So I’m a Fish, So What?

Munch Munch.

Hey, this one tastes a lot better than the others I’ve tried before.

Chomp. Munch Munch.

Maybe it’s like wine? Tastes better with age and all, y’know.

Come to think of it, I never actually had any alcohol before.  

Even if Theo was very open-minded and supportive of my adventures with his carefree personality, he is really strict and uncompromising when things like my health come into the picture.

I mean, there was this one time I went back and checked the snacks he gave me back in the first few years out of nostalgia.

And lo and behold! The calorie numbers on those packs were ”coincidentally” the exact same as the safe numbers for a child my age at that time!

I still remember how utterly dumbfounded I was when I checked further and discovered that it became a habit for him afterwards.

Theo managed to calculate the nutritional values for every single meal I’ve had with him for over ten years, not a single one was missed!

This isn’t something you can just push through with nothing but sheer determination; I can’t imagine how he did it.

At times like these, the disadvantages of a non-human body are clearly reflected, especially a marine creature’s body.

I really want to giggle or smile, maybe shed a couple of tears out of nostalgia, but I can only settle for a mental expression of a soft smile.

Really... I want a humanoid body as soon as possible, and even if there are no humanoid options in my evolution tree, I’d be totally fine with a Humanification skill!

Sigh. Enough daydreaming, this goddess is going to test her new skill!

Manager-san, pull up the description of the Burrow skill, would ya?

 

{Burrow: Consume MP and excavate a hole through the earth while reinforcing its surroundings. Hole dimensions and earth material affect the consumed MP. Can be activated in a range of a 10-meter radius sphere centered on the user.}

 

A very practical skill that every Karnez worm is born with. Digging tunnel systems and living underground is the only way they could escape the eyes of their natural predators.

Combining it with Camouflage and a bit of Stealth fills in the gap in their skillset, giving them the ability to safely hunt for food before said predators can even react.

The combination of these three skills is the main reason why these worms can survive and slightly thrive in the mushroom biome.

Burrow can’t be used in direct combat. In fact, it can’t even function like a combat support skill similar to Stealth and Iron Defense.

However, I was able to come up with as many as three different uses for this skill as soon as I saw it in the worm’s appraisal results, and I might come up with more in the future.

First, I can say goodbye to the homeless life and start resting in actual shelters whenever I need to take a break or eat, even if those shelters can be considered makeshift at most.

On the same note, those temporary shelters can be used to stash the leftovers from my meals. You don’t really expect a small fish to completely devour a huge worm over ten times its size in one meal, right?

When I encountered such situations before, I actually had to temporarily abandon the remaining meat and pray to god that no scavengers find it. It seems like prayers don’t work in this world though...

Rest in peace, all my beloved but wasted food. You will be remembered.

Back to Burrow, the skill could probably be used to quickly dig emergency escape tunnels if I ever get it to a high enough level. Stronger monsters tend to have larger bodies, so I could just dig tunnels with dimensions suitable for only me.

It’s a pure auxiliary skill, but it has a surprisingly wide range of utility.

Speaking of skills, I would like to express my regrets about the Gluttony skill. That skill is a lot more suitable for me than Greed, but sadly, it already has an owner.

Luckily, I acquired the only deadly seven sins skill that is suitable for my path. Greed is probably the only skill in the system that can allow me to reach the same heights as the owner of Gluttony one day.

Anyways, judging by the facts, I can assume that the Burrow skill is some sort of sub-skill under the system’s Earth Magic skill vein, so it’s very likely that I won’t be able to use it.

The worms might’ve been able to use it due to some race-related affinities, but my current race probably has no affinities except Poison.

Heretic and Spatial affinity can be counted as well, but those come from my soul.

I’d still like to test it though; It could potentially function similarly to my unused Poison Synthesis skill. That one works regardless of whether you can use magic or not, just pump in a bit of MP and you turn into a living infinite poison dispenser!

Now, what better way to test Burrow than to stash away the leftovers of my previous meal? ...Let’s not mention the fact that “leftovers” are somehow over two-thirds of the original meal by the way.

Looking at the remaining ten meters of the worm’s body, I mentally command burrow and wait for the results.

One second. Ten seconds. Half a minute. I patiently wait for the skill to activate, but my hopes are sadly dashed.

I don’t give up though, the skill might require a specific method to activate, so I should experiment with it for a bit.

After experimenting a few more times, I gradually lose hope in this skill. It might work in the future, but it may be useless for now.

Deciding to test it one last time, I close my eyes and use my preferred method of seeing instead. Through my sphere, I target the ground under the worm’s carcass and mentally activate the skill again.

To my surprise, it actually worked this time!

The carcass perfectly sinks into the ground at a depth of about one and a half meters as if the solid earth transformed into quicksand, then the soft ground is merged into the edges of the hole and hardened again.

About half of my MP bar was used for a hole of such dimensions.

Calculating the ratio numbers, I find out that I require about 25 MP for every cubic meter dug from this biome’s earth.

If I have a full MP reserve, I can quickly dig a long escape tunnel in case I get jumped by some strong monster in the future, but something else caught my attention.

Right before the skill activated, I sensed some sort of power flowing from my body into the ground.

If my guess is correct, this should be... magic power.

The only power that is normally untouched by people in this world.

HP or health points represents our vitality, and while you can’t use it up, it is always flowing inside your body. It represents the vitality of a body.

Then there’s SP or stamina points, an energy that’s arguably more important than HP inside the system’s boundaries. Personally, I consider it to be the energy that vitality consumes in order to flow throughout the body. It represents the physical energy of a body.

And lastly, there’s MP or magic points. This one may have a different role according to your perspective, but I personally believe that MP is the combination of the powers of three different concepts.

Brain, mind, and soul. According to what Manager-san has previously analyzed, those are the three different elements of a mortal’s mental capacity.

The brain is just that awful-tasting lump of meat that resides inside of a creature’s head, it is responsible for complex mental processes like calculations or retrieval of memories, etc...

As for the mind, it is actually the only mental aspect that we have direct contact with, the consciousness and subconsciousness of a mortal. We actively use up its powers for simple actions like raising our hands or speaking, but complex orders are transmitted to the brain instead.

The final element, the soul, is the most mysterious one. Mortals can’t normally interfere with this realm unless they belong to a special race or are generally considered exceptions to the world rules, like me.

My understanding of those three was pretty shallow at the time of my meeting with Alkreya, but years of observing different souls have filled up a lot of my knowledge gaps.

Learning and using some abilities that utilize their powers has also fixed a lot of common misconceptions I had.

Although I still don’t dare to say I’m a scholar of the topic, I can confidently declare that I wouldn’t lose to anyone in this world except for probably the administrators.

Now, you might be asking, what does this information have with MP? Well, the connection is something that I’ve recently discovered by pure chance.

Creating the magical circuits and injecting the magical powers into them is done through the brain’s powers as it’s a complex process that is simply impossible to achieve with your simple consciousness or your autonomous soul.

The power injected into said circuits is a type of power bordering between real and illusory, the refillable part of the soul.

And finally, your mind completes the final step by willing the spell into existence.

This is the simplified description of how magic works in this world, I’m quite excited about doing more research about it in the future. It’s surely gonna be a fascinating experience.

In fact, I already theorized a method of ascending to godhood based on my current discoveries. I’m not walking blindly anymore, hehe.

Such a smart future goddess I am, wahaha~!

This marks the end of this magic power lecture brought to you by Professor Tomoko Ito Grant!

Ahh, even if you might think I’m just a silly fish speaking to herself, that was very satisfying.

Really though, I have had enough of dealing with this world’s bullshit system denying everything I’ve spent years learning!

When I ascend, the first unique spell I make must be a domain that’s specifically targeted against everyone and everything that denies the truth of the world with their stupid magic.

Maybe I should take some inspiration from that messed-up universe next door... Imagine Breaker seems to be a very good match for me.

Although I may not be able to replicate the original, I can achieve a similar concept if I make a spell that analyzes and deconstructs rune circuits.

Yup, that’s it! I truly am an unparalleled genius, ehehe~!

Well, I feel hungry again after this long lecture, let’s eat my fourth lunch meal before going for the next hunt...

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Overeating LV9] has become [Overeating LV 10].}

{Condition satisfied. Skill [Overeating LV 10] has evolved into [Satiation LV 1].}

 

Cool.