough time to make a surfboard out of bones, he just snapped four bones out of that skeleton instead, and had them lift him off of the ground. It wasn't fortable whatsoever to fly like this, because he had to bance his entire body using those four bones, but he made due, he got out of the way quickly, and floated about te above the ground! Due to the limited use of this ability, he was only spending about one-hundred and fifty mana points per sed right now, so it wasn’t too costly.

  Anyway, while he floated, he got a good look of the beetle, and figured out that it was just ara rge version of a rhinoceros beetle, though it was terrifying heless! It was dark-blue in color, and had this huge, eight-foot long horn on its face along with a big, rounded spio protect itself!

  “What a fug buffalo! Bugs aren't supposed to be this big!” He grunted, and then flew a few feet higher.

  Tim couldn't afford to put up a fight here on the t of his current dition, but then he quickly discovered that he didn’t have another choice! The Demole could jump, it leaped towards him!

  “Hell nah!” Tim grunted, and within a split sed, he snapped several bone shards from that prior skeleton, and hurled them against the beetle.

  The shards weren't strong enough to break its shell, but they did ge its projected dire. The beetle ushed to another dire, and nded on a lower portion of the hill afterwards, where it rolled a few times before it regais posure in a matter of seds!

  “You ugly bastard!” Tim grunted, and summohe Electro Nerve Splitter ability a sed after, because right now, it was the only other thing he could depend on.