For the past seven days, Sasaki hunted hobgoblins relentlessly. He worked from sunrise to moonrise, a grueling fifteen-hour day.
Even without sleep, he used every moment to gain experience and level up. After seven days of this intense routine, he wiped out the hobgoblins in the east and reached level fifty.
Hitting level fifty brought Sasaki immense joy. In just three weeks since his reincarnation, he had achieved significant progress.
With the east tribe defeated, he chose a new hiding spot in the east of the level 2 forest. He decided it was time to move his hideout from the goblin den in level 1 to the level 2 east forest.
Next, he needed to move from east to west of the level 2 forest to face the previous tribe of hobgoblins.
This tribe had been a major challenge for him earlier. Before proceeding, Sasaki's 'Magic Decode' skill not active, so he pondered over creating a new skill to help him defeat them smoothly, like a skilled hunter.
"Alright," he thought, "I need something that can help me take them down now."
He focused, his mind working to devise a new skill. He needed something that would complement his hit-and-run tactics.
Sasaki decided to create a new real Area of Effect (AoE) skill. His current 'Epidemic Bullet' was a powerful long-range attack, but its main drawback was that it fire the one bullet per two seconds and if it got blocked, it wouldn't trigger the chain reaction of infecting nearby enemies.
To address this, he envisioned a skill that would fire like a barrage, akin to a fully automatic machine gun, increasing the probability of hitting multiple targets or same target.
He thought about enhancing his existing 'Epidemic Bullet,' but its two-second cooldown made it more like a sniper bullet, with each shot needing to be carefully reloaded.
This process was too slow for dealing with large groups of enemies quickly.
Due to his enlightenment in magic and the passive skill 'Mana Heart,' Sasaki understood why there was a cooldown for skills. The 'Mana Heart' regulated the skill usage to prevent the user from suffering recoil and sudden mana drainage.
It was like a water tap; if you kept it open, all the water in the tank would drain quickly. The cooldown ensured that skills were used judiciously, preventing uncontrolled mana loss and encouraging strategic thinking in battle.
As Sasaki pondered over the concept of cooldowns and compared it to the principle of a water tap, a sudden revelation struck him.
"Water, water, yes!" he exclaimed, jumping into the air with excitement.
"Water, like rain from clouds, with a large AoE and multiple drops continuously falling due to gravity," he mused. "What if... a skill that rains the plague from the sky?"
His excitement grew, but then he paused, deep in thought, placing his hand under his lips. "But how will I do that?"
He began to focus, visualizing the process in his mind. "Okay, let's break this down," he thought. "I need to combine the principles of 'Epidemic Bullet' with an AoE effect and the concept of rain."
He closed his eyes, imagining the sky above him darkening with clouds. He visualized the clouds forming from his mana, each droplet imbued with the essence of his 'Epidemic Bullet.' The droplets would fall like rain, spreading the plague over a wide area, infecting any enemy caught in the downpour.
But nothing happened. Sasaki's expression turned to confusion. He tried a second time, a third time, a fourth time, but each attempt ended in failure. Scratching his head, utterly confused, he asked himself, "Why? Why isn't this working?"
"I created the 'Epidemic Bullet' by applying the same technique - imagining the shape, characteristics I wanted to give to mana. So why isn't it working? Is it not possible?"
"Ahh," he exclaimed as a light bulb hanging over his head. His eyes and his mouth widen with revelation.
He realized he had been trying to control nature directly with mana, which was the wrong approach. "You cannot control nature with mana," Sasaki muttered to himself. "If mana is like energy, you can create matter from energy and vice versa. The same science applies here."
Sasaki's revelation was profound. He understood that mana was a form of energy, and every matter that exists is a manifestation of energy. "I cannot control the cloud directly, but I can create it with mana and change the characteristics of my mana to rain the plague instead of water," he thought.
He realized that with mana, he could create any matter in this world, akin to a god. He could give his mana any shape, form, and characteristics.
However, due to his parasitic bloodline, his mana would always lean toward plague-like characteristics.
Sasaki focused his mana, channeling it from his 'Mana Heart' throughout his entire body. He raised his hands to the sky, letting the mana flow outward and imagining it taking the shape of a cloud. Gradually, the mana transformed into a semi-translucent, greenish cloud-like structure, dark and ominous, filled with the essence of plague.
"Perfect, the cloud is formed. Now for the droplets," Sasaki said aloud, his voice filled with excitement.
He concentrated harder, compressing some of his mana to form structures resembling water droplets. He needed to give these droplets mass so that gravity could pull them down.
With intense focus, Sasaki trying to create millions of droplets, each one infused with the essence of plague. This process required immense concentration and a vast amount of mana.
Sasaki's brow furrowed with effort, his hands trembled, and his legs started to shake uncontrollably. Pain radiated from his raised arms down to his legs. Despite the agony, Sasaki refused to lose his composure.
"I will not yield. I can do this!" he yelled, determination fueling his efforts. "Just a little bit more. Please, please work."
With renewed motivation, Sasaki continued forming the droplets, creating hundreds, then thousands, and finally close to millions. Each droplet was a tiny reservoir of plague, ready to be unleashed.
As Sasaki reached his limit, the cloud above him became dense with the plague droplets.
"Now, let's make it rain," Sasaki whispered. He willed the clouds to release the droplets.
Slowly, the first droplets detached from the cloud, shimmering with a faint green hue. They fell gracefully, like rain, each droplet a small, deadly missile. The plague-infused droplets descended, spreading out as they fell, covering a wide area below.