Another huge wall of water radiated outwards from where the monster landed. Each time it leapt into the air and then crashed back down it sent rippling waves that tossed dozens of the mutated flying fish around. Ronan found it amusing but couldn’t spare the time to watch and laugh at the unfortunate monsters, because despite its gargantuan size, Spinodoxis the kaiju mini-boss was exceptionally agile.

  He avoided the blasts from the pressurised water jets in the sea while forming spells of his own. Mostly mana bolts, but occasionally when he had the opportunity he sent rainbow bombs flying at his foe. Alongside the spells he conjured and threw javelin after javelin.

  None of his attacks did much damage, but the javelins at least buried themselves in the monster’s flesh while the mana bolts left burns on the scaly hide of the strange creature. As the case had been against the boss monster in stage 4, attrition was not the path to victory. Unfortunately Ronan wasn’t sure that a suicidal rush would be the solution this time, given that his current opponent was only a mini-boss. There had to be at least one more massive monster waiting in the wings.

  So he iterated, for lack of a better word, on his new spell. It certainly packed a punch, but the fact it had caused such severe backlash on a critical hit and lacked a reliable method of delivery were two major downsides. He hoped to fix them, and he believed that his movement spell held the solution to his problem.

  Ronan stumbled and fell as one of his platforms collapsed right as he stood on it. After falling about fifty metres he was able to slow himself and regain his balance, but it was a harsh reminder that his focus could only stretch so thin before it faltered. He wished there was a way to turn some of the ocean into a solid surface. It would mean not constantly being forced to stay in the air, expending energy and attention that could be better spent killing the mini-boss.

  Ronan stopped sending spells at the boss and resolved to just throw javelins while maintaining a safe-ish distance. He needed full control of his mana in order to figure out his next steps. His idea was to take the fact that his mana platforms—which were mostly used as footholds—and turn them into a method of propulsion for his recently developed offensive spell.

  Given that they were temporary in nature but could contain a fairly decent amount of mana, Ronan believed that with a little tweaking he could get them to launch his offensive spell in some way. That was easier said than done, though, as there were quite a few steps between ‘stationary platform’ and ‘mobile mana construct.’ He had some of the knowledge thanks to the litany of mana-based skills he’d acquired and mastered over his many lives, but as with most of his endeavours, Ronan would need to engage in some trial and error in order to succeed.

  He also realised that his ranged attacks were ineffective for the most part, and so he instead conjured a sword. Ethereal Slash probably still counted as a ranged attack but it was influenced by his ability to deal physical damage, derived from his stats. And he had plenty of stats to throw around. In mid-air, he swung his sword and activated the skill simultaneously. Magic strike was layered on top, as well as enchantments for both ice and explosion.

  The resulting blade of mana shimmered faintly cyan with orange sparks dancing at its edges, tearing through the air towards the boss, which had just leapt out of the ocean to bite at him once more. The timing had been perfect on his part.

  As he leapt out of the way of the giant lizard, it began to clamp its jaws shut. However, before its mouth closed the blade of mana tore into it, striking the connective tissue in the gap between its upper and lower jaw.

  The effects were… not as spectacular as he had hoped. However, it was certainly the most damage that Ronan had dealt to the kaiju during their brief clash. Blood streamed from its mouth as it fell back into the water and parts of its jaw were torn away. He even spotted a few sharp teeth flying out of its mouth. A resounding success, but the problem was it needed improvement. Unfortunately he couldn’t develop system skills without first mastering their sorceric version. Ethereal Slash was not a skill he had replicated.

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  The monster roared and the whirlpools that had been firing the pressurised water jets at him swelled in size. The jets they started to fire at him after the growth were wider and when one clipped him it blew him dozens of metres through the sky as well as leaving a shallow cut on his skin. Considering his high stats that was worrying. Not only had the whirlpools grown stronger but more of them appeared every moment.

  The monster was also swimming around and Ronan needed to keep half an eye on it so that he was prepared the next time it leapt out of the water to attack him. I wonder if there’s a triple mind trait. I could really use it at times like this. Of course if it dropped the power of each thoughtstream too low it wouldn’t be of much use but he would be interested to see if such a trait existed.

  Ronan was torn. He wanted to keep working on his spell, but Ethereal Slash seemed like an easier path to victory. Mastering it through sorcery didn’t seem like it would be much of a jump when compared to the idea of figuring out getting two separate spells to work in conjunction. Ronan decided to just do both at the same time, insofar as it was possible.

  He continued to practice manipulating his mana platforms in different ways as he leapt from one to another in the air. At the same time he repeated Ethereal Slashes, this time without Magic Strike, so that he could replicate it without the skill’s guidance. Unfortunately it was more difficult than most of the other skills he’d copied, due to its quirk as a ranged ‘melee’ attack.

  The battle went on, with Ronan feeling rather pleased that he was holding his own against a monster that was a hundred levels higher than him—made more powerful by the administrator of the tutorial, if the message was to be believed—and still progressing his sorcery.

  The Ethereal Slashes without magic strike did not do as much damage as the first that had sheared part of the kaiju’s jaw away, but that was not the goal of unleashing them. Each time Ronan used the skill he learned a little more about how it was formed. As was always the case the system’s skills were oddly simplistic, yet that sometimes made it difficult to figure out how it was doing particular mechanics of a spell. Replicating things with just his mana and his mind was a challenge to Ronan. Like all other challenges he faced it head-on, ready to slam his forehead through the intellectual wall in front of him.

  If sorcery were as simple as charging as much mana while thinking about the desired outcome Ronan would be some sort of multiversal grandmaster by that point. He had too many stats, after all. Though there are surely some old monsters with far more… Resourceful isn’t to be underestimated. Even so he was burning through his reserves at a prodigious rate.

  The monster was annoying and persistent, but despite the level advantage it couldn’t catch Ronan. He suspected his newly discovered pseudo-flight was the problem for the big bastard. No matter if you were almost a kilometre tall, you still couldn’t leap two kilometres into the air. It was almost cheating.

  As he continued to use Ethereal Slash and experiment with moving his mana platforms after forming them, Ronan started to realise something. Both were vastly different uses of mana but the foundational principle was extraordinarily similar—projecting moving mana beyond the body.

  It was a simple realisation, one that might have seemed obvious from the beginning but it was the fact that one was a combat skill and the other a self-created movement spell that had stopped his mind forming the connection between the two. Ronan felt that he was on the edge of a profound discovery, but he needed to be able to deconstruct Ethereal Slash deeper than he was able to while it was a system skill. He continued the fight, drawing closer to being able to replicate it on his own merit.

  Right as Spinodoxis leapt at him yet another time something clicked and Ronan unleashed a pathetically weak blade of mana that moved at a lethargic pace. It fizzled out on contact with the giant dino-shark, but he was ecstatic nonetheless, because he had done it without the help of the skill.

  He prepared to cast it again, the second time with greater finesse, when he heard an ear piercing screech. I was so close. This is not ideal. Ronan turned to the source of the sound and immediately had to parry a lightning fast tentacle that struck at him from the ocean. It was covered in barbs and led back to… a turtle?

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