CHAPTER 5

“Okay, Rhythm. It’s time to show these slimes who’s boss. Tell me how to use the skills I’ve learned,” I commanded the voice assistant.

[A new submenu has appeared in the skills menu. When you click on it, the aggregate manipulation construction mode is revealed. At the first level of the Thermokinesis skill, two builder slots are available. As the skill level increases, the number of available slots and methods of manipulation will also increase.]

I had to listen to the message twice before I understood what it meant. In short, it was just some kind of spell builder.

“And what if I want to reset this constructed method of interaction?” I decided to ask in advance about the possibility of changing it if I messed up the creation.

[This option unlocks at skill level 10 and can be used no more than once a month.]

Well, damn. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to game the system by creating a highly specialized skill now just to get out of the sewer and then replacing it with another one.

“Okay, so where does the energy for these interactions come from? I haven't seen any mana bar,” I asked a very important question to the voice assistant, though I had already guessed the answer.

[Energy for manipulation is spent from the user’s subspace quantum capacity.]

“That’s the same one used for teleportation, right?” I clarified to be sure of my conclusions. “Is it possible to increase the volume of the quantum capacity or its replenishment rate?”

[No, these are completely different charge levels, independent of each other. For the capacity used when applying skills, the volume and replenishment rate grow in proportion to the user’s level, while the charging speed for portals is always seventy-two hours.]

I see. More artificial limitations, similar to the system from old games where the number of spells you could cast per day was limited by a game convention. But in any case, now that I had all the necessary explanations, I could start experimenting.

I chose the first slot in the spell builder and, after fiddling with the menu items and figuring out what to do and how, I set the main condition to extract thermodynamic energy from the molecular structure in a spatial area with a thirty-centimeter diameter. In theory, if I understood what I was doing correctly, the kinetic energy of all particles inside the space should decrease, which would lead to a sharp cooling of the entire area and, consequently, its freezing.

“Rhythm. Where does the thermodynamic energy extracted when using the skill go?”

[It goes to replenish the subspace quantum capacity.]

“And what is the replenishment coefficient relative to the cost?” I asked, holding my breath.

[The efficiency is below 0.02%.]

My experience in finding flaws in program code wasn't working. I failed again at getting an ability with infinite energy generation. But in principle, it made sense that this manipulation of states of matter would use much more energy than it received in return.

I continued to construct and briefly thought about how to set the target. Should the area always be formed at a certain distance from me? That would prevent me from using the skill in close combat. And besides, try to keep a steady distance between yourself and the target. Both the mice and the slimes were very mobile, and the skill would simply be wasted, activating in an area where no one was left. This method could be used on immobile or non-aggressive monsters, like sentient trees that couldn't move, but my situation was different, and it was unclear if such opponents even existed.

“Rhythm, is there a system for targeting assistance?”

[Yes, it is configured when constructing the skill. I suggest using a finger-based system, where the distance between the pads of the thumb and index finger indicates the distance from minimum to maximum, and the direction is indicated by an open palm. A fully voice-controlled option is also acceptable, with the direction specified in degrees relative to the user's location and distance from them.]

“The finger system is certainly more acceptable. I don't have enough brains to calculate the degrees and distance every time, especially in a fight. Let's take the first model offered as the working option,” I instructed the assistant.

I practiced shooting imaginary rays from my open palm a bit. It wasn't very comfortable, but I could get used to it.

I set the activation to the voice command “Cold Sphere” and finally got to the energy cost of using the skill. Instantaneous cooling of the selected area to zero degrees Kelvin or minus two hundred and seventy-three degrees Celsius showed that it would deplete ninety percent of the capacity, but I thought that if I used a skill like that, the cold from such an area would instantly freeze not only the thirty-centimeter diameter sphere but also the surrounding space for several dozen meters due to the residual thermodynamic effect. The anomalous cold area, in an attempt to equalize the temperature, would pull all the nearby heat over a huge distance. I had to reduce the energy expenditure to one hundredth of a degree, and I got a more acceptable result: cooling the area to minus five degrees Celsius in two seconds. That should be enough for the slow slimes, and if necessary, I would construct a new skill to fight more mobile targets.

All that was left was to set the distance and save. I cranked the distance all the way up and got a maximum of five meters, leaving the minimum at sixteen centimeters so it would be created near my palm but not quite touch it.

I saved the resulting solution and set it to learn, settling down once again to wait. Surfing the internet and reading books, the twelve hours flew by pretty quickly, and as soon as they were up, I jumped to my feet and immediately tried the skill on the water flowing past. I pointed my fully open palm at the water flow and theatrically shouted:

“COLD SPHERE!”

Five meters downstream, a hemisphere of ice formed out of the water, gurgled, popped to the surface, flipped over, and slid downstream, leaving me standing there with my mouth open.

“Max,” I addressed myself solemnly. “Welcome to the world of magic, sorcery, and limitless possibilities.”

Hmm... By the way, it was strange, because the zone cooled for two seconds, and during that time a large volume of water flowed through it that should have been cooled, and new, uncooled water should have entered the cold sphere. Apparently, some additional effect was being applied that cooled the surrounding space after the activation time. Though, in this case, it didn't matter. Let physicists figure out the mechanics of how it worked. As programmers say, if it works, don’t touch it.

Looking at my communicator, I gave the voice assistant a new task:

“Rhythm, display the charge level in percentages with two decimal places on the bracelet permanently.”

A small number appeared on the device: 41.86%, which was the charge that had managed to recover during the time I had been here.

Okay, let's calculate. A day has twenty-four hours, each with sixty minutes, and an additional sixty seconds. Multiply them all together, and you get two hundred fifty-nine thousand two hundred seconds every day. The capacity fills to one hundred percent in three days, which means that about two and a half thousand seconds are needed to replenish one percent of the charge. Divide that by sixty, and you get one percent of the capacity replenished in about forty-three minutes.

If I used one hundredth of the capacity per shot, after every ten uses, I would have to wait forty-three minutes just to maintain the current charge. The energy replenishment percentage from extracting thermodynamic energy could, in principle, be disregarded. Two-hundredths of a percent was within the margin of error, and every five hundred uses would only give one additional one.

It wasn't very economical, of course, but remembering the assistant's words that both the capacity and the replenishment speed increased with a rising level, I calmed down a bit. And in the future, I could reset the constructed skill and reassemble a new one. The main thing was that I now had a weapon against the slimes.

I pulled up the stats on the holographic panel and looked at them.

[Level: 2]

[Experience points: 99/234]

[Attributes:]

[Strength: 7]

[Dexterity: 5]

[Constitution: 5]

[Intelligence: 10 (+1 in the process of forming new neural connections, 4 hours 20 minutes until completion)]

[Wisdom: 7]

[Free Attribute Points: 0]

[Skills: Inventory Level 1, Thermokinesis Level 1]

I folded all my extra things into my backpack and threw it into the inventory, seeing that a portion of the charge was also spent on this. I didn't take it back out to see how much it would cost to retrieve.

I got back into the water and waded on, ready to wreak vengeance in the name of the time I had spent here. I needed to finish this adventure soon, because I only had enough food for two more meals. One can of preserves, a little bread with sausage, some cheese, and two liters of water. As soon as the water ran out, I would have problems, because I would never, under any circumstances, drink the fluid flowing under my feet. Of course, I could use my skill to get purified ice from the sewage, but until the situation reached a critical point, there was no need for it.

Finally, I saw the slime that had caused me so much trouble ahead, patrolling its territory. Sensing my presence, it slowly crawled against the current.

“Okay. Palm forward, aim at the monster, and... Cold Sphere!” I shouted the skill name.

Unfortunately, my eye was off, and the resulting block of ice behind the gelatinous monster crawling toward me didn't impress it at all, especially since it quickly floated away and disappeared from sight.

Correction for distance, and attempt number two. Now it was short, and the ice hemisphere that went on a free swim knocked the crawling slime, and they went downstream together. And while the slime re-secured itself to the bottom and crawled back toward me, the greenish, cloudy ice went on a further journey through the vastness of the sewer.

For the third time, I aimed for a much longer time, bringing the pads of my thumb and index finger together and apart, trying to understand the correlation. This was where having a high Dexterity, which was responsible for the ease of learning motor skills, would have come in handy. If I had twenty points in that attribute, I think I would have mastered the manipulation on the first try.

“Cold Sphere!”

This time, everything worked out perfectly. The central part of the slime turned into ice, and the residual thermodynamic effect pulled the heat out of the nearby area as the temperatures equalized, cooling the rest of the monster's body. Unlike the pieces of ice, the slime didn't float away; it froze into the concrete floor.

I opened the communicator notification and finally saw the coveted line.

[Slime Scavenger Level 2 killed. 4 experience points received.]

Finally, the amount of experience I had gained in my status had changed, and now a proud number of one hundred and three of the two hundred thirty-four needed was displayed.

“A-ha-ha!” I laughed nervously and bent over in a fit of mild hysteria.

Thirty hours in a level two dungeon, and finally the first monster I had defeated, which turned out to be a simple scavenger. But no matter what, I had won. An amazing feeling of boundless power and possibility filled me, and it seemed that now the whole world was at my feet. Damn, this was even better than sex. That was just a mechanical motion with a release of endorphins at the end, but this was controlling the forces of nature.

I don't know who made these bracelets and for what purpose, but the power they grant is worth the trials that must be overcome. The thought of future problems and the shaking of state foundations if such technologies fell into the hands of everyone who wanted them flashed through my mind, but I dismissed it as insignificant.

As they say, if you can’t influence the process, continue to live your life. Considering that the largest tech giants on the planet couldn't compete with an organization like Syntech, what business did I have getting involved with my own capabilities? Of course, owning the "Thermokinesis" skill set me apart from the rest of humanity, but I didn't think the creator of all this had deprived themselves.

And after all, take quantum teleportation. That alone is enough to stand up to all the armies of the world. The organization's capabilities should easily have been enough to forcibly bring the entire planet into submission, along with all the states, armies, and nuclear bombs. So I wasn't even planning to get involved in things that weren't my business; I was going to use this opportunity to level up as much as possible, climbing, if not to the top of the world, then at least to an unattainable height.

And the dagger would help me with that, allowing me to open portals more often than the developers intended for all other communicator users. The higher my level, the more often I would be able to clear new locations, pulling even further ahead of the others. Plus, our group of ten was lucky enough to be among the first test subjects, and I couldn't lose that head start by wasting it in pointless self-admiration.

I was pulled from my Napoleonic plans by another splash of water that came from ahead. A twin of the slime plopped down from its stone perch, where it had been biding its time waiting for some organic matter to digest. Sensing me, it came toward me.

Another careful aim, and another miss.

One more time, and another miss.

“For crying out loud!” The finger-targeting I had chosen wasn't as convenient as I had thought, and I probably should have spent some time thinking more carefully about a targeting system. But as the saying goes, it’s too late to drink Borjomi when your kidneys have failed. Now all that was left was to develop my finger flexibility and suffer through the aiming.

Letting the slime get closer, I finally hit the monster, almost completely enclosing it in a sphere of ice, and replenished my experience points by four more. Out of curiosity, I tapped the piece of frozen substance with my dagger and looked closer at the source of my problems over the past twenty-four hours. Through the cloudy ice, I could see a solid green gelatinous body with no inclusions. No magical cores, like in games, and no brains, either. Just like many people, in principle, which didn't prevent either them or the slimes from existing.

The communicator rang, and the worried girl came back on the line.

“Max, how are you?”

“Anya,” I said with somber solemnity. “Behold the great and terrible lord of the elements.” I raised my hand pathetically, pointed at the already frozen slime, and said, “Cold Sphere!”

A second block of ice appeared next to the first, but it didn't catch on the concrete, and it went sailing into the center of the hall, splashing into the gap.

“Well, what do you think?” I asked the girl.

“Damn! Is that the magic you were talking about?” Anya exclaimed with admiration.

“That’s the one,” I smiled. “You could say that all my problems are practically solved, and I’ll be back home soon, and we’ll go on a real date.”

“Well, now I can’t wait for my capacity to recharge so I can clear another location and learn something just as amazing,” the girl was clearly thrilled to see the ability used in the real world.

“Speaking of which. When you learn inventory, don't use it too often. Each action costs 0.1% of the charge, and according to my calculations, each percent recovers in about forty to fifty minutes.”

“Okay. I see that you’re fine, my hero. I won't bother you; I'm hanging up. I'll be waiting for a call with your victory report,” Anya finished.

Over the next half hour of moving through the sewer, I encountered seven more identical slimes and, spending an average of three to four shots on each, reduced my capacity fill to forty percent. My experience had increased to one hundred thirty-five points, and I was less than a hundred experience away from leveling up. If I met twenty-five more monsters, a new level, which would bring new possibilities, was practically in my pocket. Fortunately, the monsters appeared only one at a time, not tolerating competition and absorbing their less fortunate kin.

After another hour of travel, I stopped and decided to take a break. In all that time, I had only encountered two monsters, but each of them was the size of a large dog and moved much faster than their smaller counterparts. Keeping them at a maximum distance, I was forced to use at least twenty applications of my skill on each to finally destroy them. The frozen part simply fell out of the slime, and it only shrank slightly in size. On the outside, it showed no signs of a quick and, I hoped, agonizing death, continuing to pursue me. And while the slime was large, it was easy to hit it with the skill, but then, as it shrank, my accuracy faltered again.

Fortunately, the lack of brains on their part and the presence of intelligence on mine determined the winner of the confrontation. Another sphere froze the significantly shrunken monsters and finally put them to rest.

By the way, the system message also identified them as different monsters, and the reward was slightly larger.

[Large Slime Scavenger Level 3 killed. 8 experience points received.]

The description, which said it was only “large” and not “huge,” was a little unsettling. But as long as I had a universal countermeasure against them, I remained calm.

After the victory, thoughts about the difficulty level immediately came to my mind. How were any other people supposed to kill such monsters? Anyone would die here from either starvation or the slimes' acid. No, of course, there was always a chance to simply run past them, and it might even be possible for a sufficiently agile person, but the off-the-charts difficulty of the level would cause a huge number of people to die in this sewer.

Or would it still? I started to think about the very principle of the locations. What happened to a location after it was cleared? Was it destroyed? Was it repopulated with new monsters? Was it regenerated? Or was it an actually existing place where the creations of crazy vivisectionists were simply added? And was this a normal difficulty, or was the difficulty inflated because of the dagger? And was it possible for different people to enter the same location at different times?

So many questions and not a single answer. I tried to ask them to the voice assistant, but it only gave answers to certain questions related to the mechanics of skills. Apparently, this information was already outside my access level, or I simply lacked the development level.

The sewer channel, which had previously run straight, now turned sharply and began to go down a slight incline. I moved over to a technical path running parallel to the sewage flow and, holding on to the wall, slowly went on. The sharp turn and downward slope turned the previously calm flow into a bubbling and roaring river, and after going a little further, I saw the exit to the main hall of the sewer collector. The high-up sewage drains, from which bubbling flows erupted, and the barely visible ladders for descent next to them, all paled in comparison to the huge, dirty brown slime the size of a small house that was in the center of the hall.

I imagined how this might have happened before. The furiously roaring flows of water brought monsters into this hall, who then entered into a battle for the right to own the territory. And the longer this went on, the easier it was for the winning slime, which grew in size as it absorbed its opponents.

Meanwhile, the water level in the hall became even higher than when I had first arrived, and I noticed that the slime sitting in the center was blocking the central drain through which the liquid should have gone further. It seeped through it, but it was happening too slowly, and the water continued to rise until at some point the monster, with a loud squelch, detached itself from its perch, allowing the bubbling water to rush into the drain beneath it. A furiously swirling flow of water passed directly through it, all foreign objects settling in the slime's body and beginning to dissolve, and what flowed out below was almost completely clean water.

If this monster didn't threaten to kill me, I would even admire this beautiful scheme for cleaning water from debris. Why not? It's very convenient. No need to feed it; in fact, the opposite, it feeds itself. No maintenance is required either, and everything is in perfect condition. And even the main enemy of stone structures with a lot of moisture—moss and other vegetation—is food for the slime. It’s a very, very long-lasting system.

The water went down successfully, but the huge monster didn't return to its perch; instead, it went on a detour, collecting the debris that had escaped being caught in its bottomless body.

I prepared for an attack just in case, not at all eager to go down to it. In such a confined area, with constantly incoming water, it would practically guarantee my death. My death, not the monster’s, and that outcome was absolutely unacceptable to me. I had only just taken the first step on the ladder to world power, and I couldn't allow a pitiful cleanup slime to knock me off my pedestal.

The monster, which was making its rounds, froze, and then, very unexpectedly for a creature with such a mass, it shot into a jump in my direction. Fortunately, it didn't make it to the passage and landed softly, without even causing the floor to shake, a few meters away from me.

A Cold Sphere, which was already ready, formed in its body, causing it no visible discomfort. It simply passed through its body and floated into the center of the hall, gurgling into the hole. And I, seeing the hopelessness of the attack, made a tactical retreat, scurrying back into the channel.

To deal with a monster like this, I would have to use the second construction slot and come up with some kind of ultimate skill to destroy such huge creatures. My plans were interrupted by another jump from the monster, which, due to its size, couldn't fit into the passage with a single leap, but it plugged the hole and began to slowly squeeze its way toward me, transforming from a spherical slime into a classic worm-like one.

“For crying out loud! What kind of monsters are you?!” I shouted in a panic. “How is some swordsman supposed to fight you?!”

Fortunately, the monster's movement speed was even slower than its smaller counterparts, and it was also hindered by the remaining part of its body that was still hanging back in the hall.

Without checking how fast it could move once it was completely in the collector, I began to form Cold Spheres, one after another, not caring about the energy consumption.

It was impossible to miss, aiming at such a huge target, and every two seconds a small thirty-centimeter ice sphere fell out of it. Unfortunately, due to this monster's size, they were like peas to an elephant.

I mentally estimated how many shots I would need to put it out, and a chill went down my spine. If I took its diameter as about five meters, then its body volume was somewhere between fifty and seventy cubic meters, and the Cold Spheres ripped out chunks of ice with a significantly smaller volume. It would take no less than four thousand uses of the skill to freeze the entire carcass. And that's eight thousand seconds, if I formed them every two seconds. I didn't have two or three hours to freeze it continuously. And most importantly, I glanced at the remaining energy, and a wave of adrenaline hit me. I only had thirty-five percent of the charge left!

That was a maximum of three hundred and fifty uses, and that was it. The slime would shrink by ten, or maybe fifteen percent, but it would still occupy the entire inner space and sooner or later pin me against the steel grate at the entrance.

Thoughts about how to avoid being dissolved in its stomach swarmed in my head. Could I cool the steel bars of the grate at the entrance and retreat further? But minus five degrees Celsius was too low a temperature to cool the metal structure to the point where it would become brittle and could be broken. There were no side passages on the way here either.

I turned around and ran along the collector, kicking up splashes with my boots. I ran a hundred meters and bent over, out of breath. After catching my breath a little, I turned around and finally saw the huge slime slowly crawling out from around the corner; it hadn't given up the chase and continued to crawl after me.

“For crying out loud!” I said in despair.

I continued to walk and opened the spell builder. There was no time to come up with anything new, and I had to improvise on the fly.

“Come on, come on. Okay, let's form a lens,” I estimated the width and height of the tunnel by eye and continued. “With a diameter of two and a half meters and an area width of fifteen centimeters,” I continued to reason out loud. “That will block the entire tunnel with some room to spare.”

Wait a minute. Why would the slime crawl and freeze itself by passing through an ice lens? They might not have brains, but what if it just stopped? I reset all the construction and started over, periodically looking back and watching the slowly crawling monster.

Then I'd make a cylinder to guarantee I'd freeze the creature. I set it to minus one degree, specified an inner cylinder diameter of three meters and a maximum length of four meters, with formation one meter away from me, and a creation time of ten seconds. I looked at the energy cost of five percent and figured I would have six attempts in reserve, which should be enough to freeze this creature with a safety margin. The code word: “Eat this!”

I stopped and resolutely turned to face the green slime that had made me run away in fear. It was time to show who the top predator in this sewer was.

The slime, meanwhile, had completely entered the tunnel and had slowed down a lot, barely moving in the tight passage. Apparently, despite its semi-liquid state, its body had a limit on its elasticity, and it barely fit into the narrow passage. I approached it at a distance of two meters and didn't take any risks, pointing my open palm.

“Eat this, you creature!” I said.

Time went by, nothing happened, and I awkwardly scratched the back of my head and went into the communicator menu. The damn twelve-hour time lag between creating a skill and it appearing! I had completely forgotten about it!

But I was lucky that the creature moved too slowly, so I turned around again and sprinted away from it to the end of the location, hoping that I would have enough time for the skill to form.

Unlike the first twelve hours, these dragged on agonizingly slowly. I was tired and jumped at every rustle, dreading that the unkillable creature would appear from around the corner at any moment. And I, without having had time to learn the freezing skill, would die ingloriously in the sewer.

When there were three hours left, I calmed down a bit, and as if it had been waiting for this moment, it appeared. It slowly and majestically swam into view, moving toward me.

I watched the minute hand and prayed to all the gods, imploring the creature to move more slowly. The ice spheres I threw at it brought practically no results, and I stopped the pointless action, saving my energy. In the last three minutes, I was counting the seconds, pressing myself against the grate and preparing my dagger, ready to launch a suicidal attack rather than meekly wait for death.

The damn slime was now within arm's reach, and I was breathing slowly, trying not to provoke it, remembering how quickly it had moved and jumped in the hall.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!” I counted out loud. “Eat this, you creature!!! Die!!!” I screamed wildly, extending my hands.

The result became noticeable after the first two seconds. The green creature began to slow down, with its back part propping up its freezing front part. A few seconds later, the tunnel was blocked by a plug of frozen green jelly, and I realized my mistake.

The back part of the slime was still alive; it had simply shrunk by half, shedding the frozen part, and now I had a problem. The incoming water had nowhere to go, and it began to collect in front of the makeshift dam. While the monster had previously let water pass through it and filtered its contents, the frozen part had lost these properties.

I pulled out my dagger and rushed forward to the frozen piece of slime, beginning to cut it into pieces and throw them at my feet. The acid from the slime's insides stung my hands, but its cooling to below freezing reduced its corrosive ability.

Despite the fact that the monster's gelatinous body had cooled to minus one degree, it hadn't turned into a block of ice and was easily cut by the dagger's blade. The incoming water was already bubbling up to my knees, and the chunks of jelly under my feet were making it difficult to move normally.

I had almost fallen into the water several times. Not only were my hands now stinging from the weak acid solution, but my whole face was burning and stinging. I cut my way through the green jelly, covered in frozen pieces of slime. I extended my palm again and formed a skill so that I wouldn't suddenly cut through the frozen part and immediately get into the monster's acidic insides.

The notification that came to my communicator made me happier than if I had learned I had won a million dollars in the lottery!

[Location Boss killed: Large Slime Scavenger Level 10. 40 experience points received, 150 experience points for completing the location, 5 bonus attribute points.]

[Level 3 achieved. Experience points: 107/315.]

I was about to let out a sigh of relief, but the water was rising behind me, so I continued to hack my way out, throwing caution to the wind and not only slicing the jelly with my dagger but also using my other hand to help and speed up the process.

The water had risen to my chest when I finally broke a hole in the monster-dam, and the accumulated water from behind me burst out, carrying me with it and dragging me several meters along the stone channel.

“Motherfucker!” I looked at my red, burned hands, which couldn't feel the pain right now only because they were terribly frozen while I was making my way through the cooled insides. Self-pity filled me, but I pulled myself together and remembered that last time, after completing a location, all my injuries were healed.

The feeling began to return to my hands, bringing with it a rising pain from the chemical burns, and I, howling from the pain, ran forward, casting aside all caution. I was practically crying from the torment when I went down the ladder, slipped at the very bottom, and fell into the water, painfully hitting my knees.

The cool water brought relief and momentary vigor. I stood up and waded to the center of the hall, where the familiar pedestal with the gloves lying on it was located. I grabbed them with my burned hands, from which the skin was already hanging in rags, and after affirmatively responding to the system's request to open the portal, I fell into the mirror-like surface.