The light sways of water resonated in the background, tiny waves brushed against the last remaining piece of ice that was floating in the center of the lake. Ironically, this ice plate still hadn't melted yet. On top of the floating surface of ice, Ethoss was slumped over on his stomach. His legs and tail hung off the edges of the cold ice, dipped into the water due to his large size.
It had been over two hours since he had fainted. His breathing was slow and steady, and hot air wafted from out of his maw. Not like other monsters or creatures though, his breaths were hotter than the norm, this was due to his fire gland that made even his subtle exhales hotter than usual.
Unknowingly, the ice underneath Ethoss began to crack, the water around the ice plate had eaten at it enough to the point where it couldn't float for much longer. Not to mention Ethoss's heavy weight also played a role in the cracking.
*Crack!*
*Crack!*
More and more, the cracks began to become visibly worse, stretching from one end of the ice to the other. Finally, it gave way, splitting into multiple smaller pieces and Ethoss fell into the water.
Upon falling into the water Ethoss immediately woke up in shock, he instinctively tried gasping for air but instead, swallowed a big gulp of water. Ethoss's species wasn't designed to be swimmers, nevertheless, due to their long tails they could moderately swim across water surfaces.
Unfortunately, either due to not being fully woken or from the shock of the water, he struggled to get his bearings. Barely concealed behind splashes, he continued to make broad and uncoordinated movements, trying to wade through the water.
His six legs kicked recklessly, subconsciously he tried to inhale as much air as he could, however, his timing was off and some of many water jets caused by the movements of his giant body seeped into his mouth also, causing him to cough several times, nearly choking. With most of his face in the water, every new breath of air was a victory.
Seconds passed, and he finally used his tail to level himself, making himself float. Ethoss blinked dramatically, clearing the water from his eyes, he finally remembered where he was. He had almost drowned.
'This is embarrassing'. He thought.
Looking around the lake, he noticed something weird. There were no monsters, he couldn't find a single monster drinking from the lake. Although he was happy there were no monsters around to see him almost drown miserably, he couldn't help but be confused. There were always monsters at the lake drinking its waters, so where did all of them go?
*Thump!*
*Thump!*
*Thump!*
The weak echoes of thumping sounds interrupted his thoughts and he glanced toward the forest. It was coming from deep within the forest and he was curious what the sound could be, yet, he could tell it wasn't coming from inside of his territory so he wasn't as motivated to check it out just yet. Additionally, he could remember the robotic voice's words before he fell asleep earlier, if he wasn't mistaken he had gained a new skill!
Ethoss swam to land where he finally stretched his body, then opened the status in his mind. He maneuvered down the status until he reached his skills then he spotted it, his new skill Mana Recycle.
The name of the skill made its use obvious however it didn't hurt to understand exactly what the skill's use was, he clicked on the skill.
[Mana Recycle is a 'self-attained' skill that allows you to reuse the mana which is wasted in the process of casting a spell]
Ethoss hissed in understanding, it was just as he thought, the skill was pretty much a tool that helped him regain lost mana that was leaked from spells he created. This would make his mana usage much less than before, as he would be much less wasteful when he used magic.
More importantly, Ethoss learned that it was possible to attain skills outside of purchasing them from the voice. Yet, he reasonably deduced that it wouldn't be easy to earn skills this way, based on the circumstances he had to go through in order to get his new skill it was safe to assume that he would have to meet certain hidden requirements in order to earn them.
So no matter how 'free' the skills were, in the end relying on this process wasn't smart. He decided to stick with purchasing his skills through the voice, but he would still test his theories here and there.
*Thump!*
*Thump!*
The sounds of the thumping had grown a bit louder, despite that, Ethoss continued to ignore the background noises. Glancing at his MP, he saw that he had 36 MP left, during the destabilization of his spell his mana had dropped to 28 so it was nice to see that his Mana Recycle was helping him save mana. Closing his status, Ethoss stuck his snout into the lake's water to refill his MP.
After refilling his MP he headed back into his territory within the forest, it was time he hunted for today. Ethoss activated his camouflage, flicking his tongue.
Pinpointing some prey that he could munch on, Ethoss dashed through the forest.
[Rapid Dash has reached level 2]
The air rasped as he ran and his tail made a swishing sound, sort of like a whip. Just as he reached close to his prey the scent that he had sensed disappeared, almost like it was never there in the first place.
This confused Ethoss, it had never happened before and he was confident in his sense of smell when it came to hunting. No monster within the forest could manipulate his sense of smell. He narrowed his eyes and then licked the air once again, this time he sensed a familiar monster that he had eaten once before, the centipede.
It wasn't too far from his location, he dug his claws into the soil and kicked his legs back speeding off in its direction. However, just like before, the scent disappeared and jumped someplace else. At this point he was sure; something was intercepting his sense of smell.
*Thump!*
*Thump!*
*Thump!*
Meanwhile, the thumping had gotten really loud now, to the point where it wasn't just echoes he was hearing anymore, now he could literally hear the noise clearly, it sounded like stumping, but more so hundreds of stumping.
'What is going on within the forest?'.
Ethoss was sure something was wrong within the forest expanse, there were too many inconsistencies. First, there were zero monsters at the lake where monsters always were, then his sense of smell was jumbled and inaccurate, and now that he thought about it some more he still hadn't seen even one monster around the forest.
With his curiosity at its peak, Ethoss rushed towards the cause of the thumping. He moved tactfully and cautiously so as to not be caught off guard by anything, his camouflage still active.
As he reached the cause of the sounds, he was shocked at what he saw.
'Shiny humans?'
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