Hardcore OP-ness

Chapter 9: A Cat-Eat-Fox World

Michael was irritated that none of his skills specified how much mana was required to cast, or to what degree they were affected by their dependent stats. However, since he was incredibly thirsty, he decided to test out 'Telekinesis.'

He was close enough to the flowing stream that he could literally put his hand into the water, so he wasn't too worried about the range being an issue. Unfortunately, since the spell required him to put his mana into the object first, the river was a bad target.

After collecting the liquid into his palm, then he imagined it flowing through the air and into his mouth. The first attempt expanded and splashed against his face, the second was too concentrated and smacked into the back of his throat with enough force to do three damage and make him choke on it for a few minutes.

It was simply way too difficult for him to use telekinesis to casually create a fountain of water, that would smoothly flow into his mouth. However, there was a different method that he thought of; after placing his hand in the stream, and pulling it out, there was a rather large blob of liquid attached to his palm.

The ball was similar to a massive globule, and he simply moved his hand until he could directly suck the fluid out of its telekinetic container. After drinking a decent amount, Michael grumbled "Ugh, I hate water... I really miss my iced tea."

Then he had another idea, there was no need to conjure water, if he was able to just store it inside of his bag. Since slot-seven was empty, he shoved his hand into the river and began sucking copious amounts of the liquid into his inventory.

At first, he was just going to take a couple gallons or so, but Michael wanted to know the absolute limit to the bag-slots. However, the process was relatively slow, and extraordinarily monotonous, so after twenty minutes he stopped.

Five-hundred gallons seemed like enough to last him awhile, and even if he dehydrated to death, he could just respawn. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain throughout his entire body, as if he was being electrocuted.

Michael didn't collapse, but he did receive a 'stunned' debuff, and his health dropped down to 25/35. Then there was a red notification, which read "Inari has died; respawning directly into companion storage, now."

Once he was able to move again, he turned around and tried to see what could have killed her. Then he muttered "Of course, it's a fucking cougar. Sigh, seriously, it wasn't even a magical beast... Well, now it is."

Michael was gazing at a big-cat that had tan fur, and an overall appearance very similar to a female lion. As he watched it eating a small, white, dog-like carcass, its body suddenly became twice as large, and its upper fangs became too long and wide to fit inside of its mouth anymore. Above its head was text that read "Level-5, Rank-G, Sabertooth Cougar: 60/60 HP."

He wondered "How the hell do animals or magical-beasts gain experience, aside from eating mana-cores?" as he started to reach down and shove random, fist-sized, smooth stones into his eighth bag-slot. Once he reached fifty-pounds, the nudist stopped and started walking towards the hulking feline.

With a small pebble in his right hand, he smirked, while muttering "Hopefully it doesn't run away..." Rather than flee, the rank-G monster immediately noticed Michael approaching, and roared loudly.

It was ecstatic; not only had the cougar finally managed to evolve, but there was even a weak and unarmed rank-F human for it to devour. If he was a higher level, then maybe the giant cat would have felt intimidated, but from its point of view, the naked man was an easy target.

The feline's bright-blue eyes were glistening from the sunlight, and Michael frowned, while complaining "Why do I have to keep killing so many cute animals? Shouldn't they be a bit uglier?" Although he was walking towards it, the sabertooth-cat began sprinting at him from a hundred meters away.