After the system announced that he was losing mana points, George got beyond irritated. For that matter, he decided to abandon the magical attacks altogether, and rushed towards the anglerfish instead, to land a bite!
He wasn't as scared this time, and actually felt a bit brave. He was stupid enough to reap bravery out of irritation and anger, but also, the anglerfish was wounded already so this decision wasn't an entirely bad idea!
George rammed the target with his ridiculously big head, which delivered its own bit of damage. Shortly after, he delivered a couple of ruthless bites, and thus, he got an appealing result!
"Finally," He said.
The target stopped moving, he killed it. The reward for this kill was greater too, because he could reap every point one could get out of an anglerfish. This was why he battled the fish to begin with, instead of letting the system do all the work. He simply wanted more points, and he got exactly that, as the system then announced that this kill, got him a total of four points of Mana Essence!
Ultimately, he had found a target who had an extra bit of mana in itself, so he could consider himself lucky. Furthermore, he was very lucky that the target had been disoriented, to the point where it couldn't fight back, because otherwise he couldn't have won the battle! George won in every possible shape, way, or form!
"Hehe… gotcha! I lost some mana on you, but got plenty of it back! It's stupid that mana points run out so quickly, though, because the mana is even limiting my farts, my flippin' farts! Before you came, system, I could fart up to three times a day! Now, I can't risk farting at my enemies because I don't want to waste my mana points!" He spoke, and this was without a doubt, the most complex, and comprehensive sentence that he had ever formed.
[Don't worry, you'll alternate between brute force and magic even better, after another upgrade. Are you ready to evolve again? You have plenty of points now.] She pitched.
"How many points?" He asked, impatiently.
George heard the resulting numbers while the enemy's colorful essences were floating around him earlier on, but he didn't know the entire amount of points he had. Come to think of it, he still did not understand how numbers worked, he was oblivious.
The system was cooperative, and therefore immediately laid out a few numbers. A tab opened in front of George's vision, showing the details, but she also explained everything vocally.
[Blood Essence = 32 points]
[Bone Essence = 20 points]
[Mana Essence = 5 points]
The points he had accumulated seemed plentiful, the system made them sound like they were important. George then fixated on the Mana Essence, however.
"I still have little mana… Why?" He asked.
George understood that mana was ultimately linked to how often he could use magical powers, and this was why he fixated on it. He was irritated by the fact that he had to be savvy with his mana!
[Mana across fish-kind seems to be exceptionally low, on the count of how dull, and un-ambitious the average fish is. I mean, unless you meet and kill an orca hybrid, then I doubt you'd be striking gold with mana points anytime soon, George.] She explained.
"Okay… so fish have little mana, that's fair." He understood that well, because he was used to being weak and insignificant himself.
However, he still had a demand. "But you're not a fish, system. Give me powers!"
[That was the idea earlier on, actually, but you keep interrupting me ever since I upgraded your IQ! I can upgrade your magical powers, the same way I upgraded your brain, but note that you won't get anything great anytime soon.] She followed along.
Almost immediately, she pitched. [I can combine both your Toxic Fart, and Anglerfish Bite if you want to, but note that you can't ever use them separately, ever again!]
"Works for me… Toxic Farts were cool, but I'm not gonna become the Grand George anytime soon, am I? I can't do shit by paralyzing someone for only three seconds!" He added.
After that part, they prepared for a short, little evolution. George's skin started glowing with a blue color, which seemed pretty, but in actuality he was getting tickled in ways which he didn't understand!
At first he acknowledged these tickles as a threat, and tried to swim away, as this was his instinctive response. Later on, when he figured that this tickling didn't hurt him at all, he stopped, and simply waited for it to end.
The blue glow became more radiant after a couple of seconds, and he could see these steam waves sizzling out of his body! He looked like an overheating steam engine!
The process was intensive, although not necessarily hazardous, so he closed his eyes and hoped for the best! He was already nervous, so he didn't need to look at things that freaked him out right now.
[Evolution complete! How do you feel, George?] The system beeped.
"I almost pooped," He heaved out a sigh of relief.
[Okay… you can defecate whenever you choose.] She followed along, "For now, how about you try out your new, magical power? I modified it for it to cost less to cast, so it costs less by a third, in comparison to your old powers! This is advantageous, especially now as you have a single mana-point left.]
"What! You spent my points?" He yelled out.
[That's how it works, you collect points and then spend them to get stronger. Points help you evolve.] She said, and then insisted. [Try the spell out, I insist…]
Despite the irritation that he felt, he was cooperative. It took a single thought to summon this new ability, which was ideal because he didn't have more than two thoughts to spare. What he saw afterwards was glorious!
Those anglerfish jaws generated in front of him, and shot out in the distance, but now, its color was green rather than blue! Since this ability was mixed together with the Toxic Fart one, its shift in color was exceptional. The spell's demeanor however, remained insistent, if not greater! It was no fart!, but rather, a decent, mid-range attack!
There wasn't a target to hit this time, but George felt sure that with this new ability, it would take only two shots, in order for him to bring an anglerfish down! He wasn't the greatest at math, but at this pace he figured that he could actually gather up plenty of points, without spending much in exchange, throughout any hunt!
Anyway, he wasn't allowed to play around with his new power that much, as the system called for his attention. From the looks of it, she wasn't done with the evolutions that she offered.
[Okay, your new ability looks good, it looks useful. Now, let's put some essence points through your brain as well, and we'll tamper with the rest of your body too. We're going to spend your Blood, and Bone Essence points for the upcoming upgrades, George, but don't worry about losing the points of those essences. They're easy to accumulate, and they're not as important as your Mana Essence to you right now.] She explained.