It's been a few months since my bout with the Kraken and the start of my banditry. These days any ship that dares to pass through here will always carry a large amount of alcohol just to appease me. But recently I've been seeing more armed vessels, I think its time to book it. A few warships are not much for me now but I don't want to deal with the full force of some nations navy. Besides, I think I've gotten enough from this area. While I have only brought my level just up to a little past level 8, many of my skills have been strengthened, but most importantly is that the story of my existence here has spread. It's spread so much that a naval force has begun to look into it. Time to start my travels anew.
My journey over the past few weeks has been rather uneventful. I've been keeping myself rather close to the water's surface in case I run into any more ships to craft a new tale, but so far I have yet to find any new ships. Moreover, since the larger and stronger sea monsters tend to dwell deep under the ocean I haven't had much to fight either. I don't even know which direction I went in, but I would assume I went either north or south, considering the large amounts of ice I've been seeing recently. Like, wow, that's a lot of ice. But it feels like much of the ice chunks I've been seeing look as if they're melting. I wonder if this world also has a problem with global warming.
After a few more hour of aimlessly swimming in the cold icy waters, I come across a large landform entirely made from ice. But further inland I see pillars of fire shoot out in all directions as well as beams of ice being shot out to counter the fire. Before long a figure comes flying in my direction and crashes into the ice near me. Looking over to get a better view, I find it to be an amorphous white cloud or gas that surrounds a pure white sphere. An Analysis tells me that it's an Ice Elemental, a soulform like the Scyphozoa, but the status page seems weird compared to that of humanoids and monsters.
Name: Iris
Race: Greater Ice Elemental
State: Weakened, Near Death
HP: 240/15,000 MP: 211/15,000 SP: 123/15,000
STR: 15,000
VIT: 15,000
DEX: 15,000
INT: 15,000
WIS: 15,000
MND: 15,000
Details: A soulform with perfect control over the element of ice. As an Ice Elemental, it is very weak towards the element of fire, to the point where a Lesser Fire Elemental can put up a fight and a Medium one can possibly kill it.
All of its stats are a flat 15,000 and there it doesn't have a level. But these questions can come later. more importantly, it's been weakened and quite close to death. I love these situations.
But before I can make a move to finish off the Ice Elemental another one rushes to the scene. However, the colour of this one is a blazing red and it's emanating a massive amount of heat. Without a need for the use of Analysis, I already know this is the one responsible for the flame pillars I saw earlier, most likely a Fire Elemental.
"Do not interfere, monster of the sea. This is my prey."
Easily deciphering my intentions, with a powerful and resolute voice he demands that I leave the kill for him. With a quick glance at the Ice Elemental, I notice that it has been silently absorbing the surrounding ice to restore its health. I could try and stall out the Fire Elemental and work with the Ice Elemental to take down the Fire one, but I've got an even better idea.
Without giving the Fire Elemental an answer I jump up, bringing my whole body out of the water and crash into the ice that the Ice Elemental is laying on, eating both the ice and the Elemental, creating a hole as I sink back into the ocean beneath the ice. As the entirety of my body returns to the water, I rise up once more from the newly created hole in the ice.
Seeing how I just blatantly ignore him the Fire Elemental becomes enraged and begins spouting some nonsense that I pay little attention to since my Soul Furnace was doing its job and I hear the System say something rather important.
"You have slain a Greater Ice Elemental. Killing an Elemental grants a fixed amount of EXP (cannot be modified by any bonuses) depending on its rank, you have been awarded 30,000 EXP. Having absorbed its soul you have obtained the essence of Pure Ice. Conditions met, new evolution potential unlocked."
Holy shit! I just levelled up three times at once and went straight to level 11! But before I can fully appreciate my newfound power, a barrage of flames gets sent my way. In a hurry, I put up the Water Wall, but even between the Water Wall and my Strong Heat Resist I still take 300 per hit, deal a total of 1,200 damage! I'd be literal cooked meat if I didn't have those two abilities to defend me. Water Wall is supposed to reduce damage from fire element attacks by 50% and my resistance is another 60% reduction, it's clear that they don't stack additively but that should still add up to a big reduction from fire damage, yet each hit still hits like a truck. I wonder if I can even fight this? Analysis!
Name: Ifrate
Race: Medium Fire Elemental
State: Enraged
HP: 7,214/10,000 MP: 6,421/10,000 SP: 6,325/10,000
STR: 10,000
VIT: 10,000
DEX: 10,000
INT: 10,000
WIS: 10,000
MND: 10,000
Details: A soulform with perfect control over the element of fire. As a Fire Elemental, it is very weak towards the elements of water and earth, to the point where a Lesser Water/Earth Elemental can put up a fight and can possibly kill it.
I might actually have a chance at this, but it depends on how much damage I can deal to it. Since it undoubtedly has some form of resistance to ice, I should stick to using Acid Beam and Water Breath.
I start off with an Acid Beam and quickly follow up by using my Water Breath without any delay. Fortunately, they both hit, but the acid doesn't seem like it did very much as it just passes right through him, but my Water Breath's effect is a little surprising. Given its high stats, I didn't expect too much but this damage is probably the reason why Medium Elementals of the opposing element can kill a Greater one. With just the single use of my Water Breath, I deal 1,080 damage, just under the amount I took from four of his hits. I can totally do this.
The Fire Elemental, Ifrate, seems to notice the danger of fighting me and turns inland to flee.
"No, no, no, you're not getting away from me! Come back here!"
Seeing his actions, I immediately jump out from the water, completely disregarding the continues loss of HP for staying out of the water for too long, and begin to chase the flying box of experience.
As he runs, Ifrate tries to throw as many attacks as he can at me, but perhaps because he is panicking or just an inability to aim, not many of his attacks make contact. Even the attacks that do hit me I just ignore and continue my chase, while shooting out my Water Breath every chance I get. But with the constant movement of the two of us, getting a good shot in is difficult. So he isn't just a bad shot and it's because of our movement... or maybe we're both bad at this.
After an hour of missing my attacks and chasing Ifrate around the continent of ice, my health drops to 500 and is still decreasing, but I finally manage to take him down and absorb his soul.
"You have slain a Medium Fire Elemental. Killing an Elemental grants a fixed amount of EXP (cannot be modified by any bonuses) depending on its rank, you have been awarded 20,000 EXP. Having absorbed its soul you have obtained the essence of Blazing Flame."
Nice, I levelled up again. An with the silly calling of this world my power should have increased greatly. I want to check it out, but first I need to get back to the water.
Level: 12
EXP: 7,380/21,715
HP: 486/6,513 (+162) MP: 1,241/2,326 (+162) SP: 2,354/4,885 (+162)
STR: 2,651 (+162)
VIT: 2,721(+162)
DEX: 1,744 (+162)
INT: 2,070 (+157)
WIS: 1,930 (+162)
MND: 1,930 (+162)
Innate Skills: Acid Beam (6), Tail Swipe (8), Venomous Bite (9), Ice Breath (5), Water Breath (5), Constrict (4)
In addition to the large increase in my stats, my Water Breath went up by two levels. Considering how many times I used it it's not too surprising... even if a majority of them missed. But damn, the amount of experience to level 13 is more than the amount I get for killing a Medium Elemental, that's absurd! But then again, most of the things in this world is pretty absurd.
Putting that behind me for the moment, lets take a look at this new evolution I got. The Elemental Spirit Dragon.